Primary genre

Bakhtin distinguishes between primary and secondary speech genres. Primary genres are simple genres that take form in “unmediated speech communion” (Bakhtin, 1986, p. 62).

Reference: 

Bakhtin, M. M. (1986). The problem of speech genres (V. W. McGee, Trans.). In C. Emerson & M. Holquist (Eds.), Speech genres and other late essays. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. 60-102.

Example: 

Primary genres, for Bakhtin (1986), are those of everyday conversation, from the "single-word rejoinder" (p. 81) to "greetings, farewells, congratulations" (p. 79) and "genres of salon conversations" to "genres of table conversation, intimate conversations among friends, . . . within the family, and so on" (p. 80). He also notes that "no list of oral speech genres yet exists, or even a principle on which such a list might be based" (p. 80).

Contributed by: 

Nick Temple, Carolyn Miller

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