Editing Dell Hymes (section)

==Influences on his work==
Hymes was influenced by a number of linguists, anthropologists and sociologists; notably [[Franz Boas]], [[Edward Sapir]] and [[Harry Hoijer]] of the Americanist Tradition; [[Roman Jakobson]] and others of the [[Prague Linguistic Circle]]; sociologist [[Erving Goffman]] and anthropologist [[Ray L. Birdwhistell]], both his colleagues at Penn; and ethnomethodologists [[Harold Garfinkel]], [[Harvey Sacks]], [[Emanuel Schegloff]] and [[Gail Jefferson]].

Hymes' career can be divided into at least two phases. In his early career Hymes adapted [[Prague School]] Functionalism to American [[Linguistic Anthropology]], pioneering the study of the relationship between language and social context. Together with [[John Gumperz]], [[Erving Goffman]] and [[William Labov]], Hymes defined a broad multidisciplinary concern with language in society.

Hymes' later work focuses on poetics, particularly the poetic organization of Native American oral narratives. He and [[Dennis Tedlock]] defined [[ethnopoetics]] as a field of study within linguistic anthropology and folkloristics. Hymes considers literary critic [[Kenneth Burke]] his biggest influence on this latter work, saying, "My sense of what I do probably owes more to KB than to anyone else."<ref>Hymes (2003), page x.</ref> Hymes studied with Burke in the 1950s. Burke's work was theoretically and topically diverse, but the idea that seems most influential on Hymes is the application of rhetorical criticism to poetry.

Hymes has included many other literary figures and critics among his influences, including [[Robert Alter]], [[C. S. Lewis]], [[A. L. Kroeber]], and [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]].<ref>Hymes (2003), pages ix-x.</ref>