Classwork readings Fall 2014

Language and Identity--Cecelia Cutler

Bucholtz, M., & Hall, K. (2004). Language and identity. A companion to linguistic anthropology, 1, 369-394.

This article looks at the various ways that linguistic anthropology has approached the question of identity as it intersects with language. They argue, "because (it is) among the many symbolic resources available for cultural production of identity, language is the most flexible and pervasive" (p. 369). In exploring the developments and controversies in the linguistic anthropology of identity, the authors explore the concepts of sameness and difference, markedness, and the semiotic processes of practice, indexicality, ideology, and performance. They address the criticism that this field is prone to essentialism, and argue that despite that possibility, this field is exploring the ideologies through which many speech communities understand themselves, which are at times essentialized. The author's argue that linguistic anthropology of identity takes agency and power as central analytical possibilities, and urge us toward the "tactic of intersubjectivity", which includes adequation and distinction; authentication and denaturalization; and authorization and illegitimation. 

Eckert, P., & McConnell-Ginet, S. (1999). New generalizations and explanations in language and gender research. Language in society, 28(02), 185-201.
This article uses the framework of Community of Practice to discuss the possibility of generalizing gendered linguistic practices. This framework argues that linguistic identities are not abstract, predestined "things" that one passively receives through birth or entrance into a given category such as woman or Asian American, but instead communities of practice establish shared communication systems around specific situations that are gendered. The authors drawn upon their own research and that of others in order to begin to understand the different ways that this research can generalize about gendered language. 

Giles, H. Coupland, N. and J. Coupland (1997). Communication, context, and consequence. Ch. 1, pp. 7-21 

This chapter looks at the linguistic behaviors of "convergence" and "divergence". Convergence occurs when "individuals adapt to each other's communicative behaviors in terms of a wide range of linguistic-prosodic-nonverbal features" (p.7). Divergence is "used to refer to the way in which speakers accentuate speech and nonverbal differences between themselves and others" (p. 8). These processes can be considered either "up" or 'down" depending on the power and prestige of the language register being used.  "Disaccommidation" is when individuals change registers in response to what others have said. The article also addresses bias and stereotype in the ways that people perceive their talk in specific social situations of convergence or divergence.

 Le Page, R. B., & Tabouret-Keller, A. (1985). Acts of identity: Creole-based approaches to language and ethnicity. CUP Archive, ch. 6.

Through a series of interviews done by the authors and other ethnographic and sociolingusitic work, the authors demonstrate how  language is racialized. Using interviews done in Belize in 1970 and 1978, the authors show that language is a defining signifier of racial identity. Importantly, as this longitudinal study showed, perceptions of language and ethnicity change over time as political contexts change. Other categories interrelated to language are provenance, nationality, genetic descent, and national identity as a "geographic and linguistic criterion" (p.214). These are examples of "associated language". The article discusses the common phenomenon of linguistic nationalism. The authors argue as the end of the chapter that they are trying to demonstrate that linguistic performance is related to competence, stereotypes and abstract/idealized models.