Representing the social through language: Theory and practice of sociolinguistics and discourse analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu09.2022.106Abstract
The article reviews research traditions and new findings pertaining to the issue of ‘language in society’ over the period from circa 2005 to 2020. Specifically, we discuss some of the tenets and analytical toolkits of American and Western European traditions of sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology, as well as the strands of discourse analysis that integrate the former and/or the latter into their theoretical framework. Such contemporary schools of thought are represented, among others, by Michael Silverstein, Penelope Eckert, and Asif Agha in the USA, by Mary Bucholtz, Kira Hall, and Nikolas Coupland in the UK, by Jan Blommaert in the Netherlands, and by Jürgen Spitzmüller and Barbara Soukup in Austria. The topics and concepts discussed in the article include social indexicality of linguistic signs, enacting social relations between speakers, ethno-metapragmatics, and (social) styles. We begin with an overview of the ‘third wave’ of sociolinguistics, which has been focused on exploring linguistic variation as a medium used by individuals or groups for evoking or (re)constructing the ‘social world’. It is discussed how sociality is being enacted by individuals, how semiotic ties are set between a linguistic sign and social value, how persistent social attribution is created, and how all these phenomena can be explored through analysis of indexical tokens and types. Indexicality is seen here as the capacity of a (linguistic) sign to ‘point to’ a variable of the context of its usage. Social indexicality is thus seen as evoking such social value as forms of identity and communicative roles and social relations drawing on these forms. An overview of the history of sociolinguistics also serves to illustrate the transformation of views on agentivity, identity, and linguistic/semiotic objects: from the static view of identity as predefined by the social structure and (passively) projected through various semiotic media, including language, to a more perforative contemporary view of identity as (creatively) stylized in social encounters. It is further contended that a crucial prerequisite for such stylization is the malleability and mutability of social/indexical meanings, with so-called ethno-metapragmatics — reflexive activity targeting said meanings and signs carrying them — being the process driving the change. Finally, we show how these theories and methods can be traced to ideas expressed by Russian/ Soviet scholars of early and mid twentieth century.
Keywords:
Sociolinguistics third wave, social indexicality, metapragmatics, ethno-metapragmatics, sociostyle
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Blommaert 2010 — Blommaert J. The Sociolinguistics of Globalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2010.
Blommaert 2015 — Blommaert J. Meaning as a Nonlinear Effect: The Birth of Cool. AILA Review. 2015, (28): 7–27. https://doi.org/10.1075/aila.28.01blo
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Bucholtz, Hall 2005 — Bucholtz M, Hall K. Identity and Interaction: A Sociocultural Linguistic Approach. Discourse Studies. 2005, 7 (4–5): 585–614. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445605054407
Bucholtz, Hall 2006 — Bucholtz M., Hall K. Language and Identity. In: A Companion to Linguistic Anthropology. Duranti A. (ed.). Malden; Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. P. 369–394.
Bucholtz, Hall 2008 — Bucholtz M., Hall K. All of the above: New coalitions in sociocultural linguistics. Journal of Sociolinguistics. 2008, 12 (4): 401–431.
Bucholtz, Hall 2011 —Sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology: Strengthening the connections. Bucholtz M., Hall K. (eds) Special issue of Journal of Sociolinguistics. 2011, 12 (4): 401–545.
Сollins 2011 — Collins J. Indexicalities of language contact in an era of globalisation: Engaging with John Gumperz’s legacy. Text & Talk. (In Honour of John Gumperz. Special issue.) 2011, 31 (4): 407–428.
Coupland 2007 — Coupland N. Style: Language variation and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Coupland, Jaworski 2009 — Coupland N., Jaworski А. (eds). The New Sociolinguistics Reader. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
Crystal, Crystal 2015 — Crystal D., Crystal B. You Say Potato: The Story of English Accents. London: Pan Macmillan, 2015.
Chernyavskaya 2020 — Chernyavskaya V. Misplaced in contexts, lost in meaning. Context Change as a Cause for Social Misunderstandings: The Case of Kaliningrad and Königsberg. Zeitschrift für Slavistik. 2020, 65 (4): 569–584.
Duranti 2003 — Duranti A. Language as culture in US anthropology. Current Anthropology. 2003, (44): 323–347.
Eckert 2008 — Eckert P. Variation and the Indexical Field. Journal of Sociolinguistics. 2008, 12 (4): 453–476. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2008.00374.x
Eckert 2012 — Eckert P. Three Waves of Variation Study: The Emergence of Meaning in the Study of Sociolinguistic Variation. Annual Review of Anthropology. 2012, 41 (1): 87–100. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-092611-145828
Eckert 2018 — Eckert P. Meaning and Linguistic Variation: The Third Wave in Sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
Eckert, Labov 2017 — Eckert P., Labov W. Phonetics, phonology and social meaning. Journal of Sociolinguistics. 2017, 21 (4): 467–496.
Irvine, Gal 2000 — Irvine J. T., Gal S. Language Ideology and Linguistic Differentiation. Kroskrity P. V. (ed.). Regimes of Language. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press, 2000. Р. 35–83.
Jakobson 1960 — Jakobson R. Closing statement: linguistics and poetics. In: Style in Language. Sebeok T. A. (ed.). Cambridge: MIT Press, 1960. Р. 350–377.
Jakobson 1980 — Jakobson R. Metalanguage as a linguistic problem. The Framework of Language. Ann Arbor: Michigan Slavic Publications,1980. P. 81–92. (First publ. 1957.)
Kecskes 2012 — Kecskes I. Sociopragmatics and cross-cultural and intercultural studies. In: The Cambridge Handbook of Pragmatics. Allan K., Jaszczolt K. M. (eds). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2012. Р. 599–616.
Kroskrity 2000 — Kroskrity, P. V. Language Ideologies in the Expression and Representation of Arizona Tewa Ethnic Identity. In: Regimes of Language. Kroskrity P. V. (ed.). Santa Fe: School of American Research Press, 2000. P. 329–359.
Kroskrity 2006 — Kroskrity P. V. Language Ideologies. A Companion to Linguistic Anthropology. Duranti A. (ed.). Malden; Oxford; Carlten: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. P. 496–517.
Labov 1972 — Labov W. Sociolinguistic Pattern. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972.
Molodychenko 2019 — Molodychenko E. N. “Us” vs “Them” in Political Discourse: The Instrumental Function of the “Evil Other” in American Presidential Rhetoric. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Ser.: Filologiia. 2019, (59): 67–86. https://doi.org/10.17223/19986645/59/5
Silverstein 1976 — Silverstein M. Shifters, Linguistic Categories, and Cultural Description. In: Meaning in Anthropology. Basso K. H., Selby H. A. (eds). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1976. P. 11–55.
Silverstein 1979 — Silverstein M. Language Structure and Linguistic Ideology. In: The Elements: A Parasession on Linguistic Units and Levels. Clyne P. R., Hanks W. F., Hofbauer C. L. (eds). Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society: 1979. P. 193–247.
Silverstein 1993 — Silverstein M. Metapragmatic Discourse and Metapragmatic Function. In: Reflexive Language: Reported Speech and Metapragmatics. Lucy J. (ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Р. 33–58.
Silverstein 2001 — Silverstein M. The Limits of Awareness. In: Linguistic Anthropology: A Reader. Duranti A. (ed.). Oxford: Blackwell, 2001. Р. 386–401.
Silverstein 2003 — Silverstein M. Indexical Order and the Dialectics of Sociolinguistic Life. Words and Beyond: Linguistic and Semiotic Studies of Sociocultural Order. 2003, 23 (3): 193–229. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0271-5309(03)00013-2
Soukup 2013 — Soukup B. Austrian dialect as a metonymic device: A cognitive sociolinguistic investigation of Speaker Design and its perceptual implications. Journal of Pragmatics. 2013, (52): 72–82.
Spitzmüller 2013 — Spitzmüller J. Metapragmatik, Indexikalität, soziale Registrierung. Zur diskursiven Konstruktion sprachideologischer Positionen. Zeitschrift für Diskursforshung. 2013, (3): 263–287.
Spitzmüller 2015 — Spitzmüller J. Graphic Variation and Graphic Ideologies: A Metapragmatic Approach. Social Semiotics. 2015, 25 (2): 126–141.
Stryker, Burke 2000 — Stryker Sh., Burke P. J. The Past, Present, and Future of an Identity Theory. Social Psychology Quarterly. 2000, 63 (4): 284–297. https://doi.org/10.2307/2695840
Tannen 2004 — Tannen D. Interactional sociolinguistics/Interaktionale Soziolinguistik. In: Sociolinguistics/Soziolinguistik. Vol. 1. Ammon U., Dittmar N., Mattheier K. J., Trudgill P. (eds). New York; Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. 2004. P. 76–88.
Vygotsky 1978 — Vygotsky L. S. Mind in Society. The Development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1978.
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