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The paper evaluates spatial, behavioural, and material signalling of social class in African contexts, focusing on Kenya and Zambia. In particular, it draws on notions of mode of class signalling and intersectionality and a vignette of an interaction between urban-based Western educated development agents and local participants in rural Kenya to illustrate how social class is implicated in interactions. The paper shows how significant features of class and dimensions of social inequality may be perceived intersectionally so that positionalities in class structures are negotiated in contexts of interaction, thus illustrating how structural conditions of class may be challenged and questioned. The paper concludes that sociolinguistics needs to identify the various ways in which the marginalized challenge social structures of inequality. Otherwise there is a risk that sociolinguistics will work to validate inequalities as permanent and fixed, and victims of unequal treatment as permanently condemned and never able to rise against oppressive social structures that tyrannize them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Sociolinguistics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Sociolinguistics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Sociolinguistics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper presents a qualitative analysis of family interaction concerning two narratives told by Julie (nine years old) and Emma (11) during dinner-table conversations in their respective homes. Based on their different notions of the institutional process of schooling, these two families interactionally and narratively shape thematically similar events in different ways. A focus on obedience, authority and issues of right and wrong provides Julie with the discursive position of a subordinate novice, whereas issues of autonomy, choice and individual responsibility enable Emma to take up the position of self-assured expert. Both children are encouraged to reflect upon their own conduct and evaluate the implications of the choices guiding their actions. The paper demonstrates how moral order is interactionally constructed, and how language socialization processes are ideologically charged. Finally, the paper discusses the implications of such processes for children's immediate and future orientation to the institutional practices of school and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the observation of language attitudes in interaction and argues that these approaches provide invaluable insights for the study of language attitudes. In the first half of the paper, the three different kinds of discourse-based methods of analysis that scholars have used to analyse language attitudes (content-based approaches, turn-internal semantic and pragmatic approaches, and interactional approaches) are discussed. In the second half, then, the third of these approaches is used to illustrate such an analysis with four stretches of conversation in different contexts. In the end, the argument is put forward that discourse-based approaches in general and interactional approaches in particular should be viewed as at least as fundamental to language attitude research as more commonly used quantitative methods of analysis, since the former can provide the researcher with insights that the latter do not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a response to a paper by Bob Carter and Alison Sealey about the Layder theory of social domains. It is assumed that in engaging in situated activity, people articulate together diverse elements of the social, physical activities, broadly sociological elements such as social procedures and forms of organization, broadly psychological elements including beliefs, knowledges, feelings and values and semiosis. Articulating them together means bringing them into a more or less stabilized combination. These articulations are partly pre-given, the more-or-less stable and durable cumulative effects of past activity. Semiosis figures in two interconnected ways as a moment of a social practice, as a mode of producing social life and in the representation of the world, including the reflexive self-representations which are an inherent part of a social practice. Representations are always positioned and there are no representations which transcend social positionality. Representations are constantly being evaluated against each other in terms of epistemic gain. If the goal is to work theoretically across disciplines and theories, a theoretically coherent view of what it means to put the logic of one theory to work within another is needed.

This paper explores the ways in which women and men use language to mark gender boundaries, and to convey femininity and masculinity in the construction of a gendered identity The first section of the paper examines evidence that language serves as a gender identity marker not only in the particular phonological variants used more by women than by men, but also in the wider stylistic range evident in women's discourse in some communities. The gender distribution and social meanings associated with particular pragmatic particles and interactional devices provide another indication of the ways in which women and men construct and express femininity and masculinity in interaction. The final section analyses the construction of stereotypical gender identities through conversational interaction, firstly by means of a narrative and secondly through the carefully crafted dialogue of an advertisement. The paper demonstrates the complementary nature of macro-level quantitative studies and qualitative ethnographic analysis in gender research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Sociolinguistics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Sociolinguistics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper explores how speakers’ understandings of the conduct of social relationships mediate changing and socially distinctive syncretic language practices in a Northern Thai community. Although a shift away from vernacular (Kam Muang) speech styles to Standard Thai was emblematically tied to young and urban speakers in nostalgic discourses, syncretic speech styles and metalinguistic discourses also reflected local and socially positioned understandings of institutional roles and social relationships. I argue that scholars of language change and shift should foreground the mediating role of social relationships in speakers’ uses and understandings of their communicative repertoires across multiple timescales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores how discourse marker oh works with constructed dialogue (quoted speech), identifying a use of oh not discussed in previous research in which it can serve to signal speaker stance towards quoted material. While both discourse markers and constructed dialogue have been widely discussed as identity resources in the discourse analytic and interactional-sociolinguistic tradition, there has been little work considering how these linguistic features may work together. In this paper, I address this gap by illustrating how Bakhtin's (1984) notions of uni-directional and vari-directional double voicing articulate with information display and evaluation functions of oh identified by Schiffrin (1987) , suggesting that oh (when occurring as a preface to constructed dialogue), works both to display and evaluate quoted material for the purposes of identity construction in interaction. Such uses of this discourse marker provide illustration of how footing works together with related concepts of evaluation, positioning, and alignment as part of a process of stancetaking in interaction ( Du Bois 2007 ). Examples are taken from ethnographic interviews collected as part of a larger study of the linguistic style of a community of improv performers in Washington, D.C. focusing primarily on examples contributed by one speaker, Josh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper examines the discourse functions of intensity in the context of narrative direct speech quotations. We argue that differentiation in intensity functions as a contextualization cue signalling involvement as well as power negotiation. Intensity, therefore, seems to be an ambivalent signal acquiring its meaning in interaction with other contextual parameters. More specifically, we argue that a louder voice is preferred in in-group talk representations as a contextualization cue of a high involvement style in conversations between intimate young peers. Lower intensity, on the other hand, is used by young female narrators in the representation of talk with authority-out-group figures, as a means of reducing the authority of the adult voices represented in their narratives. The qualitative analysis of our data is further supported by quantitative analysis. We conclude that intensity differentiation in the direct speech quotations of young female narrators functions as a contextualization cue signalling, on the one hand, their independence from adult authority and, on the other, their in-group bonds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to recent work examining the role of identity, and in particular the uses of language for self-presentation and the expression of individual identity, through the analysis of two sociolinguistic interviews from a community of German origin in southern Brazil. Drawing from a quantitative study of variation in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, we conducted a detailed analysis of the interviews of two women of different ages and social backgrounds. We first describe the social, cultural and historical context of the interviews, and then discuss how our two speakers use their linguistic resources to express varied, and at times conflicting, aspects of their identities. More specifically, we show how our participants seem to maintain certain in-group, German-linked features, yet also use out-group or Brazilian features in order to index both the(local) German and(regional) Brazilian aspects of their identities. Our data and analysis highlight how participants’ identity and language use patterns can be better understood through close analysis of the content of their discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Sociolinguistics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Although folk discourses frequently emphasise such raison d'être benefits of tourism as broadening one's horizons through knowing foreign people(s) and cultures, most critical studies of tourism stress tourists' relative illiteracy with regard to the 'reading' of the local. This paper is based on extracts from two British holiday programme series, BBC's Holiday 2000/1 and ITV's Wish You Were Here?, in which the presenters engage in some form of verbal (and non-verbal) interaction with local people. A close discourse analysis of these interactions reveals that the dominant ideology of tourism, as propagated in the programmes, gives evidence of only limited contact between tourists and local people, although the former often create the illusion of closeness, familiarity and 'friendship'. Most contact with local people occurs in their principal roles as either 'helpers'/'servants', 'experts', or as part of 'local scenery'. At times, however, local people are seen to resist these super-imposed roles, casting themselves as worldly and cosmopolitan. Meanwhile, it is often the presenter-tourists who construct for themselves parochial identities by adhering to stereotyped interpretations of local people and seeking 'safe' interpretations of the host culture. These encounters are therefore often sites of power struggle, in which presenter-tourists assert themselves as dominant and powerful, while local people may subvert these attempts, for example, by claiming high status for themselves through expert knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses conversation analysis to examine constructions like who the fuck is that—sequence‐initiating actions into which an expletive like the fuck has been inserted. We describe how this turn‐constructional practice fits into and constitutes a recurrent sequence of escalating actions. In this sequence, it is used to pursue an adequate response after an inadequate one was given, and sanction the recipient for that inadequate response. Our analysis contributes to sociolinguistic studies of swearing by offering an account of swearing as a resource for social action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Sociolinguistics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Sociolinguistics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Sociolinguistics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Sociolinguistics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Sociolinguistics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Sociolinguistics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study surveyed 2446 undergraduates from five Bilingual Autonomous Communities (BAC) of Spain. We propose that the creation of the BAC of Spain in 1978 allowed the development of differing prototypic identities ranging from Spanish only identity, Autonomous only identity, and various permutations of dual Spanish/Autonomous identities. Based on their linguistic and ethnic self-identifications, the percentage of participants endorsing each prototypic identity was monitored along with their key sociopsychological correlates. Six prototypic identity profiles were obtained. Results indicate that individuals endorsing the Autonomous only (11%) and Spanish only (13%) identities were more likely to engage in problematic intergroup relations. Strong Dual identifiers (9%) are the most likely to act as cultural and linguistic brokers and to foster intergroup harmony. Pro-Spanish (15%) and Moderate Dual (7%) identifiers are more likely to benefit from language learning in the Autonomous language and emerge as cultural brokers. Esta investigación sondeó 2446 estudiantes de pregrado de cinco Comunidades Autónomas Bilingües (CAB) de España. Proponemos que la creación de las CAB de España en 1978 permitió el desarrollo de diferentes identidades prototípicas que van desde identidades solamente españolas, identidades solamente autónomas hasta varias permutaciones de identidades dobles españolas/autónomas. Basado en sus auto-identificaciones lingüística y étnica, se observó el porcentaje de participantes que corresponden a cada identidad prototípica y sus correlacionados socio-psicológicos claves. Se obtuvieron seis perfiles de identidad prototípicos. Los resultados indican que los individuos que asumen una identidad solamente autónoma (11%) y solamente española (13%) tienen más probabilidades de entablar relaciones intergrupales problemáticas. Los que tienen más probabilidades de comportarse como conciliador cultural y lingüístico, y de fomentar armonía intergrupal son los que asumen una fuerte identidad doble (9%). Los que asumen una identidad pro-española (15%) o una identidad doble moderada (7%) tienen más probabilidades de beneficiar del aprendizaje de la lengua autónoma y se revelaron como conciliador cultural. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a study of self- and other-identity claims such as ascriptions, assessments and categorizations in the classroom interactional data of female adolescent students of a London comprehensive school. The study follows an identities-in-interaction approach and attends to the occurrence of identity claims in stories of recent mediated interactions (e.g. on MSN, by text) between tellers and male suitors, which I collectively call small stories. In a narrative-interactional analysis of such claims in two small stories, I postulate a distinction between taleworld and telling identity claims that allows me to show how the sequential context of the claims has implications for their interactional uptake. I specifically focus on the relational organization of the identity claims in contrastive pairs of positive and negative attributes and on their contribution to the stories' tellership rights and tellability. My main aim is to show how identity claims can be intimately linked with and discursively invoke solidified roles (cf. known, habitual) that hold above and beyond the local context. I argue that the three interactional features of iterativity, narrativity and stylization hold the key to uncovering the links between identity claims with solidified roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the history of relations between conversation analysis and linguistic anthropology within the broader field encompassing various approaches to language, interaction, and social life. It argues that although these relations have, at times, been fraught and marked by rather serious misconceptions of what conversation analysis is all about, there is still much to be gained from cooperation and scholarly exchange between these approaches. An illustration of this argument focuses on the organization of other-initiated repair in two Caribbean communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]