Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 191

Thematic Session (Papers belonging to this Thematic Session)

Language variation, identity and urban Space. New theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of language practices and identity in contemporary urban spaces.

Authors: Ceuleers, Evy; Marzo, Stefania
Submitted by: Ceuleers, Evy (University College Ghent / Ghent University, Belgium)

Many urban regions have demographically, socioculturally and ethnically changed into multicultural environments, which has led to the emergence and use of multilingual speech styles and codes, particularly among young speakers (Bucholtz & Skapoulli 2009; Lamarre 2005; Nortier 2009; Rampton 1995). Three types of research can be distinguished: variationist studies (Eckert 2000; Cheshire et al. 2011), vocabulary or 'slang' studies and interactional or ethnographic research (Eckert 1995, De Fina 2010). The first two types mostly aim at investigating youth language in terms of social stratification, whereas the third takes on a ‘stylization’-perspective. In this panel, we would like to explore how a combination of different research perspectives and methods can contribute to gaining more insight into how stylization practices are systematically linked to macrolevel language variation. By describing stylization practices, the indexical value of a certain identity in a specific interactional context, is revealed (e.g. Jaspers 2006). Similarly, it has been shown that, through processes of enregisterment (Johnstone 2006), certain clusters of practices may become indexical of a new identity, linked to a specific local context (see also Marzo & Ceuleers 2011). This process of enregisterment has been reported in different urban contexts. What the actual underlying mechanisms are remains an important question, currently at the centre of the sociolinguistic debate.

Aims

(1) bring together researchers and experts in the field of interactional and variational sociolinguistics in order to discuss various innovative methodological approaches and pending issues in research on language variation and identity in contemporary urban spaces;

(2) examine the potential of multimethodological approaches in order to systematically uncover the mechanisms underlying the process of enregisterment.

Discussion questions

(1) What are the most recent developments in research on stylization practices among adolescents in multilingual urban contexts?

(2) What are the most recent developments in research on language variation, resulting from increased and prolonged contact between different languages and codes in modern urban spaces?

(3) Can we observe potential convergences in these two research areas?

(4) Which social and linguistic theories can shed light on the question why and how certain linguistics practices are relinked to a new localized identity and delinked from their original social and/or ethnic connotation?

References

Bucholtz, M. & Skapoulli, E. 2009. Youth Language at the Intersection: From Migration to Globalization. Pragmatics 19:1.1-16

Cheshire, J., P. Kerswill, S. Fox & E. Torgersen. 2011. Contact, the feature pool and the speech community: The emergence of Multicultural London English. Journal of Sociolinguistics 15/2: 151–196

De Fina A. 2010. From space to spatialization in narrative studies. In J. Collins, M. Baynham and S. Slembrouck (eds.) Globalization and Language in Contact Scale, Migration, and Communicative Practices (pp. 109-129). Harrisburg, PA. Continuum.

Eckert, P. 1995. (ay) goes to the city. Exploring the expressive use of variation. In Towards a Social Science of Language Vol. 1, eds. C. Guy, D. Feagin, D. Schiffrin & J. Baugh, 47–68. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Eckert, P. 2000. Linguistic Variation as Social Practice. Oxford: Blackwell.

Jaspers, J. 2006. Stylizing Standard Dutch by Moroccan boys in Antwerp. Linguistics and education 17, n° 2: 131-156.

Johnstone, B., J. Andrus, and A.E. Danielson. 2006. Mobility, Indexicality, and the Enregisterment of “Pittsburghese.” Journal of English Linguistics 32, n° 4: 77-104.

Lamarre, P. 2005. Towards a new approach and a new methodology: multilingual youth and their daily trajectories in Montreal. Presentation at the 4ième journées internationales de la sociolinguistique urbaine (JISU). Moncton.

Marzo, S. & E. Ceuleers. 2011 The Use of Citétaal among Adolescents in Limburg. The Appropriation of Space as a Catalyst Force for the Enregisterment of a Multiethnolect in an Urban Context. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. In press

Nortier, J. 2009. Nederland Meertalenland. Feiten, perspectieven en meningen over meertaligheid. Amsterdam: Aksant.

Rampton, B. 1995. Crossing: Language and Ethnicity among Adolescents. London/ New York: Longman.

Sociolinguistics Symposium 19

Programme: accepted abstracts

Language variation, identity and urban Space. New theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of language practices and identity in contemporary urban spaces.