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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 996

Part of Session 116: God in the City (Other abstracts in this session)

Religious language and slang as resources in constructing religious identity in an urban setting

Authors: Paananen, Laura
Submitted by: Paananen, Laura Anna Katariina (University of Helsinki, Finland)

This paper discusses the use of religious language and Helsinki slang among Finnish-speaking Christian young adults and the functions these linguistic resources have in constructing the religious identity of the speakers. I focus on three young adults who all consider themselves as believers and belong to a local Pentecostal-like charismatic church in Helsinki.

Helsinki slang is a modern and rapidly renewing variety whereas Finnish religious language is usually considered as archaic and solemn by outsiders and often also by young Christians themselves. Despite the stylistic contrast of these varieties the participants of my study use slang words and religious expressions side by side in their interaction, even within a single utterance.

Drawing on conversation analysis and recent research on indexicality and stance in sociolinguistics, I examine the ways in which slang words and religious expressions contribute to the construction of the speaker's religious identity. I will focus on storytelling sequences where the speaker tells about his or her conversion. I will show that religious expressions are used for activating an ideological spiritual frame through which the past experiences are looked at. Slang words, by contrast, are used to emphasize the total change of life which the speaker experienced in the conversion. These stances can be seen as indexical links between the linguistic expressions and the speakers’ religious identities.

The use of Helsinki slang in general is related to the background of the participants. They all have lived in Eastern Helsinki suburbs which are mostly inhabited by working-class people. They have also had relations to the subcultures for which the slang is an essential brand. Drawing on my findings, I argue that the speakers’ religious identities and urban cultural identities are intertwined. Consequently,  rather than viewed as regional, urban cultural identity is more aptly viewed as social, associated with the groups the speaker is related to. Furthermore, religious identity manifests itself as complex, fluid and individual and not as static and joint.

References:

Jaffe, Alexandra 2009 (Ed.). Stance: Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Omonyi, Tope & Fishman, Joshua A. (2006). Explorations in the Sociology of Language and Religion. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.