Language and IdentitiesCarmen Llamas Edinburgh University Press, 2009 M12 18 - 320 pages Language and Identities offers a broad survey of our current state of knowledge on the connections between variability in language use and the construction, negotiation, maintenance and performance of identities at different levels - individual, group, regional and national. It brings together over 20 specially commissioned chapters, written by distinguished international scholars, on a range of topics around the language/identity nexus. The collection deals sequentially with identities at various levels, both social and personal. Using detailed, empirical evidence, the chapters illustrate how the multi-layered, dynamic nature of identities is realised through linguistic behaviour. Several chapters in the volume focus on contexts in which we might expect to observe a foregrounding of factors involved in the definition and delimitation of self and other: for example, cases in which identities may be disputed, changing, blurred, peripheral, or imposed. Such a focus on complex contexts allows clearer insight into the identity-making and -marking functions of language. The collection approaches these topics from a range of perspectives, with contributions from sociolinguists, sociophoneticians, linguistic anthropologists, clinical linguists and forensic linguists. |
Contents
1 | |
7 | |
9 | |
18 | |
3 Locating Language in Identity | 29 |
Part II Individuals | 37 |
4 The Role of the Individual in Language Variation and Change | 39 |
Changing Identity Over Time | 55 |
Language Ethnicities and Class Sensibility in England | 134 |
Adolescents in the East End of London | 144 |
14 Variation and Identity in AfricanAmerican English | 157 |
15 Language Embodiment and the Third Sex | 166 |
Negotiating the Glass Ceiling | 179 |
Part IV Regions and Nations | 191 |
17 Supralocal Regional Dialect Levelling | 193 |
18 Migration National Identity and the Reallocation of Forms | 205 |
Between Two Worlds At Home in Neither | 67 |
7 The Identification of the Individual Through Speech | 76 |
Imitating Accents or Speech Styles and Impersonating Individuals | 86 |
Part III Groups and Communities | 97 |
9 The Authentic Speaker and the Speech Community | 99 |
10 Two Languages Two Identities? | 113 |
11 Communities of Practice and Peripherality | 123 |
19 Shifting Borders and Shifting Regional Identities | 217 |
20 Convergence and Divergence Across a National Border | 227 |
An African Perspective | 237 |
22 An Historical National Identity? The Case of Scots | 247 |
257 | |
301 | |
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Common terms and phrases
accent adopter Americans analysis appear approach argue associated authenticity Bangladeshi become behaviour border boys chapter claim CofP concept consider construction contexts cultural developed dialect discourse discussion distinct early effect emergence engagement England English ethnic evidence example exist fact factors Figure foreign forms function further gender given hijras historical identify ideological important indexical individuals innovations interaction language less linguistic linked listeners London majority male meaning national identity norms older participants particular patterns performance person political Popular population positions practices present produced question range recent recognition recorded reference regional relations relationship relatively role sample Scots Scottish sense shift similar social social identity sociolinguistic speak speakers speech structure style suggest talk tion understanding variables variants varieties voice vowel women