Texas Linguistics Forum Vol. 44(2) (2002)

Dyer, Judy and Alicia Wassink
Taakin Braad and Talking Broad: Changing Indexicality of Phonetic Variants in Two Contact Situations

In this paper we consider the changing indexicality of phonological variants in two different contact situations-Corby, England, and Kingston, Jamaica. We suggest that similar sociolinguistic phenomena may be observed in both places. Using a language ideology framework, acoustic and auditory phonetic data are interpreted through respondents' own metalinguistic comments about their dialect. This socially embedded interpretation of the data reveals that in both Corby and Kingston one phonological variant may in fact index distinct and different identities for speakers in the respective communities, thereby questioning the discreteness of "independent" variables, such as place or social class in sociolinguistic studies.

Kang, Yoonhee
Addressing the Invisible World: Indexicality, Iconicity, and the Cultural Concept of Self in Belian, a Petalangan Healing Ritual in Indonesia

This paper analyzes a performance of the Belian, a shamanic healing ritual practiced by the Petalangan people in Indonesia to discuss the tensions between situatedness (contingency) and transcendence (analogy) of ritual speech. I analyze the usage of address and referential terms and personal pronouns, by which a shaman mediates the present context and the supernatural world during the performance. My concerns focus on the interrelations between indexicality and iconicity of the Belian performance and the importance of the Petalangan concept of the 'relational' self, which mediates 'contextualization' and 'entextualization' processes of the ritual.

Korobov, Neill
"Alex is a NICE kid": The Socialization Functions of Teasing for Adolescent Males

This paper advances a sociolinguistic analysis of "teasing" and "gossiping" within focus group interactions among adolescent males (ages 14-15). In line with recent linguistic anthropological work, I argue that the meanings of different linguistic strategies are not only relative to the specific interactions, but are also quite precarious as indexes of varying levels of solidarity among the adolescent males. Using Positioning Analysis, I demonstrate how subject positions are made available and linguistically indexed. The resulting argument stands as relatively novel, sociolinguistic contribution in ongoing explorations of how micro-discursive positions constitute gendered identities.

McConvell, Patrick
Mix-Im-Up Speech and Emergent Mixed Languages in Indigenous Australia

The numbers of speakers of Australian Indigenous languages are plunging, but some languages are changing radically. Two such languages are examined here: Tiwi and Gurindji. Tiwi in its traditional form is highly headmarking and polysynthetic. Modern Tiwi has retained some of the old verb morphology but adopted English nominal grammar. Traditional Gurindji is a language of dependentmarking type. Young people have adopted verbal grammar from the local English-based creole, but retained Gurindji case-marking on nominals, the obverse of the situation with Tiwi. The origins of this new mixed language can be traced to the code-switching speech of the previous generation.

Meares, Mary
Secrecy Versus Education: Cultural Maintenance and the Dilemma of Educating Non-Indians about the Pueblos

The purpose of this paper is to examine how cultures, specifically the Pueblo Indian cultures, can be maintained in the presence of outside cultural influence. In the last 400 years, Pueblo culture has been dramatically changed by the influx of first Hispanic and later Anglo cultural influences. Analysis of current programs to maintain culture reveal a foundation of building cultural identity as well as language skills and conformity to group cohesion principles. Non-Pueblo individuals were found to have a limited role in cultural preservation, however the education of non-Pueblo people has the potential to be both a constructive and destructive force.

Michael, Lev
Reported Speech, Experience, and Knowledge in an Amazonian Society: The Nanti of Southeastern Peru

This paper describes and analyzes the use of reported speech by speakers of Nanti, an Arawakan language of southeastern Peru. It seeks to understand the importance of reported speech in the Nanti communicative repertoire, and its relationship to broader communicative, ideational, and political patterns. Based on ethnographic data, I argue that Nanti speech reporting practices realize a linguistic/ideational complex that links communicative practice to conceptualizations of experience, knowledge, and the relationship between experience and knowledge. On the basis of comparative analyses with other societies, I also advance hypotheses about the cross-cultural properties of reported speech as a social practice.

Monk, Sandra L
Poetic Structures of an Ethnographic Narrative

This presentation analyzes narrative sections of healthrelated interview transcripts. My purpose here is to highlight the poetic structures they substantiate: this includes blocking text into verses, stanzas, and refrains, and using thematic parallelism. Although a familiar literary resource, poetics has only recently been applied to casual discourse. The present analysis will document the occurrence of poetic styles in impromptu interview speech and hypothesize the social functions of such styles: significantly, that these poetic structures are textual markers which have a social function much like other stylized verbal forms.

Newman, Michael
"I represent me": Identity Construction in a Teenage Rap Crew

This ethnography explores how members of a rap 'crew' of inner-city teenagers use language to construct their various ethnic and local identities and their common identities as hip-hoppers and males. Crew members combine openminded discourses on ethnicity, national origin, and neighborhood as potential sources of pride but not exclusiveness with unapologetically sexist views. I argue that rather than analyzing these discourses as contradictory, they are better understood as outgrowths of a single coherent meritocratic and individualistic worldview. As such, these teens use traditional American capitalist discourses to respond to the dominant discourses of dehumanization they face as minority youth.

Shaul, David Leedom
In the Last Days of Living Latin: The Dynamic and Realities of Twilight Linguistics

"Language death" rules out possible continued uses as a heritage language. Language efforts typical of Native American languages (preservation/revival efforts, curriculum, technology use) are hampered not only by English use, but also by no desire for English-like functions in the traditional variety (because of emotional and religious factors). In the 1960s, Monegasque (traditional in Monaco) was in a similar situation; it went through a period of "preservation" to become a heritage language used in important, vital public contexts. The Monegasque model is an alternative to the Hawaiian model of total revival as an educational medium.

Sniad, Tamara Shane
"I might not be front desk material": An Analysis of Language Ideologies and Hospitality Training

Many of the limitations minorities face arguably involve differing ideologies about how and where certain language forms can be used and what their use indexes. This paper looks at the language ideologies that manifest in an adult education program aimed at training African Americans for jobs in the hospitality industry and how these ideologies relate to the students' employment opportunities in customer service positions. By looking closely at how and what ideologies are explicitly and implicitly expressed, the local (re)production of certain sociocultural attitudes and their effect on the employment opportunities of the speakers may be better understood and addressed.

Su, Hsi-Yao
Code-switching between Mandarin and Taiwanese in Three Telephone Conversations: The Negotiation of Interpersonal Relationships among Bilingual Speakers in Taiwan