Language and Identities »

Carmen Llamas is a lecturer in sociolinguistics.

Dominic Watt is a lecturer in the Department of Language and Linguistic Science at the University of York.

Language and Identities broadly surveys current research 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. The book brings together over twenthy specially commissioned chapters written by distinguished international scholars on a range of topics concerning the language/identity nexus.

The collection deals sequentially with identities at various levels, both social and personal. Based on detailed, empirical evidence, these chapters illustrate how the multi-layered, dynamic nature of identities is realized through linguistic behavior. Several chapters focus on contexts in which we 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.

Acknowledgements vii

List of Tables and Figures viii

Notes on Contributors xi

Introduction Carmen Llamas Dominic Watt 1

Part I Theoretical Issues

1 Identity John E.Joseph 9

2 Locating Identity in Language Mary Bucholtz Kira Hall 18

3 Locating Language in Identity Barbara Johnstone 29

Part II Individuals

4 The Role of the Individual in Language Variation and Change Jane Stuart-Smith Claire Timmins 39

5 The Ageing Voice: Changing Identity Over Time David Bowie 55

6 Foreign Accent Syndrome: Between Two Worlds, At Home in Neither Nick Miller 67

7 The Identification of the Individual Through Speech Dominic Watt 76

8 The Disguised Voice: Imitating Accents or Speech Styles and Impersonating Individuals Anders Eriksson 86

Part III Groups and Communities

9 The Authentic Speaker and the Speech Community Nikolas Coupland 99

10 Two Languages, Two Identities? Norma Mendoza-Denton Dana Osborne 113

11 Communities of Practice and Peripherally Emma Moore 123

12 Crossing into Class; Language, Ethnicities and Class Sensibility in England Ben Rampton 134

13 Ethnicity, Religion and Practices: Adolescents in the East End of London Sue Fox 144

14 Variation and Identity in African-American English Erik R. Thomas Alicia Beckford Wassink 157

15 Language, Embodiment and the 'Third Sex' Lal Zimman Kira Hall 166

16 Gendered Identities in the Professional Workplace: Negotiating Glass Ceiling Louise Mullany 179

Part IV Regions and Nations

17 Supralocal Regional Dialect Levelling David Britain 193

18 Migration, National Identity and the Reallocation of Forms Judy Dyer 205

19 Shifting Borders and Shifting Regional Identities Joan Beal 217

20Convergence and Divergence Across a National Border Carmen Llamas 227

21 Language and Postcolonial Identities: An African Perspective Tope Omoniyi 237

22 An Historical National Identity? The Case of Scots Robert McColl Millar 247

Bibliography 257

Index 301