Style and Social Identities: Alternative Approaches to Linguistic Heterogeneity 9783110198508, 9783110190809, 9783110190816

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Style and Social Identities

W G DE

Language, Power and Social Process 18

Editors

Monica Heller Richard J. Watts

Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York

Style and Social Identities Alternative Approaches to Linguistic Heterogeneity edited by Peter Auer

Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York

Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague) is a Division of Walter de Gruyter G m b H & Co. KG, Berlin.

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Style and social identities: alternative approaches to linguistic heterogeneity edited by / Peter Auer. p. cm. - (Language, power, and social process ; 18) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-3-11-019080-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-3-11-019081-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Language and languages - Variation. 2. Language and languages - Style. 3. Group identity. 4. Identity (Psychology) I. Auer, Peter, 1954— P120.V37S789 2007 410—dc22 2007027565

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© Copyright 2007 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, D-10785 Berlin. All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Cover design: Christopher Schneider. Printed in Germany.

Preface

This book has various sources. Its first and early roots were a colloquy on "Acts of Identity" held at the University of Freiburg in 2002 which, in turn, emerged from a research project on the "Linguistic symbols of ethnic identity" (Sprachliche Symbolisierung ethnischer Identität) co-directed by the editor and Christian Mair within the framework of the Research Institute (Sonderforschungsbereich) "Identitäten und Alteritäten" (SFB 471). Some of the papers presented at the colloquy are contained in the present volume, while others have been published in Christian Mair (ed.) Interactional Sociolinguistics and Cultural Studies (a thematic issue of Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik 28-2). A second and equally important source of input for this volume was a Panel on "Identity and Style" organized by Werner Kallmeyer and myself at the 2003 International Pragmatics Conference in Toronto. A number of chapters of this volume were presented first as papers to this Panel. However, there are also additional chapters written especially for this publication. My thanks go to Werner Kallmeyer, who not only co-organized the Toronto Panel with me but also helped in recruiting the contributors to the present volume, and provided stimulating intellectual input on communicative social style. I would also like to thank Monica Heller who suggested including the book in the LPSP series and guided me with her advice through the editorial process which, in this case, was not without obstacles. Finally, my thanks go to Hanna Beier and Elin Arbin who substantially helped in the copyediting.

Contents Preface Chapter 1 Introduction Peter Auer

Part 1. Bilingual styles and social identities Introduction to Part 1 Peter Auer Chapter 2 Language alternation as a resource for identity negotiations among Dominican American bilinguals Benjamin Bailey Chapter 3 Style and stylization in the construction of identities in a card-playing club Anna De Fina Chapter 4 Being a 'colono' and being 'daitsch' in Rio Grande do Sul: Language choice and linguistic heterogeneity as a resource for social categorisation Peter Auer, Jacinta Arnhold, and Cintia Bueno-Aniola Chapter 5 Names and identities, or: How to be a hip young Italian migrant in Germany Christine Bierbach and Gabriele Birken-Silverman Chapter 6 Socio-cultural identity, communicative style, and their change over time: A case study of a group of German-Turkish girls in Mannheim/Germany Inken Keim Chapter 7 Bystanders and the linguistic construction of identity in face-to-back communication Kathryn A. Woolard

Part 2. Monolingual styles and social identities - From local to global Introduction to Part 2 Peter Auer

viii

Contents

Chapter 8 Aneurin Bevan, class wars and the styling of political antagonism Nikolas Coupland

213

Chapter 9 Identity and positioning in interactive knowledge displays Grit Liebscher and Jennifer Dailey-O'Cain

247

Chapter 10 Style online: Doing hip-hop on the German-speaking Web Jannis Androutsopoulos

279

Part 3. Identity-work through styling and stylization Introduction to Part 3 Peter Auer

321

Chapter 11 Playing with the voice of the other: Stylized Kanaksprak in conversations among German adolescents Arnulf Deppermann

325

Chapter 12 Identity and language construction in an online community: The case of 'Ali G' MarkSebba 361 Chapter 13 Positioning in style: Men in women's jointly produced stories Alexandra Georgakopoulou

393

Chapter 14 The construction of otherness in reported dialogues as a resource for identity work Susanne Günthner

419

Chapter 15 The humorous stylization of 'new' women and men and conservative others Helga Kotthoff

445

Chapter 16 A postscript: Style and identity in interactional sociolinguistics John J. Gumperz and Jenny Cook-Gumperz

477

Index

503

Chapter 1 Introduction Peter Auer

This volume presents a collection of studies which focus on heterogeneity in linguistic practice such as the use of more than one language within a conversation by bilingual speakers, the use of different grammatical, phonological or lexical options for realising one linguistic category, within what is generally considered to be one language, or the selection of features from various linguistic systems (such as dialects) which are structurally closely related. In this sense, all the papers in this volume deal with phenomena which fall within the core domain of sociolinguistics as they are known from variationist sociolinguistics, (social) dialectology, or research on bilingualism. That the subtitle of this book nonetheless refers to alternative approaches implies that the way in which they investigate heterogeneity does not follow the standard pattern of research methodology in variation studies though (cf. Chambers, Trudgill and Schilling-Estes, eds., 2002 for a useful summary). The reason for abandoning these established methodologies despite their undeniable success is, for many of the contributors to this volume, a certain uneasiness about the (growing?) neglect of social meaning and how it is created through language in variation studies. The present volume focusses on two relatively recent concepts of sociolinguistic research which have a potential for remedying this neglect: social identities and (social) style. This introduction aims at introducing these two terms and their relevance for sociolinguistic studies on linguistic heterogeneity.

1.

Identity/Identities

1.1. Collective

identities

The linguistic concern with identity began with an interest in collective rather than social identities, i.e. with the discourse of 'languages' as the 'natural' reflexes of national identities, as it started in the 18th and gained momentum in the 19th century. In a way, this discourse uses the notion of

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identity in a metaphorical sense, modelled on the discourse of the individual as defined by his or her, self-reflexive sameness. 1 Collectivities are treated as unique quasi-beings which express their identities through certain features equally unique to them. Among these features, the national (standard) language has a privileged role. The idea that collective identities and languages are connected in an essentialist way has been a key concept of European modernity; it underlies the formation of the European nation states and continues to be deeply rooted in our language ideologies. According to this idea, each collectivity (particularly a nation, or a Volk) expresses its own individual character through and in its language. The term 'essentialist' is justified here since it is assumed that there is a 'natural' link between a nation and 'its' language. Against this view, the dominant paradigm in the social sciences today is more or less radically constructivist. Collectivities - nations, but also ethnic or social groups - are no longer assumed to 'naturally' exist, for instance on the basis of genetics (race), ancestry (blood) or birth (social class), but are seen as social and ideological constructs (see Niethammer 2000 for a summary of the arguments) which, in the European tradition, happen to rely on language. The discourse of European nation-building has been thoroughly investigated (see, e.g., Anderson 1983; Hobsbawm 1990). Nation-building is not only a matter of the past but continues to be in progress in parts of Eastern and particularly south-eastern Europe. Examples such as the (re-)creation of Croatian and even Bosnian as independent national languages also make it clear that language has not lost its prominent role in this discourse. However, collectivities other than nations may also use language in order to establish their identity (and may equally fall into the essentialist trap). Bilingual minorities are an example. Instead of the national standard varieties, it is now the specific ways in which the majority and/or the minority language are spoken, as well as the various mixing and switching styles, which are considered to be the straightforward, 'natural' expression of the bilinguals' identity. Frequently, a simple iconic relationship between 'mixed' or even 'hybrid identities' and 'mixed' (or fragmented?) languages and an equally iconic relationship between fuzzy language boundaries and fuzzy group boundaries is assumed. 2 The link between these linguistic practices and the collective identity appears as self-evident as the link between a standard language and a nation was in the nationalist discourse of the 19th century (and beyond). Again, language - albeit in different forms - is assumed to be 'determined' by the nature of the collectivity to which it belongs. And once again, this equation of language and the identity of a col-

Introduction

3

lectivity fails to capture the way in which collectivities are constructed (through language and other means of expression). 1.2. Social

identities

However deep the link between linguistics as a discipline and the discourses about collective identities may have been, collective identities are not the topic of this volume. We are not interested here in the discourses (in the Foucaultian sense of the word) in and through which collectivities are defined, justified, delimited against each other, etc., and how languages are used as an arguments in these discourses. Rather, we are interested in the construction and management of social identities in interaction. Here, the categorisation of participants in an interactional episode as social personae is an issue, not the definition and delimitation of collectivities. 3 Social identity work of this kind is linked to social-communicative practices and needs to be investigated as such. A good deal of sociolinguistic and sociological research has addressed the question of how terms for social categories (such as 'male', 'upper class', 'Jewish') are employed in conversation and how their link to category-bound activities/characteristics is exploited as a resource for creating social and interactional meaning. 4 This explicit categorisation work plays role in some of the papers in this volume (such as the ones by Liebscher and Dailey O'Cain, Deppermann, Georgakopoulou or Günthner), but no role at all in others (such as Auer, Arnhold and Bueno-Aniola or Coupland). Once again, the employment of category names to refer explicitly to the person whose identity is at stake, or the naming of category-bound activities which make such identity-related categories inferrable, is not our main concern. What will really take us to the heart of sociolinguistic research is another issue: to what extent can participants mobilise heterogeneity within or across the linguistic system(s) of their repertoire - grammar, phonology, lexicon - in order to symbolically express their social identities? How can social identities be accomplished, not by explicitly categorising people and by explicating category-bound activites/characteristics, but by selecting one variable realisation over another (for instance in the inflectional system of English or in the vowel system of German, one language instead of another in a speaker's repertoire, or one lexical expression instead of another) where these realisations have no denotational-semantic content whatsoever which could be the basis for this accomplishment?

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Peter Auer

1.3.

"Acts of

identity"

The interest in (social) identity and its linguistic-communicative 'management' has become mainstream in sociolinguistics during the last decade, but its roots are older. It was as early as 1982 that Gumperz and CookGumperz edited a book in which they state programmatically (1982: 1, our emphasis): We costumarily take gender, ethnicity, and class as given parameters and boundaries within which we create our own social identities. The study of language as interactional discourse demonstrates that these parameters are not constants that can be taken for granted but are communicatively produced. Therefore to understand issues of identity and how they affect and are affectd by social, political, and ethnic divisions we need to gain insights into the communicative processes by which they arise. Even before Gumperz and Cook-Gumperz, Robert Le Page introduced his notion of "acts of identity", coming f r o m a different perspective and a background in creole studies (cf. Le Page 1978; Le Page and TabouretKeller 1985). His model plays a considerable role in a number of papers in this volume. Its main components are summarised in S e b b a ' s chapter. In a nutshell, Le Page claims that our socio-stylistic choices are made in order to conform to the behaviour of those social groups w e wish to be identified with. Le P a g e ' s model was conceived as an alternative to correlational sociolinguistics as it was about to emerge in L a b o v ' s work in N e w York City at the same time (Labov 1972). While the latter reduced the individual to multiple memberships in a social class, gender and age group, respectively, which were seen to determine his or her linguistic behaviour, L e Page foregrounded the individual as an actor w h o - within certain limits - chooses his or her affiliations and expresses t h e m symbolically through language. But Le P a g e ' s acts of identity also anticipated important aspects of the constructivist approach to social identities. He dissolved the unity of the individual as a social actor into an array of acts of identification. 5 He thereby transformed identity into identities, and thus reanalysed sociolinguistic variables f r o m symptoms into symbols (cf. Le Page and Tabouret-Keller 1985: 182). Le Page views incumbency to social categories as an achievement; it is informed by the situation in which it occurs, and lacks the kind of transsituational stability (reflexive equivalence) which the very notion of iden-

Introduction

5

tity presupposes. Le Page's acts of identity thus have little to do with identity in the traditional sense of the word. The stress is on 'acts', not on identity: it is these acts that bring about those only seemingly reliable features which social actors ascribe to themselves and to their fellow interactionalists as features of the social world taken-for-granted. Note that this questions the validity of constructs such as 'social class', 'gender', 'ethnicity' and the like which are no more (but also no less!) than lay categories which we use in order to make sense of the social world around us. A final point bears mentioning: in Le Page's terminology, a speaker "projects" an image of him- or herself when s/he wishes to identify with a (real or imagined) social reference group. But Le Page also stresses that such projections seek and need to be reinforced by others. If the speaker receives this reinforcement, his or her behaviour may become more regular, or "focussed." On the other hand, if acts of identity are not met with positive feedback, the speaker's behaviour will tend to remain (or become) more variable ("diffuse"). From a modern viewpoint, some parts of Le Page's model are of course debatable. To begin with, there is a touch of overdone individualism in Le Page's approach. Le Page does acknowledge that our autonomy as speakers to create "systems for ... verbal behaviour" is restricted by four "riders" - i.e.: (i) the extent to which we are able to identify our model groups, (ii) the extent to which we have sufficient access to them and sufficient analytical ability to work out the rules of their behaviour, (iii) the strength of various (possibly conflicting) motivations towards one or another mode and towards retaining our own sense of our unique identity, (iv) our ability to modify our behaviour (1978: 15). However, there is good reason to believe that there are further constraints on the autonomy of the speaker which could be modelled along the lines of Bourdieu's notions of habitus and field (to mention just one possibility) and which involve issues of power and hegemony (cf. Bourdieu 1979). Also, the idea of a "unique identity" is at odds with the identity-ininteraction approach outlined above according to which acts of identity are situationally occasioned and therefore potentially conflicting (even contradictory) across situations. Another problem with Le Page's model may be even more important. Some of the linguistic choices which are made by speakers by reference to the factual or imputed behaviour of a certain social reference group are systematically non-affiliative, i.e. they are made in order not to be subsumed under the respective membership category. These acts have been

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Peter Auer

widely discussed in the recent sociolinguistic literature under headings such as crossing, mocking, styling/stylising, parodying, etc. (cf. the contributions by Deppermann, Günthner, Kotthoff, Bailey and others in this volume). The distinction between affiliative and non- or even disaffiliative stylistic choices is not a trivial one (cf. Coupland, this volume, and Woolard, this volume). One may even go one step further: the use of a particular feature which is associated with a certain social group is open to an affiliating as well as a disaffiliating interpretation. The preestablished association between linguistic variants and social reference groups as such can be questioned. In fact, speakers may re-create their own social identity by drawing on linguistic materials taken from various groups and rearranging them into a new 'style'. We will come back to this approach to identity as stylistic performance (stylisation) in section 3 of this introduction. For the time being, we can summarise the discussion of Le Page's model as follows. It is necessary to differentiate between the social group A from whose (stereotyped) linguistic behaviour a linguistic act of identity draws its semiotic resources, and a social group Β with whom the speaker wishes to identify. A (linguistic) act of identity can then be defined as the selection of a linguistic element which indexes some social group A and which is chosen on a particular occasion (in a particular context) in order to affiliate oneself with or disaffiliate oneself from a social group B. A and Β often but do not necessarily coincide. Of course, Le Page's early model has not remained the only approach to identity-formation through linguistic choices. Widely used is, for instance, Harré and van Langenhove's theory of social positioning (1991) which forms the theoretical basis of Liebscher's and Dailey O'Cain's as well as Georgakopoulou' s chapters in the present volume. Coming not from (socio-) linguistics (like Le Page), but from social science, the authors propose an alternative approach to social categorization which is more flexible than traditional role theory and also emphasizes the negotiable nature of selfand other-positioning. Consequently, the focus on linguistic indexes to categorization is less strong here. Although some linguistic features are linked in the most straightforward way to a social or ethnic category, a region or a milieu, their meaning is always open to situational revision, transformation, and refinement. The best-known of these reinterpretations is the case of regional to social indexing. Variable features indicative of some regional provenance of the speaker are often metonymically extended to some (stereotypical) attribute imputed to speakers of that region which eventually comes to index a social attrib-

Introduction

7

ute. A case of such a reinterpretation is Canadian raising as described in Labov's classic study of Martha's Vineyard in which a regional feature of Atlantic coast island dialects (raising of the onset in the diphthong /ay/) is reinterpreted and takes on a new, social meaning: it symbolises the speaker's stance toward mainlanders (cf. Labov 1963 and Eckert's 2004 interpretation of his results). Linguistic features therefore do not 'mirror' social identity categories in the simple sense of the word (cf. Cameron 1990). A simple lexical example can show this. In the pre-unification period, Zielsetzung was a purely 'East German' lexical item for '(West) German' Zielstellung ('aim'): West German dictionaries (such as DUDEN 1973) only listed the latter word (while the East German Handwörterbuch der deutschen Gegenwartssprache had both). Given this clear association of the word Zielstellung with East Germany, what does it mean if somebody uses the word today, say, in a written document in a company? A simple view of language as an index to social identity would lead to the conclusion that the writer wants to claim/invoke his or her East German identity by using an East German word, even more so as the general trend has been to replace East German by West German words. However, although this is one possibility, there are other ways in which this particular lexical choice can come to index (in a given situational context and in a given community of practice) the user's identity: -

-

-

The writer may have used the East German word 'innocently', i.e. without knowing about its identity-rich potential. She or he may not be aware of the lexical difference at all and not be able to interpret the lexical variation at hand in social terms. Depending on who the recipients are, the lexical choice may then remain irrelevant for social categorisation (for 'innocent' readers), or it may assume a non-intended meaning (when the readers ascribe East-Germanness to the writer against his or her intentions, and perhaps against his 'real' background). The writer may have used the East German word 'metaphorically' i.e. in order to invoke an East German 'voice' although he or she is known to be West German. Here, we would be dealing with a kind of crossing (cf. Rampton 1995; Auer 2006; Quist and J0rgensen 2007). For readers who share this knowledge about the writer's background, a 'double-voicing' becomes visible in which the writer's 'real' voice and that of the East German influence each other (cf. Voloshinov 1929). The writer may want to pretend to be East German, in some kind of role-play as is not infrequent in internet chat communication (and doubt-

8

-

Peter Auer lessly in other contexts as well). In this case, a social identity is 'faked'. To complicate things even further, the recipient may know and take into account that in the type of activity at hand (e.g., chats), identities can be and even tend to be faked. The East German word may have taken on a different meaning in the community of practice in which it is used (for instance, it may be a fashionable way of speaking which indexes up-to-dateness, but not East/West German background).

What these alternative interpretations show is that often, there is no way of describing the indexical value of a linguistic variable (i.e., its capacity to point to a social category) without looking into the conversational and situational context in which it is employed. In addition, the interpretation of a linguistic feature is often supported by (and sometimes only made possible on the basis of) its co-occurrence with other features with which it forms a social style. We will turn to this issue in section 2. 1.4. Social identities in interaction The critical appraisal of Le Page's models of "acts of identity" of the last section leads us to an approach to social identities which is grounded in interaction. Such an approach is not new and has been proposed by several sociolinguists (starting with Gumperz and Cook-Gumperz in their "interactional sociolinguistics", cf. the quotation above). The basic principles upon which the identities-in-interaction approach is based are summarised by Antaki and Widdicombe (1998: 3) as follows: (i)

Having an identity means "being cast into a category with associated characteristics or features"; incumbency in this category may both be claimed by a participant of an interaction and ascribed to him/her by co-participants. (ii) Identity-relevant activities in interaction are "indexical and occasioned", i.e., they cannot be understood unless their embedding into the conversational and larger context at hand is taken into account. (iii) Identity as an occasioned and achieved category incumbency needs to be made relevant in an interaction in order to become consequential for it; this holds for brought along and brought about identities. In accordance with ethnomethodological principles, the analyst's task is to

Introduction

9

reconstruct this 'making relevant' of a category. It need not imply the overt naming of an identity-relevant category, but can be achieved through symbolic means. (iv) 'Having an identity' is consequential for interaction, since the respective category is linked to category bound expectations of action; this consequentiality may become visible in a shift of footing of the interaction; however, it may also lead to the somewhat trivial consequence that 'nothing special' happens precisely because co-membership is established. (v) This consequentiality opens up the possibility for the analyst to reconstruct the identity-relevant category in question f r o m category bound activities. Of course, speaking of the occasioned nature of identity is not be taken to mean that identity-relevant categories have no reality outside the interaction. In fact, their interactional relevance hinges on (more or less) shared social knowledge. This has been shown compellingly in Harvey Sacks' work on membership categorisation (Sacks 1972; cf. Watson 1997); one of the upshots is that many categorisation devices are duplicatively organised such that bringing into play one social category evokes the antonym as well. 6 Sacks, in turn, relied on older approaches particularly in the tradition of Alfred Schütz and his theory of types (Schütz and Luckmann 1975). The more general point is that identity-work is very often done by referring to alterities - the construction of some A L T E R through which one's own identity is indirectly highlighted. The multi-faceted nature in which variants are employed and interpreted as indexes to social identity has been investigated empiricially in recent sociolinguistic research (e.g. Ostermann 2003; Podesva, Roberts and Campbell-Kibler 2002; Schilling-Estes 2004; Zilles and Cambell 2005). These studies analyse the choice of linguistic variants within their conversational and social context, often in ways analogous to the investigation of code-switching in conversation (cf. Ostermann 2005, drawing on Auer 1995). The way in which these studies link up with more traditional, quantitative studies of linguistic variation still remains to be discussed. It is obvious that it is at odds with a correlationist view of sociolinguistic structure, but not necessarily with quantitative methods which may be useful and even necessary to establish the common knowledge against which a single case of variable selection may become meaningful.

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Peter Auer

Identity work in interaction is - as stated above - the work invested by participants in ascribing and claiming incumbency to social categories or Schützian types. To narrow down this focus somewhat, Zimmerman (1998: 90f.) suggests distinguishing between discourse, situational and transportable identities, each of which is characterised by "different home territories", i.e., by a different temporal reach and contextual constancy. Discourse identities such as 'current speaker', 'teller of a story', 'repair initiator' would not normally be subsumed under identity relevant categories in the everyday use of the word. They are, however, intimately linked to Zimmerman's situational identities which are bound to particular, mainly institutional agendas (and informed by the respective schematic/frame knowledge which are the blueprints for acting within these institutions); thus, an 'interrogator' at court will have access via his or her situational identity to other discourse roles than the 'interrogated'; the 'examiner' at the university will have different discourse roles at his or her disposal than the 'examined,' 'student', etc. Most central for the sociolinguistics of identity work in interaction, however, is Zimmerman's third type, that of transportable identities, by which he means "latent identities that 'tag along' with individuals as they move through their daily routines", often based on "physical or culturally based insignia". It is these transportable identities which are meant when we speak of 'social identities' in the following. Zimmerman's model is drawn on in particular in Woolard's chapter in the present volume. Treating orderly selection from heterogeneous linguistic resources as a way of symbolising identities in interaction also raises a number of methodological issues. Here are just a few of them. One obvious question is whether all variable realisations can be treated in the same way or whether the approach is limited to salient features (Labov's stereotypes) - those features of which members of a given speech community are more or less aware. Clearly, these do not exhaust the range of heterogeneity in language. Linguistic heterogeneity may be socially patterned (for instance, across social class, gender or age) without speakers being aware of it. It can be argued of course that awareness does not equal salience. But we are then faced with the methodological issue of how to establish salience, and how to prove co-participants' orientation a certain identity-relevant category. (For instance, one would want to be careful not to conflate Le Page-type symbolic identification with a certain prestige group with mechanistic accommodation to a particular co-participant's speech.)

Introduction

11

Another methodological problem refers to the suitability of single variable analysis for the investigation of linguistic acts of identity. While variationist studies often focus on one particular variable, interactionally oriented studies usually provide a more holistic picture of a web of interrelated features which is used by a given speaker on a given occasion. This constellation of features may or may not shift over the course of an interaction. This question has received some attention recently and brings us to the notion of sociolinguistic (social, communicative) style.

2.

Style in sociolinguistics

2.1. Style as a holistic concept Sociolinguistic discussions of style often start with a critical appraisal of Labov's concept of contextual styles (Labov 1972, cf. Coupland 2000 for a critique) and then open up the perspective to theories of social and cultural styles which have played an important role in ethnographically oriented, interactional sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology over the last years. But in fact, Labov's linear style dimension which is constructed to capture speakers' monitoring of their own speech production has little if anything to do with modern studies on style in sociolinguistics; the latter follow a very different rationale. In these studies, style is seen as a concept which can overcome the shortcomings of single-variable studies and can integrate linguistic variation (in the narrow sense of the word, i.e. Coupland's "dialect style", 2000) into a comprehensive theory of the ways in which choices on all levels of semiotic organisation relate to social practices of sense-making, categorisation, and identity management (cf. Rickford and Eckert 2001: 1). Despite earlier pioneering attempts to move from traditional stylistics (with styles as objects) to a theory of social style and stylisation (with styles as processes, cf. Hinnenkamp and Selting, eds., 1989), and to revise the Labovian approach to variation (Bell's theory of audience design, 1984, which owes much to Le Page's acts of identity), style did not make its big appearance on the stage of sociolinguistic research until the 1990s. A number of aspects are important to understand the relevance of style for sociolinguistic research. First of all, social style is a holistic and multilevel phenomenon. It directly challenges the more traditional approach to linguistic variation which

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Peter Auer

usually focusses on single variables. As the "California Style Collective" (incl. P. Eckert) stated in an influential paper at NWAVE 22 (1993): "We are defining style as a clustering of linguistic resources, and an association of that clustering with an identifiable aspect of social practice. ... Rarely can an individual variable be extracted from this style and recognized as meaningful; variables carry such meaning only by virtue of their participation in identifiable personal or group styles" (Manuscript: 14). Exactly how broad styles need to be defined in order to capture relevant linguistic and social practices is open to debate. It is generally assumed that social-communicative styles, in addition to language choice and linguistic variation in a narrow sense, include prosodie patterns, but also verbal practices of categorisation, pragmatic patterns such as politeness, preferences for specific communicative genres, rhetorical practices, etc. Often, the notion of social style is also taken to include embodied features of verbal and nonverbal actions (voice quality, facial expressions, gesture, 'expressive body language') as well as aesthetic choices ('taste') in appearance, clothes, etc. In the widest sense, style becomes similar to life-style as described by Bourdieu as the surface correlate of habitus (1979 [1984: 171 et passim]). Note that any notion of style which includes preferences for certain genres, rhetorical patterns, etc. goes beyond variation studies which are usually restricted to referentially (denotationally) neutral variables. It is obvious that 'style' in the sense of different "ways of speaking" (Hymes 1972) implies more than saying the same thing in different ways. In fact, what can be said and what cannot be said is a central part of a socialcommunicative style. The sociolinguistic analysis of style claims, then, that the social meaning of linguistic heterogeneity does not (usually) reside in individual linguistic features but rather in constellations of such features which are interpreted together. If we hear somebody 'speak posh', 'speak like a havak' (immigrant youth, see Deppermann, this volume) or 'speak like an old Nazi' (Günthner, this volume), we do not interpret single variables but a gestaltlike stylistic expression. Having said that, we immediately need to add that stylistic analysis can also be less comprehensive than traditional variation studies. First of all, there are situations in which a single word or a single vowel can function as a shibboleth - no holistic style analysis, and no statistical averages are necessary to arrive at this interpretation. Perhaps more important, there are many social-communicative styles in which certain features stand out as the most salient ones which are, for instance, used as mock features in stylisa-

Introduction

13

tion and crossing. These strategies of social discrimination through language reduce complex styles, but in such a way that they are still easily recognisable. In sum, style in modern sociolinguistic theory is a concept which mediates between linguistic variability and practices of social categorisation of self or other: linguistic variability is seen as a resource for constructing socially interpretable and interpreted styles (Eckert 2004: 43). In doing so, style filters out certain variables and attributes special status to others. Or, to take the perspective of the speakers: participants' representations of styles combine unambiguously indexical core features with fuzzy borders. But style is not only a holistic and multilevel phenomenon, it is also socially interpreted. There is social knowledge involved about how to relate constellations of features to social groups, milieus, life-worlds, etc. How is this knowledge organised, how does it come into being, and how does it relate to communicative practices? At the heart of the answer to this question are processes of opposition-building. Social communicative styles can be considered the outcome of communities' adjustment to their ecological and social-political environment; they have a fundamentally strategic grounding. Social positioning, i.e. finding one's place in society, is one of its motivating forces. Seen from this perspective, styles are constructed so as to build up contrasts between 'us' and 'them', as shown in many studies from Norbert Elias (1939) to Pierre Bourdieu (1979). Or, as Judith Irvine put it recently: "Whatever 'styles' are, in language or elsewhere, they are part of a system of distinction, in which a style constrasts with other possible styles, and the social meaning signified by the style contrasts with other social meanings" (2001: 22). The ecological nature of style as a way to position oneself or others in social space implies that the knowledge about relevant oppositions and (consequently) social meanings is in itself socially distributed: what from a distance may look 'all the same' may display a filigrane pattern of distinctive differences when seen under the lookingglass of the social groups directly involved. Here, social space is not organised differently from geographical space (cf. Auer 2005): the raising of std. /ai/ (> MHG /i:/) to [aei] in Swabian and to [ai] in Lake Constance Alemannic may sound all the same for a speaker from Hamburg or Munich, since no relevant oppositions are at stake other than between 'Swabian' and 'Northern standard German' or 'Bavarian'; but for speakers in the area itself, the distinction is an unmistakable index to Swabian vs. Badenian affiliation which has played an important role for regional and political identity-building for a long time.

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2.2. Style as social

practice

However, neither Elias, nor Bourdieu nor Irvine give us a clue about how this process of opposition-building is grounded in practice. Features are combined into holistic meta-signs, and they are invested with social meaning through talk; styles emerge from discourse - but how? Explicit social categorisations may serve to establish shared knowledge about how certain constellations of verbal and non-verbal features can and should be socially interpreted. These cooccurrences of overt categorisation and (often stylised) displays of behaviour can link identities and styles and establish indexing relationships between them. But in a community of practice which already shares knowledge about how certain agents stereotypically perform activités, social identities can be indexed (contextual i sed) by these features alone. On the other hand, explicit self- or other-categorisation which is not supported by stylistic evidence is difficult to imagine. Claims to incumbency in a social category must receive evidence from social style: categorisation without style - without indexing - does not work. Penelope Eckert has argued in a series of recent publications (see Eckert 2004, 2000, 1996) that style-building occurs in smaller sections of the lifeworld, which she calls "communities of practice" (after Wenger 1999). The emergence of local styles in such a social environment involves oppositionbuilding, and often the profiling of the opposing spheres ('we' and 'they') by exaggeration (see Deppermann, this volume; Günthner, this volume; Kotthoff, this volume). Eckert argues that styles are always "processes of bricolage". In this bricolage, elements from other styles are incorporated (appropriated) as resources which come from "a broad sociolinguistic landscape" (Eckert 1996). But although they carry social meaning (being part of other social styles), this meaning is not simply imported but changed and adapted, sometimes even subverted or converted in stylisation. For instance, Keim (2002) describes how an adolescent girl of a Turkish immigrant background in Germany uses broken gastarbeiter German in interaction with her mother. As Keim shows, no identification with the social group of her mother is intended (with whom it is associated in general socio-stylistic knowledge). Rather, the gastarbeiter style is subverted to provide the girl with a means to distance herself from her mother. Eckert argues that the origin of social styles lies in individual acts of linguistic choice such as this one. And surely, styles are adapted to changing contexts. However, even though the interpretation of a particular linguistic choice may be locally established and valid, we believe that there needs to

Introduction

15

be some consistency in the choice of semiotic features in order for it to be considered a sociolinguistic style in its own right. The construction of a style within and for a community of practice requires continuity of semiotic practices across situations. How much continuity is required, and how much variability is possible across situations unless a style become unrecognisable is an open empirical question.

3.

Outlook on the following chapters

The following fifteen chapters explore the link between social identity and (social-communicative style) in more detail. They draw on multilingual contexts (in the first part), variation within a single language system (in the second part), and they address issues of styling the other (in the third part). Each part of the book is introduced by a short theoretical and methodological chapter. In the final chapter, John Gumperz and Jenny Cook-Gumperz frame modern sociolinguistic research on identities in the development of the discipline at large and discuss some main points and open questions. There are two recurring themes which run through the whole book. One is the question of which linguistic variables can become part of socialcommunicative styles, and thereby serve to positioning the speaker in social space. The first part of the volume looks into bilingual contexts in which switching between or mixing of the two languages indexes some kind of social (self- or other) categorisation. In language choice and code-switching, it may be the mere fact of choosing one language over the other which indexes social categories. Often it is not only the social identity of the speaker but also (or even dominantly) that of the addressee which is at stake here. But some chapters in this part of the book also show that codeswitching may be part and parcel of a social-communicative style which includes other stylistic choices, such as the way in which the two languages are spoken. (Standard vs. dialect is an important distinction here.) In yet another case, it is the specific way in which the two languages are combined which becomes relevant as a social index. In the second part of this volume, the linguistic variables used for identity-display and identityascription partly fall under the rubric of what could be investigated using the established methodology of variation studies (such as phonetic features), but the papers in this section also make it clear that a style- and identity-oriented approaches quickly go beyond the limits of this approach. Most of the papers in this section include stylistic features which would not

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Peter Auer

easily fit into the quantitative paradigm, such as politeness strategies, lexical choices, including technical terms and categorizations, and discursive routines and phrases. The chapters in the third part of the book address cases of stylizations in which the linguistic portrayal of the other serves to construe the identity of the self. In these cases, single variables, often used in an exaggerated way, can take on very dense social meanings. But again, several of the studies included in this section show that the traditional variables considered in variation studies are not sufficient to account for the linguistic basis of social categorization; this holds in particular for prosodie stylizations. The second theme which runs through the chapters of this book is the link between contextualised practices of identity-display and identityascription which can and need to be described in their interactional contexts, and their place in/relevance to society at large. Most contributors to this volume subscribe to a (semi-)constructivist point of view according to which small-scale processes of social categorization are constitutive for the working of society; but they would equally agree that social actors which take part in these processes are subject to often unconscious and 'habitualized' constraints. Identity-relevant features may be performed in a context-creating, sometimes intentional way, but they may also be part of the 'habitus' of a speaker which is cannot be manipulated easily. Some papers address these issues directly, such as Inken Keim who argues that style is linked to success in the school system, or Nikolas Coupland who shows the tension between class-based (miners), regionalised (Wales) and milieu-related (power élite) stylisations in Nye Bevan's political speeches in postwar Britain. Other papers refer more indirectly to larger-scale processes of social marginalisation (Auer et al.; Deppermann; Bailey) and the rebellion of the marginalised against it (Bierbach and Birken-Silverman; Sebba); to fundamental schisms in a society (East/West Germany: Liebscher and Dailey-O'Cain; Catalan/Castilian: Woolard; 'Nazi' vs. 'good' Germans: Günthner); to the interaction between global and local social processes (Androutsopoulos) and to gender as a fundamental orientation line in society (Georgakopolou). The major structurations of modern societies, from social to ethnic, from global to local, from gender to class, are all reflected in and translated into the socio-linguistic practices of styleformation and identity work in everyday interaction; but they are also formed by these practices which are the site where social structure and its cognitive representation in the individual meet.

Introduction

17

Notes 1. We are not concerned with the justification of this discourse about individual identities here, as this has its own cultural and historical embedding. 2. Cf. for instance: "Such mixed varieties may be seen as emblematic of the mixed cultual affiliation" (Pfaff 2003: 209). 3. This, of course, is not to deny that discourses about collective identities and the management of social identity in interaction can be related to each other; however, the link is indirect, complex, and little understood in sociolinguistics. 4. Cf. recently: Bueno Aniola (2007) on the use of the categories Brasilianer/ neecha ('Brasilians', 'Negroes') vs. Daitsche by Brasilians of German descent in Rio Grande do Sul, as well as many contributions in de Fina, Schiffrin and Bamberg (eds.) 2006. 5. He and Tabouret-Keller (1985) use the term 'identity' in the sense of social (or ethnic) category, therefore in the plural. 6. A recent German example of how MCDs are developed and used in a community when socio-political changes make it necessary to cope with new realities is the pair Ossi/Wessi (an invention of the Wende period around 1990 for designating East and West Germans and for linking them to category-bound activities and characteristics; see Hausendorf 2000 for details).

References Anderson, Benedict 1983 Imagined Communities. London: Verso. Antaki, Charles and Sue Widdicombe 1998 Identities in Talk. London: Sage. Auer, Peter 1995 The pragmatics of code-switching: A sequential approach. In: Milroy, L. and P. Muysken (eds.), One Speaker - Two Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 115-135. 2006 'Crossing'. In: Concise Encyclopedia of Sociolinguistics, Vol. 11. New York: Elsevier, 490^193. 2004 Sprache, Grenze, Raum. Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft 23(2), 149-180. Bell, Alan 1984 Language style as audience design. Language in Society 13(2), 145204.

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Bourdieu, Pierre 1979 La distinction: critique sociale du jugement. Paris: Les Ed. de Minuit. English translation: Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge, 1984. 1980 Le marché linguistique. In: idem, Questions de sociologie. Paris: Minuit, 121-137. Bueno-Aniola, Cintia 2007 Soziale Stereotypen und ihre sprachliche Indizierung in den „deutschen Kolonien" in Südbrasilien. Bern: Lang. [The] California Style Collective 1993 [MS] Variation and personal/group style. Paper presented at NWAVE 22, Ottawa: University of Ottawa. Cameron, Deborah 1990 Demythologizing sociolinguistics: Why language does not reflect society. In: Joseph, John and T. Taylor (eds.), Ideologies of Language. London: Routledge, 79-93. Chambers, J. K., P. Trudgill and N. Schilling-Estes (eds.) 2002 The Handbook of Language Variation and Change. Maiden, MA: Blackwell. Coupland, Nikolas 2000 Language, situation, and the relational self: Theorising dialect-style in sociolinguistics. In: Eckert, P. and J. Rickford (eds.), Style and Sociolinguistic Variation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 185-210. De Fina, Anna, Deborah Schiffrin and Michael Taylor (eds.) 2006 Discourse and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DUDEN 1973 Rechtschreibung der deutschen Sprache und der Fremdwörter, 17th ed. Mannheim: Bibliograph. Inst. Eckert, Penelope 1996 Vowels and nail polish: The emergence of linguistic style in the preadolescent heterosexual marketplace. In: Warner, N. et al. (eds.), Gender and Belief Systems. Berkeley: Berkeley Women and Language Group, 183-190. 2000 Linguistic Variation and Social Practice. Maiden, MA: Blackwell. 2004 The meaning of style. Texas Linguistic Forum 47, 41-53. Eckert, Penelope and John R. Rickford (eds.) 2000 Style and Sociolinguistic Variation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Introduction

19

Elias, Norbert 1939 Über den Prozeß der Zivilisation. Basel: Haus zum Falken. English translation: The Civilizing Process, vol. I. The History of Manners, Oxford: Blackwell, 1969, and The Civilizing Process, vol. II. State Formation and Civilization, Oxford: Blackwell, 1982. Gumperz, John and Jenny Cook-Gumperz 1982 Language and the communication of social identity. In: Gumperz, J. J. (ed.), Language and Social Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Harré, Rom and Luk van Langenhove 1991 Varieties of positioning. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 21, 393^107. Hausendorf, Heiko 2000 Zugehörigkeit durch Sprache. Tübingen: Niemeyer. Hinnenkamp, Volker and Margret Selting (eds.) 1989 Stil und Stilisierung. Tübingen: Niemeyer. Hobsbawm, Eric 1990 Nations and Nationalism since 1760. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hymes, Dell 1972 Models for the interaction of language and social life In: Hymes, Dell and J. Gumperz (eds.), Directions in Sociolinguistics. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 35-71. Irvine, Judith 2001 "Style" as distinctiveness: The culture and ideology of linguistic differentation. In: Eckert, Penelope and John Rickford (eds.), Style and Sociolinguistic Variation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 21^13. Kallmeyer, Werner 2001 Perspektivenumkehrung als Element des emanzipatorischen Stils in Migrantengruppen. In: Jakobs, Eva-Maria and Annely Rothkegel (eds.), Perspektiven auf Stil. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 401^-22. Keim, Inken 2002 Bedeutungskonstitution und Sprachvariation. Funktionen des „Gastarbeiterdeutsch" in Gesprächen jugendlicher Migrantinnen. In: Deppermann, Arnulf and Thomas Spranz-Fogasy (eds.), Be-deuten. Wie Bedeutung im Gespräch entsteht. Tübingen: Stauffenberg, 134-157. Labov, William 1963 The social motivation of a sound change. Word 19, 273-309. 1972 Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

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Le Page, Robert 1978 Projection, focussing, diffusion, or, steps toward a sociolinguistic theory of language, illustrated from the Sociolinguistic Survey of Multilingual Communities, Stages I: Cayo District, Belize (formerly British Honduras) and II: St Lucia. York Papers in Linguistics 9, 9 31. Le Page, Robert and Andrée Tabouret-Keller 1985 Acts of Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Niethammer, Lutz 2000 Kollektive Identität - Heimliche Quellen einer unheimlichen Konjunktur. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt. Ostermann, Ana Cristina 2005 Localizing power and solidarity: Pronoun alternation at an all-female police station and a feminist crisis intervention center in Brazil. Language in Society 32(3), 351-381. Pfaff, Carol 2003 Ideological and political framing of bilingual development: Reflections on studies of Turkish/German in Berlin. In: Fraurud, Kari and Kenneth Hyltenstam (eds.), Multilingualism in Global and Local Perspectives. Stockholm: Center for Research on Bilingualism, 191— 220. Podesva, Robert, Sarah J. Roberts and Kathryn Campbell-Kibler 2002 Sharing resources and indexing meanings in the production of gay styles. In: Campbell-Kibler, K. et al. (eds.), Language and Sexuality: Contesting Meaning in Theory and Practice. Stanford: CSLI Publications, 175-190. Quist, Pia and Jens Normann J0rgensen 2007 Crossing - negotiating social boundaries. In: Auer, Peter and Li Wei (eds.), Handbook of Multilingualism and Multilingual Communication (Handbooks of Applied Linguistics 6). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 371-389. Rampton, Ben 1995 Crossing. Language and Ethnicity among Adolescents. London: Longman. Sacks, Harvey 1972 On the analyzability of stories by children. In: Gumperz, John and Dell Hymes (eds.), Directions in Sociolinguistics. The Ethnography of Communication. New York: Holt, Rinehardt and Winston, 325345.

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Schilling-Estes, Natalie 2004 Constructing ethnicity in interaction. Journal of Sociolinguistics 8, 163-195. Schütz, Alfred and Thomas Luckmann 1975 Strukturen der Lebenswelt. Neuwied: Luchterhand. Voloshinov, Valentin 1929 [1973] Marksizm Ifilosofija jazyka. Leningrad. English as: Marxism and the Philosophy of Language. New York: Seminar Press. Watson, Rod 1997 Some general reflections on 'categorization' and 'sequence' in the analysis of conversation. In: Hester, Stephen and Peter Eglin (eds.), Culture in Action. Washington DC: International Institute for Ethnomethodology, 49-75. Wenger, Etienne 1999 Communities of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Zilles, Ana M. S. and Kendall King 2005 Self-presentation in sociolinguistic interviews: Identities and language variation in Panambi, Brazil. Journal of Sociolinguistics 9(1), 74-94. Zimmerman, Don 1998 Discourse identities and social identities. In: Antaki, Charles and Sue Widdicombe (eds.), Identities in Talk. London: Sage, 87-106.

Part 1. Bilingual styles and social identities

Introduction to Part 1 Peter Auer

It is a curious fact that the category 'bilingual' does not have a straightforward identity dimension. There is no such thing as a 'bilingual identity' if 'bilingual' merely refers to the use of more than one language. Rather, in various discourses, the term 'bilingual' may refer to social groups in which membership is determined through very different criteria other than the use of two or more languages. For instance, in the ongoing public debate in Denmark the immigrant population (mostly with an Arabic- or Turkishspeaking background) is referred to as the 'bilinguals' (tosproget). This term appears to be both politically correct and euphemistic, but it oddly misrepresents reality: only a fraction of bilingual Danes are 'bilinguals' in this sense, since those who speak, for instance, Danish and English or Danish and German are excluded, and a monolingual immigrant may be considered 'bilingual'. By contrast, 'bilinguals' in the Canadian context are those who speak French and English, but not those who speak, e.g., Somali and English, i.e. in this discourse, the term is restricted to the nonimmigrant part of the population and to languages which play a particularly important political role for the country. It seems that in both discourses 'bilingual' is a synecdoche - a surface fact about a certain part of the population is used as a symbol for category membership which is based on very different (for instance, ethnic) criteria. The term serves to camouflage the basis of categorization which, for whatever reason, is not made explicit. While it is impossible to designate a 'bilingual identity' on linguistic grounds alone, and the term may refer to something other than the use of two or more languages, it also goes without saying that bilingual performances and bilingual communicative styles are employed for displaying (and ascribing) identities in interaction. They are the topic of the first part of this volume. In Chapter 2, Benjamin Bailey explores several ways in which Dominican American high school students use language to construct and make sense of their social identities in everyday interaction. Second-generation Dominican immigrants negotiate distinctive issues of identity in the United States: as a group whose members are of Hispanic, American, and to vary-

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Peter Auer

ing degrees of African descent, individuals face competing ascriptions of identity, such as 'Black', 'White' and 'Hispanic'. They negotiate these identities with and through a bilingual, multi-variety repertoire of language varieties that reflects Dominican immigrant heritage and multi-ethnic, urban United States socialization. This linguistic repertoire draws from Dominican varieties of Spanish, various American sociolects, including African American Vernacular, and forms resulting from Spanish-English contact. Using these diverse linguistic resources, individuals discursively constitute shifting 'we/they' dichotomies between themselves and others, e.g. between 'Black' and 'Spanish', 'White' and 'non-White', and 'Dominican' and 'Puerto Rican'. As Bailey shows, the ways in which intra- and inter-group boundaries are situationally highlighted belie static one-to-once correspondences between linguistic forms and social identities. While Dominican Spanish forms, for example, are commonly associated with a shared Dominican identity, they can also be used to mark intra-group boundaries between different kinds of Dominican identities. Forms associated with AAVE can index urban American youth identities, but they can also be used situationally to highlight differences between urban and rural Dominicans. In a similar vein, Anna De Fina (Ch. 3) investigates language, style and language choice in an Italian American Club in the United States as (part of) the social practices and activities in which processes of attribution and negotiation in identity work are grounded. She analyzes the particular identity claims that participants in an all male Italian American card game club make relevant within this context, and the bilingual strategies that they use to build 'Italian'/'American', but also gender and social role identities ('father', 'family member', 'professional', 'club member') as well as situated identities such as 'card player'. She also shows that the personae invoked through these stylistic devices do not necessarily correspond directly or consistently to the identities claimed by the participants, but may be part of local stylizations of particular identities in a particular interactional context. In the processes in which speakers project individual or collective identities, code-switching and mixing between Standard Italian, Italian dialects and English play a central role. Ch. 4 by Peter Auer, Jacinta Arnhold, and Cintia Bueno Aniola investigates social-communicative styles and identity work in the German/Portuguese bilingual 'colonial zone' in Southern Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul). The authors investigate language choice and code alternation as well as the varieties of German and Portuguese used to characterize these styles, but they

Introduction to Part 1

27

also explore communicative (rhetorical) strategies employed by the speakers in various situations, e.g. to formulate an argument, a complaint, a problem, or give advice. Looking in detail at institutional exchanges between clients and employees at a farmers' sindicato, the study shows that in this institutional context, the choice of a certain style - which in this case essentially includes monolingual vs. bilingual ways of speaking - is consequential for the way in which the client is construed as a social persona and dealt with by the institution. In the given context, the selection of styles illustrates attributes of 'Germanness' and 'ruralness', in addition to institutional roles such as 'buyer'/'seller'. Ch. 5 by Christine Bierbach and Gabriele Birken-Silverman takes a slightly different approach to bilingualism as an index of social identities. The authors look at the performed naming practices of Italian-German youth in Germany which involve the use of Italian, Italian dialects and German. Proper names are linked directly to identities. However, the authors also show that naming performances are highly context bound, recipient designed and embedded in specific discourse types and communicative genres. Especially young people - and even more so in a immigrant situation, where identity may constantly be at stake - enact 'hybrid' identities through naming and elaborating on (nick) names in a playful way. By doing so, they sometimes impersonate popular role models relevant to the (sub)culture of their age group, and they claim/invent their personal territories which are situated between those of their parents (their ethnic 'roots'), their actual social environment in Germany and the global space of cosmopolitan youth culture. These playful performances of naming not only model a personal 'profile' for each participant and eventually shape participation structure and hierarchies in the peer group, they also constitute a specific social-communicative group style. Inken Keim' s study on immigrant females in Mannheim with a Turkish family background (Ch. 6) is of particular interest because it includes issues of development and style change as the speakers grow older and adapt to mainstream societal norms. She compares two stages in the development of this group. In the first phase, the adolescent girls define their social group through a communicative style which is based on 'coarse language'. In doing so, they place themselves at the periphery or even outside of German mainstream society (what Keim calls their 'ghetto identity'), but at the same time distance themselves f r o m the role of the 'young traditional Turkish woman' associated with their parents. This 'coarse' style is associated with the aggressiveness and roughness of the male immigrant 'ghetto', and

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it makes extensive use of Turkish/German mixing in order to maximize distance f r o m 'the Germans'. In the second phase, and as a consequence of the exclusion from the educational system which the members of the group experienced as a result of this style, the same Turkish-German young women are observed construing a different kind of identity for themselves, based on a more elaborate and polite way of speaking. They learn to alternate between these styles, and present themselves in different ways, according to the social worlds they act in. In the final chapter in this section, Ch. 7, Kathryn Woolard addresses a highly relevant methodological problem of identity research, i.e. 'transportability'. How can identities which have become relevant in one interactional episode become relevant in a subsequent one as well? On the basis of data from Barcelona (Catalan/Castilian bilingualism), Woolard shows that it is the bystander in one encounter who may play a significantly active role in the next encounter. Linguistically displayed identities such as ethnicity can thus be exported beyond transitory encounters and reified as features of individuals through chains of participation in social networks and institutions. Bystanders' access to an encounter is partial and their standpoint is different from that of ratified participants, occurring in what can be termed 'face to back' or 'face to side' rather than 'face to face' communication. Bystanders' formulations of identity may thus differ systematically f r o m those of participants in an encounter, even when they invoke the same interpretive rules. Individuals can find their identities are diagnosed and regimented differently by bystanders because of the structural particulars of overheard interactions.

Chapter 2 Language alternation as a resource for identity negotiations among Dominican American bilinguals Benjamin Bailey

1.

Introduction

All language is heteroglot (Bakhtin 1981) and provides individuals with resources, i.e. linguistic and discursive forms, for the negotiation of identity. Bilingual, bicultural individuals have both an expanded set of resources for these omnipresent social negotiations, and a broader range of social categories that can be made relevant through talk as compared to monolingual, monocultural individuals. On the linguistic level, bilinguals can draw forms from two languages as well as hybrid forms resulting from language contact. On the social and cultural level, many are familiar with relatively diverse cultural frameworks for interpreting and evaluating the world and positioning themselves and others within it. This chapter explores several ways in which a group of bilingual Dominican American high school students in Providence, Rhode Island, exploit language alternation in the negotiation of social identities in everyday peer-group talk. They negotiate these identities with a bilingual, multivariety repertoire of language varieties that reflects Dominican immigrant heritage and socialization in a multi-ethnic, low-income, urban United States context (Bailey 2001a). This linguistic repertoire draws from various Dominican and American sociolects and forms resulting from SpanishEnglish language contact. Like many children of international migrants, second-generation Dominicans must negotiate between the linguistic and cultural worlds of their parents and those of the dominant society. They regularly confront questions of how to situate themselves and others within these worlds and how to construct a positive self in a broader social context that disparages their linguistic, ethnic/racial, and class identities (cf. Zentella 1997: 13). These Dominican American negotiations are particularly salient to monolingual white Americans because of the ambiguous fit of many Do-

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Benjamin Bailey

minicans into dominant U.S. social categories and because of the relatively diverse social origins of their linguistic forms. Phenotypically, Dominicans span the categories of black and white, which are popularly understood as representing an unbridgeable distance in the U.S. (Smedley 1993; Bailey 2001b). Linguistically, they draw forms from grammatical codes that count as distinct languages (Spanish and English) and those who are socialized in low-income, urban areas also draw from African American English, which is popularly understood to imply stark social difference. In this chapter, I first define the terms identity and style as I use them, emphasizing that both are subjectively and ideologically constituted. After a brief methods section, I describe and illustrate with transcript examples an everyday form of linguistically unmarked language alternation - code switching as a discourse mode (Poplack 1981, 1988) - that is common among second-generation Dominican youth, as well as other children of international labor migrants (Auer 1984; Gal 1988; Zentella 1997). While this form of language alternation can be considered a style, I argue that its social implications for identity are very different at the local, interactional level than they are in the wider socio-political context. In each of the next three sections, I consider short sequences of interaction in which specific instances of language alternation are socially and metaphorically loaded and explicitly linked to identity negotiations. In the first sequence, a relatively dark-skinned male student switches from English to Spanish in addressing a Guatemalan American female who has been led to believe that he is Haitian rather than Dominican. Addressing this student - with whom he otherwise speaks English - in Spanish serves to bolster his argument that he is Dominican rather than Haitian. In the second sequence, two female friends code switch into Spanish to negotiate a common understanding of the term hick, a term they apply to a category of more recent, male immigrant against which they define themselves. In the final section, I illustrate how two Dominican American teenagers alternate between Spanish and several varieties of English to differentiate themselves along a variety of dimensions from a fellow, more-recently-arrived immigrant teenager. The social meanings of these metaphorical code switches (Blom and Gumperz 1972) are both "brought along" to the interaction as well as "brought about" in the interaction itself (Auer 1992). They are brought along in that codes, and specific forms within codes, have social associations that pre-exist particular interactions. They are brought about in that codes have myriad social associations, and interlocutors creatively exploit

Language alternation as a resource for identity negotiations

31

particular associations in situationally specific ways. Thus, a switch into Spanish can be an index of Latino identity (example 5, below) or a way of making fun of a fellow Latino immigrant (example 6, below). A switch into English can highlight comity among Dominican Americans or it can be a way of communicating differences in family class origins in the Dominican Republic (example 7, below).

2.

Identity and linguistic style

I approach both identity and linguistic style as dimensions of on-going, contingent processes of differentiation rather than as static essences or meanings that inhere in social groups or linguistic forms, respectively. My notion of identity draws from Barth's (1969) seminal argument that ethnic groups are defined by the boundaries that groups construct between themselves, rather than the characteristics of group members. It has long been noted that individuals have multiple characteristics and allegiances, so it is the situational and selective highlighting of commonalties and differences that is characteristic of identity groupings (Moerman 1965; Cohen 1978). Identities thus center on the processes through which individuals and groups create, maintain, or diminish social boundaries, marking themselves and others as the "same" 1 or "different". From this phenomenological perspective, identity is a function of "self-ascription" - how one defines oneself - and "ascription by others" - how others define one (Barth 1969: 13). Analysis of naturally occurring discourse is a means to understanding how individuals, as social actors, selectively highlight or diminish social boundaries and activate facets of identity. Interlocutors publicly display and continuously update for each other their on-going understandings of talk including identity negotiations - as talk unfolds turn by turn, thereby making these negotiations of meaning visible for analytic treatment by social scientists (cf. Heritage and Atkinson 1984: 11). Since identity is a function of self- and other-ascription, the constitution of identities - through the negotiation of congruent ascriptions - can be visible in the turn-by-turn talk of individuals. I see style in complementary, processual terms. Following Irvine (2001: 22), the key to style is distinctiveness. Styles draw meanings from contrast with other styles; they are themselves constituted as styles through this contrast, rather than through any inherent characteristics, just as identities

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are constituted through boundary marking processes (or lack thereof). Whether two ways of speaking constitute distinct styles is a phenomenological question that is ideologically mediated. To a linguist whose perspective privileges formal categories, for example, any language alternation may be highly salient because of the alternation of two codes, thus constituting a distinctive style. To the monolingual, Anglophone majority in the U.S., English monolingualism is an emblem of citizenship and belonging, and any language alternation is an exercise in distinctiveness. To a bilingual child of international migrants, however, code switching in intragroup peer interaction is not commonly perceived by members as very distinct f r o m speaking to such peers in English, or in Spanish, without alternation. This conception of style - based on a semiotics of distinctiveness - is very different from the concept of style in U.S. sociolinguistics, which has been primarily concerned with correlations between linguistic and social variables (see Rickford and Eckert (2001) for a discussion of style in U.S. sociolinguistics and points of difference and overlap between U.S. sociolinguistic and linguistic anthropological perspectives). Social categories in this tradition have been treated as given, i.e. pre-existing any interaction, and the agency of individuals and the role of ideology in language use has been downplayed, or even denied (Labov 1979: 328). These formulations of identity and style emphasize the discursive and situational fluidity of meanings, but negotiations of meaning are always tethered to social structure and history. Our phenomenological understandings develop in an historical world in which history is omnipresent in embodied form, as habitus (Bourdieu 1990: 56). Individuals only ascribe identities to themselves, for example, that are imaginable and available in a particular social and historical context, and they are only ratified in identities (through other-ascription) that social history makes available to them. Negotiations of identity thus take place within the parameters that history has imposed in a particular time and place. Similarly, the capacity of linguistic forms to index social meanings and thus activate a position in a social system of distinction - has bases in social history. The base-line indexical meanings of linguistic forms are not idiosyncratic but are related to actual, historical usages by speakers in particular social positions. It is only through recurrent connections between a social phenomenon or context and a linguistic form that non-referential indexical meanings are constituted (Peirce 1955). Individual speakers creatively exploit and negotiate indexical form-meaning relationships, but these negotiations rely, at one level, on conventional associations.

Language alternation as a resource for identity negotiations

3.

33

Methods

Data in this chapter come from fieldwork conducted in Providence, Rhode Island during 1996 and 1997 (see Bailey 2002). Data collection methods included ethnographic observation, over 30 audio recorded interviews with high school students, and video recording of naturally occurring interaction of six principle subjects, aged 16 to 18, in school, home, and community contexts. Selected segments of interaction were transcribed in detail following conversation analytic conventions (Heritage and Atkinson 1984). Bilingual Dominican American consultants, including the six principle subjects, aided in the transcription and translation of talk and offered interpretations and explanations of interactions. The six principle subjects were students at Central High School, a Providence city school of 1,350 students, which is over 20% Dominican. Roughly 60% of the student body is Hispanic, with Puerto Ricans and Guatemalans comprising the second and third largest Hispanic groups. About 16% of the students are of non-Hispanic African descent, 16% are Southeast Asian, primarily first and second-generation Cambodian and Laotian refugees, and about 5% are white American. Almost ninety percent of the students at Central High School are categorized as poor based on federal guidelines, and more than half of the students officially enrolled in the 9th grade drop out by the 11th grade. The transcripts presented here are from recordings made at Central High School, except for the last one, which was made at a Friday evening Spanish language, Catholic youth group meeting.

4.

Code switching as a discourse mode

Like many language practices, code switching is polysemous and multifunctional. Social and interactional functions of individual switches can range from highly metaphorical negotiations of identities, meanings, and obligations (Blom and Gumperz 1972; Myers-Scotton 1993: 84) to much less marked, local discourse management (Gumperz 1982; Auer 1984; Myers-Scotton 1993: 149; Alfonzetti 1998; Bailey 2000). Metaphorical meanings in code switching are typically generated by the partial violation of conventional associations between code and particular contexts. In cultures and contexts where codes are highly compartmentalized by domains (Kroskrity 1993) or are taken to represent particular political positions

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(Heller 1992, 1995), code switching tends to be relatively less frequent and to communicate metaphorical meanings when it occurs, as it violates ideologies that link particular codes to particular and disparate social worlds. The majority of code switches that I recorded among bilingual Dominican American high school students in peer interaction did not involve any evident metaphorical negotiations of identity or highlight indexical meanings of one code or another. Like children of many international labor migrants, second-generation Dominicans have access to both sending and host society languages and sociocultural roles. They straddle national, linguistic, cultural, and ethnic boundaries, embracing multiple social and linguistic worlds. With this relative lack of compartmentalization among languages and cultural worlds in their teenage lives, codes are not so conventionally linked to situations and domains as in many other situations, and metaphorical meanings are not generated by most switches. C o d e switching among this group tends to be relatively frequent and unmarked, resulting in what Poplack (1981, 1988) calls "code switching as a discourse mode." M a n y switches in this style of speaking serve local discourse management functions, signaling shifts in speech activity or footing or helping to maintain discourse cohesion across turns. For many individual switches in this style of speaking, it can be difficult or impossible to assign a discrete interactional function. 2 The following two switches are typical of those that I recorded in interactions among U.S. raised Dominicans in that they consist of relatively short bits of Spanish inserted into interactions that are otherwise in English, the dominant language of high school students who were U.S.-born or who arrived in the U.S. during their first school years. (1) [(JS #2 10:51:30) Janelle, U.S.-born, and Jose, arrived in the U.S. at age 8, have been chatting in English during class. Janelle describes how she had her brother-in-law, Benny, give her a ride to a fashion show practice session that turned out to be cancelled.] Janelle: Jose: Janelle:

I hope I don't have fashion show practice today. No? Cause yesterday I was mad, de balde yo fui para allá. Ί went there for nothing' I told Benny to take me de balde. 'for nothing' ((Talk continues in English with occasional switches to Spanish))

Language alternation as a resource for identity negotiations

35

In this example, there is no obvious function of these switches related to the structure of the discourse or to metaphorical meanings of English and Spanish. When codes are not compartmentalized by a group, the search for a function of a particular switch may be akin to trying to explain why a monolingual speaker selects one synonym or phrasing over another (Zentella 1997: 101). In the following example, in contrast, there is a clear discourse contextualization function of the switch into Spanish, as the switch coincides with a change in footing, a temporary reframing of talk (Goffman 1979; cf. Zentella 1997: 93): (2) [(JS #2 10:50:10) Discussing whether she needs new immunizations to do her summer job at a hospital.] Janelle:

I don't know if I - 1 don't know if I have to go again causedizque no es verdad que 'supposedly isn't it true that' after a certain time- after a certain time you have to do it again? You gotta get shots again?

Janelle is unsure whether she needs new immunizations before beginning her summer job. She moves from reporting this uncertainty in the first part of her turn, to directly asking her interlocutor to confirm that one needs to be re-immunized after a certain period of time. This switch from a statement to a question coincides with a cut-off of cause - a shift in pitch and tempo, and a change of code, from English to Spanish. Code switching is a linguistic resource - like prosody or body alignment - that can be activated to highlight this shift in footing, or communicative activity, but it does not appear to have any greater social or metaphorical meaning related to conventional associations of Spanish or English language. Group members do not see such individual switches as metaphorically loaded or as a means to constituting a distinctive style, and many individuals are not discursively conscious of why they code switch, or that they are code switching at any given moment. 3 This is not the same, however, as arguing that such code switching has no meanings or implications for social identities. One must distinguish between local functions of particular code switches and the more global sociopolitical functions of code switching as a discourse mode (cf. Myers-Scotton 1993: 149; Zentella 1997: 101). Regardless of whether individual code switches serve identifiable conversa-

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tional functions, the discourse mode, or style, of frequent switching has profound implications for social identity formation in the U.S. The meanings that one finds in such switching are largely a function of one's subject position and analytical perspective. For many monolingual adults, both Spanish-speaking and Anglophone, code switching is a haphazard jumble of linguistic elements that is emblematic of the inability to speak what those adults see as the correct language, i.e. the ideological standard (Milroy and Milroy 1985; Silverstein 1996; Lippi-Green 1997). Many academics of the last 30 years, in contrast, have celebrated the linguistic sophistication displayed in code switching (McClure 1977; Sankoff and Poplack 1981; Lipski 1985) and the social 'strategies' that some forms of it imply (Gumperz 1982; cf. Myers-Scotton 1993: 74; cf. Woolard 2004). For more sociologically and anthropologically oriented analysts, unmarked code switching as a discourse mode can be seen as a form of resistance to dominant discourses of unquestioning assimilation (Gal 1988: 259) and a means to constructing a positive self in a political and economic context that disparages immigrant phenotypes, language, class status, and ethnic origins (Zentella 1997). Frequent switching as a style is always socially marked in a wider U.S. society in which being a monolingual English speaker is an ideological default against which difference or distinctiveness is constructed (Urciuoli 1996). Various nativist English-only groups, for example, have sponsored legislation to limit or prohibit the use of languages other than English in many contexts, including school, government, and workplace. This ideology is part of a larger Western tradition of linguistic purism intertwined with a belief in a primordial unity among language, race, and ethnic/national identity (see Auer, this volume). This assumed unity - explicitly claimed and celebrated by European philosophers Herder (Gal 1989: 355) and, earlier, Condillac (Aarsleff 1982; Woolard and Schieffelin 1994) implicitly underlies Western social and linguistic categorization systems. Even single code switches can thus have great significance for identity constitution, depending on whether bystanders (Goffman 1979, see Woolard, this volume) are present who see Spanish speaking as a direct index of Latino or Dominican identities. This is particularly significant for Dominican Americans who are native speakers of English and whose phenotypes might lead others to identify them as black American or white American rather than Latino. Many such individuals report having been perceived as black American, or having perceived other Dominicans as black American, until Spanish language use called attention to a Latino identity:

Language alternation as a resource for identity negotiations

(3) BB: Maritza:

37

Who thinks you're black? White Americans, Dominicans...? Black Americans. It's kind of, it's kind of different, because they should know their own people. I would know who's Dominican. Actually, no, there was this guy, he's Dominican, and I thought he was black. And then when I heard him speak Spanish, I was like, "He's Spanish! He's a Dominican."

(4) BB: Francisca:

Do people ask you what you are? They mostly assume I'm black, they never really ask, but when they hear me speaking Spanish, "Oh, what are you, Dominican? I didn't know that." They get all shocked and surprised because they didn't think that I was Dominican...

Regardless of the local conversational function of an instance of language alternation, it can be used by any bystander to position the speaker within an overall semiotic system of distinction.

5.

Code switching as metaphorical resource for identity negotiations

5.1. Aren't you supposedly from Haiti? While the majority of code switches in bilingual Dominican American peer interaction are unmarked to members in terms of social identities, some switches are metaphorically loaded. In the three sequences presented in this section and the following two sections, interlocutors exploit the indexical potential of particular codes or forms to claim and enact identities in context-specific ways. Such negotiations provide a window onto the workings of the local social and linguistic worlds that these young Dominican Americans constitute and inhabit through their talk. In Example 5, transcribed below, a student's ethnic/racial identity becomes a reference point for a joke in a bilingual conversation. In this conversation, a recent Dominican immigrant, Eduardo, jokingly claims that a relatively dark-skinned Dominican American, Wilson, is Haitian. This joking claim is directed (minimally) at Claudia, a Guatemalan American, who is sitting in front of Wilson and Eduardo, and is turned around to face them. Wilson initially goes along with this counterfactual claim, but then challenges it. This interaction involves not only Eduardo teasing the dark-

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skinned student, but also Eduardo and Wilson collaborating to put on another student, a Guatemalan American. Through their talk, these teenagers negotiate racial identities and meanings that are popularly understood as inherent and immutable. Code choice and alternation play a central role in the constitution of these negotiations of identity and social meanings. The recent immigrant Eduardo, whose English is limited, produces turns only in Spanish. Claudia, who is English dominant, produces turns only in English. Wilson, an English dominant bilingual, produces two turns in Spanish and four in English during this sequence. (He produces a longer series of turns in Spanish directed at Eduardo after this transcribed section.) W i l s o n ' s Spanish turns (boldfaced) after he addresses Claudia in English have particular metaphorical import for his identity. (5) [(WR #2 1:20:07) Setting and participants: Early in an 11th grade class period in May. There is a substitute teacher, and students are talking, flirting, and fooling around. Wilson, the student I was recording, has been speaking in both English and Spanish to various classmates. He came to the U.S. around age 7. Claudia's parents are from Guatemala. Eduardo came from the Dominican Republic as a teenager.] Wilson:

((singing)) dame dei pollito 'give me a little bit of that chicken' Eduardo: Tú no dizque ere(s) de Haití? Tú no ere(s) dominicano, Wilson. 'Aren't you supposedly from Haiti? You're not Dominican, Wilson.' Wilson: Yo nací en Haiti, ((Wilson turns to Eduardo, smiling)) Ί was born in Haiti' Eduardo: //( ) ((motions toward camera, Wilson turns to camera)) Wilson: IIpero me crié en Santo Domingo. 'but I was brought up in the Dominican Republic' ((Eduardo holds up both hands, palms forward, with middle and ring fingers curled down - the sign of the cuckold - behind Wilson's head; Wilson turns back toward Eduardo and hits him in the leg with the back of his open hand)) (1.5) Claudia: So you're Haitian, huh? Wilson: No I'm Dominican Claudia: You were born in DR? Wilson: Yeah Eduardo: Nació en Haití 'He was born in Haiti.' Wilson: En Santo Domingo. 'In the Dominican Republic.'

Language alternation as a resource for identity negotiations

39

Eduardo:

E(s) haitiano. 'He's Haitian.' (3.0) ((Wilson gives two lateral head shakes in the direction of Claudia.)) Eduardo: ( ) Wilson: E(s) mentira, ven acá, a quién tú le va(s)- a quién tú le va(s) a creer, a mí o a e(s)to(s) do(s) loco(s)? ((turning his head laterally first to one side then the other, indicating Eduardo and an accomplice (?) on his other side.)) 'It's a lie. Come on, who are you going- who are you going to believe, me or these two crazy guys?' (.8)

Eduardo:

A mi. 'Me.' (1.5)

Wilson: Wilson:

Eh, 'mano ((looking down at magazine)) 'Hey, man' Azaros(o) ((Hits Eduardo sharply on leg with the back of his hand)) 'Jerk.'

In their first turns at talk in this segment, Eduardo and Wilson speak Spanish, which is the language in which they address each other throughout this class. They jokingly create a counterfactual frame in which Wilson is not Dominican, but a Haitian who was raised in the Dominican Republic. They both know that this is not true. Their Spanish language use helps to constitute a Dominican sociocultural framework for interpreting and joking about phenotype and race that is linked to historical constructions of race and nation in the Dominican Republic (Silie 1989; Duany 1994; Moya Pons 1995). In Dominican contexts, calling a relatively dark-skinned individual a Haitian is a form of ritual insult that is common among adolescent males (see examples in Diaz 1996). Although Eduardo and Wilson are ostensibly addressing each other Eduardo uses the second-person tú to address a first-pair part question to Wilson, to which Wilson responds with a second-pair part - their talk is directed to a wider audience of bystanders who understand Spanish, including Claudia. Claudia is likely unfamiliar with the Dominican social framework in which relatively dark-skinned Dominicans are jokingly accused of being Haitian. Claudia responds to these claims by proffering a candidate understanding of Wilson's identity - that he is Haitian - in English, the only language that she is observed speaking during this class period. This repair-like can-

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didate understanding may be necessary because of ambiguity regarding Wilson's identity. Eduardo and Wilson's presentation of claims about Wilson may have been seen as unserious - Wilson smiles as he asserts that he was born in Haiti and Eduardo makes a cuckold gesture over Wilson's head - casting doubt on the veracity of the claims. Claudia may also have an understanding of identity that privileges birthplace in assigning identity. After Wilson other-corrects her candidate understanding that he is Haitian, she proffers a candidate understanding of his birthplace - the Dominican Republic - that Wilson confirms. The language choices in the first six turns here can be explained most simply in terms of language fluency. Wilson thus addresses Eduardo in Spanish and Claudia in English, but his subsequent use of Spanish for two turns (En Santo Domingo and E(s) mentira, ven aca...) to Claudia violates this pattern. This is a triadic exchange in which Claudia is Wilson's primary addressee (his gaze is oriented toward her, Eduardo has begun addressing Wilson in the third person, and Wilson addresses Claudia in the second-person), but his turns are shaped as other-corrections (Schegloff, Jefferson et al. 1977) of Eduardo's Spanish turns. Wilson's use of a code that matches that of Eduardo's utterances helps to link his turns to Eduardo' s, which is of some import for countering them. At one level, this use of Spanish contributes to discourse cohesion, serving a discourse contextualization function. Wilson's use of Spanish in addressing Claudia also has metaphorical import related to his social identity, however. The joking line that Wilson is Haitian, initiated by Eduardo, and maintained by Wilson, is so successful that Claudia displays uncertainty about Wilson's identity despite his new claim that he's Dominican. The condition upon which this verbal play and put-on is predicated - the implausibility of Wilson's being Haitian - is not recognized by Claudia. For Wilson, the distance between the joking world that he and Eduardo have constituted and the immediate world of bodies in face-to-face interaction may have narrowed too much. Wilson's use of Spanish for a longer turn directed at Claudia (E(s) mentira, ven acá, a quién... ) highlights his fluency in Spanish. He relies not only on the referential dimension of his words but also the indexical associations of speaking Spanish. In the Dominican Republic, the ability to speak Spanish has historically been treated as evidence of a Dominican or Latino identity (Gonzalez 1975), and in the local context, it is treated as a direct index of Dominican identity, both by Dominicans and their peers (Bailey 2000).

Language alternation as a resource for identity negotiations

41

Identity negotiations operate at many levels in this interaction. In terms of explicit identity categories and referential meanings, it is about whether Wilson is Haitian or Dominican. In terms of affiliation and disaffiliation among interlocutors, there are shifting negotiations. Eduardo and Wilson collaborate in creating a Dominican cultural framework through the use of Dominican Spanish - implicitly affiliating with each other - to tease a Guatemalan American female by getting her to believe something that is (to them) patently not true. While this collaborative joke draws a boundary between the two males and Claudia, it is simultaneously an attempt to engage her, an effort that Wilson and Eduardo repeat many times during this class period. At the same time that Eduardo and Wilson initially collaborate in this joke, the joke symbolically differentiates between them by invoking phenotypic differences (Wilson has darker skin than Eduardo), and this symbolic differentiation seeps into the interaction itself, creating disaffiliation. 5.2. They be like "loca, loca, epa, epa, huepa" In the segment of transcript in this section, Isabella models the speech of a local category of immigrants, hicks, in both Spanish and English, in talking with her friend Janelle. Through affecting the voice of members of this category in a marked way, she mocks aspects of their speech and identities. This segment shows that metaphorical meanings of code switching can be locally brought about. While Spanish language use is conventionally an emblem of Dominican immigrant solidarity, the code switch into Spanish in this case is used to differentiate among desirable and less desirable Dominican immigrant identities. (6) [(JS #2 12:40:58) Janelle and Isabella are sitting outside of their school. Janelle has noticed some students staring in her direction. Their attention is likely attracted by the spectacle of her being videotaped by the adult, white researcher.] Isabella: Janelle: Isabella: Janelle: Isabella:

I like Bulivan's dress, ((gazing at a fellow student)) I know. If it was sleeveless, it'd be nicer. What's up with them people looking over here, them hicks? And stuff. . ((deep pitched, husky voice; assuming slack-faced, dull stare))

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Bailey

Janelle:

What do you call a hick? Cause Jose says a hick is someone ridiculous, somebody stupid. Isn't a hick someone who just came back from the country and they can't really dress, they can't speak English? And they, you know,

Isabella:

They be like loca, loca, He:::::: pa, epa:\: , huepa:

Janelle:

'honey, honey, he:::::::y, alright!, airi : : : : ght !, alri:ght!' //Yeah, right?

Janelle initially uses the term hick to refer to a group of students who are staring across the school grounds in her direction. Isabella then intones No hicks, taking on the voice of a "hick" by using a deep-pitched, husky, slow tempo pronunciation and assuming a slack-faced stare. In terms of linguistic surface features, this is not an accurate characterization of recent immigrant speech, in that recent immigrant teenagers speak more Spanish than English and speak English with distinct Spanish phonology. However, in American English, the slow tempo, monotone pronunciation, and slack face contribute to the impression of a slow-witted person. The overall accuracy of the mocking voice is less important than highlighting some features of the other's speech that are seen as emblematic of the targeted identities. Both the propositional content of her utterance (No hicks) as well as her marked pronunciation construct hicks as different and disparaged. Janelle then checks her understanding of the meaning of the word hick, contrasting her understanding with that of her friend Jose, who understands hick only in terms of its local connotations of "stupid" or "ridiculous." Janelle offers a candidate understanding of a hick in referential terms: as someone who just came from the (Dominican) countryside, is not acculturated to urban American youth clothing fashions, and can't speak English. The fact that Janelle explicitly seeks to confirm a shared understanding of the category hick suggests that the meanings of such identity categories are not structurally fixed but are locally negotiated forms of attribution. Isabella confirms Janelle's candidate understanding of "hicks" not through reference but by giving a representative direct quotation of their speech: loca, loca, e:::::, epa, epa, huepa. She squints and scrunches her face, using a nasal, slightly high-pitched register. In English Isabella uses a deep pitch with a blank stare and slack face to mimic a hick, while in Spanish she uses a nasal voice with slightly high pitch and a tensed face, i.e. squint, wrinkled nose, and lifted upper lip. She introduces this direct quote with the African American English habitual be, meaning that this category of person habitually and repeatedly says things of this sort. Janelle displays

Language alternation as a resource for identity negotiations

43

agreement with this characterization of "hicks" with an affirmative, overlapping Yeah, right? This code switch into Spanish sets off directly quoted speech from surrounding talk, helping Janelle to take on the voice of a third party, which is an oft-noted discourse contextualization function of code switching. When a code switch is serving only such a local contextualization function, the code used for the quotation is not necessarily the same one that the speaker originally used, but simply one that contrasts with the immediately preceding talk. In this case, however, the code match between the quoted speech and the actual speech of members of the category "hick", which Isabella is modeling, is of significance. Code switching here - along with the prosodie and visual features of the quoted speech (cf. 'marking' in Mitchell-Kernan 1972) - serves to index a stereotyped island Dominican gender style that is being constructed as inappropriate for an American urban youth context. Loca, loca, e:::::, epa, epa, huepa may be associated with the relative directness of heterosexual Dominican males and giving of piropos in Dominican contexts, i.e. unsolicited expressions of romantic interest and admiration directed by males to females in many Latin American contexts (Andrews 1977; Suarezorozco and Dundes 1984; Moore 1996). Piropos tend to be much more direct, frequent, and intense than analogous expressions in Anglo American U.S. culture, and many Anglo Americans would interpret them as a form of sexual harassment. Consultants as well as literature on Dominican gender roles (Pessar 1984, 1987; Grasmuck 1991) indicate that migration to the U.S. results in an increase in female authority in heterosexual, romantic relationships. "Hicks" not only know little English and fail to dress according to urban U.S. youth styles; they fail to adhere to appropriate local cultural frameworks and practices for heterosexual interaction. Isabella's code switch into Spanish allows her to capture these social associations of a particular Dominican male way of speaking and being that might be difficult to capture in English. At the same time, she displays a stance toward a particular Dominican male way of speaking, a stance that is at least partly shared by Janelle. Isabella and Janelle collaborate in coming to a shared perspective on a disparaged category, thus constituting themselves, as interlocutors in the here-and-now as the same. This disparaged category is both modeled in marked fashion and explicitly named, while the category to which Isabella and Janelle belong remains implicit. The use of a locally marked style and explicit category names for constituting an "other" against which one defines oneself may be characteristic of relationships

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between linguistic style and social identities more generally (see Günthner, this volume). O n e ' s own identity and ways of speaking are generally treated as normal, natural, and unmarked, so it can be difficult to call attention to them. It is through the highlighting of boundaries - through exaggeration of linguistic features seen as emblematic of other identities - that o n e ' s own style and identities are constituted as distinct and discrete.

5.3.

C'mon,

dude

In the following segment, Alejandro and Jonathan use a variety of Spanish and English linguistic resources to negotiate identities and differentiate themselves f r o m a third teenager, Samuel. This segment has several parallels to the last example: Alejandro and Jonathan came to the U.S. by their first school years, while Samuel, w h o m they tease, is a more recent immigrant; Alejandro code switches to assume a mocking voice to make fun of Samuel; and the interaction highlights comity between Alejandro and Jonathan. It differs f r o m the last example in several other dimensions, however: urban versus rural origins in the Dominican Republic are the primary basis for differentiation, Alejandro uses an English language voice to mock Samuel, and Samuel is a party to the interaction. Like the other examples in this paper, this segment highlights the creativity of individual social actors in selecting f r o m a m o n g linguistic forms and the local and interactional negotiations of the meanings of such forms. (7) [(LD #SM 8:30:44) Jonathan, Alejandro, and Samuel are sitting next to each other in a larger circle of about 12 members at a Friday evening Catholic youth group. The adult group leader is discussing, in Spanish, upcoming summer activities for the group.] GL:

El viernes ellas empiezan, el viernes el cuarto de julio. II Entonces [They're starting Friday, Friday the fourth of July. So...'] Alej.: //((chanting)) I ain't gonna be here! /u::/ DR! ((Slaps hands with Jonathan after /u::/, then bobs his shoulders in a merengue style)) (1.5) Alej. —»J: Al estilo Will Smith, al estilo Fresh Prince. Kpsh:::. ['Will Smith style, Fresh Prince style']

Language alternation as a resource for identity negotiations

45

((Slaps hands with Jonathan, then does a synchronized over the shoulder pointing gesture with thumb accompanied by /kpj/ rushing sound)) (4.5) ((Group leader continues discussing, in Spanish, the schedule of summer meetings.)) Jon.: (to S) You going to DR? (.5) Jon.: You're ( ) Alej.: You gonna be in this campo ['farm, countryside'] Jon.: ( ) Alej.: C'mon dude ((holding up his hands, palms forward; assuming a goofy expression)) Jon.: No phone, they got telegraph ((mimes tapping and makes beeping noises)) Alej. : No, jugando Nintendo ['No, playing Nintendo.] ((mimes staring at handheld game and playing slowly)) Jon.: Con palitos ['With little sticks'] ((mimes tossing sticks into the air)) Alej. : I w a n t - 1 want to go to the beach((White voice; facing forward)) Ale j.—>J: Oh, el papá mío me dará cinco mil ( ) - cinco mil pesos, loco. ['Oh, my Dad is going to give me five thousand ( ) - five thousand pesos, man.'] Jon.: In DR?

Alejandro's first utterance follows the adult leader's mention of the fourth of July, a date when Alejandro will be in the Dominican Republic. He turns to Jonathan, one of his best friends, who is also going to spend the summer in the Dominican Republic, to celebrate his and Jonathan's impending trips. This turn represents a code switch in that his most recent utterances have been in Spanish and the reference to the fourth of July that triggered his utterance was made in Spanish as well. Alejandro's interaction with Jonathan and Samuel is a separate activity from the group leader's talk, and the switch helps to contextualize it as such. Participants themselves treat it as distinct from the dominant communication by relaxing normally exigent turn-taking rules (Sacks, Schegloff et al. 1974), and extensively overlapping with the group leader's talk. However, Alejandro's use of English here also carries local metaphorical meaning. Church youth group games and Bible-study activities that involve the whole group are generally carried out

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in Spanish, and the adult leader speaks little English. Spanish speaking helps to constitute these religious activities, and for many individuals there is a fairly strong language-domain link between Church and Spanish. 4 English dominant individuals speak to each other in English or both languages, however, and bilingual male members of the group often use English to resist the Bible-reading and discussion activities in Spanish. In this case, Alejandro's use of English serves to metaphorically resist the ongoing official group frame, the leader's discussion of upcoming activities. In his next turn, Alejandro switches to Spanish, but uses nonce borrowings of English proper names - Will Smith and Fresh Prince - unassimilated to Spanish phonology. Jonathan and Alejandro both treat this utterance as a cue to engage in a second hand slap and an over-the-shoulder pointing gesture with the thumb, which they execute in unison. This gesture comes from the television situation-comedy The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, which starred African American actor and rap artist Will Smith and played on the American network NBC from 1990 to 1996. The gesture was used by Will Smith's character to signal departure. Alejandro is thus using Dominican Spanish with English borrowings to coordinate a gesture drawn from a Hollywood version of African American male youth behavior to celebrate an upcoming trip to the Dominican Republic. This brief exchange highlights the relative hybridity of semiotic resources that interlocutors can activate in marking affiliation with each other. After turning briefly back toward the group leader, Jonathan turns toward Samuel, directing a question at him in English, You going to DR? This question is topically tied to Alejandro and Jonathan's immediately preceding interaction - impending summer trips to the Dominican Republic - which was visually and acoustically available to Samuel, but Samuel is only now ratified as a participant in this talk. The choice of code to address Samuel is marked because Samuel is a recent Dominican immigrant who speaks little English. He had just minutes before volunteered to the entire group that he couldn't follow activities when English predominated, and in both the school and church group contexts that I observed, Alejandro and Jonathan addressed him otherwise only in Spanish. This use of English therefore violates basic expectations of situational code choice (Blom and Gumperz 1972) that Alejandro and Jonathan otherwise follow. Samuel does not audibly respond to this question, but Alejandro and Jonathan's subsequent turns suggest that Samuel gave an affirmative visual

Language alternation as a resource for identity negotiations

Al

response (he was off-camera), perhaps a vertical head nod. It is likely that being addressed in English deterred him from responding verbally. While Alejandro and Jonathan jointly celebrated the fact that they were both going to the Dominican Republic, they treat Samuel's upcoming trip as grounds to make fun of him. Their subsequent turns addressed to Samuel are in English and have a derogatory tone, e.g. Alejandro tells him You gonna be in this campo, switching only on a word for which English equivalents fail to capture the appropriate connotations. Rural areas of the Dominican Republic contrast sharply with the urban centers in wealth, infrastructure, and education. Many rural areas lack electricity, pavement, safe drinking water, health care, and schools, and rural illiteracy and poverty rates are high. 5 Following Jonathan's inaudible turn, Alejandro switches to a marked white English variety, C'mon, dude. He uses a relatively high pitched and slow tempo voice, and he uses the term of address dude, which was a common way for young white American males to address each other during the late 1990's (Kiesling 2004) but which I never heard Alejandro or other Dominican Americans that I observed and recorded use. While speaking he holds his hands up even with his shoulders, palms forward and directs his gaze forward as if performing a role for others to view. While white English is the prestige standard in educational, business, and many institutional contexts in the United States, it is a marked variety in many local Dominican American youth contexts, where it can suggest a lack of urban cool and authenticity. In this case, white English is being used by Alejandro to differentiate himself and Jonathan from Samuel. Marked white English is not normally an index of rural Dominican identities, but in this specific context, the negative connotations of such English are being used to communicate negative connotations of rural Dominican life for Alejandro and Jonathan. Jonathan then claims in English that in Samuel's campo they do not have telephones, only telegraphs, and he mimes the tapping on a telegraph key. Alejandro counters in Spanish that they don't even have that contact with the outside world there - that the most exciting activity there is to sit by oneself and play Nintendo, and he mimes playing with a small, selfcontained game. Jonathan continues in Spanish that individuals there don't even have Nintendo for entertainment (perhaps because Nintendo has positive value for them and does not capture their attitude toward rural Dominican life), just little sticks, and he mimes tossing little sticks up into the air and catching them.

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Alejandro again switches footing, speaking in white English, his upper body stiff and upright, facing forward rather than to the side toward Jonathan or Samuel, his voice slightly high pitched and strained I want to go to the beach-. These prosodie and visual features suggest that he is enacting a role, perhaps a mocking of Samuel or similar individual stuck in the campo. Alejandro had described to me his extensive plans for going out to nightclubs that summer and for going to various beaches. Dominicans are proud of the island's beaches, and middle- and upper-class urban youth, like Alejandro, regularly visit them in the summers. In contrast to Samuel, both Jonathan and Alejandro could expect a summer not just of socializing with relatives, but of enjoying urban entertainment such as nightclubs and taking trips to various beaches. Alejandro cuts off his own speech, breaking off the white English voice and the teasing frame by turning to Jonathan, sitting less upright, and using the disjunct marker oh to display "sudden remembering" (Jefferson 1987), and describing, in Spanish, the spending money that he will receive in the Dominican Republic. Referring to the limitations of Samuel's summer entertainment options may have triggered pleasurable anticipation of his own summer plans. Alejandro and Jonathan no longer address Samuel, directly or indirectly, but engage in talk of spending money, a relative's vehicles in the Dominican Republic, and plans for summer activities there. In contrast to the immediately prior code switching, in which code and variety switching had clear metaphorical implications, this code switching is the unmarked sort common among bilingual Dominican Americans in everyday talk. In this interaction, Alejandro and Jonathan exploit a wide range of linguistic resources, including language alternation, to constitute rapidly shifting interpretive frames. Their speech activities serve to disparage Samuel and differentiate him from themselves, thus indirectly constituting a nondisparaged category for them to inhabit. They say who they are by describing who they are not, both referentially and through indirect indexicals (Ochs 1992). Alejandro and Jonathan's code switching and assumption of different voices rely on metaphorical meanings of codes, styles, and referents in ways that are much more complicated than suggested by "we" vs. "they" codes and identities. The social connotations and implications for identity of their communicative resources - whether code switches, specific referents, or gestures - are highly context specific, requiring situated interpretation rather than reliance on just conventional meanings.

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49

Conclusions

Like other bilingual children of international labor migrants, Dominican Americans straddle linguistic and sociocultural worlds, and their language alternation in intra-group peer interaction is emblematic of this straddling. Their form of frequent, unmarked switching - code switching as a discourse mode - is distinct from other ways of speaking in their communities and the wider society, and, as such, constitutes a style. The meanings that one attributes to this style are largely a function of one's subject position. For members, such language alternation is an unmarked way of speaking and doing the things that high school student do with talk: gossip, flirt, tease, make social plans, ask about schoolwork, etc. Non-members often evaluate this style of speaking in very different terms that are tied to Western ideologies of linguistic purism and a unity of language, race, and nation. Frequent code switching is seen by many monolinguals as a sign of linguistic and cognitive deficiency, by nativist groups as a rejection of incorporation into U.S. society, and by many academics as a sophisticated, agentive, and strategic way of negotiating social and political structures and meanings. At the everyday phenomenological level, language alternation has salient practical implications for ascriptions of individual identities among Dominican Americans. In the U.S., phenotype is the preeminent criterion for social classification, and many individual Dominican American phenotypes match those associated either with the category black American or the category white American. Displays of Spanish speaking trigger ascriptions of Latino identities from bystanders who might otherwise see individuals, based on physical appearance, as black or white. Negotiations of identity through language alternation are often more fleeting and context specific than the terms style or social category might imply. As is evident f r o m data in this chapter, cultural frameworks, linguistic indexes of social categories, and the ways individuals fit into categories are not static and pre-determined but are negotiated and constructed at the local level. Both in monolingual and bilingual contexts, interlocutors display rapidly shifting stances toward each other, the activities in which they are engaged, and dimensions of the wider world, e.g. the relative value of various membership categories or individual members of them. These negotiations unfold on a turn-by-turn basis, both at the referential level and in terms of indexical meanings. Interlocutors can create and display alignment or disaffiliation with co-present interlocutors, they can position themselves

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with respect to abstract categories referenced through talk, or, more commonly, do both simultaneously. Because interlocutors display these meanings and negotiations to each other, we, as analysts, can look over their shoulders and gain a window onto the workings of social worlds.

Notes 1. The English word "identity" is derived from Latin, idem, meaning "the same". 2. In a corpus of 1,685 switches among young New York Puerto Rican girls, Zentella (1997: 101) assigns fewer than half of her switches to specific conversational strategies, or functions, because most of the individual switches do not have a clear, analytically defensible function or do not co-occur with particular interactional patterns. 3. Zentella (1997: 1) artfully highlights this taken-for-granted, unmarked nature of code switching as a discourse mode in the opening of her book Growing Up Bilingual: "One day in El Barrio (New York City's east Harlem) in 1979 I asked a nine year old of Puerto Rican background what language she spoke with sisters and brothers. 'Hablamos los dos. We speak both,' she answered casually, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to speak two languages and to alternate between them. I was struck by her offhand tone and the seamless welding of Spanish and English which proved her point vividly." 4. Many English-dominant informants, for example, found the notion of attending English-language Catholic Mass strange if a Spanish-language Mass was available, and several reported that they prayed only in Spanish, even in non-Church contexts. 5. Alejandro, who came from an upper-middle class, urban background, was well aware of urban-rural hierarchies in the Dominican Republic. He alluded to this in discussing difficulties of acculturation faced by Dominican immigrants: "It depends on where they come from, if they come from the campo or the farm or whatever, it's kind of different than if you're over there from a city. If you come from the campo, from the farm, it's different, cause you live with the cows and everything."

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References Aarsleff, H. 1982

From Locke to Saussure: Essays on the Study of Language and Intellectual History. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Alfonzetti, G. 1998 The conversational dimension in code-switching between Italian and dialect in Sicily. In: Auer, J. C. P. (ed.), Code-Switching in Conversation: Language, Interaction, and Identity. London/New York: Rout ledge, 180-211. Andrews, D. H. 1977 Flirtation walk - Piropos in Latin-America. Journal of Popular Culture 11(1), 49-61. Auer, J. C. P. 1984 Bilingual Conversation. Philadelphia/Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 1992 Introduction: John Gumperz's approach to contextualisation. In: Auer, J. C. P. and A. DiLuzio (eds.), The Contextualisation of Language. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Bailey, B. 2000 Language and negotiation of ethnic/racial identity among Dominican Americans. Language in Society 29(4), 555-582. 2000 Social/interactional functions of code switching among Dominican Americans. IPrA Pragmatics 10(2), 165-193. 2001a The language of multiple identities among Dominican Americans. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 10(2), 190-223. 2001b Dominican-American ethnic/racial identities and United States social categories. International Migration Review 35(3), 677-708. 2002 Language, Race, and Negotiation of Identity: A Study of Dominican Americans. New York: LFB Scholarly Pub. Bakhtin, M. M. 1981 The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Austin: University of Texas Press. Barth, F. 1969 Introduction. In: Barth, F., Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference. Boston: Little Brown and Co., 9-38. Blom, J.-P. and J. J. Gumperz 1972 Code-switching in Norway. In: Gumperz, J. J. and D. Hymes (eds.), Directions in Sociolinguistics. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 407-434. Bourdieu, P. 1990 The Logic of Practice. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

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Ethnicity - Problem and Focus in Anthropology. Annual Review of Anthropology 7, 3 7 9 ^ 0 3 . Drown. New York: Riverhead Books. Ethnicity, identity, and music: An anthropological analysis of the Dominican Merengue. In: Behague, G. (ed.), Music and Black Ethnicity: The Caribbean and South America. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 65-90. The political economy of code choice. In: Heller, M. (ed.), Codeswitching: Anthropological and Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 245-264. Language and political economy. Annual Review of Anthropology 18, 345-367.

Goffman, E. 1979 Footing. Semiotica 25, 1-29. Gonzalez, N. 1975 Patterns of Dominican ethnicity. In: Bennett, J. (ed.), The New Ethnicity: Perspectives from Ethnology. New York: West Publishing, 110-123. Grasmuck, S. 1991 Between Two Islands: Dominican International Migration. Berkeley: University of California Press. Gumperz, J. J. 1982 Discourse Strategies. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press. Heller, M. 1992 The politics of code-switching and language choice. In Eastman, C., Codeswitching. Cleveland, Avon: Multilingual Matters, 123-142. 1995 Language choice, social institutions, and symbolic domination. Language in Society 24(3), 373—406. Heritage, J. and J. M. Atkinson 1984 Introduction. In: Atkinson, J. M. and J. Heritage, Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 1-15. Irvine, J. T. 2001 "Style" as distinctiveness: The culture and ideology of linguistic differentiation. In: Eckert, P. and J. R. Rickford (eds.), Style and Sociolinguistic Variation. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 21—43.

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Jefferson, G. 1987 Sequential aspects of story telling in conversation. In: Schenkein, J. N., Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction. New York: Academic Press, 219-248. Kiesling, S. 2004 Dude. American Speech 79(3), 281-305. Kroskrity, P. V. 1993 Language, History, and Identity: Ethnolinguistic Studies of the Arizona Tewa. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. Labov, W. 1979 Locating the frontier between social and psychological factors in linguistic variation. In: Fillmore, C. J., D. Kempler and W. S-Y Wong (eds.), Individual Differences in Language Ability and Language Behavior. New York: Academic Press, 327-340. Lippi-Green, R. 1997 English with an Accent: Language, Ideology, and Discrimination in the United States. London/New York: Routledge. Lipski, J. M. 1985 Linguistic Aspects of Spanish-English Language Switching. Tempe, AZ: Center for Latin American Studies Arizona State University. McClure, E. 1977 Aspects of code-switching in the discourse of bilingual MexicanAmerican children. In: Saville-Troike, M. (ed.), Linguistics and Anthropology. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 9 3 115. Milroy, J. and L. Milroy 1985 Authority in Language: Investigating Language Prescription and Standardisation. London/Boston: Routledge & K. Paul. Mitchell-Kernan, C. 1972 Signifying and marking: Two Afro-American Speech Acts. In: Gumperz, J. and D. H. Hymes (eds.), Directions in Sociolinguistics: The Ethnography of Communication. New York, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 161-179. Moerman, M. 1965 Ethnic identification in a complex civilization. American Anthropologist 67, 1215-1230. Moore, Z. 1996 Teaching culture - a study of Piropos. Hispania - A Journal Devoted to the Teaching of Spanish and Portuguese 79(1), 113-120. Moya Pons, F. 1995 The Dominican Republic: A National History. New Rochelle, NY: Hispaniola Books.

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Myers-Scotton, C. 1993 Social Motivations for Codeswitching: Evidence from Africa. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Ochs, E. Indexing gender. In Duranti, A. and C. Goodwin (eds.), Rethinking 1992 Context: Language as an Interactive Phenomenon. New York/Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 335-358. Peirce, C. S. 1955 Logic as semiotic: The theory of signs. In Buchler, J. (ed.), Philosophical Writings of Peirce. New York: Dover Publications, 98-119. Pessar, P. 1984 The linkage between the household and workplace of Dominican women in the U.S. International Migration Review 18, 1188-1211. 1987 The Dominicans: Women in the household and the garment industry. In: Foner, N. (ed.), New Immigrants in New York City. New York: Columbia University Press, 103-129. Poplack, S. 1981 Syntactic structure and social function of codeswitching. In: Durán, R. (ed.), Latino Language and Communicative Behavior. Norwood, NJ: ABLEX, 169-184. 1988 Contrasting patterns of codeswitching in two communities. In: Heller, M. (ed.), Codeswitching: Anthropological and Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 215-244. Rickford, J. R. and P. Eckert 2001 Introduction. In Eckert, P. and J. R. Rickford (eds.), Style and Sociolinguistic Variation. New York/Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1-18. Sacks, H„ E. A. Schegloff, et al. 1974 Simplest systematics for organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language 50(4), 696-735. Sankoff, D. and S. Poplack 1981 A formal grammar for code-switching. Papers in Linguistics 14, 3 46. Schegloff, Ε. Α., G. Jefferson, et al. 1977 Preference for self-correction in organization of repair in conversation. Language 53(2), 361-382. Silie, R. Esclavitud y prejuicio de color en Santo Domingo. Boletín de Antro1989 pologia Americana 120, 163-170.

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Silverstein, M. 1996 Monoglot "Standard" in America. In: Brenneis, D. L. and R. K. S. Macaulay (eds.), The Matrix of Language: Contemporary Linguistic Anthropology. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 284-306. Smedley, A. 1993 Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a Worldview. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Suarezorozco, M. M. and A. Dundes 1984 The Piropo and the dual image of women in the Spanish-speaking world. Journal of Latin American Lore 10(1), 111-133. Urciuoli, B. 1996 Exposing Prejudice: Puerto Rican Experiences of Language, Race, and Class. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Woolard, K. A. 2004 Codeswitching. In: Duranti, Α. (ed.), A Companion to Linguistic Anthropology. Maiden, MA, Blackwell, 73-94. Woolard, K. A. and B. B. Schieffelin 1994 Language ideology. Annual Review of Anthropology 23, 55-82. Zentella, A. C. (1997) Growing up Bilingual: Puerto Rican Children in New York. Maiden, MA: Blackwell.

Chapter 3 Style and stylization in the construction of identities in a card-playing club Anna De Fina

1.

Introduction

In recent years a widely accepted shift in sociolinguistic studies has taken place: from a paradigm stressing the stable relationship between social categories and linguistic phenomena, towards a more interactionally oriented paradigm in which such a relationship is not taken for granted, but rather becomes the focus of attention. Many scholars are now trying to define the nature of the relationship between linguistic variables and aspects of the context, and they do so by starting from a careful and at times painstaking analysis of what participants do in interaction, and of how they assign meanings to linguistic and other semiotic aspects of social encounters. Thus, from this perspective, what counts is "how the indexical ties of discourse to other texts, situations, or kinds of speakers serve as resources for the production and interpretation of social meanings" (Bauman 2001: 77). The shift in paradigm has affected the discussion and revived the debate on key sociolinguistics concepts and phenomena. Among them, style has had a particular prominence because of its centrality in the study of how individuals and groups signal aspects of their identity in interaction. Research on style has moved from a variationist perspective in which it was seen as reflecting rather stable associations between the use of linguistic variables and membership into social categories, towards a more interactive framework in which it is regarded as a highly context sensitive discourse strategy to present personas or groups (Coupland 2001; Eckert 2000). In this view, based on a conception of language as practice and of meanings as socially constructed, style is, therefore, a situational resource for identity displays that are negotiated between participants through discursive work within significant social practices. However, the discussion on what style is, on what basic parameters can be used to define it, and on how

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it can be differentiated from other phenomena is still very much alive and these basic questions have not found definitive answers. In this chapter I explore aspects of the interactional management of style and illustrate some differences between style-related phenomena: personal style and stylization. I focus on the relationship between style management, language choice and social identity, taking up the case of a multilingual community and looking at the role of Italian dialects and Standard Italian as a resource for identity construction in conversation. I argue that shifts into dialect are often accompanied by stylization features and that their function as contextualization cues indexing particular kinds of social personae relies on the existence of ideological assumptions about the status of dialects as language varieties that are shared by participants. I also illustrate some strategies through which code-mixing from English into Italian can be used as an element of style indexing Italianness, and thus contribute to the construction of individual and collective ethnic identity. The analysis shows that Italian and Italian dialects as symbolic resources can index a variety of identities that depend on the community, the kinds of activity in which participants are engaged and the ideologies and other kinds of cultural assumptions that they share. The data discussed were gathered in an ethnographic project on the interactional construction and negotiation of identity among Italian Americans belonging to a card-playing club in the Washington area. Examples are taken f r o m transcripts of two audio and two video-taped club sessions, one audio-taped interview, and 28 issues of the bulletin: Briscola News. The chapter is organized as follows: In section 2, I discuss the concept of style and illustrate the basic ideas underlining constructionist approaches to the study of identities. I also present a reflection on the different kinds of identities that can be expressed and negotiated in discourse. In section 3, I describe the data and subjects on which the study is based. In section 4, I offer some background on the kinds of identities made relevant and negotiated in my data. In section 5, I discuss how language choice and switching relate to identity work. In section 6, I analyze how both stylization and personal style are used by speakers to build and project identities and how these acts of identity rest on shared ideologies and conceptions about self, others and the meanings of language use. Finally, I discuss the relevance of the findings for sociolinguistic research on style.

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Social identity and style

Research on style has been closely intertwined with research on identity as an interactional achievement. Recent studies have contributed to the strengthening of a widely accepted social constructionist conception of identity in which the latter is seen as "an emergent construction, the situated outcome of a rhetorical and interpretive process in which interactants make situationally motivated selections from socially constituted repertoires of identificational and affiliational resources and craft these semiotic resources into identity claims for presentation to others" (Bauman 2000: 1). Within this framework, people do not possess just one identity related to the social categories to which they belong, but rather they present and represent themselves by choosing within an inventory of more or less compatible identities that intersect and/or contrast with each other in different ways, and in accordance with changing social circumstances and interlocutors. Social constructionist perspectives have also influenced our view of identity construction and attribution as a process grounded in different kinds of social practices and activities (Antaki and Widdicombe 1998; Edwards 1998). Thus, scholars dealing with identity within a social constructionist paradigm have underscored the importance of firmly grounding their analyses in interaction.1 Style has played an important role in this kind of research because it has been shown that it is often through style management that individuals and groups convey their affiliation or rejection of identities. It is surprisingly difficult to find a single definition of style in the linguistic and anthropological literature. Irvine (2001: 22) provides a useful starting point when she argues that "whatever 'styles' are, they are part of a system of distinction, in which a style contrasts with other possible styles, and the social meanings signified by this style contrast with other social meanings". From a linguistic perspective we can think of style as deriving from a cluster of features that characterize a way of speaking (or writing) and differentiate it from others. Among the dimensions of identity that have been investigated in connection with style are ethnicity (Rampton 1995; Bucholtz 1999; Bell 1999), regional identity (Johnstone 1999), peer group/gender affiliation (Eckert 2000; Barrett 1999), and the enactment of particular social or personal roles (Hymes 1981; Bauman 2001; Coupland 2001). All these aspects of identity can be expressed through discourse and participation in social practices at an individual or at a collective level. People

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can build identities at an individual level, by projecting themselves as specific kinds of persons in terms of the social categories to which they belong, or they can project collective identities when they speak or act on behalf and as part of a group or an institution (see Holmes 2006 on this point). However, social identities expressed at an individual or collective level are not necessarily independent of each other since often when individuals negotiate their belonging to social categories, they redefine the meanings of those categories also for others in their groups or communities, thus projecting and building new collective images. Individual and collective identities can be built around inclusion in or exclusion from many different types of categorizations such as ethnic affiliation, gender roles, social, personal and situational roles, etc. Personal roles may involve categorizations based on personal qualities, i.e. individuals can project themselves as being a certain type of person in moral or interactional terms. For example by managing positive or negative "faces" (Goffman 1967), they can come across as collaborative or kind, respectful of the social space of others or worried about their own social space. Situational roles may involve positioning within categories that are very specific to institutions or communities. Zimmerman (1998: 95) calls identities based on situational roles, "situated identities" and stresses their importance in connecting local interactional meanings to larger contexts of interpretation. According to this author, situational identities "are the portal through which the setting of the talk and its institutional surround ... enters and helps to shape the interaction, which in turn actualizes the occasion and its institutional provenance". Thus, social identities can be expressed at an individual or collective level, and they can involve different facets or aspects such as membership in social, situational, moral and interactional categories. In the study that I present here, I analyze how participants in an Italian American card game club make relevant different types of social identities and illustrate the role of stylization and personal style in the interactional construction of those identities. In particular, I look at ethnic identity and at the management of various kinds of 'personas' in connection with facework in games and other interactional situations. I also show how in many cases identity projections and negotiations managed at an individual level contribute to the construction of collective identities for the club since they not only depend on shared ideologies and conceptions, but also create new contexts of interpretation of social categorizations. Style shifts in my data are closely related with language choice and for this reason I need to give some background information on the Circolo

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della Brìscola, its origin and present activities, and the roles that different languages play in interactions among its members, before I turn to the analysis of identity and style phenomena.

3.

The Circolo della Briscola

Il Circolo della Briscola is an all-men club founded in 1991 by an ItalianAmerican pediatrician, whom I will call the President, an American of Calabrese background, born in New York. The President started playing cards with a few friends as a way of relaxing and spending time together. The word spread that there was a group of people playing briscola and through time the Circolo grew and became an organization with members, rules and specific activities. At the moment when I conducted my research, the Circolo had 48 members who met monthly to play. However, the number of active members always fluctuates since every month players bring guests who are potential members, and sometimes old members may leave the Circolo for a while. Circolo members organize a card tournament once a year at a Washington parish (which is recognized as an important center of activities related to Italy and Italians) in order to raise funds for the church. Until November 2001, games used to take place at an Italian restaurant, otherwise before that, players met at members' homes. The host used to cook dinner for the party of players and the menu was published on the club's bulletin, since there was a prize at the end of the year for the best cook. At the end of 2002, however, the club started meeting at a local language school and cultural center, located very close to the Church. Results of the games and general information are published in the Brìscola News, written and distributed by the President. Club meetings follow a fixed ritual. Members gather to have some hors d'oevres and wine at about 6:30. The first half hour is a time to chat and exchange news. At this time the President and Treasurer collect the money for meals and dues and start preparing the draw for the composition of the tables for briscola players. Then comes dinner, which is eaten at a huge long table where members continue to chat. During dinner, announcements are made by the President and issues are discussed and sometimes voted on. Decisions have to do with financial or organizational matters, news regarding the score, members' activities considered relevant to the circle, or the admission/presentation of new members. In fact, admission has never been voted on, but seems to be automatically granted if the new member has an

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interest in joining the club. After dinner, the composition of the playing tables is announced. Usually players are assigned to tables through a draw, but they accept the fact that the President sometimes makes his own decisions when he feels that certain combinations will not work. The President also organizes a table for new players who want to become familiar with the game. If there is such a table, he is always one of the "instructors". There are around 30 people each night and players play in tables of four. Most players play briscola, but there are also one or two tressette tables. Tressette is regarded by the players as a more difficult game than brìscola. Each table has four players who play in pairs. At the end of all the games the score is updated. During games there is practically no other activity. Players are very focused on their own games and do not interact much with members at other tables, although often when they are finished with their games, they go to other tables to exchange teasing or joking comments. At the end of the year the winner (or winners, if there is a draw) gets a trophy. The members of the Circolo are all men. The admission of women has been voted on and rejected numerous times, and the official explanation for it is that men want to spend the evening by themselves, or, as one of the members said, "with the boys". Most of the members are between fifty-five and sixty-five, so many of them are retired. There are very few younger members. The social background is middle and upper middle class. Some of the men are professionals such as architects, medical doctors, others are public employees, school teachers, travel agents, etc. These men are second or third generation Italian immigrants who have reached a comfortable economic level and are generally well assimilated into American society, or first generation immigrants who have come to the United States after the war and who are also well assimilated. In terms of identity, language and the dynamics of the play, it is important to keep in mind this double composition of the club: that of Italian born and American born players. Italian born members came to the United States at different points in their lives, mostly for work or study related reasons. They can speak Italian fluently (whether they choose to speak it or not is another matter). Americans, on the other hand, are second or third generation immigrants who often come from traditional areas or cities of migration in the North East such as New York State or City, Baltimore, or Pittsburgh. They have varying passive or active competences in Standard Italian and the dialect 2 spoken in their families (there are many members of Sicilian or Calabrese origin, but also men who come for Abruzzo and Molise, Friuli or Veneto). There are few American born members who speak fluent Italian. Among them is the

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President. He was born in New York from a family of first generation immigrants from Calabria. He "relearned" Italian as an adult and now speaks it fluently. There are, however, a number of American born members who have tried to learn Italian through formal instruction or through contact with relatives. Some of them have succeeded in speaking a little. Some Italian born members speak their dialect or minority language fluently, while some Americans report passive knowledge of the dialect that their parents spoke at home, but are not able to speak it except for stock phrases or isolated words.

4.

Social identities in the Circolo

When we look at identity construction, it is apparent that people in the Circolo, as in other communities of practice (Eckert 2000), enact, project and negotiate identities of different kinds and at different levels (collective or individual). Among the repertoire of social identities that were made salient in the activities observed in the Circolo, I found: a. Ethnic identities such as 'Italian', 'American', and their combinations b. Gender identities such as 'male' or 'female' c. Social role identities such as 'father', 'family member', 'professional', 'club member' d. Situated identities such as 'card player' Situated identities are important in this context because roles pertaining to card playing are often taken as central to identity displays in the interactions that take place among the members. Another important point about identities is that they are not managed in a unique way: they can be conveyed, performed, hinted at, negotiated, openly proclaimed, etc. Identities are made relevant in context sometimes through open categorizations, but often implicitly through reference to social norms, schémas, and prejudices that are in some way attached to social roles and figures. For example, gender identity is often performed and implicitly conveyed through the telling of jokes or narratives that position the speaker and others in certain roles. See the following example 3 in which A, an American born player, is referring to my tape-recording:

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(1)

01 02 03 04 05

A:

R: A:

Don't take my picture R. because I told my wife I was out with my girlfriend tonight, if she finds out that I've been playing cards, I'm in trouble. @ @ Then I won't give it to your wife. Ok. Don't give it to my wife, I'm in real trouble!

Here identity work is not explicit, but A is "acting" out an identity implicitly associated with traditional family roles where the husband is a person who goes out and typically lies to his spouse about his whereabouts, while the wife is a person who stays at home. A is implying that husbands tend to cheat on their wives by going out with other women, but his joke is based on the substitution of card playing for cheating. My laughter and response to A's comment show that I am aware of this implicit role-play, in which I also somewhat position myself as an "accomplice" (line 04) by aligning with A against his wife. Thus social norms and schémas allow the implicit pairing of social categories with socially assigned attributes and qualities. Identities can combine with each other in the sense that a member performing, claiming or discussing an identity as a "father", can at the same time claim an identity as an "Italian father", or a member that is claiming an identity as a "professional" can also claim an identity as a "male", etc. However, in the Circolo Italian ethnic identity has an overarching meaning since, as it will become clearer from some of the data analysis, the club is presented and perceived as a fundamentally Italian institution, whose objective is not only that of playing cards but also of fostering a sense of belonging to Italian culture and customs (see De Fina forthcoming on this point). Such identity work is achieved not only through linguistic strategies, but also through other symbolic practices. Symbols of Italian identity and symbolic practices of various kinds have been consciously or unconsciously chosen in connection with the Circolo's activities and play a role in constructing this Italian identity for the group, for example, in the choice of the meeting places: Italian Restaurants or a center for Italian Studies. Another area through which identity work is done and Italian identity is symbolically conveyed is food preparation and consumption within the Circolo. Food and food practices are more or less implicitly presented as "traditional" as shown by the choice of menus, the practice of bringing food made at home by the wives, and also the preparation of specific Italian foods related to religious or mundane occasions. However, food is also often commented upon and discussed, and these discussions often consti-

Style and stylization in the construction of identities in a card-playing club

65

tute an arena for identity displays. Other non-linguistic symbols of identity are the choice of colors in written printed material and in items used during the card games. For example, the choice of green, white and red often used for the Briscola Newsletter and the badges that players wear at card games symbolize Italianness in that the colors selected are the ones of the Italian flag.

5.

Style and language choice

The strategies that members use to claim social identities as individuals, but also to build normative identities as a group are multifold. Among them are the use of symbolic practices (such as those mentioned in section 4), topic management, socialization practices (such as teaching the game) and storytelling. 4 However, among the linguistic resources that have been "traditionally" associated with identity work and that also seem very relevant for my data are language choice, code-switching and mixing. From an interactionally grounded perspective it is now clear that speakers create affiliations through contextualized uses of language and that there is no one-to-one correspondence between categorical identities and language varieties, as work on language crossing, code-switching and style shifting (Rampton 1995; Sebba and Wootton 1998; Woolard 1999) has clearly indicated. The relationship between the choice of language varieties and identity needs therefore to be investigated within specific interactional contexts (see also Auer 1998 on this point). In the case of the Circolo, language choice or switching do not mechanically correlate with identity work, in the sense that speakers do not necessarily associate with their language of origin and that switching does not always have a symbolic status. Let us first consider the language repertoire of the Circolo again. Languages spoken within the Circolo include: English, Italian in its regional varieties, Italian dialects (Abruzzese, Calabrese, Molisano, Siciliano) and minority languages (Friulano). As mentioned in section 3, members have varying competences in these varieties. Language choice, however, does not appear to be necessarily related to language ability, since there are many cases in which men who are not particularly fluent in Italian try to speak it, while men who are very comfortable in Italian speak English. This can be seen in the following example taken from a tressette game. The participants E and C (and D, who is not speaking in the fragment) are Italian born and came to the United States as

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adults, while Ρ is American born. However, language choice does not appear to be related to language competence, since E speaks to C in English even though they are both Italian, while he addresses P, who is English dominant, in Italian. In this fragment C and E are trying to explain some rules of the game to Ρ who is a learner. 5 (2) 01 02 03 04 05

E: C:

06

P:

07

E:

08

C:

09

E:

10 11 12 13 14

15

C: E:

P:

((beats the table with his hand and laughs looking at C)) I'm not gonna say anything C. ! No:::! ((to P)) Cosa fai? Ma cosa fai? Adesso che hai messo giù la carta hai fatto così o hai bussato6? 'What are you doing? But what are you doing? Now that you have put that card down did you do that or did you knock?' Ho [ bussato! ' I knocked' [ Ha bussato! 'He knocked' Ok, good! Quello che vogliamo sapere noi. 'That's what we want to know.' ((Looking at P.)) I tempi di questo gioco 'the timing of this game' ((looking at C.)) I've got to tell him because otherwise he's never gonna learn it! I know! (( to P.)) Il primo gioco ho fatto io, il primo gioco dove l'ho fatto io? Dove ho bussato io? Ί did the first move, the first move where did I do it? Where did I knock?' Non ricordo. Ί can't remember'

Notice that both Italian dominant speakers, E and C, speak to each other in English (lines 01, 02) even though the others at the table are fluent in Italian. Notice also that they code-switch in a way that is unrelated to speaking ability or interlocutor's identity. The switch by E in line 10 can rather be explained as marking a shift in the participation framework (from talking to P, to talking to C). Thus language choice and language use in the case of English and Italian do not seem to be univocally related to participants' linguistic competence and background, except in cases where one of the participants is unable to speak Italian. They often appear to be functionally

Style and stylization in the construction of identities in a card-playing club

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motivated (Gumperz 1982) such as marking shifts in the participation framework or in topic, repetitions or emphasis, etc., but sometimes they do not carry a specific discursive function either. However, even if in individual cases there is no one-to-one relationship between language and contextual factors, there is in general a relationship between domains of activity and the choice of language in that one language is generally preferred over another one in certain circumstances. As a general rule, for example, English is predominant in "official business" and in written communications. But code-switching into Italian is accepted and may happen at all times. Thus, while in official business English is expected, Italian can also be used. In informal communications all speech varieties of the language repertoire seem acceptable, although dialects are not frequently used. As I will show below, switching from English or Italian into dialect is one of the linguistic practices that clearly constitute acts of identity precisely because it usually conveys and builds upon a shift in style. In fact, speakers exploit dialect as a contextualization cue to index a change in the persona that they are presenting to other interactants. Such persona is marked as representing something other than their 'usual' self. The analysis of how shifts into dialect coincide with stylistic shifts constitutes an interesting site for theoretical reflections on style and will be the focus of the following section.

6.

Stylization

In this section I illustrate how "stylized" switches from English or Italian into dialect are used in conversation to convey particular personae or "voices" that do not necessarily correspond to "usual" identities claimed by the speakers. In the following conversation a switch into dialect corresponds with such "stylization" of a particular personal identity. The conversation reproduced below took place when one member of the Circolo L came to me to ask what "baking powder" was called in Italian. L is a first generation immigrant from Abruzzo who came to the United States when he was thirteen years old. Another Circolo member, designated as O, also came over now and then to participate in the conversation, as illustrated at the end of the fragment. O is also a first generation immigrant who moved to the United States as a young man.

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Anna De Fina

(3) 01 02

L: R:

03

L:

04 05

R: L:

06

R:

07

L:

08 09

R: L:

10 11 12

R: L: R:

13

L:

14 15 16

R: R:

17 18

19

R:

20

L:

21

R:

My wife (is fabulous), I learned a lot except the word @ E che cos'è la ricetta? 'And what's the recipe?' I looked it up in the dictionary and it said levito and then I remembered that that's yeast! She said "no no no!" And what did you, what were you going to cook? Oh, uh it's a long story but listen, these people came to visit us last year, and my wife made baking (puffs), pancakes, Si 'Yes' They loved those pancakes, uh? And so What did you do? Is there a special mix or something? No you can use regular flour she said, "Send me", she called us recently, "Send me the recipe," but she- of course my wife is American, the recipe she didn't even have a recipe it came out of her mind and I'm thinking Boh! and I got to that baking powder, Who knows ! @ @ @You got stuck on the baking powder! So I looked it up and I said "but that's yeast," "No::" she said "You don't wanna do that, you'll mess it all up!" @ @ Of course ! @ @ Well, (....) but I know what I did, I put baking powder au:: Tra virgolette 'In inverted commas' And then (...) ingredienti and I copied the ingredients from 'ingredients' the baking powder bicarbonated [( ) [Oh my god! Che pazienza1.® 'How patient!' L: I could have sent it fresco ! @ @ @ 'fresh' But my wife said she saw it over there, I mean there is, so it's levito uh? 'yeast' Sì sì lievito loro lo chiamano lievito per do:lci, 'Yes, yes yeast they call it yeast for cakes,' Lievito per dolci. 'Yeast for cakes' I've got to write that [down. [Per distinguerlo dal lievito [cheT o distinguish it from the yeast that'

Style and stylization in the construction of identities in a card-playing club 22

L:

23 24

R:

25

R:

26

L:

27

R:

28—>L: 29

R:

30

L:

31 32

R: L:

33

R:

34

L:

35

O:

36

L:

37

O:

38

R:

69

[idal— 'from' = lievito di birra, = 'beer yeast' = che dici tu = 'you are talking about' Esattamente! 'Exactly!' Ahhh! Mai più, mai più! 'Never again, never again' Allora la prossima volt'Then next tim-' Ma nu pover analfabet com me come posso saperi @ @ @ < 'But a poor illiterate like me how would I know?' @ @ @ (£ @@@Un analfabeta della cucina@@ 'an illiterate of cooking' E altre cose @ @ @ 'and other things'

@@

L'italiano mio è abruzzese 1938 'My Italian is abruzzese 1938' Però lo parli benissimo. 'But you speak it very well' E insomma! 'More or less!' Allora te l'ha detto? 'So, did she tell you?' Sì 'Yes' Come si dice ? 'What is it called?' Eh lievito!

When the fragment starts, L had asked me for the Italian translation of the word "baking powder" and in line 01 he explains that he had learned many things from his wife, but that he had not learned that word. In lines 04-05 I ask why he wants to know and he explains that he had been asked for a pancake recipe by some Italian friends. Since he didn't know how to say "baking powder" in Italian and his wife had not been of much help, he had copied all the ingredients from a can of baking powder hoping to provide his Italian friends with a clue (lines 13-14). At this point I show surprise

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and amusement at his patience (lines 15-16), to which L jokingly responds that it would have been easier to send the pancakes "fresh" instead of writing all the ingredients (line 17). The conversation takes a more serious tone when another attempt is made on the proper translation of baking powder (18-25), and L concludes that he would never again engage in recipe writing. At this point L (who is Abruzzese) switches into Abruzzese dialect, joking on his inability to understand the words, or the recipe (line 28): Ma nu pover analfabet com me come posso sapevi @@@@ 'But a poor illiterate like me how would I know? @ @ @ @ ' This kind of dialectal use represents a case of stylization (Bell 1999; Rampton 1999; Eckert 2000). According to Coupland (2001: 346), "single utterances can be stylized when speakers are being studiedly 'artificial' or 'putting on a voice.' Stylized utterances have a performed character and index a speaker's identity switch of some kind, in the sense that he/she makes clear to other interactants that the identity taken up is not the one that would be expected of him/her in that context." In this case, the speaker is stylizing an 'ignorant' persona through describing himself as "a poor illiterate abruzzese", but, crucially, also through the use of dialect. That the message is carried across is clear from my reaction in line 29, where I qualify the statement and try to reduce the face threat by limiting the scope of the term illiterate: "An illiterate in the kitchen." L, on the other hand, expands the boundaries of his self-deprecation by qualifying himself as an illiterate person in other ways as well, including language (line 32), since according to him, his Italian is just an old (1938) version of his native dialect. This last self-deprecation clearly relates to his inability to write the recipe in Italian. Notice that the status of this utterance as stylized is confirmed by the presence of other cues, specifically laughter in lines 28-31 and the verbal play among interactants that follows it (lines 29-30). These elements help set it apart f r o m the rest of the conversational fragment as having a "performed" character. Thus, in accordance with Coupland's definition, L ' s utterance can be seen as stylized in the sense that: a) it signals the speaker's switch from a "normal" identity as a competent person to a locally occasioned identity as an incompetent one, and b) it signals that such identity is not to be taken as a stable characteristic of the speaker, but that he is rather "putting on a show". In fact, stylization here serves the speaker's need to do face work (Brown and Levinson 1987) in the presence of elements that may threaten

Style and stylization in the construction of identities in a card-playing club

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his position with respect to the interlocutor: his lack of knowledge of Italian vocabulary and his inability to fulfill his Italian friends' request properly. Remember also that the briscola players know that I am a professor of Italian, which could explain their hypercritical attitude towards their own performance in Italian. By acting as an ignorant person in a jocular fashion, L implicitly conveys the image that he is not, in fact, ignorant. Another aspect of stylization illustrated here relates to what Irvine calls the "distinctiveness" of varieties (Irvine 2001). As mentioned before, switches into dialect stand out among other switches (and they are "distinctive") because of their rarity and because speakers know that most of the time their interlocutors do not know or speak their dialect. Thus in example (3), like in others, although there is a number of switches from English into Italian, or vice versa (see for example lines 20, 22, 26), and although entire turns are in Italian, there is only one switch into Abruzzese dialect. But the distinctiveness of the dialect is also at a social semiotic level. As Irvine notes when talking about the relationship between different language varieties in Javanese (2001: 31-32), language varieties and dialects are socially conceptualized in specific ways and these conceptualizations are ideological. They constitute the basis for the interactants' construction and negotiation of meanings on specific occasions. These kinds of meaning-making processes can be seen at work in the interactional sequence analyzed. L enacts an illiterate person through the use of dialect, and thus the dialect becomes in a sense 'iconic' of its associated social category. 7 The allusion to ignorance and inability is quickly taken up as the central meaning of the stylization by both interactants. The partners' understanding of each other (demonstrated in their subsequent collaboration in the verbal play about illiteracy in lines 29-30) illustrates this important feature of stylization: its reliance on shared ideological constructs. In this case, the ideology to which the interactants refer is one that puts Italian language varieties on a prestige continuum: standard Italian is seen as a 'high' speech variety, dialects are placed at the lower end of the continuum and therefore, people who speak a dialect are perceived as more ignorant and less refined than people who don't. It is the same ideology which has dominated the development of the Italian language policies, which (until recently) have defacto stigmatized and highly discouraged the use of dialect in educational settings and the development of a bilingual competence in children. As Gensini (1988: 382) puts it: "For a long time, thanks to the repressive action of the school, the dialectophobia of the Fascist regime and of state institutions, dialect has been conceived as a fault, a shame: something that needed to be

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hidden, censored, lest it would negatively impact one's possibilities of participation into society" 8 [my translation]. The view of dialect as a 'shame' is amply documented in the literature on Italian immigrants in the U.S., but it is also confirmed in the interviews that I conducted with Circolo members. See for example the following fragment from an interview with the President of the club: (4) P: R: P:

Un tipo molto bravo Alberto. Ά very good guy Alberto'. Parla italiano? 'Does he speak Italian?' Credo di sì un po'. Sai come succede? Questi americani che hanno- italoamericani che hanno imparato un po' e che può darsi parlavano il dialetto a casa, come io, io volevo non mi piaceva parlare affatto con nessuno italiano perché il mio italiano era calabrese, bastardo. Ί think so, a little. You know what? These Americans who have- Italian Americans who have learned a little and that maybe spoke dialect at home, like me, I, I wanted I didn't like it at all to speak Italian with anybody because my Italian was Calabrese, a bastard [language].'

Thus, although stylization is a highly creative individual process, in order to succeed at an interactional level it needs to resort to common knowledge which, in turn, is based on language (and other kinds of) ideologies that are socially constructed and shared. Another important point that comes out from this analysis is that dialect use should not be identified per se as a sign of the speaker's affiliation with a social category. For example, Ferguson (1994: 20, quoted in Bauman 2001: 77) states that "speech style associated with a social category of speakers is what we commonly designate a dialect". However, as we have seen in the example above, using a dialect in interaction can be a stylistic choice that not only does not automatically imply social affiliation with a certain group, but whose meaning and social significance can only be inferred on the basis of a careful analysis of the interactional (and wider) context. However, dialect ideologies are not monolithic. Dialects are not always seen as non-prestigious, but may be considered more informal, more spontaneous, closer to the heart and to tradition, etc., an image undoubtedly related to the fact that dialects were spoken at home in most of Italy until the 1960s at least. Irvine (2001: 29) notes in her discussion of lavanese

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language levels that higher and lower styles are defined by differentiation in terms of affect, so that more formal styles are seen as more depersonalized, while more informal ones are regarded as affectively charged. These ideological representations of dialects as more personalized varieties constitute the background for different kinds of stylization through dialect in my data. For example, dialect use may mark shifts into a more relaxed relationship between interactants and a move into different identities. This was observed in the context of the games. Games are a very delicate business in terms of interactional equilibrium since players very often need to manage face threats (Brown and Levinson 1987). Losing a game can represent a threat to the player's face, but excessive winning may constitute a threat to the positive face of other players. One of the many strategies in order to reduce or counter face loss is dialect use in joking and for rebukes. Moving closer to the dialect in the continuum of Italian seems to add an informal tone and presents the speaker as a non-aggressive person. In these cases dialect is also stylized, in the sense that the persona to which identity is shifted through the language change is marked as different from the one usually presented by or associated with the player. In the following examples A is complaining to his companion about the fact that he has made the wrong moves and ruined the game. His complaints are in English in his first two turns (01 and 04). In the last turn A switches into dialect in order to emphasize his disappointment with his companion's moves. The utterance in Sicilian (line 06), is preceded by a very colloquial expression "oh man!" and accompanied by extra-linguistic markers of dissent (shaking of the head). The clustering of these devices with the utterance in dialect indicates that A is "performing", i.e. that the critical stance is voiced by an aggressive persona that is marked as not being his normal self. This enactment helps mitigate the threat of criticism since it allows the speaker to signal that the "critical" remark is not to be taken seriously: (5) 01 02 03 04 05 06

A: C: A: C: A:

((to C.)) You're losing a Briscola? Oh god! You know this game is shattered ! I know that //1 can tell that already. // Absolutely shattered! Here, you got the ace? I could have told you that already! Oh man! ((Shakes head)) Se mo consumati. 'We are ruined'

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Anna De Fina

In the following example dialect is used again to complain about another player's winning move. Notice that in this case it could be argued that L is crossing (Rampton 1995) into dialect since he does not speak Sicilian, but knows it only a little because his mother used to speak it. This is a clear indication of stylization since L is using a variety which is not his own: (6) 01

L:

Well I think, I'm gonna take this (....)

02 03

L: I:

04

L:

Uh my lord, these guys are unbelievable, UNBELIEVABLE, ok Coppe. 'Cups.' A coppe pisshio. Ί take with cups'

05

L:

06

I:

07 08 09

I: M: I:

( )

(•) Oh, Fig\shio, m'ha rrovenato fisshio, m'ha rrovinato, m'hai rrovenato! 'Oh son you ruined me, you ruined me, you ruined me!' [ bastoni 'batons' I have to give him points, unfortunately Eh I get ( ) Unfortunately,

The switch into Sicilian in lines 04-05 corresponds to a brag about winning (line 04) and a complaint about losing (line 05). L and his partner are playing against J and M. L is at first bragging about having put down a good card (line 04), but immediately after (line 05) he is complaining about the move by J who has put down a better card, thus earning points for his team. It is interesting how stylization is achieved here through exaggeration since L strongly rolls the [r] sound at the beginning of the word "rovinato" and repeats the utterance three times. As in the example above, L is at the same time "putting on a show" and representing a persona that does not coincide with his normal self, but which allows him to avoid a face-threat. Example (7) is similar to the ones discussed above in that it is a complaint, but it took place during a conversation, not a game. The players are scolding G for not honoring his promise to bring some Centerba (traditional Italian liquor) instead of wine. Notice that B's complaint starts in Italian but ends in Abruzzese:

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(7) 01 O: Hey L. excuse me for interrupting where is your Centerba, I brought mine 02 where is yours? 03 B: Eh ma quella bott-, la bottiglia che porti qua è sempre vino 'Eh but that bottle that you always bring here is wine' 04 'do sta' la centerba? 'where is the Centerba?' 05 G: La centerba è a casa mia\ 'the Centerba is at my home' 06 O: I keep hearing that In sum, members of the Briscola Circolo seem to identify the use of dialect with the building of a more relaxed atmosphere and through utterances in dialect often succeed in presenting a non-aggressive self. The analysis of these examples shows that stylization is an interactional strategy that individuals exploit to put up voices and project identities that they signal as not normally being associated with them. Such "exceptionality" is indicated through the performed character of stylized utterances, which in the cases discussed, included a clustering of features such as codeswitching or crossing, exaggerated or marked pronunciation, laughter, verbal play, use of informal expressions, and body language. Stylization thus rests on non-literal and ironic uses of language. Insofar as this process is based on the signaling of types of identity that are not "normally" associated with a person, stylization also tells us what kinds of linguistic features and, in this case, varieties are seen as marked and, to a certain extent, "other" to a person or a group. In this case dialectal varieties can be exploited in stylization acts precisely because they are presented as marked uses of the language. To the extent that linguistic features are stylized in different occasions and by different speakers, we also get a sense of how individual identity displays relate to collective ones, i.e. of how individual acts of identity contribute to the building of a collective identity for the group. The fact that in all the examples speakers use dialect as one of the central features of the projection of a performed persona, together with the absence of dialect usage in normal interaction in the transcripts, indicates that part of the collective identity of this group is a disaffiliation with the use of dialect as an unmarked option. This, in turn, symbolizes the possibility of using dialect as a choice, not a necessity, as was the case with many members of older generations of Italians, and therefore an overall projection of the collective identity of a group of people who have over-

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come the humble origins associated with the use of dialect as a central means of communication.

7.

Personal style and acts of identity

The example I discuss in this section helps demonstrate the difference between style and stylization. While stylization implies performance, putting on a show, and to a certain extent constructing a persona that is not the "normal" self, style helps build a certain identity through the repetition of patterns of behavior. In this section I look at the President's personal style as an example of how style works as an "act of identity" in the sense given to the term by LePage and Tabouret-Keller. According to these authors, "people create their linguistic systems so as to resemble those of the groups with which from time to time they wish to identify" (1985: 182). To illustrate how stylistic choices serve the purpose of identity building, consider the case of the writing of the Briscola News by the President of the Circolo della Briscola. The Briscola News is published at least once a month, but sometimes more often if there is need for further communications. It used to appear only in print form, but since 2003 the President has started sending it out electronically as well. The news reported in the journal relate to the briscola games (who won, what the standings in the games are, when the next game is, etc.), activities taking place within the Circolo or outside of it, financial matters, members' achievements, etc. The President's writing has a distinctive style, made up of his particular use of grammar, pragmatic routines, rhetorical strategies, punctuation, graphics, etc. What I want to argue here is that a central element in the way this style is used to convey a certain identity is language mixing. Messages in the Briscola News are written mostly in English, but with a careful and nonrandom insertion of Italian words and expressions, as can be seen in the following extract: (B)9 Ciao cari soci: 'Hi dear members' A preliminary, provisional notification to you of our next partita [game]: WEDNESDAY, FEB. 12TH, or TUESDAY, FEB 1 ITH. I'm awaiting Father 10 X ' s return from a Provincial meeting in New York for final confirmation. What an auspicious start to the 2003 season we had two nights ago!

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Enthusiasm for our meetings seems to have grown greatly. Is it time to consider playing twice monthly now, or is that still only a chauvinistic fantasy? The Circolo welcomes two new guests: L.N & J.B.We hope they would like to join our prestigious Circolo. As the Awards Dinner was so successful, most of the soci [members] with whom I had spoken on Jan 15th seemed to be in favor of having a picnic, to be held in June, and to have a true "Pot Luck" affair. Let's plan for it! As our wives obviously had such a wonderful time (as did the soci [members], naturalmente [obviously]), many of us are inclined to have more social affairs (outside the partite [games], themselves) in which to include the ladies. So, stay tuned for the exact date of the next partita [game]. A REMINDER: FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT REMITTED THE ANNUAL "PLAYERS' FEE", please do so at your earliest convenience. Mille Grazie. 'Thanks a lot' President's Name Most of the writing is in English, but there are switches into Italian at certain points. For example, both the greeting and the leave-taking formulas are in Italian. The other words in Italian are the term for 'members' (soci), the term for 'game' (partita), the term for 'club' (Circolo, which is also part of the club's official name) and the adverb naturalmente ('obviously'). Except for the latter case, these switches reflect regular choices in the President's messages. I have analyzed 28 issues of the Briscola News and have found that both partita and soci are very frequently (and in the case of soci, almost exclusively) in Italian. In fact, the following words are the most frequent words in Italian in the Briscola News: Soci (33 vs. 3 instances of members) Partita (35 vs. 16 instances of game) Classifica (18 instances vs. 1 instance of monthly

standings)

In the 24 out of 28 messages where there is a greeting at the beginning of the message, the greeting is in Italian. What kinds of other words and expressions appear in Italian in the Briscola News? Besides leave-taking and greeting, we find words for food such as antipasti, lasagna, primi piatti, words relating to the game (such as classifica and partita), to game-related items, such as trofeo ('trophy'), carte napoletane ('Neapolitan cards'), or to roles that members play in the games such as professore di briscola11 ('briscola instructor'). We also find

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nicknames for lent'). Finally, luck!'), Basta! and then. Most Cases in which

members, such as Ludovico il silenzioso ('Ludwig the SiItalian exclamations such as auguri felicissimi! ('lots of ('Stop'), Forza! ('Go!'), etc. make their appearance now of the time, these insertions consist of non-translated words. the Italian words are translated are rare. An example is:

(9) A special gustatorial - buongustaio - committee will be selected at our next partita. The absence of a translation is important because it indicates that the President considers these words and expressions as part of a common lexicon of the Circolo members and/or that if they are not known they should be learned. I have used the term personal style in a rather orthodox fashion to refer to the President's individual use of language and I have given examples of how language mixing contributes to this style. We have seen that such mixing is not random as the President inserts Italian words that refer basically to food and the games, or words that give a general "Italian flavor" to his messages. If we look also at the other aspects of his style - his warm greetings and the fact that he often jokes - we can say that such style contributes to the projection of an easy going persona, an individual who likes to have fun and to encourage his fellow players to also have fun, a person who likes informal communication and puts other people at ease. However, the codemixing also adds to this picture the fact that he presents himself as an individual of Italian origin who knows Italian and is happy to use it. In fact, here the use of Italian seems to work as a mechanism of identification with the members of a group, as an "act of identiy" in LePage and TabouretKeller's sense. However, an important point is that while building and projecting his own identity, the President also works toward the construction of a collective identity for the Circolo. He does so by underlining at the same time two of its fundamental aspects: briscola playing and being Italian-American. Being Italian-American is in fact iconically present, through language alternation, as an inseparable trait of briscola playing. In this way, the Circolo della Briscola is presented not so much as a card playing organization, but rather as an Italian-American organization. As briefly discussed above, the centrality of this ethnic self-presentation is echoed and strengthened in many other symbolic practices that take place in the Circolo such as socialization practices, food consumption, use of symbols, etc. The process of construction of a personal identity is closely intertwined with

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the process of construction of a collective identity. Thus, personal style is both based on and creates a preferred identity for the Circolo. But personal style, like stylization, works to index identity through its recourse to shared representations about social identities. In fact, the President's style contributes to building a collective image of the Circolo precisely because it is based on associations between linguistic features and socially constructed identities that can be recognized by Circolo members. In this case, the President conjures up an Italian-American identity through adherence to and imitation of a style of speaking (the insertion of Italian words in utterances that are fundamentally in English) that characterizes the way Italian-Americans are represented as speaking in films, T.V. series, and literature. Thus the President's personal way of speaking becomes culturally associated with Italian-American ethnic identity. At the same time, the tone of the messages and the domains from which Italian words are selected - food, sports, card-playing, historical characters - also symbolically display features stereotypically associated with a common representation of the Italian character: love for good food and leisure, friendliness, and adherence and respect for traditions. In this sense, the President's personal style reflects and builds upon consolidated and shared representations about social identities.

8.

Conclusions

In this paper I have attempted to show how style, as a strategy, contributes to the construction of identities in interaction. Although style as a general term covers different phenomena, I have shown that we need to distinguish between stylization, the performance-oriented assumption of a voice or voices that are distinct from the speaker's self, and personal style, as the manifestation of a coherent "way of being" through regular linguistic (and non-linguistic) choices. Style contributes to identification with a group: for instance, it allows the speaker to affiliate with Italy and Italians through regular use of their language. Of course stylization can in principle be used to the same end, to express solidarity with a group, as there is nothing inherent in the interactional functioning of style and stylization. Rather, the difference lies in the way we define the two terms and in the mechanisms through which stylization and personal style are manifested in discourse. Another important point that has emerged in the discussion is that the meaning of stylistic choices and the range of resources used to express

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them can only be fully appreciated through a close interactional analysis. Thus, for example, the use of dialect, as of any other linguistic resources, should not be automatically seen as a symptom of affiliation with the social group speaking it, since dialects can be used in interaction to express a wide variety of meanings and also to distance oneself from dialect speaking groups. I have underlined the importance of relating style and identity with social semiosis and ideology in order to ground interpretations of what is going on in interaction on shared representations and knowledge, and in order to show how meaning is constructed at the intersection between individual creativity and social knowledge. Finally, an important point that has been made through the analysis is that although it is sometimes analytically useful to separate the mechanisms and strategies through which individual and collective identities are constructed, these are not necessarily separate phenomena, and they interact in interesting ways. In fact, on the one hand, individual acts of identity reflect and rest upon shared associations between properties and social categories, but on the other hand they help to continuously build collective identities either emphasizing socially accepted associations between social categories and associated meanings or by creating new contexts for their interpretation.

Appendix. Transcription ((smiling)) (...) (.)

?

word-> = Bold

conventions

Non-linguistic actions Inaudible Noticeable pause Falling intonation followed by noticeable pause (as at end of declarative sentence) Rising intonation followed by noticeable pause (as at end of interrogative sentence) Continuing intonation : may be a slight rise or fall in contour (less than ""."" or - "?"); may be not followed by a pause (shorter than ""." or "?") Listing intonation self interruption Latched utterances by the same speaker or by different speakers Emphatic stress

Style and stylization in the construction of identities in a card-playing club CAPS :: [ —> (line) @ italics italics

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Very emphatic stress Vowel or consonant lengthening Overlap between utterances Highlights key phenomena. Laughter (the amount of @ roughly indicates the duration of laughter) Utterance in Italian Utterance in dialect

Notes 1. For an overview of recent approaches to identity, see De Fina, Schiffrin and Bamberg (2006:1-23). 2. It is important to stress here that the so called "dialects" spoken in Italy are not varieties of Italian, but different vernacular languages. 3. I use capital letters to refer to individual players in all examples and I refer to myself as R. 4. On the centrality of story-telling in the expression of identity, see De Fina 2003. 5. In the examples I have used italics to signal that the utterance was spoken in Italian and underlined italics to signal that the utterance was spoken in dialect. 6. Bussare ('to knock') is a technical term to refer to a tressette move. 7. Again, I refer to Irvine's proposal on iconicity in style processes: "Iconization is a semiotic process that transforms the sign relationship between linguistic features and the social images to which they are linked. Linguistic differences appear to be iconic representations of the social contrasts they index - as if linguistic features somehow depicted or displayed a social group's nature or essence." (2001: 33) 8. "Per lungo tempo, grazie all'azione repressiva della scuola, alla dialettofobia del fascismo e delle istituzioni dello Stato, il dialetto è stato vissuto come colpa, come vergogna: qualcosa che occorreva nascondere, censurare, pena il risentirne nelle proprie possibilità di inserimento nella società ". 9. Briscola News, January 17, 2004 10. The President refers to the fact that the games will be played in a building belonging to the Church. 11. Members act as teachers in games with newcomers where they initiate the latter to the briscola cards and rules.

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References Antaki, Charles and Susan Widdicombe (eds.) 1998 Identities in Talk, London: Sage. Auer, Peter 1998 Introduction: Bilingual conversation revisited. In: Auer, Peter (ed.), Code-Switching in Conversation. London: Routledge, 29^-8. Barrett, Rusty 1999 Indexing polyphonous identity in the speech of African American Drag Queens. In: Bucholtz, M., A. Liang, and L. Sutton (eds.), Reinventing Identitities. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 313-332. Bauman, Richard 2000 Language, identity, performance. Pragmatics 10(1), 1-5. 2001 The ethnography of genre in a Mexican market: From, function, variation. In: Eckert, P. and J. R. Rickford (eds.), Style and Sociolinguistic Variation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 57-77. Bell, Alan 1999 Styling the other to define the self: A study in New Zealand identity making. Journal of Sociolinguistics 3, 523-541. Brown, Penelope and Steven Levinson 1987 Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bucholtz, Mary 1999 You da man: Narrating the racial other in the production of white masculinity. Journal of Sociolinguistics 3(4), 443^-60. Coupland, Nikolas 2001 Dialect stylization in radio talk. Language in Society 30(3), 345-375. De Fina, Anna 2003 Narrative Identities: A Study of Immigrant Discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. forthcoming Code-switching and the construction of ethnic identity in an Italian American club. Language in Society. De Fina, Anna, Deborah Schiffrin, and Michael Bamberg (eds.) 2006 Discourse and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Eckert, Penelope 2000 Linguistic Variation as Social Practice. Maiden, MA: Blackwell. Edwards, Derek 1998 The relevant thing about her: Social identity categories in use. In: Antaki, C. and S. Widdicombe (eds.), Identities in Talk London: Sage, 13-33.

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Ferguson, Charles A. 1994 Dialect, register and genre: Working assumptions about conventionalization. In: Biber, D. and E. Finegan (eds.), Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Register. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 15-30. Gensini, Stefano 1990 Elementi di storia linguistica d'Italia. Milan: Minerva Italica. Goffman, Ervin 1967 On face work. In: Interactional Ritual. New York: Anchor Books, 5^16. Gumperz, John 1982 Discourse Strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hymes, Dell 1981 In vain I tried to tell you. Essays in Native American Ethnopoetics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Holmes, Janet 2006 Workplace narratives, professional identity and relational practice. In: De Fina, Anna, Deborah Schiffrin, and Michael Bamberg (eds.), Discourse and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 166187. Irvine, Judith 2001 'Style' as distinctiveness: The culture and the ideology of linguistic differentiation. In: Eckert, P. and J. R. Rickford (eds.), Style and Sociolinguistic Variation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 21^-3. Johnstone, Barbara 1999 Uses of Southern-sounding speech by contemporary Texas women. Journal of Sociolinguistics 3(4), 505-520. LePage, Robert and Andrée Tabouret-Keller 1985 Acts of Identity: Creole-based Approaches to Language and Ethnicity. New York: Cambridge University Press. Rampton, Ben 1995 Crossing: Language and Ethnicity Among Adolescents. London: Longman. Rampton, Ben (ed). 1999 Styling the other. Journal of Sociolinguistics 3(4), 421^-27. Sebba, Mark and Tony Wooton 1998 We, they and identity: Sequential versus identity-related explanation in code-switching. In: Auer, P. (ed.), Code-switching in Conversation. London/New York: Routledge, 262-289. Woolard, Karen 1999 Simultaneity and bivalency as strategies in bilingualism. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 8, 3-29.

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Zimmerman, Don H. 1998 Identity, context and interaction. In: Antaki, C. and S. Widdicombe (eds.), Identities in Talk. London: Sage, 87-106.

Chapter 4 Being a 'colono' and being 'daitsch' in Rio Grande do Sul: Language choice and linguistic heterogeneity as a resource for social categorisation Peter Auer, Jacinta Arnhold, and Cintia Bueno-Aniola

1.

Style and identities in interaction

Choosing a certain way of speaking has social meaning. In recent years, this basic insight of sociolinguistics has been reformulated by many researchers using the concepts of (communicative, social) style and (social) identities (see the introduction to this volume for further details and bibliographical references). A 'certain way of speaking' can be called a (verbal) style, if its features are perceived and interpreted in a holistic way by the members of a given group or community. It has social meaning and therefore becomes a social style if this interpretation links it to social categories (such as ethnic, gender, age, or a certain milieu) such that speaking in a certain way is seen as an index to this category. Ascribing category membership of this type to a person, or displaying one's own membership in this category, is what we mean by social identity work. In this paper, we will investigate social styles and identity work in the German/Portuguese bilingual 'colonial zone' in Southern Brazil. We will refer to language choice and code alternation as well as the varieties of German and Portuguese used in order to characterise these styles, but also to communicative (rhetorical) strategies employed to formulate an argument, a complaint, a problem, etc., in an institutional context. One of the points we wish to make is that bilingualism is more than a mental disposition or a set of cognitive abilities. It is a resource for constructing meaning, in two ways. On the one hand, bilingualism can appear in interaction as code-switching, by which we mean the juxtaposition of two semiotic (in our case, linguistic) systems in order to create local meaning in conversation. For instance, code-switching may contrast different participant constellations, different verbal activities, different modalities (keys) such as ironic and serious talk, etc. But on the other hand, the use of two languages

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(or in some cases, the lack of using two languages where this is expected) can also display a speaker's belonging to a certain social group, i.e. it may index category membership. Bilingualism is therefore both a resource for creating conversational structure and for doing identity work in interaction. The identity-relevant categories we will be concerned with are on the one hand an ethnic category ('German'/'daitsch') 1 , and on the other hand the economic/cultural category 'colono'. Although these category labels are never used explicitly in our data, we claim that they are relevant as indexes to the participants' identities in the data we want to look at. Before analysing the data in more detail, it may be useful to recall the basic principles upon which the identities-in-interaction approach rests; they have been formulated by Antaki and Widdicombe (1998: 3) as follows: (i)

Having an identity means "being cast into a category with associated characteristics or features"; incumbency in this category may both be claimed by a participant to an interaction and ascribed to him/her by co-participants (ii) Identity-relevant activities in interaction are "indexical and occasioned", i.e., they cannot be understood unless their embedding into the conversational and larger context at hand is taken into account (iii) Identity as an occasioned and achieved category incumbency needs to be made relevant in an interaction in order to become consequential in/for it; this holds for brought along and brought about identities. In accordance with ethnomethodological principles, the analyst's task is to reconstruct this making relevant of a category. It need not imply the overt naming of an identity-relevant category though but can be achieved through symbolic means. (iv) 'Having an identity' is consequential for interaction, since the respective category is linked to category bound expectations of action; this consequentiality may become visible in a shift of footing of the interaction; however, it may also lead to the somewhat trivial consequence that 'nothing special' happens precisely because co-membership is established. (v) This consequentiality opens up the possibility for the analyst to reconstruct from those category bound activities ("people's exploitation of the structures of conversation") the identity-relevant category in question.

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Our primary aim is to discover how certain linguistic 'variables' (or rather, their constellations) can index social categories and do the identity work described by Antaki and Widdicombe. For the sociolinguist, this implies that the variation space is defined, not so much within a language, but within a (group of) speaker's linguistic repertoire. However, this variability is not of interest in itself but only to the degree that its symbolic potencies are actually exploited by social actors (consciously or unconsciously) in order to present their own social persona in a given social context. After a short introduction to the field of inquiry (section 2) we will discuss three speakers' different social styles and their interactional embedding (recipient feedback) in a bilingual, rural context in Rio Grande do Sul (section 3). We will show how these social styles can come to index the categories of a Portuguese of German descent and of a colono.

2.

The Germano-Brazilians in RS as a field of sociolinguistic inquiry

A large area in the southernmost state of Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul (RS), is socially, economically and culturally shaped (and looks upon itself as being shaped) by settlements of European labour immigrants, mainly from Germany and Italy. We will focus here on the German immigrants who arrived first in the 1820s and today form the largest German-speaking community outside Europe, with several hundred thousand active speakers. As in most immigrant communities, membership is not categorical but rather graded in subtle ways. Among the explicit grading devices observed among our informants and reflected in their system of social categorisations is a difference between "Germans" (Daitsche) and people "of German descent" (descendência alemä: mai vatter wòr Daitscher...), which reflects a way of positioning oneself closer to or more distant from the 'core' of the community. This gradedness of membership is also reflected in and achieved by the use of symbolic means which express Germanness; apart from a number of resources which could be called folkloristic (such as house-building and house-keeping, folk dances, folk music, cooking, certain sports such as bowling or shooting rifles, fairs such as Oktoberfest imitations), an important resource here is the language varieties used, including the specific way in which Brazilian Portuguese and German are spoken and in which they are intertwined. The (graded) social (membership) category Daitsch is complemented in the area by the category Italie-

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ner (Italians) (the two being the core of the secondary category imigrante); both Daitsche and Italiener are opposed to the category 'Brazilian' (Brazilianer, brazileiros) which is used by the 'Germans' as a residual (nonethnic) category, i.e. for all Brazilians of non-(recent) immigrant background (cf. Bueno-Aniola 2007).

'Daitsche' 'Brasilianer' 'Italiener'

Figure 1. To understand the following discussion of linguistic choices and their interpretation, it is necessary to introduce some background information. The social and economic success of the Germano-Brazilians in Brazilian society has been characterised by a tension between what could be called an assimilationist and an autarkistic/segregationist path to economic welfare. The autarkistic way (which should not be confused with a separatist movement, which it never was) counts on autonomy and solidarity within the ethnic group which is more or less sharply delimited against the other groups (in particular against the Brasilianer). It was the traditional way of reaching (some moderate) prosperity in the peasant colonies in the 19th century which could not survive without a system of mutual assistance; it reached its climax early in the 20th century. What made it possible was a relatively uniform population of German colonists with a similar social and cultural background (i.e. small farmers, craftsmen and industrial workers from various parts of Germany) and with similar political and economic interests. Of course, the German settlements have always depended on trade with Brazilian society, particularly within the state of Rio Grande do Sul, and although the 'Germans' were basically autarkistic in orientation, they were never autarkous in an economic sense of the word. However, they organised their own infra-structure, originally centred around the Protestant and to a lesser

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degree Catholic parishes and their priests, who often also set up a community-run, German language school. Until about the time of the first world war, the owners of the so-called private (in contrast to state-owned) colonies also played a role in this creation of a 'German' infrastructure. In the early 20th century, a cooperativist movement was established, leading to the foundation of 'German' agricultural cooperatives and cooperative banks. The viability of the autarkistic path to economic welfare was reduced if not blocked by the fascist-socialist estado novo of Getulio Vargas in the 1930s, which had the effect of extending the reach of the state administration into those parts of the Brazilian society which up to then had been organised and structured in a largely self-administered way; this included the so-called immigration zone in the south. The formation of the Brazilian nation-state under Vargas therefore led to the forced disruption of 'German' autarky in the South of Brazil, inter alia to the closing down of all German-language, private schools, and a ban on languages other than Portuguese. Part of the programme of the state penetration of society was the foundation of unions (sindicatos) which have survived up to the present day. One of them, the union of the peasant workers, which also subsumes small land-owners, is the institution from which the data presented and discussed in the following section were drawn. Despite the disruption of the German autarkistic infrastructure in Southern Brazil, the segregationist stance has not disappeared completely; up to the present day, some of the German-origin families live in remote areas of the hinterland in relatively homogeneous, monoethnic groups with restricted contacts with main-stream Portuguese-speaking Brazilian society. They form the core of the popular stereotype of the 'German colono' (cf. Bueno-Aniola 2007). These settlers/peasants mainly survive and rely on ethnically founded community bonds. However, their numbers have been greatly reduced over the last approximately 70 years. The autarkistic position never was the only one though. From the very beginning of the immigration another, much smaller, more assimilationist group of Germans settled mainly in the developing urban centres such as Porto Alegre, the state capital. They contributed in important ways to the establishment of commerce and industry in the area, but quickly gave up their German language and culture (despite some German cultural centres in Porto Alegre which survived until the 30s), such that Porto Alegre is today a monolingual Portuguese-speaking city. What is characteristic for the last decades is a shift from the autarkistic to the assimilationist position by many Brazilians of German descent also in the hinterland (interior) of

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RS. The shift is due in the last instance to the fact that the German peasant settlements in Southern Brazil have not been a 100% success story after all. It was not only due to the estado novo that the German settlements were in danger of decaying economically, but also to the over-exploitation of the soil, an unskilled and untrained labour force lacking in agricultural competences in a climate and under conditions which diverged considerably from those in Middle Europe, and unsuitable marketing conditions for the agricultual goods produced. One of the consequences of these economic difficulties which set in as early as in the late 19th century, was a continuous process of colonial migration by settlers of German descent within Brazil, first (and starting in the same period) to the north of the old (primary) colonies within the state of Rio Grande do Sul, later into the adjoining Brazilian states in the north. Another consequence was a shift away from pure agriculture; many Germano-Brazilians today work in and/or own small factories, and, particularly in some of the primary colonies (to which we will turn below) in the tourism industry. These economic developments have made the previous forms of autarkistic life obsolete. A third possible consequence was the abandonment of the colonies and migration into the larger cities, a pan-Brazilian process which is perhaps less dramatic in the South than in other parts of the country (since the economic situation in the countryside on the whole is not bad) but nonetheless severely affects some of the areas in which we did our field-work (particularly in the secondary/daughter colonies, e.g. in Säo Paulo das Missöes). As these very superficial remarks already make it clear, the distinction between autarkistic and assimilationist stances maps onto a second distinction which is of central importance to an understanding of Brazilian society in general, and to that of the 'German' settlements in particular: the distinction between urbanity and rurality, or between city and hinterland (interior)I. The more one advances into the interior of RS, the less prosperous the population becomes. This is also an ideological issue. As already mentioned, the stereotypes which the non-immigrant Brazilians in Rio Grande do Sul (as well as most Italian-origin immigrants) share about 'the Germans' mainly target the colonos (peasants) of German origin in the 'innermost interior' of the country (cf. Bueno-Aniola 2007). These stereotypes are not very positive, ranging from character traits such as being stubborn (,teimoso), impolite and unsophisticated (grosso), to outer characteristics such as being badly dressed and groomed, and lacking in hygiene standards. Of course, these stereotypes are also known by the GermanoBrazilians; for instance, a regular radio comedy programme in Nova

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Petrópolis, the town from which the following data originate, recurrently plays with the stereotype of the German colono who hates to take showers in a jokular manner. (The programme is produced for the German-speaking population.) It is not surprising then that there is a certain social pressure on the previous autarkistic population of German descent to turn to a more assimilationist stance. In this paper, we will look at linguistic acts of identity in a specific institutional context in the town of Nova Petrópolis, a town in which we did extensive field work in the year 2000. The institution is the local office of the union of rural workers. Nova Petrópolis is a town of roughly 17,000 inhabitants the large majority (90%) of which is of German descent. It is located some 100 km to the north of Porto Alegre in the Serra Gaúcha, a hilly area in one of the earliest German settlement areas and today an area which is attractive for tourists because of its mixture of immigrant culture and scenic beauty. In many ways, Nova Petrópolis is one of those places in which the conflicts between the segregationist/autarkistic and the assimilationist positions become most acute. On the one hand, Nova Petrópolis is the first stronghold of 'German' language, culture and economic strength one encounters when one moves from the capital into the interior. In Nova Petrópolis, the dominating social groups are almost exclusively 'German'; and the town is generally perceived by its inhabitants (of German descent or not) and by the outsiders as 'German'. The 'Brazilians' are seen as a threat by most 'Germans', and there is a clear tendency to keep them out of power positions. On the other hand, and counteracting these segregationist tendencies, the economy of the region no longer rests on agriculture alone. Although the countryside around Nova Petrópolis (its immediate interior) is still very much agricultural, there is also a considerable number of small industries (mainly leather and knitwear) which depend on outside labour, basically of non-German ethnic background. A somewhat half-hearted commitment to tourism also reflects a certain ambiguity towards letting the town become 'spoiled' by large scale ('Brazilian') tourism. The town is thus ideologically speaking conservative, but it also presents the image of a 'modern', up-to-date place which is integrated into the Brazilian (or at least Riograndese) economy. Although Nova Petrópolis is linked to the ethnic category 'daitsch [German]', the town has its own hinterland, i.e. the differences between colonos and town-people cross-cuts the ethnic distinction between "Germans" and "Brazilians".

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Within this context, the sindicato dos trabalhadores rurais plays an important role by catering for the social and economic needs of the small farmers in the area. One of the main reasons for which the colonos come to town is in fact the sindicato. In a way, it mediates between the autarkistic and the assimilationist position, or between the Brazilian state/economy and the peasants of the interior. To the European eye, the sindicato presents an mixture of state welfare, political organ and remnants of the cooperativist movement unusual for a union. The colonists become members of the sindicato (and pay membership fees). For those fees, they can claim social and economic benefits. The economic benefits are basically related to buying agricultural materials such as seeds from the sindicato and selling one's products through the sindicato on the market. This is partly done within a pre-monetarian exchange system (troca-troca: 'barter'). The social benefits are perhaps even more important; they extend to all sorts of social welfare, starting from the posto de saúde (a general practicioner' s office) to advicegiving about the state administered social security system. In general, the economic, legal and administrative system of the Brazilian state is translated by the sindicato for the colonists who in turn to the sindicato in order to find solutions for their various problems. Although the sindicatos historically speaking have not originated from the traditional Germano-Brazilian infrastructure (and are not related to the cooperative movement of the early 20th century), the local office is today considered by the Germans in the municipio of Nova Petrópolis as one of their institutions. While supported by the state, the sindicato is not looked upon as a state institution. This is also reflected in its language policy: while state institutions are always monolingual Portuguese, the sindicato is thoroughly bilingual. All the employees we were able to observe and taperecord were perfectly fluent in both languages. They preferred to speak Portuguese with some German code-switching when among themselves, but they adapted easily and freely to the German language choices of their customers, many of whom were clearly dominant in German. These employees of the sindidaco were thus ideal brokers; not only in a linguistic sense, but also in a cultural sense. Since most of them had grown up in the interior themselves, they knew the colonists' life from their own experience. On the other hand, they had become acquainted with the state administration through their training and studies.

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3.

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Displays and ascriptions of identities in the sindicato

In this section, we will present three farmer-clients at the sindicato office in somewhat more detail, each of whom uses a specific social-communicative style, and each whom is responded to differently by the employees. The three custumers can be ordered linguistically by the way in which they combine German and Portuguese - from a next-to-monolingual German mode to a next-to-monolingual Portuguese mode over a bilingual style which combines the two languages by switching and mixing. However, the issue of language choice is just one of a co-occurring set of linguistic and non-linguistic communicative features which includes the selection of linguistic resources from the German and the Portuguese domain of the linguistic reportoire of the community, but also prosody, posture and gesture. The deployment and interactional relevance of the resulting verbalcommunicative styles will be analysed sequentially, i.e. by looking at how the interaction unfolds in terms of the subject matters dealt with. In order to analyse identities-in-interaction, the sequential method is particularly suited since it allows (and requires) taking into account the way in which the representatives of the institutions (the employees at the sindicato) respond to the client. In the institutional context of the sindicato, another set of identityrelevant categories must be added to ethnic ('German') and economiccultural ones ('colono'). These are the situated categories of 'employee' and 'client'. As we shall see below, linguistic choices - particularly the choice of Portuguese vs. German dialect - are sensitive to the selection of this category pair which contrasts with the non-institutional category-pair 'German'/'Brazilian' but can also combine with it. (Socio-)linguistic (and in general, stylistic) choices become meaningful by being opposed paradigmatically to other, alternative choices. It is therefore necessary to know the linguistic repertoire of the community in order to be able to understand the meaning of the choices. In the research area, the base dialects brought along from Germany have largely disappeared in favour of a dialect koiné which is often called Hunsrückisch (from a mountain area in Germany from where many of the first settlers originated), sometimes simply Daitsch (cf. Auer 2005). This koiné has next to completely absorbed the dialects of the Rhineland, of Silesia, of Pomerania, of Swabia, etc., which also used to be spoken in the area. However, it varies internally on a basilect-acrolect continuum, the latter being closer to standard German. The acrolectal form clearly carries more prestige than the

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basilectal one. The leading classes, to the extent that they speak German in public (and also the employees in the sindicato) use this acrolectal form. Brazilian Portuguese is spoken by all Brazilians of German descent today; however, their Portuguese varies between a speech style which is indistinguishable from the one used in Porto Alegre over one in which local gaucho elements of rural (non-immigrant) Rio Grande do Sul speech are present, to one which clearly betrays their German language background. It is a small set of phonological and phonetic features which is responsible for this German accent. 2 Given the negative attitudes of the monolingual Brazilians towards these features, it is justified to call them basilectal as well. But note that the terms acrolectal and basilectal refer to the overt prestige of the variants on the 'official market'; their covert prestige may be quite different. A customer who comes to the sindicato can exploit this whole variation space provided of course that s/he has it as her or his disposal. The employees will understand all variants. The social semantics of these variants differ widely, however. 3.1. Client 1: The seeds In our first example, a man, presumably in his fifties (kl), has come to the sindicato office. He wants to exchange maize seeds of the type 'Agromer' 303 which he was given by mistake, for those of type 'Agromer' 122 which he had originally ordered. There are three employees in the office; one of them (a2) serves the client while the others enter and leave the space behind the counter, sometimes taking part in the interaction between A2 and the client as well. (Sindicato 1) (the recording starts when interaction between the client and the employee of the sindicato who serves him has just passed beyond the initial greeting sequence, the identification of the client by name, and a first problem exposure. Portuguese underlined.) 01

kl :

die wollt ich um 'those I wanted to ex-'

Being a 'colono ' and being 'daitsch ' in Rio Grande do Sul

02 03 04

a2:

05

kl:

06 07

a2:

08

kl:

09 10 11

a2 :

12

kl:

13

14 15

a2: kl :

16

al:

17

kl :

18 19

95

die harre ich jo verkehrd äh Ί had them (i.e., the seeds) by mistake uhm' han die geSCHIGGT; 'they sent them' hunnerdzwoienZWANzich harrich; (type) Ί 2 2 I had' (i.e., ordered) sim 'yes' jetzt (.) muss ich de dreihunderddrei (.) nomme bringe, 'now I have to bring the 303 again (=back)' GREcht ich nomme hunnertzwoienzwAnzich; '(and) I would get the 122 again' hast dreihunnertdrei GUT; 'then you have a credit on the 303' agrME glob (1.0) \ A g r o m e r ' I think' de agroMER; (.) 'the ' A g r o m e r " die dun i eh dann Omdrogge; (.) 'so I exchange them' ((3.0, looks down on his desk and starts working in his files; in the meantime, Al approaches the front desk and sits down next to a2) ) do hon ich jetz zwoi naijeΊ have two new ones (=seeds) now' die sore wärre gut fer Silo (gewe). 'they say they are good for (making) silo' ((i.e., for growing crop to be stored for feeding the cattle))

(wollt ich mal prove uf mal) ( Ί wanted to try them') ((during this turn, Kl and Al establish eye contact) ) pa SORde? 'some sorts?' die harre mer η SORT geb,> (.) 'they had given me a sort' zwoi pack, 'two small sacks' ich weeß net was fer SENN das do. (0.5) '(I don't know) what kind they are'

96

Peter Auer, Jacinta Arnhold, and Cintia

20 21

al: a2:

22

kl:

23 24 25

a2:

26

kl:

27 28

a2:

29

kl:

30 31

a2:

32

kl:

33 34 35

a? a3 :

36 37

a?: a2:

38

kl:

39 40 41

Bueno-Aniola

agr[oMER? [agroMER? 'Agromer?' Ijo; (.) 'yes' die (wolld ich) agroMER; (.) '(I wanted) them, agromer' ich han noch ni: gePLANZT;= Ί have never planted (them)' =cê=e=associado? 'are you a member?' Ijo. 'yes' awwer d i e so:re die wärre gUet fer sillo. 'but they say they were good for the silo' ich da(ch)t du wollst misst verzieh kilo dann hon. Ί thought you wanted had to have 40 kilo then' ha? (-) 'sorry?'

'yes' verzieh;= 'forty' =Ijo. 'yes' [de ande midedot Omdrogge. 'the others exchange with those' [( ) ( (a3 e n t e r s t h e room a n d p a s s e s b y ) ) (mor[gen) 'morning' [( ) hunnertzwaiezwanz[ich. 'one hundred and twenty two' [ I j o . (3.0) 'yes' ich hatt ai (.) Ί had' pur nekst von denne i han'= 'very similar to those I have' sen awwa net so vili KOMM;= 'but not so many came'

Being a 'colono ' and being 'daitsch ' in Rio Grande do Sul 42 43

a3:

44 45

kl: a3:

46 47

kl:

48

a3:

49

kl:

50

a3 :

51 52 53

kl:

54 55 56 57 58 59

60

61

a2:

97

hon ich net so vili gri:d; Ί didn't get so much' das D00 jahr woor des (.) 'this year it was' AH das D00 joor woor das schE:jn gewes (.) med de (pflanzmilje). (-) 'this year it was fine with the seed maize' sen (schu) zu we:nich [(komm von ) 'too few came of ( )' [wesst ( . ) ich ha tt (.) fenef päck (.) von denne bestellt gehat. (.) ( ) 'you know I had ordered five packs of those' vi eicht grie me ja nEchscht [jähr meh

'maybe we will get more next year ( )' [ i jo ' yes ' awwer das do: jahr sen se schon NÄCHST nommo AAL. (.) 'but this year they are next to gone already' un me sen erseht im okTO:ber; 'and it is only october' ((2.0; Kl signs a form for a2)) NE: das dO: joor wimmo GLAICH. (.) 'no this year I will right now' vo:rjes jahr sen ich hingang= (.) 'last year I went there' ba die la:d dennere abgemach;= 'to the people (and) took off' ((=peeled)) (some of their maize) das woor puur POTT. 'this was pure crap' hon ich re geplanst wo ich kO:f hat= Ί planted some which I had bought' sollst mo sin wi das schEjne mil je wor(d) = 'you should see like they became good maize' anre ere PUUR { (makes a disdainful hand gesture) ) ; (.) 'those of the others just' [so STECkcha [geb; [((makes hand gesture indicating the height of the maize) ) 'became little sticks' [hast de hast de pack (.) wo hAs de pack? 'have you have you your sacks where do you have your sacks'

98

Peter Auer, Jacinta Arnhold, and Cintia Bueno-Aniola

62

kl :

im KARre 'in the car' 63 a2 : kommst a i : (.) urine (durchrinn 'come through downstairs to the back then' 64 k l : I jo. 'yes' 65 a 2 : driwwe in de FUNd[os. 'over there into the back entrance' 66 k l : [ t a bom. 'o.k.' ((Customer l e a v e s the room.))

dann).

In the first 11 lines of the extract, the customer (kl) and one of the employees of the sindicato (a2) are involved in a business transaction. Kl has stated that he wants to exchange (maize) seeds. The deontic formulation in 05/06 suggests that he has talked to somebody else before who instructed him to bring along the wrong seeds (type 303, line 05: Ί have to bring them') and that he would then get the right ones (note the conjunctive grecht = std.Germ. kriegte 'would I become' in line 06). The employee confirms that he will get a credit for the returned seeds (line 07), and the customer adds the brand name about which he is not entirely sure (cf. the hedged phrase in line 08). He concludes by formulating once more his intention to exchange the seeds, and the employee starts to fill in the forms, averting gaze and looking down at his paperwork. Two things are noteworthy up to this point. First, the client selects German (dialect) for the interaction. He insists on this language choice although the employee's sim in line 04 can be heard to invite either a change to Portuguese or a mixed language use. Second, the communicative style which K l employs is highly 'elliptical', i.e. it depends on background knowledge and inferencing on the part of the employee. For instance, his lines 02 die harre ich jo verkehrd ... Ί had ... them by mistake' and 03 hunnerdzwoienZWANzich harrich Ί 2 2 I had' both leave the predicate (inferrable: 'been given' and 'ordered') implicit, since the main verb is lacking. In 08/09, it is unclear whether the brand-name Agromer refers to the seeds received or those ordered, or both. But note that neither the fact that the customer insists on German dialect, nor his implicitness lead to major problems for the interaction: it proceeds smoothly, and the customer gets what he wants.

Being a 'colono ' and being 'daitsch ' in Rio Grande do Sul

99

In the following section of the interaction, K1 introduces a different topic which is unrelated to the business at hand but linked to the topic of the seeds. K1 in fact attempts to start a chat while he has to wait until A2 has completed the paper work, and since A2 is not available as a recipient (he is still looking down at the papers), he after some initial problems manages to establish eye contact with another employee of the sindicato (from line 15 onwards), who has just entered the room and sat down behind the counter, next to A2. The customer talks about two different types of (maize) seeds (12) which he apparently has tried out (15) because they are said to be particularly well suited for the production of cattle feed (13). However, the chat is not successful, presumably because of referential difficulties linked to K l ' s once more highly elliptical and implicit way of speaking. After a rather non-committed continuer in line 14, Al requests a clarification (16) which the customer is unable to give; neither does it becomes clear who gave him the seeds (17: 'they gave me...' with unpersonal 'they') nor which seeds exactly he got (19). Intermingled with questions the first employee asks about the seeds the customer wants to exchange (2023) and about the customer's membership in the sindicato, the customer tries to continue the topic of the chat (lines 24, 27), but there are no further contributions from Al (or Al). The chat has failed, K1 has not received uptake from either of the employees. From the point of view of language choice, note that the employee switches into Portuguese for the question about K l ' s membership in line 25. This is a typical code-switching which contextualises the employee's incumbency in the institutional category of the sindicato's employee, and thereby invites the co-participant's categorisation as a member of the opposite category, that of the client. K1 does not accept this use of code-switching in order to re-contextualise the situation, however, but once again answers in German dialect (25-26). The following sequence (28-38) once more deals with technical details of the exchange of seeds, this time concerning the quantity of seeds the customer wants to take with him (40 kg). At this point, the third employee (A3) enters the room and greets the customer in passing (35). Al now makes a second attempt to initiate small talk, this time with A3. He starts with what may be heard as a very weak complaint (39-42) that he didn't get as much seed as he wanted. A3 responds with a general remark about how good this year's harvest was (45: 'it was a good year for seed maize'), but that the sindicato got too little seed to satisfy the demand. K1 repeats that he had ordered five sacks (47) (and presumably didn't get them), and A3 suggests that the next year the sindicato may have a better supply, but

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Peter Auer, Jacinta Arnhold, and Cintia Bueno-Aniola

that this year the stocks were already sold out almost entirely although it was only October (spring in Brazil) (50-51). While A2 hands over a form to be signed by the customer (which presumably marks the end of the official business transaction), K1 starts a third attempt to embark on small talk. He tells a story about how it pays to buy proper seed maize f r o m the sindicato instead of growing it oneself. Once more, his style is elliptical and can only be understood on the basis of a good deal of contextual inferencing. Line 53 pre-announces the point of the story, but is broken off ('this year I will ...', to be continued: 'buy seed maize from the very start'). He switches into the story mode by introducing a time in the past ('last year', 54) and reports that he went some place to 'the people' and 'took off' something (by inference: he went to the other peasants' places and peeled off their maize), and it turned out to be of poor quality (56). He himself (so he continues) had bought seed maize instead (and thereby invites the retrospective inference that the other peasants had not done so, i.e. they had grown their own seed maize) (57) and it came off very well (58). He again refers to the bad quality of the self-grown maize by saying that the others had only got little 'sticks' in their fields (60) (instead of proper maize plants). But this story-telling has the same fate as the first attempt to initiate a chat with A l : there is a complete lack of uptake both from A3 and A2. Instead, A2 overlaps the customer's last evaluation with a technical question which clearly invites closing of the interactional episode: he asks where the customer has stored the seed sacks he wants to exchange (61). The customer answers that they are in his car (62); the employee tells him to drive it into the backyard, which leads the episode to closure. It finishes with the customer's only Portuguese contribution (tá bom)', neither the customer nor the employees A1 and A3 exchange final salutations with him. The sequential development of this interactional episode as described so far gives a number of clues to its interpretation. W e are dealing with a typical example of an institutional transaction which takes place between one of the employees (A2) and the client-customer (Kl). The representatives of the institution usually dispose of organizational and procedural knowledge not equally accessible to the client. Note that K l is not well acquainted with the maize types available; neither is he sure about the brand name Agromer (cf. line 08), nor does he know the names of the other maize types he talks about in the following sequence with A l (cf. lines 08, 12, 17-21). This visible lack of professional knowledge establishes a clear asymmetry of competences - the employees and the customer are not of equal standing - and even impedes understanding between A l and K l (cf. 16-21).

Being a 'colono ' and being 'daitsch ' in Rio Grande do Sul

101

The asymmetric relationship between A 1 - 3 and K1 as incumbents of the institutional categories of 'employee of the sindicato'' and 'customer/client at the sindicato'' is further enhanced by another important problem in this sequence. As in many institutional contexts, talk between the participants in their institutional roles can be complemented (or replaced on occasion) by talk outside these roles ('small talk'). Such talk would establish a different, symmetric relationship between the participants, often implying some kind of co-categorization. In the context of the sindicato, such co-categorization could be done (and often is done) using the membership category 'German'. K1 makes three attempts to change the frame of the interaction in such a way, none of which is successful. In the first case (12-27), he starts small talk about a new sort of maize which he is about to try out; K1 gets some initial attention from A l but fails to establish the topic. A second attempt is made in lines 39-55, when K1 starts to talk about his seed purchases. In this case, A3 joins into the interaction, but instead of taking up K l ' s slight complaint in 39—42 directly, he answers with a general statement about the shortage of maize seeds (45—46). The third attempt to establish small talk starts with K l ' s story-telling in lines 53ff; in this case, none of the employees takes up the (point of the) story (although its up-shot is clearly supportive of the sindicato: seeds should be purchased there). Instead, particularly A2 insists on terminating the interaction in a business-like, impersonal way. In sum, we argue that the appearance of K1 at the sindicato office evokes the stereotypes of the colono: a somewhat unsophisticated man who is not very familiar with the administrative and professional aspects of agriculture. There is some evidence in the employees' behaviour which shows that they actually perceive the man's performance in these terms. In particular, the employees refuse to take up K l ' s initiatives to change the footing of the interaction f r o m business to small talk, and the interaction fails to display any features of personal co-membership and co-involvement. W e propose that the social categorization of the customer as a colono is based on the style in which he presents himself. Part of this style is the exclusive use of German dialect, as we shall now show by considering alternative stylistic choices in the following sections. The client fails to pick up on the employee's various invitations to switch (momentarily, at least, i.e. for bureaucratic issues tied to the institution) to Portuguese. It is this lack of bilingual language use which is interpreted in an identity-related way.

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Peter Auer, Jacinta Arnhold, and Cintia Bueno-Aniola

3.2. Client II: The unsuccessful buyer of sorgo Our second case is in many ways almost the opposite. Another man roughly of the same age enters the sindicato office and approaches the counter; the two employees, who have been talking to each other in Portuguese in the back of the room so far, establish eye contact with him immediately. (Sindicato 2) ((employees are talking to each other in Portuguese when customer kmlO enters)) 01

kmlO:

(alguma

vez

)

('sometimes' bom DIA

02

)

(

)

'good morning' 03

a?

'good morning' 04

a2:

bom

DIA;

'good morning' 05

klO:

aguí näo se coisas là,

trabalha

mais

com a semente

e

essas

'here you don't work with seeds and like those things' 06

(.)

07

a2:

08

klO :

« p > (puta )

[ma: s

'damn it

but...'

eh>

[de milho nós temo alGU[:ma coi sa

'maize [ e::hh

no milho

näo

'maize I don't want' eu quería::

09

Ί wanted 10

a2:

11

klO:

(.)

(.)

SORgo; =

millet'

=[näo.

'no' [näo

existe

MAIS;

'doesn't exist' 12

a2:

mir

han

BLOSS

milje.

'we only have maize' 13

klO:

bloß

milje.

'only maize'

(-)

aínda

we've still got a bit' de

(.)

Being a 'colono ' and being 'daitsch ' in Rio Grande do Sul 14 15 16

a2 :

17

klO:

18 19 20 21 22

a2

23

al :

24 25

al:

26 27

klO:

28 29

al:

30

klO:

31 32

al: klO:

33

a2:

34

klO:

35

a2:

« p i ù piano> puta como é d i f í c i l ; 'my God how it is difficult:' näo sei pra que que eles fazem isso ah!> Ί don't know why why they do it!' na (piA isso) também näo terri? 'at (the XXX:i) they haven't got it either?' NAO 'no' eu SEI (.) Ί know' mas (.) só de deiz quilo (.) 'but only (in) ten kilo (sacks)' mas com dez quilo(.) näo vai (.) 'but with ten kilos (.) it doesn't work (.)' näo (--) 'no ( - ) ' sim; (-) 'yes' éj_ ( . ) 'well;' infelizmente. 'unfortunately.' isso é leí (ele) 'it's a law' se näo (näo) [(te trouxe ) 'if it wasn't (we'ld have it)' [mas essas leis säo (.) 'but those laws are' PUta mas que SA: [co; 'shit, what a drag!' [É::H 'right' (se vê) quem tem urna coisinha pequeña (eh) '(if somebody comes) who has a small piece' ((of land)) ('yes') ( [ ) [zehn kilo du:sd=de {.) '(with) ten kilos you can do'

Ί know yes' wieviel INseie né> (.) 'how much sowing right?' Ijo;= 'sure'

103

104 36 37 38 39

40 41

42 43 44 45 46 47

Peter Auer, Jacinta Arnhold, and Cintia Bueno-Aniola kmlO: =um monte de coìsa né 'a load of things right' a2: (tá isso é [claro) '(that's it that's clear)' al: [ÉH: que 'right also' eu acho ruim (.) que nem pro pessoal vem aqui Ί think ((it is also)) bad (.) also for the people who come here pra pegar milho né to take ((=buy)) maize right' klO : nao eu [SEI 'no, I know' al: [quero tantos quilos tantos quilos ja aber ' Ί want so many kilos so many kilos' well but' klO: ja das GEHT ja [net 'this doesn't work of course' al: [ ( a gente faz escondí:do assim) eh '(they do it under the counter like that) right' klO: (-) ( ) a2 : «laughing> o que dava né> 'what can you do, right' klO: (Éh: : ma mais éh éh) é urna urna merda (-) '(right but it's it's) it's shit' t a OK dann obrigado 'it's o.k. then thanks'

The customer, as it turns out, has a small piece of land on which he wants to sow sorgo ('millet'); his problem is that millet seeds are only on the market in large sacks, not in the small quantities he needs. The episode starts with an exchange of greetings (bom dia). The customer then formulates his reason-for-coming by asking a somewhat underspecified question, too vague to be dealt with adequately immediately, but which, since it is negated, already implies a declination of the request it implies, i.e. a dispreferred second: 'you d o n ' t deal with those seeds here, shit'. Taken literally, this statement is obviously wrong - no doubt the sindicato sells seeds. Employee A 2 lets pass the first possible turn completion point at the end of line 5, presumably expecting some kind of specification about 'those seeds'; when this does not follow (and the client goes into an evaluation of the presumed fact instead, line 6), A 2 interrupts to state the obvious, i.e. that there are some maize seeds (7). At this point, and once

Being a 'colono ' and being 'daitsch ' in Rio Grande do Sul

105

more in interruption of the previous, not-yet-completed utterance/turn, the customer becomes more specific: he doesn't want maize, but rather millet seeds (9). Employee A2 confirms that millet seeds are not available (10) and once more states that there is only maize (12); this statement is repeated as an affirmation by the customer (13). At this point, the exchange could be over since the subject matter is sufficiently dealt with, and the customer's wish responded to - albeit negatively. The following part of the interaction is a metapragmatic sequel for the purpose of mutual face work. The main strategy is to blame a third party 'them', i.e. the state authorities and their unreasonable laws. Transition into this metapragmatic sequel is contextualised by the client's slight curse puta como é difícil in line 14, uttered in a low voice, as if the customer was speaking to himself. It is the customer who also introduces the vaguely designated third party culprits, eles ('them'), in the same line (15). Following the employee's question whether the agricultural cooperative of the town could not be of help (16), the client explains what has not been clear up to that point: that sorgo is principally available but only in larger packs than what he needs (i.e., 10kg sacks; 19-21). The second employee also joins in now (24), expressing his regrets for not being able to serve the customer. Once more, a possible termination point for the interactional episode is reached. This time it is employee A2 who expands the interaction, taking up the notion of the third party culprit. He brings up another aspect of the problem: millet is not only unavailable, but the sindicato would not be allowed to sell it anyway in small quantitites by law (25-26). (Since this is presumably known to the customer, the negative way in which he formulated his initial request becomes more understandable now in retrospect.) In line 27 an exchange starts in which the customer and employee A2 agree that 'the law' doesn't make sense since small farmers do not need large sacks of seed (30-36): 'for those who own only a small piece of land - how much could they sow with 10 kg! A heap of things!'. Employee A l adds that the same problem also applies to farmers who want to buy maize seed in small quantities (38, 39). 'They want some kilograms of maize, but ...', and the customer completes, duetting: '... this doesn't work of course' (42). One tries to do it surreptitiously, the employee adds, and the other employee concludes 'what can you do' (45) - another invitation to close the interaction. The customer has the final word; with another slight curse {merda, 46) for the authorities, a pre-closing ta o.k. and a final 'thanks' he leaves the office.

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Peter Auer, Jacinta Arnhold, and Cintia Bueno-Aniola

It is not difficult to see that this interaction evolves completely differently from the one discussed before. Maybe most striking is the difference in the way in which the employees respond to the two clients. As the customer in the first example, the man in the second example seems to be unknown to the employees in the office. However, both employees immediately focus their attention on him as soon as he enters the room, and they continue to be focussed on him until he leaves. The client, in turn, sets the pace, and keeps the initiative most of the time. The equal standing of the client, on the hand, and the representatives of the institution, on the other, is both reflected in and achieved through the complaint about the counterproductive state regulations which keep both the client (as a farmer) and the sindicato (as the provider of goods for the farmers) from functioning effectively, and lifts the responsibility for the failed deal from both of them. This sequence at the same time enables all three participants to enact a categorization device which allows them to co-categorize themselves, i.e. the device 'us/the state'. Compared to the first example, the communicative style used by the customer is very much an "involvement style" (Tannen 1984): there are numerous overlaps, simultaneous starts and interruptions which, however, do not seem to inhibit or disturb the flow of interaction, but rather support it. The stylistic choices the customer makes on the linguistic level also show a different pattern from the one we observed in the first example: the interaction is almost completely in Portuguese. The Portuguese spoken by the client does not have a German accent; rather it conforms to the variety used by most speakers in that area of RS, regardless of their ethnic background. Note, however, that the interaction is not entirely monolingual, which betrays the German background of the speaker. It is employee A2 who first turns it into a bilingual one (line 12: mir han BLOSS milje), and it is only through the client's German repetition in 13 that we get to know for the first time that he is a bilingual and therefore of German descent. The second excursion into Hunsrück dialect is initiated by the client in 30, 32, 34 where he starts a turn (and, presumably, complex sentence) in Portuguese (se vê quem tem urna coisinha pequeña...), continues in German (zehn kilo du:sd=de wieviel INseie né?) and finishes in Portuguese again with an answer to his own rhetorical question (um monte de coisa). The employee responds partly in Portuguese (33, 37), partly in German (35), thus acknowledging the bilingual nature of the on-going turn. The third excursion into German occurs in the duetting sequence 41 - 4 2 in which the employee switches in mid-sentence from Portuguese to German (ja aber), a

Being a 'colono ' and being 'daitsch ' in Rio Grande do Sul

107

sentence which is completed by the client (das GEHT ja net). Finally, there is small bit of admixture of German in the final turn by the client (dann obrigado). The German utterance parts are only minor components in a basically Portuguese interaction. 4 However, they do not happen without producing social meaning. Particularly the first exchange of German utterances (lines 12/13) is relevant here. On the one hand, the employee's mir han BLOSS milje is closure-implicative: it could terminate the failed business interaction. On the other hand, the switch into German opens up the possibility to switch from that business interaction into another, less institutional type of interaction since it implies a 'metaphorical' move away from institutional talk. As such, it is followed by the first German utterance of the client in this interaction which establishes his German-descent background. This cocategorisation may be instrumental in the transition to the metapragmatic sequel of the interaction. In sum, this speaker avoids activating the social category of the German colono in the interior, which is associated with a monolingual style in which dialectal German plays the most important role. Both the client and the employees activate their German ethnic background en passant, but they see to it that for the bulk of the interaction, the symbolic resources employed do not differ from those which would be used by monolingual Brazilians as well. He comes across as a professional - even though the land he owns may be small and not larger than the one owned by K l . The social category indexed first and foremost is that of a male rural Southern Brazilian, the category 'German' remains in the background and the category colono is avoided. 3.3. The story of the sc los Our third example documents yet a third, typical way of managing one's social identity by using a bilingual communicative style on the stage of of the sindicato office. The client is once more male, and of approximately the same age as in the previous examples. One of the brought-along and brought-about differences is that the client and at least two of the employees (A2 and A l ) seem to be known to each other.

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Peter Auer, Jacinta Arnhold, and Cintia Bueno-Aniola

(Sindicato 3) ( (as Kll enters the room, the two employees who are present, A2 and Al, are located in the back of the room, Al sitting, A2 standing. The both turn to Kll as he enters.)) 01

a2:

02

kll:

03

a2:

04

kll:

05 06

al: a2:

05a al: 07

kll:

08 09

al:

10 11

12 13

kll:

14 15

al:

16 17

kll:

((nods as a greeting to kll as he sees him entering) ) guten MORgen; 'good morning' MORgen; 'morning' alles GUT? 'everything o.k.?' [I jo (.) [alles gut 'everything o.k.' wenn=s mo sche:n wedda gebt [nOch hesser ,sure if the weather becomes better even more (so)' [gut, (.) 'o.k.?' is das do kEEn WEDda; 'is this no weather;' ((=isn't that a (fine) weather!)) Ijo s=IS? (.) 'sure it is ! ' [sche:n AUSgehn- (.) 'go out' [((A2 gets up and slowly starts to approach the counter; at the same time, A5 enters the room, takes a chair from the table behind the counter and moves it to a table on the window to the right where he sits down to work)) spaZIEre gehen'go for a walk' duut=s aich on 'you take it' duut=s onnehme wie=s kOmmt?= 'you take it as it comes' Ijo; 'sure' h h h h h [ma 'we'

Being a 'colono ' and being 'daitsch ' in Rio Grande do Sul 18

al:

27

kll:

28

a2:

29

kl :

109

[MISS ma MISS ma [ ( ) 'we have to we have to' 19 kll: [ 'you (PL) do something about it!' 21 al: MACH=mo was [droon; 'you (SG) do something about it!' 22 [((A2 is sat down next to Kll now behind the counter)) 23 Ijo. 'sure' (1.5) 24 a2 : « p i ù piano> ja awer (.) que que mAnda. > 'yes but what what can I do for you' (4.0) 2 5 kll: eu näo sEi; Ί don't know' 2 6 a2: net zu VIEL reden h h h 'don't talk too much' ((general laughter, appr. 6 sec.; Al, still standing in the background, looks at Kll while he starts to describe his problem, until line 54, when he disengages from the on-going interaction between Kll and A2)) (1.0)

3 0 a2: 31 kll: 32 33

((from now on mostly in a subdued voice until 54) ) eu tEnho urn cadastro ai (.) de sElo näo SEI; Ί have a registration (.) of a stamp, I don't know' para aproVAR. (1.0) 'to approve' eu tenho o (.) (os quitado); {-) Ί have (paid ones)' hm (-) simples e {.) e wie=s (.) wie=s wor (-) 'simple ones like like it used to be' das ENde= 'the end' ich han=s uf=m noome um ma bru (.) bruuder das administriere. 'it's under my name, and my bro brother, (does) the administration'

110

Peter Auer, Jacinta Arnhold, and Cintia

Bueno-Aniola

(1.0)

34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42

a2:

43 44

kll:

45 46

a2 :

47 48

kll:

49

a2:

50

kll:

51

a2:

52

kll:

ai ele 'now he' da hat der dat so mir ahgeschn 'now he he cut me tha' abgschnidd hat de das= 'he cut off it' e agora o homem sumlu; {-) 'and now the man has disappeared;' faz mais {-) de dois meses o homem sumíu.(2.0) 'it is more than two months ago (that) this man disappeared' e tem lenha lá prá vender; (2.0) 'and there is wood to be sold' eu posso renovar urna coisa pra {-) 'can I renew something in order to' consegui {.) selo {.) ou consegui 'get the stamp or get...' como o homem sumiu; (.) 'how do you mean the man disappeared;' [dei BRU:der?= 'your brother?' [su 'dis' ja. (1.0) 'yes' (un) SEI os; (.) '(and) stamps;' hat der selos geHAT oda was= 'he had stamps or what' =NAo: ; (-) es wa: nur u f f m NOOme; 'no it was only under the ((=my)) name' ta. 'right. ' e praticamente isso caiu no meu caD[Astro; 'and practically it fell under my registration' [sim. (--) 'yeah' (e eu) (.) pra vende(r) '(and I) in order to sell [também lá pra vende(r) ( . ) e tem as well there in order to sell I need to'

Being a 'colono ' and being 'daitsch ' in Rio Grande do Sul 53

54 55 56

57

58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70

a2:

111

[((gets up and moves towards the filing cabinets to the left)) kl1 : 'use the stamps.'

(.) 'now ones for 100 meters more or less and for next year 100 meters' [((while talking, Kll moves to the left, following a2 ) ) «p>cento e vinte;> 'one hundred and twenty' a2: (convêm) da situaiçao; '(it fits) the situation' kll: [ ( ) s im che) ( ) 'yes that' ((ca. 12 sec silence while the employee looks up in the books)) a2: renovou no ano passa : do né 'he/you renewed it last year right?' kll: hen? 'what?' a2: renovou no ano passado=eh 'he/you renewed it last year' kll: näo sei (.) Ί don't know' ( ooch ) so e bissche habe;(.) ' ( also) have a little bit;' de STALL glauw=ich eh honma da (.) (misst) η poor stick SElo MEHR hon;= 'the shed I think eh we did... (.) (should) have some more stamps'

112

Peter Auer, Jacinta Arnhold, and Cintia

71 72

73

a5:

74 kll: 75

a5:

76

kll:

77

a2:

78

a5 :

79

a2 :

80

kll:

81

a2:

82

kll:

83

a5:

84

a2:

85

kll:

86

a5:

87 88 88a 89

kll:

Bueno-Aniola

ai ach=que ele (.) fez (.) urn: (6.0) 'there I think that he (.) did (.) a: ...' ((intervening sequence in Portuguese between employees A2 and a5 about the records during which a5 gets up and also moves to the filing cabinets where they are both looking for/at something)) sie HAN des stick land gell? 'you (FORMAL) own this piece of land don't you' hen? 'what?' sie HAN das stick land; 'you (FORMAL) own this piece of land;' m; (1.0) 'yes' wieviel hektar HAST du. 'how many hectars have you (INFORMAL) got.' « p > vinte e UM> 'twenty one' « p > vinte [e UM> 'twenty one' [vinte e um (.) o outro é::[: 'twenty one and the other one is' [(modelo?) 'type?' do:ze vírgula se::TENta. 'twelve point seventy' tinha que faze sobre a Outra área dai. (2.0) 'it would seem to be necessary to do the stamp on the other piece of land there.' musst=uns was SCHIGge; 'you have to send us something' « P P >hm.> (1.5) 'yes' pois é (.) 'that's it' e nessa área aQUI né; 'and in this land here, you see' lá já entregaram pouca (gasse) né ( [ ) 'there they have already given out ( ) (fazê de novo). (do it again).' [sim 'yeah'

Being a 'colono ' and being 'daitsch ' in Rio Grande do Sul 90

113

sim 'yeah'

91

a2 :

tem que trazê

[ éh ah

'it's necessary that you bring along ehm ahm'

92

a5 :

[misst=a die

landpapiere?

'you ( S E M I - F O R M A L ) have to (bring) the land registration'

93 94

a2:

((a5 moves away and sits down at the window, disengaging from the conversation)) tern que trazer a outra escritura e fazer o: o:= 'it's necessary that you bring along the other land registration 5 and do the: the:'

95

a5 :

INcra. 'INCRA.'6

96

fazer tudo de novo éh 'do everything from the start again right'

97

tudo. 'everything'

98

(.) e trazer as duas dai né 'and bring along the two (documents) from there right'

99

a2:

é 'right'

100 kll: 101 a2:

aha, traz tua escritura tá

102

« p > t a l ä o tá>

'bring along your(Tu-FORM) document that's it' 'receipt book you have'

103

kll: certo,

104

a5:

'sure'

Master G, B-Boy Earthquake; > Filippu Mangiaficu, > Sucabrodu > Vossia ('Your honour')

Pino (15)

> Pinocchio

Carmelo (17) Flavio (16) Silvia (15)

> Calimero Incognito > Flamingo > pesce ('fish')

Mariangela (18)

> Bloody Mary

Claudia (15)

> Schlaudia Kiffer

Dani (13)

> Fruchtzwerg

Giovanni (17) (•Gio, Giuva)

Italy + breakdance international, media local German slang hip hop; Southern Italy, folklore Southern Italy (popular polite address term) popular Italian literature (film, comics) Italian comic (assonance), unspecific local German slang, astrology3 urban lifestyle (a cocktail) 4 fashion, media; 5 soft drugs, subculture media, advertising (German)

The reported names of the other members allude to various cultural domains. Some of them point to Italy and popular literary or media figures, like Pinocchio or Calimero, a Sicilian comic figure. Both names are formally based on alliteration or assonance (< Pino, Carmelo), as is Flavio > Flamingo, a n a m e for which w e did not find a meaningful (semantic) explanation. Silvia, the only female breakdancer, goes by the German pseud o n y m Fisch, referring to her group membership as well as to her astrological sign (Pisces). Finally some of the names evoke the world of the (German) media, show business and advertising, such as Schlaudia Kiffer, an onset cluster reversal of Claudia Schiffer, which was adopted by the youngsters f r o m a popular German T V comedy show ( " R T L Samstag Nacht"). It alludes simultaneously to the German top model and to mari-

128

Christine Bierbach and Gabriele Birken-Silverman

juana smoking (< kiffen, 'to smoke grass'). Fruchtzwerg is a yogurt product for children made by the brand Danone, and hence applied to Dani, the youngest group member. Bloody Mary for Mari(angela) evokes a wellknown cocktail beverage (thus 'lifestyle') and produces a certain 'dramatic fictionalization' and de-ethnization of the very traditional Italian name Maria. A basic (linguistic) motivation for the creation of pseudonyms is form: alliteration, assonance or rhyme with the real name. At the same time they are chosen in accordance with some personal features of the bearer and his or her relation to a certain cultural milieu. 9 This raises the question of how such names are created and used in interaction, which will be discussed under different perspectives in the following sections.

3.

Presenting oneself as a hip hopper

Most of the nicknames presented above could not be directly observed in our recorded data. All of them have been reported and confirmed by group members, but when our recordings of group interaction took place, only a few of them were used. Although they function as code names in the framework of hip hop culture, they may not necessarily be used as a form of address, but rather as 'artists' pseudonyms', to (re-)present, or refer to, participants and their posse in hip hop related events (Bierbach and BirkenSilverman 2002a). The following sequence extracted from an ingroup conversation is a good example of a situation where group members display their 'giocai' hip hop identity. During a rather technical conversation about breakdance, one of the boys (Gio - 'the boss') suddenly changes the interactional key and initiates a scenario in which an 'internationally famous' Bboy greets the group in a fictitious encounter among breakdancers: (1) B-Boy Earthquake - Paris meets Mannheim (21.7.1999) The different languages involved in conversational code-switching are represented by different typographies: Sicilian: Italian: German; English/French. The following transcription symbols are used: Κ = comment referring to the line above; GK = general comment; #xxxx# = metalinguistic comment; |xxxxx| = parallel sequences; + quick response; / breakoff; * pause; >piano> #* #>na vuci< con '# # * # >a voice < #IMITATES PLANE NOISE# # SINGS

Κ

calma calmly #

129

| (. . . ) |# | ( . . . ) | #'

3

Francesco:

| ja | I 'yes' I

4

Gio:

frati boni eh « ou isch bin Bi-Bo Earthquake * jo oright my name is Deko, 'good brothers eh « ouh I am B-Boy Earthquake * yo (yeah?) all right my name is Deko,'

5

Gio:

komm from Pä-ris Ί come from Pa-ris' >>

6

Pino:

äh sein Name/ s e name ( . . . ) 'eh his name/ the name (...)'

7

Gio:

jo isch komm os Braunschweig un isch finds toll hier die B-Boys 'yo I come from Braunschweig and I see it's real great here, the Bboys'

8

Gio:

und heut viel Party abgeh * 'and a big party going on today' *

9

Silvia:

#LAUGHS#

»

In the f r a m e w o r k of hip hop culture, this performance is an act of boasting: the naming, the allusion to hip hoppers f r o m abroad, the evocation of a spectacular entrance by imitating the noise of an airplane, and finally the compliment made to the M a n n h e i m group by the fictitious visitor adds up to produce an upgrading of their own group. Besides the use of hip hop names (B-Boy Earthquake, Deko) and a prestigious toponym (Paris), a dense pattern of code-switches can be observed which serve to contextualize different speakers and localize them in different cultural settings: The first turn, which triggers the following scene, starts in Sicilian, with a shift to Italian (1. 1 : Francoforte fino a). It is interrupted by G i o ' s imitation of an airplane, who then continues in Sicilian and Italian, in a singsong mode, marking the beginning of a scene (1. 2: 'a voice, calmly'). Francesco gives a back channel signal in German (1. 3), and Gio goes on with a greeting (1. 4: frati boni, a Sicilian adaptation of the hip hop address term 'brothers') which presumably represents the voice of the arriving guest star, who ad-

130

Christine Bierbach and Gabriele Birken-Silverman

dresses the Mannheim Italians. Gio then introduces himself as 'B-Boy Earthquake'' in Mannheim dialect pronouncing his hip hop code name in Italianized English (bi-bò < 'B-boy'). He then switches to English for the answer of the fictitious visitor, thus suggesting - together with the emphatically pronounced reference to Paris - that he is dealing with an internationally renowned personality (1. 4-5). Pino starts a quest for (more) information in German and self-corrects in English, but he is interrupted by Gio's next turn - again in Mannheim dialect, despite the reference to a city in Northern Germany (1. 7: Braunschweig). This last turn of the fictitious encounter is a bit cryptic, as it is not quite clear whether the code-switch back to German represents another (third) person who compliments the group, or still the famous 'Deko' from Paris, since no further name is introduced. In any case, the sequence presents a nice example of polyphony evoking a multilingual and multicultural hip hop world which is created spontaneously in conversation by the use of appropriate code names and a few formulaic expressions.

4.

Media experts: Interviewing fellow Italians in Germany

Naming, as has been shown in the preceding section, constitutes an important element of verbal interaction. It occurs in opening sequences to introduce oneself and/or other co-present participants and, more recurrently and more freely, in addressing and in referential expressions. The choice and form of names vary according to situational parameters, communicative genre, etc.; in fact, as basic indexical items, name forms, together with other stylistic cues, contribute to contextualize genres, (formal) situations and social relations. Of course, to introduce oneself or others formally would be inadequate in in-group communication, unless a stranger comes in - or when a microphone evokes a media setting and transforms copresent group members into media professionals, guests or an audience. In fact, one of the striking features in our data is that a sequential format ('introducing oneself) is often performed as a game or ludic scenario - as in example (1) - staging desirable cultural identities and social membership relevant to the group members at that moment. The performance of media genres is another important resource to construct presentations of self and to relate oneself and others to specific social worlds. The presence of a microphone may be an occasion for such a performance. The following sequences were recorded during the group's journey to Paris in which Sara,

Names and Identities

131

our Sicilian fieldworker, participated as a relative and friend of some of the group m e m b e r s . D u r i n g this informal and relaxed situation, her nevertheless omnipresent m i c r o p h o n e c a m e into the sight of some of the group m e m b e r s , w h o turned this into an occasion to e m b a r k on ' m i c r o p h o n e related' performances: (2) Interviewing Italians in Germany (Journey to Paris, 8.6. 2001) Participants: Giovanni (Gio), Sara (sara), Lino, Francesco (F) GK

#THE BOYS ARE FOOLING AROUND, SOMEBODY IMITATES FARTS # still still / alle ruhisch sara nimmt auf, scheisse 'quiet quiet/everyone calm down sara is recording, shit'

1

Gio:

2

?:

( # UNINTELLIGIB LE # )

3

?:

voll unauffällig 'real subtle'

4

sara:

#LAUGHS#

5

Gio:

halló 'hello'

6

sara:

'he's not a DJ' 5

Gio:

#LAUGHS AND APPLAUDS#

6

Pino:

ma Italy DJ 'but (an) Italy DJ'

7

Carmine: ein DJ mit CD 'a DJ (operating) with CD'

8

Silvia:

calmati signorino * > senti< 'calm down young man * >listen< '

In this case of intra-ethnic conflict talk, the unacceptable behavior of a member of the Italian community who gossips about group members is implicitly categorized by the attribution of pejorative mezzogiorno peasant labels such as Sucabrodu and Mangiaficudín to mark social distance. It should be noted that these names are used here in the same combination as in example (4), but by two speakers (Gio and Carmine) complementing each other, as if mentioning one name triggered the other, indicating that these belong to a shared repertoire of indexical cultural formulae. 16 Such emblematic names seem to function as prototypical labels of a well-defined

Names and Identities

139

range of sociosymbolical meanings evident to all group members. In the context of the hip hop scene, labelling someone a 'backward Italian Southerner' draws a demarcation line between 'us' and 'him', in this case between 'authentic' and 'unauthentic' hip hoppers or DJs. The critique of a compaesano's bad manners is thus extended to his lack of professional (or artistic) competence in the urban hip hop world, suggesting that such a character could hardly be a good DJ, but merely an 'Italy (i.e. 'provincial'?) DJ' (1. 6) - a case of dissing. With this categorization of the adversary, the boys implicitly place themselves 'on the right side': they know what a real hip hop DJ is and how he is supposed to behave as a friend. In opposition to the boys participating in the dissing sequence, one of the girls (Silvia, 1. 8), reprehends the most vehement speaker, switching to Italian and addressing him by the honorific signorino. This is a rather archaic term of address for young upper class men in Southern Italy which, used among equals, and specially when addressing a working class boy, can only be used to mark irony and/or disapproval. In this context, Silvia's turn, formulated in standard Italian which is unusual in in-group communication, ironically ratifies the social distance the boys construct between themselves and their adversary, and evokes at the same time the inappropriateness of the quarrel, i.e. cues a reprimand: this is a futile case of male rivalry.

6.

Boys talking, girls joining? Communicative style and gendered identities in the peer group

The synthesis of rustic, backward and masculine (or macho) values inherent in emblematic names like Mangiaficu etc. tends to be attached to Sicilian and mezzogiorno culture in general. This is certainly one of the main reasons that most of the girls in the group reject the dialect. Some of them explicitly call it 'a peasant language' and claim not to use it themselves, unless they have to communicate with elder relatives, or during holidays 'back home'. In some of the recorded conversations, the girls label the boys masculi siciliani when they criticize their macho behavior, thus confirming the ethnicity-masculinity identity cluster illustrated above. In fact, all the examples discussed so far are similar in that they are performed by male group members. Considering the overall communicative behavior of boys and girls in our data, we note that it follows clearly gendered patterns: boys show off, boast, and provoke, while girls join in as secondary speakers and evaluate the boys' performances either implicitly

140

Christine Bierbach and Gabriele

Birken-Silverman

(e.g. by laughter) or explicitly (e.g. with critical comments, as in example 5). In the encounters we were able to document, the girls were much less inclined to perform ludic or fictitious presentations of self and preferred 'straight' communication when talking about themselves and the group. 17 One of the rare exceptions where several girls participate in a joking round will be presented below (example 8).18 We do not claim that these observations reflect general gender patterns in the Italian migrant community. Though it is known that migration tends to favor traditional cultural patterns, it also encourages particularly the female members of migrant communities to break away from (disadvantageous) gender roles and the cultural patterns that sustain them. 19 Our assumption is that the recurrent communicative patterns we find in our data are due first to the mixed group setting (and particularly breakdance, a usually male-dominated subculture) and, second, the age group of (post-) adolescence where 'doing gender' is a specifically relevant issue. Considering these aspects, many of the performative self-presentations of the young men can be interpreted as 'gendered' reactions to the presence of young females, heightened by the participation of a young female Sicilian fieldworker. A more or less spectacular mise-en-scène of both masculinity and ethnicity thus functions as a method to compete for female attention and to gain recognition among male companions. Also, the following examples belong to a type of exclusively male game in our group, similar to the facetious verbal duels reported in research on urban youth subculture (see below). While in the preceding examples provocation was mainly directed towards outsiders, the following teasing sequences, based on funny and rather downgrading rhymes derived from participants' first names, seem to challenge internal group status and thus are a means of competing for (the girls'?) attention. 6.1. Names and teasing rituals Teasing based on interactants' names seems to be a universally cherished practice in children's and teenage peer groups as a ludic method to construct social identities and express in-group relations. Lytra (2003) found that nicknames and teasing are closely related, nicknames being mostly used to frame teasing formats in the pre-adolescent peer group she studied. Lepoutre (1997), who observed teasing practices as part of the ritual verbal behavior of young immigrant boys in a Parisian suburb, classifies teasing

Names and Identities

141

based on members' names among the two most salient verbal games in this milieu. He calls them vannes directes because they address co-present parties, whereas vannes référenciées refer to non-present thirds (mostly ritual insults of the mother) and correspond to the signifying practices or 'dozens' described by Labov (1972). Contrary to real insults, the performance of vannes is marked as a ritual format and thus not considered an offence, but rather a socially accepted practice in male peer groups (Lepoutre 1997: 173-180, 206-213), although they too can be quite rude and often question the opponent's virility or gender identity. Besides teasing formulae referring to physical properties of the opponent, second meanings and rhymes based on first or family names are frequent. Lepoutre suggests that such teasing practices, by repetition and conventionalization, might in fact be at the origin of nicknames (sobriquets)20 as socially meaningful identifiers of peer group members. This type of vannes directes, or teasing rituals based on names, appears in our data particularly in very informal in-group settings such as the bus journey mentioned above (example 2). In the following extract, the principal target is Giovanni, the most dominant group member. The episode occurs shortly after his microphone performances which we discussed above. (6) Teasing rituals: Challenging the leader (Journey to Paris, 1

Lino:

8.6.2001)

jaja Giovanni du-u bis η g/Kakadu #LAUGHS # 'yeah, Giovanni you- / are a cockatoo' #LAUGHS #

2

F:

INCOMPREHENSIBLE #

3

Gio:

va caccari 'go and shit'

4

Sara

#LAUGHS #

5

Lino:

Kakadu #LAUGHS # # 'cockatooGiovanni Giovannimacapu macapu' #LAUGHS

6

Gio:

Giovanni (mi (...) tu?) 'Giovanni (me (#UNINTERPRETABLE#) you?)'

7

Lino:

Giovanni cacca li banni 'Giovanni shits in his diapers'

8

(all):

#LAUGHTER#

142 9

Christine Bierbach and Gabriele Birken-Silverman Lino:

Giovanni cacca otto anni 'Giovanni shits eight years'

10 X:

#INCOMPREHENSIBLE #

11 Y:

#INCOMPREHENSIBLE #

12 F:

Giovanni senza panni 'Giovanni without his diapers'

13 (all):

#LAUGHTER#

14 Lino:

ma chi dici #Giovanni CU ipannit 'but what are you saying # Giovanni WITH diapers #' # LAUGHING #

Κ 15 Gio:

ca c'hai i palli 'that's where you have your balls'

This teasing sequence is started by Lino, next to Gio the most dominant and active speaker in this episode. He opens up a rhyming format addressed to a 'target' interactant who is addressed by his first name. Note that the first rhyme is actually not based on the name itself, but uses a postponed personal pronoun in order to rhyme with Kakadu ('cockatoo'). This first turn is thus formulated in German. Gio, however, replies in Sicilian, picking up the first syllable of the attributed noun which - certainly on purpose - contains an assonance to the Italian (and German homophone) cacca ('shit'). This scatological reference becomes the basis of the following series of rhymes with Giovanni (hence in Italian) in which mainly Lino, but also other male group members, participate. This seems to be a rather childish game, with its constant reference to faces, certainly a main resource of children's humor (cf. Bierbach 1996), but as Còveri (1993) found, it is a central feature of Italian youth language as well, which he calls coprolalia. The effect of this coprolalia sequence is to put the target person on an infantile level, made even more explicit by reference to diapers {panni, 1. 7), i.e. attacking Gio's status as a young man and a group leader. The game ends with Gio's reply to Lino's insisting on presenting him in diapers (1. 14), which gives the teasing a sexual turn, focussing on Lino's masculinity, which infantilizes him in return (1. 15). The reactions of the group members (laughter, increasing participation of other - unidentified - boys) show that this game, playfully questioning a leader's status by bringing up age and gender identity, is quite successful.

Names and Identities

143

Similar yet less extensive formats are addressed to other group members. They contain rhymed nonsense attributes, often scatological allusions and formulaic expressions in Sicilian or German, and seem to be drawn from a common (group) repertoire which makes them sometimes hard to understand for outsiders. 21 In other cases, names of group members are inserted in song texts, converting them to (pseudo-)romantic lovers in stereotypical Mediterranean settings, or similarly in fictitious (and mostly 'dirty') narrative sequences, co-constructed by two or more boys. 6.2. Names, teasing and membership The more or less ritualized performative acts which involve members' names contextualize aspects of male adolescent identity. They contribute to testing status as well as expressing membership in the peer group. Moreover, there are other forms of nicknaming, used in less marked interactional formats among the boys, e.g. in-group terms of address, such as cornuto ('cuckold') in Italian, but most of them in German, e.g. du Fisch ('fish', with a pejorative or sexual connotation) du Affe ('monkey'), and Kacker, Waldkacker, Kakalake22 ('shitter', 'forest shitter', 'cockroach') based on coprolalia. The most neutral and most frequently used term among the 'big boys' (Lino, Pino and Gio) is Langer ('tall one'). They differ from individual nicknames insofar as they can apply to any of the group members; some of them (Langer, Alter) are just common youth language, but the more original ones (like Kakerlake) might also be promoted to a personal nickname. Despite their rudeness, these forms of address seem to express nothing but peer relations and male companionship; together with the more spectacular performative formats they make up an essential part of the boys communicative group style. Moreover, the use of dominantly German expressions produces a sort of de-ethnization and ties them to the local urban youth culture. In contrast, Sicilian name varieties - like Giuvà (Giovanni), Carme (Carmelo), France (Francesco), appear to be more marked and can be used to perform a Sicilian persona, e.g. to mimic the speech of (elder) relatives or other members of the Italian community, as in the typical greeting formula: ou Giuvà, tuttu appostu? {oh G., ev'rything all right?), quoted by Lino to evoke a Sicilian relative.

144

Christine Bierbach and Gabriele Birken-Silverman

Up to now, we have found only one short instance where a girl's name gives rise to a short teasing-nicknaming sequence, addressed to Sara and alluding to her Sicilian background: (7) Sara (Journey to Paris, 8.6.2001) 1

F:

lass die SaRahaRa (#INCOMPREHENSIBLE #) 'leave SaRahaRa (in peace)' ( # INCOMPREHENS IB LE #)

2

(all):

#LAUGHTER#

3

Gio:

SaRahaRa 'SaRahaRa'

4

Lino:

>

5

Gio:

Salermo 'Salermo'

The joke is obviously based on the resemblance between Sara and Sahara, additionally highlighted by a very salient apical (= Italian) pronunciation of the /R/. After several repetitions, Lino adds a Sicilian toponym as 'family name', both being finally fused into Salermo. This not very elaborate nicknaming format is interesting insofar as it focuses on Sara's Sicilian identity, which she often asserts and puts into practice by the ostentative use of the dialect (unlike the other girls in the group). Hence the teasing might be interpreted as mocking her patriotism. But more than that it demonstrates that she is integrated into the group by the bonding effect of nicknames and teasing (Lytra 2003: 48).

7.

Toponymy and social status

As the last examples have shown, teasing practices in the group relate to internal status and membership as well as to different aspects of social identity involving age, gender and ethnicity (with the social values these imply). The last conversational example we would like to discuss exploits toponymy and local references as a resource for joking about participants' social status. As much as personal names or nicknames, local references expressed by toponyms can function as highly symbolic indicators (Le-

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poutre 1997; Melliani 2000), concerning place of residence (stigmatized vs. prestigious neighborhoods in a city, rural vs. urban areas etc.) as well as places where people (pretend to) spend their holidays (long distance and exoticism produce increasing prestige). The following sequence is interesting not only because, contrary to most of our conversational data, girls participate actively in the joking, but also because it demonstrates participants' acute awareness of social categorization and social positioning. It therefore contradicts recent studies on youth culture and identity, according to which social class is hard to detect as a relevant category in young people's conversation (Androutsopoulos and Georgakopoulou 2003: 5). (8) Samalá: globetrotting around the neighborhood (15.7.2000) 1

Pino:

> letztes Jahr in Samalú « Ί and Fran were yesterday >> last year in Samalú'

2

Lino:

wo? 'where?'

3

Pino:

Samalú 'Samalú'

4

Francesco: Sandhofen Mannheim Lu/Ludwigshafen 'Sandhofen Mannheim Lu/ Ludwigshafen'

5

GK

# LAUGHTER*

6

Gio:

# Samalú # #'Samalú'# # SINGING*

Κ 7

s:

# in Samalú # #'in Samalú'#

8

Κ

# LAUGHING*

9

Mari:

Terrasien 'Terracia'

10 Pino:

des is Tarrazien, wo warn wir noch? 'this is Tarrazia, where else were we?'

11 Gio:

isch war auch/ Ί was also/'

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12 Mari:

Balkonien 'Balconia'

13 Pino:

ko nie η 'konia'

14 Gio:

wirfahrn doch hin oder? 'will we go there or not?'

15 Pino:

he? 'huh?'

16 Gio:

wirfahrn nach ding äh/ 'we'll go to (thing äh) /'

17 Silvia:

Fenstonien 'Window-nia'

18 Pino:

+ onien Fenstonien + 'ow-nia Window-nia'

19 Gio:

wo is Η fünf Mannheim 'where Η five Mannheim is at'

20 GK

# LAUGHTER #

21 Gio:

da um die Ecke beim \Dönerladen 'at the corner where the | doner shop is at

22 Lino:

\ |'

| oa weißt noch \ weißt noch? Ί oah do you still remember| do you still remember?'

23 Gio:

+ wa/ + 'wha/'

24 Lino:

+ des ah diese äh da quannu c'e(ra) die eine kleine Blonde "hey wir warn schon überall in Eu/wir warn schon überall in Europa" "ja ja Australien Amerika"

25

+ 'that ah this äh there when there was that small blonde girl "hey we've already been all over Eu/ we've already been all over Europe" "oh yes Australia America'"

26 GK

# LAUGHTER #

27 Gio:

in Europa (...) 'in Europe (...)'

28 GK

# LAUGHTER #

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In this conversation about the summer holidays, the (fictitious) toponym Samalú introduces the point of the joke already at the beginning, making the narrative opening a sort of riddle, the solution to which is given by the co-narrator (Francesco). The exotic sound, suggested by (open) syllable structure and word-final accentuation, stands in sharp contrast to the trivial reality since it turns out to be an acronym of a working class neighborhood (Sandhofen) and the two neighboring industrial towns (Mannheim, Ludwigshafen). This is in fact the area where the young people live, a low prestige region in terms of lifestyle, environmental qualities and leisure commodities. The success of the verbal creation is several times ratified by repetition and laughter (Gio's singing version in line 6 underlines the 'exotic' sound of the name) and leads to an expansion of the format. From 1.9 to 1.17, Mari and Silvia cooperate, proposing German pseudo-regionyms which ironically refer to 'staying at home during holidays'. The potential loss of face which the evoked situation implies is compensated for by the ludic transformation of words referring to trivial places at home (terrace, balcony, window) into pseudo-regionyms, using the corresponding derivational suffix (-ien). The conventionalized model of the series is Terrasien, to which the girls add Balkonien and Fenstonien. Up to 1.18 the boys intervene only as secondary speakers, 23 until Gio proposes additional - socially and subsequently also ethnically marked - localizations: H5, a low prestige inner city neighborhood, 'the doner shop' as an emblematic place related to immigration and popular, low priced food (1.19). As a conversational coproduction all these contributions give a perfect illustration of what the acronym Samalú means to the group, and how living and spending holidays there is perceived socially. In the third part of this episode, the first speaker, Lino (1.22), adds a further expansion, a narrative containing a (fictitious?) boasting dialogue with a 'blonde girl' (representing mainstream society), which stylizes the boys (himself and Gio) as experienced world travellers. Laughter confirms the unrealistic contents of the performed narrative. In this sequence, the social meaning of the message is exclusively cued by the emblematic toponyms, evoking clearly defined social values shared by all participants.

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Conclusion: How to do things with names

As we have shown in this article, personal names, pseudonyms or nicknames play an important role in the construction and performance of social identities. This is due to their emblematic potential and their capacity to evoke different cultural contexts as well as different social features of a person in a condensed form. The list of code names attested for the Italian breakdancers and their peers gave a first clue of the range of cultural references relevant to the group. At the same time, the (plurilingual) diversity of the names shows how all kinds of linguistic and cultural (re-)sources are used in name creation, from brand and product names to literary characters and, most often, prominent public personalities from the world of mass media and show business. We then showed how fictitious, adopted, or variants of real names are exploited, together with language or dialect variation (code-switching), to contextualize and perform specific communicative genres, social characters and cultural milieus, such as the world of hip hop or the media. These scenarios contribute to the construction of modern urban identities and thus enhance the image of the interactants. At the same time, the boys' parodies of the stereotypical Southern macho (Mangiaficu), performed in Sicilian dialect, serve to establish boundaries and to protect their territory against outsiders as well as to disqualify 'unworthy' members of the Italian community. What is of special interest in these episodes is the syncretism of ethnic, socio-cultural and gender identities. Our data represent particularly male adolescent identity constructions and the communicative style of a male peer group in the presence of and presented to female members as an audience, and is thus an additional strong incentive for spectacular performative acts. The very caricatured presentation of the 'Southern macho' as a sort of 'ethno-comedy' (Kotthoff 2004) is also a subversive reply to mainstream prejudices. Social categories like age and gender (more than ethnicity) were shown to have an important part in teasing rituals centered around members' first names. In this respect, our observations coincide with research findings on adolescent peer groups, e.g. in France and Greece. Our focus on naming practices is not meant to suggest that this is the only communicative device, or contextualization cue, with which identities and sociosymbolical meanings are constructed. The data show that there is always a range of linguistic and pragmatic resources which are exploited simultaneously, such as code-switching or other types of code variation, or

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sequential and formal properties contextualizing c o m m u n i c a t i v e genres or formats. T h e choice of examples w e presented might give an insight into the m e t h o d s and the material resources y o u n g second generation immigrants use to construct sociocultural identities related to relevant aspects of their social world b y creating a c o m m u n i c a t i v e style that m a k e s t h e m recognizable as a peer group and confirms t h e m as legitimate m e m b e r s of 'giocai' urban culture.

Notes 1.

Among others, and specifically with reference to Italian and identity construction, cf. di Luzio 1984; Auer and di Luzio 1986; for contextualization in general, Auer and di Luzio (eds.) 1992. 2. Sending the children to school in Italy for a couple of years is in fact one of the reasons why perform poorly at school in Germany. 3. Pisces, one of the astrological signs. 4. The historical origin of the name, i.e. the popular nickname for Mary Queen of Scots (Maria Stuart), is probably not known by the group members. 5. Claudia Schiffer is a German top model, very present in the media at that time. 6. Cf. Carmelo, 8.2.99: Isch bin stolz auf den Namen, wir ham ein nationalen Namen genomm von unsre Nationalität ('I'm proud of that name, we chose a national name from our nationality'). 7. It is probably also an intertextual reference to popular film titles, i.e. the series of 'space invasion' movies in the 90s; cf. Bierbach and Birken-Silverman 2002a. 8. It is not always possible to distinguish between a 'code name' in terms of hiphop culture (i.e. a self chosen 'pseudonym' for crew members, similar to artists' names in the world of show business) and nicknames, which are usually attributed by other group members or friends (in Italian, soprannomi, or nomignoli, cf. Ruffino 1988), but can also, as in the case of internet communication, be created by the user himself as a pseudonym (cf. Wilhelms 2002). 9. Cf. Ruffino 1988 for a detailed classification of Sicilian soprannomi, according to form and function. The names created by our migrant adolescents differ from the traditional ones in the sense that they are not always dialectal and because of their international references, but correspond in this latter aspect to recent trends among young people in Sicily, as reported by Paternostro and Sottile 2005. 10. Such a procedure is rather reminiscent of school or other institutional settings, but is also possible in interethnic encounters and evokes in any case a situation that is familiar to the participants.

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11. It is remarkable how a very subtle cue such as the insertion of a French clitic pronoun into a Sicilian dialect utterance is perceived by the addressee and used to turn a previous communicative failure and potential loss of face into a joke: self irony demonstrates being 'a good sport' and allows the speaker to keep the last word. 12. The expression geil ('sexually aroused') has lost its original meaning and is widely used as a qualifying adjective or, often, as an interjection (almost synonymous with cool)·, however, its use is still perceived as being appropriate only in youth in-group communication. 13. Figs and broth evoke rustic and easily available food in the mezzogiorno·, at the same time, fico viz. fica and succare have obscene sexual connotations. 14. The whole sequence is too long to be reproduced here; for a more detailed presentation and discussion cf. Bierbach and Birken-Silverman 2002b. 15. The 'dissing' sequence ends comparing the woman with the British comedy figure Mr. Bean, with 'Mr. Bean's wife', and with 'Fantozzi's daughter', an Italian comedy figure represented by a stout male actor, i.e. funny and awkward comedy figures very familiar to adolescents. 16. The subtle semantic variation - Mangiaficu (fig eater) > Mangiaficudin (cactus fig eater) - reinforces the pejorative value of the name, as cactus figs (< fichi d' India) are characterized by thorns and are picked by shepherds in the country, and are therefore associated with poor people's nutrition in Sicily. 17. In one of the recorded conversations, where the boys mostly fooled around, one of the girls tells the interviewer: "Wir Mädels ham eigntlisch nur die Wahrheit gesagt..." ('Us girls just told the truth'). 18. Particularly revealing with respect to gendered patterns is an interactional episode of a playful interview performed by the boys in the role of the interviewer and the girls as the interviewees, discussed in detail in Bierbach and Birken-Silverman 2004. 19. This has been confirmed by recent empirical research on different populations, cf. Bednarz-Braun and Heß-Meinig 2004. 20. This is actually the procedure which is at the historical origin of family names, cf. Koß 1990. 21. We were not able, for instance, to find out the meaning and the source of the expression magapu, repeated over and over in this episode. 22. "Aber des is zweideutig gemeint" ('but with a double meaning'), i.e. with a scatological connotation like the preceding. 23. Possibly the variant Tarrazien, introduced by Pino as a repair, gives a more Italianized version of the place name.

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References Androutsopoulos, Jannis 1998 Deutsche Jugendsprache: Untersuchungen zu ihren Strukturen und Funktionen. Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang. Androutsopoulos, Jannis and Alexandra Georgakopoulou (eds.) 2003 Discourse Constructions of Youth Identities (Pragmatics & Beyond 110). Amsterdam: Benjamins. Auer, Peter 1986 Kontextualisierung. Studium Linguistik 19, 2 2 ^ 7 . Auer, Peter and Aldo di Luzio 1986 Identitätskonstitution in der Migration: konversationsanalytische und linguistische Aspekte ethnischer Stereotypisierungen. Linguistische Berichte 104, 327-351. Auer, Peter and Aldo di Luzio (eds.) 1984 Interpretive Sociolinguistics: Migrants, Children, Migrant Children. Tübingen: Narr. 1992 The Contextualization of Language. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins. Bauman, Richard 1978 Verbal Art as Performance. Rowley, MA: Newbury House. 2000 Language, identity, performance. Pragmatics 10(1), 1-5. Bausch, Constanze and Stephan Sting 2001 Rituelle Medieninszenierungen in Peergroups. In: Wulf, Christoph et al. (eds.), Das Soziale als Ritual. Zur performativen Bildung von Gemeinschaften. Opladen: Leske und Budrich, 249-323. Bednarz-Braun, Iris and Sigrid Heß-Meinig 2004 Migration, Ethnie und Geschlecht. Theorieansätze - Forschungsstand - Forschungsperspektiven. Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaft. Bierbach, Christine 1996 Chi non caca un kilo zahlt 20 Mark Strafe. Witze von Kindern zwischen zwei Kulturen. In: Kotthoff, Helga (ed.), Das Gelächter der Geschlechter, 2nd ed. Constance: Universitätsverlag, 247-273. Bierbach, Christine and Gabriele Birken-Silverman 2002a Kommunikationsstil und sprachliche Symbolisierung in einer Gruppe italienischer Migrantenjugendlicher aus der HipHop-Szene in Mannheim. In: Keim, Inken and Wildfried Schütte (eds.), Soziale Welten und kommunikative Stile. Tübingen: Narr, 187-215. 2002b Le parler giocai des jeunes immigrés italiens à Mannheim. Paper presented at the Colloque "Variation, catégorisation, et pratiques discursives", Université de Paris III, 12-14 September 2002.

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Inszenierte männliche Anmache und 'Migranten-Girlies'. Das Gelächter der Geschlechter in einer Gruppe italienischer Migrantenjugendlicher. Deutsche Sprache. Zeitschrift für Theorie, Praxis, Dokumentation 32(3), 240-269. Birken-Silverman, Gabriele 2003 ,Isch bin New School und West Coast... du bisch doch ebe bei de Southside Rockern': Identität und Sprechstil in einer BreakdanceGruppe von Mannheimer Italienern. In: Androutsopoulos, Jannis (ed.), HipHop. Globale Kultur - lokale Praktiken. Bielefeld: Transcript, 273-297. Bühler, Karl 1934 Sprachtheorie. Die Darstellungsfunktion der Sprache. Jena: G. Fischer. Butler, Judith 1990 Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge. Cameron, Deborah 1997 Performing gender identity: Young men's talk and the construction of heterosexual masculinity. In: Johnson, Sally and Ulrike H. Meinhof (eds.), Language and Masculinity. London: Blackwell, 47-64. Chambers, Iain 1996 Migration, Kultur, Identität. Tübingen: Stauffenburg. Còveri, Lorenzo 1993 Novità del/sul linguaggio giovanile. In: Radtke, Edgar (ed.), La lingua dei giovani. Tübingen: Narr, 35—48. Di Luzio, Aldo 1984 On the meaning of language alternation for the sociocultural identity of Italian migrant-children. In: Auer, Peter and Aldo di Luzio (eds.), Interpretive Sociolinguistics: Migrants, Children, Migrant Children. Tübingen: Narr, 55-85. Goffman, Erving 1959 The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Gueli Alletti, Marilene 2003 "Familekt" in einer sizilianischen Migrantenfamilie in Mannheim: Zweisprachige strukturelle und konversationeile Muster. Unpublished MA thesis, University of Mannheim. Gumperz, John J. 1982 Discourse Strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1992 Contextualization revisited. In: Auer, Peter and Aldo di Luzio (eds.), The Contextualization of Language (Pragmatics & Beyond 22). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins, 39-54.

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Habermas, Jürgen 1981 Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp. Hu, Adelheid 2003 Mehrsprachigkeitsforschung, Identitäts- und Kulturtheorie: Tendenzen der Konvergenz. In: De Florio-Hansen, Inez and Adelheid Hu (eds.), Plurilingualität und Identität. Zur Selbst- und Fremdwahrnehmung mehrsprachiger Menschen. Tübingen: Stauffenburg, 1-24. Kallmeyer, Werner and Inken Keim 2003 Linguistic variation and the construction of social identity in a German-Turkish setting: A case study of an immigrant youth group in Mannheim, Germany. In: Androutsopoulos, Jannis and Alexandra Georgakopoulou (eds.), Discourse Constructions of Youth Identities. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2ÇM-7. Keupp, Heiner, Thomas Ahbe, Wolfgang Gmür, Renate Höfer, Beate Mitzerlisch, Wolfgang Kraus, and Florian Straus 1999 [2002] Identitätskonstruktionen. Das Patchwork der Identitäten in der Spätmoderne. Hamburg: Rowohlt. Koß, Gerhard 1990 Namenforschung. Eine Einführung in die Onomastik. Tübingen: Niemeyer. Kotthoff, Helga 2004 Overdoing culture? Sketch-Komik, Typenstilisierung und Identitätskonstruktion bei Kaya Yanar. In: Reuter, Julian (ed.), Doing Culture. Bielefeld: Transcript. Labov, William 1972 Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular. Philadephia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Le Page, Robert and Andrée Tabouret-Keller 1985 Acts of Identity. Creole based Approaches to Language and Ethnicity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lepoutre, David 1997 Coeur de banlieue. Codes, rites et langages. Paris: Odile Jacob. Lytra, Vally 2003 Nicknames and teasing: A case study of a linguistically and culturally mixed peer-group. In: Androutsopoulos, Jannis and Alexandra Georgakopoulou (eds.), Discourse Constructions of Youth Identities. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 47-74. Melliani, Fabienne 2000 La langue du quartier. Appropriation de l'espace et identités urbaines chez des jeunes issus de l'immigration maghrébine en banlieue rouennaise. Paris: L'Harmattan.

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Paternostro, Giuseppe and Roberto Sottile 2005 L'antroponimia giovanile tra nickname e ncária. Un indagine in area palermitana. Paper presented at the Convegno "Giovani, lingue e dialetti", Sappada/Plodn, 29 giugno - 3 luglio 2005. Robertson, Roland 1995 Glocalization: Time-space and homogeneity-heterogeneity. In: Featherstone, Mike, Scott Lash, and Roland Robertson (eds.), Global Modernities. London: Sage, 25—44. Ruffino, Giovanni 1988 Soprannomi della Sicilia occidentale. Onomata. Revue Onomastique 12, 4 8 0 ^ 8 6 . Wilhelms, Nike 2002 Gästebuchkommunikation italienischer HipHop-Fans im Internet. Unpublished MA thesis, University of Mannheim.

Chapter 6 Socio-cultural identity, communicative style, and their change over time: A case study of a group of GermanTurkish girls in Mannheim/Germany Inken Keim

1.

Aim of the study

In this paper, I present some aspects of a youth group's construction of a communicative style and show how the group's stylistic repertoire changes over the course of their growing into adulthood. My paper is based on an ethnographic case study of a group of Turkish girls, the 'Powergirls', who grew up in a typical Turkish migrant neighborhood in the inner city of Mannheim, Germany. 1 The aim of the case study was, on the basis of biographical interviews with group members and long-term observation of group interactions, to reconstruct the formation of an ethnically defined 'ghetto'-clique and its style of communication and to describe the group's development into educated, modern, German-Turkish young women. In this process, a change in the group's stylistic repertoire could be observed. I will analyze the group's socio-cultural identity in terms of its communicative style. From my perspective, identity is not to be regarded as an 'essential' phenomenon representing a predictive or explanatory variable to human behaviour as it is, for example, in social identity theory (e.g. Tajfel 1978). Following the conversation analyst's perspective as it is outlined in Antaki and Widdicombe (1998a and b), I argue that identity is something that is produced in interaction. The analysis of identity is concerned with its occasioned relevance 'here' and 'now' and with its consequences for the interaction and the local purposes of interlocutors. From this perspective, the construction of socio-cultural identity is part of the routine of everyday life and everyday interaction, where identities can be produced in order to affiliate with or to disaffiliate from relevant others and relevant social groups (e.g. Widdicombe and Wooffitt 1995). In the following analysis, style is regarded as a central means of expression of the 'Powergirls' socio-cultural identity. From this perspective, the

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construction of a genuine peer group style is motivated by key experiences of social life, and the choice of stylistic features is closely related to the group's self-conception and their positioning in relation to relevant others. Stylistic transformations that can be observed in the process of the girls' growing into adulthood are conceptualized as indices to their changing selfconception at different phases of their lives. After a short outline of the present migration situation in Germany and a short characterization of the socio-cultural context in which the peer-group formation took place (2), I will present the concept of style as it is applied in this paper and focus on those stylistic aspects which are constitutive for style construction (3). In the following sections (4 and 5), some of the features that are constitutive of the Powergirls' peer group style are presented in more detail. The final sections focus on the gradual stylistic changes in the course of the girls' growing into adulthood and the widening of their stylistic repertoire, first in out-group (6) and then in in-group communication (7).

2.

The 'Powergirls' migration context

Migration from Mediterranean countries to Germany began after the erection of the Iron Curtain and of the Berlin Wall. From the late 1960s onwards, German industry needed workers for skilled and unskilled jobs. 'Guest workers' were recruited, especially from Italy, Spain, former Yugoslavia, and Turkey. Since the guest workers' residence in Germany was planned for only a short period of time, a temporary residence permit as well as a temporary work permit restricted their legal and social status. But gradually, the guest workers' stay became longer and longer; the workers brought their wives and children, who grew up in Germany and went to German schools. Many migrant families have been living in Germany for over 30 years, and most of their children view Germany as their home country. In the course of time, migrant 'ghettos' emerged and stabilized in many inner city districts. Preschool institutions and schools were and still are badly equipped for the instruction of children from various cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Many teachers saw and still see migrant children as double semi-linguals with serious deficits. A high percentage of migrant children are not successful in school and have few opportunities on the job market.

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Out of frustration with their children's educational and professional failure and out of fear that they would become more and more estranged from 'their culture', many Turkish parents tried to educate their children with increasing rigidity along their own traditional norms and values. One of the central problems for young migrants has been coming to terms with their parents' traditional demands and, at the same time, experiencing failure in and exclusion from more advanced educational and professional worlds in Germany. The children's ability to cope with often contrasting traditions and demands from different social worlds is fundamental in the process of forming their own socio-cultural identity. The ethnographic research on which this paper is based was carried out in an inner city district of Mannheim, an industrial town of 320,000 inhabitants in southwestern Germany. Over 21% of Mannheim's population are migrants, 2 most of them of Turkish origin. The district under study, traditionally a working class district, has a migrant population of over 60%; it is called a 'migrant ghetto' by inhabitants of the district as well as by outsiders. The Turkish population has a highly organized infrastructure and lives in close networks where Turkish or 'migrant Turkish' (see below) is the dominant language. 3 In everyday life, standard German is not necessary, and most children come into contact with it, for the first time, in preschool with their German teachers. Since up to 100% of the preschool children have a migration background, they soon begin to develop bilingual practices, code-switching and code-mixing, as well as morphologically and lexically reduced German learner varieties mixed with elements from other languages. When they start school, their competence in standard German a precondition in the monolingually oriented German school - is not very high. Up till now, the district's primary schools have not succeeded to build upon the children's bilingual abilities and to foster their proficiency in standard German. As a consequence, most migrant children are not very successful in school. In the German school system, children have options between three school types at the end of primary school (at the age of ten): children with the best marks go to the Gymnasium', others go to the Realschule, a more practically-oriented school type, and children with low marks go to the Hauptschule, the lowest secondary school type with a very negative image. Because of their low school marks, most migrant children have only one choice, the Hauptschule. So, in the course of time, the Hauptschule of the district has become a school for migrant children, where 90% of the pupils have a migration background. Teachers adjusted to this situation by reduc-

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ing their educational standards with the consequence that it has become even more difficult for migrant children to succeed in schools outside the migrant district. One of the findings of our ethnographic research is that migrant children develop different socio-cultural orientations and communication practices depending on their school careers. 4 Going to the Hauptschule for a tenyear-old child implies (since the Hauptschule is situated in the migrant district) that he/she will grow up in an environment and in peer groups where German-Turkish mixing or highly marked ethnolectal German varieties are the normal 'codes of interaction'. 5 When the adolescents complete the Hauptschule at the age of 15 with low marks or without a qualification, 6 as 25-30% of the students do, they have almost no opportunity to obtain a professional qualification. 7 These youths typically develop an antieducational and non-professional orientation. They align with other migrant peer groups, where members are proud to be a school failure, engage in sports or music, and wish to become a good football player, boxer, hip hopper, or break dancer. They typically marry partners from their parents' home villages and live with them in the migrant district. Children of the district who, at the age of ten, have the chance to go to the Gymnasium or the Realschule ( 10-20% of an age-group) develop quite different social orientations. Since both types of schools are situated outside the district, the children have to enter German educational worlds where migrants are a small minority. For the first time in their lives, they experience the negative image of the Turkish migrants in terms of abuse such as scheiß ausländer ('fucking foreigner') and dreckiger ('dirty') or dummer Türke ('stupid Turk'). 8 In these schools, they have to cope with new educational, linguistic, and social standards for which they usually are not prepared. A typical reaction to these experiences is the organization of an ethnically defined peer group along with the dissociation from or the upgrading of ethnic features. There is a third educational career: with a good Hauptschule-diploma, adolescents have the option to attend various Fachschulen and obtain a qualification that enables them to go to Fachoberschule and later on perhaps even to a university. German teachers call this career der langsame Weg ('the slow path'). They recommend it to those migrant children who, from their perspective, have an 'ability to learn' but do not yet have the necessary competence in German. Pupils with this school career live in the migrant district until the age of 15. After that, they, too, have to enter

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school worlds outside the migrant district, where they encounter similar experiences as the other children. The 'Powergirls' belong to the small portion of district children who were quite successful at school. Some of the girls went to the Realschule or Gymnasium at the age of 10; others took 'the slow path'. So, in the course of their educational career, all of the girls had to leave the migrant district, some very early, the others later on at the age of 15. The formation of an ethnic group started not long after some of the girls attended the Gymnasium. Here, they experienced the Schock des Lebens ('shock of their lives') because they were not up to the new linguistic, educational, and social demands. Their parents could not help them, and, since they were too ashamed or too proud to ask for assistance from their German peers or teachers, they felt helpless, alone, and excluded. Trying to understand their situation, they soon arrived at an ethnic interpretation and considered their 'Turkish-ness' to be the reason for failing in school and for being excluded by their German peers. At the age of 12 or 13, they joined with other Turkish girls, formed an ethnic group, and called themselves 'Turkish Powergirls'. On the one hand, they struggled against the German school world, where they felt marginalized and excluded, and, on the other hand, they revolted against their parents' educational principles, especially against the traditional Turkish female role, since they had been exposed to other female models in their new surroundings. Gradually, the group developed into a wild, aggressive ethnic clique that even became criminal for a period. As the girls grew older, they started to visit one of the district's youth centers where, at least, they found help with their school problems and new models for their further social, educational, and professional development. That was the time when I first met the 'Powergirls'. I had the opportunity to observe them over a longer period of time and to document their gradual development. 9 The main topics in the group's discussions were the girls' relationships to their families and the Turkish community and their experiences in schools outside the migrant district. In the course of these discussions, a new social identity emerged (see Keim 2002). The 'Powergirls', who up till then had defined themselves as a rebellious 'Turkish' group, gradually came to see themselves as something 'new', as 'modern, German-Turkish' young women who wanted to be socially and professionally successful and who were determined to fight against restrictions put on them by both the migrant community and German society.

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Inken Keim

Social style and social identity: A dynamic relationship

Our concept of social style is influenced by cultural (Clarke 1979; Willis 1981), ethnographic (Heath 1983), and sociological (Strauss 1984) concepts in which style is related to a group's culture and its social identity. 10 In this tradition, cultural style is the product of the adjustment of human communities to their ecological, social, and economic conditions. Striving for social integration as well as for social differentiation is a part of these conditions. Cultural or social styles correspond to schematic knowledge of social behavior, and their relevant traits reflect distinctive features of the respective social and cultural paradigm. From this perspective, a sociocultural style is defined as the specific solution for existential needs and aspirations. The specifics of a socio-cultural style become obvious through a comparison across different social worlds. In the following section, I want to focus on some aspects of style formation that are relevant to the 'Powergirls" stylistic development. (a)

(b)

Style is a complex and holistic means of expression. It is signaled by co-occurring features on the prosodie, lexical, syntactic, and lexicosemantic level as well as by the realization of specific activity types or specific genres and conversational structures. Elements from all these levels are combined along the same line, in a homologous way, and form a unique 'gestalt'. In this 'gestalt' formation, further dimensions of expression are included such as outward appearance (clothing, make-up, piercings), body movement, preference for specific music or sport trends, etc." In sociological and ethnographic research, further aspects of style formation are discussed. Style is seen as an 'aesthetic performance' (Soeffner 1986), a unification of features in order to give a holistic self-presentation, high-lighting those features which contrast to other socio-stylistic paradigms. The issue of contrast is central in Irvine's concept of style (2001 ) as "part of a system of distinction in which a style contrasts with other possible styles and the social meaning signified by the style contrasts to other social meanings" (22). From this perspective, style is a relational concept: it exists only for participants of a group or milieu who interpret it in relation to another group or milieu (see Hinnenkamp and Selting 1989; Auer 1989).

Socio-cultural identity, communicative style, and their change over time (c)

(d)

161

Social styles differ from one another. They are ascribed to social groups or milieus and have social meaning. Solidarity, affiliation, or identification with a social group or milieu is symbolized by using its style. In relation to other social groups or milieus, style functions as a means for differentiation and separation, as described especially in research on youth languages or youth cultures: cf. concepts such as 'Kontrasprache' (Bausinger 1972), 'anti-language' (Halliday 1976), 'subculture' (Hebdige 1979; Widdicombe and Wooffitt 1995), or 'counter-culture' (Clarke et al. 1979; Willis 1982). Aspects of differentiation are also central in studies on ethnicity (see Barth 1969; Schwitalla and Streek 1989; Czyzewski et al. 1995) and on social categorization (see Sacks 1979; Hausendorf 2002). Style is interactionally produced. Speakers as well as recipients participate in the formation of a style, its maintenance and its change. Styles are not determined: they are performed as socially and interactively meaningful productions and can be adjusted to situational and interactional requirements. By abrupt style switchings or gradual style shiftings, locally different contexts or footings (Goffman 1974) can be accomplished.

These aspects are essential for the description of the 'Powergirls" style whose formation can be related to two processes of differentiation: the girls' emancipation f r o m the traditional Turkish female role and their opposition to the German school world. In the course of these differentiation processes, the 'Powergirls' created a style that contrasted on all stylistic dimensions with the 'traditional young Turkish woman' as well as with the teachers' expectations at the Gymnasium,12 Both contrasts made the girls fall back on features taken f r o m the communicative behavior of Turkish male groups of the district, characterized by aggressiveness and coarse language. The teachers at the Gymnasium rejected the 'Powergirl' style rigorously because it contrasted sharply with the schools' ideology of cultivated behavior. Two girls were even expelled from school because of their rudeness. These experiences and the insight that a higher school qualification was the only way to become professionally successful and financially independent of their families 13 effected a gradual change of social orientations and a gradual transformation of style. Stylistic elements, which so far had been evaluated by the peer-group as 'not belonging to us', were tried out,

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and gradually accepted. Along with this constant reconstruction of the stylistic repertoire, the following questions arise: -

-

How much stylistic continuity is possible since processes of repertoire reconstruction are not necessarily harmonious, and conflicting stylistic means may collide; are there phases in the stylistic development where different styles coexist; or is a unique style constructed with various stylistic facets?

These questions will be discussed in the course of the following outline of the 'Powergirls" development from a 'ghetto' clique to young university students. In the following sections, I want to focus on two sets of stylistic features: a) the use of different varieties, Turkish and German, and b) the choice of specific communicative practices such as rough and coarse provocations and insults as the stylistic means for the symbolization of being a 'Powergirl'. The first set of features (4) will be outlined very roughly, 14 but the second will be presented in more detail (5).

4.

The use of different varieties

I start with a rough outline of the group's linguistic development regarding the use and evaluation of the three varieties: 'Mannheim Turkish', German-Turkish mixing, and monolingual German. When I first met the 'Powergirls', they were still closely linked to the social life of the migrant community; some had just finished the Hauptschule and attended a Realschule or Fachschule outside the district. For those girls, 'Mannheim Turkish' and especially German-Turkish mixing were the essential means of ingroup communication. Monolingual German was not important for them, and some girls had no routine of using it over longer interactional stretches. They told me mixing was the most comfortable code and, as I observed, the most important one in in-group communication. 'Mannheim Turkish' is the variety of Turkish spoken by second and third generation migrants, especially with their elders. The name is derived from a comparison between the Turkish spoken in the home villages of the parents and the varieties spoken in Mannheim. 'Mannheim Turkish' has some of the typical characteristics of the Turkish varieties in Germany such as deletion of the question-particle, use of personal pronouns in unfocused

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positions, avoidance of embedded gerund-constructions, etc.15 Some of these characteristics are caused by influences from German; others point to a loosening of grammatical norms or could be seen as the result of a dialect levelling. But most features of 'Mannheim Turkish' correspond to the Turkish dialects of the regions the families come from. 16 In the case of the 'Powergirls', mixing was preferred in in-group communication, especially in everyday interactions such as narrations and arguments. In mixing, the girls use their bilingual competence for discursive and socio-symbolic functions. 17 Until now, we could not find another migrant youth group that had developed such highly elaborate mixing practices; therefore, we assume that mixing as well as its discursive functions are part of the 'Powergirls' peer-group style. Those 'Powergirls' who had to leave the migrant district early in the course of their educational career had, when I met them, already acquired a high competence in monolingual German. But in in-group communication, mixing was their preferred code of interaction. The mixing of these girls differed slightly from that of the others in the higher proportion of German structures and elements. In some interactions (for example, discussions about their school affairs), German was their dominant language. This shows clearly that in the course of their educational career outside the migrant district, the girls' linguistic competences and preferences had changed: in specific constellations together with specific topics, the relevance of mixing had decreased, and the relevance of German had increased. Two years later, when all girls attended schools outside the migrant district, they all had acquired a high competence in monolingual German. For the oldest girls, who had just started to attend a university, German had become the central means of expression in all professional domains. But in in-group communication, all girls still preferred mixing. At this time, it had become a means for symbolizing their affiliation with the category of the 'German-Turk' and their dissociation from the Turkish-speaking world as well as from the German-speaking majority. When I asked them about their ideal life-partner, they spontaneously answered that they would only marry a German-Turk, a man who could mix the languages. Thus, the formation of German-Turkish mixing as well as the use of monolingual German is closely related to the speakers' processing of social experiences and to their construction of a genuine socio-cultural identity.

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Coarse language - a stylistic marker of the 'Powergirls'

When I first met the 'Powergirls' (they were 15-19 years old), coarse language was a constitutive characteristic of their communicative style. Its use is closely related to their emancipation from the category of the 'young traditional woman'. The defining features of this category can be characterized as the following: the young woman restricts her life to the house and the family, submits to the norms and values of the family, behaves in an unassuming way, and follows the orders of her elders. Chastity and modesty are highly evaluated virtues that are symbolized by clothing as well as behavior. A life outside the house and contact with boys is strictly forbidden. For a girl or young woman, it is obligatory to wait on other family members, to stay in the background in the presence of her elders, and to keep quiet in the presence of older men. To address older people in an outspoken manner or to contradict them would be offensive, at least in public. Many Turkish migrant families try to educate their girls according to this model in order to shield them from modern, western influences, as did the 'Powergirls" parents. But the girls revolted against this model and strictly rejected it. One of the girls describes its features as follows: (i) 1 8 01 AR:

die sind so furschbar unterwürfig 'they are so terribly obsequious

* bedienen die älteren * they wait on the older ones

02 AR

servieren teeJ- * und gehn wieder still in die eckeJserve them tea and then they go quietly into their corner

02 AR:

des find=isch einfach schre"cklischJI think that is really terrible'

And another girl describes her experiences with a neighbor, whom she sees as a candidate for the category: (2) 01 DI:

weißt du jedesmal wenn ich bei denen warî ** hat sie immer 'you know, every time I was in their house she acted always

02 DI:

schön brav äh die dienerin gespielte like a servant, very obediently

03 DI:

und gebäck gebracht und und die leute bedientÎ and cookies all the time and she waited on people

04 DI:

saß immer brav zu hauseî * ähm hat immer des getan always stayed at home, like a good girl, and she always

* hat immer tee gebracht she brought tea und ähm ml and she

Socio-cultural identity, communicative style, and their change over time 05 DI:

165

was die eitern gesagt haben did what her parents told her'

The 'Powergirls' developed an 'anti-traditional' self-conception: they disobeyed their parents' orders, preferred stylish clothes, make-up and piercings, went out with boys, danced in discos, and experimented with drugs. They enjoyed undisciplined, rude, and coarse ways of speaking and behaved very generally in a wild and aggressive way. From the perspective of their Turkish elders, such behavior was unusual for young women but rather typical for young men living in 'street gangs'. Undisciplined behavior was expressed, for example, by ignoring turn-taking rules, interrupting each other, and shouting each other down (see below, examples 8 and 9). For the expression of coarseness, the girls drew on rough ways of speaking that they had observed in Turkish male groups who practiced verbal duellings and ritual insults. 5.1. Coarseness in verbal duellings In the district under study, games such as tavla and billards are part of everyday life for Turkish men. Such games are played in Turkish coffee houses, exclusively visited by men. In these games, playful insults with drastic expressions, swear formulas, coarse sexual formulas, and verbal duellings are constitutive elements. 19 The aim of these verbal activities is to distract the adversary with advice or insults, to make him feel insecure, and to provoke him. The provocative turn follows the action of the game. Traditional Turkish women do not play such games, at least not in public. But for the 'Powergirls', tavla and billards were favorite games and part of their leisure-time activities. In order to demonstrate the kind of coarseness the girls enjoyed along with these games, I will give a short example taken from a weekend excursion I had the chance to document at the beginning of my observation. Hatice and Teslime, 16 and 17 years old, are playing billards. Before the following transcript starts, Hatice has commented on her successful moves with statements in German such as das war gut ('that was good') or ich hab deinen ball getroffen ( Ί hit your ball'). Teslime reacts neither to Hatice's moves nor to her remarks. Her silence causes Hatice to provoke her: she poses provocatively in front of the billiard table, laughs as if she is confident of victory, switches into Turkish, and starts speaking in a sweet, seductive voice (Turkish segments are in bold type):

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(3) 01 HA: Κ

seksï oyun yapalimJ- *1,5* PLAYS, HITS 'let's play in a sexy way' SWEET VOICE

02 TE:

-»oruspu«'whore'

03 HA:

PLAYS, DOES NOT HIT >agzini * sikyim< X I fuck your mouth' SHARP VOICE

K: 04 TE:

PLAYS, DOES NOT HIT -Wallah belami vermesi-.nlagzini * sikyim< ( Ί fuck your mouth', 03). With this, she ratifies the playful competition in Turkish and continues it by topping the previous

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move. 22 Teslime plays the next ball. She also does not hit and uses a religious formula as a kind of self-reproach (allah belami vermesi:n 'Allah shall not curse me', 04). 23 Since the formula does not belong to the standard repertoire of formulaic abuses, Hatice does not understand its meaning at first and asks niye be ('why', 05). But as she begins to understand, she confirms Teslime's bad play by using the positive version of the formula: ha: * ben an/anladim niye versin ('oh, I have got it why He should curse you', 05). She then continues with the game. She plays the ball, and because she does not hit again, she comments on her failure with the abuse formula siktir (06), a shortened version of siktittir git ('let yourself be fucked'). With this formula, she resumes the verbal duelling that was interrupted by the religious formula. When Teslime, too, does not hit the target, she uses a further version of the abusive formula that Hatice had used in line 03, which has a slightly more drastic quality: agzina sikyim ( Ί fuck into your mouth', 07). 24 When Teslime hits the target with the next move (08), Hatice ends the playful competition: —>.des is do=normalerweise ein faul gell t dass du mein stein zuerschd triffschdrezil olduk[< * si"ktir * oruspu çocugui * 'we disgraced ourselves completely, fuck you child of a whore, beat it'

The speaker finishes the argument with the self-reflexive comment >rezil olduk{< ('we disgraced ourselves completely') and expresses her shame for using vulgar expressions in the presence of an outsider and a person on whose evaluation she depends. With a final angrily spoken insult si"ktir

Socio-cultural identity, communicative style, and their change over time

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oruspu çocugu[* ('fuck you, child of a whore, beat it'), she turns away and leaves the room. The comment rezil olduk reveals a rule for vulgar expressions: they are specific to in-group communication, and the girls try to avoid them in the presence of outsiders on whose good opinion they depend because they know that they disapprove of them. 28 But the speaker's use of vulgar expressions even in the course of lamenting her coarse language reveals how stabilized and routinized these ways of speaking are in in-group communication. Coarse language together with the male address forms mann, lan, and langer are closely related to the group's self-conception, contrasting maximally with the social category of the 'traditional young Turkish woman'. As a consequence of the intensive revolt against the category of the 'traditional young Turkish woman', the girls' rough and rude behavior was gradually used in other contexts, too. As long as they attended the district schools, they got on quite well. But in schools outside the district, especially the Gymnasium, the teachers did not tolerate their behavior. And here, they got into serious trouble. They interpreted the teachers' criticism and rejection of their behavior in an ethnic frame: they felt negatively evaluated because they were Turks and because of the German teachers' prejudices against Turks, and they reacted accordingly with an up-grading of their ethnicity. They rejected the teachers as ausländerfeindliche Deutsche ('Germans hostile to foreigners') and emphasized their Turkishness by enforcing their aggressive and coarse behavior. They enjoyed shocking everyone with the consequence of marginalizing themselves and being marginalized by their German schoolmates and teachers. Retrospectively, they characterize their behavior in this phase of their lives as unverschämt, frech und einfach asozial ('insolent, rude, and truly anti-social'). For some of the girls, this attitude grew into a hostile relationship towards the teachers with very serious consequences. One of the girls who was no longer accepted as a student and had to leave school explains this in the following way: (6) 01 HI:

des haben die lehrer zu mir gesagt 'the (German)teachers told me

02 HI:

dass isch ahm- * dass halt der ton τ die musik machti that I ehm * that I need to change my tune

03 HI:

dass isch misch halt falsch ausdrücken würde ι and that I express myself in a wrong way

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04 HI:

dass die misch missverstehni (...) that they misunderstand me

05 HI:

isch weiß was die meinen halt dass isch- ** and I know what they mean that I

0 6 HI:

dass isch halt zu grob bini that I am too rude'

The speaker portrays the teacher-pupil conflict as based on differences of social style, and her failure in school is presented as a consequence of her stylistic shortcomings. On the basis of such experiences, the girls came to understand that the teachers, whom they treated as their enemies, were 'gate-keepers' to their future professional careers. Consequently, they became more and more sensitive to situational demands on their verbal and nonverbal behavior: they learned to distinguish between situations where it was possible to use rude ways of speaking from situations where they were better avoided, and they learned to come to terms with the social conventions and values of the social worlds in which they wanted to succeed. They learned to control their behavior and to adjust it to new contextual conditions. Along with a change in their self-conception from the 'Turkish Powergirl' to a socially and professionally successful 'German-Turkish young woman', they gradually oriented towards communicative practices associated with this new category. In this process, more formal and elaborate forms of communication were acquired, including 'polite talk' with conventional politeness formulas.

6.

Politeness in out-group communication

The youth centre that the 'Powergirls' began to visit regularly enforced this process. Here, they learned new communicative styles, especially in interaction with their favorite social worker, Naran, a young, modern G e r m a n Turkish academic. Since she grew up and finished her university career in Germany, she was well acquainted with life in the Turkish migrant community as well as with the social and educational demands in German institutions. The young women respected Naran as their abla ('older sister'), and they followed her advice. Even though she tolerated the girls' rude ways of speaking, she would never tolerate rudeness addressed to herself. If the girls disregarded rules of politeness towards her, they had to apologize using the relevant formulas, or they had to offer other compensatory actions.

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In some of these interactions, differences between the girls' and the social worker's communicative styles come into focus. These show that even though the girls knew how to be 'polite' they still dissociated themselves from that kind of behavior, signalling that it belonged to others and not (yet) to their peer group. This can be demonstrated by the following example. On a weekend trip (in the second year of my observation), when the social worker tried to explain some organizational details, she could not get the girls' attention and did not succeed in getting the floor. The girls interrupted her, spoke all at once, or tried to shout each other down. When, at last, Naran got the floor, she reproached the girls for their undisciplined behavior, returned to the official agenda, and continued with the organisational information. With this, the transcript starts:

(V) 01 NA:

für den fernsehraum

'ou yeah, shut up'

03 TU:

04 DI:

und die schrei"en and they are yelling

KNOCKS ON THE TABLE is, nicht > nich), and interconsonantal vowel deletion (,gerade > grade). The author of (4) presents himself and his band in a narrative mode, and directly addresses his readers in the last clause. Simple clauses and clitization (so ein > so'n) indicate an overall informal style. The review excerpt (5) is written from an impersonal perspective. It includes comparatively longer, subordinate clauses, and complex noun phrases (einem der meistgespieltesten Club-Tracks 'one of the most played club tracks', der stark nach vorne gehende Neptunes-Beat 'the massively forward-pressing Neptunes beat'). The variables selected for analysis are typical features of spoken German (cf. Schwitalla 1997) and are repeatedly mentioned in German CMC literature as frequent features of informal online writing. They occur in quantifiable amounts in my sample, ranging from 51 to 1,440 tokens. 10 (a) deletion of word-final Iii in consonant clusters, e.g. nicht > nich ('not') (b) reduction of the indefinite article in all genders and cases, e.g. eine > ne ('a' sing.fem.nom. or acc.) (c) negative adverb nichts (Standard German [niçts] 'nothing') written nix (corresponding to the colloquial pronunciation [mks]); (d) clitization of post-verbal es (object or dummy pronoun) after four different verbs (finden 'find', geben 'give', gehen 'go', haben 'have') in the 1st and 3rd person singular, e.g. habe es > habs, gibt es > gibts\ (e) deletion of verb-final /e/ in the 1st and 3rd person singular of 16 different verbs (including high frequency verbs such as brauchen 'need', haben 'have', kommen 'come', sagen 'say'), e.g. habe > hab. All five features have a 'written' variant, i.e. the standard orthographic representation, and a 'spoken' one, corresponding to the colloquial reduced or cliticized form. Based on all tokens of each variable, the frequency of spoken variants was counted for all three genres in the usual variationist way, i.e. all factual over potential occurrences of the variant, excluding categorically invariant cases. The findings (Table 1) suggest a clear distinction between the boards and the two other genres, and a more subtle distinction between artist homepages and reviews." Board discussions have a much higher amount of spoken variants throughout, ranging from more than 60% for features (d) and (e), to slightly over half for (c), 38% for (b) and 22% for (a). Homepages score higher than reviews for four features, (d) being the exception. This is largely due to the cliticized form of the construction gibt es > gibt's

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or gibts ('there is'), which is frequently used in the reviews. A look at each variable reveals different distribution patterns. Features (a) and (b) have lower than average scores for all genres, with extremely low amounts of colloquial spellings in reviews and artist homepages. Feature (e) scores higher than average in all genres, and particularly high in the artist homepages, in which a personal style is more frequent. The distribution of (c) is similar to the average. Table 1. Frequency of five colloquial spellings in three genres Artist homeReviews Final -t deletion Indefinite article reduction nix (instead of nichts) Clitization of post-verbal es Deletion of verb-final -e Total Average %

pages

Boards

Total

Ν

%

Ν

%

Ν

%

Ν

%

2

0,5

9

3

169

22

180

12,5

6

2

14

5

105

38

125

15

1

7

2

22

28

52

31

42

10

43

2

20

11

61

23

45

4

21

42

49

178 491 / 1390

62

224

57

23 / 753

69 / 680 15

20

583 / 2823 47

34

In sum, these findings suggest that writing style in the hip-hop field is partly determined by genre. This pattern was repeatedly found in the data: boards capitalize on written representations of spoken/colloquial features to a far greater extent than other genres. As a full description of these genres is beyond the scope of this paper, suffice it to say that reviews feature comparatively more of the technical jargon of hip-hop, while board discussions are the principal site for slang items, conversational routines, and stylized African-American English. Personal homepages have a less clear position in this respect.

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Androutsopoulos

5.2. Genre and individual styling While these three genres are overall distinct in terms of their orientation towards the spoken or written mode, the language style of individual members sometimes follows and sometimes diverges from that pattern. Genres differ in the creative freedom they grant their users. While record reviews are quite homogeneously patterned in the webbeatz..de data, homepages display a striking range of individual variation. This is not surprising, taking into account that the main purpose of the artist homepage is precisely to communicate individual style. Some artists construe themselves in a more professional manner, while others aim at a style that is closer to street culture. Consequently, some homepage texts are stylistically closer to discussion boards, while others strive for a standard oriented writing style. This difference is evident in the two examples presented below. (Sentence numbering in square brackets is added for reference; italics in the glosses indicate English items in the original text; bold type in example 7 indicates reflexes of colloquial and regional speech.) (6) Artist homepage text [1] Einer der erfolgversprechendsten Gruppen der Flensburger HipHop-Szene ist die BeatSkill Crew. [2] Durch Zusammenarbeit mir Künstlern von Flensburg bis Salzburg, diverse von ihnen geplante Events und vor allem durch ihre Auftritte haben sich Mafuba und Dragon bereits einen Namen gemacht. [3] Während Mafuba durch ihren einzigartigen, teils mit Gesangspassagen gemischten Reimstil Eindruck macht, sorgt Dragon für die passenden, teils asiatisch und teils funkinspirierten Beats. [4] Zur Zeit in Arbeit sind das neue Album, das diesen Sommer fertig sein wird, sowie ein Beitrag für die Querschnitt-Compilation, die im März mit einer Erstauflage von 1.000 Stück erscheinen wird. [5] Live sind die beiden als nächstes am 16.03. in Flensburg mit Justus & Fumanschu (M.O.R.) zu sehen, danach sind erstmal wieder Studio-Sessions angesagt. '[1] One of the most promising bands from the Flensburg hiphop scene is the BeatSkill Crew. [2] Mafuba and Dragon have already made a name through the cooperation with artists from Flensburg to Salzburg [= end points of the Germanspeaking area, J.Α.], through the planning of various events and especially through their gigs. [3] While Mafuba impresses through her unique rhyming style, which is partly interspersed with singing parts, Deragon takes care of the appropriate, partly Asian and partly funk inspired beats. [4] They are currently working on their new album, which will be ready this summer, and on a contribution to the Qerschnitt compilation, which will be out in March, starting with 1,000 copies. [5] Their next

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live appearance is 3/16 in Flensburg, together with Justus & Fumanschu (M.O.R.), after that some more studio sessions will follow.' (7) Artist homepage text [1] Straight Up Hip Hop - Straight aus München. [2] Akuma: „Wir wolln halt, dass ma München ned ausschließlich mit Sound wie Blumentopf oder David Ρ verbindet. [3] Wo is der dreckige, abgefuckte Scheiß hier? [4] Ich kann mir nimmer diesen ,Was geht ab digga' Sound anhören, so isses ned. [5] Das Leben is ned nur aus Party und feiern und cool rappen, oiderl " [6] Aufgenommen wird der Sound im jahrelang selber erweiterten BRA.CHI.AL Studio a bisserl außerhalb Münchens. [7] Die Beats bestehen zu 100% aus samples, sonst nix! [8] Gemastert wird das ganze vom S in Darmstadt. [9] Grüße an Ka, So, Kr, Ha, LC, Gr. '[1] Straight up hip hop - straight >from Munich [2] Akuma: "What we want is that Munich not be exclusively associated with a sound like Blumentopf or David P. [3] Where's that dirty, fucked-up shit here? [4] I can't hear this 'What's up digga' sound no more, that's not how it is. [5] Life is not just partying and having fun and cool rapping, mate!" [6] The sound is recorded in the BRA.CHI.AL studio, which we have been extending for years, a bit outside Munich. [7] The beats consist of 100% samples, nothing else! [8] The whole thing is mastered by S. in Darmstadt. [9] Greets to Ka, So, Kr, Ha, LC, Gr.' The first text (6) is strongly reminiscent of promotional discourse by the music industry. It is syntactically quite complex (see sentences 2, 3, 4), including two heavily modified noun phrases in sentence 3. Standard orthography is used throughout, indicated by noun capitalization, which is required in standard German, and the absence of colloquial spellings. These artists frame their self-presentation by their success potential (cf. erfolgsversprechend 'promising' in sentence 1) and foreground their current production activities. By contrast, the writers of the second text (7) foreground issues of style in their local hip-hop community, i.e. Munich; they challenge established artists (cf. sentence 2), and stress their contacts to the local scene (cf. sentence 9). This self-presentation consists of a headline, a quotation by a band member, and a description of the band's sound. The quotation (sentences 2 - 5 ) is heavily marked as spoken (see items in bold type). Some of these spellings reflect general features of colloquial German including the ones discussed above (e.g. ist > is, wollen > wolln, nichts > nix); others are more

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specific to Southern German varieties (man > ma 'one', nicht > ned 'not', nimmer 'no more', a bisserl 'a bit', alter > oider 'mate (lit. 'old man')). The author draws on these features in stressing the band's outlook on hiphop in Munich, i.e. what they like and what they reject. The quotation also includes bits and pieces of hip-hop slang, e.g. the use of Scheiß probably modelled after AAVE shit, and the phrase 'Was geht ab digga' Sound (digga is a German hip-hop slang term of address). The last part of this text, a greeting to the writer's crew, is reminiscent of online discussion boards and guest books. Despite these differences, both texts are immediately recognizable as belonging to the field of hip-hop discourse. From a member's point of view, as reconstructed in online ethnography, none of these texts is more 'authentic' or 'fake' than the other. These are rather two different ways of designing a young artist identity through language, which co-operate with other dimensions of mediated identity design, including photos, band logo, and the music itself. They demonstrate the importance of transgressing the seemingly homogeneous genre to include individual profiles in online style analysis. 5.3. Debating style in online talk: The case ofHecklah

& Coch

Moving from homepage texts to online talk, this section will focus on a discussion that took place on the critique board of a band called Hecklah & Coch. These two young Berlin artists represent 'Berlin rap', a recently popular rap style that draws on the tradition of U.S. American 'gangsta' rap. Their identity design on their homepage clearly appropriates aspects of 'gangsta' rap. This holds true for their name, which refers to the German gun manufacturer Heckler & Koch. Its respelling to Hecklah & Coch draws on the -er/-ah spelling alternation (as in gangstah, sistah), which is quite common in hip-hop discourse, and has a straightforward model in the name of the well-known U.S.formation Smif & Wessun, which in turn appropriates the name of the U.S. gun manufacturers Smith & Wesson. Besides alluding to this U.S. predecessor, the respelling presumably protects the band from copyright trouble. Moreover, the homepage photo depicts the two band members holding guns and looking down to the viewer. This is a visual resource for positioning the represented person as powerful (Kress and van Leuuwen 1996: 146), and quite a popular pose in 'gangsta' rap, the imagery of which often capitalizes on aggressive domination (cf. Haugen 2003).

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At the time of sampling, the Hecklah & Coch board included 9 0 contributions, posted in 19 days, with a sum of 4 , 0 5 6 words and an average length of 4 5 words. 1 2 I will focus here on the first 29 entries, which w e r e posted b y 16 persons in 4 3 hours. In terms of sequential structure, this is a series of reactive posts that c o m m e n t on the band, interspersed by short interactive sequences, which start at entry 10 and occur until 26. Eight participants contribute one posting each, six contribute two, and three participants contribute three postings each. I will quote three lengthy parts f r o m this thread, i.e. entries 2 - 8 , 1 9 - 2 1 , and 2 2 - 2 9 . 1 3 (8) Board discussion (original

numbering)

1. webmaster - 13.18 Hier ist Platz für deine Meinung zu Hecklah & Coch. 2. Dan-14.00 beat geht so...raps auch...alles standard.nichts besonderes..euer foto find ich krass lächerlich... aber wer weiss ..vielleicht lauft ihr ja in berlin wirklich so hart rum...dann is ok... dieses „geld macht sex..geld macht fame..macht hass.."..hört sich krass scheisse an., peace. 3. Dan -14.01 aber vielleicht hate ich auch einfach nur... auch möglich...dann halt.

erschießt

mich

4. P-A - 14.20 wer ist Dan? track ist fett, auch dicker beat 5.Rolex-14.40 Ich find das Cover auch nich gut Raps sind auch in Ordnung!

aber eigentlich isses mir Wayne! Beat is cool,

6. QM-15.50 Hehe, dicker Track! [2nd and 3rd clause omitted] 7. Jim - 16.23 berliner style =) yes, ich hab paar tracks von euch am start und fand euch eigentlich schon recht fresh, also macht weiter jungs. Peace 8. Deep Ρ - 16.35 Der beat geht nach vorn - ist aber trotzdem nichts besonderes.Zum text sag ich nur „hunde die bellen beissen nicht" - mehr als peinlich jungs... Das photo ist echt der Hammer-fehlen nur noch zwei bitchez, ihr seid soooo lächerlich...

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Ί. webmaster -13.18 Express your opinion on Hecklah & Coch here. 2. Dan-14.00 beat is okay... raps too ... standard stuff, nothing special, your photo I find totally ridiculous... but who knows., maybe you do run around as hard as that in berlin... in this case it's ok... this "money makes sex..money makes fame..makes hate.." [= quotes song lyrics, J.A. ].. sounds totally crap, peace 3. Dan -14.01 But maybe I'm just hating... could also be true... well then just shoot me. 4. P-A -14.20 Who's Dan? the track is fat. fat beat too. 5.Rolex-14.40 I don't like the cover either, but it's really the same to me! the beat is cool, the raps are also ok! 6. QM-

15.50 Hehe, fat track\ [2nd and 3rd clause omitted] 7. Jim -16.23 Berlin style =) yes, I've got some tracks from you guys and always thought you're quite fresh. Well keep it up guys, peace 8. Deep Ρ - 16.35 The beat moves forward, but is nothing special. About the text I can only say "barking dogs don't bite" - more than just embarrassing, guys... The photo is just about the limit - only thing missing is two bitchez, you're soooo ridiculous...'

The thread starts with a series of comments on the band's music and selfpresentation, written in a usual board style. The contributions are quite short and syntactically simple; they feature non-standard orthography (lack of noun capitalization) and hip-hop slang (fresh, bitchez). The abundance of music-related terms (track, beat) and evaluators (cool, fett, fresh, ok) reflects the board's communicative purpose, i.e. discussing the artist's music. What is exceptional here is the attention paid to the band's picture (cf. entries 2, 3, 8 as well as 19, 21, 22 later on). In post 2, Dan points out that the picture probably does not reflect lived experience; in 3, he ironically challenges the band to prove their authenticity, i.e. use their guns. In post 8, Deep Ρ suggests a missing element, i.e. two bitchez, to complete the visual cliché. Both call the photo lächerlich ('ridiculous'), emphasizing its lack of

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authenticity. Significantly, the posts that are positive towards the music, partly identifying its local style (cf. 7), hardly refer to the photo, with the exception of Rolex (5) who downplays its importance. As the thread unfolds, other posters defend the band's style and react to the critique. Some of these responses display two techniques of derogation that are reminiscent of 'dissing', i.e. the genre of (aggressive) verbal challenge in hip-hop culture. These techniques are the derogatory reference to the opponent's origin and music taste. For example, in post 11 (not included here), Jimmy challenges Dan (author of posts 2 and 3) to shut up or keep on listening to beginner (original wording: halt einfach dein maul oder hör weiter beginner!) The reference to beginner, a commercially successful German rap band, indexes a different music taste within Germanspeaking rap, which Jimmy presumably rejects as being too soft when compared to Berlin rap. (9) Board discussion

(continued)

19. Ryke - 14.25 (day after)

[1st para discussing song omitted] euer foto., naja, der eine ist aufm internat, der andere warfürn jähr im ausland, ob ihr gerade die richtigen seid um „das getto zu representen" weiss ich jetzt auch net. versteh das nicht als dis gegen eure skills, da geht schon was, vor allem wenn ihr schon jams klargemacht habt und so... peace ryke

20. TOC-

14.54 tac h... @deep ρ wo kommst du her? Pinneberg? keine angst die tun dir nichts. @ryke sylvestah war '98 ein jähr in england sonst sind alle in schöneberg geboren und keiner war lange im ausland (ausser letztes jähr auf hawaiiiii) ... und wer das mit dem cover immer noch nicht geplant hat, tut mir leid. 21. Ryke- 15.09 okay, ich weiss was du meinst, ihr wiss was ich mein © ich finde guns ja auch ganz, flashig und so., aber besonders innovativ oder selbstironisch ist das halt nicht, gerade für berlin. peace

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'19. Ryke - 14.25 (day after) [1st para discussing song omitted] Your photo., well, one is in a boarding school, the other one was abroad for a year, whether you guys are the right ones to "represent the ghetto", I'm not sure. Don't read this as a diss against your skills, which you do have, especially since you've already played on jams and all., peace ryke 20. TOC-14.54 hi... @deep ρ where do you come from? Pinneberg? Don't worry, they'll do you no harm. @ryke sylvestah was one year in england in '98 but apart from that they're all born in schöneberg and no one was abroad for a longer time (except last year in hawaiiiii) ... and if you still don't dig the cover, I'm sorry for you. 21. Ryke -15.09 Okay, I know what you mean, you know what I mean. © I also find guns quite flashy and all... but it's not especially innovative or self-ironic, especially as far as berlin is concerned. peace ' Another instance of verbal aggression towards the critics is post 20. Here, T O C ' s reply to Deep Ρ (post 8) can be read as implying that Deep P, living in the provincial town of Pinneberg, is not familiar with the sight of guns the way Berlin youngsters are. In the second part of his post, T O C responds to Ryke (post 19), w h o is positive towards the b a n d ' s music, but doubts their legitimacy to represent criminal ghetto life. However, Ryke mitigates his critique by acknowledging the b a n d ' s skills and by closing with a signal of community solidarity, i.e. peace. In the last clause of 20, T O C seems to imply that the b a n d ' s photo should not be taken at face value, an argument he takes up in post 24. Ryke partly aligns with this in post 21. His statement (original wording: ich finde guns ja auch ganz flashig und so) seems to position guns as part of an impressive staging, a visual decoration without any correspondence to lived experience.

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(continued)

22. Frank -15.56 In gewisser Weise ist es clever jede Art von Kritik mit dem Vorwurf des „Ihr Hated Nur" [Titel des Heckiah & Coch-Songs, J.A.] abzutun. Sehr einfaches, beneidenswert unkompliziertes Weltbild. Nur beschränkt man sich dadurch letztendlich selbst. Aber das fühlen Heckiah & Coch wohl nicht. Ein Quentchen übertriebener und es wäre beinahe hunmorvoll. So bleibt es, in meinen Augen, ein vergeblicher Profilierungsversuch der unterhalb der Mittelmäßigkeit rangiert. Der Beat fügt sich gut in diese Szenerie. 23. P-A -16.08 blub blub blub. 24. TOC-17.28 blub blub und abgesoffen! das man in alles immer so viel interpretieren kann. der track definiert sich ganz einfach, tighter beat, Strophen geschrieben, aufgenommen. is doch nur RAP man, RAP lililí kritik is cool, aber Deeuutschläänd (Mr.Banjo said so) hört auf mit pseudo intellektuellen phrasen irgendwelche tracks zu analysieren, feier doch einfach den track. (@frisbee) @ryke HAALLLOOOO H.E.C.K.L.A.H. & C.O.C.H- 99% Treffsicherheit - deutsche parade wajfe - FlexRap GUNZaufdem Cover!!!! 25. TOC-17.39 [21-word post offering web links omitted] 26. Frank -17.43 Was gibts da zu feiern TOC ? Ich finde diesen Track langweilig. Wenn Du Dich über unreflektierten Konsum freuen kannst, dann wünsche ich Dir viel Vergnügen. Ich kanns nicht. Hilfe. Ich bin Student. 27. DownTown - 22.36 [11-word post praising the band's style omitted] 28. Willy - 22.56 [38-word post praising band's music and criticizing its photo omitted]

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29. Mark - 08.31 Frank schrieb am (DATUM): [fullquote

of (22) ]

geh nach hause und höhr fanta4 '22. Frank -15.56 In a certain way it is clever to block any form of critique with the reproach of "You're just Hating" [title of a Hecklah & Coch song J.A.]. A quite simple, enviably uncomplicated worldview. But at the end of the day this amounts to a selfrestriction, though Hecklah & Coch do not seem to feel this. A bit more exaggerated, and it would be almost humorous. But this way it remains, in my view, an unavailing attempt to gain profile that ranges below average. The beat fits in well in this scenery. 23. P-A- 16.08 blah blah blah 24. TOC-17.28 blah blah and down it goes ! people can interpret so much in everything, the track defines itself quite simply. tight beat, write the stanzas, and record it. It's just RAP man, RAP !!!!!! critique is cool, but Deeuutschläänd (Mr.Banjo said so) just stop analyzing these tracks with pseudo intellectual phrases, just celebrate the track (@frisbee) @ryke HEELLLOOOO H.E.C.K.L.A.H. & C.O.C.H - 99% marksmanship - German parade gun - FlexRap GUNZ on the coverUU 25. TOC-17.39 [21-word post offering web links omitted] 26. Frank -17.43 What's there to celebrate TOC? I find this track boring. If you can enjoy unreflected consumption, then please enjoy yourself. I can't. Help. I'm a student. 27. DownTown - 22.36 [11-word post praising the band's style omitted] 28. Willy - 22.56 [38-word post praising band's music and criticizing its photo omitted]

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29. Mark - 08.31 Frank wrote at DATE: [ fullquote of (22) ] go home and listen to fanta4'

Post 22 introduces a markedly different style. Frank goes beyond the critique expressed so far, and provides an analysis of the artists' ideology. He attributes to H&C a simplistic worldview and judges their style as not exaggerated enough to be humorous. With seven clauses and 66 words, this post is considerably longer than the thread's average. It is also syntactically more complex and follows standard German orthography, including noun capitalization. Its most striking features are the absence of hip-hop slang and the abundance of formal vocabulary and collocations such as rangiert unterhalb der Mittelmäßigkeit ('ranges below average'), vergeblicher Profilierungsversuch ('unavailing attempt to gain profile'), beneidenswert unkompliziertes ('enviably uncomplicated'), beinahe humorvoll ('almost humorous'). This post is written in the third person (except for a subjectivity marker, in my eyes), while most other contributions choose the first and/or second person. Other than previous critics, Frank does not round off his contribution with peace, which contextualizes his lack of orientation to the community. Two immediate responses to Frank come from Berlin residents who are already active in this debate (place of residence is part of the member profile that is displayed together with each post). In the first of them (post 23), P-A disparages Frank's statement with a condensed evaluation, i.e. blub blub blub (equivalent to 'blah blah blah') About one and a half hours later, TOC's reply follows (post 24). His opener is a repetition and variation of the preceding evaluation, 14 thereby demonstrating alignment with P-A. He rejects Frank's criticism, which he labels pseudo intellectual phrases, and draws attention to what he perceives to be the essence of rap. According to TOC, the (formal) quality of rap sound and lyrics should leave no need for further interpretations. He underscores his stance through a reference to a rap artist he identifies with.15 In the second part of post 24, TOC elaborates his alternative reading of the photo. He seems to suggest that guns can be understood as a visual metaphor, which transfers positive qualities of the German gun brand Heckler & Koch, such as 99% treffsicherheit ('99% marksmanship'), to the band. He also seems to imply that the gun metaphor is legitimate in the frame of FlexRap (battle rap), a rap genre that focuses on aggressive verbal competition. 16

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Just a few minutes later, Frank's reaction (26) keeps in line with his initial stance and style. He rejects TOC's suggestion to 'celebrate the track' and accuses him of 'unreflected consumption'. He retains the verb final -e twice, the deletion of which is quite common on these boards, as demonstrated above. Frank rounds off his post with a self-labelling as Student ('university student'). In current German slang, Student is a negative categorization among high school students; it stands for an intellectual outlook without real experience. Frank's self-labelling evokes this stereotype, perhaps in order to ironically confirm inferences by fellow posters and readers. Entries 27 and 28 (not reproduced here) come in the default board style and re-iterate the controversy discussed above. The author of (27) praises the band's local style, whereas the author of (28) is positive towards the song but rejects the band's photo as peinlich ('embarassing') and calls the band möchte gern gangsta ('wannabe gangstas'). Yet another reply to Frank follows in entry 29. Mark, who also comes from Berlin and praised the band earlier in this thread (post 13), quotes Frank's critique in full, and challenges him to go home and listen to fanta 4, i.e. a highly successful German rap band of the 1990s, which is judged by many as too commercial and soft. As in post 11, the indexical power of this statement draws on the position of the referent within the discursive system of hip-hop. The brevity of this post and the misspelling of hör as höhr (imperative sing, of 'listen to') provide a formal contrast to Frank's critique as well. Overall, the participants' positions with respect to the band's photo reveal a dichotomy between 'critics', most clearly represented by Dan and Frank, and 'defenders', most clearly represented by TOC. The defenders are residents of Berlin and present themselves as fans of Berlin rap, while the critics come from other parts of the country. The critics read the band's photo as a mere imitation of African-American imagery, which is not rooted in the artists' local context, i.e. Berlin. To them, the band's visual style lacks authenticity because it deviates from a widespread maxim of rap discourse, i.e. that rap reflects lived experience. By contrast, the defenders, and in particular TOC, embrace a metaphorical reading of the picture, which is rooted in an equally widespread conceptual metaphor of rap discourse, i.e. RAP is A WEAPON (cf. Androutsopoulos and Scholz 2002). While many posters from both sides equally draw on resources that are typical for hip-hop board discussions in making their point, in Frank's contribution this clash of cultural values is articulated with a clash of language styles. Frank draws on a markedly more formal style in producing a more 'elaborate' critique, which fans of Berlin rap in turn reject as 'intellectual babbling'.

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However, Frank's writing style is not exclusive to a critical perspective on 'gangsta rap', just as the defenders' style is not exclusive to Berlin or to 'gangsta' rap fans. Moreover, a look at other postings by the protagonists of this debate suggest that they all style-shift to some extent. What we witness in this thread is how the capital value of linguistic resources in hip-hop discourse is reproduced, and contested, in a situated online interaction. The articulation of stance and style that is most salient in entries 22-26 is rooted in the fundamental ambivalence of spoken and written style in the field (cf. 4.2). Spoken and non-standard writing is a clear, often quite conscious divergence from school norms and mainstream media discourse, which all participants are familiar with. It is a resource for constructing nonmainstream and 'down to earth' attitudes; what this involves in every single case depends on local context and the topics at hand (cf. Eckert 2002). By contrast, more professional activities in the field, such as authoring and editing copy text for a large website, capitalize on a language style that is inevitably closer to institutional and mainstream media norms. However, sites of online interaction provide a space in which a writing style traditionally vested with symbolic authority can be devalued and made fun of. The emerging picture is certainly not unknown to sociolinguists, as it basically illustrates how the structural relation of standard and non-standard, as well as the covert prestige of vernacular speech, is reproduced in a new setting.

6.

Conclusion

The aim of this chapter was to demonstrate how the notion of sociolinguistic style can deal with the complexities of language use in CMC. A framework for online style analysis was sketched out, and its tripartite distinction between individual participants, genres, and computer-mediated discourse field was used to describe and interpret linguistic variability on a particular hip-hop website. The findings suggest that sociolinguistic style must be addressed at the intersection of these three levels, which frame and contextualize each other in online interaction. In sum, on the level of the field as a whole, participants are 'doing hiphop' by drawing on a small but highly typical list of items across various categories (vocabulary, discourse markers, spelling variation). They capitalize on vernacular English, and additionally draw on visual cues of affiliation. Hip-hop slang, a members' resource, operates on this global level as

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well. Clearly, the prototypical instantiation of hip-hop slang is tied up with genres of online interaction. But hip-hop's field of online discourse includes numerous other genres beside online talk, some quite close to offline traditions, and others genuinely specific to CMC. Hip-hop on the Web is constituted through non-institutional literacy practices, but these practices are not oblivious to genre differences. Depending on genre, users will follow established conventions, creatively transform them, or draw on different generic models to solve the communicative task at hand. The comparison of artist homepages suggests that the choice of a generic model is part and parcel of online identity design, as it contextualizes individual ambitions and alignments. Discarding a 'default' genre style and adopting a different generic model has stylistic significance and is clearly acknowledged as such by participants. Therefore, genre is the level on which online style in a collective and an individual sense is manifested. Finally, the analysis of the online talk suggests that the discussion board provides members with a discursive space to debate the artists' visual and verbal style, and to construct their own style as community members. Although this approach was developed on data from an arena of youth (sub)culture, its usefulness is not restricted to such an arena. As researchers have repeatedly pointed out, youth and youth culture are particularly suited contexts for gaining sociolinguistic insights that reach beyond youth itself. Developing and negotiating social style plays a crucial role in adolescent identity constructions (cf. Bucholtz 2004; Eckert 2000; and papers in Androutsopoulos and Georgakopoulou (eds.) 2003); but the relevance of style in social life is obviously not restricted to youth. Given that the analytical distinctions developed in this paper are not exclusive to youth-cultural settings on the Web, this framework is capable of being applied to other fields of computer-mediated discourse as well. In conclusion, this chapter has argued for a sociolinguistic perspective on computer-mediated communication. With the social spread of the internet, new forms of community are emerging between real-life social networks and imagined communities. Informal written language is gaining new domains, and variation in written language, in particular spelling, is increasing (cf. Sebba, this volume). Sociolinguistic s must address these issues and developments, modifying its tools and concepts to meet new social realities. It seems that the theoretical and analytic notions of sociolinguistics can account for the complexity of language use and variation on the Web, provided we adjust them to the new conditions of communication and community in what Castells (2000) has termed the 'network society'.

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Notes 1.

On genre in the study of sociolinguistic style cf. Irvine (2001); Bauman (2001); on genre and online ethnography cf. Danet (2001). 2. The project "Jugendkulturelle mediale Stile" was carried out from 2000-2004 as part of the research group "Sprachvariation als kommunikative Praxis", funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG); director Werner Kallmeyer, principal investigator Jannis Androutsopoulos, research assistants Daniel Kraft, Nina Nikolic, Ben Schneider. 3. I draw on Koch and Oesterreicher's (1985) model of conceptually spoken/written style here, which separates the (phonic or graphic) materialization of discourse from its (spoken or written) conception. This model relates linguistic features to communicative situations by means of two 'continua'. The communicative situation is modelled on a continuum between nearness and distance, based on criteria such as level of formality, level of spontaneity, monologue/dialogue, synchronous/asynchronous mode, etc. The conception of discourse is modelled on a continuum between spoken and written style, based on features of discourse structure, syntax, lexicon, and phonology/orthography (cf. Androutsopoulos 2000 for an earlier application to media discourse). 4. One of the fullest directories in the field, the mzee.com link project, featured 480 German-speaking websites in spring 2002. This figure rose to 831 sites some 15 months later. The link directory on webbeatz.de listed 263 and 458 German hip-hop sites, respectively. 5. The terms 'online magazine' and 'web portal' are used interchangeably in the following, as the boundary between them is fuzzy from the participants' perspective. 6. According to webmaster information, hiphop.de reached 3.5 millions of page impressions per month in the beginning of 2004. 7. Cf. Morgan (2001), contributions in Mitchell (ed.) (2001) and Rap Dictionary ( ww w.rapdict. org). 8. These are 99 types, excluding proper names, but including a few ambiguous forms such as word class membership and language, e.g. sample (verb or noun) and mag (Ger. verb mag or Eng. noun magazine). 9. The sample consists of a total of 54,550 words, divided into 73 reviews (17,400 words), 116 artist homepages (18,650) and 24 board discussions (18,500). It is representative with respect to the total amount of texts in these genres on webbeatz.de at the time of research. 10. Feature (c) has the most tokens (1,440), mainly due to the copula verb ist, followed by (a) (854), (b) (391), (e) (73) and (d) (51). Features occuring less frequently in the sample, and therefore excluded from analysis, are the clitization of es after a personal pronoun (e.g. du es > du 's) and of definite article after preposition (e.g. mit dem > mit'm). Analysis of features (d) and (e) includes

312

11. 12. 13.

14.

15. 16.

Jannis

Androutsopoulos

only verbs which show variation in the sample. Linguistic constraints were not examined. Although they presumably affect the distribution of the variants to some extent, genre differences are clear enough for the purposes of this paper. The difference between the three genres is statistically significant, χ 2 : 121.2 (df: 8), ρ (-) "with you in your group ay, (-)'

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03 Knut:

ja wer bei mir? "well who with mE?' 04 Denis: =äh also in de kl : - (.) in de klAsse, (-) I =ah I mean in the cl:- (.) in the clAss, (.)' 05 Knut: isch hab kein: hAwackI I have no : 1hAwack-' ' 06 (1,0) 07 Bernd: [höhö-] ['haha-'] 08 Denis: [kenns] te der eine spAst der immer so «all>komisch labert,> 1 [dya k]now the crAnk who always speaks so strange' 09 « f , chocked voice, continously falling intonation> HÖY Aldär höy OAldär öy kr ι Ass öy,> 1 HOY MAte hoy MAte oy gr¿Oss oy, ' 10 hh. he. ( -) 11 Frank: « l e n > is=hald ] Uldra den kerle wEIß=u, > (-) "is real rUldra the guy y=knOw. (-)' 12 Knut: wEn meinst=en du? (1,0) "who d=you mEAn? (1,0)' U p to line 08 the youngsters use their preferred we-code. This is a more or less dialectal variety of colloquial German interspersed with youth slang. It is the code that is mostly used in informal leisure-time conversations among the adolescents when adults are not present. In line 09, Denis quotes a Hawack that allegedly attends K n u t ' s class: HÖY Aldär höy AOldär öy kr[Ass öy. The quotation is most prominently set off f r o m previous talk: Denis not only frames the quotation metapragmatically (see line 08), it is also the dramatic change of his voice that marks the switch. Denis speaks in a choked and rasping voice, which gets increasingly lower until it reaches almost the lower extreme of Denis' intonational range. The articulation sounds imprecise: the vowels are realized by a backward m o v e of the tongue (velar [D] instead of [a]; [Θ] instead of [ε]); there is a lenisation of the fortis-plosive [t] to [d], and the Irl is pronounced [R]. The lexis consists of items that are 'code-markers' for Kanaksprak: the words krass and alder, together with a f e w others (such as korrekt, konkret, see the next examples), form a repertoire of lexical items speakers of Kanaksprak are assumed to use in nearly every turn. The quotation has no syntactic structure; it consists of the attention-getter or intensifier ey, the tag alder and the

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evaluative adjective krass. The extreme assessment contrasts with almost complete lack of propositional content - there is no recognizable referent (for a summary of features of stylized Kanaksprak in my data see Table 1). Table 1. Linguistic features defining stylized Kanaksprak in German youngsters' conversations Phonetics/Pronunciation

Phonology/Voice quality

Grammar Syntax and turn-design

Lexis

Semantics

Phraseology

apical [r]; reduction of Its/ -> /s/; coronalisation of [ç] -> [Jj; lenisation of fortis-stops ([t] -> [d]; [k] -> [g]); vowels pronounced with a backward move of the tongue: closed -> open vowels; (imprecise articulation) frequent elongation of vowels; (choked voice), (rasping voice), (rumbling, scanning rhythm), ((slow and sluggish)) overgeneralized use of den as pronoun/article; wrong agreement excessive use of tags; inversion of the word order of main clauses: VS instead of SV, violation of the German Verbklammer, often lack of syntactic structure (one-word sentences) excessive use of stereotypical code-markers krass, korrekt, konkret, alder, Turkish lexis, such as lari, tarn, tschai, ìschi, tschucki semantic widening of evaluative adjectives; use of upgrading prefixes such as ultra as evaluative adjectives abusive slogans/ritual sayings (threats, insults)

Features that are only typical of quotations and category-animations are represented in brackets; double brackets indicate idiosyncratic variants. Frank aligns with Denis' code-switch (line 11). He also uses stylized Kanaksprak (see next section for the analysis), but changes the perspective: H e assumes the voice of an anonymous Kanacke who admires the character that Denis has quoted. Frank thus agrees with the upshot (cf. Heritage and Watson 1979) of Denis' quotation which is designed to characterize the quoted speaker's identity. In this sequence, we can see how stylized Kanaksprak is used in order to ascribe identities to self and other by a layering of voices (cf. Günthner

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1999, 2002; see also Bakhtin 1981; Rampton 1995, 1998). In order to describe the different identities that are involved, I will use the 'positioning'theory (Bamberg 1997; Harré and van Langenhove 1999; Korobov 2001; Lucius-Hoene and Deppermann 2002) which in my view is most suited to capture the different levels and referents of local identity-constructions in discourse (see Table 2). Table 2. Layers of positioning 1st layer

other-positioning

representation of the self-positioning of the

Kanacken 2 nd layer

attitude toward other-positioning

attitude toward the 1st layer

3rd layer

representational self-positioning

versus represented other

interactional self-positioning of * I: as individual * we: as peer-group as Germans as media-experts

versus co-interactant

4th layer

(= Kanacken)

In line 11, Frank shows his agreement with Denis' other-positioning of the Kanacke in Knut's form by ironically formulating the social identity that the quoted speaker is said to claim (cf. Kotthoff 2002): It is the identity of a strong and very macho male who demands attention and issues apodictic statements. But this other-positioning is only a first layer. A second layer is the attitude that the speaker assumes towards the other. The social identity that the fictitious Kanacke claims for himself is contested and ridiculed. This already becomes apparent by the metapragmatic framing of the quotation, where the quoted speaker is called a spast (line 08). 7 Spast is an abusive youth slang-term derived from Spastiker (denoting 'disabled persons suffering from spastic paralysis'). Spast is used in order to attribute intellectual deficits and social incompetence. The spast's way of speaking is characterized as komisch labern ('speaking strange'), which is a derogatory

336

Arnulf Deppermann

verbum dicendi. This attribution is further elaborated on by the quotation itself: The quoted speaker is despised as a braggart, who in reality is extremely stupid and incompetent. Especially Denis' imprecise pronunciation contextualizes his contempt against the spast's lack of civilization and selfcontrol (see above). In this sequence, Kanaksprak is judged as a low prestige variety that attests to a lack of cultural capital (Bourdieu 1983). Paralleling Bourdieu's argument concerning the lacking prestige of dialects, it seems to be mainly the phonological features of stylized Kanaksprak that are linked to an uncivilized habitus (Bourdieu 1982). Language is not just one contingent feature among others that belongs to a Kanacke - the linguistic and pragmatic properties of Kanaksprak are regarded as features that have intrinsic sociosymbolic values and that are central in order to define the speakers' identities (cf. Kallmeyer and Keim 1994; Kallmeyer 1995). They express 'cultural rich points' (Coupland 1996; here: central dimensions of identity) and can be used to identify speakers. A third layer of self-positioning can now be seen as being implicitly contextualized by the other-positioning and the attitude towards it: The speakers claim higher status for themselves. Their language contrastively is framed as attesting to more intelligence, a higher degree of civilization and verbal skill. In Rampton's terminology (Rampton 1995: 300 and 1998), the boys switch to stylized Kanaksprak ironically, performing a 'vari-directional double-voicing', in which the (allegedly) original intention of the Kanaksprak-character is subverted, ironicized and mockingly held against him. 8 4.2.

Category-animations

Frank's turn is=hald \Oldra den kerle wEIß=u, (line 11) is spoken in a footing (Goffman 1981) that is not his own. It is not a personal quotation, but an instance of a practice I will call 'category-animation' (sensu Goffman 1981: 143; see also Levinson 1988). By this I understand cases in which an utterance is framed as indexing some category of persons. The speaker does not claim to report something that has really been said (cf. Härtung 2002: 99). Sometimes the speaker does not even pretend that he refers to a specific person at all. Instead, category animations represent ways of speaking that are regarded as most typical and at times even constitutive of the category Kanacke itself. 9 This indexicality concerns the (linguistic) form of the utterance as well as its content and its pragmatics (speech acts, claims to identity). 10 I use the term 'category-indexical' in-

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337

stead of the well-known 'category-bound' (see Sacks 1972; Jayyusi 1984) in order to stress that the ways of speaking in question are not only framed as being typical of Kanaksprak; rather, they are used as devices to identify the animated character unambiguously as a Kanacke.11 Frank's turn: is=hald \ \Jldra den kerle wEIß=u is a clear case of a category-animation as he assumes the voice of an anonymous speaker of Kanaksprak. Frank partly uses the same linguistic properties as Denis in line 10 (e.g. lenisation, inarticulate speech, an extreme, but propositionally empty assessment (uldra), tag - here: weiss=u), and some additional features which are assumed to be typical of Kanaksprak: he reduces the consonant cluster /st/ to /s/ (weiß=u instead of weißt du), he talks slowly and sluggishly, he inverts the order of subject and verb (VS instead of SV: is uldra den kerle instead of der kerl ist ultra), the standard German pronoun der is replaced by den, and he uses the prefix uldra as an adjective. In this case the category had already been established in the previous turn. In the next example the category-animation serves to construct a theyidentity. Bernd and Wuddi are passing a house where Romani people live. They do not know these people, but they know that it is the home of Kanacken. Pointing to the house, Bernd sings: (2) ischfig disch (Juk 9) 01 Bernd: (-) ka.na.gge [.näd da:? ] ((singing tone)) (-) 11 kanak' [not the:re?]' 02 Wuddi: [ korRE: KT- (.) "I: give you corRE:CT(.)' 04 Wuddi: trEt dir in die frEsse; [(.) LAN; ] "kick you in the fAce; [(.) MAN; ]' 05 Bernd: [aha ha HA-] 1 [uhu hu HU-]'

In the beginning, Bernd makes a non-lexical, singing noise 12 which establishes an imitation-frame: [y]-sounds are considered as code-markers for Turkish among German youngsters. Bernd's question about the whereabouts of the Kanacken (line 01) is some kind of stylized Gastarbeiterdeutsch rather than stylized Kanaksprak: Not only the article, but also the verb is missing. Wuddi answers with a category-animation (lines 02-04). In his first turn-constructional unit (line 02: I:sch fl:g dl:sch lA:n;), he pro-

338

Arnulf Deppermann

duces a scanning rhythm. It represents the rumbling sound that Germans often attribute to Kanaksprak. Wuddi uses also lenisation and speaks very slowly with elongated vowels ([g] instead of [k], [fi:g] instead of [fik]). As a tag, he twice uses the Turkish word lan, meaning 'young man'. 13 Probably, this is the most widely known Turkish word among German youngsters, and it is regularly used as a social categorization for Κ a η a ksp ra k-s ρ c a k e r s. The phraseologism I:sch gib dir korre:kt (line 03) does not only contain the code-marker korrekt with its characteristic apical pronunciation. It is a ritualized saying, meaning that the speaker announces that he will defeat, and maybe do harm to, the addressee. 14 The three turn-constructional units have very similar structures: they are about the same length and share a common rhythm, each of them contains a sentence, and they all perform a ritualized threat. This repetitive structuring evidences the speaker's stylistic orientation to a poetic performance (cf. Bauman and Briggs 1990; Hymes 1996). The poetic features themselves reflexively index locally relevant identities. In contrast to the first example, this category-animation is semantically dense - it is not only a vignette of a communicative habitus, but it also denotes values and action preferences of the fictitious, animated speaker. All three phrases are ritualized threats that position their author as someone who is physically strong and dangerous. Since there is no justifying context, this practice is contextualized as violent, obscene and looking for trouble without a cause. Especially the threat to 'fuck' the opponent is well known from Turkish verbal duelling: the attacker announces that he will make his opponent a victim of sadistic homosexual practices, thus depriving him of his sexual reputation as a male. 15 While the positioning of the other in this case is quite easy to see, self-positioning is not so clear: Does the animator position himself as being afraid of becoming a potential victim? Does he discredit the threatening behaviour as a ridiculous bluff and see himself as superior? Does he symbolically take revenge for defeats and a perceived disadvantage by exposing Kanacken to mockery? As in the previous example, there are again implicit claims to a more civilized status and higher verbal and intellectual competence. Wuddi's self-positioning towards the addressee Bernd, however, is easy to be seen: He displays the rhetorical skills of a spontaneous artful verbal performance. Bernd's laughter acclaims this and makes it an interactional success. Quotations and category-animations are primary ways to characterize Kanacken. This does not only highlight the fact that Kanaksprak itself and the actions performed with it are defining characteristics of Kanacken. Quoting and mimicry can also be seen as a rhetorical resource that is de-

Playing with the voice of the other

339

signed to convey identity-ascriptions in an implicit, but nevertheless effective way which is much better protected f r o m criticism than any explicit propositional statement about Kanacken would be (cf. Günthner 2002). While the latter could be challenged, the inferences drawn f r o m mimicry can be rejected as not intended. The same rhetorical advantage applies to the claims to the speaker's own identity, such as being more civilized, more verbally competent and intellectually superior to the Kanacken.

4.3. Playful

assessments

The overwhelming number of stylized uses of Kanaksprak in my corpus are instances of a practice I call 'playful assessments'. Playful assessments are evaluations that are contextualized as being unserious, jocular remarks. Stylized Kanaksprak is thus mostly used as a fun-code that defines the key of the ongoing interaction: it is framed as entertainment. This will become apparent in the next sequence. The boys are standing at a ski-lift and are talking about girls they have just seen. Frank and Denis disagree on which girl is most attractive (lines 0 1 - 0 8 ) . In line 11, Denis switches into stylized Kanaksprak, and Bernd and Frank align with the code-switch: (3) blond ultrakrass 01 F r a n k :

(Juk 17)

hey die blond knut, 'ay

the

blond

one

(.)

knut,

(.)'

02

des war en träum oder? (.)

03 D e n i s :

'wasn't she

FUCKin A e y . '

wasthis

(.)' a

[thl:ng (.)' [((incomprehensible))

(

)

340

Arnulf Deppermann

10 Bernd: j a ,

'yes, 11

f.; ( .)'

schieb ma=n a:rsch wieder hoch,

"move your a : s s up a g a i n , ( . ) ' s l i g h t l y l a u g h i n g > aldär- (.) KONkret, "mate c o n c r e t e , '

12 Denis: den is ( . ) u : l t r a f u c k i n g A, ( . ) 'them i s

15 Frank: « l e n , 16

aldär, (.)

17

den hab isch schon gesä:hn

"mate,

(.)' LETZte

"them have I a l r e a d y s e e n LAST' 18

[ja::hr, (.) hey aldär.> (.)] 1

[year,

(.)

19 Denis: [TA: :M 1

20

[ r i : :ght

[ta: :m 1

ay m a t e . >

] total TA: :M. (.)

ay::,

] t o t a l l y RI : :GHT.

[ r i : :ght

(hu:h.)] ' TSCHU]cki aldär.

' [ r i :ght 2 2 Wuddi: mayer-

FINE] m a t e .

(-) mein hein mal-

'mayer-

(-) my l e g j u s t -

23

fuß da vorbei dass isch

24

foot t h a t I could ( ((door of t h e c a r i s f o r t y marks i s t h i s .

tschucki, 2 6 Frank:

1

fine,

(.)

(.)

(.)

fi:ne;'

(-) an deinem- (.)

(-) p a s t y o u r -

(.)

(nacken) könnte.

).' closed))

vierzsch mack kost=es. 1

(.)'

(ha :h. J]

21 Frank: [ta:m

25 Bernd:

(.)]'

ey::,

(-)

(.) '

(.)

mate.'

(1.2)

27 28

alex?

'alex?

(.) schmeißt mal mei cassett

an=em?

( . ) w i l l you t u r n on my c a s s e t t = a h ? '

Lines 12-16 contain the most prototypical occurrences of Kanaksprak in my corpus: they exclusively consist of the (in Labov's 1972 sense) stereotypical items konkret, krass, ultra and aldär, delivered with code-marking phonetics (apical [r] and backward pronunciation of the vowels, partially

Playing with the voice of the other

341

with choked voice) and used as one-word comments. They are not embedded into a syntactic frame. This feature, as well as their semantics and their sequential placement, provides them with an interjection-like grammatical status. By using these features, the code-switch is clearly marked, although there is no metapragmatic announcement or thematic environment that makes it expectable. There is no intra-sentential or intra-turn codeswitching: Speakers who use stylized Kanaksprak take care to separate it clearly from their unmarked we-code by packaging it in distinct segments. In Frank's turn (lines 15-18), we find some additional features of stylized Kanaksprak: sluggish delivery with prolonged vowels, the pronoun den instead of die, incorrect agreement between adjective and noun (letzte jähr, lines 17-18), numerous tags (aldär in lines 12, 16, 18, 21, 26) and alteration of word order (violation of the German S-Aux-O-V-order, line 17). In lines 19-21 and 26 words occur that are of Turkish origin: torn (an abbreviation of tamam 'exactly', 'that's right') and tschucki which is derived from çok iyi ('tremendous', 'fine'). In this sequence, speakers switch into stylized Kanaksprak in order to continue a disagreement about girls. From the beginning, it is at least partially a playful competition, because it is prosodically contextualized as fun (mainly by Denis who starts it laughingly in line 03ff.), and it probably will not have any consequences. As Denis switches into stylized Kanaksprak (line 12), the competition is at risk of losing its entertaining value, since it starts to move in circles. In this context, code-switching can be seen as a poetic variation. It introduces a new aesthetic resource which is in line with the playful and mainly rhetorical character which the competition has had from the outset. If we take a closer look at the succession of codes, the poetic character of the competition becomes evident: Frank starts in colloquial German {en traum, 01-02), Denis uses an old, already conventionalized item of youth-slang {geil, 05), Frank opposes him with new items of youth slang (brett, gerät, 06-08), Denis initiates a sequence in stylized Kanaksprak {12-18), this is finally topped by intended Turkish items (torn, tschucki, 19-21). 16 After this, the competition is over. The sequence is realized by competing assessments which increasingly deviate from Standard German (see Figure 1). It is not by chance that stylized Kanaksprak is mostly used for making assessments: Assessing terms are one of the most productive lexical fields in German youth slang (Androutsopoulos 1998: 434). New terms are

342

Arnulf Deppermann

rapidly popularized as in-group markers and youth cultural capital. With their diffusion, however, they lose their distinctive prestige and therefore are in need of constant renewal. Stylized Kanaksprak is one current source for a prestigious enhancement of speakers' expressive repertoires. colloquial German (lines 01-04)

I conventionalized German youth slang (line 05)

I new German youth slang (line 06-08)

I stylized Kanaksprak (lines 12-18)

I stylized Turkish (lines 19-21; 26)

Figure 1. Code-competition Starting with line 12, the sequence is no longer marked as disagreement (by negation, adversative connectives, etc.) and the turns lack referential specification (apart from Frank in lines 15-18). 17 As these assessments are semantically roughly equivalent, it is only the choice of the code that serves to outdo the opponent by rhetorical means. Stylized Kanaksprak is used as a device to win in a poetic competition. Since this competition is driven by a deployment of increasingly specialized youth cultural knowledge, the performance of stylized Kanaksprak can be seen as a display of youth cultural capital: the winner of the competition is the one who manages to perform the code which is linguistically most distinct from Standard German and which is sociosymbolically most specific. At the same time, the use of stylized Kanaksprak definitely turns the competition into collaborative play (cf. also Eckert 1993). Next speakers regularly repeat items produced by the previous speaker and amend them (see Table 3). This combination of

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343

repetition (or 'format tying'; see Sacks 1992: 716; Goodwin 1990) and variation makes visible the fusion of collaboration and competition that is distinctive for this interative practice. It produces an emergent poetic structure which matches with Jakobson's (1960) basic definition of poetics as a meta-linguistic, self-reflexive construction built upon patterns of repetition and variation. 18 Table 3. The sequential emergence of a pattern of repetition and variation Turn

New items

Denis lines 12--13

aldär konkret ober krass ultra geil den hab isch schon gesä:hn letzte j ahr tarn ey total tschucki

Bernd line 14 Frank lines 16--18

Denis lines 19--20 Frank line 21

Repeated from previous turn(s)

krass ultra aldär

tarn aldär

(tschucki)

In this segment, it becomes clear that stylized Kanaksprak is a youth cultural capital that can be used as a resource for self-positioning by an individual member of the in-group: it is a means to position oneself as a poetically and mimetically skilled entertainer. It enables the individual to successfully participate in peer-group routines of playful and entertaining competitions. As interpersonal competition and the production of funny moments in interaction are most highly valued among male adolescents (see Deppermann and Schmidt 2001a), the capacity to switch into stylized Kanaksprak at appropriate moments will contribute to enhance the individual's status as a peer-group member. In the following excerpt, the boys ride in a car which is steered by the participant observer. They are heading for the Austrian valley "Stubaital". As Denis sees a road sign "Stubaital", he reads aloud: Stubai (line 05). Frank, who is smoking, repeats this turn and recontextualizes it as stylized Kanaksprak:

344

Arnulf

Deppermann

(4) Stubai (Juk 17) 01 ((technosounds from the car stereo)) 02 Frank: OA::h des is so ein BRETT das LIED1 WO : :w that is such a HIT that SONG-' 03 (4.0) «reading a road sign, f, scanning voice> 04 Denis: stUbai-> « l e n > s tu: bai Alder.> (-) 05 Frank: "stu:bai Oldster. (-)'

06 Denis: 1 Oldster, ( . ) hm? ' (4.0) 07 08 Frank: ((exhales smoke and points to the microphone)) 09 kannst=e mal halten bitte?> 'can ya just hold please?' 15 Frank: «smiling voice> jetzt lenkt die «len> AnnA:-> "now Anna: steers-' 16 (1.5) 17 «slightly laughing, h> macht ma kein schEIß-> "don't you make shit-' 18 (5.0) 19 «resuming previous t o p i o war der to:t?> "was he dea:d? ' 20 (2.0) 21 der Ti Y: : Ρ; ( . ) 1 the GiU: : Y; ( . ) '

Playing with the voice of the other

345

22 Denis: (-) 'conCRE: : TE- (-) ' 23 Frank: ich hätt jetzt mal lust auf ne 1 1 just would like to have a BLUE now;'

The use of stylized Kanaksprak here is triggered by the word stubai (line 04). The combination of the vowels /u/ and /ai/ is rather uncommon for German; this strangeness is highlighted, because Denis leaves out the wellknown part of the composite word, the German -tal ('valley'), and because of his scanning delivery with the first syllable shortened and a slightly backward articulation of the vowels. It cannot be verified if Denis uses these features to contextualize a strange language or if he even alludes to Kanaksprak maybe he just wants to point to the fact that the boys will reach their destination soon. However, Frank shows a sensitivity to the peculiar word and its rendering by repeating and recontextualizing it audibly as Kanaksprak (line 05). Apart from a slightly altered phonetics, this is done by adding the tag alder with its characteristic lenization of [t] to [d]. Denis now confirms this hearing by repeating the tag alder (line 06). After four seconds, Frank adds a topically unrelated, playful assessment that refers to the microphone he is equipped with (lines 09/11). The only coherence in this sequence lies in the fact that Frank stays with stylized Kanaksprak: the code of the interaction (and not its content) has become the focus, and thus it is perfectly adequate to produce a turn that can be heard as category-indicative of a prototypical Kanaksprak-speaker (bragging by making an extreme assessment). We already noticed in the discussion of extract (3) that when switching into stylized Kanaksprak occurs, next speakers repeat (parts of) previous speakers' turns which were produced in stylized Kanaksprak. This is also found in extract (4): In line 05 Frank repeats stubai from Denis' preceding turn, Denis in turn repeats Frank's alder (lines 05-06), Frank's ultrakrass (line 11) is taken up by Denis in line 13. In my data, there are several sequences that are organized by such paired repeats: Next speaker repeats a Kanaksprak-item that the previous speaker produced, often adding a new item which in turn is repeated by the speaker who follows. Here is another example. The boys wait in a car and watch passers-by. Denis draws their attention to a girl {muck, line 01). Bernd suggests that this girl was the one who another member of the group, Wuddi,

346

Arnulf

Deppermann

had already admired at a night club (pinguins) they went to the evening b e f o r e (lines 04/07). In lines 10, 11 and 15, Denis and B e r n d p r o d u c e assessments in Kanaksprak which are built as paired (partial) repeats: (5) Muck (Juk 16) 01 Denis: OA::r Oh ne MUCK- ( ) ' wO: :w Oh a CHICK- ( ) ' 02 Bernd: hhss: : . ( ) 03 Frank: wOtuh"whtEre-' 04 Bernd: "penguins-' 05 Frank: =mein gott. 1 =my god.' 06 Denis: 'aha what what?' 07 Bernd: 'wuddi looked at her in front of penguins.' 08 Wuddi: πάω να πάρω κάτι από τοΧόντο< θα πιάσουμε την κουβέντα γενικώς καλά θα του πω (.) εσύ όταν τελειώνεις από δω δεν πας πουθενά? ((χα χα)) σ' έχει φάει το γαλακτομπούρεκο= 'So I'll tell him I'm just popping to Hondo's to get something we'll strike up a conversation about this and that then I'll say you going somewhere when you finish here heh huh or are you too preoccupied with the milk pies?' χα χα Α εν θες να πάμε για κρεμού:λες 'heh huh don't you want to go for a crème brû:lée?'

404

Alexandra

Georgakopoulou

Before line 37, Tonia and Vivi negotiate the time and place of the projected meeting with "Carnation". It is only when the character is located by Vivi in the familiar surroundings of his family business (Kanata's, the name of the patisserie) and when the meeting is projected there that Tonia seems to agree with the time and space co-ordinates of the projected events (39). The agreed on place of the meeting immediately invokes category bound activities which are drawn upon humorously by Tonia as part of her plotting the meeting. The dairy product (milk-pies) is mentioned jokingly as the character's preoccupation (line 44), as perhaps one that Tonia will try to take the character away from for a social outing. Vivi (line 45) responds with another joking reference to a dairy product (crème brûlée). In addition to colluding with Tonia in reaffirming shared images about the character, Vivi formulates a suggestion for a date on its basis which is a twist of the theme of "let's go out for a drink". By dislocating the character's activities from the patisserie and relocating them in the incongruous context of a date, new associations are momentarily created and evoked. 4 Deciding on the plot of stories ultimately hinges on the participants' joint locating of men in time and place; working around their sports playing or watching activities; considering the implications of meeting them in one hang-out as opposed to another; debating over and rehearsing the lines appropriate for one meeting place as opposed to another. Styling men Stylizations of men more often than not draw on iterative, quotable fragments of language (see Coupland 2001: 345). This is where the recontextualization of shared sources in the group comes into its own. Every talked about man has developed in the group's conversations a recognizable voice that is time and again discursively re-enacted and, through such reenactments, increasingly stylized. Men's stylized voices are invariably traceable to quotations from shared stories. For stylization to work, the language in which the voice is performed has to deviate from that of the current speaking context. Stereotyped and exaggerated renderings of other voices are a necessary ingredient here. The participants have a wide range of social varieties as well as French and English at their disposal. Of those, they mostly opt for a) the local dialect, frequently mixed with elements of other regional dialects, b) mangika (a sociolect based on slang and historically associated with marginalized groups of men), c) baby-talk, and d) katharevousa (lit. pure; a formal variety of Greek that originates in its long

Positioning in style: Men in women's jointly produced stories

405

history of diglossia, which was officially abolished in 1976). What they borrow from those sociolects is the pronunciation (particularly regarding a c above) and a specific (limited in repertoire) lexis. However, the actual instances of stylizations are made up of quotations that have some kind of meaning for the group and are rooted in the group's shared interactional history. In this sense, culturally familiar codes blend in with and are mediated by micro-culturally shared codes. A case in point is the colloquial phrase se pao ( Ί fancy you'). The group frequently stylizes its (Northern Greek) dialectal form se pau (note the raising of the unstressed mid-vowel loi to lui). This stylization originates in a quotation from a shared story line involving a truck-driver who made an unsuccessful pass at one of the participants. The use of the dialectal form combines associations of lack of sophistication and unfortunate chat-up lines. It thus stands for a male social type, frequently called by the participants as vlachos ('peasant'). 5 In this case, the use of a regional (and, in effect, social) dialect "becomes imagined as connected with focal individuals and scenes, or with characteristic activities and ways of being" (Irvine 2001: 31). 6 In turn, those connections or associations "become available as a frame of reference within which speakers create performances and within which audiences interpret them" (idem). Mila tu re, mila tu ('Talk to him man, talk to him') is another quotable fragment, partly overlapping in connotations with se pau, as it is frequently used to stylize the voice of inarticulate men. It nonetheless also indexes men's awkwardness around women and shyness, in the general sense outlined above. In the story from where the phrase was originally extracted, it served as the punchline and was addressed (by one of his friends) to Mikes, a male character that epitomizes lack of communication skills and sociability in the group. As in the case of other positioning cues, what is notable about stylized phrases like Mila tu re, mila tu is the reflexivity, meta-awareness and knowing allusiveness that is involved in their recycling (cf. Coupland 2001). Their use brings up what is known and familiar thus inviting the participants to look for an understanding of what is said beyond the encounter on hand. Tellingly, all of the stylizations in the data are done laughingly and playfully and immediately responded to as such: there is shared enjoyment in the acknowledgement and reaffirmation of the familier, even if the local use of a stylization may be contested afterwards, as we will see below:

406

Alexandra

Georgakopoulou

(3) 21 F:

22 F:

—>23 Τ: 24 V: 25 F:

—>26 V: —>27 Τ: —>28 F: 29 F:

—>30 V:

((They all 31 Τ: 32 F:

Ωραία (...) βρίσκω εδώ κάπου το Μάκη (..) έτσι? 'Tell me now ... we are talking serious. Okay ... I bump into Makis right?' Μιλάει ο Παύλος με τη Βιβή εκεί, κι ο Μάκης είναι εκεί, και τι του λες, ΤΙ ΤΟΥ ΛΕΣ? 'Pavlos is talking to Vivi, and Makis is there, and what would you tell him, HAT?' Τα κάλαντρα? 'The carols?- ' -Τα κάλαντρα 'The carols' ((laughs)) Όχι τα κάλαντρα ρε παιδί μου, άμα σου τύχει πρώτα απ' όλα (..) ντάξει ? 'Not the carols man, assuming it's going to happen (..) right? WHAT do I tell him?' Θα του μιλήσεις στη γλώσσα του του παιδιού, σε πά:ου χα χα χα 'You'll speak to the guy in his language, I fa::ncy you hhh=" Ου ίδιους χα χα χα '=hhhh It's me=' H iôjia, η Φωτεινή. Εγώ σε ξέρου:, χα χα χα εσύ δε με ξέρεις? '=It's me, Fotini. I kno:w you, hhhhh (..) d'you know me:?' Και πες ότι κοιτάω από δω, πως θα του τραβήξω την προσοχή ? 'And say he's looking this way, how am I going to draw his attention?' χα χα χα Μίλα του ρε: μίλα του 'hhhhhh Ta:lk to him man, huh talk to him man' ((personation of Pavlos, allusion to a shared story)) laugh)) (2.0) Καλά: (..) πάντως ο Παύλος είχε πολύ γέλιο 'Gee (..) Pavlos was so funny' ΕΛΑ PE( ..) ΕΛΑ ΡΕ, έτσι έκανε ρε παιδία, τον ξέρενα το χριστιανό'COME ON (..) come on you gu:ys, he d-didn't mean it tha::t way, they were all friends of the g u y - '

M a k i s (nickname M i k e s ) is the m a n that Fotini is at that point romantically interested in and the participants are planning a meeting with him. M a k i s is stylized with regionally m a r k e d forms. T h e first involves a dialectal f o r m (kalandra instead of the standard f o r m kalanda, line 23), as a response to F o t i n i ' s question about her projected verbal interaction with Mikes. T h e second involves the quotable f r a g m e n t se pau (line 26), which w e discussed

Positioning in style: Men in women's jointly produced stories

407

above. This comes as an example of "his language", in other words, it indexes Makis's language as a regionally marked variety and himself as a peasant. As instances of stylization constitute a temporary breach of the ongoing activity (cf. Rampton 1999), that is, a ludic and playful moment, they tend to generate further stylizations. The uptake of Vivi's se pau is laughter and further stylizations on the same theme by both of her interlocutors: e.g. the loi of o idjos (lit. 'the same'; 'it's me') and of kser-o ('know') in lines 27 and 28 is raised to /u/ (kseru). Furthermore, mila tu re, mila tu indexes similar images, associations, and personality attributes in line 30. Laughter from all three interlocutors is the typical response to the stylizations. However, Fotini, having conformed to the norm of positive uptake, goes on (line 32) to differentiate her position (come on come on you guys) and defends the talked-about character, implying that he was not being unsociable and shy as he is being accused of by her interlocutors (he didn 't mean it that way). The above suggests that not only have repeated performances led to a specific set of stylized phrases but they have also generated a closed set of sequentially immediate responses (e.g. laughter, exact repetition, repetition with variation, further stylization), which can be subsequently followed up by a wide variety of affiliative or disaffiliative moves. Assessing men Positioning men invariably involves an element of assessment (cf. evaluation): past actions and words (in specific time and place) are scrutinized, and, on their basis, future actions gauged, predicted, allowed, and disallowed. It is through a joint process of piecing together events and interpretative viewpoints that the participants decide on who the good men are and equally who should be avoided. Assessments frequently mobilize membership categorization devices. The term ytitos ('cat') is reserved for older, cunning, and sexually exploitative men; the term atìoa periste ra (lit. 'innocent pigeon') is used for men who lie, yet protest too much about their innocence. 7 As suggested above, stylizations too index social roles and attributes. Over a period of negotiation and debate in the interactional history of the group, a list of good and bad male personality traits has been agreed on by the participants: lying is close to the top, but being shy, as defined by the participants, is worse. 8 These assessments come close to Davies and Harré's known roles: they tend to be larger roles and attributes that the participants know to hold

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above and beyond local storytelling situations. As such, they can be described as the talked about men's "transportable" identities that can be at any stage brought about in local contexts and made relevant (Zimmerman 1998). The degree of routinization that accompanies other positioning cues is to be found here too. Talk about Eclairette for instance very frequently generates the phrase Eclairaki kai pali Eclairaki ('Eclairette again and again'). Recontextualizations of assessments often serve as argumentative devices in the course of jointly constructing stories. In other words, participants invoke them in order to defend their own views and challenge their interlocutors' viewpoint or version of events. In that role, assessments tend to appear later in the course of storytelling, as the ultimate negotiating chips, when the argumentative use of other positioning cues (e.g. nicknames, stylizations) has failed. A case in point is the long projection story, from which excerpt (3) is taken from. The gradual undermining of Mikes by Tonia and Vivi 9 by means of stylizations (the phrase "talk to him man, talk to him man" is brought up 5 times in the course of the storytelling), references to shared stories, and membership categorization devices find a lot of resistance from Fotini. Tellingly, assessments come in towards the end of the story: Mikes is called anti-social by Vivi in line 179 (the story is 206 lines long); the assessment is immediately colluded by Tonia: (4) 179 V: 180

181 F:

ΈΛΑ ΡΕ, δεν είναι κοινωνικός (..) τελεία παύλαΌ Η COME on, he is not sociable (..) full stop= -Μα τι λες (...) αυτός? Τέρας κοινωνικοποίησης. =You don't say (...) him? But they don't come more social than that.' Βιβή, δεν ξέρεις, μπορεί να τον δω και να μη μ 'αρέσει, μπορεί να με δει και να φύγει μακριά, δεν ξέρεις. 'Vivi, you don't know, I may not fancy him once I meet him, he might see me an' run a mile, you ju:st don't know.'

This assessment is not challenged by Fotini; what her next turn simply shows is that she is still keen on the meeting with Mikes. Typically, assessments are accepted as agreed on and un-contestable, holding above and beyond the local context of the current telling. Assessments frequently involve comparisons between men, which reinforce the group's agreed positive and negative evaluations of certain per-

Positioning in style: Men in women's jointly produced stories

409

sonality traits. In the story of Fotini's meeting with Mikes, Eclairette is towards the end of the story invoked as a more suitable candidate for a date with Fotini than Mikes:

(5) 1 Τ: 2 V: 3 F: 4 V: 5 Τ: 6 V:

-Ρε (.) το Εκλαφάκι είναι σαφώ::ς καλύτερο!= '=Man (.) Eclairette's s-so:: much better!=' Μακράν (..) μακράν '=By far (..) by far' Ρε ΒΙβή μη μου λες μακράν, πέσμοο ως προς ΤΙ: ? 'Don't by far me Vivi, you tell me on account of WHA:T?' >Ως προς εμφάνιση< = '>On account of looksOn account of character=Οη account of personality^

Similarly, in the excerpt below, Tonia has just finished a breaking news story about Job (nickname), an older man who is frequently labeled as a "cat". The participants are wary of "cats", even if they find them attrae -

(6) 1 T: 2 V: 3 F: 4 T:

Πιο ωραίος ο Γιομπ από τη Χόντα? ' ((Is)) Job better-looking than Honda?' Μην το σκέφτεσαι καθό:λου, >θα γίνουμε σκατά!< 'Don't even think about it, >we'll fall out big time! ftja {.) lyoTARD is doch eine epiT00::ne.> 'one of them said «mannered voice, h> yeah (.) lyotard is really an epigone.>' HHH 0::H .hhh [ TJ-IRRE. ] 45 Klara: 'hhh oh .hhh [wild]' [der nächste] meinte ich sollte ihm mal 46 Inge: erKlÄRN, '[the next one] wanted me to explain to him, ' 47 was man unter foEkonstruktion ver [steht.] 'what deconstruction [is.]' [hihihi] 48 Klara: ['heehee'] 49 Inge: das das war doch en TJ-mO: :de (.) TgaG. 'it was just a silly fashion. ' 50 Klara: ja sind die eigntlich beTsCHEUert. ne::h.= 'yeah are they totally stupid or what.'= ja «all> man könnts echt mein=n>. 51 Inge: '=hm . ('yeah lyotard is really an epigone') (line 44) is reproduced in such a way that it is given an arrogant overtone: the mannered articulation of the particle Ttja contextualizes the arrogance of the quoted character, and the noun epi TGO::ne. ('epigone') is prosodically distorted in such a way that we can detect a "layering of voices" (Bakhtin 1981; Günthner 1997b; Schwitalla 1997): We 'hear' the voice of the interviewer but - due to the prosodie stylization - we also 'hear' Inge's evaluation of this utterance as exaggerated, inappropriate, and arrogant. Thus, several voices are superimposed on one utterance: The reported speech of the character blends with the narrator's negative evaluation (Günthner 1999a, 2000, 2002). The staging of the interview situation invites Klara to communicate her indignation about the interviewer's behavior. Her affectively marked sign of disapproval HHH 0::H .hhh UlRRE. ('hhh oh .hhh wild') displays her co-alignment. The lengthening of the vowel 0::H, the marked rise-fall intonation contour and the adjective IRRE ('wild') function as indignation markers, i.e. ritualized expressions which the recipients employ at strategically important locations in order to signal affective co-orientation and coindignation (Günthner 2000). In re-animating the second interviewer, we also recognize this "layering of voices" even though it occurs in indirect speech: das das wär doch en T4mO::de (.) TgAG. «all> un weiter nichts. > ('it was just a silly fashion. ') (line 49). The lengthening of the vowel O::,

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the high onset with the falling glide on T¿mO::de and the high onset on TGAG communicate a certain condescension. Furthermore, the reported speech is stylized in such a way that it comes close to what Bakhtin (1981: 339) calls "parodistic stylization", i.e. a "malicious and deliberately parodistic distortion of another's word, slander". For Bakhtin, parodistic stylization is the subversive part of a polyphonic utterance: the reporter uses the voice of the other and exploits it for his own purposes (Günthner 1997a, b). Silverstein (1985), who draws on Jakobson's insights on the metalinguistic function of language (messages about messages), treats reported speech as 'metapragmatic activity' par excellence: by quoting past utterances, speakers represent and comment on the use of language. In doing so, they express their stance. Inge's stance of the interviewer's attitude towards deconstructivism as 'a silly fashion' is supported by Klara's reply in line 50: ja sind die eigntlich betSCHEUert. ne::h.= ('yeah are they totally stupid or what.='J. In the episode at hand, the narrator indicates - by means of indirectly commenting on the reproduced utterance - her stance towards the quoted characters and distances herself f r o m their arrogant habitus. The dramatic staging of the characters' styles of interviewing invites the recipient, Klara, to communicate her alignment with the reporter's perspective on the inadequate behavior of the antagonists (lines 45; 48; 50). In line 53, Inge introduces the third interviewer with the explicit, evaluative comment 'he was really bad' and refers to the fact that he spoke French. Klara (line 56) as well as Inge (line 57) interpret his code-switching into French as his attempt to construct 'an exam situation'. By adding the membership category TOBERschullehrer (.) typ. ('the school inspector type'), Inge explicitly introduces social categorization. 6 In German, the term Oberschullehrer is ambiguous: On the one hand it refers to a high school teacher, on the other hand, Ober- can be interpreted as an intensification of the category school teacher, i.e. an exaggerated school teacher type. As Bucholtz and Hall (2004: 37) argue, by categorizing someone, the speaker positions him/herself. By labelling the interviewer Oberschullehrer, Inge disaligns herself from this social type and constructs her own identity ex negativo: in stating what "they are", Inge indirectly expresses what "she is not". Thus, the construction of alterity serves as a resource for the construction of self. In the following, Inge uses category-bound activities (Sacks 1972: 335) to substantiate the social category of the Oberschullehrer. These are based on the use of French in combination with marked prosody and change in voice quality, i.e. increase in volume, high register and an aggressive, impertinent-sounding voice: «h, />. pourfquoi ça doit être à pArfl:s.>

The construction of otherness in reported dialogues

425

('why does it have to be paris'). The reporter's code-switching into French (line 61) is used as a resource to stage the interviewer with the corresponding membership activity (to test the interviewee) and, at the same time, to claim authenticity. This French speaking TOBERschullehrer (.) typ tops the other two interviewers (in the list of three) by his outrageous communicative behavior. Again, the recipient shows her alignment with the reporter's stance, and her reaction ( T J - N E : : H H . ('no')) is oriented towards the staging of the third interviewer's utterance. In categorizing the interviewers as men who believe themselves to be important ('terribly self important faces'), who attack the protagonist in a war-like scenario ('bombarded me'), who are arrogant but who are not academically up-to-date ('stupid questions'), who do not appreciate or understand deconstructivism and who turn the interview into a school-like testing situation (by even asking questions in French), the narrator implicitly positions herself as someone who is in favor of deconstructivism, who is academically up-to-date and who is more of a true scholar than the 'school inspector types' who were interviewing her. The contrast built up between the arrogant interviewers (who are only school teacher types) and the up-to-date candidate (i.e. the narrator) can be understood as justification for the fact that the interview did not go well, that it, in fact, was 'horrible'. (2) The 'arrogant, condescending doctors ' In STIPENDIUM ('SCHOLARSHIP') the reporter used code-switching into a different language in co-occurrence with prosody, voice quality, and the reconstruction of communicative activities (asking 'stupid questions') to symbolize social types and disaffiliate herself from them. In the following transcript LUNGENKREBS ('LUNG CANCER'), the narrator makes use of code-switching into standard German in combination with particular prosodie and lexico-semantic features to construct otherness.7 Hedda, her niece Ulla and Ulla's daughter Sara are having coffee, when Hedda tells them about her doctor's behaviour when her husband had lung cancer. The participants speak in the local Southern German dialect (Swabian): LUNGENKREBS

32

Hedda:

(LUNG CANCER)

i han dortmols no:

(. ) zum doktor

TJ-hartmann gsa: (0.8)

'well I then (.) said to doctor hartmann' 33

Í TRAU net. 'I am sceptical.'

(0.8)

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Susanne Günthner

34

ob des net LUNGEkrebs

isch.

'if it isn't lung cancer.' no hot

35

der

glei

gsa

'then he immediately said' « s p i t z , manieriert,

36

TT> ACH. DAS könnt

auch

was

ANDERS

SEIN. >

37

Sara:

hat

der

TJ-gsagt.

'that's what he said.' 38

Hedda:

« l > 'yes . ' >

39

Sara:

und der hats aber GWIßT.

40

Ulla:

haja.

'but he knew it.' FREILE.=

'yes. of course.'= 41

Hedda:

=haja.

[(des

)]

"=of course.[(it 42

[ ( d e r hat)]

Ulla:

)]' ja

s'

ergebnis

vom labor

ghät.

'[(he already)] had the results from the laboratory.'

Hedda reconstructs a dialogue-scene between herself and her doctor. In line 34, she quotes the I-protagonist's worries about her husband's illness by using the local Swabian dialect and thus the same variety the participants in the reporting world (Ulla, Sara and Hedda) are speaking. However, with the doctor's reply she switches to standard German (line 36) «spitz, manieriert, Tf> ACH. DAS könnt auch was ANDERS SEIN.> ( ' « s h a r p l y , with mannered voice, n > ah it could also be something else.>'). This codeswitching stands out from the surrounding context and contrasts not only with the local dialect variety used by the protagonist but also with the local dialect variety of the participants in the reporting world. Thus, heterogeneity within the linguistic system (dialect variety vs. standard German) becomes a resource with which to symbolically express otherness, and to create a separation between 'us' and 'him'. In co-occurrence with the marked prosody (very high register and the sharp voice), this switch to standard German also contextualizes the doctor's condescension towards his patient. Due to the exaggerated prosodie stylization (by means of a very high register and a mannered articulation), the reporter contextualizes her own evaluation of the doctor's behavior. Thus, again we can observe a "multi-

The construction of otherness in reported dialogues

427

voiced text" (Bakhtin 1981): the narrator's voice penetrates the character's reply and evaluates it. The reconstructed scene between Hedda and the doctor reflects different ways of communicating: The I-protagonist's concerned inquiry about her husband's illness is contrasted with the arrogant sounding dismissal of the doctor, who even lies to her. Instead of employing explicit category names (such as 'arrogant doctors'), the reporter relies mainly on indexical means (such as code-switching into standard German, prosodie features, means of voice quality, the interjection ACH) to signal social meanings and at the same time to contextualize her evaluation of the doctor's communicative behavior. Thus, what Voloshinov (1978) calls "speech interference", also happens in everyday reported speech: one utterance can simultaneously belong to two persons (the quoted figure as well as the reporter), it can be anchored in two "worlds" (the story-world and the reporting-world) and it can carry two points of view (the quoted figure's perspective and the evaluative perspective of the reporter). As in STIPENDIUM ('SCHOLARSHIP'), we can also observe in LUNGENKREBS ('LUNG CANCER') how linguistic stylization in reported speech is closely connected to the social categorization of the animated figures and how code-switching into different languages or varieties in co-occurrence with prosodie means, voice quality, and particular communicative activities are used to construct otherness and to produce patterns of inclusion and exclusion. Instead of a single parameter, reporters make use of co-occurring cues - i.e. of social communicative styles - to typify the animated figures. As the following example will show, social communicative styles and social categorizing are related to shared cultural knowledge and stereotypes concerning social groups. (3) 'Kanaken ( 'wogs ') trying to exploit the German welfare system ' In the preceding examples, reporters used code-switching into French and standard German to stylize individual characters and typify them as members of particular social groups ('aggressive interviewers', 'condescending doctors'). In the following piece of talk (TEPPICHJODEL 'CARPET SALESMAN'), code-switching into pidgin German is exploited to reconstruct and animate ethnic groups. The transcript segment stems from an interaction between a carpet salesman (T) and Willi and Bea Müller. While at the Müllers' house trying to sell carpets, the salesman talks about politics. In the following lines he

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complains about foreigners who come to Germany to exploit the German welfare system: 32

T:

33

W:

34

T:

35

T:

36

W:

37

T:

38

39 40 41 42

B:

43

T:

44 45

W:

46

T:

47 48 49 50

ne?= 'right?'= = [des stimmt.] = [' that's right. '] [die kanAK] en komm=n hier an, '[the wogs] arrive here (in Germany),' und sagn [ich mein eh eh,] 'and say [I mean eh eh,]' [da hasch schon recht.] ['you are right about that.'] die sagn, ' they say, ' «falsetto, t, gepresst> was wiss=du (du-du-du-du) deutsche LAND?> «falsetto, t, choked> 'what you want (you-you-you-you) german land?'> die ruMÄnen alle (.) nech? 'all the romanians (.)right?' «falsetto, T,gepresst> geh du DEUTSCHland, > «falsetto, î, choked> 'go you germany, '> «falsetto, Τ, gepresst> du vier hundert MARK,> «falsetto, Τ, choked> 'you four hundred german marks, '> ja. 'yeah.' «falsetto, Τ, gepresst> die frau nich arbeiten BRAUCH,> « f alsetto, î, choked> 'the wife not need work, '> «falsetto, T,gepresst> KIND (.) jedes jähr KIND.> «falsetto, Τ, choked> 'child (.) every year child. '> JAHAJAHAHA ' YEÄHHÄYEÄHHÄHÄ ' ne: (.) un=un=un=un=und die andern ja AUCH. 'right (.) an=an=an=an=and the others too.' nech? 'right?' die TÜ:Rken und so we i der, nech? 'the turks and so on right?' jedes jähr KI:ND, 'every year child,' «falsetto, gepresst> u=u=u=u=und schöne GEld (kinder-) , > « falsetto, choked > 'a=a=a=a=and good money (children-

) , '> 51 52

«gepresste Stimme> du du {.) rEIche MANN, > «choked voice> 'you you (.) rich man, '>

«choked voice> 'ten years you back to=to=eh (.) turkey, '>

The construction of otherness in reported dialogues «gepresste

53

Stimme>

-

man.

] doch

WAHR;

it r e a l l y

is

true;'

Τ complains about die kanAKen9 ('the wogs') who come to Germany to exploit the German welfare system by having many children and receiving child benefits. In using the derogative and even racist term kanAKen ('wogs') and in animating their voices in a stylized pidgin German variety with a high pitched falsetto voice, T's negative stance is apparent: «falsetto, Τ, gepresst> was wiss=du (du-du-du-du) deutsche LAND?> ( ' « f a l setto,?, choked> what you want (you-you-you-you) german land?>'). In line 39, Τ explicitly introduces the ethnic category of the Romanians and reanimates their voices speaking as one; i.e. as "choral dialogue" (Tannen 1989: 113f.): Individuals are melted into one social group speaking with one voice. Romanian migrants address other Romanians and encourage them in pidgin German (with a high pitched, choked, falsetto voice) to go to Germany and benefit from the German social system (lines 40-44): < geh du DEUTSCHland, du vier hundert MARK, die frau nich arbeiten BRAUCH, KIND (.) jedes jähr KIND.> ('«falsetto, Τ, choked> you go germany, you four hundred german marks, the wife not need work,> child (.) every year child.>'). Again, we can detect polyphonic strategies: The quoted utterances simultaneously express the (seeming) attitudes of the characters, and the refracted intention of the reporter. The high pitched falsetto voice parodistically distorts the quoted speech. Again, the reporter uses the voice of the other and exploits it for his own purposes (Günthner 1997a, b). W acknowledges T's performance by laughing out loud (lines 45 and 54). In line 48, Τ switches to the ethnic category of 'the Turks and so on'. Without explicitly introducing the reported speech in line 49, the reporter "puts on the voice" (Rampton 1995: 54) of Turkish immigrants addressing Turkish recipients and telling them - again in pidgin German - how to make use of the German social system by collecting child benefits in order to get rich: jedes jähr Kl:ND, «falsetto, gepresst> u=u=u=u=und schöne GEld (kinder-),>«gepresste Stimme> du du (.) rEIche MANN, zehn jähre du zuRÜCK nach=nach= (.) tiirKEI, du rEIche MANN.> ('every year another child,> « c h o k e d , falsetto> a=a=a=a=and good money (children-), you you (.) a rich man,>«choked voice> ten years you back to=to=eh (.) Turkey,> you rich man.>'). Again, we observe a layering of voices (Bakhtin 1981; Günthner 1999a, 2002; Deppermann in

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this volume): W e hear the animated voices of the foreigners (the Turks and Romanians) who advise other foreigners to go to Germany, exploit the German social system and get rich, but we also hear the reporter's negative evaluation of the animated figures and their way of thinking. T ' s performance invites his recipients to co-align with his evaluation towards immigrants; and W ' s laughter in lines 45 and 54 shows his appreciation of T ' s performance and his co-alignment. In this example, the reporter Τ makes use of various membership categories (die kanAKen ('the wogs'j, die ruMÄnen ('the romanians'), and die TÜ:Rken ('the turks')). In order to illustrate category-bound ways of thinking and speaking, he applies specific linguistic resources (morphological, syntactic, and lexico-semantic elements) stereotypically associated with the verbal style of guest-workers ('Gastarbeiterdeutsch'): -

-

-

deletion of definite and indefinite articles: KIND (.) jedes jähr KIND (instead of standard German: ein Kind, jedes Jahr ein Kind) inadequate congruence in complex NP: u=u=u=u=und schöne GELD (kinder-), du du (.) rEIche MANN', (instead of: und schönes Geld, du du reicher Mann) deletion of prepositions: geh du DEUTSCHland (instead of: gehst du nach Deutschland) incorrect use of prepositions: zehn jähre du zuRÜCK nach=nach=e (.) tiirKEI (instead of: nach zehn jähren gehst du zurück in die Türkei) deletion of verbs: jedes jähr KI.ND, du vier hundert MARK, du du (.) rEIche MANN, zehn jähre du zuRÜCK nach=nach=e (.) tiirKEI (instead of: jedes Jahr bekommst du ein Kind, du bekommst vier hundert Mark, du du bist ein reicher Mann, nach z,ehn jähren gehst du zurück in die Türkei) reduced morphology: wiss=du, BRAUCH, geh du (instead of: willst du, braucht, gehst du).

Thus, the subsumption of the animated characters under the social category kanAKen is supported by their category-bound ways of speaking; i.e. the choice of a particular verbal style embodies ethnic characters. Linguistic and communicative choices are portrayed as part of collective actions and wider social processes. The lack of prestige of the staged variety is obvious. The linguistic features of the animated style (pidgin German) have sociosymbolic value and are made relevant for the construction of social groups (Kallmeyer and Keim 1994; Kallmeyer 2002; Deppermann in this volume).

The construction of otherness in reported dialogues

431

(4) The 'Nazi' So far, reporters drew on code-switching into various linguistic varieties (French, standard German, pidgin German) in co-occurrence with prosody and voice quality to index social types and to portray otherness. In the next example, DIE NAZIS ('THE NAZIS'), the reporter uses particular communicative activities and routine formulas - combined with prosodie means and features of voice quality - to animate a quoted figure and portray him as a 'Nazi'. The segment is taken from an interaction between Hedda and her greatniece Sara. Sara is asking Hedda about the Jews in their village during Hitler's reign, and whether the villagers had any idea what had happened to them. When Hedda reveals that everyone had known about torture and concentration camps, Sara asks why no one did anything about it: DIE NAZIS (THE NAZIS) 112 Hedda: ha MÂDle, 'well my girl,' 113 «flüsternd, warnend> do hosch NIX sage DÜ::rfe, (.)>

114

= 122 =«f,acc, T> des heißt HEIL HITler.> =«f,acc, î> 'you have to say HEIL HITLER.'> 123 Sara :

124 Hedda: hot der gmacht 'that's what he did' 125 Sara :

« p p > 'unbelievable.'> 126 Hedda: net? (-) 'isn't it?' (-) 127 «f,acc, T>und wenn des no oimol sächsch, >

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Susanne Günthner

128 129 13 0 Sara: 131 Hedda:

« f , a c c , t>no MELD i DE. >

hahahahaha [hahahahahahaha [IS DAS TO : : :LL hehe ['IS THAT GREA::Τ hehe'

'The woman' instead of 'my wife' mimics the millionaire's wording and gives the phrase an element of citation. It is a typical formulation in Alemannic German. Maria is astonished, two people laugh. In line 7 Rudolph begins to stage the millionaire's words directly. The quotation is introduced with a strong evaluation of 'it was the last straw' (es war der Hammer).5 Then Rudolph modifies his voice and switches to the Alemannic dialect (bisch wahnsinnig?). He renders the entire speech of the millionaire somewhat more softly and with tense articulation (kannsch net mache), an iconization of the millionaire's stinginess. Through this alone the millionaire makes a disagreeable impression. He approaches Rudolph with strong

The humorous stylization of 'new' women and men and conservative others

453

warnings (bisch wahnsinnig? kannsch net mache, wennsch dere langweilig isch, got die eikaufe, dann hot die schuh für tausend mark) rendered in Alemannic dialect. Remarkable are the two verbs in the second person and the contraction of the conjunction wenn 'if' with the pronoun es 'it', which stand syntactically in the first position and which result in a repetitive final SH, a salient pronounciation feature of integral /st/ and /sp/ and of some final /s/ in the Alemannic dialects, such as bisch (7) ... kannsch (8) ... wennsch (9). Interjections like Menschenskinder ('good god') (8) and ha (9) and the very colloquial, familiar form of address Du ('you' in line 9 and 10; this is hard to translate into English) are used. He makes the millionaire's warnings sound very urgent and not very sophisticated. The interjection ha is typical for the Alemannic dialect. Alemannic dialect serves here as a marker of backward attitudes. For Bakhtin (1986: 89), such stylizations are important evidence for his often cited dictum that "our speech... is filled with others' words, varying degrees of otherness or varying degrees of 'our-own-ness', varying degrees of awareness and detachment". Here the varying assignment of dialect and standard language participates in authorizing social distinctions. Rudolf himself speaks standard German. Contrasting stylizations of social types play an important role here in lending comical twists to situations, as they often do in our everyday conversations. Details are put in the mouth of the millionaire, e.g. that Rudolph's wife will buy thousand-mark shoes at Rudolph's expense. Together with the ironic designation millionaire, these procedures help to create a conversational caricature of him as hopelessly prejudiced against women from Eastern Europe, maybe against women in general - and as stingy. With Tannen (1989), Couper-Kuhlen (1998) and Günthner (1996, 1999, this volume), I see reported dialogue as a play with double voicing in the sense of Bakhtin. The persons and situations spoken about are stylized and typified like the characters in a joke. The dialogues are reported with a claim to authenticity but nonetheless extend into the realm of fictitious dramatization (Günthner 1999; Kotthoff 1998, 2002). These implicit typifications of the dramatis personae are easily identifiable for the group members because they are based on shared knowledge about typical speech styles, which is confirmed in this manner. The prejudiced man is not sophisticated and neither is his speech style. The shared morals of what the group considers to be a good or bad attitude are also confirmed. The group is very amused by Rudolph's stylization. There is long laughter in line 11. In this little nar-

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rated scene, the self remains in the background, but we can infer its attitude. A discourse of indignation does not result and is not aimed at. The attitude that the story-teller and his audience communicate with respect to prejudiced people such as the millionaire is one of amused distance. Indeed, the presentation is even judged by Maria in line 12 as "great". This reception makes it evident that the quality of the performance is appreciated immediately and that it is essential for the shared amusement. In the next story the central figure is also introduced by a label.

3.2. The rapist In Example (2) Maria parodies the way of speaking of the Swiss owner of a bakery. This person is introduced as 'the rapist,' without any explanation. In the course of the narrative it becomes obvious that this labeling simply serves as a very negative characterization of a shop owner who is seen very critically by the group. Line 1 already violates normal expectations, since we normally do not associate rapists with cooking recipes. The labeling creates interest in the man introduced so negatively. Only David, lohannes, Ulf and Maria know the man. The example stems from another evening with the two couples David and Katharina and lohannes and Maria. Ulf, a German journalist of 36 years, invited them to his house on the Swiss side of the border, including his friends Anni and Bernada, two Sinologists f r o m Berlin. Johannes and Maria also know Anni and Bernada quite well. Until recently, Johannes shared the house with Ulf. (2) (Conversation 6) Anni (A); Bernada (B); David (D); Johannes (J); Katharina (K); Maria (M); several (m); Ulf (U). 1

M:

die rezepte gibts beim vergewAltiger. 'the recipes are from the rapist.' Ihr könntet die mitbringen. (- -) die (? ?) 'you could bring them with you. (- -) they- (? ?)' der anni schick ich immer vom vergewaltiger diese 'i always send Anni these cheesecake recipes from the rapist. ' kÁsküchlirezepte.

A:

wer is denn der vergewAltiger?

2 3

4 5

The humorous stylization of 'new' women and men and conservative others

6 7 7 8 8 9 9 10 10 11 12 12 13 13 14 14 15 15 16

M:

A A M M D D υ υ D D M M

J

17 M: 18 D: 19 M: 20

21 A: 22 U:

23 m: 24 D: 25 M: 2 6 D: 27 M:

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'who exactly is the rapist?' hehehehe ('hh) ja ich will jetzt nich mehr da 'hehehehehe ('hh) well, now I don't want' hingange. 'to go there any more.' ach sO. 'oh, I see.' (? ?) îdJB dinger. (? ?) t'these things.' warum vergewAltiger? 'why rapist?' ((noise in the background)) aus wohlfeilen gründen, wiird ich sagen 'for good reasons, I would say.' °ach° 0 ' ah ' 0 des is son schmieriger typ, 'he's such a greasy type,' der da unten den laden hat. 'the one who has the shop down there.' na. 1 oh. ' ein faschlst. irgendwie Ausländerfeindlich, 'a fascist, sort of xenophobic,' der bO:cksberger, ach, dE:n kenn ich auch. 'Old Bo :cksberger, ah, I know him too.' wenn du da hingehst, un willst sEmmeli, 'if you go there and want buns,' und 'AND < ((pretentious)) there the buns are called ÎGipfeli.>' die hab ich gern gekocht. 'I liked cooking them.' WA::S? bi Ö::s heiße die Tglpfeli : : (-) 'WHAT? Here the buns are called ÎGipfeli:: he[hehe' [hehehe und der hat so ne gAnz kleine, zarte frau. 'and he has such a really small, fragile wife.' ja und die schEIßt der zammen. vor allen. 'yeah and he bitches at her. in front of everyone.' vor lEUten. ja ja. 'in front of people, yeah yeah.' po: : : 'po: : : '

The rapist figure (Vergewaltiger) is introduced quite abruptly without any explanation. Maria informs the group about where they could get copies of

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the recipes. The suggestion in line 2 is made to Ulf and his former cohabitant Johannes, who often buy from the "rapist". In lines 3 - 4 Ulf is being informed as to why he should bring the recipes from the rapist, which are available free at his bakery. The abrupt introduction of the unusually designated figure evokes a question f r o m Anni (5). But at first Maria laughs and explains that she does not want to go there anymore. Then David also asks about the rapist (10). Ulf seems to know the man and agrees with Maria, using an extremely elevated formulation (aus wohlfeilen6 Gründen, würd ich sagen 'for good reasons, I would say'), but does not answer the question either (12). In lines 14-15 Maria characterizes the shop owner as a greasy type. The harsh term and negative characterization evoke a critical "well" (na) f r o m Johannes. Then Maria intensifies the negative characterization still more (17). David reveals that he suddenly recognizes the person (Old Bocksberger). Maria then performs a scene in his shop with a direct quotation. She uses the generalized personal address form du. She portrays herself trying to speak Swiss German to him by tagging the Swiss diminutive li to a Bavarian word for buns (producing Semmeli). Herr Bocksberger is cited without introduction (merely a phatically spoken und), uttering a pretentious correction (20); he wants the term for bread rolls to be correct in Swiss-German dialect: Gipfeli. The words of the fascist (Faschist) are spoken louder to iconize Bocksberger's excitement. Maria, who is a native speaker of Alemannic dialect, is playing here with linguistic knowledge, presenting herself as naively mixing Bavarian and Swiss German lexemes like a recent immigrant to the South. For speakers familiar with these dialects, there is a witty effect in attaching a Swiss diminutive ending to a Bavarian word and then pretending to offer it as Swiss German. The diminutive li is one of the most characteristic morphemes in Swiss German. Anni, a guest f r o m Berlin, does not react to this staging, but in line 21 she offers an additional comment on the recipes. In line 22 Ulf repeats and dramatizes the Bocksberger quotation in better Swiss German (bi ii::s heiße die TGipfeli::). He elongates two vowels and produces with Gipfeli the typical Swiss German intonation contour with high onset. He laughs at this himself, which also elicits responsive laughter from others present. David offers more information about Herr Bocksberger (24): he snaps at his wife in front of people. Maria uses this to further negatively characterize him (25, 'he bitches at her'), which David affirms with a further specification. In line 27 Maria utters an interjection of indignation. Herr Bocksberger is characterized as totally disagreeable. His correction activities are parodied as simply aggressive. In the co-constructed narrative

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the group agrees on a shared moral attitude towards him and people like him. Husbands who 'bitch at' their wives (zammenscheißen) are vehemently condemned. The parody in example (2) is embedded in a characterization which works with exaggerated categorizations of a man ('fascist', 'xenophobic') and his activities (zammenscheißen). The person is staged in quotations which do not correspond to the categories used for him but help to create a distinction. For the group members it is clear that he never raped anyone, and that uttering harsh words is not enough to qualify someone as a fascist. It seems to be obvious to everybody that realistic characterizations are not at stake here. From the start, the choice of wildly exaggerated characterizations eliminates any claim to realism in the restaging and prepares the audience for a fictitious dramatization. Again, the performance as such is pushed into the foreground, along with subtle irony in regard to the exaggerated moralizing of progressives. The presentation relies on the background knowledge that in certain left-oriented milieus labels like fascist and rapist are used in an inflationary manner. Speakers distance themselves even from their own voices via comic exaggeration. In conclusion, speakers' high knowledge of typical formulations is exemplified once again. In the example, the narrator Maria uses some dialect features (hingange in line 7 instead of hingehen). She presents herself as accepting and speaking the Alemannic dialect and striving even to manage Swiss German. But Bocksberger's tolerance is too small to appreciate her endeavor. In southwestern Germany the Alemannic dialect is accepted, but most educated persons with a global professional orientation speak a colloquial language quite close to the standard. This is true for many members of the network of acquaintences, including Ulf and Maria, who are from the Southwest. In Switzerland, however, we have a diglossie situation (Siebenhaar 2004). The switch to standard is made mainly in conversation with foreigners. Bocksberger is portrayed as someone who is unable to perform stylistic variants. The episode around his wife is meant to further discredit him. In Example (3) the dialect is also associated with a kind of social backwardness.

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3.3. The kitchen appliance

demonstrator

The scene talked about in Example (3) takes place in Germany; in conversation 7 nearly the same round of people is having dinner together as in conversation 6. Instead of Johannes and Maria, the two 38 year old linguists Juergen and Erika take part. Ulf tells how he once attended a kitchen appliance demonstration and how he took part in the demonstrator's presentation. He staged himself as a modern man interested in kitchen appliances and the saleswomen as being astonished about this. (3) (Conversation 7) A: Anni; Β: Bernarda; D: David; E: Erika; J: Juergen; Κ: Katharina; U: Ulf. 1

U:

2 3

Κ:

4

U:

5 6

Ä: U:

7 8 9 D: 10 U: 11 12 13 14 E:

15 U: 16 17 ? :

ich war AUch mal bei so ner küchenvorführung für 'I, too, was once at such a cooking demonstration for' heimische küchenmaschinen, 'home kitchen appliances,' ja 'yes ' bei huber auf der klosterstätte. 'at Huber on Klosterstätte.' (? ?) und dann hat die frau so frAgen gestellt, 'and then the woman asked questions,' und dann hab Ich gesagt, also ich find ja beim RÜHRteig, 'and then i said, well i find with batter,' hat er ja ne gewisse schwÄche. 'it really has a certain weakness.' hahahaha und die frau °ja woher wisset SIE des?0 'and the woman °well how do you know that? 0 ' ich, ja denken sie ich mach kEIne kuchen? 'I, well do you think I do not make cakes?' und und dann hab ich mit der rumgefachsimpelt über 'and and then I talked shop with her about' über rûblitorte und was ich fürn rezept hätte, 'about carrot cake and what sort of recipe I have' und da dachtense nicht, du bist professioneller kondit (h) or? 'and didn't they think you are a professional p(h)astry cook?' nein °und dann hat se gemeint, ° °ja wisset sie, ° 'no °and then she said, well, you know 0 ' weil am Anfang ham se gelacht, ne? 'because at the start they laughed, you know?' mhm 'uh-huh'

The humorous stylization of 'new' women and men and conservative others 18 U: 19 E: 20 U: 21 E : 22 U: 23 24 25 E: 26 U: 27 2 8 E: 2 9 U:

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und ham gedacht, was will denn der DEPP da? 'and they thought, what does that dope want?' hehe der mAnn, der k(h)ennt sich doch überhaupt nich aus, 'the man he kno(he)ws nothing at all ab(h)out it,' ja (haha ) 'yes(haha)' wenns um kûchenmaschinen geht. 'when we are talking about kitchen appliances.' und dann wurde mir also verspätet zugegeben 'and then it was admitted belatedly' ° j a die mÁnner heute, die brauchen auch sowas.0 '°well the men today, they also need such things. 0 ' hehehehe ham se sich da(ha) also(he) allgemein AUsget (h) auscht. 'they generally excha(he)nged opinions.' hehe dass die z(h)eit(h)en sich geÄndert haben. 'hehe that t(h)im(h)es have changed.' hehehehe fand ich sEhr schön irgendwie. 'I found that really nice somehow.'

In lines 7 and 8 he animates a commentary he made in the manner of an expert and in a rather stilted language (beim Rührteig hat er ja ne gewisse Schwäche 'with batter it really has a certain weakness'). David immediately laughs. The kitchen appliance demonstrator is presented as very astonished in direct speech, speaking in Alemannic dialect (woher wisset sie desi). After that, in line 11, the narrator renders himself in standard language. He presents himself as being astonished by the woman's question. Then a metalinguistic orientation is given to the further course of the conversation's topics in the shop. Erika asks a question in regard to the impression he made on the kitchen appliance saleswoman (14), which Ulf answers in the negative. In line 15, Ulf commences a further, not consistently maintained, presentation of the saleswoman, again using Alemannic dialect (wisset). Then he goes back in time to the beginning of the dialogue and acts out the reservations of the women present (18, 20, 22). Erika laughs. In conclusion, the women are quoted as persons who have learned their lesson about the new men: °ja die MAnner heute, die brauchen auch sowas0. Ulf summarizes the consciousness expanding impression of the women in Standard German and in conclusion makes a positive evaluation of the whole exchange: times have changed and he finds it "really nice somehow".

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In example (3) Ulf approaches conservative women in an everyday scene to make clear to them that the old division of labor between the sexes is no longer self-evident. Modern men also want to be addressed with questions of kitchen appliances. The contours of a progressive identity emerge in the course of the conversation. The favorite emotion of this self is by no means outrage at the environment's inappropriate gender categories but rather an amused superiority. Again a play with typified ways of speaking is involved. This parodistic sort of intertextual humor allows the teller to demonstrate and test for shared social knowledge and authenticates a self that is well-placed in the social cosmos.

3.4.

The Social

Democrat

In example (4) the group talks about a Swiss couple that is of opposed political opinions. Ulf and Maria jointly recount an episode which they experienced with Herr and Frau Vroner at a reception they participated in for professional reasons. Herr Dr. Vroner is one of M a r i a ' s superiors in a cultural center in a Swiss border town. H e is conservative, whereas his wife had just campaigned for the Social Democrats. In line 18 Maria characterizes his wife as 'a very very nice w o m a n ' . The journalist Ulf then informs the group about her husband, the director of a cultural center. For the majority of the others present, the Vroners are simply casual acquaintances. Absent bosses and higher-placed persons often serve as objects of mocking h u m o r in intimate groups. In the story-telling we recognize a similar configuration of personalities as in examples (1), (2), and (3). The conservative Dr. Vroner is most strongly caricatured by a childish way of speaking, not by quoting him in an Alemannic speech variety. (4) (Conversation 6 Episode 4) Everyone (a); Anni (A); Bernada (B); David (D); Johannes (J); Katharina (K); Maria (M); several (m); Ulf (U). 19 U: 20

21

des is AUch so nett, also ihr mann ist 'that is also so nice, well her husband is' kultUramtsleiter und schreibt für die Zürcher, 'director of the cultural center and writes for the ztir7 cher , ' eigentlich auch η ganz lIEber, aber doch eher e bissle konservativ. 'actually also a darling, but still a bit conservative.'

The humorous stylization of 'new' women and men and conservative others 22 23

24 M : 25 U: 2 6 J: 27 D : 28 U: 29 30 31 32 m: 33 J: 34 M: 35 36 36 37 a: 38 A: 39 M: 40 m: 41 M: 42 43 44

461

und dann eh ich hab dann eh ich hab dann mich nur mit 'and then uh I have uh I have only chatted with' der frau vroner über die eff a Achtzehn bomber unterhalten, 'mrs. vroner about the eff a eighteen bombers,' ja 'yes ' und warum man die NICHT beschaffen soll, 'and why one should NOT buy them,' nei:n. 'no : . ' mhm 'mhm' un da hatter °ja.° hat gesagt, °also° 'an then he said "well.0 °then°' des hAb ich dir doch jetzt schon so: Oft gesagt. 'I have told you that already so: often.' (-) wir WOLLEN TNICHT mehr über die (-) 'we do ÎNOT WANT to talk about' bomberbeschaffung reden. 'buying the bombers any more.' hehehehehehehehehe [he [aja: ['I see : ' ja ja. und zum Ulf hat sie auch gesagt beim essen, ja, 'yeah yeah, and she also said during the meal to Ulf,' ich bin fschO:n eine Sozialdemokratin. 'well, I Tarn after all a social democrat.' °und er immer0, psch: : : : t, psch: : : : : t '°and he was like0 ' hahahahahahahahahahahahaha [ha : : : : : : [SÜ: : : β : ['cu : : : te' hahahahaha [hehehehehe [und jetzt war er wohl auch nich so GANZ ['and now he probably was not so ENTIRELY' einverstanden, dass seine frau kandidiert, 'pleased that his wife was going to campaign for office,' hat peter dObendorfer gesagt, 'Peter Dobendorfer said,' .

The sentence des ist auch so nett ('that is also so nice') functions as an evaluative introduction. Mr. Vroner is characterized in terms of profession, character and political attitude, whereby η ganz lieber ('a darling') in line

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21 and konservativ ('conservative') are presented as almost contrasting by the adverb doch (still). The conversational topic F A 18 bombers contains a certain tension, since it was being heatedly debated between conservatives and progressives at the time of the recording (1995). Herr Dr. Vroner's attitude is conservative, i.e., he favors continuing to arm the Swiss army with fighter jets. His wife and the circle whose evening chats make up the subject of this article are against a further armament of the Swiss army. In line 25 Ulf attributes self-evidence to his position and performs for himself a cool daredevil attitude. Johannes utters an astonished nein ('no'), presumably in comprehending the touchy, conflict-laden situation. Ulf presents himself as self-assertive. He doesn't attempt to hide his opinion. In line 28 he starts to parody Herr Vroner with a direct quote. He reproduces Herr Vroner's speech with a typical conversational introduction, ja, also ('well, then'), which is spoken much more softly. A strongly stereotypical parental statement follows (I have told you that already so often), directed at his wife (who thinks like Ulf), with the paternalistic "we" (she was talking about purchasing the bombers, while he was not involved) and an elongation of the so:, which signals emphasis. Mr. Vroner starts softly and increases volume in line 30. Everyone laughs. The culture office director is parodied as old-fashioned and avuncular. He forbids his wife, who thinks differently, to continue talking about controversial topics. The avuncular manner of speaking attributed to him violates the usual conception of a formal and distinguished culture office director (and men in similar positions). The amusingly hyperbolistic stylizing of the protagonists through quotation procedures again holds the center here. Maria continues the story of the meal with the Vroners from line 34 onwards. She also quotes Frau Vroner in direct speech. The sentence ich bin TSCH0:N EINE Sozialdemokratin ( Ί am after all a Social Democrat') is clearly articulated, as is typical for Swiss who speak Standard High German. Maria imitates the Swiss-German sentence intonation with the strong rise on schon ('after all') and the following fall. The German modal particle schon translated here as 'after all' is also interesting because Frau Vroner's statement is thereby shaped as a concession. The modestly progressive selfidentification of the culture office director's wife is thereby presented as an act of courage. Maria parodies Dr. Vroner as being shocked about his wife's political commitment and tells his wife to be silent. In an extremely paternalistic manner, Frau Vroner's self-identification as a Social Democrat is declared taboo by Herr Vroner. This is particularly implausible, because she has just

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campaigned for this party in the community council elections (the group knows that). The interjections pscht in line 36 are accompanied by the appropriate childish gesture of laying a finger on the mouth. Herr Vroner, known as an authority figure with a high office, is turned into a caricature thereof in Ulf's and Maria's dialogue construction. His authority is undermined. Speakers can increase intimacy among friends through shared amusement at the expense of people who, due to their power, are potentially threatening. The mocking has a releasing function, but also communicates distinction from social circles like those of the Vroners. Maria hyperstylizes Herr Vroner's shock at his wife's confession. He is presented as if for him Social Democrats were something quite monstrous. Everyone laughs. Maria rates Herr Vroner's speech as cute which also presupposes 'not dangerous'. Starting in line 41 she explains Herrn Vroner's contradictory attitude toward his wife's political candidacy. The image of the self which is carried out in episodes like example (4) could be paraphrased as: we know these funny conservatives and amuse ourselves about them. They are mocked. Mocking humor always integrates a grain of indignation (Christmann 1996). This indignation is not proclaimed in a straight manner but evoked in dialogue parody and sometimes in exaggerated labelings of the dramatis personae.

4.

Other means of stylization

4.1. The part-seller in the street In example (5) a chat is recounted which three of the women present at the dinner table had that day with a Swiss saleswoman trying to sell teflon pans in the street. In this chat, Erika portrayed herself as though she had a husband who did everything in the kitchen. This is not the actual state of affairs, but it created astonishment on the part of the saleswoman and amusement on the part of the listeners. In the story, many voices intermingle. Example (5) is hard to follow because the narrators Erika, Anni and Bernarda restage the chat in the street without explicitly indicating from moment to moment with whose voice they are speaking. We hear an intermingling of voices even in one turn. Exaggerated typification is again an important element in the directly reported speech (Brünner 1991; Kotthoff 1998). However, the saleswoman is not cited in Alemannic dialect. As a reason for this I see that Anni and

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Bernada who participated in the scene and also in the narration are from Berlin and not able to join the play with variation. The group is amused by the little talkshow with the saleswoman, which is now being recreated at the table. (5) (Conversation 7) K: Katharina; E: Erika; A: Anni; U: Ulf; Β: Bernarda; D: David; J: Juergen; s: some of them. IE: 2 3

B:

4 A:

5 6

s: B:

7 8

s: J:

9 s: 10 E: 11 Κ: 12 Β: 13 E: 14 B: 15 E: 16 Β : 17 E : 18 19 B: 20 21 A:

ich hab heut schon mit dir Angegeben, mein mann kocht. 'i already bragged about you today, my husband cooks.' hehe[hehehe [ja (ha) (? [ ?) ['ye(he)s ' (? [ ?) [ mit bU(h)tter. ha[hahahahahahaha ['with bu(h)tter. ha[hahahahahahahaha' [ hahahahahahahahaha [nal:v ['nai: ve' [ hahahahahahahahahaha [aber gesU:nd. hehe ['but hea:lthy. Hehe' [hehehehehe [hehehehehe [ja er kocht SE::HR gesund und bewusst. ['yes he cooks ve : :ry health consciously.' WAS? 'WHAT? ' wir wurden gefrAgt auf der Straße, und da hat'we were asked on the street, and then-' über unsere Essgewohnheiten, von einer schwEIzerin. 'about our eating habits. by a swiss lady.' wer kOcht. mein mAnn. (-) [sag t sIE. 'who cooks, my husband (-) [she says.' [ich wollt η tOpf für meinen mann. ['I wanted a pot for my husband.' wie Oft? jEden tag. (-) [was für töpfe haben sie. 'how often? every day. (-) [what sort of pots do you have.' [ wl:rklich? wie die mich ['really? how she looked at me.' Angeguckt [hat. [(? geschirr?) aluminium, tEflon, ['(?utensils?) aluminium, teflon,' °wEIß ich nich. mein MANN kocht. ° [na und dann hab ich gesagt, '°I don't know, my husband cooks. 0 [well and then I said,' [hehehehe

The humorous stylization of 'new' women and men and conservative others 22 B: 23 A: 24 E: 25 2 6 B: 27 E:

2 8 B: 2 9 E: 3 0 s: 31 E: 32 33 U: 34 35 K: 36 E: 37 U: 38 M: 39 Κ: 40 B: 41 K: 42 43 s:

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ihr habt Alles. Ver [schIEdenes. 'you have everything. Var [ious things.' [hehehehehehe[hehehe [und dann hat se noch ['and then she' gfragt, (- -) wo [mit er kocht. 'asked, (- -) with [what he cooks.' [womit kocht er. ['with what does he cook.' hamma gsagt, manchmal mit Ö::l, aber natürlich mit BUTTER. 'we said, sometimes with oi::l, but of course with BUTTER. ' und da gesagt WA:::S? 'and then she said, WHA:::T?' und DAS nennen sie gesundes essen? ja SEHR. 'and you call that healthy food? yes VERY.' hahahahahaha die wollte uns nämlich nur so was verkaufen, wo du gAr 'she only wanted to sell us something for which you' nichts brauchst, hehehehehe 'don't need anything, hehehehe' (? ?) von der schweizerischen megalit. 'from the swiss firm megalit.' ((hard to understand)) SCHMECKT doch alles überhaupt nich. 'but nothing has any flavor at all.' ja ja. 'yeah yeah.' ach sO. das war son stAnd. 'ah. there was such a stand.' ja ja. 'yeah yeah' dann habt ihr natürlich die ganze statistik ruiniert. 'then you naturally ruined all the statistics.' (? ?) mein mann kocht. das macht Alles mein mann. 'with my husband cooks, my husband does all that.' ich habe überhaupt keine ahnung. 'I know nothi(h)ng at all.' hahahahahahahahaha

Jürgen enters with a fish dish and Erika, Jürgen's wife, then takes up the culinarily accomplished husband as a topic. The transcript begins here. Erika says that she has already bragged about Jürgen that day and then quotes herself in direct speech: 'my husband cooks'. She laughs and

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thereby contextualizes what follows as a humorous story. Anni laughingly presents a further detail from Erika's self-citation in line 4: with bu(h)tter. ha[hahahahahahahaha. Bernarda comments, naiv ('naive') in line 6. At first glance the adjective naiv makes little sense. It may be that Bernada finds it naïve to cook with butter. But it is more plausible to suppose that Bernada has adopted the voice of the saleswoman to whom Erika bragged about her husband. She assumes a role in the dialogue which occurred on the street. Anni and Bernarda identify themselves as having participated in the episode to be narrated. It is mostly the three women who participated in the episode who laugh in response to this. Jürgen laughingly offers a commentary in line 8 which also provokes a mirthful response. Although it is rather uncertain with whose voice Bernarda spoke the word "naive", the comment could be understood as a reference to cooking with butter. Jürgen defends this practice with an exaggerated intonation and laughter. Thus, a play with stereotypical comments is staged in reference to cooking practices, which the others also consider funny. Erika in line 10 again places herself directly in the dialogue on the street, which has not as yet been otherwise introduced. In line 11 Katharina shows problems in reception. Bernarda and Erika give background information in a highly collaborative manner. Again in line 14 Bernarda cites the question of the saleswoman ('who cooks?') and then Erika's answer ('my husband'); then Erika continues to explain what she wanted from the Swiss saleswoman: a pot for her husband. In line 16 Bernarda again recounts the dialogue between Erika and the pan-seller; she first takes on the voice of the Swiss saleswoman, then switches to Erika's voice ('every day'), and back again to the saleswoman's question ('what sort of pots do you have'). Erika's questioning wirklich 'really' in line 17 is staged as if taken from the saleswoman's lips. She portrays her as astonished. In line 19, Bernarda presumably first restages the saleswoman's questions about their cooking utensils in order to reply suddenly with Erika's voice (in line 20): '°I don't know, my husband cooks. 0 ' Then she cites her own contribution ('well and then I said, you have everything, various things'). In lines 24 and 25, Erika adopts indirect speech to recount the saleswoman's further questions. Bernada repeats it transformed into a direct question. Erika quotes the group's answer in the street. The three women have tried to shock the saleswoman not only by having a husband who does all the cooking but also by not favoring fatfree ways of preparing food. In line 28 Bernarda repeats the saleswoman's cry

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of astonishment ('wha::::t?'). Again, Erika continues the cry of astonishment ('and you call that healthy food?'). She then quotes her own reply ('yes very'). A few listeners laugh. Then Erika explains what the woman was selling ('special pots for which no fat is needed'). Ulf knows the manufacturer of the pots (33). Katharina rejects such products in line 34, thereby joining her friends' attitude concerning cooking without fat. Ulf also shows his sudden understanding of the narrated scene in line 35. Katharina summarizes the event in regard to German and Swiss statistics about the division of household labor (37). Namely, it has invalidated the statistics which for decades have said that in Germany and Switzerland women do a greater share of homework. In line 39 she speaks with Erika's voice in the dialogue with the kitchen utensil saleswoman. Bernarda continues the speech in the same role ( Ί know nothi(H)ng at all'). The audience laughs. Two performances are intertwined here, the one on the street and the one at the table. On the street, the three provoked the saleswoman and taught her that her expectations about normality are out of date. At the table they present themselves as being able to use an everyday situation for a little stand up comedy. The saleswoman is portrayed as simply taken aback by Erika's revelation. The progressive customer replies quite matter-of-factly, with a manner of speaking suggesting that it is a foregone conclusion. Erika presents her norm-violating marital relationship with the greatest matter-of-factness. This modality of certainty is used here to obtain a double effect: first, in contact with the saleswoman, as a means of stylizing herself as a 'new woman' with a 'new man'. Second, it is offered to the group as a successful portrayal of 'pulling the saleswoman's leg'. The listeners laugh at the special stylizations in this "mimetic satire" (Auerbach 1971; Schwitalla 1994; Jaffe 1998). Those present know that Erika has greatly exaggerated in portraying her husband as a house-husband. She plays with gender norms. The group's presentation at the dinner table serves, for one thing, as an amusing way to tell about provoking the saleswoman in the street, second, reproduces a distinction in regard to life styles (the saleswoman embodies the littlevalued normalcy), and, third, helps to characterize the narrators as persons capable of exploiting the comic potential inherent in everyday situations, thus as active and go-ahead fellows. At the end, Katharina evaluates the performance as such, recapitulating a few of the key punch lines. The play with "others'" voices was evidently made accessible to all. That may be the reason that the pan-seller was not

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mimed in Swiss German, since the participants Bernarda and Anna, from Berlin, can't speak a word of it. In example (3) we witnessed a very similar content, with a similar constellation of dramatis personae and performance. Ulf's self-stylization in example (3) is very close to that of the three women in example (5) (Erika, Anni, and Bernada) who told their story first and later enjoyed Ulf's story. However, the three women do not use dialect features to portray those whom they confronted with their different life style. Anni and Bernada are unable to play with Alemannic dialects. Thus, in example (3) and in example (5) the self is staged as confronting the world with new standards of behavior. Voices are rendered in a very similar way, and the ideological relations confirm those in the other stories being told in the group. The narrator Ulf affiliates himself with Erika, Anni and Bernada.

4.2. The young

gentleman

In the next example, dialect again plays no role in the citation. The cited mother is from Northern Germany. Nevertheless, a specific speech style can be attributed to her. Martin, a homosexual journalist, shows his friends around his new flat. The group arrives in the kitchen. (6) (Conversation 12 Episode 4) Friederike (F); Annette (A); Martin (M); Lars (L); Bernd (Β). 1

F:

2

L:

3

A:

4

L:

hier hats ja nur ein fEnster. 'there is only one window.' is aber doch schön fürn jungen herrn. weischt. 'but it is really nice for a young gentleman, you know.' ja das rEI(hhh)cht fürn jungen mann. 'yes, it suffi(hhh)ces for a young man.' fürn jungen hErrn, sagt deine mutter immer. 'for a young gentleman, your mother always says.'

Friederike (a lecturer of about the same age) notes that Bernd's kitchen has only one window and will accordingly be dimly lit during the daytime. Thereupon Lars delivers a phrase f r o m the repertoire of elderly women: is aber doch schön flirn jungen Herrn. Annette agrees with her boyfriend and raises the level of playful impoliteness. Bernd, the forty year old journalist,

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is defined as a 'young gentleman' who needs no brightly illuminated kitchen. This activity integrates dimensions of a mock challenge. In line 4 Lars makes the source of the flowery phrase explicit, Annette's mother. The attribution of domains and objects to gentlemen and ladies is found equally absurd in this circle. Lars also corrects Annette's utterance 'young man' to 'young gentleman'. The correct wording is important for the stylization. It is unclear whether 'really nice for a young gentleman' should be understood as a compliment or just as being ironic. 8 This scene, too, lives on knowledge about typical ways of speaking. These, inserted in the manner of unintroduced quotation-like speech, suggest the attitudes of those from which the self is differentiated. Categories like 'young gentleman' appear from the beginning as if in quotation marks. Both 'you know' as well as the laugh particles and the correction in line 4 point to these symbolically.

5.

Humorous distance

All six dialogs that I have grouped together here for the analysis of identity deal with normative encounters in the life of the sexes. They deal with marriage candidates, division of labor in the kitchen, couple's differences of opinion, patterns of behavior of married men, and generally with gender attributes. The narrators present themselves in confrontation with persons from whom they differentiate themselves in the story world and in the narrative situation. They do this with humorous keying, 9 in which, however, the degree of exaggeration of the staged persons varies. The conservative figures are made to appear conservative by placing highly formulaic phrases in their mouths, by letting them speak on stage in dialect, react inflexibly and unsophisticated and get excited. Likewise, in confrontation the self shapes itself on the levels of the story world and the current, real situation. In mutual, complementary orientation to one another, common facets of identification can thus be created. Humorous keying inhibits the appearance of arrogance. The self in the story world takes the initiative, but without stress. It does not hesitate to introduce its own view of things to the locals. In this way, the self's standpoint as well as its brashness are displayed as morally correct. The congruency of the stories confirms this model of the self in the current situation. Working with exaggerated categorization and deconstruction, the story-tellers also create distance from their

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own selves. In all of the stories, the performance is accountable and as such is enjoyed. As already mentioned before, explicit moralization has a bad reputation in the Western world (Bergmann and Luckmann 1999), but people try to give their identities a moral underpinning. Attributing superiority to one's own attitude and behavior is also a delicate undertaking. As Coupland (2001) put it: Straightforward formulation might be too obvious and stark a claim to succeed in the late-modern climate. Humorous stylizing of ingroup and outgroup seems to be a successful symbolic practice that can achieve a distanced validation of speakers' social identities. The humorous keying allows the members of the network to play with distanced validation: the conservatives are more strongly typified and distanced, but also for their own social image a certain distance remains. Also, the orientation to gender remains indirect in these episodes but accountable. In humorous discourses this issue is dealt with in a playful frame. Attitudes are transmitted mainly by evocation. Stylization is thus a subversive form of multi-voiced utterance, one that can discredit a voice and a person by reworking them into the local purpose of a playful realization of the superiority of the speaker's own attitude. In direct or mediated contact the group processes the constant changes in political, economic and ecological developments in a similar manner; the members show each other what is normal, what knowledge and what attitude one disposes of - and by doing this they simultaneously constitute features of their social identity. Gender relations have in the meantime become milieu-specific in the Western world (Koppetsch and Burkart 2000). W e face a range of masculinities and femininities (Connell 1995; Baron and Kotthoff 2002), integrating a variety of different lifestyles and behavioral standards, among them the traditional ones. As in the past, traditional masculinity is, for example, still symbolized in certain professions and types of sport (Connell 1995, 2002; Behnke and Meuser 2002). Clear power relations with male dominance continue to exist in the higher spheres of politics, economy, religion and the sciences. Traditional femininity still centers around home, beauty and body care. Alongside these, there are varied deviations from traditional roles and norms. Even if we must start f r o m the fact that milieus with symmetrical gender relationships constitute a minority in the Germanspeaking countries, it is nevertheless (or precisely for this reason) interesting to observe how these groups create normality for their social identity, which diverges from traditional societal standards.

The humorous stylization of 'new' women and men and conservative others

Appendix: Transcription

(0.5)

(? what ?) (? ?) .

. [ . .

•

· [

hahaha hehehe goo(h)d (h) ( 'h)

° blabla 0 COME ON come On

471

conventions

one hyphen indicates a short pause two hyphens indicate a longer pause (less than half a second) pause of half a second; long pauses are counted in half seconds indicates uncertain transcription indicates an incomprehensible utterance indicates overlap or interruption latching of an utterance of one person; no interruption laughter slight laughter integrated laughter audible exhalation audible inhalation slightly rising intonation rising intonation falling intonation ongoing intonation indicates elongated sound lower amplitude and pitch emphatic stress (pitch and volume shift) accent syllable (only in the German original)

î_

high onset of pitch pitch goes down I low pitch register within the brackets

comments ((sits down)) nonverbal actions or comments

Notes 1. Mummendey (1995) discusses various sociological and psychological concepts of the self and of identity. He concludes that the concept of self overlaps with that of identity, with the exception of a few special traditions. An individual performs various social and situational identities, but is also identical with heror himself. For him it seems justified to translate self to identity and to see the two concepts as semantically equivalent.

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2. Davies (2006) analyzes the humor of movie characters in connection with typification. 3. In this article I am not concerned with humor theory; see Kotthoff (1998) on that matter. When I speak of conversational caricatures, I mean the exaggeration of character traits, created by linguistic rather than visual effects. 4. I also have data from other social milieus. Mocking humor which relates to gender norms I only found among the academics of this age group. 5. Such introductions are typical for humorous stories. 6. In German this is a stylistically elevated expression. 7. The Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung. 8. See Kotthoff (2002) on conversational irony and its relation to citation-like footing. 9. The term keying is used in the sense of Hymes (1974).

References Antaki, Charles and Sue Widdicombe 1998 Identity as an achievement and as a tool. In: Antaki, Charles and Sue Widdicombe (eds.), Identities in Talk, London, 1-14. Auerbach, Erich 1971 Mimesis. Dargestellte Wirklichkeit in der abendländischen Literatur. Bern/Munich: Francke. Bakhtin, Mikhail M. (Bachtin, Michail M.) 1969 [1985] Literatur und Karneval. Zur Romantheorie und Lachkultur. Munich: Hanser. 1981 The Dialogic Imagination, C. Emerson and M. Holquist (eds.). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. Barbour, Stephen and Patrick Stevenson 1999 Variation in German. A Critical Approach to German Sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Baron, Bettina and Helga Kotthoff (eds.) 2002 Gender in Interaction. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Behnke, Cornelia and Michael Meuser 2002 Gender and habitus: Fundamental securities and crisis tendencies among men. In: Baron, Bettina and Helga Kotthoff (eds.), Gender in Interaction. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 153-175. Bourdieu, Pierre 1979 Distinction. Paris: Minuit. Brünner, Gisela 1991 Redewiedergabe in Gesprächen. Deutsche Sprache 1, 1-16.

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Christmann, Gabriele 1996 Die Aktivität des „Sich-Mokierens" als konversationeile Satire. Wie sich Umweltschützer/innen über den „Otto-Normalverbraucher" mokieren. In: Kotthoff, Helga (ed.), Scherzkommunikation. Beiträge zur empirischen Gesprächsforschung. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 49-80. Connell, Robert W. 1995 Masculinities. Cambridge: Polity Press. Cook-Gumperz, Jenny and John Gumperz 1976 Context in children's speech. In: Papers on Language and Context. Working Papers 46. Berkeley, CA: Language Behaviour Research Laboratory. Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth 1999 Coherent voicing. On prosody in conversational reported speech. In: Bublitz, Wolfram et al. (eds.), Coherence in Spoken and Written Discourse, 11-35. Coupland, Nikolas 2001 Dialect stylization in radio talk. Language in Society 30(3), 345375. Davies, Catherine E. 2006 Gendered sense of humor as expressed through aesthetic typifications. Journal of Pragmatics 38(1), 96-114. Deppermann, Arnulf this volume Playing with the voice of the other - Stylized Kanaksprak in conversations among German adolescents. In: Auer, Peter (ed.), Style and Social Identities: Alternative Approaches to Linguistic Heterogeneity. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. de Fina, Anna this volume Style and stylization in the construction of identities in a cardplaying club. In: Auer, Peter (ed.), Style and Social Identities: Alternative Approaches to Linguistic Heterogeneity. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Dupréel, Emile 1928 Le problème sociologique de rire. Revue Philosophique 196, 213— 260. Eckert, Penelope 2000 Linguistic Variation as Social Practice. London: Blackwell. Goffman, Erving 1981 Forms of Talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

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Günthner, Susanne 1996 The contextualization of affect in reported dialogue. In: Niemeyer, S. and R. Dirven (eds.), The Language of Emotions. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 247-277. 1999 Polyphony and the 'layering of voices' in reported dialogue: An analysis of the use of prosodie devices in everyday reported speech. Journal of Pragmatics 31, 685-708. this volume The construction of otherness in reported dialogues as a resource for identity work. In: Auer, Peter (ed.), Style and Social Identities: Alternative Approaches to Linguistic Heterogeneity. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Gumperz, John 1982 Discourse Strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1996 The linguistic and cultural relativity of inference. In: Gumperz, John J. and Stephen Levinson (eds.), Rethinking Linguistic Relativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 374—407. Hymes, Dell 1974 Ways of speaking. In: Bauman, Richard and Joel Sherzer (eds.), Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 433-451. Jaffe, Alexandra 1998 Comic performance and the articulation of hybrid identity. Pragmatics 10(1), 39-59. Koppetsch, Cornelia and Günter Burkart 1999 Die Illusion der Emanzipation. Constance: Universitätsverlag Konstanz. Kotthoff, Helga 1996 Impoliteness and conversational joking: On relational politics. Folia Linguistica 3 0 ( 3 ^ ) , 299-327. 1998 Spass Verstehen. Zur Pragmatik von konversationellem Humor. Tübingen: Niemeyer. 2000 Konversationelle Parodie. Über komische Intertextualität in der Alltagskommunikation. Germanistische Linguistik 153, 159-186. 2002 Irony, quotation, and other forms of staged intertextuality. In: Graumann, Carl and Werner Kallmeyer (eds.), Perspective and Perspectivation in Discourse. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 201-233. 2006 Gender and humor. The state of the art. Journal of Pragmatics 38(1), 4-26. M alone, Martin J. 1997 Worlds of Talk. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Conversation. Cambridge: Polity Press.

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Mead, George Herbert 1934 Mind, Self and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Mulkay, Michael 1988 Humor. Cambridge: Polity Press. Mummendey, Hans-Dieter 1995 Psychologie der Selbstdarstellung. Göttingen: Hogrefe. Rampton, Ben 1999 Styling the other. Special issue of Journal of Sociolinguistics 3(4). Schutz, Allred 1970 On Phenomenology and Social Relations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Schutz, Alfred and Thomas Luckmann 1973 The Structures of the Life-World. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. Schwitalla, Johannes 1994 Sprachliche Ausdrucksformen für soziale Identität beim Erzählen. Beobachtungen zu vier Gruppen in Vogelstang. In: Kallmeyer, Werner (ed.), Kommunikation in der Stadt. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 511-577. Siebenhaar, Beat 2005 Dialekt und Hochsprache in der deutschsprachigen Schweiz. Zurich: Wyler. Tannen, Deborah 1989 Talking Voices: Repetition, Dialogue, and Imagery in Conversational Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Taylor, Charles 1989 Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Voloshinov, Valentin N. 1926 [1978] Reported speech. In: Matejka, Ladislav and Kristina Pomorska (eds.), Readings in Russian Poetics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 149-175.

Chapter 16 A postscript: Style and identity in interactional sociolinguistics John J. Gumperz and Jenny Cook-Gumperz

Identity may well be gaining a significance beyond that of an intrinsic human life-cycle, and its stages and crises. For, in our time the historical emphasis on the differences between individual, national and even religious identities must find a re-orientation that emphasizes and cultivates the essential unity of all human identities. By this I mean the consciousness and ethical responsibility of being one species that must learn to orient its outlook and inventions towards the preservation and enrichment of all life instead of a deadly extension of senseless, technical perfection and power. For this however, it is necessary to learn to understand fully what a specieswide identity can do for each individual's and each community's vitality to make senseless mass murder impossible. Erik H. Erikson (1983)

1.

Identity as a social construct

The above statement from the father of psychoanalytic identity theory and social biography stresses the need for a common intellectual frame that can bring together different and divergent views in times of political change and uncertainty. If Erikson's statement seems somewhat idealistic or vague, speaking as it does of the unity of humankind, it was written in response to what he saw as the exceptional challenges of the beginning of the nuclear age. For the citation dates back more than two decades to a time when scholars saw an unavoidable tension between the individual's embodied distinctiveness and the socially shared cultural solidarity of group belonging, or between the individual psychologically constituted ego and the laws of the social world. As anthropologist Meyer Fortes (1983) commented at the same conference, the problem facing research on identity is that it appears to be cast in terms of fluctuations between two ends of a continuum.

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In other words, identity is "located in the space between two poles". For the individual the emphasis is on "what goes on inside my skin", at the other pole one says "What I am is what society makes of me" (1983: 393). Both positions are constitutive of a person's identity, but traditionally researchers have looked for causal explanations exclusively at one or the other end of the continuum. The possibility Fortes introduces, i.e. that we are neither made entirely by others nor do we make ourselves without other's support and interaction, was ignored. More recent social theories which adopt the perspective of ordinary societal members rather than the analyst's position as primary view the person as a thinking, speaking being, an active agent within a social world constructed through interaction with others. These theories have changed the focus of identity theorizing. W e can now see that identity involves not the opposition between the individual and the social; rather, the two are intertwined and it is the continuity of the person that we work to maintain through acts of speaking. W e present a stable social self by providing internally consistent narratives about our selves and our actions in a changing world. If identity is communicated through acts of speaking then we can think of speaking styles as representations of such identities. Treating identity as a communicated phenomenon allows for the possibility of multiple and flexible, inherently contingent selves that have coherence only from specific points of view and in specific contexts.

2.

Identity as life style

Contemporary society is increasingly shaped by mediating bureaucratic institutions that impact many areas of daily life and mandate communicative standards of their own. W e now recognize that while identity requires continuous validation of a bureaucratically sanctioned self on the one hand, on the other it also calls for the on-going reinvention of the individual persona. This position therefore presents specific challenges. Individuals are expected to construct coherence through explanations about their own fit or lack of fit to bureaucratically mandated categories, yet at the same time they must present a self that in any one context can be seen as continuous with a history that both precedes and extends beyond the narrative present. The situation becomes even more complex when we consider that late modern societies also provide new possibilities for individual change and for the progressive development of the self. Change inevitably involves

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risks, but it also requires that individuals present themselves as socially acceptable and attractive beings - the new growth industry of selfawareness. As Giddens (1991) describes it, late modern society's emphasis on new life-style movements "represents an era beyond the emancipation from want and from hierarchical domination into a politics of choice. Life politics is centered on lifestyle choices and issues of self-actualization from which political consequences flow" (1991: 209). From our own position we argue that these choices are ultimately mediated by sociolinguistic choices and, as this paper and others in this volume show, not by selection from among a limited set of behavioral options. Judith Irvine (2001) suggests that speech styles share some of the characteristics of dress styles: they can be put on to suit an occasion and a situation. However, speech styles also gain durability over time as they become typified as indexes of identity. Though open to some revision, they count as an integral part of an individual's self presentation. To quote Giddens again: In the post-traditional order of modernity and against the back-drop of new forms of mediated experience self identity becomes a reflexively organized endeavor. The reflexive product of the self which consists in the sustaining of coherent, yet continuously revised biographical narrative takes place in the context of multiple choices as filtered through abstract systems. The more tradition loosens its hold, and the more daily life is reconstituted in terms of the dialectical inter-play of the local and global the more individuals are forced to negotiate life-style choices among a diversity of options (1991: 5).

Giddens' use of the term "biographical narrative" here, notions of "discourse" suggest that modernity theorists are growing aware of the crucial importance of language as discourse. Yet, as we argue below, speech styles have only recently come to be recognized as relevant to social science theorizing. There is moreover little if any agreement on what we mean by these terms and how we can relate them to social categorizations.

3.

Linguistic style

Our current notions of linguistic style can be traced back to Thomas Sebeok's (1960) edited volume Style in Language that brought together literary scholars, psycholinguists and linguists, all writing on various aspects of

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style each from their own disciplinary perspectives. While the linguists mostly took up problems emerging from the stylistics of written literary texts, the questions of spoken language and performance remained in the background. Roman Jakobson calls attention to these limitations. In his postscript to the volume entitled "Linguistics and Poetics", he criticizes the narrowness of then current linguists' work as follows: Keeping linguistics apart from poetics is warranted only when the field of linguistics appears to be illicitly restricted, when the sentence is viewed by some linguists as the highest analyzable construction or when the scope of linguistics is confined to grammar alone, or uniquely to non-semantic questions of semantic form, or to the inventory of denotative devices with no reference to free variations (1960: 352). Asking "what do language and poetry have in common?", Jakobson argues that both are communicative acts and the relationship between them must be assessed at the super-ordinate level of speech event not through morpheme by morpheme sentence level comparative linguistic analysis. Jakobson's suggestive paper was one of the first to suggest that context be treated as a communicative phenomenon. Although his functional semiotic perspective on speaking has undergone extensive theoretical and conceptual refinement in the course of the last few decades, it was and continues to be fundamental to the ethnography of communication and related interpretive anthropological linguistic research on discourse where, as we will show in this chapter, notions of poetic, emotive and metapragmatic aspects of performance are again at the center of attention. 3.1. Linguistic style as community-wide

resource

A second main tradition in the study of linguistic style is that of William Labov who rejected his predecessors' person-centered approach to linguistic analysis, arguing that regularities of speaking can only be revealed at the community level. Labov incorporates style into sociolinguistic theory as one of two key dimensions of variability that relate the linguistic to the social by combining the dialectologists' measures of variability with the quantitative sociologists' model of society. His initial goal was to devise valid, replicable methods for charting on-going processes of linguistic change in urban language. To achieve these goals he understood that it was necessary to account for both inter-speaker variability and for individuals'

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variation across different speaking contexts. The concept of style, defined as a relation between linguistic and extra-linguistically defined social (or rather macro-societal) measures such as education, social class and prestige was introduced to account for the variations across contexts. The speech community's linguistic resources no longer focus on a language or a dialect and its variants, but a repertoire, a set of speech varieties with respect to which speakers' stylistic variability is assessed. The purpose of Labov's analysis is to determine the range of variability that characterizes the speech community. Rules of variable use are then incorporated into grammatical description by distinguishing between categorical rules, that is, those which hold for the community as a whole, and variable rules that change along social or geographical parameters. In this way, the linguistic and the social are treated as related. Although they count as separate entities, they can be studied in relation to each other, first through qualitative observation and then through quantitative validation. Stylistic variation thus becomes the crucial nexus between individual speech and a community's shared practices. The assumption is that the styles that constitute the repertoire vary from the vernacular to the prestigious standard-like ways of speaking, monitored for conformance to stabilizing influences imposed from above. Such prestige scales are seen to mirror the society's class based social structure. It is the vernacular that most closely reflects variability, and is thus most likely to reveal locally based changes. Labov goes on to argue that stylistic variation can be elicited in field studies by presenting speakers with different situations and topics. Labovian sociolinguistics has dominated linguists' research on style, even as the range of social phenomena dealt with has expanded and the notion of a clearly definable speech community and its distinct norms becomes more controversial (Coupland, this volume). More recently we are beginning to see a shift in this basic paradigm so as to account for speakers' creative use of stylistic features to mark an individual's identity in relation to changing social situations, and to newly emerging speech norms associated with them (Eckert and Rickford 2001). The scope of variability analysis has also been broadened from concentrating on ongoing processes of linguistic change and social class variation in geographic regions, to issues of ethnicity identity and gender variation (Baugh 2000; Eckert 2000; Rickford 1999). Yet, despite these developments, linguists continue to treat the linguistic and the social as essentially independent entities.

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3.2. Style as an index of

distinctiveness

Judith Irvine's 2001 paper shifts the focus of attention away from language use as such to propose a more broadly conceived semiotics of style, constitutive of linguistic ideologies of distinctiveness that characterizes human societies in general. From this more abstract perspective, speaking style counts as one among several means by which individuals set themselves off from others, in ways that are similar in communicative effect to dress style, consumption patterns, and other options that make up "life style" - the ways of living in late modern societies. Such a concept of style involves a notion of the social, which is not bounded by extra-communicatively defined a priori regional, social or ethnic categories. Boundaries are reflected in individuals' ways of speaking and acting. Speakers can be shown to trade on this knowledge and its distribution as communicative resources. This new position reflects not only different views on the relationship between speaking and society, but also views of verbal communication that move beyond the specifics of sentence bound grammar to ground usage in a broader Jakobsonian linguistic perspective on semiotic processes. We therefore need to reconsider the means by which current social categories are constructed, to show how on the one hand they are represented in what we say at any one time, and on the other hand are being changed or reinforced through speaking practices over time. Irvine's key argument is that a style gains communicative effect by being seen as part of an ideologically based "system of distinctions in which one style contrasts with other styles within the context of that system and its social meaning contrasts with other social meanings in the system" (2001: 24). Styles in other words are not inherently meaningful by themselves. They should not be studied in isolation but should be examined in terms of a) their relation to other styles and b) to the semiotic principles of stylistic differentiation in what Irvine calls the "continuously evolving sociolinguistic systems" of which they are part. The communicative effect of styles is mediated by ideology (defined as that aspect of culture by which we evaluate ideas, objects and actions). Sociolinguists generally agree that ways of speaking index the social formations with which they are typically associated. According to the Peircian theory of semiotics from which current notion derives, an index can only lead to social action if it acts as a sign, and a sign requires an interprétant, that is, it must be meaningful and understandable to at least some of those individuals whose reactions it is designed to affect. Indexes in other words

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rely for their communicative import on someone's interpretation, and this involves both propositional content and knowledge of the surrounding social world and its history. The social and the cultural therefore do not entirely exist apart from talk. Together they become intrinsic ingredients of the semiotics of human action. As a consequence understandings are culturally variable, that is they are neither universal nor entirely predictable from social positionings such as ethnic identity or socioeconomic class without consideration of local history and cultural tradition. The notion of style as a marker of distinctiveness is shared by several of the chapters in this volume where stylistic distinctions are constructed in the course of people's shared history over a time period and their current adaptations to local conditions. The organization of social styles leads to variable stylization practices in which positioning is in opposition to other's use of linguistic resources for indexing social identity as well the aesthetics of verbal form. Interactional sociolinguistics analysis enables in-depth examination of such variable stylization practices.

4.

An interactional sociolinguistics of style

Interactional Sociolinguistics (IS) is best described as the application of interpretive methods of discourse analysis to gain insight into social/cultural issues that tend to arise in today's social environments by systematically looking at how speakers and listeners involved in these issues talk about them. Typically, IS research begins with the ethnographic study of everyday local practices, participant observation and interviewing in selected settings, to gain insight into communicative conventions and ideologies of interpersonal relations. The initial aim is to locate naturally organized situations (Garfinkel 1967) where the practices to be examined are likely to come up for discussion, and to collect tape or video recordings suitable for in depth study. For purposes of in-depth analysis extracts from these recordings are then divided into speech events. Broadly defined an event can be treated a any sequentially organized string of speech exchanges marked by a detectable beginning and an end that presents evidence of the event's communicative outcome (Gumperz and Berenz 1993). Central to (IS) is the assumption that all communication is dialogically grounded in that it involves active collaboration among two or more individuals. Interlocutors' interpretive assessments depend to a significant extent on the interactive processes through which communicative work gets

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done; meanings are finely tuned and negotiated. As empirical work on discourse and conversation has long shown, participants in such exchanges respond to what they assume others intend to convey. They do not base their interpretations on the denotational meaning of individual lexical items or on sentences extracted from discourse. IS argues that to account for the observable facts of interpretation we must broaden our view of how verbal communication works, and adopt a Peircian semiotic perspective which argues that understanding rests on symbolic signs that communicate via grammar and lexicon, as well as on indexical signs defined as a association between sign and context (Silverstein 1996; Lucy 1996). When seen in these terms communication is always intentional in that participants respond to their perceived understanding of the other's communicative intent, and everyday language relies on simultaneously conveyed symbolic and indexical signs, one working in conjunction with the other. Understanding, in other words, goes beyond grammar and lexical knowledge and depends on additional inferential processes incorporating among other factors wider culturally based presuppositions. W e have to assume that at any one point in a discursive exchange members must, if only in very general terms, agree on what activity they are engaged in, how it is framed and what the likely outcome are, as well on the conventions that underlie participants' ongoing interpretations in the course of the interaction. Without such agreements there can be no conversational involvement. The conversational management process also relies on additional verbal and non-verbal signaling processes that are referred to as contextualization cues (Gumperz 1982, 1992) along with grammar and lexicon. Inferential processes are basically indexical, that is what is heard and seen at any one time is evaluated in order to retrieve the contextual grounds of what is communicatively intended. Since they are acquired in through everyday culturally communicative practice indexical signs are by definition highly culture bound and sensitive to subtle shifts in contextual presuppositions. The above perspective differs from commonly accepted notions of understanding in its treatment of cultural knowledge as an essential input to the interpretive process. Culture here affects interpretation in two ways. One, it provides background knowledge that we rely on to formulate tentative interpretations. Second, interpretations once made are then validated on the basis of the way they can be integrated into the event as a whole. Some researchers use the term social meaning to refer to indexically conveyed information, but we believe it is useful to draw a distinction between deno-

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tational meanings, meanings can be extracted from context bound talk and listed in dictionaries, and indexes, based on culture and context bound inferences that are either validated or rejected by what happens in the course of the event. In this way understanding in communicative practice draws on elements of background knowledge (Garfinkel 1967), opening the way for further interpretations that go beyond first order indexing, by showing how listeners and speakers build up second orders of indexicality (Silverstein 1995). We use this latter term to refer to inferences made by participants in the course of a communicative event that construct an envisagement of an activity or communicative exchange. The construction process here involves additional culturally based knowledge indicating how specific aspects in the discourse are able to move beyond stereotypical categorizations of persons or situations to reach out into more abstract social worlds. As we have argued above, interactional sociolinguistics enables stylization practices, i.e. the processes by which speech varieties come to function as the means by which individuals set themselves off from others, to be explored analytically. Resources for stylization include among other things linguistic, prosodie, rhythmic and timing constituents together with gesture that act as contextualization cues in everyday talk. Other resources for stylization are semiotic particulars such as embodied features of dress and posture. Style switching or shifting relies on some or all of these working in co-occurrence with each other to achieve communicative ends. It is this issue of co-occurring constituents that makes styles of speaking creatively variable and marks a distinctive interactional sociolinguistic approach. We provide some brief examples of this process below. Other chapters in this volume also exemplify the process. The following two examples demonstrate how speaking styles operate to position participants in a bureaucratically mediated social world, showing how they fit or differ from the social categories made available to them. In other words the ideologically inscribed distinctions of language operate as resources to enable members of a group to select or highlight certain features of speech that others bound by the same ideology recognize. In example (1), professors in a large research university take part in a bureaucratically typical oral assessment of a student's performance. In example (2), American Indians resident in a small California town, several of whom hold professional positions in the region, meet informally with two researchers to discuss their concerns over local interethnic relations.

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4.1. Example (1) As our initial example we present four excerpts from an American university oral Ph.D. examination for an older woman graduate student. The formal interview section of the proceedings has just concluded. Participants are casually seated around a table in a seminar room. Lee, the candidate, has left and is waiting outside as the professors discuss the completed dissertation: Adam, the chair, who is also her graduate advisor, Sherm, the most senior department member, James, a member of another department, and Pat, a junior woman faculty member. The talk, for the most part, takes the form of a casual discussion, marked by frequent false starts, clauses left incomplete and much hedging. Given this overall frame we further distinguish two modes of speaking: a) 'on record evaluative style' (bold type) with comparatively slow tempo, contoured intonation and relatively high incidence of technical terminology, and b) 'off record style' with more rapid tempo and less pronounced intonation contours. Consider the following initial comments by James, the outside member, who sums up what he has to say as follows: Excerpt (A)1 1 J:

I would certainly be in favor of, you know, (ral) passing her. (acc) Obviously with the kinds of suggestions we'll have for revision and so forth.

The passage begins in off record style, but with the phrase passing her the tempo momentarily slows to more measured pace and contoured intonation, of the kind that distinguishes on record evaluative talk throughout the transcript. Immediately afterwards the off-record talk sets in again. The effect is to set off the above phrase from the preceding and following discourse. Adam, the chair, then follows up. He begins with an informal personal anecdote about his own Ph.D. examination (not reproduced here). Then, after a brief pause he continues, picking up on James' passing her in the preceding turn: Excerpt (B) 1 2 3 4

A: So you say pass. J: Oh yeah. A: And that is ... that's a neutral term. J: I'm not sure.

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Note that grammar and lexical meanings cannot alone account for the dynamics of what "is going on" here. Clearly participants go beyond denotation to infer what is intended. But how are these inferences constructed? How are they grounded in the interaction? We assume that as faculty in the same institution all examiners are familiar with the basic examination procedures. They expect for instance hat evaluations are first proposed and then collaboratively and negotiated and agreed upon, unless someone dissents. Also, participants generally draw a distinction between formal assessments that enter into the written record, and informal opinions about the candidate that may for example affect how faculty members describe the candidate' ability. Such procedural knowledge forms part of the general background knowledge that underlies interpretation. Note that although Adam's turn has the surface form of a statement repeating information and ventrilocating the intonation contour of James' prior evaluative turn. But James' reply "oh yeah" in turn two treats it as a request. A likely inference is that James understands Adam as intending to convey something like: "What kind of a pass do you mean, how well has the candidate performed?" But since James does not elaborate we can assume that he does not want to be more specific. Adam's next remark in turn 3 begins in on-record style as if he were expecting a formal assessment. But then after a brief pause Adam repairs, shifting to off-record style with "That's a neutral term" which can be interpreted as a request for further clarification, but this time an informal one. As we pointed out above, committee members share an understanding that academic assessments when first given may often be hedged. They know from past experience that the final evaluation will ultimately be collaboratively achieved and how they should be interpreted for the record is then determined cooperatively through further negotiations of the kind illustrated here. But additional forms of socio-cultural and linguistic knowledge also affect the outcome of the negotiation process. For example to comprehend any one utterance we must assume that in absence of cues to the contrary, the speaker intends that it should fit in with the agreed upon communicative goals of the encounter. Such assumptions of conversational cooperation motivate listeners to search for information given in preceding talk, as well as for other types of background information relevant to understanding of what has just been said. All of these affect the inferential process by re-

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trieving interpretive frames suggesting how message segments can be linked to create a thematic whole. One way in which contextualization conventions function is to serve as guide posts for monitoring the progress of the interaction. W e use our knowledge of grammar and lexicon, along with contextualization conventions and whatever background information about settings and participants we have to decide what discourse task is being performed, what activity is being signaled and how it is framed. W e then build on these predictions to identify the communicative intent that underlies particular utterances. Contextualization conventions channel interpretations in one direction or another. The interpretive assessments made at any one time are contingent assessments both for analysts and conversationalists. Once made, they are either confirmed or disproved by what happens subsequently. If they are confirmed expectations are reinforced, if they are disconfirmed we attempt to reinterpret what we have heard and change our expectations of the goals, outcomes and/or speaker's intent. In the present situation where the examiners are members of the same academic community, we expect to find a fairly high degree of sharing of contextualization conventions and shared background knowledge. Our analysis reveals the degree to which interpretation of what goes on depends on this sharing and how the cues signal that the candidate is being evaluated. A d a m ' s anecdote has introduced a more informal, off-record speech style where the shift between on-record and off record styles conveys additional information that enters into the interpretation. In order to show how the stylistic parameters, once established, become essential to the interaction, we concentrate on two more passages. In the first of these James responds to A d a m ' s preceding turn. Apparently he is now ready to provide more, albeit informal, detail on what he thinks about the performance: Excerpt (C) 1 J: Well/1 think..my sense is that..uh..she has done../A GOOD JOB/ 2 ...and she certainly has..uh.../1 mean..this project for her is 3 being everything and more I think..that a dissertation...should 4 be/ ...and at the state of her professional development I think. 5 a..a GOOD JOB / and she ought to be commended// The above passage provides another illustration of what participants recognize as the on-record style, marked here by relatively slow enunciation and

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the use of technical evaluative terms. The capitalized "a good job" which appears in the first line and is repeated in the last serves as a key evaluative expression. On each of its occurrences it is pronounced with the same unique prosodie contour, consisting of an increase in volume (here marked by capitals) and fall-rise fall intonation contour on "good" followed by fall to lower pitch fall on "job" which set off the phrase from others in the preceding passages as a formulaic expression. Such prosodie treatment suggests that more is intended than mere emphasis, but exactly and possibly intentionally what that is, is not spelled out in words. Excerpt (D) marks a highlight of the evaluation portion of the defense. Note that Sherm's contoured opening statement "it's a-fine job" ventrilocates the prosody and rhythm of James' formulaic "good job". We can infer that he agrees with James's 'on record' evaluation or is at least willing to let it stand with all its ambiguities. His follow-up remarks, which take up the remainder of the first three lines below, begin by picking up on what James had said about the length of the dissertation. They are delivered in off record style with accelerated tempo that includes a chuckle suggesting that it is intended as a humorous off-record comment. Pat the junior faculty member's laughter supports this. In turn 5, Sherm then goes on to what he marks prosodically as more substantive matters by returning to a rhythmically contoured on record style with short phrases, frequent pauses, and false starts with comments often preceded by introductory formulaic phrases that lexically mark the passage as an evaluation (line 5; 12; 22): Excerpt (D) 1 S : oh ...it's a FINE JOB//.. .by my/, .lights uh.../1 would have 2 wished it was shorter//[laughs] (acc) I have some sympathy for 3 the twenty five/...page psych../ dissertations// 4 P: (laughing)...Right/ (clears throat) 5 S: Uh...the uh...uh...// this/...the one comment I'd 6 have/... ha-has to do with her writing/...uh these up// 7 ...uh uh her/...the dissertation was written/...was 8 written with the frame // these are the extent theories// lets 9 use these/...to derive hypotheses/ and get some data/ and cast 10 them against/..against the theories// (sigh) uh that's/ 11 that's/ fine// uh..uh., but it also...uh/..al imit//...uh..because 12 it leads her/...for example not to/...ask..such questions as 13 the kind of things I was pushing her on a little bit uh/..what 14 alternative meanings/ might be given to/., the uh..the/., the 15 class/..variable// ...other than the socialization //

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Cook-Gumperz

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33

it is true that/ in this literature/.. the class variable is interpreted as a socialization variable// ...but that's not/... necessarily the/..case if you start/... from the more general question/ ..of how can we explain radicalism/...rather than the more particular question/..of.. ...given the theories currently used to explain/..radicalism// ...uh uh...uh she could I think/..write/.. some of this stuff up/..within the more limited frame//it'd be better it seems to me/ if she would/...expand her vision a little bit/...uh...so that she's not necessarily limited// ...although/ ...let me take it back//...in the longer run I would want her to do that// ...in the shorter run I'm not so sure// ...It may be wise to/ ...restrict her vision/...in order to ...uh...to/ ..to get some things done/... and now I think it's important for her/... to uh...to quickly move/ to get at least one piece out and in the literature/ just to give her the confidence that she can do itII

Given the speaker's position as the senior member of the group his comments carry the authority that makes the interaction cohere as an oral examination. Yet analysis of the written transcript alone does not account for the talk's communicative effect. In performance we see the interplay of several verbal and non-verbal channels, with both rhythmic patterning and contouring coordinated with head nodding and symbolically appropriate hand gestures. For example, in referring to what Lee, the candidate, could have done apart from what she did, Sherm makes a gesture of bringing his finger tips together in a flat tent-like arch; and then, as his slow rhythmic delivery continues, he resolves the problem he has set up in his talk. As he does so, he flattens the arch. Here we mention the kinesics only anecdotally. However the point is that discursive practice goes beyond lexical content by providing a rendering which has kinesic and gestural features that gives the impression of a fully developed summing up, and provide the members of the group with a sense that there has been a careful discussion of the thesis as an academic accomplishment. It is by means of such strategies that the speech legitimates the event as a properly conducted examination. From the key prosodie, paralinguistic and lexical strategies through which the communicative effect is achieved and from the chunking of the talk into phrases, we can infer that the speaker Sherm is thinking out loud.

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The relatively high number of hesitation pauses, self corrections and asides, as well as the many incomplete clauses, tone groupings and pausings, all frequently violate our syntactically based expectations about clause boundaries Connections are frequently not lexicalized so that many individual clauses make no sense by themselves. The description dwells on the factual aspects of the candidate's actions. Little direct evaluative vocabulary is used, so that seen from the perspective of propositional content, it is not immediately evident that the speaker is "doing evaluating" as such. One might of course paraphrase the first few lines as implicating that the candidate took existing theories for granted and that the work is limited because her theoretical position kept her from exploring alternative solutions. But it is left to the audience to infer such information. The passage appears to cohere mainly through its prosody and phrasing, just as it is transformed into an evaluative, ceremonial statement in part through its kinesics and body rhythm. Some of the incomplete utterances could be conflated to make two or three major points, in a manner more consistent with the performance style commonly associated with oral examinations. To construct such contracted summaries of the argument, however, would be to risk losing sight of the ceremonial/indexical character of the actual performance, and thus destroy its effect. To repeat our earlier remarks, in highlighting the role of prosody and the setting up discursive oppositions between on and off-record style we are not claiming that contextualization cues such as style switching convey 'meanings' in the semanticists' sense. The claim is that contextualization cues in co-occurrence with other linguistic signs and background knowledge, lead us to frame the interaction in such a way as to favor certain classes of interpretations. Specific inferences as to what is intended are always locally negotiated. Excerpts (A) and (B) illustrate this point. When Adam uses contoured style to ask James to clarify his statement he is given the sequential positioning of his question - implicating that he is interested in an on record judgment rather than in the specifics of James's own personal opinion. In this, as well as elsewhere in the defense, what looks like a potentially "uncomfortable moment" that could lead to an overtly expressed differences of opinion is avoided, because the paralinguistics of the performance indirectly bring the organizational particulars to the surface. And by following up with the on-record committee talk Adam, as chair, implicitly reminds the other participants that it is now time to bring the formal proceedings to a conclusion. Such reminders are however in no way lexicalized and not made part of the official proceedings. To

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have done so would have been to engage in a controlling act with potentially altogether different interpretive consequences. W e could say therefore that prosodie and other contextualization cues facilitate the smooth conduct of the defense. We can go further and say that the participants, in recognizing the on-record/off-record opposition, and in the systematic ways in which they react to each others cues, are cooperating not only in producing an academic evaluation, but recognition of group co-membership as academic gatekeepers. As Erickson (2004) refers to it, they recognize each others performed social identity or situational co-membership. This comembership then provides a warrant for any further use of on-record features to be seen as evaluative, and for further strengthening of the group's bonds by off-record laughter and personal anecdotes.

4.2

Example (2)

The material in this example was obtained in cooperation with the defense team in a high profile Northern California trial, in which the initial verdict had been overturned by the court and a retrial ordered. Arguing that the case can only be understood on the basis of knowledge of local history, culture and interethnic relations, the defense asked the researchers to help with collecting background material. In order to do this the researchers participated in local discussions about relationships between the local Indian community and the White population organized by local residents for their benefit. The discussion takes place in a recently completed housing development belonging to the Karuk tribe, and friends and relatives of the defendant are present. The key speakers are all women. Speaker A is a community worker employed by the Karuk housing association, speaker Β is a local dental technician and speaker C is another community member. The data consists of three excerpts from a longer three hour discussion touching on a range of issues concerning interrelations with the local community. Linguistic research in American Indian communities has traditionally concentrated, and to some extent continues to concentrate, on the grammatical systems of specific American Indian languages in order to save them from extinction. In recent years however linguistic anthropologists have turned to sociolinguistic investigations of the English spoken by Native American groups. Several initial findings of this work are of particular

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significance for this discussion. Many English speaking Indian communities, particularly those who live in reservations separate from the surrounding white groups, tend to speak varieties of English that show characteristics of discourse level stress, rhythm and intonation and modes of argumentation reflecting those of parent American Indian languages. In addition Native American English rhetorical practices govern among other things the use of silence and matters of discourse organization: who speaks to whom, when and under what circumstances. Modes of indicating agreement or disagreement and the like, are to a significant degree carried over as well (Basso 1986). The transcript begins a few minutes into the discussion as the community worker tells an anecdote about what happened when the Karuk housing association was making plans for the construction of the homes. Excerpt (A)2 1 A: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 B:

like when we purchased this LAnd out here; on the ROad up here, a:n; there w's a big WRiteup;= in the PAper,.. an people were get'n real'., kinda' ..LEery lo ya know, o:h the're gonna have a reserVAvation, ya know,