This study offers a new approach to language attitudes and ideologies which applies argumentation... more This study offers a new approach to language attitudes and ideologies which applies argumentation theory in a discourse-based analysis of the processes of sociolinguistic indexicality. This method is presented in the context of the previously-used discourse-based approaches to language attitudes which are reviewed here in terms of their contributions to the understanding of the creation of socio-indexical meanings in discourse. The review proposes a five-level typology which includes topic-oriented, linguistic, cognitive, interactional, and rhetorical levels of analysis. This study explores the potential of the New Rhetoric theory developed by Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca (1969) to serve as an overarching framework which can help cohere multidisciplinary perspectives on language use and social relations in the analysis of folklinguistic discourse. This approach allows for an analysis of the rhetorical connectedness of discursive acts that contribute to semiotic construals of folk-linguistic beliefs at different levels of discourse organization. This dissertation proposes that a sociolinguistic study may use as a starting point of analysis a specific locally-salient folk-concept and shows that this type of analytic focus may be productive in exploring the metapragmatic functioning of folk-concepts in the context-specific activations of the fluid fields of sociolinguistic indexical relations. As a result of applying the proposed rhetorically-oriented method, this study provides new perspectives on how language users argumentatively construct conceptual associations between language-related and social representations in everyday discourse. It discusses the ways in which propositional processes of sociolinguistic indexicality engage experiential, affective, performative, perceptual, and identity-related processes: participants demonstrate these interrelated engagements in everyday metalinguistic discourse when they rationalize, justify, valorize, and illustrate their individual experiences with linguistic variability. The metapragmatic aspects of such constructions include discursive processes of objectivation, essentialization, and reification of sociolinguistic distinctiveness, as well as constructions of the clustering of linguistic and social typifications that create indexical profiles of speaking styles and index symbolic boundaries between social groups. These processes reveal how speakers appropriate the meaning potential of linguistic variables and conceptualize it in discursive constructions of linguistic distinctiveness.
This study offers a new approach to language attitudes and ideologies which applies argumentation... more This study offers a new approach to language attitudes and ideologies which applies argumentation theory in a discourse-based analysis of the processes of sociolinguistic indexicality. This method is presented in the context of the previously-used discourse-based approaches to language attitudes which are reviewed here in terms of their contributions to the understanding of the creation of socio-indexical meanings in discourse. The review proposes a five-level typology which includes topic-oriented, linguistic, cognitive, interactional, and rhetorical levels of analysis. This study explores the potential of the New Rhetoric theory developed by Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca (1969) to serve as an overarching framework which can help cohere multidisciplinary perspectives on language use and social relations in the analysis of folklinguistic discourse. This approach allows for an analysis of the rhetorical connectedness of discursive acts that contribute to semiotic construals of folk-linguistic beliefs at different levels of discourse organization. This dissertation proposes that a sociolinguistic study may use as a starting point of analysis a specific locally-salient folk-concept and shows that this type of analytic focus may be productive in exploring the metapragmatic functioning of folk-concepts in the context-specific activations of the fluid fields of sociolinguistic indexical relations. As a result of applying the proposed rhetorically-oriented method, this study provides new perspectives on how language users argumentatively construct conceptual associations between language-related and social representations in everyday discourse. It discusses the ways in which propositional processes of sociolinguistic indexicality engage experiential, affective, performative, perceptual, and identity-related processes: participants demonstrate these interrelated engagements in everyday metalinguistic discourse when they rationalize, justify, valorize, and illustrate their individual experiences with linguistic variability. The metapragmatic aspects of such constructions include discursive processes of objectivation, essentialization, and reification of sociolinguistic distinctiveness, as well as constructions of the clustering of linguistic and social typifications that create indexical profiles of speaking styles and index symbolic boundaries between social groups. These processes reveal how speakers appropriate the meaning potential of linguistic variables and conceptualize it in discursive constructions of linguistic distinctiveness.
This article offers a new approach to dialect attitudes and ideologies that combines argumentatio... more This article offers a new approach to dialect attitudes and ideologies that combines argumentation theory with conversation-analytic techniques. This rhetorically oriented, qualitative approach is used to explore how socioindexical and language-related meanings of folk linguistic concepts are constructed in conversations among Oklahoma English speakers. “Twang” was selected as a test case because it is often mentioned by nonlinguists as a common descriptor of differences among American English dialects. The analysis reveals a complex socioindexical profile of twang that integrates language-related, spatial, temporal, sociocultural, and historical associations. It also reveals implicit discursive schemes of speech valorization that represent twang as a socially authenticating linguistic resource. Participants use gradient representations of twang to index symbolic social boundaries between unmarked and “lesser” forms of whiteness in the American South. The article shows that propositional processes of sociolinguistic indexicality engage experiential, affective, performative, perceptual, and identity-related processes: participants demonstrate these interrelated engagements when they rationalize, justify, valorize, and illustrate their individual experiences with linguistic variability.
This paper reviews discourse-based approaches to language attitudes in terms of their contributio... more This paper reviews discourse-based approaches to language attitudes in terms of their contributions to understanding the creation of socio-indexical meaning in metalinguistic discourse. It proposes a five-level typology of approaches which includes topic-oriented, linguistic, cognitive, interactional, and rhetorical analyses. The article discusses the ways in which different types of analyses expose various aspects of social-semiotic and meta-semiotic processes involved in constructions of sociolinguistic indexical relations in the local interactional and larger contextual frames. The paper argues in favor of integrated discourse-based approaches and illustrates the potential of a rhetorical approach to serve as a unifying framework for blending analytical levels.
This study offers a new approach to language attitudes and ideologies which applies argumentation... more This study offers a new approach to language attitudes and ideologies which applies argumentation theory in a discourse-based analysis of the processes of sociolinguistic indexicality. This method is presented in the context of the previously-used discourse-based approaches to language attitudes which are reviewed here in terms of their contributions to the understanding of the creation of socio-indexical meanings in discourse. The review proposes a five-level typology which includes topic-oriented, linguistic, cognitive, interactional, and rhetorical levels of analysis. This study explores the potential of the New Rhetoric theory developed by Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca (1969) to serve as an overarching framework which can help cohere multidisciplinary perspectives on language use and social relations in the analysis of folklinguistic discourse. This approach allows for an analysis of the rhetorical connectedness of discursive acts that contribute to semiotic construals of folk-linguistic beliefs at different levels of discourse organization. This dissertation proposes that a sociolinguistic study may use as a starting point of analysis a specific locally-salient folk-concept and shows that this type of analytic focus may be productive in exploring the metapragmatic functioning of folk-concepts in the context-specific activations of the fluid fields of sociolinguistic indexical relations. As a result of applying the proposed rhetorically-oriented method, this study provides new perspectives on how language users argumentatively construct conceptual associations between language-related and social representations in everyday discourse. It discusses the ways in which propositional processes of sociolinguistic indexicality engage experiential, affective, performative, perceptual, and identity-related processes: participants demonstrate these interrelated engagements in everyday metalinguistic discourse when they rationalize, justify, valorize, and illustrate their individual experiences with linguistic variability. The metapragmatic aspects of such constructions include discursive processes of objectivation, essentialization, and reification of sociolinguistic distinctiveness, as well as constructions of the clustering of linguistic and social typifications that create indexical profiles of speaking styles and index symbolic boundaries between social groups. These processes reveal how speakers appropriate the meaning potential of linguistic variables and conceptualize it in discursive constructions of linguistic distinctiveness.
This study offers a new approach to language attitudes and ideologies which applies argumentation... more This study offers a new approach to language attitudes and ideologies which applies argumentation theory in a discourse-based analysis of the processes of sociolinguistic indexicality. This method is presented in the context of the previously-used discourse-based approaches to language attitudes which are reviewed here in terms of their contributions to the understanding of the creation of socio-indexical meanings in discourse. The review proposes a five-level typology which includes topic-oriented, linguistic, cognitive, interactional, and rhetorical levels of analysis. This study explores the potential of the New Rhetoric theory developed by Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca (1969) to serve as an overarching framework which can help cohere multidisciplinary perspectives on language use and social relations in the analysis of folklinguistic discourse. This approach allows for an analysis of the rhetorical connectedness of discursive acts that contribute to semiotic construals of folk-linguistic beliefs at different levels of discourse organization. This dissertation proposes that a sociolinguistic study may use as a starting point of analysis a specific locally-salient folk-concept and shows that this type of analytic focus may be productive in exploring the metapragmatic functioning of folk-concepts in the context-specific activations of the fluid fields of sociolinguistic indexical relations. As a result of applying the proposed rhetorically-oriented method, this study provides new perspectives on how language users argumentatively construct conceptual associations between language-related and social representations in everyday discourse. It discusses the ways in which propositional processes of sociolinguistic indexicality engage experiential, affective, performative, perceptual, and identity-related processes: participants demonstrate these interrelated engagements in everyday metalinguistic discourse when they rationalize, justify, valorize, and illustrate their individual experiences with linguistic variability. The metapragmatic aspects of such constructions include discursive processes of objectivation, essentialization, and reification of sociolinguistic distinctiveness, as well as constructions of the clustering of linguistic and social typifications that create indexical profiles of speaking styles and index symbolic boundaries between social groups. These processes reveal how speakers appropriate the meaning potential of linguistic variables and conceptualize it in discursive constructions of linguistic distinctiveness.
This article offers a new approach to dialect attitudes and ideologies that combines argumentatio... more This article offers a new approach to dialect attitudes and ideologies that combines argumentation theory with conversation-analytic techniques. This rhetorically oriented, qualitative approach is used to explore how socioindexical and language-related meanings of folk linguistic concepts are constructed in conversations among Oklahoma English speakers. “Twang” was selected as a test case because it is often mentioned by nonlinguists as a common descriptor of differences among American English dialects. The analysis reveals a complex socioindexical profile of twang that integrates language-related, spatial, temporal, sociocultural, and historical associations. It also reveals implicit discursive schemes of speech valorization that represent twang as a socially authenticating linguistic resource. Participants use gradient representations of twang to index symbolic social boundaries between unmarked and “lesser” forms of whiteness in the American South. The article shows that propositional processes of sociolinguistic indexicality engage experiential, affective, performative, perceptual, and identity-related processes: participants demonstrate these interrelated engagements when they rationalize, justify, valorize, and illustrate their individual experiences with linguistic variability.
This paper reviews discourse-based approaches to language attitudes in terms of their contributio... more This paper reviews discourse-based approaches to language attitudes in terms of their contributions to understanding the creation of socio-indexical meaning in metalinguistic discourse. It proposes a five-level typology of approaches which includes topic-oriented, linguistic, cognitive, interactional, and rhetorical analyses. The article discusses the ways in which different types of analyses expose various aspects of social-semiotic and meta-semiotic processes involved in constructions of sociolinguistic indexical relations in the local interactional and larger contextual frames. The paper argues in favor of integrated discourse-based approaches and illustrates the potential of a rhetorical approach to serve as a unifying framework for blending analytical levels.
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Papers by Elena Rodgers
linguistic, cognitive, interactional, and rhetorical levels of analysis.
This study explores the potential of the New Rhetoric theory developed by Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca (1969) to serve as an overarching framework which can help cohere multidisciplinary perspectives on language use and social relations in the analysis of folklinguistic discourse. This approach allows for an analysis of the rhetorical connectedness of discursive acts that contribute to semiotic construals of folk-linguistic beliefs at different levels of discourse organization.
This dissertation proposes that a sociolinguistic study may use as a starting point of analysis a specific locally-salient folk-concept and shows that this type of analytic focus may be productive in exploring the metapragmatic functioning of folk-concepts in the context-specific activations of the fluid fields of sociolinguistic indexical relations. As a
result of applying the proposed rhetorically-oriented method, this study provides new perspectives on how language users argumentatively construct conceptual associations between language-related and social representations in everyday discourse. It discusses the ways in which propositional processes of sociolinguistic indexicality engage experiential, affective, performative, perceptual, and identity-related processes: participants demonstrate these interrelated engagements in everyday metalinguistic discourse when they rationalize, justify, valorize, and illustrate their individual experiences with linguistic variability. The metapragmatic aspects of such constructions include discursive processes of objectivation, essentialization, and reification of
sociolinguistic distinctiveness, as well as constructions of the clustering of linguistic and social typifications that create indexical profiles of speaking styles and index symbolic boundaries between social groups. These processes reveal how speakers appropriate the meaning potential of linguistic variables and conceptualize it in discursive constructions
of linguistic distinctiveness.
linguistic, cognitive, interactional, and rhetorical levels of analysis.
This study explores the potential of the New Rhetoric theory developed by Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca (1969) to serve as an overarching framework which can help cohere multidisciplinary perspectives on language use and social relations in the analysis of folklinguistic discourse. This approach allows for an analysis of the rhetorical connectedness of discursive acts that contribute to semiotic construals of folk-linguistic beliefs at different levels of discourse organization.
This dissertation proposes that a sociolinguistic study may use as a starting point of analysis a specific locally-salient folk-concept and shows that this type of analytic focus may be productive in exploring the metapragmatic functioning of folk-concepts in the context-specific activations of the fluid fields of sociolinguistic indexical relations. As a
result of applying the proposed rhetorically-oriented method, this study provides new perspectives on how language users argumentatively construct conceptual associations between language-related and social representations in everyday discourse. It discusses the ways in which propositional processes of sociolinguistic indexicality engage experiential, affective, performative, perceptual, and identity-related processes: participants demonstrate these interrelated engagements in everyday metalinguistic discourse when they rationalize, justify, valorize, and illustrate their individual experiences with linguistic variability. The metapragmatic aspects of such constructions include discursive processes of objectivation, essentialization, and reification of
sociolinguistic distinctiveness, as well as constructions of the clustering of linguistic and social typifications that create indexical profiles of speaking styles and index symbolic boundaries between social groups. These processes reveal how speakers appropriate the meaning potential of linguistic variables and conceptualize it in discursive constructions
of linguistic distinctiveness.