Indexical Cycles
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Transcript of Indexical Cycles
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Indexical cycles?
Scott F. Kiesling
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Renewed interest in meaning
• From ethnography to correlation and back (“third wave” variationist studies)
• Recent influences from linguistic anthropology and semiotics
• Appreciation of interaction, ethnography, metapragmatics/language ideologies
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Meaning from two directions
Compositional meaning from the micro ‘real-time’ contextualisations and “fractional congruence” of utterances (Agha 2007)
Effects of metapragmatic discourse and ideologies on meaning and use of variants
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Indexical cycle
The repurposing of variationist meanings, as such meanings become more visible in metapragmatic discourse, to the point that they then shift their meanings and become conventionalized for a new low-order indexicality.
For example: Stance →Identity →Stance
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Examples
1.Louisiana
2.‘Dude’
3.Conventionalisation of indirection
4.High rising tone
5.Pittsburgh (aw)
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Example 1: Lousiana
DuBois and Horvath (1999)
(ptk): non-aspiration of voiceless stops
(th), (dh): replacement of /θ/ and /ð/ with dental stops
(nas): heavy nasalisation
(ai): the monophthongisation of /ai/
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Nasalisation by age & gender
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(th),(dh) by age & gender
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Cajun variants are recycled
Previously linked to a stigmatised Cajun identity that has become valuable, at least for men
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‘Dude’ in American English
In mainstream AmE, ‘dude’ has had several cycles:
Referring: clothes
Referring: sharp-dressed (or overly dressed) man (but note incipient gender indexicality)
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‘Dude’ in American English
In-group address term
Generalized address term indexing ‘cool solidarity’ stance and masculinity
Loss of masculine indexicality and use as simply a stance index
Similar to ‘man’
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Conventionalisation of IndirectionArgument elaborated in Kiesling (2010)
‘Indirect’ strategies of different kinds (including the Gricean sort) are used repeatedly and become conventionalized
Stance (politeness) in English: Student identification of “Can you pass...” as direct
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High rising tone (?)
McLemore (1990) See also Guy, Horvath, Vonwiller (1985)
Question →discourse function →gender → discourse function
Iconic aspects (diagrammatic icon)
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Pittsburgh (aw)
Monophthongisation of (aw) in Pittsburgh is highly enregistered (recognisable in metapragmatic discourse)
But only for some, reflecting an orientation to metapragmatic status
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Pittsburgh (aw)
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Pittsburgh (aw)
Predictions for future trajectory:
Complete loss or relic status
Revitalization (as in Cajun): Already visible as ‘hip’ in some cases
Cycling will require a stance – irony?
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Indexical cycles
Each example is different in specifics, but follow a general pattern
‘Sedimentation’ of old meanings, which fade but are related to the new meanings and give them their ‘topography’
Silverstein: spiral path
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Relation to indexical order
Cycling reflects a constant renewing or indexicality and shift: n, n+1, n+1+1→m, m+1, etc.
In orders, indexicality is (relatively) constant, while the metapragmatics shift
In cycles, the value or indexicality shifts
Process that builds the indexical field
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Other names for the term
indexical cycle
indexical cycles
indexical cycling
indexical recycling
indexical sedimentation
indexical effluvia
other suggestions??
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Questions/comments
Many thanks to Barbara Johnstone and Michael Silverstein for important conversations about these topics, and to the members of the Social Meaning in Language (SMiLe) group at Pitt.