indexical cycles

Indexical cycles?

Scott F. Kiesling

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

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

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

Examples

1.Louisiana

2.‘Dude’

3.Conventionalisation of indirection

4.High rising tone

5.Pittsburgh (aw)

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/

Nasalisation by age & gender

(th),(dh) by age & gender

Cajun variants are recycled

Previously linked to a stigmatised Cajun identity that has become valuable, at least for men

‘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)

‘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’

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

High rising tone (?)

McLemore (1990) See also Guy, Horvath, Vonwiller (1985)

Question →discourse function →gender → discourse function

Iconic aspects (diagrammatic icon)

Pittsburgh (aw)

Monophthongisation of (aw) in Pittsburgh is highly enregistered (recognisable in metapragmatic discourse)

But only for some, reflecting an orientation to metapragmatic status

Pittsburgh (aw)

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?

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

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

Other names for the term

indexical cycle

indexical cycles

indexical cycling

indexical recycling

indexical sedimentation

indexical effluvia

other suggestions??

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.