indexical cycles

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Indexical cycles? Scott F. Kiesling

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Lecture given June 14, 2010 at the Edinburgh Summer School of Sociolinguistics

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Page 1: Indexical Cycles

Indexical cycles?

Scott F. Kiesling

Page 2: Indexical Cycles

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

Page 3: Indexical Cycles

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

Page 4: Indexical Cycles

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

Page 5: Indexical Cycles

Examples

1.Louisiana

2.‘Dude’

3.Conventionalisation of indirection

4.High rising tone

5.Pittsburgh (aw)

Page 6: Indexical Cycles

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/

Page 7: Indexical Cycles
Page 8: Indexical Cycles

Nasalisation by age & gender

Page 9: Indexical Cycles

(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

Page 11: Indexical Cycles

‘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)

Page 12: Indexical Cycles

‘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’

Page 13: Indexical Cycles

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

Page 14: Indexical Cycles

High rising tone (?)

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

Question →discourse function →gender → discourse function

Iconic aspects (diagrammatic icon)

Page 15: Indexical Cycles

Pittsburgh (aw)

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

But only for some, reflecting an orientation to metapragmatic status

Page 16: Indexical Cycles

Pittsburgh (aw)

Page 17: Indexical Cycles

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?

Page 18: Indexical Cycles

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

Page 19: Indexical Cycles

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.