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Chapter 6. Playing against peripheralization

A commentary
  • Kathryn A. Woolard
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The Sociolinguistics of Place and Belonging
This chapter is in the book The Sociolinguistics of Place and Belonging

Abstract

The three chapters in this section make a mutually informing set that is as intellectually rewarding as it is fun to read. They share a center-periphery analytic frame with other contributions in the volume, but they are distinguished as a set by their shared focus on what Sari Pietikäinen (2016) calls carnivalesque critique, quite literally in the Limburgian event that Lotte Thissen examines. In all of these cases, minoritized speakers use humor, parody, and/or ritualized spectacle to disrupt the center-periphery framework and to subvert peripheralization. In turn, the three cases differ from and complement each other by revealing varying techniques that actors in specific marginalized communities use to carry out such disruption. In the following sections of this commentary I will first examine some facets of the center-periphery theoretical framework that seem especially relevant to sociolinguistic work. I will then consider both the shared and the different techniques of humorous contestation that these papers illuminate.

Abstract

The three chapters in this section make a mutually informing set that is as intellectually rewarding as it is fun to read. They share a center-periphery analytic frame with other contributions in the volume, but they are distinguished as a set by their shared focus on what Sari Pietikäinen (2016) calls carnivalesque critique, quite literally in the Limburgian event that Lotte Thissen examines. In all of these cases, minoritized speakers use humor, parody, and/or ritualized spectacle to disrupt the center-periphery framework and to subvert peripheralization. In turn, the three cases differ from and complement each other by revealing varying techniques that actors in specific marginalized communities use to carry out such disruption. In the following sections of this commentary I will first examine some facets of the center-periphery theoretical framework that seem especially relevant to sociolinguistic work. I will then consider both the shared and the different techniques of humorous contestation that these papers illuminate.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  4. Part I. Interpersonal relations, place, and belonging
  5. Chapter 2. The boundaries of belonging 17
  6. Chapter 3. Language socialization and making sense of place 27
  7. Chapter 4. Cité Duits 55
  8. Chapter 5. Us, them and all the others 89
  9. Part II. Parodic performances from the margins
  10. Chapter 6. Playing against peripheralization 115
  11. Chapter 7. The politics of place-making and belonging through language choice within center-periphery dynamics in Limburg, The Netherlands 125
  12. Chapter 8. Peripheral performances 149
  13. Chapter 9. What’s up in town 177
  14. Part III. Agency in linguistic place-making
  15. Chapter 10. Language, place, agency 207
  16. Chapter 11. Place-making and dialect 213
  17. Chapter 12. Alternative place naming in the diverse margins of an ideologically mono-lingual society 239
  18. Chapter 13. Yooperisms in tourism 261
  19. Subject index 287
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.45.06woo

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  4. Part I. Interpersonal relations, place, and belonging
  5. Chapter 2. The boundaries of belonging 17
  6. Chapter 3. Language socialization and making sense of place 27
  7. Chapter 4. Cité Duits 55
  8. Chapter 5. Us, them and all the others 89
  9. Part II. Parodic performances from the margins
  10. Chapter 6. Playing against peripheralization 115
  11. Chapter 7. The politics of place-making and belonging through language choice within center-periphery dynamics in Limburg, The Netherlands 125
  12. Chapter 8. Peripheral performances 149
  13. Chapter 9. What’s up in town 177
  14. Part III. Agency in linguistic place-making
  15. Chapter 10. Language, place, agency 207
  16. Chapter 11. Place-making and dialect 213
  17. Chapter 12. Alternative place naming in the diverse margins of an ideologically mono-lingual society 239
  18. Chapter 13. Yooperisms in tourism 261
  19. Subject index 287
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