13. Anti-language: Linguistic innovation, identity construction, and group affiliation among emerging speech communities
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Natalie Lefkowitz
Abstract
The invention and use of anti-language can enable language users to resist norms, provoke mainstream disapproval, strengthen in-group solidarity, cultivate covert prestige and peer approval, and exclude (“other”) non-initiated individuals. This chapter examines anti-language use in language contact, social media, and L2 development settings where perceived nonstandard patterns implicitly or explicitly compete with standard norms. To explore patterns of linguistic defiance, we analyze qualitative and quantitative data from our prior research on: (1) the French language game Verlan; (2) novel registers evolving among francophone social media users; (3) deliberate underperformance behaviors among classroom L2 learners; and (4) Spanish heritage-language learners’ appropriation of high- and low-prestige varieties. Analyses reveal conflicts between users’ recognition of “standard” linguistic norms and practices that contravene normative standards by crossing code boundaries and merging registerial features. Binary contrasts between high-prestige and vernacular styles, public and private communication, and orality and literacy reinforce paradoxical tensions, which we examine and compare. A synthesis and reframing of these divergent research strands suggests novel directions for systematic exploration of anti-language in relation to linguistic innovation, identity construction, and insider status among emerging speech communities.
Abstract
The invention and use of anti-language can enable language users to resist norms, provoke mainstream disapproval, strengthen in-group solidarity, cultivate covert prestige and peer approval, and exclude (“other”) non-initiated individuals. This chapter examines anti-language use in language contact, social media, and L2 development settings where perceived nonstandard patterns implicitly or explicitly compete with standard norms. To explore patterns of linguistic defiance, we analyze qualitative and quantitative data from our prior research on: (1) the French language game Verlan; (2) novel registers evolving among francophone social media users; (3) deliberate underperformance behaviors among classroom L2 learners; and (4) Spanish heritage-language learners’ appropriation of high- and low-prestige varieties. Analyses reveal conflicts between users’ recognition of “standard” linguistic norms and practices that contravene normative standards by crossing code boundaries and merging registerial features. Binary contrasts between high-prestige and vernacular styles, public and private communication, and orality and literacy reinforce paradoxical tensions, which we examine and compare. A synthesis and reframing of these divergent research strands suggests novel directions for systematic exploration of anti-language in relation to linguistic innovation, identity construction, and insider status among emerging speech communities.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Contents v
- Introduction 1
- 1. Language play in conversation 11
- 2. Playing with turns, playing with action? A social-interactionist perspective 47
- 3. The shape of tweets to come: Automating language play in social networks 73
- 4. “This system’s so slow”: Negotiating sequences of laughter and laughables in call-center interaction 93
- 5. Laughter as a “serious business”: Clients’ laughter in prenatal screening for Down’s syndrome 119
- 6. Jocular language play, social action and (dis)affiliation in conversational interaction 143
- 7. “Everything he says to me it’s like he stabs me in the face”: Frontstage and backstage reactions to teasing 169
- 8. Cities, conviviality and double-edged language play 199
- 9. Building rapport and a sense of communal identity through play in a second language classroom 219
- 10. The first English (EFL) lesson: Initial settings or the emergence of a playful classroom culture 245
- 11. The emergence of creativity in L2 English: A usage-based case-study 281
- 12. Teaching language learners how to understand sarcasm in L2 English 317
- 13. Anti-language: Linguistic innovation, identity construction, and group affiliation among emerging speech communities 347
- 14. Celebrations of a satirical song: Ideologies of anti-racism in the media 377
- Index 403
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Contents v
- Introduction 1
- 1. Language play in conversation 11
- 2. Playing with turns, playing with action? A social-interactionist perspective 47
- 3. The shape of tweets to come: Automating language play in social networks 73
- 4. “This system’s so slow”: Negotiating sequences of laughter and laughables in call-center interaction 93
- 5. Laughter as a “serious business”: Clients’ laughter in prenatal screening for Down’s syndrome 119
- 6. Jocular language play, social action and (dis)affiliation in conversational interaction 143
- 7. “Everything he says to me it’s like he stabs me in the face”: Frontstage and backstage reactions to teasing 169
- 8. Cities, conviviality and double-edged language play 199
- 9. Building rapport and a sense of communal identity through play in a second language classroom 219
- 10. The first English (EFL) lesson: Initial settings or the emergence of a playful classroom culture 245
- 11. The emergence of creativity in L2 English: A usage-based case-study 281
- 12. Teaching language learners how to understand sarcasm in L2 English 317
- 13. Anti-language: Linguistic innovation, identity construction, and group affiliation among emerging speech communities 347
- 14. Celebrations of a satirical song: Ideologies of anti-racism in the media 377
- Index 403
