Chris Odato has received a Graduate Student Research Award from the Institute for Research on Women and Gender for work on his dissertation.

Congratulations, Chris!

Chris Odato and Deborah Keller-Cohen have had their paper, Evaluating the speech of older adults: Age, gender, and speech situation, accepted for publication at the Journal of Language and Social Psychology.

The paper is based on Chris’ Qualifying Research Paper.

Lauren Squires’ Qualifying Research Paper, “Language ideology and the enregisterment of ‘Netspeak’ has been approved by her readers and she now advances to doctoral candidacy.

Congratulations Lauren!

Abstract

This paper investigates the enregisterment (Agha 2003, 2005, 2007) of “Netspeak,” characterized as a unique variety of language used on the internet. Two types of metadiscursive data about language and the internet are presented: print media discourse and online comment threads. These discourses represent “Netspeak” as an identifiable set of linguistic and orthographic forms such as abbreviations, phonetically-based spellings, and a general lack of standard English writing practices. Yet instant messaging conversations, a third type of data, show that few of these features are consistently found in online discourse. Consequently, the paper highlights differences between “Netspeak” and other cases of enregisterment (e.g., Agha 2003; Johnstone et al. 2006), namely that the enregisterment of “Netspeak” features does not presuppose their sociodemographic distribution. Rather, “Netspeak” is enregistered centrally through its ideologically-grounded construal as a variety in contradistinction to “Standard English.” I introduce “Netspeak” as a conceptual artifact of a language variety, arguing that such artifacts can play key roles in processes of enregisterment, carrying primacy over what have typically been considered first-order indexical properties such as sociodemographic distributions or pragmatic functions (cf. Silverstein 2003).

Vera Irwin successfully defended her dissertation, “More than just ethnic. Negotiation of ethnicity through language among Russian German Re-settlers and Jewish Refugees from the former Soviet Union in Germany,” on Dec. 17.

Committee
Deborah Keller-Cohen, Robert Kyes, Robin Queen (chair), Sarah Thomason

Abstract
This dissertation examines processes of ethnic identity negotiation between two Russian-speaking migrant communities that share their linguistic background but differ in their understanding of their ethnicity. By analyzing reports of language use and language attitudes this ethnographically-based research investigates how ethnic identity can be negotiated even without speakers’ reliance on a designated “ethnic” language.

The analysis is based on sociolinguistic interviews with 38 Russian-German re-settlers (Spätaussiedler, SA) and 40 Jewish contingent refugees from the former Soviet Union (Kontingentflüchtlinge, KF), supplemented by a quantitative survey. The study demonstrates that in the absence of a distinct in-group code, the negotiation of ethnic positioning in a migrant environment is achieved by routinely utilizing contrasting ideologies about the linguistic resources shared by both communities.

This dissertation adds to an existing body of research on ethnic identity in migration (Bailey 2000; Giampapa 2001; Lo 1999; Zentella 1997) by uncovering rich dynamics of such negotiations not only with respect to the local majority, but even more so between migrant groups. The SA community is shown to negotiate its positioning towards the host majority, which becomes especially noteworthy due to this group’s historically German ethnic background. Simultaneously, as a minority within a minority, the KF community strives to situate itself not only in relation to the host community, but more so in relation to the “other” Russian-speaking migrant group. In doing so, KF migrants demonstrate an understanding of ethnicity that is tied to characteristics, which are not traditionally seen as ethnic (such as social and educational status), but obtain ethnic meaning in this community. In the process of identity negotiation, such understanding of ethnicity is applied by the KF minority to interpretation of observed and assumed linguistic behaviors and language attitudes of the SA group, particularly with respect to issues of language shift, language maintenance and code-mixing practices.

By uncovering ideologies that link beliefs about language to locally salient ethnic categorization, this dissertation demonstrates how ethnic distinctiveness is established through the use of subtle and arbitrary mechanisms, which are not universally tied to ethnicity, but acquire their “ethnic” meaning in local negotiations of social positioning.

Robin Queen and Chris Odato attended the 37th annual meeting of New Ways of Analyzing Variation sponsored by Rice University in Houston, TX, Nov. 6-9.

Chris Odato and Deborah Keller-Cohen presented Relevance in the eye of the beholder: How, and when, does age matter in evaluating speech?

Robin Queen presented What voicing non-human animals reveals about the connection between linguistic variation and social meaning.

Carmel O’Shannessy gave a lecture in the MSU Colloquium Series on Oct. 23, entitled, ” Coding a register:
how a language register has led to the formation of a new code.”

Abstract
There has long been debate over whether code-switching between languages could lead to the formation of a new mixed language. Recent data shows that code-switching practices between Warlpiri and English have led to a new mixed code, Light Warlpiri, in a remote community in northern Australia. More specifically, it appears that the specific code-switching patterns which occur most often in a register for addressing young children are the patterns that were taken up to form the new code.
Light Warlpiri is spoken by children and young adults in the multilingual community of Lajamanu and has developed within the last 30 years. Most verbs and the verbal morphology are from Aboriginal English or Kriol (AE/Kriol), while most nominal morphology is from Lajamanu Warlpiri (the variety of Warlpiri spoken in Lajamanu community). Nouns are drawn from both types of source language. An innovative auxiliary system has developed which draws on, but is not the same as, the systems in the source languages.
The paper will outline how the two systems are combined systematically in the new language, and how code-switching patterns, specifically those used when addressing children, are the patterns that have become entrenched as the new way of speaking.

Carmel O’Shannessy returned from a productive field trip to Lajamanu Community, Northern Territory, Australia. There, she recorded and transcribed traditional Warlpiri songs, as part of a project jointly funded by the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Documentation Project, and Janganpa Association, a Warlpiri association. In addition, she collected data on Light Warlpiri, a new mixed language spoken in the community; on code-switching practices which led to the new mixed language and on noun phrases in Kriol, an English-lexified creole spoken in northern Australia.

Deborah Keller-Cohen and Chris Odato presented the paper, “Talk too Much?:  Age and Speech Situation in Evaluating Others’ Seech:  Off-target Verbosity Revisited,” at the International Congress on Language and Social Psycoology on July 18, 2008

Robin Queen, along with Andrei Markovits, gave an invited lecture on their work concerning the involvement of women in canine rescue organizations.  The lecture was presented to the Fellows of the Human-Animal Interaction Symposium.

Robin Queen gave a keynote address at the Indiana University Sociolinguistics Fest Workshop, entitled Language variation and social essentialism.  She explored the place of social and cognitive essentialism for understanding and explaining language variation, using data from a variety of sources, including the television sitcom, Ellen, and weblogs maintained in the voice of a family dog.