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Towards a sociolinguistics with gesture: Gesture, performance, style and sociolinguistic variation| old_uid | 15614 |
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| title | Towards a sociolinguistics with gesture: Gesture, performance, style and sociolinguistic variation |
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| start_date | 2018/03/21 |
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| schedule | 14h30 |
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| online | no |
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| location_info | bât. Stendhal, grande salle des colloques |
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| details | Séminaires exceptionnels Communication et socialité |
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| summary | Current approaches to linguistic variation focus on the social meanings of spoken variables in the context of local styles. This paper takes a multimodal approach to the study of variation that includes gesture in the construction of style. While variation both reflects and constructs the social/ideological concerns in communities and may be a force for change, the question remains as to how linguistic features become indexical of social meanings and groups? What are the mechanisms of linguistic innovation, meaning making, change and spread. Analysing situated communicative practices of male youth in South African townships, I demonstrate that gesture is a key component of linguistic style. Gesture and bodily behaviour are key tools that young men use to create new semantic and social meanings for spoken features. Linguistic skill, particularly the use of gesture in competitive performances, leads to linguistic innovation. Uptake and spread depends on linguistic skill, persona and status in the social hierarchy of male social networks. These findings show that gesture and embodiment are an essential element in linguistic variation and they also challenge implicit assumptions in third wave sociolinguistics of neutral interactional spaces in which individuals have equitable agency in stylistic production and social differentiation. |
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| responsibles | <not specified> |
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