Let me introduce myself

[杉森 典子]

Dear all:

My name is Noriko Akimoto Sugimori.. I am pursuing a Ph.D.
in applied linguistics at Boston University. I usually
live in Cambridge, Massachusetts. However, from late June
to July, I am in Toyama, for my 12-year-old child
’s education.

I am very interested in sociolingustics and linguistic
anthropology. Currently I am working on my dissertation
project that examines historical changes in the use of
honorifics for the emperor of Japan in Japanese newspapers
from the late nineteenth century to the present. I am also
working on a paper on shifting language ideologies and
identity in Japanese-American children.

Our group’s current reading (February 1 to 15) is Jann
Scheuer
’s “Habitus as the principle for social practice: A
proposal for critical discourse analysis.
”

Critical discourse analysts are often criticized for
interpreting linguistic data in political contexts,
placing the data in an artificial environment motivated by
political agendas rather than scientific inquiry, and
thereby disregarding findings that would follow from a
data-internal and more empirically grounded analysis. This
article argues that critical discourse analysis may gain
proficiency for social analysis by adopting concepts
suitable for cultural and historical analysis of
socialization, as found in Bourdieu. Application is
demonstrated in a study of a job interview, with close
linguistic analysis; close attention is given to the
applicant by drawing on evaluations after the interview
and on a retrospective interview with the applicant. It is
proposed that a method combining linguistic and
sociohistorical analysis may offer advantages to critical
discourse analysis, including a more systematic approach
to text-external contexts and qualified, balanced
perception of the social agent as a creative yet socially
determined individual.

Key words: Critical discourse analysis,
recontextualization, organizational communication, job
interview, socialization, habitus, masculinity

For a request of this paper, please feel free to contact
me. Thank you.

Noriko
sugimori at bu.edu
n_sugimori at yahoo.co.jp