Introduction

[Jeff Deby]

Another intro amongst the flood of newcomers.

*Keywords:  sociolinguistics, intonation, masculinity, hockey on TV

I'm a PhD candidate in sociolinguistics at Georgetown University, though
I am from, and live in, Vancouver (Canada).  Rather than labeling myself
as an interactional sociolinguist or an ethnomethodologist or what have
you, I would say instead that Bateson, Goffman, Gumperz, Ochs,
Schiffrin, and Tannen are, among others, people whose research I feel is
fundamental in my approach to discourse.

I'm doing by dissertation research on televised ice-hockey commentary.
I'm examining the use of linguistic strategies,  particularly
intonation, to evaluate the game in ways which might not be evident at a
lexical level.  One of my interests is in how a choice of intonational
contour may give the listener clues to preferred interpretations of
competition and violence on the ice, interpretations which tend to be
consistent with traditional physical and working class frameworks of
masculinity.  Intonation as acculturation device, if you consider hockey
to be a culture, which in Canada it certainly is.  However, I'm still at
the transcribing data stage, so anything could happen.

This is a bit of a research shift for me, as I did my Master's on gay
men's coming-out stories.  Although they seem radically different, they
do have threads in common, such as negotiations of masculinity and
identity.

I look forward to discussions on this list, and invite anyone whose
interest is piqued by my intro to look at my web page (URL below) and/or
send me an e-mail.

Jeff
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeff Deby
Georgetown University
Jeff_Deby at bc.sympatico.ca
www.georgetown.edu/users/debyj
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~