[lg policy] AAA 2010 volunteered session CFP: Politics of Dialect

[Harold Schiffman]

 Forwarded From:  LINGANTH at listserv.linguistlist.org


AAA 2010 volunteered session CFP: Politics of Dialect
Co-organizers: Michael Wroblewski (UArizona), Thea Strand (UMass Amherst)
Contact: wroblews at email.arizona.edu OR trstrand at anthro.umass.edu

Working panel abstract:

This panel presents ethnographic research on local politics of spoken
dialect variation, construction, use, and change. Although dialect
variation is a key topic in sociolinguistic research, analysts often
downplay the influence of mirco-level political interaction and
ideology formation on language change while favoring macro-level,
structural explanations. By contrast, understanding local politics and
ideologies has become a central pursuit for linguistic
anthropologists, while analysis of the real effects of politics on
linguistic form has so far been noticeably absent (Woolard 2008). As a
result, neither discipline has fully explored dialect variation as a
salient ethnographic phenomenon.

This panel aims to contribute to the rapprochement of linguistic
anthropology and sociolinguistics by examining local ethnographic
discourses of dialect variation and investigating their potential
links to real linguistic change, while contextualizing both within
broader (inter)national politics. Spoken dialect is an essential
marker of local identity that can be used as both a stylistic medium
for constructing positioned voices and as an object of political
project making. Recognized normative and non-normative dialect
features can be selectively and strategically employed by speakers to
signal both allegiance to and rejection of shared ideological
objectives. As a result, dialect has become an important concern in
both academic and folk discourses wherever ethnic, cultural, and
regional identities come into contact. The participants on this panel
contribute studies of the perception and representation of dialect
variation in a variety of socio-cultural milieux. They approach
dialect as both a linguistically observable and socially determined
construct that is always incomplete and always subject to ideological
contestation and power-laden interaction.

If you are interested in participating, please submit an abstract of
250 words or less to either of the panel organizers -- Michael
Wroblewski (wroblews at email.arizona.edu) or Thea Strand
(trstrand at anthro.umass.edu) -- by MARCH 26.



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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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