Introducing Queer Folk Linguistics: A sociocultural approach to language regard
Presenter Title/Affiliation
Oklahoma State University
Start Date
21-5-2021 11:00 AM
Event Name
Panel discussion
Panel Number
3
Panel Chair Name
Sean Nonnenmacher
Zoom URL to Join
https://ciis.zoom.us/j/99646871834
Zoom Meeting ID
996 4687 1834
Abstract
This research begins with a review of folk linguistic/dialectological work conducted with (gay) Oklahomans, and which developed into a critiquing, adjusting, and reinterpretting the goals of studying non-linguists’ regard towards language, particularly among LGBTQ+ populations. While this approach maintains the interests in language production, perception, and (un)conscious (reactions)responses to language, it views identity-in-interaction as central to understanding the positioning of a speaker towards aspects of language and language-adjacent material. Focus on identity necessarily changes the methodological and theoretical ways that we approach language regard research.
Methodologically, one of the most prominent changes is skepticism in collecting, documenting, and reporting static demographic labels without warranting them; this is accompanied by a commitment to the idea that community or interactive roles play a bigger part in stylistic variation than static labels. Moreover, QFL relies on work in sociocultural linguistics, queer linguistics, and raciolinguistics to inform the ways we interpret identity construction in interaction, using discourse surrounding language, life, and culture. These important contributions to the ways we can understand language regard also necessitate some adjustments to Folk Linguistic theory. Some (but not all) of these changes are: 1) a more central role for implicatures and presuppositions in discourse; 2) recognizing perceived acceptability or social sensitivity among the modes of folk linguistic awareness; and 3) recognizing experiential factors that contribute to such modes of folk linguistic awareness.
Ultimately, this reimagining led to an attempted employment of a Queer Folk Linguistic model in the study of communities of queer drag performers in Oklahoma City. This project, then, reviews the gaps which were highlighted in the earlier dialectological work, then demonstrates the reliability gained in the more careful treatment of identity as it pertains to language regard in discourse. It then hypothesizes that, with more carefully collected and interpreted work, we have a better shot at understanding the potential motivations behind aligning/distancing with groups or people in society and their associated ways of speaking. This, in turn, has the potential of illuminating one of the central questions in 3rd wave sociolinguistics: the meaning behind language variation and change.
Presenter Contact
bryce.e.mccleary@okstate.edu
Introducing Queer Folk Linguistics: A sociocultural approach to language regard
This research begins with a review of folk linguistic/dialectological work conducted with (gay) Oklahomans, and which developed into a critiquing, adjusting, and reinterpretting the goals of studying non-linguists’ regard towards language, particularly among LGBTQ+ populations. While this approach maintains the interests in language production, perception, and (un)conscious (reactions)responses to language, it views identity-in-interaction as central to understanding the positioning of a speaker towards aspects of language and language-adjacent material. Focus on identity necessarily changes the methodological and theoretical ways that we approach language regard research.
Methodologically, one of the most prominent changes is skepticism in collecting, documenting, and reporting static demographic labels without warranting them; this is accompanied by a commitment to the idea that community or interactive roles play a bigger part in stylistic variation than static labels. Moreover, QFL relies on work in sociocultural linguistics, queer linguistics, and raciolinguistics to inform the ways we interpret identity construction in interaction, using discourse surrounding language, life, and culture. These important contributions to the ways we can understand language regard also necessitate some adjustments to Folk Linguistic theory. Some (but not all) of these changes are: 1) a more central role for implicatures and presuppositions in discourse; 2) recognizing perceived acceptability or social sensitivity among the modes of folk linguistic awareness; and 3) recognizing experiential factors that contribute to such modes of folk linguistic awareness.
Ultimately, this reimagining led to an attempted employment of a Queer Folk Linguistic model in the study of communities of queer drag performers in Oklahoma City. This project, then, reviews the gaps which were highlighted in the earlier dialectological work, then demonstrates the reliability gained in the more careful treatment of identity as it pertains to language regard in discourse. It then hypothesizes that, with more carefully collected and interpreted work, we have a better shot at understanding the potential motivations behind aligning/distancing with groups or people in society and their associated ways of speaking. This, in turn, has the potential of illuminating one of the central questions in 3rd wave sociolinguistics: the meaning behind language variation and change.
https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/lavlang/2021/friday/11
