Barbara Johnstone

Linking Identity and Dialect through Stancetaking

Barbara Johnstone — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 05:46:33 PST

Dialect Enregisterment in Performance

Barbara Johnstone — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 14:24:38 PST

In recent work I have been exploring how one set of linguistic forms has become enregistered as the dialect known as “Pittsburghese” ( Johnstone 2007a; 2007b; 2009; Johnstone, Andrus, and Danielson 2006). In this paper I analyze dialect enregistration in highly self-conscious performances of Pittsburgh speech and social identity. My data consists of three comedy sketches performed by the cast of WDVE radio’s “’DVE Morning Show.” One, called “Mother”, alternates lines of a somewhat parodically sentimental song about the singer’s mother with spoken-word illustrations by a “mother” character who uses elements of Pittsburgh-sounding speech. The second is an advertisement for a fictional clothing store called Pants N Nat that features several Pittsburgh-sounding characters played by radio personnel, as well as guest performances, as themselves, by two well-known Pittsburghers, both of whom have local accents. The third is a “Commentary” performed by Jim Krenn, the Morning Show’s star performer, playing the fictional WDVE Station Manager Stanley P. Kachowski. I ask two questions about these sketches. First, I ask whether the process of dialect enregisterment works differently in these high performances than it does in other, less self-conscious genres I have explored. What, for example, does the fact that the sketches are meant to be funny do to shape the way links between linguistic form and social meaning are forged? How does “referee design” (Bell 1984; 2001) in media discourse like this shape the enregisterment process? Second, I ask exactly what social identity or identities are being evoked in each sketch.

Making Pittsburghese: Communication technology, expertise, and the discursive construction of a regional dialect

Barbara Johnstone — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 06:47:00 PDT

This paper explores how changing technologies for broadcast communication shape the expertise that comes into play in the discursive construction of a regional dialect in public interaction that includes both institutionally-sanctioned experts like linguists and laypeople with other sources of expertise. Based on an analysis of discourse about Pittsburgh speech, or “Pittsburghese,” in print newspapers, a website, an online discussion board, and a Wikipedia entry, it is argued that both scholars interested in the historical process of language-making and those interested in interaction with the public on the topic of non-standard varieties can benefit from thinking about the role of technology in determining whose voices are heard when.

Enregistering style

Barbara Johnstone — Mon, 31 May 2010 07:48:20 PDT

Dell Hymes and the Ethnography of Communication

Barbara Johnstone et al. — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 07:25:25 PST

In the Profession: Choosing the Right Journal for your Manuscript

Barbara Johnstone — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 08:01:16 PST

New Questions for Chinese Discourse Studies: Language, Space, and Place

Barbara Johnstone — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 07:10:07 PDT

Linguistic Strategies and Cultural Styles for Persuasive Discourse

Barbara Johnstone — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 08:24:58 PDT

Some Personal Reflections on Rhetoric and Interdisciplinary

Barbara Johnstone — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 08:16:01 PDT

Pittsburghese shirts: Commodification and the enregisterment of an urban dialect

Barbara Johnstone — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:46:49 PDT

This article considers a type of material artifact that circulates ideas about regional speech in the United States: T-shirts bearing words and phrases thought to be unique to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I argue that Pittsburghese shirts, seen for themselves and in the context of their production, distribution, and consumption, are part of a process leading to the creation and focusing of the idea that there is a Pittsburgh dialect. To describe how particular locally hearable forms have become linked with the city, I invoke Asif Agha’s concept of “enregisterment.” To understand why this has happened at the time and in the way it has, I draw on Arjun Appadurai’s model of the “commodity situation.” I suggest that Pittsburghese shirts contribute to dialect enregisterment in at least four ways: they put local speech on display, they imbue local speech with value, they standardize local speech, and they link local speech with particular social meanings.

Workplace reasons for saying you're sorry: Discourse Management and Apology in Telephone Interviews

Judith Mattson Bean et al. — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 12:03:04 PST

Arabic lexical couplets and the evolution of synonymy

Barbara Johnstone — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:03:09 PST

Presentation as proof: The language of Arabic rhetoric

Barbara Johnstone — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:00:25 PST

Arguments with Khomeini: Rhetorical situation and persuasive style in cross-cultural perspective

Barbara Johnstone — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 12:57:58 PST

Parataxis in Arabic: Modification as a model for persuasion

Barbara Johnstone — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 12:55:20 PST

'He says ... so I said': Verb tense alternation and narrative depictions of authority in American English

Barbara Johnstone — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 12:53:24 PST

Introduction: Perspectives on repetition

Barbara Johnstone — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 12:45:25 PST

'Orality' and discourse structrure in Modern Standard Arabic

Barbara Johnstone — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:50:03 PST

Variation in discourse: Midwestern narrative style

Barbara Johnstone — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:05:37 PST

Individual style in an American public opinion survey: Personal performance and the ideology of referentiality

Barbara Johnstone — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:01:32 PST