Folklinguistics and Social Meaning in Australian English

Cara Penry Williams

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781032089485
• eBook ISBN: 9780429671166
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Historical & Comparative Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Folklinguistics and Social Meaning in Australian English presents an original study of Australian English and, via this, insights into Australian society. Utilising folklinguistic accounts, it uncovers everyday understandings of contemporary Australian English through variations across linguistic systems (sounds, words, discourse and grammar). Focusing on one variation at time, it explores young speakers' language use and their evaluations of the same forms. The analysis of talk about talk uncovers ethnic, regional and social Others in social types and prevailing ideologies around Australian English essential for understanding Australian identity-making processes, as well as providing insights and methods relevant beyond this context. These discussions demonstrate that while the linguistic variations may occur in other varieties of English, they are understood through local conceptualisations, and often as uniquely Australian.

This book harnesses the value and richness of discourse in explorations of the sociocultural life of language. The findings show that analysis attending to language ideologies and identities can help discover the micro–macro links needed in understanding social meanings. The volume explores a wide range of language features but also provides a deep contemplation of Australian English.

1
Introduction

1.1 A background for Australian English

When the English language first arrived in Australia, the invaders brought with them diverse regional varieties and histories. For a long time, perhaps until well into the twentieth century for some speakers, English in Australia was used to express Englishness or at least Britishness. The transported varieties did, however, lose their foreignness, converging and changing to create a new variety of English: Australian English.

The first discussions of Australian English being a variety were met with outrage from many Australians (Damousi, 2010; Delbridge, 2001; Schneider, 2007). Differing from “motherland” English varieties was seen as error; in fact, divergence from Received Pronunciation (henceforth RP) was seen as an abomination and perversion. Delbridge (2001) suggests that the first changes in this opinion were due to the work of A. G. Mitchell. Mitchell advocated for Australian English from 1940, although his ideas were frequently met with hostility and the campaign was a lifetime’s work (Damousi, 2010, p. 237; Delbridge, 2001).

Schneider (2007) links changes to much greater historical events. Although some aspects of the formation and recognition of Australian English are unique in their specific historical, social and political details, the general experience parallels those of other countries in similar positions. Schneider has proposed the Dynamic Model, which describes the processes through which postcolonial societies transform English from a borrowed language into their own established varieties: becoming New Englishes. The transplanted English moves through five phases: foundation, exonormative stablisation, nativisation, endonormative stablisation and differentiation. Transition from phase 3, nativisation, to the next is often the result of Event X. This event is an extraordinary happening which calls into question the relationship with the “mother country”. Specifically, it reveals that the esteem held for the “mother country” is not reciprocated. Event X is a catalyst with the linguistic consequence of starting a movement from the English just incorporating local elements, to a phase where new norms are accepted. Schneider proposes that for Australia, Event X was during the Second World War, when under threat of an attack from the Japanese air force in 1942, after the Fall of Singapore, Australian troops fighting overseas were not permitted to return and defend Australia. The Australian government had to ask the United States of America (US) for assistance. The view that this was a defining moment in national history is supported by Blainey in the classic historical work The Tyranny of Distance (1966). Blainey points out that these events marked not only the cessation of the previous type of relationship with the United Kingdom of Britain (UK) but the beginning of a reconceptualisation of Australia, with an awareness of its geographical position. The accompanying desire for greater self-sufficiency and local identity was, according to Schneider, also evidenced in the position of Australian English.

In accord with Schneider (2007), Horvath (1985) states that it was in the 1940s and 1950s that it began to be permissible to sound Australian. However, B. Moore (2008) argues that the UK’s ambition to join the European Economic Community in the early 1960s, suggesting a change in trade and political alliances, was the key event that fundamentally changed the “mother country” relationship and understandings of Australia, with linguistic changes following. Clyne (1997) and Blair (1993) see movement to acceptance of local norms as occurring later again, in the early 1970s. Leitner (2004b) views real acceptance of Australian English as beginning in the 1970s, starting with the accent and flowing on to other linguistic systems. Contrary to all these authors, Eagleson (1982) suggests that complaints about Australian English from the general public were as common in 1982 as they had ever been. Few other authors note continuing disapproval of Australian English. Such unhappiness with local forms of speech and feelings of linguistic insecurity though are commonplace in postcolonial societies.

Another major event, which scholars agree on the significance of, occurred at the height of nationalist pride around the bicentenary (in 1988): the recently elevated status and increased acceptance of the new variety was encapsulated in dictionaries of Australian English. The Macquarie Dictionary was a dictionary that aimed to codify a national standard rather than listing slang and colloquialisms as earlier dictionaries had. First published in 1981, it was emblematic of a new period, and the Australian National Dictionary was published soon after (Delbridge, 2001).

It seems likely, bringing these accounts together, that the rumblings of change regarding acceptance of local norms began in the early 1940s and that such views were mainstream by the 1970s. The celebration of Australian English led to codification in the 1980s, but there remained, and continues to be, diversity in opinion on its legitimacy and merit, especially when compared to (the ideals of) British English (BrE).

From a contemporary perspective, Australian English can be considered as a variety of English spoken by many people in Australia, potentially along with other languages and varieties of English (for a discussion of other varieties of English in Australia, see Leitner, 2004a). It is the English taught in schools, used in the media and frequently heard on the street as well as codified in dictionaries and style guides. Australian English may be used by people from diverse backgrounds, including Indigenous Australians, long-term migrants and more recent migrants who have studied in the Australian education system.¹ My definition does not include the problematic notion “standard” and hence exclude commonly used forms (Lippi-Green, 1997; Milroy & Milroy, 1985/2012). Furthermore, I do not want to equate Australian English with being Australian; someone could speak Australian English and not identify as Australian or indeed identify as Australian but not speak Australian English. The definition of Australian English outlined here is henceforth AusE.

1.2 Understanding Australian English via social meanings of variation

The endeavour described in this book is an empirical exploration of social meanings of variation via the analysis of linguistic practices and folklinguistic evaluation. It is a contemporary sociolinguistic study and contributes to the field by placing “centre stage” data which are often dismissed or only mentioned fleetingly to support analysis rather than being the object of analysis themselves. The study adds to what is known about variation in AusE and sheds light on some of the important language ideologies and local identities in Australian society. The insights have potential implications for studies elsewhere in theoretical and methodological approach but also the language ideologies and identities in English and even other languages. The incorporation of mechanisms for the evaluation of language, mention and voicing, allow new insights into the achievement of folklinguistic accounts. This book therefore contributes to the literature on Australian English and World Englishes but also the study of folklinguistics and sociolinguistics.

As a volume on variation, it engages with research in the variationist tradition, but it departs radically from traditional methodology in numerous ways. Labovian methodology was a reaction to what had gone before it, in particular introspective data and claims that variation was usually free and best ignored. Labov’s work and the tradition that follows it demonstrates that variation is linguistically structured, correlates with social categories and can model language change (Cameron, 1990). It is systematic, principled and quantitative, giving it great strength as rigorous analysis. As with all methodologies, it imposes a set of restrictions on what can be studied and learnt. Most notably the linguistic variable has limitations placed on it which rule out a good deal of variation, perhaps even complete linguistic systems (see Section 2.5.2). Furthermore, the quantitative mass of data often leads to a lack of consideration of social meanings and speakers’ views, which are not easily represented numerically, except in extremely generalised forms. The social context of variation is also deemphasised and only presented in broad terms.

The qualitative turn in many fields has made clear that qualitative data can provide powerful insights. Variationist work has been supplemented with qualitative methods such as ethnography and discourse analysis, greatly enriching the work and better representing speakers and their own understandings of their social world. Recent greater engagement in theory has encouraged looking outside of sociolinguistics to better understand language usage (Bucholtz & Hall, 2008; Coupland, 2001b, 2016). This is evident in research investigating very different topics and engaging with diverse theories and disciplines to illuminate sociolinguistic practices (e.g., Bucholtz, 1999; Coupland, 2001a; Eckert, 2000; Johnstone & Kiesling, 2008; E. Moore & Podesva, 2009; Rampton, 1995; Schilling-Estes, 2004; Snell, 2010; Zhang, 2008). These studies have uncovered new understandings of linguistic practices, enlivening the field and making a space for contemporary sociolinguistic scholarship.

The project presented in this book in fact does not employ the usual quantitative approach so crucial to most studies of variation. This is in the belief that such analysis is insufficient for full understandings of social meaning. By attending to language in context and using discourse analysis to look closely at how people talk about language, as well as use it, new insights can be gained with respect to both variations and their social meanings. The study explores Discourse (with a capital >D>) via discourse: learning about prevailing ideas in a culture by examining the discussion of language within a context. The data sources for the analysis here are also somewhat at odds with traditional sociolinguistic research, in that self-reporting and the speaker’s discussion of language are often viewed as highly unreliable. I argue that, with due attention to the ideological nature of such reports, they are both valid and rich sources of information.

This book might be described as a third wave study, in Eckert’s (2018) terminology, because its primary concerns relate to social meaning, although it differs on other criteria so the alignment is only partial. It could also be described as socio-cultural linguistics in the frameworks it relies on and its interdisciplinary borrowing (Bucholtz & Hall, 2008). Alternatively, it could be seen as part of sociolinguistics in its original, open conceptualisation and its more recent embracing of newer perspectives from social theory: contemporary sociolinguistics. It thus provides a very different account of AusE than found in most existing books on the topic in addition to using novel methods.

1.3 Overview of the book

In the next chapter (Chapter 2), the focus turns to outlining the concept of social meaning and the ideas it encompasses. I present a detailed model of the social meaning of language variation, based on an integrated account that draws particularly on the ideas of indexical orders (Silverstein, 2003), indirect indexicality (Ochs, 1992), the positionality principle (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), the indexical field (Eckert, 2008) and the semiotic processes of language ideologies (Gal & Irvine, 1995;

Irvine & Gal, 2000). This creates a whole of the deeply related parts of language ideologies, indexicality, identity and linguistic variation. In Chapter 3, consideration turns to folklinguistics, a medium through which the social meanings are instantiated at varying levels of explicitness. The study of social meaning and folk-linguistics are brought together in the presentation of the details of research, including an outline of analysis, participants and the Australian city of Melbourne.

In the analysis chapters following Chapters 2 and 3, their ideas and details are applied to Australian English one linguistic system and variable at a time: Chapter 4, phonetic and phonological; Chapter 5, lexical; and Chapter 6 discourse and grammatical variations. Each of these provides valuable detail on variations in English and an account of their occurrence and evaluations in AusE. In Chapter 7, the findings are drawn together acro...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Figures
• Extracts
• Tables
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations
• List of transcription symbols
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Conceptualising social meaning
• 3 Studying social meaning via folklinguistics
• 4 Phonetic and phonological variation
• 5 Lexical variation
• 6 Discourse and grammatical variation
• 7 Social types and language ideologies
• Index