Language styling and switching in speech and online contexts: identity and language ideologies in Taiwan

Abstract

This dissertation presents a study of the mutually constitutive relationships between linguistic and discursive practices, identity construction, and language ideologies in the context of contemporary Taiwan. It investigates the ways in which dialect styling and language switching occur in both face-to-face and online environments among college students from different regions of Taiwan, as well as the ways in which students’ linguistic practices are linked with their identities, language attitudes, and the broader sociopolitical context of contemporary Taiwan. Some relevant forms of dialect styling, or the construction of a social image or persona through the use of dialect features (Coupland, 2001), include monothongization of vowels, the variable realizations of retroflex consonants, [ts], [tsh], [s], and [z], and the replacement of syllable initial labiodental consonant [f] with [hw]. Both language switching between Mandarin and Taiwanese and dialect styling are common in Taiwanese society. These practices are sometimes considered part of a speaker’s natural repertoire and sometimes a conscious (or semi-conscious) performance of various personas. Analyzing phonological variation, code-switching, prominent sociolinguistic stereotypes, and language attitudes revealed by the participants in a variety of contexts, this study explores how Taiwanese college students make use of linguistic and cultural resources available to construct multiple identities with respect to social categories such as region, gender, BBS/Internet users, college students, members of particular student groups, and contemporary Taiwanese. This dissertation also examines how various indexical meanings associated with common linguistic varieties in Taiwan are formed, how language ideologies participate in the construction of identity and the formation of social groups, and how language ideologies (as well as ideologies of region, gender, and class) are constantly reinforced and reconfigured through linguistic and social practices in daily interactional and performative contexts.

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