Interaction and Identity

Question 1

Index (basic definition)

Answer 1

a linguistic form that depends on the interactional context for its meaning, such as the first-person pronoun I

Question 2

Index (general definition)

Answer 2

the concept of indexicality involves the creation of semiotic links between linguistic forms and social meanings

Question 3

The positionality principle

Answer 3

Identities encompass (a) macro-level demographic categories; (b) local, ethnographically specific cultural positions; and (c) temporary and interactionally specific stances and participant roles.

Question 4

The emergence principle

Answer 4

Identity is best viewed as the emergent product rather than the pre-existing source of linguistic and other semiotic practices and therefore as fundamentally a social and cultural phenomenon.

Question 5

Narrative inquiry

Answer 5

It records the experiences of an individual or small group, revealing the lived experience or particular perspective of that individual, usually primarily through interview which is then recorded and ordered into a chronological ___.

Question 6

sociocultural linguistics

Answer 6

An interdisciplinary field that is concerned with the interplay of language, culture, and society.

Question 7

The interactional level of identity…

Answer 7

…is what bestows identity with social meaning

Question 8

Identity is emergent through interaction

Answer 8

it is fluid rather than fixed, and constructed in social interaction, linguistic and semiotic practices forms it, not the other way around

Question 9

Identity is positional

Answer 9

it is formed according to the temporary positions of the given interaction (e.g. evaluator, engaged listener) simultaneously with macro and micro levels of identity

Question 10

Identity is indexical

Answer 10

it is signaled by language (linguistic strategies) indexing membership of a social group

Question 11

Identity is relational

Answer 11

it is relational and emerge through interaction with other individuals

Question 12

Identity is partial

Answer 12

it is partial and incomplete, always informed by the specific contexts of the social interaction through which they are constructed

Question 13

The traditional, narrow approach to identity #1

Answer 13

Identity is stationary within the mind of an individual → the only observable relationship between language and identity is language reflecting the mental state of the individual

this view fails to consider the social ground in which identity is constructed and maintained.

Question 14

Widely circulated approach to identity #2

Answer 14

Identity is simply a collection of broad social categories.

Question 15

Macro identity categories (qualitative social sciences)

Answer 15

age, gender, and social class

Question 16

Micro identity (linguistic ethnography)

Answer 16

Formed momentarily in a social interaction

Question 17

Indexicality

Answer 17

the mechanism whereby identity is constituted, fundamental to how linguistic forms are used to construct identity positions

Question 18

Adequation

Answer 18

relies on the suppression of social differences that might disrupt a seamless representation of similarity

Question 19

Stance

Answer 19

both a subjective and an intersubjective phenomenon; social action in the following terms: ‘I evaluate something, and thereby position myself, and align with you
can accumulate into more durable structures of identity, or large identity categories

Question 20

Distinction

Answer 20

focuses on the identity relation of differentiation, on the suppression of similarities that might undermine the construction of difference.

Question 21

The indexicality princple

Answer 21

Identity relations emerge in interaction through several related indexical processes, including:

1) overt mention of identity categories and labels;

2) implicatures and presuppositions regarding one’s own or others’ identity position;

3) displayed evaluative and epistemic orientations to ongoing talk, as well as interactional footings and participant roles; and

4) the use of linguistic structures and systems that are ideologically associated with specific personas and groups.

–> Always multiple levels apparent at the same time

Question 22

The importance of the relationality principle

Answer 22

Identities are never autonomous or independent but always gain social meaning in relation to other available identity positions and other social actors

questions the popular yet oversimplified view: identity relations as revolving around a single axis: sameness and difference – the range of relations are much wider than that

Question 23

The relationality principle

Answer 23

Identities are interactively constructed through several, often overlapping, complementary relations, including similarity/difference, genuineness/artifice, and authority/delegitimacy.

Question 24

Authentication – Denaturalization

Answer 24

the processes by which speakers make claims to realness and artifice, respectively.
– associated with authenticity

Question 25

Authentication

Answer 25

Focuses on how identities are discursively verified

a social process that is similar to the act of authenticating a piece of art (traditionalisation

Question 26

Denaturalization

Answer 26

Focuses on how assumptions of the seamlessness of identity can be disrupted

Question 27

Authorization - Illegitimation

Answer 27

Consider the structural and institutional aspects of identity formation

Question 28

Authorization

Answer 28

Involves the affirmation or imposition of an identity through structures of institutionalized power and ideology, local or translocal

Question 29

Illegitimation

Answer 29

Addresses the ways identities are dismissed, censored, or ignored by structures of authority/legitimacy

Question 30

The importance of the partialness principle

Answer 30

There are a multitude of ways in which identites exceed the individual.

Identity is relational –> it will always be partial, produced through contextually situated and ideologically informed configurations of self and other

always reliant on the interactional and ideological constraints for their articulation

Question 31

Postmodern theorizing of identity

Answer 31

Fractured and discountinous, constituted by context and are themselves asserted as partial accounts’

Question 32

The partialness principle

Answer 32

Any given construct of identity may be partly intentional, partly habitual, thus often less than fully conscious, partly an outcome of interactional negotiation and contestation, partly the outcome of the perception of other, and partly the effect of large ideological processes and material structures.

Therefore, it is constantly shifting as interactions unfold, and also across discourse contexts

Question 33

Agency

Answer 33

Understood as a dynamic and context-dependent process – as individuals are not passive recipients of the social categories attributed to them

Instead: they possess the ability to actively negotiate, resist and reframe these identities through interaction with others

may be the result of individual action, but it may also be distributed among several social actors and hence intersubjective.