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Linguistic Performance (linguistic + performance)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	100%

Selected Abstracts

ALL THIS HAPPENED, MORE OR LESS: WHAT A NOVELIST MADE OF THE BOMBING OF DRESDEN,

HISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 2 2009
ANN RIGNEY
ABSTRACT Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) was a popular and critical success when it first appeared, and has had a notable impact on popular perceptions of "the bombing of Dresden," although it has been criticized by historians because of its inaccuracy. This article analyzes the novel's quirky, comic style and its generic mixture of science fiction and testimony, showing how Vonnegut consistently used ingenuous understatement as a way of imaginatively engaging his readers with the horrors of war. The article argues that the text's aesthetics are closer to those of graphic novels than of realist narratives and that, accordingly, we can understand its cultural impact only by approaching it as a highly artificial linguistic performance with present-day appeal and contemporary relevance, and not merely by measuring the degree to which it gives a full and accurate mimesis of past events. The article uses the case of Vonnegut to advance a more general argument that builds on recent work in cultural memory studies: in order to understand the role that literature plays in shaping our understanding of history, it needs to be analyzed in its own terms and not as a mere derivative of historiography according to a "one model fits all" approach. Furthermore, we need to shift the emphasis from products to processes by considering both artistic and historiographical practices as agents in the ongoing circulation across different cultural domains of stories about the past. Theoretical reflection should account for the fact that historiography and the various arts play distinct roles in this cultural dynamics, and while they compete with one another, they also converge, bounce off one another, influence one another, and continuously beg to be different. [source]

Martha Stewart behaving Badly: Parody and the symbolic meaning of style1

JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, Issue 5 2009
Jennifer Sclafani
This study addresses the issue of how to correlate social meaning with linguistic style through an investigation of the parodic speech genre. The analysis examines two parodies of lifestyle entrepreneur Martha Stewart and compares linguistic strategies used in parodies of Stewart to her own linguistic performance on her talk show. Features considered include phonological characteristics, lexical items, politeness strategies, and voice quality. A comparative quantitative analysis of aspirated and released /t/ as employed by Stewart and her parodist reveals that a variable feature of Stewart's style is rendered categorical in the parody. It is demonstrated that both parodies exploit elements associated with Stewart's ,Good Woman' image in order to expose Stewart as a ,Bad Woman', a reputation she earned for her 2003 insider trading conviction. This study suggests that parodic performance may serve to strengthen and even iconize indexical connections between stylistic variants and their social meaning in particular contexts. [source]

Age of Onset and Nativelikeness in a Second Language: Listener Perception Versus Linguistic Scrutiny

LANGUAGE LEARNING, Issue 2 2009
Niclas Abrahamsson
The incidence of nativelikeness in adult second language acquisition is a controversial issue in SLA research. Although some researchers claim that any learner, regardless of age of acquisition, can attain nativelike levels of second language (L2) proficiency, others hold that attainment of nativelike proficiency is, in principle, impossible. The discussion has traditionally been framed within the paradigm of a critical period for language acquisition and guided by the question of whether SLA is constrained by the maturation of the brain. The work presented in this article can be positioned among those studies that have focused exclusively on the apparent counterexamples to the critical period. We report on a large-scale study of Spanish/Swedish bilinguals (n,=,195) with differing ages of onset of acquisition (<1,47 years), all of whom identify themselves as potentially nativelike in their L2. Listening sessions with native-speaker judges showed that only a small minority of those bilinguals who had started their L2 acquisition after age 12, but a majority of those with an age of onset below this age, were actually perceived as native speakers of Swedish. However, when a subset (n,=,41) of those participants who did pass for native speakers was scrutinized in linguistic detail with a battery of 10 highly complex, cognitively demanding tasks and detailed measurements of linguistic performance, representation, and processing, none of the late learners performed within the native-speaker range; in fact, the results revealed also that only a few of the early learners exhibited actual nativelike competence and behavior on all measures of L2 proficiency that were employed. Our primary interpretation of the results is that nativelike ultimate attainment of a second language is, in principle, never attained by adult learners and, furthermore, is much less common among child learners than has previously been assumed. [source]

A Discursive Approach to Skillful Activity

COMMUNICATION THEORY, Issue 4 2008
J. Kevin Barge
We propose a discursive approach for exploring how practitioners intelligently respond and create a sense of coherence in their linguistic practice. A discursive approach to skillful activity is able to account for the role of meaning making in conversation, address how communication constructs the context in which skillful activity originates, and recognize the co-created flavor of skillful practice. We offer an account of skillful linguistic performance that turns on practitioners acting with sensibility by paying close attention to the reflexive relationships among: (a) moral,aesthetic commitments; (b) conversational abilities in the form of utterances, methods, and techniques; (c) practical reasoning and the process of invention; and (d) context. We conclude by exploring the implications of a discursive approach for meaning making, identity construction, and managing the tensions emerging from different traditions or communities of practice. Résumé Une approche discursive pour l'étude d'une activité habile Nous proposons une approche discursive pour l'exploration de la manière dont les praticiens réagissent intelligemment et créent un sens de cohérence dans leurs pratiques linguistiques. Une approche discursive pour l'étude de l'activité habile est en mesure de tenir compte du rôle de la construction de sens dans la conversation, d'aborder la façon dont la communication construit le contexte dont origine l'activité habile ainsi que de reconnaître la nature coconstruite de la pratique habile. Nous expliquons l'exercice linguistique habile des praticiens agissant avec sensibilité en portant une attention particulière aux relations réflexives entre : a) les engagements moraux-esthétiques, b) les capacités conversationnelles sous forme d'énoncés, de méthodes et de techniques, c) le raisonnement pratique et le processus d'invention et d) le contexte. Nous concluons en explorant les implications d'une approche discursive pour la construction de sens et d'identité ainsi que pour la gestion des tensions qui émergent de différentes traditions ou communautés de pratiques. Abstract Ein diskursiver Ansatz kundigen Handelns Für die Erforschung, wie Praktiker intelligent reagieren und einen Sinn von Kohärenz in der linguistischen Praxis kreieren, schlagen wir einen diskursiven Ansatz vor. Ein diskursiver Ansatz kundigen Handelns macht es möglich, die Rolle von Bedeutungsfindung in Gesprächen zu erklären, außerdem anzusprechen, wie Kommunikation den Kontext bestimmt aus dem kundiges Handeln hervorgeht und gleichzeitig die fachkundige Praxis berücksichtigt. Wir bieten eine Darstellung von kundigem linguistischen Verhalten, welches sensibel agierende Praktiker betrifft, wenn sie ihre Aufmerksamkeit auf die reflexiven Beziehungen lenken zwischen: (a) moral-ästhetische Verpflichtungen; (b) dialogorientierte Fähigkeiten in Form von Äußerungen, Methoden und Techniken; (c) praktische Argumentation und den Prozess der Erfindung; und (d) Kontext. Wir schließen, indem wir die Implikationen eines diskursiven Ansatzes für die Bedeutungskonstruktion, Identitätskonstruktion und dem Umgang mit Spannungen, die aus verschiedenen Traditionen oder Praxisgemeinschaften entstehen, untersuchen. Resumen Un Enfoque Discursivo de la Actividad Habilidosa Proponemos un enfoque discursivo para explorar cómo los profesionales responden inteligentemente y crean un sentido de coherencia en su práctica lingüística. Una aproximación discursiva de la actividad habilidosa es capaz de explicar el rol de la construcción de sentido en la conversación, de explicar cómo la comunicación construye el contexto donde la actividad habilidosa se origina, y reconoce el sabor co-creado de la práctica habilidosa. Ofrecemos una explicación del desempeño lingüístico habilidoso que genera interés por parte de los profesionales para actuar con sensibilidad prestando atención a las relaciones reflexivas entre: (a) los compromisos morales-estéticos; (b) las habilidades conversacionales en la forma de palabras, métodos, y técnicas; (c) el razonamiento práctico y el proceso de invención; y (d) el contexto. Concluimos con una exploración de las implicaciones del enfoque discursivo sobre la construcción de sentido, la construcción de la identidad, y el manejo de las tensiones que emergen de tradiciones diferentes ó de comunidades de práctica. ZhaiYao Yo yak [source]

Girls and guys, ghetto and bougie: Metapragmatics, ideology and the management of social identities1

JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, Issue 5 2006
David West Brown
This case study explores the metapragmatic awareness of a young, academically successful, African American, female speaker. It describes some of the identities and orientations that the speaker performs through language and the perceived role of linguistic style in such performances. This study suggests that these linguistic performances are a complex negotiation of ethnicity, gender and class that both draw from and resist the macrosocial indexing of social categories. Further, the understood role of language in the social negotiations of the speaker serves as an illustration of the relationship among metapragmatics, ideology and identity and also highlights the dynamism of identity management as individuals position themselves in allegiance with, or opposition to, various groups that populate their social landscape. [source]