'Er's from off:the indexicalization and enregisterment of Black Country dialect

Abstract

This article considers how conscious use of dialect in writing is an intentional act and can be accounted for through the notion of enregisterment. It does this by exploring the value of dialect in social and ideological contexts in relation to a regional dialect of British speech, that of the Black Country in the West Midlands region of England. The article provides a summary of recent directions in sociolinguistic research and an overview of the Black Country speech community, including a summary of its distinctive linguistic variables. This description is then used as an external evaluation of the authenticity of written representations of Black Country speech and the items enregistered in writing. Analysis of three written texts taken from three different genres across a time span of 30 years reveals the extent to which identified linguistic features are drawn upon in each one of the three texts and the extent to which any one is enregisterd across all three. The article discusses the social and linguistic contexts within which the writing occurs by way of accounting for their enregisterment as markers of identity linked to region and place. It also considers the ways in which the texts juxtapose norms and values of those "within" the community with those from "outside" the community in ways that subvert traditional notions of linguistic hierarchy.

Publication DOI: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.5255/UKDA-SN-851267
Divisions: ?? 53981500Jl ??
College of Business and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences & Humanities > Centre for Critical Inquiry into Society and Culture (CCISC)
College of Business and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences & Humanities
College of Business and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences & Humanities > Centre for Language Research at Aston (CLaRA)
Additional Information: © 2013 by American Dialect Society. Published by Duke University Press. Clark, U. (2013). 'Er's from off: the indexicalization and enregisterment of Black Country dialect. American speech, 88(4), 441-466. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00031283-2691433
Uncontrolled Keywords: Linguistics and Language,Communication,Language and Linguistics
Publication ISSN: 1527-2133
Last Modified: 22 Mar 2024 08:12
Date Deposited: 08 Jul 2015 13:45
Full Text Link: http://american ... ontent/88/4/441
Related URLs: http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2013
Authors: Clark, Urszula (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-3337-379X)

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