Accomplishing Sociocultural Identity in Talk;

Like, umm… you know, yeah? Isn't it funny how Australians, or maybe just my friends, seem to call their friends insulting names and yet call complete strangers ‘mate’? Even when things get heated between complete strangers at clubs or anywhere, it’s “what the bloody hell is your problem mate?” I think Australians are clearly and proudly identifiable by the way they speak. We seem to have our own vernacular and rules of speech my favourite being ‘yeah nah’ which is just a prefix for a sentence, a form of hedging, rather than a completely ambivalent response to a question. Hedging are the unnecessary conjunctives in a sentence used to continue the flow of speech, for example umm, like or ‘you know’. It’s funny to think that I do this every day and only now have learnt there is an actual term for it.

More to the point (or any point at all) one of the most prominent examples of sociocultural identity in language I think is nicknaming. Donna and Kerry (2011) distinguishes between personal naming, over which the named has little control and their identity is not overly affected over the long term and nicknaming which is a long term name which helps themselves and others in identifying a certain aspect or aspects of an individual. Often nicknames in Australia are just extensions of the first or last name (‘Neavey’ or ‘Neaveo’ for Neave). However, for nicknames focussed on a sociocultural or indeed physical characteristic of an individual there can be significant implications for the identity of that person, in either defining or reshaping their self perception and the way they are perceived. The focussed study of Donna and Kerry (2011) provides a useful insight into this specific area of sociocultural identity in talk and was an interesting and relevant read to me.  

Reference:

Starks, D., Taylor-Leech, K. (2011) A research project on nicknames and adolescent identities. New Zealand Studies in Applied Linguistics, 17(2), 87-97.

xoxo Gossip Mitch