Book contents
- Social Meaning and Linguistic Variation
- Social Meaning and Linguistic Variation
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- 1 Social Meaning and Linguistic Variation: Theoretical Foundations
- Part I Where Is (Social) Meaning?
- Part II The Structure of Social Meaning
- 7 Sociolinguistic Signs as Cognitive Representations
- 8 Perceptions of Style: A Focus on Fundamental Frequency and Perceived Social Characteristics
- 9 Features, Meanings, and Indexical Fields
- 10 Reconciling Seemingly Conflicting Social Meanings
- 11 Biographical Indexicality: Personal History as a Frame of Reference for Social Meaning in Variation
- Part III Meaning and Linguistic Change
- Index
- References
11 - Biographical Indexicality: Personal History as a Frame of Reference for Social Meaning in Variation
from Part II - The Structure of Social Meaning
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 July 2021
Book contents
- Social Meaning and Linguistic Variation
- Social Meaning and Linguistic Variation
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- 1 Social Meaning and Linguistic Variation: Theoretical Foundations
- Part I Where Is (Social) Meaning?
- Part II The Structure of Social Meaning
- 7 Sociolinguistic Signs as Cognitive Representations
- 8 Perceptions of Style: A Focus on Fundamental Frequency and Perceived Social Characteristics
- 9 Features, Meanings, and Indexical Fields
- 10 Reconciling Seemingly Conflicting Social Meanings
- 11 Biographical Indexicality: Personal History as a Frame of Reference for Social Meaning in Variation
- Part III Meaning and Linguistic Change
- Index
- References
Summary
Social meaning has been shown to be richly produced within and among social groups (Eckert 2008a). In this study, I describe a different context in which social meaning routinely arises: personal biography. A person’s history of style acquisition and their dominant styles can become a frame of reference for inferred social meanings, referred to here as biographical indexicality. I examine two different scales – micro (individual lifespan) and macro (migration) – for evidence of how sequential biographical history factors into indexical meaning. In both cases, the indexical work achieved by certain linguistic forms derives primarily from inferences based on a person’s past history or default style rather than socially shared valuations of forms. In closing, I discuss three kinds of indexicality that run counter to the predictions of group-oriented models yet are well-attested. These can be explained if we allow meaning to additionally emerge out of an individual’s personal history. Biographical indexicality thus adds to the set of processes that generate social meaning; it also de-essentialises the link between ethnolectal features and their potential social meanings (Eckert 2008b).
- Type
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- Social Meaning and Linguistic VariationTheorizing the Third Wave, pp. 243 - 264Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
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