Language and Belonging
Local Categories and Practices in a Guatemalan Highland Community
Series:
Rita Vallentin
In this book, the author introduces belonging from a sociolinguistic perspective as a concept that is accomplished in interaction. Belonging can be expressed linguistically in social, spatial and temporal categories – indexing rootedness, groupness and cohesion. It can also be captured through shared linguistic practices within a group, e.g. collectively shared narrative practices. Using conversation analysis and an analysis of narrative as practice bolstered with ethnographic knowledge, the author shows how belonging is tied to locally contextualized use of deictics and to collectively shared narrations of the past in a Guatemalan community. The book examines the understudied phenomenon of belonging at the intersection of pragmatics and linguistic anthropology.
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- Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warszawa, Wien, 2019. XXIV, 296 pp., 2 fig. col., 10 fig. b/w, 6 tables
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the author(s)/editor(s)
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- Transcription Convention
- Abstract
- Zusammenfassung
- Resumo
- 1. Introduction
- 1.1. Belonging and Language Use in Current Research
- 1.2. Empirical Foundations: The Comunidad Nueva Alianza and its Story.
- 1.3. Outline of the Book
- 2. Belonging and Identification
- 2.1. Making Sense of Ourselves and Others
- 2.2. Processes of Identification
- 2.3. Personal and Social Identification
- 2.4. Social Identification and Groups
- 2.5. From Social Positioning to Belonging
- 2.6. Concepts of Belonging
- 2.6.1. Spatial Belonging
- 2.6.2. Social Belonging
- 2.6.2.1 Intersected Belonging: Social Location and Social Positionality
- 2.6.2.2 Regimes of Social Belonging
- 2.6.3. Temporal Belonging
- 2.7. Conclusion: Conceptualization of Belonging
- 3. Doing Belonging
- 3.1. Language and Belonging
- 3.2. The Practice Approach in Contemporary Linguistics and Social Sciences
- 3.3. Doing Belonging
- 3.4. Communities of Practice
- 3.5. Interim Conclusion
- 4. Tracing Belonging in Spoken Data
- 4.1. Membership Categorization and Conversation Analysis
- 4.2. Positioning
- 4.3. Narrative as Practice
- 4.3.1. Narrative and Belonging
- 4.3.2. Positioning in Narrative
- 4.4. Interim Conclusion – What to Do with the Data?
- 5. Data Collection and Processing
- 5.1. The Field
- 5.1.1. Population
- 5.1.2. Location and Structure
- 5.1.3. Organization and Projects
- 5.2. Accessing the Field
- 5.3. The Researcher as an Outsider Participant
- 5.4. The Corpus
- 5.4.1. Narrative Accounts from Semi-structured Interviews
- 5.4.2. Narratives for Visitors
- 5.4.3. Interactions with Outsiders
- 5.4.4. Community Interactions
- 5.4.5. Fieldnotes
- 5.5. Data Transcription and Selection
- 6. Belonging as a Local and Interactional Problem
- 6.1. The Setting
- 6.2. Problematizing the Term Étnico
- 6.3. Adding Language as a Relevant Category
- 6.4. Processing the Étnico Question
- 6.5. Processing the Language Question
- 6.6. Clashing Category Systems
- 6.7. Interactional Positions
- 6.8. Interim Conclusion: Belonging as a Local and Interactional Problem
- 7. Narrating as a Local Practice of Belonging
- 7.1. The Narrative Corpus
- 7.2. Types of Narrations and Types of Narrators
- 7.3. Stories by Practiced Narrators
- 7.3.1. Positioning as Narrative Experts
- 7.3.1.1 Navigating Interactional Context and Story Structure
- 7.3.1.2 Displaying Expert Knowledge: Chronology and Detail
- 7.3.2. Positioning Own and Other Voices
- 7.3.2.1 Speaking on Behalf of the Community
- 7.3.2.2 Different Voices
- 7.3.3. Interim Conclusion: Stories by Practiced Narrators
- 7.4. Spontaneous Narratives
- 7.4.1. Positioning the Narrated Self
- 7.4.2. Interim Conclusion: Spontaneous Narratives
- 7.5. Re-Narrated Stories
- 7.5.1. ‘It says’ – The Story as Community Knowledge
- 7.5.2. ‘There is’ – Generalization in Re-Narration
- 7.5.3. ‘We were workers’ – We-voices in Re-Narrations
- 7.5.4. Interim Conclusion: Re-Narrated Stories
- 7.6. One Story – Thirty Versions – Shared Core Elements
- 7.7. Interim Conclusion: Narrating as a Local Practice of Belonging
- 8. Excursus
- 8.1. Excursus I: Grounding Belonging in the Local Adverb aquí
- 8.2. Excursus II: Regimes of Belonging
- 9. Summary and Discussion
- 10. Conclusion and Prospects
- Bibliography
- Appendix
- A. Speaker Table
- B. Interview Questionnaire
- Series index
8. Excursus
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Extract
Before weaving the results of the analytical parts together in chapter 9, I want to complement the qualitative perspective on the data with two other approaches that further illuminate categories and practices of belonging and their relation to specific language use. In excursus I (8.1), a corpus-based and quantitatively informed analysis exploring occurrences of aquí and acá will elucidate their meaning not only in terms of local reference, but also in terms of an indicator for belonging. Excursus II (8.2) amplifies the discussion on categories and practices of belonging by further investigating the regimes, i.e. the collective norms and values that are manifest in specific practices in the community. By reference to one example of exclusion from the community, boundaries of belonging become observable.
8.1. Excursus I: Grounding Belonging in the Local Adverb aquí
Chapter 6 has shown that ‘being born’ in or ‘being from’ a place is the main category of belonging the community women use in the workshop interaction. The place is either referenced via geographic-administrative specifications like ‘Palmar’, ‘Palmar Quetzaltenango/Xela’ or the local adverb aquí. In the interviews, and especially in the narrative parts at the beginning of the interviews, this local deictic appears surprisingly frequently, often almost condensed and repeated in specific sequences. One example of this condensed use of aquí in the narrative at the beginning of the interview can be found in Maria’s story, analyzed in section 7.4.1. Beyond the occurrences of aquí in the narratives that I...
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Or login to access all content.- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the author(s)/editor(s)
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- Transcription Convention
- Abstract
- Zusammenfassung
- Resumo
- 1. Introduction
- 1.1. Belonging and Language Use in Current Research
- 1.2. Empirical Foundations: The Comunidad Nueva Alianza and its Story.
- 1.3. Outline of the Book
- 2. Belonging and Identification
- 2.1. Making Sense of Ourselves and Others
- 2.2. Processes of Identification
- 2.3. Personal and Social Identification
- 2.4. Social Identification and Groups
- 2.5. From Social Positioning to Belonging
- 2.6. Concepts of Belonging
- 2.6.1. Spatial Belonging
- 2.6.2. Social Belonging
- 2.6.2.1 Intersected Belonging: Social Location and Social Positionality
- 2.6.2.2 Regimes of Social Belonging
- 2.6.3. Temporal Belonging
- 2.7. Conclusion: Conceptualization of Belonging
- 3. Doing Belonging
- 3.1. Language and Belonging
- 3.2. The Practice Approach in Contemporary Linguistics and Social Sciences
- 3.3. Doing Belonging
- 3.4. Communities of Practice
- 3.5. Interim Conclusion
- 4. Tracing Belonging in Spoken Data
- 4.1. Membership Categorization and Conversation Analysis
- 4.2. Positioning
- 4.3. Narrative as Practice
- 4.3.1. Narrative and Belonging
- 4.3.2. Positioning in Narrative
- 4.4. Interim Conclusion – What to Do with the Data?
- 5. Data Collection and Processing
- 5.1. The Field
- 5.1.1. Population
- 5.1.2. Location and Structure
- 5.1.3. Organization and Projects
- 5.2. Accessing the Field
- 5.3. The Researcher as an Outsider Participant
- 5.4. The Corpus
- 5.4.1. Narrative Accounts from Semi-structured Interviews
- 5.4.2. Narratives for Visitors
- 5.4.3. Interactions with Outsiders
- 5.4.4. Community Interactions
- 5.4.5. Fieldnotes
- 5.5. Data Transcription and Selection
- 6. Belonging as a Local and Interactional Problem
- 6.1. The Setting
- 6.2. Problematizing the Term Étnico
- 6.3. Adding Language as a Relevant Category
- 6.4. Processing the Étnico Question
- 6.5. Processing the Language Question
- 6.6. Clashing Category Systems
- 6.7. Interactional Positions
- 6.8. Interim Conclusion: Belonging as a Local and Interactional Problem
- 7. Narrating as a Local Practice of Belonging
- 7.1. The Narrative Corpus
- 7.2. Types of Narrations and Types of Narrators
- 7.3. Stories by Practiced Narrators
- 7.3.1. Positioning as Narrative Experts
- 7.3.1.1 Navigating Interactional Context and Story Structure
- 7.3.1.2 Displaying Expert Knowledge: Chronology and Detail
- 7.3.2. Positioning Own and Other Voices
- 7.3.2.1 Speaking on Behalf of the Community
- 7.3.2.2 Different Voices
- 7.3.3. Interim Conclusion: Stories by Practiced Narrators
- 7.4. Spontaneous Narratives
- 7.4.1. Positioning the Narrated Self
- 7.4.2. Interim Conclusion: Spontaneous Narratives
- 7.5. Re-Narrated Stories
- 7.5.1. ‘It says’ – The Story as Community Knowledge
- 7.5.2. ‘There is’ – Generalization in Re-Narration
- 7.5.3. ‘We were workers’ – We-voices in Re-Narrations
- 7.5.4. Interim Conclusion: Re-Narrated Stories
- 7.6. One Story – Thirty Versions – Shared Core Elements
- 7.7. Interim Conclusion: Narrating as a Local Practice of Belonging
- 8. Excursus
- 8.1. Excursus I: Grounding Belonging in the Local Adverb aquí
- 8.2. Excursus II: Regimes of Belonging
- 9. Summary and Discussion
- 10. Conclusion and Prospects
- Bibliography
- Appendix
- A. Speaker Table
- B. Interview Questionnaire
- Series index