Attention, identity and linguistic capital: inverted style-shifting in Anglo-Cornish dialect lexis

Abstract

While stylistic variation in attention-based models has been foundational to sociolinguistic theory (Labov 1972a; Trudgill 1974), other studies (e.g. Coupland 1985; Eckert 1989; Drummond 2018; Snell 2018) conceptualise style as a resource used in the context of identity construction. I synthesise these two approaches to sociolinguistic style and consider social meaning in the context of variable attentional load. Informed by a study of lexical variation in Cornwall, I account for an inverted style pattern with recourse to local identity, social meaning and language ideology. In doing so, I introduce an attention-to-self model of style. This model posits that when speakers pay greater attention-to-self, they closer approximate a desired self, a target identity that they aspire to embody. For example, when speakers subvert the standard language ideology, their stylistic target may not be ‘educated’ or ‘posh’, but ‘local’. In such cases, careful speech styles can be conducive to the production of local dialect forms as a performance of identity. I propose that the stylisation of local identity in careful speech styles in Cornwall should be interpreted in the context of an alternative linguistic market, a Cornish micro-market, which subverts the value system of the dominant linguistic market.

The Role of Local Identity in the Usage and Recognition of Anglo-Cornish Dialect Lexis

“…I propose that a lack of style shifting or a shift toward the standard form in careful speech would be supportive of an interlocutor frequency interpretation. Conversely, an act of identity interpretation would be supported by the purposeful use of local dialect forms when attention to speech, and, more broadly, attention-to-self (see Sandow 2022), is elevated. That is, I propose that a shift toward the local forms in careful speech (here, the naming task), through the styling of a local identity, would be supportive of an acts of identity interpretation.…”

“…This means that, unlike in the spot-the-difference task, their attention to word usage was elevated. As the attention paid to speech (see Labov 1972) differs between the spotthe-difference and naming tasks, a comparison of the data elicited in these tasks can be considered to be an analysis of style (see Sandow & Robinson 2018;Sandow 2020Sandow , 2022Sandow , 2023.…”

“…1 I have detailed key facets of this research elsewhere. For example, I focus specifically on the performance of Cornish identities through stylistic variation in Sandow (2022), and in Sandow (2023) I analyze patterns of lexical leveling using the word maid as a case-study.…”

Language change is wicked: semantic and social meaning of a polysemous adjective

“…Kiesling 2004;Bucholtz 2009;Snell 2018) or from metalinguistic discussion (e.g. Robinson 2010a;Braber 2022;Sandow 2022Sandow , 2023aSandow , 2023b (Llamas et al 2016), limited research has employed such methods at the level of lexical variation.…”

“…Kiesling 2004; Bucholtz 2009; Snell 2018) or from metalinguistic discussion (e.g. Robinson 2010a; Braber 2022; Sandow 2022, 2023a, 2023b). While studies have used experimental methods to explore the social meaning of phonetic, phonological and morphosyntactic features, such as the matched-guise technique (Campbell-Kibler 2007; Johnstone & Kiesling 2008; Gilabert & Fuss 2018), Implicit Association Test (Campbell-Kibler 2012; McKenzie & Carrie 2018; Álvarez-Mosquera & Marín-Gutiérrez 2021) and the Social Category Association test (Llamas et al 2016), limited research has employed such methods at the level of lexical variation.…”