Stylizations, stratification and social prestige

Publikation: Working paperForskning

  • Thomas Rørbeck Nørreby
This paper investigates two examples of stylized uses of linguistic and prosodic features associated with the well described street language register (see e.g. Madsen 2013, Stæhr 2015) and their indexical meanings at two (very) different schools in contemporary Copenhagen – a common public school and a private French/Danish elite school. It shows how the social reputation and indexical meanings of what has been described as prevalent features of this register are (still) objects of ongoing, conflictual typification practices. Unlike prevalent understandings of street language as being an established way of speaking, the data presented indicate that the historical link to “learner Danish” from which it emancipated from in the first place, is still alive and kicking in the minds and social repertoires of contemporary youth. The performances also reveal awareness in the two environments of the unequal dimensions of stratification in the sociolinguistic order of speech styles in contemporary Denmark. The paper argues that the performers exploit these structures of inequality for social positioning on scales of in vs. out, competent vs. incompetent and high social status vs. low social status and reproduce ideological notions of social status differences of wider societal currency as a way of dealing with the social, linguistic and cultural diversity that has become an integral part of their everyday life. It thereby supports the call for a (re)focus on institutional inequality in studies of urban youth´s practical activities and language use if we wish to advance our understanding of social inequalities in contemporary societies (Rampton 2010, 2011; Jaspers 2011, Madsen 2013, Collins 2015).
OriginalsprogEngelsk
UdgivelsesstedTilburg
Vol/bind195
Sider1-33
Antal sider33
StatusUdgivet - okt. 2017
NavnTilburg papers in cultural studies Babylon
Nummer195

ID: 195192402