Acts of Identity: Creole-Based Approaches to Language and EthnicityWith every speech act all individuals perform, to a greater or less extent, an 'act of identity', revealing through their personal use of language their sense of social and ethnic solidarity or difference. At the same time people also have powerful (if unconscious) stereotypes about the norms and standards of their own language and those of others - often at variance with observable behaviour. The view of language use proposed here derives from the authors' extensive fieldwork in the Creole-speaking Caribbean and among West Indian communities in London, and is forcefully illustrated by the data they present, which include recorded conversations and stories. The authors re-examine such concepts as 'a language', 'correct usage', 'race' and 'ethnic groups' and clearly reveal the complex role of language in establishing relationships within regional and social communities and at the state or national level. |
Contents
Linguistically heterogeneous situations | 5 |
Data and questions to be answered | 13 |
Voyages of exploration and processes of colonization | 23 |
Disputed settlements and their outcome | 35 |
More recent aspects of political and cultural development | 67 |
Sample West Indian texts | 78 |
The grammar questionnaire for Jamaica St Vincent | 83 |
A short Anansi story from St Vincent | 90 |
87 | 137 |
Some further problems of variable quantification | 148 |
Towards a general theory of the evolution | 158 |
Linear continuum or multidimensional model? | 180 |
The question of linguistic description | 186 |
The universality of contact phenomena of diffusion | 200 |
The place of ethnicity in acts of identity | 207 |
The role of language in relation to concepts of ethnicity | 234 |
The Guyanese text | 96 |
Three stories from Cayo District Belize | 102 |
The sociolinguistic surveys in the West Indies | 113 |
250 | |
265 | |
Common terms and phrases
African Anansi associated Barbados become behaviour Belize Belizean British Brother called Carib Caribbean century Chapter claimed close Cluster coast colony concept concerned conversation Creole cultural described developed dialect District Dutch English established ethnic example extent fact factors focussing forms French grammar groups identify identity illustrated important individual island Jamaican kind language less linguistic living London Lucia Maya meaning Mixed mother originally parents particular past pidgin political population Portuguese possible processes race referred region relation rules sample sense settlements similar situation slaves social society Spanish speak speakers speech spoke Standard Standard English stereotypes story Table talk tell trade University usage variables variety various vernacular Vincent West Indian