Identity Construction in Family Interaction
Chad Nilep
Abstract for paper presented at
Conference of the Georgetown Linguistics Society
The Language and Identity Tapestry: Linguistic Re/presentation of Identities in Social Interaction
Georgetown University
Washington, DC
February 18-20, 2005This paper focuses on the family as a locus of identity construction. An individual’s identity is always emergent – continuously created, indexed, and ratified through public behavior. Throughout the course of a lifetime, an individual will be constituted through a range of social groups, the earliest of which is the family.
The present paper examines the effects of mothers and siblings on language and identity by describing the behavior of four members of an upper-middle class Japanese American family living in a large metropolitan area in the western United States. The family members – ten-year-old Ryu, 14-year-old Yumi, 18-year-old Otoe, and their mother Mami – are Japanese-English bilinguals. The focus on multilingual individuals allows for analysis of both the content and medium of discourse, including code switching. This makes specific linguistic practices and the stances they index particularly visible. Principle data come from approximately two hours of recorded conversation among family members, supplemented by additional observations of this and similar families.
Building on work in language and political economy (e.g. Bourdieu 1977, Gal 1989, Irvine 1997) and identity and language practice (e.g. Ochs 1993, Bucholtz and Hall 2003, Eckert and McConnell-Ginet 1992), I propose a theory of political micro-economy. Family members socialize one another into locally appropriate roles, while building and maintaining their own. This identity-work yields symbolic power and creates social hierarchies wherein this power may be exploited. I argue that members of this family relate to one another based on rank within a hierarchy. Further, there are multiple hierarchies, comprised of various identity facets such as age, maternal positioning, task expertise, linguistic fluency, etc.
Within a given interaction, particular identities (and the related hierarchy) become relevant. For example, when discussing long-distance calling cards, although Mami possesses the relevant information concerning prices, she directs daughter Yumi to choose the best value, specifically posing the question as an academic exercise. By placing herself in the role of teacher and directing Yumi’s actions, Mami holds a relatively powerful position.
15 If I give thirty one dollars .. 三十一ドル下されば ..
16
M: Which one is better? どっちがいいですか? 17 M: Right, it’s a math problem. はい , 算数の問題 18 Y: That one (I mean) 向こうのやつ ( っていうか )
19 Y: the one that changed. 変えたやつ . When meta-linguistic discourse calls for greater English fluency, however, older daughter Otoe assumes a more dominant position and Mami a relatively weak one.
50 O: Since an ano- anorexic (woman) ano- anorexic (woman) は 51 O: will eat nothing but salad= サラダばかり食べるようになるから = ((seven lines omitted)) 59 M: What is anore? アノレって何 60 O: Not eating disease 食べない病気 61 Y: [ anorex]ic 62 M: [oh yeah yeah yeah] [ああ はいはいはい] The suite of hierarchies seen here is not a structure that exists independently of individual action. Rather, it is a web at once constraining the actions of family members and woven by them. Individual behavior creates and indexes identity, socializes members, and constructs the hierarchies within which action has power and significance.
Chad Nilep is a PhD student in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Colorado, and associate editor of Colorado Research in Linguistics. He can be reached at Chad.Nilep@Colorado.EDU.
Colorado Research in Linguistics - Volume 18, Issue 1 - June 2005
