Sounding Out Difference

Polycentricity of Ideological Orientations among Polish-Speaking Migrants in Transnational Timespace

Bibliographic Data

ID2286302
AuthorsKinga Kozminska (0000-0003-2595-7119, University of Oxford)
Year2020
Volume30
Issue3
Pages412-437
Publication date2020-12-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Linguistic Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1055-1360 • E-ISSN: 1548-1395
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/jola.12291
OpenAlexW3113474107
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited43

This article reports emerging polycentric ideological orientations among UK-educated middle-class Polish-speaking young adult migrants living and working in South-East England in 2013-2014. The analysis of phonetic-semiotic details in stance-taking acts in chronotopic representations of experience reveals a continuum of sociolinguistic authority in which despite a shared sociocultural background, sociolinguistic possibilities are differently conceptualized and enacted. A close examination of the ways in which the participants exploit differences in clusters of morphonological detail demonstrates that English-like realizations in Polish, while motivated by particular linguistic context and discursive function, co-occur mainly in the speech of female "cosmopolitans" to signal orientation toward relevant social images and create locally valid and recognizable value effects. The relational, collective, and embodied soundings of sameness and difference depend on scalarity and complex interconnections between ethnicity, class, and gender in transnational timespace. The findings have implications for studies of variation and migrant discourse

Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Multilingual Education and Policy

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