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What's in a name? Language ideology and social differentiation in a Swedish print‐mediated debate 1
Author(s) -
Milani Tommaso M.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of sociolinguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1467-9841
pISSN - 1360-6441
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9841.2009.00435.x
Subject(s) - indexicality , phenomenon , linguistics , sociology , argument (complex analysis) , ideology , meaning (existential) , ethnic group , sociolinguistics , value (mathematics) , social phenomenon , epistemology , philosophy , social science , anthropology , law , political science , politics , computer science , chemistry , biochemistry , machine learning
This paper investigates a recent print‐mediated discussion about linguistic phenomena that are perceived by many commentators to be ‘deviant’ from ‘standard Swedish.’ The aim of the paper is to illustrate how this language debate is built on two closely entwined discursive processes: a struggle to define the name, meaning, and value of a specific linguistic phenomenon; and the indexical processes through which such a phenomenon is bound up with a multifaceted image of its purported speakers, in which gender is imbricated in age and ethnicity. Essentially, the argument is that the metalinguistic pronouncements in this debate are ultimately the outer manifestation of deeper social concerns about what it means to be a ‘non‐Swedish’ young man.