Papers by Benjamin Bailey
Developmental and Historical Time in Language and Negotiation of Identities: Some Findings among Dominican Americans
Blackwell Publishing Ltd eBooks, Jan 30, 2008
American." T he language and identities of Dominican second-generation high school students in Pr... more American." T he language and identities of Dominican second-generation high school students in Providence, Rhode Island, reflect a social reality of growing up in Dominican families with Dominican social networks, but residing and going to school in a low-income, multiethnic U.S. inner city. As a group whose members are both Hispanic and largely of African descent, Dominican Americans must negotiate distinctive issues of identity in the United States. 1 Up to 90 percent of Dominicans have sub-Saharan African ancestry (Haggerty 1991) that would make them African American by historical U.S. "one-drop" rules of racial classification (Davis 1991). Dominican Americans, however, do not think of themselves as "black," but rather as "Dominican," "Spanish," or "Hispanic," and their Spanish language makes this ethnolinguistic identity situationally salient to outsiders. Everyday enactment of a Dominican American identity thus involves negotiating multiple and conflicting ascriptions of identity and resisting U.S. black-white racial categorization, a fundamental form of
Blackwell Publishing Ltd eBooks, Jan 30, 2008
American." T he language and identities of Dominican second-generation high school students in Pr... more American." T he language and identities of Dominican second-generation high school students in Providence, Rhode Island, reflect a social reality of growing up in Dominican families with Dominican social networks, but residing and going to school in a low-income, multiethnic U.S. inner city. As a group whose members are both Hispanic and largely of African descent, Dominican Americans must negotiate distinctive issues of identity in the United States. 1 Up to 90 percent of Dominicans have sub-Saharan African ancestry (Haggerty 1991) that would make them African American by historical U.S. "one-drop" rules of racial classification (Davis 1991). Dominican Americans, however, do not think of themselves as "black," but rather as "Dominican," "Spanish," or "Hispanic," and their Spanish language makes this ethnolinguistic identity situationally salient to outsiders. Everyday enactment of a Dominican American identity thus involves negotiating multiple and conflicting ascriptions of identity and resisting U.S. black-white racial categorization, a fundamental form of
American Psychological Association eBooks, Apr 15, 2010
Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2007
identity practices 11('11('1 I (IKK), Wllik IlclL'rogl ossia denotes the use of differen t kinds ... more identity practices 11('11('1 I (IKK), Wllik IlclL'rogl ossia denotes the use of differen t kinds of forms (II \li�ll\ 111l' 1\'1' 111 dol's Ilot refer, particul arly, to the 'distinct languag es' that ,11(' ( )I1I1I1(1If1 y seell as constitu ting bilingua lism. To the contrary , Bakhtin ( ()Ii I\'d 111\' l{lIssi;1I1 lerm raznorec hie to refer to intra-lan guage varieties within /{I1,\\!.III, v.lrivlil's with competi ng social and political implicat ions, and the 1('1111 i.\ .\(l/llL'liII iCS translate d as 'the social diversity of speech types' rather 111.111 'IIvlcrog lossia'. The fact that heterog lossia encomp asses both mono. ,)fld IIll1ll ilingual forms allows a level of theorizi ng about the social nature 01 1;lllguag e that is not possible within the confine s of a focus on code
Chinese as a second language research, Oct 1, 2015
This article analyzes patterns of comprehension of zero anaphor by native-English-speaker learner... more This article analyzes patterns of comprehension of zero anaphor by native-English-speaker learners of Mandarin in recordings and transcriptions of four naturally occurring Mandarin telephone conversations. Because many anaphoric pronouns have no overt expression in Mandarin, comprehension of even basic clause constituents of Mandarin texts can require discourse-level inferencing that English does not require. Despite these differences between English and Mandarin, intermediate to advanced level Mandarin learners in this study were able to successfully interpret and translate zero anaphor in these telephone conversation texts about 72% of the time. The greatest difficulties with zero anaphor were related to a) instances in which the initial, explicitly expressed antecedent was misinterpreted, and b) shifts in footing, or verbal activity, in which speakers moved, for example, from narrative description to direct address of interlocutor or personal evaluation of a situation just described. These patterns suggest that greater awareness of discourse level structures in naturally occurring verbal interactionwhich could be taught through explicit instructionmight help intermediate and advanced Mandarin learners to correctly interpret a broader range of zero anaphora.
Lynne Rienner Publishers eBooks, 2006
Language in Society, Oct 1, 2000
The ethnolinguistic terms in which the children of Dominican immigrants in Rhode Island think of ... more The ethnolinguistic terms in which the children of Dominican immigrants in Rhode Island think of themselves, i.e. as "Spanish" or "Hispanic," are frequently at odds with the phenotype-based racial terms "Black" or "African American," applied to them by others in the United States. Spanish language is central to resisting such phenotype-racial categorization, which denies Dominican Americans their Hispanic ethnicity. Through discourse analysis of naturally occurring peer interaction at a high school, this article shows how a Dominican American who is phenotypically indistinguishable from African Americans uses language, in both intra-and inter-ethnic contexts, to negotiate identity and resist ascription to totalizing phenotype-racial categories. In using language to resist such hegemonic social categorization, the Dominican second generation is contributing to the transformation of existing social categories and the constitution of new ones in the US. (Dominican, construction of race, African-descent immigrants, ethnolinguistic identity, Spanish)*
Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, Dec 1, 2000
American." T he language and identities of Dominican second-generation high school students in Pr... more American." T he language and identities of Dominican second-generation high school students in Providence, Rhode Island, reflect a social reality of growing up in Dominican families with Dominican social networks, but residing and going to school in a low-income, multiethnic U.S. inner city. As a group whose members are both Hispanic and largely of African descent, Dominican Americans must negotiate distinctive issues of identity in the United States. 1 Up to 90 percent of Dominicans have sub-Saharan African ancestry (Haggerty 1991) that would make them African American by historical U.S. "one-drop" rules of racial classification (Davis 1991). Dominican Americans, however, do not think of themselves as "black," but rather as "Dominican," "Spanish," or "Hispanic," and their Spanish language makes this ethnolinguistic identity situationally salient to outsiders. Everyday enactment of a Dominican American identity thus involves negotiating multiple and conflicting ascriptions of identity and resisting U.S. black-white racial categorization, a fundamental form of
Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 2013
This article explores how members of an English-language, online Zen Buddhist forum communicate t... more This article explores how members of an English-language, online Zen Buddhist forum communicate their Buddhist identities and constitute a community through online postings. In the absence of the typical, constitutive elements of Zen Buddhist communitiesa physical temple, monks, and copresent, silent meditationways of using language are the central means to performing Zen Buddhist identities. An analysis of segments of four threads on this forum shows forum members negotiating two competing linguistic ideologies: (1) an everyday Western language ideology that privileges logical, linear, and referential use of language, and (2) a Zen Buddhist language ideology that approaches everyday rational language as an impediment to achieving enlightenment and that privileges nonlogical, paradoxical language as a means to overcoming the limitations of ordinary, everyday thinking. Theoretically, this illustrates the power of language to enact ideologies and constitute community in an online space that is not tied to a particular cultural or linguistic place; it highlights the fact that everyday Western communication beliefs and practicesoften treated as natural in the Western, English-speaking worldare cultural and ideological, and it shows that Westerners can adopt communication practices and ideology associated with Asia, thus paying symbolic homage to them.
Qualitative Methods in Sociolinguistics:Qualitative Methods in Sociolinguistics
Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, Dec 1, 2000
Qualitative Methods in Sociolinguistics. Barbara Johnstone. Oxford and New York: Oxford Universit... more Qualitative Methods in Sociolinguistics. Barbara Johnstone. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.164 pp.
Discourse & Society, May 3, 2017
In this article I evaluate competing discourses about the meaning of street remarks-the remarks m... more In this article I evaluate competing discourses about the meaning of street remarks-the remarks men make to unacquainted women passing on the street-in 1000 comments posted to a YouTube video of street remarks recorded in New York City in 2014. One discourse prominent in the comments posted to the video defends the remarks as civil talk, highlighting the literal meanings of remarks such as 'Have a nice evening'. A second, less frequent, discourse characterizes these encounters and utterances as sexual harassment, citing men's ostensible sexual intentions and personal experience. I find that (a) difficulties in articulating the ways in which street remarks are injurious may veil their harm, thus contributing to the perpetuation of male domination of women in public spaces, and (b) the close juxtaposition of explicitly misogynistic comments with interpretations of the street remarks as civil casts doubt on the sincerity of such interpretations.
During the 2008 presidential election campaign, independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader ch... more During the 2008 presidential election campaign, independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader characterized candidate Barack Obama as "half African American" and accused Obama of wanting to "talk White": There's only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He's half African-American. Whether that will make any difference, I don 't know. I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What's keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk White? He doesn't want to appear like Jesse Jackson? (Rocky Mountain News, June 25, 2008) Mr. Nader's comments raise a number of intriguing questions about racial categories and meanings, particularly for individuals such as Barack Obama, whose Kenyan father and White American mother count as members of distinct racial categories. First, Mr. Nader's description of Obama as "half African American" is a relatively novel racial characterization. Historically, individuals in the United States with one Black parent have been considered Black, commensurate with the "one drop" rule (Davis 1991). Furthermore, commonsense U.S. notions of race center on physical appearance, and Obama's skin color, facial features, and hair texture are all compatible with popular notions of what members of the category "African American" might look like-so why is he characterized here as half African American? Second, Mr. Nader suggests that Obama wanted to "talk White," as ifObama 's way of speaking were a calculated strategy that did not reflect his true, or authentic, way of speaking. What is "talking White"? What is Obama' s true, or authentic way of speaking? Obama was raised by his White American mother and White American grandparents in Hawai'i and Indonesia, where there are no significant African American communities. His father was a Kenyan graduate student who did not speak African American English and who left the family when Barack was two years old. Obama had no African American family, no African American relatives, and no African American community growing up, so the English he
Journal of Multicultural Discourses, Nov 1, 2013
This article explores how members of an English-language, online Zen Buddhist forum communicate t... more This article explores how members of an English-language, online Zen Buddhist forum communicate their Buddhist identities and constitute a community through online postings. In the absence of the typical, constitutive elements of Zen Buddhist communitiesa physical temple, monks, and copresent, silent meditationways of using language are the central means to performing Zen Buddhist identities. An analysis of segments of four threads on this forum shows forum members negotiating two competing linguistic ideologies: (1) an everyday Western language ideology that privileges logical, linear, and referential use of language, and (2) a Zen Buddhist language ideology that approaches everyday rational language as an impediment to achieving enlightenment and that privileges nonlogical, paradoxical language as a means to overcoming the limitations of ordinary, everyday thinking. Theoretically, this illustrates the power of language to enact ideologies and constitute community in an online space that is not tied to a particular cultural or linguistic place; it highlights the fact that everyday Western communication beliefs and practicesoften treated as natural in the Western, English-speaking worldare cultural and ideological, and it shows that Westerners can adopt communication practices and ideology associated with Asia, thus paying symbolic homage to them.
Switching
Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, Jun 1, 1999
Symbolic Interaction, Jan 21, 2015
This article analyzes interaction from an intentional, self-reflexive democratic meeting of ordin... more This article analyzes interaction from an intentional, self-reflexive democratic meeting of ordinary citizens-a "General Assembly" from the 2011 Occupy Movement-to explore two competing theories of democracy: Habermas's democratic deliberation and Mouffe's agonistic pluralism. The group's rational ideals and procedures for democratic deliberation approximate those of Habermas's "ideal speech situation," but appear limited in their capacity to ensure Habermasian understanding or consensus. Intertwined with these rational procedures are practices best explained in terms of what Goffman called "face-work"-the ways in which participants maintain a working consensus of mutual acceptance and respect in conversation. These face-work procedures-rather than sincere, rational intentions-help constitute the civility necessary for rational deliberation and participation. Such symbolic valuing of self and other provide interactional grounds for the liberty and equality of agonistic democratic conversation as conceived by Mouffe.
Communication Practices and Social Hierarchy in Relations between African-Americans and Korean Immigrant Storekeepers
Communicative Behavior and Conflict between African-American Customers and Immigrant Korean Retailers in Los Angeles
Discourse & Society, 2000
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Papers by Benjamin Bailey