Intonation, identity and contact-induced change among Polish-speaking migrants in the U.K.

Kozminska, Kinga (2019) Intonation, identity and contact-induced change among Polish-speaking migrants in the U.K. Journal of Sociolinguistics 23 (1), pp. 29-53. ISSN 1360-6441.

Abstract

This article examines intonational variation in a language contact situation. The study contributes to sociolinguistic research on the social meaning of intonational variation (Podesva 2006; Levon 2014). Intonation is studied in a multilingual context of global mobility: within a group of Polish-speaking migrants in Britain who, thanks to cheap transportation and new channels of communication, could make use of linguistic resources unlimited by territorial boundaries from the beginning of their transnational experience. The study shows that speakers with seemingly similar linguistic and cultural profiles make use of intonation patterns in different ways in the context of the narrative of the self: speakers oriented towards the global economy and the English-speaking world incorporate a mainly English intonational pattern, the fall-rise, with increased frequency to do interactional work that it does in English, while other groups maintain Standard Polish norms. As shown, intonational variation participates in the creation of fluid identities that blur linguistic and sociocultural boundaries.

Metadata

Statistics

DownloadsShow export options

Export as XMLJSONCSV

Activity Overview

6 month trend

88Downloads

6 month trend

96Hits

Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.

Archive Staff Only (login required)

Edit/View Item