30-31 January 2013 Rhizomes VII: Words, Power and Identity

Registration
How to get to UQ
Accommodation Options

Every moment of every day we make conscious and unconscious choices about our use of words and language. How we use words can empower or disempower us. Our words can cause us to be identified with some groups and excluded from others.

This year’s conference seeks to explore the fascinating relationships between words, power, and identity, and how we negotiate amongst them.
Rhizomes VII aims to bring together alternative perspectives to promote diversity in the study of languages and cultures. It is an opportunity for scholars with an interest in cultural, social, and linguistic power and identity, and the conflicting, cooperative, always complex relations between these concepts, to engage with peers and share their work in a friendly, interdisciplinary environment. For the 2013 Conference Program click here.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS:
PLURIPRESTIGE AND PHONOIDEOLOGY
OR
DID I SAY THAT GOOD AND WHO CARES ANYHOW?
 
Emeritus Professor of Applied Language Studies
The University of Queensland
  
ABSTRACT
 
Written languages in countries with developed educational and cultural systems routinely have clearly defined instruments of prestige: a language academy like the Académie Française (founded in 1635), dictionaries, grammars, and social, media and educational means of propagating them. Such norms succeed through the prestige value: they are associated with people and classes who have power, influence and social attractiveness. 
 
But some languages are pluricentric: like English, there are multiple focal points which provide different prestige models. That leads to pluriprestige. 
 
The spoken forms of these prestige variants of language, however, are less defined, less stable, and more complex. To be sure, there are usually one or more norms of pronunciation (orthoepy). But prestige norms of pronunciation change over time. They are subject to a wide range of social, functional and contingent factors. And the prestige norms can change their role in relation to the power and prestige structures of the societies where they operate. Speakers have to work out what model or models they practice and will respect. That is their phonoideology. 
 
In this paper I discuss the changing nature and prestige value of a number of variants of English, from RP ("Received Pronunciation") in the UK and General American to the standing of different variants of English in Australia. Political Correctness, and its effect of targeting discrimination, has been part of a major trend against prejudice against non-"standard" language varieties. 
 
I then place English in an international, globalized and more specifically Asian, context. What are the properties of prestige of a lingua franca with established and valorized local variants? Are they related to a concept of "core" English, as suggested by Jenkins (2000)? How do these prestige variants relate to language prestige in countries with English as a mother tongue?
 
This discussion shows that prestige is not a static, or even relatively static, set of properties defining a norm in the way it once did. Nowadays language prestige involves rather a large, unstable set of factors which relate not only to power factors, but also to the dynamics of interpersonal communication. Learning to manipulate prestige and its variants in a way which is sensitive to changing communicative requirements is therefore a key task for learners not only of English as a Second Language, but also for speakers of Mother Tongue English. 

Other contributions will be from, but not limited to, the following areas:
Linguistics Applied Linguistics Language Policy & Planning Studies Second Language Acquisition Studies
Translation & Interpreting Studies

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Studies

 Intercultural & Cross-Cultural Studies Migration Studies
Literary Studies Film & Media Studies Cultural Studies Indigenous Studies
Post-Colonial Studies Gender & Queer Studies Peace & Conflict Studies Area Studies
Sociolinguistics
 
For further information email rhizomes@uq.edu.au.

 

How to get to UQ

The St Lucia campus of the University of Campus is approximately 7km from the Brisbane city centre, and around 21km from the airport.
The conference will be held on Level 2 (ground level) of the Gordon Greenwood Building (building #32) of the UQ St Lucia Campus. For maps of the St Lucia Campus, please to go: http://www.uq.edu.au/maps/index.html?menu=1
For information about how to get to UQ, please go to: http://www.uq.edu.au/maps/directions.html?menu=1
It takes approximately 20 – 30 mins to get to the UQ St Lucia campus from Brisbane city by bus or car. Please allow extra time if travelling during peak traffic times (7.30 – 9am and 4.30-6pm weekdays).
A taxi from the airport to the UQ campus costs between $75 - $90. If you are travelling in a group of 3 or more, sharing a taxi is the cheapest option. If you are travelling by yourself, it is cheaper to take the AirTrain (approx. $20 pp) to Central Station, and then change trains to Toowong. From Toowong, you will find a bus to the St Lucia Campus of UQ. To plan your journey, and for information about timetables and ticket pricing, please go the Brisbane public transport website: www.translink.com.au.
 
Accommodation Options
There are many accommodation options in Brisbane. All attendees must arrange and pay for their own accommodation. The organising committee takes no responsibility for these matters.
For a list of temporary accommodation options in the St Lucia and Brisbane city areas, please go to: http://www.uq.edu.au/student-services/temporary-accommodation-st-lucia

 

 Registration:
The cost of registration is $50, payable via our online registration system until 31 December 2012. From 1 January until 20 January 2013, registration fees will increase to $60. Online registrations will close on 20 January 2013. There will be facilities to make cash registration payments on the day.’
Register here.

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