Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T19:49:14.710Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Language ideology, identity and the commodification of language in the call centers of Pakistan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2009

TARIQ RAHMAN
TARIQ RAHMAN*
Affiliation:
National Institute of Pakistan StudiesQuaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article relates the language ideologies of Pakistan in general, and its call centers in particular, with the language policies and practices of the latter. The specific policy focused upon is the commodification of English with a near-native (American or British) accent as linguistic capital. These accents are indexed to the desired foreign identities which the workers of call centers perform in telephonic interaction with clients as part of their sales strategy. This crossing over to native-speaker linguistic identities is not always successful. When successful, however, some workers in the call centers pass as native speakers in certain contexts and for certain purposes. Such practices and the policies upon which they are contingent are consequences of language ideologies that entail language discrimination against the workers of the call centers by the Pakistani English-using elite, and vice versa. (English, commodification of language, accent, linguistic capital, language policy, identity, passing, crossing, call centers, Pakistan)

Type
Research Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , April 2009 , pp. 233 - 258
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abiaz, (2007). Interview, 20 Sept, T-hone, Islamabad.Google Scholar
Algeo, John (1992). American English. In McArthur, Tom (ed.), The Oxford companion to the English language, 37–41. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Archer, Margaret S. (1995). Realist social theory: The morphogenetic approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bakhtin, M. M. (1934). The dialogic imagination. Eng. ed., Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981.Google Scholar
Barret, Rusty (1999). Indexing polyphonous identity in the speech of African American drag queens. In Bucholtz, Mary, Liang, A. C., & Sutton, Laurel A. (eds.), Reinventing identities: The gendered self in discourse, 313–331. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumgardner, Robert J. (1987). Utilizing Pakistani newspaper English to teach grammar. World Englishes 6:241–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bell, Allan (1984). Language style as audience design. Language in Society 13:145–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bell, Allan (1997). Style as audience design. In Coupland, Nikolas & Jaworski, Adam (eds.), Sociolinguistics: A reader and course book, 240–49. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bell, Allan (1999). Styling the other to define the self: A study in New Zealand identity making. Journal of Sociolinguistics 3/4:523–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benwell, Bethan, & Stokoe, Elizabeth (2006). Discourse and identity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre (1981). Language and symbolic power. Raymond, Gino & Adamson, Matthew (trans.). Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Bucholtz, Mary (1999). You da man: Narrating the racial other in the production of white masculinity. Journal of Sociolinguistics 3/4:443–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bucholtz, Mary, & Hall, Kira (2005). Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies 7:585–614.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cameron, Deborah (2000a). Styling the worker: Gender and the commodification of language in the globalized service economy. Journal of Sociolinguistics 4:323–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cameron, Deborah (2000b). Good to talk? Living and working in a communicative culture. London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Census (2001). 1998 Census report of Pakistan. Islamabad: Population Census Organization, Statistics Division, Government of Pakistan, 2001.Google Scholar
Clark, H. H., & Wilkes-Gibbs, D. (1986). Referring as a collaborative process. Cognition 22:1–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cowie, Claire (2007). The accents of outsourcing: The meanings of “neutral” in the call centre industry. World Englishes 26:316–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cutler, Cecilia A. (1999). Yorkville crossing: White teens, hip hop and African American English. Journal of Sociolinguistics 3/4:428–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farooqi, Nasir Ahmad (1968). Snakes and ladders: A novel. Lahore: Watan.Google Scholar
Gal, Susan (1989). Language and political economy. Annual Review of Anthropology 18:345–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giles, Howard, & Powesland, Peter F. (1975). Speech style and social evaluation. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gordon, Raymond G. Jr. (ed.) (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the world. 15th ed.Dallas: SIL International. Online version http://www.ethnologue.comGoogle Scholar
Heller, Monica (1989). Speech economy and social selection in educational contexts. Discourse Processes 12:377–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heller, Monica (2003). Globalization, the new economy, and the commodification of language and identity. Journal of Linguistics 7:473–92.Google Scholar
Hill, Jane H (1999). Styling locally, styling globally: What does it mean? Journal of Sociolinguistics 3/4:542–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hochschild, Arlie Russel (2003). The managed heart: Twentieth anniversary edition. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holland, Sharon P. (1999). From this moment forth, we are Black lesbians: Querying feminism and transgressing whiteness in Consolidated’s Business of punishment. In Powell, Timothy B. (ed.), Beyond the binary: Reconstructing cultural identity in a multicultural context, 139–62. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Johnstone, Barbara (1999). Uses of Southern-sounding speech by contemporary Texas women. Journal of Sociolinguistics 3/4:505–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khan, Nadia (2007). Interview. 27 Sept, I-span, Islamabad.Google Scholar
Lakoff, Robin (1975). Language and woman’s place. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Lippi-Green, Rosina (1997). English with an accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States. London & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Mansoor, Sabiha (1993). Punjabi, Urdu English in Pakistan: A sociolinguistic study. Lahore: Vanguard.Google Scholar
Mansoor, Sabiha (2005). Language planning in higher education: A case study of Pakistan. Karachi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Marckwardt, Albert (1965). American & British English. In Frank, Smolinski (ed.), Landmarks of American language & linguistics, 1:191–97. Washington, DC: United States Information Agency, repr. 1993.Google Scholar
Milroy, James, & Milroy, Lesley (1998). Authority in language. 3rd ed.Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Mirchandani, Kiran (2004). Practices of global capital: Gaps, cracks and ironies in transnational call centers in India. Global Networks 4:355–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ochs, Elinor (1990). Indexicality and socialization. In Stigler, James, Shweder, Richard A & Hordt, Gilbert (eds.), Cultural psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pakistan (2008). Estimated population of Pakistan on 9 Oct 2008 is 164,539.500http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/pco/index.html retrieved on 09 Oct 2008.Google Scholar
Piller, Ingrid (2002). Passing for a native speaker: Identity and success in second language learning. Journal of Sociolinguistics 6:179–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poster, Winifred R (2007). Who’s on the line? Indian call centers agents pose as Americans for U.S. outsourced firms. Industrial Relations 46(2) (April):271–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rahman, Tariq (1990). Pakistani English: The linguistic description of a non-native variety of English. Islamabad: National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University.Google Scholar
Rahman, Tariq (2004). Denizens of alien worlds: A study of education, inequality and polarization in Pakistan. Karachi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rahman, Tariq (2006). Language policy, multilingualism and language vitality in Pakistan. In Saxena, Anju & Borin, Lars (eds.), Trends in linguistics: Lesser-known languages of South Asia. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Rampton, Ben (1999a). Styling the other: Introduction. Journal of Sociolinguistics 3:421–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rampton, Ben (1999b). Deutsch in inner London and the animation of an instructed foreign language. Journal of Sociolinguistics 3/4:480–504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rampton, Ben (2000). Crossing. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 9:54–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raymond, Daniel (2007). Interview. 26 Sept, E-surf, Islamabad.Google Scholar
Schieffelin, Bambi B.; Woolard, Kathryn A.; & Kroskrity, Paul V. (eds.) (1998). Language ideologies: Practice and theory. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siddiqui, Salman (2005). Millionaire dreams. www.newsline.com.pk/newsMar 2005/spreport 2005.htm. Retrieved 29 October 2007.Google Scholar
Silverstein, Michael (1979). Language structure and linguistic ideology. In Clyne, R., Hanks, W. & Hofbauer, C. (eds.), The elements: A parasession on linguistic units and levels, 193–247. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
Sweetland, Julie (2002). Unexpected but authentic use of an ethnically-marked dialect. Journal of Sociolinguistics 6: 514–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Phil, & Bain, Peter (2005). “India Calling to the far away towns”: The call centre labour process and globalization. Work, Employment and Society 19:261–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vittachi, Varindra T. (1987). The brown sahib (revisited). Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Waraq, Wasim (2007). Interview. 21 Sept, T-hone, Islamabad.Google Scholar
Wasaq, Mohammad (2007). Interview. 26 Sept, T-hone, Islamabad.Google Scholar
White, Todd C. (1998). On the pragmatics of an androgynous style of speaking (from a transsexual’s perspective). World Englishes 17:215–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woolard, Kathryn A., & Schieffelin, Bambi B. (1994). Language ideology. Annual Review of Anthropology 23:55–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar