Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T10:15:12.813Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Variation within a Greek-Cypriot community of practice in London: Code-switching, gender, and identity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2014

Katerina A. Finnis
Katerina A. Finnis*
Affiliation:
University of Central Lancashire, School of Language, Literature, and International Studies, Preston PR1 2HE, United [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The past two decades have seen an explosion of interest in interactionally orientated perspectives on identity. The Community of Practice framework was employed by sociolinguists working within this paradigm because it firmly grounds identity in social practice seeing it as a process that speakers engage in during actual interactions. Interest in variation within communities of practice is growing, as the well-boundedness of linguistic and social concepts (including identity and language) is increasingly questioned. The current article develops this perspective by exploring code-switching practices of British-born Greek-Cypriots in two distinct contexts: community meetings and a dinner. Findings indicate that this community of practice does not constitute a uniform entity: complex interactions transpire between local and global variables including gender, community-specific setups, contexts, and discourse types. The study also problematizes the concepts core and periphery, used to describe variation within communities of practice, offering a revised understanding of practice, which focuses on silent participation. (Code-switching, community of practice, Greek-Cypriot, gender, identity, individual variation)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , June 2014 , pp. 287 - 310
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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

Anthias, Floya (1992). Ethnicity, class, gender and migration: Greek-Cypriots in Britain. Aldershot: Avebury Press.Google Scholar
Bailey, Richard (1985). S(outh) A(frican) En(glish) slang: Form, functions, and origins. South African Journal of Linguistics 3(1):1–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barton, David, & Tusting, Karin (2005). Introduction. In Barton, David & Tusting, Karin (eds.), Beyond communities of practice: Language, power and social context, 1–13. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bloomaert, Jan (2010). The sociolinguistics of globalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Boxer, Diana, & Cortes-Conde, Florencia (1997). From bonding to biting: Conversational joking and identity display. Journal of Pragmatics 27:275–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryant, Jennings; Comisky;, Paul & Zillmann, Dolf (1979). Teacher's humor in the college classroom. Communication Education 28(2):110–18.Google Scholar
Bucholtz, Mary (1999). ‘Why be normal?’: Language and identity practices in a community of nerd girls. Language in Society 28:203–23.Google Scholar
Cashman, Holly (2006). Impoliteness in children's interactions in a Spanish/English bilingual community of practice. Journal of Politeness Research 2:217–46.Google Scholar
Christodoulou-Pipis, Irina (1991). Greek outside Greece III. Research findings: Language use by Greek-Cypriots in Britain. Nicosia: Diaspora Books, Greek Language Research Group.Google Scholar
Coser, Rose L. (1960). Laughter among colleagues. Psychiatry 23:81–95.Google Scholar
Crawford, Mary (2006). Gender and humour in social context. Journal of Pragmatics 35(9):1413–30.Google Scholar
Culpeper, Jonathan (2005). Impoliteness and entertainment in the television quiz show: The weakest link. Journal of Politeness Research 1:35–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Culpeper, Jonathan; Bousfield;, Derek & Wichmann, Anne (2003). Impoliteness revisited: With special reference to dynamic and prosodic features. Journal of Pragmatics 35:1545–79.Google Scholar
De Fina, Anna (2007). Code-switching and the construction of ethnic identity in a community of practice. Language in Society 36:371–92.Google Scholar
De Klerk, Vivian (1992). How taboo are taboo words for girls? Language in Society 21:277–89.Google Scholar
Eckert, Penelope (1998). Vowels and nail polish: The emergence of linguistic style in the preadolescent heterosexual marketplace. In Warner, Natasha, Ahlers, Jocelyn, Bilmes, Leela, Oliver, Monica, Wertheim, Suzanne, & Chen, Melinda (eds.), Proceedings of the 1996 Berkeley Women and Language Conference, 183–90. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Women and Language Group,.Google Scholar
Eckert, Penelope, & McConnell-Ginet, Sally (1992). Think practically and look locally: Language and gender as community-based practice. Annual Review of Anthropology 21:461–90.Google Scholar
Eckert, Penelope, & McConnell-Ginet, Sally (1999). New generalizations and explanations in language and gender research. Language in Society 28(2):185–201.Google Scholar
Freed, Alice F., & Greenwood, Alice (1996). Women, men, and type of talk: What makes the difference? Language in Society 25:1–26.Google Scholar
Gardner, Sheena, & Martin-Jones, Marilyn (eds.) (2012). Multilingualism, discourse and ethnography. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner-Chloros, Penelope, & Finnis, Katerina (2003). How code-switching mediates politeness: Gender-related speech among London Greek-Cypriots. Estudios de Sociolinguistica 4(2):505–32.Google Scholar
Gardner-Chloros, Penelope; McEntee-Atalianis;, Lisa & Finnis, Katerina (2005). Language attitudes and use in a transplanted setting: Greek-Cypriots in London. International Journal of Multilingualism 2(1):52–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Georgakopoulou, Alexandra (2001). Self-presentation and interactional alliances in e-mail discourse: The style- and code-switches of Greek messages. In Georgakopoulou, Alexandra & Spanaki, Maria (eds.), A reader in Greek sociolinguistics: Studies in Modern Greek language, culture and communication, 303–32. Oxford: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Georgakopoulou, Alexandra, & Finnis, Katerina (2009). Code-switching ‘in site’ for fantasizing identities: A case study of conventional uses of London Greek Cypriot. Pragmatics 19(3):467–88.Google Scholar
Gumperz, John J. (1982). Discourse strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Habib, Rania (2008). Humour and disagreement: Identity construction and cross-cultural enrichment. Journal of Pragmatics 40:1117–45.Google Scholar
Holmes, Janet (2000). Politeness, power and provocation: How humour functions in the workplace. Discourse Studies 2(2):159–85.Google Scholar
Holmes, Janet, & Meyerhoff, Miriam (1999). The community of practice: Theories and methodologies in language and gender research. Language in Society 28:173–83.Google Scholar
Josephides, Sasha (1987). Associations amongst the Greek Cypriot population in Britain. In Rex, John, Joly, Daniele, & Wilpert, Czarina (eds.), Immigrant associations in Europe, 42–61. Aldershot: Gower.Google Scholar
Kaplan, Cora (1998). Language and gender. In Cameron, Deborah (ed.), The feminist critique of language, 54–64. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kelly, Aidan (1989). Ethnic identification, associations and redefinition: Muslim Pakistanis and Greek Cypriots in Britain. In Liebkind, Karmela (ed.), New identities in Europe: Immigrant ancestry and the ethnic identity of youth. Aldershot: Gower.Google Scholar
Kitromilides, Paschalis M. (1981). Collective consciousness and poetry: Three moments in the literary tradition of Modern Cyprus. Neohellenika 4:159–70.Google Scholar
Kotthoff, Helga (2006). Gender and humour: The state of the art. Journal of Pragmatics 38:4–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lave, Jean, & Wenger, Etienne (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McEnery, Anthony, & Xiao, Zhonghua (2004). Swearing in modern British English: The case of fuck in the BNC. Language and Literature 13(3):235–68.Google Scholar
Milroy, Lesley, & Wei, Li (1995). A social network approach to code-switching: The example of a bilingual community in Britain. In Milroy, Lesley & Muysken, Peter (eds.), One speaker, two languages: Cross-disciplinary perspectives on code-switching, 136–57. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newton, Brian (1972). Cypriot Greek: Its phonology and inflections. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Norrick, Neal R. (2003). Issues in conversational joking. Journal of Pragmatics 35(9):1333–59.Google Scholar
Panayiotou, A. (1996). Ideologiki sinxisi ke apotoka glossika ideologimata etin synxroni Kypro [Ideological confusion and derived language perceptions in Cyprus today]. Paper presented at the Symposium on Language and Identity 1996, Intercollege, Nicosia.Google Scholar
Papapavlou, Andreas; Pavlou;, Pavlos & Pavlides, S. (1999). The interplay between language use, language attitudes and cultural identity among Greek Cypriots living in the UK. Paper presented at the 4th International Conference on Greek Linguistics 1999, University of Cyprus, Nicosia.Google Scholar
Pichler, Pia (2006). Multifunctional teasing as a resource for identity construction in the talk of British Bangladeshi girls. Journal of Sociolinguistics 10(2):226– 50.Google Scholar
Risch, Barbara (1987). Women's derogatory terms for men: That's right, ‘dirty’ words. Language in Society 16:353–58.Google Scholar
Rock, Frances (2005). “I've picked some up from a colleague”: Language, sharing and communities of practice. In Barton, David & Tusting, Karin (eds.) Beyond communities of practice, 77–104. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogerson-Revell, Pamela (2007). Humour in business: A double-edged sword. A study of humour and style-shifting in intercultural business meetings. Journal of Pragmatics 39:4–28.Google Scholar
Schiffrin, Deborah (1984). Jewish argument as sociability. Language in Society 13: 311–35.Google Scholar
Sebba, Mark, & Wootton, Tony (1998). We, they, and identity: Sequential versus identity-related explanation in code-switching. In Auer, Peter (ed.), Code- switching in conversation: Language, interaction and identity, 262–86. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sifianou, Maria (1992). Politeness phenomena in England and Greece: A cross-cultural perspective. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Spencer-Oatey, Helen (2002). Managing rapport in talk: Using rapport sensitive incidents to explore the motivational concerns underlying the management of relations. Journal of Pragmatics 34:529–45.Google Scholar
Stolen, Marianne (1992). Codeswitching for humour and ethnic identity: Written Danish-American occasional songs. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 13:215–28.Google Scholar
Tannen, Deborah, & Kakava, Christina (2001). Power and solidarity in Modern Greek conversation: Disagreeing to agree. In Georgakopoulou, Alexandra & Spanaki, Maria (eds.), A reader in Greek sociolinguistics: Studies in Modern Greek language, culture and communication, 225–52. Oxford: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Thomas, Jenny (1995). Meaning in interaction: An introduction to pragmatics. Harlow: Longman.Google Scholar
Wenger, Etienne (1998). Communities of practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wenger, Etienne; McDermott;, Richard & Snyder, William M. (2002). Cultivating communities of practice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Woolard, Kathryn (1988). Code-switching and comedy in Catalonia. In Heller, Monica (ed.), Codeswitching: Anthropological and Sociolinguistic Perspectives, 53–76. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar