Sociolinguistics from the Edge
Professor Allan Bell
Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand and University of Hong Kong
Allan Bell is Professor of Language & Communication, and Director of the Institute of Culture, Discourse & Communication, at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand and Visiting Research Professor, School of English, University of Hong Kong. For many years he led a dual career combining academic research with journalism and communications consultancy. He has made pioneering contributions on media language and discourse, the theory of style (Audience Design) and New Zealand English.
His research interests include multilingualism in New Zealand, performance language, language and identity, biblical discourse, and social and linguistic aspects of the internet. He has led major research projects on New Zealand English, language style, Pasifika languages, television violence, and the World Internet Project New Zealand. He has published many papers in leading journals and edited collections, as well as six books. His 2014 Guidebook to Sociolinguistics is a comprehensive, research-based map of the field.
He is co-founder and Editor of the Journal of Sociolinguistics.
Abstract
As a country, Aotearoa/New Zealand is positioned internationally as both periphery and centre. Even in a digital age we remain geographically remote, challenging to reach, and lying beyond the usual northern hemisphere... [ view full abstract ]
As a country, Aotearoa/New Zealand is positioned internationally as both periphery and centre. Even in a digital age we remain geographically remote, challenging to reach, and lying beyond the usual northern hemisphere circulations of academic networks and involvements. But regionally, New Zealand functions as a centre for the South Pacific, goal of emigration and ambition for many Pasifika people.
This dynamic holds also for our field, and has affected the history of sociolinguistic research here. The empirical work I will refer to in this paper is particularly micro-linguistic research in New Zealand, especially through variationist or related approaches. The first variationist work in this country was the Porirua Project conducted by Janet Holmes, Mary Boyce and me some 30 years ago. Scholars such as Miriam Meyerhoff and Jen Hay, who began their careers in that and subsequent projects, now lead the next generation of local sociolinguists.
Aotearoa/New Zealand has also contributed to the growth of sociolinguistic theory at an international level. As example, the study of sociolinguistic style now occupies central ground in 21st century sociolinguistic theorizing, having developed - and often departed - from the Audience Design approach that came out of my NZ data and reflection in the 1980s.
I note a particular and relevant dynamic in the growth of NZ sociolinguistics: until the 1980s we used NZ data as exemplary of wider and international contexts rather than for its own interest. But from the late 1980s we turned our attention to the local and the distinctive, and it was this – paradoxically - that led to findings and theorizations which drew much more interest world-wide. The local cast light on the global. Now, particularly in Auckland’s highly diverse society, a significant proportion of the population speaks languages other than English, and we see the contemporary tropes of mobility and diversity played out in our locality, a challenge to the coming generation of sociolinguists.
Session
KN-2 » Opening Keynote panel (11:30 - Wednesday, 27th June, F&PAA Lecture Theatre)
