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Title:
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Indexicality, Code Choice and Cultural Identity: A study on Americans in Germany
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Author:
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Inke Du Bois
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Homepage:
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http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/lehrpersonal/dubois.aspx
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Degree Awarded:
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Universität Hamburg
, Applied Linguistics
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Degree Date:
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2008
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Applied Linguistics
Discourse Analysis
Pragmatics
Sociolinguistics
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Subject Language(s):
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English
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Director(s):
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Juliane House
Kerstin Fischer
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Abstract:
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The dissertation represents a longitudinal trend study on immigrant
language use and cultural identity of U.S. Americans who immigrated to
Germany between 1963 to 2001 at an adult age.
On the one hand, a microanalytic approach is taken in that in-depth
discourse analyses of case studies are performed. On the other hand,
macroanalytic, variationist and diachronic analyses shed light on the
relationship of linguistic output and socio-demographic factors of the
entire informant group.
Linguistic identity is first approached in-depth through the investigation
of monolingual narratives and bilingual speech. This rather inductive
approach encompassed that bicultural identity can be achieved by using only
L1 English through the exploitation of pronouns, place reference and
directional verbs. The contrastive analysis of bilingual and monolingual
speech showed that code-switching and usage of German place and
institutional names and clearly emphasize and underscore the speakers'
German indexical ground and biculturalism. The analysis of the pronoun 'we'
as a referent for cultural group identity uncovers that the immigrants'
identities are not monolithic and different belongings are indexed within
one interview.
The quantitative analysis of lexical attrition, code-switching and the 'we'
pronoun on the other hand shows clear correlations with socio-demographic
factors such as age at arrival, length of residence, education, and
English-related profession. The dissertation represents a synthesis of
discourse analysis and variationist approaches into the study of immigrant
language and identity.
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