The Cluster of LLCE, China Studies Centre and the Department of Chinese Studies, the University of Sydney
4:00-5:30pm 26 March 2017
SLC Common Room 536, Brennan MacCallum Bldg A18
More information: Josh Stenberg (josh.stenberg@sydney.edu.au)
This paper discusses ways of examining Chinese discourse by taking a linguistic ethnographic approach. First, it reviews the key concepts and frameworks of linguistic ethnography and highlights its recent trend that increasingly favours small scale qualitative studies with a view to exploring how language meaningfully interacts with ‘society’, or ‘the social’. This paper presents a sample study that examines self-representation and negotiation of the Kam (Chinese: Dong “侗”) people’s ethnic identity in research interviews. Drawing on linguistic ethnography, this paper illuminates this sociolinguistic identity construction in four dimensions, including power relations in interaction, self-representation of the interior and exterior worlds, membership categorization and performance devices. The paper concludes with a discussion of future directions for Chinese discourse research and, in particular, the use of linguistic ethnography, as a way of helping us better understand the language that we are using and the social reality constructed and mediated through language.
About the Speaker
Dr Wei Wang is a Senior Lecturer in School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Sydney. His research interests include discourse studies, sociolinguistics, translation studies and language education. His recent research concentrates on sociolinguistics and (critical) discourse analysis, especially on interdisciplinary studies of contemporary Chinese discourse. His publications include Media Representation of Migrant Workers in China: Identity and Stance (In press, 2018), Contemporary Chinese Discourse and Social Practice in China (2015) and Genre across Languages and Cultures (2007).