Language, class, and ethnicity in Indonesia

Abstract

In summary, the development of style appears to relate to local-level communities of practice (COP), as suggested by Eckert (2000) among others. The relationship between these local-level COPs and the development of broader patterns of style can inform and reproduce language ideological notions of 'style as distinctiveness' (Irvine 2001), which can be interpreted in terms of social class. While such a position might give the impression of a cause-and-effect relationship between structure and action - as might my discussion of the role of the media and education - we need to keep in mind that it is not only possible but likely that participants recontextualized their knowledge of enregistered varieties (gained through their experiences at school and as media consumers) to do all sorts of meaning-making work. Moreover, in other settings these participants may appropriate these forms to do other identities, such as class, ethnic membership, or educational level (as has been discussed in work on styling the other and adequation: Skapoulli 2004; Sweetland 2002; Bucholtz and Hall 2004). Finally, in this paper I have ignored other equally interesting relationships. For example, the difference between the speech of women and men in RT08 raises questions about language and gender. Such questions further emphasize the complexity of the relationships that exist between action and social structure. © 2008 Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde.