An Ethnolexicography of the Skateboarding Subculture
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AN ETHNOLEXICOGRAPHY OF THE SKATEBOARDING SUBCULTURE By HO’OMANA NATHAN HORTON Bachelor of Arts in English Oklahoma Wesleyan University Bartlesville, OK 2013 Master of Arts in English Oklahoma State University Stillwater, OK 2015 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY July, 2020 AN ETHNOLEXICOGRAPHY OF THE SKATEBOARDING SUBCULTURE Dissertation Approved: Dennis R. Preston Adviser Carol Moder Chair Nancy Caplow G. Allen Finchum ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work is dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Hershall "Jigger" Horton, a true craftsman, who taught me that there are so many important, valuable skills and tools that can’t be learned in a classroom alone. And to Mrs. Carol Preston, the most welcoming and genuine person I think I've ever known, who always kept my desk well- stocked with humanitarian literature, and who cared so sincerely about everyone she met, and taught me to care for people and our planet more deeply every day. First and foremost, I want to thank my adviser, Dr. Dennis Preston, whose encouragement and mentorship have fueled this project from the start. When I started graduate school, I don't think I would ever have imagined I'd be writing a dissertation about skateboarding, but your genuine interest in this topic, and all that you've done to help me go beyond description and into a deeper understanding of language and society have enabled this work. I thank you also for bringing me on as a lab assistant in 2014 when I was just a grungy little skater with very little idea of what I was doing in academia. I'm eternally grateful to have worked with you in the lab, and in linguistic diversity talks, and everywhere else that you've given me the opportunity to work. I wouldn't be the linguist or the scholar or the person that I am today without your guidance and support. I also want to thank the other members of my departmental committee, Carol Moder and Nancy Caplow, for all the work y'all have done to encourage and foster my work, and to broaden my ways of thinking in linguistic research and beyond. I'm thankful to all those who supported my learning through their instruction and guidance at OSU: Gene Halleck, Steph Link, Sara Loss, and An Cheng, and at Oklahoma Wesleyan University: Lisa Riggs, Sarah and Paul Petrovic, and Mike Fullingim. Huge shout-out to all the homies that let me interview them for this study. I’m hella grateful for the time you spent being recorded, and for all the times we've spent together at the park, or getting kicked off by OSU police, or wherever. Keep shredding. Thanks also to all my friends and colleagues here at OSU, for your support and insightful questions at FOOLS and other meetings, for commiserating as we struggled and learned together, and for being like a second family to me and Kristine and our kids. Finally, I want to thank my family for supporting me throughout my academic journey. I thank my parents for instilling in me a love of learning and always telling me I could do this, even when I really didn't know if I could. I thank my wife Kristine and our kids for supporting me and loving me so well. I think in many ways this has been harder on y'all than it has been on me, and I am so grateful for all the sacrifices you've made to help me achieve this. I love y'all more than I could ever say. iii Acknowledgements reflect the views of the author and are not endorsed by committee members or Oklahoma State University. Name: HO’OMANA NATHAN HORTON Date of Degree: JULY, 2020 Title of Study: AN ETHNOLEXICOGRAPHY OF THE SKATEBOARDING SUBCULTURE Major Field: ENGLISH Abstract: This study takes an ethnolexicographic approach (Silverstein, 2006) to present a glossary of the skateboarding subculture derived from sociolinguistic interviews conducted with 11 skaters. This study also uses this ethnolexicography to compare sociolinguistic interviews with four skaters, two conducted by a skater and two by a non-skater, and investigates the relationship between skater identity and lexical accommodation (Giles & Ogay, 2007) in the sociolinguistic interview. The sociolinguistic interview has been shown to be a fruitful site for the investigation of participants’ aims (Schiffrin, 1994). The effects of the interviewer’s in- or out-group status, as well as familiarity with an interviewer have been shown to effect an interviewee’s linguistic performance (Cukor‐Avila & Bailey, 2001; Rickford & McNair- Knox, 1994). Given what we know about skaters’ proclivity for resistance to authority and the centrality of nonconformity and an insider mentality to skaters’ authenticity (Beal & Weidman, 2003; Borden, 2019; Dupont, 2014), the sociolinguistic interview, as a form of “institutional interview” (Schiffrin, 1994, p. 162), serves as a particularly intriguing setting in which to examine skaters’ linguistic performances of identity. In addition to presenting the first ethnographically-oriented analysis of the language of the skateboarding community, this dissertation demonstrates the inextricable relationship between linguistic knowledge and cultural knowledge, and the centrality of this knowledge to skater authenticity. Furthermore, I demonstrate that skaters’ willingness to use language which is meaningful to an out-group audience is influenced less by the group identity of the interviewer, and more upon the degree to which the interviewee’s identity as skater is central. Specifically, whether or not the interviewer was a skater or non-skater, the more established skaters made an overt effort “to describe it [skateboarding terms] to a non-skater.” On the other hand, the skaters whose authenticity was less established made no effort to accommodate either to a non-skater interviewer or to a potential future non-skater audience who may listen to the interview. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................1 1.1 – Opening Remarks............................................................................................1 1.2 – Lexicographical Terminology (Is It All Skater Slang?) ................................4 1.3 – Looking Ahead................................................................................................6 II. LEXICAL STUDIES OF SUBCULTURES AND AN INTRODUCTION TO SKATEBOARDING................................................................................................9 2.1 – The Study of Community-Specific Lexical Items ..........................................9 2.2. – Skateboarding ..............................................................................................11 2.2.1 – A Brief History of Skateboarding ........................................................12 2.2.2 – The Skateboarding Subculture .............................................................15 2.2.3 – Demographics of the Skateboarding Community ................................18 2.2.4 – Authenticity in the Skateboarding Subculture .....................................19 2.2.5 – Skateboarding Language ......................................................................23 III. METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................26 3.1 – Methodology .................................................................................................26 3.2 – Sociolinguistic Interviews with Skaters ........................................................26 3.3 – Thrasher and TransWorld Skateboarding .....................................................30 3.4 – Collection, Organization, and Analysis of Dictionary Items ........................31 3.5 – Analysis of Sociolinguistic Interviews .........................................................34 3.5.1 – Audience Design ..................................................................................35 3.5.2 – Communication Accommodation Theory ............................................36 3.5.3 – Interviewer Effect on Performance in the Sociolinguistic Interview ...37 v Chapter Page IV. A GLOSSARY OF SKATER LANGUAGE ........................................................40 4.1 – Introduction ...................................................................................................40 4.2 – Skateboarding Glossary ................................................................................40 4.3 – Morphological Phenomena and Distribution of Lexical Items .....................62 4.4 – Tricks ............................................................................................................64 4.4.1 – Flatground and Drop Tricks .................................................................66 4.4.2 – Grinds, Slides, and Stalls .....................................................................67 4.4.3 – Tricks into and out of Grinds, Slides, and Stalls ..................................68 4.4.4 – Variation in Trick Names.....................................................................70 4.5 – Obstacles and Instrument ..............................................................................71 4.6 – Other Skater Terms .......................................................................................72 4.7 – Summary .......................................................................................................74 V. ACCOMMODATION AND SKATER IDENTITY IN THE SOCIOLINGUSITIC INTERVIEW .........................................................................................................76