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Linguistic Variation and Identity Representation in Personal Blogs: a Corpus-Linguistic Approach

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Linguistic Variation and Identity Representation in Personal Blogs: a Corpus-Linguistic Approach LINGUISTIC VARIATION AND IDENTITY REPRESENTATION IN PERSONAL BLOGS: A CORPUS-LINGUISTIC APPROACH GONG WENGAO NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2009 LINGUISTIC VARIATION AND IDENTITY REPRESENTATION IN PERSONAL BLOGS: A CORPUS-LINGUISTIC APPROACH GONG WENGAO (M.A., NUS) A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE & LITERATURE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2009 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor A/P Dr Vincent Ooi. It is him who ignited my interest in language practice in internet-based communication settings. It is also through his modules that I have learned how to deal with online discourse data which are quite non-conventional in many ways and how to use them for academic research. As an experienced supervisor, he knows very well when to leave me free exploring for themes of my interest and when to bring my attention back to things with value. He hardly tells me exactly what to do, but offers constructive suggestions and insightful clues for further development. This style suits my personality and age very well. I have genuinely enjoyed the freedom, independence, and trust that my supervisor has given me during my PhD studies. Secondly, my thanks should go to my committee members: A/P Dr Bao Zhiming and Dr Peter Tan, for their sincere concerns and encouragements. My thanks also go to A/P Dr Lionel Wee, A/P Dr Michelle Lazar, A/P Dr Kay O’Halloran, Dr Mark Donohue, Dr Benny Lee, and A/P Dr Shi Yuzhi. What I have learned from their modules has contributed greatly to the completion of my thesis. Thirdly, my sincere thanks go to my friends who have given me great moral support and feedback about my research ideas over the past several years. They are: Hong Huaqing, Zhang Ruihua, Paramjit Kaur A/P Karpal Singh, Liu Yu, Li Songqing, and Zhang Yiqiong. i Fourthly, I would like to thank my family, especially my better half, Zhou Hongxia, for their sacrifice, tolerance, and support. I owe them too much. For that it may take the rest of my life to repay. Special thanks go to my son, Zixuan, from whom I have learned quite a bit of the netlingo. His interest in my research and his concerns about what kind of career I could make out of researching online discourses are the two most important driving forces which have sustained me through the past almost five years. Fifthly, sincere thanks go to the internal and external examiners and the panel members of my oral examination for their valuable feedback about my thesis. Last but not least, I would like to thank the National University of Singapore for offering me the scholarship, without which my PhD studies would not be possible. Thanks also go to the friendly and hard working staff members of the NUS Central Library. Their service has made my stay in this university a memorable one. ii Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................. I TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... III SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................. VII LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... IX LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... XII LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................................... XIV CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 RESEARCH GOALS ................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 RESEARCH BACKGROUND ...................................................................................................... 3 1.2.1 Internet and Internet-based communication ................................................................... 3 1.2.2 Weblog as a unique medium and a new genre ................................................................ 5 1.2.3 Linguistic variation, identity, and personal blogs .......................................................... 7 1.3 THESIS STRUCTURE .............................................................................................................. 10 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 12 2.1 THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNET-BASED COMMUNICATION ............................................... 12 2.1.1 Online chat .................................................................................................................... 12 2.1.2 Emails ........................................................................................................................... 14 2.1.3 BBS ............................................................................................................................... 15 2.1.4 Blogs ............................................................................................................................. 16 2.1.4.1 The evolution of blogs ........................................................................................... 17 2.1.4.2 Motivations for blogging ....................................................................................... 20 2.1.4.3 Features of blogs.................................................................................................... 21 2.1.4.4 Age, gender, and blogs .......................................................................................... 23 2.1.4.5 Blog analysis approaches ...................................................................................... 25 2.1.5 Summary ....................................................................................................................... 28 2.2 INTRODUCTION TO IDENTITY ................................................................................................ 28 2.2.1 Defining identity ........................................................................................................... 28 2.2.1.1 Identity as a psychology concept ........................................................................... 29 2.2.1.2 Identity as a sociology concept .............................................................................. 31 2.2.1.3 Identity as a linguistic concept .............................................................................. 33 2.2.2 Creativity, identity, and IBC ......................................................................................... 34 2.2.3 Pop culture and identity ................................................................................................ 38 2.3 LINGUISTIC VARIATION RESEARCH ...................................................................................... 40 2.3.1 An overview .................................................................................................................. 40 2.3.1.1 Attention to Speech Model .................................................................................... 41 2.3.1.2 Audience and Referee Design ............................................................................... 42 2.3.1.3 Community of Practice Model .............................................................................. 44 2.3.1.4 Social constructionist approaches .......................................................................... 47 2.3.2 Gender and linguistic variation .................................................................................... 49 2.3.3 Age and linguistic variation .......................................................................................... 52 2.3.4 Pragmatic markers and linguistic variation ................................................................. 54 2.4 SPEECH-WRITING RELATIONS ............................................................................................... 56 2.4.1 The primacy issue ......................................................................................................... 56 2.4.2 Two different mediums .................................................................................................. 57 iii 2.4.3 Contexts of production .................................................................................................. 58 2.4.4 Technology and the changing status of writing ............................................................ 59 2.4.5 Speech and writing as linguistic resources ................................................................... 60 2.5 PROBLEMS WITH LINGUISTIC VARIATION AND IDENTITY RESEARCH ................................... 61 2.5.1 Conceptual problems .................................................................................................... 62 2.5.2 Methodological problems ............................................................................................. 65 2.5.3 Problems with existing frameworks .............................................................................. 68 2.6 TOWARDS AN ECLECTIC FRAMEWORK ................................................................................. 69 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 72 3.1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 72 3.2 CORPUS CONSTRUCTION ....................................................................................................... 74 3.2.1 Corpus design
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