TALKING BLACK IN PUBLIC SPACES:! AN INVESTIGATION OF IDENTITY AND THE USE OF PREACHING STYLE IN BLACK PUBLIC SPEECH BY ERICA R. BRITT DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2011 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Rakesh M. Bhatt, Chair Professor Jennifer Cole Associate Professor Michele Koven Assistant Professor Adrienne Lo Associate Professor Tracey L. Weldon, The University of South Carolina Abstract This dissertation utilizes a sociocultural linguistic approach that combines sociolinguistic, discourse analytic and ethnographic methods in order to examine how black public figures use African American English (AAE) to express complex identities in interaction. This study explores the interaction between phonological, grammatical, suprasegmental and rhetorical features of black speech and situational factors related to event structuring, speaker goals, and audience composition. Overall, this study illustrates how shifts in speaking style can help speakers manage the presentation of controversial political and social messages. While the speakers in this study make limited use of hallmark vernacular features of AAE (such as copula deletion and invariant be), they consistently draw from a black stylistic repertoire, specifically black preaching style, that allows them to take controversial political stances as they express their ethnic, religious, and philosophical affiliation with members of the black community. ii Acknowledgements While completing this project, I received the love and support of many wonderful people. First, I thank my advisor, Dr. Rakesh Bhatt, for the many hats that you wore over the years including advisor, mentor and friend. I will be forever grateful for all of the support that you have shown me and all of your help in making me the researcher that I am today. I would also like to thank the members of my dissertation committee, Dr. Jennifer Cole, Dr. Michele Koven, Dr. Adrienne Lo, and Dr. Tracey L. Weldon, who have also generously given their time and expertise in support of my work. I thank them for their contributions and wonderful insights that have helped shape this dissertation. I also thank my graduate student colleagues, Sarah Simeziane, Dana Shalash, and Nagham Awadallah. Your help in revising and verifying the reliability of the discourse-level transcription method used in this study is immensely appreciated and has made this dissertation much stronger. I also am greatly appreciative of the feedback and support that I received from the Dissertation Discussion Group and the Language and Society Discussion Group at the University of Illinois. Our constant searching and questioning helped me sharpen my skills as a researcher and gave me the critical eye that is so essential for the work that we do. I am also thankful for the informal, cross-disciplinary discussion group that I had with Vincent Licciardello and Shumin Lin. I will always be grateful for the lively and insightful feedback that you have given me over the years. Our meetings marked a critical point in my graduate career and eventually gave rise to my interest in the interdisciplinary approach that is at the core of this dissertation. I am also indebted to my many friends and colleagues who have supported me over the years. I will always cherish the love that you have shown me and your help in making Champaign my second home. Thanks to Young Sun Lee for your unconditional love and iii support over the years. You have opened your heart and home to me and have truly made me feel like family. It has been a joy having you as my friend and feeling the loving warmth from you and your family over the years. I look forward to the many more years of friendship to come. I also thank the following friends for their love and support: Soondo Baek, Eunah Kim, Kyoung-young Kim, Ji-Young Kim, Eun-kyung Lee, Dora Lu, Renee Lemons, Antje Muntendam, Tameka Nelson, Chaeyoon Park, Perzavia Praylow, Laura and Mike Rosulek, Jeong-Ah Shin, Yun-Sun Shin, Elli Wu, and Su-Youn Yoon. I am grateful for how far we have all come and I can’t wait for the next chapters of our journeys. I also thank a precious group of people who have helped me develop a bright, healthy and hopeful outlook on my life and the journey ahead of me. Thank you Connie, Deidre, Meredith and the men and women of our circle and Beth Frasca, Justine Karduck and the wonderful people at SportWell. Words can’t express how much our time together has meant to me and how thankful I am for the lessons you have taught me. Finally, I thank the wonderful members of my family who have been the rock that has kept me grounded despite the many ups and downs of life. To Aunt Kathi, Uncle Johnny, and Aunt Lillie, your love is so precious to me. Thank you for always keeping me in your hearts, even though my wanderings took me so far from home and meant that we couldn't spend much time together over the years. To my brother Eric, thank you for being the brother that only you know how to be and for your unconditional love for your baby sister. But above all, I thank my mother, Yvonne Britt, for being such a strong, beautiful and loving mother. There aren’t enough words to describe the countless ways that you have helped your daughter grow from the little girl that I was to the woman that you have taught me to be. I thank God for you every day and am blessed to have such a mother and a friend as you. I also keep the loving memory of my father, iv Ulysses Britt, Jr., planted deeply in my heart. Each day that I live and the accomplishments that I achieve in life are possible because of the love and hope that you had for our family. I love you and I miss you. v Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction.........................................................................................................................................................1 1 Overview.................................................................................................................................................................1 1.1 Introduction to the Research Problems........................................................................................................2 1.2 Research Questions.......................................................................................................................................7 1.3 Methodology.................................................................................................................................................8 2 Summary of Results................................................................................................................................................9 3 Organization of Dissertation ................................................................................................................................10 Chapter 2: Literature Review .............................................................................................................................................12 1 Sociocultural Linguistics......................................................................................................................................12 2 Language and Identity Performance ....................................................................................................................16 2.1 Indexicality .................................................................................................................................................21 2.2 Membership Categorization .......................................................................................................................24 2.3 Stance ..........................................................................................................................................................25 3 Identity in Interaction ...........................................................................................................................................30 4 African American English and Identity Performance .........................................................................................36 5 Discussion.............................................................................................................................................................43 Chapter 3: Research Questions and Methodology ............................................................................................................47 1 Research Questions...............................................................................................................................................47 2 Data .......................................................................................................................................................................48 3 Ethnographic Background....................................................................................................................................50 4 Transcription Methods and Reliability ................................................................................................................51 5 Black Preaching Style Features............................................................................................................................60 5.1 Segmental features......................................................................................................................................61