POWER AND SOLIDARITY IN MORAL, AFFECTIVE, AND EPISTEMIC POSITIONING: CONSTRUCTING IDENTITIES IN EVERYDAY VIETNAMESE FAMILY DISCOURSE A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics By Naomee-Minh Ngoc Nguyen, M.S. Washington, DC July 1, 2020 Copyright 2020 by Naomee-Minh Ngoc Nguyen All Rights Reserved ii POWER AND SOLIDARITY IN MORAL, AFFECTIVE, AND EPISTEMIC POSITIONING: CONSTRUCTING IDENTITIES IN EVERYDAY VIETNAMESE FAMILY DISCOURSE Naomee-Minh Ngoc Nguyen, M.S. Thesis Advisor: Cynthia Gordon, Ph.D. ABSTRACT Expanding scholarship on Vietnamese interaction (e.g., Luong, 1990; Sidnell and Shohet, 2013) and discursive identity construction in families (e.g., Tannen, Kendall, and Gordon, 2007), this study explores everyday conversations among members of one Southern Vietnamese dialect- speaking family. Taking an interactional sociolinguistic approach and building on Tannen’s (1993) theorizing on the relativity of linguistic strategies, I analyze how speakers discursively accomplish moral, affective, and epistemic “positioning” (e.g., Davies and Harré, 1990; Bamberg, 1997) of self and others, thereby constructing relationships and identities. Data are drawn from 10 hours of audio-recorded conversations among members of my own extended family. To begin, I analyze how speakers use pronouns, kin terms, and referring terms to create moral and affective positions in conversational narratives. Drawing on Goffman’s (1981) “footing” notion, I show how narrators identify, refer to, address, and animate story world characters in order to evaluate characters’ actions, as well as how narrators’ alternations in person deixis index relationships of power and solidarity with story characters and the audience. I then investigate how speakers self-position as moral, competent, and good mothers by displaying knowledge about their children. Employing Heritage’s (2012a) distinction between epistemic status and stance, I show how matters of access, primacy, and rights figure into epistemic authority construction. By establishing their rights to describe, interpret, and evaluate iii their children’s behaviors, participants create maternal identities while simultaneously negotiating power and solidarity with co-present family members. Last, I investigate how speakers construct a shared, diasporic family identity grounded in mutual knowledge about the family’s natal village. Extending Tannen’s (2007a) discussion of scenes, I demonstrate how, through knowledge displays, speakers co-construct detailed hometown scenes and past experiences. As speakers attempt to establish relatively equal epistemic authority, they balance power and solidarity and position each other as expert co- tellers of the family history. Bringing together epistemics, positioning theory, and interactional sociolinguistics, this study lends insight into family interaction in an understudied sociolinguistic context, while also illuminating how norms and expectations in the Vietnamese sociocultural universe are reflected and reinforced in speakers’ linguistic choices. It thus explicates interconnections among knowledge, identity, and discourse. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Like any Ph.D. candidate, I had read several dissertations throughout my graduate career in preparation for writing my own. Perhaps admitting this is trite, but my favorite part of every dissertation was the acknowledgements section. It felt aspirational, reading the authors’ words of thanks, because I had always tried to imagine the immense gratitude I would feel when I arrived at the end of my own dissertation journey. Now that I am here, the depth of my gratitude and appreciation reach far beyond what my imagination could ever muster. I am overwhelmed, and honored, by how much love, support, and encouragement I have received in my pursuit of this endeavor. First, my utmost thanks go to my family, without whom this project would not have been possible. I am grateful not only for their participation in this study, but for the countless sacrifices they have made and hardships they have endured. I once heard someone claim that every Vietnamese family you meet has an amazing story, and I truly believe it; my family’s story is no exception. I can only hope that this project does justice to my family’s legacy. Con xin gửi lời cám ơn sâu sắc đến Pá, Phò Phò, khậu Phón, día Mủi, dì trưởng Minh, día Dục, día Cấm, día Kiêt, và mọi người trong gia đình đã tham gia vào dự án này. Nhờ có gia đình trợ gíup là con mới hoàn thành bài luận án một cách hoàn hào. Con rất biết ơn tất cả những gì mà gia đình đã làm cho con. I am indebted to the members of my committee, who have guided and supported me to the very end. For Elaine Chun, I am thankful for the many ways she has challenged me to consider new perspectives. It has been heartening and tremendously meaningful to learn from a fellow Asian American woman scholar. I am in deep gratitude to Heidi Hamilton, for her kindness, her seemingly boundless knowledge and expertise, and her thorough feedback both on v this dissertation and on all of my work over the years. I am humbled by the attention and care with which she always approached my research. Her dedication to her students and their work continues to inspire me. And for my mentor, advisor, and committee chair, Cynthia Gordon, I am endlessly grateful; I feel so lucky to have been her advisee. From her, I have gleaned invaluable lessons about finding my voice through writing, conducting research, and, by no small feat, navigating the IRB review process. She has given me her patience and understanding throughout the years, and she has stood by me through times of personal and professional struggle. Thank you for having absolute confidence in my abilities even when I could not find it for myself. I cannot express enough how thankful I am for all of the faculty members who have helped me grow as a scholar. I am especially grateful to Natalie Schilling for giving me the chance to conduct fieldwork for the Smith Island Voices Project and the Language and Communication in Washington, D.C. Project. From these projects, I have become a more adaptable, persistent, and reflexive researcher; without these experiences, this project surely would not have come to fruition. Natalie’s commitment to collaborating with her students gave me the confidence to pursue projects and research ideas I previously thought impossible. Likewise, Deborah Tannen has also been an instrumental part of my development as a scholar, as she always held me to the highest standards, pushing me to improve my analytical skills and writing abilities. Her enthusiasm for my work, and her constant willingness to listen to my ideas, have both humbled and emboldened me as I move forward in my career. My sincerest appreciation goes to the sociolinguistics faculty members I have had the pleasure of working with at Georgetown, who have all influenced and encouraged my professional development. I thank you, Jen Nycz, Jen Sclafani, Alex Johnston, and Anastasia Nylund, for helping illuminate the path ahead. I would also like to extend a warm and overdue vi thank you to Lourdes Ortega and her course on Second Language Acquisition and Bilingualism. It was in her class that I began to more deeply explore heritage language ideologies in my own community; thanks to this, I have learned how to better to take ownership of my identity as a heritage speaker of Vietnamese. It has given me the strength to overcome any insecurities I have about working in the Vietnamese language. I hold a deep appreciation for the relationships I have cultivated with scholars outside of the Georgetown community. Beginning with my undergraduate career at the University of Georgia, I am grateful to Chad Howe for nurturing my career as a sociolinguist. I can still remember his parting words of advice after I had decided that I would attend Georgetown: “the best dissertation is a done dissertation. Done is better than perfect.” Now that I have reached the end of this project, I couldn’t agree more. I have also benefited greatly from conversations with Jack Sidnell at the University of Toronto Mississauga about his work on Vietnamese, referential choice, and epistemics. His research inspired much of my analysis in chapter four – for this, I am immensely grateful. I give special and heartfelt thanks to Minh Trang Thị Nguyễn at the University of Georgia, whose passion for teaching Vietnamese is unparalleled. Cô Trang’s classroom nurtured my deep curiosity and love for the Vietnamese language. Her warmth and generosity for her students left a deep and lasting impression, and I aspire to guide others as she has guided me. I know no matter where I go in life, I will always have her support. Cám ơn cô luôn luôn ủng hộ em, em rất hân hạnh đã được làm học sinh của cô. Em xin kính chúc cô nhiều sức khỏe, thành công và hạnh phúc. My fellow classmates and colleagues have brought me great joy and fun throughout my Ph.D. journey, and I feel privileged to have befriended so many wonderful people in the vii Department of Linguistics. I have deep respect and appreciation for my fellow dissertation writers, Mark Visonà, Viggo (Ho Fai) Cheng, Hanwool Choe, Jehan Al-Mahmoud, and Didem İkizoğlu. They kept me accountable for my progress, provided help with glossing and translation, and lifted my spirits week after week. I especially thank Mark, who has been a dependable source of strength and kindness from the beginning. His sense of humor and unconditional support made me smile during even the most difficult parts of graduate life. To the other members of my Ph.D. cohort, Francesca Venezia, Yiran Xu, Amy Kim, Alexandra Pfiffner, Amelia Becker, Maddie Oakley, Maya Barzilai, Emma Manning, and Alix Fetch, thank you for being the best cohort I could ever hope to be a part of.