ABSTRACT MALLINSON, CHRISTINE LOUISE. The Dynamic Construction of Race, Class, and Gender through Linguistic Practice among Women in a Black Appalachian Community. (Under the direction of L. Richard Della Fave.) This dissertation conceptualizes and analyzes the dynamic construction of race, class, and gender through linguistic practice in a way that integrates the sociological study of social organization with the study of language in its social context. I illustrate the efficacy of the approach in its application to a field study of the black Southern Appalachian community of Texana, North Carolina. I begin by contextualizing the setting using qualitative evidence from naturalistic observation and interviews with residents. I then focus on the social and linguistic habits of two groups of four women in the community. Drawing from observation and interviews, I analyze qualitative data on the groups’ contemporary situations, shared memories, and ways of life. The qualitative data provides content for interpreting quantitative analyses of sociolinguistic data with regard to race, class, and gender identities. Drawing on both data sources, I show that the two groups of women exhibit distinctions based on lifestyle and presentation that divide them into discrete status groups. I thus provide evidence to show how social status is articulated with local character, in everyday practice, but is also rooted in the system of stratification in ways that intersect with gender, race, and language. My findings exemplify how agentive social actors use language as symbolic vehicles in daily interaction, in concert with other social practices, to constitute intersecting social structures. I draw these conclusions from within an integrative framework that incorporates three bodies of social theory: intersectionality and structuration theories from sociology and community of practice theory as it has developed within variationist sociolinguistics. In framing variationist sociolinguistics with two bodies of current social theory, I establish viable avenues for cross-disciplinary collaboration and insight. THE DYNAMIC CONSTRUCTION OF RACE, CLASS, AND GENDER THROUGH LINGUISTIC PRACTICE AMONG WOMEN IN A BLACK APPALACHIAN COMMUNITY by Christine Mallinson A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy SOCIOLOGY Raleigh 2006 APPROVED BY: ________________________________ _________________________________ Dr. Barbara Risman Dr. Anne Schiller ________________________________ _________________________________ Dr. Walt Wolfram Dr. Mary Bucholtz ________________________________ Chair of Advisory Committee Dr. L. Richard Della Fave DEDICATION To the community of Texana To my family ii BIOGRAPHY CHRISTINE MALLINSON was born on September 8, 1978, in Salisbury, North Carolina, and lived there until beginning college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She graduated summa cum laude from UNC in May of 2000, with a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in Sociology and a second major in German. Mallinson then began her graduate study at North Carolina State University in August of 2000 and received a Master of Arts degree in English with a concentration in sociolinguistics in May 2002. She continued her graduate studies in August 2002 by pursuing a doctorate in Sociology at North Carolina State University, with concentrations in race, class, and gender inequality and sociolinguistics. She completed her degree and graduated with her Ph.D. in May 2006. She has accepted a position as an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in the interdisciplinary Language, Literacy & Culture program, to begin August 2006. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I don’t know how to begin to thank all the people whose influence and encouragement have been crucial to me in the dissertation process. First and foremost, to my parents Jim and Carla, and my brother Stephen, thank you for being my sounding boards and near-therapists throughout this entire process… offering boundless support, encouragement, and grounded perspective when I was busy getting lost in academia. To my friends, particularly all of the graduate students in the linguistics and sociology programs—I couldn’t have done it without any of you, who are too numerous to mention… I’m so grateful to have such a strong support network! Phillip Carter deserves special thanks for being, without a doubt, the best office mate and friend I could have hoped to have, throughout graduate school and beyond. I also couldn’t have conducted any of the research in this dissertation without the help of Becky Childs, my longstanding colleague and friend, who not only took countless research trips with me, but has also given me invaluable insight into the world of fieldwork, graduate school, dissertations, and the academic job search. I also want to thank those who participated in this research in other ways—by helping conduct interviews in Texana and gather information about the community, by discussing this work with me, by commenting on earlier drafts of this dissertation, and/or just by giving their general support: Michael Adams, Michele Allen, Agnes Bolonyai, Amy Caison, Ceci Davis, Connie Eble, Kirk Hazen, Deborah Hicks, Brian José, Denise Troutman, Don Winford, and doubtless many more. I am also so fortunate to have gotten to know Robin Dodsworth, who shares my dedication to bridging sociolinguistics and sociology, and who I can always count on to provide feedback, support, insight, and encouragement in our shared commitment to doing interdisciplinary research. iv In my tenure as a graduate student, I perpetually count my blessings for having been a student of Walt Wolfram. Walt, thanks for everything—for being a sounding board and the ultimate resource for knowledge and advice over the past six years, for helping set up this interdisciplinary track in my doctoral program, for all the funding!, for treating me as both a friend and as a colleague, for giving me the opportunity to conduct research on my own, and for above all giving me the space and the never-failing support to pursue my own path. Above all, you’ve given me a model for the kind of academic I hope to be. The rest of my committee from NC State’s sociology department—Barbara Risman, Anne Schiller, and above all, Rick Della Fave—similarly deserves special thanks for supporting my research that tested the boundaries of typical sociological and anthropological research. Rick, in particular, has been one of the few sociologists who I could count on to always find relevance in discussions about sociolinguistics, and in return I always came away from our talks with new sociological insights. Finally, I am also indebted to Mary Bucholtz, whose Language and Gender class at the 2003 Summer Linguistic Institute inspired me to conduct much of the research in this dissertation, and whose mentorship and support, both academic and professional, I could not have done without. To close, I would like to thank the residents of Texana yet again for agreeing to participate in this project. Becky and I always felt welcome in your community, and I learned so much from the opportunity to get to know you all. Thank you for being willing to share your stories. Finally, I am grateful to the National Science Foundation (Grant BCS- 0236838), the William C. Friday Endowment at NC State, and the NC State Sociology Graduate Student Association for helping fund this research. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1.…....Sociological and Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Language in Society.…..... 1 Introduction to the Study…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..….1 The Scope of Chapter 1..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..………… 2 Sociological Perspectives on Language in Society..…..…..…..…..…..…..………… 3 Sociological Research on Language and Culture Refining Sociological Perspectives on Language in Society Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Language in Society..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..12 Variationist Sociolinguistic Research Refining Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Language in Society Chapter Summary..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..….. ..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…….35 Chapter 2..…………Language in Society in Integrated Theoretical Perspective ...………. 37 The Scope of Chapter 2..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..……….. 37 The Relevance of Sociological Theory to the Study of Language in Society……… 38 Intersectionality Theory Addressing Social Class in Critiques of Intersectionality Theory Structuration Theory Addressing Agency in Critiques of Structuration Theory Community of Practice Theory Critiques of Community of Practice Theory Integrating Structuration, Intersectionality, and Community of Practice Theories…56 Chapter Summary..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..………………59 Chapter 3……………………..The Setting: Texana, North Carolina……………………..61 The Scope of Chapter 3..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..………..61 Portraying Texana..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..……………..61 Heritage..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..………………………..69 Social Geography..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..………………78 Early History..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…………………..81 Integration..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..……………………..88 Social Class..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..……………………93 Family..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…………………………101 The Youngest Generation..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..……..105 Attachment to Place..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…………...111