Linguistic practice, social identity, and ideology

Discussions of multilingualism in Taiwan have focused on language as a marker of ethnicity in academic and political discourse, as exemplified by the current bentuhua or "nativization" movement. The promotion of ideologies which link language with ethnicity has obscured links between language and other aspects of identity, thus masking social inequalities which they reproduce. This study analyzes ideologies that link linguistic forms to dimensions of class, gender, educational level, occupation, and lifestyles, thus maintaining the diglossic relationship where Mandarin enjoys H status, while Taiwanese (the local variety) is associated with aspects of L culture. Further, It examines how these ideologies are reproduced within dominant structures, such as educational institutions, on the example of student and teacher language attitudes in a Taipei County high school. Finally, it demonstrates how the use of Taiwan Mandarin linguistic features, by "localizing" the dominant variety and thus claiming ownership of it, represents speakers' agency in resisting dominant structures and re-negotiating social relationships. In this study, Taiwan Mandarin is described as a continuum of features from most prestigious (the idealized Standard Mandarin) to most stigmatized (the imagined stereotype of a Taiwanese "accent"). Different features are used selectively by speakers to construct different and contextualized aspects of identities. A variation analysis of two Taiwan Mandarin features--de-retroflection of sibilant fricative initials and labio-velar glide deletion [w[open o]] [arrow right] [[open o]]--shows that local features are more likely to be used by students who identify with local networks, such as those studying in vocational classes, and less likely to be used by students who identify with the values and norms of the school institution and plan to attend college. This study demonstrates the operation of language ideologies at the level of linguistic practice and its relationship to dominant discourses.