Style, indexicality, and the social meaning of tag questions

TLDR

The article shows how style and indexicality help explain the social meaning of tag questions. The authors analyze conversational speech and ethnographic data from high‑school girls in northwest England, using quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the discourse, grammatical, and phonological aspects of tag questions. They find that while four social groups use tag questions similarly to convey viewpoints, they differ stylistically, with these differences indexically marking stances, personas, and group identity, indicating that social meaning is best understood by examining internal composition within broader discursive contexts. Keywords: adolescents, ethnography, indexicality, interactional context, quantitative discourse analysis, social meaning, style, tag questions.

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article illustrates how the notions of style and indexicality can illuminate understanding of the social meaning of a specific linguistic variable, the tag question. Drawing on conversational speech and ethnographic data from a community of high school girls in northwest England, it quantitatively and qualitatively examines the discourse, grammatical, and phonological design of tag questions in this community. Members of four social groups are shown to use tag questions to similar effect, as a means of conducing particular points of view. However, these groups also exhibit striking differences in the stylistic composition of tags, distinctions that indexically construct stances and personas, which may in turn come to represent group identity. These data suggest that the social meaning of tag questions can be best ascertained by examining their internal composition and by situating them in their broader discursive and social stylistic contexts. (Adolescents, ethnography, indexicality, interactional context, quantitative discourse analysis, social meaning, style, tag questions)