status and solidarity

Lynn turned me on to this book that we’ve both been loving this summer – James Paul Gee – writes about social linguistics and literacies which is situated exactly at the intersection of our interests (she researches / teaches about adolescent literacy). So anyway he has these great labels for concepts that have circling in this blog (and in my discourse) for a long time. He talks about that language use is always rooted in motivations of STATUS and SOLIDARITY:

Status and solidarity are the competing, conflicting and yet intimately related fields of attraction and repulsion within which all uses of language are situated.

And then he goes on to probe how indicative your use of the oral –in’ or –ing demonstrates which of these dialectical poles you’re featuring more in that particular speech episode. If you’re endin your words with the “n” – than you’re seeking solidarity – with the “g” – you’re positioning yourself for status. Now use of this code (or any other linguistic criteria) is dependent upon your social circle, because there are many circles where the use of the “g” is a bid for SOLIDARITY and STATUS.

But these two poles do again mark out the powerful opposing urges to be a part of something (to be “in”) and the urge to be unique (“be yourself, no matter what they say…”)

And this feels like a particularly keen truth when it comes to the point that Nathan makes in his blog:

Can one really affect the world one person at a time? That is just not good math. […]In order to change the world, you must be able to affect systems. In order to affect systems you must have the backing of institutions. In order to get backing you have to sell yourself to something. I dabbled in everything in college; track, choir, drama, residence life, debate etc...but I liked everything so i did not sell myself to anything. Consequently I have not affected any systems.

To have cache you have to (as Mandy puts it) “sell out” , but to make real change – to subvert the rottenness of existing status – you have to be able to maintain a sense of seperateness…

so many implications...