Abstract
First and second wave sociolinguistic studies of eh in New Zealand English demonstrate that this vernacular pragmatic marker is associated with younger, working class speakers in informal speech contexts. It is also an in-group marker for Maori. In this paper, we take a third wave approach to explore the spread of eh to more formal workplace contexts, examining variation in eh use in the speech of six mid-aged Maori, Cook Islands Maori and Pakeha male managers in New Zealand workplaces. While eh is most frequently used by two Maori men to construct their leadership personae, all the men utilize eh in subtly different ways for strategic interactional ends. Drawing from Eckert’s concept of indexical fields, we argue that due to its associations with values such as informality, rapport and solidarity, eh provides a useful linguistic resource within the workplace context, one that is employed with a great deal of skill by the six men.
About the authors
Bernadette Vine is a Research Fellow on the Wellington Language in the Workplace Project (www.victoria.ac.nz/lwp/) and Corpus Manager for the Archive of New Zealand English. Bernadette’s research interests include workplace communication, leadership and New Zealand English. She is the author of Getting Things Done at Work: The Discourse of Power in Workplace Interaction and is co-author of Leadership, Discourse and Ethnicity (with Janet Holmes and Meredith Marra).
Sharon Marsden is a Lecturer at Massey University, Wellington and a Research Associate with the Wellington Language in the Workplace Project at Victoria University. She teaches Sociolinguistics, Forensic Linguistics and Mediated Communication. Her research interests are contemporary dialectology, World Englishes and connections between language, discourse and culture. Her research on New Zealand English addresses ongoing developments in the variety in the context of globalization and superdiversity.
Transcription conventions
- ... //... \
simultaneous or overlapping utterance of “first” speaker
- /... \\...
simultaneous or overlapping utterance of “second” speaker
- [laughs]
paralinguistic features and editorial comments in square brackets,
colons indicate start/finish
- ...
omitted section
- un-
cut off word, both self and other interruption
- ()
untranscribable or incomprehensible speech
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the men who recorded the data used for the basis of this study. The data collection was made possible by a Marsden grant administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand. We also express our thanks to Janet Holmes, Laurie Bauer and two anonymous reviewers for reading and commenting on drafts of this paper.
References
Aijmer, Karin. 2015. Pragmatic Markers. In Karin Aijmer & Christoph Rühlemann (eds.), Corpus Pragmatics. A Handbook, 195–218. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139057493.011Search in Google Scholar
Andersen, Gisele. 2001. Pragmatic Markers and Sociolinguistic Variation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/pbns.84Search in Google Scholar
Andersen, Gisele. 2015. Relevance. In Karin Aijmer & Christoph Rühlemann (eds.), Corpus Pragmatics. A Handbook, 143–168. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139057493.008Search in Google Scholar
Bell, Allan. 2001. Back in style: Reworking audience design. In Penelope Eckert & John R. Rickford (eds.), Style and Sociolinguistic Variation, 139–169. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511613258.010Search in Google Scholar
Blommaert, Jan. 2010. The Sociolinguistics of Globalization. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511845307Search in Google Scholar
Bönisch-Brednich, Brigitte. 2008. Watching the Kiwis: New Zealander’s rules of social interaction – an introduction. Journal of New Zealand Studies Special Issue: Watching the Kiwis 6(7). 3–15.10.26686/jnzs.v0i6/7.131Search in Google Scholar
Britain, David. 1998. Linguistic change in intonation: The use of high rising terminals in New Zealand English. In Peter Trudgill & Jenny Cheshire (eds.), Sociolinguistics Reader, 213–239. New York: Arnold. [Originally published 1992 in Language Variation and Change 4(1). 77–104].Search in Google Scholar
Bucholtz, Mary & Kira Hall. 2005. Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies 7. 585–614.10.1177/1461445605054407Search in Google Scholar
Christie, Christine. 2013. The relevance of taboo language: An analysis of the indexical values of swearwords. Journal of Pragmatics 58. 152–169.10.1016/j.pragma.2013.06.009Search in Google Scholar
Columbus, Georgie. 2010. “Ah lovely stuff, eh?” – invariant tag meanings and usage across three varieties of English. In Stefan Th. Gries, Stefanie Wulff & Mark Davies (eds.), Corpus-linguistic Applications: Current Studies, New Directions, 85–102. Amsterdam & New York, NY: Rodopi.10.1163/9789042028012_007Search in Google Scholar
Eckert, Penelope. 2008. Variation and the indexical field. Journal of Sociolinguistics 12(4). 453–476.10.1111/j.1467-9841.2008.00374.xSearch in Google Scholar
Eckert, Penelope. 2012. Three waves of variation study: The emergence of meaning in the study of sociolinguistic variation. Annual Review of Anthropology 41. 87–100.10.1146/annurev-anthro-092611-145828Search in Google Scholar
Fairclough, Norman. 1989. Language and power. London: Longman.Search in Google Scholar
Gold, Elaine. 2008. Which eh is the Canadian eh? Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics. 27. 73–85.Search in Google Scholar
Holmes, Janet. 1995. Women, men and politeness. London: Longman.Search in Google Scholar
Holmes, Janet, Meredith Marra & Bernadette Vine. 2011. Leadership, ethnicity and discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199730759.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Holmes, Janet, Meredith Marra & Bernadette Vine. 2012. Politeness and impoliteness in New Zealand English workplace discourse. Journal of Pragmatics 44(9). 1063–1076.10.1016/j.pragma.2011.11.006Search in Google Scholar
Holmes, Janet & Bernadette Vine (forthcoming). “That’s just how we do things round here”: Researching workplace discourse for the benefit of society. To appear in Vander Viana & Joan Rahilly (eds.), Crossing boundaries: Interdisciplinarity in language studies, Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Search in Google Scholar
Holmes, Janet, Bernadette Vine & Gary Johnson. 1998. Guide to the Wellington Corpus of Spoken New Zealand English. Wellington & New Zealand: Victoria University of Wellington.10.26686/knznq.v1i1.586Search in Google Scholar
Jonassen, Jon Tikivanotau M. 2003. Tu tangata: Personality and culture. In Ron Crocombe & Marjorie Tua’inekore Crocombe (eds.), Akono’anga Maori: Cook Islands Culture, 127–142. Suva, Fiji: Institute of Pacific Studies.Search in Google Scholar
Marra, Meredith, Bernadette Vine & Janet Holmes. 2008. Heroes, fathers and good mates: Leadership styles of men at work. In Elspeth Tilley (ed.), Proceedings of the Australia and New Zealand Communication Association Conference, Wellington, NZ, 9–11 July 2008, 1–15.Search in Google Scholar
Meyerhoff, Miriam. 1992. ‘We’ve all got to go one day, eh’: Powerlessness and solidarity in the functions of a New Zealand tag. In Kira Hall, Mary Bucholtz & Birch Moonwomon (eds.), Locating power: Proceedings of the Second Berkeley women and language conference, 409–419. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Women and Language Group, University of California.Search in Google Scholar
Meyerhoff, Miriam. 1994. Sounds pretty ethnic, eh? A pragmatic particle in New Zealand English. Language in Society 23(3). 367–388.10.1017/S0047404500018029Search in Google Scholar
Ochs, Elinor. 1992. Indexing gender. In Alessandro Duranti & Charles Goodwin Stephen C. Levinson (eds.), Rethinking context: Language as an interactive phenomenon, 335–358. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Ochs, Elinor. 1996. Linguistic Resources for socializing humanity. In John J. Gumperz & Stephen C. Levinson (eds.), Rethinking Linguistic Relativity, 407–437. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Patterson, John. 1992. Exploring Maori values. Palmerston North: Dunmore Press.Search in Google Scholar
Peirce, C. 1955. Philosophical writings of peirce. New York: Dover.Search in Google Scholar
Rauniomaa, Mirka. 2003. Stance accretion. Paper presented at the Language, Interaction, and Social Organization Research Focus Group, University of California, Santa Barbara, February.Search in Google Scholar
Starks, Donna, Laura Thompson & Jane Christie. 2008. Whose discourse particles? New Zealand eh in the Niuean migrant community. Journal of Pragmatics 40(7). 1279–1295.10.1016/j.pragma.2007.05.007Search in Google Scholar
Stubbe, Maria. 1999. Research report: Maori and Pakeha use of selected pragmatic devices in a sample of New Zealand English. Te Reo 42. 39–53.Search in Google Scholar
Stubbe, Maria & Janet Holmes. 1995. You know, eh and other ‘exasperating expressions’: An analysis of social and stylistic variation in the use of pragmatic devices in a sample of New Zealand English. Language and Communication 15(1). 63–88.10.1016/0271-5309(94)00016-6Search in Google Scholar
Vine, Bernadette. (forthcoming). Pragmatic markers at work in New Zealand. To appear in Lucy Pickering, Eric Friginal & Shelley Staples (eds.), Talking at work: Corpus-based explorations of workplace discourse, London: Palgrave McMillan.Search in Google Scholar
©2016 by De Gruyter Mouton
