Barbara Johnstone

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Barbara Johnstone
Born (1952-03-24) March 24, 1952 (age 72)
Occupation(s)Professor, Carnegie Mellon University
Known forScholar of discourse studies

Barbara Johnstone (born March 24, 1952) is an American professor of rhetoric and linguistics at Carnegie Mellon University. She specializes in discourse structure and function, sociolinguistics, rhetorical theory, and methods of text analysis. [1] She was the editor in chief of Language in Society from 2005 to 2013, [1] and is the editor of Pittsburgh Speech & Society, a website about Pittsburgh English for non-linguists. [2] She has published several books, including Speaking Pittsburghese (2013) and Discourse Analysis, 2nd Ed. (2008). She has also written for The New York Times. [3]

Contents

Education

Johnstone received her bachelor of arts in linguistics from Yale University.[ when? ] She received her master's and her doctorate in linguistics at the University of Michigan.

Career

She taught at Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne (1981-1985), Georgetown University (1985-1987), and Texas A&M University (1987-1997, followed by her current position of professor of rhetoric and linguistics at Carnegie Mellon University since 1997. [4]

Johnstone has also published papers on gender and language, Arabic language discourse, as well as many other linguistic topics. [5] On top of that, she also wrote a book called the "Linguistic Individual," [6] discussing self-expression in language.

Research on Pittsburghese

Johnstone is recognized as an expert on Pittsburgh English, [7] locally known as "Pittsburghese." Her research is concerned with how the dialect is "constructed through local talk, and talk about talk," connecting "people's understandings of language and place" with language change. [1] Her 2013 book Speaking Pittsburghese: The Story of a Dialect, is a summation of her scholarly work on Pittsburgh English. [1] [8] [9] The book is a sociolinguistic analysis of the history of Pittsburgh English and how it has changed over time, with a focus on the process of enregisterment and how the dialect is linked to local identity. [10] It also explores the history and local use of some of Pittsburgh's most emblematic words, including "yinz," "nebby," and "dahntahn." [11] Johnstone also focuses on phonological features of "pittsburghese" such as the monophthongal /aw/. [12]

Research on Texas women

Johnstone has written about style-shifting among Texas women. In her article, "Uses of southern-sounding speech by contemporary Texas women", Johnstone delves into how Texas women use different ways of talking, which range from "automatic and nonstrategic" to "very planned and strategic". [13]

In another article, titled "Sociolinguistic Resources, Individual Identities, and Public Speech Styles of Texas Women", Johnstone studied how women in Texas form linguistic identities based on their own individual backgrounds, such as ethnicity, region of living, as well as the linguistic models they experienced in their lives. [14]

Related Research Articles

Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on language and the ways it is used. It can overlap with the sociology of language, which focuses on the effect of language on society. Sociolinguistics overlaps considerably with pragmatics and is closely related to linguistic anthropology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Pennsylvania English</span> Dialect of American English

Western Pennsylvania English, known more narrowly as Pittsburgh English or popularly as Pittsburghese, is a dialect of American English native primarily to the western half of Pennsylvania, centered on the city of Pittsburgh, but potentially appearing in some speakers as far north as Erie County, as far west as Youngstown, Ohio, and as far south as Clarksburg, West Virginia. Commonly associated with the working class of Pittsburgh, users of the dialect are colloquially known as "Yinzers". The dialect is even heard in the town of Hancock, Maryland.

<i>Yinz</i> Second person pronoun used in Pennsylvania

Yinz is a second-person plural pronoun used mainly in Western Pennsylvania English. It is most prominent in Pittsburgh, but it is also found throughout the cultural region known as Appalachia, located within the geographical region of the Appalachians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Speech community</span> Group of people who share expectations regarding linguistic usage

A speech community is a group of people who share a set of linguistic norms and expectations regarding the use of language. It is a concept mostly associated with sociolinguistics and anthropological linguistics.

Jenny L. Cheshire is a British sociolinguist and professor at Queen Mary University of London. Her research interests include language variation and change, language contact and dialect convergence, and language in education, with a focus on conversational narratives and spoken English. She is most known for her work on grammatical variation, especially syntax and discourse structures, in adolescent speech and on Multicultural London English.

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In sociolinguistics, a style is a set of linguistic variants with specific social meanings. In this context, social meanings can include group membership, personal attributes, or beliefs. Linguistic variation is at the heart of the concept of linguistic style—without variation, there is no basis for distinguishing social meanings. Variation can occur syntactically, lexically, and phonologically.

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Jagoff or jag-off is an American English derogatory slang term from Pittsburghese meaning a person who is a jerk, stupid or inept. It is most prominent in the Pittsburgh area and Pennsylvania in general, along with wide use in the City of Chicago, particularly in the Irish taverns. The Dictionary of American Regional English defines the term as a "general term of disparagement". It is an archetypical Pittsburgh word, conjuring feelings of delight among Pittsburgh expatriates. The term is generally not seen as obscene among Pittsburghers and Chicagoans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yappin' Yinzers</span>

Yappin' Yinzers is a line of talking plush dolls with exaggerated stereotypical Pittsburgh mannerisms and speech patterns, a personality type called Yinzer. They are designed to "represent the epitome of Yinzerdom"

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Barbara Johnstone Carnegie Mellon University". Carnegie Mellon University. Archived from the original on 2014-02-23. Retrieved 2014-03-23.
  2. ↑ "Pittsburgh Speech & Society". University Library System at University of Pittsburgh.
  3. ↑ Johnstone, Barbara (December 23, 2013). "Local Accents Give You a Sense of Place". The New York Times .
  4. ↑ "Selected Works of Barbara Johnstone". bepress. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  5. ↑ "Barbara Johnstone | Carnegie Mellon University | discourse structure and function, sociolinguistics | Professor of Rhetoric and Linguistics, Affiliated Faculty, Department of Modern Languages". works.bepress.com. Archived from the original on 2015-04-11. Retrieved 2015-04-14.
  6. ↑ Johnstone, Barbara (2009). Jaffe, Alexandra (ed.). "Stance, Style, and the Linguistic Individual". Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Stance. Oxford University Press: 29–52. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331646.003.0002. ISBN   978-0-19-533164-6.
  7. ↑ Potter, Chris (January 22, 2014). "Oral History: CMU linguistics professor charts the city's history through its language". Pittsburgh City Paper .
  8. ↑ Rea, Shilo (November 4, 2013). "Pittsburghese: Carnegie Mellon's Barbara Johnstone Uncovers the Story of a Dialect". Carnegie Mellon University.
  9. ↑ Johnstone, Barbara (October 14, 2013). Speaking Pittsburghese: The Story of a Dialect. Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics. Oxford University Press. pp. lxxi. ISBN   9780199374915.
  10. ↑ University, Carnegie. "Press Release: Pittsburghese: Carnegie Mellon's Barbara Johnstone Uncovers the Story of a Dialect-Carnegie Mellon News - Carnegie Mellon University". www.cmu.edu. Retrieved 2015-04-14.
  11. ↑ Weaver, Rachel (January 4, 2014). "Yinzers proud of their dialect n'at". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review . Retrieved 2014-03-22.
  12. ↑ Johnstone, Barbara; Kiesling, Scott (2008). "Indexicality and experience: Exploring the meanings of /aw/-monophthongization in Pittsburgh". Journal of Sociolinguistics. 12 (1): 5–33. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9841.2008.00351.x.
  13. ↑ Johnstone, B. (1999) Uses of southern-sounding speech by contemporary Texas women. Journal of Sociolinguistics , 4 (3), 505-22.
  14. ↑ Johnstone, Barbara (1995). "Sociolinguistic resources, individual identities, and public speech styles of Texas women". Journal of Linguistic Anthropology. 5 (2): 183–202. doi:10.1525/jlin.1995.5.2.183.
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