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Positioning the Self and Others: Linguistic perspectives
Edited by Kate Beeching, Chiara Ghezzi and Piera Molinelli
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 292] 2018
► pp. 241–262

Chapter 11
Representations of self and other in narratives of return migration

This paper examines self and other representations in interviews conducted with second-generation Greek return migrants, (in their majority Greek Americans) who relocated to their parents’ homeland as adults within a decade prior to the interviews. Through the analysis of stories of linguistic and cultural assimilation, conflict and transition, authenticity and hybridity, we explore how return migrants construct and negotiate identity positions vis-à-vis other members of their immigrant community, native Greeks, and the interviewer through the employment of indexical devices during the interview. Return migrants constitute an understudied group, especially from a sociolinguistic perspective, and we argue that understanding the complex positioning of identities among this group may provide unique insights into the broader ideologies that mediate hybrid and hyphenated identities in general.

Keywords: identity, narratives, positioning, membership categorisation, code-switching, constructed dialogue
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
  • 3.Data and methods
    • 3.1Scope and data collection
    • 3.2Analytical focus
  • 4.Findings
    • 4.1Greek ethnic membership alignment and class membership markers
    • 4.2Pronouns others and hierarchies: Greeks, ethnic, Anglos, and Aborigines in Australia
    • 4.3Liminal identities
    • 4.4Constructed dialogue as a positioning device
  • 5.Conclusions
  • References
Published online: 17 July 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.292.11nik
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Beeching, Kate
2023. Maryann Overstreet and George Yule, General extenders: The forms and functions of a new linguistic category. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. Pp. x + 238. ISBN 9781108837231.. English Language and Linguistics 27:2 ► pp. 425 ff. DOI logo
Bosworth, Yulia
2021. ‘Those people who chose us’: Discursive construction of identity and belonging in the context of Quebec’s 2018 provincial elections. Discourse & Society 32:2 ► pp. 135 ff. DOI logo
Sclafani, Jennifer & Alexander Nikolaou
2021. Metalinguistic Discourse and “Grenglish” in Narratives of Return Migration. In Metalinguistic Communities, ► pp. 95 ff. DOI logo

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