Style and styling

Janus Mortensen & Nikolas Coupland
University of Copenhagen | Cardiff University
Table of contents

In the most general, everyday understanding of the term, a style is a way of doing something. The blues is a particular style of music and so is jazz; surrealism is a style of painting and the same goes for pointillism. Cross-country skiers tend to stride forward in classic style or move at greater speed in what is known as skate style. When the term style is used in this manner – as a noun referring to a conventionalized way of doing something – we are likely to think of styles as relatively fixed entities, even though the categories in question are likely to be approximative generalizations: people might reasonably argue that the blues takes different forms in different contexts, and so on. However, a more important theoretical point is that, since styles always have to be ‘brought off’ in order to materialize, the notion of style inevitably also involves a more dynamic aspect, an aspect of doing. Style is not only a noun but also a verb, and any attempt at theorizing style will have to take this duality into consideration – ‘style’ as cultural form in relation to ‘styling’ as cultural practice.

Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price.

References

Agha, Asif
2003 “The social life of cultural value.” Language & Communication 23(3–4): 231–273.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2007 Language and Social Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Auer, Peter
(ed.) 2007 Style and Social Identities: Alternative Approaches to Linguistic Heterogeneity. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Bakhtin, Mikhail
1981 The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Translated by Michael Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
1986 Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Translated by Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Bauman, Richard
1986 Story, Performance, and Event: Contextual Stories of Oral Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bell, Allan
1984 “Language style as audience design.” Language in Society 13(2): 145–204.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2001 “Back in style: Reworking audience design.” In Style and Sociolinguistic Variation, ed. by Penelope Eckert and John R. Rickford, 139–169. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
2016 “An evil version of our accent.” In Style, Media and Language Ideologies, ed. by Jacob Thøgersen, Nikolas Coupland and Janus Mortensen, 235–258. Oslo: Novus.Google Scholar
Bohmann, Axel
2016 “ ‘Nobody canna cross it’: Language-ideological dimensions of hypercorrect speech in Jamaica.” English Language and Linguistics 20(1): 129–152.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bucholtz, Mary
2008 Indexicality in Interaction. Themed panel at Sociolinguistics Symposium 17, 3–5 April, Amsterdam. http://​www​.meertens​.knaw​.nl​/ss17​/contributions​/abstract​.php​?paperID​=158Google Scholar
Bucholtz, Mary, and Kira Hall
2005 “Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach.” Discourse Studies 7(4–5):585–614.Google Scholar
Campbell-Kibler, Kathryn
2007 “Accent, (ING), and the social logic of listener perceptions.” American Speech 82(1): 32–64.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2008 “I’ll be the judge of that: Diversity in social perceptions of (ING).” Language in Society 37(5): 637–659.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Coupland, Nikolas
1985 “Hark, hark the lark!”: Social motivations for phonological style-shifting. Language and Communication 5: 153–172.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2001 “Stylization, authenticity and TV news review.” Discourse Studies 3(4): 413–442.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2007 Style: Language Variation and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2011 “The Sociolinguistics of style.” In The Cambridge Handbook of Sociolinguistics, ed.by Rajend Mesthrie, 138–156. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2016 “Labov, vernacularity and sociolinguistic change.” Journal of Sociolinguistics 20(4): 409–430.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(ed.) 2016 Sociolinguistics: Theoretical Debates. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Coupland, Nikolas and Janus Mortensen
2017 “Style as a unifying perspective for the sociolinguistics of talking media.” In Style, Mediation, and Change: Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Talking Media, ed. by Janus MortensenJanus Mortensen, Nikolas Coupland and Jacob Thøgersen, 251–261. New York: Oxford University Press.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Drew, Paul and John Heritage
1992 Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Eckert, Penelope
2000 Linguistic Variation as Social Practice: The Linguistic Construction of Identity in Belten High. Malden: Blackwell.Google Scholar
2008 “Variation and the indexical field.” Journal of Sociolinguistics 12(4): 453–76.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2012 “Three waves of variation study: The emergence of meaning in the study of sociolinguistic variation.” Annual Review of Anthropology 41(1): 87–100.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2016 “Variation, meaning and social change.” In Sociolinguistics: Theoretical Debates, ed. by Nikolas Coupland, 68–85. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eckert, Penelope and John R. Rickford
(eds) 2001 Style and Sociolinguistic Variation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Eco, Umberto
1972 “Towards a semiotic enquiry into the television message”. In W.P.C.S. 3, University of Birmingham.Google Scholar
Enkvist, Nils Erik, John Spencer and Michael J. Gregory
1964 Linguistics and Style. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fabricius, Anne and Janus Mortensen
2013 “Language ideology and the notion of construct resources: A case study of modern RP.” In Language (De)Standardisation in Late Modern Europe: Experimental Studies, ed. by Tore Kristiansen and Stefan Grondelaers, 375–401. Oslo: Novus.Google Scholar
Firth, John R.
1950 “Personality and language in society.” The Sociological Review 42 (1): 37–52.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1957 Papers in Linguistics, 1934–1951. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Giles, Howard and Peter F. Powesland
1975 Speech Style and Social Evaluation. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gumperz, John J.
1982 Discourse Strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2015 “Interactional sociolinguistics: A personal perspective.” In The Handbook of Discourse Analysis, 2nd edition, ed. by Deborah Tannen, Heidi E. Hamilton and Deborah Schiffrin, 309–323. Malden: Blackwell. [Originally published in 2003].Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K.
1978 Language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K., Angus McIntosh and Peter Strevens
1964 The Linguistic Sciences and Language Teaching. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
Hebdige, Dick
1979 Subculture: The Meaning of Style. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hickey, Leo
(ed.) 1989 The Pragmatics of Style. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hymes, Dell
1972 “Models of the interaction of language and social life.” In Directions in Sociolinguistics, ed. by John J. Gumperz and Dell Hymes, 35–71. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
1974 Foundations in Sociolinguistics: An Ethnographic Approach. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Irvine, Judith
2001 “ ‘Style’ as distinctiveness: The culture and ideology of linguistic differentiation.” In Style and Sociolinguistic Variation, ed. by Penelope Eckert and John R. Rickford, 21–43. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jaffe, Alexandra
2016 “Indexicality, stance and fields in sociolinguistics.” In Sociolinguistics: Theoretical Debates, ed. by Nikolas Coupland, 86–112. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnstone, Barbara
2014 Speaking Pittsburghese: The Story of a Dialect. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Johnstone, Barbara, Jennifer Andrus and Andrew E. Danielson
2006 “Mobility, indexicality, and the enregisterment of ‘Pittsburghese.’” Journal of English Linguistics 34(2): 77–104.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnstone, Barbara, Daniel Baumgardt, Maeve Eberhardt and Scott Kiesling
2015 Pittsburgh Speech and Pittsburghese. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Joos, Martin
1967 The Five Clocks: A Linguistic Excursion into the Five Styles of English Usage. New York: HBJ.Google Scholar
Jørgensen, Jens Normann, Martha Sif Karrebæk, Lian Malai Madsen and Janus Spindler Møller
2011 “Polylanguaging in superdiversity.” Diversities 13(2): 23–37.Google Scholar
Kiesling, Scott Fabius
1998 “Men’s identities and sociolinguistic variation: The case of fraternity men.” Journal of Sociolinguistics 2(1): 69–99.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2018 “YouTube Yinzers: Stancetaking and the performance of Pittsburghese.” In Identity and Dialect Performance: A Study of Communities and Dialects, Chapter 14 [Routledge Studies in Language and Identity], ed. by Reem Bassiouney. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Labov, William
1972 Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Lakoff, Robin Tolmach
1979 “Stylistic Strategies Within a Grammar of Style.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 327(1): 53–78. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Le Page, Robert Brock and Andrée Tabouret-Keller
1985 Acts of Identity: Creole-Based Approaches to Language and Ethnicity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Levi-Strauss, Claude
1966 The Savage Mind: La Pensee Sauvage. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.Google Scholar
Lorenzo-Dus, Nuria
2017 “Style, sociolinguistic change, and political broadcasting: The case of the Spanish news show Salvados .” In Style, Mediation, and Change: Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Talking Media, ed. by Janus Mortensen, Nikolas Coupland and Jacob Thøgersen, 27–50. New York: Oxford University Press.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Madsen, Lian Malai
2013 “ ‘High’ and ‘Low’ in urban Danish speech styles.” Language in Society 42(2): 115–138.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Madsen, Lian Malai, Janus Spindler Møller and Jens Normann Jørgensen
2010 “ ‘Street Language’ and ‘Integrated’: Language use and enregisterment among late modern urban girls.” In Ideological Constructions and Enregisterment of Linguistic Youth Styles [Copenhagen Studies in Bilingualism 55], ed. by Lian Malai Madsen, Janus Spindler Møller and Jens Normann Jørgensen, 81–113. Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Malinowski, Bronislaw
1923 “The problem of meaning in primitive languages.” In The Meaning of Meaning: A Study of the Influence of Language upon Thought and of the Science of Symbolism, ed. by Charles Kay Ogden and Ivor Armstrong Richards, Supplement 1, 296–336.Google Scholar
McEntegart, Damian and Robert B. Le Page
1982 “An appraisal of the statistical techniques used in the Sociolinguistic Survey of Multilingual Communities.” In Sociolinguistic Variation in Speech Communities, ed. by Suzanne Romaine, 105–124. London: Hodder Arnold.Google Scholar
Mortensen, Janus, Nikolas Coupland and Jacob Thøgersen
2017 “Introduction: Conceptualizing style, mediation, and change.” In Style, Mediation, and Change: Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Talking Media, ed. by Janus Mortensen, Nikolas Coupland and Jacob Thøgersen, 1–24. New York: Oxford University Press.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rampton, Ben
1995 Crossing. London: Longman.Google Scholar
2005 Crossing, Language and Ethnicity among Adolescents, 2nd edition. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.Google Scholar
2006 Language in Late Modernity: Interaction in an Urban School. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Saville-Troike, Muriel
2003 The Ethnography of Communication: An Introduction. Malden: Blackwell.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schieffelin, Bambi B., Paul V. Kroskrity and Kathryn A. Woolard
(eds) 1992  Language Ideologies . Special Issue. Pragmatics 2(3).Google Scholar
Sebeok, Thomas A.
1960 Style in Language. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Silverstein, Michael
1976 “Shifters, linguistic categories, and cultural description.” In Meaning in Anthropology, ed. by Keith H. Basso and Henry A. Selby, 11–55. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
2003 “Indexical order and the dialectics of sociolinguistic life.” Language and Communication 23(3–4): 193–229.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Spilioti, Tereza
2017 “Radio talk, pranks, and multilingualism: Styling Greek identities at a time of crisis.” In Style, Mediation, and Change: Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Talking Media, ed. by Janus Mortensen, Nikolas Coupland and Jacob Thøgersen, 51–76. New York: Oxford University Press.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
The White House
2017 The White House Press Secretary Makes A Statement. Recorded YouTube live stream. https://​www​.youtube​.com​/watch​?v​=9AjjVMAdWm4​&feature​=youtu​.be​&t​=1h33m25s.Google Scholar
Thøgersen, Jacob, Nikolas Coupland and Janus Mortensen
2016 “Introduction: Style, Media and Language Ideologies.” In Style, Media and Language Ideologies, ed. by Jacob Thøgersen, Nikolas Coupland and Janus Mortensen, 11–49. Oslo: Novus.Google Scholar
Trebay, Guy
2017 “Sean Spicer fixed his suits. What about the ties?” The New York Times, March 4 2017, sec. Fashion & Style. https://​www​.nytimes​.com​/2017​/03​/04​/fashion​/sean​-spicer​-white​-house​-press​-secretary​-trump​-style​-suits​-ties​.html.Google Scholar
Urban, Greg
2001 Metaculture: How Culture Moves through the World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Wagner, John
2017 “Trump’s press secretary lashes out at press, calling crowd coverage ‘shameful and wrong’.” Washington Post, January 21 2017, sec. Post Politics. https://​www​.washingtonpost​.com​/news​/post​-politics​/wp​/2017​/01​/21​/trumps​-press​-secretary​-lashes​-out​-at​-press​-calling​-crowd​-coverage​-shameful​-and​-wrong/.Google Scholar
Woolard, Kathryn A., Aida Ribot Bencomo and Josep Soler Carbonell
2013 “What’s so funny now? The strength of weak pronouns in Catalonia.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 23(3): 127–141.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Woolard, Kathryn A. and Bambi B. Schieffelin
1994 “Language ideology.” Annual Review of Anthropology 23(1): 55–82.DOI logoGoogle Scholar