Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

6-2025

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Linguistics

Advisor

Cecelia Cutler

Committee Members

José del Valle

Matthew Garley

Subject Categories

Anthropological Linguistics and Sociolinguistics | Linguistics

Keywords

Southern Studies, Language and Identity, Semiotics, Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

This dissertation is about the language of the US South and the identities of the people who inhabit it. Its purpose is twofold: (1) to explain, on micro- and macro-levels, the processes of enregisterment (Agha 2003) of Southern US English, drawing conclusions about the phenomenon of enregisterment more generally; and (2) to articulate the relationship of Southern redneck identity to this process of enregisterment. It uses a mixed-methods approach that relies primarily on a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) methodology, adopting a stancetaking approach (Du Bois 2007) and an enregisterment approach to language and identity, with some quantitative elements, to analyze two corpora. The first of these is a corpus of YouTube comments that appear beneath a video skit on “Southern accents”; the second is an ethnographic corpus of 21 interviews with self-identified rednecks in North Mississippi about their identities, lifestyles, and language practices. The analyses in this dissertation yield a more complete picture of how language and identity are interrelated phenomena and of what kinds of material conditions play a central role in determining the nature of perceived language and identity categories.

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