Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Title: On the Uses of National-Cultural Identities in Conversations

Abstract

Harvey Sacks’ seminal work on ‘membership categorization’ has underscored the fundamental importance of ‘members’ categories’ in the organization of people’s perception (of scenes) and their construction of social realities (Sacks 1992). Sacks’ insightful analysis of ‘hotrodders’ as a “revolutionary category” in mid-twentieth century American culture was itself a revolution and has remained a classic to this day (Sacks 1979). Subsequent research by other scholars has revealed many interesting ways in which identity categories are used by interlocutors for sense-making and for the joint achievement of interactional goals. Of interest is not the categories themselves but “what people do with categorical ascriptions” (Edwards 1998: 31). In this lecture, I will present some instances of face-to-face interaction where national cultural identities (like ‘Chinese’ and ‘Korean’) are used in a variety of settings in Hong Kong, China and Singapore. I will examine the logic behind the use of these categories, and explore the moment-to-moment workings of minds as members pursue and produce intersubjective understandings.

Our examples will be selected from a collection of audio and video recordings made in Singapore, Hong Kong and China, where family and friends engage in casual everyday conversations. Our analytic focus will be on the ways in which national cultural identities are invoked during these conversations. Using the methods of conversation analysis I will conduct a close and carefully contextualized examination of the data, with the aim of articulating the ‘logic’ underlying participants’ use of these identities. Our interest is in why such categories are invoked, how they are used, and what purposes they are put to serve in their particular times and places.

Bio

K.K. Luke is Professor of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Professor Luke’s research is in the area of talk and social interaction, using an Ethnomethodological and Conversation Analytic approach. His work focuses on the interface between language, cognition and communication, and is driven by an interest in what makes meaning and communication possible. How are intersubjective understandings achieved in interaction, and what role do linguistic and multi-modal behaviours play in this process? Among Professor Luke’s publications are Utterance Particles in Cantonese Conversation, Telephone Calls: Unity and Diversity in the Structure of Telephone Conversations across Languages and Cultures, and a special issue on ‘Turn-continuation in conversation’ for Discourse Processes.