Chair: Dakota Wing

Katie Slemp & Brittney O’Neill

Drag queens and transformistas: Producing gender and drag performance in Drag Race television in English and Spanish

Drag queen performance, often conceptualized as a homosexual man performing a heterosexual woman, has been used as a case study for research both on the performativity of gender and linguistic performances of raced, gendered, and classed personas. More recently, the television empire created by RuPaul Charles has brought drag into the mainstream in countries across the globe including both the US (RuPaul’s Drag Race) and Chile (The Switch Drag Race). These localized productions enable the consideration of how drag gender is produced for television across languages with differing grammatical gender systems. This study uses discourse analysis to compare the strategies used to produce drag identity in two seasons of the American production (S7, 2015; S10, 2018), and the Chilean production (S1, 2015; S2, 2018), finding that drag queens, speaking English, and transformistas, speaking Spanish, face unique challenges in articulating their identities in accordance with their respective linguistic resources. Through exploration of these differing presentations, this project explores the linguistic and visual semiotic techniques used to represent drag gender identities to mainstream populations in the US and Chile and considers how these techniques may both reflect and reproduce social understandings of gender, sex, and queer identities in these two distinct contexts.

Andrew Ferley

'He doesn't even go here': Authenticity, gendered language, and Drag Race

Rupaul’s Drag Race is an international reality competition television franchise. While most competitors outside of drag identify as cisgendered homosexual men, there have been exceptions—notably a growing number of transgender women and thus far, a single trans-man. The fourteenth season also saw the debut of a cisgendered masculine, heterosexual competitor—Maddy Morphosis. Examined as an imagined community, discourse within the Drag Race fan community surrounding Maddy Morphosis is demonstrated to be influenced in a top-down manner by show-production. Topics include fan discourse on the authenticity of Maddy Morphosis’ gender identity, sexuality and the validity of her drag and participation in the competition. It is an accepted linguistic practice in drag spheres to refer to drag queens in character with she/her pronouns and other femme indexing language. Thus, within this work the usage of gendered language, such as feminine or masculine pronouns or familial terms like ‘sis’ or ‘bro’ is highlighted as an especially salient tool to identify speaker evaluations of Maddy’s authenticity at different points in time during and after her run on the show.

Chair: Anda Neagu

Mysterious Moods: Why is the Future a Subjunctive?

In Spanish, the subjunctive is required in temporal subordinate clauses with a future orientation. Consider (1).

(1) Jugaré cuando {este / *estaré} listo mentalmente

play-FUT.1SG when {be-SUBJ.1SG /be-FUT.1SG} ready mentally

`I will play when I am ready mentally.'

Here when the clause introduced by cuando ‘when’ refers to a future time the subjunctive is required, and the future is ungrammatical. The puzzle that I am interested in solving can be summarized by the question: why is the future a subjunctive? I argue that a robust understanding of the semantics of the future and the subjunctive forms is required to understand how these seemingly disparate forms are related and what this relationship reveals about their structure. I show that in Spanish the subjunctive and the future are connected via evidentiality, a grammatical category concerned with the source of information for an assertion. For the subjunctive, I formalize a recurring observation about a connection between the subjunctive and evidentials, by constructing subjunctive clauses on the syntax of evidentiality. Likewise, for the future, I argue that certain uses are also built up from the syntax of evidentiality. Under my proposal, the two forms share the same underlying structure. The subjunctive is lexicalized by this structure when an operator of the right type is present, otherwise we get a future form. In this case, the operator cuando has the right properties, a WH-feature, and therefore the subjunctive is predicted. This analysis, however, only becomes possible when we pay closer attention to the semantics of the forms in question.

Chair: Kendall Vogh

Liz Fagan

Tamazight: Why appropriate classification of the languages known as Berber matters

A group of indigenous languages in North Africa has long been referred to as Berber. However, a closer look at this data combined with North African correspondences lead me to believe an evaluation of this term and its history should be performed. The indigenous people of the Maghreb, called Amazigh, refer to these languages as Tamazight. This is therefore the name proposed by this paper to replace “Berber”. Classifying these languages under the former label may seem tempting at first, as there is already existing data upon which to expand, however there arises an issue of accuracy. Peeling back yet another layer reveals a deeper history with the term “Berber” and why it may be a point of contention for the Amazigh. Lastly, I will identify gaps in the research, and explore the potential for future research. Alternate methodology may help us further our understanding on the impact of conducting linguistic research in North Africa.

Griffin Cahill

Nation-building and state support for creole languages: The cases of Haiti and the Seychelles

Of the numerous French-lexifier creole languages spoken around the globe, only two have the status of official language: Haitian Creole (kreyòl aysisyen) in Haiti, and Seychellois Creole (kreol Seselwa) in the Seychelles. Despite being located in separate hemispheres, they present excellent case studies for examining the past and contemporary sociolinguistics of French-based creoles. This paper situates the status of Haitian and Seychellois in their respective homelands. The histories and politics of the two states are examined from their times as colonial possessions of European powers to their present-day as independent states. This will be followed by comparing and contrasting the current status of the creole languages through three lenses: role in education, role in government, and role in popular discourse. The status of the creoles in each of those roles is discussed in relation to the other official languages of the states (French in both countries, additionally English in the Seychelles.) Particular attention is paid to the relationship between the French-based creole languages and French itself. It concludes on a discussion on the power of governmental support for languages generally, and potential lessons to be learned from the Haitian and Seychellois cases, especially in regard to other creole languages.

Anda Neagu

A syntactic analysis of optionality and variation in Camuno interrogatives

This paper provides an overview of interrogative syntactic patterns in Camuno, a dialect of Eastern Lombard, an endangered Romance language spoken in Northern Italy. Three main patterns can be observed: wh-doubling, wh-fronting and clause-internal whP. I suggest that the two positions occupied by the wh-elements constitute phasal boundaries: the fronted whP occupies spec,CP, while the clause-internal one is located at the edge of the vP phase. Optionality arises when only one whP is phonetically realized, an approach I adopt for the analysis of all varieties of Camuno, including those not possessing doubling constructions. Finally, there are a series of extra-syntactic factors that I consider to be the cause of widespread variation in Eastern Lombard and Camuno: the diglossic relationship with standard Italian, their cultural status as dialects of the latter, and the geographic environment (the Alps) where these vernaculars are spoken.

Chair: Mohammad Zohrabi

Qingxiao Cui

Meme genres and the art of the YouTube apology parody

YouTube apology videos have become a recognizable feature of the internet landscape to the point of becoming a virtual meme. Some have even identified YouTube apology videos as a genre, and as such they have unique and recognizable features available for recontextualization and parody. Likewise, the parodies spawned by these apologies have become their own genre. The three parodies analyzed are of two videos: Logan Paul’s “So Sorry,” a response to his suicide forest controversy, and Travis Scott's video response to the Astroworld Tragedy. The parodies recontextualize and exaggerate both linguistic and non-linguistic elements from their source material in order to critique the original apologies (and their creators) as disingenuous, dishonest, and/or self-aggrandizing. YouTube videos, as an audio-visual medium, are extremely multimodal, with many opportunities for linguistic and visual creativity. This paper, from a multimodal discourse analytic perspective, examines some of the strategies used by three YouTube apology parodies to mock and criticize both the original apology and the public figure issuing the apology, as well as demonstrates how the genre of the YouTube apology parody has been codified by internet users.

Brittney O’Neill

"Sincere apologies but you asked for unpopular opinions": Group identity negotiation in an unpopular opinion thread on r/WestCoastSwing

“Unpopular opinion” threads (UOTs) have emerged on Reddit (and elsewhere) as spaces dedicated to sharing opinions explicitly framed as contrary to the majority opinion climate. Some are anonymous and exist within spaces dedicated exclusively to UOTs, where their purpose is ostensibly a release valve for controversial opinions. However, the genre also emerges within interest-based communities, where participants’ (pseudonymous) identities persist outside of the UOT, raising the question of what other social functions UOTs may serve. This case study offers an initial exploration of why and how members engage with these threads in a UOT within r/WestCoastSwing, a subreddit dedicated to the pursuit of West Coast Swing dancing. Using emergent-themes coding and positioning theory (Harré & van Langenhove, 1998), I analyze the social positions established by posters and respondents, and the relational work being done in their overwhelmingly civil exchanges. Ultimately, the uniquely permissive UOT environment appears to provide a relatively safe space to (re)negotiate individual and group identity, allowing members to assert their optimal distinctiveness while also allowing the group to ensure continuing cohesion, often in the context of contentious issues.

Harré, R., & van Langenhove, L. (1998). Positioning Theory: Moral Contexts of International Action. Wiley-Blackwell.

Chair: Katie Slemp

Marianne Laplante

“Whenever we pull the race card, they can be like: “De quoi vous parlez?”: Constructing stance through code-switching in reported speech

This research focuses on code-switching in reported speech as a tool to affirm stance. Despite reported speech relying to some extent on historical accuracy (Hodges, 2015), it has been argued that it can never be recontextualized (i.e., removing fragments of a discourse from its original context to insert it in another one) without changing the meaning of it (Tannen, 2007). This creates inevitable intertextual gaps – discrepancies between the original meaning of a speech event and the meaning of the reported speech in its new context (Briggs & Bauman, 1992) A potential manifestation of this is double voicing, i.e., when speakers insert their own stance in a quoted speech (Bakhtin, 1981). Among the linguistic cues available to speakers to achieve double voicing is code-switching, i.e., shifting languages within utterances. My data is drawn upon a podcast episode hosted by two women who code-switch between French and English. My preliminary examination indicates that historical accuracy doesn’t predict the language of the reported speech; rather, the hosts use code-switching from English into French to maximize distance from the author of the reported speech. By contrast, to show support for the person quoted, they use code-switching within the reported speech and/or favour English over French.

Olabisi Fajana

A clash of constructs?: Re-examining “Code-switching” and “Translanguaging” through a social lens.

“Code-switching”, and “translanguaging”, as two key terminologies developed to advance research into multilingualism and bilinguals’ linguistic repertoires, language use and social functions have generated much scholarly debates, with the latter construct much recently treated as an heteroglossic educational framework that views the bi(multi)lingual cognition as an asset and learning resource. Despite the substantial volume of studies that have been undertaken on the subject, it appears that there remains an unresolved argument among scholars in the differential camps regarding what constitutes code-switching and bilingualism. To put it differently, does code-switching subsumes from translanguaging, or vice-versa? To what extent is the latter distinguishable from the former in terms of proposed definitions and copious examples adopted in existing empirical studies? Hence, this paper attempts to re-evaluate the controversies with an additional goal of presenting results of a mini survey conducted to x-ray the opinions of about 20 graduate students on the issue. This symposium is an opportunity to seek attendees’ views on new ways to address the seemingly contentious but important topic within the scope of sociolinguistics research and bi/multilingual education. It is hoped that the discussion will generate fresh insights for future studies.

Chair: Anda Neagu

Kasia (Katarzyna) Kasztenna

Framing the pandemic in the political discourse of Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump: A reconnaissance

Framing the pandemic in the political discourse of Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump: A reconnaissance This paper seeks to investigate framing strategies activated by Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump in the speeches both politicians delivered on March 11, 2020, in response to this unsettling announcement. Rarely do we have an opportunity to observe how the same historic moment is captured by two different leaders addressing their constituents in reaction to the same information, in a similar genre, and with a parallel intention of lending a frame to unfolding events and making sense of them in political discourse. The contrastive analysis presented here takes advantage of these circumstances that amplify differences in the approaches to the crisis manifested in both speeches. As Silverstein (2003) asserts, “Everything depends on talk, talk, talk: from our Constitution to our legislative process to our administrative and legal systems to workings of public-sphere political communication and its feedback in election results.” (p. 81). The analysis of the talk about the pandemic in Canada and the United States on March 11, 2020, is preceded by a brief presentation of a general analytical approach employed in this study drawing on a large body of scholarship regarding frames and framing written in the last three decades (Chong & Druckman, 2007; Entman, 1993; Gameson & Modigliani, 1989; Tannen, 1993, Chilton, 2004).

Chilton. (2004). Analysing political discourse: theory and practice. Routledge.
Chong, D., Druckman, J.N. (2007). Framing Public Opinion in Competitive Democracies. The American Political Science Review, 101(4), 637–655. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055407070554
Entman, R. M. (1993). Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43(4), 51–58. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1993.tb01304.x
Gamson, & Modigliani, A. (1989). Media Discourse and Public Opinion on Nuclear Power: A Constructionist Approach. The American Journal of Sociology, 95(1), 1–37. https://doi.org/10.1086/229213
Tannen, D. (Ed.). (1993). Framing in discourse. Oxford University Press on Demand.

Chair: Anda Neagu

Dakota Wing

Redacting language evidence: Linguistic ideologies and consequences of Bruton Rule redactions.

In Bruton v. United States (1968) the US Supreme Court found that in a joint trial, when a defendant’s (the declarant-defendant) out-of-court statement (e.g., a confession) implicates a co-defendant, and the declarant-defendant does not testify at trial, the admission of the statement violates the co-defendants right to cross-examine evidence against them. This makes the statement inadmissible, what is known as the Bruton Rule. Subsequent judicial decisions found that in order to accommodate both defendants’ constitutional rights (the declarant-defendant’s Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination and the co-defendant’s Sixth Amendment confrontation clause rights), the statement must be redacted to eliminate all references to the co-defendant’s existence, or the cases must be severed. Redactions are viewed as the preferred solution and include not only removing names and whole sentences, but also changing pronouns and retyping the statement. This talk discusses linguistic ideologies underlying the assumption that language (context) can be removed or edited yet still reflect an accurate representation of the original interaction. Additionally, a comparative analysis of a declarant-defendant’s original transcript of a police interview and a prosecutor’s proposed redacted transcript will examine grammatical agency, anaphoric references, and conversational maxims that demonstrate linguistic consequences of Bruton Rule redactions.

Ana-Maria Jerca

“You are brave. You are courageous”: Examining the ideological work accomplished by the discursive practices of judges at the International Criminal Court

In this presentation, I examine the discourse of judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose role and discursive practices differ considerably from their Anglo-American criminal courtroom counterparts. Building on previous research which shows that judges accomplish ideological work through their talk (e.g., Tracy & Caron, 2017), this presentation will explain how ICC judges’ discourse impacts the testimony experience of victims of wartime sexual violence. I will discuss how, through their talk, ICC judges “set the tone” for how questioning in the courtroom should be conducted and create (but also occasionally fail to create) a respectful environment for vulnerable witnesses to testify in. In comparing these discursive practices to research on problematic aspects of Anglo-American sexual assault trials, I argue that ICC judges’ discourse may help create a safer testimony experience for victims of sexual violence than what is seen in Anglo-American criminal courts by preventing retraumatization brought on by relaying physical details of the assault excessively and/or being subjected to questioning that relies on (and reinforces) problematic assumptions about gender and sexuality. I conclude by considering the implications of this safe testimony experience on victims’ healing from the traumatic events they describe in court.

Chair: Andrew Ferley

Kendall Vogh

“In this presentation, I will…”: A rhetorical moves analysis of graduate students’ unstructured conference submission abstracts

As professional development and skills building become increasingly salient components of the graduate school experience, there is a growing need for research into the career skills novice researchers are expected to develop, and how best to support graduate students in developing them. In our study, we investigate a crucial, and under-studied, professional skill for novice scholars: the conference submission abstract. By comparing the content and structure of graduate students’ abstracts to normative expectations of this textual genre, we hope to understand more about the specific difficulties abstract writing poses for graduate students. To date, we have analyzed 107 graduate student abstracts submitted between 2011 and 2021 to an international student research conference at a top-15 Canadian university. Using a rhetorical moves framework (Hyland, 2004), we coded the abstracts for Background, Aims, Methods, Results, or Conclusions moves, and then explored our coded data quantitatively for meaningful patterns. Preliminary results show that students frequently omit essential moves, include genre-inappropriate moves, and weight and/or sequence their moves in non-normative ways. These findings illuminate the underlying complexity of the conference abstract genre, and demonstrate a need to identify strategies to better support novice researchers in mastering this key professional practice. TOTAL 196/200

Hyland, K. (2004). Disciplinary discourses: Social interactions in academic writing. University of Michigan Press.

Maryam Elshafei

Institutional exclusion and exploitation of language teachers

Language teacher education programs and language teaching research often overlook the impact of precarity on the teachers, their practice, and their sense of professional identity. The lack of stable employment in the field creates barriers to the professionalization and development of teachers. Precarious employment is used to further marginalize teachers within their institutions by systematically excluding them from activities that would enhance their practice and professionalization. At the same time, precariously employed teachers perpetuate these power imbalances by unwittingly participating in activities that may further contribute to their precarity. Teachers enter the profession because they care, but they are also taken advantage of because they care. Language teacher education programs need to address these power imbalances to prevent teachers from being excluded or exploited where they teach.

Chair: Ana-Maria Jerca

Long walk through DLLL: Embracing and expanding your “circle of influence”

My talk will highlight some of the turning points of my journey through DLLL as an MA and later a PhD student. The purpose of this talk is to share some learnings of how I strived to expand my “circle of influence” and maximize my experience within LAL, York, paving the way to a future career. Engeström’s (2014) five core principles of activity theory will be used to reflect on the potentials of some of the steps I took as a graduate student. My talk will also include key publications from my PhD dissertation. Finally, I will review some perspectives on creating career-building opportunities while being a full-time graduate student.

Chair: Ana-Maria Jerca

Mandy Lau

Becoming data: Mining human voices and languages for the machine

Advances in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning, subfields of Artificial intelligence (AI), have enabled humans to interact orally with machines via human languages. Examples include interacting with the synthetic speech of real-time virtual assistants and chatbots, social media content written by bots, to deep fakes – “audio and video of real people saying and doing things they never said or did” (Siekierski, 2019). Machine learning also mediates communication between humans, such as the use of machine translation. This presentation explores how machines learn oral languages, how oral language datasets are created and for what purposes, and how these processes are informed by language beliefs. It concludes by reflecting on the question: what does it mean when our voices and languages become data? Siekierski, B. J. (2019). Deep fakes: What can be done about synthetic audio and video? (Publication No. 2019-11-E) Library of Parliament.

Mohammad Zohrabi

Writing correction and feedback using Artificial Intelligence

Since 1960, when the first automatic writing evaluation system came to existence, educators and then, accompanied by computer technologists, have made tremendous efforts to create ways to evaluate students' writing skills automatically. There has been some success in doing so, for the greater part, in more focused English proficiency exams rather than freer writing models. Nonetheless, educators and computer technologists have failed to devise methods and approaches to measure idea development or detect prefabricated structures even in such limited fields. Artificial intelligence (AI) dependent software and websites seem to have attracted much attention and seem promising as well, specifically from software and application developers. In evaluating IELTS writing tasks, AI can be applied to detect students' mistakes and provide feedback. AI is important here as many students have plans to take high-stake exams like IELTS independently without the help of a teacher. The question here is can AI take the place of a human rater? This paper tends to evaluate some of the software, applications, and websites in writing correction and feedback for academic and exam purposes.