WHAT DID THEY SAY IN THE HALL OF THE DEAD? LANGUAGE d- WHAT DID THEY SAY IN THE HALL OF THE DEAD?...
date post
21-Jan-2020Category
Documents
view
2download
0
Embed Size (px)
Transcript of WHAT DID THEY SAY IN THE HALL OF THE DEAD? LANGUAGE d- WHAT DID THEY SAY IN THE HALL OF THE DEAD?...
ii
WHAT DID THEY SAY IN THE HALL OF THE DEAD?
LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY IN THE CERRO MARAVILLA HEARINGS
by
Germán Negrón Rivera
B.A. University of Puerto Rico, 1988
M.A. University of Puerto Rico, 1997
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of
Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
University of Pittsburgh
2010
ii
UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
This dissertation was presented
by
Germán Negrón Rivera
It was defended on
April 16, 2010
and approved by
Susan Berk-Seligson, Associate Professor, Spanish and Portuguese Department, Vanderbilt
University
Juan Duchesne Winter, Professor, Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures
Barbara Johnstone, Professor, English Department, Carnegie Mellon University
Dissertation Advisor: Scott Kiesling, Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics
iii
Copyright © by Germán Negrón Rivera
2010
iv
WHAT DID THEY SAY IN THE HALL OF THE DEAD?
LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY IN THE CERRO MARAVILLA HEARINGS
Germán Negrón Rivera, Ph.D.
University of Pittsburgh, 2010
Identity has become a major interest for researchers in the areas of linguistic anthropology and
sociolinguistics. Recent understandings of identity emphasize its malleability and fluidity. This
conceptualization of identities as malleable comes from the realization that speakers relate
strategically to propositions and their interlocutors in order to achieve their communicative
goals.
This study is an exploration of the (co-)construction of identities in an institutional
context, specifically in the Cerro Maravilla hearings. I examine the interactions between the
Senate‘s main investigator, Héctor Rivera Cruz, and five witnesses in order to explore how
identities were created and how speakers managed the interactions.
In chapter 2, I discuss the theoretical framework and the literature. The concepts of
identity, linguistic ideologies, power, discourses, indexicalities, and stances are discussed.
Chapter 3 is a literature review of studies concerned with language in the legal context,
particularly in trials. In chapter 4, I provide a historical background to contextualize the Cerro
Maravilla events and the Senate hearings. The next chapter is the methodology. In Chapter 6, I
present the analyses of the interactions between Rivera Cruz and five witnesses. In chapter 7, I
discuss the findings. Chapter 8 is the conclusion.
The present study supports the notion that power is better understood as emergent in
interactions, even when interactional resources are unequally available to speakers. However, it
v
is not independent of discourses that assign value to ways of speaking and ways of interacting. I
claim that speakers combine stances in creative and unexpected ways, constructing memorable
identities.
The overarching question that motivated this study was: Why did people talk about
Rivera Cruz‘s performance and way of speaking? I argue that the answer lies in his creative
stance taking through which he was able to provoke a clash of linguistic ideologies in an
unexpected and unconventional way. I argue that Rivera Cruz‘s performance attests to the
creativity and the immense possibilities that individuals have for creating identities, while this
individuality is still connected with discourses that exist in the broad society.
vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................... VI
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................ XII
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1
FRAMEWORK .......................................................................................................... 11
2.1 IDENTITY.......................................................................................................... 13
The Public and the Personal: Malleability and Continuity in Identity
Creation.. .................................................................................................... 29
2.2 INDEXICALITIES ............................................................................................ 33
Direct and Indirect Indexicality ............................................................... 36
Indexical Orders and Interior and Exterior Indexical Meanings ......... 38
Indexical Presupposition and Indexical Entailment ............................... 43
Problem with the Distinction between Indexical Presupposition and
Entailment .................................................................................................. 47
2.3 DISCOURSE AND POWER ............................................................................ 49
Foucault and the Elusiveness of Power .................................................... 49
The Uncomfortable Relationship between Agency and Social
Structures.................................................................................................... 54
The Limitations in the Search of Power .................................................. 56
vii
2.4 LINGUISTIC IDEOLOGIES ........................................................................... 58
Definitions ................................................................................................... 58
Mediating between Linguistic Forms and Social Meanings .................. 59
Ideologies and Interest ............................................................................... 62
Stances ......................................................................................................... 65
Indexical Processes in Stance Taking ....................................................... 65
Making Sense of Stances ........................................................................... 72
Collective memory ............................................................................... 75
LANGUAGE IN THE LEGAL CONTEXT ............................................................ 78
3.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 78
3.2 LANGUAGE IN THE LEGAL CONTEXT AND ITS FORM AND
FUNCTION ......................................................................................................... 80
3.3 THE BOUNTY OF PRE-ALLOCATION....................................................... 83
3.4 MANIPULATION OF THE LINGUISTIC RESOURCES AND THE
INTERACTION WITH CULTURAL IDEOLOGIES.................................... 87
3.5 CODA ................................................................................................................ 112
Four Implications for this Study of the Literature Reviewed.............. 114
A Note on the Cerro Maravilla Hearings .............................................. 115
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ............................................................................ 116
4.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 116
4.2 BEFORE THE INVASION ............................................................................ 117
4.3 THE FIRST THREE DECADES UNDER AMERICAN FLAG ................ 119
4.4 THE TURBULENT DECADE OF THE 1930’S........................................... 123
viii
4.5 THE 1940’S: THE RISE OF THE POPULAR DEMOCRATIC
PARTY ............................................................................................................... 128
4.6 THE RETURN OF THE NATIONALIST PARTY AND THE
CONSTITUTION ............................................................................................. 131
4.7 THE RISE OF THE PRO-STATEHOOD MOVEMENT AND THE COLD
WAR ................................................................................................................... 137
4.8 1978: THE YEAR OF THE KILLINGS AT CERRO MARAVILLA ....... 141
4.9 THE CERRO MARAVILLA CASE .............................................................. 146
The Official Version ................................................................................. 146
The Department of Justice Investigations ............................................. 149
The Hearings Findings .............................................
Recommended