Language as a Practice Practices are: Actions and activities shared by many people Repeated and used many times

Community A group of people who come together around shared actions and activities Communities have a whole set of practices Language Clothing Activities Everyone belongs to many communities People know how to speak, dress, act appropriately for every community

Communities of Practice (CoPs) A group of people who: Participate in shared, repeated practices Share some values Use language in similar, specialized ways This term focuses emphasizes how shared activities help to define a community

Linguistic Landscapes What CoP does your picture represent? What are some of the practices in that CoP? Language Clothing Activities Are there practices that seem more “normal”? Less normal?

Markedness Unmarked categories, language, and identities: Are thought of by a community as “natural,” “normal,” or “ordinary” and are therefore less visible Examples: walk; The Warriors; “a man” Marked categories, language, and identities: Are thought to somehow differ from the norm Examples: walked; The Lady Warriors; “a gay man”

Example from the SuperBowl https://www.youtube.com/user/Newcastle ?v=acxXJz7gQnE

How is language used in the following slides to make some categories seem marked and others seem unmarked?

Journals What examples can you give of things that would be marked vs. unmarked in 1 of your CoPs or in 1 of the spaces in your linguistic landscape? What blends into the landscape as normal and almost invisible? What stands out? Think about language as well as other practices (clothing, people, activities)