USC Department of Linguistics Colloquium Series Presents

The Subtractive Consequences of Indexical Blocking and Clash: On the Social Meanings of the PIN-PEN Merger by Rob Podesva

Studies of indexical change have mainly considered how social meanings arise, but have theorized less about how prior indexicalities recede. Attending to the latter brings to light two semiotic processes – blocking and clash – with subtractive consequences for the indexical potential of the PIN-PEN merger. An indexical association can grow so strong that it leads to the blocking of other competing indexical values. In Washington, D.C., the connection between the merger and Southerness is so strongly conventionalized that it suppresses readings of Blackness. But in situations of recontextualization due to dialect contact, even the most highly conventionalized social meanings can clash with their new context. Southern interpretations of the PIN-PEN merger were not viable when it was introduced in California’s Central Valley, where the feature’s social meaning has shifted to ideologically related meanings pertaining to rurality and political conservatism. I suggest that studies of indexical change devote greater attention to processes through which indexical connections are severed.