Blog 11 Gee Discourse analysis

Gees chapter 1-4 was a great tool for me. My research topic is researching Ebonics"black language" which ties into the Gees first four chapters. Gee explains thoroughly language and we use it to apply our meaning into a global society. Language is not just words but it is action, "saying", doing, and "being". There are important connections in what a person is saying and what identity they are forming at that time, and what it does for the listener. This concept is the foundation of my research questin "How do people make decisions about how they are going to speak"?  I find chapter 4 to be particullary useful as it is closely related to my topic. The chapter is called Social Languages, Conversations, and Intertextuality. Gee describes social languages as different varieties of language that allow us to express different socially signficant identities and enact different socially meaningful practices or activities. I immediately associated this with the idea of performing those "black identities" and when and what context is it appropriate.  Gee describes intertextuality as oral written text that idirectly or directly quote another text in a more subtle way. This helped develop my ideas of "code switching" from white english to black english. These ideas of how people communicate and what they are doing through language. Gee uses an example of young lady explaining a situation to her parents and the same to her boyfriend on seperate occasions. Although it is the same story the young lady uses different language in the separate social situations. Her language represents who she is and what she is doing in the separate situations. There are two versions of herself, the one she represents in front of her parents and the self that has conversations with her boyfriend. It shows how we use language to form identities.