Semiotic Mechanisms of Social Meaning Formation in Language

This article focuses on the semiotic mechanisms of social meaning formation. In contemporary sociolinguistics, the concept of indexicality has been a central means of studying the relationships between language forms and social meanings. The semiotic mechanisms are based on the process of indexicality, through which language forms acquire indexical meanings. The methodological sources are the theories of: language ideology (S. Gal, J. Irvine), indexing gender (E. Ochs), "orders of indexicality" (M. Silverstein), and also the concepts "enregisterment" (A. Agha), "indexical field" (P. Eckert), "stance" (A. Jaffe). I argue that, taken together, these approaches constitute a framework for understanding the problem of social meaning in language in a systematic way. The article analyses indexicality with the help of the iconic relation, which creates the ideological focus of the problem. In addition, the dynamics of transition of indexical orders are shown: from historical differentiation, stylistic shift to stereotyping. The limits of the application of indexicality theory to the analysis of social meaning are revealed. At the same time the significance of contextual-performative approach to the study of social meanings, which uses the concept "indirect indexality", is substantiated. This approach is based on constitutive relations between language and social categories, in which language forms are capable of indexing social meanings, which, in their turn, constitute meanings of social categories.

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