On young women's prosodic construction of identity: Evidence from Greek conversational narratives

This paper is part of a wider research on the prosodic devices used in the production of stretches of direct speech embedded in Greek young women’s narratives. Drawing on the broader framework of Discourse Analysis and Sociolinguistics as well as on recent developments in the theory of prosody and on the social constructionist paradigm, our paper follows the line of research that focuses on situated analysis of identities. We analyse both quantitatively and qualitatively the discourse functions of the prosodic features of speed and intensity, aiming to show the dynamic nature of identity construction in narrative context. We argue that, in the process of identity construction and projection, our young female informants attempt to signal both their independence from adult authority as well as their in-group bonds.