In this book, the author introduces belonging from a sociolinguistic perspective as a concept that is accomplished in interaction. Belonging can be expressed linguistically in social, spatial and temporal categories - indexing rootedness, groupness and cohesion. It can also be captured through shared linguistic practices within a group, e.g. collectively shared narrative practices. Using conversation analysis and an analysis of narrative as practice bolstered with ethnographic knowledge, the author shows how belonging is tied to locally contextualized use of deictics and to collectively shared narrations of the past in a Guatemalan community. The book examines the understudied phenomenon of belonging at the intersection of pragmatics and linguistic anthropology.

Rita Vallentin is a researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Cultural and Social Sciences of the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder). Working at the intersection of linguistics and sociology, she focuses on the relations of belonging and identification with linguistic practices, especially in Hispanophone and Lusophone communities.

This is an open access book available on www.peterlang.com and www.oapen.org. All content published can be shared under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0).

Belonging and identification - Belonging and linguistic practices - Belonging as a local and interactional problem - Narrating as a local practice of belonging - Self- and other-positioning in narrative - Social and referential meanings of local adverbs - Regimes of belonging - Guatemalan rural community