‘Right you are (if you think so)’: The sociolinguistic construction of youth identity in a Greek family sitcom

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the ways in which the sociolinguistic construction of youth identity takes place in the popular Greek family sitcom Deka Lepta Kirigma/ Ten-Minute Preaching (Mega TV, 2000–04). Drawing on the ‘identities in interaction’ sociocultural linguistic model of Bucholtz and Hall (2005) and the ethno-methodological tool of ‘membership categorization analysis’ (Sacks 1992), our analysis focuses on three interactions between teenage and adult characters in the show. As we demonstrate, each of the analysed characters constructs themselves and others through identity categories that the other conversationalists attempt to contest and denaturalize. This suggests that, unlike other similar mainstream media texts which firmly adopt an adult perspective on young people, Ten-Minute Preaching is more ambivalent in its portrayal of youth through the characters’ talk, since it includes both teenage and adult voices, conveying the message that there are multiple and even conflicting versions of reality, depending on the perspective from which one sees it. Our analysis, however, demonstrates that the show eventually supports the stereotypical view that adults have of young people and their style of talk, as it sees them through the prism of the generation gap, a key theme that has traditionally defined the adult-constructed discourse of adolescence, which has structured mainstream media texts historically.