Kim, Dongmin. 2013. Self-representation of identity: A Case of a Korean Family. Language Information . Volume 17. 05-22. This paper aims to research ethnic identity of a Korean-American family using MCA (membership categorization analysis) of Sacks (1992) in their discursive conversations. The participants signal their ethnic identities by categorizing addressee, themselves and third person referents. A positioning process is involved in the categorization with various discursive identities (Goffman, 1981), such as speaker, hearer and third person referent and also with a variety of social identities, such as a woman, mother, and Korean or American.
Sacks (1972, 1979, 1992) divided the MCA into two in that identities are established in part through MCD (membership categorization devices) that serve to characterize a participant as a member of a certain social group, and through CBA (category-bound activities), which categorize participants indirectly by indexing typical activities bound to categorizations. Participants utilize labeling that is the discursive practice of producing explicit membership categorizations that are locally occasioned in talks. A category occurred in an interaction assigns a person to a particular social group. In fact, speakers exhibit their attitudes toward ethnicity in question by categorizing and describing ethnic characteristics and stances, and allude category terms through indirectly indexing membership categories.
As immigrants encountered with difficulties to maintain their ethnic identity, assimilation takes its toll on one hand. Resistance, however, to the cultural pressure of the resident country leads them to have a unique type of ethnic identity on the other hand.
This article examines how a Korean family employs MCD and CBA as self-representation for identities-in-practices. I will illustrate how, in conjunction with other resources, the participants show their identities in talk as a device which represents membership categories.
Key words: membership categorization analysis (MCA), identity, label, position, ethnicity, self-representation