Topicalizing peers’ language: Situated linguistic identities at workplaces

This study investigates workplace interactions where peer's linguistic backgrounds are topicalized. Analyzing video recordings of backstage interactions (Goffman, 1959), the research highlights different interactional consequences of topicalizing peers’ native languages and how it results in transformations in participation frameworks and thereby in the situated identities of participants. To address the main aim, the study uses an ethnomethodological conversation analytic approach to examine how participants respond to language-related inquiries, such as “How do you say X in your language?”, and how these inquiries serve as membership inference-rich devices. The findings reveal that topicalizing a peer's language (other than the main medium in the group) can trigger various activity types, including jocular interactions and informal learning. Moreover, the interaction may lead to the display of possible vulnerability, as unfolding talk can position individuals as marginal within the group and thus occasion stance-taking toward that positioning with resistance. • Language topicalization is a social phenomenon in multilingual workplaces. • Language topicalization occasions negotiations of situated identities. • Language topicalization constructs in-group–out-group social categories. • Topicalizing a peer's language may construct that peer marginal to the whole group. • Topicalizing a peer's language may occasion learning opportunities at work.