Language Id

Language and Identity
Identity
We all have multiple identities. This is revealed through
language use.
Agency: the amount of control one has over how s/he presents
her/himself to the world
Agentive: parts of our identity we have control over (punk, jock)
Non-agentive: race, gender (traditionally, but that is changing)
Identity and Ideology
“Because the dominant ideology of a culture encodes only some
behaviors as natural, and powerful, not all identities are created
equal.”
Symbolic capital: prestige based on way one presents
her/himself; those who conform generally have more symbolic
capital
What are practices that our society designates as “good or
prestigious?
Symbolic violence: the consequences for those who don’t or
aren’t able to conform
Dialect and Identity
Certain pronunciations or grammatical constructions can mark
an individual’s class or geographic origin
Isoglosses: an idealized geographic boundary between the use

of one linguistic variable or feature and another (not actual
territorial boundaries; just variations in speech)
Ideolect: the language of the individual
“It is only through perception by others, in an oppositional

relationship, that group identities can be formed. Like
language itself, identity needs an audience to make it
meaningful” (176).
Code-switching: when one has access to more than one
linguistic system and moves between them in an effort to
promote solidarity or distance with her/his interlocuter
Naming
Different cultures represent relationships through their naming
practices
Women and children taking the man’s surname
Confirmation names (Catholic), bestowing of Hebrew name
(Judaism)
Icelandic surnames end in “dottir” or “son” (Jon
EinarssonGunnar Jonsson and Anna Jonsdottir)
Asymmetry/Asymmetrical: refers to speakers’ rights to talk in

a certain situation or the power differential determined by use of
titles (“your majesty,” “aunt/uncle”)
This (formal/informal modes of address) can be used to manipulate
social distance
Social Relations and Grammatical Form
(namely, pronouns)
Pronouns can encode relationships
Deciding to use formal or informal pronouns:

How well you know the person
How in/formal the environment is
Whether you want to show solidarity with or distance from the
person
Invoking “we” can give speaker more authority

Invoking “us” and “them” can create solidarity and/or boundaries.
Do you consider yourself as part of a social group that fits into our
society’s us/them schema? Does this influence your behavior?
Vocative: special form used in the context of “calling”
someone or something (entity)
Generally added through some sort of suffix or prefix or slight
change or pronunciation
In English, we don’t have this, but we have the particle “O” (as in,
“O Romeo Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo”)
Theories of Style Shifting
William Labov:
There are no single-style speakers
Style (from formal to informal) correlates to the amount of
attention paid to speech
Formal context = more than minimal attention paid to speech
Vernacular = unguarded use of speech
Department Store Study:
Saks
Macy’s
Klein’s
Prestige variety = post-vocalic ‘r’
Audience Design: Alan Bell argued attention paid to speech is
not enough to explain style-shifting. Instead, he argued,
speakers take into account their audience and alter their speech
accordingly.
Accommodation: designing speech toward perceived
expectations of audience. In addition, might be a device used by
speaker to make her/himself understood
Limits on audience design theory, pointed out by Schilling-Estes
Speaker design theory: language changes according to how
speaker wants to be perceived, may not relate to needs of audience.
1. Style shifts according to attention paid to language

2. Style shifts according to perception of audience
3. Style shifts according to how speaker wants to portray self
Code-switching v. Crossing
Crossing: speakers of one group sometimes use speech patterns
of another group in an attempt to identify with them
Different that code-switching in that code-switching involves

two linguistic systems “owned” by that speaker
Labov’s 3 Linguistic Variables
Indicator: speech variation that is obvious to those external to
a group
Marker: language variation that is subject to style-shifting

because it has been evaluated socially (in-group)
Stereotype: language use associated with a group is so well

known and has attracted such negative attention that it’s
consciously avoided my in-group speakers
“Out-group awareness very much determines that status of

a form as indicator, marker or stereotype.” It is through
difference that realization of local identity through language
becomes available to speakers.

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Language and Identity

Isoglosses: an idealized geographic boundary between the use

Ideolect: the language of the individual

“It is only through perception by others, in an oppositional

Asymmetry/Asymmetrical: refers to speakers’ rights to talk in

Deciding to use formal or informal pronouns:

Invoking “we” can give speaker more authority

1. Style shifts according to attention paid to language

Different that code-switching in that code-switching involves

Marker: language variation that is subject to style-shifting

Stereotype: language use associated with a group is so well

“Out-group awareness very much determines that status of

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