Language and Identity

Language and identity in sociolinguistics

A person's language is influenced by their social groups, leading us to the field of sociolinguistics.

The social factors that can affect a person's language and identity include:

• Region (location)

• Gender

• Age

• Occupation

• Class

• Ethnicity

Fig. 1 - Language use is affected by factors such as age, religion, occupation, cultural background, and others!

The use of different language features can imply a sense of belonging to different social groups. These group-specific features are used to portray a certain identity to the world. We call language use that shows belonging to a certain social groups sociolects.

A speaker can also show individual identity by using their idiolect.

Language and identity: examples

Let's look at some examples of how identity is shown in language relating to two of the main social factors: region and class.

Region

A real-life example of how region (geographical location) can impact language and be used as a marker for identity can be seen in music. Some singers will choose to perform in a standard British or American accent to appeal to a larger audience, even though that's not their original accent.

However, some singers choose to retain their regional accents when singing. This allows them to show their region as part of their identity.

Singers like these go against the norm of singers opting to sing in a standardised accent. Think of Adele - she has a strong cockney accent when she's speaking but swaps to a standard American accent when she sings.

Class

As a general rule regarding class and language, we can state that people with a higher class are more likely to speak with Received Pronunciation (RP); this is because RP has historically been the accent used and taught in educational institutes.

Now that we understand the influence identity has on someone's language, we can look at how identity applies to sociolinguistic theories.

Language and identity, and sociolinguistic theory

There are many theories which look at the link between language use and identity and if we went through all of them we'd be here all week! So, in this article, we'll go through four of the main social groups (region, gender, age, and class) and look at one theory for each.

Theorists include:

• Carmen Llamas
• George Keith and John Shuttleworth
• Gary Ives
• Michael Nelson

We'll also look at two other theories that apply more to general language use than to particular social groups.

Theories related to regions

Theories to regional identities include Carmen Llamas's theory.

In 1968, Middlesbrough changed from being part of Yorkshire to being part of the Teesside County Borough. This meant that the Middlesbrough accent changed from having primarily Yorkshire accent and dialect features to then having features typical of the North East.

Linguist Carmen Llamas carried out a study in 2000 into the linguistic variation in Middlesbrough and found the following:

• Older people used more Yorkshire accent features.

• Younger people used more North-East features.

• There is a strong hostility towards being labelled a 'geordie'.

• The people of Middlesbrough wished to be identified as North-East or Middlesbrough through their accent.¹

Fig. 2 - People from different regions will speak in different accents.

Gender

George Keith and John Shuttleworth explored theories related to gender and identity.

In 1999, linguists Keith and Shuttleworth carried out a series of conversation analyses of men's and women's speech.

Their findings concluded that there are typical speech characteristics for each gender, shown in the table below:

Keith and Shuttleworth's findings align with typical gender stereotypes. People may alter how they speak to avoid language that encourages stereotypical judgements based on gender.²

Age

Linguist Gary Ives interviewed a group of teenagers in West Yorkshire to document the features of adolescent language use. He found recurring patterns in the speech of the teens.

These were:

• Their speech is linked by an informal register.

• The most common topic of conversation is relationships.

• Taboo language is part of the teen vernacular.

• Dialect is often used when speaking.

• Slang is common.

• Informal lexical choices are often linked by common themes or topics.³

Teenagers may use some or all of these features to place themselves in the group identity of ‘teenager.’ Teenagers who don’t want to be defined by the stereotype of ‘teenager’ will often choose not to use these features in their language.

Occupation

Linguist Michael Nelson carried out a study in 2000 into the concept of business lexis. He concluded that people at work use language in a semantic field of business, for example:

• business

• people

• companies

• institutions

• money

• time

• technology

Fig. 3 - These are some words which might fit into the "business" lexical field, for example.

He also found that certain words or topics were not used, for example:

• weekends

• personal issues

• family

• society

• house and home

• hobbies

Nelson's theory can be linked to identity by looking at a person's workplace language.

When at work, speakers may:

• Use Nelson’s business lexis to create a professional identity and keep their home identity private, or;

• Deviate from Nelson’s business lexis and use more of their idiolect features to create a more personable and approachable identity.⁴

Now that we've looked at identity and sociolinguistic theories, let's have a look at a theory that shows how people change their language to show how they don't belong to certain social groups.

Language and identity: other theories

Some of the other theorists associated with language, identity, and society include Michael Halliday and Polari.

Michael Halliday's anti-language

Anti-language is the language of an anti-society that exists as an alternative to 'normal' society. Anti-language is linked to identity as it is used when a group of people seek a covert identity.

After research into anti-languages and their uses, Halliday found that:

• Anti-languages are generally shown through a specific lexicon.

• They share the same grammar as the main society but have a different vocabulary.

• Users of anti-languages can communicate meanings to each other that are inaccessible to a non-user.

• Groups who use anti-language view it as fundamental to their identity.⁵

The best way to understand the concept of anti-languages is to look at a real-life example.

Polari: example of anti-language

Polari is an example of an anti-language. Historically, it was used in the UK by gay men but has now mostly fallen out of use. The lexicon was derived from a variety of different sources including Cockney rhyming slang, backslang, Italian, USA airforce slang, and drug-user slang.

This anti-language allowed gay men to communicate without being overheard. This was important at the time as it allowed them to share an aspect of their identity (being gay) that was illegal at the time.