Social Identity Flashcards
Interspeaker variation
Differences and variation that is measured between different speakers (individuals or social groups)
Intraspeaker variation
Differences in the way a single person speaks at different times, or with different interlocutors, or even with a sentence.
Social class
A measure of status based on occupation, income and wealth but also can be measured by aspirations and mobility
Status
Based on a person’s status, measured by lifestyle and life choices but also wealth and occupation
Stereotype
A linguistic feature that is widely recognised and very often but not always accurate.
Usually quite negative
Social identity theory - Tajfel 1970s
Mostly created by Tajfel
We all have multiple group membership and several selves
Testing and maintaining boundaries through language in social groups
We gravitate to what the normal way of acting/ Speaking for the particular social group. LINK: Bourdieu’s habitus
Social identity is ‘that part of an individuals self-concept of his knowledge of his membership of social group or groups’
Self categorisation - Perception of self
Social identification - Belief of belonging to social groups
Social comparison - comparison of groups we do not belong to
Psychological distinctiveness - Maintain positive view of ingroup
Symbolic power
Late 1960s/70s
Foucault
Power and knowledge:
They imply one another, knowledge always exercises power and power is the function of knowledge e.g. confessions with in the church, a form of power people are indicated to tell the truth (produces knowledge).
One is always inside power as we are always controlled by higher authority.
How does power work in social life?
Subtle ways social hierarchies can take control and exercise power e.g. governmental leaders taking control by single decision, no involvement of others because that person is “the leader”.
Power transfers.
Ideological opinions as we have been told certain things to experience e.g. standard is better - This exerts power and it is difficult to change opinions. Abuse of power in serious circumstances. Recognises power is not all negative that forces individuals to do things but can be a necessary, productive force in society - it can teach.
The ability to create and change in society or the behaviour of individuals be a positive or negative.
Discourse:
as an institutionalised way of speaking or writing about reality that defines what can be thought and said about the world and what cannot
Habitus/Cultural capital
Bourdieu
The physical embodiment of cultural capital, the deeply ingrained habits, skills, and dispositions that we possess due to our life experiences - We act due to the knowledge of experiences, all individuals are shaped differently by their habitus
Cultural capital links as identities are shaped by habitus due to social class positions - stereotypical activities linked to class due to exposure Noted that habitus could be so ingrained individuals saw it as natural rather than culturally developed Collection of symbolic elements e.g. clothing, skills, that is acquired due to involvement with a particular social class. Sharing cultural capital with others creates a group position Leads to social inequality, reducing chance for social mobility
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Early 1920s onwards
Sapir and Whorf never co-authored any works and never stated their ideas in terms of hypothesis it was later on when this term was created.
Linguistic relativity and Linguistic determinism. Proposes that the way we perceive the world plays a part in how language is structured
Indigenous languages Nootka and Hopi
Cultural connections between languages e.g. Latin word for left-handed very close to the English word ‘sinister’ meaning bad -> this resulted in individuals thinking that being left-handed was bad
LINK: social identity theory -> shared language creating a group identity, a community bound by knowledge and language e.g. Catalonia
Linguistic relativity
“Weak”
The structure of language partly determines the native speakers categorisation of experience.
Language and thought is closely linked and can be understood, e.g. interlocutors of different languages may be able to communicate with each other
Linguistic determinism
“Strong”
One’s perception of the world is determined by the structure of one’s native language.
Language is so ingrained it is difficult to communicate linguistically with another who doesn’t speak that language
Case study: Nootka
Edward Sapir
Members of that linguistic culture think differently from people in other cultures e.g. in Nootka speech the use to refer to left-handed people being marked with the same feature used in speaking about bears -> same category
Case study: Hopi
Benjamin Lee Whorf.
Language, thought and reality
Hopi does not make the same tense and aspect distinctions that English does.
Perceives the world differently to English
