Applied English Language Studies 348
English and Identity
Lecture 1 – Language and identity: an introduction
• Language is the most flexible and pervasive means of cultural identity production
o Language you speak is associated with culture you identify with
• Need to attend to speakers’ own understandings of their identities
o How they perform their own identity → how they position themselves
• Organisation into a group is driven by agency and power → not by pre-existing similarities
• Sameness and difference
o Often overlook what makes people different when we look at what makes them the same
• Social groupings are a way of not only acknowledging similarity but of inventing similarity and
downplaying difference
o Done by setting certain norms
• Manufacturing of ingroup and outgroup distinctions through these norms
o Identity of the ingroup at its core requires that there be a stark difference between them and the
Other → can then by positioned against those seen as different
• Markedness → the process whereby some social groupings gain a special, default status that contrasts
with the identities of other groups, which are usually highly recognisable
o Anything that is different from this default status is socially evaluated as diverging from the norm
▪ Seen as failure to meet an expected standard
o Marked identities are often ideologically associated with marked language
o Being unmarked gives you an invisible power → being marked means that your deviations from
the norm are highly visible
Essentialism
• A theoretical position that maintains that those who occupy an identity category are both
fundamentally similar to one another and fundamentally different from members of other groups
o Mostly rejected now
• Groupings are seen as inevitable and natural → separated from each other by sharp boundaries
• Language played a big part in essentialist understandings of identity
o Language of different groups seen to be mutually exclusive → blurring these lines makes you
deviant from the norm
• Based on idea that identities are attributes of individuals and groups rather than situations
• Correlational approach → language use is reflective rather than constitutive of identity
o Emphasise distinctiveness of group patterns → variations of individuals within groups and
within a single individual
Practice
• Habitual social activity → series of actions that make up our daily lives
• Bourdieu → through repetition, language and other social practices shape our ways of being in the
world, our habitus
o Not the same for everyone
▪ Associated with different social value → symbolic capital
1
, Applied English Language Studies 348
Indexicality
• The semiotic operation of juxtaposition whereby one entity or event points to another
• Often a number of indexes are evoked to portray a particular stylisation of self
Performance
• Deliberate and self-aware social display
• Not only in what we regard as performance but also in social interaction
• Performance not only reflects the social world but also brings it into being
• Often involves stylisation → highlights and exaggerates ideological associations
o Meant to question ideologies
• Differentiated from more mundane interaction
• Brings identities to the fore in a resistant and subversive way
• Agency and individual action are crucial → you get to decide what to perform
Lecture 2 – Identity construction in and through non-
standard varieties of English: African American English
• African American English is the most studied ‘non-standard variety’
o Many different names → Black American English, Ebonics, African American Vernacular English,
Black Idiom
o Mostly studied by people who are not L1 speakers → can be problematic as people bring their
own prejudiced lenses as they describe AAVE
• By legitimising people’s language varieties, you also legitimise them as people
• Non-L1 speakers of AAVE → prejudices often highlight how AAVE deviates from standard English,
and some may argue that it has no structure and is less of a language
o Labov → AAVE is a well-formed and logical dialect
o Many teachers and educators believe it is a “collection of bad words and mistakes, and that poor
black children are mentally handicapped by it”
• Especially highlights variation in the realisation of the verb and auxiliary is → every speaker of this
dialect uses three different variants with a logical progression
o Full form → is is not dropped
▪ Eg. “don’t nobody know if it is a God”
o Contracted → ‘i’ in is is dropped
▪ The vowel is removed if it is unstressed
▪ Eg. “it ain’t no black god that’s doin’ that”
o Zero form → is is completely dropped
▪ Further extension of the contraction → removes the consonant
▪ Eg. “if you be bad, your spirit goin’ to hell”
• AAVE has the same uniform grammar across the entire US
o Labov → one of the first to show that linguistic variation indexed social class and that all dialects
were logical and well-formed and not inferior linguistically
• Smitherman → Black Idiom is intimately connected to black culture and black experience
o Educational goals for blacks should be considered within the structure of white American society
• Non-standard dialect is what deviates from the collective language of the majority culture → just as
structurally sound and rule-governed as any other dialect
o Eg. “it’s ok” vs. “it is ok” or “it is me” vs. “it is I” → acceptable not because grammatical rules have
change but because the forms are acceptable in the language of the majority culture
2
English and Identity
Lecture 1 – Language and identity: an introduction
• Language is the most flexible and pervasive means of cultural identity production
o Language you speak is associated with culture you identify with
• Need to attend to speakers’ own understandings of their identities
o How they perform their own identity → how they position themselves
• Organisation into a group is driven by agency and power → not by pre-existing similarities
• Sameness and difference
o Often overlook what makes people different when we look at what makes them the same
• Social groupings are a way of not only acknowledging similarity but of inventing similarity and
downplaying difference
o Done by setting certain norms
• Manufacturing of ingroup and outgroup distinctions through these norms
o Identity of the ingroup at its core requires that there be a stark difference between them and the
Other → can then by positioned against those seen as different
• Markedness → the process whereby some social groupings gain a special, default status that contrasts
with the identities of other groups, which are usually highly recognisable
o Anything that is different from this default status is socially evaluated as diverging from the norm
▪ Seen as failure to meet an expected standard
o Marked identities are often ideologically associated with marked language
o Being unmarked gives you an invisible power → being marked means that your deviations from
the norm are highly visible
Essentialism
• A theoretical position that maintains that those who occupy an identity category are both
fundamentally similar to one another and fundamentally different from members of other groups
o Mostly rejected now
• Groupings are seen as inevitable and natural → separated from each other by sharp boundaries
• Language played a big part in essentialist understandings of identity
o Language of different groups seen to be mutually exclusive → blurring these lines makes you
deviant from the norm
• Based on idea that identities are attributes of individuals and groups rather than situations
• Correlational approach → language use is reflective rather than constitutive of identity
o Emphasise distinctiveness of group patterns → variations of individuals within groups and
within a single individual
Practice
• Habitual social activity → series of actions that make up our daily lives
• Bourdieu → through repetition, language and other social practices shape our ways of being in the
world, our habitus
o Not the same for everyone
▪ Associated with different social value → symbolic capital
1
, Applied English Language Studies 348
Indexicality
• The semiotic operation of juxtaposition whereby one entity or event points to another
• Often a number of indexes are evoked to portray a particular stylisation of self
Performance
• Deliberate and self-aware social display
• Not only in what we regard as performance but also in social interaction
• Performance not only reflects the social world but also brings it into being
• Often involves stylisation → highlights and exaggerates ideological associations
o Meant to question ideologies
• Differentiated from more mundane interaction
• Brings identities to the fore in a resistant and subversive way
• Agency and individual action are crucial → you get to decide what to perform
Lecture 2 – Identity construction in and through non-
standard varieties of English: African American English
• African American English is the most studied ‘non-standard variety’
o Many different names → Black American English, Ebonics, African American Vernacular English,
Black Idiom
o Mostly studied by people who are not L1 speakers → can be problematic as people bring their
own prejudiced lenses as they describe AAVE
• By legitimising people’s language varieties, you also legitimise them as people
• Non-L1 speakers of AAVE → prejudices often highlight how AAVE deviates from standard English,
and some may argue that it has no structure and is less of a language
o Labov → AAVE is a well-formed and logical dialect
o Many teachers and educators believe it is a “collection of bad words and mistakes, and that poor
black children are mentally handicapped by it”
• Especially highlights variation in the realisation of the verb and auxiliary is → every speaker of this
dialect uses three different variants with a logical progression
o Full form → is is not dropped
▪ Eg. “don’t nobody know if it is a God”
o Contracted → ‘i’ in is is dropped
▪ The vowel is removed if it is unstressed
▪ Eg. “it ain’t no black god that’s doin’ that”
o Zero form → is is completely dropped
▪ Further extension of the contraction → removes the consonant
▪ Eg. “if you be bad, your spirit goin’ to hell”
• AAVE has the same uniform grammar across the entire US
o Labov → one of the first to show that linguistic variation indexed social class and that all dialects
were logical and well-formed and not inferior linguistically
• Smitherman → Black Idiom is intimately connected to black culture and black experience
o Educational goals for blacks should be considered within the structure of white American society
• Non-standard dialect is what deviates from the collective language of the majority culture → just as
structurally sound and rule-governed as any other dialect
o Eg. “it’s ok” vs. “it is ok” or “it is me” vs. “it is I” → acceptable not because grammatical rules have
change but because the forms are acceptable in the language of the majority culture
2
