The Interplay Of Language And Social Identity: A Comprehensive Sociolinguistic Review

Abstract

This paper seeks to discuss the role of language in defining social identity and as the paper shall bring out this argument, it shall give an overview of sociolinguistic theories and empirical evidence that shall underline the work of language in defining social identity. To do this the social identity concepts of ethnicity, gender, class and age are examined to consider how these are linguistically policed and sustained through communicative practices. Thus, by demonstrating how the linguistic choices support or disrupt the existing power relations, the paper reveals the interaction between language and social organizations. The review also reviews the multilingual and multicultural contexts thus investigating identity processes [1]such as code switching and language mixing which underscores the dynamics of identity in a global society. In addition, the paper also provides a reflection of the significance of the aforementioned the findings towards the improvement of relating and integrating of people in the newly asserted diverse societies thus stressing on the fact that language is both a mirror and a tool of people’s identity.