scholarly journals Beyond the Words in Print: Identity Construction in Messages of Condolence

2022 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-192
Author(s):  
Rita Akele Twumasi
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Role Identity ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Theoretical Physics ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
The Social

Death is part of human existence. When a person hears the news of someone’s death, it is very common for that person to express their feelings about it. This feeling is in the form of condolences which express the speaker’s sorrow, and condolences fall into the category of speech act. Semantically, condolences have a social meaning which refers to language use. Identities are created in relationships with others, and condolences are major platforms for the construction of identities, in that, existing relationships are, clearly, manifested in the messages that sympathizers expressed. Using a qualitative approach, the study analyzed twenty condolence messages which were purposely sampled from condolence messages posted in the portals of International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), when one of its members passed away. The analysis of the data revealed two main identity types enacted for the deceased: role identity and Social Identity. The major Role identity enacted, metaphorically, was Father while the least role was Achiever. Second, identity as an International Figure was dominant with the Social roles, but Good Personality was used less frequently. The present study adds to studies in identity construction, in general, and studies in condolence messages, in specific.

Paul and the Author of 1 Clement as Entrepreneurs of Identity in Corinthian Crises of Leadership

2021 ◽  
pp. 0142064X2110647
Author(s):  
Katja Kujanpää
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
The Past ◽  
Psychological Theories ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Identity Approach

When Paul and the author of 1 Clement write letters to Corinth to address crises of leadership, both discuss Moses’ παρρησία (frankness and openness), yet they evaluate it rather differently. In this article, I view both authors as entrepreneurs of identity and explore the ways in which they try to shape their audience’s social identity and influence their behaviour in the crisis by selectively retelling scriptural narratives related to Moses. The article shows that social psychological theories under the umbrella term of the social identity approach help to illuminate the active role of leaders in identity construction as well as the processes of retelling the past in order to mobilize one’s audience.

Sociolinguistics: Theory

1984 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 46-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Heller
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Theoretical Issue ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
The Social ◽  
Variationist Sociolinguistics ◽  
Social Distribution ◽  
The Relationship

In 1980, in this journal, Joshua Fishman presented the major theoretical issue in sociolinguistics as being the link between microsociolinguistic and macrosociolinguistic processes. In 1984 that is still the case, although the issue is receiving more explicit attention than it did four years ago.There are two branches of sociolinguistics which approach this issue in different ways. These two branches are interactionist and variationist sociolinguistics. Interactionist sociolinguistics is principally interested in what language use can tell us about social processes, and therefore a central concern is the social meaning of language use. Variationist sociolinguistics is interested in accounting for linguistic variation and change, at least partly as a product of the social distribution of language varieties. It is, therefore, less concerned with meaning as process, and more concerned with the interaction of linguistic and social systems; in this view the significance of language is mainly symbolic. In this review, I will discuss the contributions of these branches to the problem of the relationship between microsociolinguistics and macrosociolinguistics, as well as the theoretical problems peculiar to each branch.

The social life of style1

2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Moore
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Language Variation And Change ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
The Social ◽  
Variationist Sociolinguistics ◽  
Social Meanings ◽  
Using Data

Variationist sociolinguistics has provided essential information about community-wide patterns of language variation and change. However, as the field has developed, the need to provide coherent explanations for observed correlations has highlighted problems with the conceptualization of style, social meaning and the linguistic variable. Using data from two case studies, this article illustrates how a more nuanced account of stylistic practice provides a richer understanding of the social and cognitive basis of language use. In particular, it is argued that the linguistic analysis of social groups should be driven by the specific social concerns of the groups studied, not by the search for variable ways to ‘say the same thing’. This approach not only enables a fuller account of the social meaning of language features, it demonstrates that social meanings may be encoded at the intersection of components of the grammar (phonology, morphosyntax and discourse), and in more complex ways than has previously been assumed.

‘Don’t even [θ/f/h]ink aboot it’

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Lawson
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Meanings ◽  
Lexical Effects ◽  
Rapid Spread ◽  
Using Data

As a relatively new phenomenon in the phonology of Scottish English, TH-fronting has surprised sociolinguists by its rapid spread in the urban heartlands of Scotland. While attempts have been made to understand and model the influence of lexical effects, media effects and frequency effects, far less understood is the role of social identity. Using data collected as part of an ethnographic study of a high school in the south side of Glasgow, Scotland, this article addresses this gap in the literature by considering how TH-fronting is patterned across three all-male, working-class, adolescent Communities of Practice, and how this innovative variant is integrated within a system of the more established variants [θ] and [h]. Drawing on recent work on linguistic variation and social meaning, the article also explores some of the social meanings of (θ), particularly those variants which previous research has reported as being associated with ‘toughness’, and suggests how these meanings are utilised in speakers’ construction of social identity.

Precision and speaker qualities. The social meaning of pragmatic detail

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Beltrama
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Social Perception ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Meanings ◽  
The World ◽  
Linguistic Cues ◽  
High Degree

AbstractThe present article focuses on two questions: (i) How do listeners infer the social identity of a speaker based on how they choose to describe the world? (ii) Are these inferences informed by similar principles to those motivating the social significance of linguistic phenomena in other domains of the grammar? We address this issue by exploring the social meaning of imprecision (Lasersohn 1999): speakers’ well-attested tendency to apply varying degrees of deviation from the truth when reporting facts (e.g., describing a car as going 70 MPH, instead of 69). Based on results from a social perception study, we found (i) that a high degree of precision is associated with a constellation of both favorable and unfavorable qualities; (ii) that different linguistic cues to signal precision differentially affect the social meaning of the utterance; (iii) and that most such qualities bear a striking resemblance to those associated to variation in other realms – e.g., the hyper/hypo-articulation of sounds. We take this as evidence that semantic variation can be socially meaningful across the specific lexical items in which it manifests itself, and that such social meanings can be linguistically motivated by similar principles across different domains of the grammar.

scholarly journals FEATURES OF EMPLOYEES’ VALUES AND SOCIAL AND ROLE IDENTITY IN PERSONNEL TRAINING

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 61-70
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Sergeevna Pismenyuk ◽  
Vera Gennadievna Gryazeva-Dobshinskaya
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Role Identity ◽  
Training System ◽  
Sales Managers ◽  
Market Uncertainty ◽  
Personnel Training ◽  
Training Materials ◽  
The Social ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Choice Method

Background. Market uncertainty expands the capabilities of organizations and creates the need for the development of a training system that meets modern requirements. One of the requirements for personnel training is the need to develop readiness for choice in situations of uncertainty. According to researchers, the readiness for a situation of uncertainty is mediated by the social identity and values shared by the organization members. Features of social identity and values that form effective personnel strategies in a situation of uncertainty have been insufficiently studied. Aim. This study aims to determine the features of the social and role identity and values of employees in personnel training. Materials and methods. The sample of the study consisted of sales managers (80 people) aged from 23 to 45 years. Features of the social and role identity and values of managers were studied before and after the Motivation Skills program chosen for the experiment. Social and role identity was investigated using the ROSSTL method by V.G. Griazeva-Dobshinskaya; managers' values were studied using the eflective choice method by V.A. Petrovsky. The data obtained were subjected to factor analysis. Results. A change in the social and role identity and values of personnel in a learning situation has been revealed. After the experiment, managers identified as leaders began to choose work as subordinates and the values of “development” and “career” as a working requirement. Managers with vague identifications began to choose the activities relevant for the organization and such values as “career” and “money” as a working requirement. Managers without identification began to choose creative work and such values as “money” as a working requirement. Conclusion. It has been established that personnel training contributes to a change in the choice of professional roles and reflection regarding the values chosen by personnel.

Despierten, Latinos (‘Wake up, Latinos’)

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 558-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pilar Garcés -Conejos Blitvich ◽  
Patricia Bou-Franch ◽  
Nuria Lorenzo-Dus
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Latino Identity ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Us

This study examines the schemata underlying the social dimensions and relationships associated with the processes of Latino identity construction in 500 YouTube postings in response to the Obama Reggaeton video. According to Van Dijk (1998), such schemata allow members of a given group to provide answers to questions such as who they are, what criteria need to be met for membership in their group, and what kinds of relationships are established among their group and other social groups. Along the lines of Wodak et al. (1999), our study unveils six main thematic contents or categories that discursively realize the social dimensions and relationships associated with the Latino identity, and tests them in a corpus of unsolicited data in a deindividuated environment, YouTube, in which social identity, such as the Latino identity, is salient. The analysis lends validity to these categories, as they were found to be highly relevant to the corpus. We argue that the Latino identity is essentially political, both in the narrow and the broad senses of the word (see Gee 2005; Joseph 2006). Furthermore, the Latino identity can only be properly understood within the identity politics climate of the US.

Young-adults NEET in Italy: orientations and strategies toward the future

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 150-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Gaspani
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Young People ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Orientations

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relation with the future of young-adults Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) in Italy. The study of temporal experiences allows to understand how subjects represent their own condition and construct their biographies in an age of uncertainty. Design/methodology/approach The study follows a qualitative approach to allow participants to express their own experiences and representations through narratives. The 12 cases considered are illustrative of the different orientations detected in the group of 36 young people involved in the research. Findings Young-adults NEET have problems in acquiring a recognized social status and in designing future orientations. The difficulties to project themselves in time hinder the attainment of a sense of biographical continuity as well as the process of identity construction, which tends to be increasingly detached from the planning sphere. Originality/value The study adds to the literature on the issue of young people NEET, contributing to differentiate the social conditions of this group by referring to their experiences, social belongings and resources. The analysis sheds new light on the agency of young people, that conceive biographical strategies in relation to the scenarios they envisage.

The Effects of Language Use on Time Perspectives in Multilingual Morocco

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Unger ◽  
Karim Gassemi ◽  
Julie Papastamatelou
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Time Perspective ◽  
Psychological Distance ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Student Sample ◽  
Time Perspectives ◽  
The Social ◽  
Complex Procedure

In the current study, we tested the effects of language on time perspective orientation in a Moroccan student sample. Four explanation, mechanisms have been considered: first, the priming of different contents by the use of different languages; second, the influence of the use of different languages on the social identity; third, the altering of memory capacity fostered by the use of a foreign language; and fourth, the enhanced psychological distance when using a foreign language. We used a language manipulation in a sample of Moroccan students ( n = 133) with respect to the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI). The results show that the language manipulation can lead to differences with respect to the scoring on the ZTPI. The suggested mechanisms have different significance on the measurement of the five time perspectives: an altered psychological distance can account for observed differences in the two past-related dimensions—Past Positive and Past Negative—and for Present Hedonism, whereas for Present Fatalism and Future, either language priming effects or altered social identity may explain the observed differences better. The results of the current study also show in general that psychological measurement in Morocco is a more complex procedure than in linguistically homogenous countries.

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