Language and Social Identity

Differences in language use are used to investigate processes of group formation, maintenance, and demise in the context of overlapping identity categories of race, ethnicity, nation, class, and gender in these 13 case studies presented by Blot (linguistics, Lehman College of the City U. of New York). Specific topics include the ethnic and class meanings of refusal to speak Catalan in Barcelona; Mayan testimonial construction of place in Chiapas, Mexico; the construction of identity in the advertising of Hispanic magazine; and Rastafarian conceptions of the political power of language. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

RICHARD K. BLOT is Coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Program in Linguistics at Lehman College of the City University of New York, where he teaches anthropology, linguistics, and education.