Dealing with gender identity as a sociolinguistic variable 1

Abstract

This chapter shows how the framework for communication, and especially speaker, might inform research into gender identity and gender salience. The framework for communication and speaker identity is also intended to make clear where and how individual identities fit in with collective identities like gender or class. Within the framework of social identity theory, researchers have commented on the need to deal with gender in a more sophisticated way. Thus, researchers in the social psychology of language have drawn attention to the need for a theoretical framework that will invoke the salience of gender as an identity in a communicative event, and the presence and influence of any other identity. The framework of speaker identity integrates two sociolinguistic and psychological concepts: social networks and ethnolinguistic vitality. The chapter reviews evidence from social psychology research that supports the need to treat gender identity as a construct that varies in social significance for an individual depending on the situation.

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