Accomplishing Socio-cultural Identity in Talk

Have you ever been listening in on a conversation and realised that although the participants are clearly speaking English that you don't understand what they are saying. You can hear them fine the issue is the way they are speaking. They are using slang words, and phrases and communicating in a way that is different from what you expect. They are communicating in a specific way that is showing their specific cultural or socio-cultural identity.

In 1972 Garfinkel stated that“To recognize what is said means to recognize how a person is speaking”. This shows that people have specific ways of speaking and that the way they speak shows their specific socio-cultural identity and that this is observed by recognising the meaning of what a person is saying not just the words they actually use.

An article in the Journal of Discourse Studies proposes that identities have five major factors:
1) Identity is the product rather than the source of linguistic and other semiotic practices.
2) Identities encompass macro-level demographic categories.
3) Identities may be linguistically indexed through labels, implicatures, stances, styles, or linguistic structures and systems.
4) Identities are relationally constructed through several, often overlapping, aspects of the relationship between self and other
5) Identity may be in part intentional, in part habitual and less than fully conscious

The above framework shows the basic elements of communication and how they are formed by and used to show a person's specific cultural identity. Below is an example of Gamer identity although it borrows aspects of identity from internet meme identity. The use of specific language in a specific way creates an identity for the person who created the graphic but it is best interpreted by those that share the same cultural interests and thus understand the identity being portrayed.

Tales of Symphonia Quote: "Dwarven Vow #1: Let's all work together for the sake of a peaceful world." This shows Lloyd's affiliation and familiarity with the dwarven culture through the use of the language that he is using (eg. Quoting the dwarven vows).

Commeted:  http://juliasoc250.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/social-and-moral-order-in-talk.html?showComment=1347528063291#c3381654303854580374 

References:

Bucholtz, M. &. Hall, K.  (2005). Identity and interaction: a. Discourse Studies , pp. 585-614.

Sacks, Harvey. "An Initial Investigation of the Usability of Conversational Data for Doing Sociology." In Studies in Social Interaction, edited by David Sudnow, 31-63. New York: Free Press, 1972.