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The Language of Multiple Identities among Dominican Americans
Author(s) -
Bailey Benjamin
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of linguistic anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.463
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1548-1395
pISSN - 1055-1360
DOI - 10.1525/jlin.2000.10.2.190
Subject(s) - essentialism , ethnic group , negotiation , symbol (formal) , identity (music) , construct (python library) , linguistics , sociology , gender studies , social identity theory , social psychology , psychology , social group , anthropology , aesthetics , social science , computer science , art , philosophy , programming language
As a group whose members are Hispanic, American, and largely of African descent, Dominican Americans must negotiate distinctive issues of identity in the United States. Language is central to these negotiations, both as a symbol of identity and as a medium through which to construct and display local social meanings. Dominican Americans use linguistic forms from multiple varieties of two codes, Spanish and English, to situationally activate various facets of their multiple identities. This multivariety linguistic and interactional construction of identities undermines implicit assumptions of uniformity and essentialism in U.S. linguistic and ethnic/racial categories, particularly in the construction of the category "African American."