Us and Others: Social Identities Across Languages, Discourses and Cultures (review)

This collection provides an original and welcome take on an important area within discourse studies, as well as cultural studies and anthropology generally. There is a recent abundance of typological studies exploring the roles of pronominal forms and functions across languages, and there are several philosophical currents investigating the functions of pronominal functions or concepts like ‘I’, ‘we’, and ‘you’. Here, the fundamental notions of ourselves and others are explored in a synthetic fashion throughout the collection, and through this organization the editor and authors raise provocative questions about the nature and stability of linguistic and cultural concepts.

Part 1, ‘Discourses in space’, deals with the relationship between pronominal functions and concepts of space or place. In ‘Between us and them in Chinese: Use of lai (come) and qu (go) in the construction of social identities’ (51–68), Minglang Zhou follows Charles Fillmore in analyzing the social uses of deictic verbs in Mandarin, finding that ‘the linguistic realization of social space may be variable across languages, depending on how a culture employs the concepts of social space and manipulates linguistic rules in culturally-oriented practice’ (63). In ‘The space in identity: A cognitivist approach to “outsider” discourses’ (87–110), Melinda Yuenching Chen combines the cognitive linguistics approach of Ronald Langacker and Len Talmy with cultural studies perspectives on insider/outsider discourses, especially ones identified by race. Other essays explore identity formation in MOO (multi-user domain, object-oriented) conversations (Birgit Apfelbaum), the grammar and function of ‘we’ (Johannes Helmbrecht), and group membership in Japanese (Soichi Kozai).

Part 2, ‘Discourses in polyphony’, focuses on identity construction in multilingual contexts. In ‘Ethnolects as in-group varieties’ (133–57), Michael Clyne, Edina Eisikovits, and Laura Tollfree explore code-switching and identity formation in several German immigrant communities in Australia. Nkonko M. Kamwangamalu looks at similar issues in a very different social formation in ‘Code-switching, code-crossing, and identity construction in a society in transition, South Africa’ (187–210).

Part 3, ‘Discourses of transition’, offers more directly theoretical reflections on the connection between language and identity formation and definition. In ‘Words and social identities’ (213–31), Anna Duszak analyzes data from Poland on the relative use of Polish and English to argue that ‘for many Poles some knowledge of English is a precondition for a fuller participation in the modern life, and a better chance for prestige, promotion, and higher social status. For many others who have no capabilities for, or interest in, the new developments, the spreading presence of English turns into a social and a communicative barrier’ (229), and English becomes a central mechanism for identifying as in-group or out-group. Other essays examine personal pronouns in Russian (Riitta Pyykkö) and Polish political discourse (Krystyna Skarżynska), and Heiko Hausendorf and Wolfgang Kesselheim’s ‘The communicative construction of group identities: The basic mechanism of social categorization’ (265–89) presents a comprehensive theory of social categorization based in part on pronouns.

Parts 4–6 focus even more closely on politics and pressure applied to social systems through language. Part 4, ‘Discourses of fear’, in particular examines situations of persecution and strong political opposition. For example, ‘Discourse about them: Construction of ethnic identities in Tai print media (321–39) by Krisadawan Hongladarom examines ethnicity in Thai print culture. Part 5, ‘Discourses of challenge’, looks at various types of resistance to accepted systems of categorization. One of the papers looks at gender identity in Turkish (Şükriye Ruhi), while another looks more sociologically at language used in service industries (Liliana Cabral Bastos). Finally, Part 6, ‘Discourses through suppression’, looks at translation, bilingualism, and brain dysfunction and their relationship to social identity. Several essays here, including ‘Ideological binarism in...