The language factor in identity politics: An exploratory research

Abstract

This paper essentially interrogates the language factor in identity politics. It perceives identity politics as inevitable in societal affairs. Language is viewed from the paper's functionalist perspective, whereby the language concept is interwoven with human existence. The work further investigates what it sees as a dilemma in language deployment under identity politics. The problem of the study thus centers on how language achieves its communicative purposes in its deployment under identity politics. The paper accordingly hypothesizes that the language question is intertwined with identity issues. The methodology of the research is nonquantitative, basically relying on nonnumerical presentation. The theoretical framework is Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Under this theoretical template, the article focused on how group power dealings are determined and strengthened through language utilization. The contribution finally concludes that language's communicative purposes can only be achieved in identity politics under mutually beneficial standards or multicultural paradigms.