Resumen de Relational social deixis and the linguistic construction of identity

Andreas Papapavlou, Andry Sophocleous

• This study examines language attitudes, member categorisation and social distinctions among Greek-Cypriot tertiary education students in Cyprus. Specifically, focus is placed on the use of deictics by participants to examine attitudes and behaviour as regards use and variation in language. Participants’ attitudinal responses and folk theories are a central part of understanding identity construction and membership categorisation. Data were collected from three focus group interviews in tertiary education to examine language attitudes towards speakers of four broad register levels of the Greek-Cypriot Dialect, to investigate which registers receive the least favourable evaluations and where differentiation becomes an important aspect of evaluators’ group membership, and to explore which factors seem to impact on language comparisons. The results of the study illustrate that students are well aware of their social positioning in society and of the effects of employing less prestigious linguistic variables.