LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC INSIGHT INTO STUDENTS’ IDENTITY PERCEPTION

Abstract

Research on language and identity represent an important topic in sociolinguistics. Studying identities through the prism of identity claims can provide valuable insights into how individuals construct and express their sense of self. The aim of this research is to examine identities found among the students at the University of Priština in Kosovska Mitrovica. Specific cultural, political, and any other context surrounding their everyday life, qualifies this particular population as appropriate for the aforementioned analysis. The focus of the research is on the linguistic resources (cues, markers) used by the students and identity types signalled by doing so. The classification of their linguistic cues and following the taxonomy of Bucholtz and Hall (2005) performative identity framework, we will investigate how their linguistic choices reflect both their self-perception and the social contexts in which they are embedded.