Identity Construction through Language Use (A Case Study of Jakartanese Personal Pronoun)

Recent studies have reported that the use of language does not merely reflect on the communicative function, but also identifies the social status of the speakers. This research presents an explanation and of these findings in terms of the use of Jakartanese personal pronouns gue by non-Jakartan regarding the construction of social identity seen from the perspective of Social Identity Theory (SIT). Observation was employed to investigate the occurrence of this pronoun in conversations among the participants, and semi-structured interviews are used to find out the underlying motivations. Results show that by using gue, participants undergo the process of social Identity Theory and are able to enact stances, mostly familiarity and ‘coolness’ which becomes a prime aspect for them to construct self-identity.