ABSTRACT
This chapter takes as its premise the idea that language distinctions are rarely neutral, in the sense of not symbolising different identities or sets of identities. The choice of particular languages, as well as of particular phonological and grammatical features of a language, almost always indexes a range of social parameters, including social status, ethnicity and gender, as well as place (Auer, 2007, Llamas and Watt, 2009). Inherent in parameters such as these are unequal power relations, which may be political, economic or social in nature. Sometimes, power relations are structural and overt, involving factors that lead to gross economic differences, especially ownership of means of production, land ownership and a person’s access to patronage. Other kinds of inequality, such as those relating to gender and ethnicity, are not clearly economic in origin, but routinely lead to economic differentials. The question we address in this chapter is: do language differences in and of themselves have the capacity to cause conflict between different social groups in a society?
