Psychologist James Pennebaker contends that identity-comprising qualities such as social class, economic status, gender, wealth and power dynamics of individuals can be indicated by the ways in which one uses function words.
Functions words express a grammatical or structural relationship with other words in a sentence. They include things like " pronouns (such as I, you, they), articles (a, an, the), prepositions (to, of, for) and auxiliary verbs (is, am, have)", things which Pennebaker refers to as the ‘connective tissue of language’. After much research, Pennebaker has demonstrated that these seemingly insignificant particles of language have the ability to illustrate the power dynamic between two interlocutors and their relative social status by how frequently they use "I" in a conversation.
Pennebaker contends that "People's pronouns track their focus of attention. If someone is anxious, self-conscious, in pain or depressed, they pay more attention to themselves". His study found that an individual with lower social status will use "I" less than those of a higher status. This is due to the fact that the individual of a lower social status will be more self conscious of how they are being perceived, and frequent use of "I" is indicative of a "verbal fidgeting"
In congruence with contemporary linguistic beliefs, Pennebaker found that when two people have a positive relationship, their linguistic features will evolve to subconsciously mimic each other. This "verbal mirroring" explains why people belonging to the same social group will often utilise language in similar ways, and further confirms the notion of language's ability to assert in group solidarity and belonging.
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