Sociolinguistic Study of the Identity of African American Sitcom

Abstract

Introduction and Research Problem: The study aims to illustrate the role of language in depicting and representing identity in relation to different social classes. In the African American sitcom of the study at hand, different social classes of the same black community/race are represented in the portrayal of different characters, in term of their language use as well as other behavioral aspects. However, since social classes, apart from being socially structured, are the root source of so many different stereotypes. Materials and Methods: A sample is taken from the African American sitcome: The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The reserchers has watched the whole six seasons periorly. However, for the matter of the study at hand, 15 episodes are selected specifically form the twenty-five episode long first season which specifically chosen because it includes the introduction and fundamental characteristics of each characters’ personality together with the role they play and the function they perform. Summary of Results: The portrayals of the characteristics of each character weight heavily on common stereotypes related to the social classes that characters belong to. Conclusion and Recommendations: Upon analyzing the behaviors of the main characters of the African American Sitcom, we come to the conclusion that, characters’ portrayals match the notions of such stereotypes. Yet, through the different acts of the characters, we realized, that different misconceptions of stereotyped images were revealed to be misconceived.