“Social Identities in Text” by Dr. Ritwik Banerjee

Participants in social communication adapt, often unconsciously, to each others language styles. This adaptation exhibits a twofold phenomenon of convergence, in order to achieve social goals, and divergence, to convey group distinctiveness. But are these groups and identities present in written language, especially when the social (or individual) goals are supposedly independent of social identities? This is a question we explore with respect to gender as a social identity in scientific research writings.