Social Stratification in Literary Works (Death of a Salesman and Habu Nabu)

Abstract

Social Stratification is the organization of people into socioeconomic tiers based on the factors like property, power, and prestige. The study examines the reflection of social stratification in the language of an English and a Kurdish literary works. The study answers questions: Does social stratification exist in the Kurdish language? And are there certain words and structures that signify social stratification in English and Kurdish?

The purpose of the study is to analyze the language of the characters in "Death of a Salesman" and "Habu Nabu" from a sociolinguistic perspective, using Marx (1867) and Weber's (1922) theories of social stratification to determine the social class of the characters. The method adopted for achieving the purpose of the study is qualitative method, and content analysis is used as an instrument for collecting and analyzing data. One of the conclusions of the study is that social stratification has an influence on the Kurdish language more than the English language.