Language and Identity Across Modes of Communication (original) (raw)

Transacted Identities: Language and Self Negotiation in Interaction

Journal of Humanistic and Social Studies, 2020

The present article aims to investigate how identity occurs dialogically – and not only – in social interaction, with personal and social identity overlapping and influencing each other, and the social actors transacting themselves based on their external cues. Identity negotiation, concept that stays at the core of our study, looks at the ways in which, starting from a specific agenda and precise goals, individuals engage in the creation of mutual identities, while also attempting to put on a favourable self-presentation for their interlocutors. The theoretical framework underpinning the research is set by the sociolinguistic paradigm, and the major importance attributed to language in the identity negotiation process is demonstrated in the second part of our research. The contribution concludes with some tentative observations and directions for further research.

Identity and Interaction: A Sociocultural Linguistic Approach (coauthored with Mary Bucholtz)

Discourse Studies, 2005

The article proposes a framework for the analysis of identity as produced in linguistic interaction, based on the following principles: (1) identity is the product rather than the source of linguistic and other semiotic practices and therefore is a social and cultural rather than primarily internal psychological phenomenon; (2) identities encompass macro-level demographic categories, temporary and interactionally specific stances and participant roles, and local, ethnographically emergent cultural positions; (3) identities may be linguistically indexed through labels, implicatures, stances, styles, or linguistic structures and systems; (4) identities are relationally constructed through several, often overlapping, aspects of the relationship between self and other, including similarity/difference, genuineness/artifice and authority/delegitimacy; and (5) identity may be in part intentional, in part habitual and less than fully conscious, in part an outcome of interactional negotiation, in part a construct of others’ perceptions and representations, and in part an outcome of larger ideological processes and structures. The principles are illustrated through examination of a variety of linguistic interactions.

The Relationship between Language and Identity

International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation

This research explores the relationship between language and identity; with more than 7,000 spoken languages in the world today, we can transmit our identities and thoughts by using our language, and that is one of the strongest human abilities as far as the language is different as much as the transmitted can be different too since the language is a main and an important method to express our identities in any culture and society. Language is either individual words, connected speech, or even writing. While we use written or spoken language, we do not only express our thoughts, culture, society, intentions but also who we really are and how we want people to see us. We both perform and produce specific identities depending on the context. I used a survey (quantitative data), and I published it on different media, so I could gather as many participants and cover a large number of experiences. It included both open and closed questions and also included possible answers (multiple c...

Issues in language and identity research in applied linguistics (2013)

Estudios de Lingüística Inglesa Aplicada, 2013

Identity has become a key construct in applied linguistics over the past 30 years, as more and more researchers have heeded Norton Peirce's (1995: 12) call for 'a comprehensive theory of social identity that integrates the language learner and the language learning context'. In this article, my aim is to discuss what I see as issues arising in identity research in applied linguistics. I start with a brief consideration of why identity has become so central in applied linguistics, before discussing the poststructuralist model of identity which has been adopted by the vast majority of researchers. I then move to consider three more substantive issues: (1) the potential benefits of a more psychological angle when most language and identity research tends to be predominantly social; (2) the importance of clarifying the interrelationship between individual agency and social structures in language and identity research; and (3) the potential benefits of including a socioeconomic stratification and social class angle in research which tends to prime identity politics (identity inscriptions such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, nationality and language), over the material conditions of life.