Language and Identity

If you talk a man in a language he understands , that goes to his head .If you talk to him in his language ,it goes to his heart.(Nelson Mandela)This article tries to talk about Language and its functions , identity, types of identity, the relationship between identity and language, linguistic and social identities.The language we use forms an important part of our sense of who we are - of our identity. One of the fundamental functions of language is indeed the communication of content and conveyinginformation that this is not, however, language’s only function. One cannot communicate using language withoutdisclosing at least some of this information about one’s identity. This second use of language - that of being a means of outward portrayal of identity, communication of identity , is the use of language to express identity. It means that one of the absolutely essential ways we have of establishing our identity, and of shaping other people’s views of who we are,is through our use of language’.Identity, whether on an individual, social or interactional level is something that we are constantly building andnegotiating throughout our lives and through our interactions with each other . Language and identity are actually inter woven and none of them is fixed and static. Both are changing according to time and place.Linguistic identity points out this matter that rather than identity being fixed and static to nationality, ethnicity, creed, it is instead fluid and a constantly changing and emerging experience resulting from linguistic integration.Our various group memberships, along with the values, beliefs and attitudes associated with them, are significantto the development of our social identities in that they define in part the kinds of communicative activities and the particular linguistic resources for realizing them to which we have access. Social identities become associated with particular sets of linguistic actions for realizing activities, and with attitudes and beliefs about them.

کلیدواژه ها:

language ، language functions ، identity ، types of identity ، relationship between language and identity