Unit 2: Site A Speak that I might see you - language and Personal Identity

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Site A (Resources/coursework ideas)

Clothes make the person
Everything I own: what stuff means

Site B

Popular Music - songs that saved my life
In my room: personal spaces
She’s got wheels: transportation as cultural practice

Language and Personal Identity
Gender and Identity
Class and Identity


Good Taste/Bad Taste
Clothes make the person

Speak that I might see you: the relationship between personal language use (idiolect) and personal identity

This is a coursework site where you get to explore how you express yourself in language and how your language forms part of your personal identity. First you need to explore your personal language a little bit so try the exercises below.

Hints and coursework ideas for this topic - click here

How does our language reflect our personal identity?

Key areas which define our identity are our gender, class and ethnicity. The way we use language as men or women, working class or middle class, black or white people tells others about how we see ourselves and how we wish others to see us.

The links in the left-hand margin explore some of these aspects of language and identity. There are some articles to read and some activities to try. This whole page is available as a Powerpoint to use in class.

• Idiolect Activity
• Names and Naming Practices
• Systems of Address
• Language and Group Identity
• Language and Global Identity
• Language and Place

Activity 1

Use a large piece of sugar paper or A3 paper. Write your name in the middle. Using the bullet point headings below, collect vocabulary and phrases which you use which would identify different aspects of your identity. This is your IDIOLECT - your personal language map or identity.

For example, in the diagram on the left, in each of the speech bubbles, are words connected with different aspects of identity.

The words in Speech Bubble A, are all words used by women - 'adorable', 'cut' etc.

In Speech Bubble B, the words are used by men, in the next speech bubble, words used by people living in South Yorkshire and so on.

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Headings for your diagram

• Your gender – how is this significant? Would you use certain words and not others because of your gender? Ways of describing things, particularly colours and people?
• Parents – their jobs, interests, what they taught you about language, what you got into trouble for saying?
• The geographical area you were brought up in – dialect words, accent etc
• Places you moved to?
• Education – playgroup, nursery, infant, secondary etc?
• Friends, peer influence e.g teenage slang etc
• Media – films, magazines, T.V etc
• Hobbies
• Part-time work – technical language, addressing customers, bosses etc
• Your own habits – fillers like ‘y'know', ‘really' etc, favourite words, do you talk a lot, what do you talk about and to whom?

Language can be a powerful means of exercising social control – if you belong to a particular group, this means adopting the linguistic conventions of that group – can you think of any groups you are part of in which you have to use particular kinds of language?

“Identity, whether it is or, an individual, social or institutional level, is something which we are constantly building and negotiating all our lives through our interaction with others"

Names and naming practices

The giving and using of names is fundamental to people's identity – it is what distinguishs us from other people. Different cultures have different naming practices e.g Russia ‘son of x' etc

• What kind of identity does your name give you?
• How do you feel if someone gets it wrong?
• How do different people address you in different contexts?

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Systems of Address

• The way people address you – the degree of formality, intimacy or status affects the communication e.g Mr, boy, Sir, mate etc

"What's your name boy?"
"Dr Poussaint. I'm a physician.
"What's your first name, boy?"
"Alvin."
(Ervin Tripp, I980: 22)

• Different cultures have different ways of addressing in public situations

• Language fits with other indicators of social identity and group membership such as style of clothes, type of haircut and taste in music. How would the people in the pictures address each other?

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Language and group identity

• Language can give a strong sense of belonging or being excluded

• The first step of all invading forces, in wars of the past, was to eliminate the use of the native language – this stops dissent but also destroys group and national identity e.g Scotland – 1745 Gaelic was banned.

• Not being able to speak or understand a language effectively excludes you from a group or nation or makes you a second class citizen e.g not speaking English or not having an R.P accent.

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Language and Global Identity

• Why is the predominant language of the Internet English?

• What implications does this have for national identities?

• For the status of certain countries over others? • For a sense of belonging?

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Coursework Hints

Speak that I might see you: the relationship between personal language use (idiolect) and personal identity. This provides you with scope to look at the ways you give and receive language and how this affects both your own identity and the identities of those around you.

The investigation for this topic should be 500 words long. You must therefore ‘specialise’ and focus on something specific rather than generic. The other specific element is your own personal experience, which is the element to be analysed.

Some ideas you might explore are:

Your use of slang - how this expresses your gender, age, personality, race and class. How does this slang make you feel part of different groups - friendship or subculture? How does it link you to others of your age, gender etc?

You could start by noting how you adapt your use of slang to suit different contexts - do you use the same words in the classroom, at work, with your parents and grandparents, with different groups of friends?

Your use of accent and dialect - does your accent show others which class you come from? Do you use Received Pronounciation or a local accent? Do you use standard vocabulary or special words from your area e.g cob, snicket, mardy etc

Your use of jargon - specialised vocabulary from a hobby, job, interest, academic subject

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