Professional Documents
Culture Documents
younger brother is different with the way I individual agency as a semiotic activity, a social
communicate with Joan, my elder sister. " This is an construction, ‘something that has to be routinely
example of a situation influenced by ________. created and sustained in the reflexive activities of the
individual’.
Correct answer: Relational Identity
Correct answer: structuration,
Correct answer: Master, Primary _____ is a concept proposed by social theorist _____,
which posits that identity is historically grounded,
socially constituted knowledge, skills, beliefs and
We cannot contribute to our identity as an individual. attitudes – predisposing us to act, think and feel in
We have to belong to a group. particular ways.
Pierre Bourdieu
Correct answer: True Social identity is fixed and is not subject to change.
_____ identities are expected to be relatively stable and LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY
unique, seen in which people talk and behave toward Consistent with its view of language as universal,
others: hotheaded, honest, forthright, reasonable, abstract systems, the more traditional ‘linguistics
overbearing, a gossip, a brown-nose (both your own applied’ approach to the study of language use views
perception and those of other people). individual language users as stable, coherent, internally
Correct answer: Personal uniform beings in whose heads the systems reside.
Because of their universal nature, the systems
themselves are considered self-contained, independent
entities, extractable from individual minds. That is,
_____ identities refer to roles that people take on in a
while language systems reside in individual minds, they
communicative context with specific other people.
have a separate existence and thus remain detached
Correct answer: Interactional from their users.
Through involvement in their socioculturally significant Such a view of language, culture and identity leads to
activities, individuals take on or inhabit particular social concerns with articulating ‘the relationship between the
identities, and use their understandings of their social structures of society and culture on the one hand and
roles and relationships to others to mediate their the nature of human action on the other’ (Ortner, 1989:
involvement and the involvement of others in their 11); a central focus of research becomes the
practices. identification of ways we as individuals use the cues
available to us in our communicative encounters in the
These identities are not stable or held constant across (re)constitution of our social identities and those of
contexts, but rather are emergent, locally situated and others.
at the same time historically constituted, and thus are
‘precarious, contradictory and in process, constantly IDENTITY and LANGUAGE
being reconstituted in discourse each time we think or
Identity
speak’ (Weedon, 1997: 32).
In the contexts of our experience we use language not The stable and fixed aspects of selfhood: things that you
check off on census forms such as . . .
as solitary, isolated individuals giving voice to personal
intentions. Rather, we ‘take up a position in a social fi –Ethnicity (Chinese, German, Thai, etc)
eld in which all positions are moving and defi ned
relative to one another’ (Hanks, 1996: 201). Social –Nationality (American, Australian, etc)
action becomes a site of dialogue, in some cases of
–Social class (Poor, rich, etc)
consensus, in others of struggle where, in choosing
among the various linguistic resources available (and –Gender (male, female, etc)
not so available) to us in our roles, we attempt to mould
them for our own purposes, and thereby become –Age
authors of those moments
• Identity is an accomplishment.
Finally, this view recognises that culture does not exist
• Identity is fragmentary and in flux.
apart from language or apart from us, as language
users. It sees culture, instead, as reflexive, made and • People change identities to suit the needs of the
remade in our language games, our lived experiences, moment.
and ‘exist[ing] through routinized action that includes
the material (and physical) conditions as well as the –The stable features of persons that exist prior to any
social actors’ experience in using their bodies while particular situation (personal/individual). AND
moving through a familiar space’ (Duranti, 1997: 45). On
–Dynamic and situated accomplishments, nacted
this view, no use of language, no individual language
through talk, and changing from one occasion to the
user, is considered to be ‘culture-free’. Rather, in our
next (built/fluid).
every communicative encounter we are always at the
same time carriers and agents of culture.
1. THE PARTICIPANTS
3. Personal identities
Who is talking to whom (wife-husband,
• Personal identities are expected to be relatively customer-shopkeeper, boss-worker)
stable and unique.
– often reference ways in which people talk 2. THE SOCIAL SETTING AND FUNCTION OF
and behave toward others: hotheaded, honest, INTERACTION
forthright, reasonable, overbearing, a gossip, a
(home, work, school)
brown-nose (both your own perception and
those of other people). 3. THE AIM OR PURPOSE OF THE INTERACTION
• Personal identities are frequently contested (my
mother says I am stubborn, but I don’t think (informative, social)
so..). 4. THE TOPIC What is being talked about?
Ray : Yeah, that bastard ML team got us again!. Sujon: I am fine. But what happened to you?
Mom : Lola’’s here. Jamiya: Nothing serious, but I feel very weak.
Ray : Oh sorry. Where is she? Sujon: It seems to me you are very careless about your
health. May be you do not take physical exercise
The Participants regularly.
Customer: I want two litters of double-toned milk, a Jamiya: Yes, you are absolutely right. I am not
dozen eggs, a liter of soybean cooking oil, one pouch of habituated to take physical exercise.
butter milk, ½ of corn-starch, three flavoured yogurt,
and a kilogram of raw groundnut. Sujon: But you should know that physical exercise is
very important to keep us fit, because a sound of mind
Customer: How much is it for? lives in a sound body.
Shopkeeper: 855 pesos. Jamiya: Yes, you are right.
Customer: How much are you charging for the eggs? Sujon: If you do not take physical exercise regularly, you
Shopkeeper: 70 pesos, a dozen. cannot keep yourself fit and do anything properly.
Besides, you will become idle.
Customer: That’s more than what you charged the last
time. Jamiya: yes thank you for the advice. I will start to have
a physical exercise tomorrow to keep my body active.
Shopkeeper: Rates have gone up in the last week.
The Topic
Customer: OK. Give me some discount as I’m buying
quite a few items. Lyda: omg!
The Social Setting and Function of Interaction Lyda: ‘it’s over, isn’t it’.
Teacher: well Jade, I hear you are taking part in the Analysis !- The Participants
speaking competition
Language serves a range of functions:
Student: yes sir; and I came to ask you to give me some
hints on the art public speaking. • to ask for and give people information,
Teacher: with pleasure, jade. Have you prepared your • to express indignation and annoyance as well
speech? as admiration and;
Teacher: Oh! But that is great mistake. Always carefully Social Dimensions
prepare what you want to say, but never learn it off buy A Social distance scale concerned with participant
heart. relationship
Student: Big thanks to your advice sir. A status scale concerned with participant relationship
The Aim or Purpose of Interaction A formality scale relating to the setting or type of
Sujon is talking to jamiya her friend who is feeling week, interaction
and persuading her friend to have a physical exercise. Two functional scales relating to the purposes or topic
Sujon: Hello, Jamiya! How are you? of interaction
• Linguistic variation occurs at other levels of
linguistic analysis: sounds, word-structure,
grammar as well as vocabulary.
CONCLUSION: