1.3 Investigating Identity Construction in Languag...
Identity is not a unitary phenomenon, but at least a two-way construct, including the prerequisite condition to be identical for the other people, such as name, gender or class, and the enabling process to be performed and negotiated in the individual and social practices.Identity thus carries meaning only if it is located in the positions within a particular society, context or community where individuals participate in.However, our understanding of identity is limited by either personal imagination or social realities that we confront.Possibly, identity construction is observable and interpretable in repeated experiences in a specific context.It is particularly reflected in individual’s process of language development and individual development in terms of the gravity of engagement of linguistic resources and the way of participation in activities.
Among various available linguistic theories for context and language development, Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is the most comprehensive framework of description and analysis of the relationship between language use and context.Within the systemic range, some functional linguists have started to work on identity research, but most of them limit the discussion within the grammatical scope.The dynamic and multi-faceted nature of identity drives a necessity to make more efforts in exploring a detailed and systematic account of identity category and identity construction.Therefore, the current discussion attempts to integrate both SFL and sociocultural perspectives, which explain and analyse how identities are performed and negotiated in the boundaries of language and context over time.As such, the subsections below first introduce the SFL perspective, and then the sociocultural perspective alongside the explanation of why it is compatible with the SFL perspective for investigating identity and ways of identity construction.