This document discusses the relationship between language and identity. It defines language and explores its functions in communicating thoughts and feelings, as well as uniting or dividing people. There are different types of identity, including master, interactional, personal, and relational identities. Language plays a key role in national identity by representing cultures through symbols, history, and education. Cultural identity is also linked to language and how it shapes experiences and group belonging. In conclusion, language profoundly shapes social and ethnic identities by determining social status and power within a community.

1. Name: Sana Gul
Class: 8th Semester
Department of English
Women University Mardan

2. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY

3. “If you talk to 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
Language:
A language is a finite set of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of finite set of
elements.
-Noam Chomsky

4. Functions of Language:
Language is a way of communicating thoughts and feelings. Language can unite people as well
as divide people. It can also constitute means of asserting one's identity or one's
distinctiveness from others. A common language may be the ideal vehicIe to express the
unique character of a social group.
Identity:
According to Joanna Thora borrow "Identity, whether on an individual, social or interactional
level is something that we are constantly building and negotiating throughout our lives and
through our interaction with each other"

5. Kinds of identity:
There are four kinds of identity which are as follows;
Master identity
Interactional identity
Personal identity
Relational identity
Master identity is relatively stable and unchanging such as; gender, ethnicity, age, national
and regional origins. The meanings of master identity change across time and space.

6. Interactional identity refers to roles that people take on in a communicative content with
specific other people.
Personal identity is the national way in which people talk and behave with each other.
Rational identity refers to the kind of relationship that a person enacts. It may be with a
particular conversational partner or in a specific situation; it negotiates from moment to
moment and is highly variable.

7. Various studies show that a national identity results directly from the presence of elements in
people's daily lives such as;
National symbols
Language
National colours
The Nation's history
Culture, music etc.

8. Linguistic identity:
How we talk, dress up and behave is an important way of displaying who we are, and this
indicates our social identity.
Identity is something we are constantly building and negotiating all our lives through our
interaction with others.
Identity is also made people switch into different roles at different times in different
situations.

9. Language and National identity:
National language may represent the national identity of a nation. For example Urdu in
Pakistan and English language in America and Britain.
There is often a particularly strong link between language and a sense of belonging to a
national group, a sense of national identity. In 'simple' cases, there is one 'national language'
which is spoken by everyone with the same national identity. Most cases are however
complex, and involve more than one Language (e.g. Switzerland) , and some Languages are
linked to more than one national identity (e.g. German).
National languages are taught in schools as subjects and are also used in schools to teach
other subjects.

10. Language and cultural identity:
Cultural identity is the identity or feeling of belonging to a particular religion, social class,
locality or any kind of social group that has its own culture. Culture includes language,
dressing, laws, customs, rituals, norms and rules and regulations.
"Cultural shock is a personal disorientation, a person may feel when experiences an
unfamiliar way of life due to migration or visit to a new country.”

11. Conclusion:
A broad connection exists between language and identification. Language defines our ethnic
group that we belong to, our status in the social stratification, and also determines the power
we hold in our society. Our social identity is created by our language and also our future
possibilities are determined by language. With other factors placed in mind, language then
plays a major role in determining who we really are and what our future possibilities are. The
relationship between language and identity always involves complex mix of individual, social
and political factors which construct people belonging to a social group, or to exclude them
from it.