An answer to the question...Language is important for the speakers identity. Revision for English Language AQA A Level paper 2. This was marked by my teacher and scored 25/30.
Evaluate the idea that language use is important for the speaker’s identity (30).
It can be said people’s dialects can have a massive impact on their identity. In 1987,
Singapore adopted English as its official language in education and so every child was being
socialised into English as their first language. The Singaporean government saw English as
giving them a huge economic advantage over their neighbours due to the power and the
influence it holds. From this, Singaporean people developed ‘singlish’ , a national non
standard variety of English. Singlish is characterised by repeating lexis such as ‘take take
take’, lexis such as ‘lah’ meaning like and sentence structures that mirror Mandarin such as
‘don want’. Speakers of Singlish were able to develop a sense of identity from this by turning
English into their own local language they could adapt and make unique to them. The
Government tried to stop the spread of Singlish by introducing the ‘speak good English
movement’ which backfired due to underestimating how passionate people were about
Singlish. It could be said Singlish empowered people by reflecting multicultural Singapore
and allowing other official languages such as Mandarin to be included. Therefore ,
suggesting people can construct language to create identity and portray their culture as a
community. However, the fact parents began to stop enrolling their children in other official
languages of Singapore such as mandarin and Tamil demonstrated identity is not a sole
factor in determining one’s language use and it can be said parents decisions were driven by
giving their children the best advantages for the future even if it meant abandoning parts of
their culture and identity.
Another example is the use of language by gay men which could be said to be used to
construct their identity. For example, Lakoff found gay men adopt deficit features such as
empty adjectives and tag questions to mirror women’s language. Butler argued gay men
adopt feminine speech to be consciously different from heterosexual men which is an
example of constructing identity through language. Finally, Baker says gay men use puns,
acronyms and lexical items which only make sense to those in the community. One example
of this is polari which is known as an anti-language used by marginalised groups. Polari
allowed the gay community to express themselves in a time where homosexuality was
heavily stigmatised. This example shows how language can be beneficial for speakers to
construct their identity and distance themselves from groups they are dissimilar to. Another
example of this is in Labov’s Martha's Vineyard study. William Labov investigated the /au/
and /ai/ vowel sounds, in words such as mouse and mice, known as a diphthong. Martha’s
vineyard was a small island with a small population but would become extremely populated
in the summer as a holiday resort for Americans. Labov found fishermen centralise their /au/
and /ai/ vowel sounds more than any other group. This was done subconsciously in order to
establish themselves as Vineyarders and distance themselves from the norms of Mainland
America which was brought over by the summer holiday makers.
Language can also be used by individuals to determine their future which contributes to their
identity. Vera Regan studied Polish Migrants in Ireland using non-standard ‘like’. Irish-
English non standard is a clause marginal and is used at the beginning or end of a sentence.
All other forms are clause medial and in the middle of sentences. Regan found those who
used the Irish-England from saw their future in Ireland whereas those who used clause
medial were using Ireland as a stepping stone into a global future. Furthermore, similar
results were shown with Polish migrants in France deletion of ‘ne’ in negatives. Thus
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