A Study On Motivation Of Language Function In Establishing Social Identity

Language is a kind of social phenomenon originated from the labor of human society and closely related to human society.When writing or speaking,people do not simply use language,but also carry on many different establishing tasks.Sociolinguistics holds that society and language are interactive in relationship and they influence each other,moreover,causes and effects exist between each other.Society goes the first,language comes into being with the formation of human society,and develops with the changes of society.The development of society is the foundation of language development.At the same time,the change and development of language also reflect the change and progress of society.Language is the most important medium of communication,and society is the product of communication.Language has a close relationship with society and dynamically symbolizes the social system,which is created by the social system and also creates the social system at the same time.Using of language is a kind of social activity.Language is developed in terms of its function and structure according to the needs of the society and also reflects the needs of society.At present,the research on language or language variants establishing social identity gradually spring up,and there is no doubt that language can establish social identity.However,there are few related studies on motivation of language or language variants establishing social identity.Therefore,the study on the motivation of language establishment of social identity has certain guidance for different groups to choose and apply language better in social communication in order to achieve their communicative purposes in different social contexts.Combining linguistic constructivism in linguistic field with identity constructivism in sociological field,the author collects a large number of examples,selects the most representative and persuasive corpus,and summarizes three motivations on language establishing social identity based on the previous research results: to acquire discourse power;to achieve cultural identity establishment;to mold gender identity.This paper demonstrates thatlanguage has the function of establishing social identity and the motivation of language establishing social identity,and answers three questions: Why can language construct social identity? How does language construct Social identity? What is the motivation for language establishing social identity? Two aspects of research significance are listed as follows: on the one hand,it enriches the interdisciplinary study of sociology and linguistics on the basis of previous studies;on the other hand,it provides feasible strategies and suggestions for both sides involved in communication in real social life to achieve their establishment of specific social identity and to better accomplish their purpose of communication.It also analyzes the problems that people should pay attention to when establishing their own identities in verbal communication.It provides a way for people to realize their self-worth and harmonious communication in social life.During the research,it is found that in different linguistic environments,a person’s choice of a language variant foreshadows his expectation of a particular social identity.Usually,a person’s language variants can establish his class identity,national identity,social identity,professional identity and educational identity in different occasions and places.People can make full use of the language function of establishing social identity to display the unique identity characteristics.At the same time,it can promote harmonious communication among social members,and even can regulate society contradiction.It’s for certain that while making use of the function of language establishing social identity,it is also necessary to avoid the negative effects of using a language or language variant to establish a particular social identity deliberately at the same time.In addition,we should avoid following the public blindly when using language variants,only by abiding by the rules of language use,can we make use of its function of establishing social identity efficiently.