How do we use language to build and present our own identity?
Language and the self: idiolect and identity, code-switching, style-shifting, the performance of identity and how individuals construct a sense of self through language.
A focused answer to the AQA A-Level English Language self topic, covering idiolect and identity, code-switching and style-shifting, the performance of identity, and how individuals construct a sense of self through language.
Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed
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What this topic is asking
AQA wants you to analyse how individuals use language to build and present identity: the idea of an idiolect, how speakers code-switch and style-shift across contexts, and how the self is performed rather than fixed. In a data response you show how a particular speaker constructs a self for a particular audience, supporting the reading with named concepts.
Idiolect and identity
Your idiolect is the relatively stable core that makes your language recognisably yours, the verbal equivalent of a fingerprint, built from the regional accent you grew up with, the lexis of your work and interests, and habitual phrasings. But it is not a fixed mask. People draw selectively on the resources within their idiolect, and on other varieties they command, to present different versions of themselves in different settings. This tension, a stable core that is nonetheless flexibly deployed, is the heart of the topic and the basis of the "expressed versus performed" debate.
Code-switching, style-shifting and performance
The distinction between code-switching and style-shifting is a frequent marker target, so keep it sharp: code-switching crosses between varieties or languages (a bilingual speaker dropping into another language for an in-group aside), while style-shifting moves along a formality scale within one variety (the same person becoming more formal in an interview). Both reveal acute awareness of audience and purpose. Goffman's dramaturgical model treats every interaction as a performance for an audience, with a "front stage" public self and a "back stage" relaxed one, which maps neatly onto how a speaker uses one variety with friends and another at work. Butler's performativity pushes further: identity is not the cause of the linguistic choices but is constituted by them, so we become a professional, a friend or a member of a group by repeatedly talking like one. Link every choice in the data to the specific self it constructs.
Try this
- List three features of your own idiolect and where each came from.
- Find a code-switch and a style-shift in a transcript and label each correctly.
- Use Goffman's front stage and back stage to explain why one person talks differently at work and with friends.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of AQA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AQA 202020 marksAnalyse how the individual in the data uses language to construct a sense of self. Refer to relevant concepts and research in your answer.Show worked answer →
A Paper 2 data response rewarding AO1, AO2 and AO3. Read the text for the choices that build a particular self for a particular audience.
Identify idiolect features (characteristic lexis, favourite expressions, pronunciation, sentence style), and any code-switching (moving between languages or varieties) or style-shifting (adjusting formality and register). Apply the idea of performativity (Goffman's presentation of self, Butler on identity as done not had) to argue that the speaker is performing a self rather than simply revealing a fixed one. Use accommodation theory if the speaker adjusts towards or away from the audience.
Conclude on the identity the choices construct and the audience they target. Markers reward quoted evidence, the code-switching versus style-shifting distinction, and a performativity-informed reading rather than a description of personality.
AQA 202220 marksEvaluate the view that identity is performed through language rather than simply expressed by it. Refer to relevant concepts and examples in your answer.Show worked answer →
A Paper 2 essay rewarding AO1, AO2 and AO4. Weigh the "performed" view against the "expressed" view.
For performance, use Goffman's dramaturgical model (we present a self to an audience) and Butler's performativity (identity is constituted by repeated acts), plus evidence of style-shifting and code-switching across contexts: the same person speaks differently at work, with friends and online, which suggests construction not a single fixed self. For the expressed view, acknowledge that an idiolect has stable features rooted in region, class and history, so there is a recognisable core.
Conclude that identity is largely performed within the constraints of a relatively stable idiolect, so the two views combine. Markers reward the named theory, the link to style-shifting and code-switching, examples, and an evaluative judgement.
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Sources & how we know this
- AQA A-level English Language (7702) specification — AQA (2015)