ABSTRACT
The topic of gender identity and issues concerning its relationship to language and discourse have been mentioned at several points in this book so far. An important point was made in Chapter 4, when I described the discursive turn as being characterised by a theoretical shift in the conceptualisation of identity. That change was from a notion of gender identity as existing prior to language, to the idea of gender identity being discursively constituted. However, up until now I have discussed identity largely as it has been relevant to other issues, such as why de®nitive answers to questions of gender difference in language use have not been found, and the similarities amongst different explanations of `women's language'. The purpose of this chapter is to explore more thoroughly the topic of language, discourse and gender identity.
