ABSTRACT
In work on social and cultural issues, the term "practice" is often used instead of "activity". Activities in the world are organized around a certain "identity". Activity-based identities are named by both a noun and a verb. Activity-based identities are identities that people adopt by free choice. There is another sort of identity, besides activity-based identities, what we will call relational identities. Relational identities are defined in terms of relations, contrasts, or oppositions between different types of people. Relational identities are often imposed on or assigned to people, the result of "fate", or picked up in early socialization in life within families. A relational identity can, thus, become much like an activity-based identity. Discourses are about enacting and recognizing socially significant identities. Though Discourses are always about more than language, one way people enact identity is by using different varieties of language. Different versions of vernacular language are one big category of social languages.
