Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)—a Pole by birth, a British citizen by choice, an émigré, a sailor, a writer, a representative of the szlachta, a working-class member, the son of deeply patriotic parents, the nephew of a pragmatically- oriented uncle, a husband, a father, a friend of the most notable writers of his time… Throughout his life Conrad played various roles and assumed different identities—as is reflected by his two names: Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski and Joseph Conrad—and each of them was linked with language. Language had special significance for Conrad; it was not a mere means of communication, but an indispensable means of self-expression, without which he would not have become one of the greatest novelists writing in English. Language was constitutive for Conrad's functioning in his different roles, and in this essay I will retrospectively glimpse at various languages in his life and their relationship with his identities.

Language is, obviously, much more than a system of words and phrases and accompanying sounds. Within discourse language cannot be separated from social interactions, where sentences are “punctuated by the voices of others or by gaps, silences, intonations, accent and accompanied by bodily gestures and facial expressions.” Viewed in such a perspective, “language is embodied and expresses ways of being in the world through the creation of meanings which relate to us in terms of identity. Identity should be seen as self-concept.” Thus, each person forms his or her self-image through language and relates to others by means of language that not only facilitates communication, but also affects our attitudes to other people. In other words, “language is a marker of identity and also contributes to shape our social perception of the self and of others.”

Language and identity is a broad topic that can be analyzed from a variety of angles. Sociolinguists stress that these two phenomena are closely interwoven, and that language not only expresses identities but also constructs them. Michael Halliday, who describes language as a semiotic system, views language and grammar within linguistics discourse as serving two main purposes—the transmission of knowledge/information (“ideational” function of language) and the construction of relationships (“relational” function of language). Language then allows people not only to communicate, but also to establish personal and social relationships and hierarchies.