Introduction

The multiplicity of parallel identities that make up our personalities is a phenomenon in which our individual identitary choices merge with diverse collective identities.

The present volume is a contribution to the field of Identity Studies, but from a clearly linguistic perspective. It unites several contributions which analyze discourses centered on national or regional identities - as for instance the Catalanity of the frontier city of Lleida, the connection between the natural environment and the conceptualization of deictic space, or the dialectics between center and periphery.

Other chapters try to shed light on problems arising from the particular situation of Catalan as a non-state language. The contributions thus range from aspects of Cultural Studies on identities and their constituting discourses to Catalan linguistics and sociolinguistics.