Chapter 8 - Sociolinguistics Flashcards
What is the subject of sociolinguistics?
the study of language in relation to its social context.
What are the connections between language and society?
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What roles do language play in society?
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How do languages differ depending on the role they play in society?
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What are the distinctive features of Canadian English?
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Are there any regional dialects in Canada?
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William Labov
the founder of modern sociolinguistics (1966) Social Stratification of English in NYC
Peter Trudgill
(1974) Sociolinguistics. Defined it as “that part of linguistics which is concerned with language as a social and cultural phenomenon” that has “close connections with social sciences especially social psychology, anthropology, human geography, and sociology”.
What did William Labov study?
NYC department stores
What did Trudgill study?
British dialects, and observed that more dialectal features = lower social status
Object of sociolinguistics
…to study the functioning of the language, i.e. peculiarities of its use by various groups of people. The inner structure of the language is not specifically examined.
Aims of sociolinguistics
…to study how people forming a definite community use the language and how the changes in the community influence the development of the language.
Janet Holmes (1992) An Introduction to Sociolinguistics
“The sociolinguist’s aim is to move towards a theory which provides a motivated account of the way language is used in a community, and of the choices people make when they use language.”
Sociolinguistics + the linguistic identity of social groups (including gender, racial, professional, regional)
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Sociolinguistics + social vs ling variance
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Sociolinguistics + social varieties and levels of language
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Sociolinguistics + social attitudes to language
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Sociolinguistics + standard vs non-standard forms of language
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Sociolinguistics + the social basis of multilingualism
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Sociolinguistics + language policies
government supporting languages, prohibiting languages, choosing how much money to put into language education, etc
Levels of language variation
Intra-speaker, inter-speaker, social
Intra-speaker variation
within speech of one speaker ex: “ofn” and “oftn”
Inter-speaker variation
variation across individuals ex: /e/ quality; pen; girls may have a more closed /e/, british parents may influence the pronunciation as well
Social aspects of language variation
age, gender, education, situation of communication
Language reflects differences across people by social groups
Regional Differentiation National Languages
Nation State – the major highest level of social organization
(EU, UN are higher levels in development)
National languages
symbols of national unity and identity and tools of governmental communication and education (e.g., Bulgarian)
Official languages
(e.g., in India, along with 22 other languages of Indian states)
Official languages of Israel are Hebrew, Arabic &E. National language is …?
Regional Differentiation Transnational Languages & language varieties
Due to historic reasons (typically colonial expansion, immigration, etc.), one language can be spoken in a few different countries
English as a language of global (International communication)
“inner circle” – “native” (Can)
Second language (India)
Foreign/International language (France, China)
regional dialects
involve differences at all structural levels (grammar, vocabulary, morphology, pronunciation); accent
Dialect levelling
loss of earlier existing dialectal distinctions
Dialect vs Accent
DIALECT (all language levels) VS ACCENT (pronunciation)
first dialectal atlases
Gillieron and Edmond 1902-1913, included data from 600 locations in France
Methods of gathering data for atlas surveys
Personal interview by a fieldworker
Telephone survey
Postal survey (written questionaires)
Internet survey
Dialect vs Variety
some form of a language characterized by a group of linguistic features. (i.e. ‘something’ prior to linguistic identification or hard/impossible to identify).
Commonly used with ‘Varieties of English’ (American, Canadian, Australian, Indian, Pakistani, etc)
Isogloss
a line drawn on a map separating areas according to particular linguistic features such as items of vocabulary, sounds or simple features of grammar.
Isogloss bundle
Where several isoglosses occur in roughly the same area on the map
Dialects vs. Languages
The only reliable criterion is the political one.
The nations that want to be different speak different languages.
Ex: Spanish and Catalan
Lexical Characteristics of Canadian English
Terms of law and government systems: solicitor, Crown prosecutor
Terms that are unique to Canada: riding (for electoral districts)
Terms that originated in Canada: canola, kayak
4. Terms found both in Canada and the US but with different meanings: sheriff “law enforcement officer” (US) and “minor official of the court” (Canada)
Reasons for developing distinct dialects
Physical isolation Demographic isolation (lack of immigration) Economic isolation Political isolation E.g., Newfoundland is an island Most immigration occurred in mid -1800s
Varieties of Canadian French
- Acadian French (comes from Annapollis Royal and Nova Scottia)
- Quebec French (comes from Quebec city)
- Franco-Ontarian population
- French variety established by fur traders and spoken by Métis descendants of marriages between the traders and indigenous women.
- French variety in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, established by immigrants from Quebec and France.
REGISTER
denotes variation in language according to the context in which it is being used. Different situations call for adjustments to the type of language used: e.g., the type of language that an individual uses varies according to whether s/he is speaking to family members, addressing a public gathering, or discussing science with professional colleagues.
Heritage languages
minority languages of immigrant groups.
Maintenance of Heritage Lang
Ethnolinguistic vitality – ability to be maintained
local and international prestige,
sufficient number of the speakers,
an ongoing contact with the origin country of the language
an inflow of new immigrants speaking the language,
Economic, political, and/or social advantages
areas of compact settlement
Few intermarriages with other groups,
the government is lenient towards the group and its language and supports or does not prohibit it
women vs men use of language
North America:
Women possess a wider variety of color terms and less sports terms than men.
Women use wider pitch register:
‘Oh, that’s terrible!’
F are less likely to pronounce ‘ing’ as ‘in’
F use expressive adjectives: ‘adorable, charming, cute, divine, lovely, sweet’
M: use more neutral adjectives: (damn) fine, good, great
Females use profanities less.
F use tag questions more: , don’t they?
gender-biased forms
Spanish Un reo – a criminal, una rea – an impoverished prostitute El inocente – an innocent person, Una inocenta – a virgin El medico – doctor, la medica – doctor’s wife Russian Vrach – male (good) doctor, vrachiha – f (bad) doctor
LANGUAGE AND GENDER:
Explanation of differences
Two views for explaining the relationship between language and gender:
– these differences reflect the inherent differences between genders in society;
– these differences indicate that language operates as a tool for one group to establish and maintain power over the other group.
Criteria to describe social networks
– Density (how often members of a group communicate with each other)
– Plexity (in how many dimensions this communication happens)
• Dense and multiplex networks are typically found in rural villages and urban working-class areas
NETWORK DENSITY
refers to the number of connections or links in a network.
In a low-density network, individuals usually know the central member but not each other.
In a high-density network, the members of the network are known to each other and interact with each other regularly.
MULTIPLEXITY
refers to the content of the network links.
When individuals in a network are linked to each other in more than one function (co-employee, relative, friend, neighbor, member of the same sports club, etc.)
LINGUA FRANCA
a language that is used to facilitate communication between two communities which have different first languages
PIDGIN
a simple form of language showing signs of language mixing, which no one speaks as their first language.
By definition, a pidgin has no native speakers and many pidgins are predominantly used as a lingua franca.
Peculiarities: Pidgins have a small number of grammatical categories and very little grammatical complexity.
Pidgins develop their own rules and norms of usage.
ORIGIN OF PIDGINS
- Areas of trade between people who speak different languages
- Labor migration
- European settlement
- War
Why are pidgins short-lived
they are held in disdain by native speakers of the lexifier language
Creoles
languages which developed out of pidgins to become the first language in the community
When a pidgin becomes a creole…
… its inventory of lexical items and grammatical rules expands dramatically, usually in one or two generations
Michif
Cree (Substratum) +French (Lexifier/superstratum) (1700, Ontario, Manitoba, later Saskatchewan)
Vernaculars
Language varieties or languages that do not enjoy prestige in a society, typically not codified (not scientifically described, do not have prescriptive rules of correct usage developed for them).
CODE SWITCHING
term referring to using more than one language or dialect in conversation.
metaphorical code-switching
When code-switching operates metaphorically to express solidarity with or distance from one community
situational code-switching
When people switch from one code to another for clearly identifiable reasons
POLITENESS
a social phenomenon involving patterns of verbal and non-verbal behaviour considered to be appropriate in a given situation in a given society
Verbal aspects of politeness
taboos (topics and objects that are not allowed to be discussed or named directly) euphemisms (the use of some other word or expression instead of a tabooed item)
slang (vocabulary and expressions considered not to be appropriate for formal situations)
special forms of address (required in formal situations)
STANDARD VARIETIES of language
In fact, the standard variety, as defined by grammarians, does not really exist.
• In popular use the standard variety is usually the one that is taught in the schools and its features are found more frequently in the speech of the upper classes, politicians, and the mass media.
NON-STANDARD VARIETIES
the form lacks positive prestige in the community but it does not mean that the form is somehow defective
language planning
refers to all conscious efforts that aim at changing the linguistic behavior of a speech community. The concept of language planning means “deliberate language change”
