Key terms Flashcards
Social group
People that have something in common and a form of community
Social class
A division of society based on economic and social status
Sociolinguistics
The study of the relationship between language use and social factors
Theolinguistics
The study of the relationship between language use and region
Sociolect
The style of language used within a particular social group
Genderlect
A style of language thought to be distinctive of men or women
Dialect
A style of language used within a particular geographical region
Ethnolect
A style of language thought to be characteristic of an ethnic group
Familect
A style of language used within a family
Idiolect
An individual’s personal language use
Pragmatic rules
The unspoken rules that operate in interactions between people who share a common understanding
Social network
A network of relations between people in their membership of different groups
Density
The number of connections that people have in their social network
Multiplexity
The number of ways in which two individuals may relate to teach other in a social network
Network density score
A score Milroy gave to people based on working together, living close to family members and socialising with each other
Diphthong
A sound that combines two vowels in a single syllable
Convergence
Becoming more similar to another person’s language use
Upwards convergence
Convergence where a regional speaker becomes more RP. It shows they like the RP speaker
Downwards convergence
Convergence where an RP speaker becomes more regional. It shows they like the regional speaker
Divergence
Becoming more different from a person’s language use
Overt prestige
Status gained from public approval/recognition
Covert prestige
Status gained from peer-group approval/recognition
Preconsonantal position
A sound produced before a consonant
Final position
A sound produced at the end of a world eg floor
Velar nasal
The name given to the /n/ sound eg king, tang
Observer’s paradox
A situation in which the phenomenon being observed is unwittingly influenced by the presence of the observer/investigator
H-dropping
Omitting the /h/ sound at the start of words eg hat, horrible, hospital
Hypercorrection
Using language that is wrongly deemed to be correct because it is associated with a more prestigious variety. It often refers to wrong pronunciations
Restricted code
Language that focuses on the here and now
Elaborated code
Language that is much more explicit and independent of context
Community of practice
A concept conceived by Love and Wenger. It refers to a group of people who have come together and have established ways of doing things and of interacting in order to achieve a shared purpose
