sociolinguistics Flashcards
25
What are social markers
particular linguistic features that reveal us to be a member of a speech community (can be conscious or subconscious)
is vocal fry a linguistic social marker or part of the phonology in english
social marker
do social marker differ from languages
yes
What is free variation
allophony not conditioned by phonological environment (conditioned by social factor). no variation is truly free or random
Is variation free or random
no
what is the biggest component of free variation
sociolinguistic factors
(what variety you speak, who your are speaking to, what is the situation)
what other factors are important in free variation
mood, sobriety…
English unreleased stops
p,t,k - no release of air. Not determined by phonology but social factors
In english, in what position are voiceless stop in free variation with unrealeased stops
in word final position. stops are sometimes released
what is Locus of variation
all areas of language can be target for socio-ling. variation
what are the areas of language that are affected by socio ling. variation
phonetics: new zealand English vs canadian
phonology : caught cot
morphology: I dived, i dove
syntax: double negation
word choice: pop vs soda
what is a speech community
group of speakers sharing sociolinguistic norms about language use. speakers tend to speak like the people they speak too
does everyone in speech community speak the same
no. all unique : idiolect
speech communities differ across sociological dimensions like
geography, age, economic class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender
features that are prescriptively incorrect are part of what
stigmatized speech community
whats the diff dialect vs accent
dialect: geographically separate, mutually intelligible speech variety. Cockney, newfie, new zealand ; all dialects of english
Accent: phonetic component of a dialect
outside of linguistics: pronunciation of a non-standard/non-local variety
in linguistics all dialects are associated with an accent. T OR F
true. Everyone has an accent
Do speakers of diff ages belong to different speech communities
yes. old dont sound like young even in same dialect
Do people alter their speech over time
not after you finish acquiring native language. its less malleable. 60 years old sound like 20 years old 40 years ago. but their speech change a little bit
real time vs apparent time study
real time study: measuring variable at different points in time. very time consumer
apparent time study: measure same variable at one point in time across different age group. some errors. differences in age groups reflect past and future trends.
what are the two types of prestige
overt: when linguistic features are associated with high socio-economic class - standard dialect or prescriptive notions
covert: when non-standard ling. features associate the speaker with a desired but non-standard speech community. Advantageous to not speak a standard variety: Writing a rap. you dont want to speak standard variety.
dialectal features: sound local and not foreign
features of non-standard varieties: sound wordly and casual.
what is a change from above
ling. feature perpetuated by higher social class. overtly prestigious.
who is more likely to lead change from above
women
what is change from below
new ling feature perpetuated by lower social class. covertly prestigious
who lead change from below
men
change is more likely to be accepted by future generation if the change is made from…
women
