Unit 2 Flashcards
Using the SOCIOLINGUISTIC lens, languages vary
because:
- People are members of different SPEECH
COMMUNITIES - Globalization
- Colonization
- Diversity
- Diaspora
- ICT and Media
- is an attempt to find correlations between social
structure and linguistic structure and to observe any
changes that occur (Gumpers, 1971) - is the study of the social uses of language, and the most
productive studies in the four decades of
sociolinguistic research have emanated from
determining the social evaluation of linguistic variants
(Chambers, 2002)
SOCIOLINGUISTICS
said that speech communities
refer to a group of people who interact by means of
speech.
Bloomfield (1926)
According to who? it is a community sharing rules
for the conduct and interpretation of speech, and
rules for the interpretation of at least one linguistic
variety
Hymes (1967)
One can participate in it without
being a member of it, but the lines of demarcation are
not fixed or universal: i.e. accent, ways of speaking,
grammar, etc. in different communities or at different
times in one community
SPEECH COMMUNITY
According to who? also defined it as an activity
characterized by frequent interaction using a
mutually intelligible body of verbal signs. According
to him, the speech varieties employed within a
speech community are formalized as a system (i.e.
written in dictionaries, taught in schools, used in
gatherings, etc.)
Gumperz (1968)
Language Varities
Idiolect, Style, register, & Jargon
It is used for the personal dialect of each individual speaker of a language. From the perspective of the social study of language, you are, in many respects, what you say.
Idiolect
Divided from the more formal to the more informal speech, and it is depending on the listener, if it is your boss or our friend for example.
Style
It is what type of language you use depending on the situation you are in. It is directly related to style.
Register
It is the language used among people who have a special activity or group.
Jargon
S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G stands for:
Setting or scene, Participants, Ends, Act Sequence, Key, Instrumentalities, Norms, &Genre
– time and place, i.e., physical
circumstances
Setting
(abstract
psychological setting or the cultural
definition of the occasion)
Scene
– people involved in the
communicative event; speaker-listener
Participants
– conventionally recognized and
expected outcomes of exchange
Ends
– actual form and content of
what was said
Act Sequence
– tone, manner, spirit of the conveyance
of the message
Key
– choice of channel;
language, dialect, code, register that is
chosen
Instrumentalities
– standard or pattern of
communication behavior set by a specific
context
Norms
– types of utterance; poems,
proverbs, riddles, sermons, prayers,
lectures, editorials
Genre
- Sets of language items associated with discrete
occupational or social groups
is an - essential social skill that provides flexibility and
demonstrates competence in speech and
appropriate social norms”
REGISTERS
– text or utterances that have
been documented, hence do not change;
national anthems, ordinances & bills
Frozen/Static
– text or utterances that
follow similar rules about their form;
informative, persuasive; warning signs,
manuals (unidirectional)
Formal/Regulated
