Sociolinguistics: Language and Dialect

What is the definition of sociolinguistics?

The study of language in relation to society.

What is macrosociolinguistics?

The study of language and social groups.

What is microsociolinguistics?

The study of language and the individual.

What is Standard English?

The variety used in print and taught in schools, spoken by educated individuals.

What is the linguistic definition of a dialect?

A subordinate variety of a language peculiar to a specific region or social group.

What is the intelligibility test?

It's a method to determine if different language varieties can communicate with each other.

What are issues with the criterion of mutual intelligibility?

Some dialects of different languages can be mutually intelligible; conversely, some languages can be unintelligible.

What does dialectology study?

The study of regional language variation.

Accent Definition

Accents refer solely to differences of pronunciation.

What is the focus of vernacular language?

The language variety commonly spoken by people, as opposed to formal or literary language.

What defines a regional dialect?

A subordinate variety of a language limited to a specific geographic region.

What differentiates social dialects from regional dialects?

Social dialects are limited to a specific social group.

What is a dialect?

a subordinate variety of a language used by social or regional group

Language

a system of communication used by the members of a particular nation, people, or other distinct community