sociolinguistics exam 1

sociolinguistics

the investigation of the relation of language to social systems, ideas, and behaviors

langue

theoretical knowledge of a language (its rules, its structure)

cognates

words in different languages that are derived from the same source/ root origin ; Latin pater and English father come from the same original word in Indo-European

typological

it involves classifying languages according to how they construct their words Synthetic languages

types of synthetic languages - agglutinative or synthetic languages

language such as Turkish in which the words are constructed with more than one morpheme (bound morphemes); the Turkish word evlerinizden (“from your houses”) consists of the morphemes /ev-ler-iniz-den/ meaning, respectively, “house-plural-your-from”

fusional languages

combine multiple grammatical meanings into a single morpheme, making it harder to separate distinct grammatical markers.( hablo = "I speak" (the -o ending marks both the first-person singular subject and the present tense))

isolating languages

tend to form each word with a single morpheme. mandarin chinese is an example. Its version of the same phrase, “from your houses,” consists of four distinct words: Cóng nı ˘ de fángzi (从你的房子).

linguistic anthropology

the study of how language, mind, and culture interact to produce peoples beliefs and worldviews

primary bilingualism

the spontaneous childhood acquisition of two languages

secondary bilingualism

When people add another language to their linguistic repertoire, either by necessity (as in situations of immi gration) or by choice (as in the learning of another language at school)

universal grammar

the blueprint from which all specific languages are built, constituting the set of rule-making principles that are available to all human infants and from which they can construct their specific grammars.

parameters

feature of a specific language that is a manifestation of a more general innate principle

bilingual/bilingualism

the use of two languages by an individual, group, or nation

edward sapir

developed one of the first typological systems for classifying languages. He took into consideration both the number of morphemes used in word formation and the degree of synthesis in the formation process. For example, the English words goodness and depth are similar in that they are composed of a root morpheme (good and deep)andasuffix(‑ness and-th).  was among the first to argue that a change in the order of words in a sentence, or omitting any words from it, reflects different concepts

linguistic relativity hypothesis (Whorfian Hypothesis)

the view that different societies encode into their languages those concepts they feel are important and necessary to them; but these, in turn, influence how they come to perceive reality, called the doubling-back effect. theory that posits that a language predisposes its speakers to attend to certain aspects of reality as necessary. The view that a specific language affects perception, memory, and even world view

sociolinguistic methodology - interviews

questioning subjects for experimental purposes. Fisher and Labov conducted intervews and analyzed data with statistics. may be done person-to-person, by telephone, emails, or via social media.

sociolinguistic methodology - fieldwork

research whereby the analyst collects data from the subjects. conducted in a natural social environment or in a specificcon text, rather than in an artificial way such as, for example, in a laboratory or other formal setting. labov conducted his by going to three stores and interviewing workers.

sociolinguistic methodology - ethnography

method of collecting data by living among the subject group and interacting with the group in some direct way. the systematic observation and annotation of how people use language in specific contexts. gather the relevant information by living among a group of people, observing their communication habits, questioning them when appro priate, and then annotating their observations through diary entries, occasional jottings, and daily logs.

data collection

data processing, information search ing, data classification, etc., making it possible to quantify information and use it for various purposes, such as pinpointing preferences on websites by users. To gather data on language use today, especially in online venues, techniques such as data mining are becoming common.

statistics

was quickly adopted by the emerging psychological and social sciences in the subsequent century and has since become a primary analytical tool of these sciences. The first task in ______ analysis is to organize the information gathered from interviews or fieldwork, according to frequency or recurrenc

linguistic competence

abstract knowledge of a language. The system of language itself. unconscious knowledge of grammar that allows a speaker to use and understand a language.

linguistic performance

knowledge of how to use a language. The ability to use language for a purpose.

communicate competence

ability to use a language appropriately in social contexts. the ability to use language is as systematic as knowing the rules of grammar.

discourse

specific use of language in social or ideological ways. specific modes of speech to signal group membership

pragmatics

general analysis of language use . the nature and function of conversations.

variation

process whereby forms vary according to geography, social class, individuals

social dialects (sociolects)

regional or ethnic varieties of a language are called variants that vary according to social contexts

mutual intelligibility

ability of speakers of the same dialect family to understand each other.

markedness

theory that certain forms in language are basic and others derived from them

internet linguistics

studying language use in the new digital media and, thus, for discerning commonalities

multimodality

use of various modes to create messages. the use of more than one mode of communication (visual, audio, etc.).

CMC

computer-mediated communication

synchronous CMC

when the interlocutors are aware of the communication as an ongoing one, as in text messaging and skype interactions.

asynchronous CMC

the intended receiver is not necessarily aware that a message has occurred—this characterizes emails, bulletin boards, blogs, and chatrooms.

informational messages

messages, such as those on sites such as Wikipedia, that simply provide information.

conversational messages

casual language, slang, abbreviations, and emojis. the language used on social media sites, such as facebook, instagram, snapchat, and twitter

vocabulary

the actual set of words and phrases in a language; . set of lexemes in a language.

lexicon

the abstract knowledge of word. set of morphemes in a language.

active vocabulary

lexemes they use typically in speaking or writing;

passive vocabulary

lexemes that people understand when listening or reading,

cognates

words in different languages that are derived from the same source; Latin pater and English father come from the same original word in Indo-European. same linguistic root or origin.

core vocabulary

a minimal set of lexemes referring to things and concepts that people across the world have tended to encode lin guistically, because they refer to experiences and concepts that play a central role in human life—words for mother, father, sun, moon, and so on. "skin,”“blood,”“bone,”“drink,”“eat,”

culture-specific items

when an English speaker refers to something as blue, an Italian speaker might refer to it as either azzurro or celeste. This in no way implies that culture-specific color terminology blocks people from perceiving color gradations.

social reflection example

the distinction in the morphology of Koasati verbs is a reflection of a distinction in social structure based on matrilineage. In Kurukh, a Dravidian language spoken in northern India, the verb suffixes are similarly gender coded (woman is unmarked, men is marked) "ka, kas"

archeological sociolinguistics

gives us a glimpse into past societies via their vocabularies.

speech community

group of speakers of a language

elaborated code

notion that formal or standardized language is an elaborate social code

restricted code

code (usually dialectal) restricted to ingroup use

argot

Slang used by street gangs; less specialized, more comprehensible to outsiders.

cant

Secret vocabulary of organized criminal groups, highly specialized.

community-based vocabularies

Vocabularies also emerge for political and sociocultural reasons. A case-in-point is African American Vernacular English (AAVE)

semantics

The study of the meanings of lexemes and their use in larger structures (sen tences, utterances, etc.)

forma semantics

which studies the logical structure of meaning

lexical semantics

which studies word meanings and word relations

cognitive semantics

which studies how linguistic meaning reflects the structure of concepts, the study of language as a system of concepts grounded in figurative language (e.g. metaphor and idioms).

referent

The literal meaning of a word (e.g., cat → an animal with tail, whiskers, retractile claws).

connotations

Additional social or cultural meanings of a word (e.g., cat → household pet in one culture, sacred animal in another).

figurative language

Metaphors, idioms, and symbolic expressions.

context

Importance of situational understanding in communication. The meaning of words is shaped by the context in which they are used (Duranti and Goodwin, 1992; Kay, 1997).

phatic communication

Words or expressions that facilitate social interaction rather than convey literal meaning.

pragmatics

The branch of linguistics that studies how context influences meaning in communication.

metaphor

A figure of speech that connects two ideas or referents to understand one in terms of the other. Conceptual metaphor: A system of metaphors based on one idea (target domain) linked to another (source domain).

syntax

involves investigating how morphemes and lexemes are organized into phrases, sentences, and texts.

netlingo

a digital dialect with abbreviations, acronyms, and reduced forms. Online culture has developed a distinct digital dialect shaped by speed, informality, and community practices.

idealized cognitive model (ICM)

amalgam of source domains used to deliver a cultural concept example:Speaker A: I just couldn’t digest what he said. Speaker B: Yeah, I didn’t buy it either. I don’t see his point.

metonymy

using part of something to represent the whole. process whereby the part stands for the whole; the White House for “the American government”

irony

word or statement used in such a way that it means the opposite of what it denotes; What a beautiful day! uttered on a stormy day. Saying the opposite of what is meant, often in context (e.g., "I love being tortured" when in pain).

anthropomorphism

naming objects or concepts with human body terms. (e.g. car parts with human body parts)

proverb

reflect unconscious societal knowledge (e.g., "He has fallen from grace").

dialect continuum

an interconnected group of geographically adjacent or historically related variants, some of which are mutually intelligible to different speakers, whereas others, over time, have become less comprehensible as distance between the speakers increased through migration or social events

phonology

sound system of a language

social identity

is a crucial dimension of the social meaning of particular linguistic constructions.

morphemes

The smallest meaningful units in language. minimal unit of meaning; in cautiously there are two mor phemes cautious and lt. Example: cats → cat (root morpheme/lexeme) + -s (grammatical morpheme).

types of morphemes - lexeme

carries core meaning (e.g., cat, friend).

types of morphemes - grammatical morpheme

recurs systematically (e.g., -s for plural, un- for negation).

segmentation

decomposing a form or a phrase into its minimal elements/ meangingful parts; the word illogically can be segmented into /il-/, /logic/, /-al/, and /-ly/

focus

How phonological features vary across social groups, including gender and class.(gender and class, differences in phonology)

dialect atlases

a collection of maps of specific regions recording their actual speech features.

multimodality

The combination of writing, audio, images, animation, etc., to deliver messages in a complementary way. use of various modes to create messages

gendered syntax

how these are organized into phrases, sentences, and texts.  Recall that in Italian the masculine gender is the unmarked category in the domain of gender reference (Chapter 1). This aspect of Italian grammar once mirrored (and still does somewhat) differentiated perceptions of gender roles in Italian society. In other words, a specific aspect of Italian morphology was once marked for social gender roles.

class syntax

taken together, the results confirmed that listeners have unconscious knowledge of phonological differences between dialects and social status, and use this knowledge unconsciously to categorize talkers by region and class

lingua franca

language adopted as a common language among speakers of different languages

diglossia

the study of prestige in language variants within a given society. used to refer to such differential social perceptions (Ferguson 1959). Diglossia may also characterize the perception of the two codes that are associated with situations of social bilingualism and multilingualism

features of all languages

1 Languages have a finite set of distinctive sound units and a finite set of grammatical units (such as /in-/ and /-ly/)2 Languages have a set of rules for combining morphemes to form larger units of meaning (phrases, sentences, and texts) 3 Languages have a set of meaning-bearing units (actual words, phrases, etc.)4 Languages have writing symbols (pictographs, alphabet characters) for representing words or ideas in some physical medium5 Languages provide the resources to coin words for referring to new objects, ideas, and events whenever they are needed. This means that languages are constantly changing and evolving along with other human expressive systems (music, drawing, art, etc.). 6 Languages allow humans to communicate with each other in specific contexts and for various personal, social, and intellectual purposes. 7 Languages permit people to encode and preserve knowledge, and thus to transmit it across generations and across geographical spaces. 8 Languages make purposeful social interaction possible, including the carrying out of rituals, interpersonal relations, and the like. 9 Languages are highly variable across time and space, splitting into variants known as dialects.

mutual intelligibility

ability of speakers of the same dialect family to understand each other

code Swtiching intersentential

(codes between separate sentences )

code switching intra-sentential

(within sentences)

F2F vs CMC communication

A major technological difference between F2F and CMC communication involves multimodality. Simply put, this is the use of a combination of modes of communication—writing, audio, images, animation, etc.—that allows for a message to be delivered and processed in a complementary way

memes

are replicating patterns of information, behavior, or ideas that are inherited from cultural environments.

languages in contact

The kind of “mixed” language that crystallizes when languages are in contact, such as Spanish in contact with English in the US, producing what is colloquially called “Spanglish,” a mixture of Spanish and English.

mixed language (koine)

ex. Spanish

borrowing

process of adopting a word from another language, for general use; Italian has borrowed the word sport from English and English has borrowed the word naïve from French

characteristics of memes - reproducibility

Memes can be easily reproduced, enabling them to spread quickly and virally.

characteristics of memes - mutability

Memes can be altered, allowing them to adapt and transform for different communities.

characteristics of memes - transnational reach

Memes can transcend national and linguistic boundaries, uniting people across the globe.

calque

word-by-word translation of a foreign phrase or expression; the title The Brothers Karamazov is a calque of the corresponding Russian phrase (the word order in English should be The Karamazov Brothers)

nativization

process whereby a loanword is reshaped phonetically to become indistinguishable from a native word

loanword

word borrowed from another language; cipher was borrowed from Arabic

luxury loan

if the reason is not to fill in a gap, but for some socially advantageous reason, such as a sign of erudition (showing extensive knowledge)

Pidgins and Creoles

They arise spontaneously to make communication possible between two or more groups that speak different native tongues. People in a pidgin-using community continue to use the pidgin routinely, passing it on to their own children, who become its first native speakers (Creole).