Sociolinguistics quiz 2

Chapter 3, 4 and 10

speech community

a group of people with shared norms about a language use

anti-essentialism

There is no essential underlying identity to particular social groups, that identify is something that changes according to time, place and context.

(linguistic) norms

determined set of commonly used language assets, as well as rules for their selection and use, which have been recognized by society as the most appropriate in a particular historical period.

community of practice

A group of people who come together around mutual engagements in some common endeavor, that lead to the development of common linguistic features.

social network

Graphical overview of who interacts with who.

dense social network

If the people you interact with also know and interact with each other.

loose social network

If the people you interact with don’t interact with each other.

multiplex social network

Network where people are linked to each other by more than one capacity

uniplex/simplex social network

Network where people are linked to each other by only one capacity

language ideologies

cultural conceptions about language, its nature, structure and use, and about the place of communicative behavior in social life

hegemonic ideologies

Ideologies that are dominant due to consensus, including people for whom they are not beneficial.

Language crossing:

Shifting into a dialect or language that doesn’t necessarily belong to the speaker.

linguistic profiling

using accent, speech, and other auditory cues to identify the social characteristics of an individual (usually for the purpose of discriminating against them)

Linguistic Analysis for the Determination of Origin (LADO)

involves using dialect features in the language use of the applicant to assess whether the claim is credible.

utterance

The (oral/written) use of a sentence by a specific speaker at a certain place and time.

performative language use:

performing actions with words.

felicity conditions

pre-requisites the world must meet for the utterance to be successful

Cooperative Principle

following maxims of conversation, how people achieve effective conversational communication in common social situations.

What are the maxims of conversation

Quantity: say as much is require. Do not say more than is required.

- Quality: do not say what you believe to be false.

- Relation: be relevant. (your response needs to relate to the conversation)

- Manner: be brief, avoid ambiguous or vague expressions, say things in the order that they happened.

implicature

The additional meaning the listeners looks for when the speaker violates a maxim.

face

A person’s positive self-image

positive face

People’s basic need to be appreciated

negative face

A person’s basic need not to be imposed upon

face-threatening acts

speech acts that threaten the positive face or the negative face of the addressee.

face work

Linguistic efforts made to maintain the face of the speaker or addressee.

positive politeness

The strategies are used to take into account positive face; show solidarity and approval.

negative politeness

The strategies are used to take into account negative face; giving the other space.

social distance

The distance between groups or individuals in a society.

tu and vous (T/V) pronouns

Use of pronouns to show power and/or solidarity.

symmetrical T/V usage

reciprocal use of either formal or informal pronoun to show politeness (V), intimacy (T) , or solidarity (T).

asymmetrical T/V usage

use of formal or informal pronouns to signal a difference in power (a hierarchical relationship).

What motivates the use of indirectness?

Positive and negative face

face-threatening acts

speech acts that threaten the positive face (criticise) or the negative face (request) of the addressee.

What increases the threats? (face-threatening acts)

High distance (don’t know each other well) and high power (the speaker is subordinate to the hearer).

What are examples of positive politeness?

• Using in-group language —> nicknames

• Seeking agreement —> you’re coming, aren’t you?

• Giving verbal gifts —> compliments

• Exaggerating —> you must come!

How do you practice negative politeness?

• By apologizing —> I’m, sorry, can you tell me the way to the station?

• Not pressuming —> Do you by any chance have an extra pen?

• Being pessimistic —> I don’t suppose you know where John is?

• Impersonalising the addresse —> Is there any sugar?

What are some criticisms to the politeness theory?

• Reflects western behaviour, stereorypical, white, middle-class, largely female language.

• It is not always the case that the more indirect, the more polite you are.

What can pronouns and titles be used for:

• Encode status, prestige

• Increase or reduce social distance

• Construct shifting levels of distance or intimacy.

Phatic communication:

Communication focused on the interaction as a means to create social connection.

Examples of phatic communication:

Small talk, talking about the weather, formulaic greetings.

Performative utterances:

Change the world, bring about new states of affairs, which did not exist before the utterance.

requirement for performative language:

There must be an established procedure, which has to be executed correctly and completely.

Essentialism:

Idea that people can be placed into fixed social categories and that all category members share certain traits which are the essence of the category.

What are the criteria to define a speech community?

• Shared language use

• Frequency of interaction by a group of people

• Shared rules of speaking and interpretations of speech performances

• Shared attitudes and values regarding language forms and language use.

• Shared socio-cultural understanding and assumptions regarding speech and events.

Shared norms:

Giving the same (or similar) social meanings to particular ways of speaking.

To say that a group of speakers constitues a CoP, they need:

• Mutual engagement: relationship they forge with each other.

• Joint enterprise: the goal they pursue together

• Shared repertoire: set of behaviours they share

True or false: A speaker can only participate in one CoP?

False.

What does it mean when we say that language is indexical?

Language is indicative of one’s social class, status, region of origin, gender, age group, etc.

Language attitudes:

People derive social meanings from language use.

Positive language attitudes:

Languages can be considered beautiful or good for conveying complex thoughts.

Negative language attitudes:

Languages can be considered not to have grammar, or as unsuitable for literature or formal affairs.

Explain in your own words the matched-guise paradigm:

It is when a speaker reads the same passage in two languages. The hearer doesn’t know they are both from the same person and makes a judgement about the language and the varieties.

Perpectual dialectology:

The study of nonlinguistics’ ideas about the regions, features and values of dialects.

Nationalism and language —> main belief:

One nation-one language