Module 8: Language Variation

The field of linguistics that focuses on language variation across social situations and groups is known as _____.

Sociolinguistics

A ______ is a conventionalized way of speaking and writing that is appropriate to a specific speech situation. 

register

The three factors that influence a speech situation are: 

Purpose

Setting

Participants

Select all the factors that influence the setting of a speech situation.

Topic

Mode

Location

_____ is the set of specialized terms used in a profession or interest group.

jargon

Which of the following is NOT a feature of slang?

Slow-changing

A dialect is a variety of language spoken by people from the same

geographic region

ethnic group

social class

Southern American English is an example of a: 

Regional dialect

Habitual be (like in the sentence She be working downtown now.) is a feature of which dialect?

African American English

When studying regional dialects, linguists conduct surveys on people in a region about a specific language feature. They then mark where different versions of that feature are used on a map. They then draw ________ between areas where the different versions of a feature are used. With more and more research, linguists are then able to combine these lines to draw a ______________ between two regional dialects.

isoglosses

dialect boundary

When studying social dialects, which are dialects shared by members of a social class, linguists will focus on the relationship between a _________ , such as the pronunciation of postvocalic /r/, and a ________ , such as socioeconomic class.

linguistic variable

social variable

T/F: Despite social stigmas and prestige attached to different varieties of language, all varieties of a language are equally grammatical.

True