Sociolinguistics Exam One

Prescriptive Grammar: is about ________. It tells people how they ______ speak or write and what is considered “correct” or “incorrect”

rules, should

Descriptive Grammar: is about ________. It describes how people ________ use language in real life, without judging it as right or wrong

patterns, actually

Communicative Competence: You should be able to communicate effectively in various _______ and for various _________

contexts, purposes

Grammatical competence: knowing how to use the g_______, s________, and v_________

grammar, syntax, vocabulary

Discourse competence: How to manage or interpret the ________, how to string together stretches of language into a coherent _______

context, whole

Sociolinguistic competence: Knowing how to respond ___________ given the _____, topic, and _______ among the participants

appropriately, setting, relationship

Strategic competence: How do you __________ mis___________

repair, miscommunication

What is language to a sociolinguist?

Language is s______.

Language is situated; it has a c_______, participants, topic, and p________

social

context, purpose

What is language to a sociolinguist?

Language is d_______

Language occurs _______ people; it’s messy

dialogue

between

What is language to a sociolinguist?

Language is p________

It is v_______; there are a lot of v_______

profusion

variegated, varieties

What is language to a sociolinguist?

Language is i_________

We cannot talk without giving ourselves away - s________, e________, and g__________

ideology

socially, ethnically, geographically

Colonial English

Differentiation: Isolation and g_________ b___________ are great for developing dialects

Colonists brought their h____ d________ with them, but eventually developed their own distinctive American variety

geographical boundaries

home dialects

Colonial English

Dialect levelling: where the v_________ between two or more ways of speaking d___________

varieties, diminishes

Autonomy vs heteronomy:

Based on p_________ and c_________ factors

Autonomy: s_________ is autonomous; it’s not d__________ on the other dialects in the system

Heteronomy: n__________ dialects are heteronomous; d_________ on the standard

political, cultural

standard, dependent

non-standard, dependent

+standard doesn’t equal language, standard equals variety

Four Major Migration Waves:

P____ to N____ E_______

C______ / S______ to V________

Q_______ to P___________

S______-I_____ to A___________

Puritans, New England

Cavaliers, Servants, Virginia

Quakers, Pennsylvania

Scots, Irish, Appalachia

Colonial Englishes - Dynamic Model

Foundation: A c_______ speech emerges. Leveling of m_______ forms

Exnormative Stabilization: N_____ dialect focused but takes its standard from the M______ T_______

Nativization: A s_______ language becomes adopted and a______ by a community and takes on l______ characteristics

Endonormative Stabilization: Moves towards i____________, including l_______ usage and attitudes

Differentiation: Fresh variation begins to e_______ - r________ or e_______ variability

common, marked

New, Mother Tongue

second, adapted, local

independence, linguistic

evolve, regional, ethnic

Features of British English versus American English:

S______ patterns on s________

British English favors s______ syllable

American English favors f______ syllable

Stress, syllables

second

first

Folk dialectology: How n___-l_________ feel and t_____ about different d________ and a______

non-linguists, think, dialects, accents

Factors in dialect formation:

S_______ H________

P_______ G________

C______ C_________

C______ with other L__________

Settlement History

Physical Geography

Cultural Centers

Contact, Languages

Contagious diffusion: Innovation spreads through d_______ c_______ between individuals

It starts at a f______ a_______ and spreads to the most immediate, p_______ n________ locations first.

Flows through the population steadily

direct contact

focal area, physically nearby

Ex. Lancaster would mix dialect with Ephrata

Hierarchical Diffusion / Cascade Diffusion / Gravity Model:

A trend starts in a major city and j_____ to other major cities, bypassing the small and r_____ towns in between

jumps, rural

Contrahierarchical Diffusion:

Diffusion is from a l____ p_________ area to a more d_______ area

less populated, dense

Focal area:

Area of f_______

Focus

Principle of Linguistic Inferiority:

Tendency of speakers of the socially d________ group in a society to interpret speech of a s__________ group as linguistically i___________ to that of their own

dominant, subordinate, inferior

Social variable:

Make an a___________ between the use of a social variable by a speaker and the s________ group to which the speaker using that variable b________

association, social, belongs

Ex: singing vs singin’

Double negative

Group Exclusive Usage:

A_____ members of a group use a f____, and another group n______ does

All, form, never

Ex: UMC speakers never use double negatives

Group Preferential Usage:

D_______ across a community of speakers, but members of one group are m_____ l______ to use the forms than members of a________

Distributed, more likely, another

Ex: Speakers of all social classes use /in/ some of the time

Speakers of lower social status use /in/ more frequently

Overt Prestige:

L_________ f_______ that are assigned their s_______ e_________ based on recognition of their s_____ s_______

Linguistic forms, social evaluation, social significance

Covert prestige:

L_________ f_______ are valued r__________ of social status because they d________ social status

Linguistic forms, regardless, disregard

Deficit Approach to Gender:

Defines masculine speech largely by what it l______

lacks

articulation, sensitivity, emotional expressiveness

Dominance theory:

Men hold p_______ and therefore s_________ women’s speech

power, subjugate

Difference theory:

Women and men are essentially from t___ d________ cultures

two different

ex: language is socially constructed

binary + heteronormative

Community of Practice:

A group of people who come together around a shared a________ or g________

activity, goal

Ex: jocks or school burnouts can live on the same street and talk very differently

Biologism:

Linguistic b________ is part of one’s b________ m________

behavior, biological, makeup

Fractal recursivity: “the other group”

the other group