Sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics

Is concerned with language in its social context, looking at social factors like ethincity, gender, age, class, occupation, education and geographical location

Speech communities

a group of people who share rules for conducting and interpreting language or dialect.

Vernacular

introduces us to our culture, heritage and ways of being that are important in our development as a member of human communcity.

Identity

All communities have different ideas and rules, our different social communities are different parts of our identity

Accent and Dialect change

the process of adapting to interact with who we are speaking to. It is a natural process that reinforces the connection between people interacting.

Prestige

Certain ways of speaking are associated with particular social classes and therefore, have a level of prestige when judged by certain people in society.

Perceptual dialects

is the study of how non-linguistics perceive variations in language.

Includes where they believe it exists, is from, its functions and how they socially evaluate it

Perceptual dialects ratings

Based in opinions, not fact. Ratings include: trustworthyness, kindness, intelligence, deviousness, ignorance, lazyness, pleasentness.

Accent Bias

Recognizable sign of social and ethnic background in the UK today. perceptions seem to affect opportunities, judgements in professional environments