sociolinguistics

ling.201

sociolinguistics

focusing on variation of language

aims to understand what social factors determine how languages vary and change

discourse analysis

focusing on language ideology and how it can be tracked in the discourse we hold about a language

variationist sociolinguistics

how the choice of certain linguistic variables depend on sociodemographic information

how social factors determine structures in the grammar

different kinds of variation:

diachronic (time)

diatopic (geography)

diaphasic (style/register)

diastratic (social class)

diamesic (medium)

different ways to define linguistic varieties

dialect (geography)

idiolect (individual)

sociolect (social group)

social markers

particular linguistic features that reveal us to be members of a speech community (conscious or nonconscious)

differ from language to language

ex: creaky voice, vocal fry (in some languages, part of the phonology, in others, a linguistic social marker)

social markers outside of language

they reveal us to be members of certain communities

uses it to forge their social identity

ex: dress, appearance, accessories, behaviour, etc

free variation

allophony not conditioned by phonological environment

no variation is truly free or random

sociolinguistic factors are the biggest component of free variation (what variety you speak, who are you speaking to, what the situation is)

other factors may be important (mood, blood-alcohol level, etc)

english unreleased stops

voiceless stops are in free variation with unreleased stops in word-final position

social

p, t, k

locus of variation

all areas of language can be a target for socio-linguistic variation

speech community

a group os speakers who share sociolinguistic norms about language use

speakers tend to sound like the people they speak to

every speaker speaks their own unique variety (idiolect)

(geography, age, socio-economic class, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation)

dialect

geographically separate, mutually intelligible speech variety

ex: cockney, Newfie, Scots, New Zealand

accent

phonetic component of dialect

outside of linguistics: the prononciation of a non-standard or non-local variety

in lingusitics: all dialects are associated with an accent

variation over time

speakers of different ages belong to different speech communities

people mostly do not alter their speech over time (60 yo today roughly sound like 20 yo 40 years ago)

real time study

measuring the smae variable at different points in time

accurate but extremely time-comsuming

apparent time study

measuring the same variable at one point in time across different age groups

some error

differences in age groups reflect past (and future) trends

overt prestige

when linguistic features associate the speaker with high socio-economic class (often correlated with the standard dialect or prescriptive notions)

covert prestige

when non-standard linguistic features associate the speaker with a desired but non-standard speech community

dialectal features (makes one sound local and not foreign)

features of non standard varieties (makes one sound worldy and casual)

variation and class

linguistic prestige is correlated with socioeconomic class and social situation (increased articulatory effort goes to increasing linguistic prestige)

speakers just below the highest strata of society overcompensate (use more prestigious features than those in the highest strata in official or salient situation)

class and gender

linguistic change can come from 2 directions (above and below)

change from above

a new linguistic feature is perpetuated by the higher social class (overtly prestigious, more likely to be held by women)

change from below

a new linguistic feature is perpetuated by the lower social class (covertly prestigious, more likely to be led by men)

if women adopt change, change is more likely to be accepted in the following generation

william labov (martha)

father of variationist sociolinguistics

study on Vineyard centralisation (affects diphthongs [aɪ] and [aʊ] which become centralised ([əɪ] and [əʊ]) in words like wife, right, house, and doubt)

middle aged fishermen from up-island are the biggest producers of centralised diphthongs

william labov (data collection)

the challenges: the observer’s paradox (by being present in the situation, the researcher modifies the phenomenon they are trying to study)

formal interviews are intimidating (people tend to hypercorrect their language, masking everyday speech)

sociolinguistic interviews: designed to elicit language where speakers are not self-conscious (stories where speakers are emotionally invested)

william labov (variation in New York’s Englis)

Consonantal /ɹ/ in postvocalic position is not always realised (ex: car, fourth)

The presence or absence of /ɹ/ differentiate between social classes

went to 3 stores (Saks, Macy’s and S. Klein) and asked a question that the answer would have “fourth floor” (saks → macy → s.klein) (correlated with the status of the store)

dependent variable

depends on a host of other, independent variables

instantiate different variables (Whether consonantal /ɹ/ is produced in postvocalic context, Whether diphthongs get centralized, How the vowel is produced in pasta, etc)

independent variables

social class (education, socioeconomic background, occupation and training)

gender

age

speech context and register (familiar or formal)

experimental task (interview, reading list, etc)

syntactic context for a given variable

morphological context for a given variable

case study (VARBRUL/Goldvarb/R-Varb/Rbrul)

Softwares that allow researchers to perform multivariate analyses of the

patterns found in language.

Allow to identify how different independent variables contribute to variation (what factors determine which variants arise in a language user’s speech/ different factors are weighted differently & they interact with one another

case study (subject pronouns)

In Spanish, can be dropped

ex: Entonces, cuando (yo) llegue a Panamá

variations is observed in many areas where Spanish is spoken

independent variable: social/geographic variables, person/number, tense/aspect, switch reference, verb type, discourse connectedness, reference chains, etc

dependent variable: the pronoun expression (yo or null)

Montreal French variationist sociolinguistics (corpus FRAN-Montréal)

has been used to explore:

language ideology

the use of nous vs vous-autres

the use of different consequence markers meaning so/therefore

the use of expletive il, negative concord

interviews conducted in 2 areas in mtl (Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Quartiers Saint-Michel and Montréal Nord)

socially stratified sample (6 socio-economic classes)

explores social and cultural diversity (how it shapes mtl french)

Mtl french variationist sociolingusitics (findings)

shows that speakers adapt their speech to the group they are interacting with

loan words in Qc french have traditionally 2 sources: neighbouring indigenous communities, english

arabic and haitian creole