Sociolinguistics and Language Identity

Flashcards covering key concepts and theories in sociolinguistics, language identity, endangerment, and revitalization from lecture notes.

Who is Gary Ives?

A linguist who interviewed teenagers in West Yorkshire and found recurring patterns in their speech, linked by informal register, common topics of relationships, taboo language, dialect, and slang.

According to Gary Ives's research, what is the most common topic of conversation among teenagers?

Relationships

What features were found in the speech of teenagers interviewed by Gary Ives?

Informal register, relationships, taboo language, dialect, and slang.

According to Michael Nelson, what type of language do people at work use?

Business lexis within a semantic field related to business, people, companies, institutions, money, time, and technology.

According to Michael Nelson, how might speakers use or deviate from business lexis at work?

To create a professional identity or to create a more personable identity.

Who is Carmen Llamas?

A linguist who studied linguistic variation in Middlesbrough after it shifted from Yorkshire to Teesside County Borough.

What were the findings of Carmen Llamas's study on linguistic variation in Middlesbrough?

Older people used more Yorkshire accent features, while younger people used more North-East features.

According to Keith and Shuttleworth's research, what are some characteristics of women's speech?

Talk too much, are more polite, hesitant, complain or nag, ask questions, support each other and are more cooperative.

According to Keith and Shuttleworth, what are some characteristics of men's speech?

Swear more, avoid emotions, insult each other, are competitive in conversation, dominate conversation, speak with authority, give more commands, interrupt more, have demeaning names for women, talk about women and machines in the same way and Talk about sports.

What is sociolinguistics?

The study of how social factors such as age and gender affect language use.

What are the social factors that can affect a person's language and identity?

Region, gender, age, occupation, class, and ethnicity.

What is sociolect?

Language use specific to people belonging to the same social group who share social factors.

What is idiolect?

The specific way an individual speaks, with language features from different social groups.

What are the types of language revitalization programs?

Full-blown second language programs, language renewal programs, language reclamation programs, and language awareness programs.

What are learning strategies in language acquisition?

Behaviors, steps, or techniques that language learners apply to facilitate language learning

What are examples of cognitive learning strategies?

Using mnemonics

What is a performance strategy in language learning?

Conscious and planned actions a learner takes to effectively use language.

How can language express elements of identity?

Language can give someone identity and allows them to share aspects of it, such as age, gender, or where they live.

What factors influence a person's identity, affecting their language use at different ages?

Parents, peers, and region.

What is social obsolescence?

The loss of a language or dialect due to the influence of other languages or social factors.

What are the main strategies for language revitalization?

Maintenance and revival

What are the approaches to language revitalization?

Full-blown second language programs, language renewal, language reclamation, and language awareness programs.

What is a full-blown second language program?

Language that is still fully viable is taught elsewhere, where the language is not the traditional language of the region.

What is a language renewal program?

Attempts to tap into a language still known within the community where there are no fluent speakers and the language is no longer actively used.

What is a language reclamation program?

Operate in a situation where very little of the language is still known or remembered but where there is documentation.

What are language awareness programs?

Teach about a language where there are no longer any fluent speakers, little is known, and documentation is minimal.

What is the main goal of the Language Documentation Approach?

To record what a given language was like when it was healthy.

What would a linguist aim to do when using the Language Documentation Approach?

The linguist will aim at salvaging the most conservative usage or to gather what remains of the language in decline.

What should documentation of a given language include?

Grammar, vocabulary, and texts/stories, among others, employing audio and video-recording.

What does the Language Endangerment Phenomenon Approach concern itself with?

Is concerned with the phenomenon of language endangerment itself, and salvage is not the most important aim of the research.

What is language revitalization?

Restoration of vitality to a language that has lost or is losing this attribute.

What does language maintenance refer to?

Concerns languages that are endangered but still alive.

What does language revival have to do with?

Has to do with extinct languages.

What does the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS) do?

Categorizes languages into different levels of endangerment based on factors such as the number of speakers and age distribution.

According to the EGIDS, what is the 'Safe' language status?

The language is spoken by all generations and is being transmitted to the next generation.

According to the EGIDS, what is the 'Vulnerable' language status?

Most children speak the language, but it may be restricted to certain domains.

According to the EGIDS, what is the 'Definitely Endangered' language status?

Children no longer learn the language as a mother tongue, but some adults speak it.

According to the EGIDS, what is the 'Severely Endangered' language status?

The language is spoken by grandparents and older generations but is not being passed on.

According to the EGIDS, what is the 'Critically Endangered' language status?

The youngest speakers are grandparents and older, and the language is at risk of becoming extinct.

According to the EGIDS, what is the 'Extinct' language status?

There are no speakers of the language.

What has exerted perhaps the most devastating damage in the way of language loss?

Colonization by European nations.

What are some European languages spoken in addition to, and, in many cases in place of, aboriginal languages?

English in Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and North America; Spanish in Central and South Americas; Portuguese in Brazil; French in Canada; and Russian in Siberia.

What does degree of language endangerment refer to?

Refers to how at risk a language is of becoming extinct or no longer spoken.

What are the three very similar classifications of degree of language endangerment?

Safe languages, endangered languages and Moribund languages.

What are Safe languages defined as?

They are most likely still to be spoken by (at least some) children in the year 2100.

What are Endangered languages defined as?

They will cease to be learned by children during the 21st century.

What are Moribund languages defined as?

They are no longer learned as mother-tongue by children or no longer spoken by children.

What are examples of language loss in the pre-European colonial period?

Expansion of the Roman Empire, the Aztec empire of Central America and the Inka empire of South America.

What are the types of language loss?

Language death, language endangerment, and language shift.