Sociolinguistics

What happens when users of different languages come into contact?

• They become multilingual

What is diglossia?

• “High” language: Formal contexts, learned at school

• “Low” language: Casual contexts, everyday situations

What determines the ways in which multiple languages are used in a given context?

• Social and political trends/ideologies

What are the three main approaches to studying multilingual discourse?

• Communication accomodation theory

• The markedness model

• Identity Construction

What is crossing?

• Using the language of an ethnolinguistic group that we do not belong to

What approach does sociolinguistics take towards the concept of identity?

• Anti-essentialist approach

• Identities are based on one’s interactions with others, layered, fluid and contextual

• Language choice may not always be a sign of one’s national identity, but may denote a personality trait, a type of relationship between two speakers, educational background or personal interests (local (national) and community belonging (hobbies and interests, communities of practice) are intertwined)

How do sociolinguists often define race?

• A cultural construct that is fluid and can be resisted

What is the markedness model?

• Analyzing code-switching based on unmarked choices that determine which linguistic varieties and codes are deemed appropriate for different specific contexts

• Unmarked choices indicate the type of relationship between two speakers, a change in their behaviour or intentions when speaking to each other or changes in their environment

• Unmarked choice: unnoticed, expected code in a specific context

• Marked choice: noticed, unexpected code in a specific context

What is the communication accommmodation theory?

• Changes in the way people speak depending on who they are talking to

• Convergence behaviour: One speaker imitating the linguistic variety of the other on purpose to show solidarity and closeness, seek acceptance

• Divergence behaviour: One speaker speaking a different linguistic variety than the other speaker on purpose to create a distance, seeking to emphasize differences and indicate separation

What is multilingualism?

• Use of different language varieties in the same community (societal multilingualism) or situation (individual multilingualism)

What is required for a person to be considered a “balanced” multilingual?

• Using at least two different languages at the same level of competence (reading, writing and speaking)

What is required for a person to be multilingual?

• Being able to hold a conversation in at least two different languages

What is the paradox of multilingualism?

• Elite multilingualism: Speaking multiple languages that have high social prestige (depends on context what is deemed elite)

• Plebeeian/immigrant multilingualism: Impeding integration (learning the standard variety) or cognitive ability for immigrants (contested, if someone’s native language is seen as a problem)

What is the ideology of normative monolingualism?

• It’s normal to be monolingual

• Learning other languages is stigmatized, ex: the idea that multilingualism is too complicated for children, the idea that if languages become mixed they erode national identity

What is a monoglossic ideology?

• The idea that there’s something wrong or impure about mixing languages

What is pluralist ideology?

• Mixing languages is natural and normal

What is language maintainance?

• High ethnolinguistic vitality

• Maintaining the use of one’s native language after moving to an multilingual environment, ex: Teaching one’s children one’s native language 

What is a “language shift”?

• Low ethnolinguistic vitality

• When one shifts away from his/her native language and focuses on the majority/dominant language

What is ethnolinguistic vitality?

• High or low ethnolinguistic vitality: The chances of language maintainance taking place across generations

What is ethnographic vitality determined by?

• Status: The prestige, reputation of the language and the frequency of its use, the significance of the language for the speakers

• Territorial distribution and demographic strength: How many people speak the language in how many different places

• Institutional support: Is it possible to access media and education in this language? Participate in politics? Work in the industry?

What are linguistic landscapes?

• The visibility and frequence of the use of a language in public through public signs

• Marks the representation of a linguistic group in a specific territory (Informational), Depicts the power and status of a linguistic group (Symbolic)

What is the purpose of multilingual signs?

• Communicative function (accessibility)

• Symbolic function (depicts the language ideology in the environment)

• Commercial function (Language as an indicator of the quality of a brand, restaurant, etc.)

What is multilingual discourse?

• Using more than one language in conversation or text

What is code-switching?

• Incorporating elements of one language into another during the same communicative event

What is intersentential code-switching?

• One sentence in one language and the other sentence in another language

What is intrasentential code-switching?

• Using more than one language in the same sentence

What are some potential motivations for code switching?

• Assert dominance and power through level of education

• Seek attention

• Demonstrate desire for acceptance in a community

What affects language choice?

• Topic

• Speakers

• Domains: Settings

• Context

What is the audience design theory?

• Similar to the communication accommodation theory

• Speech is modified taking into account a larger amount of people, people who might be listening into your conversation with someone else

How do languages come into contact?

• Recipient languages phonologically integrate words from donor languages