Sociolinguistics - Lecture 11

Sign Language

• language is modality-independent — not dependent on speech organs

• sign languages have the same levels/domains of grammar

  • syntax and semantics

  • phonetics and phonology (handshapes, motion paths, facial expressions)

  • morphology, idioms, wordplay, etc…

Sign Language: Social Context

• deaf signing communities are considered a minority

• sign languages are minority languages in contact with the majority language of the broader society

  • signed languages acquired as L1 at a much later age

  • many families get deaf children cochlear implants — oralism

  • signers frequently misunderstood

Oralism

the belief that spoken language is better than sign langauge

Sign Language: Phenomena

at macro-sociolinguistic level, sign languages also show same phenomena as spoken languages (most very understudied in sign languages)

• variation (constrained by linguistic and social factors)

• change over time

• regional differences

• indexicality

• style shifting

Sign Language: Variation

phonological variation is correlated with factors:

• ethnicity

• region

• age

• part of speech

The Anglo Bias

• macro-level studied overwhelmingly anglo/euro-centric

  • speech community assumed to be monolingual

• English dominates as language of study in most conferences

Linguistic Diversity

conferences now trying to foreground linguistic diversity

Endangered Languages

language endangerment usually though of as a macro-sociolinguistic issue rather than micro-sociolinguistic

• what are the factors that lead to language shift/language loss

• what are the functions of the language in the community

• what can we do to aid in documenting and revitalizing the language

investigation of variation often put aside, Anglo bias of msocioliungiusitcs is perpetuated

Outreach: Challenges

• finding speakers or sites in the first place may be difficult (some may not be welcoming of outsiders)

• ideology (e.g., standard language ideologies) may suppress or obscure variation

  • you are an outsider, you bring ideology

• researchers may not know where to look for variation in an unfamiliar language

• clashes between researchers’ expectations and cultural values/practices of the community may happen.

Outreach: Assumptions

need to be careful with assumptions

• can’t assume that a culture is okay with anything we, the linguists, want to do

• have to listen to and learn from the community

• need to understand the social hierarchy and practices of the community

• little or nothing can be assumed to be cross-cultural

• some scholars have framed their research participants as “informants” or “research collaborators”

Principle of Linguistic Gratuity

the moral obligation of the sociolinguist to “peruse positive ways in which they can return linguistic favours to the community” — principle is about reciprocation

Countering Internalized Stigma

“communities that have been socialized into believing that their language variety is nothing more than ‘bad speech’ are not particularly eager to celebrate this presumed linguistic inferiority, presenting a significant obstacle for the development of dialect awareness programs that celebrate local linguistic themes”

Reciprocation

sociolinguists can work with community members to ensure that language variation is documented and described in a valid and reliable way

• documentaries produced with and on behalf of local communities

• audio CDs with oral histories and stories of local traditions, customs, etc.

• community-based museums

• popular writing like books and articles for broad-based audience

• community-based dialect dictionaries

• formal curriculum materials

involves productive knowledge-sharing

Productive Knowledge-Sharing

• we must resist the urge to be impatient or judgemental

• we must ensure we aren’t alienating people or fetishizing dialect differences

• we must portray the community and/or the language carefully, accurately, and respectfully

Empowerment

“at the very least, researchers should seek to share their insights with community members and to ‘give back’ to the community, with the goal of empowering the community in some way”