Language in social context

Phonetics

human sound system,

deals with great characteristics of sounds (phones),

Phones

Produced during speech

Represent particular phonemes

What we produce is not always the same (some variation) Actual production, not always identical

Concrete realization of sounds

Articulatory phonetics

Investigates how speech sounds are produced

Acoustic phonetics

describes the physical properties of speech sounds

auditory phonetics

Investigates how speech sounds are perceived

letter

orthographic symbol

basic system of speech sound production system

lungs

Larynx

vocal tract -> form and shape of sounds

Larynx

Contains the vocal folds and glottis

vocal tract above larynx

articulators

active articulators

movable: lips, tongue, soft palate...

passive articulators

non movable: aveolar ridge, teeth, hard palate..

oral cavity: vowels

without obstruction of airstream: articulators a moved

oral cavity: consonants

with obstruction of airstream

Classification of consonants

voice, place of articulation, manner

voiced consonants

loose vocal folds-> vibration

biliabial

both lips together b,p,m,w

labiodental

upper teeth with lower lip v,f

dental

tongue behind the upper teeth or between

alveolar

tongue and aveolar ridge t,d,s,n,r,l

palato aveolar

tsch

palatal

j

velar

the back of the tongue on the velum ->g,k, ng

glottal

open space between the vocal folds h

manner of articulation

how the sound is produced

plosives

b,p,k,g,t,d

fricatives

friction -> f,v, θ,ð, s,z, ʃ, Ʒ,h

affricates

bit of closure and friction [tʃ, dƷ]

approximants

[l,ɹ,w,j]

nasals

[m,n, ŋ] → nasal cavity involved

lateral approximants

air escapes around the sides of the tongue /l/

vowels criteria

Height of tongue (closeness) Possibilities: high - mid - low

2. Position in mouth/part of tongue (frontness) Possibilities: front - central - back

3. Length Possibilities: long - short

branches of phonology

segmental and suprasegmental

segmental phonology

Examines the function of individual sounds in a language, the so-called segments

suprasegmental phonology

Concerned with those features of pronunciation that extend over more than one segment

Allophone

variant production of a phoneme

complementary distribution

allophone production that is tied to a particular phonetic environment

Sociolinguistics

investigates relationships between social and linguistic variation

variety linguistics

Schneider (2011): a set of language habits (= how people use language) that is shared by a certain group of speakers for use in certain contexts

Crystal (2003): a term used in sociolinguistics and stylistics to refer to any system of linguistic expression whose use is governed by situational variables.

accent

Refers to the phonological and prosodic aspects (= pronunciation) of a linguistic variety

Varieties at the level of pronunciation › Not a particular way of pronunciation

dialect-language

Commonly used criterion for distinguishing between 'dialect' and 'language': mutual intelligibility/linguistic distance ('Abstand')

Mutual intelligibility

→ Speakers of different dialects can understand each other → Differences are not that extreme

linguistic distance

in a topological way

grammar, vocabulary

dialect

without standardization

standard language

language as symbolic capital

standardization

selection, elaboration, codification, acceptence

language norms

Correct, appropriate, fitting

Shared by people

language use - Hymes speaking heuristic

setting, participants, ends, act sequences, keys, instumentalities, norms, genre

IRF

Initiation-response-feedback. A triadic structure in speech that allows the first speaker to feedback on the response of a second speaker.

variation between groups of speakers (interspeaker)

varieties of speakers

dialect

accent

Varaiation of one speaker (intraspeaker)

style and style shifting

isoglosses

draw a line were 2 different variants are used for one varible

dialect boundaries

bundle of isoglosses, focuses on more variables, variant features that are different from each other overlap

First Dispersal of English

america, australia, south africa

Second Dispersal of English

west africa, east africa, south asia, south-east asia

A 'third' dispersal

Japan, China, Russia, Brazil, the Netherlands, Austria, etc.

As part of a global relevant language

Kachru's Circles

inner circle-> native language

outer circle-> english second language

expanding circle -> foreign language

Limitations of Kachru's model

- Based on geography and history, rather than the speakers of English.

- The world's bilingual and multilingual speakers are not taken into account.

- Does not account for the linguistic diversity within and between countries of a particualr circle.

- The inner circle is often seen as superior.

model of EIL

model based on proficiency

Bi/Multilingualism

→ Wide-spread code-switching & translanguaging

Two different theoretical approaches Translanguaging: focuse on how users of various languages use their languages (context, reason, situation, social variables,...), move between languages, how we make meaning and use the resources that we have (different languages that we speak)

Most of us code-switch regularly → In some regions: pidgins & creoles developed (= creating new languages)

→ Complex situation of e.g. Code choice Language attitudes Language policy (e.g. education, official status)

diglossia

→ Two varities with two different functions in one country

→ Clear distinction in function

→ Very special way of regional bilingualism

code choice

Selection of language variety based on context.

communication accomondation theory

We accomondate each other when we speak

converge

use the same style as the other person

diverge

use a different style as the other person

symmetrical (mutual)

both converge or diverge

asymetrical

one tends to converge and the other to diverge

Pidgin

Simplified form of speech when there is no shared code

creole

A pidgin language that evolves to the point at which it becomes the primary language of the people who speak it

lingua franca

shared code of speakers with different languages

reasons why English is the main lingua franca

International Politics (+ World Wars etc.) Economy and Globalization

→ Economic power of the 'West'

→ International trade and business (mobility, outsourcing,...) → English often the 'default' Information exchange

→ Communication technologies (internet, emails, skype,...) → International conferences, academic publishing

-> mobility

->entertainment and pop culture

language attitude

"any affective, cognitive or behavioral index of evaluative reactions towards different language varieties or their speakers"

language policies

"the primary mechanism for organizing, managing and manipulating language behaviors as it consists of decisions made about languages and their uses in society"

learning English: snowball effect

The more people learn a language, the more useful it becomes, and the more useful it is, the more people want to learn it

What is pragmatics?

› A Sub-discipline of linguistics that deals with how speakers use language to accomplish certain communicative intentions

› The study of speaker meaning

The study of contextual meaning (=meaning in a particular situation)

situational context

the social or environmental setting of a person's behavior

->physical

background knowledge context

cultural, interpersonal

co-textual context

→ Inside the text

→ Textual context

→ What happened before and what happens after?

Speech Act Theory

Speaking is acting. Meaning is context-dependent.

locutionary act

What we say

illocutionary force

the intended meaning of the utterance or text within its context

perlocutionary effect

effect of the speech act on the listener

representatives

→ Express some form of 'statement' you believe is true

→ To assert, claim, complain etc.

→ E.g. The weather is nice. It's sunny.

directives

→ Get the hearer to do something

→ To ask, order, beg, permit etc.

→ E.g. Can you carry this for me?

Comissives

→ Commit the speaker to a future action

→ To promise, vow, swear etc.

→ E.g. I'll come to the party.

Expressives

→ Express the speaker's feelings about something

→ To thank, congratulate, compliment etc.

→ E.g. Thanks for your help!

Declaratives

→ Bring about a change of status of an object/person by saying something

→ To fire, baptize, marry, sentence etc.

→ E.g. With this ring, I thee wed.

→ Least frequent group of speech acts

positive face

an image of yourself that will be perceived as positive by others -> positive politeness

negative face

the need to be independent and free from imposition

->negative politeness

official ratified

adressee

unofficial not ratified

eavesdropper etc.

discourse

language beyond sentences

Deixis

Lexical items that "point" towards something and place words in context.

person deixis

you, I, he....

spatial deixis

location, z.B. here, there

temporal deixis

time: now, then, tomorrow

Anaphoric reference

Points back to a referent in a a text

z.b.

→ Do you see that girl? She is nice.

Cataphoric reference

Points forward to a referent in a text

z.b.

He put it down. Then Paul paused for a while.

Cohesion

Verbalized links between clauses and sentences

Coherence

in the mind of the reader ->interpretation

maxim of quantity

Make your contribution as informative as required, but nor more, or less, than required