Language and Society Midterm

Language as a set of items

Sounds, Syllables, Words, Phrases, Sentences, Grammatical Constructions, Politness Devices, Terms of Address

Society as a set of terms

Identity, Power or Status, Class, Solidarity, Accommodation, Gender, Education

Sociolingustics

The study of the relationship between language structure, language use, and the structure of society

Social Variables

Age, Gender, Education, Socio-economic Status, Occupation, Place of Residence, Place of Birth, Sexual Identity

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Does our language relfect the way things really are or are things the way they are becasue of our language

Grammar

A system of rules that defines its elemens, items, and useage

Known by every speaker of a language

Individual knowledge - each persons rules differ

Collective/Shared knowledge - everyone has the same rules

Poverty of the Stimulus

A hypothesis that humans muct have innate language capcablities becasue we learn our native language in the absence of environmental conditions, such as, direct instruction or a large number of correct and incorrect examples

Chomskyan Approach

What is Important: Learnability of languages, shared characteristics, rules and principles, children and learning languages

What is not important: Language in use

Probelm: A large part of the language we experience is ‘performance’ and is not worthy of studying

Variation

Different way of labeling the same thing/ person/ phenomenon

4 Reasons for Variation

1. Signal various types of relationships/ roles/ situations

2. Expresss our identity

3. Achevie semantic effects

4. Gateway to lingustic change

When is Variation Acceptable

Mutual intelligability and utterances are gramatically acceptable

Idiolect

The particular way someone speaks (pronunciation, word choices, syntax)

Identity

Formed through actions, gives you certain rights, privileges, and expectations

Language is one of the most powerful indicators

Power

Ability to control events in order to acheiv one’s aims

Divergent Accommodation

changing speech towards (if we like the group) or away (if we dont like the group) from a group of people

Convergent Accommodation

Unaware of the changes in our speech, change is not radical, two groups usually converge together

Unmarked Variant

What is normally used in a particular language/ context/ situation

Marked Variant

What is not normally used in a paritcular language/ context/ situation

Variety

A specific set of ‘lingustic terms’ and ‘human speech patterns’ associated with external factors

Vernacular

The speech of a particular country or region transmitted from parent to child as the primary medium of communication

Dialect (popular defintion)

Non-prestigious, sub-standard, powerless variety of a language

Dialect (Lingustic Defintion)

Forms of a language that differ in systemic ways

Standardization

Process by which a lanuage has been codified (agreement of what is in the language)

Steps for Standardization of a Variety

1. Formal Matters: codification and elaboration

2. Functional Matters: selecting, accepting, and idealizing a norm

Standard English

Based on regional variety, became preffered by the upper class, developed and promoted, carried overseas

Diachronic

The study of history of language and language over time

Synchronic

Study of a sapshot of the language at a very moment

Newspeak

A controlled language of restricted grammar and limited vocabulary, meant to limit the freedom of thought - personal identity, self-expression, free will - that threatens the ideology of the régime of Big Brother and Party

Follows english grammar, yet has continually diminishing vocabulary; complete thoughts of reduced to simple terms of simplistic meaning

Interactionist Sociolinguistics (Monika Heller Theory 1/3)

what language use can tell us about social processes, and therefore a central concern is the social meaning of language use

Variationist Sociolinguistics (Monika Heller Theory 2/3)

Accounts for linguistic variation and change

Language is mainly symbolic in this view

Microsociolinguistics (Monika Heller Theory 3/3)

Studying the linguistic system as that system was influenced by social factors

Americanisms

Came from American loyalists that moved to Canada during the revolution in the late 1700s. Sounded Yankee-like

Use of like

Beginning: “like, i dont know”

Before a noun phrase: “wear, like, a jean skirt

Before a verb: “We can, like, see more people”

Signifier

Word used to describe the thing (word)

Signified

The thing the word is describing (idea)

Syntax

How you combine words together

Solidarity

Motivations which cause individuals to act together

Register

A set of language items associated with discrete occupational groups

Audience Design

Choosing a variety and the appropriate stylistic level appropriate for the audience