Sociolinguistics Notes

Social Linguistics

• Study of language in society.
• Specifically, the study of variation in language.
  • Example: Pronunciation of "secretary" (secretary, secretary, secretary).
  • Social linguists study who uses which pronunciation and in what situations.
• The way you talk reflects your social identity.
  • Pronunciation, word choice, grammar.
  • Like clothes, friends, job.
  • Language is fundamental.
  • Associated with social beliefs and attitudes.
  • People judge others based on how they talk.
  • Socially constructed norms, not objective facts.
  • Dialect critique doesn't mean deficiency.

Varieties of Language

• Avoid the term "dialect" due to its loaded connotations.
• Use "varieties of language" instead.
• Dialects: Varieties characteristic of certain speaker groups.
  • Regional dialects: Geographically defined groups.
  • Social dialects: Groups sharing social factors.
    • Socioeconomic class
    • Ethnicity
    • Gender
    • Age
    • Sexual orientation
• Variation occurs between different speakers.
• Variation also exists within an individual (linguistic repertoire).
  • Command of several language varieties.
    • Different languages.
    • Dialects of the same language.
    • Variation in style and register within the same dialect.

Style

• Language variety shifts with the situation.
  • Talking to mom, friends, professor, stranger.
  • No single-style speakers.
  • Speakers shift according to the situation.
• Examples of style shifts:
  • Pronunciation: "he would have" vs. "he'd", "running" vs. "runnin'"
  • Word Choice: Formal vs. informal language.
  • Grammar: Longer, complex sentences in lectures vs. shorter sentences in casual settings.

Myths About Dialects

• Myth: A dialect is always what somebody else speaks.
  • Fact: Everyone speaks a certain variety of a language.
• Myth: Dialects always have highly noticeable features.
  • Fact: Some do, but it's related to public commentary and recognizability.
• Myth: Dialects are spoken by socially disfavored groups.
  • Fact: There are both socially favored and disfavored dialects.
• Myth: Dialects reflect failure to speak correctly.
  • Fact: Dialects are as grammatical as other language varieties.
  • Acquired by adopting speech features of surrounding speakers.
• Myth: Dialects have no systematicity; they're random deviations.
  • Fact: Dialects are systematic and regular.
  • Physicist's misconception: Dialects are simplified grammars.
• Myth: Dialects inherently carry negative social connotations.
  • Fact: Social value is derived from social evaluation of speakers.
• Myth: Dialects are deviations from the standard.
  • Fact: The standard is also a dialect, chosen by historical accident.
  • The standard is recent; dialects are how language has been for a long time.
  • Standard is an artificial, derived thing with fewer historical roots.

Ways in Which Dialects Differ

• Pronunciation
• Vocabulary
• Grammar
• Conversational practices (opening/closing conversations)

Pronunciation Differences

• Example: Pronunciation of "G-o-d" can be "God" or "Gad".
• Example: Yellow substance at the bottom of the slide called, “but, ba, butter or baka based on your location.

British English

• Words like "son," "bus," "mother" vary in pronunciation.
• Southern speakers: "sun," "bus."
• Northern speakers: "son," "bus."
• Speaker from the north: "I'm lucky."
• Vowel pronunciation in "last," "dance," "path" varies.
• Southern islands: "lost," "dance," "path."
• Other speakers: "last," "last."
• Speaker with short "a": "single finest answer."

United States

• Pin-pen merger: "pin" and "pen" pronounced the same.
• Speaker from Houston area: refers to ‘hen house’ as ‘hin house’.

Lexical Variation

• Different words used depending on location.
• Example: Names for sugary carbonated drinks e.g. seven up, Dr. Pepper.
• Southern US: call it "Coke".
• California, Northeast (Boston, Philadelphia): call it "soda".
• North and Northwest: call it "pop".

Grammar Variation

• Negative concord (double negation).
• Example: "That don't seem like no kind of sheriff to me."
• Common in many English varieties.
• The grammar sheriff shoots the real sheriff.

Variation in Language

• Many linguistic structures have variants.
  • Pronunciation (phonological): car/car, tomato/tomato.
  • Morphological: I'm not too keen/I ain't too keen, prouder/more proud.
  • Syntactic: my brother's car/the car of my brother, I gave John the book/I gave the book to John.
• Language allows saying the same thing in different ways.
• One linguistic element yields two or more different realizations.
• Social linguists are interested by this

Sociolinguistic Variable

• A linguistic unit realized in two or more ways.
• Often a binary choice.
  • Example: Saying or not saying the 'r' in 'car'
• Sometimes more variants.
• Speaker internal variation (speakers produce different variants sometimes).
  • Example: Saying "I'm not" vs. "I ain't."
• Speakers can't be divided into discrete categories.
• Speakers placed along a continuum.
• Central question: How can we explain why a speaker produces one variant rather than another?

Factors Explaining Language Variation

• Language internal factors
• Language external factors

Language Internal Factors

• Relate to the structures and meanings of language itself.
• Example: Prouder vs. More proud - American speakers will probably use 'more clever' rather than 'cleverer' cause of phonological difficulty.
• Syntactic variable: Dative construction vs. prepositional dative construction.
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