Sociolinguistics Notes

Sociolinguistics

  • Study of the relationship between language and society.

  • The relationship between language and the context in which it is used.

Diglossia

  • Two distinct varieties of the same language are used in a community.

  • One is regarded as a high or H variety and the other a low or L variety

  • Each variety is used for quite distinct functions.

  • H and L complement each other.

  • No one uses the H variety in everyday conversation.

  • H Variety

    • Function: Formal contexts, Referential.

    • Attitude: The speakers regard H as superior to L. It is generally admired and has prestige.

    • Standardisation: H variety is described and “fixed” or standardised in grammars, books and dictionaries

    • Lexicon: H includes technical terms and learned expressions which have no regular L equivalents.

      • E.g. formal & technical terms such as conservation & psychometric

    • Grammar: H has grammatical categories not present in L and is morphologically more complicated.

      • E.g. Standard German uses more casemarkers on nouns and tense inflections on verbs than Swiss German

  • L Variety

    • Function: Informal contexts, Affective.

    • Attitude: The speakers regard L as inferior to H. People rate the L variety very low indeed.

    • Standardisation: People generally do not think of the L variety as worth describing/codifying

    • Lexicon: L includes popular expressions and the names of very homely objects or objects of very localised distribution

      • E.g. words for everyday objects such as shoe and saucepan

    • Grammar: H has grammatical categories not present in L and has an inflectional system of nouns and verbs which is much reduced or totally absent in L.

  • Example

    • Arabic speaking countries use classical Arabic as their H variety and regional colloquial varieties as L varieties.

    • Classical Arabic is used for writing and formal functions.

    • Colloquial Arabic is used for informal speech situations.

Polyglossia

  • Polyglossic situations involve two contrasting varieties (H & L), but in general refers to communities that regularly use more that two languages

  • Malaysia

    • A research in Malaysia by Platt(1977)

      • ENGLISH

        • Standard Malaysian English (H-variety)

        • Colloquial Malaysian English (L- variety)

      • MALAY

        • Bahasa Malaysia (H-variety)

        • Bazaar Malay (Bahasa Pasar) (L- variety)

      • CHINESE LANGUAGES

        • Mandarin (H-variety)

        • Other Chinese dialects (L- variety)

Register

  • Special technical vocabulary associated with a specific area of work or interest.

  • The words only fit in certain domains

  • Examples:

    • Legalese – Subpoena, affidavit, habeas corpus, pro bono, bona fide

    • Journalese – Orphan/widow, spike, churnalism, overmatter

    • Sports commentators – Silly mild on, square leg, the covers, gully, off-break, googly, leg break

Jargon

  • Language that is specific to a particular profession or a particular group of people who share a common interest.

  • Oftentimes, though not always, only people from these professions or groups know the meaning of their own jargon.

  • Jargon can be informal or formal, depending on the profession or the group.

Slang

  • Slang or colloquial speech describes words or phrases that are used among younger speakers and groups with special interests.

  • They are unconventional words or phrases that express either something new or something old in a new way.

    • Examples: Bucks, bummer, hunk, hottie, awesome, groovy, bro-tox, greycation, planking, frenemy, emo, my bad etc. - Flex, tea, hangry, to ghost someone, lit, salty, GG, YOLO etc

Dialect vs Accent

  • Idiolect

    • The unique characteristics of the language of an individual speaker

    • Factors – age, sex, social situation etc

    • Differences – word choices, pronunciation, grammatical rules etc

    • 500 \text{ million speakers} = 500 \text{ million idiolects}

Dialect

  • Dialects are generally mutually intelligible forms of a language that differ in systematic ways

  • Mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort

  • Every speaker, whether rich or poor, regardless of region or racial origin, speaks at least one dialect

  • How to define mutually intelligible?

    • It is a difficult task. It is not easy to draw a distinction between dialects and languages on strictly linguistics grounds.

    • The rule-of-thumb : if two speakers can understand each other, then they speak two dialects of the same language; if they can’t understand each other, they speak two different languages.

  • Examples:

    • America – Bostonians, New Yorkers, Blacks in Chicago, Whites in Denver, Hispanics (all exhibit systemic variation in the way they speak)

    • Scandinavian countries – Danes speaking Danish, Norwegians speaking Norwegian and Swedes speaking Swedish can converse with each other. However, the three varieties are considered as 3 separate languages because they are spoken in different countries and there are regular differences in their grammars.

    • Hindi and Urdu in India and Pakistan . Mutually intelligible?

    • Mandarin and Cantonese in China . Both are been referred to as dialects of Chinese but when spoken both are mutually unintelligible.

    • Bahasa Malaysia – Northern dialects (Penangite, Kedahan), Kelantanese, Malaccan. Mutually intelligible? How about Sarawakian?

Accent

  • Whether we think we speak a standard variety of English or not, we all speak with an accent

  • Every language speaker speaks with an accent

  • Some speakers have very distinct or easily recognised types of accent while others may have more subtle or less noticeable accents

  • The term accent is restricted to the description of aspects of pronunciation that identify where an individual speaker is from regionally or socially

  • Accent refers to the characteristics of speech that convey information about the speaker’s dialect, which may reveal in what country the speaker grew up, or to which sociolinguistic group the speaker belongs.

  • Example: People in the US often refer to someone as having a British accent or Australian accent or Canadian accent.

  • The term accent is also used to refer to the speech of non-native speakers, that is, someone who has learned the language as a second language.

  • In this sense, accent refers to phonological differences with, or interference from, one’s native language.

  • Example: A native French speaker’s English is described as having a French accent

Language Shift

  • The replacement of one language by another as the primary means of communication and socialisation within a community

  • The gradual displacement of one language by another in the lives of the community members, manifested as

    • loss in number of speakers

    • level of proficiency

    • range of functional use of the language

  • Contributing Factors

    • Internal Factors

      • Desire to integrate into the target culture

      • Preference for social acceptance and conformity to the dominant group

    • External Factors

      • Small concentration of L1 speakers result in less opportunities to use the ethnic language and impart it to children

      • Poor institutional support

  • Ensuring Language Vitality

    • Living in an extended family in which grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren live together and use the same minority language

    • Ensuring that the minority group language is used in formal settings such as schools or worship places

Language & Gender

  • Sexist language

    • It is the use of language which devalues members of one sex, almost invariably women, and thus fosters gender inequality

    • Feminists have claimed that English is a sexist language

    • The English metaphors available to describe women include an extraordinarily high number of derogatory images compared to those used to describe men

  • Animal imagery is one example where the images of women considerably less positive than those for men

    • Consider the negativity of bitch, old biddy, and cow, compared to stud and wolf

    • Animal imagery which refers to men often has at least some positive component (such as wiliness or sexual prowess)

  • Many words reinforce a view of women as a deviant, abnormal or subordinate group

    • English morphology generally takes the male form as the base form and adds a suffix to signal ‘female’

    • Lion/lioness, count/countess, actor/actress, usher/usherette, hero/heroine

  • It has also been suggested that suffixes like -ess and –ette trivialise and diminish women, and when they refer to occupations such as authoress and poetess, carry connotations of lack of seriousness

    • This attitude derives from the meaning of the associated diminutive suffixes in terms such as laundrette (a little laundry)

  • Generic structures provide further evidence to support the claim that the English language marginalises women and treats them as abnormal

    • In fact words like generic he and man can be said to render women invisible

  • What can be done to rectify the sexist imbalance in the English language?

    • Gender-neutral language

    • Choosing words that do not carry a message of masculinity or femininity

    • Avoid the pseudo-generic he, his, man

    • To be inclusive use both he and she, and balance the usage of pronouns by reversing their order sometimes

    • Use the plural pronoun

      • When a reporter covers a controversial story, he has a responsibility…

      • When reporters cover controversial stories, they have a responsibility…

    • Choose gender-inclusionary forms such as humankind instead of mankind

    • Special forms to name women are unnecessary

    • Generic terms such as doctor, judge or actor include both genders

    • Avoid words/phrases such as male nurse, lady lawyer, woman doctor

    • When describing a job or career both men and women might perform, avoid using a combined term that specifies gender

      • chairperson instead of chairman/chairwoman

Sociolinguistics studies the relationship between language and society, focusing on the context of language use.

Diglossia involves two distinct varieties of the same language:

  • H Variety (High)

    • Function: Formal contexts

    • Attitude: Regarded as superior with prestige

    • Lexicon: Technical terms, e.g., conservation.

  • L Variety (Low)

    • Function: Informal contexts

    • Attitude: Regarded as inferior

    • Lexicon: Everyday terms, e.g., shoe.

Example: In Arabic-speaking countries, classical Arabic is the H variety for writing, while colloquial Arabic is the L variety for informal speech.

Polyglossia refers to communities using multiple languages, e.g., in Malaysia, where Standard Malaysian English (H) contrasts with colloquial Malaysian English (L).

Register reflects specialized vocabulary in specific fields (e.g., legalese, journalese).

Jargon is profession-specific language, often understood only by those within that field.

Slang includes unconventional words or phrases used among specific groups.

Dialect vs Accent:

  • Dialect: Mutually intelligible forms of a language.

  • Accent: Pronunciation characteristics revealing regional or social identity.

Language Shift involves the gradual replacement of one language by another due to community changes.

Language & Gender discusses the use of sexist language and suggests adopting gender-neutral terms to promote inclusivity in communication.