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SOCIOLINGUISTICS
LINA02 What is Sociolinguistics? ■ The study of language in society, more specifically the study of variation in language. Consider the word ‘secretary’: /’sɛ.krɪ.tə.rɪ/ /’sɛ.krɪ.tə.ri/ /’sɛ.krɪ.trɪ/ Variation in Language ■ The way you talk (pronunciation, word choice, grammar) says something about your social identity. ■ There are strong social beliefs and attitudes associated with certain ways of speaking. ■ These attitudes are social norms, not objective facts about language itself. How do we define ‘language’? – Sociolinguists vs. other linguists – (Socio)linguists vs. non-linguists For many linguists (but not sociolinguists)… • Elicit language forms of interest – “How do you say this in your language?” • Use that information to build up a grammar – Description of how that language is represented in the mind. • Actual use isn’t helpful, because it’s full of “noise” (false starts, etc.) – Competence vs. performance In that perspective… • You don’t need actual language recordings. • You’re interested in what people know about their language. • If you’re a native speaker, you can sit in an office and “describe” your language. The sociolinguistic perspective… • Empiricist • Language as actually used and recorded • Everyday “real” language is more structured than you’d think How do we get “real language”? • Record people – Often, in sociolinguistic interviews – Designed to encourage people to focus on the content of their speech, not the form • Harvest data from existing sources – Media (including internet) – Data collected for other purposes – Personal letters, diaries For non-linguists (“normal people”)… ■ “Language” often means the standard language – Language of school, formal writing – Often seen (by non-linguists) as more “correct” ■ Associated with a prescriptive approach – How people “should” talk ■ Other language (non-standard, dialect) is often seen as chaotic, not rule-governed Linguists are descriptive ■ How people actually talk, not how they “should” ■ There’s no “good” or “bad” language – Or “ugly”, or “lazy”, or… ■ A necessary attitude for scientific study ■ Other disciplines don’t talk about “good” or “bad” planets, minerals, birds, etc. Social Evaluation ■ Different language varieties or features are evaluated as “good” or “bad” by members of the society – … and that’s something that we study ■ Different varieties/features are considered appropriate in different social contexts – … which is also something that we study Dialect ■ Do you recall the definition of what a dialect is? ■ When two speakers of two different linguistic communities can understand one another, then they speak dialects of the same language ■ Dialects of the same language are mutually intelligible Regional dialects ■ Differences between a language spoken in different areas are referred to as regional dialects – English spoken in the city of Boston – Canadian English of Newfoundland – English spoken in Brooklyn – Texan English – English spoken in London Naming: “language” vs. “dialect” ■ How do we tell them apart? ■ Linguistically: mutual intelligibility ■ Socially/politically: who gets to decide? Dialect vs. language ■ When two dialects become mutually unintelligible, i.e., speakers of two dialects cannot understand each other, they are considered to have become separate languages ■ Recall, however, that it is often difficult to draw a line between separate dialects and separate languages • cultural, political or historical considerations may cloud the issue Social and political forces ■ “A language is a dialect with an army and a navy” ■ If your subgroup has the power to convince people that your language is distinct, it becomes known as a “language” ■ Example: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian – Mutually intelligible, but considered separate languages for political reasons This works both ways ■ Hindi and Urdu are fairly mutually intelligible, but are considered separate languages – Different countries, writing systems, religions ■ Cantonese and Mandarin are not mutually intelligible, but are considered dialects of the same language – Same country, same writing (usually) – Political interest in unity over diversity Chinese… – In China, Mandarin is spoken in the northern province, and Cantonese in the southern province of Guangdong. Even though in spoken form, these language varieties are NOT mutually intelligible, they are considered by the speakers to be dialects of the same language. one reason is that these two varieties share a common writing system and are thus mutually intelligible in written form. spoken within the same political boundaries share a common history Scandinavian… The opposite situation: Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are commonly considered to be separate languages, although their speakers can understand each other. ■ Why? They have been distinct countries, with separate monarchies for many centuries Linguists consider them to be dialects of the same language Other names… ■ Slang: lexicon (words) that are new or have new meanings (non-standard, informal language) ■ Accent: phonetics/phonology (pronunciation) Regional phonological or phonetic distinctions create different accents ■ Variety: what many sociolinguists call a subset of a language ■ Dialect: usually, a regional subset of a language – But sometimes used to mean variety Dialects: varieties of language Characteristics of groups of speakers ■ Geographically defined groups: regional dialects (week 2) ■ Groups defined by social factors: social dialects or social groups - socio-economic status - ethnicity - gender - age - sexual orientation Ways dialects can differ ■ Features which vary: - Pronunciation - Vocabulary - Grammar - Conversational practices Pronunciation Variation /bʌtə/ /bʌʔə/ /bʌɾər/ /bʌʈə/ Lexical Variation ■ An internet survey examined dialectal variation with respect to the name for non-alcoholic carbonated beverages: – Pop – coke – soda which one do you use? Geographic variation: carbonated beverage Discussion ■ Have you ever been in a situation where you were speaking to somebody with a different dialect or accent, and you just couldn’t understand each other? How did you deal with the situation? Social Factors… ■ There are different social factors affecting language variation. ■ Can you name any? Place… ■ Regional differences are something everybody acknowledges. – Because there are differences even at the level of formal language… – For example, British vs. American English ■ Sociolinguists have always been concerned with place. ■ Be it nation, region, county, city, neighborhood, or block, place has long been adduced as a key correlate of linguistic variation, and geography has often entered into explanations of variation. Place… • Different places/varieties established by people from different places, backgrounds • Barriers to interaction let each variety develop in its own way (or avoid changes that happen elsewhere) • Different varieties are in contact with different other languages or varieties • This is easier to understand by looking at actual examples. Local and Lexical ■ What words (if any) are associated with your home region? ■ Do people from your home region actually use those words? – Or are they out-dated stereotypes? Place… ■ It refers to a situation where the pronunciation of a word becomes a stereotype of a speech community. ■ Most varieties of English have their own shibboleth. Examples: Newfoundland: b’y for ‘boy’ Jamaicans: mon for ‘man’ Pittsburghers: dahntahn for ‘downtown’ Social Status ■ Societies are divided into multiple groups ■ Some groups have higher status or prestige ■ Language use is variable ■ Particular variants become associated with prestige groups… … and thus behave in particular ways ■ Higher status people use more prestige variants ■ Everybody uses more prestige variants in more formal situations Social Status ■ Income ■ Higher class than income: teachers, artists, writers ■ Higher income than class: dope dealers? ■ Sophistication ■ “You got no class!” ■ … although upper-class behaviors often become seen as more sophisticated, at least until lowerclass people adopt them ■ Preppy clothing brands, Courvoisier Social Class ■ You can use a complex scorecard (Trudgill) ■ Type of home, neighborhood, income, occupational prestige … or something simpler ■ Occupational prestige alone ■ Very high levels of agreement about which jobs are considered higher or lower prestige ■ In more formal situations, we change our speech to sound more like the classes above us. This may lead to social hypercorrection which is the result of linguistic insecurity. Gender ■ Sex: what you are (biologically) ■ Gender: what you do (socially) ■ … even though many people nowadays just use the word gender for both meanings – For example, the “gender” of birds Gender ■ A widely understood idea outside linguistics ■ There are biologically determined differences in the language of men and women – Men have longer thicker vocal cords ■ … but almost all language differences have nothing to do with that Gender ■ Pioneering researcher: Robin Lakoff ■ Language and Woman’s Place ■ Major claims: – Women’s language exists – It includes an identifiable set of linguistic features – Women’s language reflects subordinate status – Language about women also reflects status Features of women’s speech (according to Lakoff) (a) Hedges (sort of ) (b) Fillers (well, you know ) (c) Tag questions (It’s nice, isn’t it? ) (d) Rising intonation even in non-question sentences (sometimes called “uptalk”) (e) “Empty” adjectives (divine, cute) (f) Precise color terms (chartreuse ) Features of women’s speech (according to Lakoff) (g) Intensifiers like so (“It was soooo good!”) (h) Increased use of standard language forms (i) Super-polite forms (indirect requests, euphemisms) (j) Avoidance of strong swear words (k) Avoidance of interruptions Ethnicity ■ Often called ethnolects…. ■ Variety of language associated with a particular ethnic group ■ May contain traces of the group’s original language – Or ethnic hypercorrections, attempts to not sound like speakers of the original language Ethnicity ■ People in enclaves ■ Places where many residences share ethnicity ■ Probably, people who can’t integrate – By choice, or by force – There are no named enclaves for groups that assimilate easily, like Dutch Canadians