Chapter 1

Language & Society

What is Sociolinguistics?

Sociology of language

The study of the effect of any and all aspects of society,

including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the
way language is used.
The study of language in its social context.
Is partly theoretical and partly empirical.
Is the part of linguistics.
First appeared in the West in the 1960.
By William Labov in the US and Basil Bernstein in the UK.
Historically closely related to Linguistic Anthropology.
Focus the effect of the society on the language.
Concerned with language as a social and cultural
phenomenon.
The focus is about the language's effect on the society.

William Labov

Regarded as the founder of the study of Sociolinguistics.

Especially noted for introducing the quantitative study of
language variation and change, making Sociolinguistics into
a scientific discipline

What does sociolinguistics

study?

Studies the relationship between language and society.

Studies how language varieties differ between groups
separated by certain social variables (ethnicity, religion,
status, gender, level of education, age)
Usage of a language varies from place to place, resulting in
regional dialects.
Language usage varies among social classes or groups called
social dialects or sociolects.

More to understanding language than what the core

theoretical areas of linguistics focus upon.
Why study language in its social Because language isn't a "thing" external to human beings.
context ?
Language something that makes up a part of who we are as

human.
By studying language in its social context, we learn about

language as a social phenomenon.

Helps us learn about ourselves as users of language.
How and why we use language beyond communication
purposes (social functions of language).
Primarily, language serves as means for
1- Communicating information.
People exchange information through the use of language
(communicative function). But, thats not all.
The different social function of Language is also used to establish and maintain
language.
relationships with other people.
** clue-bearing role that language fulfills.
Use of language can help other people to formulate an
opinion about us.
Not so much from what we say, but actually from how we
say things.
*** one of the important social functions of language, that is,
its clue-bearing role.
To know more about each other, people make use of the way
language is used by others. Who come from different regional
and social backgrounds.
This variation in the regional and social background of a
person is often marked by a different variety of language.
Varieties of language are often referred to as dialects.

Language variation

Language variation, then, is due to two factors:

1- Geographical factor.
2-social factor.

There are thus two types of dialects:

1- Geographical (dialects).
2- Social dialects (sociolects).

Definitions of:
Language: Has been defined as any set or system of symbols used in a
more or less uniform fashion by a number of people, who
are thus able to communicate intelligibly with one another.

Dialect: Refers to a kind of language, which is distinguishable, to a

degree, from other kinds of the same language, in vocabulary,
grammar and pronunciation.
Accent: Refers to differences in pronunciation only.
Idiolect: Individuals unique way of speaking. It contains idiosyncratic
characteristics of an individuals speech.

The language/Dialect
Continuums

A continuum:

The Criterion of Mutual

Intelligibility:

Mutual Intelligibility Criterion

In certain cases, neither dialect nor language represents a

clear-cut concept.
It is not always possible to state in linguistic terms where
people stop speaking one dialect or language and start
speaking another.
1-Is anything that goes through a gradual transition from one
condition, to a different condition, without any abrupt
changes.
2-No part of a continuum can be distinguished from
neighboring parts except by arbitrary division.
*dialect continuum = involving a merger of two languages.

if we try to draw dividing lines between such language areas

we would then be basing our division on sociopolitical factors
not linguistic facts.
To solve the problem of dialect and language continuums.
linguists usually resort to a linguistic criterion known as
mutual intelligibility criterion.
If two speakers can understand one another, then they are
speaking dialects of the same language.
If they cannot understand each other then they are speaking
different languages.
* The linguistic criterion of mutual intelligibility as a solution is however, of no use.

The Criterion of Mutual

Intelligibility:
Not very helpful.

Mutual intelligibility, and other purely linguistic criteria are :

less importance in the use of the terms language and dialect
than are political and socio-cultural factors.
The most important of these factors are:
1- Autonomy
(independence).
2- Heteronomy (dependence).
Standardized languages of independent countries.
Nonstandard dialects = Heteronomous.

The Standard variety is that variety of a language which is

usually used in:
1- In print.
4- Spoken by educated people.
2- Taught in schools.
5- Used in news broadcasts.
3- To non-native speakers.
6- in formal situations.
Dialects of any language include: standard and non standard
varieties. * (Standard Arabic is an exception) .
Some peoples mistaken believe that the term dialect is used
only to refer to non standardized varieties of a language.
A Standard variety can be called a superposed variety.
** is the most prestigious of all varieties.**

The Standard

A standard variety cannot legitimately be considered better

than other varieties of the language.
Because the scientific study of language has convinced us
that all languages, and all dialects, are equally good as
linguistic systems.
Value judgments concerning the correctness or purity of
linguistic varieties are social rather than linguistic.
There is nothing at all inherent in nonstandard varieties that

makes them inferior.

Any apparent inferiority is due only to their association with
speakers from under-privileged, low-status groups, not due to
systemic deficiency.
Attitudes towards nonstandard dialects are attitudes which
reflect the social structure of society.

Why isnt Standard Arabic a

dialect?

In order for a variety of language to be called a dialect it

would have to be used as a native spoken variety of a group
of people. Standard Arabic is not!
Arabic language is diglossic , which means there are two
levels of the language:
high (classical / standard / written / formal).
low (spoken / vernacular / informal).

What is Standard English (SE)?

SE is a dialect of English.
SE is the variety of English which is used in print, and which is
usually taught in schools and to non-native speakers.
SE is the variety spoken by educated people and used in the
media.
SE developed out of the English dialects/varieties used in and
around London.
These dialects were modified through the centuries
byspeakers at the court, by scholars and writers, and later by
so-called Public Schools.
The resulting variety became the dialect used by upper
society members in London.
SE became too different from the varieties used by other
social groups.
With the invention of printing, this variety began to be used
in books.
Today, we can find SE regional differences: American SE,
Scottish SE, Australian SE, English SE, etc.
There is no universally acknowledged standard accent for SE.

There is no necessary connection between SE and any

particular accent, however, RP is usually associated with SE.
SE can be spoken with any regional accent, and it mostly is.
SE is not linguistically better than any other variety of English.

Standard vs. Nonstandard

Varieties

All languages and dialects are equally good as linguistic

systems.
All dialects of a language are rule-governed systems.
Value judgments concerning correctness and purity of dialects
are social and not linguistic.
There is nothing inherent in non-standard dialects that make
them inferior.

Brief definitions of the

following terms.
Sociolinguistic
Sociology of language.
Anthropology.
Linguistic Anthropology.

Social context.

The study of language in its social context.

The focus is about the language's effect on the society.
Is the study of humankind, past and present.
Is the interdisciplinary study of how language influences social
life.
Immediate physical and social setting in which people live or
in which something happens or develops.

Quantitative study language.

Summary Language understanding, as tested by the Token

Test, was compared in two groups.

Language variation.

variation in the regional and social background of a person

Language change.

Comes from, how and why changes happen, and how

languages begin and end.

Linguistic variable.

Social variable.

linguistic variable we mean a variable whose values are words

or sentences in a natural or artificial language. For example,
Age is a linguistic variable if its values are linguistic rather than
numerical.
Social desirability is used in reference (1) to scale values of
personality statements and (2) to the tendency of subjects to
attribute to themselves statements which are desirable and
reject those which are undesirable.

Regional or geographical dialect

variation.
Social dialect variation.

Sociolect .
Social class.

Geographical (dialects).
Social dialects (sociolects).
Language usage varies among social classes or groups.
Everyone is dealt four cards, one from each suit: education,
income, occupation and wealth, the four commonly used
criteria for gauging class.

Accent.

Refers to differences in pronunciation only.

Idiolect.

Individuals unique way of speaking. It contains idiosyncratic

characteristics of an individuals speech.

Mutual intelligibility.
Mutual unintelligibility

Language continuum.

Dialect continuum.
Language autonomy.

To solve the problem of dialect and language continuums.

If they cannot understand each other.
Anything that goes through a gradual transition from one
condition, to a different condition, without any abrupt
changes.
involving a merger of two languages.
(independence) Lanuage.

Language heteronomy.

(dependence) Lanuage.

Standard language.

The Standard variety is that variety of a language which is

usually used in
In print, Spoken by educated people,Taught in schools

Variety of language.

are often referred to as dialects.

Superposed variety of language. A Standard variety.

Linguistic prestige.

Superposed variety.

rule-governed linguistic system. All dialects of a language are.

diglossia .

Which means there are two levels of the language high and
low.

Chapter 2
Language and Social Class
Sociolect

Variety of language that is used by a particular social class.

May include phonological, grammatical, lexical, and phonetic
(accent) differences.
Separated by social barriers and distance, similar to
geographical ones.

Different classes

The diffusion of linguistic features may be halted by barriers

of social class. age, race, religion.
Social distance may also have the same effect as
geographical distance.
This type of social differentiation is known as social
Stratification.

Is a term used to explain the hierarchical ordering of a

society,
especially in terms of wealth, power and social status.
Social classes are not clearly defined or labeled entities.

Social Stratification

Social mobility movement up or down the social hierarchy

is possible.
Sociolects are not particularly easy to study, and describe,
because, like regional dialects, they form a continuum.
The more heterogeneous a society is, the more
heterogeneous is its language.
Western-type social-class stratification is not universal.

Caste System

In India, unlike in the Western societies, traditional society is

stratified into different castes.
1-relatively stable.
2- clearly named groups.
3-rigidly separated from each other.
4- with hereditary membership.
5- with little possibility of in and out movement.

Castes

*Different castes speak different varieties of language.

Caste dialects tend to be relatively clear-cut.
Caste dialects differences are sometimes greater than
regional dialect differences.
Caste dialects are thus easier to study and describe than
social class dialect.

In the past, dialectologists focused their study of language

variation on geographical dialects of rural areas.
From Rural Dialectology to
Urban Sociolinguistics.

All language varieties are subject to variation and change.

Dialectologists, then, began to incorporate social as well as
geographical information into their dialect surveys.
*This paved the way for urban dialectology which then
became sociolinguistics.

The Rise of Sociolinguistic

Research

William Labov published The Social Stratification of English in

New York City. 1966
The study is probably the first of its kind which correlated
linguistic variation with social variation.

The study tests Labovs hypothesis that non-prevocalic

/r/usage (as in farm, fair) correlates with social class of the
speaker

Labovs New York Study

Which departments were on the 4thfloor??

Information on /r/ usage was obtained from 264 informants.
38% of the high ranking store assistants used no /r/. 49% in the middle ranking store used no /r/. 83% in the low ranking store used no /r/.
Thus, Labovs study showed how a relatively trivial feature of
accent can be important socially.

sociolinguistic research differentiates five different stages.

A. Selecting speakers, circumstances and linguistic variables.
B. Collecting the sample.
C. Identifying the linguistic variables and their variants in the
texts.
D. Processing the figures.
E. Interpreting the results.

A. Selecting speakers, circumstances and linguistic variables.

*The selection of speakers, circumstances and linguistic
variables involves some extremely important decisions.
*It is important that all the speech should be collected under
the same circumstances.

Quantitative Sociolinguistic
Research

B. Collecting the Speech Sample.

The collection of the speech sample necessitates finding
appropriate speakers who are willing to participate.
C. Identifying the Linguistic Variables and their Variants in the
Speech Sample.
*Different researchers can produce different analyses of the
same sample.

D. Processing the figures.

The processing of the figures involves counting the number of

occurrences of each variant in each sample, and comparing
the figures for different samples.
* Reduce all the figures to percentages, since this makes
comparison much easier.
* The investigator has to use statistical tests in order to decide
how significant the figures are.

E. Interpreting the results.

The interpretation of the results is in some ways the most
difficult stage.
* Success at this stage depends not only on appropriate
methodology, but also on having an adequate general
theoretical framework.

Chapter 3
Language and Ethnic Group
Ethnicity means having an identity with, or membership in, a
particular racial, national, or cultural group.
It is easy to assign people to one of the two ethnic groups
solely on the basis of their language.
People do not speak the way they do because they are
white or black.
What actually happens is that speakers acquire the linguistic
characteristics of those they live in close contact with.
Members of the two ethnic groups learn the linguistic
varieties associated with them in exactly the same way that
social-class dialects are acquired.
Ethnicity & Ethnic Groups
In the past, there was a belief that there was an inherent
connection between language and race.
Any human being can learn any human language.
There are many cases of whole ethnic groups switching
language through time for example, the large numbers of
people of African origin who now speak European
languages only.
Linguistic characteristics may be the most defining criteria for
ethnic-group membership.

It remains true, however, that

The different ethnic groups therefore maintain their

separateness and identity as much through language as
anything else.

The separate identity of ethnic groups is not only signaled by

different languages.
Varieties of Language and
Ethnicity

This means that ethnic-group membership and identity may

be an important social fact for them which can be signaled by
persistent linguistic differences.
Ethnic groups are relatively fluid entities whose boundaries
can change and which can come into being and/or disappear
during the course of history. An interesting example of this
comes from the former Yugoslavia

Former Yugoslavia:

Yugoslavia was a multi-ethnic.

Multilingual nation-state.
Serbian was often written in the Cyrillic alphabet.
Croatian in the Latin alphabet.
Serbian and Croatian have variously been considered a single
language with two different varieties depending on the
prevailing ideology and political situation.
The dialects spoken in this central part of the dialect
continuum are intermediate between those of Croatia and
Serbia.

The African American

Vernacular of English

Origins of AAVE:
There are two main views:
1- AAVE features are derived from the English dialects of the
British Isles.
2- AAVE features are derived from West African languages.
Another major argument suggests that the first African
Americans spoke an English Creole, which has, over the
years, gone though a process of decreolization to become .

Why does race and language

entail so much emotional
reaction then?

Language is a very important marker of ethnic identity.

Most ethnic groups believe that their language is the best
way to preserve and protect their ethnic identity.

Chapter 4
Language and Sex
As yet another aspect of linguistic differentiation.
Language and Sex

**Two linguistic phenomena related to Language and Sex.

Lexicalization and grammaticalization of gender.
Linguistic variation between male and female speech.

Linguistic variation between

male and female speech.

Grammaticalization of Gender
Lexicalization &

It reflects a sociolinguistic phenomenon.

The lexicalization and grammaticalization of gender is a

linguistic universal which is found in all languages of the
world.
In almost all languages of the world there is a difference
between the words for male adult human and female adult
human.
The male - female difference is also very often signaled
grammatically in the languages of the world with varying
degrees.
Hungarian and Finnish
have no sex-marking on pronouns at all.

Grammatically

English
have sex-marking but only in third person singular.
French
have it also in the third person plural.
Some languages have sex-marking in the first person plural.

Gender can also be indicated through the use of articles and

adjectives.

Lexical and grammatical gender

is

Lexical and grammatical gender marking is usually explained

within the domain of descriptive linguistics.
A structural peculiarity of languages that does not correlate
with social variables and may not be explained
sociolinguistically.
In many societies the speech of men and women differs in all
sorts of ways.

Linguistic Variation between

Male & Female Speech

In some cases, the difference may be quite large, overtly

noted, and even taught to young children acquiring their
native language.
We cannot therefore explain the development of gender
differences in language in the same way as class, ethnicgroup, or geographical dialects.

THE WEST INDIES

The invasion theory

The classic example of linguistic sex differentiation comes

from the West Indies.
The differences, that is, were believed (by the Indians
themselves) to be the result of the mixing of two language
groups, Carib and Arawak, divided on sex lines, as a result of
an
invasion of the islands by the Carib people.
This historical explanation, however, even if it is true, is less
plausible, not scientific.

The Taboo explanation

Suggested by the linguist Otto Jespersen.

Taboo may have a powerful influence on the growth of
separate sex vocabularies generally, not only in the case of
the West Indies but also in many other parts of the world.
In Zulu, a wife may not mention the name of her father-in-law or his

brothers, and she may be put to death if she broke this taboo.

Taboo alone is not particularly good overall explanation of

linguistic gender differentiation.
Taboo explanation is not
enough

In the American Indian language Koasati male-female

differences involved different phonological shapes of
particular verb forms which has nothing to do with taboo.
It is quite clear from the many non-lexical cases in many
languages that taboo is not involved.
In Koasati and other languages, some female forms appear to
be older than the male forms.

How can we explain differences Linguistic change seems to have taken place in the male
of this type?
variety.
Womens speech thus seems to be more conservative and
less innovating than that of men.
Women on average use forms which more closely approach
those of the standard variety or the prestige accent than
those used by men.
The English Speaking
Communities

Female speakers of English tend to use linguistic forms which

are considered to be better than male forms.
Women, it is suggested, are far more sensitive to the
stigmatized nature of some linguistic features than men.
in London English, men are more likely than women to use
glottal stops in words like butter and but.

Chapter 5
Language and Context
The totality of linguistic varieties used in different situations
for different purposes by a particular community or a
particular speaker is called that communitys, or the speakers
linguistic or verbal repertoire.
Many social factors can come into play in controlling which
variety from the speakers linguistic repertoire is actually to
be used on a particular occasion.
is a style level in a language. When we speak we automatically
locate ourselves on a specific stylistic level.
A register can also mean a specialized variety of language.

Register

Registers are usually characterized almost entirely by

vocabulary differences, either by using particular words or by
using words in a particular sense.

One of the aims of education is to introduce students to the

registers (or terminologies) of particular subjects.
Registers are an example of particular kind of language being
produced by a particular kind of social context.
Many other factors connected with the social context in
which language is being used will also have a linguistic effect.
One of the most important of these is formality.
formality subsumes very many factors including situation,
social formality, kinship-relationship, politeness, seriousness,
and so on.
Formality

Most people have a good idea of the relative formality and

informality of particular linguistic variants in their own
language.

Varieties of language which differ from one another in this

way are called styles.

Styles

Styles: can be ranged on a continuum ranging from the very

formal to the very informal.
Styles: are for the most part characterized by vocabulary
differences, but also by syntactic and phonetic differences.

Vocabulary which is at the extremely informal end of the

continuum is known as slang.******
Styles can be characterized through differences in vocabulary,
including address forms and pronouns, and in grammar and
pronunciation.
We can regard these styles as being varieties within dialects.
Switching styles is carried out on a much larger and more
institutionalized scale is called diglossia.
Diglossia: Is a particular kind of language standardization.
Where two distinct varieties of a language exist side by side
throughout the speech community.

Styles

The most important feature of the diglossic situation is

probably the specialization of a function of the two varieties.
The high variety is used in sermons, formal letters, political
speeches, university lectures, news broadcasts, newspaper
editorials and high poetry.
The low variety, on the other hand, is used in conversation
with family and friends, radio serials, political and academic
discussions, political cartoons and folk literature.
The high variety has no native speakers and in all cases have
to be learned in school.****

Generally speaking, the high variety has greater prestige than

the low variety, and is often regarded as more beautiful, even
if it is less intelligible.
The differences between the high and low varieties in
diglossic languages is usually rather more serious than in non
diglossic languages.

Language Switching

In many communities around the World, the verbal repertoire

of speakers may contain totally unrelated languages.

Chapter 6
Language and Social Interaction
The way in which language is used in conversations is an
important part of sociolinguistics.
language can be used for manipulating relationships and
achieving particular goals.**

Social Interaction

Code-switching is presumably a subconscious linguistic

behavior, and it has the effect of making the conversation
more intimate and/or confidential.
It also enables speakers to signal two identities at once.
The selection of one code over another seems to depend on
the topic of discussion.
Children learn the rules of conversation, along with the
pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar.
Have rules about the way in which language should be used in
social interaction.
These rules may vary widely between one society and
another.

All societies

Differences in communicative rules between cultures can

often lead, in cross-cultural communication, to
misunderstanding and even hostility.
The study of these rules, and of cross-cultural differences in
communicative norms generally, is often known as the
ethnography of speaking.

Interestingly.

The American sociolinguist Deborah Tannen has suggested

that communication between men and women can be
regarded as cross-cultural communication, which maybe
subject for misunderstanding.
She suggested that men and women often fail to understand
one another properly, and that such misunderstandings can
lead to friction and tension in relationships.
One aspect of communication that may cause problems of
miscommunication is directness and indirectness .The
relationship between

Directness / Indirectness

Direct questions, for example, can be particularly threatening,

and in many English- speaking societies some direct
questions are hardly ever asked, such as: How much money
do you earn? Are you married? How old are you? Etc.
Indirectness then may be an important strategy if one is to
spare themselves and others the embarrassment.

Chapter 7
Language and Nation
In many speech communities around the world, many people
are either bilingual or multilingual.
Societal multilingualism is a very widespread phenomenon.
The Problem of Multilingualism

On a world scale, multilingualism is the rule rather than the

exception.

The vast majority of the nations of the world have more than
one language spoken indigenously within their frontiers.
In some cases, the number of languages spoken in one
country may rise into the hundreds.

Language and National Unity

Linguistic subjugation (or unification) is therefore an

important strategy in implementing political subjugation (or
unification).
The activities of governments, having to do with language,
can be described as instances language of planning.
This type of language planning, which decides which role is to
be played by which language, is known as status planning.

Lingua franca as a Solution to

Multilingualism

In many areas of Sub-Saharan Africa people who belong to

different ethnic or linguistic groups are able to communicate
with each other quite easily.

Such languages function in such multilingual communities as

. lingua francas.

A Lingua Franca is A language which is used as a means of communication

among people who have no native language in common.
Some of the languages which are used in this way in Africa,
like English and French, are not indigenous to the area in

question and are often learned through formal education.
.




.

Many African lingua franca, though, are indigenous, and

many have come to be used as such because of the political
dominance of their native speakers, or because they were the
language of prominent traders in the area, like Swahili in East
Africa.

In West Africa. One of the most important lingua francas which is still used
for trading purposes is Hausa.






.

Hausa is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken originally in the

region of Lake Chad in north- central Africa, but it has
become so widely known that it is used for trading and other
purposes by many millions of speakers in areas such as
Ghana, Nigeria and Dahomey.
Many languages have spread as lingua francas in the past,
only to contract again for reasons of economics or politics.
Greek, for example, became a lingua franca in the ancient
world as a result, initially, of Alexanders military conquests,
and was one time used widely from Turkey to Portugal.

Historically.

Latin was later used as a lingua franca in the western world,

mainly as a result of the expansion of the Roman Empire, and
later survive as such, in spite of the fact that it had no native
speakers, for many centuries.
The original lingua franca, from which the term is derived,
was a form of the Provenal language that was used as a
lingua franca by the multilingual crusaders.

Deciding on a National and/or

an Official language for
Multilingual Nations

When governments are presented with the problem of

selecting a national or an official language or languages, as
many new nations have been, lingua franca are very useful.

There are clear advantages to be gained from the selection of

a language which many people already understand.
In some cases, though, complications may arise because
competing or alternative lingua francas are available .
There are over 300 native languages.

Hindi, for example, is used as a lingua franca in much of the

northern part of the country.

In India

English, on the other hand, operates as a lingua franca

throughout the country, though tends to be used only by
relatively educated speakers.
As a solution, English has been selected to be the official
language of the nation while Hindi and other native languages
are regarded as national languages of India.

Further Solution to Global

Multilingualism

A further solution has sometimes been advocated for solving

the world communication problems.
However, it is very unlikely that any nation would want to
adopt Esperanto because of the practical problems involved.
Although it is easier to learn than natural languages, Esperanto may not
be suitable as an International
language.

Why Esperanto is Unfit as an

International Language

- Esperanto is clearly based on European-type languages, and would

therefore benefit native speakers of
European languages only.
- There are as yet no real signs of Esperanto making very great headway
as a solution to international
communication problem.
For now, English seems to serve that purpose extremely well.
In the European Union, disputes can often arise as to which language is
to be used officially.

The Suggestion to make

Esperanto an official Lingua
franca of the EU

- Advocates of Esperanto would suggest that, if it were made the official

language of the EU, disputes of
this kind would not arise.
- It is believed that unlike English or French, Esperanto is nobodys native
language, and therefore gives no one an unfair advantage, just as English
in India is in many ways a fairer choice as a lingua franca than Hindi.

In language planning, often the role of a national government

does not stop at selecting a national language.

The government, for example may play a part in developing a

Th e Language Planning
suitable orthography, or in deciding whether a particular
Selection of a National Standard dialect of the language should be selected.
Language
This type of language planning, which focuses on the
linguistic characteristics of varieties undergoing planning, is
known as corpus planning.

Chapter 8
Language and Geography
When a linguistic innovation occurs in one area, it may
subsequently spread to other areas, particularly those nearest
to it, so long as no serious barriers and distance exist.
Linguistic innovation is initiated by speakers in the urban
centers.
Language and Geography

This is due to the economic, demographic and cultural

dominance of town over country, and the intensity of
communication network between towns.
The spread of linguistic features from one area to another is
therefore not (always) dependant on geographical proximity.

Why are there more regional

dialect variation in England
than in America and Australia
though the last two countries
are bigger?

English has been spoken in England for longer period (1500

years) than in America and Australia (300 years or less).
English has been spoken for longer period in the east of the
United States than in the more recently settled west, so there
is also more regional dialect variation there.
Australia, for example, is a country as big as the USA, and has
as yet virtually no regional dialect variation at all because it
has not existed for very long and is thinly populated.

Dialect Leveling and the

Dialect leveling is the process whereby differences between

regional dialects disappear over time.

Disappearance of Regional
Dialects

Dialect leveling is an interesting process as it appears to be

behind ongoing linguistic change in many countries.
In England however, traditional dialects are disappearing, but
the larger (urban) modern dialects are continuing to diverge.

New dialects emerge as a result of a process called

Koinization and the Formation Koinization.
of New Dialects
A koin language means common language in Greek.
A koin is a dialect that developed as a result of contact
between two or more mutually intelligible varieties of the
same language.
A koin variety emerges as a new spoken dialect in addition to
the pre-existing dialects of the same language.
A koin is thus not the result of a natural evolution of
dialects.
American, Australian and New Zealand Englishes are believed
to have been the result of Koinization.

Geographical, Social and

Language Barriers

Geographical barriers such as rivers, mountains and spatial

distance can act to hamper the spread of linguistic features
and help create regional dialect variation.
A third type of barrier, which does not necessarily act to
prevent the spread of linguistic innovation is language itself.
The diffusion of linguistic innovation across language
boundaries, particularly when grammar, vocabulary and
phonetics are all involved, results in the development of
a linguistic area.

The Development of Linguistic

One of the most interesting linguistic areas in Europe is the

Balkans (Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, Greece, Bulgaria and
Romania).

Areas

Over the centuries, languages in these countries have

acquired a number of common features sometimes known as
Balkanisms, not shared by most other European languages.
An example of Balkanisms is the postponed definite article
(the): in four of the Balkan languages the article the is placed
after the noun.
The Indian subcontinent and southern Africa are also good
examples of areas where unrelated languages have common
linguistic features.

The Spread of Linguistic

Innovation

Lexical items appear to spread across languages regardless of

proximity through lexical borrowing.
Broadly speaking, it appears that only grammatical and
phonological features require geographical proximity to
diffuse.
Chapter 9
Language and Contact
Geographical spread of a language results in a language
contact situation.
The spreading language is used by speakers of other
languages.

Language Contact

Language contact occurs in a variety of phenomena, including

language convergence, borrowing, and relexification.
The most common products of language contact are pidgins,
creoles, borrowing, code-switching, and code-mixing
The use of a language by speakers of other languages is often
different from its use by native speakers.
A language that is used non natively by speakers of other
languages for communication is described as a
lingua franca.

What is a lingua franca?

A lingua franca is a language which is used as a means of

communication among people who have no native language
in common.
In the past, Arabic became the "lingua franca" of the Islamic
World.
Presently, English is considered a lingua franca of the World.

Lingua franca referred originally to a mixed language

composed mostly of Italian with a broad vocabulary drawn
from Turkish, French, Spanish, Greek and Arabic.

Where did the term lingua

franca come from?

This language was limited to the Eastern Mediterranean as

the language of commerce and diplomacy in and around the
Renaissance era.
Franca was the Italian word for Frankish.
Its usage in the term lingua franca originated from its
meaning in Arabic, dating from before the Crusades, whereby
all Europeans were called "Franks" or Firinjah in Arabic.
The use of a language as a lingua franca reflects a rather
interesting aspect of linguistic phenomena.

Unlike native languages, the use of a language as a lingua

How is a lingua franca different franca is often limited to certain social situations.
from other languages?
A language used in limited social contexts (as a lingua franca)
usually undergoes a certain amount of simplification and
reduction and will be characterized by errors caused by
interference from the speakers native languages.

What is simplification?

Simplification? refers to the getting red of irregularities, such

as irregular verb forms, redundancies, such as grammatical

gender, and the avoidance of certain complex syntactic

structure, in the lingua franca.
As a result of a reduction in social function, lingua franca
speakers may use the language for doing business or
commerce, but not perhaps for many other purposes.
What is reduction?

This means that parts of the language, such as vocabulary,

grammatical structures, and stylistic devices, will be missing
from the usage of non-native speakers.
We can say then that a reduction in the social function of a lingua franca
results in a reduction in form as well.

The effect of the native language can be on any structural

aspect of the second/ foreign language: vocabulary, grammar,
pronunciation etc.

Language interference is most often regarded as a source of

errors.
Language Interference / Errors The greater the differences between the speakers native
language and the second/foreign language, the more
negative the effects of interference are likely to be (negative
transfer).

But, where the relevant features of both languages are similar

or the same, this will result in correct second/foreign
language production (positive transfer).
Many of the structural characteristics of a lingua franca are
usually the result of linguistic interference.
How is a lingua franca affected
by linguistic interference?

Linguistic interference is the effect of the non-native

speakers first language on his or her production of the
second or foreign language they are using, which usually
results in errors.

The technical term for the process by which languages may be

subject, in the usage of non-native speakers, to
simplification, reduction and linguistic interference is
pidginization.
A pidgin language is a lingua franca which has no native
speakers and is used as a means of communication between
people that do not have a language in common.
What is a pidginization?

It is derived from a normal language through simplification,

reduction and interference or admixture, often, from the
native language, or languages, of those who use it.

Normally, in the first stages of its development at least, in

which we can refer to it as a pre-pidgin, it is used only in
trading or other limited-contact situations.
Swahili is a language that is widely used as a lingua franca in
East Africa.
On parts of the coast of East Africa, Swahili is the native
language of many of the population, who speak it
veryfluently.
Inland, in Tanzania, it is not widely spoken natively, but it is
An example of a lingua franca is: used to a considerable extent as a lingua franca.
Swahili
Compared to the coastal Swahili, this inland lingua franca
variety of Swahili demonstrates some features of
simplification, since it is spoken as a second language, and it
is subject to reduction, as it is used in a more restricted set of
circumstances than on the coast.
Further inland still, in eastern Congo, yet another variety of
Swahili is used as a lingua franca. In this case, even more
reduction and simplification have taken place.

However, in another part of Congo, in the rural north, a

further lingua franca form of Swahili occurs.

Pidgin Swahili

This variety again is more reduced and simplified, relative to

other varieties of Swahili.
The result of this degree of reduction and simplification is that
mutual intelligibility with coastal Swahili is minimal.
When simplification has taken place on a large scale, and
when the result is relatively stabilized form of language
consistently employed as a lingua franca, the resulting variety
is called a pidgin language (in this case Congo pidgin Swahili).
The most likely setting for the formation of a pidgin language
is a contact situation involving three or more language
groups: one dominant language and at least two nondominant languages.

How do pidgins develop?

The pre-pidgin will acquire a set of structures and norms for

usage which will be accepted by everybody.
Most of the well-known pidgin languages in the world are the
result of travel on the part of European traders and colonizers.
They are mainly based on languages like English, French and
Portuguese, and are located on the main shipping and trading
routes.

Why have pidgins often been

stigmatized?

Pidgins which have been based on English or other European

languages have often been regarded as bad, debased, corrupt
or inferior forms of these languages.
This is because many people have objected to pidgins thinking
that they have corrupted the purity of these European
languages.
English-based pidgins were formerly found in North America.

English -Based Pidgins

pidgin English is often referred to by linguists as Tok Pisin.
World pidgins are at present undergoing a process of
creolization.
Creole languages are pidgins that have acquired native
speakers.
From Pidgin to Creole

When acquired by children as their first/native language, the

pidgin will re-acquire all the characteristics of a full, nonpidgin language.

As spoken by adults, the language will have an expanded

vocabulary, a wider range of syntactic structures, and an
increased stylistic repertoire, and will also be used for all
purposes in a full range of social situations.
Creole languages are perfectly normal languages only their
history is somewhat unusual.
Creolization: repairs the simplification and reduction which
take place during pidginization.

Decreolization

Decreolization: attacks the simplification and admixture

which occurs during pidginization.
Contact between the base language and a creole language
leads to the gradual introduction into the creole of structural
complexities from the base language, and the gradual
disappearance of elements derived from languages other than
the base.

The Decreolization of the

Linguists have argued that African American Vernacular
African American Vernacular of English (AAVE) is descended from an original creole that has
English (AAVE)
become progressively decreolized, as a result of centuries of
contact with English, so that it is now clearly a variety of

English itself.

Chapter 10
Language and Humanity

Language and Humanity

We looked at a number of cases in which irrational attitudes

and discriminatory decisions often made by governments or
other official bodies acting out of ignorance or prejudice, have
led to language policies which have had detrimental effect on
childrens education and even on societies as a whole.
Communities go through a process of language shift. This
means that a particular community gradually abandons its
original native language in favor of anotherlanguage.

Paris2006

Sociolinguistics
language, society and Culture
Social Context
Languages in contact
Pidginization
Languages variation
language & Gender

Paris2006

is

influenced

A form
of social
identity

Social
factors
Which indicates

Social
groups

Membership of
different

Speech
communities

Its a group of people who

share a set of norms, rules
and expectations regarding to
the use of language

The study of
language in
social context

The science which

studies and
investigates language

Strong connection

Anthropology

Investigation of
language and
culture

Sociology

Crucial roles
that language
plays

Varieties of language used

by groups
Defined according to

Social class

Education

Gender

Age

Upper class
and more
educated

Tend to use
more
complicated
forms

are important
factors to
determine
social variety
or dialect

Differ in form
and
pronunciation

Lower class
and less
educated

Tend to
simplify the
way of
speaking

Age
Elders may
speak a bit
different from
youngers

Are also factors that can

determine language variety or
dialect

Gender

Female
speakers

Tend to use more

sophisticated
language

Male
speakers
Discuss their
personal feelings.

Mention
personal
experiences

Tend to use
simpler ways of
speaking
Prefer no- personal
topics such as sports
and news.
Respond giving
advice or solution

Different ethnic backgrounds

Can provoke

The frequent
absence of the form
of the verb to be:

Differences in speech

They mine
You crazy

The use of
double negative.
He dont know
nothing

AFRICAN-AMERICANS
Have a dialect called Black English
Vernacular

Is stigmatized as
BAD SPEECH

It is a
widespread
social dialect

The speech of recent immigrants, and often of their children, will

contain identifying features

Spoken
language

Written
language

Related to

Formal
The situation
of use

Business
letters

Informal
Letters to
friends

The term was

originated by:
Thomas Bertram
Reid in 1956

focus on the way

language is used in
particular situations

Become common: in
the 1960s introduced
by a group of
linguists who wanted
to distinguish
between variations in
language according
to the user and
variations
according to use

Joos (1961) describes five styles in spoken English:

Frozen Printed unchanging language such as bible quotations; often contains
archaisms.
Formal One-way participation, no interruption. Technical vocabulary; "Fussy
semantics" or exact definitions are important. Includes introductions between
strangers.
Consultative Two-way participation. Background information is provided
prior knowledge is not assumed. "Backchannel behavior" such as "uh huh", "I
see", etc. is common. Interruptions allowed.
Casual In-group friends and acquaintances. No background
information provided. Ellipsis and slang common. Interruptions
common.

Intimate Non-public. Intonation more important than wording or

grammar. Private vocabulary.

Halliday (1964) identifies three variables that

determine register:

Field (the subject

matter of the
discourse)
Tenor (the
participants and
their relationships)
Mode (the channel
of communication,
e.g. spoken or
written)

Technical vocabulary associated

with a specifically activity or group

Engineering jargon

Medical jargon

Legal jargon

Baseball jargon
Computer jargon

Context is a notion used in the language

sciences (linguistics, sociolinguistics,
systemic functional linguistics, discourse
analysis, pragmatics, semiotics, etc.)

Verbal Context

Social context

Refers to surrounding
text or talk of an
expression (word,

Is defined in terms
of objective social
variables, such as
those of class,
gender or race.

sentence, conversational
turn, speech act, etc.).

occurs when two or more languages

or varieties interact

occurs in a variety of phenomena

Creation of new
languages: Creolization
and mixed languages
Strata
influence

Borrowing of
vocabulary

Language
shift

Borrowing of
vocabulary

A word from one language that has

been adapted for use in another

The result of the contact of two languages

can be the replacement of one by the
other. This is most common when one
language has a higher social position.

Strata influence

Language shift

Language that influences, or is influenced by another through contact.

Substratum is a language which has lower power or than another.
Superstratum is the language that has higher power.
Adstratum refers to a language that is in contact with another
language in a neighbor population without having identifiably higher or
lower prestige.

Language contact can also lead to the

development of new languages when people
without a common language interact closely,
developing a pidgin, which may eventually
become a full-fledged Creole language through
the process of Creolization.

Creation of new
languages

Is a simplified language that develops as a means

of communication between two or more groups that
do not have a language in common

May be built from

words, sounds, or body
language from multiple
other languages and
cultures

Allow people to
communicate with each
other without having
any similarities in
language and does not
have any rules
Has low prestige
with respect to
other languages

A simplified form of
speech that is usually a
mixture of two or more
languages, has a
rudimentary grammar
and vocabulary, is used
for communication
between groups
speaking different
languages, and is not
spoken as a first or
native language. Also
called contact language.

Is a stable natural language

developed from the mixing of parent
languages; creoles differ from
pidgins (which are believed by
scholars to be necessary precedents
of creoles) in that they have been
nativized by children as their primary
language, with the result that they
have features of natural languages
that are normally missing from
pidgins.

Use of reduplication
to represent plurals,
superlatives, and
other parts of speech
that represent the
concept being
increased

A lack of
morphophonemic
variation

Use of separate
words to indicate
tense, usually
preceding the verb

Uncomplicated
clausal structure
(e.g., no embedded
clauses, etc.)

Reduction or
elimination of
syllable codas

No tones, such as
those found in West
African and Asian
languages
Basic vowels, such
as [a, e, i, o, u]

Reduction of
consonant
clusters or
breaking them
with epenthesis

Prolonged, regular
contact between the
different language
communities

An absence of a widespread,
accessible interlanguage

A need to
communicate
between them

Regional, social, or contextual

differences in the ways that a
particular language is used
Some important terminologies

Internal
Variation

Idiolect
Dialect

Language
Variety

Refers to the property of languages of having

different ways of expressing the same meaning

E.g.:

lorry- truck
underground-subway
flat-apartment.

A regional or social variety of a language

distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or
vocabulary, especially a variety of speech differing
from the standard literary language or speech
pattern of the culture in which it exists:
Cockney is a dialect of English.

Every person speaks a A variety of language that with

dialect of his or her native other varieties constitutes a
language.(Dialectology)
single language of which no
single variety is standard: the
dialects of Ancient Greek.

The language peculiar to the members of a

group, especially in an occupation; jargon:
the dialect of science.

A language considered as part of a larger family

of languages or a linguistic branch. Not in
scientific use: Spanish and French are Romance
dialects.

Personal dialect of each

individual speaker of a
language.

Nobody speak a
perfect language,
everybody speak an
idiolect.

It differs in some details

Factors:
Voice quality
Physical state
Social factors
These contribute to the identifying
features in an individual`s speech

is recognized as a relationship between languages in

which speakers of different but related languages can
readily understand each other without intentional study or
extraordinary effort.

E.g. In china
Mandarin vs.
Cantonese (they are
considered different
dialects of the same
language).

E.g. A person from New

York speaking with a
person from Texas.

Means a large geographical area, where the

spoken language differs only slightly from
village to village, but over a longer distance
the differences become that huge, that mutual
intelligibility is not possible.

E.g.: Dutch vs. German

Goedemorgen

Guten Morgen

Standard Varieties

Non-standard Varieties

Are selected and

promoted by either
quasi-legal authorities
or other social
institutions, such as
schools or media,
they are more
prestigious than
others.

Non-standard
varieties are
learned as first
language at home,
through intensive
everyday contacts.
Linguistically speaking, no one dialect or
language is better , more correct, or more
logical than any other

an extensive
formal literature
that employs that
dialect in prose,
poetry, nonfiction, etc.

published
grammars,
dictionaries, and
textbooks that
set forth a
"correct" spoken
and written form

Standard American English,

Standard British English,
Standard Indian English,
Standard Australian English,
and Standard Philippine
English may all be said to be
standard dialects of the English
language

A dialect that
is supported
by institutions

Presentation as
being the "correct"
form of a language
in schools

Such institutional support

may include government
recognition or designation

Associated with the

language of the lower
socioeconomic classes.

Bad=improper

Has a complete
vocabulary,
grammar, and
syntax, but is not the
beneficiary of
institutional support

An example of a
nonstandard English
dialect is Southern
English

E.g.: 'Hillbilly English'

from the Appalachians
in the USA and
'Geordie' from
Newcastle upon Tyne
in the UK

Some regional dialects

have been given
traditional names which
mark them out as being
significantly different from
standard varieties spoken
in the same place

Is not a
distinct
language

A variety of a
language spoken
in a particular
area of a country

'Singlish' spoken in Singapore is a variety

very different from standard English, and
there are many other varieties of English
used in India

The differences from

the standard variety
may be linked to
English proficiency,
or may be part of a
range of varieties
used to express
identity

Sometimes members of a
particular minority ethnic
group have their own
variety which they use as
a marker of identity,
usually alongside a
standard variety

E.g.: African American

Vernacular English in the
USA, London Jamaican in
Britain, and Aboriginal
English in Australia

Indigenized variety
are spoken mainly as second languages in
ex-colonies with multilingual populations

It is the variety of
language characteristic
of a social background or
status

A dialect which evolves

from regional speech
may also have
sociolectical
implications

E.g.: standard Italian is a

dialect in that it is
particular to Tuscany; it
is also a sociolect in that
it carries a certain
prestige from being the
lingua franca throughout
the country both in
broadcasting, in the
press, and by people of
high social status

Overt Prestige

how people should

speak in order to
gain status in the
wider community
(standard dialects).

Covert Prestige

how people should speak

in order to be considered
member of a particular
community
(nonstandard dialects)

Many Isoglosses indicate

that the speech of that
particular group is different
in a number of ways from
other around it.

The boundaries of a
particular linguistic
area are called
Isoglosses.

Language varieties
are defined in terms
of geographical
boundaries are
called Regional
Dialects.

The study of the

regional dialects is
called
dialectology.

LANGUAGE

Is a tool of
communication

GENDER

Is a range of characteristics used to

distinguish between males and females,
particularly in the cases of men and women
and the masculine and feminine attributes
assigned to them.

Is an area of study within sociolinguistics, applied

linguistics, and related fields that investigates varieties
of speech associated with a particular gender, or social
norms for such gendered language use

LANGUAGE AND GENDER

POLITENESS

MINIMAL
RESPONSE

VERBAL AGRESSION
QUESTION

SELF-DISCLOSURE
TURN-TAKING
CHANGGING THE
TOPIC OF
CONVERSATION

MINIMAL RESPONSE

Is one of the ways in which the

communicative behavior of men
and women differ.

has response frequently

when they have a
conversation for example :
paralinguistic features such
as mhmm and yeah, which
is behavior associated with
collaborative their language
use.

has response less

than women when
they have a
conversation for
example: generally
use mhmm and
yeahless
frequently

QUESTION

Men and women differ in their use of

questions in conversations.

Men's language is heard

as clearly their toughness,
as lack of affect, competitiveness,
Use questions more frequently. They
as independence,
usually use questions tag to avoid making
as competence,
strong statements,
as hierarchy,
to reflect their conservatism,
as control.
to prestige consciousness,

to upward mobility,
to insecurity,
to deference,
to nurturance,
to emotional expressivity,
to connectedness,
to sensitivity to others,
to solidarity.

TURN-TAKING
Gives rises to complex forms of interaction in relation to the more
regimented form of turn-taking.

Female linguistic behavior characteristically encompasses a

desire to take turns in conversation with others, which is
opposed to mens tendency towards centering on their own
point or remaining silent when presented with such implicit
offers of conversational turn-taking as are provided by
hedges such as and "isnt it".

CHANGING THE TOPIC OF CONVERSATION

This difference may well be at the root of

the conception that women chatter and
talk too much, and may still sparker the
same thinking in some males. In this
way lowered estimation of women may
arise.
Womens topic :

Mens Topic:

Gossip
Men
Shopping
Child-rearing
Personal relationship

Firm
Sport
Women
Politic
Cars

SELF-DISCLOSURE
Is the process defined as telling others
about the self.

Sharing their
problems and
experiences with
others, often to offer
sympathy.
They usually asked
their friend about their
problems.

Male tendencies to
non-self-disclosure
and professing advice
or offering a solution
when confronted with
anothers problems.
Because man usually
solve their problems
by themselves.

VERBAL AGRESSION

Engage in kros, or
"angry talk", which is
typically characterized
by vituperative and
brazen displays of
insults and shouting.

Focused on the down play

of conflict in order to
maintain - or at least give the illusion of harmony.

POLITENESS
Is best expressed as the practical
application of good manners or etiquette

According to Lakoff (1975), he identified three forms of politeness:

Camaraderie
Is Goodwill and
lighthearted rapport
between friends;
Deference Politeness
comradeship.
Is the condition of
submitting to the
espoused, legitimate
influence of one's
superior or superiors.

Formal Politeness
Generally accepted
formal standards
usually denote
professionalism,
whereas the
absence or lack of
standards would be
seen as casual.

There are many differences between mens

language and womens language. We can see
that by minimal response side, Question side,
Turn taking side, Changing the topic of
conversation side, Self-disclosure side, Verbal
aggression side, Politeness side.

http://www.eliterarysociety.com/language-society-and-culture/
http://www.learner.org/courses/learningclassroom/support/07
_learn_context.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_contact
http://www.buenastareas.com/ensayos/Pidginization/261760.html
http://www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/definitions/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_and_gender

Paris2006