SOCIOLINGUISTIC

LANGUAGE CHOICE IN MULTILINGUAL COMMUNITIES

Group 1
Zelia Vitalina P. Sarmento (1601542029)
Juita Heretrenggi (1601542041)

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
NON-REGULAR
FACULTY OF ARTS
UNIVERSITY OF UDAYANA
2018 – 2019
A.LANGUAGE CHOICE IN MULTILINGUAL COMMUNITIES
 In multilingual communities, more than one language is used.
 It means that people living in this situation may speak more than one language.
 When interacting with others, they can choose a code or a variety which is appropriate with
participants, topic and location.
 According to Holmes, the linguistic forms chosen by a speaker is influenced by social
context in which he is talking. It matters who he is talking to (participants), where he is
talking (setting), what he is talking about (topic), and why he is talking (function of
interaction). As a result, the same message may be expressed differently to different people.

B. DIGLOSSIA
 Ferguson defined diglossia as a relatively stable language situation in which, in addition to
the primary dialects of the language (which may include a standard or regional standards),
there is a very divergent, highly codified (often grammatically more complex) superposed
variety, the vehicle of a large and respected body of written literature, either of an earlier
period or in another speech community, which is learned largely by formal education and
is used for most written and formal spoken purposes but is not used by any sector of the
community for ordinary conversation.
 Diglossia is the term used to describe a situation in which:
o a) two speech varieties are used within a single speech community,
o b) each speech variety is used in specific “domains”, with little overlap between
domains in which the two speech varieties are used.
 The term domain in the above definition is defined as a combination of specific times,
settings and role relationships, for example family domain, friend domain, religious
domain, etc.
 To say it simply, Diglossia in a bilingual community, in which two languages or dialects
are used differently according to different social situations. Janet Holmes defines Diglossia
as having three crucial features:
o 1. In the same language, used in the same community, there are two distinct
varieties. One is regarded as high (H) and the other low (L).
o 2. Each is used for distinct functions.
o 3. No one uses the high (H) in everyday conversation.
 The H variety refers to one speech variety is used in domains such as education,
employment, formal religion (preaching, liturgy), public speeches and television news
broadcasts"
 The L variety refers to a speech variety that is used in domains such as family, friends,
informal religion (prayer) and entertaining television broadcasts such as soap operas.
 Different kind of Diglossia
o Classical Diglossia: The term Diglossia was adapted from French diglossie by the
American linguist Charles Ferguson (1959) to describe societies in which classical
form of a language is used for certain domains whilst a modern colloquial version
of the language is used for more informal communication. This now known as
classical Diglossia.
o Creole Diglossia: in creole diglossia, H is a language which originates in a different
speech community, and L is a creole based on H.
 o Border Diglossia: H originates in neighbouring community and L is a local variety.

C. BILINGUALISM
 According to Cambridge dictionary, Bilingualism is the fact of being able to use two
languages equally well.
 CODE SWITCHING
o Most speakers command several varieties of any language they speak, and
bilingualism, even multilingualism, is the norm for many people throughout the
world rather than unilingualism. People, then, are usually required to select a
particular code whenever they choose to speak, and they may also decide to switch
from one code to another or to mix codes even within sometimes very short
utterances and thereby create a new code in a process known as code switching.
o Another definition to code switching is the term code switching (or code-switching)
refers to the alternation between two or more languages, dialects, or language
registers in the course of discourse between people who have more than one
language in common. Typically, one of the two languages is dominant; the major
language is often called the matrix language, while the minor language is the
embedded language.

 CODE MIXING
o Code mixing also called intra-sentential code switching or intra-sentential code-
alternation occurs when speakers use two or more languages below clause level
within one social situation.
o The code we choose to use on a particular occasion is likely to indicate how we
wish to be viewed by others. If we can comfortably control a number of codes, then
we would seem to have an advantage over those who lack such control.
o Speaking several of the languages can obviously be distinctly advantageous in a
multilingual gathering. Code-switching may be a very useful social skill. The
converse of this, of course is that we will be judged by the code we choose to
employ on a particular occasion.
o Some form of mixed code,
 Insertion of the word, for example, “Ok. Kalian ujian minggu depan.
 Insertion of phrase, for example, “Ini namanya reading skill.”
 Insertion of word repetition, for example, “ada banyak souvenir-souvenir
dari Cina”
 Insertion of idioms, for example, “makanya jadi orang itu don’t judge book
by the cover”
 Insertion shape baster (native and foreign joint formation). for example,
“saya menunggu transferan uang dari orang tua saya.”
 BORROWINGS
o Haugen defined borrowing as "the attempted reproduction in one language of
patterns previously found in another" (1950, 212).
o The types of borrowing are discussed in terms of the original pattern or model. An
import is an item similar to the model; a substitution is an inadequate version of the
original, i.e. speakers of the origins of the original language would not recognize it.
 o The usual terms in the study of borrowing relate to the process rather than the
results.
o Loanword is the least precise term since it includes almost all the other terms.
Other basic terms include hybrid, which may be used where only part of the
phonemic shape has been imported.
o When a meaning has been imported for an existing word, a semantic loan has
occurred.
o Borrowing usually occurs when the speaker does not know a suitable equivalent for
the borrowed item in the first language.
o The borrowed word is part of the lexicon of the first language.
o The borrowed items are almost always single words—usually, bur not exclusively,
nouns and are adapted to the first language in their pronunciation, morphology and
grammar.
o An example of a borrowing into Arabic is the word ‘baguette' from the French
"baguette" (sandwich) or the word ‘mgripi’ from the French word "grippe"
(influenza, or flu).
o In code-switching, people switch not because they cannot come up with an item in
one of the codes; they switch codes for important social considerations.
o They switch from one code to another completely—in pronunciation, morphology,
grammar and vocabulary. There is no modification or adaptation to the rules of the
other code.
o Scholars assert that borrowings are morphologically and syntactically integrated
into the host language but code switches are not.

D. QUESTION
1. There are 2 persons who are multilingual, one person can speak English, Chinese,
and French while the other can speak English and Chinese. The situation is when
the first speaker speaking in Chinese, the other person speaking in English and both
of them continuing to converse that way without changing their language into the
same one. Does it relate to code switching? If yes why? And if not why?
2. How do people do code switching? And why do people do it in the first place?
3. Does code switching and borrowing can happen in one sentence?
 References

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https://www.slideshare.net/AyuRetnoAditya/sociolinguistics-chapter-two-language-
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Alg, M. (2012, October 20). Bilingualism, Code Switching, and Code Mixing. Retrieved from
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Holmes, J. (2001). An Introduction to Sociolinguistic, second edition. Addison Wesley

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