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Chapter 8 Sociolinguistics. “ Once you open your mouth, you are placed.” When we study language in relation to society , it is called sociolinguistics .
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“Once you open your mouth, you are placed.” When we study language in relation to society, it is called sociolinguistics. Sociolinguistics studies the relations between language and society, between the usesoflanguage and the social structures in which the languageusers live. It is also a field of study that assumes that human society is made up of many related patterns and behaviors, some of which are linguistic. 8.1 Introduction
8.2 Language Varieties • Language changes along social changes. • Language varieties are related to region, social class, education background, and the degree of formality of a situation in which language is used. • The varieties of language include standardlanguage, dialects, registers, pidgins, creoles, and so on.
8.2.1 Standard Language • Standard language or standard variety is the variety of a language which has the highest status in a community or nation and which is usually based on the speech and writing of educated native speakers of the language. • The standard language of Chinese is Putonghua；Received Pronunciation(RP) for British English；Standard American English(SAE) for the AmericanEnglish. • A standard language is generally used in governmentdocuments, in the news media and in literature, described in dictionaries and grammars, and taught in schools and taught to non-native speakers when they learn the language as a foreign language.
8.2.2 Dialects • A variety of a language used recognizably in a specific region or by a specific social class is called a dialect. • The major difference between a language and a dialect is that a language has an army behind it. • The study of dialects is called dialectology. Dialects can be categorized into the following types: • Regional/geographical dialects: varieties of a language spoken in a geographical area. • Temporal dialects: varieties of a language used at particular stages in its historical development. • Social dialects or sociolects: varieties of a language used by people belonging to particular social class. • Idiolects: varieties of a language used by individual speakers, with peculiarities of pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary.
8.2.3 Registers • The varieties classified according to use are called registers. • As languages and dialects differ from one another at every level, so registers can differ in vocabulary, phonology, grammar and semantics. • The four wordspickled, high, drunk and intoxicated generally mean the same thing but it is not difficult for you to rank them according to degrees of formality. • In Halliday’ssystemic functional grammar, the term register is regarded as specifically opposed to varieties of language defined according to the characteristics of the users (e.g. their regional dialect), and is determined by three factors: field, mode and tenor of discourse.
The field of discourse refers to what is happening, including what is being talked about, e.g.the fields of linguistics, religion, and advertising. • The mode of discourse refers to the medium of language activity which determines the role played by the language in a situation, e.g.speech vs. writing. • The tenor of discourse refers to the relations among the participants in a language activity, especially the level of formality they adopt, e.g.colloquial or formal English. • For example, a lecture on linguistics in a school of foreign languages can be analyzed as follows: • Field: linguistics • Mode: oral (academic lecturing) • Tenor: participants (teacher-students)
8.2.4 Pidgins and creoles • Pidgin is a variety of a language that is not a native language of anyone, but is learned on contact situations such as trading. • The process by which a pidgin develops is called pidginization. • A pidgin is usually based on one language, though it soon takes on the substances of other languages. • When a pidgin develops beyond its role as a trade language and becomes the first language of a social community, it becomes a creole. • The process by which a pidgin becomes a creole is called creolization. • Once a creole is in existence, it may (i) continue almost without change, as appears to be the case for Haitian creole; (ii) become extinct; (iii) evolve further into a normal language; (iv) gradually merge with its base language through decreolization, a process by which a creole becomes more like the standard language from which most of its vocabulary comes.
8.2.5 Language planning • Government and people carefully examine all the languages and dialects in the country and decide which is the standard, official language or languages and specify their scope of use. They also make plans for the regional use and/or development of other languages and dialects. This is now calledlanguage planning. • Status planningchanges the function of a language or a variety of a language and the right of those who use it. • Corpus planningseeks to develop a variety of language or a language, usually to standardize it, that is, to provide it with the means for serving most language functions in society.
8.3.1 Diglossia • With a handful of languages, two very different varieties of the same language are used, side by side, for two different sets of functions. A situation of this kind is called diglossia. • Both varieties are standardized to some degree, are felt to be alternatives by native speakers, and usually have special names. Usually, the standard variety is called the High variety or H-variety, the other is called the Low variety or L-variety. • Through long periods of Western European history, diglossia existed with Latin as the High variety and local language such as English and French as the Low variety.
8.3.2 Bilingualism and multilingualism • Bilingualism refers to a situation where two languages are used by an individual or by a group of speakers, such as the inhabitants of a particular region or a nation. • If the languages spoken in a bilingualism society have equal status in the official, cultural, and family life of the society, the situation is referred to as horizontal bilingualism, whereas diagonal bilingualism obtains when only one language has official standard status. • Multilingualism refers to a situation where three or more languages are used by an individual or by a group of speakers such as the habitants of a particular region or a nation. • In many parts of the world it is just a normal requirement of daily living that people speak several languages, the various languages or varieties are usually acquired naturally and unconsciously, and the shifts from one to another are made without hesitation.
8.3.3 Code-switching • Bilinguals often switch between their languages or language varieties in the middle of a conversation. This phenomenon is called code-switching. • It can take place between or even within sentences, involving phrases or words or even parts of words. • Situational code-switchingoccurs when the language used changesaccording to the situation in which the participants find themselves; they speak one language in one situation and another in a different one. No topic change is involved. • When a change in topic requires a change in the language used we have metaphorical code-switching.
8.4 Linguistic Taboos and Euphemisms • A word that we are reluctant to use may be called ataboo word. (e.g. rooster for cock) • A more acceptable substitute of a taboo word may be called a euphemism. • A euphemism is a polite or more pleasant word or expression you use instead of a more direct one in order to avoid upsetting others. • Euphemistic expressions are indirect and have positive connotations. e.g. Professions for jobs; sanitation engineer for garbage man; involuntarily leisured for unemployed; needy, underprivileged and disadvantaged for poor. • The source for euphemisms is the power of the connotations and associations that a word or expression carries. It is accepted because it is more indirect and less unpleasant.
8.5 Language and Gender • The study of language in relation to gender has two main focuses: First, it has been observed by many linguists that men and women speak differently: secondly, it has been observed by many feminists and by some linguists that men and women are spoken about differently, and it is often claimed that the language is discriminatory against women. • Females generally tend to use more prestigious forms than males with the same general social background, age, and so on. (I done it—I did it) • In the same gender pairs having conversations, women generally discuss their personal feelings more than men. • There is a great deal of extra politeness in female speech compared to male.
According to some researchers, this correlation between sex and style of speech must be regarded as “one of the most robust findings of sociolinguistics”. • Language reflects sexism in society. Language itself is not sexist, but it can encode sexist attitudes. (“manly courage”, “masculine charm” for man; “womanish tears”, “feminine wiles” for woman) • One striking fact about the asymmetry between male and female terms in many languages is that when there are male/female pairs, themale form for the most part is unmarked and the female term is created by adding a bound morpheme or by compounding. (prince/princess, author/authoress, count/countess, actor/actress, host/hostess, poet/poetess, hero/heroine, heir/heiress.) • Other linguistic asymmetries exist as well, such as the fact that most women continue to adopt their husbands’ names in marriage. • It is not the language that is sexist; it is society.
