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Language Variation. Dr. Katie Welch LING3311-001. Listening Exercise. http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Fall_2003/ling001/sociolinguistics.html When listening to these sound files, are you able to identify the gender, age, ethnicity, or regional-affiliation of the speakers?
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Language Variation Dr. Katie Welch LING3311-001
Listening Exercise • http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Fall_2003/ling001/sociolinguistics.html • When listening to these sound files, are you able to identify the gender, age, ethnicity, or regional-affiliation of the speakers? • Do you have any emotional reaction when you hear the different varieties? Fear? Contempt? Respect?
Sociolinguistics • The study of the interrelationships of language varieties and social structure • Language variety is a term used to refer to many different type of language variation—any form of language characterized by systematic features • Language variety looks at accent, dialects, idiolect, slang, jargon, etc.
Dialect • How do we know if two languages are dialects of the same language or two distinct languages? • Mutual Intelligibility is one criterion, but not the only one. • A group of people speaking the same dialect is known as a speech community.
Prestige • No one dialect or language is better, more correct, more systematic, or more logical than any other. • Yet, we do make a distinction between standard and nonstandard dialects • Generally, the standard dialect is perceived as more prestigious because it is used by the powerful, wealthy, and educated. • Nonstandard dialects are usually associated with the language of the lower socioeconomic class. • The standard English dialect is SAE.
Prestige, cont. • There are two types of prestige: covert and overt • Overt prestige is when speakers perceive the “standard” language as being prestigious • Cover prestige is when speakers in a speech community perceive the “non-standard” language as being prestigious • Typically an expression of solidarity • More often seen in a tight-knit community
Think about your native language • Do you have a standard and non-standard dialect? • Who speaks the standard? • Who speaks the nonstandard? • What are some of the linguistic features of each?
Variation at Different Levels of Linguistic Structure • Phonetic • Phonological • Morphological • Syntactic • Lexical (exercises on page 436-438)
Social Factors • Socioeconomic (Labov’s study) • Age- youth tend to be “trendsetters” when it comes to language • Gender- women tend to use the standard variant; men tend to use nonstandard • Ethnic
Examples of Ethnic Variants • African American English; Chicano English; Lumbee English all ethnic variants found in the US • Just because a person belongs to an ethnic group does not mean that they will inevitably embrace the variant • Likewise, a person who does not belong to the ethnic group may embrace the variant • Boils down to what type of exposure the person has had; not what type of genetics they possess
African American English • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_American_Vernacular_English • Even though AAE is nonstandard, it is just as systematic as SAE. Includes features such as the absence of third person singular suffixes (He need; She want), multiple negation (I didn't go nowhere), copula absence (John going to the store) • http://www.cnn.com/US/9701/17/home.speech/ • http://www.makestupidityhistory.org/2005/07/20/teaching-ebonics-in-school/ • http://www.filthylucre.com/why-would-we-teach-ebonics
