Language and Society

8.1 The scope of Sociolinguistics（社会语言学）

• Sociolinguistics deals with the study of the relation between language and society, between language use and the social structures of language.

8.1.1 the relatedness between language and society1. Language is principally used to communicate meaning and

ideas, but it is also used to establish and maintain social relationships.

2. Users of the same language in a sense all speak differently.– One’s social background determines his choice of

language.– Language, in turn, reveals information about its speaker.

3. Language, esp. lexicon reflects both the physical and the social environments of a society.

8.1.2 speech community and speech variety ( 言语集团和语言变体）

• Speech community– A set of speakers who, through frequent, rule-

governed interaction and the use of a common language, constitute a group called speech community. This group is distinguished from others by significant differences in language use.

– Share the same language or a particular variety

• Language variety– Any form of speech distinct at the level of lexicon,

phonology, morphology and syntax.– Regional dialects, sociolects and registers are the

three types of speech variety receiving special interest.

8.1.3 Sociolinguistics （社会语言学）

• macro- sociolinguistics （宏观社会语言学） – a bird’s-eye view of the language, also called sociology of

language. – what societies do with language, including language

attitude, language policy, language planning

• micro- sociolinguistics （微观社会语言学）– a worm’s-eye view of the language – the relations between linguistic and social structures at

the level of face-to-face interaction– including language varieties, standard, age, gender, pidgin

and creole, diglossia and bilingualism.

8.2 language varieties

• Speakers of the same language do not speak the language in the same manner.

• The language used by the same individual varies as the circumstance of communication varies.

• Dialects vs. registers

8.2.1 dialects

• Dialect refers to any distinct variety of a language. • The language of a group of people may show regular

variations （變異） from that used by other groups of speakers of that language.

• Different dialects reveal their phonological, lexical and syntactic differences.

• Regional or Geographical Dialect （地区或地理方言） : – a linguistic variety used by people living in the

same geographical region. – A change that occurs in one region and fails to

spread to other regions of the language community gives rise to dialect differences （方言差別） .

– American English (SAE) is a dialect of English that many Americans almost speak.

• Social Dialect or Sociolect （社会方言）– the linguistic variety characteristic of a particular

social class or social group. – in the American society• U (the upper class) speakers say “to have one’s bath”,

whereas non-U speakers say “to take a bath”• Non-U speakers say “wealthy”, but U speakers say

“rich”.

• Language and Gender(1)1. Females are superior speakers. Girls do better in language skills in

the early years of schooling.

2. Men’s language is more straightforward, less polite, and more direct

3. Women’s language is more indirect, less blunt, and more circumlocutory.

4. Adjectives of evaluation are used more frequently by females than males, such as nice, lovely, adorable, and some intensifiers （强势词） such as awfully terribly are also used more frequently by females than males.

5. In normal situations, female speakers tend to use more prestigious forms than their male counterparts. For example:

• 1. Jessie walks slow.

• 2. Jessie walks slowly.

• Language and Gender(2)

• --- sexism （性別歧視） in language

– One striking fact about the asymmetry between male and female terms in many languages is that when there are male/female pairs it is the male form which is unmarked and it is the female term which is created by adding a bound morpheme, e.g. prince – princess; actor – actress.

– Also, we talk of career women, but not career men because men are supposed to have careers.

– In Eng there are many disparaging terms addressed to women, e.g. of easy virtue （放荡） ,fallen （墮落的，失节的） ,wanton （淫乱的，淫荡的） .

• Language and Age– The language used by the old generation differs from that

used by the younger generation. – And the most striking difference is found at the lexical

level. – In general, old people tend to be more conservative than

the younger people in their speech habits, and may prefer to use certain structures that their children have abandoned.

• idiolect （个人言语特点，个人方言）– The unique characteristics of the language of an

individual speaker are referred to as the speaker’s idiolect.

– Idiolect is the realization of language potentials, individualized by a number of social factors.

• Ethnic Dialect （人种方言）– An ethnic dialect is also a social dialect that cuts across

regional differences.

Standard American English Black EnglishHe knows something. He know something.He doesn’t know anything He don’t know nothingHe knows nothing. He know nothing.He hasn’t got any/He’s got none. He ain’t got none/He got none.He is nice/ He’s nice. He nice.I am going to do it/I’m gonna do it. I gonna do it.That is Mary’s house. That Mary house.

8.2.2 register( 语域 )

• The type of language which is selected as appropriate to the type of situation is a register. And registers are also known as situational dialects （情景方言） .

• Register vs. linguistic repertoire( 语言能力 )

• Register is associated with field （语场） , tenor （语旨） and mode （语式） .

– e.g. for a lecture on Econometrics in our university, USST, could be identified as:• Field: scientific (economical)• Tenor: teacher – students (formal, polite)• Mode: oral (academic lecturing)

8.2.3 Degree of Formality （正規程度）

• American linguist Martin Joos distinguished between five stages of formality– intimate （亲切体） informal– casual （随意体 )– consultative （商洽体）– formal （正式体）– frozen （冷凍体） formal

• The degree of formality can be revealed in three levels: syntactic, lexical and phonological.

8.3 standard dialect( 标准语 )

• The dominant or prestige dialect is often called the standard dialect or standard. – Based on a selected variety of language– Not acquired but learned– Have special functions

– A standard dialect may have social functions. It is used to bind people together or to provide a common written form for multidialectal speakers.

– It is, however, neither more expressive, more logical, more complex, nor more regular than any other dialects.

8.4 Pidgins ( 洋涇浜语 )and Creoles( 混合语 )

• Any language used for communication between groups who have no other language in common is called lingua franca （混合语，交际语） .

– Pidgins– Creoles

• Pidgin – Mixed and blended– Restricted vocabulary and simplified grammar– Used for restricted purposes

• Creole– more lexical items and a broader array of

grammatical distinctions – Acquired by children as native language

8.5 Diglossia and Bilingualism （双言現象和双語現象） • Diglossia --- two very different varieties of language co-exist

in a speech community– High variety or H-variety. It is used for more formal or

serious matters.– Low variety or L-variety. It is used in colloquial and other

informal situations.

Country H-variety L-varietySwitzerland Standard German Swiss GermanHaiti Standard French French Creole

• Bilingualism refers to a linguistic situation in which two standard languages are used either by an individual or by a group of speakers, such as the inhabitants of a particular region or a nation.

• In bilingual communities, members commonly use two languages.