Sociolinguistics 3

Classification: social groups, languages and dialects

The story so far

• General knowledge includes knowledge of language (‘I-language’) as well as of society (‘I-society’). (I = internal)

• General knowledge is an inheritance network so we store general ‘prototypes’ for people and for language.– E.g. American, Student, Woman– English, London English, Casual English

Language and knowledge

• Our knowledge is influenced by:– ‘external’ reality, including ‘E-language’ and ‘E-

society’– Our language.

• Language can distort reality, e.g. it is ‘digital’, so doesn’t always fit the ‘analog’ world. E.g:– Shingle or pebbles?– Drizzle or rain?– Classical music or jazz or pop?

What about languages and dialects?

• We all think about language (mass) in terms of languages (count) and dialects.

• How accurate are these concepts?– Are they based on fact or on the terms language and dialect?

• Can we use them in sociolinguistics for saying who uses what kind of language?

Some terminology for language varieties

• A variety is a distinct language system, with grammar, vocabulary, etc.

• A language is a variety which is incomprehensible to speakers of other languages.

• A language may include sub-varieties.

Sub-varieties of a language

• A dialect is a sub-variety based on social groups, e.g. geography, social class.– An accent is a way of pronouncing a dialect

e.g. RP.

• A register is a sub-variety based on social situations, e.g. chat, essay, prayer

• A standard dialect/register is a sub-variety with high social status.

Varieties of language variety

l ang uag e var i e ty

l ang uag e d i al e c t r e g i s te r

ac c e nt s tandar d

par tpar t

What are varieties good for?

• Crude explicit comment about the social distribution of language items.

• Language variety X is used by social type Y.– English is spoken by Brits, Americans, …– Londoners speak Cockney.– The language of Egypt is Arabic, not

Egyptian.

• Better than nothing …

The social distribution of languages.

L ang uag e c ou n t

E ng l i s h F r e nc h .....

B r i t Am e r i c an F r e nc h-pe r s o n ...

P e r s o n

s pe ake r s pe ake r

What language is this?

…and this …

… and this …

So what? (1)

• We organise our knowledge about language (mass) in terms of languages.

• But is that how the world organises them?

Now what language is this?

Transcription

• And so couldn’t gather their own supper and another of the fairies said er ??? supper ???

…and this …

• Holide Karent Affairs:Thursday January  15, 2004 

• = Holiday current affairs

continued

• long despela program....I luk olsem Papua New Guinea bai mari mari long ol "illegal immigrants" -- pipal bilong narapela kantri husat i bin burukim loa na go stap long PNG

• = About this programme …It shows that PNG will ?? because of … people of another country who have broken the law to live in PNG …

…and this?

• Wæs dis ealond geo gewurƿad mid ƿam æƿelestrum ceastrum, twega wana ƿrittigum, ƿa ƿe wæron

• Was this island once made-splendid with the noblest castles, two less-than thirty, that there were.

So what? (2)

• Intelligibility is a matter of degree.

• Intelligibility depends on prior experience.

• Varieties can vary continuously in– Space– Time

• New varieties such as pidgins and creoles are especially hard to classify.

• So languages are fictions, not fact.

Are dialects any more real?

• We think and talk about divisions within a language in terms of dialects and registers.– E.g. London dialect– Standard English– Academic English

• But are dialect boundaries fact or fiction?

Which dialect is this …

…and this?

So what? (3)

• All native speakers of a language recognise some dialects.

• But these are learned from experience, so we recognise different dialects.

• The more experience we have, the more distinctions we make.

• So how do these mental distinctions compare with reality?

Dialect geography

• Dialectologists traditionally recorded the words and pronunciations of elderly speakers in remote villages.

• They showed their findings on maps, with a different map for each feature.

• They drew lines separating different areas of use: isoglosses.

ARM = [ɑ:m] or [ɑ:rm]?

SUN = [sʊn] or [sʌn]?

LAST = [last], [la:st] or [lɑ:st]?

HOUSE = [haus] or [aus]?

So what? (4)

• Every isogloss follows a different path.

• Every variable linguistic feature has a different social distribution.

• Dialect boundaries can’t be defined by bundles of isoglosses.

• Dialects are fictions, not facts.

• But they have some value in thinking and talking about language variation.

And standard dialect?

• This is at least as real as any other variety.

• Standard English is defined by publishers.– It’s the language of education – especially at

university level.

• In some countries the standard variety is a register, used only in public.– Called ‘diglossia’, e.g. German Switzerland

And registers?

• Folk sociolinguistics recognises some registers by name:– Slang– Baby-talk– Chatting, lecturing, preaching, etc.

• But individual linguistic features are related to individual situation features.

So what?

• Folk sociolinguistics recognises global categories as related to each other:– varieties of language – social categories (people, situations)

• But these are fictions rather than facts.

• The facts show much more complex relations between linguistic items and social characteristics.

Coming shortly

• Week 4: How we look after each other’s faces.

• Week 5: Power and solidarity.