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Chapter 1

Language & Society

What is Sociolinguistics?ػح

را خ

هنا شؼذ

The study of the effect of any and all aspects of society,

including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the

way language is used.

The study of language in its social context.

Is partly theoretical and partly empirical.

Is the part of linguistics.

First appeared in the West in the 1960.

By William Labov in the US and Basil Bernstein in the UK.

Historically closely related to Linguistic Anthropology.

Focus the effect of the society on the language.

Concerned with language as a social and cultural

phenomenon.

Sociology of language ع

را ػهى

The focus is about the language's effect on the society.

William Labov

Regarded as the founder of the study of Sociolinguistics.

Especially noted for introducing the quantitative study of

language variation and change, making Sociolinguistics into

a scientific discipline

Studies the relationship between language and society



Studies the relationship between language and society

language as a social phenomenon.

Helps us learn about ourselves as users of language.

How and why we use language beyond communication

purposes (social functions of language).

The different social function of

language.

Primarily, language serves as means for

1- Communicating information.

People exchange information through the use of language

(communicative function). But, that’s not all.

Language is also used to establish and maintain

relationships with other people.** clue-bearing role that language fulfills.

Use of language can help other people to formulate an

opinion about us.

Not so much from what we say, but actually from how we

say things.

*** one of the important social functions of language, that is,

its ‘clue-bearing’ role.

To know more about each other, people make use of the way

language is used by others. Who come from different regional

and social backgrounds.

This variation in the regional and social background of a

person is often marked by a ‘different variety of language.

Varieties of language are often referred to as ‘dialects’.



Dialect: Refers to a kind of language, which is distinguishable, to a

degree, from other kinds of the same language, in vocabulary,

grammar and pronunciation.

Accent: Refers to differences in pronunciation only.

Idiolect: Individual’s unique way of speaking. It contains idiosyncratic

characteristics of an individual’s speech.

The language/Dialect

Continuums In certain cases, neither “dialect” nor “language” represents a

clear-cut concept.

It is not always possible to state in linguistic terms where

people stop speaking one dialect or language and start

speaking another.

A continuum:

1-Is anything that goes through a gradual transition from one

condition, to a different condition, without any abrupt

changes.

2-No part of a “continuum” can be distinguished from

neighboring parts except by arbitrary division.

*dialect continuum = involving a merger of two languages.



The Criterion of Mutual

Intelligibility:

Not very helpful.

Mutual intelligibility, and other purely linguistic criteria are :

less importance in the use of the terms language and dialect

than are political and socio-cultural factors.

The most important of these factors are:

1-

Autonomy (independence).

2-

Heteronomy (dependence).

Standardized languages of independent countries.

Nonstandard dialects = Heteronomous.

The Standard variety is that variety of a language which is

usually used in:

1-

In print. 4- Spoken by educated people.

2-

Taught in schools. 5- Used in news broadcasts.

3-

To non-native speakers. 6- in formal situations.

Dialects of any language include: standard and non standard

varieties. * (Standard Arabic is an exception) .

Some peoples’ mistaken believe that the term ‘dialect is used

only to refer to non standardized varieties of a language.



makes them inferior.

Any apparent inferiority is due only to their association with

speakers from under-privileged, low-status groups, not due to

systemic deficiency.

Attitudes towards nonstandard dialects are attitudes which

reflect the social structure of society.

Why isn’t Standard Arabic a

dialect?

In order for a variety of language to be called a dialect itwould have to be used as a native spoken variety of a group

of people. Standard Arabic is not!

Arabic language is diglossic , which means there are two

levels of the language:

high (classical / standard / written / formal).

low (spoken / vernacular / informal).

SE is a dialect of English.

SE is the variety of English which is used in print, and which is

usually taught in schools and to non-native speakers.

SE is the variety spoken by educated people and used in the

media.



There is no necessary connection between SE and any

particular accent, however, RP is usually associated with SE.

SE can be spoken with any regional accent, and it mostly is.

SE is not linguistically better than any other variety of English.

Standard vs. Nonstandard

Varieties

All languages and dialects are equally good as linguistic

systems.

All dialects of a language are rule-governed systems.

Value judgments concerning correctness and purity of dialects

are social and not linguistic.There is nothing inherent in non-standard dialects that make

them inferior.

Brief definitions of the

following terms.

Sociolinguistic The study of language in its social context.

Sociology of language. The focus is about the language's effect on the society.

Anthropology. Is the study of humankind, past and present.

Linguistic Anthropology. Is the interdisciplinary study of how language influences social

lif



Linguistic variable.

linguistic variable we mean a variable whose values are words

or sentences in a natural or artificial language. For example,

Age is a linguistic variable if its values are linguistic rather than

numerical.

Social variable.

Social desirability is used in reference (1) to scale values of

personality statements and (2) to the tendency of subjects to

attribute to themselves statements which are desirable and

reject those which are undesirable.

Regional or geographical dialect

variation.

Social dialect variation. Geographical (dialects).

Social dialects (sociolects).

Sociolect . Language usage varies among social classes or groups.

Social class. Everyone is dealt four cards, one from each suit:education,

income, occupation and wealth, the four commonly used

criteria for gauging class.

Accent. Refers to differences in pronunciation only.



Language heteronomy. (dependence) Lanuage.

Standard language.

The Standard variety is that variety of a language which is

usually used inIn print, Spoken by educated people,Taught in schools

Variety of language. are often referred to as ‘dialects’.

Superposed variety of language. A Standard variety.

Linguistic prestige. Superposed variety.

rule-governed linguistic system. All dialects of a language are….

diglossia . Which means there are two levels of the language high and

low.

Chapter 2

Language and Social Class

SociolectVariety of language that is used by a particular social class.May include phonological, grammatical, lexical, and phonetic



Social Stratificationػح

را انثمخ

ذ

Is a term used to explain the hierarchical ordering of a

society,

especially in terms of wealth, power and social status.

Social classes are not clearly defined or labeled entities.

Social mobility – movement up or down the social hierarchy –

is possible.

Sociolects are not particularly easy to study, and describe,

because, like regional dialects, they form a continuum.

The more heterogeneous a society is, the more

heterogeneous is its language.

Western-type social-class stratification is not universal.

Caste System In India, unlike in the Western societies, traditional society is

stratified into different castes.

1-relatively stable.

2- clearly named groups.

3-rigidly separated from each other



From Rural Dialectology to

Urban Sociolinguistics.

In the past, dialectologists focused their study of language

variation on geographical dialects of rural areas.

All language varieties are subject to variation and change.

Dialectologists, then, began to incorporate social as well as

geographical information into their dialect surveys.

*This paved the way for urban dialectology which thenbecame ‘sociolinguistics.

The Rise of Sociolinguistic

Research

William Labov published The Social Stratification of English in

New York City. 1966

The study is probably the first of its kind which correlated

linguistic variation with social variation.

The study tests Labov’s hypothesis that non-prevocalic

/r/usage (as in farm, fair) correlates with social class of the

speaker



Quantitative SociolinguisticResearch

sociolinguistic research differentiates five different stages.

A. Selecting speakers, circumstances and linguistic variables.

B. Collecting the sample.

C. Identifying the linguistic variables and their variants in the

texts.

D. Processing the figures.

E. Interpreting the results.

A. Selecting speakers, circumstances and linguistic variables.

*The selection of speakers, circumstances and linguistic

variables involves some extremely important decisions.

*It is important that all the speech should be collected under

the same circumstances.

B. Collecting the Speech Sample.The collection of the speech sample necessitates finding

appropriate speakers who are willing to participate.

C. Identifying the Linguistic Variables and their Variants in the

Speech Sample.

*Different researchers can produce different analyses of the

l



E. Interpreting the results.

The interpretation of the results is in some ways the most

difficult stage.

* Success at this stage depends not only on appropriate

methodology, but also on having an adequate general

theoretical framework.

Chapter 3Language and Ethnic Group

Ethnicity means having an identity with, or membership in, a

particular racial, national, or cultural group.

It is easy to assign people to one of the two ethnic groupssolely on the basis of their language.

People do not speak the way they do because they are

“white” or “black”.

What actually happens is that speakers acquire the linguistic

characteristics of those they live in close contact with.Members of the two ethnic groups learn the linguistic

varieties associated with them in exactly the same way that



It remains true, however, thatThe different ethnic groups therefore maintain their

separateness and identity as much through language as

anything else.

Varieties of Language and

Ethnicity

The separate identity of ethnic groups is not only signaled by

different languages.

This means that ethnic-group membership and identity may

be an important social fact for them which can be signaled by

persistent linguistic differences.

Ethnic groups are relatively fluid entities whose boundaries

can change and which can come into being and/or disappear

during the course of history. An interesting example of this

comes from the former Yugoslavia

Former Yugoslavia:

Yugoslavia was a multi-ethnic.

Multilingual nation-state.

Serbian was often written in the Cyrillic alphabet.

Croatian in the Latin alphabet.

Serbian and Croatian have variously been considered a single

language with two different varieties depending on the

prevailing ideology and political situation.



Why does race and language

entail so much emotional

reaction then?

Language is a very important marker of ethnic identity.

Most ethnic groups believe that their language is the best

way to preserve and protect their ethnic identity.

Chapter 4

Language and Sex

Language and Sex

As yet another aspect of linguistic differentiation.

**Two linguistic phenomena related to Language and Sex.

Lexicalization and grammaticalization of gender.

Linguistic variation between male and female speech.

Linguistic variation between

male and female speech.It reflects a ‘sociolinguistic’ phenomenon.

Grammaticalization of Gender

Lexicalization &ع

هن ظهنا ػا

منا ذش هح

ػ

The lexicalization and grammaticalization of gender is a

linguistic universal which is found in all languages of the

world.

In almost all languages of the world there is a difference

between the words for ‘male adult human’ and ‘female adulthuman.



Gender can also be indicated through the use of articles and

adjectives.

Lexical and grammatical gender

is

Lexical and grammatical gender marking is usually explainedwithin the domain of descriptive linguistics.

A structural peculiarity of languages that does not correlate

with social variables and may not be explained

sociolinguistically.

Linguistic Variation between

Male & Female Speech

ا

انش

ت

هنا

ع

رنا

In many societies the speech of men and women differs in all

sorts of ways.

In some cases, the difference may be quite large, overtly

noted, and even taught to young children acquiring their

native language.

We cannot therefore explain the development of gender

differences in language in the same way as class, ethnic-

group, or geographical dialects.

THE WEST INDIES The classic example of linguistic sex differentiation comes

from the West Indies.



brothers, and she may be put to death if she broke this taboo.

Taboo explanation is not

enough

Taboo alone is not particularly good overall explanation of

linguistic gender differentiation.

In the American Indian language Koasati male-female

differences involved different phonological shapes of

particular verb forms which has nothing to do with taboo.

It is quite clear from the many non-lexical cases in many

languages that taboo is not involved.

How can we explain differences

of this type?

In Koasati and other languages, some female forms appear to

be older than the male forms.

Linguistic change seems to have taken place in the male

variety.

Women’s speech thus seems to be more conservative and

less innovating than that of men.

Women on average use forms which more closely approach

those of the ‘standard variety’ or the ‘prestige’ accent than

those used by men.



Chapter 5

Language and Context

The totality of linguistic varieties used in different situations

for different purposes by a particular community or aparticular speaker is called that community’s, or the speaker’s

linguistic or verbal repertoire.

Many social factors can come into play in controlling which

variety from the speaker’s linguistic repertoire is actually to

be used on a particular occasion.

Registerب

ها

is a style level in a language. When we speak we automatically

locate ourselves on a specific stylistic level.

A register can also mean a specialized variety of language.

Registers are usually characterized almost entirely byvocabulary differences, either by using particular words or by

using words in a particular sense.

One of the aims of education is to introduce students to the

registers (or terminologies) of particular subjects.

Registers are an example of particular kind of language being

d d b ti l ki d f i l t t



Varieties of language which differ from one another in this

way are called styles.

Styles

Styles: can be ranged on a continuum ranging from the very

formal to the very informal.

Styles: are for the most part characterized by vocabulary

differences, but also by syntactic and phonetic differences.

Vocabulary which is at the extremely informal end of the

continuum is known as slang.******

Styles can be characterized through differences in vocabulary,

including address forms and pronouns, and in grammar and

pronunciation.

We can regard these styles as being varieties within dialects.

Switching styles is carried out on a much larger and more

institutionalized scale is called diglossia.

Diglossia: Is a particular kind of language standardization.

Where two distinct varieties of a language exist side by side

throughout the speech community.



Generally speaking, the high variety has greater prestige than

the low variety, and is often regarded as more beautiful, even

if it is less intelligible.

The differences between the ‘high’ and ‘low’ varieties in

diglossic languages is usually rather more serious than innon

diglossic languages.

Language Switching In many communities around the World, the verbal repertoire

of speakers may contain totally unrelated languages.

Chapter 6

Language and Social Interaction

Social Interaction

The way in which language is used in conversations is an

important part of sociolinguistics.

language can be used for manipulating relationships and

achieving particular goals.**

Code-switching is presumably a subconscious linguistic

behavior, and it has the effect of making the conversationmore intimate and/or confidential.



All societiesDifferences in communicative rules between cultures can

often lead, in cross-cultural communication, to

misunderstanding and even hostility.

The study of these rules, and of cross-cultural differences in

communicative norms generally, is often known as the

ethnography of speaking.

Interestingly.

The American sociolinguist Deborah Tannen has suggested

that communication between men and women can be

regarded as cross-cultural communication, which maybe

subject for misunderstanding.

She suggested that men and women often fail to understand

one another properly, and that such misunderstandings can

lead to friction and tension in relationships.

Directness / Indirectness

One aspect of communication that may cause problems of

miscommunication is directness and indirectness .The

relationship between

Direct questions, for example, can be particularly threatening,

and in many English- speaking societies some directquestions are hardly ever asked, such as: How much money



The vast majority of the nations of the world have more than

one language spoken indigenously within their frontiers.

In some cases, the number of languages spoken in one

country may rise into the hundreds.

Language and National Unity

Linguistic subjugation (or unification) is therefore an

important strategy in implementing political subjugation (or

unification).

The activities of governments, having to do with language,

can be described as instances language of planning.

This type of language planning, which decides which role is to

be played by which language, is known as status planning.

Lingua franca as a Solution to

Multilingualism نح يرشح ن ذؼ انهخ

In many areas of Sub-Saharan Africa people who belong to

different ethnic or linguistic groups are able to communicate

with each other quite easily.

ؼذ

هناي

ؼ

ر

ناؼر

نا

.يرشنانهخSuch languages function in such multilingual communities as

lingua francas.



In West Africa.

اج

يأنشريرنا

اضذرذ

اشسذ

نا

One of the most important lingua francas which is still used

for trading purposes is Hausa.

ننشا

ذأ

مح

يشتذ

مشأ

ن

ثأيشؼ

ناهػ

ا

رأ

رشارايرى

هناشأشأيثل

ػج ر يي

نايي

ش

ي

ا.

Hausa is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken originally in the

region of Lake Chad in north- central Africa, but it has

become so widely known that it is used for trading and other

purposes by many millions of speakers in areas such as

Ghana, Nigeria and Dahomey.

Historically.

Many languages have spread as lingua francas in the past,

only to contract again for reasons of economics or politics.

Greek, for example, became a lingua franca in the ancient

world as a result, initially, of Alexander’s military conquests,

and was one time used widely from Turkey to Portugal.

Latin was later used as a lingua franca in the western world,

mainly as a result of the expansion of the Roman Empire, and

later survive as such, in spite of the fact that it had no native

speakers, for many centuries.

The original ‘lingua franca’, from which the term is derived,

was a form of the Provençal language that was used as alingua franca by the multilingual crusaders.



In India

Hindi, for example, is used as a lingua franca in much of the

northern part of the country.

English, on the other hand, operates as a lingua franca

throughout the country, though tends to be used only by

relatively educated speakers.

As a solution, English has been selected to be the official

language of the nation while Hindi and other native languages

are regarded as national languages of India.

Further Solution to Global

Multilingualism

A further solution has sometimes been advocated for solving

the world communication problems.

However, it is very unlikely that any nation would want to

adopt Esperanto because of the practical problems involved.

Why Esperanto is Unfit as an

International Language

Although it is easier to learn than natural languages, Esperanto may not

be suitable as an International

language.

- Esperanto is clearly based on European-type languages, and would

therefore benefit native speakers of

European languages only.

- There are as yet no real signs of Esperanto making very great headway

as a solution to international



Th e Language Planning

Selection of a National Standard

Language

The government, for example may play a part in developing a

suitable orthography, or in deciding whether a particular

dialect of the language should be selected.

This type of language planning, which focuses on the

linguistic characteristics of varieties undergoing planning, is

known as corpus planning.

Chapter 8Language and Geography

Language and Geography

When a linguistic innovation occurs in one area, it may

subsequently spread to other areas, particularly those nearest

to it, so long as no serious barriers and distance exist.

Linguistic innovation is initiated by speakers in the urbancenters.

This is due to the economic, demographic and cultural

dominance of town over country, and the intensity of

communication network between towns.

The spread of linguistic features from one area to another is

therefore not (always) dependant on geographical proximity



Disappearance of Regional

Dialects

Dialect leveling is an interesting process as it appears to be

behind ongoing linguistic change in many countries.

In England however, traditional dialects are disappearing, but

the larger (urban) modern dialects are continuing to diverge.

Koinéization and the Formation

of New Dialects

New dialects emerge as a result of a process called

Koinéization.

A koiné language means ‘common language’ in Greek.

A koiné is a dialect that developed as a result of contact

between two or more mutually intelligible varieties of the

same language.

A koiné variety emerges as a new spoken dialect in addition to

the pre-existing dialects of the same language.

A koiné is thus not the result of a ‘natural evolution’ of

dialects.

American, Australian and New Zealand Englishes are believed

to have been the result of Koinéization.

Geographical barriers such as rivers, mountains and spatial

distance can act to hamper the spread of linguistic features



Areas Over the centuries, languages in these countries have

acquired a number of common features sometimes known as

‘Balkanisms’, not shared by most other European languages.

An example of ‘Balkanisms’ is ‘the postponed definite article’

(the): in four of the Balkan languages the article ‘the’ is placed

after the noun.

The Indian subcontinent and southern Africa are also good

examples of areas where unrelated languages have common

linguistic features.

The Spread of Linguistic

Innovation

Lexical items appear to spread across languages regardless of

proximity through lexical borrowing.

Broadly speaking, it appears that only grammatical and

phonological features require geographical proximity to

diffuse.

Chapter 9

Language and Contact

Geographical spread of a language results in a “language

contact” situation.

The spreading language is used by speakers of other



What is a lingua franca?

A lingua franca is a language which is used as a means of

communication among people who have no native language

in common.

In the past, Arabic became the "lingua franca" of the Islamic

World.

Presently, English is considered a “lingua franca” of the World.

Where did the term ‘lingua

franca’ come from?

Lingua franca referred originally to a mixed language

composed mostly of Italian with a broad vocabulary drawn

from Turkish, French, Spanish, Greek and Arabic.

This language was limited to the Eastern Mediterranean as

the language of commerce and diplomacy in and around the

Renaissance era.

Franca was the Italian word for Frankish.

Its usage in the term lingua franca originated from its

meaning in Arabic, dating from before the Crusades, whereby

all Europeans were called "Franks" or Firinjah in Arabic.



gender, and the avoidance of certain complex syntactic

structure, in the lingua franca.

What is reduction?

As a result of a reduction in social function, lingua franca

speakers may use the language for doing business or

commerce, but not perhaps for many other purposes.

This means that parts of the language, such as vocabulary,

grammatical structures, and stylistic devices, will be missing

from the usage of non-native speakers.

We can say then that a reduction in the social function of a lingua franca

results in a reduction in form as well.

Language Interference / Errors

The effect of the native language can be on any structural

aspect of the second/ foreign language: vocabulary, grammar,

pronunciation etc.

Language interference is most often regarded as a source oferrors.

The greater the differences between the speaker’s native

language and the second/foreign language, the more

negative the effects of interference are likely to be (negative

transfer).



The technical term for the process by which languages may be

subject, in the usage of non-native speakers, to

simplification, reduction and linguistic interference is

pidginization.

What is a pidginization?

A pidgin language is a lingua franca which has no native

speakers and is used as a means of communication between

people that do not have a language in common.

It is derived from a ‘normal’ language through simplification,

reduction and interference or admixture, often, from thenative language, or languages, of those who use it.

Normally, in the first stages of its development at least, in

which we can refer to it as a pre-pidgin, it is used only in

trading or other limited-contact situations.

Swahili is a language that is widely used as a lingua franca in

East Africa.

On parts of the coast of East Africa, Swahili is the nativelanguage of many of the population, who speak it

veryfluently



Pidgin Swahili

However, in another part of Congo, in the rural north, a

further lingua franca form of Swahili occurs.

This variety again is more reduced and simplified, relative toother varieties of Swahili.

The result of this degree of reduction and simplification is that

mutual intelligibility with coastal Swahili is minimal.

When simplification has taken place on a large scale, andwhen the result is relatively stabilized form of language

consistently employed as a lingua franca, the resulting variety

is called a pidgin language (in this case Congo pidgin Swahili).

How do pidgins develop?

The most likely setting for the formation of a pidgin language

is a contact situation involving three or more language

groups: one ‘dominant’ language and at least two ‘non-

dominant’ languages.

The pre-pidgin will acquire a set of structures and norms for

usage which will be accepted by everybody.

Most of the well-known pidgin languages in the world are the

result of travel on the part of European traders and colonizers



English -Based Pidgins

pidgin English is often referred to by linguists as Tok Pisin.

From Pidgin to Creole

World pidgins are at present undergoing a process of

creolization.

Creole languages are pidgins that have acquired native

speakers.

When acquired by children as their first/native language, the

pidgin will re-acquire all the characteristics of a full, non-

pidgin language.

As spoken by adults, the language will have an expanded

vocabulary, a wider range of syntactic structures, and an

increased stylistic repertoire, and will also be used for all

purposes in a full range of social situations.

Creole languages are perfectly normal languages only their

history is somewhat unusual.

Creolization: repairs the simplification and reduction which

take place during pidginization



English itself.

Chapter 10

Language and Humanity

Language and Humanity

We looked at a number of cases in which irrational attitudesand discriminatory decisions often made by governments or

other official bodies acting out of ignorance or prejudice, have

led to language policies which have had detrimental effect on

children’s education and even on societies as a whole.

Communities go through a process of language shift. This

means that a particular community gradually abandons its

original native language in favor of anotherlanguage.

Paris2006

لجمع قف وي



Sociolinguistics language, society and Culture

Social Context Languages in contact

Pidginization

Languages variationlanguage & Gender

Paris2006



influenced

Socialfactors

is

A form

of socialidentity

Which indicates

Membership ofdifferentSocial

groups

Speech

communities



It‟s a group of people who

share a set of norms, rules

and expectations regarding to

the use of language

The science which

studies and

investigates language

The study of

language in

social context



Strong connection

Anthropology Sociology

Investigation of

language andculture

Crucial roles

that languageplays



Varieties of language used

by groups

Defined according to

Social class

Education

Gender

Age



Upper class

and more

educated

Lower class

and less

educated

Tend to use

more

complicated

forms

Tend to

simplify the

way ofspeaking

are important

factors to

determinesocial variety

or dialect

Differ in form

and

pronunciation



Are also factors that can

determine language variety or

dialect Age

GenderElders may

speak a bit

different from

youngers Female

speakers

Male

speakers

Tend to use more

sophisticated

language

Tend to use

simpler ways of

speaking

Discuss theirpersonal feelings.

Mention

personal

experiences

Prefer no- personal

topics such as sports

and news.

Respond giving

advice or solution



Different ethnic backgrounds Can provoke

Differences in speech

AFRICAN-AMERICANSHave a dialect called Black English

Vernacular

It is a

widespreadsocial dialect

Is stigmatized as

“BAD SPEECH”

The frequent

absence of the form

of the verb to be:

They mine

You crazy

The use of

double negative.“He don’t know

nothing”

The speech of recent immigrants, and often of their children, will

contain identifying features



Spoken

languageWritten

language

Business

letters

Letters to

friends

Related to

The situation

of use

Formal

Informal



The term wasoriginated by:

Thomas BertramReid in 1956

Become common: in

the 1960s introduced

by a group of

linguists who wanted

to distinguishbetween variations in

language according

to the user and

variations

according to use focus on the way

language is used in

particular situations



Intimate Non-public. Intonation more important than wording or

grammar. Private vocabulary.

Joos (1961) describes five styles in spoken English:

Frozen Printed unchanging language such as bible quotations; often containsarchaisms.

Formal One-way participation, no interruption. Technical vocabulary; "Fussy

semantics" or exact definitions are important. Includes introductions between

strangers.

Consultative Two-way participation. Background information is provided —

prior knowledge is not assumed. "Backchannel behavior" such as "uh huh", "I

see", etc. is common. Interruptions allowed.

Casual In-group friends and acquaintances. No background

information provided. Ellipsis and slang common. Interruptionscommon.



Mode (the channelof communication,

e.g. spoken orwritten)

Halliday (1964) identifies three variables that

determine register:

Field (the subject

matter of the

discourse)

Tenor (the

participants and

their relationships)



Technical vocabulary associated

with a specifically activity or group

Medical jargon

Legal jargon

Computer jargon

Engineering jargon

Baseball jargon



Context is a notion used in the language

sciences (linguistics, sociolinguistics,

systemic functional linguistics, discourse

analysis, pragmatics, semiotics, etc.)

Verbal Context Social context

Refers to surrounding

text or talk of anexpression (word,

sentence, conversational

turn, speech act, etc.).

Is defined in terms

of objective socialvariables, such as

those of class,

gender or race.



occurs when two or more languages

or varieties interact

occurs in a variety of phenomena

Creation of new

languages: Creolization

and mixed languages

Strata

influence

Language

shift

Borrowing of

vocabulary



Borrowing of

vocabulary

A word from one language that has

been adapted for use in another

Language shift

The result of the contact of two languages

can be the replacement of one by the

other. This is most common when one

language has a higher social position.

Strata influence

Language that influences, or is influenced by another through contact.Substratum is a language which has lower power or than another.

Superstratum is the language that has higher power.

Adstratum refers to a language that is in contact with another

language in a neighbor population without having identifiably higher or

lower prestige.

Creation of new

languages

Language contact can also lead to thedevelopment of new languages when people

without a common language interact closely,

developing a pidgin, which may eventually

become a full-fledged Creole language through

the process of Creolization.



Is a simplified language that develops as a means

of communication between two or more groups that

do not have a language in common

Has low prestige

with respect to

other languages

Allow people to

communicate with each

other without having

any similarities in

language and does not

have any rules

May be built from

words, sounds, or body

language from multiple

other languages and

cultures



A simplified form ofspeech that is usually amixture of two or more

languages, has arudimentary grammar

and vocabulary, is usedfor communicationbetween groups

speaking differentlanguages, and is not

spoken as a first ornative language. Alsocalled contact language.

Is a stable natural language

developed from the mixing of parentlanguages; creoles differ frompidgins (which are believed by

scholars to be necessary precedentsof creoles) in that they have been

nativized by children as their primarylanguage, with the result that theyhave features of natural languages

that are normally missing frompidgins.



Basic vowels, such

as [a, e, i, o, u]

Uncomplicated

clausal structure

(e.g., no embedded

clauses, etc.)

Reduction or

elimination ofsyllable codas

Reduction of

consonant

clusters orbreaking them

with epenthesis

Use of separate

words to indicate

tense, usually

preceding the verb

Use of reduplication

to represent plurals,

superlatives, and

other parts of speech

that represent the

concept being

increased

A lack of

morphophonemic

variation

No tones, such as

those found in West

African and Asian

languages



An absence of a widespread,

accessible interlanguage

A need to

communicate

between them

Prolonged, regular

contact between the

different language

communities



Regional, social, or contextual

differences in the ways that a

particular language is used

Some important terminologies

Internal

Variation

Language

Variety

Dialect

Idiolect



Refers to the property of languages of having

different ways of expressing the same meaning

E.g.: lorry- truck

underground-subway

flat-apartment.



A regional or social variety of a language

distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or

vocabulary, especially a variety of speech differing

from the standard literary language or speech

pattern of the culture in which it exists:Cockney is a dialect of English.

A variety of language that with

other varieties constitutes asingle language of which no

single variety is standard: the

dialects of Ancient Greek .

Every person speaks a

dialect of his or her nativelanguage.(Dialectology )



The language peculiar to the members of a

group, especially in an occupation; jargon:

the dialect of science.

A language considered as part of a larger family

of languages or a linguistic branch. Not in

scientific use: Spanish and French are Romancedialects.



Personal dialect of each

individual speaker of a

language.

It differs in some details

Nobody speak a

perfect language,everybody speak an

idiolect.

Factors:

Voice quality

Physical state

Social factorsThese contribute to the identifying

features in an individual`s speech



is recognized as a relationship between languages in

which speakers of different but related languages can

readily understand each other without intentional study or

extraordinary effort.

E.g. A person from New

York speaking with a

person from Texas.

E.g. In china

Mandarin vs.

Cantonese (they areconsidered different

dialects of the same

language).



Means a large geographical area, where the

spoken language differs only slightly from

village to village, but over a longer distancethe differences become that huge, that mutual

intelligibility is not possible.

E.g.: Dutch vs. German

Guten MorgenGoedemorgen



Standard Varieties Non-standard Varieties

Are selected and

promoted by either

quasi-legal authorities

or other social

institutions, such as

schools or media,

they are more

prestigious than

others.

Non-standard

varieties are

learned as first

language at home,

through intensiveeveryday contacts.

Lingu ist ical ly speaking, no one dialect or

language is better , more co rrect , or m ore

logical than any other



A dialect that

is supported

by institutions

Such institutional support

may include government

recognition or designation

Presentation asbeing the "correct"

form of a language

in schools

published

grammars,

dictionaries, and

textbooks thatset forth a

"correct" spoken

and written form

an extensive

formal literature

that employs that

dialect in prose,

poetry, non-

fiction, etc.

Standard American English,

Standard British English,

Standard Indian English,

Standard Australian English,

and Standard Philippine

English may all be said to be

standard dialects of the English

language



Has a complete

vocabulary,

grammar, and

syntax, but is not the

beneficiary ofinstitutional support

An example of a

nonstandard Englishdialect is Southern

English

Associated with the

language of the lower

socioeconomic classes.

Bad=improper



Is not a

distinctlanguage

A variety of a

language spokenin a particular

area of a country

Some regional dialects

have been given

traditional names which

mark them out as being

significantly different from

standard varieties spoken

in the same place

E.g.: 'Hillbilly English'

from the Appalachians

in the USA and

'Geordie' from

Newcastle upon Tyne

in the UK



Sometimes members of aparticular minority ethnic

group have their ownvariety which they use as

a marker of identity,usually alongside astandard variety

E.g.: African American

Vernacular English in the

USA, London Jamaican in

Britain, and Aboriginal

English in Australia

Indigenized variety

are spoken mainly as second languages in

ex-colonies with multilingual populations

The differences from

the standard variety

may be linked to

English proficiency,or may be part of a

range of varieties

used to express

identity

'Singlish' spoken in Singapore is a varietyvery different from standard English, andthere are many other varieties of English

used in India



It is the variety oflanguage characteristic

of a social background orstatus

A dialect which evolves

from regional speech

may also have

sociolectical

implications

E.g.: standard Italian is a

dialect in that it is

particular to Tuscany; it

is also a sociolect in thatit carries a certain

prestige from being the

lingua franca throughout

the country – both in

broadcasting, in the

press, and by people ofhigh social status



Overt Prestige Covert Prestige

how people should

speak in order to

gain status in thewider community

(standard dialects).

how people should speak

in order to be considered

member of a particularcommunity

(nonstandard dialects)



Language varieties

are defined in terms

of geographical

boundaries are

called RegionalDialects.

The study of the

regional dialects iscalled

dialectology.

The boundaries of a

particular linguistic

area are calledIsoglosses.

Many Isoglosses indicate

that the speech of that

particular group is different

in a number of ways from

other around it.



LANGUAGE

Is a tool of

communication

GENDER

Is a range of characteristics used to

distinguish between males and females,

particularly in the cases of men and women

and the masculine and feminine attributes

assigned to them.

LANGUAGE AND GENDER

Is an area of study within sociolinguistics, applied

linguistics, and related fields that investigates varieties

of speech associated with a particular gender, or social

norms for such gendered language use



POLITENESS MINIMAL

RESPONSE

QUESTION

TURN-TAKING

CHANGGING THE

TOPIC OF

CONVERSATION

SELF-DISCLOSURE

VERBAL AGRESSION



Is one of the ways in which the

communicative behavior of men

and women differ.

MINIMAL RESPONSE

has response frequently

when they have a

conversation for example :

paralinguistic features suchas „mhmm‟ and „yeah‟, which

is behavior associated with

collaborative their language

use.

has response less

than women when

they have a

conversation for

example: generallyuse „mhmm‟ and

„yeah‟less

frequently



Men and women differ in their use of

questions in conversations.

QUESTION

Men's language is heard

as clearly their toughness,

as lack of affect, competitiveness,

as independence,

as competence,

as hierarchy,

as control.

Use questions more frequently. They

usually use questions tag to avoid making

strong statements,to reflect their conservatism,

to prestige consciousness,

to upward mobility,

to insecurity,

to deference,

to nurturance,to emotional expressivity,

to connectedness,

to sensitivity to others,

to solidarity.



TURN-TAKING

Female linguistic behavior characteristically encompasses adesire to take turns in conversation with others, which is

opposed to men’s tendency towards centering on their own

point or remaining silent when presented with such implicit

offers of conversational turn-taking as are provided by

hedges such as and "isn’t it".

Gives rises to complex forms of interaction in relation to the more

regimented form of turn-taking.



CHANGING THE TOPIC OF CONVERSATION

This difference may well be at the root of

the conception that women chatter and

talk too much, and may still sparker the

same thinking in some males. In this

way lowered estimation of women may

arise.

Women‟s topic :

Gossip

Men

Shopping

Child-rearing

Personal relationship

Men‟s Topic:

FirmSport

Women

Politic

Cars



SELF-DISCLOSURE

Is the process defined as telling others

about the self.

Sharing their

problems and

experiences with

others, often to offer

sympathy.

They usually asked

their friend about their

problems.

Male tendencies to

non-self-disclosure

and professing advice

or offering a solution

when confronted with

another’s problems.

Because man usually

solve their problems

by themselves.



VERBAL AGRESSION

Engage in kros, or

"angry talk", which is

typically characterized

by vituperative and

brazen displays ofinsults and shouting.

Focused on the down play

of conflict in order tomaintain - or at least give -

the illusion of harmony.



POLITENESS

Is best expressed as the practical

application of good manners or etiquette

According to Lakoff (1975), he identified three forms of politeness:

Formal Politeness

Generally accepted

formal standards

usually denote

professionalism,

whereas the

absence or lack of

standards would be

seen as casual.

Deference Politeness

Is the condition of

submitting to theespoused, legitimate

influence of one's

superior or superiors.

Camaraderie

Is Goodwill and

lighthearted rapport

between friends;

comradeship.



There are many differences between men’s

language and women’s language. We can see

that by minimal response side, Question side,

Turn taking side, Changing the topic of

conversation side, Self-disclosure side, Verbal

aggression side, Politeness side.



http://www.eliterarysociety.com/language-society-and-culture/

http://www.learner.org/courses/learningclassroom/support/07

_learn_context.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_contacthttp://www.buenastareas.com/ensayos/Pidginization/261760.html

http://www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/definitions/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_and_gender



Paris2006

Documents

Sociolinguistics Lane 422