Download pdf - Sociolinguistics Unit 1

FOUNDATIONS OF

SOCIETY AND

LANGUAGE

Theme 1

Sociolinguistics III L2

sociolinuistics?

To understand what sociolinguistics is all

about it may help to review the following

questions:

1. Which features of language behavior are people

conscious of using which are below the level of

their conscious awareness?

2. To what extent individuals and groups use

language to define themselves or to set

themselves apart from others?

sociolinuistics?

4. What factors cause individuals or groups to

change their language in order to sound either

similar to or different from others?

5. What factors inhibit or promote the extinction,

rise or maintenance of local varieties of

languages?

6. What factors cause listeners to perceive one

type of language as higher in status than

another?

7. What attitudes do people have towards regional

dialects and foreign accents?

What is

sociolinguistics?

Sociolinguistics can be defined as a field of

research and study that deals with the

relation between language and society.

It copes with the links that can be found

between one or more languages and their

users who live within a specific speech

community.

What is

sociolinguistics?

Sociolinguistics examines the societal and

linguistic patterns that govern our behavior

as members of human society and how they

affect interaction.

Sociolinguistics is a very broad field, and it

can be used to describe many different ways

of studying language.

What is

sociolinguistics?

A discipline concerned with linguistic

diversity from the point of view of social

Pavlik: 29)

attempt to find correlations between

(Gumperz 1971)

Branches of Sociolinguistics

Language and Interaction

The principles of conversation, the ways in which

people make adjustments in speech when

interacting with others and the ways in which

societies differ in their assumptions about,

expectations for, and use of language.


Language Variation: Style, Situation,

Function

Deals with the importance of contextual

factors in determining different registers,

styles, and genres.

It also deals with the use of language for

specific domains and functions as in

advertising, religion, business, and e-mailing.


Language Variation and Change (Dialects

and Social Groups)

The differences within a language according

to social groupings, especially class, gender,

ethnicity, and region.

The variationist interest in language change

is also represented in this section.


Language Contact

Stresses the reality that societies are rarely

monolingual; languages exist among other

languages.

The ways in which speakers of different

languages influence each other, and how

multilingualism is 'managed' by speakers at a

microlevel and by societies at a macrolevel.


Language, Power, and Inequality

Deals with the ways in which language is

entrenched in, and entrenches, relations of

dominance in societies.


Language Planning, Policy, Practice

Deals with the macrosociolinguistic issues of

the choice of a national language or

languages, and the ways in which languages

can be developed to face the challenges of

communication in an era spanning political

independence, nation building, and

globalization.


Language and Education

Stresses the close relation between

Sociolinguistics and education, especially in

relation to validating the languages and

dialects that children bring to the school.


Language and Education

The home language-school language

interface, the public debates about Standard

English and less feted varieties like Ebonics,

an understanding of educational failure,

enhancing gender sensitivity in male

dominated classrooms, and so forth.

What does

sociolinguistics study?

the social importance of language to

groups of people, from small sociocultural

groups to entire nations

language as part of the character of a

nation or a culture

the development of national standard

languages and their relation to regional

and local dialects

What does


attitudes toward variants and choice of

which to use where and when

how individual ways of speaking reveal

membership in social groups: working

class versus middle class, urban versus

rural, old versus young, female versus

male

What does


how certain varieties and forms enjoy

prestige, while others are stigmatized

ongoing change in the forms and varieties

of language, interrelationships between

varieties

language structures in relation to

interaction

What does


how speakers construct identities through

discourse in interaction with one another

how speakers and listeners use language

to define their relationship and establish

the character and direction of their talk

What does


how talk conveys attitudes about the

context, the participants and their

relationship in terms of membership,

power and solidarity

how listeners interpret talk and draw

inferences from it about the ongoing

interaction

Sociolinguistics vs.

The sociology of language

When in the late 60's sociolinguistics first

developed as an academic field of study, two

names used interchangeably were given to

this still incipient discipline:

Sociolinguistics and Sociology of language

Sociolinguistics vs.

The sociology of language

Language & Society

The social study of Language

Language & Society