Sociological Approach to Human Language · 2020. 11. 27. · What is Sociolinguistics? [ˌsəuʃɪəulɪŋ'gwɪstɪks] or [ˌsəʊsɪəʊlɪŋ'gwɪstɪks]ŠIt also studies how language

Sociological Approachto Human Language

27-11-2020

What isSociology of language?

ó Sociology [ˌsəuʃɪ'ɔləʤɪ] / [so ͟ʊsiɒ̱ləʤi] isthe study of society or of the way societyis organized.ó Sociology of language is the study of the

relations between language and society.ó It is closely related to the field of

sociolinguistics [ˌsəuʃɪəulɪŋ'gwɪstɪks] or[ˌsəʊsɪəʊlɪŋ'gwɪstɪks], which focuses onthe effect of society on language.

What is Sociolinguistics?[ˌsəuʃɪəulɪŋ'gwɪstɪks] or [ˌsəʊsɪəʊlɪŋ'gwɪstɪks]ó Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the

effect of any and all aspects of society,including cultural norms, expectations, andcontext, on the way language is used, andsociety's effect on language.ó It differs from sociology of language, which

focuses on the effect of language on society.Sociolinguistics overlaps considerably withpragmatics. It is historically closely related tolinguistic anthropology, and the distinctionbetween the two fields has been questioned.

What is Sociolinguistics?[ˌsəuʃɪəulɪŋ'gwɪstɪks] or [ˌsəʊsɪəʊlɪŋ'gwɪstɪks]ó The term sociolinguistics is used generally for the

study of the relationship between language andsociety. This is a broad area of investigation thatdeveloped through the integration of linguistics with anumber of other academic disciplines.

ó It has strong connections with anthropology throughthe study of language and culture, and with sociologythrough the investigation of the role language plays inthe organization of social groups and institutions.

ó It is also tied to social psychology, particularly withregard to how attitudes and perceptions areexpressed and how in-group and out-group behaviorsare identified. We use all these connections when wetry to analyze language from a social perspective.

What is Sociolinguistics?[ˌsəuʃɪəulɪŋ'gwɪstɪks] or [ˌsəʊsɪəʊlɪŋ'gwɪstɪks]

ó It also studies how language varieties differbetween groups separated by certain socialvariables (e.g., ethnicity, religion, status,gender, level of education, age, etc.) and howcreation and adherence to these rules is usedto categorize individuals insocial or socioeconomic classes.

ó As the usage of a language varies from placeto place, language usage also varies amongsocial classes, and it is these sociolects[ˈsəʊsɪə(ʊ)lɛkt, ˈsəʊʃɪə(ʊ)-] (Oxford Dic) thatsociolinguistics studies.


Sociolinguistics is the study of the effect of anyand all aspects of society, including cultural norms,expectations, and context, on the way language isused.

Sociolinguistics divided into two:qMacro-sociolinguistics- the study of language related to how the society

treats the language.- Example: status of English and French in Québec.qMicro-sociolinguistics- the study of language in relation to society dealswith small group of people in certain community.Example: at a party.


Basically, the essential difference betweenprestige, function, and status is the differencebetween past, present, and future.The prestige of a language depends on its record,or what people think its record to have been.The function of a language is what people actuallydo with it.The status of a language depends on what peoplecan do with it, its potential. Status, therefore, isthe sum total of what you can do with a language--legally, culturally, economically, politically and, ofcourse, demographically.

What isthe Sociology of language?

ó The sociology of language studies societyin relation to language, whereasSociolinguistics studies language inrelation to society.ó For the former, society is the object of

study, whereas, for the latter, language isthe object of study.


ó The sociology of language studies socialgroupings and powers in relation tolanguage, whereas Sociolinguistics studieslanguage in relation (of exercising power)to society.ó For the former, society is the object of

study, whereas, for the latter, language isthe object of study.


ó On the other hand, sociology oflanguage (also known asmacrosociolinguistics ['mækrəu];sociolinguistics [ˌsəuʃɪəulɪŋ'gwɪstɪks]Lingvouniv En-Ru or[ˌsəʊsɪəʊlɪŋ'gwɪstɪks] Collins En-En;Oxford AMED) studies society andhow it is impacted by language.


ó Andreas Pickel states,"Religion and other symbolic systemsstrongly shaping social practices andshaping political orientations areexamples of the social significance suchlanguages can have."


ó The basic idea is that language reflects,among several other things, attitudesthat speakers want to exchange or thatjust get reflected through language use.ó These attitudes of the speakers are the

sociologist's information.


ó Sociology of language seeks tounderstand the way that social dynamicsare affected by individual and grouplanguage use.


ó Language can be considered to be a socialvalue within this field, which researchessocial groups for phenomena likemultilingualism and lingual conflict.

ó In other words, sociolinguistics studieslanguage and how it varies based on theuser's sociological background, such asgender, ethnicity, age, status, andsocioeconomic [ˌsəʊsɪəʊˌiːkə'nɒmɪkˌ-ˌɛkə-]class.


ó Dialect ['daɪəlekt] (n.) is a regionally or sociallydistinctive variety of language, identified by aparticular set of words and grammaticalstructures.ó idiom ['ɪdɪəm] in Sociolinguistics:■ the dialect of a people or part of a country

What is dialect insociolinguistics?

ó Language variety [və'raɪətɪ] (n.) any form oflanguage characterized by systematic features;

- in reference to a distinct language, a particularform of a language spoken by a specific group ofpeople, the speech of a single person, the way aperson speaks in a particular context

What is language varietyin sociolinguistics?

ó isogloss [ˈʌɪsə(ʊ)glɒs] - an imaginary boundaryor line drawn on a map that separates particularlinguistic features, for example the line acrossEngland separating Northerners who pronouncethe STRUT and FOOT vowels roughly the samefrom Southerners who don't.ó isogloss [ˈʌɪsə(ʊ)glɒs] is a line on a map

marking an area having a distinct linguisticfeature

ó Origin: early 20th cent.: from iso- ‘equal’ +Greek glōssa ‘tongue, word’

What is isogloss?

ó Spoken dialects are usually also associated witha distinctive pronunciation, or accent.ó Any language with a reasonably large number ofspeakers will develop dialects, especially if thereare geographical barriers separating groups ofpeople from each other, or if there are divisions ofsocial class.ó One dialect may predominate as the official orstandard form of the language, and this is thevariety which may come to be written down.

What is dialect insociolinguistics?

ó The social aspects of language were inthe modern sense first studied byLouis Gauchat in Switzerland.ó Gauchat studied the French language

spoken in Switzerland. In 1899 hefounded ‘Glossaire des patois de la Suisseromande’ (‘Glossary of dialects of French-speaking Switzerland’), an institution topublish comprehensive studies ofSwitzerland's French dialects.


ó In sociolinguistics, a term used to describe achain of dialects spoken throughout an area; alsocalled a dialect chain. At any point in the chain,speakers of a dialect can understand thespeakers of other dialects who live adjacent tothem; but people who live further away may bedifficult or impossible to understand.

ó For example, an extensive continuum links themodern dialects of German and Dutch, runningfrom Belgium through the Netherlands, Germany,and Austria to Switzerland.

ó See also post-creole continuum.

What is dialect continuumin sociolinguistics?

ó Post-creole continuum [kən'tɪnjuəm]ó A post-creole continuum (or

simply creole continuum) is adialect continuum of varieties of acreole language between those most andleast similar to the superstrate language(that is, a closely related language whosespeakers assert or asserted dominance ofsome sort).

What is Post-creole continuumin sociolinguistics?

ó A Sprachbund (German: [ˈʃpʁaːxbʊnt],"federation of languages"), also known as alinguistic area, area of linguistic convergence,diffusion area or language crossroads, is a groupof languages that have common featuresresulting from geographical proximity andlanguage contact. They may begenetically unrelated, or only distantly related.Where genetic affiliations are unclear, theSprachbund characteristics might give a falseappearance of relatedness.

ó Areal features are common features of a groupof languages in a Sprachbund.

A Sprachbund (German: [ˈʃpʁaːxbʊnt],"Federation of Languages"

ó It is usually said that people speak differentlanguages when they do not understand each other.But the so-called ‘dialects’ of Chinese (Mandarin,Cantonese, etc.) are mutually unintelligible in theirspoken form. (They do, however, share the samewritten language, which is the main reason why onetalks of them as ‘dialects of Chinese’.).

ó And the opposite situation occurs: Swedes,Norwegians and Danes are generally able tounderstand each other, but their separatehistories, cultures, literatures and politicalstructures warrant Swedish, Norwegian andDanish being referred to as different languages.

What is dialect continuumin sociolinguistics?

ó Sociolinguistics in the West first appeared inthe 1960s and was pioneered by linguists suchas William Labov /ləˈboʊv/ in the US andBasil Bernstein in the UK.

ó In the 1960s, William Stewart and Heinz Klossintroduced the basic concepts for thesociolinguistic theory of pluricentric languages,which describes how standard language varietiesdiffer between nations (e.g.American/British/Canadian/Australian English;Austrian/German/Swiss German; Bosnian/Croatian/ Montenegrin/Serbian Serbo-Croatian.



ó Language has to do with who is'authorized' to use what language, withwhom and under what conditions.

What is idiolect?Idiolect [ˈɪdɪəlɛkt]ÿ an individual's distinctive and unique use of

language, including speech. This unique usageencompasses vocabulary, grammar, andpronunciation.

ÿ the speech habits peculiar to a particular personÿ every speaker has his own idiolect, no two -

speakers of a language or dialect speak in theexact same way – also, speaker speaksdifferently in different contexts

What are the variables?Status ['steɪtəs]Social positions that society assigns to its members, orthe differences between social groups, in terms of theprestige associated with them by others;

Variable ['veərɪəbl]The abstract representation of a source of variation,realized by at least two variants, for example, gonna andwill are variants of the variable future temporal reference;

Variant ['veərɪənt]The different expressions, or actual realizations, of avariable, for example, pronouncing the suffix -ing as "ing"or "in“.

Communication, language of powerhypocricy

Communication, power, prejudice and understanding between cultures

John Joseph Gumperz (1922 –2013]) was anAmerican linguist and academic.Gumperz was, for most of his career,a professorat the University of California, Berkeley.His research on the languages of India,on code-switching in Norway,and on conversational interaction,has benefited the study of sociolinguistics,discourse analysis,linguistic anthropology,and urban anthropology.



https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/video/catalog/OjdQxsasEeSyGp9u7sfHgA/NI9N0Yww6xGjNs59yyShKA/1606466692



Hello, my name is Ruth Benedictand I am considered oneof the pioneers of anthropology.I was born on June 5th, 1887and died September 17th, 1948.I earned my PhD fromColumbia University in 1923 andstudied under Franz Boas whileI was there. I am best remembered for my studieswith the national character of many different culturegroups especially the Japanese around the time ofWorld War II. Books that I have writtenare The Chrysanthemum and the Sword:Patterns of Japanese Culture, Zuni Mythology,Patterns of Culture, and Race: Science and Politics.



Dell Hathaway Hymes (b.1927) - a linguisticanthropologist, linguist, and a folklorist. Hymes wasthe first person to describe his studies as linguisticanthropology and not anthropological lingusitics. Infact, he eventually coined the term “the ethnographyof communication” to wrap all of his disciplines intoone easy title.Through out his life, Hymes wrote many books onlinguistics, sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology,ethnopoetics, and many other topics. He was aprofessor at Harvard University, University ofCalifornia at Berkley, University of Pennsylvania, andretired while teaching at the University of Virgina. Inhis writings and teachings Hymes tried to get hiscolleagues to look at every form of discourse in anattempt to see how they differ across cultures. Hetried to change the ways scholars thought aboutlinguistics because Hymes disagreed with Chomskyanapproach to linguistics, which was the approach

Words keep memory of their origin

A heartywelcome

A cordialreception

PRESTIGE VARIETY REGISTER

ENGLISH REGISTERS


Language has to do withó how an individual or group identity is

established by the language that theyhave available for them to use.ó Sociology of Language seeks to

understand individual expression,which makes the investment in thelinguistic tools that one has access to inorder to bring oneself to other people.


Sociology of language, particularly Americansociolinguistics, was regarded to have beenfounded in the early 1960s,mainly by William Labov /ləˈboʊv/, who developedmuch of the methodology.The sociolinguistic interview is anintegral part of collecting data forsociolinguistic studies.


Sociology of language, particularly Americansociolinguistics, was regarded to have beenfounded in the early 1960s,mainly by William Labov /ləˈboʊv/, whodeveloped much of the methodology.The matched-guise test byWallace Lambert is a sociolinguisticexperimental technique used to determine thetrue feelings of an individual or communitytowards a specific language, dialect, or accent.

Deviation from standard languagevarieties

The existence of differences inlanguage between social classescan be illustrated by the followingtable: Bristolian Dialect Standard English

(lower class)I ain't done nothingI done it yesterdayIt weren't me that doneit…

Deviation from standard languagevarieties

The existence of differences inlanguage between social classescan be illustrated by the followingtable: Bristolian Dialect Standard English

(lower class) (higher class)I ain't done nothing I haven't done anythingI done it yesterday I did it yesterday

It weren't me that doneit

I didn't do it

… Etc.

Deviation from standard languagevarietiesThe existence of differences in

language between Standard Englishand BEV

What isSpeech community?

Speech community is a concept insociolinguistics that describes a distinctgroup of people who use language in aunique and mutually accepted way amongthemselves.This is sometimes referred to as aSprechbund.


To be considered part of a speechcommunity, one must have acommunicative competence.That is, the speaker has the ability to uselanguage in a way that is appropriate inthe given situation.It is possible for a speaker to becommunicatively competent in more thanone language.


Speech communities can be members of aprofession with a specialized jargon,distinct social groups like high schoolstudents or hip hop fans, or even tight-knit groups like families and friends.Members of speech communities will oftendevelop slang or jargon to serve thegroup's special purposes and priorities.

What isCommunity of Practice?

A community of practice (CoP) is a groupof people who share a craft or a profession.

Presentlythe term jargon /'ʤɑːgən/most often refersto the wordsparticularto a given profession.


A community of practice (CoP) is a groupof people who share a craft or a profession.Argot [ˈɑːgəʊ] (noun)a specialized type of slang, often originallyassociated with thieves' talkArgot [ˈɑːgəʊ] is the jargon or slang of aparticular group or class: teenage argot.Origin: mid 19th cent. (originally denotingthe jargon or slang of criminals): fromFrench, of unknown origin.


A community of practice (CoP) is a groupof people who share a craft or a profession.

Slang [slæŋ] – about vocabulary, idiom, etc.,that is not appropriate to the standard formof a language or to formal contexts, may berestricted as to social status or distribution,and is characteristically more metaphoricaland transitory than standard language.

anti-languagesó anti-languages - the language used by

oppositional subcultures within a society,usually used to reverse or twist, the standardmeaning of words for social or political ends.

eye dialectó The use of non-standard spellings to represent

pronunciations of individual words that matchthose of almost all English speakers, forexample, duz (does), wurd (word).

.


A community of practice (CoP) is a group ofpeople who share a craft or a profession.

Slang [slæŋ] consists of words, expressions, andmeanings that are informal and are used bypeople who know each other very well or whohave the same interests.Slang [slæŋ] is a type of language that consistsof words and phrases that are regarded as veryinformal, are more common in speech thanwriting, and are typically restricted to aparticular context or group of people:‘Grass’ is slang for marijuana.


Community of Practice allows for sociolinguisticsto examine the relationship betweensocialization, competence, and identity.Since identity is a very complex structure,studying language socialization is a means toexamine the micro-interactional level of practicalactivity (everyday activities). The learning of alanguage is greatly influenced by family but it issupported by the larger local surroundings, suchas school, sports teams, or religion. Speechcommunities may exist within a largercommunity of practice.


Members of (CoP) may have somethin gin common:A. Shared topics or subject of interestB. Shared activities and interactions;C. Shared repertoire, tools and strategies,

ideas and results (maybe alsoinvolvement, transparency of meaningsand emotional connections).


Members of (CoP) may have somethingin common:A. Shared topics or subject of interestB. Shared activities and interactions;C. Shared repertoire, frames, tools and

strategies, ideas and results;D. Shared background (e.g. age)and values. Now watch the video:

What isPrestige [prɛ'stiːʒ]?

Prestige [prɛ'stiːʒ] generally means highstatus or reputation achieved throughsuccess, influence, wealth, etc.

Sociolinguistic prestige is especially visiblein situations where two or more distinctlanguages are in use, and in diverse, sociallystratified urban areas, in which there arelikely to be speakers of different languagesand/or dialects interacting frequently.


Prestige linguistic constructions.For example,the use of whom inWhom did you see?or the placement of never at the front of thesentenceNever have I seen a more gruesome sightmight be considered prestige variants in somesocial contexts.


Prestige [prɛ'stiːʒ] is the level of regardnormally accorded a specific language or dialectwithin a speech community, relative to otherlanguages or dialects. The concept of prestige insociolinguistics provides one explanation for thephenomenon of variation in form, amongspeakers of a language or languages.Prestige varieties are those varieties which aregenerally considered, by a society, to be themost "correct" or otherwise superior variety.


Prestige [prɛ'stiːʒ] is the level of regardnormally accorded a specific language or dialectwithin a speech community, relative to otherlanguages or dialects.Different languages and dialects are accordedprestige based upon factors, including"rich literary heritage, high degree of languagemodernization, considerable internationalstanding, or the prestige of its speakers".


The prestige variety, in many cases, is thestandard form of the language though there areexceptions, particularly in situations of covertprestige where a non-standard dialect is highlyvalued.In addition to dialects and languages, prestigeis also applied to smaller linguistic features, suchas the pronunciation or usage of words orgrammatical constructs, which may not bepronounced enough to constitute a separatedialect.


overt prestigePositive or negative assessments of variants thatare in line with the dominant norms associatedwith sounding "proper" and that people areaware of, often coinciding with the norms of themedia, educational institutions, or higher socio-economic classescovert prestigeA norm or target that speakers unconsciouslyorient to, with a sort of hidden positiveevaluation that speakers give to other(presumably non-standard) forms. The linguisticequivalent of street credibility.

Social constraints versusLinguistic constraints

q linguistic constraintA linguistic factor that governs the use of aparticular variant

q social constraintA social factor like sex or age that governsthe use of a particular variant


There are thus the concepts of overt and covertprestige. Whereas overt prestige is related tostandard and "formal" language features andexpresses power and status;covert prestige is related more to vernacularand often patois, and expresses solidarity,community and group identity more thanauthority.


Prestige varieties are often those that areregarded mostly highly within a society.As such, the standard language, the formpromoted by authorities and considered "correct"or otherwise superior, is often the prestigevariety.However, there are many exceptions to this rule,such as Arabic, in which Egyptian Arabic iswidely used in mass media aimed at internationalaudiences, while Literary Arabic (also known asStandard Arabic) is a more prestigious form.


Prestige varieties are usually the languagevarieties of the prestigious social classes.

Therefore, the prestige variety of a givenlanguage community or nation-state hassymbolic significance and may act asan instrument of political power.


The notion of a "standard" language in a speechcommunity is related to the prestige of thelanguages spoken in the community. In general,"greater prestige tends to be attached to thenotion of the standard, since it can function inhigher domains, and has a written form.While there are some counterexamples, such asArabic, "prestigious and standard varieties[tend to] coincide to the extent that the twoterms can be used interchangeably."


The terms and conditions of prestige assigned toa language variety are subject to changedepending on speaker, audience, situation andcontext. A dialect or variety which is consideredprestigious in one context, will not carry thesame status in another. The relative status oflanguage varies according to audience, situationand other contextual elements is highly local.Covert prestige refers to relatively high valueplaced on a non-standard form of language.


ó The prestige accorded to the churchmen,lawyers and scholars who used Latin wastransferred to the language itself. Latin washeld to be noble and beautiful, not just thethoughts expressed in it or the people whoused it. What is called 'beauty' in a language ismore accurately seen as a reflection of theprestige of its speakers.


ó This phenomenon is not limited to English-speaking populations.

ó In Western Europe, multiple languages wereconsidered to be of high prestige at some timeor another,

ó including "Italian as the MediterraneanLingua Franca and as the language of theRenaissance;

ó and the 17th-18th century French of thecourt culture“.

Language differencesó Telling a language from a dialect may be a

matter of prestige.ó "Language differences are not only marks of

differential group membership, but alsopowerful triggers of group attitudes".

ó Such fuzziness has resulted in the aphorism"A language is a dialect with an army and a navy."

Language differenceó A canonical example of this is the

Scandinavian languages, including Danish,Swedish, and Norwegian, where languagedifferences "constitute barriers to but do notwholly block communication", but areconsidered distinct languages because they arespoken in different countries.

What isKoine ['kɔɪneɪ]?

ó Koine ['kɔɪneɪ] (UK: /ˈkɔɪni/, US: /kɔɪˈneɪ,ˈkɔɪneɪ, kiːˈniː/(n.) is a common languageamong speakers of different languages; abridge language, a lingua franca (the latter onebeing viewed as any 'bridge language').

ó Etymology:ó from Greek koinē dialektos – common

language.


ó Koine['kɔɪneɪ] (n.) means the spokenlanguage of a locality which has become astandard language or lingua franca.

ó There are such notions in use as(for Old English) ‘West Saxon literary koine’

ó or (for US-influenced British English) –‘mid-Atlantic koine’.

What is Vernacular [və'nækjʊlə] andPatois ['pætwɑː]?

Additionally, which varieties, registers or featureswill be considered more prestigious depends onaudience and context.

Vernacular [və'nækjʊlə] the vernacular is thecommonly spoken language or dialect of aparticular people or place.

Patois ['pætwɑː; French patwa] is anunwritten regional dialect of a language, espof French, usually considered substandard.


ó Koine['kɔɪneɪ] (n.) means the spokenlanguage of a locality which has become astandard language or lingua franca.

ó The term was originally used with reference tothe Greek language used throughout theeastern Mediterranean [ˌmedɪt(ə)'reɪnɪən]countries during the Hellenistic [ˌhelɪ'nɪstɪk]and Roman periods; but it is now applied tocases where a vernacular [və'nækjulə] hascome to be used throughout an area in whichseveral languages or dialects are spoken.

Social causes for differences indialects

ó While some differences between dialects areregional in nature, there are also social causesfor differences in dialects.

ó Researcher John Joseph Gumperz observed thatthe lower prestige groups sought to imitate thehigher prestige speech patterns and that overtime, it had caused the evolution of the prestigeaway from the regional standard, as higherprestige groups sought to differentiatethemselves from lower prestige groups.

Social causes for differences indialects

ó One notable example of the relationship betweendialect and social stratification in English isWilliam Labov's 1966 study of thevariable pronunciation of r in New York City. Labovwent to three department stores that catered to threeclearly delineated socioeconomic groups—Saks (high),Macy's (middle), and S. Klein (low)—and studied howtheir employees pronounced the phrase "fourth floor".His results demonstrated that the employees at Sakspronounced r most often, Macy's employeespronounced r less often, and at S. Klein, seventy-ninepercent of the respondents said no r at all.

Real time studyreal time study –a study that samples a speech community at twoor more points in timepanel studya real time study that looks at the same membersof a speech community at two (or more) points intime, for example, 20 years apart.trend studyA real time study that studies different members ofa speech community at different times, forexample, talking to people who are 20, 40, and 60now and then other people who are 20, 40, and 60twenty years in the future.


ó Labov attributed his findings to the perceivedprestige of each dialect. He noted that New YorkCity's "dropped 'r' has its origins in posh Britishspeech", but after World War II, "with the loss ofBritain's imperial status 'r'-less British speechceased to be regarded as 'prestige speech’".

Labov on Prestige and Gender"[American linguist William Labov developed] three principlesregarding the linguistic behavior of men and women:"

1. For stable sociolinguistic variants, women show a slower

rate of stigmatized variants and a higher rate of prestige

variants than men (Labov 2001: 266)

2. In linguistic change from above, women adopt prestige

forms at a higher rate than men (Labov 2001: 274)

3. In linguistic change from below, women use higher

frequencies of innovative forms than men do (Labov 2001:

292)

Labov on Prestige and Gender"Ultimately,Labov formulates the corresponding Gender Paradox:"Women conform more closely than men to sociolinguisticnorms that are overtly prescribed, but conform less thanmen when they are not.(Labov 2001: 293)"All these principles and the Gender Paradox itself appear tobe fairly robust findings with almost universal applicability incontemporary sociolinguistics."

Style-shifting

ó Style-shifting – an individual's speech changesaccording to differences in interlocutor(s), socialcontext, personal goals, or external factors

Style-shiftingSpeaker design - using different styles to presentoneself differentlyAudience designThe idea that speakers style shift on the basis of whothey are speaking with or who might overhear them,that is, their audience membersConvergence [kən'vɜːʤ(ə)n(t)s]Accommodation toward your interlocutors, that is,trying to sound more like the people you're talking to.Divergence [daɪ'vɜːʤən(t)s]Accommodation away from your interlocutors, that is,trying to sound less like the people you're talking to

Style-shiftingPassingAdopting behaviors from another group in order tobe taken as authentic members of that groupDraggingWhen people use features that both they and theiraudience know are associated with another groupCrossingWhen speakers use language features or linguisticstyles associated with another ethnic groupFleeingAvoiding linguistic features associated with anothersocial group

Style-shifting

ó In his department store study, Labov includedanother subtle element that allowed him not onlyto investigate the type of social stratification, butalso speech style as a social feature of languageuse. The most basic distinction in speech style isbetween formal uses and informal uses.ó Formal style is when we pay more carefulattention to how we’re speaking and informal iswhen we pay less attention. They are sometimesdescribed as ‘careful style’ and ‘casual style’. Achange from one to another is called style-shifting.

Style-shifting

ó As we look more closely at variation in speechstyle, we can see that it is not only a function ofspeakers’ social class and attention to speech,but it is also influenced by their perception of thelisteners.

ó This type of variation is sometimes described interms of ‘audience design’, but it is moregenerally known as speech accommodation,defined as our ability to modify our speech styletoward or away from the perceived style of theperson(s) we’re talking to.

Stylistic register

ó Another influence on speech style that is tied tosocial identity derives from register.

ó A register is a conventional way of usinglanguage that is appropriate in a specific context,which may be identified as [situational] (e.g. inchurch), [occupational] (e.g. among lawyers) or[topical] (e.g. talking about ballet).

Class aspiration and Prestigeó Studies, such as those by William Labov in the

1960s, have shown that social aspirations influ-ence speech patterns. This is also true of classaspirations.

ó In the process of wishing to be associated with acertain class (usually the upper class and uppermiddle class) people who are moving in that di-rection socio-economically will adjust theirspeech patterns to sound like them.

hypercorrection

ó However, not being native upper-classspeakers, they often hypercorrect, whichinvolves overcorrecting their speech to thepoint of introducing new errors.

ó The same is true for individuals movingdown in socio-economic status.

What isCovert Prestige [prɛ'stiːʒ]?

ó The idea of covert prestige was first introducedby William Labov, who noticed that evenspeakers who used non-standard dialects oftenbelieved that their own dialect was "bad" or"inferior". Labov realized that there must besome underlying reason for their use of thedialect, which he identified as a signal of groupidentity.

Class aspiration and Prestige

ó It can be realised on the level of theindividual sound/phoneme, as Labovdiscovered in investigating pronunciation ofthe post-vocalic /r/ in the North-EasternUSA, or on the macro scale of languagechoice, as realised in the various diglossiathat exist throughout the world, whereSwiss-German/High German is perhapsmost well known.


ó An important implication of the sociolinguistictheory is that speakers 'choose' a variety whenmaking a speech act, whether consciously orsubconsciously.

ó The terms acrolectal (high) and basilectal (low)are also used to distinguish between a morestandard dialect and a dialect of less prestige.Basilect [ˈbasɪlɛkt, ˈbeɪsɪ-] is a less prestigiousdialect or variety of a particular language,contrasted with acrolect [ˈakrə(ʊ)lɛkt].


ó Crucial to sociolinguistic analysis is theconcept of prestige; certain speech habitsare assigned a positive or a negative value,which is then applied to the speaker.

ó This can operate on many levels.


ó Peter Trudgill observed that more working classwomen spoke the standard dialect than men.

ó Farida Abu-Haidar performed a similar study inBaghdad of prestige in the Arabic language, afterwhich she concluded that in Baghdadi Arabic,women are more conscious of prestige than aremen.

Adstratum [ˈadstrɑːtəm, adˈstrɑːtəm]is a language or group of elementswithin it that is responsible forchanges in a neighbouring languageó When different languages or language varieties

come in contact with one another, a variety ofrelationships can form between the two, alltypically influenced by prestige.

ó When the two contact languages have equalpower or prestige, they form adstratum, asexemplified by Old English and Norse, whichshared elements with each other more or lessequally.

Prestige in Language contactó Far more common is for the two languages to

have an unequal power relationship, as is thecase of many colonial language contactsituations.

Prestige in Language contactó In the case of pidgins and creoles, it is usually

noted that the low prestige language providesthe phonology while the high prestige languageprovides the lexicon and grammatical structure.

ó Creole ['kriːəʊl] is a language that has its originin extended contact between two languagecommunities, one of which is generally European.It incorporates features from each andconstitutes the mother tongue of a community

Lingua Franca [ˌlɪnguʌ'fræŋkə]ó Lingua Franca [ˌlɪnguʌ'fræŋkə], lingua

francas or linguae francae ['frænsiː] has a fewmeanings:

ó 1) a language used for communication amongpeople of different mother tongues;

ó 2) a hybrid language containing elements fromseveral different languages used in this way;

ó 3) any system of communication providingmutual understanding.

Lingua Franca [ˌlɪnguʌ'fræŋkə]ó Lingua Franca [ˌlɪnguʌ'fræŋkə], lingua

francas or linguae francae ['frænsiː]is a term used in sociolinguistics, and often ineveryday speech, to refer to an auxiliarylanguage used to enable routinecommunication to take place between groupsof people who speak different nativelanguages; also sometimes called aninterlingua.

Lingua Franca [ˌlɪnguʌ'fræŋkə]English is the world’s most common linguafranca, followed by French;Other languages are also widely used as linguafranca:In East Africa, for example, Swahili [swəˈhiːli,swɑː-] is the lingua franca;in many parts of West Africa, Hausa ['hausə] isused.

A pidgin /ˈpɪdʒɪn/ó A pidgin /ˈpɪdʒɪn/, or pidgin language, is a

grammatically simplified means ofcommunication that develops between two ormore groups that do not have a language incommon:

ó typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited andoften drawn from several languages. It is mostcommonly employed in situations such as trade, orwhere both groups speak languages different from thelanguage of the country in which they reside (but wherethere is no common language between the groups).

A pidgin /ˈpɪdʒɪn/ó Fundamentally, a pidgin is a simplified means of

linguistic communication, as it is constructedimpromptu [ɪm'prɔmptjuː], or by convention,between individuals or groups of people.

ó A pidgin is not the native language of any speechcommunity, but is instead learned as a secondlanguage.

A pidgin /ˈpɪdʒɪn/ó A pidgin may be built from words, sounds, or

body language from a multitude of languagesas well as onomatopoeia [ˌɔnəˌmætə'piːə].

ó As the lexicon of any pidgin will be limited tocore vocabulary, words with only a specificmeaning in lexifier language may acquire acompletely new (or additional) meaning in thepidgin.

A pidgin /ˈpɪdʒɪn/Pidgins are usually less morphologically complexbut more syntactically rigid than other languages,usually have fewer morphosyntactic irregularitiesthan other languages.

Characteristics shared by mostpidgins:

A. Typologically most closely resemble isolating languages;B. Uncomplicated clausal structure (e.g.,

no embedded clauses, etc.);C. Reduction or elimination of syllable codas;D. Reduction of consonant clusters or breaking them

with epenthesis;E. Elimination of aspiration or sound changes;F. Monophthongization is common, employment of as few

basic vowels as possible, such as [a, e, i, o, u].


A. Lack of morphophonemic variation;B. Lack of tones, such as those found in West African, Asian

and many North American Indigenous languages;C. Lack of grammatical tense; use of separate words to

indicate tense, usually preceding the verb;D. Lack of conjugation or declension;E. Use of reduplication to represent plurals, superlatives,

and other parts of speech that represent the conceptbeing increased.

Pidginization (ˌpɪdʒɪnaɪˈzeɪʃən) orpidginisation (n)

Pidginization (ˌpɪdʒɪnaɪˈzeɪʃən) or pidginisation (n)is the process when a language becomes made upof elements of two or more other languages andused for contacts, esp trading contacts, betweenthe speakers of other languages.

Prestige versus Equal MeritThe prevailing view among contemporarylinguists is that regardless of perceptions that adialect or language is "better" or "worse" than itscounterparts, when dialects and languages areassessed "on purely linguistic grounds, alllanguages—and all dialects—have equal merit“.


Linguists admit that pidgins can become creole languageswhen a generation of children learn a pidgin as their firstlanguage, a process that regularizes speaker-dependentvariation in grammar.Creoles can then replace the existing mix of languages tobecome the native language of a community (such as theChavacano language in the Philippines, Krio in Sierra Leone,and Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea). However, not all pidginsbecome creole languages; a pidgin may die out before thisphase would occur (e.g. the Mediterranean Lingua Franca).

A creole language, or simplycreole ['kriːəul]

A creole language, or simply creole ['kriːəul], is a stablenatural language that develops from the simplifying andmixing of different languages within a fairly brief period oftime: often, a pidgin evolved into a full-fledged language.While the concept is similar to that of amixed or hybrid ['haɪbrɪd] language, creoles are oftencharacterized by a tendency to systematize their lexifier(e.g., by eliminating orthographic irregularities or regularizingthe conjugation of irregular verbs).

A creole language, or simplycreole ['kriːəul]

Like any language, creoles are characterized byA. a consistent system of grammar,B. possess large stable vocabularies,C. and are acquired by children as their

native language.These three features distinguish a creole languagefrom a pidgin.

The terms substrate andsuperstrate

The terms substrate [ˈsʌbstreɪt] and superstratum[suːpəˈstrɑːtəm, -ˈstreɪtəm] are often used whentwo languages interact.However, the meaning of these terms is reasonablywell-defined only in second language acquisition orlanguage replacement events, when the nativespeakers of a certain source language (thesubstrate) are somehow compelled to abandon itfor another target language (the superstrate).


The terms substrate [ˈsʌbstreɪt] andsuperstratum [suːpəˈstrɑːtəm, -ˈstreɪtəm] areoften used when two languages interact.Superstratum [suːpəˈstrɑːtəm, -ˈstreɪtəm] is thelanguage of a conquering or colonizingpopulation as it supplants that of an indigenouspopulation, as for example French and Englishin the Caribbean


The terms substrate [ˈsʌbstreɪt] andsuperstratum [suːpəˈstrɑːtəm, -ˈstreɪtəm] areoften used when two languages interact.The outcome of such an event is that erstwhilespeakers of the substrate will use some versionof the superstrate, at least in more formalcontexts.The substrate may survive as a secondlanguage for informal conversation.

The terms substrate/superstrate;adstratum [ˈadstrɑːtəm]

The language replacement model may not beappropriate in creole formation contexts, wherethe emerging language is derived from multiplelanguages without any one of them beingimposed as a replacement for any other.Adstratum [ˈadstrɑːtəm, adˈstrɑːtəm] (ad-stra-tum noun pl. adstrata) is a language or groupof elements within it that is responsible forchanges in a neighbouring language


The distinction may be meaningful when thecontributions of each parent language to theresulting creole can be shown to be veryunequal, in a scientifically meaningful way.In the literature on Atlantic Creoles,"superstrate" usually means European and"substrate" non-European or African.

DecreolizationDecreolization [ˌdiː ˌkri ː ‿əl aɪ ˈzeɪʃ ə n -ˌkreɪ-,-ˌ•əʊl-, -ɪˈ•- AmE \ -ə ˈzeɪʃ-]Since creole languages rarely attain officialstatus, the speakers of a fully formed creolemay eventually feel compelled to conform theirspeech to one of the parent languages.This decreolization process typically bringsabout a post-creole speech continuumcharacterized by large-scale variation andhypercorrection in the language.

DecreolizationDecreolization [ˌdiː ˌkri ː ‿əl aɪ ˈzeɪʃ ə n -ˌkreɪ-,-ˌ•əʊl-, -ɪˈ•- AmE \ -ə ˈzeɪʃ-]is the process of evolving from a creole into astandard language or a variety of a standardlanguage.

Decreolizationó Over time, continued contact between the

creole and the prestige language may result indecreolization, in which the creole begins tomore closely resemble the prestige language.

Decreolization: creole continuumó Decreolization thus creates a creole continuum,

ranging from an acrolect (a version of the creolethat is very similar to the prestige language), tomesolects (decreasingly similar versions), to thebasilect (the most “conservative" creole).

ó An example of decreolization described by Hockand Joseph is African American Vernacular English(AAVE), in which older, more conservativeversions preserve features such as thecompletive marker done while newer, lessconservative versions do not.mesolect [ˈmezəˌlekt, ˈmesə-, ˈmēzə-, ˈmēsə-]

Diglossia [daɪ'glɒsɪə]& Triglossia

ó Diglossia [daɪ'glɒsɪə] means a situation inwhich two distinctly different languagevarieties co-exist in a speech community,acting as social registers, in which the highvariety is used in formal situations and the lowvariety among friends.

Diglossia [daɪ'glɒsɪə] & Triglossia

Diglossia [daɪ'glɒsɪə] means a situation inwhich two languages (or two varieties of thesame language) are used under differentconditions within a community, often by thesame speakers.The term is usually applied to languages withdistinct ‘high’ and ‘low’ (colloquial) varieties,such as Arabic…

Diglossia [daɪ'glɒsɪə]& TriglossiaDiglossia [daɪ'glɒsɪə] is the fact of co-existencein a language of a high, or socially prestigious,and a low, or everyday, form, as for example,(High) German and Swiss German inSwitzerland.A situation where three varieties or languagesare used with distinct functions within acommunity is called triglossia. An example of atriglossic situation is the use of French, ClassicalArabic and Colloquial Tunisian Arabic in Tunisia,the first two being rated High and the last Low.Tunisia [tjuː'nɪzɪə] ; Тунис - Republic of Tunisia


Some instances of contact between languageswith different prestige levels have resulted indiglossia [daɪ'glɒsɪə], a phenomenon in whicha community uses a high prestige languageor dialect in certain situations, usually fornewspapers, in literature, onuniversity campuses, for religious ceremonies,and on television and the radio, but uses a lowprestige language or dialect for othersituations, often in conversation in the home orin letters, comic strips, and in popular culture.


The examples of diglossic societies:ó In most African countries, a European

language serves as the official, prestigelanguage (Standard French, English,Portuguese), while local languages (Wolof,Bambara, Yoruba) or creoles (Ivorian French,Nigerian English) serve as everyday languagesof communication.

Diglossia [daɪ'glɒsɪə] & Triglossia

Diglossia [daɪ'glɒsɪə] should not be mixed withbilingualism [baɪlɪ̱ŋgwəlɪzəm].Bilingualism is the ability to speak twolanguages equally well…asymmetrical bilingualism- a bilingual situation in which the less powerfullinguistic groups are expected to adopt thelanguage of the powerful group in order toaccess education or government services or jobs.


The examples of diglossic societies:ó in the Middle East and North Africa,

Standard Arabic and vernacular Arabics;ó in Greece, Katharevousa καθαρεύουσαγλώσσα, and Dhimotiki – δημοτική;

ó in Switzerland, Swiss Standard German andSwiss German;

ó and in Haiti, Standard French andHaitian [ˈheɪʃɪən, -ʃ(ə)n] Creole ['kriːəul].


In diglossic societies, the prestigious languagetends to be very conservative and resist changeover time while the low-prestige language, thelocal vernacular, undergoes normal languagechange.


Polyglossia (pronunciation: /ˌpɒlɪˈɡlɒsɪə/)is a nounthat refers to the coexistence of multiplelanguages (or distinct varieties of the samelanguage) in one society or area.It was first used in the 1970s in theAcademic journal International Migration Review".Polyglossia is a useful term for describingsituations where more than two distinct varietiesare used for clearly distinct purposes.


DIGLOSSIA is a relatively stable languagesituation in which, in addition to the primarydialects of the language (which may include astandard or regional standards), there is a verydivergent, highly codified (often grammaticallymore complex) superposed variety, the vehicle ofa large and respected body of written literature,either of an earlier period or in another speechcommunity, which is learned largely by formaleducation and is used for most written and formalspoken purposes but is not used by any sector ofthe community for ordinary conversation.

In his 1959 article, Charles A. Ferguson defines diglossia as follows:

Sociolinguisticor ‘Language Situation’

Linguistic situation is a sociolinguisticcharacteristic of a particular locality, historical orgeographical area, ethnic region, some state orits administrative units, or a group of states andterritories of any other kind, within which arealand social relationships, as well as thefunctional interaction of the forms (and styles)of that or another language or severallanguages are considered and assessed.


The classification of language situations is basedon principles and criteria that can be combinedinto several groups. There are quantitative,qualitative, and evaluative (estimative) group ofcharacteristics.


Quantitative paremeters of language situationsinclude:The number of components of the languagesituation (the degree of linguistic diversity), thatis the number of idioms in the research area.There may be mono-component and poly-component language situations.The poly-component situations overweigh,monolingual regions included , since in almostall languages of the world territorial and socialvarieties differ..


The number of carriers of each of the idioms,defined as the percentage of the populationgroups speaking each of the idioms in a particularlanguage region (demographic power of idioms).Language situations with an equal or differentnumber of speakers of language forms(demographically equilibrium and non-equilibriumlanguage situations) are distinguished.


The number of areas of communication in whicheach of the idioms is used in relation to the totalnumber of such areas (communicative power ofidioms). In varying degrees of the communicativepower of idioms, language situations are dividedin the same way as in demographic power intoequilibrium and non-equilibrium.


Number of functionally dominant idioms. In non-equilibrium situations, the presence of one ormore functionally dominant idioms is noted, inconnection with which unipolar and multipolarlanguage situations are distinguished.


Qualitative features include:The linguistic nature of the language situation,which includes either different forms of onelanguage, or different languages. On this basis,single-language and multilingual languagesituations are distinguished.The degree of structural and genetic proximity ofidioms is language situations with similar anddissimilar, closely related and unrelated idioms.


Linguistic situations with typologically similaridioms are called homomorphic, with relatedidioms - homogeneous, with typologicallydissimilar idioms - heteromorphic, with unrelatedidioms - heterogeneous.Since structural similarities and geneticrelationships are not interconnected, linguisticsituations can be characterized simultaneously bycombination of two features: a homogeneous andhomomorphic situation, a homogeneous andheteromorphic situation, etc.


Functional equivalence or inequality of idioms.Linguistic situations in which linguistic forms haveequal official status are called harmonious,linguistic situations with unequal status idioms arecalled disharmonious.The nature of the origin of the dominant idiom(metal) on a state scale. On this basis, linguisticsituations are distinguished with a local idiom(endoglossic) and with a foreign idiom(exoglossic).


Evaluation featuresSigns of one or another idiom can differ accordingto internal and external estimates.Idioms can be evaluated by their prestige,aesthetic characteristics, functionality, etc.Differences in internal ratings given by the nativespeakers to their native idiom (positive, neutral,negative) determine the degree of so-calledloyalty of the language community and affect thedegree of stability and preservation of thelanguage.


Evaluation features

If there is diglossia in the language situation,diglossic language situations are distinguished(all others, respectively, are non-diglossic).


A. D. Schweitzer and L. B. Nikolsky divide linguisticsituations into two groups:exoglossic - sets of languages:ó balanced language situations (with the functionally

equivalent languages or language subsystems making upthe situation);

ó unbalanced language situations (with componentsdistributed by areas of communication and social groups);

endoglossic - sets of subsystems of the same language:ó balanced language situations;ó unbalanced language situations.


exoglossic [ˌɛksə(ʊ)ˈɡlɒsɪk] - adjective denoting or relatingto a non-indigenous language that is used as an official orsecond language in a particular country or communityCompare with endoglossicOrigin: 1980s:from exo- , Greek glōssa ‘language, tongue’, and -icendoglossic [ˌɛndə(ʊ)ˈɡlɒsɪk] - adjective denoting or relatingto an indigenous language that is used as the first or officiallanguage in a country or communityCompare with exoglossicOrigin: 1980s:from endo- , Greek glōssa ‘language, tongue’, and -ic

A medium of instruction

A medium of instruction (plural: media ofinstruction, or mediums of instruction) is alanguage used in teaching. It may or may not bethe official language of the country or territory.If the first language of students is different fromthe official language, it may be used as themedium of instruction for part or all of schooling.Bilingual or multilingual education may involve theuse of more than one language of instruction.UNESCO* considers that "providing education in achild's mother tongue is indeed a critical issue"The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

Sapir-Whorf HypothesisLinguistic relativityEdward Sapir (1884–1939) claimed that‘we dissect nature along lines laid down byour native languages . . . by the linguisticsystems in our minds.’So we can talk about differentlanguage pictures of the world,or a peculiar worldview pre-determined by a certain language...

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Linguistic relativity, also known as theSapir-Whorf hypothesis, is named afterEdward Sapir (1884–1939) and his studentBenjamin Lee Whorf (1897–1941), althoughneither scholar used the term.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Strong versions of the Sapir-Whorfhypothesis suggest that anindividual's language has a profoundimpact on the way the individualthinks and acts, while the weakerversion proposes that language hasmerely a moderate influence on anindividual's behavior.

Sapir-Whorf HypothesisSome linguists argue that if individuals were trulyso profoundly different as a result of theirlanguages, then it would be immensely difficult totranslate works between cultures and languages.

Sapir-Whorf HypothesisHowever, there are Linguistic universals that occurin most, if not all, natural languages.Cross-linguistic and cross-cultural translationshappen everyday, some even in a fraction of asecond thanks to Artificial intelligence linguisticmodels such as Google Translate.

Inuit ['ɪnjuːɪt] snow lexiconAlthough there may not be hundreds of distinct Inuit wordsfor snow, snow expert Matthew Sturm agrees that theEnglish snow lexicon is overall "clearly inferior" to the Inuitsnow lexicon.Usage: The peoples inhabiting the regions from the centralCanadian Arctic to western Greenland prefer to be calledInuit ['ɪnjuːɪt] rather than Eskimo, and this term now hasofficial status in Canada. The language is also known, esp. toits speakers, as Inuktitut [ɪˈnʊktɪtʊt].By analogy, the termInuit is also used as a synonym for Eskimo in general.However, this latter use, in including people from Siberia whoare not Inupiaq-speakers, is, strictly speaking, not accurate.Since neither Inupiaq nor Yupik ['juːpɪk] (with around 3,000speakers) is in common US usage, only Eskimo includes all ofthese peoples and their languages, belonging to one of thethree branches of the Eskimo-Aleut language family.

Inuit ['ɪnjuːɪt] snow lexiconDespite also having several words for snow, such as'snowdrift', 'snowflake', and 'flurries', the vast majority ofEnglish snow-related words all have the same root: 'snow'.Meanwhile, in Inuit, there are multiple independent terms forsnow. For example, aput means 'snow on the ground', qanameans 'falling snow', piqsirpoq means 'drifting snow',and qimuqsuq means 'a snowdrift'. All four of these terms forsnow have independent roots of each other. This issimilar to how there are several independent terms use todescribe water in English, such as 'water', 'river', 'ocean', and'dew'. Since snow is such a vital part of Inuit society, it isnatural that their language has more nuance ['njuːɑːn(t)s] forsnow than does the English language.

The interlingual approachInterlingua (n.) is a term used in machine translation for aproposed inter-mediate representation constructed tofacilitate the automatic translation of one language intoanother.In an interlingual approach, the source language is given ahighly abstract representation which captures all thesyntactic and semantic information necessary for translationinto several target languages.The interlingua would usually be a specially constructedformal language, but other artificial languages have beenproposed (such as Esperanto [ˌespə'ræntəu]), and in theorya natural language could also be used.The difficulty of developing a model of syntactic or semanticuniversals has limited the applicability of this approach.

Chinese-English bilingualsMandarin Chinese is a language that lacks absolutetense. In other words, it is not necessary tospecify the temporal location of an event inMandarin. Instead, one or two words can be addedto the beginning or end of a sentence to denotetense. It is usually assumed that the speaker isusing present tense, but the listener may alsohave to depend on context clues to determine thetense.

Chinese-English bilingualsResearchers Yang Li, Manon Jones, and GuillaumeThierry from Bangor University have conducted astudy that suggests that fluent Chinese-Englishspeakers did not explicitly recognize timemisalignments in complex English sentences, asopposed to native English speakers.The study involved analyzing N400 (neuroscience)modulations to determine when the participantstook additional semantic processing effort torecognize tense misalignments.

Code-mixingCode-mixing is similar to the use or creation ofpidgins; but while a pidgin is created acrossgroups that do not share a common language,code-mixing may occur within a multilingualsetting where speakers share more than onelanguage.

What is a Code?The concept of the ‘code’ is central in structuralistsemiotics.While Saussure dealt only with the overall code oflanguage (la langue), he did of course stress thatsigns are not meaningful in isolation, but onlywhen they are interpreted in relation to each other.

What is a Code?The concept of the ‘code’ is central in structuralistsemiotics.It was another linguistic structuralist, RomanJakobson, who emphasized that the productionand interpretation of texts depends upon theexistence of codes or conventions forcommunication (Jakobson 1960 and 1971c).

What is a Code?Influenced by communication theorists, he

substituted the distinction of code from message for theSaussurean distinction of langue from parole(Jakobson 1990, 15).

Since the meaning of a sign depends on the codewithin which it is situated, codes provide aframework within which signs make sense.Indeed, we cannot grant something the status of asign if it does not function within a code.

Codes organize signs into meaningful systems whichcorrelate signifiers and signifieds through the structuralforms of syntagms and paradigms.

We live in encoded reality“Some of the social codes which constitute our

reality are relatively precisely definable in terms ofthe medium through which they are expressed -skin color, dress, hair, facial expression, and so on.”

John Fiske,TELEVISION CULTURE

Extralinguistic (adj.) - in its most generalsense, this term refers to anything in the world(other than language) in relation to whichlanguage is used – the extralinguistic situation.

The term extralinguistic features is used bothgenerally, to refer to any properties of suchsituations, and also specifically, to refer toproperties of communication which are notclearly analyzable in linguistic terms, e.g.gestures, tones of voice. Some linguists refer tothe former class of features as metalinguistic;others refer to the latter class as paralinguistic.

Extralinguistic [ˌɛkstrəlɪŋˈgwɪstɪk]

Paralanguage ['pærəˌlæŋgwɪdʒ], alsoknown as vocalics, is a component ofmeta-communication that may modifymeaning, give nuanced meaning, orconvey emotion, by using techniques suchas prosody, pitch, volume, intonation, etc.It is sometimes defined as relating to non-phonemic properties only.Paralanguage may be expressedconsciously or unconsciously.

Paralanguage ['pærəˌlæŋgwɪdʒ]

Paralanguage ['pærəˌlæŋgwɪdʒ]is the non-lexical component ofcommunication by speech,for example intonation,pitch and speed of speaking,hesitation noises… When at large – piecesof non-verbal semiotics, such as bodylanguage included (e.g. gesture and facialexpression). The study of paralanguage isknown as paralinguistics.

Paralinguistics [ˌpærəlɪŋ'gwɪstɪks]

The term para language is combination of twowords-”para”’ means like and “language” meansmode of communication.Thus, para language literally means “likelanguage”.In the words of Prof. Barker and Gaut,“A language alongside of language and includesvocal characteristics such as pitch, range,resonance, tempo and quality and various vocalsounds such as grunts, groans and clearing thethroat.”

Paralanguage ['pærəˌlæŋgwɪdʒ]

Mutual intelligibilitythe idea that if speakers of one language varietycan understand speakers of another variety, andvice versa, we can say that these varieties aremutually intelligible and therefore they aredialects of the same language

Mutual intelligibility

Mutual intelligibilityExceptions to mutual intelligibilityCantonese and Mandarin- spoken differently buthave the same writing system

Papago and Pima- sound the same but politicallyand socially divided[Papago [ˈpapəgəʊ, ˈpɑː-] is the Uto-Aztecan language ofthe Papago, a form of Pima with around 10,000 speakers;American Indian people of the south-western US andnorthern Mexico;Pima [ˈpiːmə] American Indian people living chiefly alongthe Gila and Salt Rivers in Arizona and in northern Mexico

Mutual intelligibility

Check yourself!

ó Q-01. Forms of language being

Sociology of language @ Sociolinguisticssociolect dialect language varietiesidiolect status socioeconomic classsubsratum adstratum superstratumpidgin creole decreolizationLingua Franca koine macrosociolinguisticsinterlingua endo(exo-) glossic political correctnessbilingualism code-mixing code-switchingvernacular patois diglossia [daɪ'glɒsɪə]acrolect mesolect basilectargot Sprechbund Linguistic relativity hypothesisslang Gender-inclusive jargonparalanguage Dialect continuum medium of instructiongender Socioling.interview The matched-guise testcode register Style-shifting

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Sociological Approach to Human Language · 2020. 11. 27. · What is Sociolinguistics? [ˌsəuʃɪəulɪŋ'gwɪstɪks] or [ˌsəʊsɪəʊlɪŋ'gwɪstɪks]ŠIt also studies how language