6 sociolinguistics 20032016

March, 19 th 2016 Licda. Milvia Rosales G.

SOCIOLINGUISTICS

SOCIOLINGUISTICS •It was first studied by Indian and Japanese linguists.

•It examines the link between language and society. It analyses the ways in which language use varies according to different situations.

•Sociolinguistics demonstrates how human language reflects the reality of the world in which we speakers live.

•It helps us to understand how and why language is used by people in different circumstances.

•William Labov is regarded as the founder of the study of sociolinguistics.

SOCIAL VARIETIES • • • • • •

Ethnicity Religion Status Gender Level of Education Age

These are used to categorize individuals in social or socioeconomic classes.

REGIONAL DIALECTS (VARIETY) It is a dialect of a language used in a specific geographical area of a country.

A dialect’s main identifier is geography where a certain region uses specific phonological, morphosyntactic, or lexical rules.

Some regional dialects are so distinct that they are known by particular names, for example:

British dialects of English: •Brummie from the Birmingham •Geordie from Newcastle •Scouse from Liverpool.

Example: Which speakers in urban areas of the North (USA) are changing the pronunciation of vowels in a systematic way?

For instance, some speakers in Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago pronounce bat so that it sounds like bet and bet so that it sounds like but.

SOCIOLETS It is “a variety or lect which is thought of as being related to its speakers’ social background rather than geographical background”.

A sociolect’s main identifier are things such as socioeconomic class, age, gender, and ethnicity spoken in a certain speech community.

For example, things such as the deletion of the copula “-s” in AAVE, or African American Venacular speech, which is restricted to a specific ethnic group within the United States. “he here” instead of “he’s here”

stepped The cat spit out the chips and jumped in Ray’s coat True error

jump Potential error

Hey Black doesn’t eat cats, not even one like grow He just likes to growl and watch them run.

Potential error

True error

which

True error

How does language reflect society?

Our usage of language is affected by the society that we live in and the role we play within that society.

Social interaction: As well as conveying messages, language is used to maintain comfortable relationships between people.

For example after sneezing we say “Bless you�.

Gender identity: Research suggests that being male or female influences our employment of language.

Word choice and pronunciation: male speakers tend to use the most pronounced regional accents.

Regional identity: Use of a regional pronunciation indicates belonging to a particular geographical area or community.

SOCIAL GROUPING AND NETWORKS •The Variety of language we used is also affected by our social groupings or networks.

•The type of language used by a particular social group or subculture is often referred to as a Sociolect.

•The roles played by an individual, in identifying with social networks and showing membership, can have an impact on language and the use of lexis and grammar.

•A person’s language can vary according to which role they are playing and the situation they are on.

An individual´s unique use of language is called and Idiolect.

CODE SWITCHING It is the term given to the use of different varieties of language in different social situations.

THEORY OF PLURICENTRIC It is a basic concept for sociolinguistic, it describes how standard language varieties differ between nations.

BIOGRAPHY AND E-GRAPHY •http://sounds.bl.uk/Sound-Maps/Your-Accents •http://www.mccarter.org/education/myfairlady/index.html •https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UgpfSp2t6k •http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociolect •http://www.pbs.org/speak/speech/sociolinguistics/sociolinguistics/ •http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~wlabov/home.html •The sociolinguistic intersection of Spanish and English

William Labov, University of Pennsylvania, James E. Alatis plenary Philadelphia TESOL Convention March 29, 2012

•English for language and linguistics In Higher education studies Garnet Education.