An Assignment
On
Introduction to Sociolinguistics and important terminologies related to
Sociolinguistics
Submitted to: Mam Kushbakth
Submitted by: Abdullah Shah
Discipline: BS English
Semester: 5th
Id: EN120182005
Department of English
Kohat University of Science and Technology
Session 2020-21
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Contents
Introduction to sociolinguistics:..............................................................................................3
What’s a sociolinguistics?.................................................................................................3
What’s a dialect?...............................................................................................................3
Who are interested in sociolinguistics study?.................................................................3
What do sociolinguists study?.................................................................................................4
Aspects of language:..........................................................................................................4
Variety:...............................................................................................................................4
Multilingual speech communities...........................................................................................4
Domains:............................................................................................................................4
Setting:................................................................................................................................4
Diglossia:............................................................................................................................4
Polyglossia:.........................................................................................................................5
Code-switching:.................................................................................................................5
Lexical borrowing:............................................................................................................5
Language maintenance and shift............................................................................................5
Language shift:..................................................................................................................5
Q: What factors lead to language shift?..........................................................................5
Economic, social and political factor...............................................................................5
Demographic factors.........................................................................................................6
Attitudes and values..........................................................................................................6
Language death and Language loss:...............................................................................6
More important terminologies in Sociolinguistics:...............................................................6
Vernacular language:........................................................................................................6
Standard Language:..........................................................................................................6
Lingua franca:...................................................................................................................6
Pidgin:................................................................................................................................6
Creole:................................................................................................................................7
References:................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction to Sociolinguistics and important terminologies related to
Sociolinguistics
Introduction to sociolinguistics:
What is a sociolinguistics?
It is the study of language in relation to society. Sociolinguistics is considered as a young
discipline, since most of its growth took place in the late 1960s and in the early 1970s.
Nevertheless, this study has taken a long tradition in the study of dialects and in the general
study of the relation between word-meaning and culture. What is new is the widespread
interest in sociolinguistics and the realization that it can throw much light both on the nature
of language and on the nature of society.
Sociolinguistics is a term including the aspects of linguistics applied toward the connections
between language and society, and the way we use it in different social situations. It ranges
from the study of the wide variety of dialects across a given region down to the analysis
between the way men and women speak to one another. Sociolinguistics often shows us the
humorous realities of human speech and how a dialect of a given language can often describe
the age, sex, and social class of the speaker; it codes the social function of a language.
When two people speak with one another, there is always something more than just
conveying a message. The language used by the participants is always influenced by a
number of social factors which define the relationship between the participants. Consider, for
example, a professor making a simple request of a student to close a classroom door to shut
off the noise from the corridor.
What is a dialect?
Any variety of a language characterized by systematic differences in pronunciation, grammar,
and vocabulary from other varieties of the same language is called a dialect. For example,
petrol (American English), gasoline (British English).
Who are interested in sociolinguistics study?
Most of the people who are interested in sociolinguistics study have come from people such
as educationalists, who have a practical concern for language, rather than a desire simply to
understand better how this small area of the universe works.
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What do sociolinguists study?
Aspects of language:
Sociolinguists are interested in explaining why people speak differently in different social
contexts. And the effect of social factors such as (social distance, social status, age, gender,
class) on language varieties (dialects, registers, genres, etc), and they are concerned with
identifying the social functions of language and the way they are used to convey social
meanings.
Variety:
A variety is a set of linguistic forms used under specific social circumstances, with a
distinctive social distribution.
* Formality increases between participants (speaker and hearer) when the social distance is
greater. Informality (Solidarity) increases when the social distance is little between
participants (speaker and hearer).
* Social status depends on a number of factors such as social rank, wealth, age, gender and so
on; therefore the person with the higher social status has the choice of using formality or
informality (solidarity) when addressing other persons of lower social status. But the person
with the lower social status uses only formality when addressing a person of higher social
status.
Multilingual speech communities
Domains:
Domains of language use, a term popularised by an American sociolinguist, Joshua Fishman.
A domain of language involves typical interactions between typical participants in typical
settings about a typical topic.
Examples of these domains are family, friendship, religion, education andemployment.
Setting:
The physical situation or the typical place where speech interactions occur (code choice),
settings such as home, church, mosque, school, office, etc.
Diglossia:
Communities rather in which two languages or language varieties are used with one being a
high variety for formal situations and prestige, and a low variety for informal situations
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(everyday conversation). Diglossia has three crucial features; two distinct varieties of the
same language are used in the community, with one regarded as high (H) variety and the
other as low (L) variety. Each variety is used for quite distinct functions; H & L complement
each other. No one uses the H variety in everyday conversation.
Example: the standard classical Arabic language is the high variety in Arab countries, and it
is used for writing and for formal functions, but vernacular (colloquial) Arabic is the low
variety used for informal speech situations.
Polyglossia:
Basically polyglossia situations involve two contrasting varieties (high and low) but in
general it refers to communities that regularly use more than two languages.
Code-switching:
It is to move from one code (language, dialect, or style) to another during speech for a
number of reasons such, to signal solidarity, to reflect one's ethnic identity, to show off, to
hide some information from a third party, to achieve better explanation of a certain concept,
to converge or reduce social distance with the hearer, to diverge or increase social distance or
to impress and persuade the audience (metaphorical code-switching)
Lexical borrowing:
It results from the lack of vocabulary and it involves borrowing single words – mainly nouns.
When speaking a second language, people will often use a term from their first language
because they don't know the appropriate word in their second language. They also my borrow
words from another language to express a concept or describe an object for which there is no
obvious word available in the language they are using.
Language maintenance and shift
Language shift:
it happens when the language of the wider society (majority) displaces the minority mother
tongue language over time in migrant communities or in communities under military
occupation. Therefore when language shift occurs, it shifts most of the time towards the
language of the dominant group, and the result could be the eradication of the local language
Q: What factors lead to language shift?
Economic, social and political factor
The dominant language is associated with social status and prestige
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Obtaining work is the obvious economic reason for learning another language
The pressure of institutional domains such as schools and the media
Demographic factors
Language shift is faster in urban areas than rural
The size of the group is some times a critical factor
Intermarriage between groups can accelerate language shift
Attitudes and values
Language shift is slower among communities where the minority language is highly valued,
therefore when the language is seen as an important symbol of ethnic identity its generally
maintained longer, and visa versa.
Language death and Language loss:
When all the people who speak a language die, the language dies with them. With the spread
of a majority group language into more and more domains, the number of contexts in which
individuals use the ethnic language diminishes. The language usually retreats till it is used
only in the home, and finally it is restricted to such personal activities as counting, praying
and dreaming.
More important terminologies in Sociolinguistics:
Vernacular language:
It generally refers to a language which has not been standardised or codified and which does
not have official status (un codified or standardised variety). It generally refers to the most
colloquial variety in a person's linguistic repertoire.
Standard Language:
A standard variety is generally one which is written, and which has undergone some degree
of regulation or codification (in a grammar and a dictionary).
Lingua franca:
A language used for communication between different language users, for people whose first
languages differ, such as pidgin between European colonizers and African slaves (Swahili).
Pidgin:
It is a language which has no native speakers. Pidgins develop as a means of communication
between people who don't have a common language.
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Creole:
When a pidgin becomes the language of newly-born generations as a mother-tongue or first
language, and acquires additional vocabulary and grammatical structures to serve their
various necessary communicative needs (referential and social functions) it becomes a
Creole.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociolinguistics#:~:text=Sociolinguistics%20is%20the
%20descriptive%20study,effect%20of%20language%20on%20society.
https://www.slideshare.net/raisyafatmawatiishak/sociolinguistic-terms
R.A. Hudson. Sociolinguistics.
