Post on 03-Apr-2018
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Sociolinguistics 3
Classification: social groups,
languages and dialects
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The story so far
General knowledge includes knowledge of
language (I-language) as well as of
society (I-society). (I = internal)
General knowledge is an inheritance
network so we store general prototypes
for people and for language.
E.g. American, Student, Woman
English, London English, Casual English
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Language and knowledge
Our knowledge is influenced by:
external reality, including E-language and E-
society
Our language. Language can distort reality, e.g. it is digital, so
doesnt always fit the analog world. E.g:
Shingle or pebbles?
Drizzle or rain?
Classical music or jazz or pop?
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What about languages and
dialects?
We all think about language (mass) in
terms oflanguages (count) and dialects.
How accurate are these concepts?
Are they based on fact or on the terms
language and dialect?
Can we use them in sociolinguistics for
saying who uses what kind of language?
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Some terminology for language
varieties
A variety is a distinct language system,
with grammar, vocabulary, etc.
A language is a variety which is
incomprehensible to speakers of other
languages.
A language may include sub-varieties.
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Sub-varieties of a language
A dialect is a sub-variety based on social
groups, e.g. geography, social class.
An accent is a way of pronouncing a dialect
e.g. RP.
A registeris a sub-variety based on social
situations, e.g. chat, essay, prayer
A standard dialect/register is a sub-variety
with high social status.
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Varieties of language variety
language variety
language dialect register
accent standard
partpart
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What are varieties good for?
Crude explicit comment about the socialdistribution of language items.
Language variety X is used by social type
Y. English is spoken by Brits, Americans,
Londoners speak Cockney.
The language of Egypt is Arabic, notEgyptian.
Better than nothing
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The social distribution of
languages.Languagecount
English French .....
Brit American French-person ...
Person
speaker speaker
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What language is this?
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and this
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and this
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So what? (1)
We organise our knowledge about
language (mass) in terms of languages.
But is that how the world organises them?
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Now what language is this?
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Transcription
And so couldnt gather their own supper
and another of the fairies said er ???
supper ???
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and this
Holide Karent Affairs:
Thursday January 15, 2004
= Holiday current affairs
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continued
long despela program....I luk olsem PapuaNew Guinea bai mari mari long ol "illegalimmigrants" -- pipal bilong narapela kantri
husat i bin burukim loa na go stap longPNG
= About this programme It shows thatPNG will ?? because of people ofanother country who have broken the lawto live in PNG
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and this?
Ws dis ealond geo gewurad mid am
elestrum ceastrum, twega wana
rittigum, a e wron
Was this island once made-splendid with
the noblest castles, two less-than thirty,
that there were.
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So what? (2)
Intelligibility is a matter of degree.
Intelligibility depends on prior experience.
Varieties can vary continuously in Space
Time
New varieties such as pidgins and creolesare especially hard to classify.
So languages are fictions, not fact.
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Are dialects any more real?
We think and talk about divisions within a
language in terms of dialects and
registers.
E.g. London dialect
Standard English
Academic English
But are dialect boundaries fact or fiction?
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Which dialect is this
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and this?
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So what? (3)
All native speakers of a language
recognise some dialects.
But these are learned from experience, so
we recognise different dialects.
The more experience we have, the more
distinctions we make.
So how do these mental distinctions
compare with reality?
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Dialect geography
Dialectologists traditionally recorded the
words and pronunciations of elderly
speakers in remote villages.
They showed their findings on maps, with
a different map for each feature.
They drew lines separating different areas
of use: isoglosses.
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ARM = [:m] or [:rm]?
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SUN = [sn] or [sn]?
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LAST = [last], [la:st] or [l:st]?
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HOUSE = [haus] or [aus]?
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So what? (4)
Every isogloss follows a different path.
Every variable linguistic feature has a
different social distribution.
Dialect boundaries cant be defined by
bundles of isoglosses.
Dialects are fictions, not facts.
But they have some value in thinking and
talking about language variation.
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And standard dialect?
This is at least as real as any other variety.
Standard English is defined by publishers.
Its the language of education especially at
university level.
In some countries the standard variety is a
register, used only in public.
Called diglossia, e.g. German Switzerland
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So what?
Folk sociolinguistics recognises global
categories as related to each other:
varieties of language
social categories (people, situations)
But these are fictions rather than facts.
The facts show much more complex
relations between linguistic items and
social characteristics.
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Coming shortly
Week 4: How we look after each others
faces.
Week 5: Power and solidarity.