Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Who is this guy? Other questions/comments… Video...

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010

Who is this guy?

Other questions/comments…

Video clips from Do You Speak American – more info here:http://www.pbs.org/speak/


SociolinguisticsLike Pragmatics, it’s the study of the use of languageThe study of language in its social contextsSpeech community - group of people who share some set of social conventions (socioling norms) regarding language use - EXAMPLES?Accent - pronunciationDialect - includes pronunciation (phonological/phonetic), but also includes grammatical, lexical and usage - MFL exampleSome examples of homophones for some -- hock/hawk, caller/collar, cot/caught, calm/com, Don/Dawn Variety - used as a more neutral term for dialect or language

Socioling

Slide 1


SociolinguisticsLinguistic variation and change

Social Factors:REGION - what are the major dialects/accents spoken in America?Sex/GenderSocial classAgeEthnicityStyle

Socioling

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SociolinguisticsDialects in North America are mutually intelligible - the differences do not impede communication totallyDialect vs. Language???Dialect continuum – go village by village, from northwestern France to southern Italy and each adjacent village can understand each other, although Parisians cannot understand Romans.

Socioling

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SociolinguisticsWhat are the different regional accents in your opinion?

Socioling

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Video about perceptual dialectology

http://www.pbs.org/speak/speech/mapping/map.html#



Socioling

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Socioling

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Regional varieties described in terms of lexical choices done through Linguistic Atlas creationDialectologists looked at NORMs =

old men in the sticks! (non-mobile old rural men)

Asked what is the word you use for...Plotted variation on a map and drew lines – isoglosses (see image )Now sociolinguists look at urban populations and exam different regions in terms of what is happening in the cities

Socioling

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SociolinguisticsLinguistic variation and change – cot vs. caught isogloss

Socioling

Slide 9

From Labov et. al.’s Phonological Atlas of North American English

Available at PSU library! PE2808 .D69 2005

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010Prescriptive attitudes about language variation and change…

The Oregonian Regarding Jeff Conn's opinions about whether or not Portlanders are developing their own unique dialect - Piffle!

I've lived in Portland - and other western locations - and here's my take: Intelligently spoken "western speech" that is free of recently introduced speech influences from other regions (i.e. southern, Bostonian, ethnic, etc.) is the purest and most accent free English in the whole world. If you doubt me, go to England and converse with normal, everyday folks. Most have terrible pronunciation. Many of them are borderline unintelligible. London east-ender "Cockney" is totally indecipherable! Then go north to Scotland. Delightful people, but what they speak sounds nothing like what the dictionary pronunciation guide says it should sound like. Same thing in Ireland, and Australia. Lovely people. Terrible speech habits.

But back to the U.S. There are too many people moving from other regions into our western stronghold to justify calling any bad speech habits as being anything but temporary.

By far the biggest influence on Pacific Northwest speech is the same as with other western regions - and probably other parts of the country; namely, teenagers develop their own subnormal vocabulary and way of speaking. Although much more extreme than with previous generations, subnormal has always been associated with teenagers. The big difference now is that when young people eventually mature, they don't drop their language in favor of adult speech. Our adult language has become the prisoner of "teenspeak," and that is an utter abomination.

True, languages evolve; but adults copying the speech of rebellious anti-social youth is not the hallmark of a great society. And this decline of the American language will probably continue indefinitely; when was the last time you heard a teenager say "It's time for me to speak good, correct English?"

Like, man, it'll never happen.

"'S'up?"

"He goes," "She goes."

Our language is dying, but it had a pretty good run. Luckily for me, most of my life has been during the good part.



Regional difference is post-vocalic r (car, card, guard, etc)William Labov - NYC - listen to a New YorkerAttitudes about varieties (based on gender, ethnicity, region and social class stereotypes!)

Socioling

Slide 10

Coffee shop with a sign:“We’re sorry - no blended drinks today.The blender is broke.”

This sign was in Portland area – where would you expect to see it (based on stereotypes – not your opinion if they’re real)



Style and ling change interacts with social class William Labov’s department store study

Socioling

Slide 10b



There are many different varieties - what is correct?Standard English is just one of many different varietiesLinguistics try to describe these varieties and all the varieties are equal in linguistics termsWhat would happen if I said that Standard English meant that you have to distinguish between cot~caught, tot~taught, hock~hawk, Don~dawn, collar~caller? How would that make you feel?

Are other dialects mutually intelligible – here some sounds here from the Northern Cities area: Northern Cities Shift (not #5)

Socioling

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Regional difference by vowel production shifts (language change) over timeNorthern Cities Shift (play Chicago sample - 3mins)

Socioling

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The Southern Shift (Play Arkansas 2mins; play Eng 3mins;

Socioling

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The California/Canada Shift (Play Cali - 1:45; Ontario 2:15)

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Ethnicity - Chicano English, African American Vernacular English, Native American English; etc.AAVE - shares features with other English dialectsTables 15.13 and 15.14 on p. 517 shows AAVE featuresPhonological features part of other varietiesHabitual be, copula deletion - more elaborate than standard English The coffee cold today. The coffee be cold here.

Socioling

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Ethnicity - African American Vernacular English,

Socioling

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Ethnicity - African American Vernacular English, see Jeopardy game

Socioling

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SociolinguisticsGender variable - different degree of usage for men and womenDo men and women speak differently?What are the assumptions here...

Socioling

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SociolinguisticsSome say... women use more hedges in their speech - EXAMPLES? TRUE OR FALSE?

Grammatical gender - not directly related to real men and women, but most langs with gram gender do use the masc forms as generic (ellos vs. ellas)The switch from he as “neutral” pronoun to they

Socioling

Slide 18


SociolinguisticsSex differences of linguistic behavior: DiscourseHedgesInterruption - men have been found to interrupt women more than vice-versa (even when woman is a doctor and power is involved)In a review article looking at 63 studies investigating the amount of talk by sex (studies from 1951-1991) - only 2 of these studies found women to talk more overall, but there are differences with respect to topic and formality of situation See here for more details

Socioling

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SociolinguisticsRobin Lakoff, 1975, “women’s language”

Tag questionsRising intonation for declarative statements “Empty” adjectives (divine, lovely)Specialized women’s vocabulary (color terms)Frequent use of emphasis (“speaking in italics” - What a beautiful hat)Intensive so (You are so fired)Politeness devices and hypercorrect grammar (women use more standard language; more indirect requests)Hedges (well, like, sort of)Women don’t tell jokes

Socioling

Slide 20


“Do You Speak American” – information

Watch clips of video in class – the website here:

http://www.pbs.org/speak/

My article on Portland speech is here:

http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/americanvarieties/pacificnorthwest/


For next time:Whatever Dr. Hellermann tells you to do Also, he will review what is important information from this lecture for exam purposes – but hey, it’s all really cool anyway so you’ll probably remember!

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Who is this guy? Other questions/comments… Video...

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