LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY. Language can be studied from several different points of view: social,...

LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY


• Language can be studied from several different points of view: social, cultural, psychological, biological, etc.

• Branches of macrolinguistics: psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, ethnolinguistics, etc. – they all involve the use of techniques and theoretical concepts coming from two or more disciplines


• Sociolinguistics is the study of language in relation to society (predominantly concerned with language variations)

• Ethnolinguistics is the study of language in relation to culture

• Psycholinguistics is the study of language and mind (predominantly concerned with biological changes, universals and influence between two sciences)


• Language, dialect and idiolect• Dialect vs. Accent• Dialect – covers differences in

pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary• Phrase “in dialect” used by non-linguists

meaning “in a dialect other than Standard English”

• Accent – restricted to varieties of pronunciation


• Phrase “with an accent” used in England meaning “with an accent other than RP”

• One can speak the same dialect with different accent

• British English – misleading term (differences among Scottish, Welsh, Irish and Standard English)


• Sociolinguistically speaking, accent is very important (phonemic differences in pronunciation mark regions, but social status as well)

• The absence of (r) in pronunciation of words like farm, father is “socially recommendable” in New York, but not in England and RP - /r/ is simply not pronounced in RP


• There are more regional variations in the speech of those lower on the social scale than of those who are higher up


• No more than 3% of the population of England speak with an RP accent

• William Labov (USA) used survey techniques and concluded that an individual’s accent and dialect varies systematically with the formality and informality of the situation in which he finds himself (pronunciation of r)


• Both in Britain and USA, women are more likely than men to adopt the accent or dialect that is associated with higher social status


• Individuals may modify their idiolects throughout life

• An individual may also have several dialect variants in his repertory and switch from one to the other according to the situation in which he finds himself

• The standardization of a particular dialect: Standard English emerged as such over the centuries because of the political and cultural importance of London


• Written language more highly standardized than speech

• The term “ vernaculars” stands for non-standard dialects of the same language

• “Standard language”, “national language” and “official language” (not synonyms)

• These terms generally refer to any language that is accepted by its speakers as a symbol of nationhood or is designated by government for official use


• They are highly standardized languages which are neither national nor official languages (great classical languages)

• Tanzania (Swahili – official language), India (English)

• Pidgin and creoles languages – originate as highly restricted vernaculars of a particular kind (mixed or blended languages used for particular purposes)


• When a pidgin is acquired by children as their native language, it is said to be a creole (the English based creole of Jamaica and the French based creole of Haiti)

• Melanesian Pidgin and Krio are official, standard languages in New Guinea and Sierra Leone

• The process of pidginization


• Bilingualism – some countries have two or more official languages (Canada, Belgium)

• Multilingualism (Switzerland)

• Perfect bilingualism (rare): the full range of competence in both languages that a native monolingual speaker has in one


• Compound or co-ordinate bilinguals: two language systems integrated as one or stored separately

• Weak bilingualism: one language dominant, another subordinate

• Code-switching: a situational change in the value of one of the languages (clear functional differentiation between languages): business subjects in English and more private matters in national language

LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY. Language can be studied from several different points of view: social,...

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