UNED

Academic Year

2010 - 2011

An Introduction to Sociolinguistics

Rubén Chacón Beltrán

“No cup no broke, no coffee no dash wey” “Even if disaster strikes your home,

It´s always possible that all may not be lost.”

Jamaican Proberb (in Jamaican Patwa)

Notes & Compilation

by Hélène Sofos

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Index

Unit 1: Key Concepts in Sociolinguistics……………………………. 3 Origin of Sociolinguistics……………………………………………………. 4 Speech Communities………………………………………………………… 6 Unit 2: Some Variables in Sociolinguistics………………………….. 8 Styles…………………………………………………………………………….. 8 Registers………………………………………………………………………… 9 Gender…………………………………………………………………………… 10 Speech Accommodation…………………………………………………….. 13 Unit 3: Pidginization & Creolization………………………………….. 14 Creole Languages…………………………………………………………….. 15 Characteristics of Pidgins…………………………………………………… 17 Hawaiian Creole………………………………………………………………. 19 Jamaican Patwa………………………………………………………………. 20

Tok Pisin………………………………………………………………………… 23 Decreolization………………………………………………………………….. 25 Instumental, Accommodation & Awareness Programs…………….... 28 Code-Switching……………………………………………………………….. 35 Diglossia………………………………………………………………………… 38 Diglossia & Bilingualism……………………………………………………. 41 Language Contact…………………………………………………………….. 44 Language Conflicts…………………………………………………………… 46 Unit 5: Bilingual Education………………………………………………. 47 Advantages of Bilingual Education……………………………………….. 49 Language Planning…………………………………………………………… 50 Minority Languages………………………………………………………….. 60 Particular Sociolinguistic Situations: India…………………………….. 63 Particular Sociolinguistic Situations: New Zealand………………….. 64 Particular Sociolinguistic Situations: Canada…………………………. 66 Particular Sociolinguistic Situations: European Union…………........ 69 The Role of English…………………………………………………………… 71 Unit 6: Language Teaching & Learning……………………………….. 73 Communicative Competence………………………………………………. 74 Rules of Speaking…………………………………………………………….. 76

Analysis of English as a Foreign Language in Classrooom Use……. 79 Implications in Language Teaching………………………………………. 80 Pragmatics in Language Teaching………………………………………… 81 Language in the Law…………………………………………………………. 83 World Englishes………………………………………………………………. 85 Glossary………………………………………………………………………… 90

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Introduction:

Key Concepts in Sociolinguistics

Language is used: To convey meaning,

To transmit a verbal message,

To initiate,

Maintain and Preserve social relationships.

Language is a social phenomenon THAT RELATES THE SPEAKERS TO THEIR SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT and their kinship to other members of the

SPEECH COMMUNITY.

Sociolinguistics is a relatively NEW field. Sociolinguistics tried to find THE REASONS for linguistic variations in social and environment conditions.

Dell Hymes coined the term COMMUNICATIVE

COMPETENCE as opposed to Chomsky´s LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE.

COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE refers not only to the human

ability to use the language in different situations and under different

circumstances, but it also refers to other NON-LINGUISTIC ASPECTS which are

VOLUME

AMOUNT OF TALK WORD CHOICE

GESTURES

Etc

Sociolinguistics VS Sociology of Language When in the 1960s Sociolinguistics first began to develop, both terms were

used interchangeably. However,

SOCIOLINGUISTICS is the study of LANGUAGE in relation to society.

SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE is the study of SOCIETY in relation to

language.

Sociolinguists may make analyses in either a MICRO or a MACRO level.

Unit 1

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In a MICRO LEVEL, they would analyze Pronunciation,

Grammar,

Vocabulary

Within a single speech community, in order to determine some features of EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND, ECONOMIC STATUS or SOCIAL CLASS.

In a MACRO LEVEL, they would analyze Language variations

As a human phenomenon that affects large parts of the population.

For example, when large populations MIGRATE to a different place and the

language is preserved because of social factors.

Some authors prefer to talk about MICRO-sociolinguistics and MACRO-

sociolinguistics. BOTH are concerned with LANGUAGE and SOCIETY, although at a different SCALE.

The ORIGINS of Sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics has spread in the LAST THIRTY YEARS together with other

branches of linguistics such as: Psycholinguistics

Pragmatics and

Applied linguistics

Sociolinguistics comprises various areas of study and research like

historical and comparative linguistics, dialectology and anthropology.

IN EUROPE, sociolinguistics started with the study of

Historical linguistics and Linguistic geography

Dialectology

Regional languages and the

Linguistic situation of the COLONIZED COUNTRIES.

In the USA, Sociolinguistics emerged from the CONTACT OF linguistics with disciplines

such as ANTHROPOLOGY and SOCIOLOGY.

SUBFIELDS of sociolinguistics:

Pragmatics Language gender studies

Pidgin

Creole studies Language planning

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Policy studies

Education of linguistic minorities

Etc.

Variation Sociolinguistics is ALL ABOUT VARIATION. For it, the most important

source of information is the way social and situational factors affect

language and make it vary.

One aspect of it is when two people, for example, start talking about

the weather and at the same time they get information about the ORIGIN of

the other person, as well as their SOCIAL, ECONOMICAL, POLITICAL,

RELIGIOUS and CULTURAL background.

Another aspect of variation is that it has certain bounds. That

is, a speaker CAN VARY their speech ONLY IN SOME DEGREE, but not

beyond certain limits because otherwise the speech would be

UNGRAMMATICAL or/and INCOMPREHENSIBLE.

When we use a language, we also learn the social conventions associated

with it, which can be different from one culture to another.

CONCLUSION of subchapter “Variation”

The AIM OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS is to DESCRIBE the variations WITHIN A LANGUAGE and MATCH these variations with the different groups of people

that use them,, as well as the corresponding situations.

Some Instances of Variation

Style shifting Example 1: In American English, the first phoneme in the words

“thing” or “that”.

It can be pronounced as a smooth fricative or

As a lightly or strongly articulated alveolar plosive

As a blend of these 2 variants or Not pronounced at all in some utterances.

Example 2: In Black English Vernacular, we can see the “double negative”

“Nobody don´t know about that”.

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Example 3: WORD CHOICE also determines style shifting as the linguistic “domain” (home, neighborhood, job, church, store, school etc)

Diachronic Variations LANGUAGES change OVER TIME.

Languages are in a CONSTANT FLUX. PRONUNCIATION also changes in all languages. (“sound shift”)

SYNTAX also changes.

SEMANTIC change takes places also. The WORD STOCK can also be expanded with coined, invented or

borrowed words from other languages, especially nowadays.

Examples: Greek = patér Latin = pater

Gothic = fadar

Old English = foeder

Present-day English = “father”

Greek = déka

Latin = decem Gothic = teon

Present-day En. Ten

Speech Community What is a speech community? It is difficult to find a comprehensive definition.

For GENERAL LINGUISTICS, A speech community is a group of people that share the same language

or dialect in a specific setting, which can be close or broad.

For SOCIOLINGUISTICS,

Giving a definition is a much more complicated task, because, for example,

of the number of variables involved in the social and linguistic interaction

of some speech communities.

The DEFINITION of speech community needs to be kind of FLEXIBLE and

ABSTRACT to include social groupings as dissimilar as neighborhoods and countries as speech communities.

A BIG COMPONENT of a speech community is to SHARE AT LEAST ONE LANGUAGE. Each individual can be a member of a speech community on

one occasion and of another on another occasion.

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It is also important to remember that speech communities do not

necessarily correspond with political boundaries, religions or cultures.

Languages are shared by groups of people that share a physical context but

ALSO A NUMBER OF SOCIAL NORMS.

4 major types of speech communities, as distinguished by Kahru:

1. A MULTILINGUAL speech community = more than one official languages, such as in Switzerland.

2. A BILINGUAL speech community = two official languages in the same

country, such as Canada and Belgium.

3. A MONOLINGUAL speech community = only one official language, although in the same country people can use different styles,

registers and even dialects, which can be very different from the

standard language. 4. A DIGLOSSIC community = two languages or varieties are

functionally COMPLEMENTARY. Usually, one variety if the HIGH

ONE and another is for colloquial speech (low variety) (Arabic Classical and colloquial).

DIGLOSSIA is often intertwined with bilingualism/multilingualism, like in German-speaking Switzerland. Children learn the low variety

(Schwyzertütsch) and then the high variety at school.

CONCLUSION

On the DEFINITION OF SPEECH COMMUNITIES

NOT EASY to define a speech community. HOWEVER, there are general

guidelines (Spolsky):

No limitation of location or size.

It entails a complex interlocking network of communication.

The members of the speech community share the knowledge of language use patterns.

They share attitudes towards themselves and others.

They also share a set of language varieties and norms for using them.

Doing Sociolinguistic Research The very same language is not used in the same way by all those who speak

it. The way each person uses the language depends on the person´s

SOCIAL or GEOGRAPHIC BACKGROUND and other factors such as AGE, SEX or EDUCATION.

A researcher needs to make sure that they will devise a way to collect data with a TRANSPARENT, SYSTEMATIC and UNAMBIGUOUS method in order

to get RELIABLE, NON-BIASED DATA. They have to make sure that when

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they record the speech of people, that the people who speak do that in a

very natural way, without thinking that somebody is recording them. This

is the only way they can have reliable data for analysis.

Sociolinguistic research is based on the collection of LARGE AMOUNTS OF

DATA and the later statistical analysis of data in order to find general tendencies or regularities.

Some VARIABLES in Sociolinguistics

This chapter is divided in 2 big parts:

The FIRST ONE talks about the 3 main variables in Sociolinguistics,

which are:

1. Style

2. Register

3. Gender

And the SECOND part is about SPEECH ACCOMMODATION.

PART I.1

Variable of STYLE It is a type of variation a bit less conspicuous and therefore more laborious

to describe.

Members of a speech community usually have a range of CHOICES to use

when they speak regarding WORD CHOICE

SYNTACTIC COMPLEXITY and even

SUBTLE PRONUNCIATION features.

For example, you can speak

VERY FORMALLY or VERY INFORMALLY

CASUALLY or

REALLY INFORMALLY,

Depending on certain circumstances and situations.

This range of formality to informality or vice versa can be manifested either

in the written or in the spoken word.

STYLE implies a CHOICE on the part of the speaker to say something.

Unit 2

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An example:

If the speaker wants to say “Can you pass me the salt?”, they cannot change the word “salt”, because in this case they would alter the meaning

of the phrase. BUT, they can change “can” to “could” or “would”.

Another example:

The different words or expressions that somebody has died, that is,

“die” “pass away”

“bite the dust”

“kick the bucket”

Can be used by a speaker depending on the style he will choose to say that

somebody has died, and that depending on the context, the speaker´s

education etc.

STYLE in linked to all linguistic behavior and not only in literature.

PART I.2

Variable of REGISTER A REGISTER is a SET OF LANGUAGE FEATURES, mainly the choice of LEXICAL TERMS or SYNTACTIC ORDERING of UTTERANCES, whose use

tends to be associated WITH A SPECIFIC INTEREST GROUP as in the case

of professionals with a PARTICULAR OCCUPATION, and, often, a PARTICULAR WORKING CONTEXT:

Doctors,

Air traffic controllers, Lawyers,

Computer enthusiasts

Etc.

Nowadays, the OVERWHELMING AMOUNT of information to which we are

exposed in our society favors the appearance of registers.

SPECIALIZATION is encouraged and the FLOURISHING number of TECHNICAL WORDS and ACRONYMS sometimes makes it difficult for a

lay person to follow a conversation on any topic that requires a specific

register. Register is SOCIALLY MOTIVATED, as it entails A SOCIAL NEGOTIATION among the participants in order to accommodate the

ADEQUATE register either in written or spoken discourse.

2 DIFFERENT CONCEPTIONS OF REGISTER

1. In a NARROW SENSE of the word, it can refer to the type of

language used by a group of PROFESSIONALS who employ

certain LINGUISTIC FEATURES which are NOT USED in other settings = THIS CONCEPTION OF REGISTER IS CLOSELY RELATED

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TO JARGON AND TENDS TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH WORD CHOICE RATHER THAN SYNTACTIC ORDERING.

2. In a BROAD SENSE of the word register can be understood

as a SOCIAL GENRE, a SOCIOLECT that bears upon

LEXICAL CHOICE and SYNTACTIC ORDERING and could

be exemplified in the language of newspaper articles, academic prose or legal language.

3 Main DIMENSIONS by means of which a register can be depicted:

1. FIELD, which relates to the ACTIVITY PERFORMED, the SETTING

and the AIM of the interaction. 2. TENOR, which refers to SOCIAL ROLES ENACTED and the

relationship between the participants. 3. MODE, which refers to the MEDIUM of the language in that

situation.

An example: In the case of a newspaper article,

The FIELD would be the SUBJECT MATTER OF THE ARTICLE.

The TENOR would be the JOURNALIST who wrote the article as well as

the INTENDED AUDIENCE.

The MODE would be the PIECE OF WRITTEN WORK THAT IS PRINTED ON THE NEWSPAPER and reaches the reader.

The professor goes on giving three examples of different registers: 1. A text with legal language.

2. A newspaper article.

3. A recipe.

PART I.3

Variable of GENDER There is some evidence that marks language as SEXIST, or rather THEIR

USERS, and that both sexes do not speak the same way and that CANNOT

ONLY BE ATTRIBUTED to stylistic or individual differences.

HOWEVER, language SHOULD NOT be considered as INHERENTLY

SEXIST but it is used in a sexist way or even that it reflects a sexist world. (“He” is the 12th commonest word in the English language, whereas “She” is

the 31st commonest word.) But there are no more men than women in the

world, so this is evidence that the English language is used to TALK AND WRITE IN A SEXIST WORLD.

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Patters of VARIATION between men and women are much more EVIDENT

in some parts of the globe, as is the case of JAPAN.

Japanese women, for example, show they are women when they speak by

using “ne” as a sentence final particle. MALE SPEAKERS refer to themselves as “wasi” or “ore” and female speakers use “watasi” or

“atasi”.

Then, the professor exposes some of the conclusions of a study carried by

Trudgill in 1972, in Norwich (England), about the way men and women

speak.

Men: More language change.

More tendency to underreport their use of prestige forms.

Liable to react to vernacular prestige forms. Their type of language was associated with ROUGHNESS and

TOUGHNESS, which were considered, to some extent, as

DESIRABLE MASCULINE ATTRIBUTES.

Women: More conservative in terms of language use.

More status-conscious than men.

A clear tendency to overreport their use of prestige forms.

Tended to respond to standard-language prestige norms. Their type of language was associated, in the context in which

the research was carried out, with REFINEMENT,

SOPHISTICATION and ADHERENCE to the standard language.

The reason for women´s adherence to the standard could be

motivated, according to Trudgill, to their POWERLESS position in life.

The study of GENDER is a COMPLEX DEVELOPING ISSUE and arises from

the different ROLES and EXPECTATIONS upon the sexes.

Many of the conceptions we have had about gender and variation are based

upon POPULAR BELIEF and not on sociolinguistic analysis. But this is

changing a lot.

Sex & Gender Traditionally, the term SEX

Has been used to refer to biological and anatomical differences between

men and women.

GENDER has been used to refer to psychological and socio-cultural

differences between the sexes.

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RELATION between SEX & GENDER

SEX is a biological category which is the base for the differentiation of

roles, norms and expectations within a certain speech community.

These social roles, norms and expectations compose the idea of

GENDER. FEMININITY and MASCULINITY change

- from ONE CULTURE TO ANOTHER,

- they also depend on ethnic, religious or social groups.

Recently, studies have been made to support the existence of certain

characteristics that identify GAY and LESBIAN LANGUAGE, although this is still an ONGOING DEBATE.

NEUROPHYSIOLOGICAL Differences in the way

MALES and FEMALES process LANGUAGE It seems that PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSING in MALES relates to the left

hemisphere of the brain whereas it involves both hemispheres in the case of

females. However, there is no evidence that such biological differences have an effect on male-female language processing and speech. ANY

DISSIMILARITY IS A RESULT OF:

- SOCIAL FACTORS

- EDUCATIONAL FACTORS, or

- POWER.

ANALYSIS of these DIFFERENCES lead to the formation of

GENDERLECTS.

Robin Lakoff identified certain features distinguishing women´s talk in

terms of:

- Word choice

- Hesitant intonation - A voice pitch associated with surprise and questions

- Frequency of tag phrases

- Their attitude towards politeness - The use of more polite noises which support the interlocutor´s view.

In general, women understand language as information gathering rather than a mechanism to initiate and support their relationship

with others.

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Then, the professor refers to the use of “his” for men and women and

mentions that a number of solutions have been suggested to avoid this

instance of sexism in English. One of the BEST ONES is to use “their”.

Also, many words which indicated professions have changed in order not to

indicate that they are only jobs done by men.

Examples:

Bus boy Dining room attendant

Chairman chairperson

Fireman Firefighter

Policeman Police Officer Foreman Supervisor

Salesman Salesperson

Spokesman Spokesperson

PART II

Speech Accommodation Speech Accommodation is to MODIFY one´s speech or OTHER

COMMUNICATIVE BEHAVIOURS to the ones used by the person one is

interacting with. This modification is done according to the INTENTIONS of the speakers and the RESULTS of the communication encounter.

WAYS To perform Speech Accommodation

a. Doctors, lawyers and therapists can accommodate their speech when

they communicate with clients in order to show EMPATHY.

b. Speakers of a NON-standard variety can accommodate their speech in such a way that they can be understood by a person who doesn´t

know this variety.

SPEECH CONVERGENCE shows a speaker´s or a group´s NEED for

SOCIAL INTEGRATION and/or IDENTIFICATION with another or others.

SOMETIMES, this accommodation may be done consciously and

deliberately, BUT, on MANY occasions it reflects an UNCONSCIOUS

behavior.

RESULTS of Speech Accommodation It increases the speaker´s perceived:

a. Attractiveness

b. Predictability

c. Supportiveness d. Level of interpersonal involvement

e. Intelligibility

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f. Comprehensibility and

g. The speaker´s ability to gain their listener´s compliance.

Speech DIVERGENCE and the use of DIVERGENT STRATEGIES are more

often fostered where the participants in the communication encounter stem

from DIFFERENT SOCIAL OR WORKING BACKGROUNDS giving way to a strategy of intergroup distinctiveness. By means of this TACTIC,

members of an ingroup can intensify their inclusion in the relevant

group while excluding others.

This target can be attained with the use of a specific slang, jargon,

grammatical complexity or, simply, accent.

Pidginization & Creolization Pidgins & Pidginization

PIDGINIZATION is a PROCESS that sometimes takes place when 2

languages COME INTO CONTACT and, as a result, there is a process of SIMPLIFICATION or HYBRIDIZATION.

This normally happens because speakers of different languages need to have limited relations between them, for example, for trade/some kind of

business and they invent a language in order to be able to

communicate.

Often, one language gives the VOCABULARY, whereas the other gives the

SYNTAX. AS A RULE, GRAMMAR as well as other COMPLEX LINGUISTIC

FEATURES are SIMPLIFIED.

Most of pidgins were formed in the 16th and 17th centuries, during the

period of colonization by European powers. That is why all these pidgins are lexically related to the language of the colonizers.

INITIALLY, these pidgins were CONTACT LANGUAGES. They were

only used for specific purposes, such as trade mainly, and they were

NOT the native language of anybody. Speakers continued to use their

OWN native language in their own speech communities.

According to WARDHAUGH, the process of Pidginization requires the

CONTACT OF MORE THAN 2 LANGUAGES. In case of only 2, there

would finally be a relation of DOMINANCE OF ONE OVER THE OTHER, depending on social and economic factors. The dominant culture would

impose its language. HOWEVER, WHEN MORE THAN 2 LANGUAGES ARE

Unit 3

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SPOKEN, THOSE WHO NEED TO COMMUNICATE MUST FIND A COMMON

GROUND.

EXAMPLE of a pidgin language which underwent several geographical and

sociolinguistic contexts: MELANESIAN PIDGIN ENGLISH.

1. It arose as a SHIPBOARD lingua franca. 2. It was later used as a PLANTATION language. 3. It finally came to be a language for INTER-ETHNIC CITY

communication.

CREOLES – CREOLIZATION CREOLIZATION takes place when that language which originally used

ONLY for PURPOSEFUL communication is acquired AS A MOTHER TONGUE by children who are exposed to it.

But since this language is not used now only for very limited purposes, it

has to fulfill ALL KINDS OF SOCIAL NEEDS and communicative purposes.

Therefore, the language expands and the language that used to be pidgin becomes MORE COMPLEX both

in terms of GRAMMAR and PHONOLOGY.

RELATION BETWEEN

PIDGINIZATION & CREOLIZATION Pidginization and Creolization are absolutely DIFFERENT although they may overlap.

PIDGINIZATION = simplification (lexis, grammar, phonology). CREOLIZATION = expansion of linguistic features and communicative

functions.

NOT EVERY PIDGIN BECOMES A CREOLE.

Creoles languages were considered to be of INFERIOR STATUS for a

long time. However, between 1950 and 1975 they stooped to be looked upon as uninteresting and marginal “bastardized jargons” to gain the

status of languages. They have become the CENTRAL INTEREST of

many linguists: sociolinguists, applied linguists and theoretical linguists.

Lingua franca

ORIGINALLY, pidgins served the purpose of a lingua franca. That is, they were used by people who spoke different mother tongues FOR A SPECIFIC

FUNCTIONAL SITUATION, SUCH AS TRADE.

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Nowadays, English as well as Esperanto can be considered as

lingua franca, because they are used all over the world. English has

become the language of business and intercultural communication,

whereas Esperanto is sometimes used for international communication.

Some Instances of PIDGINS Most pidgins and creoles are based on EUROPEAN languages.

The MOST COMMON ones are based on: English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian or German.

ENGLISH-BASED CREOLES are common in the CARIBBEAN =

Antigua

Barbados Jamaica and

The West Indies in general.

Also, in AFRICA =

Cameroon

Kenya St. Helena

Zimbabwe

Namibia

In ASIA too =

India China

Hong Kong

In the PACIFIC =

Papua New Guinea Solomon Islands

Australia

FRENCH-BASED CREOLES can be found in

Martinique Guadeloupe

St. Lucia and

Haiti

SPANISH-BASED PIDGINS and CREOLES: Dominican Republic

Cuba

Puerto Rico

The Philippines.

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PORTUGUESE-BASED CREOLES Aruba

Bonaire

Curaçao

Malaysia Singapore

SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT

PIDGINS Cameroon Pidgin English

Hawaiian Pidgin Kamtok

Kenya Pidgin Swahili

Naga Pidgin New Guinea Pidgin German

Nigerian Pidgin English

Papuan Pidgin English Pidgin German (Gastarbeiters)1

Russenorsk2

Sango

Vietnamese Pidgin French

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF

PIDGINS 1. Almost complete LACK OF INFLECTION in nouns, pronouns, verbs

and adjectives.

2. Nouns are UNMARKED for number or gender. 3. Verbs lack TENSE MARKERS.

4. NO distinction for CASE in personal pronouns, so I can stand for

me, and they for them. 5. SYNTACTICALLY, THE ABSENCE OF CLAUSAL STRUCTURES is

quite common in pidgins. However, relative clauses and other types

of embedding develop in Creolization.

6. NO distinction between LONG and SHORT vowels. For example, SHIP and SHEEP would be pronounced in the same way.

7. A common resource is REDUPLICATION. For example, in TOK PISIN

“sip” means “ship” and “sipsip” means “sheep”. “Pis” means “peace” while “pispis” has the meaning of “urinate”. Reduplication is also

used TO INTENSIFY THE MEANING OF A WORD, for instance “cry”

1 In the 1970s guest workers in Germany coming from neighboring countries, such as Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Turkey developed a pidgin in some big German cities like Berlin and Frankfurt. 2 Used until the 1920´s in the Arctic and was used by Russian fishermen and Norwegian fish traders.

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means “cry” whereas “crycry” means “cry continually”. “Talk” means

“talk”, but “talktalk” means “chatter”.

Some Instances of CREOLES Anglo-Romani (a Creolization of Romani in England)

Asmara Pidgin (Italian-based, it is spoken in part of Edingburg)

Berbice Creole Dutch Chabacano o Zamboangueño (Spanish-based)3

Haitian Creole

Hawaiian Creole English Jamaican Patwa

Tok Pisin

2 MAJOR GROUPS

OF ENGLISH-BASED CREOLES can be identified:

1. The ATLANTIC group, spoken in:

1.a. West Africa

1.b. The Caribbean area: 1.b.i. Jamaican Creole English

1.b.ii. The Creole English of the Lesser Antilles

1.b.iii. The Eastern Caribbean varieties: iii.α. Trinidad & Tobago,

iii.β. Guyana

All having flourished in the 17th and 18th centuries.

2. The PACIFIC group, which includes:

2.a. Hawaiian Creole and 2.b. Tok Pisin

Hawaiian Creole English Spoken by more than 600,000 people in Hawaii. Also known as Hawai´i

Pidgin or simply Pidgin. It was DENIGRATED repeatedly in schools and public administrations for years, BUT IT IS USED MORE AND MORE in

order to EXPRESS SOLIDARITY and FORGE LOCAL IDENTITY.

NOWADAYS, Hawaii´s Council is DETERMINED to maintain and develop

this local language by means of enforcing competent language planning and

policy.

3 There are 3 main examples of creoles based on Spanish: PAPAMIENTO (formed in the 17th century in the island of Curzao which is currently used in the islands of Aruba and Bonaire); PALENQUERO (developed in the 18th century near Cartagena, Colombia), and CHABACANO or ZAMBOANGUEÑO (is used in some parts of the Phillipines).

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CHARACTERISTICS OF HAWAIIAN CREOLE

1. From a PHONOLOGICAL point of view.

Phonologically, it is rather SIMPLE, because it avoids phonological

features which are difficult to pronounce in any of the languages in contact (English, Hawaiian and many others).

The VOCALIC SYSTEM was SIMPLIFIED. FRICATIVES tend to be AVOIDED.

Examples:

Bo da dem (both of them) Braddah (brother)

2. VOCABULARY is derived to a large extent from the SOCIALLY

DOMINANT groups. English pidgins usually have about 90% of words

coming from English. Some words come directly from English and some others have been adapted or simplified.

Examples: From English Adapted

Boy den (then)

Fish lata (later) Guy neva (didn´t)

Stuff togedda (together)

Stay wot? (what?)

3. Many words are POLISEMOUS. Examples: “try” can be used as a MAIN VERB “try”, BUT ALSO as a verb

auxiliary with the meaning of “PLEASE”.

“inside” means “inside”, “soul” and “heart”.

4. Almost COMPLETE LACK OF INFLECTION in nouns,

pronouns, verbs and adjectives. NOUNS are UNMARKED for number

and gender:

“Dis da language fo mos peopo dat say live inside Hawai´i.”

“Him was real tight wit his brudda.”

“You go five mile sout.”

5. TENSE and ASPECT are normally indicated with a MARKER: PAST TENSE is expressed by placing preverbal preterite

auxiliaries “wen”, “bin” and “hæd” BEFORE the verb:

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“Shi wen pein da grin haus”

“You bin say go up on roof”

FUTURE EVENTS are marked by “go”, “gon”, “gona”, or “goin” BEFORE the verb:

“I gon it fish”

PROGRESSIVE ASPECT can be expressed by:

a. Inserting “ste” (stay) BEFORE the verb in the infinitive. b. Using the – ing form of the verb, and

c. Using both forms altogether.

Examples:

Shi ste rait da leta.

Dey pleing futbawl.

Naue ste iting da kek.

6. Auxiliaries are NONEXISTENT. NEGATION is

expressed by placing “no” or “neva” BEFORE the verb:

“Shi neva si daet muvi.”

“No can” (cannot, it´s not possible) “No mo” (there isn´t any)

Jamaican Patwa (or Patois)

There is no FIXED NAME for the creole language of Jamaica. Terms used

are Jamaican, Jamaican Creole, Jamaican Patwa or Patois.

Over 90% of the 2.5 million people of Jamaica in the late 1990´s are DESCENDANTS of SLAVES brought from Africa, WHICH MEANS THAT

language in Jamaica REFLECTS that HISTORY of that country and its

contact with all the cultures and languages that have passed through.

THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE remains STANDARD ENGLISH, which is the

one spoken by the educated elite.

In Jamaica you can find people using the most formal Standard English on

one extreme, and the Jamaican Creole (Patois) on the other.

JAMAICAN PATWA is characterized by: a. Its FRAGMENTED ENGLISH SPEECH, and

b. For having a SYNTAX developed during the days of slavery with the

influence of several West African languages, pertaining to the NIGER-CONGO family of languages.

21

NOWADAYS, this language has not got much social and socioeconomic

status in Jamaica and it largely represents the speech of the peasants and laborers with little education. NOT ACCEPTABLE for formal purposes.

ATTEMPTS have been made to change this situation at GIVING PATWA

OFFICIAL STATUS. Jamaican Patwa is gaining in prestige and is

now seen sometimes in newspapers or heard on the radio. Also present in SONGS to help to raise the self-esteem of the speakers and assert their

identity.

Patwa DOES NOT HAVE a UNIFORM ORTHOGRAPHY.

NO agreement has been made whether it should accommodate the

LEXIFIER LANGUAGE (Standard English) or if an entirely new system should be created.

GENERAL FEATURES OF JAMAICAN PATWA 1. NO /t-θ/ or /d-ð/ distinction:

JP English

De the

Dis this

Odder other Wid with

Tink thing

2. Final consonant clusters tend to be DEVOICED (/d/ become /t/)

or DELETED:

JP English

Husban husband

Purfume perfumed

3. It is not stressed-timed, but SYLLABLE-TIMED. So, ALL SYLLABLES

RECEIVE THE SAME STRESS.

4. Modified personal pronouns:

I “me” He “im”

They “dem”

5. ABSENCE of PLURAL MARKERS on nouns.

JP English

“all type a people” All kinds of people “book” shoes

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6. Altered 3rd-person singular subject-verb concord:

JP English

“If im dare axe” if he dares to ask “Shi greet im” she greets him

7. Absence of auxiliaries to form the negative:

English: I don´t want anything to eat.

J. Patwa: Mi nuh wan nutten fe eat.

8. Copula deletion:

JP English It soh bad It is so bad

Im short an tumpa he is short and stocky

Life ard many sey many people say that life is hard

9. TENSE marked LEXICALLY (instead of morphologically):

English

That is the woman that took my money.

JP

Is dat ooman deh did tek mi money.

Tok Pisin Papua New Guinea has 3 official languages, which turn to be

SECOND LANGUAGES to most people:

1. Hiri Motu

2. Tok Pisin and 3. English

Tok Pisin is used nowadays by 3 MILLION PEOPLE as a UNIFYING

LANGUAGE and LINGUA FRANCA too, among speakers of a number of

INDIGENOUS languages (over 800) in Papua New Guinea.

Tok Pisin: a. Remains very distant to English.

b. It is sometimes used as pidgin and sometimes as Creole.

c. It shows clear INFLUENCES from English.

HOWEVER, there is NO CONTINUUM between Tok Pisin and English.

Papua New Guinea was born in 1975. In that year Tok Pisin was RECOGNIZED in the constitution.

23

NOW, some communities can choose to have their children schooled in Tok

Pisin in the first 3 years of elementary education, but parents perceive that English brings MORE ADVANTAGES TO THEIR CHILDREN.

Tok Pisin is also used in - many GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS

- in radio

- television broadcasting and - in the House Assembly (the Parliament)

- in Wantok (a weekly newspaper – readership over 10.000 people)

SOME GENERAL FEATURES OF TP 1. Consonant ASSIMILATION. NO distinction between /p/

and /f/; /g/ and /k/, /∫/ and /t∫/:

Examples: TP English Hap pas seven half past seven

Lipt lift

Pait fight Pilta filter

Pinga finger

Pul bilong pis fin of fish Pulap full, full up

TP English Sak shark

Sel shell

Sem shame Sip ship

Sot, sotpela short

Su shoe

Sips chips

Sis cheese Sops chops

TP English Dok dog

Lek leg Pik pig

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2. Simplified consonant clusters:

TP English Ailan island Gaden garden

Hos horse

Kona corner Lam lamp

Lephan left hand

Wok work Wan handet hundred

3. Simplified VOCALIC SYSTEM. Only /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/:

TP English Fut foot

Grin green

Gro grow Ston stone

Smok smoke

Stret straight on Tumora tomorrow

4. Word REDUPLICATION to indicate EMPHASIS:

TP English Liklik bas minibus

Lukluk look at Man bilong toktok talkative person

Singsing festival

5. Plural suffix “-pela”:

TP English Emtupela those two Emtripela those three

Etpela eight

Tupela both Tupelo marit married couple

6. LEXICON based on ENGLISH. In the process of DECREOLIZATION, more and more words TEND TO

BE ADOPTED FROM THE LEXIFIER LANGUAGE and the acrolect quickly adopts words that portray the present society.

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TP English Adres address

Dokta doctor

Heven heaven

Man man Stori story

Skul school

7. METAPHORS in word formation.

TP English Haus bilong tumbuna pasin museum Kaikai long moning breakfast

Laplap bilong windo curtain

Lain bilong Jisas disciples Pin bilong nus nose pin

8. Simplified PREPOSITIONAL SYSTEM (ONLY 3):

a. “long” = used for “to, for, from”. b. “bilong” = used for “of”

c. “wantaim” used for “with”

Decreolization DECREOLIZATION is a PHENOMENON that arises WHEN ONE CREOLE

language has PROLONGED contact with a STANDARD language

in a SPECIFIC SOCIETY, and that STANDARD LANGUAGE brings a

considerable INFLUENCE on the CREOLE language.

So, speakers start to DEVELOP THE CREOLE taking the

STANDARD as a MODEL. In this way a CONTINUUM IS CREATED WITH THE STANDARD AS A MODEL at the TOP and the

CREOLE as a model AT THE BOTTOM.

This PROCESS can be CLEARLY perceived nowadays in places like: - Barbados

- Cameroon

- India - Nigeria and

- Papua New Guinea, among others.

In this way, THE VARIETY OR VARIETIES of the creole

language WHICH ARE CLOSER to the STANDARD

26

LANGUAGE gain more prestige and BECOME the language of the

ELITE and EDUCATED SOCIETY (ACROLECT),

WHEREAS

The VARIETY CLOSER TO THE CREOLE often represents

ILLITERATE PEOPLE and LOWER SOCIAL CLASS

(BASILECT).

BETWEEN THESE 2 POLES, there can appear a whole RANGE

OF VARIETIES or MESOLECTS which determine not only social

stratification but also alleged identities among speakers.

The professor mentions the example of Hawaii, where we can find

this CONTINUUM of SPEECH which ranges from the distinct

Hawaiian Creole English varieties to Standard English of Hawaii. What

variety each person speaks depends on their location and upbringing. The

BASILECT is spoken in the countryside, whereas the

ACROLECT is spoken in the major cities.

The use of Pidgins and Creoles in EDUCATION NOT COMMON AT ALL to find a pidgin or creole, or other minority

dialect, as the LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION in FORMAL EDUCATION in

ANY educational system in the world.

Valdman gives us 2 reasons: 1. The continuum of variation that is usually found between the

pidgin/creole and the standard educational language represents A

STRONG OBSTACLE as it is sometimes difficult to ISOLATE A PARTICULAR NORM to be used in education.

2. The pidgin/creole is frequently considered as DEVIANT from the

standard and as having AN INFERIOR STATUS in the speech community. Therefore, the SOCIAL CONSIDERATION of the

pidgin/creole is in a way hindered by this fact.

Siegel tells us that speakers of creoles and pidgins generally DO NOT do

well in the FORMAL education system.

Why?

- Sometimes this is because of socio-economic factors.

- Sometimes LANGUAGE plays a ROLE.

27

How?

Very often, these speakers are in disadvantage because the language

of formal education is actually a standard variety that they do not speak as a mother tongue (like the African American Vernacular

English).

EDUCATORS and POLICY MAKERS introduce many arguments AGAINST

the application of a “non-standard” variety in the educational system.

What are some of these arguments?

a. That instruction time should be spent on learning the standard. They consider that any effort to teach the non-standard is a WASTE

OF TIME.

b. They believe that using and teaching a non-standard variety of speech in the classroom DERPIVES children of a CHANCE TO

BENEFIT FROM the socio-economic ADVANTAGES that speakers

of standard varieties have, condemning them, thus, to an UNCHANGING UNDERCLASS status.

c. Using a NON-standard variety in education may CAUSE

CONFUSION and INTERFERENCE with the standard variety, which will result in additional difficulties for the children.

NEVERTHELESS, some progress is being made over the years and pidgins and creoles are gaining social and political recognition.

IN THE LAST DECADES, there has been a global attempt TO LEGITIMIZE THE USE OF PIDGINS AND CREOLES and MINORITY DIALECTS in formal

education claiming that the speakers of these languages have a right to

express their own linguistic and sociocultural identity in their own

languages.

OBSTACLES In USING pidgins, creoles and minority dialects

in FORMAL EDUCATION:

(Siegel)

1. Negative attitudes and ignorance on the part of the teachers who may mistake language problems of creole-speaking children for

cognitive problems and eventually lower the children´s expectations.

2. Negative attitudes and self-image of the students themselves because of DENIGRATION of their speech and culture.

3. Repression of self-expression because of the need to use an

unfamiliar form of language.

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4. Difficulty in acquiring literacy in a second language or dialect.

In this case, children may be repressed if they are not allowed to

express themselves in their familiar language variety.

INSTRUMENTAL, ACCOMMODATION &

AWARENESS PROGRAMMES All three of them are EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES in which pidgins,

creoles and minority dialects have been used, aiming at ADDITIVE

BILINGUALISM or BIDIALECTISM = that is, helping the students to acquire

the STANDARD LANGUAGE while maintaining THEIR OWN PIDGIN, CREOLE or MINORITY LANGUAGE.

A. The INSTRUMENTAL Programme Education begins with the use of the HOME VARIETY as the MEDIUM OF

INSTRUCTION. The STANDARD language is introduced AT A LATER STAGE and it gradually becomes the LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION for

SOME SUBJECTS.

Instrumental programmes have been implemented in places such as

Mauritius (Mauritian Creole) or Papua New Guinea (Tok Pisin).

B. The ACCOMMODATION Programme In this programme, the USE of the HOME LANGUAGE is ALLOWED and

NOT PENALIZED, but it is NOT EMPLOYED as the language of instruction

for ANY subject, NOR it is studied as a language in itself. At HIGHER LEVELS, as students ACCOMMODATE to the standard variety, their home

language and culture CAN BE PRESERVED by means of the study of

LITERATURE OF MUSIC of THEIR OWN communities.

We have examples of accommodation programmes in

Hawaii and Australia.

C.The AWARENESS Programme It includes SOME TEACHING on basic SOCIOLINGUISTIC and SOCIOPRAGMATIC principles of different language varieties, and their

GRAMMATICAL rule and PRAGMATICS are COMPARED with those of the

standard variety.

Examples: Some awareness programmes have been created for CREOLE-

SPEAKING CARIBBEAN immigrants in the United Kingdom and speakers of KRIOL and ABORIGINAL English in Australia.

29

Bilingualism

Introduction Although we can find many countries, especially in the Western world,

which can be considered as monolingual societies, overall, there are many

more bilingual speakers than monolingual.

In many places of the world, people use more than one language in

everyday life, because bilingualism is not restricted to some countries

only. Sometimes, the second language has been learned not in a formal way, at school, for instance, but because of constant exposure to that

language.

It is NOT EASY to define bilingualism, because there can be MANY

DEGREES of proficiency and sociolinguistic factors to determine the

use and knowledge of one language or the other.

Range of bilingualism: from just A FUNCTIONAL ABILITY to use

one language only in CERTAIN DOMAINS, to BALANCED

BILINGUALISM, which entails an EQUAL AND HIGH-LEVEL

CAPACITY in 2 or more languages.

ASPECTS OF BILINGUALISM

1. It is important to take into account THE MEANS OF ACQUISITION, that is, whether each of the languages was

acquired as a MOTHER TONGUE, or A SECOND LANGUAGE or A FOREIGN LANGUAGE. The means of acquisition affects the level of

proficiency.

2. The bilingual speaker can have DIFFERENT COMMANDS OF THE VARIOUS SKILLS of a language, that is,

reading, writing, speaking and listening comprehension. THE

DEGREE OF DEVELOPMENT in each one of these skills will depend,

at least in part, on the MEANS OF ACQUISITION.

For example, someone acquiring the language in a NATURAL

CONTEXT will be able to speak and understand the language better than read it and write it. In any case,

receptive skills are more often more easily developed than productive

skills.

Unit 4

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3. There are CERTAIN FUNCTIONS that bilinguals prefer to perform in one language than in the other.

Why?

a. They may have not developed a specific skill in that language (so

they use the other), or b. It seems MORE NATURAL to them to do it in a certain language.

4. The DOMAIN often INFLUENCES LANGUAGE CHOICE in bilingual speakers because the ACQUISITION or learning was DOMAIN-

DEPENDENT or because one language is PREFERRED IN SOME

CONTEXTS.

A language is SUBJECTED to the effect of 3 main FACTORS: a. LOCATION (home, school, office, etc) b. ROLE RELATIONSHIPS among the interlocutors (sibling, father,

mother, boss etc).

c. The TOPICS involved in the conversation (domestic, weather, social greetings, academic etc).

Bilingualism DEFINITIONS & DIMENSIONS

A. Definitions SOCIAL bilingualism (or MULTIlingualism): It is an area of research dedicated to the study of its SOCIAL DIMENSION

in societies where MORE THAN ONE LANGUAGE are commonly used by a

SPEECH COMMUNITY or SOCIAL GROUP.

NOT ALL members of that speech community or social group need to speak

more than one language.

INDIVIDUAL bilingualism (or bilinguality): It refers to the individual part of the phenomenon, that is, AN INDIVIDUAL

who has some knowledge of two or more languages.

Nevertheless, it is NOT POSSIBLE to make a CLEAR SEPARATION between bilingualism as an individual

and

a social phenomenon.

Some questions for reflection are:

31

a. To what extent does the bilingual speaker NEED TO BE

PROFICIENT in both languages so that they can qualify as

bilingual? b. Does a bilingual speaker need to show equal proficiency (?) in both

languages?

c. Does the bilingual proficiency of the language entail a spoken or written command (?) of both languages?

d. What language components should be considered as criteria for

assigning the label of “bilingual”: vocabulary, pronunciation, syntax, fluency, etc?

B. DIMENSIONS 1st Dimension

SORTS OF BILINGUALISM WEINREICH first classified different sorts of bilingualism (in 1953),

according to the WAY THE CONCEPTS AND MEANINGS ARE ENCODED IN

THE BRAIN.

It is very important to have in mind that the following 3 divisions stem

from THE WAY IN WHICH THE LANGUAGES WERE LEARNED.

I. COMPOUND bilingualism When a child learns 2 languages AT THE SAME TIME, for example, one from the father and the other from the mother. So, both languages are

learned in:

THE SAME CONTEXT.

THE SAME CONDITIONS.

Both (meanings) are FUSED in the brain.

The 2 languages are INTERDEPENDENT.

II. COORDINATE bilingualism When a person first learns their mother tongue and a foreign language at

school. So, the two languages are learned in:

DIFFERENT CONDITIONS and DIFFERENT CONTEXTS and

They are kept APART in the mind.

III. SUB-COORDINATE bilingualism When a child first learns one language and another one later on, for

example, a child who learns both languages at home at the same time but

one of them is more dominant, probably because they spend more time with one of the parents.

32

In this case, the meaning of the first language comes first and then

the meaning of the second one.

2nd Dimension It is what distinguishes between the BALANCED bilingual and the DOMINANT bilingual.

BALANCED bilingual (person) is the one who has

EQUIVALENT COMPETENCE in both languages.

***A very IMPORTANT point:

Balanced bilingualism does not necessarily entail MONOLINGUAL competence in both languages. A balanced bilingual should not be

conceived as the addition of two monolingual speakers. Balanced speakers

hardly ever show EQUAL SPEAKING and WRITING abilities in their languages. They are RARELY FLUENT about all topics in all contexts.

DOMINANT bilingual (person) is the one who knows their

MOTHER

Dominant bilingualism is actually the norm as it is rather difficult

for a bilingual speaker to reach absolutely even competence in two codes.

3rd Dimension Another dimension to distinguish VARIOUS TYPES of bilingualism is

related to THE AGE OF ACQUISITION. A useful distinction can

be drawn between: 1. Childhood bilingualism, 2. Adolescent bilingualism

and 3. Adult bilingualism

Difference between

In CHILDREN In ADOLESCENTS OR ADULTS

Bilingualism COGNITIVE representation + of a WORD is

COMPLETED Cognitive Development and there is mainly a

Are developed RELABELING AT THE SAME TIME of

PREVIOUS CONCEPTS

Divisions of

Childhood bilingualism 1. SIMULTANEOUS infant bilingualism.

When the child acquires a SECOND language early in infancy, but after some development of the mother tongue has been attained.

Childhood Bilingualism

Adolescent or Adult

Bilingualism And

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2. CONSECUTIVE childhood bilingualism.

When a basic linguistic ability is acquired early in infancy in the

mother tongue and a second language is acquired right after.

4th Dimension Sociocultural Environment

That is, the SOCIAL STATUS that the languages have in the speech

community.

ADDITIVE bilingualism takes place when BOTH languages are

SOCIALLY VALUED. In this case, the child uses both of them and

enhances both of them equally in order to gain COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY.

In this case, the acquisition of the SECOND language does not have adverse effects on the language already known.

In SUBTRACTIVE bilingualism the MOTHER TONGUE is

detracted and, as a consequence, the child´s cognitive development may

be HINDERED because the development of the second language interferes with the development of the first language.

5th Dimension (by Hamers and Blanc)

Cultural Identity

BICULTURAL, if the adolescent or adult identifies himself with both

cultures associated to each one of the languages he knows. A HIGH

PROFICIENCY in both languages does not necessarily involve a bicultural individual.

MONOCULTURAL, if the adolescent or adult identifies himself with

just one group.

ACCULTURATED BILINGUAL is a member of a given speech

community who can GIVE UP or even DENY the culture of THEIR MOTHER TONGUE GROUP and FOSTER that of the SECOND language

group.

This process is not infrequent at all, as immigrants often wish to BLEND

INTO the new society and culture where they will live from now on.

BILINGUALS and their MENTAL LEXICONS

Do bilinguals own 1 or 2 mental lexicons?

ONE-lexicon advocates consider that semantic information is

stored IN A SINGLE SEMANTIC SYSTEM were words in BOTH languages COEXIST but are LABELED as belonging to one language or the other.

34

TWO-lexicon advocates assert that lexicon is DIVIDED into

2 SETS, ONE FOR EACH LANGUAGE, and that interrelation between the

2 is only possible through translation.

OTHER THEORIES There are those who believe that BILINGUAL SPEAKERS have 3 stores:

1. A CONCEPTUAL one for their knowledge of the world.

2. A LANGUAGE STORE for language A.

3. A LANGUAGE STORE for language B.

CODE CHOICE

CODE: any kind of SYSTEM that 2 or more people use for

COMMUNICATION.

A USEFUL CRITERION to distinguish between BIDIALECTAL and BILINGUAL speakers could be MUTUAL INTELLIGIBILITY, that is, if the

speakers can understand each other WHEN USING THEIR OWN CODE.

It would be interesting to know:

a. The FACTORS that rule CODE CHOICE on every single situation

and, b. WHY certain speakers sometimes SHIFT from one code to another.

(Explanation of the above issues) Whenever a person engages in a conversation, they have previously

decided what code they will use, but sometimes, according to each

situation they may switch code, if they understand, for example, that

the other person does not understand them and they want to be polite or express solidarity. LANGUAGE CHOICE can be used to resist some kind of power in places

where two or more languages coexist and have equal sociopolitical status,

as in CANADA. An English-speaking Canadian who is in Quebec may insist on speaking English to an employee of the French-speaking

government there, as an expression of their political rights.

(This is like a conclusion) The underlying and most important ISSUE is that MOTIVATION is a DETERMINING COMPONENT in code-choice and code-switching, as there are

NUMEROUS FACTORS that affect this motivation:

35

- Solidarity with the listener. - Solidarity with the topic.

- Solidarity with the contents of the communicative process.

THE ALTERNANCE OF CODE OFTEN ENCODES PERSONAL AND SOCIAL VALUES THAT ADD INTERPRESONAL CLOSENESS OR DISTANCE.

Code-Switching A lot of code-switching takes place in Hispanic communities of the United

States. Sometimes this change expresses SOLIDARITY to the people of

their own community.

Excerpt: “OYE, when I was a freshman I had a term paper to do… […]

And all of a sudden, I started acting real CURIOSA, you know. I started going like this. Y LUEGO DECÍA, look at the smoke coming out of my fingers, like that. And then ME DIJO, stop acting like silly. Y LUEGO DECÍA YO, MIRA can´t you see. Y LUEGO ÉSTE, I started seeing like Little stars all over the place. Y VOLTEABA YO ASINA Y LE DECÍA look at the… the… NO SÉ ERA COMO BRILLOSITO ASÍ like stars.

3 kinds of CODE-SWITCHING here:

1. TAG-SWITCHING. The use of EXCLAMATIONS OR TAGS from one language when the

other language is being used, such as “OYE”. This change can take place when:

a. The speaker lacks the necessary vocabulary in English, or b. Simply because it comes up more easily and spontaneously, since

tags are subjected to few syntactic restrictions and can be inserted

without interfering with the syntactic organization of the other language.

Some tags from English are: you know and I mean.

2. INTERSENTENTIAL SWITCH.

For instance, in the sentences “Y LUEGO DECÍA, look at the

smoke coming out of my fingers, like that” and “Y LUEGO ÉSTE, I started seeing like little stars all over the place.”

36

This type of SWITCH is found BETWEEN SENTENCES and

often arises in SENTENCE BOUNDARIES, marked with a SHORT

PAUSE and between SPEAKER TURNS.

3. INTRASENTENTIAL SWITCH. When BOTH CODES are mixed within THE SAME SENTENCE. For example, in the above excerpt, an example of

this switch is: “I started acting real CURIOSA”. This switching

contains the HIGHEST SYNTACTIC RISK and it typically referred to

as CODE-MIXING.

CODE-MIXING Sometimes the terms CODE-MIXING and CODE-SWITCHING are used

interchangeably, as the concepts they describe often OVERLAP.

CODE-MIXING OCCURS WHEN the interlocutors change FROM ONE

LANGUAGE TO ANOTHER in the course of a SINGLE CONVERSATION

AND EVEN MORE PRECISELY WHEN switching back and forth

occurs WITHIN A CLAUSE. The speakers don´t even need to be aware of this mixing.

CODE-MIXING highlights HYBRIDIZATION.

CODE-SWITCHING stresses the existence of movement from one language into the other.

CODE-MIXING typically presumes a MASTERY OF THE CODES

BEING MIXED.

CODE-MIXING is very typical of bilinguals. (In Gibraltar, where

Spanish and English are in such a close contact, people may start a sentence in one of these two languages and finish it in the other, or INSERT

certain words or phrases from one language into the other.)

If CODE-MIXING occurs because of not knowing some words in one of

the languages, it is a MEANINGFUL DISCOURSE STRATEGY.

CODE-MIXING is also relatively COMMON in the speech of

IMMIGRANTS.

37

Why? Because a. they can be referring to an object or concept not known to them

before coming into the new culture, or

b. they were not familiar with it, or

c. simply because of easy access to the word.

This process occasionally results in LEXICAL BORROWING.

For example, Hispanic immigrants use words such as: Backyard Basement Coupons Mall Take it easy VCR

Etc

THE RESULT of this mixing is that FUNCTIONAL BILINGUALS (full

command of one language and functional command over the other) often

develop a MIXED CODE which is BASED ON the OLD language,

but INCLUDES features from the NEW language.

***The use of ALTERNATING CODES should be distinguished from

the development of a MIXED variety as occurs with PIDGINS.

The INCIDENTAL borrowing can finally lead to PERMANENT lexical borrowing.

CODE-SWITCHING IN BILINGUAL CHILDREN NOT ALWAYS does a bilingual or multilingual speaker choose their code.

Sometimes there are UNINTENTIONAL INTERFERENCES between

the two codes. This can be seen very clearly in CHILDREN who receive a BILINGUAL EDUCATION.

BILINGUAL CHILDREN: - Usually mix both languages and

- Transfer

i. Words,

ii. Syntactic constructions or iii. Phonological features

From one language to another.

38

The professor gives the examples of ten-year old Nicolás (Spanish mother

and brought up in Spain, English father) who said “estoy pensando DE los pobres” having been influenced by the English structure “think of”. According to De Bot, it is absolutely normal that bilingual speakers

switch codes and use more than one language.

The ANALYSIS of HOW languages INTERACT and ARE USED by bilingual

speakers can CAST SOME LIGHT on the issue of COGNITIVE

PROCESSING by bilinguals.

Some issues which have LONG PUZZLED psycholinguists and language

educators are:

a. How do bilingual speakers process their languages?

b. Does the bilingual child develop a unique language system where

both languages are intertwined, or does he have two different linguistic systems? Do they make use of one or the other depending

on the context?

c. If there is more than one system, are they located in the same part of

the brain?

d. Does the bilingual brain contain one or two different lexicons?

These questions are NOT ALWAYS easy to answer.

DIGLOSSIA (HIGH-LOW VARIETIES)

The CO-EXISTENCE of 2 OR MORE CODES, used in the

SAME SETTING, BUT under DIFFERENT CIRCUMSTANCES.

That is, EACH OF the codes is used with CONTRASTING FUNCTIONAL PURPOSES.

So, given the existence of 2 VARIETIES, The 1st one is more PRESTIGIOUS and CULTIVATED than the other =

The most prestigious = HIGH variety

The less prestigious = LOW variety

One language is used to express a SET OF BEHAVIOURS,

ATTITUDES and VALUES.

39

And ANOTHER LANGUAGE is used to put into words a

CONTRASTING SET OF BEHAVIOURS, ATTITUDES AND VALUES.

High

Variety

H

Low

Variety

L Sermon in church + -

Instructions to servants, waiters, workmen, clerks - +

Personal letter + -

Speech in parliament, political speech + -

University lecture + -

Conversation with family, friends and colleagues - +

News broadcast + -

Radio “soap opera” - +

Newspaper editorial, news story, caption or picture + -

Caption on political cartoon - +

Poetry*4 + -

Folk literature*5 - +

HIGH variety More prestigious

More appealing More appropriate

Even when inferior command than the low variety

Literary tradition makes use of it Long tradition of grammar

Established rules for orthography, pronunciation, vocabulary and

grammar.

Differences between HIGH and LOW varieties Sometimes differences between H and L are notorious

Lexicon is SHARED to a large extent, but differences in form, use and

meaning. Sometimes the LOW variety is acquired as a mother tongue and the

HIGH variety is learned at school, like in the case of HAITIAN

CREOLE.

PHONOLOGY of H and L varieties: sometimes similar, sometimes quite different, depending on what languages we are talking about.

4 +5* In relation to these functions it should be mentioned that the High variety, the Low

variety or both can be used, depending on the languages involved.

40

2 examples of HISTORIC DIGLOSSIC situations:

1. It took place after the Norman conquest in 1066. Norman French and English became to coexist in a DIGLOSSIC situation.

NORMAN FRENCH was considered to be the HIGH variety,

used by the FEUDAL ARISTOCRACY and together with English in

MONASTERIES. Norman French was also used in POLITICS, GOVERNMENT and LOCAL ADMINISTRATION.

***Chaucer´s literary work around 300 years later, used the Low

variety AND WAS THE CULMINATION OF A LONG PROCESS IN WHICH

THE Low variety gradually assumed functions that had been restricted to the High variety in the past.

ENGLISH was the LOW variety being used by peasants and

artisans in everyday situations.

THIS PROCESS WAS REINFORCED BY THE STEADY ASSIMILATION OF THE FRENCH SPEAKING ARISTOCRACY INTO THE ENGLISH CULTURE.

2. The HAITIAN CREOLE was the result of the CREOLIZATION of a PIDGIN FRENCH.

Then, STANDARD FRENCH became the High variety whereas the HAITIAN CREOLE kept the status of Low

variety. The SPELLING of the Haitian Creole is NOT ALWAYS standardized.

The HIGH VARIETY (STANDARD FRENCH) uses the standard language

orthography.

DIGLOSSIA & BILINGUALISM

Introductory observations: Diglossia exists NOT ONLY in multilingual societies, BUT ALSO in traditionally called MONOLINGUAL societies, where various dialects,

registers or styles are employed.

41

In reality, there is absolutely no monolingual society in the

strict sense of the word.

Diglossia-Bilingualism 4 POSSIBILITIES

(Fishman´s theory – 2003)

1st Possibility

Diglossia YES - Bilingualism YES. (Both)

It is the case of:

GERMAN and SWISS GERMAN spoken in some cantons in

Switzerland.

It is a BILINGUAL SITUATION because BOTH CODES are used

alternatively from school age, in different functions and different contexts.

It is a DIGLOSSIC SITUATION because German happens to be

the HIGH variety, whereas SWISS GERMAN is considered as the LOW variety.

Other instances of 1st possibility: a. Spanish (H) and Guarani (L) in Paraguay.

b. The status of Arabic in many Arab countries, where businessmen

and the scientific community use classical, Koranic Arabic (H) AND Vernacular Arabic (Algerian, Maroccan, etc – (L) ) in specific

situations, BUT former colonial languages, such as French, is used

as HIGH variety, in professional circumstances.

c. In societies where a Creole and a standard language or acrolect co-exist.

2nd Possibility

Diglossia NO – Bilingualism YES

(Only Bilingualism) This case relates to TRANSITORY SITUATIONS where RAPID SOCIAL

CHANGES affect a speech community and, for a relatively BRIEF PERIOD OF TIME, the languages involved LACK WELL-DEFINED SEPARATE

FUNCTIONS.

This sociolinguistic situation can take place where ONE SPEECH

COMMUNITY provides the means (capital and organization), and a

DIFFERENT SPEECH COMMUNITY provides the MANPOWER for the PRODUCTION.

42

THIS example entails a DEMOGRAPHIC MOVEMENT of the

manpower (MIGRATION) AND, therefore, the ADOPTION OF A

NEW LANGUAGE, as well as a set of CULTURAL VALUES AND NORMS,

that are rapidly taken over and often INTERTWINED with the previous

ones.

For a period of time, the language of work or schooling and the language of

home may intertwine, but WITHOUT A DEFINITE SEPARATION of functions and locations.

3rd Possibility

Diglossia YES – Bilingualism NO (Only Diglossia)

It happens in societies where 2 or more languages SHARE A

GEOGRAPHIC AREA, but they are NOT INEXORABLY USED by

the speakers living in that area.

WHICH MEANS THAT:

There are at least 2 speech communities BUT they DO NOT

SHARE A CONTACT LANGUAGE. Communication is attained

by means of, for instance, INTERPRETERS.

This happens when 2 or more communities are united for FUNCTIONAL PURPOSES because of RELIGIOUS, POLITICAL and ECONOMIC reasons,

BUT they are different SOCIALLY and CULTURALLY.

This may sound like a bilingual situation, but it is NOT; it is DIGLOSSIA.

Why?

Because LANGUAGE REPERTOIRES in one of both groups

are, in some way, RESTRICTED due to ROLE SPECIALIZATION.

It is also characteristic that in this type of societies that most of the ELITE and most of the MASSES lead lives DISTINGUISHED by SPECIFIC ROLE

REPERTOIRES.

An INSTANCE OF diglossia without bilingualism can be

found in India between people belonging to LOWER CASTES (Hindus)

and the HIGHER CASTES (Brahmins.)

43

4th Possibility

Disglossia NO – Bilingualism NO

(None) It is VERY DIFFICULT TO FIND this case. Maybe it can occur in VERY SMALL and SET APART societies. It would be the case of speech

communities where NO DIFFERENTIATION in registers or varieties is found, which is RATHER IMPROBABLE, given the social

dimension of language.

An INSTANCE OF this speech community could be A BAND or CLAN with a closed number of members and with restricted social relations.

MULTILINGUALISM A short definition: The co-existence of more than two languages or sufficiently distant

dialects within a speech community.

Most countries in the world are multilingual (only Iceland and Portugal

are reported to be monolingual countries in Europe). There are about

5,000 living languages in the world today whereas there are about

200 countries. That gives us an idea of the complexity of the issue.

Sometimes languages EMBODY SOCIAL IDENTITIES at a supra-state level

(e.g.: the Swedish language in Finland), which can cause SOCIO-POLITICAL CONFICTS as is the case of language minorities (Welsh in

Great Britain).

The Romantic Movement in the 19th century supported nationalism and the general conception of “one nation, one language.”

(MIGRATION & MULTILINGUALISM) Migration is ANOTHER FACTOR that characterizes the CURRENT

LANGUAGE SITUATION in many parts of the world.

Example 1 (forced migration): The African slave trade brought many speakers of African languages

into the EAST and WEST Indies and it was the reason many

PIDGINS and CREOLES were created, which had not existed

before.

44

Example 2 (forced migration): The Soviet policy forced the migration of the Russian population

into other Soviet republics. Those rulers like, for example, in the

Baltic States, need to learn new languages, such as Estonian,

Latvian and Lithuanian.

(VOLUNTARY Migration)

Voluntary migration has determined THE LINGUISTIC

SHAPE of modern countries like the USA and to a lesser extent,

AUSTRALIA.

When, in the 19th and 20th centuries many people from all

nations in the world entered the US, they acquired ENGLISH and MANY

ABANDONED their OWN languages. This

MONOLINGUAL TREND, however, has CHANGED later in the

19th century, as IMMIGRATION from SOUTH AMERICA and ASIA has

DISRUPTED the MONOLINGUAL tendency and has given

way to the development of new ethnic identities in this officially

monolingual country.

Language Contact This chapter discusses

1. What LANGUAGE CONTACT REALLY IS,

2. Some OUTCOMES of it, that is, what kind of situations can be created by it, but also

3. PROBLEMS that can derive when language contact takes place.

1. Description/definition of language contact

Language contact occurs in places:

a. Where 2 or MORE languages share a COMMON GEOGRAPHIC CONTEXT (Brussels, for instance) or simply

b. Where one language stops being used by speakers and a different language is used (e.g. because of the existence of

an international border).

2. Various Outcomes Of Language Contact

Possible outcome 1: Close to INTERNATIONAL BORDERS, speakers of each of the different languages often speak DIALECTS OF THEIR OWN LANGUAGES which are

CLOSE enough to the OTHER LANGUAGE to permit successful

45

communication. For example, people who live on the two sides of the

border between Portugal and Spain normally understand each other

without any problem. But a person who would live further away in Portugal might not be able to understand a Spanish person who would live

away from the Spanish-Portuguese border.

Possible Outcome 2:

From a DIACHRONIC PERSPECTIVE, a contact situation between

languages could result in THE LOSS OF ONE of the languages (if

they are in a power relationship), or in the MERGING of

BOTH, if both are considered to have EQUAL STATUS and

SOCIAL CONSIDERATION.

Without doubt,

Possible Outcome 3: Language contact can cause POLITICAL CONFLICTS.

Belgium is an example of this situation. It is a BILINGUAL state,

but it contains a. WALOONS speakers of FRENCH

DIALECTS, b. FLEMISH speakers of DUTCH DIALECTS and c. speakers of GERMAN DIALECTS.

The FRENCH GROUP, which is the predominant one, controls

ADMINISTRATION, POLITICS and ECONOMY. Presumably when it comes

to give employment, they prefer those who know the

predominant language, that is, French. HOWEVER, in

Language Evolution

LANGUAGE CONTACT MAIN SOURCE

of

Language Change

And

Over time

46

some cases, SOCIALLY or PSYCHOLOGICALLY WEAKENED groups,

or groups REDUCED IN NUMBER, might move towards

ASSIMILATION of the dominant language and culture.

WHEN THOSE GROUPS ARE NUMEROUS OR, IF THEY

HAVE A SOUND CULTURAL TRADITION, THE MOST LIKELY

OUTCOME IS OPPOSITION AND RESISTANCE TO THE

DOMINANT GROUP, RESULTING IN LANGUAGE CONFLICT.

(Language Conficts)

1. NATURAL conflicts. They have been caused by POLITICAL DECISIONS regarding MAJORITY or

MINORITY social groups.

Language conflict arises from OPPOSITION of the MINORITY group

AGAINST the MAJORITY social group.

Examples of NATURAL language conflicts: CANADA, with the French-speaking community.

SPAIN, with the Basque-speaking community.

LANGUAGE conflicts are MORE INTENSE when

a. Ideological, b. Political or

c. Religious arguments (like between Belfast - Northern Ireland - and

Connemara, to the North of Galway in Ireland),

intertwine with linguistic ones.

2. ARTIFICIAL conflicts.

These conflicts arise when a COMPROMISE is attained and a

LANGUAGE IS DISFAVORED.

For example, the European Union faces the problem of what

languages should be OFFICIAL within the EU. Until 2005, there

are 25 countries in the EU and 20 languages are spoken.

The decision to adopt ENGLISH, FRENCH and GERMAN as the official working languages in the EU has RAISED

CONFLICTS with countries that also feel they deserve consideration of

language for international communication.

47

BILINGUAL EDUCATION

Bilingual education: 1. Involves BOTH a given LANGUAGE POLICY and a PEDAGOGIC

REALIZATION in a particular classroom.

2. Deals with NATIONAL or REGIONAL MATTERS.

3. Tries to ASSIMILATE MINORITIES.

4. INTEGRATE MINORITY groups.

5. Spread INTERCULTURAL UNDERSTANDING.

6. POLITICS ARE ALWAYS PRESENT IN IT, as in Canada, for

instance.

The Example of Canada In Canada, the AIM of FRENCH IMMERSION is to give students the OPPORTUNITY to achieve a level of bilingualism

sufficient to function well in a French-speaking community, accept a job using French as the working language, or

take university or college education in French.

BUT ALSO, Canadian immersion programs help to PROMOTE UNDERSTANDING between 2 main language groups and SOLVE SOCIOPOLITICAL problems that have existed for decades and

that might otherwise bring about more serious social problems.

CONDITIONS

So that MINORITY LANGUAGES can survive (Baker 2002)

1. Minority languages NEED TO BE USED AT HOME and

therefore become MOTHER TONGUES of the NEW MEMBERS of the family (Welsh, Basque).

2. They have to be PRESENT in FORMAL schooling. In

this way, the students will have WIDER LINGUISTIC TOOLS which

they will be able to use OUTSIDE their home. In Catalonia and in the

Basque country bilingual education has been successful, but not in Ireland, where the NUMBER OF GAELIC speakers has decreased in

favor of English.

3. They have to be PRESENT IN ECONOMIC CIRCLES,

because this guarantees that speakers will MAINTAIN THEM or

LEARN THEM for EMPLOYMENT purposes.

Unit 5

48

This can explain why the number of Gaelic speakers has

decreased: because the economy of Ireland depends on English-

speaking countries to a large extent.

4. The minority languages have to be SOCIALLY and

CULTURALLY valued. One of the main REASONS for the DECREASE in numbers of AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES speakers was THE LACK

OF SOCIAL VALUE associated with these languages. Young people

don´t find many advantages in learning the language OF THEIR OWN

ANCESTORS as they often saw that their progenitors REPRESENTED A SOCIALLY and ECONOMICALLY DEPRIVED GROUP.

The BOTTOMLINE and the main TEACHING from all this is the VERY GREAT IMPORTANCE OF BILINGUAL EDUCATION AND LANGUAGE POLICY MAKING:

The DECISIONS made regarding these issues can

eventually: 1. CAUSE LANGUAGE DEATH,

2. THE PREEMINENCE OF ONE LANGUAGE OVER ANOTHER, or 3. THE DEVELOPMENT OF BILINGUAL-BICULTURAL SOCIETIES =

which is the MOST ADVANTAGEOUS OUTCOME.

3 DIFFICULTIES In the IMPLEMENTATION of

a well-founded LANGUAGE PLANNING POLICY in BILINGUAL EDUCATION

(Baker 2002) 1. There is a TEMPTATION on the part of the language planner TO

GIVE PROMINENCE TO THE LANGUAGE rather than to the child.

2. Language planning for bilingual education has A LIMITED VIEW of

the FUNCTIONS and PURPOSES of education, as it often FOCUSES ON the BENEFITS and NEEDS for the ACQUISITION of a DUAL-

LINGUISTIC system, sometimes setting aside other social and

psychological considerations. 3. There is often UNFOUNDED OPTIMISM and TOO HIGH

EXPECTATIONS on bilingual education in revitalizing a language.

There is a RECENT TENDENCY to perceive bilingual education as very

ADVANTAGEOUS.

WHY?

49

- Because of the general reawakening of cultural identities.

- Because of the subsequent revival of minority languages.

- Because of the globalization process which creates the need to know more than one language.

(8) Advantages of Bilingual Education in Modern Societies

(Baker & Jones – 1993) 1. It allows the full development of the languages involved.

2. It promotes among children deeper insights into the cultures each

language represents. 3. It often results in biliteracy = more possibilities for enjoying

literature, more employment opportunities and deeper

understanding of heritage and traditions. 4. Children are favored with some cognitive benefits when they can

speak 2 well-developed languages.

5. It may raise the children´s self-esteem, especially when the language of home is a minority one but is studied at school.

6. Curriculum achievement is connected to bilingual education

(Canadian immersion studies suggest that.)

7. It establishes a secure identity within a particular community, especially in minority languages.

8. It brings economic advantages as it can secure employment both in

public and private companies.

(3) DRAWBACKS of Bilingual Education

1. Bilingual education does not guarantee effective schooling.

2. The language register used in formal education does not necessarily

correspond with the colloquial register. 3. Productive skills (speaking and writing) are sometimes not fully

developed, if the language of education is not present beyond the

school.

Language POLICY LANGUAGE is RARELY a casual factor.

Languages DECISIONS are based on POLITICAL and ECONOMIC reasons.

Language USE and EVOLUTION often mirrors WHAT HAPPENS in society.

Language PLANNING is actually part of a LANGUAGE POLICY that a given

government adopts (example of Catalan in Franco´s time).

50

Language PLANNING What does language planning CONSIST OF?

It consists of a DELIBERATE and institutionally ORGANIZED attempt: - To change the development of a language variety, or

- To change the language itself, or

- To alter its functions in society.

Sometimes language planning can RESULT FROM the need of a

multilingual country to IMPLEMENT a language POLICY. According to WARDHAUGH (2002), LANGUAGE PLANNING is a

DELIBERATE ATTEMPT to INTEFERE with the natural development of a

language. It involves HUMAN INTERVENTION in the natural process of languages or varieties to change, spread or erode.

(History of Language Planning) It began SEVERAL CENTURIES AGO, but the PURPOSES of

these interventions to change the NATURAL EVOLUTION of a language

WERE NOT always HONORABLE.

In theory, language planning can be used to avoid the disappearance of a

language. BUT, sometimes it is used to REPRESS and DIMINISH a cultural ethnic minority that found in their language A SIGN

OF IDENTITY.

A FEW DECADES AGO, language planning was characteristic

of DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, which often needed to make

decisions on whether to use the FORMER COLONIAL CODE or OTHER

national languages as a unifying code.

MORE RECENTLY, language planning has become AN ISSUE IN WESTERN SOCIETIES for 2 main reasons:

1. In order to preserve minority languages (e.g. Irish, Welsh, Catalan,

etc.), or

2. To promote intercultural communication (e.g. English, French and German in the EU.)

What FACTORS can affect language planning?

Various:

a. Economic

b. Educational c. Historical

51

d. Judicial

e. Political

f. Religious and g. Social

THAT IS WHY language planning is complex.

To what extent can man alter the COURSE OF A LANGUAGE by

DELIBERATE manipulation?

There is NO CLEAR answer to this question, because in some

occasions political maneuvering was successful in having some languages

disappear (many Amerindian languages in North and South America) AND YET, in other occasions political repression was UNSUCCESSFUL in

restricting language maintenance, as in the case of Catalan in Spain during

Franco´s regime.

Behind language planning there is a FULLY-DEVELOPED LANGUAGE

POLICY.

1.

It considers that anyone forming part of a society SHOULD LEARN THE DOMINANT LANGUAGE of that society,

regardless of their origin.

Advantage of this ideology:

It is good for the integration of minority groups.

Disadvantage: It raises the problem of conservation and respect for minority

group identities and cultural heritage.

Examples of the disadvantage:

a. Russification in the former Soviet Union)- b. Aboriginal language death in AUSTRALIA, because of the linguistic

ASSIMILATION POLICY until the 1970s to only have ENGLISH at

schools. It was only in 1972 that a LABOR GOVERNMENT

recognized the RIGHT OF ABORIGINAL CHILDREN to become literate in their own language before they learn English. This government

4 MAIN TYPES of Ideology

Behind Decisions Regarding Language Planning

LINGUISTIC ASSIMILATION

52

introduced BILINGUAL SCHOOLS which are still open today, mainly

in the Northern Territories where Aboriginal languages are mostly

spoken.

2.

It implies the acceptance of various languages or varieties. It

can be centered on individual or geographical criteria.

2 examples: An individual may be stimulated to maintain their language in the case

of a multilingual environment, where their language represents a minority that does not identify with a specific geographical area (such as a

group of immigrants in a big city).

In the case of a multilingual state that adopts various official languages

as they are spoken in different geographical areas (French and English-

speaking Canada; English and Afrikaans-speaking South Africa).

3.

It entails the reconstruction or renewal of a language that

is NOT USED by a wide group of speakers, but after some

changes in its linguistic features it becomes widespread and adopted as official language.

Example:

Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea

4.

It is reached when the PURPOSE of language planning is to adopt a

non-vernacular language for wider interethnic communication as a political solution to an internal problem often

arising from equally powerful minorities, one of them aiming at imposing

their language as the official one, or the language of education and trade for

all.

LINGUISTIC PLURALISM

VERNACULARIZATION

INTERNATIONALISM

53

Example:

English in India and Singapore.

1. SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS The NUMBER OF LANGUAGES spoken and the NUMBER OF

SPEAKERS.

These two factors may favor of one language of the other.

2. LINGUISTIC FACTORS For example, the DEGREE OF DEVELOPMENT of one language as well as the existence of a LITERARY TRADITION.

3. SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS These factors affect people´s ATTITUDE TOWARDS ONE LANGUAGE

or the other and their acceptance in a speech community.

4. POLITICAL FACTORS They can influence the ADOPTION of a specific ALPHABET. For

example, the case of the CYRILLIC alphabet introduced in middle-central Asia by the Russians. Also, the adoption of the Latin

alphabet in Turkey.

5. RELIGIOUS FACTORS They are also important. An example of this is that Sudan, as a

former colony, had ENGLISH AS OFFICIAL LANGUAGE (SPOKEN BY

A MINORITY). This was CHANGED TO ARABIC, a language spoken

BY HALF OF the population, because of the stronger position of Islam in the country. The Bible has also been translated into many

different languages.

What follows is 4 STARTING POINTS/STEPS language planners

traditionally follow when they do their language PLANNING.

1. SELECTION OF A NORM. MULTILINGUAL countries NEED to DECIDE what languages will

become OFFICIAL. Sometimes, this decision is VERY DIFFICULT

FACTORS Affecting Language Planning

ACTIONS

In Language Planning

54

and COMPLICATED, because RIVALRY among different language groups

may cause CONFLICTS.

Because of this, sometimes it is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to

INTRODUCE a language as a LINGUA FRANCA, as is the case of

ENGLISH in GHANA and INDIA.

ALL THESE DECISIONS ARE OBVIOUSLY BASED ON POLITICAL GROUNDS.

2. CODIFICATION. IF an INDIGENOUS language is chosen as the STANDARD ONE, it may be

NECESSARY to make some CHANGES so that it can be used

for WIDER COMMUNICATION within a multilingual country.

These changes may include vocabulary, new alphabet or simply to

standardize that language which could only be found in the spoken form.

3. MODERNIZATION. The language or languages chosen may have to be MODERNIZED WITH

SPECIFIC VOCABULARY because of technological and scientific

developments. In this case, a DECISION needs to be made whether to

ADOPT LOAN WORDS or to COIN NEW TERMS.

Many times, technology is developed so fast that there is not even time,

really, to coin terms, so loan words are adopted.

4. IMPLEMENTATION. The chosen language needs to be OFFICIALLY IMPLEMENTED and USED in:

EDUCATION

PARLIAMENT MEDIA, etc.

This is the way this language will become PRESTIGIOUS, also

used in LITERARY and ACADEMIC circles.

As it becomes more and more prestigious and acknowledged, IT

WILL SPREAD AS THE NORM. Finally, its presence in DICTIONARIES, GRAMMARS and LITERARY WORKS will consolidate its status as the norm.

55

What follows is NAHIR´S (2003) 11 language planning

GOALS which can be combined to handle the language-related problems

and needs of speech communities.

His classification describes the FUNCTIONS OR GOALS they have sought

UNTIL NOW in response to their LANGUAGE-RELATED NEEDS (communicative, political, social, economic, religious etc).

These needs and aspirations ARE LIKELY TO CHANGE in the course of time.

1.

There are 2 types: 1.a. EXTERNAL Purification This consists of the development of PRESCRIPTIONS of USAGE in order to

PROTECT the language from unwanted foreign influence by means, for

example, of a LANGUAGE ACADEMY.

Some of the ACTIONS TAKEN for EXTERNAL purification are:

- The creation of prescriptive grammars and dictionaries,

because they contain the normalized use of the language following

the criteria set out by the Academy.

Particularly notorious in this respect is the CONTROL over FOREIGN

LEXICAL BORROWINGS. If there is an indigenous word for the same

concept, a PURIST POINT of view is adopted.

1.b. INTERNAL Purification It is the acceptance of the CODE as it exists at a certain point in history,

PROTECTING it from undesirable developments which are considered as

non-normative (incorrect) or simply as deviations from the standard.

The generation of these NORMATIVE POLICIES and their enforcement are

tasks actively undertaken by LANGUAGE ACADEMIES.

LANGUAGE PURIFICATION

AIMS In Language Planning

56

2.

It is an ATTEMPT to revitalize a language with a small

number of speakers (e.g. Irish and Welsh), or EVEN a COMPLETELY

DEAD language (e.g. Hebrew and Cornish), and turn it INTO a means of

communication for a speech community.

Some instances of this phenomenon has been since the MIDDLE OF THE

19TH CENTURY. They go together with general support for NATIONAL

IDENTITY which entails the ADOPTION and STANDARDIZATION of a national language.

3.

Incorporation of SPECIFIC CHANGES in the language

(e.g. spelling, grammar, etc) as an attempt to FACILITATE ITS USE or to INTERNATIONALIZE the language. However, it also depends on

POLITICAL, IDEOLOGICAL, RELIGIOUS or ECONOMICAL factors.

INSTANCES OF LANGUAGE REFORM can be found in many

languages since the beginning of the 19th century (e.g. Icelandic, German,

Greek, Spanish etc), but THE MOST representative is TURKISH.

4.

To ADOPT a language or variety of language AS THE MAJOR LANGUAGE of a region or nation for WIDER COMMUNICATION with official, educational, commercial or other

functions.

5.

It involves an attempt to INCREASE THE NUMBER OF SPEAKERS of a particular language, normally at the expense

of another language or languages.

Language SHIFT is often done for POLITICAL REASONS, like in FORMER COLONIAL TERRITORIES that became

independent states during the 19th century.

LANGUAGE REVIVAL

LANGUAGE REFORM

LANGUAGE STANDARDIZATION

LANGUAGE SPREAD

57

6.

The adaptation of existing vocabulary or the creation of a new one to

assist standard languages that may have borrowed foreign

vocabulary too fast to accommodate it to their orthography,

pronunciation etc.

NAHIR dinstinguishes 2 trends in terminological work:

1. As part of either the process of codification or

implementation of languages seeking revival (Hebrew) or reform (Turkish) that involves developing previously unwritten

languages and aims at bridging the gap between them and modern

knowledge and technology.

2. As part of a process of modernization of standard languages that

have borrowed concepts and terms having a LEXICON UNPREPARED FOR THOSE CHANGES.

LEXICAL MODERNIZATION is applied in MANY countries

around the world (Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Israel,

Hungary, France, Vietnam, India etc.) and is an EFFECT OF

GLOBALIZATION with the resulting INCREASE in CONCEPT

borrowing from leading international languages such as English.

7.

It takes place when it is necessary to ESTABLISH UNIFIED

TERMINOLOGIES, mainly technological and scientific ones, in order to diminish AMBIGUITY.

8.

It is found when a language use needs to be simpler in order to reduce COMMUNICATION AMBIGUITY between 2 groups, for

instance, professionals and bureaucrats on the one hand, and ORDINARY

PEOPLE on the other.

LANGUAGE MODERNIZATION

TERMINOLOGY UNIFICATION

STYLISTIC SIMPLIFICATION

58

9.

It implies the ADOPTION of the language of WIDER COMMUNICATION with the intention of FACILITATING

communication between members of different speech communities.

This lingua franca can take the form of an AUXILIARY or ARTIFICIAL language, such as Esperanto. English is frequently used these days as a

lingua franca in different parts of the world.

What is another way in which interlingual communication can be achieved? It´s by improving MUTUAL INTELLIGIBILITY between speakers

of cognate languages. This can be accomplished by STANDARDIZING the

various linguistic codes in order to minimize differences.

10.

It consists in the PRESERVATION of a group´s NATIVE LANGUAGE when political, social, economic, educational or any other

pressures threaten its further existence by causing a decline in status or

in the number of speakers.

Language maintenance can be done at 2 LEVELS: a. With the AIM of preserving a widely spoken language from

unwanted foreign influence.

b. As a protection of a minority ethnic language whose

acquisition and use needs to be encouraged by means of social, educational and political arrangements.

For example, in New Zealand, speakers of Aboriginal languages look down on their own language comparing it with English, which

discourages them from taking their ANCESTORS AS MODELS and

from maintaining the use of their own languages.

11.

This entails the MODIFICATION of AUXILIARY ASPECTS of the language (signs for the deaf, place names, rules

of transcription, etc) to LESSEN AMBIGUITY or to SATISFY

changing SOCIAL, POLITICAL or other recent needs.

INTERLINGUAL COMMUNICATION

LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE

AUXILIARY-CODE STANDARDIZATION

59

Changing place names can serve the functions of terminology unification or

stylistic simplification, but most often they just take place when a given political party is in power.

On some occasions language planning DOES NOT NEED to be a

GOVERNMENT initiative. It can be THE VENTURE OF INDIVIDUALS.

A good example of INDIVIDUAL LANGUAGE PLANNING is the case of

Norway.

TODAY, there are 2 OFFICIAL FORMS of Norwegian: Bokmål (BOOK LANGUAGE) and

Nynorsk (NEW NORWEGIAN).

Bokmål It is also called Riksmål (NATIONAL LANGUAGE) and Dano-

Norwegian. It was influenced by Danish which was the dominant

language while Norway was under Danish rule (1397-1814).

Nynorsk

Also known as Landsmål (COUNTRY LANGUAGE). It is based

on RURAL DIALECTS uninfluenced by Danish. By the middle of the 19th century, some attempts were made to create a

purely Norwegian language.

ON THE ONE HAND, Knud Knudsen undertook a REVISION of WRITTEN DANISH with the aim of INCORPORATING

colloquial oral forms coming from NORWEGIAN DIALECTS.

ON THE OTHER HAND, another group of specialists led by the

Norwegian philologist and lexicographer Ivar Aasen, tried to forge a Norwegian language conceived from A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY

INDIVIDUAL LANGUAGE PLANNING

60

OF THE DIALECTS SPOKEN ALL OVER THE COUNTRY and which were at times very dissimilar due to geographic

ISOLATION.

The result of the efforts of Aasen´s group was A LANGUAGE

CALLED Landsmål (“the language of the country”), currently known

as NYNORSK.

FOR SOME TIME, NYNORSK WAS PERCEIVED BY NORWEGIANS AS RUSTIC AND VULGAR.

This situation has changed, as Nynorsk received official

recognition in 1885 by the Parliament itself.

In 1930 A LAW was passed in the Parliament which stated that official

documents had to use BOTH varieties.

NOWADAYS, from the 8th level of primary onwards, BOTH VARIETIES ARE COMPULSORY, one as the main language and

another as secondary language, ACCORDING TO THE STUDENT´S

CHOICE.

Both varieties are employed by the government, the schools

and the mass media, ALTHOUGH BOKMÅL IS STILL THE

MOST WIDELY USED. Also, BOKMÅL is more used in URBAN AREAS, whereas

NYNORSK is mainly used in WESTERN RURAL AREAS and

cities in THE WEST, like BERGEN.

These two varieties are PERFECTLY INTELLIGIBLE, so they

don´t need to be used exclusively within a minority group.

IMPORTANT DECISIONS policy makers in multilingual nations

need to make:

1. Choice of an OFFICIAL LANGUAGE, which can be problematic if

there are different ethnic groups in the same country.

MINORITY LANGUAGES

61

2. Decisions regarding INSTRUCTION IN SCHOOLS. This will not

only determine the general ATTITUDE towards a language, but also the point of view of COMING generations.

3. There is a NEED to decide on the STANDARDIZATION

PROCEDURES, such as the choice of an alphabet or a given variety,

ESPECIALLY IN THE CASE OF languages having SCRIPTS different to

the ones of currently internationalized languages.

The IMPLEMENTATION of multilingual policies in

multilingual states is a RESULT OF the SOCIOLINGUISTICS DEMANDS of modern societies and can have 3 POSSIBLE

OUTCOMES, which determine the DEGREE OF SUCCESS or FAILURE

of a specific language policy:

A.

Political decisions may determine the SURVIVAL of a specific

language.

B.

One of the MOST DESIRABLE OUTCOMES in a PROLONGED CONTACT of

LANGUAGE GROUPS. It guarantees the SURVIVAL of the languages and seems to be the best way for multicultural and/or multiethnic societies to

reach a COMMON GROUND on linguistic and sociopolitical fields.

Γ.

This is another POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENT and it would NOT entail one of the more desirable outcomes, BECAUSE it can give

way to LANGUAGE LOSS.

HOWEVER, IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY TO UNDERSTAND

THAT LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT DOES NOT DEPEND ONLY ON

LANGUAGE POLICY DECISIONS BUT ALSO ON SOCIOCULTURAL FORCES.

MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, THE SPREAD OF A LANGUAGE IN

TERMS OF NUMBERS OF SPEAKERS TAKES PLACE AT THE

EXPENSE OF ANOTHER OR OTHER LANGUAGES.

LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE

BILINGUALISM

LANGUAGE SHIFT

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PAULSON (1994-1999) asserts that ethnic groups within a modern nation-

state usually shift to the language spoken by the pre-eminent group.

Voluntary individuals OR small group migration typically results

in a QUICK LANGUAGE SHIFT.

Large group migration tends to help in maintaining SOCIAL and LINGUISTIC HALLMARKS. This is the case of SWEDISH

IN FINLAND and of FRENCH in CANADA. In these countries, a MINORITY

ETHNIC GROUP in demographic decay USES ITS LANGUAGE as a SIGN OF

cultural and social identity. This happens because these ethnic groups have a very STRONG SENSE OF IDENTITY.

In any case, as years go by, the minority languages TEND TO DECREASE in numbers of speakers. Speakers eventually SHIFT TO THE

DOMINANT LANGUAGE, although this process may take generations. An

example of this shift can be observed in AUSTRALIA, where Aboriginal speech communities SHRINK and new generations follow

the DOMINANT LANGUAGE AND CULTURE because they know that in this way they have many SOCIAL, EDUCATIONAL AND ECONOMIC

ADVANTAGES.

After that, the professor gives us the example of the language shift in the

U.S.A. among the Greeks and the Italians and has Paulston explain why the Greeks in Pittsburg SHIFT OVER A FOUR

GENERATION SPAN, compared with the three generation shift of

the Italians.

Sometimes LANGUAGES CAN BE MAINTAINED due to:

a. SELF-IMPOSED BARRIERS, (because of IDEOLOGICAL or RELIGIOUS constraints),

b. EXTERNALLY IMPOSED BARRIERS (because of some kind

of GEOGRAPHIC ISOLATION), or

c. A DIGLOSSIC SITUATION where 2 or more languages are

used for different FUNCTIONAL PURPOSES.

LANGUAGE SHIFT IN

Minority Languages

63

Language planning does not only attempt to solve language-related

problems. Language planning is also a systematic setting of goals regarding social and linguistic aspects in modern

societies, and the pursuing of goals and means that will determine the

future of national and foreign languages in a given country.

1947: India gains its independence from the English colonial rule.

The FEDERAL GOVERNMENT establishes a LANGUAGE POLICY.

English would be SUBSTITUTED by HINDI as the official language.

REGIONAL languages in each state would gain OFFICIAL

recognition. All this was acknowledged in the nation´s constitution.

1950: India recognized 15 MAJOR languages: 4 LITERARY

languages belonging to the DRAVIDIAN group, and 11 LITERARY

languages from the INDO-ARYAN group (in 1992, 3 more languages were

added to this list.)

In order to implement this language policy, a NUMBER OF ACTIONS were

undertaken: translations, new dictionaries, encyclopaedias, new typewriters

etc. But this language planning did NOT succeed and 2

DECADES LATER ENGLISH was reintroduced and adopted as the

SECOND OFFICIAL language in India (it was actually called

“ASSOCIATE OFFICIAL” LANGUAGE.)

1956: LINGUISTIC STATES were formed. MOST OF THEM chose the

MAJORITY LANGUAGE as official language in the state. The

exception was the region of the NORTHEASTERN HILL STATES where

there seems NOT TO BE a DOMINANT language.

NOWADAYS: MULTILINGUALISM is encouraged in India. Many

children learn:

- English (at school)

- Hindi (at school too, in the DEVANAGARI script in school, which is

the OFFICIAL LANGUAGE of the country)

- Their mother tongue (spoken at home), and

Some Particular SOCIOLINGUISTIC SITUATIONS

India

64

- The STATE official language.

TODAY: there are SERIOUS PROBLEMS regarding the spread of

Hindi throughout the country BECAUSE OF the LITERARY NATURE OF HINDI and its DIFFERENCES FROM other local and regional

varieties. ALL THIS RESULTS IN MULTILINGUALISM. AT THE MOMENT

The CENTRAL GOVERNMENT in India (New Delhi) deal with all types

of issues related to INTERNATIONAL POLICY and the common

interests of Indian people.

The STATE GOVERNMENT looks after LOCAL and REGIONAL

CONCERNS and especially in the SOUTH, the language used in

NEITHER HINDI NOR ENGLISH, BUT a local language.

FOR YEARS there has been an attempt to introduce A THREE

LANGUAGE FORMULA in schools aiming at providing every high-

school student with a command of 2 modern Indian languages (one of them being Hindi) and English, BUT THIS

ENDEAVOR HAS PROVED UNSUCCESSFUL. English has

spread everywhere and is the language preferred in UNIVERSITIES,

IN PUBLICATION IN LEARNED JOURNALS, IN HIGHER COURTS,

PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE, INDUSTRY, ECONOMIC TRANSACTIONS AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE.

Almost all Maoris in New Zealand speak ENGLISH and a large

proportion of the young people are BILINGUAL. HOWEVER, many youngsters, especially in cities, DO NOT SPEAK MAORI ANYMORE.

Maori is ENDANGERED for several reasons:

1. English is the language of EDUCATION. 2. Maori is spoken more in RURAL AREAS and people prefer to live in

cities.

New Zealand (The Case of Maori)

65

1999: in that year the population of FLUENT MAORI SPEAKERS

was about 35.000, which is around 8% of the total Maori

population in New Zealand.

From the LATE 1960s measures were taken with the aim of

reintroducing Maori in primary schools as well as in universities.

These measures had LITTLE SUCCESS BECAUSE OF the LOW

STATUS given to their language and the LACK OF RECOGNITION of

Maori as a national official language.

LATE 1990s: the BILINGUAL Maori and English-speaking

population consisted MAINLY of an age group OVER 60 whose

descendants DID NOT SPEAK MAORI as a mother tongue. The

generation bearing children did not speak, by and large, Maori

as a mother tongue and that is why they could not teach it to their

children.

THE MAORI LANGUAGE SEEMED TO DISAPPEAR IN

NEW ZEALAND.

The situation started to change thanks to an INNOVATIVE EDUCATION MOVEMENT which began at

PRE-SCHOOL LEVEL in the EARLY 1980s with an imaginative

idea which involved grandparents as a fundamental component in

the education of their grandchildren. In 1999, over 700 KOHANGA

(preschool language nests) instructed MORE THAN 12.000 children in the language of their ancestors passing on the LANGUAGE,

THE CULTURE and the TRADITIONS of the Maoris directly from their GRANDPARENTS, using Maorí as the

only language of teaching and conversation.

NOWADAYS, THE LANGUAGE AND CUSTOMS OF THE NEW

ZEALAND ABORIGINES SEEM TO HAVE A FUTURE.

In spite of these efforts to maintain the Maori culture and language, THE LACK OF government SUPPORT or BILINGUAL PROGRAMS meant that children coming from Kohanga were NOT

able to maintain their Maori language. Finally, a Maori-speaking

assistant was included in schools, but this was NOT sufficient to guarantee CONTINUED MAORI LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT.

66

Kura Kaupapa Maori (KMM) A self-determined group of parents took the INITIATIVE and established the

KKM, an IMMERSION MOVEMENT that settled some independent immersion schools in order to let their children develop their

language skills AFTER THE KOHANGA. KKM has CLAIMED both

governmental recognition and funding, but has only gained partial support.

KKM ONLY employs and trains FLUENT SPEAKERS of Maori and ONLY accepts children coming from the Kohanga and also DEMANDS ACTIVE PARENTAL

INVOLVEMENT to speak Maori at home. In this way, very few Maori

speaking children can have access to this type of education without further

governmental support.

1982: It was the year in which Canada became a

CONSTITUTIONALLY BILINGUAL COUNTRY. By this

constitution, the ENGLISH RIGHTS in QUEBEC were PROTECTED as much as the French rights outside Quebec.

However, the FRENCH RIGHTS WERE REVOKED in the new province of

Manitoba and the French-speaking population saw themselves circumscribed to the province of Quebec, which is ruled by the English-

speaking Montreal.

THIS PARTICULAR SITUATION gave way to FREQUENT social and

political tensions in that part of Canada and language is perceived

as a sign of identity and cultural heritage that unifies French Canadians which represent approximately a 30% of the total

Canadian population, around 80% of them living in Quebec.

BILINGUALISM in the 2 official languages is mainly found in the

population of French origin in the East of the country such as

MONTREAL, SHERBROOKE and OTTAWA.

Canada

67

NOWADAYS, the actions to RESTRAIN the use of English in Quebec

have been BANNED. At the same time, some legislation in Manitoba

that denied francophone rights has been MOFIDIED.

IN SPITE OF ALL THIS, THE FRENCH-ENGLISH DIVISION AND DEBATE IS STILL PRESENT.

2 things to be taken into account in the case of Canada:

1. Canada has some Aboriginal communities with their

indigenous languages. 2. Canada is a country of immigrants, especially in big

cities, with a considerable number of people speaking Spanish,

Italian, German, Portuguese etc., as their mother tongue. The French-English controversy is becoming territorially based, but at the

same time, actions are being undertaken to HELP SOLVE THE PROBLEM.

EXAMPLES

Of bilingual education programs that aim at developing a

bilingual and bicultural society in Canada.

FRENCH IMMERSION It began 45 years ago in 1965 with an experiment carried

out in Montreal. A group of English-speaking parents initiated a bilingual immersion programme with their children

in kindergarten (FRENCH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE). The final objective

was to attain HIGH PROFICIENCY in FRENCH.

In this programme, monolingual English-speaking children were instructed

in French from the very first day in kindergarten and later, in grade 2, they would start to develop L1 literacy skills.

Later on, by grade 6, half of the curriculum would be taught in English and

half in French.

A bit later, MID-IMMERSION and LATE-IMMERSION programmes were also developed. The aim of these is for children to

reach a level of bilingualism and eventually of biculturalism by secondary

school education so they can work in a French-speaking community or/and to attend university.

68

FRENCH IMMERSION is a general term. It is a programme in which

FRENCH is used as a MEANS OF COMMUNICATION within the classroom

with THE AIM of acquiring a HIGH LEVEL of proficiency in speaking, listening and literacy skills.

There are 3 TYPES of immersion programmes:

1. EARLY immersion. It is offered from the earliest years of

schooling (kindergarden, grades 1 or 2) and represents THE MOST

FREQUENT type of immersion.

2. DELAYED or INTERMEDIATE immersion. It is offered

LATER, in grade 4.

3. LATE immersion, offered in grades 6, 7 or later.

There is another classification:

1. TOTAL immersion, when ALL SUBJECTS are taught in the second

language.

2. PARTIAL immersion, when the second language is used only half

the school day.

In Canada no English immersion programmes have been made.

Characteristics of Prototypical IMMERSION PROGRAMMES

(Swain and Johson – 1997)

1. The L2 is used as a medium of instruction. 2. The immersion curriculum is analogous to the one used with

students not included in an immersion programme. 3. The L1 receives obvious support as an essential component of

the curriculum. 4. “Additive bilingualism” constitutes the chief aim of the

programme. This principle entails that at the end of the programme

students´ L1 proficiency should be comparable to those who have studied through their L1. 5. L2 exposure is by and large restricted to the classroom

context. 6. All students join the programme with similar levels of L2

proficiency. 7. Teachers are bilingual in the students´ L1 and the L2 medium

of instruction.

69

8. The classroom culture of a prototypical immersion

programme is that of the local L1 community instead of that of

the culture of the L1, i.eg., where that language is used as an L1.

In the EU there are many languages and many cultures and this

can normally be a BARRIER OF COMMUNICATION. Therefore, there is

a NEED to convert this rich European HERITAGE in a source of MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING. A better knowledge of European modern languages will facilitate

communication and interaction among Europeans and will promote

ability and mutual understanding.

THE AIM of a particular language planning within the EU is TO UNIFY MILLIONS OF EUROPEANS under a political and

economical administration. For this, it is necessary to find a COMMON

GROUND for interaction without losing either cultural and

linguistic identity.

At the time the Professor wrote the manual, there were 25 countries in

the EU with 22 different official languages out of which only 3

were considered WORKING LANGUAGES: English, French

and German. Only Portugal can be considered “officially” monolingual.

At the time the manual was being written, there was a plan to broaden EU

with new countries, and therefore new languages and cultures. THIS

EXHIBITS THE NEED to develop a common EU language policy.

Trimm mentions that a MAJOR PROBLEM regarding LANGUAGE

LEARNING and LANGUAGE PLANNING is the lack of an organic unit to

take responsibility for it.

He adds that there is NO longitudinal unity as responsibilities change with

the transfer of children from elementary school to high school and the university and DIFFERENT AGENCIES may be involved in the setting of

curricular guidelines, teaching materials and assessment.

European Union Language Policy & Planning

70

Policy makers have established SOME GUIDELINES to

promote the use of international languages for intercultural

communication.

They have also undertaken SOME ACTIONS for the

maintenance of minority languages.

Important DOCUMENTS: The European Charter for Minority or Regional Languages.

The CE Framework Convention for the Protection of National

Minorities.

The Oslo Recommendations regarding the Linguistic Rights of National Minorities within the Organization for Security and Co-

operation in Europe (OSCE).

The Hague Recommendations Regarding the Education Rights of National Minorities.

The EU has taken some ACTION regarding the SECOND/FOREIGN language teaching and learning within the member states. In a White Paper published in 1995 it is stated

that a GENERAL OBJECTIVE is that everyone should gain proficiency in 2 languages apart from their mother

tongue.

PROGRAMMES developed for the EXCHANGE OF

STUDENTS and TEACHERS in order to:

- Favor the learning of other EU languages,

- To aid teacher training,

- To encourage awareness-raising, and

- To promote the cultural exchange among different educational systems,

ARE: - Socrates (including Erasmus, Lingua and Socrates)

- Leonardo (exchange programs in the vocational field) and

- Tempus (for the development of higher educational systems.)

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages is a document that provides a practical tool for establishing

certain standards at successive stages of learning and evaluating language

knowledge. It aims at providing the basis for setting common standards within the EU at an international level and provides the

basis for the mutual recognition of language qualifications within the EU, therefore facilitating educational and occupational mobility.

71

The Framework describes:

The completeness necessary for communication. The related knowledge and skills. The situations and domains of communication.

English has SPREAD widely ALL OVER THE WORLD,

a. Because of the influence of the British Empire, and

b. Due to the preeminence of North American culture in the world.

English has advanced as an international language

especially after the WWII, leaving behind other preeminent languages such

as French.

English is now used by MILLIONS of speakers for a

number of communicative functions across Europe.

Hoffmann (2000) has talked about “BILINGUALISM WITH ENGLISH”, because of the always increasing popularity of English across the globe.

Hoffmann also refers to the many purposes to the use of English INSIDE and OUTSIDE the EU:

- It has become one of the preferred languages in

a. International business,

b. EU institutions. - It is the language chosen for academic discussion

- Most scholars face the need to read and publish in English for

international diffusion. - It influences other European languages, mostly in technical terms

(lexical borrowings).

English seems to have been adopted as the language

of globalization these days, therefore, proficiency in English is

seen as a desirable goal for youngsters and elderly people in all EU

countries and in many parts of the world.

It is a document made and approved in 1996 by a world-wide

representation of non-governmental organizations with the support of

UNESCO in Barcelona, Spain.

The Role of English

The Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights

72

Its MAIN AIM: - To turn the world´s attention to the problems arising from a

globalized world with greater movements of people.

- To preserve everyone´s right to a language identity.

It contains 52 articles and what follows is some of it’s the

GENERAL PRINCIPLES the document tries to establish:

1. It safeguards the PERSONAL RIGHTS to adhere to a linguistic identity and to develop one´s own culture.

2. It considers that all language communities are EQUAL and merit OFFICIAL RECOGNITION in all kinds of social, political and

economic respects.

3. It is ESPECIALLY CONCERNED about the role that EDUCATION plays in the maintenance and spread of a language and

accordingly it states that education must help maintain and develop the language spoken by the language community. In addition to this,

it encourages “the most extensive possible command of

any other language they may wish to know.”

4. IT CLAIMS THE RIGHT TO USE PROPER NAMES AND PLACE

NAMES IN THE LANGUAGE SPECIFIC TO THE TERRITORY, BOTH ORALLY AND IN WRITING.

5. It supports the right to decide the extent to which a minority language should be present in the media in a given territory, and

to receive a thorough knowledge of its cultural heritage through it.

6. It declares the right to preserve their linguistic and cultural heritage.

7. It watches over the right to use the language in all socioeconomic activities and to have full legal validity.

Brumfit´s CRITISISM of UDLR:

a. That little account is taken of the language rights of individuals. b. The definition of “language community” is restrictive.

c. Lack of references in the document to the situation in countries

where a language is used to avoid giving one language a priority over the others, which could eventually give rise to a number of

conflicts.

73

Common CONCERNS of language teaching & language learning:

1. The role of English in the world (as L1, L2 or foreign language). 2. The contexts in which English is acquired.

3. The way it interacts with other languages.

4. The norms that determine the use of English.

What does COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE do?

It shapes the ability to interact successfully in any speech community.

Acquiring or learning SOCIOLINGUISTIC RULES when we acquire

or learn a language is extremely important and is part of our

communicative competence.

The language learner of a MOTHER TONGUE acquires

sociolinguistic rules NATURALLY, from his CHILDHOOD.

The language learner of a SECOND LANGUAGE will have

innumerable occasions to acquire/learn the sociolinguistic rules

THROUGH INTERACTION AND CLOSE CONTACT with

native speakers of the language.

However, in case of learning a FOREIGN LANGUAGE, there

come the ISSUES of:

Whether sociolinguistic rules can or should be taught in a

classroom or whether the learner will “find out” about them in

due course.

The motivation and purpose of learning the language, that is, if

as a Language of Wider Communication it is to be learned for use in an English-speaking community or with other non-native

speakers of that language.

How much attention has been given to supplying learners with

sociolinguistic information when they learn a foreign language?

Unit 6

Sociolinguistics &

Language Teaching/Learning

74

For many years NO ATTENTION was given to this issue.

In the last few decades there is A GROWING CONCERN to give sociolinguistic information to learners of a foreign language.

Nowadays, it is MORE OFTEN INCLUDED in classroom

language instruction.

The inclusion of sociolinguistic information in teaching materials is good

but cannot be trusted 100%. Because, for example, in the case of English, there are many countries and speech communities and each one of them

has its own sociolinguistic rules – not to mention the individual rules each

native speaker of a language has. So, we have to bear this in mind when

we read about social conventions in language teaching materials.

2 ASPECTS to be taken into account: a. Whose rules of speaking we want to include in the teaching

materials.

b. To what extent we can generalize them to the point of using them in L2 instruction.

Conclusions The best way to learn sociolinguistic rules in order to be communicatively competent is to INTERACT with NATIVE

SPEAKERS or PROFICIENT SPEAKERS of the language.

Especially in case of autonomous learners, it must be taken into consideration that nowadays, the extensive development of new

technologies in language learning (PC programs, on-line learning

etc) and technological development (cable TV, DVDs with original

soundtrack etc) PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN

SOCIOCULTURAL DEVELOPMENT.

Communicative Competence: Comprises VARIOUS types of knowledge and skills, such as:

Linguistic

Sociolinguistic

Pragmatic.

Is needed for successful interaction among members of the same

speech community.

In this unit it is analyzed FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF

FOREIGN/SECOND language learning.

COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE In Language Teaching/Learning

75

LINGUISTIC COMPETENCES: Refer to the knowledge of lexical, phonological and syntactical

elements and other dimensions of language, such as sociolinguistic

and pragmatic knowledge.

Comprise the knowledge of vocabulary, pronunciation rules, syntactic

patterns and the cognitive organization and storage of this knowledge

in the brain of the language learner.

Vary from one learner to another, depending on various factors such

as the: The number of years spent learning the language,

The rate of learning,

The age when contact with the second language, The learner´s motivation,

The learning context

Etc

BUT language is a SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR and is more than

just a knowledge of the linguistic system.

SOCIOLINGUISTIC COMPETENCES: Are concerned with the SOCIAL and CULTURAL conditions for the

use of language and the SOCIAL CONVENTIONS that rule language

use in a specific speech community, such as norms regarding: Politeness

Relations between sexes

Relations between different social classes Social groups

Generations

Different registers Etc

Are normally acquired AFTER some degree of linguistic competence

has been attained.

Are not always present in the case of foreign language curriculum and if they are, they not considered important.

Normally, LACK OF KNOWLEDGE OF SOCIOLINGUISTIC RULES and

behavior may result in communication breakdown.

Linguistic Competence

Sociolinguistic Competence

76

Also, the HIGHER the linguistic COMPETENCE, the MORE will

be EXPECTED.

PRAGMATIC COMPETENCES: Refer to the functional use of linguistic resources, such as:

Language functions

Speech acts in interaction

Also concern themselves with the language learner´s mastery of

discourse markers,

cohesion and

coherence and the recognition of text types

the presence of irony and

politeness etc.

The way people address each other is a recurrent topic in sociolinguistic research because they are common in discourse

and very easily observed. When one person speaks to another, they have

many options they can use to refer to the addressee. These forms

vary depending on the social conventions.

WOLFSON and MANES studied the use of the address form

“ma´am” in the United States and found out that it has different

meanings in the South of the United States than it has in other parts of

the country. They observed that the term “ma´am” was used instead of

the formulas “I beg your pardon?” or “Pardon”, that is, to

indicate that you had not heard what your female intercolutor had just said or to request further explanation.

Also, the expression “Yes, ma´am” is used as a response to

“Thank you”, with the meaning of “You are welcome”.

In the same study they also noticed that the form “ma´am” not only had

different meanings in the South of the United States, but it was also used in different contexts.

Sociolinguistic Behavior: Rules of Speaking

1. Address of Behavior

77

IN THE NORTH, it tended to be used BETWEEN STRANGERS, whereas IN

THE SOUTH it was used not only to strangers but ALSO to

ACQUAINTANCES and FRIENDS.

Different languages offer different possibilities and different degrees of

formality and social distance. This is, actually, a frequent mistake made

by language learners, that is, they violate sociolinguistic rules of how to address the interlocutor.

The Professor mentions the “Sie” and “du” German case, and the

“tú” and “Usted” in Spanish, but he also indicates that Asian

languages are more elaborate in how to keep social distance when they

address the interlocutor.

The way people ANSWER THE PHONE or start a telephone conversation is

different from language to language and from culture to culture.

Examples: IN THE STATES, a phone call will probably begin with the caller apologizing to the person answering the phone, especially if it is a time of

the day when the caller may be busy or may be disturbed.

IN FRANCE, it is the same and even more probable for the person calling to

apologize. Also, in France, callers are very likely to identify themselves and

to check that they are calling to the right number.

IN ENGLAND, this apology takes place amongst some groups and social

classes.

IN GERMANY, the first thing the person who answers the phone says is

their first and last name, although they are not asked to do so.

All these rules may be changing because of the mobile phone technology,

for instance, which lets the one who answers know who is calling them.

2. Calling on the Phone

78

Most of the time, bilingual education and immersion programs do help in

developing proficiency in the second language for students that will need it for one reason or the other, BUT the DEGREE OF SUCCESS depends on a

NUMBER OF EXTERNAL FACTORS, such as:

The special sociopolitical situation,

A variation in the teaching resources, The extent of immersion,

The status of the L2 outside the classroom,

Etc.

Extensive research has been done on CANADIAN IMMERSION in the last

decades to find out about the SHORTCOMINGS in their implementation, as well as the level of proficiency attained by the students when they graduate.

PROBLEMS Of Immersion Classrooms

A DIGLOSSIC situation can easily develop. Which

means that the LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION or

SUPERordinate language ACTS AS THE FORMAL

LANGUAGE VARIETY used with the teacher and for

academic purposes and THE L1 is used for INFORMAL SPEECH AND SOCIAL INTERACTION with other classmates and

acts as the SUBordinate language or vernacular, used for peer

interaction.

MAIN DIFFERENCE between Diglossia in immersion classrooms

and Diglossia in a speech community:

The former is NOT STABLE. These “special” speech

communities in classroom immersion CHANGE OVER TIME due to aspects

such as COGNITIVE, SOCIAL or PERSONAL factors affecting this peculiar

speech community. For example, they change as they become grownups and their social and cognitive resources become mature.

DIFFICULTY when a person learns a LANGUAGE WIDELY SPOKEN IN THE

WORLD, for example, English or Spanish: sociolinguistic rules MAY VARY

from one place to the other. This changes when a language is used

as a LINGUA FRANCA or LWC because a language for

Sociolinguistic Perspectives On Language Use

In Immersion Classrooms

79

INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION is not the native language for any of

the speakers and therefore NOT culturally BOUND.

ANOTHER ASPECT of language learning closely related to

sociolinguistics is that of DIALECT. In English, for instance, there

are many dialects and varieties spoken in the world. Needless to say that SOME VARIETIES have MORE PRESTIGE THAN OTHERS and this can

determine the variety or varieties that a given institution tries to teach

or a language learner wants to learn = which leads us to the

conclusion that when a language is taught, explicitly or implicitly

some decisions are made regarding, for example, the variety of the language which is going to be taught.

*English as a Foreign Language

Classroom language is organized and purposive in

constrast to casual conversation. In classroom language TURN-TAKING is organized.

Classroom language is an UNUSUAL form of spoken interaction that often has nothing to do with REAL or GENERAL

ENGLISH. Which means that:

IDIOMATIC language or COMPLEX SYNTAX or SPECIFIC

VOCABULARY such as SLANG is not always part of the classroom.

Classroom language is also part of an “ASYMMETRIC ENCOUNTER”. One of the participants controls the

direction of the dialogue and therefore makes use of

TEACHER TALK.

Teacher Talk is a VARIETY OF LANGUAGE sometimes used by

teachers when they are in the process of teaching, which differs in

some ways such as: HIGHER PITCH,

more careful INTONATION

more careful ENUNCIATION, SHORTER SENTENCES,

more frequent REPETITIONS and

more QUESTIONS

Analysis of the EFL* Classroom Language

80

than usual in colloquial speech.

The teacher is the ADDRESSEE, the knowledge transmitter and that is

why, traditionally, ALL DESKS FACE THE TEACHER.

A number of FACTORS need to be taken into account about the learning

situation and the classroom context.

Language learners are in a way hindered in their speech abilities in the

sense that they are making use of a linguistic system that they do not

control completely and therefore, they cannot always communicate fully.

Most usual pattern of classroom language learning:

SUMMARY OF the above 3 COMMON MOVES in the

classroom:

(I)nitiation (by the teacher)

(R)esponse (by the student)

(F)ollow up (by the teacher)

Another IMPORTANT ASPECT of a language classroom is that in

the classroom a language is used to talk about ANOTHER LANGUAGE

(METAlanguage) rather than other subjects.

What this section basically talks about are the PROBLEMS or I should say, the setbacks of learning a language in a classroom (learning it as a foreign

language, or learning it in an immersion program – that is, when this

language is used as a means to teach other subjects.)

1

Teacher Initiation

2

Student Response

3

Teacher Evaluation

Implications for Language Teaching

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He says that the practice the students get in spoken interaction may fit them for their COMMUNICATION NEEDS INSIDE the

classroom, BUT it does nothing or not enough to help them in

real situations. This is called TASK-BASED INSTRUCTION and is organized around tasks rather than grammar or vocabulary. IMMERSION PROGRAMS entail CONTENT-BASED instruction and is, in a

way, similar to ask-based instruction. Students are expected to learn a second language THROUGH ITS USE IN TEACHING OTHER SUBJECTS, BUT recent research has

shown that this sort of restricted sociolinguistic context LIMITS the possibilities of learners to interact and they develop RECEPTIVE SKILLS,

but their PRODUCTIVE SKILLS are LIMITED.

So, What can be done to correct or improve these shortbacks of learning the

language in a classroom or in an immersion program?

Greater use of STUDENT-STUDENT interaction,

including tasks and pair and group work.

It is in RECENT YEARS that curricula and teaching materials have begun

to include STRONG PRAGMATIC COMPONENTS.

MANY PROPOSALS for instruction in various aspects of PRAGMATIC

COMPETENCE are based on analysis of NATIVE SPEAKER DISCOURSE or

on the COMPARISON of INTERLANGUAGE DATA, as well as CONTRASTING

L1 and L2.

NEVERTHELESS, most recommendations for instructions in pragmatics

HAVE NOT been examined in action in the classroom, so we don´t know how effective they are. MUCH RESEARCH IS NEEDED IN THIS

RESPECT.

KASPER and ROSE put forward that LANGUAGE LEARNERS CAN

BENEFIT FROM POSITIVE TRANSFER OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTS that

have been found CONSTANT across ethnolinguistically distant speech

Pragmatics in Language Teaching

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communities as it is the case of the speech act set for apologies. THIS SPEECH ACT comprises:

A. As Chief Semantic formulas: An explicit apology An explanation

The admission or denial of responsibility

B. As Minor Strategies: Offer of repair

A promise of forbearance An expression of concern for the hearer.

These strategies can be found in: English

French German

Hebrew

Thai and Japanese

Another Way of Getting

PRAGMALINGUISTIC Knowledge Learners can ALSO get pragmalinguistic knowledge without any sort of

EXPLICIT INFORMATION, if there is an analogous FORM-FUNCTION MAPPING between L1 and L2.

An example: The English modal past COULD and WOULD have formal functional and

distributional equivalents in other Germanic languages such as DANISH

AND GERMAN. According to Faerch and Kasper (1989), Danish and

German learners of English WILL transfer ability questions

from their L1.

However evident this transfer of pragmalinguistic knowledge may be, it

should not be assumed that language learners will in fact make the transfer, because:

a. Sometimes the LINK between the strategy in the L1 and L2 may

not be so evident and, b. Language learning involves a complex PSYCHOLINGUISTIC

process and positive transfer does not always occur in the way

that was expected.

There is, then, a NEED for description of pragmalinguistic knowledge and its use in the classroom.

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The study of LANGUAGE in the LEGAL context is a relatively NEW FIELD of study.

The INTERFACE between SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND THE LAW is also known as FORENSIC LINGUISTICS. Forensic linguistics centers on the STUDY OF DISCOURSE IN LEGAL SETTINGS and TEXTS, from the courtroom to police or

lawyer interviews.

Language use in legal contexts is NOT essentially different from any other communicative situation, ALTHOUGH the way

language is used in legal settings can have enormous REPERCUSSIONS for the well being of individuals and communities.

EARLY STUDIES in courtoom discourse examined the INFLUENCE of language factors on LEGAL DECISION-MAKING. They found out that

WITNESSES generally make use of 2 STYLES: 1. A “POWERLESS” style, incorporating a high frequency of

intensifiers (e.g. really, great, much more, etc) and many

hedges (e.g. kind of, like, in a way, etc); or

2. A “POWERFUL” style that LACKS the aforementioned

features and therefore sounds more exact and

confident.

The RESULTS OF THIS EARLY RESEARCH SHOWED THAT JURORS WERE INCLINED TO FIND WITNESSES MAKING USE OF A

“POWERFUL” STYLE MORE CONVINCING

AND TRUSTWORTHY THAN THOSE EMPLOYING A “POWERLESS” STYLE.

THIS INDICATED THAT THE WAY THE INFORMATION

WAS PRESENTED AND THE WITNESS EXPRESSED

Language in the Law

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THEMSELVES DID HAVE AN EFFECT ON THE FINAL

OUTCOME OF THE CASE.

Another FEATURE of the COURTROOM It is the CLEAR power IMBALANCE between the LAWYER and

the WITNESS. The lawyer controls the discourse by long-

winded questioning that require MINIMAL RESPONSE or simply NOT

LETTING the witness tell his/her own story except in the way the LAWYER

wants it to be told.

An example of THE WAY THIS CAN BE ATTAINED is by using YES-NO questions with a TAG, which markedly CONTROL THE ANSWER

(e.g. You rang her later on, didn´t you?) in opposition to broad WH questions that let the witness say something in their own words (e.g.

how, why, what, etc)

List of some other linguistic strategies used by lawyers to control witnesses:

Interruptions.

Reformulation of witness´s descriptions of event or people (e.g. from

my friends to a group of louts).

Manipulation of lawyer silence, for example, with the use of strategic

pauses.

Nonrecognition of some witnesses´ need to use silence as part of the

anwer; which can be particularly important, for example, for

Australian Aboriginal witnesses.

Incorporation of damaging presuppositions in questions (such as Did you all laugh while the care was being trashed?)

Metalinguistic directives given to the witness (such as You must answer this question), and

Management of topics in order to convey a particular impression to

the jury.

The amount of work in forensic linguistics is increasing and THE EFFECT this branch of linguistics has on people´s lives is

PARAMOUNT. That is why STUDIES in applied sociolinguistics regarding LEGAL

language have undertaken 3 main areas: 1. The communicative difficulties that occur from the INTERACTION

between LAWYERS – JUDGES – VICTIMS – WITNESSES –

ASPECTS etc

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2. Problems deriving FROM UNDERSTANDING LEGAL TEXTS, because

of the specific jargon as well as syntax used in them.

3. Communicative PROBLEMS FACED BY NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS WHO ARE WITNESSES, SUSPECTS AND DEFENDANTS IN THE

LEGAL PROCESS, due to globalization, colonization and migration.

This situation REQUIRES WELL-TRAINED INTEPRETERS who, apart from the knowledge of the language, they need to know the subtleties

of pragmatics.

STANDARD ENGLISH: the variety of English used by the SOCIAL ELITE who are part of a socially, economically and politically

dominant group in English-speaking countries. It is the

one preferred in the media and taught at schools. It is considered to be

PRESTIGIOUS.

In every language there is a standard variety. It is related to those groups of people that can be said to be literate and school-oriented. The

standard is also associated with a geographic variation,

in the regions where institutional and economic power is located or more

developed.

Defining and delimiting a standard is not always easy or even possible

as different varieties can be considered a standard in

distant countries or regions. For example, the Received Pronunciation

which is generally considered as the standard in England is not the same

as the English Standard in Ireland, Australia or the USA.

There has also been a demand for other local standards, such as

Indian, South African, Nigerian, Jamaican etc. In some occasions it is not

clear whether a variety of English is to be considered as standard or not.

NON-STANDARD ENGLISH: those varieties that do not conform

to the standard spoken by formally educated native speakers in terms of pronunciation, grammar, idiomatic usage or choice of words.

Dispersal or Diaspora of English It can be divided in 2 phases:

1. THE FIRST DIASPORA = the migration of around 25,000

people from England, Scotland and Ireland to North America,

Standard English & World Englishes

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Australia and New Zealand. The varieties of English used

nowadays in these places are not identical with those spoken by the early

colonizers, but they share some features. These varieties have incorporated

vocabulary from the indigenous languages they came into contact with.

2. THE SECOND DIASPORA = it tooks place in different

moments in the 18th and 19th centuries WITH DIFFERENT

RESULTS from the first one.

The Spread of English in Africa THE SPREAD OF ENGLISH IN AFRICA took place differently for WEST Africa and EAST Africa.

English in WEST Africa

ENGLISH IN WEST AFRICA in linked to the slave trade and the

development of pidgin and creole languages.

Since the 15th century, British traders traveled to and from the

west coast of Africa but there was not settlement in the areas

now comprising Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon. This

situation favored the use of English as lingua franca among

the hundreds of indigenous languages and the English-speaking traders.

Some of these pidgins and creoles are now widely used, mostly as a

second language, for example, Krio in Sierra Leone and Cameroon Pidgin in Cameroon.

English in EAST Africa

In East Africa the situation of English was different because English colonizers did settle there from 1850 on in places like Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and

Zimbabwe. English there was used in government, education and the

law.

In the second half of the 20th century, these countries

gained independence and English was kept as an official language in some of them (Uganda, Zimbabwe and Malawi) and

as a second language in others. An English-based creole, Swahili, is also used as a lingua franca in Uganda,

Kenya and Tanzania.

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English in Asia and The Pacific English was extensively introduced in South Asia (India,

Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sir Lanka, Nepal, etc) during the second

half of the 18th century due to British trade interests in the area.

At the SAME time, British influence extended to South-East Asia and the South Pacific due to the seafaring expeditions of

Cook and other expeditions, expanding to Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong,

the Philippines and the Pacific Islands like Papua New Guinea where a new

pidgin, called Tok Pisin, was developed.

MODEL For the spread of English

Developed in 1992 by Y. Kachru. It has been most influential in the

field of sociolinguistics.

He divided WORLD ENGLISHES into 3 concentric CIRCLES

which stand for: The types of spread

The patterns of acquisition The position of English in different cultural contexts.

These 3 circles/areas are:

1. The INNER Circle United States

Australia

New Zealand That is, the FIRST DIASPORA

The English spoken in the INNER CIRCLE is considered as

NORM-PROVIDING and shows clear patterns of variation both in terms of geographical and social differences.

2. The OUTER Circle Zambia

Pakistan India

West Africa

East Africa etc

That is, the SECOND DIASPORA

The English spoken in the OUTER CIRLCE is considered as NORM-DEVELOPING.

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The varieties spoken in the OUTER CIRCLE countries have been called

NEW ENGLISHES.

New Englishes Although not all specialists agree with this term, it is certain that the Englishes of India, Nigeria, Singapore and Tanzania, together with many other outer-circle countries

SHARE some superficial linguistic characteristics that make it

convenient to describe them as a group DIFFERENT from the

varieties in British, American, Australian, New Zealand, etc. These New Englishes are not the only languages spoken in the OUTER

circle countries and they may be spoken in different circumstances

(mother tongue, first language, lingua franca etc). There can also be registers, domains and styles not covered by the speaker of English as

a Second Language in the Outer Circle or even variation in terms of

proficiency among the speakers.

PHONOLOGY of New Englishes

It is simplified.

Example: In the case of vowels the quality of vowels normally approximates to that of

the other languages spoken by the speakers. The same happens with some

consonants.

SYNTAX of New Englishes Some features are shared by languages in the Outer Circle but not in the

Inner Circle.

Example:

Tag questions, which are very simplified in New Englishes. In India, it´s “no?” or “isn´t it” on all occasions, or “not so?” in East and West Africa.

LEXIS of New Englishes Singular words referring to plural concepts tend to be simplified and

treated as ordinary singulars with a general sense. Example:

Luggage, furniture, software, etc

3. The EXPANDING Circle Spain France

Japan

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Germany

Etc

That is, countries in which English is learned and used as a Foreign Language.

The English spoken in the EXPANDING CIRCLE is considered as

NORM-DEPENDENT.

In the EXPANDING CIRCLE, there is a marked tendency to USE a

standardized variety like British or American.

There are 2 stages in the use of English in the Expanding Circle:

1. In the first one, the clear influence exerted by one

variety favours the use of that variety.

2. In the second one, the INTERCHANGEABLE INFLUENCE of these two varieties gives way to what is

often called “MID-ATLANTIC ENGLISH”, that is, when

features from British AND American usage are MIXED because learners are exposed to BOTH VARIETIES.

There is a THIRD possibility:

(3). Students who receive the influence of British English

through their FORMAL education, but the influence of American English through the music and the media.

At the PRONUNCIATION level, if we add the influence of the

mother tongue to this possible mixture of American and British pronunciation, it is rather difficult and unlikely to achieve

standardization.

In terms of LEXIS, there is a CLEAR RISK of false friends. This

phenomenon results either in miscommunication OR in the use of

words that acquire a new meaning in “local English”.

Another interesting phenomenon is the increasing presence of

BORROWINGS from English and how they influence other modern

languages.

Ψ

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ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES The languages spoken by Aboriginal Australians before the arrival of English colonizers. Aboriginal English is the technical name given to a

continuum of varieties of English ranging between standard Australian

English and creoles used by Aboriginal Australians.

ACROLECT When Decreolization takes place, i.e., a creole language coexists with a standard language and the latter exerts some influence on the former, a

range of varieties develop. In such a situation a continuum appears in the

language and speakers in that speech community show a range of different pronunciation features, which are usually associated with social

stratification. The acrolect is the top and educated variety which is

closer to the standard and further away from the creole. The acrolect can evolve into a New English.

AFRICAN AMERICAN VERNACULAR ENGLISH (AAVE): (See Black English Vernacular)

Sometimes called Black English Vernacular; Black English, or Ebonics, it

refers to the language spoken in black communities in the United

States. Some linguists consider it a significantly different linguistic system from the standard dialect since it does not conform to its pronunciation,

grammatical structure, idiomatic usage, vocabulary etc.

In the 1960s the issue of AAVE became a source of concern in the

education system as it was perceived that black students performed below

average in schools and the reason was thought to lie in their language skills. It was considered that Black English speakers had to face the

double load of having to deal with linguistic differences in the classroom as

well as in the course content. This issue has been a source of concern ever since.

ANALYTIC LANGUAGE Languages can be classified into typological categories based on how words

are formed. An analytic language is one in which words tend to be one

syllable long with no affixes, as in Chinese or Vietnamese. The function of words in a sentence is shown primarily by word order. Analytic

languages are also known as isolating languages. (See synthetic language.)

AUXILIARY LANGUAGE It is a language that is used for a special purpose and has, among

others, a specific functional goal. Pidgins are auxiliary languages but there are also instances of artificial auxiliary languages such as Esperanto,

Business English, Maritime English and Air-Traffic Control English.

Glossary

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These languages sometimes have a specialized jargon and that tends to be

the most difficult part as they are not very complex from a syntactic point

of view.

BASILECT When Decreolization takes place, i.e., a creole language coexists with a

standard language and the latter exerts some influence on the former, a

range of varieties develop. In such a situation a continuum appears in the language and speakers in that speech community show a range of different

pronunciation features, which are usually associated with social

stratification. The basilect is the bottom variety which is closer to the creole and further away from the standard.

BIDIALECTAL This term is closely related to bilingualism. In the same way that someone

speaking two languages would be considered bilingual, someone who can

use two dialects can be considered bidialectal (see Dialect). It all depends, of course, on what is considered a dialect, but the ground

definition would be a variant of a language due to geographical differences.

Nevertheless, being bidialectal implies that the differences between the concerned codes is not so great as to prevent mutual intelligibility.

BLACK ENGLISH VERNACULAR (See also African American Vernacular English)

This term refers to the non-standard English spoken by lower-class

African Americans in US urban communities. This term substituted Black English which assumed that all black people used the same variety.

It has been demonstrated that the differences that distinguish Black

English from Standard English are paralleled in varieties of Black language spoken in other parts of the world such as the Caribbean and West Africa.

In the UK, Black English is the result of the linguistic change from creole languages spoken by Afro-Caribbean immigrants which were influenced by

English as a dominant language in the UK. This language has also become

more English-like for the UK-born descendants of these former immigrants.

BORROWING This term is used in comparative and historical linguistics to refer to words or phrases which have spread from one language or dialect and are

used in another. Although less evidently and less frequently, borrowings

can also occur at a different linguistic level such as syntactic. The borrowing language may have various ways of incorporating the foreign

form into the recipient language´s phonology, morphology and syntax.

Borrowing can be originated by a wide range of different causes including:

a. Close contact between two or more language codes in multilingual

situations which favors the transfer of elements.

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b. The domination of some languages by others due to cultural, economic,

political, religious or other reasons.

c. A sense of need because technology or culture advances more rapidly in countries speaking certain languages.

d. A sense of prestige associated with words or expressions coming from

other languages.

The difference between code-switching and borrowing is not always clear.

There is no doubt in the case of historically transferred forms which have settled in the target language (e.g. words like castle, forest and tempest, come from French; and, words like call, egg, and law, come from Norse.)

Code-switching, however, is spontaneous, affects all levels of linguistic structure simultaneously and in unstable as it depends on the context and

the relationship between the speakers (e.g., the Spanglish that is often

heard in places such as Gibraltar or Texas.) On some other occasions, borrowings may resemble code-switches because they maintain a foreign

status and retain another languages´ syntax. (e.g., Fixed phrases from

Latin: ad hoc, sine qua non, etc.)

CO-ORDINATE BILINGUAL This term applies to someone who has learnt two languages and both languages have been learnt in different contexts, and they are kept

distinct. It probably entails the existence of two meaning systems with

two different words. This raises the question whether both languages develop together or separately in the brain. Neurolinguistic findings

suggest that words are stored together in the case of early bilingualism,

from childhood, but keep in separate places if bilingualism was developed later.

COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE This term was first introduced by the American anthropological linguist

Dell Hymes in opposition to the chomskian conception of native speaker´s

linguistic competence which referred to the linguistic intuitions of an idealized native speaker. Dell Hymes considered that the linguistic

knowledge of grammar, pronunciation and lexicon is not enough as

speakers also have other types of linguistic knowledge about how to use that language properly in society.

This additional knowledge allows speakers to be sensitive to some

determining factors such as the context, the type of intercolutor, and the register, for example. Coomunicative competence is acquired by native

speakers of the language but it also needs to be acquired by non-native

speakers, together with linguistic competence. The ethnography of speaking studies what is necessary to be communicatively competent in

different speech communities.

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COMPOUND BILINGUAL This term describes a situation in which one language has been learnt after the other and, therefore, through the first one. Both languages

are closely connected as they are composed of a single meaning system

with two words or labels for a single meaning. This raises the question whether both languages develop together or separately in the brain.

Neurolingustic findings suggest that words are stored together in the case

of early bilingualism, from childhood, but kep in separate places if

bilingualism was developed later.

CORPUS PLANNING This term refers to the actions undertaken in order to partially modify

the nature or characteristics of a language in some way, for instance,

decisions regarding what pronunciation to adopt from those available; decisions regarding what syntactic or morphological patterns to use; or,

even what regional forms adopt as the standard. Corpus planning may also

control the incorporation of new vocabulary. Corpus planning is closely

related to status planning which refers to whether the status of a language could or should be raised or lowered.

DIALECT Geographical variation affects languages in the form of dialects. This

refers to how locality correlates with differences in the way people speak the language. People who speak a dialect often use different words or

pronunciations for the same word. This type of variation may also affect

syntactic and intonation patterns. Nowadays, dialect variation tends to

diminish due to the fact that the media and the communication infrastructures have a homogenizing effect on languages. Sometimes the

distinction between dialects and languages is not quite clear as

sociopolitical factors may play an important role in the decision. It must be added that not even dialectologists agree on a single definition of “dialect”.

DIALECTOLOGY It is the study and search for idiosyncratic features in language use

within a geographical area. Dialectologists usually analyze the typical

vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation patterns, and other characteristics, and try to match these with specific geographic areas.

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS This field of research refers to the analysis of linguistic units above

the sentence level, i.e., texts or conversations. By analyzing written or aural texts, discourse analysts explore the different functions of language

in social interaction.

DISCOURSE MARKER These are words, phrases or sounds that have no content meaning but,

however, play an important role in marking conversational structure,

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signaling conversational intentions and assuring cooperation on the part of

listeners. Some discourse markers in English are: actually, really, Oh,

Yeah, etc. Notice that the types of discourse markers and their uses frequently change across languages.

DOMAIN This term refers to the combination of social and situational factors

that generally influence the choice of code by speakers: code, dialect,

location, register; style, topic, etc. For example, the language of home will definitely be different to the language used at a formal meeting at work.

The same speaker will use different styles, an informal one for the former

situation and a formal one for the latter. This concept is frequently used in studies of code-switching in multilingual contexts where various languages,

dialects or styles are employed in different social settings.

DORMANT BILINGUAL Bilinguals who do no longer use their languages but who acquired

them in the past and reached a comprehensive knowledge and command.

ENDANGERED LANGUAGE Languages normally develop, merge or die, and whenever a language is at

risk because the number of speakers decreases we can say that that language is endangered. This can be the result of many factors but bad or

adverse language planning is generally behind the progressive

disappearance of a language. Economics, or rather the lack of importance

of a language for business, can cause its death. Many Amerindian languages are in this situation at the moment.

ENGLISH-LEXIFIER CREOLE (See Lexifier)

This term refers to any creole which is English-based and therefore has received borrowings from English. Due to the post-creole continuum,

that language may still be receiving words from English.

ETHNOGRAPHY OF COMMUNICATION A term that in addition to the definition of the ethnography of speaking

includes nonverbal aspects of communication, for instance, distance between speaker and hearer, eye contact, etc.

ETHNOGRAPHY OF SPEAKING This branch of sociolinguistics studies the norms and rules for using

language in social situations in different cultures. This is the reason

why it is so important for cross-cultural communication and that also accounts for its relation to communicative competence. The ethnography of

speaking deals with aspects such as the different types of language to be

used under different circumstances; how to make requests; grant

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permission, or ask a favor; the degree of indirectness desired in certain

situations; how to express your opinion or interrupt your interlocutor; how

and when to use formulaic language (greetings, thanking, etc.), etc.

ETHNOMETHODOLOGY This branch of sociology deals with the content of what is being said

rather than the way it is being said. Ethnomethodologists do not study

speech or language but the content of what is being said and, what is more,

what is not being said because of shared knowledge or common-sense knowledge.

HERITAGE LANGUAGE This is a language spoken by an immigrant group or individual in

another country. For example, in Canada, a country largely composed of immigrants, there are close to 200 languages spoken by these types of

groups. This term is to be distinguished from Indigenous Language

which also refers to a minority language but in this case alludes to the

natives of that land. In Canada, for instance, about 50 indigenous languages are spoken some of which are only spoken in that country, and

none of which is considered an official language of Canada.

HYPERCORRECTION A manifestation of linguistic insecurity, for instance, in a social group. It can manifest itself by the overuse of the socially desired forms in careful

speech or reading, especially in an attempt to speak or write in an educated

manner. For instance, a speaker of a non-standard variety of English may

practice more self-correction when speaking formally and make use of more sophisticated vocabulary or a more clear pronunciation.

INFORMANT In empirical research this term refers to any person who provides

information to be analyzed and is consequently a source of data for the researcher. A native speaker providing insights of his/her use of

language is an informant, but also a student who attends a class that is

being observed to gather information about the students´ progress.

INTERFERENCE In language teaching and learning this term is used to refer to any negative influence (e.g., lexical, syntactic, phonological, etc.) that one

language exerts over the other, either the L1 on the L2 or vice versa.

Interference usually hinders the learning process and causes a problem to the language learner whereas positive interlinguistic influence helps or

favors the language learner.

LANGUAGE ACADEMY In some countries like Spain (The Royal Academy), France (The French

Academy), Ireland (The Irish Language Commission), Norway (The

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Norwegian Language Council), etc., there are institutions which play a

role in safeguarding standards, so they try to regulate the evolution of the

language by means of protecting the language from foreign unwanted influences and in a way, by trying to control the evolution of language.

This sort of control is more likely to be successful in written language than

in spoken language and the task is rather difficult these days when the media exerts considerable influence on languages all over the world and

globalization threatens the preservation of minority languages and the

integrity of others.

LANGUAGE ATTRITION Gradual language loss. This term can refer to the loss of a mother tongue that has been acquired and due to lack of use – probably because it is not

the language of the community – it is gradually forgotten. This happens

quite frequently among the second and the third generation of immigrants. In second language learning, it can refer to the loss of a

language that was learnt through formal instruction but gradually forgotten

after a period of time.

LANGUAGE CONFLICT In multilingual situations languages are frequently in some sort of conflict caused by ideological, political or economical reasons. Some issues

typically generate problems in multilingual settings such as decisions

regarding the election of an official language, the choice of a given language for formal education, or the selection of a language to be used in courts,

among others. Another typical situation of language conflict occurs when

two or more languages compete for status in society. Many current language conflicts result from different social status and governement´s

preferential treatment of the domain language.

LANGUAGE ELECTION/SELECTION Some developing countries, at some point, need to make decisions

with regards to their sociopolitical evolution and their international recognition. For instance, Mozambique adopted Portuguese, the former

colonial language, as its official language. Something similar happened to

India, which in spite of an initial desire to detach from their former colony, later assumed English as an additional official language. These decisions

are normally made for practical purposes either because the nation-state

needs a agglutinative language to overcome a wide linguistic variety and/or

because some advantages are seen in the possibility of having a LWC as an official language.

LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS (or functions of language) Language is frequently described as having THREE MAIN FUNCTIONS:

descriptive, expressive, and social. The descriptive function of language is to carry factual information. The expressive function of language is to

provide information about the speaker´s personal feelings, preferences, etc.

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And the social function of language serves the purpose of maintaining

social relations between people.

LANGUAGE LOSS This term refers to a situation where language shift in a speech community ends in the total shift to another language. For instance,

imagine a group of immigrants that go to a new country and, gradually, in

one or two generations blend into the new speech community as their

language becomes eventually extinct (e.g., the language loss of Dutch immigrants in Australia). This phenomenon would be referred as language

death if a language shift ends with the total loss of a language from the

world, i.e., all speakers shift to a different one (e.g., Manx on the Isle of Man).

LANGUAGE POLICY DIVISION This department of the EU is located in Strasburg and has

responsibility for actions concerning the progress of language

education policies within the EU member states. This Division is in charge of the elaboration of guidelines and policies related to language

learning and the development of policy planning regarding linguistic

diversity. Among other responsibilities, they a) assist member states with policy evaluation and depiction (at national and local levels); b) elaborate

instruments for policy analysis; c) provide assistance regarding linguistic

minorities language education; etc.

LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION (or Language revival) Language planning efforts made in order to revive a language that because of social or economic reasons has decreased in number of

speakers or which was even lost (see Language death). A language shift

can lead to the spread of a dominant language and the loss of the minority language. The reasons underlying Language Revitalization can vary but

they are often caused by a group´s search for cultural and/or ethnic

identity of a group. The best example of a successful Language Revitalization is Hebrew which was a classical liturgical language for

centuries and is now a living language. An instance of a not so successful

program to revitalize a language is Irish in Ireland where government efforts and programs have tried to reintroduce the use of Irish in schools without

much success.

LANGUAGE SPREAD It consists of an increase in the use of a language or language variety

for a given communicative function by a specific social or ethnic group. Language spread can either refer to a traditional language within a

speech community or a language that is adopted as lingua franca or

Language of Wider Communication, as has been the case of English during the 20th century. Languages also spread within a nation as a new mother

tongue instead of as an additional language and in that case we would

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rather talk about language shift. Extreme cases can even lead to language

death as has happened with the spread of Spanish and English in America

resulting in the loss of many Amerindian languages.

LEXIFIER (See English-lexifier creole)

This term refers to the language from which most of the vocabulary

has been taken to form a pidgin or creole. English, French, Spanish

and Portuguese have been lexifier languages as a consequence of the former colonial past of countries speaking native languages. The contact

between one or more of these European languages and a native language

favored the development of pidgins and creoles in different parts of the world.

LINGUA FRANCA It is a language which is usually used by speakers who have different

mother tongues and, therefore, need a common language to

communicate among them. Lingua francas have existed since ancient times (e.g. Greek koine, Arabic, Mandarin, etc.) but the most remarkable

example nowadays is English, which is spoken by some people as a mother

tongue, many other use it as a second language, and still others as a foreign language, but, as a rule, it serves as a lingua franca for

international and intercultural communication. In spite of being widely

used, the knowledge of different speakers may vary considerably depending, quite often, on the domains where the language is to be used

and the fuctions it is meant to accomplish.

LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE It refers to lexical, phonological, syntactical knowledge and skills and

other dimensions of language as system, independently of the sociolinguistic value of its variations and the pragmatic functions of its

realizations. This component relates to the range and quality of knowledge

(e.g. in terms of phonetic distinctions made or the extent and precision of vocabulary) but also to cognitive organization and the way this knowledge is

stored (activation, recall, etc.)

LANGUAGE OF WIDER COMMUNICATION (LWC) This term is equivalent to lingua franca. Two instances of LWC in the

times of the Roman Empire are Latin in the west and koine Greek in the east. After World War II, English became a LWC. (See lingua franca). It is a

language used by speakers of different languages to communicate with

each other.

MACRO-SOCIOLINGUSTICS This term refers to the study of sociolinguistic aspects in large groups of speakers as opposed to micro-sociolinguistics that studies areas related

to small groups. Macro-sociolinguistics deals with the relationship between

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sociological factors and language as, for example, language planning,

language shift and multilingual matters.

MESOLECT When Decreolization takes place, i.e., a creole language coexists with a standard language and the latter exerts some influence on the former, a

range of varieties develop. In such a situation a continuum appears in the

language and speakers in that speech community show a range of different

pronunciation features, which are usually associated with social stratification. The mesolect is the intermediate variety, or varieties,

which is between the creole and the standard.

MICRO-SOCIOLINGUISTICS The study of sociolinguistics in relation to small groups of speakers, speech communities or the speech of individuals. This branch of

sociolinguistics deals, for example, with the analysis of face-to-face

interaction and discourse analysis. This term is used in opposition to

macro-sociolinguistics which refers to larger scale study of language in society.

MINORITY LANGUAGE These are languages that live in the shadow of a culturally dominant

language which puts the minority language at risk. As a result of political or social factors, these languages are very often not the languages of all

areas of activity by native speakers as they can be excluded from certain

spheres as administration, education,, or mass media (e.g., Scottish Gaelic

is widely used in church but marginally in other social gatherings). These factors often require speakers of minority languages to be bilingual as they

will need to operate in at least two languages. Minority languages may be –

or may have been at some point in their history – at risk either by political decisions affecting their maintenance or by the lack of vocabulary to cover

certain topics. Some actions can be undertaken to promote minority

languages by means of language planning and language policies. Some instances of minority languages are Irish, Welsh and Scottish Gaelic which

exist in the shadow of English, or Breton in the shadow of French.

NATIVE SPEAKER A person who has spoken a language since early childhood. This term is

rather controversial in linguistics because it assumes the existence of a speaker that can be appealed in questions or correct usage because she/he

is reported to represent the authority that can determine correct or deviant

usage. Native and non-native are not clear cut homogeneous categories as variation depending on individual factors (origin, education, etc) is

enormous and all speakers are, in turn, native speakers of a given language

or dialect. In second language learning, they have traditionally represented the model to follow in the process of learning but this has proven to be

inefficient approach as the processes of first and second language learning

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are naturally and necessarily different. Moreover, recent studies have

shown that, contrary to popular belief, “native speaker introspection” is an

unreliable guide to actual usage.

NEW ENGLISHES This term refers to any of the varieties of English that have emerged

as a consequence of the ample spread of this language during the

colonial period. Examples of New Englishes are the English spoken in

India, Kenya, Singapore or Jamaica, among others. Also known as World English, it does not emphasize the dichotomy between native and non-

native use but embodies the recognition of English as an international

language that shows formal and functional variation in different contexts, as a result of its use in multilingual and multicultural contexts.

OBSERVER´S PARADOX A term developed by William Labov to refer to a phenomenon that takes

place when doing sociolinguistic research. The issue is raised when the

sociolinguist needs to gather data from a single speaker or a group of speakers in a speech community. The problem is that observing and

gathering (for instance, recording) that speech is difficult because as soon

as the informants realize that they are being observed they can – and consciously or unconsciously they generally do – change their speech

and make use of less natural talk (e.g., more careful pronunciation, less

idiomatic expressions, a variety further away from the vernacular, etc) What really interests sociolinguists is the way people speak when they do

not know that they are being observed.

PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE This term is concerned with the functional use of linguistic resources

(production of language functions, speech acts, etc.) used on aural communication or scripts of interactional exchanges. It also concerns

the mastery of discourse, cohesion and coherence, the identification of text

types and forms, irony, parody, etc.

PRAGMATICS It is a branch of linguistics that studies the use of language in communication, i.e., the relationship between utterances and the contexts

and situations in which they are used. Within pragmatics, discourse

analysis studies language in discourse.

PROFICIENCY It is someone´s skill in using a language, generally as a second

language. This term describes the degree of skill that someone has attained

in a language and his/her ability over the four basic skills: speaking,

reading, writing and listening.

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(PROTO)-INDO-EUROPEAN Languages can be classified genetically. This classification involves comparing the structure of different languages in order to show common

parentage. Indo-European is the best-known language family. The

major Indo-European subgroups are: Indo-Iranian, Armenian, Albanian, Anatolian, Hellenic, Italic, Celtic, Baltic, Slavic, and Germanic. English

belongs to the Anglo-Frisian group of the West German branch of the

Germanic subfamily. An unattested (reconstructed) language is indicated

by the term proto-.

SABIR This was a lingua franca used in the Mediterranean area from the

Middle Ages to the twentieth century. It is interesting to know that this

language has been kept stable for centuries in spite of not having native

speakers and being just a contact language used by speakers that do not share a common language. The origin of pidgins is not clear and there is

an ongoing debate about it, but some specialists, the monogeneticists,

suggest that all pidgins based on a European language derive from this lingua franca.

SOCIOLINGUSTIC COMPETENCE This term refers to the sociocultural conditions of language use.

Through its sensitivity to social conventions (rules of politeness, norms

governing relations between generations, sexes, classes and social groups, linguistic codification of certain fundamental rituals, etc), the

sociolinguistic component strictly affects all language communication

between representatives of different cultures, even though participants may often be unaware of its influence.

SOCIOLINGUISTIC INTERVIEW It is a technique to collect speech samples to gather information about

a given speakers, or group of speakers, in a speech community. This

qualitative method of research is of prime importance for the sociolinguist s it provides face-to-face interaction with the informant with a technique that

allows recording for later analysis.

SOCIOLINGUISTIC RELATIVITY When people coming from different social and linguistic backgrounds interact, quite naturally they tend to analyse and judge each other´s

system and taking their own system as a reference. The more

interaction with different cultures, dialects, registers, etc, the more

referents speakers will have and, therefore, the more capable they will be of perceiving their culture and way of thinking as just one of many. This way,

speakers may be able to understand and shape their own perception of

cultural and sociolinguistic identities. Sociolinguistic relativity entails the acknowledgement of sociolinguistic diversity.

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SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE This term refers to a branch of sociolinguistics that studies large scale processes of interaction between language and its use in society. Also

referred to as macro-sociolinguistics, it deals with the relationship between

sociological factors and language, especially language choice. Some of the issues studied by the sociology of language are language planning,

multilingualism, and language shift.

SPEECH ACT It is an utterance that represents a functional unit in interaction.

Utterances can have a locutionary meaning or an illocutionary meaning. The former refers to the basic literal meaning of the utterance which is

conveyed by the particular words and structures used. The latter refers to

the effect the utterance has on the listener, or the text on the reader.

STATUS PLANNING This term refers to actions aiming at raising or lowering the status of a language or dialect and which basically refers to decisions regarding the

selection of particular varieties for particular purposes or communicative

functions. Status planning is closely related to corpus planning as language planning policies can never be solely corpus-oriented or status-

oriented.

SYNCHRONIC VARIATION This term refers to the instances and characteristics of variation

which occur at the present time in language. That is, they way variation affects language at a given time in history, for instance: gender, register,

style, etc. Diachronic variation, however, looks at language from a

historical point of view and considers linguistic change through time.

SYNTHETIC LANGUAGE In inflectional languages words have a number of suffixes which vary their shape according to the word they are added to. A single suffix can

express a number of different grammatical concepts, as in Latin. Synthetic

languages are also known as inflectional. (See analytic languages).

TURN-TAKING In conversation analysis this term describes the fundamental mechanisms on which conversation is based, that is, the right and/or

obligation to speak with the interlocutor. General conversation patterns

are arranged in a way that only one speaker speaks at a time but the way turn-taking is organized depends on cultural specific factors. Conversation

needs to be two-way. Otherwise it turns into a monologue.

VARIETY This term is used to refer to a sort of language that is considered as a

separate entity for some reason but which generally shares a great

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deal of common features with a standard or other varieties. Therefore,

it is not considered a different language. A given dialect, accent, style or

register can be considered a variety, which is a term preferred by linguists as it is less loaded. Language varieties can be very wide spread and

standardized such as Australian English or American English but they can

also be very localized such as Cockney (in London) and Scouse (in Liverpool).

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