SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND PSYCHOLINGUISTICSBushra SaniLecture 1: Monday, 23rd February, 2015

What is language?

Language A means of communicating information

Significant in establishing and maintaining relationships with other people

Represents a man’s identity in the society i.e. his personality, class, nature, job etc.

Only a means to convey information?

Aspects of language

behaviour

Function of language in establishing

social relationshipsRole played by language in conveying

information about the speaker

1. Accent2. Speech3. Ideas/ attitudes

Sociolinguistics Study of language in relation to society (R.A. Hudson,

1980) Dell-Hymes calls it “socially constituted language” A blend of sociology and linguistics It is also referred to as sociology of language

Study of society in relation to language

Scope and Utility of Sociolinguistics

The relatedness between language and Society

1. While language is principally used to communicate meaning, it is also used to establish and maintain social relationships.

2. Users of the same language in a sense all speak differently. The kind of language each of them chooses to use is in part determined by his social background. Language, in its turn, reveals information about its speaker.(about his personality, class, nature, job, position in society etc.)

3)To some extent, language, especially the structure of its lexicon, reflects the physical environments of a society.

English, for example, has only one word for snow ( or two if we include sleet), Eskimo has several. The reasons for this are obvious. It is essential for Eskimos to be able to distinguish efficiently between different types of snow.

English, of course, is quite able to make the same distinctions: fine snow, dry snow, soft snow, and so on, but in Eskimos this sort of distinction is lexicalized---made by means of individual words.

(There are approx 50 Eskimo words for snow)

4. To some extent, language, especially the structure of its lexicon reflects social environments of a society.For example, a society's kinship system is generally reflected in its kinship vocabulary.

Speech Communities and Language Diversity

Speech Community A speech community is defined as a group of people

who form a community and share the same language or a particular variety of language.

Characteristics of a Speech Community

a) They speak the same language or dialect.b) The members of the group must interact linguistically with other

members of the community.c) They may share similar attitudes toward linguistic norms.

Language variety Speech variety, or language variety, refers to any

distinguishable form of speech used by a speaker or a group of speakers.

The distinctive characteristics of a speech variety are mainly reflected in its pronunciation, syntax and vocabulary.

Speech variety is a neutral term, which is often used to replace such terms as standard language, dialect, pidgin and creole.

It can also be used to refer to regional dialects and ethnic dialects such as Australian English and Black English as well as the functional dialects such as legal language.

Varieties of Language

Standard

language

Dialects

Regional

dialect Sociole

ctidiole

ctEthnic Dialec

t

Register

Determined by three

factors: field, mode

and tenor of

discourse

Pidgins and

Creoles Language

and Gender

Language and age

Standard Language Standard language or standard variety is the variety of

a language which has the highest status in a community or nation and which is usually based on the speech and writing of educated native speakers of the language.

A standard language is generally used in government documents, in the news media and in literature, described in dictionaries and grammars, and taught in schools.

Dialect A variety of a language used recognizably in a specific

region or by a specific social class is called a dialect. The study of dialects is called dialectology. Dialects can

be categorized into the following types:

DialectsRegional Dialect

A regional dialect is a linguistic variety used by people living in the same geographical region.

Social Dialect/Socio

liectSociolect, or social-class dialect, refers to the linguistic variety characteristic of a particular class.

Idiolect:Idiolect is a personal dialect of an individual speaker that combines elements regarding regional, social, gender, and age variations. In other words, an individual speaker’s regional and social background, his/her gender and age jointly determine the way he/she talks. And the language he/she uses, which bears distinctive features of his/her own, is his/her idiolect.

Ethnic Dialect

An ethnic dialect is a

social dialect of a language

spoken by a less

privileged population

that has experience some form of social isolation such as racial

discrimination or

segregation.

Register Register refers to the type of language which is

selected as appropriate to the type of situation. Language used on different occasions differs in the

degree of formality, which is determined by the social variables.

As languages and dialects differ from one another at every level, so registers can differ in vocabulary, phonology, grammar and semantics.

Field of Discours

e

• refers to what is happening, including what is being talked about.

• “Why” and “about what”.

Tenor of Discours

e

• refers to the relations among the participants in a language activity, especially the level of formality they adopt

• who the participants in the communication groups are and in what relationship they stand to each other. “To whom”.

Mode of Discours

e

• refers to the medium of language activity which determines the role played by the language in a situation e.g. speech vs. writing.

• refers to the means of communication. “How”

Register

Example A lecture on linguistics in a postgraduate class at NUML

can be analyzed as follows: Field: linguistics Mode: oral (academic lecturing) Tenor: participants (teacher-students)

Language and Gender The language used by men and women have

some special features of their own. Question:In what ways is language used by women different from that by men?

Language and Age In many communities the language used by the

old generation differs from that used by the younger generation in certain ways.

Pidgin and Creoles Pidgin is a variety of a language that is not a native language of

anyone, but is learned on contact situations such as trading. The process by which a pidgin develops is called pidginization. A pidgin is usually based on one language, though it soon takes on the

substances of other languages. When a pidgin develops beyond its role as a trade language and

becomes the first language of a social community, it becomes a creole. The process by which a pidgin becomes a creole is called creolization. Once a creole is in existence, it may (i) continue almost without

change, as appears to be the case for Haitian creole; (ii) become extinct; (iii) evolve further into a normal language; (iv) gradually merge with its base language through decreolization, a process by which a creole becomes more like the standard language from which most of its vocabulary comes.

That’s all for today! See you in next session!