Sociolinguistics

It is the study of the way in which language’s structure changes in response to its different social functions, and the definition of what these functions are.

“Society” is used in its broadest sense, to cover a spectrum of phenomena to do with race, nationality, regional, social and political groups, and the interactions of individuals within groups.

“Ethnolinguistics” is referred to the problems of ethnic groups and race relations.

“Anthropological linguistics” is referring to the study of primitive cultures.

“Stylistics” is referring to the study of distinctive linguistic characteristics of smaller social groupings. More usually, stylistics is the study of the literary expression of a community, using linguistic methods.

None of these labels has absolute basis.

L and S:

• The problems of communities which develop a standard language, and the reactions of minority groups to this

• The problems of communication which exist between nations or groups using a different language, which affects their “world-view”

• The problems caused by the need for individuals to interact with others in specific linguistic ways (language as an index of intimacy or distance, of solidarity, of prestige or power and so on)

Sociol by itself cannot solve problems such as these. But it can identify precisely what the problems are and obtain information about the particular manifestation of a problem in a given area.

To analyze a problem socioling implies being able to analyze it linguistically.

People are differentiated on the basis of many social factors: gender, age, class, race, ethnicity and occupation.

Language is an important marker of a person’s identity, and language use is one way for speakers to display their personal and social identities.

Social stratification:

It is the hierarchical structuring of groups within a society, reflecting inequalities among sectors of population (income, occupation, education and access to social, economic and political power).

Speakers of different social groups exhibit differences in frequency of use of certain sounds, words and grammatical features.

Members of these groups are consciously or unconsciously aware of speech style characteristic of various social strata, and they use this knowledge in assessing their own and other people’s speech.

Social stratification which is stable and absolute or more fluent:

Caste – род, племя, раса, клан

For example, caste, the second – class, system

Khalapur is a nOrth Indian village with some 5000 inhabitants, the population is divided into 31 castes.

Higher castes use the sound system of the local dialect of Hindi, India’s official language.

Lower castes use variants of the standard forms.

In Great Britain the study of calss styles shows:

Percentage of verbs without \-s\

Middle class 0

Lower middle class 2

Upper working class 70

Middle working class 87

Lower working class 97

Pronouncing or dropping the postvocalic –r- (fourth floor) in the USA

Lower class 50

Working class 53

Lower middle class 86

Upper middle class 75

Basil Bernstein made a point that class-based styles of speaking lead to differences in styles of thinking.

Middle class speech is characterized by use of an elaborate code (nouns, adjectives and verbs having explicit referents)

Working-class style tends to employ a restricted coed, expressing particular meanings by use of words that are more context bound.

The idea of L is a social marker is being discussed by linguists.

David Crystal – Future of English – 1999 – emphasized the increasing role of local dialects that is national varieties of English. – new Englishers. These styles of speaking were traditionally treated without respect. They were viewed as markers of ingnorance.

Local words according to Crystal are beginning to be used at the senior or more fashionable levels of society, by politicians, religious leaders, musicians and others. Using local words is no longer to be seen as ignorant, it is respectable. It is a feature of increasing diversity in English. Regional, national varieties of English are increasingly being used with prestige on the international scene. Social clan differences are not exactly exhibited in speech. It is not low class members who attempt to be close to higher stratum, but more educated people, with a higher social status, who attempt to model speech on more prestigious nowadays local norm.

Lecture 5 24.11.2011

Language and gender

Men and women are socialized to express themselves in different ways in accordance with cultural norms. The interrelationship of language and gender can be approached from different prospectives.

1. Pronunciation

In the USA percentage of post-vocalic R in higher among women. And men more often omit the interdental sounds at the end of the words. Women use more dynamic intonation contours, a wider range of pitches, more varied rhythmic patterns.

Scholars believe that women’s behavior is negatively evaluated in relation with men as women are viewed as more emotional and unpredictable.

2. Grammatical variants

The speech of girls is grammatically slightly more correct. Men use multiple negation, nonstandard –s, we goes, you was. Men and women also differ in usage of questions. Women use tag questions more often – R. Lakoff, they are more reluctant to make direct assertions. Some scholars believe that the difference is insignificant and women with rather powerful positions in society don’t differ much from men in their speech style.

3. Choices of vocabulary

There are certain domains of vocabulary that are more elaborated by each gender.

Men and women are expected to know the meanings of words within domains reflecting culturally stereotyped areas of the assumed expertise (cooking for women, sports for men).

Women use intensifiers such as very, so, adjectives wonderfully, lovely.

Use more hedge words (words that covertly comment on assertions in one’s statements: perhaps, wonder whether, well, approximately)

So the indecisive, imprecise, or mitigated speech is perceived as more typical of women.

4. Discourse strategies

Acc. To one of the theories men use communicative strategies that assert or maintain their control and prerogatives.

Women employ strategies that are deferential, conciliatory and sensitive to other’s face. – ask questions, encourage responses from interlocutors, make positive minimal responses, allow interruptions.

Men – interrupt and challenge, ignore the speech of interlocutors, introduce and control topics, make direct assertions of facts and opinions.

Boys and girls talk differently because they are treated differently. But this point of view is criticized. Explanation: power in society is distributed unequally. It affects everyday interaction. This theory emphasizes the context of power and dominance that permits men to assert control.

L as a means of communication in society