Sociolinguistics

How to capture variety in language as a multifaceted social phenomenon

Approaches of Theoretical Linguistics:

 idiolect studied under carefully controlled circumstances  idealised competence rather than observable performance (Chomsky)  biased data (educated speakers on formal occasions)

Problems with the Chomskyan approach

   Language is represented in the variable performances of individuals Individual variation in adjusting speech to context ↓ “Variable probabilistic knowledge” (Hymes, 1974) - systemic potential - appropriateness - occurrence - feasibility

Approaches to sociolinguistics

   Social as well as linguistics Socially realistic linguistics Socially constituted linguistics

Biber, Conrad & Leech, 2002: A corpus based approach to linguistic description

35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 conv fict news acad of-phrases s-genitives

The scope of sociolinguistics

 Relation between language and society, uses of language and social structures.

 Synchronic and diachronic variation  Dialectal variation  Social variation  Age-related variation  Gender-based variation

Language and speech community

 Speech community: shared language values verbal repertoire  “third floor” (UK) = “fourth floor” (US)  „God bless you” vs. „See you later”  „Pá” vs. „szevasz”

How to measure variety

Central questions:

 Who make up a representative sample of a region?

 What linguistic items are to be studied?

 How to analyse this data?

Requires methods different from those of TL

 sampling by questionnaires – demographic data  involving historians, anthropologists, etc. to identify target region  field research, ethnographic observation  sociolinguistic interview  non-intrusive responses (Labov)  participant research – the observer’s paradox  results on maps - isogloss

The line on the map of southern England separates the area where the vowel in a word such as

cut

is [A] (black circles) from the area where the vowel is [U] (crosses).

Dialectal variation

    Language Dialect Accent Vernacular  Language = nation?

- different nations, similar language (Norway, Denmark, Sweden) - blends (Spanish-Portugese in Galicia) - Chinese - Pidgin phenomenon - Creole (Indian English)

Australian Pidgin „Harim”

Indon: Gavman welkam long askim blong Australia October 2009 Indonesia i welkam long askim blong Australia Praim Minista Kevin Rudd long sapos oli ken halvim Australia long lukluk long wanpla bot i pulap long 260 pipal blong Sri Lanka husat i laik kam long Australia, em oli painim ol insait long Indonesia solwara.

Social variation



Example 1: -ing/

“Learned” verbs (criticise, propose) Place names: –ing (Cushing, Flushing)

in’

Informal verbs (take, chew) Typical of men

Example 2:

Labov’s study of New York City department stores 

Problems:

Identifying categories such as social class or levels of formality Data collection procedures quality of linguistic material

Age-dependent variation

 Language development is age-graded, violations cause embarrassment or laughter („Pá”)  Child language and motherese (potty, nappy, kitty, sweetpea)  Pig Latin, Playing dozens  Early adolescence: peer group influence, slang (rap, house, hip-hop)

Gender differences



Women

Higher-pitched voice More: - careful speech (-ing) - conscious of socially - preferred forms - appeal tags (

is it? will you?)

- tentative (

Would you mind

..) - colour names (beige, levander, lilac) - intensifiers (

She’s so quite

.)

Men

Avoid emotional words, etc. adorable, heavenly, divine

Gender bias in languages

  

English – a male language

 Mankind and fatherland  “He” as general reference He is a professional. vs She is a professional.

Master vs. mistress Diminishing value of female words   (She is out with the girls.) Smith, Jones vs. Miss Smith, Mrs Jones or Mary Policeman, doctor, poet

Ethnicity

Ethnic groups in the mainstream society may introduce a special ethnic dialect  Pennsylvanian Dutch  Jewish American I need it like a hole in my head.

He asked me for it yet, Jerk schmerk!

 Hungarian Romas (csávó, lácsó)

Black English

 According to US experiments, people are able to distinguish between black and white speakers on the phone in over 80% of cases.

 reduced final consonant groups (test-tess, mask mass)    interchangeable then-den, three-tree forward shifted stress (Détroit, pólice, hótel) syntax: I done told him about it. He (be) waitin’ for me every night. She don’t/ain’t say nothing.

 rhetoric: - exaggeration, - wide intonation range, falsetto voice, - listener and participant encouragement (Amen, Right on), - verbal displays (rapping, playing dozens).

Playing the dozens „Yo mama”

Yo mama's so old, when God said "Let there be light" she was there to flick the switch. Yo mama's so skinny, she swallowed a meatball and thought she was pregnant .

Register variety

Different languages offer different sets of register choice (formality-informality)  Javanese- rich system of register according to gender, kinship, occupation wealth, education, religion or family  Indonesian - more democratic, offering fewer distinctions  Cross-cultural communication problems

Martin Jooz (1962):

Five styles based  on interactivity  amount of background knowledge  formality of vocabulary   clarity of articulation complexity of syntax  Frozen  Formal  Consultative  Casual  Intimate

Areas of sociolinguistic study

      Focus on function: the organisation of speech and speech acts Competence as personal ability (idiolect) Performance as variable, individual- and context-dependent acomplishment Language as a social tool Speech communities as organisations of ways of speaking Variation according to regional origin, social class, age and gender