Transcript unit 10

unit 10
• The Varieties of English (I)
Review
• What are some properties of
conversational implicature?
• What are some maxims of politeness? Use
an example for each maxim.
Major contents
11.1 Interrelation between language and
society
11.2 Regional dialects of English
11.3 Social dialects of English
11.4 Register theory
11.1 Interrelation between language and
society
Chomsky (cognitive approach, ideal speaker) vs.
Saussure (social semiotic approach)
Any use of language is socially marked/stamped.
Style is the man.
[The story of the flowergirl in Pygmalion]
As society changes, language will change.
Language reflects society, as shown by the
lexicon of "snow", "camel".
The social value of a dialect or variety reveals
the social status of the speaker. A speaker with
a large repertoire is likely to be more
successful in his future career. For example,
the ability to speak different dialects/mandarin
Chinese is often advantageous in job hunting.
The speech of a speaker acting as a
father/son/husband/teacher/friend is varied.
Approaches to the study of the interrelation
•Macro-sociolinguistics: a bird's-eye view:
how language functions in society and how
language reflects the social differentiations.
[sociology of language]
• Micro-sociolinguistics: a worm's-eye
view: how language functions in the
communication between members of the
society. [sociolinguistics]
11.2 Regional dialect
• Language and dialect
• Language: writing system; may include several
•
dialects; often politically defined
Dialect: [traditionally only variation with space, but
now with the space, the temporal factor and social
factors] usu. spoken; often part of a language; not
distinct enough from other dialects of the same
language to be treated as an independent language;
often marked by geographical or social barriers;
restricted purposes
• Chinese vs. Cantonese
• dialect
A regionally or socially distinctive
VARIETY of a language, identified by a
particular set of WORDS and GRAMMATICAL
STRUCTURES. Spoken dialects are usually also
associated with a distinctive pronunciation, or
ACCENT. Any LANGUAGE with a reasonably
large number of speakers will develop dialects,
especially if there are geographical barriers
separating groups of people from each other,
or if there are divisions of social class.
It is usually said that people speak different
languages when they do not understand each other.
But many of the so-called dialects of Chinese
(Mandarin, Cantonese, Pekingese) are mutually
unintelligible in their spoken form. (They do,
however, share the same written language, which is
the main reason why one talks of them as ‘dialects
of Chinese’.) And the opposite situation occurs:
Swedes, Norwegians and Danes are generally able
to understand each other, but their separate
histories, cultures, literatures and political structures
warrant their being referred to as different
languages. (David Crystal)
• Regional dialect often coincides with
geographical barriers, like mountains, rivers,
etc. [accent] [dialectology]
• Transition from one dialect to another is
gradual
rather
than
abrupt.
Two
neighboring dialects are often intelligible.
• P. 192 No. 1
Temporal dialect
• [temporal distance] Old English; Middle
English; Modern English
[diachronic/historical linguistics vs.
synchronic linguistics]
• PP. 192-193 No. 2
11.3 Social dialect
• Social dialect (also social-class dialect,
sociolect, class dialect) [social distance]
arises from the separation brought
about different social conditions. It
refers
to
the
linguistic
variety
characteristic of a particular social class.
• Language varies according to gender,
age, occupation, race, education, social
status, etc.
Language and sex
•PP. 196-198 No. 5
•Language and age: level tone;
use of words; tempo; ellipsis; etc.
•Language and race: Black English
[African
pidgin]
drop
of
inflections,
simplified
morphology and grammar
•Language and social class: social
status and the use of language
•Language and occupation:
jargon; technical terms [doctorpatient conversation]
• Language and social groups: underground
•
•
•
society
argot The specialized language and vocabulary
of a particular group of people, especially of a
criminal or underworld group.
Idiolect: language and individuality, e.g
Shakespeare's language
An idiolect is the speech variety of an individual.
• Anyone in this class speaks an
idiolect?
Taboo and euphemism
• Taboo (tabu, a Polynesian word)
Taboo word: a word that is often avoided
because it may cause offence .
Types of taboo words
• Swear words/curse words: those that invoke
damnation,misfortune or degradation of the
target person or subject, e.g. damn.
• Obscene/dirty words: those referring to sexual
organs and acts, body elimination process.
Presentation session
• Euphemisms in English
Euphemism
• derived from Greek, eu––“good”,
phem –––“speak”.
• “making something sound better”.
Use of euphemisms :
• A. appearance, age, disease, death.
ugly–––plain; homely
fat ––––chubby; stout; plumy
cripple––––physically handicapped
old –––––getting on years; senior;
elderly
madhouse–––––mental house
pregnant ––––– in the family way
die ––––– pass away, go to the better
world, go out of third world, go aloft
B. Physiological aspect
• sex organs --private parts
have sex with-- make love
defecate/urinate–––go to stool; pass water;go to
W.C.
C. Political aspects
•
poor–––––needy
bankrupt–––––out of the game
poor area–––––underprivileged area
hair dresser–––––beautician
dust man–––––sanitary engineer
economic crises–––––recession; depression
strike––––––industrial action/dispute
11.4 Register theory (Variation with
the use)
•Halliday:
Register: language variety according to the
use of language in speech events.
a. experience
b. each other
c. the medium of transmission
Components: field of discourse
tenor of discourse
mode of discourse
Field of discourse
• Field of discourse: related to what is going on,
•
•
the purpose and the subject matter of
communication; answers the questions of why
and about what communication takes place.
Technical:
linguistic
lectures,
specialist
communication [vocabulary]
Non-technical: shopping, chatting
Tenor of discourse:
•answers the question of to whom the
speaker is communicating, determines the
level of formality of language use.
Mode of discourse:
•answers
the
question
of
how
communication takes place ; spoken or
written; spontaneous or non-spontaneous.
Illustration
• The register of a lecture on biology can be
analyzed as:
• Field: scientific (biological)
• Tenor: teacher-students/lecturer-audience
(formal, polite)
• Mode: oral (prepared)
Assignments
• Collect first-hand to show how males differ
from females in the use of language.
• PP. 198-199 No. 198