LINGUISTICS AND SOCIOLINGUISTICS

1
LINGUISTICS AND SOCIOLINGUISTICS

• Linguistics is the study of language includes
  psycholinguistics, historical linguistics,
  morphology, syntax, semantics etc
• Sociolinguistics is the study of variation of
  language in use we use different words or
  grammatical forms depending on context

2
Variation

• Variation is determined by social class, gender,
  place, age, situation etc.
• Would you use the same words, syntax and
  phonology (or even the same language) to ask for
  a loan from a YB, friend, father, mother, bank,
  total stranger?

3
Sociolinguistics and Language Teaching

• Implications and questions for language teaching
• Teachers are supposed to teach to teach
  communicative competence.
• Therefore should they try to teach language as it
  is actually used? If so, as used by whom?

4
continued

• Teachers need to consider the language/dialect/acc
  ent used by their students Malay dialects(?),
  Javanese, Manglish, Singlish, Black English,
  Chinese dialects(?)
• May be different from teachers variety and from
  standard language

5
LANGUAGE, DIALECT, ACCENT, CODE, VARIETY

• Imagine you move to a village or housing estate 5
  miles from you home do people speak differently?
• 50 miles?
• 200 miles
• To Indonesia
• To Rapanui (eyemata,fishika, bird manu)

6
continued

• When do you stop understanding people?
• When do people stop understanding you?
• How long to learn the local ?

7
continued

• When does an accent become a dialect?
• When does a dialect become a language?
• A linguist would say if pronunciation is the only
  difference, it is a dialect, if words and grammar
  are different, but still still intelligible, it
  is a dialect.

8
continued

• What would a sociolinguist say?
• Depends on social attitudes and politics
• a language is a dialect with an army and a navy
  (maybe a parliament, a newspaper and a TV channel
  is enough)

9
continued

• But does this describe social reality?
• For a linguist, if two people understand one
  another they are speaking the same language
• Serbs, Croats, Bosnians understand each other but
  insist they speak different languages (since
  1991)
• .

10
Continued

• Indians speaking Hindi understand Pakistanis
  speaking Urdu but claim they speak a different
  language
• Speakers of Hokkien dialect cannot understand
  Cantonese or Mandarin speakers, but do not
  claim to speak a separate language

11
continued

• Why did Scots and Ulster Scots suddenly become
  languages in the 1990s?
• Before then, they were only dialects but now are
  languages recognised by the Scottish and Northern
  Ireland parliaments

12
Is this English?

• Hear all see all say nowt
• Eat all sup all pay nowt
• And if tha ever does owt for nowt, allus do it
  for thisen

13
Answer

• Nearly everybody would say yes. Yorkshire dialect
  (distinctive lexis and some grammar, distinctive
  pronunciation)

14
Is this?

• A muvver was barfin er biby one night,
• The youngest of ten and a tiny young mite,
• The muvver was pore and the biby was fin
• Only a skellington covered in skin

15
answer

• An accent no distinctive lexis probably not
  authentic. Imitation Cockney (working class east
  London)

16
continued

• Alamak don so kiasu lah. I give you hup-ply
  discoun, you go to another stylist sure kenna
  ketok.

17
Answer

• The speaker would probably think so and most
  educated speakers would accuse him of speaking
  bad or broken English. Basilectal Singlish.

18
And this?

• For December 10, 1948, di meeting of di whole
  world, wey dem de call United Nations (naim be
  say all di kontris wey de for di world come unite
  to be one), come hold talk and dem come bring out
  one paper and write wetin suppose to be our right
  inside. Dem call am Human Rights. Dis na di
  rights wey human beings get from di time wey dem
  born us. Na dis rights make human beings take
  different from animals.

19
Answer

• Officially classified as a distinct language,
  Nigerian Pidgin English. Many would assert that
  is simply bad English. Sociolinguists would
  generally disagree.

20
How many languages?

• 1. Hun sidder i vinduet og ser ud over gaden.
• 2. Hun sitter i vinduet og ser ut over gaten.
• 3. Hon sitter i fonstret och ser ut ove gatan.

21
Answer

• Politically three. Sociolinguists would have to
  accept this.

22
Is Arabic a language?

• Arabic, Algerian Saharan SpokenArabic, Algerian
  SpokenArabic, Babalia CreoleArabic, Baharna
  SpokenArabic, Chadian SpokenArabic, Cypriot
  SpokenArabic, Dhofari SpokenArabic, Eastern
  Egyptian

23
continued

• National language. 246,000,000 second-language
  speakers of all Arabic varieties (1999 WA). Not a
  first language. Used for education, official
  purposes, written materials, and formal speeches.
  Classical Arabic is used for religion and
  ceremonial purposes, having archaic vocabulary.
  Modern Standard Arabic is a modernized variety of
  Classical Arabic. In most Arab countries only the
  well educated have adequate proficiency in
  Standard Arabic, while over 100,500,000 do not.

24
Answer

• Arabs generally insist there is only one
  language. Sociolinguists would have to agree with
  them but would also analyse the relationship
  between the different varieties.

25
Is English a language?

• Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, West Country, East
  Anglia, Birmingham (Brummy, Brummie), South
  Wales, Edinburgh, Belfast, Cornwall, Cumberland,
  Central Cumberland, Devonshire, East Devonshire,
  Dorset, Durham, Bolton Lancashire, North
  Lancashire, Radcliffe Lancashire, Northumberland,
  Norfolk, Newcastle Northumberland, Tyneside
  Northumberland, Lowland Scottish, Somerset,
  Sussex, Westmorland, North Wiltshire, Craven
  Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, Sheffield Yorkshire,
  West Yorkshire. Lexical similarity 60 with
  German, 27 with French, 24 with Russian.

26
Code and variety

• The lines between accents, dialects and languages
  are blurred, chamging and socially determined
• Sociolinguists like to talk about code and
  variety
• Avoids arguments about what is a language and
  what is a dialect

27
Is Malay a language?

• Bahasa Malaysia, Bahasa Malayu, Malayu, Melaju,
  Melayu, Standard Malay Dialects Trengganu,
  Kelantan, Kedah, Perak (Southern Malay), Sarawak
  Malay, Bazaar Malay (Low Malay, Pasar Malay,
  Pasir Malay, Trade Malay). 'Bazaar Malay' is used
  to refer to many regional nonstandard dialects.
  Over 80 cognate with Indonesian.

28
Is Indonesian a language?

• Bahasa Indonesia Classification Austronesian,
  Malayo-Polynesian, Malayic, Malayan, Local Malay
  Language use Official language. Over 140,000,000
  second-language speakers. Language development
  Roman and Arabic scripts. Grammar. Comments
  Reported to be modeled on Riau Malay of northeast
  Sumatra. Has regional variants. Over 80 cognate
  with Standard Malay.

29
Questions

• Is Malay one Language? How many dialects?
• Is English?
• Chinese?
• Arabic?

30
Summary

• For a linguist the rules for deciding whether a
  variety is a language or dialect are simple. Can
  people understand each other?
• In sociolinguistics it is difficult to decide
  history, attitudes and politica have to be
  considered also.

31
Speech Communities

• A group of people with the same rules about the
  use and correctness of language
• May not coincide with language or dialect
• E.g. Malaysian Chinese, Arabs, Ireland

32
continued

• Semi-speakers of dying languages Celtic
  languages in Britain
• Linked to communicative competence may not be
  the same as linguistic competence

33
Sociolinguistic Methods

• Questionnaires
• Interview
• Observation
• Participant-Observation
• Experiments
• Analysis of Texts
• Archive research

34
Sociolinguistic questions

• How and why do languages change (and die)?
• How do people decide which variety to use?
• Are men and women different?
• To what extent can governments control the use of
  language?
• Does language vary with social class?

35
continued

• To summarise sociolinguists study how
  linguistics features vary
• When variation is extensive enough and found
  across domains, sociolinguistics talk about
  varieties and codes
• Sometimes these are the same as languages and
  dialects (as described by linguists)

36
continued

• But sometimes not sociolinguists also consider
  social attitudes and status.