GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Sociolinguistics

Maxim Teodora Carmen

BCS, 1st YEAR

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Abstand language is a concept used in sociolinguistics and it is a cluster of varieties that is
distinctly separate from any other language. Basque is thought to be an abstand language,
which is not related to any other language and it is very different phonetically, lexically even
from its neighbors. One whose perceived distinction from others rests on intrinsic differences
between its system and theirs. Thus French as distinct from English.

Ausbau language - One whose identity rests on the role it plays or the status it has acquired
in a society or nation. The three standardized languages Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish are
mutually distinct ausbau languages, even though speakers of the different standards can
readily understand each other.

Accent – 1. a phonological unit realized by prominence as perceived by a hearer, especially

within a word. e.g. in morning the first syllable is perceived as more prominent than the
second: in phonetic transcription, [ˈmɔːnɪŋ]. This distinguishes it as the accented syllable, or
the one that ‘carries the accent’. e.g. in He’ll talk to ′me (‘to me, not someone else’), the
‘sentence accent’, or sentence stress, falls on me.
2. A variety of speech differing phonetically from other varieties: thus, as in
ordinary usage, ‘a Southern accent’, ‘Scottish.

Accommodation In linguistics, accommodation is the process by which participants in a

conversation adjust their accent, diction, or other aspects of language according to the speech
style of the other participant. Also called linguistic accommodation, speech accommodation,
and communication accommodation.

Acrolect is the most prestigious variety of a language within a speech community, such as
Received Pronunciation in Britain. For example, Standard Jamaican English is the acrolect
where Jamaican Creole is spoken.

Act of identity With every speech act all individuals perform, to a greater or less extent, an
“act of identity”, revealing through their personal use of language their sense of social and
ethnic solidarity or difference. It is Robert Broderick Le Page who formulated this theory by
studying the Jamaican Creole.

Adstrate/adstratum it is a language that influences a neighboring language, as being a

source of loanwords. During the past few centuries, Russian has been a major source of

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adstrate influence for most of the Uralic languages. Other areal contacts are more local, but
equally important: Turkic has affected Samoyedic, Ugric, Permic, Mordvinic, and, most
importantly, Cheremisic.

Anaphoric reference means that a word in a text refers back to other ideas in the text for its
meaning. It can be compared with cataphoric reference, which means a word refers to ideas
later in the text. E.g. “I went out with Jo on Sunday. She looked awful.' ´She` clearly refers to
Jo, there is no need to repeat her name.”

Anti-language is a term created by the linguist MAK Halliday, is a way of communicating

within a language that excludes outsiders. An anti-language uses the same grammar and
words as the main speech community, but used them in a different way so that they can only
be understood by insiders. Anti-language is used by criminals and people on the fringes of
society, who do not want to be understood by everybody.

Argot it is the SLANG of a restricted, often suspect, social group: ‘They have their own argot:
they bimble, yomp, or tab across.

Artificial language is an invented language, such as Zamenhof 's Esperanto , formed by

blending elements of various Indo-European languages, or an adapted language, such as
Ogden 's Basic English , formed by radically reducing standard English. Hundreds of
artefacts of this type have been created and many promoted over the last 150 years, mostly
without success. Esperanto is, however, well known and its name serves virtually as a generic
term for all kinds of artificial communication.

Autonomy is a criterion proposed by R.T. Bell (1976: 147-57) in order to discuss about different kind
of languages. There are seven criteria and they are: standardization, vitality, historicity, reduction,
mixture, autonomy and defacto norms, may be used to distinguish one type of language from
another.

Back channel In nonverbal communication, feedback signals from an audience to a speaker

—usually functioning as small reinforcements that increase the rate of production of
whatever was reinforced, but also used as cues in conversation turn taking. The main back-
channels are head nods, short vocalizations (e.g. ‘uh-huh’, ‘mm-hmm’, ‘yeah’), glances, and

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facial expressions (e.g. smiles). The absence of back-channel signals is usually interpreted as
a negative audience reaction. Providing such feedback is called back-channeling.

Back slang is a form of slang that consists in pronouncing a word near enough backwards. It
was formerly much used by “flash” cockneys, thieves and especially by London's tens of
thousands of costermongers. The vocabulary was handed down from one generation to
another so that younger costers often did not know the origin of the words that they used
every day. Back-slang terminology mainly consists of words for coins, vegetables, fruit,
police court terms and other aspects of everyday life for market traders.

Basilang speech constitutes a system of communication: the formal linguistic features of the
interlanguage will develop to the extent that the communication will not breake down.
Schumann argues that this speech “is acquired through the pragmatic functions of the mind’s
general cognitive mechanisms and therefore does not attain morphosyntactic regularity.”

Basilect is a term used to describe varieties of a language in a creole continuum. Specifically,

in a particular community the basilect is the variety that is furthest away from the standard
language. Compare acrolect; hyperlect; mesolect . 2. More generally, the least prestigious
variety of a language. The term can be used to describe the dialects of people speaking
English as their mother-tongue, and can also be applied in communities where English is used
as a second or third language.

Bilingualism is the possibility to be able to use two languages, especially with equal or
nearly equal fluency.

Borrowing is the process of taking over a word (or sometimes structure) from a foreign
language; a word so borrowed (also called a loanword). The term is somewhat misleading,
since ‘borrowed’ words usually become a permanent, not a temporary, part of the
borrowing language. Many borrowings are modified to bring them into line with the
phonological rules of their new language. As has often been remarked, the richness of the
English vocabulary is in large part due to borrowing from many other languages of the world.

Booster is a lexical item that expresses a claim or viewpoint more assertively. Unlike
amplifiers they do not scale up a quality. E.g. “In the early nineteenth century this was
without doubt true of much of the North region and the Normandy textile area.” (Carter and
McCarthy, 2006: 893)

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Calque A word or expression which has been formed by translation of a corresponding word
or expression in another language. E.g. French gratte‐ciel “skyscraper” (literally ‘scratch‐
sky’) is a calque on English skyscraper.

Cataphoric reference A forward reference in a text: the pronoun she is cataphoric in ‘If she
wants to, Nora can be charming.’ Here, she substitutes for its antecedent Nora . The sentence
exhibits cataphoric ellipsis, since she wants to is understood as she wants to be charming.
Cataphora is less common than anaphora, in which the reference is backwards to a preceding
part of the text.

Code In Sociolinguistics, code refers to a language or a variety of language. The term is

useful because it is neutral. This term is mainly used as a neutral label for any system of
communication involving language and which avoids the sociolinguist having to commit
himself to such terms as dialects, language or variety, which have special status in his
theories. What is interesting is the factors that govern the choice of a particular code on a
particular occasion.

Codification The linguistic term codification refers to the methods by which a language
is standardized. These methods include the creation and use of dictionaries, style and usage
guides, traditional grammar textbooks, and the like. While codification is an ongoing process,
"the most important period of codification [in English] was probably the 18th century, which
saw the publication of hundreds of dictionaries and grammars, including Samuel Johnson's
monumental Dictionary of the English Language (1755) [in Great Britain] and Noah
Webster's The American Spelling Book (1783) in the United States" (Routledge Dictionary of
English Language Studies, 2007). The term codification was popularized in the early 1970s
by linguist Einar Haugen, who defined it as a process that leads to "minimal variation in
form" ("Dialect, Language, Nation," 1972).

Code mixing There are two kinds of code, code mixing and code switching. Moreover,
Suwito (1985) differentiates code switching from code mixing. Otherwise, if an utterance,
either phrase or clause, consists of a clause or phrase does not support a distinctive function,
it is called code mixing”. In conclusion, it is clear that code mixing is a mixture of word,
phrases, and clauses of several languages. It means that code mixing occurs when a speaker

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uses a certain language in his communication. However, he inserts some pieces of another
language.

Code switching Suwito stated that “If utterance is switched from one language to another
language supporting a distinctive function, it is called code switching.”

Coherence is the used semi‐technically of the way in which the content of connected speech
or text hangs together, or is interpreted as hanging together, as distinct from that of random
assemblages of sentences. Especially in studies of conversation: e.g. it is by a principle of
coherence that, if one speaker asks a question, the other is expected to answer.

Cohesion deals with how utterances are linked structurally and facilitates interpretation of a
text. For example, the use of pronoun, synonyms;

Collocation is basic to language. Its subtleties must be learned, and failure to get the
collocation of English right is a major indicator of foreignness: for example, talking about
rotten rather than rancid butter. Idioms are usually fixed in form and used without recourse to
the meanings of their elements: it can rain cats and dogs , but never * dogs and cats or * cats
and cows . Even with idioms, however, there can be some leeway: for example, at least the
three verbs banging, hitting.

Communicative competence is a term in sociolinguistics for a speaker's underlying knowledge of

the rules of grammar (understood in its widest sense to include phonology, orthography, syntax,
lexicon, and semantics) and rules for their use in socially appropriate circumstances. The notion is
intended to replace noam chomsky 'S dichotomy of competence and performance. Competence is the
knowledge of rules of grammar, performance, how the rules are used.

Contact language Any language used systematically in contacts between speakers whose native
languages are different. This could be a language native to one participant: e.g. French might be
described as a “contact language” for speakers of English after the Norman conquest; also for a
linguist of the present day, whether French‐speaking or not, beginning an investigation e.g. of an
African language.

Convergence In the obvious sense; e.g. the speech of different individuals may converge, in that
they become more similar, through accommodation. Especially, therefore, of the historical process by
which languages in contact become more alike in structure. E.g. Ancient Greek and Latin converged in
antiquity, and Modern Greek and Italian have continued to converge since.

Creole A cultural hybrid, most often in the context of contact between a colonial and an indigenous
population. Creole can refer to both languages and peoples: in the former case it is distinguished from

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a pidgin language by its complexity and its use as a primary language; in the latter it refers to the local
descendants of colonial families and came into particularly widespread use in Latin America and the
Caribbean.

Critical discourse analysis is an interdisciplinary

approach to the study of discourse that views language as a formof social practice and focuse
s on the ways social and political domination are reproduced in text and talk.[1]Since Norman
Fairclough's Language and Power in 1989, CDA has been deployed as a method of multidis
ciplinary analysisthroughout the humanities and social sciences. It does not confine itself onl
y to method, though the overriding assumptionshared by CDA practitioners is that language a
nd power are linked.

Dialect A distinct variety of a language, with its own variations of grammar and vocabulary, usually
associated with a particular region within a country. Normally also associated with different accents,
though linguists distinguish accent from dialect.

A dialect continuum, or dialect area, was defined by Leonard Bloomfield as a range

of dialects spoken across some geographical area that differ only slightly betweenneighboring
areas, but as one travels in any direction, these differences accumulatesuch that speakers from
opposite ends of the continuum are no longer mutually
intelligible. (It is analogous to a ringspecies in evolutionary biology.) The lines thatcan be d
rawn between areas that differ with respect to any feature of language are called isoglosses.
According to the Ausbausprache Abstandsprache Dachsprache paradigm, these dialects can b
e considered Abstandsprachen. However, they can be seen as dialects of a single language,
provided that a common standard language, through which communication is possible,
exists.

Dialectology (from Greek διάλεκτος, dialektos, "talk, dialect"; and λογία, logia) is the scienti
fic study of linguistic dialect,a subfield of sociolinguistics. It studies variations in language b
ased primarily on geographic distribution and theirassociated features. Dialectology treats suc
h topics as divergence of two local dialects from a common ancestor andsynchronic variation.

Diglossia (/daɪˈɡlɒsiə/; Greek: διγλωσσία < δι prefix denotingtwo, from δίς, twice + γλῶσσ
α, language + ία, suffix denoting state orattribute, "speaking two languages") refers to a situat
ion in which two dialectsor usually closely related languages are used by a single language co

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mmunity.In addition to the community's everyday or vernacular language variety(labeled "L
" or "low" variety), a second, highly codified variety (labeled "H" or"high") is used in certain
situations such as literature, formal education, orother specific settings, but not used for ordin
ary conversation.

Discourse A specific form of language use shaped and determined by situational rules and
context. Discourse can be thought of as the performance of language, but even this is too
limiting because the concept is used in place of language precisely as a way of encompassing
the extra-linguistic dimension of all forms of communication.

Discourse analysis A socio-linguistic approach to qualitative data that analyses language

used, and takes into account the wider social and cultural context within which the subjects
give an account of their experiences and their interpretation of the events and relationships
described. For example, a manager’s account of a significant event that impacted on the
company might use a term such as ‘activist’ to describe an individual who might otherwise
have been described as a “shop floor worker who undertook trade union duties”.

Discourse marker
In linguistics, a discourse marker is a word or phrase that is relatively syntax
independent and does not change themeaning of the sentence, and has a somewhat empty me
aning.[1] Examples of discourse markers include the particles "oh","well", "now", "then", "yo
u know", and "I mean", and the connectives "so", "because", "and", "but", and "or".

Deixis There are spatial deixis (demonstratives, locative adverbs like here , relational
positionals like in front of ); temporal deixis (tense, adverbials like today, now , and next
week ); as well as social deixis (e.g. honorifics) and discourse deixis (like the latter, the
aforesaid ). Typically, the unmarked “anchor” or deictic center is the current spatio-temporal
locus of the speaker.

Diachronic is about the study of development of a phenomenon through time,

historical: diachronic linguistics.

Discourse community
A discourse community' is a group of people who share a set of discourses, understood as bas
ic values and assumptions,and ways of communicating about those goals. Linguist, John Swa

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les defined discourse communities as "groups that havegoals or purposes, and use communica
tion to achieve these goals".

Ebonics American black English regarded as a language in its own right rather than as a
dialect of standard English; the name is a blend of ebony and phonics .
‘

Elaborated code The elaborated code was said to be used in relatively formal, educated
situations, permitting people to be reasonably creative in their expression and to use a range
of linguistic alternatives.

Embedding The inclusion of a linguistic unit within another linguistic

unit. Embedding contrasts with conjoining , much as subordination contrasts with
coordination . As an example, in the following sentence the comparative clause
is embedded in an adjective phrase : She was [ AP gloomier than she normally was ] When a
unit is embedded in a unit of the same type we speak of self-embedding (also called centre-
embedding ).

Endangered language Languages described as “endangered” are contracting in number of

speakers, function, or structure and vocabulary, as the speakers shift either partially or
completely to the use of another language.

Endearment (term of)

is a word or phrase used to address and/or describe a person, animal or inanimate object for
whichthe speaker feels love or affection. Terms of endearment are used for a variety of reaso
ns, such as parents addressing theirchildren and lovers addressing each other.

Endoglossic language Denoting or relating to an indigenous language that is used as the first
or official language in a country or community.

Epistemic modality is a sub-type of linguistic

modality that deals with a speaker's evaluation/judgment of, degree ofconfidence in, or belief
of the knowledge upon which a proposition is based. In other words, epistemic modality refe
rs to theway speakers communicate their doubts, certainties, and guesses
their "modes of knowing". More technically, epistemicmodality may be defined "...as (the lin

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guistic expression of) an evaluation of the chances that a certain hypothetical state ofaffairs u
nder consideration (or some aspect of it) will occur, is occurring, or has occurred in a possible
world which serves asthe universe of interpretation for the evaluation process…

Ethnography The detailed study and analytical description of a defined social setting. This
may be a small-scale society, an organization, a subgroup of a larger society, or a place where
regular social interaction takes place. Often associated with participant observation,
ethnographic data can be gathered by living and working in the setting in question, or by
attending significant social events,

Exoglossic language is denoting or relating to a non-indigenous language that is used as an

official or second language in a particular country or community.

Face The term face idiomatically refers to one's own sense of dignity or prestige in social
contexts. In the English-speaking world, the expression "to save face" describes the lengths
that an individual may go to in order to preserve their established position in society, taking
action to ensure that one is not thought badly of by his or her peers. It is a fundamental
concept in the fields of sociology, sociolinguistics, semantics, politeness theory, psychology,
political science, communication, and face negotiation theory, and translates at least
somewhat equivalently into many world languages, both Germanic and otherwise.

Forensic linguistics The main purpose of, 'Forensic Linguistics: Applied Sociolinguistics and
the Law', is to scrutinise, form a broadly sociolinguistic perspective, the language practices of
crime and law. Techniques of forensic linguistics are used in such areas as attempting to
identify a region where a person is from, determining the author of a document or
determining if two documents were written by the same person, and in attempting to clarify
the meaning of statements made in court or to law enforcement officials.

Field A particular academic area of investigation, traditionally within a single academic

discipline (such as sociology)

‘H’ variety In addition to the community's every day or vernacular language variety (labelled
"L" or "low" variety), a second, highly codified variety (labelled "H" or "high") is used in

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certain situations such as literature, formal education, or other specific settings, but not used
for ordinary conversation.

Hedge is a mitigating word, sound or construction used to lessen the impact of an utterance
due to constraints on the interaction between the speaker and addressee, such as politeness,
softening the blow, avoiding the appearance of bragging and others. Typically, they
are adjectives or adverbs, but can also consist of clauses. It could be regarded as a form
of euphemism. Example: There might just be a few insignificant problems we need to
address. (adjective)

Honorific Polite forms of address. Like qualifications, they do not form part of one's name.
While they are properly used by other people in addressing the holder, it is considered
impolite to use honorifics when referring to oneself. When asked to give one's name, ‘Joe
Bloggs’ is correct form, but ‘Sir Joe Bloggs’, ‘Dr Joe Bloggs’ or ‘Mr Joe Bloggs’ is incorrect

Heteroglossia

describes the coexistence of distinct varieties within a single "language" (in Greek: hetero-"d
ifferent" and glōssa "tongue, language").In this way the term translates the Russian разнореч
ие [raznorechie] (literally"different
speechness"), which was introduced by the Russian linguist MikhailBakhtin in his 1934 pap
er Слово в романе[Slovo v romane], published in English as "Discourse in the Novel."

Identity The term has been widely adapted and applied, in social psychology, cultural
studies, and sociology, and can now refer to personal identity, cultural identity,
social identity, and national identity.

Idiolect The term ‘idiolect’ is intended to mark the notion of a language which is not the
language of a community (sociolect) but rather of an individual. Idiolects more than
sociolects have been the focus of much philosophical interest in recent years because of the
close connection between the language or meanings of an individual and his intentional
states. Idiolects are the place where philosophy of language and philosophy of mind meet.

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Interlanguage A language, or an artificial system like a language, used as an intermediary,
e.g. in translation, between two others. 2. A system of rules said to develop, in the mind of
someone learning a foreign language, which is intermediate between that of their native
language and that of the one being translated.

Isogloss A line on a map dividing areas whose dialects differ in some specific respect: e.g.
between dialects in which a consonant is in principle voiced and those in which the
corresponding consonant is voiceless, or those in which a certain thing is normally called x
and those in which it is normally called y . Major divisions between dialects are characterized
by bundles of isoglosses, in which many such lines tend to run together.

Jargon A semi-technical term for a minimal language used by people with no common
language, as a means of communication for trading purposes, such as Chinook Jargon and
Trader Navajo in North America

Kinship (terms) Words used in a speech community to identify relationships between

individuals in a family (or a kinship unit). Also calledkinship terminology. A classification of
persons related through kinship in a particular language or culture is called a kinship system.

Koine
1. A dialect of Greek that developed primarily from Attic and became the common language
of the Hellenistic world,from which later stages of Greek are descended.

2. koine A regional dialect or language that becomes the standard language over a wider area,
losing its mostextreme local features.

Language The phenomenon of human symbolic communication, including speech, writing,

and sign language

‘L’ variety In linguistics, diglossia (/daɪˈɡlɒsiə/; from Koine

Greek διγλωσσία from δι- prefix "two" (from δίς, "twice"), γλῶσσα, "language" and -

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ία, suffix denoting state or attribute, "speaking two languages") refers to a situation in which
two dialects or languagesare used by a single language community. In addition to the
community's every day or vernacular language variety (labelled "L" or "low" variety), a
second, highly codified variety (labelled "H" or "high") is used in certain situations such as
literature, formal education, or other specific settings, but not used for ordinary conversation

Language death Disappearance of a language, especially where speakers shift progressively

to another or others: thus e.g. of many languages in North America or Australia once spoken
by people whose descendants now speak only English.

Language maintenance In the obvious sense, but applied specifically by sociolinguists to

cases where a form of speech might be expected to disappear or is officially discouraged. E.g.
the maintenance of Welsh in parts of Wales, despite increasing use of English and, in the past,
the promotion of English through education.

Lect A general term for any variety of a language that can be identified in a speech
community.

Lexifier language A lexifier is the dominant (superstrate) language of a

particular pidgin or creole language that provides the basis for the majority of vocabulary.
English is the lexifier of English-based creole languages, such as: Jamaican Patois, Belizean
Creole, Miskito Coast Creole.

Lingua franca
A lingua franca (or working language, bridge language, vehicular language, unifying lan
guage) is a languagesystematically used to make communication possible between people not
sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is athird language, distinct from both mother to
ngues.

Language contact Any situation in which members of one speech community regularly
interact through speech with members of another speech community.

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