Socio & Psycho Linguistics Assignment

Ayesha Nisar Abbasi

BS English 8 A

12th June 2020

Q1.
Explain the concept of language variety based on ‘gender’ and ‘ethnicity’? Substantiate your
discussion with at least two examples for each concept, from your local culture.
Answer.
Language Variety Based on Gender
Linguistic varieties based on gender arise because language is a social phenomenon and is
tied with social attitudes. Men and women’s languages are different because their societal
roles are different, and because society expects different behavior from both. Language only
reflects a societal reality. [ CITATION Tru74 \l 1033 ]
Research has shown that in societies where the difference between men and women’s roles is
large and inflexible, the language differences are also larger and more rigid as well. But in
societies where the social roles and expectations from men and women are not vastly
different, then language differences only show up as tendencies in men and women’s speech.
[ CITATION Tru74 \l 1033 ]
Often, different varieties of language (for different ethnic, class, or regional groups) result
from social distance. However, men and women’s speech are found to be different even in
those societies where no social distance exists between the two sexes. Hence, the variation in
their speech cannot be explained away by social distance but might be due to social
difference. That is to say, as different social behavior and attributes are expected from men
and women, so language reflects this fact. [ CITATION Tru74 \l 1033 ]
According to a linguist Otto Jesperson, the differences between the speech of men and
women may be due to taboo. For instance, it is more acceptable for a man to swear than for a
woman. [ CITATION Tru74 \l 1033 ]
In languages around the world, it has been found that women’s language is more conservative
than men’s language. When there are some changes that occur in a language, they are found
to be led by men and later adopted by women. However, if these changes are in the direction
of standard variety or a national variety of a language, they are almost always led by women.
It has also been found that women are likelier than men to use language that resembles the
standard variety or to use a high-prestige variety. Due to this, in some societies, women’s
language is considered to be better than men’s. Research in different parts of the world shows
women to be more sensitive to language structures, syntax, and grammatical features that are
stigmatized, and to use forms that are considered ‘better’ or ‘more correct.’ Why is this so?
Generally, women are more likely than men to be status-conscious and, thus, aware of
linguistics forms and the social class value that they carry. Social class is linked with
language such that the higher-class forms are taken to be more correct or better than lower
class forms. These pressures are larger on women because of their higher class-
consciousness. It has also been found that working-class speech has some connotations of
masculinity, which can lead men to prefer to use the non-standard variety of a language to
appear more masculine. The fact that women’s speech is considered better than men’s speech
can also show that society expects better social behavior from women. [ CITATION Tru74 \l
1033 ] Women being more likely than men to use higher prestige forms is usually explained
through societal pressure on women to be more careful, sensitive to people’s perception of
them, and to be aware of social status. [ CITATION Geo85 \l 1033 ]
There are certain tendencies in languages when it comes to gendered words or speech. For
example, certain words have been taken to refer to men only, and the female version of those
words are additions that came afterward, as in the pairs of hero-heroine, actor-actress. Often,
language refers to men instead of referring to individuals, as in the use of he, his in sentences
like ‘Every person should complete his work on time.’ These tendencies are diminishing by
the day, but they have been part of the language for a long time. [ CITATION Geo85 \l
1033 ]
When it comes to gendered speech, there is a difference in men and women’s pitch, with men
generally having lower pitches than women. Yet a range of pitches can exist among both the
genders, but the difference in pitches is often exaggerated to come up with a stereotypical
male or female voice in certain contexts. [ CITATION Geo85 \l 1033 ]
There are certain features in language use that have been found to be common in women’s
speech. They include rising intonation at the end of statements, frequent use of hedges (sort
of, kind of), and tag questions (It’s cold, isn’t it?). These are explained in terms of women’s
trait of agreeableness, where they invite agreement over an opinion instead of asserting it.
Such features are not found in men’s speech. Another feature of women’s speech is back-
channels (use of words like yeah, really or sounds like hmm, oh to indicate one is listening
with attention). This is also not present as frequently in males’ speech, and if it occurs, it is
used as an indicator for agreeing with the speaker, and not as a sign of paying attention.
[ CITATION Geo85 \l 1033 ]
Men and women use language in certain ways because they feel their sex dictates what
variety of language they should use. This notion of “appropriateness” is enforced by society,
where members using language variety inappropriate for their gender are mocked and
ridiculed. [ CITATION Tru74 \l 1033 ]

Examples from our Culture

 I have observed that girls and women abstain from swear words most of the time, and
if they use swear words, it is in privacy with a few of their friends. But I have heard
boys swearing in corridors, at cafes, and observed them openly using swear words on
social media. This seems to fit in with the suggestion above that women are expected
to show better social behavior.
 Most women in my family do not call their husbands by their names, which is also
part of their gendered speech. Also, I have seen men refer to their wives with “tum,”
and also “ap kiya kar rahi ho?” But the women always reply with “aap” and “ap kiya
kar rahe hain?” which shows women are made to (or choose to) give respect to men
through language.
 Also, the sentence “I will go.” in English is a gender-neutral sentence, but in Urdu, it
has two forms: “me jaon ga.” and “me jaon gi,” which are gendered variations in
language.
 With regard to women using higher prestige language variety, my observation has
been that in Pakistan, there are two kinds of (supposed) prestige to be gained through
language. Some people believe Urdu is more prestigious than other provincial
languages, and others believe English is the most prestigious language. According to
my personal observation, women often speak Urdu instead of their provincial
language (for example, Punjabi) to show superiority, whereas men mostly take pride
in speaking their local dialect and bond better with their kinsmen/friends through it. I
have also observed women consciously put effort into using English words when they
meet someone they want to impress. Many memes are also made on this nowadays on
social media. Also, learning the correct British pronunciation is a goal for many
middle-class women, and they send their children to expensive schools for it.
 Somehow, men also do the same, but I have encountered more women doing this than
men.

Language Variety Based on Ethnicity

When people belonging from different ethnic groups speak a common language, then there
are significant differences in the way they speak, which enables one to correctly guess their
ethnicity on the basis of the way they speak that language. These differences that can be
recognized by listeners are called diagnostic differences and result from learned behavior.
This means that you acquire certain characteristics of a language when you live among
people who predominantly speak that language, i.e., you acquire the language of the ethnic
group you live in. So, if you belong to one ethnic group but grow up in an area that has a
large population of some other ethnic group, you will acquire the language patterns of the
dominant group. [ CITATION Tru74 \l 1033 ]
It was believed in the past that there was some connection between language and race.
However, this is incorrect. Any human being can learn any language. There is no inherent
link between language and ethnicity/race, but language is still an important part of associating
or being a member of a certain ethnic group. [ CITATION Tru74 \l 1033 ]
When one variety of a language is held to be the standard, then there are certain challenges
which children from different ethnic backgrounds face at schools. The first approach to
education in such a setting often is “the elimination of non-standard speech.” In this
approach, the teacher tries to prevent the students from speaking the non-standard variety of a
language and corrects and comments on every feature of the student’s native non-standard
variety to correct it and make it like the standard variety. Here, the standard variety is taken
as the model and presented as good/ideal. This approach is wrong on three different levels.
Psychologically, it is wrong because it teaches children or suggests to children that their
language or the language of the people of the group that they belong to is inferior, and by
association, they are inferior. Language is important when it comes to group membership and
identity. Children might feel alienated from the group they belong to or the school if they are
made to choose one language as better than the other. Socially, this approach is wrong, as it
implies some social groups are not as valuable as others. Practically, it is wrong because it is
immensely difficult to learn a new dialect of the same language. Also, there are no
communication advantages to be gained from learning better pronunciation, as the language
variety is good enough for communication already. Also, children often copy the language
variety spoken by those in the same age group as them and not that spoken by their parents or
teachers, so this approach does not work. [ CITATION Tru74 \l 1033 ]
Another approach is bidialectalism. It advocates that students be allowed to use the non-
standard variety of a language at home, and with friends but taught to read and write the
standard variety at school. The standard and non-standard variety be taken up as separate
entities, and their differences made clear to students at school. The aim would be to teach
students codeswitching how to switch between two varieties of one language. The focus
would be on grammatical and vocabulary items. Dialect differences would be appreciated in
classrooms, and students would be taught both dialects standard and non-standard, this would
serve as a solution to the problem of non-standard speakers of a language in standard-
language classrooms. [ CITATION Tru74 \l 1033 ]
These issues are common in our schools and classrooms where children are ridiculed and
mocked because of their accent/pronunciations. Our educational system ought to become
fine-tuned to the linguistic needs of the linguistically-diverse Pakistani children.
Biadialecticism would work best in our classrooms.

Examples from our Culture

 Urdu is the lingua franca in Pakistan, and people from all ethnicities in Pakistan learn
Urdu to communicate with each other. When a Pathan speaks Urdu, or when a
Punjabi speaks Urdu’ then there are enough differences in the way they speak the
language that make it possible for any listener to judge the ethnicity of the speaker
from their voice/language alone.
 Pathans often use /p/ sound instead of /f/ sound, and vice versa. My physics teacher,
who was a Pathan, often used to pronounce Physics as /piziks/.
 Punjabis struggle with the vowel sound in words such as walk, talk. They often
pronounce these words as /wa:k/ and /ta:k/
 Speakers of Punjabi or Sindhi sometimes use words from their languages in Urdu. In
Urdu, we have the words “khana wana,” but Punjabis often use the words “khana
shaana.” Sindhis use the word “Saeen” to show respect. They can use it in Urdu,
without realizing that it means a mad person in Urdu.
 I am a Pahari speaker (a dialect of Punjabi, quite similar to Pothowari) and have often
been pointed out by my friends for mispronouncing ‘geeli’ (wet) as ‘gilli.’ My father
often pronounces ‘paint’ as /pænt/ and ‘game’ as /gæm/. There is perhaps due to the
lack of the vowel “eɪ” in Pahari language.

Q2.
Write a comprehensive note on Pidgins and Creoles, along with examples. Consult at least
two sources for each concept, followed by your own perception. Provide a bibliography of
the books you study for the concepts.
Answer.
Pidgins
A pidgin may be described as a “contact” language. A pidgin is a language that develops
between people who have frequent contact with each other, for business or trade purposes,
but do not speak each other’s languages. Thus, a pidgin is a language that does not have any
native speakers. Pidgins are characterized by limited vocabulary and simplified grammar and
sentence structures. Inflections (such as -s, -ed, -’s) are not present in a pidgin. [ CITATION
Geo85 \l 1033 ]
When a pidgin is formed from two or more languages, then one language is the dominant
language, and it is the “lexifier” language; that is, it provides most of the vocabulary of the
pidgin language. In most cases, words of the dominant language lose their original
pronunciation and meaning when they become part of a pidgin language. Also, the syntax of
the pidgin language can also become different than the languages from which linguistics
items are taken and then modified. [ CITATION Geo85 \l 1033 ]
Trudgill defines a pidgin as a lingua franca that has no native speakers. According to him,
when a language is simplified to such an extent that it is no longer intelligible to the native
speakers of the original language and the resultant simplified language is stabilized form of a
language and employed as a lingua franca, it is called a pidgin language. A pidgin is used in
trading or other limited-contact situations. It is derived from a normal language through
simplification by removing grammatical and syntactical complexities and reducing
vocabulary. In the formation of aa pidgin, there is also the influence of speakers’ native
languages. This influence is most pronounced in pronunciation. A true pidgin language is
likely to develop in a limited-contact situation from three or more language groups, here one
language would be the dominant language, and the remaining languages would be non-
dominant. The pidgin language would serve as a lingua franca for the people belonging to
different language groups. [ CITATION Tru74 \l 1033 ]
It is often maintained that pidgins are debased or corrupted forms of a language. However,
this is not correct. Pidgins have structure and most characteristics of other languages. They
are genuine languages and are not easy to learn for speakers who are not learned in the
languages that gave birth to pidgins. They have grammatical rules and words of their own as
well and should be regarded as complete languages, and separate and independent (even if
similar) from the languages that gave birth to them. [ CITATION Tru74 \l 1033 ]

Creoles
When a pidgin language develops beyond its role as a trade language or contact language and
is spoken by a social community as their L1 (first language), then it is called a creole. A
creole develops as the L1 of the children of people who use pidgin language but soon
expands to cover all communication purposes. In this process, it becomes more complex,
takes on new vocabulary, and develops complex grammatical and syntactical structures. In
contrast to pidgins, creoles have a large number of native speakers. [ CITATION Geo85 \l
1033 ]
According to Trudgill, when pidgin languages acquire native speakers, they develop into
creoles. In linguistically diverse communities, where a pidgin is a lingua franca, the children
can acquire a pidgin language as their first language. In this process, called creolization, a
pidgin language transforms into an elaborate language that can be used for all communication
purposes. It becomes similar to other non-pidgin languages and will have a greater
vocabulary, complex syntax, and more stylistic features than the parent pidgin language.
Creoles are used in all social situations, have native speakers, and are like any other normal,
natural language. [ CITATION Tru74 \l 1033 ]

The Post-creole Continuum:

The development of a creole from a pidgin is called creolization. There is a process exactly
opposite to it, called decreolization. When people speaking creoles come into contact with
speakers of a standard variety of language (that language which predominantly contributed to
the development of the pidgin and creole), and when education and social prestige are tied
with that standard or “higher” variety, creole speakers start to use less and less creole
structures and forms, in favor of the standard variety.
In this process of decreolization, at one end, a language variety emerges that is very close to
the external standard model, and at the other end, there is a basic creole variety with many
local creole features. In between these extremes, there is a range of varieties that have creole
features in differing proportions. This range of varieties that come into existence after the
creole has been developed is called the post-creole continuum.
 My Perception regarding Pidgins and Creoles
Pidgins and creoles are languages that come into being when people who do not know each
other’s languages are forced to talk to each other. These languages are a natural consequence
of contact between two or more cultures and peoples. Such languages have to be simple
because their main purpose is communicating important messages only. Also, since it is
usually older people who invent pidgins, and we know that language development/learning
does not occur fast at older ages, pidgins are not very elaborate initially.
An example we studied in our postcolonial class is that when the English colonizers brought
people from different African tribes on their plantations to work as slaves, and intentionally
placed families and tribes at different plantations (so no communication could take place
between them), then these African people developed pidgin languages that were based on the
English language, but had words from their varying cultures. These later developed into
creoles when their children also started speaking them. English remained a great influence on
these creoles as it was the common language on the plantations. Thus, pidgins played an
important role in communication among different peoples.
Another example of a pidgin/creole is Urdu. Urdu originally developed because people from
various ethnic and religious backgrounds needed a medium of communication in the
subcontinent. So, before Urdu became Urdu, there must have been a simpler version of the
language that the Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Turks, Arabs, Iranians, and Indians used to
communicate with each other, which had words from Arabic, Sanskrit, and Iranian languages.
In fact, in the beginning, this language did not even have a script. Later, it diverged into
Urdu, Hindi, and Bengali, with their separate scripts (that they adopted from Arabic or
Sanskrit languages) and the addition of new words, such that today the languages have really
grown and encompassed all social purposes.

References
Trudgill, P. (1974). Sociolinguistics: An Introduction. Middlesex: Penguin Books Ltd.
Yule, G. (1985). The Study of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.