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    Sociolinguistics and Psycholinguistics: Bushra Sani Lecture 1: Monday, 23 February, 2015

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    1. Sociolinguistics is the study of language in relation to society, examining how social factors such as gender, age, and social class influence language use and structure. 2. A speech community is a group that shares the same language or language variety and interacts linguistically. Within a speech community, there are various language varieties including dialects, registers, and sociolects that are distinguished by region, social class, gender, and age of speakers. 3. The study of sociolinguistics provides insights into how language conveys information about a speaker and their social identity, and how language both influences and reflects the societies and communities in which it is used.

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    Sociolinguistics and Psycholinguistics: Bushra Sani Lecture 1: Monday, 23 February, 2015

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    1. Sociolinguistics is the study of language in relation to society, examining how social factors such as gender, age, and social class influence language use and structure. 2. A speech community is a group that shares the same language or language variety and interacts linguistically. Within a speech community, there are various language varieties including dialects, registers, and sociolects that are distinguished by region, social class, gender, and age of speakers. 3. The study of sociolinguistics provides insights into how language conveys information about a speaker and their social identity, and how language both influences and reflects the societies and communities in which it is used.

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    textbook socio and phsycolinguistic

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    Lecture1sociolinguisticsandpsycholinguisticslecture 150916225739 Lva1 App6891

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    1. Sociolinguistics is the study of language in relation to society, examining how social factors such as gender, age, and social class influence language use and structure. 2. A speech community is a group that shares the same language or language variety and interacts linguistically. Within a speech community, there are various language varieties including dialects, registers, and sociolects that are distinguished by region, social class, gender, and age of speakers. 3. The study of sociolinguistics provides insights into how language conveys information about a speaker and their social identity, and how language both influences and reflects the societies and communities in which it is used.

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    20 views27 pages

    Sociolinguistics and Psycholinguistics: Bushra Sani Lecture 1: Monday, 23 February, 2015

    Uploaded by

    zamroni abdillah
    1. Sociolinguistics is the study of language in relation to society, examining how social factors such as gender, age, and social class influence language use and structure. 2. A speech community is a group that shares the same language or language variety and interacts linguistically. Within a speech community, there are various language varieties including dialects, registers, and sociolects that are distinguished by region, social class, gender, and age of speakers. 3. The study of sociolinguistics provides insights into how language conveys information about a speaker and their social identity, and how language both influences and reflects the societies and communities in which it is used.

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    of 27

    SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND

    PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
    Bushra Sani
    Lecture 1: Monday, 23rd February, 2015
    What is language?
    Language
     A means of communicating information

    Only a means to convey


    information?

     Significant in establishing and maintaining relationships with


    other people
     Represents a man’s identity in the society i.e. his personality,
    class, nature, job etc.
    Function of language
    in establishing social
    relationships
    Aspects of language
    behaviour
    Role played by 1. Accent
    language in conveying
    2. Speech
    information about the
    speaker 3. Ideas/ attitudes
    Sociolinguistics
     Study of language in relation to society (R.A. Hudson, 1980)
     Dell-Hymes calls it “socially constituted language”
     A blend of sociology and linguistics
     It is also referred to as sociology of language

    Study of society in
    relation to language
    Scope and Utility of
    Sociolinguistics
    The relatedness between language and Society

    1. While language is principally used to communicate meaning, it is also


    used to establish and maintain social relationships.
    2. Users of the same language in a sense all speak differently. The kind
    of language each of them chooses to use is in part determined by his
    social background. Language, in its turn, reveals information about its
    speaker.
    (about his personality, class, nature, job, position in society etc.)
    3)To some extent, language, especially the structure of its lexicon,
    reflects the physical environments of a society.
    English, for example, has only one word for snow ( or two if we include
    sleet), Eskimo has several. The reasons for this are obvious. It is
    essential for Eskimos to be able to distinguish efficiently between
    d i f f e r e n t t y p e s o f s n o w .
     English, of course, is quite able to make the same distinctions: fine
    snow, dry snow, soft snow, and so on, but in Eskimos this sort of
    distinction is lexicalized---made by means of individual words.

     (There are approx 50 Eskimo words for snow)


    4. To some extent, language, especially the structure of its lexicon
    reflects social environments of a society.
    For example, a society's kinship system is generally reflected in its
    kinship vocabulary.
    Speech Communities and
    Language Diversity
    Speech Community
     A speech community is defined as a group of people who form
    a community and share the same language or a particular
    variety of language.
    Characteristics of a Speech Community
    a) They speak the same language or dialect.
    b) The members of the group must interact linguistically with other
    members of the community.
    c) They may share similar attitudes toward linguistic norms.
    Language variety
     Speech variety, or language variety, refers to any
    distinguishable form of speech used by a speaker or a
    group of speakers.
     The distinctive characteristics of a speech variety are mainly
    reflected in its pronunciation, syntax and vocabulary.
     Speech variety is a neutral term, which is often used to replace
    such terms as standard language, dialect, pidgin and creole.
     It can also be used to refer to regional dialects and ethnic
    dialects such as Australian English and Black English as well
    as the functional dialects such as legal language.
    Varieties of
    Language

    Standar
    d Dialect Pidgins
    Language Language
    Register and and Gender and age
    languag s Creoles
    e
    Determine
    d by three
    factors:
    Regiona Sociole Ethnic field, mode
    l dialect ct idiolect and tenor
    Dialect of
    discourse
    Standard Language
     Standard language or standard variety is the variety of a
    language which has the highest status in a community or nation
    and which is usually based on the speech and writing of
    educated native speakers of the language.
     A standard language is generally used in government
    documents, in the news media and in literature, described in
    dictionaries and grammars, and taught in schools.
    Dialect
     A variety of a language used recognizably in a specific region
    or by a specific social class is called a dialect.
     The study of dialects is called dialectology. Dialects can be
    categorized into the following types:
    Dialects
    Idiolect:
    Idiolect is a Ethnic Dialect
    personal dialect of
    Regional Social an individual An ethnic
    Dialect Dialect/Sociolie speaker that dialect is a
    combines elements social dialect
    A regional ct regarding regional,
    dialect is a social, gender, and of a language
    Sociolect, or
    linguistic variety age variations. In spoken by a
    social-class other words, an
    used by people less privileged
    dialect, refers to individual speaker’s
    living in the regional and social population that
    the linguistic
    same background, his/her has experience
    variety gender and age
    geographical some form of
    characteristic of jointly determine
    region. the way he/she talks. social isolation
    a particular And the language such as racial
    class. he/she uses, which
    bears distinctive
    discrimination
    features of his/her or segregation.
    own, is his/her
    idiolect.
    Register
     Register refers to the type of language which is selected as
    appropriate to the type of situation.
     Language used on different occasions differs in the degree of
    formality, which is determined by the social variables.
     As languages and dialects differ from one another at every
    level, so registers can differ in vocabulary, phonology, grammar
    and semantics.
    Register
    • refers to what is happening, including what is being talked about.
    Field of • “Why” and “about what”.
    Discourse

    • refers to the relations among the participants in a language


    activity, especially the level of formality they adopt
    Tenor of • who the participants in the communication groups are and
    in what relationship they stand to each other. “To whom”.
    Discourse

    • refers to the medium of language activity which determines the


    role played by the language in a situation e.g. speech vs. writing.
    Mode of • refers to the means of communication. “How”
    Discourse
    Example
     A lecture on linguistics in a postgraduate class at NUML can be
    analyzed as follows:
     Field: linguistics
     Mode: oral (academic lecturing)
     Tenor: participants (teacher-students)
    Language and Gender
     The language used by men and women have some special
    features of their own.
     Question:

    In what ways is language used by women different from that


    by men?
    Language and Age
     In many communities the language used by the old
    generation differs from that used by the younger
    generation in certain ways.
    Pidgin and Creoles
     Pidgin is a variety of a language that is not a native language of
    anyone, but is learned on contact situations such as trading.
     The process by which a pidgin develops is called pidginization.
     A pidgin is usually based on one language, though it soon
    takes on the substances of other languages.
     When a pidgin develops beyond its role as a trade language
    and becomes the first language of a social community, it
    becomes a creole.
     The process by which a pidgin becomes a creole is called
    creolization.
     Once a creole is in existence, it may (i) continue almost without
    change, as appears to be the case for Haitian creole; (ii)
    become extinct; (iii) evolve further into a normal language; (iv)
    gradually merge with its base language through decreolization,
    a process by which a creole becomes more like the standard
    language from which most of its vocabulary comes.
    That’s all for today! See you in next
    session!

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