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Chapter 5 Summary ZK

Our style of speech is influenced by the social context, such as who we are talking to and where. Speakers adjust their language based on factors like the listener's background and level of information. For example, a doctor uses more medical terminology when talking to colleagues than with patients. Languages also have different levels of formality, from informal casual speech to formal styles used in situations like giving a presentation. Linguistic differences between formal and informal speech are mostly seen in vocabulary. Studies have also shown that speakers change pronunciation and language style depending on the social situation, such as using more formal speech for reading tasks compared to casual conversation.

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Zeynep Keskin
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164 views1 page

Chapter 5 Summary ZK

Our style of speech is influenced by the social context, such as who we are talking to and where. Speakers adjust their language based on factors like the listener's background and level of information. For example, a doctor uses more medical terminology when talking to colleagues than with patients. Languages also have different levels of formality, from informal casual speech to formal styles used in situations like giving a presentation. Linguistic differences between formal and informal speech are mostly seen in vocabulary. Studies have also shown that speakers change pronunciation and language style depending on the social situation, such as using more formal speech for reading tasks compared to casual conversation.

Uploaded by

Zeynep Keskin
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Language and Social Context

Our style of speech is affected by a lot of things. Places where we are talking in
and people who we are talking are important determiners for our speech. Because
speakers shape their languages according to the environment which they are in. For
example, the doctor’s speech has more medical terms while he/she is talking with
colleagues than while speaking with patients. Because people’s speech is adjusted to
the listener’s backgrounds, information level and the environment. Register or jargon
is termed as the family of words related to a specific branch. Registers has mostly
lexical differences.
We can see formal and informal speeches discretely. Human beings can say the
same thing to two persons such as his/her boss and his/her boy/daughter in different
styles. Humans decide their style regarding to formality and they use the appropriate
style. Differences between formal and informal styles might be arisen from lexical,
grammatical, syntactic differences. But differences are mostly characterized by
vocabulary changes.
Many English speakers prefer pronunciation changes according to context.
However it is hard to determine these changes’ frequency and type. Linguists try
various methods to obtain data. In Labov’s New York study, he has recorded
informants’ speech in four situations. These are formal speech, reading from a passage,
reading the word list and casual speech. With the help of this method, he can observe
linguistic differences on different context. This method indicates that speakers prefer
formal speech in word-list and passages. However they use informal style in their
casual speech. Also he has observed style-shifting across social classes.
The other issue about differences in contexts is addressing the person spoken to.
Some languages such as French, Italian and Spanish etc. have two different degrees of
addressing. Some languages don’t have. There are different hierarchies to determine
which is appropriate. One can look social class, age, intimacy, power or solidarity.
After democracy is adopted, the changes in addressing has been fallen and people are
tend to focus solidarity.
Diglossia is also a term we learned from this chapter. Some languages such as
Swiss German, Arabic, Tamil comprise a standardized high variety and a low variety.
High variety has no native speakers, kids have to learn it after their mother tongue.
Typically high variety is used in sermons, formal letters, political speeches etc. While
the low variety is used in conversations with family, radio series, discussions and
cartoons. Differences between these varieties can be grammatical, phonological and
mostly lexical.
Summarized by Zeynep KESKİN

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