TOPIC OUTLINE

Module 13: Language and Society

1. Language vs. Dialect

2. The Speech Community

3. Linguistic Borrowing and Language Contact

4. Language Variations
5. Language Shift and Death
7. Language and Gender

8. Language and Social Class or Ethnicity

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 At the end of this module, the students should be able to:

a. defines and differentiate linguistic terms in sociolinguistics (language vs.

dialect, contact vs. borrowing, etc.);
b. discuss how language affects aspects in society and vice versa (gender,
social class, ethnicity, power, etc.);
c. recognizes the role of research in sociolinguistics;
d. appreciate how language is alive in the different variations, sociolects,
idiolects, and slangs in Philippine English through creative presentations;
and
e. conduct case studies/ research presentation on language and society
through its various aspects.

LANGUAGE AND DIALECT

Introduction

❖ We are dealing with language and society, and in particular with the
English language and society
Examples:

1. RP (Received Pronunciation)
2. Norwich
3. Edinburgh
4. Australia
5. South Africa
6. Football commentary
7. Dinner table conversation

Reviewing Basic Terms

❖ language: “The systematic, conventional use of sounds, signs, or written
symbols in human society for communication and self-expression.”
❖ variety: Most neutral term, can be used for all the others
❖ dialect: regional variety
❖ sociolect: social variety
❖ accent: variety characterized by pronunciation
❖ register: occupational varieties
❖ style: varieties according to formality of situation.

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 Language variation
❖ No two speakers of a language speak exactly the same way
❖ No individual speaker speaks the same way all the time.

Dimensions of Variation

Social and Regional Variation

LANGUAGE AND DIALECT

• Language and Dialect are ambiguous terms (Haugen 1966)
• “these terms represent a simple dichotomy in a situation that is almost
infinitely complex”
• Language can be used to refer either to a single linguistic norm or to a
group of related norms, and dialect to refer to one of the norms.

DIALECT

• A variety of a language spoken by a group of people that is

characterized by systematic features (e.g., phonological, lexical,
grammatical) that distinguish it from other varieties of that same
language.
• Idiolect: the speech variety of an individual speaker

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 LANGUAGE = A CONTINUUM OF DIALECTS

DIALECT = A CONTINUUM OF IDIOLECTS

SOME POPULAR SOCIAL BELIEFS ABOUT DIALECTS

• Dialects are structurally inferior to languages, lacking formal grammatical
rules and standards of speaking;
• Dialects are communicatively inferior to languages, lacking the full range
of impressibility found in a formal language;
• Dialects are orthographically inferior to languages, lacking their own
system of writing;
• In short, dialects are inferior to languages.
FACT: Everyone speaks a dialect

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 THE LINGUISTIC VIEW OF LANGUAGES AND DIALECTS.
❖ Dialect: A dialect represents a commonly held way of speaking for a
community, admitting to only minor variations in structure. (Mutual
Intelligibility)
❖ Language: A language consists of a cluster of dialects that are found to
be mutually intelligible.
❖ Two dialects are held to be mutually intelligible when a speaker of one
dialect finds that he can understand, without too much difficulty the
speech of a person speaking another dialect and vice versa.

THE LINGUISTIC VIEW OF LANGUAGES AND DIALECTS ADMITS

❖ British and American English, are mutually intelligible

❖ prior to the Norman invasion of 1066, when English and Norwegian were
mutually intelligible, that they were dialects of the same language.
❖ The Dutch/German interface (Indeterminate results)
THE POLITICAL DEFINITION

❖ A dialect is a language with an army and a navy, (i.e., a government).

❖ Examples Norway and Sweden, Spain and Italy, Netherlands and
Germany.
❖ This definition seems to work better than the formal linguistic one.
❖ But not perfect

TESTS OF THE POLITICAL DEFINITION

❖ Definition could be used to exclude Catalan, a Romance "language"
spoken in the Barcelona area of Spain because it is not backed up by an
army and navy.
❖ Chinese. While we may be popularly aware that people in China speak
Chinese, we may not be as aware that many of the so called "dialects" of
Chinese are not mutually intelligible.
TESTS OF THE POLITICAL DEFINITION

❖ Igbo. Igbo is spoken by over 3 million people in eastern Nigeria. Yet, here,
too, not all dialects of Igbo are mutually intelligible.
❖ English. The claim has been made, that not all dialects of English are
mutually intelligible. When National Public Television presented a 15-part
series on The Story of English many of the "dialects" represented had to
have subtitles because they were not at least clearly mutually intelligible.
LANGUAGE VS DIALECT

• Certain important questions to be asked are

• Is there really any essential difference between a language and a
dialect?

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 • Is there any scientific basis for making this distinction?
• Why after all one variety is called a “language” and another a “dialect”?
• Why certain dialects are believed to be part of one particular language?

DIALECT
• The word dialect was originally borrowed from Greek language.
• In ancient Greece, this word was used to refer to certain written varieties
which were distinct from one another.
• But in English this term is used in a different sense.

POPULAR USAGE OF THE TERM ‘DIALECT’

❖ Dialect in English is used to refer to a certain variety which has no written
form e.g., Scottish Dialect, Irish Dialect etc.
❖ English employs dialect in a number of different senses, including also
various types of 'informal' or 'non-standard' varieties:
❖ Dialect in English is used to refer to a certain variety which has no written
form e.g. Scottish Dialect, Irish Dialect etc.
❖ English employs dialect in a number of different senses, including also
various types of 'informal' or 'non-standard' varieties:

“In general usage it therefore remains quite undefined whether such

dialects are part of the 'language' or not. In fact, the dialect is often
thought of as standing outside the language ... As a social norm, then, a
dialect is a language that is excluded from polite society.” (Haugen 1966)

LANGUAGE AND DIALECT IN ENGLISH AND FRENCH?

In French, there are two terms to refer to these varieties i.e., ‘dialect' for written
varieties and ‘patois’ for unwritten varieties but there is no such distinction in
English.

The Problems

❖ Perhaps there is something wrong with the dichotomy between language

and dialect.
❖ Not all languages draw the distinction between language and dialect.

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 Language
• 4 arguments for status as a language
• written form (would exclude many aboriginal languages)
• standard variety (as above)
• mutual intelligibility (not a relation between varieties but between people,
motivation is very important)
• relative similarities (i.e., grammatical differences make it a language)

Bases for Distinction Between Language and Dialect: Prestige

❖ A language is prestigious variety and speakers consider it prestigious.
Variety that is used in formal writing is called language.
❖ This is the sense in which “STANDARD” variety can be called a language
and all other varieties dialects. “Whether some variety is called a
language or a dialect depends on how much prestige, one thinks it has,
and for most people this is clear-cut matter, which depends on whether it
is used in formal writing.” (Hudson)

Bases for Distinction Between Language and Dialect: Size

❖ It is considered that a language is larger than a dialect. Thus, we may
refer to English as a language “containing the sum total of all the terms in
all its varieties”
❖ This is again a relative answer and question of size can’t solve the problem

How languages can be delimited?

❖ Mutual Intelligibility: if two dialects are mutually intelligible, they are
dialects of the same language.
❖ Family Tree Model: Developed and used in Historical Linguistic, this model
helps in locating the origins of languages.

MUTUAL INTELLIGIBILITY
❖ The parameter of mutual intelligibility can’t serve as a solid basis for
relating different varieties Some classic ‘problem’ cases:
• Swedish/Danish
• Hindi/Urdu
• Chinese
• Mutual intelligibility is a matter of degree Two varieties may be more
mutually intelligible than others as dialects exist on a continuum. The
relative distance of two dialects on the same continuum would
affect their mutual intelligibility. Mutual intelligibility.

THE FAMILY TREE MODEL

• Languages that share a common ancestor are genetically related
• Similarities between languages suggest that they may be sisters, cousins...

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 • When groups of people are isolated from each other, each develops
unique innovations in their language
• New dialects, new languages appear the family tree model clarifies the
historical relations among the varieties concerned, and in particular that it
gives a clear idea of the relative chronology of the historical changes by
which the varieties concerned have diverged. Lynch

PROBLEMS WITH THE FAMILY TREE MODEL

❖ Languages do not exist in such neat and clean boundaries. Family Tree
Model fails when two converge because one variety may be product of
two or more than two different varieties.
❖ The family tree model suggests that new languages appear suddenly
❖ In reality, languages diverge gradually
❖ Just as the distinction between dialect and language is fuzzy, the
distinction between parent and daughter language is fuzzy.
DISADVANTAGES OF THE FAMILY TREE MODEL
❖ The disadvantage of the family tree model:
1. Showing only vertical descendant (subclassification) but not horizontal
influence (cross-classification)
2. only represents a gross simplification of the relations between
varieties.

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 ISOGLOSSES
❖ Boundaries between two regions which differ with respect to some
linguistic feature (i.e., a lexical item, the pronunciation of a particular
word, etc.) are called isoglosses.
❖ Isoglosses that fall together form a so-called bundle of isoglosses. Such
bundles often occur along natural boundaries, such as rivers or mountain
ridges.
❖ Bundles of isoglosses may indicate dialect boundaries.
❖ But are they distributed in neat and clean boundaries?
❖ Can different isoglosses intersect each other?
Linguistic Items

• Lexical Items
• Phonology
• Morphology
• Syntax
• Can you tell whether these items are susceptible? to variation equally?
• Are certain items more susceptible to variation?
CONCLUSION

• The formal linguistic distinction between language and dialect doesn’t

work:
• There is no way to group the dialects of the world into languages in such a
way that the dialects within are mutually intelligible and such that they
are not mutually unintelligible with dialects without.
• The distinction arose in association with the development of writing and in
that context served a useful purpose, namely to distinguish between the
written form and those oral varieties which subscribe to it. This distinction,
however, is not absolute, but relevant only to situations where a writing
system has been instituted. Consequently, when it is applied to areas
where no written system has been instituted, problems develop.

. THE SPEECH COMMUNITY

“Language is both an individual possession and social possession.”

“The linguistic behavior of individuals cannot be understood without knowledge
of the communities they belong to.” – Labov

Definitions: SPEECH COMMUNITY

Group- a number of people or things that are considered or classed together.

• A number of people who are connected by some shared activity, interest

or quality.
Merriam Webster

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 ► As a theoretical construct, it is thought to be ideal, completely homogeneous
(Chomsky).

► Real speech community- All the people who use a given language or dialect
(Lyon).

Study of Speech Community

• entails knowing its members’ linguistic characteristics and other
characteristics which could be cultural, social, political, and ethnic to
name a few, collectively called SPEECH MARKERS.

Labov’s definition of SPEECH COMMUNITY

❖ The speech community is not defined by any marked agreement in the
use of language elements, so much as by participation in a set of shared
norms; these norms may be observed in overt types of evaluative
behavior, and by the uniformity of abstract patterns of which are invariant
in respect to particular levels of usage.

Single Language/ Single Variety Criterion

❖ The single language/ single variety criterion is dubious. The requirement
that “all members of the speech community must speak the same
language” disregards the fact that in many societies bilingualism or
multilingualism exists. And this is deemed normal.

LINGUISTIC COMMUNITY:
A social group which may be either monolingual or multilingual, held together
by frequency of social interaction patterns and set off the surrounding areas by
weaknesses in the lines of communication. Linguistic communities may consist of
small groups bound together by face-to-face contact or may cover large
regions. - Gumperz.

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 OTHER DEFINITIONS OF SPEECH COMMUNITY

❖ A speech community is a group of people who interact by means of

speech. A group or community should be defined not only by what it is
but also what is not. – Bloomfield
❖ Any human aggregate characterized by regular and frequent interaction
by means of a shared body of verbal signs and set off from similar
aggregates by significant differences in language usage. – Gumperz
❖ A local unit characterized for its members by common locality and
primary interaction. – Reaffirmed by Hymes

Hymes points out that speech communities cannot be defined solely through
the use of linguistic criteria. The way in which the people view the language
they speak is also important. The rules of using a language may be as important
as feelings about the language itself.
SPEECH COMMUNITY:

Morgan-
“For any speech community, the concept reflects what people do and know
when they interact with one another. It assumes that when people come
together through discursive practices, they behave as though they operate
within a shared set of norms, local knowledge, beliefs, and values.”

INTERSECTING COMMUNITIES
❖ Rosen claims that cities cannot be thought of as a linguistic patchwork
map because:
1. languages and dialects have no simple geographical distribution
and
2. interaction between them blurs whatever boundaries might be
drawn.

RURAL VS URBAN
“Urbanization is a great “ERODER” of linguistic frontiers.
Bolinger

➢ There is no limit to the ways in which human beings league themselves

together for self-identification, security, gain, amusement, worship, or any
other purposes that are held in common; consequently, there is no limit to
the number and variety of speech communities that are to be found in
the society.

COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE
➢ Community of Practice is an aggregate of people who come together
around mutual engagements in some common endeavor. Ways of doing

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 things, ways of talking, beliefs, values, power relations, in
short, practices emerge in the course of their joint activity around that
endeavor.
Networks:

• Dense
• Loose
• Multiplex

Speech Repertoire:
Platt and Platt define speech repertoire as, “a range of linguistic varieties which
the speaker has at his disposal and which he may appropriately use as a
member of his speech community.
Speech Repertoire

➢ Linguistic varieties utilized by a speech community.

Verbal Repertoire

➢ Linguistic varieties which are at a particular speaker’s disposal.

. LINGUISTIC BORROWING AND LANGUAGE CONTACT

➢
It occurs when speakers of different languages interact and their
languages influence each other’s.
➢ The study of language contact is called “Contact Linguistics”
MULTILINGULISM

➢ The ability of societies, institutions, groups, and individuals to engage on

regular basis with more than one language in their day to day lives.
MULTILINGUALISM

❖ Language Contact
“are interrelated”

❖ (we cannot tackle each concept on its own)

❖ The analysis of multilingual behavior is tackled in relation to the linguistic
and cultural roots of the given situation.
“the interest of applied linguistics in the language contact begins with the
recognitions that most societies in today’s world are multilingual. “

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 CONTACT LINGUISTICS INCORPORATES 3 AREAS OF INQUIRY:

• Language use
• Language user
• Language sphere

CONTACT AND CONFLICT

Ethnic contact and conflict
• The contact between two ethnic groups occurs between groups that
have different degrees of tensions, resentment; different points of view,
cultural backgrounds…..etc. Thus, there are some terms of one of the
groups might seem unfamiliar to the other group
• Under certain conditions, this may degenerate into intense conflict,
ending in violence.

POLITICAL LANGUAGE CONTACT AND CONFLICT:

• Language contact can cause political conflict.
• This can be caused when there is a contact between two different
language groups; Canada is a good example (French and English)
• A dominant language group (English in Canada) controls the crucial
authority in the areas of administration, politics, and economy.
• Indeed, it gives employment preferences to those applicants who have
command of the dominant language.
“In Canada, for example English, the dominant language, appeared to be the
necessary means of communication in trade and business those who speak
French have no art in this communication”
LANGUAGE CONFLICT AND CONTACTLINGUISTCS
❖ There are two types of conflict:
❖ A conflict within an individual (interlingual conflict)
❖ A conflict by means of language (interethnic language conflict)
❖ CL helps in reducing this conflict because the rapidly developing of
sociolinguistics and sociology makes a conflict rarely happens between
groups as now they’re able to understand one another.

VARIETIES OF ENGLISH
• VARIATION: Natural phenomenon
• Language is a form of social behavior and communities tend to split up
into groups, each displaying splaying differences of behavior
• Language manifests differences of behavior
• Language is the variety of speaker speakers
• Speakers vary in their vocabulary and skills to use it
• Linguistic variables have both social and style variation, some only social,
but none style variation only

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 DIALECT
• No universally accepted criteria for distinguishing languages from dialects,
although a number of paradigms exist, which render sometimes
contradictory results
• The exact distinction is a subjective one, dependent on the user's frame of
reference
• Language varieties are often called dialects rather than languages:
Because

• solely they are not, or not recognized as literary languages

• the speakers of the given language do not have a state of their own
• they are not used in press or literature, or very little.
• because their language lacks prestige
• Difference between Accent and Dialect
• a variety of a language characteristic of a particular group of the
language's speakers
• applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a
• dialect may also be defined by other factors, such as social class
• Defined as: a sub-division of a language, used by a group of speakers
who have some non-linguistic characteristics in common or the specific
form of a language used by a speech community
• Most common characteristic: the regional one
• Link can also be occupational and social
• Sometime variety depends upon the occasion to use as well
• the word "dialect" is sometimes used to refer to a lesser-known language
most commonly a regional language, especially one that is unwritten or
not standardized
• often accompanied by the erroneous belief that the minority language is
lacking in vocabulary, grammar, or importance
• the difference between language and dialect i dialect is the difference
between the abstract or general and the concrete and particular.
• Identifying a particular dialect as the "standard" or "proper" version of a
language are in fact using these terms to express a social distinction
• the status of language is not solely determined by linguistic criteria, but it is
also the result of a historical and political development
• Mandarin and Cantonese are often considered dialects and not
languages, despite their unintelligibility, because they share a common
literary standard and common body of mon body of literature
• The number of speakers, and the geographical area covered by them,
can be of arbitrary size
• a dialect might contain several sub-dialects
• A dialect is a complete system of verbal communication oral or signed,
but not necessarily written with its own vocabulary and grammar

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 • A dialect is distinguished by its vocabulary, grammar,
and pronunciation including phonology and prosody
• the "dialects" of a "language" which itself may be a "dialect" of a yet older
tongue may or may not be mutually intelligible
• a parent language may spawn several "dialects" which themselves
• subdivide any number of times, with some "branches" of the tree
changing more rapidly than others
• among the modern Romance tongues, with Italian and Spanish having a
high degree of mutual comprehensibility, which neither language shares
with French, despite both languages being genetically closer to French
than to each other
• French has undergone more rapid change than have Spanish and Italian

STANDARD AND NON-STANDARD DIALECTS

• A standard dialect: a dialect that is supported by institutions

• Such institutional support may include government recognition or
designation;
• presentation as being the "correct" form of a language in schools;
• published grammars, dictionaries, and textbooks that set forth a
• "correct" spoken and written form;
• an extensive formal literature that employs that dialect in prose,
poetry, non-fiction, etc.
• Standard American English, Standard British English, Standard Indian
English, Standard Australian English, and Standard Philippine English
may all be said to be standard dialects of the English language
• A nonstandard dialect: has a complete vocabulary, grammar, and
syntax, but is not the beneficiary of institutional support
• An example of a nonstandard English dialect is Southern English
• The Dialect Test was designed by Joseph Wright to compare different
English dialects with each other

REGIONAL DIALECT
• not a distinct language
• a variety of a language spoken in a particular area of a country
• Some regional dialects have been given traditional names which mark
them out as being significantly different from standard varieties spoken in
the same place
• Ex: 'Hillbilly English' from the Appalachians in the USA and 'Geordie' from
Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK.

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 MINORITY DIALECT:

• Sometimes members of a particular minority ethnic group have their own

variety which they use as a marker of identity, usually alongside a
standard variety
• Ex: African American Vernacular English in the USA, London Jamaican in
Britain, and Aboriginal English in Australia
Indigenized variety

• Indigenized varieties are spoken mainly as second languages in ex-

colonies with multilingual populations
• The differences from the standard variety may be linked to English
proficiency, or may be part of a range of varieties used to express identity.
• 'Singlish' spoken in Singapore is a variety very different from standard
English, and there are many other varieties of English used in India.
SOCIOLECT

• the variety of language characteristic of a social background or status

• A dialect which evolves from regional speech may also have
sociometrical implications
• Ex: standard Italian is a dialect in that it is particular to Tuscany; yet, being
the national language of Italy, it is also a sociolect in that it carries a
certain prestige from being the lingua franca throughout the country –
both in broadcasting, in the press, and by people of high social status
IDIOLECT

• a variety of a language unique to an individual

• manifested by patterns of word selection and grammar, or words,
phrases, idioms, or pronunciations that are unique to that individual
• Every individual has an idiolect
• the grouping of words and phrases is unique, rather than an
• individual using specific words that nobody else uses
• idiolect can easily evolve into an ecolect—a dialect variant specific to a
household
• languages are congruences of idiolects and thus exist only in the
intersection between individual speakers
• Idiolects change through contact with other idiolects, and change
throughout their lifetime as well as from generation to generation
REGISTER

• term was originated by: Thomas Bertram Reid in 1956

• Become common: in the 1960s introduced by a group of linguists who
wanted to distinguish between variations in language according to the
user and variations according to use,
• each speaker has a range of varieties and choices between them at
different times
• (Halliday et al, 1964)

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 • focus is on the way language is used in particular situations
• Halliday (1964) identifies three variables that determine register: field (the
subject matter of the discourse), tenor (the participants and their
relationships) and mode (the channel of communication, e.g., spoken or
written).
from Quirk et al (1985), who use the term attitude rather than style or register

Formality scale Very formal, Frozen, Rigid

• FORMAL
• Neutral
• INFORMAL
• Very informal, Casual, Familiar

Joos (1961) describes five styles in spoken English:

• Frozen: Printed unchanging language such as bible quotations; often
contains archaisms
• Formal: One-way participation, no interruption. Technical vocabulary;
"Fussy semantics" or exact definitions are important. Includes introductions
between strangers
• Consultative: Two-way participation. Background information is provided
— prior knowledge is not assumed. "Backchannel behavior" such as "uh
huh" "I see" , etc. is common. Interruptions allowed
• Casual: In-group friends and acquaintances. No background information
provided. Ellipsis and slang common. Interruptions common.
• Intimate: Non-public. Intonation more important than wording or
grammar. Private vocabulary

ISOGLOSS

• Greek isos equal + glossa a tongue

• the geographical boundary or delineation of a certain linguistic feature
• Ex: the pronunciation of a vowel, the meaning of a word, or use of some
syntactic feature
• A line on a map enclosing an area within which a particular linguistic
feature is found
• Various types of isogloss are distinguished: an isophone is a feature of
pronunciation, an isolex an item of vocabulary, an isomorph a feature of
word formation, and an isoseme a particular word meaning
• the isogloss separates rather than connects points of equal language

PIDGIN
• a new language which develops in situations where speakers of different
languages need to communicate but don't share a common language

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 • The vocabulary of a pidgin comes mainly from one
particular language; the 'lexifier ‘
• An early 'pre-pidgin' is quite restricted in use and variable in structure
• the later 'stable pidgin' develops its own grammatical rules which are
quite different from those of the lexifier
• Once a stable pidgin has emerged, it is generally learned as learned as a
second language and used for communication among people who
speak different languages
• Ex: Nigerian Pidgin and Bislama spoken in Vanuatu

CREOLE
• Latin creare, meaning "to beget" or "create"
• The term was coined in the sixteenth century during the great expansion
in European maritime power and trade and the establishment of
European colonies in the Americas, Africa, and along the coast of South
and Southeast Asia up to the Philippines, China, India, and in Oceania
• Originally, therefore, "Creole language" meant the speech of those Creole
peoples
• a stable language that originates seemingly as a nativized pidgin
• When children start learning a pidgin as their first language and it
becomes the mother tongue of a community, it is called a creole
• Like a pidgin, a creole is a distinct language which has taken most of its
vocabulary from another language, the lexifier, but has its own unique
grammatical rules
• Arends, Muysken & Smith (1995) suggest that four different processes are
involved in creating Foreigner Talk:
✓ Accommodation
✓ Imitation
✓ Telegraphic condensation
✓ Conventions
• Presumably, between six and twelve Million people still using pidgin
languages and between ten and seventeen using descendants from
pidgins
• Unlike a pidgin, however, a creole is not restricted in use, and is like any
other language in its full range of functions
• creoles have certain grammatical similarities to each other and, arguably,
not languages that they are derived from
• Creoles exhibit more internal variability than other languages

• Creoles are simpler than other languages.

• creole languages have generally been regarded as degenerate, or at
best as t best as rudimentary dialects of one of their parent l aren’t
languages
• "creole" has come to be used in opposition to "language" rather than a
qualifier for it
• Ex: Gullah, Jamaican Creole and Hawai`i Creole English.

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 • 'pidgin' and 'creole' are technical terms used by
linguists, and not necessarily by speakers of the language. For example,
speakers of Jamaican American Creole call their language 'Patwa' (from
patois) and speakers of Hawai`I Creole English call theirs 'Pidgin.

THEORIES TO DESCRIBE CREOLE PHENOMENON

1.The monogenetic theory of pidgins and creoles
➢ a single origin for these languages, deriving them through relexification
from a West African Pidgin Portuguese of the 17th century and ultimately
from the Lingua franca of the Mediterranean
➢ originally formulated by Hugo Schuchardt in the late 19th century and
popularized in the late 1950s and early 1960s by Douglas Taylor as well as
in Whinnom (1956), Thompson (1961) and Stewart (1962)

2-European dialect origin hypotheses

➢ The French creoles are the foremost candidates to being the outcome of
"normal" linguistic change creoleness to be sociohistoric in nature and
relative to their colonial origin though
3. The Domestic Origin Hypothesis

➢ Proposed by Hancock (1985) for the development of a local form of

English in West Africa
➢ towards the end of the 16th century, English-speaking traders began to
settle in the Gambia and Sierra Leone rivers as well as in neighboring
areas such as the Bullom and Sherbro coasts
➢ These settlers intermarried with the local population leading to mixed
populations and as a result of this intermarriage, an English pidgin was
created, which in turn was learned by slaves in slave depots, who later on
took it to the West Indies and formed one component of the emerging
English creoles

4. Foreigner talk or baby talk

➢ a pidgin or creole language forms when native speakers attempt to
simplify their language in order to address speakers who do not know their
language at all
➢ Because of the similarities found in this type of speech and the speech
which is usually directed at children.
➢ Gradualist and developmental hypotheses
➢ One class of creoles might start as pidgins, rudimentary second languages
improvised for use between speakers of two or more non-intelligible native
languages
➢ Keith Whinnom (in Hymes (1971)) suggests that pidgins need three
languages to form, with one (the superstrate) being clearly dominant over
the others
➢ The lexicon of a pidgin is usually small and drawn from the vocabularies of
its speakers, in varying proportions. Morphological details like word

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION INSTRUCTOR: LIGO, DEBORAH FLORES

 inflections, which usually take years to learn, are omitted;
the syntax is kept very simple, usually based on strict word order
➢ In this initial stage, all aspects of the speech — syntax, lexicon, and
pronunciation —tend to be quite variable, especially with regard to the
speaker's background
JARGON
• Jargon is terminology that relates to a specific activity, profession or group
• develops as a kind of shorthand, to quickly express ideas that are
frequently discussed between members of a group
• more precise or specialized usage among practitioners of a field
• "guild" or "insider" jargon
• divorced from meaning to outsiders
• Used in various fields:
• sports broadcast
• to refer to concepts within the belief systems of organized religion
• medical professionals
• Information Technology and the Internet
• Nautical Terms
• to refer to political strategies and tactics

SLANG
• Slang is the use of informal words and expressions to describe an object or
condition
• vocabulary that is meant to be interpreted quickly but not necessarily
literally
• slang words or terms are often a metaphor or an allegory
• sometimes regional in that it is used only in a particular territory
• particular to a certain subculture, such as musicians, and members of
minority groups
• usage of slang expressions can spread outside their original arenas to
become commonly used
• some words eventually lose their status as slang, others continue to be
considered as such by most speakers.
• the process tends to lead the original users to replace the words with
• other, less-recognized terms to maintain group identity
• slang is the complete opposite of jargon
• Criteria for true slang proposed by Dumas & Lighter

• lowers, temporarily, the dignity of formal or serious speech or writing or

glaring misuse of register
• Its use implies that the user is familiar with whatever is referred to, or with a
group of people that are familiar with it and use the term.
• a taboo term in ordinary discourse with people of a higher social status or
greater responsibility

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION INSTRUCTOR: LIGO, DEBORAH FLORES

 • replaces a well-known conventional synonym, to avoid
the discomfort caused by the conventional item or to elaborate it
• Slang terms are often known only within a clique or ingroup
LANGUAGE SHIFT AND DEATH

CONTACT and BORROWING

➢ Language contact has traditionally been a subfield of historical linguistics,
concentrating on changes in language that are due to external contact
with other languages, rather than with internal change.
➢ One concern of language-contact studies that overlaps with the
discipline of historical linguistics is the nature of borrowing.
BORROWING – is a technical term for the incorporation of an item from one
language into
Another.

➢ Sociolinguistics are more interested in the cultural aspect of borrowings,

since the process of borrowing is also a process of learning and
acculturation.

LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE

➢ denotes the continuing use of language in the face of competition from

regionally and socially powerful language
➢ Something refers to a situation when members of community attempt to
keep the language they have always used.
LANGUAGE SHIFT
➢ denotes the replacement of one language by another as the primary
means of communication and socialization within the community.
Factors affecting Language Shift (Holmes, 1992: 65-70)

a. Demographic factor
b. Attitude/Value factors
c. Economic factor

d. Social and political factor

A. Demographic factor
➢ A factor playing role in the process of language shift in which there is a
community of language moving to a region who’s a language is different
from another language, thus presence of tendency to shift toward a new
language.

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION INSTRUCTOR: LIGO, DEBORAH FLORES

 Let’s see the example at the following:

1. “ I was born in Lombok so, my mother toungue is Sasaknese which is used

by the whole neighborhood of mine as well as a media of instructional
chores in my school. Then, I move to Jakarta, since then I always talk in
Bahasa Indonesia to my new neighbor, in which using Sasaknese only with
my family at home. Finally, due to presence of high frequency of contact
with people coming from different ethnic group using Bahsa Indonesia,
gradually I shift my Sasaknese. “
B. Attitudes/values

➢ Negative attitudes (determinant affecting to shift) A negative attitude

toward the language can also accelerate language shift, it can be
occurring when an ethnic language is not highly valued and it is not seen
as a symbol of identity.

➢ Positive attitudes (factors to language maintenance) Positive might

support effects to use the minority language in variety of domains and
also help people resist to pressure from the majority group to switch to
their language (Holmes, 1992: 68).
• The language would not be shift in which the minority language is
highly valued thus, when the language is seen as an important
symbol of ethnic identity, it is generally maintained longer.
There two examples of language maintenance through positive attitude highly
valued as:
a) France maintenance in Canada as well as in U.S due to France
internationally contribute to the positive attitude as a national status so, it
has been an international prestige.
b) Most of the Greek immigrants to another country. Due to the contribution
of Greek to Western Philosophy and Culture, thus this awareness helps
them to resist their language from another language.
Motivations of negative attitude to language shift

a) A teenager moving to big city, gradually he tries to abundant his

indigenous language in case having various levels of formality.
b) It is considered that the usage of ethnic language would be quietly
difficult as well as in proper as a medium of instructional activities in
school.
c) They must be required to choose another language to talk with other
people in formality.
d) The speaker felt more prestigious when using other languages than using
his ethnic language.
e) The speaker does not have the need to show his identity with ethnic
language rather than by a new language he would like to part of the
global economic, politic, social, and culture.

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION INSTRUCTOR: LIGO, DEBORAH FLORES

 C. Economic Factor

➢ Main factor leading toward language shift from using one language to
another language (abandoned), in which the most obvious factor is that
the community sees an important reason for learning the second
language is economic (Holmes, 1992: 65)
➢ Economic factor encouraging to language decline always results in
bilingualism where it is as a precursor of language shift.
➢ As Holmes says that “Job seekers see the importance of learning a new
language which is widely used in business.

D. Political and social factors

➢ Political factor imposes on language shift in multilingual country, the
authority usually chooses one language as the lingua franca to unify the
various kinds of ethnic groups, consequently most of the speakers having
particular indigenous language decrease.
➢ The official languages of many African countries were determined by their
former colonialists. Then, they replaced the tribal African languages so,
they led to the language replacement leading to
language shift (Bayer: 2005).” Social Factor where the language shift occurring
as most communities considering another language in predominantly
monolingual society that dominated by one mojority group language in all
major

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION INSTRUCTOR: LIGO, DEBORAH FLORES

 COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND SOCIETY
POST-ASSESSMENT

S.Y. 2020-2021
Name: ___________________________________________ Course & Year: _____

Directions: Identify what is being ask.

1. _______________ manifested by patterns of word selection and grammar,

or words, phrases, idioms, or pronunciations that are unique to that
individual.
2. _______________ each speaker has a range of varieties and choices
between them at different times
3. _______________ Printed unchanging language such as bible quotations;
often contains archaisms
4. _______________the geographical boundary or delineation of a certain
linguistic feature

5. _______________ is the use of informal words and expressions to describe an

object or condition
6. _______________ a new language which develops in situations where
speakers of different languages need to communicate but don't share a
common language.
7. _______________ . the concept reflects what people do and know when
they interact with one another.
8. _______________ He said that, “There is no limit to the ways in which human
beings league themselves together for self-identification.
9. _______________solely they are not, or not recognized as ________.
10. _______________ the word "dialect" is sometimes used to refer to a lesser-
known language most commonly known as ___.
11. _______________ Printed unchanging language such as bible quotations;
often contains archaisms.
12. _______________ In-group friends and acquaintances. No background
information provided. Ellipsis and slang common. Interruptions common.
13. _______________ is terminology that relates to a specific activity, profession
or group.
14. _______________ is a technical term for the incorporation of an item from
one language into Another.
15. _______________ determinant affecting to shift, attitude toward the
language can also accelerate language shift,

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION INSTRUCTOR: LIGO, DEBORAH FLORES

 Enumeration: Enumerate the following:
INTERSECTING COMMUNITIES
1

2.
Networks:
1.

2.
3.
Formality scale Very formal, Frozen, Rigid
1.
2

3
4.

Prepared by:

Ms. Deborah Ligo, LPT

English Instructor

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION INSTRUCTOR: LIGO, DEBORAH FLORES