Sociolinguistics Lesson 6 Lecture Slides
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Pearl TrầnSociolinguistics Lesson 6 Lecture Slides
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Pearl TrầnSOCIOLINGUISTICS
LESSON 6
INSTRUCTOR: LE NGUYEN NHU ANH
LESSON 6
REGIONAL AND
SOCIAL DIALECTS
Lesson Contents
Key takeaways:
Regional variation
Social variation
Social dialects
Accent vs Dialect Dialects in Britain
- Accents are distinguished from each other
by pronunciation alone.
- Different dialects are generally
distinguishable by their pronunciation,
vocabulary and grammar.
Regional varieties
International varieties
- Pronunciation (regional
accent differences)
- Vocabulary
- Grammar
- Patterns (frequencies)
Regional varieties
Intra-national or intra-continental variation
- Dialect differences within a country
- Dialectologists can distinguish regional
varieties
- Regional variation takes time to develop
- Areas where English introduced more recently
=> less regional variation
- High level of intra-national communication
+ relatively small populations
=> hinder development of regional differences
Regional varieties
Intra-national or intra-continental variation
Isoglosses: boundary lines in a dialect map marking the
boundary between linguistic features
- A great deal of overlap between areas
=> Defining linguistic areas is not at all straightforward
Regional varieties
Cross-continental variation: dialect chains
- In reality, languages often ‘blend’ into one another
- From one place to the next, there is a chain/continuum => dialect chain/dialect
continuum
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a spread of language varieties spoken across
some geographical area such that each differs only slightly from its neighbors, but the
differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varieties are not mutually
intelligible.
Dialect continuum in Europe
Regional varieties
Cross-continental variation: dialect chains
- Languages are not purely linguistic entities => serve social function
A language can be thought of as a collection of dialects that are usually linguistically
similar, used by different social groups who choose to say that they are speakers of one
language which functions to unite and represent them to other groups
Regional varieties
Cross-continental variation: dialect chains
REGIONAL DIALECTS SOCIAL DIALECTS
Features of pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar Features of pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar
differing according to geography differing according to social group (education,
occupation, residential area, income level, etc.)
Social variation
RP: a social accent
- RP: Received Pronunciation – the accent of the
best educated and most prestigious members
of English society.
- Promoted by BBC for decades
- As a social accent => conceal a speaker’s
regional origins
Social variation
RP: a social accent
- Dialect levelling or leveling (in American English)
is the process of an overall reduction in the
variation or diversity of features between two or
more dialects. Typically, this comes about through
assimilation, mixture, and merging of certain
dialects, often by language standardization.
E.g., the rapid spread of ‘Estuary English’ has
reduced regional variation in a large area of the
south of England
Social dialects
Standard English
Example 8
(a)I’ve not washed the dishes yet today.
(b)I haven’t washed the dishes yet today.
Social dialects
Standard English
- Many standard Englishes: British standard English, US standard English, South African
standard English, Australian standard English, etc.
- Linguistic forms that are not part of standard English are non-standard
=> vernacular form
=> lack public prestige, generally valued by users to express solidarity and affective
meaning
Social dialects
Caste dialects
- People groupings based on social and economic factors <= reflected by their languages
=> Social dialects
- A person’s dialect is an indication of their social background
- Linguistic differences reflect social/caste divisions
Social dialects
Caste dialects
- In Javanese, a particular social dialect can be defined as a particular combination of
styles or levels each of which has its distinctive patterns of vocabulary, grammar and
pronunciation.
Social dialects
Social class dialects
- Class divisions are based on status differences
- Status: the deference/respect people give/don’t give someone
- A consistent relationship between social class and language patterns:
- Vocabulary
- Pronunciation
- Grammatical patterns
Social dialects
Social class dialects
- Can you guess what the lady means in the following line?
Social dialects
Social class dialects
- The answer is…
Social dialects
Social class dialects
- Vocabulary clues are superficial and conceal the complexity and relative fluidity of social
class membership.
- The differences in pronunciation are not absolute, but rather matters of frequencies.
- The higher social groups use more of the standard forms, while the lowest groups use
the fewest standard forms.
- The higher social groups use more of the standard grammatical form and fewer
instances of the vernacular or non-standard form.
Social dialects
Social class dialects
- Read the summary of William Labov’s
study at
https://www.slideshare.net/hollyabney/
social-stratification-of-r-in-new
Social dialects
A note about methodology
Methods for collecting good-quality social dialect data:
- Rapid and anonymous surveys (Labov’s study)
- Street survey (but w/o social background)
- Sociolinguistic interview (useful for collecting styles and background information)
- The most widespread method
- Time-consuming
- Expensive
References
• Bayard (1987), Bayard et al. (2001) for New
Zealand data
• Becker (2009) on New York City and non-
Resources rhoticity
• Bright (1966) on Indian languages
• Bright and Ramanujan (1964) on Indian
languages
• Chambers and Trudgill (2004)
• Cheshire, Kerswill and Williams (2005)
• Eisikovits (1989a)
