Covert prestige

Last updated

In sociolinguistics, covert prestige is the high social prestige with which certain nonstandard languages or dialects are regarded within a speech community, though usually only by their own speakers. This is in contrast to the typical case of standard varieties holding widespread and often consciously acknowledged high prestige—that is, overt prestige—within a speech community. [1]

Contents

The concept of covert prestige was first introduced by linguist William Labov, when he observed speakers preferring to use a nonstandard dialect, even though the speakers considered that dialect to be inferior. Labov proposed an explanation for the continued usage of the nonstandard dialect: to form a sense of group identity in informal speech situations. [2]

Background

Covert prestige refers to the relatively high value placed towards a non-standard form of a variety in a speech community. This concept was pioneered by the linguist William Labov, in his study of New York City English speakers that while high linguistic prestige is usually more associated with standard forms of language, this pattern also implies that a similar one should exist for working-class speech as well in the case of informal speech. He also observed that within speakers of non-standard dialects, there was awareness of themselves speaking a dialect that was 'inferior' relative to the standard. From this, he was able to identify the reason for the continued usage of the non-standard dialects even with this awareness: that is, to create and/or maintain group identity within the speech community. [3]

Fellow linguist Peter Trudgill elaborated on Labov's findings in his study of English speakers in Norwich, stating that "covert prestige reflects the value system of our society, and of the different sub-cultures within this society". He also introduced a gendered aspect to covert prestige with his findings, where he found male speakers to be more favourably disposed towards non-standard, working class speech varieties, more concerned with achieving group solidarity rather than wanting to achieve or sound as of a high status, with the opposite case for the female speakers surveyed. [4]

A further example of the gendered aspect of covert prestige is shown in how fraternity men in an American college readily adopted the nonstandard "-in" ending over the prestigious "-ing" to be associated with the "working class behavioural traits of being hardworking and casual". [5]

Causes

Covert prestige is caused by the social traits associated with non-standard languages or dialects, such as lightheartedness, honesty, etc. Through their association with socially valued aspects of essentialized and hyperbolic notions of minority dialect speakers, minority languages can gain a special type of limited cultural currency. [6] The non-standard variety of language may not carry the institutionally endorsed prestige of the standard variety, but for many speakers it carries important social connotations of identity and community. [7]

For example, Caribbean newspaper columnists use the low-variety local creole language to make their opinions more convincing by implying that it is shared by the masses. [8] In such a case, although newspaper editorials are considered a formal domain, the use of the low variety language which is commonly associated with locals suggests that the article written by the columnist is a representation of the public's opinions.

In some instances, the low variety language is seen as a symbol of regional identity as it is the indigenous language, giving it a form of covert prestige. Thus, the choice to use the low variety language as opposed to the high variety language can be seen as an indicator of community membership and pride of association with local culture. Research conducted in Paraguay showed that although Spanish is the high-variety "official" language and is dominant in administrative and educational settings, the use of Guarani, the low variety language, has actually increased from the 1960s to the early 2000s. [9] The surveys conducted show that the low variety language is valued among both rural and urban speakers. This indicates that people felt that Paraguayans should be able to speak Guarani as it is an authenticating factor. [10] In fact, presidents in Paraguay are able to speak Guarani and use it to gather political support, showing the positive local attitudes towards the low variety language.

Features

Phonetics

Scottish Standard English Varieties

Scottish Standard English (SSE) itself encompasses wide linguistic variation and is often described as an accent continuum: at one end are the typically "Scottish-sounding" speakers, hereby referred to as "Scots-SSE" speakers, who use a high proportion of traditional Scottish phonological features, and at the other end of the spectrum are those who more closely emulate Southern Standard British English, through the use of more anglicised features than Scottish, and who are hereby referred to as speakers of "Anglo-SSE".

Research thus far has yet to show any compelling evidence that either Anglo-SSE or Scots-SSE is perceived as Scotland's most prestigious speech variety – instead, they seem to compete with each other as Scottish standard languages. [11] [12] However, some studies show that the two varieties can be differentiated at a more fine-grained level. Overt and covert prestige has been clearly evidenced in their association with Anglo-SSE and Scots-SSE, where Anglo-SSE speakers are typically negatively evaluated in terms of likability and national identity. [13] Scottish-sounding varieties therefore appear to hold covert prestige in comparison, even though their speakers are commonly ranked low in social status but hold higher positions in most of the other social attributes.

It has been realised that the vowels /eɪ/ and /oʊ/ are typically monophthongal in quality for Scots-SSE speakers, and diphthongal for Anglo-SSE speakers. By analysing the distribution of [e] and [o] variants in the speech of SSE speakers, salient patterns are observed between Anglo-SSE and Scots- SSE speakers, suggesting that they are socially stratified within the given context. [14]

Using the examples of FACE and GOAT which corresponds to the [e] and [o] vowels, evidence of covert prestige in SSE varieties can be observed. At the "Scottish" end of the SSE continuum, [e] and [o] are usually realised as monophthongs but are diphthonised to [ei] and [ou] (or [əu]) by some middle-class speakers who tend to be on the "Anglicised" end of the spectrum. [14]

The starting point of the anglicised FACE vowel is centralised in the vowel space and the target of its trajectory is near [ɪ], while the corresponding Scots-SSE monophthong is produced with a higher, fronter quality. The anglicised GOAT vowel begins on an open, centralised quality and its off-glide remains as centralised but noticeably lower. In Scots-SSE, the production of [o] is monophthongal, low, and further back in articulation compared to the Anglo-SSE variant. [14]

It has been observed that between the two varieties, Anglo-SSE speakers display the strongest evidence of convergence to the other group. Language convergence reflects a speaker's intention to gain social approval by reducing the social distance between themselves and their interlocutor. [15] However, this does not always entail upward social convergence. Downward convergence occurs when speakers choose to adopt a lower-prestige variety in order to appear more co-operative, or to show affiliation to an alternative social group. [16] This case of downward convergence by Anglo-SSE speakers suggests that Scots-SSE variants are considered as covertly prestigious, and convergence towards it is to appear empathetic, co-operative and mitigate their higher-status position.

The general avoidance of anglicized variants in an informal context suggests that SSE speakers assigned a higher level of overt prestige to Anglo-SSE, and that it is viewed as an inappropriately formal speech style. In turn, the adoption of Scots-SSE features by Anglo-SSE speakers in such context appears to indicate that the former enjoys the status of covert prestige, perhaps as a result of their strong connotations with Scottish national identity.

The linguistic relationship between the dialects is complicated by the fact that most speakers of Anglo-SSE are of ethnic English background, either being born in the country, being born in Scotland to English parents, or some other strong personal relationship to England. Conversely, most speakers of Scots-SSE tend to be autochthonous Scots. This dynamic is far from universal, and many exceptions exist, however this model can be followed as a broad rule. This ethnic dimension often means that speakers of Scots-SSE and other Scottish dialects often have difficulty distinguishing Anglo-SSE to Southern Standard British, and the Scottish linguistic features in Anglo-SSE are reduced to the extent that in many cases only those from outside Scotland may readily identify the accent as being Scottish. For speakers of Anglo-SSE, this can create confusion about their sense of national identity and can create mutual uncertainty or unease in their interactions with speakers of other Scottish accents and dialects.

Murcian Spanish

From a sociolinguistic perspective, the Murcian speech community shows is a competing balance between overt and covert prestige. On one end, the Standard Castilian Spanish dialect is an overtly acknowledged prestige variety. The local values, however, make nonstandard features of the Murcian dialect be maintained in colloquial speech as a covertly acknowledged prestige variety. [17] [18]

The Spanish spoken in Murcia has traditionally and inevitably been associated with the vernacular world of farmers working in the fertile plains irrigated by the Segura River. Likewise, there is a sense of stigmatization of this variety among local speakers themselves, who consider it as an unaesthetic, incorrect, and inadequate substandard. [19] [20] [21]

With the exception of [m] and [n], Murcian varieties can be distinguished by the loss of postvocalic consonants in final position. The regressive assimilation of consonant clusters in word-internal position except for [m], [n], and [l] is also another distinguishing feature. Two consequences of the consonant deletions are the changes in the synthetic morpho-syntactic structure of Spanish, which apparently entails a loss of grammatical information, and an increase in the ambiguity of Murcian Spanish. [22]

Post-vocalic [s] dropping in word-final position also affects noun number and verb person marking. In the example that follows, [s] in sentence (2) is the plural marker on articles, adjectives, and nouns: [22]

1.LaUnaOtraCasa bonita
2.LasUnasOtrasCasas bonitas

1. 'The / A / Another nice house'

2. 'The / Some / Other nice houses'

But in verb forms, word-final [s] is heavily involved in person marking:

Simple Present Tense

2nd Person SGtúcom-es'you (fam.) eat'
ustedcom-e'you (pol.) eat'
3rd Person SGél / ellacom-e'he/she eats'

Simple Past Tense

1st Person SGyocom-ía'I ate'
2nd Person SGtúcom-ías'you (fam.) ate'
ustedcom-ía'you (pol.) ate'
3rd Person SGél / ellacom-ía'he/she ate'

The disambiguation of number and person marking in Murcian Spanish is typically addressed using changes in consonants or vowels, as listed below: [22]

ChangesStandard Castilian Spanish vs. Murcian Spanish
i)intervocalic [d] deletioncomido: [koˈmiðo] vs. [koˈmi.o]
ii)intervocalic [r] deletionpara: [ˈpaɾa] vs. [pa]
iii)word-final postvocalic [r] deletioncomer: [koˈmer] vs. [kɔˈmɛ]
iv)word-final postvocalic [l] deletioncanal: [kaˈnal] vs. [kæˈnæ]
v)consonant permutation, which means that liquid consonants, i.e. [l] and [r] exchange in pronunciation[algo] vs. [argo]
vi)word-final postvocalic [s] deletioncasas: ['kasas] vs. ['kæsæ]
vii)word-internal postvocalic [s] assimilationcanasta: [kaˈnasta] vs. [kaˈnatta]
viii)other word-internal consonant regressive assimilations of consonant clusterstacto: [ˈtakto] vs. [ˈtatto]

Despite Murcian speakers' negative value judgments of their own variety, they do not abandon it entirely. Rather, because these features of the colloquial vernacular are so deeply rooted within the Murcian speech community, they have become part of the local identity.

In fact, the former President of the Local Government of Murcia in Southeastern Spain, María Antonia Martínez, shows unexpectedly high usage levels for non-standard Murcian Spanish features in her public speeches, despite it being a stigmatised dialect. Analysis of her speeches have shown that she is purposefully using local Murcian features because they are very much associated with the working class world and with progressive ideas. She capitalised on the covert prestige associated with the colloquial variety to highlight her Murcian identity and socialist ideals in the particular political context in which she is operating. [23] This shows that standard forms are not always adhered to, and speakers can benefit by using non-standard varieties to design their desired personas and achieve their desired goals. [24]

Grammar

African American Vernacular English

Although African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is clearly stigmatised in modern American culture, it continues to be spoken by millions of people. Within the context of the community, AAVE is a valuable resource and an important aspect of group identity. A person with in-group status will often have access to local resources and networks that outsiders will not have. In this sense, using AAVE in the community can be as valuable and important as using Standard English in mainstream professional situations. Because of the covert prestige that AAVE carries, it continues to be an important resource and symbol of solidarity for African Americans, despite the common misconception that AAVE carries "ungrammatical" features, or that any speaker who speaks AAVE are "uneducated" or "sloppy". However, like all dialects, AAVE shows consistent internal logic and grammatical complexity, as explained in the following examples: [25]

The use of 'done' coupled with the past tense of the verb in a sentence, as seen in "they done used all the good ones", is a persistent structural trait of AAVE that is shared with Southern European American vernacular varieties of English. Although the verbal particle 'done' also occurs in Caribbean creoles, its syntactic configuration and semantic-pragmatic function in AAVE differ somewhat from its creole counterparts. [26]

In AAVE, 'done' occurs only in preverbal auxiliary position with past tense forms whereas it occurs with a bare verb stem (e.g. "They done go") and can occur in clause-final position in some creoles. [27] In many aspects, it functions in AAVE like a perfect tense, referring to an action completed in the recent past, but it can also be used to highlight the change of state or to intensify an activity, as in the sentence "I done told you not to mess up". It is a stable feature, but it is more frequently used in Southern rural versions of AAVE than in urban AAVE. [28]

Double negation is also another feature commonly found in AAVE, referring to the marking of negation on the auxiliary verb and indefinite pronoun. An example would be "she ain't tellin' nobody", which would be "she isn't telling anybody" in Standard English.

Another feature, copula absence, or the absence of 'is' or 'are' in certain contexts, can be observed as well. "He workin' " or "they going home" are some examples.

The habitual aspect marker, or the invariant 'be' / habitual 'be', as seen in "he be workin'", "they be tryin'" or "I be like" is a typical feature of AAVE. It is the use of the base form of the copula verb 'be' instead of the inflected forms such as 'are' and 'am'. This is probably the most salient grammatical trait of AAVE both within the community and outside of it, to the point of it being a stereotype prominently figured in representations of AAVE, especially in the media. [26] [28]

The link between language and identity can be stretched into a tripartite where culture becomes key. The addition of culture to the way language is linked to identity blur the lines, because culture can be considered an abstract concept, particularly in America. It is nearly impossible to pinpoint a common culture in a country filled with so many different cultures, especially when many of them are several generations removed from their origins. Because of the racial make-up of the country, it is not ideal to include all American citizens under a blanket labelled the "American culture". Black culture does exist however, and its association with AAVE carries strong social connotations. AAVE is no longer a racial construction but has become something that can possibly be described as an urban or hip-hop culture. It includes a certain fashion style, a particular taste in music or even in a walk, but most importantly — also a talk. However, these are not what Black culture itself is about, but merely representations of it. [29]

Singapore Colloquial English

Similarly, Singlish is commonly considered a language with low prestige. In fact, the official discouragement and routine censorship of its usage advocated by the Singapore government has resulted in overt prestige being ascribed to Standard Singapore English. Yet despite the maelstrom of scorn that Singlish has been subjected to, it has been proclaimed the 'quintessential mark of Singaporean-ness' and its usage has continued unabated. [30]

Singlish tends to be spoken in informal situations, such as between friends and family, taking a taxi or shopping for groceries. It indicates casual intimacy. English, on the other hand, is used for formal situations like school and work. However, over time, this has become a social marker. Someone who can effectively codeswitch between the two languages is perceived to be more educated and of a higher social status than someone who can only speak Singlish. Someone who can only speak English, and not Singlish, meanwhile, may be seen as posh, or not considered to be a "true" Singaporean. [31] Being able to speak Singlish builds instant rapport, and it can therefore be postulated that covert prestige is attributed to the non-standard form.

Singlish is a mixing of the variety of languages spoken in Singapore, which includes Malay, Hokkien, Cantonese, Mandarin and other Chinese languages, as well as Tamil from southern India. It is no surprise that the grammar mirrors some of these languages, such as doing away with most prepositions, verb conjugations, and plural words. [31]

For example, a modern-day Singaporean could say "I go bus-stop wait for you" to mean that he will wait for you at the bus stop. This phrase could be translated into either Malay or Chinese without having to change the grammatical structure of the sentence.

The following are a couple of examples of the grammar structure in Singlish. It is typical for the 'be' verb to be missing in a Singlish sentence, such as "why I so unlucky?", when the grammatically correct form should be "why am I so unlucky?". Another example, the Singlish construction "he is always so unlucky one", compared to "he has always been unlucky", shows the addition of "one" at the end of sentences which provides an effect of adding emphasis to the sentence. [32]

People who are unfamiliar with such grammatical structures of the languages that influence Singlish, as well as its unique grammatical features, may as a result consider Singlish an incorrect or "bad" form of English.

Vocabulary

Afrikaans

Within Afrikaans speakers in South Africa, code-switching between Afrikaans and English is frowned upon in formal domains, even as new terms and concepts enter the lexicon through English-speaking sources. Loanwords are frowned upon in formal contexts, but are more accepted in informal domains. [33] While most Afrikaans speakers are balanced bilinguals of Afrikaans and English, the practice is to immediately replace or adapt English loanwords into Afrikaans itself, in an effort to preserve the purity of the Afrikaans language. In informal situations, the linguistic environment is as such is that it is more open to English loanwords as long as it is marked, and stigmatised. [34]

Expletives

Although the use of expletives may offend society at large, in specific social circles or situations, the use of expletives is accepted, and expected, in order to earn covert prestige. [35] This is because profanity carries covert prestige that promotes solidarity or build intimacy, be it amongst coworkers, friends, or lovers. [36]

It is as if they are saying, 'I know you so well I can be this rude to you,'. [37]

There are, however, additional uses for expletives on top of developing friendships and building solidarity, such as to get attention or convey urgency. This is particularly the case in the workplace, which was demonstrated by white-collar workers in the United Kingdom, France, and the United States. [38] For women, expletives may also be used to combat gender roles by demonstrating their assertiveness in male-dominated workplaces or to earn respect from their male co-workers. [38]

Although covert prestige may be prescribed to the use of expletives regardless of nationality or gender, there are some differences which may be observed in the form and function of how these expletives are used in different cultures:

In British speakers, the use of expletives can be used both in aggressive terms and in a cordial way. For example, the British speakers use expressions like "piss off", "we're getting pissed" and "are you taking the piss", where the word "piss" is used as an imperative for someone to go away, getting drunk, and teasing somebody respectively. American speakers, however, never use these forms. On the other hand, they only use this word in expressions such as "you piss me off" and "I'm pissed at him", where there is a strong connotation of anger. American speakers are much more likely to use derogatory terms in a reclaimed sense as well, such as "bitch". [39] Despite these differences, the use of expletives in this way of expressing oneself grants the user covert prestige.

Effects

Advertising

Advertisements are a specialised form of discourse that exists solely to persuade more people to buy products. The use of language that grants covert prestige in advertisements is therefore just another tactic to make them more persuasive.

Advertisements are designed to appeal to the largest possible audience, meaning that it would be obviously beneficial for advertisers to not appear discriminative. Hence, they can incorporate non-standard language, much like how people may use Spanish to appear more "cosmopolitan", to express their loyalty to, and affiliation with, the Southwest to gain regional 'authenticity', or to indicate that they have a sense of humour. [40] These motivations also makes use of essentialized notions of Spanish-speaking populations, such as being foreign and exotic, traits which speakers may wish to associate themselves with. [6] Similarly, the use of African American Vernacular English allows speakers to present themselves with a public image that identifies with stereotypes of African-Americans, such as being hip, urban, tough, and ultra-contemporary. This covert prestige granted to African American Vernacular English is also linked to the consumerist hip-hop lifestyle. [6] Hence, advertisers may make use of this covert prestige by portraying knowledge of African American Vernacular English to align themselves with these positive aspects of the stereotypes of African-Americans, as well as to identify themselves as being well-versed in ultra-hip trends that consumers have a desire to follow, [41] and to suggest that their own products are hip.

Politics

Political communication has shown to be effective when a candidate is perceived to be an "everyday man". [42] Using a non-standard language variety, colloquialisms, or expletives may thus have a positive effect through the perception of informality. [43]

When interacting with the public in light of upcoming elections, politicians tend to switch to colloquial speech in an effort to "fit in" with the local setting. For example, former president Barack Obama was seen a week before his first inauguration in a restaurant asking for "cheddah" cheese, addressing staff with "y'all" and using phrases like "we straight" to indicate that he didn't need change from the cashier. [44]

More recently, after President Trump's victory in the 2016 election, it has been noted that more and more politicians are beginning to curse in public, using expletives and language that, in the past, has been reserved for discourse away from voters and the media. This is due to the covert prestige granted to this type of language, allowing politicians to come across more "authentic" despite conveying an angrier tone, helping them appeal to certain voters. [45]

See also

Related Research Articles

Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on language and the ways it is used. It can overlap with the sociology of language, which focuses on the effect of language on society. Sociolinguistics overlaps considerably with pragmatics and is closely related to linguistic anthropology.

African-American English is the set of English sociolects spoken by most Black people in the United States and many in Canada; most commonly, it refers to a dialect continuum ranging from African-American Vernacular English to a more standard American English. Like all widely spoken language varieties, African-American English shows variation stylistically, generationally, geographically, in rural versus urban characteristics, in vernacular versus standard registers, etc. There has been a significant body of African-American literature and oral tradition for centuries.

The Glasgow dialect, also called Glaswegian, varies from Scottish English at one end of a bipolar linguistic continuum to the local dialect of West Central Scots at the other. Therefore, the speech of many Glaswegians can draw on a "continuum between fully localised and fully standardised". Additionally, the Glasgow dialect has Highland English and Hiberno-English influences owing to the speech of Highlanders and Irish people who migrated in large numbers to the Glasgow area in the 19th and early 20th centuries. While being named for Glasgow, the accent is typical for natives across the full Greater Glasgow area and associated counties such as Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, Dunbartonshire and parts of Ayrshire, which formerly came under the single authority of Strathclyde. It is most common in working class people, which can lead to stigma from members of other classes or those outside Glasgow.

William Labov is an American linguist widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics. He has been described as "an enormously original and influential figure who has created much of the methodology" of sociolinguistics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diglossia</span> Community restriction of languages or dialects to specific settings

In linguistics, diglossia is where two dialects or languages are used by a single language community. In addition to the community's everyday or vernacular language variety, a second, highly codified lect is used in certain situations such as literature, formal education, or other specific settings, but not used normally for ordinary conversation. The H variety may have no native speakers within the community. In cases of three dialects, the term triglossia is used. When referring to two writing systems coexisting for a single language, the term digraphia is used.

Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken form of language, particularly when perceived as having lower social status or less prestige in contrast to standard language, which is more codified, institutionally promoted, literary, or formal. More narrowly, a particular language variety that does not hold a widespread high-status perception, and sometimes even carries social stigma, is also called a vernacular, vernacular dialect, nonstandard dialect, etc. and is typically its speakers' native variety. Regardless of any such stigma, modern linguistics regards all nonstandard dialects as full-fledged varieties of language with their own consistent grammatical structure, sound system, body of vocabulary, etc.

African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban communities, by most working- and middle-class African Americans and some Black Canadians. Having its own unique grammatical, vocabulary and accent features, AAVE is employed by middle-class Black Americans as the more informal and casual end of a sociolinguistic continuum. However, in formal speaking contexts, speakers tend to switch to more standard English grammar and vocabulary, usually while retaining elements of the non-standard accent. AAVE is widespread throughout the United States, but is not the native dialect of all African Americans, nor are all of its speakers African American.

Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, though concentrated increasingly in more rural areas, and spoken primarily by White Southerners. In terms of accent, its most innovative forms include southern varieties of Appalachian English and certain varieties of Texan English. Popularly known in the United States as a Southern accent or simply Southern, Southern American English now comprises the largest American regional accent group by number of speakers. Formal, much more recent terms within American linguistics include "Southern White Vernacular English" and "Rural White Southern English".

In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a form of language or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, profession, age group, or other social group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Speech community</span> Group of people who share expectations regarding linguistic usage

A speech community is a group of people who share a set of linguistic norms and expectations regarding the use of language. It is a concept mostly associated with sociolinguistics and anthropological linguistics.

In sociolinguistics, prestige is the level of regard normally accorded a specific language or dialect within a speech community, relative to other languages or dialects. Prestige varieties are language or dialect families which are generally considered by a society to be the most "correct" or otherwise superior. In many cases, they are the standard form of the language, though there are exceptions, particularly in situations of covert prestige. In addition to dialects and languages, prestige is also applied to smaller linguistic features, such as the pronunciation or usage of words or grammatical constructs, which may not be distinctive enough to constitute a separate dialect. The concept of prestige provides one explanation for the phenomenon of variation in form among speakers of a language or languages.

Dialectology is the scientific study of dialects: subsets of languages. Though in the 19th century a branch of historical linguistics, dialectology is often now considered a sub-field of, or subsumed by, sociolinguistics. It studies variations in language based primarily on geographic distribution and their associated features. Dialectology deals with such topics as divergence of two local dialects from a common ancestor and synchronic variation.

An ethnolect is generally defined as a language variety that marks speakers as members of ethnic groups who originally used another language or distinctive variety. According to another definition, an ethnolect is any speech variety associated with a specific ethnic group. It may be a distinguishing mark of social identity, both within the group and for outsiders. The term combines the concepts of an ethnic group and dialect.

Linguistic insecurity comprises feelings of anxiety, self-consciousness, or lack of confidence in the mind of a speaker surrounding their use of language. Often, this anxiety comes from speakers' belief that their speech does not conform to the perceived standard and/or the style of language expected by the speakers' interlocutor(s). Linguistic insecurity is situationally induced and is often based on a feeling of inadequacy regarding personal performance in certain contexts, rather than a fixed attribute of an individual. This insecurity can lead to stylistic, and phonetic shifts away from an affected speaker's default speech variety; these shifts may be performed consciously on the part of the speaker, or may be reflective of an unconscious effort to conform to a more prestigious or context-appropriate variety or style of speech. Linguistic insecurity is linked to the perception of speech varieties in any community, and so may vary based on socioeconomic class and gender. It is also especially pertinent in multilingual societies.

Variation is a characteristic of language: there is more than one way of saying the same thing in a given language. Variation can exist in domains such as pronunciation, lexicon, grammar, and other features. Different communities or individuals speaking the same language may differ from each other in their choices of which of the available linguistic features to use, and how often, and the same speaker may make different choices on different occasions.

African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is a nonstandard dialect of English deeply embedded in the culture of the United States, including popular culture. It has been the center of controversy about the education of African-American youths, the role AAVE should play in public schools and education, and its place in broader society. The linguistic and cultural history of African Americans has been fostered and maintained in part through the Black church, including some lexicon and the call and response style of linguistic engagement. Artistic and cultural movements originating with African Americans, such as jazz and hip-hop, have also significantly showcased, influenced, or sometimes mainstreamed elements of AAVE in the broader American culture and even on the global stage. The dialect is also seen and heard in advertising.

Dialect levelling is an overall reduction in the variation or diversity of features, accompanied by an increase in the similarities, between two or more dialects in contact with each other. This can come about through assimilation, mixture, and merging of certain dialects, often by language codification, which can be a precursor to standardization. One possible result is a koine language, in which various specific dialects mix together and simplify, settling into a new and more widely embraced form of the language. Another is a speech community increasingly adopting or exclusively preserving features with widespread social currency at the expense of their more local or traditional dialect features.

Real-time sociolinguistics is a sociolinguistic research method concerned with observing linguistic variation and change in progress via longitudinal studies. Real-time studies track linguistic variables over time by collecting data from a speech community at multiple points in a given period. As a result, it provides empirical evidence for either stability or linguistic change.

The gender paradox is a sociolinguistic phenomenon first observed by William Labov, who noted, "Women conform more closely than men to sociolinguistic norms that are overtly prescribed, but conform less than men when they are not." Specifically, the "paradox" arises from sociolinguistic data showing that women are more likely to use prestige forms and avoid stigmatized variants than men for a majority of linguistic variables, but that they are also more likely to lead language change by using innovative forms of variables.

The distinction between rhoticity and non-rhoticity is one of the most prominent ways in which varieties of the English language are classified. In rhotic accents, the sound of the historical English rhotic consonant,, is preserved in all pronunciation contexts. In non-rhotic accents, speakers no longer pronounce in postvocalic environments: when it is immediately after a vowel and not followed by another vowel. For example, in isolation, a rhotic English speaker pronounces the words hard and butter as /ˈhɑːrd/ and /ˈbʌtər/, but a non-rhotic speaker "drops" or "deletes" the sound and pronounces them as /ˈhɑːd/ and /ˈbʌtə/. When an r is at the end of a word but the next word begins with a vowel, as in the phrase "better apples," most non-rhotic speakers will preserve the in that position since it is followed by a vowel in this case.

References

  1. ↑ Eckert, Penelope; Rickford, John R. (2002). Style and Sociolinguistic Variation. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511613258. ISBN   0-521-59191-0. S2CID   41541420.
  2. ↑ Labov, William (1966). "The Social Stratification of (r) in New York City Department Stores" (PDF). Washington D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics.
  3. ↑ Labov, William (2006), "The social stratification of (r) in New York City department stores", The Social Stratification of English in New York City, Cambridge University Press, pp. 40–57, doi:10.1017/cbo9780511618208.006, ISBN   9780511618208, S2CID   143277042
  4. ↑ Trudgill, Peter (1972). Sex, covert prestige and linguistic change in the urban British English of Norwich. OCLC   541864199.
  5. ↑ Kiesling, Scott Fabius (1998). "Men's Identities and Sociolinguistic Variation: The Case of Fraternity Men". Journal of Sociolinguistics. 2 (1): 69–99. doi:10.1111/1467-9481.00031. ISSN   1360-6441. S2CID   45167709.
  6. 1 2 3 Zebrowski, Matthew G. (2009). "Linguistic Markets and Symbolic Power in Television Commercials Using AAVE" (PDF). Texas Linguistic Forum. 53: 29–38.
  7. ↑ Hodson, Jane (2014). Dialect in Film and Literature. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 32. ISBN   978-1403937087.
  8. ↑ Van Herk, Gerard (2012). What Is Sociolinguistics?. John Wiley and Sons Ltd. ISBN   978-1405193184.
  9. ↑ Choi, Jinny K. (2005). "Bilingualism in Paraguay: Forty Years after Rubin's Study". Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. 26 (3): 233–248. doi:10.1080/01434630508668406. S2CID   143444249.
  10. ↑ Gynan, Shaw N. (2005). "Official Bilingualism in Paraguay, 1995-2001: An Analysis of the Impact of Language Policy on Attitudinal Change" (PDF). Selected Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics. pp. 24–40.
  11. ↑ Johnstan, Paul A. (1984). "The rise and fall of the Morningside/Kelvinside accent". In M. Gӧrlach (ed.). Focus On: Scotland. John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 37–56.
  12. ↑ Schützler, Ole (2014). "Vowel Variation in Scottish Standard English: Accent-Internal Differentiation or Anglicisation?". Sociolinguistics in Scotland. pp. 129–152. doi:10.1057/9781137034717_7. ISBN   978-1-349-44192-1.
  13. ↑ Romaine, Suzanne (1980). "Stylistic variation and evaluative reactions to speech: Problems in the investigation of linguistic attitudes in Scotland". Language and Speech. 23 (3): 213–232. doi:10.1177/002383098002300301. S2CID   145256017.
  14. 1 2 3 Salvesen, Abigail (2016). "Investigating Linguistic Prestige in Scotland: An Acoustic Study of Accommodation between Speakers of Two Varieties of Scottish Standard English". Lifespans & Styles. 2 (1): 35–47. doi: 10.2218/ls.v2i1.2016.1429 .
  15. ↑ Bourhis, Richard Y.; Giles, Howard; Lambert, Wallace E. (1975). "Social consequences of accommodating one's style of speech: A cross-national investigation". International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 6: 55–72.
  16. ↑ Giles, Howard; Powesland, Peter F. (1975). Speech Style and Social Evaluation. London: Academic Press.
  17. ↑ Hernández-Campoy, Juan Manuel (2003). "Geolinguistic patterns of diffusion in a Spanish region: the case of the dialect of Murcia". Estudios de Sociolinguıstica. 4: 613–652.
  18. ↑ Hernández-Campoy, Juan Manuel (2004). "Requisitos teórico-metodológicos para el estudio geolinguistico del dialecto Murciano". Tonos Digital. 8: 269–326.
  19. ↑ Sánchez López, Laura (1999). "El Habla de los Vendedores de El Corte Inglés de Murcia. Estudio Sociolingüístico" (PDF). Tonos Digital: Revista Electrónica de Estudios Filológicos (8): 119–149. ISSN   1577-6921.
  20. ↑ Sánchez-López, Laura (2004). "El Habla de los Vendedores de El Corte Inglés de Murcia". Estudio Sociolingüístico. Tonos Digital. 8: 117–146.
  21. ↑ Cutillas-Espinosa, Juan Antonio (2001). "Variación sociolingüística: evolución de los roles de género en Fortuna (Murcia)". Alcaláde Henares: Universidad de Alcalá: 685–692.
  22. 1 2 3 Hernández-Campoy, Juan Manuel (2008). "Sociolinguistic aspects of Murcian Spanish". International Journal of the Sociology of Language: 193–194.
  23. ↑ Hernández-Campoy, Juan Manuel; Cutillas-Espinosa, Juan Antonio (2013). "The effects of public and individual language attitudes on intra-speaker variation: A case study of style-shifting". Multilingua. 1 (32): 79–101.
  24. ↑ Hernández-Campoy, Juan Manuel; Cutillas-Espinosa, Juan Antonio; Schilling-Estes, Natalie (2006). "Speaker design practices in political discourse". Sociolinguistics Symposium 16, University of Limerick.
  25. ↑ "Neighborhoods influence use of African American Vernacular, Stanford research shows". Stanford News. Stanford University. 9 April 2016.
  26. 1 2 Wolfram, Walt (2000). "The grammar of urban African American Vernacular English". A Handbook of Varieties of English. pp. 111–132. S2CID   31054019.
  27. ↑ Holm, John A. (1988). "Pidgins and creoles". Theory and Structure. 1. Cambridge University Press.
  28. 1 2 Sidnell, Jack (2002). "African American Vernacular English (AAVE) Grammar" (PDF). Outline of AAVE Grammar.
  29. ↑ Best, Jillian (2006). What Had Happened: The Story of AAVE's Rocky Relationship with American Society (Thesis). Bryn Mawr College. hdl:10066/10876.
  30. ↑ Chng, Huang Hoon (2003). "You see me no up: Is Singlish a problem?". Language Problems & Language Planning. 1: 45–62.
  31. 1 2 Wong, Tessa (6 August 2015). "The rise of Singlish". BBC News.
  32. ↑ Chew, Lily (3 August 2015). "Primary English Tips | Using Singlish: 6 Mistakes You May Not Realise You are Making". Lil' But Mighty.
  33. ↑ Anthonissen, Christine (2012-05-16). "Bilingualism and language shift in Western Cape communities". Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus. 38. doi: 10.5842/38-0-48 . ISSN   2224-3380.
  34. ↑ Bas, Marcel. "Notes on Loanwords, Nonce Borrowings and Code-switching in Afrikaans".
  35. ↑ Andersson, Lars-Gunnar; Trudgill, Peter (1992). Dad Language. London: Penguin Books. ISBN   0140125086.
  36. ↑ Adams, Michael (2016). In Praise of Profanity. USA: Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0199337583.
  37. ↑ Nicola Daly, Janet Holmes, Jonathan Newton, Maria Stubbe (2003). "Expletives as solidarity signals in FTAs on the factory floor". Journal of Pragmatics 36 (2004) 945–964.
  38. 1 2 Baruch, Yehuda; Prouska, Rea; Ollier-Malaterre, Ariane; Bunk, Jennifer (2017). "Swearing at work: the mixed outcomes of profanity" (PDF). Journal of Managerial Psychology. 32 (2): 149–162. doi:10.1108/JMP-04-2016-0102.
  39. ↑ Fälthammar Schippers, Anna (2013). "Bad Language in Reality: A study of swear words, expletives and gender in reality television" (PDF).
  40. ↑ Hill, Jane H. (1998). "Intertextuality as Source and Evidence for Indirect Indexical Meanings". American Anthropologist. 100 (3): 680–689. doi: 10.1525/aa.1998.100.3.680 . JSTOR   682046. S2CID   51802905.
  41. ↑ Cutler, Cecilia A. (1999). "Yorkville Crossing: White Teens, Hip Hop, and African American English". Journal of Sociolinguistics. 3 (4): 428–442. doi:10.1111/1467-9481.00089. S2CID   145287421.
  42. ↑ Barisione, Mauro (2009). "Valence Image and the Standardisation of Democratic Political Leadership". Leadership. 5 (1): 41–60. doi:10.1177/1742715008098309. S2CID   143870171.
  43. ↑ Cavazza, Nicoletta; Guidetti, Margherita (2014). "Swearing in Political Discourse: Why Vulgarity Works". Journal of Language and Social Psychology. 33 (5). doi:10.1177/0261927X14533198. hdl: 11380/1036120 . S2CID   145708466.
  44. ↑ Gritz, Jennie R. (2013). "When Presidents Say 'Y'all': The Strange Story of Dialects in America". The Atlantic.
  45. ↑ Yarvin, Jessica (2017). "What the #$@! Democrats are swearing more. Here's why". PBS.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.