Sociolect

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In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a form of language (non-standard dialect, restricted register) or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, profession, age group, or other social group. [1] [2]

Contents

Sociolects involve both passive acquisition of particular communicative practices through association with a local community, as well as active learning and choice among speech or writing forms to demonstrate identification with particular groups. [3] The term sociolect might refer to socially restricted dialects, [4] but it is sometimes also treated as equivalent with the concept of register, [5] or used as a synonym for jargon and slang. [6] [7]

Sociolinguists—people who study sociolects and language variation—define a sociolect by examining the social distribution of specific linguistic terms. For example, a sociolinguist would examine the use of the second person pronoun you within a given population. If one distinct social group used yous as the plural form of the pronoun, then this could indicate the existence of a sociolect. A sociolect is distinct from a regional dialect (regiolect) because social class, rather than geographical subdivision, substantiates the unique linguistic features. [8]

Overview

A sociolect, defined by leading sociolinguist and philosopher Peter Trudgill, is "a variety or lect which is thought of as being related to its speakers' social background rather than geographical background." [9] : 122  This idea of a sociolect began with the commencement of dialectology, the study of different dialects in relation to society, which has been established in countries such as England for many years, but only recently has the field garnered more attention. [10] : 26  However, as opposed to a dialect, the basic concept of a sociolect is that a person speaks in accordance with their social group whether it is with regard to one's ethnicity, age, gender, etc. As William Labov once said, "the sociolinguistic view ... is that we are programmed to learn to speak in ways that fit the general pattern of our communities." [11] : 6  Therefore, what we are surrounded with in our environment determines how we speak; hence, our actions and associations.

Distinguished from dialect

The main distinction between sociolects (social dialects) and dialects proper (geographical dialects), which are often confused, is the settings in which they are created. [12] A dialect's main identifier is geography: a certain region uses specific phonological, morphosyntactic or lexical rules. [9] : 35  Asif Agha expands the concept by stating that "the case where the demographic dimension marked by speech are matters of geographic provenance alone, such as speaker's birth locale, extended residence and the like". [13] : 135  However, a sociolect's main identifier is a socioeconomic class, age, gender, and/or ethnicity in a certain speech community.

An example of a dialectal difference, based on region, is the use of the words soda or pop and coke in different parts of the United States. As Thomas E. Murray states, "coke is used generically by thousands of people, especially in the southern half of the country." [14] On the other hand, pop is known to be a term that is used by many citizens in the northern half of the country.

An example of a sociolect difference, based on social grouping, is the zero copula in African American Vernacular English. It occurs in a specific ethnic group but in all areas of the United States. [11] : 48  William Labov gives an example: "he here" instead of "he's here." [11] : 38 

Definitions

Code switching is "the process whereby bilingual or bidialectal speakers switch back and forth between one language or dialect and another within the same conversation". [9] : 23 

Diglossia , associated with the American linguist Charles A. Ferguson, which describes a sociolinguistic situation such as those that obtain in Arabic-speaking countries and in German-speaking Switzerland. In such a diglossic community, the prestigious standard of 'High' (or H) variety, which is linguistically related to but significantly different from the vernacular or 'Low' (or L) varieties, has no native speakers. [9] : 389 

Domain is "different language, dialects, or styles are used in different social contexts". [9] : 41 

Language attitudes are "social in origin, but that they may have important effects on language behavior, being involved in acts of identity, and on linguistic change." [9] : 73 

Linguistic variable is "a linguistic unit...initially developed...in order to be able to handle linguistics variation. Variables may be lexical and grammatical, but are most often phonological". Example of British English (h) which is sometimes present and sometimes not. [9] : 83 

Pragmatics is the meaning of a word in social context, while semantics has "purely linguistic meaning". [9] : 107 

Register is "a language variety that is associated with a particular topic, subject, or activity...." Usually, it is defined by vocabulary, but has grammatical features as well. [9] : 110 

Examples

Tamil caste system

The following is an example of the lexical distinction between the Mudaliyar and the Iyengar groups of the Tamil-speaking people in India. The Iyengar group is part of the Brahmin caste which is scholarly and higher in the caste hierarchy than the non-Brahmin or Mudaliyar, caste. [13] : 136  The Mudaliyars use many of the same words for things that are differentiated within the Iyengars' speech. For example, as you can see below, the difference between drinking water, water in general, and non-potable water is used by one word in the non-Brahmin caste and three separate words in the Brahmin caste. Furthermore, Agha references how the use of different speech reflects a "departure from a group-internal norm". [13] : 139  For example, if the non-Brahmin caste uses Brahmin terms in their mode of speech it is seen as self-raising, whereas if people within the Brahmin caste use non-Brahmin speech it is seen as pejoratives. [13] : 138  Therefore, depending on which castes use certain words the pragmatics change. Hence, this speech system is determined by socioeconomic class and social context.

GlossMudaliyar (non-Brahmin)Iyengar (Brahmin)
Drinking Watertannitirrto
Water in generaltannijalo
Non-potable watertannitanni
Worshippuusepuuje
foodsoorusaado
worshippuusepuuje 'worship'// puuse 'punishment for children'
foodsooru/saadosaado 'food'// sooru 'food' (pejorative)
eattinnu/saapdosaapdo 'eat'// tinnu 'guzzle, etc.' (pejorative)

Norwegian dialect-based sociolect

Norwegian does not have a spoken standard and is heavily dependent on dialect variants. The following example shows the difference between the national written standard and a spoken variant, where the phonology and pronunciation differ. These are not sociolectic differences per se. As Agha states, "Some lexical contrasts are due to the phonological difference (e.g., R makes more consonantal and vocalic distinctions than B), while others are due to the morphological difference (e.g., difference in plural suffixes and certain verb inflections) between two varieties. [13] : 140 

GlossNational standard (Bokmål, B)Local variety (Ranamål, R)
IJegEg
youDegDeg
HeHanHanj
SheHunHo
IfHvisVess
To, towardTilTell
WhoHvemKem
HowHvordanKorsen

Diglossia

The chart below gives an example of diglossia in Arabic-speaking nations and where it is used. Diglossia is defined by Mesthrie as "[a] situation where two varieties of a language exist side by side". [15] The Classical Arabic is known as الفصحى, or al-fuṣḥā, while the colloquial dialect depends on the country. For example, شامي, or šāmi, is spoken in Lebanon and parts of Syria. In many situations, there is a major lexical difference among words in the classical and colloquial speech, as well as pronunciation differences, such as a difference in short vowels, when the words are the same. Although a specific example of diglossia was not given, its social context is almost if not more important. For example, Halliday states that "in areas with Diglossia, the link between language and success is apparent as the higher, classical register is learned through formal education". [10] : 175 

HL
Sermon in church or mosqueX
Instructions to servants, waiters, workmen, clerks, etc.X
Personal letterX
Speech in parliament, political speechX
University lectureX
Conversation with family, friends, colleaguesX
News broadcastX
Radio soap operaX
Newspaper editorial, news story, caption on pictureX
Caption on political cartoonX
PoetryX
Folk literatureX

African American Vernacular English (AAVE)

Below is an example of African American Vernacular English, showing the addition of the verbal -s not just on third-person singular verbs in the present tense such as in Standard American English, but added onto infinitives, first-person present verbs, and third-person past perfect verbs. [11] : 49 

  1. He can goes out.
  2. I don't know how to gets no girls.
  3. He'd knows that.

Further examples of the phenomenon in AAVE are provided below.

Below are examples of the lack of the possessive ending; -s is usually absent in AAVE but contains a rule As Labov states, "[the] use -s to indicate possession by a single noun or pronoun, but never between the possessor and the possessed." [11] : 49 

"This is hers, This is mines, This is John's, but not in her book, my book, John book" [11] : 49 

"Interview with Bryan A., seven years old, a struggling reader in a West Philadelphia elementary school:

  1. If I don't get out my mom room, I get in trouble and when I don't get out my sister room she hit me.
  2. Bernicia penpal gave me one.
  3. That's what he did to my cousin Raymond dog at my cousin house.
  4. I was acting like I stole my sister food.
  5. At the museum, it was fun, we went in somebody heart." [11] : 49 

Effects

Code-switching

Many times within communities that contain sociolects that separate groups linguistically it is necessary to have a process where the independent speech communities can communicate in the same register; even if the change is as simple as different pronunciation. Therefore, the act of code-switching becomes essential. Code-switching is defined as "the process whereby bilingual or bidialectal speakers switch back and forth between one language or dialect and another within the same conversation". [16] : 23  At times code-switching can be situational, depending on the situation or topical, depending on the topic. Halliday terms this the best when he defines the role of discourse, stating that "it is this that determines, or rather correlates with, the role played by the language activity in the situation". [10] : 20  Therefore, meaning that which register is used depends on the situation and lays out the social context of the situation, because if the wrong register is used, then the wrong context is placed on the words. Furthermore, referring back to the diglossia expressed in the Arab-speaking world and the Tamil caste system in India, which words are used must be appropriate to not only the social class of the speaker, but the situation, the topic, and the need for courtesy. A more comprehensive definition is stated, "Code-switching is not only a definition of the situation but an expression of social hierarchy." [10] : 137 

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.

In sociolinguistics, a variety, also known as a lect or an isolect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, registers, styles, or other forms of language, as well as a standard variety. The use of the word variety to refer to the different forms avoids the use of the term language, which many people associate only with the standard language, and the term dialect, which is often associated with non-standard language forms thought of as less prestigious or "proper" than the standard. Linguists speak of both standard and non-standard (vernacular) varieties as equally complex, valid, and full-fledged forms of language. Lect avoids the problem in ambiguous cases of deciding whether two varieties are distinct languages or dialects of a single language.

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 a situation in which 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.

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.

In the field of dialectology, a diasystem or polylectal grammar is a linguistic analysis set up to encode or represent a range of related varieties in a way that displays their structural differences.

<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.

Language change is variation over time in a language's features. It is studied in several subfields of linguistics: historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, and evolutionary linguistics. Traditional theories of historical linguistics identify three main types of change: systematic change in the pronunciation of phonemes, or sound change; borrowing, in which features of a language or dialect are introduced or altered as a result of influence from another language or dialect; and analogical change, in which the shape or grammatical behavior of a word is altered to more closely resemble that of another word.

In sociolinguistics, a register is a variety of language used for a particular purpose or particular communicative situation. For example, when speaking officially or in a public setting, an English speaker may be more likely to follow prescriptive norms for formal usage than in a casual setting, for example, by pronouncing words ending in -ing with a velar nasal instead of an alveolar nasal, choosing words that are considered more "formal", and refraining from using words considered nonstandard, such as ain't and y'all.

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 linguistic dialect, which today is considered a sub-field of 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.

A diaphoneme is an abstract phonological unit that identifies a correspondence between related sounds of two or more varieties of a language or language cluster. For example, some English varieties contrast the vowel of late with that of wait or eight. Other English varieties contrast the vowel of late or wait with that of eight. This non-overlapping pair of phonemes from two different varieties can be reconciled by positing three different diaphonemes: A first diaphoneme for words like late, a second diaphoneme for words like wait, and a third diaphoneme for words like eight.

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.

Sociolinguistic research in India is the study of how the Indian society affects and is affected by the languages of the country.

Variation is a characteristic of language: there is more than one way of saying the same thing. Speakers may vary in pronunciation (accent), word choice (lexicon), or morphology and syntax. But while the diversity of variation is great, there seem to be boundaries on variation – speakers do not generally make drastic alterations in word order or use novel sounds that are completely foreign to the language being spoken. Linguistic variation does not equate to language ungrammaticality, but speakers are still sensitive to what is and is not possible in their native lect.

In linguistics, age-graded variation is differences in speech habits within a community that are associated with age. Age-grading occurs when individuals change their linguistic behavior throughout their lifetimes, but the community as a whole does not change.

In the field of sociolinguistics, social network describes the structure of a particular speech community. Social networks are composed of a "web of ties" between individuals, and the structure of a network will vary depending on the types of connections it is composed of. Social network theory posits that social networks, and the interactions between members within the networks, are a driving force behind language 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.

In sociolinguistics, covert prestige is a type of scenario in which nonstandard languages or dialects are regarded to be of high linguistic prestige by members of a speech community. This is in contrast to the typical case of linguistic prestige, wherein only the standard varieties of a speech community are considered prestigious.

References

  1. ↑ Wolfram, Walt (2004). "Social varieties of American English". In E. Finegan and J.R. Rickford (ed.). Language in the USA: Themes for the Twenty-first Century. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   0-521-77747-X.
  2. ↑ Wilkoń, Aleksander (2000). Typologia odmian językowych współczesnej polszczyzny (in Polish) (2 ed.). Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego. pp. 87–88. ISBN   83-226-0975-2.
  3. ↑ Durrell, Martin (2004). "Sociolect". In Ammon, Ulrich; et al. (eds.). Sociolinguistics. An International Handbook of the Science of Language and Society. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 200–205.
  4. ↑ Smith, K. Aaron; Kim, Susan M. (2017). This Language, A River: A History of English. Broadview Press. p. 281. ISBN   9781770486652.
  5. ↑ Mrázková, Kamila (2017). "REJSTŘÍK". In Karolak, Petr; Nekula, Marek; Pleskalová, Jana (eds.). Nový encyklopedický slovník češtiny (in Czech).
  6. ↑ Grzenia, Jan (2005-04-25). "gwara a żargon". Poradnia językowa PWN (in Polish). sjp.pwn.pl. Retrieved 2019-04-26.
  7. ↑ Mistrík, Jozef (1993). Encyklopédia jazykovedy (in Slovak) (1 ed.). Bratislava: Obzor. p. 385. ISBN   8021502509. OCLC   29200758.
  8. ↑ Eifring, Halvor. "7 Language and Variation". Linguistics for Students of Asian and African Languages.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Trudgill, Peter. A Glossary of Sociolinguistics. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Print.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Halliday, M. Language and Society. London; New York: Continuum, 2007. Print.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Labov, William. Dialect Diversity in America : the Politics of Language Change. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012. Print.
  12. ↑ Hervey, Sándor; Higgins, Ian; Loughridge, Michael (2003). Thinking German Translation: A Course in Translation Method. Thinking Translation. Routledge. pp. 85–86. ISBN   9781134818976.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 Agha, Asif. Language and Social Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 135. Print.
  14. ↑ Murray, Thomas E.. "From Trade Name to Generic: The Case of Coke." Trans. Array Names: A Journal of Onomastics. Maney Publishing, 1995. 165-86. Print.
  15. ↑ Mesthrie, Rajend. Introducing Sociolinguistics. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Pub., 2009. 38. Print.
  16. ↑ Trudgill, Peter. On Dialect : Social and Geographical Perspectives. New York: New York University Press, 1983. Print.
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