Sociolinguistics Languages, Dialects, and Varieties Class notes
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- Sociolinguistics Languages, Dialects, and Varieties Class
notes
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- Today Language variation Deciding what is a language and what
is a dialect Talking about what makes a dialect Talking about
regional dialects Talking about linguistic variables Accents
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- Sociolinguistic variation What is sociolinguistic variation?
The study of the way language varies and changes: Social factors
(such as a speaker's gender, ethnicity, age, degree of integration
into their community, etc) and Linguistic structures (such as
sounds, grammatical forms, intonation features, words, etc).
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- linguistic variation What do we mean by variety? Variety is
when people who speak the same language speak it differently.
Hudson (1996, p. 22) defines a variety of language as a set of
linguistic items with similar distribution, a definition that
allows us to say that all of the following are varieties: Canadian
English, London English, the English of football commentaries, and
so on.
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- No two speakers of a language speak exactly the same way -
Between group variation = intergroup variation No individual
speaker speaks the same way all the time - Within-speaker variation
= intraspeaker variation
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- Language and Dialect What is a dialect? A dialect should be: A
way of speaking a language that is used only in a particular area
or by a particular group and characterized by systemic features,
such as phonology, lexicon, or grammar, that distinguishes it from
other varieties of the same language.
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- A version of a language spoken in a particular geographical
area or by a particular group of people. The English spoken in
Newcastle is different from that spoken by natives of North
Cornwall. Not only do speakers in these two areas have a different
accent, they also use a number of different words. Different
dialects also use slightly different grammar, too. For example, in
Devon some people say They do have in preference to They have Such
regional expressions are not wrong, they simply differ from
standard English. They are sometimes described as non-standard.
Oxford Dictionary
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- Cockney Rhyming Slang What is cockney rhyming slang? Where is
it spoken? Cockney Rhyming slang is a coded language invented in
the nineteenth century by Cockneys so they could speak in front of
the police without being understood. It uses a phrase that rhymes
with a word, instead of the word itself thus stairs becomes apples
and pears, phone becomes dog and bone' and word becomes dicky bird.
It can become confusing when sometimes the rhyming part of the word
is dropped: thus daisies are boots (from daisy roots).
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- Cockney Game Would you Adam and Eve it? Adam and Eve Believe
I'm going to have my barnet cut. Barnet Fair Hair I had a butchers
at it through the window. Butcher's Hook Look Use your crust, lad.
Crust of Bread Head Where's my weasel? Weasel and Stoat Coat Hand
over the bees. Bees and Honey Money Get up those apples to bed!
Apples and Pears Stairs What beautiful minces. Mince Pies Eyes
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-
http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/regional-voices/lexical-variation/
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- Long narrow sandwich
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- Soft drink
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- Pronoun: You
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- Problems with defining language and dialect How do the
different varieties of English spoken in Jamaica relate to other
varieties of English in Canada? Would two English speakers from
these diverse places understand one another? Set of criteria
proposed by the linguist R. T Bell: Standardization: A language
that has been standardized. Vitality: Whether a language is alive
or dead. Historicity: A language that has a long historical bond
with its speakers. Autonomy: A language must be felt by its
speakers to be different from other languages. Reduction: Reduction
is when the speakers of a particular variety of a language regard
it as a sub-variety or a dialect. Mixture: Mixture refers to how
mixed a languages speakers feel their language has become. De Facto
Norms: Norms refers to the feeling that many speakers have that
there are both good speakers and poor speakers, and that the good
speakers represent the norms of proper usage.
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- ISOGLOSSES Define isoglosses. BE = is.o.gloss AE = i.so.gloss
They show the boundary of different dialects
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- Do You Speak American? Dialects Lobsterman/Pronunciation in
Maine : MacNeil says, Mainers fear that their dialect... is coming
to the end of the road. How might a decline in a way of life be
related to a decline in a way of speaking? Does one cause the other
or do they just coincide? Can there be one without the other? Clip:
E1 00:00 05:48
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- Buying a car: Pam Head, the Massachusetts native, tells a story
of living in Oklahoma, where people did not understand her
pronunciation of the word car as cah. 1.If Head had remained in
Oklahoma, do you think she would have continued to use her
Massachusetts pronunciation? 2.If you have ever moved from one
dialect region to another, did you notice yourself changing your
pronunciation? 3.If so, why? In order to be understood? In order to
fit in? For some other reason? 4.Have you ever noticed other people
changing their pronunciation? 5.Which is harder, adopting new and
strange vocabulary items or modifying pronunciation? 6.What are the
advantages and disadvantages of trying to adopt a different
regional dialect? Clip: E1 06:04 08:34
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- Question 1 Dennis Preston: MacNeil says, Americans are
ambivalent about language. They may think that New York and
Southern accents are bad English but they can also find them
charming. 1.Do you agree that Americans are ambivalent about
language? 2.Do you share the sorts of feelings MacNeil describes?
3.Do you consider your own variety of English to be prestigious or
stigmatized? Clip: E1 20:28 27:36
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- Question 2 Dennis Preston: Dennis Preston studies Americans
perceptions and attitudes about English, called folk linguistics.
1.Do you consider speakers of some varieties to sound more
educated, more friendly, more intelligent, or more cheerful? 2.If
so, why do you think that is? Are your impressions similar to your
classmates?
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- Celebrating dialect diversity: Linguist Walt Wolfram says, Were
coming to celebrate and recognize some of the dialect differences
as part of our natural cultural heritage. He believes that we ought
to celebrate language variety instead of trying to eradicate it.
1.In what ways can we celebrate language variety differences?
2.What varieties of English do people tend to celebrate? 3.Are
there any varieties that people still typically do not celebrate?
Clip: E2 01:40 09:03
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- Country music : Cody James, a singer from Oregon, says that
country music doesnt necessarily have to be sung with a Southern
accent but that it seems right to do so. 1.What language varieties
seem right for singing the following: jazz, pop, heavy metal,
hip-hop. Why? 2.What would it be like if the voice didnt match the
style of the musicfor example, what would it sound like if Cody
James sang with a New York accent? 3.Are there other activities
besides singing that invite a certain accent or other features of a
dialect? Clip: E2 09:03 12:33
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- Language prejudices : In the story about Eudora Welty that
MacNeil recounts, Welty claims that when she was at Columbia
University in New York, she was never given tickets to cultural
events because people interpreted her way of speaking as evidence
that she would not be interested in cultural activities. 1.When you
hear someone speak, what judgments do you feel confident about
making? 2.Do you think you can judge peoples interests from the way
they sound? 3.What assumptions do you think people make about you
based on the way you speak? 4.What sort of connections between
speech and other attributes are most valid, and which are least
valid? Clip: E2 12:33 15:06
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- Jeff Foxworthy: Foxworthy makes a joke about not wanting your
brain surgeon to have a Southern accent. 1.What accent would you
like your brain surgeon to have? 2.What about a car mechanic or a
computer repairperson? 3.How are assumptions about regional
dialects made and why are they maintained? 4.How could misleading
ones be modified? Clip: E2 15:06 16:57