A need for variety

My mum, he no like bananas.She’s just so adorable!Can I help you duck?

Sociolinguistics

Capturing variety in language as a multifaceted social phenomenon

Approaches of Theoretical Linguistics:

carefully controlled circumstances idealised competence rather than

observable performance (Chomsky) biased data

Problems with the Chomskyan approach

Language - variable performances of individuals

Individual variation in adjusting speech to context↓

“Variable probabilistic knowledge” (Hymes, 1974)

- systemic potential - appropriateness- occurrence- feasibility

Biber, Conrad & Leech, 2002: A corpus-based approach to linguistic description

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conv fict news acad

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The scope of sociolinguistics

Relation between

language and society,

uses of language and social structures.Synchronic and diachronic variationDialectal variationSocial variationAge-related variationGender-based variation

Language and speech community

Speech community: shared language values verbal repertoire

“third floor” (UK) = “fourth floor” (US)„God bless you” vs. „See you later”„Pá” vs. „szevasz”

How to measure variety

Central questions:Who make up a representative sample of

a speech community?What linguistic items are to be studied?How to analyse this data?

Requires methods different from those of TL

Sampling by questionnaires – demographic data

Involving historians, anthropologists, etc. to identify target region

MULTI-DISCIPLINARY APPROACH

field research, ethnographic observationsociolinguistic interviewnon-intrusive responses (Labov)participant research – the observer’s

paradox

Result on map: isogloss of Southern England cut is [A] (black circles) vs. [U] (crosses)

Expressing 10.15 in German dialects

Dialectal variation

Language, dialect, accent, vernacular

Language = nation? Different nations, similar language

(Norway, Denmark, Sweden) Blends (Spanish-Portugese in Galicia)

Chinese: one nation=one language?

Pidgin and creoleWednesday, November 21, 2012

Actor Joseph Benjamin

Marriage no dey Again

The Nollywood Actor and Television Presenter himself carry im mouth talk for one interview for Reel Radio day before yesterday say the marriage don scatter. E say him and im wife get two pikin together. The girl don reach ten years while de boy na seven years e be. E talk say him and im wife dem don arrange how to take handle the two pikin dem so dat the wahala no go disturb dem. 

Social variation -ing/ -in’

“Learned” verbs Informal verbs (criticise, propose) (take, chew) Place names: –ing(Cushing, Flushing) Typical of men

Labov’s study of New York City department stores

Problems: Identifying categories such as social class or levels of formalityData collection procedures quality of linguistic material

Age-dependent variation

Language development age-graded, violations cause embarrassment („Pá”, „Oh dear”)

Child language and motherese (potty, nappy, kitty, sweetpea)

Pig Latin, Playing dozens

Early adolescence: peer group influence, slang (rap, house, hip-hop;

szalcsi, telcsi, tali)

Gender differences

Women

Higher-pitched voice More careful speech (-ing) More conscious of socially

preferred forms More appeal tags (is it? will

you?) More tentative (Would you

mind..) More questions More colour names (beige,

levander, mauve) More intensifiers (She’s so absolutely

adorable!)

Men

More direct, more declaratives

Avoid emotional words (adorable, heavenly, divine, etc.)

Gender bias in languages

„Development of the Uterus in Rats, Guinea Pigs, and Men" (title of a research report)

"The Pap test, which has greatly reduced mortality from uterine cancer, is a boon to mankind."

"As for man, he is no different from the rest. His back aches, he ruptures easily, his women have difficulties in childbirth . . . "

English – a masculine language?

Mankind and fatherland “He” as general reference He is a professional. vs She is a professional. Master vs. mistress Diminishing value of female words

(She is out with the girls.) Smith, Jones vs. Miss Smith, Mrs Jones or

Mary Policeman, doctor, poet

Neutralising language

Chairman – chairpersonBusinessman - business executiveFireman – firefighterMailman - mail carrierSteward and stewardess - flight attendantPoliceman and policewoman - police

officerMankind - humanity

Ethnicity

Pennsylvanian Dutch Jewish American I need it like a hole in my head.He asked me for it yet,Jerk schmerk!Hungarian Romas (csávó, lácsó, gáré,

bodag)

According to US experiments, people are able to distinguish between black and white speakers on the phone in over 80% of cases.

reduced final consonants: test-tess, mask-massinterchangeable then-den, three-treeforward shifted stress: Détroit, pólice, hótelsyntax: I done told him about it.

He (be) waitin’ for me every night. She don’t/ain’t say nothing.

rhetoric: - exaggeration, - wide intonation range, falsetto voice, - listener and participant encouragement (Amen, Right on), - verbal displays (rapping, playing dozens).

Playing the dozens „Yo mama”

Yo mama's so fat, she doesn't have a doctor, she has a grounds keeper.

Yo mama's so ugly, her birth certificate was an apology letter from the condom factory.

Yo mama's so old, when God said "Let there be light" she was there to flick the switch.

Yo mama's so skinny, she swallowed a meatball and thought she was pregnant.

Register variety

Different languages offer different sets of

register choice (formality-informality)Javanese- rich system of register

according to gender, kinship, occupation wealth, education, religion or family

English „you”Hungarian „te”, „ön”, „maga”, „néni/bácsi”Cross-cultural communication problems

Martin Jooz (1962):

Five styles based on interactivity amount of

background knowledge

formality of vocabulary

clarity of articulation complexity of syntax

FrozenFormalConsultativeCasualIntimate

American informality

How d’ya do? Come and have a

drink, if you have some time!

ShopsEducationHi, John! Szia János!

Szia János bácsi!

Areas of sociolinguistic study

Focus on function Competence as personal ability (idiolect) Performance: variable, individual- and context-

dependent accomplishment Language as a social tool Speech communities as organisations of ways

of speaking Variation according to regional origin, social

class, age and gender