Social Class

SociolinguisticsSonya Ayu Kumala, M.Hum

Social ClassA measure of social

organisation at the level of the larger speech community.

A function of the interaction of a whole lot of different social

attributes.

Why do sociolinguistics’ students need to comprehend about social class?

1. Language differs by its speaker2. Language speaker are varied into

various classes (social classes)

Social classes are divided based on

• Occupation• Income • Wealth

• Aspirations • Mobility

• SOCIOECONOMICS

Social Class Theory (1)• Karl Marx

• Classes are divided into:a. The one who producing the capital (worker

class)b. The one who control the production (middle

class)

Social Class Theory (1)

• Max Webbers’ view : classification of men into such groups is based on their consumption patterns rather than on their place in the market or in the process of production.

• Lifestyle and life choice

Class vs Caste• There is a possibility of

individual mobility.

• The class determines human positions in larger social order. But it is not fixed.

• There is no possibility of individual mobility.

• The caste determines human position in larger social order.

Caste system• Caste systems   Relatively fixed social

groups. A person is usually born into a particular caste and the possibilities for movement out of it are limited.

Class?

• Downward

or

• Upward

LINGUISTICS CONSEQUENCES

(Variation)

Status• A composite of economic wealth, linguistics (and other

social) behaviour, attitude and aspirations.

• Social status : A measure of status which is often based on occupation, income and wealth, but also can be measured in terms of aspirations and mobility.

• These factors can then be used to group individuals scoring similarly on these factors into socioeconomic classes.

Language determine social status

Cross Over effect• The cross-over effect emerges at the intersection of style

and class.

• Typically it refers to the breakdown in the most careful speech styles of clear stratification between speakers of different social classes.

• For example, when reading word lists, speakers from the second highest social class will suddenly produce more tokens of an incoming or prestige form than speakers in the highest social class do, instead of producing slightly fewer tokens as they do in their conversation or interview styles

• Hypercorrect.

Social stratificationdistinct social levels that can be identified, and can be ranked/evaluated

• 1. Fine stratification

• 2. Board stratification

Fine Stratification• Small changes in overall frequency differentiate the

averages for the different groups.

• A distribution of variants for example across groups of speakers in different styles.

• It is showed that

• Refers to small gaps or contrasts between social groups

Broad Stratification• The frequency with which a given variant occurs in

different social classes is relatively more marked

• Refers to large gaps or contrasts between social groups.

Conscious change vs unconscious‘from above’ vs ‘from below’

Change from above• Introduced by the dominant social class (not necessarily

=the highest one!)• Usually borrowings from higher-prestige Speech

Communities• First appears in careful speech style• Inconsistent with the vernacular• Correlated with changes in other features• Thus may refuse integration into the vernacular system,

and achieve the status of a ‘coexistent system’

• Example: (R)-fulness (=R-insertion) in NYC; sph- words in English

Change from below• Not driven by extra-linguistic (=social) factors:• Systematic changes that appear first in the vernacular, &

represent the operation of internal, linguistic factors…• May be introduced by any social class” (Labov 1994:79)• Local identity and status are primary motivations for this

type of change• Example : (aw), (ay) centralization in Martha’s

Vineyard (Labov 1963, described in Downes chap. 7)

Example (1)

• Women lead changes that come from above the level of social awareness, and involve the new prestige forms of higher-ranked social groups.

• Whereas men initiate changes which spread from below the level of social awareness, and away from the accepted norms towards the vernacular.

• In Martha’s Vineyard the change in pronunciation was taking place below the level of social awareness and was led by men responding to covert pressure from their peers.

• In Martha’s Vineyard the change in pronunciation was taking place below the level of social awareness and was led by men responding to covert pressure from their peers

Example (2)• Women in New York were using a higher degree of

prestige variants imposed from above.

• Working class women may be more exposed to standard speech at work and have more incentive to modify their speech than men.

• Women are generally granted less status and power than men, they attempt to secure or signal their social status linguistically by using prestige language forms.