SUMMARY OF

“LANGUAGE

IN S

OCIAL C

ONTEXTS

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FROM C

ONTEMPO

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LINGUIS

TICS: S

IXTH

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ION (O

’GRADY,

2010)

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INTRODUCTION

•Our word choice, syntax, and pronunciation reveal us to be members of a particular speech community, a group of people who share social conventions about language use. (p.485) •Some features are noticeable (salient) and are recognized within the community as having a particular social meaning. Other features are sociolinguistic indicators that can be associated with certain social characteristics. Different speech communities may reflect subsets of the same language called dialects (p.486).

LANGUAGE VARIATION & SOCIAL DISTINCTIONS•Social distinctions will often show up in linguistic distinctions. When we look at the connections between these distinctions we are looking at the variation theory, or variationist sociolinguistics. •We come across variables which are sounds that can be produced in more than one way. For example, the ‘th’ sound in ‘brother’ can be pronounced ‘brudder’, ‘bruvver’ or ‘bro’er’ (p.487). Social factors will affect these variations, such as the speaker’s age, sex or degree of education (p.489).

PLACE

The oldest branch of sociolinguistics is dialectology, the study of regional differences in language. This type of study looks at the settlement patterns of settlers years ago. This can help explain the regional differences in language in North America. For example, people from East Anglia settled in the New England area. People who settled along the coast came from the south of England. These people brought speech patterns of their home areas with them (p.490). Lexical items show differences by region as well. Soda is called ‘tonic’ in eastern New England, ‘pop’ in the Northwest and ‘soda pop’ in parts of the southern Midland. (p.492). We’ll notice regional differences in phonology too, especially in the pronunciations of vowels. The vowels <e> and <a> following an [r] can be pronounced differently making words like ‘merry’, ‘Mary’ and ‘marry’ all sound the same. Differences in morphology and syntax can arise in different regions as well. For example, ‘you’ is often pronounced ‘y’all’ in the South.

TIME

Apparent-time hypothesis looks at the differences that occur in a language over time. Looking at the differences between old and young speakers is a good example of this. For example, older speakers have less phoneme merger, while younger speakers almost always merge the two sounds (p.495).

ISOLATION

Speech communities can be isolated by physical isolation (isolated from everybody), linguistic isolation (isolated from speakers of the same language) or social isolation (isolated by conventions or attitudes).  Physical isolationA local dialect stays intact when the members of a speech community are isolated physically. This is rare nowadays because of modern transportation and communication (p.497).  Linguistic isolationLanguage varieties cut off from their sources, have kept some older features and developed some of their own innovations (p.499).  Social IsolationThis is when a smaller speech community is in some way restricted in social interaction with a larger speech community that shares the same language. A good example of this is African American Isolation (p.499).

CONTACT

 Contact with speakers of other languages or other varieties is called language contact. New experiences can occur when speakers of different languages meet and move towards bilingualism (p.500).

CONTACT

CODE SWITCHING & BORROWING  Code switching is when people use two or more languages to communicate.

Speakers who code switch are often fluent in both of their languages; monolinguals think it happens because the speaker is not competent in one of his or her languages (p.501)

 Borrowing occurs when a single language is dominant but single words from a

second language will be inserted. If the borrowed word is used enough, it will eventually be corrected by the users and used correctly in the dominant language (p.501).

   

CONTACT

CONTACT LANGUAGES: MIXED LANGUAGES, LINGUA FRANCAS, PIDGINS AND CREOLES

 Mixed languages occur when there is heavy code-switching occurring in a language. This is rare and many linguists argue it does not exist. Lingua francas occur when people from two different languages, who communicate often, choose a language to consistently use to communicate. This is an attempt to level the playing field for both groups. A pidgin is an undeveloped language with few grammatical rules and limited complexity. It is often used as a lingua franca and does not have native speakers. When a pidgin’s lexical items and grammatical rules increase, it can transform into a creole.

DISTINCTIONS WITHIN A COMMUNITY

Language varieties can often tell us about distinctions (class, ethnicity, gender, situation specific factors) within regional communities.

DISTINCTIONS WITHIN A COMMUNITY

CLASS  Studies have shown a close relationship between class and

careful speech patterns. Higher class speakers usually use more prestige variants (p.507). Members of a second-highest class may experience linguistic insecurity through hypercorrection of their speech. They pay close attention to their speech trying to strive for social heights/acceptance.

DISTINCTIONS WITHIN A COMMUNITY

ETHNICITY

African American English is an ethnic variety gaining attention from linguists. It has its own phonological features such as consonant cluster reduction and the way final consonants are voiced. Some of its features are shared with other dialects of English, such as the use of the verb be (p. 508).

DISTINCTIONS WITHIN A COMMUNITY

GENDER

Differences in language use can also depend on one’s gender role. For example, when the language in a community is stable, women will often use the more standard form of the language whereas men will use nonstandard forms more often. These differences may be attributed to linguistic insecurity or gender expectations (p. 512).

DISTINCTIONS WITHIN A COMMUNITY

SITUATION SPECIFIC FACTORS This will happen when the members of a community come together to

develop shared language practices. An example of this is when speakers will exaggerate distinctive features of their local dialect to reinforce their local identity (p.514).

SOCIAL INTERACTION & LANGUAGE

Discourse analysis looks at the structure of a conversation and what it reveals about the roles of the participants (p.514).

SOCIAL INTERACTION & LANGUAGE

Ethnography of Communication:  This pulls apart speech events into their component parts. In a speech situation,

cultures have developed conventions governing interactions. It can look at the sequencing of a conversation, jargon and openings & closings of conversations (p. 516).

  Solidarity and Power:  Speakers express closeness or shared status through solidarity. They may also

maintain differences and identify social standings of participants through the power relationship. Solidarity and power relationships often show themselves through address terms (i.e. “Do the participants use reciprocal name calling such as friends who call themselves by their first name, or does one participant call the other ‘sir’?”).

HOW SOCIETIES DEAL WITH LANGUAGE

• Societies can approach language as a social object. For example, one variety of English may be considered the standard over another. Some societies even have academies established to maintain the purity of a language. The belief in the correctness of a language variety can have social impacts regarding education or employment opportunities (p. 519).

 • Some governments may declare an official language. The official

language will often benefit the political and economic power of the ethnic group that speaks that language. This may occur by majority groups perceiving itself as having increased power over a minority group , such as groups attempting to make English the official language in the United States.