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language-and-society

8. Language and Society 8.1 the scope of sociolinguisticsLanguage is a social fact. Sociolinguistics is the subdiscipline of linguistics that studies language in social contexts. In view of language as a primary means of communication among individual speakers of a society, sociolinguists are concerned with the social significance of language variation and language use in different speech communitiesincluding regional, ethnic and social groups. Sociolinguists are also concerned with the impact of extralinguistic factors on language use, such as age, gender, profession, and social status.8.1.1 the relatedness between language and society1)social function of language:Apart from its function in communication, language is also used to establish and maintain social relationships;2)Language reveals the socialbackground of the speaker; 3)Language reflects the physicaland social environments of a society4)various social factorsdetermine the individual speaker’s use of language8.1.2 speech community and speech varietyvariety/variationspeech community: a group of people who form a community and share the same language or a particular variety of language.Speech variety (language variety): any distinguishable form of speech used by a speaker or a group of speakers. Varieties of language can be classified in respect of their user and use. Socialinguists generally distinguish regional dialects, social dialects and register.8.2 varieties of language8.2.1 dialectal varieties regional dialect:linguistic variety used by people living in the same geographical region.(language variety according to the user)Although geographical barriers are the major source of regional variation of language, loyalty to one’s native speech and physical and psychological resistance to change are among other reasons of such variation.Linguistic variation may occur at all levels of language (phonological, lexical, morphological, syntactical, semantic), the most distinguishable linguisticfeature of a regional dialect is its accent.Y ou don’t know what you’re talking about (Scottish English: Ye dinnae ken whit yer haverin’ about)/ kœy 13na:u22tso35jat5ts‘a:n53 ŋο13/ (语概6)sociolet (social dialect): linguisitic variety characteristic of a particular social class. (p.115).U non-UHave a bath take a bath Bike, bicycle cycleLuncheon dinner Riding horse riding Sick illMad mental Looking-glass mirror Writing-paper note-paper Wireless radio Lavatory-paper toilet-paper Rich wealth Vegetables greens Pudding sweetScotch Scottish (encyc. P.39)fig.8.2.1: relation between social variation and regional variationheadache: skullhead, head-wark,head-warch, sore head, etc.8.2.2 language and social factors genderIn some languages such as English, German, French, and Russian, women are supposed to use more oftern:emotive adjectives and adverbs:super, lovely, terribly,aufullyexclamations: Goodness me, Oh,dear;intensifiers: so, such (It was so busy)expressions like: I’m afraid…I’m not sure…. Maybe I amwrong but…etc.abundant use of tags: the lessonis terribly interesting,isn’t it?strategies: women have been found to ask more questions, make more use of positive and encouraging ‘noises’, use wider intanational range and a more marked rhythmical stress, and make greater use of the pronouns you and we. They usually tend to use standard form of the languageon many occasions.By contrast, men are much more likely to interrupt, to dispute what has been said, to introduce more new topics and to make more declarations of fact or opinions. (encyc. P.21)agedevelopmental patterns in language acquisitionat phonological, lexical, syntactical, and semantic and pragmatic levels as well. Idiolect: personal dialect of an individual speaker thatcombines elements regarding regional, social, gender, an age variations. Personal variety of a dialectEthnic dialectAn ethnic dialect is a social dialect of a language that cuts across regional differences. Black English: an ethnic dialecte.g. (p.118)drop of final consonant; deletion of copula;double negationother syntactical features (hu,p. 202)8.2.3 registerlanguage variation according to use. That is, we typically use certain recognizable configurations of linguistic resources in certain contexts. There are three main dimensions (variables) of variation which characterize any register:what is being talked about (field of discourse), the people involved in the communication and the relationship between them(tenor of discourse) and how the language is functioning in the interaction (mode of discourse) (p.120)8.3 Standard dialectA particular variety of language which wins literary and cultural supremacy over the others and gains some kind of institutional support from government administration and news media, and also from individuals who write grammars and books on correct usage.Features of the standard dialect: (p. 123)8.4 Pidgin and CreolePidgin: a special language variety that mixes or blends languages, with a markedly reduced grammatical structure, lexicon and stylistic range, and a much narrower range of functions. It grows up among people to talk to each other, for trading and other reasons. It is the native language of no one.Most pidgins are based onEuropean languages –English, French, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese—reflecting the history of colonialismCreole is a pidgin language which has become the mother tongue of a speech community. The switch of pidgin involves a major expansion in the structural linguistic resources available, esp. in vocabulary, grammar, and style, which now have to cope with the everyday demands made upon a mother tongue by its speakers. Pidgins are by nature auxiliarylanguages, learned alongside vernacular languages which are much more developed in structure and use. Creoles, by contrast, are vernaculars in their own right.8.5 bilingualism and diglossia bilingualism: (p.124)diglossia: a language situation in which two markedly divergent varieties, each with it own set of social functions, coexist as standards throughout a community. One of these varieties is used in ordinary conversation; the otheris used for special purposes, primarily in formal speech and writing. It has become conventional in linguistic to refer to the former as ‘low’, and the latter as ‘high’。

语言学-language-and-societyppt课件

• 例如：一般中国人在家庭环境中使用家乡方言，在工作学习时使用普通话。
• 文体的差异主要是通过不同的发音、不同的语法结构或不同的词汇选择来实现的。
• 文体不仅可以指一个人对言语的习惯性使用，也可以指具有相同职业背景的人所共有的言语使用特征。
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• As far as the situational variation in language use concerned, the diversity and richness of some stylistic variants available for a person to choose when engaged in different types of communicative events.
三句不离本行
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How does language relate to society
• 2）The social environment can also be
reflected in language, and can often have an effect on the structure and the vocabulary.
※ Macro-studies ※ Micro-studies
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Sociolinguistics
Macro(宏观)-studies —— the sociolinguistics of society (语言社会学) :
To know more about a given society or community by examining the linguistic behavior of its members
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Language is not always used to exchange information as is generally assumed, but rather it is sometimes used to fulfill an important social function – to maintain social relationship between people.

Lecture12 Language and Social Culture(I)

Definition of Dialect
A variety of a language used recognizably in a specific region or by a specific social class.
Dialect VS language
1.
2.
3.
Dialect is a variation of language different enough to be classed as a separate entity, but not different enough to be classed as a separate language. Sometimes a dialect rises in status and becomes the standard variety of a country. When the speakers of two dialects belong to two countries, it is more likely that the dialects become two languages.
Regional Dialects
A regional dialect refers to the language variety used in a geographical region. When people are separated from each other geographically, dialectal diversity develops. When enough differences give the language spoken in a particular region, for example, the city of Chicago or New York its own "flavor," that version of the language is called a regional dialect. A regional dialect differs from language in that the former is considered a distinct entity, yet not distinct enough from other dialects of the language to be regarded as a different language.

Language and Society(1)

Idiolect and dialect
• The unique characteristics of the language of an individual speaker are referred to as the speaker’s idiolect. • Dialect refers to a variety of a language whose grammar differs in systematic ways from other varieties.
Social dialect
• When we look at the language used by two speakers A and B, we can estimate roughly their relative social status:
•
Speaker A I did it yesterday. He hasn’t got it. It was she that said it.
– Groups of people distinguish themselves from other groups by geographical, educational background, the occupation, the gender, the age of the ethnic affiliation of its members.
Dialects or languages
• However, to define “mutually unintelligible” is itself a difficult task.
– Danes speaking Danish and Norwegians speaking Norwegian and Swedes speaking Swedish can converse with each other. However they are regarded as separate languages because they are spoken in separate countries. – The various languages spoken in China, such as Mandarin and Cantonese, although mutually unintelligible, have been referred to as dialects of Chinese because they are spoken within a single country and have a common writing system.

Lecture 12

Racial attitudes and language processing
How do beliefs about race affect language processing? Rubin (1992): Issue: American students often complain about the accents of non-native teaching assistants. Is it really because of the bad accents, or is this just a sort of racism? Subjects: Two classrooms of undergraduates Materials: An audio tape of a native speaker of American English (female, white) giving a class lecture. Design: In one classroom, students were told that the speaker on the tape was the white American woman shown on a slide. In the other classroom, students were told that the speaker was the Chinese woman shown on a slide Results: There were significant differences across the two groups in the students' comprehension of the lecture and in their judgment of teaching ability, and students who saw the Chinese picture actually claimed they had trouble because of the speaker's "foreign accent"!

Language and society

Ethnic dialect （种族方言）
An ethnic dialect is a social dialect of a language that cuts across regional difference; it is mainly spoken by a less privileged population. Blank English
Language and society
--Dialectal varietiesຫໍສະໝຸດ made by Zephyr
Dialectal varieties(方言变体）
Idiolect（个人语言） Idiolect（个人语言） Temporal dialect（时间方言） dialect（时间方言） Regional varieties(地域变体) varieties(地域变体) Social dialect（社会方言） dialect（社会方言） Standard dialect（标准方言） dialect（标准方言） NonNon-standard dialect（非标准方言） dialect（非标准方言） Ethnic dialect （种族方言）
Regional Social Gender Age Sound quality Pitch Speed
Temporal dialect（时间方言） dialect（时间方言）
Temporal dialect refers the variety of language associated with a particular period time. Distinction: Old English ,Early Modern English , Modern English , Victorian English ,Elizabethan English

(完整版)TheRelationshipbetweenLanguageandSociety语言和社会的关系

The Relationship between Language and SocietyLanguage is not just the words said by people every day, it is both a scientific system and a social activity. It is the major bond of people’s communication in society.Although 2 people from the same place, their languages aren’t the same. One’s language reflects one’s social statues and his or her speech community. A speech community is a group of people who share a set of norms, rules and expectation regarding the use of language. Investigating language from this perspective is known as sociolinguistics. It deals with the inter relationship between language and society. Language can be regarded as a social activity. The internal authority refers to the acquisition of a language or dialect by an individual when mixed with his fellow speakers of the same speech community. External authority means that society, through language teachers, institutions, mass media, textbooks and dictionaries, imparts the knowledge of language to learners at schools or in controlled environment.Language as a social activity has its own planning. Language planning refers to the systematic attempt to solve communication problems by studying the various language or dialects people use in the same one community and by developing a realistic policy concerning the proper selection and appropriate use of these languages and varieties. A standers language is usually a prestige dialect/language widely accepted. A national language is the language to be used nationwide in a newlyliberated country or a multinational one. An official language, similar to a standard or national language, is used in formal, official situations.As a major bond of people’s communication, language is closely connected with society. Many factors lead to the differences in language. Even though from the same social class, people’s language also have their own characters for the differences in ages and sex. For example, in some cultures, there are much more marked differences between male and female speech. Female speakers tend to use more prestigious forms than male speakers with the same general social background. That is, forms such as I done it, it growed and he ain’t can be found more often in the speech of males, and I did it, it grew and he isn’t in the speech of females. The different ethnic backgrounds also cause the variation of language. When a group of people have low social statues, their language may be regarded as the bad language. For example, when black people use the double negative constructions knowing nothing , they are often criticized.Differences in society and location may form one’s language characters. At the same time , the situation of using the language also cause the variation of language. Different situation requires us use different writing style and forms different register, such as the words used only for a special group of people, which known as jargon. All dialects and registers are regarded, or ought to be deemed, as grammatically welled-formed by their speech communities, i.e. each community has its own sub-grammar. But a particular variety or language sometimes enjoys an established reputation in society. The relative reputation of a variety of speech depends upon the social and economic status of professions and regions that use it.Code-switching means that a speaker does not have to follow a certain variety or dialect all the time but that he can turn from the standard language to the sub-standard one, from one dialect to another, from one accent to another, from formality to informality, from politeness to impoliteness, even from one language to another in a bilingual or multilingual community.As a member in society, it is important for us to know situation of using a language. When we contact with others, we must know clearly our role, such as father, son, husband or boss, only in this way , can we perform well in our work and daily life.。

Languageandsocialclass语言与社会阶层

Language and social classIf you are an English-speaker you will be able to estimate the relative social status of the following speakers solely on the basis of the linguistic evidence given here:Speaker A Speaker BI done it yesterday I did it yesterdayHe ain't got it He hasn't got itIt was her what said it It was her that said itIf you heard these speakers say these things you would guess that B was of higher social status than A, and you would almost certainly be right. How is it that we are able to do this sort of thing?The answer lies in the existence of varieties of language which have come to be called socialclass dialects. There are grammatical differences between the speech of these two speakers which give us clues about their social backgrounds. It is also probable, although this is not indicated on the printed page, that these differences will be accompanied by phonetic and phonological differences- that is to say, there are also different social-class accents. The internal differentiation of human societies is reflected in their languages. Different social groups use different linguistic varieties, and as experienced members of a speech community we have learnt to classify speakers accordingly. Why does social differentiation have this effect on language?We may note parallels between the development of these social varieties and the development of regional varieties: in both cases barriers and distance appear to be relevant. Dialectologists have found that regional-dialect boundaries often coincide with geographical barriers, such as mountains, swamps or rivers: for example, all local-dialect speakers in the areas of Britain north of the river Humber (between Lincolnshire and Yorkshire) still have a monophthong in words like house ('hoose' [hu:s], whereas speakers south of the river have had some kind of [haus]-type diphthong for several hundred years. It also seems to be the case that the greater the geographical distance between two dialects the more dissimilar they are linguistically: for instance, those regional varieties of British English which are most unlike the speech of London are undoubtedly those of the north-east of Scotland - Buchan, for example. The development of social varieties can perhaps be explained in the same sort of way - in terms of social barriers and social distance. The diffusion of a linguistic feature through a society may be halted by barriers of social class, age, race, religion or other factors. And social distance may have the same sort of effect as geographical distance: a linguistic innovation that begins amongst, say, the highest social group will affect thelowest social group last, if at all. (We must be careful, however, not to explain all social differences of language in these entirely mechanical terms since, as we saw in Chapter 1, attitudes to language clearly play an important role in preserving or removing dialect differences.)Of the many forms of social differentiation, for example, by class, age, sex, race or religion, we shall concentrate in this chapter on the particular type of social differentiation 35 illustrated in the examples of speakers A and B - social stratification. Social stratification is a term used to refer to any hierarchical ordering of groups within a society. In the industrialized societies of theWest this takes the form of stratification into social classes, and gives rise linguistically to social-class dialects. (The whole question of social class is in fact somewhat controversial, especially since sociologists are not agreed as to the exact nature, definition or existence of social classes [...].)Social-class stratification is not universal, however. In India, for example, society is stratified into different castes. As far as the linguist is concerned, caste dialects are in some ways easier to study and describe than social-class dialects. This is because castes are stable, clearly named groups, rigidly separated from each other, with hereditary membership and with little possibility of movement from one caste to another. [...].In the class societies of the English-speaking world the social situation is much more fluid, and the linguistic situation is therefore rather more complex, at least in certain respects. Social classes are not clearly defined or labelled entities but simply aggregates of people with similar social and economic characteristics; and social mobility - movement up or down the social hierarchy - is perfectly possible. This makes things much more difficult for any linguist who wishes to describe a particular variety - the more heterogeneous a society is, the more heterogeneous is its language.For many years the linguist's reaction to this complexity was generally to ignore it - in two rather different ways. Many linguists concentrated their studies on the idiolect - the speech of one person at one time in one style - which was thought (largely erroneously [...]) to be more regular than the speech of the community as a whole. Dialectologists, on the other hand, concentrated on the speech of rural informants, and in particular on that of elderly people of little education or travel experience, in small isolated villages, [...mainly because] there was a feeling that hidden somewhere in the speech of older, uneducated people were the 'real' or 'pure' dialects which weresteadily being corrupted by the standard variety [...] (It turns out that the 'pure' homogeneous dialect is also largely a mythical concept: all language is subject to stylistic and social differentiation, because all human communities are functionally differentiated and heterogeneous to varying degrees. All language varieties are subject to change. There is, therefore, an element of differentiation even in the most isolated conservative rural dialect.) From: c. 2 in P. Trudgill, Sociolinguistics. An Introduction to Language and Society,London, Penguin, 1983 (rev. ed.), pp. 34-35.SCUOLA SUPERIORE DELL'UNIVERSITA' DEGLI STUDI DI UDINEESAME DI AMMISSIONE PER LA CLASSE UMANISTICAPROVA SCRITTA DI LINGUA INGLESEA.A. 2004/2005Nome e cognome: ______________________________________________________________ Read the attached text ("Language and social class") and do the exercises below.Part A: Approaching the textExercise 1: In the attached text there are 7 indented paragraphs. Match each thematic section below (1., 2., 3., 4.) with the paragraph(s) which is / are conceptually related to it.Ex. 1. Native speakers' language awareness (par. __No. 6-7___)DO NOT INSERT THE SAME PARAGRAPH INTO MORE THAN ONE SUB-HEADING1. Native speakers' language awareness (par. __________ )2. Effects of social differentiation on grammar and phonology (par. __________ )3. Analogies between regional and social dialects (par. __________ )4. Social-class dialects: relativity and complexity (par. __________ )Exercise 2: Match each connective below with the function it performs in the text by filling the corresponding blank with eithera (for Additive)b (for Concessive)c (for Causal)or d (for Contrastive).(PAY ATTENTION TO THE REFERENCE LINE IN BRACKETS AND WRITE ONLY ONE LETTERIN EACH BLANK)1. although (l. 11) _______2. for example (l. 20) _______3. whereas (l. 22) _______4. also (l. 23) _______5. however (l. 31) _______6. since (l. 39) _______7. on the other hand (l. 55) _______8. therefore (l. 62) _______Part B: Intensive readingExercise 3: Read the text carefully and tick ( ??) the appropriate answer:1. What is the overall function of the chapter from which this excerpt has been taken???to put forward a new theory to explain the development oflinguistic varieties??to investigate the influence of social stratification onlanguage use??to explore the relationships between social accents andsocial dialects2. This text is an extract from a textbook called Sociolinguistics. An Introduction to Language and Society. Can you guess which of the following topics is NOT likely to be dealt with systematically in the book???How Languages Are Learned??Language and Context??Language and Ethnic GroupExercise 4: Making reference to the text, decide whether the following statements are TRUE (T), orFALSE (F), or INCOMPLETE (I) paraphrases of the information conveyed in the text (N.B.: the various statements appear in the order in which the information is presented in the text):1. According to the author, social-class accents distinguish social differences in spoken language ( __ )2. Social differences of language may be determined by social barriers and socialdistance ( __ )3. Social stratification in the West can be compared to caste society in the East,each having its own characteristic traits ( __ )4. For many years a lot of linguists wrongly considered the idiolect to be less subject tochange than the speech of the community as a whole ( __ )5. According to the author, original, uncorrupted dialect forms can be found amongstthe most elderly and isolated segment of a population ( __ )Exercise 5: The following is a list of synonyms for words/expressions which appear in the text in the paragraph indicated in brackets and in the order given on the list. Find the corresponding words/expressions and write them down, together with their respective line number:1. assess [verb] (par. 1) _________________ (line ___ )2. indications / signs / hints (par. 2) __________________ (line ___ )3. skilled / knowledgeable [adj.] (par.2) __________________ (line ___ )4. consequently / as a result of this (par. 2) __________________ (line ___ )5. pertinent (par. 3) _________________ (line ___ )6. borders [pl. noun] (par. 3) _________________ (line ___ )7. marsh / wet land (par. 3) __________________ (line ___ )8. circulation (par. 3) __________________ (line ___ )9. stopped (past participle) (par. 3) __________________ (line ___ )10. influence [verb] (par. 3) __________________ (line ___ )11. debatable (par. 4) _________________ (line ___ )12. unchanging (par. 5) __________________ (line ___ )13. variable [adj.] (par. 6) _________________ (line ___ )14. scale (par. 6) __________________ (line ___ )15. disregard / neglect [verb] (par. 7) __________________ (line ___ )16. illiterate [adj.] (par. 7) __________________ (line ___ )17. constantly / progressively (par. 7) __________________ (line ___ )Part C: Guided writingExercise 6: Re-read the text's lines indicated in brackets and then complete the following paraphrases by circling ONE word/expression for each missing item:(ll. 14-16) Sociolinguistic competence involves being able to classify speakers (like / as) belonging to different social groups on the grounds of the linguistic variety they use(ll. 27-29) Social class, age, race and religion, (among / between) other factors, may prove to be powerful barriers (who / which) prevent the diffusion of a linguistic feature throughsociety.(ll. 52-53) For many years there (has been / was) a general tendency to ignore language variation. Exercise 7: What follows is an extract (pp. 39-40) from the follow-up of the text "Language and Social Class". It describes the results of a large-scale survey of the speech of New York conducted by the American linguist William Labov in 1966 and evaluates them against previously- held views.Complete the extract by choosing one option for each missing item from the list below:(1) developed by Labov have proved to be very significant for the study of social-class dialects andaccents. The methods of traditional dialectology (2) be adequate for the description of caste dialects(though even this is (3)) since (4) individual, however selected, stands a fair chance of (5) not too different from the caste group as a whole. But it is not possible to select any single speaker and to generalize from (6) to the rest of the speakers in his social-class group. This was an importantpoint(7) was demonstrated (8) Labov.The speech of a single speaker (his idiolect) may differ considerably from those of (9) like him. (10), it may also be internally very inconsistent. The speech of (11) New Yorkers appeared to vary in a completely random and unpredictable manner. [...] Sometimes they would say beard and bad in the same way, sometimes they would (12) a difference. Linguists have traditionally called this 'free variation'. Labov (13) , however, that the variation is not free. Viewed against the backgroundof the speech community as a whole the variation was not random but determined by extralinguisticfactors in (14) predictable way. That is, the researcher could not predict on any one occasion (15) anindividual would say cah or car, but he could show that, if he was of a certain social class, age and sex, he (16) one or other variant approximately x per cent of the time, on average, in a given situation. The idiolect might appear random, but the speech community was quite predictable.(1) a. The methods b. Methods c. A method(2) a. will b. may c. need to(3) a. doubtless b. doubting c. doubtful(4) a. any b. some c. no(5) a. being b. be c. to be(6) a. his b. he c. him(7) a. who b. whom c. that(8) a. by b. from c. since(9) a. other b. the other c. others(10) a. Therefore b. Moreover c. Nevertheless(11) a. most b. the most c. most of(12) a. do b. make c. cause(13) a. show b. shown c. showed(14) a. a quite b. quite a c. quite(15) a. that b. how c. whether(16) a. used b. would use c. would have usedExercise 8: Given that "all language is subject to stylistic and social differentiation, because all human communities are functionally differentiated and heterogeneous to varying degrees", DISCUSS (in approx. 200 words) the impact of globalisation on language from a sociolinguistic point of view. Use the space below.。

语言学 Language and Society(课堂PPT)

A sociolinguistic study of society (Sociology of language)
从语言变体和语言演变的事实，来解释相关的社会现象及其演变和发展的过程。
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Two approaches to sociolinguistic studies
Macro sociolinguistics （a bird’s-eye view）研究国家或地区的语言状况及其与社会发展的相互关系（双语制或多语制社团中的语言选择、语言规划、语言态度等方面的研究）
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The relatedness between language and society
--There are many more indications of the interrelationship between language and society.
The use of language is in part determined by the user’s social background. (social class, age, sex, education level, etc.)
Micro sociolinguistics （a worm’s-eye view）研究小群体的言语特征及其与社会环境的相互关系（言语行为、言语事件、话语的顺序，同时还探讨一个群体所用的语言的变化与社会因素的关系）
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A sociolinguistic study of language
Speech communities Language, dialects, and varieties Register
指形成一个社团，小到一个家庭大到一个国家，并有一种共同的言语或言语变体的一群人。

Language and Society

8.1 The scope of sociolinguistics
8.1.2 Speech community and speech variety
• In sociolinguistic studies, speakers are regarded as members of social groups. • The social group that is singled out for any special study is called the speech community. • For general linguistics, a speech community is defined as a group of people who form a community and share the same language or a particular variety of a language.
•
•
1. 2. 3. 4.
Speech variety, or language variety, refers to any distinguishable form of speech used by a speaker or a group of speakers. Linguistic features of a speech variety can be found at the lexical, the phonological, the morphological, or the syntactical level of the language.
•
• • 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Within a speech community there exist various social groups. Social groups are defined in a number of ways besides the geographical background of the speakers. A social group may distinguish itself from the rest of the community by the educational back ground, the occupation, the gender, the age, or the ethnic affiliation of its members.

The relationship between language and society

The Relationship between Language and Society We can define sociolinguistics as the study of language in relation to society. Language and social have effect on each other. The first is the impact of language on society, specifically refers to the social function of language. The second is the influence of society on language, which refers to the difference of language variation, variation and language usage. The latter is the study point in the social linguistics.Language is a kind of social phenomenon, which has important socia l function. In particular, language is the carrier of information, the tool of social communication,the instrument of human thinking. Language is an i mportant symbol of a family or a country,which is to maintain the normal operation of the link;Because language is a kind of social phenomenon, it plays a very important role in social life, which is bound to have a great influence on language. People in different social status, education, occupation, coupled with their age, gender, ethnic differences, which make the different language forms and formed the language variation and language variety. Language variation and variation reflected differences in pronunciation and intonation, grammar, vocabulary, and reflected in the different language habits, too. Now, let’s talk more about the relationship between social dialects, gender and ethnic identity.The linguistic differences between speakers are due not only to geography but also to other social factors, such as social class, sex, and ethnicity. The problems with delimiting regional dialects can also be paralleled for social dialects. It is said that a speaker may be more similar in language to people from the same social group in a different area than to people from the different social group in a same area. In a society, people often bind themselves together in groups for same gain, security, worship, amusement, self-identification and other purposes they share in common. Thus, language tends to be highly stratified in terms of social divisions, such as class, professional status, ethnicity and gender. What’s more, language reflects caste membership and social class. People can be grouped together on the basis of similar social and economic factors. Their language generally reflects these grouping—they use different social dialects. Besides caste membership, sociolinguistics use a number of different scales for classifying people when they attempt to place individuals somewhere within a social system, such as occupational scale, educational scale and income level. In addition, how language reflects, records, and transmits social differences have been shown above, so we are not surprised to find reflexes of gender differences in language. For example, the topic between women is more likely to be cloth, shopping, family and so on. While money, sports and business are appeared more in man’ communications. Furthermore, as we all known, even in a highlycentralized society such as Britain some very marked kinds of linguistic diversity remain. Most commonly these are bound up with promoting or preserving distinct ethnic identities. Ethnic groups regularly use language as one of their most significant identifying features.In conclusion, there are language using differences due to social factors and the differences in the language using can act as indicators one’s relationship to a locality, of one’s social class position, of one’s gender, and of one’s ethnicity. So social structure is reflected in linguistic structure.。

Lecture10-Language and Society

AmE vs. BrE
Phonological differences dance /α:/ /æ / can, glass, half, can Lexical Differences e.g. fall: autumn Orthographical Differences or-our, er-re, log-logue, se-ze
Varieties of language
The varieties of a language are the actual manifestations of the general notion of the language and they are assumed to be related both to the language user and to the use to which the language is put. Varieties related to the user are normally known as dialects. Varieties related to use are known as registers.
Chapter 8 Language and society
Purpose of Language use: 1 to communicate meaning 2 to express feelings 2 to establish and to maintain social relationships. • Sociolห้องสมุดไป่ตู้nguistics: • society vs. language • Use of language in social context
Varieties of language

Language and society

Language and Society by Ian Heath，London, UKThe use of language forms a closed loop, since it is modelled on the loop of projection and introjection. The difference between the two loops is simply that the psychological one is based on individual meanings and the linguistic one on social values. This link between language and social values is one of identity, but only as long as society is static or is evolving slowly. In a static society, the language is the society. Society is its language. The two are one.Language and society are two different systems since the structure within language centres on the static signifier whilst the structure within consciousness orientates on the dynamic signified. In times of stability the dynamic structure of consciousness is put on hold, so linguistic values and social values are one. However, as society changes so the dynamic structure gradually comes into the foreground. Perhaps it is more accurate to put this effect the other way around: as the dynamic structure of consciousness becomes accentuated, so society begins to change.As society changes, social values and linguistic values begin to diverge.Language contains traditional values – this is what is implied in the ideas of social conditioning and social learning. In a static society, traditional values are unquestioned. Hence social learning takes the form of social conditioning. Social conditioning is the unquestioned or confused adherence to social norms, and occurs when society is taken to be self-referential. Society is the judge of its own needs.The only circumstance that normally breaks social conditioning in some degree is change. Therefore in a period of fast social change, chaos occurs as social norms are questioned, altered and perhaps even rejected. New norms are slowly generated. This chaos ensures that society can no longer be regarded as being self-referential.In this situation of chaos, language is grasped as being self-referential. Then language is no longer necessarily tied to social reality. In such times, values change as the values within language change and we may witness radical innovation in artistic genres.For example, the nineteenth century saw the focus on art for art’s sake, along with science for science's sake (neither art nor science were to be dependent of values external to themselves, such as social usefulness). Then the problem of grappling with the new possibilities of language produced the dense symbolism of Mallarmé. In twentieth-century literary theory the text hasbecome autonomous and self-contained, and/or the reader has acquired total freedom in his interpretation of the text.ProcessTo explain how this process happens I bring in politics. Consider a static, unchanging society. This has conservative, even right-wing, social values and a rigid hierarchy of authority or power. Society and politics have coalesced into a uniform model of conformism.Initially this model suited contemporary needs. But as evolution progresses and new needs appear, which cannot be met under this model, so the existing social norms become a handicap. This restrictiveness on human development eventually becomes challenged. Activists and non-conformists begin to initiate social change by confronting the system of authority. Thinkers give direction to new ideas on freedom and justice. Left-wing politics are born.Social change intensifies emotional responses. These new intensities bring forth creative abilities in art. Change is always handled intuitively before it can be expressed in intellectual ideas. Art is the herald of linguistic change. New art is usually born in the catharsis stage of social abreaction.Once new genres of art have become established, the intellectual attempts to verbalise their meanings and the reasons for their birth start to separate language values from social values. The clarification of such intellectual ideas is a slow process. Language is no longer necessarily tied to social reality: language becomes self-referential.As social change moves into the stage of abreactional backlash the new linguistic values are sifted and only those needed to solve current problems are retained. Society again centres on right-wing politics ; such politics attempt to return society back into a stable, static state. If this attempt is successful, then the new model of stability is more in tune with contemporary needs than the previous model was. This stability occurs when social values have ‘caught up’ with the new linguistic values. Then once again society and language become one.The overall sequence is given in diagram 4. The arrows can be read as ‘leads to’. So left-wing politics leads to new art, which in turn leads to intellectual studies, etc.Diagram 4:Sequence of Social ChangeNote. The French Revolution misled nineteenth-century political theorists. Due to unusual circumstances, the peasantry became left-wing in their politics. This led some theorists to presume that being left-wing is the normal state of the bottom levels of society. Whereas, in my view, the normal state for all levels of society is to be right-wing, since the majority of people dislike social change and prefer traditional values rather than experimenting with new ones.Different genres of art may move through this sequence at different speeds and at different times from each other. So there may be mini-sequences of social change overlapping each other.The sequence of social change that I have outlined shows that any society is really a language community. The individual transforms his meanings into social values via language. Values have to become incorporated into language before they can become incorporated into the stock of social values. Language brings forth the social reality.Language creates societyThis relation is not apparent in static societies ; it is easy to assume that society antedates language. Even ‘primitive’ societies are no exception. A‘primitive’ society is one where langua ge use is primitive, and indicates hunter-gatherer tribes – yet a tribe cannot be established until the necessary linguistic signs for authority are created.Society cannot be created until a group of people has some values in common. And values require a language to embed them and articulate them. It is language that brings people together and keeps them together. Language always precedes society. Even in small groups this relation holds: for example, in a political discussion group the people come together because they already have, or want to learn, a common political language.Social FactorsINTRODUCTIONWhen two people speak with one another, there is always more going on than just conveying a message. The language used by the participants is always influenced by a number of social factors which define the relationship between the participants. Consider, for example, a professor making a simple request of a student to close a classroom door to shut off the noise from the corridor. There are a number of ways this request can be made:a.Politely, in a moderate tone "Could you please close the door?"b.In a confused manner while shaking his/her head "Why aren't you shutting the door?"c.Shouting and pointing, "SHUT THE DOOR!"The most appropriate utterance for the situation would be a. The most inappropriate would be c. This statement humiliates the student, and provides no effort by the professor to respect him/her. Utterance b is awkward because it implies that the teacher automatically assumes that the student should know better than to leave the door open when there is noise in the hallway. The inappropriateness is a social decision tied to the social factors which shape the relationship between speaker ( the professor), and the listener (the student).When choosing an appropriate utterance for the situation, there are factors that you must consider in order to effectively convey the message to the other participant.1.Participants- how well do they know each other?2.Social setting- formal or informal3.Who is talking- status relationship/social roles ( student vs. professor)4.Aim or purpose of conversation5.TopicDo you notice that there is a difference in the way you speak to your friends and the way you speak to your relatives, teachers, or others of professional status?When telling your friend that you like his/her shirt, you say:"Hey, cool shirt, I like that!"When telling the President of the company your parents work for that you like his/her shirt, you say:"You look very nice today, I really like that shirt."This is called choosing your variety or code. This can also be seen on a larger scale, diglossia, where multilingual nations include a variety of accents, language styles, dialects and languages. Each of these factors is a reflection of the region and socio-economics background from which you come from. Inmonolingual societies, the region and socio-economic factors are determined by dialect and language style.It is not uncommon in our nation to see that languages other than English are spoken inside the home with friends and family. However when these bilingual or even trilingual families interact socially outside of their home, they will communicate in English. Even church services may use a variation of the language, one that you would only hear in side the church or in school. An example of the difference in the use of a language can be seen in the following example from Janet Holmes, "An Introduction to Sociolinguistics," of the two main languages used in Paraguay; Spanish and Guarani:Domain Addressee Setting Topic LanguageFamily Parent Home Planning a party GuaraniFriendship Friend CaféHumorous ancedote GuaraniReligion Priest Church Choosing the Sunday liturgy SpanishEducation Teacher Primary Telling a story GuaraniEducation Lecturer University Solving math problem SpanishAdministration Official Office Getting an important license Spanish DiglossiaDiglossia: In a bilingual community, in which two languages or dialects are used differently according to different social situations.Janet Holmes defines diglossia as having three crucial features:1.In the same language, used in the same community, there are two distinct varieties. One isregarded as high (H) and the other low (L).2.Each is used for distinct functions.3.No one uses the high (H) in everyday conversation.In the following example it is easy to tell which variety you will use given the social situations:∙Telling a joke∙Interviewing for a job∙Giving a speech for a charity event∙Giving a speech for a friend for his/her birthday∙Church∙Cafeteria。

语言学导论-第8章LanguageSociety

Language and society
Language and society
Sociolinguistics 社会语言学 to study the relation
between language and society, between the uses of language and the social structures
I ain’t afraid of no ghosts.
Register
“Language varies as its function varies; it differs in different situations.” (Halliday)
Register: the type of language which is selected as appropriate to the type of situation
same geographical region same regional dialect
speak differently
Features: phonetic features: -n’ -- -ing grammatical level: I can’t eat nothing. accent: Received Pronunciation (RP) 标准发音 (upper class speech, high-status marker)
icebox- fridge 火星文：符号、繁体字、日文、韩文、冷僻字或汉字拆分后的部分等
非正规化文字符号组合而成（似乱码或错字，不规范，字面无法了解）
偶口以跟你作朋友吗？ 3Q 你是我的好麻吉！私今天没事做。海皮，粉，河蟹，小盆友，……
Dialectal varieties

普通语言学基础-Language-and-SocietyPPT课件

Without society,
language could not even come into being.
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8.1.1 Possible Relation between Language and Society
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the nature of the relationship between language and society
or even determine
social structure
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Third Stance
the influence between language and society
is bi-directional
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8.1.2 Sociolinguistics
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Sociolinguistics
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8.1
The Relatedness between Language and Society
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Language and society are closely intertwined.
Without language,
society would come to a standstill.
First Stance
social factors influence or determine
linguistic structure and linguistic behavior
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Second Stance
linguistic structure
and linguistic
behavior may influence

12.language and society

Varieties of language
The varieties of a language are assumed to be related both to the language user and the use to which language is put. Varieties related to the user are normally known as dialects (方言 ) and varieties 方言 related to use as registers(语域语域). 语域
Language and gender The language used by men and women have some special features of their own.
– Female speech closely approaches the standard variety than male speech. – Female speakers tend to have a wider range in intonation. – Different use of lexical items. (eg. exclamations.)
Idiolect
Idiolect is a personal dialect of an individual speaker that combines elements regarding regional, social, gender and age variations.
Ethnic dialect
Users of a language speak differently The kind of language a speaker chooses to use is in part determined by his social background. And language, in its turn, plays the role of conveying information about its speaker. When we speak we cannot avoid giving our listeners clues about our origin and our background.

戴炜栋语言学-Language and Society

戴炜栋语言学-Language and Society●8.1 The scope of sociolinguistics社会语言学的范围●8.1.1 The relatedness between language andsociety 语言和社会的相关性●社会语言学是语言学的次领域,是研究语言和社会的关系，以及语言的运用和语言使用者所在的社会结构之间的关系。

Sociolinguistics is the sub-field oflinguistics that studies the relation between language and society,between the uses oflanguage and the social structures in which the users of language live.●语言在交际的同时，也来维持社会关系One of them is that while language isprincipally used to communicate meaning,it is also used to establish and maintainsocial relationships.●语言，尤其是词汇结构，反应了一个社会的物质和社会环境language, especiallythe structure ofits lexicon, reflects both the physical and the social environments of asociety.●8.1.2 Speech community and speech variety.言语社区和言语变体●言语社区In sociolinguistic studies, speakers are regarded as members ofsocialgroups. The social group that is singled out for any special study is called speechcommunity●言语变体：Speech variety,or refers to any distinguishable form of speech used by aspeaker or a group of speakers.●3 types of speech variety: regional dialects, sociolects, and registers●8.1.3 Two approaches to sociolinguistic studies社会语言学研究的两种途径●macro-sociolinguistics宏观社会语言学●We can look at society as a whole and consider how language functions in it andhow it reflects the social differentiations, i.e. a bird'seye view of the languagesused in society.●micro-sociolinguistics微观社会语言学●The other approach is to look at society from the point of view of an individualmember within it, ora worm's eye view of language in use.●8.2 Varieties of language语言变体the notion of a language is not monolithic there exist types or varieties of the same language. Varieties related to the user are normally known as dialects and varieties related to use as registers.●8.2.1 Dialectal varieties方言变体●Regional dialect地域方言●A regional dialect is a linguistic variety used by people living in the samegeographical region.●Sociolect社会方言●social dialect has to do with separation brought about by different socialconditions. Social-class dialect,or sociolect, refers to the linguistic varietycharacteristic of a particular social class.●can reveal identity and status●Language and gender 语言和性别●Women are on the whole more “correct” in their pronunciation than men are.●The female tends to have a wider range in their intonation,●female speaker use low-rise intonation with statesments much more frequently●adjectives of evaluation are used more frequently by females●girls can be used regardless of age of the addresse●Language and age语言和年龄● in many communities the language used by the older generation differs from thatused by the younger generation in certain ways. Certain linguistic features occur more frequently in the speech of one generation than in that of the other.● old people tend to be more conservative than the younger generation●Idiolect个人语言●Idiolect is a personal dialect of an individual speaker that combines elementsregarding regional, social, gender, and age variations.●also includes factors as voice quality, pitch and speech, tempo and rhythm.●Ethnic dialect 种族方言●eg.Black English●A prominent phonological feature of Black English is thesimplification ofconsonant clusters at the end of a word.●A syntactic feature of Black English that has often been cited to show itsillogicality is the deletion of the link verb "be".●copula verb deletion 双重否定结构●8.2.2 Register语域● A competent native speaker of a language is in possession of a variety of ways inusing the language. The totality of linguistic varieties possessed by an individual constitutes his linguistic repertoire.个体的所有语言变体构成了他的语言变体库●语域：The type of language which is selected as appropriate to the typeofsituation is a register.●Halliday further distinguishes 3 social variables that determine the register: fieldof discourse, tenor of discourse, and mode of discourse.决定语域的三个变体：语场，语旨，语式●语场：Field of discourse refers to what is going on: to the area of operation of thelanguage activity. It is concerned with the purpose and subject-matter ofcommunication.It answers the questio ns of "why"and "about what”communication takes place.●语旨：Tenor of discourse refers to the role of relationship in the situation inquestion,who the participants n the communication groups are andf. in whatrelationship)they stand to each other.●语式：Mode of discourse mainly refers to the means of communication.Thedistinction between speaking and writing.●8.2.3 Degree of formality正式度●Martin Joos: distinguishes 5 stages of formality, intimate,casual, consultative,formal, and frozen●8.3 Standard dialect.标准方言●The standard variety is a superimposed, socially prestigious dialect of a language.标准方言是一门语言中叠加的，具有社会优越感的方言。

Language and Society

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• 调查纽约市内不同阶层的人说英语时使用元音后的[r]音的情况（保留还是脱落）。元音后[r]音的保留被认为是社会中上层人士说话的标志。
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Language and Class
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1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Upper class
America Cake Relatives Sofa Lavatory Looking glass Pudding 布丁 Rich Sick spectacles
Oh! My dear Mr. Bennet, we have had a most excellent ball. …Jane was so admired . Every body said how well she looked. Mr. Bingley thought her quite beautiful, …I was so vexed to see him stand up with her. … I am quite delighted with him. He is so excessively handsome! …[Mr. Darcy] is a most disagreeable, horrid man. So high and so conceited that there was no enduring him! He walked here, and he walked there, fancying himself so very great! Not handsome enough to dance with.
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William Labov’s study

lecture 12 language and____ society

– nguage is inseparable from social activities of
man. So the systemic-functional linguistics takes actual uses systemicof language as the object of study.
In the late 1950s, American linguist Noam Chomsky began to reject the structural approach. He began to study the “ universal grammar” in human brain or linguistic competence. He believes that language is a mental phenomenon. Language is innate and human specific. Language is universal. He put forward the TG grammar. The task of the linguist is to discover the rules from the speaker’s performance.
According to Saussure’s idea, language is a system, language is a form. 1920s1920s-1930s the structural linguistics flourished represented by the American linguist---L.Bloomfield. linguist---L.Bloomfield. The structural linguists believed that language forms or structures should be the focus while meaning is neglected.