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SOCIOLINGUISTICS APPLIED LINGUISTICS / 3 rd YEAR

SOCIOLINGUISTICS APPLIED LINGUISTICS / 3 rd YEAR. 1. WHAT IS SL?. “Time changes all things; there is no reason why language should escape this universal law.” Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) “Speech is not a personal possession but a social.” Willian Dwight Whitney (1827-1894).

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SOCIOLINGUISTICS APPLIED LINGUISTICS / 3 rd YEAR

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  1. SOCIOLINGUISTICS APPLIED LINGUISTICS / 3rd YEAR

  2. 1. WHAT IS SL? “Time changes all things; there is no reason why language should escape this universal law.” Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) “Speech is not a personal possession but a social.” Willian Dwight Whitney (1827-1894)

  3. 1. WHAT IS SL? • It sounds too ‘academic’ • A clue: It must be related to society • An Applied Linguistics branch dealing with the social factors which affect the use of language

  4. 1. WHAT IS SL? Language changes constantly at different levels and at diverse places and times (Bright, 1998)

  5. 1. WHAT IS SL? Language is a symbolic indicator of behaviour = A person's background, character, and intentions are judged by the use of language (“Linguistics Program,” n.d.)

  6. 1. WHAT IS SL? • SL channels the interest in the entwining (connection) of language and society • Two key concepts in SL: ― Variation: Language is likely to change ― Contact: Language changes spread through contact (Eble, 2005)

  7. 1. WHAT IS SL? Social factors bringing about change in language: • Traditionally, class, ethnicity, age, and sex, together with educational level, growing up learning or religious beliefs = Attributes of the speaker • But also, social attitudes, cultural differences, discriminatory language or language policies = Particular to a certain group of people

  8. 1. WHAT IS SL? • SL studies both general issues, e.g. How do religious beliefs influence on language?, and more specifictopics, e.g. What are the traces of French in Cajun Vernacular English?

  9. 2. THE ORIGINS OF SL Sociolinguistics → developed over the last 50 years = a relatively modern discipline Analysis of language and society in a systematic way = clear relationship between the two phenomena Three progenitors → Anthropology, Linguistics and Sociology (fields which somehow overlap) = interdisciplinarity of SL

  10. 2. THE ORIGINS OF SL Sociolinguistics → Fathers: William Labov (b. 1927) in the US, and Basil Bernstein (b. 1924) in the UK Other terms proposed → Sociolinguistics, Sociology of Language and Linguistic Anthropology SL first mentioned by English anthropologist Thomas Callan Hodson in 1939 (“The origin,” 1979)

  11. 2. THE ORIGINS OF SL Basic notionunderlying SL→ Language as a social instrument (more thanwords) Itrepresents social behaviour (“Linguistics Program,” n.d.) SL → A prominent discipline today Twotrendshavecharacterized SL development: –a largenumber of specializedareas –resultsappliedto social, educationaland politicalproblems

  12. 3. ISSUES SL DEALS WITH Pass the salt! Would you mind passing the salt? I think this food could use a little salt Mm,not a simple matter of sentence structure This is Sociolinguistics SL studies both general questions and particular problems

  13. 3. ISSUES SL DEALS WITH A. Gender-mixed vs. Non gender-mixed conversations Varieties of speech associated with a particular gender • Men use less minimal responses (mhm, yeah) • Men use questions for information; women for different purposes • Men are more verbally aggressive inconversation • Men’s language is less formal than women's

  14. 3. ISSUES SL DEALS WITH B. Telling jokes Individual variations: group, person, situation, gender, age, educational level. (Kuypers, 2006) Universal patterns: setting and characters a Dutchman, a German and a Belgian a man walks into a bar a married couple a dumb blonde a woman at the doctor's a fly in the soup

  15. 3. ISSUES SL DEALS WITH C. Status of French and English in Canada • Official languages since 1982 • Mother tongue: 60% English vs. 24% French • Canadian English: British and American elements • Canadian French: Status worse than European French + Many Anglicisms: anyway, checker, cute, whatever, etc. • Before: English as the language of prestige and business • Now: Canadian French in both social and economic life

  16. 3. ISSUES SL DEALS WITH D. Status of English in the United States • 82% English / 12% Spanish • Several unsuccessful legislative proposals • American English + Canadian English = North American English • Spanglish: bilingual speakers in the U.S. Gloria: Open my gift! Jay: Here we have a phone…in the shape of a mouth! Gloria: You´re welcome! Very sexy! Jay: Don´t tell me. I mentioned a few times that I would like to have a saxophone and you give me this…I got it! Is this a sexy-phone? Gloria: Happy birthday!!! (Taken from Modern Family)

  17. 4. BRANCHES OF SL SL covers many sub-fields which are given several different names. Among the most known ones there are (Trudgill, 2003): • • Language Variation and Change • • Pidgin and Creole Languages • • Language Attitude Studies

  18. 4. BRANCHES OF SL Language variation and change • Dialectology: The study of regional or social varieties of a • language • Social Dialectology: The study of a variety of speech • associated with a particular group within a society • Functional Variation (Register): The study of how • language is used differently by individuals for a specific • purpose or in a particular social context

  19. 4. BRANCHES OF SL Pidgin and Creole Languages (Or Language Contact Studies) Hawaian English Creole Ai neva du om ↓ I did not do it its own grammar invented by children Nigeria English Pidgin How bodi? ↓ How are you doing today? no structure no fixed rules

  20. 4. BRANCHES OF SL Language Attitude Studies Study of how people evaluate others based on the language behaviour they observe Two major approaches: • Behaviourist → attitudes are in people's responses to social situations • Mentalist → attitudes as a reflection of an internal state

  21. 4. BRANCHES OF SL A question open to debate: Does it make any sense to propose a classification on the basis of the aspect of language affected, that is, vocabulary, grammar and/or pronunciation?

  22. 4. BRANCHES OF SL • Example: Vocabulary change • Slang → words that are non standard in formal conversation Jargon → words that are used in specialised environments

  23. 5. CONCLUSIONS • An AL branchdealingwiththe social factorswhichaffectthe use of language • Traditionally, class, ethnicity, age, and sex (Attributes of the speaker). But also social attitudes, cultural differences, orlanguagepolicies (Particular to a group of people) • A relativelymodern discipline / Thetermwasusedforthefirst time in 1939 •Interdisciplinarity of SL steming fromAnthropology, Linguistics and Sociology • SL studiesboth general issues, e.g.Howdoeshumourwork? and particular problems, e.g.Whichisthe status of French in Canada? • Many sub-fieldswithin SL: Languagevariation and change + Pidgin and Creole Languages + LanguageAttitude Studies, etc.

  24. 6. SOURCES Part 1. Whatis SL? Bright, W. (1998). Social factors in languagechange. In F. Coulmas (Ed.), Thehandbook of Sociolinguistics(pp. 82-91). Oxford: BlackwellPublishers. Downes, W. (1998). Language and Society. (2nd ed.). Cambridge: CUP. Eble, C. (2005). WhatisSociolinguistics? RetrievedOctober 14, 2011, from http://www.pbs.org/speak/speech/sociolinguistics/sociolinguistics/#eble Linguistics at NC StateUniversity. (n.d.). RetrievedOctober 11, 2011, from http://www.ncsu.edu/linguistics/aboutsociolinguistics.php Part 2. Theorigins of SL Theorigin of Sociolinguistics. (1979). In Language in society. RetrievedOctober 12, 2011 from http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?jid=LSY&tab=currentissue Jaffe, A. (Ed.). (2009). Sociolinguisticsperspectives. Oxford: OUP. Meyerhoff, M. (2006). IntroducingSociolinguistics. Oxford: Routledge. Part 3. Issues SL dealswith Bilous, F. R., & Krauss, R. M. (1988). Dominance and accomodation in theconversationalbehaviours of same- and mixed-genderdyads. Language & Communication, 8, 3, 183-194. Bond, K. (2001). French as a minoritylanguage in bilingualCanada. In Karen ‘s LinguisticsIssues Web page. RetrievedOctober 26, 2011. Kuyper, G. (2006). Goodhumour, bad taste: A sociology of thejoke. Berlín: Walter de Gruyter. Part 4. Branches of SL Ammon, U., Dittmar, N., & Mattheier, K. J. (2004). International handbook of thescience of language and society. (2nd ed.). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Trudgill, P. (2003). A glossary of Sociolinguistics. Oxford: OUP. http://www.hevanet.com/alexwest/pidgin.html

  25. Sociolinguistics: An invitation* • They worked as a team: • • Beatriz Guillén Velasco • • María García Parra • • Mari Carmen García Sánchez • • José Jimeno Serrano • We hope you have enjoyed the presentation • Thanks for your attention

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