1 / 30

A need for variety

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

sofia
Télécharger la présentation

A need for variety

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. A need for variety • My mum, he no like bananas. • She’s just so adorable! • Can I help you duck?

  2. Sociolinguistics

  3. 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

  4. 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

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

  6. The scope of sociolinguistics • Relation between language and society, uses of language and social structures. • Synchronic and diachronic variation • Dialectal variation • Social variation • Age-related variation • Gender-based variation

  7. 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”

  8. 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?

  9. Requires methods different from those of TL • Sampling by questionnaires – demographic data • Involving historians, anthropologists, etc. to identify target region MULTI-DISCIPLINARY APPROACH

  10. field research, ethnographic observation • sociolinguistic interview • non-intrusive responses (Labov) • participant research – the observer’s paradox

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

  12. Expressing 10.15 in German dialects

  13. Dialectal variation • Language, dialect, accent, vernacular • Language = nation? • Different nations, similar language (Norway, Denmark, Sweden) • Blends (Spanish-Portugese in Galicia)

  14. Chinese: one nation=one language?

  15. Wednesday, 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.  Pidgin and creole

  16. 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 formality Data collection procedures quality of linguistic material

  17. 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)

  18. Gender differences

  19. Women Higher-pitched voice Morecareful 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.)

  20. „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 . . . " Gender bias in languages

  21. 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

  22. Neutralising language • Chairman – chairperson • Businessman - business executive • Fireman – firefighter • Mailman - mail carrier • Steward and stewardess - flight attendant • Policeman and policewoman - police officer • Mankind - humanity

  23. 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)

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

  25. reduced final consonants:test-tess, mask-mass • interchangeable then-den, three-tree • forward shifted stress:Détroit, pólice, hótel • syntax: I done told him about it. He (be) waitin’ for me every night. Shedon’t/ain’t say nothing. • rhetoric: - exaggeration, - wide intonation range, falsetto voice, - listener and participant encouragement (Amen, Right on), - verbal displays (rapping, playing dozens).

  26. 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.

  27. Register variety Different languages offer different sets of registerchoice (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

  28. Martin Jooz (1962): Five styles based on interactivity amount of background knowledge formality of vocabulary clarity of articulation complexity of syntax Frozen Formal Consultative Casual Intimate

  29. How d’ya do? Come and have a drink, if you have some time! Shops Education Hi, John! Szia János! Szia János bácsi! American informality

  30. 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

More Related