Language amp Social Variation Burridge 2004 quotation using the proper language of the time the slang of the time Not everyone in a single geographical area speaks in the same way in every ID: 225743
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Slide1
CHAPTER 3
Language & Social VariationSlide2
“
Burridge
(2004) quotation / ‘using the proper language of the time’ / the ‘slang’ of the time.
Not
everyone in a single geographical area speaks in the same way in every
situation
.
Also education and economic status affect speech in different ways.
The differences can be used as indication of membership in different social groups and speech communities.Slide3
Speech
community
:
A group of people who share a set of norms and expectations regarding the use of language.Slide4
Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics
:
The study of the relationship between
language
and
society
.
Developed through the
interaction
of linguistics with a number of academic fields.
It has connections with anthropology, sociology, and social psychology.Slide5
Social dialects:
Mainly concerned with speakers in towns and cities.
Social class mainly used to define groups of speakers that have
sth
in common.
Two groups
:
“middle class”
“working class”
“upper” & “lower” used to subdivide based on economic basis.Slide6
Certain
features
of language are used in the analysis of social dialects:
Pronunciation
Words
Structure
E.g. “home”
[
heim
] [
aint
] lower-working-class speakers
[
hom
] middle-class speakersSlide7
Social variable
: ‘class’
Linguistic variable
: ‘pronunciation’ & ‘words’
In studies of social dialect we count
how often
speakers in each class use each version of the linguistic variable.Slide8
Education & Occupation
Idiolect:
A personal dialect.
We generally tend to sound like others with whom we
share
similar
educational
backgrounds and/or
occupation
. Slide9
Education
1/
Education
:
people who spent
less
time in education tend to use certain
patterns
that are not frequent in the speech of more educated
ppl
.
Derived from a lot of time spent with the written language./ “talks like a book”
E.g.
“them boys
throwed
somethin
’”
“it wasn’t us
what
done it”Slide10
Occupation
2/
Occupation & Socio-economic status
:
Sociolinguist William
Labov
study
New York department stores (3)
“Where are the women’s shoes?”- “on the
fourth floor
”
Focused on the linguistic variable: the /r/ sound
Results: there was a regular pattern: the higher the socio-economic status the more /r/ sounds were produced, and vice versa.
British study
reverse resultsSlide11
Social Markers
Social marker
:
When a certain
linguistic
feature (variable) occurs frequently in your speech it marks you as a
member
of a particular social group.
Clip
E.g.
/r/
/
ing
/ ‘
sittin
’
/h/ dropping- ‘_ad’
Charles Dickens's example (see book)Slide12
Speech Style & Style Shifting
Speech style:
As a social feature of language use./
Labov
.
Most basic distinction:
Formal / “careful” style / more attention to ‘
how
’ we speak
Informal / “casual” style / less attention
Style shifting:
A change from one style to another.
E.g.
1/
Labov
“Excuse me”/ to elicit a more “careful” style by repetition
The frequency of /r/ increased in all groups with paying more attention to speech - but more in the middle-class speakers (
macys
)
2/ asking someone to read a text out loud/ more careful
pronSlide13
Prestige
Overt prestige
:
When
ppl
change their speech in the direction of the form that is more frequent in the speech of
ppl
having a higher social status.
Covert prestige
:
Some groups do not show style-shifting as other groups
E.g. ‘lower-working-class’ speakers
They value the features that mark them as members of their social group./ avoid changing/ value group solidarity.
Esp. younger speakers “I
aint
doin
nottin
”Slide14
Speech Accommodation
Speech
accommodation:
Variation in speech style is not only
influenced
by social class and attention to speech but also by the speech style of the listener.
Our ability to modify our speech style toward or away from the perceived style of the person we’re talking to.
Convergence
:
Adopting a speech style to
reduce social distance.
E.g. teenage boy talking to friend’s mother
Divergence
:
When a speech style is used to emphasize social distance.
E.g.
S
cottish teenager talking to his teacher.Slide15
Register & Jargon
Register
:
A conventional
way
of using language that is appropriate in a specific
context
.
E.g.
S
ituational/ Religious register “Ye shall be blessed”
Occupational/ Legal register “take the witness stand”
Topical/ Linguistic register “morphology is the linguistic study of…”
Jargon
:
special technical
vocabulary
associated with a specific area of work or interest/ used by those inside established social groups/ often defined by
professional
status.
‘insiders’ vs. ‘outsiders
’
Clip
E.g.
In medical
register “arthritis
”
Other e.g. (technical, religious, academic, culinary…)Slide16
Slang
Slang
:
Words or phrases that are used instead of more everyday terms among
younger
speakers and other groups with special interest. (
not
related to profession or occupation)/ “colloquial” speech
Typically used among those
outside
higher status groups.
E.g.
Bucks (dollars or money)
Mega- ‘a lot of’ (megabucks)
Benjamins
($ 100)
Slang is an aspect of social life that is subject to
fashion
.
Esp. adolescents/ to distinguish themselves from others
/ share same ideas & attitudes/
a marker of
group identity
during a limited stage of life
Slang expressions ‘
grow old
’ rather quickly/ (groove
,
hip
,
super
)
Old, became (awesome, rad, wicked)
New
Thus, the
age
factor is another important factor involved in social variation of language use.Slide17
Taboo terms:
Words and phrases that people
avoid
for reasons related to religion, politeness, and prohibited behavior.
Often called ‘Swear’ words / ‘bleeped’ in broadcasting, or ‘starred’ in written context.
More commonly found among ‘
lower-status
’ group.
Differences in
male
& female usageSlide18
African American English
African American
English (AAE) :
Social variety according to
historical
origin of the speaker.
Black English/
Ebonics
A major variety used by many
A
frican Americans in USA./ carries many characteristic features that form together a distinct set of social markers.
Social barriers:
Discrimination
/
segregation,
create differences between social dialects
(
just like geographical
barriers)
In AAE, the differences have been called ‘
bad
’ language by the dominate groups who described them as being ‘abnormal’
The social dialect of AAE speakers has ‘
covert prestige
’ especially among younger speakers/ e.g. ‘music
’/ rap…etc.Slide19
Vernacular Language
African
American
Vernacular English (AAVE):
The form of
A
AE that has been most
studied
.
Vernacular:
A term known from the ‘middle ages’ to describe any non-standard spoken version of a language used by
lower
status groups.
Is a general expression for a kind of
social dialect
typically spoken by a
lower-status
group / treated as “
non-standard
”.
E.g. “Chicano English” and “Asian American English”
AAVE shares a number of features with other non-standard varieties
./ e.g. in pronunciation (sounds) & grammar.Slide20
The sounds of a vernacular
:
A wide-spread phonological feature in AAVE (and other vernaculars) is the tendency to reduce final consonant clusters.
‘left
’ & ‘hand’ = ‘
lef
’ & ‘
han
’
“I pass the
tess
”
Initial consonants pronounced differently
‘Think’ & ‘that’ = ‘
tink
’ & ‘
dat
’
Possessive ‘s not used
‘John’s friend’ = ‘john friend’
Third person singular –s not used
‘She loves her sister’ = ‘she love …’
Plural –s usually not used
‘Two Guys’ = ‘two guy’Slide21
The grammar of a vernacular:
Criticized as ‘illogical’ or ‘sloppy’
1/ Double
negative
construction/ ‘
illogical’:
“He don’t know
nothin
.”
“I
ain’t
afraid of no ghosts
.”
However they are standard forms in other languages, such as, French.
Thus, it
is not ‘illogical’/ I
t allows greater emphasis on the negative aspect of the
msg
2/ Frequent absence of “verb
to be
”/ ‘sloppy’:
“
you crazy”
“she
workin
now
”
However, this feature exists in other languages, such as, Arabic & Russian / v to be not required.
T
hus, it is not ‘sloppy’
3/ Using
‘be’ & ‘bin’ instead of ‘is’ & ‘was’ to express
habitual
action:
“She be
workin
downtown now
” (habitual action in the present)
“ She bin
workin
there
” (habitual action that happened in the past)
They are consistent features in the grammar of
A
AVE