1.

Language, a code for human communication

Society: A group of people brought together for a certain purpose, separate from other groups by mutual interests, beliefs, and culture.
People communicate in speech by using a system of communication, a code.

Language: System of communication governed by using logical grammar. Many languages use gestures, sounds, symbols, or words to communicate ideas, meanings, and thoughts. They are composed of geographical and social varieties. Multilingual speakers have access to two or more codes, and they shift between them by code-switching.
Anyone who knows a language has more knowledge about it than any grammar book that tries to describe it The knowledge that speakers have of the language is the knowledge of how we pronounce words and sentences rather than just knowledge of specific sounds, words, and sentences. It is understanding sentences and knowing they are ungrammatical. Degree at which all languages can be learned, characteristics they share, and their rules are Language universals Noam Chomsky has distinguished between: *Competence: what speakers know about their language. *Performance: what speakers do with their language. Linguists task is to characterize speakers competence. Noam Chomsky The interaction competence of the speaker-hearer is only one of the factors we must consider if we want to study linguistic performance Knowing the language is knowing how to use it in communication.

2.The problem of Variation

The competence-performance distinction has proved to be quite troublesome, when the variety we experience within language is labeled performance ,but there are those who consider competence to be the only valid concern of linguists. Categorical rules rules which specify what is possible in the language and what isnt. In any language, we have an internal variation, and speakers make use of the many different possibilities. No one speaks the same way all the time. Recognition of variation implies that a language is not just some kind of abstract object of study. It is also something that people use. Following Chomskys example, many linguists argued that you should not study a language in use, without first knowing what language itself is. The linguists task is to write grammars that will help us develop our understanding of language. What is language? How to learn it? And what it tells us about the human mind? Many sociolinguists saw that as asocial linguistics and argued that adequate theory of language must have something to say about the uses of language, variations. There is a variation in the speech of any individual, but there are also definite limits to that variation. (You cant pronounce the words any way you please) These limits can be applied to groups of speakers, they are group norms. Our knowledge of these norms is almost entirely unconscious. The linguists task: To specify the norms of linguistic behaviour in particular groups and then try To account for individual behaviour in terms of these norms.

3. The scientific investigation of Language

Scientific investigation of language should provide an understanding of the general principles of organization that exist in both language and the uses of language. De Saussure distinguished between langue as group knowledge of language and parole as individual use of language. Bloomfield stressed the importance of contrastive distribution (since pin and bin are different words in English, /p/ and /b/ must be contrastive units) Pike distinguished between EMIC and ETIC features in language (/p/ and /b/ are contrastive, therefore EMIC units, but the two pronunciations of p in pin and spin are not contrastive, therefore they are ETIC) Sapir and Chomsky made the distinction between the surface characteristics of utterances (surface structure) and the deep realities of linguistic form behind these surface characteristics (deep structure). Language universals represent the degree at which all languages can be learned, characteristics they share, and their rules. Sociolinguistics: a branch of anthropological linguistics that studies how language and culture are related and how language is used in different social contexts, without a single unifying theme - except that it is about the relationship of language to society - and without a single unifying approach.

4. Relationships between Language and Society

There are 4 views: 1)Society can influence language in various ways: - the age-grading phenomenon (young children speak differently from older children and mature adults) -Language can reflect regional, social, or ethnic origin and sex -Ways of speaking are determined by social requirements. Power can also influence language choices. 2) Language can influence society: Many people argue that languages can be sexist. 3) Language and society may influence each other. Speech behaviour and social behaviour are constantly interacting. 4) There is no relationship between language and society This is Chomskys asocial approach. But worthwhile sociolinguistics are more than just a simple mixing of linguistics and sociology . Specific points of connection between language and society must be discovered.

5. Sociolinguistics and the Sociology of Language

Sociolinguistics is investigating the relationships between language and society and aiming at understanding of the structure of language and its function in communication. The sociology of language is trying to discover how social structure can be understood through the study of language. Sociolinguistics is the study of language in relation to society , and is more interested in language. Sociol.of lang. is study of society in relation to language. They both require a systematic study of language AND society. Trudgill: Sociolinguistics has something to do with language and society, but its not concerned with everything that is considered language and society. Ethno-methodological studies, for example, are almost entirely sociological. While some kinds of work combine sociology and linguistics : ethnography of language , bilingualism and code-switching.

6. Sociolinguistics and Related Disciplines

Linguists and sociologists are not the only ones who are involved in studies of language in society: Anthropologists: sociolinguistic work (the exploration of kinship systems) Psychologists: the possible effects of linguistic structure on social and psychological behaviour. Educators: matters involving language, such as the teaching of standard languages and the skills of literacy. Language planners: need linguistic knowledge to know which language or variety to encourage or standardize, how to change relationships between languages or varieties

7. Language and dialects

A dialect is a variety of a language, characteristic to a particular group of speakers.

Dialects of a single language are mutually intelligible forms that differ systematically.
When dialects become mutually unintelligible and the speakers of one dialect cant understand the speakers of another, these dialects become different languages. Haugen has pointed out that language and dialect are ambiguous terms. The French make a distinction between un dialecte and un patois. Un dialect is a regional variety of a language that has literary tradition

Patois

is a regional variety with no literary tradition. Standard English is a dialect of English, while Standard French is not considered to be a dialect of French. Dialect can be associated with types of informal, lower-class, rural speech, and be equivalent to nonstandard language. Welsh of North and South Wales are grammatically quite separate, but are seen as a same language, while Serbian and Croatian are seen as different languages, although they dont have significant differences as far as grammar is concerned In a historical sense, English, German, French, Russian, and Hindi could be seen as dialects of Indo-European language.

*Bell listed Seven criteria used to distinguish one type of language from another:
1)Standardization 2)Vitality 3)Historicity 4)Autonomy 5)Reduction 6)Mixture 7)De facto norms
1) Standardization is the process of codifying the language. It involves the development of grammars and dictionaries
By standardization we decide what is in the language and what isnt. What makes one variety a standard language: -Selection: variety must be selected to become a standard language. -Codification: writing dictionaries and grammar books to co fix the variety -Function: must be possible to use for writing, education, science, courts, government -Acceptance: has to be accepted by majority of population as a national language Standardization attempts reduce or eliminate diversity and variety.

2) Vitality

is existence of living community of speakers, distinguishes dead from alive languages.

Latin has no living community of speakers, but has survived in writing

3) Historicity means that group of people finds a sense of identity through using a language. 4) Autonomy Speakers feel that their language is different from other languages. This is a subjective criterion. 5) Reduction Pidgin languages are reduced in their functions (trade) 6) Mixture feelings speakers have about purity of the variety they speak. More important for French than Engl. 7)De Facto Norms the feeling that there are good and poor speakers. One particular sub-variety as representing
the best usage: Parisian French or the Florentine variety of Italian.

8) Variety in language
Variety is set of speech patterns, associated with factors such as geographical location, social group, age , sex Speakers Idiolect is referred to as the specific characteristics of the language of an individual speaker. English has 400.000.000 idiolects, and speakers.

Social factors for variation in speech:

Type of speaker (regional and ethnic origin, social status, education, sex, age) Topic of speech (politics, sex, science) formality (casual formal) situation (classroom, bar) medium (spoken, written; radio, television) type of speech act (command, question)

9. Regional Dialects and Accents

A dialect is a variety of a language, characteristic to a particular group of speakers.

Dialectal diversity develops when people are separated geographically and socially.
When something separates people, for example: a physical barrier such as an ocean or a mountain, social barriers like politics, religion, race dialectal differences are reinforced. Such varieties are usually called regional dialects. If you travel a wide geographical area you will notice differences in pronunciation, choices of words and syntax. The term dialect is used if there is a strong tradition of writing in the local variety. If theres no such tradition of writing the term patois is used.But, linguists writing in English tend to use dialect to describe both situations Differences: Patois is used to describe rural forms of speech (no urban patios) and speech of the lower class. Dialect has a wider geographical distribution than a patois (regional dialect and village patois) A dialect continuum-is a continuum of dialects arranged over space, one after another. Some dialects in the continuum may be mutually unintelligible. Various pressures - political, social, cultural, make the

linguistic differences among states more noticeable. Dialects disappear as national languages arise. Dialect geography attempts to map the usage of various linguistic features.

Isoglosses are boundaries used to distinguish an area in which a feature is found from those in which it is absent.
When several such isoglosses coincide, the result is considered a dialect boundary

Accent refers only to pronunciation. Dialect refers to every aspect of language including pronunciation
Standard English is spoken in many accents, associated with Boston, Liverpool, Tyneside, India, Singapore, but those speakers show uniformity in grammar and vocabulary because they speak Standard English. Regional phonetic and phonological differences are also referred to as accents. RP/BBC/Queens English is used for students who learn English as a foreign language, it has no geographical identity, small number of speakers. Standard English can be spoken with any regional accent. USA most generalized accent -Network English. It is impossible to speak without an accent.

10. Social Dialects

Dialectologists speak of social dialects when referring to non-regional differences A speaker may show more similarity in his language to people from the same social group in a different area. Grammarians consider dialect thought in schools, used by politicians and upper classes as the correct form of language. Otto Jespersen, Danish linguist , didnt agree with this theory. Social group or class can be defined
according to various criteria: Job, Place of residence, Education, Income, Racial or ethnic origin, Religion. Ethic communities in the USA use different varieties of English, Italian Engl, Jewish, Black. Branch of linguistics which deals with this topic is called social dialectology.

11. Styles and Registers

People use different Styles of speaking. Formal or informal, depending on an occasion (ceremony, ordinary chat) age, task (writing or speaking) emotion, relationship (pupil student, friends) When Labov was studying Black English it was difficult for him because the youths used different style in presence of white strangers.

Slang is a mark of informal style that everybody can recognize and nobody can define.
It introduces new words: rip-off, pooped. Slang gives new meaning to old words: Grass/pot (marijuana), pig/fuzz (policeman) cool, stoned, rap.

Registers are sets of words used by specific occupational or social groups (doctors, pilots, bankers,
fans, pimps) Every science, profession has its set of words, some are slang, others are technical.

jazz

Those words are jargon or argot. The computer world jargon: modem (modulator and demodulator), ROM (Read Only Memory), RAM (Random Access Memory), morf (Male or female?).Many jargon terms pass into the standard language. Words that should not be used in polite company are called taboo, it comes from Tongan Polynesian, referring to acts that are forbidden. Some words shouldnt be used outside religious ceremonies take the Lords name in vain Heck ,darn , bloody, Words relating to sex, sex organs. (The Queen perspired and and menstruated - a kitchen maid sweated a and bled.) Euphemism is a word or phrase that replaces a taboo to avoid unpleasant situations. Pass away, funeral directors . Etymologically, the eupheme is the opposite of the blaspheme (evil-speaking). Children learn which words are taboo depending on ethical values of the family/society.

12. Lingua Francas

A lingua franca is any language used for communication between people who do not share a native
language.

A pidgin language is a lingua franca which has no native speakers. Creole languages are pidgins that have acquired native speakers.
Lingua francas typically arise for trade purposes or when there is a migration, they can be used in diplomacy. It is functionally-defined language. Contact language Greek koine/ Vulgar Latinin ancient world, Trade language-Swahili (East Africa) International language - English Auxiliary language-Esperanto French was the lingua franca of diplomacy until World War II. In 1995 English joined French and German as one of the working languages of the European Commission. English is used as a lingua franca in Switzerland, which has four official languages (German, French, Italian and Romansh) International English uses words generally understood throughout the English-speaking world as opposed to localisms. Demonstrators in nonEnglish speaking countries often use signs in English . Edward Trimnell argues that the intern. English is only adequate for communicating basic ideas, but not for complex discussions and business situations. - The individualistic approach gives control to individual authors to write and spell as they wish - The new dialect approach uses an the spelling system of mixed American and British forms

13. Pidgins
When groups of people with no language in common, try to communicate using their own native languages, they form a pidgin , it can be built from words, sounds, or body language from multiple languages. It is a simplified language with no native speakers, and is used as a second language, most commonly for trade.

Pidgins Reasons for development The process of pidginization requires at least three
languages, one of which is dominant over the others. Vocabulary based on the vocabulary of the dominant group. >

superstrate language + substrate Many pidgins based on English, French, Portuguese

( Gastarbeiters in Germany) When slaves from Africa were brought to North America, they were separated from the people from their tribes and mixed with other people to minimize the risk of organized rebellion. Slaves needed to find a way to communicate with each other and with their masters. Meaning: The Chinese pronunciation of the English word business/ pigeon- a bird used for carrying messages. Pidgins are simple, but are rule governed. There are rules to determine word order, there are fewer pronouns and prepositions. There is no Morphology. inflection Case, tense, mood, and voice. Tok Pisin is English based pidgin in New Guineawhich has become a national language.

14. Creoles
Creole is a pidgin that has acquired native speakers, it becomes the first language of the new generation of speakers.

Creole in Portuguese meaning a white European man born and raised in a tropical or semitropical colony. They are fully developed languages, with more lexical items and more complex grammar than pidgins.
Speakers of Creole, feel that they speak something less than normal languages such as French and English. They are likely to feel some kind of inferiority about their languages. Speakers of creoles 10-17 million / pidgins 6-12 million Most Creole languages are spoken by the descendants of African slaves. Indian immigrants in England speak creole based on English language. In Guayana pure creole basilect and local version of Standard English acrolect

15. Creoles vs. Pidgins

Speakers of creoles 10-17 million , speakers of pidgins 6-12 million. Creole is a pidgin that has acquired native speakers

Creoles are fully developed languages, with more lexical items and more complex grammar than pidgins. Pidginization involves: reduction of morphology, syntax, functions of language. Extension of words from local mother tongues. Creolization involves: expansion of morphology and syntax, functions of language regularization of phonology, development of rational and stable system for vocabulary.

16. Grammatical distribution and linguistic character. of pidgins and creoles

Both pidgins and creoles are distributed mainly, but not exclusively, in the equatorial belt. They are found mainly in the Carribean, on the coasts of South America, Africa and across the Indian and Pacific Oceans. They are uncommon on the far north/south and in the interiors of continents. Distribution is related to patterns of trade and slavery. Hancock lists 127 pidgins +creoles: 35 English, 15 French , 7 Spanish ,6 German 5 Dutch , 3 Italian based. Other: Russenorsk (Rus-Norw contact language, extinct) Chinook Jaron (pacific coast of USA and Canada) Sango, Bazaar Malay , Arabic. Tok Pisin is simplified English pidgin, but you will be unable to communicate with its speakers on English as they would not understand you, nor would you understand them . By trying to do so, you will be using Tok Masta, as Papua New Guineans would say. To understand Tok Pisin you will have to learn it, just like Chinese. Pidgins are rule governed. Rules determine word order, there are fewer pronouns and prepositions. There is no Morphology, Inflection , Case, Tense, Mood, and Voice

17. Choosing the Code

The term Code is neutral and may be used for language or a variation of a language. Terms such as language, variety, dialect, style, creole, and pidgin are not neutral enough. When we open our mouth, we choose a language, variety, dialect, style, - a particular code. And we shift from one code to another. Phenomena related to this topic are code choice, code switching, code mixing.

18. Diglossia
Diglossia is a situation in society when there are 2 codes that show clear functional separation.

For Example: Arabic, Swiss German, Haitian and Greek. There is a high variety (H) and a low variety (L). Classical Arabic (H) regional l varieties (L) Standard German (H) and Swiss German (L). Standard French (H) and Haitian Creole (L). Greece: the Katharevousa (H) and Demotic (L)
H varieties are be used for: sermons and formal lectures, politic, broadcasting the news poetry, fine literature The L varieties: in giving instructions to workers or household servants, ordinary conversation, soap operas, in tabloids. All children learn the L variety. Some learn the H variety later, some dont. H variety is taught. Teaching H variety requires grammars, dictionaries, standardized texts. There are usually no grammars and dictionaries, for the L variety. The L variety often sometimes borrows words from the H variety, when speakers use the L variety in more formal ways. Diglossia is a widespread phenomenon, is likely to come into being when: 1) There is a sizable body of literature closely related to the natural language of the community 2) literacy i is limited to a small elite Diglossia is a problem , but it could be seen as a problem when there is a need for a unified national language.

19 .Bilingualism and Multilingualism

Monolingualism, the ability to use only one language code, is a widely accepted norm in some parts of the world. Bilingual and Multilingual individuals may appear to be unusual. People have mixed feelings towards someone who is fluent in several languages: admiration , envy , a feeling of superiority because such people are not native (immigrants, visitors ) In other parts of the world speaking several languages is a normal requirement, a monolingual individual would be regarded as a misfit. Tukano are a multilingual people because men must marry outside group; that is, no man may have a wife who speaks his language. Bilingual situation in Paraguay: Guarani, is the mother-tongue of 90 % of the population, and a bona fide national language, but Spanish is the language of government and education. It is an example of diglossia with Spanish the H variety and Guarani the L variety. The choice between Spanish and Guarani depends on: location (city or country), formality, status, intimacy, seriousness. Prestige is given to classical languages (Greek and Latin) or English, French, Italian, and German, one generally gets little credit for speaking Swahili. Western societies try to wipe out languages of immigrants. A bilingual, or multilingual, situation can lead to diffusion when certain features spread from one language to the other.

20. Code Choice, Code-Switching and Code-Mixing

People make a code choice when they speak, they may also decide to switch from one code to another or code-mix. Code-switching is a conversational strategy used to establish, destroy, or cross group boundaries. A group of Indonesian students living in the United States, these students among themselves know 9 languages, and they discuss their academic work in English but use Indonesian for other common activities. Why are we switching from one code to another depends on : solidarity with listeners, topic, and social and cultural distance. (Catalan or Spanish, Welsh or English, choice is a sort of political expression) There are two kinds of code-switching: situational and metaphorical. Situational - when the languages change according to the situations: People speak one language in one situation and another in a different one. No topic change is involved. When a change of topic requires a change in the language used we have metaphorical code-switching. Code-mixing - when conversants use both languages and change from one language to the other in a single utterance. Diglossia reinforces differences, whereas code-switching tends to reduce them. In diglossia, people are aware that they have switched from L to H. Code-switching, is often quite subconscious. Being multilingual can be seen as an advantage in a multilingual gathering.

21. Speech Communities

We expect a course on sociolinguistics to be mainly about large social units such as tribes, nations and social classes. However, society consists of individuals, and both sociologists and sociolinguists would agree that it is essential to keep the individual firmly in the centre of interest.

22. Individualism and Conformity in Language

Two people could both hear the same person talking, but be affected in different ways. An Englishman and an American watch the same American movie , but learn different facts from it - American viewer finds a new fact about how poor whites in the Deep South talk , Englishman sees as a fact about how Americans talk. Society is structured, from a sociolinguistic point of view. People can be classified according to the dimensions of age, region of origin, social class (or profession) and sex as an example of a four-dimensional space, each dimension is relevant to language. Once a person has constructed a model of how this multi-dimensional space looks , he has to choose where to locate himself in it. There is a great amount of agreement among speakers. Degree of similarity between speakers is higher than what is needed for efficient communication.

There is a need for each individual to be seen conforming to the same rules, as those he takes as his models.
Children tend to use relatively regular forms (goed for went), but abandon these forms in order to conform with others. The two forces, one leading to individual differences, and the other leading to similarities are called individualism and conformity. The amount of variation found in any community depends on the these two forces. Robert Le Page -Focussing is found where there is a a lot of contact between speakers,agreement on linguistic norms, and it is typical of small communities or societies where there is a highly standardised written language such as Sanskrit or French. -Diffusion is found where neither of these conditions holds, an extreme example being Romany, the gipsy language. Speech community is a community based on language. It may be possible to find interesting differences between communities which correlate with differences in their language.

23. Speech communities: Definitions

1. Leonard Bloomfield A speech community is a group of people who interact by means of speech.

2. Lyons: all the people who use a given language

Speech communities may overlap if there are bilingual individuals, and need not have social/cultural characteristics.
.

3. Charles Hockett says that each language defines a speech community

A speech community is not the same thing with a language. English is spoken in speech communities that are isolated from one another: in South Africa, in New Zealand. A single speech community can use more than one language: Switzerland, Canada, New York City Speech markers have clear parallels. Social categories: age, sex, ethnicity, social class, can be marked on basis of speech.

4. Labov:Speech Community is defined by participation in a set of shared norms

5. Milroy : All New York speakers agree that using post vocalic r is prestigious. Southern British English speakers dont belong to the same speech community as New Yorkers, because they dont use it. 6. Gumperz: Linguistic communities may consist of small groups or may cover large regions, depending on the level of abstraction we wish to achieve. 7. Hymes: It is important how people evaluate accents, how they realize they speak one language rather than another, and how they maintain language boundaries. 8. Brown and Levinson : Group is a relative concept (Liverpool>Merseyside>England>UK>Europe) Speech community is relative concept (English>British>Oxford)
there is no limit to the number and variety of speech communities it is possible that speech communities do not really exist in society except as prototypes in the minds of people

24. Intersecting Communities

Rosen has indicated the problems when we call a city like London a speech community: Languages and dialects have no simple geographical distribution. Both a geographical and a social class model would be false Urbanization creates thousands of bilingual speakers and a diversity unprecedented in our history. We shouldnt say that London is a single speech community. It is just too big and fragmented. On the other hand, if we say it is composed of small speech communities, are they geographical, social, ethnic, religious?

Some modern states have insisted that language should be used to express nationhood Who we chose to identify with will change according to situation: at one moment religion, at another ethnic origin or profession, it is in our best interest.