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Sociolinguistics Language and Society

Language - a means of communicating information. Any other functions? Two aspects of language behaviour very important from a social point of view: 1. the function of language in establishing social relationships; relationships; 2. the role played by language in conveying information about the the speaker.

Dialect
What is the difference between dialect and language? (A language is a dialect that has an army and a navy. MAX WEINREICH (1894 1969))

Regional dialect / social dialect. Geographical dialect continuum. If we choose to place the dividing line between the two at the county county boundary, we are basing our decision on social (in this case locallocal-governmentgovernment-political) rather than on linguistic facts.
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Problem with the term language. Dutch and German - two distinct languages. At some places along the NetherlandsNetherlands-Germany border the dialects spoken on either side of the border are extremely similar. Scandinavian languages Swedish, Danish and Norwegian? Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian?

The criterion of mutual intelligibility, and other purely linguistic criteria, are of less importance in the use of the terms language and dialect than are political and cultural factors:
autonomy (independence) heteronomy (dependence).

Problems of discreteness and continuity: division of social and linguistic phenomena into separate entities is it reality?
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Dialect and accent

The term dialect refers to differences between kinds of languages vocabulary, grammar as well as pronunciation; the term accent, on the other hand refers solely to differences of pronunciation.

Standard variety is that variety which is usually used in print and which is normally normally
taught in schools and to nonnon-native speakers learning the language, e.g. Standard English. the variety which is normally spoken by educated speakers and used used in news broadcasts and other similar situations. standard variety has colloquial as well as formal variants.
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The difference between standard and nonnon-standard varieties has nothing to do with differences between formal and colloquial language, or with the concepts as 'bad language'.
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Standard English
Historically speaking, the standard variety of English developed out of the English dialects used in and around London. these were modified through the centuries by the speakers at the the court, by scholars from the universities and later on by the public schools. As time passed, the English used in the upper classes of society in the capital city came to diverge significantly from that used by other social groups. It became the model for all those who wished to speak and write well.

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Within standard English there are a number of regional differences, differences, e.g. Standard Scottish English, Standard British English, Standard American English. English. Differences: vocabulary items (BE lift, AE elevator) etc.; grammatical differences, e.g. BE: I have got; AE: I have gotten/I have etc.)
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Generally speaking, Standard English has a widely accepted and codified codified grammar. Standard English is imposed from above over the range of regional regional dialects the dialect continuum and for this reason can be called a superposed variety of language.
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No universally acknowledged standard accent for English. One accent which only occurs together with Standard English - the British English accent (known to linguists as RP -'received pronunciation'). RP developed largely in the residential 'public schools' favored by the aristocracy and the upperuppermiddle classes. It is known as Oxford English English and BBC English English, and is still the accent taught to nonnon-native speakers learning British pronunciation.
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Judgements about language

Linguistically speaking, Standard English cannot legitimately be considered better than other varieties. The scientific study of language has convinced scholars that all languages and correspondingly all dialects, are equally 'good' as linguistic systems.

Value judgements concerning the correctness and purity of linguistic linguistic varieties are social rather than linguistic. Attitudes towards nonstandard dialects are attitudes which reflect reflect the social structure of society.
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In other words, value judgements about language are, from a linguistic linguistic point of view, completely arbitrary. Judgements of this kind are social judgements based on the social social connotations that a particular feature has in the area in question, e.g. British and American use of /r/. (The educated Southerner has no use for an r except at the beginning of a word. MARK TWAIN, Life on the Mississippi, 1883)
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William Labov made an investigation into the speech of New York City which showed that since the Second World War nonnon-prevocalic /r/ has been very much on the increase in the city in the speech of the upper middle class. This research illustrated that if a certain pronunciation came to to be regarded as a prestige feature in a particular community, then it would tend to be exaggerated. exaggerated.
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Another experimental research Martha's Vineyard: due to the incoming of many tourists, the natives were trying to keep their oldold-fashioned, traditional way of pronouncing words like house, mouth, loud - /hus/, /mu/, /lud/ etc. For them, this kind of pronunciation was a prestigeous one.
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Linguistic change does not always take place in the direction of the prestige norm. Language can be very important factor in group identification, group group solidarity and the signalling of difference. When a group is under attack from outside, signals of difference may become more important and are therefore exaggerated.
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Sapir-Whorf's hypothesis
after two American anthropologistsanthropologists- Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf: the speakers' native language set up series of categories which act as a kind of grid through which they categorize and conceptualize different phenomena. A language can affect a society by influencing or even controlling controlling the worldworld-view of its speakers.

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Differences in language may lead to differences in perception of the world. the SapirSapir-Whorf's hypothesis is concerned with the possibility that human beings' views of their environment may be conditioned by their language. Less controversial controversial is the oneone-way relationship that operates in the opposite direction the effect of society on language and the way in which environment is reflected in language. (kinship terms)
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Taboo
The values of a society can also have an effect on its language, e.g. the phenomenon known as taboo. Taboo - behaviour which is believed to be supernaturally forbidden, or regarded as immoral or improper; it deals with behaviour which is prohibited or inhibited in an apparently irrational manner.

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In language, taboo is associated with things which are not said, and in particular with words and expressions which are not used. Taboo words occur in most languages and failure to adhere to the strict rules governing their use can lead to punishment or public shame. For those who use taboo words, 'breaking the rules' may have connotations connotations of strength or freedom which they find desirable.
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Generally, the type of word that is tabooed in a particular language language will be a good reflection of at least part of the system of values and beliefs of the society in question. In EnglishEnglish-speaking world, the most severe taboos are now associated with words words connected with sex, followed by those connected with excretion and and the Christian religion.
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Taboo is a linguistic as well as sociological fact such words are wrong, but powerful. Taboo words may be acceptable in certain situations, but they are not generally generally acceptable in broadcast media. Change in the pattern of taboo: - in egalitarian discrimination against people on the grounds of their physical characteristics, words such as nigger, cripple, are acquiring increased taboo loading and their use is becoming becoming increasingly shocking. - on the other hand, a word like bloody is not considered a taboo any longer, comparing to Shaw's Pygmalion.
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Secondary effect that taboo can have on language itself: - because of strong reluctance of speakers to utter taboo words, in certain circumstances words which are phonetically similar to taboo words can be lost from a language, e.g. rooster instead of cock, which today only have sexual connotations. These are some of the ways in which society acts upon language and, and, possibly, in which a language acts upon society.
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In the past 40 years or so, increasing recognition of the importance importance of the relationship between language and society has led to the growth of a subsub-discipline within linguistics: sociolinguistics. Language is a social phenomenon: a study of language without reference reference to its social context inevitably leads to the omission of some of the more complex and interesting aspects of language and to the loss of opportunities for further theoretical progress.
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Definition:
Sociolinguistics is a part of linguistics which is concerned with language as a social and cultural
phenomenon. It investigates the field of language and society and and has close connections with the social sciences, especially social psychology, anthropology, human geography, geography, and sociology.

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HW assignment 1
(due on November 6) Dialectal variations around you: Place where you are living now and where you come from (for students students coming from other parts of B&H and other countries) For local students: dialectal variations of the students coming to your town, comparing to Mostar variant variant.

How do these variants influence each other? Give concrete examples of differences in grammar, pronunciation, accent, style etc.
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Taboo words: Find some concrete examples from everyday life where where taboo words are used or if they are avoided which euphemisms are used. Can you identify the differences in the usage of taboo words (based (based on age, gender, occupation etc.)