In phonetics, we say that two sounds are in complementary distribution when they only ocurr in different contexts.

Each
phoneme is especifically used in a context, and it does not ocurr where the other ocurrs.

For example the phoneme /r/ has different variations: it is slightly fricative after /p/, /t/, and /k/, but it is an approximant
when it preceds a vowel

If two sounds that are different from each other can occur in the same phonological context and one of those sounds
may be substituted for the other, they are said to be in free variation. A good example in English is that of the various
possible realisations of the r phoneme: in different accents and styles of speaking we find the post-alveolar approximant
which is the most common pronunciation in contemporary BBC pronunciation and General American, the tap which
was typical of carefully spoken BBC pronunciation of fifty years ago, the labiodental approximant $ used by speakers who
have difficulty in articulating tongue-tip versions of the r phoneme and by some older upper-class English speakers, the
trilled r found in carefully-pronounced Scots accents and the uvular of the old traditional form of the Geordie accent on
Tyneside. Although each of these is instantly recognisable as different from the others, the substitution of one of these
for another would be most unlikely to cause an English listener to hear a sound other than the r phoneme. These
different allophones of r are, then, in free variation. However, it is important to remember that the word free does not
mean random in this context it is very hard to find examples where a speaker will pronounce alternative allophones
in an unpredictable waysince even if that speaker always uses the same accent, she or he will be monitoring the
appropriateness of their style of speaking for the social context.

Sociolinguistics: Styles and Register

STYLE means "formal vs. informal" while REGISTER is associated with occupational groups.

Styles: All people, regardless of what dialect they speak, control a range ofspeech styles. Depending on whom we are talking
to, and where we are, and so forth, we use different styles of speech. This is called style shifting.

Style Shifting: How would you talk to a) your friends, b) your parents, c) your professors? Do you use the same style with all
three? No! You are casual with your friends, more formal but still familiar with your parents, and most formal with your
professors. So, STYLE SHIFTING means how a person would talk to others according to place and position.

Related Ideas are ..

Audience design: A speaker chooses a level of speech according to the audience he is addressing.
Accommodation: When a speaker automatically and unconsciously adjusts his speech to be more like that of his interlocutor.

Different Types:
There are different types of speech: Casual Informal Formal Frozen
Frozen Style: Frozen style is the name that has been given to things like public notices which have a certain recognizable
structure whoever they occur.

Exercise
When might each of the following sentences be stylistically appropriate:
- Attention! (any order Frozen)
 - I do hereby bequeath... (literature Formal)
- Our Father, which art in Heaven (religious piece Formal)
- Been to see your Dad recently? (family relationship) informal
- Get lost! (joking by insult Casual)
- Now if we consider the relationship between social class and income (formal)
- Haven't we met somewhere before? (informal)

Field of Variation:

Variation in speech style involves pronunciation, syntax, and vocabulary.

Pronunciation: In "casual" speech, we often drop endings in words such as "hunting' which we might pronounce as something
like "huntin". In addition, we contract things, such as "whaddya" for "what do you" and so forth.
Syntax: In the standard dialect we are supposed to use "there are + a plural noun" and "there is + singular noun." But, in more
casual speech registers, people often say "theres three problems with your analysis. Moreover, people often use more passive
constructions when they want to sound more formal. Note how the first of the following sentences sounds more formal because
it is in the passive: "The use of antibiotics to treat bacterial infection is generally successful / If you use antibiotics to
treat bacterial infections, you'll generally be successful."
Vocabulary: There are words that are acceptable and others are not. Words are high-brow words that are used to impress people.
For example, what sounds more impressive "divine" or "godly"? "Divine" sounds more learned. Another example, "there are
many factors" as opposed to "there are multiple factors". "Multiple" makes the phrase sound fancier. Words that constitute the
technical jargon of a particular field and we know how and when to use them
Slang:

"yo, dude, you see that tight car?"

The word "tight" is being used to express the speaker's admiration of the way the car looks. "Tight" here (as well as the word
"dude") is an example of slang.
It is a kind of informal language as it is used in a very informal context. It is related to group identification as the members of a
certain group use it individually.
Properties of slang words:
Informality. Slang words are used in very informal contexts.
Group identification. Many slang words are markers of membership in a particular group that is outside of the "mainstream"
adult society.
Short life span. Slang terms often have a short life span, though not all do. There are examples like "cram" that mean "study
intensely over a short period of time" that have been around for a long time. Other slang terms appear and then disappear from
the language. Ex. "groovy" is one such example. It didn't extend beyond the sixties.
Slang terms are scalar. Slang terms actually seem to fall along a continuum of slanginess.
Colloquial
When slang terms stay for a long time in a language, they lose their slanginess and become more accepted as a part of the
standard use of the language.
In most cases, they are informal to some degree. (For example, "rip off" meaning "steal"). Such words are what linguists
sometimes refer to as COLLOQUIAL terms
Register

While STYLE is to do with variations m formality, REGISTER is to do with variations in language use connected with topic
matter. The language used in scientific topics is different from religious, cooking or newspaper.

Which register does each of the following sentences belong to:

Stir well.
Leave us not Almighty Father. (religious)
Diagnose with the stethoscope. (scientific)
Man found dead on beach. (newspaper)
The Holy Father preys us back. (religious)
Stir well for 30 minutes. (food or cooking book)
The girl is like a red rose. (literature)
http://educationcing.blogspot.com.ar/2012/07/sociolinguistics-styles-and-register_27.html

style
Something which every speaker is able to do is speak in different styles: there are variations in formality ranging from
ceremonial and religious styles to intimate communication within a family or a couple; most people are able to adjust
their speech to overcome difficult communicating conditions (such as a bad telephone line), and most people know how
to tell jokes effectively. But at present we have very little idea what form this knowledge might have in the speakers
mind.

Variety (linguistics)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Lect" redirects here. For the commune in France, see Lect, Jura.

Sociolinguistics

Key concepts

Code-switching
Diglossia
Language change
Language ideology
Language planning
Multilingualism
Prestige

Areas of study

Accent
Dialect
Register
Discourse analysis
Language varieties
Linguistic description
Pragmatics
Variation

People

Sociolinguists

Related fields

Applied linguistics
Historical linguistics
Linguistic anthropology
Sociocultural linguistics
 Sociology of language

Category
Linguistics portal

v
t
e

In sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may
include languages, dialects,registers, styles or other forms of language, as well as a standard variety.[1] The use of
the word "variety" to refer to these different forms avoids the use of the term language, which many people associate
only with the standard language, and the term dialect, which is often associated with non-standard varieties thought
of as less prestigious or "correct" than the standard.[2] Linguists speak of both standard and non-standard varieties.
"Lect" avoids the problem in ambiguous cases of deciding whether or not two varieties are distinct languages or
dialects of a single language.

Variation at the level of the lexicon, such as slang and argot, is often considered in relation to particular styles or
levels of formality (also called registers), but such uses are sometimes discussed as varieties themselves.[1]

Contents
[hide]

1Dialects
2Standard varieties
3Registers and styles
4Idiolect
5See also
6References
7External links

Dialects[edit]
Main article: Dialect

O'Grady et al. define dialect as, "A regional or social variety of a language characterized by its
own phonological, syntactic, and lexicalproperties."[3] A variety spoken in a particular region is called a regional
dialect; some regional varieties are called topolects, especially when discussing varieties of Chinese.[4] In addition,
there are dialect varieties associated with particular ethnic groups (sometimes calledethnolects), socioeconomic
classes (sometimes called sociolects), or other social or cultural groups.

Dialectology is the study of dialects and their geographic or social distribution.[3] Traditionally, dialectologists study
the variety of language used within a particular speech community, a group of people who share a set of norms or
conventions for language use.[1] More recently, sociolinguists have adopted the concept of the community of
practice, a group of people who develop shared knowledge and shared norms of interaction, as the social group
within which dialects develop and change.[5] Sociolinguists Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet explain,
"Some communities of practice may develop more distinctive ways of speaking than others. Thus it is within
communities of practice that linguistic influence may spread within and among speech communities."[6]

Although the words dialect and accent are sometimes used interchangeably in everyday English speech, linguists
and scholars define the two terms differently. Accent, in technical usage, refers only to differences in pronunciation,
especially those associated with geographic or social differences. Dialect, which refers to differences in
syntax,morphology, and vocabulary, as well as pronunciation, is the broader term.

Standard varieties[edit]
Main article: Standard language

Most languages have a standard variety; that is, some variety that is selected and promoted by either quasi-legal
authorities or other social institutions, such as schools or media. Standard varieties are more prestigious than other,
nonstandard varieties and are generally thought of as "correct" by speakers of the language. Since this selection
constitutes an arbitrary standard, however, standard varieties are only "correct" in the sense that they are highly
valued within the society that uses the language. As Ralph Harold Fasold puts it, "The standard language may not
even be the best possible constellation of linguistic features available. It is general social acceptance that gives us a
workable arbitrary standard, not any inherent superiority of the characteristics it specifies." [7] Sociolinguists generally
recognize the standard variety of a language as one of the dialects of that language. [8]

In some cases, an official body, such as the Acadmie franaise, describes the grammar and usage of a standard
variety. More often, though, standard varieties are understood only implicitly. Writing of standard English, John
Algeo suggests that the standard variety "is simply what English speakers agree to regard as good." [9]

Registers and styles[edit]

Main articles: Register (sociolinguistics) and Style shifting

A register (sometimes called a style) is a variety of language used in a particular social setting.[10] Settings may be
defined in terms of greater or lesser formality,[11] or in terms of socially recognized events, such as baby talk, which is
used in many western cultures when talking to small children, or a joking register used in teasing or playing The
Dozens.[10]There are also registers associated with particular professions or interest groups; jargon refers specifically
to the vocabulary associated with such registers.

Unlike dialects, which are used by particular speech communities and associated with geographical settings or
social groupings, registers are associated with particular situations, purposes, or levels of formality. Dialect and
register may be thought of as different dimensions of variation. For example, Trudgill suggests the following
sentence as an example of a nonstandard dialect used with the technical register of physical geography:

There was two eskers what we saw in them U-shaped valleys.[8]

Most speakers command a range of registers, which they use in different situations. The choice of register is
affected by the setting and topic of speech, as well as the relationship that exists between the speakers. [12]

The appropriate form of language may also change during the course of a communicative event as the relationship
between speakers changes, or different social facts become relevant. Speakers may shift styles as their perception
of an event in progress changes. Consider the following telephone call to the Embassy of Cuba in Washington, DC.
Caller: Es la embajada de Cuba? (Is this the Cuban embassy?)
Receptionist: S. Dgame. (Yes, may I help you?)
Caller: Es Rosa. (It's Rosa.)
Receptionist: Ah Rosa! Cma anda eso? (Oh, Rosa! How's it going?)[12]

At first, the receptionist uses a relatively formal register, as befits her professional role. After the caller identifies
herself the receptionist recognizes that she is speaking to a friend, and shifts to an informal register
of colloquial Cuban Spanish. This shift is similar to metaphorical code-switching, but since it involves styles or
registers, is considered an example of style shifting.

Idiolect[edit]
Main article: Idiolect

An idiolect is defined as "the language use typical of an individual person."[13] An individual's idiolect may be affected
by contact with various regional or social dialects, professional registers, and in the case of multilinguals, various
languages.[14]

For scholars who view language from the perspective of linguistic competence, essentially the knowledge of
language and grammar that exists in the mind of an individual language user, the idiolect is a way of referring to this
specific knowledge. For scholars who regard language as a shared social practice, idiolect is more like a dialect with
a speech community of one individual.[15]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variety_(linguistics)