Sociolinguistic Variation of the English Language презентация

Contents
1.1. Sociolinguistics: its aim, object and ties with other humanities
1.2. Types of sociolinguistics
1.3. Language variation
1.4. Aspects of language competence
1.5. Methods employed by sociolinguistics

1.1. Sociolinguistics: its aim, object and ties with other humanities
Miriam Meyerhoff
As it is written by Miriam Meyerhoff in the introduction to her book
“If I had a penny for every time I have tried to answer the question, ‘So what is sociolinguistics?’, I would be writing this book in the comfort of an early retirement. And if there was a way of defining it in one simple, yet comprehensive, sentence, there might not be a need for weighty introductory textbooks.”

1.1. Sociolinguistics: its aim, object and ties with other humanities
Sociolinguistics is a branch of linguistics studying the language in connection with the social conditions of its existence.

1.1. Sociolinguistics: its aim, object and ties with other humanities
These conditions are a complex of exterior (to the language) circumstances in which the language is actually functioning and developing: community of people using the language, the social structure of this community, differences between its speakers in the age, status, cultural and education level, place of residence as well as the differences in their speech behaviour depending on the conditions of the communication.

1.1. Sociolinguistics: its aim, object and ties with other humanities
The term “Sociolinguistics” appears to have been first used in 1952 by Haver Currie, a poet and philosopher who noted the general absence of any consideration of the social in the linguistic research of his day

1.1. Sociolinguistics: its aim, object and ties with other humanities
William Labov, a prominent American sociolinguist, “the father” of sociolinguistic experiment, defines sociolinguistics as a humanity that studies “the language in its social context”.
This means that the attention of sociolinguistics is centered neither on the language itself, nor on its inner structure, but on the way it is used by people belonging to this or that society.

Aims of sociolinguistics
to study how the language is
used by people
of this or that society
to study how the language is
influenced by the changes
happening in the society where
this language exists
1
2

1.1. Sociolinguistics: its aim, object and ties with other humanities
There are many interconnections between sociolinguistics and other disciplines
Scholars from a variety of other disciplines have an interest here, e.g., anthropologists, psychologists, educators, and language planners.

William Labov has described it
as follows: it deals with
large-scale social factors,
and their mutual interaction
with languages and dialects.
1.2. Types of sociolinguistics
According to Florian Coulmas, it investigates how social structure influences the way people talk and how language varieties and patterns of use correlate with social attributes such as class, sex, and age.
Micro
sociolinguistics
Macro
sociolinguistics
(or sociology of language)
studies processes in big
social groups
– states, regions etc.
(referred to by some scholars as sociolinguistics proper) studies language processes in small social groups

1.2. Types of sociolinguistics
Synchronic sociolinguistics studies relations between language and social institutes as they are at a given period.
Diachronic sociolinguistics studies the development of the language as inseparably linked to social development.
Theoretical sociolinguistics studies basic problems and laws concerning the relationship between language and society.
Experimental sociolinguistics obtains empirical data proving theoretical schemes.
Applied sociolinguistics solves practical problems of language teaching and acquisition, language policy.

1.3. Language variation
Language variation presupposes that we have at our disposal a range of means allowing to speak about the same things in a variety of ways. Two important points have to be made in this respect: that variation can occur at different levels of language system and that it can be determined by different factors.
.

1.3. Language variation
principally an abstract representation of the source of variation. Realised by two or more variants.
the actual realisation of a variable. Analogous to the phonetic realisations of a phoneme.
is a relatively neutral term used to refer to languages and dialects.
A variable
A variant
A variety

1.3. Language variation
The study of language in use with a focus on describing and explaining the distribution of variables is called variationist sociolinguistics. It is an approach strongly associated with quantitative methods in the tradition established by William Labov.

1.3.1. Variation on different levels of language system
PHONETIC VARIATION

1.3.1. Variation on different levels of language system
Morphological variation
There is a remarkable diversity in the use of the verb to be in English dialects, especially in its negative forms. Among the interesting features are: the use of is/’s in the North; ain't is widespread in the East Midlands and South- East, with variant forms (en’t, yun’t) further west; and forms based on be dominate in the South-West. For comparison, the range of forms recorded in other persons is given below (minor variants in parentheses):
I am: am, are, be, bin, is
you are (sing.):you are, ye are, thou are, thou art, thee art, thou is, you be, you bin, thee bist, (thee be, thoubist, you am)
she is: is, be, bin, (am, bist)
we are: are,am, be,bin, (aren)
they are: are,am, is, be, bin, (aren, at, bist)
she isn’t: isn’t, ‘snot, isno’, ain’t, en’t, yun’t, idn’, inno, bain’t, ben’t (idn’t, binno’, byent, ’s none, yen’t)
they aren’t: aren’t, ’re not, ain’t, en’t, yun’t, anno’, bain’t, baan’t, ben’t, byen’t, byun’t, binno’, (amno’, inno’, in’t, isn’t, ’mnot, ’re none).

1.3.1. Variation on different levels of language system
SYNTACTIC VARIATION
The word order give me it is usual in the North, most of the East, and in a narrow band across the South Midlands; give it me dominates in the lower North-West, West Midlands. and South-East, with the prepositional form, give it to me, the norm in the South-West, and also occurring in enclaves around the Thames estuary and in East Anglia. The pronounless form give me is recorded once, in Surrey. This is doubtless one of the forms which would be much more widely represented in an urban dialect survey.

1.3.1. Variation on different levels of language system
LEXICAL VARIATION
There are nine chief variants noted for threshold, for example, and a further 35 alternatives. In the case of headache, there is a fairly clear picture. The standard form is used throughout most of the country, but in the North and parts of East Anglia there is a competing regional form, skullache. The variant form head-wark is found in the far North, with a further variant, headwarch, mainly in Southern Lancashire. Northumberland opts for the more prosaic sore head, with bad head used in adjacent localities to the south.

1.3.2. Types of variation : temporal
Long term: English has changed throughout the centuries, as can be seen from such clearly distinguishable linguistic periods as Old English, Middle English, and Elizabethan English. Language change is an inevitable and continuing process, whose study is chiefly carried on by philologists and historical linguists.

1.3.2. Types of variation: temporal
Short term: English changes within the history of a single person. This is most noticeable while children are acquiring their mother tongue, but it is also seen when people learn a foreign language, develop their style as adult speakers or writers. and, sometimes, find that their linguistic abilities are lost or seriously impaired through injury or disease. Psycholinguists study language learning and loss, as do several other professionals, notably speech therapists and language teachers.

1.3.2.2. Regional variation
Intranational regional varieties have been observed within English from its earliest days, as seen in such labels as ‘Northern’, ‘London’ and ‘Scottish”.
International varieties are more recent in origin, as seen in such labels as ‘American”, ‘Australian’ and ‘Indian’.

1.3.2.2. Regional variation
A variety of language peculiar to some district and having no normalized literary form is known as dialect. However, in cases when a regional variety is characterized by statehood and possesses a literary form (usually codified in grammars and dictionaries) the term variant is preferred.

1.3.2.2. Regional variation
The term dialect is also to be differentiated from the term accent. A regional accent refers to features of pronunciation which convey information about a person’s geographical origin, e.g. bath [baө] as opposed to [ba:ө]; hold [həuld] and [əuld].

1.3.2.2. Regional variation
A regional dialect refers to features of grammar and vocabulary which convey information about a perons’s geographical origin. Compare, for instance, They real good and They are really good; Is it ready you are? and Are you ready?
Speakers who have a distinctive regional dialect will have a distinctive regional accent but the reverse does not necessarily follow. It is possible to have a regional accent yet speak a dialect which conveys nothing about geographical origin.

1.3.2.3. Social variation
Their use of language is affected by their sex, age, ethnic group, and educational background. English is being increasingly affected by all these factors, because its developing role as a world language is bringing it more and more Into contact with new cultures and social systems.

1.3.2.4. Interspeaker variation and intraspeaker variation
interspeaker variation, i.e. that is variation between individual speakers
The same words strut, price, night, tide will be realized in two phonetic variants: as [strΛt] [prais] [nait] [taid] in London and as [strut] [preis] [neit] [teid] in the Fens.

1.3.2.4. Interspeaker variation and intraspeaker variation
the intraspeaker variation, i.e. variation within individual speakers.
The following situation can be an example of intraspeaker variation when the same person will sometimes use one variant and sometimes the other variant or even alternate in different sentences. A woman on Bequia (the largest island in the Grenadines the native population being primarily a mixture of people of African, Scottish and Carib Indian descent) was heard calling to her grandson at dusk one evening. The exchange went like this:
Jed! Come here! [heə]
(silence from Jed)
Jed!! Come here!! [hiər]

variation according to use and variation according to user
User-related varieties
User-related varieties are associated with particular people and often places such as Black English (English spoken by blacks, especially by African-Americans in the US) and Canadian English (English used in Canada: either all such English or only the standard form).

variation according to use and variation according to user
User-related varieties
When purely geographical aspect of variation is taken into account the term dialect (for definition view above) is applied. But when the social factor is determining the term social dialect or sociolect is employed. Social dialect embraces a number of linguistic peculiarities typical of some social group – professional, age, gender group or other. The term is a blend (socio-+ dialect) that first appeared in the 1970s. The speakers of a sociolect usually share a similar socioeconomic and / or educational background.

variation according to use and variation according to user
Use-related varieties
Use-related varieties are associated with function, such as legal English (the language of courts, contracts, etc.) and literary English (the typical usage of literary texts, conversations, etc.). A variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting is called register.

variation according to use and variation according to user
Use-related varieties
For example, an English speaker may adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal instead of an alveolar nasal (e.g. walking, not walkin), choose more formal words (e.g. father vs. dad, child vs. kid, etc.), and refrain from using the word ain’t when speaking in a formal setting, but the same person could violate all of these prescriptions in an informal setting.

1.3.2.5. Personal variation
Code and code-switching
Code (language code) – languages, dialects, jargons and stylistic varieties of the same language regarded as a means of communication. All these – separate languages or varieties of one language – in sociolinguistics sometimes receive the name of language formations. The sum total of codes and subcodes used in a given language community that complement each other functionally is called social-communicative system.

1.3.2.5. Personal variation
Code and code-switching
Depending on the sphere of communication the speaker switches from one language means (one code) to another. This alteration between varieties, or codes which takes place in individual utterances, or even across sentences or clause boundaries is called code-switching. This phenomenon is identified as the reason of for intraspeaker variation.