LEXICOLOGY Lecture 11

Regional Varieties
Dialects show distinctive paterns in all areas of language: phonology, grammar and vocabulary. Speech community is any community (small town, village or as large as nation) whose speakers share both a particular language of variety of the standard language and the norms for its appropriate use in a social context. Regional type of language variation a speech variety spoken in a particular geographical area. Dialect continuum is a situation when dialect boundaries are not marked clearly and dialects merge into each other with a fuzzy starting point and unclear end-point. Idiolects is a way of using language which along with our other traits reflects both the linguistic features we share with many other speakers and also our individual favourite way of expressing ourselves. In all languages one dialect is superposed above the others and singled out for future development, standardization and prestige status - STANDARD Different regional varieties in English:(examples) -British and American English -Great Britain and America -Australian English -African English -Indian English Language Birth Pidgin is a speech variety that is developed when speakers of two languages come in contact and do not know each others languages. When pidgin is acquired by children as their native language and has become established as a first language in a given speech community it is called a creole.

Temporal variation
Borrowing is the adoption of linguistic elements (morphemes and words at the lexical level) from another language variety. Calques are borrowings translated part by part into another language (Ubermensch - Superman) Adstratum influence refers to a situation where this language varieties are in contact and neither one is culturally dominant. Substratum influence refers to a situation where the culturally and politically non dominant language variety influences the dominant language variety. Superstratum influence refers to a situation where the culturally and politically dominant language variety influences lexically another language variety. Direct (language-language) and indirect (from one language to another to another and then borrowed) borrowing;

Functional speech variety - REGISTERS

Registers are adjustments made by speakers to suit the relationships among the participants in a given situation and on a given occasion in the discourse. The three dimensions to determine registers: field: broadly speaking the subject matter of communication tenor: the social roles filled by the participants and their personal relationships mode: the medium of communication that is primarily written or spoken Jargon is the vocabulary peculiar to some field. It provide the necessary vocabulary by means of which members of a profession can communicate efficiently. It is often considered unintelligible language Tenor is the relationship between participants in the communication, the social roles they are playing and the degree of formality they adopt. (tone of voice) Learned and technical words (for the extreme end of formality) Formal and informal vocabulary The high variety, generally a standard dialect is selected for more formal uses and has greater prestige. The low variety is used in private more informal settings. This situation is called diglossia. The term code-switching is often used when register differences are associated with a number of separate language variety.

Mode is a dimension of register which accounts for the effects of the medium in which the language is transmitted and received on the choice of our language and vocabulary. Absence and presence of the addressee - If the addressee is present, speakers are not as explicit and are more careful because immediate feedback from the addressee is available. - In face to face situations participants dont have time to prepare - Conversation which is the basic use of speech is almost by definition a dialogue. The speaker and the addressee take turns to speak one after the other. There are turn-taking procedures with turns often indicated by name or eye-contact. Speech in the presence of one or a few addressees tends to produce informality, while the increase of the size of the audience reverses this tendency. Witten language is organized not chronologically but logically and therefore uses a different rhetoric structure. The speech mode is particularly suitable for several language functions.

Social speech varieties - SOCIOLECTS

Language varieties spoken by a class or a group of people who share a particular social characteristic are called SOCIOLECTS. Elaborate code makes use of accurate word order, complex syntactic structures with a range of function words for coordination and subordination, uses prepositions to show relationships of both temporal and logical nature, shows frequent use of pronouns as well as careful use of adjectives and adverbs and is generally more abstract but explicit. Restricted code is characterized by short, grammatically simple and often incomplete sentences, repetitive use of a few simple conjunctions, poor subordination, rigid and limited use of adjectives and adverbs, infrequent use of impersonal pronoun subjects as well as a lot of idioms. Language and Power Polite and familiar pronouns of address: you vs. thou Language and age -babbling - babies -slang is spoken, non-standard, informal language variety associated with various often highly localized subgroups within a society (teenagers, non-conformist subcultures)

Ethnolinguistics is a branch of anthropological linguistics which studies language in a relation to the investigation of ethnic types and behaviour. Black English is a language variety also known as Vernacular Black English mostly considered to be a deficient, illogical and incomplete.

Language and Gender

Sex exclusive differentiation a woman or a man may not normally be allowed to speak the variety of the other sex Sex preferential differentiation men and women use the same lexical items or linguistic features Language spoken by a given sex: women: tag questions (showing womens insecurity???); polite questions; intensification (so, much, very); greater variety of color terms Language spoken about a given sex: Pronominal neutralisation (their) manking and man as a suffix