Beltran - An Introduction To Sociolinguistics

Rubén Chacón Beltrán
AN INTRODI]CTIOI{
TO SOCIOLINCTJISTICS
UNrvsRsro¡o NecroNer o¡, EoucacróN a Dtsr¡Ncr¡

ACKNOWLEDCEMENTS
I am grateful to many people for their encouragement and assistance

in producing this book. Firstly, I would like to thank my colleague Jim
Lawley for his support and guidance as well as his willingness to revise
and comment on drafts. I must also thank my colleagues in the
Departamento de Filologías Extranjeras y sus Lingüísticas at UNED,
especially Ricardo Mairal Usón for his encouragement to carry out this
work, and Mónica Aragonés GonzáIez for her support and help with other
academic tasks that enabled me to keep on working on these Unidades
Didácticas, and Norberro Cerezal Sierra for his assistance with computer
matters.
Finally, I would like to thank Inmaculada Senra Silva for her valuable
remarks and revisions of the various drafts, for her support during a
difficult yeaq and for her patience.
ACRONYMS USED II{ THIS BOOK
AAVE African American Vernacular English

AmE. American English
BrE. British English
CP Corpus Planning
EFL English as a Foreign Language
Engl. English
EU European Union
FL Foreign Langauge
HCE Hawaiian Creoie English
JP Jamaican Patois (or Patwa)
L1 First Language, with reference to the order of acquisition
L2 Second or Additional Language, with reference to the order of
acquisition
LWC Language of Wider Communication
ME Middle English
MnE Modern English
OE Old English
OHG Old High German
PdE Present-day English
RP Received Pronunciation
SL Second Language, with reference to the learning context.
TP Tok Pisin
UDLR Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights
INDEX
Acknowledgements
Acronyms
Index 11
Introduction 1.5
UNIT 1
1. Introduction: Key concepts in sociolinguistics 23

2. Sociolinguistics vs. sociology of language................ 24
3. The origins of sociolinguistics 26
4. Variation 26
5. Some instances of variation 28
6. Diachronic variation 29
7. Speech community 32
8. Doing sociolinguistic research .............. 35
9. Exercises 39
10. References 42
11. Resources on the web 43
1.2. Further readings and questions 43
43
45
13. 47
INTRODUCTION
This book aims at providing the readers with a general framework for
the study of a new discipline, sociolinguistics. The training and knowledge
gained by reading and using these Unidades Didácticas can introduce the
student to the fascinating world of languages in interaction and may also
ar^,,aken the reader's interest in researching other aspects of this field. This
book has been conceived as a course book for Sociolingüística Inglesa and
u-ill provide future language teachers elementary secondary university
or continuing education levels-
-at
with a basic training in sociolinguistics,
ianguage variation, language contact and language education as part of their
preparation for their teaching tasks in the language classroom.
A considerable variety of ways in which language and society are
interconnected and interact is presented in this book. There are many
possible relations between language and society and some of them will
be presented in these pages. Social configuration and organization also
determine linguistic structure and usage showing that the relationship
between language and society is bidirectional. The varieties that people
use may reveal some of the speaker's variables such as age, geographic,
social or ethnic origin, and gender. The question of language choice is
worth mentioning because it may not only determine the use of a
particular code but also the choice of some words instead of others, of
some features of pronunciation or even rules of speaking.
Sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics are closely related disciplines.
They deal with the social and individual side of human behavior. These
two aspects are portrayed in this book, some units deal with the social
dimension of language, i.e., language as part of social relations and as a
means of communication and interaction with other human beings,
l'
t6 AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUiSTICS
whereas some other units show a greater concern for the other side of the
same coin, i.e., the individual dimension of language and, therefore, deal
with aspects such as code-switching, bilingualism and diglossia.
The field of sociolinguistics is very wide-ranging and touches many
different aspects of language and society. A selection has been made on
the basis of the objectives set for this subject in the curriculum of Filología
Inglesa. The fact that the subject Sociolingüística Inglesa probably
constitutes the first encounter of many students with this branch of
linguistics has also been taken into account. Sociolinguistics is an extensive
and interdisciplinary field, the full scope of which is difficult to cover in
a course like the one for which this book has been designed. This fact
accounts for the need to select some topics in preference to others and,
in the case of this book, a clear inclination towards applied issues can be
perceived mainly because they are aspects that future language teachers
may need to face in their classrooms.
The particular characteristics of distance learning and teaching have
also shaped the final configuration of this book. Each unit ends with
references to the glossary as well as some exercises that aim at helping
students reflect on sociolinguistic issues. On many occasions, the solutions
to these exercises are not provided for two reasons. On the one hand, as
indicated above, these are open-ended questions that do not have a single
answer. Providing an answer would have a misleading effect as it might
lead the students to think that there is one response that prevails over the
others. On the other hand, students have access to a discussion forum on
the web page for this subject and can exchange their answers and
comments. In this way, an enriching and valuable debate can take place.
The structure of this book

This book has been arranged in six units and starts with a general
introduction to key concepts in sociolinguistics that will allow the student
to approach this new field of study and research. The reader will be
brought into touch with the general field of sociolinguistics, although
most examples and references will be taken from English or multilingual
contexts where English is somehow involved. Moving on from these initial
theoretically-based principles, some applied aspects of sociolinguistic
study are considered in the last units so that the close connection behveen
this field of study and everyday life can be perceived.
Unit I deals with some introductory aspects of sociolinguistics like
the definition and configuration of this discipline. its relation to
I\_TRODUCTION l7
socioiogy of language, the synchronic and the diachronic perspectives
ri r.ariation and the explanation and exemplification of r,r.'hat is
¡onsidered a speech community. Finally, the student is presented u'ith
>ome approaches in sociolinguistic research that will give him/her an
-,n-erall sense of the scope of the field and its potential repercussions on
;r'en'day life.
Unit 2 concentrates on a key concept for sociolinguistics namely
;iation and the description of some variables that clearly determine or
"'
.re determined by variation like style, register and gender. Speech

.::ommodation is also dealt with in this unit as it portrays the speakers'
-r:ention to avoid or respond to variation differences by a speaker.
f nit 3 includes a description of pidgins and creoles in some parts of
-:: rrorld. Special attention is paid to English-based creoles and examples
":- prorided in Hawaiian Creole English, Jamaican Patwa and Tok Pisin.
T:i: process of decreolization is also depicted in this unit and some
-::-plications for the use of pidgins and creoles in formal education are
:r:Sented.
f nit 4 centers on some sociolinguistic
aspects that portray the social
::i rhe individual dimension of this branch of linguistics, and deals with
:--::lsualism, code choice, diglossia, multilingualism and language contact
;- --
al ious scenarios.
f nit 5 presents some applied aspects of sociolinguistics that can

:.::ainlr- have some bearing on the wellfare of humanity and the
:c",':-':pment of our society as is the case of bilingual education, language
:;:ning and policy as two ways of introducing sociolinguistic aspects in
:r-: li, es. In this unit, some practical instances of bitingual education and
iar-€rrage policy are portrayed in places like canada, Australia and India.
l: .:c rhis unit, the current situation of the EU in relation to language
Jr:r';r,'is analyzed.
Lnit 6 also introduces some applied issues in sociolinguistics and
-rgx::bes the interface between sociolinguistics and language teaching,
!',i' ilproaching the analysis of classroom discourse and language
.r": r''-sirion. Some references to related disciplines like discourse analysis
mrc ::::gmatics are included in this unit. To end this selection of topics,
rIlM - - --::er interesting aspects are presented: forensic linguistics and world
ft,g-=r:s.
i-::allr, a glossary with scme key terms in the field is presented to
.;l,r*,:i:'" iinportant concepts for this sub,ject which will pave the wa¡z for
'nur***=: ieading.
Í i
l
I
l8 AN TNTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS
Purpose of this book

Language ability is part of human beings and parl of the development
of our societies, our personal lives and our role in society. This book tries
to provide the reader with some background knowledge on the main
principles and lines of research that may help them reflect on some basic
sociolinguistic principles that govern human interaction, in general, and
the English-speaking world, in particular. The ultimate goal is to help the
reader develop the necessary receptiveness to perceive the presence of
sociolinguistic principles in their oral and written interaction with other
speakers of English.
How to use this book

This book has been especially designed for distance learning students
who will not have traditional classes in which most of the contents for the
subiect are introduced by the teacher. This particular situation presents
some disadvantages because the learner has to be largely autonomous
and follow the instr-r-rctions given in the course book to find the response
to many issues that, in a different learning situation, would be readily
answered by the teacher. While studying this subject, students will need
to make use of different resources, especially the Internet, to find examples
of what otherwise might seem rather cryptic theoretical description.
Distance learning also has many advantages for the learner who in a
subject like this will need to combine the guidance provided in this book
with further readings, Internet search and active participation in the
discussion forum. In this way, learners will have the chance to feed their
own curiosity even beyond the scope of this subject and, they will also be
shown the way to integrate research as part of their own learning process.
Active participation in the discussion for-um will keep students in touch
with other students facing the same questions and the teaching team that
will monitor it.
Each unit finishes with a list of key words which are dealt with in the
unit they accompany and which are defined at the end of the book in the
glossary. Students are requested to go through these key words before
engaging in the reading of each chapter. Knou,ing the meaning of these
words before they start reading will enable students to work through the
discussion in the chapter without having to break off to consult the
glossary. In the same way, a review of these same terms is recommended
when thev finish each unit.
INTRODUCTION 19
It is suggested, then, that students read the whole chapter straight

through in order to have an overview of the topics dealt with and, at a
later stage, go back to study each section in more detail and do the
exercises proposed for each section in each chapter. Some of the answers
for these exercises are provided in the section'Key to the exercises'. On
many occasions, as these exercises have an open answer and require
students to express their own point of view students should make use of
the discussion forum created for this subject to exchange and discuss
answers.
Apart from the exercises and activities included at the end of each
chapter, some reading is provided so that students can have access to key
texts in the field of sociolinguistics. Due to space restrictions and the length
of the subject Sociolingüística Inglesa (one semester), only a limited
selection of readings could be introduced. However, students are
encouraged to read further in the works from which these fragments have
been taken as well as consulting other references provided at the end of
each chapter. Sociolinguistics is a branch of linguistics that due to its
interdisciplinary nature requires from the student a broad perspective:
the more the students read about the topic, the wider their perspective.
In the Resources on the web section, a number of interesting web
sites are suggested for each unit. The use of the Internet and web resources
it allows reference
seems crucial for the study of this discipline because
to authentic samples of language that portray different instances of
sociolinguistic variation (for example, while studying pidgins and creoles,
it would be important to see web-based publications in a given pidgin or
creole). Using web sites and resources has one chief drawback and that
is that web links sometimes change or are re-directed to a different site.
The web links selected to accompany this subject are considered stable
in the sense that they have been working for some years, and are expected
to be kept on working in the future.
Student participation in the discussion forum is also encouraged as
students will need to access additional information that will be posted on
the web for their studv.
Unit 1
1. INTRODUCTION:
KEY CONCEPTS IN SOCIOLINGUISTICS
Language is commonly used to convey meaning but that is not all we
use language for. Language is used for a number of things other than
transmitting a verbal message, among them, to initiate, maintain and
preserve social relationships with other members of the society. Therefore,
language should be understood as a social phenomenon that relates the
speakers to their societal enüronment and their kinship to other members
of the speech community. As a result of the complexity of human
relationships, we do not speak in the same way to a classmate as to a
professor. Parents do not speak in the same way to their offspring as they
do to their parents, or their boss. But, our way of transmitting messages
depends, of course, not only on linguistic matters but also on non-linguistic
ones such as body language, contextual and situational factors, among
others.
Sociolinguistics can be defined as a field of research and study that
deals with the relation between language and society. It copes with the
links that can be found between one or more languages and their users
who live within a specific speech community. Sociolinguistics examines
the societal and linguistic patterns that govern our behaüor as members
of human society and how they affect interaction.
Sociolinguistics is a relatively new field. In the 50's and 60's,
sociolinguists began to oppose Chomsky's abstraction of language.
Chomsky aimed at finding basic grammatical structures that could accolint
for the existence of structured patterns across languages relying on "ideal"
native speaker's intuitions to describe and interpret language.
Sociolinguists, howevel tried to find the reasons for linguistic variations
in social and environmental conditions. Chomsky was concerned with the
ideal speaker/listener communication in a completely homogeneous speech
community who knows the language as a native speaker (rather a fuzzy
24 AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS
concept, in fact), that is to say, perfectly. This monolithic üew of the native
speaker has nothing to do with the conception of the native speaker in
sociolinguistics where social and non-linguistic factors are considered of
key importance for communication. what is more, chomskyb description
of a native speaker in a homogeneous speech community is far from being
considered commonplace or even real. Speech communities are not easy
to delimit and geographical proximity is not always a valid criterion in
order to find a reliable definition. Does an English speaker from Edinburgh
speak the same way as someone from downtown London or Liverpool?
Undoubtedly they speak the same language, English, but their use is quite
different. And, do all three speakers belong to the sarne speech community?
They have spoken English since childhood and they live in the same
country with the same cultural background. As regards the second issue,
the three aforementioned speakers can consider themselves native speakers
of the same language, English, in spite of clear societal or dialectal
variation.
From the very beginning a break could be perceived between the

approaches and methods used by generativists and sociolinguists in their
quest for language nature and development. Dell Hymes (1971) coined
the term communicative competence as opposed to chomsky's linguistic
competence. Communicative competence refers not only to the human
ability to use the language in different situations and under different
circumstances but it also refers to other non-linguistic aspects which are
also part of the communication process, such as: silence, turn-taking,
volume, amount of talk, word choice, gestures, etc. Ali of these being part
of the communication process and completing purely linguistic aspects
such as phonology, morphology and syntax. Hymes'contribution to the
field of sociolinguistics has been paramount and the concept of
communicative competence is nowadays widespread in other disciplines
and areas of research. In chapter 6 we will see the importance of
communicative competence and later developments of the construct in
second ianguage teaching and iearning.
2. SOCIOLINGUISTICS VS. SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE
when in the late ó0's sociolinguistics first developed as an academic

field of study, two names were given to this still incipient discipline:
sociolinguistics and sociology of language, and both terms were used
interchangeably. The aim of sociolinguistics is to investigate and describe
the relationship between language and society and the stress is placed on
25
.;:r;Lage and its role within communication. Sociology of language,

-.-,'ei'er, centers on
-*- - the study of society and how we can understand it
-:-:-r -igh the study of language, that is, how we can understand
;'-,--,',,linguistic behavior by means of the study of linguistic features.
Depending on the scope of the analysis, sociolinguistics may try to

r¡ \ze specific differences of a group of speakers in a speech community
,, a micro level. In this case the analysis would refer to speech differences
-: :ronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary within a single speech
: -,irmunitv in order to determine some features such as educational
:a:l'ground, economic status or social class. In India, for example, there
r¿ manv castes (traditional social classes in the Hindu society) and there
.:e distinct linguistic features that distinguish one from another.
-{nother possibility would comprise a much broader scope of analysis.

S-,ciolinguistics can also refer to a macro level and in that case what
'r:erests the researchers is language variation as a human phenomenon
-:rat affects large parts of the population. That would be the case, for
;xample, of language maintenance when large populations migrate to a
i'tterent place and the language is preserved because of social factors.
Keeping their language can be seen as a sign of identity that distinguishes
ihem from outsiders or as a source of power as they can communicate
-',,i¡hout being understood and this can serve trade purposes,
for instance.
Ii can also happen that the language just disappears (language attrition)
':ecause
it becomes a low-prestige language. Another possible scenario
na¡'be that the community wishes to blend into the dominant culture
or that the amount of speakers decreases as they grow old and die. All
in all, macro-sociolinguistics applies to wide-ranging human phenomena
and is often referred to, as stated before, as sociology of language.
some authors prefer to talk about micro-sociolinguistics and macro-

sociolinguistics and make a distinction betrveen these two parts of
sociolinguistics. Sometimes the first is associated u.ith discrete point cases
and studies (micro-sociolinguistics) whereas the second is connected r,i ith
rride ranging situations. Both tendencies, however, are concer-rred about
the same phenomenon and society- although at a different
-language
scale. Micro-sociolinguistics involves the use of a language as a u.hole
together with another cultural phenomenon that determines the use of
language, whereas macro-sociolinguistics deals with language planning,
language policy, etc. In Hudson's (1980: 4-5) words sociolinguistics is "the
study of language in relation to society, and the sociology of language is
the study of society in relation to language".
3. THE ORIGINS OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Sociolinguistics has spread in the last thirty years together with other
branches of linguistics such as psycholinguistics, pragmatics and applied
linguistics which, far from having a descriptive or historical approach to
language such as pure or traditional linguistics (syntax, phonetics, etc.)
maintain an interest in the interdisciplinarity of the field and the
contribution of other branches of the humanities to linguistics, such as:
psychology, pragmatics, history gender studies, etc. This new branch of
linguistics emerged together with other developments of applied linguistics
and was often considered a "step child", until it finally became a
consolidated fully acknowledged field of research. It comprises various
areas of study and research like historical and comparative linguistics,
dialectology, and anthropology.
In Europe, sociolinguistics started with the study of historical
linguistics and linguistic geography, a sound theoretical background with
three main fields of interest: dialectology, regional languages and the
linguistic situation of colonized countries (Calvet, 2003). In the USA,
however, the study of sociolinguistics emerges from the contact of
linguistics with other disciplines such as anthropology and sociology. The
ethnographic approach of anthropologists, methodology used in social
sciences and the analysis of linguistic realization.
Nowadays, sociolinguistics is not only a truly consolidated discipline
but it can also be divided into subfields, such as pragmatics, language gender
studies, pidgin and creole studies, language planning and policy studies,
and education of linguistic minority studies, etc. (Bratt Paulson & Tucker,
2003). According to Shuy (2003: 15), the more recent developments of
discourse analysis and pragmatics are considered as part of sociolinguistics
by some scholars whereas others consider them areas of study in themselves.
In the same way there is no full agreement on whether language change is
part of sociolinguistics or the other way round. This situation accounts for
the variety of approaches and perspectives towards a discipline that becomes
more and more important these days and which now goes from the
theoretical perspective to the applied trend in the form of applied
sociolinguistics.
4. VARIATION
Sociolinguistics is ali about variation. From a sociolinguistic point of
view the most important source of information is the way social and
'-'\IT 1 27
siruational factors affect language and make it vary. For example, when
r.r'o people meet and star-t talking about, let's say, the weather, they start
:etting information about their interlocutor as they sort out the
-nforrnation contained in their speech. One of the first features that can
sometimes be identified is the origin, i.e., where does that person come
irom (geographic variation). If by any chance we happen to distinguish
:lear features of his/her speech, we will be able to determine his/her place
rf origin very precisely, if that is not the case, we may just ascertain some
characteristics and that will give us a rough idea. The same can happen
',i'hen specific differences are associated, within a specific speech
community, with social, economical, political, religious, cultural or any
other situational background. Obviously, linguistic variation does not only
affect people from different speech communities but also affects the way
people speak or react towards someone else's speech, for example, in terms
of gender. In most societies we can identifu clear differences in the way
males and females speak although in western societies these differences
are not so evident. In terms of power relationships the way people use the
language is affected by the social connection between them, for example
between a teacher and a student, and between a boss and an employee,
(Please, go to the exercises section and do exercise 1.)
Another aspect of variation is that it has certain bounds. A speaker

can vary his/her speech in some degree, especially to adhere to certain
social, economic, religious, etc. class, but s/he cannot vary it beyond certain
iimits otherwise s/he would be ungrammatical and/or incomprehensible.
Speakers have knowledge of these limits, often unconsciously, although
some other problems would be to determine how this knowledge is
attained and how it can be described. It is much more subtle than other
social norms such as those of turn-taking in conversation or social
behavior. At this point, it would be necessary to point out that linguistic
norms are quite oflen more understated than other social conventions,
such as table manners and, therefore, harder to describe, or even perceive.
It goes without saying that they are also harder to learn andlor acquire in
the case of a Second Language as the learner does not only need to learn
the code, i.e., the language but also how to use it properly in diverse
situations. Social conventions are usually learned or acquired during
childhood and adolescence but these rrles can vary from culture to culture
and as languages often reflect the way their users understand and perceive
their lives, it is often the case that Second Language learners, in their
tedious task of learning a non-native language, also need to learn social
and linguistic conventions. At times, and depending on the affinity between

the languages in contact, it can be easy to infer linguistic forms and uses
from the first language, but it is often not so obvious. As a simple example
English speakers understand verbal politeness differently than spanish
speakers, and in terms of foequency British English speakers tend to thank
more frequently, in everyday situations, than Peninsular Spanish speakers.
(Please, go to the exercises section and do exercise 2.)
All in all, the aim of sociolinguists is to describe the variations within

a language and match these variations with the different groups of people
that use them, as well as the corresponding situations. So, sociolinguistics
deals especially with variation, among groups, among situations and
among places, and the task of the sociolinguist is to find regular patterns
of variation in use.
5. SOME INSTANCES OF VARIATION
Labov (2003) states that style shifting is usually correlated to the

amount of attention that the speaker pays to his speech. In American
English, for instance, the spelling <th-> in words llke thing and that can
be pronounced as smooth fricative [0] or [é], as a lightly or strongly
articulated alveolar plosive [t], as a blend of these two variants, or not
pronounced at all in utterances such as Gimme'at book (Give me that
book). These forms are used at different levels for different social groups
and different regions.
In Black English Vernacula4 for instance, we can see some markers
which are characteristic of this ethnic linguistic variety like the "double
negative" in English often used by nonstandard speakers to express
negatives emphatically in sentences such as: Nobody don't know about
that (Nobody knows anything about that). other peculiarities of Black
English vernacular in the united States is the absence of final third person
singular <-s> (e.g. She want, he wak) and the dropping of the verb to be
in present tense when used as a copula, (e.g. They real fine).
Word choice also determines style shifting as the linguistic'domain'
(home, neighborhood, job, church, store, school, etc.) settles the degree
of formality in the words used as well as the amount of colloquialisms in
a speaker's speech.
(Please go to the exercises sections and do exercises 3 and 4.)

L'-\IT 1 29
6. DIACHRONIC VARIATION
Languages change over time and in the same way that some centuries
avo languages as Germanic developed into new languages such as English,
German and Norwegian, in a few centuries we will probably speak a
-anguage that will not be English, Spanish or French, but a mixture of
:hem all, especially given the current phenomenon of globalization.
Languages are in a constant flux because people use them endlessly and
:he continuous use makes them change. Spanish, for example, was once
a variety of Latin but after centuries of use it developed into a new
ianguage as it was widespread and standardized. In the same way, English
has not always been the same. If we try to read an Old English (OE) text
",\-€ c?n appreciate how the language has changed in the last centuries.
Pronunciation also changes in all languages, but it does not vary randomly
'because the sounds of related languages (a sound change may take many
decades or even many centuries to complete) correspond to others in
apparently systematic ways. This phenomenon is referred to as 'sound shift'.
The Danish scholar Rasmus Rask and his follower the Gerrnan linguist
Jacob Grimm in the first quarler of the 19th century succeeded in showing
ihe relationship between Germanic (as Gothic or Old English) and the
ciassical Indo-European languages (Greek, Latin and Sanskrit). They
concluded that Germanic was pafi of the Indo-European language family.
They accounted for the differences between Germanic and the classical
languages through a set of sound changes. They noticed, for instance, that
Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops become voiceless fricatives. E.g. :
Greek Latin Gothic Old English present-day English
patér pater fadar 'father'

treis trés preis 'three'
They also discovered that Proto-Indo-European voiced stops become

r-oiceless stops. E.g. :
Greek Latin Gothic Old English present-day English
üka decem taihun téon 'ten

AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS
{:rd Proto-Indo-European voiced aspirates become voiced stops or

rn¿atir-es (depending on the context). E.g.:
Greek Latin Old English present-day English
phéró feró baira beoru 'I carry
Another area of linguistic change is syntax. Syntactic change affects

the patterrring of sentences. One instance of syntactic change is the altering
of word order from Proto-Indo-European to most contemporary Indo-
European languages. Proto-Indo-European was an Obiect-Verb (OV)
language. One example to illustrate this pattern is the the rrrnic inscription
on the famous Gallehus horn (Jutland) which dates to the 5th c.:
nk fllewleastiR Holtij az \orna tawido

('I, Hlewá-gastiR of Holt/son of Holt carwed this [orn').
The syntactic order of the inscription is SOV (horna is the object and
tawido the verb).
Present-day English has changed from Proto-Indo-European in its
underlying syntactic stmcture. In Old English, for example, the pattern
SVO affected only to the main clause and it was different in the
subordinate clause (SOV), as it occurs in present-day German, but over
time it has regularized and now the same pattern is used both in the main
and in the subordinate clause. There has been a gradual shift from OV to
VO in the clause.
Example:
English That is the bookshop where I bought )'our book.
SVO
German Das ist der Buchgescheft, wo ich deines Buch gekauft habe.
SOV
Syntactic relations in Old English were more similar to present-day

German than to present-day English (the same has happened as far as
grammar is concerned). English has become an analytic language. A good
L'\IT 1
31
number of changes between, for example, old English and Modem English
are due to loss of morphological inflections. E.g.:
Old English (OE) Mit heardum bendum

German (G) Mit harten Bándern
Present-day English (PdE) With hard bonds
In this example, both Old English and German show the dative plural
ending, whereas Modern English only presents the plural marker <-s>.
Semantic change offers the most obvious instances as it is one of the

most sensible areas in this respect, as even in short periods of time (a
lifetime or less) words may vary their meanings total or partially because
they are closely connected with everyday usage and the contemporary
culture. There are changes in meaning and use. Changes in word meaning
is caused by the meeting of new demand of the lexical resources of a
language. Change of meaning is closely related to social changes.
Semantic change can be divided into various categories. For example,

there can be changes in the range of meanings of a word by means of
generalization or specification; new meanings can be added or lost, etc.
There are some interesting examples of generalization and specification.
When Chaucer spoke of 'disease' he didn't necessarily mean an illness
caused by inflection but any kind of discomfort absence of 'ease'(as
indeed'dis-ease'suggests). For the Elizabethans-an
science meant what we
mean by knowledge.
The old English wordmete was cognate with old High Gerrnan/Middle
High German maz 'food, meal, mealtime' and was used to refer to food of
any kind (similar then to OE fóda > ME fóde > PdE food). ME méte could
be used to speak of specific types of food when modified by another word
as inflesch-méte 'flesh food' = 'm€at' (as opposed to fish). It then became
associated to 'flesh of animals used as food' = 'meat'. Another erample of
specialization occurs with the Old English wordttd, cognate r¡,,ith Gerrnan
Zeit originally meaning 'time in general', 'a period of time', and also 'hour'.
It could be employed besides the term time. rn Middle English it began
to be associated with other meanings and differentiated flom tinte.
Eventually its meaning was reduced to MnE tide. The old English rvord
feper (PdE feather) is cognate with OHG (Old High German) federa and
was used in Middle English in sentences such as'wnte rvith fetheres'. This
word was later replaced by pen (PdE penne), the Latin rvord Qtenna) for
'feather'.
There are pairs (sometimes even trios) of words with identical or

similar referential meanings but with different stylistic meaning. The use
of one or the other depends on the communication situation. E.g.:
ask: requesl (French requéte);

answer: reply (French répliquer) respond (Latin) '
-
betty: abdomen ( < Latin), stomach (< French estomac < Latin
stomachus).
The word stock can also be expanded. Words can be borrowed from
other languages, new words can be coined or invented, and new terms
can be ..át"J by means of derivation and compounding of existing words'
Specially these days, due to the constant phenomenon of globalization
u.rd *idá.pread mádia such as television and the Internet, new words are
quickly iniroduced from other languages (borrowings). In the same way,
words that used to be part of a specific jargon are now commonplace
because they have been introduced in new domains or disciplines (this is
specially nóticeable in the language of computers with words such as:
navigator, web, etc.).
Native words can pass out and be replaced by words from other
languages or dialects as, for example, the old English terrr earm'poor"
Early tVtodern English armlrentt, replaced in Middle English by the French
*orá póvere, poure. There is also semantic differentiation of originally
,yrory-r, native words and loanwords. One example is the Modern
Énglish word heaven which comes from oE heofon, whereas PdE sfty
comes from Old Norse sftY 'cloud'.
(Please, go to the exercises section and do exercises 5 and ó')
7. SPEECH COMMUNITY
Several attempts have been made to define what a speech community

is but, as frequently happens with other linguistic terms (for example,
dialect), it is not eaiy to find a comprehensive definitionl.
For general linguistics, a speech communitv is a group of people that
share the same language or dialect in a specific setting u'hich can be close,
t ff1"r" are some commonly used terms in linguistics, and in sociolinguistics, that are
really difficult to define unambiguousl¡ in spite of the fact that thev are core concepts in
thefield. Speechcommunit,v*,togéthertrithlangtLage,dialect.vatiett,andinrit'espeaker,is
one of them.
,;if 1 33
:,^-h as a city or a neighborhood; or broad, such as a rvhoie countn". For

. -;-olinguistics, the issue is a bit more complex than that given the fact
,=a: societal and extra linguistic factors are taken into account. We can
--:-i instances of speech communities that are very different among them,
:..ause the degree of complexity depends on the number of variables
,:.-, olr'ed in the social and linguistic interaction, some of which are the
- .:bal reperloire (i.e. the set of languages, dialects, registers,
etc.) and the
-' ie reperloire (i.e. the relationship among interlocutors, such as parent-
: :ild, teacher-student, employer-employee).
The definition of speech community needs to be sufficiently flexible

¡nd abstract to include social groupings as dissimilar as neighborhoods
:rd countries as speech communities. A basic component for a speech
:',-,mmunity to be considered as such, is the fact of sharing at least one
-anguage and, therefore, the term refers to a group of people that could
--ommunicate in the same language. Members of a speech community are
united by a common end which, in turn, will be different to the ends of
-,ther people or groups. Each individual can therefore be a member of a
speech community on some occasion and a member of another speech
,-ommunity on another occasion depending on his,/her end. The underlying
r-atlonal is that, because of specific transitory interests, people need to
rdentifu themselves as paft of a group or speech communit¡r and sometimes
of others, or be seen as paft of a group. All this depending on the situational
context. So, each individual has his/her own verbal repertoire (verbal
r arieties) and each speech community has its own speech repertoire.
It is important to take into account that speech communities do not

necessarily correspond with political boundaries (Swedish is spoken in
Su'eden but it is also spoken in some pafis of Finland), religions (Turkish
is spoken in Turkey but also in some parts of Greece, Bulgaria and
Rumania) or cultures (Bengali is spoken by two groups, in Bangladesh
and in India (West Bengal).
Languages are often used by groups of people that share a physical
context but also a number of social norms. The relationship among
members of a speech community allows the categorization of differences
among the several users and variation according to certain social
conditionings such as age, gende4 job, educational background, etc. These
groups of people share at least one language or variety and also some r-uies
and norms for the correct use in communication.
As was suggested above, speech communities do not need to be
monolingual, as a matter of fact, bilingual or trilingual speech communities
are as common as monolingual ones. Kachru (2001) distinguishes four
major t¡,pes of speech communities: multilingual, bilingual, monolingual

and diglossic speech communities.
a/ A multilingual speech community recognizes more than two
official languages as it happens in Switzerland where French,
German and Italian are official languages and are regularly spoken
in some parts of the country while not in others (for example, in
Zurich most people use German whereas in Geneva most people
speak French). In multilingual countries a contact language is
commonly adopted as an'official'language for practical purposes
as, for instance, English in India and Russian in the former USSR.
b) A bilingual speech community acknowledges two languages

with an official status as in Canada or in Belgium. In Canada,
bilingualism can be seen in some parts of the country but there
are also communities that are essentially monolingual, in either
English or French. In Brussels, for example, there are clear
divisions in terms of areas where one language or the other is used
but biiingualism/multilingualism is also common. For instance'
a Brussels citizen may wake up in his/her home town, have
breakfast with his Flemish speaking family, then go to work to a
different part of the city where French is spoken, use this language
in the public transport and then get to his working-place where
s/he is required to speak English.
Spanish is the official language in Spain but in some parts of

the country such as the Basque Country, Catalonia, and Galicia
there are two official languages and monolingual speakers of
Spanish or Basque lCatalanlGalician can be found as well as
bilingual speakers.
c) A monolingual speech community has only one official language,
as Portugal does for example, but this conception is sometimes
misleading since monolingual speakers can also have a reperloire
of styles, registers or dialects that may be utterly different from the
standard.
d/ A diglossic community would be one .,vhere two languages
or varieties are functionally complementarY. Diglossia often
distinguishes between two varieties; one u'hich is used in formal
I
contexts (high variet¡r) and another one that is used in colloquial
speech (low variety). Arabic-speaking communities, for example,
regularly distinguish between Classical and colloquial Arabic.
I
,\TT 1 35
Diglossia is often intertwined with bilingualism/multiiingualism. In

Gernan-speaking Switzerland, for instance, children learn the lou,r'ariefy
Schuryzertüütsch, including some regional dialects of Srviss) and later
:her acquire the high variety. Something similar happens in the USA
.:rrong Spanish-speaking immigrant families. Very often children learn
S¡anish from their parents as their mother tongue and later, when they
::¿ schooled, they iearn English which will probably be the language they
,,, --l need in everyday life. As a result, adolescents and adults raised under
-:::se conditions may use Spanish with their parents and grandparents
:.t English at work, or even with their siblings.
As can be deduced from the previous description, it is not easy to
: *-:Lain rvhat can be considered a speech community but there are general
::ielirles that help. According to Spolsky (1998: 25) the speech community
: r.s no limitation of location or size but it entails a complex interlocking
l:r-r,,ork of communication, their members sharing the knowledge of
,.::-:.rage use patterns as well as attitudes towards others and themselves,
,:-l also sharing a set of language varieties (or repertoires) and norms for
,s-::g them. Members of the same speech community do not even need to
:".'-'e a comprehensive knowledge, nor even handle, each of the varieties
-: r:peftoires that are used within it. Perhaps, belonging to a particular
-:.ech community is something that, apart from accommodating some
¡=::eral principles, requires the speakers' self ascription to it on account
1- ,-rpects such as personal identity or group attitude.
J-"a.-.e go to the exercises section and do exercises 7, B and 9.)
üI. DOI\C SOCIOTINTGUISTIC RESEARCH

Al adult speaker of a language has accumulated enough erperience
: . that their own language is not used in the same \\'a], b)- different
1.m -rtr\'
:i€r:-.,-=rS in their speech community. It depends on the interlocutor's social
=:",,rraphic background and other factors such as age, sex or education.

: r:
l:---s r-Leans that every speaker will show some degree of stylistic variation
i,::e:dins on (a) the relations of power or solidarity with the interlocutor;
i -::¿ social context (domain) where the conversation is taking place: at
*..:r-,- in school, at the working place, neighborhood; and (c) the topic:
nr: j.mic, professional, trifling. These variables determine that a researcher
,,,"'-,:g to search into the matter and analyze the way people speak and rvh1,,
',:- :::ed to devise some way to collect data with a transparent, systematic
;.-,: *;rambiguous method in order to get reliable non-biased data.
36 AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCiOLINGUISTICS
Sociolinguists at work are looking for commonly accepted rules and

patterns that account for variations in speech (these can be in the form
of pronunciation, word choice or grammatical complexity, or language
choice among others) based on some determining factors such a age,
gende4 level of education, place of origin, etc. and also depending on the
nature of the encounter (place and topic). Bearing this in mind, the
sociolinguist at r.vork may need to elicit information or just observe a
communicative situation. Some other factors such as validity come into
play because the sociolinguist can not assume that the informants are not
lying or simply pretending an accent or using words different to the ones
they would use in a real situation. This is no necessarily done on purpose
but it is perfectly possible that some speaker, on noticing that his speech
is being analyzed changes it unconsciously, or just tries to make his speech
cleare¡ and that is precisely the base of sociolinguistic research. It is
necessary to get reliable information about the linguistic phenomenon
which has ecological validity, i.e. it represents a true sample of the way
communication takes place without any type of interference on the part
of the researcher.
Intrusion can result not only from the presence of the researcher or
any unexpected device but also from the alteration, although subtle it
could be, of the situation or the environment. This brings about a
methodological problem pointed out by William Labov and it concerned
how can we observe the way people speak when the researcher is not there
and in situations that might be private (e.g. at home, business meeting)
and, therefore, difficult to analyze. Labov refers to this bone of contention
as the observer's paradox. Nevertheless, this type of methodological
problems are not exclusive to sociolinguistic research'and there are ways
to minimize it.
Some decades ago it was a common practice to record telephone or
other types of conversations without asking for permission. Notwith-
standing ethical and legal issues arise on the fairness of using "hidden"
devices or sources of information such as secret recordings in natural
settings, the sociolinguist needs to find adequate mechanisms to elicit
information that is genuine and lau'fuI.
Early sociolinguistic research u'as based on the use of questionnaires
to collect data on attitudes and behaviors u,here, for instance, the
t f" n"rglish Language Teaching. the sa¡re issue arises riith regards to research within
the classroom because students on krouing iher are being obsen'ed ma.v change their beha-
vior and their performance.
37
-:- - irlant had to choose one option out of several ones, for example to
-',i:iminate one word from another or one specific pronunciation from
,::r.i'-q. This technique is perfectly valid and useful depending on the aim
: - -he studv and the type of subjects (age, cultural bounds, prace, etc.)
'-,j ':'br-iously the data obtained is easily statistically analyzable. while

,:r-- f,rrn\-€nient for gathering demographic data on the subjects under
.;-* j',' rhis research technique presents several shortcomings. on the one
*¡:,¡ ir creates a very unnatural situation and informants may just answer
",:-¡r lher think the researcher wants to know, or the other way round,
oj-''t :,n the other hand, as the questionnaire has been planned in advance
:-:=:: is little room, if any, to gather information that has not been taken
-:: - - account when it was designed. In that respect, the interview poses
:-::rÉ ad\-antages due to the flexibility of the situation. euestionnaires are
=:-. usefui for gathering demographic information from the inforrnants.
-\nother possibility would be face-to-face interviews (sociolinguistic
-:-:;:-'ieu-) but we know that when we are asking questions and receiving
r-:,S'r,-€rS our interlocutor's speech is being either carefully planned or at
r:¿s: modified because of the circumstances and s/he has a more casual
::-"-e rhat he possibly uses when he is among friends or with his/her family.
,: ::ar-also happen that the researcher concentrates his/her attention on
;- =erhin-s while neglecting another interesting aspect. Sociolinguistic
---::l-,ieus are time- and effort-consuming, and not always suitable because
,: :her are not properly directed they may not be a good way to elicit
,:-:rrrnation. However, there are some techniques that can be used to
:::ain casual speech in such situations and, which can minimize the
:.:sence of the interviewer.
-\s a case in point, in the last few years new advances on lexicography
-:= tn ing to incorporate common language uses and high frequency
- -:3rage in English Language Teaching materials. So, there is a néed not
-:-\' to analyze large written and spoken corpora from the media but it
-. aiso fundamental to compile and examine data coming from everyday
i:e¿ch. To this aim, a very recent research technique consists in proúding
-:::,rrmants with small high-capacity MP3 recorders that they carry all thé
-::re and which are recording every thing they say. It seems that after some
:e:iod of familiarization, people tend to get used to them and often forget
::'lut the fact that they are being recorded. These informants do not
-sualh' know about the
aim of research and, therefore, the validity of the
:rethod and the reliability of the collected data increases.
In the early 1970s william Labov conducted some seminal research
-:l rhree New York deparlment stores and collected non-intrusive responses.
r
He wanted to find out why the final /r/ is not always pronounced in final
position in words such as car or bar. Labov selected three stores located
in different areas of the cify and which entailed (a) a fashionable shopping
area; (b) a middle-class store; and, (c) a store dealing in low-price goods.
An interwiewer systematically asked questions to salespeople at the three
stores and he showed that variation was systematic due to a matter of
social status. I{e worked on the assumption that the sales-people's accents
reflected those of their customers, and his research technique consisted
in an interviewer visiting the different stores and asking a salesperson for
goods that were located on the four-th floor. Then, pretending he had not
heard the answer the interviewer would get a second more emphatic
response. All the pronunciations of the word 'four'were analyzed and
contrasted with other relevant information such as age, approximate age,
etc. of each interviewee. 264 interviews were carried out in each
department store3.
As was suggested above, sociolinguistic research is based on the
collection of large amounts of data and the later statistical analysis of this
data in order to find general tendencies or regularities. Nonetheless, there
is some tension between quantitative and qualitative approaches to
sociolinguistic research. Ethnographers follow a different approach and
therefore the procedures are very different. They base their research on
case studie. (Ethnog.aphic approach) and that is why they carefully
observe single cases and they contrast the patterns of behavior that they
find with those of other communities or societies. Due to the type of
analysis they make, usually based on recordings, statistical analysis is not
norrnally possible. Although some tension can be perceived between these
two approaches (quantitative and qualitative), each study has idiosyncratic
characteristics and specific aims and may require one or the other but it
is often the case that the researcher needs to be eclectic and combine the
statistical analysis of data with personal inter-views in order to gain
reliability, to contrast his/her findings, or simplv as a complementary
research technique.
All in all, there are different approaches tou,ards sociolinguistic
research in terms of both elicitation techniques and data analysis and
each type of research requires a different design. It is often the case that
more than one elicitation technique is needed.
(Please go to the exercises section and do ererclses 10 and 1 1.)
Lubou, William (1966). Tl.te Social Stratification ol Ettglis/t in Nett'York City.

Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics.
-.
i
I
I
I
i
l-
u!üT l 39
9. E,XERCISES
I. Analyze the following conversations frorn The Adventures of Tbm

Scul'er. What can you deduce about the interlocutors? How?
T can lick you!'

T'd like to see you try it.'
'Ifobll, I can do it.'
'No vou can't, either.'
Tes I can.'
'-\o you cant.'
T can.'
You cant.'
'Can.'
'Cant.'
An uncomfortable pause. Then Tom said:
'lfo'hat's your name?'
'Iisnt any of your business, maybe.'
'Well, I 'low I'II make it my business.'
'Well, why dont you?'
'If you say much I will.'
'Much much much! There, now.'
'Oh, you - think you're
- mighty smart, donl you? I could lick you with
one hand tied behind me, if I wanted to.'
'Well, why dont you do it? You say you can do it.'
"Well, I will, if you fool with me.'
'Oh, yes I've seen whole families in the same fix.'
'Smarfy! -you think you're some rrow, don't you?'
'Oh, what a hat!'
You can lump that hat if you don't like it. I dare you to knock it off;
and anybody that'll take a dare will suck eggs.'
You're a liar!'
You're another.'
You're a fighting liar, and darn't take it up.'
(Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.)
2. Make a list of all the swear words you know in your mother tongue.
lilhich do you use? How often? In what circumstances? To whom? With
nüat aims?
3. If you have access to Cable TV try to see an episode of 'Tom and

Jerry' in which the black lady speaks. What distinctive phonological, lexical
and syntactic features do you note?
4. Very roughly speaking we can divide words and phrases into three
broad registers: formal, informal and normal. To which register do you
think these words and phrases belong: buy, purchase, mzn, bloke, kids,
children, cLtps, 'I'm knackered', 'I'm shattered', 'That's two quid, guv',
emoluments, 'HAS he seen a shrink?', 'Chuck that brolly away', progeny?
Check your answers in your dictionaries. If you want to take this further,
have a look at some concordances for words like'shrink' +'emoluments'.
Tly http ://sara. natcorp. ox. ac. uk/lookup. html
5. In the following passage, the author ("I") who is on a boating holiday
with friends on the river Thames has just had a swim in the river. Can you
find any linguistic evidence which suggests that the book the passage is
taken fuom is not contemporary?
Rather an amusing thing happened while dressing that morning. I

was very cold when I got back into the boat, and, in my hurry to get my
shirt on, I accidentally jerked it into the water. It made me awfully wild,
especially as George burst out laughing. I could not see anything to laugh
at, and I told George so, and he only laughed the more. I never saw a
man laugh so much. I quite lost my temper with him at last, and I pointed
out to him what a drivelling maniac of an imbecile idiot he was; but he
only roared the louder. And then just as I was landing the shirt, I noticed
that it was not my shirt at all, but George's, which I had mistaken for
mine; whereupon the humour of the thing struck me for the first time,
and I began to laugh. And the more I looked from George's wet shirt to
George, roaring with laughter, the more I was amused, and I laughed so
much that I had to let the shirt fall back into the water again.
'Ar'n't you going to get it out?' said George between his
shrieks. -you-
I could not answer him at all for a while, I was laughing so, but at
last, between my peals I managed to jerk out:
'It isn't my shirt yours!'
-it's
I never saw a man's face change from lively to severe so suddenly in
all my life before.
'Whatl'he yelled, springing up. 'You silly cuckoo! Why can't you be
more careful what you're doing? Why the deuce dont you go and dress on
the bank? You're not fit to be in a boat, you're not. Gimme the hitcher.'
I tried to make him see the fun of the thing, but he could not. George
is very dense at seeing a joke sometimes,
41
ó. Faise cognates, or false friends, are words that look aiike in

::--,;sh and Spanish but have different meanin-qs. For instance, the
:- Jrish u'ord'decent'does not mean 'decente'in Spanish but'acceptable,
: :easonable'. Many of these words originally had similar meanings
:, languages but they changed over time. It follows some words
3 -rrh
'.,::,-1se
meaning has changed over time (semantic change). Look up each
'. - rc in an etymological dictionary (such as The Oxford English
-i:-:iottatt) and a) find how each word has evolved from a semantic
: -,nr of view in the history of the English language and, b) find the
.ppropriate equivalent in present-day Spanish.
E.g.: luxury: It means'opulence'in present-day English but between
14th andmid 19th c.,luxus meant 'excessive indulgence in creature
comforts and sensual pleasures', just like present-day Spanish
'lujurioso'.
Abrupt
Disgrace
Edit
Journal
Svmpathy
7. Bearing in mind the sociolinguistic situation in different parts of

Spain, try to find out in what respect is Spain a single or a complex speech
community. Do the same with the united States. In what respect is the
situation in Spain and the United States different?
8. Think of the way you speak your first language (English or Spanish)
t'ith other people in your speech community. How does it vary from the
rvay other people you know speak? Make a list of common features in
vour own speech (e.g. pronunciation, vocabulary (word choice), syntax,
idiomatic expressions, etc.) and try to find an explanation for the difference
between your own speech and the other person (for example, geographic
variation).
9. Describe the way in which the language spoken by adolescents

(either English or Spanish) is characteristic of a specific group.
10. Language is often referred to as a source of power as it can be

used to control others. Think about the way some professionals such as
physicians, lawyers, teachers, speak to others in a working context, or
how parents speak to their children. write a list of common features for
each of them.
1. In this chapter it has been suggested that ianguages and language

1
use are subjected to a great deal of variation:
¿)Writedifferentwaysofaskingforpermissioninaneveryday
situation, for instance, you have got a headache and you need
a
pain-relieving pill. For each request, indicate the person you are
ialking to anáLriefly describe the situational context and your
intention.
b) Doyou speak the same way to your brother/siste^r/friend and to
yorr bosiZ In which ways is your speech different?
your office
c) Do you speak the same way in a family gathering and in
orworkingplace?Why?Inwhichwaysisyourspeechdifferent'if
it is?
10. REFERENCES
(ed'),
Bn¡rr PaulsoN, ch. and G. R. TucxsB. 2003. 'Introduction" in R. Mesthrie
pssential Readings' Malden' MA' USA: Blackwell
Sociolinguirt¡rr-,'ln"
Publishing.
VE'B'
BsRIlrr, R. 1982. A Histotlt of the English I'anguage'Leipzig' Germany:
c.srvEr, L. 2003. 'Reflections on the origins of Sociolinguistics
in Europe" in R'
MA' USA:
Mesthrie (ed.), Sociotinguistics: Thá Essential Readings' Malden'
Blackwell Publishing.
GuNrpERZ, J. J. 1958.'Dialect Differences and Social Stratification
in a Nofth Indian
Village'. American Anthropologist, 60: 668-8 1 '
Hocr, J.1996. Language History, Language Change and Language Relationship'

Berlin: Mouton de Gr-uYter.
Hursor{, R. A. 1980. Sociolinguisllcs. cambridge, uK: cambridge university
Press'
(ed.), sociolinguistics:
K-ccHnu, B. B. 2001.'speech community" in R. Mesthrie
The Essentiat Reaclings. Malden, MA, USA: Blackwell Publishing'
(ed.), socioknguistics:
Leeov, w. 2003. 'Some sociolinguistic principles" in R. Mesthrie
The Essential Reaclings. Ulden, MA, USA: Blackwell Publishing.
MEsrHBrB, R. (ed.). 2001. Concise Encyclopaedia of sociolinguistics. oxford,

uK:
Pergamon.
Savr[s-TRoxs, M. 1996. 'The ethnography of communication" in S. L. McKay
and N. H. Hornber ger, socioling"itiiri and Language Teaching. cambridge:
Cambridge UniversitY Press.
UNIT 1 43
Ssuy, R. W. 2003. 'A brief history of American Sociolinguistics 1949-1989', in R.

Mesthrie (ed.), Sociolinguistics: The Essential Readings. Malden, MA, USA:
Sporsrv, B. 1998. Sociolinguisrlcs. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
\V¡.RonaucH , R. 2002, (4th ed.). An Introduction to Sociolinguisllcs. Malden, MA,
USA: Blackwell Publishing.
11. RESOURCES ON THE WEB
Now you can visit the web page for this subject where you will find
further references and complementary readings.
12. FURTHER READINCS AND QUESTIONS
12.7. Text 1
Read the following text carefully and comment on it emphasizing any

aspect you consider of relevance. After the text you
will find some questions
that may be helpful. Write around 250-300 words in total.
Once we have identified the linguistic variable as our basic working

tool, the next task becomes one of employing that tool in an effort to see
how linguistic variation relates to social variation. An early study of
linguistic variation by Gumperz (1958), but one cast in a'modern'mold,
shows some of the intricacies involved in trying to relate linguistic
variation to social variation. Because the society he was studying is
rigidly stratified on the basis of caste membership, the problems are
considerably fewer that those encountered in such cities as New York,
Detroit, or even Norwich, but they are still present. Gumperz shows how
rather small differences in speech can effectively distinguish sub-groups
in society from one another in a study of linguistic usage in the village
of Khalapur, eighty miles north of Delhi in India. The social stmcture
of the village is deterrnined by Hindu caste membership r,r'ith Brahmans
at the top, then Rajputs (warriors), Vaishyas (merchants), and several
groups of artisans and laborers lower down. At the bottom are three
untouchable castes: Chamars (landless laborers), Jatia Chamars (leather
workers and shoe makers), and Bhangis (sr.veepers). The latter are
restricted to living in cerlain neighborhoods and have less lreedom to
move in the village than do members of the upper castes. Ten percent
of the population are not Hindus but Muslims; thev are outside the caste
system.
So far as language is concerned, certain characteristics of the

Khalapur village dialect are clear markers of social-group membership.
For example, Bhangis do not make certain phonological contrasts that
speakers of all other castes make. Chamars and Jatia Chamars also lack
certain phonological contrasts made bir all others, and some, in
attempting to make such a contrast, actually hypercorcect: that is, they
over-extend a particular usage in trying to emulate others. Jatia Chamars
have a characteristic pronunciation of words that end in [e] in all other
village varieties. Each of the three untouchable castes therefore has
speech characteristics that clearly set it off both from the other two
untouchable castes and from the touchable castes in the village. Muslim
speech resembles that of the touchable classes.
t...1
This study quite clearly shows a direct relationship between linguistic

variation and caste membership. If we know certain things about one,
we can predict certain things about the other. It is just such connections
or correlations that interest sociolinguists working with the linguistic
variable. What they seek are measures of social variation to which they
can relate the kinds of linguistic variation they obsewe. Howeve4 caste,
with its sharp social stratifications, is useless as a nleasure of social
variation outside a few non-Westem societies. Consequently, the problem
becomes one of finding factors in society that show a relationship to
such matters as whether or not an individual says singing or
singin', he go or he goes, or He doesn't know anything or He don't know
nothing.
Once a linguistic variable has been identified, the next issue becomes
that of collecting data concerning its variants in such a way that we can
draw certain conclusions about the social distribution of these variants.
To draw such conclusions, we must be able to relate the variants in some
way to quantifiable factors in society, e.g., social-class membership,
gender, age, ethnicity, and so on. As we will see, there are numerous
difficulties in attempting this task, but considerabie progress has been
made in overcoming them, particularly as studies have built on those
that have gone before in such a way as to strengthen the quality of the
work done in this area of sociolinguistics.
While it is fairly easy to relate the occurrences of the variants of a

linguistic variable to factors such as gender and age, relating them to
factors such as race and ethnicity is somewhat more troublesome since
these are much more subjective in nature and less easily quantifiable.
But the most complicated factor of all is social-class membership, if we
consider'social class'to be a useful concept to apply in stratifying society
and few indeed would deny its relevancel
-
t...1
45
An educational scale may employ the following categories: graduate

or professional education; college or university degree; attendance at
college or university but no degree; high school graduarion; some high
;
¡ school education; and less than seven years of forrnal education. Income
I
level as well as source of income are important factors in an'
classification system that focuses on how much mone\- people har e.
Likewise, in considering where people live, investigators must concern
themselves with both the tlpe of housing and its location.
(Wardhaugh, 2002: 144-146)
Issues to consider:
;, After reading about Gumperz's research in India and the caste
s\-stem he analyzed, how do you see the possibility of doing research
in a speech community in a western society where social and
linguistic differences are often more subtle?
ó r The author states that is it is fairly easy to relate linguistic variants
to factors such as gender and age but much more difficult to relate
them to factors such as race and ethnicity. Do you agree? Why (not)?
:, Do you find the categories suggested in the educational scale
detailed enough for sociolinguistic research? Would you suggest
more or less categories or levels than the ones listed in this excerpt?
J; In the text the author makes reference to various factors that affect
linguistic variation such as age, ethnicity, gender, educational
background, etc. How do you think income level and source of
income affect linguistic variation?
12.2. Text 2
::Tect vou consider of relevance. After the text you will find some questions
::r3t may be helpful. Write around 250-300 words in total.
t. .l
There is no expectation that a community will be linguisticallv
homogeneous: as a collectiüry, it will include acommunicarive repenoire,
or range of languages, language varieties, and registers, that u-ill pattern
in relation to the salient social and cultural dimension of communication.
Any one speaker also has a variety of codes, styles, and registers form
which to choose. The term codes is used here to mean different lan-zuages
or significantly different varieties of a single language; s/rrles, to mean
varieties associated with such social and cultural dimensions as age, sex,
social class, and relationship between speakers; and registers, to mean

varieties of language which are more closely associated with the setting
who are
or scene in which Ih.y u." used than they are with the people
that any single
using them. It is very Lnlikely in a compiex community.
repertoire'
individual carprodt'ce the iull tuttg" of the community's and use
may understand
Different ,.rt g.'ot'p' within the conimunity
codes. Speakers' communicative
different r"b:;;r'-.1 its available
and the rules for
competence i".f"á"t knor'r'ing the alternátives between
.pprip¡",. .i;i.;t"* among ihe alterrratives or for switching
is parl of the task
them. Defintü,h" ;;;t"- for"such decision making
within any group' and of explaining
of describing'.á--""ication
communication more generallY'
Individualsmaybelongtoseveralspeechcommunities(whichma¡'
participate in a varietv of
be discrete o, tt"tiupping), just as they may
social settings. whióh o.r" o. ones individuals orient themselves to at
anygiven."-"",-*hichsetofsocialandcommunicativer^trlesthey
understand this
use i, pu.i'"ltftt 'i'uitgy of communication' To a communitv
-
phenomenotl, án" must reJognize that each member of
hasarepertoireofsocialidentitiesandthateachidentityinagiven
verbal and nonverbal
context i, urro.iuá *ltt u number of appropriate
forms of Although an in'dlnidual's repertoire of social
""fr"rrion.
identities -* rr. *ithin thé bounds of a single complex
speech
membership in unrelated
community, rJi rrir-g"J_bl..rlt ,.ul individuals,
speech communitie; i, .olTr*on. Examples include second-generation
immigrant.hild*" of Greek families*ho .utt function appropriateh
and comforráurv u.ir, with peers in chicago, Illinois, and vn'ith
Navajo leader
grandparent, á.td .o,tti"s when they visit Athens' :"9 11"
communicator btth in the context of a tribal council
who is u"
"ft".ii*
meetinginWindowRock,Arizona,andinacongressionalhearingin
codes bui
Washington, ó.C' S""tt ináividuals change not only language
strategies for
rules forcp.-ut irrg, nonverbal behaviórs, and other
interaction, as *ell as their social roles and identities'
Saville-Troik e (199 6: 35 7-3 5E
Issues to consider:
a) Saville-Troike links different identities and social roles to thea

ascription to different speech communities' Do you agree? Can
speaker be part of different speech communities?
-onáhngltal
b)Trytodescribevourlinguisticrepertoireandyourpossibl-
parlicipation in,rutio,-r, speech communities' What are some of the
difficulties you encounter in your description?
c)' Doyou think it is possible to find a comprehensive definition c'-
'spelch community'? Try and provide your own definition'
U\TT 1 47
13. KEY WORDS

The following list of key words contains some important terms that
are presented in this unit. A definition for each term can be found at the
end of this book, in the giossary.
Analytic language
Black English Vernacular
Borrowing
Communicative competence
Dialect
Dialectology
Discourse analysis
Domain
Ethnography of communication
Informant
Language attrition
Macro-sociolinguistics
M i cro-sociol i nguistics
Native speaker
Observer's paradox
Pragmatics
(Proto)-Indo-European
Sociolinguistic interview
Sociology of language
Synchronic variation
Synthetic language
Variety
Unit 2
1. SOME VARIABLES IN SOCIOLINGUISTICS
1.1. Style
As we saw in the previous chapter, geographic variation is quite
noticeable and relatively eas¡' to identify. There are other tlpes of variation
that are more laborious to describe and, on some occasions at least, less
conspicuous. Even within a specific speech community individuals have
a range of choices when they speak in terms of word choice, syntactic
complexity and even subtle pronunciation features. Every individual has
a t¡,pical way in which s/he does things and the same applies to any aspect
of human behavior. There are rough generalizations in all aspects of life,
for instance, in the way people drive. The British are said to be calm, gentle
drivers whereas the Italians are often considered fast and impatient.
However true these generalizations might be, each British and Italian
driver has his/her own style which can vary depending on the time of the
day or the location.
Stylistic variation can be found in other areas of more interest to
sociolinguists; for example, you can speak very forrnally or very inforrnall¡'
given certain circumstances and situations. This implies a specific choice
on the part of the speaker as s/he will probably choose formal language
for solemn events, less formal language for everyday situations and really
inforrrral and casual language for trivial conversations or relaxed matters.
As a result, the speaker can decide on a level of formality depending on a
number of factors such as the particular occasion, social differences, the
interlocutor's age and other determining factors such as the type of
discourse chosen, i.e., written or spoken. For instance, the following
sentences might be used in different situations depending, among other
things, on the speaker's choice: "Would you be so kind as to leave the
room?", "Can you please leave the room?", "Get lost!", or "You pig, get
lostl". Native speakers usually make use of the range of styles they have
at their disposal when they speak and they can easily accommodate their
language to the required degree of formality. Conversely, it is also possible
to predict the stylistic features that a native speaker will bring to bear on
certain occasions.
Style implies a choice on the part of the speaker to say something.
Given a certain situation where the speaker would say something like,
"Can you pass me the salt?", if sihe changes the word salt for another word
such as pipp", or vinegar, obviously there is a difference in meaning and,
therefore it is not at the discretion of the speaker to change one word for
the other while maintaining the meaning. Howevel if the speaker changes
can for could, would, or simply says "pass me the salt", it implies a
difference in style given the speaker's intention as well as other neighboring
factors such ai the degree of formality and the relationship between the
interlocutors. Another example would be the following words and
expressions which have analogous meanings although their election would
depend on the speakers' preference and the context: die, pass away, bite
the dust or kick the bucket.
As a result of the longliterary tradition in most cultures, especially

western, the question of style has often been associated with the study
way to
of literary writing. Nevertheless, style is iinked in a consistent
of
ril ling,-,irric behávior, whether written or spoken' and regardless(Short,
whether the speaker/writer is deemed to be a iiterary figure
2001).
The following examples illustrate a difference of style' The first
one is
whereas the second
a literary text wrilten wiih a cerlain degree of formality
fragment is the same text but in an informal style'
Erarnpl.e A
"Fourscore years and seven ago our fathers brought forth upon this
continent a new nation, concei,red in liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal'
Now we are engaged in a great civil wa6 testing whether that nation,
or any nation so cánéeived and so dedicated, can long errdure. we are
met on a great battlefield of that u,ar. we have come to dedicate a
portion
of that fiéid as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives
that their nation might live. If is altogether fitting and proper that $'e
should do this..."
(Opening lines of President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

UNIT 2 53
This high-sounding and very effective rhetoric, a masterpiece of

oration, could be rendered in everyday speech as:
Erant¡tle B
"Eighty-seven years ago our predecessors created a new country in

this continent - a country made bv free people and based on the idea
that everybody is equal.
Now we are fighting a big civil war to find out if a country based on
that ideal can last for long. we're gathered here on a big battlefield to
dedicate part of it as a burial ground for those who died here fighting
for their country's sun ival. It's absolutely right that r.r¡e should be doing
this.... "
At a literal level both excerpts mean the same, but there is an enormous
difference of style. Lincoln's words were slightly archaic even then -a way
of making clear that he was talking about eternal values. The second text
captures his meaning at a factual level but does not have anv of the
resonance and poetry.
(Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 1.)
1.2. Register
Another variable that is at the speaker's disposal and that is caught up
r,vith style is register. A register is a set of language features, mainly the
choice of lexical items or slmtactic ordering of utterances, whose use tends
to be associated with a specific interest group as in the case of
professionals with a parlicular occupation and, often, a particular u.orking
context: doctors, air traffic controllers, lawyers, computer enthusiasts,
etc. This tlpe of variation is characterized bv the circumstance and purpose
of the communicative situation and contrasts rvith r,ariation br- ináiriáua1
user, geographical or socio-economic variation. Nou'adar-s, the
overwhelming amount of information to which we are exposed in our
society favors the appearance of registers. Specialization is encouraged
and the flourishing number of technical words and acronS,ms sometimes
makes it difficult for a lay person to follow a conversation on anr topic
that requires a specific register. Apart from specific language domains,
register is socially motivated as it entails a social negotiation among the
participants in order to accommodate the adequate register either in
ri'ritten or spoken discourse.
f
Register can be conceived from two different perspectives. In the

narrow sense of the word, register refers to the tlpe of language used by
a group of professionals who employ certain linguistic features which are
not used, or at least not so commonly, in other settings. This conception
of register is closely related to jargon, and tends to be associated with
word choice rather that syntactic ordering. On the other hand, in a broad
sense ofthe rvord, register can be understood as a social genre, a sociolect,
that bears upon lexical choice and syntactic ordering, and could be
exemplified in the language of newspaper articles, academic prose or legal
language.
Registers can be depicted by means of three main dimensions:
a) Field, which relates to the social activity performed, the setting
and the aim of the interaction.
b) Tenor, which refers to the social roles enacted and the relationship
between the particiPants.
c) Mode, which refers to the medium of the language in that situation.
For example, in the case of a newspaper article, the field would be the
subject matter of the article that is intended to inform or instruct the
reader. The tenor here would comprise the journalist who wrote the afiicle,
but also the intended audience. Finally, the mode in this instance would
be the piece of written work that is printed on the newspaper and reaches
the reader. See the following passages:
Erample A: legal language.
At all pertinent times, it was reasonably foreseeable to Defendants

that without feasible safety features and/or warning deüces, Defendants'
guns would end up being used in a tragic, preventable shooting by an
unauthorized user. Many of these shootings are unintentional shootings,
often by children who do not fully understand or appreciate how to
properly handle a gun, or understand its risks.
With regard to those guns of Defendants which are semi-automatics,
at all perlinent times it was foreseeable that users, including adolescents,
would mistakenly believe that a semi-automatic gun would not fire if
the ammunilion magazine was removed. At all pertinent times it was
foreseeable that users of semi-automatic guns would not understand
or appreciate that an undetectable round of ammunition may be housed
in the firing chamber of the gun, even though the detachable
ammunition magazine had been removed or unloaded, and that
preventable; unintentional shootings would result given Defendants'
designs.
55
Defendants were at all pertinent times aware of these foreseeable

and unreasonable dangers inherent in the design of their firearms.
The design of Defendants'guns, which enables any person u,ho gains
Dossession of them to fire them and does not make users aware that a
round of ammunition is housed in the firing chamber, results in
'housands of unintentional shooting deaths and non-fatal injuries every
r-ear. The General Accounting Office estimates fhat 33a/o of the annual
1,300 to 1,600 unintentional shooting deaths occur because the user of
lhe gun was not aware that a round of ammunition had been loaded
into the gun's firing chamber. This accounts for as many as 450 to 475
deaths each year. In addirion to these dearhs, thlre are many
unintentional shooting injuries that are not fatal.
l,; ,.:,le B: neu)spapet' ertícle.
President Slams Film Business

Hundreds of Holl¡,vood's rich and famous were left speechless last
night when film Society president, Douglas Kirk, 59, launched a savage
attack on the movie business. Neither the script-writers, not the actors,
nor the directors were as good today as they used to be, he told the
astonished film stars. Guests were further incensed when he claimed
that there were too many new films, and roars of protest greeted his
boast that people had stopped going to the cinema because they preferred
u'atching Kirk's old movies at home on television.
The speech came after the Society's annual dinner attended by the
cream of Hollywood's high society. Among the first to arrive were
Peruvian heiress and actress, Isabel Sastre, wearing a full length pale
evening dress and a diamond tiara, and accompanied by her latest
'ellow
husband, Rupert Murbank, "sixth time lucky", she told our reporter.
Present, too, were British star Simon Selino and, hot foot from filming
and only just in time for dinner, comedy star Albert Tancred, his arm
still in plaster after an accident at his Austrian home. Later guests enjoyed
a lar.ish six course banquet caüare, roast duckling and steak
-(including
au poivre)- before veteran Kirk's sour grapes left a bad taste in
er.erybody's mouth.
(By Jim Lau,ier,)
rli^: ' r,-,1e C: l.he lnnEtage of cookín.g.
Step one: Pour the mussel liquor from the shells into a sauté pan
and bring to a boil. Add the mussels and poach gently over medium-lon'
heat for about 4 minutes, until the edges begin to curl. Remove the
mussels with a slotted spoon and set aside; reserwe the cookin,e liquid
5ó AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS
in the pan. Place the peppercorns, 3 garlic cloves, salt, and ll2 cup of
the hot mussel liquid in a blender and puree. Add the puree and oil to
the liquid in the pan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and let
cool. Add the lime juice and reserved mussels to the mixture; puree again.
Transfer the mussel puree to a saucepan and add the stock, cumin,
thyme, and remaining garlic. simmer for 15 minutes over low heat, then
strain into a clean saucepan. whisk in the butter until completely
incorporated and set aside.
Step two: Wrap a bacon slice around each filet, securing with kitchen
twine, and season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a hear,y sauté pan
to almost smoking. Lower the heat to medium and sear the steaks for
10 minutes per side; the filets should be crusty and browned on the
outside and rare to medium-rare on the inside. If you prefe4 cook about
2 minutes longer on each side for medium-rare or about 5 minutes more
per side for medium. while the steaks are cooking warm the mussel
sauce.
Step three: Bring a saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil. Add

the leeks and cook for 5 minutes. Drain carefully, toss in a bowl with the
butter, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Step four: Ladle the sauce on warm serving plates and place the
steaks on top. Carefully cut the twine around the steaks and discard it.
For each serving, divide the leeks into 4 portions around the beef and
place a smoked mussel on top of each portion of leeks.
Style and register are related in the sense that stylistic variations can
occur within a register, as the speaker or writer can choose, for instance,
different degrees of formality or casualness within that register. In a
newspaper article we could read "SARS appears to be the latest example
of a vir-us leaping from animals to people and wreaking havoc.", or simply
"SARS seems to be the most recent example of a virus jumping fróm
animals to people and playing havoc". You would find one sentence or the
other depending on the type of publication and the style of the journalist.
(Please go to the exercises section and do exercises 2, 3 and 4.)
1.3. Cender
Do men and women speak in the same way? Do men dominate topics
of conversation? Are men more asserlive than women? Do men intermpt
women more often than women to men? Living in a western society it máy
take some time to answer these questions, even to find some
There is indeed some evidence that marks language as sexist,"*á-pl"i.
o..uth".
their users, and that both sexes do not speak the same way and that cannot
_ \1-T 2 57
- ::ir be attributed to stylistic or individual differences. Hou,er,er, it should

:: pointed out that language should not be considered as inherently' sexist
:-: it is used in a sexist way or even that it reflects a sexist r,r,orld. 'He'is
--:: nvelfth commonest word in the English language whereas 'she'is the
-:inr'-first commonest word. since there are not more men in the world
:ran \\¡omen, that might, at first glance, seem to suggest that English is a
.;r:ist language but a little further reflection brings us to the realization
,:at the English language is used to talk and write in a sexist world. Men
':; much more likely than women, for example, to be leaders of their
:: ¡ntries so in newspapers 'he'tends to be more frequent than'she'.
Patteffis of variation between men and women are much more evident
.'. some parts of the globe as is the case of Japan. Japanese women show
,
-:;\'are women when they speak in various ways, for instance by using
r: as a sentence final pafiicle. Male speakers refer to themselves as wasi
'.: )re and female speakers use watasi or atasi. But differences can be
:,.¡h more subtle than that. According to Wardhaugh (2002:318) more
:,:n than women in French-speaking Montreal do not pronounce the </>
:. arlicles and pronouns (l/, elle,la andles), and schoolgirls in Scotland
::-m to pronounce the </> in words like water and got more frequently
::-.n boys who prefer a glottal stop.
Trudgill (1972) in a study carried out in Norwich (England) found our
.-r.: \\'omen tended to be more conservative in terms of language use, as
r,:l \\¡ere reported to show most language change. He studied
:::nological and sociological variables and he also discovered that women
':= generally more status-conscious than men. As a matter of fact, in his
':-iv he argued that women had a clear tendency to overrepofi their use
" - lrestige forms (this study included various social groups coming from
-,:king and middle class) while men were inclined to undemeport theirs.
l-.ed upon the collected data and the subsequent analysis, he concluded
:.:-: \\'omen tended to respond to standard-language prestige norms,
i:reas men were liable to react to vernacular prestige forrns. The forrner
-,:e of language was associated, in the context in which the research rvas
:'-ied out, with refinement, sophistication and adherence to the standard
jrguage, whereas the latter type of language was associated u,ith
-,ughness and toughness, which were considered, to some extent, as
:.sirable masculine attributes. The reason for r.l,omen's adherence to the
.,=i:dard could be motivated, according to Trudgill, to their porverless
:,-,:irion in life. This study was carried out thirqz years a_so, and the findings
i: - uld be interpreted with caution as the role of women in societv has
-:an-eed tremendously in these three decades. Horvever, it properlv
j:.rfunts for differences in male-female linguistic behavior.
F
The study of gender is a complex developing issue given the fact that
a number of ,o.iul variables converge and, it does not have an uniform
effect on linguistic behavior. As Eckert points out, this should be taken as
an essential approach to the study of data:
Gender differences are exceedingly complex, particularly in a society

and era where women have been moving self-consciously into the
marketplace and calling traditional gender roles into question. Gender
roles and ideologies create different ways for men and women to
experience life, culture, and society. (1997l.214)
The study of gender and variation arises from the different roles, norTns
and expectations upon the sexes. Gender-based variation has not received
u, -r-r.h scientific attention as that given to socioeconomic class or
dialectal variation over the years. As a result, many of the conceptions we
have now about gender andvariation are based upon popular beiief rather
than on u .orrná sociolinguistic anaiysis. In the last decades this has
changed to a cerlain extent and there is a considerable amount of research
incorporating sex as a biological category in sociolinguistics, discourse
analysis, and pragmatics.
Traditionally, the terrr. sex, has been used to refer to biological and
anatomical differences between men and women, and gender has been
used to refer to psychological and socio-cultural differences between the
sexes. This approach, although clear and simple enough to categorize
profound differences between males and females proves to be a little
simplistic for sociolinguistic research, as one of the aims of sociolinguistics
is to describe the relation between these two, i.e., sex and gender. Se;r is
a biological category which constitutes the base for the differentiation of
roles, norms and expectations within a certain speech community, and
these social roles, norms and expectations compose the idea of gender.
Obviously, it makes no sense to think of the differences between men and
women as a set of traits that characterize and sharply distinguish each
group from one another, since they can not be considered polar opposites.
Femininity and masculinity change from one culture to the othel or within
the same from one generation to the next, and also depend on ethnic,
religious or social (often socio-economic) groups. What is more, recent
studies (Leap, 2001) have also been carried out which supporl the existence
of cerlain characteristics that identify gay and lesbian language (specialized
vocabulary, phonological features, distinctive intonation patterns, etc'),
although this issue is still an ongoing debate.
Recent studies have shown neurophysiological differences in the ',l ar
males and females process language. It seems that phonological processing
,; T2 .59
-r males relates to the left hemisphere of the brain u'hereas it invoir-es

:,rth hemispheres in the case of females. However, no evidence has been
sror.vn that such biological differences have an effect on maie-female
-anguage processing and speech; any dissimilarity seems to be a result of
.ocial factors (social constraints and traditional language usage make
omen speech different to that of men) educational factors (in some
-"^,
=rtcieties women are not allowed to be

schooled or they simply do not have
:ccess to higher education), or power (as the sources of power in western
society, in general, have traditionally been controlled by men, and to a
¡onsiderable extent still are).
Analysis of these differences suggest that typical lexical and
grammatical choices, which are characteristic of men and women, lead
io the forrnation of genderlects, i.e., men's and women's talk. Robin Lakoff
r 1990) identified certain features distinguishing women's talk in terms of
ivord choice, for example, in the frequency of certain colors, and certain
evaluative adjectives (charming, lovely, sweet); or in their hesitant
intonation, a voice pitch associated with surprise and questions; the
trequency of tag phrases $tou know, kind ofl; and, their attitude towards
politeness (less swearing, more indirectness, and hedging); and, the use
of -o." polite noises (uh-huh, yeah, hmm, etc.) which support the
interlocutor's view. Conversely, men tend to be more direct and dominate
rurn-taking. In general, they understand language as inforrnation gathering
rather than a mechanism to initiate and support their relationship with
others. (If you would like to know more about this read Holmes, 1,995)
I At this point it should be specified that there is a difference between
rhe language used by men and women, and the language used to refer to
them.
In the past, masculine has often been considered as a common gende4
and therefore unmarked, and feminine as marked. In most Indo-European
languages the masculine is used to refer to both male and female, for
erample:
a) Everyone should contact his own travel agent for reservations.

Example a) can refer to males and females in the same group.
Traditionally, the masculine is preferred even if the number of male
subjects is inferior to the amount of female subjects. A number of solutions
har-e been proposed in English to find a way to avoid this instance of
serism in language. The solution would be to find a neuter forrn, unmarked
ior gender as it is the case of on in French or impersonal s¿ in Spanish.
\lthough some solutions have been proposed, one of the preferred ones
AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLI\.
is the use of third person p\ura\ prono\rn to reter to ma\es art - :

*r
illllr,ttl,i,
tor example:
b) Everyone should contact their travel agent for resen-au -:-.

Masculine has been traditionafu used to refer to professions 3!!..- ;-;rllrl
with men and that shows that the reiationship between Iang;;.: ürridi
sccieff is a two-fold one. Language reflects the way the societ¡ is ,_:.1-*r.,:l*r[
and to what extent language shows the power of stereotr-pi--: .r ,Ll
changing world where women are taking on jobs customarih' air::r: - ir.u
to men, and in a society where women are fighting agains: .=
discrimination, language is also reflecting a change. As a case ir :,- r
the words in the left hand column are becoming less common 3r l . : .lr
ones on the right column are preferred nowadays:

Bus boy Dining room attendant
Chairman Chairperson
Fireman Firefighter
Foreman Superwisor
Policeman Police officer
Salesman Salesperson
Spokesman Spokesperson
2. SPEECH ACCONTMODATION
speech accommodation consists of the modification of one's own spe-.:
or other communicative behaviors to the ones used by the person one ,l
interacting with. This way of adjusting one's own speech can give \\'a' r _
speech convergence or speech divergence depending on the intentions ,_ _
the speakers and the results of the communication encounter. There ai-
many ways of per{orming speech accommodation and the results generall-.
vary depending on contextual factors. Doctors, lawyers and therapists ca:
accommodate their speech as parl of their job when communicating rviti
clients, or to show empathy. Speakers of a non-standard variety
their speech due to language insecurity or in order to -uy Áung-
facilitaie
comprehension to their interlocutor when interacting with a speaker of a
standard variety. Adjusting to a given register or style is also a way of
accommodating speech to take advantage of intra-group inclusion.
Speech convergence shows a speaker's or a group's need for social
integration and./or identification with another or others. This modification
UNIT 2
61
of speech often expresses a conscious and deriberate process but, on

many
occasions it reflects an unconscious behavior. Research has shown that
converging speech accommodation can increase the speaker,s perceived
(a) attractiveness; (b) predictability and supportivÉness; (c) level
of
interpersonal involv-ement; (d) intelligibility uná comprehensibility; and,
(e) the speaker's ability to gain their risteners'compliance (Giles
, )ooD.
_ Speech divergence and the use of divergent strategies are more often
fostered where the participants in the communication encounter stem
from different social or working backgrounds giving way to a strategy of
intergroup distinctiveness. By means of this tactic, m"mbárs of an ingiáup
can intensily their inclusion in the relevant group while excluding
"irr".r.
This target can be attained with the use of á specific slang,-¡argon,
grammatical complexity o4 simply, accent.
3. EXERCISES
1. can you briefly describe a situation in which the following sentences
would be stylistically suitable?
a) I'rn taking off.
b/ I would like to express my sympathy for your loss.
c/ You'd better get out of my way.
d) Have funl
e) The existence of different ethnic groups in that country brings
about...
l) Break a legl
2. Read carefully the three excerpts (legal language, language of
cooking and newspaper afticle language) prorrid"d uúorrJ. underline the
words and expressions that you consider characteristic of each register.
3. Find three samoles of ranguage, either written or spoken, that
represent three types of register associated with different occupations
or
interest groups. Transcribe or copy them and make a list of 10-15 words,
expressions or syntactic orderings that you consider to be part of that
register. Then, try to pinpoint the three dimensions described
above: field,
tenor and mode. (You could possible search the intemet to find these
three
samples of language.)
62
means of establishing
4.Doyou think that register and style could be
solidarity among speakers? Provide an example'
(probably
5. Reflect on the way men and women use language work' Can you
where you
Spanish) in your rr"igftbothood,or the place
the sexes (e'g''
find a set of ting,rirtiE-f"atures that distinguish between the other way
expression, o. *orJ, that men would never say' and
round)?
either a
6. Can you think of an instance of speech accommodation'
case of speech r".g""tto' 'p""th dñergence? Describe it in around
"on
250 words.
4. REFERENCES
.Family strrrcture andfeminine personality,, in M. Z. Rosaldo
Crrononow, N. 1974.
and L. r.-pt "r"1"';:.; w;;"", Culture and-society. sranford: Stanford
UniversitY Press.
E,crEnr,P.lggT..SexandGenderDifferencesinVariation,,inN.Coupland&A.
o ok. Basingstoke:
Jaworski (eds. ). li c,io,tingui s tics : A Reader and C our s eb
Palgarve.
(ed') Concise Encyclopedia
Gnr,s, H. 2001. 'speech Accomodation', in R' Mesthrie
of Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Pergamon'
GrrlrcaN, C. Ig82. In a Different Voice' London: Harvard
University Press'
Longman'
Horm¡,s, J. 1995. Women, Men ancl Politeness. Harlow, England:
LasovW.2003'.Somesociolinguisticprinciples,,inCh.B.BrattPaulstonandG'
USA:
Malden.
Richard Tucker G¿r.) Sor¿á¡inguiitics: The Essential Readings.
Larorr', R. 1990. Tatking power. New York: Basic Books'
LEap,W.L.200I-'GayLanguage',inR'Mesthrie(ed')ConciseEncyclopediaof
Sociolinguisllcs. Oxford, UK: Pergamon'
Encyclopaedia of
Snonr, M.2001.'Style" in Mesthire, R. (2001) Concise
Sociolinguisllcs. Oxford, UK: Pergamon'
T¿.¡.tNpN, D. 1990. You Just Don't Understand: Women

and Men in Conversation'
New York: William Morrow'
the Urban British
Tnuncrll, P. 1972..Sex Covert Prestige and Linguistic Change in
English of Norwich'. Language and Society'I' 179-95'
(4th ed.) Malden, USA:
wenrHaucn, R. 2002. An Introduction to sociolinguistics.
63
;. RESOURCES ON THE WEB
-\o*'vou can visit the web page for this subject where you rvill find
-*rher references and complementary readings.
N. FLRTHHR READINGS AND QUESTIONS
n.1. Text 3

:sECt vou consider of relevance. After the text you will find some questions
-:er may be helpful. Write around 250-300 words in total.
Style shifting. One of the fundamental principles of sociolinguistic

investigation might simply be stated as There ere no single-style spáakers.
By this we mean that every speaker wilr show some variation in
phonological and syntactic rules according to the immediate context in
which he is speaking. We can demonstrate that such stvlistic shifts are
determined by (a) the relations of the speake4 addresseé, and audience,
and particularly the relations of power or solidarity among them; (b)
the wider social context or "domain": school, job, home, nelghborhood,
church; (c) the topic. one must add of course ihat the stylistió range and
competence of the speaker,may vary greatly. children hu.r"á u"ry
narrow range in both the choices open to them and the-uy social contexts
they respond to. old men often show a narrow range in that their
motivation for style shifting disappears along with thiir concern for
power relationships. 1...1
well-developed social variables show a systematic range of stvle
shifting r,r,hich is correlated to the amount of áttention paidio ,p"".h.
we can easily observe such style shifting in certain rong-stiding
variables which are common to almost all dialects of Engiisñ. the th Jf
thing and that can appear as smooth fricati'e "th" souná, the standard
variant; as a "t"-like sound lightl¡, or stronglv arriculated; as a
combination of these two; or as a zero as in Ghnnze 'cr. For most
Americans, the proporlions of these forms are nicelv blended and sraded
for each stylistic level different absolute ler,eis for differenisocial
-at Similarly,
groups and different regions. the alternation of -ing and. -i,'
in unstressed syllables is a systematic stylistic r-ariable fo. ,,''ort
Americans- again at different levels for different classes and regions.
Labor- (2003:231)
Issues to consider:
a) What do you think of the sentence Ihere are no single-style speakers?
Explain your answer.
b/ Provide some features in your own language that indicate a style
shift (vocabulary grammatical constmction, phonological feature,
etc). What situational factors do you think may cause the shift in
style?
6.2. Text 4
aspect you consider of relevance. After the text you will find some questions
The evidence described in this chapter suggests that men tend to
dominate interactions in public settings. They generally talk more than
women, ask more questions, interrupt more often, and when they get
the floor they are more likely than a woman to challenge and disagree
with the speaker. In a variety of contexts, women tend to provide more
supportive and encouraging feedback than men, to agree rather than
disagree, to look for connections and add to and build on the
contributions of others. This is positively polite behaviour, stressing
shared goals and values, and expressing solidarity. Women also exhibit
negatively polite behaviour in many contexts by avoiding competing for
the floor or interrupting others. They appear to be more attentive
listeners, concerned to ensure others get a chance to contribute.
One explanation which has been proposed for this pattern focuses
on the social meaning of talk. It has been suggested that, in general,
women are more concerned with solidarity or'connection' (Chodorow
1974; Gllllgan 1982), while men are more interested in status and being
'one-up' (Tannen 1990a: 38). Features of female talk, such as facilitative
tags, agreeing comments, attentive listening and encouraging feedback
can be seen as expressions of concern for others, and a desire to make
contact and strengthen relationships. Male talk, on the other hand,
appears to be more competitive, more concerned with dominating others
and asserting status. Challenging utterances, bald disagreements and
disruptive interruptions are examples of strategies which typify male
talk in public contexts, and which seem to support this claim.
Holmes (1995:67)
Issues to consider:
a) To what extent do you agree with Holmes, the author of this
fragment?
UNIT 2 ó5
b) No doubt that the speech of men and women is different. Can you
I
provide some specific examples to show this contrast?
i
c) Do you think that the difference in menb and women's talk is
culturally bound, i.e., does it depend on the culture (or country)?
Please, provide an example.
7. KEY WORDS
end of this book, in the glossary.
Discourse analysis
Ethnography of speaking
Linguistic competence
Native speaker
Pragmatic competence
Pragmatics
(Proto) -Indo-European
Variety
Unit 3
1. PIDCINIZATION AND CREOLIZATION
Pidginization is a process that sometimes takes place rvhen two
languages come into contact and, as a result, there is a process of
simplification or hybridization. This generally occurs because there is a
need to communicate_ between speakers of different languages and
there
are limited relations between them, i.e., the language lI only used for
a
specific purpose such as trade. often, the words frolrn one lánguage are
adopted while using the syntactic ordering of the other language but,
as
a rule the grammatical system is simpliFied as well ., oti".-.o-pi.,.
Iinguistic features. The formation of pidgins was characteristic in the 16th
and 17th centuries when European colániar powerst spread all over the
world and new languages, which were lexicaily related io the language
of
the colonize4 emerged. These contact languages were initially rised"just
for functional purposes in specific situations and contexts and, thereftre,
they were not the native language of anyone and speakers continued
to
use their languages in their own speech communities. wardhaugh (2002:
ó2) points out that the process of pidgin ization most likely requires
the
contact of more than two languages. In a context with only iwo languages
there would probably be a struggre between the two and the most"likély
outcome would be a relation of dominance of one over the othe¡
bar"á
on social and economic factors. The language of the dominant culture
would probably be imposed. In a situation in which the locals speak
more
than one native language there is a need to find a common ground.
Pidgins often undergo several geographical and sociolinguistic
contexts
as is the case of Melanesian pidgin Engtish which arose
ás a shipboard
linguafranca, it waslater used as a planátion language and it finally
came
1o
be a language for inter-ethnii city communication (Richford &
McWhorter, 1997).
t S"" World Englishes in chapter ó.

70
Pidginshavebeenusedforcenturiesandeventualiy,someofthem,became that was

creoles. The proces, oi.r"otirution takes place when that language
for purposetul communication is
originally a tunctionai;;ñ;;4:*i
acquired as a mothel;Ñ;;iy children
*ho ar" exposed to it. The social
is now used are more complex as they
circumstances in *ftitt' ttJl' ianguage
and communicative purposes and,
need to serve ail ki;J;;ir;"iui rr".-"d,
therefore, tn" rurrguuJ" h rr.h u situation, the pidgin develops and
";p;;;. o[ grammar and phonology and its use
becomes more compi"^ báth in terms I
functioni. The processes of

then covers all kinds of commurri.alu" they overlap'
pidginziation and are absolutelv different although
"."áúráii." in terms of lexis, grammar
The former irr,rotu"r"r"ol" f.i"¿ "t simplificátion, in all kinds
the latter entaiis the expansion
and phonological f";;;r, *h"r"u, becomes
functions' This amplification
of linguistic f"ut*"r-ufJámmunicative
originally had limited functions becomes
apparent because th;ñ;;ge yhich
ihat íeeds to be used for all types of
now a system used as a iatii,e lungrrug"
piágin becomes a creole'Although creoles
social functions. H.ir"""r, ".t",r"r!
have gained status i" rfr" Iast decádêr,
th"." are millions of speakers whose
native and only;;;;;l;u u"á thev mav feel thev speak a sub-
"t"ot" become offi'cial languages in places
standard turrg,rug".^3árñ" "."ol"s have
creoles are widespread such as
Iike papua N"* c.rIrr"u-*á ,o-" other
und Haitian Creole (French-based)'
Hawaiian Creole g"gf"ft te"gfirn-Uur"¿i
Hui iunr (over 5 million)' Another
which is the native language of almost áil
and common use of pidgins and/or
interesting example ;iiñ. ñril d",r"lopment can
even has a BBC web page where news
creoles is Kiswahili. This language
U" t"t¿ and heard (www'bbc'co'uk/swahili)'
Between 1950 and 1975 these languages stopped being considered
lbartu.diTediu.gottit t9 s.ain the status of
uninterestirrg u.,áil;;í; status and their
Ianguages, ,ü",t "i *fit a change in iheir political interest for
^"a
social consideratio', ir, ,o-" countrieí,
they became of.central
appiied linguists and theoretical
many linguists, including socioljnguisis, of little interest
linguists. Before ,frltlpiáEf"s a1d cpo.ier
*ér" deemed to be
certain iinguistic features such as,
because tn"y *"r"*.J;rfr;ú to lack their
all as a result of
articles, the copula, and grammatical inflectioni, which were not
,functional,p".p;;;;hiJt tetr aside linguistic features
essentialtoconveymeaning.Atpresent,th"yu'"consideredaslanguages
with their own history'
in their o*n rigftl "t tt "t?i"tiis of a language
communities'
structure, communicative function and speech
pidgins and creoles were ignored to a great extent by

--G-y*", (1g71: 3) mentions that ttrut rháse languages, instead of being considered
linguists ur.-urgtnuií;;;;;e;;l H" ub¿, rn
degenerations and, therelore, not as svstems
crearive adaptations, h?v:;"?;;;;.;;¡
as
their own right'
\IT 3
71
originally, pidgins served the purpose of a lingua

franca, i.e., a language
;sed by people who speak different mother iongn", and who used a
-.mmon language for a specific functional situation, such as trade. This
-s an old phenomenon that still occurs today as we can find some clear
.ramples of lingua francas, such as English which is used all over the
,', orld for intercultural communication
and has become the language of
iusiness. Another example of alingua franca is Esperanto. This i.rrg;r.g"
-s not the mother tongue of any speaker because it is an aftificial lang'uag*e,
:ut it is sometimes used for international communication.
Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 1)
2. SOME INSTANCES OF PIDGINS

Most pidgins and creoles are based on an European language, and the
most common and widespread ones are based on one of the following
languages: English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, or German. English-
based creoles are very common in caribbean areas such as Antigua, Barbádos,
Jamaica and the west Indies in general, but they are aiso present in Africa
cameroon, Kenya, st. Helena, Zimbabwe, Namibia), Asia (India, china,
Hong Kong) and the pacific area (papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands,
\ustralia). French-based creoles can be found in Mafiinique, Guadeloupe,
St. Lucia and Haiti. some Spanish-based pidgins and creóles were used in
Dominican Republic, cuba, puerto Rico and the philippines. Some instances
of Portuguese-based creoles can be found in Aruba, Éonaire and curaEao,
\lalaysia and Singapore. These are some of the most important pidgins:
Cameroon Pidgin English
Hawaiian Pidgin
Kamtok
Kenya Pidgin Swahili
Naga Pidgin
New Guinea Pidgin German
Nigerian Pidgin English
Papuan Pidgin English
Pidgin German (Gastarbeiters)3
, ' etagi".- are more common in places with easy access to the oceans, especialh' around
:he equatorial belt in former coloniai locations. The¡,tend to be associateá
rvirh coloniza¡ion
and distant cultures, but there are some instances of pidgins g"..p". In the 1970s zuest
rvorkers.in Germany coming from neighborirrg .orrntri"i.,'"h "'it¡i"
as Greece,ir"i; p;;;g;, Sr"t
and Turkey developed a pidgin in some big G-erman cities like se.lin
anJ Frankfur1.
Russenorska
Sango
Vietnamese Pidgin French
Pidgins are to be found all over the world but, they tend to share a
number of general characteristics. These are some of them:
a) Almost complete lack of inflection in nouns, pronouns, verbs and
adjectives.
b) Nouns are unmarked for number or gender.
c) Verbs lack tense markers.
d) There is no distinction for case in personal pronouns, so l can stand
for me, andthey for them.
e) Syntactically, the absence of clausal str-uctures is quite common in
pidgins. However, relative clauses and other types of embedding
develop in creolization.
fl In order to avoid possible confusion, as there is often no distinction
between long and short vowels (e.g., ship and sheep would be
pronounced in the same way), a common resource introduced in
these languages is 'reduplication'. For example, in Tok Pisin slp
means 'ship' and sipsip means 'sheep', andpis means 'peace' while
pispis has the meaning of 'urinate'. Another common usage of
reduplication is to intensify the meaning of a word, for instance,
cry means 'cry'whereas crycry means 'cry continually', or talk
meaning'talk' and talktalk meaning'chatter's.
3. SOME INSTANCES OF CREOLES
Terminology and sociolinguistic status are not always consistent and

some creoles can be referred to as pidgins (for instance, Tok Pisin and
Hawaiian Pidgin English) or the other way round. This mismatch is
o Russenorsk was used until the 1920's in the Arctic and was used by Russian fisherrnen
and Norwegian fish traders.
' Please note that this communication strategy is very foequent in many languages. For
example in Spanish if you want to emphasize that a mountain was really high you can say
'La montaña era alta, alta'or to express that the cake was really good you can say'El pastel
estaba bueno, bueno'. In English you can say'You wicked, wicked child'.
L,\IT 3
73
produced because'pidgin' and'creole' are technical terrns
commonlv used
br-linguists but not necessarily by speakers of the r"ú;;;;;.
instances of creoles are:
il;
Anglo-Romani (a creolization of Romani in England)
Asmara Pidgin (Italian-based, it is spoken in palrts of ethiopia)
Berbice Creole Dutch
Chabacano o Zamboangueño. (Spanish_based)ó
Haitian Creole
Hawaiian Creole English
l
Jamaican Patwa
Tok Pisin
. Tl" British Empire spread all over the world for around 350 years and
this favored the expansion of Standard English and regional varieties
o'erseas, on the one hand, but also the creation and develJpment
of many
pidgins and creoles in different pafts of the globe, on the othen
As a matter
of fact there have been more English-based óreoles than in other
languages
such as French, Portuguese or Spanish. Two major groups of Engñsh
based creoles can be identified: thé Atlantic grorp,"rpoien in
west Afoica
and the caribbean area such as Jamaica" cr.tt"'English, the
creole
English of the Lesser Antilles and the Eastern caribbean ári"ti", (Trinidad
and Tobago, Guyana), flourishing in the 17th and lgth c.;
and, the pacific
group including Hawaiian Creole English and Tok pisin.
3.1. Hawaiian Creole English
, o.ver 600.000 people inHawaii speak Hawaiian creore English (HcE)

also known as Hawai'i pidgin or simply pidgin. HCE
; immersed in a
;omplex sociolinguistic situation because, u, áft"n happens with pidgins
and creoles, it was denigrated repeatedly r., s.'hools and -pullic
administrations for years but
-or" u.rd -or" oft".r it is turning into a way
ro express solidarity and forge local identity. Nowadays,
Hawaii,s council
-s determined to maintain and develop th"is local tu"g";t" by
means of
.nforcing competent language planning and policy (s!e .ñupt"r
s;.
t rrr.." are thee main examples of creoies based on spanish: papiamento(formed

-:'e 17th c' in the island of cr¡r)ao which is currently in
trr"lii""¿, of Aruba and
"r"Ji" colombia);
3':naire); Palenquero (developed in the lgth c. near cafiagena,
and. Chabacano
: Zatnboangueño (is used in some parrs of the philipf;:;j: iü;'sp"uii.r,_uur.¿
::e at the time of yriting out of the icope of this unii but ií y;;;irh;rinou, creores
more about
---e:¡, vou can read'Lengrras pidgin y lenguas criollas,in eii""ipiii
. - -iología del lenguaje by rrancisó MarcoJ Marín pp.
de-iociottngür;;;;;;
, 277-29r (Barcerona: Ariel).
These are some general chatacteristics of HCE:
since it
1. From a phonological point of view, HCE is rather simple
avoids prro.rologlcal features which are difficult to pronounce in
(English, Hawaiian and manv
any of ih" lurrgrruges in contact
tend to be
others). The vocaliJsystem was simplified and fricatives
avoided:
E.g.: Bo da dem (both of them)

Braddah (brother)
a large extent from the socially dominant
- Vocabulary is derived topidgini
2.
usually have about 90!o of words
g;;;p. English-based some of
coming tro* ettgtish,iftJ"*ifier language.' Notice.that
English (A) and some others
these words HCE"come directly from
hrrr" b""n or simpiified (B)' Still' they are largely
^d^pt"d
recognizable:
A B
Boy Den (then)

Fish Lata (later)
Guy Neva (didnt)
Stuff Togedda (together)
Stay Wot? (What?) l
L
3. Many words are polisemous as, for instance:

be used as a main verb 'try', but also as a verb auxi-
" try can with
E.g.:
the meaning of 'please''
lluty
inside means'inside', 'soul' and 'heart''
4. Almost complete iack of inflection in nouns'
pronouns' verbs and
gender:
adjectives. Ñor-,.t, are unmarked for number and
E.g.:'DisdalanguagefomospeopodatstayliveinsideHawai'i''
'Him was real tight wit his brudda"
'You go five mile sout'.
5. Tense and aspect are normally indicated with a marker'
Pasttenseisexpressedbyplacingpreverbalpreteriteauxiliaries
'lven', 'bin' and'had'before the verb:
E.g.: 'Shi wen Pein da grin haus''
'You bin say go uP on roof''
UNIT 3
75
Future events are marked by,go,, ,gon,, ,gona,, or,goin,before the

verb:
E.g.: 'I gon it fish,.
Progressive aspect can be expressed by: a) inserting 'ste' (stay)
before the verb in the infinitive; b) using ih" form of the .reÁ';
and, c) using both forms altogether: -tng
E.g.: a) 'Shi ste rait da leta'.
b) 'Dey pleing futbawl'.
c) 'Naue ste iting da kek'.
6. Auxiliaries are nonexistent and negation is expressed by placing
'Tro','rrat' or 'neva' before the verb:
E,.g.: 'Shi neva si daet muvi'.
'No can' (cannot, it's not possible)
'No mo'(there isn't any)
(Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 3)
3.2. Jamaican Patwa (or Patois)

As a result of not having an official status, a name for the creole
language used mainly in Jamaica has not been fixed to the present
day and
some terms like Jamaican, Jamaican creole, Jamaican patwa or patois
are
all used. over of the 2.5 million population of Jamaica in the late
90ok
1990's are descendants of slaves broughi from Africa. Language in this
caribbean island nowadays reflects the history of that country and its
contact with a whole range of cultures and languages that havl passed
through. In spite of that, the official language remains Standard Énglish
which is the educared model spoken by tñ" elite and also the official
language. In Jamaica, a whole linguistic spectrum can be found having
Standard English (the lexifier language) at one extreme and Jamaican
Patwa or creolized English at the other. Jamaican Patwa is characteristic
for its fragmented English speech, and for haüng a slrrtax developed
during
the days of slavery with the influence of severál wlst Africa., iurrgrug"i
pertaining to the Niger-congo family of languages. Nowadays,
this lágr"ugá
has not got much social and socioeconomic státus in Jamaica
and it ürg"]y
represents the speech of the peasant and laborer with little educatio.r.
is not considered an "acceptable" language for formal purposes and
ti
speakers are often considered as socially anJ linguistically inferior.
some
I
attempts have been made to change this situation aiming at giving

Jamaican Patwa official status and turning it into the language of education.
Jamaican Patwa is gaining in prestige and is now seen sometimes in
newspapers or heard on the radio, and is also present in songs which helps
to raise the self-esteem of the speakers and assert their identity.
This creole does not quite have a uniform orlhographic representation
anci no agreement has been made to conclude if it should accommodate
the lexifier language (Standard English) or if an entirely new system should
be created.
Some general features of JP:
1. No lt - 0l or ld - éldistinction:
JP Engl.
E.g.: 'de' the
'dis' this
'odder' other
'wid' with
'tink' thing
2. Final consonant clusters tend to be devoiced (ldlbecomes ltl) or

deleted:
JP Engl.
E.g.: 'husban' husband
'purfume' perfumed
3. It is not stressed-timed but syllable-timed, so all syllables receive

the same stress. (You can find some recordings in the web site for
this subject.)
4. Modified personal pronouns:
I 'me'
He 'im'
They 'dem'
5. Absence of plural markers on nouns:

JP Engl.
E.g.: 'all type a people' all kinds of people
'book' shoes
o. ,\ltered third person singuiar subject-verb concord:
JP Engl.
E.g.: 'if im dare axe' if he dares to ask
'shi greet im' she greets him
i. Absence of auxiliaries to form the negative:

Engl.
E.g.: I dont want anything to eat.
JP
E.g.: 'Mi nuh wan nutten fe eat'.
8. Copula deletion:
JP Engl.
E.g.: 'it soh bad' it is so bad
'im short an tumpa' he is short and stokcy
'life ard many sey' many people say that life is hard
9. Tense marked lexically (instead of morphologically):

EngI.
E.g.: That is the woman that took my money.
JP
E.g.: 'Is dat ooman deh did tek mi monev,.
3.3. Tok Pisin

Papua New Guinea has three official languages which turn to be second
languages to most people: Hiri Motu, Tok pisin and English. Tok pisin
TP) is used nowadays by three million people as a unifiring language, and
ilrtgua franca, among speakers of a number of differát lrrdig-"rro*
languages (over 800) Papua New Guinea. This language, which rémains
,, erv distant to English,
is sometimes used as a pidginánd sometimes as
a creole and shows clear influences from Englisñ in terms of borrowings,
subordination patterns, plural forms (-s), eic. However, we can not sav
ihat a continuum between Tp and English can be found as it seems thai
decreolization does not affect Tp. In 1975 papua New Guinea was born
and TP was recognized in the constitution as on of the national languages.
-\ow some communities can choose to have their children schooleá in rp
T t!" first three years of elementary education but parents perceive that
English brings more advantages to their children. TÉ is also used in manv
oovernment publications, in radio, television broadcasting
and in the
House Assembly which is the parliament. wantok, a weekly newspaper,

is written in TP and has a readership of over 10.000 people'
Some general features of TP:
1. Consonant assimilation. There is no distinction between lpl and lfl;
lgl and lkl; lsl,lJl and lt[l:
TP Engl.
E.g.: 'hap pas seven' half past seven
'lipt' lift
'pait' fight
'pilta' filter
'pinga' finger
'pul bilong Pis' fin of fish
'pulap' full, full up
TP Engl.
E.g.: 'sak' shark
'sel' shell
'sgm' shame
'aip' ship
'sot, sotpela' short
'su shoe
'sips' chips
'sis' cheese
'sops' chops
TP Engl.
E.g.: 'dok' dog
'lek' loo
'"b
'pik' pig
2. Simplified consonant clusters:

TP Engl.
E.g.: 'ailan' island
'gaden' garden
'hos' horse
'kona' corner
'lam' lamp
'lephan' left hand
'wok' work
'wan handet' hundred
b-
i
UNIT 3 79
3. Simplified vocalic system, only lal, lel, lil, lol, lul:

TP Engl.
E.g.: 'fut' foot
'grin' green
'gto' grow
'ston' stone
'smok' smoke
'stret' straight on
'tumora' tomorrow
4. Word reduplication to indicate emphasis:

TP Engl.
E.g.: 'liklik bas' minibus
'lukluk' look at
'man bilong toktok' talkative person
'singsing' festival
5. Plural suffix'-pela':
TP Engl.
E.g.: 'emtupela' those two
'emtripela' those three
'etpela' eight
'tupela' both
'tupela marit' married couple
6. Lexicon based on English. It should be taken into account that in

the process of decreolization, more and more words tend to be
adopted from the lexifier language and the acrolect quickly adopts
words that portray the present society.
TP Engl.
E.g.: 'adres' address
'dokta' doctor
'heven' heaven
'man' man
'stori' story
'skul' school
7. Metaphors in word formation:

TP Engl.
E.g.: 'haus bilong tumbuna pasin' museum
'kaikai long moning' breakfast

'laplap bilong windo' curtain
'lain bilong Jisas' disciples
'pin bilong nus' nose pin
8. Simplified prepositional system (only three): 'long'used for'to, fo6

from'; 'bilong'used for'of ; and, 'wantaim'used for'with'.
NOTE: In the web page for this subject, you can find written and aural
samples of these and other pidgins and creoles.
4. DECREOLIZATION
Creoles, as any other living language, continue to evolve. There is a
phenomenon called decreolization that arises when one creole has a
prolonged contact with a standard language in a specific society, and that
standard brings a considerable influence to bear on the creole. So, speakers
start to develop the creole taking the standard as a model and a continuum
is created with the standard as a model at the top and the creole as a model
at the bottom. This process can be clearly perceived nowadays in places
like Barbados, Cameroon, India, Nigeria and Papua New Guinea, among
others. In such a situation the different forrns of the creole become sociallv
stratified and the variety or varieties which are closer to the standard often
become the language of the elite and educated society (acrolect), whereas
the variety which is closer to the creole often represents illiterate people
and lower social class (basilecl). Between these two poles there can appear
a whole range of varieties or mesolecrs which determine not only social
stratification but also alleged identities among their speakers. Wardhaugh
(2002:80) cites Allsopp (1958) and shows the following stages in the
continuum to say'I told him'in Guyanese:
1. ai trld hrm
2. ai torld hrm
3. ai to: I rm
4. ai tel rm
5. a tel rm
6. ai tel I
7. atxll
B. mi tel I
9. mi tel am
The varieties 1 to 3 reflect the acrolecl typical of middle-class usag=
varieties 4 to 7 display mesolect forms characteristic in lower middle a: :
L\IT 3
81
urban working classes. The pronunciation in stage 8 is closer to the basilect

and shows a rural working class, as well as item 9 u'hich is used bv old
and illiterate rural laborers.
Hawaii is one of those places where we can find this continuum of
speech which ranges from the distinct HCE to Standard English of Hau,aii.
In this case, it depends mainly on the speaker's location and upbringing.
The basilecr (barely intelligible by standard English speakersf ir rpát
in the country side whereas the acrolect is spoken in the mayor cities. ""
THE USE OF PIDGINS AND CREOLES IN EDUCATION
It is rather uncommon to find a pidgin or creole, or other minority

dialect, as the language of instruction in formal education in any
educational system in the world, and valdman (1989) considers that thii
is so for two reasons. on the one hand, the continuum of variation that
is usually found between the pidgin/creole and the standard educational
language represents a strong obstacle (see decreolization) as it is
sometimes difficult to isolate a particular norm to be used in education.
on the other hand, the social consideration of the pidgin/creole is in a
rvav hindered by the fact that it is frequently considered as deviant from
the standard and as having an inferior status in the speech community.
Siegel (2002) affirms that speakers of creoles and minority dialects
-eenerally
do not do well in the formal education system. In some cases
¡his can be caused by socio-economic factors but on some other occasions
it seems clear that language plays a role. very often, these speakers are in
a u,ay disadvantaged because the language of formal education is actually
a standard variety that they do not speak as a mother tongue. This is thL
case of AAVE (African American Vernacular English) which has been
analyzed quite extensively since the 1960's in the united States. Not so
nuch research has been developed with regards to other minority dialects
and creoles although these cases are equally interesting (see chapter 5 for
information on Aboriginal languages).
Some creoles are now recognized as a distinct variety rvith a
grammatical systern bui educators and policy makers introduce manv
arguments against the application of a 'nonstandard' varietv in the
educational system. They posit, for e;<ample, that instmction time should
oe spent on learning the stanciarcl as tirey consider that any effor-t made
r:o teach the nonstandard is a r,vasre of tirne. They believe that
using and
ieaching a nonstandard varjety cf speech in the classroom deprir.es
children of a chance to benefit from the socio-economic advantages that

speakers of standard varieties have, condemning them to an unchanging
underclass status. Some other educators and policy makers advocate that
using a nonstandard variety in education may cause confusion and
interference with the standard variety what will result in additional
difficulties for the children.
No doubt that some progress is being made in this respect over the
years, and pidgins and creoles are gaining social and political recognition
and their acknowledgement as part of the social identity in many parts of
the world is now afact (see language policy in chapter 5). In the last
decades there has been a global attempt to legitimize the use of pidgins,
creoles and minority dialects in formal education claiming that the
speakers of these languages have a right to express their own linguistic
and sociocultural identity in their own languages. Siegel (2002) points out
that this enthusiasm for using pidgins, creoles and minority dialects in
formal education had to face some obstacles such as the following:
1. Negative attitudes and ignorance on the part of the teachers who,

especially in immigration settings, may mistake language problems
of creole-speaking children for cognitive problems and eventually
lower their expectations of these students. Eventually, this leads
to the lowering of student performance in favor of students
speaking the standard variety. Some studies in this respect have
been carried out with immigrant children moving to new
educational systems such as creole-speaking children coming Í?om
the Caribbean area and entering the public educational system in
the United States.
2. Negative attitudes and self image of the students themselves because
of denigration of their speech and culture. This effect can be
neutralized by legitimizing the students'language varieties and
adopting an integrative approach, for example: bringing aspects of
their culture into the classroom (e.g.: traditions, music, etc.);
encouraging students to speak and/or write in these varieties;
teaching some sociolinguistic principles that explain linguistic and
pragmatic differences with standard varieties.
3. Repression of self-expression because of the need to use an
unfamiliar form of language.
4. Difficulty in acquiring literacy in a second language or dialect. In
this case, children may be repressed if they are not allowed to
express themselves in their familiar language variety.
L\IT 3 83
Pidgins, creoles and minority dialects have so far been used in three
t\-pes of educational programs (SiegeI,2002), all of them aiming at
additive bilingualism or bidialectalism, that is, helping the students to
acquire the standard language while maintaining their own pidgin, creole
or minority language. This practice clearly contributes to their self-esteem
and their right to maintain their mother tongue. These three sorts of
programs vary in the way the children's home varieties are considered
and interact with the standard language within the classroom. These
three types are: instrumental program, accommodation program or
a\vareness program. In the first case, the instrumental program is
charactertzed by the use of the home variety as the medium of instruction,
so it is used as a vehicle for the acquisition of initial literacy and the
learning of other subjects in the curriculum. The standard language is
therefore introduced at a later stage and it gradually becomes the language
of instruction for some subjects. Instrumental programs have been
implemented in places such as Mauritius (Mauritian Creole) or Papua
New Guinea (Tok Pisin). In the second case, the accommodation
program does allow the use of the home language and its use is not
penalized in any way but it is, however, not employed as the language of
instruction for any subject nor it is studied as a language in itself. At
higher levels, as students accommodate to the standard variety, their
home language and culture can be preserved by means of the study of
literature or music of their own communities. Some accommodation
programs have been set up for Hawaiian children speakers of varieties
of Hawaiian Creole English and speakers of Aboriginal English in
Australia. In the third case, the awareness program includes in the
curriculum some teaching on basic sociolinguistic and sociopragmatic
principles of different language varieties, and their grammaticai rules
and pragmatics are compared with those of the standard variet-v'. Some
awareness programs have been created for creole-speaking Caribbean
immigrants in the United Kingdom and speakers of Kriol and Aboriginal
English in Australia. (Recent research carried out in these three programs
is summarized in Siegel, 2002: 17-29)
(Please go to the exercises section and do exercises 4 and 5.)
6. EXERCISES
1. Search the internet for'Esperanto' and 'Esperanto speaking
communities'. Read about this language and then write a summan'(about
250 words) with the information you consider relevant about it (origin,
84
users, number of speakers, etc')'

What advantages and disadvantages can
;; t;" for the usá of Esperanto nowadays?
of the pidgins from the list' Get
2. Search the web for at least three(whet"ih"y are sPoken' number
some general infor-átiá" about them analvze it and
(10 lines)' Then
of speakers, etc') and find a short "-pi"
you ittitttt that come from English'
underline all the *ord, or expressions
3.Readthefollowingexcer?tsinHawai'iCreoleEnglishadaptedfrom
foliowing Odo OrthographyT' Try to
Masuda (1995: 322) and.transcribed
and note that the pronunciation
transcribe them into óá"J".¿ English than to standard
of the text is ,n,r.li;;; ; thebdo orthography
English.
A. Kaz
No, da ka get in wan long lain'
Samtaim in wan long lain'
Meibii, get abaut fifti' siksti kaz' ye'
,En'den, its nat onli wan lain'
Dei get sevro mo aDalaínz'
Dei get sam mo kaz't:u' e?
,4-nd, daflírrrstaztz'
Awlweiz bringin ka' end'
Awlweiz teikin aut' sii'
B. Mai jab
So, mai jab iz tu sii
Det nomo, nomo' no chrabo in da fiild
Dei grreb dea ka,
Den, sam av dem' dei tel'
Eh, ai tink
Mai kamPani nomo' doh' Ye'
Y'sii, if nomo, nomo kamPani'
Wel, ai go faind,
Sii, es mai jab, sii'
used in Jamaica although
4. Jamaican Creole -"uf""¿ commonly of education is Standard
or'patois'is
it is freque"rly The language
";;;idly
English. ft t"r"iri"g Éf Standard f,nglish
in schoois often proves
ineffective as" children prefer to use 'piois'' Why do you think this
ancLvariation in Hawaiian English'
vol'1:
--l si.k",-on, D. and.c. odo, (1976) Changesállut
pitlgin synta-x.IIor1ot,rt.i, science Research Institute' university
General phonology and
of Hawai'i.
- t-_ i 85
:;ppens? What do you think is the common attitude among schoolchildren

- -.,r'ardS Standard English? You may want to have a look to chapter 5 and
:=-:.d about language planning.
5. Find out what languages are official in the following countries.

Australia
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
Colombia
Finland
France
Haiti
India
Kenya
New Zealand
Norway
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Philippines
Singapore
Tanzania
Uruguay
Philippines
Singapore
Tanzania
Uruguay
Zaire
Why do you think some of these countries have more than one official
Ianguage?
7. REFERENCES
Arrsopp, R. 1958. 'The English language in British Guiana'. English Language
kaching, 12: 59-66.
Hornt, J. 2000. An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Holntes, J. 1992. An Introduction to Sociolinguisllcs. Harlow, UK: Longman.
Hvnrss, D. 197 l. Pidginization and Creolization of Languages. Cambridge:
Cambridge Universy Press.
Masuoe, H. 1995. 'Versification and reiteration in Hawai'i Creole English: 'If nomo
paila maen, awrai!' World Englishes l4l3:3I7-342.
Rrcrnon¡, J. R. & J. McWsonren. 1997. 'Language contact and language generation,
in F. Coulmas, The Hqndbook of Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Blackwells.
SrEcsL, J.2002. 'Applied Creolistics in the 21st Century', in Glenn Gilbert (ed.),
Pidgin and Creole Linguistics in the Twenty-first Centurlt. New York: Peter Lang.
VaromeN, A. 1989. 'The use of creole as a school medium and decreolizatoin in

Haiti', in W. Z. Sonino (ed.) Literacy in school and society: Multidisciplinary
perspectives. New York: Plenum Press.
W¿noseucn, R. 2002 (ath ed.). An Introduction to Sociolinguisllcs. Malden, USA:

B. RESOURCES ON THE WEB

9. FURTHER READINGS AND QUESTIONS
9.1. Text 5
Read the following text carefully and comment onit emphasizing any
Many present-day creoles are spoken by descendants of the African

slaves in America and the Caribbean. As mentioned above, the common
language of the plantation was generally a pidgin, and children naturallr'
acquired the pidgin as a first language. As the families'communicative
needs expanded, so did the resources of the language they used. The
pidgin developed into a creole.
Alternatively, a pidgin can become so useful as a lingua franca that
it may be expanded and used even by people who share a tribal language.
In multilingual speech communities, parents may use a pidgin so
extensively during the day, in the market, at church, in offices and on
public transport, that it becomes normal for them to use it at home too.
In this case, too, children will often acquire it as their first language and
it will develop into a creole. Tok Pisin is the first language of manv
children in New Guinea.
LNIT 3 87
Once a creole has developed it can be used for all the functions of
any language politics, education, administration (including tar forrns
[...]), original-literature (and translations of Shakespeare too), and so
on. Tok Pisin is the most fi:equently used language of debate in the Papua
New Guinea Parliament. Creoles have become accepted standard and
even national and official languages, as will be seen in the next chapter.
Once developed there is no evidence in their linguistic structure to rer,eai
their pidgin origins. A linguist doing a present day (or synchronic)
analysis of, say, Afrikaans would not be able to identifi; it as a creole.
The features which might suggest its creole origins are all features which
can be found in other well-established languages with no history of
creolisation that we can know about. (Even English has been described
by some as a latter-day creole, with French vocabulary superimposed
on a Celtic base.) This is fascinating and provocative since, as mentioned
above, it suggests that the processes of pidginisation and creolisation
may be universal processes which reveal a great deal about the origins
of language and the ways in which languages develop.
Holmes (1992:98-99)
Issues to consider:
a) Do you think that by using creoles in publications the post-creole

continuum can be stopped and the language can be fixed in some
way?
b) Do you think that creoles should be adopted official languages
as
in the countries where they are used as happens with Tok Pisin in
Papua New Guinea?
c) Bearing in mind the 21st century society we live in, do you think
that new pidgins and creoles will arise as they did in the 18th and
19th c.?
9.2. Text 6
Read the following text carefully and comment on it emphasizing anr-
Tanzania faced the dilemma of which language to choose as its

official national language. Choosing one language from over a hundred
indigenous languages, each associated with a particuiar tribe, u-ou1d
have simply provoked discontent, if not intertribal ri'arfare. Choosing
English for a newly independent nation seemed inappropriate (though
many other nations have had little choice but to use the language of the
colonisers as their only official language). The first President ofTanzania,
Julius Nyerere, chose Swahili, a language of the Bantu language family,
which was widely used throughout the country as a lingua franca in
many contexts. There were some obvious reasons for this choice. Some
were pragmatic. Swahili was already the medium of primary education,
for instance, and so allTanzanians learned the language at school. Other
obvious reasons were more ideological. Ninety-six per cent of Tanzania's
languages are Bantu languages, like Swahili, so it could be clearly
identitiéd as an African language. Moreover, Swahili had served as the
lingua franca of the anti-colonial political movement for independence.
tn ihis role it had acted as a kind of social cement between very disparate
groups. It could hardly have had better credentials from a political and
social point of view.
Holmes (1992: ll3)
Issues to consider:
a/ What problems and difficulties can you think of in a country that

has recently gained independence (having a colonial past) and that
has to select an official language?
b) Do you know of any other country where a specific code has been
selected for practical and political purposes?
c) What advantages are there in selecting an official language that is
an international language spoken all over the world like English?
UNIT 3 89
10. KEY \ryORDS

Acrolect
Auxiliary language
Basilect
English-lexifi er creole
Language conflict
Language election/selection
Lexifier
Lingua franca
LWC
Mesolect
Minority language
New Englishes
Sabir
Unit 4
1. BILINGUALISM: INTRODUCTION
F{undreds of languages are used in the world every day. Although many
r---;L?rceS of monolingual societies are to be found, especially in the western
,:1d, the number of speakers knowing or making use of more than one
É-=-guage as a common means of communication easily surpasses the
:-*rLber of monolingual speakers. In many places around the world, people
-,s. nore than one language every day, because of situational factors as
' :ll as their sociolinguistic situation. Bilingualism is not restricted to
s,::,¿ countries or areas traditionally considered bilingual such as Canada
": S',ijtzerland, but is present in every country of the world in one way or
"::. lher. So, using one language at home and another one at work is not
-:-\' strange in some placesl. The second language (in terms of order of
.i:quisition) does not need to have been learned formally; speakers may
u-: have acquired it by constant exposure to the language, and the shift
: -:n one code to the other is often made unconsciously.
h is not easy to define the term Bilingualism as there can be many
::-:ees in terms of overall proficiency and sociolinguistic factors that
:=::r-mine the use and knowledge of one language or the other.
3'':n-sualism can range from a functional ability to use one language only
,-' rertain domains, to balanced bilingualism which entails an equal and
:-i-level capacity in two or more languages.
In order to portray the different features of bilingualism, some aspects
--==d to be described:
First, it is important to take into account the means of acquisition,
r"i this would depend on whether each of the languages was acquired as
In this case we are referring to bilinguaiism assuming that there are two languages
ü:' - --: ed.It would be pedectly possible, and very normal in sóme parls of the world, tá reTer
: , .i¡uation with more than two languages. Then r',,e would speak of multilingualism.
t-
a mother tongue, a second language or a foreign language2. Each of these

circumstancÁ radically affects the degree of attainment and the overall
proficiency, depending on the age of the speaker and the amount of time
spent learning and using the language.
Second, the skills in each language may vary as it is perfectly possible,
and rather common, to have different commands of the various skiils: reading,
writing, speaking and listening comprehension. The degree of development
in eacñ of these iour skills will be deterrnined, at least in part, by the means
of acquisition. So, someone acquiring the language in_a natural context
(witháut formai instruction) would probably develop his/her aural-oral
üowledge of the language but may not become competent in reading and
writing. I"t goes without sáying that literacy is not necessarily attained by all
fluent-speJkers, not in their mother tongue. It also needs to be taken
"rr"r,
into acctunt that, as usually happens in second and foreign language learning,
receptive skills are often more easily developed than productive skills' So, it
is párfectly possible for someone learning the language. in a formal or
classroom context to develop receptive skills, namely listening and reading,
to a larger extent than productive skills, that is speaking and writing.
Third, there are certain functions that bilinguals generally prefer to
perform i.r orr" language than in the other. This may be due to the fact
ihut they have not d"rrelop"d a specific skill in that language sufficientl¡
(e.g.: participate in a daily conversation, read the newspapel etc.) or just
(e'g':
because it seems more natural for them to do it in a cerlain language
counting, cursing, dreaming, etc).
Fourth, the domain often influences language choice in bilingual
speakers because the acquisition or learning was domain-dependent or
sirnply because one language is preferred in some contexts and it is
sub¡ected to the effect of three main factors: a) the location (e'g.: home"
office, school, shopping cente4 pary, etc.);b) the role relationships among
the interlocutors (e.g.:ilbling, father, mothe4 colleague, neighbor, friena
doctot etc.), and; c) the topics involved in the conversation (e.g.: domestic
weather, social greetings, academic, etc.).
t Not. tfrat the mother tongLre would be the language acquired from the parents at ho::.-
and would probably be the firsl one in terms of order of acquisition, i.e., the first languar:
It is often r"f".redio as the native language. The second language would be the langu:=-:
b *-
i.;;""d in the place where it is used by most speakers as a means of communication
which is not the native language of the learner. For example, a Spanish mother tont-:
speaker learning English iá eáinburgh wouid be in a Second Language (SL) learn'--¡
situation. Fina[f, a Fáreign LanguagelFl) is learned when the target language is no: -:'
language used by most sp-eakers. Foi instance, a Spanish mother tongue speaker lean::{
rngtistr in Madrid would be an English learner in a FL learning context.
\TT 4 95
As was stated before, bilingual speakers are likelv to har.e a preferred

,:neuage for each domain as shown in the following example inspired bv
. real situation (the notion of domain and language choice are linked to
::e question of 'register'. See chapter 2):
Robert Rodriguez was born in a suburban area in New Jerser,-. He is
25 year old, he lives with his parents, and one of his sisters, Maira, u-ho
is 19. His parents, Carlos and Fabiana, came from Colombia 27 years
ago and have lived in the area ever since. They have relatives in Colombia
and they go back there on special occasions but not regularly. Carlos
and Fabiana live in a beautiful house and work very near; it only takes
them 15 minutes driving every day. At work, in a factory, they mainly
speak their perfectly comprehensible English with a markedly foreign
accent, which they learned when they came to the US at the age of 30,
although some of their colleagues come from other Spanish-speaking
countries in South America and they speak Spanish to them. In their
way home after work, they stop at the mall to do some shopping and
there they come across some Spanish-speaking friends but all their
conversation with the shopkeeper takes place in English. When they get
home, they have a message from Robert on the answering machine
saying, in Spanish, that he is late from work. Every day Robert commutes
to New York City where he works as a clerk. At work he speaks English
all the time although on some occasions he speaks Spanish to his
customers. When Robert talks to his grandparents on the phone he
speaks Spanish and he often wishes he could spend more time with them
because, as they live in Colombia, he has only met them twice. On his
way home he dropped by to see his girlfriend (with Italian ancestors
although she has never been to Italy) and greets her for her birthday in
English, which is the only language she speaks. When Robert gets home,
he meets his younger sister Maira who is back from college, where she
studies accounting.
Robert and Maira are planning to th¡or.i a surprise partr for Robeñ's
girlfriend and they make all the arrangements, in English. As thev are
making a list with the food and drink they need to bu1,, their mother
comes in and tells them, in Spanish, that dinner is readr.. Thev sit at the
table and go on making arrangements for the par-ty r^,'ith their parents
in fluent Spanish with a funny English accent. The follorving da¡.at the
party in their backyard, Robert and Maira will be using their native-
speaker English with some friends and neighbors, and fluent Spanish,
their'mother tongue'with an accent to their parents and some of their
Hispanic friends.

AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISN : :
2. BILINGUALISM: DEFINITIONS AND DIMENSIONS

Broadly speaking the study and depiction of bilingualism can gi',.
prominence either to the social side of this phenomenon, as it stems ft'c'::
a context in which various languages are in contact; or it can pay closr:
attention to the individual and psycholinguistic side of the issue, as r::.
languages involved interact and develop in the brain of the bilingu-
speaker. Both the notion of the bilingual speaker and the concepr ..
bilingualism are rather fuzzy3 and have often been misconceived.
Social bilingualism (or multilingualism) is an area of research dedicate;
to the study of its social dimension as a characteristic of bilingual an;
multilingual societies where more than one language are commonly use:
by a speech community or social group. It does not mean that all speaker=
have a command over both languages, rather the term just implies tha:
at least some of the members of that speech community are capable c:
using the other language, either productively or receptively (e.g.: a,-
members of a multilingual country do not need to be bilingual themseh'es
they may just be monolingual). Note that multilingualism is furthe:
explained at the end of this chapter.
Individual bilingualism (also referred to as biiinguality) is rather simple
to define in terms of the first half of the term as it refers to the individual
pafi of the phenomenon, that is, an individual has some knowledge of nvc
or more languages. This entails a special psycholinguistic process.
Nevertheless, it is not possible to make a clear separation between
bilingualism as an individual and a societal phenomenon. Some questions
that call for reflection are:
a) To what extent does the bilingual speaker need to be proficient in
both languages so that s/he can qualifu as bilingual?
b) Does a bilingual speaker need to show equal proficiency in both
languages?
c) Does the bilingual proficiency of the language entail a spoken or
written command of both languages?
d) What language components should be considered as criteria for
assigning the label of 'bilingual': vocabulary pronunciation, syntax,
fluency, etc?
Tth"-rotion of the bilingual speaker has traditionally been idealized in the same wa'
as other concepts that have not been adequately defined, in spite of being fundamental in
applied and theoretical linguistics.
.\IT4 97
Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 2.)

i
i
In the last decades a large amount of research on indir-idual
:rlingualism has tried to distinguish different sorts of bilingualism. The
:-assification first introduced by Weinreich (1953: 9-11) differentiates
f .t\\'een 'coordinate', 'compound' and 'sub-coordinate' bilingualism and
,," as elaborated by taking as a starting point the way the concepts and
:r:anings are encoded in the brain. Each of these three divisions stems
:',rm the way in which the languages were learned. Coordinate bilingualism
;.ssumes that languages are learned in different conditions and separate
::itexts which would imply that the languages are kept aparl in the mind.
:-:ider such circumstances, different contexts give way to different
:.:anings with dissimilar conceptual systems (e.g.: someone who learns
F:Elish as his/her mother tongue and later learns a foreign language in
..:hool). Compound bilingualism arises when acquisition takes place in a
:--uation in which both languages are learned in the same context, and
:.,rh meanings show a fused representation or meaning in the brain. This
=:-iails that the languages involved are somehow interdependent (e.g.: a
::--ld rvho learns two languages at home at the same time, probably one
:,ning from the father and the other one from the mother). The third
:,- ssibility according to Weinreich ( 1 953), sub-coordinate bilingualism,
:;ives from the learning of one language first and the learning of the
-.i,er iater on (e.g.: a child who learns both languages at home
'*-:.ultaneously but one of them is dominant, probably because s/he spends
:- -re time with one of the parents). Weinreich illustrates these three t5,pes
,: :ilingualism with the following diagram for lexical representation and
:: -,nunciation:
Coordinote
toble meso toble = meso toble
I I I
,eibal/ /meso/ 6el/ \*, /reibel/
I
/meso/
This working classification has been studied for decades and a number
:,: =rperiments have been carried out following its principles. Hou-eler,
::-: ,-ategorization was neither abandoned nor developed more fulIr'due
few advances
to the complexity of the neurolinguistic processes and the
the most significant
attained lnihe nét¿ (we should take into áccount that
advances in portraying bilingual representation in the
brain based on
is
patiánts). Ho*"n"., ás Macnamara(1967:66) indicates' it turns
"pft"ti.bá too simplistic as it centers mainly on isolated.words and the
"iri,"
relationship between language and meaning seems to be much
more
complicated than that.
Anotherdimensioninthestudyofbilingualismisthatwhich
bilingual
distinguish"s bet*"án the balanced biiingual and the dominant
to an individual who has equivalent
iiu*t"rr, 1955). The former refers (e.g.: someone brought up in a bilingual
i.-p",""." lr, úoth lunguages
family and society *h"i" báth languages receive equal consideration),
und the latter applies to someone whose competence
in the mother tongue
surpasses his cámpetence in the other language' at least in some domains
(".g.: u child lean:rlrrg lu.rg,,uge { [om the father and language B from the
to develop language
-J,fr",. and school, íiU iroÜubly
have more chances
entails a
B unless special actions'are.r.tdl.ttk"rr). Balanced bilingualism
high communicative competence in both languages- but not
necessarily
languages'. Balanced bilinguaiism should
monolingual competence in both
hardly ever show
be understood in reiative terms ut bilittgrul speakers
they are rarely
equal speaking anJ writing abilities in iheir languages'
balance or
áá""ffi fluent"about all tápics in all contexts. Normally, and functions'
dominance can vary depending on the linguistic domains
Dominant bilinguaíisro i, u.t.tlily the toi- as it is rather difficult for a
competence in two codes'
bilingual speaker to reach absolutely even
Another possible dimension to distinguish various types of
bilingualism
so á useful distinction can be drawn
is related tothe age of acquisition,
adolescent bllingualism and adult
between: ch¡tdhold bilingualism,
bilingualism takes place
bilinguaiism. In the first cale the development of
at the same time as the child's cognitive development whereas in the case
of the
of adolescent and adult bilingrrulit- the cognitive representation
a cerlain
word, to give an example, hasálready been completed' at least to
extent, urrd th"r" is mainly a process of re-labeling previous concepts.
, et ttrl, point it shouid be clarified that bilingual should not be conceived

a balanced
The development of bilingualism depends on
as the addition of two -."ári"g".r speakers-
factors ál ür-iig, situational context, soóial consideration of the languages,
numerous t^g.
personal identity, u"á .".iainl¡r-there are domains in which the speaker will show
",..i
higher commata of tn"'f Inf""g" át tt iU 'i-plv preier o,nt luncllg:,or
the other' A bilingual
.r r.Z-io"nt speakériéarer who has developed a communicative
.fr?"]¿ Ú. conceived
competence in two or;;;l;Jilg"r, *ho.,r". language A, Ianguage B or languages A and
B depending on th. ,itultiá",13pi., interlocutor, doi-rain, etc',
but who does not necessarih
have equal command in both.
'lll -l
-:--:hood bilingualism can also be classified into sitntútaneotrs üfant

:,-:' .a:;distrz, when the child acquires a second language earlr in infancr-
:1- - ifier some development of the mother tongue has been attained; and,
: ,':s¿tutive childhood bilingualism, when a basic linguistic abilin' is
iL-:-*ried early in infancy in the mother tongue and a se cond ian_euage is
.rii*,red right after.
Tile sociocultural environment can cerlainlv influence bilingualism
;- j specially the social status that the languages har-e in the speech
: :::-nunity. Depending on the social consideration that the languages
':;--: in the society, a child can develop both languages equalh- or one more
-:-.,:: the other. Additive bilingualism occurs when both lan_eua_ses are
)-*:-alh'r-alued. The child makes use of both languages and accordingl¡'
::-r:;s advantage of this potentially enhancing situation to gain cognitive
l r;bilini In this case, the acquisition of the second language does not
:.-"e adverse effects on the language or languages already known.
j:,.i:rcctive bilingualism, conversely, results from a sociocultural context
.::;:e the mother tongue is detracted and, as a consequence, the child's
: - rritive development may be hindered because the development of the
n¡l,rrnd language interferes with the development of the first language.
Flamers and Blanc (1989: 11) also distinguish bilinguals according to

:---;:r cultural identity. So, an adolescent or adult bilingual may identify
*--::,self u,ith the cultures associated to each language.
In this case s/he
- :ld also bebicultural and that clearly depends on the social consideration
,:-j r-aiue given to both languages and both cultures by the society. This
i:o:ilic situation would probably cause balanced bilingualism. Nonetheless,
, :r:gh proficiency in both languages does not necessarily involve a
:--ultural individual, who can also be monocuhural, i.e., someone who
:- "¡urally identifies himself with just one group. Bilingual development in
= :i¡,'en speech community can also persuade a person to give up or deny
::-¿ culture of his mother-tongue group and foster that of the second
r-:qua-qe group, becoming an acculturatedbilingual. This latter process is
:- - i infrequent at all when some sort of minimal migration is involved as
,:::i:risrants often wish to blend into the new society and culture and the¡'
=::'rmmodate as much as they can to the receiving culture.
-\n aspect related to the psycholinguistic processing of bilinguals, u'hich
:-e,. been widely investigated in the last decades, is whether bilinguals orin
-:re or two mental lexicons. The one-lexicon advocates consider that
:;:¡antic information is stored in a single semantic system u'here n-ords
.'' troth languages coexist but are labeled as belonging to one language or
-:r- other. Another group of specialists propose that the bilingual mental
lexicon is divided into two sets, one for each language, and that
interrelation between the two is only possible through transiation. A more
recent image considers that bilingual speakers possess three stores: a) a
conceptual one for their knowledge of the world; b) a language store for
language A; and, c) a language store for language B.
3. CODE CHOICE
As Wardhaugh (2002) suggests, the term 'code' is admittedly loose but

very useful to refer to any kind of system that two or more people use for
communication. Terms like dialect , language, style, standard, register , variety ,
pidgin and creole are prone to arouse emotions that, in one way or the
other, are affected by their sociopolitical status or individual
considerations. For instance, an Arab who knows the literary variety of
Arabic (koranic) but speaks the colloquial variety of the ciassic (verrracular)
will probably consider that they are two varieties of the same language.
In the same vein, a Norwegian who speaks both Ny'norsk and Bokmálmay
insist that s/he is bidialectal or bilinguals which shows that to some extent
considering oneself bilingual or bidialectal is, or should be, a question of
self-adscription. Anyhow a very useful criterion to distinguish between
bidialectal and bilingual speakers could be the question of mutual
intelligibility, i.e., if the speakers of these languages can understand each
other when using their own codeu.
In the case of bilingual or bidialectal speakers, it would be interesting
to know howeve¡, the factors that rule code choice on every single situation
and, eventually, why certain speakers sometimes shift from one code to
another. So, it seems that whenever a speaker engages in a communicative
situation, s/he has previously decided (consciously or unconsciously) upon
the code s/he is going to use. Language plays a very important role in our
lives and the actual choice can be very important. A speaker may
deliberately choose to use a specific language in some situations to express
solidarity with his interlocutor. For example, let's think of someone entering
a deparlment-store in Pontevedra, Spain. The shop assistant will probably
TAnoth"r example would be that of Chinese people speaking both Mandarin and
Cantonese as they would insist that they speak two varieties of the same language.
6 This
continues to be a controversial issue that cannot be generalized. There is mutual
intelligibility between Norwegian and Swedish speakers but they are considered different
Ianguages.
:\IT4 101
address him/her in Spanish and after a while, if both the customer and
ihe shop-assistant find clues to their interlocutors being speakers of
Galician, they may naturally and automatically change tñeir ianguage
choice and continue their conversation in Galician. In so doing, a numbér
'rf communicative goals have been accomplished not onlv because of the
rransaction carried out, but because a degree of closeness and empathv
rs also reached by their switching to the common language.
Language choice can also be considered a way to asserl some kind of

ight'or even to resist some kind of 'power'in places where two or more
languages coexist and have equal sociopolitical status as in canada. The
official Languages Act, adopte d in 1969, gave English and French equal
status, rights and priüleges in the federal institutions of canada. Howeve4
English first language speakers comprise a minority in euebec,
representing l0o/o of the province's population, whereas in other parts of
canada, French first language speakers are a minority, accouniing for
approximately 5o/o of the population. under such circumstances, a Frénch
canadian may insist on using French to an official of the federal
go\-ernment outside Quebec. In that case language choice can be
e-onsidered a way of 'political or rights expression'. The underlying issue
is that motivation is a determining component in code-choice and code-
srvitching as there are numerous factors that affect it: solidarity with the
listener, choice of topic, social distance, contextual and situational
appropriacy, register, interlocutof etc.
The very fact of being proficient in more than one language allows for
rhe possibility of swirching codes at some point. waiarráugh (2002)
-listinguishes two main
[pes of code-switching: situational andmaaphoricai.
The former refers to a language change depending on contextual factors
ii.hich have nothing to do with the topic but with üe given situation. The
latter points to the topic and the contents of the commirnicative process as
:he main reason for language choice. The alternance of code often encod.es
personal and social values that add interpersonal closeness or distance.
3.1. Code-switching
The Hispanic community in the USA often su,itches bet*,een both
codes, English and spanisht, on some occasions as a solidaritr-marker
-'
rt]i, i, very characteristic, for instance, of the puerto Rican communin' in -\err \brk.
For this speech community, a conversation fuIl of language su.itches is a forn of speech in
is own.
t02 AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS
when talking to people belonging to their own community. Howeve4 they

can easily change to either language when addressing a monolingual
speaker of either of these two languages. Below is a fragment in which
this code-switching can be seen:
OYE, when I was a freshman I had a term paper to do...

t...1
And all of a sudden, I started acting real CURIOSA, you know. I
started going like this. Y LUEGO DECÍA, look at the smoke coming out
of my fingers, like that. And then ME DIJO, stop acting silly. Y LUEGO
DECÍA YO, MIRA cant you see. Y LUEGO ÉSfB, I started seeing like
little stars all over the place. Y VOLTEABA YO ASINA Y LE DECÍA look
at rhe... the... No sÉ ERA coMo BRILLOSITO ASÍ like stars.
(Valdés Fallis, 1976; quoted in Apple and Muysken, 1.996: 176)
In the text above, at least three types of code-switching can be

perceived. These are described by Romaine (1989: II2) as:
a) Tag-switching: for instance the use of exclamations or tags from

one language into an utterance in the other language, such as'OYE'
at the very beginning of the paragraph which is written in a
language different from the rest of the sentence. This tag-switch
might occur because the speaker lacks the necessary vocabulary in
English, or simply because it comes up more easily and
spontaneously since tags are subjected to few syntactic restrictions
and can be inserted without interfering with the syntactic
organization of the utterance. Some tags easily inserted from
English are you know and ,I mean.
b/ Intersentential switch: for instance, in the sentences 'Y LUEGO
DECÍA, look at the smoke coming out of my fingers, like that'and
'Y LUEGO ÉSTE, I stafted seeing like little stars all over the place.'
This type of switch is found between sentences and often arises in
sentence boundaries, marked with a short pause and between
speaker turns. In this excerpt, intersentential switch also seems to
be caused in direct speech by the change from the narrator to the
actual words used by the speaker, e.g.: 'And then ME DIJO, stop
acting silly'.
c) Intrasentential switch: for instance, in the sentence'I
started acting
real CURIOSA where both codes are mixed within a sentence. This
type of code-switch contains the highest syntactic risk and is
typically referred to as code-mixing.
,\IT J
103
3.2. Code-mixing
code-mixing can be considered a different phenomenon to code-
'-.':tching although the terms are sometimes used interchangeablr as the
: -ncepts they describe often overlap. Indeed, not all specialists ri'ould
.:srorvledge a distinction between them. code-mixing o...r., when the
-::rerlocutors change from one language to the other in the course of a
s,ngle conversation and more precisely when switching back and forth
,cCUrs within a clause. It is important to note that the speakers do not even
:-:ed to be aware of it and the breaks between codes are somewhat blurred
.s rhev can occur within clauses. code-mixing highlights hybridization
-,, hereas
code-switching stresses the existence of movement from one
-.nguage into the other. code-mixing typically presumes a mastery of the
::,des being mixed and is very typical of bilinguals. In certain locations
'l¡h as Gibraltar, where two languages such as English and spanish are
-:i close contact, people may start a sentence in one of the languages and
:nish it in the other, or inserl certain words or phrases from one language
-::¡o the othel all depending on a number of factors such as the situational
- lrteXt, the degree of familiarity among the interlocutors and the actual
:ause for code-switching: i.e., if it is a result of the lack of knowledge or if
-- comes up as a meaningful discourse strategy. The former phenomenon,
:ot knowing certain words in one language, obviously implies that the
s:eakers have at least a full command over one of the languages and some
:,lntrol over the other. code-mixing is also relatively common in the speech
-,t immigrants. Spanish-speaking immigrants in the uSA, for exampre,
-,lten make use of English words or expressions when they speak English.
The reason for this may lie in the fact that they are referring to some object
:ir concept which was not known to them before coming into the nerv
;ulture, or they were not very familiar with it, or simply on the basis of
-asv access to the word. This process occasionally results in lexical
borrowing. An instance can be found in the common use of the follou-ins
English words and phrases by Hispanic immigrants (probably belonging
¡o the first or the second generation in the country) speaking spanish in
-he USA: bacl<yard, basement, coupons, mall, take it easy, VCR, etc. As a
result, these functional bilinguals (having full command over one of the
languages and a functional command over the other) often develop a mired
code which is based on the old language but includes features ft-om rhe
nerv language. At this point the use of alternating codes should be
distinguished from the development of a mixed varietv as occurs ri,ith
pidgins (see chapter 3). The incidental borrowing descrited immediateh'
above can pave the way to permanent lexical borror.iing. For erample,
u'hen there is a need to refer to an object or concept thát has nor been
104
as a result of fashions' Using

oresent in the receiving language or simply
i;;;ü;;"rá. *uv b" p"rteit'ed as a sign of innovation'
4')
(Please go to the exercises section and do exercise
4. CODE-SWITCHING IN BILINGUAL CHILDREN

Inthecaseofbilingualandmultilingualspeakers,codechoiceisnot
at thl disposal of the biiingual
always at will. when i"o l.rrguug", urá
interferences between the two
speake4 there are ,áÁ"time, rinintentional
codes. This can ;;;;;;".y clearly in chirdren receiving a bilingual
and transfer words' syntactic
education when ,t*t-"tO boih la"guages
language into the other'
constructions or phonologicai featuresio* -"L"
boy' brought up in Spain
For exampt", Ni.oiár, u b"iü"g"ul-te^n-year-old '[..']
by his Spanish e"rtttsh fath"r, remarked to his mother,
^;l;;";a
estoy pensat¿o ¿" io, poU'"' [" ']'
(instead' of course' of 'estoy pensando
en los pobres,). I, J;;;;i;^' it ui on this occasion his Spanish was being
ft;$innrr"n."A by the English str-ucture'think of''
and the use of more than
As de Bot (2002) points out' code-switching
oneself in a bilingual context
one languag" i, tt ,rirmal way of expressing
" speech coming from
and it is as natural as any other spontÁeous
languages interact and are
monolinguut ,p"J"t'' The analysis of ho*
usedbybilinguatspeakerscan-castsomelightonthêissueofcognitive
of language selection
processing by biliü;;l., ""*a¡ the mechanisms
and languag" ,"puá,ion. Some issues have
long puzzled psycholinguists
and language educators, some of these are:
a) How do bilingual speakers process their
languages?
language system where
b) Does the bilingual child develop a unique
#tti i;;;;il;;;;""*i"á¿, or dtes he.have *'.*Tr::::j
slhe make use of one or the
other
ffi;dri; syitemsi bott
dePending on the context?
they located in the same part
c) If there is more than one system' are
of the brain?
one or two different lexicons?
d) Does the bilingual brain contain
given the
easy to answer or even testable
These questions are not always
fact that most psycholinguisti.-
."."u..h can only analyze linguistic
performance and t"*;;;tit" l"a
*uft" plausible inferences concerning
these issues.
and do exercise 5')
(Please go to the exercises section
\-T !
105
5. DICLOSSIA
-{ diglossic situation entails the co-existence of two or more codes8
:j'-h are used in the same setting but under different circumstances, i.e.,
-",
=¡;h of the codes is used with contrasting functional purposes. These

:,,-les or varieties tend to be kept apart in their functions,l.e., the purposes
:::-\' are used for (e.g., communication at home, business or transactions,
::,-,adcasting, fine literature, etc.). So, given the existence of two varieties,
- le of them being considered more prestigious and cultivated than the
:her, would lead to the differentiation between a high variety (H) and a
,: ",r- r-ariety (L).
According to Ferguson (2003: 347) the specialization of functions for
Fi and L varieties determines the appropriateness of either variety for a
s¿r of situations with few occasions for overlapping. This entails the use
,f one language to express a set of behaviors, attitudes and values, and
'nother language to put into words a contrasting set of behaviors, attitudes
=d values. The next charr shows some general situations and the varietv
:righ or low) more likely used:
Sermon in church or mosque +

Insiructions to servonts, woiters, workmen, clerks +
Personql letter +
Speech,in porlioment, politicol speech +
tJn rversify lecture
+
Conversotion with fomily, friends ond colleogues +
News broqdcosf
Rodio 'soop opero' 1 +
Newspoper editoriol, news story coption on picture
Coption on politicol cortoon : +
Poetry * +
Folk literoture * +
' ln relotion to these functions it should be mentioned thot the H voriety, the L voriety or both con be
used, depending on the longuoges involved.
(Ferguson, 2003:347)
\t1 mi, case the terrn 'code' is used to refer to a language, varietv of language or dialect.
The terms 'ianguage', 'variety', and'dialect'are often i" the litératurei''-itÉo,rt precise
definition. "se¿
In most instances of languages entangled in a diglossic situation,

speakers regard the H varietyas being more prestigious, more appealing
.^nd -o." appropriate than tft" I variety, even if their knowledge of the
H is not as comprehensive as their ability in the L, or the L variety
embodies their mother tongue. What is more, the literary tradition
probably makes use of the H variety and enjoys a high esteem in the
,p"ech community. Nevertheless, more recently, and as a call for social
iáentity, the L varieties have been employed in poetry or other literary
writte; works, and descriptive and normative studies have been
undertaken.
Tracing back the issue of the native language in instances such as
the Haitian Creole, children more commonly learn the L variety as their
first langu age at home and later, when they are schooled they have
access to the H variety. This diglossic situation gives the L variety
a
status of mother tongue that is 'acquired' naturally, whereas the H
variety is often learned formally in schools or other formal contexts
and is, therefore, 'learned'e. The H variety usually has a strong tradition
of grammatical study and there are plenty of reference books on it' i
whlch brings with it norms for pronunciation, orthography, 1
"ttublirh"d
grammar Jnd vocabulary. The differences between the H and the L
iariety are notorious in teims of grammatical structure as grammatical
categáries in the H variety are usually reduced, or,simply absent' in
the i variety, for example, the inflectional system of nouns and verbs
(see the general characleristics of Creoles: HCE, Jamaican Patwa and
Tok Pisin in unit 3). The lexicon in H and L varieties is shared to a large
extent but obviously there are conspicuous differences in form, use and
meaning. In terms of phonology, the degree of closeness between the
H and the L varieties depends, to a large extent, on the languages
involved. Some instances of languages in diglossic situations can be
found where H and L varieties differ remarkably and in some other
instances they are rather similar.
There follow two examples of historic diglossic situations:
TAt,hi. point it would be convenient to clarifi' the contrast between 'acquisition' ai:
'lear.ril!'*lii6 l. based on the distinction made by Krashen and Ter-rell.(l983 The Nattt'-.'
Approaíh: Language Acquisition in the Classroom. London: Prentice Hall Internationai) --'
;ñ;. "ú;,h;ri. *"hi.h éonsiders that language proficiency can be attained by two-differe.'-'
p.o."rr"., acquisition and learning. TheJormér refers to a natural process similar to ti--
;;;;;ild tai.r, kno*l"dge of his Lother tongue, i.e., unconsciouslyand incidentallr. T:.=
latter refers to the conscio"us process of learniñg r-ules. They suggest that only in this lai-i--
case is teaching useful.
L\IT 4 107
A) After the Norman conquest in 106ó10, Norman French and English

gradually become to coexist in England in a diglossic situation,
I'{orman French being considered the H variety and being used b-u''
most of the feudal aristocracy and, eventually, hand in hand rn ith
English in monasteries. English, howeve4 constituted the L variet-v*
being used by peasants and artisans in everyday situations. Needless
to say that the H variety was the prestige variety, used in politics,
government and local administration, whereas the L variety lacked
any prestige or social consideration. Chaucer's literary work, around
three hundred years later, used the L variety and was the
culmination of a long lasting process in which the L variety
gradually assumed functions that had been restricted to the H
variety in the past. This process was reinforced by the steady
assimilation of the French speaking aristocracy into the English
culture due to the detachment and lack of contact with their native
France, generation after generation.
B) The Haitian Creole emerged as the creolization of a pidgin French.
Afterwards, standard French became the H variety (frangais)
whereas the Haitian Creole kept the status of L variety (créole). The
L variety is often associated with conversational language and,
therefore, the spelling used to represent it is not always standardized
(for example, the McConnell-Laubach spelling). The H variety,
however, is more easily represented by the standard language
orthography because it is widespread even though there may be
some resemblances between the sounds of the H and L varietv.
I'. DICLOSSIA AND BILINGUALISM

Diglossia, as is stated in most works on the topic by John Gumperz,
Coes not only exist in multilingual societies but also in traditionally called
nonolingual societies'where various dialects, registers or styles are
:mployed. It goes without saying that this embraces almost all societies
a.-:, strictly speaking, monolingual societies are a theoretical construct that
does not find a full realization in the present-da¡r world.
The distinction between diglossia and bilingualism is not simple since
:here are numerous social, personal and situational factors that béar upon
. 'o The defeat of King Harold's arrny by the French-speaking follorvers of \\'illiam, Duke
: \ormandy, in the Battle- of Hastings in 1066 marked ihe beginning of a foreion inr-asion
'-l.ri_ch would have great effects on the social, economic, culturál and l]nsuistic dér'elopment
,: Engiand.
language use and language choice. Fishman (2003) portrays the

relationship between these two complex terms, diglossia and bilingualism,
by means of the following chart:
DtGtosstA
+
+
I. Both diglossio ond 2. Bilinguolism without
bilinguolism diglossio
BItINGUAL¡SM
3. Diglossio without 4. Neither diglossio nor
bilinguolism bilinguolism
Fishman (2003:260)
The first possibility (1) embraces a speech community where both

diglossia and bilingualism occur. That is the case, for instance, of German
(H) and Swiss German (L) spoken in some cantons in Switzerland. There,
both codes are used alternatively from school age and used for different
functions and in different contexts (e.g. at home and at school). Other
instances of steady diglossia and bilingualism co-occurring in the same
speech community are the case of Spanish (H) and Guarani (L) in
Paraguay, and the status of Arabic in many Arab countries where
businessmen and the scientific community would use classical (koranic)
(H) and vernacular Arabic (Algerian, Moroccan, etc.) (L) in specific
situations, but also a western former colonial language such as French
(H), when required in professional circumstances. Many other instances
like these can be detected in societies where a Creole and a standard
language or acrolect co-exist (see chapter 3).
The second possibility (2), bilingualism without diglossia, relates to
transitory situations where rapid social changes affect a speech community
and, for a relatively brief period of time, the languages involved lack well-
defined separate functions. This situation probably describes an indiúdual
linguistic behavior rather than a social one. This sociolinguistic situation
can take place in the course of industrialization and/or urbanization of
some societies where one speech community provides the means (capital
and organization), and a different speech community provides the
manpower for the production. This example probably entails a
demographic movement of the manpower (migration) and, therefore, the
adoption of a new language, as well as a set of cultural values and norms,
that are rapidly taken over and often interlwined with the previous ones.
;_T -1
109
period of time the language of work or the language of schooling,

F - r- a
:. ¡he one hand, and the language of home, on the oth". hand, mi
-:.:enu'ine without a definite separation of functions and locations.
The third possibility (3), diglossia without bilingualism, relates to societies
here two or more languages share a geographic area but they are not
''.
-:;rorably used by the speakers living in that area. That means that there
r:¿. at least two speech communities that do not share a contact language
-:-c communication is attained by means of, for instance, interpreters. Írr"i"
>,,cieties tend to be formed by two or more speech communities that are
:rited for functional purposes because of religious, political or economic
:iasons, although apparent social and cultural dissimilarities separate them.
T:re situation would appear to favor bilingualism but what *e find, instead,
,s drglossia as language reperloires in one or both groups are, in some way,
:estricted owing to role specialization. It is also characteristic in this type
-rf societies that most of the elite and most of the masses lead lives
Jistinguished by specific role repeftoires. An instance of diglossia without
bilingualism can be found in India between people belongingto lower castes
Hindus) and the higher castes (Brahmins)
The foufih possibility (4) is, in Fishman's words, 'easier to hypothesize
than to find'as only very small and set aparl societies could show neither
biiingualism nor diglossia (note that absence of diglossia seems even more
unlikely and awkward than bilingualism). It *ot,ld be the case of speech
communities where no differentiation in registers or r-arieties is found,
u'hich is rather improbable given the social dimension of lan-euage. An
instance of this speech community without bilingualism and rvithout
diglossia could be a band or clan with a closed nrr-b", of members and
u'ith restricted social relations.
(Please go to the exercises section and do exercise ó.)
7. N,IUI,Til,INGUALISNI
Multilingualism refers to the co-existence of more than tu,o languaees or
sufficiently distant dialects, no matter how many, within a speech communin.
For the sake of clarity, in this book, and in most of the biüliographr on the
topic, the term bilingualism is used to refer to a situation in n,hich trvo
languages coexist whether in an individual speaker or a social group.
Monolingual speech communities are rare these davs and, *,hat is
more, most countries in the world are multilingual (onlr Iceland and
Portugal are reported to be monolingual countiies in Europe). In the
history of humankind, language has proven to be possibly the most

imporiant factor that determines other aspects of political and social
organization in the world. Around 5,000living languages are reported to
no*.days in the world whereas there are about 200 countries. This
"*i"rt
fact can provide us with an idea of the complexity of the issue. Languages
often social identities at a supra-state level,(e'g.: the Swedish
"-body
language in Éinland) which can cause socio-political conflicts as is the
caré oflanguage minorities (e.g.: Welsh in Great Britain). The Romantic
*orr"-"rriin ihe nineteenth ientury supported nationalism and the
general conception of 'one nation, one language''
Migration, either in the form of involuntary or voluntary migration is
another factor that characterizes the current language situation in many
speakers of
farts of the world. The African slave trade brought many paved the way
Af.i.u.r languages into the East and West Indies and that
for the formation of many pidgins and creoles which had not existed
before. Another example *o.tld be the case of Soviet policy that forced
the migration of the Russian population into other Soviet republics' Those
formeirulers in places like the Baltic states are faced now with the need
to learn local languages such as Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian.
Voluntary migration has also determined the linguistic shape of
modern.orrrrt.i"r like the USA and to a lesser extent, Australia. Through
the melting-pot policy in the United States, large amounts of people from
different Euiopean and Asian countries, speakers of languages like Polish,
Italian, German, Norwegian, Japanese or different Chinese languages
entered the country in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Most
of these immigrant groups acquired English and many abandoned their
languages, altñoughlheykept their social identity to various extents. This
later in the nineteenth century as
-Jtrolittg.tal trend has changedand Asia has disrupted the monolingual
immigration from South America
tendÁcy and has given way to the development of new ethnic identities
in this officially monolingual country.
B. LANGUAGE CONTACT
In places where two or more languages share a common geographic
context (e.g.: the city of Brussels) or simply where one language stops
being used by speakárs and a different language is used (e.g.: because of
the existence of an international border), a situation of language in contact
is encountered. There are many factors that play a role in multilingualism
and language contact and a larger number of outcomes from such a
UNIT 4 111
situation are possible. In areas close to international borders, for instance,

speakers of each of the different languages often develop a continuum,
they speak dialects of their own languages which are close enough to the
other language to permit successful communication (e.g.: p"opl" living
on the two sides of the border between portugal and spain normallv
understand each other without any problem, a situation that would be
most unlikely between people coming from further away in portugal and
spain). From a diachronic perspective, a contact situation bátween
languages may result in the loss of one of the languages, if they are in a
power relationship, or in the merging of both, if both languages are
considered to have equal status and social consideration. without doubt,
language contact is the main source of language evolution and language
change over time. (See diachronic variation, chapter 1)
Language contact can cause political conflict. Belgium conforms a
bilingual state but it contains walloon speakers of French dialects, Flemish
speakers of Dutch dialects, and speakers of German dialects. There, a
dominant language group (French) controls administration, politics and
economy, presumably giving employment preferences to applicants who
have command of the dominant language (Hans Nelde, 2002). However,
in some cases, socially or psychologically weakened groups, or groups
reduced in number, might move towards assimilation of the dominant
language (and culture). when those groups are numerous o4 if they have
a sound cultural tradition, the most likely outcome is opposition and
resistance to the dominant group, resulting in language conflict.
Language conflicts can be viewed as natural or artificial language
conflicts. Natural language conflicts have been traditionall¡, caused bv
political decisions regarding majority or minority social groups. As ri'as
stated above, assimilation or opposition represents the kev factor in
language conflict as it most unequivocally arises fi-om the lattei. This npe
of conflict is seen in canada with the French-speaking communirv or in
Spain with the Basque-speaking communit¡r and it intensifies u hen
ideological or political arguments are posed and inteftu,ine u'ith linguistic
ones. Another aspect that intensifies these problems can be based, aithough
not solely, on religious grounds, such as that between Belfast (\onhern
Ireland) and connemara, to the nofth of Galway in the Irish Republic of
Ireiand. Artificial language conflicts arise when a compromise is attained
and a language is disfavored. The European union, for instance, faces the
problem of what languages should be officially spoken u,ithin the EU. The
ni'enty-five member states at the moment (2005) speak t\venf\rnvo different
:ficial languages which turr-rs their headquarlers in Biusseis into a yeritable
Tou'er of Babel and the tasks of translation and interpretation into a
daunting enterprise. The decision to adopt English, French and German

as the official working languages in the EU has raised conflicts with
countries that also felt they deser-ved this consideration of language for
international communication.
9. EXERCISES
1. Read the text on page 95 and think of the different domains in which
Robert, his parents and his sister use spanish and English. Then fill in a
table like this for each of them (Robert; Carlos and Fabiana; and, Maira):
LOCATION ROIE RETATIONSHIP TOPIC TANGUAGE
2. Think about the issues raised in the section 'Bilingualism:

definitions'. Elaborate on each of the four questions raised there:
a) To what extent does the bilingual speaker need to be proficient in

both languages so that s/he can qualify as bilingual?
b/ Does a bilingual speaker need to show equal proficiency in both
languages?
c/ Does the bilingual proficiency of the language entail a spoken or
written command of both languages?
d) what language components should be considered as criteria for
assigning the label of 'bilingual': vocabulary pronunciation, s¡mtax,
fluency, etc?
3. Analyze the following definitions of bilingualism. Discuss the

implications of each definition and compose your own taking these as a
start point. You should incorporate any considerations that you feel are
relevant.
UNIT 4
113
'(T)he use of at reast two languages either b'

an indi'iduar [. . . ] or
by a group of speakers, such as the innabitants oi a
fii..rtu. ¡egion or
nation. Bilingualism is common, for example, in the prorjnce of
li in canada where both Fnglish and French are spoken, and parts of é""U..
Wales, where both Welsh and English are spoken.,'
(Richards, Platt and Platt, 1992:36)
'A bilingual (or murtiringual) person is one

whose ringuistic abilit¡.
in two (or more) languages is simirar to that of a nativeipeaker. It is
estimated that half the population of the world is biringuar
1...1. It is as
difficult to set up exact criteria for what is to count u5l6iting.rátism as
it is to describe exactly all that a native speaker can do with-her or his
language. Besides, not alr native speakeri wilr have the same ability
in
all aspects of their language: spécialist registers, for instance, are
typically only accessible to specialists. Simil-arly, Áost biringuals r.vill
not have access to all registers in both their languages, or to the same
registers in both ranguages; for instance, if a natle speaker of one
language leaves her or his native country for anotheL and learns a new
skill through the language of the new country of residence, s/he wil
typically be unable to converse fluently about this skill in her or his
native language: typicary, s/he will not irave the required terminologf
at her or his disposal. [...],
(Malmkjer and Anderso n, 1997 : 57_5g)
'The ability to speak two ranguages. Bilingualism

may be the propertv
of an individual or of a whole ómmunitv., -
(Trask, 1997:29)
'The general sense of this term person *,ho can speak t*.o
LANGUAGES - a
provides a pre-theoretical Frame of refeience
for
- especiaily by SOCIOLINGUISTS,
linguistic srudy, and AppLIED
LINGUISTS involved in foreign- or secondranguage teachin_s.
The focus
of attention has been on the many kinds utrai"g."., of 'birineuarism,
and'bilingual situations' which exist. D efi nitions "of biii"d;ii;-;fr;;
assumptions about the degree of proficiency people must achieve
before
they qualify as bilingual (whetheriompu.ubi. to á monolinguar
NATr\E-
SPEAKER, o_r something less than this, even to the extent
of minimal
knowledge of a second language).
(Crystal, 1997:42)
4. Read and analyze the following utterance spoken by a New york

Puerto Rican speaker and taken from Labov (r97i:457).
what types of
code-mixing can you find? In what ways is it different from the fragment
in this unit taken from Valdés Fallis (1,976) (p' 102)?
Por eso cada, you know it's nothing to be proud of, porque yo no
estoy proud of it, as a matter of fact I hate it, pero viene Vierne y Sabado
yo estoy, tu me ve haci a mi, sola with a, aqui solita, a v-eces que Frankie
me dejá, you know a stick or something, y yo equi solita, queces Judy
,ro.ub" yyo estoy haci, viendo television, but I rather, y cuando estoy
con gente yo me ... borracha porque me siento mas, happy, mas free,
yo' fno*, pero si yo estoy com mucha gente yo no estoy, you know, high,
more or less, I couldnt get along with anybody.
5. Interwiew someone who views himself or herself as bilingual. What

differences do they perceive in their own proficiency over each language?
Does your interviéwee report having any problem switching betweenthe
two lánguages? In what domains does s/he use each language? How often
does s/he use them? Does s/he feel at ease in both languages in all contexts?
Why? (In the case of multilingual interviewees, ask about all the languages
s/he knows.)
6. Choose one of these geographic areas (Canada, South Africa,
Australia, any English-speaking country in the caribbean area, or spain),
or any other that interests you, and find out about the language use
situation. What is the pattern of use of the languages/dialects/varieties in
that area? What type of relationship pertains: diglossia or bilingualism?
Please note that the Internet and reference books such as encyclopedias
may be very useful for this activitY.
7. Think about the linguistic situation in your speech community.
Expand on the positive and negative effects that multilingualism might
ha,re on your society. If you already live in a multilingual speech
community, describe the situation and the effects of multilingualism.
8. Analyze each of the following statements. Expand on each item
providing your opinion and supporling your arguments.
a/ Creoles are not real languagesand, therefore, they should not be

used as a medium of instruction or in the media.
b) In multilingual countries, it is too expensive and often time
consuming to instruct children in various languages.
c) Bilingualism is rather infrequent and it normally interferes with
the child cognitive develoPment.
d) Beingbilingual means that you can speak, read and write in two
languages with ease.
UNIT 4
11s
10. REFERENCES
Appr', R.y P. MuvsrEN. 1996. Bitingüismo y contacto de renguas.
Barcelona:
Editorial Ariel.
Barsn, c. 1993. Foundations of Bilingual Ed.uccltion and
Bilinguarism. cleved.on,
UK: Multilingual Matters.
cnvsrar, D. 1997. A Dictionary of Linguistics and. phone¿lcs.
oxford, u.K.: Brackweir
Publishers Ltd.
oa Bor, K.2002.'H9T. Tanguage and Language proficiency,.
Journal of
Multilingual and Multicultural Development. 23 I 3 : 17 5 _ lg 4.
FpRcuso¡r, c. 2003. 'Diglossia', in c. Bratt paulston and
G. Richard Tucker (eds.),
2003, sociolinguistics: The Essential Readings. uura.",-uSA:
Blackwell
Publishing.
FIsnnraN, J. 2003. 'Bilingualism with and without diglossia; diglossia with and
without bilingualism', in c. Brau paurston and c. ñichari rulker (eds.),
200i,
Sociolinguistics: The Essential Read.ings. Malden, us¿: elackwaf
r"Uíirfri"g.
Ha-Mens, J. F. and M. H. A. BraNc. 1999. Bitinguatity
and. Bitinguarism.cambridge,
USA: Cambridge University press.
Laeov, w. 197 l- 'The notion of "system" in creore studies,,
in D. H. Hymes (ed.),
1971, Pidginization and Creorization of Languages.
cá-u.iag", ór-u.ial"
University Press.
L.qNreeRr, w. E. 1955. 'Measurement of the linguistic
dominance in bilinguals.,
Joumql of Abnonnal and Social psychologyl\\: 197_20t0.
Mecxenr¡R,q , J. 1967 .'The bilingual's linguistic performa nce, . Jortuat of social
Issues, 23: 58-77 .
London: Routledge.
-\{esrHnrs, R. 2001. concise Encyclopaeclia of sociolinguistics.Amsterdam:
Elseüer.
-\Er-rp, H. 2002.'German linguistic variation ftom a contact linguist
point of view'. Joumar-inofFelgium:
Muttitinguar and. Mutticutt;;;l n)u"lop*"nt. zi : i-
2, pp. 65-79.
Rrcnanos, J. c., J. prarr and H. prarr. 1992. Longmen
Dictionary of-Language
kaching and Apptied Linguistics. Harlow, UK: "Longman.
Ror,rerNs, S. 1989. Bilingualism. Oxford, UK: Blackwell publishers.
Tn¡,sx, R. L. 1997. A student's Dictionary of l-a.nguage
and Linguistlcs. London: Arnold.
\ rroÉs Fa'rs, G. 1976. 'social interaction and code-switching
patterns; A case
study of Spanish/English', in Keler, G. D. et a/. (eds.).
Biringuarism in the
bicentennial and beyond. New york: Éilingual lress.
R 2002 (4th ed.). An Introduction to socioringuistics.(4th ed.) Malden,
"\-.RD'{AUGH,
USA: Blackwell publishing.
\\-¡txRsrcH, U. 1953. Languages in Contact. The Hague:
Mouton.
116 AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLiNGUISTiCS

12. FURTHER READINCS AND QUESTIONS

12.1. Text 7
By way of summary, Iet me identify a number of important
questions that must be addressed whenever parents, educators and
administrators discuss the prospects of multilingual education for their
communities:
. What are the explicit or implicit goals for for-rnal education in the
region?
. Is there general satisfaction throughout the region with the level
of educational attainment by all participants (both those who
terrninate their education relatively early and those who wish to
go on to tertiary studies)?
. Is the region relatively homogeneous or is it heterogeneous
linguistically and culturally and how would bilingual education
complement the linguistic and cultural characteristics of the
community?
o Does the region have an explicit or implicit policy with respect to
the role of language in education, and how would bilingual
education fit or not fit with this existing policy? Is this policy based
upon tradition or the result of language (education) planning?
¡ What priorities are accorded to goals such as the development of
broadly based permanent functional literacy, the value of
education for those who may terminate their schooling at an early
age, and the power of language to foster national identity and
cohesiveness?
¡ Are the language(s) selected for instruction written, codified,
standardized, and elaborated?
o Is there a well-developed curriculum for the various levels/stages
of formal education (i.e., a framework which specifies fairly
explicitly a set of language, content, cognitive, and affective
objectives that are then tied to or illustrated by exemplary
techniques and activities, and supported by written materials)?
'-\Tr 4 117
Are sufficient core and reference materials availabre for teachers

and for students in the language(s) of instruction? If not, are there
trained individuals available who can prepare such materials?
Is there a sufficient number of trained and experienced teachers
who are fluent speakers of the language(s) of instructio n ancl u,ho
are trained to teach via that language(s)?
Richard Tucker (2003: 469)
Issues to consider:
a) Make an analysis of the current situation of bilingual education in
your country/community. Try and answer the questions listed above.
Please note that you will probably need to do some research before
answering these questions.
12.2. Text B

When code-switching is discussed the question of speakers,
competence is frequently raised: are code-switching and linguistic
competence mutually exclusive? Because it is popularly believed that
switching is a result of incompetence rather than of a fine sense of the
unique effects that it can achieve, switching is often stigmatized. people
say that those who switch'cant speak properly'o.'-ut" a mess, of ihe
languages they use.
On closer examination it appears that two types of switching are
differently regarded. whereas diglossic and situational code-switching
are often regarded as necessary manifestations of bilingualism, and aré
valued as parl of a speaker's communicative competence, conversational
switching is often overtly stigmatized. covertly it may be valued of its
rhetorical possibilities and as a group-marker. The órucial linguistic
difference between the two types of switching that probably acóounts
for this difference in attitude is that situationál swirching involves the
production and comprehension of long strings in each language, so
flu_ency is apparent, whe¡eas in conversational códe-switching ií-r. rl*'it.tt
is frequently intrasentential, allowing for an impression thát speakers
are insufficiently proficient in either language to be able to finiih ruhat
they want to say, in one language.
A common assumption is that people switch languages because of
g,aps in their personal vocabulary. As is shown in examplés cited abo'e,
this is trrre in some cases but not in others. The study óf lu.g" corpus
^
of data from a member of a bilingual, code-switching community will

often show the speaker using the words for a concept from both
languages. Witty, quick, elegant shifts betw".r, .od., are often
appreciated in the speech community. Proficient bilinguals or bidialectals
who switch codes consciously or unconsciously achieve particular social,
political, or rhetorical effects. They are able to draw on a bigger linguistic
pool than they would be if they and their interlocutors were
monodialectal o monolingual.
Mesthrie (2001:453)
fssues to consider:
a) This fragment analyses whether code-switching is a matter of
language deficit or a language skill. According to your own
experience as a speaker of English and Spanish (or any other
language), do you ever code-switch? Why (not)?
b) can you think of any other types of code-switching apart for the
ones described in this text?
c/ would you say that code-switching is mainly related to the topic or
to the role of the speaker? Explain.
13. KEY WORDS

Bidialectal
Compound bilingual
Communicative competence
Co-ordinate bilingual
Domain
Dormant bilingual
Interference
Minority language
Proficiency
Sociolinguistic competence
Sociolinguistic relativity
Unit 5
1. BILINIGUAL EDUCATION
Bilingual education entails the accomplishment of a number of actions
and decisions regarding multidisciplinary perspectives which can be
political, economical, social, cultural and pedagogical. These can be
analyzed from different angles. In the first place, bilingual education
involves both a given language policy and a pedagogic realization in a
particular classroom practice. In the second place, bilingual education
deals with national or regional matters and by means of language planning
it tries to assimilate minorities, integrate minority groups and/or spread
intercultural understanding. Politics are doubtless always present in
bilingual education as, for instance, in the case of canada. The aim of
French immersion in canada is to give students the opportunity to achieve,
by secondary school graduation, a level of bilingualism sufficient to
function well in a French-speaking community, accept a job using French
as the working language, or take university or college education in French.
In addition to this, canadian immersion programs help to promote
understanding between two main language groupst and solve sociopolitical
problems that have existed for decades and that might otherwise eventually
bring about more serious social problems.
As was explained in previous chapters, languages evolve over time as
a result of social, political and economical changes in societies. under
certain circumstances some languages may shrink in terms of numbers
of speakers, while others may grow. At all events, it seems that for a
(minority) language to survive it is necessary to meet certain conditions
such as the ones put forward by Baker (2002):
a/ Languages need to be used at home for interpersonal
communication; that way they become mother tongues of new
t aput, form English and French, a number of heritage languages are spoken in
Canada.
members in the family. The best way to ensure the subsistence

of (minority) languages is to raise children in that language which
will, nevertheless, need to be reinforced later in schooling. This
is the case, for instance, of Welsh in Wales and Basque in the
Basque Country.
b) A second benchmark for the maintenance and development of a
(minority) language is its presence through formal schooling.
This provides the speakers with wider linguistic tools to interact
outside a limited domestic setting and help in the social and
psycholinguistic development of the individual. Language
planning through bilingual education has succeeded in Canada
and Waies and also in the Basque Country and Catalonia, but not
to the same extent in Ireland, where the number of Irish-speakers
has decreased in favor of English in spite of the continuous efforts
made by the Irish authorities. In t922, the establishment of the
Irish Free State (later the Irish Republic of lreland) made Irish
the first official language in the country and occasioned its
implantation in the educational system.
c) A third decisive factor for the continuation of a (minority) language
is its presence in economic circles as this guarantees that speakers
will maintain or lear-n it for employrnent purposes. This may explain
the case of lrish. For decades the Irish economy has remained to
some extent dependent upon the economy of other English-speaking
countries (e.g., favoring the use of English in the employment
market), and later the incorporation of Ireland into the EU has
stressed the significance of other European Union languages such
as English, French and German. Parents may also play a role in the
spread of a majority language as they may encourage the learning
and use of that language by their children, motivated by the fact
that it may be facilitative for employment and economic reasons.
d) A fourth aspect is related to the association of the (minority)
language with the culture and the literary tradition of the speech
community. When the (minority) language is socially and culturally
valued (often representing a cultural or ethnic identity) and is
commonly used in the media and in social interactions, it has more
social functions and, consequently, more chances to spread or simply
to be maintained. For instance, one of the main reasons for the
decrease in numbers of Australian Aboriginal languages speakers
was the lack of social value associated with these languages. Since
18th c. there was an overt attempt on the part of colonizers to
:\IT5 123
convert Aborigines into Europeans. More recentlr, in the past

decades, younger generations did not find man¡' adr-antages in
learning the language of their ancestors as they often sa*,that their
progenitors represented a socially and economically deprived group.
The four fundamentals referred to before show how the course of
languages can be guided to some extent. This fact makes bilingual
education and language policymakers of paramount importance from a
social point ofview for the progress of nation-states and can certainly pave
the way for social interethnic understanding or conflict. From the point
of vier.r, of linguistic heritage and linguistic diversity, this kind of decision-
making, or the absence of it, can eventually cause language death, the
preeminence of one language over anothe4 or the development of bilingual-
bicultural societies (which seems to be the more advantageous outcome).
The adoption of a well-founded language planning policy in bilingual
education, howeveL does encounter some difficulties in its implementation.
Baker (ibid.) identifies three limitations of language planning in bilingual
education that need to be considered as it should not be forgotten that
language planning and policy deal fundamentally with people and not
only with languages. First, he identifies a temptation on the part of the
language planner to give prominence to the language rather than to the
child, i.e., what is good for the language is not necessarily good for the
child. So, a humanistic educationist may argue that '[...] bilingual
education needs to be defended for its value and for its contribution to
the development of the child, rather than for its supporl of the language.'
(Baker, 2002:233). Second, language planning in the form of bilingual
education generally has a limited view of the functions and purposes of
education as it often focuses on the benefits and needs for the acquisition
of a dual-linguistic system, sometimes setting aside other social and
psychological considerations. Third, Baker points out that there is often
unfounded optimism and too high expectations on bilingual education in
revitalizing a language. Bilingual education plays an important role in
ianguage maintenance and revival but it is not the only element.
Recently there has been a general tendency to perceive bilingual

education as very advantageous for everyone. This is due partly to the
general reawakening of cultural identities and the subsequent revival of
minority languages, and partly to the globalization process that makes
new generations aware of the need to have a command of more than one
language. It becomes almost a must in EU countries where the general
tendency, encouraged by governmental policies, is to move towards a
multilingual and multicultural society. In this respect, Baker and Jones
t-:
ii
(1998) display eight particular advantages of bilingual education in modern

societies:
1. Bilingual education allows the full development of the languages
involved (often two languages and sometimes three). This fact
enables children to engage in wider communication and have more
alternatives in patterns of communication with different generations,
different cultural groups and different geographical areas.
2. Bilingual education promotes among children deeper insights into
the cultures each language represents. It also avoids the stereo$,ping
of different social and cultural groups, encourages social and
cultural relativism and promotes a multiperspective viewpoint.
3. Bilingual education often results in biliteracy, i.e., the possibility of
reading and writing in more than one language. Some of the
outcomes are that it provides more possibilities for enjoying
literature for pleasure, broadens employment opportunities and
promotes a deeper understanding of heritage and traditions.
4. It seems that children are favored with some cognitive benefits when
they can speak two well-developed languages. Children may be more
creative in thinking in the sense that they become interpersonally
aware, for example as regards the need to code-switch.
5. Bilingual education may raise the children's self-esteem especiall¡r
when the language of home is not the majority language in the
society but is studied at school. Since it is one of the languages of
schooling, the child can perceive that the language is socially
accepted, which is so important in curriculum success. However,
if the language of home does not forrn part of the school curriculum
the child may experience feelings of rejection.
6. Canadian immersion studies suggest that curiculum achievement
is connected to bilingual education. Nevertheless, it is difficult to
determine if this is caused by an additional support at home, the
extra involvement of teachers and educational institutions, or the
connection between language and cognitive development, among
other factors.
7. The establishing of a secure identity within a parlicular community,
especially in the case of minority languages.
B. Bilingual education also brings economic advantages as it can
secure employment both in public services and private companies.
This may be true at a local, regional, or national level (e.g.,
UNIT 5
t25
catalonia, canada, etc.) but also in international corporations that
may need multilingual employees.
Despite the aforesaid strong points of bilingual education it also needs
to be taken into account that recent research has identified some
drawbacks such as the following: (a) bilingual education does not
guarantee effective schooling, in spite of the fact that it is often associated
r'r'ith academic success and, very often, it is the type of education preferred
by upper-middle classes in western societies andii is sometimes associated
u'ith an elitist education; (b) the language register used in formal
education does not necessarily correspond with the language register
needed outside the classroom, i.e., the type of academic ianguage used
as the means for teaching often does not correspond with the colloquial
register that students in a bilingual program can find outside the
classroom, and this may result in some sorl of exclusion by mother tongue
speakers; (c) productive skills are sometimes not fully áeveloped if Ihe
language of education is not present beyond the sóhool, ..rd thi, i,
precisely one of the most striking outcomes of canadian bilingual
education programs. Students, under ideal circumstances, seem to devetop
a full command of the language as far as receptive skills are concerned
(listening and reading). Productive skills (speaking and writing), howeve4
seem to develop to a lesser extent, which is not unusual in language
learning in other contexts.
(Please go to the exercises section and do exercises I and 2.)
2. LANGUAGE POLICY
Language is rarely a causal factor and language decisions are essentially
based on political and economic reasons. Language use and evolution
often mirrors what is thought about it and whatáctually happens in
society, for example, migration which is one of the main reasonsfor the
increase of people learning languages and for the revival and current need
for language policy and planning.
Language planning is actually part of a language policy that a given
goverrlment adopts as regards one or more of the languages spoken in the
country. In spain, for instance, catalan was forbidden during Franco's
dictatorship between 1937-1976. During that period the use of cataian
was not allowed in schools and no books or newspapers could be published
in that language because it was considered of impórtance for the cataian
movement, which was believed to threaten the union of Spain. In this wav
the gover-nment hoped to eliminate the language because new generations

*o.rld not be instructed in Catalan. Later, with the advent of democracy,
Catalan was officiaily reintroduced and was adopted as one of the official
languages in catalonia. This is an example of how a repressive language
policy can be ineffective.
3. LANGUAGE PLANNING
Language planning consists of a deliberate and institutionally organized
attempltoittáng" the development of a language vanety, or a language
itself,tr to alteiits functions in society. Sometimes, language planning
results from the need of a multilingual country to implement a language
policy regulating the scope and use of the languages and/or language
,rarieii"s *ithi.r its territory. Wardhaugh (2002) posits that language
planning constitutes a deliberate attempt to interfere with the natural
á"rr"lopÁ"nt of a language or one of its varieties, i.e., it involves human
inter-vJntion in the nátnát process of languages or varieties to change,
spread or erode. Language planning began several centuries ago and
various purposes -ay ñe Uétri"¿ this intentional inter{erence in the natural
pro.esrôf iungrrugé evolution and change. It mustbe said that these
attempts hurr" noi always "is
been honorable; while the aim may be to
maintain a language that about to disappear because of a continual loss
of native sp"ak"rs, on some occasions the goal is to repress and diminish
a cultural ár ethnic minority that found in their common language a
sign
of identity and a source of seif-assertion'
A few decades ago, decisions concerning language pianning were
characteristic of dÑeloping countries which often needed to make
decisions on whether to uie the forrner colonial language or other national
languages as a unifying code. More recently,language planning has become
an issue in western societies as there has been a social demand to preserwe
minority languages (e.g., Irish, Welsh, Catalan, etc.) or a political demand
to expand thé use of international languages to promote intercultural and
supranational communication (e.g., English, French and German in the ]l
EU). The variety of factors affecting language planning (economic,

educational, historical, judicial, political, religious and social) give an idea
of its complexity.
Languages reflect human relationships between individuals and also
betweei ,oii.l groups and they change in the course of time as a result
of the changes in social relationships. This means that, in a wa\',
languages arie alive and, therefore, are born (e.g., pidgins and creoles),
UNIT 5
127
develop over time (e.g., Anglo-Saxon evolved into present-day.English),
merge and die (e,g., Manx on the Isre of Mann).
thrs ralses the issue to
r'vhat extent man can alter the course or u i.rgr*g"
manipularion. It is nor crear how far ranguag", ;;;i;
uy deliberate
social or political maneuvering as there are instanc",
controled bv
for example, were rost becauie certain states or poliJes
i.;;;;;;;;;
"f wanted it so
(e.g', many Amerindian ranguages in North
and bouth America), and
vet some other instances where poriticar repression
in restricting language mainteru.r." (".g., catalan in
*u, ,r.r.cessfur
Franco's dictatorship).
spain during
. A fully developed language policy or at reast certain ideological trends

almost invariably lie. behind É.rguuge pranning. r"a""á,
cluarmbias (19g3)
recognized four main tvqes o{ ideology that prompt
{picaily
behind decision s regarding rangua!á pru.,rirg, ti";;;;;;"
the rationare
as similation,
linguistic pluralism, u ánd, inteú,at¡inaLt¡sm.
"*o"uror¡iat¡on
Linguistic assimilatio,rz considers that anyone forrning part
of a society,
regardless of their origin, should learn the dominurrt"lá.rg.ruge
of that
society. This seems , prima facie, a reasonable decision
of minority groups, but it raises the probrem ot.o.r."*áiion
r* tr* iritegration
and respect
for minority group identities and cultural heritage, *fri.fr
to disappear under this motivation for la.rguig" pturrrrrrrg,
,." often deemed
for example
the case of Russification in the former soviet union
where Soviet mlers
tried to spread the Russian language and cultur" ,rrr""girout
the whore
soviet union. A different action.o.rld be simply
i.e., the
"ffi.i.i1r"glect,
lack of official actions undertaken to preserve u iu.rg,rug",
which can also
lead to language assimilation.
In Australia, there were about 200languages at the time

European conquest and onry around 20 weie ,áu of the
.pot by younger
generations in the 1990s. A major factor in Aboriginuilu.rgrug. "n death in
Australia was the linguistic assimilation policy und"erraken
up to the 1970s
with their'English only'policy in schools. rn 1972 the
aá,u"rrt of a Labor
government meant the recognition of the right
for all Aboriginal children
to become literate in.their native language before
becoming literate in
English. This resulted in rhe introductio-n of-bilingual
children in various parrs of the country. ro{1v,Irr"y
..h;;I for Aboriginal
u." -áinry stilr open
in the Northern Territories, yh-"f" Aboriginar Éng.rug.,
aremostly spoken.
In these bilingual schools children receive ttreri irJroduction
to literacy
skills in their native language and all their academic
work is in English.
These programs have helpedlo raise the status
of both Aboriginal teachers
and Aboriginal languages but unfortunatery they
hu;";;;., undermined
in recent years (Shopen, 1999). The situation is critical as Aboriginal

languages in Australia are suffering an important decrease in number of
speakers in spite of the fact that the deliberate linguistic assimilation policy
seems to have ceased. Shopen (ibid.) points out that there is no permanent
institutional support that would help develop adequate skills, resources
and guidance for these programs.
Linguistic pluralism, however, implies the acceptance of various
languages or varieties, and it can be centered on individual or geographical
criteria, i.e., an individual may be stimulated to maintain his/her language
in the case of a multilingual environment, where his/her language
represents a minority that does not identify with a specific geographicai
area (such as a group of immigrants in a big city); or, more probably, in
the case of a multilingual state that adopts various official languages as
they are spoken in different geographical areas (e.g., French and English-
speaking Canada; French and English-speaking Belgium; and, English
and Afrikaans-speaking South Africa).
Vernacularization entails the reconstruction or renewal of a language
that is not used by a wide group of speakers but after some changes (the
alphabet, pronunciation, relexic alization, etc.) becomes widespread and
adopted as an official language (e.g., Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea) (see
Tok Pisin in chapter 3).
Internationalism ís reached when the motivation in language planning
is to adopt a non-vernacular language for wider interethnic communication
as a political solution to an internal problem often arising foom equally
powerful minorities, one of them aiming at imposing their language as
the official language, or the language of education and trade, for all (e.g.,
English in India and Singapore).
3.1. Some factors affecting language planning

The following factors significantly determine the development and the
incidence of language planning in a speech community.
a) Socio-demographic factors profoundly affect language planning
as the number of languages that are spoken and the number of
speakers may favor the use of one language or the other.
b/ Linguistic factors may also play a role as the degree of
development of one language as well as the existence of a literary
tradition may be taken into account when deciding which language
should be promoted or preserved.
L\IT5 r29
c/ Socio-psychological factors affect people's attitude tou.ards one

language or the other and their acceptance in a speech communih'.
d) Political factors can influence the adoption of a specific alphabet,
for example, the case of the Clrrllic alphabet introduced in middle-
central Asia by the Russians, and the adoption of the Latin alphabet
in Turkey.
e) Religious factors are also important. For instance Sudan, as a fonner
colony, had English as official language (spoken by a minority) but
this was changed to Arabic, a language spoken by half the population,
because of the stronger position of Islam in the country. The Bible
has also been translated into many different languagest.
3.2. Actions in language planning

There follow four starting points that language planners have
traditionally adopted in their task of language planning and which are
attempts in themselves to describe the processes or steps rather than the
goals (please note that the following actions are not mutually exclusive
but may be complementary):
a) Selection of a norm. Multilingual countries very often need to
make imporlant decisions regarding the language or languages that
will become official, or simply the language for education or any
institutional purpose. Sometimes, this turns into a critical decision
as rivalry among different language groups may cause conflicts as
some of them may think that they are being disadvantaged. Because
of this, it is sometimes necessary to introduce a language as a üngua
franca, which is the case of English in India and Ghana. On other
occasions, a particular variety is chosen or a new variety is created.
All these decisions are obviously based on political grounds.
b) Codification. Given the circumstance described immediatelv abor.e,
if an indigenous language is chosen as the standard, it ma1- be
necessary to make some changes and adapt it to meet the
requirements of a language for wider communication u'ithin a
multilingual country. Changes may be needed, for instance, to adapt
the language and update its vocabulary to adopt a ne\\'alphabet
or, simply, to standardize a language that prer-iouslv u'as found only
in the spoken form.
2 In the web page

for this subject, some instances of the Bible being translated into
other languages can be seen, for instance, the Bible in Sn'ahili and Hartian Creole Engllsh.
c) Modernization. Technological and scientific developments probably

require modernization of specific vocabulary and very often á
decision needs to be made on whether to adopt roan words or to
coin new terms based on indigenous roots. Language policies
sometimes go beyond actual language evolution because of the
speedy technological development that clearly favors the adoption
of loan words.
d) rmplementation. once a decision has been made, the chosen
language needs to be officiatly implemented and used in all sorts
of official forums: education, parliament, media, etc. This will
undoubtedly raise its social consideration and it will become a
prestige language or variet¡r, probably used in literary and academic
circies. Eventually, and as a result of continuous and prestigious
use, it will spread as the norm, and its presence in dictionaries,
grammars and literary works will consolidate its status as the norrn.
3.3. Aims of language planning

In previous sections it was said that there is a close connection between
language policy and language planning and, as a matter of fact, the former
governs the latter. A given language policy with far-reaching or very precise
aims affecting a speech community generally makes .t." óf more definite
language planning actions to achieve these goals.
Nahir (2003) sets forth eleven language planning functions or goals
which can in fact be combined to handle the language-related problems
and_needs of speech communities. This author points out thát earlier
models,like the one immediately above, attempt to analyzethe steps taken
by language policies or the agencies/academiei in the pio."r. of planning
language. His classification, howeve4 describes the functions or gtah the!
have sought until now in response to their ranguage-related needs
(communicative, political, social, economic, religióus, etc.). Needs and
aspirations are likely to change in the course of time.
a) Language purification can be divided into two types: external
purifi cation and internal purifi catio n. Extental purification consists
of the development of prescriptions of usage inorder to protect the
language fi:om unwanted foreign influencé by means, foi example,
of a Language Academy. some of the actions laken are the creation
of prescriptive grammars and dictionaries which contain the
normalized use of the language and following the criteria set out
by the Academy. Particularly notorious in this iespect is the control
UNIT 5 t31
over foreign lexical borrowings, especially u'hen there are

indigenous words that represent the same concept, and in such
cases a purist point of view is adopted. More difficult is the case of
recent technological advances that require, to a large extent, the
incorporation of foreign words. Internal purification refers to the
acceptance of the code as it exists at a certain point in historl',
protecting it from undesirable developments which are considered
as non-normative (incorrect) or simply as deviations from the
standard. The generation of these normative policies and their
enforcement are tasks actively undertaken by language academies.
b) Language revival consists of an attempt to revitalize a language
with a small number of speakers (e.g., Irish and Welsh), or even a
completely dead language (e.g., Hebrew and Cornish), and turn it
into a means of communication for a speech community. Some
instances of this phenomenon have been seen since the middle of
the nineteenth century together with general support for national
identity which entails the adoption and standardization of a national
language.
c) Language reform involves the incorporation of specific changes
in the language (e.g., spelling, grammar, pronunciation, etc.)
attempting to facilitate its use. The aim of this 'reform' can be to
facilitate the use of the language by its users, the intemationalization
of the language, or many other factors, but always depending on
political, ideological, religious or economical factors. Instances of
language reforms can be found in many languages since the
beginning of the nineteenth century (e.g., Icelandic, Gerrnan, Greek,
Spanish, etc.) but the most representative example is TLrrkish. Kemal
Atatürk undertook the modernization of Turker- and declared it a
lay country; he urged a huge reform in the Turkish lericon and
orthography, adopting the Roman script instead of the .{rab script.
d) Language standardization implies an attempt to adopt a language,
or variety of language, as the major language of a region or nation
for wider communication with official, educational, commercial
or other functions. Language standardization is seen ln the
unification of small political units, the division of others and the
recent independence of former colonial ter-ritories.
e / Language spread involves an attempt to increase the number of
speakers of aparticu\ar\anguage, norma\y at the expense of another
language or languages. This motivation for language shift olten
responds to political considerations in multilinguai countries. Some
examples can be found in former colonial territories that became

independent states during the nineteenth century. Language spread
is necessarily connected to language standardization by definition
as the expansion of a language promoted by language planning
agencies endeavors to institutionalize one language for some
political or economic reason (e.g., the USSR and Quebec).
f) Lexical modernization consists of the adaptation of existing
vocabulary or the creation of new one, to assist standard languages
that may have borrowed foreign vocabulary too fast to
accommodate it to their orthography, pronunciation, etc. Nahir
(ibid.) distinguishes two trends in terminological work: a) as part
of either the process of codification or implementation of languages
seeking revival (e.g., Hebrew) or reform (e.g., Ttrrkish) that involves
developing previously unwritten languages and aims at bridging
the gap between them and modern knowledge and technology; and,
b) as part of a process of modernization of standard languages that
have borrowed concepts and terms having a lexicon unprepared
for those changes, i.e., the natural development of the language has
not supplied the relevant terminology and it is necessary to provide
the terms that have come up as a result of social and technological
advance.
Lexical modernization is applied in many countries and constitutes
in itself an effect of globalization with the resulting increase in concept
borrowing from leading international languages such as English.
International globalized languages English- are
exercising a considerable influence over-especially
the rest of languages in the
world due to the growth of international relations and mobility.
Language planning agencies collect new ideas and concepts imported
into their community and adapt or create new vocabulary to designate
them. Lexical modernization has been practised in many countries
around the world such as: Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Israel,
Hungary France, Vietnam, India, etc.
g/ Terminology unification takes place when it is necessary to
establish unified terminologies, mainly in the technological and
scientific domains, in order to diminish ambiguity. Again this is
largely an effect of globalization and cross cultural communication
in the present world.
/z) stylistic simplification is found when a language use needs to be
disentangled in order to reduce communication ambiguity between
two groups, for instance, professionals and bureaucrats on the one
UNIT 5
133
hand and ordinary people on the other. Such a situation mav ha'e
been caused by the use of an archaic or literary style. Instances of
such stylistically complex language, both in terrns of lexical intricacv
and grammatical elaboration, can be found in legal and medical
language.
i) Interlingual communication implies the adoption of a LWC with
the intention of facilitating communication between members of
different speech communities. This lingua franca can take the form
of an auxiliary or artificial language such as Esperanto. More
commonly, and as a result of the spread of Anglo-Saxon culture and
the learning of English as an L2, English is frequently used these
days as a lingua franca in different parts of the world.
Another way in which interlingual communication can be
attained is by improving mutual intelligibility between speakers of
cognate languages. This can be accomplished by partially
standardizing the various linguistic codes in order to minimize
differences. Nordic language agencies, for instance, are committed
to cooperate and avoid unnecessary changes (e.g., Norwegian,
Danish, Icelandic, Swedish, etc.)
i) Language maintenance consists in the preservation of a group's
native language when political, social, economic, educational or
any other pressures threaten its further existence by causing a
decline in status or in the number of speakers. Language
maintenance can be exercised at two levels; first with the aim of
preserving a widely spoken language from unwanted foreign
influence; and, second, as a protection of a minorif-v ethnic language
whose acquisition and use needs to be encouraged b¡r means of
social, educational or political arrangements. In the case of Nerv
ZeaIand, for instance, speakers of Abori_einal languages often
perceive their language as har..ing a lou-er status than En_slish, rvhich
discourages them from taking their pro_eenitors as models and
maintaining the use of the traditional lan_sua_ees. En_elish is,
therefore, associated with social success and economic porver.
k) Auxiliary-code standardization entaiis the modification of
auxiliary aspects of the language (signs for the deaf, place names,
transcription, etc.) to lessen ambiguiry* or to satisf\ chan_eing
r-ules of
social, political or other recent needs. Changing place names can
serve the functions of terminology unification or sn-listic
simplification, but most often they just take place u'hen a given
political party is in power.
It should be taken into account that the language planning goals

described above are not mutually exclusive and two or more phenomena
can co-occur. On some occasions the goals and the procedures can even
be contradictory as there may be some tension between, for example,
language purification and lexical modernization.
3.4. Individual language planning

On some occasions language planning does not need to be an initiative
from governments or prominent institutions but they can also be the
venture of individuals. That is the case, for instance, of the Norwegian
language. Today there are two official forms of Nor-wegian Bokmál (book
language) and Nynorsft (new Norwegian). Bokmál is also called Riksmál
(national language) and Dano-Norwegian. It was influenced by Danish,
which was the dominant language while Norway was under Danish rule
(1397-1814). Nynorsk is also known as Landsmc?/ (country language) and
is based on rural dialects uninfluenced by Danish.
By the middle of the 19th century some attempts were made to create
a purely Nor-wegian language. On the one hand, Knud Knudsen undertook
a revision of written Danish with the aim of incorporating colloquial oral
forrns coming from Nor-wegian dialects. On the other hand, another group
of specialists, led by the Norwegian philologist and lexicographer Ivar
Aasen, undertook the task of forging a Norwegian language which was
conceived from a comprehensive study of the dialects spoken all over the
country and which were at times very dissimilar due to geographic
isolation. The outcome of this huge project was a language called ktndsntnl
('the language of the country') which is currently known as Nynorsk. For
some time Nynorsk was perceived by Nor-wegians as rustic and'r,'r.rlgar.
This situation has changed over the years. Nynorsk received officia.
recognition in 1885 through a parliamentary resolution. In 1930 a la,,l
was passed in the Parliament which stated that official documents had r,-
use both varieties and, as a matter of fact, if a citizen sends any sorr c:
written request to the government s/he has the right to obtain an ans\\'e:
in the language that was used in his/her request.
Nowadays, from the eighth level of primary school onwards, bo:1,
varieties are compulsory, one as the main language and another ,.
secondary language, according to the student's choice. Both Bokmal a::
Nynorsk are employed by the government, the schoois, and the ma.i
UNIT 5 135
media, although Bokmál is still the most widely used. It should also be
pointed out that it remains the language more commonly used in urban
areas whereas Nynorsk is employed mainly in western rural areas and
cities in the west like Bergen. In opposition to other minority languages,
Nynorsk and Bokmá"/ are mutually intelligible, so these varieties do not
need to be used exclusively within a minority group.
4. MINORITY LANGUAGES
Policy makers in multilingual nations need to make certain imporlant
decisions regarding the status of the languages in contact in a given
territory: first, arises the choice of official or national language, which
can be problematic in the case of developing nations composed of different
I ethnic groups; second, decisions need to be made regarding instruction
in schools, which will definitely determine not only the general attitude
towards a language but also the point of view of coming generations; and,
third, on some occasions there is also a need to decide on the
standardization procedures such as the choice of an alphabet or a given
variety, especially in the case of languages having scripts different to the
ones of currently internation ahzed languages.
The implementation of multilingual policies in multilingual states to
regulate the interaction among different language groups in a modern
nation or state is a result of the sociolinguistic demands of modern
societies. It can have three possible outcomes that determine the degree
of success or failure of a specific language policy:
a) Language maintenance, i.e., as a result of a course of action, the
survival of a specific language, endangered or not, may be
determined by political decisions.
b) Bilingualism seems to be one of the most desirable outcomes in a
prolonged contact of language groups as it guarantees the survival
of the languages and seems to be the best way for multicultural
and/or multiethnic societies to reach a common ground on linguistic
and sociopolitical fields.
c) Language shift seems to be another possible development and it
would not entail one of the more desirable outcomes as it can give
way to language loss. However, it is necessary to understand that
language development does not depend solely on language policy
decision making but also on sociocultural forces. More often than
not, the spread of a language in terms of numbers of speakers takes

place at the expense of another or other languages. páulson (1994:
9) supporrs this point by stating that ethnic gio,rpr within a modern
nation-state usually shift to the language spoken by the pre-eminent
group, assuming that the adequate incentive has been prtrrid"d.
thi,
point certainly has huge implications for the implementation of
language policies as it can have wide ranging repeicussions for
the
future of a language or the integration oi u" i--igrant group.
5. LANGUAGE SHIFT IN MINORITY LANGUAGES

Attitudinal factors also play a role in language maintenance or language
shift. Voluntary individual or small group migiation typically.".rtñ iriu
quick language shift, whereas large group migration áft"r o..urions
the
maintenance of social and linguistic hallmárks. This is the case, for
instance of Swedish in Finland or French in canada, where a minority
ethnic group in demographic decay uses its language as a sign of cultural
and social identity. This is more often so in minárit! groups *lth u strong
sense,of identity or with close cultural traditio.r, u.rá ,ralles because
thé
use of a different language will slow down occasionally impede-
their assimilation by the dominant ethnic group. -andIn both reported
above, recent censuses show how the minority lungrug"s"ru-pi".tend to decrease
in number of speakers over the years. Besides, as páulJon
G9g4) suggests,
maintained group bilingualism is rather unusual because if there i, á-.c"ss
to the dominant language, and socioeconomic incentives, speakers
will
most likely eventually shift to the dominant language, although this process
may take generations._An example of this kiñd oÍ lu.rg,ruge shift can
be
clearly seen in Australia with aboriginal languug"r. Áboiiginal speech
communities are shrinking and new generations tend to aáhere io
the
dominant language and culture as it piesents lots of social, educational
and economic advantages .o-pur"d to the traditional way of life.
Nevertheless, language maintenance is not always necessary
for the
continuation of cultural and ethnic identity.
Notice the following example of language shift within the united
States
a'd how converging circumstan.", .un influence the rate of language
shift:
For example, in pittsburgh the Greeks shift over a four generation

span compared with the three generation shift of the Italiáns.
Some
factors which corrtribute to the sr,cwer Greek shift are (u) k""ü.ág..rra
access to a standardized, written language with culturar prestige
and
UNIT 5
t.)/
tradition, which is taught by the Greek chu¡ches pittsbureh,
arranged marriage parrnérs directly in and (b)
monolingual in Greek). The Iralians'i"
ft;;-d;;;e (*-ho are rhen
srandard, non-wrirren diarect i,r.'
.;;;.;.;]p.uVrpok" a non_
Roman carhoric churches with "the p."griri.-.pJi,i,
""-pr".iir", ^"i,¡er shar ed rheir.
i.i.n, tlpic a'r. *.i th
Irish priests and nuns, so thev found ñ" r."É".g"'riiirrr"rrurr.e
in the churches. Nor was thér" any pr.rr.ri. suppofi
fór endogamy as lon,e as
the marriage was within the Roman
Catholic Church.
(paulston, 1 994: 1 5_1 6)
Language shift is not arways the outcome
of language contact, one of
them a minority language. Languages can
arso ue máirráned due to serf_
imposed or externally imposeJbalriers.
The forme..o.ri¿ be caused by
ideological or religioui constraints that
try to preserwe some sort of identity,
and the latter could originate, for instance,
because of some kind of
geographical isolation. Another possibility
two or more languages are used for differlnt
t . aigi*ric"srtuation where
fu".;;;;iirr.po."r.
Language planning does no_t only refer
to the attempts made to solve
language-related problems with minority
languages in modern nations3
but language planning also, and most often
these days, refers to a
systematic setting or goars regarding_ sociar
modern socieries, the pursuinf orgoa-rs and
,"d-r;;g-stic aspects in
means,r.,-^. *i, ;-;-;;;;
the future of nationai and fol"ig-i languages
instance, the status and teachi"g-"r Spanisñ,
in a given countrr. (for
as a na"tirre lan_euage, and
English, French or German aJ a foreign
lan_quag" rn traditionallr
monolingual region such as Andarusia or
castile-Lu úu.,.hu l;t;;,;.,'
(Please go to the exercises section
and do exercise 6. )
6' soME P¡{RTICULAR socIoLI\cL ISTIC srrt

\TIo\s
6.1. India
. India country
in -Tlir
gained independence in 1947 and the
established a languáge policy. English, ri.ould
feder.al go\.errrmenr
be substi.-Lteci b'
Hindi as the official ranguage atra, u. the iountry
most of them having their own language. Each
,,; ái.iá-d t;=;;"".
rági"""ii"rr=.,un. r'ourd
-- t Tlt*" problems can arise from clifferent and widely separated si¡uations s..,¡h
sla.lus ol a minorit¡ erhnic group u ithin a tu.g*r,rn" a= rhc
in numbrr, or simnlr
to intesrate
common due""*.o'*"..
i". mónoringuar r".-l"tlÉ. i,niri:ji:::""J,:'il::.Í;:?,*'r:;t;;,:j
to immigration).
also gain the status of official language in each state. It was so

acknowledged in the nation's constitution. In 1950 the Constitution
recognized fifteen major languages: four literary languages belonging to
the Dravidian group and eleven literary languages of the Indo-Aryan
groupo. A number of actions were undertaken in this respect (translations,
new dictionaries, encyclopaedias, new typewriters, etc.) with the aim of
spreading the use of Hindi and of detaching it from the former colonial
language. However, this language planning did not succeed and two
decades lateq English was reintroduced and adopted as the second official
languages. In 1956, Linguistic States were formed and most of them chose
the majority language as the official language in the state, except for the
northeastern hill states where there seems not to be a dominant language
(Krishnamurti, 1999).
Nowadays, multilingualism is encouraged in India and many children
learn English and Hindi in the Devanagari script in school, the official
language of the country apart from their mother tongue, spoken at home,
and the official language of their state. Today, there are still serious
problems regarding the spread of Hindi throughout the country and that
is caused by the literary nature of Hindi and its differences from other
local and regional varieties this resulting in multilingualism.
-all
At the moment, the central government in India (New Delhi) deals
with all types of issues related to international policy and the common
interests of the Indian people. The State government, howeve4 looks after
local and regional concerns and in many instances, especially in the south,
the language used is neither Hindi nor English, as in the central
government,but a local language. For years there has been an attempt to
introduce a'Three Language Formula'in schools aiming at providing
every high-school student with a command of two modern Indian
languages (one of them being Hindi) and English, but this endeavor has
proved unsuccessful. English has spread and is the language preferred in
the universities and the language of publication in learned journals, but
it is also the language of higher courts, parliamentary debate, industry,
economic transactions and inter-national trade.
The case of India is a good example of how government institutions
sometimes need to engage in the task of making far-reaching decisions.
These, however, are obviously easier to apply in smaller countries with
less inhabitants and a smaller number of languages involved.
rut.., in l992,three more languages were added to this list.

s English was given the status of an 'Associate Officiai'language.
-t
UNIT 5
139
6.2. New Zealand

Almost all Maoris in New zealandspeak English and a large proportion
the young people are bilingual. Howevef many youngsters
9f
in cities- do not sp_eaI Maori anymore. Maori is Lndaigered-especiallv
for several
reasons. First, English is the language of education; slcond,
Maori is
spoken more commonly in rural areai and people p."f",
to live in cities
where English is spoken.
rn 1999 the population of fluent Maori speakers was about 35.000,
around 8 per cent of the totar Maori population in New zearand
(Mccaffery 1999). From the late 1960s measures were taken
with the aim
of reintroducing Maori in primary schools as well as in universities.
These
measures met with little success due to the low status given
to their
language in society and the lack of recognition of Maori as a national
official language. In the late 1990s the bilingud n¿aori and English-
speaking population consisted mainly of an áge group over 60
whose
descendants did not speak Maori as a mothe. rolrrgi".
The situation was such that the generation bearing children
did not,
bv large, speak Maori as a mother tongue, and theie was no way
rd
could teach that language to their children. The Maori language
they
seemed
destined to disappear in New zealand. However, the situation
started to
change thanks to an innovative education movement which
began at the
pre-school level in the early 1980s with an imaginative idea
which involved
grandparents as a fundamental component in the education
of their
grandchildren. In 1999, over 700 Koianga (preschool language
nests)
instructed more than 12.000 children in the language of their
ancestors
(Mccaffery 1999) passing on the language, the ciltu-re and
the traditions
of the Maoris directly from their g.u.rdpur".rts, using rtuo.i
as the only
language of teaching and conveÁation. Nou,adays, the lu.rg.rug"
u.rá
customs of the New Zearand Aborigines seem to háve a
future.
In spite of these effor1s to maintain the Maori culture and language,
the lack of government support or biling.rul p.og.uÁ, i.,
th" public
edrrcational system meant that children coming froÁ rcohonga
were ,,ot
able to maintain their Maori language. After con"ti"""".
all that
the Maori community obtained was the incrusion of af."rsures
Maori-speaking
community language assistant in schools which was insufficient
guarantee continued Maori language developmen
tJ
t. Later, a self-deterrnined
group of parents took the initiative and establishei the KKM (Kura
Kaupapa Maori), an immersion movement that settled
some independent
immersion schools in order to let their children develop ih"i,lá.rg.rug"
skills after the Kohanga. This movement has claimed both governmental
recognition and funding but has only gained partial support. KKM only
employs and trains fluent speakers of Maori and only accepts children
coming from the Kohanga as they require full Maori immersion for the
first 4-6 years and demand active parental involvement to speak Maori at
home. Under these circumstances, it is a very low percentage of Maori-
speaking children that can have access to this type of education without
further governmental support (McCaffery, 1999). The future of this
language, like many others around the world, depends to a large extent
on government support and funding.
6.3. The Canadian experience

In 1982, Canada became a constitutionally bilingual country and
bilingualism continues to be a sociopolitical issue in this country today.
By means of this recent Constitution, the English rights in Quebec were
protected as much as the French rights outside Quebec. However, the
French rights were revoked in the new province of Manitoba and the
French-speaking population saw themselves circumscribed to the province
of Quebec, which is ruled by the English-speaking Montreal. This
parlicular situation gave way to frequent social and political tensions in
that part of Canada and, not surprisingly, language is perceived as a sign
of identity and cultural heritage that unifies members of the French origin
community which represents approximately a 30 per cent of the total
Canadian population, most of them (around 80 per cent) living in Quebec.
Bilingualism in the two official languages is mainly found in the population
of French origin in the East of the country such as Montreal, Sherbrooke
and Ottawa.
By means of the Constitution Act in
1982, the Canadian central
government undertook the task of protecting the French rights throughout
the country, whereas the government in the province of Quebec took
measures against the use of English within the province claiming that
bilingualism in Ouebec led to unilingualism in English6. Nowadays, the
actions undertaken to restrain the use of English in Ouebec have been
banned at the same time that some legislation in Manitoba that denied
francophone rights has been modified, but the French-English division
and debate is still present. Aparl from this historical dispute between the
two official languages, it should be taken into account that Canada has
6
It should be taken into account that education in Canada is a provincial responsibility.
UNIT 5
1-+1
some aboriginal minorities with their

own indigenous languages and that
canada is a country of immigrants ancr
thut,
is a considerabre number oÍ people h"yi;s "r!".rJrvr"'oig ciries, there
Pofiuguese, etc., as.their mothér tongue.
;;;;tii, rirtt"", German,
canádá continues to be a hotspot
as far as the sociolingrristic and sociopoliticul
the situarion worsens because the French-Engrish
sit..utio' iJ.orr.".ned and
teritorially based, in spite of continued governmental .;;;;;r.y is becoming
effor1s. Nevertheless,
F*"ug:,olanning actions-are being .,nJ".tuL"n ,. rr"ü,"r"e
There follow some examples of uitl"g".l the probrem.
developing a bilingual and biculturaT "¿".rtiá" pL;;;-, that aim at
society in Canada.
French immersion_began 30 years ago,
in 1965, with an experiment
carried out at St. Lambert schooi, Montreal,
where a group of English-
speaking parents succeeded in getting the
school aiJt.i.t to initiate a
bilingual immersion program with their children
in kindergarlen (French
as a.second language). At rhar time it
became
English-speaking communiqz needed to attain ";;"r;;;;;";;;;;;;';"
a high proficiency in French
to overcome their minority language situation
ln-euebec and guarantee
their social and economic maint"ná.r." within
tt-r" p.orri.r.e. This initial
program was rather extreme as monolingual
Engrisi-rp""r.i"g kids were
instructed in French from the very first áay
in d;;;;;n and rarer in
grade two, they would starl to devllop
fir.ifu"e"ug"li;;" skills. Larer
on, by grade 6, harf of the curriculum wourd
in French' A bit late4-some changes were introduJed E"irrir'""0'illli
be taught i"
as these programs
spread widely across the country ánd mid-im-".rro'
programs were also developed. The aim
u.ralát"-i--"..io'
of these pr"gru;, is fbr children
to reach a level of híingualism, and eventualiy
oT biculturalism', br-
secondary schoor graduarion thar ailows
rt,"- io iln.i¡." *"rir'' ;;;;";_
speaking communitv or to access the job
French- -utk;;;;"irl;il; education in
a general rerrr used to refer ro rhis npe oi conrenr_
T:::l_rt":ersionis
l3::1t:::*ction ;;;;.
in which-Fren.', ;.
rvithin the classroom and in which stuclents
", "á
* ;::: ;i #. ,' J:j
1
u.", ,fr"."io=. ;
ll"-::::loi'*";;;,h;";#:i;üil*-"ti'-Hi:::i""T:;':"'.i:i
literacy skini H.,,:",,"1,
f proficrencr
::,:i,":::1?l::'.:y*
equal and three types oflnd ;;;;;;::;.;
immersio.r .un be found ";; ;ji
iq r-n-.o.-oJ
t"ru].ü"" #il; ;::
immersion, which is offered".n".,,-' ifr"_^,11,;.:;.
/^\ ^^-l-.:-^-,,
:tr::XTg;ji) :*lv grade 1 or 2) u'd ."p.".",rt.;;;;"ri';:üJl;
:j:'5:j3^9',*'i,l*n,
sort of immersion; (b) delayed or intelmediate
immersion,'tr;;:,:a'i;
---
' A high proficiency in.the L2 and-a deep kno-r.i,ledge of the
positively the L2 learner! attitude torvards L2 culrure in¡-luences
tt," iZ .,rlt.,.".
r42 AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS
later of schooling beginning in grade 4, and (c) late immersion is offered

beginning in grades 6,7 or later. Immersion can also be total
-involving
the instruction of all subjects in the second language- or partial -
requiring instruction in the second language for half the school day'
These French immersion programs have not found an equivalent
counterpart in English immersion in Canada as the French-speaking
communities do not offer an exact parallel to their French mother tongue
speakers in spite of the popularity and success of these programst.
Swain and Johnson (1,997: ó)e set forth some core features in
prototypical immersion programs. They indicate that the following
characteristics cannot be understood on an all-or-nothing basis but as
part of a continuum. They add that for a bilingual program to be labeled
as 'immersion', it should accommodate each of these characteristics as
much as possible:
a) The L2 is used as a medium of instruction, in spite of being taught
formally and only as a subject. The underlying methodological
rationale is that of the communicative approach that proposes the
increase of comprehensible input.
b) The immersion curriculum is analogous to the one used with
students not included in an immersion program. In this way, it is
guaranteed that immersion students get the same content and the
only variable is the use of tJne L2 as a medium of instmction.
c) The L1 receives obvious support as an essential component of the
curriculum, sometimes as a subject and sometimes as the medium
of instr"uction.
d) 'Additive bilingualism' constitutes the chief aim of the program'
This principle entails that at the end of the program students' L1
proficiency should be comparable to those who have studied
through their L1, i.e.,L2 proficiency should not be attained at the
expense of the Ll.
e) L2 exposure is by and large restricted to the classroom context, at
least in some immersion programs such as those in Canada, where
,hor.ld be pointed out that extensive research has been carried out with these
programs and in spite of a number of shorlcomings that research has pointed out, French
immersion in Canada continues to be one of the most successful examples of bilingual
education.
-\t e This article is part of a book that is an essential reference for those interested in
bilingual immersion programs. This book provides a thorough introduction to the topic and
supplies some interesting examples of immersion programs in different countries.
UNIT .5
143
parents or friends do not use the language of instmction. obüously,

this constitutes a disadvantage for the students.
All students join the program with similar levels of L2 proficiency.
Some degree of homogeneity in this respect facilitates the adoption
of a curriculum and pedagogy that matches most students'needs.
s) Teachers are bilingual in the students'Ll and theL2 medium of
instruction.
h) The classroom culture of a prototypical immersion program is that
of the local L1 community instead of that of the culture of the L1,
i.e., where that language is used as an L1.
7. EUROPEAN UNION LANGUAGE PLANNING

AND POI,ICY
There is a need to conver-t the rich heritage of diverse languages and
cultures in Europe from a barrier to communication into a source of
mutual understanding. A better knowledge of European moder-n languages
will facilitate communication and interaction among Europeans and will
promote mobility and mutual understanding. In this case, the aim of a
particular language planning and policy is to unify millions of speakers
under a political and economical administration and given the amount
of different languages it seems necessary to find a common ground for
interaction without losing either cultural or linguistic identity.
It is not easy to obtain an accurate picture of the linguistic situation
within the EU given the wide-range of countries, cultures and political
systems involved. At the time of writing the EU comprises 25 countries
with 22 different official languages (only three are considered working
languages: English, French and German) and all these countries includé
considerable linguistic minorities either because they have some territory
holding an inherited language or as a result of an extensive migration
giving way to a plentiful immigrant community. only portugal can be
considered'officially' monolingual although it contains speech communities
using a dissimilar language from the official one. In all the other countries
there are areas where a different language is learned as a mother tongue
(at this point it should be kept in mind that the distinction betu,een
languages and dialects is not always clear and is often determined br-
sociopolitical matters. See chapter 1). This situation gives us a picture of
the diversity of the state of affairs, which will change shorllv and not for
the bettel because there is already a plan to broaden the EU to neiehborine
countries with new languages, new education systems and various degrees
of commitment to language teaching. This multiplicity of circumstances
exhibits the need to develop a common EU language policy in order to
promote interrelation among the different member states and the common
understanding of peoples.
To add controversy to the issue, Trimm (1999) mentions that a major
problem concerning the subject of language learning and language
planning is the lack of an organic unit to take responsibility for it. So,
different laws and public organisms may be involved in the teaching of
state languages to native speakers, to minority children and the teaching
of second/foreign languages. He adds that there is no longitudinal unity
as responsibilities change with the transfer of children from elementary
school to high school and the university, and different agencies may be
involved in the setting of curricular guidelines, teaching materials and
assessment. Given the aforesaid circumstances a high degree of
variability is to be expected within an international organization like
the EU.
Policy makers, aware of the far-reaching repercussions of a good or
bad language policy for the future of the European common market, have
established some guidelines that try to promote the use of international
languages for intercultural communication. They have also undertaken
some actions regarding the maintenance of minority languages. So far,
the following documents have been already elaborated:
a) The European Charter for Minority or Regional Languages.
b) The CE Framework Convention for the Protection of National
Minorities.
c) The Oslo Recommendations regarding the Linguistic Rights of
National Minorities within the Organization for Security and Co-
operation in Europe (OSCE).
d) The Hague Recommendations Regarding the Education Rights of
National Minorities.
The EU has already taken some action regarding the secondiforeign

language teaching and learning within the member states, and in a White
Paper published in 1995 (Teaching and learning: towards the leat"ning society)
it is stated as a general objective that everyone, irrespective or his/her
academic training should gain proficiency in two languages apart from
their mother tongue so that they can communicate in those languages.
UNIT 5
t4s
with this aim, the EU has reached a strong consensus on the fundamentals
for foreign language teaching and some programs
have been developed for
the exchange of students andleachers in trdér
to favor the learnrng of other
EU languages, to aid teacher training, to encourage
awareness-raising, and
to promote the cultural exchange among differJnt
edrcutio.ral systems.
Some of these programs are Socrates (includi"g
Socrates), Leonardo (exchange programs in
E.;;;s, Lingua and
the vocational net¿) ana Tempus
(for the development of higñei edircation
systems).
The Common European Framework of Reference
document that provides a practical tool r". for Languages is a
standards
"rtáuti.rri"g.""rrn
at successive stages of learning and evaluating
rangáge knowledge. It
aims at providing üe basis for ietting common
standards within the EU
at an international level and provides ihe basis for
the *","a
of language qualifications within the EU, and therefore recognition
educational and occupationar mobility. The Frame*,ork
facilitating
describes:
a) The competences necessary for communication;
b) The relared knowledge and skills;
c) The situations and domains of communication.
The framework paves the way for a comprehensive
teaching and learning objectives and method, und
definition of
ir, th"."to.e, of special
interest to course designers, textbook writers, testers,
teachers and teacher
trainers, and the whole academic community as
a whole.
(Please go to the exercises section and
do exercise 9.)
B. THE ROLE OF ENGLISH
. _English-has spread widely ail over the worrd, first because of the
influence of the British Empiie and, second due
North American culture in the worrd. In Europe,
,. ná p*"minence of
I Englis'h has advanced
as an international language especially
I
after tft. Wo".ta Wur II, leaving
i behind other preeminent la.rg.rag", .,-r.h u, pr"n.t
. ¡"ürirr, is now used
by millions of speakers fo. r irriber of communicative
functions across
Europe, and Hoffmann (2000) points out that:
1...1 the presence of and need for English have become so

widespread, and access to and provision for
it"so
possible to ralk aboût'bilinguaiism with ";.r;J, that
Engrish';;ñ;.
ir is no*,
rhan just the
use of Engrish as a foreign linguage. The expíessiorr-,üitir-,grruüsm
ri,ith
English' is ambitious: [...]. The term'multilingualism' is therefore the

preferred one here, as it allows for a variety of linguistic constellations
involving two or more languages in speakers and communities.
(Hoffmann, 2000:2)
Hoffmann refers to the use of English for many purposes inside and
outside the EU scope, where it is one of the preferred languages. So this
language has become the preferred language in a number of ambits like
international business or EU institutions. Time and again it is also the
language chosen for academic discussion as most scholars face the need
to read and publish in English for international diffusion. English is also
directly influencing other European languages at different levels but it is
especially manifest in the field of technical terms borrowings
-lexical
are often introduced in many languages without the slightest adaptation.
English seems to have been adopted as the language of globalization
these days. Proficiency in English is seen as a desirable goal for youngsters
and elderly people in all EU countries and in many parts of the world, to
the point of equating inability in the use of English to disability. (See World
Englishes in Chapter 6.)
9. THB UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF LINGUISTIC

RIGHTS
In 1996, a world-wide representation of non-governmental
organizations with the support of the UNESCO approved The Universal
Declaration of Linguistic Rights (henceforth UDLR) in Barcelona, Spain.
The main aim of this document is to turn the world's nations' attention
to the problems arising from a globalized world with greater movements
of people, and to preserve everyone's right to a language identity. The
original document contains 52 articles and some additional dispositions
embracing many aspects of linguistic rights. Below are some of the general
principles that this document tries to establishlo:
1. The UDLR safeguards the personal rights to adhere to a linguistic
identity and to develop one's own culture.
2. The UDLR considers that all language communities are equal and
therefore merit official recognition in all kinds of social, political
and economic respects (e.g., education, law trade, public
administration, etc.).
10
Y." can go to the website for this subject to find the web link to the original fulI
document.
LNIT 5
147
3. The UDLR is especially concerned about the role
that education
plays in the maintenance and spread of a languag"
urra accordingly
ir states that educarion must help to marniaií and develop
ihá
language .po\gl by the language community.
In addition to this,
it encourages "the most extensive possibl" .om-und of
anv other
language they may wish to know.,, (Art.26).
4' The UDLR claims the right to use proper names
and place names
in the language specific to the territory, both oraly
and in writing.
5' The UDLR supports the right to decide the extent to which
a minority
language should be present in the media in a giÁ
territory and to
receive a thorough knowledge of its cultural ñeritage
through it.
6' The UDLR declares the right to preserve their linguistic and cultural
heritage.
7' The UDLR watches over the right to use the language
socioeconomic
in all
activities and to have full legal validitf,
This document has had far-reaching implications
in recent years for
the socral recognition and acceptun." Jf minority
ü;;;;g", around rhe
*'orld but there exists, nevertheless, some controversy over
fundamentals. its
Brumfit (1995) considers that this document is based on
the idea of "language communities" and little account
is taken of the
language rights of individuals. Brumfit finds little;;;;
fbr individual
choice in favor of the imposition of a languag"
i;;;;;.'erumfit
also criticizes the restrictive definition of "language
(ibict.)
community,, as
referring to a people being historically established
to the notion of "language group" which refers
ii u á.'ito.v as opposed
io u g-,rp of persons
sharing the same lu.rg,rag" but which does nor
antecedents (see article 1.1 and 1.5). In_this respec, fro.r",
historical
Greek-speaking population in Australia and 'tfr"
in" to.rg-standing
i,-,rt ish-speaking
population in Germany would falr into a second-class
category as they
*.ould be considered'language groups" but not ;ir;-g"rg;ommunities,,.
This raises the question of how long a language g."ü
order to qualify as a community. Brumfit
to exist in
Gt¡a.í utzor;;; "L"¿to the lack of
references in this document to the situation
in countries where a language
is used to avoid giüng one ranguage
many historicaily established
-among
a prioritv over the others, which cóuld *"rrtruuy give rise to a
number of conflicts (for instance, in former coronies
thainowadavs use
English or French for interethnic communication).
(Please go to the exercises section and

do exercises 10 and 1 1.)
10. EXERCISES
1. Find out if there is a bilingual school in your city. Try to get as much
information as possible of its curricula, organization and aims. Please
note that English does not need to be one of the languages involved in this
immersion program. Expand on the advantages and disadvantages of
bilingual education from your own point of view.
2. Baker and Jones (1998) seem to be quite in favor of bilingual
education and they indicate eight potential benefits of bilingual
education. Comment on each of them and express to what extent you
agree/disagree with them. You should provide examples to support your
points. (See page 124).
3. Thke an instance of language planning that you know about (English
does not need to be one of the languages involved) and analyze it according
to the eleven goals or functions posed by Nahir (2003). Which of these
goals affect the instance you have chosen? How?
4. Analyze and assess each of the following sociolinguistic decisions
and provide your opinion:
a/ Making Canada an officially bilingual country, having most of its
French-speaking population in a concrete area in the east (Quebec).
b) Trying to give status to Bokmál and Nynorsk in Nor-way instead of
choosing one of the varieties as the standard.
c) Giving Basque and Catalan official status together with Spanish in
the Basque Country and in Catalonia.
d) Reintroducing Irish in Ireland.
5. Explore the language policies of your own country or region and
how they are enforced in your educational system. How does your
educational system deal with immigrants who do not speak the
mainstream language? Are there any controversies about language use
and implementation in your country?
6. Think about the following hypothetical situations. Find a mode of
action for each of the following unresolved issues:
a/ Imagine your are appointed governor in a colonial territory your
country has in a remote area which is called Sealand. In Sealand
you, as the governol and a minority of the population coming from
your homeland speak your mother tongue, the language of the
metropolis, but most natives in Sealand speak an indigenous
UNIT 5 t49
language. You have to organize the educational system and legislate

accordingly. Your children go to school with natives from Sealand
and among other things you need to decide upon the language used
in the educational system. Write a set of 10-15 principles that wili
govern language use in Sealand schools.
b) You are member of a language planning agency that needs to decide
whether to reform your writing system for two reasons, first, the
writing system is rather unique (with its own alphabet) and that
difference prevents your country foom fully developing economically
in the same way as neighboring countries and the world's economic
power; second, your language has changed very little in the last two
hundred years and, as a result, a surfeit of borrowings are
inundating your language. Present an action plan that will satisfy
the economic powers of your country (eager for development and
integration in the international community), and the literary elite
(very concerned about the conservation of language and cultural
heritage).
7. Search the web for information on EU language policy. Find

information regarding EU language policy on:
a/ Bilingual/trilingual education in schools.
b) Minority languages in EU countries.
c) EU official languages.
d) Language policy
8. Search the web for these four documents and write a summary
(about 100 words) with the information you consider more important.
a) The European Charter for Minority or Regional Languages.
b) The CE Framework Convention for the Protection of National
Minorities.
c) The Oslo Recommendations regarding the Linguistic Rights of
National Minorities within the Organization for Security and Co-
operation in Europe (OSCE).
d) The Hague Recommendations Regarding the Education Rights of
National Minorities.
9. The White Paper published in 1995 by the EU Commission (Tencltüry
and learning: towards the learning society) on foreign language learning
states that in relation to proficiency in three communitr languages : '[ . . j
.
everyone, irrespective of training and education routes

chosen,
be able to acquire and keep .rp ih"i. ability to .o--rnicate lshould]
in at least
two community languages in addition to theii mother
tongue.,Think about
this ob.iective and state the possible shortcomings it
may have as."gu.á.
people's attitude, training in schools, infrastructi.",
.og.ri,lrre abilities or
anq othgl aspect you consider relevant. To what extenido
you think it is
a plausible objective in the short term?
10. Find the full text of The universal Declaration of Linguistic
(see the website) and read it. choose 3
Rights
articles and comment on them
providing your own point of view.
11. Find out abôut the linguistic situation, from a synchronic
and a
diachronic point of view, of one of the folrowing .orriii"r,
cameroon,
Nigeria, south Africa, Belize or Tiinidad and Tobagol you
might be interested
in the language or languages that are currentry rr""d, lungrale
plannrng and
policy, educational system, etc. you will probably
fi"t;i;;of informarion
on the web, in encyclopaedias or in the."f".".r.á books listed
below.
11. REFERENCES
Appr', R. and p. Muvsrp¡l . 1996. Bilingüismo y contacto de
lenguas. Barcelona:
Editorial Ariel.
Barpn, c.2002. 'Bilingual Education'in R.B. Kaplan (ed.)
The oxlord Handbook
of Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford Unlversity
iress.
Ber¡n, c. and S. JoNss. 1999. Encyclopedia of bitingualism
and bilingual education.
Clevedon: Philadelphia, pA: Multilingual MatLrs.
BBurr'rr, ch. 1995. 'people's,chol." uld ranguage rights'
[videorecord ing]: EFL in
language policy. university of york, aud"io-üsuil
c."t." r."i: IATEFL.
coeaRnueras, J. 1983. 'Ethical issues in status planning,
in J. cobarrubias and J.
A' Fishman (eds.), progres.s,in Language pranning:7"tir""t¡áLd perspectives.
The Hague: Mouton publishers.
Ho'p¡¿aNu, ch. 2000. 'The Spread of English and the
Growth of Multilinguarism
with English in Europe.t in J. cenoá"a u. i"rr"..
The Acquisition of a Third Language. crevedon:
G,¿r^.)E)rurh in Europe:
Murtili-ngíJ llratt".r.
KrrsnNemunrt,Bh' 1999.. 'Iltq" Language Education policy'in
B. spolsky (ed.)
c o nc is e Enc y clop edia of E duc at ioáat Lin g ui s/lcs. Amsterdam : Elsevier.
McCrnr'nv, J. J. 1999. language revitalization,in Spolsky, B. (ed.) 1999.
C oncise "',Maori
Ency clopedia átioiar Linguisllcs. Amsterdam: Ersevier.
of Educ
Naryt,-i\ita20.03.'Language planning Goars: A classification'in
c.B. paulston, and
G.R. Tucker; socioringuistics: The Essentiar Re"¡r"g;.
Publishing.
M;lá."lsa, Blackwell
UNIT.5 1-5 1
PaursroN, C.B. 1994. Linguistic Minorities in Multilingtnl Settirtgs. Amsrerdam:

John Benjamins Publishing Company.
SHopsN, T. 1999. 'Australian Indigenous Languages', in Spolskr, B. (ed. l 1999.
C onc is e Ency clop edia of Educ at ional Linguisllcs. Amste r-dam : Ei s e,,i
e r.
Sw¿ru, M. andR. K. JouNsoN. 1997.'Immersion education: A categon rvirhin

bilingual education', in R. K. Johnson and M. Srvain (ed.s.) Iitnitersioit
Education : Intet'national Perspective.s. cambridge uni'erslrr press.
TBIrru, J. L. M. 1999.Language Fducation policv-Europe', in Spolskr-. B. red.)
1999. Concise Encyclopedia of Educational Lingui.srlcs. Amsteidu-. Eir-.',".
Wannnaucs, R. 2002 (4th ed.). An Introduction to Sociolingttis¡1c,.. \Ialden, LS-\:
12. RESOURCES ON THE \\'EB

Now you can visit the website for this subject u'here r ou nj11 find some
13. FURTTIER READINGS AND QUESTIONS

13.1. Text 9
Note that Hamers and Blanc distinguish between the tenns bilingualiqr
and bilingualism. The former refers to psychological state of the ln¿ivi¿uat
who has access to more than one linguistic code, whereas the latter refers
to the state of a linguistic community in which two languages or codes
are in contact. Therefore, bilinguality sees the issue from the perspective
of the individual while bilingualism includes bilinguality and centers on
the social dimension of it at a macro level.
1...] The outcome of bilingual education depends upon a number of

pre-school factors as well as upon the way the two languiges are planned
in education. Two factors are of relevance in education; (t) to whát extent
is the child proficient in the school language? and (2) to what extent has
he developed the cognitive function in one or both of his languages before
starling school? considering the interplay of educationaffactors with
the following factors: social psychological and cognitive developmental
factors, such as onset of, and proficiency in, both languages; functions
developed forlanguage; valorization of one or both languáges for arl or
a limited number of functions; and the social representatiois *,hich the
child developed as a consequence, we make thá follorving hr,potheses:
( 1 simultaneously or if the child is

) If both languages are acquired
fully proficient inLoth languages before entering school, he does not
harre ihe double learning burden of acquiring new language skills and
literacy skiils simultaneously; if, in addition, the child has already
developed language as a cognitive tool, the acquisition of literacy skills
will be facilitáteJ; and, if ihe child has also developed and analysed
representation of language in which both languages are perceived as
inierchangeable, thusámplifying this functioning and the child is more
likely to dlvelop an additive iorm of bilinguality. This is the case of the
child in an educated mixed-lingual famiiy'
(2) If the child is only proficient in his L, when starting school jn
Lr, he will have to acquire tñe primary communicative skills in Lr at the
same time as the literacy skiils in Lr. If he has already developed an
analysed representatio' tf lut-tg.ttge through his L1, he can transfer it
to tÉe u.qrriritio.t of literacy skills; the two languages will become
interchangeable for cognitive operations, thus amplifying cognitive
functioning. Because both languages are valorized in their cognitive
function, this transfer will be relatively easy. The degree to which his
analysed representation of language includes^ both. languages as
inteáhangeubl" tool. will determine the degree of additivity. This is the
case of immersion-school children and of some advantaged submersion
children.
(3) If a child proficient in his L, only or with a limited knowledge
of L, atthe onset óf schooling in a relatively more prestigious L, has not
de,reloped the cognitive funciions of language in his Lr, he also faces the
double burden óf acquiring the primary communicative skills in L,
simultaneously with the liteiacy skills. Because he does not posses the
analytic repreientation of language the task of acquiring literacy skills
is harder (ás is the case for some monolingual children schooled in Lr).
If, in addition, his L1 is devalorized and stigmalized, he will not transfer
the newly acquired ikillr to his L, but limit them to aL, in which he is
not proficient. In the worse case, because he does not use his full
larrguage potential as does a monolingual child coping with the problem
of Jcqu'iring literacy, the development of the analysed representation of
languáge might be slowed down. Further devalorization of L, by society
anJthe schoáI, where it is not used for the development of literacy skills,
will lead to a perception that his two languages alê not interchangeable
as cognitive tools ánd that only L, can be used in that function. This
mighi ultimately lead to a subtractive for of bilinguality'
Hamers and Blanc (1989: 196-197)
lssues to consider:
a) Do you think the situations described in the three hypotheses
presented above are equally advantageous for the children? Do you
consider any of them more demanding than the others for the child?
UNIT 5
i53
b) To what extent do you think that pre-schoor factors prevail over
schooling factors in bilingual educátion in monolingual
countries?
c) Do you think bilinguar education programs
in Spain manage to
develop bilingual children coming fÁ- spu.rir'r,
families? Why (not)? -orrotingual
13.2. Text 10
Read the following text carefuily and comment

on it emphasizing any
will find sáme questions
that may be helpful. write around 250-300 wtrds in
total.
. Language planning is an attempt to interfere deliberately with a
language or one of its ;arieties: it is human intervention
processes of language change, diffusion, and
into natural
erosion. That attempt may
focus on either its status with regard ," rrÁ. rirr".
ru"glug" or variety
or its internal condition with a view to changing that c?n¿rtion, or on
both of these since they are not mutually
in status planning, the second results iÁ "*.rr"rrrÉ
ir* ¡^, focus results
corpus pl;;;;;
status planning changes the function of a language
or a variety of
a language and the righis of those who use ir.
speakers of a minority language are denied th"
FáJ"*u-ple, when
.rr. ái ,rru, language in
educating their childr".r, ih"i. language has no,rÁr.
Alternatively,
when-a government declares that hJnceFo.trr
t*"
one of these alone wiil be officiany recognized in
rá"g-,ruges rather than
alr fiinctions, the newly
recognized one has gained status. status itserf
is
mav also be improved or reduced by degrees, u"d;;;iiy "."iuri""is.concept; ii
So far as
languages and their varieties u.. .or.".red, status
.harrg.s are nearly
always very srow, are sometimes actively.o","rt"á, .";"d" leave
strong
residual feeli ngs. Fven^rerarively minoi ch^"g",
can produce such effects, as the residenñ of
;; ;;;p;rs for changes
Norway, Belgium, Canada, and India, are well
;;ó;;""tries,
-- e.g.,
u*u...'
Corpus planning seeks to develop
.language, a variet¡z of a language or a
usuaily to itandardi ze it, thaiir, t, p.áüaf ii*rrr,
rhe means
for serving every possibre ralguage irnction in society
r...]. co.rr.q,r".rtly,
corpus planning may involve such matters as the"dlvelopment
orthographv, new sources ofvocabura.y, ai.ri""".i;"¿",.) of an
a literature,
together with the deriberate cultivation áf .r.*
,oit ui the language
may extend its use into such areas as gover-nment, "r",education, and trade.
corpus planning_has b,een particurárly r-p".i."t
Indonesia, Israel, Finland, India, pakistan, u.rd pup.ru
l" countries rike
t t.* crrirr.u. These
two types of planning often co-occu6 for
some combination of a change in status -urry ph'Ái"g á..iri"", in'orve
particular language in papua New Guine. i,
*iiÉ inte..rái change. As one
d;;;i";d, all other
languages are affected, whether or not the effects are recognized officially.
We must also note then that, just as planning may either be deliberate
or proceed somewhat haphazardly, even accidentally, so its results may
be deliberately intended or not at all as intended. Even though it is
possible to recognize most of the relevant parameters, language planning
is still far from being any kind of exact science. Linguists have also been
quite involved in many planning actiüties and surrounding controversies.
Wardhaugh (2002:353)
Issues to consider:
a/ Provide some sociopolitical situations that may lead a language to
gain status, and others that may cause a language to lose it.
b) According to the text, how do language planning and language
policy interact? Which one do you think comes first, language
planning or language policy? Why?
c) In the case of a need for corpus planning, what kind of institution
do you think should assume that responsibility? Are political or
educational institutions better prepared? Why?
d) In a way,language planning goes against the natural process of
language evolution and maturation. Under what circumstances do
you find an 'artificial intervention' justified?
UNIT 5
155
14. KEY WORDS

The following list of key words contains some important terms
that
are presented in this unit. A definition for each term
ün be found at the
Aboriginal languages
African American Vernacular English
Corpus planning
Endangered language
Heritage language
Hypercorrection
Language Academy
Language election/selection
Language revitalization
Language attrition
Language conflict
Language loss
Language spread
Lingua franca
Language conflict
Language Policy Division
Sociolinguistic relativity
Status planning
Unit 6
1. SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND LANCUACE TEACHING/
LEARNING
Language teaching and learning and sociolinguistics have certain
common concerns, such as the role of English in the world (as a first
language or a second/foreign language), the contexts in which this
language is acquired, the way in which it interacts with other languages,
and the norms that determine the use of English. Communicative
competence shapes the ability to interact successfully in any speech
community. Someone who has acquired the language in a naturalistic
context from childhood also acquires sociolinguistic rules together with
linguistic knowledge and other competences (of course, this would not
be so in the case of some sort of cognitive impairment or abnormal social
situation).
This issue brings up the importance of language learning either in a
second language context, or a foreign language context. In the first case,
the language learner will have countless occasions to acquire/learn the
sociolinguistic rules through interaction and close contact with native
speakers of the language. The learning environment also raises the issue
whether sociolinguistic rules can, or should, be taught in a classroom
context or whether this is something the language learner will deal with
in due course when s/he has the chance to interact within a speech
community where the language being learned is spoken as a mother
tongue. A second issue raised in this respect is the motivation and pu{pose
of learning the language, that is, if it is learnt to be used this case-
within an English-speaking speech community or if it is to -inbe learned as
a LWC to communicate with other non-native speakers, for example,
English being used among mother tongue speakers of different languages
in the EU.
Until very recently sociolinguistic rules have received little attention
in the FL learning context and materials writers and teachers assumed
nó0 AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS
that learners would learn these conventions through interaction in due

course, at higher levels or while interacting with native speakersl. In the
I last few decades materials writers have grown concerrred atout this aspect
and, nowadays, sociocultural information is more often includeá in
classroom language instruction.
The inclusion of sociolinguistic behavior in teaching materials will
help the language learner to develop his/her ability to inteiact successfully
in a foreign speech community and will graduallyintegrate both linguistil
and sociolinguistic information. However, these sociálinguistic patterns
are often unreliable because they are either based orr1h" ináividual
intuitions of materials writers who may be reporting on conventions in
their own particular speech communities, or nery often this information
is based on community norms rather than on actual use. we, as native
speakers of a speech community, should not assume that all the linguistic
and social resources we make use of are parl of our conscious knorirledge
and, therefore, we may have intuitions regarding our speech behaviorln
aspeech community which do not clearly correspond wiih actual behaüor.
This is the reason why our native speaker intuitions are very useful in
analyzing the way others speak but we cannot trust them completely
without further analysis of the rules of speaking to predict the way other
people will interact. Finally, two aspects need tobe taken into account: a)
whose mles of speaking we want to include in the teaching materials; and,
b) to what extent we can generalize them to the point o1using them in
second language instruction.
Anyhow, it seems clear that the sociolinguistic information needed in
order to be communicatively competent should come lrom interaction
with native speakers or proficient speakers of the language. Regarding
the issue of language learning, it must be taken iito'account that
nowadays, the extensive development of new technologies in language
learning (e'g., language learning computer programs, on-rine turr!,ru!"
learning, etc.) and the aid and widespread oi tec-hnological developmeit
(e.g., cable TV, Internet, original rorrnd track DVDs, etó can
also piuy u.,
important role in sociocultural development especially in the case of
autonomous language learners.
- ti
-o],1¿ say the la-ck of references to sociolinguistic contents was not motivated
by
the belief that the aim of the language classroom wai to teach English for 'international,
interculturai communication, but thát it was simply u so.lo..,tt.rrii .oÁpon"rrt or
that should
be taught at a different point, at a different level,'or that *."rJ
u.;..-q"i'*d'by the learner
through interaction with native speakers.
UNIT 6 t6t
2. COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN LANGUAGE
TEACHINC/LEARNING
The concept of communicative competence was introduced in chapter
one and it comprises various types áf knowledge and skills sucñ as
linguistic, sociolinguistic and pragmatic. communicative competence is
needed for successful interaction among members of the same speech
community, and in this unit it is analyzed from the point of view of
foreign/second language learning as the process of learning a
foreignisecond language inevitably involves some degree of intercultural
communication, a situation of contact between different cultural values,
and social practices.
Linguistic competences refer to the knowledge of lexical, phonological
and syntactical elements and other dimensions of language that the
language lear-ner has learned as parl of the system, such as sociolinguistic
r-ules and pragmatic knowledge. Linguistic competence comprises the
knowledge of vocabulary, pronunciation rules, syntactic patterns and the
cognitive organization and storage of this knowledge in the brain of the
language learner. Linguistic competence will vary from one learner to
another depending on various factors such as the number of years spent
learning the second language, the rate of learning, the age when contact
n'ith the second language started, the learner's motivation, the learning
context (whether language is learned formally or acquired from natural
erposure), etc. But language is a social behavior and is more than just a
knowledge of the linguistic system.
sociolinguistic competences are concerned with the social and
cultural conditions for the use of language and the social conventions that
nlle language use in a specific speech community. These would comprise
norrns regarding politeness, norms regarding relations between the sexes
or different classes, social groups or generations, norrns regarding different
registers, etc. Sociolinguistic competences are normally acquired after
some degree of linguistic competence has been attained which is often
considered the vehicle through which sociolinguistic competences are
achieved. In the foreign language curriculum, sociolinguistic competences
are not always present and when they are, they are often considered of
side importance and something that the language learner will acquire on
his/her own in due time. This perspective only partially makes sense
because if it is trrre that some basic linguistic competence is needed first,
sociolinguistic contents and sensibility could, and actually should, be
introduced gradually. As a rule the more distant and different the native
culture of the language learner and the target language culture, the more
differences the language learner will find and the harder it will be to notice
them. For instance, a native Spanish speaker from Spain will find a bigger
gap between his/her home culture and sociolinguistic rules and the
Japanese culture than with the Italian culture, so it will be presumably
more difficult to acquire sociolinguistic competences in Japanese than in
Italian as a foreign language.
Normally, lack of knowledge of sociolinguistic r-ules and behaviors that
govern your interlocutor's speech may result in a communication
breakdown. It should be pointed out that the higher the language learner's
linguistic competence the more s/he will be expected to have adequate
sociolinguistic and pragmatic competences in his/her interaction with a
native speaker of the target language. So, a native speaker of any language
will naturally expect and assume a high cultural, sociolinguistic and
pragmatic competence from his interlocutor if s/he has a good command
of the linguistic system.
Pragmatic competences refer to the functional use of linguistic
resources such as language functions and speech acts in interaction. It
also concerns itself with the language learner's mastery of discourse
markers, cohesion and coherence and the recognition of text types, the
presence of irony, parody and politeness among other things (see section
6 in this chapter).
3. THE SOCIOLINGUISTIC BEHAVIOR OF ENGLISH

SPEAKERS: RULES OF SPEAKING
speech communities very frequently exhibit different styles of inte-

raction at the sociolinguistic and pragmatic level. The analysis of socio-
linguistic behavior in native English speaking communities can provide
useful insights for the teaching and learning of languages as the descrip-
tion of rules of speaking can help the teacher and the learner to systema-
tize the process of language learning. Below are two samples of some rules
of speaking regarding address behavior and telephoning that can cer-
tainly be taught in the classroom setting with relative ease, although others
like greetings, parlings or refusals could also have been selected.
3.1. Address behavior

some of the earliest sociolinguistic studies on speech behavior from a
crosslinguistic perspective were done on the forms of address, that is, the
UNIT 6 t63
way people address one another in different situations. The study of forrns
of address is a recurrent topic in sociolinguistic research because they are
common in discourse and very easily observed. Whenever one person
speaks to another there is a whole range of options that the speaker can
use to refer to the addressee and these may vary from one language to the
other depending on the social conventions; the type of relationship among
the interlocutors; and the sociocultural distance between the languages
involved. Wolfson and Manes (1978) studied the use of the address form
ma'am in the United States and found out that it has different meanings
in the South of the United States than it has in other pafls of the country.
They observed that the term ma'am was commonly used instead of the
formulas 'I beg your pardon?' or'Pardon?', that is, to indicate that you had
not heard what your female interlocutor had just said or to request further
explanation. Wolfson (1989: B0) provides the following example:
1. A: Could you tell me how late you're open this evening?
B: Ma'am?
A: Could you tell me how late you're open this evening?
B: Until six.
2. A: You're not open on Sundays?
B: Pardon?
A: You're not open on Sundays?
B: No.
In the same vein Wolfson and Manes (ibid.) report that the expression
'Yes,ma'am' is used as a response to'Thank you' , wíth the meaning of 'YotL
are welcome':
3. A: Could you tell me how late vou're open this er-enin_s?
B: Until nine.
A: Thank you very much.
B: Yes, ma'am.
4. A; Could you tell me how late you're open this er-enin_s?
B: Until five-thirty.
A: Thank you very much.
B: You're welcome.
Wolfson (1989: 80-81)
In this study, they noticed as well that the forrn ma'am not only had
different meanings in the South of the united States, but it was also used
in different social contexts. In the North, this form tended to be used
between strangers whereas in the South it was used not only to strangers
but also to acquaintances and friends.
Forms of address constitute a conspicuous sign of status relationships
and different languages may offer different possibilities and different degrees
of formality and social distance. This is, in fact, a frequent mistake made
by language learners at lower proficiency levels- as the use
of L1 sociopragmatic -especially
r-ules leads to violations of the interlocutors' address
behavior. In many European languages, for instance, speakers constantly
choose pronouns (e.g., German: du and Sle; Spanish: tu and usted) and
nominal (e.g., first name; title plus last name; etc.), or verb conjugations
(e.g., conditionals) to reflect status relationship and degree of formality.
Howeve4 Wolfson (1989: 85) points out that many non-European languages
mark a number of more subtle distinctions, as it is the case of Asian
languages (e.g., Japanese, Chinese, etc.) which are especially known for
their elaboration in formality and the ample variety of politeness resources.
Norris (2001: 254), for instance, refers to the German address behavior as
typically based on dual register distinction: (a) a formal, respectful, sociallr
distant one by the use of the pronoun Sle- and an inforrnai,
-characterized
familiar; socially proximate one by the use of the pronoun
du-. German L2 learners would -characterized
then need to acquire control over this
address system which involves the acquisition of the pragmalinguisic forrns
(the linguistic forms du and sle), the sociopragmatic rules (to relate
particular forms with contextual variables), and the arrangement of both
types of knowledge in language use.
3.2. Telephoning
The way people answer the phone or initiate a telephone conversario:-
varies from language to language and from culture to culture. Thes.
sociolinguistic mles (either self-identification or answering rules) are n _ ,
generally open to conscious consideration and very often speakers are j.-.,
unaware of their existence until their sociolinguistic expectations .:.
broken and they realize that these rules actually exist.
In the United States, for example, a phone call will probabh bc=.
with the caller offering an apology to the person answering the ph .-.
especially if it is a time of the day when the caller may be busy of is iii..
to be disturbed, like meal time or late at night. In France, this s., .
UNIT ó 1ó5
apology is even more likely to happen and in England amongst some

groups and social classes. In France, callers are very likely to identifu
themselves and to check that they are calling to the right number whereas
this is seldom done in Spain. The rrles of self-identification in telephone
calls is certainly very variable across cultures. In Germany, for instance,
the first thing the person who answers the phone generally does is to
identify himiherself without being asked to do so. However, these rules
that can at some point be included in the language curriculum are likely
to change these days due to the rapid development of information
technologies and the astonishing and still increasing number of mobile
phones which lets the answerer know on many occasions, who is calling.
It is also interesting that as the answerer can be located anlrvhere and so
it may not be a convenient moment, the caller tends to ask if it is a good
moment to speak.
4. SOCIOLINCUISTIC PERSPECTIVES ON LANGUAGE

USE IN IMMERSION CLASSROOMS
Bilingual education and immersion programs often respond to social

needs and aim at developing proficiency in the second language for students
that will need it for one reason or the other. The actual implementation
and degree of success of these programs is subjected, holver,e¡ to a number
of external factors resulting from special sociopolitical situation. a r-ariarion
in the teaching resources available, the extent of immersion (partlal or
total; early orlate), the status of the L2 outside the classroor¡, erc. This
means that whatever decisions and actions seem plausible ft'on a
theoretical and formal point of vieu' mav nor have as goo.i re.uits as
expected when they are put into practice. Errensive resear:h ha.'. b¿¡l done
on Canadian immersion in the last decades tning ro fino c,ur about rhe
shortcomings in their implementation as u'e1l as rhe assis:i:tent of
proficiency attained by students by the time of therr sraiiuarl(,,1.
One of the problems found through ciassroom obsen'alioi is rhar a
diglossic situation can easily develop in immersion classroons tusr a. in
any speech community2, that is, the language of insrlucrion, ol'
t ffrir."fers to a diglossic situation at a microlevel, that is, u-ithin rhe clas.rc,c,¡:-r c'i
school setting.
r66 AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS
superordinate language, acts as the formal language variety used with the
teacher and used as a language for academic purposes, and the L1 is
preferred in informal speech and social interaction with other classmates
and acts as the subordinate language, or a vernacuiar, (see diglossia in
chapter 4) preferred for peer interaction in play, competition, arguing,
etc. Tarone and Swain (1995: 166) indicate that "[...] immersion
classrooms are not only diglossic but become increasingly so in the upper
primary grades.", and this can be seen by a close observation of the types
of L2 input andL2 output within the classroom, the individuals involved
in the interaction (either teacher-pupil or peer-peer communication), and
the purposes of the information exchange. The main difference between
this kind of diglossic speech community, and any other occurring outside
this context, is that instead of being stable, these 'special' speech
communities in classroom immersion change over time due to aspects
such as cognitive, social or personal factors affecting this peculiar speech
community, i.e., they change as they become grownups and their social
and cognitive resources become mature. This situation may be caused by
the fact that the L2language taught by the teachers and learned by the
students norrnally perforrns specific functions, such as instructional public
discourse, but it does not ser-ve other interpersonal and trivial purposes
which should also be part of the acquired repertoire.
An additional difficulty that the language learner has to face when
learning a language largely spoken in the world, for instance an
international language like English or Spanish, is that the sociolinguistic
rrrles may vary from one place to the other as these rules of behavior are
normally specific to a particular speech community and not necessarily
part of a whole country. This changes when a language is used as alingua
franca or LWC as the language that is being used for intercultural
communication is not the native language for any of the speakers and
therefore its use is not culturally bound. More often these days English is
used in this way and speakers are therefore aware of it and they just use
the language as a common code for the transmission of meaning without
showing or expecting cultural loads.
Another aspect of language learning that is closely related to
sociolinguistics and is worth taking into account is that of dialect. In
English, for instance, a whole range of dialects and varieties are spoken
in the world, both within an English-speaking country like Great Britain
or the united States, or differences regarding these varieties from one
country to the other, i.e., the ways in which British English is different to
Australian English (see world Englishes in this chapter). Needless to say
some varieties have more prestige or social status than others and, under
UNIT 6 161
some circumstances, this can determine the variety or varieties that a

given institution tries to teach or a language learner u''ants to iearn. So,
when English is learned as a foreign language some decisions are implicitl¡
or explicitly made regarding the language variety or varieties to be learned.
These decisions are often not made by the learner but by the institution
where that language is being taught (in the case of formal instmction) or
simply by the chance of having a teacher coming from one country or
the other (in the case of native teachers) or who have already made their
choice (in the case of non-native teachers). Very frequently learners make
their choice of one variety or the other after a stay in a given country/
region.
5. ANALYSIS OF THE EF'L CLASSROOM LANCUACE
Classroom language is relatively organized and purposive in contrast

to casual conversation in an ordinary social setting. This can be seen, for
instance, in the way turn-taking is organized. In casual interaction the
interlocutors express agreement and disagreement in a number of ways
but they often intermpt each other as paft of the communication process
and their resources to show their opinion. In the classroom context, turn-
taking is frequently determined by the types of interlocutors (teacher-
student or student-student) and, if involved, dominated by the teacher
who is often more concerned about how things are said rather than what
is being said. Classroom language is in many ways an unusual form of
spoken interaction that often has nothing to do with real or general
English, both in terms of discourse markers and type of interaction and
also in terms of language structure and choice. So, idiomatic language is
not always part of the classroom nor are complex syntactic structures or
specific vocabulary such as slang, among other characteristics of natural
and colloquial speech.
Classroom language is also part of an'asymmetric encounter'. One of

the participants is accepted as controlling the direction of the diaiogue
and s/he, therefore, makes use of a particular language that is knou'n
among specialists as teacher talk. Teacher talk constitutes a varietv of
language sometimes used by teachers when they are in the process of
teaching, i.e., a conventionalized way of speaking in a parlicular role , in
this case the role of the teacher, which does not differ at the ler el ot
linguistic structure (pronunciation, syntax, speech acts, etc. ) but does
differ in some other general features such as higher pitcl'r mote careful
intonation and enunciation, shorler sentences, more fi-eqrtent t'eperiiions
1ó8 AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS
and more questions than usual in colloquial speech. The teacher is the
addressee of most student utterances and this is favored by the way classes
have traditionally been conceived as a knowledge
-the teacher
transmitter- and, enhanced by the classroom's physicar organization
all desks facing the teacher. Note that a teacher who wants to promote -
student-student interaction and discussion will arrange desks differently,
for instance, in circles.
In the analysis of classroom discourse, as of any other type of
interaction, language cannot be properly understood without taking into
account its social context (i.e., the particular circumstances under which
something is being said, as well as, the rest of the surrounding language
either in the form of spoken discourse or written discourse). As a result
of this, a number of factors need to be taken into account about the
learning situation and the classroom context3. In any case, we should
remember that in traditional classroom settings there are often as¡rmmetric
encounters as the teacher tends to have 'the knowledge'and hold a position
of power in relation to students. In addition to this, language learners are
in a way hindered in their speech abilities in the sense that they are making
use of a linguistic system that they do not control completelyo unl,
therefore, they cannot always communicate fully (no doubt this depends
on the proficiency level of learners, and the type of teaching methodôlogy
that is being used).
Different moves are characteristic of some speakers rather than others
in an unequal communication encounter such as teacher-student. The
three-part chain of teacher initiation, student response, and teacher
evaluation is probably the most frequent pattern of ólassroom discourse
at all grade levels. The analysis of teacher-led classroom discourse generally
finds examples of this pattern, and anyone hearing it recogniz". it u. un
instance of classroom talk. So, teachers tend to initiate interaction and
stude_nts generally respond to these intuitions. Later,teachers often provide
a follow up response that can be interpreted as a feedback ?or the
students. These three common moves can be summarized as: (r)nitiation
(by the teacher); (R)esponse, (by the student) and; (F)ollow Lrp (by the
teacher). study the following excerpt which is a typescript tf i real
classroom dialogue and analyze the different moves
and the student.
-ud" bythe teacher
interested in studying classroom discourse more deeply can read Sinclair and
Coulthard (1975).
t
-|*t:lq
. .SoT" specialists think that second language learning in adulthood is, in a way, like
going back to childhood because adults cannót they want in the L2.
"ip."r. ",r"[,thi.rg
UNIT ó r69
Ts- Right, so ... I asked you to finish the vocabulary section on page
seven [...] at home so 1...1 page thirreen ... right ... page thirteen, t...] tñ"
vocabulary [...] (I)
'T- So, page thirteen let see ... right ... first word real, genuine
anybody?, come on, anybody? (I)
S¡ Actual. (R)
T- Actual, (F) that's in paragraph one 1...1 number two, challenging
or difficult. (l)
St- Demanding. (R)
T- DemandinC. (F) Is everybody with me? (F) [...] please .". thank
you. Number three, a bedroom for many students ... (Lj
\- Dormitory. (R)
T. Dormitorry. (F) A bedroom or, remember, a place where the
students live. Dormitory.1...1 That's right. Number four, to aid or to
encourage. (l)
So- To suppor. (R)
T- To support, (F) paragraph three, to support ... Mm, number five
to mix with and join a group of people ... (I)
Sr- To integrale. (R)
T- To integrate, (F) Ah ... right ... six, a u¡ritten or printed
infonnation. (l)
anno unc ement giv ing
Su- Anotice. (R)
HF,A notice (F) ... seven ... thorough and concentrated. (F)
Sr- Intensive. (R\
T- Intensive, intensive, Ok? (F) Mm
place. (l)
Ss- To attend. (R)
T- To attend, ... attend... (F) Nine complete ... complete... (l)
Sn- Comprehensive. (R)
T- Comprehensive, ... comprehensive ... (F) Right ... (F) That is in
paragraph four ... ten ... equipment ... paragraph four again .... no? (I)
Sro- Facilities. (R)
T- Facilities. (F) That's right José Ignacio, (F) that was paragraph
four [...] where it says a comprehensive language course witi compu]er
Tr ,tu.rds for teacher, and Sr, Sr, S., etc. stands for student one, student two, student
three, etc.
t70 AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCiOLINGUISTICS
facilities... eh ... computerfacikties .... equipment ... Mm ... eleven a speech

or talk. (l)
Srr- Lecture. (R)
T- A lecture. (F) At British universities classes, what we call classes
here are lectures ... The humanities? (I)
S,r- Arls. (R)
If you pay attention to this dialogue, you will see how the teacher
controls both the development of the topic (in this case the correction of
an exercise assigned as homework), and who gets or gives a turn to talk.
What is more, s/he does not ask'real' questions because s/he already
knows the answers and, in fact, all that s/he does is to check the student's
answers.
Another important aspect to take into account about this excerpt is that
a language classroom is special in the sense that language is used to talk
about language (metalanguage) rather than other subjects (e.g., history,
math, etc.) where the language is just a vehicle to talk about contents.
(Please go to the exercises section and do exercises 4,5 and 6)
6. IMPLICATIONS FOR LANGUAGE TBACHINC
The practice that students generally get in spoken interaction may well
fit them for their communication needs and their role in the classroom,
but it does nothing, or at least not enough, to help them with the roles
they will need to play in English outside the classroom. This is one of the
shoficomings that task-based instr-u.ction, which is organized around tasks
rather than in terrns of grammar or vocabulary tries to avoid or minimize.
These tasks the telephone to obtain information, performing
according to-using
oral instructions, giving and receiving instructions, etc.-
are to be carried out by students in order to develop their linguistic skills.
Immersion programs entail content-based instruction and is, in a way,
similar to task-based instruction (attention to content instead of attention
to form). Students in these programs are expected to learn a second
language through its use in teaching other subjects but recent research
has shown that this sort of restricted sociolinguistic context limits the l
possibilities of the learners to interact and they therefore largely develop

receptive skills but their productive skills are limited as the exposure to
abundant comprehensible input is not all they need. Swain (1995) has
pointed out that forced output also plays a role in comprehensive language
learning.
UNIT 6 171
All in all the solution to this methodological problem is not a question

of changing the teachers' use of language because the str-ucture of formal
instmction in a classroom is socially as it is, but attempts should be made
to enhance and widen the varieties of input the learner has access to and,
also, and more importantly, to force students'output.
One possible direction to help break across the authority structure in
the classroom is greater use of student-student interaction, including tasks,
and pair and group work. Not only as a pedagogical device to promote
learning, but as a way of avoiding the language implications of the teacher-
student'asymmetric encounter'.
7. PRAGMATICS IN LANCUACE TEACHING

In recent years, curricula and teaching materials have began to include
strong pragmatic components or to adopt a pragmatic approach as their
organizing principle. Many proposals for instruction in various aspects
of pragmatic competence are based on the analysis of native speaker
discourse or on the comparison of interlanguage data, as well as
contrasting L1 and L2 data. Nevertheless, most recommendations for
instruction in pragmatics have not been examined in action in the
classroom setting and therefore we do not really know how effective they
are for students' learning of the target pragmatic feature. Much research
is needed in this respect. Interlanguage pragmatics, i.e., the study and use
of pragmatic features by language learners that make use of their
interlanguage (an approximant system that is between the Ll andtheL2)
have not been studied in depth and fuither research is needed to investigate
how the learning of L2 pragmatics is shaped by instructional context and
activities.
Kasper and Rose (2001) put forward that language leamers can benefit
from positive transfer of communicative acts that have been found
constant across ethnolinguistically distant speech communities as it is
the case of the speech act set for apologies. This speech act comprises as
its chief semantic formulas an explicit apology, an explanation and the
admission or denial of responsibility. Among its minor strategies (bound
to the context and the circumstances) are the offer of repair, a promise of
forbearance, and an expression of concern for the hearer, and these
strategies are reported to have been found in a number of languages like
English, French, German, Hebrew Thai and Japanese.
Learners can also get pragmalinguistic knowledge u'ithout anv sofi of
explicit instruction if there is a analogous forrn-function mapping benleen
L1 and L2. The English modal past could and would have formal,
functional and distributional equivalents in other Germanic languages
such as Danish (kunneluille) and German (kónntestlwürdest). According
to Ferch and Kasper (1989) Danish and German learners of English wiil
transfer ability questions from their L1 (German; Kónntest/würdest Du
mir Deine Aufzeichnungen leihen2 ; Danish: Kunne/wille du lane mig dine
noter?; English: Could/would you lend me your notes?). However evident
this transfer of pragmalinguistic knowledge may be, it should not be
assumed that language learners will in fact make the transfer. Sometimes
the link between the strategy in the Ll and theL2 may not be so evident
and, what is more, language learning involves a complex psycholinguistic
process and positive transfer does not always occur in the way that was
expected. There is then a need for description of pragmalinguistic
knowledge and its use in the classroom6.
B. LANGUAGE IN THE LAW

The study of language in the legal context is a relatively new field of
study in spite of the fact that law is a profession of words that has been
part of civilization from the early times. The interface between
sociolinguistics and the law is also known as forensic linguistics and
centers on the study of discourse in legal settings and texts, from the
courtroom to police or lawyer interviews. Language use in legal contexts
is not essentially different from any other communicative situation,
although the way ianguage is used in legal settings can have enormous
repercussions for the well being of individuals and communities. The use
ofianguage in legal contexts reflects situational characteristics that shape
the form of legal discourse and in so doing shows specific characteristics
like any other language variety.
Early studies in courtroom discourse by W.M. O'Barr and John Conley
in the late 1970s examined the influence of language factors on legal
decision-making and found out that witnesses generally make use of one
of two styles: a 'powerless' style incorporating a high frequency of
intensifiers (e.g., really, great, much more, etc. ) and many hedges (e.g.,
kind of, like, in A way, etc. ); or a'powerful' style that lacks the
aforementioned features and therefore sounds more exact and confident.
The results of this early research showed that jurors were inclined to find
u Anyone interested
in pragmatics and language teaching will find some interesting
arlicles in Rose and Kasper (2001).
UNIT 6 t73
witnesses making use of a'powerful'sfzle more convincing and trrstlr,orlh],
than those employing a'powerless' style. This indicated that the r,r'av the
information was presented and the witness expressed him/herself did have
an effect on the final outcome of the case.
Another feature of discourse in the courtroom is the clear pow'er
imbalance between the lawyer and the witness given the fact that the
former definitely controls the discourse by long-winded questioning that
require minimal response, being coercive and controlling, or simply not
letting the witness tell his/her own story except in the way the s/he wants
it to be told. An example of the way this can be attained is by using yes-
No questions with a tag, which markedly control the answer (e.g., you
rang her later on, didn't you?) in opposition to broad WH questions that
pave the way for personal interpretation (e.g., how,why,what, etc. ). Eades
(2001) provides a list of some other linguistic strategies that that can be
used by lawyers to exercise control over witnesses like:
a) interruptions;
b) reforrnulation of witness's descriptions of events or people (e.g.,
frorn my friends to a group of louts);
c) manipulation of lawyer silence, for example, with the use of strategic
pauses;
d) nonrecognition of some witnesses' need to use silence as part of
the answer, which can be particularly important, for example, for
Australian Aboriginal witnesses;
e) incorporation of damaging presuppositions in questions (such Drd
you all laugh while the car was being trashed?);
f) metalinguistic directives given to the witness (such as you must
answer this question); and
g) management of topics in order to convey a particular impression
to the jury.
(Eades, 2001:232)
The amount of work on forensic linguistics is increasing and the effect
this branch of linguistics has on people's lives is paramount. The stud¡ of
speech behavior in legal language constitutes a clear erample of horv
sociolinguistics can have another clear application for our lives. Therefore,
studies in applied sociolinguistics iágarding legal lan-eua-qe ha'e
undertaken three main areas: (a) the communicatir.e difficulties that
typically occur from the interface between the legal-lavperson as a resulr
of the interaction between lawyers, judges, juries, r'ictims, rr,-irnesses,
suspects, etc.; (b) the comprehension of legal texts are in themselves a

source of communicative problems because of the specific jargon that is
used as well as the intricacy of the syntax that is generally used; and, (c)
as a consequence of globalization, colonization and the migration
movements, there is an emerging demand for studies relating
communication problems faced by non-native speakers witnesses, suspects
and defendants in the legal process. This situation requires the presence
of well-trained interpreters that apart from a comprehensive language
knowledge, also need to know the subtleties of pragmaticsT.
9. STANDARD ENGLISH AND WORLD ENGLISHES

Standard English is a term that refers to the variety of English used
by the social elite who are part of a socially, economically and politically
dominant group in English-speaking countries. This variety is the one
usually preferred in the media and generally taught in schools as it is
considered to be'prestigious'. Non-standard English, on the other hand,
refers to those varieties that do not conform to the standard spoken by
forrnally educated native speakers in terrns of pronunciation, grammatical
structure, idiomatic usage, or choice of words. The existence of a standard
is characteristic of any language around the world and it is related to those
groups of people that can be said to be literate, school-oriented and looking
beyond the primary communiSz networks for social and linguistic models.
The standard of any language is usually associated not only with a socially,
culturally and economically dominating group but also with geographic
variation, i.e., in the regions where institutional and economic power is
located or more developed. Defining and delimiting a standard is not
always easy or even possible as different varieties can be considered a
standard in distant countries or regions. So, it is not to say that the RP
(Received Pronunciation) which is generally considered the standard in
England is the same as the English standard in Ireland, Australia or the
USA, where there are also a set of features including pronunciation,
grammatical structure, idiomatic usage and choice of words that is
characteristic of formally educated speakers, the language of formal
instruction, the institutions and the media. There has also been a demand
for other local standards South African, Nigerian, Jamaican,
-Indian,vary from one another and from British
etc.- and whenever these varieties
t atyon. interested in these sociolinguistic issues will find some thorough empirical
studies in Cotterill (2002).
UNIT ó 175
and American Standard English in the way British and American r.an-
from each other they can be counted as standard English, whereas varieties
with a higher degree of variance are nonstandard. It must be added that
on some occasions it is not clear whether a variety of English is to be
considered as standard or not (see chapter 3).
The dispersal, or diaspora, of English over the world can be divided into
two phases. The first diaspora involved the migration of around 25,000
people from England, scotland and Ireland to North America, Australia
and New zealand. The varieties of English used nowadays in these places
are not identical with those spoken by the early colonizers but they can be
said to share some general features8 and these varieties have developed
through history incorporating vocabulary from the indigenous languages
they came into contact with. The second diaspora occurred at different
moments during the l Bth and 19th centuries with different results from
the first dispersal. The spread of English in Africa took place differently for
west Africa and East Africa. English in west Africa is linked to the slave
trade and the development of pidgin and creole languages. Since the 15th
century British traders traveled to and from the west coast of Africa but
there was no settlement in the areas today comprising Gambia, Sierra
Leone, Ghana, Nigeria and cameroon. This situation favored the use of
English as a lingua franca among the hundreds of indigenous languages
and the English-speaking traders. some of the pidgins and creoles that
developed from English contact are now widely used, mostly as a second
language, as it is the case of Krio (Sierra Leone) and cameroon pidgin
(cameroon). In East Africa the situation of English was very different
because English colonizers settled there from 1850 on in places like Kenr-a,
uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, zambia and Zimbabrve. The role of English in
these countries was very obvious and this langua_ee u'as used in the
government, education and the lar.r,'. In the second half of the 20th centuries
these counties gained independence and English u-as kepr as an oflicial
language in some of them (uganda, zambia, Zimbabrve and \Ialau i), and
as a second language in others. An English-based creole, Slrahili is also
used as alinguafranca in uganda, Kenr-a and Tanzania. During rhe second
half of the 1Sth c. English was extensir,elv introduced in Sour}r Asia tlndia,
u f, .ttor-,ld
be mentioned that the different linguistic backgrounds of ihe earlr. settlers
in^many cases gave way to differences and variations in speech. For e-rample. rhe car[ :err]er-s
of Virginia came mainly from the west part of Englandand rhotic r and r oi¡ed s :ounds
were characteristic of their speech. However, early settlers in ,\err Ensland main[ came
lrom the east ol England and did not share I hese pronunciarion iearu--r. ln rhc . r.c or
Australia and New Zealand, there were different immigration t ar-es oi colonizers lrom
different parts to the British Isles. This meant that diffeñnt dialects sot in touch resuirine
in a situation of dialect mixing, furrher influenced by the indigeno,l, ábo,-rni.rul laneuaees.
Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, etc.) due to British trade interests
in the area. Simultaneously, British influence extended to South-E,ast Asia
and the South Pacific due to the seafaring expeditions of Cook and other
expeditions, expanding to Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the
Philippines and the Pacific islands like Papua New Guinea where a new
pidgin was developed, Tok Pisin. (See chapter 3)
Y. Kachru (1992) developed a model of the spread of English that has
been most influential in the field of sociolingustics. He divides World
Englishes into three concentric circles: the Inner Circle, the Outer Circle
and the Expanding Circle. These three areas stand for the types of spread,
the patterns of acquisition, and the position of the English language in
the different cultural contexts as the language has traveled form Britain
to the US, Australia and New Zealand in the first diaspora (the Inner
Circle), to countries like Zarnbia, Pakistan, India, etc. in the second
diaspora (the Outer Circle), and, more recently, to counties where English
is learned and used as a Foreign Language, for instance, Spain, Japan,
Germany, etc. (the Expanding Circle)e.
With reference to the status of these languages in relation to the
standard, the English spoken in the Inner Circle u,ould be considered as
'norm-providing', i.e., it represents a model and is used as a natir.e
language; the English spoken in the Outer Circle could be considered
'norm-developing', that is, used in countries where the variety of English
is in the process ofbeing accepted (or has been recently adopted), and is
spoken as a SL aparl from other indigenous languages; and, the Expanding
Circle r.n'ould be'norm-dependent'because it is learned as a FL and the
standard is taken as it is.
English spoken in the Inner Circle shows clear patterns of variatioi,
both in terrns of geographical and social differences which have been lon'.
studied by dialectologists especially in Great Britain and l{orth America
The varieties of English spoken in Outer Circle countries have be¡:-
called New Englishes. Although this term is controversial and not a--
\tr n" model provided by Kachru (lgg2),the Inner Circle includes: USA, UK, Ca;::-:.
Australia and New Zealand. The Outer Circle contains: Bangladesh, Ghana, India, K-: '.,
Mala¡rsia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Zambia. .{n: . -
Expanding Circle comprises: China, Egypt, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Korea, Nepal. S.,-:
Arabia, Tair'van, USSR, Zimbabwe. This division is not clear cut as South Africa, for in-.:,.=.-.
is not included. Some authors u''ould agree that it is part of the Inner Circle u'hile , ,: . '
rvould say that it is paft of the Outer Circle, since English in South Africa is not predom:.-:
used b¡' first-language speakers.
to For a more
detailed analysis of the varieties of English spoken in Great
Nor-th America, vou can read Melchers and Shaw (2003).
UNIT ó
177
specialists agree with it, it is certain that the Englishes

of India, Nigeria,
Singapore, and Tanzania, together with many otñer outer-circle
countries
share some superficial linguistic characteristics that Á.t"
it convenient
to describe them as a group different from the varieties in British,
American, Australian, NIew zealand., etc. These outer-circle varieties
are
normally spoken as part of a murtilingual repertoire that may incrude
a
number of other languages spoken in ¿rfrerent circumstances (mother
tongue, first language,lingua franca, etc.). This fact determines
that on
some occasions the command over English is not comprehensive:
there
can be registers, domains or styles not covered by the ,p"ak",
of English
as a sL in the outer circle, or even variation in ter-rns
of proficien.y uriorrg
the speakers (see rhe example of India in chapter s). tn téÁs
of phtnolog;
varieties in the outer circle tend to be a simplified system, toi
in the case of vowels where the quality of vowels normally approximates "*u*piá,
to that of the other languages spoken ty the speakers. rhe same happens
with some consonants as these other languagÁs do not normally harrá the
distinction l0l and /ói, which are replace¿ witn some dental or alveolar
stop. In terms of syntax some features are also shared by languages
in the
outer circle but not in the Inner circre. This is th" .arl of ág
f,uestions
which is rather complex in BrE and AmE but largely simplified in
other
varieties, but many varieties of the outer-circl" ,1" u single phrase
or a
few variants for this function that do not need to pay atteniion
to the type
of auxiliary used or if the tag is attached to a positive or negatirre
sentence.
For instance, in India this tag can be simplified as no? oi isn,t
it? on all
occasions, or not sol in East and west Africa. with reference
to lexis,
singular words referring to plurar concepts tend to be simprified
and
treated as ordinary singulars r.r,ith a g"rr"rul sense (e.g., luggagi,
software, etc.). funtiture,
rn the Expanding circle, English will not be used for official purposes
such as the language of general formal education, religion,
courts and the
law, national politics or administration, literature,
u"t it can be used
in international relations, international organizations,
"t.1.
research, education
at specialized levels, publicity and business, among other
functions. In
the Expanding circle governments ofren have poliii", io
,uf"guard the
status of the national or local languages regulating the
use of ñnglish in
education and the media. Hou,evér; Elglisñ is alsJ p"r."irr"a
as a useful
language, and the advantages of being proficient in ii
are clear. This often
means that parents want their children to learn English
and pupils also
perceive the potential^benefits of being proficient in-that
language. This
fact is especiallv manifest in eastern Eriropean countries
tr that want to join
the developed western economies, and óountries withi'irr"
Eu where
*
fr
there is a clear need to speak international languages that allow people

communicate and operate in this wide job market.
In terms of the linguistic features of English used in the Expanding
Circle, it must be added that there is a marked tendency to use a
standardized variety like BrE and AmE. However, two stages can be
perceived, one in which the clear influence exerled by one variety favors
the use of that variety (for example when films and TV programs are not
dubbed), and another one where the interchangeable influence of these
two varieties gives way to what is often called'mid-Atlantic'English, that
is, when features from British and American usage are mixed because
learners are overtly exposed to both varieties (e.g., at the word level the
following words can be used indistinctivel¡r: candy - sweets, trunk - boot,
lift - elevator, autumn - fall, etc.). Some other features of the same
phenomenon can be found in spelling, for instance, where lear-ners do not
follow one of the varieties consistenth (e.g., when someone writes neigftbor
and colour, or analyze and analyse, etc.). Another possibility may be that
of students who receive the influence of BrE through their formal
education but the influence of AmE through the music and the media. At
the pronunciation level, this possible mixture of American and British
pronunciation can be added to features derived from the speaker's mother
tongue, so that standardization is rather difficult and unlikely. trinally, in
terms of lexis, under these circumstances there is a clear risk of allowing
interference between English and the mother tongue in the case of false
friends, i.e., words in both languages that show some sort of formal
similarities but which vary greatly in meaning. This phenomenon results
either in miscommunication or in the use of words that acquire a new
meaning in'local English' (e.g., more and more frequently in Spanish the
word influenciar is heard on the news instead of influir, or the word
secretario instead of ministro when referring to the North American or
British government, i.e., British Foreign Secretary). Another interesting
phenomenon is the increasing presence of borrowings from English and
how they influence other modern languages.
(Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 7 and B.)
10. EXERCISES
1. Think about your learning of English and answer the following
questions regarding some sociolinguistic aspects:
a) What variety of English do you speak?

UNIT 6 179
b/ why did you decide to learn this variety, if you did? If it was not
your own choice, what made you learn this variety?
c) Have you always had contact with the same variety? why (not)?
d) rf you have had access to more than one variety/dialect, are you
consistent in it? Why? Why not?
e/ Now that you have studied English for years, what decisions
regarding your learning of a language would you change?
2. Take any language learning book and find a dialogue in it. you can
use a language course for secondary school, for example, but do not bother
too much about the language level. Read the dialogue and analyze the
sociolinguistic information it contains (e.g., turn taking, polite words or
formulas, situation, etc.). Do you think it reflects a realistic situation? whv
(not)?
3. Think about the way the speech event of par.tings is structured in

Spanish. Take two or three different situations and describe both, the
different stages and the language formulas that are employed. In order to
do this exercise you can either reflect on a typical situation or just pay
attention to the way other people do it.
4. Analyze the following excerpt and place any of the three moves
(r)nitiation, (R)esponse, and (F)ollow up in the dialogue next to the
relevant utterance. Take into account that more than one move can occur
within a single utterance.
| ..1
T- we can correct now question one and you can finish the rest at
ho1ne. Most of you have finished already, so let us correct until three,
and [...] Ok. First. It is an invitation to attend the opening ceremony of'
the school year. Mm... Juan What have you got for ihat? "
S- Mm, What is this invitation to ... or... about.

T- What is this invitation for, ... Ok, that is a possibility, anything
else?
s- t...1
T- what is this letter ... you have to mention the word invitation what
,
is thcLt letter you have, or you received, or you got ... or anything similar
to that, Ok? ... José, What about you, number two. ih" tirirrtr¡ot
Revolution will be our topic for next week.
S- I have What is our topic for next week?
180 AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGI]ISTTCS
T- Mm, ... Yeah, but it is possible you are not repeating too many
new words ... What's our topic for next week? ... The Industrial Revolution
will be our topic for next week ... Ok, It's not impossible ... Any other
option?
S- What will be the topic f-or the next week?
T- Next week, not the next week, next week, What will the topic be
next week? or When will we study the Industrial Revolution?
S- What are we going to do the next week?
t...1
5. Read the previous excerpt again and write a paragraph (around 150
words) answering the following questions:
a/ Is the teacher dominating too much?
b) Is the language "natural" and "real". Why (not)?
c) What type of teaching methodology do you think is being used
(innovative, traditional, etc.)? Explain.
d) Do you think this excerpt reflects a tlpical teaching situation? Why?
e) Do you think students have enough chances for "fuII" and "real"
interaction?
f) Oo you think students learning English as a foreign language in a
classroom setting have access to real and idiomatic language?
6.
Can you suggest other situations in which spoken language is organized
and purposive in the same way as in the classroom? Describe them.
7. Why might Indian English be called a New English? (Given that it
probably dates back to 1800 approximately). You may want to see chapter
5 also.
8. Take an empty world map where only the political boundaries are
marked. Take three pencils and color in the countries belonging to the
Inner Circle, the Outer Circle, and the Expanding Circle (use one color
for each set of countries). Then try to get information about the current
population of each country, the language or languages used, the number
of speakers of each language, and some important fact about its history
(for instance, in the case of former colonial countries the date of
independence, or some other fact that you consider of relevance). The
purpose of this activity is for you to have a global perspective of the
influence of English in the world, and the current state of the art. To
complete this activity you can use any updated encyclopedia.
UNIT ó
181
11. REFERENCES
Bnun'r¡'rr, ch. 1995. 'Peoplet choice and language rights'
fvideorecord ing): EFL in
language policy. university of york, Audio-Visuil cent.e. i.r,t, tetEpt.
cnncóN BerrRÁN, R. 2001. 'La enseñanza der vocabulario en inglés como
L2: el
efecto del énfasis en la forrna lingüística en el aprend izaje de!og.r.do,
falsos'.
Unpublished doctoral disserration. University bf Sevlllé.
cnrcr, J. K. 1996.'Intercultural communication', in S. L. McKay and N. H.
Hornberger, sociolinguistic s and Language kaching. cambridge: cambridge
University Press.
corrpnrrr, J. (ed.) 2002. Language in the Legar proces.s. Houndmills, uK: palgarve
Macmillan.
cnvsrar, D. 2003. (2nd ed.). English as a Global kmguage. cambridge: cambridge
University Press.
Eeres, D. 2001. 'Discourse Analysis and the Law', in R. Mesthrie (ed,.) Concise
Ency clopedia of- Sociolinguis tic s. Oxford, UK: pergamon.
F,e,RcH, c. and G. Kaspen. r989.'Internal and external modification
of in
interlanguage request realization', in S. Blum-Kurka, J. House and G. Kasper
(eds.), Cross-cultural pragmatics: Requests and, apologie.s. Nor-wood,
NJ: Ablex.
FINpcaN, E. 1997. 'Sociolinguistics and the Law', in F. coulmas (ed.), The
Hanclbook
of Sociolinguistics. Oxford, UK: Blackwell publishers.
Gnanror, D. 1997. The Future of English? London: The British council.
JpNrrNs, J. 2003. world Englishes: A resource book
for stud.ents. London, uK:
Routledge.
K¡csnu, Y. 1992.'culture, style and discourse: expanding noetics of English,, in
B. Kachru (ed.), rle other Tongue. English Aiross ctlrtures,2nd ed,irbana,
IL: University of Illinois press.
KaspeR, G. and K. R. Rosp. 2001. 'pragmatics in language teaching',
in K. R. Rose
and G. Kasper (eds.). pragmatics in kLnguage reachiig. cambriáge: cambridge
University Press.
MsrcHER.s, G. and P. Snaw. 2003. world Englishes. London, uK: Arnold.
Noxnrs, J. 2001.'use of address terrns on the German speaking Test',
in K.R. Rose
qd G Kasper (eds.). pragmatics in Language Teachiig. caribridge: cambridge
University Press.
Rose' K. R. and G. K¡spsn (eds.). 2001. pragmatics in Language Téaching.
Cambridge: Cambridge University press.
SnvcrarR, J. M. and R. M. courrru¡o . 197s. Towards an analysis
of cliscourse. oxford:
Oxford University press.
Sporsrv, B. (ed.) 1999' Concise Encyclopedia of Eclucational Linguisllcs.
Amsterdam:
Elsevier.
SwarN,M. 1995. 'Three functions of output in second language lear'in,e,, in G. cook
& B. Seidlhofer (ed1.l, and practice in the íud\, of apptiJct lingtListics:
studies in honor of-H.G."rinciple
widdowson. oxford: oxford u.ri.l".ritr-pr.rr.
M. Sw¿ru. 1995.'A Sociolinguistic Perspective on Second Language

T¿*.oNp, E. and
Use in Immersion Classrooms.' The Modem Language Jountal,7912: 166-178.
WorrsoN, N. and J. MaNEs. 1978. 'Don't 'Dear' rne.' Working Papers in
Sociolinguisllcs. Austin, TX: SEDL. Reprinted inWomen and Language in
Literature and Society, eds. S. McConnell-Ginet, R. Borker, and N. Furman,
1980, pp. 79-92. New York Praeger.
WorrsoN, N. 1989. Perspectives: Sociolinguistics andTESOL. Boston: Heinle &
Heinle Publishers.
WorrsoN, N. 1983. 'An empirically based analysis of complimenting in American
English', in N. Wolfson and E. Judd (eds.), Sociolinguistics and Language
Acquisition. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Now you can üsit the website for this subject where you will find some
13. FURTHER READINGS AND QUESTIONS
13.1. Text 11
that may be helpful. Write ai'ound 250-300 words in total.
t...1
A source of intercultural miscommunication highlighted by the
findings of cross-cultural studies is sociolinguistic transfer. Sociolinguistic
transfer refers to the i.rse of the rules of speaking of one's own speech
community or culturaj group when interacting with members of another
community or group. This can occur in interactions in which one or
more of the interlocu¡ors is using a foreign or second language but
employing the rrles of speaking of his or her native language. It can even
occur in interactions between individuals who have the same natir-e
Ianguage but belong to speech communities that have different rules of
speaking, as would be the case, for example, with British and American
English speakers.
To illustrate how sociolinguistic transfer can be a source of
intercultural misconr*.nunication, we turn to some studies of compliment
giving and responciing behavior.[...] Wolfson (1983) points out that
differences in the distrlbution of compliments in different communities
are potential sources of intercultural miscommunication; that is, there
UNIT 6 183
is foequently interactional trouble when members of one cultural group

compliment in situations in which compliments are inappropriate for
members of other groups. She cites the time when former president
carter, during an official visit to France, complimented a French official
on the_fine job he was doing. Editorial comment in the French press the
next day revealed that carter's remarks had been interpieted as
interference in the internal politics of France. The frequency of
complimenting is also a potential source of miscommunication,
according to wolfson. She points out that the high foequency with which
Americans compliment leads to their being perceived by members of
other cultures as "effusive, insincere, and possibly motivaied by ulterior
considerations" (1 989, p. 23).
Chick (199ó: 332)
Issues to consider:
a) Do you think that the relative distance between the languages or
cultures involved in cross cultural communication plays a role in
intercultural miscommunication ?
b) Have you ever been involved in a situation of intercultural
miscommunication? Do you think that it could have been avoided?
If your answer is yes, how?
c) To what extent do you think that the foreign language learner can
be trained to avoid intercultural miscommunication and take
advantage of sociolinguistic transfer from his/her L1?
73.2. Text 12
one question which arises in any discussion of global English is
whether a single world standard English will develop, fori'ring a
supranational variety which must be learned by global citizens of ihe
21st century. Like most questions raised in this book, this demands a
more complicated answer than those who ask probably desire.
There are, for example, at least two dimensions to the question: the
first is whether English will fragment into many mutually unintelligible
local forms; the second is whether the current 'national' standarás of
English (particularly US and British) will continue to compete as models
of correctness for world usage, or whether some new world standard
will arise which supersedes national models for the purposes of
international communication and teaching.
184 AN INTRODUCTiON TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS
The widespread use of English as a language of -wider communication

give
will continue to exerl pt"rr.tté towards global uniformity as well as
rise to anxieties aboui'declining' standards, language change and the
loss of geolinguistic diversity. But as English shifts from foreign-language
to seco]rd-laigt.g" status lot ut increasing number of people' we can
also expect to-see-English develop a larger number of local varieties.
These contradictory tensions arise because English has two main
functions in the world: ii provides a vehicular language for international
communication and it forms the basis for constmcting cultural identities'
The former function requires mutual intelligibility an-d- common
standards. The latter the d'evelopment of local forms and
"rr.J.t.ug"t jn
hybrid varieties. As English pluyt utt ever more important ro-le the
fiist of these functions, ii simultaneously finds itself acting as a language
of identity for larger numbers of people around the world' There is no
need to feaq however, that trends towárds fragmentation will necessarily
threaten the role of English as a lingua franca. There have, since the
first
records of the l.rrguale, been major differences between varieties of
English.
Themechanismswhichhavehelpedmaintainstandardusagein
the p^st may not, however, continue to serve this function in the
future. Two major technologies have helped develop national'
standard-language forms. thé first was printing, t\t invention of
*t i.t p.""idá .;fi*ity' in communication by means of prirrted books.a
Accoráing to scholais such as Anderson (1983), such fixity was
,r"."rr../.equirement for the 'imagined communities' of modern
nation states. But with increasing use of electronic communication
much of the social and cultural effect of the stability of print has
ák""ay been lost, along with central'gatekeeping' agents s.uch as
.dito.. .rrd publishers who maintain consistent, standardised forms
of language.
The second technology has been provided by broadcasting' which
in many ways becam" -oi. important than print in the socially mobile
communitiás of the 2gth century. But trends in global media suggest
that broadcasting will not necessarily play an-important role in
establishing and riaintaining a global standard. Indeed, the patterns of
frug-.rrtuiion and localisation, which are significant_trends in satellite
brJadcasting, mean that television is no longerable t-o::rye such a
function. How can there be such thing as 'network English' in a world
in which centralised networks have all but disappeared?
Meanwhile, new forms of computer-mediated communication are
closing the gap between spoken and written English which has been
constrirctedlatoriously over centuries. And cultural trends encourage
the use of informal and more conversational language, a greater tolerance
of diversity and individual style, and a lessening deference to authoritr:
These tren"ds, taken togethe4 suggest that a weakening of the institutions
and practices which maintained national standard languages is taking
UNIT 6 185
place: that the native-speaking countries are experiencing an

'destandardisation' of English.
1...1
since ELT publishers from native-speaking countries are likely to
follow markets of the language pubúshers already p.o.rrd.
-most
materials in several standards- it will be non-native speakers who decide
whether a us model, a British one, or one based on a second-language
variety will be taught, learned and used. At the very least, English
textbooks in countries where English is spoken as a second langirage
are likely puy more attention to local varieties of English and to tol¡iie
1o
their product by incorporating materials in local vaiieties of English.
t...1
Graddol (1997 56-59)
Issues to consider:
a) Do you think that the situation described in this article has changed
since it was written (in 1997)?
b) }{ow do you see the future of the English language, both as a native
language and as a lingua franca?
c) Do you think that there is a 'network English' , i.e. aspecial type or
variety of English used in the internet? why (not)? provide io*"
examples.
d) what is the situation of spanish as a global language and as alingua
franca? How do you see it in relation to English in the future?
e) Do you agree with Graddol's statement'[...] English textbooks in
countries where English is spoken as a second language are likely
to pay more attention to local varieties of English and to localise
their product by incorporating materials in local varieties of English
[...]'?
14. KEY WORDS

The following list of key words contains some
important terms that
term can be found at the
ur" pr".".rr"¿ inirti, ,rttli.á ¿"fi"ltion for each
end of this book, in the glossary'
. :.'
Communicative comPetence
Discourse analYsis
Discourse marker
EthnograPhY of communication
EthnographY of sPeaking
EthnomethodologY
Informant
Interference
Lingua franca
Language functions
LWC
Micro-sociolinguistics
New Englishes
Pragmatic competence
ProficiencY
Sociolinguistic comPetence
Sociolinguistic relativitY
Speech act
Turn-taking
Model exam
In this section, a model exam is provided so
precise idea of what they will be requestedthat students can have a
examinations that take place at the end oi
to do in the formal
the terrn anJtüt provide the
basis for evaluating their level of u.hi"rr"-"rrt.
Questions
l' choose two of the following issues and
explain them in your own
words' write around 100 wórds for each;¡,h.
ilquestions.
a) 'Style'as a variable in sociolinguistics.
b) Explainwhat a diglossic siruation is.
c) Canadian immersion programs.
2' Define the following five terms taken from the glossary. provide
brief definitions of nt more than 60 words
each.
a) Acrolect
b) Language attrition
c) Lingua franca
d) Minority language
e) Variety
3' comment, from a sociolinguistic point of view,

on the folrowing
excerpt. You are expected to relate this
extrac,," ,rr" contents of
the subject in no more than 300 words.
The child g.p*ing_rp in the province,
say, in some mounlain village,
learns to speak in the lo;al araeJ. tn
time, to be sure, this rocal dialect
will take in more and mo.. forms lo* tt".o"J".J,furrguages...
child, then, does not speak the rtu"áu.á The
h"r;;;'. n*'Iutirr" rongue.
It is only after he reaches school, long after his speech-habits are for-rned,
that he is taught the standard language. No language is like the native
language that"one learned at one's mother's knee; no-one is ever perfectly
,rrré iná language afte'wards acquired. 'Mistakes'in language are simply
dialect forms carried into the standard language'
Excerpt form L. Bloomfiled (1970)'Literate and illiterate speech"
American SPeech, 2: 432-9.
Key to the model exam
Erercise 7
In the first exercise the student is provided with three topics which
have been discussed in the Unidades DidíLcticas. Students should select
only two of the three issues listed and explain them in their own words.
Conciseness is highly valued in this exam and, therefore students
completing the test should be very precise and provide brief answers
stating the most important points (100 words for each question).
Ererci,se 2
In the second exercise five key words from the glossary are given and
the student is expected to define them in his/her own words. Again, long
convoluted answers should be avoided and each of the five terms should
be explained in around 60 words.
Erercise 3
The third part of the test consists of the commentary of a reading

passage. The itudent is not expected to summarize t]ne excerpt but to
comment on it making reference to the contents of the subject. The
purpose of this exercise is to see to what extent the student has understood
ihe contents of the subject and has developed a critical view of
sociolinguistic principles. No single answer can be provided for this
exercise but here is a model one:
In this excerpt Bloomfield refers to the 'native language'as the

language, or variéty of language that is first acquired in-terms of order
of Jcqriisition and he states that no other language will ever rival this
first óne. This argument is to some extent arguable because at times
education can compensate and even surpass the knowledge of the mother
MODEL EXAM 191
tongue. Many examples of language attrition can be found when a

speake4 for instance, in the case of an immigrant who goes into another
s_pee-ch community and develops a second'íanguage ít tfr. of
the first. "*p"rrr.
This extract also raises the chomskian conception of the native spea-
ker as_an idealized speaker whose linguistic intuilions represent the ády
reliable source for descriptive adequacy. chomsky's description of thé
native speaker seems detached form reality and from the sociar
dimensions_ of languages relying on native speakers' intuitions and setting
aside social and cultural factors. There is a problem in using the native
speaker as a model of language proficiency bécause s,4re may ñave limited
vocabulary and low grammatical competence while the reverse may be
true of a non-native speaker. English may be someone's second o. third
language, yet that does not imply that his/her competence is lower than
that of a native speaker.
The references in this fragment can be further extended to the issue
of creole languages that although not being considered, on many
occasions, as standard languages, are in fact the mother tongue of
millions of speakers that do not have contact with a standard language
until they get into the educational system and receive formal education.
Nevertheless, they are considered, and indeed consider themselves, creole
native speakers.
K"y to the exercises
This section provides some model answers for the exercises and
activities presented at the end of each unit. On most occasions, these
exercises have an open answer and no single response can be provided.
Active participation in the web discussion forum will allow the students
peer-exchange of answers and debate.
Unit 1
Erercise 5
(This passage is taken from the famous novel Three Men in a Boat by
Jerome K. Jerome published in 1889.)
The word deuce in its meaning in this passage is, according to The
Longman Dictionary of English Innguage and Culture, old-fashioned. The
word aren't is never nowadays written ar'n\ (and indeed is underlined in
red by the spell checker in the word processing package on which this
book is being in prepared).
There are a number of other expressions which native speaker

informants suggest may be old fashioned: for example, you silly cuckoo,
rather an amusing thing (instead of a rather amusing thing, and I was
laughing so (instead of I was laughing so much). However native speaker
intuition is notoriously unreliable in such matters. To support such claims
one would need to make careful study of a large corpus of contemporary
English and of a large corpus of English written in the late nineteenth
century.
It is worth noting that the expression gimme (for give me) has a
distinctly modern flavour.
Erercise 6
Abrupt: It means 'repentino, brusco, inesperado' ('sudden, hasty,

precipitate') and not'abrupto'which in English is steep, although we
can find the word abrupt referring to someone's character. The word
abrupt comes from Latin abruptus'precipitous, disconnected'. In the
16th c. (Shakespeare) it meant'broken away'or'marked by sudden
change', and in l7th c. it changed its meaning to 'steep'.
Disgrace: It means 'deshonra , vergüenza' . It doesn't mean 'desgracia' which
in English is misfortune, for example, I had the misfortune to lose my
ticket.In the 1óth c. it meant'disfavor', 'dishonor', 'shame, or cause of
this' jus like French 'disgáce' and Spanish'desgracia'.
Edit: Its means 'corregir, preparar la edición de, dirigir un periódico' . It
doesnt mean 'editar'which in English ís to publish. Formerly this word
meant'to publish' (rare) or'to prepare an edition of' (in the 18th c'),
and'be the editor of' (in the 19th c.).
Journal: It means 'revista especializada, diario'and not'iornal'which in
English is day's wage (or pay).In PdE this word means 'periodical,
rnagazine' .In the l4th c. it was 'a book' or 'record', 'a service-book
containing day-hours'in the ecclesiastical field. In the 1óth c. it meant
'performed, happening or recurring every day, daily', but it also meant
'a book containing notices concerning the daily stages or routes or
other information for travelers'. In relation to trade it meant'a daily
record of commercial transactions' (16th c.). In the 18th c. it acquired
the meaning of 'a day's travel, a journey'.
Sympathy: It means' c o wtp as ió n, c o mpren s ió n, s o lidaridad' (' compassion,
pity, concern, agreement, harrnony') and not'simpatía'whích in English
is friendliness, Iiking, affection According to The Oxford English
Dictionary this word means 'affinity between certain things, by virtue
of which they are similarly or correspondingly affected by the same
influence, affect or influence one another'. This word was adopted in
the 1óth c. from the Latin word sympathia.
Unit 3
Erercise 3
A. Cars
No, the car get in one long line.
Sometime in one long line.
Maybe, get about fifty, sixty cars, yeah.
KEYTO THE EXERCISES t97
And then, it's not only one line,

They get several more other lines,
They get some more cars, too, eh?
And, the teamsters is,
Always bringing cars, and,
Always taking out, see.
B. My job
So, my job is to see
That no more, no more, no trouble in the field
They grab their car.
Then, some of them, they tell,
Ey, I think
My company no more, though, yeah.
You see, if no more, no more company
Well,I go find,
See, that's my job, see
Ererci.se 5
Australia English
Belgium Flemish Dutch, French, (German)
Brazil Portuguese
Canada English, French
Colombia Spanish
Finland Finnish, Swedish
France French
Haiti French
India Hindi, English, 14 regional languages
Kenya Swahili, English
New Zealand Maori, English
Norway Norwegian (Nynorsk, Bokmál)
Papua New Guinea English, Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu
Paraguay Guaraní, Spanish
Philippines Pilipino, English
Singapore Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, English
Tanzania Swahili, English
Uruguay Spanish
Zaire Zaire
Unit 6
Erercise 1
T- We can correct now question one and you can finish the rest at
home. Most of you have finished already, so let us correct until three, and
t...] Ok. First. 1/ is an invitation to attend the opening ceremony of the school
year. Mrn... Juan What have you got for that? (I)
S- Mm, What is this invitation to ... or ... about (R)
T- What is this invitation for, ... (F) Ok, that is a possibility, anything
else? (I)
s- t...1
T- What is this letter ... (F) vou have to mention the word invitation,
What is that letter you have, or you received, or you got ... or anything
similar to that, Ok? (F) ... José, What about you, number two. The
Industrial Revolution will be our topic for next week.
I have What is our topic for next week? (R)
S-
T- Mm, ... Yeah, but it is possible you are not repeating too many new
words (F) ... What's our topic for next week? ... The Industrial Revolution
will be our topic for next week ... (F) Ok, It's not impossible ... Any other
option? (I)
S- What will be the topic for the next week? (R)
T- Next week, not the next week, next week, What will the topic be next
week? or When will we study the Industrial Revolution? (F)
S- What are we going to do the next week? (R)
Erercise 6
You can describe, for example, the linguistic encounter in any of these
situations:
Doctor <> patient
Shop-assistant <> customer
Clossary
Aboriginal languages:
The languages spoken by Aboriginal Australians before the arrival of
English colonizers. Aboriginal English is the technical name given to a
continuum of varieties of English ranging between standard Áustralian
English and creoles used by Aboriginal Australians.
Acrolect:
when decreolization takes place, i.e., a creole language coexists with
a standard language and the latter exerts some influé.r." o.r the former,
a range of varieties develop. In such a situation a continuum appears in
the language and speakers in that speech community show a-range of
different pronunciation features, which are usually associated with sócial
stratification. The acrolect is the top and educated variety which is closer
to the standard and further away from the creole. The airolecl can evolve
into a New English.
African American Vernacular English (AAVE):
(see Black English Vernacular)
Sometimes called Black English Vernaculaq, Black English, or Ebonics,
it refers to the language spoken in black communities in the United States.
some linguists consider it a significantly different linguistic system from
the standard dialect since it does not confor- to lt, pronunciation,
grammatical structure, idiomatic usage, vocabulary etc. In the 1960's the
issue of AAVE became a source of concern in the education system as it
was perceived that black students performed below average in schools
and the reason was thought to lie in their language skilis. It was considered
that Black English speakers had to face the double load of having to deal
with linguistic differences in the classroom as well as in the course content.
This issue has been a source of concern ever since.
e Anal¡ic language:
Languages can be classified into typologicar categories based on how
words are formed. An analytic language is one in which words tend to
202 AN INTRODUCTION TO SOC]OLINGUISTICS
be one syllable long with no affixes, as in Chinese or Vietnamese. The

function of words in a sentence is shown primarily by word order.
Analytic languages are also known as isolating languages. (See synthetic
language.)
Auxiliary language:
It is a language that is used for a special purpose and has, among
others, a specific functional goal. Pidgins are auxiliary languages but there
are also instances of artificial auxiliary languages such as Esperanto,
Business English, Maritime English and Air-Tiaffic control English. These
languages sometimes have a specialized jargon and that tends to be the
most difficult part as they are not very complex from a syntactic point of
view.
Basilect:
When decreolization takes place, í.e., a creole language coexists with
a standard language and the latter exelts some influence on the former,
the language and speakers in that speech community show a range of
different pronunciation features, which are usually associated with social
stratification. The basilect is the bottom variety which is closer to the
creole and further away from the standard.
Bidialectal:
This term is closely related to bilingualism. In the same way that
someone speaking two languages would be considered bilingual, someone
who can use two dialects can be considered bidialectal (see Dialect). It all
depends, of course, on what is considered a dialect, but the ground
definition would be a variant of a language due to geographical differences.
Nevertheless, being bidialectal implies that the differences between the
concerned codes is not so great as to prevent mutual intelligibility.
+ Black English Vernacular:

(also African American Vernacular English)
This term refers to the non-standard English spoken by lower-class
African Americans in US urban communities. This term substituted Black
English which assumed that all black people used the same variety. It has
been demonstrated that the differences that distinguish Black English
from standard English are paralleled in varieties of Black language spoken
in other parts of the world such as the Caribbean and West Africa.
In the UK, Black English is the result of the linguistic change form
creole languages spoken by Afro-Caribbean immigrants which were
GLOSSARY 203
influenced by English as a dominant language in the UK. This language

has also become more Englishlike for the UK-born descendants of these
former immigrants.
Borrowing:
This term is used in comparative and historical linguistics to refer to
words or phrases which have spread from one language or dialect and are
used in another. Although less evidently and less frequently, borrowings
can also occur at a different linguistic level such as syntactic. The
borrowing language may have various ways of incorporating the foreign
form into the recipient language's phonology, morphology and syntax.
Borrowing can be originated by a wide range of different causes including:
a/ Close contact between two or more language codes in multilingual

situations which favors the transfer of elements.
b) The domination of some languages by others due to cultural,
economic, political, religious or other reasons.
c) A sense of need because technology or culture advances more
rapidly in countries speaking certain languages.
d) A sense of prestige associated with words or expressions coming
from other languages.
The difference between code-switching and borrowing is not always

clear. There is no doubt in the case of historically transferred forms which
have settled in the target language (e.g., words like castle, forest and
tempest , come from French; and, words Iike call , egg, and law , come frorn
Norse). Code-switching, howeveq is spontaneous, affects all levels of
linguistic structure simultaneously and is unstable as it depends on the
context and the relationship between the speakers (e.g., the Spanglish that
is often heard in places such as Gibraltar or Texas). On some other
occasions, borrowings may resemble code-switches because they maintain
a foreign status and retain another languages' syntax (e.g., Fixed phrases
from Latin:. ad hoc, sine qua non, etc.).
Co-ordinate bilingual:
This term applies to someone who has learnt two languages and both
languages have been learnt in different contexts, and they are kept distinct.
It probably entails the existence of two meaning systems with two different
words. This raises the question whether both languages develop together
or separately in the brain. Neurolinguisitic findings suggest that words
are stored together in the case of early bilingualism, from childhood, but
kept in separate places if bilingualism was developed later.
t
4 Communicative competence:
This terrn was first introduced by the American anthropological linguist
Dell Hymes in opposition to the chomskian conception of native speaker's
linguistic competence which referred to the linguistic intuitions of an
idealized native speaker. Dell Hymes considered that the linguistic
knowledge of grammar, pronunciation and lexicon is not enough as
speakers also have other types of linguistic knowledge about how to use
that language properly in society. This additional knowledge allows
speakers to be sensitive to some determining factors such as the context,
the type of interlocutor, and the register, for example. Communicative
competence is acquired by native speakers of the language but it also
needs to be acquired by non-native speakers, together with linguistic
competence. The ethnography of speaking studies what is necessary to
be communicatively competent in different speech communities.
Compound bilingual:
This term describes a situation in which one language has been learnt
after the other and, therefore, through the first one. Both languages are
closely connected as they are composed of a single meaning system with
two words or labels for a single meaning. This raises the question whether
both languages develop together or separately in the brain. Neurolinguisitic
findings suggest that words are stored together in the case of early
bilingualism, from childhood, but kept in separate places if bilingualism
was developed later.
Corpus planning:
This term refers to the actions undertaken in order to partially modify
the nature or characteristics of a ianguage in some way, for instance,
decisions regarding what pronunciation to adopt from those available;
decisions regarding what syntactic or morphological patterns to use; or,
even what regional forms adopt as the standard. CP may also control the
incorporation of new vocabulary. CP is closely related to status planning
which refers to whether the status of a language could or should be raised
or lowered.
. Dialect:
Geographical variation affects languages in the form of dialects. This
refers to how locality correlates with differences in the way people speak
the language. People who speak a dialect often use different words or
pronunciations for the same word. This type of variation may also affect
syntactic and intonation patterns. Nowadays, dialect variation tends to
diminish due to the fact that the media and the communication
GLOSSARY
205
infrastructures have a homogenizing effect on languages. Sometimes the
distinction between dialects and languages is not quite clear as
sociopolitical factors may play an important role in the decision. It must
be added that not even dialectolo-eists agree on a single definition of 'dialect'.
Dialectology:
rt is the study and search for idiosyncratic features in language use
withina geographical area. Dialectologists usually analyze tñe tlpical
vocabulary pronunciation, intonation patterns, and other Lharacteiirti..,
and try to match these with specific geographic areas.
Discourse analysis:
This field of research refers to the analysis of linguistic units above
the sentence level, i.e., texts or conversations. By analyzing written or
aural texts, discourse analysts explore the differeni functions of lurrg.rug"
in social interaction.
Discourse marker:
These are words, phrases or sounds that have no content meaning but,
however, play an important role in marking conversational struclure,
signaling conversational intentions and assuring cooperation on the part
of listeners. some discourse markers in English are: actually, really, oh,
Yeah, etc. Notice that the types of discourse markers and theii uses
frequently change across languages.
Domain:
This term refers to the combination of social and situational factors
that generally influence the choice of code by speakers: code, dialect,
locâtion, registe4 style, topic, etc. For example, thé lungrrug" of home will
definitely be different to the language used at a forma'ímleting at work.
The same speaker will use different styles, an informal one for the former
situation and a formal one for the latter. This concept is frequently used
in studies of code-switching in multilingual coniexts where várious
languages, dialects or styles are employed in different social settings.
Dormant bilingual:
Bilinguals who do no longer use their languages but who acquired
them in the past and reached a comprehensive ktro*l"dg" and command.
Endangered language:
Languages normally develop, merge or die, and whenever a language
is at risk because the number of speakers decreases we can sav thai thát
206 AN INTRODIJCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS
language is endangered. This can be the result of many factors but bad
or adverse language planning is generally behind the progressive
disappearance of a language. Economics, or rather the lack of imporlance
of a language for business, can cause its death. Many Amerindian languages
are in this situation at the moment.
English-lexifier creole:
(see Lexifier)
This term refers to any creole which is English-based and therefore
has received borrowings from English. Due to the post-creole continuum,
that language may still be receiving words from English.
. Ethnography of communication:
A term that in addition to the definition of the ethnography of speaking
includes nonverbal aspects of communication, for instance, distance
between speaker and hearer, eye contact, etc.
: Ethnography of speaking:
This branch of sociolinguistics studies the norms and rules for using
language in social situations in different cultures. This is the reason why
it is so important for cross-cultural communication and that also accounts
for its relation to communicative competence. The ethnography of
speaking deals with aspects such as the different types of language to be
used under different circumstances; how to make requests, grant
permission, or ask a favor; the degree of indirectness desired in certain
situations; how to express your opinion or interrupt your interlocutor;
how and when to use formulaic language (greetings, thanking, etc. ), etc.
Ethnomethodology:
This branch of sociology deals with the content of what is being said
rather than the way it is being said. Ethnomethodologists do not study
speech or language but the content of what is being said and, what is more,
what is not being said because of shared knowledge or common-sense
knowledge.
Heritage Language:
This is a language spoken by an immigrant group or individual in
another country. For example, in Canada, a country largely composed of
immigrants, there are close to 200 languages spoken by these types of
groups. This terrn is to be distinguished form Indigenous Language which
also refers to a minority language but in this case alludes to the natives
of that land. In Canada, for instance, about 50 indigenous languages are
GLOSSARY 207
spoken some of which are only spoken in that country and none of which
is considered an official language of Canada.
ff5rpercorrection:
A manifestation of linguistic insecurity, for instance, in a social group.
It can manifest itself by the overuse of the socially desired forms in áreful
speech or reading, especially in an attempt to speak or write in an educated
manner. For instance, a speaker of a non-standard variety of English may
practice more self-correction when speaking formally árrd *.k" ,rr" oi
more sophisticated vocabulary or a more clear pronunciation.
¿ Inforrnant:
In empirical research this term refers to any person who provides
information to be analyzed and is consequently a source of datá for the
researcher. A native speaker providing insights of his/her use of language
is an informant, but also a student who attends a class that is being
observed to gather information about the students'progress.
Interference:
In language teaching and learning this term is used to refer to any
negative influence (e.g., lexical, syntactic, phonological, etc.) that one
language exerts over the other, either the L1 on the L2 or vice versa.
Interference usually hinders the learning process and causes a problem
to the language learner whereas positive interlinguistic influence helps or
favors the language learner.
Language Academy:
In some countries like Spain (The Royal Academy), France (The French
Academy), Ireland (The Irish Language commission), Norway (The
'Norwegian Language council), etc., there are
institutions which play a role
in safeguarding standards, so they try to regulate the evolution of ttre language
by means of protecting the language from foreign unwanted influences aná,
in a way, by trying to control the evolution of language. This sort of control
is more likely to be successful in written language than in spoken language
and the task is rather difficult these days when the media exerts considerable
influence on languages all over the world and globalization threatens the
preservation of minority languages and the integrity of others.
f- Language attrition:
Gradual language loss. This term can refer to the loss of a mother
tongue that has been acquired and due to lack of use probably because
- forgoiten.
it is not the language of the community it is gradualiy This
-
happens quite frequently among the second and the third generation of
immigrants. In second language learning, it can refer to the loss of a
language that was learnt through formal instruction but gradually
forgotten after a period of disuse.
Language conflict:
In multilingual situations languages are frequently in some sort of
conflict caused by ideological, political or economical reasons. Some issues
typically generate problems in multilingual settings such as decisions
regarding the election of an official language, the choice of a given
language for formal education, or the selection of a language to be used
in courts, among others. Another typical situation of language conflict
occurs when two or more languages compete for status in society. Many
current language conflicts result form different social status and
government's preferential treatment of the domain language.
Language election/selection:
Some developing countries, at some point, need to make decisions
with regards to their sociopolitical evolution and their international
recognition. For instance, Mozambique adopted Portuguese, the former
colonial language, as its official language. Something similar happened
to India, which in spite of an initial desire to detach from their former
colony, later assumed English as an additional official language. These
decisions are normally made for practical purposes either because the
nation-state needs a agglutinative language to overcome a wide linguistic
variety andlor because some advantages are seen in the possibilitr- of
having a LWC as an official language.
Language functions: (or functions of language)

Language is frequently described as having three main functions
descriptive, expressive, and social. The descriptive function of langua.=
is to carry factual information. The expressive function of language i. _
provide information about the speaker's personal feelings, preferen..,

etc. And the social function of language serves the purpose of mainrair-,_
social relations between people.
Language loss:
This term refers to a situation where language shift in z St::_
community ends in the total shift to another language. For instance. irll€ -
a group of immigrants that go to a new country and, graduallr', in r.=
two generations blend into the new speech community as their lar-¡',-:r
becomes eventually extinct (e.g., the language loss of Dutch immi.'r'., , . ,
GLOSSARY 209
Australia). This phenomenon would be referred as language death if a

language shift ends with the total loss of a language from the world, i.e., all
speakers shift to a different one (e.g., Manx on the Isle of Man).
Language Policy Division:

This department of the EU is located in Strasburg and has
responsibility for actions concerning the progress of language education
policies within the EU member states. This Division is in charge of the
elaboration of guidelines and policies related to language learning and
the development of policy planning regarding linguistic diversity. Among
other responsibilities, they (a) assist member states with policy evaluation
and depiction (at national and local levels); (b) elaborate instruments for
policy analysis; (c) provide assistance regarding linguistic minorities
language education; etc.
Language revitalization: (or Language revival)

Language planning efforts made in order to revive a language that
because of social or economic reasons has decreased in number of
speakers or which was even lost (see Language death). A language shift
can lead to the spread of a dominant language and the loss of the minority
language. The reasons underlying LR can vary but they are often caused
by a group's search for cultural and/or ethnic identity of a group. The best
example of a successful LR is Hebrew which was a classical liturgical
language for centuries and is now a living language. An instance of a not
so successful program to revitalize a language is Irish in Ireland where
governmental efforts and programs have tried to reintroduce the use of
Irish in schools without much success.
Language spread:
It consists of an increase in the use of a language or language variety
for a given communicative function by a specific social or ethnic group.
LS can either refer to a traditional language within a speech community
or a language that is adopted aslinguafranca or LWC, as has been the case
of English during the 20th century. Languages also spread within a nation
as a new mother tongue instead of as an additional language and in that
case we would rather talk about language shift. Extreme cases can even
lead to language death as has happened with the spread of Spanish and
English in America resulting in the loss of many Amerindian languages.
Lexifier:
(see English-lexifier creole)
This term refers to the language from which most of the vocabulary
has been taken to form a pidgin or creole. English, French, Spanish and
2r0 AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS
Portuguese have been lexifier languages as a consequence of the former

colonial past of countries speaking native languages. The contact
between one or more of these European languages and a native language
favored the development of pidgins and creoles in different parts of the
world.
Linguafrancaz
It is a language which is usually used by speakers who have different
mother tongues and, therefore, need a common language to communicate
among them. Linguafrancas have existed since ancient times (e.g. Greek
koiné Arabic, Mandarin, etc.) but the most remarkable example nowadays
is English, which is spoken by some people as a mother tongue, many
others use it as a second language, and still others as a foreign language,
but, as a r-ule, it serves as atinguafranca for international and intercultural
communication. In spite of being widely used, the knowledge of different
speakers may vary considerably depending, quite often, on the domains
where the language is to be used and the functions it is meant to
accomplish.
Linguistic competence:
It refers to lexical, phonological, syntactical knowledge and skills
and other dimensions of language as system, independently of the
sociolinguistic value of its variations and the pragmatic functions of its
realizations. This component relates to the range and quality of knowledge
(e.g., in terms of phonetic distinctions made or the extent and precision
of vocabulary) but also to cognitive organization and the way this
knowledge is stored (activation, recall, etc.).
LWC: (Language of Wider Communication)

This term is equivale nt to lingua franca . Two instances of LWC in the
times of the Roman Empire are Latin in the west and koiné Greek in the
east. After World War II, English became a LWC. (See lingua franca).It is
a language used by speakers of different languages to communicate with
each other.
¿ Macro-sociolinguistics:
This term refers to the study of sociolinguistic aspects in large groups
of speakers as opposed to micro-sociolinguistics that studies areas related
to small groups. Macro-sociolinguistics deals with the relationship between
sociological factors and language as, for example, language planning,
language shift and multilingual matters.
GLOSSARY 211
Mesolect:
When decreolization takes place, i.e., a creole language coexists with
a standard language and the latter exerts some influence on the former,
the language and speakers in that speech community show a range of
different pronunciation features, which are usually associated with social
stratification. The mesolect is the intermediate variety, or varieties, which
is between the creole and the standard.
¿Micro-sociolinguistics:
The study of sociolinguistics in relation to small groups of speakers,
speech communities or the speech of individuals. This branch of
sociolinguistics deals, for example, with the analysis of face-to-face
interaction and discourse analysis. This term is used in opposition to
macro-sociolinguistics which refers to larger scale study of language
in society.
Minority language:
These are languages that live in the shadow of a culturally dominant
language which puts the minority language at risk. As a result of political
or social factors, these languages are very often not the languages of all
areas of activity by native speakers as they can be excluded from certain
spheres as administration, education, or mass media (e.g., Scottish Gaelic
is widely used in church but marginally in other social gatherings). These
factors often require speakers of minority languages to be bilingual as
they will need to operate in at least two languages. Minority languages
may be may have been at some point in their history- at risk either
-or decisions affecting their maintenance or by the lack of
by political
vocabulary to cover certain topics. Some actions can be undertaken to
promote minority languages (see chapter 5) by means of language planning
and language policies. Some instances of minority languages are Irish,
Welsh and Scottish Gaelic which exist in the shadow of English, or Breton
in the shadow of French.
4-Native speaker:
A person who has spoken a language since early childhood. This term
is rather controversial in linguistics because it assumes the existence of
a speaker that can be appealed in questions of correct usage because s/he
is reported to represent the authority that can determine correct or deviant
usage. Native and non-native are not clear cut homogeneous categories
as variation depending on individual factors (origin, education, etc.) is
enorrnous and all speakers are, in turn, native speakers of a given language
2t2 AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS
or dialect. In second language learning they have traditionally represented

the model to follow in the process of learning but this has proven to be
an inefficient approach as the processes of first and second language
learning are naturally and necessarily different. Moreovel recent studies
have shown that, contrary to popular belief, 'native speaker introspection'
is an unreliable guide to actual usage.
New Englishes:
This term refers to any of the varieties of English that have emerged
as a consequence of the ample spread of this language during the colonial
period. Examples of New Englishes are the English spoken in India, Kenya,
Singapore or Jamaica, among others. Also know as World English, it does
not emphasize the dichotomy between native and non-native use but
embodies the recognition of English as an international language that
shows formal and functional variation in different contexts, as a result of
its use in multilingual and multicultural contexts.
Observer's paradox:
A term developed by William Labov to refer to a phenomenon that
takes place when doing sociolinguistic research. The issue raises when
the sociolinguist needs to gather data from a single speaker or a group of
speakers in a speech community. The problem is that observing and
gathering (for instance, recording) that speech is difficult because as soon
as the informants realize that they are being obser-ved they can
consciously or unconsciously they generally do - and
change their speech
- pronunciation, less
and make use of a less natural talk (e.g., more careful
idiomatic expressions, a variety further away from the vernacular, etc.).
What really interests sociolinguists is the way people speak when they do
not know that they are being observed.
Pragmatic competence:
This term is concerned with the functional use of linguistic resources
(production of language functions, speech acts, etc.) used on aural
communication or scripts of interactional exchanges. It also concerns the
mastery of discourse, cohesion and coherence, the identification of text
types and forms, irony, parody, etc.
tPragmatics:
It is a branch of linguistics that studies the use of language in
communication, i.e., the relationships between utterances and the contexts
and situations in which they are used. Within pragmatics, discourse
analysis studies language in discourse.
GLOSSARY 213
Proficiency:
It is someone's skill in using a language, generally as a second language.
This term describes the degree of skill that someone has attained in a
language and his/her ability over the four basic skills: speaking, reading,
writing and listening.
(Proto)-Indo-European:
Languages can be classified genetically. This classification involves
comparing the structure of different languages in order to show common
parentage. Indo-European is the best-known language family. The major
Indo-European subgroups are: Indo-Iranian, Armenian, Albanian,
Anatolian, Hellenic, Italic, Celtic, Baltic, Slavic, and Germanic. English
belongs to the Anglo-Frisian group of the West Germanic branch of the
Gerrnanic subfamily. An unattested (reconstmcted) language is indicated
by the termproto-.
Sabir:
This was a lingua franca used in the Mediterranean area from the
Middle Ages to the twentieth century. It is interesting to know that this
language has been kept stable for centuries in spite of not having native
speakers and being just a contact language used by speakers that do not
share a common language. The origin of pidgins is not clear and there is
an ongoing debate about it, but some specialists, the monogeneticists,
suggest that all pidgins based on an European language derive from this
lingua franca.
Sociolinguistic competence:
This term refers to the sociocultural conditions of language use.
Through its sensitivity to social conventions (rules of politeness, norms
governing relations between generations, sexes, classes and social groups,
linguistic codification of certain fundamental rituals, etc.), the
sociolinguistic component strictly affects all language communication
between representatives of different cultures, even though participants
may often be unaware of its influence.
iSociolinguistic interview:
It is a technique to collect speech samples to gather information about
a given speaker, or group of speakers, in a speech community. This
qualitative method of research is of prime importance for the sociolinguist
as it provides face-to-face interaction with the informant with a technique
that allows recording for later analysis.
Sociolinguistic relativity:
When people coming from different social and linguistic backgrounds
interact, quite naturally they tend to analyze and judge each other's system
and taking their own system as a reference. The more interaction with
different cultures, dialects, registers, etc. the more referents speakers will
have and, therefore, the more capable they will be of perceiúng their culture
and way of thinking as just one of many. This way, speakers may be able to
understand and shape their own perception of cultural and sociolinguistic
identities. Sociolinguistic relativity entails the acknowledgement of
sociolinguistic diversity.
¿ Sociology of language:
This term refers to a branch of sociolinguistics that studies large scale
processes of interaction between language and its use in society. Also
referred to as macro-sociolinguistics, it deals with the relationship between
sociological factors and language, especially language choice. Some of
the issues studied by the sociology of language are language planning,
multilingualism, and language shift.
Speech act:
It is an utterance that represents a functional unit in interaction.
Utterances can have a locutionary meaning or an illocutionary meaning.
The former refers to the basic literal meaning of the utterance which is
conveyed by the parlicular words and structures used. The latter refers to
the effect the utterance has on the listene¡ or the text on the reader.
Status planning:
This term refers to actions aiming at raising or lowering the status of
a language or dialect and which basically refers to decisions regarding the
selection of particular varieties for particular purposes or communicative
functions. SP is closely related to corpus planning as language planning
policies can never be solely corpus-oriented or status-oriented.
¿ Synchronicvariation:
This term refers to the instances and characteristics of variation which
occur at the present time in language. That is, the way variation affects
language at a given time in history for instance: gende4 register; style, etc.
Diachronic variation, however, looks at language from a historical point
of view and considers linguistic change through time.
,' Synthetic language:

In inflectional languages words have a number of suffixes which vary
their shape according to the word they are added to. A single suffix can
GLOSSARY 21.5
express a number of different grammatical concepts, as in Latin. S¡mthetic

languages are also known as inflectional. (See analytic language)
Türn-taking:
In conversation analysis this term describes the fundamental
mechanisms on which conversation is based, that is, the right and/or
obligation to speak with the interlocutor. General conversational patterns
are arranged in a way that only one speaker speaks at a time but the way
turn-taking is organized depends on cultural specific factors. Conversation
needs to be two-way otherwise it turns into a monologue.
nlVariety:
This term is used to refer to a sort of language that is considered as a
separate entity for some reason but which generally shares a great deal
of common features with a standard or other varieties. Therefore, it is not
considered a different language. A given dialect, accent, style or register
can be considered a variety, which is a term preferred by linguists as it is
less loaded. Language varieties can be very wide spread and standardized
such as Australian English or American English but they can also be very
localized such as Cockney (in London) and Scouse (in Liverpool).
Conceptual index
aboriginal languages, 122, 127 -8, 133, Black English Vernacular,23, 201, 202
1,36, 140-r, 173,201 borrowing, 32, 77, 103, 131, 132, 146,
Aboriginal English, 83, 173 148, r78,203
acculturated bilingual, 99 Catalan, 34, 125-6, 127, 148
acrolect, 79, 80-1, 108, 201 circle
address b ehavior, I 62 -4 inner-, 17ó-8
Afrikaans, 87, 128 expanding-, 176-8
African American Vernacular English outer-,176-8
(AAVE), 81,20t,202 classroom
age, 15, 33, 35, 36, 38, 44, 51, 94, 98, -discourse, 17, 168
rt6, 139, r41,, 16l -language, t59, 167 -I7 0
Amerindian languages, 1.27, 206, 2O9 choice
anal¡ic language, 30, 201,21,4 code-, 17,100-1,I04
applied sociolinguistics, 26, 17 3 word-, 24, 28, 36, 4I, 51,, 54, 59
Arabic,34, 100, lO8, I29,2lO Chomsky, 23-4,l9l
artificial language, 71, II1, I33 code
auxiliary language,2O2 -choice, 17, 1.00-1_, lO4
basilect, 80-1, 202 -mixing, 103-4,113-4
Basque, 34, 1,1.I, 122, 148 codification , 1.29, I32,213
bicultural, 46, 99, 123, l4l competence
bidialectal speaker, 83, 100, ll8,2O2 communicative-,24, 46,98, 1,17 , 159,
bilingual t6t-2,204,206
-children, 104, 153 linguistic-, 24, 717 , 161-2,204,210
-education, 17, 104, 116-7, 1,21-5, pragmatic-, L61-2, 17 1, 212
t+l, r48, 151-2, 166 sociolinguistic-, 161-2, 213
bilingualism compound bilingual, 97, 204
additive-, 83, 99, 142 Common European Framework of
adolescent-, 98 Reference for Languages, 145
adult-, 98 communicative
balanced-, 93, 98-100 -competence, 24, 46, 98, Il7 , 159,
childhood-, 98 161-2,204,206
dominant-,98 -functions, 70, 145,214
individual-, 9ó corpus planning, 153-4, 204, 21.4
social-, 96 creolization, 69-72, 107
subtractive-, 99 decreolization, 80- I , 20I , 202, 2ll
dialect, 24, 32-4,43, 58, 63, 81-3, 100, language

107, r09, rtl, tl4,134,136,143, -academy, l3O-1,207
166, r79,202,203,204 -attrition, 25,207-8
dialectology, 26, 205 -conflict, 111,,208
diaspora, 175-ó -contact, 15,16,ltj-2
diglossia, 16, 17 , 34, 105-9, II4, 165 -election/selection, 208
discourse analysis, 17 , 26, 58 , 205 , 211 , -functions, 162, 208, 212
212 Jearning, 94, I25, 144, 149, 159, 160-
discourse marker, 162, 167,205 t, 162, 166, 170, r72, 180,208,
domain, 28, 32,35, 53, 63,93-5,98, 209,212
112, lr4, r32, 145, r77,205,208, loss, I35,207,208
2r0 -maintenance, 25 , 123, 127 , 133, 1.35,
dormant bilingual, 205 r36
dual-linguistic system, 123 -planning, 17, 25, 26, 73, 85, 1,21-3,
endangered language, 205-6 r25, 126-135, r37, 14r, 143-5, t48,
EnglishJexifier creole, 206, 209 153-4, 205 , 209 , 210, 211 , 214
Esperanto, 7 I, 83, 133, 202 -policy, 16, 25,l2l, 123, 125-6, 130,
ethnographic approach, 26, 38 r35,137,144,149, r54
ethnography of communication, 20ó -Policy Division, 209
ethnography of speaking, 204, 206 -purification , 130-1, 134
ethnomethodology, 206 -reform, 131
forensic linguistics, 172-4 -revival, 131.,209
Galician, 34, 100 -revitalization, 209
gende4 15, 17, 26, 27, 33, 36, 44-5, 56- -shift, 131, 135, 136'7, 208, 2O9, 210,
60,72,74,2r4 214
geographic variation, 27, 41, 51, 17 4 -spread, l3I-2,209
globalization, 29, 32, 123, 132, 1,46, -standardization, 1 3 1 -2
174,207 -teaching, 1.6,24,37, Il3, 144, 159-
Haitian Creole, 70,73, 106, lO7 162, 170-2,207
Hawaiian Creole English, 17, 70, 73-5, Labov, 28,36, 37,38,63, l13,2I2
83 legal language, 54-5, 61, 17 3
heritage language, l2l, 206 level of education, 36, 116
Hindu, 25,43-4,109 lexifier, 7 4, 7 5, 79, 206, 209-210
historical linguistics, 26, 203 lingua franca, 69, 7I, 77 , 86, 88, 129,
Hymes,24,70,204 r33, 166, 175, 177, t84, r85,209,
hypercorreclion, 207 210,2t3
immersion programs, 12 l, I4l-3, 148, linguistic
165,170 -assimilation, 127
India, 17 , 25, 33-4, 43, 45, 71, 80, 85, -competence, 24, II7, 16l-2, 2O4,
lo9, 128-9, 130, 137-8, 153, 17 4-6, 209,210
180,208,212 -pluralism, 128
informant, 36-7 ,207 ,212,213 loanwords, 32
interference,36,82, 104, 126, 178, 182, LWC, 1 33, 159 , 166, 208, 209
207 macro-sociolinguistics, 25, 210, 2II,
interlingual communication, 133 214
Jamaican Patwa, 17 ,75-7, 106 Maori, 139-I4O
jargon Melanesian Pidgin English, 69
bastardized-, 70 mesolect, 80,2I1,
CONCEPTUAL INDEX 221
micro-sociolinguistics, 25, 210, 2I I speech community, 17, 23-4, 27, 32-5,

minority language, 83, 123, I24, 126, 4t, 45, 46, 51, 58, 81, 96, 99, 106,
t35-7, l4t, 144, t47, 148, 153, 108-9, 114, 1r8, 122, t28-9, r30-r,
206, 207 , 209, 2tr t59-160, 161,, t65-6, r82, 201, 202,
mode, 54,149 208, 209,2r\, 212
modernization, 130, 1.31, 132, 134 bilingual-, 34
multilingualism, 17, 34, 96, lO9-1,11, diglossic-, 166
138, 146,214 monolingual-, 34
native speake4 23-4,5I, Il3, 126, 144, multilingual-, 34,114
159-160, 162, 17 r, 174, 185, 204, speech repertoire, 33
207,2tr-2,2t3 standard
natural language, 111 English, 73, 7 5-6, 81, 84, 17 4-8, 183,
neurophysiological differences, 59 202
New Englishes, 176,212 status planning, 153, 204,214
observer's paradox, 36, 212 stylistic simplifi cation, I23 -3
Old English,29-32 style, 17, 28, 34, 37 , 45,51-3, 56, 60,
pidginiazation, 69-71 63,64,100, 107, 133,162, 172-3,
pragmatic competence , 162, 17l, 212 177, 184,205,214
pragmatics, 17 , 26,58, 83, 17l-2,212 switch
proficiency, 93, 96, 99, 112-3, 141-3, intersentential-, 102
r44,146, r49,152, 164, 165,168, intrasentential-, lO2
177,2r3 synthetic language, 2OI, 214
(proto)-Indo-European, 29-30, 21'3 Tok Pisin, 17 ,72,73,77-80, 87 , 1.06,
registe¡ 17, 33, 40, 45-6, 53-6, 61, 62, 128,176
9s, 100, 101, 107 , 1,09, tt3, t2s, tenol 54, 6l
162-3, 17 8, 204, 205, 2r4, 215 terminology unification, 132, I33
rrrles of speaking, 160, 1.62-5, 182 turn-taking, 24, 27, 59, 167, 215
Sabir,213 Universal Declaration of Linguistic
second language, 24, 27 , 77 , 82, 93 , 98 , Rights, 14ó-7
99, 113, l4I-2, 159-160, 16l, 165, variation
170, 175, 183, 185, 207-8,2L0, diachronic-, 29-32
2rr,213 stylistic-, 35, 5l-3, 56
semantic change,31,41 synchronic,214
sociolect, 54 variety
sociolinguistic competence, 161-2, 2I3 high-,34, 105
sociolinguistic interview, 37, 213 low-, 34, 105
sociolinguistic relativity, 2 1 4 vernacularizalion, 127, 128
sociology of language , 17 ,24-5,214 World Englishes, 17, 146, 167, 174-8,
speech act, 762 , 167 , 17 I , 2f2, 214 212
I4 AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS
UNIT 6
1. Sociolinguistics and language teaching/learning r59

2. Communicative competence in language teaching/learning ""' t6r
3. The sociolinguistic behavior of English speakers: Rules of
speaking r62
3.1. Address behavior t62
3.2. Telephoning r64
4. Sociolinguistic perspectives on language use in immersion
classrooms 165
5. Analysis of the EFL classroom language ......""' t67
ó. Implications for language teaching L70
7. Pragrnatics in language teaching 17l
8. Language in the iaw ...."..... t72
9. Standard English and World Englishes 174
10. Exercises ............. t78
181
1 1. References ...........
12. Resources on the web t82
13. Further readings and questions '......'..... r82
13.1. Text 11 ............. t82
13.2. TexI 12 ..........-.. 183
words 186
14. Key
Model ex¿ün 187
Key to the exercises ...'.'..... 193
Glossary 199
Conceptual index 217

¡
r,
I
t
t
t2 AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGU
UNIT 2
1. Some variables in sociolinguistics

¡ 1.1. Style
d 1.2. Register ..............
ú 1.3. Gender ...............
s 2. Speech accommodation ........
I 3. Exercises
ir 4. References
p 5. Resources on the web ..........
ft 6. Further readings and questions .............
¡ri
J' UNIT 3
?
1. Pidginization and creolization ..............
2. Some instances of pidgins
.J. Some instances of creoles
:!
3.1. Hawaiian Creole English
*¡¡
3.2. Jamaícan Patwa (or Patois)
3.3. Tok Pisin ........
Decreolization ..........
h
The use of pidgins and creoles in education ..............
Exercises
References
Resources on the web ..........
Furlher readings and questions .............
9.1. Text 5 ...............
9.2. Text 6 ...............
Key words
UNIT 4
1. Bilingualism: Introduction ........

2. Bilingualism: Definitions and dimensions ...............
.t. Code Choice ..............
3.1. Code-switching
3.2. Code-mixing ........
UhT\E,R
L\DEX 13
4. Code-switching in bilingual children r04

5. Diglossia 105
6. Diglossia and bilingualism t07
7. Multilingualism 109
8. Language contact 110
9. Exercises rt2
10. References 115
11. Resources on the web tt6
12. Further readings and questions ............. tt6
12.1. TextT tt6
12.2. Text 8 t1.7
13. Key words 118
UNIT 5
1. Bilingual education t21.

2. Language policy r25
3. Language planning 126
3.1. Some factors affecting language planning 128
3.2. Actions in language planning ............... 129
3.3. Aims of language planning 130
3.4. Individual language planning ............... t34
4. Minority languages ............... 135
5. Language shift in minority languages r36
6. Some particular sociolinguistic situations ............. 1.37
ó.1. India t37
ó.2. NIew Zealand t39
6.3. The Canadian experience r40
European Union language planning and policy t43
The role of English t45
The Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights 1.46
Exercises 148
References 150
Resources on the web 151
Fufiher readings and questions 1-51
151
151
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Rubén Chacón Beltrán

UNrvsRsro¡o NecroNer o¡, EoucacróN a Dtsr¡Ncr¡

I am grateful to many people for their encouragement and assistance

AAVE African American Vernacular English

1. Introduction: Key concepts in sociolinguistics 23

The structure of this book

.re determined by variation like style, register and gender. Speech

f nit 5 presents some applied aspects of sociolinguistics that can

Purpose of this book

How to use this book

It is suggested, then, that students read the whole chapter straight

From the very beginning a break could be perceived between the

2. SOCIOLINGUISTICS VS. SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE

when in the late ó0's sociolinguistics first developed as an academic

.;:r;Lage and its role within communication. Sociology of language,

Depending on the scope of the analysis, sociolinguistics may try to

-{nother possibility would comprise a much broader scope of analysis.

some authors prefer to talk about micro-sociolinguistics and macro-

3. THE ORIGINS OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS

(Please, go to the exercises section and do exercise 1.)

Another aspect of variation is that it has certain bounds. A speaker

and linguistic conventions. At times, and depending on the affinity between

(Please, go to the exercises section and do exercise 2.)

All in all, the aim of sociolinguists is to describe the variations within

5. SOME INSTANCES OF VARIATION

Labov (2003) states that style shifting is usually correlated to the

(Please go to the exercises sections and do exercises 3 and 4.)

Greek Latin Gothic Old English present-day English

patér pater fadar 'father'

They also discovered that Proto-Indo-European voiced stops become

Greek Latin Gothic Old English present-day English

üka decem taihun téon 'ten

{:rd Proto-Indo-European voiced aspirates become voiced stops or

Greek Latin Old English present-day English

phéró feró baira beoru 'I carry

Another area of linguistic change is syntax. Syntactic change affects

nk fllewleastiR Holtij az \orna tawido

Syntactic relations in Old English were more similar to present-day

Old English (OE) Mit heardum bendum

Semantic change offers the most obvious instances as it is one of the

Semantic change can be divided into various categories. For example,

There are pairs (sometimes even trios) of words with identical or

ask: requesl (French requéte);

(Please, go to the exercises section and do exercises 5 and ó')

Several attempts have been made to define what a speech community

:,^-h as a city or a neighborhood; or broad, such as a rvhoie countn". For

The definition of speech community needs to be sufficiently flexible

It is important to take into account that speech communities do not

major t¡,pes of speech communities: multilingual, bilingual, monolingual

b) A bilingual speech community acknowledges two languages

Spanish is the official language in Spain but in some parts of

Diglossia is often intertwined with bilingualism/multiiingualism. In

J-"a.-.e go to the exercises section and do exercises 7, B and 9.)

üI. DOI\C SOCIOTINTGUISTIC RESEARCH

=:",,rraphic background and other factors such as age, sex or education.

Sociolinguists at work are looking for commonly accepted rules and

'-,j ':'br-iously the data obtained is easily statistically analyzable. while

(Please go to the exercises section and do ererclses 10 and 1 1.)

Lubou, William (1966). Tl.te Social Stratification ol Ettglis/t in Nett'York City.

I. Analyze the following conversations frorn The Adventures of Tbm

T can lick you!'

(Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.)

3. If you have access to Cable TV try to see an episode of 'Tom and