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100 Words DEFINITIONS FOR EXAM QUESTIONS

Sociolingüística de la Lengua Inglesa (UNED)

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100 WORDS ANSWERS –sociolinguistica-

1. language shift in minority languages
Whether a minority language undergoes shift or maintenance, depends on a number of factors:
- if the minority language belongs to an individual or a small group of immigrants, the shift from
the minority language to the dominant language is usually rather fast.
- if the minority language belongs to a large group of immigrants, the shift from the minority
language to the dominant language is usually slower and it might take a few generations.
- Where the language represents a strong identity value, we may find that language shift is more
difficult to occur.
- When the minority language is valued as a language of culture and knowledge, the language
shift will take longer to occur.
- When the minority language lacks prestige and the dominant language offers certain social and
economical advantages related to integration, language shift will happen rather quickly.
2. the sociolinguistic situation in Canada
In Canada about 70% of the population has English as their mother tongue and the remaining 30%
speak French as their primary language. About 80% of the French-speaking population reside in
Quebec. Despite the co-existence of two languages (and two cultures) with well-defined
geographical borders, Canada was not officially declared a bilingual country until 1982. Since then
bilingual programmes have been introduced in order to promote a bilingual and bicultural society,
where all citizens, regardless of their origin, have the same rights, can access the same education
and the same jobs, whether they reside in the French-speaking east or the English-speaking rest of
the country. Despite these programmes, the French-English controversy continues to be an issue.
3. the sociolinguistic situation in India
After gaining independence from the British Empire in 1947, and in an attempt to “turn page” and
distance itself from its colonial past, India chose Hindi as its official language instead of English.
With this policy, each State would also have its own language, recognized as official language
This language policy failed and in the 60s English was re-introduced and adopted as “second
official language”. All this has led to “multilingualism”, where children learn Hindi and English at
school and speak their regional language at home. Nevertheless in certain areas there has been
some resistance to the introduction of Hindi and as a result English has become the language
spoken in universities, higher courts, parliament, and used is learned newspapers, economic
transactions and international trade.
4. the sociolinguistic situation in New Zealand
Very little has been done in New Zealand in order to preserve the Aboriginal language Maori.
English is the language of education and Maori has not been given the status of official language,
As a consequence, almost all Maoris speak English and have done so for more than a generation, so
that the number of Maori speakers has fallen dramatically, being limited to the rural areas, and
mostly amid older people. Something has been done on a private level to preserve Maori language
and with it, Maori culture and traditions, but without government support, the number of children
involved in a bilingual teaching programme is limited.
5. “gender” as a variable in sociolinguistics
Recent studies have shown that men and women process language in different ways: in the left
hemisphere of the brain in men, and in both hemispheres in women. This does not seem to be the
main reason behind the dissimilarity in language processing between men and women though:
social and educational factors together with power, play a much more important role. Analysis of
these differences suggests that typical lexical and grammatical choices, which are characteristic of
men and women, lead to the formation of genderlects: men’s and women’s talk. A gender
differentiation is noticeable in a number of Asian languages (Thai and Japanese among others)
where words change according to the sex of the speaker.
6. “register” as a variable in sociolinguistics
Register can be conceived from two different perspectives:
In the narrow sense of the word it refers to the TYPE of language used by a group of
professionals who employ certain linguistic features, which are not so used in other settings. This
conception of register is closely related to JARGON and tends to be associated with WORD CHOICE
rather than syntactic order.

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In the broad sense of the word 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 newspapers, academic prose or legal language.
7. “style” as a variable in sociolinguistics
Style or stylistic variation is the degree of formality in speech or writing. Usually there is 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 informal or casual language for trivial
conversations or relaxed matters. As a result, the speaker can decide on a level of formality (or
casualness) depending on a number of factors such as:
particular occasion
social differences
interlocutor’s age
type of discourse chosen (spoken vs written)
Native speakers can easily accommodate their language to the required degree of formality.
8. main features of Hawaiian Creole English
From the phonological point of view HCE is rather simple: the vocalic system has been
simplified and the fricatives tend to be avoided, thus making it easier to pronounce.
The vocabulary is 90% of English origin, like most English-based pidgins. Some of the
words are English and other have been adapted or simplified.
Many words are polisemous, like inside that means inside, soul and heart.
Almost complete lack of inflection in nouns, pronouns, verbs and adjectives.
Tense and aspect are normally indicated with a marker.
Absence of auxiliaries and negation is expressed by placing no, nat or neva before the verb.
9. main features of Tok Pisin
consonant assimilation: no distinction between /g/ and /k/, /p/ and /f/, /s/ and /ʃ/ and /t ʃ/
simplified consonant clusters ailand, hos, gaden, etc
simplified vocal system (only /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/) fut, grin, smok, ston, gro, tumora, etc
word reduplication to indicate emphasis singsing festival, lukluk look at, etc
plural suffix –pela tupela marit married couple
lexicon based on English
metaphors in word formation
simplified prepositional system –only 3 are used: long, bilong, wantaim
10. main features of Jamaican Patwa
modified personal pronouns (I=me, he=im, they=dem)
absence of plural markers on nouns
absence of desinence in the 3rd person singular (she greet him)
absence of auxiliaries to form the negative
copula deletion
no distinction between the sounds /t/ - /Ɵ/ and /d/ - /ð/
final consonant clusters devoiced or deleted
11. rules of speaking telephoning
The way people answer the phone or initiate a telephone conversation varies from language to
language and from culture to culture. In some countries the person answering the phone will do so
by identifying him/herself, without being asked, and stating his/her name or the number from
which s/he is answering.
In other cultures it is the norm to apologize for disturbing the person called, especially if the time of
calling coincides with meal times, or late/early hours.
In France and Italy the caller will identify him/herself and make sure s/he is calling the right
number prior to initiating a conversation, this practice is completely absent in Spain.
12. rules of speaking address behaviour
The way people address one another in different situations. Whenever one person speaks to another,
there is a whole range of options 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 socio-cultural distance between the languages involved.

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Different languages present different ways to address an interlocutor that must be taken into
consideration when studying such languages: for example the formal Sie or Usted or Lei in
German, Spanish and Italian respectively, does not exist in English.
13. pidgin vs Creole
A pidgin is a contact language, made of words of all the languages of the speech communities
involved in the process and used for functional purposes in specific situations and contexts,
characterised, among other things, by HAVING NO NATIVE SPEAKERS.
When a pidgin becomes the native language of children who are exposed to it from birth, it is
called a Creole. In this process of turning into a “proper language”, the pidgin develops and
becomes more complex in terms of grammar and phonology. Most pidgins and Creoles have
developed from contact with a European language during colonization, the most common and
widespread ones being either English, French, Spanish or Portuguese-based.
14. pidginazation & creolization
Sometimes, when two or more languages come into contact and a need arises for communication,
limited to certain areas such as TRADE, pidginization might take place. Pidgin becomes a common
ground, a new, contact language made of words of all the languages of the speech communities
involved in the process and used for functional purposes in specific situations and contexts,
characterised, among other things, by HAVING NO NATIVE SPEAKERS.
Creolization takes place when the pidgin becomes the native language of children who are exposed
to it from birth. It must be noted that NOT EVERY PIDGIN BECOMES A CREOLE.
15. pidgins & creoles in education
It is rather rare to see a pidgin or a Creole taught at school. This is because of mainly 2 reasons:
a. pidgins and Creoles are in continuous evolution or involution (creolization
vs decreolization) and it is difficult to establish a norm.
b. in most societies pidgins and Creoles are considered sub-varieties of the
standard language, they are associated with the lower classes and lack prestige.
Children who speak pidgin or Creole at home and are taught the standard variety at school
systematically suffer some degree of performance failure.
In order to integrate pidgins and Creoles and their speakers in the educational system, a number of
countries have introduced three different types of special programmes: instrumental,
accommodation and awareness.
16. decreolization
When the Creole develops taking the standard language as a model at the TOP and the Creole itself
remaining the model at the BOTTOM. These “top” and “bottom” correspond to social
stratification, where at the “top “we find the elite of society, progressively going down through the
middle classes all the way to the “bottom” where rural, often illiterate, people are to be found. This
process is today clearly perceivable in Nigeria, India, Barbados, Cameroon, Papua New Guinea and
Hawaii.
When and where this process takes place, we will find that the elite and well-educated part of
society speaks the variety closest to the standard language, known as ACROLECT, the lower
classes speak the variety closest to the Creole, known as BASILECT, and the classes in between
speak varieties in between the acrolect and the basilect, known as MESOLECTS.
17. distinction between bilingualism and diglossia
We have bilingualism when a speech community, like Belgium or Canada, has two official
languages, or when an individual speaks two languages. In the latter case there are various degrees
of individual bilingualism, depending on the level of proficiency the individual reaches in the
different languages and three types of individual bilingualism can be identified depending on the
context the languages were learnt: coordinate bilingual, compound bilingual, sub-coordinate
bilingual.
We have diglossia when two or more varieties of the same language co-exist within one speech
community, one being considered more prestigious and cultivated than the other (high variety vs.
low variety).

18. code switching in bilingual children

In a bilingual speaker, code-switching is not always intentional: there are sometimes unintentional
interferences between the codes. This phenomenon can be observed in children receiving a
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bilingual education when they mix both languages and transfer words, syntactic constructions or
phonological features from one language to the other. Bilingualism has long puzzled scientists who
try to find answers to questions such as does the bilingual brain contain one or two lexicons? if
there is more than one system, are they located in the same part of the brain? Do bilingual children
develop two different language systems or a unique one where the two languages are intertwined?
The answers to these and other questions are not so easy to find.
19. code switching vs code mixing
Code-switching occurs when a speaker chooses one language or the other s/he masters. The choice
of language in bilingual individuals can be:
a. SITUATIONAL: it depends on contextual factors: not the TOPIC of the
conversation, but the GIVEN SITUATION.
b. METAPHORICAL: it depends on the topic and the contents of the
communicative process.
Code-mixing occurs when the interlocutors change from one language to the other during the
course of a single conversation and more precisely when switching back and fourth occurs within a
clause. For code-mixing to occur, clearly both interlocutors must be bilingual. Code-mixing is most
common in places where two languages are in close contact, such as Gibraltar for instance, or
among immigrants. The process occasionally results in lexical borrowing.
20. outcomes of minority language policy
LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE as a result of a course of action, the survival of a specific
language, endangered or not, may be determined by political decisions.
BILINGUALISM the most desirable outcome, it guarantees the survival of the languages of
the speech communities in a prolonged contact, allowing for multi-cultural, multi-ethnic societies to reach
a common ground on linguistic and socio-political fields.
LANGUAGE SHIFT the least desirable outcome, it gives way to language loss.
Unfortunately though, the disappearance of a language does not only depend on politics but also on socio-
cultural forces. When the minority language lacks prestige and the dominant language offers certain social
and economical advantages related to integration, language shift will happen rather quickly.
21. the 3 possible outcomes that determine the degree of success or failure of a specific language
policy
LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE as a result of a course of action, the survival of a specific
language, endangered or not, may be determined by political decisions.
BILINGUALISM the most desirable outcome, it guarantees the survival of the languages of
the speech communities in a prolonged contact, allowing for multi-cultural, multi-ethnic societies to reach
a common ground on linguistic and socio-political fields.
LANGUAGE SHIFT the least desirable outcome, it gives way to language loss.
Unfortunately though, the disappearance of a language does not only depend on politics but also on socio-
cultural forces. When the minority language lacks prestige and the dominant language offers certain social
and economical advantages related to integration, language shift will happen rather quickly.
22. factors that affect language planning
Language planning within a speech community must take into consideration the following factors:
SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC: the number of languages spoken and the number of speakers
may favour the use of one language or the other.
LINGUISTIC: 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/s should be
preserved/promoted.
SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL: people’s attitude towards one language or the other and their
acceptance in a speech community.
POLITICAL: can influence the adoption of a specific alphabet (Latin in Turkey, or Cyrillic
in middle-central Asia).
RELIGIOUS: a language might be chosen as the official one because it is the language of
the most widespread religion within the speech community (ie in Sudan, ex British colony, the adopted
language is Arabic due to the widespread Islamism)
23. speech accommodation

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is the modification of one’s own speech to the speech used by the person one is interacting with or,
in simpler words, “to adjust one’s speech to the interlocutor’s”. Speech accommodation can give
way to:
1. speech convergence: when the individual or the group feel the need to integrate or identify
with another individual or group and therefore adjust their speech in order to make it more similar to the
speech of the individual or group they want to establish closeness with.
2. speech divergence: when the individual or group wish for inter-group distinctiveness and at
the same time wish to reinforce his belonging to his own group excluding others. Such targets can be
attained by the use of slang, jargon, or simply a different accent.
24. speech community
For general linguistics a speech community is “a group of people who share the same language or
dialect in a specific setting”.
Each member of the speech community has his/her own verbal repertoire (verbal varieties) and
each speech community has its own speech repertoire. Speech communities go beyond political,
religious and cultural boundaries and can be:
monolingual: only one language spoken, like Portugal or Iceland
bilingual: two official languages spoken, like Belgium or Canada
multilingual: more than two official languages spoken, like Switzerland
diglossic: one official language with two or more varieties, a high one and a lower one, like
some Arabic-speaking communities.
25. the 4 major types of speech community according to Kachu 2001
MONOLINGUAL has only one official language, like Portugal or Iceland, it does not
exclude the presence of different styles, registers and/or dialects
BILINGUAL has two official languages, like Belgium or Canada
MULTILINGUAL has more than two official languages, like Switzerland
DIGLOSSIC has one language with two or more varieties that co-exist, one being
considered more prestigious and cultivated (high variety, used in formal contexts like politics, government,
local administrations, news broadcast, poetry, etc) and the other considered less prestigious (low variety,
used in colloquial speech, spoken by the lower urban classes and in the countryside by the peasants, used
folk literature, radio soap operas, family conversations, etc), like some Arabic countries where there is a
distinction between Classic and colloquial Arabic.
26. diaspora of English over the world
The dispersal, or diaspora, of English over the world can be divided into two phases:
1. the first diaspora the migration of about 25.000 English, Scottish and Irish people to North
America, Australia and New Zealand. The varieties of English spoken today in these countries are not
identical but still retain features of the varieties spoken by the British settlers, with the incorporation of
words of indigenous origin.
2. the second diaspora occurred during the 18th and 19th century, is linked to colonization and
trade in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. This situation favoured the spread of English as lingua franca among
the hundreds of indigenous languages and the English-speaking traders.
27. the role of English in the world
Globalization spreads and English is its language. At first it was the British Empire, that brought
English all over the world, imposing it as lingua franca or turning it into the lexifier for a large
number of pidgins and Creoles, and then the predominance of North American culture in the world,
beginning in the 50’s, has taken the place of other international languages, mainly French.
Today English is the native language of hundreds of millions of people in the UK, US, Canada,
Australia and New Zealand, it is the second official language in countries such as India, Pakinstan,
Zambia and Nigeria and it is taught as foreign language in the rest of the world, being considered
not only a desirable language to know, but a necessity in many contexts.

28. relationship between standard English and world Englishes

Standard English (RP Received Pronunciation) is the variety of English used by the media and
taught in schools. In England it is considered to be the variety spoken in the South-East of the
country, in the Thames estuary area.
Kachru divides the world Englishes in 3 concentric circles:
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INNER CIRCLE: where English is the native language (UK, US, Australia, New Zealand)
OUTER CIRCLE: where English is the second language (new Englishes: Zambia, Pakistan,
India, Nigeria)
EXPANDING CIRCLE: where English is a foreign language (Italy, Spain, Japan, Holland)
In the “expanding circle” English is not the language of law, education, media or government, but it
is considered a useful language to learn and know. For this reason, parents encourage their children
to study and learn it.
29. what can you say about EFL classroom language
Classroom language has very little in common with natural, colloquial speech, in the sense that in
the classroom interaction usually takes place between the teacher, who dominates and controls
dialogues, and the students, who are limited to simply replying to what they are being asked.
Normally the teacher will initiate a conversation, a student will reply with an answer to which the
teacher will provide a feedback.
Furthermore, “real life” language, such as idiomatic expressions or slang words are rarely used in a
classroom, where the teacher is often more concerned about “how” something is said and not about
“what” is being said.
30. CEF of reference for languages
Policy makers within the EU have established some guidelines that try to promote the use of
international languages for intercultural communication. The languages chosen are English, French
and German and the objective is for all EU citizens to be able to communicate in at lest two of
these languages, besides the native one.
It is a document that provides the basis for setting common standards in order to be able to
mutually recognize language qualifications within the European Union member States, facilitating
educational and occupational mobility.
The Framework describes:
- the competences necessary for communication
- the related knowledge and skills
- the situations and domains of communication
The Framework is designed to establish teaching and learning objectives and methods and it is of
particular interest to course designers, textbook writers, teachers, teachers’ trainers, testers and the
whole academic community.
31. universal declaration of linguistic rights
The UDLR was approved in 1996 in Barcelona. The main aim of this document is to preserve
everyone’s right to a language identity, with particular attention to minority languages.
The declaration contains 52 articles and, among other things, it establishes:
personal rights to adhere to a linguistic identity and to develop one’s own culture
all language communities are equal and deserve official recognition
education must help to maintain and develop the language spoken by the language
community
the right to preserve linguistic and cultural heritage
the right to use the language in all socio-economic activities with full legal validity.

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