Nama: Rindi garin erliantari

SRN: 17050017

1. Explain in your own words what speech communities mean

2. Show how it is possible to belong to more than one speech community
3. Discuss speech communities as forms of language varieties
4. What are the arguments against speech communities in sociolinguistics?
5. Identify the characteristic nature of speech communities

Answer:

1. a ‘speech community' is “any human aggregate characterised by regular and frequent

interaction by means of a shared body of verbal signs and set off from similar aggregates
by significant differences in language usage”. A more restrictive concept,assuming a
shared set of grammatical rules, emphasises linguisticcontrast with outsiders. Gumperz
also argues for regular relationships between language use and social structure.

2. A person can (and almost always does) belong to more than one speech community. For
example, an area boy would likely speak and be spoken to differently when interacting
with his Nigerian peers or his co-touts. If he found himself in a situation with a variety of
in-group and/or out group peers, he would likely modify his speech to appeal to speakers
of all the speech communities represented at that moment.

3. language is confined to varieties spoken by their very small proportion of the population.
The only languages which they deem worthy of respect, and which they recognise as valid,
are the little codes in their languages, more than those with millions of speakers. And the
only varieties of those languages which they respect are the standard varieties which
define their operational codes. In other words, we are presented with a phenomenon which
we can call: the denigration of language to suit minority interest.

4. speech communities exist in several forms. We have different groups with similar means
of communication restricted to them. These groups are like cults and associations with the
same goals. We have such groups as Rotary Club, Lions Club, Jaycee Club, Reformed
Ogboni Fraternity, Brotherhood of the Sun, Rosicrucian Order, and Women Groups, etc.
These groups have similar language patterns that are used in communicating common
interests. These communication patterns include both symbolic and verbal forms. They
have patterns of greetings (that is, phatic greetings, general greetings of well-being),
patterns of handshake, patterns of movement, and patterns of response, etc. With the
divisions in Christian and Islamic religions, there emerged different groups with similar
patterns of communication and recognition. Each of these groups constitutes a speech
community.

5. The concept of speech communities in sociolinguistics gives insight into small language
use in minority group based on certain unifying linguistic harmonies. In studying speech
communities, there are political, cultural and economic considerations but also of the
language varieties themselves. That is, in speech communities we do need to look at
vowels, consonants, lexis and syntax. The major focus has to do with variety in language.
Nama: Rindi garin erliantari
SRN: 17050017

1.Explain the importance of sociolinguistic differences.

2. How do sociolinguistic differences affect human speech?
3. Relate linguistic applications to sociolinguistic difference.
4. Discuss gender as an important difference in sociolinguistics.
5. Assess the role of class difference in sociolinguistics.

Answer:

1. sociolinguistic differences that are necessary in the understanding of language use in

society. There are other differences but we shall concentrate on differences in class, age
groups, and gender. These differences are based on sociolinguistic enquiries about the
social changes in human language. The interpretation of speeches is based on a society’s
acceptability. We will study these differences and examine the implications in
sociolinguistics. This will enable us understand how language is interpreted in the larger
society.

2. This is the case, both for its meaning-aspect and its form-aspect. The meaning of the text
arises out of the meaning of the social, and the form which the text ‘has’ – whether in its
material manifestation such as a talk of 15 minutes or a story of three pages length;
whether in its generic shape or in its intra-textual organisation; in the very form of its
sentences and the shape of its syntax and its words – all arise out of the social conditions
and the interaction of the participants who shape the text in their social/linguistic situation
and the differences aid in sociolinguistic investigation of human utterance.

3. There are numerous factors influencing the way people use language, and these have been
investigated by sociolinguists over the years. They include:
 ) Social Class
The position of the speaker in the society, measured by the level of education,
parental background, profession and their effect on syntax and lexis used by the
speaker.
 ) Social Context
The register of the language used, depending on changing situations, formal language
in formal meetings and informal during meetings with friends.

4. Men and women, on average, tend to use slightly different language styles. These
differences tend to be quantitative rather than qualitative. That is, to say that women make
more minimal responses than men is akin to saying that men are taller than women (i.e.,
men are on the average taller than women, but some women are taller than some men).
The initial identification of a women's register was by Robin Lakoff (1975), who argued
that the style of language served to maintain women's (inferior) role in society (“female
deficit approach”). A later refinement of this argument was that gender differences in
language reflected a power difference (O'Barr & Atkins, 1980) (“dominance theory”).
However, both these perspectives have the language style of men as normative, implying
that women’s style is inferior.

5. The position of the speaker in the society, measured by the level of education, parental
background, profession and their effect on syntax and lexis used by the speaker.