SOCIOLINGUISTICS HELP US TO DEVELOP A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF

SOCIETY AND LANGUAGE 1

How Sociolinguistics Help us to Develop a Better Understanding of Society and Language use?

Ikram Ullah

National University of Modern Languages

SOCIOLINGUISTICS HELP US TO DEVELOP A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF
SOCIETY AND LANGUAGE 2

Introduction

This paper elucidates how sociolinguistics facilitates us to comprehend the language and society

use. Sociolinguistics is the combination of two disciplines (Sociology & Linguistics).

Sociolinguistics is basically the relationship between society and language as they are pivotal

organ of each other and interlinked. Language is a growing organism and alters after every few

miles; this shows that language does not remain consistent if you move from one place to

another. These two terminologies are totally dependent on each other; one cannot exist without

the absence of other. The prime objective of sociolinguistic is to study the pros and cons of

language on society in various distinctive ways. There are multiple factors which show how

language affects a society and vice-versa. These are ethnic (racial), social (class, education,

gender), and regional (geographical). The underlying objective of this paper is to identify and

study the significance of sociolinguistics, create consciousness that sociolinguistics provides vast

details about any language and make us understand to be more decent to all other languages and

their various distinctive dialects. Sociolinguistics is the study of language and society. It guides

us to communicate with the people in a better way by studying language and the society and

creates relationship between them.

Objective

The underlying objective of this essay is to determine how sociolinguistics helps us to

understand people and language use.

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Literature Review

Sociolinguistics is basically the ultimate one to one relationship between society and language. It

means that the fundamental function of sociolinguistic as that it is concerned with language

which can be used as a tool of communication amongst various social and ethnic groups.

Jendra (2010, p.9) says that “Sociolinguistics is a branch of linguistic that takes language as a

subject of study, in a way that is usually distinguished from how syntax, semantics, morphology,

and phonology handle it.” Hudson in his Putri (2010, p.11) states that “Sociolinguistics is the

study of language in relation to society.”

Sociolinguistics is the social connection of language and society. They are interlinked and co-

existed. Speech is a social behavior and if someone is studying it without referencing or relating

it to society then it would be like studying the courtship discipline without relating and

determining the behavior of one partner to another. (Hudson 1971 in Maria Georgieva, 2014: 4)

There are many similarities which exist between sociolinguistics and language structure theory.

Like the relation of origin of meanings as well as alternative analysis of grammar. Linguistic

theories focus on the structure of language without keeping an eye on the context in which a

language is learned and most importantly, does not observe various ways a language is used.

Sociolinguistics emphasis on language structure in its social behavior and the study of social way

of living through linguistic. (Coupland and Jaworski 1997 in Maria Georgiva, 2014:4)

Different scholars defined Sociolinguistics in their own perspective. There is distinctive possible

relationship which exists between language and society. First is that social structure may

influence linguistic structure. There are number of evidences which support this influence. Age
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SOCIETY AND LANGUAGE 4

grading help us to determine how young children speak distinctively from mature adults; studies

show that the varieties of languages used in a social context reflects such issues social, gender,

ethnic origin etc. The second feasible relationship is totally opposite to the first one. Linguistic

structure may influence social structure. The third possible relationship which exists is that the

influence is bi-directional. The fourth one is that there is no influence of language on society and

vice-versa. They are independent of each other.

Methodology

This paper is based on qualitative research methodology. It is empirical research which means

based on observations-, briefly focusing on how human beings are able to use language in social

context in various communities. Sociolinguistics is a combination of various different disciplines

partly consists of anthropology, ethnography, sociology, dialectology and epistemological

heritage. The main source of information for this essay is Maria. Georgieva (2014) “Introducing

Sociolinguistics”

Data Analysis

Data analysis is one of the important stages used by researchers. The research demands to

qualitatively analyze the gathered data. In this research qualitative research method is used by

researcher to identify the various connections between language and society.

Conclusion

Society and language are dependent on each other. Sociolinguists guide the people to understand

the society. It also helps us that how to deal and communicate in different situations. By dealing
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the people properly, we can get better position in our society and sociolinguistics help us to

understand the situations.

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References