Language and Society (I)

Communication
- Communication: refers to the transmission and reception of information (a
‘message’) between a source and a receiver using a signalling system.
- In linguistic contexts, source and receiver are interpreted in human terms, the
system involved is a language.
- In theory, communication is said to have taken place if the information received is
the same as that being sent: in practice, one has to allow for all kinds of
interfering factors, or ‘noise’, which reduce the efficiency of the transmission.
- Society - group of people who are drawn together for a certain purpose or
purposes.
- Language - what the members of a particular society speak.
- Different ‘’kinds’’ of language: The information conveyed by the speaker very
often includes:
 Geographical background – regional dialect &
 Social background – social dialect

Language vs Dialect
- Dialect – refers to differences between kinds of L which are differences of
vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. It can be used to apply to all varieties,
not just nonstandard varieties
- Accent – refers solely to differences of pronunciation.
- Variety - the neutral term used for any kind of language without being specific.
- There is no clear linguistic break between Norfolk and Suffolk dialects, for
example – it is not possible to state in linguistic terms where people stop speaking
one dialect and start speaking another.
- There is a geographical dialect continuum.
- Borders are decided on SOCIAL rather than LINGUISTIC facts.
- Political and cultural factor are more important than linguistic ones in the use of
terms LANGUAGE and DIALECT.

Autonomy vs Heteronomy
- Autonomy (independence): Dutch and German are autonomous, since both are
standardized varieties of language with a life of their own.
- On the other hand, nonstandard dialects of Germany, Austria and German-
speaking Switzerland are all heteronomous (dependent) with respect to standard
 German, in spite of the fact that they may be very unlike each other and that some
of them may be very like Dutch dialects.
- This is because speakers of these German dialects look to German as their
standard L (read and write in G, listen to G on radio and TV).
- In the same way, speakers of Dutch will read newspapers and write in D, and any
standardizing changes that occur in their dialects will take place in the direction of
Standard Dutch.

Standard English
- Standard English is that variety of English which is usually used in print, and
which is normally taught in schools and to non-native speakers learning the
language.
- Also, it is normally spoken by educated people and used in news broadcasts and
other similar situations.
- The difference between standard and nonstandard has nothing to do with
differences between formal and colloquial language –standard language has both,
and you can swear in standard language as well.
- Since it differs from other varieties of English in terms of vocabulary and
grammar, it is legitimate to consider it a dialect.
- Historically, it developed out of English dialects spoken in and around London. It
was modified by speakers at the court, by scholars and writers, and later by Public
Schools.
- Standard English is a superposed variety of language.
- There is a general consensus among educated people and among those who hold
powerful positions, as to what is SE and what is not – SE is imposed from above
over the range of regional dialects – dialect continuum – and for this reason can
be called superposed variety of L.

RP – Received Pronunciation
- Standard English can be spoken with any regional or social accents –at least
theoretically.
- However, RP (Received Pronunciation) only occurs together with Standard
English.
- It is a non-localized accent. RP is the British English accent. It developed in
Public Schools favoured by the aristocracy and the upper-middle-classes. It is
colloquially known as ‘Oxford English’ or ‘BBC English’. The RP has very high
prestige.
Status and Prestige
- Different dialects and accents are evaluated in different ways, because they are
closely tied up with the social structure and value systems of society.
- Standard English has much more status and prestige than any other English
dialect.
The RP accent has also very high prestige, as do certain American accents.
- Standard English and prestige accents are considered to be ‘correct’, ‘beautiful’,
‘pure’ while nonstandard, non-prestige varieties are considered to be ‘wrong’,
‘ugly’, ‘corrupt’, ‘lazy’, etc.
- Standard English is only one variety among many, although a peculiarly
important one.
- The scientific study of language has shown that all languages, and therefore all
dialects are equally good as linguistic systems. All varieties of language are
structured, complex, rule-governed systems which are wholly adequate for the
needs of their speakers.
- Thus, value judgments concerning the correctness and purity of linguistic
varieties are social rather than linguistic.

Inter-relationships between Language and Society:

- We will discuss the influence of:
a. Language on Society – ‘Sapir-Whorf hypothesis’
 A hypothesis which claims that a language imposes on its native speakers
a series of categories which act as a kind of grid through which they
perceive the world, and which constrains the way in which they categorize
and conceptualize different phenomena (gender of nouns & present
perfect).
b. Physical Environment on Language – Lexicalization
 There are many examples of the physical environment in which society
lives being reflected in its L, normally in the structure of its lexicon –
distinctions are made by means of single words.
Whereas, English has only one word for reindeer, the Sami (Scandinavian
languages) has several.
c. Social Environment on Language – Kinship vocabulary
 The social environment can be reflected in language and can often have an
effect on the structure of vocabulary.
 For example, a society’s kinship system is generally reflected in its
kinship vocabulary. We can assume that important kin relationships in
English speaking societies are those that are signalled by single
vocabulary items (son, daughter), but the distinction between maternal
and paternal aunt is not important in English-speaking society and is
therefore not reflected in the lexicon.

Values of society and Language – Taboo

- Taboos are concerned with behaviour which is believed to be supernaturally
forbidden, or regarded as immoral or improper in an apparently irrational manner.
- Taboo is associated with things which are not said, words and expressions which
are not used.
- Different words in different cultures – words related to: left hand, female
relations, some game animals, sex, religion etc.
- Taboos change (bloody, nigger), but also cause changes (rooster).

Sociolinguistics
- Sociolinguistics is that part of linguistics which is concerned with L as a social
and cultural phenomenon. It investigates the field of language and society and has
close connections with the social science, especially social psychology,
anthropology, human geography, and sociology.
- Parts of sociolinguistics:
a. Social Psychology of Language – the study of attitudes towards the forms of
language
b. Anthropological Linguistics – e.g. kinship studies
c. Geolinguistics – study of the way in which dialects vary gradually from one
region to another (e.g. dialects)
d. Ethnography of Speaking – deals with the way in which L is used in social
interaction (train conversation)
e. Discourse Analysis – e.g. political discourse
f. Sociology of Language – e.g. who speaks which language or variety to whom
and why
g. Linguistic Variation and Change – e.g. why languages change

Language and Social Class (II)

- There are varieties of L which have come to be called social-class dialects –
sociolects. There are grammatical differences between these varieties which give
 us a clue about the social background of the speaker. They will be accompanied
by phonetic and phonological differences – social-class accents.
- Different social groups use different linguistic varieties.

Parallels between the development of the social varieties and regional varieties
- In both cases barrier and distance appear to be relevant.
- Regional dialect boundaries often coincide with geographical barriers
(mountains, swamps, rivers).
- It seems to be the case that the greater the geographical distance between two
dialects the more dissimilar they are linguistically (London vs Scotland).
- Social varieties can perhaps be explained in the same way- in terms of social
barriers and social distance.
- Barriers can be: social class, age, race, religion…
- Social distance: for example, a linguistic innovation that begins amongst the
highest social group will affect the lowest social group last, if at all.
- Also, attitudes to language play an important role in preserving or removing
dialect differences.

Social stratification
- refers to any hierarchical ordering of groups within a society especially in terms
of power, wealth and status.
- In the industrialized societies of the West this takes the form of stratification into
social classes and gives rise to social-class dialects.
- Castes vs. Social class:
 Social classes (not clearly defined or labelled entities) are generally taken to
be aggregates of individuals with similar social and/or economic
characteristics; social mobility - movement up or down the social hierarchy –
is perfectly possible.
 In India, traditional society is stratified into different castes with respective
caste dialects.
 Castes are relatively stable, clearly named groups, rigidly separated from each
other, with hereditary membership and with little possibility of movement
form one caste to another. Because of this rigid separations, caste-dialect
differences have tended to be clear-cut, and social differences in L are
sometimes greater than regional differences.

Studying Social Varieties:

- The more heterogeneous a society is, the more heterogeneous is its language.
- Linguists ignored the problem of complexity by:
1. by studying idiolect – the speech of one person at one time in one style
2. by studying rural speech (NORM – non-mobile older rural males)
 recording dialect features before they died out,
 a quest for ‘pure’ or ‘real’ dialects
- Traditional dialectology is inadequate – it is not possible to make general
conclusion based on one informant.
 Idiolects may differ considerably.
 Internal inconsistency may be there.
 Linguists called it ‘free variation’-
 Labov shows it is not free but determined by extra-linguistic factors.

Social Dialect Research Methodology

- Correct picture of the relationship between language and social stratification can
be obtained if we can measure linguistic and social phenomena and correlate the
two.
- Social phenomena – grouping together people with similar indexes (numerical
index scores based on occupation, income, education, etc.)
- Take easily countable linguistic feature which is known to vary within the
community being studied.
- Present simple third person:
 Norwich (GB): 5 social classes
 Detroit (USA): 4 social classes

Interpretation
- Dialect Mixture:
 There are two dialects (with and without -s) which mix in different
proportions by speakers from different classes.
 This could be a historical explanation of the present situation.
- Inherent Variation:
 Variation is not due to mixture of two (or more) varieties but it is an integral
part of the variety itself.

Social Accent Methodology

- Social-class accents are difficult to study.
- The usual method is to investigate the pronunciation of individual vowels and
consonants – it is simple to count their presence or absence.
- Vowels are often socially more significant, but it is more difficult to study them
because it is not about presence or absence, but about the quality.

Language and Ethnic Group (III)

An Experiment
- A number of judges in the USA were given recordings of two sets of people to listen.
- They recognised that the speakers in the first set were African Americans, and speakers
in the second set white (they were wrong).
- This experiment demonstrates two important things:
a) First, there are differences between the English spoken by many Whites and many
African Americans in the USA such that Americans can and do assign people with
some confidence to one of the two ethnic groups solely on the basis of their language
– this might happen in a telephone conversation, for instance – which indicates that
‘black speech’ and ‘white speech’ have some kind of social reality for many
Americans.
b) Secondly, it demonstrates that, although the stereotypes of black and white speech
which listeners work with provide them with a correct identification most of the time,
the diagnostic differences are the result of learned behaviour. People do not speak as
they do because they are white or black. What does happen is that speakers acquire
the linguistic characteristics of those they live in close contact with.
- There is no racial or physiological basis of any kind for linguistic differences of this
type.
- A myth of an Indo-European or Aryan race who had not only spoken the Indo-European
L but were also genetic ancestors of the people who now speak Indo-European Ls.
- Any human being can learn any human language.
- It does not mean that groups of people are ‘racially related’ because they speak related
languages.

Identifying Ethnic Groups

- First type: when we speak of languages, rather than varieties, language can be the most
defining criteria for ethnic-group membership.
a) Native speakers of Greek
 b) In one suburb in Accra, Ghana there are more than 80 different languages, the
majority of the inhabitants are bi- or tri-lingual
c) Canada, defining characteristic is whether they are native speakers of English or
French
- Second type: the separate identity of ethnic groups is signalled, not by a different
language but by different varieties of the same language.
- Ethic group differentiation acts as a barrier to the communication of linguistic features
(like other social barriers).
 African American Vernacular English (AAVE)
- Just as languages, ethnic groups are social constructs. They are fluid entities whose
boundaries can change and they can come into being and disappear during the course of
history.
 Yugoslavia: Serbo-Croat
 Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, Serbian
 New governments in former Yugoslavia are deliberately attempting to stress their
separate nationhoods and ethnicities by focusing on lexical differences.

- Labov – The Social Stratification of English in New York City:

a. Differences in pronunciation between speakers of Jewish and Italian origin
b. Differences are due to substratum varieties – the languages or varieties spoken by
these groups of people or their forebears before they became speakers of NYCE –
Yiddish and Italian
c. The interference of the old language on the new in the first generation led to
hypercorrection of foreign features by the second generation
- Another example of substratum influence can be found in English in Scotland. Scots
come from two distinct ethnic groups

Highland Scots Lowland Scots

Gaels – spoke the Celtic L Gaelic Germanic, Anglo-Saxon descent
Speak Standard Scottish English (or Speak a local dialect of Scots or SSE with a
something close to it) local accent
e.g. I don’t know e.g. I dinna kne

African American Vernacular English (AAVE)

- One of the most striking examples of linguistic ethnic-group differentiation is the
difference between the speech of black and white Americans.
- Americans of sub-Saharan African origin spoke English differently from the Whites
- Their speech was considered inferior, later on it was difficult to establish that it was
different without being considered racist.
- Differences in speech of Blacks and Whites simply meant that there are different ethnic-
group language varieties (linguistically equally valid).
- AAVE – the non-standard English spoken by lower-class African Americans.
- Black English – disused, not all Blacks speak AAVE.
- Vernacular – distinguishes those who do not speak SAE from those who do.

- Debate over the differences between AAVE and other varieties:

1. The first view: most features of AAVE are derived historically from the English
dialects of the British Isles.
2. The second view: ancestors of modern black Americans were speakers of different
West African languages (pidgin>creole>decreolisation).
- AAVE grammatical features:
1) No -s in third person singular present-tense forms (he go)
2) Absence of copula in the present tense (She real nice)
3) Invariant be for habitual aspect (He usually be around)
4) Omitting only the auxiliary in coordinated constructions (We was eatin’ – an’ we
drinkin’, too)
5) Question inversion (I asked her where did she go)
6) Existential it (It’s a boy in my class name Joey)
7) Negativized auxiliary prepositions (Can’t nobody do nothing about it)
- Until recent, the Creolist theory seemed to be the only solution, but:
a. Shana Poplack – research in African American diaspora (Nova Scotia, Canada &
Samana, Dominican Republic)
b. New research into the grammar of British Isles dialects
- The second and more recent debate is the so-called divergence hypothesis.
- AAVE as an English-based Creole has over time come to resemble the English spoken by
other Americans.
- Now, these varieties are growing apart. The process has begun to reverse.
- If true, this hypothesis would prove the racial division in the American society.

Language and Gender (IV)

Sex differences in Lexicon
- Languages differ in the extent to which sex differences are lexicalized:
a. German: Freund (male), Freundin (female)
b. English: friend, friend
 c. French: cousin (male), cousine (female)
d. English: cousin, cousin/English: actor, actress

Sex Differences in Grammar – Pronouns

- Some languages have no sex marking on pronouns at all:
a. Finnish: hän (third person singular)
b. Hungarian: on (third person singular)
c. English has sex marking but only in the third person singular – he vs she
d. Swedish: han (male), han (female), hen (gender neutral)
e. Spanish: vostros (plural masculine), vostras (plural feminine)
f. Nostros vs nostras (first person plural)
- Articles:
 French: une étudiante (female) vs. un étudiant (male)
- Past tense:
 Bosnian: radila sam vs radio sam
- Grammatical obligation of expressing one’s own sex:
1. No obligation (English, Hungarian)
2. Adjectives (French, Bosnian: sretan sam/sretna sam)
3. Verb forms (Polish, Bosnian: stigao sam/stigla sam)
4. First-person singular pronouns (Ngala, Thai)
- Languages do not differ in what they can express, only in what they have to express.
- Social stratification and ethnic-group d. – explained in terms of distance and barriers,
but…

Differences Between Sexes

- Generally speaking, we cannot explain differences of this kind in terms of social distance.
- Classic example of linguistic sex differentiation: Carib Indians in the Lesser Antilles
(men and women ‘spoke different languages’ – different varieties of the same language.
- ‘Invasion’ Theory – differences are found elsewhere too
- Taboo – problem of generalization; non-lexical items; reported speech; teaching children)
- Koasati (American Indian language) – older male speakers of Koasati thought that
women’s variety of the language was better.
- Chucki (eastern Siberia) – the female variety is older than the male dialect; women’s
speech is more conservative than that of men (more innovating).
- In different parts of the English-speaking world, female speakers have been found to use
forms considered to be ‘better’ or more ‘correct’ than those used by men.
- This has been confirmed in other languages as well.
- Gender differentiation emerges constantly in sociolinguistic work, but it not known why.
- Assumptions of the differences:
a) Working-class speech – association with masculinity, ‘toughness’
b) Socially, women were expected to behave better
c) Different social pressures on men and women
d) Covert prestige – lower-class, non-standard linguistic varieties have some kind of
‘prestige’
e) Women – conservative and innovative
- Conclusion: Gender differentiation in language arises because language as a social
phenomenon is closely related to social attitudes. Men and women are socially different
in that society lays down different social roles for them and expects different behavior
patterns from them. Language simply reflects this social fact.

Language and Context (V)

- Language varies according to social factors such as social class, ethnic group and gender.
- However, the same speaker uses different varieties in different situations and for different
purposes (different social contexts).
- The totality of these linguistic varieties used by a particular linguistic community is their
verbal repertoire.

Registers
- Many social factors come into play in controlling which variety from the verbal
repertoire is actually used on a particular occasion.
- Linguistic varieties linked to particular occupations or topics are termed registers.
- Registers are usually characterized entirely, or almost so, by vocabulary differences –
use of particular words or particular senses of words.
- For example:
a. Medicine: clavicle (doctors) vs collarbone (non-doctors)
b. Law: tort and malfeasance
c. Football: the park vs the pitch
d. Geography: We seen some eskers near them moraines
e. Mathematics: sine and logarithm
- One of the aims of education is learning registers of different subjects.
- In principle, registers are independent of dialects.
- In the anglophone world technical vocabulary is normally accompanied by standard
English.
- However, there is no necessary connection.
Formality
- One of the most important factors connected with the social situation is formality.
- Formality is not easy to define because it subsumes many factors, such as: situation,
social familiarity, kinship-relationship, politeness, seriousness, etc.

Style
- The meaning is more or less the same in these sentences, but there are differences in their
formality.
- Varieties of language which differ from one another in this way are called styles.
- Styles can be ranged on a continuum ranging from the very formal to the very informal.
- Styles differ in vocabulary (punctual vs on time), but in grammar as well – the passive
voice is more frequent in formal styles in English.
- Vocabulary which is at the extremely informal end of the continuum is known as slang
(tired vs bushed, whacked).
- In Javanese, there are several relatively distinct styles with co-occurrence restrictions.
Restrictions of this kind do not operate in English.
1. Dad was pretty fatigued after his long trip.
2. The old man was bloody knackered after his long trip.
3. Father were somewhat fatigued after his lengthy journey.
- Style and register are in principle independent.

Pronunciation
- Apart from vocabulary and grammar, English speakers shift, according to the formality of
the situation, their pronunciation as well.
- Labov’s methodology (attention level):
1. Tape-recorded interview with a stranger – formal speech
2. Pre-prepared passage reading – more formal speech
3. Individual word list reading – the most formal speech
4. Emotional involvement – informal, casual speech

Role and Status

- Speech between individuals of unequal rank is likely to be less relaxed and more formal
than between equals.
- Inequality may be in terms of social class, age, status in an organization, etc.
- Different languages may have definite rules which linguistic forms may or may not be
used (e.g. forms of address).

Forms of address
- Most European languages distinguish (especially in the singular), between a polite and a
familiar second person pronoun (familiar pronouns T vs polite forms V):

Style varieties
- Differences in social context lead to use of different styles. Styles can be relatively
discrete (Javanese) or not (English).
- Styles differ in vocabulary (address forms, pronouns), grammar and pronunciation.
- These styles can be seen as varieties within dialects

Dialect Switching
- In some linguistic communities situational switching will take place between different
dialects –one dialect is used in formal situations, and another in informal situations.
- Lowland Scots will switch to Standard English in formal situations, while English
speaker from England simply switch styles - which is quite different for a few reasons:
1. The difference between the linguistic varieties involved in the switching is much
greater
2. Co-occurrence restrictions are involved
3. Switching to a vernacular of others - (whereas English speakers switch from one
variety of their vernacular to another, Scots dialect speakers switch from their own
vernacular to that of others).
- The jump from, for example, Scots dialect is quite considerable and requires:
  the learning of new words
 new pronunciation
 the replacement of one known word by another (yon becomes that)

Diglossia
- Dialect switching, like in Lowland Scots vs. Standard English, can happen on a much
larger and more institutionalized scale.
- This sociolinguistic situation is called diglossia.
- Diglossia is a particular kind of language standardization where two distinct varieties of a
language exist side by side throughout the speech community and where each of the two
varieties is assigned a definite social function.
- The two linguistic varieties in diglossic situation:
 are considered discrete by the speakers,
 comprise a standardized high variety and low variety which may be standardized but
may also be geographically different,
 The two varieties are overtly recognized and labelled in the community.

Stability of diglossic situation

- Until 1970s Greek was a diglossic language:
 Katharevousa – high variety (right-wing support),
 Dhimotiki – modern spoken language (left-wing).
 Differences in vocabulary and morphology.
 Tension over standard variety (government, education).
 The 1967 coup d’etat

Verbal Repertoire
- Community’s verbal repertoire may encompass (registers):
 Different styles of the same dialect (Standard English),
 Different dialects of the same language (Lowland Scots),
 Two relatively standardized varieties in diglossic relationship (Arabic),
 Diglossic situation combined with language switching (Luxembourg).
- Variety switching between linguistically closely related varieties was discussed:
 Formal and informal English,
 Scots dialect and Standard English.
- In many communities, verbal repertoire may contain unrelated varieties – a totally
different language.
 Luxembourg: German/French (different social situations)
 Delhi: English/Urdu/Hindi (different styles)
 Paraguay: Spanish/Guarani (urban / rural; formal / informal; not intimate/intimate;
seriousness of topic)