An Introduction to Sociolinguistics

GLOSSARY:

Aboriginal languages:

The languages spoken by Aboriginal Australiand before the arrival of English colonizers.
Aboriginal English is the technical name given to a continuum of varieties of English ranging
between standard Australian 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 influence of 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 social stratification. The
acrolect is the top and educated variety which is closer to the standard and further away from
the creole. The acrolect can evolve into a New English.

African American Vernacular English (AAVE):

Sometimes called Black English Vernacular, Black English, or Ebonics, it refers to the language
spoken in black communities in the USA. Some linguists consider it a significantly different
linguistic system from 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 skills. 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.

Analytic language:

Languages can be classified into typological categories based on how words are formed. An
analytic language is one in which words tend to 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.

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-Traffic 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:

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When decreoliztion takes place, i.e., a creole language coexists with a standard language and
the latter exerts some influence on 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 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. 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:

This term refers to the non-standard English spoken by lower-class African American 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 from creole languages spoken by
Afro-Caribbean immigrants which are influenced by English as a dominant language in the UK.
This language has also become more English-like 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.

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d) A sense of prestige associated with words or expressions coming from other

languages.

The differences 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 like call, egg, and law
come from Norse). Code-switching, however, 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, since 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. Neurolinguistic 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.

Communicative competence:

This term was first introduces by the American anthropological linguist Dell Hymes in
opposition to 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 allos 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. Neurolinguistic
findings suggest that words are stored together in the case of early bilingualism, for childhood,
but kept in separate places if bilingualism was developed later.

Corpus planning:

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This term refers to the actions undertaken in order to partially modify the nature or
characteristics of a language 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 words. 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 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 dialectologists agree on a single definition of ‘dialect’.

Dialectology:

It is the study and search for idiosyncratic features in language use within a geographical area.
Dialectologists usually analyze the typical vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation, patterns, and
other characteristics, 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
different functions of language in social interaction.

Discourse markers:

These are words, phrases or sounds that have no content meaning but, however, play an
important role in marking conversational structure, 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 their 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, location, register, style, topic, etc. For example,
the language of home will definitely be different to the language used at a formal meeting 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

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multilingual contexts where various languages, dialects or styles are employed in different
social settings.

Dormant bilingual:

Bilinguals who do not longer use their languages but who acquired them in the past and
reached a comprehensive knowledge 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 say that that 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 importance of a
language for business, can cause its death. Many Amerindian languages are in this situation at
the moment.

English-lexifier creole:

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 sociolinguistic 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:

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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 term is to be distinguished from 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 spoken some of which are only spoken in that
country, and none of which is considered an official language of Canada.

Hypercorrection:

A manifestation of linguistic insecurity, for instance, in a social group. It can manifest itself by
the overuse of the socially desired forms in careful 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 and make use of more
sophisticated vocabulary or a more clear pronunciation.

Informant:

In empirical research this term refers to any person who provides information to be analyzed
and is consequently a source of data 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, France, Ireland, Norway, etc., there are institutions which play a
role in safeguarding standards, so they try to regulate the evolution of the language by means
of protecting the language from foreign unwanted influences and, 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.

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 it is not the language of the community – it
is gradually forgotten. This happens quite frequently among the second and the third

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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 from different
social status and government’s preferential treatment of the dominant 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 office language. These decisions are normally made for practical
purposes either because the non-state needs a agglutinative language to overcome a wide
linguistic variety and/ or because some advantages are seen in the possibility of having a LWC
as an official language.

Language functions:

Language is frequently described as having three main functions: descriptive, expressive, and
social. The descriptive function of language is to carry factual information. The expressive
function of language is to provide information about the speaker’s personal feelings,
preferences, etc. And the social function of language serves the purpose of maintaining social
relations between people.

Language loss:

This term refers to a situation where language shift in a speech community ends in the total
shift to another language. For instance, imagine a group of immigrants that go to a new
country and, gradually, in one or two generations blend into the new speech community as
their language becomes eventually extinct (e.g., the language loss of Dutch immigrants in
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

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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:

Language planning efforts made in order to revive a language that because of social or
economic reasons has decreased in number of speakers which was even lost. 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 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 as lingua franca of 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:

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 Portuguese have been lexifier 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 favoured the development of
pidgins and creoles in different parts of the world.

Lingua franca:

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. Lingua francas have
existed since ancient times (e.g. Greek koiné, Arabic, Mandarin,e tc.) 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 rule, it
serves as a lingua franca for international and intercultural communication. In spite of being
widely used, the knowledge of different speakers may vary considerably depending, quite

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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 variation 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 equivalent 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 WWII, English became a LWC. 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.

Mesolect:

When decreolization takes place, i.e., a creole language coexists with a standard language and
the latter exerts some influence on 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 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

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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 – or may have been at some point in their history – at risk either by
political decisions affecting their maintenance or by the lack of vocabulary to cover certain
topics. Some actions can be undertaken to promote minority languages by means of language
planning and language policies. Some instances of minority languages are Irish, Welsh and
Scottish Gaelic which exists in the shadow of English, or Breton in the shadow of French.

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 homogenous categories as variation
depending on individual factors (origin, education, etc.) is enormous and all speakers are, in
turn, native speakers of a given language 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 process of first and second language learning are naturally
and necessarily different. Moreover, 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 known as World
Englishes, it does not emphasize 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 sociolinguistic 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 observed they can – and consciously or unconsciously
they generally do – change their speech and make use of a less natural talk (e.g., more careful
pronunciation, less idiomatic expressions, a variety further away from the vernacular, etc.).
What really interests sociolinguistics is the way people speak when they do not know that hey
are being observed.

Pragmatic competence:

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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.

Pragmatics:

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.

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, Armenina, Albanina,
Anatolian, Hellenic, Italic, Celtic, Baltic, Slavic, and Germanic. English belongs to the Anglo-
Frisian group of the West Germanic branch of the Germanic subfamily. AN unattested
(reconstructed) language is indicated by the term proto-.

Sabir:

This was a lingua franca used in the Mediterranean area from the Middle Ages to the 20th C. 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.

Sociolinguistic 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

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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 perceiving 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 particular words and structures used. The
latter refers to the effect the utterance has on the listener, 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.

Synchronic variation:

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: gender, 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 express a number of different grammatical
concepts, as in Latin. Synthetic languages are also known as inflectional.

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Turn-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.

Variety:

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).

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