Introduction from Ronald Wardhaugh

What Is Dr. Munirah AlAjlan

DELL – College of Arts
Sociolinguistics? KU
Language & Society 229
What is sociolinguistics?

The study of language in relation to social factors, including differences of regional,

class, and occupational dialect, gender differences, and bilingualism.

Sociolinguistics is the study of the relationship between language and society.

Sociolinguistics can help us understand why we speak differenly in various social

contexts, and help uncover the social relationships in a community.
 Terminology
Language is what the members of a particular
society speak. Accent: refers to how people pronounce
words.
Dialect: refers to the pronunciations, grammar
and vocabulary that people use within a
group.
Variety: is all-encompassing. While dialect
does not really distinguish one code from
another, sociolinguists prefer the word
variety to refer to the code that includes
accents, pronunciation, & words.
Code: refers to any language or variety:
any means of communication.
Terminology
Society: is referred to any group of people who are drawn together
for a certain purpose or purposes. In other words, society is a
group of people sharing the same culture, interests, opinions,
practices, traditions, and language characteristics.

Community: is defined as the group of living in a social structure.

Community of Practice (CofP): is a group of people who share a

common concern, a set of problems, or an interest in a topic and
who come together to fulfil both individual and group goals.

Speech community: is a group of people who share the same

language, speech characteristics, and ways of interpreting
communication.

Social group: is a group consisting of two or more people who

regularly interact on the basis of mutual expectations and who
share a common identity.
Our Knowledge of Language

When two or more people communicate in a speech event, we call this system of
communication as a code.
In more cases: Code = language (means of communication)
Bilingual people
Two languages = two codes
First language = 1st Code
Second language = 2nd Code
Mixing the two languages = 3rd Code (New)
The best person to describe a language or the grammar of the language is
the speaker of that language.
HOWEVER, the knowledge of one's language is very hard to describe. WHY?
Linguists say that speakers knowledge of languages is quite abstract.

Rules of language, ways of saying things

The possibilities the language offers and what is impossible.
What is correct what is not correct? (hear it for the first time)
 Chomsky's Approach (1965)

An attempt to describe the grammar of English

Follow Noam Chomsky's approach

The most influential figure in late twentieth century linguistic

theorizing.
He argues that linguists must distinguish between what is important
and unimportant about language and linguistics behavior.

Important vs Unimportant ?
Competence Vs. Performance

Important matters: the learnability of all languages, the characteristics they share,
and the rules that speakers follow in constructing and interpreting sentences =
competence

Unimportant matters: have to do with how individual speakers use specific

utterances in a variety of ways as they find themselves in this situation or that =
performance
Competence & Performance

Mind (Competence)
World (Performance)
Linguistic competence
tone & speech of voice, interrogative, Knowing how to do things with
negative, imperatives, comparative and
superlatives language in intercultural
Extra-linguistic competence communicative events, such as
gestures, facial expressions, interpersonal Mastery of dinners and parties, negotiations,
distance, objects: clothings, gifts, status abilities,
symbols etc. public events … etc.
knowing how
Socio-pragmatic and to 'work'
(inter)cultural competence language
perosnal & social values, communicative
acts and moves.
Chomsky's view
(approach)

competence-performance distinction

The linguist's task is to characterize

what speakers know about their language
(their competence), not what they do with
their language (their performance).
The Problem of Variation

Chomsky's view = Competence – Performance

Problem.... Why?

Much of the variety that is interesting to linguists is characterised as performance

Everyday language varies considerably

Language is not only an abstract object of study. It is something that people use.

Linguists who follow Chomsky's approach say that before studying language in use
we should acquire an efficient knowledge of what language itself is (how it is learned
and what it tells about the human mind).