Sociolinguistics

RUBEN CHACON BELTRAN

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE EDUCACION A DISTANCIA

SOCIOLINGUISTICS
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© Universidad Nacional de Educaci6n a Distancia

Madrid 2015

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© Ruben Chac6n Beltran

ISBN: 978-84-362-6988-8
Dep6sito legal: M-30391-2015

Primera edid6n: septiembre de 2015

Segunda reimpresi6n: marzo de 2017

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 INDEX

Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. .. . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Acronyms used in this book .... ....... ... ... ........ ....... ....... ...... .... .... ....... ...... .. ..... 13

Introduction......... ....... ... .... ... ........ ............. ........ ..... ... ..... ........ ...... .. ..... .... 15

CHAPTER 1 . . .. .. . .. .. .. . .... ... ..... .. . ... . ... .... .. ... .. .. ... .. .. .... .. . .. .. . .. .. . . .. .. .. . .... ... .. 21
1. Key words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . ..... , . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . 23
2. Introduction: Key concepts in sociolinguistics .. .. .. .. . .. . . .. . . . .. . .. . . . . .. .. . . .. 24
3. Sociolinguistics vs. sociology oflanguage . . . . . . . .. .. . .. ... . . . . .. .. .. . . . . . . . .. .. . . . . . 25
4. The origins of sociolinguistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . .. .. . .. .. .. . . . .. .. .. .. . . .. . 26
5. Lenguage variation ............. ..... .. .. .. ... ...... ..... ........ .................. ... ..... , . . 27
6. Some instances of variation . . . . . .. . . . .. . .. .. .. .. . . .. . . . . . . . .. . .. . . . .. . . . .. . .. .. . .. . .. . . . .. 29
7. Diachronic variation . ... . .. .. . .. .. . . . ... .. . .. . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . .. .. .. . . . . . . . . . .. .. . . . .. .. . . . . . 31
8. Speech community . .. . .. .. . . .. . . . . .. . . .. . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. . .. .. . .. ... .. . . . .. . . . . . . 34
9. Carrying out sociolinguistic research . . . . . . . .. ..... ...... ........... .................. 37
10. Exercises....... .... ................... .... ... .... ..... ..... .... ........................ ........... 41
11. Resources on the web . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. . .. . . .. .. . . . .. .. .. ... . . . . . . 45
12. Further reading and questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . .. . . . .. .. . . . . .. . . . . 45
12.1. Text 1.... .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . .. . . . . . .. .. . . ...... ....... . ...... ..... . ...... .... 45
12.2. Text 2 .. ..... .. .. ......... ........ ...... .............. .................... .............. ... 47
13. Research activity. .... .. ........ ... .. .... ... ...... ......... .. ... ......... .. ..... ................ 49
14. References ......... .... .... ....... ............. ...................... ... ................ ....... ... 50

CHAPTER2 .... ............ .. ...... ......... ...... ... ... ... .... ... .. ..... ............. .... ........... 51
1. Key words....... .. ....................... ..... ...... ....... ...... .. ... ..... .. .... ..... ........ .. . 53
2. Some variables in sociolinguistics ... ... .. . . . . .. . .. . . .. .. .. . .. .. .. . . .. . . . .. . . .. .. .. . . .. 53
2.1. Style .... ....... ................. ..... ... .. .. ... , ... ................... ................... .. .. 53
2.2. Register . . . . . . ... . . . . . .. .. . . . . ... . . . . . . .... .. .. .. .. .. ...... ......... ..... .. . ... ...... .. . . . . . 56
2.3. Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. ... .. . . . . .. .. . . . ... . . . . . .. . ... .. .. .... . . . .. .. . . .. . 59

7
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

3. Speech accommodation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . ... . . ... . .. . . ... . . . .......... 64

4. Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . .. .. .. . . . .. . . .. . . . . ... . . . . .. . . . .. . . .. . . . . .. . . . .. . . 64
5. Resources on the web.... ......... ................................. ................... ....... 66
6. Further reading and questions .. . .. ... .. .. . . .............. .... ... .. . . . .. .. . . . .. .. .. .. . . . 66
6.1. Text 3 .. ... ............... ... ... . ... . ... ..... .... ...................... ........... ... ....... . 66
6.2. Text 4 .... ... .. .. .. ... . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . ...... ........ .... ...... .. ... .......... ....•.. .... ... .. 67
7. Research activity .................... ........ ....... ............ .. . ,. ... ..................... ... 69
8. References ........ .. ..... .. ..... ...... ..... .... .... ....... ... .. ,. .. . . . . .. .. .. .. . . .. . .. .. .. .. . . . .. . . 70

CHAPTER 3. ........... .. ....... .. ..................... ....... .. .. ....... ... .... ............ .......... 73
1. Keywords. ... ..... .......................... ....... .. ....... .... ....... ... .... .... .. .. ..... ...... 75
2. Pidginisation and creolisation .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. ....... ...... .. .... .. .... .. .. ... . .. .. .. 75
3. Some instances of pidgins . ... .................. ............... .... .. ........ ... ........ 78
4. Some instances of creoles .... ....... .. .......... ........................................ 79
4.1. Hawaiian Creole English .................... ...... .... .. .... .. ., .. .. . . .. . .. .. . . . . . . . 80
4.2. Jamaican Patwa (or Patois) ....... ..... ..... .. .... .... ..... ... .. ..... ... ... ........ 82
4.3. Tok Pisin .. . .. . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. . . .. . .. . .. . . . .. .. . . .. . ... . .... . . . . .. ..... ... 86
5. Decreolisation ............ ... .......................... .. .... , .. .... , . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
6. The use of pidgins and creoles in education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
7. Exercises ...................... ... ..... .................... .... .. ......... ......... . ,..... ... ... ... 94
8. Resources on the web .. . . . . .. . .. . . .. .. . . .. . . . . . . . . . .. .. . .. .. .. .. . .. .. . . .. . . .. . . . . . . . . . .. .. . . 95
9. Further reading and questions ... ... ., ...... ..... .... .. ..... ...... .............. ..... ... 95
9.1. Text 5 ... .. .. ...... ... ........ .. .. .... ....... ........ .............. .................... ..... . 95
9.2. Text 6 .............. .... ...... ........... .... ... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .. .... ... .. . ... . . 97
10. Research activity .... .......... ... .. .......... .... ... .......... .,........ ....... .... .......... .. 98
11. References . . .. . . .. . .. . . .. . .. . . . .. . .. .. .. . .. .. . .. . .. .. .. . .. .. .. . .. . . . . .. . . .. .. .. . . .. .. . .. . . . .. .. .. 99

CHAPTER 4 .. ........ ............... .. ... .. ,. .. ............. ......................................... 101

1. Key words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. .. . . . 103
2. Bilingualism: Introduction . .. . .. . .. .. . .. . .. . .. . . . . . . . . . .. .. . . .. . . . .. . .. . . . . . . .. .. . .. . .. 1OS
3. Bilingualism: Definitions and dimensions ........ .................................. 106
4. Code Choice...... ........ .... ..... .... ..... ... ....... .. ......... .... ........ .. ....... ....... .. .. 112
4.1. Code-switching .......... ... .. ..... ........ ... ............. ........ ... ....... ... .... .. ... 113
4.2. Code-mixing. ................................. ....................................... .. .. 115
5. Code-switching in bilingual children . .. . . ....... ......... ...... ............. .. .. ... . 116

8
 INDEX

6. Diglossia ............. ... ............. ................ ....... ....... ..................... ....... .. 117
7. Diglossia and bilingualism .. ... .............. .. ..... .. ..... .. ................... .. ..... .. 119
8. Multilingualism .. ............... ... ... ...... .................................................. 121
9. Language contact .. .. .............. ........ ....... .. ..... ... .......................... ........ 124
10. Exercises ... .... .... ............. ...... ...... ........................ ....... .. ..... ................ 125
11 Resources on the web .... ........ ................... ............. ...... .. ................... 128
12. Further reading and questions . . . .. .. .. .. . . .. .. . . . . .. .. .. .. . .. .. . . .. .. .. . . .. . .. .. . .. . . .. 128
12.1. Text 7 ..... .. ......... .. ........ .... . .. ... ... ..................... ... .. ................. .. 128
12.2. Text 8 .. ... .............. .... .. .. ................ ............. .. ....... ....... ........... .. 130
13. Research activity .... ... ..... ..... ... ................................ ... .................. ....... 131
14. References .. . . . . . . . . .. ... . . .. . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . .. . ... . . .. .. . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . .. .. .. .. . . .. .. . . . 131

CHAPTERS ... ... .... ....... ....... ... ..... .... ..... ........ ....... ... ..... .... ........ ............. . 133
1. Key words . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. .. . . . . . . .. . . . .. .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . .. .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . . .. . . . . . . . . .. 135
2. Bilingual education .. . .. .. . .. .. . .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. . .. .. . ... .. . . ... .. .. .. . . . .. .. . .. . .. 136
3. Language policy . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. 140
4. Language planning .. .. .. .. . .. . .. . .. .. .. .. . . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . . .. .. .. .. .. . ... .. . . .. 141
4.1. Some factors affecting language planning ........................ ... ........ 143
4.2. Actions in language planning .. .......... ..... ......... .. ......................... 144
4.3. Aims oflanguage planning .................... ........ .. .......................... 145
4.4. Individual language planning .. . .. . .. .. .. . . .. .. .. .. .. . .. . . .. .. . . . .. .. . . . . .. .. .. .. 149
5. Minority languages . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. . . . . . . . . . ... . . . .. .. . .. .. .. . .. . .. .. .. . . . .. . . 150
6. Language shift in minority languages .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. . . . . .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. . . .. .. . . . 151
7. Some particular sociolinguistic situations .. .... ......................... .. ......... 153
7.1. India . . . .. . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. ....... .. . .. . ....... ... . .. . .. . . 153
7.2. New Zealand ........ .. ........... .. ........... ...... .. ................................ 155
7.3. The Canadian experience .. .. .. .. . .. . . . . . . .. .. . .. .. .. . . . .. . .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. . .. ... . 156
8. European Union language planning and policy .. ............. ................... 159
9. The role of English ................ ....... ....... .. ....... ...................... .. ........... 162
10. The Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights ................................. 163
11. Exercises .. . .. .. .. .. . .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. . . . . . . .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. . . .. . .. .. . .. .. .. . . . 164
12. Resources on the web ............ ...... ................ .......... .. ............. .. ..... ..... 167
13. Further reading and questions .. ... .................. ....... .. ........... .. ............. 167
13.1. Text 9 ..... ............... .... ... ............ ...... ... ... ... .. .. .......... .... ............. 167
13.2. Text 10 ...... ..... ...... .. ................ ... ......... ........... ......................... 169

9
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

14. Research activity ....... .............. ............ .. .... ....... ...... .... .... ...... ............ 170
15. References . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . . . .. .. . . .. . . . . . . . .. . .. .. ... . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . .. . 171

CHAPTER 6 ..... .......... .......... ..... .. .. ........... .... ...... ..... ....... .... .... ............. .. 173
1. Key words .. .. ..... .............. ... ..................... ....... ................ ..... .... ....... .. 175
2. Sociolinguistics and language teaching/learning .............. .. .... ... ...... .... 176
3. Communicative competence in language teaching/learning ............... .. 177
4. The sociolinguistic behaviour of English speakers: Rules of speaking . 179
4.1. Address behaviour .... .. .. .......... .. .... ....... ................. .................. .. 179
4.2. Telephoning ................ .. ................. ..... ....... .. ...... ... . ........ ........ .. 181
5. Sociolinguistic perspectives on language use in immersion classrooms .. 182
6. Analysis of the EFL classroom language .. ... .. ... .. .... .. ....... ... ...... ... ...... .. 184
7. Implications for language teaching ........... .. .... ........ ..... .... ... ... ...... ... .. 187
8. Pragmatics in language teaching .. .. . .. . .. .. . .. .. . .. .. .. . . .. .. .. .. . . . . .. . .. .. . .. .. .. .. 188
9. Language in the law .. .. ......... .. .... .................. ............ ................... 189
10. Standard English and World Englishes ... .. .. ... ............ ... ... .. ... ........... .. 191
11. Exercises .................. ........ .............. ....... ........ ..... ..... ..... .... ..... ... ... ... .. 196
12. Resources on the web .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. . .. .. . .. .. . .. .. . .. .. .. . . .. . .. . . .. . . .. .. .. .. . . . 198
13. Further reading and questions ...... ..... .... ... .. .... ............... .... .. ... .. ...... .. 198
13.1. Text 11 ... ...... .. ...... .. .. .. .. ... .. .. ... .. .......... .. ..... .. ......... .... ...... ...... .. 198
13.2. Text 12 ...................... .... ........... .... .. .... ... .. .......... ... . .. .... ............ 200
14. Research activity . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. .. . .. .. . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. .. .. . . . .. .. .. . .. .. . . .. . ... . . . . . .. . . . . 202
15. References .. .. .. .. .. .. .......... ... .. ..... .. .. ..... .......................... .. ................... 202

Key to the exercises ........... ....... .. .... ... .... ............. ....... ............. ....... .... .......... 205

Glossary . . . .. .. . . . ... . . .. . .. . . .. . . .. . ... . .. .. .. .. . .. .. . . . . ... . . . . ... . .. . .. .. . .. .. . .. . . . .. . . .. . .. . . ... . . . . . 211

Conceptual index . .. .. . ..... . . .. . ... . . ... .. ..... .. .... . . ... . .. .. .. ... .. .. . .. . .. . ... . .. .. . ... .. . . ... ... . 231

10
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to many people for their encouragement and assistance in

producing this book. I would like to thank especially Jim Lawley, Inmaculada
Senra Silva and Calum Harvey-Scholes for their support and guidance as well as
their willingness to revise and comment on drafts. Any remaining errors are my
responsibility alone.

11
 ACRONYMS USED IN THIS BOOK

AAVE African American Vernacular English

AmE. American English
BrE. British English
CP Corpus Planning
EFL English as a Foreign Language
Engl. English
EU European Union
FL Foreign Langauge
HCE Hawaiian Creole English
JP Jamaican Patois (or Patwa)
Ll First Language, with reference to the order of acquisition
L2 Second or Additional Language, with reference to the order of
acquisition
LWC Language of Wider Communication
ME Middle English
MnE Modern English
OE Old English
OHG Old High German
PdE Present-day English
RP Received Pronunciation
SL Second Language, with reference to the learning context
TP Tok Pisin
UDLR Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights

13
 INTRODUCTION

This book aims to provide the reader with a general framework for the
study of a new discipline: sociolinguistics. The training and knowledge gained
by reading and using these Unidades Diddcticas will introduce the student to the
fascinating world of languages in interaction and may also awaken the reader's
interest in researching other aspects of this field. This book has been conceived
as a course book for Sociolingiiistica de la Lengua Inglesa and will provide future
language teachers -at elementary, secondary, university or continuing education
levels- with a basic training in sociolinguistics, language variation, language
contact and language education as part of their preparation for teaching tasks
in the language classroom.
Aconsiderablevarietyofwaysinwhichlanguageandsocietyareinterconnected
and interact are presented in this book. There are many possible relations between
language and society and some of them will be presented in these pages. Social
configuration and organisation also determine linguistic structure and usage
showing that the relationship between language and society is bidirectional. The
varieties that people use may reveal some of the speaker's traits including age,
geographic, social or ethnic origin, and gender. The question oflanguage choice
is worth mentioning because it may not only determine the use of a particular
code but also the choice of certain words instead of others, of certain features of
pronunciation or even rules of speaking.
Sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics are closely related disciplines. They
deal with the social and individual side of human behaviour. These two aspects
are portrayed in this book, some chapters deal with the social dimension
of language, i.e., language as part of social relations and as a means of
communication and interaction with other human beings, whereas some other
chapters show a greater concern for the other side of the same coin, i.e., the
individual dimension oflanguage and, therefore, deal with aspects such as code-
switching, bilingualism and diglossia.
The field of sociolinguistics is very wide-ranging and touches many
different aspects of language and society. A selection has been made on the

15
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

basis of the objectives set for this subject in the curriculum of Grado en Estudios
Ingleses: Lengua) Literatura y Cultura. The fact that the subject SociolingMstica de la
Lengua Inglesa probably constitutes the first encounter of many students with
this branch of linguistics has also been taken into account. Sociolinguistics is
an extensive and interdisciplinary field, the full scope of which is difficult to
cover in a course like the one for which this book has been designed. This fact
accounts for the need to select some topics in preference to others and, in the
case of this book, a clear inclination towards applied issues can be perceived
mainly because they are aspects that future language teachers will find most
useful in their classrooms.
The particular characteristics of distance learning and teaching have also
shaped the final configuration of this book. Each chapter ends with references
to the glossary, as well as some exercises that aim at helping students reflect
on sociolinguistic issues. On many occasions, the solutions to these exercises
are not provided for two reasons. Firstly, these are open-ended questions that
do not have a single answer. Providing an answer would have a misleading
effect as it might lead the students to think that there is one response that
prevails over the others. Secondly, students have access to an online discussion
forum on this subject and can exchange their answers and comments. In
this way, an enriching and valuable debate can take place. With regard to
the "Research Activities" suggested at the end of each chapter, they aim to
introduce students to the amazing world of sociolinguistic research where
close observation and analysis of real language can provide revealing insights
to how language use varies.

The structure of this book

This book has been divided into six chapters and starts with a general
introduction to key concepts in sociolinguistics that will allow the student to
approach this new field of study and research. The reader will be brought into
touch with the general field of sociolinguistics, although most examples and
references will be taken from English or multilingual contexts where English is
somehow involved. Moving on from these initial theoretically-based principles,
some applied aspects of sociolinguistic study are considered towards the end of
the book so that the close connection between this field of study and everyday
life can be perceived.

16
 INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1 deals with some introductory aspects of sociolinguistics like

the definition and configuration of the discipline, its relation to sociology of
language, the synchronic and the diachronic perspectives of variation and the
explanation and exemplification of what is considered a speech community.
Finally, the student is presented with some approaches to sociolinguistic
research that will give him/her an overall sense of the scope of the field and its
relevance to everyday life.
Chapter 2 concentrates on a key concept for sociolinguistics namely variation
and the description of some variables that clearly determine or are determined
by variation like style, register and gender. Speech accommodation is also dealt
with in this chapter; this is speakers' reactions to variation differences in other
speakers.
Chapter 3 covers pidgins and creoles in some parts of the world. Special
attention is paid to English-based creoles and examples are provided in Hawaiian
Creole English, Jamaican Patwa and Tok Pisin. The process of decreolisation is
also depicted in this chapter and some implications for the use of pidgins and
creoles in formal education are presented.
Chapter 4 centres on distinguishing the social and the individual dimensions
of this branch oflinguistics, and deals with bilingualism, code choice, diglossia,
multilingualism and language contact in various scenarios.
Chapter 5 presents some applied aspects of sociolinguistics that have some
bearing on the welfare of humanity and the development of society. Including
bilingual education, language planning and policy as two ways of introducing
sociolinguistic aspects to our lives. In this chapter, some practical instances of
bilingual education and language policy are portrayed in places like Canada,
Australia and India. To end this chapter, the current situation of EU language
policy is analysed.
Chapter 6 also introduces some applied issues in sociolinguistics and
describes the interface between sociolinguistics and language teaching, by
approaching the analysis of classroom discourse and language acquisition.
Some references to related disciplines like discourse analysis and pragmatics are
included in this chapter. To end this selection of topics, two other interesting
aspects are presented: forensic linguistics and World Englishes.
Finally, a glossary with some key terms in the field is presented to clarify
important concepts for this subject which will pave the way for further reading.

17
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Purpose of this book

Language ability is part of human beings and part of the development of our
societies, our personal lives and our role in society. This book tries to provide
the reader with some background knowledge on the main principles and lines
of research that may help them reflect on some basic sociolinguistic principles
that govern human interaction, in general, and the English-speaking world,
in particular. The ultimate goal is to help the reader develop the necessary
receptiveness to perceive the presence of sociolinguistic principles in their oral
and written interaction with other speakers of English.

How to use this book

This book has been specially designed for distance learning students who
will not have traditional classes in which most of the contents for the subject is
introduced by a teacher. This particular situation presents some disadvantages
because the learner has to be largely autonomous in following the instructions
given in the course book to answer queries that, in a different learning situation,
would be readily answered by the teacher. While studying this subject, students
will need to make use of different resources, especially the Internet, to find
examples of what otherwise might seem rather cryptic theoretical description.
Distance learning also has many advantages for the learner who in a subject
like this will need to combine the guidance provided in this book with further
reading, Internet search and active participation in the discussion forum. In this
way, learners will have the chance to feed their own curiosity even beyond the
scope of this subject and, they will also be shown the way to integrate research as
part of their own learning process. Active participation in the discussion forum
will keep students in touch with other students facing the same questions and,
what is more, in a distance education context students will benefit from virtual
interaction with distant "classmates" that probably have different linguistic
experiences to share, as well as teaching staff
Each chapter contains a list of key words which are dealt with in the chapter
they accompany and which are defined at the end of the book in the glossary.
Students are requested to go through these key words before engaging in the
reading of each chapter. Knowing the meaning of these words before they start
reading will enable students to work through the discussion in the chapter

18
 INTRODUCTION

without having to break off to consult the glossary. In the same way, a review of
these same terms is recommended when they finish each chapter.
It is suggested, then, that students read the whole chapter straight through
in order to have an overview of the topics dealt with and, at a later stage, go back
to study each section in more detail and do the exercises and research activities
proposed for each section in each chapter. Some of the answers for these
exercises are provided in the section 'Key to the exercises'. On many occasions,
as these exercises have open answers and require students to express their own
point of view, students should make use of the discussion forum created for this
subject to exchange and discuss ideas.
Apart from the exercises and activities included at the end of each chapter,
some reading is provided so that students can have access to key texts in the
field of sociolinguistics. Due to space restrictions and the length of the subject
Sociolingatstica de la Lengua Inglesa (one semester), only a limited selection of
readings could be introduced. However, students are encouraged to read further
in the works from which these fragments have been taken as well as consulting
other references provided at the end of each chapter. Sociolinguistics is a branch
of linguistics that due to its interdisciplinary nature requires from the student
a broad perspective: the more the students read about the topic, the wider their
perspective.
In the Resources on the web section, a number of interesting web sites are
suggested for each chapter. The use oflnternet and web resources seems crucial
for the study of this discipline because it allows reference to authentic samples
of language that portray different instances of sociolinguistic variation (for
example, while studying pidgins and creoles, it would be important to see web-
based publications in a given pidgin or creole). Using web sites and resources
has one chief drawback and that is that web links sometimes change or are
re-directed to a different site. The web links selected to accompany this subject
are considered stable in the sense that they have been working for some years,
and are expected to be kept on working in the future.
Student participation in the discussion forum is also encouraged as students
will need to access additional information that will be posted on the web for
their study.

19
CHAPTER!
 This first chapter introduces some fundamental
concepts in the field of sociolinguistics and provides
the background information to contextualise this disci-
pline. The key issues presented in this chapter are:
• Key concepts in sociolinguistics
• Sociolinguistics vs. sociology oflanguage
• The origins of sociolinguistics
• Language variation
• Speech community
• Doing sociolinguistic research

1. KEYWORDS

The following list of key words contains some important terms that are
presented in this chapter. A definition for each term can be found at the end of
this book, in the glossary.

• Analytic language • Macro-sociolinguistics

• Black English Vernacular • Micro-sociolinguistics
• Borrowing • Native speaker
• Communicative competence • Observer's paradox
• Dialect • Pragmatics
• Dialectology • (Proto)-Indo-European
• Discourse analysis • Sociolinguistic interview
• Domain • Sociology oflanguage
• Ethnography of communication • Synchronic variation
• Informant • Synthetic language
• Language attrition • Variety.

23
Soc10LINGU1STICS

2. INTRODUCTION: KEY CONCEPTS IN SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Language is commonly used to convey meaning but that is not all we use
language for. Language is used for a number of things other than transmitting
a message verbally, among them, to initiate, maintain and preserve social
relationships with other members of the society. Therefore, language should
be understood as a social phenomenon which also reflects the speaker's social
environment and relationship to other speakers. As a result of the complexity
of human relationships, we do not speak in the same way to a classmate as to
a professor. Parents do not speak in the same way to their offspring as they do
to their parents, or their boss. But, our way of transmitting messages depends,
of course, not only on linguistic matters but also on non-linguistic ones such as
body language, contextual and situational factors, among others.
Sociolinguistics can be defined as a field of research and study that deals
with the relation between language and society. It copes with the links that
can be found between one or more languages and their users who are part of a
specific speech community. Sociolinguistics examines the societal and linguistic
patterns that govern our behaviour as members of human society and how they
affect interaction.
Sociolinguistics is a relatively new field. In the SO's and 60's, sociolinguists
began to oppose Chomsky's abstraction oflanguage. Chomsky aimed at finding
basic grammatical structures that could account for the existence of structured
patterns across languages relying on "ideal" native speaker intuitions to describe
and interpret language. Sociolinguists, however, tried to find the reasons for
linguistic variations in social and environmental conditions. Chomsky was
concerned with the ideal speaker/listener communication in a completely
homogeneous speech community who knows the language as a native speaker
(rather a fuzzy concept, in fact), that is to say, perfectly. This monolithic view of
the native speaker has nothing to do with the conception of the native speaker
in sociolinguistics where social and non-linguistic factors are considered of
key importance for communication. What is more, Chomsky's description
of a native speaker in a homogeneous speech community is far from being
considered commonplace or even real. Speech communities are not easy to
delimit and geographical proximity is not always a valid criterion in order to
find a reliable definition. Does an English speaker from Edinburgh speak the
same way as someone from downtown London or Liverpool? Undoubtedly
they speak the same language, English, but their use is quite different. And, do

24
 CHAPTER 1

all three speakers belong to the same speech community? They have spoken
English since childhood and they live in the same country with the same
cultural background. As regards the second issue, the three aforementioned
speakers can consider themselves native speakers of the same language, English,
in spite of clear societal or dialectal variation.
From the very beginning a break could be perceived between the approaches
and methods used by generativists and sociolinguists in their quest for language
nature and development. Dell Hymes (1971) coined the term communicative
competence as opposed to Chomsky's linguistic competence. Communicative
competence refers not only to the human ability to use the language in different
situations and under different circumstances bur it also refers to other non-
linguistic aspects which are also part of the communication process, such as:
silence, turn-taking, volume, length of utterance, word choice, gestures, etc. All of
these being part of the communication process and completing purely linguistic
aspects such as phonology, morphology and syntax. Hymes' contribution to the
field of sociolinguistics has been paramount and the concept of communicative
competence is nowadays widespread in other disciplines and areas of research.
In chapter 6 we will see the importance of communicative competence and later
developments of the construct in second language teaching and learning.

3. SOCIOLINGUISTICS VS. SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE

When in the late 60's sociolinguistics first developed as an academic field of

study, two names were given to this still incipient discipline: sociolinguistics and
sociology oflanguage, and both terms were used interchangeably. Nowadays, the
aim of sociolinguistics is to investigate and describe the relationship between
language and society and the stress is placed on language and its role within
communication. Sociology of language, however, centers on the study of society
and how we can understand it through the study oflanguage, that is, how we can
understand sociolinguistic behaviour by means of the study oflinguistic features.
Depending on the scope of the analysis, sociolinguistics may try to analyze
specific differences of a group of speakers in a speech community at a micro
level. In this case the analysis would refer to speech differences in pronunciation,
grammar, and vocabulary within a single speech community in order to
determine some features such as educational background, economic status or
social class. In India, for example, there are many castes (traditional social classes

25
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

in the Hindu society) and there are distinct linguistic features that distinguish
one from another.
Another possibility would comprise a much broader scope of analysis.
Sociolinguistics can also refer to a macro level and in that case what interests
the researchers is language variation as a human phenomenon that affects large
parts of the population. An example of this would be language maintenance
when large populations migrate to a different place and the language is
preserved because of social factors. Keeping their language can be seen as a
sign of identity that distinguishes them from outsiders, or as a source of power
as they can communicate without being understood and this can serve trade
purposes, for instance. It can also happen that the language just disappears
(language attrition) because it becomes a low-prestige language. Another
possible scenario may be that the community wishes to blend into the dominant
culture or that the amount of speakers decreases as they grow old and die. All
in all, macro-sociolinguistics applies to wide-ranging human phenomena and is
often referred to, as stated before, as sociology oflanguage.
Some authors prefer to talk about micro-sociolinguistics and macro-
sociolinguistics and make a distinction between these two parts of
sociolinguistics. Sometimes the first is associated with discrete point cases and
studies (micro-sociolinguistics) whereas the second is connected with wide
ranging situations. Both tendencies, however, are concerned about the same
phenomenon -language and society- although at a different scale. Micro-
sociolinguistics involves the use of a language as a whole together with another
cultural phenomenon that determines the use of language, whereas macro-
sociolinguistics deals with language planning, language policy, etc. In Hudson's
(1980: 4-5) words sociolinguistics is "the study oflanguage in relation to society,
and the sociology of language is the study of society in relation to language".

4. THE ORIGINS OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Sociolinguistics has spread in the last thirty years together with other branches
of linguistics such as psycholinguistics, pragmatics and applied linguistics
which, far from having a descriptive or historical approach to language such
as pure or traditional linguistics (syntax, phonetics, etc.) maintain an interest
in the interdisciplinarity of the field and the contribution of other branches of
the humanities to linguistics, such as: psychology, pragmatics, history, gender

26
 CHAPTER 1

studies, computational linguistics, etc. Sociolinguistics, as a new branch of

linguistics emerged together with other developments of applied linguistics and
was often considered a "step child", until it finally became a consolidated fully
acknowledged field of research. It comprises various areas of study and research
like historical and comparative linguistics, dialectology, and anthropology.
In Europe, sociolinguistics started with the study of historical linguistics and
linguistic geography, a sound theoretical background with three main fields of
interest: dialectology, regional languages and the linguistic situation of colonized
countries (Calvet, 2003). In the USA, however, the study of sociolinguistics
emerged from the contact of linguistics with other disciplines such as
anthropology and sociology. The ethnographic approach of anthropologists,
methodology used in social sciences and the analysis of linguistic realization.
Nowadays, sociolinguistics is not only a truly consolidated discipline but it
can also be divided into subfields, such as pragmatics, language gender studies,
pidgin and creole studies, language planning and policy studies, and education
of linguistic minority studies, etc. (Bratt Paulson & Tucker, 2003). According
to Shuy (2003: 15), the more recent developments of discourse analysis and
pragmatics are considered as part of sociolinguistics by some scholars whereas
others consider them areas of study in themselves. In the same way there is no
full agreement on whether language change is part of sociolinguistics or the
other way round. This situation accounts for the variety of approaches and
perspectives towards a discipline that is becoming more and more important
these days and which now goes from the theoretical perspective to the applied
trend in the form of applied sociolinguistics.

5. LANGUAGE VARIATION

Sociolinguistics is all about variation. From a sociolinguistic point of view the

most important source of information is the way social and situational factors
affect language and make it vary. For example, when two people meet and one
starts talking about, let's say, the weather, the other starts getting information
about their conversational partner as they sort out the information contained in
their speech. One of the first features that can sometimes be identified is the origin,
i.e., where does that person come from (geographic variation). If by any chance we
happen to distinguish clear features of his/her speech, we will be able to determine
his/her place of origin very precisely, if that is not the case, we may just ascertain

27
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

some characteristics and that will give us a rough idea. The same can happen when
specific differences are associated, within a specific speech community, with social,
economical, political, religious, cultural or any other situational background.
Obviously, linguistic variation does not only affect people from different speech
communities but also affects the way people speak or react towards someone
else's speech, for example, in terms of gender. In most societies we can identify
clear differences in the way males and females speak although in Western societies
these differences are not so evident. In terms of power relationships the way people
use the language is affected by the social connection between them, for example
between a teacher and a student, and between a boss and an employee, etc.

~ Please, go to the exercises section and do exercise 1.

Another aspect of variation is that it has certain bounds. A speaker can vary
his/her speech to in some degree, especially to adhere to certain social, economic,
religious, etc. class, but s/he cannot vary it beyond certain limits otherwise s/he
would be ungrammatical and/or incomprehensible. Speakers have knowledge
of these limits, often unconsciously, although some other problems would be
to determine how this knowledge is attained and how it can be described. It
is much more subtle than other social norms such as those of turn-taking in
conversation or social behaviour. At this point, it would be necessary to point
out that linguistic norms are quite often more understated than other social
conventions, such as table manners and, therefore, harder to describe, or even
perceive. It goes without saying that they are also harder to learn and/or acquire
in the case of a Second Language as the learner does not only need to learn the
code, i.e., the language but also how to use it properly in diverse situations. Social
conventions are usually learned or acquired during childhood and adolescence
but these rules can vary from culture to culture and as languages often reflect the
way their users understand and perceive their lives, it is often the case that Second
Language learners, in their tedious task of learning a non-native language, also
need to learn social and linguistic conventions. At times, and depending on the
affinity between the languages in contact, it can be easy to deduce linguistic
forms and uses from the first language, but it is often not so obvious. As a simple
example English speakers understand verbal politeness differently than Spanish
speakers, and in terms of frequency British English speakers tend to thank more
frequently, in everyday situations, than Peninsular Spanish speakers.

~ Please, go to the exercises section and do exercise 2.

28
 CHAPTER 1

All in all, the aim of sociolinguists is to describe the variations within

a language and match these variations with the different groups of people
that use them, as well as the corresponding situations. So, sociolinguistics
deals especially with variation, among groups, among situations and among
places, and the task of the sociolinguist is to find regular patterns of
variation in use.

6. SOME INSTANCES OF VARIATION

Labov (2003) states that style shifting is usually correlated to the amount of
attention that the speaker pays to his speech. In American English, for instance,
the spelling <th-> in words like thing and that can be pronounced as smooth
fricative [8] or [o], as a lightly or strongly articulated alveolar plosive [t], as
a blend of these two variants, or not pronounced at all in utterances such as
Gimme <at book (Give me that book). These forms are used at different levels for
different social groups and different regions.
In Black English Vernacular, for instance, we can see some markers
morphological and syntactic which are characteristic of this ethnic linguistic
variety like the "double negative" in English often used by nonstandard speakers
to express negatives emphatically in sentences such as: Nobody don't know about
that (Nobody knows anything about that). Plurals are not marked when preceded by
numerals as in He was here for three year now, and the genitive is not necessarily
marked with /s/ but by position in the sentence, as in I slept my brother house.
Other peculiarities of Black English Vernacular in the United States is the
absence of final third person singular <-s> (e.g. She want, he walk) and the
dropping of the verb to be in present tense when used as a copula, (e.g. They real
fine). With regards to phonology, we can identify frequent deletion of final /1/,
before labials as in help [hep], or at the end of words with auxiliaries he'll be home
[hi bi ho:m]. Also frequent reduction of word-final clusters is common in words
like test [tes], desk [des], looked [luk], and strong initial stress is often found with
words of two syllables like police ['po:lis], define ['di:fain].
Word choice also determines style shifting as the linguistic 'domain' (home,
neighborhood, job, church, store, school, etc.) settles the degree of formality in
the words used as well as the amount of colloquialisms in a speaker's speech.

~ Please go to the exercises sections and do exercises 3 and 4.

29
Soc10LrNGUis11cs

Ireland
• Hiberno-English
Dubl in
D South-Ulster
D Mid-Ulster
D Belfast
South
D Ulster Scots
Scotland • South East
• Highland Scottish Wales & Isle of man • Sussex
North • Kentish
• Lowland Scottish • Welsh
•Cumbrian Glaswegian • Cardiff • Estuary
• Northumbrian D Manx • London
• Geordie • Cockney
• Pitmatic Midlands
• Mackem • West Midlands West Country
Cl Tesside
East Anglia
• Brummie • West Country
l!i!i!ll Yorkshire Coventry CJ Bristolian • Cambridgeshire
D Lancashire c:J Potteries D Somerset • Norfolk
D Scouse D East Midlands G!':ll Devonshire • Suffolk
D Mancunian l!:;.1l South-East Midlands D Anglo-Cornish • Essex

Figure 1. Map of dialects in Great Britain.

30
 CHAPTER 1

7. DIACHRONIC VARIATION

Languages change over time and in the same way that some centuries ago
languages such as Old Germanic developed into new languages such as English,
German and Norwegian, in a few centuries we will probably speak a language
that will not be English, Spanish or French, but a mixture of them all, especially
given the current phenomenon of globalization. Languages are in a constant
flux because people use them endlessly and the continuous use makes them
change. Spanish, for example, was once a variety of Latin but after centuries of
use it developed into a new language as it was widespread and standardised. In
the same way, English has not always been the same. If we try to read an Old
English (OE) text we can appreciate how the language has changed over past
centuries.
Pronunciation also changes in all languages, but it does not vary randomly
because the sounds of related languages (a sound change may take many decades
or even many centuries to complete) correspond to others in apparently systematic
ways. This phenomenon is referred to as 'sound shift'.
The Danish scholar Rasmus Rask and his follower the German linguist
Jacob Grimm in the first quarter of the 19th century succeeded in showing the
relationship between Germanic (as Gothic or Old English) and the classical
Indo-European languages (Greek, Latin and Sanskrit). They concluded that
Germanic was part of the Indo-European language family. They accounted for
the differences between Germanic and the classical languages through a set of
sound changes. They noticed, for instance, that Proto-Indo-European voiceless
stops become voiceless fricatives in Germanic languages. E.g.:

Greek Latin Gothic Old English Present-day English

pater pater fadar f~der 'father'
treis tres preis prf 'three'

They also discovered that Proto-Indo-European voiced stops become voiceless

stops. E.g.:

Greek Latin Gothic Old English Present-day English

deka decem taihun teon 'ten'

31
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

And Proto-Inda-European voiced aspirates / b/ become voiceless stops /p/ or

fricatives (depending on the context). E.g.:

Greek Latin Gothic Old English Present-day English

phiro faro baira beoru 'I carry'

Another area of linguistic change is syntax. Syntactic change affects the

patterning of sentences. One instance of syntactic change is the altering of
word order from Proto-Inda-European to most contemporary Inda-European
languages. Proto-Inda-European was an Object-Verb (OV) language. One
example to illustrate this pattern is the the runic inscription on the famous
Gallehus horn Outland) which dates to the 5th c.:

Ek HlewagastiR Holtijaz horna tawido

I HlewegastiR.NOM Holt.GEN horn.ACC carve.3rd.Sing.PAST
'I, HlewegastiR son of Holt, carved this horn'.

The syntactic order of the inscription is SOV (horna is the object and tawido
the verb).
Present-day English has changed from Proto-Inda-European in its underlying
syntactic structure. In Old English, for example, the pattern SVO affected only
the main clause and it was different in the subordinate clause (SOV), as it occurs
in present-day German, but over time it has regularized and now the same
pattern is used both in the main and in the subordinate clause. There has been
a gradual shift from OV to VO in the clause.

Example:

English That is the bookshop where I bought your book

s v 0

IDas ist das Buchgeschaft, in dem ichs dein Buch gekauftv habe
German
0

Syntactic relations in Old English were more similar to present-day German

than to present-day English (the same has happened as far as grammar is
concerned). English has become an analytic language. A good number of changes

32
 CHAPTER 1

between, for example, Old English and Modern English are due to loss of
morphological inflections. E.g.:

Old English (OE) Mit heardum bendum

Gennan(G) Mit harten Bandern
Present-day English (PdE) With hard bonds

In this example, both Old English and German show the dative plural ending
on the adjective as well as the noun (<·um>), whereas Modern English only
presents the plural marker <·S>.
Semantic change offers the most obvious instances as it is one of the most
sensitive areas in this respect, as even in short periods of time (a lifetime or
less) words may vary their meanings totally or partially because they are closely
connected with everyday usage and contemporary culture. There are changes in
meaning and use. Changes in word meaning are caused by the meeting of new
demand of the lexical resources of a language. Change of meaning is closely
related to social changes.
Semantic change can be divided into various categories. For example, there
can be changes in the range of meanings of a word by means of generalization or
specification; new meanings can be added or lost, etc. There are some interesting
examples of generalization and specification. When Chaucer spoke of'disease' he
didn't necessarily mean an illness caused by inflection but any kind of discomfort
-an absence of 'ease'(as indeed 'dis-ease' suggests). For the Elizabethans science
meant what we mean by knowledge.
The Old English word mete was cognate with Old High German/Middle High
German maz 'food, meal, mealtime' and was used to refer to food of any kind
(similar then to OE Jada > ME fade > PdE food). ME mete could be used to speak
of specific types of food when modified by another word as in flesch-mete 'flesh
food' ='meat' (as opposed to fish). It then became associated to 'flesh of animals
used as food'= 'meat'. Another example of specialization occurs with the Old
English word tid, cognate with German Zeit originally meaning 'time in general',
'a period of time', and also 'hour'. It could be employed besides the term time. In
Middle English it began to be associated with other meanings and differentiated
from time. Eventually its meaning was reduced to MnE tide. The Old English word
feper (PdEfeather) is cognate with OHG (Old High German)federa and was used
in Middle English in sentences such as 'write with fetheres'. This word was later
replaced by pen (PdE penne), the Latin word (penna) for 'feather'.

33
Soc10LINGU1STICS

There are pairs (sometimes even trios) of words with identical or similar
referential meanings but with different stylistic meaning. The use of one or the
other depends on the communication situation. E.g.:

ask request (French requete);

answer reply (French repliquer) - respond (Latin).
belly abdomen ( <Latin), stomach (<French estomac < Latin stomachus).

The word stock can also be expanded. Words can be borrowed from other
languages, new words can be coined or invented, and new terms can be created
by means of derivation and compounding of existing words. Especially these
days, due to the constant phenomenon of globalization and widespread media
such as television and the Internet, new words are quickly introduced from other
languages (borrowings). In the same way, words that used to be part of a specific
jargon are now commonplace because they have been introduced in new domains
or disciplines (this is especially noticeable in the language of computers with
words such as: navigator, web, etc.).
Native words can fall out of use and be replaced by words from other
languages or dialects as, for example, the Old English term earm 'poor', Early
Modern English arm/ cerm, replaced in Middle English by the French word povere,
poure. There is also semantic differentiation of originally synonyms, native words
and loanwords. One example is the Modern English word heaven which comes
from OE heofon, whereas PdE sky comes from Old Norse sky 'cloud'.

~ Please, go to the exercises section and do exercises 5 and 6.

8. SPEECH COMMUNITY

Several attempts have been made to define what a speech community is but,
as frequently happens with other linguistic terms (for example, dialect), it is not
easy to find a comprehensive definition 1•

1
There are some commonly used terms in linguistics, and in sociolinguistics, that are really
difficult to define unambiguously in spite of the fact that they are core concepts in the field. Speech
community, together with language, dialect, variety, and native speaker, is one of them.

34
 CHAPTER 1

For general linguistics, a speech community is a group of people that share the
same language or dialect in a specific setting which can be close, such as a city or
a neighborhood; or broad, such as a whole country. For sociolinguistics, the issue
is a bit more complex than that given the fact that societal and extra linguistic
factors are taken into account. We can find instances of speech communities that
are very different among them, because the degree of complexity depends on the
number of variables involved in the social and linguistic interaction, some of
which are the verbal repertoire (i.e. the set oflanguages, dialects, registers, etc.)
and the role repertoire (i.e. the relationship among interlocutors, such as parent-
child, teacher-student, employer-employee).
The definition of speech community needs to be sufficiently flexible and
abstract to include social groupings as small and localised as neighbourhoods and
as broad as countries. A basic criterion for a speech community to be considered
as such, is at least one language and, therefore, the term refers to a group of people
that could communicate in the same language. Members of a speech community are
united by a common end which, in turn, will be different to the ends of other people
or groups. Each individual can therefore be a member of a speech community on
some occasions and a member of other speech community on other occasions
depending on his/her end. The underlying rational is that, because of specific
transitory interests, people may sometimes identify themselves as part of one group
or speech community and at other times as part of others. All this depends on the
situational context. So, each individual has his/her own verbal repertoire (verbal
varieties) and each speech community has its own shared speech repertoire.
It is important to take into account that speech communities are not
necessarily confined to political boundaries (Swedish is spoken in Sweden but it
is also spoken in some parts of Finland), religions (Turkish is spoken in Turkey
but also in some parts of Greece, Bulgaria and Rumania) or cultures (Bengali is
spoken by two groups, in Bangladesh and in India (West Bengal).
Languages are often used by groups of people that share a physical context
but also a number of social norms. The relationship among members of a speech
community allows the categorisation of differences among users and variation
according to certain social conditionings such as age, gender, job, educational
background, etc. These groups of people share at least one language or variety
and also some rules and norms for the correct use in communication.
As was suggested above, speech communities do not need to be monolingual,
as a matter of fact, bilingual or trilingual speech communities are as common

35
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

as monolingual ones. Kachru (2001) distinguished four major types of speech

communities: multilingual> bilingual) monolingual and diglossic speech communities.

a) A multilingual speech community recognizes more than two official

languages as happens in Switzerland where French, German and Italian
are official languages and are regularly spoken in some parts of the country
while not in others (for example, in Zurich most people use German
whereas in Geneva most people speak French). In multilingual countries
a contact language is commonly adopted as an 'official' language for
practical purposes such as, for instance, English in India and Russian in
the former USSR.

b) A bilingual speech community acknowledges two languages

with an official status as in Canada or in Belgium. In Canada, bilingualism
can be seen in some parts of the country but there are also communities
that are essentially monolingual, in either English or French. In Brussels,
for example, there are clear divisions in terms of areas where one language
or the other is used but bilingualism/multilingualism is also common. For
instance, a Brussels citizen may wake up in his/her home neighbourhood,
have breakfast with his Flemish speaking family, then go to work to a
different part of the city where French is spoken, use this language on
public transport and then get to his workplace where s/ he is required to
speak English.
Spanish is the official language in Spain but in some parts of the country
such as the Basque Country, Catalonia, and Galicia there are two official
languages and monolingual speakers of Spanish or Basque/Catalan/
Galician can be found as well as bilingual speakers.

c) A monolingual speech community has only one official language, as

Portugal does for example, but this conception is sometimes misleading
since monolingual speakers can also have a repertoire of styles, registers or
dialects that may be utterly different from the standard.

d) A diglossic community would be one where two languages or varieties

are functionally complementary. Diglossia often distinguishes between
two varieties; one which is used in formal contexts (high variety) and
another one that is used in colloquial speech (low variety). Arabic-speaking
communities, for example, regularly distinguish between Classical and
colloquial Arabic.

36
 CHAPTER 1

Diglossia is often intertwined with bilingualism/multilingualism. In

German-speaking Switzerland, for instance, children learn the low variety
(Schwyzertiiiitsch, including some regional dialects of Swiss) and later they
acquire the high variety. Something similar happens in the USA among Spanish-
speaking immigrant families. Very often children learn Spanish from their parents
as their mother tongue and later, when they are schooled, they learn English
which will probably be the language they will need in everyday life. As a result,
adolescents and adults raised under these conditions may use Spanish with their
parents and grandparents but English at work, or even with their siblings.
As can be deduced from the previous description, it is not easy to explain what
can be considered a speech community but there are general guidelines that help.
According to Spolsky (1998: 25) a speech community is not limited in terms of
location or size but it entails a complex interlocking network of communication,
its members sharing knowledge of language use patterns as well as attitudes
towards others and themselves, and also sharing a set oflanguage varieties (or
repertoires) and norms for using them. Members of the same speech community
do not even need to have a comprehensive knowledge, nor even handle, each of the
varieties or repertoires that are used within it. Perhaps, belonging to a particular
speech community is something that, apart from accommodating some general
principles, requires the speakers' tacit self-identification with it on account of
aspects such as personal identity or group attitude.

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercises 7, 8 and 9.

9. CARRYING OUT SOCIOLINGUISTIC RESEARCH

Any adult speaker of a language has accumulated enough experience to

know that their own language is not used in the same way by different speakers
in their speech community. It depends on the interlocutor's social or geographic
background and other factors such as age, sex or education. This means that every
speaker will show some degree of stylistic variation depending on (a) the relations of
power or solidarity with the interlocutor; (b) the social context (domain) where the
conversation is taking place: at home, in school, at the working place, neighborhood;
and (c) the topic: academic, professional, trifling. These variables determine that a
researcher willing to search into the matter and analyze the way people speak and
why, will need to devise some way to collect data with a transparent, systematic and
unambiguous method in order to get reliably non-biased data.

37
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Sociolinguists at work are looking for commonly accepted rules and patterns
that account for variations in speech (these can be in the form of pronunciation,
word choice, grammatical complexity, or language choice among others) based
on some determining factors such a age, gender, level of education, place of
origin, etc. and also depending on the nature of the encounter (place and topic).
Bearing this in mind, the sociolinguist at work may need to elicit information or
merely observe a communicative situation. Some other factors such as validity
come into play because the sociolinguist can not assume that the informants are
not lying or simply impersonating an accent or using words different to the ones
they would use in a real situation. This is not necessarily done on purpose but it
is perfectly possible that a speaker, on noticing that his speech is being analysed,
changes it unconsciously, or just tries to make his speech clearer, whereas the
perhaps less than clear, natural language is preciesly what the sociolinguist
wants to record and study. It is necessary to get reliable information about a
linguistic phenomenon which has ecological validity, i.e. it represents a true
sample of the way communication takes place without any type of interference
on the part of the researcher.
Intrusion can result not only from the presence of the researcher or any
unexpected device but also from the alteration, though subtle it may be, of the
situation or the environment. This brings about a methodological problem
pointed out by William Labov and it concerned how we might observe the way
people speak when the researcher is not there and in situations that might be
private (e.g. at home, business meeting) and, therefore, difficult to analyze.
Labov refers to this bone of contention as the observer's paradox. Nevertheless,
this type of methodological problem is not exclusive to sociolinguistic research 2
and there are ways to minimize it.
Some decades ago it was a common practice to record telephone or other
types of conversation without asking for permission. Notwithstanding the
ethical and legal issues that arise regarding the fairness of using "hidden"
devices or sources of information such as secret recordings in natural settings,
the sociolinguist needs to find adequate mechanisms to elicit information that
is genuine and lawful.
Early sociolinguistic research was based on the use of questionnaires to
collect data on attitudes and behaviours where, for instance, the informant had

2
In English Language Teaching, the same issue arises with regard to research withinthe classroom
because students knowing they are being observed may change their behaviour and their performance.

38
 CHAPTER 1

to choose one option out of several, for example to discriminate one word from
another or one specific pronunciation from others. This technique is perfectly
valid and useful depending on the aim of the study and the type of subjects (age,
cultural bounds, place, etc.) and, obviously the data obtained is easily statistically
analysable. While very convenient for gathering demographic data on the
subjects under study, this research technique presents several shortcomings.
On the one hand, it creates a very unnatural situation and informants may just
answer in the way they think- the researcher wants them to, or the other way
round, and, on the other hand, as the questionnaire has been planned in advance
there is little room, if any, to gather information that was not taken into account
when it was designed. In that respect, the interview poses some advantages due
to the flexibility of the situation. Questionnaires are very useful for gathering
demographic information from the informants.
Another possibility would be face-to-face interviews (sociolinguistic
interview) but we know that when we are asking questions and receiving
answers our interlocutor's speech is being either carefully planned or at least
modified because of the circumstances and s/he has a less casual style than he
possibly uses when he/she is among friends or with his/her family. It may also
happen that the researcher concentrates his/her attention on something while
neglecting another interesting aspect. Sociolinguistic interviews are time- and
effort-consuming, and not always suitable because if they are not properly
directed they may not be a good way to elicit information. However, there are
some techniques that can be used to obtain casual speech in such situations and,
which can minimize the presence of the interviewer.
As a case in point, in the last few years new advances on lexicography are
trying to incorporate common language uses and high frequency language in
English Language Teaching materials. So, there is a need not only to analyze
large written and spoken corpora from the media but also to compile and
examine data coming from everyday speech. To this aim, a very recent research
technique consists of providing informants with small high-capacity recording
devices that they carry all the time and which are recording every thing they say.
It seems that after a period of familiarisation, people tend to get used to them
and often forget about the fact that they are being recorded. These informants
do not usually know about the aim of research and, therefore, the validity of the
method and the reliability of the collected data increases.
In the early 1970s William Labov conducted some seminal research in three
New York department stores and collected data using non-intrusive techniques.

39
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

He wanted to find out why the final /r/ is not always pronounced in final position
in words such as car or bar. Labov selected three stores located in different areas
of the city and which entailed (a) a fashionable shopping area; (b) a middle-class
store; and, (c) a store dealing in low-price goods. A researcher systematically
asked questions to salespeople at the three stores and he showed that variation
was systematic due to a matter of social status. He worked on the assumption
that the sales-people's accents reflected those of their customers, and his research
technique consisted in a researcher visiting the different stores and asking a
salesperson for goods that were located on the fourth floor. Then, pretending
he had not heard the answer the interviewer would get a second, more emphatic
response. All the pronunciations of the word 'four' were analyzed and contrasted
with other relevant information such as gender, approximate age, etc. of each
interviewee. 264 interviews were carried out in each department store3 •
As was suggested above, much sociolinguistic research is based on the
collection oflarge amounts of data and the later statistical analysis of this data in
order to find general tendencies or regularities.Nonetheless, there is some tension
between quantitative and qualitative approaches to sociolinguistic research.
Ethnographers follow a different approach and therefore the procedures are very
different. They base their research on case studies (Ethnographic approach) and
that is why they carefully observe single cases and they contrast the patterns of
behaviour that they find with those of other communities or societies. Due to
the type of analysis they make, usually based on recordings, statistical analysis
is not normally possible. Although some tension can be perceived between these
two approaches (quantitative and qualitative), each study has idiosyncratic
characteristics and specific aims and may require one or the other but it is often
the case that the researcher needs to be eclectic and combine the statistical
analysis of data with personal interviews in order to gain reliability, to contrast
his/her findings, or simply as a complementary research technique.
All in all, there are different approaches towards sociolinguistic research in
terms of both elicitation techniques and data analysis and each type of research
requires a different design. It is often the case that more than one elicitation
technique is needed.

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercises 10 and 11.

3
Labov, William (1966). The Social Stratification ofEnglish in New York Ci~.Washington, D.C.: Center
for Applied Linguistics.

40
 CHAPTER 1

10. EXERCISES

1. Analyse the following conversations from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

What can you deduce about the interlocutors? How?
-'I can lick you!'
-'I'd like to see you try it.'
-'Well, I can do it.'
-'No you can't, either.'
-'Yes I can.'
-'No you can't.'
-'I can.'

-'You can't.'
-'Can.'
-'Can't.'
-An uncomfortable pause. Then Tom said:
-'What's your name?'
-'Tisn't any of your business, maybe.'
-'Well, I 'low I'll make it my business.'
-'Well, why don't you?'

-'If you say much I will.'

-'Much - much - much! There, now.'
-'Oh, you think you're mighty smart, don'tyou? I could lick you with one hand tied
behind me, ifI wanted to.'
-'Well, why don't you do it? You say you can do it.'
-'Well, I will, if you fool with me.'
-'Oh, yes - I've seen whole families in the same fix.'
-'Smarty! you think you're some now, don't you?'
-'Oh, what a hat!'

41
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

-'You can lump that hat if you don't like it. I dare you to knock it off; and anybody
that'll take a dare will suck eggs.'
-'You're a liar!'
-'You're another.'
-'You're a fighting liar, and darn't take it up.'

(Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.)

2. Make a list of all the swear words you know in your mother tongue. Which
do you use? How often? In what circumstances? To whom? With what aims?
3. (a) Go to the Internet and in Youtube see an episode of 'Tom and Jerry'
in which the black lady speaks. What distinctive phonological, lexical and
syntactic features do you note? (b) Find in Youtube instances of Black
English Vernacular. Listen to them and try and make a list of its distinctive
features, in terms of phonology, morphology, syntax and vocabulary.
4. Very roughly speaking we can divide words and phrases into three broad
styles: formal, informal and normal. To which register do you think these
words and phrases belong: buy) purchase) man) bloke) kids) children) cups) 'I'm
knackered~ 'I'm shattered~ That)s two quid) guv~ emoluments) <Has he seen a shrink?~
<chuck that brolly away~ progeny? Check your answers in your dictionaries. If
you want to take this further, have a look at some concordances for words
like 'shrink' and 'emoluments'. Try http://sara.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/
5. In the following passage, the author («I") who is on a boating holiday with
friends on the river Thames hasjust had a swim in the river. Can you find
any linguistic evidence which suggests that the book the passage is taken
from is not contemporary?
Rather an amusing thing happened while dressing that morning. I was
very cold when I got back into the boat, and, in my hurry to get my shirt on,
I accidentally jerked it into the water. It made me awfully wild, especially as
George burst out laughing. I could not see anything to laugh at, and I told
George so, and he only laughed the more. I never saw a man laugh so much. I
quite lost my temper with him at last, and I pointed out to him what a drivelling
maniac of an imbecile idiot he was; but he only roared the louder. And then
just as I was landing the shirt, I noticed that it was not my shirt at all, but

42
 CHAPTER 1

George's, which I had mistaken for mine; whereupon the humour of the thing
struck me for the first time, and I began to laugh. And the more I looked from
George's wet shirt to George, roaring with laughter, the more I was amused,
and I laughed so much that I had to let the shirt fall back into the water again.
'Ar'n't you -you- going to get it out?' said George between his shrieks.
I could not answer him at all for a while, I was laughing so, but at last,
between my peals I managed to jerk out:
'It isn't my shirt -it's yours!'
I never saw a man's face change from lively to severe so suddenly in all my
life before.
What!' he yelled, springing up. 'You silly cuckoo! Why can't you be more
careful what you're doing? Why the deuce don't you go and dress on the bank?
You're not fit to be in a boat, you're not. Gimme the hitcher.'
I tried to make him see the fun of the thing, but he could not. George is very
dense at seeing a joke sometimes.

6. False cognates, or false friends, are words that look alike in English and
Spanish but have different meanings. For instance, the English word 'decent'
does not mean 'decente' in Spanish but 'acceptable' or 'reasonable'. Many of
these words originally had similar meanings in both languages but they
changed over time. It follows some words whose meaning has changed over
time (semantic change). Look up each word in an etymological dictionary
(such as The Oxford English Dictionary) or any free access online etymological
dictionary and (a) find how each word has evolved from a semantic point
of view in the history of the English language and, (b) find the appropriate
equivalent in present-day Spanish.

E.g.: luxury: It means 'opulence' in present-day English but between 14th and
mid 19th c., luxus meant 'excessive indulgence in creature comforts and sensual
pleasures', just like present-day Spanish 'lujurioso'.

Abrupt
Disgrace
Edit
Journal
Sympathy

43
Soc1ouNGUISTICS

(c) Briefly summarise the way other three words you like in English have evolved
over time from a semantic perspective. They do not have to be false friends.
7. Bearing in mind the sociolinguistic situation in different parts of Spain, try
to find out in what respect is Spain a single or a complex speech community.
Do the same with the United States. In what respect is the situation in Spain
and the United States different?
8. Think of the way you speak your first language (English or Spanish) with
other people in your speech community. How does it vary from the way
other people you know speak? Make a list of common features in your own
speech (e.g. pronunciation, vocabulary (word choice), syntax, idiomatic
expressions, etc.) and try to find an explanation for the difference between
your own speech and the other person (for example, geographic variation).
9. Describe the way in which the language spoken by adolescents (either
English or Spanish) is characteristic of a specific group in terms of
expressions, vocabulary, phonology, etc.
10. Language is often referred to as a source of power as it can be used to control
others. Think about the way some professionals such as physicians, lawyers,
teachers, speak to others in a working context, or how parents speak to their
children. Write a list of common features for each of them.
11. In this chapter it has been suggested that languages and language use are
subjected to a great deal of variation:
a) Write different ways of asking for permission in an everyday situation,
for instance, you have got a headache and you need a pain-relieving
pill. For each request, indicate the person you are talking to and briefly
describe the situational context and your intention.

Request Person talking to Situational context Intention

...
...

b) Do you speak the same way to your brother/sister/friend and to your

boss? In which ways is your speech different?
c) Do you speak the same way in a family gathering and in your office or
working place? Why? In which ways is your speech different, if it is?

44
 CHAPTER 1

11. RESOURCES ON THE WEB

Now you can visit the web page for this subject where you will find further
references and complementary readings.

12. FURTHER READING AND QUESTIONS

12.1. Text 1

Read the following text carefully and comment on it emphasizing any aspect
you consider of relevance. After the text you will find some questions that may be
helpful. Write around 250-300 words in total.

Once we have identified the linguistic variable as our basic working tool, the
next task becomes one of employing that tool in an effort to see how linguistic
variation relates to social variation. An early study of linguistic variation by
Gumperz (1958), but one cast in a 'modern' mold, shows some of the intricacies
involved in trying to relate linguistic variation to social variation. Because the
society he was studying is rigidly stratified on the basis of caste membership,
the problems are considerably fewer that those encountered in such cities
as New York, Detroit, or even Norwich, but they are still present. Gumperz
shows how rather small differences in speech can effectively distinguish sub-
groups in society from one another in a study oflinguistic usage in the village
of Khalapur, eighty miles north of Delhi in India. The social structure of the
village is determined by Hindu caste membership with Brahmans at the top,
then Rajputs (warriors), Vaishyas (merchants), and several groups of artisans
and laborers lower down. At the bottom are three untouchable castes: Chamars
(landless laborers), Jatia Chamars (leather workers and shoe makers), and
Bhangis (sweepers). The latter are restricted to living in certain neighborhoods
and have less freedom to move in the village than do members of the upper
castes. Ten percent of the population are not Hindus but Muslims; they are
outside the caste system.

So far as language is concerned, certain characteristics of the Khalapur village

dialect are clear markers of social-group membership. For example, Bhangis do
not make certain phonological contrasts that speakers of all other castes make.
Chamars andJatia Chamars also lack certain phonological contrasts made by all
others, and some, in attempting to make such a contrast, actually hypercorrect:
that is, they over-extend a particular usage in trying to emulate others. Jatia

45
S OCIOLINGUISTICS

Chamars have a characteristic pronunciation of words that end in [re] in all

other village varieties. Each of the three untouchable castes therefore has speech
characteristics that clearly set it off both from the other two untouchable castes
and from the touchable castes in the village. Muslim speech resembles that of
the touchable classes.

[...]

This study quite clearly shows a direct relationship between linguistic varia-
tion and caste membership. If we know certain things about one, we can pre-
dict certain things about the other. It is just such connections or correlations
that interest sociolinguists working with the linguistic variable. What they seek
are measures of social variation to which they can relate the kinds oflinguistic
variation they observe. However, caste, with its sharp social stratifications, is
useless as a measure of social variation outside a few non-Western societies.
Consequently, the problem becomes one of finding factors in society that show
a relationship to such matters as whether or not an individual says singing or
singin', he go or he goes, or He doesn't know anything or He don't know nothing.

Once a linguistic variable has been identified, the next issue becomes that
of collecting data concerning its variants in such a way that we can draw cer-
tain conclusions about the social distribution of these variants. To draw such
conclusions, we must be able to relate the variants in some way to quantifiable
factors in society, e.g., social-class membership, gender, age, ethnicity, and so
on. As we will see, there are numerous difficulties in attempting this task, but
considerable progress has been made in overcoming them, particularly as stu-
dies have built on those that have gone before in such a way as to strengthen
the quality of the work done in this area of sociolinguistics.

While it is fairly easy to relate the occurrences of the variants of a linguistic

variable to factors such as gender and age, relating them to factors such as
race and ethnicity is somewhat more troublesome since these are much more
subjective in nature and less easily quantifiable. But the most complicated
factor of all is social-class membership, if we consider 'social class' to be a useful
concept to apply in stratifying society - and few indeed would deny its relevance!

[...]

An educational scale may employ the following categories: graduate or

professional education; college or university degree; attendance at college or
university but no degree; high school graduation; some high school education;

46
 CHAPTER 1

and less than seven years of formal education. Income level as well as source
of income are important factors in any classification system that focuses on
how much money people have. Likewise, in considering where people live,
investigators must concern themselves with both the type of housing and its
location.
(Wardhaugh, 2002: 144-146)

Issues to consider:
a) After reading about Gumperz's research in India and the caste system
he analysed, how do you see the possibility of doing research in a speech
community in a western society where social and linguistic differences are
often more subtle?

b) The author states that is it is fairly easy to relate linguistic variants to factors
such as gender and age but much more difficult to relate them to factors such
as race and ethnicity. Do you agree? Why (not)?

c) Do you find the categories suggested in the educational scale detailed

enough for sociolinguistic research? Would you suggest more or less
categories or levels than the ones listed in this excerpt?
d) In the text the author makes reference to various factors that affect
linguistic variation such as age, ethnicity, gender, educational background,
etc. How do you think income level and source of income affect linguistic
variation?

12.2. Text 2

Read the following text carefully and comment on it emphasizing any aspect
you consider of relevance. After the text you will find some questions that may
be helpful. Write around 250-300 words in total.

Languages come into contact when people come into contact. If these
languages (or varieties oflanguage) are different, and ifthe contact is more than
fleeting, there can be a range oflinguistic and sociolinguistic effects. There are
situations in the world where languages co-exist over a long period in a quite
table relationship - Finnish and Swedish in Finland, for example. But such
stability is much less common than change. The focus of contact linguistics is

47
Soc10L1NGUIST1cs

on situations either of fresh contact or where the linguistic configuration begins

to change the contact situation which has appeared stable. This is happening
in the northeastern United States where the German of the Old Order Amish
people of Pennsylvania is shifting after apparently holding stable for centuries
(Johnson-Weiner 1998).

Language contact mainly occurs as a result of mobility through which

speakers of one language encounter speakers of another. The mobility may be
current, recent or in the historical past - for example by the ancestors of the
once-migrant group, which sets the scene for contemporary language contact.
Throughout history people have had a variety of reasons for travelling, which
typically produce different kinds of contacts:

• exploration - especially important in European expansion from the fifteenth

century

• trade, commerce, business - has always been a prime cause of contact

• conflict - waging war, taking refuge from war, military service

• migration in pursuit ofa better life - e.g. rural to urban, or from one country to
another, singly or in numbers

• colonization - mass migration which usually takes over the destination area

• work - migrant or slave labour

• religjon - escaping persecution or undertaking missionary activity, both of

which were influential components of European colonization

• education - an increasingly important reason for mobility, although dating

back to at least medieval Europe

• tourism - a major contemporary source of language contact, although with

several centuries of pedigree in Europe.

Certain times and places tend to concentrate the circumstances for language
contact. Border areas routinely host the continual contact of two or more
languages for trade, work - or conflict. Alsace between France and Germany,
and the US-Mexico border, are two examples. Large cities such as New York,
Shanghai or Johannesburg are also magnets for work-oriented immigration,
tourism, educational opportunities, commercial enterprise and the language
contact that these involve. Historically, p eriods of expansion, invasion or

48
 CHAPTER 1

war create new or intense contact. The centuries of European expansion were
characterized by almost all the contact types listed. The conquest of Alexander
the Great and Ghenghis Khan, and the world wars of the twentieth century, led
to widespread new contacts among disparate languages.
(Bell, 2014: 47-48)

Issues to consider:

a) Allan Bell describes different types oflanguage contact based on a list of

nine reasons for travelling, which eventually produce different types of
contacts. If you think of your immediate context, namely your village,
town or city, or a wider context such as your province, region or country.
Can you think of types of contacts based on these reasons? Try to describe
at least 2-3 situations oflanguage contact.
b) Do you live in a context of language contact at the moment? If you do,
describe in which ways it is a situation of contact and how it affects
everyday life. If you don't, explain how you think it affects people's
perceptions and attitudes towards other languages.
c) Do you consider Foreign Language Teaching and Learning a situation of
Language Contact? Why?

13. RESEARCH ACTIVITY

Define the speech community and/or speech communities you belong to,
taking into account the following guidelines.
1. Think of the speech community, or communities, you belong to and
make a list of its social features.
2. Would you say that there are more social or linguistic features that
conform your speech community?
3. Is your speech community homogeneous? In what ways? For instance, in
terms of monolingualism/bilingualism, its size, its durability in time, its
geographical distribution, gender and age of its members, etc.
4. In case you consider you belong to more than one speech community,
how are they interrelated? Do they overlap or one of them is embedded
in the other?

49
Soc10LINGUisncs

5. Try to provide a short paragraph describing your speech community, or

communities.

14. REFERENCES

BAYLEY, R.; CAMERON, R. and LucAs, C. (eds.). 2013. The Oxford handbook ofsociolinguistics.
Oxford University Press.
BELL, A 2014. The guidebook to sociolinguistics. Malden, MA, USA: John Wiley & Sons.
BERNDT, R. 1982. A History ofthe English Language. Leipzig, Germany: VEB.
BRATT PAULSON, Ch. and G. R. TUCKER. 2003. 'Introduction', in R. Mesthrie (ed.),
Sociolinguistics: The Essential Readings. Malden, MA, USA: Blackwell Publishing.
CALVET, L. 2003. 'Reflections on the origins of Sociolinguistics in Europe,' in R. Mesthrie
(ed.), Sociolinguistics: The Essential Readings. Malden, MA, USA: Blackwell Publishing.
GUMPERZ, J . J . 1958. 'Dialect Differences and Social Stratification in a North Indian
Village'. American Anthropologist, 60: 668-81.
HocK,J. 1996. Language History, Language Change and Language Relationship. Berlin: Mouton
de Gruyter.
HUDSON, R. A 1980. Sociolinguistics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
JOHNSON-WEINER, K. M. 1998. Community identity and language change in North
American Anabaptist communities.Journal ofSociolinguistics, 2(3), 375-394.
KAcHRU, B. B. 2001. 'Speech community', in R. Mesthrie (ed.), Sociolinguistics: The Essential
Readings. Malden, MA, USA: Blackwell Publishing.
LAsov, W. 2003. 'Some sociolinguistic principles', in R. Mesthrie (ed.), Sociolinguistics: The
Essential Readings. Malden, MA, USA: Blackwell Publishing.
MESTHRIE, R. (ed.). 2001. Concise Encyclopaedia ofSociolinguistics. Oxford, UK: Pergamon.
SAVILLE-TROIKE, M. 1996. 'The ethnography of communication', in S. L. McKay and N. H.
Hornberger, Sociolinguistics and Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
SHUY, R. W. 2003. 'A brief history of American Sociolinguistics 1949-1989', in R. Mesthrie
(ed.), Sociolinguistics: The Essential Readings. Malden, MA, USA: Blackwell Publishing.
SPOLSKY, B. 1998. Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
WARDHAUGH, R. 2002 (4th ed.). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Malden, MA, USA:
Blackwell Publishing.

so
CHAPTER2
 This first chapter centres on the concept oflanguage
variation and closely analyses some of the most relevant
variables in sociolinguistics. Some attention is also
devoted to the way speakers react to the different factors
that are involved in language variation. The key matters
presented in this chapter are:
• Some variables in sociolinguistics: style, register
and gender
• Speech accommodation

1. KEYWORDS

The following list of key words contains some important terms that are
presented in this chapter. A definition for each term can be found at the end of
this book, in the glossary.

• Discourse analysis • Pragmatic competence

• Ethnography of speaking • Pragmatics
• Linguistic competence • (Proto)-Indo-European
• Native speaker • Variety

2. SOME VARIABLES IN SOCIOLINGUISTICS

2.1. Style

As we saw in the previous chapter, geographic variation is quite noticeable

and relatively easy to identify. There are other types of variation that are more
laborious to describe and, on some occasions at least, less conspicuous. Even
within a specific speech community individuals have a range of choices when they
speak, such as word choice, syntactic complexity and even subtle pronunciation
features. Every individual has a typical way in which s/he does things and the

53
Soc10LINGUIST1cs

same applies to any aspect of human behaviour. There are rough generalizations
in all aspects of life, for instance, in the way people drive. The British are said
to be calm, gentle drivers whereas the Italians are often considered fast and
impatient. However true these generalizations might be, each British and Italian
driver has his/her own style which can vary depending on the time of the day,
the location, where s/he is going and who s/he is with, etc.

Stylistic variation can be found in other areas of more interest to sociolinguists;

for example, you can speak vety formally or very informally depending on the
circumstances. This implies a specific choice on the part of the speaker as s/he
will probably choose formal language for solemn events, less formal language
for everyday situations and really informal and casual language for trivial
conversations or relaxed matters. As a result, the speaker can decide on a level of
formality depending on a number of factors such as the particular occasion, social
differences, the interlocutor's age and other determining factors such as the type
of discourse chosen, i.e., written or spoken. For instance, the following sentences
might be used in different situations depending on the speaker's choice: "Would
you be so kind as to leave the room?", "Can you please leave the room?", "Get
lost!'', or ''You pig, get lost!". Native speakers usually make use of a range of styles
they have at their disposal when they speak and they can easily accommodate
their language to the required degree of formality. It is also possible to predict the
stylistic features that a native speaker will bring to bear on certain occasions.

As well as communicating meaning, a speaker's choice of words or sounds

reflects how they feel in terms of formality or in a given social setting. Given a
certain situation where the speaker would say something like, "Can you pass me
the salt?", ifs/he changes the word salt for another word such as pepper or vinegar,
obviously there is a difference in meaning and, therefore in this case it is not at
the discretion of the speaker to change one word for the other while maintaining
the meaning. However, if the speaker changes can for could) would, or simply says
"pass me the salt", the meaning remains the same but we can see a difference
in style reflecting the speaker's intention as well as other related factors such as
the degree of formality and the relationship between the interlocutors. Another
example would be the following words and expressions which have analogous
meanings although their selection would depend on the speaker's preference
given the context: die) pass away) bite the dust or kick the bucket.

As a result of the long literary tradition in most cultures, especially western,

the question of style has often been associated with the study ofliterary writing.

54
 CHAPTER2

Nevertheless, style is linked in a consistent way to all linguistic behaviour,

whether written or spoken, and regardless of whether the speaker/ writer is
deemed to be a literary figure (Short, 2001).

The following examples illustrate a difference of style. The first one is a

literary text written relatively formally whereas the second fragment is the same
text but in an informal style.

Example A
"Fourscore years and seven ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent
a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men
are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any
nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great
battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final
resting-place for those who here gave their lives that their nation might live. It
is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this ..."
(Opening lines of President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.)

This high-sounding and very effective rhetoric, a masterpiece oforation, could

be rendered in everyday speech as:

ExampleB
"Eighty-seven years ago our predecessors created a new country in this
continent - a country made by free people and based on the idea that everybody
is equal.

Now we are fighting a big civil war to find out if a country based on that ideal
can last for long. We're gathered here on a big battlefield to dedicate part of it
as a burial ground for those who died here fighting for their country's survival.
It's absolutely right that we should be doing this ... "
At a literal level both excerpts mean the same, but there is an enormous
difference in style. Lincoln's words were slightly archaic even then -a way of
making clear that he was talking about eternal values. The second text captures
his meaning at a factual level but does not have any of the resonance and poetry.

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 1.

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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

2.2. Register

Another variable that is at the speaker's disposal and that is caught up

with style is register. A register is a set of language features, mainly the choice
of lexical items or syntactic ordering of utterances, whose use tends to be
associated with a specific interest group as in the case of professionals with
a particular occupation and, often, a particular working context: doctors, air
traffic controllers, lawyers, computer enthusiasts, etc. This type of variation is
characterised by the circumstance and purpose of the communicative situation
and contrasts with individual idiosyncrasies and geographical or socio-economic
variation. Nowadays, the overwhelming amount of information to which we are
exposed in our society favours the emergence and use of topic-specific registers.
Specialisation is encouraged and the flourishing number of technical words and
acronyms can sometimes make it difficult for a lay person to follow a conversation
on topic in a specific register. Apart from specific language domains, register is
socially motivated as it entails a social negotiation among the participants in order
to accommodate the adequate register either in written or spoken discourse.
Register can be conceived from two different perspectives. In the narrow
sense of the word, register refers to the type of language used by a group of
professionals, or simply a group of people, who employ certain linguistic
features which are not used, or at least not so commonly, in other settings. This
conception of register is closely related to jargon, and tends to be associated with
word choice, or morphophonological variation, rather that syntactic ordering.
On the other hand, in a broad sense of the word, register can be understood as
a social genre, a sociolect, that bears upon lexical choice and syntactic ordering,
and could be exemplified in the language of newspaper articles, academic prose
or legal language.
Registers can be depicted by means of three main dimensions:
a) Field, which relates to the social activity performed, the setting and the
aim of the interaction.
b) Tenor, which refers to the social roles enacted and the relationship
between the participants.
c) Mode, which refers to the medium of the language in that situation.
For example, in the case of a newspaper article, the field would be the subject
matter of the article that is intended to inform or instruct the reader. The tenor

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 CHAPTER 2

here would include the journalist who wrote the article, but also the intended
audience. Finally, the mode in this instance would be the piece of written work
that is printed on the newspaper and reaches the reader. See the following passages:

Example A: legal language

At all pertinent times, it was reasonably foreseeable to Defendants that
without feasible safety features and/ or warning devices, Defendants' guns
would end up being used in a tragic, preventable shooting by an unauthorized
user. Many of these shootings are unintentional shootings, often by children
who do not fully understand or appreciate how to properly handle a gun, or
understand its risks.

With regard to those guns of Defendants which are semi-automatics, at

all pertinent times it was foreseeable that users, including adolescents, would
mistakenly believe that a semi-automatic gun would not fire if the ammunition
magazine was removed. At all pertinent times it was foreseeable that users of semi-
automatic guns would not understand or appreciate that an undetectable round
of ammunition may be housed in the firing chamber of the gun, even though
the detachable ammunition magazine had been removed or unloaded, and that
preventable, unintentional shootings would result given Defendants' designs.

Defendants were at all pertinent times aware of these foreseeable and

unreasonable dangers inherent in the design of their firearms.

The design of Defendants' guns, which enables any person who gains
possession of them to fire them and does not make users aware that a
round of ammunition is housed in the firing chamber, results in thousands
of unintentional shooting deaths and non-fatal injuries every year. The
General Accounting Office estimates that 33% of the annual 1,300 to 1,600
unintentional shooting deaths occur because the user of the gun was not aware
that a round of ammunition had been loaded into the gun's firing chamber.
This accounts for as many as 450 to 475 deaths each year. In addition to these
deaths, there are many unintentional shooting injuries that are not fatal.

Example B: newspaper article.

President Slams Film Business
Hundreds of Hollywood's rich and famous were left speechless last night
when film Society president, Douglas Kirk, 59, launched a savage attack on

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SOCIOLINGUlSTICS

the movie business. Neither the script-writers, not the actors, nor the directors
were as good today as they used to be, he told the astonished film stars. Guests
were further incensed when he claimed that there were too many new films, and
roars of protest greeted his boast that people had stopped going to the cinema
because they preferred watching Kirk's old movies at home on television.

The speech came after the Society's annual dinner attended by the cream
of Hollywood's high society. Among the first to arrive were Peruvian heiress
and actress, Isabel Sastre, wearing a full length pale yellow evening dress and
a diamond tiara, and accompanied by her latest husband, Rupert Murbank,
"sixth time lucky'', she told our reporter. Present, too, were British star Simon
Selino and, hot foot from filming and only just in time for dinner, comedy
star Albert Tancred, his arm still in plaster after an accident at his Austrian
home. Later guests enjoyed a lavish six course banquet -(including caviare,
roast duckling and steak au poivre)- before veteran Kirk's sour grapes left a
bad taste in everybody's mouth.
(By Jim Lawley)

Example C: the language ofcooking.

Step one: Pour the mussel liquor from the shells into a saute pan and bring
to a boil. Add the mussels and poach gently over medium-low heat for about 4
minutes, until the edges begin to curl. Remove the mussels with a slotted spoon
and set aside; reserve the cooking liquid in the pan. Place the peppercorns, 3 garlic
cloves, salt, and 1/2 cup of the hot mussel liquid in a blender and puree. Add the
puree and oil to the liquid in the pan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat
and let cool. Add the lime juice and reserved mussels to the mixture; puree again.
Transfer the mussel puree to a saucepan and add the stock, cumin, thyme, and
remaining garlic. Simmer for 15 minutes over low heat, then strain into a clean
saucepan. Whisk in the butter until completely incorporated and set aside.

Step two: Wrap a bacon slice around each filet, securing with kitchen twine,
and season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a heavy saute pan to almost
smoking. Lower the heat to medium and sear the steaks for 10 minutes per side;
the filets should be crusty and browned on the outside and rare to medium-
rare on the inside. If you prefer, cook about 2 minutes longer on each side for
medium-rare or about 5 minutes more per side for medium. While the steaks
are cooking warm the mussel sauce.

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 CHAPTER2

Step three: Bring a saucepan oflightly salted water to a boil. Add the leeks
and cook for 5 minutes. Drain carefully, toss in a bowl with the butter, and
season with salt and pepper to taste.

Step four: Ladle the sauce on warm serving plates and place the steaks on
top. Carefully cut the twine around the steaks and discard it. For each serving,
divide the leeks into 4 portions around the beef and place a smoked mussel on
top of each portion ofleeks.

Style and register are related in the sense that stylistic variations can occur
within a register, as the speaker or writer can choose, for instance, different
degrees of formality or casualness within that register. In a newspaper article
we could read "SARS appears to be the latest example of a virus leaping from
animals to people and wreaking havoc.", or simply "SARS seems to be the most
recent example of a virus jumping from animals to people and playing havoc".
You would find one sentence or the other depending on the type of publication
and the style of the journalist.

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercises 2, 3 and 4.

2.3. Gender

Do men and women speak in the same way? Do men dominate topics
of conversation? Are men more assertive than women? Do men interrupt
women more often than women to men? Living in a western society it may
take some time to answer these questions, even to find some examples. There
is indeed some evidence that marks language as sexist, or rather its users;
and evidence that women use language differently to men and that cannot
only be attributed to stylistic or individual differences. However, it should be
pointed out that language should not be considered as inherently sexist but it
is used in a sexist way or even that it reflects a sexist world. 'He' is the twelfth
commonest word in the English language whereas 'she' is the thirty-first
commonest word. Since there are not more men in the world than women,
that might, at first glance, seem to suggest that English is a sexist language
but a little further reflection brings us to the realisation that the English
language is used to talk and write in a sexist world. Men are much more likely
than women to be, for example, leaders of their countries, so in newspapers
'he' tends to be more frequent than 'she'.

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S OCIO LINGUISTICS

Patterns of variation between men and women are much more evident in
some parts of the globe, as is the case ofJapan.Japanese women show they are
women when they speak in various ways, for instance by using ne as a sentence
final particle. Male speakers refer to themselves as wasi or ore and female
speakers use watasi or atasi. But differences can be much more subtle than
that. According to Wardhaugh (2002: 318) more men than women in French-
speaking Montreal do not pronounce the /1/ in articles and pronouns (il) elle) la
and les), and schoolgirls in Scotland seem to pronounce the (t) as [t] in words
like water and got more frequently than boys who prefer a glottal stop [?].
Trudgill (1972) in a study carried out in Norwich (England) found that
women tended to be more conservative in terms of language use, as men were
reported to show innovation in their language. He studied phonological and
sociological variables and he also discovered that women are generally more
status-conscious than men. As a matter of fact, in his study he argued that
women had a clear tendency to overreport their use of prestige forms (this study
included various social groups coming from working and middle class) while
men were inclined to underreport theirs. Based upon the collected data and the
subsequent analysis, he concluded that women tended to respond to standard-
language prestige norms, whereas men were liable to react to vernacular prestige
forms. The former type of language was associated, in the context in which
the research was carried out, with refinement, sophistication and adherence
to the standard language; whereas the latter type of language was associated
with roughness and toughness, which were considered, to some extent, as
desirable masculine attributes. The reason for women's adherence to the
standard could be motivated, according to Trudgill, to their powerless position
in life. This study was carried out more than forty years ago, and the findings
should be interpreted with caution as the role of women in society has changed
tremendously in these few decades. However, it clearly demonstrates differences
in male-female linguistic behaviour.
Holmes (1995) finds evidence to support the idea that men tend to dominate
interaction especially in public settings as they:
[... ] talk more than women, ask more questions, interrupt more often, and
when they get the floor they are more likely than a woman to challenge and
disagree with the speaker. In a variety of contexts, women tend to provide
more supportive and encouraging feedback than men, to agree rather than
disagree, to look for connections and add to and build on the contributions
of others. This is positively polite behaviour, stressing shared goals and values,

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 CHAPTER2

and expressing solidarity. Women also exhibit negatively polite behaviour in

many contexts by avoiding competing for the floor or interrupting others. They
appear to be more attentive listeners, concerned to ensure others get a chance
to contribute.
Holmes (1995: 67)

A proposed explanation for this pattern is that women tend to be more

concerned with solidarity (Chodorow 1974; Gilligan 1982), whereas men tend
to be more concerned with status (Tannen, 1990: 38). Holmes adds that some
features of female talk in the form of facilitative tags, agreeing comments and
encouraging feedback can be perceived as attitudes of concern for others and
a way of strengthening relationships. However, male talk appears to be more
competitive and concerned with asserting status.
The study of gender is a complex developing issue, given the fact that a
number of social variables converge and it does not have an uniform effect on
linguistic behaviour. As Eckert points out, this should be taken as an essential
approach to the study of data:
Gender differences are exceedingly complex, particularly in a society and
era where women have been moving self-consciously into the marketplace and
calling traditional gender roles into question. Gender roles and ideologies
create different ways for men and women to experience life, culture, and
society. (1997: 214).

The study of gender and variation arises from the different roles, norms
and expectations of the two sexes. Gender-based variation has not received as
much scientific attention as socioeconomic class or dialectal variation have over
the years. As a result, many of the conceptions we have now about gender and
variation are based upon popular belief rather than on sound sociolinguistic
analysis. In the last few decades this has changed to a certain extent and there is
a considerable amount of research incorporating sex as a biological category in
sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and pragmatics.
Traditionally, the term sex has been used to refer to biological and
anatomical differences between men and women, and gender has been used to
refer to psychological and socio-cultural differences between the sexes. This
approach, although clear and simple enough to categorise profound differences
between males and females proves to be a little simplistic for sociolinguistic
research, as one of the aims of sociolinguistics is to describe the relation between

61
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

these two, i.e., sex and gender. Sex is a biological category which constitutes the
base for the differentiation of roles, norms and expectations within a certain
speech community, and these social roles, norms and expectations compose the
idea of gender. Obviously, it makes no sense to think of the differences between
men and women as a set of traits that characterise and sharply distinguish
each group from one another, since they cannot be considered polar opposites.
Femininity and masculinity change from one culture to the other, or between
generations in the same culture and also depend on ethnic, religious or social
(often socio-economic) groups. What is more, other studies (Leap, 2001) have
also been carried out which support the existence of certain characteristics
that identify gay and lesbian language (specialised vocabulary, phonological
features, distinctive intonation patterns, etc.), although this issue is still an
ongoing debate.
Recent studies have shown neurophysiological differences in the way males
and females process language. It seems that phonological processing in males
relates to the left hemisphere of the brain whereas it involves both hemispheres
in the case of females. However, no conclusive evidence has been shown that such
biological differences have an effect on male-female language processing and
speech; any dissimilarity seems to be a result of social factors (social constraints
and traditional language usage make women speech different to that of men)
educational factors (in some societies women are not allowed to be schooled or
they simply do not have access to higher education), or power (as the sources of
power in western society, in general, have traditionally been controlled by men,
and to a considerable extent still are).
Analysis of these differences suggests that typical lexical and grammatical
choices of men and women lead to the formation of genderlects, i.e., men's and
women's talk. Robin Lakoff (1990) identified certain features distinguishing
women's talk in terms of word choice, for example, in the frequency of certain
colours, and certain evaluative adjectives (charming, lovely, sweet); or in their
hesitant intonation, a voice pitch associated with surprise and questions;
the frequency of tag phrases (you know, kind of); and, their attitude towards
politeness (less swearing, more indirectness, and hedging); and, the use of more
polite noises (uh-huh, yeah, hmm, etc.) which support the interlocutor's view.
Conversely, men tend to be more direct and dominate turn-taking. In general,
they understand language as information gathering rather than a mechanism to
initiate and support their relationship with others. (If you would like to know
more about this read Holmes, 1995).

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 CHAPTER2

At this point it should be specified that there is a difference between the

language used by men and women, and the language used to refer to them.
In the past, masculine has often been considered as the common gender,
and therefore unmarked, and feminine as marked. In most Inda-European
languages the masculine is used to refer to both male and female, for example:

a) Everyone should contact his own travel agent for reservations.

Example a) can refer to males and females in the same group. Traditionally,
the masculine is preferred even if the number of male subjects is inferior to the
amount of female subjects. A number of solutions have been proposed in English
to find a way to avoid this instance of sexism in language. The solution would
be to find a neuter form, unmarked for gender as it is the case of on in French
or impersonal se in Spanish. Although some solutions have been proposed, one .
of the preferred ones is the use of third person plural pronoun to refer to males
and females, for example:

b) Everyone should contact their travel agent for reservations.

Masculine has been traditionally used to refer to professions associated with
men and that shows that the relationship between language and society is a two-
fold one. Language reflects the way the society is organized and to what extent
language shows the power of stereotyping. In a changing world where women
are taking on jobs customarily attributed to men, and in a society where women
are fighting against sexist discrimination, language is also reflecting a change. As
a case in point, the words in the left hand column are becoming less common
and the ones on the right column are preferred nowadays:

Bus boy Dining room attendant

Chairman Chairperson
Fireman Firefighter
Foreman Supervisor
Policeman Police officer
Salesman Salesperson
Spokesman Spokesperson

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 5.

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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

3. SPEECH ACCOMMODATION

Speech accommodation consists of the modification of one's own speech or

other communicative behaviours to the ones used by the person one is interacting
with. This way of adjusting one's own speech can give way to speech convergence
or speech divergence depending on the intentions of the speakers and the
results of the communication encounter. There are many ways of performing
speech accommodation and the results generally vary depending on contextual
factors. Doctors, lawyers and therapists can accommodate their speech as part
of their job when communicating with clients, or to show empathy. Speakers of
a non-standard variety may change their speech due to language insecurity or in
order to facilitate comprehension for their interlocutor when interacting with a
speaker of a standard variety. Adjusting to a given register or style is also a way
of accommodating speech to take advantage of intra-group inclusion.
Speech convergence shows a speaker's or a group's need for social integration
and/or identification with another or others. This modification of speech
can be a conscious and deliberate process but, on many occasions it happens
unconsciously. Research has shown that converging speech accommodation
can increase the speaker's perceived (a) attractiveness; (b) predictability and
supportiveness; (c) level of interpersonal involvement; (d) intelligibility and
comprehensibility; and, (e) the speaker's ability to gain their listeners' compliance
(Giles, 2001).
Speech divergence and the use of divergent strategies are more often fostered
where the participants communicating stem from different social or working
backgrounds giving way to a strategy of intergroup distinctiveness. By means of
this tactic, members of an ingroup can intensify their inclusion in the relevant
group while excluding others. This target can be attained with the use of a
specific slang, jargon, grammatical complexity or, simply, accent.

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 6.

4. EXERCISES

1. Can you briefly describe a situation in which the following sentences

would be stylistically suitable?
a) I'm taking off.

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 CHAPTER2

b) I would like to express my sympathy for your loss.

c) You'd better get out of my way.
d) Have fun!
e) The existence of different ethnic groups in that country brings about ...
f) Break a leg!

2. Read carefully the three excerpts (legal language, language of cooking and
newspaper article language) provided. Underline the words and expressions
that you consider characteristic of each register.
3. Find three samples of language, either written or spoken, that represent
three types of register associated with different occupations or interest
groups. Transcribe or copy them and make a list of 10-15 words,
expressions or syntactic orderings that you consider to be part of that
register. Then, try to pinpoint the three dimensions described above: field,
tenor and mode. (You could possible search the internet to find these three
samples oflanguage.)

Identifying words Syntactic Dimensions

REGISTER
/ expressions orderings Field Tenor Mode

Register 1

Register 2 I
...

4. Do you think that register and style could be means of establishing

solidarity among speakers? Provide an example.
5. Reflect on the way men and women use language (probably Spanish) in
your neighbourhood or the place where you work. Can you find a set of
linguistic features that distinguish the sexes (e.g., expressions or words
that men would never say, and the other way round)?
6. Can you think of an instance of speech accommodation, either a case
of speech convergence or speech divergence? Describe it in around 250
words.

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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

5. RESOURCES ON THE WEB

Now you can visit the web page for this subject where you will find further
references and complementary readings.

6. FURTHER READING AND QUESTIONS

6.1. Text 3

Read the following text carefully and comment on it emphasizing any aspect
you consider of relevance. After the text you will find some questions that may
be helpful. Write around 250-300 words in total.

Style shifting. One of the fundamental principles of sociolinguistic

investigation might simply be stated as There are no single-style speakers. By this
we mean that every speaker will show some variation in phonological and
syntactic rules according to the immediate context in which he is speaking. We
can demonstrate that such stylistic shifts are determined by (a) the relations of
the speaker, addressee, and audience, and particularly the relations of power
or solidarity among them; (b) the wider social context or "domain": school,
job, home, neighborhood, church; (c) the topic. One must add of course that
the stylistic range and competence of the speaker may vary greatly. Children
may have a very narrow range in both the choices open to them and the social
contexts they respond to. Old men often show a narrow range in that their
motivation for style shifting disappears along with their concern for power
relationships. [...]

Well-developed social variables show a systematic range of style shifting

which is correlated to the amount of attention paid to speech. We can easily
observe such style shifting in certain long-standing variables which are common
to almost all dialects of English. The th of thing and that can appear as smooth
fricative "th" sound, the standard variant; as a "t"-like sound lightly or strongly
articulated; as a combination of these two; or as a zero as in Gimme 'at. For most
Americans, the proportions of these forms are nicely blended and graded for
each stylistic level -at different absolute levels for different social groups and
different regions. Similarly, the alternation of -ing and -in' in unstressed syllables
is a systematic stylistic variable for most Americans- again at different levels
for different classes and regions.
(Labov, 2003: 234)

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 CHAPTER2

Issues to consider:

a) What do you think of the sentence There are no single-style speakers?

Explain your answer.

b) Provide some features in your own language that indicate a style shift
(vocabulary, grammatical construction, phonological feature, etc). What
situational factors do you think may cause the shift in style?

6.2. Text4

Read the following text carefully and comment on it emphasizing any aspect
you consider of relevance. After the text you will find some questions that may
be helpful. Write around 250-300 words in total.

Early sociolinguistic research asked questions about what aspects oflanguage

use were different between men and women in conversation. For example, in some
languages, there may be words or sounds that are exclusively used by one group
and not the other. Such linguistic characteristics that directly correlate to gender
are very rare and possibly nonexistent in many languages. Instead, it is much more
likely that certain linguistic features are used with greater or less frequency by one
group or the other. These are called preferential differences. Such differences
would not directly mark a language user as a member of a particular group, but
that group may have a greater or less of a tendency to use that feature with the
same function or frequency as another socially constructed group.

An early researcher in preferential differences oflanguage use according to

gender is Robin Lakoff. Lakoffs Language and Woman's Place (1975) ushered
in a rich area for future investigations. Gender is an oft-studied independent
variable in sociolinguistics, and it thus finds itself being investigated in relation
to many dependent variables (i.e., linguistic distributions across gender groups).
For example, Lakoff and others have described women's speech as being more
polite than men's speech [.. .]. In this line of research, women's speech has been
compared to the normative masculine speech associated with men, who
were more likely to be in positions of power. The unavoidable and unfortunate
implication might be that women's language was (and to some extent still is)
described in terms ofmen's language - as if the former is somehow deviant or of
less worth. More descriptive comparisons, however, have less risk of implying
such unintended default status designations.

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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Below, we provide some of the generalizations derived from research in

the area of gender and language variation. Labov (1990, 2001) has described
that for stable linguistic features, for which there are distinct choices for
standard and nonstandard forms, women use the standard more often than
men. In seeming contradiction to this generalization, however, women are also
characterized as more likely than men to include novel, nonstandard aspects
into the language. In other words, women are more likely to use the standard
forms but the nonstandard aspects oflanguage that they do include in their
speech are more likely to feature new changes (i.e., innovations) than their
male counterparts.

In their review of sociolinguistic studies of gender, Biber and Burges (2000,

2001) summarize generalizations about language use according to speakers'
gender:

• Women speak less than men in mixed-gender settings (Crawford, 1995;

James & Drakich, 1993).

• There are differences in focus: women tend to focus on interactional and

personal aspects of conversation while men are more concerned with
transmitting information (Holmes, 1995; Lakoff, 1990). This has also been
found in the writing styles of the two groups (Argamon, Koppel, Fine &
Shimoni, 2003).

• Women are more likely to be tentative in conversation than men (Coates,

1996, 2004). Women tend to use more linguistic features associated with
hesitation, including hedges and egocentric sequences such as I think or
I guess (Rubin & Greene, 1992).

• Men tend to use more persuasive strategies in their language while

women are more likely to use narration (Fleishman, 1998; Rubin &
Greene, 1992).

We want to emphasize that these are generalizations of gender differences.

Many studies on these constructs have been conducted using qualitative
methods with relatively small sample sizes. Also, such research usually does not
purport to generalize to all members of a given gender. We also must remember
that such practices are socially constructed; thus, different societies and speech
communities may vary in the extent to which such generalizations are valid.
Because there are speech communities for which such generalizations do not
apply, we know that one's gender does not cause or determine the extent to

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 CHAPTER2

which one displays any of the linguistic characteristics described but that any
such differences are attributable to social or gender determinants of the speech
community.
(Friginal & Hardy, 2013)

Issues to consider:

a) The authors of this fragment introduce two new terms, namely, preferential
differences and masculine speech. To what extent do you agree with the
definitions that are provided in the text for these terms? Do you think
the definitions are broad enough to account for all possible contexts or
domains? Would you expand these definitions in any way?
b) No doubt the speech of men and women is different. Can you provide
some specific examples to show this contrast?
c) Do you think that the difference in men and women's talk is culturally
bound, i.e., does it depend on the culture (or country)? Please, provide an
example.

7. RESEARCH ACTIVITY

1. Making use of the internet, try and find as many synonyms and antonyms
as you can for the words manly and womanly.
a) How many synonyms and antonyms can you find for each word?
b) What do these numbers tell you from a quantitative point of view?

c) Separate the words you have found related to manly in three columns,
one for words that are associated with positive meanings, one for
words that are associated with negative meanings and one for words
that can have either positive or negative connotations. Do you learn
something from this?
d) Separate the words you have found related to womanly in three
columns, one for words that are associated with positive meanings,
one for words that are associated with negative meanings and one for
words that can have either positive or negative connotations. Do you
learn something from this?

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SOCIOUNGUISTICS

2. Now take the list of synonyms and antonyms that are associated with
manly and google them. How many hits do you get for each of them?
3. Now take the list of synonyms and antonyms that are associated with
womanly and google them. How many hits do you get for each of them?
4. Does the analysis of your findings from questions 2 and 3 tell you
anything?
You can repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 with two other corpora, namely the
British National Corpus (http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/) and Webcorp (http://www.
webcorp.org.uk/). Both available for free on the internet.

8. REFERENCES

ARGAMON, S.; KOPPEL, M.; FINE,]. and SHIMON!, A. R. 2003. Gender, genre, and writing style
in formal written texts. Text, 23, (3), 299-322.
BAYLEY, R.; CAMERON, R. and LucAs, C. (eds.). 2013. The Oxford handbook of sociolinguistics.
Oxford University Press.
BIBER, D. and BURGES, J. 2000. Historical change in the language use of women and
men.journal ofEnglish Linguistics, 28(1), 21-37.
BIBER, D.; and BURGES,]. 2001. Historical shifts in the language of women and men:
gender differences in dramatic dialogue. Variation in English: multi-dimensional studies.
London: Longman, 157-70.
COATES, ]. 1991. Women talk: Conversation between women friends. Cambridge, MA:
Blackwell.
COATES, ]. 1996. Women talk: Conversation between women friends. Cambridge, MA:
Blackwell.
COATES, ]. 2004. Women, men, and language: A sociolinguistic account ofgender differences in
language. New York: Pearson Longman.
CHODOROW, N. 1974. 'Family structure and feminine personality', in M. Z. Rosaldo and L.
Lamphere (eds.) Woman, Culture and Society. Stanford: Stanford University press.
CRAWFORD, M. 1995. Talking difference: On genderand language (Vol. 7). London: Sage.
ECKERT, P. 1997. 'Sex and Gender Differences in Variation', in N. Coupland &A.Jaworski
(eds.). Sociolinguistics: A Reader and Coursebook. Basingstoke: Palgarve.
FLEISCHMAN, S. 1998. Gender, the personal, and the voice ofscholarship: a viewpoint. Signs,
975-1016.

70
 CHAPTER2

FRIGINAL, E. and HARDY,]. 2013. Corpus-based sociolinguistics: a guide for students. New York:
Routledge.
GILES, H. 2001. 'Speech Accomodation', in R. Mesthrie (ed.) Concise Encyclopedia of
Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Pergamon.
GILLIGAN, C. 1982. In a Different Voice. London: Harvard University Press.
HOLMES,]. 1995. Women, men and polliteness. Londong: Longman.
JAMES, D. and DRAKICH,]. (1993). Understanding gender differences in amount of talk: A
critical review of research. Gender and conversational interaction, 281-312.
LABOV, W. 1990. 'The intersection of sex and social class in the course of linguistic
change'. Language variation and change, 2(02), 205-254.
LABOY, W. 2001. Principles oflinguistic change: Social factors. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
LABov, W. 2003. 'Some sociolinguistic principles', in Ch. B. Bratt Paulston and G.
Richard Tucker (eds.) Sociolinguistics: The Essential Readings. Malden. USA: Blackwell
Publishing.
LAKOFF, R. T. 1990. Talkingpower: The politics oflanguage in our lives. New York: Basic Books.
LEAP, W. L. 2001. 'Gay Language', in R. Mesthrie (ed.) Concise Encyclopedia ofSociolinguistics.
Oxford, UK: Pergamon.
RUBIN, D. L. and GREENE, K. 1992. Gender-typical style in written language. Research in the
Teaching ofEnglish, 7-40.
SHORT, M. 2001. 'Style', in Mesthire, R. 2001. Concise Encyclopaedia of Sociolinguistics.
Oxford, UK: Pergamon.
TANNEN, 0. 1990. You just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation. New York: ·
William Morrow.
TRUDGILL, P. 1972. 'Sex Covert Prestige and Linguistic Change in the Urban British
English of Norwich'. Language and Society, I, 179-95.
WARDHAUGH, R. 2002. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. (4th ed.) Malden, USA: Blackwell
Publishing.

71
CHAPTER3
 This chapter includes a description of pidgins and
creoles with special attention paid to English-based
creoles. Attention is given to the process of decreolisation
and the implications of the use of pidgins and creoles in
formal education. This chapter is devoted to:
• Pidginisation and creolisation
• Instances of pidgins and creoles
• Decreolisation
• The use of pidgins and creoles in education

1. KEYWORDS

The following list of key words contains some important terms that are
presented in this chapter. A definition for each term can be found at the end of
this book, in the glossary.

• Acrolect • Lingua franca

• Auxiliary language • LWC
• Basilect • Mesolect
• English-lexifier creole • Minority language
• Language conflict • New Englishes
• Language election/selection • Sabir
• Lexifier

2. PIDGINISATION AND CREOLISATION

Pidginisation is a process that takes place when two languages come into
contact and, as a result, there is a process of simplification or hybridisation.
This generally occurs because there is a need to communicate between speakers

75
S OCIOLINGUISTICS

of different languages and there are limited relations between them, e.g., the
language is only used for a specific purpose such as trade. Often, the words
from one language are adopted while using the syntactic ordering of the other
language but, as a rule the grammatical system is simplified as well as other
complex linguistic features. The formation of pidgins was characteristic in the
16th and 17th centuries when European colonial powers 1 spread all over the
world and new languages, which were lexically related to the language of the
colonizer, emerged. These contact languages were initially used just for functional
purposes in specific situations and contexts and, therefore, they were not the
native language of anyone and speakers continued to use their languages in their
own speech communities. Wardhaugh (2002: 62) points out that the process of
pidginisation most likely requires the contact of more than two languages. In a
context with only two languages there would probably be a struggle between the
two and the most likely outcome would be a relation of dominance of one over
the other, based on social and economic factors. The language of the dominant
culture would probably be imposed. In a situation in which the locals speak more
than one native language there is a need to find a common ground.
Pidgins often endure several geographical and sociolinguistic contexts as is
the case of Melanesian Pidgin English which arose as a shipboard lingua franca,
it was later used as a plantation language and it finally came to be a language for
inter-ethnic city communication (Richford & McWhorter, 1997).
Pidgins have been used for centuries and eventually, some of them, became
creoles. The process of creolisation takes place when that language that was
originally a functional language used only for a particular purpose is acquired
as a mother tongue by children who are exposed to it. The social circumstances
in which this language is now used are more complex as they need to serve all
kinds of social needs and communicative purposes and, therefore, the language
expands. In such a situation, the pidgin develops and becomes more complex
both in terms of grammar and phonology and its use then covers all kinds
of communicative functions. The processes of pidginsiation and creolisation
are absolutely different although they overlap. The former involves some
kind of simplification, in terms of lexis, grammar and phonological features,
whereas the latter entails the expansion in all kinds of linguistic features and
communicative functions. This amplification becomes apparent because the
language which originally had limited functions becomes now a system used

1
See World Englishes in chapter 6.

76
 CHAPTER 3

as a native language that can be used for all types of social functions. However,
not every pidgin becomes a creole. Although creoles have gained status in the
last decades, there are millions of speakers whose native and only language is
a creole and they may feel they speak a sub-standard language. Some creoles
have become official languages in places like Papua New Guinea and some
other creoles are widespread such as Hawaiian Creole English (English-based)
and Haitian Creole (French-based), which is the native language of almost all
Haitians (over 5 million). Another interesting example of this full development
and common use of pidgins and/ or creoles is Kiswahili. This language even has
a BBC web page where news can be read and heard (www.bbc.co.uk/swahili).
Between 1950 and 1975 these languages stopped being considered
uninteresting and marginal 'bastardized jargons'2 and gained the status of
languages, and together with a change in their political status and their social
consideration in some countries, they became of central interest for many
linguists, including sociolinguists, applied linguists and theoretical linguists.
Before that, pidgins and creoles were deemed to be oflittle interest because they
were considered to lack certain linguistic features such as, articles, the copula,
and grammatical inflections, all as a result of their 'functional' purpose which
left aside linguistic features which were not essential to convey meaning. At
present, they are considered as languages in their own right or as varieties of a
language with their own history, structure, communicative function and speech
communities.
Originally, pidgins served the purpose of a lingua franca, i.e., a language
used by people who speak different mother tongues and who used a common
language for a specific functional situation, such as trade. This is an old
phenomenon that still occurs today as we can find some clear examples of
lingua francas, such as English which is used all over the world for intercultural
communication and has become the language of business. Another example of a
lingua franca is Esperanto. This language is not the mother tongue of any speaker
because it is an artificial language, but it is sometimes used for international
communication.

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 1.

2
Hymes (1971: 3) mentions that pidgins and creoles were ignored to a great extent by linguists
as 'marginal languages'. He adds that these languages, instead of being considered reative adaptations,
have been regarded as degenerations and, therefore, not as systems in their own right.

77
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

3. SOME INSTANCES OF PIDGINS

Most pidgins and creoles are based on a European language, and the most
common and widespread ones are based on one of the following languages:
English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, or German. English-based creoles are
very common in Caribbean areas such as Antigua, Barbados, Jamaica and the
West Indies in general, but they are also present in Africa (Cameroon, Kenya, St.
Helena, Zimbabwe, Namibia), Asia (India, China, Hong Kong) and the Pacific
area (Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Australia). French-based creoles can
be found in Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Lucia and Haiti. Some Spanish-based
pidgins and creoles were used in Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico and
the Philippines. Some instances of Portuguese-based creoles can be found in
Aruba, Bonaire and Curac;ao, Malaysia and Singapore. These are some of the
most important pidgins:
Cameroon Pidgin English
Hawaiian Pidgin
Kamtok
Kenya Pidgin Swahili
NagaPidgin
New Guinea Pidgin German
Nigerian Pidgin English
Papuan Pidgin English
Pidgin German (Gastarbeiters) 3
Russenorsk4
Sango
Vietnamese Pidgin French

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 2.

3
Pidgins are more common in places with easy access to the sea, especially around the equatorial
belt in former colonial locations. They tend to be associated with colonisation and distant cultures,
but there are some instances of pidgins within Europe. In the 1970s guest workers in Germany coming
from neighbouring countries such as Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Turkey developed a pidgin in
some big German cities like Berlin and Frankfurt.
4
Russenorsk was used until the 1920's in the Arctic and was used by Russian fishermenand
Norwegian fish traders.

78
 CHAPTER3

Pidgins are to be found all over the world but, they tend to share a number
of general characteristics. These are some of them:
a) Almost complete lack of inflection in nouns, pronouns, verbs and
adjectives.
b) Nouns are unmarked for number or gender.
c) Verbs lack tense markers.
d) There is no distinction for case in personal pronouns, so I can stand for
me, and they for them.
e) Syntactically, the absence of clausal structures is quite common in
pidgins. However, relative clauses and other types of embedding develop
in creolisation.
f) In order to avoid possible confusion, as there is often no distinction
between long and short vowels (e.g., ship and sheep would be pronounced
in the same way), a common resource introduced in these languages is
'reduplication'. For example, in Tok Pisin sip means 'ship' and sipsip means
'sheep', and pis means 'peace' while pispis has the meaning of 'urinate'.
Another common usage of reduplication is to intensify the meaning of a
word, for instance, cry means 'cry' whereas crycry means 'cry continually',
or talk meaning 'talk' and talktalk meaning 'chatter' 5 •

4. SOME INSTANCES OF CREOLES

Terminology and sociolinguistic status are not always consistent and some
creoles can be referred to as pidgins (for instance, Tok Pisin and Hawaiian Pidgin
English) or the other way round. This mismatch is produced because 'pidgin'
and 'creole' are technical terms commonly used by linguists but not necessarily
by speakers of the languages. Some instances of creoles are:
Anglo-Romani (a creolization of Romani in England)
Asmara Pidgin (Italian-based, it is spoken in parts of Ethiopia)

5
Please note that this communication strategy is very frequenr in many languages. For example
in Spanish if you want to emphasize that a mountain was really high you can say 'La montafia era al ta,
alta' or to express that the cake was really good you can say 'El pastelestaba bueno, bueno'. In English
you can say 'You wicked, wicked child'.

79
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Berbice Creole Dutch

Chabacano o Zamboangueiio. (Spanish-based)6
Haitian Creole
Hawaiian Creole English
Jamaican Patwa
TokPisin

The British Empire spread all over the world for around 350 years and this
favoured the expansion of Standard English and regional varieties overseas,
on the one hand, but also the creation and development of many pidgins and
creoles in different parts of the globe, on the other. As a matter of fact there have
been more English-based creoles than ones based on other languages such as
French, Portuguese or Spanish. Two major groups of English based creoles can
be identified: the Atlantic group, spoken in West Africa and the Caribbean area
such as Jamaican Creole English, the Creole English of the Lesser Antilles and
the Eastern Caribbean varieties (Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana), flourishing in
the 17th and 18th c.; and, the Pacific group including Hawaiian Creole English
and Tok Pisin.

4.1. Hawaiian Creole English

Over 600.000 people in Hawaii speak Hawaiian Creole English (HCE) also
known as Hawai'i Pidgin or simply Pidgin. HCE is immersed in a complex
sociolinguistic situation because, as often happens with pidgins and creoles, it
was denigrated repeatedly in schools and public administrations for years but
more and more often it is turning into a way to express solidarity and forge local
identity. Nowadays, Hawaii's Council is determined to maintain and develop
this local language by means of enforcing competent language planning and
policy (see chapter 5).

6
There are thee main examples of creoles based on Spanish: Papiamento (formed in the 17th c. in
the island ofCurzao which is currently used in the islands ofAruba and Bonaire); Palenquero (developed
in the 18th c. near Cartagena, Colombia); and Chabacano or Zamboanguefio (is used in some parts of the
Philippines). These Spanish-based creoles are at the time of writing out of the scope of this Unit but
if you wish to know more about them, you can read 'Lenguas pidgin y lenguas criollas' in Principios de
sociolingUisticay sociolog{a del lenguaje by Francisco Marcos Marin, pp. 277-291 (Barcelona: Ariel).

80
 CHAPTER3

These are some general characteristics of HCE:

1. From a phonological point of view, HCE is rather simple since it avoids
phonological features which are difficult to pronounce in any of the
languages in contact (English, Hawaiian and many others). The vocalic
system was simplified and fricatives tend to be avoided:

E.g.: Bo da dem (both of them)

Braddah (brother)

2. Vocabulary is derived to a large extent from the socially dominant

group. English-based pidgins usually have about 90% of words coming
from English, the lexifier language. Notice that some of these words
HCE come directly from English (A) and some others have been adapted
or simplified (B). Still, they are largely recognisable:

A B

Boy Den (then)

Fish Lata (later)
Guy Neva (didn't)
Stuff Togedda (together)
Stay Wot? (What?)

3. Many words are polysemous as, for instance:

E.g.: try can be used as a main verb 'try', but also as a verb auxliary with
the meaning of'please'. Inside means 'inside', 'soul' and 'heart'.

4. Almost complete lack of inflection in nouns, pronouns, verbs and

adjectives. Nouns are unmarked for number and gender:

E.g.: 'Dis da language fo mos peopo dat stay live inside Hawai'i'
'Him was real tight wit his brudda'.
'You go five mile sout'

81
Soc10LINGu1s11cs

5. Tense and aspect are normally indicated with a marker.

Past tense is expressed by placing preverbal preterite auxiliaries 'wen',
'bin' and 'h~d' before the verb:

E.g.: 'Shi wen pein da grin haus'.

You bin say go up on roof

Future events are marked by 'go', 'gon', 'gona', or 'goin' before the verb:

E.g.: 'I gon it fish'.

Progressive aspect can be expressed by: a) inserting 'ste' (stay) before the
verb in the infinitive; b) using the - ing form of the verb; and, c) using both
forms altogether:

E.g.: a) 'Shi ste rait da leta'.

b) 'Dey pleing futbawl'.
c) 'Naue ste iting da kek'.

6. Negative auxiliaries are nonexistent and negation is expressed by placing

'no', 'nat' or 'neva' before the verb:

E.g.: Shi neva si daet muvi'

'No can' (cannot, it's not possible)
'No mo' (there isn't any)

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 3.

4.2. Jamaican Patwa (or Patois)

As a result of not having an official status, a name for the creole language
used mainly in Jamaica has not been fixed to the present day and some terms

82
 CHAPTER3

likeJamaican,Jamaican Creole, Jamaican Patwa or Patois are all used. Over 90%
of the 2.5 million population of Jamaica in the late 1990's were descendants
of slaves brought from Africa. Language in this Caribbean island nowadays
reflects the history of that country and its contact with a whole range of cultures
and languages that have passed through. In spite of that, the official language
remains Standard English which is the educated model spoken by the elite and
also the official language. In Jamaica, a whole linguistic spectrum can be found
having Standard English (the lexifier language) at one extreme and Jamaican
Patwa or creolized English at the other. Jamaican Patwa is characterised by its
fragmented English speech, and for having a syntax developed during the days
of slavery with the influence of several West African languages, pertaining to
the Niger-Congo family of languages. Nowadays, this language has not got
much social and socioeconomic status in Jamaica and it is largely spoken by
peasants and laborers with little education. It is not considered an "acceptable"
language for formal purposes and speakers are often considered as socially and
linguistically inferior. Some attempts have been made to change this situation
aiming to give Jamaican Patwa official status and turn it into the language
of education. Jamaican Patwa is now gaining in prestige and is now seen
sometimes in newspapers or heard on the radio, and is also present in songs
which helps to raise the self-esteem of the speakers and assert their identity.
This creole does not quite have a uniform orthographic representation and
no agreement has been made to conclude if it should accommodate the lexifier
language (Standard English) or if an entirely new system should be created.

Some general features ofJP:

1. No /t -8 /or /d - o/distinction:

E.g.: JP Engl.

'de' the
'dis' this
other
'odder'
with
'wid'
thing
'rink'

83
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

2. Final consonant clusters tend to be devoiced (/d/ becomes / t/ ) or deleted:

E.g.: JP Engl.

'husban' husband
'purfume' perfumed

3. It is not stressed-timed but syllable-timed, so all syllables receive the same

stress. (You can find some recordings in the web site for this subject.)
4. Modified personal pronouns:

I 'me'
He 'im'
They 'dem'

5. Absence of plural markers on nouns:

E.g.: JP Engl.

'all type a people' all kinds of people

'book' shoes

6. Altered third person singular subject-verb concord:

E.g.: JP Engl.

'if im dare axe' if he dares to ask

'shi greet im' she greets him

7. Absence of auxiliaries to form the negative:

E.g.: JP Engl.

'Mi nuh wan nutten fe eat'. I don't want anything to eat.

84
 0 ~ The Bahamas

OD )} t Bahamian Creole English

0 ti,
Oo f)
C'
Cayman Island Dominican Rep.
Creole =--,
• J . Haiti ~ o a ma n"..: Eng1·1s h
ama1ca
...._ ,., c ~ L w<i rn-'
c::::::J.••u a n'bbe Cre Ie ng I1~I1
~H
0
Belizean Creole C I o
I alttafl reo e \ a
0
Jamaican Patois Guadalu e
P
f'::--.
o__..; .
An11llcJ tl re-olr?
Miskito Co ast Creole Dominica -wf
St. Vincent I • Ba1~n Creo le
Grenada . ~ .rena tli n. ncl Vincenttan cr~ol
l!• - Tobag man Creole
· '-...T6 n1 dad ia11 English Creole
ice Duth Cn•o le
Mekatelyu Guyanese Sararnacc:in
Creole rin.:im~
C1eole
Panamanian ~ Fre nch Guianese
Creole English Colombia 8 - reole

Pidgins and creoles

_[
in the Caribbean Surianame

- French-based
- English-based
Brazil
- Spanish-based
Dutch-based Peru

00
Vl Figure 2. Pidgins and creoles in the Caribbean.
SocroLlNGursucs

8. Copula deletion:

E.g.: JP Engl.

'it soh bad' it is so bad

'im short an tumpa' he is short and stokcy
'life ard many sey' many people say that life is hard

9. Tense marked lexically (instead of morphologically):

E.g.; JP Engl.

'Is dat ooman deh did tek mi That is the woman that took
money'. my money.

4.3. Tok Pisin

Papua New Guinea has three official languages which are in reality second
languages for most people: Hiri Motu, Tok Pisin and English. Tok Pisin (TP) is
used nowadays by three million people as a unifying language, and lingua franca,
among speakers of a number of different indigenous languages (over 800) Papua
New Guinea. This language, which remains very distant to English, is sometimes
used as a pidgin and sometimes as a Creole and shows clear influences from
English in terms of borrowings, subordination patterns, plural forms (-s), etc.
However, we can not say that a continuum between TP and English can be found
as it seems that decreolisation does not affect TP. In 1975 Papua New Guinea
was born and TP was recognised in the constitution as one of the national
languages. Now some communities can choose to have their children schooled
in TP in the first three years of elementary education but parents perceive that
English brings more advantages to their children. TP is also used in many
government publications, in radio, television broadcasting and in the House
Assembly, which is the parliament. Wantok, a weekly newspaper, is written in TP
and has a readership of over 10,000 people.

86
 CHAPTER3

Some general features of TP:

1. Consonant assimilation. There is no distinction between /p/ and /f/; /g/
and /k/; /s/, / f /and /tf /:

E.g.: TP Engl.

'hap pas seven' half past seven

'lipt' lift
'pait' fight
'pilta' filter
'pinga' finger
'pul bilong pis' fin of fish
'pulap' full, full up

E.g.: TP Engl.

'sak' shark
'sel' shell
'sem' shame
'sip' ship
'sot, sotpela' short
'su shoe
'sips' chips
'sis' cheese
'sops' chops

E.g.: TP Engl.

dok' dog
'lek' leg
'pik' pig

87
SoCJOLlNGms11cs

2. Simplified consonant clusters:

E.g.: TP Engl.

'ailan' island
'gaden' garden
'hos' horse
'kona' corner
'lam' lamp
'lephan' left hand
'wok' work
'wan handet' hundred

3. Simplified vocalic system, only /a/, /e/, /i/, / o/, /u/:

E.g.: TP Engl.

'fut" foot
'grin' green
'gro' grow
'ston' stone
'smok' smoke
'stret' straight on
'tumora' tomorrow

4. Word reduplication to indicate emphasis:

E.g.: TP Engl.

'liklik bas' minibus

'lukluk' look at
'man bilong toktok' talkative person
'singsing' festival

88
 CHAPTER3

5. Plural suffix '-pela':

E.g.: TP Engl.

'emtupela' those two

'emtripela' those three
'etpela' eight
'tupela' both
'tupela marit' married couple

6. Lexicon based on English. It should be taken into account that in the

process of decreolization, more and more words tend to be adopted from
the lexifier language and the acrolect quickly adopts words that portray
the present society.

E.g.: TP Engl.

'adres' address
'dokta' doctor
'heven' heaven
'man' man
'stori' story
'skul' school

7. Metaphors in word formation:

E.g.: TP Engl.

'haus bilong tumbuna pasin' museum

'kaikai long marring' breakfast
'laplap bilong windo"ston' curtain
'lain bilongJisas' disciples
'pin bilong nus' nose pin

89
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

8. Simplified prepositional system (only three): 'long' used for 'to, for, from';
'bilong' used for 'of; and, 'wantaim' used for 'with'.

NOTE: In the web page for this subject, you can find written
ural samples of these and other pidgins and creoles.
1

5. DECREOLISATION

Creoles, as any other living language, continue to evolve. There is a

phenomenon called decreolisation that arises when one creole has a prolonged
contact with a standard language in a specific society, and that standard brings
a considerable influence to bear on the creole. So, speakers start to develop
the creole taking the standard as a model and a continuum emerges with the
standard as a model at one end and the creole as a model at the other. This
process can be clearly perceived nowadays in places like Barbados, Cameroon,
India, Nigeria and Papua New Guinea, among others. In such a situation the
different forms of the creole become socially stratified and the variety or varieties
which is closer to the standard often become the language of the elite and
educated society (acrolect), whereas the variety which are closer to the creole often
represents illiterate people and lower social class (basilect). Between these two
poles there can appear a whole range of varieties or mesolects which determine
not only social stratification but also alleged identities among their speakers.
Wardhaugh (2002: 80) cites Allsopp (1958) and shows the following stages in
the continuum to say 'I told him' in Guyanese:

1. ai t:Jld him
2. ai to:ld him
3. ai to: 1 Im
4. ai tel Im
5. a tel Im
6. ai tel I
7. a tel I
8. mi tel I
9. mi tel am

90
 CHAPTER3

The varieties 1 to 3 reflect the acrolect typical of middle-class usage, varieties

4 to 7 display mesolect forms characteristic in lower middle and urban working
classes. The pronunciation in stage 8 is closer to the basilect and shows a rural
working class, as well as item 9 which is used by old and illiterate rural laborers.
Hawaii is one of those places where we can find this continuum of speech
which ranges from the distinct HCE to Standard English of Hawaii. In this case,
it depends mainly on the speaker's location and upbringing. The basilect (barely
intelligible by Standard English speakers) is spoken in the country side whereas
the acrolect is spoken in the mayor cities.

6. THE USE OF PIDGINS AND CREOLES IN EDUCATION

It is rather uncommon to find a pidgin or creole, or other minority dialect,

as the language of instruction in formal education in any educational system in
the world, and Valdman (1989) considers that this is so for two reasons. On the
one hand, the continuum of variation that is usually found between the pidgin/
creole and the standard educational language represents a strong obstacle (see
decreolisation) as it is sometimes difficult to isolate a particular norm to be used
in education. On the other hand, the social consideration of the pidgin/ creole is
in a way hindered by the fact that it is frequently considered as deviant from the
standard and as having an inferior status in the speech community.
Siegel (2002) affirms that speakers of creoles and minority dialects generally
do not do well in the formal education system. In some cases this can be caused
by socio-economic factors but on some other occasions it seems clear that
language plays a role. Very often, these speakers are in a way disadvantaged
because the language of formal education is actually a standard variety that they
do not speak as a mother tongue. This is the case of AAVE (African American
Vernacular English) which has been analysed quite extensively since the 1960's
in the United States. Not so much research has been developed with regards to
other minority dialects and creoles although these cases are equally interesting
(see chapter 5 for information on Aboriginal languages).
Some creoles are now recognised as distinct varieties with distinct grammatical
systems but educators and policy makers introduce many arguments against the
application of a 'nonstandard' variety in the educational system. They posit, for
example, that instruction time should be spent on learning the standard as they
consider that any effort made to teach the nonstandard is a waste of time. They

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SocroLINGUisn cs

believe that using and teaching a nonstandard variety of speech in the classroom
deprives children of a chance to benefit from the socio-economic advantages
that speakers of standard varieties have, condemning them to an unchanging
underclass status. Some other educators and policy makers advocate that using a
nonstandard variety in education may cause confusion and interference with the
standard variety which will result in additional difficulties for the children.

Some progress has been made in this respect over the years; and pidgins and
creoles are gaining social and political recognition and acknowledgement as part
of the social identity in many parts of the world (see language policy in chapter 5).
As a case in point, Holmes (1992) reports that when Tanzania faced the dilemma
of which language to choose as it official national language, the first President
of the country, Julius Nyerere, chose Swahili, from the Bantu language family, as
the official language because it was spoken widely spoken as a lingua franca in a
variety of contexts. Choosing a local language from over a hundred indigenous
languages spoken in the country would have caused conflict or discontent, or even
potentially outright war in the country; English would not have been commonly
accepted either as it was perceived as the colonial language: not very appropriate
for a newly independent nation. Moreover, Swahili had served as the language
of the independence movement. In the last few decades there has been a global
attempt to legitimise the use of pidgins, creoles and minority dialects in formal
education claiming that the speakers of these languages have a right to express
their own linguistic and sociocultural identity in their own language. Siegel (2002)
points out that this enthusiasm for using pidgins, creoles and minority dialects in
formal education had to face some obstacles including the following:

1. Negative attitudes and ignorance on the part of teachers who, especially in

immigration settings, may mistake language problems of creole-speaking
children for cognitive problems and eventually lower their expectations
of these students. In the end, this leads to lower performance of these
students, compared with students speaking the standard variety. Some
studies in this area have been carried out with immigrant children moving
to new educational systems such as creole-speaking children coming from
the Caribbean area and entering the public educational system in the
United States.

2. Negative attitudes and self image of the students themselves because of

denigration of their speech and culture. This effect can be neutralised by
legitimising the students' language varieties and adopting an integrative

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 CHAPTER3

approach, for example: bringing aspects of their culture into the classroom
(e.g.: traditions, music, etc.); encouraging students to speak and/ or write
in these varieties; teaching some sociolinguistic principles that explain
linguistic and pragmatic differences with standard varieties.
3. Repression of self-expression because of the need to use an unfamiliar
form of language.
4. Difficulty in acquiring literacy in a second language or dialect. In this case,
children may be repressed if they are not allowed to express themselves in
their familiar language variety.
Pidgins, creoles and minority dialects have so far been used in three types of
educational programs (Siegel, 2002), all of them aiming at additive bilingualism
or bidialectalism, that is, helping the students to acquire the standard language
while maintaining their own pidgin, creole or minority language. This practice
clearly contributes to their self-esteem and their right to maintain their mother
tongue. These three sorts of programs vary in the way the children's home
varieties are considered and interact with the standard language within the
classroom. These three types are: instrumental program, accommodation
program or awareness program. In the first case, the instrumental program is
characterised by the use of the home variety as the medium of instruction, so it
is used as a vehicle for the acquisition of initial literacy and the learning of other
subjects in the curriculum. The standard language is therefore introduced at a
later stage and it gradually becomes the language ofinstruction for some subjects.
Instrumental programs have been implemented in places such as Mauritius
(Mauritian Creole) or Papua New Guinea (Tok Pisin). In the second case. The
second type is the accommodation program which allows the use of the home
language and its use is not penalised in any way but it is, however, not employed
as the language of instruction for any subject, nor is it studied as a language in
itself. At higher levels, as students get familiar with the standard variety, their
home language and culture can be preserved by means of the study ofliterature
or music of their own communities. Some accommodation programs have been
set up for Hawaiian children speakers of varieties of Hawaiian Creole English
and speakers of Aboriginal English in Australia. The awareness program
is the third type, and it includes some teaching of basic sociolinguistic and
sociopragmatic principles of different language varieties within the curriculum.
And the grammatical rules and pragmatics of these other varieties are compared
with those of the standard variety. Some awareness programs have been created
for creole-speaking Caribbean immigrants in the United Kingdom and speakers

93
Soc10LINGUISTICS

of Kriol and Aboriginal English in Australia. (Recent research carried out in

these three programs is summarised in Siegel, 2002: 17-29)

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercises 4 and 5.

7. EXERCISES

1. Search the internet for 'Esperanto' and 'Esperanto speaking communities'.

Read about this language and then write a summary (about 250 words) with
the information you consider relevant about it (origin, users, number of
speakers, etc.). What advantages and disadvantages can you see for the use of
Esperanto nowadays?
2. Search the web for at least three of the pidgins from the list. Get some general
information about them (where they are spoken, number of speakers, etc.)
and find a short sample (10 lines). Then analyse it and underline all the words
or expressions you think that come from English.
3. Read the following excerpts in Hawai'i Creole English adapted from Masuda
(1995: 322) and transcribed following Odo Orthography7. Tty to transcribe
them into Standard English and note that the pronunciation of the text is
much closer to the Odo Orthography than to standard English.

A. Kaz B. Maijab

No, da ka get m wan long lain. So, mai jab iz tu sii

Samtaim in wan long lain. De.et nomo, nomo, no chrabo in da fiild
Meibii, get abaut fifti, siksti kaz, y<e. Dei gr<eb <lea ka,
.tEn'den, its nat onli wan lain, Den, sam av dem, <lei tel,
Dei get sevro mo aDa lainz, Eh, ai tink
Dei get sam mo kaz, tu, <e? Mai kampani nomo, doh, y<e.
.!End, da tiimstaz iz, Y'sii, if nomo, nomo kampani,
Awlweiz bringin ka, a:nd, Wel, ai go faind,
Awlweiz teikin aut, sii. Sii, a:s mai jab, sii.

7
Bickerton, D . and C. Odo, (1976) Change and Variation in Hawaiian English. Vol. 1: General Phonology
and Pidgin Syntax. Honolulu: Social Science Research Institute. University of H awai'i.

94
 CHAPTER3

4. Jamaican Creole or 'patois' is commonly used in Jamaica although it is

frequently not socially valued. The language of education is Standard English.
The teaching of Standard English in schools often proves ineffective as children
prefer to use 'patois'. Why do you think this happens? What do you think is the
common attitude among schoolchildren towards Standard English? You may
want to have a look to chapter 5 and read about language planning.
5. Find out what languages are official in the following countries.

Australia Haiti Philippines

Belgium India Singapore
Brazil Kenya Spain
Canada New Zealand Tanzania
Colombia Norway Uruguay
Finland Papua New Guinea Zaire
France Paraguay

Why do you think some of these countries have more than one official
language?

8. RESOURCES ON THE WEB

Now you can visit the web page for this subject where you will find further
references and complementary readings.

9. FURTHER READING AND QUESTIONS

9.1. Text 5

Read the following text carefully and comment on it emphasizing any aspect
you consider of relevance. After the text you will find some questions that may
be helpful. Write around 250-300 words in total.
Many present-day creoles are spoken by descendants of the African slaves in
America and the Caribbean. As mentioned above, the common language of the

95
S OCIOLINGUISTICS

plantation was generally a pidgin, and children naturally acquired the pidgin
as a first language. As the families' communicative needs expanded, so did the
resources of the language they used. The pidgin developed into a creole.

Alternatively, a pidgin can become so useful as a lingua franca that it may be

expanded and used even by people who share a tribal language. In multilingual
speech communities, parents may use a pidgin so extensively during the day,
in the market, at church, in offices and on public transport, that it becomes
normal for them to use it at home too. In this case, too, children will often
acquire it as their first language and it will develop into a creole. Tok Pisin is
the first language of many children in New Guinea.

Once a creole has developed it can be used for all the functions of any
language - politics, education, administration (including tax forms [...]),
original literature (and translations of Shakespeare too), and so on. Tok Pisin
is the most frequently used language of debate in the Papua New Guinea
Parliament. Creoles have become accepted standard and even national and
official languages, as will be seen in the next chapter. Once developed there is
no evidence in their linguistic structure to reveal their pidgin origins. A linguist
doing a present day (or synchronic) analysis of, say, Afrikaans would not be able
to identify it as a creole. The features which might suggest its creole origins
are all features which can be found in other well-established languages with
no history of creolisation that we can know about. (Even English has been
described by some as a latter-day creole, with French vocabulary superimposed
on a Celtic base.) This is fascinating and provocative since, as mentioned above,
it suggests that the processes of pidginisation and creolisation may be universal
processes which reveal a great deal about the origins oflanguage and the ways
in which languages develop.
(Holmes, 1992: 98-99)

Issues to consider:
a) Do you think that by using creoles in publications the post-creole
continuum can be stopped and the language can be fixed in some way?
b) In this fragment it is stated that some creoles coexist in a more or less
stable diglossic relationship with their lexifier language (Is there not
usually only one lexifier language for a pidgin?). Can you provide any
explanation or hypothesis to account for this fact?

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 CHAPTER3

c) Bearing in mind the 21st century society we live in, do you think that new
pidgins and creoles will arise as they did in the 18th and 19th c.?

9.2. Text6

Read the following text carefully and comment on it, emphasising any aspect
you consider of relevance. After the text you will find some questions that may
be helpful. Write around 250-300 words in total.
[... ] A third, still unresolved issue regards the related concepts of a 'creole
continuum' and 'decreolisation'. The creole continuum is a model developed
from the 1960s onwards by such scholars as Bailey (1966, 1971), DeCamp
(1971), and Bickerton (1973, 1975). The creole continuum model seeks to
account for variation in creole speech production by attributing linguistic
features to different sectors of a scale that stretches from the basilect, the
variety furthest away from the lexifier language, via the intermediate stage of
mesolect, to the acrolect, which is the variety closest to the lexifier language. An
assumption inherent in this model is that the basilect represents the original
creole, whereas all further developments constitute 'decreolisation' towards the
acrolect. However, scholars like Chaudenson (1992) have proposed that the
inverse development may have been prevalent, i.e. that 'basilectalisation' rather
than decreolisation has occurred in several cases. Chaudenson argues that
French became more creole-like with each generation of non-native learners.

Many creoles coexist in a more or less stable diglossic relationship with

their lexifier languages. This situation could theoretically lead to structural
adjustment towards the lexifier languages as for instance schooling in creole
becomes more accessible. However, even in the cases where contact with the
lexifier language has not been interrupted, decreolisation cannot be postulated
without the support of textual evidence. As a matter of fact, there is evidence
from a number of creoles documented at earlier stages of their diachrony that
the overall language structure may have changed very little over time (e.g.
Wood 1072 on Papiamentu). A more plausible explanation for the apparent
phenomenon of decreolization is that variation has existed in creole speech
communities throughout their history, but that the numerical proportions of
different speaker groups have changed over time, thus leading to the impression
that decreolisation has taken place (Barrens 1996a: 140). The Jamaican Creole
continuum is a good example (D'Costa and Lalla 1989: 5-6). This does not

97
SocroLINGursncs

mean that there are no instances of genuine decreolisation. Indeed, in certain

contexts, prolonged contact with the lexifier language almost inevitably leads
to decreolisation. This appears to be the case of Nicaraguan Creole English as
described by Holm (1978), as opposed to the present-day variety documented
in Bartens (in preparation).

As remarked above, variation is an inherent characteristic of creole languages.

While different groups ofspeakers employ different varieties, variation also occurs
in the speech of a single speaker. Now it might be argued that this speaker is
adjusting her speech production to particular contexts and situations. However,
this is not always the case: Speakers may employ variants belonging to different
sectors of the hypothetical creole continuum even within a single sentence
without there being for instance phonotactic or morphosyntactic requirements
to choose one or the other variant. In such cases it is impossible to argue that
variation would be indicative of any kind oflanguage change (Barrens 2008).
(Bartens, 2013: 76-77)

Issues to consider:

a) How would you define the term "basilectalisation", as it is used in the text?
b) How do you think the continuous contact between the creole and the
lexifier language affects each of them in terms oflanguage development?

c) In what ways do you think a child's language development in formal

education is affected by a context in which a creole and a lexifier language
coexist?

10. RESEARCH ACTIVITY

Do some research on the Internet and choose a pidgin/ creole you find
interesting from anywhere around the world, preferably a English or Spanish
based one, or based on a lexifier language you know. Try and find some samples
of it both in written and spoken form. You'll see that Youtube is can be an
interesting source for oral samples of distant pidgins/creoles.

Get some exposure to the pidgin/creole you have chosen both in written and
oral form for at least an hour. Then think and take notes about the following
aspects:

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 CHAPTER3

A. Background information about the pidgin/creole. On the internet you

can find all sorts of sources of information. Try and get information from
reliable sources such as academic publications, university websites, language
preservation associations, etc. You might want to get information about:
a) Geographical distribution.
b) Historical circumstances that favoured its creation and development.
c) Possible explanations for its typology and evolution over time.
etc.

B. Description of the pidgin/creole you have chosen in its written form.

a) What language or languages is it based on?
b) Make a list of the features you recognise from its lexifier language
(vocabulary, grammatical structures, spelling, etc.).
c) Assess to what extent you can understand meaning while reading this
pidgin/creole.
etc.

C. Description of the pidgin/creole you have chosen in its oral form.

a) Make a list of the oral features you recognise from its lexifier language
(vocabulary, pronunciation, etc.).
b) Assess to what extent you can understand meaning while listening to this
pidgin/creole.
etc.

D. Write a short essay of around 1,500 words summarising what you have
learned about this pidgin/creole. More than a theoretical description, your
own ideas and your own experience with the pidgin/ creole are valued.

11. REFERENCES

ALI.SOPP, R 1958. 'The English language in British Guiana'. English Language Teaching, 12: 59-66.
BAKKER,P. and Y. MATRAS (eds.). 2013. Contact languages: a comprehensive guide (Vol. 6).
Walter de Gruyter.

99
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

BARTENS, A. 2013, 'Creole languages', in P. Bakker and Y. Matras (eds.), Contact languages:
a comprehensive guide (Vol. 6). Walter de Gruyter.
BAYLEY, R.; CAMERON, R. and LUCAS, C. (eds.). (2013). The Oxford handbook ofsociolinguistics.
Oxford University Press.
HOLM,]. 2000. An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
HOLMES, J. 1992. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Harlow, UK: Longman.
HYMES, D. 1971. Pidginization and Creolization of Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge
Universy Press.
MASUDA, H. 1995. 'Versification and reiteration in Hawai'i Creole English: 'If nomo paila
m~n, awrai!' World Englishes 14/3: 317-342.

RlcKFORD,J. R. and]. McWhorter. 1997. 'Language contact and language generation', in

F. Coulmas, The Handbook of Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Blackwells.
SIEGEL,]. 2002. 'Applied Creolistics in the 21st Century', in Glenn Gilbert (ed.), Pidgin and
Creole Linguistics in the Twenty-first Century. New York: Peter Lang.
VALDMAN, A. 1989. 'The use of creole as a school medium and decreolizatoin in Haiti', in
W. Z. Sonino (ed.) Literacy in school and society: Multidisciplinary perspectives. New York:
Plenum Press.
WARDHAUGH, R. 2002 (4th ed.). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Malden, USA: Blackwell
Publishing.

100
CHAPTER4
 This chapter presents and analyses some of the social
and individual dimensions of sociolinguistics, so special
attention is devoted to the following aspects:
• Introduction to bilingualism
• Definitions and dimensions of bilingualism
• Code choice: code-switching and code-mixing
• Code-switching in bilingual children
• Diglossia and its relation to bilingualism
• Multilingualism
• Language contact

1. KEYWORDS

The following list of key words contains some important terms that are
presented in this chapter. A definition for each term can be found at the end of
this book, in the glossary.

• Acquisition • Dormant bilingual

• Ascendant bilingualism • Interference
• Balanced bilingual • Linguistic competence
• Bidialectal • Minority language
• Compound bilingual • Proficiency
• Communicative competence • Semilinguals
• Consecutive bilingualism • Simultaneous bilingualism
• Co-ordinate bilingual • Sociolinguistic competence
• Cultural awareness • Sociolinguistic relativity
• Domain • Trilingualism

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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

2. BILINGUALISM: INTRODUCTION

Hundreds of languages are used in the world every day. Although many
instances of monolingual societies are to be found, especially in the western
world, the number of speakers knowing or making use of more than one
language as a common means of communication easily surpasses the number
of monolingual speakers. In many places around the world, people use more
than one language every day, because of situational factors as well as their
sociolinguistic context. Bilingualism is not restricted to some countries or areas
traditionally considered bilingual such as Canada or Switzerland, but is present
in every country of the world in one way or the other. So, using one language
at home and another one at work is not very strange in some places 1. The
second language (in terms of order of acquisition) does not need to have been
learned formally; speakers may just have acquired it by constant exposure to the
language, and the shift from one code to the other is often made unconsciously.
It is not easy to define the term Bilingualism as there can be many degrees
in terms of overall proficiency and sociolinguistic factors that determine the
use and knowledge of one language or the other. Bilingualism can range from
a functional ability to use one language only in certain domains, to balanced
bilingualism which entails an equal and high-level capacity in two or more
languages.
In order to portray the different features of bilingualism, some aspects need
to be described:
First, it is important to take into account the means of acquisition, and
this would depend on whether each of the languages was acquired as a mother
tongue, a second language or a foreign language2 • Each of these circumstances
radically affects the degree of attainment and the overall proficiency, depending

1
In this case we are referring to bilingualism assuming that there are two languages involved. It
would be perfectly possible, and very normal in some parts of the world, to refer to a situation with
more than two languages. Then we would speak of multilingualism.
2
Note that the mother tongue would be the language acquired from parents at home and would
probably be the first one in terms of order of acquisition, i.e., the first language. It is often referred to
as the native language. The second language would be the language learned in the place where it is used
by most speakers as a means of communication but which is not the native language of the learner.
For example, a Spanish mother rongue speaker learning English in Edinburgh would be in a Second
Language (SL) learning situation. Finally, a Foreign Language (FL) is learned when the target language
is not the language used by most speakers. For instance, a Spanish mother tongue speaker learning
English in Madrid would be an English learner in a FL learning context.

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on the age of the speaker and the amount of time spent learning and using the
language.
Second, the skills in each language may vary as it is perfectly possible, and
rather common, to have different commands of the various skills: reading,
writing, speaking and listening comprehension. The degree of development
in each of these four skills will be determined, at least in part, by the means of
acquisition. So, someone acquiring the language in a natural context (without
formal instruction) would probably develop his/her aural-oral knowledge of the
language but may not become competent in reading and writing. It goes without
saying that literacy is not necessarily attained by all fluent speakers, not even
in their mother tongue. It also needs to be taken into account that, as usually
happens in second and foreign language learning, receptive skills are often more
easily developed than productive skills. So, it is perfectly possible for someone
learning the language in a formal or classroom context to develop receptive
skills, namely listening and reading, to a larger extent than productive skills,
that is speaking and writing.
Third, there are certain functions that bilinguals generally prefer to perform
in one language than in the other. This may be due to the fact that they have not
developed a specific skill in that language sufficiently (e.g.: participate in a daily
conversation, read the newspaper, etc.) or just because it seems more natural for
them to do it in a certain language (e.g.: counting, cursing, dreaming, etc).
Fourth, the domain often influences language choice in bilingual speakers
because the acquisition or learning was domain-dependent or simply because
one language is preferred in some contexts and it is subjected to the effect of
three main factors: a) the location (e.g.: home, office, school, shopping centre,
party, etc.); b) the role relationships among the interlocutors (e.g.: sibling, father,
mother, colleague, neighbour, friend, doctor, etc.), and; c) the topics involved in
the conversation (e.g.: domestic, weather, social greetings, academic, etc.).
As was stated before, bilingual speakers are likely to have a preferred
language for each domain as shown in the following example inspired by a real
situation (the notion of domain and language choice are linked to the question
of 'register'. See chapter 2):
Robert Rodriguez was born in a suburban area in New Jersey. He is 25 year
old, he lives with his parents, and one of his sisters, Maira, who is 19. His
parents, Carlos and Fabiana, came from Colombia 27 years ago and have lived
in the area ever since. They have relatives in Colombia and they go back there

105
Soc1ouNGUrs11cs

on special occasions but not regularly. Carlos and Fabiana live in a beautiful
house and work very near by; it only takes them 15 minutes driving every day.
At work, in a factory, they mainly speak their perfectly comprehensible English
with a markedly foreign accent, which they learned when they came to the US
at the age of 30, although some of their colleagues come from other Spanish-
speaking countries in South America and they speak Spanish to them. In their
way home after work, they stop at the mall to do some shopping and there
they come across some Spanish-speaking friends but all their conversation with
shopkeepers takes place in English. When they get home, they have a message
from Robert on the answering machine saying, in Spanish, that he is late from
work. Every day Robert commutes to New York City where he works as a clerk.
At work he speaks English all the time although on some occasions he speaks
Spanish to his customers. When Robert talks to his grandparents on the phone
he speaks Spanish and he often wishes he could spend more time with them
because, as they live in Colombia, he has only met them twice. On his way
home he dropped by to see his girlfriend (with Italian ancestors although she
has never been to Italy) and greets her for her birthday in English, which is the
only language she speaks. When Robert gets home, he meets his younger sister
Maira who is back from college, where she studies accounting.
Robert and Maira are planning to throw a surprise party for Robert's
girlfriend and they make all the arrangements, in English. As they are making
a list with the food and drink they need to buy, their mother comes in and
tells them, in Spanish, that dinner is ready. They sit at the table and go on
making arrangements for the party with their parents in fluent Spanish with a
funny English accent. The following day at the party in their backyard, Robert
and Maira will be using their native-speaker English with some friends and
neighbours, and fluent Spanish, their 'mother tongue' with an accent to their
parents and some of their Hispanic friends.

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 1.

3. BILINGUALISM: DEFINITIONS AND DIMENSIONS

Broadly speaking the study and depiction of bilingualism can give prominence
either to the social side of this phenomenon, as it stems from a context in which
various languages are in contact; or it can pay closer attention to the individual and
psycholinguistic side of the issue, as the languages involved interact and develop

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in the brain of the bilingual speaker. Both the notion of the bilingual speaker and
the concept of bilingualism are rather fuzzy3 and have often been misconceived.
Social bilingualism (or multilingualism) is an area of research dedicated to
the study of its social dimension as a characteristic of bilingual and multilingual
societies where more than one language are commonly used by a speech
community or social group. It does not mean that all speakers have a command
over both languages, rather the term just implies that at least some of the
members of that speech community are capable of using the other language,
either productively or receptively (e.g.: all members of a multilingual country do
not need to be bilingual themselves, they may just be monolingual). Note that
multilingualism is further explained at the end of this chapter.
Individual bilingualism (also referred to as bilinguality) is rather simple to
define in terms of the first half of the term as it refers to the individual part of
the phenomenon, that is, an individual has some knowledge of two or more
languages. This entails a special psycholinguistic process. Nevertheless, it is not
possible to make a clear separation between bilingualism as an individual and a
societal phenomenon. Some questions that call for reflection are:
a) To what extent does the bilingual speaker need to be proficient in both
languages so thats/he can qualify as bilingual?
b) Does a bilingual speaker need to show equal proficiency in both
languages?
c) Does the bilingual proficiency of the language entail a spoken or written
command of both languages?
d) What language components should be considered as criteria for assigning
the label of 'bilingual': vocabulary, pronunciation, syntax, fluency, etc?

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 2.

In the last few decades a large amount of research on individual bilingualism
has tried to distinguish different sorts of bilingualism. The classification first
introduced by Weinreich (1953: 9-11) differentiates between 'coordinate',

3
The notion of the bilingual speaker has traditionally been idealised in the same way as other
concepts that have not been adequately defined, in spite of being fundamental in applied and
theoretical linguistics.

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SocrouNGUJSTICS

'compound' and 'sub-coordinate' bilingualism and was elaborated by taking as

a starting point the way the concepts and meanings are encoded in the brain.
Each of these three divisions stems from the way in which the languages were
learned. Coordinate bilingualism assumes that languages are learned in different
conditions and separate contexts which would imply that the languages are kept
apart in the mind. Under such circumstances, different contexts give way to
different meanings with dissimilar conceptual systems (e.g.: someone who learns
English as his/her mother tongue and later learns a foreign language in school).
Compound bilingualism arises when acquisition takes place in a situation in
which both languages are learned in the same context, and both meanings show
a fused representation or meaning in the brain. This entails that the languages
involved are somehow interdependent (e.g.: a child who learns two languages
at home at the same time, probably one coming from the father and the other
one from the mother). The third possibility according to Weinreich (1953),
sub-coordinate bilingualism, derives from the learning of one language first and
the learning of the other later on (e.g.: a child who learns both languages at
home simultaneously but one of them is dominant, probably because s/he
spends more time with one of the parents). Weinreich illustrates these three
types of bilingualism with the following diagram for lexical representation and
pronunciation:

Coordinate Compound Sub-coordinate

table mesa table= mesa table

I
/teib;:)lj
I
/mesa/
/
/ teib;:)l/
~
/ m esa/
~
/ teib;:)l/

l
/ mesa/

This working classification has been studied for decades and a number
of experiments have been carried out following its principles. However, this
categorisation was neither abandoned nor developed more fully due to the
complexity of the neurolinguistic processes and the few advances attained in
the field (we should take into account that the most significant advances in
portraying bilingual representation in the brain is based on aphasic patients).
However, as Macnamara (1967: 66) indicates, it turns out to be too simplistic as

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 CHAPTER4

it centers mainly on isolated words and the relationship between language and
meaning seems to be much more complicated than that.
Another dimension in the study of bilingualism is that which distinguishes
between the balanced bilingual and the dominant bilingual (Lambert, 1955).
The former refers to an individual who has equivalent competence in both
languages (e.g.: someone brought up in a bilingual family and society where
both languages receive equal consideration), and the latter applies to someone
whose competence in the mother tongue surpasses his competence in the other
language, at least in some domains (e.g.: a child learning language A from the
father and language B from the mother and school, will probably have more
chances to develop language B unless special actions are undertaken). Balanced
bilingualism entails a high communicative competence in both languages
but not necessarily monolingual competence in both languages 4 • Balanced
bilingualism should be understood in relative terms as bilingual speakers hardly
ever show equal speaking and writing abilities in their languages, they are rarely
equally fluent about all topics in all contexts. Normally, balance or dominance
can vary depending on the linguistic domains and functions. Dominant
bilingualism is actually the norm as it is rather difficult for a bilingual speaker
to reach absolutely even competence in two codes.
Another possible dimension to distinguish various types of bilingualism is
related to the age of acquisition, so a useful distinction can be drawn between:
childhood bilingualism, adolescent bilingualism and adult bilingualism. In the
first case the development of bilingualism takes place at the same time as the
child's cognitive development whereas in the case of adolescent and adult
bilingualism the cognitive representation of the word, to give an example, has
already been completed, at least to a certain extent, and there is mainly a process
of re-labelling previous concepts. Childhood bilingualism can also be classified
into simultaneous infant bilingualism, when the child acquires a second language
early in infancy but after some development of the mother tongue has been

4
At this point it should be clarified that a balanced bilingual should not be conceived as the
addition of two monolingual speakers. The development of bilingualism depends on numerous
factors {age of learning, situational context, social consideration of the languages, personal identity,
etc.), and certainly there are domains in which the speaker will show higher command of the language
or will simply prefer one language or the other. A bilingual should be conceived as a competent
speaker-hearer who has developed a communicative competence in rwo or more languages, who uses
language A, language B or languages A and B depending on the situation, topic, interlocutor, domain,
etc., but who does not necessarily have equal command in both.

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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

attained; and, consecutive childhood bilingualism, when a basic linguistic ability

is acquired early in infancy in the mother tongue and a second language is
acquired right after.

The sociocultural environment can certainly influence bilingualism and

especially the social status that the languages have in the speech community.
Depending on the social prestige that the languages have in the society, a
child can develop both languages equally or one more than the other. Additive
bilingualism occurs when both languages are socially valued. The child makes
use of both languages and accordingly takes advantage of this potentially
enhancing situation to gain cognitive flexibility. In this case, the acquisition of
the second language does not have adverse effects on the language or languages
already known. Subtractive bilingualism, conversely, results from a sociocultural
context where the mother tongue is detracted and, as a consequence, the child's
cognitive development may be hindered because the development of the second
language interferes with the development of the first language.

Hamers and Blanc (1989: 11) also distinguish bilinguals according to their
cultural identity. So, an adolescent or adult bilingual may identify himself
with the cultures associated with each language. In this case s/ he would also
be bicultural and that clearly depends on the social standing of both languages
and both cultures in the society. This specific situation would probably cause
balanced bilingualism. Nonetheless, a high proficiency in both languages does
not necessarily involve a bicultural individual, who can also be monocultural)
i.e., someone who culturally identifies himself with just one group. Bilingual
development in a given speech community can also persuade a person to give
up or deny the culture of his mother-tongue group and foster that of the second
language group, becoming an acculturated bilingual. This latter process is not
infrequent at all when some sort of minimal migration is involved as immigrants
often wish to blend into the new society and culture and they accommodate as
much as they can to the receiving culture.
An aspect related to the psycholinguistic processing of bilinguals, which has
been widely investigated in the last decades, is whether bilinguals own one or two
mental lexicons. The one-lexicon advocates consider that semantic information
is stored in a single semantic system where words in both languages coexist
but are labelled as belonging to one language or the other. Another group of
specialists propose that the bilingual mental lexicon is divided into two sets,
one for each language, and that interrelation between the two is only possible

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 CHAPTER4

through translation. A more recent image considers that bilingual speakers

possess three stores: a) a conceptual one for their knowledge of the world; b) a
language store for language A; and, c) a language store for language B.

The question of how to define bilingualism or multilingualism has engaged

researchers for a very long time. Some researchers have favored a narrow
definition of bilingualism and argued that only those individuals who are very
close to two monolinguals in one should be considered bilingual.

More recently, however, researchers who study bilingual and multilingual

communities around the world have argued for a broad definition that views
bilingualism as a common human condition that makes it possible for an
individual to function, at some level, in more than one language. The key to this
very broad and inclusive definition of bilingualism is 'more than one '.

From the perspective of this framework, a bilingual individual is not

necessarily an ambilingual (an individual with native competency in two
languages) but a bilingual of a specific type who, along with other bilinguals
of many different types, can be classified along a continuum. Some bilinguals
possess very high levels of proficiency in both languages in the written and
the oral modes. Others display varying proficiencies in comprehension and/ or
speaking skills depending on the immediate area of experience in which they are
called upon to use their two languages.

According to this perspective, one admits into the company of bilinguals

individuals who can, to whatever degree, comprehend or produce written or
spoken utterances in more than one language. Thus, persons able to read in a
second language (e.g. French) but unable to function in the spoken language
are considered to be bilinguals of a certain type and placed at one end of the
continuum. Such persons are said to have receptive competence in a second
language and to be 'more bilingual' than monolinguals who have neither
receptive nor productive abilities in a language other than their first. The
judgment here is comparative: total monolingualism versus a minor degree of
ability to comprehend a second language.

Linguistic Society ofAmerica

http://www.linguisticsociety.org (retrieved Septiembre, 2015)

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 3.

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SocroLINGUJSTics

4. CODE CHOICE

As Wardhaugh (2002) suggests, the term 'code' is admittedly loose but

very useful to refer to any kind of system that two or more people use for
communication. Terms like dialec~ language, style, standard, register, variety, pidgin
and creole are prone to arouse emotions that, in one way or another, are affected
by their sociopolitical status or individual considerations. For instance, an Arab
who knows the literary variety of Arabic (koranic) but speaks the colloquial
variety of the classic (vernacular) will probably consider that they are two
varieties of the same language. In the same vein, a Norwegian who speaks both
Nynorsk and Bokmal may insist that s/he is bidialectal or bilingual5 which
shows that to some extent considering oneself bilingual or bidialectal is, or
should be, a question of self-adscription. Anyhow, a very useful criterion to
distinguish between bidialectal and bilingual speakers could be the question of
mutual intelligibility, i.e., if the speakers of these languages can understand each
other when using their own code6 •
In the case of bilingual or bidialectal speakers, it would be interesting to
know, however, the factors that rule code choice on every single situation and,
eventually, why certain speakers sometimes shift from one code to another. So,
it seems that whenever a speaker engages in a communicative situation, s/he has
previously decided (consciously or unconsciously) upon the code s/he is going to
use. Language plays a very important role in our lives and the actual choice can
be very important. A speaker may deliberately choose to use a specific language
in some situations to express solidarity with his interlocutor. For example,
let's think of someone entering a department-store in Pontevedra, Spain. The
shop assistant will probably address him/her in Spanish and after a while,
if both the customer and the shop-assistant find clues to their interlocutors
being speakers of Galician, they may naturally and automatically change their
language choice and continue their conversation in Galician. In so doing, a
number of communicative goals have been accomplished not only because of
the transaction carried out, but because a degree of closeness and empathy is
also reached by their switching to the common language, as the two speakers

5 Another example would be that of Chinese people speaking both Mandarin and Canronese as

they could insist that they speak two varieties of the same language.
6 This continues to be a controversial issue that cannot be generalised. There is mutual

intelligibility between Norwegian and Swedish speakers bur they are considered different
languages.

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 CHAPTER4

are implicitly identifying themselves and each other as members of the smaller,
localised language community.
Language choice can also be considered a way to assert some kind of 'right'
or even to resist some kind of 'power' in places where two or more languages
coexist and have equal sociopolitical status as in Canada. The Official Languages
Act, adopted in 1969, gave English and French equal status, rights and privileges
in the federal institutions of Canada. However, English first language speakers
comprise a minority in Quebec, representing 10% of the province's population,
whereas in other parts of Canada, French first language speakers are a minority,
accounting for approximately 5% of the population. Under such circumstances,
a French Canadian may insist on using French to an official of the federal
government outside Quebec. In that case language choice can be considered a
way of 'political or rights expression'. The underlying issue is that motivation
is a determining component in code-choice and code-switching as there are
numerous motivating factors that affect it: solidarity with the listener, choice
of topic, social distance, contextual and situational appropriacy, register,
interlocutor, etc.
The very fact of being proficient in more than one language allows for the
possibility of switching codes at some point. Wardhaugh (2002) distinguishes
two main types of code-switching: situational and metaphorical. The former refers
to a language change depending on contextual factors which have nothing to
do with the topic but with the given situation. The latter points to the topic
and the contents of the communicative process as the main reason for language
choice. The alternance of code often encodes personal and social values that add
interpersonal closeness or distance.

4.1. Code-switching

The Hispanic community in the USA often switches between both codes,
English and Spanish7, on some occasions as a solidarity marker when talking to
people belonging to their own community. However, they can easily change to
either language when addressing a monolingual speaker of either of these two
languages. Below is a fragment in which this code-switching can be seen:

7
This is very characteristic, for instance, of the Puerto Rican community in New York. For this
speech community, a conversation full of language switches is a form of speech in its own.

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SoCIOLINGmsncs

OYE, when I was a freshman I had a term paper to do ...

[...]

And all of a sudden, I started acting real CURIOSA, you know. I started
going like this. Y LUEGO DECfA, look at the smoke coming out of my fingers,
like that. And then ME DIJO, stop acting silly. Y LUEGO DECfA YO, MIRA
can't you see. Y LUEGO ESTE, I started seeing like little stars all over the place.
Y VOLTEABA YO ASINA Y LE DECfA look at the ... the ... NO SE ERA COMO
BRILLOSITO ASf like stars.
(Valdes Fallis, 1976; quoted in Apple
and Muysken, 1996: 176)

In the text above, at least three types of code-switching can be perceived.

These are described by Romaine (1989: 112) as:
a) Tag-switching: for instance the use of exclamations or tags from one
language into an utterance in the other language, such as 'OYE' at the
very beginning of the paragraph which is written in a language different
from the rest of the sentence. This tag-switch might occur because the
speaker lacks the necessary vocabulary in English, or simply because it
comes up more easily and spontaneously since tags are subjected to few
syntactic restrictions and can be inserted without interfering with the
syntactic organization of the utterance. Some tags easily inserted from
English are: you know and I mean.
b) Intersentential switch: for instance, in the sentences 'Y LUEGO DECfA,
look at the smoke coming out of my fingers, like that' and 'Y LUEGO
ESTE, I started seeing like little stars all over the place.' This type of switch
is found between sentences and often arises in sentence boundaries,
marked with a short pause and between speaker turns. In this excerpt,
intersentential switch also seems to be caused in direct speech by the
change from the narrator to the actual words used by the speaker, e.g.:
'And then ME DIJO, stop acting silly'.
c) Intrasentential switch: for instance, in the sentence 'I started acting real
CURIOSA' where both codes are mixed within a sentence. This type of
code-switch contains the highest syntactic risk and is typically referred to
as code-mixing.

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 CHAPTER 4

4.2. Code-mixing

Code-mixing can be considered a different phenomenon to code-switching

although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably as the concepts they
describe often overlap. Indeed, not all specialists would acknowledge a distinction
between them. Code-mixing occurs when the interlocutors change from one
language to the other in the course of a single conversation and more precisely
when switching back and forth occurs within a clause. It is important to note
that the speakers do not even need to be aware of it and the breaks between codes
are somewhat blurred as they can occur within clauses. Code-mixing highlights
hybridisation whereas code-switching stresses the existence of movement from
one language into the other. Code-mixing typically presumes a mastery of the
codes being mixed and is very typical of bilinguals. In certain locations such as
Gibraltar, where two languages such as English and Spanish are in close contact,
people may start a sentence in one of the languages and finish it in the other, or
insert certain words or phrases from one language into the other, all depending
on a number of factors such as the situational context, the degree of familiarity
among the interlocutors and the actual cause for code-switching: i.e., whether it
is a result of a lack of knowledge or is used as a meaningful discourse strategy.
The former phenomenon, not knowing certain words in one language, obviously
implies that the speakers have at least a full command over one of the languages
and some control over the other. Code-mixing is also relatively common in the
speech of immigrants. Spanish-speaking immigrants in the USA, for example,
often make use of English words or expressions when they speak Spanish. The
reason for this may lie in the fact that they are referring to some object or concept
which was not known to them before coming into the new culture, or they
were not very familiar with it, or simply on the basis of easy access to the word.
This process occasionally results in lexical borrowing. An instance can be found
in the common use of the following English words and phrases by Hispanic
immigrants (probably belonging to the first or the second generation in the
country) speaking Spanish in the USA: backyard) basement; coupons) mall) take it
easy) VCR, etc. As a result, these functional bilinguals (having full command over
one of the languages and a functional command over the other) often develop a
mixed code which is based on the old language but includes features from the
new language. At this point the use of alternating codes should be distinguished
from the development of a mixed variety as occurs with pidgins (see chapter 3).
The incidental borrowing just described can pave the way to permanent lexical
borrowing. For example, when there is a need to refer to an object or concept that

115
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

has not been present in the receiving language or simply as a result of fashions.
Using foreign words may be perceived as a sign of innovation.

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 4.

5. CODE-SWITCHING IN BILINGUAL CHILDREN

In the case of bilingual and multilingual speakers, code choice is not always
fully conscious. When two languages are at the disposal of the bilingual speaker,
there are sometimes unintentional interferences between the two codes. This
can be seen very clearly in children receiving a bilingual education when they
mix both languages and transfer words, syntactic constructions or phonological
features from one language into the other. For example, Nicolas, a bilingual
ten-year-old boy, brought up in Spain by his Spanish mother and British father,
remarked to his mother, '[ ...] estoy pensando de las pobres [...]' (instead, of
course, of 'es toy pensando en las pobres'). It seems clear that on this occasion his
Spanish was being unduly influenced by the English structure 'think of.
As de Bot (2002) points out, code-switching and the use of more than one
language is the normal way of expressing oneself in a bilingual context and it is
as natural as any other spontaneous speech coming from monolingual speakers.
The analysis of how languages interact and are used by bilingual speakers can
cast some light on the issue of cognitive processing by bilinguals, namely, the
mechanisms of language selection and language separation. Some issues have
long puzzled psycholinguists and language educators, some of these are:
a) How do bilingual speakers process their languages?
b) Does the bilingual child develop a unique language system where both
languages are intertwined or, does he have two different linguistic systems?
Does s/he make use of one or the other depending on the context?
c) If there is more than one system, are they located in the same part of the brain?
d) Does the bilingual brain contain one or two different lexicons?
These questions are not always easy to answer or even testable given the fact
that most psycholinguistic research can only analyse linguistic performance and
interaction and make plausible inferences concerning these issues.

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 5.

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 CHAPTER4

6. DIGLOSSIA

A diglossic situation entails the co-existence of two or more codes8 which

are used in the same setting but under different circumstances, i.e., each of the
codes is used with contrasting functional purposes. These codes or varieties
tend to be kept apart in their functions, i.e., the purposes they are used for (e.g.,
communication at home, business or transactions, broadcasting, fine literature,
etc.). So, given the existence of two varieties, one of them being considered more
prestigious and cultivated than the other, would lead to the differentiation
between a high variety (H) and a low variety (L).
According to Ferguson (2003: 347) the specialisation of functions for Hand
L varieties determines the appropriateness of either variety for a set of situations
with few occasions for overlapping. This entails the use of one language to
express a set of behaviours, attitudes and values, and another language to put
into words a contrasting set of behaviours, attitudes and values. The next chart
shows some general situations and the variety (high or low) more likely used:

High variety Low variety

H L
Sermon in church or mosque + -
Instructions to servants, waiters, workmen, clerks - +
Personal letter + -
Speech in parliament, politicai speech + -

Un iversi ty lecture + -
Conversation with family, friends and colleagues - +
News broadcast + -
Radio 'soap opera - +
Newspaper editorial, news story, caption on picture + -
Caption on political cartoon - +
Poetry * + -
Folk literature * - +
* In relation to these functions it should be mentioned that the H variety, the L variety or both
can be used, depending on the languages involved.

8 In this case the term 'code' is used to refer to a language, variety oflanguage or d ialect. The terms

'language', 'variety', and 'dialect' are often used in the litera ture without precised efinition.

117
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

In most instances of languages entangled in a diglossic situation, speakers

regard the H variety as being more prestigious, more appealing and more
appropriate than the L variety, even if their knowledge of the H is not as
comprehensive as their ability in the L, or the L variety embodies their mother
tongue. What is more, the literary tradition probably makes use of the H variety
and enjoys a high esteem in the speech community. Nevertheless, more recently,
and as a call for social identity, the L varieties have been employed in poetry or
other literary written works, and descriptive and normative studies have been
undertaken.
Tracing back the issue of the native language in instances such as the Haitian
Creole, children more commonly learn the L variety as their first language
at home and later, when they are schooled they have access to the H variety.
This diglossic situation gives the L variety a status of mother tongue that is
'acquired' naturally, whereas the H variety is often learned formally in schools
or other formal contexts and is, therefore, 'learned' 9 • The H variety usually has
a strong tradition of grammatical study and there are plenty of reference books
on it, which brings with it established norms for pronunciation, orthography,
grammar and vocabulary. The differences between the H and the L variety are
notorious in terms of grammatical structure as grammatical categories in the
H variety are usually reduced, or simply absent, in the L variety, for example,
the inflectional system of nouns and verbs (see the general characteristics
of Creoles: HCE, Jamaican Patwa and Tok Pisin in unit 3). The lexicon in H
and L varieties is shared to a large extent but obviously there are conspicuous
differences in form, use and meaning. In terms of phonology, the degree of
closeness between the H and the L varieties depends, to a large extent, on the
languages involved. Some instances of languages in diglossic situations can be
found where H and L varieties differ remarkably and in other instances they are
rather similar.

9
At this point it would be convenient to clarify the contrast between 'acquisition' and 'learning'
which is based on the distinction made by Krashen and Terrell (1983. The Natural Approach: Language
Acquisition in the Classroom. London: Prentice Hall International) in their hypothesis which considers
that language proficiency can be attained by two different processes: acquisition and learning. The
former refers to a natural process similar to the way a child gains knowledge of his mother tongue,
i.e., unconsciously and incidentally. The latter refers to the conscious process of learning rules. They
suggest that only in this latter case is teaching useful.

118
 CHAPTER4

There follow two examples of historic diglossic situations:

a) After the Norman conquest in 1066 10, Norman French and Old English
gradually become to coexist in England in a diglossic situation, Norman
French being considered the H variety and being used by most of
the feudal aristocracy and, eventually, hand in hand with English in
monasteries. English, however, constituted the L variety being used by
peasants and artisans in everyday situations. Needless to say that the
H variety was the prestige variety, used in politics, government and
local administration, whereas the L variety lacked any prestige or social
consideration. Chaucer's literary work, around three hundred years later,
used the L variety and was· the culmination of a long lasting process in
which the L variety gradually assumed functions that had been restricted
to the H variety in the past. This process was reinforced by the steady
assimilation of the French speaking aristocracy into the English culture
due to the detachment and lack of contact with their native France,
generation after generation.
b) The Haitian Creole emerged as the creolisation of a pidgin French.
Afterwards, standard French became the H variety (franyais) whereas the
Haitian Creole kept the status of L variety (creole). The L variety is often
associated with conversational language and, therefore, the spelling used
to represent it is not always standardised (for example, the McConnell-
Laubach spelling). The H variety, however, is more easily represented by the
standard language orthography because it is widespread even though there
may be some resemblances between the sounds of the H and L variety.

7. DIGLOSSIA AND BILINGUALISM

Diglossia, as is stated in most works on the topic byJohn Gumperz, does not only
exist in multilingual societies but also in traditionally called 'monolingual societies'
where various dialects, registers or styles are employed. It goes without saying that
this embraces almost all societies as, strictly speaking, monolingual societies are a
theoretical construct rather than an actual phenomenon in the real world.

10
The defeat of King Harold's army by the French-speaking followers of William, Duke of
Normandy, in the Battle of Hastings in 1066 marked the beginning of a foreign invasion which would
have great effects on the social, economic, cultural and linguistic developmentofEngland.

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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

The distinction between diglossia and bilingualism is not simple since

there are numerous social, personal and situational factors that bear upon
language use and language choice. Fishman (2003) portrays the relationship
between these two complex terms, diglossia and bilingualism, by means of the
following chart:

DIGLOSSIA
+ -

I + 1. Both diglossia and

bilingualism
BILINGUALISM
3. Diglossia without
- bilingualism
2. Bilingualism without
diglossia
4. Neither diglossia nor
bilingualism

(Fishman, 2003: 260)

The first possibility (1) embraces a speech community where both diglossia
and bilingualism occur. That is the case, for instance, of German (H) and Swiss
German (L) spoken in some cantons in Switzerland. There, both codes are used
from school age for different functions and in different contexts (e.g. at home
and at school). Other instances of steady diglossia and bilingualism co-occurring
in the same speech community are the case of Spanish (H) and Guarani (L) in
Paraguay, and the status of Arabic in many Arab countries where businessmen
and the scientific community would alternate between classical (koranic) (H)
or vernacular Arabic (Algerian, Moroccan, etc.) (L) in different situations, as
well as perhaps a western former colonial language such as French (H), when
required in professional circumstances. Many other instances like these can be
detected in societies where a creole and a standard language or acrolect co-exist
(see chapter 3).
The second possibility (2), bilingualism without diglossia, relates to
transitory situations where rapid social changes affect a speech community and,
for a relatively brief period of time, the languages involved lack well-defined
separate functions. This situation probably describes an individual linguistic
behaviour rather than a social one. This sociolinguistic situation can take place
in the course of industrialisation and/ or urbanisation of some societies where
one speech community provides the means (capital and organisation), and a

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 CHAPTER4

different speech community provides the manpower for the production. This
example probably entails a geographic movement of the manpower (migration)
and, therefore, the adoption of a new language, as well as a set of cultural values
and norms, that are rapidly taken over and often intertwined with the previous
ones. For a period of time the language of work or the language of schooling,
on the one hand, and the language of home, on the other hand, may intertwine
without a definite separation of functions and locations.
The third possibility (3), diglossia without bilingualism, relates to societies
where two or more languages share a geographic area but they are not inexorably
used by the speakers living in that area. That means that there are at least two
speech communities that do not share a contact language and communication
is attained by means of, for instance, interpreters. These societies tend to be
formed by two or more speech communities that are united for functional
purposes because of religious, political or economic reasons, although apparent
social and cultural dissimilarities separate them. The situation would appear to
favour bilingualism but what we find, instead, is diglossia as language repertoires
in one or both groups are, in some way, restricted owing to role specialisation.
It is also characteristic in this type of society for most of the elite and most of
the masses to lead lives distinguished by specific role repertoires. An instance of
diglossia without bilingualism can be found in India between people belonging
to lower castes (Hindus) and the higher castes (Brahmins).
The fourth possibility (4) is, in Fishman's words, 'easier to hypothesise than
to find' as only very small and isolated societies could show neither bilingualism
nor diglossia (note that absence of diglossia seems even more unlikely and
awkward than bilingualism). It would be the case of speech communities where
no differentiation in registers or varieties is found, which is rather improbable
given the social dimension of language. An instance of this speech community
without bilingualism and without diglossia could be a band or clan with a closed
number of members and with restricted social relations.

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 6.

8. MULTILINGUALISM

Multilingualism refers to the co-existence of more than two languages or

sufficiently distant dialects, no matter how many, within a speech community.

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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

For the sake of clarity, in this book, and in most of the bibliography on the topic,
the term bilingualism is used to refer to a situation in which two languages
coexist, whether in an individual speaker or a social group.
Monolingual speech communities are rare these days and, what is more,
most countries in the world are multilingual (of European countries, some have
argued Iceland and Portugal to be examples of truly monolingual). In the history
of humankind, language has proven to be possibly the most important factor
in determining other aspects of political and social organisation in the world.
Around 5,000 living languages are reported to exist nowadays in the world
whereas there are about 200 countries. This fact can provide us with some idea of
the complexity of the issue. Languages often embody social identities at a supra-
state level (e.g.: the Swedish language in Finland) which can cause socio-political
conflicts, as is the case oflanguage minorities (e.g. Welsh in Great Britain). The
Romantic movement in the nineteenth century supported nationalism and the
general conception of'one nation, one language'.
Migration, either in the form of involuntary or voluntary migration is another
factor that characterises the current language situation in many parts of the world.
The African slave trade brought many speakers of African languages into the East
and West Indies and that paved the way for the formation of many pidgins and
creoles which had not existed before. Another example would be the case of Soviet
policy that forced the migration of the Russian population into other Soviet
republics. Those former rulers in places like the Baltic states are faced now with
the need to learn local languages such as Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian.
Voluntary migration has also determined the linguistic shape of modern
countries like the USA and, to a lesser extent, Australia. Through the melting-
pot policy in the United States, large amounts of people from different European
and Asian countries, speakers of languages like Polish, Italian, German,
Norwegian, Japanese or different Chinese languages entered the country in
the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Most of these immigrant groups
acquired English and many abandoned their languages, although they kept their
social identity to various extents. This monolingual trend has changed later
in the nineteenth century as immigration from South America and Asia has
disrupted the monolingual tendency and has given way to the development of
new ethnic identities in this officially monolingual country.
More recently, in the context of Europe and the continuous promotion of
multilingualism on the part of the European Commission and the Language

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 CHAPTER4

Policy Division of the Council of Europe, a distinction between 'multilingualism'

and "plurilingualism" has been developed.

'multilingualism' refers to the presence in a geographical area, large or small,

of more than one 'variety oflanguage' i.e. the mode of speaking of a social
group whether it is formally recognised as a language or not; in such an area
individuals may be monolingual speaking only their own variety.
'plurilingualism' refers to languages not as objects but from the point of view
of those who speak them. It refers to the repertoire of varieties oflanguage
which many individuals use, and is therefore the opposite of monolingualism;
it includes the language variety referred to as 'mother tongue' or 'first language'
and any number of other languages or varieties. Thus in some multilingual
areas some individuals may be monolingual and some may be plurilingual.
(Council ofEurope, 2007: 7)

Plurilingualism, as defined by the Council of Europe, refers to the full

linguistic repertoire of the individual that develops through life and includes
their 'mother tongue' or 'first language' as well as any language that individuals
may acquire or learn through life including, for instance, their national
language, varieties of the standard language spoken according to the norms of a
region, regional or minority languages, foreign languages spoken or understood
as a consequence of education, experience of media or tourism, etc.
The distinction between multilingualism and plurilingualism is to some
extent theoretical and both terms portray different ways of approaching
the relationship between languages in society and the repertoire of the
individual (Canagarajah & Liyanage, 2012). In plurilingual competence,
proficiency does not need to be equal, nor even advanced, in all languages,
and the fact that different languages are used for different purposes also
qualifies as competence. The repertoire is emphasised over proficiency in
each language and language competence is therefore not treated in isolation
from intercultural competence.
In the Common European Framework ofReferencefor Languages, plurilingualism
is defined as:
[...] the ability to use languages for the purposes of communication and to take
part in intercultural interaction, where a person, viewed as a social agent, has
proficiency of varying degrees, in several languages, and experience of several

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Soc10LJNGUis11cs

cultures. This is not seen as the superposition or juxtaposition of distinct

competences, but rather as the existence of a complex or even composite
competence on which the user may draw.
(Council ofEurope, 2001: 168)

9. LANGUAGECONTACT

In places where two or more languages share a common geographic context

(e.g.: the city of Brussels) or simply where one language stops being used by
speakers and a different language is used (e.g.: because of the existence of an
international border), a situation of language in contact is encountered. There
are many factors that play a role in multilingualism and language contact and a
larger number of outcomes from such a situation are possible. In areas close to
international borders, for instance, speakers of each of the different languages
often develop a continuum, they speak dialects of their own languages which
are close enough to the other language to permit successful communication
(e.g.: people living on the two sides of the border between Portugal and Spain
normally understand each other without any problem, a situation that would be
most unlikely between people coming from further away in Portugal and Spain).
From a diachronic perspective, a contact situation between languages may result
in the loss of one of the languages, if they are in a power relationship, or in the
merging of both, if both languages are considered to have equal status and social
consideration. Without doubt, language contact is the main source of language
evolution and language change over time. (See diachronic variation, chapter 1)
Language Contact can cause political conflict. Belgium conforms a bilingual
state but it contains Walloon speakers of French dialects, Flemish speakers of
Dutch dialects, and speakers of German dialects. There, a dominant language
group (French) controls administration, politics and economy, presumably
giving employment preferences to applicants who have command of the
dominant language (Hans Nelde, 2002), and it can also happen that mastery of
the language used for administration is likely to be an advantage when seeking
employment. However, in some cases, socially or psychologically weakened
groups, or groups reduced in number, might move towards assimilation to
the dominant language (and culture). When those groups are numerous, or if
they have a sound cultural tradition, the most likely outcome is opposition and
resistance to the dominant group, resulting in language conflict.

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 CHAPTER4

Language conflicts can be viewed as natural or artificial language conflicts.

Natural language conflicts have been traditionally caused by political decisions
regarding majority or minority social groups. As was stated above, assimilation
or opposition represents the key factor in language conflict as it most
unequivocally arises from the latter. This type of conflict is seen in Canada
with the French-speaking community or in Spain with the Basque-speaking
community and it intensifies when ideological or political arguments are
involved and intertwine with linguistic ones. Another aspect that intensifies
these problems can be based, although not solely, on religious grounds, such
as that between Belfast (Northern Ireland) and Connemara, to the north of
Galway in the Republic of Ireland. Artificial language conflicts arise when a
compromise is attained and a language is disfavored. The European Union,
for instance, faces the problem of having 24 official working languages (2015).
Documents can be sent to EU institutions and a reply received in any of these
24 languages, and EU regulations are published in all these languages. However,
not all working documents by the European Commission are traslated into all
languages and English, French and German are used as procedural languages.
The use of so many languages turns the EU headquarters in Brussels into a
veritable Tower of Babel and the tasks of translation and interpretation into a
daunting enterprise.

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercises 7 and 8.

10. EXERCISES

1. Read the text on page 95 and think of the different domains in which
Robert, his parents and his sister use Spanish and English. Then fill in a
table like this for each of them (Robert; Carlos and Fabiana; and, Maira):

LOCATION ROLE RELATIONSHIP TOPIC LANGUAGE

--

125
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

2. Think about the issues raised in the section 'Bilingualism: definitions'.

Elaborate on each of the four questions raised there:

a) To what extent does the bilingual speaker need to be proficient in both

languages so thats/he can qualify as bilingual?
b) Does a bilingual speaker need to show equal proficiency m both
languages?

c) Does the bilingual proficiency of the language entail a spoken or

written command of both languages?

d) What language components should be considered as criteria for

assigning the label of 'bilingual': vocabulary, pronunciation, syntax,
fluency, etc.?

3. Analyse the following definitions of bilingualism. Discuss the implications of

each definition and compose your own taking these as a starting point. You
should incorporate any considerations that you feel are relevant.

'(T)he use of at least two languages either by an individual [...] or by a

group of speakers, such as the inhabitants of a particular region or nation.
Bilingualism is common, for example, in the Province of Quebec in Canada
where both English and French are spoken, and parts of Wales, where both
Welsh and English are spoken.'
(Richards, Platt and Platt, 1992: 36)

'A bilingual (or multilingual) person is one whose linguistic ability in two
(or more) languages is similar to that of a native speaker. It is estimated that
half the population of the world is bilingual [...]. It is as difficult to set up exact
criteria for what is to count as bilingualism as it is to describe exactly all that a
native speaker can do with her or his language. Besides, not all native speakers
will have the same ability in all aspects of their language: specialist registers, for
instance, are typically only accessible to specialists. Similarly, most bilinguals
will not have access to all registers in both their languages, or to the same
registers in both languages; for instance, if a native speaker of one language
leaves her or his native country for another, and learns a new skill through
the language of the new country of residence, s/he will typically be unable to
converse fluently about this skill in her or his native language: typically, s/he
will not have the required terminology at her or his disposal. [...]'
(Malmkj~r and Anderson, 1997: 57-58)

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 CHAPTER4

'The ability to speak two languages. Bilingualism may be the property of an

individual or of a whole community.'
(Trask, 1997: 29)

'The general sense of this term- a person who can speak two LANGUAGES
- provides a pre-theoretical frame of reference for linguistic study, especially by
SOCIOLINGUISTS, and APPLIED LINGUISTS involved in foreign- or second-
language teaching. The focus of attention has been on the many kinds and
degrees of 'bilingualism' and 'bilingual situations' which exist. Definitions of
bilingualism reflect assumptions about the degree of proficiency people must
achieve before they qualify as bilingual (whether comparable to a monolingual
NATIVE-SPEAKER, or something less than this, even to the extent of minimal
knowledge of a second language).
(Crystal, 1997: 42)

4. Read and analyse the following utterance spoken by aNewYork Puerto Rican
speaker and taken from Labov (1971: 457). What types of code-mixing can
you find? In what ways is it different from the fragment in this unit taken
from Valdes Fallis (1976) (p. 102)?
Por eso cada, you know it's nothing to be proud of, porque yo no estoy proud
of it, as a matter of fact I hate it, pero viene Vierne y Sabado yo es toy, tu me
ve haci a mi, sola with a, aqui solita, a veces que Frankie me deja, you know a
stick or something, y yo equi solita, queces Judy no sabe y yo estoy haci, viendo
television, but I rather, y cuando estoy con genre yo me ... borracha porque me
siento mas, happy, mas free, you know, pero si yo estoy com mucha gente yo no
estoy, you know, high, more or less, I couldn't get along with anybody.
5. Interview someone who views himself or herself as bilingual. What differences
do they perceive in their own proficiency in each language? Does your
interviewee report having any problem switching between the two languages?
In what domains does s/he use each language? How often does s/ he use
them? Does s/he feel at ease in both languages in all contexts? Why? (In the
case of multilingual interviewees, ask about all the languages s/he knows.)
6. Choose one of these geographic areas (Canada, South Africa, Australia, any
English-speaking country in the Caribbean area, or Spain), or any other that
interests you, and find out about the language use situation. What is the
pattern of use of the languages/dialects/varieties in that area? What type of

127
Soc1ouNGUJs11cs

relationship is there: diglossia or bilingualism? Please note that the Internet

and reference books such as encyclopedias may be very useful for this activity.
7. Think about the linguistic situation in your speech community. Expand on
the positive and negative effects that multilingualism might have on your
society. If you already live in a multilingual speech community, describe the
situation and the effects of multilingualism.
8. Analyse each of the following statements. Expand on each item providing
your opinion and supporting your arguments.
a) Creoles are not real languages and, therefore, they should not be used as a
medium of instruction or in the media.
b) In multilingual countries, it is too expensive and often time consuming to
instruct children in various languages.
c) Bilingualism is rather infrequent and it normally interferes with a child's
cognitive development.
d) Being bilingual means that you can speak, read and write in two languages
with ease.

11. RESOURCES ON THE WEB

Now you can visit the web page for this subject where you will find further
references and complementary readings.

12. FURTHER READING AND QUESTIONS

12.1. Text 7

Read the following text carefully and comment on it emphasizing any aspect
you consider of relevance. After the text you will find some questions that may
be helpful. Write around 250-300 words in total.
By way of summary, let me identify a number of important questions that
must be addressed whenever parents, educators and administrators discuss the
prospects of multilingual education for their communities:
• What are the explicit or implicit goals for formal education in the region?

128
 CHAPTER4

• Is there general satisfaction throughout the region with the level of

educational attainment by all participants (both those who terminate their
education relatively early and those who wish to go on to tertiary studies)?

• Is the region relatively homogeneous or is it heterogeneous linguistically

and culturally and how would bilingual education complement the
linguistic and cultural characteristics of the community?

• Does the region have an explicit or implicit policy with respect to the role
oflanguage in education, and how would bilingual education fit or not fit
with this existing policy? Is this policy based upon tradition or the result
oflanguage (education) planning?

• What priorities are accorded to goals such as the development of broadly

based permanent functional literacy, the value of education for those who
may terminate their schooling at an early age, and the power oflanguage
to foster national identity and cohesiveness?

• Are the language(s) selected for instruction written, codified, standardized,

and elaborated?

• Is there a well-developed curriculum for the various levels/ stages of

formal education (i.e., a framework which specifies fairly explicitly a set
oflanguage, content, cognitive, and affective objectives that are then tied
to or illustrated by exemplary techniques and activities, and supported by
written materials)?

• Are sufficient core and reference materials available for teachers and
for students in the language(s) of instruction? If not, are there trained
individuals available who can prepare such materials?

• Is there a sufficient number of trained and experienced teachers who are

fluent speakers of the language(s) of instruction and who are trained to
teach via that language(s)?
(Ferguson, 2003: 469)

Issues to consider:
a) Make an analysis of the current situation of bilingual education in your
country/community. Try and answer the questions listed above. Please
note that you will probably need to do some research before answering
these questions.

129
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

12.2. Text8

Read the following text carefully and comment on it, emphasising any aspect
you consider of relevance. After the text you will find some questions that may
be helpful. Write around 250-300 words in total.

When code-switching is discussed the question of speakers' competence

is frequently raised: are code-switching and linguistic competence mutually
exclusive? Because it is popularly believed that switching is a result of
incompetence rather than of a fine sense of the unique effects that it can
achieve, switching is often stigmatized. People say that those who switch 'can't
speak properly' or 'make a mess' of the languages they use.
On closer examination it appears that two types of switching are differently
regarded. Whereas diglossic and situational code-switching are often
regarded as necessary manifestations of bilingualism, and are valued as part
of a speaker's communicative competence, conversational switching is often
overtly stigmatized. Covertly it may be valued of its rhetorical possibilities
and as a group-marker. The crucial linguistic difference between the two types
of switching that probably accounts for this difference in attitude is that
situational switching involves the production and comprehension of long
strings in each language, so fluency is apparent, whereas in conversational code-
switching the switch is frequently intrasentential, allowing for an impression
that speakers are insufficiently proficient in either language to be able to finish
what they want to say, in one language.
A common assumption is that people switch languages because of gaps in their
personal vocabulary. As is shown in examples cited above, this is true in some
cases but not in others. The study of a large corpus of data from a member of a
bilingual, code-switching community will often show the speaker using the words
for a concept from both languages. Witty, quick, elegant shifts between codes are
often appreciated in the speech community. Proficient bilinguals or bidialectals
who switch codes consciously or unconsciously achieve particular social, political,
or rhetorical effects. They are able to draw on a bigger linguistic pool than they
would be if they and their interlocutors were monodialectal o monolingual.
Mesthrie (2001: 453)

Issues to consider:
a) This fragment analyses whether code-switching is a matter of language
deficit or a language skill. According to your own experience as a speaker

130
 CHAPTER4

of English and Spanish (or any other language), do you ever code-switch?
Why (not)?
b) Can you think of any other types of code-switching apart for the ones
described in this text?
c) Would you say that code-switching is mainly related to the topic or to the
role of the speaker? Explain.

13. RESEARCH ACTIVITY

Interview someone who considers himself/herself a bilingual. Try and find

an answer for the following issues.
a) Circumstances that favoured bilingualism. How he/she learned the
languages and why.
b) Proficiency in each language, and if one is considered primary and other/
others secondary. Readiness to use them in speaking, writing or reading.
c) Self-confidence in using each language (context, interlocutor, register, etc.)
d) To what extent is his/her bilingualism stable of dynamic, if it has changed
over time or still changing.
e) Frequency of use of each language.
f) Advantages and disadvantages he/she has found in being bilingual.

14. REFERENCES

ABELLO-CoNTESSE, CH., P. CHANDLER, M. D. L6PEZ-}IMENEZ and R. CHACON-BELTRAN. 2013.

Bilingual and Multilingual Education in the 21st Century: Building on Experience. Bristol:
Multilingual Matters.
APPLE, R. and P. MUYSKEN. 1996. Bilinguismo y contacto de lenguas. Barcelona: Editorial Ariel.
BAKER, C. 2011. Foundations ofbilingual education and bilingualism. Multilingual matters.
COUNCIL OF EUROPE. 2001. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages:
Learning, Teaching, Assessment. Council of Europe/ Cambridge University Press.
Available online: www.coe.int/lang
CouNcIL OF EuROPE. 2007. From Linguistic Diversity to Plurilingual Education: Guide for the
Development ofLanguage Education Policies in Europe. www.coe.int/lang

131
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

CRYSTAL, D. 1997. A Dictionary ofLinguistics and Phonetics. Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell

Publishers Ltd.
CANAGARAJAH, S. and I. LIYANAGE. 2012. 'Lessons form pre-colonial multilingualism', in
Martin-Jones, M, A. Blackledge & A Creese (eds.). 2012.
DE BOT, K. 2002. 'Home Language and Language Proficiency'. Journal ofMultilingual and
Multicultural Development. 23/3: 175-194.
FERGUSON, C. 2003. 'Diglossia', in C. Bratt Paulston and G. Richard Tucker (eds.), 2003,
Sociolinguistics: The Essential Readings. Malden, USA: Blackwell Publishing.
FrsHMAN, J. 2003. 'Bilingualism with and without diglossia; diglossia with and without
bilingualism', in C. Bratt Paulston and G. Richard Tucker (eds.), 2003, Sociolinguistics:
The Essential Readings. Malden, USA: Blackwell Publishing.
HAMERS, J. F. and M. H. A. BLANC. 1989. Bilinguality and Bilingualism. Cambridge, USA:
Cambridge University Press.
LABOV, W. 1971. 'The notion of "System" in Creole Studies', in D. H. Hymes (ed.), 1971,
Pidginization and Creolization ofLanguages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
LAMBERT, W. E. 1955. 'Measurement of the linguistic dominance in bilinguals.' Journal of
Abnormal and Social Psychology, 50: 197-200.
MACNAMARA, J. 1967. 'The bilingual's linguistic performance'. Journal of Social Issues, 23:
58-77.
MALMKJIER, K. and J. M. ANDERSON (eds.) 1997. The Linguistics Encyclopedia. London:
Routledge.
MARTIN-JONES, M, A. BLACKLEDGE and A CREESE (eds.). 2012. The Routledge Handbook of
Multilingualism. London: Routledge.
MESTHRIE, R. 2001. Concise Encyclopaedia of Sociolinguistics. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
NELDE, H. 2002. 'German in Belgium: linguistic variation from a contact linguist point
of view'. Journal ofMultilingual and Multicultural Development. 23 : 1-2, pp. 65-79.
RrcHARDS, J. C., J. Platt and H. Platt. 1992. Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching
and Applied Linguistics. Harlow, UK: Longman.
ROMAINE, S. 1989. Bilingualism. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers.
TRASK, R. L. 1997. A Student,s Dictionary ofLanguage and Linguistics. London: Arnold.
VALDES FALLIS, G. 1976. 'Social interaction and code-switching patterns; A case study
of Spanish/English', in Keller, G. D. et al. (eds.). Bilingualism in the bicentennial and
beyond. New York: Bilingual Press.
WARDHAUGH, R. 2002 (4th ed.). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. (4th ed.) Malden, USA:
Blackwell Publishing.
WEINREICH, U. 1953. Languages in Contact. The Hague: Mouton.

132
CHAPTERS
 This chapter centres on language planning and policy
as ways in which the social dimension of language
affects our lives. Special attention is paid to specific
sociolinguistic situations in different and distant parts
of the world. The key issues addressed in this chapter are:
• Bilingual education
• Language policy
• Language planning: factors, actions and aims
• Individual language planning
• Minority languages and language shift
• Some interesting sociolinguistic situations: India,
New Zealand and Canada
• European Union language planning and policy
• The role of English
• The Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights

1. KEYWORDS

The following list of key words contains some important terms that are
presented in this chapter. A definition for each term can be found at the end of
this book, in the glossary.

• Aboriginal languages • Language Academy

• Acculturation • Language attrition
• African American Vernacular • Language conflict
• Content-based ESL • Language election/ selection
• Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) • Language loss
• Cultural awareness • Language Policy Division
• Domain • Language revitalisation
, • EnglishCorpus planning • Language spread
• Endangered language • Longitudinal study
• Family language planning • Lingua franca
• Heritage language bilingual education • Linguistic competence
• Heritage language • LWC
• Hypercorrection • Sociolinguistic relativity
• International schools • Status planning.
I

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Soc10LINGu1sn cs

2. BILINGUAL EDUCATION

Politics are doubtless always present in bilingual education as, for instance,
in the case of Canada. The aim of French immersion in Canada is to give
students the opportunity to achieve, by secondary school graduation, a level
of bilingualism sufficient to function well in a French-speaking community,
accept a job using French as the working language, or undertake university or
college education in French. In addition to this, Canadian immersion programs
help to promote understanding between two main language groups 1 and solve
sociopolitical problems that have existed for decades and that might otherwise
eventually bring about more serious social problems.
Bilingual education entails the accomplishment of a number of actions
and decisions regarding multidisciplinary perspectives which can be political,
economic, social, cultural and pedagogical. These can be analysed from different
angles. Firstly, bilingual education involves both a given language policy and
a pedagogic realisation in a particular classroom practice. Secondly, bilingual
education deals with national or regional matters and by means of language
planning it tries to assimilate minorities, integrate minority groups and/or
spread intercultural understanding.
As was explained in previous chapters, languages evolve over time as a
result of social, political and economic changes in societies. Under certain
circumstances some languages may shrink in terms of numbers of speakers,
while others may grow. In any event it seems that for a (minority) language to
survive it is necessary to meet certain conditions such as the ones put forward
by Baker (2002):
a) Languages need to be used at home for interpersonal communication;
that way they become mother tongues of new members in the family.
The best way to ensure the subsistence of (minority) languages is to raise
children in that language which will, nevertheless, need to be reinforced
later in schooling. This is the case, for instance, of Welsh in Wales and
Basque in the Basque Country.
b) A second benchmark for the maintenance and development of a (minority)
language is its presence through formal schooling. This provides the
speakers with wider linguistic tools to interact outside a limited domestic

1
Apart form English and French, a number of heritage languages are also spoken in Canada.

136
 CHAPTERS

setting and help in the social and psycholinguistic development of the

individual. Language planning through bilingual education has succeeded
in Canada and Wales and also in the Basque Country and Catalonia, but
not to the same extent in Ireland, where the number of Irish-speakers has
decreased in favour of English in spite of the continuous efforts made by
the Irish authorities. In 1922, the establishment of the Irish Free State (later
the Irish Republic of Ireland) made Irish the first official language in the
country and occasioned its implantation in the educational system.

c) A third decisive factor for the continuation of a (minority) language is its

presence in economic circles as this guarantees that speakers will maintain
or learn it for employment purposes. This may explain the case of Irish.
For decades the Irish economy has remained to some extent dependent
upon the economy of other English-speaking countries (e.g., favoring the
use of English in the employment market), and later the incorporation
of Ireland into the EU has stressed the significance of other European
Union languages such as English, French and German. Parents may also
play a role in the spread of a majority language as they may encourage the
learning and use of that language by their children, motivated by the fact
that it may be facilitative for employment and economic reasons.

d) A fourth aspect is related to the association of the (minority) language with

the culture and the literary tradition of the speech community. When the
(minority) language is socially and culturally valued (often representing
a cultural or ethnic identity) and is commonly used in the media and in
social interactions, it has more social functions and, consequently, more
chances to spread or simply to be maintained. For instance, one of the main
reasons for the decrease in numbers of Australian Aboriginal languages
speakers was the lack of social value associated with these languages. Since
18th c. there was an overt attempt on the part of colonizers to convert
Aborigines into Europeans. More recently, in the past decades, younger
generations did not find many advantages in learning the language of
their ancestors as they often saw that their progenitors represented a
socially and economically deprived group.

The four fundamentals referred to before show how the course of languages
can be guided to some extent. This fact makes bilingual education and language
policymakers of paramount importance from a social point of view for the
progress of nation-states and can certainly pave the way for social interethnic

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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

understanding or conflict. From the point of view of linguistic heritage and

linguistic diversity, this kind of decision-making, or the absence of it, can
eventually cause language death, the preeminence of one language over another,
or the development ofbilingual-bicultural societies (which seems to be the more
positive outcome).

The adoption of a well-founded language-planning policy in bilingual

education, however, does encounter some difficulties in its implementation. Baker
(ibid.) identifies three limitations of language planning in bilingual education
that need to be considered as it should not be forgotten that language planning
and policy deal fundamentally with people and not only with languages. First, he
identifies a temptation on the part ofthe language planner to give prominence to the
language rather than to the child, but what is good for a language is not necessarily
good for a child. So, a humanistic educator may argue that'[...] bilingual education
needs to be defended for its value and for its contribution to the development
of the child, rather than for its support of the language.' (Baker, 2002: 233).
Second, language planning in the form of bilingual education generally has a
limited view of the functions and purposes of education as it often focuses on
the benefits and needs for the acquisition of a dual-linguistic system, sometimes
setting aside other social and psychological considerations. Third, Baker points
out that there is often unfounded optimism and overly high expectations on
bilingual education in revitalising a language. Bilingual education plays an
important role in language maintenance and revival but it is not the only element.

Recently there has been a general tendency to perceive bilingual education

as very advantageous for everyone. This is due partly to the general reawakening
of cultural identities and the subsequent revival of minority languages, and
partly to the globalisation process that is making younger generations aware of
the need to have a command of more than one language. It becomes almost a
must in EU countries where the general tendency, encouraged by governmental
policies, is to move towards a multilingual and multicultural society. In this
respect, Baker and Jones (1998) display eight particular advantages of bilingual
education in modern societies:

1. Bilingual education allows the full development of the languages involved

(often two languages and sometimes three). This fact enables children to
engage in wider communication and have more alternatives in patterns of
communication with different generations, different cultural groups and
different geographical areas.

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 CHAPTERS

2. Bilingual education promotes among children deeper insights into

the cultures each language represents. It also avoids the stereotyping
of different social and cultural groups, encourages social and cultural
relativism and promotes a multiperspective viewpoint.

3. Bilingual education often results in biliteracy, i.e., the possibility of reading

and writing in more than one language. Some of the outcomes are that it
provides more possibilities for enjoying literature for pleasure, broadens
employment opportunities and promotes a deeper understanding of
heritage and traditions.
4. There is evidence to suggest that speaking two well-developed languages
provides wider general cognitive benefits. Children may be more creative
in thinking in the sense that they become interpersonally aware, a skill
demonstrated linguistically, for example in code-switching.
5. Bilingual education may raise the children's self-esteem especially when
the language spoken at home is not the majority language in the society
but is studied at school. Since it is one of the languages of schooling,
the child can perceive that the language is socially accepted, which is
so important in curriculum success. However, if the language spoken
at home does not form part of the school curriculum the child may
experience feelings of rejection.

6. Canadian immersion studies suggest that curriculum achievement is

connected to bilingual education. Nevertheless, it is difficult to determine
to what extent this is caused by additional support at home, the extra
involvement of teachers and educational institutions, or the connection
between language and cognitive development, among other factors.

7. The establishment of a secure identity within a particular community,

especially in the case of minority languages.
8. Bilingual education also. brings economic advantages as it can secure
employment both in public services and private companies. This may be
true at a local, regional, or national level (e.g., Catalonia, Canada, etc.) but
also in international corporations that may need multilingual employees.

In contrast to the positives of bilingual education described above we must

also take into account that recent research has identified some drawbacks
such as the following: (a) bilingual education does not guarantee effective

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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

schooling, in spite of the fact that it is often associated with academic success
and, very often, it is the type of education preferred by upper-middle classes in
western societies and it is sometimes associated with an elitist education; (b) the
language register used in formal education does not necessarily correspond with
the language register needed outside the classroom, i.e., the type of academic
language used as the means for teaching often does not correspond with the
colloquial register that students in a bilingual program can find outside the
classroom, and this may result in a degree of exclusion by mother tongue
speakers; (c) productive skills are sometimes not fully developed if the language
of education is not present beyond the school, and this is precisely one of the
most striking outcomes of Canadian bilingual education programs. Students,
under ideal circumstances, seem to develop a full command of the language as
far as receptive skills are concerned (listening and reading). Productive skills
(speaking and writing), however, seem to develop to a lesser extent, which is not
unusual in language learning in other contexts.

C. Please go to the exercises section and do exercises 1 and 2.

3. LANGUAGE POLICY

Language is rarely a causal factor and language decisions are essentially

made for political and economic reasons. Language use and evolution often
mirrors what is thought about it and what actually happens in society, for
example, migration which is one of the main reasons for the increase in people
learning languages and for the revival and current need for language policy
and planning.
Language planning is actually part of a language policy that a given
government adopts for one or more of the languages spoken in the country. In
Spain, for instance, Catalan was forbidden during Franco's dictatorship between
1937-1976. During that period the use of Catalan was not allowed in schools
and no books or newspapers could be published in that language because it was
considered important for the Catalan movement, which was believed to threaten
the union of Spain. In this way, the government hoped to eliminate the language
because new generations would not be instructed in Catalan. Later, with the
advent of democracy, Catalan was officially reintroduced and was adopted as
one of the official languages in Catalonia. This is a good example of how a
repressive language policy can prove ineffective.

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4. LANGUAGE PLANNING

Language planning consists of a deliberate and institutionally organised

attempt to change the development of a language variety, or a language itself,
or to alter its functions in society. Sometimes, language planning results
from the need of a multilingual country to implement a language policy
regulating the scope and use of the languages and/or language varieties within
its territory. Wardhaugh (2002) posits that language planning constitutes a
deliberate attempt to interfere with the natural development of a language or
one of its varieties, i.e., it involves human intervention in the natural process
of languages or varieties to change, spread or erode. Language planning began
several centuries ago and various purposes may lie behind this intentional
interference in the natural process oflanguage evolution and change. It must be
said that these attempts have not always been honorable; while the aim may be
to maintain a language that is about to disappear because of a continual loss of
native speakers, on some occasions the goal is to repress and diminish a cultural
or ethnic minority that found in their common language a sign of identity and
a source of self-assertion.
A few decades ago, decisions concerning language planning were characteristic
of developing countries which often needed to make decisions on whether to use
the former colonial language or other national languages as a unifying code.
More recently, language planning has become an issue in western societies as
there has been a social demand to preserve minority languages (e.g., Irish, Welsh,
Catalan, etc.) or a political demand to expand the use of international languages
to promote intercultural and supranational communication (e.g., English,
French and German in the EU). The variety offactors affecting language planning
(including economic, educational, historical, judicial, political, religious and
social) give an idea of its complexity.
Languages reflect human relationships between individuals and also between
social groups and they change over the course of time as a result of the changes
in social relationships. This means that, in a way, languages are alive and,
therefore, are born (e.g., pidgins and creoles), develop over time (e.g., Anglo-
Saxon evolved into Present-day English), merge and die (e.g., Manx on the Isle
of Mann). This raises the issue of to what extent man can alter the course of a
language by deliberate manipulation. It is not clear how far languages can be
controlled by social or political manoeuvring as there are instances oflanguages
that, for example, were lost because certain states or policies wanted it so (e.g.,

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many Amerindian languages in North and South America), and yet some other
instances where political repression was unsuccessful in restricting language
maintenance (e.g., Catalan in Spain during Franco's dictatorship).

A fully developed language policy or at least certain ideological trends almost

invariably lie behind language planning. Indeed, Cobarrubias (1983) recognized
four main types of ideology that typically prompt the rationale behind
decisions regarding language planning: linguistic assimilation) linguistic pluralism)
vernacularisation and internationalism.

Linguistic assimilation considers that anyone forming part of a society,

regardless of their origin, should learn the dominant language of that society.
This seems, prima facie, a reasonable decision for the integration of minority
groups, but it raises the problem of conservation and respect for minority group
identities and cultural heritage. These non-dominant cultures are often deemed
to disappear under this type of language planning, for example the case of
Russification in the former Soviet Union where Soviet rulers tried to spread the
Russian language and culture throughout the whole Soviet Union. A different
action could be simply official neglect, i.e., the lack of official actions undertaken
to preserve a language, which can also lead to language assimilation.

In Australia, there were about 200 languages at the time of the European
conquest and only around 20 were still spoken by younger generations in the
1990s. A major factor in Aboriginal language death in Australia was the linguistic
assimilation policy undettaken up to the 1970s with their 'English only policy
in schools. In 1972 the advent of a Labor government meant the recognition of
the right for all Aboriginal children to become literate in their native language
before becoming literate in English. This resulted in the introduction of bilingual
schools for Aboriginal children in various parts of the country. Today, they are
mainly still open in the Northern Territories, where Aboriginal languages are
most spoken. In these bilingual schools children receive their introduction to
literacy skills in their native language and all their academic work is in English.
These programs have helped to raise the status of both Aboriginal teachers and
Aboriginal languages but unfortunately they have been undermined in recent
years (Shopen, 1999). The situation is critical as Aboriginal languages in Australia
are suffering a sharp decrease in number of speakers in spite of the fact that the
deliberate linguistic assimilation policy seems to have ceased. Shopen (ibid.) points
out that there is no permanent institutional support that would help develop
adequate skills, resources and guidance for these programs.

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Linguistic pluralism, implies the acceptance of various languages or varieties,

and it can be centered on individual or geographical criteria, i.e., an individual
may be stimulated to maintain his/ her language in the case of a multilingual
environment, where his/her language represents a minority that does not
identify with a specific geographical area (such as a group of immigrants in a big
city); or, more probably, in the case of a multilingual state that adopts various
official languages as they are spoken in different geographical areas (e.g., French
and English-speaking Canada; French and Dutch-speaking Belgium; and,
English and Afrikaans-speaking South Africa).
Vernacularisation entails the reconstruction or renewal of a language that
is not used by a wide group of speakers but after some changes (the alphabet,
pronunciation, relexicalisation, etc.) becomes widespread and adopted as
an official language (e.g., Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea) (see Tok Pisin in
chapter 3).
Internationalism is reached when the motivation in language planning is to
adopt a non-vernacular language for wider interethnic communication as a
political solution to an internal problem often arising from equally powerful
minorities, one of them aiming at imposing their language as the official
language, or the language of education and trade, for all (e.g., English in India
and Singapore).

4.1. Some factors affecting language planning

The following factors significantly determine the development and the

incidence of language planning in a speech community.
a) Socio-demographic factors profoundly affect language planning as
the number of languages that are spoken and the number of speakers
may favour the use of one language or the other.
b) Linguistic factors may also play a role as the degree of development of
one language as well as the existence of a literary tradition may be taken
into account when deciding which language should be promoted or
preserved.
c) Socio-psychological factors affect people's attitude towards one
language or the other and their acceptance in a speech community.

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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

d) Political factors can influence the adoption of a specific alphabet, for

example, the case of the Cyrillic alphabet introduced in middle-central
Asia by the Russians, and the adoption of the Latin alphabet in Turkey.
e) Religious factors are also important. For instance Sudan, as a former
colony, had English as official language (spoken by a minority) but this
was changed to Arabic, a language spoken by half the population, because
of the stronger position of Islam in the country. The Bible has also been
translated into many different languages 2 •

4.2. Actions in language planning

There follow four starting points that language planners have traditionally
adopted in their task oflanguage planning and which are attempts in themselves
to describe the processes or steps rather than the goals (please note that the
following actions are not mutually exclusive but may be complementary):
a) Selection of a norm. Multilingual countries very often need to make
important decisions regarding the language or languages that will
become official, or simply the language for education or any institutional
purpose. Sometimes, this turns into a critical decision as rivalry among
different language groups may cause conflicts as some of them may
think that they are being disadvantaged. Because of this, it is sometimes
necessary to introduce a language as a lingua franca, which is the case of
English in India and Ghana. On other occasions, a particular variety is
chosen or a new variety is created. All these decisions are obviously based
on political grounds.
b) Codification. Given the circumstance described immediately above, if
an indigenous language is chosen as the standard, it may be necessary to
make some changes and adapt it to meet the requirements of a language
for wider communication within a multilingual country. Changes may be
needed, for instance, to adapt the language and update its vocabulary, to
adopt a new alphabet or, simply, to standardise a language that previously
was found only in spoken form.

2
In the web page for this subject, some instances of the Bible being translated into other
languages can be seen, for instance, the Bible in Swahili and Haitian Creole English.

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c) Modernisation. Technological and scientific developments probably

require modernisation of specific vocabulary and very often a decision
needs to be made on whether to adopt loan words or to coin new terms
based on indigenous roots. Language policies sometimes go beyond actual
language evolution because of the speedy technological development that
clearly favour the adoption of loan words.
d) Implementation. Once a decision has been made, the chosen language
needs to be officially implemented and used in all sorts of official forums:
education, parliament, media, etc. This will undoubtedly raise its social
standing and it will become a prestige language or variety, probably used
in literary and academic circles. Eventually, and as a result of continuous
and prestigious use, it will spread as the norm, and its presence in
dictionaries, grammars and literary works will consolidate its status as
the norm.

4.3. Aims oflanguage planning

In previous sections it was said that there is a close connection between

language policy and language planning and, as a matter of fact, the former
governs the latter. A given language policy with either far-reaching or very
precise aims affecting a speech community generally makes use of more definite
language planning actions to achieve these goals.

Nahir (2003) sets forth eleven language planning functions or goals which
can in fact be combined to tackle the language-related problems and needs of
speech communities. He points out that earlier models, like the one immediately
above, attempt to analyse the steps taken by language policies or the agencies/
academies in the process of planning language. His classification, however,
describes the functions or goals they have sought until now in response to their
language-related needs (communicative, political, social, economic, religious,
etc.). Needs and aspirations are likely to change over the course of time.
a) Language purification can be divided into two types: external purification
and internal purification. External purification consists of the development
of prescriptions of usage in order to protect the language from unwanted
foreign influence by means, for example, of a Language Academy. Some
of the actions taken are the creation of prescriptive grammars and

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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

dictionaries which contain the normalised use of the language and follow
the criteria set out by the Academy. Particularly notorious in this respect
is the control over foreign lexical borrowings, especially when there are
indigenous words that represent the same concept, and in such cases
a purist point of view is adopted. More difficult is the case of recent
technological advances that require, to a large extent, the incorporation
of foreign words. Internal purification refers to the acceptance of the code
as it exists at a certain point in history, protecting it from undesirable
developments which are considered as non-normative (incorrect) or
simply as deviations from the standard. The generation of these normative
policies and their enforcement are tasks actively undertaken by language
academies.

b) Language revival consists of an attempt to revitalise a language with a

small number of speakers (e.g., Irish and Welsh), or even a completely
dead language (e.g., Hebrew and Cornish), and turn it into a means
of communication for a speech community. Some instances of this
phenomenon have been seen since the middle of the nineteenth century,
together with general support for national identity which entails the
adoption and standardisation of a national language.

c) Language reform involves the incorporation of specific changes in the

language (e.g., spelling, grammar, pronunciation, etc.) attempting to
facilitate its use. The aim of this 'reform' can be to facilitate the use of the
language by its users, the internationalisation of the language, or many
other factors, but always depending on political, ideological, religious or
economical factors. Instances of language reforms can be found in many
languages since the beginning of the nineteenth century (e.g., Icelandic,
German, Greek, Spanish, etc.) but the most representative example is
Turkish. Kemal Atari.irk undertook the modernisation of Turkey and
declared it a lay country; he urged a huge reform in the Turkish lexicon
and orthography, adopting the Roman script instead of the Arab script.

d) Language standardisation implies an attempt to adopt a language,

or variety of language, as the major language of a region or nation for
wider communication with official, educational, commercial or other
functions. Language standardisation is seen in the unification of small
political units, the division of others and the recent independence of
former colonial territories.

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e) Language spread involves an attempt to increase the number of speakers

of a particular language, normally at the expense of another language or
languages. This motivation for language shift often responds to political
considerations in multilingual countries. Some examples can be found
in former colonial territories that became independent states during the
nineteenth century. Language spread is necessarily connected to language
standardisation by definition as the expansion of a language promoted
by language planning agencies endeavors to institutionalise one language
for some political or economic reason (e.g., the USSR and Quebec).

f) Lexical modernisation consists of the adaptation of existing vocabulary,

or the creation of a new one, to assist standard languages that may
have borrowed foreign vocabulary too fast to accommodate it to their
orthography, pronunciation, etc. Nahir (ibid.) distinguishes two trends
in terminological work: a) as part of either the process of codification or
implementation oflanguages seeking revival (e.g., Hebrew) or reform (e.g.,
Turkish) that involves developing previously unwritten languages and aims
at bridging the gap between them and modern knowledge and technology;
and, b) as part of a process of modernisation of standard languages that
have borrowed concepts and terms having a lexicon unprepared for those
changes, i.e., the natural development of the language has not supplied
the relevant terminology and it is necessary to provide the terms that have
come up as a result of social and technological advance.
Lexical modernisation is applied in many countries and constitutes
in itself an effect of globalisation with the resulting increase in concept
borrowing from leading international languages such as English.
International globalised languages -especially English- are exercising
a considerable influence over other languages around the world due to
the growth of international relations and mobility. Language planning
agencies collect new ideas and concepts imported into their community
and adapt or create new vocabulary for them. Lexical modernisation has
been carried out in many countries around the world such as: Norway,
Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Israel, Hungary, France, Vietnam, India, etc.

g) Terminology unification takes place when it is necessary to establish

unified terminologies, mainly in the technological and scientific domains,
in order to diminish ambiguity. Again this is largely an effect of
globalisation and cross cultural communication in the present world.

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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

h) Stylistic simplification is found when a language use needs to be

disentangled in order to reduce communication ambiguity between two
groups, for instance, professionals and bureaucrats on the one hand and
ordinary people on the other. Such a situation may have been caused
by the use of an archaic or literary style. Instances of such stylistically
complex language, both in terms of lexical intricacy and grammatical
elaboration, can be found in legal and medical language.
i) Interlingual communication implies the adoption ofa LWC (Language of
Wider Communication) with the intention of facilitating communication
between members of different speech communities. This lingua franca can
take the form of an auxiliary or artificial language such as Esperanto.
More commonly, and as a result of the spread of Anglo-Saxon culture and
the learning of English as an L2, English is frequently used these days as a
lingua franca in different parts of the world.
Another way in which interlingual communication can be attained is
by improving mutual intelligibility between speakers ofcognate languages.
This can be accomplished by partially standardising the various linguistic
codes in order to minimise differences. Nordic language agencies, for
instance, are committed to cooperate and avoid unnecessary changes (e.g.,
Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Swedish, etc.)
j) Language maintenance consists of the preservation of a group's native
language when political, social, economic, educational or any other pressures
threaten its continued existence by causing a decline in status or in the
number of speakers. Language maintenance can be exercised at two levels;
first with the aim of preserving a widely spoken language from unwanted
foreign influence; and, second, as a protection of a minority ethnic language
whose acquisition and use needs to be encouraged by means of social,
educational or political arrangements. In the case of New Zealand, for
instance, speakers of Aboriginal languages often perceive their language as
having a lower status than English, which discourages them from taking
their progenitors as models and maintaining the use of the traditional
languages. English is, associated with social success and economic power.
k) Auxiliary-code standardisation entails the modification of auxiliary
aspects of the language (signs for the deaf, place names, rules of
transcription, etc.) to lessen ambiguity or to satisfy changing social,
political or other recent needs. Changing place names can serve the

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functions of terminology unification or stylistic simplification, but most

often they just take place when a given political party is in power.
It should be taken into account that the language planning goals described
above are not mutually exclusive and two or more phenomena can co-occur. On
some occasions the goals and the procedures can even be contradictory as there
may be some tension between, for example, language purification and lexical
modernisation.

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 3.

4.4. Individual language planning

On some occasions language planning does not need to be an initiative from

governments or prominent institutions but can also be started by individuals.
This is the case, for instance, with Norwegian. Today there are two official forms
of Norwegian: Bokmdl (book language) and Nynorsk (new Norwegian). Bokmal is
also called Riksmdl (national language) and Dano-Norwegian. It was influenced
by Danish, which was the dominant language while Norway was under Danish
rule (1397-1814). Nynorsk is also known as Landsmdl (country language) and is
based on rural dialects uninfluenced by Danish.
By the middle of the 19th century some attempts were made to create a
purely Norwegian language. On the one hand, Knud Knudsen undertook a
revision of written Danish with the aim of incorporating colloquial oral forms
from Norwegian dialects. On the other hand, another group of specialists, led
by the Norwegian philologist and lexicographer Ivar Aasen, undertook the task
of forging a Norwegian language which was conceived from a comprehensive
study of the dialects spoken all over the country and which were at times very
dissimilar due to geographic isolation. The outcome of this huge project was
a language called Landsmal ('the language of the country') which is currently
known as Nynorsk. For some time Nynorsk was perceived by Norwegians as
rustic and 'vulgar'. This situation has changed over the years. Nynorsk received
official recognition in 1885 through a parliamentary resolution. In 1930 a law
was passed in the national Parliament which stated that official documents
had to use both varieties and any citizen who sends any sort of written
communication to the government has the right to a response in the language
that they have used.

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Nowadays, from the eighth level of primary school onwards, both varieties
are compulsory, one as the main language and another as secondary language,
according to the student's choice. Both Bokmdl and Nynorsk are employed by the
government, the schools, and the mass media, although Bokmdl is still the most
widely used. It should also be pointed out that it remains the language more
commonly used in urban areas whereas Nynorsk is employed mainly in western
rural areas and cities in the west like Bergen. In contrast to other minority
languages, Nynorsk and Bokmdl are mutually intelligible, so these varieties can
be used exclusively, because speakers of only one can still communicate with the
other variety.

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercises 4 and 5.

5. MINORITY LANGUAGES

Policy makers in multilingual nations need to make certain important

decisions regarding the status of the languages in contact in a given territory:
first, arises the selection of an official or national language, which can be
problematic in the case of developing nations composed of different ethnic
groups; second, decisions need to be made regarding instruction in schools,
which will definitely determine not only the general attitude towards a language
but also the point of view of coming generations; and, third, on some occasions
there is also a need to decide on the standardisation procedures such as the
choice of an alphabet or a given variety, especially in the case oflanguages having
scripts different to the ones of currently internationalised languages.

The implementation of multilingual policies in multilingual states to

regulate the interaction between different language groups in a modern nation
or state is a result of the sociolinguistic demands of modern societies. It can
have three possible outcomes that determine the degree of success or failure of
a specific language policy:

a) Language maintenance as a result of a course of action, the survival of

a specific language, endangered or not, may be determined by political
decisions. E.g.: In Wales where Welsh is a native language in particular
areas but in others it is artificially maintained by compulsory teaching
in schools.

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b) Bilingualism seems to be one of the most desirable outcomes in a

prolonged contact of language groups as it guarantees the smvival
of the languages and seems to be the best way for multicultural and/
or multiethnic societies to reach a common ground on linguistic and
sociopolitical fields. Both languages manage to survive organically with a
large number of people speaking and using both.
c) Language shift seems to be another possible development and it is
perhaps a less desirable outcomes as it can lead to language loss. However,
it is necessary to understand that language development does not depend
solely on language policy decision making but also on sociocultural forces.
More often than not, the spread of a language in terms of numbers of
speakers takes place at the expense of another or other languages. Paulson
(1994: 9) supports this point by stating that minority ethnic groups
within a modern nation-state usually shift to the language spoken by the
pre-eminent group, assuming that adequate incentive has been provided.
This point certainly has huge implications for the implementation of
language policies as it can have wide ranging repercussions for the future
of a language or the integration of an immigrant group.

6. LANGUAGE SHIFT IN MINORITY LANGUAGES

Attitudinal factors also play a role in language maintenance or language

shift. Voluntary individual or small group migration typically results in a quick
language shift, whereas large group migration often occasions the maintenance
of social and linguistic hallmarks. This is the case, for instance of Swedish in
Finland or French in Canada, where a minority ethnic group in demographic
decay uses its language as a sign of cultural and social identity. This is more
often so in minority groups with a strong sense of identity or with close cultural
traditions and values because the use of a different language will slow down -and
occasionally prevent- their integration to the dominant ethnic group. In both
examples reported above, recent censuses show how the minority languages tend
to decrease in number of speakers over the years. Besides, as Paulston (1994)
suggests, maintained group bilingualism is rather unusual because if there is
access to the dominant language, and socioeconomic incentives, speakers will
most likely eventually shift to the dominant language, although this process
may take generations. An example of this kind of language shift can be clearly

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seen in Australia with aboriginal languages. Aboriginal speech communities

are shrinking and new generations tend to adhere to the dominant language
and culture as it presents lots of social, educational and economic advantages
compared to the traditional way oflife. Nevertheless, language maintenance is
not always necessary for the continuation of cultural and ethnic identity.
Notice the following example oflanguage shift within the United States and
how converging circumstances can influence the rate of language shift:

For example, in Pittsburgh the Greeks shift over a four generation span
compared with the three generation shift of the Italians. Some factors
which contribute to the slower Greek shift are (a) knowledge and access to a
standardized, written language with cultural prestige and tradition, which is
taught by the Greek churches in Pittsburgh, and (b) arranged marriage partners
directly from Greece (who are then monolingual in Greek). The Italians in
contrast speak/spoke a non-standard, non-written dialect with no prestige, and
they shared their Roman Catholic churches with the English-speaking Irish,
typically with Irish priests and nuns, so they found no language maintenance
support in the churches. Nor was there any pressure for endogamy as long as
the marriage was within the Roman Catholic Church.
(Paulston, 1994: 15-16)

Language shift is not always the outcome of language contact between a

dominant and a minority language. Languages can also be maintained due to
self-imposed or externally imposed barriers. The former could be caused by
ideological or religious constraints that try to preserve some sort of identity, and
the latter could originate, for instance, because of some kind of geographical
isolation. Another possibility is a diglossic situation where two or more
languages are used for different functional purposes.
Language planning does not only refer to the attempts made to solve
language-related problems with minority languages in modern nations3 ;
language planning most often these days, refers to a systematic setting of goals
regarding social and linguistic aspects in modern societies, and the pursuing of
goals and means that will determine the future of national and foreign languages

3
Those problems can arise from different and widely separated situations such as the status of
a minority ethnic group within a society, or simply from the attempt to integrate newcomers into
monolingual societies {this last issue is becoming rather more common due to immigration).

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in a given country (for instance, the status and teaching of Spanish, as a native
language, and English, French or German as a foreign language in traditionally
monolingual region such as Andalusia or Castile-La Mancha in Spain.)

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 6.

7. SOME PARTICULAR SOCIOLINGUISTIC SITUATIONS

7.1. India

This country gained independence in 1947 and the federal government in

India established a language policy. English would be replaced by Hindi as the
official national language whilst each state could have its own regional official
language. This is laid out in the nation's constitution. In 1950 the Constitution
recognised fifteen major languages: four literary languages belonging to the
Dravidian group and eleven literary languages of the Inda-Aryan group 4 • A
number ofactions were undertaken in this respect (translations, new dictionaries,
encyclopaedias, new typewriters, etc.) with the aim of spreading the use of Hindi
and of detaching it from the former colonial language. However, this language
planning did not succeed and two decades later, English was reintroduced and
adopted as the second official language5 • In 1956, Linguistic States were formed
and most of them chose the local majority language as the official language in
the state, except for the northeastern hill states where there seems not to be a
dominant language (Krishnamurti, 1999).
Nowadays, multilingualism is encouraged in India and many children
learn English and Hindi in the Devanagari script -the official language of the
country- in school their mother tongue -spoken at home- and the official
language of their state. Today, there are still serious problems regarding the
spread of Hindi throughout the country and that is caused by the literary nature
of Hindi and its differences from other local and regional varieties -all this
resulting in multilingualism.
At the moment, the central government in India (New Delhi) deals with all
types of issues related to international policy and the common interests of the

4 Later, in 1992, three more languages were added to this list.

5
English was given the status of an 'Associate Official' language.

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SocroLINGursncs

AFGHANISTAN

CHINA

Bay ofBengal

Arabian Sea
D Nissi/Daffla
D Assamese

~
• Ao
D Kashmiri D Khasi and Garo
D Punjabi - Manipuri
~
Andaman and
D Hindi • Mizo
Nicobar Islands
Gujarati D Tripuri
D Marathi D Bengali
- Konkani ~ Oriya
D
-
Kannada
Malayalam
IND/AN OCEAN G9 D
D
Telegu
Tamil

Figure 3. This map shows some of the most widely spoken languages of India.
The 2001 census recorded 29 individual languages as having more than 1 million native
speakers. Colours show the most widely spoken language in the area.

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 C HAPTERS

Indian people. The State government, however, looks after local and regional
concerns and in many instances, especially in the south, the language used is
neither Hindi nor English, as in the central government, but a local language.
For years there has been an attempt to introduce a 'Three Language Formula'
in schools aiming at providing every high-school student with a command of
two modern Indian languages (one of them being Hindi) and English, but this
endeavour has proved unsuccessful. English has spread and is the language
preferred in the universities and the language of publication in academic
journals, but it is also the language of higher courts, parliamentary debate,
industry, economic transactions and international trade.
The case of India is a good example of how government institutions
sometimes need to engage in the task of making far-reaching decisions. These,
however, are obviously easier to apply in smaller countries with less inhabitants
and a smaller number of languages involved.

7.2. NewZealand

Almost all Maoris in New Zealand speak English and a large proportion of
the young people are bilingual. However, many youngsters - especially in cities-
do not speak Maori anymore. Maori is endangered for several reasons. First,
English is the language of education; second, Maori is spoken more commonly
in rural areas and people prefer to live in cities where English is spoken.

In 1999 the population of fluent Maori speakers was about 35.000, around
8 per cent of the total Maori population in New Zealand (McCaffery, 1999).
From the late 1960s measures were taken with the aim of reintroducing Maori
in primary schools as well as in universities. These measures met with little
success due to the low status given to their language in society and the lack
of recognition of Maori as a national official language. In the late 1990s the
bilingual Maori and English-speaking population consisted mainly of an age
group over 60 whose descendants did not speak Maori as a mother tongue.
The situation was such that the generation bearing children did not, by
and large, speak Maori as a mother tongue, and there was no way they could
teach that language to their children. The Maori language seemed destined to
disappear in New Zealand. However, the situation started to change thanks to an
innovative education movement which began at the pre-school level in the early

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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

1980s with an imaginative idea which involved grandparents as a fundamental

component in the education of their grandchildren. In 1999, over 700 Kohanga
(preschool language nests) instructed more than 12.000 children in the language
of their ancestors (Mccaffery, 1999) passing on the language, the culture and
the traditions of the Maoris directly from their grandparents, using Maori as
the only language of teaching and conversation. Nowadays, the language and
customs of the New Zealand Aborigines seem to have a future.

In spite of these efforts to maintain the Maori culture and language, the
lack of government support or bilingual programs in the public educational
system meant that children coming from Kohanga were not able to maintain
their Maori language. After sustained pressure all that the Maori community
obtained was the inclusion of a Maori-speaking community language assistant
in schools which was insufficient to guarantee continued Maori language
development. Later, a self-determined group of parents took the initiative and
established the KKM (Kura Kaupapa Maori), an immersion movement that set up
some independent immersion schools in order to let their children develop their
language skills after the Kohanga. This movement has gained both governmental
recognition and funding but only limited wider support. KKM only employs
and trains fluent speakers of Maori and only accepts children coming from the
Kohanga as they require full Maori immersion for the first 4-6 years and demand
active parental involvement to speak Maori at home. Under these circumstances,
it is a very low percentage ofMaori-speaking children that can have access to this
type of education without further governmental support (Mccaffery, 1999). The
future of this language, like many others around the world, depends to a large
extent on government support and funding.

7.3. The Canadian experience

In 1982, Canada became a constitutionally bilingual country and bilingualism

continues to be a sociopolitical issue in this country today. By means of this
recent Constitution, the English rights in Quebec were protected as much as the
French rights outside Quebec. However, the French rights were revoked in the
new province of Manitoba and the French-speaking population saw themselves
circumscribed to the province of Quebec, which is ruled by the English-speaking
Montreal. This particular situation gave way to frequent social and political
tensions in that part of Canada and, not surprisingly, language is perceived

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as a sign of identity and cultural heritage that unifies members of the French
origin community which represents approximately a 30 per cent of the total
Canadian population, with most of them (around 80 per cent) living in Quebec.
Bilingualism in the two official languages is mainly found in the population
of French origin in the East of the country such as Montreal, Sherbrooke and
Ottawa.
By means of the Constitution Act in 1982, the Canadian central government
undertook the task of protecting the French rights throughout the country,
whereas the local government in the province of Quebec took measures against
the use of English within the province claiming that bilingualism in Quebec led
to unilingualism in English6 • Nowadays, the actions undertaken to restrain the
use of English in Quebec have been revoked and some legislation in Manitoba
that denied francophone rights has been modified, but the French-English
division and debate is still present. Apart from this historical dispute between
the two official languages, it should be taken into account that Canada has some
aboriginal minorities with their own indigenous languages and that Canada is a
country of immigrants and that, especially in big cities, there are a considerable
number of people with Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, etc., as their
mother tongue. Canada continues to be a hotspot as far as the sociolinguistic
and sociopolitical situation is concerned and the situation worsens because
the French-English controversy is becoming territorially based, in spite of
continued governmental efforts. Nevertheless, language planning actions are
being undertaken to help solve the problem. There follow some examples of
bilingual education programs that aim to develop a bilingual and bicultural
society in Canada.
French immersion began 30 years ago, in 1965, with an experiment carried
out at St. Lambert school, Montreal, where a group of English-speaking parents
succeeded in getting the school district to initiate a bilingual immersion program
with their children in kindergarten (French as a second language). At that time it
became apparent to them that the English-speaking community needed to attain
a high proficiency in French to overcome their minority language situation in
Quebec and guarantee their social and economic maintenance within the
province. This initial program was rather extreme as monolingual English-
speaking kids were instructed in French from the very first day in kindergarten
and later, in grade two, they would start to develop first language literacy skills.

6 It should be taken into account that education in Canada is a provincial responsibility.

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SOCIO LINGUISTICS

Later on, by grade 6, half of the curriculum would be taught in English and half
in French. A bit later, some changes were introduced as these programs spread
widely across the country, and mid-immersion and late-immersion programs
were also developed. The aim of these programs is for children to reach a level of
bilingualism, and eventually of biculturalism7 , by secondary school graduation
that allows them to function well in a French-speaking community or to access
the job market or higher education in French.
French immersion is a general term used to refer to this type of content-
based instruction in which French is used as the means of communication
within the classroom and in which students are, therefore, instructed in the
second language with the aim of acquiring a high level of proficiency in speaking,
listening and literacy skills. However, not all programs are equal and three types
of immersion can be found as far as the starting age is concerned, (a) early
immersion, which is offered from the earliest years of schooling (kindergarten,
grade 1 or 2) and represents the most frequent sort of immersion; (b) delayed or
intermediate immersion, is offered in later schooling beginning in grade 4, and;
(c) late immersion begins in grades 6, 7 or later. Immersion can also be total
-involving the instruction of all subjects in the second language- or partial -
requiring instruction in the second language for half the school day.
These French immersion programs have not found an equivalent counterpart
in English immersion in Canada as the French-speaking communities do not
offer an exact parallel to their French mother tongue speakers in spite of the
popularity and success of these programs8 •
Swain and Johnson (1997: 6) 9 set forth some core features in prototypical
immersion programs. They indicate that the following characteristics cannot be
understood on an all-or-nothing basis but as part of a continuum. They add that
for a bilingual program to be labelled as 'immersion', it should accommodate
each of these characteristics as much as possible:

7 A high proficiency in the L2 and a deep knowledge of the L2 culture has a positive influence on

the L2 learner's attitude towards the L2 culture.

8 It should be pointed out that extensive research has been carried out with these programs and,

in spite of a number of shortcomings, French immersion in Canada continues to be one of the most
successful examples of bilingual education.
9 This article is part of a book that is an essential reference for those interested in bilingual

immersion programs. This book provides a thorough introduction to the topic and supplies some
interesting examples of immersion programs in differen t countries.

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 CHAPTERS

a) The L2 is used as a medium of instruction, as well as being taught

formally and only as a subject. The underlying methodological rationale
is that of the communicative approach that proposes the increase of
comprehensible input.
b) The immersion curriculum is analogous to the one used with students
not included in an immersion program. In this way, it is guaranteed that
immersion students get the same content and the only variable is the use
of the L2 as a medium of instruction.
c) The Ll receives obvious support as an essential component of the
curriculum, sometimes as a subject and sometimes as the medium of
instruction.

d) 'Additive bilingualism' constitutes the chief aim of the program. This

principle entails that at the end of the program students' Ll proficiency
should be comparable to those who have studied through their Ll, i.e., L2
proficiency should not be attained at the expense of the Ll.
e) L2 exposure is by and large restricted to the classroom context, at least
in some immersion programs such as those in Canada, where parents or
friends do not use the language of instruction. Obviously, this constitutes
a disadvantage for the students.
f) All students join the program with similar levels of L2 proficiency.
Some degree of homogeneity in this respect facilitates the adoption of a
curriculum and pedagogy that matches most students' needs.
g) Teachers are bilingual in the students' Ll and the L2 medium of
instruction.
h) The classroom culture of a prototypical immersion program is that of the
local Ll community instead of that of the culture of the L2, i.e., where
that language is used as an Ll .

8. EUROPEAN UNION LANGUAGE PLANNING AND POLICY

There is a need to convert the rich heritage of diverse languages and

cultures in Europe from a barrier to communication into a source of mutual
understanding. A better knowledge of European modern languages will facilitate

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SocroLINGrnsncs

communication and interaction among Europeans and will promote mobility

and mutual understanding. In this case, the aim of a particular language
planning and policy is to unify millions of speakers under a political and
economical administration and given the amount of different languages it
seems necessary to find a common ground for interaction without losing either
cultural or linguistic identity.
It is not easy to obtain an accurate picture of the linguistic situation within
the EU given the wide-range of countries, cultures and political systems involved.
At the time of writing the EU comprises 28 countries with 24 different official
languages (only three are considered working languages: English, French and
German) and all these countries include considerable linguistic minorities
either because they have some territory holding an inherited language or as a
result of extensive migration giving way to a plentiful immigrant community.
Only Portugal can be considered 'officially' monolingual although it contains
speech communities using a dissimilar language from the official one. In all
the other countries there are areas where a different language is learned as a
mother tongue (at this point it should be kept in mind that the distinction
between languages and dialects is not always clear and is often determined
by sociopolitical matters. See chapter 1). This situation gives us a picture of
the diversity of the state of affairs, which will change shortly because there
is already a plan to broaden the EU to n eighbouring countries with new
languages, new education systems and various degrees of commitment to
language teaching. This multiplicity of circumstances exhibits the need to
develop a common EU language policy in order to promote interrelation
among the different member states and the common understanding of
peoples.
To add controversy to the issue, Trimm (1999) mentions that a major
problem concerning the subject of language learning and language planning is
the lack of an organic unit to take responsibility for it. So, different laws and
public organisms may be involved in the teaching of state languages to native
speakers, to minority children and the teaching of second/foreign languages.
He adds that there is no longitudinal unity as responsibilities change with the
transfer of children from elementary school to high school and the university,
and different agencies may be involved in the setting of curricular guidelines,
teaching materials and assessment. Given the aforesaid circumstances, a high
degree of variability is to be expected within an international group of countries
like the EU.

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Policy makers, aware of the far-reaching repercussions of a good or

bad language policy for the future of the European common market, have
established some guidelines that try to promote the use of international
languages for intercultural communication. They have also undertaken some
actions regarding the maintenance of minority languages. So far, the following
documents have been already established:
a) The European Charter for Minority or Regional Languages.
b) The CE Framework Convention for the Protection ofNational Minorities.
c) The Oslo Recommendations regarding the Linguistic Rights of National
Minorities within the Organization for Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE).
d) The Hague Recommendations Regarding the Education Rights of
National Minorities.

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercises 7 and 8.

The EU has already taken some action regarding second/foreign language
teaching and learning within the member states, and in a White Paper published
in 1995 (Teaching and learning: towards the learning society) it is stated as a general
objective that everyone, irrespective of his/her academic training should gain
proficiency in two languages apart from their mother tongue so that they can
communicate in those languages. With this aim, the EU has reached a strong
consensus on the fundamentals for foreign language teaching and some
programs have been developed for the exchange of students and teachers in
order to favour the learning of other EU languages, to aid teacher training,
to encourage awareness-raising, and to promote cultural exchange between
different educational systems. Some of these programs are Socrates (including
Erasmus, Lingua and Socrates), Leonardo (exchange programs in the vocational
field) and Tempus (for the development of higher education systems).
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages is a document
that provides a practical tool for establishing certain standards at successive
stages of learning and evaluating language knowledge. It aims to provide the
basis for setting common standards within the EU at an international level and
provides the basis for the mutual recognition of language qualifications within
the EU, and therefore facilitating educational and occupational mobility. The
Framework describes:

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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

a) The competences necessary for communication;

b) The related knowledge and skills;

c) The situations and domains of communication.

The framework paves the way for a comprehensive definition of teaching and
learning objectives and methods and is, therefore, of special interest to course
designers, textbook writers, testers, teachers and teacher trainers, and the whole
academic community as a whole.

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 9.

9. THE ROLE OF ENGLISH

English has spread widely all over the world, first because of the influence
of the British Empire and, second due to the preeminence of North American
culture in the world. In Europe, English has advanced as an international
language especially after the World War II, leaving behind other preeminent
languages such as French. English is now used by millions of speakers for a
number of communicative functions across Europe, and Hoffmann (2000)
points out that:

[... ] the presence of and need for English have become so widespread, and
access to and provision for it so varied, that it is now possible to talk about
'bilingualism with English' rather than just the use of English as a foreign
language. The expression 'bilingualism with English' is ambitious: [...].The term
'multilingualism' is therefore the preferred one here, as it allows for a variety
oflinguistic constellations involving two or more languages in speakers and
communities.
(Hoffmann, 2000: 2)

Hoffmann refers to the use of English for many purposes inside and outside
the EU scope, where it is one of the preferred languages. So this language
has become the preferred language in a number of spheres like international
business or EU institutions. Time and again it is also the language chosen
for academic discussion as most scholars face the need to read and publish in
English for international diffusion. English is also directly influencing other

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European languages at different levels but it is especially manifest in the field

of technical terms -lexical borrowings are often introduced in many languages
without the slightest adaptation.
English seems to have been adopted as the language of globalisation these
days. Proficiency in English is seen as a desirable goal for youngsters and elderly
people in all EU countries and in many parts of the world, to the point of
equating inability in the use of English to disability. (See World Englishes in
Chapter 6.)

10. THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF LINGUISTIC RIGHTS

In 1996, a world-wide representation of non-governmental organizations

with the support of the UNESCO approved The Universal Declaration ofLinguistic
Rights (henceforth UDLR) in Barcelona, Spain. The main aim of this document is
to turn the world's nations' attention to the problems arising from a globalised
world with greater movements of people, and to preserve everyone's right to
a language identity. The original document contains 52 articles and some
additional dispositions embracing many aspects of linguistic rights. Below are
some of the general principles that this document tries to establish 10 :
1. The UDLR safeguards the personal rights to adhere to a linguistic identity
and to develop one's own culture.
2. The UDLR considers that all language commumties are equal and
therefore merit official recognition in all kinds of social, political and
economic respects (e.g., education, law, trade, public administration, etc.).
3. The UDLR is especially concerned with the role that education plays in
the maintenance and spread of a language and accordingly it states that
education must help to maintain and develop the language spoken by
the language community. In addition to this, it encourages "the most
extensive possible command of any other language they may wish to
know." (Art. 26).
4. The UDLR c~aims the right to use proper names and place names in the
language spe( fic to the territory, both orally and in writing.

w You can go to the website for this subject to find the web link to the original full document.

163
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

5. The UDLR supports the right to decide the extent to which a minority
language should be present in the media in a given territory, and to receive
a thorough knowledge of its cultural heritage through it.

6. The UDLR declares the right to preserve their linguistic and cultural
heritage.

7. The UDLR watches over the right to use the language in all socioeconomic
activities and to have full legal validity.

This document has had far-reaching implications in recent years for the social
recognition and acceptance of minority languages around the world but there
exists, nevertheless, some controversy over its fundamentals. Brumfit (1995)
considers that this document is based on the idea of "language communities"
and little account is taken of the language rights of individuals. Brumfit finds
little room for individual choice in favour of the imposition of a language
identity. Brumfit (ibid.) also criticises the restrictive definition of "language
community'' as referring to a people being historically established in a territory
as opposed to the notion of"language group" which refers to a group of persons
sharing the same language but which does not possess historical antecedents (see
article 1.1and1.5). In this respect the long-standing Greek-speaking population
in Australia and the Turkish-speaking population in Germany would fall into
a second-class category as they would be considered "language groups" but not
"language communities". This raises the question of how long a language group
need exist in order to qualify as a community. Brumfit (ibid.) also refers to the
lack of reference in this document to the situation in countries where a language
is used to avoid giving one language -among many historically established
ones- a priority over the others, which could eventually give rise to a number of
conflicts (for instance, in former colonies that nowadays use English or French
for interethnic communication).

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercises 10 and 11.

11. EXERCISES

1. Find out if there is a bilingual school in your city. Try to get as much
information as possible of its curricula, organisation and aims. Please
note that English does not need to be one of the languages involved in

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this immersion program. Expand on the advantages and disadvantages of

bilingual education from your own point of view.
2. Baker and Jones (1998) seem to be quite in favour of bilingual education
and they indicate eight potential benefits of bilingual education. Comment
on each of them and express to what extent you agree/disagree with them.
You should provide examples to support your points. (See page 124).
3. Take an instance of language planning that you know about (English does
not need to be one of the languages involved) and analyse it according to the
eleven goals or functions posed by Nahir (2003). Which of these goals affect
the instance you have chosen? How?
4. Analyze and assess each of the following sociolinguistic decisions and
provide our opinion:
a) Making Canada an officially bilingual country, having most of its
French-speaking population in a concrete area in the east (Quebec).
b) Trying to give status to Bokmdl and Nynorsk in Norway instead of
choosing one of the varieties as the standard.
c) Giving Basque and Catalan official status together with Spanish in the
Basque Country and in Catalonia, respectively.
d) Reintroducing Irish in Ireland.

5. Explore the language policies of your own country or region and how
they are enforced in your educational system. How does your educational
system deal with immigrants who do not speak the mainstream language?
Are there any controversies about language use and implementation in
your country?
6. Think about the following hypothetical situations. Find a mode of action
for each of the following unresolved issues:
a) Imagine your are appointed governor in a colonial territory your
country has in a remote area which is called Sealand. In Sealand you,
as the governor, and a minority of the population coming from your
homeland speak your mother tongue, the language of the metropolis,
but most natives in Sealand speak an indigenous language. You have
to organise the educational system and legislate accordingly. Your
children go to school with natives from Sealand and among other

165
SocroLINGursncs

things you need to decide upon the language used in the educational
system. Write a set of 10-15 principles that will govern language use in
Sealand schools.
b) You are member of a language planning agency that needs to decide
whether to reform your writing system for two reasons, first, the writing
system is rather unique (with its own alphabet) and that difference
prevents your country from fully developing economically in the same
way as neighbouring countries and the world's economic power; second,
your language has changed very little in the last two hundred years and,
as a result, a surfeit of borrowings are inundating your language. Present
an action plan that will satisfy the economic powers of your country
(eager for development and integration in the international community),
and the literary elite (very concerned about the conservation oflanguage
and cultural heritage).
7. Search the web for information on EU language policy. Find information
regarding EU language policy on:
a) Bilingual/trilingual education in schools.
b) Minority languages in EU countries.
c) EU official languages.
d) Language policy
8. Search the web for these four documents and write a summary (about 100
words) with the information you consider more important.
a) The European Charter for Minority or Regional Languages.
b) The CE Framework Convention for the Protection ofN ational Minorities.
c) The Oslo Recommendations regarding the Linguistic Rights of National
Minorities within the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE).
d) The Hague Recommendations Regarding the Education Rights of
National Minorities.
9. The White Paper published in 1995 by the EU Commission (Teaching and
learning: towards the learning society) on foreign language learning states that
in relation to proficiency in three community languages: '[ ... ] everyone,

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irrespective of training and education routes chosen, [should] be able to

acquire and keep up their ability to communicate in at least two community
languages in addition to their mother tongue.' Think about this objective
and state the possible shortcomings it may have as regards people's attitude,
training in schools, infrastructure, cognitive abilities or any other aspect you
consider relevant. To what extent do you think it is a plausible objective in
the short term?
10. Find the full text of The Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights (see the
Internet) and read it. Choose 3 articles and comment on them providing
your own point of view.
11. Find out about the linguistic situation, from a synchronic and a diachronic
point of view, of one of the following countries: Cameroon, Nigeria, South
Africa, Belize or Trinidad and Tobago. You might be interested in the
language or languages that are currently used, language planning and
policy, educational system, etc. You will probably find a lot of information
on the web, in encyclopaedias or in the reference books listed below.

12. RESOURCES ON THE WEB

Now you can visit the website for this subject where you will find some
further references and complementary readings.

13. FURTHER READING AND QUESTIONS

13.1. Text 9

Read the following text carefully and comment on it emphasizing any aspect
you consider of relevance. After the text you will find some questions that may
be helpful. Write around 250-300 words in total.

Multilingual pedagogies have been developed in the last fifty years,

especially as bilingual education programs have grown throughout the
world. In the twentieth century, the bilingual pedagogies that were developed
matched the bilingual education programs that were often for just one
linguistics group and which aimed at either subtractive bilingualism or
additive bilingualism. Thus, these bilingual pedagogies kept the two languages

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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

separate - what Cummus (2008) calls " two solitudes" - and immersion
methodology grew in importance.

In the last few decades, as the movement of people, ideas, and goods has
increased as a result of globalization, the linguistic heterogeneity of classrooms
has grown. The models of bilingualism developed for the twentieth century are
no longer applicable in a more complex bilingual world. Bilingualism is now
understood for its recursivity in the case oflanguage revitalization situations
and for its dynamism in the case of the plurilingual development needed for
the twenty-first century. For these more complex situations in which we cannot
recognize a first or a second language, but where complex and incomplete bits
and pieces of diverse language practices make up the linguistic repertoire of
most speakers, traditional foreign language, second language and bilingual
pedagogies are no longer relevant.

Education and language pedagogy in the twenty-first century cannot solely

be monolingual. But a traditional bilingual pedagogy no longer suffices either.
We must experiment and innovate with dynamic plurilingual pedagogies
that respond to the more complex bilingualism of students and to the more
linguistically heterogeneous classrooms of the twenty-first century. New
research must validate and expand these plurilingual pedagogies that are
based on flexible multiplicity curricular arrangements, so as to build on the
translanguaging of the multilingual students that populate our classrooms
and that we must develop through educational programs to meet the language
demands of the twenty-first century.
(Garcia & Flores: 2012: 244)

Issues to consider:

a) Think of the educational system in the area where you live, especially
bilingual educational programs. In what ways would you think they
tackle language development in other foreign modern languages like
English, French or German, for example? How does the educational
system deal with minority languages of immigrant children?
b) Do you agree with the statement "Education and language pedagogy in
the twenty-first century cannot solely be monolingual"? Why (not)?
c) Do you think bilingual education programmes in Spain manage to develop
bilingual children coming from Spanish monolingual families? Why (not)?

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13.2. Text 10

Read the following text carefully and comment on it emphasizing any aspect
you consider of relevance. After the text you will find some questions that may
be helpful. Write around 250-300 words in total.

Language planning is an attempt to interfere deliberately with a language or

one of its varieties: it is human intervention into natural processes oflanguage
change, diffusion, and erosion. That attempt may focus on either its status with
regard to some other language or variety or its internal condition with a view
to changing that condition, or on both of these since they are not mutually
exclusive. The first focus results in status planning, the second results in corpus
planning.

Status planning changes the function of a language or a variety of a language

and the rights of those who use it. For example, when speakers of a minority
language are denied the use of that language in educating their children,
their language has no status. Alternatively, when a government declares that
henceforth two languages rather than one of these alone will be officially
recognized in all functions, the newly recognized one has gained status. Status
itself is a relative concept; it may also be improved or reduced by degrees, and
usually is. So far as languages and their varieties are concerned, status changes
are nearly always very slow, are sometimes actively contested, and often leave
strong residual feelings. Even relatively minor changes or proposals for changes
can produce such effects, as the residents of many countries, e.g., Norway,
Belgium, Canada, and India, are well aware.

Corpus planning seeks to develop a variety of a language or a language,

usually to standardize it, that is, to provide it with the means for serving every
possible language function in society [...]. Consequently, corpus planning
may involve such matters as the development of an orthography, new sources
of vocabulary, dictionaries, and a literature, together with the deliberate
cultivation of new uses so that the language may extend its use into such areas
as government, education, and trade. Corpus planning has been particularly
important in countries like Indonesia, Israel, Finland, India, Pakistan, and
Papua New Guinea. These two types of planning often co-occur, for many
planning decisions involve some combination of a change in status with internal
change. As one particular language in Papua New Guinea is developed, all other
languages are affected, whether or not the effects are recognized officially. We

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SocroLINGUISTICS

must also note then that, just as planning may either be deliberate or proceed
somewhat haphazardly, even accidentally, so its results may be deliberately
intended or not at all as intended. Even though it is possible to recognize most
of the relevant parameters, language planning is still far from being any kind
of exact science. Linguists have also been quite involved in many planning
activities and surrounding controversies.
Wardhaugh (2002: 353)

Issues to consider:
a) Provide some sociopolitical situations that may lead a language to gain
status, and others that may cause a language to lose it.
b) According to the text, how do language planning and language policy
interact? Which one do you think comes first, language planning or
language policy? Why?
c) In the case of a need for corpus planning, what kind of institution do
you think should assume that responsibility? Are political or educational
institutions better prepared? Why?
d) In a way, language planning goes against the natural process oflanguage
evolution and maturation. Under what circumstances do you find an
'artificial intervention' justified?

14. RESEARCH ACTIVITY

Search the Internet and find information about language policy in your
region regarding foreign language learning and the implementation of bilingual
programs in public schools. You may want to read the official documents that
contain all the information regarding primary and/ or secondary education
framework. You may also find useful information about foreign language
teaching and learning policy in the newspapers and website of the ruling
education authorities in your region. Find the legislative framework and
summarise it taking into account issues like:
a) Number of hours dedicated to the foreign language.
b) Number of hours dedicated to content teaching in a foreign language, if any.

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c) Training that teachers get (or entry requirements) to teach the foreign
language, or contents in the foreign language.
d) Role oflanguage assistants in the educational system, if they are present.
e) Entry requirements for students in the event of wanting to participate in
a bilingual program.
f) Etc.
In general, summarise any aspects regarding the organisation of foreign
language learning or bilingual programs in primary and secondary education in
your region.

15. REFERENCES

APPLE, R. and P. MUYSKEN. 1996. Bilinguismo y contacto de lenguas. Barcelona: Editorial Ariel.
BAKER, C. 2002. 'Bilingual Education' in R. B. Kaplan (ed.) The Oxford Handbook ofApplied
Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
BAKER, C. and S. Jones. 1998. Encyclopedia ofbilingualism and bilingual education. Clevedon:
Philadelphia, PA: Multilingual Matters.
BAKER, C. 2011. Foundations ofbilingual education and bilingualism. Multilingual matters.
BHATIA, T. K., and RITCHIE, W. C. (eds.). 2008. The handbook of bilingualism. John Wiley
& Sons.
BRUMFIT, Ch. 1995. 'People's choice and language rights' [videorecording]: EFL in language
policy. University of York, Audio-Visual Centre Kent: IATEFL.
COBARRUBIAS, J. 1983. 'Ethical issues in status planning' in J. Cobarrubias and J. A.
Fishman (eds.), Progress in Language Planning: International Perspectives. The Hague:
Mouton Publishers.
GARCIA, 0. and FLORES, N. 2012. Multilingual pedagogies. The Routledge handbook of
multilingualism, 232-246.
HOFFMANN, Ch. 2000. 'The Spread of English and the Growth of Multilingualism with
English in Europe.' inJ. Cenoz and U. Jessner (eds.) English in Europe: The Acquisition
ofa Third Language. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
KRJSHNAMURTI, Bh. 1999. 'Indian Language Education Policy' in B. Spolsky (ed.) Concise
Encyclopedia ofEducational Linguistics. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
McCAFFERY, J. J. 1999. 'Maori language revitalization' in Spolsky, B. (ed.) 1999. Concise
Encyclopedia ofEducational Linguistics. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

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S OCIOLINGUISTICS

NAHIR, M. 2003. 'Language Planning Goals: A Classification' in C.B. Paulston, and G.

R. Tucker, Sociolinguistics: The Essential Readings. Malden, USA: Blackwell Publishing.
PAULSTON, C. B. 1994. Linguistic Minorities in Multilingual Settings. Amsterdam: John
Benjamins Publishing Company.
SHOPEN, T. 1999. 'Australian Indigenous Languages', in Spolsky, B. (ed.) 1999. Concise
Encyclopedia ofEducational Linguistics. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
SHOPEN, T. 1999. 'Australian Indigenous Languages', in Spolsky, B. (ed.) 1999. Concise
Encyclopedia ofEducational Linguistics. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
SPOLSKY, B. (ed). 2012. The Cambridge handbook oflanguage policy. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
SWAIN, M. and R. K. Johnson. 1997. 'Immersion education: A category within bilingual
education', in R. K. Johnson and M. Swain (eds.) Immersion Education: International
Perspectives. Cambridge University Press.
TRIMM, J. L. M. 1999. Language Education Policy-Europe', in Spolsky, B. (ed.) 1999.
Concise Encyclopedia ofEducational Linguistics. Amsterdam. Elsevier.
WARDHAUGH, R. 2002 (4th ed.). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Malden, USA: Blackwell
Publishing.

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CHAPTER6
 This chapter explores the interface between
sociolinguistics and language teaching, and between
sociolinguistics and other disciplines like discourse
analysis and pragmatics. This chapter deals with:
• Sociolinguistics and language teaching and
learning
• The sociolinguistic behaviour of English speakers:
address behaviour and telephoning
• Language use in immersion classrooms
• Analysis of the EFL classroom language and its
implications
• Pragmatics in language teaching
• Language in the law
• Standard English and World Englishes

1. KEYWORDS

The following list of key words contains some important terms that are
presented in this chapter. A definition for each term can be found at the end of
this book, in the glossary.

• Communicative competence • Linguistic competence

• Discourse analysis • LWC
• Discourse marker • Micro-sociolinguistics
• Ethnography of communication • New Englishes
• Ethnography of speaking • Pragmatic competence
• Ethnomethodology • Proficiency
• Informant • Sociolinguistic competence
• Interference • Sociolinguistic relativity
• Language functions • Speech act
• Lingua franca • Turn-taking

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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

2. SOCIOLINGUISTIC AND LANGUAGE TEACHING/LEARNING

Language teaching and learning and sociolinguistics have certain common

concerns, such as the role of English in the world (as a first language or a
second/foreign language), the contexts in which this language is acquired, the
way in which it interacts with other languages, and the norms that determine
the use of English. Communicative competence shapes the ability to interact
successfully in any speech community. Someone who has acquired the
language in a naturalistic context from childhood also acquires sociolinguistic
rules together with linguistic knowledge and other competences (of course,
this would not be so in the case of some sort of cognitive impairment or
abnormal social situation).
This issue brings up the importance of language learning either in a second
language context, or a foreign language context. In the first case, the language
learner will have countless occasions to acquire/learn the sociolinguistic rules
through interaction and close contact with native speakers of the language.
The learning environment also raises the issue whether sociolinguistic rules
can, or should, be taught in a classroom context or whether this is something
the language learner will deal with in due course when s/he has the chance to
interact within a speech community where the language being learned is spoken
as a mother tongue. A second issue raised in this respect is the motivation
and purpose of learning the language, that is, if it is learnt to be used -in this
case- within an English-speaking speech community or if it is to be learned as
a Language of Wider Communication (L WC) to communicate with other non-
native speakers, for example, English being used among mother tongue speakers
of different languages in the EU.
Until very recently sociolinguistic rules have received little attention in the
FL learning context and materials writers and teachers assumed that learners
would learn these conventions through interaction in due course, at higher
levels or while interacting with native speakers 1 • In the last few decades materials
writers have grown concerned about this aspect and, nowadays, sociocultural
information is more often included in classroom language instruction.

1I would say the lack of references to sociolinguistic contents was not motivated by the belief
that the aim of the language classroom was to teach English for 'international' or intercultural
communication, but that such sociocultural components should be taught at a different point, at
a different level, or that would be 'acquired' by the learner through interaction with native speakers.

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 C HAPTER 6

The inclusion of sociolinguistic behaviour in teaching materials will help

the language learner to develop his/ her ability to interact successfully in a
foreign speech community and will gradually integrate both linguistic and
sociolinguistic information. However, these sociolinguistic patterns are often
unreliable because they are either based on the individual intuitions of materials
writers who may be reporting on conventions in their own particular speech
communities, or very often this information is based on community norms
rather than on actual use. We, as native speakers of a speech community, should
not assume that all the linguistic and social resources we make use of are part of
our conscious knowledge and, therefore, we may have intuitions regarding our
speech behaviour in a speech community which do not clearly correspond with
actual behaviour. This is the reason why our native speaker intuitions are very
useful in analysing the way others speak but we cannot trust them completely
without further analysis of the rules of speaking to predict the way other people
will interact. Finally, two aspects need to be taken into account: a) whose rules of
speaking we want to include in the teaching materials; and, b) to what extent we
can generalise them to the point of using them in second language instruction.
Anyhow, it seems clear that the sociolinguistic information needed in
order to be communicatively competent should come from interaction with
native speakers or proficient speakers of the language. Regarding the issue of
language learning, it must be taken into account that nowadays, the extensive
development of new technologies in language learning (e.g., language learning
computer programs, on-line language learning, etc.) and the aid and widespread
of technological development (e.g., cable TV, Internet, original sound track
DVDs, etc.) can also play an important role in sociocultural development
especially in the case of autonomous language learners.

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 1.

3. COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN LANGUAGE

TEACHING/LEARNING

The concept of communicative competence was introduced in chapter

one and it comprises various types of knowledge and skills such as linguistic,
sociolinguistic and pragmatic. Communicative competence is needed for
successful interaction among members of the same speech community, and

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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

in this unit it is analysed from the point of view of foreign/ second language
learning as the process oflearning a foreign/ second language inevitably involves
some degree of intercultural communication, a situation of contact between
different cultural values, and social practices.
Linguistic competence refers to the knowledge of lexical, phonological,
semantic and syntactical elements. Linguistic competence comprises the
knowledge of vocabulary, pronunciation rules, syntactic patterns and the
cognitive organisation and storage of this knowledge in the brain of the language
learner. Linguistic competence will vary from one learner to another depending
on various factors such as the number of years spent learning the second
language, the rate of learning, the age when contact with the second language
began, the learner's motivation, the learning context (whether language is
learned formally or acquired from natural exposure), etc. But language is a social
behaviour and is more than just a knowledge of the linguistic system.
Sociolinguistic competence is concerned with the social and cultural
conditions for the use oflanguage and the social conventions that rule language
use in a specific speech community. This comprises norms regarding politeness,
norms regarding relations between sexes or different classes, social groups or
generations, norms regarding different registers, etc. Sociolinguistic competence
is normally acquired after some degree of linguistic competence has been
attained which is often considered the vehicle through which sociolinguistic
competence is achieved. In the foreign language curriculum, sociolinguistic
skills are not always present and when they are, they are often considered of
lesser importance and something that the language learner will acquire on his/
her own in due time. This perspective only partially makes sense because if it
is true that some basic linguistic competence is needed first, sociolinguistic
sensibility could, and actually should, be introduced gradually. As a rule the
more distant and different the native culture of the language learner and the
target language culture, the more differences the language learner will find and,
probably, the harder it will be to notice them. For instance, a native Spanish
speaker from Spain will find a bigger gap between his/her home culture and
sociolinguistic rules and the Japanese culture than with the Italian culture, so
it will be presumably more difficult to acquire sociolinguistic competences in
Japanese than in Italian as a foreign language.
A lack of knowledge of sociolinguistic rules and behaviours that govern
your interlocutor's speech may result in a communication breakdown. It should

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 CHAPTER 6

be pointed out that the higher the language learner's linguistic competence
the more s/he will be expected to have adequate sociolinguistic and pragmatic
competences in his/her interaction with a native speaker of the target language.
So, a native speaker of any language will naturally expect a high cultural,
sociolinguistic and pragmatic competence from an interlocutor if s/ he has a
good command of the linguistic system.
Pragmatic competence refer to the functional use of linguistic resources
such as language functions and speech acts in interaction. It also concerns
itself with the language learner's mastery of discourse markers, cohesion and
coherence and the recognition of text types, the presence of irony, parody and
politeness among other things (see section 7 in this chapter).

4. THE SOCIOLINGUISTIC BEHAVIOUR OF ENGLISH SPEAKERS:

RULES OF SPEAKING

Speech communities very frequently exhibit different styles of interaction at

the sociolinguistic and pragmatic level. The analysis of sociolinguistic behaviour
in native English speaking communities can provide useful insights for the
teaching and learning of languages, as the description of rules of speaking can
help the teacher and the learner to systematise the process oflanguage learning.
Below are two samples of some rules of speaking regarding address behaviour
and telephoning that can certainly be taught in a classroom setting with relative
ease, although others like greetings, partings or refusals could also have been
selected.

4.1. Address behaviour

Some of the earliest sociolinguistic studies on speech behaviour from a

crosslinguistic perspective were done on forms of address, that is, the way people
address one another in different situations. The study of forms of address is a
recurrent topic in sociolinguistic research because they are common in discourse
and very easily observed. Whenever one person speaks to another there is a whole
range of options that the speaker can use to refer to the addressee and these
may vary from one language to the other depending on the social conventions;
the type of relationship among the interlocutors; and the sociocultural distance
between the languages involved. Wolfson and Manes (1978) studied the use of

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SocroLINGursncs

the address form ma'am in the United States and found out that it has different
meanings in the South of the United States than it has in other parts of the
country. They observed that in the south the term ma'am was commonly used
instead of the formulas 'I begyour pardon?' or 'Pardon?', that is, to indicate that
you had not heard what your female interlocutor had just said or to request
further explanation. Wolfson (1989: 80) provides the following example:
1. A: Could you tell me how late you're open this evening?
B:Ma'am?
A: Could you tell me how late you're open this evening?
B: Until six.
2. A: You're not open on Sundays?
B: Pardon?
A: You're not open on Sundays?
B:No.

In the same vein Wolfson and Manes (ibid.) report that the expression 'Yes)
ma'am' is used in the south as a response to 'Thank you', with the meaning of 'You
are welcome':
3. A: Could you tell me how late you're open this evening?
B: Until nine.
A: Thank you very much.

B: Yes, ma'am.
4. A: Could you tell me how late you're open this evening?
B: Until five-thirty.
A: Thank you very much.

B: You're welcome.
(Wolfson, 1989: 80-81)

In this study, they noticed as well that the form ma'am not only had different
meanings in the South of the United States, but it was also used in different

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social contexts. In the North, this form tended to be used between strangers
whereas in the South it was used not only to strangers but also to acquaintances
and friends.
Forms of address constitute a conspicuous sign of status relationships and
different languages may offer different possibilities and different degrees of
formality and social distance. This is, in fact, a frequent mistake made by language
learners -especially at lower proficiency levels- as the use of Ll sociopragmatic
rules leads to violations of the interlocutors' address behaviour. In many European
languages, for instance, speakers constantly choose pronouns (e.g., German: du
and Sie; Spanish: tu and usted) and nominal (e.g., first name; title plus last name;
etc.), or verb conjugations (e.g., conditionals) to reflect status relationship and
degree of formality. However, Wolfson (1989: 85) points out that many non-
European languages mark a number of more subtle distinctions, as it is the
case of Asian languages (e.g., Japanese, Chinese, etc.) which are especially known
for their elaboration in formality and the ample variety of politeness resources.
Norris (2001: 254), for instance, refers to the German address behaviour as
typically based on dual register distinction: (a) a formal, respectful, socially distant
one -characterized by the use of the pronoun Sie- and an informal, familiar,
socially proximate one - characterised by the use of the pronoun du-. German
L2 learners would then need to acquire control over this address system which
involves the acquisition of the pragmatic forms (the linguistic forms du and Sie),
the sociopragmatic rules (to relate particular forms with contextual variables), and
the arrangement of both types of knowledge in language use.

4.2. Telephoning

The way people answer the phone or initiate a telephone conversation varies
from language to language and from culture to culture. These sociolinguistic
rules (either self-identification or answering rules) are not generally open to
conscious consideration and very often speakers are just unaware of their
existence until their sociolinguistic expectations are broken and they realise that
these rules actually exist.
In the United States, for example, a phone call will often begin with the caller
offering an apology to the person answering the phone, especially if it is a time
of the day when the caller may be busy of is likely to be disturbed, like meal
time or late at night. In France, this same apology is even more likely to happen

181
SocroLINGU!STICS

and in England amongst some groups and social classes. In France, callers are
very likely to identify themselves and to check that they are calling to the right
number whereas this is seldom done in Spain. The rules of self-identification in
telephone ·calls is certainly very variable across cultures. In Germany, for instance,
the first thing the person who answers the phone generally does is to identify
him/herself without being asked to do so. However, these rules that can at some
point be included in the language curriculum are likely to change these days
due to the rapid development of information technologies and the astonishing
and still increasing number of mobile phones which lets the answerer know, on
many occasions, who is calling. It is also interesting that as the answerer might
be anywhere and so .may not be in a position to talk, the caller tends to ask if it
is a good moment to speak.

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercises 2 and 3.

5. SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVES ON LANGUAGE USE

IN IMMERSION CLASSROOMS

Bilingual education and immersion programs often respond to social needs

and aim at developing proficiency in the second language for students that
will need it for one reason or the other. The actual implementation and degree
of success of these programs is subjected, however, to a number of external
factors resulting from special sociopolitical situation, a variation in the teaching
resources available, the extent of immersion (partial or total; early or late), the
status of the L2 outside the classroom, etc. This means that whatever decisions
and actions seem plausible from a theoretical and formal point of view may
not have as good results as expected when they are put into practice. Extensive
research has been done on Canadian immersion in the last few decades trying
to find out about the shortcomings in their implementation as well as the
assessment of the proficiency attained by students by the time they graduate.
One of the problems found through classroom observation is that a diglossic
situation can easily develop in immersion classrooms just as in any speech
community2 , that is, the language of instruction, or superordinate language,
acts as the formal language variety used with the teacher and used as a language

2
This refers to a diglossic situation at a microlevel, that is, within the classroom or school setting.

182
 CHAPTER6

for academic purposes, and the Ll is preferred in informal speech and social
interaction with other classmates and acts as the subordinate language, or a
vernacular, (see diglossia in chapter 4) preferred for peer interaction in play,
competition, arguing, etc. Tarone and Swain (1995: 166) indicate that "[...]
immersion classrooms are not only diglossic but become increasingly so in
the upper primary grades." and this can be seen by a close observation of the
types of L2 input and L2 output within the classroom, the individuals involved
in the interaction (either teacher-pupil or peer-peer communication), and the
purposes of the information exchange. The main difference between this kind
of diglossic speech community, and any other occurring outside this context,
is that instead of being stable, these 'special' speech communities in classroom
immersion change over time due to aspects such as cognitive, social or personal
factors affecting this peculiar speech community, i.e., they change as they
become grownups and their social and cognitive resources become mature.
This situation may be caused by the fact that the L2 language taught by the
teachers and learned by the students normally performs specific functions, such
as instructional public discourse, but it does not serve other interpersonal and
trivial purposes which should also be part of the acquired repertoire.
An additional difficulty that the language learner has to face when learning
a language largely spoken in the world, for instance an international language
like English or Spanish, is that the sociolinguistic rules may vary from one place
to the other as these rules of behaviour are normally specific to a particular
speech community and not necessarily general to a whole country. This changes
when a language is used as a lingua franca as the language that is being used for
intercultural communication is not the native language for any of the speakers
and therefore its use is not culturally bound. More often these days English
is used in this way and speakers are therefore aware of it and they just use the
language as a common code for the transmission of meaning without showing
or expecting cultural loads.
Another aspect oflanguage learning that is closely related to sociolinguistics
and is worth taking into account is that of dialect. In English, for instance, a
whole range of dialects and varieties are spoken in the world, both within an
English-speaking country like Great Britain or the United States, or differences
between these varieties from one country to an other, i.e., the ways in which
British English is different to Australian English (see World Englishes in this
chapter). Needless to say some varieties have more prestige or social status than
others and, under some circumstances, this can determine the variety or varieties

183
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

that a given institution tries to teach or a language learner wants to learn. So,
when English is learned as a foreign language some decisions are implicitly or
explicitly made regarding the language variety or varieties to be learned. These
decisions are often not made by the learner but by the institution where that
language is being taught (in the case of formal instruction) or simply due to
having a teacher who comes from a particular country (in the case of native
teachers) or who has already made a choice in favour of a specific variety (in the
case of non-native teachers). Very frequently learners make their choice of one
variety or the other after a stay in a given country or region.

6. ANALYSIS OF THE EFL CLASSROOM LANGUAGE

Classroom language is relatively organised and purposeful in contrast to

casual conversation in an ordinary social setting. This can be seen, for instance, in
the way turn-taking is organised. In casual interaction the interlocutors express
agreement and disagreement in a number of ways but they often interrupt
each other as part of the communication process to show their opinion. In
the classroom context, turn-taking is frequently determined by the types of
interlocutors (teacher-student or student-student) and, if involved, dominated
by the teacher who is often more concerned about how things are said rather
than what is being said. Classroom language is in many ways an unusual form
of spoken interaction that often has nothing to do with real or general English,
both in terms of discourse markers and type of interaction and also in terms of
language structure and choice. So, idiomatic language is not always part of the
classroom nor are complex syntactic structures or specific vocabulary such as
slang, among other characteristics of natural and colloquial speech.
Classroom language is also part of an 'asymmetric encounter'. One of the
participants is accepted as controlling the direction of the dialogue and s/he,
therefore, makes use of a particular language that is known among specialists as
"teacher talk". Teacher talk constitutes a variety oflanguage sometimes used by
teachers when they are in the process of teaching, i.e., a conventionalised way of
speaking in a particular role, in this case the role of the teacher, which does not
differ at the level oflinguistic structure (pronunciation, syntax, speech acts, etc.)
but does differ in some other general features such as higher pitch, more careful
intonation and enunciation, shorter sentences, more frequent repetitions and
more questions than usual in colloquial speech. The teacher is the addressee of

184
 CHAPTER 6

most student utterances and this is favoured by the way classes have traditionally
been conceived -the teacher as a knowledge transmitter- and, enhanced by
the classroom's physical organisation -all desks facing the teacher. Note that a
teacher who wants to promote student-student interaction and discussion will
arrange desks differently, for instance, in circles.
In the analysis of classroom discourse, as of any other type of interaction,
language cannot be properly understood without taking into account its social
context (i.e., the particular circumstances in which something is being said, as well
as the rest of the surrounding language either in the form of spoken discourse
or written discourse). As a result of this, a number of factors need to be taken
into account about the learning situation and the classroom context33 • In any
case, we should remember that in traditional classroom settings there are often
asymmetric encounters as the teacher tends to have 'the knowledge' and hold a
position of power in relation to students. In addition to this, language learners
are in a way hindered in their speech abilities in the sense that they are making
use of a linguistic system that they do not control completely4 and, therefore,
they cannot always communicate fully (no doubt this depends on the proficiency
level oflearners, and the type of teaching methodology that is being used).
Different moves are characteristic of some speakers rather than others in
an unequal communication encounter such as teacher-student. The three-
part chain of teacher initiation, student response, and teacher evaluation is
probably the. most frequent pattern of classroom discourse at all grade levels.
The analysis of teacher-led classroom discourse generally finds examples of
this pattern, and anyone hearing it recognises it as an instance of classroom
talk. So, teachers tend to initiate interaction and students generally respond to
these prompts. Later, teachers often provide a follow up response that can be
interpreted as a feedback for the students. These three common moves can be
summarised as: (I)nitiation (by the teacher); (R)esponse, (by the student) and;
(F)ollow up (by the teacher). Study the following excerpt which is a typescript
of a real classroom dialogue and analyse the different moves made by the
teacher and the student.

3
Anyone interested in studying classroom discourse more deeply can read Sinclair and Coulthard
(1975).
4
Some specialists think that second language learning in adulthood is, in a way, like going back
to childhood because adults cannot express everything they want in the L2.

185
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

T5 Right, so ... I asked you to finish the vocabulary section on page seven [...] at
home so [...] page thirteen ... right ... page thirteen, [...] the vocabulary[...] (I)

T So, page thirteen let see ... right ... first word real, genuine anybody?, come on,
anybody? (I)

S1 Actual. (R)
T Actual, (F) that's in paragraph one[...] number two, challengi.ngordifficult. (I)
S2- Demanding. (R)

T Demanding. (F) Is everybody with me? (F) [...] please ... thank you. Number three,
a bedroom for many students ... (I)
S3 Dormitory. (R)
T. Dormitory. (F) A bedroom or, remember, a place where the students live.
Dormitory. [...]That's right. Number four, to aid or to encourage. (I)
S4 To support. (R)

T To support, (F) paragraph three, to support ... Mm, number five to mix with and join
a group ofpeople ... (I)
S5 To integrate. (R)

T To integrate, (F) Ah ... right ... six, a written or printed announcement giving
information. (I)
56 A notice. (R)

HEA notice (F) ... seven ... thorough and concentrated. (F)

S7 Intensive. (R)
T Intensive, intensive, Ok? (F) Mm ... eight ... to be present at a place. (I)
S8 To attend. (R)
T To attend, ... attend ... (F) Nine complete ... complete... (I)

S9 Comprehensive. (R)
T Comprehensive, ... comprehensive ... (F) Right ... (F) That is in paragraph four ... ten
... equipment ... paragraph four again .... no? (I)

5
T stands for teacher, and Sl, S2, 53, etc. stands for student one, student two, student three, etc.

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 CHAPTER6

S 10 Facilities. (R)

T Facilities. (F) That's right Jose Ignacio, (F) that was paragraph four[ ...] where it
says a comprehensive language course with computer facilities ... eh ... computer facilities
.... equipment ... Mm ... eleven a speech or talk. (I)
S 11 Lecture. (R)

T A lecture. (F) At British universities classes, what we call classes here are lectures
... The humanities? (I)

S 12 Arts. (R)

If you pay attention to this dialogue, you will see how the teacher controls
both the development of the topic (in this case the correction of an exercise
assigned as homework), and who gets or gives a turn to talk. What is more, s/he
does not ask 'real' questions because s/he already knows the answers and, in fact,
all that s/he does is check the students answers.
Another important aspect to take into account about this excerpt is that a
language classroom is special in the sense that language is used to talk about
language (metalanguage) rather than other subjects (e.g., history, math, etc.)
where the language is just a vehicle to talk about contents.

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercises 4, 5 and 6.

7. IMPLICATIONS FOR LANGUAGE TEACHING

The practice that students generally get in spoken interaction may well fit
them for their communication needs and their role in the classroom, but it
does nothing, or at least not enough, to help them with the roles they will need
to play in English outside the classroom. This is one of the shortcomings that
task-based instruction, which is organised around tasks rather than in terms
of grammar or vocabulary, tries to address. These tasks -using the telephone
to obtain information, performing according to oral instructions, giving and
receiving instructions, etc.- are to be carried out by students in order to develop
their linguistic skills. Immersion programs entail content-based instruction and
are, in a way, similar to task-based instruction (attention to content instead of
attention to form). Students in these programs are expected to learn a second
language through its use in teaching other subjects, but recent research has

187
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

shown that this sort of restricted sociolinguistic context limits the possibilities
of the learners to interact. They therefore largely develop receptive skills but
their productive skills are limited as the exposure to abundant comprehensible
input is not sufficient in itself Swain (1995) has pointed out that forced output
also plays a role in comprehensive language learning.
All in all the solution to this methodological problem is not a question of
changing the teachers' use of language because the social structure of formal
instruction in a classroom is as it is; but attempts should be made to enhance
and widen the variety of input the learner has access to and, also, and more
importantly, to encourage students' language production.
One possible direction to help break across the authority structure in the
classroom is greater use of student-student interaction, including tasks, and pair
and group work. Not only as a pedagogical device to promote learning, but as
a way of avoiding the language implications of the teacher-student 'asymmetric
encounter'.

8. PRAGMATICS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

In recent years, curricula and teaching materials have begun to include

strong pragmatic components or to adopt a pragmatic approach as an
organising principle. Many proposals for instruction in various aspects of
pragmatic competence are based on the analysis of native speaker discourse
or on the comparison of interlanguage data, as well as contrasting Ll and L2
data. Nevertheless, most recommendations for instruction in pragmatics have
not been examined in action in the classroom setting and therefore we do not
really know how effective they are for students' learning of target pragmatic
features. Much research is needed in this respect. Interlanguage pragmatics, i.e.,
the study and use of pragmatic features by language learners that make use of
their interlanguage (an approximant system that is between the Ll and the L2)
have not been studied in depth and further research is needed to investigate how
the learning of L2 pragmatics is shaped by instructional context and activities.
Kasper and Rose (2001) put forward the idea that language learners can
benefit from positive transfer of communicative acts that have been found
constant across ethnolinguistically distant speech communities as is the case
in the set of speech acts for apologies. This speech act comprises as its chief

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semantic formulae an explicit apology, an explanation and the admission or

denial of responsibility. Among its minor strategies (bound to the context and
the circumstances) are the offer of repair, a promise of forbearance, and an
expression of concern for the hearer, and these strategies are reported to have
been found in a number of languages like English, French, German, Hebrew,
Thai and Japanese.
Learners can also get pragmatic knowledge without any sort of explicit
instruction if there is a analogous form-function mapping between Ll and
L2. The English modal past could and would have formal, functional and
distributional equivalents in other Germanic languages such as Danish (kunne/
ville) and German (konntest/wurdest). According to Frerch and Kasper (1989)
Danish and German learners of English will transfer ability questions from
their Ll (German: Konntest/wurdest Du mir Deine Aufzeichnungen leihen?; Danish:
Kunne/wille du lane mig dine noter?; English: Could/would you lend me your notes?).
However evident this transfer of pragmalingU:isric knowledge may be, it should
not be assumed that language learners will in fact make the transfer. Sometimes
the link between the strategy in the Ll and the L2 may not be so evident and,
what is more, language learning involves a complex psycholinguistic process and
positive transfer does not always occur in the way that is expected. There is then
a need for description of pragmatic knowledge and its use in the classroom6 •

9. LANGUAGE IN THE LAW

The study of language in the legal context is a relatively new field of study
in spite of the fact that law is a profession that has been part of civilization
from the early times. The interface between sociolinguistics and the law is also
known as forensic linguistics and centres on the study of discourse in legal
settings and texts, from the courtroom to police or lawyer interviews. Language
use in legal contexts is not essentially different from any other communicative
situation, although the way language is used in legal settings can have enormous
repercussions for the wellbeing of individuals and communities. The use of
language in legal contexts reflects situational characteristics that shape the form
of legal discourse and in so doing shows specific characteristics like any other
language variety.

6
Anyone interested in pragmatics and language teaching will find some interesting articles in
Rose and Kasper (2001)

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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Early studies in courtroom discourse by W.M. O'Barr and John Conley in

the late 1970s examined the influence of language factors on legal decision-
making and found out that witnesses generally make use of one of two styles:
a 'powerless' style incorporating a high frequency of intensifiers (e.g., really,
great, much more, etc. ) and many hedges (e.g., kind of, like, in a way, etc. ); or a
'powerful' style that lacks the aforementioned features and therefore sounds
more exact and confident. The results of this early research showed that jurors
were inclined to find witnesses making use of a 'powerful' style more convincing
and trustworthy than those employing a 'powerless' style. This indicated that
the way the information was presented and the witness expressed him/herself
did have an effect on the final outcome of the case.
Another feature of discourse in the courtroom is the clear power imbalance
between the lawyer and the witness given the fact that the former definitely
controls the discourse by long-winded questioning that require minimal
response, being coercive and controlling, or simply not letting the witness tell
his/her own story in the ways/ he wants it to be told. An example of the way this
can be attained is by using Yes-No questions with a tag, which markedly control
the answer (e.g., You rang her later on, didn't you?) in opposition to broad WH
questions that pave the way for personal interpretation (e.g., how, why, what, etc.
). Eades (2001) provides a list of some other linguistic strategies that that can be
used by lawyers to exercise control over witnesses like:
a) interruptions;
b) reformulation of a witness's descriptions of events or people (e.g., from
my friends to a group oflouts);
c) manipulation of lawyer silence, for example, with the use of strategic
pauses;
d) nonrecognition of some witnesses' need to use silence as part of the
answer, which can be particularly important, for example, for Australian
Aboriginal witnesses;
e) incorporation of damaging presuppositions in questions (such Didyou all
laugh while the car was being trashed?);
f) metalinguistic directives given to the witness (such as You must answer this
question); and
g) management of topics in order to convey a particular impression to the jury.
(Ead es, 2001: 232)

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The amount of work on forensic linguistics is increasing and the effect this
branch of linguistics has on people's lives is paramount. The study of speech
behaviour in legal language constitutes a clear example of how sociolinguistics
can have another clear application for our lives. Therefore, studies in applied
sociolinguistics regarding legal language have undertaken three main areas: (a)
the communicative difficulties that typically occur in the interface between the
legal and the layperson as a result of the interaction between lawyers, judges,
juries, victims, witnesses, suspects, etc.; (b) the comprehension oflegal texts are
in themselves a source of communicative problems because of the specific jargon
that is used as well as the intricacy of the syntax that is generally used; and, (c)
as a consequence of globalisation, colonisation and migration movements, there
is an emerging demand for studies focussing on communication problems faced
by non-native speaker witnesses, suspects and defendants in the legal process.
This situation requires the presence of well-trained interpreters that, apart from a
comprehensive language knowledge, need to know the subtleties of pragmatics7 .

10. STANDARD ENGLISH AND WORLD ENGLISHES

Standard English is a term that refers to the variety of English used by the
social elite who are part of a socially, economically and politically dominant
group in English-speaking countries. This variety is the one usually preferred in
the media and generally taught in schools as it is considered to be 'prestigious'.
Non-standard English, on the other hand, refers to those varieties that do not
conform to the standard spoken by formally educated native speakers in terms
of pronunciation, grammatical structure, idiomatic usage, or choice of words.
The existence of a standard is characteristic of most languages around the world
and it is related to those groups of people that can be said to be literate, school-
oriented and looking beyond the primary community networks for social and
linguistic models. The standard of any language is usually associated not only
with a socially, culturally and economically dominating group but also with
geographic variation, i.e., in the regions where institutional and economic power
is located or more developed. Defining and delimiting a standard is not always
easy or even possible as different varieties can be considered a standard in distant
countries or regions. So, it is not to say that the RP (Received Pronunciation)
which is generally considered the standard in England is the same as the English

7
Anyone interested in these sociolinguistic issues will find some thorough empirical studies in
Cotterill (2002).

191
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

standard in Ireland, Australia or the USA, where there are also a set of features
including pronunciation, grammatical structure, idiomatic usage and choice of
words that is characteristic of formally educated speakers, the language of formal
instruction, the institutions and the media. There has also been a demand for
other local standards -Indian, South African, Nigerian, Jamaican, etc.- and
whenever these varieties vary from one another and from British and American
Standard English in the way British and American vary from each other they can
be counted as standard English, what really matters is the way the variety is used
socially. It must be added that on some occasions it is not clear whether a variety
of English is to be considered as standard or not (see chapter 3).
The dispersal, or diaspora, of English over the world can be divided into two
phases. The first diaspora involved the migration of around 25,000 people from
England, Scotland and Ireland to North America, Australia and New Zealand. The
varieties ofEnglish used nowadays in these places are not identical with those spoken
by the early colonisers but they can be said to share some general features8 and
these varieties have developed through history incorporating vocabulary from the
indigenous languages they came into contact with. The second diaspora occurred
at different moments during the 18th and 19th centuries with different results from
the first dispersal. The spread of English in Africa took place differently for West
Africa as opposed to East Africa. English in West Africa is linked to the slave trade
and the development of pidgin and creole languages. Since the 15th century, British
traders travelled to and from the west coast ofAfrica but there was no settlement in
the areas today comprising Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon.
This situation favoured the use of English as a lingua franca among the hundreds of
indigenous languages and the English-speaking traders. Some of the pidgins and
creoles that developed from English contact are now widely used, mostly as a second
language, as it is the case ofKrio (Sierra Leone) and Cameroon Pidgin (Cameroon).
In East Africa the situation of English was very different because English colonisers
settled there from 1850 in places like Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia
and Zimbabwe. The role of English in these countries was very obvious and this
language was used in the government, education and the law. In the second half

8
It should be mentioned that the different linguistic backgrounds of the early settlers in many
cases gave way to differences and variations in speech. For example, the early settlers of Virginia came
mainly from the west part of England and rhotic /r/ and voiced / s/ sounds were characteristic of their
speech. However, early settlers in New England mainly came from the east of England and did not
share these pronunciation features. In the case of Australia and New Zealand, there were waves of
colonisers from different parts to the British Isles. This meant that different dialects came into contact
resulting in a situation of dialect mixing, further influenced by the indigenous aboriginal languages.

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of the 20th c. these countries gained independence and English was kept as an
official language in some of them (Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi), and
as a second language in others. Swahili, which origianted as an English-based
creole, is also used as a lingua franca in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. During the
second half of the 18th c. English was extensively introduced in South Asia (India,
Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, etc.) due to British trade interests in the
area. Simultaneously, British influence extended to South-East Asia and the South
Pacific due to the seafaring expeditions of Cook and others expanding to Singapore,
Malaysia, Hong Kong and the Philippines and the Pacific islands like Papua New
Guinea where another pidgin developed: Tok Pisin. (See chapter 3)
Y. Kachru (1992) developed a model of the spread of English that has been
highly influential in the field of sociolingustics. He divides World Englishes into
three concentric circles: the Inner Circle, the Outer Circle and the Expanding
Circle. These three areas stand for the types of spread, the patterns of acquisition,
and the position of the English language in the different cultural contexts as the
language has travelled from Britain to the US, Australia and New Zealand in the
first diaspora (the Inner Circle), to countries like Zambia, Pakistan, India, etc. in
the second diaspora (the Outer Circle), and, more recently, to countries where
English is learned and used as a Foreign Language, for instance, Spain, Japan,
Germany, etc. (the Expanding Circle) 9 •
With reference to the status of these languages in relation to the standard,
the English spoken in the Inner Circle would be considered as 'norm-providing',
i.e., it represents a model and is used as a native language; the English spoken
in the Outer Circle could be considered 'norm-developing', that is, used in
countries where the variety of English is in the process of being accepted (or
has been recently adopted), and is spoken as a SL alongside other indigenous
languages; and, the Expanding Circle would be 'norm-dependent' because it is
learned as a FL and the standard is taken as it is.
English spoken in the Inner Circle shows clear patterns of variation both in
terms of geographical and social differences which have long been studied by

9
In the model set out by Kachru (1992), the Inner Circle includes: USA, UK, Canada, Australia
and New Zealand. The Queer Circle contains: Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria,
Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Zambia. And, the Expanding Circle comprises:
China, Egypt, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, USSR, Zimbabwe. This
division is not clear cut as South Africa, for instance, is not included. Some authors would agree that
it is part of the Inner Circle while others would say that it is part of the Outer Circle, since English in
South Africa is not predominantly used by first-language speakers.

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S OCIOLINGUISTICS

dialectologists especially in Great Britain and North America10 •

The varieties of English spoken in Outer Circle countries have been called
New Englishes. Although this term is controversial and not all specialists agree
with it, it is certain that the Englishes oflndia, Nigeria, Singapore, and Tanzania,
together with many other outer-circle countries share some superficial linguistic
characteristics that make it convenient to describe them as a group distinct from
varieties such as British, American, Australian, New Zealand, etc. These outer-
circle varieties are normally spoken as part of a multilingual repertoire that may
include a number of other languages spoken in different circumstances (mother
tongue, first language, lingua franca, etc.). This means that on some occasions the
command over English is not comprehensive: there can be registers, domains or
styles not covered by the speaker of English as a SL in the Outer Circle, or even
variation in terms of proficiency among the speakers (see the example of India
in chapter 5). In terms of phonology, varieties in the Outer Circle tend to have
a simplified system, for example, in the case of vowels where the vowel qualities
normally approximate to those of the other languages spoken by the speakers.
The same happens with some consonants as these other languages often do not
have the sounds /8/ and /o/, which are replaced with some dental or alveolar
stop. In terms of syntax some features are also shared by languages in the Outer
Circle but not found in the Inner Circle. This is the case with tag questions which
are rather complex in BrE and AmE but largely simplified in other varieties, but
many varieties of the outer-circle use a single phrase or a few variants for this
function that do not need to pay attention to the type of auxiliary used or if the
tag is attached to a positive or negative sentence. For instance, in India this tag
can be simplified as no? or isn't it? on all occasions, or not so? in East and West
Africa. With reference to lexis, singular words referring to plural concepts tend
to be simplified and treated as ordinary singulars with a general sense (e.g.,
luggage, furniture, software, etc.).
In the Expanding Circle, English will not be used for official purposes such as
the language of general formal education, religion, courts and the law, national
politics or administration, literature, etc. but it can be used in international
relations, international organisations, research, education at specialised levels,
publiciry and business, among other functions. In the Expanding Circle
governments often have policies to safeguard the status of the national or local

10
For a more detailed analysis of the varieties of English spoken in Great Britain and North
America, you can read Melchers and Shaw (2003).

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 CHAPTER6

languages, regulating the use of English in education and the media. However,
English is also perceived as a useful language, and the advantages of being
proficient in it are clear. This often means that parents want their children to
learn English and pupils also perceive the potential benefits of being proficient
in the language. This fact is especially manifest in eastern European countries
that want to join the developed western economies, and countries within the EU
where there is a clear need to speak international languages that allow people
communicate and operate in this wide job market.
In terms of the linguistic features of English used in the Expanding Circle,
it must be added that there is a marked tendency to use a standardised variety
like BrE and AmE. However, two stages can be perceived, one in which the clear
influence exerted by one variety favours the use of that variety (for example
when films and TV programs are not dubbed), and another one where the
interchangeable influence of these two varieties gives way to what is often called
'mid-Atlantic' English, that is, when features from British and American usage
are mixed because learners are overtly exposed to both varieties (e.g., at the word
level the following words can be used indistinctively: candy - sweets) trunk - boot,
lift- elevator) autumn - fall) etc.). Some other features of the same phenomenon
can be found in spelling, for instance, where learners do not follow one of the
varieties consistently (e.g., when someone writes neighbor and colour, or analyze
and analyse, etc.). Another possibility may be that students who receive the
influence of BrE through their formal education but the influence of AmE
through the music and the media. At the pronunciation level, this possible
mixture ofAmerican and British pronunciation can be added to features derived
from the speaker's mother tongue, so that standardisation is rather difficult
and unlikely. Finally, in terms oflexis, under these circumstances there is a clear
risk of allowing interference between English and the mother tongue in the
case of false friends, i.e., words in both languages that show some sort of formal
similarities but which vary greatly in meaning. This phenomenon results either
in miscommunication or in the use of words that acquire a new meaning in
'local English' (e.g., more and more frequently in Spanish the word influenciar
is heard on the news instead of influir, or the word secretario instead of ministro
when referring to the North American or British government, i.e., British
Foreign Secretary). Another interesting phenomenon is the increasing presence
of borrowings from English and how they influence other modern languages.

~ Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 7 and 8.

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SocroLINGUISTICS

11. EXERCISES

1. Think about your learning of English and answer the following questions
regarding some sociolinguistic aspects:
a) What variety of English do you speak?
b) Why did you decide to learn this variety, if you did? If it was not your own
choice, what made you learn this variety?
c) Have you always had contact with the same variety? Why (not)?
d) Ifyou have had access to more than one variety/dialect, are you consistent
in it? Why? Why not?
e) Now that you have studied English for years, what decisions regarding
your learning of a language would you change?

2. Take any language learning book and find a dialogue in it. You can use a
language course for secondary school, for example, but do not bother too much
about the language level. Read the dialogue and analyse the sociolinguistic
information it contains (e.g., turn taking, polite words or formulas, situation,
etc.). Do you think it reflects a realistic situation? Why (not)?

3. Think about the way the speech event of partings is structured in Spanish.
Take two or three different situations and describe both, the different stages
and the language formulas that are employed. In order to do this exercise you
can either reflect on a typical situation or just pay attention to the way other
people do it.

4. Analyse the following excerpt and place at least one of the three moves (I)
nitiation, (R)esponse, and (F)ollow up in the dialogue next to each utterance.
Take into account that more than one move can occur within a single
utterance.

[...]
T We can correct now question one and you can finish the rest at home. Most
of you have finished already, so let us correct until three, and[...] Ok. First. It
is an invitation to attend the opening ceremony ofthe schoolyear. Mm ... Juan What
have you got for that?
S Mm, what is this invitation to ... or ... about.

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 CHAPT ER 6

T What is this invitation for, ... Ok, that is a possibility, anything else?

s [...]
T What is this letter ... you have to mention the word invitation, What is that letter
you have, or you received, or you got ... or anything similar to that, Ok? ...
Jose, What about you, number two. The Industrial Revolution will be our topic
for next week.
S I have What is our topic for next week?
T Mm, ... Yeah, but it is possible you are not repeating too many new words ...
What's our topic for next week? ... The Industrial Revolution will be our topic for
next week ... Ok, It's not impossible ... Any other option?
S What will be the topic for the next week?

T Next week, not the next week, next week, What will the topic be next week? or
When will we study the Industrial Revolution?
S What are we going to do the next week?
[...]
5. Read the previous excerpt again and write a paragraph (around 150 words)
answering the following questions:
a) Is the teacher dominating too much?
b) Is the language "natural" and "real". Why (not)?
c) What type of teaching methodology do you think is being used (innovative,
traditional, etc.)? Explain.
d) Do you think this excerpt reflects a typical teaching situation? Why?
e) Do you think students have enough chances for "full" and "real"
interaction?
f) Do you think students learning English as a foreign language m a
classroom setting have access to real and idiomatic language?
6. Can you suggest other situations in which spoken language is organised and
purposive in the same way as in the classroom? Describe them.
7. Why might Indian English be called a New English? (Given that it probably
dates back to 1800 approximately). You may want to see chapter 5 also.

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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

8. Take an empty world map where only the political boundaries are marked.
Take three pencils and colour in the countries belonging to the Inner Circle,
the Outer Circle, and the Expanding Circle (use a different colour for each
set of countries). Then try to get information about the current population
of each country, the language or languages used, the number of speakers of
each language, and some important fact about its history (for instance, in the
case of former colonial countries the date of independence, or some other
fact that you consider of relevance). The purpose of this activity is for you
to have a global perspective of the influence of English in the world, and the
current state of the art. To complete this activity you can use any up-to-date
encyclopedia.

12. RESOURCES ON THE WEB

Now you can visit the website for this subject where you will find some further
references and complementary readings.

13. FURTHER READING AND QUESTIONS

13.1. Text 11

Read the following text carefully and comment on it emphasising any aspect
you consider of relevance. After the text you will find some questions that may
be helpful. Write around 250-300 words in total.

[...]
A source of intercultural miscommunication highlighted by the findings
of cross-cultural studies is sociolinguistic transfer. Sociolinguistic transfer refers
to the use of the rules of speaking of one's own speech community or cultural
group when interacting with members of another community or group. This
can occur in interactions in which one or more of the interlocutors is using a
foreign or second language but employing the rules of speaking of his or her
native language. It can even occur in interactions between individuals who have
the same native language but belong to speech communities that have different
rules of speaking, as would be the case, for example, with British and American
English speakers.

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 CHAPTER 6

To illustrate how sociolinguistic transfer can be a source of intercultural

miscommunication, we turn to some studies of compliment giving and
responding behavior. [... ] Wolfson (1983) points out that differences in the
distribution of compliments in different communities are potential sources
of intercultural miscommunication; that is, there is frequently interactional
trouble when members of one cultural group compliment in situations in which
compliments are inappropriate for members of other groups. She cites the time
when former President Carter, during an official visit to France, complimented
a French official on the fine job he was doing. Editorial comment in the French
press the next day revealed that Carter's remarks had been interpreted as
interference in the internal politics of France. The frequency of complimenting
is also a potential source of miscommunication, according to Wolfson. She
points out that the high frequency with which Americans compliment leads to
their being perceived by members of other cultures as "effusive, insincere, and
possibly motivated by ulterior considerations" (1989, p. 23).
(Chick, 1996: 332)

Issues to consider:

a) Do you think that the relative distance between the languages or cultures
involved in cross cultural communication plays a role in intercultural
miscommunication?

b) Have you ever been involved in a situation of intercultural

miscommunication? Do you think that it could have been avoided? If
your answer is yes, how?

c) To what extent do you think that the foreign language learner can be
trained to avoid intercultural miscommunication and take advantage of
sociolinguistic transfer from his/ her Ll?

13.2. Text 12

Read the following text carefully and comment on it, emphasising any aspect
you consider of relevance. After the text you will find some questions that may
be helpful. Write around 250-300 words in total.

I therefore need to explain why I have referred [...] to English as an endangered

language. There are some people who see a danger to English in its very success.

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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

There are many languages which have played important roles as institutionalised
lingua francas: Latin was the lingua franca of the Roman Empire, and continued
to play a significant role in European learning until quite recently. But the extent
to which English is employed like this is without parallel. Never before has a
language been used as a lingua franca by so many people in so many parts of
the world. English is also remarkable in having more non-native than native
speakers: perhaps 400 million to 300 million. There are, as just mentioned,
anglophone people who regard this expansion of English as a danger to the
language. One reason is an irrational fear what they will get up to with it if native
speakers are not at all times totally vigilant? After all, some foreigners seem to
think that English is their language: some French and German speakers have
invented English words which do not exist in English, such lifting, or wellness, or
handy, or pullunder. This, however, is not a danger to English. It is on the contrary
quite interesting and amusing, and does not make any difference to anything
important. It is even a kind of compliment, perhaps. The true repository of the
English language is its native speakers, and there are so many of them that they
can afford to let non-natives do what they like with it so long as what they do is
confined to a few words here and there. In other words, this is not an area where
English is an endangered language, although it is true that it will be interesting
to see whether English as a European lingua franca is acquiring any linguistic
characteristics on its own, and the extent to which widespread international
non-native usage may influence native usage.

There is also a worry that some people have, [ ...] which concerns
endonormative varieties. In discussions of varieties of English it is usual to
distinguish between countries where English is a native language, a foreign
language, and a second language. English-as-a-Foreign-Language nations are
countries like Germany, Uruguay or China where English has no official status,
and where it is not widely used within the country. In countries where English
is a second language, most people do not have it as their mother tongue, but
it does play an important role, particularly amongst educated elites, within
the country itself, in politics, education, law, the media and business. It may
well also have some official status. If such a country is multilingual, like India,
English often plays an important role as an internal lingua franca. This means
that many educated elite speakers, though they do not have English as their
first language, may have it as their primary language - the one they use most. In
this situation, there is a likelihood that English will acquire a set oflocal norms
which are widely adhered to even if they are not officially recognised. This is

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 C!-!APTER6

where some anglophones see a danger. In India, Nigeria, Singapore, Ghana,

Kenya and other places in the world where English English was originally used
as a model, a series of well-established, focused, national internal forms of
English have now developed (see Trudgill and Hannah 1994) which can now
be used as local norms. In my view these endonormative varieties are precisely
the ones which should be taught and used in the countries concerned: Indian
English should be the norm in India, just as Australian English should be the
norm in Australia, and Irish English in Ireland. Standard Indian English is not
just the variety of English used by educated Indians; it is also more suitable for
use in India than English English because speakers of the model variety are
close at hand, its phonology is closer to Indian languages, and its vocabulary is
adapted to Indian society and culture.
The fear is that if these endo normative varieties take on more and more local
characteristics they will become mutually incomprehensible, and the language
will disintegrate. It is already true, I accept, that certain forms oflndian English
are difficult for British people to understand, but I do not regard this problem
as serious. Most anglophones who have been to India will agree that a week in
the country is enough to ease comprehension problems. Familiarity is all that
is needed: when cinema films first acquired soundtracks in the 1930s, British
people complained that they could not understand them, as they had never
heard American English before.
In any case, there is much more likelihood of English at the native-speaker
level being subject to disintegration. All languages change, and they change
because native speakers change them, even though they are not aware of it.
And at least at the level of accents it is clear that New Zealand and American
and Irish and English English are currently becoming more unlike one another,
[.. .]. It is not impossible that native anglophones in the future will be able to
communicate with one another in writing but not in speech, as is already the
case with Chinese.
(Trudgill, 2002: 150-152)

Issues to consider:

a) Do you think that the situation described in this article has changed since
it was written (in 2002)?

b) How do you see the future of the English language, both as a native
language and as a lingua franca?

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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

c) Some people claim the existence of a "network English", i.e., a special type
of variety of English used in the internet. How do you think the existence
of such a variety interacts with what Trudgill shows in this text?
d) What is the situation of Spanish as a global language and as a lingua
franca? How do you see it in relation to English in the future?

14. RESEARCH ACTIVITY

1. Visit a bilingual school close to your home and write a report analysing
the bilingual program they are using. These are some suggestions for you to
gather relevant information:
a) Interview a teacher.
b) Interview some students.
c) Analyse and summarise the program (age of students entering the
program; teacher training; program's assessment procedures; etc.).
d) Consider teachers', students' and parents' attitude and opinions.

15. REFERENCES

BRUMFIT, Ch. 1995. 'People's choice and language rights' [videorecording]: EFL in language
policy. University of York, Audio-Visual Centre. Kent: IATEFL.
CHAc6N BELTRAN, R. 2001. 'La ensefianza del vocabulario en ingles como L2: el efecto del
enfasis en la forma lingiiistica en el aprendizaje de cognados falsos'. Unpublished
doctoral dissertation. University of Seville.
CHICK,}. K. 1996. 'Intercultural communication', in S. L. McKay and N. H. Hornberger,
Sociolinguistics and Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
CorrERILL, J. (ed.) 2002. Language in the Legal Process. Houndmills, UK: Palgatve
Macmillan.
CRYSTAL, D. 2003. (2nd ed.). English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
EADES, D. 2001. 'Discourse Analysis and the Law', in R. Mesthrie (ed.) Concise Encyclopedia
of Sociolinguistics. Oxford, UK: Pergamon.

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 C HAPTER 6

FAJRCH, C. and G. KASPER. 1989. 'Internal and external modification of in interlanguage

request realization', in S. Blum-Kulka, J. House and G. Kasper (eds.), Cross-cultural
pragmatics: Requests and apologjes. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
FINEGAN, E. 1997. 'Sociolinguistics and the Law', in F. Coulmas (ed.), The Handbook of
Sociolinguistics. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers.
GRAoooL, D. 1997. The Future ofEnglish? London: The British Council.
JENKINS, J. 2003. World Englishes: A resource book for students. London, UK: Routledge.
KAcHRU, Y. 1992. 'Culture, style and discourse: expanding noetics of English', in B.
Kachru (ed.), The Other Tongue. English Across Cultures, 2nd ed, Urbana, IL: University
oflllinois Press.
KAsPER, G. and K. R RosE. 2001. 'Pragmatics in language teaching', in K. R Rose and G.
Kasper (eds.). Pragmatics in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
MELCHERS, G. and P. SHAW. 2003. World Englishes. London, UK: Arnold.
NORRIS, J. 2001. 'Use of address terms on the German Speaking Test', in KR. Rose and
G. Kasper (eds.). Pragmatics in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
RosE, K. R and G. KASPER (eds.). 2001. Pragmatics in Language Teaching. Cambridge:
, Cambridge University Press.
SINCLAIR, J. M. and R M. COULTHARD. 1975. Towards an analysis ofdiscourse. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
SPOLSKY, B. (ed.) 1999. Concise Encyclopedia ofEducational Linguistics. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
SWAIN, M. 1995. 'Three functions of output in second language learning', in G. Cook &
B. Seidlhofer (eds.), Principle and practice in the study ofapplied linguistics: Studies in honor
ofH.G. Widdowson. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
TARONE, E. and M. SWAIN. 1995. 'A Sociolinguistic Perspective on Second Language Use
in Immersion Classrooms.' The Modern Language journal, 79/2: 166-178.
TRUDGILL, P. (2002, 2012). Sociolinguistic variation and change. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh
University Press.
WOLFSON, N. and J. MANES. 1978. 'Don't 'Dear' me.' Working Papers in Sociolinguistics.
Austin, TX: SEDL. Reprinted in Women and Language in Literature and Society, eds. S.
McConnell-Ginet, R. Borker, and N . Furman, 1980, pp. 79-92. New York Praeger.
WOLFSON, N. 1989. Perspectives: Sociolinguistics and TESOL. Boston: Heinle & Heinle
Publishers.
WOLFSON, N. 1983. 'An empirically based analysis of complimenting in American
English', in N. Wolfson and E. Judd (eds.), Sociolinguistics and Language Acquisition.
Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

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 KEY TO
THE EXERCISES
 This section provides some model answers for the exercises and acttv1t1es
presented at the end of each unit. On most occasions, these exercises have an open
answer and no single response can be provided. Active participation in the web
discussion forum will allow the students peer-exchange of answers and debate.

CHAPTER 1
Exercise 5
(This passage is taken from the famous novel Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K.
Jerome published in 1889.)
The word deuce in its meaning in this passage is, according to The Longman
Dictionary of English Language and Culture, old-fashioned. The word aren't is never
nowadays written ar'n't (and indeed is underlined in red by the spell checker in the word
processing package on which this book is being in prepared).
There are a number of other expressions which native speaker informants suggest
may be old fashioned: for example, you silly cuckoo, rather an amusing thing (instead of a
rather amusing thing, and I was laughing so (instead ofI was laughing so much). However
native speaker intuition is notoriously unreliable in such matters. To support such claims
one would need to make careful study of a large corpus of contemporary English and of
a large corpus of English written in the late nineteenth century.
It is worth noting that the expression gimme (for give me) has a distinctly modern
flavour.

Exercise 6
Abrupt: It means <repentino, brusco, inesperado' ('sudden, hasty, precipitate') and not
'abrupto' which in English is steep, although we can find the word abrupt referring
to someone's character. The word abrupt comes from Latin abruptus 'precipitous,
disconnected'. In the 16th c. (Shakespeare) it meant 'broken away' or 'marked by
sudden change', and in 17th c. it changed its meaning to 'steep'.

207
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Disgrace: It means 'deshonra, verguenza'. It doesn't mean 'desgracia' which in English is

misfortune, for example, I had the misfortune to lose my ticket. In the 16th c. it meant
'disfavor', 'dishonor', 'shame, or cause of this' jus like French 'disgace' and Spanish
'desgracia'.
Edit: Its means 'corregir, preparar la edici6n de, dirigir un peri6dico'. It doesn't mean 'editar'
which in English is to publish. Formerly this word meant 'to publish' (rare) or 'to
prepare an edition of' (in the 18th c.), and 'be the editor of' (in the 19th c.).
Journal: It means 'revista especializada, diario' and not 'jornal' which in English is day's wage
(or pay). In PdE this word means 'periodical, magazine'. In the 14th c. it was 'a book'
or 'record', 'a service-book containing day-hours' in the ecclesiastical field. In the 16th
c. it meant 'performed, happening or recurring every day, daily', but it also meant 'a
book containing notices concerning the daily stages or routes or other information
for travelers'. In relation to trade it meant 'a daily record of commercial transactions'
(16th c.). In the 18th c. it acquired the meaning of'a day's travel, a journey'.
Sympathy: It means 'compasi6n, comprensi6n, solidaridad' ('compassion, pity, concern,
agreement, harmony') and not 'simpatfa' which in English is friendliness, liking, affection.
According to The Oxford English Dictionary this word means 'affinity between certain
things, by virtue of which they are similarly or correspondingly affected by the same
influence, affect or influence one another'. This word was adopted in the 16th c. from
the Latin word sympathia.

CHAPTER3
Bxercise3
A. Cars
No, the car get in one long line.
Sometime in one long line.
Maybe, get about fifty, sixty cars, yeah.
And then, it's not only one line,
They get several more other lines,
They get some more cars, too, eh?
And, the
Always taking out, see.

208
 KEY TO THE EXERCISES

B. Myjob
So, my job is to see
That no more, no more, no trouble in the field
They grab their car.
Then, some of them, they tell,
Ey, I think
My company no more, though, yeah.
You see, if no more, no more company
Well, I go find,
See, that's my job, see

Exercise 5
Australia English
Belgium Flemish Dutch, French, (German)
Brazil Portuguese
Canada English, French
Colombia Spanish
Finland Finnish, Swedish
France French
Haiti French
India Hindi, English, 14 regional languages
Kenya Swahili, English
New Zealand Maori, English
Norway Norwegian (Nynorsk, Bokmal)
Papua New Guinea English, Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu
Paraguay Guarani, Spanish
Philippines Pilipino, English
Singapore Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, English

209
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Tanzania Swahili, English

Uruguay Spanish
Zaire French, Kikongo, Tshiluba, Lingala and Kiswahili

CHAPTER6
Exercise 1

T We can correct now question one and you can finish the rest at home. Most of
you have finished already, so let us correct until three, and [...] Ok. First. It is an
invitation to attend the opening ceremony ofthe schoolyear. Mm ... Juan What have you
got for that? (I)
S Mm, What is this invitation to ... or ... about (R)
T What is this invitation for, ... (F) Ok, that is a possibility, anything else? (I)
s [...]
T What is this letter ... (F) you have to mention the word invitation, What is that letter
you have, or you received, or you got ... or anything similar to that, 0 k? (F) ... Jose,
What about you, number two. The Industrial Revolution will be our topic for next week.
S I have What is our topic for next week? (R)
T Mm, ... Yeah, but it is possible you are not repeating too many new words (F) ...
What's our topic for next week? ... The Industrial Revolution will be our topic for next week
... (F) Ok, It's not impossible ... Any other option? (I)
S What will be the topic for the next week? (R)
T Next week, not the next week, next week, What will the topic be next week? or When
will we study the Industrial Revolution? (F)
S What are we going to do the next week? (R)

Exercise 6
You can describe, for example, the linguistic encounter in any of these situations:
Doctor <> patient
Shop-assistant<> customer

210
GLOSSARY
Aboriginal languages: The languages spoken by Aboriginal Australians before the arrival
of English colonisers. 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.

Acculturation: It is a gradual process in which changes in the individual or group's

language, culture and system of values occur through interaction with another
majority group with a different language, culture and system of values. A process of
acculturation typically accompanies language learning/acquisition and the desire
of an immigrant group, for instance, to absorb features of the prevailing culture,
including the language.

Acquisition: In linguistics, this term refers to the ways in which knowledge is gained
through unconscious observation and exposure to the language. It is generally
associated with the ways children 'pick up' their native languages or, in the field of
Second Language teaching and research, with the ways learners pick up language
through exposure in naturalistic contexts.

Learning is typically contrasted with acquisition as it includes the types of knowledge

that can be intentionally grasped, that is, knowledge that can be consciously
memorised, for example, a list of capital cities in Europe.

The contrast can be useful to distinguish between situations in which children acquire
their first languages apparently without effort and those in which adult Second
Language learners explicitly study the language with different degrees of success. It
remains unclear to what extent and to what degree Second Language development
benefits from acquisition on the one hand and from learning on the other.

Acrolect: When decreolisation 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 acrolect is the top

213
SocroLINGUJSTICS

and educated variety which is closer to the standard and further away from the creole.
The basilect is the bottom variety which is closer to the creole and further away from
the standard. The acrolect can evolve into a New English.

African American Vernacular English (AAVE): (see Black English Vernacular)

Sometimes called Black English Vernacular, Black English, or Ebonics, it refers to the
language spoken in black communities in the United States. Some linguists consider
it a significantly different linguistic system from the standard dialect since it does not
conform to its pronunciation, 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. (See synthetic language.)

Ascendant bilingualism: It occurs when someone whose ability to function in a second

language is developing due to increased use, so it represents an expansion of his/her
linguistic repertoire. It generally occurs where both languages continue to be useful
and valued.

The opposing term is recessive bilingualism when there is a decrease in an individual's

linguistic competence, usually due to an insufficient use or development of a
language. Eventually, recessive bilingualism may result in temporary or permanent
language attrition when a second language provokes the loss of the first one. In certain
contexts, a majority language learned in the school becomes the main language to the
detriment of the home language. Other situations that result in recessive bilingualism
include political repression or linguistic assimilation in a majority language which
is perceived as superior.

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

214
 GLOSSARY

a specialised jargon and that tends to be the most difficult part as they are not very
complex from a syntactic point of view.

Balanced bilingual: This term refers to those people who master two different languages
in various contexts and situations. Balanced bilinguals are supposed to be equally
fluent in both languages across various contexts in which they usually perform with
native-like proficiency, as if they were monolingual. The term is quite idealized since
bilinguals tend to use one language or the other depending on different purposes and
contexts. The concept is much debated due to the difficulty of encountering similar
levels oflanguage competency in any context. Balanced bilinguals can also be called
"equilinguals" or "ambilinguals".

Basilect: When decreolisation 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. The acrolect is
the top and educated variety which is closer to the standard and further away from
the creole.

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 (see Dialect). 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: (also African American Vernacular English) This term
refers to the non-standard English spoken by lower-class African Americans 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 Vernacular from standard English are paralleled in
varieties of Black vernacular varieties spoken in other parts of the world such as the
Caribbean and West Africa.

In the UK, Black English Vernacular is the result of the linguistic change from creole
languages spoken by Afro-Caribbean immigrants which were 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.

215
SoCIOLINGUISTICS

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 favours 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.

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

languages.

There is a clear difference between the concepts of code-switching and borrowing.

What is less clear is when precisely, or whether at all, a speaker of two languages who
code-switches has borrowed a word as opposed to switching. 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, sine qua non, etc.).

Co-ordinate bilingual: This term applies to someone who has learnt two languages
in different contexts, and they are kept distinct. This 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. Neurolinguisitic 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 introduced by the American

anthropological linguist Dell Hymes in opposition to the chomskian conception

216
 GLOSSARY

of native speakers' linguistic competence which referred to the linguistic intuitions

of an idealised native speaker. Dell Hymes considered that the linguistic knowledge
of grammar, pronunciation and lexicon is not enough, as speakers also have other
types oflinguistic knowledge about how to use that language properly in society.
This additional knowledge allows 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, through the first one. Both languages are closely connected
as they may be 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. Neurolinguisitic 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.

Content and language integrated learning (CLIL): An approach to second language

learning based on the use of that language as the medium of instruction for the
teaching of curricular content areas. CLIL entails a double focus: the development
of non-linguistic knowledge at the same level as in mainstream education, and the
acquisition of a second language aided by scaffolding and other specific teaching
techniques. In the US the term Content-based second language instruction is preferred.

Content-Based ESL: A teaching/learning approach in which the contents are taught

in a foreign language, in this particular case English, with the aim of developing
the language skills of the learners in that foreign language at the same time as they
are learning the contents required in the curriculum, such as maths, history, or
biology. The approach aims to develop the students' language and academic skills.
These skills are developed unconsciously through the content dealt with on the
assumption that ifthe information delivered through the content is interesting and
useful, learners will acquire the language faster. In addition, the language acquisition
process may be more efficient and the language learners more motivated.

Its main advantage is the provision of meaningful contexts for communication in

the classroom, but there is a risk of achieving lower outcomes in the subject matter.
Such content instruction can be "sheltered" by simplifying the language used as well
as the content.

217
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Consecutive bilingualism: Acquisition of a second language (or subsequent additional

languages) after the age of three. A typical situation that produces consecutive
bilingualism is that of children who receive instruction at school in a language
different from their mother tongue, or as the result of moving to another country or
language context. The first language may influence the way in which they learn and
use their second language.

Consecutive bilingualism is also called sequential bilingualism and these terms are
often used in contrast with that of simultaneous bilingualism.

Corpus planning: This term refers to the actions undertaken in order to partially modify
the nature or characteristics of a language in some way, such as 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.
Corpus Planning (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.

Cultural awareness: The understanding and respect for differences between people from
different countries or different cultural or linguistic backgrounds, especially differences
in attitudes, values and perceptions, and the development of intercultural sensitivity.
Cultural awareness is supposed to break down national, ethnic and language stereotypes
and widen the understanding of different kinds of societies. Increasing individual
cultural sensitivity is seen as important as the world becomes more of "a global village",
with more sharing of experience and mutual understanding required.

While cultural awareness may be conveyed in the first language, the inseparability
of culture and language means that such awareness may best be achieved through
simultaneous language learning. Bilingual people who are also bicultural are very aware
of others' values, beliefs, customs, and perceptions of reality, as well as of their own,
though these may be different and even opposite. This is one of the many individual
reasons why a child or an adult can benefit from being taught a second or third
language. However, being bilingual does not necessarily entail being culturally aware.

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 word. 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 homogenising effect on languages. Sometimes

218
 GLOSSARY

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 analyse the typical vocabulary,
pronunciation, intonation patterns, and other characteristics, and try to match these
with specific geographic areas. They draw lines (called isoglosses) on maps to try and
visualise areas where certain language features are used.

Discourse analysis: This field of research refers to the analysis oflinguistic units above
the sentence level, i.e., texts or conversations. By analysing written or aural texts,
discourse analysts explore the different functions oflanguage in social interaction.

Discourse marker: These are words, phrases or sounds that have no content meaning but
play an important role in marking conversational structure, signalling conversational
intentions and assuring cooperation on the part oflisteners. Some discourse markers
in English are: actually, really, Oh, Yeah, etc. Interestingly, 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 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 multilingual contexts where various
languages, dialects or styles are employed in different social settings.

Dormant bilingual: A bilinguals who no longer uses 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: (also see Lexifier) This term refers to any creole which is English-
based and therefore has a vocabulary heavily influenced by English. Due to the post-
creole continuum, that language may still be receiving words from English.

219
Soc10LINGUJST1cs

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 sociolinguistics studies the norms and rules
for using language in social situations in different cultures. The ethnography of
speaking deals with aspects such as the different types oflanguage to be used under
different circumstances; how to make requests, grant permission, or ask a favour;
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. Researchers hope to provide insight into, as well as improve, cross-
cultural communication; this is the field-based partner to the theoretical study of
communicative competence.

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.

Family language planning: Consists of the family's deliberate efforts to influence the
acquisition of their child's language. This is very important in situations where the
family's vernacular language is at risk, or has only secondary status, or when parents
deliberately want their children to develop communication skills in a specific language
that they know and use. On some occasions the family wishes to maintain the heritage
language in order to ensure continuity in intergenerational transmission oflanguage,
and for the child to become bilingual and preserve the family language. This choice
may take the form of a tacit understanding or of a conscious strategy about which
language to use with the child from birth upwards. Family language planning can be
very useful to initiate, establish and maintain childhood bilingualism.

Affective relations inside families are a determining factor in maintaining minority

languages. If the minority language is not used at home, it is not very likely that the
children will be able to learn it later; without family language planning, language
maintenance is practically impossible.

Family language planning can also be extended to other members of the family such
as grandparents when they speak a heritage language.

Heritage Language: 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

220
 GLOSSARY

distinguished from Indigenous Language which also refers to a minority language

but in this case is native to that land. In Canada, for instance, about SO Indigenous
Languages are spoken some of which are only spoken in that country, and none of
which are considered an official language of Canada.

Heritage language bilingual education: A bilingual education model which allows

minority language children to receive instruction in their native, home, or heritage
language. In its more inclusive usage, heritage language education is found in schools
and classes for established and recent immigrant language groups and community-
based language initiatives.

Its goals are to develop full bilingualism as well as to preserve the ethnic language
and culture of a community. Content is taught through the minority language which
is the students' home language and also the majority language. It is a strong form
of bilingualism which aims at additive bilingualism and biliteracy. Appreciation of
participants' cultural heritage is emphasised, and native speakers of both languages
may be present. Examples can be found in New Zealand, with regard to the Maori
language, or German teaching in Pennsylvania, in the USA, for instance.

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, English speakers who do not pronounce [h] normally, will in certain
situations make an effort to pronounce [h] 's and then often over-generalise their use
to words which never had an [h]. Such as "aitch" (h) becoming "haitch".

Informant: In empirical research this term refers to any person who provides information
to be analysed 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 Ll on the L2 or vice versa. Interference usually hinders the learning
process and causes a problem for the language learner whereas positive interlinguistic
influence helps the language learner.

International schools: Private, selective and independent schools usually found in

large cities which provide instruction in a majority language -English in most
cases- and other national or international languages depending on their location

221
SocroLINGUISTICS

and goals. Many of the pupils in these schools are the children of diplomats or
affluent business people living abroad for professional reasons although they also
attract local people.

These schools offer a curriculum (normally US or British) which is different from

the national curriculum. They normally prepare students for the Baccalaureate and
entry into European or North American universities. Students usually share a high
social/economic status. The commitment is to international education and bi- or
multilingualism.

Language Academy: In some countries like Spain (The Royal Academy), France (The
French Academy), Ireland (The Irish Language Commission), Norway (The Norwegian
Language Council), etc., there are institutions which play a role in safeguarding
standards, so they try to regulate the evolution of the language by limiting unwanted
foreign influence and, in a way, by trying to control how the language changes. 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 as the media exerts considerable
influence on languages all over the world and globalisation may threaten the
preservation of minority languages and the integrity of others.

Language attrition: Gradual language loss in an individual. This term can refer to the
loss of a mother tongue that has been acquired and due to lack of use -probably
because the person has moved and it is not longer the language of the community-
it is gradually forgotten. This happens quite frequently among second and third
generation 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 selection
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 the
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

222
 GLOSSARY

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 official language. These decisions are normally made for practical
purposes either because the nation-state needs an agglutinative language to overcome
a wide linguistic variety and/or because oksome advantages are seen in the possibility
of having a Language ofWider Communication (LWC) as an official language.

Language functions: (or functions oflanguage) 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). In the area of individual bilingualism, language loss can occur among bilingual
children in cases in which the minority language is still unstabk and the dominant
language occupies most domains (school, friends, TV, etc).

Language Policy Division: This department of the EU is located in Strasburg and is

responsible for the progress oflanguage education policies within the EU member
states. This Division is in 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 with linguistic minorities language education; etc.

Language revitalisation: (or Language revival) Language planning efforts made in order to
revive a language that because of social or economic reasons has decreased in number
of speakers or which was even lost (see Language death). 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. The best example of a successful LR is Hebrew which was a classical
liturgical language for centuries and is now a living language again. An instance of a

223
SocroLINGursncs

less successful program to revitalise a language is Irish in Ireland where governmental

efforts to reintroduce the use oflrish in schools have not been so effective.

Language spread: This 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 or LWC, as has been the case of English during the
20th century. Languages can also spread within a nation as a new mother tongue
instead of as an additional language but in this case it is perhaps better to 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: (also see English-lexifier creole) 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 served as lexifier languages as a consequence of the
colonial exploits of countries speaking these as native languages. The contact
between one or more of these European languages and a native language led to the
development of pidgins and creoles in different parts of the world.

Linguafranca: This is a language which is commonly 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 koine, Arabic,
Mandarin, etc.) 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 speakers in different areas may vary considerably depending, often, on
the domains in which the language is used and the function(s) it fulfils locally.

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 variations and the pragmatic functions ofits realisations. 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 organisation
and the way this knowledge is stored (activation, recall, etc.).

Longitudinal study: This research method, also called observational study, involves
repeated observation of the same variables and the same group of individuals
over an extended period of time. This research modality involves data retrieval at

224
 GLOSSARY

different intervals over a period of time. This is particularly useful when studying
the effectiveness of an educational program, because we can check the success of the
students over the period. Longitudinal research is also useful for gaining insight into
cause and effect processes, and observing patterns of change.

Longitudinal studies have shed light on the number of years required by a second
language learner to catch up with native speakers of that language with regard to
language proficiency or subject matter knowledge.

L WC: (Language of Wider Communication) This term is equivalent to lingua franca,

meaning a language used by speakers of different languages to communicate with
each other. Two instances ofLWC in the times of the Roman Empire are Latin in the
west and koine Greek in the east. After World War II, English became a LWC. (See
lingua franca).
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. This is an umbrella term for a type of research, rather than
an area of study itself; so studies looking at the Sociology of Language can generally
be described as macro-sociolinguistic because of their scale.

Mesolect: When decreolisation 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, with the basilect and acrolect varieties of the creole marking the extremes
of the creole varieties.

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 oflanguage in society.

Minority language: These are languages that live in the shadow of a culturally dominant
language which often puts the minority language at risk. As a result of political
or social factors, these languages are very often not used in all areas of activity by
native speakers as they can be excluded from certain spheres such as administration,

225
Soc10LINGu1s11cs

education, or mass media (e.g., Scottish Gaelic is widely 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
from political decisions affecting their maintenance or by the lack of vocabulary to
cover certain topics. Some actions can be undertaken to promote minority languages
(see chapter 5) by means oflanguage planning and language policies. Some instances
of minority languages are Irish, Welsh and Scottish Gaelic which exist 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
can be rather controversial in linguistics because of assumptions that a native speaker
can be appealed to resolve questions of correct usage because s/he is reported to have
authority to determine correct or deviant usage. Native and non-native are not clear-
cut homogeneous 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 native speakers have traditionally
represented the "model to follow" in the process oflearning but this has proven to
be an inefficient approach as the processes 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 know as World English, it does not emphasise the
dichotomy between native and non-native use but embodies 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: This paradox is how to observe language use without people knowing
you' re doing so. Sociolinguists are obviously interested in recording natural language
but, as Labov observed, people change their production -often unconsciously-
becoming more careful and standard in their speech when they are being recorded.
This means features like idioms and relaxed pronunciation can be underrepresented
in sociolinguistic data. The problem of how to gather vernacular language data is one
which is still a methodological challenge for sociolinguistic research.

Pragmatic competence: This term is concerned with the functional use oflinguistic
resources (production of language functions, speech acts, etc.) used in aural

226
 GLOSSARY

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: This 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 looks at
language in discourse.

Proficiency: This 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. Inda-European is the best-known language family. The major Indo-
European subgroups are: Inda-Iranian, Armenian, Albanian, 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 twentieth century. It is interesting to know that this language was kept stable for
centuries in spite of not having native speakers and being just a contact language
used by speakers that did not share a common language. The origin of pidgins is
not clear and there is an ongoing debate about it, but some specialists, known as
monogeneticists, suggest that all pidgins based on an European language derive from
this lingua franca.

Semilin.guals: Bilingual speakers who display quantitative and/ or qualitative deficiencies

in the command of their languages in comparison with monolingual speakers. Some
of the features that this term could embrace, with regard to both languages, are: a
small vocabulary repertoire, incorrect grammar, thinking consciously about language
production, stilted and uncreative use of each language, and difficulty in thinking
and in expressing emotions, for instance.

Traditionally, this term has had negative connotations since it is used to define
someone who lacks competence/proficiency in either language, and it disregards
issues such as disadvantageous social conditions, differences in competence
depending on contexts, or the implicit richness of having access to different language
communities. This term is also used for people who have acquired several languages

227
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

at different periods of their lives, but who have not developed a native-speaker's level
of proficiency in any of them, or for students who have not mastered either of the
languages yet.

Simultaneous bilingualism: Acquisition of two languages from the early stages of

childhood, usually within the family and before the age of three, that is, a person
who is a simultaneous bilingual goes directly from speaking no languages at all to
speaking two languages. It is often the result of parents or other family members
speaking in different languages to the child. If languages acquired in this way
continue to be equally developed, the result is usually quite balanced bilinguals with
the proficiency of a native speaker in both languages, especially if there are plenty of
opportunities to use both languages. Exposure to both languages does not necessarily
imply that they will be acquired to the exact same extent; exposure is necessary but
not sufficient.

It is also referred to as "infant bilingualism" or "bilingual first language acquisition".

Although their acquisition of each language may be somewhat slower than that of
children who are acquiring a single language, their development in the two languages
combined is equivalent to that of monolingual children.

Sociolinguistic competence: This term refers to the sociocultural conditions oflanguage

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 oflanguage strictly
affects all linguistic communication between representatives of different cultures, and
surely those of the same culture too, even though participants may often be unaware
of its influence.

Sociolinguistic interview: This 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 importance for the sociolinguist as
it provides face-to-face interaction with the informant and allows recording for later
analysis.

Sociolinguistic relativity: When people coming from different social and linguistic
backgrounds interact, quite naturally they tend to analyse and judge each other's
speech and taking their own speech as a reference. The more interaction with different
cultures, dialects, registers, etc. the more referents a speaker 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

228
 GLOSSARY

perception of cultural and sociolinguistic identities. Sociolinguistic relativity entails

the acknowledgement of sociolinguistic diversity.

Sociology oflanguage: 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
oflanguage are language planning, multilingualism, and language shift.

Speech act: A speech act is an utterance that represents a functional unit in interaction.
Speech acts can have a locutionary meaning or an illocutionary meaning - in fact most
commonly both. 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
of the speech act 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. Status
planning 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 point in history, for instance: gender, register, style, etc. Diachronic
variation, however, looks at language change through time.

Synthetic language: Synthetic languages have a number of suffixes which carry different
(often functional rather than lexical) meanings, such as tense or case, and vary their
shape according to the word they are added to; synthetic languages are also known as
inflectional languages. A single suffix can express a number of different grammatical
concepts, as in Latin. (See analytic language).

Trilingualism: Use or ability to use three languages. In young children, trilingual

language acquisition largely follows the path of bilingual acquisition, for in many
cases bilingualism favours the acquisition of a third language. Early trilingualism,
when a child is exposed to three languages from birth, is more rare than trilingualism
achieved through schooling (for example two languages learnt at school). A common
situation in some parts of Spain (1) is that a child learns a local vernacular language
at home, a regional language in the community or at school, and a third language,
an official or international language, as part of his/her formal education. Another
possibility (2) is that the parents of a child speak different languages, perhaps

229
SocroLINGurs11cs

following the one-parent one-language model. At school, the child studies a third
language again resulting in a trilingual person.

Nowadays some experts prefer to talk about multilingualism. Multilingualism is the

act of using, or promoting the use of multiple languages, either by an individual
speaker or by a community of speakers . Multilingual speakers outnumber
monolingual speakers in the world's population and multilingualism is becoming
a social phenomenon governed by the needs of globalisation. The generic term for a
multilingual person is polyglot.

Turn-taking: In conversation analysis this term describes the fu~damental 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 organised depends on
cultural specific factors. Conversation needs to be two-way otherwise it turns into
a monologue.

Variety: This is a broad term used to refer to a sort of language that is considered a
separate entity for some reason but which generally shares a great deal of common
features with a standard or other varieties. It is not therefore 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 standardised such as Australian English or American English but they
can also be very localised such as Cockney (in London) and Scouse (in Liverpool).

230
CONCEPTUAL
INDEX
aborigina~ languages, 91, 137, 142, 148, adolescent-, 109, 110
152, 192,213 adult-, 109
Aboriginal English, 93, 94, 213 ascendant-, 214
acculturated bilingual, 110 balanced-, 104, 109, 110
acquisition, 13, 17, 93, 103, 104, 105, 108- childhood-, 109, 110, 221
110, 118,138, 148,171, 181, 193,203, dominant-, 109
213,217,218,221,229,231 individual-, 107, 111, 224
acculturation, 135, 213 social-, 107
acrolect, 89-91, 97, 120, 213-215, 226 subtractive-, 110, 167
Afrikaans, 96, 143 consecutive, 218
African American Vernacular English Black English Vernacular, 29, 42, 214, 215
(AAVE), 91, 214, 215 borrowing, 115, 147, 216
age, 35, 37-40, 46-49, 54, 105-106, 109, 120, Catalan, 36, 140-142, 165
129,155, 158,178,202,218,229 circle
Amerindian languages, 142, 220, 225 inner-, 193, 194, 198
analytic language, 32, 214, 231 expanding-, 193-195, 198
applied sociolinguistics, 27, 191 outer-, 193-194, 198
Arabic, 36, 112, 120, 144, 225 classroom
artificial language, 77, 125, 148 -discourse, 17, 185
auxiliaty language, 214 -language, 175, 176, 184
basilect, 90-91, 97, 214, 215, 226 choice
Basque,36,125,136,137,165 code-, 17, 103, 112, 116
bicultural, 110, 138, 157, 219 word-,25,29,38,44,53,56,62
bidialectal speaker, 112, 215 Chomsky, 24
bilingual code
-children, 116, 168, 224 -mixing, 103, 114, 115, 127
-education, 17, 116, 129, 136-140, 157, codification, 144, 147, 229
158,165, 167, 168, 182,221 competence
-balanced, 109, 215, 221 communicative-, 25, 109, 130, 176, 177,
bilingualism 217,220
additive-, 93, 110, 159, 167 linguistic-,25, 130, 178-179,214,217,225

233
S OC!O LINGU!STICS
pragmatic-, 179, 188, 228
sociolinguistic-, 178, 229
compound bilingual, 217
Common European Framework of
Reference for Languages, 123, 161
content-based ESL, 217
content and language integrated learning,
217
corpus planning, 169, 170, 218, 230
creolisation, 75, 76, 79, 96, 119
cultural awareness, 218, 219
decreolisation, 17, 75, 86, 90, 91, 97, 98,
213,215,226
dialectology, 27, 219
diaspora, 192, 193
diglossia, 15, 17, 36, 37, 103, 119, 120, 121,
128, 183
discourse analysis, 17, 27, 61, 175, 219, 226,
228
discourse marker, 219
domain,29,37,66, 105, 109,220
dormant bilingual, 220
dual-linguistic system, 138
endangered language, 199, 200, 220
English-lexifier creole, 220, 225
Esperanto, 77,94, 148,215
ethnographic approach, 27, 40
ethnography of communication, 220
ethnography of speaking, 217, 220
ethnomethodology, 221
family language planing, 221
forensiclinguistics, 17, 189, 191
Galician, 36, 112
gender, 15, 17, 26-28, 35, 38, 40, 46-49, 53,
59,61-63,67-70, 79,81,230
geographic variation, 27, 44, 53, 191
globalisation, 138, 147, 163, 191, 223, 231
Haitian Creole, 77, 80, 118, 119,144
234
Hawaiian Creole English, 17, 77-81, 93, 94
heritage language, 221
heritage language bilingual education, 221
Hindu, 25, 45, 154
historical linguistics, 27, 216
Hymes, 25, 77, 217
hypercorrection, 222
immersion programs, 136, 158, 159, 182,
187
India, 17, 25, 35, 36, 45, 47, 78, 90, 95, 121,
135, 143, 144, 147, 153-155, 169, 193,
194,200
interference, 38, 92, 141, 195, 199
interlingual communication, 148
international schools, 222
Jamaican Patwa, 17, 80, 82, 83, 118
jargon, 34, 56, 64, 191, 215
language
-academy, 145,223
-attrition, 26, 214, 223
-conflict, 124-125, 135, 223
-contact, 15, 17, 48, 49, 103, 124, 152
-election/ selection, 223
-functions, 179, 224
~earning, 105, 140, 160, 166, 170, 176-
179, 183, 188, 189, 196, 213,217,224,
227
-loss, 151, 223, 224
-maintenance, 26-138, 142, 148, 150-
152, 221
-planning, 17, 26-27, 80, 95, 135-153,
157, 159, 160, 165-170,220,221,224,
226, 227, 230
-policy, 17, 26, 92, 135, 136, 140-142,
145, 150-153, 160, 161, 166,170,224
-Policy Division, 224
-purification, 145, 149
-reform, 146

-revival, 146, 224
-revitalisation, 168, 224
-shift, 135, 147, 151-152, 224-226, 230
-spread, 147, 225
-standardisation, 146, 147
-teaching, 17, 25, 38, 39, 49, 160, 161,
170, 175-177, 187-189,213,222
Labov,29,38-40,66,68, 127,227
legal language, 56, 57, 65, 191
level of education, 38
lexifier, 81, 83, 89, 96-99, 220
lingua franca, 76, 77, 86, 92, 96, 144, 148,
183, 192-194,200-202,225,226,228
linguistic
-assimilation, 142, 214
-competence, 25, 130, 178, 179, 214, 217,
225
-pluralism, 142, 143
loanwords, 34
Longitudinal study,135, 225
L\JVC, 148,176,223,225,226
macro-sociolinguistics, 26, 226, 230
Maori, 155-156, 209, 222
mesolect, 91, 97, 226
micro-sociolinguistics, 26, 226
minority language, 93, 136, 137, 152, 157,
164,169,221,222,224,226
mode, 56, 57, 65
modernisation, 145-149
native speaker, 24, 34, 53, 54, 106, 126, 127,
177, 179, 188, 191,201,207,217,222,
227,229
natural language, 38, 125, 227
neurophysiological differences, 62
New Englishes, 194, 227
observer's paradox, 38, 227
Old English, 31- 34, 119
pidginiasation, 75, 76, 96, 119
CONCEPTUAL INDEX
pragmatic competence, 179, 188, 228
pragmatics, 17, 26, 61, 93, 175, 188, 189,
228
proficiency, 104, 107, 110, 111, 118, 123,
126-127, 131, 157-159, 161, 163, 166,
181-182, 185, 194,215,226,228,229
(proto)-Indo-European, 31, 32, 53, 63, 228
register, 17, 42, 53, 56, 59, 64, 65, 105, 112-
113, 131, 140, 181, 217, 220, 230, 231
rules of speaking, 15, 177, 179, 198
Sabir, 228
semantic change, 33, 43
semilinguals, 228
sociolect, 56
sociolinguistic competence, 178, 229
sociolinguisti(". interview, 39, 230
sociolinguistic relativity, 230
sociology oflanguage, 17, 23, 25, 26, 226,
230
speech act, 188, 230
speech community, 17, 23-25, 28, 34-37, 44,
47,49,50,53,62,69,91,107,110, 113,
118, 120, 121, 128, 143, 145, 146, 176-
178, 183, 198,213,215,224-226,230
bilingual-, 36
diglossic-, 183
monolingual-, 36
multilingual-, 36, 128
speech repertoire, 35
status planning, 169, 218, 230
stylistic simplification, 148, 149
style, 17, 29, 39, 53-56, 59, 64-67, 112, 148,
190,220,230,231
switch
intersentential-, 114
intrasentential-, 114
synthetic language, 214, 231
Tok Pisin, 17, 79, 80, 86, 93, 96, 118, 143,
193,209
235
SocIOLINGUisncs

tenor, 56, 65 stylistic-, 37, 54

terminology unification, 147, 149 synchronic, 230
trilingualism, 231 variety
turn-taking, 25, 28, 62, 184, 231 high-, 36, 37, 117
Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights, low-, 36, 37, 117
135, 163, 167 vernacularisation, 142, 143
variation World Englishes, 17, 76, 117, 163, 175, 183,
diachronic-, 124, 230 191, 193

236