INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Americana University Corporation

Study Guide, Definitions, and Notes

Etymological origin

SOCIOLINGUISTIC

‘socio’ ‘linguistic’
From Latin societas (society). From French linguistique
It is the discipline responsible
for explaining the language as a
means of communication.

Definition
o Sociolinguistics is the discipline that studies the variables of the
society that influences and generate new patterns or uses
linguistics.
o Sociolinguistic variables are influences and facts of order
sociological that determine the use, appearance, or
disappearance of a linguistic variation.

Origin
The term "Sociolinguistics" was first used by Harver Currie in A
projection of sociolinguistics: the relationship of speech with social
status (1952) but it was in 1964 that the discipline won momentum and
established itself as a field of study. Is currently divided into empirical
and theoretical.
Get data about the
Empirical relationship between
language and society.

Theoretical Analyze and draw

conclusions from data
provided by the empirical.

Characteristics of sociolinguistics
 It analyzes language as a social and cultural phenomenon, not
as an abstract system.
 Study languages and the way of speaking according to the
context.
 It has points of contact and shares methodologies with the social
sciences (anthropology and sociology).
 Facilitates learning a first language (L1) and a second language
(L2) because the context in which it is learned is important.

Linguistic variants
o They are the different forms that exist within a language to refer
to the same concept.
o In this sense, sociolinguistics studies why certain groups or
individuals choose to use a word instead of another and in what
circumstances they use it.

Geographical or diatopic variant (the dialects)

It refers to the linguistic differences depending on the place. For
example: If one person utters the sentence ‘John is a farmer’ and
another says the same thing except pronounces the word farmer as
‘fahmuh’, then the difference is one of accent.
Contextual or diaphasic variant (the registers)
It refers to the linguistic differences that are due to the different records
of the inhabitants and their context. For example: speaking in formal
language with an older person and speaking in informal language with
someone contemporary.

Sociocultural or diastratic variant (linguistic levels)

It refers to the linguistic differences that are given by the different
contextual levels. For example: Depending on the degree of mastery
that a speaker has of the linguistic code and discourse, three levels of
language are distinguished: the high or cultured level (a social variety
characterized by the use of diverse and elaborate linguistic resources),
the medium level (variety with a medium degree of knowledge of the
language) and the low or vulgar level (social variety defined by the
limited command of the language).

Historical or diachronic variant

It refers to the linguistic differences depending on the moment of
history. For example: in the Spanish language there was Archaic
Spanish (10th-12th century), Medieval Spanish (13th-15th century),
Spanish Classical or Golden Age (16th-17th century), Modern Spanish
(18th-19th), and current Spanish.