Linguistics Sociolinguistics: Regional and Social Varieties

Sociolinguistics:
Regional & Social Varieties
Presentation © Carsten Litterscheidt, 19 Jan 2006

Reference works:
• Holmes, Janet. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. London et. al.: Longman, 1996.
• Mesthrie, Rajend, ed. Concise Encyclopedia of Sociolinguistics. Amsterdam et. al.:
Elsevier, 2001.
• Romaine, Suzanne. Language in society: an introduction to sociolinguistics. Oxford et. al.:
Oxford UP, 1994.
• Trudgill, Peter. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to language and society. London et al.:
Penguin Books, 1983.
• Wardhaugh, Ronald. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. 4th ed. Malden et. al.: Blackwell,
2002.

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Linguistics Sociolinguistics: Regional and Social Varieties

Outline of Presentation

I. What is Sociolinguistics?

II. A brief account on the history of Sociolinguistics (SL)

III. How do sociolinguists work?

IV. Regional Variation: The starting point

V. Social Variation

VI. Sociolinguistic competence

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Linguistics Sociolinguistics: Regional and Social Varieties

I. What is Sociolinguistics?

One possible definition:

The study of the relationship between language (lge) and society

Sociology vs. Sociolinguistics

Sociologists (among others) Sociolinguists

study the effect of lge on society effect of society on lge

 A more precise definition:

“[Sociolinguists] are interested in explaining why we speak differently in different
social contexts, and they are concerned with identifying the social functions of
language and the ways it is used to convey social meaning.”
(Janet Holmes)

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Linguistics Sociolinguistics: Regional and Social Varieties

II. A brief account on the history of SL

• Forerunners of SL: the founders of the study of lge, culture and cognition
• Franz Boas
• Leonard Bloomfield ethnographical approach to linguistics
• Edward Sapir
• Term first mentioned in 1952 by Haver Currie (poet and philosopher)
• “Sociolinguistics” became an independent area of research in the early 1960s
• SL chiefly influenced by:
• historical and comparative linguistics
 interest in dialects, because they could help explain/varify theories on
lge change previously based on written material
• anthropology
• dialectology

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Linguistics Sociolinguistics: Regional and Social Varieties

II. A brief account on the history of SL

• First significant works:

• 1953: Uriel Weinreich’s Languages in Contact
(a structural and social account on bilingualism)
• 1953: Einar Haugen’s study of the social history of the Norwegian lge in
America
• 1962: Martin Joos’ study on the dimensions of style

• The Chomskyan/Generative vs. Sociolinguistic approach

• Chomsky: what can be generated in lge by what means
• SL: what can be said in a language, by whom, to whom, in whose
presence, when and where, in what manner, and under what
social circumstances

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Linguistics
III. How do Sociolinguists work?
Q1: Why do we say the same thing in different ways?
Example: adressing & greeting
Margaret leaves her office:
Mike (her colleague):
Margaret  Mike:
Jill (her secretary):
Margaret  Jill:
Andy (the caretaker):
Margaret  Andy:
Margaret arrives at home:
Jamie (her son):
Her mother:
Her husband:
Seminar: Examenskolloquium Linguistik
Sociolinguistics: Regional and Social Varieties
“Goodbye Margaret.” colleagues = same status
“Goodbye Mike.”
“Goodbye Ms Walker.” employer / employee = formal
“Goodbye Jill.”
“Bye Mrs Walker.” employer / employee = informal?
“Goodbye Andy.”
young, casual, short, indifferent?
“Hi mum!”
“Hello dear, have a good day?” old, intimate, friendly
“You’re late again…” intimate, no salutation, annoyed
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Linguistics Sociolinguistics: Regional and Social Varieties

III. How do Sociolinguists work?

Q2: What are the different ways we say things?

Example: different accent use

Sam: “You seen our ‘enry’s new ‘ouse yet? It’s in ‘alton you know.”
Jim: “I have indeed. I could hardly miss it Sam. Your Henry now owns the
biggest house in Halton.”


Sam = use of accent different from standard  [h]-dropping  speaker of a

vernacular/dialect?
Jim = speaker of standard? maybe uses standard to correct Sam’s “faulty”
language?

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Linguistics Sociolinguistics: Regional and Social Varieties

III. How do Sociolinguists work?

Sociolinguists investigate varieties (codes)

• Variety = a set of linguistic forms used under specific social circumstances
 accents, linguistic styles, dialects, different lges in contrast with each other
• Varieties make up the linguistic repertoire of each member of a speech
community

Procedural steps of investigation:

1) Identify the linguistic variation involved (e.g. a dialect feature like [h]-dropping)
2) Identify the different social or non-linguistic factors which lead the speaker to
use that particular form rather than another
3) Generalization: Is it possible to determine why particular social factors lead to
the use of one set of forms rather than another?
 describe generalizations in the form of ‘sociolinguistic universals’

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Linguistics Sociolinguistics: Regional and Social Varieties

III. How do Sociolinguists work?

What are the social factors involved?

• Participants: who talks to whom?
• Setting: where are they speaking?
• Topic: what are they talking about?
• Function: why are they speaking?

What social dimensions are involved in sociolinguistic analysis?

• Solidarity / social distance  intimacy vs. distance of interlocutors
• Status / power  superiority vs. subordination of interlocutors
• Formality  high vs. low formality (setting / type of interaction)
• Function  referential (“objective” information content, e.g. news report) vs.
affective function (subjective, affective content, e.g. tell about feelings)

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Linguistics Sociolinguistics: Regional and Social Varieties

IV. Regional Variation: The starting point

International variation
Example:

A British visitor to New Zealand decided while he was in Auckland he would look up an old
friend from his war days. He found the address, walked up the path and knocked on the door.
‘Gidday’, said the young man opened the door. ‘What can I do for you?’
‘I’ve called to see me old mate Don Stone’, said the visitor.
‘Oh he’s dead now mate.’ said the young man.
The visitor was about to express condolences when he was thumped on the back by Don Stone
himself. The young man had said
‘Here’s dad now mate’,
as his father came in the gate.

 different dialects  differences in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar

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Linguistics Sociolinguistics: Regional and Social Varieties

IV. Regional Variation: The starting point

Intra-national / intra-continental variation

Example:
Rob: “This wheel’s completely disjaskit.”
Alan: “I might could get it changed.”
Rob: “You couldn’t do nothing of the sort. It needs dumped.”

 Features of Tyneside dialect (North-Eastern England):

double modals, double negatives, ‘need’ + ‘-ed’ (instead of ‘-ing’)
+
Lexical borrowing from Scottish:
‘disjaskit’ = ‘worn out’ / ‘completely ruined’

 different dialects  differences in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar

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Linguistics Sociolinguistics: Regional and Social Varieties

IV. Regional Variation: The starting point

Conducting research on regional variation:

1) Collect data / samples on regional variation

2) Define geographical areas where the same dialectal features occur (‘linguistic

areas’)

3) Establish a dialect map  regional dialect continuum

Q: So far, this could have been done by a dialectologist, but where exactly does
the sociolinguists work come in?
A: Once we have identified a linguistic variable, we have to collect further data to
assess the social distribution of the variants of that particular variable, e.g. find out
about the social stratification of the use of the RP accent as compared to possible
variants
Seminar: of RPLinguistik
Examenskolloquium (“standard” vs. “vernacular”
12 use). Winter Term 05/06
Linguistics Sociolinguistics: Regional and Social Varieties

V. Social Variation

Q: What does regional variation have to do with social variation?

Example: RP – a social accent

Highest class: RP (ca 5% of British population)

Social
variation
/
“Social
ladder”

Lowest class: most

localized accents

Regional variation

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Linguistics Sociolinguistics: Regional and Social Varieties

V. Social Variation

Q: What does regional variation have to do with social variation?

Social and regional dialect variation

Highest class: standard dialect

A limited amount of grammatical

Social variation is possible. Compare StE:
variation • “I’ve not washed the dishes yet.”
• “I haven’t washed the dishes yet.”
/
“Social
ladder”

Lowest class: most

localized non-standard
(‘vernaculars’)
Regional variation

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Linguistics Sociolinguistics: Regional and Social Varieties

V. Social Variation

Q: What does regional variation have to do with social variation?

A: By referring to the previously mentioned social dimensions the use of a

social variety can reveal a speaker’s

• social status / background
• gender
• age
• ethnicity
+ (many) other social factors

People can accommodate their language (e.g. code-switch) according to their
communicative competence (Dell Hymes).
= We can move up and down the ‘social ladder’.
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Linguistics Sociolinguistics: Regional and Social Varieties

V. Sociolinguistic Competence

Definition:
“The knowledge which underlies people’s ability to use language appropriately.”
(Janet Holmes)

Variation in multilingual speech communities

Example: code-switching
Young British Portuguese using
• Portuguese at home and at church
• English in all other domains of life
because it is appropriate language use for them.

(Other examples include the use and explain the existence of lingua francas,
pidgins and creoles.)

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Linguistics Sociolinguistics: Regional and Social Varieties

V. Sociolinguistic Competence

Variation in monolingual speech communities

 Learning to use the community lge in a way which reflects one’s membership of
various overlapping social groups:

family friends

My own private
sociolinguistic
competence

partner colleagues

Seminar: Examenskolloquium Linguistik 17 Winter Term 05/06