PURPOSIVE

COMMUNICATION:
Understanding the
Multicultural World through
Language

MRS. EMALYN F. TABARANZA, LPT

INSTRUCTOR
Lesson 2: Speech Communities and Linguistic
Repertoires
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Top left: Greek

Bottom left: Cherokee
Middle: Arabic
Top right: Russian
What is language?
• A system of symbols with standard meanings
• Allows humans to communicate and is the
main vehicle of transmission of culture
• Language provides context for symbolic
understanding.
Speech Community
• A speech community is a group of people who share a
set of linguistic norms and expectations regarding
the use of language. 
• Definitions of speech community tend to involve varying
degrees of emphasis on the following:
Shared community membership
Shared linguistic communication
Speech Community
• A speech community comes to share a specific set of norms for
language use through living and interacting together, and speech
communities may therefore emerge among all groups that
interact frequently and share certain norms and ideologies.

• Such groups can be villages, countries, political or professional

communities, communities with shared interests, hobbies, or
lifestyles, or even just groups of friends.
Speech Community
• Speech communities may share both particular sets of
vocabulary and grammatical conventions, as well as speech
styles and genres, and also norms for how and when to speak in
particular ways.
“r” dropping in NY, though “h” dropping considered low in
commonly done, is considered South England but normal in
“low” pahk de cah (for “park most American dialects
the car”)
“it’s erbal Herb”
“r” dropping in South England
is considered “posh” ‘fahthah’
(for “father”)
Communities of Practice

• A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who

share a craft or a profession.

• A CoP can evolve naturally because of the members'

common interest in a particular domain or area, or it can be
created deliberately with the goal of gaining knowledge
related to a specific field.
Communities of Practice

• It is through the process of sharing information and

experiences with the group that members learn from each
other, and have an opportunity to develop personally and
professionally 
Linguistic Repertoire
• According to Platt and Platt (1975), “A speech repertoire is
the range of linguistic varieties which the speaker has at his
disposal and which he may appropriately use as a member
of his speech community.”

• The linguistic repertoire of a speech community includes all

the linguistic varieties (registers, dialects, styles, accents,
etc.) which exist in this community.
Linguistic Repertoire
The Filipino Visayan variety has the influence of the
regional languages in the area such as Cebuano,
Ilonggo/Hiligaynon, Kiniray-a, Waray, Samarnon, Aklanon,
etc. and speakers of these languages would prefer the use of
prefix “mag” in place of the Tagalog suffix “um”.
For example:
magdating in place of “dumating” or to arrive
magkain in place of “kumain” or to arrive
magbasa in place of “bumasa” or to arrive
Registers
A register is a style level in a language. When we speak we
automatically locate ourselves on a specific stylistic level. This
can vary depending on the situation in which we find ourselves.

For example when talking to a close friend one would most

likely use a different register than when one is holding a public
address.

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Registers

A register can also mean a specialized variety of language: The

register of law, for example is different from the register of
medicine, which in turn is different from the register of
engineering, and so on.

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 Formality
• ‘Formality’ is not easy to define. This is because formality
subsumes very many factors including situation, social
formality, kinship-relationship, politeness, seriousness, and
so on.

• Nevertheless, most people have a good idea of the relative

formality and informality of particular linguistic variants in
their own language.

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Formality
• For example, it is not difficult for people who know English
well to see in what way the following pair of sentences differs:
- Father was somewhat fatigued after his lengthy journey.
- Dad was pretty tired after his long trip.

• These two sentences mean the same thing, but they differ in
terms of their formality. The first sentence is relatively formal
and the second sentence is relatively informal.

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Styles
• Styles can be ranged on a continuum ranging from the
very formal to the very informal.
• Styles of this type in English (and in many other
languages) are for the most part characterized by
vocabulary differences, but also by syntactic and phonetic
differences.
• Vocabulary which is at the extremely informal end of the
continuum is known as slang.

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Language Switching
• In many communities around the World, the verbal
repertoire of speakers may contain totally unrelated
languages.
• In Luxemburg, where switching occurs between
German and French, language-switching will take
place, like style- or dialect-switching, according to
the social context.

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Swardspeak or Gay Lingo
It is an argot (slang) localized among gay
communities in the Philippines, which makes it easy
for the members of this community to recognize one
another.
This creates an exclusive group among its
speakers and helps them resist cultural assimilation.
It uses elements from Tagalog, English, Spanish, and
some from Japanese, as well as celebrities’ names
and trademark brands, giving them new meanings in
different contexts.
Can you provide the Standard English terms of the
following Swardspeak?
1.waley- 8. mudra-
2.crayola- 9. sinetch-
3.echos- 10. keri-
4.shonga-
5.jowa-
6.chaka-
7.julalay-