Sociolinguistics

The Study of
Variation in
Language

World Englishes Course

Description
 Sociolinguistics is part of linguistic courses which
are introduced to develop the linguistic awareness
of the students, to give knowledge on language
functions and how they influence the speakers, to
develop the students’ understanding on language
varieties in their own society as well as others’,
and to develop the students’ abilities in
interpreting other people’s speech.
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Sociolinguistics
 Whatever it is, is about asking important questions
concerning the relationship of language to society
(Wardhaugh, 1986).
 A term that refers to the study of the relationship
between language and society, and how language
is used in multilingual speech communities
(Holmes, 1992).
 The study that is concerned with the relationship
between language and the context in which it is
used. In other words, it studies the relationship
between language and society.
 The study that is concerned with the interaction of
language and setting (Carol M. Eastman, 1975;
113).
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 Sociolinguistics is the study of the complex

relationship between language and society.

1. Explaining why we speak differently in

different social context.
2. Identifying the social function of language
and the ways it is used to convey social
meaning.

Social variables, e.g., ethnicity, religion,

status, gender, level of education, age, etc.
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Social Factors
Participant
• Who is speaking?
Setting
Where are they speaking
Topic and Function
• What is being talked
• Who are they speaking to? about?
to? • Why are they speaking?
Age, ranks, relationship, etc. at home, college, work, in • my tennis skills, cooking,
a formal meeting, etc. exams, election, etc.
• getting a loan, asking
permission, marriage
proposal, etc.
 Language and
Dialect

Style, Register Sociolinguistic Regional

and Belief s
Dialect

Social Dialect
 Language and Dialect
Language is the human ability to acquire and use
complex systems of communication, and a
Language language is any specific example of such a
system

Dialect is a variety of a language that is distinguished

from other varieties of the same language by features
of phonology, grammar, vocabulary and by its use by
a group of speakers who are set off from others Dialect
geographically or socially.
 Regional dialect
Certain differences from geographical area one to another in
pronunciation, in the selecting and constructing of words, and
in syntax of a language such distinctive varieties of local
variety are called regional dialects (Wardhough, 2006). The
study that investigates different varieties on the basis of
clusters of similar and different features in particular regions,
towns or villages is called regional dialectology (Edward,
2009).
 Social Dialect
Social dialect is difference speech associate with various
social groups. Social dialects create among social groups and
are related to a variety of factors such as social class, religion,
and ethnicity.

caste is one of the clearest of

In India all social differentiators
Styles, Registers and Beliefs
Styles :
Style relates to the typical ways in which one or
more people do a particular thing. Style in
language behavior thus becomes alternative ways
of expressing the same content. Style is the way
speakers speak, the speaker also can make a choice
weather informal and formal, it depends on
circumstance and the age and social group of
participant.
Registers
Registers refer to particular ways of using
language in particular settings within that
community. Register is a set of linguistic
items were associated with discrete
occupational and social groups.
Beliefs
Belief is systems of ideas or ideology, some people
believed that certain language is lack of grammar; we
can speak English without accent.

The representations of belief can operate the

interests of an identifiable social class or cultural
group. This tendency will create language behavior
and attitude by several group of people act or behave
toward language differently.
Dialect vs Accent
 A dialect is a variant of a language with noticeable
differences in grammar, vocabulary, or pronunciation.
An important characteristic of a dialect is that it
should be intelligible for other speakers of the same
language. That means that the speakers can understand
others and to express themselves in most situations.
 An accent is a specific manner of pronunciation. So,
an accent is a subordinate part of a dialect, while a
dialect is a subordinate part of a language.
VARIATION
 There are many such stories – some no doubt apocryphal –
of mistakes based on regional accent differences. To British
ears, a New Zealander’s dad sounds like an English person’s
dead , bad sounds like bed, and six sounds like sucks.
 Americans and Australians, as well as New Zealanders, tell
of British visitors who were given pens instead of pins, and
pans instead of pens. On the other hand, an American’s god
sounds like an English person’s guard, and an American’s
ladder is pronounced identically with latter.
 There are vocabulary differences in the varieties
spoken in different regions too. Australians talk of
sole parents, for example, while people in England
call them single parents, and New Zealanders call
them solo parents.
 South Africans use the term robot for British traffic-
light. British wellies (Wellington boots) are New
Zealand gummies (gumboots), while the word togs
refers to very different types of clothes in different
places. In New Zealand, togs are what you swim in.
In Britain you might wear them to a formal dinner.
Five Levels of Variation
1. Phonological Variation (Sound)
2. Lexical Variation (Words)
3. Morphological Variation (word, affixes)
4. Syntactic variation (sentence-structure)
5. Pragmatic variation (meaning)

Watch the video for more detail

https://youtu.be/Iup1gJq0dsE