CHAPTER 11 SOCIOLINGUISTICS

OUTLINE

1. Language and Dialect

2. Language Contact

3. Language Change: a Social Perspective

4. Language and Gender

5. Taboo

6. Sapir-Wholf Hypothesis

7. Summary

SOCIOLINGUISTICS

communication

Language is used for communication.

idiolect

Every individual’s language is an idiolect.

Every single individual speaks a language of his own.

S/he speaks her/his own dialect.

regional dialects

Individuals share a lot of common backgrounds with others in the same community, area, or district.

People living in the same area speak a language of their own.

religious belief or ceremony, living style or habits,

or working environments local color

social dialects

People doing the same jobs, or of the same interest (not living in the same area)

concerned with their common topics

giving rise to social dialects

language competence ≠ a successful communication

linguistic competence (Chomsky)

grammar (the linguistic intuition)

grammatical sentences

People of the same community share a common communicative competence

communicate successfully (social/ cultural topics)

social settings, cultural backgrounds,

& to which extent one is socialized

language is spoken differently

a mirror

Language is a mirror of a society.

What is pursued or disliked is directly or indirectly reflected.

e.g. (1) expectations

male: strong, brave, ambitious…

female: graceful, attractive…

(2) expressions

male (in a certain manner):

I am sure…, I guarantee…

female (in an uncertain manner):

I am afraid that…, I am not sure that…

sociolinguistics = linguistics + sociology

the target:

It is to examine the nature of language from the perspective of social factors.

social factors:

one’s backgrounds like age, gender, education, jobs, interests and communities.

1. LANGUAGE AND DIALECT

1.1 The Dialects of English

1.2 Dialects in Taiwan

1.3 The Myth of Standard language

1.4 The difference between Taiwan Mandarin

and Beijing Mandarin (Putonghua)

(A) language = dialects

(1) speech forms

Both languages and dialects are speech forms.

(2) communication

There is no specific difference in terms of

communication.

LANGUAGE AND DIALECT

(B) language ≠ dialects

(1) in general (use)

language: broader

dialects: regional / social

(2) in linguistics (mutual intelligibility)

languages: mutually un-intelligible

(e.g. Chinese & English)

dialects: mutually intelligible

(e.g. British English & American English)

(C) exceptions

(1) un-intelligible dialects

(e.g. Chinese dialects)

Mandarin, Wu, Min, Xiang, Yue, Hakka, Gan,Ping & Jin

mutually un-intelligible

but treated as Chinese dialects

(a) share the common writing system

(b) spoken within the same country, politically

(2) intelligible languages

(e.g. Danish, Norwegian & Swedish)

mutually intelligible

but treated as independent languages

(D) two types of dialects

(1) regional dialects

It occurs to most people that a language would yield

different accents or dialects in different areas.

e.g. English in York, Newcastle, New England, Texas

e.g. British [] and American [a]

e.g. chicken, [ke] of Zhangzhou & [kue] in Quanzhou

(2) social dialects

Social dialects are limited to some professions,

which are called slogan.

e.g. terminologies

sound change, code-switching,

grammaticalization, lexicalization,

reconstruction, c-command…

(X) decoded in surface lexical meaning

1.1 The Dialects of English

(A) two types

(1) English as a native language

It is spoken in the US, UK, Canada,

New Zealand & South Africa.

(2) English as a second language

It is spoken in India, Singapore,

the Philippines, Nigeria…

(B) Differences of American & British English

(1) the r-color vowels

a trill /r/, a retroflexed vowel

American English (V) & British English (X)

(2) the “a” vowel

some vowels for //

American English (man)

British English (father)

(3) some words / vocabulary

There are some difference in words or vocabulary.

(4) syntactic difference

American English: Do you have a pencil?

British English: Have you a pencil?

1.2 Dialects in Taiwan

(two language families)

(1) Chinese language :

Mandarin

Southern Min

Hakka

(2) Formosa language:

Rukai

Paiwan

Bunun…

the linguistic atlas

1.3 The Myth of Standard Language

(1) a pure myth

We have to speak a standard language.

There is no standard language from the

sociolinguistic perspective.

(2) standard Mandarin ?

Mandarin spoken in Taiwan - nativized

(phonology, vocabulary, morphology, syntax)

Putonghua spoken in Mainland China

(3) the standard English?

(a) English as a native language / a second language (?)

(b) English dialects within the US

Eastern New England, Northern, Midland & southern

American atlas of the English dialects

1.4 the difference between Taiwan Mandarin &

Beijing Mandarin (Putonghua)

(A) in phonetic sounds

(1) the loss of r-retroflexation

Neutralization: The three distinct syllables with

phonetic segments in Beijing Mandarin are

neutralized into one homonym in Taiwan Mandarin.

the retroflexed palatal affricates of Mandarin

fused with ts, tsh, s in Taiwan Mandarin

(2) shortening of diphthongs

Different parameter settings give rise to different tree

configurations.

(B) vocabulary

Vocabulary also distinguishes Taiwan Mandarin

from Beijing Mandarin.

(C) Syntactic structure

a “yu” (have) in every sentence

Taiwan Mandarin (V) & Beijing Mandarin (X)

(Taiwan Mandarin is highly influenced by Southern Min)

2. LANGUAGE CONTACT

2.1 Lingua Franca

2.2 Pidgin

2.3 Creole

LANGUAGE CONTACT

Language contact-1

Two languages are divided

by an isogloss which exists

more theoretically than

practically where the

isogloss between language

A and B is not regular.

language contact-2

One is an island surrounded

by another language.

language contact-3

One language is neighboring

with more than two languages.

language contact - superstratum & substratum

superstratum (loaning):

superior in population / politics / economics

playing the role of loaning

substratum (borrowing):

inferior in population / politics / economics

playing the role of borrowing

e.g. (1) William the Conqueror

French (superstratum) & England (substratum)

(England borrowed a lot of vocabulary from French.)

(2) Japan colonized Taiwan (1895-1945)

Japan (superstratum) & Taiwan (substratum)

(Taiwan borrowed a lot of vocabulary from Japan.)

(3) in Taiwan

Mandarin (superstratum in politics & economics)

Southern Min ( superstratum in population)

(mutual borrowing of vocabulary & morphological

structures)

2.1 Lingua Franca

Lingua Franca refers to the language for common

or mutual communication (in an environment in

which there is more than one language spoken).

e.g. in India

English: lingua franc

in Singapore

English: lingua franc

in Taiwan

Mandarin: lingua franc

2.2 Pidgin

a mixture of the two contact languages in their

simplified forms

(1) foreign & un-intelligible

Two languages are foreign & un-intelligible to

each other.

(2) simplifying / comprehensible / body languages

One of the speakers would simplify his own

language in such a way that it might be

comprehensible to the other speakers,

accompanied wit a lot of body languages.

(3) mutually intelligible

The speaker of the other language would do the

same. In so doing, speakers of two languages are

mutually intelligible to some extent.

(4) pidgin

A new language form comes into being when

people speak simplified forms of each language.

e.g. Tok Pisin (in Papua New Guinea)

Wes-Kos Pidgin (in West Africa)

Guangxing

(a small village of about 1200 speakers of Hakka)

a pidgin: simplified Hakka + simplified Paiwan

2.3 Creole(1) pidgin creole: When a pidgin (a mixture of two simplified language forms) becomes an independent language or mother tongue of a certain people, then it becomes creole.(2) creole: (a) Portuguese: The word creole comes from Portuguese, referring to those white descendants born in colonies of Portuguese. (b) languages: It is used to refer to languages spoken in West Africa or along the Caribbean.(3) Gullah: (a) spoken in Georgia & South Carolina (b) speakers: descendants of black slavery (c) mother tongue: mother tongue of those inhabitants

3. LANGUAGE CHANGE: A SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE

3.1 Martha’s Vineyard

3.2 The r-variation in New York City

3.1 Martha’s Vineyard (Labov)

(1) vowel reduction

why [way] [y] & wow [waw] [w]

(2) geographically

Martha’s Vineyard

an isolated island, one hour flight from Boston

people

(a) descendants of those immigrating from England

(b) Portuguese descendants

(c) those immigrating from inland

(d) others

(3) economic background (age, jobs, education)

(a) who was talked with

natives vs. tourists: vowel reduction (X)

natives vs. natives: vowel reduction (V)

(b) races

Portuguese & English descendants :

vowel reduction (V)

(c) jobs

The more pressure on finding a job ( age 30-40),

the more vowel reduction was used.

(4) conclusions

1. (a) + (b) The more one try to be natives,

the more s/he used vowel reduction.

2. (c) The more one wanted to be recognized,

the more vowel reduction s/he used.

social factors:

Vowel reduction is an indicator for the identity of

Martha’s Vineyard.

3.2 The r-variation in New York (Labov)

(1) r-color (V) or (X) in New York City

r-color: the sound after a vowel ( V )

the silent after a vowel ( X )

(2) Labov’s assumption

r-color an indicator for one’s social status

The better one’s social status,

the more r-color was retained

clerks served as a social mirror

better social status customers r-color (V)

inferior social status customers r-color (X)

(3) experiments

(a) three stores of different customers

better social status: Saks 5th Avenue

good social status: Macy’s

lower social status: St. Klein

(b) procedures

Labov went to “the fourth floor” (r-color words)

asked the clerks: Where can I buy “shoes” ?

(see what was sold there)

asked twice (one, casual & the other, more careful)

went to a corner & wrote down what he heard

(4) the results

(5) Implications

(a) r-color & social status

The r-color has much to do with social status.

Saks (62 %) > Macy’s (51%) > St.Klen (20%)

(b) more r-color, more careful circumstances

No matter which store Labov visited, clerks

used more r-color in careful circumstances.

(c) r-color, customers of better social status

In Saks, which was a fine store, there was no

great difference between casual and careful talks,

implying that clerks were treated to speak

English with r-color, because customers coming

to this store were of better social status.

Conclusions

(vowel reduction in Martha’s Vineyard &

r-variation in New York City)

(1) Sound change is not merely limited to regional

difference.

(2) Social difference would be an important factor

for a sound change (Some sound change is

motivated by social factors).

4. LANGUAGE AND GENDER

4.1 Different Evaluation in Gender

4.2 Social Expectation

4.3 Gender in Language Use

4.1 Different Evaluation in Gender

language seems to be created by man

Most words directly refer to man only in English

vocabulary.

man human beings

(human, containing man)

chairman good jobs are for man only

(chairman)

housewife heavy duty / hard-working for woman

(housewife, woman)

a gender prejudice ?

the experiments (240 subjects)

Q1: My friend is a distinguish physician in a hospital.

What gender do you think s/he is?

Q2: My friend is a very qualified nurse in a hospital.

What gender do you think s/he is?

results:

the physician (male: 72 %) & the nurse (female: 84 %)

implication:

a better job for males, a gender prejudice for jobs

men & women in words (not equally treated)

(a) Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers

brought forth on this continent…

(Where were our mothers?)

(b) surface (no great difference) & meaning (quite different)

4.2 Social Expectation

(1) psychological expectations for children

a female baby: room (pink), toys (dolls)

a male baby: toys (tanks, trucks, cars, guns…)

(2) the modifier for female & male

female: attractive, adorable, charming, lovely,

beautiful, pretty, graceful, slender, tempting,

cute, quite, gentle, plain, considerate,

passionate…

male: manly, strong, generous, handsome, talented,

genius, gifted, ambitious…

(3) Expectations of parents in name-given in Chinese

girls: Shu-jing (淑靜 ), to be clever and quiet

Ya-hui (雅慧 ), to be graceful and full of wisdom,

Yi-wen (怡雯 ), to be happy and quiet

boys: Jian-haou (健豪 ), to be strong and ambitious,

Bian-xian (秉憲 ), to be abiding by the constitution

Zhi-jian (志堅 ), to be insistent with a strong will

(4) Summary

social expectation of males and females is different

socially defined > biologically defined

language is a mirror reflecting what we want in our mind

4.3 Gender in Language Use

Gender plays a role in the use of language.

differences female male

expressions

uncertainI’m afraid that I can’t...,I’m not sure, I think, Maybe, perhaps, it might be, could be…

certainI’m sure, certainly, naturally, for sure, of course, I guarantee…

indirect /conservativeWould it be possible…, If there is…, I won’t go unless…

directCome on, man!,I want…, I prefer to…

differences female male

tag questions

a lotJohn will be here, won’t he?He does not mean it, does he?

less

manner

more politeThank you, thanks, I’m sorry, excuse me…, Would you please…, May I…

less politean experiment (library):saying “thanks / thank you” for check-out or returning a bookfemale (75%) male (37%)

differences female male

facing difficulties

scream out / get excitedHow terrible! How disgusting! What a shame!...

keep calm try to figure out how to solve the problems

delighted time

more emotionalHow amazing! How fantastic! How interesting! I really like it!...

less emotional

Male & female are different in the use of language expressions (part from social backgrounds).

5. TABOO

5.1 Taboo

5.2 Euphemism

5.1 Taboo

words improper to be spoken on certain

occasions (related to culture)

e.g. Americans (self-dignity)

coward, chicken offended

Chinese

involved with parents / ancestors offended

personal privacy

Western culture should be respected

Chinese nothing can be hidden

5.2 Euphemism

express in another expression what the taboo is

concerned with

e.g. taboo replaced by euphemism

Christian tradition ( Satan / Devil taboo)

Speak of the Devil and he appears.

(euphemism: deuce / the good man / the great fellow)

death taboo

John died.

(euphemism: passed away.)

e.g. abstract expressions euphemism

parachute: aerodynamic personnel decelerator

energy release: radiation release

stop fighting: break off contact with the enemy

out of control: above critical

e.g. taboo related to races

in US (black & white taboo)

nigger / black (avoid) African American

in Taiwan

Shanbao / Shanditongbao (avoid) Yuzhumin

6. SAPIR-WHOLF HYPOTHESIS

Do cultures affect our language?

(Edward Sapir, 1884-1939)

(A) language: a mirror of society & cultures

Eskimo & snow:

words / expressions for various types of snow

Chinese & rice:

various terms for rice

(B) Do cultures affect our language?

(a) Edward Sapir (1884-1939)

Indians’ thinking is subject to language structure

language is closely limited/ influenced by

language structure

(b) Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

“Our view of the world is conditioned by the

language structure.”

(Banjamin Lee Whorf, 1897-1941)

a fire prevention engineer

(1) people felt afraid of fire

the fire was there (X)

the phrase “Caution! Fire!” (V)

(careless)

smoked by a barrel of gasoline

threw the cigarette butt to the barrel

Our thinking is confined by language structure.

(2) support: Hopi (an Indian language)

no specific terms for time / space

time: continuous, like water

cut into days / months (X)

count by days / months (X)

Whorf:

their language structure (no such a unit of time in Hopi)

stop the Hopi people from counting time by days the Hopi speakers get no knowledge of time

conclusion:

Our thinking is confined to the language structure.

7. SUMMARY

7.1 language and dialect

7.2 language contact

7.3 language change: a social perspective

7.4 language and gender

7.5 taboo

7.6 Sapir-Wholf Hypothesis

7.1 Language and Dialect

(1) sociolinguistics = linguistics + sociology

to examine the nature of language from the

perspective of social factors (age, gender, education,

jobs, interests & communities)

(2) idiolect

One expresses in his language directly /indirectly

reflects his society / culture.

every individual is an idiolect speaking a specific

language of his own.

(3) regional dialects

to put individuals into a society, the common

features constitute a dialect / an accent

(4) social dialects

people living in the same area / district different professions, jobs, educational backgrounds different in their language

(5) standard language (X)

every language is standard each should be treated equal

7.2 Language Contact

(1) Language Contact

(a) isogloss (idealistic / theoretical):

a clear-cut line separating one language from

another

(b) superstratum (loaning):

superior in population / politics / economics

(c) substratum (borrowing):

inferior in population / politics / economics

(2) Lingua Franca

more than one language in an area / country one of them should be chosen for common or

mutual communication

(governmental offices / in public)

(3) Pidgin

two languages are simplified & mixed into

a new form.

(4) Creole

a pidgin is adopted as a mother tongue

7.3 Language Change: a Social Perspective

(William Labov)

two studies social factors trigger sound change

(1) Vowel reduction in Matha’s Vineyard

Vowel reduction is an indicator for the identity

of Martha’s Vineyard.

(2) The r-variation in New York

The r-color has much to do with social status.

7.4 Language and Gender

(1) Different evaluation in Gender

language seems to be created by man

a gender prejudice (better jobs for man)

men & women in words (not equally treated)

(2) Social Expectation

female: gentle adjectives

male: muscular adjectives

(3) Gender in Language Use

female: more uncertain in expressions

male: rather confident in positive expressions

7.5 Taboo

(1) Taboo

words improper to be spoken on certain occasions

(in life & death, in body / organs, in religions)

(2) Euphemism

Whenever taboo is encountered,

euphemism is used instead.

7.6 Sapir-Wholf Hypothesis

“Our thinking is conditioned by the language

structure of our mother tongue.”

(1) fire (careful / careless)

the fire was there (X)

“Caution! Fire!” (V)

(2) Hopi

an Indian language

time (X) & space (X)

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