sociolinguistics a lecture’s notes by firda djuita
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SOCIOLINGUISTICS
A lecture’s notesby
Firda Djuita
Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguists study the relationship between
language and society. They 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.
WHAT IS SOCIOLINGUISTICS? Sociolinguistics is a term including the aspects of
linguistics applied toward the connections between language and society, and the way we use it in different social situations. It ranges from the study of the wide variety of dialects across a given region down to the analysis between the way men and women speak to one another. Sociolinguistics often shows us the humorous realities of human speech and how a dialect of a given language can often describe the age, sex, and social class of the speaker; it codes the social function of a language.
The study of the relation between language and society--a branch of both linguistics and sociology.
"There are several possible relationships between language and society. One is that social structure may either influence or determine linguistic structure and/or behavior. . . .
"A second possible relationship is directly opposed to the first: linguistic structure and/or behavior may either influence or determine social structure. . . . A third possible relationship is that the influence is bi-directional: language and society may influence each other. . . .
Sociolinguistics is the study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society.
The focus of sociolinguistics is the effect of the society on the language
It also studies how language varieties differ between groups separated by certain social variables, e.g., ethnicity, religion, status, gender, level of education, age, etc., and how creation and adherence to these rules is used to categorize individuals in social or socioeconomic classes. As the usage of a language varies from place to place, language usage also varies among social classes, and it is these sociolects that sociolinguistics studies.
Examples
"Sociolinguistic competence enables speakers to distinguish among possibilities such as the following.
To get someone's attention in English
'Hey!',
'Excuse me!',
'Sir!' or 'Ma'am!'
explanation
'Hey!' addressed to one's mother or father, for example, often expresses either a bad attitude or surprising misunderstanding of the usually recognized social proprieties, and saying 'Sir!' to a 12-year-old probably expresses inappropriate respect or politeness.
General Linguistics X Sociolinguistics
In general linguistics, a language is discussed primarily in
the abstract, with little attention paid to the people who
speak
In sociolinguistics we concern about the way people use a
language in different social contexts and as a matter of
fact, it provides a wealth of information about the way
language works.
In sociolinguistics we do not study “ about the language “
but we study how the language is used and thus we
concern about social relationship
What are sociolinguists interested in?
Why do people speak differently in
different social contexts.
Identifying the social functions of
language .
The ways language is used to convey
social meaning.
Language Functions
Transactional / Referential : To convey information
– the content is very important.
Interactional / Affective: To establish or to
maintain social relationship, the content is not so
important but the relationship is more important.
Language serves a range of functions
To ask for and give people information
e.g : A: What are you doing here at this moment?
B: I’m waiting for the teacher.
To express indignation and annoyance as well as admiration and
respect.
e.g : That bastard sootbucket kept us in again.
To convey both information and to express feeling
e.g : We are really sorry for not being able to save the baby.
Why do we say the same things in different ways?
Language provides a variety of ways of saying
the same things.
e.g :
addressing, greeting people, describing things,
paying compliment, etc.
What do you think about them?
Si mbok, embah, embah dok, embah putri, eyang, eyang
putri, nenek, oma, nana, anduang (padangnese), niyang
(balinese),etc.
Selamat pagi pak, pagi pak, morning sir, morning,
assalamualaikum, etc.
Ibu tampak lebih segar; ibu tambah cantik deh;
panjenengan ketingal tasik timur; wah, makin ayu ae;
gila cantik banget loe, etc.
What can you identify from one’s language ?
Bapak sampun dahar? , Koen wis mangan tah?
Ntik tak carii, ndek sini gak ada sing kayak gitu.
Jancuk, moto mu gak ndelok?!, Jancuk, nang endi ae gak tau ketok rek.
Aduh bo, lekongnya cucok banget.
Ih, liat deh jilbabnya gak mecing (matching).
Beb, anterin ke mall doooooongggg.
Sebaiknya anda mengisi formulir ini sebelum test.
Different ways we say things
Linguistic variations (sound and supra
segmental phoneme, word structures or
morphology, grammar or syntax, vocabulary)
express and reflect social factors.
Choices may involve different languages,
dialects, styles.
Sociolinguistics Approach
Micro sociolinguistics: The emphasis of the analysis is
on the individual in a small informal intra-group
interaction. It is applied for studying register or
speech level or other phenomena among members of
a certain group.
Macro sociolinguistics: The study concerns about the
language phenomena of a larger group such as a
comunity.
Language,dialect, variety, code ?
Variety is a sociolinguistic term referring to language in context.
A variety is a set of linguistic forms used under specific social
circumstances, i.e with a distinctive social distribution.
Variety is a broad term which include different accents, different linguistic
styles, different dialects, and even different languages which contrast with
each other for social reasons.
Variety has proved a very useful sociolinguistic term because it is
linguistically neutral and covers all the different realisations of the
abstract concept ‘language’ in different social contexts.
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