group 5b sociolinguistics definitivo

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Sociolinguistics

Beatriz Medina Zenzano /Susana Morales Bernal /Nuria Muñoz Navarro

Eva Márquez Zayas /Sonia Menchón Arqués



Contents

1. Definition of Sociolinguistics

2. Origins and main figures

3. Areas of Sociolinguistics

4. Language and gender

5. An instance of empirical studies

6. Conclusion



1.DEFINITION OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Descriptive study – how society inf luences language

“Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect ofany and all aspects of, including cultural, expectations,and context, on the way is used, and the effects of

language use on society”.

“…The focus of sociolinguistics is the effect of the societyon the language, (…)”

“It also studies how language varieties differ betweengroups separated by certain social variables, e.g.,ethnicity, religion, status, gender, level of education,age, etc (...)”.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociolinguistics).



Sociolinguistic investigation – language study within social context

(Trudgill)

“The aim of sociolinguistic investigation is to achieve afurther progress in the knowledge of nature and theoperation of human language by the study of language in

its social context. Besides, all Sociolinguistics is languageand society but, however, not all language and societyare Sociolinguistics” (Trudgill, 2000).

Interdisciplinary science (Campoy & Almeida)

“Sociolinguistics is an interdisciplinary science which isconcerned with relationships between language andsociety”, (Campoy & Almeida, 2005).



Characteristics of sociolinguistics ( Campoy, 1993)

A science, which is concerned with the relationship betweenlanguage and society.

A branch of Linguistics.

It considers that language is a social and a culturalphenomenon.

It studies language in its social context, in real life situations byempirical investigation.

It is related to methodology and contents of social sciences.



2. ORIGINS AND MAIN FIGURES

ORIGINS: Saussure & Chomsky concepts

PROMINENT FIGURES: William Labov & Peter Trudgill



“Sociolinguistics has its roots in

dialectology, historical linguistics, andlanguage contact with considerable

influence from sociology and psychology(Koerner 1991: 65). This is why it has

evolved into an exceptionally broadfield.” (Sali A. Tagliamonte, 2012).



New discipline of Linguistics:

Developed from the last 30 years.

Origins focused on: 1. The structure of langue/ parole & the

diachronic/synchronic suggested by Ferdinand de

Saussure: - Langue/Parole – Internal Linguistics / Microlinguistics

(phonology, morphology, syntax)

- Diachronic/Synchronic – External Linguistics/

Macrolinguistics (acquisition-use of language and

culture-society-language connection)

2. The competence/actions notions by Noam

Chomsky.



According to Trudgill

Macrolinguistics focused on the study of the language(large-scale - group behaviour).

Microlinguistics focused on the description-analysis oflanguages (small groups).



SAUSSUREAN CONCEPT OF LANGUAGE

Related with Chomsky‟s competence:

• Focused on the ideal speaker/listener (control oflanguage - a homogeneous community).

• Languages - autonomous and coherent systems

IN THE PAST: linguistics focused on microlinguistics,ignoring macrolinguistics.



WILLIAM LABOV: regarded as the one who started it withhis theories in his empirical works:

The social stratification of English in New York City (1966)

Sociolinguistics Patterns (1972)

• Sociological methodology – with theoretical

implications for Linguistics• His study – based on empirical work in social context

• Objective – mechanism of linguistic changes &

structure of linguistic systems

Prominent Figures

United States & United Kindgom



William Labov The first one to put into practice the area ofsociolinguistics in the United States.

Peter John Trudgill

Later in the United Kingdom

• The British complement for the secular linguistics

of Labov.

The Social Differentiation of English in Norwich (1971)

Sociolinguistic Patterns in British English (1972)



3. TYPES AND AREAS OF

SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Sociology of language: Aspects related with

sociolinguistics and language.

Social psychology of language: Linguistic attitudes andseveral aspects of linguistic usage in a face-to-faceconversation.



Anthropological linguistics: Itsobjective is to study in depth

the knowledge of the social

structure of communities.

Ethnography of ommunication:

It focuses on the role that

language plays in the

„communicative conduct of

communities‟ from the differentcultures in their different ways

of manifestation (styles, dialects

and languages).



Discourse analysis: The study

of texts and conversational

interaction

-textual linguistic

-conversational analysis

Geolinguistics: Mixture among secular linguistics,

dialectology and human geography. Focuses on the

geographical distribution of linguistics.



Dialectology:

The academicstudy of dialects and thegeographical distributionof these dialects.

Secular linguistics: Carried out by empiricalworks. The objectives ofthis discipline are similar

to the ones of linguistics



4. LANGUAGE AND GENDER

Context of study

Variation Approach within Sociolinguistics

“Variationist Sociolinguistics” or “Language Variation andChange (LVC)”.

Origins: “Labovian Sociolinguistics”, “Quantitative

Sociolinguistics” or “Secular Linguistics”, according to Trudgill

(1978b:11).

Aim: To link “social variation” and “linguistic variation”

resulting on “sociolinguistic variation”.

Empirical research: to formulate a “sociolinguistic theory”.



„SEX‟ vs. „GENDER‟

„Sex‟ and „Gender‟ together with “social context” -“social class” - “ethnicity”.

The 4 biggest “forms of social differentiation”

(Trudgill, 2002).



Different perspective

Influenced by Feminism

„Sex‟ – Biological, physiological differences between women and men.

„Gender‟ – Used to establish that distinction BUT in terms of socialand cultural aspects.

Sociolinguistics – more concerned with the concept of „gender‟.

ANALYSING differences between women and men in relation tolanguage in social context.

Mainly Quantitative research (variation theory) and also qualitativestudy –in terms of several features of language- TO ANALYSEdifferences.



Language aspects under study, little example

Gender and language - focusing on aspects of language,such as:

• vocabulary and phonology, among others.

Regarding vocabulary

• SEXIST LANGUAGE, NOT NEUTRAL-GENDER – Denoting inequalitythrough language : influenced by sexist society.

EXAMPLES: In Spanish – use of adjectives „cojonudo‟ (good) –

„coñazo‟ (boring).

In English – Title names:

Male – „Mr‟ / Female – „Mrs‟, „Miss‟, „Ms‟.



5. EMPIRACAL STUDY ABOUTGENRE AND SOCIOLIGUISTICS

Gender and Genre Variation in weblogsSusan C. Herring and John C. Paolillo (Indiana University, Bloomington)

“A relationship among language, gender, and discourse genre has

previously been observed in informal, spoken interaction and

formal, written texts. This study investigates the

language/gender/genre relationship in weblogs, a popular newmode of computer-mediated communication (CMC)”.



Conclusion

Basically Sociolinguistics deals with language-society relationships and its

study is based on empirical analysis from real life social context.

Saussure and Chomsky concepts put somehow the origins of Sociolinguistics,

although the development would come later , first with Labov and later with

Trudgill.

We have found different directions of Sociolinguistics such as Dialectology

or Social psychology of language (in the direction of Labov and Trudgill surveys).

It was interesting to have a brief idea of how the relationship between

language and gender is studied within the field of Sociolinguistics, and how it is

powerfully connected with Feminism. To end up with this overview on

Sociolinguistics it was necessary to offer a small inside into recent empirical work

on the subject.



ReferencesChambers, J.K., Trudgill, P. & Schilling-Estes, N. (eds.) (2002) The Handbook of Language

Variation and Change. Oxford: Blackwell.

Hernández Campoy, J.M (1993) Sociolingüística Británica. Barcelona: Octaedro.

Hernández Campoy, J.M & Almeida M. (2005) Metodología de la investigación sociolingüística.

Granada: Comares.

Herring, Susan C. & Paolillo, John C. (2006). “Gender and genre variation in weblogs” in

Journal of Sociolinguistics, 10(4), 439-459. Bloomington: Indiana University.Sali A.l Tagliamonte (2012). Variationist Sociolinguistics, Observation, Interpretation. Blackwell

Publishing Ltd.

Trudgill, P. (2000) Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society. London: Penguin.

Hernández Campoy, J.M. (1993) Sociolingüística Británica. Barcelona: Octaedro.

Web references

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociolinguistics

http://www.uni-giessen.de/genderproject/?p=205 (Language and Gender: Sociolinguistic and

Quantitative Perspectives - Svetla Rogatcheva)

http://alvarogomezcastro.overblog.es/pages/ESTUDIOS_SOBRE_LENGUAJE_Y_GENERO-

1786685.html

http://www.uni-giessen.de/genderproject/?p=205

http://alvarogomezcastro.overblog.es/pages/ESTUDIOS_SOBRE_LENGUAJE_Y_GENERO-1786685.html

























This work has been realized by:

Nuria Muñoz Navarro, Beatriz Medina Zenzano, EvaMárquez Zayas, Susana Morales Berna and Sonia Menchón

Arqués for Applied Linguistics Subject (3º GEI)

group 5b sociolinguistics definitivo

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