Language in society/Society in language

Orietta Gutiérrez Herrera

Language v. Dialect Variety of a language

English language and its dialects

Many and different types

Regional dialect

Social dialect

Related to a place (where we come from)

Ex: Yorshire – England Bavarian - Germany

Related to social groups (Who we are)

Historical connotation of the term (specific language)

Germanic dialects – Ancestors of:

Modern Germanic Language

Dutch

English

German

Language and dialect in Papua New Guinea

Indigenous languages in the Pacific

Greatest concentration of diversity is found in Melanesia

Area which composes the South-West Pacific island nations of Papua New Guinea, The Solomon Island, New Caledonia and Fiji.

Where up to 1500 languages are spoken

East & West-New Britain

Ex: Variety of the language at the minute of requesting “Betelnut to chew”

Some grammatical structure: 1)The desired item is named2)Third person singular form of the verb “come”3)First person verb indicating what the person will do with it

Linguists recognize two major languages families in Papua New Guinea

Both comprise between 700-800 languages

Non-Austronesian

Anêm

Suppossedly the original language of the area

Austronesian

Bibling

Siassi

Whiteman

MoukAriaTouraiLamogai

LusiKoveKabanaKilenge

Amara

But how can both of these languages be named different when they are pretty similar from the linguistic point of view?

Manly in the lexical relationship, people see the variety as a language

In the villages there are many ways to refer to the same word

Example: Wallaby

Some specificy one true word for it, and see the rest as equivalents

The use of synonyms allow each group to claim one word as their

Dual-lingualism

Speakers communicate with one another, while each speak their own language

Explanations for the existence of the extreme linguistic fragmentation of New Guinea

a) Span of 40.000 years of human habitation was enough time for natural processes of change and diversification to produce a multitude of languages

b) Nature of terrains poses a physical barrier to human social interaction

c) Cultural attitudes and their role in fostering and maintaining diversity

Language and dialect in Europe

The west Roman dialect continuum stretches through rural communities from the Atlantic coast of France through Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Languages, especially in North-West New Britain have similar grammar and most of their differences lay in:

Vocabulary

Pronunciation

Example: Danish-Norwegian have great deal of vocabulary in common, but difer in pronunciation.

While Swedish-Norwegian, difer in vocabulary but have similar pronunciation.

Modern languagesNorweigan

Danish

Swedish

Which come from common Nordic Ancestor

Before 1966 all three wrote “hat” as “hvad”Swedish evolved to “vad”

Norwegian to “hva”

Languages look more different in their written form than spoken

As a consequence

Mutual Intelligibility

Danes claim to understand Swedes better than Swedes claim to understand either Norwegian or Danes.

Isn’t about linguistic relationship between varieties but about social relationship (people understand or don’t understand each other).

Dividing line between the languages Norwegian

Swedish

DanishLinguistically arbitrary but politically and culturally relevant

Max Weinreich: “A language is a dialect with an army and a navy”

Attests the importance of political power and the sovereignty of a nation-state in the recognition of a variety as a language rather than a dialect.

Language then

Is an Interaction of:

Social, Political, Psychological and Historical factors.

Certain West-Germanic dialect continuum are considered to be dialects of German because of their relationship these varieties have to their respective standard languages

The process of standarization is connected with factors such as:

Symbol of political unification

LiteracyNationalismCultural & Ethnic identityBut… What’s a standard language?

Is a variety that has been deliberately codified so it ranges minimally in linguistic form but is maximally elaborated in function

English: Language and DialectIs American English a language or a dialect?

It depends on your poiint of view

George Bernard Shaw

America and England are two nations divided by a common language

Menckes, as a political statement

“The American Language”

Dialect continuum can be social rather than geographical

Ex: Jamaica At one time those at the top of the social scale (British) spoke English, while those at the bottom spoke Jamaican creole.

Over time the gap between both has been filled by a range of varieties that are either more like the creole or more like English.

Accent v. DialectLinguistics make a further distinction between:

AccentDialect

Varies from other dialects of the same language simultaneously on at least three levels:

Organization

GrammarVocabulary

Pronunciation

American and British English

Register and StyleTwo other varieties discussed by sociolinguistics are:

Style

Register (What we are doing)

Apart from:

Dialect (Where we come from)

Social Dialect(What our status is)

Variation in language conditioned by uses rather than users and involves consideration of the situation or contest of use, the purpose, subject matter, content of the message and the relation of the participation.

Register of law

Register of crime

Register of sports reporting

Register of religion

Notion related to Register is Style

It ranges from formal to informal depending on:

Social class

Topic

Age

Social contextSyntax

Vocabulary

Pronunciation

Physical environment

Sex

The teacher distributed…

The teacher gave out…

Passive voice in formal speechColloquial v.

Formal

Speech communities and communicative competence

The existence of a language depends on the availability of a group who claims a variety as their own and mantain its distinctiveness from the varieties spoken by other speakers.

Speech community Communicative competence

Is a group of people who don’t necessarily share the same language, but share some nors and rules for the use of it.

Patterns of social interaction trascends language boundaries

Sprechbund (speech bond)

Sprachbond (language bond)

Ways of speakers go beyond boundaries

Related to the level of linguistic form