Language, society and

culture.Emilio Lara E.

Sociolinguistics

A branch of linguistics

Language in a social context

Gender, age, social background, the way native speakers and non-native speakers use the language

is

deals with

elements associated

Social class, education, social background, age, gender… SOCIAL DIALECT

Social class and education:Dropping out of school/college influences the use of forms which

are not frequently used by those who go to college. On the contrary, those who go through college successfully tend to use the oral

language better due to the time they spent on the written language.In England, if you pronounce [r] in words you would be considered

a low class person whereas in USA not pronouncing [r] is considered uneducated.

Another phenomenon worth noting is the dropping of the [h] (which is made by uneducated speakers)

•Variation.

•Different generations speak differently.

Age

•Men and women behave differently.

•Different patterns of conversation.

Gender

•Women are more expressive than me.

*Mixed pairs

ETHNIC BACKGROUND

Inmigrants

• Discriminationand Isolationcause lexical differences: “bad speech”

Example

•Black English Vernacular (USA)

Personal way of speaking and using the language when

communicating

DIALECT

•Variation of written/spoken language according to the communicative situation

Style•Level

of formality according to the situation

Register

•Technical vocabulary regarding a specific profession

Jargon