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.