sociolinguistics chapter 2 language choice in multilingual communities

Sociolinguistics

Chapter 2

Language Choice in Multilingual Communities

Learning Objectives

Communicative repertoire Diglossia Code-switching and code-mixing

Language variation

1. Different styles

2. Different pronunciation

3. Different vocabulary

4. Different grammar

5. Different dialects

6. Different languages

Language variation

1. Participants

2. Setting

3. Topic

4. Function

Communicative Repertoire

Activity 2.1

The languages in your life: your communicative repertoire

Communicative repertoire

Listen Speak Read Write

Cantonese

Putonghua

English

Toishan

Chiuchow

Cantonese

Putonghua

English

Toishan

Traditional Chinese

Simplified Chinese

English

Traditional Chinese

Simplified Chinese

English

Communicative repertoire

A tool kit of linguistic and communicative resources

Breadth – number of languages you speak

Depth – Level of development of each language

Domains of language use

Typical interactions

e.g. family

participants family members

setting home

topic family matters

e.g. Table 2.2

Modelling code choice

Domain is a general concept involving social factors in code choice such as participants, setting, and topic.

It is possible to draw a simple model summarising language use in a community.

Example 4, Figure 2.1

Diglossia

“The situation where two varieties of a language exist side by side throughout the community, with each having a definite role to play.” (Ferguson, 1959)

Diglossia

1. Two distinct varieties of the same language are used in the community, with one regarded as a high (H) variety and the other a low (L) variety.

2. Each variety is used for quite distinct functions; H and L complement each other.

3. No one uses the H variety in everyday conversation.

Diglossia

Activity 2.2

Functional distribution of H and L varieties across different domains of language use in diglossic situations

Diglossia

Domains of Language Use H L

Sermon in church or mosque

Instructions to servants, waiters, workmen, clerks

Personal letter

Speech in parliament, legislative councils, political speech

University lecture

Conversation with family, friends, colleagues

News broadcast

TV ‘soap opera’

Newspaper editorial, news story, caption on picture

Poetry

Folk literature

Popular youth magazines

Facebook, Line, WhatsApp, Skype, Google Talk, WeChat

Criteria for diglossia (Fasold, 1984)

Function Prestige Literary Heritage Acquisition Standardisation Stability Grammar Lexicon Phonology

Prestige

H is superior to L.

There is a usual belief that H is somehow more beautiful, more logical, better able to express important thoughts. This belief is also held by speakers whose command of H is quite limited.

18

Literary heritage

A sizeable body of written literature in H is held in high esteem by the speech community.

Contemporary writers tend to use words, phrases, or constructions which were used in literary history.

Acquisition

L is learned by children in what may be regarded as the "normal" way of learning one's mother tongue.

H is chiefly learnt by means of formal education.

The grammatical structure of L is learned without explicit discussion of grammatical concepts; the grammar of H is learned in terms of "rules" and norms to be imitated.

Acquisition

Standardisation

There is a strong tradition of grammatical study of the H form of the language. There are grammars, dictionaries, treaties on pronunciation, style and so on. The orthography is well established and has little variation.

For the L variety, there is no settled orthography and there is wide variation in pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary.

Stability

Diglossia typically persists at least several centuries, and evidence in some cases seems to show that it can last well over a thousand years.

The communicative tensions arisen in diglossia situation may be resolved by the use of relatively uncodified, unstable, intermediate forms of the language and repeated borrowings of vocabulary items from H to L.

Grammar H is more rule-governed. H has grammatical

categories not present in L and has an inflectional system of nouns and verbs which is much reduced or totally absent in L.

For example, Standard German has four cases in the noun and two indicative tenses in the verb; Swiss German has three cases in the noun and only one simple tense.

Lexicon Generally speaking, the vocabulary of H and

L is shared.

H includes in its total lexicon technical terms and learned expressions which have no regular L equivalents.

L includes popular expressions and the names of very homely objects.

There is existence of many paired items, one H and one L.

Lexicon

Greek

H L

ikos spiti house

idhor nero water

eteke eyenise gave birth

als ma but

Lexicon

American

H L

illumination light

purchase buy

children kids

Lexicon

Phonology

H and L phonologies may be:

quite close, as in the two varieties of Greek; strikingly divergent, as in Standard German

and Swiss German.

Extended definition of diglossia

Fishman (1967, 1971) extended the notion of diglossia to any situation in which different linguistic varieties have functionally differentiated roles in a society.

Diglossia and bilingualism

Diglossia A characteristic of speech communities

Bilingualism A characteristic of individuals

4 possible situations of diglossia

+ Bilingualism - Bilingualism

+ Diglossia + Diglossia+ Bilingualism

+ Diglossia- Bilingualism

- Diglossia - Diglossia+ Bilingualism

- Diglossia-Bilingualism

Polyglossia

Fasold (1984) proposed the term ‘polyglossia’ to describe a situation in which there are more than 2 languages or varieties which stand in mutually exclusive functional relations with each other.

Polyglossia

One standard language is used as a H form in several different speech communities, each of which employs its own L variety.

High

Low 1 Low 2 Low 3 Low 4

Triglossia

Three languages, A, B and C. In relation to language A, language B is

L; in relation to language C, however, language B is H.

Such a case has been termed double overlapping diglossia

e.g. Tanzania

Triglossia

______________________________________

English H

____________________________________

H Swahili L

____________________________________

L Vernacular

____________________________________

Double-nested diglossia

H and L varieties are each themselves subdivided into H and L varieties

e.g. Khalapur, India

Double-nested diglossia

H Oratorical style

-------------Hindi--------------

Conversational style

H

L

H Saf boli

------------Khalapur----------

Moti boli

L

L

Linear polyglossia

Three or more languages or varieties are on a continuum from H to L

e.g. Malaysia

Linear polyglossia

Formal Malaysian English H1

Bahasa Malaysia H2

Mandarin DH

Colloquial Malaysian English M1

Dominant Chinese language M2

‘Native’ Chinese language L1

Other Chinese languages L2-Ln

Bazaar Malay L-

Diglossia in Hong Kong Chinese Speech Community

Spoken language ( 口語 )

L : Cantonese

Book language ( 書面語 )

H : Putonghua and standard written Chinese

Triglossia

______________________________________

English H

____________________________________

H Standard Chinese L

____________________________________

L Cantonese

____________________________________

Code-switching

Code-switching

Alternate use of two or more languages in an extended stretch of discourse, where the switch takes place in between sentences

Code-mixing

Alternate use of two or more languages, but the switch takes place within a sentence

Sociolinguistic motivations for code-switching

1 Marker of solidarity

Example 8:

In New Zealand, a person may choose to greet someone in Maori as a marker of solidarity.


[Maori in red]

Sarah: I think everyone’s here except Mere.John : She said she might be a bit late

but actually I think that’s her arriving.Sarah: You’re right. Kia Ora Mere. Haere

mai. Kei te pehea koe? [Hi Mere. Come in. How are you?]

Mere : Kia ora e hoa. Kei te pai. [Hello my friend. I am fine.]


Example:

In a Polish family in Lancashire in the 1950s, the family members switched code when the local English-speaking priest arrived.


Example:

In Scotland, Highlanders use Gaelic to signal their identification with the local Gaelic speech community.


Example:

Two Mexican Americans met in the United States.

[Spanish in red]

A : Well, I’m glad I met you, ok?

M : Andale pues [Ok well], and do come again. Mm?


Example:

In Hong Kong, Cantonese is a marker of group and ethnic solidarity. (Gibbons 1987)


Example 10:

In Hemnesberget, a little village in Norway, Bokmål or standard Norwegian is the variety to use when you go to the tax office to sort out your tax forms.

But the person you will deal with may also be your neighbour and you will normally use Ranamål to speak to them.


[Ranamål in black. Bokmål in red]

Jan: Hello Peter. How is your wife now?

Peter: Oh she’s much better thank you Jan. She’s out of hospital and

convalescing well.Jan: That’s good I’m pleased to hear it.

Do you think you could help with this pesky form? I am having a great deal of difficulty with it.

Peter: Of course. Give it here…


Predicting code choice

Exercise 8


2 Quotation

Example 11:

A Maori person is recalling a visit of a respected elder to a nearby town:

‘That’s what he said in Blenheim. Ki a mätou Ngäti Porou, te Mäoritanga I papi ake i te whenua. [We of the Ngäti Porou tribe believe the origins of Mäoritanga are in the earth.] And those Blenheim people listened carefully to him too.’


A special kind of quotation: a proverb or a well-known sayingExample 12:A group of Chinese students studying in UK are discussing Chinese customs:

‘People here get divorced too easily. Like exchanging faulty goods. In China it’s not the same. 嫁雞隨雞，嫁狗隨狗 .’ [If you marry a dog you follow the dog, if you marry a chicken you follow the chicken]


3 Affective factors

English Cantonese

Toilet 廁所Washroom 洗手間Shxt X or XX


4 Anger

Example 15 (Gal 1979)

In the town of Oberwart two little Hungarian-speaking children were playing in the woodshed and knocked over a carefully stacked pile of firewood. Their grandfather walked in and said in Hungarian, the language he usually used to them:


‘Szo! ide dzüna! Jeszt Jerámunyi mind e kettüötök, no hát akkor!’[Well come here! Out all this away, both of you, well now.]

When they did not respond quickly enough he switched to German:

‘Kum her!’ [Come here!]


Example 13:

Polly

- A young British black woman

- speaks standard English with a West Midlands accent as well as Patois, a variety of Jamaican Creole.


On one occasion a school teacher annoyed her intensely by criticising a story she had written about British West Indians. In particular, he corrected the use of Patois by one of her characters – something he knew nothing about.


Her response was to abuse him in Patois, swearing at him only just below her breath. The effect was electrifying.

Polly uses code-switching to express her anger. The teacher didn’t need to understand the words in this case. He simply needed to get the message that Polly was angry.


Example 16

Father :Tea is ready, Robbie.

(Robbie ignores him and carries on skate-boarding)

Father :Mr Robert Harris if you do not come immediately there will be

consequences which you will regret.


5 Identity marking

Example 17:

At a village meeting among the Buang people in Papua New Guinea, Mr. Rupa, the main village entrepreneur and ‘bigman’, is trying to persuade people who have put money into a village store to leave it there.


[Tok Pisin is in red. Buang is in black.]

Ikamap trovel o wonem, mi ken stretim olgeta toktok. Orait, Pasin ke ken be, meni ti ken nyep la, su lok lam memba re, olo ba miting autim olgeta tok …, moni ti ken nyep ega, rek mu su rek ogoko nam be, one moni rek, … moni ti ken bak stua lam vu Mambump re, m nzom agon. Orait, bihain, bihainim bilong wok long bisnis, orait, moni bilong stua bai ibekim olgeta ples.


Example 18

Alf is talking to a fellow Samoan at work about his attempt to go on a diet.

[English is in black. Samoan is in red.]

‘My doctor told me to go on a diet. She said I was overweight. So I tried. But it was so hard. I’d keep thinking about food all the time. Even when I was at work. And in bed at night I’d get desperate. I couldn’t get to sleep. So I’d get up and raid the fridge. Then I’d feel guilty and sick.’

Linguistic features of Cantonese-English code-mixing in Hong Kong

Phonology Morphology Syntax Lexis

Phonology

English pronunciation is influenced by Cantonese sound system

a. syllabic structure

e.g. chance, power, file, post, qualification, statistics, tutorial

b. stress e.g. member, happy

Morphology

English words with Cantonese morphemes

a. Cantonese aspect markers are used with English verbs

e.g. 咗 cancel 咗 , lose 咗 , join 咗

music club

緊talk 緊 , read 緊 , mark 緊

b.Cantonese auxiliary verbs are used with English verbs

e.g. need ( 駛 ) 唔駛 prepare, 駛唔駛 present, 唔駛 test

can ( 會 )會 finish, 會 dance, 會 understand

will, may ( 會 ) 會 fail, 會 collapse, 會 upload

Morphology

c. English adjectives are modified by Cantonese adverbs of degree

e.g. quite ( 幾 )

幾 smart, 幾 free, 幾 busy

e.g. very ( 好 ):

好 fair, 好 happy, 好 fit

Morphology

d. Chinese classifiers are used with English nouns

e.g. a ( 個 ):

個 term, 個 semester, 個 bag

Morphology

Syntax

Cantonese syntax with English lexis inserted

a. V neg V : e.g. meet 唔 meet target

take 唔 take coursework 唔 work

b. V then V: e.g. go 就 go

keep 就 keep

Lexis

a. English lexis is split into separate syllables by insertion of a Cantonese morpheme

e.g. pro 唔 produce

de 唔 desirable

can 唔 cancel

Lexis

b. Cantonese expressions are literally translated into English

e.g. no eye see

people mountain people sea

sociolinguistics chapter 2 language choice in multilingual communities

Documents

language slide

function slide

communicative repertoire

codemixing slide

wechat slide

multilingual communities

language choice

prestige h