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1、Chapter 9,Language and Society,1. The scope of sociolinguistics 1.1 The relationship between language and society Language is regarded as a mirror of society, through which we can understand social activities of a certain society better. Sociolinguists are interested in explaining why we speak diffe
2、rently 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.,Example 1 Ray: Hi. Mom Mom: Hi. You are late. Ray: Yeah, that bastard kept us in again. Mom: Nana is here. Ray: Oh sorry. Where is she?,The
3、way people talk is influenced by the social context in which they are talking. It matters who can hear us and where we are talking as well as how we are feeling. We use different styles in different social contexts. Example 2 Ray: Good morning, sir. Principle: What are you doing here at this time? R
4、ay: Mr. Sutton kept us in , Sir.,One does not need to be very observant to find that certain linguistic phenomena cannot be accounted for unless they are placed in the general context of society. In other words, social factors cannot be excluded from our description of language and language use. The
5、re are many indications of the inter-relationship between language and society. One of them is that while language is principally used to communicate meaning, it is also used to establish and maintain social relationships. E.g.:greetings,Another indication is that users of the same language in a sen
6、se all speak differently. The kind of language each of them chooses to use is in part determined by his social background. And language, in its turn, reveals information about its speaker. When we speak, we cannot avoid giving clues to our listeners about ourselves.,Example 3 A:今天怎么样？ B:有点累，上下午都有手术。
7、 A：好辛苦哦。想我了没？ B：当然想了。 A:干嘛去了？ B：刚去找老师签假条了。,To some extent, language, especially the structure of its lexicon, reflects both the physical and the social environments of a society. Example 4 Eskimos have more words for types of snow than English speakers do: aput, snow on the ground 地上的雪 gana, falling
8、 snow 正飘落的雪 piqsirpoq, drifting snow 堆积的雪 qimuqsuq, a snow drift 雪堆,As a social phenomenon, language is closely related to the structure of the society in which it is used, and the evaluation of a linguistic form is entirely social. Judgments concerning the correctness and purity of linguistic varie
9、ties are social rather than linguistic.,1.2 Speech community & speech variety Speech community（言语共同体）: a social group of people who share a language (includes a country, a town, a network across great distances) Speech variety（言语变体）: any distinguishable form of speech used by a speaker or a group of
10、 speakers. Linguistic features of a speech variety can be found at the lexical, the phonological, the morphological, or the syntactical level of the language.,1.3 Two approaches to sociolinguistic studies macro-sociolinguistics : look at society as a whole and consider how language functions in it a
11、nd how it reflects the social differentiations (a birds-eye view) micro-sociolinguistics : look at society from the point of view of an individual member within it (a worms-eye view ),2. Language variations Variations :different manifestations of language; “a set of linguistic items with similar soc
12、ial distribution” (R Hudson, 1980) Dialectal variation: Regional /Social Personal variation : registers Situational variation : degree of formality,2.1 Regional dialect A regional dialect is a linguistic variety used by people living in the same geographical region. Regional dialect boundaries often
13、 coincide with geographical barriers such as mountains, rivers or swamps. lack of communication in old times loyalty to ones native speech psychological resistance to change,Grammars can vary a lot in different regions E.g: Regional dialects in the US Phonological differences r-less dialects:Some di
14、alects in the US delete /r/ after a vowel: Wisconsin Maine Carolina car khar kha: kha: farm farm fa:m fa:m,Lexical differences Words for 汽水: Wisconsin Maine N.Carolina “soda” “pop” “coke” Syntactic differences the: USA Canada at school at the school at the hospital at hospital,Taiwan Mandarin vs. Be
15、ijing Mandarin: Phonological differences Beijing Taiwan 是Shi si Lexical differences English Beijing Taiwan “potato” 土豆 馬鈴薯 “guava” 番石榴 芭樂 Syntactic differences Beijing Taiwan (nonstandard) 我打他。 他給我打。,2.2 Sociolect A language variety caused by different social conditions. It is spoken by a group that
16、 share social features such as occupation, age, class, race, etc.,Occupation: People sometimes use special vocabularies (jargon) for their job Financial :sales volume/todays high Legal: Civil Case民事案件/Hearing听证会 /Summons传讯 Medical: blood pressure/ kidney stone肾结石 /thrombosis (blood clot )血栓,Educatio
17、n: e.g: Speaker A Speaker B I did it yesterday. I done it yesterday. He hasnt got it. He aint got it. It was she that said it. It was her what said it.,2.3 Language and Gender Language used by men and women have some special features of their own. Women and men often have slightly different “grammar
18、s” at many different levels. more intensifiers: adjectives of evaluation and intensifiers are used more frequently by females than by males e.g.: nice, lovely, cute, fantastic, awful, etc.,Syntax Female speech is less assertive and thus sounds to be more polite than male speech. Female speakers tend
19、 to use more often the question tag. e.g. Im afraid . Im not sure but . I dont like linguistics, do you? It is beautiful, isnt it?,Sexist language: because men control public life in most cultures, men often control the standard language, which then becomes biased towards men. Sexist lexicon mankind
20、=humanity chairman=chair history= his story,Sexist syntax (pronouns) (1) Everyone should love his mother. (2) Everyone should love their mothers. Sexist syntax (word order) (phrases that put females last): (3) Boys and girls are equal.,Sexist morphology (again, implies that women are subordinate): a
21、ctor male + ess - actress female Why no suffixes to create men from women? (“nurse-man” or something?) Sexist orthography (writing)? 奴、奸、妖, 嫉，妒，姘, 妄,2.4 Language and age In many communities the language used by the old generation differs from that used by the younger generation in certain ways. Thei
22、r speech is thus a record of the never-ending change of language. Lexical variation Old: icebox , wireless Young: fridge, boombox,old generation: 下学了/洋火 teenage: 晕/倒/汗/郁闷/菜鸟/东东 More examples: 表扬某人有某种特长时的用语：哇，真厉害，简直不是人。,新新校园流行语 最近，某校进行了一次校园语言的专题调查，调查结果令人颇为吃惊：大学生的日常用语中，玄机种种，“密码”多多。 代用语层出不穷。如果有人对你说：“你真
23、像孔雀!”别以为她在赞美你，她的意思是你太自作多情了。上自习是“革命”；“学习文件”、“操练操练”是指打牌；“疲软”是指没钱用了；“化妆”称“奋(粉)发图(涂)强”；男生追女生叫“钓鱼”、“钓花”；女生追男生则是“钓虾”；约会称“出去甜蜜一下”；常打小报告的人叫“老男人”；矮个子被称为“根号2”。,众多的旧词新解，令你啼笑皆非。若有人说你是他的“偶像”，你不要激动，“偶像”意指呕吐的对象。还有，“天才”指天生的蠢材，“神童”是神经病儿童；“大喜之日”就是要洗很多衣服的日子；早锻炼被称为“早恋”；下午锻炼则是“黄昏恋”。诸如此类等等。 此外，在形容词前加上表示程度的“奇”、“乱”、“爆”、“狂”
24、、“巨”等，时常挂在学生嘴边，如“奇快无比”、“爆好”、“巨斜”、“乱差”。 研究社会学的学者分析说，校园出现大量反常规语言，是受了广告的影响，会对语言教育带来消极影响，因此呼吁净化校园语言。而学生自己则“见怪不怪”。,2.5 Idiolect(个人方言) Idiolect is a personal dialect of an individual speaker that combines elements regarding regional, social, gender, and age variation. This makes it possible for us to reco
25、gnize a speaker by the way he/she speaks.,2.6 Language and ethnics An ethnic dialect is a social dialect of a language that cuts across regional differences; it is mainly spoken by a less privileged population that has experienced some form of social isolation such as racial discrimination or segreg
26、ation. e.g. Black English He dont know nothing. (He doesnt know anything. ) I aint afraid of no ghosts. (Im not afraid of ghosts. ),2.7 Register A speech variety (style) that is appropriate for different situations (e.g. formal vs. casual). Different registers may be thought of as different grammars
27、 within a single persons brain.,Hallidays register theory: Language varies as its function varies; it differs in different situations. There are three social variables that determine the register: field of discourse, tenor of discourse, and mode of discourse.,Field of discourse （话语范围）refers to what
28、is going on: to the area of operation of the language activity. It is concerned with the purpose and subject-matter of communication. It answers the questions of why and what communication takes place.,Tenor of discourse（话语基调） refers to the role of relationship in the situation in question: who the
29、participants in the communication groups are and in what relationship they stand to each other. It answers the question of to whom the speaker is communicating. This dimension to a great extent determines the level of formality and the level of technicality of the language we use.,Mode of discourse（
30、话语方式） mainly refers to the means of communication. It is concerned with “how” communication is carried out. Fundamental to the mode of discourse is the distinction between speaking and writing. But there are finer distinctions, e.g. spoken language may be spontaneous or prepared beforehand and writt
31、en language may be intended to be read with the eye or to be spoken.,Example: a lecture on biology in a technical college Field: scientific (biological) Tenor: teacher - students (formal, polite) Mode: oral (academic lecturing) The three variables are the features of the context of situation which d
32、etermine the features of language appropriate to the situation.,2.8 Degree of formality Language used on different occasions differs in the degree of formality, which is determined by the social variables, such as who we are talking with and what we are talking about.,Formal English: “The elderly ge
33、ntleman passed away. We shall all miss him terribly. Had it not been for his assistance, our goals would never have been achieved. He was truly marvelous.” Casual English: “The old man died. Well miss him a lot. If he hadnt helped us, wed neverve reached our goals. He was really cool.”,American ling
34、uist Martin Joos, distinguishes five stages of formality, Frozen: Visitors would make their way at once to the upper floor by way of the staircase. Formal: Visitors should go up the stairs at once. Consultative: Would you mind going upstairs right away, please ? Casual: Time you all went upstairs no
35、w. Intimate: Up you go, chaps !,3. Standard language Standard language: the variety of a language that is considered to be the standard because its used by the government and the media, is taught in schools, and/or is the only written language. Other varieties are thus often considered nonstandard.,
36、Banned languages and dialects: officially disallowed in some context (e.g. school or in government documents). In the USA: American Indian languages, Spanish,African-American Vernacular English(Black English),4. Pidgin and Creole A pidgin is a special language variety that mixes or blends languages
37、and it is used by people who speak different languages for restricted purposes such as trading. It is a blending of several languages such as Chinese dialects and English, African dialects and French, African dialects and Portuguese.,Example: Hawaii pidgin 1). Ai chrai fo kaech om. I tried to catch
38、them. 2). Eribadi kam fo si daet haus. Everybody comes to see that house.,洋泾浜: “不中不西之特别话”（皮钦语）：是一个社会的当地人没有学好的外语，是外语在当地语言的影响下出现的变种。 特点： 语音经过当地语音系统的适当改造； 语法规则减少到最低限度； 词汇的项目较少，往往要借助于迂回曲折的说法指称事物。 “洋泾浜”通常只有口头形式，一般用于跟外国人交往的特殊场合。,Example: 也司（yes，是的）、温大拉（one dollar，一块钱）、铜生斯（一分钱的铜币。“生斯”是cent的译音）、哈夫哈夫（half ha
39、lf，利益均分）、生发油抹来抹去（Thank you very much，非常感谢）、long time no see（长久不见）等。,Creole:克里奥语，由洋泾浜语发展而来，是指一种混合多种语言词汇，有时也掺杂一些其他语言文法的一种语言，这个词是用以泛指所有的“混合语”。 特点： 词汇量大 语法复杂,Summary,Socio-linguistics studies who speaks to whom what when where why and how It has a great contribution to language teaching and research about the nature of language .,