Language in society/Society in language

1. Language in society/Society in language Orietta Gutiérrez Herrera

2. Language v. Dialect Variety of a language Englishlanguage and itsdialects Many and differenttypes Relatedto a place (wherewe come from)Ex: Yorshire – England Bavarian - Germany Regional dialect Social dialect Relatedto social groups (Whowe are) ModernGermanicLanguage Germanicdialects – Ancestors of: Historicalconnotation of theterm (specificlanguage) Dutch German English

3. Language and dialect in Papua New Guinea Indigenouslanguages in thePacific East & West-New Britain Ex: Variety of thelanguage at the minute of requesting “Betelnuttochew” Greatestconcentration of diversityisfound in Melanesia • Somegrammaticalstructure: • Thedesireditemisnamed • Thirdperson singular form of theverb “come” • Firstpersonverbindicatingwhatthepersonwill do withit Areawhichcomposesthe South-West Pacificislandnations of Papua New Guinea, TheSolomon Island, New Caledonia and Fiji. Where up to 1500 languages are spoken

4. Linguistsrecognizetwomajorlanguagesfamilies in Papua New Guinea Austronesian Non-Austronesian Whiteman Bibling Anêm Siassi Amara Mouk Aria Tourai Lamogai Suppossedlythe original language of thearea Lusi Kove Kabana Kilenge Bothcomprisebetween 700-800 languages

5. 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, peopleseethevariety as a language In thevillagesthere are manywaystorefertothesameword Example: Wallaby Somespecificyone true wordforit, and seetherest as equivalents The use of synonymsalloweachgrouptoclaimoneword as their Speakerscommunicatewithoneanother, whileeachspeaktheirownlanguage Dual-lingualism

6. Explanationsfortheexistence of the extreme linguisticfragmentation of New Guinea a) Span of 40.000 years of humanhabitationwasenough time for natural processes of change and diversificationto produce a multitude of languages b) Nature of terrains poses a physicalbarriertohuman social interaction c) Cultural attitudes and their role in fostering and maintainingdiversity

7. Language and dialect in Europe ThewestRomandialect continuum stretchesthrough rural communitiesfromtheAtlanticcoast of France throughItaly, Spain and Portugal. Languages, especially in North-West New Britainhave similar grammar and most of theirdifferences lay in: Vocabulary Pronunciation Example: Danish-Norwegianhavegreatdeal of vocabulary in common, butdifer in pronunciation. WhileSwedish-Norwegian, difer in vocabularybuthave similar pronunciation.

8. Modern languages Which come fromcommonNordicAncestor Norweigan Swedish Danish Before 1966 allthreewrote “hat” as “hvad” Swedishevolvedto “vad” Norwegianto “hva” Languages look more different in theirwrittenformthanspoken

9. DanesclaimtounderstandSwedesbetterthanSwedesclaimtounderstandeitherNorwegianorDanes.DanesclaimtounderstandSwedesbetterthanSwedesclaimtounderstandeitherNorwegianorDanes. As a consequence Mutual Intelligibility Isn’taboutlinguisticrelationshipbetweenvarietiesbutabout social relationship (peopleunderstandordon’tunderstandeachother). Dividing line betweenthelanguages Norwegian Swedish Danish Linguisticallyarbitrarybutpolitically and culturallyrelevant Languagethen Max Weinreich: “A languageis a dialectwithanarmy and a navy” IsanInteraction of: Social, Political, Psychological and Historicalfactors. Atteststheimportance of politicalpower and thesovereignty of a nation-state in therecognition of a variety as a languageratherthan a dialect.

10. Certain West-Germanicdialect continuum are consideredtobedialects of Germanbecause of theirrelationshipthesevarietieshavetotheirrespectivestandardlanguages Symbol of politicalunification Theprocess of standarizationisconnectedwithfactorssuch as: Literacy Nationalism Cultural & Ethnicidentity But… What’s a standardlanguage? Is a varietythat has beendeliberatelycodified so itrangesminimally in linguisticformbutismaximallyelaborated in function

11. English: Language and Dialect Is American English a languageor a dialect? Itdependsonyourpoiint of view George Bernard Shaw Menckes, as a politicalstatement America and England are twonationsdividedby a commonlanguage “The American Language” Dialect continuum can be social ratherthangeographical Over time the gap betweenboth has beenfilledby a range of varietiesthat are either more likethe creole or more likeEnglish. At one time those at the top of the social scale (British) spokeEnglish, whilethose at thebottomspokeJamaican creole. Ex: Jamaica

12. Accent v. Dialect Linguisticsmake a furtherdistinctionbetween: Dialect Accent Variesfromotherdialects of thesamelanguagesimultaneouslyon at leastthreelevels: Vocabulary Grammar Pronunciation Organization American and British English

13. Style Register and Style Twoothervarietiesdiscussedbysociolinguistics are: Register (Whatwe are doing) Apartfrom: Register of law Register of crime Register of sports reporting Register of religion Variation in languageconditionedby uses ratherthanusers and involvesconsideration of thesituationorcontest of use, thepurpose, subjectmatter, content of themessage and therelation of theparticipation. Dialect (Wherewe come from) Social Dialect (Whatour status is)

14. Notion related to Register is Style Social class Vocabulary Itrangesfrom formal to informal dependingon: Topic Sex Age Pronunciation Theteacherdistributed… Theteachergaveout… Social context Syntax Physicalenvironment Passivevoice in formal speech Colloquial v. Formal

15. Speech communities and communicative competence Theexistence of a languagedependsontheavailability of a groupwhoclaims a variety as theirown and mantainitsdistinctivenessfromthevarietiesspokenbyotherspeakers. Speechcommunity Communicativecompetence Is a group of peoplewhodon’tnecessarily share thesamelanguage, but share somenors and rules forthe use of it. Sprechbund (speech bond) Ways of speakersgobeyondboundaries Sprachbond (language bond) Patterns of social interactiontrascendslanguageboundaries Relatedtothelevel of linguisticform