Sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics I. Inter-relationships between linguistic form and social function II. What should linguistics study? III. The difficulty of defining what language is IV. Social functions of speech V. Telephone conversation VI. Compliments VII Language & gender Yun-Pi Yuan

I . Inter-relationships between linguistic form and social function (1) Lang. cannot be studied separately from its social/speech context. 9 Sentences: [note: still related to psycholinguistics—what?] Should I make some tea? Would you like some tea? Can I make you a cup of tea? Let’s have a cup of tea. How about a nice cup of tea? I could make you a cup of tea. Do you drink tea? Have some tea. There’s tea in the pot. Yun-Pi Yuan

I. Inter-relationships between linguistic form and social function (2) • What are these sentences doing? • When, and with whom, would each one be appropriate? • From these examples, would you say that linguistic form and social function are unrelated? Should we study them separately? • Interaction between psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics: • Rhetorical expressiveness • For social needs—affects form—affects other psychological pressures Yun-Pi Yuan

I . Inter-relationships between linguistic form and social function (3) • Mandarin examples: • 您，你，敝人 • 府上，舍下 • 令郎，小犬 • Sex • Chairman, chair(person) • Geographical origin • Phonological variant • Northern Taiwanese vs. southern Taiwanese • Examples of Taiwanese spoken in I-lan Yun-Pi Yuan

II. What should linguistics study? (1) • Grammar only: (the structure/form of language) • to discover the rules of language x and thus universal rules • Studies following this view often use idealized data—think up some sentences and then study them—”native speaker intuition” • Problems: • Speech is social behavior and has many social functions. Do these two factors have no influence on linguistic rules? • What is language x? How do we define what one language is? what’s the language x? people who language spoken Speak language x by people x who are people x? Yun-Pi Yuan

II. What should linguistics study? (2) • What is a native speaker? • Social functions/factors, too: • Questions like these (see above) led to development of a major counter view to the view of grammar only • Speech is a form of social behavior; language must be related to and interact with society. • Definition of sociolinguistics • The study of language in relation to society • Sociolinguistics is a branch of linguistics which studies all aspects of the relationship between language and society • Sociolinguistics deals with the inter-relationships between language and society • The study of the properties of language which require social factors in their explanation. Yun-Pi Yuan

II. What should linguistics study? (3) • Functions of language: • Communication • Social identity • Definition of a language really depends on how speakers of the language look at it; they’re often making social, cultural, and political distinguish. Therefore, a language is usually defined politically, socially/culturally, not by its linguistic form. • Example of Chinese Yun-Pi Yuan

III. The difficulty of defining what “one language” is (1) • Mutual intelligibility ≠ the same language. • Are people speaking the same language if they understand each other? • Scandinavia 87% Norwegian 76% Swedish 42% 72%18%23% Danish • Related to “linguistic distance”: structural similarity and also to informants’ attitudes towards the other groups and with the degree of “perceived beauty” of the lang. in question. • So, mutual intelligibility can’t be used to define a language. Number= % of informants who claimed to understand their neighbors’ lang. fairly easily on 1st encounter Yun-Pi Yuan

III. The difficulty of defining what “one language” is (2) • Dutch and German • Go village to village from coast of Holland to Vienna, Austria  always find mutual intelligibility between adjacent communities, but not between the start and end points • Romance languages (Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian) • Same language?  no body would say yes, BUT they share common writing system, some common history, culture, and are next to each other geographically • Potato joke • Spanish vs. Italian Yun-Pi Yuan

III. The difficulty of defining what “one language” is (3) • Hindi vs. Urdu • Linguistically similar • Religiously, Hindi is identified with Hindu; Urdu with Moslem. • Same language or not really depends on the people of the language  what they think, which in return depends on something social/cultural and political Yun-Pi Yuan

III. The difficulty of defining what “one language” is (4) • Same language ≠ mutual intelligibility (ex1) one language (ex2) one original language dialect dialect dialect different languages • e.g., 1: one language (mutual intelligibility? same nation? same language?) • Chinese (Taiwanese, Cantonese, Shanghai, Shandung, Mandarin, etc.) • e.g., 2: one original language: • the Romance situation (sharing a common writing system, culture, history; next to each other geographically) • Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, etc.. Yun-Pi Yuan

III. The difficulty of defining what “one language” is (5) • How to define native speakers? Northwest Amazon: (basin between Brazil & Venezuela) • 20 different tribes, each with a different language • All are exogamous, so a man’s wife must speak a different language • Marriage is patrilocal, and a wife must speak the husband’s language to their children • Most people here are multilingual • Who can the linguist get to be her “native speaker informant”? * Conclusion; to define a language, we have many factors (social, cultural, political, linguistic, etc.) Yun-Pi Yuan

IV. Social functions of speech • Communication: • Communicative pressures can influence the rules (form) of language. • Quick & easy contractions • Rhetorically expressive more complex forms (in order to carry out different intentions by being able to express one meaning in many ways; e.g., Tok Pisin) • Identification: • of other people • of self Yun-Pi Yuan

Identification of Other People geographic/national/ethnic social class people education professional group: occupation role (at any time) Role -teacher Role (students) (myself) –professor -student -wife -big sister -daughter -younger person -little sister: to elder sister -responsible adult -elder sister -girlfriend -sister-in-law -tutor -friend * Each of these roles may have “sub roles,” too. Yun-Pi Yuan

Identification of Self groups you belong to education Self occupation geographic role at any one time • Sometimes, social pressure override psychological pressures: • Children talk as their models • parents (& other siblings) • peers • adults Yun-Pi Yuan

V. Telephone conversation (1) • Telephone openings(Emanuel Schegloff 1968) • basic structure of conversation: ab, ab, ab • How what is said is determined socially. a social structure to lang. • Problem 1: how can we get the conversation going? How do we get into the structure? How do we begin a conversation & guarantee ourselves a further turn later on in the conversation? • Basic structure of telephone openings: summons- answer sequences Summons Answer T1 Question Answer T2 (raise topic) A structure of T3 obligations and rights between two people Yun-Pi Yuan

V. Telephone conversation (2) • Adjacency pair (coordinated pair): • Definition: Many acts require replies of specific kinds and put the hearer under a conversational obligation to provide them. • Examples: summons-answer; Q-A; greeting-greeting; offer-acceptance/refusal; thanks-acknowledgement; apology-acceptance (refusal) • Why does the answerer always speak first instead of the caller (since he doesn’t know to whom he’s speaking and he’s not the one who wants to initiate a conversation)? Yun-Pi Yuan

V. Telephone conversation (3) • Viewing the ring as a nonlinguistic realization of a caller’s summoning act solves the problem.  adjacency pair • Phone ring = summons of caller  answer of answerer • Now, let’s take a closer look at telephone openings: (see handout, Figure 1) Yun-Pi Yuan

V. Telephone conversation (4) • Turn 2: A case of an utterance realizing more than one act. • Another general rule: “those who initiate conversations have the right to raise the topic, and answerer has the obligation to listen.” Turn 3 or after Turn 3 (caller) • A conversational social relationship: in which participants have strong obligations to each other by virtue of the conventions governing conversation itself. These conventions make smooth coordinated openings possible. Yun-Pi Yuan

V. Telephone conversation (5) • Identification on telephone • Problem 2: how to achieve mutual recognition? • “Preferred method of identification involves the minimum use of recognitional resources.” • “oversuppose and undertell” • Identification becomes problematic on telephone. Why? (see handout, Figure 2) • Two identification problems (on telephone): • Caller identifies Answerer • Answerer identifies Caller TA T1T2T3 ring Hello? Tom? Yeah, Bill *summons *answer+ voice *ID of other+ Qcluevoice clue to self (ID yourself) Yun-Pi Yuan

V. Telephone conversation (6) • recognition identification • Tel. opening: summons -- answer question -- answer happening at the same time, just as adjacency pairs of the tel. opening: Yun-Pi Yuan

V. Telephone conversation (7) e.g.1 Ring summons answerer T1: Hello? answer/question (ID resource + oblige caller to ID) caller T2: Hi greeting (claim of ID; an answer to the Q) answer T3: Hi greeting (claim of ID + complete greeting) e.g.2 Ring summons answerer T1: Hello? answer/question (provide ID resource caller T2: Hello, Jenny. greeting/claim of ID/oblige--resource (pause) failure by A to recognize C This is Paul. provide more resource answerer T3: Oh, hello, Paul. greeting/claim of ID Yun-Pi Yuan

V. Telephone conversation (8) e.g.3 Answerer: T1 Hello? Caller: T2 Connie? Answerer: T3 Yeah, John. e.g.4 Variation A: T1 Hello? C: T2 Connie? A: T3 Oh, hi. How are you? Yun-Pi Yuan

Language & Society • There is a social structure to language. • Basic structure of conversation: ab, ab, ab. • What is said and how it is said is determined socially. • in the tel. openings discussed earlier • An utterance is a complex of actions. • (tel. openings) Hello? Yun-Pi Yuan

VI. Compliments—giving compliments (I) • Giving compliments: two studies in New Zealand & U.S—by women; examined status & age, sex, syntactic patterns, topics • Status and age • Most commonly the receiver is the same status & age as the speaker. • Sex (gender) Women to women most frequent Women to men (descending frequency) Men to women Men to men least frequent Yun-Pi Yuan

VI. Compliments—giving compliments (II) • Syntactic patterns • Three major patterns (about 80% of all compliments collected) • NP be/look (intensifier) ADJ “You look really nice.” • ADJ includes: nice, good, beautiful, pretty, great, wonderful, lovely (This set = 2/3 of all ADJ used in data). • I (intensifier) like/ love NP “I really like that skirt.” • VERB includes: like, love. enjoy, admire, be impressed by • PRO be (intensifier) (a) ADJ NP “That’s really a nice coat.” • Formulaic (or conventional) Language: a very limited subset of English sentence structure and vocabulary (and topics) is used to give compliments. Yun-Pi Yuan

VI. Compliments—giving compliments (III) • Topics • Appearance • clothes, hairdo (results of deliberate effort) • Ability (skill)/performance • a well-done job, a skillfully played game, a good meal • Personality/friendship • “That was kind.” • Possessions • “I like your new bike.” 70% Yun-Pi Yuan

VI. Compliments—responding (I) • Responding to compliments • What compliments do? • Two types of action simultaneously • Supportive action: an offer, congratulations, a gift • “That’s a good idea.” • Assessment: saying something which is supposed to be taken as TURE; like a remark, assertion, statement. • “That’s really a nice coat.” • Three social norms (rules) • 1. Accept supportive action • 2. Accept truth of assessment • 3. Avoid self-praise Yun-Pi Yuan

VI. Compliments—responding (II) • Why is it difficult to respond to compliments? • Must consider the three social norms • If your response follows norms 1 & 2, it conflicts with norm 3 (at least potentially). • If you agree, it amounts to self-praise. • If you disagree, it threatens both you & the complimenters. • It means you reject their supportive act and say that what they said is NOT TRUE. • It also means you have to say or imply bad things about yourself. Yun-Pi Yuan

VI. Compliments—responding (III) • Some conventional, formulaic responses • In Eng.: “Thank you”; in Chinese: “ 哪裡，哪裡” • Other types of solutions: • accept by agreeing A: Your dress is very nice. B: Yeah, this is my favorite dress. • reject by disagreeing (indirect/implicit rejection) A: You did a great job cleaning the house. B: Well, I guess you haven’t seen the kid’s room. • other “in-between” responses • Scale down (agree, with reservations) • Transfer • Return to the speaker Yun-Pi Yuan

Examples of Other in-between Responses Scale Down: (compliment of hearer’s new bride) e.g.1: A: She’s a real fox. B: Yeah, she’s a pretty woman. e.g. 2: A: You brought—like a ton of things. B: Just a few little things. e.g. 3: A: This is a really good paper. B: Yeah, there are still a few parts that need work, though. Transfer: A: That’s a nice sweater. B: Do you like it? My mother bought it for me. Return to the Speaker: A: That’s a nice sweater. B: Yours is new, too, isn’t it? That color really suits you. Yun-Pi Yuan

Reasons for giving compliments • If compliments are so hard to respond to why give them? • Solidarity (another norm: Speaker should express solidarity with hearer, and raise the hearer’s status when possible.) • Encouragement • Expression of gratitude • Compliment preceding and thus softening a criticism Yun-Pi Yuan

Language and Gender (1) • Lang. & Sex: • Sex differences in language • Sexism in language • Deborah Tannen’s two books: • That’s Not What I Meant (1986); conversational styles—more in general • You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation (1990)—new approach: conversational style differences; #1 national bestseller Yun-Pi Yuan

Language and Gender (2) • Different norms for the conversational styles of women and men: • Women: focus on “connection” (solidarity), so “intimacy” is the key (so value the telling of details.) • Men: focus on “status” ( so “independence,” the key) • Although different norms, neither is wrong or worse, or etc. • But, it means women and men often talk at cross-purposes (without realizing it). Yun-Pi Yuan

Language and Gender (3) Conclusion: • Women: “Rapport talk” (“trouble talk”)—recount their trouble, and expect sympathy, understanding, affirmation, but not a solution. • Men: “Report talk” (“solution talk”)—exhibiting knowledge and skill, holding center stage thus storytelling, joking, or imparting information. Cause asymmetrical situation, resulting in some arguments. (You Just Don’t Understand by D. Tannen, 1990.) Yun-Pi Yuan

Language and Gender (4) • Examples (Tannen 1990) • p. 24: wife and husband in different cities: • p. 30: asking boss about chances for promotion • p. 51: women frustrated because men don’t respond to their trouble by offering matching troubles • p. 113: the power of details (men: details of politics, news, sports; women: details of personal lives), the joy of involvement • Remember: these are generalizations. Yun-Pi Yuan

Language and Gender (5) • Language differences due to social expectation (Nash 29) • Pronunciation and words used • Language forms • Sexism in language: prejudice against women • Male terms precede female terms • Male terms used to refer to people in general • Feminine words formed from masculine words • Negative meaning in feminine words Yun-Pi Yuan

Sociolinguistics