Socio-linguistics 2 Languages and communities Wardhaugh Chapter 2

1. Socio-linguistics 2 Languages and communities Wardhaugh Chapter 2

2. Sociolinguistics “to study the relationship between language and society” (Ferguson 1966) • possible interactions between language and society • social structure influence • language influence society • mutual influence • no influence

3. Culture: how a group of people perceives, believes,thinks, behaves(differentverbal and nonverbal communication patterns, values, cognitive styles, expectancies, etc.) Three main factors that distinguish one culture from another: 1) ethnicity 2) language 3) social class

4. Inter-relationship between linguistic items and social evaluations a. butter, budder, bu’erb. fishing, fishin’etc… p.26 Wardhaugh

5. Okay, can we define “dialect” • Nope • But I like analogy with speciation. If it is different but mutually intelligible, I’d call it a dialect. If it so different that speakers can not understand each other, a language. • But sometimes the distinction is political. Think of Chinese: Mandarin vs. Cantonese and conversely Swedish vs Danish

6. Taking a slow walk through villages from southern Italy to northern France? Where does French end and Italian begin? Some French dialects are very Italian and some Italian dialects are very French. (p. 44)

7. EnglishScottishAmerican English

8. A Scots samplerBelow is a selection of Scots/English differences in three parts (Scots on the left, English on the right). All listed forms are in current use. As regards pronunciation, whatever their typical speech (more Scots, more English, or mixed), a majority of the Scottish people differ in speech from other Anglophones in two ways that are shibboleths of Scottishness: (1) a tapped or rolled alveolar r in such words as breathe, world, and there; (2) a voiceless velar fricative as in the ch of such words as ach, loch, Bach, Munich.

9. (1)               Pronunciation and typical spellinghame, stane, sair, gae home, stone, sore, gohoose, oot, doon/doun, coo house, out, down, cowba(w), ha(w), faut, saut ball, hall, fault, saltbuit, guid, muin, puir boot, good, moon, poorlicht, micht, richt, sicht light, might, right, sight

10. (2)               Grammarlookit, mendit looked, mendedtell/tellt, sell/sellt tell/told, sell/soldgae/gaed/gan go/wentgie/gied/gien give/gave/giveneye/een eye/eyes he’ll no can come the day He won’t be able to come todayah micht could gae the morn I might be able to go tomorrow ah dinna(e) ken I don’t knowwe couldna(e) dae it We couldn’t do ithe’ll no be comin He won’t be comingthat’s me awa(e) hame I’m going home nowah, it’s yirsel Ah, it’s you

11. (3) Vocabularyan ashet a serving disha bairn a childtae blether to talk nonsense a brae a slope (of a hill)braw fine, beautiful, handsome tae dicht to clean, wipedouce sweet, especially in mannera dwam a stupor, dazed statefantoosh flashyglaikit stupid-looking

12. More Scots a howf(f) a favourite haunt/pubtae ken to knowtae lowp to jump, to leap(the) noo nowtae spear to asktae stravaig to wander, roam, go around/about a sybie/syboe a spring onion tapsalteerie topsy-turvytae thole to endure, toleratetae trauchle to overburden, harassa sair (=sore) trauchle a great burden

13. Some Scots GaelicTha mi uamhasach sgith !

14. Dialect at one time indicated a geographical as well as linguistic distinction

15. standardization Codification of language: grammars, spelling books, dictionaries, literature.

16. What is “Standard English” • Variety which is: • In most print sources? • Taught in schools? • The version ESL students study?

17. Madonna vs. Guy Richie • Sometimes standard or RP accent is valued • Sometimes dialect is valued • Elitist impulse vs socialist impulse in dialectic

18. Vitality • Manx and Cornish dead • Latin too is dead • Dialects also die • But other dialects (and languages) are born and the classical languages are still vital parts of Western culture.

19. Historocity • Groups link sense of identity with language. Unifying force? Divisive as well?

20. Autonomy • Speakers of a language of dialect may feel different and special.

21. Reduction • Other linguistic groups recognize their dialect as being substandard, though they may love it nevertheless. In fact, the fact that it is substandard can be thought of as a badge of honor. Cockney is a good example as is Glaswegian, Mancunian. Surfer dialect too. What others?

22. Mixture • Feelings about the purity or lack of purity of a dialect. People feel that their “mixed” speech is debased, deficient, degnerate, etc…

23. Good speakers Bad speakers • Most groups recognize better and worse dialects and pronunciations, though the heirarchy here is relative and shifting. Parisien French, Oxford English, Mull Gaelic?, Lancastrian (vs. Palmdalic) and Bakerfeldian (vs. Oildalese).

24. Language vs Dialect • Whatever else it may or may not be, a dialect is a subset of a language?

25. Vernacular and Koine • Vernacular: the speech passed down from parent to child as primary mode of communication (Do parents pass down language?) • Koine: speech shared by people of different vernaculars

26. Yikes! • Look at all the discussion questions on pp. 40-43. I think 1, 11, and 17 are worth talking about. Any others we might discuss?

27. Dialect vs patois • Dialect: has a literature • Patois: purely oral, rural, lower class

28. Dialect vs Accent • Dialect: vocabulary, syntax, pronunciation, etc.. • Accent: pronunciation • Everybody speaks English with some kind of accent. Thirdy, La’in, dune, dude?

29. Discussion questions • Let’s look at 1-6 on page 46-7, in groups for 15 minutes then general discussion.

30. Social dialects • Dialect associate with group identity apart from geographical identity. Black English, Jewish English, Surfer Dudian, Academic English?

31. Styles, Registers, Beliefs • Formal vs informal • Occupation lingo • Dialect, style, register are largely independent

32. High/low vs better/worse • We often don’t like speakers who speak with a posh accent, even though/because we recognize the social superiority or “correctness” of the speech. In fact, rural dialects though recognized as “incorrect’ tend to be preferred over city dialects. We tend to like older, more familiar ways of speech. Simple over complex. Bush beats Kerry?

33. As Wardhaugh points out, depite what we “know” people tend to believe and to teach value judgments about lanaguage and dialect.

34. People without university educations tend to think of their speech and grammar as inferior. They believe pundits who tell them about “proper” grammar and speech.

35. On the other hand, humans are naturally very smart about language. We deduce and intuit a great deal about speakers. How can do we make these judgments? How can we know when we are right and wrong? Would we be able to spot a Martian trying to pass himself off as a native English speaker?

36. My friends Alaister and Alex “Speak English!”

37. Production vs. Reception: We notice and comprehend better than we can produce and convey. Our “competence” outstrips our “performance” ?

38. Let us attempt/let’s try disussion questions 4-7 on pp. 54-5

40. Bilingualism • Individual bilingualism • two native languages in the mind • Fishman: “ a psycholinguistic phenomenon” • Societal bilingualism • A society in which two languages are used but where relatively few individuals are bilingual • Fishman: “a sociolinguistic phenomenon” • Stable bilingualism • persistent bilingualism in a society over several generations • Language evolution: • Language shift • Diglossia

41. BENEFITS OF BILINGUALISM • (California Department of Education, Language Policy and Leadership Office) • Enhanced academic and linguistic competence in two languages • Development of skills in collaboration & cooperation • Appreciation of other cultures and languages • Cognitive advantages • Increased job opportunities • Expanded travel experiences • Lower high school drop out rates • Higher interest in attending colleges and universities

42. BILINGUALISM AND MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS • ”The more motivated you are the quicker you learn an additional language” (evidence from a number of studies) • Gardner & Lamberts (1972): • Integrative motivation = social motivation (to integrate in a specific culture  to fit in to a social group.) • Instrumental motivation = motivationfor practical reasons (to do well at school get to university) •  Conflicting evidence in later research with regard to the importance and distinctiveness of the two motivational factors

43. Relationships between knowing one’s ancestral language and affective factors (an U.S. study by Wharry, 1993) Subjects: Native American, Vietnamese American, Hispanic American college students Those who were bilingual tended to: -believe that learning their ancestral language was important -had integrative reasons for that (e.g., heritage, family relations) -believe that their parents wanted them to learn the ancestral language -had clearcut ethnic identity

44. Diglossia • Ferguson’s definition (1959): the side-by-side existence of historically & structurally related language varieties • the Low variety takes over the outdated High variety • Fishman’s reformulation (1967): a diglossic situation can occur anywhere where two language varieties (even unrelated ones) are used in functionally distinct ways • the Low variety loses ground to the superposed High variety • problematic as it creates an opposite situation to widespread bilingualism

45. Diglossic situation • Four examples:

46. Diglossic situation: functions of H vs. L Ferguson, Charles. 1972. Diglossia. In: Pier Paolo Giglioli (ed.). Language and Social Context. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 232-251. In: Ralph Fasold. 1985. The Sociolinguistics of Society. Oxford: Blackwell, 35.

47. LANGUAGES IN INDONESIA: 300 languages and dialects are spoken in Indonesia, but BahasaIndonesia is the official and most widely spoken tongue. Its common use has helped unify the 200 million citizens since Indonesia’s independence in 1949. Bahasa Indonesia is based on Malay, long the market language of coastal towns, and it contains elements of Chinese, Indian, Dutch, and English.Today, television programs, major newspapers, schools, and universities all use Bahasa Indonesia. Example of L moving towards H & becoming national language: Do you speak English? Bisa bicara Bahasa Inggris?

48. Language choice • code switching • changing from one language to an other • situational switching • metaphorical switching • code-mixing • speaking in one language but using pieces from another • style shifting • standard English vs. afro-american vernacular • language borrowing

49. Example of code-switching in the Amazon Tariana is spoken by about 100 people in the northwest Amazonia (Brazil). Other languages in the area is e.g. Tucano (almost a lingua franca), Baniwa and Arawak (the two latter related to Tariana). The area is known for its language group exogamy and institutionlized multilingualism. Language choice is motivated by power relationship and by status, and there are strict rules for code- switching. Code-mixing with Tucano is considered a “language violation”; using elements of Baniwa is funny while mixing different Tariana dialects implies that one “cannot speak Tariana properly. Overusing Portuguese is associated with an Indian who is trying to be better than his peers. Aikhenvald (2003) Language in Society 32:1-21

50. Pidgin and Creole • Ferguson (1966) distinguished between five language types based on prestige (p) and vitality (v): • Vernacular • unstandardized native language of speech community (-p, +v) • Standard • native language of a speech community codified in dictionaries and grammars (+p, +v) • Classical • language codified in dictionaries and grammars which is no longer spoken (+p, -v) • Pidgin • hybrid language with lexicon from one language and grammar from another language (-p, -v) • Creole • language acquired by children of speakers of pidgin, or subsequently by speaker or Creole (-p, ±v)