Sociolinguistics Lesson 3 Language Choice in Multilingual Communities

Sociolinguistics Lesson 3 Language Choice in Multilingual Communities

Learning Objectives • Communicative repertoire • Diglossia • Code-switching and code-mixing

Language variation • Different styles • Different pronunciation • Different vocabulary • Different grammar • Different dialects • Different languages

Language variation • Participants • Setting • Topic • Function

Communicative Repertoire Activity 3.1 The languages in your life: your communicative repertoire

Communicative repertoire

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 • 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. • Each variety is used for quite distinct functions; H and L complement each other. • No one uses the H variety in everyday conversation.

Diglossia Activity 3.2 Functional distribution of H and L varieties across different domains of language use in diglossic situations

Diglossia

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.

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.

Acquisition • 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.

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.

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

Lexicon Greek H L ikosspiti house idhornero water etekeeyenise gave birth als ma but

Lexicon American H L illumination light purchase buy children kids

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

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.

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 ____________________________________ HSwahiliL ____________________________________ LVernacular ____________________________________

Double-nested diglossia • H and L varieties are each themselves subdivided into H and L varieties • e.g. Khalapur, India

Double-nested diglossia

Linear polyglossia • Three or more languages or varieties are on a continuum from H to L • e.g. Malaysia

Linear polyglossia

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 ____________________________________ HStandard ChineseL ____________________________________ LCantonese ____________________________________

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.

Sociolinguistic motivations for code-switching [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.]

Sociolinguistics Lesson 3 Language Choice in Multilingual Communities