2. Linguistics: the study of language
Language (Edward Spair,1921)
Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of
communicating ideas , emotions, and desire by means of a
system of voluntarily produced symbols.These symbols
are, in the first instance, auditory and they are produced
by the so-called ‘organs of speech’.
3. Wardhaugh (1973);
A system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human
communication.(No connection between the sounds and
the meaning varies from a language to another)
No necessary connection between the form of the word
and what it means.
Ferdinand de Saussure differentiated between ‘signifier’
(the word for concept) and the ‘signified’ (the concept
denoted by the word)
4. Sociolinguistics’ Antecedents
Two were two branches of sociolinguistics:
That had strong 19th century antecedents: the study of
rural dialects in Europe
The study of contact between languages that resulted in
new ‘Mixed languages’
Franz Boaz and others describing Indian languages , added
a cultural or anthropological interest in languages.
5. The term sociolinguistics first used by Hodson in relation
to language study in India.
Weinreich’s influential , languages in contact
Chomsky : abstracting language away from everyday
contexts .. Competence
Opposition to this concept of language
6. Relations between language and Society
Use of language gives signals concerning his or her social
and personal background.
Language is said to be indexical of one’s social class,
status, region of origin, gender, age group and so on!
These indexical features refer to certain aspects of
speech including accent , which indicate an individual’s
social group (or background)
7. Language as asocial construct
Social construction
Social constructionism means that our realities are shaped
through our experiences and our interactions with others.
Dr. Daniel Dor states that "by definition, language is something
that is bigger than the individual person…the essence of
language is in society - not the brain itself."
8. Prescriptivism!
There are two approaches to language: description versus
prescription.
1.A descriptive approach is the one which studies and
characterizes language of specific group of people in a
range of situations, without bringing any preconceived
notions of correctness to the task or declaring the
language of a specific group as being ‘better’ than that of
others.
9. What is a language and what is not?
The term ‘Variety’ is very useful to avoid prejudging the
issue of whether a given entity is a ‘language’ or a ‘dialect’.
In many instances , the boundaries between languages are
very difficult to determine especially where historical and
geographical links are involved.
10. Mutual intelligibility may be a useful test to decide
whether two varieties are distinct languages or NOT.
Sociopolitical criteria can decide the status of a variety ,
rather than linguistic one.
11. Norwegian and Danish provides a clear illustration of the
sociopolitical nature of the distinction between what
counts as a language and what is not.
For 4 centuries, Norway was ruled by Denmark. Danish
was considered the OFICIAL LANGUAGE, with
Norwegian having the status of a DIALECT OF DANISH.
Uponindependencein1814, Norwegian was declared an
official language distinct from Danish.
12. 2.A prescriptive approach is concerned with what is
called ‘linguistic etiquette’ showing what forms have to be
used in which situation.
Prescriptive approach can be best explained by the
traditional approach of teaching grammar in English
schools.
13. Prescriptions cover different aspects of language:
Grammar: Don’t end sentences with prepositions.
Vocabulary: Don’t say cool.
Meaning: Nice only means ‘finely nuanced’ as in a ‘a nice
distinction’.
Pronunciation: Don’t pronounce the final t in trait (British
English)
14. Sociolinguistics is in a sense, adopts the prescriptive
approach to language(Telling us how to talk using certain
language forms with who – participants, for what
purpose? and where- setting).
15. Standardization!
A discussion of prescriptivism goes hand in hand with the
study of the rise of standard languages and their relation
to other dialects .
Garvin and Mathiot (1960) define a standardized language
as a ‘codified form of a language , accepted by, and serving
as a model, to a larger speech community’.
The standard form of a language is that dialect which is
most often associated with specific subgroups (usually
educated people or people having high social status and
authority within society) and with specific functions
(writing, education, radio and television, administration,
court, mosques).
16. Features of standard English
David Crystal (1995)lists the following characteristics of
standard English:
1. It is historically based on one dialect among many, but
now has special status, without a local base. It is
largely(but not completely) neutral with respect to
regional identity.
2. Standard English is not a matter of pronunciation,
rather of grammar, vocabulary, and orthography.
3. It carries most prestige within ‘English-speaking’
countries.
Although it is widely understood, it is not widely spoken.
17. The Notion of speech community!
Sociologists study societies in terms of categories like
class, ethnicity, or regional and economic characteristics.
‘Community’ as typically used in sociology suggests a
dimension of shared knowledge , possessions or
behaviours.
Linguists developed the term ‘speech community’ .
A speech community is a group of people who share a
set of linguistic norms and expectations with regard to
how their language should be used.
18. Speech community
A speech community comes to share a specific set of
norms for language use through living and interacting
together, and speech communities may therefore emerge
among all groups that interact frequently and share
certain norms and ideologies.
Such groups can be villages, countries, political or
professional communities, communities with shared
interests, hobbies, or lifestyles, or even just groups of
friends.
Speech communities may share both particular sets of
vocabulary and grammatical conventions, as well as
speech styles and genres, and also norms for how and
when to speak in particular ways.
19. Monolingualism and Multilingualism
Monoglotism or unilingualism, is the condition of being
able to speak only a single language.
Multilingualism is the use of two or more languages, either
by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers.
It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual
speakers in the world's population.
More than half of all Europeans claim to speak at least one
other language in addition to their mother tongue.
People who speak several languages are also called polyglots.
20. Diglossia
The term ‘diglossia’ was coined by the US linguist Charles
Ferguson (1959)
to denote a situation where two varieties of a language exist
side by side throughout a speech community, with each being
assigned a definite but non-overlapping role.
Ferguson was interested in societies in which a classical form
of a language (no longer spoken colloquially) was reserved for
some functions like education, literature and public speeches,
while a modern colloquial variety of the same language was
used for other functions like domestic interaction.
The community regards the classical form as superior, while
the colloquial form tends to be taken for granted.
Ferguson used the labels ‘H’ (‘high’) for the variety accorded
social prestige and ‘L’ (‘low’) for the other variety.
21. Terms introduced!
Signifier
Signified
Sapir-Worf hypothesis (Linguistic relativity)
Language as a social construct
Prescriptivism
Descriptivism
Standardization
Standard language
Speech community
Monolingualism
Multilingualism
Polygots
Diglossia
