Introduction to
sociolinguistics
Chapters 1, 2 3 and 4
Janet Holmes

What is sociolinguistics?
• “...the study of how language works in casual conversations
and the media we are exposed to, the presence of societal
norms, policies, and laws which address language - regional
dialects, multilingualism, language policy, non-sexist language,
social class, ethnicity (p 1

Example 1
• Ray : Hi, mum Mum: Hi. You’re late Ray: Yeah, that bastard
kept us in again
• What is sociolinguistics? Sociolinguistics is study the
relationship between language and society (Holmes, 1995: 1)

Sociolinguistics conveys social
meaning
• Language serves a range of functions
• 1) to ask for
• 2) to give people information
• 3) to express indignation
• 4) to express admiration and respect, etc

• Key term: LANGUAGE
• “...a system of linguistic communication particular to a group
[including]...spoken, written, and signed modes of
communication” (p 2)

Key term: CODE
• “When 2 or more people communicate with each
other...speakers who are multilingual and have access to two
or more codes...often switch back and forth between these
codes in some sort of multilingual discourse [often call
codeswitching]”

Why do we say same thing in
different ways?
• 1. What you call your mother in different contexts: (a)
Addressing her (i) at home alone with her (ii) on the telephone
with friends listening (iii) in a shop (b) Referring to her (i) at
home to another family member when she is present
• (ii) at home to another family member when she is not
present (iii) to an acquaintance who doesn’t know her (iv) to a
sales assistant in a shop when she is present

Some possible answers
• Addressing your mother (i) mum, mummy, mom, ma (ii)
mother, mater. (iii) mother
• (b) Referring to your mother (i) mum, mom (ii) the old lady,
our mam (iii) my mum (iv) my mother

Social factors
1.Participant
• •Who is speaking •Who are they speaking to
2. Setting
• •Where are they speaking to
3. Topic and Function •What is being talked about? •Why are
they speaking?

Social dimensions
• Social distance scale • (participant relationship) • Intimate
relationship or distant relationship
• Status scale • Participant scale • Low varieties or high varieties
• Formality Scale & 2 functional scales • Setting or type of
interaction • Relating to the purposes or topic of interaction

Explanation
• Why people use one set of forms in some contexts, but
different forms in others The step which need to be taken in
providing an explanation are 1. to identify clearly the linguistic
variation involved e.g. vocabulary, sounds, grammatical
construction, dialects, languages) 2. to identify clearly the
different social or non- linguistics factors which lead speakers
to use one form rather than another

Diaglossia
(speech situation)
• When two varieties of the same language are used (H & L) H
formal e.g. religion, newspaper, broadcasting, education, etc
L informal e.g. education (discussion) , gossiping, and
shopping,
• diglossia has three crucial features:
• 1. Two distinct varieties of the same language are used in
the community, with one regarded as a high (or H) variety and
the other a low (or L) variety.
• 2. Each variety is used for quite distinct functions; H and L
complement each other.
• 3. No one uses the H variety in everyday conversation.

Language maintenance and
language shift
• Language shift use one language to different language two
distinct codes in different domains use different varieties of
just one language for their communicative need Language
death ( language are no longer spoken anywhere)
• Language loss ( the process of language death gradually loss
of fluency and competence by its speaker)

Factors contributing to language
shift
• Economic People learn English- dominated countries to get a
job
• Social (i) no active steps to maintain their ethnic language (ii)
not see it as offering any advantages to their children

Language maintenance
• a. The pattern of language use more domains more chances
• b. Demographic factors
• c. Attitudes to minority language
• identity and culture
• self esteem

Linguistic varieties
• Vernacular language
The term vernacular is used in a number of ways. It generally refers
to a language which has not been standardised and which does not
have official status. There are hundreds of vernacular languages, such
as Buang in Papua New Guinea, Hindustani in India and Bumbar in
Vanuatu, many of which have never been written down or described.
In a multilingual speech community, the many different ethnic or
tribal languages used by different groups are referred to as vernacular
languages. Vernaculars are usually the first languages learned by
people in multilingual communities, and they are often used for a
relatively narrow range of informal functions. (pg 77)
• standard variety A standard variety is generally one which is
written, and which has undergone some degree of regularisation
or codification (for example, in a grammar and a dictionary); it is
recognised as a prestigious variety or code by a community, and it
is used for H functions alongside a diversity of L varieties. (pg 78)

Linguafrancasdescribesalanguageservesasaregularmeansofcommunication
betweendifferentlinguisticgroupsinmultilingualspeech community.
• In multilingual communities, lingua francas are so useful they
may eventually displace the vernaculars. When people from
different ethnic groups marry in the Democratic Republic of
the Congo-Zaire or Tanzania or Papua New Guinea, they often
use the lingua franca of their area as the language of the
home, and their children may therefore learn very little of
their father’s and mother’s vernaculars. The reason that this
has not happened in the Vaupés area, i.e. that Tukano has not
displaced the many languages of the different longhouses, is
related to the marriage patterns, which are exogamous.
People must marry outside their language and longhouse
group, and the taboo against marrying someone who speaks
the same language is very strong.(pg 84)

Code-switching or code-mixing
Participants,solidarityandstatus
• Example 8 [ The Maori is in italics. THE TRANSLATION IS IN
SMALL CAPITALS. ]
• 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 now. 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 . Have you started yet? [
HELLO MY FRIEND. I’M FINE ]

• Code-mixing occurs when conversant use both languages
together to the extent that they change from one language to
other in the course of a single utterance.” ( Wardhaugh
1994:108).
• “Code-switching as “ the alternative used by bilinguals of two
or more languages in the same conversation.” ( Milroy and
Musyken 1995, p. 7).

WHAT IS CODE SWITCHING?
• CODE SWITCHING (CS)
• • Is the practice of *unpredictably changing one’s language, dialect
or speaking style to better fit one’s environment which • Also a
universal language-contact phenomenon that reflects the grammars
of both languages working simultaneously.
• • code switching is possible in *bilingual or *multilingual
environment but not in monolingual.
• • code-switching occurs when a speaker alternates between two or
more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single
conversation
• • Multilinguals, speakers of more than one language, sometimes use
elements of multiple languages when conversing with each other.
• • Also Style, Register and Voice, whether in spoken or written
language, can then be included in a broad definition of code-
switching.

FACTORS THAT MODIFY CODE
CHOICE
• • Participants
• • solidarity and status
• • Social Distance
• • Status Relationship
• • Formality
• • Function

REASON FOR CODE
SWITCHING
• • No similar words in English
• • Did not know the English word
• • To fill the gap in speaking
• • Easier to speak in own language
• • To avoid misunderstanding
• • To convey intimacy
• • So others would not understand (Privacy)
• • To add emphasis
• • Other reasons

Code mixing
• Code mixing is possible in bilingual or multilingual
environments
• • Is also a language contact phenomenon that doesn't reflect
the grammars of both languages working simultaneously.
• • Words are borrowed from one language and adapt it in
other language and it is usually without a change of topic.
• • It often occurs within one sentence, one element is spoken
in language A and the rest in language B.
• • This term is usually found in mainly in informal interaction

REASONS FOR CODE MIXING
• • Interjection
• • Quoting somebody else
• • Expressing group identity
• • Because of real lexical need
• • Talking about a particular topic
• • Repetition used for clarification
• • Being emphatic about something
• • To soften or strengthen request or command
• • Intention of clarifying the speech content for interlocutor
• • To exclude other people when a comment is intended for
only a limited audience

• Life ko face kiijiye with himmat and faith in yourself. (Code-
switching, English in bold)
• I AM COMING WITH YOU, JANA MAT.

Lexical borrowing
• It is obviously important to distinguish this kind of switching from
switches which can be accounted for by lack of vocabulary in a
language. When speaking a second language, for instance, people will
often use a term from their mother tongue or first language because
they don’t know the appropriate word in their second language. These
‘switches’ are triggered by lack of vocabulary. People may also borrow
words from another language to express a concept or describe an object
for which there is no obvious word available in the language they are
using. Borrowing of this kind generally involves single words – mainly
nouns – and it is motivated by lexical need. It is very different from
switching where speakers have a genuine choice about which words or
phrases they will use in which language. Borrowings often differ from
code-switches in form too. Borrowed words are usually adapted to the
speaker’s first language. They are pronounced and used grammatically
as if they were part of the speaker’s first language. New Zealand English
has borrowed the word mana from Maori, for instance. There is no
exact equivalent to its meaning in English, although it is sometimes
translated as meaning ‘prestige’ or ‘high status’. It is pronounced
[ma:na] by most New Zealanders. 1

• Anonymous (Greek) The word 'anonymous' comes from the Greek
word 'anōnumos'. ...
• Loot (Hindi) ...
• Guru (Sanskrit) ...
• Safari (Arabic) ...
• Cigar (Spanish) ...
• Cartoon (Italian) ...
• Wanderlust (German) ...
• Cookie (Dutch)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_English_words_by_country_
or_language_of_origin

Pidgin and creole pg(85)
• Why do pidgins develop?
• A pidgin is a language which has no native speakers. Pidgins develop as a
means of communication between people who do not have a common
language. So a pidgin is no one’s native language. Pidgins seem particularly likely
to arise when two groups with different languages are communicating in a
situation where there is also a third dominant language. On Caribbean slave
plantations in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, West African people
were deliberately separated from others who used the same language so as to
reduce the risk of their plotting to escape or rebel. In order to communicate with
each other, as well as with their overseers, they developed pidgins based on the
language of the plantation bosses as well as their own languages. O n sea-coasts
in multilingual contexts, pidgins developed as languages of trade between the
traders – who used a colonial language such as Portuguese, or Spanish or English
– and the Indians, Chinese, Africans or American Indians that they were trading
with. In fact, many of the meanings which have been suggested for the word
pidgin refl ect its use as a means of communication between traders. It may
derive from the word ‘business’ as pronounced ,, pidgin English which developed
in China, or perhaps from Hebrew pidjom meaning ‘trade or exchange’, or
perhaps from the combination of two Chinese characters péi and tsCn
meaning ‘paying money’.

Pidgin
• 1. has no native speaker
• 2. a means of communication between people who don’t have a
common language
• 3. Pidgin linguistics structures such as: sound, vocabulary,
grammatical features, a new variety ( borrowing/ emerging from
some languages)
• 4. Example: in Papua New Guinea, Pidgin Chinese English spoken by
Chinese languages a Neo Melanesia / Tok Piksin
• must watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqJI7SdS9Gg&vl=en

■ What kind of linguistic structure does
a pidgin language have? (pg86)
• Pidgin languages are created from the combined efforts of people who speak different
languages. All languages involved may contribute to the sounds, the vocabulary and the
grammatical features, but to different extents, and some additional features may emerge
which are unique to the new variety. Nevertheless, it has been found that when one group
speaks a prestigious world language and the other groups use local vernaculars, the prestige
language tends to supply more of the vocabulary, while vernacular languages have more
influence on the grammar of the developing pidgin. The proportion of vocabulary contributed
to Tok Pisin by English, for example, has been estimated at 77 per cent, compared to about 11
per cent from Tolai, the local vernacular which has contributed the largest amount of
vocabulary. The language which supplies most of the vocabulary is known as the lexif er (or
sometimes superstrate ) language, while the languages which influence the grammatical
structure are called the substrate. So in Papua New Guinea, English is the lexifier language for
Tok Pisin, while Tolai contributes to the substrate. Because pidgins develop to serve a very
narrow range of functions in a very restricted set of domains, they tend to have a simplified
structure and a small vocabulary compared with fully developed languages. Pacific pidgin
languages have only fi ve vowels, for example: [a, e, i, o, u] compared to around twenty in
most varieties of English (see Appendix 1). Consonant clusters tend to be simplified (e.g. pes
for ‘paste’), or vowels are inserted to break them into two syllables (e.g. silip for ‘sleep’).
Affixes are dispensed with. So words generally do not have inflections, as in English, to mark
the plural, or to signal the tense of the verb. Nor are affixes used to mark gender, as in Spanish
and Italian. Often the information affixes convey is signalled more specifically elsewhere in the
sentence, or it can be deduced from the context, or it is referentially redundant. Every learner
of French or Spanish, for example, knows that the grammatical gender of objects is strictly
dispensable if you are interested in communication as opposed to impressing people.

• To sum up, a pidgin language has three identifying characteristics:
• 1. it is used in restricted domains and functions
• 2. it has a simplified structure compared to the source languages
• 3. it generally has low prestige and attracts negative attitudes –
especially from outsiders.
• Pidgins often have a short life. If they develop for a restricted function,
they disappear when the function disappears. In Vietnam, a pidgin
English developed for use between the American troops and the
Vietnamese, but it subsequently died out. A trading pidgin usually
disappears when trade between the groups dies out. Alternatively, if
trade grows, then more contact will generally lead to at least one side
learning the other’s language, and so the need for the pidgin
disappears. In some cases, however, pidgins go on to develop into fully-
fl edged languages or creole

Creole
• A creole is a pidgin which has acquired native speakers. Many of
the languages which are called pidgins are in fact now creole
languages. They are learned by children as their first language and
used in a wide range of domains. Tok Pisin (which was used to
illustrate some of the features of pidgins in the previous section) is
one obvious example of a pidgin which has developed into a creole
language. This makes it clear that the label of a language is not an
accurate guide to its status as pidgin or creole. Despite its name, Tok
Pisin is a creole because it has been learned as a fi rst language by a
large number of speakers, and has developed accordingly to meet
their linguistic needs. A s a result of their status as some group’s fi
rst language, creoles also differ from pidgins in their range of
functions, in their structure and in some cases in the attitudes
expressed towards them. A creole is a pidgin which has expanded in
structure and vocabulary to express the range of meanings and
serve the range of functions required of a first language.
•

• Many present-day creoles are spoken by descendants of the African
slaves in the USA and the Caribbean. As mentioned above, the common
language of the plantation was generally a pidgin, and children naturally
acquired the pidgin as a first language. As the families’ communicative
needs expanded, so did the resources of the language they used. The
pidgin developed into a creole. Alternatively, a pidgin can become so
useful as a lingua franca that it may be expanded and used even by
people who share a tribal language. In multilingual speech communities,
parents may use a pidgin so extensively during the day, in the market, at
church, in offices and on public transport that it becomes normal for
them to use it at home too. In this case, too, children will often acquire
it as their first language and it will develop into a creole. Tok Pisin is the
first language of many children in Papua New Guinea. Once a creole has
developed it can be used for all the functions of any language – politics,
education, administration (including tax forms, as illustrated in example
1 0) , original literature (and translations of Shakespeare too, as in
• example 1 3) , and so on. Tok Pisin is frequently used as the language
of debate in the Papua New Guinea Parliament, and it is used for the fi
rst three years of education in many schools. Creoles have become
accepted standard and even national and official languages. Pg 93

Difference between the standard
language and the creole
• eventually there may exist a continuum of varieties between the
standard language and the creole – sometimes described as a post-
creole continuum. In this situation, linguists label the variety closest
to the standard an acrolect (where acro means ‘high’), whereas the
variety closest to the creole is labeled the basilect or ‘deep’ creole.
These two varieties are often mutually unintelligible. Varieties in
between these two extremes are described as mesolects or
intermediate varieties. Examples can be found in Jamaica and
Guyana. So in Guyanese Creole the acrolectal form ‘I told him’, used
by educated middle class people, has a mesolectal form ‘I tell im’,
used by lower middle class people, and a basilectal form ‘mi tell am’
used by old and illiterate rural labourers. Over time a creole in this
situation may be engulfed by the standard language, as
Negerhollands has been by Dutch in the Dutch West Indies. One
further possibility.