This document provides an overview of key concepts in sociolinguistics. It defines sociolinguistics as the study of the relationship between language and social function. Some key topics covered include dialects, registers, speech communities, pidgins, creoles, bilingualism, lingua francas, and quantitative and qualitative research approaches. Examples are given to illustrate concepts like dialects, jargon, mutual intelligibility, and types of bilingualism.
2. What is sociolinguistics?
• Sociolinguistics is a branch of Linguistics that
studies the relationship between language
and its social function.
3. Sociology of Language
• This field studies a specific social problem
related to a specific use of language in a
specific social context.
4. • Etnography: focuses on the use of language in
a particular place, not in a particular area of
the language.
• Ethnolinguistics: studies the structure of
language, focuses on a particular area of the
language. (grammar, phonology, etc.)
5. • Dialect: a dialect is a variation of a language.
Nevertheless, it is still the same language. Por
ejemplo, el español hablado en México y el
español que se habla en Argetina; a pesar de
sus diferencias ambos son español.
• Accent: accent refers to phonological
variations of a language.
6. • Idiolect: It is a person‘s specific, unique way of
speaking
• Register: the way which a person speak, could
be formal or informal.
7. • Speech community: a speech
community is inside a dialect. It is
spoken by a group of people that only
understand the language if they are
part of that community.
• Jargon: it is a group of words used in a
specific field, mainly at work.
Only people related
to such field are
able to understand
the jargon.
8. • Mutual intelligibility: It is a relationship of mutual
understanding between different dialects. If two
speakers speak differently but still
understand each other, they speak
the same language.
• Dialect continuum: a range of dialects
that are mutually intelligible
between their neighbours but too
different from those far away.
9. • Pidgin: it is a simplified language developed
“because of a need”for understanding
between two or more groups of different
speakers. It is spoken by a group of people for
a specific porpuse.
• Creole (language): It is a stable language that
originated from a pidgin after several
gerenations of use.
11. • Lingua Franca: a language that is
widely used by speakers of different
languages to communnicate with one
another, mostly English.
English as spoken in the world
12. • Vernacular Language: the standard native
language of a country or locality.
A variety of such everyday language specific to
a social group or region: e.g. the vernaculars
of New York City.
13. • Research question: main question; the basis of
an investigation.
• Quantitative Approach: the investigation is
based on getting results in numbers.
• Qualitative Approach: research based on
getting results and data from interviews.
