Sociolect
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In
Sociolects involve both passive acquisition of particular communicative practices through association with a local community, as well as active learning and choice among speech or writing forms to demonstrate identification with particular groups.[3] The term sociolect might refer to socially restricted dialects,[4] but it is sometimes also treated as equivalent with the concept of register,[5] or used as a synonym for jargon and slang.[6][7]
Overview
A sociolect, defined by leading sociolinguist and
Distinguished from dialect
The main distinction between sociolects (social dialects) and dialects proper (geographical dialects), which are often confused, is the settings in which they are created.[12] A dialect's main identifier is geography: a certain region uses specific phonological, morphosyntactic or lexical rules.[9]: 35 Asif Agha expands the concept by stating that "the case where the demographic dimension marked by speech are matters of geographic provenance alone, such as speaker's birth locale, extended residence and the like".[13]: 135 However, a sociolect's main identifier is a socioeconomic class, age, gender, and/or ethnicity in a certain speech community.
An example of a dialectal difference, based on region, is the use of the words soda or pop and coke in different parts of the United States. As Thomas E. Murray states, "coke is used generically by thousands of people, especially in the southern half of the country."[14] On the other hand, pop is known to be a term that is used by many citizens in the northern half of the country.
An example of a sociolect difference, based on social grouping, is the
Definitions
Code switching is "the process whereby bilingual or bidialectal speakers switch back and forth between one language or dialect and another within the same conversation".[9]: 23
Diglossia, associated with the American linguist Charles A. Ferguson, which describes a sociolinguistic situation such as those that obtain in Arabic-speaking countries and in German-speaking Switzerland. In such a diglossic community, the prestigious standard of 'High' (or H) variety, which is linguistically related to but significantly different from the vernacular or 'Low' (or L) varieties, has no native speakers.[9]: 389
Domain is "different language, dialects, or styles are used in different social contexts".[9]: 41
Language attitudes are "social in origin, but that they may have important effects on language behavior, being involved in acts of identity, and on linguistic change."[9]: 73
Pragmatics is the meaning of a word in social context, while semantics has "purely linguistic meaning".[9]: 107
Register is "a language variety that is associated with a particular topic, subject, or activity...." Usually, it is defined by vocabulary, but has grammatical features as well.[9]: 110
Examples
Tamil caste system
The following is an example of the lexical distinction between the
Gloss | Mudaliyar (non-Brahmin) | Iyengar (Brahmin) |
---|---|---|
Drinking Water | tanni | tirrto |
Water in general | tanni | jalo |
Non-potable water | tanni | tanni |
Worship | puuse | puuje |
food | sooru | saado |
worship | puuse | puuje 'worship'// puuse 'punishment for children' |
food | sooru/saado | saado 'food'// sooru 'food' (pejorative) |
eat | tinnu/saapdo | saapdo 'eat'// tinnu 'guzzle, etc.' (pejorative) |
Norwegian dialect-based sociolect
Norwegian does not have a spoken standard and is heavily dependent on dialect variants. The following example shows the difference between the national written standard and a spoken variant, where the phonology and pronunciation differ. These are not sociolectic differences per se. As Agha states, "Some lexical contrasts are due to the phonological difference (e.g., R makes more consonantal and vocalic distinctions than B), while others are due to the morphological difference (e.g., difference in plural suffixes and certain verb inflections) between two varieties.[13]: 140
Gloss | National standard (Bokmål, B) | Local variety (Ranamål, R) |
---|---|---|
I | Jeg | Eg |
you | Deg | Deg |
He | Han | Hanj |
She | Hun | Ho |
If | Hvis | Vess |
To, toward | Til | Tell |
Who | Hvem | Kem |
How | Hvordan | Korsen |
Diglossia
The chart below gives an example of
H | L | |
---|---|---|
Sermon in church or mosque | X | |
Instructions to servants, waiters, workmen, clerks, etc. | X | |
Personal letter | X | |
Speech in parliament, political speech | X | |
University lecture | X | |
Conversation with family, friends, colleagues | X | |
News broadcast | X | |
Radio soap opera | X | |
Newspaper editorial, news story, caption on picture | X | |
Caption on political cartoon | X | |
Poetry | X | |
Folk literature | X |
African American Vernacular English (AAVE)
Below is an example of African American Vernacular English, showing the addition of the verbal -s not just on third-person singular verbs in the present tense such as in Standard American English, but added onto infinitives, first-person present verbs, and third-person past perfect verbs.[11]: 49
- He can goes out.
- I don't know how to gets no girls.
- He'd knows that.
Further examples of the phenomenon in AAVE are provided below.
Below are examples of the lack of the possessive ending; -s is usually absent in AAVE but contains a rule As Labov states, "[the] use -s to indicate possession by a single noun or pronoun, but never between the possessor and the possessed."[11]: 49
"This is hers, This is mines, This is John's, but not in her book, my book, John book"[11]: 49
"Interview with Bryan A., seven years old, a struggling reader in a West Philadelphia elementary school:
- If I don't get out my mom room, I get in trouble and when I don't get out my sister room she hit me.
- Bernicia penpal gave me one.
- That's what he did to my cousin Raymond dog at my cousin house.
- I was acting like I stole my sister food.
- At the museum, it was fun, we went in somebody heart."[11]: 49
Effects
Code-switching
Many times within communities that contain sociolects that separate groups linguistically it is necessary to have a process where the independent speech communities can communicate in the same register; even if the change is as simple as different pronunciation. Therefore, the act of code-switching becomes essential. Code-switching is defined as "the process whereby bilingual or bidialectal speakers switch back and forth between one language or dialect and another within the same conversation".[16]: 23 At times code-switching can be situational, depending on the situation or topical, depending on the topic. Halliday terms this the best when he defines the role of discourse, stating that "it is this that determines, or rather correlates with, the role played by the language activity in the situation".[10]: 20 Therefore, meaning that which register is used depends on the situation and lays out the social context of the situation, because if the wrong register is used, then the wrong context is placed on the words. Furthermore, referring back to the diglossia expressed in the Arab-speaking world and the Tamil caste system in India, which words are used must be appropriate to not only the social class of the speaker, but the situation, the topic, and the need for courtesy. A more comprehensive definition is stated, "Code-switching is not only a definition of the situation but an expression of social hierarchy."[10]: 137
See also
References
- ISBN 0-521-77747-X.
- ISBN 83-226-0975-2.
- ^ Durrell, Martin (2004). "Sociolect". In Ammon, Ulrich; et al. (eds.). Sociolinguistics. An International Handbook of the Science of Language and Society. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 200–205.
- ISBN 9781770486652.
- ^ Mrázková, Kamila (2017). "REJSTŘÍK". In Karolak, Petr; Nekula, Marek; Pleskalová, Jana (eds.). Nový encyklopedický slovník češtiny (in Czech).
- ^ Grzenia, Jan (2005-04-25). "gwara a żargon". Poradnia językowa PWN (in Polish). sjp.pwn.pl. Retrieved 2019-04-26.
- OCLC 29200758.
- ^ Eifring, Halvor. "7 Language and Variation". Linguistics for Students of Asian and African Languages.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Trudgill, Peter. A Glossary of Sociolinguistics. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Print.
- ^ a b c d Halliday, M. Language and Society. London; New York: Continuum, 2007. Print.
- ^ a b c d e f g Labov, William. Dialect Diversity in America : the Politics of Language Change. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012. Print.
- ISBN 9781134818976.
- ^ a b c d e Agha, Asif. Language and Social Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 135. Print.
- ^ Murray, Thomas E.. "From Trade Name to Generic: The Case of Coke." Trans. Array Names: A Journal of Onomastics. Maney Publishing, 1995. 165-86. Print.
- ^ Mesthrie, Rajend. Introducing Sociolinguistics. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Pub., 2009. 38. Print.
- ^ Trudgill, Peter. On Dialect : Social and Geographical Perspectives. New York: New York University Press, 1983. Print.