An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (Janet Holmes)
Chapter One: What do sociolinguists study?
- Sociolinguistics: a term that refers to the study of the relationship between
language and society, and how language is used in multilingual speech
communities.
Q what aspects of language are Sociolinguists interested in?
Sociolinguists are interested in explaining why people speak differently in
different social contexts. And the effect of social factors such as (social
distance, social status, age, gender, class) on language varieties (dialects,
registers, genres, etc), and they are concerned with identifying the social
functions of language and the way they are used to convey social meanings.
Q what do sociolinguists mean by the term variety?
A variety is a set of linguistic forms used under specific social circumstances,
with a distinctive social distribution.
* Formality increases between participants (speaker and hearer) when the
social distance is greater. Informality (Solidarity) increases when the social
distance is little between participants (speaker and hearer).
* Social status depends on a number of factors such as social rank, wealth,
age, gender and so on; therefore the person with the higher social status has
the choice 11of using formality or informality (solidarity) when addressing
other persons of lower social status. But the person with the lower social status
uses only formality when addressing a person of higher social status.
, Chapter Two: Multilingual speech communities
- Domains: domains of language use, a term popularised by an American
sociolinguist, Joshua Fishman. A domain of language involves typical
interactions between typical participants in typical settings about a typical topic.
Examples of these domains are family, friendship, religion, education and
employment.
- Setting: the physical situation or the typical place where speech interactions
occur (code choice), settings such as home, church, mosque, school, office, etc.
- Diglossia: communities rather in which two languages or language varieties
are used with one being a high variety for formal situations and prestige, and
a low variety for informal situations (everyday conversation). Diglossia has
three crucial features; two distinct varieties of the same language are used in the
community, with one regarded as high (H) variety and the other as low (L)
variety. Each variety is used for quite distinct functions; H & L complement
each other. No one uses the H variety in everyday conversation.
Example: the standard classical Arabic language is the high variety in Arab
countries, and it is used for writing and for formal functions, but vernacular
(colloquial) Arabic is the low variety used for informal speech situations.
- Polyglossia: basically polyglossia situations involve two contrasting varieties
(high and low) but in general it refers to communities that regularly use more
than two languages.
- Code-switching: it is to move from one code (language, dialect, or style) to
another during speech for a number of reasons such, to signal solidarity, to
reflect one's ethnic identity, to show off, to hide some information from a third
party, to achieve better explanation of a certain concept, to converge or reduce
social distance with the hearer, to diverge or increase social distance or to
impress and persuade the audience (metaphorical code-switching)
- Lexical borrowing: it results from the lack of vocabulary and it involves
borrowing single words – mainly nouns. When speaking a second language,
people will often use a term from their first language because they don't know
the appropriate word in their second language. They also my 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.
, * Code switching involves a choice between the words of two languages or
varieties, but Lexical borrowing is resulted from the lack of vocabulary.
Chapter Three: Language maintenance and shift
- Language shift: it happens when the language of the wider society (majority)
displaces the minority mother tongue language over time in migrant
communities or in communities under military occupation. Therefore when
language shift occurs, it shifts most of the time towards the language of the
dominant group, and the result could be the eradication of the local language
Q What factors lead to language shift?
Economic, social and political factor
1-The dominant language is associated with social status and prestige
2-Obtaining work is the obvious economic reason for learning another language
3-The pressure of institutional domains such as schools and the media
Demographic factors
1-Language shift is faster in urban areas than rural
2-The size of the group is some times a critical factor
3-Intermarriage between groups can accelerate language shift
Attitudes and values
1-Language shift is slower among communities where the minority language is
highly valued, therefore when the language is seen as an important symbol of
ethnic identity its generally maintained longer, and visa versa.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Language death and Language loss:
When all the people who speak a language die, the language dies with them.
With the spread of a majority group language into more and more domains, the
number of contexts in which individuals use the ethnic language diminishes.
The language usually retreats till it is used only in the home, and finally it is
restricted to such personal activities as counting, praying and dreaming.
Chapter One: What do sociolinguists study?
- Sociolinguistics: a term that refers to the study of the relationship between
language and society, and how language is used in multilingual speech
communities.
Q what aspects of language are Sociolinguists interested in?
Sociolinguists are interested in explaining why people speak differently in
different social contexts. And the effect of social factors such as (social
distance, social status, age, gender, class) on language varieties (dialects,
registers, genres, etc), and they are concerned with identifying the social
functions of language and the way they are used to convey social meanings.
Q what do sociolinguists mean by the term variety?
A variety is a set of linguistic forms used under specific social circumstances,
with a distinctive social distribution.
* Formality increases between participants (speaker and hearer) when the
social distance is greater. Informality (Solidarity) increases when the social
distance is little between participants (speaker and hearer).
* Social status depends on a number of factors such as social rank, wealth,
age, gender and so on; therefore the person with the higher social status has
the choice 11of using formality or informality (solidarity) when addressing
other persons of lower social status. But the person with the lower social status
uses only formality when addressing a person of higher social status.
, Chapter Two: Multilingual speech communities
- Domains: domains of language use, a term popularised by an American
sociolinguist, Joshua Fishman. A domain of language involves typical
interactions between typical participants in typical settings about a typical topic.
Examples of these domains are family, friendship, religion, education and
employment.
- Setting: the physical situation or the typical place where speech interactions
occur (code choice), settings such as home, church, mosque, school, office, etc.
- Diglossia: communities rather in which two languages or language varieties
are used with one being a high variety for formal situations and prestige, and
a low variety for informal situations (everyday conversation). Diglossia has
three crucial features; two distinct varieties of the same language are used in the
community, with one regarded as high (H) variety and the other as low (L)
variety. Each variety is used for quite distinct functions; H & L complement
each other. No one uses the H variety in everyday conversation.
Example: the standard classical Arabic language is the high variety in Arab
countries, and it is used for writing and for formal functions, but vernacular
(colloquial) Arabic is the low variety used for informal speech situations.
- Polyglossia: basically polyglossia situations involve two contrasting varieties
(high and low) but in general it refers to communities that regularly use more
than two languages.
- Code-switching: it is to move from one code (language, dialect, or style) to
another during speech for a number of reasons such, to signal solidarity, to
reflect one's ethnic identity, to show off, to hide some information from a third
party, to achieve better explanation of a certain concept, to converge or reduce
social distance with the hearer, to diverge or increase social distance or to
impress and persuade the audience (metaphorical code-switching)
- Lexical borrowing: it results from the lack of vocabulary and it involves
borrowing single words – mainly nouns. When speaking a second language,
people will often use a term from their first language because they don't know
the appropriate word in their second language. They also my 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.
, * Code switching involves a choice between the words of two languages or
varieties, but Lexical borrowing is resulted from the lack of vocabulary.
Chapter Three: Language maintenance and shift
- Language shift: it happens when the language of the wider society (majority)
displaces the minority mother tongue language over time in migrant
communities or in communities under military occupation. Therefore when
language shift occurs, it shifts most of the time towards the language of the
dominant group, and the result could be the eradication of the local language
Q What factors lead to language shift?
Economic, social and political factor
1-The dominant language is associated with social status and prestige
2-Obtaining work is the obvious economic reason for learning another language
3-The pressure of institutional domains such as schools and the media
Demographic factors
1-Language shift is faster in urban areas than rural
2-The size of the group is some times a critical factor
3-Intermarriage between groups can accelerate language shift
Attitudes and values
1-Language shift is slower among communities where the minority language is
highly valued, therefore when the language is seen as an important symbol of
ethnic identity its generally maintained longer, and visa versa.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Language death and Language loss:
When all the people who speak a language die, the language dies with them.
With the spread of a majority group language into more and more domains, the
number of contexts in which individuals use the ethnic language diminishes.
The language usually retreats till it is used only in the home, and finally it is
restricted to such personal activities as counting, praying and dreaming.
