TERMS DEFINITION
CHAPTER 1: INTRO TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS
Dingua Tongue in Latin = Language
Language A system of arbitrary vocal symbols used by the
members of a society to interact with their culture.
Society Diverse and complex in that it is made up of a wide
range of individuals who differ in their social
characteristics OR any group of people who are
drawn together for a particular purpose or
purposes
Sociolinguistics The study of the relationship between language
and society
Social factors in SL Participants involved, setting or social context,
Topic, function
Social Dimensions in SL Social distance, social status, formality,
functionality
Formal Approach Grammar, rules, structure
T-G Grammar Transformational-generative grammar
Ethnographic Approach The study of the individual’s communicative activity
in its social setting (social contexts)
Functional Approach The study of function as a fundamental principle of
language
FA: Ideational The content of what is said, the way it represents
the world as things and processes and the logical
connections between happenings in the world
(existential, relational, material, mental, verbal)
FA: Interpersonal The way it enacts social relationships between
speaker/hearer or writer/reader (vertical &
horizontal distance)
FA: Textual The way in which it orders and manages
information distribution and connects it with the
other parts of the text (cohesion) and the world
outside the text (reference, coherence) (repetition,
meronymy, synonymy)
7 Functions of Language Instrumental, Regulatory, Interactional, Personal,
Heuristic, Imaginative, Representational
Descriptive approach Scientific judgment
Prescriptive approach Non-scientific judgment (folk beliefs, inherent
value)
Archaisms Old fashioned language
Discourse Analysis Approaches: Interactional Make use of the detailed tools of Conversation
, Sociolinguistics / Conversational Analysis Analysis, which include turn-taking, hesitations,
pauses and paralinguistic features such as sighs,
laughter, in-breaths, smile, etc. to interpret what the
speaker intended
Discourse Analysis Approaches: Critical Discourse This approach is basically interested in
Analysis investigating how language is used to wield and
maintain power relationships in society; the aim is
to identify connections between language and
power and between language and ideology
Discourse Analysis Approaches: Multimodal This approach argues that interaction or
Analysis communication goes beyond just linguistic features
(verbal language) but includes non-verbal
language resources or other modes of
communication, such as gestures, gaze, head
movements, posture, and facial expressions, the
environment and objects within it, among others,
which also contribute to communication and
meaning-making
Phoneme/Phonology Sounds/pronunciation
Lexis/Lexicon Words/vocab of words
Semantic Meaning of words
Syntax Grammatical structures
Discourse Textual structure
Overt prestige the speech of people who enjoy social or economic
power is considered more prestigious, desirable or
‘correct’ than that of less wealthy or socially
prominent people.
Upward mobility Attaining greater social and economic status
Covert prestige Positive values associated with working-class
dialects (toughness, manliness, friendliness,
kindness, and, of course, a sense of belonging to a
cohesive group)
Diachronic changes Changes over a long period of time.
Synchronic changes Are Still taking place as English comes into contact
with other languages
Micro-sociolinguistics Investigates how social structure influences the
way people talk and how language varieties and
patterns of use correlate with social attributes such
as class, sex, and age
Macro-sociolinguistics Studies what societies do with their languages that
is, attitudes and attachments that account for the
functional distribution of speech forms in society,
language policy, language shift, maintenance, and
replacement, the delimitation and interaction of
speech communities
Language policy Designed by a nation to favor or discourage the
, use of a particular language or set of languages
CHAPTER 2: LANGUAGE VARIATION
Variety A specific set of ‘linguistic items’ or ‘human speech
patterns’ (e.g. sounds, words, grammatical
features, etc.) that can be uniquely associated with
some external factor, e.g., a geographical area or a
social group.
Dialect A regional or social variety of a language
characterized by its own phonological, syntactic,
and lexical properties
Regional Dialect A variety spoken in a particular region
Ethnolect Dialect varieties associated with particular ethnic
groups
Sociolect Varieties associated with particular socioeconomic
classes
Dialectology Study of dialects and their geographic or social
distribution
Idiolect The speech variety of an individual speaker
Morphology The smallest meaningful units of a language
Accent Distinction is made only in terms of pronunciation
(differ in quality of voice, pronunciation of vowels
and consonants, stress, and prosody)
Standardization A process by which a language is codified, e.g.,
developing grammars, spelling books, dictionaries
and literature
Codification Codifying materials in grammar books &
dictionaries (learned in formal education)
Elaboration The use of the standard in formal or
institutionalized areas of social life such as
literature, the courts, education, administration, and
commerce
Standard Variety of Language Preferred dialect of that language, but for some
particular reasons, a particular variety of a
language is chosen to be the standard variety and
results in being regarded as the language itself
4 Levels of National Language Construction - A dominant elite ‘selects’ a dialect.
- The social and political functions of the
language are elaborated.
- Dictionaries and grammars codify and
prescribe the language.
- It is ‘standardized’ through education and
public media.
Standard English ‘Standard English’ is a variety (i.e., dialect) of
English that:
CHAPTER 1: INTRO TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS
Dingua Tongue in Latin = Language
Language A system of arbitrary vocal symbols used by the
members of a society to interact with their culture.
Society Diverse and complex in that it is made up of a wide
range of individuals who differ in their social
characteristics OR any group of people who are
drawn together for a particular purpose or
purposes
Sociolinguistics The study of the relationship between language
and society
Social factors in SL Participants involved, setting or social context,
Topic, function
Social Dimensions in SL Social distance, social status, formality,
functionality
Formal Approach Grammar, rules, structure
T-G Grammar Transformational-generative grammar
Ethnographic Approach The study of the individual’s communicative activity
in its social setting (social contexts)
Functional Approach The study of function as a fundamental principle of
language
FA: Ideational The content of what is said, the way it represents
the world as things and processes and the logical
connections between happenings in the world
(existential, relational, material, mental, verbal)
FA: Interpersonal The way it enacts social relationships between
speaker/hearer or writer/reader (vertical &
horizontal distance)
FA: Textual The way in which it orders and manages
information distribution and connects it with the
other parts of the text (cohesion) and the world
outside the text (reference, coherence) (repetition,
meronymy, synonymy)
7 Functions of Language Instrumental, Regulatory, Interactional, Personal,
Heuristic, Imaginative, Representational
Descriptive approach Scientific judgment
Prescriptive approach Non-scientific judgment (folk beliefs, inherent
value)
Archaisms Old fashioned language
Discourse Analysis Approaches: Interactional Make use of the detailed tools of Conversation
, Sociolinguistics / Conversational Analysis Analysis, which include turn-taking, hesitations,
pauses and paralinguistic features such as sighs,
laughter, in-breaths, smile, etc. to interpret what the
speaker intended
Discourse Analysis Approaches: Critical Discourse This approach is basically interested in
Analysis investigating how language is used to wield and
maintain power relationships in society; the aim is
to identify connections between language and
power and between language and ideology
Discourse Analysis Approaches: Multimodal This approach argues that interaction or
Analysis communication goes beyond just linguistic features
(verbal language) but includes non-verbal
language resources or other modes of
communication, such as gestures, gaze, head
movements, posture, and facial expressions, the
environment and objects within it, among others,
which also contribute to communication and
meaning-making
Phoneme/Phonology Sounds/pronunciation
Lexis/Lexicon Words/vocab of words
Semantic Meaning of words
Syntax Grammatical structures
Discourse Textual structure
Overt prestige the speech of people who enjoy social or economic
power is considered more prestigious, desirable or
‘correct’ than that of less wealthy or socially
prominent people.
Upward mobility Attaining greater social and economic status
Covert prestige Positive values associated with working-class
dialects (toughness, manliness, friendliness,
kindness, and, of course, a sense of belonging to a
cohesive group)
Diachronic changes Changes over a long period of time.
Synchronic changes Are Still taking place as English comes into contact
with other languages
Micro-sociolinguistics Investigates how social structure influences the
way people talk and how language varieties and
patterns of use correlate with social attributes such
as class, sex, and age
Macro-sociolinguistics Studies what societies do with their languages that
is, attitudes and attachments that account for the
functional distribution of speech forms in society,
language policy, language shift, maintenance, and
replacement, the delimitation and interaction of
speech communities
Language policy Designed by a nation to favor or discourage the
, use of a particular language or set of languages
CHAPTER 2: LANGUAGE VARIATION
Variety A specific set of ‘linguistic items’ or ‘human speech
patterns’ (e.g. sounds, words, grammatical
features, etc.) that can be uniquely associated with
some external factor, e.g., a geographical area or a
social group.
Dialect A regional or social variety of a language
characterized by its own phonological, syntactic,
and lexical properties
Regional Dialect A variety spoken in a particular region
Ethnolect Dialect varieties associated with particular ethnic
groups
Sociolect Varieties associated with particular socioeconomic
classes
Dialectology Study of dialects and their geographic or social
distribution
Idiolect The speech variety of an individual speaker
Morphology The smallest meaningful units of a language
Accent Distinction is made only in terms of pronunciation
(differ in quality of voice, pronunciation of vowels
and consonants, stress, and prosody)
Standardization A process by which a language is codified, e.g.,
developing grammars, spelling books, dictionaries
and literature
Codification Codifying materials in grammar books &
dictionaries (learned in formal education)
Elaboration The use of the standard in formal or
institutionalized areas of social life such as
literature, the courts, education, administration, and
commerce
Standard Variety of Language Preferred dialect of that language, but for some
particular reasons, a particular variety of a
language is chosen to be the standard variety and
results in being regarded as the language itself
4 Levels of National Language Construction - A dominant elite ‘selects’ a dialect.
- The social and political functions of the
language are elaborated.
- Dictionaries and grammars codify and
prescribe the language.
- It is ‘standardized’ through education and
public media.
Standard English ‘Standard English’ is a variety (i.e., dialect) of
English that:
