Language Variation
Sociolinguistics
Language Variation
What is Sociolinguistics?
What Factors Enter into Language Variation?
• Language does not exist in a vacuum.
• Since language is a social phenomenon it is natural to assume that the structure of a society has some impact on the language of the speakers of that society. • The study of this relationship and of other extralinguistic factors is the subfield of sociolinguistics. • We will look in this section at the ways in which languages vary internally, and at the factors which create/sustain such variation.
• It’s clear that there are many systematic differences between different languages. (English and Japanese, for example).
• By “systematic” we mean describable by rules. But what is not as obvious is that languages also contain many levels of internal variation, related to such variables as age, region, socioeconomic status, group identification, and others.
• These various dimensions of variation are systematic in the same way as the variation between different languages is.
• This will give us a greater understanding of and tolerance for the differences between the speech of individuals and groups.
Linguistics 201, May 28, 2001
Kordula De Kuthy
1
Dialect
2
Accent
Any variety of a language characterized by systematic differences in pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary from other varieties of the same language is called a dialect. Everyone speaks a dialect – in fact, many dialects at different levels. The people who speak a certain dialect are called a speech community.
Some of the larger dialectal divisions in the English speaking world:
British English vs. American English vs. Australian
English (along with others).
Northern American
English, Southern American English, etc.
(1) Brit/American : lay by/rest area, petrol/gasoline, lorry/truck, minerals/soft drinks
• An accent is a certain form of a language spoken by a subgroup of speakers of that language
Language Variation
What is Sociolinguistics?
What Factors Enter into Language Variation?
• Language does not exist in a vacuum.
• Since language is a social phenomenon it is natural to assume that the structure of a society has some impact on the language of the speakers of that society. • The study of this relationship and of other extralinguistic factors is the subfield of sociolinguistics. • We will look in this section at the ways in which languages vary internally, and at the factors which create/sustain such variation.
• It’s clear that there are many systematic differences between different languages. (English and Japanese, for example).
• By “systematic” we mean describable by rules. But what is not as obvious is that languages also contain many levels of internal variation, related to such variables as age, region, socioeconomic status, group identification, and others.
• These various dimensions of variation are systematic in the same way as the variation between different languages is.
• This will give us a greater understanding of and tolerance for the differences between the speech of individuals and groups.
Linguistics 201, May 28, 2001
Kordula De Kuthy
1
Dialect
2
Accent
Any variety of a language characterized by systematic differences in pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary from other varieties of the same language is called a dialect. Everyone speaks a dialect – in fact, many dialects at different levels. The people who speak a certain dialect are called a speech community.
Some of the larger dialectal divisions in the English speaking world:
British English vs. American English vs. Australian
English (along with others).
Northern American
English, Southern American English, etc.
(1) Brit/American : lay by/rest area, petrol/gasoline, lorry/truck, minerals/soft drinks
• An accent is a certain form of a language spoken by a subgroup of speakers of that language