Language Variation and Sociolinguistics

• Sociolinguistics is the scientific study of language in its social context.
• It is a relatively young but important branch of linguistics.
• It seeks to describe the relationship between language and society including the impact of social variables, individual/social variation, language use by native speakers/foreigners, and all aspects of the relationship between language and society.

Theories of Language Studies

• Linguistics scientifically studies language in three ways.
• The study of Language Structure is concerned with natural languages' structural properties and focuses on formal linguistics.
• The study of Language Acquisition deals with how children acquire their native language as well as second language acquisition/learning.
• Psycholinguistics or applied linguistics is the branch of linguistics responsible for studying language acquisition.
• The study of Language Use explores how linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge interact during speech production and comprehension, which studies language in its social context.
• Sociolinguistics is the branch of linguistics studying language in its social context.
• Linguistic studies study linguistic competence and linguistic performance.
• Investigated within subjects related to language acquisition and language structure, linguistic competence is a subject of sociolinguistics.
• Linguistic Performance is the concern of applied linguistics, pragmatics, and sociolinguistics, etc.
• Sociolinguistics investigates language use and the individual's or community's linguistic competence.
• Sociolinguistics is the study of language in its social context.

Social Context in Sociolinguistics

• Social context is human society.
• Factors like ethnicity, social class, sex, geography, age, occupation, and religion are all encompassed within the word "context."
• Social context is the identical or similar social positions and social roles that influence individuals in a group.

Objectives of Sociolinguistics

• Sociolinguistics analyzes actual language use by different speakers to explain language variation with respect to social variables, and to understand language change in multilingual and language contact situations.

Approaches to Sociolinguistic Studies

• Sociolinguistics is partly theoretical and partly empirical.
• It relies on quantitative studies of speech.
• Quantitative studies use spoken rather than written language.
• William Labov is a linguist mainly responsible for the use of quantitative methods.
• Classical Labovian approach differentiates five stages: selecting speakers/subjects/ circumstances and linguistic variables, collecting data/texts, linguistic variables and their variants in data/texts, processing figures, and interpreting the results.

Language in Sociolinguistics

• Language refers naturally to "natural languages" referring to forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind.
• Spoken languages, such as English and Chinese, are the most obvious manifestations.
• The English word "language" comes from the Latin "lingua" (tongue), a word which is also used to refer to spoken language.
• A language is a collection of dialects and the official recognized variety.

Dialect

• Dialectology studies dialects and their geographic or social distribution.
• Dialectologists traditionally study language varieties within a speech community which are groups of people who share norms for language use.
• The term dialect comes from the Greek word dialektos and refers to language variety characterizing a group of speakers.
• For linguists, a dialect is attributes (phonetic, phonological, syntactic, morphological, and semantic) that make one group of speakers noticeably different from another group of speakers of the same language.
• A dialect is a particular variety of a language that differs noticeably from other groups' language use.
• Dialects (and therefore languages) are collections of idiolects.
• "Dialect" is not a negative term and refers to any variety of a language, so everyone speaks a dialect of their native language.

Difference Between Language and Dialect

• Linguists classify views on the difference between language and dialect as wrong or right from certain views.
• It is wrong to think that a language is composed of a "standard" dialect from which all other dialects emerge.
• The other dialects are not erroneous or inferior compared to the standard dialect.
• It is right to believe that every language has various dialects, any dialect can become a standard politically, and all dialects are equally correct.
• A non-linguistic factor, prestige, is typically associated with what is standard.

Conclusion on Languages and Dialects

• The exact distinction is subjective and depends on the user's frame of reference.
• Language varieties are often called dialects rather than languages because they are not recognized as official languages, they are not used in press or literature, they lack prestige, or because the speakers of the given language do not have a state of their own.

Linguistic Aspects of Dialectal Variations

• Aspects includes register and accent.

Register

• A register is a variety of language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting.
• Register relates to how language is used in particular situations, like a biology research lab, news report, or bedroom.

Accent

• Accent is phonological variation, a variation in pronunciation.

Common Dialectal Classifications

• Common dialectal classification includes regiolect and sociolect.

Regiolect

• A regional dialect is a distinct form of a language spoken in a particular geographical area (geolect, regionalect, or topolect).
• A regional dialect that is transmitted from parent to child is the child's vernacular.

Sociolect

• Varieties associated with ethnic groups are ethnolects, socioeconomic classes are called sociolects and other social/cultural groups also exist.
• A sociolect involves both passive acquisition of communicative practices and active learning.
• The term sociolect can refer to socially-restricted dialects, be equivalent to register, or be a synonym for jargon and slang.
• Sociolinguists study language variation in sociolects by examining the social distribution of linguistic terms.

Idiolect

• Idiolect is the language variety spoken by each speaker of the language.
• No two speakers of a language speak identically, which means each speaks their own idiolect.

Speech Community

• A speech community is a group of people who speaks a common dialect.
• Linguists characterize speech communities in extra-linguistic factors, like socioeconomic status, ethnicity, sex, and geographical location.
• Speech communities may be members of a profession with specialized jargon, social groups, or tight-knit groups.
• Members of speech communities often develop slang/jargon to serve the group's special purposes.
• Linguists are aware that there is no pure dialect spoken only by a particular ethnic group/region and varieties are not fully definable because people are in contact with one another.

Mutual Intelligibility

• To determine if two varieties are same/different languages linguists look for mutual intelligibility.
• If speakers of two dialects converse fluently, they are dialects of the same language.

Dialect Continuum/Wave Theory

• A dialect continuum occurs when there are contiguous dialects that are closely related but not mutually intelligible.
• Dialects often form a continuum making it difficult to find an exact dividing point between languages.

Diglossia

• Marçais first put forward the notion of diglossia as the competition between a learned written language and a common language that is sometimes exclusively spoken.
• In later theory development, distribution replaces competition and high and low replace the learned and common.
• The language varieties do not compete but are in complementary distribution with compartmentalized functions.

Diglossia Criteria

• Diglossia is a relatively stable language situation with a very divergent and codified superposed variety, learned largely by formal education for written/formal purposes but not ordinary conversation.
• Ferguson's criteria requires at least two language varieties able to interact, labeled as H and L, each playing a different role.

Functions of H and L Varieties

• Roles and functions, literary heritage, and prestige.
• Prestige is how a variety is perceived which can lead a speech community to view H alone as real.

Acquisition

• Acquisition involves H being formally acquired and L acquired as a native variety.

Standardization

• Although natural linguistic systems have elements of codification built in, standardization looks into the codification of a natural linguistic system.
• Varieties are linguistically codified/complex, while L varieties are more simplified in spoken form.

Stability

• Diglossia is a relatively stable linguistic situation.

Grammar

• Diglossia refers to family origin.
• Grammar is extensive between H and L and the H variety's grammatical system is more complex.

Lexicon

• Lexicon involves much of the lexicon coming from the origin
• But a feature of diglossia is the paired items existing between H and L.

Phonology

• Phonology has numerous similarities and differences.
• H and L phonologies usually stem from the same root, with differences being a simplified version of H.

Political Considerations

• Modern linguists know that language status is not solely linguistic, but the result of political factors.
• Language is a dialect with an army and a navy.

Standardization

• A standard language (standard dialect, standardized dialect, or standardised dialect) is a particular variety of a language that has legal/quasi-legal.
• The variety is promoted in schools and has a "more correct" view.

Features of Standard Languages

• Features include vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, institution, statutes/constitutions, public use, canon of literature, sacred texts, teaching and dialect.
• The creation of a standard language represents the triumph of linguistic prescription.

Prestige

• Dialects are related to a society's prestige with a standard dialect associated with prestige in society at large.
• Some people are unwelcomed to speak the standard language because prejudices cause the inability to just learn the standard language which relates to attitudes towards dialects and their speakers.

Affect on Dialect

• People can feel about their own dialect and should not feel "wrong" if they have a non-standard one.
• Dialects have immense ties and create a sense of community.

Overt Prestige

• Overt prestige refers to speakers of non-standard varieties who also adopt (to some degree) the standard variety.
• Those speakers are seeking to be associated with the prestigious dialect in society.

Covert Prestige

• Covert prestige refers to those who choose not to adopt a standard dialect.
• They gain prestige from within group social identification.

Standardization Pros and Cons

• Disadvantages includes: elitism among the standard speakers, the standardization process forces parents whose dominant group is to have the children speak well on standard dialect or the languages from where people were born, and the inferior standard language can create low self-esteem among low status. Those are advantages: models of language for communities like the standard of the group to communicate, unify members of community, symbolic for the kind of identity by giving prestige speakers, and makes easier the teaching on schools..

The Standardizer of Language

• It is pointed out that the national state is responsible to undertake the standardization and refers to the government.

Elements of Language Standardized

• The elements are grammar, spelling, and word.

Process of Language Standardization.

• The process contains interrelated steps like selection, which is to select the the the the the variety or coded to be developed codification, or standardizing structural/linguistic features such as Elaboration the step with increasing functions for usage

Language Conclusion

• Conclusion says that language is more than a system of communication, it has symbolic markers for who belongs to the group or who’s outside and relates to identity.

Defining Bilingualism

• Bilingualism is having or using two different languages especially as spoken with the fluency characteristic of a native speaker.

Misconceptions of Bilingualism

• Some of them are, “bilingual knows both languages perfectly, my Child will just pick up the language if he hears it”
• One is supposed to be able to Translate on the spot not easy
• More myths are: Bilingualism is exceptional" & the language must start at an young age!

Types of Bilingualism

• Coordinate, compound, subordinate, and receptive of
• Receptive is more than the ability to hear or speak

Advantages of Bilingualism

• Access the larger world, better ability to focus, intellectual Gymnastics.
• The advantages are for learning and improving
• Other advantages: Multi Tasking
• The languages have various functions based on what they are as the meaning

Code Switching

• Is communicating emotions, and the ability to use to learn and think

Reason Speakers Use Code Switching

• It is not to change or mix it is based on what is said
• Other advantages: It can switch within a dialect or language, and use with any situation

Switching Bad

• Is switch bad switching is fine
• It helps those that are linguistic

Code Switching Examples

• Some examples are: If certain requirements are done or if the languages cannot conform

Explore language variations focusing on 'use' versus 'user.' Understand accents, dialects, and their regional and social dimensions. Learn about Standard English from a linguistic perspective and the scope of sociolinguistic studies.