Chapter 7

Language Variation and Multiculturalism

• Language variation research advocates for linguistic diversity and inclusion of multiple languages in multicultural societies.

Gender and Language: Sex vs. Gender

• "Sex" refers to biological characteristics.
• "Gender" refers to socio-cultural behaviors, including speech patterns.
• Gender-exclusive speech differences: Certain linguistic features are used solely by men or women.
  • Gros Ventre: Women use [kjajtsa] for "bread," men use [dfajtsa].
  • Japanese: Men use "ore" (first-person singular) in casual contexts, while women use more formal variants.
• Gender-preferential features: Both genders use forms but show greater preference for certain ones.
• Western Urban Communities: Women tend to use more standard forms than men.

Explanations for Gender Differences in Speech

• Social Status Explanation: Women use more standard speech because they are aware speech signals social status.
  • Criticism: Women in paid employment use more standard forms.
• Politeness Principle: Women use more standard forms to be polite and avoid offense.
• Vernacular as Machismo: Men prefer non-standard forms, associating them with masculinity and toughness.
• Women as Guardians of Societal Values: Women are expected to model correct behavior, including speech.

Methodological Considerations

• Accommodation: Women may accommodate an interviewer's speech style.
• Misclassification of Social Class: Attributing women's speech patterns to the wrong social class can lead to misinterpretations.
• Linguistic Environment: Specific phonetic contexts favor the use of certain vernacular forms.
• Gender Accommodation Theory: Speakers adjust their speech to accommodate the gender of their interlocutor.

Age and Language Variation

• Age-grading: Stable variations in speech patterns across different age groups.
• Teenagers: High use of slang and vernacular forms, often to assert independence and construct group identity.
• Middle Age: Reduced vernacular use due to pressures to conform.
• Older Speakers: Possible increase in vernacular use due to reduced social pressures.
• Stable Variables: Linguistic features resistant to change over time.

Further Considerations

• Social Networks: Interconnectedness of individuals and patterns of interaction influence language use.
• Linguistic Capital: Standard speech forms are a resource for social mobility.
• Gender Identity: How individuals express their masculinity/femininity through language contributes to variations.
• Pitch Variation: Both biological development (e.g., vocal cords) and cultural norms influence pitch.

Key Points

• Vernacular forms are not always exclusively associated with masculinity.

• Gender identity plays a role in language variation beyond social factors.

• It is crucial to consider the context and linguistic environment when analyzing vernacular forms. ### Language and Gender Differences

• Young Japanese women often use traditionally male speech forms to challenge restrictive social norms and reflect changing gender roles.

•  Adolescents use many swear words, but this use dwindles with age as they progress into adulthood and assume new social roles.

• Slang is often associated with youth culture and using it could make older individuals seem out of place.

• Distinguish between change over time and age-grading to understand if changes are temporary or indicative of broader language change in the community.

• The use of "like" amongToronto youth is an age-graded feature as its usage diminishes with age..

• Longitudinal data helps understand if speech patterns persist over time within individuals, distinguishing age-grading from language change.

• Bilingualism in Montreal peaks during working years and functions like a prestige form in professional contexts.

• Adolescents are replacing standard sounds with vernacular forms, suggesting language change is occurring.

• Young boys may lower their pitch to align with societal expectations of masculinity, even before physical changes make it necessary.

•  Women often accommodate the interviewer's speech, especially if they use standard forms.

•  Society commonly expects women to conform to standard speech norms as models of proper behavior.

•  Close-knit social networks reinforce the use of vernacular forms among adolescents.

•  Topics may influence the level of formality, influencing participants to use more or fewer vernacular forms.

•  Men might diverge from the interviewer’s speech to maintain social distance and assert their identity, using more vernacular forms.

•  Gender intersects with social class, age, and context, making the relationship between gender and speech complex.

•  Societal pressure to conform to standard speech norms peaks during middle age, leading to increased use of standard forms.

•  Vernacular universals are common linguistic features found in the vernacular speech of different languages and communities globally.

•  Reduced social pressures in old age may cause speakers to revert to more relaxed speech patterns, increasing vernacular usage.

•  Women may use standard forms strategically as a resource to enhance their social mobility and professional opportunities, known as linguistic capital. 

•  This explanation may not account for women in certain communities who use more vernacular forms, indicating that it doesn't universally apply.

•  Researchers' theoretical frameworks and beliefs about language and society influence how they interpret linguistic data.

•  "Rozzers" is a vernacular term used in Scouse to refer to the police.

•  Gender identity can be a driving factor in influencing speech patterns, sometimes overriding social class differences.

•  Young Japanese women are increasingly using speech forms traditionally reserved for men, challenging gendered language norms.

•  Assuming standard forms are inherently correct ignores the social contexts and motivations that influence why speakers choose certain forms over others.

• Alternative explanations include the influence of social roles, accommodation to interviewers, or misclassification of women's social class regarding women using more standard forms than men.

• Peer groups can encourage adolescents to diverge from adult norms, leading to increased use of vernacular forms to strengthen group identity.

•  Women and men may emphasize different functions of speech (e.g., rapport vs. report talk), affecting their choice of linguistic forms

•  Pitch range refers to the variation in frequency of a speaker's voice, which can differ based on gender and age.

•  Age-graded features refer to language patterns that individuals adopt at certain life stages, recurring across generations as each new group reaches that age.

•  Women might overreport their use of standard forms because societal expectations value women who adhere to prestigious language norms.

•  Women may adopt speech patterns that align more closely with women in higher social classes than with men of their own class.

•  Women may use standard speech forms to protect their "face" by adhering to societal expectations and avoiding offense, which is linked to politeness and face-saving strategies in communication.

•  In socially structured communities with clear gender roles, gender-exclusive language features often reflect those roles, showing how language mirrors societal structures.

•  Societies differ in gender roles and language use; thus, findings from Western contexts may not apply universally, highlighting the need for context-specific studies.

•  Overreporting vernacular use indicates that men associate these forms with positive attributes like toughness and masculinity, giving them covert prestige.

•  Social aspiration can lead individuals to use speech forms of higher-status groups to improve their own social standing or signal their aspirations.

•  Young women may use vernacular forms to express rebellion against societal norms or to establish solidarity within their peer group.

•  Men and women use language for different functions. 

•  Each generation develops entirely new language features, and age-graded features are unique to a specific generation.

•  The use of "standard" forms being inherently "correct" ignores the social motivations behind language use.

•  Differences in language use could be attributed to differences in social roles, interviewer influence, or misclassification of social class, not biological factors.

•  Peer group identity encourages divergence from adult norms through increased use of vernacular forms.

•  Men and women share the same language use in all contexts, with differences solely due to biological factors.

•  Non-Western societies have the same gender roles and no gender differences in language.

•  Social aspiration has no impact on language, so people abandon their native language for social mobility.

•  People use vernacular forms to aspire to higher status, while vernacular forms are considered prestigious.

•  All variations are due to social class, and social class only affects vocabulary.

•  Men are unaware of their actual speech patterns, but they prefer standard forms but cannot use them.

•  Men have no preference regarding language forms.

•  Women ignore prestigious forms, reject standard language, and prestige has no impact on women's language.

•  Men and women of the same social class use identical speech patterns, and social class has no impact on gendered language differences.

•  Using standard forms undermines women's social position, and "face" has no relation to language use.

•   Language functions identically across cultures, and all societies have the same gender roles.

•  "Pitch range" refers to the number of different vowels in a language, the length of vocal cords, and the speed at which someone speaks.

•  "Face" has no relation to language use, and women use standard forms to assert dominance.

Multiple Negation

• Multiple negation involves using more than one negative word in a sentence for emphasis.

Women's Speech Patterns Influenced by Occupation

• Women in professional roles tend to adopt more standard forms of language to align with workplace expectations.

Critiques of the Status-Consciousness Explanation

• Focusing solely on status-consciousness doesn't adequately explain women's language use, ignoring factors like solidarity, identity, and context.

Women's Over-Reporting of Standard Forms

• Women may over-report their use of standard forms in surveys because they internalize societal norms that value them, leading them to believe they use them more than they actually do.

Glottalizaton in Pronunciation

• Glottalization involves constricting the vocal cords to replace typical consonant sounds in certain positions.

Young Girls' Use of Fewer Vernacular Forms

• Despite similar behaviors, girls may use fewer vernacular forms due to societal expectations that associate femininity with standard language.

Middle-Aged Speakers' Use of More Standard Forms

• Middle-aged individuals may conform more to standard language norms due to professional and social pressures.

Age-Graded Linguistic Features

• The use of "like" by teenagers, which decreases as they age, is an example of an age-graded feature that changes with a life stage.

Context's Importance in Analyzing Linguistic Data

• Context influences linguistic choices as people adjust their language based on formality, audience, and purpose.

Language Features for Social Identity Construction

• Speakers use language features strategically to express and construct their social identities, aligning with desired groups or roles.

Importance of Individual Variation within Social Groups

• Examining individual differences helps uncover how personal experiences and identities influence language use.

Men's Underreporting of Standard Forms

• Men may underreport standard form use to project identities that value vernacular speech, which may be associated with masculinity or solidarity.

Age as a Sociolinguistic Variable

• Age reflects how societal roles and expectations at different life stages affect language use.

Social Pressures and Language Use Across Life Stages

• Social pressures that influence language use change over time, with varying expectations impacting linguistic choices.

Language Change in Progress and Age-Related Patterns

• Differences in language use among different age groups may indicate a language change in progress, with younger speakers using new forms not adopted by older speakers.

Significance of Gender-Preferential Language Features

• Understanding gender-preferential features sheds light on how social norms and identities influence language use.

Gender Overriding Social Class in Determining Speech Patterns

• Gender identity can be a more significant factor than class in determining language use in some contexts.

Interviewer's Sex Influencing Participants' Speech

• Interviewees may adjust their speech depending on the interviewer's sex, potentially influencing language data.

Social Class Dialect

• Social class dialects are language variations that correlate with social class distinctions, reflecting differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar.

Tag Questions and Gender

• Women may use tag questions more frequently, reflecting conversational strategies that promote interaction and seek affirmation.

The Deficit Model in Language and Gender Studies

• The deficit model sees women's language as inferior to men's, a view challenged by sociolinguistic research.

Language Preservation and Older Generations

• Older speakers may retain traditional linguistic features as part of their cultural identity and personal history, contributing to language preservation.

Importance of Studying Language Variation Across Gender and Age

• This helps understand how social factors influence language use and reflect broader social structures.

Vernacular Speech in Sociolinguistics

• Vernacular speech refers to the everyday language used by ordinary people, often including non-standard forms.

Hypercorrection in Language

• Hypercorrection refers to using prestigious forms in an attempt to appear as if one belongs to a higher social class.

Solidarity and Adolescents' Language Use

• Solidarity among adolescents often leads them to adopt shared vernacular forms, strengthening group identity and cohesion.

Men's Resistance to Standard Language Norms

• Men might use vernacular forms associated with masculinity to resist standard language norms.

Language Use Reflecting Gender Roles in Communities

• In communities with strict gender roles, linguistic differences like affixes or morphological forms often reflect cultural practices that reinforce gender divisions.

Language Use and Gender Identity Construction

• Individuals use specific language forms to perform and reinforce their gender identity, contributing to its social construction through communication.

Boys' Lower Pitch Levels Before Puberty

• Boys may lower their pitch to align with cultural expectations that associate lower pitch with masculinity.

Sociolinguistic Variable

• A sociolinguistic variable is a linguistic feature that can vary depending on social factors like class, gender, or age, and is used to study language variation in social contexts.

Informal Contexts and Language

• In informal contexts, both women and men may increase their use of vernacular forms due to reduced social constraints.

Consistency of Gender Differences in Language Use

• The consistency of findings across studies implies that there are universal patterns in how gender influences language use, although culture also plays a role.

The Linguistic Marketplace

• The "linguistic marketplace" metaphorically represents how certain language forms have value in social interactions, influencing individuals to adjust their speech to gain social or economic advantages.

Speech Accommodation in Sociolinguistics

• Speech accommodation involves speakers adjusting their language to be more like or unlike their interlocutor's speech, influencing language variation and social dynamics.

Blood Type as an Irrelevent Factor

• Blood type is not a social factor relevant to language variation in sociolinguistics.

Researcher Bias Influencing Interpretation of Language Data

• Researcher bias can influence interpretations of language data. Researchers must strive for objectivity

Sociolinguistics: Key Concepts

• Research is subjective: Personal beliefs and theoretical frameworks can influence researchers' interpretations of language data.
• Language variation reflects social change: Studying language variation can shed light on shifts in social norms, identities, and broader societal changes.
• Standard language and social power: Subordinate groups often adopt standard forms of language to gain acceptance, avoid negative judgments, and improve social mobility in societies where dominant groups control valued resources.
• Covert prestige: Certain groups, like men, may value non-standard forms of language ("vernacular forms") and assign them a hidden positive value, known as "covert prestige," potentially signifying masculinity or group solidarity.
• Classifying Participants in Sociolinguistic Studies: Researchers use multiple criteria like education, occupation, and social networks to avoid misclassifying participants, leading to more accurate classifications of social class.
• Sociolinguistics and language education: Insights from sociolinguistic studies can be used to inform education policies, advocating for the inclusion of diverse language varieties and recognizing students' linguistic backgrounds within the classroom.
• The interplay of linguistic and social factors: Linguistic and social factors are interconnected and influence how language is used in various contexts and by different groups within society.
• Linguistic repertoire: An individual's "linguistic repertoire" refers to the range of language varieties, styles, and registers that they are able to use effectively in various situations.
• Frequency and context in language variation: Analyzing both frequency and context of use provides a complete understanding of how and why certain language forms are adopted in specific situations.
• Limitations of Sociolinguistic Interviews: Interviews may not always reflect natural speech, as participants may adjust their language due to the formality of the interview setting or the presence of the interviewer.
• Audience design in language variation: "Audience design" refers to speakers adjusting their language style to align with or resist the perceived expectations of their audience.
• Solidarity in language variation: The "solidarity dimension" highlights the role of relationships and social bonds between speakers in influencing their language choices; close relationships can lead to convergence in speech patterns to demonstrate unity.
• Linguistic variables: "Linguistic variables" are specific features of language like pronunciation, word choice, or grammar that can vary across different speakers or contexts.
• Style-shifting: "Style-shifting" encompasses the way speakers adjust their language style depending on factors like formality, audience, or communicative purpose.
• Globalization and language variation: Globalization, through media exposure, can influence youth's language use, potentially leading to the adoption of new linguistic features from other cultures or languages.
• Code-switching in multilingual contexts: "Code-switching" refers to alternating between different languages or language varieties within the same conversation, often influenced by context or audience.
• Cultural sensitivity in sociolinguistic research: Cultural sensitivity is crucial in sociolinguistic research to avoid misinterpreting language use based solely on a researcher's own cultural norms, ensuring accurate understanding of the community being examined.
• Language as a marker of ethnic identity: Certain language features like accent, vocabulary, and grammar can serve as indicators of ethnic identity, reflecting a shared cultural heritage and group solidarity.
• Social pressure and language change: Social pressure can either promote or inhibit the adoption of new linguistic forms, ultimately influencing the direction and speed of language change over time.
• Linguistic markers: "Linguistic markers" are specific features of language that can be associated with particular social groups, like regional background, social class, or ethnicity.
• Urban communities and language variation: Urban communities often exhibit diverse language practices due to their higher population density and diversity, making them ideal for studying language variation.
• Linguistic insecurity: Linguistic insecurity can cause speakers to feel anxious about their language use, leading them to overcompensate by adopting more standard forms or hypercorrecting their speech.
• Life course perspective: The "Life Course Perspective" explores how language use changes throughout a person's life, influenced by evolving social roles, experiences, and personal factors.
• Limitations of standardized language tests: Standardized language tests may not accurately reflect an individual's full linguistic competence, as they may not account for dialectal variations or the individual's entire linguistic repertoire.
• Ethnographic research in sociolinguistics: Ethnographic research, through in-depth, qualitative studies of language use within cultural contexts, can enhance our understanding of the relationship between language and society.
• Social networks and language variation: Close-knit social networks can reinforce the use of specific linguistic forms, while more open networks can promote linguistic change as individuals interact with a wider range of speakers.