Wuolah Free SL Unit 1

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SL Unit 1.pdf
An Introduction To Sociolinguistics
3º Sociolingüística de la Lengua Inglesa
Grado en Estudios Ingleses: Lengua, Literatura y Cultura
UNED - Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia

UNED - Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su
totalidad.
a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-234860
An Introduction to Sociolinguistics

Unit 1

1. INTRODUCTION : KEY CONCEPTS IN SOCIOLINGUISTICS.

LANGUAGE
-‐‑ to covey meaning
-‐‑ initiate, maintain, preserve
o society relationships with other members of society
SOCIAL PHENOMENON
-‐‑ relates speaker -‐‑> to societal enviroment
-‐‑ kinship-‐‑> to other members of speech community
TRANSMITTING MESSAGE DEPENDS ON
-‐‑ linguistic matters
Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad.
-‐‑ non-‐‑linguistic ones (body language, contextual, situational facts)

Chomsky -‐‑-‐‑-‐‑-‐‑-‐‑-‐‑-‐‑-‐‑-‐‑-‐‑-‐‑> oppostition 50´s, 60´s.
-‐‑ against CH´s abstraction of language

CH
-‐‑ basic gramar structures = existence of structured patterns across languages
-‐‑ ideal native speakers´ intuititions : Describe + Interpret Language

Sociolinguistics
-‐‑ finds REASON for linguistic variations -‐‑> social/environmental conditions

CH
-‐‑ (fuzzy) ideal speaker/listener communicates in HOMOgeneous speech
community (Language as native speakers)
-‐‑ social, non-‐‑linguistic = nothing to do with it
SPEECH COMMUNITIES
-‐‑ not easy to delimit
-‐‑ geographical proximity = not always a valid criterion

i.e Speakers þ same speech com þ same cultural back ground
ý social, dialectal variation

APPROACH à METHODS à QUEST
-‐‑ generativists -‐‑ language nature
-‐‑ sociologists -‐‑ development

DELL HYMES (1971) coined term: COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE (opposed to CH
Linguistic competence)
1) human ability to use Lge in different situations /different circumstances
2) Non-‐‑Linguistic aspects: silence, turn taking, Word choice, volumen, amount of talk,
gestures,…
3) Part of communication process -‐‑> completes linguistic aspects:
i. Phonology
ii. Morphology
iii. Syntax

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2. SOCIOLINGUISTICS VS. SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE

Both terms were unsed interchangeably.

SOCIOLINGUISTICS
-‐‑ To investigate + describe the relationship between lge and society
-‐‑ Stress place on lge and its role with communication

Example 1:
Depending on the scope of analysis SL may try to analyze
-‐‑ specific differences of a group of speakers in a speech community at a MICRO LEVEL
o pronunciation – gramar – vocab within a single speech community
in order to determine features like
o educational background – economic status – social class (India castes and L
features)
Example 2:
A much broader scope of analysis.
-‐‑ MACRO LEVEL: Interest is Language variation as a Human Phenomenon that affects
large parte of the population
o Language maintenance -‐‑> population migrates to different place, lge preserved
because of social factors. (Keeping Lge = sign of ID, distinguishes them from
outsiders. Also tool to communicate without being understood.
o Language Atrition (Language dissappears)
§ Because becoming low-‐‑prestige lge.
§ Blend into dominant culgure
§ Amount of speakers decresases as they grow old and die.

HUDSON (1980): Sociolinguistics is : THE STUDY OF LGE IN RELATION TO SOCIETY AND
MICRO-‐‑SOCIOLING: Discrete point cases: interested in how small changes in a word or
other linguistic element s may offer clues to longer trends (thou-‐‑thee -‐‑> you in ME) Use of
Lge as a whole together with another cultural phenomenon that determines use of lge.
MACRO-‐‑SOCIOLING: Wide ranging situations: studies mayor changes in lge from outside
forces (latin lge influence on English came from the Roman Empire´s expo. Deals with lge
planning, lge policy, ….

=> both are concerned about same phenomenon: Language and Society (in different
scale)
THE SOCIOLOGY OF LGE and THE SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE IS THE STUDY OF SOCIETY
IN RELATION TO LGE.

SOCIOLOGY OF LGE
-‐‑ centers on study of society
-‐‑ how we can understand it through the study of Lge = how we can understand
sociolinguistic behavior by means of the study of linguistic features.

All in all, Macro-‐‑Sociolinguistics applies to wide-‐‑ranging human phenomena and is ofter
reffered to a sociology of language

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3. THE ORIGINS OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS (EQ 2013)

IN LAST 30 YEARS

Spread together with other branches of lingustics
-‐‑ psycolinguistics
-‐‑ pragmatics
-‐‑ applied linguistics

ýNo discriptive, historical approach to lge as pure/traditional linguistics (sytax, phonetics..)
þDo maintain an interest in the interdisciplinarity of the field + contribution of other
branches of humanities to linguistics
-‐‑ psycology -‐‑ history
-‐‑ pragmatics -‐‑ gender studies
-‐‑
NEW Branches of linguistics EMERGE together with other developments of applied
lingusitics => Considered STEP CHILD until consolidation as field of research
-‐‑ historical/comparative linguistics
-‐‑ dialectology
-‐‑ anthropology

IN EUROPE
Start with study
-‐‑ study of historical linguitics
-‐‑ linguistic geography
ð sound theorical background (3 main fields of interest)
-‐‑ dialectology
-‐‑ regional lges
-‐‑ linguistic situation of colonized countries (Calvet, 2003)
IN USA
Emerges from contact of Linguistics with other disciplines such as Anthropology/Sociology
The ethnographic approach of anthropologists: methodology used in
-‐‑ Social Science
-‐‑ Analysis of linguistic realization

PRESENT

-‐‑ Consolidated discipline
-‐‑ Also divided into subfields
o Pragmatics
o Language gender studies
o Pidgin and creole studies
o Lge planning and policy studies
o Education of linguistic minority studies, … (Bratt Paulson & Tucker, 2003)
SHUY (2003)
-‐‑ recent developments of discourse analysis and pragmatics -‐‑> considered as part of
sociolinguistics by some scolars
-‐‑ others consider them areas of study themselves.
ð no full agreement if part of or other way round. Reason:
o variety of approaches, perspectives toward a discipline
o goes nowadays from theoretical perspective to applied trend (applied
sociolinguistics)
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4. VARIATION

Sociolinguistics is ALL ABOUT VARIATION.

MAIN SOURCE OF INFORMATION => the way Social and Situational factors affect lge and make it
vary

i.e Talking about weather -‐‑-‐‑-‐‑-‐‑-‐‑-‐‑-‐‑> start getting info about interlocutor
-‐‑ feature ID origen (geographic variation) Very precisely or just rough idea.
-‐‑ feature about specific Speech Com.
o Social
o Economical
o Political
o Religious
o Cultural
o Any other sitiational background

è Linguistic Variation
-‐‑ Does NOT only affect peaople from DIFFERENT speech communities
-‐‑ Also affect way people SPEAK or REACT toward sb´s speech.
o i.e Gender: Male/Female (in western society not such a big difference)
o i.e Power relationship: teacher/ss, boss/employee

CERTAIN BOUNDS => speaker

þ can vary speech in some degree

ý cannot vary beyond certain limits (otherwise ungrammatical, incomprehensible)

-‐‑ Speakers have knowledge of these limits (often unconsciously) -‐‑> Problem:
-‐‑ To determine HOW knowledge is attained, HOW it can be described
-‐‑ More subtle tan other social norms like turn-‐‑talking, social behavior.
o Linguistic norms are often more understated then other social conventions (i.e
table manners)

I .E : SECOND LANGUAGE : not only code to learn -‐‑> also its proper use in diverse situations.
-‐‑ harder to learn, acquire

è Reason: social conventions usually learned during Childhood, Adolescence. Vary from
culture to culture. = Tedious learning non-‐‑native lge. (social, linguistic conventions)
è Depending on affinity between lge = easier FORMS, USES.
o i.e Spanish politeness v. British

Sociolinguistics=Variation Among:

-‐‑ Situations
-‐‑ Groups
-‐‑ Places
=> Task: to find regular patterns of variation un use.

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5. SOME INSTANCES OF VARIATION
LABOV (2003)

“ Style shifting = correlated to the amount of attention that the speaker pays to his speach.”

E.g:

AmE: <th-‐‑> in Thing/That = smooth […] or […] as a lightly, strongly articulated alveolar
plosive [t], as blend of these two variants, not ponounced Gimme ´at book => different social
groups, different regions

Black English Vernacular: markers like the “double negative” -‐‑> Nobody don´t know about
that (Nobody knows anyting about that)
Also absence of final 3rd person sing. She want, he walk + dropping of “to be” in present
tense. (They real fine.)

Word Choise: Also determines Style Shifting(home, neighborhood, job, church,…) =>
-‐‑ linguistic domain settles degree of formality in the words
-‐‑ also amount of colloquialisms in speaker´s speech

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6. DIACHRONIC VARIATION (EQ 2013)

Languages do change over time (e.g Germanic developed into new lge as Eng, Germ, Norw)
(Spanish, originally variety of Latin-‐‑> developed into a new lge) (OE to Present-‐‑day English)

-‐‑ Lges are in CONSTANT FLUX because:
o People use them endlessly
o Continuous use makes them change.

-‐‑ PRONUNCIATION also changes in all lges
o Not randomly because sounds of related lges -‐‑> correspond to others in
apparently systematic ways(may take decades, centuries)=>Sound Shift

-‐‑ Rasmus Rask (Danish scholar) + German linguist Jacob Grimm Showed relations
o Between Germanic (Gotic, OE) + clasical Indo-‐‑European Lges. (Greek, Latin,
Sanskrit)
o Conclusion: Germanic is PART OF INDIO-‐‑EUROPEAN LGE FAMILY

Greek Latin Gothic OE Present-‐‑day E
Patér Pater Fadar Faeder Father
Treis Tres Preis Pri three

-‐‑ Proto-‐‑Indo-‐‑European voiced aspirates => become=> voiced stops (fricatives)

Greek Latin Gothic OE PDE
Pero Fero Baira Beoru I carry

-‐‑ SYNTAX AREA
o Change affects patterning of sentences (Fromo Proto-‐‑Indo-‐‑Eu Lges =>to=>
Indo EU Lges = Object-‐‑Verb (OV language)

Ek HlevagastiR Holtijaz(S) horna (o) tawido (v) => I, HlewegastiR son of Holt (s) carved (v) this horn (o)

-‐‑ Old English pattern SVO affected only to main clause, different in subordinate
clause SOV (as in Present-‐‑day German) => Gradual shift from OV to VO in clause.

That is the bookshop where I (s) bought (v) your book (o)
Das ust der Buchgescheft, wo ich (s) deines Buch (o) gekauft habe (v)

-‐‑ Syntactic relations in OE-‐‑> similar to present-‐‑day G tan to PdE
o Due to loss of morphological inflections

OE Mit heardum bendum -‐‑> Dative plural ending
G Mit harten Bändern -‐‑> Dative plural ending
PdE With hard bonds -‐‑> plural marker –s-‐‑

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SEMANTIC CHANGE
-‐‑ Most obvious instances
-‐‑ Words may vary meanings Total or Partially -‐‑> closely connected with everyday
usage/contemporary culture
-‐‑ Changes in Word Meaning: because of new demand of lexical resources of Lg
o Closely related to social changes

DIVISION IN CATEGORIES -‐‑> Changes by means of
-‐‑ Generalization
-‐‑ specification
-‐‑ Addition of meanings
-‐‑ Loss of meanings
-‐‑ …

Chaucer: DISEASE -‐‑> illness caused by inflection -‐‑> kid of discomfort, absense of ease (dis-‐‑ease)
Elisabethans: SCIENCE -‐‑> (at present) Knowledge
OE: METE: OGerm/mid Germ : MAZ (food, meal, mealtime) -‐‑> refer to food of any kind
ME mete = type of food = FLESH-‐‑METE=mete (as opposed to fish)= flesh animals as food= meat
OE: TID = OGerm: ZEIT (time in general, period time, hour) MnE TIDE.
OE: FEPER (PdE: Feather) OHG: FEDERA, (ME: write with fetheres) = PEN (PdE penne) = Latin PENNA for feather

PAIRS /TRIOS
-‐‑ words identical, similar referential meaning -‐‑> different stylistic meaning.
-‐‑ Use: depends on communication situations

Ask: request (Fr. Requête)
Answer: reply (Fr. Répliquer) (Lat. Respond)
Belly: abdomen (= also Lat), Stomach (=Fr. Estomac = Lat. Stomachus)

WORD STOCK
-‐‑ can also be expanded
o be borrowed from other lges. (BORROWINGS)
o New words coined or invented (specific jargón in new domains, disciplines)
o New terms created by means of derivation, compounding, existing words
o Pass out words -‐‑> replaced OE earm = poor, ME = poure (Fr. Povere)
§ ME heaven: OE heafo -‐‑-‐‑-‐‑-‐‑-‐‑ PdE sky = Old Norse sky = cloud
DIFFERENCE:
o Originally synonyms
o Native words
o loanwords

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7. SPEECH COMMUNITY SP

NOT easily defined

GENERAL LINGUSITICS
-‐‑ SP es group of people that share same Lge or Dialect in specific setting
-‐‑ Can be closed: city, neighbourhood
-‐‑ Can be broad: whole country

SOCIOLINGUISTICS
-‐‑ a bit more complex: societal+extra linguistic factors ar taken into account
-‐‑ SP can be very different among them (= degree of complexity depends on number
of variables involved in social/linguistic interaction
o VERBAL REPERTOIR: set lges, dialects, registers
o ROLE REPERTOIR: relationship amond interlocutors: parent-‐‑child ,teacher-‐‑ss

DEFINITION SP => needs to be
-‐‑ sufficiently flexible, abstract to include social groupings

-‐‑ Basic componend for SP = Sharing at least 1 lge : A GROUP OF PEOPLE COMMUNICATING
IN SAME WAY. United by a common end, different to ends of other people/group.
o Sb can be member of one SP and in another occasion member of another SP
depending on situational context.
-‐‑ Each individual has his/her own verbal repertoir
-‐‑ Each SP has its own speach repertoir.

-‐‑ DO NOT necessarily correspond with
o POLÍTICAL BOUNDARIES: Swedish spoken in Sweden + parts Finland
o RELIGIONS: Turkish spoken in Turkey + parts Greece, Bulgaria, Rumania
o CULTURES: Bengali spoken by two groups: Bangladesh, India (West Bengal)

-‐‑ Lgs often used by GROUPS OF PEOPLE THAT SHARE PHYSICAL CONTEXT + social norms
o Relationship among members allows the categorization of differences among
users
§ Age, gender, job, educational background
§ Share at least 1 lge/variety + Rules/norms for correct use in com.

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-‐‑ DO NOT need to be MONOLINGUAL è

KACHRU (2001) distinguishes 4 TYPES OF SP´S

1) MULTILINGUAL SP: recognizes more tan 2 official lges.
-‐‑ Switzerland: French, German, Italian oficial Lges (Zurich most Germ, Geneva most Fr)
-‐‑ In multilingual SP a CONTACT LGE is commonly adopted as “oficial lge” (En in India,
Russia)

2) BILINGUAL SP: acknowledges 2 lges with oficial status
-‐‑ Canada: Bilingualism in some parts, but also communities monolingual En/Fr
-‐‑ Belgium: Clear divisions, areas but bilingualism is common. Brussels: Breakfast in
Flemish, transport French, work English
-‐‑ Spanish/Spain but some parts: Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia – Basque,
Catalan, Galician found as well as bilingual speakers

3) MONOLINGUAL SP: only 1 official lge.
-‐‑ Portugal: but conception sometimes misleading -‐‑> speakers also repertoire in
styles, registers, dialects -‐‑> may be different from standard

4) DIGLOSSIC SP: 2 lges/varieties are functually complementary.
-‐‑ diglosia often distinguishes between 2 varieties
o Use in Formal Context = High Variety
o Use in Colloquial Context = Low Variety
-‐‑ Arabic-‐‑ speaking communities
o Classical / Colloquial Arabic
-‐‑ Often intertwined with Bilingualism/Multilingualism
o Switzerland, German-‐‑speaking : Children learn Low Variety, incl., regional
dialect -‐‑-‐‑-‐‑ later-‐‑-‐‑-‐‑ acquire high variety
o USA – spanish speaking immigran families. Spanish from parents, school
English (lge for everyday life) Use spanish parents, grandparents, siblings

SPOLSKY (1998:25): SP has NO limitation of location, size
-‐‑ It entails a complex interlocking NETWORD of COM
-‐‑ Their members share knowledge of lge use patterns towards others, themselves
-‐‑ Share set of lge varieties (repertoires) + norms for using them.
-‐‑ Member of same SP do note ven need to have comprehensive knowledge, nor
handle each variety, repertoire used.

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8. DOING SOCIOLINGUISTIC RESEARCH

Own lge is NOT used in same way by different speakers sin SP.

It depends on
-‐‑ Interlocutor´s social/geographic background
-‐‑ Other factors: age, sex, education

è Each speaker will show some DEGREE OF STYLISTIC VARIATION depending on:
-‐‑ the relations of power or solidarity with the interlocutor
-‐‑ the social context (domain) in which the conversation is taking place (home, school,..)
-‐‑ the topic (academic, profesional, …)

-‐‑ These variables determine that a researcher willing to search into the matter and
analyse the way people speak and why, will need to devise some way to collect
data with a transparent, systematic, unambiguous method in order to get reliable
non-‐‑biased data.

-‐‑ Sociolinguists at work ar looking for commonly accepted rules and patterns that
account for variations in speech (pronunciation, Word choice, …)
o Based on some determining factor: age, gender, level education, place origin, …
o Validity: sociolinguist can´t asume that informants are NOT lying, pretending
accent, use different words, … (speaker changes unconsciouly when notices
speech is analyzed) => reliable info necessary = validity.

-‐‑ INTRUSION:
o From presence of researcher, unexpected device
o From alteration fo situation or environment (could be subtle)

èMethodological problem: William Labov OBSERVER´S PARADOX (not only
sociolinguistic research
o how we observe the way people speak when the researcher is not there
o in private situations (home, business meeting)
o Difficult to analayze

§ E.g. telephone recording before without permission -‐‑> language
Recording now -‐‑> language (different when we know we are recorded)

-‐‑ SOCIOLINGUISTIC RESEARCH
o Questionnaires: e.g discriminate one Word from another, specific
pronounciation, depending on aim of study (age, cultural bounds, place…)
o Face-‐‑to-‐‑face interviews/ Sociolinguistic interview: asking questions, carefully
planned, modified because circumstances, more casual style.
§ Time-‐‑efford consuming if not properly directed, not good way to elicit
information
§ Other techiniques to obtain casual speech -‐‑> minimizes presence
interviewer
o MP3 player informant -‐‑> Every day English for Teaching materials. People
forget they are being recorded : validity of method, reliability of data
increases.

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1970S WILLIAM LABOV
-‐‑ research in 3 New York department stores
o collected non-‐‑intrusive responses
o /r/ final -‐‑> Why not pronounced? (car, bar)
§ 1) fashionable área
§ 2)middle-‐‑class store
§ 3) store low-‐‑price goods
o worked on assumption that sales-‐‑people´s accents reflected those of their
customers. Tecnique-‐‑> visiting different stores-‐‑> asking goods from 4th floor
-‐‑> Word 4 annalysed, 264 interviews.

ð SOCIOLINGUISTIC RESEARCH
o Based on collection of large amounts of data
o Later statistical analysis of data
o Finding of general tendencies or regularities

-‐‑ TENSION: QUANTITATIVE V. QUALITATIVE APPROACHES => DIFFERENT PROCEDURES
o Research base on case studies (Ethnographic approach)
o Observe single cases -‐‑> contrast patterns,behaviour with other
communities/societies
o Tension amoung Quantitative/Qualitative
§ Each study has idiosyncratic characteristics
§ Also specific aims
§ May require one or another -‐‑> needs to be exlectic
§ Combine statistical analysis of data with interview to gain reliability
• To contrast with finding
• As complementary research technique

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KEY WORDS

1. ANALYTIC LANGUAGE:
Languages can be classified into typological categories based on how words are formed.
An analytic language is one in which words tend to be one syllable long with no affixes, as
in Chinese or Vietnamese. The function of words in a sentence is shown primarily by word
order. Analytic languages are also known as isolating languages. (See synthetic language).
2. BLACK ENGLISH VERNACULAR:

(See Black English Vernacular). Sometimes called Black English Vernacular, Black English,
or Ebonics, it refers to the language spoken in black communities in the US. Some linguists
consider it a significantly different linguistic system from the standard dialect since it
does not conform to its pronunciation, grammatical structure, idiomatic usage,
vocabulary, etc. In the 1960's the issue of AAVE became a source of concern in the
education system as it was perceived that black students performed below average in
schools and the reason was thought to lie in their language skills. It was considered that
Black English speakers had to face the double load of having to deal with linguistic
differences in the classroom as well as in the course content. This issue has been a source
of concern ever since.

3. BORROWING: (EQ 2014)
This term is used in comparative and historical linguistics to refer to words or phrases
which have spread from one language or dialect and are used in another. Although less
evidently and less frequently, borrowings can also occur at a different linguistic level such
as syntactic. The borrowing language may have various ways of incorporating the foreign
form into the recipient language's phonology, morphology and syntax. Borrowing can be
originated by a wide range of different causes including:
  a) Close contact between two or more language codes in multilingual situations which
favors the transfer of elements.
  b) The domination of some languages by others due to cultural, economic, political,

religious or other reasons.  
c) A sense of need because technology or culture advances more rapidly in countries

speaking certain languages.  
d) A sense of prestige associated with words or expressions coming from other languages.
  There is a clear difference between the concepts of code-‐‑switching and borrowing.
There is no doubt in the case of historically transferred forms which have settled in the
target language (e.g. words like 'castle', 'forest' and 'tempest' come from French, and
words like 'call', 'egg', and 'law' come from Norse). Code-‐‑switching, however, is
spontaneous, affects all levels of linguistic structure simultaneously and is unstable as it
depends on the context and the relationship between the speakers (e.g., the Spanglish that
is often heard in places such as Gibraltar or Texas). On some other occasions, borrowings
may resemble code-‐‑switches because they maintain a foreign status and retain another
languages' syntax (e.g., fixed phrases from Latin: 'ad hoc', 'sine qua non', etc.)

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4. COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE: (EQ 2012 , 2014)
This term was first introduced by the American anthropological linguist Dell Hymes in
opposition to chomskian conception of native speaker's linguistic competence which
referred to the linguistic intuitions of an idealised native speaker. Dell Hymes considered
that the linguistic knowledge of grammar, pronunciation and lexicon is not enough, as
speakers also have other types of linguistic knowledge about how to use that language
properly in society. This additional knowledge allows speakers to be sensitive to some
determining factors such as the context, the type of interlocutor, and the register, for
example. Communicative competence is acquired by native speakers of the language but it
also needs to be acquired by non-‐‑native speakers, together with linguistic competence.
The 'ethnography of speaking' studies what is necessary to be communicatively
competent in different speech communities.
5. DIALECT:
Geographical variation affects languages in the form of dialects. This refers to how locality
correlates with differences in the way people speak the language. People who speak a
dialect often use different words or pronunciations for the same word. This type of
variation may also affect syntactic and intonation patterns. Nowadays, dialect variation
tends to diminish due to the fact that the media and the communication infrastructures
have a homogenising effect on languages. Sometimes the distinction between dialects and
languages is not quite clear as sociopolitical factors may play an important role in the
decision. It must be added that not even dialectologists agree on a single definition of
'dialect'.

6. DIALECTOLOGY: (EQ 2012)
It is the study and search for idiosyncratic features in language use within a geographical
area. Dialectologists usually analyse the typical vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation
patterns, and other characteristics, and try to match these with specific geographic areas.
They draw lines (called 'isoglosses') on maps to try and visualise areas where certain
language features are used.

7. DISCOURSE ANALYSIS:
This field of research refers to the analysis of linguistic units above the sentence level, i.e.,
texts or conversations. By analysing written or aural texts, discourse analysts explore the
different functions of language in social interaction.

8. DOMAIN: (EQ 2013)
This term refers to the combination of social and situational factors that generally
influence the choice of code by speakers: code, dialect, location, register, style, topic, etc.
For example, the language of home will be different to the language used at a formal
meeting at work. The same speaker will use different styles, an informal one for the
former situation and a formal one for the latter. This concept is frequently used in studies
of code-‐‑switching in multilingual contexts where various languages, dialects or styles are
employed in different social settings.

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9. ETHNOGRAPHY OF COMMUNICATION:

A term that in addition to the definition of the 'ethnography of speaking' includes
nonverbal aspects of communication, for instance, distance between speaker and hearer,
eye contact, etc.

10. INFORMANT:
In empirical research this term refers to any person who provides information to be
analysed and is consequently a source of data for the researcher. A native speaker
providing insights of his/her use of language is an informant, but also a student who
attends a class that is being observed to gather information about the students' progress.

11. LANGUAGE ATTRITION: (EQ 2013, 2014)
Gradual language loss. This term can refer to the loss of a mother tongue that has been
acquired and due to lack of use -‐‑ probably because the person has moved and it is not
longer the language of the community -‐‑ it is gradually forgotten. This happens quite
frequently among second and third generation immigrants. In second language learning, it
can refer to the loss of a language that was learnt through formal instruction but gradually
forgotten after a period of disuse.

12. MACRO-‐‑SOCIOLINGUISTICS: (EQ 2012)
This term refers to the study of sociolinguistic aspects in large groups of speakers as
opposed to micro-‐‑sociolinguistics that studies areas related to small groups. Macro-‐‑
sociolinguistics deals with the relationship between sociological factors and language as,
for example, language planning, language shift and multilingual matters. This is an
umbrella term for a type of research, rather than an area of study itself; so studies looking
at the Sociology of Language can generally be described as macro-‐‑sociolinguistic because
of their scale.

13. MICRO-‐‑SOCIOLINGUISTICS:
The study of sociolinguistics in relation to small groups of speakers, speech communities
or the speech of individuals. This branch of sociolinguistics deals, for example, with the
analysis of face-‐‑to-‐‑face interaction and discourse analysis. This term is used in opposition
to macro-‐‑sociolinguistics which refers to larger scale study of language in society.

14. NATIVE SPEAKER: (2014)
A person who has spoken a language since early childhood. This term is rather
controversial in linguistics because of assumptions that a native speaker can be appealed
to resolve questions of correct usage because s/he is reported to have authority to
determine correct or deviant usage. Native and non-‐‑native are not clear cut homogenous
categories as variation depending on individual factors (origin, education, etc.) is
enormous and all speakers are, in turn, native speakers of a given language or dialect. In
second language learning native speakers have traditionally represented the "model to
follow" in the process of learning but this has proven to be an inefficient approach as the
processes of first and second language learning are naturally and necessarily different.
Moreover, recent studies have shown that, contrary to popular belief, 'native speaker
introspection' is an unreliable guide to actual usage.

14
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15. OBSERVER’S PARADOX: (EQ 2012 2013)

This paradox is how to observe language use without people knowing you're doing so.
Sociolinguistics are obviously interested in recording natural language but, as Labov
observed, people change their production -‐‑often unconsciously-‐‑ becoming more careful
and standard in their speech when they are being recorded. This means features like
idioms and relaxed pronunciation can be underrepresented in sociolinguistic data. The
problem of how to gather vernacular language data is one which is still a methodological
challenge for sociolinguistic research.

16. PRAGMATICS:
This is a branch of linguistics that studies the use of language in communication, i.e., the
relationships between utterances and the contexts and situations in which they are used.
Within pragmatics, discourse analysis looks at language in discourse.

17. (PROTO) – INDO-‐‑ EUROPEAN:
Languages can be classified genetically. This classification involves comparing the
structure of different languages in order to show common parentage. Indo-‐‑European is
the best-‐‑ known language family. The major Indo-‐‑European subgroups are: Indo-‐‑Iranian,
Armenian, Albanian, Anatolian, Hellenic, Italic, Celtic, Baltic, Slavic, and Germanic. English
belongs to the Anglo-‐‑Frisian group of the West Germanic branch of the Germanic
subfamily. An unattested (reconstructed) language is indicated by the term 'proto'.

18. SOCIOLINGUISTIC INTERVIEW:
This is a technique to collect speech samples to gather information about a given speaker,
or group of speakers, in a speech community. This qualitative method of research is of
prime importance for the sociolinguist as it provides face-‐‑to-‐‑face interaction with the
informant and allows recording for later analysis.

19. SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE:
This term refers to a branch of sociolinguistics that studies large scale processes of
interaction between language and its use in society. Also referred to as macro-‐‑
sociolinguistics, it deals with the relationship between sociological factors and language,
especially language choice. Some of the issues studied by the sociology of language are
language planning, multilingualism, and language shift.

20. SYNCHRONIC VARIATION:
This term refers to the instances and characteristics of variation which occur at the
present time in language. That is, the way variation affects language at a given point in
history, for instance: gender, register, style, etc. Diachronic variation, however, looks at
language change through time.

21. SYNTHETIC LANGUAGE:
Synthetic languages have a number of suffixes which carry different (often functional
rather than lexical) meanings, such as tense or case, and vary their shape according to the
word they are added to; synthetic languages are also known as inflectional languages. A
single suffix can express a number of different grammatical concepts, as in Latin. (See
analytic language). They are also known as inflectional languages.
15
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22. VARIETY:
This is a broad term used to refer to a sort of language that is considered as a separate
entity for some reason but which generally shares a great deal of common features with a
standard or other varieties. It is not therefore considered a different language. A given
dialect, accent, style or register can be considered a variety, which is a term preferred by
linguists as it is less loaded. Language varieties can be very wide spread and standardised
such as Australian English or American English but they can also be very localised such as
Cockney (in London) and Scouse (in Liverpool).
16

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Saravdp

3º Sociolingüística de la Lengua Inglesa

Grado en Estudios Ingleses: Lengua, Literatura y Cultura

UNED - Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia

An Introduction to Sociolinguistics

2. SOCIOLINGUISTICS VS. SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE

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6. DIACHRONIC VARIATION (EQ 2013)

Esto es un recordatorio de Wuolah: ERES UN CRACK.

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7. SPEECH COMMUNITY SP

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8. DOING SOCIOLINGUISTIC RESEARCH

¿Qué estará pasando en Instagram? Síguenos: @Wuolah_apuntes

Aquí no, pero en Instagram ponemos memes: @Wuolah_apuntes

2. BLACK ENGLISH VERNACULAR:

b) The domination of some languages by others due to cultural, economic, political,

c) A sense of need because technology or culture advances more rapidly in countries

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9. ETHNOGRAPHY OF COMMUNICATION:

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15. OBSERVER’S PARADOX: (EQ 2012 2013)

Esto es un recordatorio de Wuolah: ERES UN CRACK.

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  b) The domination of some languages by others due to cultural, economic, political,