INTRO TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS

LANGUAGE, DIALECT, AND VARIETIES

Hudson (1996, p. 22) defines a variety of language as ‘a set of linguistic items with similar distribution, a definition that allows us to say that all of the following are varieties: Canadian English, London English, the English of football commentaries, and so on. According to Hudson, this definition also allows us ‘to treat all the languages of some multilingual speaker, or community, as a single variety, since all the linguistic items concerned have a similar social distribution.’ A variety can therefore be something greater than a single language as well as something less. less even than something traditionally referred to as a dialect. Ferguson (1972, p. 30) offers another definition of variety: ‘any body of human speech patterns which is sufficiently homogeneous to be analyzed by available techniques of synchronic description and which has a sufficiently large repertory of elements and their arrangements or processes with broad enough semantic scope to function in all formal contexts of communication.

The terms of variety language are emerged due to different systems reflecting different varieties of the human condition. Variety is a specific set of ‘linguistic items’ or ‘human speech patterns’ (presumably, sounds, words, grammatical features, etc.) which we can connect with some external factor apparently, a geographical area or a social group (Hudson, 1996; Ferguson, 1972 and Wardhaugh, 2006). Languages can be at variance in lexical, grammatical, phonological and other ways depends on different social, geographical and other circumstances determine what elements will be needed and, therefore developed, and for that reason sociolinguistics believe that such unique sets of items or patterns do exist.

INTRO TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS

What is sociolinguistics?

Concerned with things that vary (most ling classes you'll take are concerned with the things that don't vary about language)

All levels of the language can show variation - sounds, words, meanings, grammar

Variation can be seen at the level of the individual or the group
so an individual's use of language varies from place to place, audience to audience and one group of speakers shows language differences when compared to another group of speakers.

Everyone speaks a dialect - your age, gender, race, ethnicity, social class, geographic background, etc. all contribute to make up your dialect

Some examples of variation to test with the class:
sound: often, coupon, data
lexicon: sneaker/gym shoe/tennis shoe; firefly/lightening bug
meaning: barbecue
grammar: positive anymore "the weather's so hot anymore"

Background on sociolinguistics

(sometimes known as social dialectology) 

Stems from the study of regional dialects.
response to concerns of theoretical linguistics:
Saussure's langue (grammatical system - homogeneous) vs. parole (social
uses of language - heterogeneous); (Chomsky's competence vs. performance)

Linguistic theory concerned with ideal speaker-listener, in a completely
homogeneous speech community : an idealization to allow analysis to take
place.

But then what to do with this variation? Is it just random - free variation?
Where does this variation really come from and what purpose does it serve?

Reasons for variation in language

SOCIOHISTORICAL factors
LINGUISTIC factors

Language constantly changing for many reasons. No language ever stagnant, whether we're talking about vocabulary, syntax, pronunciation.

So we've got all these dialects. Now how do we categorize them?

dialectology concerned with finding regional variation - old farmer, quaint
connotations

But in late 1960's urban popluation growing, and there was
an increasing need to describe & analyze speech of urban populations fully
and accurately. lack of HOMOGENEITY in urban environments, unlike areas
typically of interest to dialectology. this lack of homogeneity led many
to clain it's FREE VARIATION - random, not patterned.

But some (starting with William Labov) argued that this variation displayed ordered heterogeneity instead of random chaos. Labov set out to study this variation systematically - what is behind the variation?

Branches of sociolinguistics 

Can be defined broadly or narrowly -
Broad: branch of linguistics studying those properties of language which require reference to social, including contextual, factors in their explanation
Narrow: seeks to explain patterend covariation of language and society; seeks rules to account for that variation.

Some traditions of sociolinguistic investigation:
linguistic variation (sociolinguistics proper): focuses on the linguistic variable that correlates with social differences. Unit of study is language itself. Considered a part of linguistics. Biggest proponent - Labov.
ethnography of speaking: emphasis on various aspects of context that are involved in differing interpretations of language use. Unit of analysis is not language itself but rather the users of language: the speech community. Generally considered part of sociology or anthropology. Proponent - Dell Hymes.
language planning (also applied sociolinguistics, sociology of language): emphasis on practical aspects of this study. Much about language contact issues and language use in education.

For all these branches of sociolinguistics, awareness that variation exists on the group level as well as on the individual level.

For the individual, a whole set of linguistic resources -
Linguistic repertoire: a person's (or community's) linguistic resources. For an individual, depends on social history & social networks.

Parts of this repertoire include:
Vernacular: the most basic, earliest learned variety of language. It is the least subject to self-monitoring and the least likely to change over one's lifetime.
Superposed varieties: later-learned varieties of speech. Used in more formal settings.

The vernacular comes out in certain circumstances - when someone is tired, upset, around other speakers of the vernacular, very informal settings...

A goal of sociolinguistics is to understand this vernacular. But to do this we must examine speech in natural settings, not artificial ones. But how do we get at this kind of speech?
Observer's paradox: the speech we most want to observe is unobserved speech. We have to come up with techniques for overcoming this.

INTRO TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS

CODE-SWITCHING AND CODE-MIXING

Code-switching can be defined as the use of more than one language, variety, or style by a speaker within an utterance or discourse, or between different interlocutors or situations (Romaine, 1992:110).

Code-switching is changing event from one code to another. For example, at first someone uses Indonesian language, and then he/she switches into Javanese. This event manifests in switch of regional, social, style and register variants. In code-switching, the use of two or more languages is marked by:

(a) Each language still supports its own functions based on the contexts;

(b) Each language function is based on relevant situation with contexts change.


Reasons Speakers Use Code-Switching
The first of these is the notion that a speaker who may not be able to express him/herself in one language switches to the other to compensate for the deficiency.

Secondly, switching commonly occurs when an individual wishes to express solidarity with a particular social group.

In some situations, code switching is done deliberately to exclude a person from a conversation. It is seen as a sign of solidarity within a group, and it is also assumed that all speakers in a conversation must be bilingual in order for code switching to occur. Bilinguals do not usually translate from the weaker language to the stronger one.

Code switching can be used in a variety of degrees, whether it is used at home with family and friends, or used with superiors at the workplace.

Types Of Code-Switching
Code switching can be classified as follows:

1. Inter-Sentential

In inter-sentential code switching, the language switch is done at sentence boundaries. This is seen most often between fluent bilingual speakers. For example: If you are late for the job interview, işe alınmazsın.

2. Intra-Sentential

In intra-sentential code switching, the shift is done in the middle of a sentence, with no interruptions, hesitations or pauses indicating a shift. The speaker is usually unaware of the shift. Different types of switch occur within the clause level including within the word level. Some researchers call it also code mixing. For example: You are sleepy coğu zaman, because you spend a lot of saat in your bed.

3. Extra-Sentential

There is an insertion of a tag from one language into an utterance that is in another language. For example: Turkish students use some boundary words like ama (but) or yani (I mean) while speaking English.

Example :
The teacher gives a dialogue to the students, which includes a Turkish statement which the students don’t know the English meaning. And he gives the English form of the sentence in parenthesis to show the meaning of the new word.

Joselyn: Babs, Babs, Oh there you are!
Babs: Calm down. What’s the rush?
Joselyn: Sana söylemek için can atıyorum. (I’ve been bursting to tell you)
Babs: Tell me what? It’s obviously got you excited.
Jocelyn: Well, Heather just told me that Mandy has dumped Gordon and got a new boyfriend.
Babs: Oohh, fancy that. Who is he?
The teacher wants his students to learn the meaning of the new word burst.




Code-mixing is the phenomenon of mixing a second language into the first language, mixing foreign languages ​​into native language structure. Based on this simple definition, the phenomenon of code-mixing is not necessarily involve a foreign language. Regional languages ​​are also used as code-mixing with the national language.

Factors of Mixed codes:

Mixed code does not appear because of the demands of the situation, but there are other factors involved in it.

Factor role
Which includes roles are social status, education, as well as the group of participants or speakers speak the language.

Factor Speakers
Speakers sometimes deliberately mix the code language because they have the intent and purpose. Speakers sometimes perform code-mixing between one language into another language because of habit and your relaxation.

Some Code-mixing Forms

• Elements inserted in the from of words, example : in Indonesian language can be found “Mangka seringkali sok ada kata-kata seolah-olah bahasa daerah itu kurang penting”.
• Elements inserted in the form of phrases, Example : in Indonesian language can be found “Nah, karena sudah kadhung apik sama dia ya tak teken".
• Elements inserted in the form of busters, Example: Banyak klap malam harus ditutup, Hendaknya segera diadakan hutanisasi kembali.
• Elements inserted in the form of reduplication, Example: Sudah waktunya kita menghindari backing-backingan dan klik-klikan.

Conclusionthe code mixing and code switching is different:
“Code-switching is the mixing of words, phrases and sentences from two distinct grammatical (sub)systems across sentence boundaries within the same speech event… code-mixing is the embedding of various linguistic units such as affixes (bound morphemes), words (unbound morphemes), phrases and clauses from a cooperative activity where the participants, in order to in infer what is intended, must reconcile what they hear with what they understand. “

COMENTS BLOG

Semantic

A euphemism is a polite expression used in place of words or phrases that otherwise might be considered harsh or unpleasant to hear. Euphemisms are used regularly, and there are many examples in every day language.
Types of Euphemisms is to soften an expression


How and Why We Use euphemisms :
Euphemisms can take different forms, but they all involve substituting a word or phrase considered to be less offensive than another. The substituted word might, for example, be viewed as a less coarse choice, as when dang or darn is used instead of damn or damned. Or it might replace a word viewed as insulting to a religious figure, such as the various euphemisms for God (gad, gadzooks, gosh). A euphemism may also consist of an indirect softening phrase that is substituted for the straightforward naming of something unpalatable. Thus, we hear of people being “let go” rather than “fired”; civilians killed in war described as “collateral damage”; or . “passed away, “given up the ghost,” or “joined one’s ancestors.


Some euphemisms are used in order to make a blunt or unpleasant truth seem less harsh.

Other examples of euphemisms that fall into this category include:

• Passed away instead of died
• Correctional facility instead of jail
• Departed instead of died
• Pregnancy termination instead of abortion
• On the streets instead of homeless

Examples of euphemism in a sentence
Invigorating” is the euphemism we use most often to describe the chilly waters off the coast, but knowledgeable Maine boaters know where to find the warmer, tidal waters just right for a midsummer dip.

Review about semantics

semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning in language. It can be applied to entire texts or to single words. For example, "destination" and "last stop" technically mean the same thing, but students of semanticsanalyze their subtle shades of meaning.

1. Linguistics.

   • the study of meaning.
   • the study of linguistic development by classifying and examining changes in meaning and form.
2. Also called signifies.the branch of semiotics dealing with the relations between signs and what they denote.
   
   
3. the meaning, or an interpretation of the meaning, of a word, sign, sentence, etc :
   Let's not argue about semantics.
4. General Semantics. 
   
   

   Semantic Theory

   Katz begins from a familiar place: Chomsky's characterization of the job of linguistics as construction of a system of rules which represent ``what a fluent speaker knows about the semantic structure of his language'' (519-20). Such a theory will take the form of recursive rules which allow a speaker to compose and understand sentences in his language.
   On this account, a semantic theory must contain rules which represent the speaker's knowledge of the semantic structure of the language and which allow the composition and decomposition of sentences in that language to understand the meaning of the sentences. Semantic theory consists of two parts: a lexicon or dictionary, and a `finite set of ``projection'' rules' (520).
   Katz assigns as input to the semantic theory, the output of the syntactic theory; thus all sentences which the semantic theory encounters are by hypothesis well-formed. The precise input is the sentence represented as a concatenation of morphemes which are ``terminal elements'' (521). Thus for the sentence
   The boys like candy,
   the input is `the + boy + s + like + candy.' It is the job of the semantic theory to assign a semantic interpretation/meaning, or in case of ambiguity, multiple interpretations, to this input in such a way that the meaning (or meanings) is revealed, along with other semantic properties, including analyticity, et alia.
   Thus, Katz needs to characterize: dictionary entry, semantic interpretation and projection rule, which he does as follows.
   
   • Dictionary entry: ``a finite number of sequences of symbols, each sequence consisting of an initial subsequence of syntactic markers, followed by a subsequence of 'semantic markers,' then, optimally one 'distinguisher,' and finally, a `selection restriction'''(522).
   • Semantic interpretation: A semantic interpretation is what Katz calls a path in the semantic tree. See example below.
   • Projection rule: There are two types of projection rules: type one and type two.
   Type one projection rules utilize the information about the meanings of the lexical items contained in the paths belonging to the sets of paths assigned ...in order to provide a characterization of the meaning of every constituent of the sentence, including the whole sentence (525)The idea is to amalgamate various paths from a single node to form one path. Katz includes what he calls an ``erasure clause'' to eliminate duplication of semantic markers. The sample rule on 526 explains how modifiers are added to nouns, see 527 for the example of `colorful ball.'
   

WRITTING II

Example “Report Text”

TVRI.com – widespread looding inundated Nelayan, Pekanbaru – Riau. Sunday night through Monday night, and more stroms this week threaten to worsen the situation.

Flooding quickly ensued Sunday night throug Monday night in Nelayan as persistent rain and thunderstroms unleashed 300 to 450 mm ( 12 to 18 inches ) of rainfall. On Thuesday, nearly 6.000 people were evacuated from part Nelayan.

Runoff from the rain flooded dozens of roads and severely affected public  tranportation. The public tranportation war force to halt operation on half of it’s corridors.

Flood water reaced up to 60 cm around the Nelayan brought a brought a rapit rise on the Siak River.

Example “News Item”

A Teacher Killed in Car Accident

Teo (17) was verry sad to know that his father Sunarto (42) was killed bloody on Sudirman street, Pekanbaru, Riau. His mother, Sarimah (40) which came a few moments later was crying when she saw the body of her husband who is no longer alive in RSUD Arifin Ahmad hospital.

According to Yudi (29), a witness in that place, Wednesday (06/03/2017) morning. Sunarto who is a teacherrrived on the location at in PGRI, Karya Jaya street, Pekanbaru is a victim of hit and run in car accident. “ i was sitting in the stall. Suddenly i heard a truck that stopped all of sudden then i saw a man was lying on road. Afterwards, the truckt was running “ he said.

Traffic police who arrived on the location at Karya Jaya street directly commited the criem scene. Police also collected number of witnesses to be asked for information. Until now, the truct driver is still unknown.

Example “Discuccion Text”

National exam become the hot topic in Pekanbaru – Riau and most of discuccion among studen, teacher and parents. Some people believe tht national exam is not necessary for students as a requirement to be able graduate from a school. In other hand, other people see national exam as an important indicator to know whether students have mastered all school about national examination gous on until know.

For people who agree, national exam is necessary for studens as a requirement to graduate from a shcool. People who support the national exam explain that the quality of the Riau education will drop without the national exam, so they also to defend the current system. They also think that national examination can motivated students to study harder.

However there are people who disagree with the oppinion. Those who againts national exam kept in shcool educatin say that it doesn’t need the national exam because the quality of education doesn’t just depend on the national exam only meansures a small portion of students competence in specific subject, and doesn’t not meansure studentd competence throughout the semester.

In concolusion, national examination can still be usefull as an instrument to evaluated or detect the levelof students cognitive competence in severl subject, on a national scale. However, it’s not fair if only national exam score that judge wether students pass or not. Goverment should make a regulation that national exam is not only requirement for students to graduate.there should be other requirements added such as students daily score, behavior and achievement