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. “