Chapter 10 Overview
1. Sexist Language
2. Loss of Linguistic Diversity
3. Sociolinguists share informed insights
4. Overcoming Attitudes and Stereotypes
5. Avoiding / decreasing intercultural
misunderstandings
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Social Goals of Applied
Linguists / Sociolinguists
 Promote awareness of language issues
in society.
 Debunk myths about language in society.
 Support linguistic rights.
 Be sensitive to minority rights.
 Be sensitive to other cultures.
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Gender Differences and Society
Greatest linguistic distinctions between
men's and women's languages come from
"technologically non-advanced foodgathering or nomadic communities where
sex roles were much more clearly
delineated."
Trudgill, Peter. 2000. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society,
4th edition. London: Penguin Books, p. ??.
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Male Biased Terms
chairman
chair(person), chairwoman
mailman
letter carrier
fireman
firefighter
policeman
police officer
waiter
server
waitress
server
stewardess
flight attendant
woman doctor doctor
[Compare: male nurse and nurse]
Mr. President
Madam President
First Lady
??First Gentleman??
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Change the Language 
Change Society?
"Linguistic changes follow social changes very
readily, but it is not always a simple matter to
make them precede social changes."
ALSO:
"Because language and society are so closely
linked, it is possible, in some cases, to
encourage social change by directing attention
towards linguistic reflections of aspects of
society that one would like to see altered."
Trudgill, Peter. 2000. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society,
4th edition. London: Penguin Books, p. 189.
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Insights from Linguists
"This sort of involvement by linguists in issues to
do with language and gender is an example of
the way in which many sociolinguists feel, quite
rightly, that it is important for those of us who
have some insight into the nature of the
relationship between society and language to
make those insights available to the wider
community in cases where these insights can be
of some value."
Trudgill, Peter. 2000. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society,
4th edition. London: Penguin Books, p. 189.
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Some Widely Held Views 1
1. A country should have only one language.
2. Lack of linguistic unity goes together with
lack of political unity.
3. Minority languages should be suppressed.
4. OR Minority languages should not be
promoted
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Some Widely Held Views 2
5. Non-standard dialects should be
suppressed.
6. OR Non-standard dialects should not be
promoted.
7. Our language should be protected from
the invasion of foreign words.
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The Linguist's Responsibility
"It is a sad but true sociolinguistic fact that language
issues can bring out the worst as well as the best in
human beings, and that some people who would
otherwise pride themselves on being intelligent and
rational can behave in the most illogical ways when it
comes to language issues. One of the things that
linguists in general and sociolinguists in particular have
tried to do over the years is to encourage people to
think in a more sensible way about language issues by
providing them with more information about language.
This is important for all sorts of reasons to do with
fairness, equality, and even the future of humanity."
Trudgill, Peter. 2000. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society,
4th edition. London: Penguin Books, p. 190.
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Open-Mindedness
Being open-minded does NOT mean you
must ACCEPT the other viewpoint.
It does mean, however, that you recognize
that another viewpoint exists AND that
there may be some reasons WHY people
hold that viewpoint.
AND it ought to also mean you will try to
be fair-minded about it.
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Be Open Minded
FOR EXAMPLE:
Maybe YOU do not care about preserving
the Hakka language or Aboriginal
languages, BUT, you SHOULD recognize
that some people (especially if they are
members of these groups) think it IS
important and that there should be support
from society / government to help them.
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Language Shift over Time in
France and England
WHO
WHAT
Celtic invaders
Roman invaders
Gaulish speakers
Latin speakers
German invaders
German speakers
Vikings invade
Norwegian speakers
Norman invaders
Norman speakers
Brought Celtic—Gaulish to France
Brought Latin to France
Switched to Latin
Latin became French
Brought German to N. France
Switched to French / Latin
Brought Norwegian to Normandy, France
Switched to Norman French
Took Norman French to England
Switched to English
Trudgill, Peter. 1995. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society,
third edition. London: Penguin Books, p. 191.
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Attitudes
“In fact, experiments in Britain have shown
that speakers using an RP-speaking guise
are generally regarded as more intelligent
and more educated, but less friendly and
less likeable, than the same speakers
using a local-accent-speaking guise.”
Trudgill, Peter. 2000. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society,
4th edition. London: Penguin Books, pp. 194-195.
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Getting to Know You
"This illustrates the way in which we rely on
stereotypes when we first meet and interact
with people (as in a train, for example) and
use the way they speak to build up a picture
of what sort of person we think they are. RPspeakers may be perceived, as soon as they
start speaking, as haughty and unfriendly by
non-RP-speakers unless and until they are
able to demonstrate the contrary. They are,
as it were, guilty until proved innocent."
Trudgill, Peter. 2000. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society,
4th edition. London: Penguin Books, p 195.
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Approaches to Dealing with
Non-Standard Varieties in an
Educational Setting
1. Eliminate non-standard speech
2. Take a bidialectal approach
3. Teach an appreciation / tolerance of
dialect differences
4. Combination of 2 and 3
Trudgill, Peter. 2000. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society,
4th edition. London: Penguin Books, pp. 200-203.
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