Sociolinguistics
(Language Variation)
Ling 400
Sociolinguistics Goals:
• identify aspects of socioeconomic factors in
language variation
• identify aspects of gender and ethnicity as
factors in language variation
• describe how shifts in speech contexts cause
changes in speaking styles
• list the reasons why “standard” national
dialects are problematic propositions
What is sociolinguistics?
• Sociolinguistics: The study of the
interrelationships between language and
social structure; centrally concerned with how
language varies (at a single point in time) and
changes (over time) according to how people
in society use it.
Overview
• Language vs. dialect
• Language variation
variation in different subareas (phonology, syntax,
etc.)
variation conditioned by different factors(region,
socioeconomics, gender, age, etc.)
• Language and cultural identity, attitudes
about language
Linguistic community
Language
Dialect 1
Dialect 2
Idiolect 1 Idiolect 2 Idiolect 3, etc.
Dialect 3
Dialects (linguist’s definition)
• Mutually intelligible varieties; e.g. English
spoken in Seattle, English spoken in London,
UK
• Not dialects of same language: W. Germanic
(English) spoken in Seattle and W. Germanic
(Dutch) spoken in Amsterdam
Sources of confusion re dialect
• Politically distinct ≠ linguistically distinct. 200+
countries vs. 6000+ languages
• ‘Chinese’: languages spoken in same country,
mislabeled ‘dialects’
• Spoken in different countries, mislabeled
‘languages’:
(Czech, Slovak), (Serbian, Croatian),
(Norwegian, Swedish, Danish)
Difficulties with mutual
intelligibility definition
1. There are degrees of mutual intelligibility:
what is criterion: 100%? 90%? 50%
Birmingham, UK vs. Seattle, WA
2. Asymmetries in intelligibility: Danish speakers
find it easier to understand Swedish than vice
versa.
Different types of dialects
• "Standard" dialect: usually that used by
political leaders, media, higher socioeconomic
classes
• ‘Standard’ vs. prescriptively correct
• Some “standard” dialects of English
Standard American English (SAE)
Received Pronunciation (RP) (UK)
‘Standard’ vs. ‘non-standard’
varieties of American English
• Deletion of voiced stops after nasals
standard
non-standard
comb
[koʊm]
[koʊm]
sing
[sɪŋ]
[sɪŋ]
land
[lænd]
[læn]
Language variation
Factors contributing to variation
• Geography
• Socioeconomics
• Gender
• Age
Labov’s study (1972)
• Post-vocalic [ɹ] (e.g. floor) in NYC
File 10.4
casual speech careful speech
Saks
63%
64%
Macy’s
44%
61%
S. Klein
8%
18%
Case study (Japanese)
• There are some interesting socio-semantic
facts that should be of interest to you. I will
discuss some of them.
Sociolinguistics and Semantics
Pronouns and address terms
Japanese has many first and second pronouns, but
when they are used (esp. 2nd person pronouns), you
have to be very careful. You usually avoid them. (It is
hard not to be rude.)
1st: gender neutral: watakushi, watashi
male: boku, ore, oira, washi (obsolete)
female: atashi, uchi (Kyoto dialect?)
2nd: an(a)ta, omae, kimi, kisama, NAME-san, NAMEkun, NAME-tyan, kisama (archaic and rude)
kisama ‘honorable person’ can only be used when you
are ready to fight.
Sociolinguistics and Semantics
Pronouns and address terms
3rd: kare ‘he’, kanozyo ‘she’, ano-hito ‘that person’,
ano-ko ‘that child’ ‘that girl’
kare ‘he’ and kanozyo ‘she’ were introduced only
recently
Name-san can be used in sentences (e.g. questions)
addressed to this person. So it is indeed like a
second person pronoun.
E.g. Does Mr. Tanaka like sushi? This can mean ‘Mr.
Tanaka, do you like sushi?’ in Japanese.
Kinship Terms
Insider forms vs. outsider forms
In-Group Forms (-san can be replaced by -tyan)
too-san ‘dad’, okaa-san ‘mom’, onii-san ‘elder brother’,
onee-san ‘elder sister’, ozii-san ‘grandfather’, ozi-san
‘uncle’, etc.
Used within the family members like pronouns.
They can also be address terms.
Out-Group Forms
titi ‘father’, haha ‘mother’, ani ‘elder brother’, ane ‘elder
sister’, otooto ‘younger brother’, imooto ‘younger sister’
Used outside the family circle.
They cannot be address terms.
Male vs. Female Language
• Males and females speak in different ways in Japanese. This is
deemphasized recently, but the difference still exists. 1st
person pronouns: ore, boku (male) atashi (female), Sentenceending particles: -ze (male) –wa (female) -naa (neutral)
Kirei-na kesiki-da ze. ‘It is a nice view.’
pretty scenery-be ending (male)
Kirei-na kesiki-da wa. ‘It is a nice view.’
pretty scenery-be ending (female)
This rule is being broken nowadays.
Yabai, yabai!. (young female college students)
Be-in-trouble ‘It’s great.’ (can suggest ‘It’s a nice view.’)
(yabai used to be a word reserved for males and indicate a
negative situation.)
Names vs. pronouns
• Names are used more often in Japanese sentences
than in English sentences.
• You can even use names in place of 2nd person
pronouns. (In fact, using names is usually more
appropriate/polite.) This is not possible in English.
Mary is talking to John.
Mary: John-san wa nani-o bennkyo-si te imasu ka?
John-HON TOP what-ACC study-PROG-PRES-Q
‘What are you studying?’
Literally: ‘What is John studying?’
Kinship Terms used for Strangers
Kinship terms are used as address terms/pronouns when
dealing with strangers (getting obsolete and can be rude,
but still used by older people)
15~30ish male: onii-san ‘elder brother’
female: onee-san ‘elder sister’
30~60ish male: ozi-san ‘uncle’, female oba-san ‘aunt’
40~70ish male: otoo-san ‘father’, female okaa-san ‘mother’
65~ male: ozii-san ‘grandfather’, female obaa-san
‘grandmother’
Honorifics and Humble Forms
• Japanese distinguishes between honorific forms of
verbs and humble forms of verbs in some cases.
• Honorifics (raise the status of the subject)
• Humble Forms (lower the status of the subject)
syokuzi-o mesiagat-ta. ‘(honorable person) ate.’
meal-ACC eat (honorific)-PAST
Syokuzi-o itadai-ta. ‘(humble person) ate.’
meal-ACC eat (humble)-PAST
Syokuzi-o tabe-ta. ‘(no honorific) ate.’
Honorifics and Humble Forms
• These different verbs with the same meaning give
the listener some clue as to who the subject is. In
this sense, honorifics are somewhat like agreement
in European languages.
• Itadaku ‘eat’ ‘receive’ (humble) can be used as an
auxiliary verb too.
syatyoo-ni
tegami-o kaite itadai-ta.
president-DAT letter-ACC write receive-PAST
‘(I) had the P. write a letter for me.’
Itadai-ta ‘received the favor of …’