Chapter 8 Language and society
• Sociolinguistics ---- a sub-field of linguistic that
studies the relation between language and society,
between the uses of language and the social
structures in which the users of language live.
The relatedness between language and
society
----There are many indications of the inter-relationship
between language and society.
• Language is often used to establish and maintain social
relationships. (e.g. greeting)
• The use of language is in part determined by the user’s
social background. (social class, age, sex, education
level, etc.)
• Language, especially the structure of its lexicon, reflects
both the physical and the social environments of a
society. (“snow” for Eskimo)
• As a social phenomenon language is closely related to
the structure of the society in which it is used, the
evaluation of a linguistic form is entirely social ( the
postvocalic [r] ).
Social group,Speech community and
speech variety

social groups: are distinguished according to the speaker’s
geographical background, the educational background, the
occupation, the gender, the age, the ethnic background.
Speech community---- the social group that is singled out for
any special sociolinguistic study is called the speech
community. A speech community is defined as a group of
people who form a community ( which may have as few
members as a family or as many member as a country), and
share the same language or a particular variety of language.
Speech variety or language variety---- any distinguishable
form of speech used by a speaker or a group of speakers. In
sociolinguistic study three types of speech variety are of
special interest, i.e. regional dialects, sociolects and
registers
Two approaches to sociolinguistic
studies
• Macro sociolinguistics (Sociology of language语言社会学), we look
at society as whole and consider how language functions in it and
how it reflects the social differentiations.i.e. a bird’s-eye view of the
languages used in society;主要研究带有整体性和全局性的社会语言
学问题。 其出发点在于把语言问题看作是社会问题的一部分， 具体
课题包括双语或多语现象， 双言现象， 语料库， 语码转换， 语言规
划等， 主要属于宏观社会语言学领域
• Micro sociolinguistics(Sociolinguistics proper纯社会语言学（ 社会方
言学） we look at society from the point of view of an individual
member within it. Here we are more interested in how language
functions in the communication between members of the society.i.e.
a worm’s-eye view of language in use.以拉波夫为代表， 主要考察语
言变异与社会因素之间的关系。 阶级，职业，年龄和性别等社会因素
而形成的社会方言是研究的中心问题。
• ---Varieties of Language
Varieties of Language
1. related to the language users: Dialects
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1) regional dialects
2) sociolects
3) variety caused by gender
4) variety caused by age
5) variety caused by ethnic background
6) idiolect
2. related to the use of language: register
regional dialect
• Definition: is a linguistic variety used by people
living in the same geographical region.
• In the world, the regional dialects of English
language are British English, American English ,
Canadian English, Austalian English, New Zealand
English and Southern African English , etc. of which,
the most influential ones are British English and
American English.
Comparison between British English
and American English
• In phonological level:
Practise reading the following words:
four, floor
path, laugh, class, glass
got, log, cross, long
phonological level
• Conclusion :
• 1)in AE, /r/ is a retroflex (卷舌音)，but in BRE,it
is not
• 2)in AE, no/a:/sound, it is replaced by /ae/or/a/
sound.
• 3)in AE, no /ɔ /sound,it is replaced by /ɔ :/ or /a/ sound.
Comparison between British English
and American English
• In Lexical level:
Please find the equivalent of the following words used in
AE:
BE
AE
elevator
lift
pavement
sidewalk
can
tin
candy
sweets
mail
post
flat
apartment
subway
tube
Comparison between British English
and American English
• In spelling:
How to spell the following words in A.E?
colour
color
program
programme
dialog
Dialogue
cigaret
cigarette
defense
Defence
analyze
Analyse
In spelling form
• Conclusion:
In BRE, words ending with –our, -ogue,
-mme, -ette, -ce, -se are spelled respectively as –
or, -og, -m, -et, -se, -ze.
Regional dialects in China
• 山上有只老虎，老虎要吃人，拿伊关勒笼子里。笼子坏脱
，老虎逃脱，逃到南京，逃到北京，买包糖精，摆勒水里
浸一浸，米西米西拉胡琴。
• 麻雀和乌鸦一起摆龙门阵。麻雀说：你是啥子鸟哦？乌鸦
说：我是凤凰噻！麻雀说：哪有你龟儿子这么黑的凤凰哦
？乌鸦说：你晓得个铲铲，老子是烧锅炉的凤凰噻。
• 大会开鼠（大会开始），项在请领导发羊（发言）：各位
女婿乡绅们（女士先生们），瓦们劫羊（我们揭阳），轰
景买丽（风景美丽），高通荒便（交通方便），山鸡很多
（商机很多），欢迎你来劫羊偷猪（来揭阳投资），瓦花
展（我发展），你撞墙（赚钱），吓吓大家（谢谢大家）
。
• 一位山东籍的语文老师，为学生朗读一首陆游的古诗题为
《卧春》，要求学生听写出来。
• 语文老师朗读如下——
•
《卧春》
暗梅幽闻花
卧枝伤恨底
遥闻卧似水
易透达春绿
岸似绿
岸似透绿
• 岸似透黛绿
学生听写如下—
《我蠢》
俺没有文化
我智商很低
要问我是谁
一头大蠢驴。
俺是驴
俺是头驴
俺是头呆驴
Sociolect
• Definition: varieties of language used by people
belonging to particular social classes are called
sociolects.
Social investigations
• Purpose: to obtain evidence for the correlation between
certain language features and social status.
• Subject: people from different social classes in Norwich
in England
• Three studies:
1）The percentage of speakers who use the /n/sound
as opposed to /η/ sound for the word final “-ing”
2）The percentage of speakers who don’t add “-s”to the
end of verb when the subject is the third person singular
form as opposed to that who add”-s” to the verb
3）The percentage of speakers who use double
negation form.
Findings 1
Percentage of speakers using /n/for /η/
Upper middle class
31%
Lower middle class
42%
Upper working class 87%
Middle working class 95%
Lower working class 100%
Conclusion: /n/ sound occur more often in lower
social class than in upper and middle class
Findings 2
Percentage of speakers who don’t add “-s” to the verb
Upper middle class
0%
Lower middle class
2%
Upper working class 70%
Middle working class 87%
Lower working class
97%
Conclusion: people in lower social class tend to omit the
suffix “-s” of the third-person present tense singular form
of verbs
Findings 3
Percentage of speakers who use double negation form
Upper middle class 0%
Lower middle class 2%
Upper working class 11%
Middle working class 38%
Lower working class 70%
Conclusion: Speakers in lower social class tend to use the
non-standard form of double negation like" I can’t eat
nothing”.
Received pronunciation and regional
accents
• Accent is an important marker of sociolect
• In Britain, Received Pronunciation is the accent
of the best educated and most prestigious
members of English society, from which Trudgill
drew the Accent Triangle
Social
variation
Highest class: RP
Lowest class: Most localized
accent
Received pronunciation and regional
accents
• The prestige of regional accents was low and
not acceptable for such positions as those in the
Civil Service. (see Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion)
Variety caused by gender
• The language used by men and women have
some special features of their own.
• It has been observed by linguists that women
use more standard variety than the speech of
men
Gender differentiation in language
• In phonological level,
1) Women use more correct pronounciation
than men.
2) Female speakers tend to have a wider range
in their intonation
3) use more frequently the low-rise intonation
than male speakers.
• In syntactic level,
1) Women use more questions form , men use
more declarative statements.
2) Female speakers are less assertive and often
use question tag and structures as “ I’m afraid,
I’m not sure, but…”;
• in lexical level,
• 1) Some adjectives of evaluation are used more frequently by
females than by males, such as “nice, lovely, cute, adorable,
gorgeous”
• 2) and also some intensifiers, such as “ awfully, pretty, terribly,
so, quite.”
• 3) female speakers can give exact color words such as “
equamarine（蓝绿色）, azure（天蓝色）, beige（米色）, lavender
（淡紫色）, mauvre（淡紫色）, taupe（灰褐色）”
• 4) female speakers tend to use diminutives such as “birdie,
bookie, sweetie, auntie”.
• 5) female speakers tend to use euphemism and such words as “
please, thanks” to show their politeness.
Variety caused by age
• The language used by the old generation differs from
that used by the younger generation in certain ways
• The most striking difference is found at the lexical
level.
e.g. fridge/ boombox ( used by young)
icebox/
wireless ( used by the old)
Variety caused by ethnic background
• ethnic dialect : is a social dialect spoken by a
less privileged population that has experienced
some form of social isolation (e.g. Black
English)
Linguistic Features of Black English
• A prominent phonological feature :
the simplification of consonant clusters at the end
of a word. The final position consonants are
often deleted.
e.g. “passed” is pronounced /pa:s/, mend /men/,
desk /des/..
• syntactic feature:
1) the deletion of the link verb “be”
e.g. They mine. You crazy. Her hands cold.
2) the use of double negation constructions. e.g.
He don’t know nothing.
I ain’t afraid of no ghosts.
Idiolect
• Definition: is a personal dialect of an individual
speaker that combines elements regarding
regional, social, gender, and age variations.
• e.g. Hemingway’s style
Luxun’s style
Register
• Register, in a restricted sense, refers to the
variety of language related to one’s occupation.
• In a broader sense, according to Halliday,
“language varies as its function varies; it differs
in different situations.” The type of language
which is selected as appropriate to the type of
situation is a register.
• Halliday further distinguishes three social
variables that determine the register: field of
discourse, tenor of discourse, mode of
discourse.
Three social variables
• Field of discourse: what is going on: to the area of
operation of the language activity. It is concerned with
the purpose (why) and subject matter (about what) of
communication. It can be either technical or nontechnical.)
• Tenor of discourse: the role of relationship in the
situation in question: who are the participants in the
communication and in what relationship they stand to
each other. (customer-shop-assistant, teacher-student,
etc.)
• Mode of discourse: the means of communication. It is
concerned with how communication is carried out. (oral,
written, on the line…)
Degree of formality
----Five stages of formality (Martin Joos)
• Intimate: Up you go, chaps!
• Casual: Time you all went upstairs now.
• Consultative: Would you mind going upstairs right away,
please?
• Formal: Visitors should go up the stairs at once.
• Frozen: Visitors would make their way at once to the
upper floor by way of the staircase.
----Note: Different styles of the same language can be
characterized through differences at three levels:
syntactic, lexical and phonological(P121).
Comparison between formal and informal
language
• in phonological level:
Formal
language
informal
language
Clear articulation
Balanced
intonation
Few contraction
Few liaison
Few assimilation
A lot of
contraction,
assimilation
and liaison
e.g.“ wouldja(
would you),
gonna (going
to), totta (got
to)”,
I’ve, we’ll,
you’d, they’re”
出门儿，脸盆
儿，人影儿，
侄女儿， 咋，
甭， 仨
in lexical level:
Formal language
Informal language
Big,long words
Single verbs(e.g.
investigate)
Abstract nouns(e.g.
arrival)
Archaic words
Words of French, Latin,
Greek origin
Common words
Verb phrase(e.g. look into)
Verb forms(e.g. arrive)
Native English words
in syntactic level:
Formal language
Informal language
Long ,complexed
sentences,
A lot of parallelism,
Subjunctive mood,
Passive voice
Short,simple sentences,
Loose structures often connected by “and”,
Many illeptical sentences,
Many inserted parts like”you know, I
mean…”
Importance of knowledge in register in
english learning:
• in classroom teaching: when learning a new word or new
grammatical structure, tell the students the right situation it can be
used
• distinguish the difference between
• 1)As he came into the classroom, he found the students looking at
him eagerly.
• 2)Coming into the classroom, he found the students looking at him
eagerly.
• in translation: choose the right words for the right situation
• e.g top-notch ( informal talk) bottoms up ( informal talk)
• scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours 朋比为奸 （X）
• 你帮我的忙，我帮你的忙
• 直起身又看一看豆， 自己摇头说：“不多不多，多乎哉？不多也。“
《孔乙己》
• then straightening up to look at the peas again, he would shake his
head:” not much! Verily（真正地）, not much, forsooth（真实地）!”
（ 扬宪益夫妇翻译）
Standard dialect
• The standard variety is language variety used by
government, judiciary system, mass media, educational
institution. Language used by any member of a
community regardless of his social and geographical
background
• features:
• a. is based on a selected variety of the language. E.g
standard English developed out of the English dialects
used in and around London
• b. is not a dialect a child acquires naturally like his
regional dialect. It is a variety imposed from above over
the range of regional dialects
• c. has some special functions.
Pidgin and Creole
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
A pidgin is a special language variety that mixes or blends languages and it
is used by people who speak different languages for restricted purposes
such as trading.
Eg. Tok Pisin is a very active and widely used pidgin English in New
Guinea.
characteristics:
As a simplified language, a pidgin has
reduced vocabularies.
The grammatical features such as case, tense, mood and voice are absent
in pidgins.
Forms of copula verb “ to be “ are often entirely lacking.
Propositions are often limited to a small set.
rule-governed. Eg. They have strict rules for determining word orders to
compensate for the lacking of case endings on nouns.
When a pidgin has become the primary language of a speech community,
and is acquired by the children of that speech community as their native
language, it is said to have become a Creole.
Bilingualism and Diglossia
• In some speech communities, two languages are used side by side
with each having a different role to play; and language switching
occurs when the situation changes. This constitutes the situation of
Bilingualism.
• A typical example is Canada, where both French and English are
recognized as official languages. So is Belgium, where French and
Flemish Dutch are both recognized as official languages. Other
countries and regions in the world which are bilingual include
Australia, Singapore, Switzerland, Pakistan, Uganda, and part of
U.S.A.
• According to Ferguson (1959), diglossia refers to a sociolinguistic
situation similar to bilingualism. But in stead of two different
languages, in a diglossia situation two varieties of a language exist
side by side throughout the community, with each having a definite
role to play.
• the examples are Arabic, Modern Greek, Swiss German and Haitian
Creole. Each of these languages has two varieties: the high variety
and the low variety.
High and low variety
• One of the most important features of diglossia is the
specialization of function of the two varieties. Each
variety is the appropriate language for certain situations.
• high variety: a more standard variety, which is used for
more formal or serious matters. Such as speeches made
in government, the media, school or church.
• 2) low variety: a non-prestige variety, which is used in
colloquial and other informal situations. Such as
conversations with family or friends, or instructions given
to servants , waiters or workmen.
The end,thank you!