Sociolinguistic Foundations: A Review of Terminology
Sociolinguistics the study of language in relation to society (R. Wardhaugh,
1998) the 'scientific' (descriptive, explanatory), 'applied' (to provision and to planning) study of language (in analytical and generalized units) in society (with macro- or micro- level focus) (IM)
Society any group of people who are drawn together for a certain purpose or purposes (RW)
Language what members of a particular society speak; language is a hyponym of code (RW)
Varieties different manifestations of language; "a set of linguistic items with similar social distribution" (R Hudson, 1980)
(RW)
"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" (C Ferguson) (RW)
Bilingualism the complete, or less complete, command of at least two languages, speaking, hearing, speaking and reading them (M
Adler, 1977)
It may be individual (co-ordinate or compound/achieved) or societal collective)

Diglossia a relatively stable language situation in which, in addition to the primary dialects of the language (which may include standard or regional standards) there is a very divergent, highly codified (often grammatically more complex) superposed variety, the vehicle of a large and respected body of written literature, either of an earlier period or in another speech community, which is learned largely by formal education and is used for most written and formal spoken purposes but is not used by any sector of the community for ordinary conversation (C Ferguson, 1959) bilingualism that is widespread, stable, functionally complementary, and societal rather than individual (J
Fishman, 1985)
Lingua franca a language which is used habitually by people whose mother tongues are different in order to facilitate communication between them (RW) pidgin a variety resulting from multilingual (usually trilingual) contact which is a reduced variety of a dominant language and has no native speakers (RW) pidgninization the process of invention of a new language system through simplification (e.g. reduction in morphology and syntax, increased phonological variation, reduced functions, extensive borrowing) (RW) pidginization derives from the need to communicate across languages in a situation of asymmetrical power relationships
(RW)

creole a pidgin that has become the first language of a generation of speakers and has accordingly expanded structure and vocabulary (RW) creolization expansion of morphology and syntax, regularization of phonology, deliberate development of a rational and stable system for increasing vocabulary (RW) creolization occurs where circumstances cause children to learn the pidgin in place of a 'full' language (RW) relexification the adoption by a creole of an alternative vocabulary by a creole which has lost contact with its original superstrate language (RW) polygenesis the theory that similarities across pidgins and creoles may be related to shared circumstances (linguistic and social) of their origin and possible sharing of a linguistic substrate
(RW) monogenesis the theory that all pidgins and creoles ultimately derive from one variety, variously relexified (RW) bioprogram the operation of universal principles of first language acquisition in the development of pidgins (RW) creole continuum the continuum of varieties though basilect, mesolect and acrolect, which separates a creole from its superstrate language (RW)

decreolization progressive movement of a creole towards the superstrate language in a situation of prolonged contact (RW) recreolization progressive movement of a creole-related variety away from the superstrate language where contact with that language is interrupted (RW) code-switching a conversational strategy used to establish, cross or destroy group boundaries; to create, evoke or change interpersonal relations with their rights and obligations (RW) situational code- switching language change according to the situations in which the conversants find themselves (RW) metaphorical code- switching language change according to topic; metaphorical code switches redefine the situation (e.g. formal to informal, they reference to we reference) (RW) code mixing switching of codes within an utterance without topic change- something usually frowned upon by monolinguals (RW) accommodation choosing a code which one sees as corresponding to the expectations of one's interlocutor (RW) style linguistic difference according to the formality of the interaction (which depends on such factors as the social occasion, the social, age and other differences of the participants, the emotional involvement, etc.) (RW)

style shifting all speakers shift between styles according to circumstances
(W Labov) (RW) attention style is more formal when more attention is paid to speech
(Labov) (RW) vernacular the most linguistically authentic style (Labov) (RW) a form of speech transmitted from parent to child as a primary medium of communication (K Petyt) (RW) observer's paradox formality increases under systematic observation (Labov)
(RW) dialect a language which may be perceived variously as a variety which is subordinate to a (linguistically or socially) related variety because it is localised, informal, non-standard, of a different historical period, religiously distinctive, or associated with an inferior power base (IM) standardization
"the process by which a language has been codified in some way" (RW)
"a sociopolitical process involving the legitimization and institutionalization of a language variety as a feature of sanctioning of that variety as socially preferable" (G
Williams, in RW) standardization of a variety entails four processes: selection, codification, elaboration of function and acceptance
(R.Hudson)

codification development of grammars and dictionaries for a language
(RW) elaboration koiné extension of a language to enable it to be used with new domains (e.g., literature, courts, education, administration, commerce) (RW) a common language but not necessarily a standard one (RW) regional dialects distinctive varieties of a language associated with its use over hundreds of years in different geographical areas (RW) patois may be used to refer to a spoken or low prestige rural variety
(RW)
Received Pronunciation the non-localized accent of British English "associated with higher social and educational background, with the BBC and the professions" (RW) network English the most generalized accent in North America (RW) social dialects dialects which originate among social groups in relation to such factors as social class, religion and ethnicity (RW) social dialectology the study of social dialects, especially in cities (RW)

register sets of language items associated with discrete occupational or social groups (RW) address terms terms which may be used to precede or replace the name of the addressee by an addresser; in English they may include
(singly or in combination) title, first name, last name, nickname, or they may be omitted; depending on the relationship, the address terms may be reciprocally or non- reciprocally used (IM)
T, V terms standing for more familiar (T) and formal (V) pronouns of address in some languages which may be employed reciprocally or non-reciprocally to express understood relationships of power and solidarity (IM) face
"the public self-image that every member wants to claim for himself" Brown and Levinson (RW) positive face the desire to gain the approval of others; its maintenance is supported by the use of compliments and informal language
(RW) negative face the desire to be unimpeded by others in one's actions; its maintenance (in others) motivates a desire not to give offence (RW) gender
(in linguistics) a technical term relating to principles of linguistic structure (more generally) a social construct, heavily grounded in sex (RW)

inner circle term used by Kachru to refer to those societies with a traditional linguistic and cultural base in English (e.g.
U.S.A., U.K., Australia, New Zealand) outer circle term used by Kachru to refer to those societies which, following colonization, have developed and institutionalized non-native varieties of English (e.g. Ghana, India, Malaysia,
Philippines) expanding circle term used by Kachru to refer to those societies in which performance (non-official) varieties of English are used essentially in EFL contexts (e.g. China, Egypt, Indonesia,
Korea) diatypic variety varieties defined according to use and typically described according to field, tenor and mode (c.f. Register) (IM) acceptability studies surveys of language attitudes in relation to disputed features of usage (e.g. use of obligational and possessive got) (IM) linguistic imperialism a view of the loss of linguistic diversity which attributes it to the effect of policies pursued by politically dominant powers
(IM) semantic differential a scale of polar opposites (e.g. intelligent/unintelligent) between which, in language attitude studies, a subject is offered a number of (usually 7) positions among which to choose, showing their response to a linguistic stimulus (e.g. a record of speech in a given variety) (IM)

matched guise a methodology for the study of language attitudes in which subjects are invited to express their responses to hearing different varieties spoken (without their knowing it) by the same speaker (IM) components term used by Halliday to refer to functional components of the semantic system, viz: ideational, interpersonal and textual term used by Hymes to refer to components of a speech event, viz: setting, ends, participants, key, instrumentalities, genre, norms of interaction and interpretation speech community a group of speakers with at least one language in common, who share knowledge of the communicative constraints and options governing a significant number of social situations
(Gumperz)
"participation in a set of shared norms" (Labov, in RW)
"An individual … belongs to various speech communities at the same time, but on any particular occasion will identify with only one of them, the particular identification depending on what is especially important or contrastive in the circumstances" (Brown and Levinson in RW) speech event the basic unit for the analysis of verbal interaction in speech communities; it covers stretches of utterances and focuses on the exchange between speakers; it is characterized syntagmatically by the temporal ordering of subunits and paradigmatically by selection among alternates within a contextual frame; speech events are cognitive phenomena that play an essential part in managing and interpreting everyday communications (Gumperz)

sociolinguistic variables elements or strings of elements at any component or level of linguistic structure (e.g., phonology, syntax, lexicon) which are different yet referentially equivalent in a given speech event (Gumperz) linguistic repertoire the totality of linguistic resources (i.e., including both invariant forms and variables) available to members of particular communities; the variables will be selected by speakers in co-occurrent clusters, on the basis of sociolinguistic rules (Gumperz) speech act the minimal term of the speech event (Hymes) utterances considered in terms of what they do and how we use them in conversation (RW) speech situation situations associated with (or marked by the absence of) speech (Hymes) ways of speaking rule-governed patterns of communicative behaviour within a speech community (Hymes) rules of speaking ways in which speakers associate particular modes of speaking, topics or message forms with particular settings and activities (Hymes) strategies negotiations of purpose by participants in a speech event
(Hymes)

strategic competence ability to use strategies to compensate for imperfect knowledge of rules, or limiting factors in their application
(e.g. fatigue, inattention, distraction) (Canale and Swain) linguistic routines fixed utterances or sequences of utterances which must be considered as single units because meaning cannot be derived from consideration of any segment apart from the whole; the routine itself fulfils the communicative function and in this respect is performative in nature (Hymes) communicative competence shared knowledge related to the speech event which participants must have in order to communicate appropriately (Saville-Troike) communicative competence comprises four components: grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic competence (Canale and Swain) communicative interference transfer of the rules of speaking from one speech community to performance in another (IM) linguistic community
"a social group which may be either monolingual or multilingual, held together by frequency of social interaction patterns and set off from the surrounding areas by weaknesses in the lines of communication" (Gumperz, in
RW) network a way of viewing how an individual relates to other individuals in society; a dense network is one in which the people all know and interact with one another; a loose network is one in which the people do not all know and interact with one another; a multiplex network is one in

which people are tied together in more than one way (e.g., work, social activities) (RW) ethnomethodology a branch of sociology concerned with how people use techniques to interpret the world and interact in it (RW) phatic utterances utterances which sustain conversation but do not communicate anything (RW) illocutionary force the function of an utterance, which may not correspond to its verbal (locutionary) meaning (RW) perlocutionary force the function of an utterance in getting someone to do something (RW) cooperative principle a principle of conversation proposed by Grice: "Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged" (RW) four maxims are derived from the cooperative principle: Quantity : make your contribution neither more nor less than required Quality : be genuine
Relation : be appropriate to immediate needs Manner : make it clear what contribution you are making and do it promptly (RW) adjacency pair utterances in a paired relationship with their responses (e.g. question- answer) (RW)

exchange a basic unit of conversation (e.g initiation-responsefeedback) (RW) turn-taking principles which govern who gets to speak and prevent overlap (RW) transition relevance a place in a conversation where a speaker may conclude and a listener enter the conversation (RW) insertion sequence an interruption to conversation, which requires proper insertion and repair (RW) side sequence an inserted AB sequence in a conversation providing clarification or correction (RW) pre-closing signals used to negotiate the impending end of a conversation (RW) domain a constellation of factors affecting speech, including the location, topic and participants (Fasold) linguistic variable a linguistic form which has identifiable variants, e.g. fishin/fishing (RW) (see also sociolinguistic variable) sociolects varieties incorporating speech characteristics of members of social groups (Trudgill, in RW) (c.f. social dialects)

idiolect the speech characteristics and linguistic behaviour of an individual (RW) hypercorrection the use, by speakers of one social class, of variants perceived to be those of a more prestigious class (to a greater extent than such variants are used by the more prestigious class)
(IM) stratification style differences corresponding to social class (RW) covert prestige prestige associated with the use of the non-standard variety, which conveys group solidarity (RW) marker speech variants which show stylistic variation (RW) stereotype speech variants used to stigmatize the speech patterns of a group (RW) diachronic study (e.g., of a language) over a period of time (IM) synchronic study (e.g., of a language) at a point in time (IM) language shift where "a community gives up a language completely in favour of another one" (Fasold 1984)

language maintenance where "the community collectively decides to continue using the language or languages it has traditionally used" (Fasold) language death
"when a community shifts to a new language totally so that the old language is no longer used" (Fasold) intergenerational switching where "one generation is bilingual, but only passes on one of the two languages to the next" (Fasold)
Whorfian hypothesis strong view: the structure of a language determines the way in which speakers of that language view the world weak view: the structure of the language does not determine the world view but is extremely influential in predisposing speakers of a language towards adopting a particular world view (RW) folk taxonomies language-based classifications of the world which are not necessarily scientific (IM) prototype theory the view that concepts are identified by reference to typical instances, rather than by sets of features (from Rosch, in
RW) associative networks chains of concepts to which people often assign a single term
(based on the use of prototypes) (Palmer) restricted codes linguistic realizations which are associated with communalized roles, context-tied meanings and positional family patterns (Bernstein)

elaborated codes linguistic realizations which are associated with individualized roles, universalistic meanings and personcentred family patterns (Bernstein) taboo things not talked about (RW) euphemism things talked about in round about ways (RW) imagery conceptual representations of the world, derived from direct experience and constitutive of both world view and language
(Palmer 1996, via IM) virtually all imagery is structured by culture and personal history (Palmer) linguistic imagery entails conceptual organization of elements in with respect to such relations as profile (i.e., what is focused on) and base (i.e., domain); level of specificity, scope, perspective, etc. (Langacker, 1990) schemas expectations about people, objects, events and settings in the world (Tannen and Wallat, in Palmer)
"It is likely that all native knowledge of language and culture belongs to cultural schemas and that the living of culture and the speaking of language consist of schemas in action"
(Palmer) an event schema is "generalized knowledge about 'what will happen in a given situation and often the order in which the individual events will take place'" (Palmer)

metaphor
"the process by which a concept (model or schema) from one conceptual domain is mapped to a concept from another domain" (Palmer) language planning
"an attempt to interfere deliberately with a language or one of its varieties. That attempt may focus on either its status with regard to some other language or variety or its internal condition with a view to changing that condition, or on both of these…" (RW) corpus planning language planning concerned with changing the language by means of standardization (involving establishing pronunciation, orthography, grammar, vocabulary) and modernization, in relation to policy (Kaplan, via IM) status planning language planning concerned with persuading the community to accept the status required by policy for languages and dialects and to implement language shift where required (Kaplan, via IM)
(The ordering of the terms in this list roughly follows that of their introduction in LST4285)