ENG510 MID TERM SPRING 2019

Cause of language variation IMP

1. Nature of participants, their relationship (socio-economic, sexual, occupational, etc.)
2. Number of participants (face-to-face or one addressing a large audience, etc.)
3. Role of participants (teacher/student /priest/ father/son/ husband/ wife, etc.)
4. Function of speech event (persuasion, request for information ritual, verbal, etc.)
5. Nature of medium (speech, writing, scripted speech, speech reinforced by gesture, etc.)
link between dialect and idiolect An idiolect is the distinctive speech of an individual, a linguistic pattern
regarded as unique among speakers of a person's language or dialect. But it is even more granular, more
narrow than just all the speakers of a particular dialect.
social dialect In sociolinguistics, social dialect is a variety of speech associated with a particular social class or
occupational group within a society. Also known as sociolect, group idiolect, and class dialect. A speaker may be
more similar in language to people from the same social group in a different area than to people from a
different social group in the same area. Hierarchical social structure such as we find in Britain, where social
class takes precedence over geography as a determinant of speech, there is far more geographical variation
among people in the lower social classes than there is amongst those at the `top' of the social heap.
Dialect Jargon Accent Register
A dialect varies from The special words or Accent is a Register shows
other dialects of the same expressions used by a distinctive way of what you are
language simultaneously profession or group that pronouncing a doing. It is used
on at least three levels of are difficult for others to language, especially to describe
organization: understand. The type of one associated with a changing how a person
pronunciation, grammar language that is used in a particular country, speaks based on the
or particular context and is area, or social class. situation.
syntax and vocabulary not be well An accent consists of
understood outside that a way of pronouncing
context a variety.
Example: Example: Accents typically Example: Such
A Northern American a posteriori from later differ in quality of as pronouncing
might say, ―hello.‖ meaning An argument the voice, pronunciation words ending in -ing
A Southern American derived from subsequent and distinction of vowels "walking" as "walkin"
might say, ―howdy.‖ event. and consonants

relationship between language dialect and identity (5 marks) relationship between language dialect and
identity (5 marks) We each have a sense of who we are and equally, of who we want to be. We choose, from
situation to situation, and even from second to second, how to express ourselves. So, it is a continuous process.
Usually it is unintentional, triggered by a place, subject of conversation, company etc. But these choices are not
random, they are guided by our sense of belonging, and are shaped by our identity. This leads to certain
question. For example, a Yorkshire-man telling someone to "wait while five o'clock", using "while" for standard
"until‖. He declares his own local credentials and puts the other at their ease unless, that is, the other is an
outsider, in which case they are either accidentally baffled or intentionally excluded. This matter of inclusion or
exclusion - movement towards someone or erection of a barrier against them - is at the heart of our
maintaining differences in speech.
REGIONAL DIALECTS A regional dialect is a distinct form of a language spoken in a particular geographical
area.If the form of speech transmitted from a parent to a child is a distinct regional dialect, that dialect is said
to be the child's vernacular.
Define term lect: In sociolinguistics, a variety is also called a lect. It is a specific form of a language or
language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, registers, styles or other forms of language, as well as a
standard variety. Linguists speak of both standard and non-standard varieties. The term variety is
advantageous in the sense that it helps to avoid the use of the term language, which has its own issues such as
the divisions or differences as a ‗standard language‘, and the term ‗dialect‘ used for non-standard varieties
being thought of as less prestigious or "correct" than the standard lang. "Lect" avoids the problem in ambiguous
cases of deciding whether two varieties are distinct langs or dialects of a single lang. Variation at the level of the
lexicon such as slang and argot, is often considered in relation to particular styles or levels of formality (also
called registers).
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Application of sociolinguistic: A sociolinguist might determine through the study of social attitudes that
particular vernacular would not be considered appropriate language use in a business or professional setting.
Sociolinguists might also study grammar, phonetics, vocabulary, and other aspects of a sociolect, much as
dialectologists would study the same for a regional dialect.
Linguistics and sociolinguistics.... Diff between linguistics and sociolinguisctics.
Linguistic is the study of language includes psycholinguistics, historical linguistics, morphology,
syntax, semantic etc. Sociolinguistics is the study of variation of language in use. We use different words in
grammatical forms depending or context.
Linguistics differs from sociolinguistics in taking account only of the structure of language, to the segregation of
the social contexts in which it is learned and used. The task of linguists is to work out 'the rules of language X',
after which sociolinguists may enter the scene and study any points at which these rules make contact with a
society. This view is typical of the whole 'structural' school of linguists which has dominated 20 th linguistics
including transformational and generative linguistics There r 2 particularly good reasons for accepting this view:
1. We cannot take the notion `language X' for granted, since this in itself is a social notion so far
as it is defined in terms of a group of people who speak X.
2. Speech has a social function.
Work of labov on sociolinguistics William Labov (1927) has been a prominent voice in American linguistics
since the early 1960s. He pioneered an approach to investigating the relationship between language and
society. He developed a field known as ―variationist sociolinguistics‖. A central doctrine of this field is that
variation is inherent to linguistic structure. The way a language is spoken (and written) differs across individuals
as well as across situations encountered by the same individual. Labov asserted that such differences are not
only normal but also necessary to a language‘s functioning. This view challenges much of the traditionally
dominant thinking and practice in linguistic
theory, from Ferdinand de Saussure to Noam Chomsky. Mainstream theorists do not deny the existence of
variation, rather they tend to downplay its relevance and treat it as a superficial phenomenon obscuring a
fundamental uniformity that characterizes language. Labov‘s research demonstrates that linguistic variation is
pervasive and highly structured. It reveals regular patterns of co-occurrence between language forms, such as
the pronunciation of a particular vowel, and social categories, such as socioeconomic classes. His approach is
distinguished from others within sociolinguistics by its reliance on quantitative methods.
social class: Social class is a central concept in sociolinguistic research, one of the small number of social
variables by which speech communities are stratified. Trudgill asserts, ―most members of our society have some
kind of idea, intuitive or otherwise, of what social class is,‖. Social class is often defined in an ad hoc way which
is very ironic because it is a very impo variable in sociolinguistic studies.
Components of social class Two central components of social class are:
1. The objective, economic measures of property ownership and the power and control it confers
on its possessor
2. The subjective measures of prestige, reputation, and status
Contact language (3): Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact
and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. Sometimes unrelated
languages that are typical of creole language formation come in contact.
There are some constraints on the outcomes of language contact other than the principle of localisation. A
constraint relates to the aspect of space. Another constraint is concerned with speaker‘s attitudes. Another
constraint is of social factors. Yet another is social rigidity in which an innovation is being introduced. So,
language contact occurs in a variety of phenomena, including language convergence, borrowing and
relexification. The most common products are pidgins, creoles, codeswitching, and mixed languages. So,
language contact is not as free as it seems to be.
Is language free or structured Before the 1960s, the general feeling in Western linguistics was that some of
the variation observed in language was ―free‖ and ―unconstrained‖. There are some constraints on the outcomes
of language contact other than the principle of localisation. A constraint relates to the aspect of space. Another
constraint is concerned with speaker‘s attitudes. Another constraint is of social factors. Yet another is social
rigidity in which an innovation is being introduced. So, language contact occurs in a variety of phenomena,
including language convergence, borrowing and relexification. The most common products are pidgins, creoles,
codeswitching, and mixed languages. So, language contact is not as free as it seems to be.
Rigidity of the Social Matrix Even larger aspects of the social and cultural context may act as a constraint on
whether features transfer from speaker to speaker. Some time ago, Gumperz and Wilson (1971) documented
the rather unusual linguistic situation in Kupwar, India. In Kupwar, three languages – Hindi, Marathi and
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Kannada have been spoken for centuries. Remarkably, given how often people in Kupwar might have to switch
between the languages in day-today life, the languages have remained distinct codes. That is, it is still always
clear when someone is speaking Marathi, when they are speaking Hindi and when they are speaking Kannada.
People in Kupwar haven‘t borrowed lexical items back and forth between the languages, even though (as we
have repeatedly noted) vocabulary is usually easily transferred. And yet, the Hindi, Marathi and Kannada of
Kupwar look appreciably different from the standard varieties of each of the languages. This is because there
have been some subtle changes to the syntax of the three languages which appear, over the centuries, to have
brought them closer in line with each other.
spatial diffusion and gravity of language contact and change The gravity model predicts that the larger
the city/town, the sooner an innovation is likely to show up there,i.e., the ‗gravitational force‘ is provided by the
weight of numbers of people. The gravity model was originally used to describe the diffusion of non-linguistic
innovations. Sociologists and economists had observed that innovations, such as the adoption of new brands of
cars or the use of new types of seed among farmers, often moved irregularly across physical space. They found
that they jumped from cities with the largest populations, gradually moved to smaller cities and towns, and
finally took hold in the smaller towns or villages.
note on language and dialects of Pakistan Pakistan is an union of heterogeneous groups with widely
different linguistic characteristics. A large number of languages are spoken, for instance, official languages:
Urdu and English. Urdu is the official language, though it is not the first language of the majority of the
population. Apart from Urdu and English, which is limited to a small proportion of thepopulation no language is
commonly understood. The national language Urdu has a number of handicaps. The regional languages -
Punjabi, Baluchi, Sindhi and Pashto, though rich in literature- rely heavily on oral tradition and moreover, lack a
unitary system of speech form.Apart from Urdu and English, which is limited to a small proportion of the
population no language is commonly understood. The national language Urdu is not indigenous and suffers from
a number of handicaps. To complicate the situation even more, all speakers within a language community do
not use a single form. Thus, within languages, there exist styles and dialects with varying degrees of mutual
intelligibility. In Pakistani context, these ling diff are a divisive force; and have a great sociolinguistic
significance. However, the same or closely similar written text is a source of unity in this diversity. The tension
bw Urdu and local lang on 1 level, and Urdu and Eng on the other level has given rise to a hierarchy. No less
than 24 langs and a considerably great number of dialects, that is not less than 70, are spoken in this region
What are the official langs in pakistan? (3) Urdu and English are the official lang of Pakistan.
Write any three effects to change the language.(3)
1. Grammar may be on a road to extinction in the brave new world of emoticons, texts, tweets, and short
Facebook posts.
2. Internet chat-rooms and social networking sites are encouraging children to write syntactically incorrect
sentences.
3. From the introduction of new words to new meanings for old words to changes in the way we communicate,
social media is making its presence felt.
4. Acronyms, abbreviations, and neologisms have grown up around technologically mediated communication to
help us be understood. Here are some examples of acronyms such as:
LOL = laughing out loud TGIF=Thank God it‘s Friday, BRB= Be right Back
Language death (5 marks) Language death is a linguistic term for the end or extinction of a language. Also
called language extinction. At the moment, linguists believe, around 6,000 languages are spoken. Michael
Krauss has predicted that by the end of this century 90 per cent will be extinct. The According to Crystal, a
language dies every two weeks. For example, in Australia out of the 260 aboriginal languages originally spoken,
100 are already extinct only around twenty are being passed on to children.
Types of language death
1. A more radical type of lang extinction is sudden death which can be caused by various factors such as
scattering of an entire community of speakers or due to natural disasters. In 1998 an arthquake off the coast of
Papua New Guinea killed and displaced thousands of speakers of Arup, Malol
2. Today, the most common cause of language death is not population death, but language shift. This happens
when speakers of a lang do not pass it on to their children. Instead, they acquire a different language from the
parents. Gradually, the language of the entire community ‗shifts‘. Unlike the extinction of an animal species, the
people don‘t die, only their language does.
3. Fishman asserts that a typical case of lang shift can happen over three generations. If speakers of language
X are the grandparents and speakers of Yare the parents who have a passive knowledge of X but are fluent
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speakers of Y. So, their household is bilingual. Now when it comes to grandchildren, they are full speakers of Y,
knowing a few words of X at the most.
‘Armchair approach' in sociolinguistics is concerned, it is based on the facts collected in a systematic way as
part of a research or simply based on one's own experience. It allows the beginnings of an analytical framework
to be worked out, such as language (a body of knowledge or rules), speech (actual utterances), speaker,
addressee, topic and so on.
Reasons armchair can be termed as dangerous Armchair approach' can be termed as dangerous for two
reasons if, it is applied to personal experience alone. Firslty, the most of us are not consciously aware of the
vast range of variations in speech which we hear and react to in our everyday lives. Secondly, personal
experience is a very limited base from which to generalize about language in society, since it does not take
account of all the other societies where things are arranged very differently. However, the reason
why interest in sociolinguistics has grown so rapidly over the last decades is not because of the
achievements in armchair theorizing but due to the empirical discoveries made in the course of
systematic research projects.
define code and its uses: code means a dialect or language that a person chooses to use on any occasion.
Code means a system used for communication between two or more parties. This implies one speaker can have
more codes. People may switch from one code to another or to mix codes even within sometimes very short
utterances and thereby create a new code in a process known as code-switching.
Prestige code mixing Motivational force behind mixing is the prestige factor. Prestige is attached to a
language; and people insert the words of that language in their base language. Also, in order to develop
intimacy and communication friendliness with the other participant/s a speaker/participant may code-mix. It is
used as a tool for creating linguistic solidarity. It functions as a bridge that builds
solidarity. A switch or a mix can also be made to convey a specific attitude to the listener. It can
be equated with the change in degrees of formality in speech in monolingual speakers
Family tree model: Traditional approaches to historical change have relied on the family tree model, which is
based on the assumption that over time languages gradually diverge from a common ancestor. This model has
been widely applied to explain the historical origins of pidgin and creole languages. This model has been
referred to as the ‗monogenetic hypothesis‘, i.e. that pidgins and creoles are to be derived from a single
common ancestor. Many espoused the view that all the European-based pidgins and creoles were originally
descended from a 15th century Portuguese pidgin first used along the African coast and later carried to India
and the Far East.
This pidgin may have been a relic of Sabir, the medieval lingua franca believed to have been the language of
the Crusaders and a common Mediterranean trading language. However, while a common Portuguese origin
would account well for certain lexical similarities such as the case of picanniny and savvy found across the
Atlantic and Pacific pidgins and creoles, we can see that diffusion is probably a more likely explanation. In
addition, we would have to invoke the notion of ‗relexification‘ to account for the many other differences which
exist between the pidgins and creoles with different bases. The monogenetic theory would also have nothing to
say about the origins of non-European-based pidgins and creoles. It was the Romance linguist Schuchardt
(1842–1927) often called the father of creole studies, who used data from pidgin and creole languages to argue
against prevailing nineteenth-century views on the regularity of sound change.
value of family tree in lingustic history: The value of this model for historical linguistics is that it clarifies
the historical relations among the varieties concerned. And, it gives a clear idea of the relative chronology of
the historical changes by which these varieties have diverged. From the present point of view, the advantage is
that a family tree shows a hierarchical relation among varieties which makes no distinction between 'languages'
and 'dialects'. Indeed, it is common in historical lingics to refer to the varieties which are descended from Latin
as 'dialects' of Latin (or 'the Romance dialects'). Although they include such obvious 'languages' (in the prestige
sense) as Standard French. If we had wished to add Yorkshire English and Cockney to our list of varieties, we
would simply have added them below English, without giving them a different status from the others
Language reportier: Or Language variety: If one thinks of 'language' as a phenomenon including all the
languages of the world, the term variety of language can be used to refer to different manifestations of it e.g.
music = 'varieties of music'. So, the question arises what makes one variety of language different from another.
The simplest answer can be: ―the linguistic items‖. We may define a variety of language as a set of linguistic
items with similar social distribution. Still the question of varieties of language needs further clarity.
How social networks ??? The social networks model offers a far less abstract framework than that of the
speech community. It focuses on the social ties that specific speakers have with each other, and examines how
these ties affect speakers‘ linguistic usage. A key component of the social network model is measuring its
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strength, calculated by classifying whether networks are ‗dense‘ or ‗loose‘, as well as whether they are ‗uniplex‘
or ‗multiplex‘. A network is dense if members that you interact with each other otherwise, it is loose. If
members know each other in more than one way, for example, they work together and are members of the
same family, and then the links are multiplex as opposed to uniplex. Dense and multiplex social networks tend
to support localized lingc norms, and they function as a method of norm reinforcement, whereby linguistic and
other social norms are maintained by members of the network. In contrast, in loose & uniplex social networks,
lang change will be more likely to occur, owing to the lack of norm reinforcement. Milroy and Gordon argue that
migration, war, industrialization and urbanization hv caused disruption of close-knit, localized networks.
sociology of language which focuses on the effect of language on society. It is closely related to the field of
sociolinguistics, which focuses on the effect of society on language. sociology of language studies society and
how it is impacted by language
'Community of Practice (5 marks) A community of practice is a group of people who share a concern or a
passion for something they do, and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. A community of practice
exists because it produces a shared practice as members engage in a collective process of learning. People
belong to communities of practice at the same time as they belong to other organizational structures. In their
business units, they shape the organization.
language ideology The ideology of a standard language is a complex issue. If we look at many widely used
languages, such as English, French and Spanish, each possesses a standard variety. This affects how speakers
think about their own language and about language in general. Speakers of such widely used languages, unlike
speakers of some less well known languages, live in standard
lang cultures. In such cultures, lang attitudes are dominated by powerful ideological positions that are largely
based on the supposed existence of this standard form, and these taken together, can be said to constitute the
standard language ideology or ‗ideology of the standard language‘.
what are principle of study to dialect There are certain principles regarding study of dialects:
First Principle: Linguistics is a descriptive rather than a prescriptive discipline.
Second Principle: Every naturally used language variety is systematic with regular rules and restrictions at the
lexical, phonological and grammatical level. Linguists use the term ‗dialect‘ as a neutral term to refer to the
systematic usage of a group of speakers--those in a particular region or social class. No negative connotations
such as of "nonstandard" or "substandard" speech.
Thrid Principle: Primary attention to speech rather than writing
Q: Define pidgin (3 marks) Varieties created for very practical and immediate purposes of communication
between people who otherwise would have no common language whatsoever, and learned by one person from
another within the communities concerned as the accepted way of communicating with members of the other
community.
Pidgin Creole
Have no native speakers Have native speakers
Are the result of extended contact bw grps with no Develop from pidgin, they are learnt as a L1 by a large
lang in common, they are used mostly in trade number of speakers
Have simple grammatical structure Are more complex in structure, they also have a wider
range of vocabulary to express a wide range of meaning
Are not used for grp identification May take on national and official functions
Language policy and planning Adults teach children the structures and lexis. Thus, they protect and promote
language to a certain degree, and forms of language policy and language planning (LPLP) occur in all societies.
Nationalism is based on culturally and linguistically homogeneous people differentiated from neighbours.
Nationalism is one type of political setting in which LPLP has been undertaken in a particularly rigorous and
systematic way. The role of LPLP in nation building is quite significant. 1970s was a time of intense LPLP activity
as the governing classes of newly independent states considered how to manage language matters in the new
polities, and Western trained linguists proposed themselves as researchers and consultants. This led to the
classic division of LPLP into: status planning, corpus planning and acquisition planning
Marthua’s Vineyard.....TOPIC 48 (better listen to lecture).5 The first social dialect study was conducted in
the summer of 1961 on Martha‘s Vineyard, an island off the coast of Massachusetts in the north-eastern United
States. Martha‘s Vineyard was then already something of a summer playground for people who live most of the
year on the mainland US – in the 1960s, the number of residents during the summer increased nearly seven
times over the winter population. This has only increased in the years since; in the year 2000, the year-round
population on the Vineyard was 14,000, but during the summer the population of the island ballooned to
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100,000. Moreover, there is a big discrepancy between the circumstances of the summer-only people and the
yearrounders. The cost of housing on the Vineyard is fabulously expensive, driven up by the intense demand of
summer residents, yet the island has the secondlowest per capita income in the entire state of Massachusetts.
Many year-rounders on the Vineyard struggle quite hard to get by and increasingly have to do so by providing
services for the summer visitors.
Dyer Conduct a study of corby which was based on dialects and identity. Discuss pros and
cons of his study...................5 Dyer‘s (2000) study of Corby investigated changes occurring in the local
English dialect due to the immigration of large numbers of Scots to work in a newly built steelworks in the town.
(Corby is around100 miles north of London and 300 miles south of Glasgow, Scotland.) A major point of study
was the social significance or meaning of the identity projected by young Corby people who sounded Scottish
but had no Scottish ancestry. It is interesting since Scottish, and more particularly Glaswegian English is often
viewed as a stigmatized variety. Wassink and Dyer further examined how phonological features in Kingston and
Corby, considered stigmatized by some speakers because of their association with either a rural Jamaican or a
Scottish background, were apparently being used as symbols of local pride by the younger generations. A
variationist analysis of the data from these studies might have concluded that speakers were indexing a Scottish
identity in using Scottish variants, or a rural identity in the use of traditionally rural variants in the Jamaican
context. However, an analysis of speaker ideologies showed that the salient social categories for speakers had
changed over time. The opposition between Scottish and English that was salient for the oldest speakers in the
Corby study had apparently been replaced by an opposition between Corby and the neighbouring town of
Kettering for the youngest speakers.
2 types of fairclaugh/ power names Fairclough (1989) discusses two types of power: coercion and consent.
He mentions ideology as the means to obtain consent, since through ideology individuals are led to view reality
acritically, alienating themselves from the objective facts. Coercive or direct power may face resistance since
the exploitative intention becomes explicit. In the context of the lives of nations issues of language, ideology,
and power are interconnected. For example, if we look at our own historical context, language ideology and
creation of Pakistan are closely connected.
Language in Canada Multiple languages are used in Canada. Official Language Status Under the Official
Languages Act of 1969, both English and French have official federal status throughout Canada. Canada's
linguistic diversity extends beyond the two official languages. In Canada, 4.7 million people (14.2% of the
population) reported speaking a language other than English or French most often at home. The relationship
between the English and French languages is the central or defining aspect of the Canadian experience.
Q. discuss situation of USA language. Over 500 languages are spoken by the U.S. population. The most
commonly used language is English (specifically, American English), which is the de facto national language of
the United States.
Official Language Status
• Out of 50 states, 30 have established English as the only official language.
• Hawaii recognizes both English and Hawaiian as official.
• Alaska has made some 20 native languages official, along with English.
Explain the Language situation of Great Britain. (5) English, in various dialects, is the most widely spoken
language of the United Kingdom. However, there are a number of regional languages also spoken. The official
language of the United Kingdom is English, which is spoken by approximately 59.8 million residents, or 98% of
the population, over the age of three. 11 indigenous languages are spoken across the British Isles: Many
immigrant languages are spoken in the British Isles. More than 300 different languages/ dialects are now
spoken in British schools with English-speaking pupils becoming a minority in hundreds of classrooms. Almost a
million people in the country do not speak English at all or not very well. Statistics from the Office for National
Statistics show Polish as the second most common language in England and Wales, with more than half a
million speakers. If we take the example of London, English is the city's primary language and it remains the
mother tongue of the majority of people living here. Most common languages spoken in London include Polish,
Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Cantonese and Mandarin.
language of North & south korea. To understand language in North and South Korea we need to understand
certain concept such as Korean is the language of the Korean Peninsula in northeast Asia. Democratic People's
Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea) has 20 million speakers. Republic of Korea (ROK, or South Korea) has
42 million speakers. It is also spoken by almost 2 million people in China, in the provinces bordering North
Korea. It is interesting that there are no language minorities in North or South Korea. Traditionally it has been
an essentially monolingual region. In fact it is among the very few monolingual states in the world. Two
standard varieties are found here:
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1. The So¨ul (Seoul) dialect in South Korea 2. The P&yo¨ngyang dialect in North Korea
Language and Dialect in Papua New Guinea The greatest concentration of diversity is found in Melanesia
(an area comprising the south-west Pacific island nations of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu,
New Caledonia, and Fiji). Here up to 1,500 languages are spoken, with as many as half found in Papua New
Guinea alone. Most of the languages in Papua New Guinea are spoken by small groups; probably 40 per cent
have fewer than 500 speakers. There is a great diversity of language types.
Q. Lingua franca A lingua franca is a language or mixture of languages used as a medium of communication
by people whose native languages are different. It is from the Italian, "language" + "Frankish" and also known
as a trade language, contact language, international language, and global language. The term English as a
lingua franca (ELF) refers to the teaching, learning, and use of the English language as a common means of
communication for speakers of different native languages.
The solution to the communication needs of a globalizing world is, at least for the moment, greater use of
English as a lingua franca.
examples of corprot jargon Known as corporate speak, corporate lingo, business speak, business jargon,
management speak, workplace jargon, or commercialese, is the jargon often used in large corporations,
bureaucracies, and similar workplaces. The use of corporate jargon, also known as "corporatese", is criticised
for its lack of clarity as well as for its tedium, making meaning and intention opaque and understanding difficult.
Process of standard of language It is fair to say that the only kind of variety which would count as a 'proper
language' is a standard language. Standard languages are interesting in as they have a rather special relation to
society. A relationship which is quite abnormal when seen against the context of the tens (or hundreds?) of
thousands of years during which language has been used.
Standard languages are the result of a direct and deliberate intervention by society. This intervention i.e. the
process of standardization produces a standard language out of dialects or non-standard varieties. The notion
`standard lang' is somewhat imprecise, but a typical standard lange will pass through the following processes:
1. Selection 2. Codification 3. Elaboration of function 4. Acceptance
1. Selection: When a particular variety is selected as the one to be developed into a standard language, it may
be an existing variety. Such as the one used in an important political/commercial centre and it could be an
amalgam of various varieties. The choice is a matter of great social and political importance.
2. Codification: Some agency such as an academy does the process of codification. The production of written
dictionaries and grammar books plays an important role to 'fix' the variety , it makes everyone to agrees on
what is correct. Once codification is done , it becomes necessary for many ambitious citizens to learn the correct
forms and not to use in writing any 'incorrect' forms that may exist in their native variety.
3. Elaboration of Function: It must be possible to use the selected variety in all the functions associated with
central governmental institutes. For example, in parliament and law courts, in bureaucratic, educational and
scientific documents of all kinds and, of course, in various forms
of literature. This may require extra linguistic items to be added to the variety, especially technical words.
4. Acceptance: The variety has to be accepted by the relevant population as the variety of the community –
usually in fact as the national language. Once this has happened, the standard language serves as:

What is dialect continuum? A dialect continuum, or dialect area, was defined by Leonard Bloomfield as a
range of dialects spoken across some geographical area that differ only slightly between neighboring areas, but
as one travels in any direction, these differences accumulate such that speakers from opposite ends of the
continuum are no longer mutually intelligible. The lines we can draw between areas that differ with respect to
any feature of language are called isoglosses. For example: One such continuum is said to stretch from
Amsterdam through Germany to Vienna, and another from Calais to the south of Italy.
Write a note on 'Age as a social correlate'? Of all global categories employed in investigations of language
variation, age is perhaps the least examined and the least understood in sociolinguistic terms. Unlike gender,
ethnicity or social class, age is often approached uncritically and treated as a biological fact with which to
categorize speakers, and against which other facets of our identity are played out. Age is a fundamental
dimension of our social and personal identities. Legislatively speaking, it is our age that will influence what we
should and should not do. Our age determines if we can vote, drive, marry and go to school or work. It can
influence what types of clothes we wear, places we go, and ways we speak. Our age is clearly more than a
number – it marks our position in and our movement through the trajectory of life, which is seen in relation to
societal norms of behaviour, obligation and responsibility. A close estimate at someone‘s age from their voice
quality and their linguistic behavior is quite possible. It suggests that we are responsive to cues from phonetic/
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phonological features, grammatical structures and lexical items, and we use such cues to locate speakers in the
span of ages.
Name any three factors that affect the language shift?
• Religious and educational background • Settlement patterns
• Ties with the homeland • Extent of exogamous marriage
• Majority and minority language groups
Comment on the relationship of sociolinguistics phenomena and a real but exotic words?
When we think of sociolinguistics in relation to the real world, in fact, there is a great deal to be said about
language in relation to society. To use an example choosing a sample area as a real but exotic world would be a
good idea. So here it is the very exotic world of the north-west Amazon, described by Geographically, the area
in question is half in Brazil and half in Colombia, coinciding more or less with the area in which a language
called Tukano can be relied on as a lingua franca i.e. a trade language widely spoken as a nonnative language.
Most of the people are indigenous Indians, divided into over twenty tribes, which are in turn grouped into five
`phratries' (groups of related tribes). There are two crucial facts:
1. Each tribe speaks a different language sufficiently different to be mutually incomprehensible and, in some
cases, genetically unrelated.
2. The five phratries (and thus all twenty-odd tribes) are exogamous (i.e. a man must not marry a
woman from the same phratry or tribe).
Write aspects of linguistic hegemony any fiv

population mobility

Write about language accommodation In linguistics, accommodation is the process by which participants in
a conversation adjust their accent, diction, or other aspects of language according to the speech style of the
other participant. Also called linguistic accommodation, speech accommodation, and communication
accommodation. Accommodation most often takes the form of convergence, when a speaker chooses a
language variety that seems to fit the style of the other speaker. Less frequently, accommodation may take the
form of divergence, when a speaker signals social distance or disapproval by using a language variety that
differs from the style of the other speaker.
Dimensions to differentiate btw bilingualism and bilinguality
1. Relative competence 2. Cognitive organization 3. Age of acquisition
4. Exogeneity 5. Social cultural status 6. Cultural identity
implications of bilingualism Emeneau claims that the term can be applied to a broad range of situations. It
can be applied to the situations where a bilingual has a native like control over second language, but at the
same time it can be applied to the situations in which the individual has minimal knowledge of the second
language. Another dichotomy that exists in this regard is that of individual vs. societal bilingualism.
At the individual level, a person can be bilingual irrespective of any social, political or cultural influence. Yule
illustrates that a person‘s bilingualism may be the result of the fact that his/her father and mother speak two
different languages. In this kind of case, though there might not be any realization of the distinction between
two languages; however, later on generally one language becomes the dominant one and the other
subordinate.
Short note on multilingual Societies. ??(5 marks) Multilingualism, multilingual practices are interrelated
terms. Monolingualism, on the other hand is not a norm. The question arises when more than one languages
are used, which one is standard? And why? Standard language and ideology are interconnected issues.
Language choices are dominated by powerful ideological positions. Ethnic identities, regional identities, and
political perspectives influence language choice. We need to think about the case of Pakistan, and
multilingualism and status of different languages in Pakistan.
Monolingualism Multilingualism
Monolingualism, has been taken as the natural Multilingualism is the use of more than one
human condition. Yet, both historically and language by a single individual or community.
currently, most of the world‘s communities and In the popular imagination and in linguistic
a majority of speakers are multilingual to a theory, multilingualism is often assumed to be
greater or lesser extent. an anomalous, exceptional practice
Bilingualism Bilinguality
Bilingualism talks about society Bilinguality talks about the individual
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Bilingualism is the logical state of the individual who Bilinguality is the psychological state of an
has access to more than one linguistic code individual who has access to more than one
linguistic code as a means of social
communication.
Titone says bilingualism is the individual‘s capacity to The degree of access will vary along with a number of
speak a second language while following the concepts dimensions which are psychological, cognitive,
and structures of that language rather than psycholinguistic, social psychological, social,
paraphrasing his or her mother tongue. sociological, sociolinguistic, sociocultural and linguistic
Perspective of languague 2 main branches.
Two basic perspectives on the study of language are the following:
1. Anatomy of Language (Structure)
2. Physiology of Language (Functioning)
Speech community from tyton example Titone (1991), ―Code-switching may take a variety of forms: a set
of utterances in one language is followed by a set of utterances in the other, one single utterance in one
language is followed by one single utterance in the other‖.
As an example we can talk about a multilingual country, Singapore, where the ability to shift
from one language to another is considered to be quite normal. There are four official languages:
English, the Mandarin variety of Chinese, Tamil, and Malay, which is also national language. However, majority
are the speakers of Hokkien, another variety of Chinese. National policy promotes English as a trade language,
Mandarin as the international ‗Chinese‘ language, Malay as the language of the region, and Tamil as the
language of one of the important ethnic groups in the republic. What this means for a ‗typical‘ Chinese child
growing up in Singapore is:

nversation with friends will be in Hokkien.

Singapore English) and Mandarin.
5 reason for code mixing
Nature or choice of the mixed elements varies due to certain factors such as:
• Motivation • Discourse functions • Social standing of the group • Speaker • Setting
Politeness (3) In Linguistics/ Pragmatics politeness is Some what different from its general concept. Politeness
encodes social distance. It tells us who is speaking to whom. It is a social norm and operates on the basis of a
set of prescriptive social rules. When we say we can encode social distance through politeness it means that the
language choices made by speakers tell us about their social distance from the other speaker.
What is the significance of diachronic linguistics (5) The simple answer is that there are patterns which
simply cannot be discerned without looking at a language at multiple points in time. So, diachronic linguistics
provides insights into different kinds of language change that takes place at all linguistic levels: phonetic,
phonemic, morphological, syntactic, semantic etc.
1. Phonetic: Old English had the sound u-umlaut, while that sound is no longer present in
modern English(ME)
2. Phonemic: In Old English /v/ is regarded as an allophone of /f/, while in ME /v/ is a phoneme itself.
3. Syntactic: Old and Middle English had V2 word order. An example from Middle English is where nu 'now' is in
the first position, and the verb loke 'look' is in the second position.
4. Semantic: In diachronic linguistics semantic change is a change in one of the meanings of a
word. Every word has a variety of senses and connotations, which can be added, removed, or
altered over time.
Synchronic Variation Synchronic linguistics is the study of a language at a given point in time. A synchronic
approach considers a language at a moment in time without taking its history into account. One can approach
all different aspects of language, such as grammar, syntax, semantics, phonology etc., from two different points
of view.
Synchronic variation in sociolinguistics focuses on the following:

Language change is the phenomenon by which permanent alterations are made in the features and the use of
a language over time. All natural languages change, and language change affects all areas of language use.
Types of language change include sound changes, lexical changes, semantic changes, and syntactic changes.
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The branch of linguistics that is expressly concerned with changes in a language (or in languages) over time is
historical linguistics (also known as diachronic linguistics).
what are implication of language attitude in context of sociolinguistic: There are various implications of
language attitudes such as:
1. Language attitudes usually entail attitudes to the speakers of the particular language or dialect.
2. There is an evidence that language attitudes influence sound change.
3. Language attitudes may influence how teachers deal with pupils.
4. Attitudes about language may affect second language learning
factor of code mixing Nature or choice of the mixed elements varies due to certain factors such as:
• Motivation • Discourse functions • Social standing of the group
• Speaker • Setting
Code switching code mixing.
Alternation between varieties or codes, across Alternation between languages or variaties
sentences or clause boundaries within a clause or phrase
Example: Very soon I‘ll be a big star in Example:
Bollywood; mein naumeed nehin houngi. Have aqua please (Spanish/ English)
(Urdu/English)
Q. differentiate between inter-sentential & intra-sentential switching Intra-sentential Switching: This
takes place within the boundaries of a sentence or a clause. This is limited to the mixing of words or phrases of
one language into the other. Inter-sentential Switching: This takes place at the boundary of sentences or
clauses. So, te speaker switches from one language to the other as he or he moves from one sentence/ clause
to the other.
Q. Regular vs. Probabilistic Alternations Between Variants The relationship between the abstract concept
of a variable and the actual variants that realise it is very similar to the relationship between the abstract notion
of a phoneme and the actual phonetic realisations of that phoneme. The sound represented orthographically as
/p/ in English has very different realisations, depending on where it occurs in a word. When it occurs by itself at
the start of a word, as in pinch, it is pronounced with quite clear aspiration i.e., an extra burst of air that is very
clear if the speaker is standing too close to a microphone. This variation is quite predictable and depends
entirely on the immediate linguistic context in which the /p/ occurs.
style variation Stylistic variation means altering your vocabulary, syntactic structures, discourse structure to
match the context and situation. We speak in one way when we condole a friend, and in some other way when
we congratulate another. We speak to a stranger more carefully than when we speak to our friends. In
meetings and conferences we use a formal style, but you can‘t use the same at home. With your peers, you use
slang, nothing wrong in it, but do we use it in conferences, interviews, or with respectable people?
Let us take some examples.
What, me worry —- informal style To whom did you give it? —- formal style
Linguists may study stylistic variation for many reasons. One might be to understand how social factors
influence language use. Another might be to understand the relationship between individuals‘ language use and
broader patterns of language use.
style register
A style is not a social or regional dialect, but a variety Register are commonly identified by certain
of lang used for a specific purpose. phonological variants, vocabulary, idioms
Styles are often analyze along a scale of formality, as Register shows what you are doing. It is used
in the examples from social dialect research to describe changing how a person speaks based on
the situation.
competence and performance In terms of sociolinguistics, performance is the actual use of the sociolinguistic
knowledge one possesses when interacting in society . It is practically futile to address grammar, connotation,
level of formality, style, and register in isolation. Each of these fundamentals is an ingredient that contributes to
the general picture of a given language. Sociolinguistic competence offers a platform for appreciating language
in its social, cultural and linguistic dimensions, its role and significance transcends its definition. Sociolinguistic
performance means the ability to use linguistic knowledge and put it to the test in real life.
There are certain significant aspects of linguistic hegemony,
hegemonic languages such as English has spread worldwide.

language practices language practices

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WAVE MODEL In historical linguistics, the wave model or wave theory (German Wellentheorie) is a model of
language change in which a new language feature (innovation) or a new combination of language features
spreads from its region of origin, affecting a gradually expanding cluster of dialects. The theory was intended as
a substitute for the tree model, which did not seem to be able to explain the existence of some features,
especially in the Germanic languages, by descent from a proto-language. The idea was that changes start in one
environment and then affect successive environments – one wave after another. So it was believed that
changes went to completion first in the environments that favoured them most strongly from where they started
first (the first wave). The metaphor of a wave is not a bad one for describing the spread of an innovation over
time. When looking at the temporal spread of an innovation we can usually infer roughly when it starts, and it
then moves slowly and directly through time.
What is exogamy Linguistic exogamy is a form of cultural exogamy in which marriage occurs only between
speakers of different languages. The custom is common among indigenous groups in the northwest Amazon,
such as the Tucano tribes.
Link Between Power and Prestige: Issues of power and prestige are closely knitted. Social class, language
and power create a triangle that is very interesting for the students of sociolinguistics to create.