submitted to collect my mid test

NAME                 : RISKA YULIANA

CLASS/NIM        : VB/1588203064

SUBJECT            : INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS

1.      What is Sociolinguistics?

Answer:

Sociolinguistics is the study of the relation between language and society and a branch of both linguistics and sociology. They are interested in explaining why we speak differently in different social contexts, and they are concerned with identifyng the social functions of language and the ways it is used to convey social meaning. Here,  socio means society and linguist means study of language. So, sociolinguist is the study of language that is related to society condition. it can be concluded that sociolinguistics is the science field which has interdisipliner characteristic with sosiology. Besides sociolinguistic term, there is other term ‘language sociology’. Some people assume that the two terms are same, but the other assume that they are different. One said that the term sociolinguistic is used because the research is influenced by linguistic field, while the term language sociology is used when the research is influenced by sociology

2.      Why do we learn Sociolinguistics?

Answer:

   Sociolinguistics can help us understand why we speak differently in various social contexts, and help uncover the social relationships in a community.
For example, you probably wouldn't speak the same to your boss at work as you would your friends, or speak to strangers as you would to your family. Sociolinguistic competence enables speakers to distinguish among possibilities such as the following. Sociolinguistics is the study of language in its social context. This means that we use language to socially define and express who we are, where we come from, and who we associate with. It is amazing to see how often we judge someone’s character by making assumptions about their background and their character based simply upon how a person speaks. As a study which engaged the interaction between language and society, sociolinguistics has a huge effect in foreign language teaching to reach a better understanding of the language nature as well as its materilization along with the conception of the nature of society.

3.      What is the relation between language and society?

Answer:

     The relationship between language and society is so closely related. The relationship of the two is entrenched. Language performs various functions in the society and the society does the same way. If one will not exist, the other one will be affected. Language is the primary tool for communication purposes, for establishing peace and order in our society, for showing authority and power, and for attaining goals and objectives. But, it can also destruct the society if it will use inappropriately. It must follow the conformity governing the society to avoid conflict s and to meet the boundary of individual differences. Society however controls our language by giving us preferences as what are acceptable and not, because each one of us has our own perception or point of view. A group of people may accept our language, but for others, it could be kind of offence or insult. We must know how, when and where to say it and for what purpose.

4.      Pleaase mention and explain the branches of linguistics!

Answer:

            The branches of linguistics are:

a.       General linguistic

Describes the concepts and categories of a particular language or among all language. It also provides analyzed theory of the language. Descriptive linguistic describes or gives the data to confirm or refute the theory of particular language explained generally.

b.      Micro linguistic

Is narrow view. It is concerned internal view of language itself without related how to apply it in daily life. Some fields of micro linguistic:

§  Phonetics   : the study of the physical properties of sounds of human language

§  Phonology : the study of sounds as discrete, abstract elements in the speaker’s mind that distinguish meaning

§  Morphology: the study of internal structures of words and how the can be modified

§  Syntax: the study of how words combine to form grammatical sentences

§  Semantics: the study of the meaning or words and fixed word combinations, and how these combine to form the meanings of sentences

§  Pragmatics : the study of how utterances are used in communicative acts

§  Discourse Analysis: the analysis of language use in texts

§  Applied linguistic: is the branch of linguistic that is most concerned with application of the concepts in everyday life, including language-teaching

c.       Macro linguistic

Is broadest view of language. It is concerned external vie of language itself with related to other sciences and how to apply it in daily life. Some fields of micro linguistic:

§  Stylistics: the study of linguistic factors that place a discourse in context

§  Developmental linguistics : the study of the development of linguistic ability in an individual, particularly the acquisition of language in childhood

§  Historical lingustics: the study of language change

§  Language geography: the study of the spatial patterns of languages

§  Evolutionary linguistics: the study of the origin and subsequent development of language

§  Psycholinguistics: the study of the cognitive processes and representations underlying language use

§  Sociolinguistics: the study of social patterns and norms of linguistic variability

§  Clinical linguistics: the application of linguitstic theory to the area of Speech-Language Pathology

§  Neurolinguistics: the study of the brain networks that underlie grammar and communication

§  Biolinguistics: the study of naturl as well as human-taught communication systems in animals compared to human language

§  Computational linguistics : the study of coputational implementations of linguistic structures

5.      What is standard language? Giving an example!

Answer:

            A standard language is a variety of language that is used by governments, in the media, in schools and for international communication. There are different standard varieties of English in the world, such as North American English, Australian English and Indian English.

            Standard language is an official form of language. This kind of form of languages are always artificially modified at least to some degree. It is the way to use language in official and formal situation as in newspapers and public speeches. The core idea of standard language is to codify a public, particularly written language so that it is accesible to every speaker of the language to be used in education, media and science.

6.      Elaborating the language, dialect and accent, please!

Answer:

a)      Accent : is all about pronounciation. Two people may use the same grammar, the same syntax and the same vocabulary but pronounce the words in a different way.

For example, people in the north of England tend to say the word path as:

pæːθ

with a short vowel whilst people in the south of England tend to say:

pɑːθ

with a long vowel. There are two different accents at work here.

b)      Dialects: on the other hand, have differences not only in pronounciation but also in grammar and syntax.

Two people may both speak English but one might say:

He did well!

Whilst the other could say:

He done well!

Here this isn’t just a difference in pronunciation but also grammar; these are two different dialects.

c)      Language: there is a saying that a language is a dialect with an army. Linguistics often talk about language in terms of political influence and power. By this they mean that a dialect with political power becomes a language. for example, Chinese and Spanish. They are two very different languages and most people would regard them as completely separate.

7.      Giving an example of formal language and informal language!

Answer:

a)      Formal language: The girl whom I met in Malaysia was interested in working in Australia.

b)      Informal language: The girl I met in Malaysia was interested in working in Australia.

8.      What aspects of language are sociolinguistics interested in?

Answer:

            Sociolinguists are interested in explaining why people speak differently in different social contexts. They are concerned with the way people signal aspects of their social identity through language. Sociolinguists study the effect of social factors -- such as social distance, social status, age, gender and class -- on language varieties (dialects, registers, genres, etc). Sociolinguists are also concerned with identifying the social functions of language and the ways it is used to convey social meaning.

9.      When two or more people from different language met and tried to communicate, what should they do?

a.       Pidgin

b.      Creole

c.       Lingua franca

Answer:

The function of pidgin English is thus as a lingua franca, i.e. a common means of communication between speakers who do not understand their respective native languages.

A pidgin language is a mixed language that enables limited communication between two groups that don’t share a common language. The process of pidginisation is very common in any situation in which a lingua franca is called for. Normally any such variety dies out very quickly once the situation which gave rise to it no longer obtains. If the situation does continue to exist then the pidgin is likely to survive. The steps from restricted to extended pidgin and further to creole are only taken by very few languages, particularly the major restructuring typical of pidgins is not normally carried out by any but a very small number of input varieties.

The function of pidgin English is thus as a lingua franca, i.e. a common means of communication between speakers who do not understand their respective native languages.

10.          Why do people switch and mix a language?

Answer:

Because, Code switching can be used in a variety of degrees, whether it is used at home with family and friends, or used with superiors at the workplace. as an acceptable form of communication in society, and may feel comfortable switching languages in everyday normal conversation.

Code-mixing and code-switching. Terms in sociolinguistics for language and especially speech that draws to differing extents on at least two languages combined in different ways, as when a Malay/English bilingual says: This morning I hantar my baby tu dekat babysitter tu lah (hantar took, tu dekat to the, lah a particle marking solidarity). A code may be a language or a variety or style of a language

11.              Giving an example of code switching and code mixing!

Answer:

            For example, suppose i know Hindi and English:
 Code switching: 

"Ram is a good boy aur bahut achchhi painting bhi karta hai."

Here the 1st part of the sentence is in English and second part is in Hindi, that is we have switched from English to Hindi.

 Code mixing:

"Ram is eating aam and playing with sita"

Here what happened, I am borrowing a word 'aam' (meaning Mango in English) from Hindi and adapting it in the English. Grammar of Hindi didn't get involve. Only lexical item of Hindi is embedded in English.

           

Summary of Speech Community

According to Romaine (1994:22) “A speech community is a group of people who do not necessarily share the same language, but share a set of norms and rules for the use of language. The boundaries between speech communities are essentially social rather than linguistic. A speech community is not necessarily co-extensive with a language community.
However, we have two types of speech community - the primary and secondary speech communities.

Primary speech community is composed of people who have always live in the same neighbourhood and who usually speak the same language. Rural communities fall under this category, e.g. Tonkere and Abagbooro in Ife.

Secondary speech community composed of people that come together from different regions for a number of reasons. It could be for social economic, political, religious, educational reasons. These groups of people adopt one language for social and linguistic interaction because they are heterogeneous in nature. 

INTERSECTING COMMUNITIES

Intersecting communities indicating the Speaker of places do use expressions indicates that they some idea of how a “typical” person from each place speaks – to be a member of a particular speech community somewhat loosely defined. E.g.: New York speech, London Speech, South African Speech.

Dialects and languages are beginning to influence each other, for example London is a community in some sences but not in others. Neither a single speech community even though it has 300 languages or more, its too big and fragmented. It is to difficult to relate of speech community directly to language or languages spoken.

Each member of a community has a repertoire of social identities that are each one in a given context is associated with a number of nonverbal and verbal forms of expression. There is not a clear way on how to define how individuals can classify themselves and speaker are creating and recreating social identities. So, it is impossible to predict the group or community he or she will consider itself to belong in a particular moment. This group will change according to situation.

Summary of Code Mixing and Code Switching

Code mixing is combined two languages, or changes word, phrase or utterance to another language.
Code switching is change sentences to another language (keseluruhan)
Obvious change because the situations.

For example, suppose i know Hindi and English:
 Code switching: 

"Ram is a good boy aur bahut achchhi painting bhi karta hai."

Here the 1st part of the sentence is in English and second part is in Hindi, that is we have switched from English to Hindi.

 Code mixing:

"Ram is eating aam and playing with sita"

Here what happened, I am borrowing a word 'aam' (meaning Mango in English) from Hindi and adapting it in the English. Grammar of Hindi didn't get involve. Only lexical item of Hindi is embedded in English.

Code switching is a universal language-contact phenomenon that reflects the grammars of both languages working simultaneously.
Code mixing is also a language contact phenomenon that doesn't reflect the grammars of both languages working simultaneously. Here, we borrow words from one language and adapt it in other language.

Code switching and code mixing is possible in bilingual or multilingual environment, not in monolingual environment.
As because it is not possible to either switch or mix in the same language. At least two languages are needed for the above process to happen.
For instance, the bilingual children go through the mixing at their early stages of learning. While adults after becoming competent in at least 2 languages, they show their performance of their learning by switching from one language to another.

Summary dialect and varieties

A dialect is a regional or social variety of a language distinguished bypronunciation, grammar, and/orvocabulary. Adjective: dialectal.

The term dialect is often used to characterize a way of speaking that differs from the standard variety of the language. Nonetheless, as David Crystal explains below, "Everyone speaks a dialect."

The scientific study of dialects is known as dialectology, commonly regarded as a subfield of sociolinguistics.

What's the Difference Between a Language and a Dialect?
"The very fact that 'language' and 'dialect' persist as separate concepts implies that linguists can make tidy distinctions for speech varieties worldwide. But in fact, there is no objective difference between the two: Any attempt you make to impose that kind of order on reality falls apart in the face of real evidence. . . .

"English tempts one with a tidy dialect-language distinction based on 'intelligibility': If you can understand it without training, it’s a dialect of your own language; if you can’t, it’s a different language. But because of quirks of its history, English happens to lack very close relatives, and the intelligibility standard doesn’t apply consistently beyond it. . . .

What's the Difference Between a Dialect and an Accent?
"Accents have to be distinguished from dialects. An accent is a person's distinctive pronunciation. A dialect is a much broader notion: it refers to the distinctive vocabulary and grammar of someone's use of language. If you say eether and I sayiyther, that's accent. We use the same word but pronounce it differently. But if you say I've got a new dustbin and I say I've gotten a new garbage can, that's dialect. We're using different word and sentence patterns to talk about the same thing."

Summary pidgin and creole languages

A pidgin is a restricted language which arises for the purposes of communication between two social groups of which one is in a more dominant position than the other. The less dominant group is the one which develops the pidgin.

Historically, pidgins arose in colonial situations where the representatives of the particular colonial power, officials, tradesmen, sailors, etc., came in contact with natives. The latter developed a jargon when communicating with the former. This resulted in a language on the basis of the colonial language in question and the language or languages of the natives. Such a language was restricted in its range as it served a definite purpose, namely basic communication with the colonists. In the course of several generations such a reduced form of language can become more complex, especially if it develops into the mother tongue of a group of speakers. This latter stage is that of creolisation. Creoles are much expanded versions of pidgins and have arisen in situations in which there was a break in the natural linguistic continuity of a community, for instance on slave planatations in their early years.

A pidgin language is a mixed language that enables limited communication between two groups that don’t share a common language. So that is the advantage.

The disadvantages are that the languages are limited, e.g. to trade, and that they have to be created over time.

Some languages that are referred to as pidgins are in fact creoles, which are full languages derived from pidgins. They are comparable to any other natural language in terms of pros and cons

Register is a style or variety of language determined by such factors as social occasion,context, purpose, and audience, also called stylistic variation. Practically, the term refers to the degrees of formality with which populations use language; these formal variations are sometimes called codes.

Registers are marked by a variety of specialized vocabulary and turns of phrases, colloquialisms and the use of jargon, and a difference in intonation and pace; in "The Study of Language," linguist George Yule describes the function of jargon as helping " to create and maintain connections among those who see themselves as 'insiders' in some way and to exclude 'outsiders.'"

Summary

Introduction to Sociolinguistics

Relationship between language & society because society always need language for communication.

Sociolinguistics the branches of lingustics.

When two or more people communicate with each other in speech. We can tall the system of communication that they employ a code. In most cases that code will be something we may want to call a language. We should also note that two speakers who are biingual. The system (or the grammar, to use a well – known technical term) is something that each speaker ‘knows’ but two very important questions for linguist are just what that ‘knowledge’ is knowledge of and how it may best be characterized.

Language structure have there is grammar.

The branches of language

Language is occupational to make people preoccupied in its various branches of language.  The first branch of language is barracks language.  This branch of language is rough and tough.  It is short and blunt, it is direct and brisk, and it is loud and clear and open.  This branch of language demands discipline and obedience.  It is masculine in manner of communicating what needs to be said and what needs to be done.  This branch of language orders everyone to obey before complaining.  This branch of language belongs to the military and is the preoccupation of soldiers and sailors and servicemen from top to bottom.

The second branch of language is commercial language.  This branch of language is loaded on television, radio, internet, print and billboard.  This branch of language is the bulk of business activity.  It is the language of the markets including the New York Stock Exchange.  This branch of language fills our garbage cans every day.  Responding to this commercial language in a positive way takes us to go broke because this branch of language doesn't stop asking for money.  It doesn't stop seeking to know our assets and liabilities and it doesn't stop tempting us with credit cards and credit lines.  This branch of language belongs to business.  It is the occupation of businessmen and the preoccupation of brokers, dealers, importers, exporters, merchants, marketers, market makers, sellers, traders and suppliers.

The third branch of language is political language.  This branch of language is mainly blah, blah, blah.  This branch of language makes us feel good when it is positive, it makes us feel bad when it is negative.  This branch of language consists of double talk and double dealing.  It is full of sweet nothings to be worth a grain of salt.  This branch of language is where questions of credibility arise frequently because it is tongue-in-cheek.  This branch of language belongs to politics.  It is the occupation of politicians and the preoccupation of bureaucrats, counselors, demagogues and public officials to include congressmen, senators and presidents who are all elected officials from the lowest to the highest.

The fourth branch of language is spiritual language.  This branch of language is divine.  It is eternal and sacred.  It is truth.  Spiritual language is the word of God.  This branch of language is the gospel that is written in stone.  This branch of language does not treasure words in barracks language, it does not treasure money in commercial language and it does not treasure power in political language.  It treasures the soul and the spirit that were never born and will never die.  This branch of language belongs to religion.  It is the occupation of clergymen and the preoccupation of priests, pastors, ministers, bishops, cardinals, rabbis, gurus and all other missionaries and ecclesiastics.  This branch of language does not lie, it can only be misunderstood.

The fifth branch of language is legal language.  This branch of language is either specific or vague, either clear or ambiguous.  It is specific when it relates to the principle "expressio unios est exclusio alterius" which means express mention of one thing excludes all others not mentioned.  It is vague when there is room for different meanings.  It is clear when there is no room for interpretation.  It is ambiguous when it is understood in different ways because of variable meanings.  This branch of language listens to logic and reason, it appeals to articulation and persuasion.  This branch of language belongs to law.  It is the occupation of lawyers and lawmakers and the preoccupation of lawyers, judges, jurists, justices, counselors, councilors, decision makers and all other law and legal personnel.

The sixth branch of language is educational language.  This branch of language is informational and instructional.  This branch of language is what listening and learning are all about.  This branch of language is found in schools, colleges and universities where assignments, books, lessons and lectures are given.  This branch of language is the academic source of knowledge.  This branch of language promotes literacy and dispels ignorance.  It broadens understanding and challenges the mind as well as expands the imagination.  This branch of language has nothing to do with barracks language, commercial language, political language, spiritual language or legal language.  This branch of language begins with the alphabet and generalization of knowledge and ends with the specialization of inter-disciplines as we learn to know more and more about less and less.  This branch of language belongs to education.  It is the occupation of educators and the preoccupation of teachers, tutors, instructors, mentors, professors, deans and lecturers.

The seventh branch of language is social language.  This branch of language covers just about anything in general.  It includes glib talk, idle talk, loose talk, straight talk, shop talk and street talk.  This branch of language is as juicy as orange juice.  It is a part of gossip and backbiting and bad-mouthing.  It is as miscellaneous as fruit salad and is often observed in social gatherings.  This branch of language is seen and heard in gossip, rumor, bluffing and palavers.  This branch of language also consists of exchange of pleasantries.  They are the words of people out to socialize.  This branch of language belongs to society at large.  It is the occupation of socialites and the preoccupation of partygoers, social climbers, name-droppers, networkers, influence peddlers, warmongers and troublemakers.

Our calling and our line of work will tell to which branch of language we belong.  We are preoccupied with our own branch of language.  The soldier specializes in barracks language, the businessman specializes in commercial language, the politician specializes in political language, the clergyman specializes in spiritual language, the lawmaker specializes in legal language, the educator specializes in educational language and the socialite specializes in social language.  Each branch of language has its own share of experts, specialists and masters of occupational language.  We defines ourselves with our occupational language when we become articulate. 

Commercial language ranks first in getting us to become heavily in debt, driving droves of people to insolvency and bankruptcy.  Political language ranks first in a pattern of deception and betrayal that cause people fooled all of the time to lose trust and confidence for the words are soaked in water.  Social language ranks first in glib talk, idle talk, loose talk, shop talk and street talk to gaining popularity due to exposure.  Barracks language ranks first in brevity where one joins the military as a boy and comes out as a man.  Educational language ranks first in broadening knowledge and understanding of our rights and obligations.  Legal language ranks first in the battle for interpretation, logic and reason.

Spiritual language ranks first in all branches of language not only because it is the most enduring truth written in stone but also because it is the VINE that provides nourishment and vitality to all other branches of language.