社会语言学期末复习.doc

Key Terms1. Sociolinguistics: Sociolinguistics is concerned with investigating the relationships between language and society with the goal being a better understanding of the structure of language and of how languages function in communication. It is the study of language in relation to society. That is to say, in sociolinguistics, we study language and society in order to find out as much as we can about what kind of thing language is. Coulmas puts it that sociolinguistics investigates “how social structure influences the way people talk and how language varieties and patterns of use correlate with social attributes such as class, sex, and age.” In sociolinguistics, we study, for example, linguistic variation, dialects, language attitude and its effect etc. 2. Independent variable & dependent variable An independent variable is an activity or characteristic believed to make a difference with respect to some behavior; a dependent variable is the change or difference in behavior that occurs as a result of the independent variable. For example, in Labovs study of /r/, the social status of the people is an independent variable and the pronunciation of /r/ is the dependent variable as a result of the change of the social status. 3. Variety Variety refers to a set of linguistic items or human speech patterns (sounds, words, grammatical features), which can be uniquely associated with some external factor (e.g. a geographical area or a social group). For example, Black English is a variety of English related with the racial group and Beijing dialect is also a variety of Chinese Mandarin related with the geographical area. 4. Language and dialect Language refers either to a single linguistic norm or to a group of related norms while dialect refers to one of the norms. For example, in Britain, the British speak the English language and there are dialects such as Yorkshire dialect etc. 5. Style and register Style refers to differences in speech or writing in terms of degree of formality. It is usually associated with variations in situation, topic, addressee, and location. For example, our talk is much more formal in a public speech and less informal in daily conversation. Similarly we would talk more respectfully with an interviewer and less so with classmates or family members. Register refers to differences in speech or writing in terms of vocabulary. It is usually associated with a certain occupational or social group. For example, jargon is the vocabulary differences because of different occupations. 6. Standard variety and non-standard variety Standard variety is the variety which has the highest status in a community or nation and which is usually based on the speech and writing of educated native speakers. Other varieties are regarded as non-standard varieties. For example, in China, Mandarin is the standard variety that has the highest status, and is used in media, education etc and other varieties are non-standard ones. 7. Standardization Standardization refers to the process of making some aspect of language usage conforms to a standard variety. This may take place in connection with the writing or spelling system of a particular language and is usually implemented by a government authority. 8. Dialect geography and isogloss. Dialect geography refers to the study of geographic distribution of linguistic items, the results plotted on maps (dialect atlases). Lines marking the boundaries of linguistic features on such maps are isoglosses. For example, in the following map which shows the distribution of /r/, /u/ and / pronunciation, the lines, both dotted and real lines are called isogloss. /r/-full &/ / /r/-less & / / /r/-full & /u/ /r/-less &/u/9. Networks Networks refer to groups of people who communicate with each other regularly. The density of a social network depends on the degree to which the people who form the social network all know each other. The concept “networks” is used to view how an individual relates to other individuals in society. That is, it studies how and on what occasions a specific individual A interacts now with B, then with C, and then again with D, how intensive the various relationships are, (does A interact more frequently with B than with C or D?) and how extensive As relationship with B is in the sense of how many other individuals interact with both A and B in whatever activity brings them together. People can be involved in a dense network if the people you know and interact with also know and interact with one another. If they do not, the network is a loose one. And people are said to be involved in a multiplex network if the people within it are tied together in more than one way. 10. Variation Variation refers to language differences in speech and writing between speakers of different ages, genders, social classes or identities; or differences in differences in different situation, topic, addressee, and location; including difference over time. For example, to refer to the same automotive vehicle suitable for hauling, Americans and British would use different words: truck v.s. lorry, and spell the same word meaning the middle as something as “centre” v.s. “center”. 11. Speech repertoire Speech repertoire refers to the range of linguistic varieties which the speaker has at his disposal and which he may appropriately use as a member of his speech community. It can be used to describe the communicative competence of individual speakers. Each person will then have a distinctive speech repertoire. And quite often , many individuals will have virtually identical repertoire. 12. Idiolect Idiolect refers to the speech characteristics and linguistic behavior of individuals. 13. Lingua franca Lingua franca refers to a language which is used habitually by people whose mother tongues are different in order to facilitate communication between them. It can be spoken in a variety of ways. For example, today English is used in very many places and for very many purposes as a lingua franca, e.g., in travel and often in trade, commerce, and international relation. And the English can serve as a lingua franca in many parts of the world, and for some speakers, it is a native language, and still others a foreign language. 14. Speech community Speech community has been defined differently by different people. But generally it can be used to refer to a group of people who form a community, e.g. a village, a region, a nation, and who have at least one linguistic variety in common. Possible standards for defining a speech community are one single speech variety, shared attitudes towards linguistic behavior in the community, and in-group social cohesiveness. 15. Pidgin Pidgin refers to a linguistic variety which develops as a contact language when groups of people with different mother tongues come into contact and communicate with one another, as when foreign traders communicate with the local population or workers on plantations or in factories communicate with one another or with their bosses. It is no ones first language. For example, Tok Pisin is used as a unifying language among speakers of many different languages in Papua New Guinea. Characteristics of pidgin: simplifications of pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar16. Creole Creole refers to a “pidgin” which has become the native language of a group of speakers, being used for all or many of their daily communicative needs. Characteristics of Creole when compared with pidgins: larger vocabulary; more complex grammar; more styles. 17. Code Code is a term used instead of language, speech variety, or dialect. It is sometimes considered to be a more neutral term than the others. 18. Diglossia Diglossia refers to a situation in which two very different codes exist side by side in a speech community, each with a distinct range of social functions. The key defining characteristic of diglossia is that the two varieties are kept quite apart in their functions. The High variety (or H-variety) is usually more standardized, and is used in government, the media, education, and for religious services; the Low-variety (or L-variety) is used in family conversation and other relatively informal setting. For example, in Switzerland, there are Standard German (H) and Swiss German (L) varieties, with the former one used in most of the formal situations, and the latter for other informal settings. And in Haiti, there are Standard French (H) and Haitian Creole (L). 19. Bilingualism Bilingualism can refer to the community where two languages are used, and the ability to use tow languages either by an individual or by a speech community. Balanced, compound, and coordinate bilingualism20. Code-switching Code-switching refers to a change by a speaker (or writer) from one code to another. It is a conversational strategy used to establish, cross or destroy group boundaries, to create, evoke or change interpersonal relations with their rights and obligations. For example, to hide meaning from a third party present at the conversation, the two speakers may switch to their hometown dialect to distance their relation. 21. code-mixing Code-mixing is the mixed use of codes. Usually the two codes involved are not of equal position with one being predominant and the other subordinate. For example, “明天是peter的part,我们开一个party,好吗?”22. Implicational scale Implicational scale is a term from variation theory particularly associated with the study of the post-creole continuum. It is introduced by the American linguist David DeCamp in 1971 as a way of showing relationships between linguistic varieties. He demonstrated that certain linguistic forms from the Jamaican social dialect continuum had both creole and standard variants. There variants can be ranked in terms of their “creoleness” and “standardness” on an implicational hierarchy that is observed by (nearly all) speakers, such that usage by a speaker of creole forms from a particular point on the hierarchy implies that one can predict that he or she will also use creole forms from lower down on the hierarchy, but not necessarily from higher up. That is, some mesolectal forms are more basilectal or acrolectal than others. Similarly, use of standard forms from a particular point on the continuum also implies use of standard forms from higher up on the hierarchy, but not necessarily use of those from lower down. 23. Culture Culture is the sum total of all contributions of a group of people, in a designated area, within a given time. It represents, more specifically, the aesthetic or intellectual achievement or appreciation of an individual or a society, and also the lifestyle of a society as passed on from generation to generation. 24. Whorfian hypothesis Whorfian hypothesis has two versions: strong one and weak one. The strong version says that ones thinking is completely determined by his native language because one cannot but perceive the world in terms of the categories and distinctions encoded in the language. The categories and distinctions encoded in one language system are unique to that system and incommsurable with those of other systems. The weak version puts it that the structure does not determine the world-view but is still extremely influential in predisposing speakers of a language toward adopting a particular world-view. 25. Prototype theory A prototype is the first model that is made of something new, first or original example, e.g. an aircraft, from which others have been or will be copied or developed. Prototype theory refers to the idea that concepts are best viewed as prototypes. A prototype-based concept can be learned on the basis of a very small number of instances, perhaps a single one, and without any kind of formal definition.26. Ethnography Ethnography is a non-manipulative study of the cultural characteristics of a group in real world rather than laboratory setting, utilizing ethnographic techniques and providing a socio-cultural interpretation of the research data. For example, an ethnography of a communicative event is a description of all the factors that are relevant in understanding how that event achieves its objective. And Lindenfelds ethnographical study offers an account of the language of a dozen long-standing urban marketplaces in Paris etc, the talk of vendors, vendor-customer talk, politeness routines, small talk, jokes, insults, etc. An alternative approach to devising ethnographies is to attempt to describe the different functions of language in communication. 27. Ethnomethodology Ethnomethodology is the study of how individuals create and understand their daily lives. Subjects for such studies are not people in primitive tribes, but those in contemporary society. It is a branch of sociology, which ahs links with conversation analysis because of its use of recorded conversation material as data. Most ethnomethodologists study not language or speech, but talk. In particular, they are interested in what is not said. They focus on the shared common-sense knowledge speakers have of their society which they can leave unstated in conversation because it is taken fro granted by all participants. 28. Communicative competence Communicative competence refers to the ability not only to apply the grammatical rules of a language in order to form grammatically correct sentence, but also to know when and where to use these sentences and to whom. CC refers to whether (and to what degree) something is formally possible, feasible, appropriate, and in fact done. It includes linguistic competence; sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence. 29. Speech acts Utterances as functional units in communication30. Turn-taking Turn-taking refers to the distribution of talk across participants in conversation. There are there ways of turn-taking (degree of control). Firstly, turn-taking happens by mentioning his/her name, current speaker selects the next speaker. Secondly, by asking a question, current speaker invites another speaker to speak but leaves the choice open. Thirdly, a certain hearer self-selects as the next speaker. 31. Adjacency pairs It refers to sequences of two utterances that are adjacent, produced by different speakers, ordered as a first part and a second part, typed so that a particular first part requires a particular second part or range of second parts. For example, a question can lead to an answer, which can lead to a comment, which can lead to an acknowledgment, and so on. 32. Solidarity It refers to support and unity resulting from common interests or feelings in communication, and feelings of shared experience and common group membership. 33. Politeness It refers to recognition of others rights in a social situation. (positive and negative politeness by Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson)34. Address terms Address terms refer to second-person pronouns, or names, or titles, or endearments, and expressions used when speaking to someone. For example, the same person may be addressed by “you”, “Mr. James Martin”, “Professor Martin”, “dear”, or other expression. 35. Language planning “Language planning is a government authorized, long-term, sustained and conscious effort to alter a languages function in a society for the purpose of solving communication problems” (Weinsten, 1980). It refers to deliberate efforts to influence the behavior of others with respect to the acquisition, structure, or functional allocation of language. Typically it will involve the development of goals, objectives and strategies to change the way language is used. At a governmental level, language planning takes the form of language policy. Many nations have language regulatory bodies which are specifically charged with formulating and implementing language planning policies. 36. Status planning It refers to deliberate efforts to allocate the functions of languages and literacies within a speech community. It involves status choices, making a particular language or variety an “official language”, “national language”, etc. Often it will involve elevating a language or dialect into a prestige variety, which may be at the expense of competing dialects. Status planning is often part and parcel of creating a new writing system. Status planning tends to be the most controversial aspect of language planning. 37. Corpus planning It refers to prescriptive intervention in the forms of a language. This may be achieved by creating new words or expressions, modifying old ones, or selecting among alternative forms. Corpus planning aims to develop the resources of a language so that it becomes an appropriate medium of communication for modern topics and forms of discourse, equipped with the terminology needed fro use in administration, education, etc. Corpus planning is often related to the standardization of a language, involving the preparation of a normative orthography, grammar, and dictionary for the guidance of writers, and speakers in a speech community. Efforts at linguistic purism and the exclusion of foreign words also belong the courpus planning, as do spelling reform and the introduction of new writing system. 38. Linguistic assimilation and linguistic pluralism Linguistic assimilation is the belief that everyone, regardless of origin, should learn the dominant language of the society. (France example) Linguistic pluralism is the recognition of more than one language. It can be territorially based or individually based or there may be some combination of the two. It can be complete or partial, so that all or only some aspects of life can be conducted in more than one language in a society. (Canada)39. Vernac