语言学讲座6.ppt

1、,Language and society,The scope of sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics is one branch of linguistics that studies the relation between language and society, between the uses of language and the social structures in which the users of language live. There are many indications of the inter-relationship b

2、etween language and society.,An obvious indication of the inter-relationship between language and society is the fact that language is not always used to exchange information as is generally assumed, but rather it,is sometimes used to fulfil an important social function- to maintain social relations

3、hip between people.,Another indication is that users of the same language in a sense all speak differently. The kind of language each of them chooses to use is in part,determined by his social background. When we speak we cannot avoid giving our listeners clues about our origin and our background.,t

4、here are many examples of the physical environment in which a society lives being reflected in its language, normally in the structure of its lexicon-the way in which distinctions are made by means of single words.,Whereas English, for example, has only one word for snow ( or two if we include sleet

5、), Eskimo has several. The reasons for this are obvious. It is essential for Eskimos to be able to distinguish efficiently,between different types of snow.,English, of course, is quite able to make the same distinctions: fine snow, dry snow, soft snow, and so on, but in Eskimos this sort of distinct

6、ion is lexicalized-made by means of individual words.,The social environment can also be reflected in language, and can often have an effect on the structure of the vocabulary. For example, a societys kinship,system is generally reflected in its kinship vocabulary.,We can assume, for example, that t

7、he important kin relationships in English-speaking societies are those that are signaled by single vocabulary items.,As society is reflected in language in this way, social change can produce a corresponding linguistic change.,This has happened in the case of Russian. During the period from 1860 to

8、the present day the structure of the Russian kinship system has undergone a very radical change as a result of several important events:,For example: the emancipation of serfs in 1861, the First World War, the revolution, the collectivization of agriculture and the Second world War. There has been a

9、 marked social as well as political revolution, and this has been accompanied by a corresponding change in the language.,In the middle of the last century, wifes brother was shurin, whereas now now it is simply brat zheny, brother of wife. Similarly, brothers wife, formerly nevestka, is now zhena br

10、ata, wife of brother. In other words, distinctions that were formerly lexicalized, because they were important, are now made by means of phrases. The loss of importance of these particular relationships are due to the fact that social changes in Russia have led to the rise of the small, nuclear fami

11、ly.,In the last century most Russians lived in large extended-family households. brothers wives, at that time normally lived together.,But now, they live in different households. Similarly, the term yatrov, signifying husbands brothers wife has now disappeared entirely.,As a social phenomenon langua

12、ge is closely related to the structure of the society in which it is used, and the evaluation of a linguistic form is entirely social.,Speech Community,In sociolinguistic studies, speakers are treated as members of social groups. The social group isolated for our study is called the speech community

13、. A speech community is defined as groups of people who form a community and share the same language or a particular variety of language.,Speech community,So this community may have as few members as a family or as many member as a country. The important characteristic of a speech community is that

14、the members of the group must interact linguistically with other members of the community. They may share closely related language varieties as well as attitudes toward linguistic norms.,Speech Community,Many difference exist in speech communities and these differences correlate with the existence o

15、f social groups within the communities. For instance, individuals of one age group may distinguish themselves from other age group as much by special uses of vocabulary as by dressing and entertainment.,It is an obvious fact that people who claim to be users of the same language do not speak the lan

16、guage in the same manner. For example all the English speaking people do not speak the same type of English. And the language used by the same individual varies as circumstances vary.,Speech variety,Speech Variety,Speech variety , also known as language variety, refers to any distinguishable form of

17、 speech used by a speaker or group of speakers. Speech variety is used as a neutral term than other terms such as dialects, non-standard language. Linguistic features of a speech variety can be found at the lexical, the phonological, the morphological or the syntactical level of the language.,Speech

18、 variety,sociolinguistics are particularly interested in three types of speech variety, namely, regional dialects, sociolects (social dialects) or registers.,Varieties related to the user are normally known as dialects and varieties related to use as registers.,Regional dialect When all social group

19、s in a single geographical area, such as province, town, or village speak one particular speech variety that shares the same linguistic features, that speech variety is named regional dialect. so regional dialects are linguistic varieties used by people living in different regions.,We often find reg

20、ional dialect boundaries coincide with geographical barriers such as mountains, rivers, or swamps.,This differentiation is accounted for by the lack of communication in the old days when travel was difficult.,Regional dialect,So we may conclude that geographical barriers are the major source of regi

21、onal variation of language. However, loyalty to ones native speech and resistance to change are other reasons of such speech variation.,Regional dialect,The most distinguishable linguistic feature of a regional dialect is its accent. Accent refers to a way of pronunciation which tells the listener s

22、omething about the speakers regional or social background. But dialects variation may occur with respect to vocabulary , syntax or grammar.,North: You need your hair cutting. South: You need your hair cut,English: Scottish:,It needs washing,It needs washed,Hes a man who likes his beer. Hes a man tha

23、t likes his beer. Hes a man at likes his beer. Hes a man as likes his beer. Hes a man what likes his beer. Hes a man he likes his beer. Hes a man likes his beer.,1) la: 新加坡英语的典型特征之一表现在对 “ la ”的使用上。“ la ”在使用上至少具有六种功能： (1) 表达一种“显而易见”的事实，例如：,No need to count la.,(2) 表达一种委婉的建议，例如： You tell him la! Im so

24、 scared of him. (3) 在作出某种解释时，用于缓和 语气，避免粗鲁，例如： I was absent, because I was ill la.,(4) 在连续的话语中，有表达不重要的信息被省略的功能，例如： You can take an umbrella, some clothes or whatever la! (5) 委婉拒绝对方的赞扬，例如： I was lucky la. (6)表示缺乏热情，例如： Chinese New Year ah? Okay, la!,2) “What”作为小品词在新加坡英语中主要有三种功能： (1)含有反对、不赞成、抱怨之意，例如： F

25、ather: Jane was foolish for she failed the test. Mother: She has only failed once what.,(2) 表达“不耐烦”、“恼火”之意，如： I am late what. He himself is always late. (3) 表达一种显而易见的事实，例如： I am your friend what. ( It is obvious that I am your friend.),2.3句法特征 2.3.1在对说话对象进行询问时，常采用 “or not”结构，例如： a) Hunt or not? b) J

26、ohn, smart or not? c) Lets take a walk, want or not? d) We set off tomorrow, can or not e) You notice or not, they all learn their songs only at this time. We all learn twenty-four hours, remember or not ?,常用 “is it”构成一般疑问句, 常有三种情况： 1) 把“is it”置于陈述句首构成疑问句,例如： a) Is it Freddie is number eight? b) Is

27、it you eat fish?,2) 把 “is it” 作为附加疑问部分置于陈述句之后，且不受主句助动词或实义动词的影响： a) You really want to learn, is it ? b) Lucy and Chen Lais rooms are vacant, is it ?,3) “is it”用来对一个“陈述”作出反应。在语意上相当于 “really?”或 “Is that so?”，例如： A: John is ill and has been hospitalized for a week B: Is it ? b) A: I never eat fish. B:

28、Is it ?,通过对形容词的复用来加强形容词所示语义的程度： a) that fat-fat man b) I speak broken-broken English.,仅在新加坡使用的词汇与表达法,Singapore English Words Meanings Aksy Affected Ang-mohred-hair; a person of European ancestry Boleh tahan tolerably good chap chye a mixture of everything,tambyoffice attendant; office boy kaypohgree

29、dy; interfering in others affairs kayu stupid; dull kiasua feeling of fearing failure on inferiority to others,Nowadays, as there is a marked increase in communication brought about by mass media, and by the development of modern transport, the stability of local dialects seems to be decreasing.,Jus

30、t as regional dialect is associated with separation caused by physical conditions, social dialect has to do with separation brought about by different social conditions. Sociolect refers to the linguistic variety characteristic of a particular social class.,sociolect,Sociolect,Two people who were bo

31、rn and brought up in the same region and spoke the same regional dialect may speak differently because of a number of social factors. Because their social background influence their choice of linguistic forms, and the linguistic features of the language they use reveal their identities.,When we look

32、 at the language used by two speakers A and B, we can estimate roughly their relative social status: Speaker A speaker B I did it yesterday. I done it yesterday. He hasnt got it. He aint got it. It was she that said it It was her what said it.,In Britain, one of the most important markers of status

33、is accent. “Received Pronunciation” , a non-localized form of pronunciation, refers to the particular way of pronouncing standard English, which is an indicator of a public school education and thus a high social status on the part of the speaker.,In the past the possession of an RP accent was extre

34、mely important because it served a s a high-status marker, and also as a qualification for high-prestige employment no matter what other abilities the work might require.,在双元音系统中，普通型变体中的/ ai /在女皇英语中常实现为/ei /,例如: 单词 普通型变体 女皇英语 refine / rifain/ /rifein/ define /difain/ /difein/,其次,普通型变体中的/ i /在女皇英语中常被

35、实现为/e /,例如: 单词 普通型变体 女皇英语 really / rili/ /reli/,单词 普通型变体 女皇英语 house /haus/ /hais/ hello /helu/ /helei/,单词 普通型变体 女皇英语 family /fmili/ /femili/ factory /fkt ri/ /fekt ri/ landscape /lndskeip/ /lendskeip/ ax / ks/ /iks/,此外，在普通型标准英语中的前元音/i/在女皇英语中可以实现为/e/,例如： 单词 普通型英语 女皇英语 gloomy /glu:mi/ /glu:me/ army /a

36、:mi/ /a:me/ surfy /s :fi/ /s :fe/,Investigations have been carried out by linguists to obtain evidence for the correlation between certain phonetic features and social variables. Percentage of speakers Using n for Middle middle class 31% Lower middle class 42% Upper working class 87% Middle working

37、class 95% Lower working class 100%,It should be clear that social-class dialects are not distinct entities; they merge into each other to form a continuum. It is only the proportions which are different.,language and gender It is interesting to know that the language used by men and women have some

38、special features of their own. Language variation is also associated with the gender of individual speakers.,Differences between women and men have always been a topic of interest to the human species and supposed linguistic differences are often enshrined in proverbs:,The North Sea will sooner be f

39、ound wanting in water than a woman at a loss for a word. ( Jutland ),A womans tongue wags like a lambs tail. (England),Foxes are all tail and women are all tongue. ( England-Cheshire),Compared with men, women tend to use such adverbs.： horridly, abominably, immensely, excessively, amazingly，so, most

40、,etc.,1. Lexical Items,1.1Adverbs,Women often use these intensifiers to excess so that the intensity of these words have weakened. What is more, the overuse of these words imply that the users are sentimental and not objective enough.,In Chapter III of Jane Austens novel,“Pride and Prejudice”, Mrs B

41、ennet, excited after participating in a party, talked to her husband about Mr.Bingley as follows:,Oh! My dear Mr. Bennet, we have had a most excellent ball. Jane was so admired. Every body said how well she looked. Mr. Bingley thought her quite beautiful, I was so vexed to see him stand up with her.

42、 I am quite delighted with him. He is so excessively handsome! Mr. Darcy is a most disagreeable, horrid man. So high and so conceited that there was no enduring him! He walked here, and he walked there, fancying himself so very great! Not handsome enough to dance with.,In this chapter，Jane Austen ha

43、s taken advantage of these intensifiers to indicate that Mrs Bennet is shallow, superficial and exaggerating.,Because females often use these intensifiers, these intensifiers have become greatly weakened in the degree of intensity. In a sense, the overuse of the words of absoluteness or extremity ma

44、y cause changes in the meaning of a word at least in the eye of a man.,Wife: You always leave your papers about，dear! Husband: Really? Didnt I put them in place yesterday?,Women may use the intensifiers at the sacrifice of the literal meanings of these words.,For instance, the adjective vast and its

45、 adverb vastly, mean anything and are the fashionable words of the most fashionable people.,A fine woman.is vastly obliged, or vastly great; small ones are vastly little; and a purse could be vastly pretty, because it was vastly little.,Imagine a man and a woman both looking at the same wall, painte

46、d a pinkish shade of purple. The woman may say:,Women prefer to use the following colour words while most men do not:,mauve, beige, aquamarine, lavender, magenta,The wall is mauve.,If the man should say the above sentence, one might well conclude he was imitating a woman sarcastically, or an interio

47、r decorator.,The wall is mauve.,females: so good, such fun, exquisite, lovely, divine, precious, adorable, darling, fantastic. neutral: great, terrific, cool, neat,Women have their own vocabulary for emphasizing certain effects:,The above words, besides their specific and literal meanings, can indic

48、ate the speakers or admiration for something.,females: so good, such fun, exquisite, lovely, divine, precious, adorable, darling, fantastic. neutral: great, terrific, cool, neat,Where a woman has a choice between the neutral words and the womens words, as a man has not, she may be suggesting very di

49、fferent things about her own personality and her view of the subject-matter by her choice of words of the first set or words of the second:,It seems to me that example A might be used under any appropriate conditions by a female speaker. But Example B is more restricted. Probably it is used appropri

50、ately only in case the speaker feels the idea referred to be essentially trivial, or unimportant to the world-only an amusement for the speaker herself.,A. What a terrific idea! B. What a divine idea!,3. Aside from specific lexical items, there are differences between the speech of women and that of

51、 men in the use of particles that grammarians often describe as meaningless.,a. Oh dear, youve put the peanut butter in the refrigerator again.,b. Shit, youve put the peanut butter in the refrigerator again.,It is safe to predict that people would classify the first sentence as part of womens langua

52、ge, the second as mens language.,Choice of particle is a function of how strongly one allows oneself to feel about something, so that the strength of an,emotion conveyed in a sentence corresponds to the strength of the particle.,a. * Oh fudge, my hair is on fire b. * Dear me, did he kidnap the baby

53、?,Language and Age,It has been found that the language used by the old generation differs from that used by younger generation. Some linguistic features occur more frequently in the speech of one generation than that of the other. For instance, an elderly man may use the out of date words such as ic

54、ebox or the wireless.,Language and Age,The causes of such generation differences are complex. In general, old people tend to be more conservative than the younger generation in their speech habits, and feel more at home using older words, accepting fashionable terms less readily into their vocabular

55、y.,Register,Registers are language varieties appropriate for use in particular speech situations, in contrast to language varieties that are associated with the social or regional grouping of their customary users. For that reason, registers are also known as situational dialects.,Register,A formal

56、situation may condition a formal register, characterized by formal, standard lexical items and grammatical rules, and speech patterns. while an informal setting may be reflected in a less formal register that exhibits more casual vocabulary, nonstandard grammatical features.,Register,Formal Plain Co

57、mmence begin Endeavor effort Facilitate help Optimal most favorable,Ethnic dialect,Within a society , speech variation may come about because of different ethnic backgrounds. An ethnic dialect is often spoken mainly by a less privileged population that has experienced some form of social isolation,

58、such as racial discrimination or segregation.,Ethnic dialect,One such dialect, and probably the most widespread and most familiar ethnic variety of the English Language is Black English. Because it is usually spoken by non- middle-class American Blacks. So Black English is stigmatized as “bad English”. It is a purely social attitude that has no linguistic basis.,Ethnic dialect,One prominent syntactic feature is the frequent absence of various forms of the copula “ be” in Black English, which are required of Standard English. Black English Standard English Y