Chapter 9 Language and Society.ppt

Chapter 9 Language and Society English Linguistics: An Introduction Chapter 9 Language and Society 0. Warm-up Questions 1. Sociolinguistics 2. Language Variation 3. Sociolinguistic Study of Society 4. Application of Sociolinguistics 0. Warm-up Questions 1. Sociolinguistics 1. Sociolinguistics 1. Sociolinguistics 2. Language Variation 2. Language Variation 2. Language Variation 2. Language Variation 2. Language Variation 3. Sociolinguistic Study of Society 4. Application of Sociolinguistics 4. Application of Sociolinguistics 4. Application of Sociolinguistics * * How are society and language related to each other? How do different social factors, like age and gender, affect language use? How do people talk differently in different situations? What are the other varieties of language besides regional dialects? Can you imagine two standard languages used in one nation? 1.1 Definition (p160) Sociolinguistics is the sub-field 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. Metaphorically, language is regarded as a mirror of society, through which we can understand social activities of a certain society better. Functionally, society provides language with a suitable context of use, in which we can enjoy aspects of language vividly and truthfully. 1.2 Two Fundamental Concepts Speech community: a group of people who form a community (e.g. a village, a region, a nation) and share the same language or a particular variety of a language. Speech variety (language variety): any distinguishable form of speech used by a speaker (e.g. idiolect) or a group of speakers (dialect, sociolect). 1.3 Two approaches/perspectives (p160) Micro-sociolinguistics (sociolinguistic study of language): the study of potential social factors for a description and explanation of some linguistic variations, e.g. regional dialects, social d