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chapter8及答案 Chapter 8 Sociolinguistics I. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False: 1. Sociolinguistics is the sub-discipline of linguistics that studies social contexts. 2. Language as a means of social communication is a homogeneous system with a homogeneous group of speakers. 3. Language use varies from one speech community to another, from one regional group to another, from one social group to another, and even from one individual to another. 4. The goal of sociolinguistics is to explore the nature of language variation and language use among a variety of speech communities and in different social situations. 5. The linguistic markers that characterize individual social groups may serve as social markers of group membership. 6. From the sociolinguistic perspective, the term “speech variety ” can not be used to refer to standard language, vernacular language, dialect or pidgin. 7. Functional speech varieties are known as regional dialects. 8. The most distinguishable linguistic feature of a regional dialect is its grammar and uses of vocabulary. 9. Geographical barriers are the only source of regional variation of language. 10. A person’s social backgrounds do not exert a shaping influence on his choice of linguistic features. 11. Two speakers of the same language or dialect use their language or dialect in the same way. 12. Every speaker of a language is, in a stricter sense, a speaker of a distinct idiolect. 13. The standard language is a better language than nonstandard languages. 14. A lingua franca can only be used within a particular country for communication among groups of people with different linguistic backgrounds. 15. Pidgins are linguistically inferior to standard languages. 16. A pidgin usually reflects the influence of the higher, or dominant, language in its lexicon and that of the lower language in their phonology and occasionally syntax. 17. The major difference between a pidgin and a creole is that the f