LINGUISTICS AND SOCIOLINGUISTICS TERRITORIAL ALI H. RADDAOUI, CHOKRI SMAOUI, SALOUA A. MRABET FLSHS - SFAX UNIVERSITY FALL

LECTURE MAP 1.COURSE INTRODUCTION AND FOREWORD 2.SCOPE OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS 1.Examples from TESOL 2.Example from Forensic Linguistics 3.Example from First Language Acquisition 4.Example from advertising 3.SOME PRELIMINARY DEFINITIONS 4.SUMMARY 2

PICTURE TIME ANY AND ALL PICTURES GO HERE. 3

FOREWORD 1 Two major concerns for me this term: Course coverage; simplicity Relevance Common misconceptions: What I know about sociolinguistics is worth nothing; draw on your life experience in tackling sociolinguistic matter; exams Sociolinguistics is about English; No, not at all Sociolinguistics is a complex subject Sociolinguistics=sociology of language 4

FOREWORD 2 Genesis of disciplines: questions of labeling, legitimating, justifying own existence, finding fault with current paradigm. Element of dissatisfaction always present; disciplines have proponents and opponents: line battles drawn and battles waged, and sides taken. 5

FOREWORD 3 Disciplinary task: identify the following in a distinctive manner: Domain Objectives Tools of analysis Philosophical underpinnings 6

SCOPE OF DISCIPLINE 1 Technically not a new topic. Not only for the erudite; nothing esoteric Sociolinguistics analysis: very common: parents, grand parents, literate and illiterate people; we’re all sociolinguists without knowing it. True: President of Singapore: ‘ I hope that my compatriots in Singapore hear me speaking in the UN, they will recognize me as being one of their own’. 7

SCOPE OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS 2 A bit of history: discipline was born some fifty years ago. More of a reaction to excesses of structural/theoretical linguistics; ‘Sociolinguistics presents itself as an empirical discipline in which language is taken to mean ‘the systematic use of language by social actors in social situations’. Bucholtz

OBJECT OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS Study of so-called real language; language in social context; language produced in authentic contexts by authentic speakers. Bucholtz The way we speak reveals characteristics of the speaker’s ethnic origin, social class, level of education, nationality, gender, age, etc… 9

CONCLUSION Value of notion of territory as driver of disputes Sociolinguistics=your own knowledge of the world, social relations, manners and styles of speech + some theoretical backgrounding. Theoretical backgrounding: given and new – Given: all courses you have had in grammar, text analysis, pragmatics, discourse analysis – New: the toolbox of sociolinguistics; familiarity with a number of terms, concepts and practices Sociolinguistics is fun. 10

SCOPE OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS Overlap, confusion: sociolinguistics, sociology of language, and sociology. (More on this in lectures to come) Definition: not straightforward-- shady, part of the human sciences in a looser sense than say geography Sociolinguistics: umbrella for many ‘consolidated’ fields of study: linguistic anthropology, conversation analysis, discourse analysis, CDA, pragmatics. 11

REFERENCES Peter Trudgill and Jenny Cheshire (eds.), The sociolinguistics reader volume I: Multilingualism and variation. London: Arnold, vii pp. c15.99 ; Jenny Cheshire and Peter Trudgill (eds.), The sociolinguistics reader volume 2: Gender and discourse. London: Arnold, vii pp. c17.99 (pb.). Reviewed by Graeme Trousdale, Department of English Language, University of Edinburgh, in Lingua 110(2000)