Lecture 17 Sociolinguistics and Variation ENG2003 Lecture 17 Sociolinguistics and Variation

Sociolinguistics - the study of the relationship between language and society dialectology – the study of the dialects and how language varies across space variation – the study of any aspect of language that varies with respect to any (social) variable dialect – mutually intelligible form of a language (based on geography, social class, race, etc.) dialect continuum (방언 연속체) – a continuum of dialects, geographically distanced members of which are not necessarily mutually intelligible dialect levelling – the coalescence of distinct dialects into a single uniform speech form accent – (not often used in academic discourse) the phonological properties of a regional dialect

Regional Dialects Dialect based on a geographical area. Dialects based on: phonological properties 애/에 merger 으/어 merger (경상) loss of tone/pitch accent lexical differences grammatical differences loss of honorifics in Jeju (ex)

Regional Dialects Dialect based on a geographical area. (American English) Dialects based on: phonological properties pin/pen merger cot/caught merger lexical differences grammatical differences 2nd person plural pronoun double modals “I might could do that”

Phonological Differences English pin/pen merger – merger of the vowels [ɪ] and [ɛ] before nasal consonants cot/caught merger – merger of [ɑ] and [ɔ] “Mary – merry – marry” merger loss of [h] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUQpoyfbWJ0 hypercorrection – ex: addition of /h/ in vowel-initial words r-less varieties of English - once had positive prestige (Katharine Hepburn), now has negative prestige (Good Will Hunting) Korean 애/에 merger Cantonese n/l merger (in onset position) (VERY common merger cross-linguistically)

Lexical Differences A catalogue of different words used for various items sneakers/runners/running shoes pop/soft drink/soda/soda pop/coke/etc. These can often correlate to regional dialects

Dialect Atlas isogloss – a line dividing a particular linguistic feature on a map Ojibwe (Algonquian, closely related to Cree) ‘bark’ (of a dog): “migi” in some places, “migine” in others

Dialect Atlas isogloss bundle – a bundle of several isoglosses of different linguistic features An isogloss bundle indicates a major dialect boundary.

Syntactic Differences Minor dialectal differences tend to be phonological, morphological or lexical. Syntactic differences are less commonly studied. North American English British English I could have done it. I could have done it. *I could have done I could have done I could have *I could have Appalachian English – double modals I might could do that. You might should leave now. a-progressives He came a-runnin’ (= He came running) – hold-over from Old English

Social Dialects Speech forms can vary based on socio-economic status, race, caste, gender, sexual orientation, etc. also. When such a particular speech form forms a recognizable dialect, it is referred to as a social dialect. prestige dialect – the dialect which is perceived by speakers as dominant or superior – usually correlated with higher socioeconomic status, higher caste, or dialect of large, important cities African American Vernacular English (AAVE) Historically exhibited a great deal of negative prestige. Origin is still under dispute, but though to have evolved from older varieties of English and various African languages. Phonological properties: r-deletion: ‘caught’ and ‘court’ have same phonetic form consonant cluster reduction: passed /pæst/  [pæs] pin/pen merger

Social Dialects African American Vernacular English (AAVE) Syntactic Properties: Negative Concord (common in Old-Middle English and in Romance) I didn’t see no one. I don’t want no spinach. No Copula He nice (=He is nice). Habitual be John be happy (=John is usually happy) That train be late (=That train is usually late) Negative existentials Ain’t no one gonna do that (=There isn’t anyone who is going to do that) Ain’t no hard worker never get no good payin’ job. “There aren’t any hard workers who never get a good paying job.”

Social Dialects Genderlect (social dialect based on gender) Interplay of language and gender started with early observations on women’s speech in the 1970’s. Common myth: women talk more than men (many proverbs to this effect) Research shows that men typically dominate conversations in mixed gender environments. Early studies concentrated on lexical differences: That’s a lovely picture! ‘lovely’ more commonly used by women that by men Many languages encode gender distinctions – different particles used by men and women (Thai politeness marker: khrap – men; kha – women)

Variation Studies variable – linguistic property under analysis categorical property – property that does not vary variable property – property that varies linguistic factor – a linguistic factor which affects the variable position in word position in sentence phonological properties of nearby segments tense, etc. social factor – a non-linguistic factor which affects the variable age, gender, socioeconomic status, race, sexual orientation, education etc. “Fourth Floor” Experiment – early variationist study of language use variable: r-deletion social factors: socioeconomic class of shop, gender, rough age, casual versus careful speech, word

“Fourth Floor” Experiment – early variationist study of language use Variation Studies “Fourth Floor” Experiment – early variationist study of language use variable: r-deletion social factors: socioeconomic class of shop, word, casual versus careful speech (1st utterance vs. 2nd utterance) fourth

Variation Studies /w/-deletion in Korean (ex: 주권 /ʧukwʌn/ [ʧuk*ʌn] ‘sovereignty’ ; 봐 /pwa/ [pa] ‘look!’) linguistic factors: place of preceding C (labial, alveolar, postalveolar, velar, glottal) manner of preceding C (plain, aspirated, fortis) following vowel (front, back) social factors: socioeconomic status age (16-25, 26-45, 46+) C place % application C manner % application labial 81 plain 30 alveolar 23 aspirated 14 postalveolar 11 fortis 19 velar 16 glottal 12 Vowel % application socio. status % application front 22 upper 22 back 31 middle 25 lower 32

Variation Studies /w/-deletion in Korean (ex: 주권 /ʧukwʌn/ [ʧuk*ʌn] ‘sovereignty’ ; 봐 /pwa/ [pa] ‘look!’) social factors: age (16-25, 26-45, 46+) age % application 16-25 30 26-45 27 46+ 21 All three linguistic factors are statistically significant. Many languages have constraints against co-occuring labial segments. Socioeconomic status and age are both statistically significant. Gender was also tested but was found not to be statistically significant. Thus, variable /w/-deletion is partially a social phenomenon (as well as a linguistic phenomenon).

Contact Languages lingua franca – a common language used among people of diverse linguistic backgrounds (English in many tourist sites; French in many places in Africa, Mandarin in southern China, etc.) pidgin – makeshift speech variety in the absence of a lingua franca creole – language formed by children raised in the environment of a pidgin Pidgins are highly variable and ephemeral – used only as needed Pidgins (and creoles) arise in situations where people with no common language are forced into a common living environment  invasions from outsiders  slavery superstrate language – language of dominant group substrate language – language of non-dominant group Hawaiian Pidgin English – superstrate (English), substrate (Japanese, Tagalog, Cantonese, Korean, Portuguese, and Hawaiian)

Contact Languages Superstrate language  lexifier language, tends to supply the pidgin with the lexical items Grammar of the pidgin tends to be based on the substrate languages (Many English words associated with prestige come from French due to the Norman Invasion – language of government and education was French) UG – children growing up in the environment of a pidgin impose a rule-governed grammar on their environment The highly variable and ephemeral aspects of pidgins disappear, and the children fill in grammatical gaps with UG defaults. Creolization – the formation of a creole from a pidgin Increased use of function words and grammatical contrasts.

Contact Languages South Pacific Creoles  /-im/ causative suffix bik ‘big’ bikim ‘make big’ nogut ‘no good’ nogutim ‘spoil, damage’ Tok Pisin – official language in Papua New Guinea superstrate: English (mostly) substrate: Kuanua and others (Austronesian) Singular Dual Trial Plural 1st exclusive mi mitupela mitripela mipela 1st inclusive yumitupela yumitripela yumipela or yumi 2nd yu yutupela yutripela yupela 3rd em tupela tripela ol