unit 10 The Varieties of English (I)

Review What are some properties of conversational implicature? What are some maxims of politeness? Use an example for each maxim.

Major contents 11.1 Interrelation between language and society 11.2 Regional dialects of English 11.3 Social dialects of English 11.4 Register theory

11.1 Interrelation between language and society Chomsky (cognitive approach, ideal speaker) vs. Saussure (social semiotic approach) Any use of language is socially marked/stamped. Style is the man. [The story of the flowergirl in Pygmalion] As society changes, language will change. Language reflects society, as shown by the lexicon of "snow", "camel".

The social value of a dialect or variety reveals the social status of the speaker. A speaker with a large repertoire is likely to be more successful in his future career. For example, the ability to speak different dialects/mandarin Chinese is often advantageous in job hunting. The speech of a speaker acting as a father/son/husband/teacher/friend is varied.

Approaches to the study of the interrelation Macro-sociolinguistics: a bird's-eye view: how language functions in society and how language reflects the social differentiations. [sociology of language] Micro-sociolinguistics: a worm's-eye view: how language functions in the communication between members of the society. [sociolinguistics]

11.2 Regional dialect Language and dialect Language: writing system; may include several dialects; often politically defined Dialect: [traditionally only variation with space, but now with the space, the temporal factor and social factors] usu. spoken; often part of a language; not distinct enough from other dialects of the same language to be treated as an independent language; often marked by geographical or social barriers; restricted purposes Chinese vs. Cantonese

dialect A regionally or socially distinctive VARIETY of a language, identified by a particular set of WORDS and GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURES. Spoken dialects are usually also associated with a distinctive pronunciation, or ACCENT. Any LANGUAGE with a reasonably large number of speakers will develop dialects, especially if there are geographical barriers separating groups of people from each other, or if there are divisions of social class.

It is usually said that people speak different languages when they do not understand each other. But many of the so-called dialects of Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, Pekingese) are mutually unintelligible in their spoken form. (They do, however, share the same written language, which is the main reason why one talks of them as ‘dialects of Chinese’.) And the opposite situation occurs: Swedes, Norwegians and Danes are generally able to understand each other, but their separate histories, cultures, literatures and political structures warrant their being referred to as different languages. (David Crystal)

Regional dialect often coincides with geographical barriers, like mountains, rivers, etc. [accent] [dialectology] Transition from one dialect to another is gradual rather than abrupt. Two neighboring dialects are often intelligible. P. 192 No. 1

Temporal dialect [temporal distance] Old English; Middle English; Modern English [diachronic/historical linguistics vs. synchronic linguistics] PP. 192-193 No. 2

11.3 Social dialect Social dialect (also social-class dialect, sociolect, class dialect) [social distance] arises from the separation brought about different social conditions. It refers to the linguistic variety characteristic of a particular social class. Language varies according to gender, age, occupation, race, education, social status, etc.

Language and sex PP. 196-198 No. 5

Language and age: level tone; use of words; tempo; ellipsis; etc. Language and race: Black English [African pidgin] drop of inflections, simplified morphology and grammar Language and social class: social status and the use of language Language and occupation: jargon; technical terms [doctor-patient conversation]

Anyone in this class speaks an idiolect? Language and social groups: underground society argot The specialized language and vocabulary of a particular group of people, especially of a criminal or underworld group. Idiolect: language and individuality, e.g Shakespeare's language An idiolect is the speech variety of an individual. Anyone in this class speaks an idiolect? PP. 193-195 No. 3

Taboo and euphemism Taboo (tabu, a Polynesian word) Taboo word: a word that is often avoided because it may cause offence .

Types of taboo words Swear words/curse words: those that invoke damnation,misfortune or degradation of the target person or subject, e.g. damn. Obscene/dirty words: those referring to sexual organs and acts, body elimination process.

Presentation session Euphemisms in English

Euphemism derived from Greek, eu––“good”, phem –––“speak”. “making something sound better”.

Use of euphemisms : A. appearance, age, disease, death. ugly–––plain; homely fat ––––chubby; stout; plumy cripple––––physically handicapped old –––––getting on years; senior; elderly madhouse–––––mental house pregnant ––––– in the family way die ––––– pass away, go to the better world, go out of third world, go aloft

B. Physiological aspect sex organs --private parts have sex with-- make love defecate/urinate–––go to stool; pass water;go to W.C.

C. Political aspects poor–––––needy bankrupt–––––out of the game poor area–––––underprivileged area hair dresser–––––beautician dust man–––––sanitary engineer economic crises–––––recession; depression strike––––––industrial action/dispute

11.4 Register theory (Variation with the use) Halliday: Register: language variety according to the use of language in speech events. a. experience b. each other c. the medium of transmission Components: field of discourse tenor of discourse mode of discourse

Field of discourse Field of discourse: related to what is going on, the purpose and the subject matter of communication; answers the questions of why and about what communication takes place. Technical: linguistic lectures, specialist communication [vocabulary] Non-technical: shopping, chatting

Tenor of discourse: answers the question of to whom the speaker is communicating, determines the level of formality of language use.

Mode of discourse: answers the question of how communication takes place ; spoken or written; spontaneous or non-spontaneous.

Illustration The register of a lecture on biology can be analyzed as: Field: scientific (biological) Tenor: teacher-students/lecturer-audience (formal, polite) Mode: oral (prepared)

Assignments Collect first-hand to show how males differ from females in the use of language. PP. 198-199 No. 198