CHAPTER 3 Language & Social Variation

“Burridge (2004) quotation / ‘using the proper language of the time’ / the ‘slang’ of the time. – Not everyone in a single geographical area speaks in the same way in every situation. – Also education and economic status affect speech in different ways. – The differences can be used as indication of membership in different social groups and speech communities.

Speech community: – A group of people who share a set of norms and expectations regarding the use of language.

Sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics: – The study of the relationship between language and society. – Developed through the interaction of linguistics with a number of academic fields. – It has connections with anthropology, sociology, and social psychology.

Social dialects: – Mainly concerned with speakers in towns and cities. – Social class mainly used to define groups of speakers that have sth in common. – Two groups: “middle class” “working class” “upper” & “lower” used to subdivide based on economic basis.

Certain features of language are used in the analysis of social dialects: – Pronunciation – Words – Structure – E.g. “home” [heim] [aint] lower-working-class speakers [hom] middle-class speakers

Social variable: ‘class’ Linguistic variable: ‘pronunciation’ & ‘words’ In studies of social dialect we count how often speakers in each class use each version of the linguistic variable.

Education & Occupation Idiolect: – A personal dialect. – We generally tend to sound like others with whom we share similar educational backgrounds and/or occupation.

Education 1/ Education: – people who spent less time in education tend to use certain patterns that are not frequent in the speech of more educated ppl. – Derived from a lot of time spent with the written language./ “talks like a book” – E.g. “them boys throwed somethin’” “it wasn’t us what done it”

Occupation 2/ Occupation & Socio-economic status: – Sociolinguist William Labov study New York department stores (3) “Where are the women’s shoes?”- “on the fourth floor” Focused on the linguistic variable: the /r/ sound Results: there was a regular pattern: the higher the socio-economic status the more /r/ sounds were produced, and vice versa. British study reverse results

Social Markers Social marker: – When a certain linguistic feature (variable) occurs frequently in your speech it marks you as a member of a particular social group. Clip E.g. – /r/ – /ing/ ‘sittin’ – /h/ dropping- ‘_ad’ – Charles Dickens's example (see book)

Speech Style & Style Shifting Speech style: – As a social feature of language use./ Labov. – Most basic distinction: Formal / “careful” style / more attention to ‘how’ we speak Informal / “casual” style / less attention Style shifting: – A change from one style to another. – E.g. 1/ Labov “Excuse me”/ to elicit a more “careful” style by repetition The frequency of /r/ increased in all groups with paying more attention to speech - but more in the middle-class speakers (macys) 2/ asking someone to read a text out loud/ more careful pron

Prestige Overt prestige: – When ppl change their speech in the direction of the form that is more frequent in the speech of ppl having a higher social status. Covert prestige: – Some groups do not show style-shifting as other groups – E.g. ‘lower-working-class’ speakers – They value the features that mark them as members of their social group./ avoid changing/ value group solidarity. – Esp. younger speakers “I aint doin nottin”

Speech Accommodation Speech accommodation: – Variation in speech style is not only influenced by social class and attention to speech but also by the speech style of the listener. – Our ability to modify our speech style toward or away from the perceived style of the person we’re talking to. Convergence: – Adopting a speech style to reduce social distance. – E.g. teenage boy talking to friend’s mother Divergence: – When a speech style is used to emphasize social distance. – E.g. Scottish teenager talking to his teacher.

Register & Jargon Register: – A conventional way of using language that is appropriate in a specific context. – E.g. Situational/ Religious register “Ye shall be blessed” Occupational/ Legal register “take the witness stand” Topical/ Linguistic register “morphology is the linguistic study of…” Jargon: – special technical vocabulary associated with a specific area of work or interest/ used by those inside established social groups/ often defined by professional status. – ‘insiders’ vs. ‘outsiders’ – Clip – E.g. In medical register “arthritis” Other e.g. (technical, religious, academic, culinary…)

Slang Slang: – Words or phrases that are used instead of more everyday terms among younger speakers and other groups with special interest. (not related to profession or occupation)/ “colloquial” speech – Typically used among those outside higher status groups. – E.g. Bucks (dollars or money) Mega- ‘a lot of’ (megabucks) Benjamins ($ 100) – Slang is an aspect of social life that is subject to fashion. Esp. adolescents/ to distinguish themselves from others/ share same ideas & attitudes/ a marker of group identity during a limited stage of life Slang expressions ‘grow old’ rather quickly/ (groove, hip, super) Old, became (awesome, rad, wicked) New – Thus, the age factor is another important factor involved in social variation of language use.

Taboo terms: – Words and phrases that people avoid for reasons related to religion, politeness, and prohibited behavior. – Often called ‘Swear’ words / ‘bleeped’ in broadcasting, or ‘starred’ in written context. – More commonly found among ‘lower-status’ group. – Differences in male & female usage

African American English African American English (AAE) : – Social variety according to historical origin of the speaker. – Black English/ Ebonics – A major variety used by many African Americans in USA./ carries many characteristic features that form together a distinct set of social markers. – Social barriers: Discrimination/ segregation, create differences between social dialects (just like geographical barriers) – In AAE, the differences have been called ‘bad’ language by the dominate groups who described them as being ‘abnormal’ – The social dialect of AAE speakers has ‘covert prestige’ especially among younger speakers/ e.g. ‘music’/ rap…etc.

Vernacular Language African American Vernacular English (AAVE): – The form of AAE that has been most studied. Vernacular: – A term known from the ‘middle ages’ to describe any non- standard spoken version of a language used by lower status groups. – Is a general expression for a kind of social dialect typically spoken by a lower-status group / treated as “non- standard”. – E.g. “Chicano English” and “Asian American English” – AAVE shares a number of features with other non-standard varieties./ e.g. in pronunciation (sounds) & grammar.

The sounds of a vernacular: – A wide-spread phonological feature in AAVE (and other vernaculars) is the tendency to reduce final consonant clusters. ‘left’ & ‘hand’ = ‘lef’ & ‘han’ “I pass the tess” – Initial consonants pronounced differently ‘Think’ & ‘that’ = ‘tink’ & ‘dat’ – Possessive ‘s not used ‘John’s friend’ = ‘john friend’ – Third person singular –s not used ‘She loves her sister’ = ‘she love …’ – Plural –s usually not used ‘Two Guys’ = ‘two guy’

The grammar of a vernacular: – Criticized as ‘illogical’ or ‘sloppy’ 1/ Double negative construction/ ‘illogical’: “He don’t know nothin.” “I ain’t afraid of no ghosts.” However they are standard forms in other languages, such as, French. Thus, it is not ‘illogical’/ It allows greater emphasis on the negative aspect of the msg 2/ Frequent absence of “verb to be”/ ‘sloppy’: “you crazy” “she workin now” However, this feature exists in other languages, such as, Arabic & Russian / v to be not required. Thus, it is not ‘sloppy’ 3/ Using ‘be’ & ‘bin’ instead of ‘is’ & ‘was’ to express habitual action: “She be workin downtown now” (habitual action in the present) “ She bin workin there” (habitual action that happened in the past) They are consistent features in the grammar of AAVE