Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010  Who is this guy?  Other questions/comments…  Video clips from Do You Speak American – more info here: 

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Sociolinguistics  Like Pragmatics, it’s the study of the use of language  The study of language in its social contexts  Speech community - group of people who share some set of social conventions (socioling norms) regarding language use - EXAMPLES?  Accent - pronunciation  Dialect - includes pronunciation (phonological/phonetic), but also includes grammatical, lexical and usage - MFL exampleMFL example  Some examples of homophones for some -- hock/hawk, caller/collar, cot/caught, calm/com, Don/Dawn  Variety - used as a more neutral term for dialect or language Socioling Slide 1

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Sociolinguistics Linguistic variation and change  Social Factors:  REGION - what are the major dialects/accents spoken in America? REGION  Sex/Gender  Social class  Age  Ethnicity  Style Socioling Slide 3

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Sociolinguistics  Dialects in North America are mutually intelligible - the differences do not impede communication totally  Dialect vs. Language???  Dialect continuum – go village by village, from northwestern France to southern Italy and each adjacent village can understand each other, although Parisians cannot understand Romans. Socioling Slide 2

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Sociolinguistics What are the different regional accents in your opinion? Socioling Slide 5 Video about perceptual dialectology

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Sociolinguistics Linguistic variation and change Socioling Slide 6

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Sociolinguistics Linguistic variation and change Socioling Slide 7

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Sociolinguistics Linguistic variation and change  Regional varieties described in terms of lexical choices done through Linguistic Atlas creation  Dialectologists looked at NORMs = old men in the sticks! (non-mobile old rural men)  Asked what is the word you use for...  Plotted variation on a map and drew lines – isoglosses (see image  )  Now sociolinguists look at urban populations and exam different regions in terms of what is happening in the cities Socioling Slide 8

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Sociolinguistics Linguistic variation and change – cot vs. caught isogloss Socioling Slide 9 From Labov et. al.’s Phonological Atlas of North American English Available at PSU library! PE2808.D PE2808.D

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Prescriptive attitudes about language variation and change… The Oregonian Regarding Jeff Conn's opinions about whether or not Portlanders are developing their own unique dialect - Piffle! I've lived in Portland - and other western locations - and here's my take: Intelligently spoken "western speech" that is free of recently introduced speech influences from other regions (i.e. southern, Bostonian, ethnic, etc.) is the purest and most accent free English in the whole world. If you doubt me, go to England and converse with normal, everyday folks. Most have terrible pronunciation. Many of them are borderline unintelligible. London east-ender "Cockney" is totally indecipherable! Then go north to Scotland. Delightful people, but what they speak sounds nothing like what the dictionary pronunciation guide says it should sound like. Same thing in Ireland, and Australia. Lovely people. Terrible speech habits. But back to the U.S. There are too many people moving from other regions into our western stronghold to justify calling any bad speech habits as being anything but temporary. By far the biggest influence on Pacific Northwest speech is the same as with other western regions - and probably other parts of the country; namely, teenagers develop their own subnormal vocabulary and way of speaking. Although much more extreme than with previous generations, subnormal has always been associated with teenagers. The big difference now is that when young people eventually mature, they don't drop their language in favor of adult speech. Our adult language has become the prisoner of "teenspeak," and that is an utter abomination. True, languages evolve; but adults copying the speech of rebellious anti-social youth is not the hallmark of a great society. And this decline of the American language will probably continue indefinitely; when was the last time you heard a teenager say "It's time for me to speak good, correct English?" Like, man, it'll never happen. "'S'up?" "He goes," "She goes." Our language is dying, but it had a pretty good run. Luckily for me, most of my life has been during the good part.

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Sociolinguistics Linguistic variation and change  Regional difference is post-vocalic r (car, card, guard, etc)post-vocalic r  William Labov - NYC - listen to a New YorkerNYClisten to a New Yorker  Attitudes about varieties (based on gender, ethnicity, region and social class stereotypes!) Socioling Slide 10 Coffee shop with a sign: “We’re sorry - no blended drinks today. The blender is broke.” This sign was in Portland area – where would you expect to see it (based on stereotypes – not your opinion if they’re real)

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Sociolinguistics Linguistic variation and change  Style and ling change interacts with social class   William Labov’s department store study Socioling Slide 10b

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Sociolinguistics Linguistic variation and change  There are many different varieties - what is correct? Standard English is just one of many different varietieswhat is correct  Linguistics try to describe these varieties and all the varieties are equal in linguistics terms  What would happen if I said that Standard English meant that you have to distinguish between cot~caught, tot~taught, hock~hawk, Don~dawn, collar~caller? How would that make you feel?  Are other dialects mutually intelligible – here some sounds here from the Northern Cities area: Northern Cities Shift (not #5)Northern Cities Shift Socioling Slide 11

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Sociolinguistics Linguistic variation and change  Regional difference by vowel production shifts (language change) over time  Northern Cities Shift (play Chicago sample - 3mins) Northern Cities Shift Chicago sample Socioling Slide 13*

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Sociolinguistics Linguistic variation and change  The Southern Shift (Play Arkansas 2mins; play Eng 3mins;Arkansas 2minsEng 3mins Socioling Slide 14*

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Sociolinguistics Linguistic variation and change  The California/Canada Shift (Play Cali - 1:45; Ontario 2:15)CaliOntario 2:15 Socioling Slide 15

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Sociolinguistics Linguistic variation and change  Ethnicity - Chicano English, African American Vernacular English, Native American English; etc.Chicano EnglishAfrican American Vernacular English  AAVE - shares features with other English dialects  Tables and on p. 517 shows AAVE features  Phonological features part of other varieties  Habitual be, copula deletion - more elaborate than standard English  The coffee cold today. The coffee be cold here. Socioling Slide 16

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Sociolinguistics Linguistic variation and change  Ethnicity - African American Vernacular English,African American Vernacular English Socioling Slide 16b

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Sociolinguistics Linguistic variation and change  Ethnicity - African American Vernacular English, see Jeopardy gameAfrican American Vernacular Englishsee Jeopardy game Socioling Slide 16c

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Sociolinguistics  Gender variable - different degree of usage for men and women  Do men and women speak differently?  What are the assumptions here... Socioling Slide 17

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Sociolinguistics  Some say... women use more hedges in their speech - EXAMPLES?  TRUE OR FALSE?  Grammatical gender - not directly related to real men and women, but most langs with gram gender do use the masc forms as generic (ellos vs. ellas)  The switch from he as “neutral” pronoun to they Socioling Slide 18

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Sociolinguistics  Sex differences of linguistic behavior: Discourse  Hedges  Interruption - men have been found to interrupt women more than vice-versa (even when woman is a doctor and power is involved)  In a review article looking at 63 studies investigating the amount of talk by sex (studies from ) - only 2 of these studies found women to talk more overall, but there are differences with respect to topic and formality of situation See here for more detailsSee here for more details Socioling Slide 19

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 Sociolinguistics Robin Lakoff, 1975, “women’s language”  Tag questions  Rising intonation for declarative statements  “Empty” adjectives (divine, lovely)  Specialized women’s vocabulary (color terms)  Frequent use of emphasis (“speaking in italics” - What a beautiful hat)  Intensive so (You are so fired)  Politeness devices and hypercorrect grammar (women use more standard language; more indirect requests)  Hedges (well, like, sort of)  Women don’t tell jokes Socioling Slide 20

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 “Do You Speak American” – information Watch clips of video in class – the website here: My article on Portland speech is here:

Ch 14 – Sociolinguistics – May 20, 2010 For next time: Whatever Dr. Hellermann tells you to do Also, he will review what is important information from this lecture for exam purposes – but hey, it’s all really cool anyway so you’ll probably remember!