1. Lecture 17 Sociolinguistics and Variation
ENG2003
Lecture 17
Sociolinguistics and Variation

2. 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

3. 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)

4. 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”

5. 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]
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)

6. 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

7. 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

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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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.”

12. 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)

13. 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

14. “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

15. 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 plain 30
alveolar aspirated 14
postalveolar 11 fortis 19
velar 16
glottal 12
Vowel % application socio. status % application
front upper 22
back middle 25
lower 32

16. 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
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).

17. 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)

18. 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.

19. 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