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Sociolinguistics
Lecture 9
Applied linguistics
BBN-ANG-261
Brózik-Piniel, Katalin
ELTE-DEAL
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Overview
 Definition and scope
 Variationist sociolinguistics
 Interactionalist sociolinguistics
 Key concepts in sociolinguistics research
 Linguistic variation
 Language planning and policy
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Definition and scope (1)
Sociolinguistics
studies the relation between language and
society (Spolsky, 1998, p.3)
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Definition and scope (2)
Sociolinguistics research investigates
 How language is actually used by
speakers?
 How and why language use varies across
time, space, place, topic, etc.?
 How language changes?
 How meaning is signalled and interpreted
in social interaction?
(Llamas, 2013, p. 501)
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Definition and scope
Features of sociolinguistics research:
 Descriptive, field-work based
 Data: naturally occuring speech
 Results: immediate and applied value
Two major strands:
 Variationist sociolinguistics
 Interactional sociolinguistics
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Variationist sociolinguistics (1)
 Labov (1960s)
 Studies structured variation patterns of a
linguistic variable and global social variables
(inter- and intra-speaker)
 Linguistic variable:
A linguistic unit with two or more variants
involved in covariation with other social and/or
linguistic variation (Llamas, 2013)
 Speakers: members of speech communities
(with special social characteristics)
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Variationist sociolinguistics (2)
 Mainly using quantitative methods of
data collection and analysis:



Sampling: stratified
Frequency of usage
Statistical tests – correlations
 linguistic meaning is a reflection of social
meaning
 the meaning of language is emergent in context
as part of the process of social differentiation
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Interactionalist sociolinguistics (1)
 Goffman and Gumprez
 Examine meaning-making processes in
contextualised language use and ways in which
speakers signal and interpret meaning in social
interaction. (e.g., miscommunication) (Llamas,
2013, p. 502)
 Sample areas of investigation:
 Linguistic ethnography in education
 Linguistic ethnography in the worklplace and
community
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Interactionalist sociolinguistics (2)
 Mainly using ethnographic methods:



Sampling: local and particular, small-scale
Various unstructured methods of data
collection
Analysis: detailed description and
interpretation
 DA
and CA techniques including non-verbal data
 Pragmatics
 Ethnography of SPEAKING (Hymes)
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S
• Setting, scene
P
• Participants
E
• Ends (goals, purposes, outcomes)
A
• Act sequence (message form and content)
K
• Key (tone, manner)
I
• Instrumentalities (verbal and non-verbal
channels)
N
• Norms of interaction and interpretation
G
• Genre
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Key concepts in sociolinguistics
research (1)
 Types of language variety

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
Idiolect - sociolect
Standard variety – non-standard varieties
Regional varieties
Register
 Characteristics of a variety


Dialect – accent
Prestige – stigmatization
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Key concepts in sociolinguistics research
(2)
Dimensions of investigating language variation
and change
 Gender
 Age
 Culture
 Identity (incl. ethnic identity)
 Audience
 Phonological variation
 Lexical variation
 Discoursal variation
 Linguistic variation (language variation)
 Diachronic - Synchronic
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Key concepts in
sociolinguistics research (3)
Types of change:
 Levelling - Diffusion
 Language can affect society by
influencing the worldview of its speakers.
(Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, e.g., Hopi)
 Social change can produce linguistic
change. (T/V distinction)
 Values of society have an effect on
language. (taboo)
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Linguistic variation (1)
Language choice
 The bilingual person can change identity as easily as
the changing of a hat.
 Language choice: way of negotiating social relations
with an interlocutor. (cf. Symbolic competence)
Language contact
 Language conflict: pressure from one language on
speakers of other languages to adopt it.
 Language shift: occurs when small or weak
languages come into contact with large powerful
languages
 Reversing language shift: Basque, Catalan; Irish in
Ireland
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Linguistic variation (2)
Pidgin:
 A contact language (not an L1)
 Simple grammatical system, vocabulary and
has considerable phonological variation
(e.g., Pidging English in West Africa)
Creole:
 a pidgin that has become an L1
(e.g., French-based Haitian Creole in Haiti).
Creolization involves expansion of morphology
and syntax, regularization of phonology.
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Language planning and policy
 "Language planning includes the
formation and implementation of a policy
designed to prescribe or influence the
language(s) and varieties of language
that will be used and the purposes for
which they will be used" (Wiley, 1996,
pp. 108–109).
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Language planning and policy (2)
Components
1. corpus planning: includes creation or
modification of the spoken or written
language code (e.g. spelling reform);
2. status planning: the decisions of
authorities concerning the status of
various languages; (e.g. decisions on the
languages to be used in schools, courts);
3. language acquisition planning: is
concerned with the teaching and
learning of languages.
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Language planning and policy (3)
Orientations:
1. language as a problem: language planners
are concerned with the identification of
language problems (e.g. social problems that
arise because of a minority's linguistic
problems);
2. language as resource: the aim of language
planning is to raise the status of minority
languages and resolve conflicts between the
majority and minority communities;
3. language as right: language use is related
to social rights; therefore, language planning
also needs to address social issues. (Ruíz, 1982)
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Language planning and policy (5)
 Linguistic minorities who do not speak the
majority language should have the right to
teaching/learning; translation services;
 The right not to be discriminated against
on the basis of the language or variety
spoken;
 The right to preserve and maintain the
minority’s own favored language or variety
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_KKLkmIrDk
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Language planning and policy (4)
Goals:
 language related goals: language shift
policy, language maintenance policy,
language enrichment policy;
 political goals: promoting national
unification;
 economic goals: promoting international
trade, increasing productivity, etc.
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World Englishes
and
English as a Lingua Franca
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Overview
 The ownership of English
 World Englishes
 English as a Lingua Franca
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The ownership of English
 1986: E. spoken by at least 750 million people and





barely half of those speak it as a mother tongue.
1996: ‘at least 4 NNSs of E for every NS’ (Kachru,
1996, p.241)
80% of verbal exchanges in E do not involve NSs
English is the official language of international air and
sea travel
English is the lingua franca in EU headquarters in
Brussels.
Internet, CNN, MTV, pop music, pop culture, student
mobility in the EU, etc.
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Three circles of English (Kachru, 1992)
Inner circle,
US, AU
Outer circle:
India, Nigeria
Expanding
circle: Europe,
China
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World Englishes (1)
 Variation and change regards the
English language in particular are natural
and inevitable (Kirkpatrick, 2007)
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
Linguistic variation among the variaties
Change: preservers and deleters
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World Englishes (2)
Shared linguistic features
 Phonological features
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Avoidance of dental fricatives
Reduction of final consonant clusters
 Grammatical features
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Absence of tense marking (e.g., narration)
Regularization of the count/non-count noun
distinction
 Discourse features
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Topic fronting
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Examples
1a. More widespread in New Englishes, BUT in place of /θ/,
many speakers in London use [f], while those in Ireland and also
New York may use [t] ;
1b. In Singapore English, first, world, ask and think may all be
pronounced with the final consonant omitted;
1b. In RP /t/ or /d/ at the end of the first word is omitted,
including next day, raced back, last chance, first light, old man;
2a. ’In the beginning there was darkness, and we hear this
scraping sound, and you see this little coloured pattern, the
coloured pattern gets bigger and bigger.’
3. ’Those people, I telephoned yesterday only.’
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A mixture of global and local in one variety of
World English
an extract from a blog written by a student in Brunei (Hiro 2009)
Well. … will be busy working, doing
assignments and (the hell) presentation. Gila~sometimes they think we are super people ka?
So much to do … we have a life too you
know!! Lol. X3 Ja. [To the people who read this
blog and think I’m crazy now … yes I am.The
stress levels are building up. XD.] And to
everyone who gave me full support when I was
down.Thanks so much.U now who u all are!
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Stages in development of new
Englishes
1. Foundation: English arrives in the area
2. Exonormative stabilization: standards by
the colonial variety
3. Nativization: new local variety of
bilinguals/multilinguals
4. Endonormative stabilization: new variety
becomes socially accepted (debated!)
5. Differentiation: the new varieties develop
sub-varieties
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(Schneider, 2007)
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English as a Lingua Franca (1)
 lingua franca: ”a language that is used
for communication between different
groups of people, each speaking a
different language” (Richards et al.,
1985, p.214)
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English as a Lingua Franca (2)
ELF
 Has no native speakers;
 Is a contact language for NNS-NNS;
 It is a function, not a variety, of an existing
language.
ELF research
 Study of successful intercultural communication

Mainly based on corpus data:
Seidlehofer – VOICE, Mauranem - ELFA
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English as a Lingua Franca (3)
 English used mainly in multilingual contexts
as a second language and for
communication between NNSs.
 ELF is a distinct manifestation of English
not tied to its native speakers
 in ELF communication, linguistic forms are
negotiated by each set of interlocutors for
their own, communicative ends
 speakers focus on intelligibility rather than
correctness
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ELF Phonology
 ELF users speak English with some trace of
their L1 accent
 Which features are/not essential for
intelligible pronunciation in ELF contexts?
 Jenkins (2000): Lingua Franca Core
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Consonant inventory except θ,ð,ł must be
kept
contrast between short and long vowels must
be preserved
no omission of sounds in word initial
consonant clusters
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ELF Lexicogrammar
Seidlhofer, VOICE (ELF users)
 Omitting 3rd person present tense –s
 Confusing relative pronouns who/which
 Omitting/inserting definite/indefinite articles
 Inserting redundant prepositions (study about)
 Failing to use correct form of Q-tags (no?)
 Overdoing explicitness (black color)
 Overusing verbs of high semantic generality
(do, have, put, make)
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ELF - Final thoughts
Communication problems
 unilateral idiomacity,
 metaphorical language use,
Role of ELF: facilitate cross-cultural communication
Change in ELF: with the help of new technologies
Challenges:
 ELF and teaching
 ELF and testing
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKAeFi1IT54
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“the lingua franca Englishes of the expanding
circle are learnt and used in communication
contexts where NSs are not the target
interlocutors, and therefore where they do not
have the right to regard themselves as the
reference point against which correctness is
judged.” (Jenkins, 2006, p. 139)
“NSs may feel the language belongs to them,
but it will be those who speak English as a
second/foreign language who will determine
its world future.” (Graddol, 1997)
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Review
 What is an idiolect?
 What contributes to the prestige of a
variety?
 How can language planning and policy
be linked to sociological issues?
 What characterizes the use of ELF?
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