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Đề cương môn English studies- Trường Đại học bách khoa - Đại học đà nẵng.

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•      Englishisthusbeingderacialisedamongtheyoungmiddle-classuniversitystudentsofthisstudy,insofarastheprestigevarietycannotbeunequivocallyassociatedwithonegroupalone.InthisprocessBlackfemalesareintheleadovermales,whopresumablyareundergreaterpressuretoretainsomeaspectsoftraditionalBlacknorms.

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Danh sách Quiz
/18
Sociolinguistic
Applied
English
studies
Test
notes
Table
of
Contents
Sociolinguistic Applied English studies Test notes ............................................................................................................. 1
Week 1->Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 2
Lecture 1............................................................................................................................................................................ 2
Linguistic End ..................................................................................................................................................................... 2
Socio-End ........................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Lecture 2 ............................................................................................................................................................................ 5
Week 2 .............................................................................................................................................................................. 8
Lecture 3 ............................................................................................................................................................................ 8
Lecture 4 .......................................................................................................................................................................... 11
Week 3 ............................................................................................................................................................................ 12
Lecture 5 .......................................................................................................................................................................... 12
Lecture 6 .......................................................................................................................................................................... 13
Week 4 ............................................................................................................................................................................ 17
Lecture 7 .......................................................................................................................................................................... 17
1
Week
1->Introduction
De
昀椀
ne
sociolinguistics
Lecture
1
•
Sociolinguistics is concerned with the social realities of languages spoken/signed, lived, and embodied.
•
It is through shifting and diverse social contexts that patterns of variation, and changes in ways of speaking,
re
昀
氀
ect more than speakers’ cognitive states, and rather provide means of expressing dynamic social
presences.
•
Thus,
the
sociolinguistic
enterprise
involves
“a
deep
re
昀
氀
ection
on
the
relationship
between
linguistic
facts
and sociohistorical, economic, cultural and political events” (Alfonzetti, 2015: 242).
•
Scienti
昀椀
c
study
of
the
link
between
language
and
society
Identify the types of sociolinguistics
•
The types are a continuum ranging from more “-linguistic” (i.e. micro) to more “socio-” (i.e. macro)
•
Micro and Macro sociolinguistics
Describe the above-mentioned types of Sociolinguistics
•
Micro-sociolinguistics-
studies
the
language
through
the
social
dimension.
It
compares
the
di
昀昀
erent
dialects
and phonology systems, while placing emphasis on the stylistic/ register variation
•
Macro-sociolinguistic- studies societies linguistic dimensions. It looks at the behaviours of entire speech
communities as it seeks to answers questions such as why immigrant groups their native languages and at
other times replace it completely within their second language.
Linguistic
End
Explain the goal of Variationist linguistics
•
Goal: discover why language/speech varies and changes
What does Variationist linguistics focus on?
•
It Focus on language structure such as phonetic, morpho-syntactic, lexical
What method does the Variationist linguistics employ?
•
Usually employs quantitative research methods
Discuss the constraints of the Variationist linguistics
•
Constraints are probabilistic, not categorical
•
Thus, they’re likelihoods, not absolutes
•
Can be done without considering “big picture” issues like power, but accent discrimination and stereotypes
(for example) are considered
Aiming to explain patterns of language use and social meaning
•
Example:
why
and
how
people
“drop
their
Gs”
in
the
–ing
su
昀
케
x
(e.g.,
runnin’)
Linguistic explanations (factors)
•
Less often with “learned” words, and more with frequently-used words
•
Less often in formal, structured speech, and more often in informal, casual speech
Social explanations (factors)
•
More often by boys than girls
2
•
Less often by “school-orientated” kids (see Fischer’s study)
•
More often by working class speakers, or speakers from certain regions
•
Can index a cool, relaxed, persona
Socio-
End
How and why do societies choose which language or dialect to use?
•
O
昀
케
cial
languages
•
Schooling
•
Media
•
Attitudes toward language varieties and speakers
•
Language and power
What method of research does Socio-end encompass
•
employs qualitative research methods (interviews, not counting things)
•
Can be done without considering “little picture” issues like language structure
(Take
note
of
the
di
昀昀
erence
between
the
Linguistic
end
and
Socio-
end)
Identify the Sub areas of the study
-Communities
•
Social
groups,
regional,
or
ethnic
di
昀昀
erences
-Social categories
•
Class, gender, sexuality, age, ethnicity/race, socioeconomic background
-Social relationships
•
Group styles, interactions
-Relationships between language groups
•
Multilingualism, language contact
-Language in society
•
Language planning, education
Critically explain the foundations of sociolinguistics with reference to respective authors
-John L. Fischer (g-droppin’) (1958)
•
Established that variation in speech is not random, but socially structured
-William Labov (the “-linguistics” side)
•
The “godfather” of modern sociolinguistics
•
Studies in Martha’s Vineyard (1963), New York City (1966)
•
Variationist sociolinguistics
-Joshua Fishman (the “socio-” side)
•
Studies
of
language
planning,
status,
endangered
languages
(1960s
昀昀
.)
•
Sociology of language (1968)
Why sociolinguistics developed in the 1960s and 1970s
•
Technology: better recording equipment, computers for analysis
3
•
Interest in social issues -Educational and social inequality. More university students (and profs) from
previously under-represented groups
•
“Modernist”
view
of
society-
“Science
can
昀椀
x
things!”
Describe the term positionality
•
Positionality is the social and political context that creates your identity in terms of race, class, gender,
sexuality,
and
ability
status.
Positionality
also
describes
how
your
identity
in
昀
氀
uences,
and
potentially
biases,
your understanding of and outlook on the world.
4
Lecture
2
Part I: Sociolinguistic Variation and Social Meanings
A broad general idea
•
How
we
experience
the
world
(as
part
of
social
groups)
a
昀昀
ects
how
we
use
language
•
To be rigorous in studying that relationship, we need to say what we mean by “language” and “social group”
Discuss the issues of language in use
•
A methodological issue: recording/documenting actual language (empirical methods)
•
But also, a theoretical issue: what “counts” as language?
Explain what is meant by the armchair (introspective) linguist
•
“‘Armchair linguistics’ does not have a good name in [some] linguistics circles.
•
A caricature of the armchair linguist is something like this.
•
He sits in a deep soft comfortable armchair, with his eyes closed and his hands clasped behind his head.
•
Once in a while he opens his eyes, sits up abruptly shouting, "Wow, what a neat fact!", grabs his pencil, and
writes something down.
•
Then he paces around for a few hours in the excitement of having come still closer to knowing what
language is really like” (Fillmore, 1991: 35).
Discuss the Sociolinguistic perspective
•
Uses the Empiricist approach
•
Empiricist: using methods based on what is experienced or seen
•
Observing and/or recording actual language in use: Interviews, focus groups, participant observations, online
interactions (e.g. on social media)
•
Linguistic landscapes
•
Experiments
how
do
we
de
昀椀
ne
“language”?
•
For many people, “language” often means the standard language
•
Language of school, formal writing
•
Often seen (by non-linguists) as more “correct”
•
Associated with a prescriptive approach (vs. descriptive approach)
De
昀椀
ne
the
prescriptive
approach
•
refers to a perspective that focuses on providing explicit rules and guidelines for "correct" language usage. It
o
昀昀
ers recommendations and standards for how a language should be spoken or written, often based on
grammatical rules, conventions, and established usage norms.
•
How people “should” talk (compared to how people actually talk)
•
Non-standard or dialects are often seen as deviating from the standard
Are linguist prescriptive or descriptive
•
Linguist is descriptive
•
Refers to How people actually talk, not how they “should”
•
There’s no “good” or “bad” language
•
Or “ugly”, or “lazy”, or “broken” …
•
A necessary attitude for sociolinguistic research
5
•
Other disciplines don’t talk about “good” or “bad” planets, minerals, birds, etc.
Explain the concepts of social evaluation
•
Di
昀昀
erent
language
varieties
or
features
are
evaluated
as
“good”
or
“bad”
by
members
of
the
society
•
…and that’s something that we study
•
Di
昀昀
erent
varieties/features
are
considered
appropriate
in
di
昀昀
erent
social
contexts
•
…which is also something that we study
•
Note:
actually,
re
昀
氀
ecting
people’s
perceptions
and
attitudes
towards
the
SPEAKERS
of
a
variety,
and
not
the
variety per se…
De
昀椀
ne
the
meaning
of
a
social
group.
•
Language gets its meaning and power through speakers’ participation in language-using groups
Give the sociolinguistic approaches to de
昀椀
ning social groups, methodologically
•
Speech community
•
Social network
•
Community of practice
(Note: within our social groups, we still have our social identities: members do not necessarily share the
same social identities)
De
昀椀
ne
the
speech
community
approach
•
“A group of people who share social conventions, or sociolinguistic norms, about language use”
•
Variously
de
昀椀
ned
based
on
subjective
or
objective
criteria.
Discuss the Objective criteria of speech community approach
•
Objective criteria- group speakers if the distribution of a linguistic variable was consistent with respect to
other factors (e.g., speech style); also, from an objectively de
昀椀
ned area etc.
•
Objective criteria:
•
Speakers from New York City often do not pronounce post-vocalic /r/, e.g. “ca:”
•
People who live in New York
Discuss the Subjective criteria of speech community approach
•
Subjective criteria would group speakers as a speech community if they shared a sense of and belief in co-
membership
•
Subjective criteria:
•
People who feel they are ‘New Yorkers’
•
Participants self-identifying as having a Xhosa heritage or background
(Check the reading Labov, William. (1966) 2006. The Social Strati
昀椀
cation of English in New York City. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. For a
deeper understanding)
How did Labov (2008) Describe sociolinguistic variable
•
Labov (2008): “It begins with the simple act of noticing a variation – that there are two alternative ways of
saying the same thing”
De
昀椀
ne
Sociolinguistic
variable
•
a linguistic feature (usually phonetic), which correlates with independent linguistic variables (position in the
word, word stress, etc.) and non-linguistic independent variables of social context (usually social variables
like age, gender, race, etc.)
De
昀椀
ne
the
term
variants
of
a
variable
6
•
The “alternative ways of saying the same thing” are the variants of a variable
•
Variants of post-vocalic /r/ variable: full-r and r-less (i.e. categorical)
New York /r/ (or rhotic) as variable
•
He’s talking about the omission of the rhotic consonant in post-vocalic contexts.
•
The
General
American
rhotic
phoneme
is
a
bunched
or
retro
昀
氀
ex
/ɻ/
(in
all
contexts).
New
Yorkers
are
known
for omitting the rhotic when it occurs after a vowel, but generally, General American is a rhotic variety (i.e.
the rhotic is always pronounced post-vocalically).
•
In South Africa, as well as other places, like Britain, we generally have a non-rhotic accent, similar to New
Yorkers, where we don’t pronounce post-vocalic /r/. However, our rhotic phoneme is mostly an alveolar
approximant /ɹ/ in word-initial contexts (some South African varieties can have alveolar trills or taps – also,
the American rhotic is also creeping into our speech!).
De
昀椀
ne
the
term
Social
Networks
•
A term from social anthropology (methodological implications…)
•
We all build social networks (personal communities) to deal with life
•
Our
social
networks
in
昀
氀
uence
how
we
use
language
•
In particular, how we participate in language change
Name and explain the Social network types
•
Dense- Everybody knows everybody else. Interacts with them often
•
Multiplex- Everybody interacts with everybody else in multiple ways (same person is your friend, neighbour,
and co-worker)
Discuss the Network type and change
•
Dense and multiplex networks resist change
•
Keep old linguistic forms
•
Keep immigrant languages
•
Looser networks (or less-imbedded members) introduce new forms – more socially mobile
How
did
Lave
and
Wenger
de
昀椀
ne
the
term
Community
of
practice
•
They
de
昀椀
ned
it
as
“A
group
with
mutual
engagement
in
a
jointly
negotiated
enterprise,
involving
(or
leading
to) a shared repertoire” (Lave and Wenger)
•
A term from research on social learning
•
Smaller groups, local practices: interaction is crucial
•
More room here for speaker agency
•
The idea that people make conscious choices about shared practices and repertoires
Di
昀昀
erentiate
between
the
di
昀昀
erent
“Nested”
communities
•
Speech community: your town
•
Social network: your street, school, workplace
•
Community of practice: your sports club, study group
But these are not absolute
•
A neighbourhood can be a speech community
•
A small workplace can be a community of practice
7
Week
2
De
昀椀
ne
the
term
Language
variety
Lecture
3
•
Language
variety
is
a
generic
term
for
various
forms
of
a
language
associated
with
speci
昀椀
c
extra-linguistic
factors (i.e. regionally, socially, or contextually recognisable)
•
“variety” avoids the use of the term “language”, which many people associate only with the standard
language, and the term dialect, which is often associated with non-standard varieties
De
昀椀
ne
the
term
Dialect
•
Dialect is usually, a regional subset of a language
•
sometimes used to mean language variety
•
NB! “Standard English” is also a dialect/variety, but involves power and language ideologies about prestige,
status, and correctness
De
昀椀
ne
the
term
Slang
•
Slang- lexicon (words) that are new or have new meanings – often signals in-group membership
•
To quote one of you: “My high school social group exposes me to slang terminology popular in my
hometown that people from other places might not understand.”
De
昀椀
ne
the
term
Jargon:
•
Jargon is specialised vocabulary/terminology of a professional or occupational group, which is often
meaningless to outsiders
•
As stated by one of you: “My university friend group does the same but since we share a lot of subjects we
tend to integrate jargon from these subjects into our everyday conversations.”
De
昀椀
ne
the
term
Lingo:
•
Lingo,
is
the
wording
or
phrasing
that
is
speci
昀椀
c
to
a
certain
group,
including
jargon
or
slang
•
As one of you wrote: “A certain lingo develops within certain social groups, especially when looking at the
Coloured social group.”
De
昀椀
ne
the
term
Register:
•
Register- variety of language used in a particular social setting or speech situation, often involving jargon,
and ranges in style (e.g. formal vs. casual) –associated with speci
昀椀
c occupations (e.g. legalese, sport
commentary, etc.) or pastimes or professions (e.g. musicians)
•
Quoting one of you: “The social groups that I belong to a
昀昀
ect my language as they require that I use certain
registers.”
(Register, genre, and style relate to each other
For
example,
academic
register
(such
as
the
lecture
genre)
o
昀琀
en
involves
formal
style)
De
昀椀
ne
the
term
Accent:
•
Accent- mainly pronunciation features (phonetics/phonology)
•
As one of you said: “The way I speak largely depends on who I’m with and where I am; as my accent changes,
so does the way I conduct myself.”
What is style?
8
•
To
sociolinguists,
linguistic
style
is
di
昀昀
erences
or
variation
in
the
language
use
of
the
speaker
(intra-speaker
variation)
•
[Compared
to
inter-speaker
variation:
di
昀昀
erences
between
speakers]
•
How do people change the way they talk, from one situation to the next?
•
Various
contextual
factors
in
昀
氀
uence
those
changes
What is meant by style as formality
•
We use formal style when aiming for the variant with overt prestige
•
We use informal style in more relaxed situations
•
Linguistic style is thus akin to registers
What is meant by Style as attention to speech
•
Premise: the more attention you pay to your speech, the more formal your language
•
An
idea
developed
in
Labe’s
early
work,
which
was
concerned
with
getting
samples
of
speech
at
di
昀昀
erent
levels of formality…
•
…especially the least formal
•
Measured through paralinguistic channel cues
•
For example, laughter, tempo
Discuss the Problems with attention model
•
Hard to separate casual (informal) style and careful (formal) style
•
People can consciously perform nonstandard, informal speech
•
Also,
the
sociolinguistic
interview
is
a
speci
昀椀
c
speech
event,
which
might
come
with
its
own
register
Discuss the Audience design model
•
Bell (1984)
•
We shift our style to accommodate to our audience
•
Based on accommodation theory
•
We can converge (sound more like interlocutors) or diverge (sound less like them)
Discuss the style axioms
•
Labov (1984)
•
“There are no single style speakers.”
•
“Styles can be ranged along a single dimension, measured by the amount of attention paid to speech.”
•
“The vernacular, in which the minimum attention is paid to speech, provides the most systematic data for
linguistic analysis.”
•
“Any
systematic
observation
of
a
speaker
de
昀椀
nes
a
formal
context
where
more
than
the
minimum
attention
is paid to speech.” (aka Observer’s Paradox)
•
"Face-to-face interviews are the only means of obtaining the volume and quality of recorded speech that is
needed for quantitative analysis.”
Social styles and social meanings
What does Eckert mean with styles, rather than variables
•
Styles are directly associated with identity categories, and variables contribute to styles
How does linguistic variables create social meaning?
•
Through the use of indexicality: the variable indexes (or points to) certain social factors, but does not
constitute them
Explain the Speaker design model
9
•
You shift your language to match how you’re trying to present yourself
•
It’s about you, not only about the listener
•
Conscious
creation
and
presentation
of
speaker
identity:
contextually
situated,
昀
氀
uid,
emerging
in
interaction
Discuss Traditional sociolinguistic method (Labovian)
•
Interview, reading passage, word list (aiming to move between levels of “attention paid to speech”)
•
Only gets at a few styles
•
Focus on correlating sociolinguistic variables to macro-social factors
Discuss the More ethnographic work (like Eckert’s research)
•
Long term
•
Following the same speakers
•
Multiple speech situations or contexts
•
More qualitative
•
Focus on social meanings of sociolinguistic variables
10
Lecture
4
Discuss social meaning of place
•
Regional
di
昀昀
erences
are
something
everybody
acknowledges
and
recognises
•
There
are
di
昀昀
erences
even
at
the
level
of
formal
language
•
For example, British vs. American English vs. Canadian English, etc.
Why does social meaning of place exist?
•
Di
昀昀
erent
places
are
established
by
people
from
di
昀昀
erent
origins,
backgrounds,
etc.
and
who
speak
di
昀昀
erent
varieties
•
Barriers to interaction let each variety develop in its own way (or avoid changes that happen elsewhere)
•
Barriers can be physical, linguistic, or social
•
Also,
di
昀昀
erent
varieties
are
in
contact
with
di
昀昀
erent
other
languages
or
varieties
(for
example,
South
African
English)
When do particular dialects become important/noticed?
•
When
speakers
in
a
region
need
or
want
to
mark
themselves
o
昀昀
as
•
Distinct from speakers of neighbouring dialects/varieties
•
Distinct from in-migrants or newcomers
•
Fear of losing identity (e.g., globalisation – increases awareness of local variety features)
SAE and “place” features
•
Cape English (CE) – 1820, Eastern Cape
•
Natal English (NE) – 1840s to 50s, Durban areas
•
Witwatersrand Gold Rush – 1886, establishment of Johannesburg: third phase in development of SAE
•
Input varieties: CE, NE, other English accents (British as well as colonial), as well as L2 varieties (English
spoken by L1-Afrikaans and L1-Yiddish speakers) 20
th
century General SAE (mostly spoken by White
speakers)
Identi
昀椀
ed
what
happed
during
the
20
th
century
(Social
continuum)
-Cultivated (Conservative)
•
Upper middle classes
•
Older South Africans
•
Sounds more like British English
•
General (Respectable)
-Local standard
•
Middle classes
•
Younger South Africans
-Broad (Extreme)
•
Lower middle and working classes
•
The “broader”, the more it sounds like Afrikaans English
11
Week
3
Lecture
5
Discuss the Regional variation in varieties of SAE
•
Mesthrie (2012, 2014): the older forms of Black, Indian, Coloured, and White SAE interact with each other on
a regional basis:
•
Variables (t) (and (d) which show the salience of region over ethnicity for the Coloured and Indian
communities (Mesthrie, 2012)
•
Realisations of the bath vowel (or /ɑ:/): variation in two cities (Durban and Gqeberha; see Mesthrie,
Chevalier, and Dunne, 2015).
Side note on bracket conventions:
•
When we’re talking about actual speech sounds (phones), we use square brackets, e.g. [t]
•
When we are talking about the underlying sound (phoneme), we use slash brackets, e.g. /t/
•
In variationist sociolinguistics, when we are talking about a sociolinguistic variable, we use round brackets,
e.g. (t) – note that the variants of the variable are also in square brackets
Explanation of the Variable (t): region over ethnicity for the Coloured and Indian communities (Mesthrie, 2012)
•
Mesthrie
(2012):
Regional
di
昀昀
erences
were
the
most
salient.
•
Coloured and Indian participants alike show the greatest fronting of /t/ in Cape Town, followed by Port
Elizabeth; they show less fronting in Johannesburg and Kimberley, respectively, and the least (almost nil) in
Durban.
•
Overall,
the
two
communities
show
a
small
(but
signi
昀椀
cant)
measure
of
ethnic
di
昀昀
erentiation.
•
Ethnicity
is
in
fact
the
weakest
of
the
signi
昀椀
cant
social
variables
accounting
for
the
variance
in
(t).
Explanation
of
the
bath
vowel
/ɑ:/:
variation
in
昀椀
ve
cities
(Mesthrie,
Chevalier,
and
Dunne,
2015)
•
South
African
English
dialectology:
昀椀
ve
cities
(Cape
Town,
Gqeberha,
Kimberley,
Johannesburg,
and
Durban);
four ethnicities (Black, Coloured, Indian, and White).
•
Linguistic variable: BATH vowel (or /ɑ:/).
•
BATH
is
thus
a
good
diagnostic
vowel
in
characterising
sociolinguistic
and
regional
di
昀昀
erences.
•
Some
di
昀昀
erentiation
occurs
amongst
Whites,
in
terms
of
gender
mainly.
•
In terms of regional distribution, it is notable that in KBY White speakers show considerably greater backing
and raising than in the other cities.
Regional variation in varieties of SAE
•
Wileman
(2011)
found
di
昀昀
erences
for
vowel
variables
(PRICE
and
KIT
vowels)
between
speakers
from
Cape
Town and Durban respectively.
Regionalization in SAE
•
Bekker and Van Rooy (2015: 296) argue that South African English is “undergoing a process of nascent
regionalization, i.e., that speakers in the di
昀昀
erent English‐speaking urban centers of South Africa (Cape
Town, Gqeberha, Kimberley, Durban, and Johannesburg) are developing their own manner of speaking and
indexing regional provenance.”
•
Du Plessis, Bekker, and Hickey (2020) found evidence of “a not inconsiderable degree of regionality.
Previously…overlooked or underplayed…” (2020:98).
•
Newer regional changes are mostly innovated by younger speakers…
12
Lecture
6
What is “age”?
•
Age = a measurement of time
•
Aging = movement through time
Why would sociolinguistic studies of linguistic variation be interested in age?
•
Linguistic variation is often a precursor for linguistic change
(changes in ways of speaking, not language shift, which is when speakers change their dominant language)
Discuss the Change and variation
•
We don’t all talk the same
•
We don’t all change our language overnight
•
Maybe we all use both old and new forms together for a while
•
Maybe some of us use old forms, some use new
•
So,
change
over
time
is
re
昀
氀
ected
in
variation
at
any
single
time
point…
•
…but not all variation is part of a change!
•
Some variation is stable, sticks around for centuries…
Which variation is stable?
•
A stable (sociolinguistic) variable is a variable which is not undergoing linguistic change. Such a variable
exhibits the regular age pattern. A stable variable, thus, re
昀
氀
ects change in the speech of the individual
speaker as (s)he progresses through life.
•
Which
of
these
variables
do
you
think
re
昀
氀
ect
current
change
in
progress?
Which
is
stable?
For example:
•
G-dropping (-in vs. ing): jumpin’ vs. jumping
•
Quotatives: I’m like, “Wow!” vs. I said, “Wow!” vs. I went, “Wow!”
•
Intensi
昀椀
ers:
That’s
so
stupid
vs.
That’s
very
stupid.
Solution
•
G-droppin’: stable
•
Quotatives: change
•
Intensi
昀椀
ers:
change
•
But how do we know this? By including age as a social variable
Discuss the Social meaning of variation and age
•
Our ways of speaking do not remain stable across our lifespan
•
Eckert (2017: 152): “progress through the life course involves changes in family status, gender relations,
employment status, social networks, place of residence, community participation, institutional participation,
engagement in the marketplace – all of which have implications for patterns of variation.”
•
Younger speakers are innovators of new linguistic forms, older speakers be conservers of older forms
Discuss Age as a social variable in sociolinguistics
•
In prior sociolinguistic research, speaker age has been considered the principal correlate of language change,
but it “has not yet been explicitly studied as a [social] variable” (Eckert 1997: 167)
•
Age as a social variable has traditionally been taken as a given
13
Discuss
Age
strati
昀椀
cation
as
social
construct:
•
Age groups or cohorts are demarcated by sociolinguistics usually based on lifespan milestones (e.g. children,
pre-adolescent, adolescent, post-adolescent, adult – for adults, young adults, mid-life, older, elderly, etc.)
State the two cohorts
•
However,
cohorts
can
be
de
昀椀
ned
etically
or
emically
De
昀椀
ne
the
two
approaches
•
Etic approach: group speakers in arbitrarily determined but equal life spans, such as decades
•
Emic approach: group speakers according to some shared experience of time (life stage, social history,
political eras, etc.)
What
does
it
mean
if
people
of
di
昀昀
erent
ages
speak
di
昀昀
erently?
Name
the
Two
sociolinguistic
theories…
•
Age-grading
•
Apparent-time (vs. real-time)
Discuss the One theory: age-grading
•
There are stable “older people” and “younger people” ways of talking
•
When today’s young people get older, they tend to adopt “older people” ways
•
Age-grading occurs when individuals change their linguistic behaviour throughout their lifetimes, but the
community’s linguistic behaviour as a whole does not change (i.e. variation remains stable)
•
There are stable “older people” and “younger people” ways of talking
•
When today’s young people get older, they tend to adopt “older people” ways
•
These
changes
across
the
lifespan
could
be
due
to
teenager’s
a
昀
케
nity
for
novelty/rebellion
(wanting
to
sound
di
昀昀
erent/using local forms), but then entering the workforce and change ways of speaking (become more
norm conforming), to leaving the workforce to retire
•
Another example: age-grading among adolescents: the use of lol declines systematically according to age,
with the youngest people using it the most frequently.
•
Use of the more conservative form ha-ha increases according to age. Older adolescents become aware that
lol is used by a younger group and consciously reduce their use of the form.
Discuss the Alternatively, the apparent-time hypothesis
•
Age-graded variation stands in contrast to the apparent-time hypothesis: hypothesis assumes that
individuals’ speech does not really change once they are past adolescence
•
Apparent-time
hypothesis:
age-strati
昀椀
ed
variation
is
often
indicative
of
a
linguistic
change-in-
progress
•
Thus, if there are patterns of linguistic variation between the speech of individuals 75 years old, 50 years old,
and 25 years old in a survey of a population, this may indicate linguistic changes that have occurred over the
past 50 years
•
Comparing generations lets us see change as it happens (i.e. generational change)
•
This challenges earlier linguists’ assumptions that we could only study linguistic change after the fact
De
昀椀
ne
apparent
time
studies
•
Apparent-time
study:
record
speech
samples
from
di
昀昀
erent
individuals
from
di
昀昀
erent
age
cohorts
at
one
point in time
Sate
the
di
昀昀
erence
between
age
grading
and
apparent
time
studies
•
Age-grading occurs when individuals change their linguistic behaviour throughout their lifetimes, but the
community as a whole does not change
14
•
Apparent-time change occurs when the community as a whole change (change-in-progress)
Explanation of Watching change in progress
•
Studying the mechanics of change (using apparent-time data) lets us understand principles underlying
language change more generally
•
“Using the present to explain the past” (also known as the uniformitarian principle)
•
Assumes that even if a speaker’s social factors change across the lifespan, they will still use some accent
features they had in their 20s when they are in their 60s
•
Thus, comparing accent features of Person A (aged 65) to Person B (aged 25) can give us an indication of
linguistic change in the community
•
However, can only be con
昀椀
rmed with real-time evidence (i.e. having a recording of the same cohort of
speakers when they were in their 20s and when they’re in their 60s – called “panel studies”)
Name
the
two
concepts
that
fall
under
real
time
studies
and
de
昀椀
ne
them
•
Panel study: record speech samples from the same individuals at successive points in time
•
Trend
study:
record
speech
samples
from
di
昀昀
erent
(but
socially
similar)
individuals
at
successive
points
in
time
Discuss the Some principles of change (proposed by Labov)
•
Principle
I:
In
stable
sociolinguistic
strati
昀椀
cation,
men
use
a
higher
frequency
of
non-standard
or
stigmatised
forms than women.
•
For example, G-droppin’
•
Principle Ia: In change from above, women favour the incoming prestige forms more than men.
•
Principle II: In change from below, women are most often the innovators, i.e. lead in the adoption of new
ways of speaking.
•
“Above/below” = above/below the level of consciousness and from higher/lower social classes
Why do women lead change from above and below?
•
Maybe women’s changes are more likely to be adopted, because they do more child rearing
•
Maybe women notice/adopt change faster, then men retreat from “women’s forms”
•
Crucially:
“all
men”
or
“all
women”
is
too
general
a
classi
昀椀
cation,
and
we
need
to
look
at
昀椀
ner
details
Why might women use more standard language?
•
Perhaps other ways of accessing power are not available to them
•
Perhaps there are no advantages to sounding local or non-standard
•
Do “standard” and “female” and “educated” overlap, (socio)linguistically?
•
To
some
extent
–
often
shared
indexical
features
(see
Eckert’s
indexical
昀椀
eld
of
ideologically
linked
social
meanings)
Gender paradox (Labov, 2001)
•
Labov (2001: 293) calls this the gender paradox: “women conform more closely than men to sociolinguistic
norms that are overtly prescribed, but conform less than men when they are not”. The complexity of gender
again
o
昀昀
ers
explanation.
•
Meyerho
昀昀
&
Ehrlich
(2019:
458):
“An
essentialized
and
internally
undi
昀昀
erentiated
view
of
gender
(women
versus men) was an important stepping-stone toward understanding how various social categories
structurally align in the ontology of language change (gender, social class, and formality all lining up in
consistent and socially meaningful ways). This, in turn, provided a solid foundation on which performative
analyses of gender could derive further meaning.”
15
Things to keep in mind
Categories interact!
•
Gender
and
ethnicity
may
both
a
昀昀
ect
language
•
But what gender “means” can vary by ethnicity and vice versa
•
Referred to as intersectionality
Categories are complex!
•
We say “women lead change,” but we might mean a particular subset of women
•
We
divide
people
into
categories,
but
real
people
might
昀椀
t
in
between
(or
somewhere
else
entirely!)
People are complex!
•
We all belong to many categories at the same time
•
Sometimes, one category or group membership matters; sometimes, it’s something else
•
We “read” a situation and its participants and decide which aspects of our identity are relevant
16
Week
4
Lecture
7
Explanation of the SAE Chain-Shift (old shift)
•
Bekker (2009: 96): “Like New Zealand English and Australian English, SAE has, accordingly to Lass (1990:
273), been the subject of a “chain-shift of the short front vowels”.
•
This has led to both the raised DRESS and TRAP vowels [i.e. TRAP vowel is were DRESS is, and DRESS is raised
to KIT], as well as to the centralisation of KIT in certain contexts.
•
As summarised by Mesthrie (1993:30), the front vowels in SAE “are raised in comparison with [British
Received Pronunciation, RP] vowels (with the highest vowel being centralised)”. In order to illustrate this
chain-shift, Mesthrie (1993:30) provides a diagram in which ‘the two sets of re
昀
氀
exes are geometrically
related … (with SAE in caps, RP in lower case)’.”
Explanation of the SAE Reverse Vowel Shift (RVS; a new shift)
•
Younger South Africans seem to be “reversing” the older SAE chain-shift, i.e. the front vowels that
underwent raising, are now lowering.
•
Chevalier (2020: 171): “The RVS shares features with the South East English Chain Shift, though it mirrors the
shift that has been described for California (and Canada) in particular. Given the dominance of Hollywood in
English-language broadcasting
•
in South Africa, it seems very likely that virtual contact with American, particularly Californian, English could
be responsible for the extreme TRAP lowering that instigates the vowel chain shift I attest for [SAE] in Cape
Town.”
What is “race”?
•
Race is a social construct used to group people. Race was constructed as a hierarchal human-grouping
system,
generating
racial
classi
昀椀
cations
to
identify,
distinguish
and
marginalize
some
groups
across
nations,
regions and the world. Race divides human populations into groups often based on physical appearance,
social factors and cultural backgrounds.
•
Race is a political and social construct that is
昀
氀
uid. Racial categorization can change over time, place, and
context. Race has been used historically to establish a social hierarchy, whereby individuals are treated
di
昀昀
erently resulting in racism.
•
Genomic
scientists
are
currently
investigating
the
relationship
between
self-identi
昀椀
ed
race
and
genetic
ancestry. There is more genetic variation within self-identi
昀椀
ed racial groups than between them.
What is “ethnicity”?
•
Blakemore
(2019):
“The
term
ethnicities
is
more
broadly
de
昀椀
ned
as
“large
groups
of
people
classed
according to common racial, national, tribal, religious, linguistic, or cultural origin or background.
•
“Race” is usually associated with biology and linked with physical characteristics such as skin colour or hair
texture.
“Ethnicity”
is
linked
with
cultural
expression
and
identi
昀椀
cation.
However,
both
are
social
constructs
used to categorize and characterize seemingly distinct populations.”
•
Race and ethnicity don’t show up at the genetic level, but the concept of race still forms the human
experience.
Why would sociolinguistic studies be interested in race and ethnicity?
•
So
far,
we’ve
looked
at
di
昀昀
erent
styles
of
speaking,
and
linguistic
variation
in
terms
of
place/region,
age,
and
gender (all social constructs)
17
•
“Race” and ethnicity are also social factors (i.e. constructs) that correlate to patterns of linguistic variation
and change, and of course intersect with other social factors
Discuss the Regimentations of racial and linguistic categories
•
“Language has been highly politicised in South Africa, and language acquisition is a product of the system of
segregation that has always characterised South Africa since the start of colonisation” (Coetzee-Van Rooy &
Van Rooy, 2005: 4).
•
“There is little doubt that segregation in housing and schooling has tended to polarise South African English
into ethnolects” (Mesthrie & McCormick, 1992: 34).
De
昀椀
ne
the
following
term
Deracialisation,
•
Deracialisation: the “standard” or “prestige” variety of English in the country is no longer associated with
one racialized group alone.
De
昀椀
ne
the
following
term
cross
over
varieties
•
Cross-over varieties: a range of new varieties among younger people that eschew the main features of
traditional BSAE and approximate to varying extents the use of the main features of what used to be thought
of as White South African English (henceforth WSAE).
De
昀椀
ne
the
following
term
substrate
erasure
•
Substrate
erasure:
the
avoidance
of
all
(or
nearly
all)
markers
of
African
language
in
昀
氀
uence
in
crossover
varieties and, by implication, avoidance of traditional forms of L2 BSAE.
What does it mean when we talk about “deracialisation” in sociolinguistic research?
What is deracialisation in the context of South African English? Deracialisation towards what?
•
Findings by Mesthrie (2017; inter alia): young, black middle-class women are leading the change to speaking
the ‘crossover variety’.
•
Mesthrie (2017: 339): perception test, where participants only hear voices, and have to identify the
perceived “race” of speakers – results found that “38.8% of responses took the female subjects to be White,
versus 4.6% taking the male subjects to be White” (also see Mesthrie, Chevalier, & McLachlan 2015).
Mesthrie, Chevalier & McLachlan (2015): Conclusions, implications and caveats
•
“The perception test robustly con
昀椀
rms the two hypotheses of this paper, that (a) respondents are in many
instances
unable
to
di
昀昀
erentiate
between
educated,
young,
middle-class,
Black
and
White
speakers
by
voice
alone,
and
(b)
they
are,
however,
able
to
di
昀昀
erentiate
ethnic
background
more
easily
for
male
speakers
than
females.
•
English is thus being deracialised among the young middle-class university students of this study, insofar as
the prestige variety cannot be unequivocally associated with one group alone. In this process Black females
are in the lead over males, who presumably are under greater pressure to retain some aspects of traditional
Black norms.
•
We pro
昀昀
er the caveat that not all females with a model-C or private school education are overwhelmingly
judged as crossover speakers. Further qualitative research on the relations between students’ backgrounds,
attitudes and accent features is to be welcomed.”
18

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Sociolinguistic Applied English studies Test notes Table of Contents
Sociolinguistic Applied English studies Test notes ............................................................................................................. 1
Week 1->Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 2
Lecture 1............................................................................................................................................................................ 2
Linguistic End ..................................................................................................................................................................... 2
Socio-End ........................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Lecture 2 ............................................................................................................................................................................ 5
Week 2 .............................................................................................................................................................................. 8
Lecture 3 ............................................................................................................................................................................ 8
Lecture 4 .......................................................................................................................................................................... 11
Week 3 ............................................................................................................................................................................ 12
Lecture 5 .......................................................................................................................................................................... 12
Lecture 6 .......................................................................................................................................................................... 13
Week 4 ............................................................................................................................................................................ 17
Lecture 7 .......................................................................................................................................................................... 17 1
Week 1->Introduction Lecture 1
De昀椀ne sociolinguistics
• Sociolinguistics is concerned with the social realities of languages spoken/signed, lived, and embodied.
• It is through shifting and diverse social contexts that patterns of variation, and changes in ways of speaking,
re昀氀ect more than speakers’ cognitive states, and rather provide means of expressing dynamic social presences.
• Thus, the sociolinguistic enterprise involves “a deep re昀氀ection on the relationship between linguistic facts
and sociohistorical, economic, cultural and political events” (Alfonzetti, 2015: 242).
• Scienti昀椀c study of the link between language and society
Identify the types of sociolinguistics
• The types are a continuum ranging from more “-linguistic” (i.e. micro) to more “socio-” (i.e. macro)
• Micro and Macro sociolinguistics
Describe the above-mentioned types of Sociolinguistics
• Micro-sociolinguistics-studies the language through the social dimension. It compares the di昀昀erent dialects
and phonology systems, while placing emphasis on the stylistic/ register variation
• Macro-sociolinguistic- studies societies linguistic dimensions. It looks at the behaviours of entire speech
communities as it seeks to answers questions such as why immigrant groups their native languages and at
other times replace it completely within their second language. Linguistic End
Explain the goal of Variationist linguistics
• Goal: discover why language/speech varies and changes
What does Variationist linguistics focus on?
• It Focus on language structure such as phonetic, morpho-syntactic, lexical
What method does the Variationist linguistics employ?
• Usually employs quantitative research methods
Discuss the constraints of the Variationist linguistics
• Constraints are probabilistic, not categorical
• Thus, they’re likelihoods, not absolutes
• Can be done without considering “big picture” issues like power, but accent discrimination and stereotypes (for example) are considered
Aiming to explain patterns of language use and social meaning
• Example: why and how people “drop their Gs” in the –ing su昀케x (e.g., runnin’)
Linguistic explanations (factors)
• Less often with “learned” words, and more with frequently-used words
• Less often in formal, structured speech, and more often in informal, casual speech
Social explanations (factors)
• More often by boys than girls 2
• Less often by “school-orientated” kids (see Fischer’s study)
• More often by working class speakers, or speakers from certain regions
• Can index a cool, relaxed, persona Socio-End
How and why do societies choose which language or dialect to use? • O昀케cial languages • Schooling • Media
• Attitudes toward language varieties and speakers • Language and power
What method of research does Socio-end encompass
• employs qualitative research methods (interviews, not counting things)
• Can be done without considering “little picture” issues like language structure
(Take note of the di昀昀erence between the Linguistic end and Socio- end)
Identify the Sub areas of the study -Communities
• Social groups, regional, or ethnic di昀昀erences
-Social categories
• Class, gender, sexuality, age, ethnicity/race, socioeconomic background
-Social relationships
• Group styles, interactions
-Relationships between language groups
• Multilingualism, language contact
-Language in society
• Language planning, education
Critically explain the foundations of sociolinguistics with reference to respective authors
-John L. Fischer (g-droppin’) (1958)
• Established that variation in speech is not random, but socially structured
-William Labov (the “-linguistics” side)
• The “godfather” of modern sociolinguistics
• Studies in Martha’s Vineyard (1963), New York City (1966)
• Variationist sociolinguistics
-Joshua Fishman (the “socio-” side)
• Studies of language planning, status, endangered languages (1960s 昀昀.)
• Sociology of language (1968)
Why sociolinguistics developed in the 1960s and 1970s
• Technology: better recording equipment, computers for analysis 3
• Interest in social issues -Educational and social inequality. More university students (and profs) from
previously under-represented groups
• “Modernist” view of society- “Science can 昀椀x things!”
Describe the term positionality
• Positionality is the social and political context that creates your identity in terms of race, class, gender,
sexuality, and ability status. Positionality also describes how your identity in昀氀uences, and potentially biases,
your understanding of and outlook on the world. 4 Lecture 2
Part I: Sociolinguistic Variation and Social Meanings
A broad general idea
• How we experience the world (as part of social groups) a昀昀ects how we use language
• To be rigorous in studying that relationship, we need to say what we mean by “language” and “social group”
Discuss the issues of language in use
• A methodological issue: recording/documenting actual language (empirical methods)
• But also, a theoretical issue: what “counts” as language?
Explain what is meant by the armchair (introspective) linguist
• “‘Armchair linguistics’ does not have a good name in [some] linguistics circles.
• A caricature of the armchair linguist is something like this.
• He sits in a deep soft comfortable armchair, with his eyes closed and his hands clasped behind his head.
• Once in a while he opens his eyes, sits up abruptly shouting, "Wow, what a neat fact!", grabs his pencil, and writes something down.
• Then he paces around for a few hours in the excitement of having come still closer to knowing what
language is really like” (Fillmore, 1991: 35).
Discuss the Sociolinguistic perspective
• Uses the Empiricist approach
• Empiricist: using methods based on what is experienced or seen
• Observing and/or recording actual language in use: Interviews, focus groups, participant observations, online
interactions (e.g. on social media) • Linguistic landscapes • Experiments
how do we de昀椀ne “language”?
• For many people, “language” often means the standard language
• Language of school, formal writing
• Often seen (by non-linguists) as more “correct”
• Associated with a prescriptive approach (vs. descriptive approach)
De昀椀ne the prescriptive approach
• refers to a perspective that focuses on providing explicit rules and guidelines for "correct" language usage. It
o昀昀ers recommendations and standards for how a language should be spoken or written, often based on
grammatical rules, conventions, and established usage norms.
• How people “should” talk (compared to how people actually talk)
• Non-standard or dialects are often seen as deviating from the standard
Are linguist prescriptive or descriptive • Linguist is descriptive
• Refers to How people actually talk, not how they “should”
• There’s no “good” or “bad” language
• Or “ugly”, or “lazy”, or “broken” …
• A necessary attitude for sociolinguistic research 5
• Other disciplines don’t talk about “good” or “bad” planets, minerals, birds, etc.
Explain the concepts of social evaluation
• Di昀昀erent language varieties or features are evaluated as “good” or “bad” by members of the society
• …and that’s something that we study
• Di昀昀erent varieties/features are considered appropriate in di昀昀erent social contexts
• …which is also something that we study
• Note: actually, re昀氀ecting people’s perceptions and attitudes towards the SPEAKERS of a variety, and not the variety per se…
De昀椀ne the meaning of a social group.
• Language gets its meaning and power through speakers’ participation in language-using groups
Give the sociolinguistic approaches to de昀椀ning social groups, methodologically • Speech community • Social network • Community of practice
(Note: within our social groups, we still have our social identities: members do not necessarily share the
same social identities)
De昀椀ne the speech community approach
• “A group of people who share social conventions, or sociolinguistic norms, about language use”
• Variously de昀椀ned based on subjective or objective criteria.
Discuss the Objective criteria of speech community approach
• Objective criteria- group speakers if the distribution of a linguistic variable was consistent with respect to
other factors (e.g., speech style); also, from an objectively de昀椀ned area etc. • Objective criteria:
• Speakers from New York City often do not pronounce post-vocalic /r/, e.g. “ca:”
• People who live in New York
Discuss the Subjective criteria of speech community approach
• Subjective criteria would group speakers as a speech community if they shared a sense of and belief in co- membership • Subjective criteria:
• People who feel they are ‘New Yorkers’
• Participants self-identifying as having a Xhosa heritage or background
(Check the reading Labov, William. (1966) 2006. The Social Strati昀椀cation of English in New York City. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. For a
deeper understanding)
How did Labov (2008) Describe sociolinguistic variable
• Labov (2008): “It begins with the simple act of noticing a variation – that there are two alternative ways of saying the same thing”
De昀椀ne Sociolinguistic variable
• a linguistic feature (usually phonetic), which correlates with independent linguistic variables (position in the
word, word stress, etc.) and non-linguistic independent variables of social context (usually social variables like age, gender, race, etc.)
De昀椀ne the term variants of a variable 6
• The “alternative ways of saying the same thing” are the variants of a variable
• Variants of post-vocalic /r/ variable: full-r and r-less (i.e. categorical)
New York /r/ (or rhotic) as variable
• He’s talking about the omission of the rhotic consonant in post-vocalic contexts.
• The General American rhotic phoneme is a bunched or retro昀氀ex /ɻ/ (in all contexts). New Yorkers are known
for omitting the rhotic when it occurs after a vowel, but generally, General American is a rhotic variety (i.e.
the rhotic is always pronounced post-vocalically).
• In South Africa, as well as other places, like Britain, we generally have a non-rhotic accent, similar to New
Yorkers, where we don’t pronounce post-vocalic /r/. However, our rhotic phoneme is mostly an alveolar
approximant /ɹ/ in word-initial contexts (some South African varieties can have alveolar trills or taps – also,
the American rhotic is also creeping into our speech!).
De昀椀ne the term Social Networks
• A term from social anthropology (methodological implications…)
• We all build social networks (personal communities) to deal with life
• Our social networks in昀氀uence how we use language
• In particular, how we participate in language change
Name and explain the Social network types
• Dense- Everybody knows everybody else. Interacts with them often
• Multiplex- Everybody interacts with everybody else in multiple ways (same person is your friend, neighbour, and co-worker)
Discuss the Network type and change
• Dense and multiplex networks resist change • Keep old linguistic forms • Keep immigrant languages
• Looser networks (or less-imbedded members) introduce new forms – more socially mobile
How did Lave and Wenger de昀椀ne the term Community of practice
• They de昀椀ned it as “A group with mutual engagement in a jointly negotiated enterprise, involving (or leading
to) a shared repertoire” (Lave and Wenger)
• A term from research on social learning
• Smaller groups, local practices: interaction is crucial
• More room here for speaker agency
• The idea that people make conscious choices about shared practices and repertoires
Di昀昀erentiate between the di昀昀erent “Nested” communities
• Speech community: your town
• Social network: your street, school, workplace
• Community of practice: your sports club, study group
But these are not absolute
• A neighbourhood can be a speech community
• A small workplace can be a community of practice 7 Week 2 Lecture 3
De昀椀ne the term Language variety
• Language variety is a generic term for various forms of a language associated with speci昀椀c extra-linguistic
factors (i.e. regionally, socially, or contextually recognisable)
• “variety” avoids the use of the term “language”, which many people associate only with the standard
language, and the term dialect, which is often associated with non-standard varieties
De昀椀ne the term Dialect
• Dialect is usually, a regional subset of a language
• sometimes used to mean language variety
• NB! “Standard English” is also a dialect/variety, but involves power and language ideologies about prestige, status, and correctness
De昀椀ne the term Slang
• Slang- lexicon (words) that are new or have new meanings – often signals in-group membership
• To quote one of you: “My high school social group exposes me to slang terminology popular in my
hometown that people from other places might not understand.”
De昀椀ne the term Jargon:
• Jargon is specialised vocabulary/terminology of a professional or occupational group, which is often meaningless to outsiders
• As stated by one of you: “My university friend group does the same but since we share a lot of subjects we
tend to integrate jargon from these subjects into our everyday conversations.”
De昀椀ne the term Lingo:
• Lingo, is the wording or phrasing that is speci昀椀c to a certain group, including jargon or slang
• As one of you wrote: “A certain lingo develops within certain social groups, especially when looking at the Coloured social group.”
De昀椀ne the term Register:
• Register- variety of language used in a particular social setting or speech situation, often involving jargon,
and ranges in style (e.g. formal vs. casual) –associated with speci昀椀c occupations (e.g. legalese, sport
commentary, etc.) or pastimes or professions (e.g. musicians)
• Quoting one of you: “The social groups that I belong to a昀昀ect my language as they require that I use certain registers.”
(Register, genre, and style relate to each other
For example, academic register (such as the lecture genre) o昀琀en involves formal style)
De昀椀ne the term Accent:
• Accent- mainly pronunciation features (phonetics/phonology)
• As one of you said: “The way I speak largely depends on who I’m with and where I am; as my accent changes,
so does the way I conduct myself.”
What is style? 8
• To sociolinguists, linguistic style is di昀昀erences or variation in the language use of the speaker (intra-speaker variation)
• [Compared to inter-speaker variation: di昀昀erences between speakers]
• How do people change the way they talk, from one situation to the next?
• Various contextual factors in昀氀uence those changes
What is meant by style as formality
• We use formal style when aiming for the variant with overt prestige
• We use informal style in more relaxed situations
• Linguistic style is thus akin to registers
What is meant by Style as attention to speech
• Premise: the more attention you pay to your speech, the more formal your language
• An idea developed in Labe’s early work, which was concerned with getting samples of speech at di昀昀erent levels of formality…
• …especially the least formal
• Measured through paralinguistic channel cues
• For example, laughter, tempo
Discuss the Problems with attention model
• Hard to separate casual (informal) style and careful (formal) style
• People can consciously perform nonstandard, informal speech
• Also, the sociolinguistic interview is a speci昀椀c speech event, which might come with its own register
Discuss the Audience design model • Bell (1984)
• We shift our style to accommodate to our audience
• Based on accommodation theory
• We can converge (sound more like interlocutors) or diverge (sound less like them)
Discuss the style axioms • Labov (1984)
• “There are no single style speakers.”
• “Styles can be ranged along a single dimension, measured by the amount of attention paid to speech.”
• “The vernacular, in which the minimum attention is paid to speech, provides the most systematic data for linguistic analysis.”
• “Any systematic observation of a speaker de昀椀nes a formal context where more than the minimum attention
is paid to speech.” (aka Observer’s Paradox)
• "Face-to-face interviews are the only means of obtaining the volume and quality of recorded speech that is
needed for quantitative analysis.”
Social styles and social meanings
What does Eckert mean with styles, rather than variables
• Styles are directly associated with identity categories, and variables contribute to styles
How does linguistic variables create social meaning?
• Through the use of indexicality: the variable indexes (or points to) certain social factors, but does not constitute them
Explain the Speaker design model 9
• You shift your language to match how you’re trying to present yourself
• It’s about you, not only about the listener
• Conscious creation and presentation of speaker identity: contextually situated, 昀氀uid, emerging in interaction
Discuss Traditional sociolinguistic method (Labovian)
• Interview, reading passage, word list (aiming to move between levels of “attention paid to speech”) • Only gets at a few styles
• Focus on correlating sociolinguistic variables to macro-social factors
Discuss the More ethnographic work (like Eckert’s research) • Long term
• Following the same speakers
• Multiple speech situations or contexts • More qualitative
• Focus on social meanings of sociolinguistic variables 10 Lecture 4
Discuss social meaning of place
• Regional di昀昀erences are something everybody acknowledges and recognises
• There are di昀昀erences even at the level of formal language
• For example, British vs. American English vs. Canadian English, etc.
Why does social meaning of place exist?
• Di昀昀erent places are established by people from di昀昀erent origins, backgrounds, etc. and who speak di昀昀erent varieties
• Barriers to interaction let each variety develop in its own way (or avoid changes that happen elsewhere)
• Barriers can be physical, linguistic, or social
• Also, di昀昀erent varieties are in contact with di昀昀erent other languages or varieties (for example, South African English)
When do particular dialects become important/noticed?
• When speakers in a region need or want to mark themselves o昀昀 as
• Distinct from speakers of neighbouring dialects/varieties
• Distinct from in-migrants or newcomers
• Fear of losing identity (e.g., globalisation – increases awareness of local variety features)
SAE and “place” features
• Cape English (CE) – 1820, Eastern Cape
• Natal English (NE) – 1840s to 50s, Durban areas
• Witwatersrand Gold Rush – 1886, establishment of Johannesburg: third phase in development of SAE
• Input varieties: CE, NE, other English accents (British as well as colonial), as well as L2 varieties (English
spoken by L1-Afrikaans and L1-Yiddish speakers) 20th century General SAE (mostly spoken by White speakers)
Identi昀椀ed what happed during the 20th century (Social continuum) -Cultivated (Conservative) • Upper middle classes • Older South Africans
• Sounds more like British English • General (Respectable) -Local standard • Middle classes • Younger South Africans -Broad (Extreme)
• Lower middle and working classes
• The “broader”, the more it sounds like Afrikaans English 11 Week 3 Lecture 5
Discuss the Regional variation in varieties of SAE
• Mesthrie (2012, 2014): the older forms of Black, Indian, Coloured, and White SAE interact with each other on a regional basis:
• Variables (t) (and (d) which show the salience of region over ethnicity for the Coloured and Indian communities (Mesthrie, 2012)
• Realisations of the bath vowel (or /ɑ:/): variation in two cities (Durban and Gqeberha; see Mesthrie, Chevalier, and Dunne, 2015).
Side note on bracket conventions:
• When we’re talking about actual speech sounds (phones), we use square brackets, e.g. [t]̪
• When we are talking about the underlying sound (phoneme), we use slash brackets, e.g. /t/
• In variationist sociolinguistics, when we are talking about a sociolinguistic variable, we use round brackets,
e.g. (t) – note that the variants of the variable are also in square brackets
Explanation of the Variable (t): region over ethnicity for the Coloured and Indian communities (Mesthrie, 2012)
• Mesthrie (2012): Regional di昀昀erences were the most salient.
• Coloured and Indian participants alike show the greatest fronting of /t/ in Cape Town, followed by Port
Elizabeth; they show less fronting in Johannesburg and Kimberley, respectively, and the least (almost nil) in Durban.
• Overall, the two communities show a small (but signi昀椀cant) measure of ethnic di昀昀erentiation.
• Ethnicity is in fact the weakest of the signi昀椀cant social variables accounting for the variance in (t).
Explanation of the bath vowel /ɑ:/: variation in 昀椀ve cities (Mesthrie, Chevalier, and Dunne, 2015)
• South African English dialectology: 昀椀ve cities (Cape Town, Gqeberha, Kimberley, Johannesburg, and Durban);
four ethnicities (Black, Coloured, Indian, and White).
• Linguistic variable: BATH vowel (or /ɑ:/).
• BATH is thus a good diagnostic vowel in characterising sociolinguistic and regional di昀昀erences.
• Some di昀昀erentiation occurs amongst Whites, in terms of gender mainly.
• In terms of regional distribution, it is notable that in KBY White speakers show considerably greater backing
and raising than in the other cities.
Regional variation in varieties of SAE
• Wileman (2011) found di昀昀erences for vowel variables (PRICE and KIT vowels) between speakers from Cape Town and Durban respectively.
Regionalization in SAE
• Bekker and Van Rooy (2015: 296) argue that South African English is “undergoing a process of nascent
regionalization, i.e., that speakers in the di昀昀erent English‐speaking urban centers of South Africa (Cape
Town, Gqeberha, Kimberley, Durban, and Johannesburg) are developing their own manner of speaking and
indexing regional provenance.”
• Du Plessis, Bekker, and Hickey (2020) found evidence of “a not inconsiderable degree of regionality.
Previously…overlooked or underplayed…” (2020:98).
• Newer regional changes are mostly innovated by younger speakers… 12 Lecture 6
What is “age”?
• Age = a measurement of time
• Aging = movement through time
Why would sociolinguistic studies of linguistic variation be interested in age?
• Linguistic variation is often a precursor for linguistic change
(changes in ways of speaking, not language shift, which is when speakers change their dominant language)
Discuss the Change and variation
• We don’t all talk the same
• We don’t all change our language overnight
• Maybe we all use both old and new forms together for a while
• Maybe some of us use old forms, some use new
• So, change over time is re昀氀ected in variation at any single time point…
• …but not all variation is part of a change!
• Some variation is stable, sticks around for centuries…
Which variation is stable?
• A stable (sociolinguistic) variable is a variable which is not undergoing linguistic change. Such a variable
exhibits the regular age pattern. A stable variable, thus, re昀氀ects change in the speech of the individual
speaker as (s)he progresses through life.
• Which of these variables do you think re昀氀ect current change in progress? Which is stable? For example:
• G-dropping (-in vs. ing): jumpin’ vs. jumping
• Quotatives: I’m like, “Wow!” vs. I said, “Wow!” vs. I went, “Wow!”
• Intensi昀椀ers: That’s so stupid vs. That’s very stupid. Solution • G-droppin’: stable • Quotatives: change • Intensi昀椀ers: change
• But how do we know this? By including age as a social variable
Discuss the Social meaning of variation and age
• Our ways of speaking do not remain stable across our lifespan
• Eckert (2017: 152): “progress through the life course involves changes in family status, gender relations,
employment status, social networks, place of residence, community participation, institutional participation,
engagement in the marketplace – all of which have implications for patterns of variation.”
• Younger speakers are innovators of new linguistic forms, older speakers be conservers of older forms
Discuss Age as a social variable in sociolinguistics
• In prior sociolinguistic research, speaker age has been considered the principal correlate of language change,
but it “has not yet been explicitly studied as a [social] variable” (Eckert 1997: 167)
• Age as a social variable has traditionally been taken as a given 13
Discuss Age strati昀椀cation as social construct:
• Age groups or cohorts are demarcated by sociolinguistics usually based on lifespan milestones (e.g. children,
pre-adolescent, adolescent, post-adolescent, adult – for adults, young adults, mid-life, older, elderly, etc.)
State the two cohorts
• However, cohorts can be de昀椀ned etically or emically
De昀椀ne the two approaches
• Etic approach: group speakers in arbitrarily determined but equal life spans, such as decades
• Emic approach: group speakers according to some shared experience of time (life stage, social history, political eras, etc.)
What does it mean if people of di昀昀erent ages speak di昀昀erently? Name the Two sociolinguistic theories… • Age-grading
• Apparent-time (vs. real-time)
Discuss the One theory: age-grading
• There are stable “older people” and “younger people” ways of talking
• When today’s young people get older, they tend to adopt “older people” ways
• Age-grading occurs when individuals change their linguistic behaviour throughout their lifetimes, but the
community’s linguistic behaviour as a whole does not change (i.e. variation remains stable)
• There are stable “older people” and “younger people” ways of talking
• When today’s young people get older, they tend to adopt “older people” ways
• These changes across the lifespan could be due to teenager’s a昀케nity for novelty/rebellion (wanting to sound
di昀昀erent/using local forms), but then entering the workforce and change ways of speaking (become more
norm conforming), to leaving the workforce to retire
• Another example: age-grading among adolescents: the use of lol declines systematically according to age,
with the youngest people using it the most frequently.
• Use of the more conservative form ha-ha increases according to age. Older adolescents become aware that
lol is used by a younger group and consciously reduce their use of the form.
Discuss the Alternatively, the apparent-time hypothesis
• Age-graded variation stands in contrast to the apparent-time hypothesis: hypothesis assumes that
individuals’ speech does not really change once they are past adolescence
• Apparent-time hypothesis: age-strati昀椀ed variation is often indicative of a linguistic change-in- progress
• Thus, if there are patterns of linguistic variation between the speech of individuals 75 years old, 50 years old,
and 25 years old in a survey of a population, this may indicate linguistic changes that have occurred over the past 50 years
• Comparing generations lets us see change as it happens (i.e. generational change)
• This challenges earlier linguists’ assumptions that we could only study linguistic change after the fact
De昀椀ne apparent time studies
• Apparent-time study: record speech samples from di昀昀erent individuals from di昀昀erent age cohorts at one
point in time
Sate the di昀昀erence between age grading and apparent time studies
• Age-grading occurs when individuals change their linguistic behaviour throughout their lifetimes, but the
community as a whole does not change 14
• Apparent-time change occurs when the community as a whole change (change-in-progress)
Explanation of Watching change in progress
• Studying the mechanics of change (using apparent-time data) lets us understand principles underlying
language change more generally
• “Using the present to explain the past” (also known as the uniformitarian principle)
• Assumes that even if a speaker’s social factors change across the lifespan, they will still use some accent
features they had in their 20s when they are in their 60s
• Thus, comparing accent features of Person A (aged 65) to Person B (aged 25) can give us an indication of
linguistic change in the community
• However, can only be con昀椀rmed with real-time evidence (i.e. having a recording of the same cohort of
speakers when they were in their 20s and when they’re in their 60s – called “panel studies”)
Name the two concepts that fall under real time studies and de昀椀ne them
• Panel study: record speech samples from the same individuals at successive points in time
• Trend study: record speech samples from di昀昀erent (but socially similar) individuals at successive points in time
Discuss the Some principles of change (proposed by Labov)
• Principle I: In stable sociolinguistic strati昀椀cation, men use a higher frequency of non-standard or stigmatised
forms than women. • For example, G-droppin’
• Principle Ia: In change from above, women favour the incoming prestige forms more than men.
• Principle II: In change from below, women are most often the innovators, i.e. lead in the adoption of new ways of speaking.
• “Above/below” = above/below the level of consciousness and from higher/lower social classes
Why do women lead change from above and below?
• Maybe women’s changes are more likely to be adopted, because they do more child rearing
• Maybe women notice/adopt change faster, then men retreat from “women’s forms”
• Crucially: “all men” or “all women” is too general a classi昀椀cation, and we need to look at 昀椀ner details
Why might women use more standard language?
• Perhaps other ways of accessing power are not available to them
• Perhaps there are no advantages to sounding local or non-standard
• Do “standard” and “female” and “educated” overlap, (socio)linguistically?
• To some extent – often shared indexical features (see Eckert’s indexical 昀椀eld of ideologically linked social meanings)
Gender paradox (Labov, 2001)
• Labov (2001: 293) calls this the gender paradox: “women conform more closely than men to sociolinguistic
norms that are overtly prescribed, but conform less than men when they are not”. The complexity of gender again o昀昀ers explanation.
• Meyerho昀昀 & Ehrlich (2019: 458): “An essentialized and internally undi昀昀erentiated view of gender (women
versus men) was an important stepping-stone toward understanding how various social categories
structurally align in the ontology of language change (gender, social class, and formality all lining up in
consistent and socially meaningful ways). This, in turn, provided a solid foundation on which performative
analyses of gender could derive further meaning.” 15
Things to keep in mind
Categories interact!
• Gender and ethnicity may both a昀昀ect language
• But what gender “means” can vary by ethnicity and vice versa
• Referred to as intersectionality
Categories are complex!
• We say “women lead change,” but we might mean a particular subset of women
• We divide people into categories, but real people might 昀椀t in between (or somewhere else entirely!)
People are complex!
• We all belong to many categories at the same time
• Sometimes, one category or group membership matters; sometimes, it’s something else
• We “read” a situation and its participants and decide which aspects of our identity are relevant 16 Week 4 Lecture 7
Explanation of the SAE Chain-Shift (old shift)
• Bekker (2009: 96): “Like New Zealand English and Australian English, SAE has, accordingly to Lass (1990:
273), been the subject of a “chain-shift of the short front vowels”.
• This has led to both the raised DRESS and TRAP vowels [i.e. TRAP vowel is were DRESS is, and DRESS is raised
to KIT], as well as to the centralisation of KIT in certain contexts.
• As summarised by Mesthrie (1993:30), the front vowels in SAE “are raised in comparison with [British
Received Pronunciation, RP] vowels (with the highest vowel being centralised)”. In order to illustrate this
chain-shift, Mesthrie (1993:30) provides a diagram in which ‘the two sets of re昀氀exes are geometrically
related … (with SAE in caps, RP in lower case)’.”
Explanation of the SAE Reverse Vowel Shift (RVS; a new shift)
• Younger South Africans seem to be “reversing” the older SAE chain-shift, i.e. the front vowels that
underwent raising, are now lowering.
• Chevalier (2020: 171): “The RVS shares features with the South East English Chain Shift, though it mirrors the
shift that has been described for California (and Canada) in particular. Given the dominance of Hollywood in English-language broadcasting
• in South Africa, it seems very likely that virtual contact with American, particularly Californian, English could
be responsible for the extreme TRAP lowering that instigates the vowel chain shift I attest for [SAE] in Cape Town.”
What is “race”?
• Race is a social construct used to group people. Race was constructed as a hierarchal human-grouping
system, generating racial classi昀椀cations to identify, distinguish and marginalize some groups across nations,
regions and the world. Race divides human populations into groups often based on physical appearance,
social factors and cultural backgrounds.
• Race is a political and social construct that is 昀氀uid. Racial categorization can change over time, place, and
context. Race has been used historically to establish a social hierarchy, whereby individuals are treated
di昀昀erently resulting in racism.
• Genomic scientists are currently investigating the relationship between self-identi昀椀ed race and genetic
ancestry. There is more genetic variation within self-identi昀椀ed racial groups than between them.
What is “ethnicity”?
• Blakemore (2019): “The term ethnicities is more broadly de昀椀ned as “large groups of people classed
according to common racial, national, tribal, religious, linguistic, or cultural origin or background.
• “Race” is usually associated with biology and linked with physical characteristics such as skin colour or hair
texture. “Ethnicity” is linked with cultural expression and identi昀椀cation. However, both are social constructs
used to categorize and characterize seemingly distinct populations.”
• Race and ethnicity don’t show up at the genetic level, but the concept of race still forms the human experience.
Why would sociolinguistic studies be interested in race and ethnicity?
• So far, we’ve looked at di昀昀erent styles of speaking, and linguistic variation in terms of place/region, age, and
gender (all social constructs) 17
• “Race” and ethnicity are also social factors (i.e. constructs) that correlate to patterns of linguistic variation
and change, and of course intersect with other social factors
Discuss the Regimentations of racial and linguistic categories
• “Language has been highly politicised in South Africa, and language acquisition is a product of the system of
segregation that has always characterised South Africa since the start of colonisation” (Coetzee-Van Rooy & Van Rooy, 2005: 4).
• “There is little doubt that segregation in housing and schooling has tended to polarise South African English
into ethnolects” (Mesthrie & McCormick, 1992: 34).
De昀椀ne the following term Deracialisation,
• Deracialisation: the “standard” or “prestige” variety of English in the country is no longer associated with one racialized group alone.
De昀椀ne the following term cross over varieties
• Cross-over varieties: a range of new varieties among younger people that eschew the main features of
traditional BSAE and approximate to varying extents the use of the main features of what used to be thought
of as White South African English (henceforth WSAE).
De昀椀ne the following term substrate erasure
• Substrate erasure: the avoidance of all (or nearly all) markers of African language in昀氀uence in crossover
varieties and, by implication, avoidance of traditional forms of L2 BSAE.
What does it mean when we talk about “deracialisation” in sociolinguistic research?
What is deracialisation in the context of South African English? Deracialisation towards what?
• Findings by Mesthrie (2017; inter alia): young, black middle-class women are leading the change to speaking the ‘crossover variety’.
• Mesthrie (2017: 339): perception test, where participants only hear voices, and have to identify the
perceived “race” of speakers – results found that “38.8% of responses took the female subjects to be White,
versus 4.6% taking the male subjects to be White” (also see Mesthrie, Chevalier, & McLachlan 2015).
Mesthrie, Chevalier & McLachlan (2015): Conclusions, implications and caveats
• “The perception test robustly con昀椀rms the two hypotheses of this paper, that (a) respondents are in many
instances unable to di昀昀erentiate between educated, young, middle-class, Black and White speakers by voice
alone, and (b) they are, however, able to di昀昀erentiate ethnic background more easily for male speakers than females.
• English is thus being deracialised among the young middle-class university students of this study, insofar as
the prestige variety cannot be unequivocally associated with one group alone. In this process Black females
are in the lead over males, who presumably are under greater pressure to retain some aspects of traditional Black norms.
• We pro昀昀er the caveat that not all females with a model-C or private school education are overwhelmingly
judged as crossover speakers. Further qualitative research on the relations between students’ backgrounds,
attitudes and accent features is to be welcomed.” 18

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