Sociolinguistics chapter 4 introduction to sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics
Chapter four : language in
contact

What happens when languages or speakers of
multiple language come into contact?
• language shift
• language maintenance
• ethno linguistic vitality

What happens when languages or speakers
of multiple language come into contact?
 language shift when speakers of a language stop using a minority
language and instead adopt the majority language for group use
Language maintenance is the degree in which an individual or
group of people continue to use their language especially in
bilingual or multilingual
Ethno linguistic vitality is how to maintain language

Three thing that threatened language
Status
Territorial distribution
Institutional support

Competency and convergence in
multilingual societies
 contact language , when speakers or groups of people who speak
different languages try to interact with each other
 linguistic consequence convergence of the language
 vocabulary differences maintained

Language ideologies surrounding
multilingualism
 code : a term used instead of language ,speech variety or dialect,
it is sometimes considered to be a more neutral term than the
others
 the term code, seeks to avoid the language versus dialect issue
 code switching: a change by a speaker from one language to
another one. Code switching can take place in a conversation
when one speaker uses one language and other speaker answers in
different language.
 multilingual discourse: the use of linguistic elements from more
than one variety in a conversation or text

Linguistic landscapes
o linguistic landscape, the display of languages in public spaces,
including signs, billboards, advertisements. It is about how
languages appear in public spaces provides evidence about
ideologies concerning particular codes and their speakers.
o in berlin, Germany ,is the dominant language in the linguistic
landscape, both English and Turkish are present which English is
used as a lingua franca for speakers of linguistic backgrounds

Language attitudes in multilingual setting
 matched-guise : the use of recorded voices of people, speaking
first, in one dialect or language and then in another.
 participant are asked to judge speakers of different languages
based on recording on their voices.
 monoglossic ideology : the idea that languages are distinct
entities and should be kept separate.
 pluralist ideology : a way of thinking in which all linguistic
varieties, ways of speaking and ways of being valued.

Diglossia
Diglossia
 when two languages or language varieties exist side by side in a
community and each one is used for different purposes.
 The more standard variety called high variety which is used in
government, media, education
 the other one is non-prestige variety called low-variety, which is
used in the family, with friends or shopping

Domains
 domains refers to language use which determined by topic,
setting and speakers, often used to discuss the choice of a
particular variety of language.
For example :
high varieties are used for delivering formal lectures or political
speeches or broadcasting news on radio and television but in
contrast low-varieties maybe used in giving instruction to workers
in low-prestige occupations or household servant or in conversation
with families

Multilingual discourse
 in multilingual setting, there are no strict or explicit guidelines,
people must select a particular code when they speak, they decide
to switch from that code to another or mix code.
 code switching constraints : rules which govern the structure of
code switching

Metaphorical and situational code switching
 situational code switching : choice of code based on the norms of
the situations
Situational code switching occurs when the languages used, change,
according to the situations in which the speakers find themselves

Metaphorical and situational code switching
 metaphorical code switching : the use of a code as a means to
symbolically redefine the interaction
Metaphorical code switching has an effective dimension to it . The
choice of code carries symbolic meaning , that is the language fits
the message.

Accommodation and audience design
 accommodation : when a person changes their way of speaking to
make it sound more like or less like the speech of the person they
are talking to.
For example :
A teacher may use simple words and sentence structure when he is
talking to a class of young children

Accommodation and audience design
 convergence : the process of two or more languages becoming
more similar to one another.
 divergent : the process of two or more language, becoming less
like each other
For example :
A person may exaggerate their rural accent because they are
annoyed by the attitude of someone from the city.

The markedness model
 markedness : a theory within and across languages, certain linguistic
elements can be seen as unmarked for example : simple, core, prototypical.
While others are seen as marked for example : complex, peripheral or
exceptional.
for example :
Such people I dislike marked
I dislike such people unmarked

thank you for your patience
Mehdi alba

Sociolinguistics chapter 4 introduction to sociolinguistics

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