语言学language-and-society

语言学语言学language-and-language-and-societysocietyoSociolinguistics-a sub-field of linguists that studies the relation between language and society,between the uses of language and the social structures in which the users of language live.The relatedness between language and society-There are many indications of the inter-relationship between language and society.oLanguage is often used to establish and maintain social relationships.(e.g.greeting)oThe use of language is in part determined by the users social background.(social class,age,sex,education level,etc.)oLanguage,especially the structure of its lexicon,reflects both the physical and the social environments of a society.(“snow”for Eskimo)oAs a social phenomenon language is closely related to the structure of the society in which it is used,the evaluation of a linguistic form is entirely social(the postvocalic r).Speech community and speech varietyoSpeech community-the social group that is singled out for any special sociolinguistic study is called the speech community.oSpeech variety or language variety-any distinguishable form of speech used by a speaker or a group of speakers.In sociolinguistic study three types of speech variety are of special interest,i.e.regional dialects,sociolects and registers.Two approaches to sociolinguistic studiesoMacro-sociolinguistics,i.e.a birds-eye view of the languages used in society;oMicro-sociolinguistics,i.e.a worms-eye view of language in use.Varieties of languageoDialectal varieties oRegister oDegree of formality Dialectal varietiesoRegional dialect is a linguistic variety used by people living in the same geographical region(e.g.Br.E.&Am.E.).oSocial dialect(Sociolect)is a linguistic variety characteristic of a particular social class.(e.g.Received Pronunciation)o Language and gender(e.g.intonation,lexicon)o Language and age(Lexical difference:icebox-fridge,wireless-boombox)oIdiolect-a personal dialect of an individual speaker that combines elements regarding regional,social,gender,and age variations(e.g.Hemingway,Luxun).oEthnic dialect-a social dialect of a language that cuts across regional differences;it is mainly spoken by a less privileged population that has experienced some form of social isolation such as racial discrimination or segregation(e.g.Black English).RegisteroRegister,in a restricted sense,refers to the variety of language related to ones occupation.oIn a broader sense,according to Halliday,“language varies as its function varies;it differs in different situations.”The type of language which is selected as appropriate to the type of situation is a register.oHalliday further distinguishes three social variables that determine the register:field of discourse,tenor of discourse,mode of discourse.Three social variablesoField of discourse:what is going on:to the area of operation of the language activity.It is concerned with the purpose(why)and subject matter(about what)of communication.It can be either technical or non-technical.)oTenor of discourse:the role of relationship in the situation in question:who are the participants in the communication and in what relationship they stand to each other.(customer-shop-assistant,teacher-student,etc.)oMode of discourse:the means of communication.It is concerned with how communication is carried out.(oral,written,on the line)Degree of formality-Five stages of formality(Martin Joos)oIntimate:Up you go,chaps!oCasual:Time you all went upstairs now.oConsultative:Would you mind going upstairs right away,please?oFormal:Visitors should go up the stairs at once.oFrozen:Visitors would make their way at once to the upper floor by way of the staircase.-Note:Different styles of the same language can be characterized through differences at three levels:syntactic,lexical and phonological.Standard dialect(language)oThe standard variety is a superimposed,socially prestigious dialect of a language.It is the language employed by the government and the judiciary system,used by the mass media,and taught in educational institutions,including school settings where the language is taught as a foreign or second language.oStandard language is actually an idealized variety,but exists for most people as the version that is accepted as the official language of their community or country.Standard English is the version we believe is found in printed English in newspapers and books,is widely used in the mass media and is taught in most schools.It is the variety we normally try to teach to those who want to learn English as a second or foreign language.It is clearly associated with education and broadcasting in public contexts and is more easily described in terms of the written language(i.e.vocabulary,spelling,grammar)than the spoken language.Lingua francaoSpeakers of mutually unintelligible language who need to communicate with each other have a variety of means available to them.A widespread method of bridging the linguistic gap is to use a lingua franca,a language agreed upon as a medium of communication by people who speak different first languages.In the USA,the language used for communocation with the members of many different native American tribes has been English,the speech of the dominant society.Now along with globalization,English has gradually become a lingua franca which is used for communication among the speakers from different language background.Pidgin and CreoleoA pidgin is a special language variety that mixes or blends languages and it is used by people who speak different languages for restricted purposes such as trading.oThere are several English pidgins still used today.They are characterized by an absence of any complex grammatical morphology and a somewhat limited vocabulary.oInflectional suffixes such as-s(plural)and-s(possessive)on nouns in Standard English are rare in pidgins,while structures like tu buk(two books)and di gyal place(the girls place)are common.Functional morphemes often take the place of inflectional morphemes found in the source language.For example,instead of changing the form of you to your,as in the English phrase your book,English-based pidgins use a form like bilong,and change the word order to produce phrases like buk bilong yu.oThe syntax of pidgins can be quite unlike the languages from which terms were borrowed and modified,as can be seen in this example from an earlier stage of Tok Pisin.oBaimbai hed bilongyu i-arrait gainoby and by head belong you he alright againoYour head will soon get well againoWhen a pidgin has become the primary language of a speech community,and is acquired by the children of that speech community as their native language,it is said to have become a Creole.oThe separate vocabulary elements of a pidgin can become grammatical elements in a creole.The form baimbai yu go(by and by you go)in early Tok Pisin gradually shortened to bai yu go,and finally to yu bigo,with a grammatical structure not unlike that of its English translation equivalent,you will go.Bilingualism and Diglossia(双语现象和双言现象双语现象和双言现象)oIn some speech communities,two languages are used side by side with each having a different role to play;and language switching occurs when the situation changes.This constitutes the situation of Bilingualism.oAccording to Ferguson(1959),diglossia refers to a sociolinguistic situation similar to bilingualism.But instead of two different languages,in a diglossia situation two varieties of a language exist side by side throughout the community,with each having a definite role to play.Stylegenretaboo-euphemismoA style is a variety of language used for a specific purpose.Styles vary according to the context of a communicative act in terms of subject matter,audience,occasion,shared experience,and purpose of communication.When you converse informally with a friend,you use a different style from that used in an interview for a job with a prospective employer.oMartin Joos provided one of the most common classifications of speech styles using the criterion of formality,which tends to subsume subject matter,audience,and occasion.Five levels of formality:1)oratorical,or“frozen”;2)deliberative,or formal;3)consultative;4)casual;and 5)intimate,as illustrated by the following examples:Intimate:Up you go,chaps!Casual:Time you all went upstairs now.Consultative:Would you mind going upstairs right away,please?Formal:Visitors should go up the stairs at once.Frozen:Visitors would make their way at once to the upper floor by way of the staircase.oGenre,in a general sense,means a type of literature,art,music,etc.which is considered to have the same style or subject.From the linguistic perspective,genre is a particular class of speech events which are considered by the speech community as being of the sametype.Texts,which belong to the same genre,not only have similar goals and purposes but also share grammatical,lexical and stylistic features.oFor example,daily conversations constitute a major part of spoken communication.These conversations often take place in informal situations and have a typical informal style.In this type of informal genre,we use simple and informal words and expressions including colloquialisms.Slang words may also be used,but formal words are often inappropriate.oBy contrast,public speeches,like speeches at ceremonies,inaugural addresses,belong to a type of formal spoken communication.This type of genre characterizes more formal situations than daily conversations.Words and phrases used in this type of genre are often more formal than those used in daily conversations.Colloquialisms and slang words are rarely found.TaboooCertain things are not said,not because they cannot be,but because people do not talk about those things;or,if those things are talked about,they are talked about in very roundabout ways.In the first case we have intances of linguistic taboo;in the second we have the employment of euphemisms so as to avoid mentioning certain matters directly.oIn every culture,there seems to be certain unmentionable words and topics that shouldnt be brought up or expressed straightforward as a result of religion or custom.Taboos are subjects withsuch strong affective connotations that they cannot be used in polite discourse.In English,taboo words,roughly speaking,fall into four types,namely,profanities(亵渎;不敬的言语),obscenities(淫秽；猥亵的言语),vulgarities(粗俗语),and senitive topics.Euphemism The existence of taboo words or taboo ideas stimulates the creation of euphemisms.In other words,euphemisms are rooted in the avoidance of breaking taboos.Simply put,euphemisms are mild,agreeable,or roundabout words used in place of coarse,painful,or offensive ones.To establish the harmonious relationship between people and nature,people usually use euphemistic expressions to avoid either fearful or unpleasant subjects.Gender and language useoNumerous observers have swecribed womens speech as being different from that of men.To date,phonological and lexical differences between the speech of men and that of women have been found in variuos languages.oIn a similar vein,women tend to use some patterns indicating surprise and politeness ont often by men.