Research
An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (Janet Holmes)
Chapter One: What do sociolinguists study?
- Sociolinguistics: a term that refers to the study of the relationship between language and society, and how language is used in multilingual speech communities.
Q what aspects of language are Sociolinguists interested in?
Sociolinguists are interested in explaining why people speak differently in different social contexts. And the effect of social factors such as (social distance, social status, age, gender, class) on language varieties (dialects, registers, genres, etc), and they are concerned with identifying the social functions of language and the way they are used to convey social meanings.
Q what do sociolinguists mean by the term variety?
A variety is a set of linguistic forms used under specific social circumstances, with a distinctive social distribution.
* Formality increases between participants (speaker and hearer) when the social distance is greater. Informality (Solidarity) increases when the social distance is little between participants (speaker and hearer).
* Social status depends on a number of factors such as social rank, wealth, age, gender and so on; therefore the person with the higher social status has the choice of using formality or informality (solidarity) when addressing other persons of lower social status. But the person with the lower social status uses only formality when addressing a person of higher social status.
Chapter Two: Multilingual speech communities
- Domains: domains of language use, a term popularised by an American sociolinguist, Joshua Fishman. A domain of language involves typical interactions between typical participants in typical settings about a typical topic. Examples of these domains are family, friendship, religion, education and employment.
- Setting: the physical situation or the typical place where speech interactions occur (code choice), settings such as home, church, mosque,
Chapter One: What do sociolinguists study?
- Sociolinguistics: a term that refers to the study of the relationship between language and society, and how language is used in multilingual speech communities.
Q what aspects of language are Sociolinguists interested in?
Sociolinguists are interested in explaining why people speak differently in different social contexts. And the effect of social factors such as (social distance, social status, age, gender, class) on language varieties (dialects, registers, genres, etc), and they are concerned with identifying the social functions of language and the way they are used to convey social meanings.
Q what do sociolinguists mean by the term variety?
A variety is a set of linguistic forms used under specific social circumstances, with a distinctive social distribution.
* Formality increases between participants (speaker and hearer) when the social distance is greater. Informality (Solidarity) increases when the social distance is little between participants (speaker and hearer).
* Social status depends on a number of factors such as social rank, wealth, age, gender and so on; therefore the person with the higher social status has the choice of using formality or informality (solidarity) when addressing other persons of lower social status. But the person with the lower social status uses only formality when addressing a person of higher social status.
Chapter Two: Multilingual speech communities
- Domains: domains of language use, a term popularised by an American sociolinguist, Joshua Fishman. A domain of language involves typical interactions between typical participants in typical settings about a typical topic. Examples of these domains are family, friendship, religion, education and employment.
- Setting: the physical situation or the typical place where speech interactions occur (code choice), settings such as home, church, mosque,