SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Sociolinguistics is branch of linguistics which deals

with all aspects of the relationship between language
and society.

Language and society influence each other.

Language → Society : Politeness
Society → Language: Vocabulary

Sociolinguistics is the study of the ways people use

language in their social interaction.

Certain people use language in a certain way.

It can be seen in register, jargon, choice of word, and the
way to speak (ethnic groups).

Sociolinguistics is the study of language in relation to

society.
People use language for many kinds of purposes.

What matter in sociolinguistics: who speak, what

language, to whom, when, and to what end.

Who : superior vs subordinate, adults vs children,

man vs woman, parents vs son or daughter

What language: standard vs non standard, spoken vs

written, formal vs informal

To whom : intimate vs distant, friend vs stranger,

seller vs customer

When : bad mood vs good mood, angry vs satisfied,

flattering vs scolding

What end : lecturing, preaching, persuading, arguing,

consoling, directing, asking, apologizing, thanking,
greeting
The advantages of Studying Sociolinguistics:
1. It gives us a kind of guidance to communicate; what
language we use, and to whom we speak.
Formal vs informal, low vs high, spoken, vs written
Superior vs subordinate, children vs parents,
students vs instructors, men vs women

2. In language teaching it gives us some

information on what we should teach to the
students.
Language is a habit, language is a set of rules,
language is a means of communication,
language is varied, language is a system

3. At the national level, it gives some consideration

on what language should be used as a national
language or standard language.
Malay vs Javanese

In an imaginary world, it is imagined that all people use

the same language with no varieties in the language.

In the real world, there is a great deal to say about

language in relation to society, including its varieties.

Lingua franca: a trade language widely spoken as a

non-native language.

Speakers and Communication

1. No two speakers have the same language, because
no two speakers have the same experience of
language.

2. Each utterance of a speaker can be

seen as an act of his/her identity in a
multi-dimensional space.
 3. There are two forces; one is leading to individual
differences (individualism), and the other leading to
similarities (conformity).

4. The different speech forms take place since

childhood.

Varieties of Language

Language has varieties.

What makes one variety of language different from
another is the linguistic items it includes.

Speech Community

Speech Community is all people who use a given language

or dialect.
Speech Community is the whole set of people who
communicate with each other, either directly or
indirectly, via the common language.
Speech community is a group of people who interact by
means of speech.
Speech community is groups in society which have
distinctive speech characteristics as well as other
social characteristics.

Standard Language
Standard Language is the proper language, the
result of a direct and deliberate
intervention by society.

It has passed through the following processes:

1. Selection
2. Codification (some agency must have written
dictionaries or grammar books to fix the variety, so
that everyone agrees on what is correct)
 3. Elaboration of function (it must be possible to use
the selected variety in all functions in the society)
4.Acceptance (the variety must be accepted by the
relevant population as the variety of the
community).

Dialect
Dialect is a variety of a language that is distinguished
from other varieties of the same language by features
of phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, and by its
use by a group of speakers who are set off from others
geographically or socially.

Isogloss is a line on a map separating two localities which

differ in a linguistic feature.

Wave theory: the assumption that changes in language

spread outward from centers of influence to the
surrounding areas in much the same way that a wave
spreads from the place where a stone is dropped into a
pool.
(The bigger the plants, the more seeds they produce, and
the better the chances of species conquering new
territory)
Dialects are not only distributed
geographically, but also through people’s
mobility.
Dialects also occur due to different social
class, sex, and age.

Register
Register refers to varieties of language according to use,
while dialect refers to varieties of language in
accordance with user.
One’s dialect shows who (what) you are, while one’s
register shows what you are doing.

Halliday: three register differences:

 1. Field: concerned with the purpose and subject-
matter of the communication (why about what)
2. Mode: referring to the means by which
communication takes place (speech or writing)
3. Tenor: depending on the relations between
participants (to whom).

SOME BASIC TERMS

Register is a subset of a language used for a

particular purpose or in a particular social setting.

There are three variables that determine register:

field (the subject matter of discourse), tenor (the
participants and their relationship), and mode (the
channel of communication, e.g. spoken or written)
(Halliday, 1964).

Register as Formality Scale

Very formal, → Formal → Informal → Very informal,
Frozen, Casual, Familiar
Rigid

Frozen : printed unchanging language (holy

books)
Formal : one-way participation, no
interruption (technical vocabulary)
Consultative: two-way participation.
Background information is provided. (uh huh,
see)
Casual: in-group friends and acquaintances.
Interruptions common. (slangs, ellipsis)
Intimate: non-public. Intonation more
important than wording or grammar. Private
vocabulary.

Diatype: a term to describe a type of language

variation which is determined by its social
purpose.
Dialect : a variety of a language
characteristics of a particular group of the
language’s speakers.
Sociolect: a socially defined variety of
language.
Idiolect : an individual’s variety of language.
Diaglossia: used to describe a speech
community where a high-prestige language
variety is strongly marked against a low-
prestige variety.
Argot: slang used by various groups to define
themselves from others.
Genre: a loose set of criteria for a category of
literary composition.
Cryptolect: secret code language registers or
sociolects.
Cant: secret language

Discourse Community

Linking all forms of communication that

contribute to a particular way of thinking and
community that helps create a particular
discourse.
For example: discourse in particular academic
journal
Speech community
Describing a more or less discrete group of
people who use language in a unique and
mutually accepted way among themselves.

Involving shared community membership,

and shared linguistic communication.

Jargon
It relates to a specific activity, profession,
or group
(Terms used in sports, computers,
technical terminology)
Legal jargon, baseball jargon,
mathematical jargon, military jargons,
nautical jargons
Technical terminology
It is the specialized vocabulary of a field.

Baby Talk
It is a non-standard form of speech used by
adults, particularly mothers, in talking to
toddlers and infants.
Different in intonation, high pitch.
Purpose : to catch an infant’s attention
more readily than regular speech does.
Baba (bottle)
Bubby (brother)
Din-din (dinner)
Icky (disgusting)
Pee-pee (urinate)
Potty (toilet)
Sissy (sister)
Wawa (water)
Yum-yum (meal time)
Mama (mother)

Baby Talk with pets

It is just like baby talk, used when talking to
pets.

Diglossia
Diglossia refers to a situation where two
different varieties of a language co-occur
throughout a speech community, each with
a distinct range of social function.
This is also called low and high variety. The high
variety is learnt in school, and has a greater
prestige, the low variety in family conversation,
and other relatively informal settings.

Code Switching

In communication, especially in speaking, a

speaker may switch from one language to another,
or from a certain variety to another variety of the
same language. There are reasons for doing so,
among others are:

1. Giving respect
 2. Changing the topic
3. The presence of the third person
4. Winning the deal
5. Changing situation.

Kinds of Code Switching

1. Situational Code Switching occurs when the

language change accompanies a change of
topics or participants.

2. Metaphorical Code Switching occurs within a

single setting, but adds meaning to such
components as the role-relationship which are
being expressed.

Borrowing
In speaking or writing a speaker may use words
from another language. The words borrowed
from another language are called loan words.

A speaker may use the loan words for prestige or

because of the absence of equal words in the
language being used.

Pidgin
Pidgin is a language with a markedly reduced
grammar, structure, lexicon, and stylistic range,
compared with other languages, and which is the
native of no one.
Creole
Creole is a pidgin language which has become the
mother tongue of a speech community. The
process is called creolisation.

The factors which cause language varieties

1. Purpose (religious, educational, governmental,

occupational)
 2. Region
3. Ethnicity
4. Social class, status, and role
5. Role-relationship
6. Sex
7. Age

Language, Culture, and Thought

Language: the concrete act of speaking, writing or
signing in a given situation.
Culture : all arts, beliefs, institutions, and
characteristics of a community.
Thought: idea, opinion, intention, formed by
thinking.
There is a correlation between the form and
content of a language and the beliefs, values,
and needs present in the culture of its speakers.

The vocabulary of a language provides us with a

catalogue of things of important to the society.
The grammar may reveal the way time is
segmented and organized.
Directness and indirectness in language show
some features of a culture.

The native speakers of Arabic, Farsi, Indonesian, or

Japanese are often more indirect when speaking
English as a foreign language than are native speakers
of English.

Culture may be defined as the kind of knowledge

which we learn from other people, either by direct
instruction or by watching their behavior.

Kinds of knowledge:
1. Cultural knowledge is the one which is learned
from other people
2. Shared non-cultural knowledge is the kind of
culture which is shared by people within the
 same community or the world over, but is not
learned from each other
3. Non-shared non-cultural knowledge is a kind
of culture which is unique to individual.

Four points at which language makes contact with

knowledge:
1. Linguistic items are concepts
2. Meanings are concepts
3. Linguistically relevant social categories are
concepts
4. Sentence meanings are propositions.

Language, speech and thought

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: Language determines
thought to a very great extent and in many ways.
There is no thought without language.

There are no constraints on the variation to be

found between people in the way they think,
especially the concepts they form.

If one can find a way to control the language that people

learn, one would thereby be able to control their
thoughts. (This extreme hypothesis is wrong)

Speech and Inference

Speech influences inference by making it easier or
more difficult. In this sense, speech acts as a
tool.
The value of speech as a tool is more obvious
if the inference has to be done
cooperatively. Speech allows two people or
more to agree on a definition of the problem
and then to discuss its solution.
One of the main social functions of speech is in the area
of problem-solving to enable us to talk through a
problem with other people.

Speech and Socialization

Speech is an instrument of socialization – the process
whereby children are turned into fully competent
members of their society.

A good deal of culture is transmitted verbally.

Speech is a crucial component in the process of
socialization.
The language which a child learns is closely
related to the concepts he learns as a part of
his socialization.

SPEECH AND SOCIAL INTERACTION

Speech is individual. Ferdinand de Saussure
claimed that speech was totally individual, in
that it depended only on the will of the speaker.
Speech is entirely social, being identical from one
member of a speech community to another.

There are social constraints on speech which are

reflected in the linguistic items.
For example, we are required to respond when
someone else greets us.

Society controls our speech in two ways:

1. By providing a set of norms
2. By providing the motivation for adhering to
the norms.
The study of speech as a part of social interaction
has involved many different disciplines such as
social psychology, sociology, anthropology,
ethology (study of behavior in animals),
philosophy, and artificial intelligence (study of
human intelligence via computer simulation),
sociolinguistics, and linguistics.

Function of Speech

1. In its primitive use, it is as a link in a concerted

human activity
2. To establish or reinforce social relations
3. To make suggestions, promises, invitations,
requests, prohibitions.

Speech as Skilled Work

Work means it requires effort, and its degree of
success depends on the effort that is made.
Skilled means it requires the know-how type of
knowledge, which is applied more or less
successfully according to how much practice
one has had.
For example, one can get tongue-tight, drop a
brick, get stuck for the right thing to say, or one
can be a chatterbox.
One has to learn the rules or skills of speech in
order to be able to communicate effectively.

The Norms Governing Speech

Skill in speech includes the relevant rules
governing speech. The rules are called norms.
1. Quantity of speech (different from society to
society).
2. Number of people who talk at once in
conversation
3. The content of what is said (be informative).

Speech as a Signal of Social Identity

There are linguistic items in language that reflect
social characteristics of the speaker, of the
addressee, or the relation between them.
(Sex, social status, relationship)
 Power and Solidarity
Speech may reflect the social relations between
the speaker and the addressee, mostly the
power and solidarity.
Power means authority, while solidarity concerns
the social distance between people (in religion,
sex, age, occupation, etc.)
For example, one may call someone else John or
Mr. Brown, Mr., Professor, Doctor).
Language often encourages or even forces us to
define our relations with our addressee.

The Structure of Speech

In short speech has the structure of entries and

exits. Or its forms are greetings, business, and
farewell.
The greetings are such as hello, good morning,
and hi. The farewell may be in the form of bye,
see you, or cheerio.

Greeting versus Address

Address differ from greeting in two ways:
a. Address is used almost solely for power and
solidarity.
Hello, Mary.
Mrs. Smith.
Greetings may vary between two people
depending on their mood.
“Hi!”, “What’s happening?”, “How is it goin’?”

b. Address can be repeated constantly throughout

a conversation to reinforce the relative intimacy
and power between people. Greeting, on the
other hand, only sets the stage.

Rules of addressing:
  Titles: Mr., Mrs., Dr., Professor plus last
name.
 Nicknaming: sir, ma’am, man, boy, your
honor, aunt, uncle.

Discourse Routines
Language makes us free as individuals but chains
us socially.
We control others and they control us by shared
discourse routines. By saying certain things, the
other people in a dialogue force us to respond in
certain ways.
When people say “Thank you” to us, we may say
“You’re welcome” to them.
In order to understand these routines, one must
understand the society in which they occur. Simply
knowing the language is not sufficient, for the true
meaning often lies not in the actual words uttered
but in a complex of social knowledge.

Speech Differences between Women and Men

1. Pronunciation
Girls tend to pronounce the standard realization
of the verb ending /ing/ (reading, visiting,
interesting). Boys tend to say /in/ in (punchin’,
chewin’, and swimmin’).
2. Women regularly employ the use of more
socially prestigious speech than men.
3. Women tend to conserve the use of their mother
tongues longer than men.
4. Women appear to be linguistically conservative,
retaining traditional behavior in preference to
innovation.
5. Women tend to have greater pitch variability.
6. Female speakers use more polite patterns.
7. Men speak with a greater average intensity than
women in interpersonal communication.
8. Women display greater grammatical
competence than men.
9. Men talk about money, business, amusement,
and other men; while women talk about men,
clothes, and other women.
Men tend to talk about competition, sports,
physical aggression, and doing things.
Women tend to talk about self, feelings,
affiliation with others, home, and family.
10. Male speech is characterized as more
attention-seeking (demanding, boastful, loud,
and forceful), dominating, authoritarian,
aggressive, and frank.
Female speech is summarized as friendly,
gentle, enthusiastic, grammatically correct, but
containing trivial topics. Kind, correct, but
unimportant.

Mid-semester Test
Subject : Sociolinguistics AB Instructor : Dr. Adnan Zaid, MSc
Semester : VII Program : S1
Day : Wednesday Date : November 22, 2006
Time : 10.45 – 12.25 R o o m : 18,19

You are supposed to do all the exercises beneath. Make sure your handwriting is
clear and clean. Besides, your sentences must be grammatically correct.
 1. What is Sociolinguistics? And what matters in it?
2. In relation to language, tell about the wave theory with an example.
3. What processes do we have to pass through to establish a standard
language?
4. What factors cause registers? Give examples to back up your answer.
5. Why do people conduct code switching?
6. Ho can you explain that the language someone uses can show his/her
identity? Render some examples.

I wish you all best luck.

FINAL
Subject : Sociolinguistics Instructor : Dr. Adnan Zaid, MSc
Semester : VII Program : S1
Day : Date :
Time : Room :

You are supposed to do all the exercises below. Make sure your handwriting
is clear and clean.

1. Mention the factors that make up register differences with some

examples.
2. Why do people have code switching?
3. How can you explain that the language we speak is influenced by the
beliefs, values, and needs that we have?
4. In what ways does the society control our speech?
5. What norms govern our speech?
6. How can you differentiate a greeting from an address?

I wish you best luck.

Subject : Sociolinguistics AB Instructor : Dr. Adnan Zaid, MSc
Semester : VII Program : S1
Day : Wednesday Date : January 17, 2007
Time : 07.15 – 08.55 R o o m : 11

You are required to do all the following exercises beneath. Make sure your
handwriting is clear and clean. Also keep in mind that your sentences are
grammatically correct.

1. Tell about borrowing in language. And for what reasons do

people use borrowing words?
2. How can you explain that social class, status and role cause
people to use a certain language variety? Render some examples
to back up your explanation.
3. The form and content of language are, to some degree, related to
the beliefs, values, and needs of the society who speak it. Explain
about it with some relevant examples.
4. How can you prove that there are social constraints on speech
that are reflected on linguistics items?
5. What is meant by the statement “speech is skilled work”? Render
some supporting examples.
6. How can you differentiate greeting from address? Illustrate it with
some examples.

I wish you all the best.

 Mid-semester Test
Subject : Sociolinguistics Instructor : Dr. Adnan Zaid, MSc
Semester : VII Program : S1
Day : Wednesday Date : November 14, 2007
Time : 09.50 – 11.30 R o o m : Studio,19

You are supposed to do all the exercises beneath. You are not allowed to
open your book. Make sure your handwriting is clean and clear.

1. Sociolinguistically, what do we have to consider when we communicate with

others? Explain them by giving some examples.
2. What processes does a language have to pass through before it can become a
standard language? Elaborate your answer.
3. Tell about a wave theory by rendering an example.
4. Explain about the kinds of register. Give some examples to back up your
explanation.
5. For what reasons do people have code switching? Render an example for each.
6. What will you explain about the data below?
a. color colour
b. favor favour
c. neighbor neighbour
d. labor labour

7. Give some explanation about the following data.

a. postman post carrier
b. steward/essflight attendant
c. headmaster/mistress school principal
d. policeman police officer
e. waiter/tressattendant

I wish you all the best.

 FINAL

Subject : Sociolinguistics Instructor : Dr. Adnan Zaid, MSc

Semester : VII Program : S1
Day : Wednesday Date : January 9, 2008
Time : 09.50 – 11.30 Room :4

1. Explain that language varieties are influenced by social class, role, and age.
Back up your explanation by rendering some examples.
2. People’s beliefs, values, and needs are related to the form and content of
language. How can you explain it? Some examples are needed to back up your
argument.
3. Why does language play an important role in transmitting culture from
generation to generation?
4. In what ways does society control our speech?
5. How can you explain that one needs to master skills and rules in order to
communicate well?
6. What does the structure of speech consist of? Elaborate them with examples.
7. What are the differences between greeting and address? Render some
examples to support your argument.

I wish you best luck.

 FINAL

Subject : Sociolinguistics Instructor : Dr. Adnan Zaid, MSc

Semester : VII Program : S1
Day : Tuesday Date : January 10, 2012
Time : 09.50 – 11.30 R o o m : II.1

1. Mention the factors that make up register differences with some

examples.
2. What is meant by baby talk? Explain it with some examples.
3. How can you explain that men and women speak differently?
Elaborate your answer.
4. For what reasons do people have code switching?
5. Tell about the wave theory in language varieties. Back up your idea
with an example.
6. In relation to diglossia, tell about Javanese. When do people use the
certain levels in that language?

I wish you best luck.

 Mid-semester Test
Subject : Sociolinguistics Instructor : Dr. Adnan Zaid, MSc
Semester : VII Program : S1
Day : Friday Date : November 14, 2008
Time : 08.00 – 09.40 R o o m : Studio

You are supposed to do all the exercises beneath. You are not allowed to
open your book. Make sure your handwriting is clean and clear.

1. Tell about what we have to consider when we talk to someone.

Give some examples to back up your answer.
2. What advantages do we get when we study Sociolinguistics?
3. In relation to language, explain the wave theory. Render an
example to make your explanation clear.
4. Mentions the kinds of register with an example to elaborate your
ideas.
5. Given the data below, what do you learn?
steward/ess -> flight attendant
headmaster/mistress -> school principal
salesman -> salesperson
policeman -> police officer
waiter/waiterss -> attendant

6. What is meant by diaglossia? Give examples for your

elaboration.

I wish you all best luck.

 Mid-semester Test
Subject : Sociolinguistics Instructor : Dr. Adnan Zaid, MSc
Semester : VII Program : S1
Day : Tuesday Date : November 1, 2011
Time : 09.50 – 11.30 R o o m : II.1

You are required to do all the exercises beneath. All of your books and
notes must be closed. Keep in mind that your sentences must be
grammatically correct.

1. Give some explanation that language and society influence each other.
Render some examples to back up your explanation.
2. How can you describe that people use language in a certain way?
3. What really matters in sociolinguistics?
4. What are the benefits of studying sociolinguistics?
5. For what purposes are the following sentences used for?
a. You ought to be very careful with her heart.
b. Charity won’t make you poor.
c. Why do you treat him that way?
d. Take this medicine three times a day.
e. Let bygones be bygones.
f. I am not that stupid.
6. Give comments on these pairs of sentences.
a. You are welcome.
It’s my pleasure.
b. He has just come in.
He just came in.
c. I don’t have much time.
I haven’t got much time.
d. Is there any lift around here?
Is there any elevator around here?
e. Good afternoon.
Good day.

I wish you all best luck.