SOCIOLINGUISTICS

SOCIOLINGUISTICS Multilingualism and the Language Community Language and Social Inequalities Written by: MUHAMMAD MUKHTAR NIM: 07123369 GRADE: IIIA ENGLISH DEPARTMENT ACADEMIC YEARS: 2007 THE INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION PGRI BOJONEGORO FACULTY LANGUAGE OF EDUCATION AND ART 2010 Preface Assalaamu’alaikum War.Wab. Thank God for mercies and blessing given us. Sholawat and salam to our Rosul SAW. For the guidance, thank for the joining this book. “Nobody’s perfect “that is my motto in writing this book. I realize that this is far from being perfect but I do expect it will be of any use for you the learners, it is for this reason I try to give you my the best, even it is not the best. No one can arrive from being talented alone; God gives talent, work transform into genius. I open my heart for the constructive criticism as well as the advice from those who really wants to have this book better improved. My sincere gratitude is, of course addressed to them, because satisfaction is the head of happiness. Wassalaamu’alaikum War. Wab. Written: MUHAMMAD MUKHTAR III A NIM: 07123369 List of Contents Content: Page: Unit One. Multilingualism and the language community (1) Lesson 1. Multilingualism (1) Lesson 2. Second Language Learning (1) Lesson 3. Polyglossia (2) Lesson 4. Speech Communities (2) Lesson 5. Language Attitudes (2) Unit Two. Language and Social Inequalities (3) Lesson 1. Age (3) Lesson 2. Sex (4) Lesson 3. Form of Address (4) Lesson 4. Social Class (5) Lesson 5. Social Mobility and Hypercorrection (5) Unit One Multilingualism and the Language Community 1. Multilingualism One of the most interesting of all sociolinguistics phenomena is multilingualism;there is also a growing concern over the treatment of multilingualism in education especially in many countries that were once colonized. In many societies of the world,we find large number of people who speak more than one language.Generally those who speaks two languages are called bilingual. Although there is no reason why the term multilingual can not be applied to all person speaking more than one language. Hailiday (1968: 1940) coil such a speaker who has completely mastered two languages and makes use of both in all situation am bilingual. Most bilingual people restrict one of their languages to certain uses. Compound bilinguals are those who attribute identical meanings to corresponding words and expressions in their two languages. Example: They can be considered social situations at the level of face to face interaction which involve language appropriate to certain places, role relationships and topic.One linguistic problem of the bilingual is keeping the two languages apart, most bilinguals do not succeed.To the extend that he does and this is more likely to happen in the case of the coordinate bilingual, he is in a sense two separate speakers in one person inability to keep the two languages separate results in norm of either language which occur in the speech of bilinguals as a result of their familiarity with more than one language”(Weinrich 1953: 1).Language community is the communication process in a social community of situations for the use of particular. Example: the language of politics community. Specific kinds of interference are often referred to as”Foreign accent“,“Language mixture“,“ unidiomatic expression“,“ Borrowings“.These phenomena may or may not be deliberate and may range from a slip of the tongue or a personal habit to a usage of the whole community.The skills involved in bilingualism are production or encoding skills (Speaking and Writing )and reception or decoding skills (Listening and Reading),in each of these four skills we can distinguish the phonological, lexical, syntactic and semantic aspects. 2. Second Language Learning The easily observed difference between the ease of childhood language learning and the difficulty of adult language learning is oft-cited evidence that there is indeed a difference, due possibly to some physiological or psychological lost by the adult. The firs language is learned in everyday, ordinary setting of family living. The second language is typically learned and a more formal setting, characterized by secondary-group relations frequently a school of some short. Learning of the second language whether in a formal or informal setting, more often that not involves contact and interaction with members of a different ethnic group. Example. The nature of the relationship between the two ethnic groups their relative numbers,power.The adult language learning embodies logic and good sense; the adult may be resistant to learning a new system of thinking. 1 2 3. Polyglossia A phenomenon related to bilingualism and often confused with it is the situation called diglossia. Example: the use of two different languages or language varieties, a “high” formal official one, and a “low” informal colloquial one in of Ferguson. The “high” formal variety (H) and the “low” colloquial (L) one have specialized functions, such that only H is appropriate in one situation, and another only L with very slight overlapping between the two set. Diglossia is a relatively stable language situation in which in addition to the primary dialects of the language (which may include a standard or regional standard), there is very divergent, highly codified (often grammatically more complex) superposed variety, the vehicle of a large and respected body of written literature, either of an earlier period or another speech written and formal spoken purposes, but is not uses by any sector of the community, which is learned largely by formal education and is used for most community for ordinary conversation. 4. Speech Communities A speech community is one all of whose members share at least a single speech variety and the norms for its appropriate use (Fishman, 1972: 22). Special concern from sociolinguistics point of view is the totality of language varieties shared members of a community, that is, its linguistic repertoire. We are interested in the presence or absence of polyglossia, the extend of multilingualism, multidialectism. Example: Different types of communities, nomadic, rural, traditional urban have different patterns in this regard. Each may form a speech community, which has its own rules for the conduct. There are some different ions between casual, everyday speech and styles used in ritually defined situation such as for example religious ceremonies or myth recital. 5. Language Attitudes Language attitude actually encompasses a wide spectrum of attitudes, values, beliefs and emotion regarding language. Though labeled as such by the sociologist or social psychologist, they are likely to be regarded as some sort of self-evident truth or “natural” feeling by the persons who hold them. Language attitudes are ordinarily conservative for one must be convinced that changing his attitude toward a particular type of speech will not have repercussions he can handle. Language community seems to be extremely uniform throughout a speech community. Example: a group of speakers who share a set social attitude toward language. The subject are asked to make judgments as to characteristic of the speaker s without, however, realizing that the speakers recur in matched guises.Since the set of speakers for both languages and dialects is the same,any attitudinal differences found the two sets of recorded excerpts must stem form attitudes toward the language variety and its speakers rather than the speakers actually heard thus. Example: Lower class speakers are perceived as less intelligent or confident although not less kind or good natured (Fremder and Lambert 1973: 244-245).Several important findings have arisen from this work, such as the fact that subjective evaluation of social dialects or foreign languages are quite uniform throughout a speech community. 3 Unit Two Language and Social Inequalities Language and Social Inequalities One of the most pervasive of all sociocultural universals is social stratification, which is the unequal social distribution of prestige, power, wealth and privilege. This involves also the ranking of persons and groups along various dimensions distratification (education, income, occupation etc), as well as the identification of ranked categories such as social classes, ethnic groups, castes or estates. The wealthier and more prestigious are also likely to be the more powerful, although these variables are no by means always perfectly correlated. Speech is one of the most effective instruments in existence for maintaining a given social order involving social relationships including economic as well as prestige hierarchies. Stratification may be either sharp or it maybe gradient, in which case various social groups. Some variants may be socially prestigious, that is, they have been adopted by a high status group. Example: To whom would you like to speak. Or may be stigmatized variants, those features associated with low status groups, don’t you have no more grapes left, etc. The dimensions of stratification which appear to be the most sociolinguistic ally relevant are Age, Sex, Form of Address, Social Class, Social Mobility and Hypercorrection. 1. Age It is apparent to even the most casual observer that there are differences among the ways of: a. Various age categories speak Various age categories speak. Those are Characterized, Adolescents and elderly. a.1. Characterized Its difference typical or qualities “childish” in phonology, syntax and lexicon. Example: Bunny rather than rabbit, the child use “Baby” words. a.2. Adolescents “ Brash” or “Vulgar” the adolescents attempts to use fresh slang. Example: That’s cool rather than O.K. a.3. Elderly Respected using words or expression no longer in current use among the remainder of the population as “Old-fashioned” Example: The attitudes of the labelers. The elderly tend to use words or expressions no longer in current use among the remainder of the population. b. Various age categories referred to and addressed in different societies. Persons in various age categories are referred to and addressed in different ways. Much as the kinship categories established in different societies are conventional as far as the degree of actual blood relationship is concerned, so recognize age categories are also some what arbitrary. Example: who is to be called a “child” or a “boy” or a “girl” has varied widely from society to society and fro one historical period to another. 4 2. Sex On the assumption that any social differences are bound to be reflected in linguistic ones that spoken by and about women is different from that spoken by and about men. Generally inferior position which women occupy in virtually all societies. Example: women speech is frequently more conservative and evaluated as better than men’s speech. Differences men’s and women’s speech my range from differences in pronunciation and grammar, which are scarcely noticed except by linguist, to obvious differences system taught to children. Actually some studies show women to be linguistically innovative; others show them to be linguistically conservative. This apparent contradiction results from linguists failing to realize that women’s role in language needs to be linked to the social position of women in the communities studied and to the related question of what women want to express about themselves to speech. As Gal (1978) has indicated. Haas (1964b: 229-230) notes that “each sex are quite familiar with both types of speech and can use either as occasion demands. Thus, a man is telling a tale, he will use women’s form when quoting a female character … moreover; parents were formerly accustomed to correct the speech of the children of either sex since each child was supposed to use form appropriate to his or her sex. There are also linguistic sex differences of this type among a number of other American Indian communities and some people in northeast Asia. 3. Form of Address It’s depending on relative status of the interlocutors, they must be considered in the context of the stratification system of the overall society. Example: a person can potentially be addressed by name, title, kinship term, nick name and combination of these, for example; your honor, Father, Alexander etc. precisely which will be used on a given occasion depends on that society’s sociolinguistic rules, the situation, and the intention of the speaker. On the other hand, in the Ottoman Turkish Empire a very elaborate system was used. Of the Turkish pronouns meaning “you” seen was use for children, intimate friends, servants, or pupils, while size or even politer forms, was used for equals. In addressing a superior one use efendim, zantiniz, or zati aliniz (Literally “my master” your person and “your exalted person” respectively). In person today in certain situations one uses different verbs in addressing superiors or equals. Thus, for example, in referring to what a person (Intimate or inferior) has said, one would ordinarily say. /de gofti? / what did you say,” but to an equal or superior. /de farmudid? / lit “what did you command?” but conversely to indicate “ I said ….” One would use the humble expression. In English, if we wish to show respect, humility, we can use a series of devices, such as intonation, circumlocution, euphemism, idioms, gestures.In many cases the polite form is also used to address more than one person in fact, this wasits former use. Example: Familiar Polite Spanish tu Usted French tu Vous German du Sie 5 4. Social Class Social class is one of the most highly developed and explored concepts in the social sciences, it would appear that the more stratified the society, the greater is the linguistic different ion. Example: In India there is a sharp division between social strata such that the great social distance separating the strata in general consciousness is usually expressed in correspondingly cons pious caste dialects. In modern, open societies with considerable movement up and down the socioeconomics ladder, lower-class speech characteristics will also be normally found in the working and lower-middle classes as well, though not as frequently. Example: In American English the so-called double negative, he don’t for he doesn’t or runnin’ for running. The speech of the more advantaged classes normally shows less regional diversification than does the speech of the lower classes, which are less likely to communicate with each other over long distances. Example: One finds much more geographical variation within a single Arab country like Lebanon. 5. Social Mobility and Hypercorrection Just as social structures are never static but are in a constant state of flux and change, so too the people who operate within these structures are frequently or the move from one position to another within those structures. Such movement can be on a daily basis as when. Example: A woman is a housewife during the day and a student at night, or a person who is school teacher during the academic year may operate a camp during the summer months. When a person aspires to a higher, he generally attempts to emulate the ways of category of people into whom he wishes to move, that is, his reference group, his knowledge of their ways, including their linguistic ways, is likely to be far from perfect. Example: He is likely to comprehend certain of their linguistic rules in an incomplete way, so that he tends to over generalize some of them to cases to which they do not apply. This leads to the phenomenon known as hypercorrection. De Camp (1972: 87) has defined it as “an incorrect analog with a form in a prestige dialect which the speaker has imperfectly mastered”. The identify cases of hypercorrection only if we know the social status of the speaker’s dialect relative to the accepted standard of the community. Example: In English is used for subject of a verb, and me for a direct or indirect object and after a preposition. 1. Jennifer gave the bagels to Harry and I. 2. The beagle bit Harry and I. Some readers will undoubtedly retort at this point, that sentence 1 and 2 are correct, at least “In my dialect” True enough and in American English one increasingly hears constructions of this type. But the point is that this is an innovation one which originated in hypercorrection through linguistic insecurity it is now entirely possible that this become the norm for academic English as one hears this more and more frequently. A particular linguistic variable may become so associated in the popular mind with a particular variety that it becomes, in effect, a stereotype. Closure Thankful I say to Mr. Surono, M. Pd who gives me motivated and spirits to accomplish this assignment that given to me. I realize that knowledge without observation is useless, so if any comments from the readers or users are welcomed. “No body is bored when he is trying to make something that is beautiful or to make something that is beautiful or to discover something that is true”.