An Introduction Sociolinguistics

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTIC

GROUP 1 :

ASRI LARASWATI                               (1588203017)

SHELA SAFHIRA                                  (1588203043)

TEUKU MUHAMMAD RIDHANI      (1588203047)

  

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND TEACHES TRAINING

LANCANG KUNING UNIVERSITY

PEKANBARU

2017

FOREWORD

All Praises to Allah SWT who have given us mercies and blessings, so the writers can finish this paper entitled “ Introduction to Sociolinguistic ”. This paper is made to complete one of assignment of Introduction to Sociolinguistic Course.

The writer also wishes to say gratitude to Mrs. Destina Kasriyati, M.Pd. as the lecturer of Introduction to Sociolinguistic who have guided, and given us an opportunity to make and complete this paper.

The purpose of making this paper, as a future teacher and as a learner of sociolinguistic, we can more understand about use of language, variation of language, add more knowledge and raise awareness for using a good language.

At last, the writer realized this paper is not perfect yet. Therefore, we hope it can be useful for us. Critics, comments, or suggestions are needed to make this paper better.

Pekanbaru, September 27^th, 2017

                                                                                                                    The Writers,

                                                                                                                                 Group 1                    

TABLE OF CONTENT

FORWARD....................................................................................................... i

TABLE OF CONTENT .................................................................................  ii

A.      INTRODUCTION................................................................................... 1

1.      Background of Problem ....................................................................... 1

B.       CONTENT .............................................................................................  2

1.      Definition of Sociolinguistic.................................................................... 2

2.      Concepts  of Sociolinguistic.................................................................. 3

3.      Subfield  and Branches  of Sociolinguistic ............................................  5

4.      Language in Contract............................................................................ 5

5.      Sociolinguistic Methods .......................................................................  6

6.      Factors Influencing Language use .........................................................  6

7.      Sociolinguistic Competence ................................................................... 7

C.      CONCLUSION ........................................................................................  8

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...........................................................................................  9

Review Material by Given Questions and Discussion  in  The Classroom

CHAPTER   I

INTRODUCTION

            As we know that language cannot be separetly with human society. It can we see from human daily activities that almost never stop comunicating with their enfiroment. it also becomes primer human necessary to help their life. According to Gilbert (cited in Otlowsky, 2004:3) stated that if someone cannot hear English well, she or he is cut of from the language. And if someone cannot be understood easily, she or he is cut from conversation with native speaker. From the statment above we can take a point that language has relation with society and it is so important by giving significant effect.

In studying about relation between language and society, lingusits had tried to solve the problems in language social such as creation, renewal and annihilation of language, until they appeared some theories or subdiciplines in linguistic that one of them can we call as sociolinguistics.

In developing of this study, sociolinguistics has played it’s role in inluencing, growing and developing language. It appears by so many studies that divided into many parts, such as methods, varietions, and concepts that will be explained in next chapter.

           

CHAPTER II

CONTENT

1.    Definition of Sociolinguistic

a.      Definition Sociolinguistic by Expert

1)      Fishman 

Sociolinguistic is  “the study of the characteristics of language varities, the characteristics of their functions, and the characteristics of their speakers as these three constantly interact, change, and change one another within a speech community.”

2)      C.Criper dan H.G.Widdowson

Sosiolinguistcs is the study of language operation, it’s purposeis to investigatehow the convention of the language use relate to other aspects of social behavior.

3)      Nancy Parrot Hickerson 1980

Sosiolinguistics is a developing subfield of linguistics which takes speech variation as it’s focus , viewing variation or it social context. Sociolinguistics is concerned with the correlation between such social factors and linguistics variation.

4)      William Labov

has called sociolinguistics secular linguistics, "in reaction to the contention among many linguists working in a broadly Chomskyanframework that language can be dissociated from its social functions" (Key Thinkers in Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language, 2005).

5)      Rubén Chacón-Beltrán

In An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (2013),  observes that in sociolinguistics “the stress is placed on language and its role within communication. Sociology of language, however, centers on the study of society and how we can understand it through the study of language."

6)      Hudson (1996),

Sociolinguistics is “The study of language in relation to sociey…”

            So, Sociolinguists is the study of the relationship between language and society. They are interested in explaining why we speak differently in different social contexts, and they are concerned with identifying the social functions of language and the ways it is used to convey social meaning. Examining the way people use language in different social contexts provides a wealth of information about the way language works, as well as about the social relationships in a community, and the way people convey and construct aspects of their social identity through their language.

            Sociolinguistics is concerned with the relationship between language and the context in which it is used.

            There are  two type of  Sociolinguistic (Sociolinguistics and Sociology of Language), are:

-          Sociolinguistics: It’s main focus is “Society on Language”

-          Sociology of Language: It’s main focus is “Languages effects on society”

b.      Expert of Sociolinguistic

1)      William Labov (1972- US)

            American linguist, widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics. He has been described as "an enormously original and influential figure who has created much of the methodology" of sociolinguistics. He is employed as a professor in the linguistics department of the University of Pennsylvania, and pursues research in sociolinguistics, language change, and dialectology.

2)      Basil Bernstein (1924 - 2000)- UK)

            British sociologist and linguist, known for his work in the sociology of education. Basil Bernstein made a significant contribution to the study of communication with his sociolinguistic theory of language codes.

2.      Concept of Sociolinguistic

a.      Main Concepts in sociolinguistics

1)      SpeechCommunityisDiscrete group of people who use language in a unique and mutually accepted way among themselves.

2)      High/LowPrestigeVarieties is  Speech habits are assigned a positive or a negative value which is then applied to the speaker.

3)      Social Network is Aparticular speech community in terms of relations between individual members in a community.

4)      I-Language and E-Language is Internal language applies to the study of syntax and semantics in language on the abstract level; External language applies to language in social contexts, i.e. behavioral habits shared by a community.

b.      Other important concepts in Sociolinguistic

1)      Standard Language

Standard language refers to mode of usage of most educated speakers of a language and established as the prestigious form of that language. This term is also used for that variety of a language which is considered to be the norm.

2)      Non Standard Language

The term nonstandard was originally used by linguists to refer to language varieties that had previously been labeled with terms such as vulgar. Non standard English differs from Standard English at the level of grammar ( it does not follow the grammar or pronunciation rules of standard language ).

3)      Accent

It is a pattern or manner of pronunciation. An accent may identify the locality in which its speakers reside. (geographical or regional accent). It can indicate the socio-economic status of its speakers, their ethnicity or social class.

Accent can also allow to determine the speaker’s native language.Accents typically differ in quality of voice, pronunciation of vowels and consonants, and stress pitch ( ex: intonation in Spanish and English questions and the speech of people from Ecuadorian Coast and Sierra regions ).

4)      Dialect

Dialect can be defined as standard language, or Prestige Dialect used in business, education, and media. Dialects can be described at different levels according to variations :

• Phonological ( differences in pronunciation , ex: in Spanish llave ( llave) – llave (shave)

• Morphological (word structure)

• Syntactic ( it can be represented by different word order in sentences,)

• Semantic (differences in meaning, ex:football – soccer )

• Grammatical ( differences in grammar structures may depend on social status of speakers, age , gender)

5)      Jargon

      Jargon is defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, group, or event. Jargon: the language used by people who work in a particular area or who have a common interest. "Jargon" can be technical language, for instance, the language used in a given profession (medical jargon, nautical jargon, etc.)

      Jargon is used with these purpose : provide speakers of specialized domains with clear, well-defined, unambiguous terms to refer to their activities and provide speakers od a sub gruop  with a means of marking ingroup membershhip and exclude outsiders

6)      Slang

It refers to the use ofinformal words andexpressions that are notconsidered standard inthe speakers dialect orlanguage. It may refer to things considered taboo or euphemisms “( The substitution of an inoffensive terms such as "passed away" for "died”) .

     

3.      Subfields and Branches of Sociolinguistics

            Sociolinguistics includes some branches, they are :

1)      Anthropological Linguistics,

2)      Dialectology,

3)      Discourse Analysis,

4)      Ethnography Of Speaking,

5)      Geolinguistics,

6)       Language Contact Studies,

7)      Secular Linguistics,

8)      The Social Psychology Of Language And

9)      The Sociology Of Language

4.      Languages in contact (contact linguistics)

            Language contact occurs when two or more languages or varieties interact. The study of language contact is called Contact Linguistics, forms of influence of one language on another:

a.          Borrowing of  Vocabulary: The most common way that languages influence each other is by exchange of words.

b.          Adoption of Other Language Features: The influence can go deeper, extending to the exchange of even basic characteristics of a language such as morphology and grammar.

c.          Language Shift: The result of the contact of two languages can be the replacement of one by the other (superstratum over substratum).

d.         Stratal Influence: when people retain features of the substratum as they learn the new language and pass these features on to their children, leading to the development of a new variety.

e.          Pidginization & Creolization: People with no common language interact, developing a pidgin, which may eventually become a native language.

5.      Sociolinguistic Methods

            The standard way in which sociolinguists investigate [language] use is by random sampling of the population.In classic cases, like those undertaken in New York by William Labov, or in Norwich by Peter Trudgill, a number of linguistic variables are selected, such as 'r' (variably pronounced according to where it occurs in a word) or 'ng' (variably pronounced /n/ or /ŋ/). Sections of the population, known as informants, are then tested to see the frequency with which they produce particular variants. The results are then set against social indices which group informants into classes, based on factors such as education, money, occupation, and so forth. On the basis of such data it is possible to chart the spread of innovations in accent and dialectregionally. 

6.      Factors Influencing Language Use

They are four dominant factors influencing someone’s language use in a given speech community: (a) the participants: who speaks, to whom he speaks, (b) the setting: where does he speak? (c) the topic discussed, and (d) the function: what and why does he speak?. These four factors can be illustrated as follows:

For instance, there are two persons involving in a speech act. They are called as participants. They are identified as father and his son. At home (setting), in order to be familiar between them (function), both father and his son (participants) speak Javanese language to talk about daily activities (topic); they use Indonesian language in another topic. Both speakers never Javanese outside their home to each other; they use Banjarese or Indonesian language.

7.      Sociolinguistic Competence

            Sociolinguistic competence enables speakers to distinguish among possibilities such as the following.To get someone's attention in English, each of the utterances

1. 'Hey!',
2. 'Excuse me!', and
3. 'Sir!' or 'Ma'am!'

            That  are grammatical and a fully meaningful contribution to the discourse of the moment, but only one of them may satisfy societal expectations and the speaker's preferred presentation of self. 'Hey!' addressed to one's mother or father, for example, often expresses either a bad attitude or surprising misunderstanding of the usually recognized social proprieties, and saying 'Sir!' to a 12-year-old probably expresses inappropriate deference.

           

CHAPTER III

CONCLUSION

            This paper started with some of the issues related to socio (society) and linguistic (language). A language is an important thing in a given community, a speech community. It is not a means for communication and interaction but also for establishing and maintaining human relationships.

            One characteristic of a language is that is social. That is to say that all speech events must be in relation to the social aspects. A new-born child acquires a language in the social environment (family as a part of the speech community). A language use also occurs in the speech community.

            Based the geographical area, one community may be different from one to another. This results in the different varieties of language: dialects. These kinds of dialects are known as geographical or regional dialects. The fact also shows us that the members of a community or speech community are in the same social hierarchy. Consequently, there are also varieties of the same language used by the different types of the language users. These kinds of language varieties are known as social dialects.

            Sociolinguistics studies a language and its varieties, and how they are used in the speech community in relation to the socio-cultural background of the language use itself.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Wardhaugh, R. 2006. An introduction to Sociolinguistic. United Kingdom : Blackwell Publishing.

Holmes, J. 2013. An Introduction to Sociolinguistic. USA : Rotledge Taylor and Francis Group

ThoughtCo. Sociolinguistic definition. Retrieved on September 25^nd 2017 : https://www.thoughtco.com/sociolinguistics-definition-1692110

Sigodang. Pengertian Sociolinguistik ii. Retrieved on September 25^nd 2017 : http://sigodang.blogspot.co.id/2008/11/pengertian-sosiolinguistik-ii.html

Fatchulfkip.  Sociolinguistic. Retrieved on September 24^nd 2017 : https://fatchulfkip.wordpress.com/2008/03/19/sociolinguistics/

Slideshare. 2012. Intro to  Sociolinguistic. Retrieved on September 24^nd 2017 : https://www.slideshare.net/ajbessette/intro-to-sociolinguistics-12536272

Review Material with Some Questions in The Classroom

1.      Siti Rafi’ah’s question :

Why accent and dialect include into Sociolinguistics ?

Presenter : we know that language is a system comunicative that used by human in their society enfiroment. In language also, speaker has unique style language that make it different each other. Some styles used by human laguage is dialect and accent. In developing of langauge, dialect and accent give biggest in influncing a language. we can take one example, the different city and village language, include intonation rhyme, polite, and culture.

Added by : -

2.      Diana Pasaribu’s question :

Can you give me a example that can make Sociolinguistics different with Sociology of Language ?

Presenter : actuallly, there are so many example can we find from two points above. It can we see from emphasizing of the definition. Sociolinguistics focuses on using language in society included as necessary, entertiment and etc. While Sociology of language focuses on effect from using or renewal a language, for ilustration: some of us maybe ever hear someone or a group use a language that can we call as Gaul language or Alay language. from using the language we can obtain analysis of using the language from the enfiroment of speaker. In influncing of the language there are some people like and adopt the language as daliy language and it creates new passion in life style. But also there are some people’s perspectives think that it is so bad and the effet of that appearing the langauge is excomunicate in the life.

Added by Febty Mahani : Sociolinguistics emphasize on using Language. while Sociology of Language emphasizes on using language as major of some people.

3.      Febty’s question

What is difference betwen accent and dialect ?

Presenter : accent si style language used by people from different region, social class , etc. It emphasizes different each other such as pronunciation, intonation, polite, and meaning of word. For instace, we can compare using language by ctity and village langguage.While dialect is style of language emphasizes using language as formal or standar language usually used in education, business, conference, etc.

Added by Dela Safitri : Dialect is style of language used as vast in this world in a region. While Accent is style of languge used as some people in a region.

Added by Nabila Firda Asyari : dialect is style of language that different in word and intonation. While accent is style of language emphasizing only the intonation.

Added by Rumintang Harianja : accent and dialect in Sociolinguistics is varietion of study of relation in human society. They almost same in applicating, but so different in contextual of using. Accent has job to consider structure of langauge while dialect focus on using language as standard language, include some aspects emhasizing on polite and formal laguage.