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By the end of this topic, you should be able to:

1. Explain the difference between language and dialect;

2. Draw a diagram of social networks;

3. Identify the basic difference between regional and social dialects;

4. Identify the different variables which in! uence the use of style; and

5. Enumerate the concept of register.

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Ah Chan lives in Alor Setar, Kedah. She converses with her family in Cantonese, a Chinese dialect, and speaks to her neighbour in Hokkien, another Chinese dialect. She uses the Kedah dialect at the grocery store where she buys provisions. She uses the standard Malay language (Bahasa Malaysia) when she is in school where she also studies English as a second language. She understands enough Thai to enjoy the Thai movies that she gets to watch on the local TV network.

According to Holmes (2001), more than half the people in the world speak at least two languages. Most Malaysians living in a multiracial society tend to be bilingual and many are multilingual. In the case of Ah Chan as described previously, Cantonese and Hokkien are dialects of her Chinese language, the Kedah dialect is for communicating in the immediate society that she lives in, Bahasa Malaysia for education, English for future advancement, and Thai for recreational purposes.

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In this topic, we will discuss the criteria developed by sociolinguists to differentiate language, dialect and variety. The discussion of language and dialect will also include diaglossia and its origin.

This topic serves as an introduction to sociolinguistics who are concerned with the relationship between language and society.

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What is ‘language’ and what is ‘dialect’? When does a dialect become a language? Many would say that one of the main criteria is mutual unintelligibility.

Mutual unintelligibility means that when speakers of two different dialects do not understand each other, they may be said to be speaking two different languages. This is a popular criterion but one which may not apply in real situations. Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are mutually intelligible but they are considered different languages rather than different dialects of the Scandinavian language.

In contrast, the Chinese language comprises many dialects which are mutually unintelligible such as Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien and Mandarin. They are very different, as different as Bahasa Melayu and German, Hindi and Japanese. However, the Chinese do not consider them different languages. To them, they are just different dialects of a single language which are united through a common writing system and a similar political, social and cultural tradition.

There is also a difference of size. Language is the superordinate term because it comprises the total sum of all the variants of a speci"c language. For instance, English language comprises Scottish English, Yorkshire English, Black English, Malaysian English and so on. Dialect is any set of one or more varieties of a language. It must share at least one feature or a combination of features which distinguishes it from other dialects of the language.

The difference between language and dialect may also be sociohistorical. For instance, Hindi and Urdu are the same language. However, due to political and religious differences between India and Pakistan, minor linguistic differences between these two varieties have been magni"ed. Hindi is written from left to right in the Devanagari script. Urdu, on the other hand, is written from right to left in the Arabic-Persian script. Hindi borrows heavily from Sanskrit while Urdu relies on Arabic and Persian for its borrowings.

Unlike dialect, a full-!edged language has a writing system and is used in formal documentation. Dialects tend to represent the non-standard, even the sub-standard. This implies a certain level of inferiority to those who speak a dialect. A language has more power than its dialects. This is because the dialect

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that is chosen as the language is usually one which belongs to the politically and socially superior group of speakers.

However, not all languages are equally prestigious. Thai and Laos are two closely related varieties of a language. Laotians understand spoken Thai as it is widely used in the media such as radio and television. Educated Laotians may also comprehend written Thai. Thais do not readily understand spoken and written Lao. This re!ects a power relationship. As far as Thai people are concerned, Thai is a high prestige language unlike Lao. This does not mean that these languages are inherently unequal. As far as linguistic judgements are concerned, all languages are equal. It is the social judgement which makes people regard one language as more important and powerful than another.

Solidarity is another contributing factor. This refers to common interest, the feelings that tie or bond one with the other. The situation in Yugoslavia is an example. Serbs and Croats used to speak Serbo-Croatian (a South Slav language). They had their own versions of this language and the difference between them was mainly vocabulary rather than pronunciation or grammar. The Serbs used Cyrillic for its written script while the Croats used Roman. When the Serbs and Croats split apart, so did the language. Now the Serbs speak Serbian while the Croats speak Croat. Serbo-Croatian is non-existent in the Balkans, and Serbian and Croatian have become two separate languages.

Bell (1976 in Wardhaugh 1998), has outlined seven criteria which may help differentiate language and dialect. A language may ful"ll any or several subsets of these criteria:

• standardisation;

• vitality;

• historicity;

• autonomy;

• reduction;

• mixture; and

• de facto norms.

(a) Standardisation First is standardisation, which is achieved through the process of selection,

codi"cation, elaboration of function and acceptance which will be elaborated later in this module. The standardisation process involves direct interaction of the society where a certain dialect is chosen as a unifying force for the country and a symbol of independence from other states.

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(b) Vitality Second is vitality, which refers to the current existence of a community of

speakers. This helps to differentiate between living and dead languages. An example of a dead language in the United Kingdom is Manx which used to exist on the Isle of Man. It should be noted, however, that certain dead languages remain signi"cant. Latin which mainly exists in written but not in spoken form is very prestigious. Classical Arabic plays a signi"cant role in unifying Islamic countries and Classical Chinese is important not only to modern Chinese, but also to Japanese and Korean.

(c) Historicity The sense of a common identity for a speci"c group of people using a

speci"c language is called historicity - the third criterion. The shared identity may be social, religious, political or ethnic in nature. Russians are uni"ed by a common language just like the many varieties of Arabic which are bonded together through Classical Arabic.

(d) Autonomy Fourth is autonomy which refers to emotions. This means the speakers

themselves must feel that the language is perceived by its speakers as a language, not just a variety.

(e) Reduction Fifth is reduction. This means a variety is recognised as a subordinate rather

than a superordinate. For instance, the Kelantanese may almost certainly say that they are speaking a variety of Bahasa Melayu, and that there exists other subordinate varieties such as the Kedah dialect. These varieties may lack a writing system and may be limited in function.

(f) Mixture Mixture is the sixth criterion. It refers to the speakers’ perception of the

purity of the variety that they use. Speakers of certain languages such as French, make conscious efforts to preserve the pure form of the language. This is achieved through the establishment of local bodies such as the Academie Francaise.

(g) De facto Norms Lastly is de facto norms. This refers to the speaker’s perception of the

norms of proper usage. Such norms will distinguish good speakers from poor speakers. They are highly important in certain languages. For instance, English speakers perceive that it is important for them to speak both correctly and appropriately, i.e. what to say, how to say it, to whom, when, etc. The need to be communicatively competent has made English a marketable and pro"table entity. When users of a language speak and write it badly in almost all situations, the language may be dying.

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Different languages satisfy a different subset of the criteria mentioned. Nevertheless, “there is no distinction to be drawn between language and dialect “(Hudson, 1996:37). The two terms are ambiguous as the difference is more than just linguistic. Through the direct intervention of society, a dialect goes through the process of standardisation to become a standardised language.

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The steps of standardising language are illustrated in Figure 1.1.

(a) Selection As mentioned previously, the "rst step in standardising a language is

selection. A variety or a combination of varieties can be selected and developed into a standardised language. The selection is of great social and political signi"cance where the selected variety is recognised as prestigious by the community. Usually the dialect of the politically powerful and socially prestigious will be selected. The chosen variety may also be one which has no native speakers, as in the case of classical Hebrew in Israel and Bahasa Indonesia in Indonesia.

(b) Codi!cation Secondly is codi!cation. Some agencies or academies will produce

dictionaries and grammar to de"ne what is correct and incorrect. An example is Dewan Bahasa and Pustaka in this country. The decision made by these organisations must be shared and accepted by all users of the language.

Steps in Standardising a

Language

Selection CodificationElaboration of

FunctionAcceptance

Figure 1.1: Steps in standardising language

What is your native language? Is it a standard language or a dialect? Where is your language best spoken? How does your dialect differ from other dialects of your language?

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What is the difference between language and dialect?

(c) Elaboration of Function Thirdly, is the elaboration of function. The selected variety must cater

for various functions and situations such as government, bureaucratic, educational, business, scienti"c, legal and so forth. This may require additional linguistic items to be added, perhaps through the process of borrowing. Existing forms may also be employed in new ways so that a more established language can be achieved.

(d) Acceptance Finally is acceptance. The selected variety must be accepted as the standard

language by the target population. If acceptance is achieved, the following three factors may take place:

(i) the standard language can serve as a strong unifying force for the country;

(ii) it becomes the symbol of independence from other states; and

(iii) it serves as a marker to differentiate one state from another.

In contrast to standard language, vernacular language refers to language which is unstandardised and has not been made of"cial. There are hundreds of languages which are not standardised such as Buang in New Guinea. The term vernacular implies the following:

• it is uncodi"ed and unstandardised;

• it is acquired in the home, as the "rst variety; and

• it refers to any language which is not the of"cial language of a country.

So, in Malaysia, a language like Tamil is referred to as vernacular. Similarly, Greek is a vernacular language in Australia but not in Greece or Cyprus. Vernacular language is the most colloquial variety of a person’s language. Since it is acquired at home, it is used among family and close friends for the purpose of maintaining solidarity. This term has also been extended to refer to a monolingual community or people from the same ethnic group.

The UNESCO report in 1951 de"nes vernacular language as the "rst language of a group, socially or politically dominated by a group with a different language.

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People from the same group often speak in the same way. They may use the same code and share the same norms and values. They may be said to belong to the same speech community.

Read on to "nd out the answers to these questions.

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Let us start this section by discussing the different de"nitions of speech community.

In other words, Lyons conceives of people who speak the same language or dialects, such as English, as representing one speech community. This de"nition has several weaknesses:(i) The dif"culty in distinguishing language and dialects. Since the two terms

are ambiguous, it makes Lyons’ de"nition ambiguous too. (ii) A single language such as English is spoken in many different varieties,

e.g. China, Philippines, Singapore. (iii) Variety can be regarded as its own community too. (iv) A single speech community may employ more than one language, as in case

of Malaysia and Singapore. (v) Many speakers of different languages such as Austrian, German and

Hungarian share similar rules on greetings, expressing condolences, and so forth. Language background alone does not in!uence the rules and norms of communication.

(vi) De"ning a speech community by linguistic variable alone is too restrictive as group identity is also shaped by factors such as ethnicity, culture, and political forces.

Lyons (1970:3260), de"nes a speech community as comprising of all the people who use a given language and dialect.

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What are the boundaries which differentiate one speech community from another? Is there a precise de"nition of speech community? Is it as ambiguous as the terms “language” and “dialect”? Is the de"nition purely linguistic or does it include cultural, social and political elements?

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Labov’s views mark a focal shift from the use of language elements to shared norms and beliefs which make speakers identify with a certain group or community. Such norms and beliefs may not be exclusively linguistic in nature. For instance, speakers of Hindi may see themselves as separate from those speaking Urdu, while speakers of the various Chinese dialects may see themselves as members of the same community even though their dialects are mutually unintelligible and may not allow them to share a sense of community except through a shared writing system.

Gumperz (1971:101), who introduced the term linguistic community, de"nes it as a social group which may be either monolingual or multilingual, held together by frequency of social interaction patterns and set off from the surrounding areas by weaknesses in the lines of communication.

Labov (1972:120-121), has a different view of speech community which is “not de!ned by any marked agreement in the use of language elements, so much as by participation in a set of shared norms.”

On the other hand, Gumperz (1971), argues that there is no ground to de"ne speech community by requiring that all members speak in a single language or a single variety. Communities may be bilingual or multilingual, bidialectal or multidialectal.

This implies that, internally, there must be social cohesiveness that binds the community. At the same time, there must also be factors that differentiate it from other communities. A community is not just de"ned by what it is, it must also be distinguished from others by identifying what it is not.

Hymes (1974), supports the idea that a speech community cannot be de"ned solely by linguistic characteristics.

He cites the example of the Ngoni in Africa. Most Ngonis no longer speak their language but instead use the language of Malawi, the country they conquered. However, the Malawi language uses the conventions of the Ngoni language so as to demarcate itself from others. This is also true of English. Many minority groups speak English in distinctive ways so as to preserve their identity and distinguish themselves from the dominant group. This may be in terms of ethnicity, region, social class, and so forth.

For Hymes and many others, the term speech community is dif"cult to de"ne. Linguistics alone is inadequate since what is also important is how individuals relate to society through the use of language and its varieties.

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There are, for instance, the English speaking community (in contrast to German or Chinese), the New York speech community (in contrast to Detroit) and the Kuala Lumpur speech community (in contrast to Kelantan). A person often belongs to more than one speech community and it is important that the de"nition of speech community allows speakers to !exibly shift from one speech community to another.

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An individual may simultaneously belong to several speech communities. Ah Chan, as we saw in the example at the beginning of this topic, lives in a multilingual setting. At home, she speaks Chinese, her native language. When conversing with her teachers in school, she switches between English and Bahasa Malaysia. With her school friends, the switch is between English and the Kedah dialect. And when she shops in Alor Star, the Kedah dialect is used. As is clear, in the course of the day, Ah Chan constantly switches from one community identi"cation to another. At times, the switch may even take place in a single utterance.

According to Wardhaugh (1999:124), the term community or group refers to “any set of individuals united for a common end, that end being quite distinct from ends pursued by other groups.”

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1. List the different speech communities to which you belong.

2. Compare and contrast the following pairs of famous personalities. Do they belong to the same speech community? Why?

(a) President Bush and President Clinton

(b) Michael Jackson and Mel Gibson

(c) Mahatma Gandhi and Margaret Thatcher

(d) Shakespeare and Chaucer

(e) Siti Nurhaliza and Mr Bean

(f) Noam Chomsky and Steven Speilberg

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Speakers in a community have a repertoire of social identities. They are constantly creating social identities for themselves and such identi"cations are in"nite. At any one time, identi"cation may be based on religion, another on ethnicity, then it may be regional, and yet another on social class or occupation.

Usually, speakers will identify themselves as members of a speci"c community on one occasion, and as members of a different community in another. The decision on the speech community one wants to be identi"ed with at a speci"c point in time is dependent upon the purpose of communication. Knowledge and skill of social and communicative rules to be employed is part of communicative strategy, which is not just verbal but also non-verbal. The repertoire of intersecting identi"cations results in linguistic variation. People do not speak the same way all the time and different people speak differently.

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What are social networks? Read the following situation to understand the term:

Social networks deal with the characteristics of interaction between people that is, how individuals in society relate to each other. It delineates how intensively or frequently A interacts with B, then with C, and so on. It also deals with how extensive or inter-related they are to each other, that is, how many others interact with A, B or C. Figure 1.2 provides a few examples of social network relationships. Diagram I shows a strong link because all members are equally linked to each other. In contrast, Diagram II is weakly linked because they are only linked to A and not to each other. Diagram III shows an even weaker relationship between A and E as the link is achieved only through C and D.

Chad lives in Sri Serdang with his housemate Putra. They study at the same university. Before going home everyday, they will have dinner at Jie’s house. Jie is Chad’s sister. During weekends, Putra and Chad will play soccer with their coursemate Nazar and their neighbour Bob.

Figure 1.2: Network relationships

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There are two important terms which are used to describe different types of network density and plexity.

(a) Density refers to the measure of ties among the members. If A has "ve friends, and all "ve know each other, the network is dense. If only two of them know each other, it is less dense. If none of them know each other, then the network is loose, as illustrated by Diagrams II and III.

In the case of Chad and his friends (refer to Figure 1.3), the network is dense because they know each other independently of Chad. Chad’s friends interact with each other on a regular basis, with or without Chad. This is shown in the various connections between Chad, Putra, and Jie. The relationship with Cash, however, is loose because it is only linked through Jie, and Cash is not linked to any of the rest.

(b) Plexity refers to the range of interactions that the speakers are involved in with different individuals. A uniplex relationship is one where a speaker is linked to the other person only in one area. For example:

A multiplex relationship refers to interactions with other speakers in a

variety of contexts. This means that they are not only tied together through school but also through work and other social contexts. Chad’s network is multiplex. The people he studies with are also friends that he socialises and lives with.

Putra

Jie

CashBob

ChadNazar

Figure 1.3: Chad’s social network relationship

The type of network one belongs to re!ects the speech used. The need to identify with a certain group will also in!uence one’s speech. If one mixes regularly with a relatively homogenous group and bears a positive attitude towards this group, one tends to speak like the rest of the group.

• A knows B because they are taking a course together.

• A plays badminton with B but they never meet in other contexts.

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This situation is common, for instance, among school children. Parents often realise (sometimes to their horror) that their children’s speech resembles their school friends’ instead of the family’s. For adults, they may use a relatively standardised form at their work place, and a vernacular form at the local market. They will switch their speech according to context and situation.

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All languages have internal variations.

• Do variations occur in languages or do they also occur in dialects?

• Is language the total sum of varieties?

According to Hudson (1996:2), a variety of language refers to “a set of linguistic item with similar social distribution.” This suggests that sports commentary, Malaysian English, lower class New York English, upper class New York English, Kadazan, Bidayuh and so forth are varieties of language since they have a similar social distribution.

The term variety is general, as general as the term music or plants which then can be employed to differentiate the types of music or plants. It applies to “something greater than a single language and as well as something less, less even than something traditionally referred to as dialect” (Wardhaugh, 1998:21.)

This means variety may refer to as large as several different languages to as tiny as a single item. Variety relates to the association between linguistic items (sounds, words, grammatical structures, etc.) and external factors such as location, social class, age and gender. Sociolinguists are interested in investigating if there are patterns or conventions in the use and usage of the linguistic items and the range of speakers and situations that they are associated with.

Why have the general term varieties? One of the most practical reasons is that it allows us to form a basis in distinguishing concepts such as language and dialects. From earlier discussion, we know that the difference between these terms is not as straightforward. Languages are not distinguished from dialects because of natural boundaries or sets of interlocking structural relations. Linguistics alone

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Name "ve people you know and draw a diagram which illustrates the social network that links you and the "ve of them.

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may not be adequate. In fact, the sets of structural relations may be mixed up and loosely tied.

Since there is no consistent distinction between language and dialect, the general term variety, for the purpose of practicality, may be used to refer to both language and dialects, and even style and register. The two latter concepts will be discussed later in this topic. We will now focus on language variation in a monolingual community which can be categorised into two:

• regional dialect; and

• social dialect.

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When a person travels from one region to another, he/she is likely to encounter noticeable changes in the way language is spoken by locals. These changes are not just con"ned to pronunciation, it also involves the choice of words and syntax. Such distinctive varieties of language are called regional dialects.

The study of regional dialect comes under the "eld of dialect geography. Dialect geography attempts to “map the different distribution of various linguistic features so as to show their geographical provenance” (Wardhaugh, 1999:42). It seeks to describe how the different distinctive features of a language are used in different areas.

For instance, is there an “r” pronouncing area in words such as “car” and “cart” in English? What is the preferred form of past tense of certain words such as “drink”? What are the choices of words that are used to describe common objects in the environment? An example is the vocabulary chosen such as the word toilet among the many possibilities - lavatory, loo, washroom, ladies, or restroom. In the Malaysian context, which is the preferred choice; fridge, refrigerator, peti sejuk or ice box?

Based on "ndings from these studies, boundaries are identi"ed and maps are drawn to distinguish the areas where certain items are found from those that are absent. These boundaries are called isoglosses and the main purpose of isoglosses is to differentiate areas where a certain feature is employed from another where it is not. When we have a situation where several isoglosses coincide, it is called dialect boundary.

The term dialect is employed if there is a strong literary tradition of writing associated with the regional variety. In the absence of literary tradition, it is referred to as patois. Patois also describes the variety of speech from rural areas.

Therefore, we have rural patois rather than rural dialect. In urban areas, we have urban dialects instead of urban patois. Furthermore, patois also applies to the

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Dialect Patois

Has strong literary tradition of writing No literary tradition of writing

Urban variety Rural variety

Used by higher class speakers Used by lower class speakers

Covers smaller geographical area Covers bigger geographical area

lower class speech variety. We have lower class patois and middle class dialects but not middle class or upper class patois. Patois also covers smaller geographical distributions, so village patois and regional dialect is acceptable, but village dialect and regional patois is not.

Just like language and dialect, the difference between patois and dialect is also ambiguous. Jamaicans perceive their Jamaican English variety as patois rather than dialect. A summary of these differences is presented in Table 1.1.

The trend in sociolinguistics now seems to be that the term dialect is used to refer to both patois and dialects with and without the writing system, regardless of location, size and social status. Patois is not frequently used as a scienti"c description in most texts.

The variety of regional dialects changes from place to place. In a big country, one may notice the dialect that is heard at the beginning of the journey may be very different from the dialect at the end of the journey, so much so that the dialects at both ends of the journey are mutually unintelligible. In between, there is no speci"c point that can be identi"ed as the changeover location, nor is there a way to determine the number of intermediate dialect areas for each of these dialects. This is referred to as a dialect continuum where the dialects along the continuum are sequentially arranged over space: A, B, C, etc. At the end of each continuum, the varieties of bordering states may be mutually intelligible.

For instance, let us look at the case of Dutch-German and French-Italian. Despite their similarities, when asked, speakers will most likely claim that they are speaking dialects of their national languages, Dutch, German, French or Italian. Such responses are not based on existing linguistic differences, but on political, social, and cultural considerations. Their desire to conform to the national standard and be differentiated from other national languages has made the small linguistic differences more pronounced.

The term dialect should not be confused with accent. Accent refers to pronunciation. A famous English accent is the Received Pronunciation (RP) which is also known as the Queen’s English, Oxford English and BBC English.

Table 1.1: Dialect vs Patois

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This accent belongs to only about 3% of people in England and was prestigious in the late 19th century. It is disputable if the Queen of England does in fact use RP. Both the staff and students of Oxford University employ a variety of accents. Even BBC are now using regional accents. There is no unaccented language. Some languages are accented because of geography while others, such as English, are due to social factors. This brings us to the next sub-topic - social dialects.

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The variety of social group or social class can also lead to differences in speech, and this is referred to as social dialects.

The term social group or social class can be used to refer to ethnic, occupation, status, caste, education, income, racial, religion, etc. For instance, ethnic variation has led to the identi"cation of a dialect associated with a speci"c ethnic group such as “Black dialect” in cities such as New York, Detroit and Buffalo (Labov, 1966).

There are also the social dialects of Jews and Italians which are different from both Black English and the standard variety. Basically, Jewish and Italian speakers tend to overdo certain imitative behaviours referred to as hypercorrection. For instance, Italians tend to pronounce bad and bag using a vowel which resembles beard and Jews tend to pronounce the word dog using a vowel which resembles book.

A possible explanation for this is that both groups generally try to avoid using the Italian and Yiddish vowels for the respective words as this may indicate their ethnic markers. In this process, however, their pronunciation becomes signi"cantly distinct from others which results in a dialect associated with their ethnic origin.

In India, social caste, such as the Brahmins and non-Brahmin castes, in!uences the variety of language used by the speakers and thus, is one of the most obvious social differences.

In Baghdad, religious belief in!uences the Arabic variety used by the Muslim, Christian and Jewish speakers. Muslims employ the Muslims variety which serves as the lingua franca. The Christians and Jews will use their respective Arabic varieties at home but switch to the Muslim variety when communicating in social or business transactions, or in inter-group interactions.

Like any other "eld, social dialectology faces many challenges. Certain variations are more tedious to characterise linguistically compared to others. For instance, it is more straightforward to describe linguistic variation in the country compared to big cities. This is because migration, in and out of cities, makes confounding variables dif"cult to control. Languages spoken may be diffused and it is very dif"cult to control the background of the subjects.

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Furthermore, other factors such as occupation, employment, family structures and economic levels also lead to language variation. Other than regional and social dialects which help describe language variation, the two other factors are style and register, which we will discuss in the next section.

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Ahmad and Jim are good friends. Here is an excerpt of their conversation at two different occasions.

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Based on your understanding, brie!y explain the de"nition of lingua franca.

To test your understanding, identify the basic difference between regional and social dialects by "lling in the following table.

Regional Dialects Social Dialects

In both sets of utterances mentioned, Ahmad is making a request. However, the form of the request changes according to the context. When Ahmad and Jim are having coffee in a café, the form is casual. When they are in court, despite their already established out-of-court relationship, the form becomes formal.

1. Having tea at the café.

Ahmad : Jim, what’s all this? Jim : Sorry! I will explain everything to you later.

2. In court, where Ahmad is a lawyer and Jim, the judge.

Ahmad : Your honour, I would like to request for an extension. Jim : Extension denied.

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Language varies not just among its users or who is using the language, but also its uses (what it is used for). In the above example, the users, Ahmad and Jim, are constant, but the place and occasion changed. The change in context affects the choice of form and this leads to stylistic differences. Style, can be in!uenced by many variables as shown in Figure 1.4.

(a) Addressee When one is addressing someone familiar, a more casual and relaxed style

is used. More vernacular forms or non-standard speech style is employed when addressing people one does not know well. The speaker’s relationship to the addressee tends to be an in!uencing variable in the style of speaking.

Past studies in Mombasa, Sweden and Hawaii have shown that people tend

to employ a different variety of language when they talk to people inside their community, as compared to visitors from the outside. This suggests that solidarity or social distance is a signi"cant dimension of social relations.

There are many factors which in!uence such solidarity. Among them is the age of the addressee. Consider the following letters:

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Figure 1.4: Variables that in!uence style

Letter A

Dear Ahmad,

Hi! How are you? Thanks for writing to me. You write very well and I enjoyed reading your letter. I am happy you are enjoying your stay. I really miss the beach and I can really do with a vacation.

What do you do at night? Do you go out? Have you made even more friends? Do tell. I am really excited to hear more. Got to dash now. Take care.

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Which of the above letters is addressed to a child and which to an adult? The letter written to the child has shorter sentences, a common vocabulary and simpler grammar. In contrast, the letter to the adult uses relatively more complex sentences and words which are of low frequency such as exotic, embroiled, absorbed, serenity and tranquility.

The same applies to spoken conversation. Spoken interaction between an adult and a child is different compared to an adult and another adult. An adult may opt for parentese or babytalk, using such expressions as doggie, No go when speaking to a child. The adult may even use a sing-song intonation. When conversing with another adult, a wider and more complicated range of vocabulary and grammar is employed.

(b) Social Class Linguistic style is also in!uenced by social class. Trudgill (1974) found that

the pronunciation ing [ ] was used differently by speakers from different social classes in Norwich. It was found that the higher the social class, the more frequent the [ ] pronunciation was used. The sound [ ] is also used more frequently in the formal contexts.

Speakers from the lower social group, consistently employed less [ ] sound and their speech is more casual. This suggests that when one wants to shift style, one can imitate the speech of the target person. To sound more casual, one may adopt the linguistic features of the lower social class. In contrast, when giving a speech or presiding in court, one may want to use the linguistic features of the higher social class.

Stylistic variation not only re!ects the variation that exists between speakers of different social classes, but it is also derived from them. One may adopt the linguistic style of a target social group in the process of shifting styles. Between the two ends, the lower social group tends to shift styles more often compared to the higher social group.

Letter B

Dear Karam,

How are you? It’s been a while since I last heard from you. I hope you are in the best of health and that you are enjoying every minute of your stay in Kuantan. From what I have heard, it is an exotic place, with long stretches of white beaches and beautiful blue ocean. I guess you must be totally absorbed by the breathtaking scenery instead of being embroiled in your work. I wish I were there to soak in the serenity and tranquility.

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In another study, it was found that newsreaders with different kinds of audience tend to employ different linguistic styles so as to cater to the needs of their audience. The news may be the same, the concept and context identical, but the difference in the social background of the addressee will in!uence the linguistic style of the speaker. A newsreader in a programme which is watched by the higher end of the social spectrum may employ a more formal style compared to one with an audience from the lower spectrum.

Bell 1981 (in Holmes 1999), compared the styles of newsreaders on different New Zealand radio stations. The "nding of his study is in Figure 1.5. YA is the newsreader for a prestigious National Radio network with an audience from a higher social strata, in contrast to ZB, the newsreader with an audience made up of the lower end of the social spectrum.

It was found that YA voiced the [t] between vowels so it sounded like [d], employed less consonant cluster, less determiner deletion and less negative contraction. These linguistic features are parallel to the features of the targeted audience. Accommodating to the speech style of the addressee is a positive signal to express one’s interest and making the addressee comfortable.

Figure 1.5: Linguistic feature on the styles of newsreaders in New ZealandSource: (Bell 1984 in Holmes 2001:228)

0

20

40

60

80

[t] voicing CC reduction Determiner

deletion

Negative

construction

YA

ZB

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In your opinion, what is the in!uence of social class on linguistic style? Discuss with your coursemates.

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There are quite a number of studies which detail how the addressee’s speech changes in response to the interviewer’s speech. For Trudgill (1974), however, the opposite occured. He found that, during his interview with people in Norwich, he shifted his speech to that of his interviewees instead. The number of glottal stops he used in words like better and bet re!ected the speech of his interviewee.

Trudgill employed 98% of the possible contexts for glottal stops when interviewing the lower class who used them. However, when interviewing the higher class where the glottal stop level was just 25%, Trudgill’s dropped to about 30%.

It is quite clear from the study that Trudgill (1974), was accommodating to the speech of the interviewees who came from different social backgrounds. This process is called speech accommodation, in which each person’s speech converges so that they become more similar to each other.

Speech accomodation is a polite strategy and this suggests that the addressee’s speech is worth imitating. For instance, a business person needs to get customers. Likewise, potential customers adopt the language of the seller to ensure a good bargain. This is done by adjusting to the addressee’s speech so that they are on the same wave length.

The process of convergence can be either upwards or downwards. When one simpli"es one’s vocabulary and grammar, one is converging downwards to a simpler linguistic pro"ciency. When an employee imitates some of his/her employer’s linguistic variety, the convergence is upwards.

Speech divergence occurs when one purposely avoids using the language used by the addressee. For instance, when an oil communiqué was issued in Arabic instead of English, a strong political point was made. The deliberate linguistic divergence indicates that the Arab nations had no desire to accommodate Western English-speaking powers. Another example is the insistence of English-speaking Maoris in New Zealand on using the Maori language in court instead of English. Such linguistic divergence from a minority to a majority group also presents strong political statements.

Speech divergence can also be positive. Entertainers such as Brigitte Bardot’s and Maurice Chevalier’s French accent has been greatly admired. The addressee’s perception of the convergence will determine if it is positive or negative. If the form of the divergence is admired, it is positive. However, if it is perceived as patronising or that the speaker is making fun of others, it may be negative, as in the following:

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Salesperson : Take this onelah. This one nicelah. [pointing to a vase]Man : If this is one, then that is two? [teasing the salesperson]Salesperson : This one good mah! [smiling embarrassingly]Man : And that is bad, pah?Salesperson : Hai ya! I don’t know how to talk to youlah.

(c) Context and Social Roles Read situation A and B:

Situation A At an army camp, Jimmy who is a lance corporal has to report to his father

who is a general. Etiquette required Jimmy to address his father as Sir. When his father called out his name, he answered “Yes, Sir!” He can’t remember the last time he called his father, “father”.

Situation B In a lecture hall, Suzy is the daughter of the respectable lecturer. In this

situation, etiquette requires her to refer to her mum as Dr Lily. When asking a question, Suzy says “Dr Lily, can you please repeat the answer?” At the end of the class, Dr Lily said “I appreciate the awkwardness you are experiencing, Suzy.”

The context of the situation is a powerful in!uence on speech style. Formal

situations such as the army, the classroom, the court and even the church require participants to override personal relationships. In court, where the presiding judge is the parent of the solicitor, the judge must be addressed as Your Honour, Sir or the Bench, while the child needs to be addressed as Mr., Mrs., or Miss. In church, the priest is referred to as Father even by his own father during a religious ceremony. These are examples of social roles determined by the formality of the contexts.

Social roles are also determined by a person’s status and solidarity. In the case of a prominent public "gure, for example Michael Maddison, he may be addressed by his "rst name such as Michael or the short form of his name Mike by people close to him. Social subordinates and others may address him using his title and last name Mr. Maddison.

(d) Ethnic Groups Certain ethnic groups have a very distinct style of referring to different

social groups. The Japanese, for instance, will employ not only different pronunciation but also different lexical choice and sentence structure to differentiate plain, polite and deferential styles.

44 !"#$%&% '()*+(*,%()-%-#(',$

Japanese speakers usually feel that they need to assess their relationship to the addressee very early in the conversation so that they can adjust their style of speaking. It is common to "nd Japanese exchanging business cards very early in the conversation when meeting for the "rst time. This is to "nd out each other’s social class and family background to determine the appropriate style of speaking.

The skill of adjusting different styles in the Japanese language is also related to education. Educated individuals are more skillful at managing stylistic variation. Other than education, individuals of a higher social status are also better able at orchestrating the various styles of Japanese and Korean.

Javanese is another language which distinguishes its pronunciation, vocabulary and sentence structure according to social class and status. There are basically three stylistic levels, from the formal or high style referred as krama inggi to the least formal or low style which is called ngoko. The second person pronoun you can be referred to as nandalem and panjenengan for formal references, sapeyan for mid and sliramu or kowe for the most casual speech.

If an ordinary person is addressing an important "gure, he should use the high style to show respect. The important person in return, may just opt to use the lowest level in return. If both parties are of high status, they tend to use the highest level of style to each other. Like the Japanese, the Javanese people are very sensitive in adjusting their speech style to social class and status. An inappropriate choice of style for the different social divisions may lead to embarrassment, or even insult.

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In real life communication, it is common for one to shift from one style to another. How this is made possible and how does one adjust to the linguistic style of another?

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Try to identify the situation where you may hear the following:

(a) Haven’t we met before?

(b) Take a deep breath. Good, lungs are clear.

(c) Take care. I look forward to hearing from you.

(d) If you add another two to the equation, you will get ……..

(e) With this ring, …….

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If style is usually analysed in terms of formality or situational factors, register refers to speech related to a certain speciality. This section concerns register - how we use language to express our social identity and social competence, some of the forms of this usage, and the non-linguistic factors which determine it.

(a) Communicative Competence Complete or mature language use requires at least three types of competence

as shown in Figure 1.6.

Figure 1.6: Three types of competence in using mature language

Use of mature language

Grammatical competence

Conversational competence

Sociolinguistic competence

(i) Grammatical competence denotes knowledge of the grammar: the lexicon and the phonological, morphological, and syntactic rules of the language.

(ii) Conversational competence denotes knowledge and acceptance of the cooperative principle which obligates one to make a meaningful contribution to the accepted purpose and direction of discourse.

(iii) Sociolinguistic competence enables speakers to distinguish among possibilities such as the following. To get someone’s attention in English, each of the utterances is 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 recognised social proprieties, and saying “Sir!” to a 12-year-old probably expresses inappropriate deference.

Grammatical, conversational, and sociolinguistic competence are three aspects of communicative competence.

Every language accommodates such differences as a non-discrete scale or continuum of recognisably different linguistic “levels” or styles, termed

49 !"#$%&% '()*+(*,%()-%-#(',$

registers, and every socially mature speaker, as part of learning the language, has learned to distinguish and choose among places on the scale of register.

(b) Speech Situations Each occasion of speech, or speech situation, determines a different register,

and each register favours certain choices among different utterances, each of which may ful"ll the requirements of grammaticality and the cooperative principle. Notice in the following three speech situations how each of the three English sentences differently characterises the speaker’s understanding of the social situation and his or her place in it.

(i) Interrupting a passerby to ask the time, one might say any of the following.

• Hey. What time is it?

• Hi. Do you have the time?

• Excuse me. Could you tell me what time it is? (ii) Wishing to have the heat turned up, one of the following.

• Turn the heat up!

• Would you turn the heat up, please?

• It’s sorta cold in here, isn’t it? (iii) As the greeting of a letter to a member of the city council, any of the

following.

• Dear Betty,

• Dear Ms. Jones,

• Your excellency,

Registers may range even more broadly, while the basic purpose and raw information of speech remain constant.

Figure 1.7 displays the suggested eleven ways in English to express the

desire/demand that someone leave, approximately ordered from very polite to very impolite. Readers will surely disagree with some of the rankings, and might even broaden the scale of politeness with additional sentences.

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(c) Linguistic Features of Register As in these examples, mature speakers distinguish registers by an array

of linguistic features, across the grammar, from phonology to lexicon and morphology to syntax. Some English examples are:

(i) Phonology: rate of speech, and contractions, as in I do not know vs. I dunno; Whatcha doin? vs. What are you doing?

(ii) Lexical morphemes such as wish vs. demand; yes vs. yeah.

(iii) Grammatical morphemes: I ain’t vs. I’m not. Late Middle English had also the pronoun distinction of familiar thou/thee (second person singular, subject and object case) vs. polite ye/you, which were also and orginally second person plural.

(iv) Syntax: I don’t suppose you’d leave, huh? Will you leave? Leave!

(d) Three Non-linguistic Factors In"uencing Register Differences of register may be thought of as based upon three important

non linguistic factors which are also called S-factors, or F-factors:

• Speakers, especially their relationship of familiarity with one another.

• Setting or the relative formality of the occasion.

• Subject of discourse, or the functions, or purposes, of speaking.

These three factors are ordinarily interdependent. We tend to talk to certain persons in certain settings about certain subjects, and we tend to be more familiar with people in less formal circumstances in which language ful"lls certain functions rather than others. Altogether, our linguistic response to the three factors has been termed “speech accommodation” (Tiles,1984), and “audience design” (Bell,1984).

Figure 1.7: Ways of expressing the desire/demand that someone leave

Very polite

(a) Perhaps I should be alone now.

(b) May I be alone now?

(c) I don't suppose you would leave, would you?

(d) Would you be willing to leave?

(e) I'd appreciate it if you would leave.

(f) Please leave.

(g) Don't you wanna leave?

(h) Would you leave?

(i) Get goin', how 'bout it?

(j) Get outta here.

(k) Get your arse outta here.

Very impolite

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(i) Speakers and Familiarity Certainly, speakers address one another differently; particularly

according to how familiar they are with one another, and how much information and experience they share.

Five characteristics of language which particularly depend on

relationships, and perceived relationships, between a speaker and an audience are:

• forms of address;

• politeness morphology;

• ellipsis;

• contractions; and

• code-switching.

Forms of Address In probably all languages, speakers acknowledge politeness and

familiarity by choice of forms of address: in English, for example: “President Bush”/”Mr Bush”/”Richard”/”Billy”. Choice of one or the other form of address communicates the speaker’s acknowledgement of a social circumstance, including the speaker’s place in it. This is not always a matter of use or non-use of titles and nicknames. In English, for example, a parent’s use of a child’s name tends to mean trouble for the child: “Mohamed Michael, come here!” or “Marlina , I saw that!”

Politeness Morphology Perhaps most languages - though not modern English except in archaic

uses of thou and thee, and potential use of the ‘royal we’ by a monarch - distinguish politeness by choice between grammatical morphemes, especially familiar and polite pronouns.

This distinction is often made in second-person pronouns, for those addressed (English you, your, yours), but may also be in third-person pronouns, for persons spoken about (English he, she, it, they, etc.). Spanish has the following ‘familiar polite’:

• 2nd-person singular tu usted

• 2nd-person plural vosotros ustedes

Tu and vosotros are usually considered to be used for persons of similar ageand social status as the speaker, though young people tend to use familiar pronouns for persons of the same age, regardless of social status.

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Amharic is a language which has the familiar/polite distinction in singular third-person pronouns: familiar Issu ‘he’ and isswa ‘she’ vs. polite issaccaw. The polite form is particularly for older persons, but is favoured even for persons unfamiliar to the speaker. In languages with such grammatical morphemes, there is grammaticisation of politeness, since the choice between a familiar or polite pronoun concerns grammatical competence, in the choice of grammatical morphemes, as well as simultaneous sociolinguistic competence, in the expression of social expectations and presentation of self which this choice signi"es.

Japanese has other forms of grammaticised politeness, including ‘plain’ versus polite forms of verbs. Plain forms, for example miru ‘see’ vs. polite form mimasu, and iku ‘go’ vs. polite form ikimasu, are used when speaking to close friends, and polite forms when speaking to others, especially older persons and persons one does not know.

Ellipsis Ellipsis is the omission of major constituents of sentences, as in I did

(the object of the verb is unstated, vs. I did what you said ;), and can’t go (the subject is unstated, vs. I can’t go). People who are familiar with one another share a lot of information, concurrently, conversations between them much of this can go unsaid, and ellipsis contributes to !uency in their talk. The !uency and greater rate of speech are also evidence as well of register choice, signaling speakers’ judgements of the degree of familiarity in their relationship to one another.

Knowledge of the possibilities of ellipsis is a matter of grammatical competence. English for example does not allow object ellipsis with some verbs: I understand is okay but not I opened. However, the choice to employ ellipsis or not re!ects sociolinguistic competence.

Contractions The rate of speech increases with familiarity between speakers. As the

result of grammaticisation of fast-speech deletions of phones, many languages, including English, have customary short pronunciations and spellings of some frequent grammatical morphemes. In English these are the contractions of auxiliary verbs including I’m and they’re, and of not as in don’t and isn’t.

Code-switching Switching from language to language within a single speech situation is

called code-switching, a phenomenon which characterises the sociolect of bilingual speech communities, the members of which have the grammatical competence to code-switch when speaking to one another.

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Register Description

1. Intimate Conversation of intimates

2. Casual Talk at parties and in games

3. Consultative Ordinary commercial transactions

4. Formal Contributions of participants at meetings, hearings, conferences, etc.

5. Frozen One-directional communication by authorities at meetings, hearings, conferences, etc.

Some occasions of code-switching may be necessitated by speakers’ lesser degree of grammatical competence in one of the languages. For example, one who has received a specialised education in a second language often "nds it necessary to switch out of the native language when talking about that specialisation. Although bilingual competence is perhaps never balanced for all subjects and settings, many occasions of code-switching are motivated as aspects of register, since they occur in contexts in which differential grammatical competence cannot be an explanation.

(ii) Setting and Formality We know special forms of language for use in particular settings

often distinguished by their degree of formality. ‘Formality’ in these cases largely means degree of "xedness of social relations between speakers, and this tends to correspond to the socially licensed amount of reciprocity of speech - whether talk tends to be one-way or whether all those present talk more or less equivalently. In the courtroom, for example, the judge has to be addressed in the proper way, even by an old friend, and only the judge speaks at will.

The most established and routinised settings also tend to determine regular or even ritualised, ‘one-way’, forms of language. For example, the classroom, sports events, and formal meetings have their preferred linguistic forms. “The meeting will come to order” is the usual and ritualised way of saying, in meetings, “Hey, let’s get quiet and get to work now”.

Two features of language which particularly depend on the setting within a speech situation are:

• vernacular vs. non-vernacular usage, including use of taboo words; and

• hypercorrection and malapropism.

Table 1.2: Five Point Scale of Register

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Vernacular and Non-vernacular Language Vernacular language is that of ordinary, carefree, colloquial speech.

Use of vernacular forms in non-vernacular contexts could be evidence of a speaker’s ignorance of the socially prescribed ‘standard’ language, and certain forms in particular are recognised as giving such evidence. These are linguistic social markers.

An often noted American English example is ain’t, the originally perfectly well-formed contraction of am + not, which fell into disrepute in standard English after it was extended out of "rst person singular as in third-person He ain’t. Other English social markers are third person singular don’t as in he don’t, and demonstrative them as in them are mine. Ain’t, for example, is common in the vernacular of many English-speaking communities, and its use in non-vernacular settings tends to guarantee the notice of listeners of other communities.

However, such usage may also signal frankness and honesty, and solidarity with others whom speakers recognise as fellow members of their vernacular dialect. When used by obviously well-educated persons, such interpretation is guaranteed. A standard dialect speaker of English who intentionally switches to use of social markers such as ain’t and he don’t is said to seek covert prestige. Such prestige is ‘covert’ because its elicitation will often not, if successful, be consciously noted.

Deliberate use of taboo words such as bitch and shit, whose usage whichtends to characterise male more than female speech, may also seek covert prestige, but the strength of these as social markers makes this more dif"cult to achieve.

Hypercorrection and Malapropism Language use is such a valuable marker of social competence that

one seeking the overt prestige of unfamiliar standard language usage may sometimes produce hypercorrections. A common English hyper correction, for example, concerns the subject pronouns as in They asked he and I for traditional standard They asked him and me, and after prepositions just between she and I for just between her and me.

The object pronouns me, him, her, and them are more frequent and earlierlearned than subject pronouns I, he, she, and they, and there is a natural tendency, especially of child learners but persisting in adults, to substitute object pronouns for subject pronouns, especially after and, as in Jack andme were there, and in some dialects even before and as in Him and me were there. (Notice that the same speakers would never say Me was there, but the presence of and in the subject somehow licenses the use of object pronouns). That is, as he and I may be a correction of him and me, between you and I is a hypercorrection of between you and me.

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The lexical-morpheme equivalent of such hypercorrection of grammatical morphemes is known as malapropism: substituting similar sounding words for words which one does not know well, such as sympathy for symphony (“I prefer listening to sympathies”) or ravished for ravaged (“Fire ravished much of the business district”).

(iii) Subject and Function Depending on the purpose of speaking, the subject or topic, and

functions (as to assert, question, and persuade), we have more or less !uency or facility of grammatical competence, especially concerning vocabulary, and we can putthis knowledge to use to express sociolinguistic competence as well.

Jargon and Slang Professional and technical topics - including some talk about sports - may

encourage the use of jargon, whereas familiar and strictly social topics are occasions for slang. Auto mechanics and physicians, for example, would often describe the same engine repair or medical condition to one another the way they would to their customers or patients, respectively, nor do gang members or friends talk about their activities among themselves the way they talk about these activities with others.

Jargon and slang provide lexical alternatives to more typical or ordinary usage (for example linguistic jargon semantics for meaning, and slang cop for policeman), and the choice of a jargon or slang alternative in preference to the ordinary language choice expresses an acknowledgement or claim of shared group membership in and solidarity with the group which the jargon/slang choice typi"es. In the case of the intentionally obfuscatory use of jargon (that is, intending not to be understood), the claim is an assertion of separateness, expertise, and perhaps more general superiority.

Speaking vs. Writing Speech and writing have different strengths and weaknesses. Certain

subjects and/or functions of language tend to favour the use of speech or writing, and certain forms of language are encouraged or discouraged according to whether language is spoken or written. Contractions, vernacular usage, and slang, for example, are often avoided in written styles, which also favour more complex syntax and lower frequency vocabulary.

A marked distinction between the language of speaking and writing may have been more apparent in the past, and is perhaps becoming less so today, particularly with the appearance of e-mail, and on-line electronic communication, for which traditional standards and expectations of written form often seem not to apply.

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Linguistic Characteristics of Genres Research supports our intuitions that certain linguistic features tend

positively or negatively to characterise discourse of certain types. For example,

• contractions tend to occur in conversation and to be absent in formal writing;

• passive verbs tend to occur in scienti"c and technical writing and to be absent in speech and informal writing; and

• third-person pronouns and past tense verbs tend to occur in narratives.

Certain sets of linguistic features have been found to characterise certain functionally de"ned types of spoken and written language, or genres.

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Diglossia is de"ned as a relatively stable language situation where primary dialects of the language exist alongside a divergent and very highly codi"ed variety.

This variety usually has a more complex grammatical structure and a respected body of written literature either from an earlier period or in another speech community. This variety is usually formally learned and used for formal written and spoken purposes. It however is not used by any part of the community for ordinary conversation. (Ferguson, 1959: p336)

A diglossic situation happens when a society has two distinct language codes with a very clear functional separation.

An example of this phenomenon is the Arabic situation where there is Classical Arabic (high variety) and the various colloquial varieties (low variety). Classical Arabic is the language of the Quran and is not used for ordinary conversation. The colloquial variety, on the other hand, is used for ordinary everyday social chores and functions.

(Q(*0,2(%&58%

1. In what ways is “register” distinguished?

2. List the "ve types of “register.” Provide an example for each type.

84 !"#$%&% '()*+(*,%()-%-#(',$

A key characteristic of diglossia is that both high and low varieties are kept apart in their functions.

The high varieties may be used for formal lectures and delivering sermons as well as literature. The low varieties may be used for giving directions to servants or workers, in conversations with familiars, in popular ‘soap dramas’ and ‘folk’ literature.

The high variety is perceived to be the more prestigious variety as there tends to be a body of literature in that variety and none in the lower variety. Another important difference is that children learn the lower variety while the higher variety is taught in some kind of formal setting.

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What are the origins of diglossia? Ferguson (1959), theorised that a diglossic situation could have happened in a society when there was a signi"cant amount of literature in a language very similar or identical to the natural language of a community.

Literacy was however, limited to a small elite population and over a period of several centuries, this elitist variety becomes the variety of the establishment.

Traditionally, the high variety is associated with an elite and the lower variety with everybody else. As such, diglossia reinforces social distinctions and may be used by those in power to safeguard the existing power structure. Nevertheless, other factors may also come into play.

Society

Occurrence of diglossic situation

Language

Code 2

Language

Code 1

Separation of language functions

Figure 1.8: How a diglossic situation happens

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A certain language or variant may be accorded the high variety because of its religious association classical Arabic, for example. Similarly, a long literary tradition may make a variety a high variety as in the case of Sanskrit in India and perhaps Mandarin in China.

A diglossic situation is interesting as it offers insight into the ambiguous concepts of language and language dialects. Scholars have long pointed out the considerable dif"culties in deciding which is the language and which is the dialect or variety of the language.

An example of this confusion would be ancient Greek which was actually a group of local varieties used for differing purposes. Ionic was used for history, Doric for choral and lyric works, Attic for tragedy. The Greek we know today was actually a dialect of the major cultural and administrative centre.

Socio-historical factors also play a major role in de"ning languages and dialects. Hindi and Urdu are inherently the same language with minor differences which are magni"ed for political and religious reasons.

In direct contrast to this would be China with its many dialects, most mutually intelligible to one another. However, the Chinese would say that they speak only one language as they are united through a common writing system and tradition.

In essence then, the term language can be used to refer to either a single linguistic norm or to a group of related norms. A dialect is one of these norms. Through the process of standardisation, it becomes a subordinate variety of a given language. A standard variety of any language is in short, the preferred dialect of that language.

This variety could have been chosen as the standard for numerous reasons, perhaps, political, social, religious or economic. For example, the standard British variety is historically based on the dialect of the area surrounding London while French was the dialect of Paris.

The consequence of this process of choosing a dialect as the standard is that one dialect becomes the perceived language and all others are relegated to the position of subordinate dialects.

89 !"#$%&% '()*+(*,%()-%-#(',$

• Language is the superordinate term of dialect. Dialect is any set of one or more varieties of a language.

• A language may ful"ll any or several subsets of these criteria: (a) standardisation; (b) vitality; (c) historicity; (d) autonomy; (e) reduction; (f) mixture, and (g) de facto norms.

• Vernacular language refers to a language which is unstandardised and has not been made of"cial. It is usually acquired at home and not the of"cial language of a country.

• Speech community refers to people from the same group who speak in the same way and share the same norms and values.

• Style is a way in which speech is uttered that depends on the level of formality or situational factors.

• Style in speech can be in!uenced by many variables: (a) addressee; (b) social class; (c) context and social roles, and (d) ethnic groups.

(Q(*0,2(%&59%%

1. De"ne the following terms

(a) diglossia

(b) language

(c) dialect

2. What are the main characteristics of a diglossic situation?

3. Explain the main difference between a standard variety and a dialect of a language.

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2('7O0I(0P%&58

A dialect is said to be a variation of a given language. However, dialects may become a language. When will this happen? What are the criteria that we need to have for a dialect to assume this role? State your reasons.

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• Register is a speech related to a certain specialty. There are "ve characteristics of language that determine the types of register used: (a) forms of address; (b) politeness of morphology; (c) ellipsis; (d) contractions, and (e) code switching.

• There are also two features of language discussed in this topic: (a) vernacular vs. non-vernacular language, and (b) hypercorrection and malapropism.

De facto norms

Isoglosses

Diglossia

Ellipsis

Plexity

Jargon

Social Networks

Speech Communities

Variety of Language

Vernacular Language