Sociolinguistics

Dylan Glynn

www.dsglynn.univ-paris8.fr

Introdução / Einleitung Part 1

Quelle langue de communication ?

It’s appropriate that in a sociolinguistics seminar, that we have this question

What language will we use to communicate in? Before we answer this question,

let’s ask a question:

Qu’est que c’est une langue ?

Qu’est que c’est une langue ?

1. Napoleon, Taxes, Armies, and Power

2. Human identity and tribalism

3. Human individualism and variation

Une langue n’existe pas!

A langue is an analytical construct – a simplification for teaching people

A langue is a political construct – a tool for controlling people

社会言語学

Langue as an analytical construct (there is no word in English for langue)

Construct – terme technique en philosophie

Constructe – Català

Constructo – Español

Konstrukt – Polski

Does the centre of mass exist?

It a construct needed to understand the world...

(from Wikipedia)

Langue as an analytical construct Humboldt, de Saussure, and Chomsky

ergon - energeia, or langue - parole, performance – competence

Une peu de révision Place

Time

Социолингвистика Langue as an analytical construct

Rouen 2025

Lyon 2018 Poitiers 1988

Arras 1996

But actually that’s not quite true....

Age

Gender

Class

Time

Place

Lyon 2018

Arras 1996

Ethnicity

Poitiers 1988

Langue is a political construct A langue is a political construct – a tool for controlling people

What is a country?

What is a nation?

Have they always existed?

Do all nations in the world have the same understanding of what a nation is?

What has any of this got to do with language?

Langue is a political construct

Is there such a thing as right or wrong in language for a native speaker?

Langage!

Language is inherently varied, but it is also inherently shared

It is inherently individual, but it also inherently interpersonal

To say - I am French, I am a woman, I am a teenager

is at once

- individual = I am

- interpersonal = French / woman / teenager

社会 言学

Identity and Tribalism / Individualism and Variation We all want to be individuals But we all want to belong It is human nature It is language

समाजभाषािवज्ञान

Communication – Conception But langauge is more than a vehicle for identity it’s is a vehicle for communication! We communicate our conceptions and intentions How we see the world and what we want in the world

Conception Humboldt eine eigentümliche Weltansicht un point de vue du monde A specific worldwiew The difference in languages is not a difference in sounds and signs but rather a difference which implies a different conception of the world … Language is the expression of form in which the individual carries the world within [him/herself] … words are the landmarks that enable [one] to orientate oneself amid the multitude of phenomena. Humboldt (1974[1820]: 58, 162). The background linguistic system (in other words the grammar) of each language is not merely a reproducing instrument for voicing ideas … [w]e dissect nature along lines laid down by our native languages. The categories and types we isolate from the world of phenomena … [have] to be organized by our minds and this means largely by the linguistic systems in our minds. Whorf (1997[1956]: 212-213).

Gliederung / Outline

Part 2

Outline

(Il n’y pas de mot en français pour outline....)

1. The course is a practical course

It is based on two studies that you will do yourselves on a topic that you choose

2. First, we need to cover some theory

I’m new, so I don’t know your level, so I don’t know long long we need with this.

Plan (proposé) Séminaire 1 : Théorie I – révision et notions de base

Séminaire 2 : Théorie II – question de recherche et méthodologies

Séminaire 3 : Projet I – « Elicitation » et la question de recherche / étude pilote

Séminaire 4 : Projet I – Résultats d’étude pilote / proposition d’étude de « Elicitation »

Séminaire 5 : Projet I – Concaténation de résultats d’étude de « Elicitation »

Séminaire 6 Projet I – Statistiques et interprétation de résultats

Séminaire 7 Projet II – Observation et la question de recherche / étude pilote

Séminaire 8 Projet II – Collecte de données

Séminaire 9 Projet II –Analyse de données

Séminaire 10 Projet II – Analyse de données

Séminaire 11 Projet II – Statistiques et interprétation de résultats

Séminaire 12 Projet II – Statistiques et interprétation de résultats

Project I

Elicitation – questionnaires and statistics

Project II

Observation – corpora and statistics

Sociolinguistique Science des structures sociales encodées en langage et Science des structures linguistiques encodées en société

Who are you? What is you identity? Black / White? Man / Woman? French / Italian? Teenager / Pensioner Cool / Conservative Working Class / Middle Class Urban / Rural All of that is encoded in how you speak! Langauge is like the way you dress

It is a code tell the world who you are! Think of 3 clothing signifiants that encode identity? What is the difference between dressing and language?

Questions et domaines de recherche en sociolinguistique

KEY NOTIONS Culture – Society – Identity Variation – Community – Discourse Power – Ethnicity – Gender

Questions et domaines de recherche en sociolinguistique KEY TECHNICAL TERMS Sociolect Dialect Idiolect Discourse Diaglossia Heteroglossia Code Markedness Variation Genre Register Style

Code / Code A code is a construct to talk about a communication channel

When you speak to a child, you use a specific code

When you speak to a friend, you use a specific code

When you speak to a professor, you use a specific code

When you speak to a taxi driver, you use a specific

Perhaps they are all in different languages

Perhaps they are all varieties of the same langauge

But they are different codes.

Typically we use code to refer to langauge determined by social situation

Code Switching / Alternance de code Typical situation:

You speak Farsi with you mother

You and your mother live in Germany

You are speaking about the metro system

Do you use the word – ممتترروو or do you use the word U-Bahn??

To use the word ممتترروو would be marked, most people would say U-Bahn

Code Switching / Alternance de code Un example très connu dans le monde francophone

Jacques Brel

Zonder liefde warme liefde

Waait de wind c'est fini

Zonder liefde warme liefde

Weent de zee déjà fini

Zonder liefde warme liefde

Lijdt het licht tout est fini

Why might Brel code switch here?

In pairs

Think of three situations where you code switch

Class 2

Today: Language – dialect, sociolect Diglossia, Discourse, and code switching Power, status, reappropriation

Code Switching continued Between langauge and between varieties Let’s look a classic example of code switching (?mixing)

Dialect

Dialect / Dialect Can you name some dialects of any langauge you want? What is the difference between a dialect and a language? Is English a dialect? Is Castilian a dialect? Is Javanais a dialect?

Dialect SAE!! – Standard Average European

Dialect - En anglais comment dire: “Ca va?” comment dire: “pardon?” comment dire: “Bonjour!”

Let’s look at some “English examples” Piker and London English Scots Scottish English

Dialect - What are the plural personal pronouns in English or Spanish Write them down...!

Dialect - Spanish Castilian: T : tú (sg) - vosotros or vosotras (pl) V: usted (sg) - ustedes (pl)

Mexican: T: tú (sg) - ustedes (pl) V: usted (sg) - ustedes (pl) Argentine: T: vos (sg) - ustedes (pl) V: usted (sg) - ustedes (pl)

Dialect Some Singular Personal Pronouns in English 1st Person

I – USA, Southern English, Welsh, Australian... us - British polite informal ACC Ah – North English, Scots

2nd Person the – Informal North English thee – Emphatic informal North English thou - Emphatic informal North Eng. ACC ye – Scots, formal North English jəә – USA, Southern English, Welsh, Australian... you – Empathic and written form USA, Southern English, Welsh, and Australian. Yall – Empathic informal southern USA

3rd Person one – animate gender neutral, formal written jəә – animate gender neutral (written form: you) they – gender neutral (takes 3rd person verb) ‘th’m’ (them empathic and written form) he – masculine ACC: him (heem Scots) she – feminine, inanimate Australian ACC: her (er Scots) it – inanimate USA, UK, Ireland...

Sociolect / Sociolect A variety of a langauge associated with a specific society Chav Speak - example Ebonics – example

Sociolect / Sociolect How does the queen speak in the UK? Do you think that is a sociolect? Did Szarkozy speak like other politicians? Do you think the way he spoke was part of popularity?

Sociolect / Sociolect Can you think of sociolects in France ? Are there power relations expressed with different sociolects ?

Reappropriation, Power and Social Status...

Let’s look at some clips on the topic Ebonics – discussion (The evil of Ebonics) Chav – discussion (Rise of Chav)

For a linguistic, slang doesn’t exist! What is slang?

Diglossia / Diglossie – langauge and status Why do the Catalonians want independence?

Why do the Scottish want independence?

Diglossia / Diglossie

Does this power relation only apply to dialects?

Why do people in the suburbs of Paris riot?

Why do people in the suburbs of LA riot?

Diglossia / Diglossie

Every langauge has varieties

Typically, some varieties have a higher social power than others

What is true of a variety, is true of a dialect, and of course a language

Diglossia is probably the most basic and widespread sociolinguistic phenomenon

Gender

Men and women use language differently, but there is a lot of variation

So, it’s not their sex that counts, what counts is how men and women are expected to speak.

In other words

There are male and female varieties of language

Do you think there is a power relation between the varieties?

Gender A. Gender & Register

A study in Dutch parliamentary debates demonstrated that women parliamentarians use more different words and longer words than men. The difference is statistically significant

Can you think of a reason why they would do this?

C. Gender and Turn-taking It is often said that men compete and women collaborate

any teacher knows that this is a generalisation,

but based on truth...

Is it true in every context?

Gender C. Gossip

D. Bitching

E. Showing off

F. Explaining stuff

Genre Genre : 17C sonnets, parliamentary speeches, 20C sermons, broadsheet news press... etc. In pairs, - name 3 genres - name characteristic features of each

Mode Mode is easy – written and spoken and maybe signed but some would say that CMC – computer mediated communication is also a mode it is the medium by which you communicate

Register Register : informal <–> formal What are characteristics of each? How does register interact with mode and genre?

Discourse / Discours

The way a teenage boy speaks in the suburbs of paris is more than

a variety of language...

Discourse / Discours

Should French girls be allowed to shave their legs at school?

The unseen power of discourse

The pressure to shave is an oppressive discourse

It is a visible sign of the “religion” of capitalism

It is a visible sign of the commodification of women

En projetant sur cet événement mineur, d’ailleurs aussitôt oublié, le voile des grands principes, liberté, laïcité, libération de la femme, etc., les éternels prétendants au titre de maître à penser ont livré, comme dans un test projectif, leurs prises de position inavouées sur le problème de l’immigration : du fait que la question patente – faut-il ou non accepter à l’école le port du voile dit islamique ? – occulte la question latente – faut-il ou non accepter en France les immigrés d’origine nord-africaine ? –, ils peuvent donner à cette dernière une réponse autrement inavouable.

Bourdieu

Discourse / Discours

Understating this notion is arguably the most important thing a teacher must learn

it is universal and universally powerful

Language is the main vehicle of discursive power...

Discourse 1. liberté, laïcité, libération de la femme

Discourse 2. Xenophobia, nationalism, racsism

Power exists in being able to manipulate discourses

Sociology and Linguistics need to construct those discourses, to reveal what they are...

Language Policy

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/10/09/protests-on-spanish-islands-defend-education-and-catalan-language/

http://sociedad.elpais.com/sociedad/2013/09/06/actualidad/1378458843_834865.html

Homework

Language Policy..... Catalonia, in groups

Q. 1. What the two langauge policies being debated? What are the goals of the two parties concerned?

Q. 2 What would be best for the people? What are the possible solutions?

Q. 3 Does France have similar problems? Can you think of another country that has similar problems

Project 1. Topic: Grammatical variation and language attitude Method: Questionnaires and grammaticality tests

This will be a group project

Each person will work individually and then we will compile the results

Project 1. Grammatical variation and language attitude Topic: Grammatical variation and language attitude

Method: Questionnaires and grammaticality tests

Step 1. Define research questions (whole group)

Step 2. Compose questionnaires (whole group)

Step 3. Pilot questionnaires (individual)

Step 4. Collect data (individual)

Step 5. Collate data (whole group)

Step 5. Interpret results (whole group)

Step 6. Summarise results (groups of two)

Variation in French

Continuer à / de

merci à / merci de

station / arret de bus

bien à vous / cordialement

le lieu que / où j’habite

Let’s think of some examples of variation!

Grammaticality tests, Likert Scales and Questionnaires

A Likert scale is a scale where informants rank a subjective response

Do you think Barroso is a good president?

Circle the appropriate number where 1 is totally agree and 7 totally disagree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

pretty simple stuff

The problem is fillers and getting information

about the respondents....

Let’s work on one