Language & Social

Variation 1
Week 4
 Outline

• Sociolinguistics
• Social dialects
• Education and occupation
• Social markers
Language and social variation
The previous chapter focused on variation in language
use found in different geographical areas. However, not
everyone in a single geographical area speaks in the
same way in every situation.
We recognize that certain uses of language are more
likely to be found in the speech of some individuals in
society and not others.
People who live in the same region, but differ in terms
of education and economic status, often speak in quite
different ways.
These differences may be used, implicitly or explicitly,
as indications of membership in different social groups
or speech communities.
 Speech community &
sociolinguistics

What is a speech community?

A speech community is a group of people who share a set of
norms and expectations regarding the use of language.
Studying the linguistic features that have social relevance for
participants in those speech communities is called
sociolinguistics.
What is Sociolinguistics?
It is the study of the relationship between language and society.
It is a broad area of investigation that developed through the
interaction of linguistics with a number of other academic
disciplines.
 Linguistics and academic
disciplines

Anthropology through the study of language and culture.

Sociology through the investigation of the role language

plays in the organization of
social groups and institutions.
Social psychology with regard to how attitudes and perceptions
are expressed and how in-group and out-
group behaviours are identified.
 (sociolect)

• Traditional study of regional dialects concentrates on the

speech of people in rural areas, whereas, the study of social
dialects has been concerned with speakers in towns and cities.

• Social class: is used to define groups of speakers as having

something in common (middle class and working class).
 Social classes

•Those who have more years of

Middle class education and perform non-
manual work.

•Those who have fewer years of

Working class education and perform manual
work of some kind.

•They are terms used to further

Upper & lower subdivide the groups, mainly on
an economic basis.
 Language features in social
dialects
Pronunciations Words Structures

These language features are regularly used in one form by working-class

speakers and in another form by middle-class speakers.
Example 1:
Scottish lower-working-class speakers pronounce “home” as [heɪm],
Scottish middle-class speakers pronounce “home” as [hom].
It’s a small difference in pronunciation, but it’s an indicator of social
status.
Example 2:
The verb ain’t, as in I ain’t finished yet, is generally used more often in
working-class speech than in middle-class speech.
* Class is treated as the social variable and the pronunciation or word
as the linguistic variable.
 Education and occupation
• Each of us has her own idiolect (personal dialect) but we sound
more like those who share similar educational or occupational
background.

• Expressions associated with speakers who have spent less time in

education:
• Them boys throwed somethin (threw)
• It wasn’t us what done it (who)

• Education is reflected in occupation

• Doctors don’t speak like window cleaners
• University professors, bank executives all speak differently
from those who work in local jobs.
 An American study

Labov (1966), in New York, USA:

William Labov combined elements from place of

occupation and socio-economic status by looking at
pronunciation differences among salespeople in
three New York City department stores. They were
Saks Fifth Avenue (with expensive items, upper-
middle-class status), Macy’s (medium-priced,
middle-class status) and Klein’s (with cheaper
items, working-class status).
 An American study

• He asked ‘Where are the women’s shoes’? To elicit answers with the
expression “fourth floor”. This expression contains two
opportunities for the pronunciation (or not) of postvocalic /r/
• (Postvocalic /r/: it is /r/ after a vowel and before a consonant or the
end of a word).

• Linguistic variable is the pronunciation differences [r] after vowels

among salespeople.
• Social variables are place of occupation + socio-economic status.

The finding: the higher the socio-economic, the more [r] is

pronounced.
 A British study

Trudgill (1974) in Reading, England:

• Linguistic variable [r] and social variable is the social class.

• This city has an opposite social value than in New York.

The finding: upper classes pronounced the [r] fewer than

lower classes (e.g. Oh, that’s mahvellous, dahling!).
 Social markers

• The significance of the linguistic variable [r] can be the

opposite in terms of social status in two different places- it
functions as a social marker.

• Having this feature occur frequently in your speech marks

you as a member of a particular social group, whether you
realize it or not.
 Social markers indicate
lower class and less
education
The final pronunciation of –ing with [n]
rather than as [ŋ] at the end of words
such as ‘drinking’ and ‘sitting’.
Pronunciations represented by sittin’ and
drinkin’ are typically associated with
working-class speech.
The dropping of initial ‘h’ , which makes the words
at and hat sound the same. It occurs at the
beginning of words (e.g. I’m so ‘ungry I could eat an
‘orse).