Sociolinguistics:

UNIT 1 LESSON 2: Perspectives for

Language Education
UNDERSTANDING
LANGUAGE Prepared by:

VARIATION Nicole A. Scott, PhD

January 2025

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Lesson Igniter

■ Using the link shown, watch the video clip titled '
Communication Problems' and answer the following
questions.
– https://youtu.be/dBT6u0FyKnc?si=pyFAEjcAHszBN30I

■ Questions
■ What element of language is responsible for the
communication problem?
■ Have you ever been in such a situation? How was it resolved?
■ As a student teacher, what can you do to limit this
occurrence in your class?
Learning Objectives
■ At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
■ explain the concept ‘language variation’;
■ distinguish between social and regional variation;
■ provide examples of both regional and social variation;
■ discuss miscommunication challenges that arise from regional
variation;
■ differentiate between style and register;
■ discuss possible implications of incorrectly applied stylistic
variation in a classroom;
■ analyse language samples to identify features of regional or
social variation;
■ participate willingly in class activities;
■ demonstrate appreciation for the diversity of language use
across different social and regional contexts.
 LANGUAGE
VARIATION:
BACKGROUND
 Language and Variation

■ Every afternoon my friend packs her bag and leaves her Cardiff
office at about 5 o’clock. As she leaves, her business partner says
goodbye Margaret, (she replies goodbye Mike) her secretary says
goodbye Ms. Walker, (she replies, goodbye Jill) and the caretaker
says Bye Mrs. Walker (to which she responds goodbye Andy). As
she arrives home, she is greeted by Hi mum from her daughter,
Jenny, hello dear, have a good day?, from her mother and simply,
you’re late again! from her husband.
■ Later in the evening, the president of the local flower club calls to
ask if she would like to join. Good evening, is that Mrs. Billington?
She asks. No, it’s Ms Walker, but my husband is David Billington,
she answers. What can I do for you? Finally a friend calls Hello
Meg, sut wyt ti?
– (Holms, J. 2001, p. 2-3)
 Language and Variation

■ Margaret lives in a predominantly monolingual speech community

and yet she has been called various names. None of them are
deliberately insulting. If she had embroiled herself in an argument
or passionate encounter, she would have been called a lot more
names.

■ What are the reasons people choose a particular form?

Language and Variation

■ Possible reasons:

– The relationship between the communicators

– The speaker’s feelings about the person(s) being
addressed e.g. dear = feelings of affection. What
would the mother have used were she annoyed?
– Ethnicity (Sut wyt ti? means ‘How are you?’ in Welsh)
Language and Variation
■ Languages provide various ways of saying the same thing –
addressing and greeting others, describing things, paying
compliments.
■ Language Variation refers to the differences in speech
patterns among speakers or groups of speakers, which occur
due to a range of social, geographical, and contextual factors.
These variations can be found at all levels of language—
pronunciation (phonology), word choice (lexicon), grammar
(syntax) and usage—and are systematic and rule-governed
rather than random.
– (Adapted from Wardhaugh & Fuller, An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics, 2015)
■ The choice of one linguistic form over another is a useful clue
to non-linguistic information; Linguistic variation can provide
social information.
Language and Variation

■ Make a list of all the names you are called by people who
know you. For each name note who uses it to you and when
or where.

– Do some people call you by more than one name?

– What are the reasons people choose one name

rather than another for you?

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Language and Variation

■ The previous examples reflect a range of social influences on

language choice but Sociolinguists are also interested in the
different types of linguistic variation used to express and
reflect social factors.
– Vocabulary or word choice is one area of linguistic
variation
– Variation is also evident in sounds, word structure,
grammar
 Examples of Variation in English

■ Phonological Differences
■ Aluminium
– England (alum’inium)
– American (al’uminium)

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Examples of Variation in English

■ Tom: You’ve seen enri’s new ous?

■ Jason: I have. I could hardly miss it Tom. Our
Henry now owns the biggest house in
Hamstead.

■ H- dropping
■ Linguistic variation involves pronunciation

■ What accounts for the difference in the H-dropping

behaviour?

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Examples of Variation in English

■ The differences in H-dropping behaviour may be caused

by:
– Different levels of education
– Different occupations
– Different regions/geographical locations

■ In the previous example, different social backgrounds

are reflected in the speech of the interlocutors even
though they are from the same region.
■ Can you identify other examples of phonological variation
in English?

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Examples of Variation in English
■ Lexical/Semantic differences – ‘miserable’ England
(unfortunate) & Jamaica (irritable)

British US
– Lift elevator
– Sidewalk pavement
– Petrol gasoline

– Language variation in vocabulary

■ Refuse should be deposited in the receptacle provided
■ Garbage should be placed in the bin provided

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Examples of Variation in English

■ Syntactic Differences

■ Use of the Present Perfect Tense

• British English: I have just eaten lunch.
• American English: I just ate lunch.
■ In British Standard English, the present perfect (have eaten) is
preferred for recent actions, while American Standard English
often uses the simple past (ate) even for very recent actions.

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Examples of Variation in English

■ Syntactic Differences

■ In British Standard English, collective nouns (like team, family, government,

staff, jury) can be treated either as singular or plural, depending on
whether the speaker is emphasizing the group as a unit (singular) or as
individuals (plural).
■ Thus, in British English:
• The team are winning (focusing on individual players acting
separately)
• The team is winning (focusing on the team as one unit)
■ In American Standard English, the preference is to treat collective nouns as
singular almost all the time:
• The team is winning. (even if the members are acting separately)

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 Examples of Variation in English
■ Example of Variation
■ African American Vernacular English (AAVE) – I don’t know
nothing & Standard American – I don’t know anything
■ African American Vernacular English (AAVE)
– Tabitha: Is she married?
– Jamal: She BIN married (emphasis on BIN)

■ What is the meaning of Jamal’s sentence in AAVE? Is there a

different meaning in another variety of English?
– She has been married before but isn’t married now
– She’s married now and has been for a long time

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Examples of Variation in English
■ A linguistic isogloss is an imaginary geographic boundary that separates
areas where different linguistic features are used.
In simple terms: it’s like a line on a map that shows where one way of
speaking changes to another.
■ Isoglosses can mark differences in:
• pronunciation (sound)
• vocabulary (word choice)
• grammar (syntax)
• even meaning
■ Example:
• In parts of the U.S., some people say "pail" for a container you carry
water in; others say "bucket."
The line where pail stops being used and bucket becomes dominant
would be a lexical isogloss.
■ Another:
• In England, in the North, you might hear "I were" (instead of "I was"). The
boundary where "I were" shifts to "I was" is a grammatical isogloss.
Examples of Variation in English

■ Often several isoglosses overlap, and when they cluster

heavily, they form what's called a dialect boundary — showing
a major shift from one dialect to another.

■ Isoglosses help linguists map dialect regions and track

language change over time.
Variation in British English

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Why Do Language Varieties Differ?

■ Why do languages differ in Britain?

■ The reasons include:

– Movement of a population away from its source
language
– Cultural contact with other speakers
– Space between people – geographical and social

■ Can you supply other reasons?

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TYPES OF
VARIATION
Types of Variation

■ The study of variation typically falls under two categories:

– HORIZONTAL (or Regional) VARIATION

– VERTICAL (or Social) VARIATION

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 Horizontal (Regional)
Variation
■ Variation which marks off the residents of one region from those
of other regions.
– e.g. variation in ʻrʼ across England and the US; variation of
‘h’ use in Jamaica

■ The term ʻdialectʼ is usually used to describe the varieties of

different regions.
– In fact, this approach was traditionally labeled dialect
geography.

■ Linguists differentiate dialects by using ISOGLOSSES

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Horizontal (Regional)
Variation
■ Isogloss – a line drawn on a map to show the geographical
boundaries of a particular linguistic feature.

■ The variation is usually reproduced in a LINGUISTIC

ATLAS.

■ Where a ʻbundleʼ of isoglosses exist, often mark off a

DIALECT BOUNDARY.

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Horizontal (Regional)
Variation

■ Watch the following videos called Trinidad vs Jamaica:

Different Words, Same Meanings! and Jamaica vs
Trinidad: Fruit Names 🌍🇹🇹🇯🇲
■ How many of the items are you familiar with?
■ What can you add any to the list?

■ https://youtu.be/GfpVykfVhuk?si=QvCtkPHKP7saQARs
■ https://youtu.be/tnW-vaIQk7A?si=FBmuEuh4uYPs9eGB
 Vertical (Social) Variation

■ Variation associated with a specific social class or group, which

marks that class or group off from other classes or groups.

■ The variation is influenced by social factors such as: socio-

economic status, caste, educational background, gender, age,
race, ethnicity.

■ Most societies with social dialect differentiation have at least two

varieties:
1. a high or prestige variety
2. a low or non-standard variety

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 Vertical (Social) Variation

■ Factors influencing Vertical Variation

1) Patterns of Interaction
2) Distribution of Power
3) Distribution of population

■ Can you identify other factors?

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Vertical (Social) Variation

■ Watch the following video.

– https://youtube.com/shorts/Iu1wzsekvBo?si=VW8OvPR
WP5ZRVkn_
■ How many of the Gen Alpha slangs do you know?
 VARIATION IN
REGISTER AND
STYLE
Variation in Register

■ A Register is a variety of language used for a particular

purpose, situation, or social setting. It involves differences in
vocabulary, grammar and sometimes pronunciation
depending on the context and audience.
■ Main Characteristics:
• Field: What is happening (the topic or activity)
• Tenor: Who is involved (the relationships between
speakers/writers and listeners/readers)
• Mode: How communication is taking place (spoken,
written, casual, formal, etc.)
Variation in Register

■ Examples of Registers:
• Legal register: "The party of the first part hereby
agrees..."
• Academic register: "This study investigates the
relationship between..."
• Casual register: "Hey, what’s up?"

■ Halliday (1978) in Language as Social Semiotic describes

Register as "the configuration of meanings that are typically
associated with a particular situational context."
Variation in Style

■ Style refers to the degree of formality or informality used by a

speaker or writer within a given register or in everyday
language use.
– It’s about how language is tailored to fit the social
setting, ranging from very formal to very informal.

■ Main Characteristics:
• Style shifts can happen within the same register
depending on formality.
• Style depends heavily on social norms, audience
expectations, and personal identity.
Variation in Style
■ Joos (1967), in The Five Clocks, proposed five levels of style
based on formality, emphasizing that speakers naturally
adjust their style depending on their audience and purpose.

■ Common Style Levels:

• Frozen (ceremonial speech, e.g., constitutional
language)
• Formal (presentations, academic writing)
• Consultative (doctor-patient conversations)
• Casual (friends talking)
• Intimate (private conversations with close friends/family)
 LANGUAGE
VARIETIES AND
THEIR FUNCTIONS
Functions of ʻVarietiesʼ in Speech
Communities.
What is a language variety?

■ Hudson (1980): “a set of linguistic items with similar

distribution.”

■ Ferguson (1971): “any body of human speech patterns

which is sufficiently homogenous to be analyzed by
available techniques of synchronic description and which
has a sufficiently large repertory of elements and broad
enough semantic scope to function in all normal contexts
of communication”.

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Functions of Varieties in Speech
Communities
■ The term ‘language variety’ is used in many ways; the
term is vague and neutral.
■ Vague
Allows us to say that all the following are varieties:
London English, American English, Jamaican English,
Indian English & Australian English

■ Neutral
No negative or positive connotations are attached.

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 Functions of ‘Varieties’ in
Speech Communities
■ The varieties in a speech community are called by different
names:

– Patois: This term is rarely used by linguists

■ Original meaning – “regional variety that has no literary
traditions”

– Linguists use the term Vernacular -“A form of speech

transmitted from parent to child as a primary medium of
communication”

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Functions of Varieties in
Speech Communities

■ What are some of the functions that these varieties

serve?
The Functions of Language Varieties
■ Official Language - legislated
E.g. English in most Caribbean countries, Suriname

• Regional Official Language - legislated

E.g. Yoruba in Nigeria

• National Language - widest used in public/ formal domains

E.g. Hindi in India, Haitian Creole in Haiti

• Tolerated Language - not officially recognized, usually a minority

language
E.g. Punjabi in India, Arabic in the UK, Spanish in the US

• Proscribed Variety - banned from usage

E.g. Basque in Spain until 1950s; Welsh in Ireland

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Teaching/Learning Activity

■ Use the following url to watch the video entitled Why

Everyone Should Care About Language Variation |
Meghan Armstrong | TEDxHolyokeCC

– https://youtu.be/Jijo0kQOAWQ?si=s5aQGR-6QsxhpH1D
Teaching/Learning Activity

■ Out of Class Activity

■ Read more about the functions that varieties can serve. Ensure that
you made relevant notes

■ Can you identify the languages that are in the Caribbean and their
functions?
Readings

■ Do the following readings:

■ Van Herk (2018), Chapter 2 ‘Language and Society’

■ Wardhaugh & Fuller (2015), Chapter 2 ‘Languages, Dialects
and Varieties
■ Wardhaugh & Fuller (2015), Chapter 6 ‘Language Variation’