01. Language & Society

An Introduction to Sociolinguistics
by Janet Holmes

What do sociolinguists study?

Sociolinguistics is a term that refers to the study of the relationship between language and society. Sociolinguists also study how language is used in multilingual speech communities.



Dr. Clamons:

We look at English and other languages to explore how we talk both similarly and differently with and about one another, in order to investigate how language variation correlates with power and status, class, network, race and ethnic group affiliation, religion, personality, gender, sexuality, and disability. 

What aspects of language are Sociolinguists interested in?

Sociolinguists are interested in explaining why people speak differently in different social contexts. They are concerned with the way people signal aspects of their social identity through language. Sociolinguists study the effect of social factors -- such as social distance, social status, age, gender and class -- on language varieties (dialects, registers, genres, etc). Sociolinguists are also concerned with identifying the social functions of language and the ways it is used to convey social meaning.

Sociolinguistics

Language can be viewed as a formal system that can be profitably studied independently from the people who use it. This type of approach is often referred to in the field as the study of "formal" linguistics. However . . .  if we can gain insight into how language works by studying its formal grammatical properties, we must also realize that language, as a "thing" to be studied, is necessarily a kind of simplification, because language isn't a "thing" external to human beings, but rather, something that makes up a part of who we are. Language must also be profitably studied in its social context. In so doing, we learn both about language and about ourselves, the people who use it, live with it, and live in it. (www.unc.edu)

 video explaining some subtleties of the 

New Zealand dialect and "NZ lingo and phrases"

video from the Regional Dialect Meme: New Zealand

Languages provide a variety of ways of saying the same thing. Linguistic variation can provide social information for analysis.

Areas of variation areas include vocabulary, sound, pronunciation,word-structure (morphology) and grammar (syntax). These provide linguistic styles for use in various social contexts. Choices may involve different dialects or quite different languages.

A variety or code is a set of linguistic forms used under specific social circumstances (domains).

A domain of language involves typical interactions between typical participants in typical settings about a typical topic. Examples of these domains are family, friendship, religion, education and employment. Using the language of one domain that is typically associated with another is sometimes known as "leakage."

The reasons for the choices involve social considerations: participants, social settings and topic (or purpose) of interaction. There are four dimensions for analysis which relate to these social factors:

• Social Distance scale    [relates to participant]
• Status scale                 [relates to participant]
• Formality scale             [relates to setting]
• Functional scale           [relates to purpose]

          There are two basic function scales: Referential (informational) and Affective (emotional)

 

Diglossia -- refers to communities in which two languages or language varieties are used, with one being a high variety for formal situations and prestige, and one a low variety for informal situations (everyday conversation). Diglossia is a characteristic of speech communities. Individuals may be bilingual -- societies or communities are diglossic.

In the narrow or 'classic' sense, diglossia is a stable situation that has three factors:

1. Two distinct varieties of the same language are used in the community, with one regarded as high (H) variety and the other as low (L) variety.
   
   
2. Each variety is used for quite distinct functions; H & L complement each other.
3. No one uses the H variety in everyday conversation.

Diglossia, in a broader sense, gives most weight to criterion #2, the complementary functions of two codes in a community.

Polyglossia -- the use of many codes for many purposes

Displacement may happen between varieties.

Code Switching or Code Mixing

In the Given Names Study, University of Minnesota researchers used a simple, stressed and unstressed syllable categorization system for an analysis of names from 1987-1997 sociolinguistics class lists. Using this system, the stress pattern for my given name, Vance Cameron, is “s + sww.” This represents an unusual pattern, observed in about 1% of females and 3% of males. However, this pattern is in line with the study's finding that, among males -- very few were given names beginning with a weak syllable.

The name Vance is of English origin and the meaning of Vance is "marsh dweller."

The name Holmes is of English origin and the meaning of Holmes is "from the river island."

The name Cameron is of Scottish origin and the meaning of Cameron is "crooked nose."It is also of English origin, where it means "crooked nose."

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02. Multilingual Communities

disglossia:
characteristic of speech communities -- rather than individuals. Therefore, there is a range of potential relationships between disglossia and bilingualism.

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                                        disglossia 
                                  +                                                   -

   bilingualism.

                       +         1. both disglossia and bilingualism  2. bilingualism without disglossia
                       -           3. disglossia without bilingualism    4. neither disglossia nor bilingualism

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metaphorical switching (also known as 'code-switching') rapid switching between two linguistic systems, including sounds, grammar and vocabulary

lexical borrowing -- single word switches triggered mainly by lack of vocabulary


Some sociolinguists believe there are universal rules . . .

• linguistic constraints -- very general rules for code-switching which apply to all switching behavior regardless of the codes or varieties involved
• equivalence constraint -- a switching rule where the grammars of both languages match each other
• matrix language frame (MLF) -- the first language that imposes structural constraints on code-switched utterances
• embedded language -- the second language which supplies some content words

intra-sentential switching (within sentences) and inter-sentential switching (at sentence boundaries)





Domain:
a grouping together of recurring situation types in such a way that one of the languages or varieties in a repertoire, as opposed to others, normally occurs in that class of situations. And members of the speech community judge that the use of that variety and not the others is appropriate to that domain

Different types of domains can be identified:

• family/home
• education
• official
• religion
• intimate 
• Employment 
• Friendship, Etc.

Functional domains

Different languages in a multilingual community will typically be used in different domains. For instance, in the Mambila region of Cameroon, French is used in the domain of education and official business, and the local variety of Mambila is the language of the home and of intimacy.

Interview of Marie, a 16 year old young lady in Bafoussam, Cameroon.

CamFranglais 

Cameroon is a country divided by its colonial past. Once ruled by the United Kingdom, people in the north speak English. In the south, previously administered by France, most speak French. The country is striving towards bilingualism in a bid to promote national unity but the road is hard. The young people however have found a way -- speaking, and singing, both at the same time in a chaotic mix known as CamFranglais or francanglais.

Words of Life Mambila People
Language Movie Trailer

Other names for this language are:
Bang; Bea; Ble; Juli; Lagubi; Mambere; Mambila, 
Cameroon; Mambilla; Nor; Tagbo; Tongbo; Torbi

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Instability of language use in different domains reflects the general instability of the  linguistic situation



Language as a property of the individual:
Every individual has his or her network of relationships which may involve different linguistic relationships.



Language contact and multilingualism

• situations of language endangerment involve two (and often more) languages in contact (a multilingual situation)
• this multilingual situation may ultimately lead to endangerment, language shift and the extinction of one or more of the languages

Multilingualism also varies across social groups

• different groups show different patterns of language choice and use in different circumstances and for different occasions
• groups may be relatively more or less homogeneous in their linguistic repertoires and patterns of linguistic behavior

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03. Language Maintenance and Shift

     The Obama fist-bump heard 'round the world.

When a language dies, the cultural knowledge embodied within it also dies. In this sense, a language death represents the death of a world view.

Colorful idioms and idiomatic associations -- with their attendant cultural context and historic association -- die when a language becomes extinct. Idioms provide linguistic connections to many important social elements, including:

• Historic people, places and events
• Community values and tradition
• Cultural artifacts (stories, poems, oaths, jokes)
• Gesture (fist-bump, high-five)
• Rhythmic and melodic representations

The various social pressures that affect language use can produce three very different results: language death, language shift and language maintenance.

The most prestigious status for any language is that of official language, because states or countries that grant it automatically commit to using that language in all of their operations. Of the world's 6,000 to 7,000 languages, only about 100 stand as the official languages of one or more countries.




Language shift is largely an issue related to urbanization. Languages associated with the urban milieu become more prestigious and more attractive, than "village" varieties.



 There are many different social reasons for choosing a particular code or variety in a multilingual community. But what choice is there for those who speak lesser-used languages in a community where the people in power use a world language or an official language of that area? How do economic and political factors influence language choices?
-- John Darngawn


 Language Shift in Different Communities


Migrant minorities

The order of domains in which language shift occurs may differ for different individuals and different groups, but gradually over time the language of the wider society displaces the minority language mother tongue. There are many different social factors which can lead a community to shift from using one language for most purposes to using a different language, or from using two distinct codes in different domains, to using different varieties of just one language for their communicative needs. Migrant families provide an obvious example of this process of language shift.

Non-Migrant Communities

Language shift is not always the result of migration. Political, economic and social changes can occur within a community, and this may result in linguistic changes too. In Oberwart, an Austrian town on the border of Hungary, the community has been gradually shifting from Hungarian to German for some time.

Factors

Obtaining work is the most obvious economic reason for learning another language. In English dominated countries, for instance, people learn English in order to get good jobs. This results in bilingualism. Bilingualism is always a necessary precursor of language shift, although, as stable diglossic communities demonstrate, it does not always result in shift.

The second important factor, then, seems to be that the community sees no reason to take active steps to maintain their ethnic language.

Dimensions for analyzing language maintenance and shift

This video is meant to provide a sample of the Navajo language. The weather report was given on February 17, 2009 at 7:30 AM in the morning. The english translation provided is a broad translation, since Navajo is such a detailed language that more is said than is translated into English.

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04. Varieties - Pidgins and Creoles

Pidgins and Creoles

Notes from Educational Cyber Playground

A pidgin is a new language which develops in situations where speakers of different languages need to communicate but don't share a common language.

The vocabulary of a pidgin comes mainly from one particular language -- called the "lexifier". The early "pre-pidgin" is very restricted in use and variable in structure. But the later "stable pidgin" develops its own grammatical rules which are quite different from those of the lexifier. Once a stable pidgin has emerged, it is generally learned as a second language and used for communication among people who speak different languages.




When children start learning a pidgin as their first language and it becomes the mother tongue of a community, it is called a creole. 

Like a pidgin, a creole is a distinct language which has taken most of its vocabulary from another language, the lexifier, but has its own unique grammatical rules. Unlike a pidgin, however, a creole is not restricted in use, and is like any other language in its full range of functions. Examples are Gullah, Jamaican Creole and Hawaii Creole English.

A pidgin is a version of a language which is stripped of virtually everything except what is necessary to basic communication.

Creole is a latter-day descendant of something that began as a pidgin.

Hawaii Pidgin: The Voice of Hawaii

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For example. . . 

In a collaborative project between a Russian ballet company and a U.S. ballet Theatre, the two companies would begin to combine languages and form a pidgin to speak of artistic items and concepts.

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Linguistics of Color

What is Black English? What is Black?

Janet Holmes:

A vernacular language "is an uncodified or unstandardized variety" and is acquired "in the home as a first variety." The word, vernacular, "generally refers to the most colloquial variety in a person’s linguistic repertoire." This implies that what some may call ungrammatical, slovenly slang – others may identify as an example of very active linguistic maintenance!

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 "It is a basic axiom of sociolinguistics that bias against a language or dialect stands in for bias against its speakers.
-- Dr. Peter L Patrick

"The speakers of African American English have often been assumed to be black Americans, or African Americans, and indeed most of them are. But there are obvious problems with defining a language (or anything else) racially . . ."
-- Dr. Peter L Patrick

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Role of Public Schools

Often due merely to linguistic differences and communication difficulties, Black students are harshly disciplined, unfairly suspended from classes, and wrongly classified as "learning disabled" by their teachers.

In Minnesota, Black students are admitted to Gifted - Talented programs at less than half the rate of Whites, and nearly three times as many are labeled "cognitively impaired." Once given this label -- or a similar exceptionality classification -- the Black student is far less likely to receive the same quality of general classroom instruction other children receive. They are tracked for failure. According to the Minnesota Department of Education -- in 2009, Minnesota's graduation rate for White students was 82%. For Blacks, the rate was 44%.


Relationship of Dialect to Spelling Instruction

There is some research on the spelling performance of children who speak so-called, "Black English" and other "minority dialects" which suggests dialect should be considered when teaching spelling. But what we know for certain is that cultural competence is required in the multicultural classroom. Sometimes the problem is hearing . . . sometimes the problem is listening!

This scene from the movie, Akeelah and the Bee -- about children of color in a spelling bee -- is a particularly effective dramatization of these issues.

http://youtu.be/ZolebXNInrs

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05. Nation and Language Status

What are implications of language policies in the lives of real people? What is the relationship between political and economic power and language status?

National language defined: It is the main language of political, social and cultural practices, where people use it as a symbol of their national unity. Official language is the language used by governments for formal functions. In a monolingual community, a national language is usually also the official language, but in bilingual or multilingual communities, it may or may not be the official language. For example: English and French are both official languages in Canada.


Planning for a national official language:

• Selection: selecting the variety or code to by developed.
• Codification: standardizing its structural or linguistic features.
• Elaboration: extending its functions for use in new domains.
• Securing its acceptance: acceptance by people in terms of attitude & prestige.

Nuestro Himno ("Our Anthem")
"Star Spangled Banner" performed in Spanish by 

Olga Tanon, Wyclef Jean and Carlos Ponce

Although English is the de facto language of government in the United States, we have no de jure official language. In the past three decades, however, 28 states have passed legislation making English their official state language.  The history of language and nation in the United States has fluctuated over the course of time.



The Linguistic Society of America's statement on language rights holds that, at a minimum, all residents of the United States should be guaranteed seven basic linguistic rights: the right to express themselves in the language of their choice; the right to maintain their native language and pass it on to their children; the right to a qualified interpreter in government proceedings; the right to have their children educated in a manner that affirms their native language abilities while ensuring their acquisition of English; the right to conduct business in the language of their choice; the right to use their preferred language for private conversations in the workplace; and finally, the right of an opportunity to learn English.

The National Foreign Language Center

The National Foreign Language Center (NFLC) was founded in the mid-1980s as a direct result of an unprecedented national interest in improving foreign language and international studies education by President Carter's Commission on Language and International Studies in 1979. It was also, and more immediately, the brainchild of its founding director, Dr. Richard Lambert, a sociologist as well as foreign language and area studies expert at the University of Pennsylvania.

Diné

This site is dedicated to keeping alive the culture, traditions, and beliefs of the Diné (Navajo People) also referred to as Navajo Indians, a name the site advises is not used or liked by the Diné People. There is also information on language, history, culture and many specific cultural subjects.

Reconciling Linguistic Diversity:

The History and the Future of Language Policy in India

This website is a linguistic overview of India. With over 900 million people and more than one thousand languages, India is certainly one of the most linguistically diverse multilingual nations in the world today. Indian leaders chose Hindi as the official language of India in the hope that it would facilitate regional communication and encourage national unity. Aware of the many of difficulties inherent in trying to promote a single language in a multilingual environment, much planning was done. The situation offers an interesting case for the analysis of political and social aspects of language planning and promotion.

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06. Regional Dialects

Dialectology: Linguists studying language variation across regional areas identify life-long inhabitants and collect samples of language from them. They then plot the variant pronunciations, words, and phrases on a map, identifying where each token of a language form was spoken.

Can we tell if someone is from Iowa or Wisconsin, the south, the east coast?

Every aspect of language varies across geographical regions. 

(1) People in a certain area have a particular accent; the way that they pronounce words and phrases is peculiar to the speakers in that area.

(2) The lexical items that speakers choose also differ from place to place. In western Pennsylvania, people who are always into other people's business are nebby, in Minnesota, they're nosy.

(3) The syntax, the way that words are combined into phrases and sentences, also differs in different regions.  In Minnesota, if the floor is dirty 'the floor needs to be washed'.  In western Pennsylvania, 'the floor needs washed'.

So how do linguists determine what a dialect area is?

According to Encyclopædia Britannica:

Dialectology is the study of dialects. Variation most commonly occurs as a result of relative geographic or social isolation and may affect vocabulary, grammar, or pronunciation (accent). Dialectology as a discipline began in the 19th century with the development in western Europe of dictionaries and grammars of regional dialects. Much of the work of dialectology has consisted of gathering information about the types of variation that occur in different dialects and the construction of linguistic atlases showing patterns of distribution for a series of varying features within a language. Such work on the geographic patterns of linguistic variation is also known as linguistic geography.







The further away from your area the more pronounced you find an accent. The closer you are to an area the more you can differentiate an accent locally.

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When I first came to Minneapolis, I was startled to hear people say "da rainch" -- "da iron rainch" -- and "Dulut." I noticed the Northern Minnesota dialect as sharply distinct from the local Twin Cities sound. I was amazed because the Northern Minnesota dialect is oddly similar to the dialect used in my home area near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Now I am seeing that this may have to do with similarities in the speech of certain types of working class people, because, like "da iron rainch," Pittsburgh also has a long history of iron mining, iron works and steel mills.

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07. Social Dialect

Social Dialect is examining the relationship between social class, prestige factors, and language choices.

How do speakers talk differently in different social groups?

How do speakers use language to identify themselves with a particular social group?

Social dialects defined:

 a variety of language that reflects social variation in language use, according to certain factors related to the social group of the speaker such as education, occupation, income level (upper-class English, middle-class English and lower-class English. For example: Standard English can be classified as a type of social English spoken by the well-educated English speakers throughout the world.



A linguistic variable is a single feature of speech (pronunciation, lexical, or syntactic) "which is found in the speech of some, but not all, members of a speech community; and/or is found sometimes, but not always in the speech of an individual."

William Labov

 
To account for stylistic variation, which based on speech context, i.e., variation in the speech of an individual, William Labov began by distinguishing two varieties of the speech of an individual:

William Labov

Vernacular speech is the variety of speech used by individuals in casual social interactions with peers.  It is always the variety one learns first, many speakers stay monodialectal in it all their lives, it is typically of low prestige, and there is social pressure on upwardly mobile speakers to modify their vernacular speech in favor of superposed speech.

Superposed speech is a prestigious variety of speech used in more formal situations and when speakers are paying closer attention to their speech.  It is the native variety of higher prestige groups, learned later than vernacular by lower prestige groups and therefore not learned as well so speakers will have a tendency to slip back into the vernacular when they aren't paying close attention.








"Social Dialect"

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08. Gender, Age and Language

Gender

 "The nature of the relationship between gender and speech is complex, and the way gender interacts with a range of other factors needs careful examination in each speech community."
-- Holmes

Women and men do not speak in exactly the same way as each other in any community. Gender differences in language are often just one aspect of more pervasive linguistic differences in the society reflecting social status or power differences. It has been claimed that women are more linguistically polite than men and that women and men emphasize different speech functions.

One of the most obvious speech differences between men and women is in the pitch of their voices. Along with the obvious physical differences, social and cultural factors contribute to pitch differences.

There are gender-exclusive and gender-preferential features. Gender-exclusive speech forms reflect gender-exclusive social roles.

Gender and Social Class

The linguistic features which differ in the speech of women and men in Western communities are usually features which also distinguish the speech of people from different social classes. There is widespread evidence that men use more vernacular forms than women -- but there are exceptions to this pattern.

Signaling gender affiliation or constructing gender identity cannot be ignored as factors in their own right.


Question: Why don't men use more standard forms?

Men may prefer vernacular forms because they carry macho connotations of masculinity and toughness. If so, this might explain why women might NOT want to use such forms. Men may regard vernacular forms positively and value them highly, which suggests these forms have "covert prestige"  by contrast with the overt prestige of the standard forms which are cited as models of correctness.

Age

Pitch, vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar can differentiate age groups. These differences include the use of swear words and slang.

Some research suggests that as people get older their speech becomes gradually more standard, and then later it becomes less standards and is once again characterized by vernacular forms. Generally, in the middle years, (30 - 55) people are most likely to respond to the wider society's speech norms by using fewer vernacular forms. These are the peak years of maximum societal pressure to conform

Like slang, vernacular forms act as solidarity markers; they can indicate membership of close-knit social groups.

For an innovation -- a form on the increase -- there will be low use by older people and higher use among young. For a form that is disappearing, the reverse is true.

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The Social Network Model

In the studies that Labov carried out in New York, he examined the general behavior of members a certain social classes.  This allowed him to identify how the members of certain sub-groups used language relative to the overt prestige norms of the larger group.  It did not allow him to identify how other specific social factors related to the covert prestige norms of an individual's unique network. Lesley Milroy wanted to examine the relationship between certain particular social factors and the language behavior of individuals.  In order to do this, she used a social network model.

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09. Ethnicity and Social Context

Imaginationality

My newest invented word: “Imaginationality”

Idea for language and national identity.  Imaginationality: The American Dreamers / The American Halluci-Nation

. . . interplay of Image and History . . . of belonging . . . of dreaming . . .

Considering how deeply America has invested in the dimensions of race and ethnicity, it is shocking to consider that these things are not real! Human racial classifications have no basis in biology. There is no gene, no characteristic, no trait that distinguishes the members of one "race" or ethnic group from another.

Incorporating Linguistic Signals

Language can be an important symbol of a people's distinct ethnicity.

Many ethnic groups use a distinctive language associated with their ethnic identity. Where a choice of language is available for communication it is often possible for an individual to signal their ethnicity by the language they choose to use. Even when a complete conversation in an ethnic language is not possible, people may use short phrases, verbal fillers or linguistic tags, which signal ethnicity.

The use of language varieties has an important symbolic function. It signals a person's ethnicity.

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African American English

 AAE

AAE is heard especially in the northern cities of the U.S. According to Holmes, AAE characteristics include:

• absence of the copula verb be in some social and linguistic contexts
  ("He a teacher" . . . "He's a teacher")
• use of the invariant be to signal recurring or repeated actions
  ("She be at school on weekdays" . . . "She's always at school on weekdays")
• frequent use of multiple negation
  ("I don't owe no money" . . . "I don't owe any money")
• frequent and extensive consonant cluster simplification
  ("This is the las time" . . . "This is the last time")

Dr. Clamons uses the term African American English. AAE has been known by other names such as African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and Black English Vernacular (BEV). I object to the phrase "Black English" and the similarly imprecise, race-based phrase -- "Ebonics." On the website, African American English, Dr. Peter L Patrick notes:

"The speakers of African American English have often been assumed to be black Americans, or African Americans, and indeed most of them are. But there are obvious problems with defining a language (or anything else) racially . . ."

Considering that AAE is the home language for people in urban environments who are of many different ethnic backgrounds, some have identified the dialect as Inner-City English.

Inner-City English 

ICE

Features of ICE

No speaker uses all of the features associated with ICE all the time. Some of the features are in common with Southern English while some are in common with West African languages (notably copula deletion and cluster reduction).As with other non-standard varieties of English, the features of ICE are structured and linguistically complex.

ICE and Southern English feature: "liketa." This is used to indicate “nearly.” So, "I liketa drowned" would mean “I nearly drowned.”


Different Positions on ICE

• ICE is a “sloppy” form of English.
  
  Here, ICE is presumed to be mere slang, but slang is temporary. ICE has a long history. Many of the features of ICE have been maintained across generations.
  
  
  
• ICE is a divergent dialect of Southern English.
  
  Under this idea, ICE was created by the divergence from Southern English, much like the dialects of the USs diverged from the British English of colonial times.
• ICE is a language variety that has origins as a pidgin and a decreolized creole.
  
  The theory is: local slave populations were linguistically diverse; a pidgin was formed; this pidgin became creolized as it became more grammatically complex, and children acquired it as a first language; this creole then became decreolized, making it mutually intelligible with dialects of English.

The "Ebonics" Controversies

The Ann Arbor Decision

It was determined that the Ann Arbor School District was in violation of Section 1703(f) of Title 20 of the United States Code. This code requires that children be given equal opportunity for participation in educational programs. The Ann Arbor School Board was required to develop a plan to instruct teachers in the recognition and instruction of speakers of Black English. The Ann Arbor decision, in part, read:

    “…experts indicated that black children’s development of reading skills can be impaired by rejection by teachers who perceive dialectal variations as errors and indicative of an inferior linguistic system and intellectual inferiority.” (1987)


Oakland School Board

In 1996, the Oakland School Board passed a resolution recognizing "Black English" as a primary language. The case involved two opposing viewpoints:

• Pro -- It will aid in the education of Black students, allowing them to become more proficient in standardized English, while respecting the variation of AAE. Studies have shown that African American children perform better by transition from their home languages.
• Con -- The use of AAE in the classroom will promote segregation. "Ebonics" is just sloppy English. Black children fall behind because their backgrounds do not adequately prepare them for school, not because of their slang speech habits. No studies have shown that bilingual education programs can be extended and used help students with heavy dialects.

In the end, government funding was denied under bilingual education programs on the grounds that AAE is not a true language.

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10. Mexican American Language Community

Minnesota's
Mexican American Language Community

In the U.S., Spanish language use alone seems to have come to constitute a common identity of being Latino or Hispanic, despite the broadness and arbitrariness of the category. Over time, this common identity has been strengthened through struggles to gain recognition for bilingual education programs in U. S. public schools.



The 2010 U.S. Census Bureau recorded Minnesota residents self-identifying as persons of Hispanic or Latino origin as 4.7 percent of the population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). By far, the state’s largest specific ethnic communities within the Census Bureau’s general Latino category are people of Mexican heritage and background.

Francisco Jiménez on the Mexican American experience,
libraries, and his book "Reaching Out" 

 

Article:

http://adage.com/article/guest-columnists/u-s-hispanic-population-growing-abuela-s-latino-community/149331/

U.S. Hispanic Population Is Growing, but This Isn't Your Abuela's Latino Community

The 'Bridge Generation' Has a Different Cultural DNA
By: Hernan Lopez Published: March 14, 2011

According to these latest Census estimates, Latinos now make up 18% (50 million people) of the nation's population. To put that into perspective, the U.S. Hispanic population is more numerous than the entire population of Canada.

However, the more telling statistics have to do with the Hispanic growth rate. Latinos and other minorities were responsible for an astonishing 85% of U.S. population growth in the past 10 years, and that growth happened well beyond Texas and Florida. In fact, the state with the fastest-growing Hispanic population is the heart of Nascar Nation, North Carolina, which also shows that Hispanics have begun to establish roots in areas of the U.S. outside the typical points of entry.

 

. . . While Hispanic population growth in the 1980s and 1990s was primarily driven by immigrants arriving to the U.S. in search of economic prosperity, today's Hispanic growth can be attributed, overwhelmingly, to the group's American-born children. They are bilingual, bicultural and increasingly influential within their multi-generational households.

Dubbed the "bridge generation" in a recent study by MRM Worldwide, these young, U.S.-born Latinos move comfortably between English and Spanish depending on the situation. They attend American schools and have American friends. By every method of measure, they are American. And while they still retain their Hispanic cultural identity, they have increasingly discerning tastes and a desire for new experiences.

Our mindset is no longer defined by language preference, age or acculturation level. It is guided by an evolved set of shared values and needs.

Video on Central and South American in the U.S.

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11. Language Change

.

What aspects of language change over time?

Sociolinguists help us in our understanding of the relationship between language change and historical events, language contact, and social affiliation.


We know that all aspects of language change over time: pronunciation, lexicon, syntax, and pragmatics.

Notes on research from
Nicole Mahoney
and The National Science Foundation

Why Languages Change

Languages change for a variety of reasons. Large-scale shifts often occur in response to social, economic and political pressures. History records many examples of language change fueled by invasions, colonization and migration. Frequently, the needs of speakers drive language change. New technologies, industries, products and experiences simply require new words.

Types of Change

Three main aspects of language change over time: vocabulary, sentence structure and pronunciations. Vocabulary can change quickly as new words are borrowed from other languages, or as words get combined or shortened. The lexicon is "the most volatile part of a language." Sentence structure — the order of words in a sentence — changes more slowly.

Agents of Change

Before a language can change, speakers must adopt new words, sentence structures and sounds, spread them through the community and transmit them to the next generation. According to many linguists — including the National Science Foundation's David Lightfoot — children serve as agents for language change when, "in the process of learning the language of previous generations, they internalize it differently and propagate a different variation of that language."

• Can we trace the evolutionary path of a language?
   
• How do language changes spread through communities?
   
• How do historical circumstances influence language change?

• What is the relationship between language learning and change?

What is an Anti-Language?

According to UsingEnglish.com:

Anti-languages, a term created by the linguist MAK Halliday, are a way of communicating within a language that excludes outsiders. An anti-language uses the same grammar and words as the main speech community, but uses them in a different way so that they can only be understood by insiders."

From WordSpy.com:

antilanguage
n. A collection of words and phrases used to exclude outsiders from a particular group and to disguise the group's activities.

Example Citation:
"Mobspeak is a language that grows out of secrecy, and who can be more secret than the Mafia? The anti-social nature of the Mob is the perfect breeding ground for an 'Antilanguage'."
—Bryan McLucas, "Mobspeak: The Language of the Mafia"

Cockney Rhyming Slang

Cockney Rhyming Slang (CRS) is not slang and it does not rhyme. It is a full and living language with a long history.

CRS is generally thought to have originated in the mid-19th century in the East End of London. The seemingly spontaneous nonsense actually masks an ingenious linguistic invention. Over time, CRS has often been employed as a way of artfully dodging vulgarities and taboo subjects in public discourse through the substituting of code words with embedded meanings and inner-relationships.

 CRS construction loosely involves taking a commonly used word (e.g., "Here comes my wife."), replacing it with a two-part rhyming phrase (trouble and strife). Often, the substitution is made using only the first part -- the non-rhyming part of the phrase. ("Here comes my trouble.") This process has a technical name: hemiteleia. For an outsider listening in, the meanings of the  phrases are impossible to discern.

"Got to my mickey, found me way up the apples, put on me whistle and the bloody dog went. It was me trouble telling me to fetch the teapots."

Translation:

"Got to my house (mickey mouse), found my way up the stairs (apples and pears), put on my suit (whistle and flute) when the phone (dog and bone) rang. It was my wife (trouble and strife) telling me to get the kids (teapot lids)."

"'Allo me old china - wot say we pop round the Jack. I'll stand you a pig and you can rabbit on about your teapots. We can 'ave some loop and tommy and be off before the dickory hits twelve."

Translation:

"Hello my old mate (china plate) - what do you say we pop around to the bar (Jack Tar). I'll buy you a beer (pig's ear) and you can talk (rabbit and pork) about your kids (teapot lids). We can have some soup (loop de loop) and supper (Tommy Tucker) and be gone before the clock (hickory dickory dock) strikes twelve."

Importantly, there is an inner-logic and a shared sensibility that allows for improvisation. This is mostly a matter of cultural knowledge, but a wry sense of humor is clearly seen as a driving force upon a sampling of some of the more classic substitutions.


Near and Far = car

dog and bone = telephone

clever mike = bike

Tony Blair = chair

fat boy slim = gym

brixton riot = diet

bucket and pail = jail

Calvin klein = fine

finger and thumb = rum

Basin of gravy = baby

half inch = pinch

Allan Border = out of order

bees and honey = money

dancing fleas = keys

hit and miss = kiss

airs and graces = faces

Band of hope = soap

jack jones = alone

Cat and mouse = house

April showers = flowers

danny larue = clue

Laugh and a Joke = Smoke

Britney Spears = beers

Pocket     Davy Crockett

A la Mode = code

Cockney Rhyming Slang  (CSR) Links

CRS dictionary, blog, links and info

http://www.cockneyrhymingslang.co.uk/

English to CRS Translator

http://www.aldertons.com/english-.htm

Excellent CRS dictionary and links to humor
http://www.superpan.org/humour/cockney.html

Simple, clear CRS glossary
http://www.phespirit.info/cockney/english_to_slang.htm#T

How To Do A Cockney Accent

The Only Way Is Essex

REALITY show: The Only Way Is Essex

These intriguing comments were located at the The Sun.The article is written by Paul Kerswill, Professor of Sociolinguistics at Lancaster University. He notes a mirror of the New York plural YOUS.

"For me, as someone fascinated by linguistics, what is most interesting, though, is the way they speak. For example, when Billi is talking to Kirk and his mate Joey she makes "you" plural by sticking an "s" on the end so it sounds like 'yous'. . . . Billi and Joey are also fond of the word 'was' where standard English would be 'were'. Are they just ignorant? No, they're following the old Cockney dialect of their forebears."

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12. Style, Context, and Register

Identify how language variation correlates with social situations

People’s styles of speech and written communication reflect and express not only aspects of their identity such as their ethnicity, age, gender, and social background -- they also indicate the contexts in which language is being used. Formality and status are at play here.

What aspects of language vary across speakers, setting, attitude, and other contextual factors?

Language varies according to use and users and according to where it is used and to whom, as well as according to who is using it. The addresses and the context affect our choice of code or variety, whether language, dialect or style.

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Accommodation Theory

 
Speech converges: each person's speech converges towards the speech of the person they are talking to. It tends to happen when the speakers like one another, or where one speaker has a vested interest in pleasing the other or putting them at ease.

Speech diverges: deliberately choosing a different language style not used by one's addressee, it tends to happen when a person wants to show his cultural distinctiveness, social status, ethnic identity, etc.
Hypercorrection: it is the exaggeration of some lower class speakers in imitating middle class standard speech. For example: the use of 'I' rather than 'me' in constructions such as 'between you and I'.

Register: occupational style using specialized or technical jargon, it describes the language of groups of people with common interests or jobs, or the language used in situations associated with such groups, such as the language of doctors, engineers, journals, legalese, etc.



The Communication Accommodation Theory explores the reasons why people use speech in order to emphasize or minimize the social differences between themselves and their listener. It evolved from the Accommodation Theory and was developed by Howard Giles, professor of linguistics and psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The roots of the theory trace back to the Social Identity theory, which explores how a person’s identity is tied to his/her social identity.

Definition of Style

Sociolinguists generally define notions of language style and register primarily as “sets of linguistic features with a particular social distribution.”

What is the difference between style and variety?

Style is "the range of variation within the speech of an individual speaker." Just as there is code-switching, there would be "style-shifting" – this would be within a monolingual society. Style could mean the personal “social dialect” of a speaker based on the relatively permanent aspects of his/her identity (ethnicity, region etc.) and is therefore a very individual set of linguistic features. Register seems to be determined by less permanent aspects of identity (student to teacher, salesman to customer, etc.). Register is seen as falling within the larger idea of style.

Some sociolinguists concerned with style are Halliday, Romaine, Labov. 

Michael Halliday

Suzanne Romaine

William Labov

Labov was interested in characterizing a set of linguistic forms, and in relating them to social factors beyond the individual. "By style” clarified Labov, “we mean to include any consistent… [set of] linguistic forms used by a speaker, qualitative or quantitative, that can be associated with a… [set of ] topics, participants, channel, or the broader social context." 

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Functions of Speech

• Referential function: to convey information and this is done through different forms of speech, such as declarative or interrogative statements.
  
  Declarative statements (You will love this gift.)
  Interrogative statements using Wh-questions (What do you think of this gift?)
  Interrogative statements using yes/no questions (Do you like this gift?)
  Alternative questions with answer choices (Do you like this gift or this one?)
  
  
  
• Directive function: giving orders or making requests by using imperative statements. An imperative statements may express a strict demand such as saying (open the gift) or it can seem less demanding by using the politeness strategy such as saying (please open my gift) or through using question tags.
   
• Expressive function: to express personal feelings, thoughts, ideas and opinions, with different choice words, intonation, etc. These expressions are submissive to social factors and to the nature of the expression as negative (I'm so sad and lonely) or positive (I feel great tonight).
   
• Phatic or Social function: it is one of the most common speech acts in everyday interactions; it consists of greetings, complements, gossip, and so forth.
   
• Metalinguistic Function: it is used to describe parts of language such as grammar, or words that describe language itself.
   
• Poetic Function: using poetic features such as rhyming words, alliteration or paronomasia / puns and antithesis (Time flies like the wind but fruit flies like bananas).
   
• Heuristic Function: Halliday identified this function of language which concerned with learning, the main concentration of researching this function of speech is to identify the spoken language of learning children.
   
• Commissives: it involves using threats and promises (I promise I'll finish my work).

Politeness: it is the consideration of social factors (social distance in terms of solidarity or formality), social status, type of situation or context, intonation, etc when communicating with others.

[One may ask somebody to sit down by using different utterances:
Sit down / please sit down / I want you to sit down / won't you sit down / you sit down / why don't you make yourself more comfortable?]

Positive politeness: a type of politeness based on solidarity between speakers and hearers who share values and attitudes, and in which formal expressions in addressing are avoided.

Negative politeness: a type of politeness based on formality between speakers and hearers in which formal expressions in addressing are used in order to protect hearers' face and avoid intruding on them.

Mrs. Obama's politically incorrect moment?

Political Correctness

It has been often said that "all politics is local." Speaking in the context of sociolinguistics, that might be amended to -- all politeness is local. Local involves both regional and personal dimensions. What's polite in Washington, DC may not be in London, England -- and polite conversation between two buddies in a locker-room is quite different than a polite talk at a lunch meeting between a male boss and a new female hire.

Politeness is not the same as polity. Polity can be defined as the shrewd or artful managing of public affairs. Polite talk connotes a mere formality -- the perfunctory 'please and thank-yous' pasted to the ends of sentences. But political correctness in speech is a rejection of the lingua-centric, "when in Rome, do as the Romans do" top-down perspective. To be politic implies that both the speaker and the addressee have the responsibility to be culturally competent.




"One man's frankness is another man's vulgarity."
-- Kevin Smith

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