JAGANNATH UNIVERSITY

Assignment on
 How does Sociolinguistics help us be aware of the linguistic variations and
discriminations prevailing in the society - explain and elaborate using appropriate
theories and examples.

Course Title: Sociolinguistic

Course Code: LET 6302

Submitted to
Mili Shaha Doll
Assistant professor
Department of English
Jagannath University, Dhaka

Submitted by
Fatema Tuj Johora
MA in English
Batch - 9th
Roll no: M190102908

Date: 30 January, 2021

HowHow
doesdoes Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics help ushelp us beofaware
be aware of the variations
the linguistic linguisticand
variations and discriminations
discriminations prevailing
prevailing in the in theand
society - explain society - explain
elaborate usingand
appropriate
elaborate using theories theories
appropriate and examples.
and examples.
Language plays a role of connector. Language allows us share to share our thoughts, ideas,
emotions, needs to other human. It has the power to build relationship between different societies
but also tear them down. When we study a language we need to know the people, their culture,
their society, their geographical area, purpose of used that language in which that specific
language is used. Sociolinguistics is challenging field of linguistics. It studies of speech
functions according to the speaker and the hearer, their purpose of speaking, the context and the
function of language. It aim is to find out the ways in which language interacts with society, the
structure of language changes for its different social functions.

According to Fishman sociolinguists are interested in knowing “who speaks, which language to
whom and when”.

That means-

a. Who is the speaker? Role of speaker in society.

b. Which language he/she is using, whether it is formal or informal, dialect or standard.
c. Who is the listener? Like family members, friends, neighbors, students or office
colleague.
d. When people are speaking? Means different context of conversations.

According to Sali (2012), sociolinguistics is the interaction between language, culture, and
society.

According to (Carol M. Eastman, 1975; 113) The study that is concerned with the interaction
of language and setting. Another scholar ( Ronald Wardhaugh, 1986 : 12) the study that is
concerned with investigating the relationship between language and society with the goal of a
better understanding of the structure of language and of how languages function in
communication.
 Language variation

Language variation means the way a particular language is used by its speaker and socio-
linguistics studies these variation of language which can be happened for forms of a language
that means- minor pronunciations of words or a slight changes of grammatical structure that do
not inhibit intergroup communication or maybe for particular cultures, different social classes,
and differences between age groups speech communication, social groups, styles. That means
language varies not only from individual to individual but also from one sub-section of speech
community like – family, town to town or village to village, region to another. People of
different occupation, age, gender, social classes, and cultural background in the same
community, friends and geographical area show variations in their speech.
Hudson defines a variety of language as ‘a set of linguistic items with similar distribution’ a
definition that allows us to say that all of the following are varieties: Canadian English, London
English, the English of football commentaries, and so on. According to Hudson, this definition
also allows us to treat all the languages of some multilingual speaker or community as a single
variety, since all the linguistic items concerned have a similar social distribution.(3)

According to sociolinguists, language is a Code and variation exists within the code. The factors
that works behind the language variation are summarized in here-

 Nature of participants and their relationship. Such as - social class, occupational.

 Role of participants. Such as - father/daughter, husband/wife, teacher/student.
 Nature of medium. Such as – writing, scripted speech, speech reinforced by gesture.
 Function of speech event. Such as – verbal, ritual, persuasion.
 Physical setting like –formal/informal, noisy/quite, public/private.
 Regional or geographical setting like – village/town, capital city/divisional city, country
to country.

The study of major variation of language exist within the code are mentioned in below-
 CODE

Code: The term ‘code’ refers an arbitrary, pre- arrange set of signals that means any kind of
system where two or more people employ for communication.

Dialect: Dialect means any variety of language that is marked off from others by distinctive
linguistic features. If differs in pronunciation, vocabulary, spelling, grammar from standard
language. Such a variety could be related to a particular place or region or, rather than more
surprisingly, it might also be associated with a certain social or political group, male or female,
younger or older, and so on. Dialect also refers to language variation that comes from a group of
users that are relative in numbers, living in one particular place, region or area (Chaer &
Augustina, 1995:83).

Example: Though Bangla is our native language but it varies region to region. People of
Chittagong, Sylhet, Noakhali, Barishal, Jessore all are using Bangla language but their
pronunciation, use of different vocabulary are not same. This is the example of variation of
dialect. There can be found several dialectical variants of one word. The standard Bangla for boy
is chhele. In Khulna and Jessore chhawal, in Bogra byata chhail, in Dhaka pola, in
Mymensingh put, in sylhet puya, in noakhali hut, in Chittagong and in the Chakma dialect poya.

Registers: Dialects are varieties of language according to users but register are the variation of
language according to use that means register is a conventional way of using language that is
appropriate in a specific context, which may be identified as situational (linguistic classroom,
science lab), occupational (doctor’s language, scientist language) or topical (talking about a
specific topic like-, psychology, zoology, economic, politics).
 u
L
a
r
F
g
P
n
h
c
i
w
S
e
d
o
C
Example: The word sister has a different meaning in everyday language (sister-sibling or social
relationship) and in the world of medicine (sister-nurse).

Idiolects: An idiolect is the distinctive speech of an individual-which includes pronunciation,

grammar, vocabulary, spelling, etc. Most of us having an individual way of speaking, a personal
dialect or idiolect, but we generally tend to sound like others (consciously/Unconsciously) with
whom we share similar educational background or occupations. A dialect is made of a group of
idiolect speakers from a social group, occupation, business purpose, regional subdivision of a
speech community.

Example: When family members talk to each other they have a different speech habit which
may not use in official environment or people who went to college speak different than those
who didn’t get that chance.

When bilinguals fail to communicate properly with their interlocutors people they are searching
for another new ways to continue their communication-

we found some languages whose

• A third language
• Mix the two languages
• Use different languages for different purposes

This type of problem can be solved according to sociolinguistic theory. Whose are also consider
as a major factors of language variation. Such as: –

P
Li d gi
Lingua franca: A lingua franca is a language which is used habitually by those people whose
ingua
mother tongues are different in order to make communication between them. In every continent
C ode
become

F rn
an ca
Sw
lingua c hi
i
franca. Now ng
a day the most obvious example of
lingua franca is English, which is consider current most dominant lingua franca of foreign
diplomacy, education sectors, technology, trade, science, health sectors, economic. But there are
many other languages which served at different historical periods, as lingua franca in particular
regions, countries even the whole world use as special contexts.

Example: The Bengali language acts as a lingua franca for the entire Bengal region which cover
mainly Bangladesh and West Bengal. While there are many Bengali “dialects” spoken
throughout Bengal that are not necessarily mutually intelligible with Standard Bengali,
like Chittagongian  and Sylheti, Bengali is still the main and official language of the region.
Pidgin: Pidgin is defined as a type of spoken communication with two or more languages. It is
a sociolinguistic phenomenon where two people whose first languages are different try to
communicate using elements from both of their languages in a mixed manner. Its use is usually
restricted to certain group of people.

Example: An example is the “pidgin” which was first created among traders and seaman. This is
called business language. They are created because traders and sailors, traveler, come from
different places and have different dialect. To communicate other people they use a common
language.

Creole: Creoles refer to any pidgin language that becomes the first language in a speech
community that means when a pidgin become lingua franca it’s called Creole. A creole is
“created” when the speaker of a pidgin language become extended with a standardized grammar,
vocabulary, sound system then a number of people start to use it as their first language. Awell
known example of creole language is island of Haiti.

Figure: Example of Haitian Creole

Code switching: means when a speaker alternates between two or more dialects or registers
of the same language at one conversation or at a time.
 Figure: Outcomes of New Language

Style: Style refers to the way that individual speakers vary their language according to different
aspects of the social situation. It is more related with the situations, context, purpose rather than
with the speakers themselves.

Example:

Formal style Informal style

How are you doing? What’s going on?
I would be grateful if you could reply early. Please get back to me ASAP.

Standard Language: A standard language is a variety of language that is used normally

written form throughout a broader area rather than the dialect itself. The ways in which this
language is used by governments, administrative matters, in the media, in schools, literature, and
economic life and for international communication. There are different standard varieties of
English in the world, such as – British English, North American English, Canadian English,
Australian English and Indian English. Although these standard varieties differ in terms of their
pronunciation, use of grammar, spelling, expression.
Nonstandard Language: The term nonstandard was originally used by linguists to refer
different language varieties that had previously been labeled name as vulgar. Nonstandard
English differs from Standard English at the level of grammar (it does not follow the grammar or
pronunciation rules of standard language) structures that cannot be described or generated by a
given linguistic framework, used as regional dialects.

Linguistic discrimination
Linguistic discrimination or Linguicism is discrimination based on language or dialect:
linguistically argued racism. It's also known as linguistic discrimination (Nordquist, 2017). The
term was coined in the 1980s by linguist Tove SkutnabbKangas (1988), who defined
linguicism as "ideologies and structures that are used to legitimate, effectuate and reproduce an
unequal division of power and resources between groups which are defined on the basis of
language" (Skutnabb-Kangas,1988, p. 339).

Linguistic discrimination manifests itself within the negative, distinct and unjustifiable treatment
of individuals due to the way they speak or use languages. By considering on a difference in
language many people become judgmental about another person’s education, social status,
financial status, character or other traits . Sometimes Linguistic discrimination deprived people
from equal opportunities or equal access to the job or in social class or somehow intellectually
inferior and less socially valuable.
"Linguicism can be open (the agent does not try to hide it), conscious (the agent is aware of it),
visible (it is easy for non-agents to detect), and actively action oriented (as opposed to 'merely'
attitudinal). Or it can be hidden, unconscious, invisible, and passive (lack of support rather than
active opposition), typical of later phases in the development of minority education" (Skutnabb-
Kangas et al., 2000, p. 109).
 Impact of Linguistic discrimination
According to (Nieto & Bode, 2010)
• Linguistic diversity is often looked upon as a temporary block in learning.
• Teachers and schools may view ELL’s English language learners) as ‘handicapped’.
• Children who don’t speak English yet are often viewed as lacking language period.
Besides these-
• People may lose their confidence in public speaking or speak in front of a group.
• Students may not able to ask any question in their classroom.
• Students may have to face mockery in classroom.
• Students tended to compare their linguistic levels which lead them to a low self-esteem
based on their linguistic proficiency and situations triggered by the professor.
• Created a perception that some accents are more legitimate than others.
• Repressed hostility grows toward difference for their language.

How to overcome Language Discrimination

• Every people should have a positive feeling about their language accents. Accent or
dialect is NOT a language deficiency.
• Knowledge of situations of interaction that could result in language discrimination.
• A native English-speaker always has a proper knowledge and deep respect of language
difference.
• Non native speaker need a clear view of the way in which they want to present
themselves, how much they want to show their identity and the language they use. If I am
confident with my language then anyone can get chance to mock about my language.
• Need to grow awareness of every class of people about the culture-specific standards of
self-presentation (oral and written communication).
• Need to grow notions of social appropriacy and politeness about language and culture
along with conversation patterns of common interactions within a community.
• Refer to inspectors/officials whenever discrimination might be happening in any sectors.
 • Develop awareness skills for inter-ethnic communication through different programs or
training for students, instructors, and staff.
• Continuously sharing psycholological effect for language discrimination and providing
clear procedures to be followed to prevent or stop any kind of discrimination.
• Students of native speaker need to learn respect for other speakers.

In sum up we can say that sociolinguistic has an important role in language teaching because it is
consist of the study of the link between language and society, the language variation, language
discrimination, the structure of language, the suitable perspective of language and the attitudes
about language. According to Broersma (2001) ‘having a good sociolinguistics competence
means knowing how to “gives every person his or her due.” It means when we need to be quiet,
talk, give compliments to others, apologize, to speak in appropriate social context. It also studies
how languages changes from person to person, and how languages is affected by social class,
regions, age, gender and relationship. Sociolinguistics is defined as the study of how the people
around us and our heritage can change the way we speak. By studying sociolinguistics we will
sharp our knowledge about language and society and it encourages us to think about these
fundamental questions by asking how and why we select from the vast range of different words,
accents, varieties and languages available to us.

••••☺••••

References
1. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331285240_Sociolinguistics

2. https://fatchulfkip.wordpress.com/2008/03/19/sociolinguistics/

3. https://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/language-variation-and-change

4. https://www.scribd.com/document/428816189/HN

5. http://nongnia.blogspot.com/2013/04/langage-variation-sociolinguistics-group.html

6. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1162279.pdf

7. https://mabasan.kemdikbud.go.id/index.php/MABASAN/article/download/159/129