This article may be too technical for most readers to understand. (March 2024) |
In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a form of language (non-standard dialect, restricted register) or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, profession, age group, or other social group.
Sociolects involve both passive acquisition of particular communicative practices through association with a local community, as well as active learning and choice among speech or writing forms to demonstrate identification with particular groups. The term sociolect might refer to socially restricted dialects, but it is sometimes also treated as equivalent with the concept of register, or used as a synonym for jargon and slang.
Sociolinguists—people who study sociolects and language variation—define a sociolect by examining the social distribution of specific linguistic terms. For example, a sociolinguist would examine the use of the second person pronoun you within a given population. If one distinct social group used yous as the plural form of the pronoun, then this could indicate the existence of a sociolect. A sociolect is distinct from a regional dialect (regiolect) because social class, rather than geographical subdivision, substantiates the unique linguistic features.
Overview
A sociolect, defined by leading sociolinguist and philosopher Peter Trudgill, is "a variety or lect which is thought of as being related to its speakers' social background rather than geographical background.": 122 This idea of a sociolect began with the commencement of dialectology, the study of different dialects in relation to society, which has been established in countries such as England for many years, but only recently has the field garnered more attention.: 26 However, as opposed to a dialect, the basic concept of a sociolect is that a person speaks in accordance with their social group whether it is with regard to one's ethnicity, age, gender, etc. As William Labov once said, "the sociolinguistic view ... is that we are programmed to learn to speak in ways that fit the general pattern of our communities.": 6 Therefore, what we are surrounded with in our environment determines how we speak; hence, our actions and associations.
Distinguished from dialect
The main distinction between sociolects (social dialects) and dialects proper (geographical dialects), which are often confused, is the settings in which they are created. A dialect's main identifier is geography: a certain region uses specific phonological, morphosyntactic or lexical rules.: 35 Asif Agha expands the concept by stating that "the case where the demographic dimension marked by speech are matters of geographic provenance alone, such as speaker's birth locale, extended residence and the like".: 135 However, a sociolect's main identifier is a socioeconomic class, age, gender, and/or ethnicity in a certain speech community.
An example of a dialectal difference, based on region, is the use of the words soda or pop and coke in different parts of the United States. As Thomas E. Murray states, "coke is used generically by thousands of people, especially in the southern half of the country." On the other hand, pop is known to be a term that is used by many citizens in the northern half of the country.
An example of a sociolect difference, based on social grouping, is the zero copula in African American Vernacular English. It occurs in a specific ethnic group but in all areas of the United States.: 48 William Labov gives an example: "he here" instead of "he's here.": 38
Definitions
Code switching is "the process whereby bilingual or bidialectal speakers switch back and forth between one language or dialect and another within the same conversation".: 23
Diglossia, associated with the American linguist Charles A. Ferguson, which describes a sociolinguistic situation such as those that obtain in Arabic-speaking countries and in German-speaking Switzerland. In such a diglossic community, the prestigious standard of 'High' (or H) variety, which is linguistically related to but significantly different from the vernacular or 'Low' (or L) varieties, has no native speakers.: 389
Domain is "different language, dialects, or styles are used in different social contexts".: 41
Language attitudes are "social in origin, but that they may have important effects on language behavior, being involved in acts of identity, and on linguistic change.": 73
Linguistic variable is "a linguistic unit...initially developed...in order to be able to handle linguistics variation. Variables may be lexical and grammatical, but are most often phonological". Example of British English (h) which is sometimes present and sometimes not.: 83
Pragmatics is the meaning of a word in social context, while semantics has "purely linguistic meaning".: 107
Register is "a language variety that is associated with a particular topic, subject, or activity...." Usually, it is defined by vocabulary, but has grammatical features as well.: 110
Examples
Tamil caste system
The following is an example of the lexical distinction between the Mudaliyar and the Iyengar groups of the Tamil-speaking people in India. The Iyengar group is part of the Brahmin caste which is scholarly and higher in the caste hierarchy than the non-Brahmin or Mudaliyar, caste.: 136 The Mudaliyars use many of the same words for things that are differentiated within the Iyengars' speech. For example, as seen below, the difference between drinking water, water in general, and non-potable water is used by one word in the non-Brahmin caste and three separate words in the Brahmin caste. Furthermore, Agha references how the use of different speech reflects a "departure from a group-internal norm".: 139 For example, if the non-Brahmin caste uses Brahmin terms in their mode of speech it is seen as self-raising, whereas if people within the Brahmin caste use non-Brahmin speech it is seen as pejoratives.: 138 Therefore, depending on which castes use certain words the pragmatics change. Hence, this speech system is determined by socioeconomic class and social context.
| Gloss | Mudaliyar (non-Brahmin) | Iyengar (Brahmin) |
|---|---|---|
| Drinking Water | tanni | tirrto |
| Water in general | tanni | jalo |
| Non-potable water | tanni | tanni |
| Worship | puuse | puuje |
| food | sooru | saado |
| worship | puuse | puuje 'worship'// puuse 'punishment for children' |
| food | sooru/saado | saado 'food'// sooru 'food' (pejorative) |
| eat | tinnu/saapdo | saapdo 'eat'// tinnu 'guzzle, etc.' (pejorative) |
Norwegian dialect-based sociolect
Norwegian does not have a spoken standard and is heavily dependent on dialect variants. The following example shows the difference between the national written standard and a spoken variant, where the phonology and pronunciation differ. These are not sociolectic differences per se. As Agha states, "Some lexical contrasts are due to the phonological difference (e.g., R makes more consonantal and vocalic distinctions than B), while others are due to the morphological difference (e.g., difference in plural suffixes and certain verb inflections) between two varieties.: 140
| Gloss | National standard (Bokmål, B) | Local variety (Ranamål, R) |
|---|---|---|
| I | Jeg | Eg |
| you | Deg | Deg |
| He | Han | Hanj |
| She | Hun | Ho |
| If | Hvis | Vess |
| To, toward | Til | Tell |
| Who | Hvem | Kem |
| How | Hvordan | Korsen |
Diglossia
The chart below gives an example of diglossia in Arabic-speaking nations and where it is used. Diglossia is defined by Mesthrie as "[a] situation where two varieties of a language exist side by side". The Classical Arabic is known as الفصحى, or al-fuṣḥā, while the colloquial dialect depends on the country. For example, شامي, or šāmi, is spoken in Lebanon and parts of Syria. In many situations, there is a major lexical difference among words in the classical and colloquial speech, as well as pronunciation differences, such as a difference in short vowels, when the words are the same. Although a specific example of diglossia was not given, its social context is almost if not more important. For example, Halliday states that "in areas with Diglossia, the link between language and success is apparent as the higher, classical register is learned through formal education".: 175
| H | L | |
|---|---|---|
| Sermon in church or mosque | X | |
| Instructions to servants, waiters, workmen, clerks, etc. | X | |
| Personal letter | X | |
| Speech in parliament, political speech | X | |
| University lecture | X | |
| Conversation with family, friends, colleagues | X | |
| News broadcast | X | |
| Radio soap opera | X | |
| Newspaper editorial, news story, caption on picture | X | |
| Caption on political cartoon | X | |
| Poetry | X | |
| Folk literature | X |
African American Vernacular English (AAVE)
Below is an example of African American Vernacular English, showing the addition of the verbal -s not just on third-person singular verbs in the present tense such as in Standard American English, but added onto infinitives, first-person present verbs, and third-person past perfect verbs.: 49
- He can goes out.
- I don't know how to gets no girls.
- He'd knows that.
Further examples of the phenomenon in AAVE are provided below.
Below are examples of the lack of the possessive ending; -s is usually absent in AAVE but contains a rule As Labov states, "[the] use -s to indicate possession by a single noun or pronoun, but never between the possessor and the possessed.": 49
"This is hers, This is mines, This is John's, but not in her book, my book, John book": 49
"Interview with Bryan A., seven years old, a struggling reader in a West Philadelphia elementary school:
- If I don't get out my mom room, I get in trouble and when I don't get out my sister room she hit me.
- Bernicia penpal gave me one.
- That's what he did to my cousin Raymond dog at my cousin house.
- I was acting like I stole my sister food.
- At the museum, it was fun, we went in somebody heart.": 49
Effects
Code-switching
Many times within communities that contain sociolects that separate groups linguistically it is necessary to have a process where the independent speech communities can communicate in the same register; even if the change is as simple as different pronunciation. Therefore, the act of code-switching becomes essential. Code-switching is defined as "the process whereby bilingual or bidialectal speakers switch back and forth between one language or dialect and another within the same conversation".: 23 At times code-switching can be situational, depending on the situation or topical, depending on the topic. Halliday terms this the best when he defines the role of discourse, stating that "it is this that determines, or rather correlates with, the role played by the language activity in the situation".: 20 Therefore, meaning that which register is used depends on the situation and lays out the social context of the situation, because if the wrong register is used, then the wrong context is placed on the words. Furthermore, referring back to the diglossia expressed in the Arab-speaking world and the Tamil caste system in India, which words are used must be appropriate to not only the social class of the speaker, but the situation, the topic, and the need for courtesy. A more comprehensive definition is stated, "Code-switching is not only a definition of the situation but an expression of social hierarchy.": 137
See also
- Argot
- Chronolect
- Creole language
- Idiolect
- Jargon
- Language and gender
- Pidgin
- Prestige (sociolinguistics)
- Shibboleth
- Slang
References
- Wolfram, Walt (2004). "Social varieties of American English". In E. Finegan and J.R. Rickford (ed.). Language in the USA: Themes for the Twenty-first Century. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-77747-X.
- Wilkoń, Aleksander (2000). Typologia odmian językowych współczesnej polszczyzny (in Polish) (2 ed.). Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego. pp. 87–88. ISBN 83-226-0975-2.
- Durrell, Martin (2004). "Sociolect". In Ammon, Ulrich; et al. (eds.). Sociolinguistics. An International Handbook of the Science of Language and Society. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 200–205.
- Smith, K. Aaron; Kim, Susan M. (2017). This Language, A River: A History of English. Broadview Press. p. 281. ISBN 9781770486652.
- Mrázková, Kamila (2017). "REJSTŘÍK". In Karolak, Petr; Nekula, Marek; Pleskalová, Jana (eds.). Nový encyklopedický slovník češtiny (in Czech).
- Grzenia, Jan (2005-04-25). "gwara a żargon". Poradnia językowa PWN (in Polish). sjp.pwn.pl. Retrieved 2019-04-26.
- Mistrík, Jozef (1993). Encyklopédia jazykovedy (in Slovak) (1 ed.). Bratislava: Obzor. p. 385. ISBN 8021502509. OCLC 29200758.
- Eifring, Halvor. "7 Language and Variation". Linguistics for Students of Asian and African Languages.
- Trudgill, Peter. A Glossary of Sociolinguistics. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Print.
- Halliday, M. Language and Society. London; New York: Continuum, 2007. Print.
- Labov, William. Dialect Diversity in America : the Politics of Language Change. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012. Print.
- Hervey, Sándor; Higgins, Ian; Loughridge, Michael (2003). Thinking German Translation: A Course in Translation Method. Thinking Translation. Routledge. pp. 85–86. ISBN 9781134818976.
- Agha, Asif. Language and Social Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 135. Print.
- Murray, Thomas E.. "From Trade Name to Generic: The Case of Coke." Trans. Array Names: A Journal of Onomastics. Maney Publishing, 1995. 165-86. Print.
- Mesthrie, Rajend. Introducing Sociolinguistics. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Pub., 2009. 38. Print.
- Trudgill, Peter. On Dialect : Social and Geographical Perspectives. New York: New York University Press, 1983. Print.
This article may be too technical for most readers to understand Please help improve it to make it understandable to non experts without removing the technical details March 2024 Learn how and when to remove this message In sociolinguistics a sociolect is a form of language non standard dialect restricted register or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class profession age group or other social group Sociolects involve both passive acquisition of particular communicative practices through association with a local community as well as active learning and choice among speech or writing forms to demonstrate identification with particular groups The term sociolect might refer to socially restricted dialects but it is sometimes also treated as equivalent with the concept of register or used as a synonym for jargon and slang Sociolinguists people who study sociolects and language variation define a sociolect by examining the social distribution of specific linguistic terms For example a sociolinguist would examine the use of the second person pronoun you within a given population If one distinct social group used yous as the plural form of the pronoun then this could indicate the existence of a sociolect A sociolect is distinct from a regional dialect regiolect because social class rather than geographical subdivision substantiates the unique linguistic features OverviewA sociolect defined by leading sociolinguist and philosopher Peter Trudgill is a variety or lect which is thought of as being related to its speakers social background rather than geographical background 122 This idea of a sociolect began with the commencement of dialectology the study of different dialects in relation to society which has been established in countries such as England for many years but only recently has the field garnered more attention 26 However as opposed to a dialect the basic concept of a sociolect is that a person speaks in accordance with their social group whether it is with regard to one s ethnicity age gender etc As William Labov once said the sociolinguistic view is that we are programmed to learn to speak in ways that fit the general pattern of our communities 6 Therefore what we are surrounded with in our environment determines how we speak hence our actions and associations Distinguished from dialectThe main distinction between sociolects social dialects and dialects proper geographical dialects which are often confused is the settings in which they are created A dialect s main identifier is geography a certain region uses specific phonological morphosyntactic or lexical rules 35 Asif Agha expands the concept by stating that the case where the demographic dimension marked by speech are matters of geographic provenance alone such as speaker s birth locale extended residence and the like 135 However a sociolect s main identifier is a socioeconomic class age gender and or ethnicity in a certain speech community An example of a dialectal difference based on region is the use of the words soda or pop and coke in different parts of the United States As Thomas E Murray states coke is used generically by thousands of people especially in the southern half of the country On the other hand pop is known to be a term that is used by many citizens in the northern half of the country An example of a sociolect difference based on social grouping is the zero copula in African American Vernacular English It occurs in a specific ethnic group but in all areas of the United States 48 William Labov gives an example he here instead of he s here 38 DefinitionsCode switching is the process whereby bilingual or bidialectal speakers switch back and forth between one language or dialect and another within the same conversation 23 Diglossia associated with the American linguist Charles A Ferguson which describes a sociolinguistic situation such as those that obtain in Arabic speaking countries and in German speaking Switzerland In such a diglossic community the prestigious standard of High or H variety which is linguistically related to but significantly different from the vernacular or Low or L varieties has no native speakers 389 Domain is different language dialects or styles are used in different social contexts 41 Language attitudes are social in origin but that they may have important effects on language behavior being involved in acts of identity and on linguistic change 73 Linguistic variable is a linguistic unit initially developed in order to be able to handle linguistics variation Variables may be lexical and grammatical but are most often phonological Example of British English h which is sometimes present and sometimes not 83 Pragmatics is the meaning of a word in social context while semantics has purely linguistic meaning 107 Register is a language variety that is associated with a particular topic subject or activity Usually it is defined by vocabulary but has grammatical features as well 110 ExamplesTamil caste system The following is an example of the lexical distinction between the Mudaliyar and the Iyengar groups of the Tamil speaking people in India The Iyengar group is part of the Brahmin caste which is scholarly and higher in the caste hierarchy than the non Brahmin or Mudaliyar caste 136 The Mudaliyars use many of the same words for things that are differentiated within the Iyengars speech For example as seen below the difference between drinking water water in general and non potable water is used by one word in the non Brahmin caste and three separate words in the Brahmin caste Furthermore Agha references how the use of different speech reflects a departure from a group internal norm 139 For example if the non Brahmin caste uses Brahmin terms in their mode of speech it is seen as self raising whereas if people within the Brahmin caste use non Brahmin speech it is seen as pejoratives 138 Therefore depending on which castes use certain words the pragmatics change Hence this speech system is determined by socioeconomic class and social context Gloss Mudaliyar non Brahmin Iyengar Brahmin Drinking Water tanni tirrtoWater in general tanni jaloNon potable water tanni tanniWorship puuse puujefood sooru saadoworship puuse puuje worship puuse punishment for children food sooru saado saado food sooru food pejorative eat tinnu saapdo saapdo eat tinnu guzzle etc pejorative Norwegian dialect based sociolect Norwegian does not have a spoken standard and is heavily dependent on dialect variants The following example shows the difference between the national written standard and a spoken variant where the phonology and pronunciation differ These are not sociolectic differences per se As Agha states Some lexical contrasts are due to the phonological difference e g R makes more consonantal and vocalic distinctions than B while others are due to the morphological difference e g difference in plural suffixes and certain verb inflections between two varieties 140 Gloss National standard Bokmal B Local variety Ranamal R I Jeg Egyou Deg DegHe Han HanjShe Hun HoIf Hvis VessTo toward Til TellWho Hvem KemHow Hvordan KorsenDiglossia The chart below gives an example of diglossia in Arabic speaking nations and where it is used Diglossia is defined by Mesthrie as a situation where two varieties of a language exist side by side The Classical Arabic is known as الفصحى or al fuṣḥa while the colloquial dialect depends on the country For example شامي or sami is spoken in Lebanon and parts of Syria In many situations there is a major lexical difference among words in the classical and colloquial speech as well as pronunciation differences such as a difference in short vowels when the words are the same Although a specific example of diglossia was not given its social context is almost if not more important For example Halliday states that in areas with Diglossia the link between language and success is apparent as the higher classical register is learned through formal education 175 H LSermon in church or mosque XInstructions to servants waiters workmen clerks etc XPersonal letter XSpeech in parliament political speech XUniversity lecture XConversation with family friends colleagues XNews broadcast XRadio soap opera XNewspaper editorial news story caption on picture XCaption on political cartoon XPoetry XFolk literature XAfrican American Vernacular English AAVE Below is an example of African American Vernacular English showing the addition of the verbal s not just on third person singular verbs in the present tense such as in Standard American English but added onto infinitives first person present verbs and third person past perfect verbs 49 He can goes out I don t know how to gets no girls He d knows that Further examples of the phenomenon in AAVE are provided below Below are examples of the lack of the possessive ending s is usually absent in AAVE but contains a rule As Labov states the use s to indicate possession by a single noun or pronoun but never between the possessor and the possessed 49 This is hers This is mines This is John s but not in her book my book John book 49 Interview with Bryan A seven years old a struggling reader in a West Philadelphia elementary school If I don t get out my mom room I get in trouble and when I don t get out my sister room she hit me Bernicia penpal gave me one That s what he did to my cousin Raymond dog at my cousin house I was acting like I stole my sister food At the museum it was fun we went in somebody heart 49 EffectsCode switching Many times within communities that contain sociolects that separate groups linguistically it is necessary to have a process where the independent speech communities can communicate in the same register even if the change is as simple as different pronunciation Therefore the act of code switching becomes essential Code switching is defined as the process whereby bilingual or bidialectal speakers switch back and forth between one language or dialect and another within the same conversation 23 At times code switching can be situational depending on the situation or topical depending on the topic Halliday terms this the best when he defines the role of discourse stating that it is this that determines or rather correlates with the role played by the language activity in the situation 20 Therefore meaning that which register is used depends on the situation and lays out the social context of the situation because if the wrong register is used then the wrong context is placed on the words Furthermore referring back to the diglossia expressed in the Arab speaking world and the Tamil caste system in India which words are used must be appropriate to not only the social class of the speaker but the situation the topic and the need for courtesy A more comprehensive definition is stated Code switching is not only a definition of the situation but an expression of social hierarchy 137 See alsoArgot Chronolect Creole language Idiolect Jargon Language and gender Pidgin Prestige sociolinguistics Shibboleth SlangReferencesWolfram Walt 2004 Social varieties of American English In E Finegan and J R Rickford ed Language in the USA Themes for the Twenty first Century Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 77747 X Wilkon Aleksander 2000 Typologia odmian jezykowych wspolczesnej polszczyzny in Polish 2 ed Katowice Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Slaskiego pp 87 88 ISBN 83 226 0975 2 Durrell Martin 2004 Sociolect In Ammon Ulrich et al eds Sociolinguistics An International Handbook of the Science of Language and Society Walter de Gruyter pp 200 205 Smith K Aaron Kim Susan M 2017 This Language A River A History of English Broadview Press p 281 ISBN 9781770486652 Mrazkova Kamila 2017 REJSTRIK In Karolak Petr Nekula Marek Pleskalova Jana eds Novy encyklopedicky slovnik cestiny in Czech Grzenia Jan 2005 04 25 gwara a zargon Poradnia jezykowa PWN in Polish sjp pwn pl Retrieved 2019 04 26 Mistrik Jozef 1993 Encyklopedia jazykovedy in Slovak 1 ed Bratislava Obzor p 385 ISBN 8021502509 OCLC 29200758 Eifring Halvor 7 Language and Variation Linguistics for Students of Asian and African Languages Trudgill Peter A Glossary of Sociolinguistics Oxford New York Oxford University Press 2003 Print Halliday M Language and Society London New York Continuum 2007 Print Labov William Dialect Diversity in America the Politics of Language Change Charlottesville University of Virginia Press 2012 Print Hervey Sandor Higgins Ian Loughridge Michael 2003 Thinking German Translation A Course in Translation Method Thinking Translation Routledge pp 85 86 ISBN 9781134818976 Agha Asif Language and Social Relations Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2007 135 Print Murray Thomas E From Trade Name to Generic The Case of Coke Trans Array Names A Journal of Onomastics Maney Publishing 1995 165 86 Print Mesthrie Rajend Introducing Sociolinguistics 2nd ed Philadelphia John Benjamins Pub 2009 38 Print Trudgill Peter On Dialect Social and Geographical Perspectives New York New York University Press 1983 Print Look up sociolect in Wiktionary the free dictionary
