1. LINGUISTICS AND SOCIOLINGUISTICS TERRITORIAL ALI H. RADDAOUI, CHOKRI SMAOUI, SALOUA A. MRABET FLSHS - SFAX UNIVERSITY FALL 2008 1

2. LECTURE MAP 1.COURSE INTRODUCTION AND FOREWORD 2.SCOPE OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS 1.Examples from TESOL 2.Example from Forensic Linguistics 3.Example from First Language Acquisition 4.Example from advertising 3.SOME PRELIMINARY DEFINITIONS 4.SUMMARY 2

3. PICTURE TIME ANY AND ALL PICTURES GO HERE. 3

4. FOREWORD 1 Two major concerns for me this term: Course coverage; simplicity Relevance Common misconceptions: What I know about sociolinguistics is worth nothing; draw on your life experience in tackling sociolinguistic matter; exams Sociolinguistics is about English; No, not at all Sociolinguistics is a complex subject Sociolinguistics=sociology of language 4

5. FOREWORD 2 Genesis of disciplines: questions of labeling, legitimating, justifying own existence, finding fault with current paradigm. Element of dissatisfaction always present; disciplines have proponents and opponents: line battles drawn and battles waged, and sides taken. 5

6. FOREWORD 3 Disciplinary task: identify the following in a distinctive manner: Domain Objectives Tools of analysis Philosophical underpinnings 6

7. SCOPE OF DISCIPLINE 1 Technically not a new topic. Not only for the erudite; nothing esoteric Sociolinguistics analysis: very common: parents, grand parents, literate and illiterate people; we’re all sociolinguists without knowing it. True: President of Singapore: ‘ I hope that my compatriots in Singapore hear me speaking in the UN, they will recognize me as being one of their own’. 7

8. SCOPE OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS 2 A bit of history: discipline was born some fifty years ago. More of a reaction to excesses of structural/theoretical linguistics; ‘Sociolinguistics presents itself as an empirical discipline in which language is taken to mean ‘the systematic use of language by social actors in social situations’. Bucholtz 2003. 8

9. OBJECT OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS Study of so-called real language; language in social context; language produced in authentic contexts by authentic speakers. Bucholtz 2003. The way we speak reveals characteristics of the speaker’s ethnic origin, social class, level of education, nationality, gender, age, etc… 9

10. CONCLUSION Value of notion of territory as driver of disputes Sociolinguistics=your own knowledge of the world, social relations, manners and styles of speech + some theoretical backgrounding. Theoretical backgrounding: given and new – Given: all courses you have had in grammar, text analysis, pragmatics, discourse analysis – New: the toolbox of sociolinguistics; familiarity with a number of terms, concepts and practices Sociolinguistics is fun. 10

11. SCOPE OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS Overlap, confusion: sociolinguistics, sociology of language, and sociology. (More on this in lectures to come) Definition: not straightforward-- shady, part of the human sciences in a looser sense than say geography Sociolinguistics: umbrella for many ‘consolidated’ fields of study: linguistic anthropology, conversation analysis, discourse analysis, CDA, pragmatics. 11

12. REFERENCES Peter Trudgill and Jenny Cheshire (eds.), The sociolinguistics reader volume I: Multilingualism and variation. London: Arnold, 1998. vii + 283 pp. c15.99 ; Jenny Cheshire and Peter Trudgill (eds.), The sociolinguistics reader volume 2: Gender and discourse. London: Arnold, 1998. vii + 403 pp. c17.99 (pb.). Reviewed by Graeme Trousdale, Department of English Language, University of Edinburgh, in Lingua 110(2000)497-502 12