1. Does anybody need a sociolinguistics? (and if so, which one?)
Frans Gregersen
Language and social mobility
November 1 Lysebu

2. Overview 1: Bernal and the Marxist theory of science
2: Bernstein vs. Labov in the affluent society
3: Present day challenges
4: Que faire?

3. Bernal: a marxist theory of science
The fundamental question of any historical treatment of science: Why that then?
The materialist theory of science predicts that scientific development is driven by the demands of the forces of production
Phonetics as an example
Let us see how far we can explain the development of sociolinguistics this way

4. The affluent society
In the late 40es and 50es the Western world was recovering from WW2
In the 60es, the forces of production needed a larger work force, especially unskilled and highly skilled labourers
Women began working in great numbers
Some unskilled labourers were invited from less affluent parts of Europe to join the Nordic countries and West Germany
Educability became an issue, using all available intellect was the watchword

5. A sociolinguistics of educability
This was the backdrop for a new kind of linguistics
What was there already: Generative transformational linguistics, immensely succesful as an internal development but NOT the answer to societal demands
Sociolinguistics and other forms of applied linguistics developed as the answer

6. Bernstein vs. labov in the affluent society2
Bernstein vs. labov in the affluent society

7. Basil Bernstein Bernstein’s background: teacher and sociologist
Bernstein’s predecessors and inspirations:
Luria, Vygotsky and the socio-historical school
Sapir-Whorf and the cultural relativists
Elizabeth Bott and the socialization theorists
The Code theory
Bernstein’s later work
Bernstein and Bourdieu

8. Labov Labov’s background: engineer and ink producer
Labov’s predecessors and inspirations:
Uriel Weinreich and structural contact and variation theory
The dialectologists: Kurath and the Atlases
? Martin Joos
? Z.S. Harris and quantitative linguistics

9. The great war on Head Start
Lyndon Johnson and the integration of African Americans
The Head Start programme
The misapplication of Code Theory
Deficit theory vs. difference theory
The victory of difference theory and its implications

10. Later work on socialization
Paul Willis and Learning to Labour
Hasan and the Sydney project
Shirley Brice Heath and Ways with Words
Elinor Ochs and the Alfred P Sloane Centre

11. So, what is the heritage?
Sociohistorical linguistics, some examples: Romaine and Bridget Drinka, Labov and immigration history; the Mormons in Utah and the Danish coffee
Sociolinguistics as variational linguistics
Between determinism and voluntarism
The mediation story: The role of socialization and the role of history

12. present day challenges3
present day challenges

13. Sociolinguistics as identity theory
Ethnicity YES
Culture YES
Personality YES
Social psychology YES
Sociology:
Class: NO
Educability: NO

14. The facts for DK The new demand for educability:
Lars Olsen’s numbers:
Mads Meier Jæger’s work
Explanation? What is the role of language? Do we need a sociolinguistic theory of educability?
And what are the implications in terms of interventions?