1. Introduction to Sociolinguistics
Assoc. Prof.
Dr. Mardziah Hayati Abdullah

2. Recommended reference texts
Module – being updated
Bernard Spolsky (2001). Sociolinguistics. 2nd ed. London: Longman.
Holmes, J. (2001). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. 2nd ed. London: Longman.
Wardhaugh, R. (1998). An Introduction to Linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell.

3. Course Evaluation Assignment (30%) Mid-semester test (30%)
Sections /Units of module only
Final Exam (40%)
Focus on Units 3 – 5 of module
Possibly some content from Units 1 - 2

4. Origins of Sociolinguistics
Key phases in linguistic study

5. Key phases in linguistic study (1)
c. 500 B.C.: in India, Panini and followers produced oral treatises on phonetics and language structure. Later, independent traditions of language study develop in Europe.
1786: founding of modern linguistics – Sir William Jones gives seminal speech on relations between Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and other languages. Principles of language comparison and classification emerge.

6. Key phases in linguistic study (2)
Early 20th century: Structuralism predominates in linguistics. Structuralists like Saussure in Europe and Bloomfield in the U.S.A. were concerned with internal systems of language rather than with historical comparisons.
1957: Generative linguistics is founded with publication of Noam Chomsky’s Syntactic Structures. Linguistics moves to psycho-biological stage, with interest in the way children acquire languages on the basis of a universal grammar.

7. Reaction to Structuralism
Scholars’ views:
Chomsky’s approach (idealised, psycholinguistic competence) - asocial and ahistorical view of language
abstracting language from contexts of use is limiting
Break between Chomsky’s approach and social approach

8. Social and non-social approaches
Non-social: Chomskyian framework focuses on structures that can be generated by language and by what means
Social: Tries to account for what can be said in a language, by whom, to whom, in whose presence, when and where, in what manner and under what social circumstances (Fishman, 1971; Hymes, 1971;
Saville-Troike, 1982).

9. Activity
An individual can use language in a variety of ways and for different purposes. For each utterance on the following slides, discuss:
In what context might a speaker say it?
What might be the nature of the relationship between speaker and listener?
In what context might it be inappropriate to say it?

10. Utterances (1) Do you think it’s cold in here?
In what context might a speaker say it?
What might be the nature of the relationship between speaker and listener?
In what context might it be inappropriate to say it?
Do you think it’s cold in here?
The airport, as fast as you can.
I do.
I leave my house to my son George.
Do you love me?
How strange!
Can we have some silence at the back?

11. Utterances (2) What a beautiful dress! Cheers!
In what context might a speaker say it?
What might be the nature of the relationship between speaker and listener?
In what context might it be inappropriate to say it?
What a beautiful dress!
Cheers!
Keep to the right please.
Damn!
That’s not the way lah.
You want or not?
Eh, hurry up!

12. Think
How did you know when to use or not use the utterances you just discussed?

13. Sociolinguistics Studies the relationship between language and society
Term first used by Haver Currie in 1952

14. Possible relationships between language and society
Social structure may influence /determine linguistic structure and/or behaviour.
Linguistic structure and/or behaviour may influence /determine social structure.
The influence between language and culture is bi-directional.
There is no relationship between language and society.

15. Think
The Inuit Indians of Alaska have a well-developed vocabulary for types of snow. A native of Malaysia does not. Does an Inuit ‘see’ a snowscape differently from a Malaysian visiting the cold north for the first time?

16. Sociolinguistic study
Chambers (1995): At the heart of sociolinguistics is the correlation of independent linguistic variables with independent social variables:
Domains (Joshua Fishman)
Formality
Social status
Social distance
Function / purpose
Gender, age, etc.

17. Holmes (1992): Sociolinguist’s aim is to move towards a theory which provides a motivated account of the way language is used in a community, and the choices people make when they use language.

18. Sociology of language & Sociolinguistics
macro-sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics:
micro-sociolinguistics

19. Sociology of language: Macro-linguistics
Studies language and society in order to find out as much as we can about what kind of thing language is
Investigates what societies do with their languages, i.e. attitudes and attachments that account for the functional distribution of speech forms in society, language shift, maintenance, and replacement, the delimitation and interaction of speech communities.

20. Macro-linguistics: Ways With Words
Ethnographic study by Heath (1983): differences in the oral and written language practices of two communities

21. Sociolinguistics: Micro-linguistics
Studies what kind of thing language is in order to find out as much as we can about language and society
Investigates how social structure influences the way people talk, and how language varieties and patterns of use correlate with social attitudes such as class, sex, and age.

22. Micro-sociolinguistics: Martha’s Vineyard study
Labov
Variation in mainland /ai/ and island-centred /Әi/ in night, right, kind
The younger the age of the speaker, the more the speaker used the centralised variety
Youngest speakers (14 – 20) used mainland variety

23. ASSIGNMENT (30% of total grade) Write a paper to address three tasks.

24. Research and explain what is meant by domains of language use as proposed by Joshua Fishman. Give examples of domains that are relevant to the Malaysian context.
Explain the difference between (i) various languages and (ii) varieties of a language. Provide examples from the Malaysian context. Consider the English language in your explanation and examples.
Explain how domains determine the language(s), or varieties of a language, that a bilingual or multilingual speaker might use. Provide examples from the Malaysian context. (You do not have to include the English language for this part of the assignment.)

25. Note
Your assignment should be between pages, excluding references, typed using 12-point Times New Roman or 10-point Arial font (or the equivalent) and double-spaced.
Do NOT plagiarise from books or the Internet. You can definitely use the content from these sources, but you must (i) paraphrase and (ii) cite the sources. If there is evidence of plagiarism, your assignment will be rejected or severely penalised.

26. Submission details
Please submit your assignment as a hard copy, by 1 March, 2012.
All assignments should be sent through UPMET (the PJJ administration) for their records. Please do NOT send assignments directly to me.