1. Language and Society

2. 8.1 The scope of Sociolinguistics （社会语言学）
Sociolinguistics deals with the study of the relation between language and society, between language use and the social structures of language.

3. 8.1.1 the relatedness between language and society
Language is principally used to communicate meaning and ideas, but it is also used to establish and maintain social relationships.
Users of the same language in a sense all speak differently.
One’s social background determines his choice of language.
Language, in turn, reveals information about its speaker.
Language, esp. lexicon reflects both the physical and the social environments of a society.

4. 8.1.2 speech community and speech variety (言语集团和语言变体）
A set of speakers who, through frequent, rule-governed interaction and the use of a common language, constitute a group called speech community. This group is distinguished from others by significant differences in language use.
Share the same language or a particular variety

5. Language variety
Any form of speech distinct at the level of lexicon, phonology, morphology and syntax.
Regional dialects, sociolects and registers are the three types of speech variety receiving special interest.

6. 8.1.3 Sociolinguistics（社会语言学）
macro- sociolinguistics（宏观社会语言学）
a bird’s-eye view of the language, also called sociology of language.
what societies do with language, including language attitude, language policy, language planning
micro- sociolinguistics（微观社会语言学）
a worm’s-eye view of the language
the relations between linguistic and social structures at the level of face-to-face interaction
including language varieties, standard, age, gender, pidgin and creole, diglossia and bilingualism.

7. 8.2 language varieties
Speakers of the same language do not speak the language in the same manner.
The language used by the same individual varies as the circumstance of communication varies.
Dialects vs. registers

8. 8.2.1 dialects Dialect refers to any distinct variety of a language.
The language of a group of people may show regular variations（變異） from that used by other groups of speakers of that language.
Different dialects reveal their phonological, lexical and syntactic differences.

9. Regional or Geographical Dialect
（地区或地理方言）:
a linguistic variety used by people living in the same geographical region.
A change that occurs in one region and fails to spread to other regions of the language community gives rise to dialect differences（方言差別）.
American English (SAE) is a dialect of English that many Americans almost speak.

10. Social Dialect or Sociolect （社会方言）
the linguistic variety characteristic of a particular social class or social group.
in the American society
U (the upper class) speakers say “to have one’s bath”, whereas non-U speakers say “to take a bath”
Non-U speakers say “wealthy”, but U speakers say “rich”.

11. Language and Gender(1)
Females are superior speakers. Girls do better in language skills in the early years of schooling.
Men’s language is more straightforward, less polite, and more direct
Women’s language is more indirect, less blunt, and more circumlocutory.
Adjectives of evaluation are used more frequently by females than males, such as nice, lovely, adorable, and some intensifiers（强势词） such as awfully terribly are also used more frequently by females than males.
In normal situations, female speakers tend to use more prestigious forms than their male counterparts. For example:
1. Jessie walks slow.
2. Jessie walks slowly.

12. --- sexism（性別歧視） in language
Language and Gender(2)
--- sexism（性別歧視） in language
One striking fact about the asymmetry between male and female terms in many languages is that when there are male/female pairs it is the male form which is unmarked and it is the female term which is created by adding a bound morpheme, e.g. prince – princess; actor – actress.
Also, we talk of career women, but not career men because men are supposed to have careers.
In Eng there are many disparaging terms addressed to women, e.g. of easy virtue（放荡）,fallen（墮落的，失节的）,wanton（淫乱的，淫荡的）.

13. Language and Age
The language used by the old generation differs from that used by the younger generation.
And the most striking difference is found at the lexical level.
In general, old people tend to be more conservative than the younger people in their speech habits, and may prefer to use certain structures that their children have abandoned.

14. idiolect（个人言语特点，个人方言）
The unique characteristics of the language of an individual speaker are referred to as the speaker’s idiolect.
Idiolect is the realization of language potentials, individualized by a number of social factors.

15. Ethnic Dialect （人种方言）
An ethnic dialect is also a social dialect that cuts across regional differences.
Standard American English Black English
He knows something He know something.
He doesn’t know anything He don’t know nothing
He knows nothing He know nothing.
He hasn’t got any/He’s got none He ain’t got none/He got none.
He is nice/ He’s nice He nice.
I am going to do it/I’m gonna do it I gonna do it.
That is Mary’s house That Mary house.

16. 8.2.2 register(语域)
The type of language which is selected as appropriate to the type of situation is a register. And registers are also known as situational dialects（情景方言）.
Register vs. linguistic repertoire(语言能力)

17. Register is associated with field（语场）, tenor（语旨） and mode（语式）.
e.g. for a lecture on Econometrics in our university, USST, could be identified as:
Field: scientific (economical)
Tenor: teacher – students (formal, polite)
Mode: oral (academic lecturing)

18. 8.2.3 Degree of Formality（正規程度）
American linguist Martin Joos distinguished between five stages of formality
intimate（亲切体） informal
casual（随意体)
consultative（商洽体）
formal（正式体）
frozen（冷凍体） formal
The degree of formality can be revealed in three levels: syntactic, lexical and phonological.

19. 8.3 standard dialect(标准语)
The dominant or prestige dialect is often called the standard dialect or standard.
Based on a selected variety of language
Not acquired but learned
Have special functions

20. A standard dialect may have social functions
A standard dialect may have social functions. It is used to bind people together or to provide a common written form for multidialectal speakers.
It is, however, neither more expressive, more logical, more complex, nor more regular than any other dialects.

21. 8.4 Pidgins (洋涇浜语)and Creoles(混合语)
Any language used for communication between groups who have no other language in common is called lingua franca（混合语，交际语） .
Pidgins
Creoles

22. Pidgin Creole Mixed and blended
Restricted vocabulary and simplified grammar
Used for restricted purposes
Creole
more lexical items and a broader array of grammatical distinctions
Acquired by children as native language

23. 8.5 Diglossia and Bilingualism （双言現象和双語現象）
Diglossia --- two very different varieties of language co-exist in a speech community
High variety or H-variety. It is used for more formal or serious matters.
Low variety or L-variety. It is used in colloquial and other informal situations.
Country H-variety L-variety
Switzerland Standard German Swiss German
Haiti Standard French French Creole

24. Bilingualism refers to a linguistic situation in which two standard languages are used either by an individual or by a group of speakers, such as the inhabitants of a particular region or a nation.
In bilingual communities, members commonly use two languages.