Sociolinguistics (Style)

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study
Sociolinguistics is the study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms,
expectations, and context, on the way language is used. Sociolinguistics differs from sociology of
language in that the focus of sociolinguistics is the effect of the society on the language, while the
latter’s focus is on the language’s effect on the society (linguistics marketplace). Sociolinguistics
overlaps to a considerable degree with pragmatics. It is historically closely related to Linguistic
Anthropologyand the distinction between the two fields has even been questioned recently.
As with other types of language variation, there tends to be a spectrum of registers rather than a
discrete set of obviously distinct varieties — there is a countless number of registers we could
identify, with no clear boundaries. Discourse categorisation is a complex problem, and even in the
general definition of "register" given above (language variation defined by use not user), there are
cases where other kinds of language variation, such as regional or age dialect, overlap. As a result
of this complexity, there is far from consensus about the meanings of terms like "register", "field" or
"tenor"; different writers' definitions of these terms are often in direct contradiction of each other.
Additional terms such as diatype, genre, text types, style, acrolect, mesolect and basilect among
many others may be used to cover the same or similar ground. Some prefer to restrict the domain of
the term "register" to a specific vocabulary (Wardhaugh, 1986) (which one might commonly
call jargon), while others argue against the use of the term altogether. These various approaches
with their own "register" or set of terms and meanings fall under disciplines such
as sociolinguistics, stylistics, pragmatics or systemic functional grammar.

CHAPTER II
DISCUSSION
A. Style
1. The Definition of Style
According to Janet Holmes, 2001 the definitions of style are:
a. Style is language variation which reflects changes in situational factors, such as addressee,
setting, task or topic.
b. Style is often analyzed along scale of formality.
c. The level of formality is influenced by some factors like the various differences among the
participants, topic, emotional, involvement, etc.

Wolfram & Schilling-Estes (1998:214) define language style quite similarly, as "variation in the
speech of individual speakers".
Bell (1997:240) is somewhat clearer in emphasizing the linguistic lements:
style is "the range of variation within the speech of an individual speaker".
By these statement above, so we can conclude that style is the varians in the speech which is
used in certain situation or form of the language used for the same purpose under certain
circumstances

2. The function of style

 This sociolinguistic tradition of investigating style as an aspect of symbolic speech variation
differs from that of anthropological linguistics or ethnographyof communication, which
primarily focuses on ‘ways of speaking’ – including styles and registers – as expressing
particular social functions, events, or relationships (though it also includes careful linguistic
description).

An important movement in sociolinguistics in recent years has been the merging of variationist
analysis with such an ethnographic conception. In the case of style, a group led by Penny Eckert
(the California Style Collective) at Stanford led the way with a paper in 1993. They discard a
purely-linguistic definition or identification procedure for style, and instead crucially emphasize
the role ofsocial function and practices. This is also linked with a focus on style ascollective
and dialectic, rather than stressing its individual, intra-speaker and static nature.

I think it’s useful to take both social functions and linguistic structure quite seriously, as Eckert
and the CSC do. In work on style and register in Jamaican Creole (Patrick 1997), I initially tried
to give a structural definition of a code or way of speaking, and ended by including and even
stressing the social functions. It might have been smarter, I suspect, if I first began by locating
codes throughtheir social functions, and then proceeded to examine their linguistic structure!

We can see a movement towards functional definition in Wolfram’s and Schilling-Estes’s (1998)
discussion, right away. They include not only the formal-informal axis of variation, but also treat
shifting from one dialect into another as style-shifting – whether or not the second dialect is
native to the speaker (if not, this use of an out-group dialect has been called "crossing", Rampton
1995) – as well as shifting registers, in the sense we described above. Looked at in this light, it’s
hard to see why shifting from one language into another quite distinct one (code-switching)
wouldn’t also be style-shifting for them, and they argue (217) that it’s hard to make distinctions
among these.

3. Addressee as an influence on style

a. Age of addressee
People generally talk to very young and to the very old.
b. Social background of addressee
People talk differently to the higher class and to the lower class.

B. Context
Context is a concept, schematic structure that is in the mind, respectively each humans mind.
Context can also be derived from previous events and individual formed phsychological.
The language context in English is same with language context in Indonesia.
Example:
Yesterday in the wellington district court….the all black captain, Jock Hobbs, appeared as duty
solicitor. Presiding was his father, Judge M.F Hobbs.
Etiquette required Mr. Hobbs to address his father young honour, or sir, and the beach had to
address counsel as Mr. Hobbs.
(Mr. Hobbs) could not remember the last time he had to call his father sir, said the father to son,
when the son announced his appearance on all matters as duty solicitor: “I appropriate the
difficulties you are labouring under, Mr. Hobbs.
 People who were very close to her used a short form of her first name (Meg), or an endearment.
People who were less close and socially subordinate used her title and last name (Mrs. Walker).
In the example, the choice of appropriate form is influenced not by personal relationship between
the participants, but by the formality of the context and their relative roles and situates within
that setting.
A law court is a formal setting where the social rules of participants over ride their personal
relationship in determining the appropriate linguistics form. In classroom where a child’s mother
or father is the teacher, the same pattern is usually found. Children call their parents Mrs. Grady
and Mr. Davis rather than Mom and Dad. A catholic priest will be addressed as Father even by
his own father during a religious ceremony. People’s rules in these formal contexts determine the
appropriate speech form.
Example:
Judge : I see the cops say you were pickled last night and were driving an old jalopy
down the middle of the road. True?
Defendant : Your honour, if I might be permitted to address this allegation, I should like to
report that I was neither inebriated nor under the influence of an alcoholic beverage of any kind.
The formal and Latinate vocabulary appropriate to very formal setting inebriated, alcoholic,
beverage, and allegation - contrast with the inappropriately informal vocabulary used here for
humorous effect. Words such as pickled and jalopy are heard much more casual contexts.

C. Register
Register is the language used at any given moment; and depend on: what do you do, by whom
and by what means. Register indicates the type of social process is going on.
Registers can simply be described as variations of the language according to its use, while the
dialect as a language variation based on users registers on this concept is not limited to the
choice of words (such as the notion registers in the traditional theory) but also includes the
choice of the use of text structure, and texture: cohesion and teksikogramatical , as well as
phonology or graphology choice. Because the register covers all aspects of language or linguistic
choices, many linguists refer to registers as a style or a style of language.
Variations in language choice of the register depend on the context of the situation, which
includes three variables: field (domain), tenor (context) and mode (infrastructure) which works
simultaneously to form a configuration or configures contextual meaning.
1. How to study Register
In their book Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Register, Douglas Biber and Edward Finegan
provide an analytic framework to follow when studying register. Biber begins with his definition
of register as being “a general cover term for all language varieties associated with different
situations and purposes” . The framework should include and distinguish between characteristics
of linguistic and non-linguistic factors and should use these differences for a classification of
register.

In The communicative characteristics of participants involved in the situation taking place must
be taken into consideration, beginning with the addressor(s), which can be the writer or
speaker. This will be a singular person; several people, as in a co-authored work; or institutional,
as in departmental or government document. The addressee(s) will be singular, as in a dyadic
conversation or a letter; plural, as in a classroom; or unremunerated, such as in a novel or a
magazine. Next, we must examine the relations between the addressor and addressee, taking into
account the social role each participant maintains. Age, occupation, and shared knowledge,
whether on the topic and/or personal background, all play important parts in determining this
 relationship. In regards to relative status and power, it is necessary to determine which one has
the most power or if they share an equal status.

When and where the communication takes place is referred to as setting. Biber identifies settings
with a particular context of use or domain. He distinguishes six primary domains: “Business and
workplace, education and academic, government and legal, religious, art and entertainment and
domestic/personal” (43). Within each of these areas, there exists a public and a private
setting. Technology such as TV, radio, or any type of mass media can be used to represent or
present these domains. It must be taken into account that a difference among registers may arise
when the time of communication and place are shared, as in direct conversation in the presence
of each other. Participants can share time and be familiar with, but not actually share place, as in
a telephone conversation.

And also, how the addressor presents the information and how the addressee receives it should
also be considered. Another factor important in differentiating among registers is the different
purposes, intents, and goals of the addressor. At one extreme are registers that attempt to explain
or describe facts. At the other end of the spectrum are registers that are completely fictional or
overtly imaginative. Between these two extremes are a variety of registers such as position
papers, historical fiction, editorials, philosophical arguments, and theoretical position papers. As
for purpose, Biber characterizes it along four parameters: “‘persuade’ (or sell), ‘transfer
information’, ‘entertain’ (or edify), and reveal self".

Lastly, the topic or subject being discussed--whether popular, generalized, or specialized--needs

to be considered. If the subject is specialized, it must be noted accordingly, examples being
science, finances, politics, sports, and law.

2. Some Types of Registers

 Formal Register: A type of register that incorporates Standard American English and is
used by professionals or in situations where people are not familiar with one another.
 Informal Register: A type of register used with more familiar people in casual
conversation. In the informal style of register, contractions are used more often, rules of
negation and agreement may be altered, and slang or colloquialisms may be
used. Informal register also permits certain abbreviations and deletions, but they are rule
governed. For example, deleting the "you" subject and the auxiliary often shorten
questions. Instead of asking, "Are you running in the marathon," a person might ask,
"Running the marathon?"
 Over-formal Register: A type of register that can be characterized by the use of a false
high-pitched nasal voice. For example, a woman might approach another woman whom
she does not really like and ask her cordially in a high-pitched voice, "How are you
doing?"
 Motherese: A type of register characterized by high-pitched, elongated sounds and
"sing-song" intonation. It is used when people speak to infants, young children, or pets.
 Reporting Register: A type of register characterized by easily observable verbal and
non-verbal cues: flat intonation, rapid rate of speech, relatively low pitch, absence of
marked facial expressions, and gestures.
12. Style, Context, and Register
Posted by Vance Holmes Labels: Modules at 4:11 PM

Identify how language variation correlates with social situations

People’s styles of speech and written communication reflect and express not only aspects of their identity
such as their ethnicity, age, gender, and social background -- they also indicate the contexts in which
language is being used. Formality and status are at play here.

What aspects of language vary across speakers, setting, attitude, and other contextual factors?

Language varies according to use and users and according to where it is used and to whom, as well as
according to who is using it. The addresses and the context affect our choice of code or variety, whether
language, dialect or style.

Accommodation Theory
Speech converges: each person's speech converges towards the speech of the person they are talking
to. It tends to happen when the speakers like one another, or where one speaker has a vested interest in
pleasing the other or putting them at ease.

Speech diverges: deliberately choosing a different language style not used by one's addressee, it tends
to happen when a person wants to show his cultural distinctiveness, social status, ethnic identity, etc.
Hypercorrection: it is the exaggeration of some lower class speakers in imitating middle class standard
speech. For example: the use of 'I' rather than 'me' in constructions such as 'between you and I'.

Register: occupational style using specialized or technical jargon, it describes the language of groups of
people with common interests or jobs, or the language used in situations associated with such groups,
such as the language of doctors, engineers, journals, legalese, etc.
 The Communication Accommodation Theory explores the reasons why people use speech in order to
emphasize or minimize the social differences between themselves and their listener. It evolved from the
Accommodation Theory and was developed by Howard Giles, professor of linguistics and psychology at
the University of California, Santa Barbara. The roots of the theory trace back to the Social Identity
theory, which explores how a person’s identity is tied to his/her social identity.

Definition of Style
Sociolinguists generally define notions of language style and register primarily as “sets of linguistic
features with a particular social distribution.”

What is the difference between style and variety?

Style is "the range of variation within the speech of an individual speaker." Just as there is code-
switching, there would be "style-shifting" – this would be within a monolingual society. Style could mean
the personal “social dialect” of a speaker based on the relatively permanent aspects of his/her identity
(ethnicity, region etc.) and is therefore a very individual set of linguistic features. Register seems to be
determined by less permanent aspects of identity (student to teacher, salesman to customer, etc.).
Register is seen as falling within the larger idea of style.

Some sociolinguists concerned with style are Halliday, Romaine, Labov.

Michael Halliday

Suzanne Romaine

William Labov

Labov was interested in characterizing a set of linguistic forms, and in relating them to social factors
beyond the individual. "By style” clarified Labov, “we mean to include any consistent… [set of]
linguistic forms used by a speaker, qualitative or quantitative, that can be associated with a… [set
of ] topics, participants, channel, or the broader social context."

Functions of Speech

o Referential function: to convey information and this is done through different forms of speech, such as
declarative or interrogative statements.

Declarative statements (You will love this gift.)

Interrogative statements using Wh-questions (What do you think of this gift?)
 Interrogative statements using yes/no questions (Do you like this gift?)
Alternative questions with answer choices (Do you like this gift or this one?)

o Directive function: giving orders or making requests by using imperative statements. An imperative
statements may express a strict demand such as saying (open the gift) or it can seem less demanding by
using the politeness strategy such as saying (please open my gift) or through using question tags.

o Expressive function: to express personal feelings, thoughts, ideas and opinions, with different choice
words, intonation, etc. These expressions are submissive to social factors and to the nature of the
expression as negative (I'm so sad and lonely) or positive (I feel great tonight).

o Phatic or Social function: it is one of the most common speech acts in everyday interactions; it consists
of greetings, complements, gossip, and so forth.

o Metalinguistic Function: it is used to describe parts of language such as grammar, or words that
describe language itself.

o Poetic Function: using poetic features such as rhyming words, alliteration or paronomasia / puns and
antithesis (Time flies like the wind but fruit flies like bananas).

o Heuristic Function: Halliday identified this function of language which concerned with learning, the main
concentration of researching this function of speech is to identify the spoken language of learning
children.

o Commissives: it involves using threats and promises (I promise I'll finish my work).

Politeness: it is the consideration of social factors (social distance in terms of solidarity or formality),
social status, type of situation or context, intonation, etc when communicating with others.

[One may ask somebody to sit down by using different utterances:

Sit down / please sit down / I want you to sit down / won't you sit down / you sit down / why don't you
make yourself more comfortable?]

Positive politeness: a type of politeness based on solidarity between speakers and hearers who share
values and attitudes, and in which formal expressions in addressing are avoided.

Negative politeness: a type of politeness based on formality between speakers and hearers in which
formal expressions in addressing are used in order to protect hearers' face and avoid intruding on them.

. On the other hand, Rickford and Eckert (2001) and Schilling-Estes (2002),provided an analysis
on Labov’s approaches of style in sociolinguistics and they divided analyses into two separable
component parts: the study of social constraints or inter-speaker variation and the study of
stylistic constraints or intra-speaker variation. The former is on the correlation between linguistic
variants and social factors, such as age, sex, social class, and race. The latter talks about shifts
in a speaker’s or a group’s language use which transcend prototypical social usage (and, in
doing so, seeks to describe the distribution of language in terms of range of use within a given
sociolinguistic community). In this framework, then, style is understood as orthogonal to social
identity rather than as integral to it. Such variability is treated as unidimensional, involving an
individual speaker’s shift toward or away from the vernacular. This shift is attributed to a likewise
unidimensional shift in the speech context, from more or less language-focused, which in turn is
thought to trigger a shift in the degree to which the speaker monitors her or his own speech.