CODES

In sociolinguistics a language may be referred to as a code. A code is a neutral term which can be used
to denote a language or a variety of language.

A code is a system used for communication between two or more parties

Code-switching is a linguistic phenomenon which occurs in multilingual speech communities. The term
describes the process in which a speaker alternates or switches usually between two languages or
language varieties or codes during the same conversation.
For some scholars from sociolinguistical point of view, code-switching is associated with
particular pragmatic effects, discourse functions, or associations with group identity.[b] and the
terms code-mixing or language alternation are used to describe more stable situations in which
multiple languages are used without such pragmatic effects. 

Multilingualism usually refers to a speaker’s knowledge and efficient use of three or

more languages while bilingualism is the sociolinguist's term to describe a speaker’s
knowledge and use of more than one, i.e. two, languages - their mother tongue and an
additional language. However, multilingualism and bilingualism are often used
interchangeably and bilingualism might also indicate that a speaker knows and uses
more than two languages. Thus, bilingualism means the mastering of two or more
languages.
The opposite of multilingualism is monolingualism which describes a speaker who
knows and uses one language only – his or her native language.
A person with monolingual competence is called a monolingual. A person with
multilingual/bilingual competence is called a multilingual or bilingual.
Bilinguals can be further distinguished into coordinate bilinguals and compound
bilinguals. Coordinate and compound bilingualism illustrate how the different social
conditions under which speakers become bilingual can lead to differences in how these
speakers relate words to their meanings. In this connection, coordinate bilingualism
refers to individuals who speak two languages natively, i.e. they have learned both
languages from birth, while compound bilingualism describes individuals who have
learned one language natively and another one later in their life.

Identity is constructed from interaction with others and is the result of our
socialization, i.e., our experiences with the outside world as we have dealt with
that world in all its complexity. Consequently, many factors affect it: race,
ethnicity, gender, religion, occupation, physical location, social class, kinship,
leisure activities, etc. Identity is created in dealing with such factors and in
dealing with members of groups for whom these factors are among their
identifying characteristics. An identity may also change because identities can
sometimes be quite malleable as the circumstances of our lives change.
Sociolinguistics and the Sociology of Language a distinction between
sociolinguistics or micro-sociolinguistics and the sociology of language or macro-
sociolinguistics. In this distinction, sociolinguistics is concerned with investigating the
relationships between language and society with the goal being a better understanding
of the structure of language and of how languages function in communication; the
equivalent goal in the sociology of language is trying to discover how social structure
can be better understood through the study of language, e.g., how certain linguistic
features serve to characterize particular social arrangements.
Hudson (1996, p. 4) has described the difference as follows: sociolinguistics is
‘the study of language in relation to society,’ whereas the sociology of language is ‘the
study of society in relation to language.’ In other words, in sociolinguistics we study
language and society in order to find out as much as we can about what kind of thing
language is, and in the sociology of language we reverse the direction of our interest.

• But what do we mean by variety? Hudson (1996, p. 22) defines a variety of

language as ‘a set of linguistic items with similar distribution,’ a definition that
allows us to say that all of the following are varieties: Canadian English, London
English, the English of football commentaries, and so on.
DIALECT
A standard dialect (also known as a "standardized dialect" or "standard language") is a
dialect that is supported by institutions. Such institutional support may include any or all
of the following: government recognition or designation; formal presentation in schooling
as the "correct" form of a language; informal monitoring and policing of everyday usage;
published grammars, dictionaries, and textbooks that set forth a normative spoken and
written form; and/or an extensive formal literature that employs that variety (prose,
poetry, non-fiction, etc.). There may be multiple standard dialects associated with a
single language. For example, Standard American English, Standard British English,
Standard Canadian English, Standard Indian English, Standard Australian English, and
Standard Philippine English may all be said to be standard dialects of the English
language.

A nonstandard dialect, like a standard dialect, has a complete grammar and vocabulary,
but is usually not the beneficiary of institutional support. Examples of a nonstandard
English dialect are[citation needed] Southern American English, Western Australian
English, New York English, New England English, Mid-Atlantic American or Philadelphia
/ Baltimore English, Scouse, Brummie, Cockney, and Tyke. The Dialect Test was
designed by Joseph Wright to compare different English dialects with each other.
Types of Dialects
 1. Regional Dialect
A subgroup variety of a language associated with a particular geographical area is
called a regional dialect. This type of dialect is frequently produced through the
historical linguistic processes of change, such as contact with speakers of other
languages, changes due to new tools and techniques, and perhaps most especially,
differences tied to the environment.
Examples of regional dialects include the dialcet of the Southern United States and the
three dialects of German in Europe: Low, Middle, and High German. An isogloss is the
boundary between two regional dialects. German Dialect Map
2. Ethnic dialect
A subgroup variety of a language that is associated with a particular ethnic group is
termed an ethnic dialect.
African-American Vernacular English is considered by some to be an ethnic dialect, or
ethnolect, of English. It is a variety of English spoken by people of African American
heritage in the United States.
3. Sociolect
A subgroup variety of a language that is associated with a social group of any sort is
termed a sociolect.
Technically, an ethnic dialect is one kind of sociolect. Other sociolects are based on
age groups, gender, and socioeconomic class.
4. Accent
Phonetic or pronunciation distinctions between groups result in different accents. The
word accent refers only to pronunciation distinctions. To refer to multiple distinctions
across all linguistic subcategories, one must use the term dialect or variety.
All speakers have the accent of their own speech community. That is, there is no
unaccented speech; everyone who speaks a language, speaks it with an accent. A
particular accent essentially reflects a person's home or native linguistic background.
When people listen to someone speak with a different accent from their own, they
notice the difference, and they may even make certain biased social judgments about
the speaker. When speaking with someone from one's own speech community,
pronunciation generally goes unnoticed, and a speaker thinks "This person has no
accent," when, in fact, it is simply the same as one's own.
Pidgins and creoles are both the result of what happens when you blend two or more
languages, but they’re not the same. Put simply, a pidgin is the first-generation version
of a language that forms between native speakers of different languages — a makeshift
communication bridge, if you will. A creole is a pidgin with native speakers, or one that’s
been passed down to a second generation of speakers who will formalize it and fortify
the bridge into a robust structure with a fully developed grammar and syntax.
Generally speaking, pidgins form in the context of a multicultural population. Historically,
this has often happened in areas where multiple groups were trading with each other, or
when groups of slaves from various nations were assimilated into a single population
and developed a language.
Pidgins often borrow words from their source languages and feature a simplified
grammar. It’s a bare-bones language designed to enable minimum-viable
communication.
By the time a pidgin becomes a creole, the language has developed enough of its own
characteristics to have a distinct grammar of its own. Beyond the well-known
French/West African creole spoken in Haiti, there’s also Hawaiian Creole English, which
is a mix of Hawaiian, English, Chinese, Spanish and other languages.
Additionally, it’s important to note that pidgins don’t always become creoles. If a second
generation of speakers picks up aspects of the pidgin as a second language, it’s still
generally considered to be a pidgin. Additionally, if the society doesn’t provide an
environment where the language can continue developing in relative isolation, the
pidgin will often disappear, along with the need for it.
In either case, the distinction is not always very cut-and-dried.

• open network: A network which provides open access to its users. Information
is often new and of importance, a (serious) blogger and visitors of blog.
closed network: mostly strong ties. Information that flows in those networks tends to
be redundant and inefficient. Facebook.
Man and women’s language differences.
One of the linguistic consequences of gender differentiation in language seems to be linguistic change,
where men’s and women’s language are regularly associated with changes in language

women much more often than men break off without finishing their sentences, because they start
talking without having thought out what they are going to say (

women compared with men of the same social class, age, and level of education, more often choose the
form closer to the prestige, or “correct” way of talking’
 When it comes to comparing men and women with each other, Trudgill claims that women are “better”
speakers than men. They are more polite, less forceful and technically more correct participants

 When it comes to men’s and women’s way of using slang it is confirmed by many researchers,
that it is an exclusive property of males. Slang is very informal language or specific words Dope -
Cool or awesome.