Users-related Varieties: Social Dialects and Accents

Objectives

 In this lecture, students will understand how sociolinguists account to the systematic
variation of language.
 Students will be able to recognize the different varieties that are related to social
attributes of gender, age ethnicity and social class.

1. Social Dialects

Social dialects are language varieties that are associated with the speakers’ social
background. The use of social dialects in social groups is affected by the social attributes of
their members such as their age, gender, social class and ethnicity. This correlational
relationship is manifested in the use of specific grammatical forms, lexical items and
phonological features that constitute a given social dialect. The use of a social dialect reflects
much information about the speakers' social background such as his social class and
education, ethnicity, age and gender.

1.1.Language Variation and Social Class

The social class division emerged during the 19th century industrial revolution in
Britain. Since that time, researchers found that the way people use language is related to his
social class. Trudgill (1995, p. 23) defines social class as "a term used to refer to any
hierarchical ordering of groups within a society." People are usually classified on the basis of
their education, occupation, income and wealth into middle class (upper class) and working
class (lower class). The speech of each class group has distinguished grammatical, lexical and
phonological features and hence, different linguistic varieties. Therefore, we can recognize
the social class of the speaker from his linguistic behavior. For example, the verb 'ain’t' is a
linguistic variant which is often associated with the sociolect spoken by people from the
working class. Sociolinguists confirm that standard and formal linguistic forms are frequently
observed in the speech of people from the higher classes to reflect their prestigious social
status. In this context, we cite the significant study of William Labov (1966) on language
variation and social stratification in New York City in which he concluded that the frequency
of the absence of the presence of the linguistic variable (r) is strongly affected by the speakers'
social class. Another important study of the relationship between the social class and language
variation was conducted by the British sociologist Basil Bernstein (1971) who made the
distinction between two types of codes on the basis of the social class of the speaker:
Elaborated Code and Restricted Code

1.2.Language Variation and Ethnicity

The concept of ethnicity is used to describe an ethnic group whose members share the
same linguistic, cultural, historical, religious background. It is frequently used to refer to
minority groups such as immigrants. Members of an ethnic group use language as a
cornerstone of their identity and their origins. Therefore, use their ethnolect to signal their
affiliation to their minority ethnic group as "linguistic characteristics may be the most
important defining criteria for ethnic-group membership" (Trudgill, 1995, p. 41).For instance,
the African Americans constitute and ethnic group, and they use their ethnolect, known as the
African American Vernacular English (AAVE) which is distinguished by many grammatical,
lexical and phonological features.

1.3.Language Variation and Age

Variationist sociolinguistic research investigates the relationship between language

variation and age. Sociolinguists found that there are many linguistic features (variants) that
are associated with speakers from different age categories and generations. Youngsters
employ specific features that do not appear in adults' speech. Teenagers use taboo words and
slang expressions while adults are more aware of the necessity to respect and obey to the
norms of society. Moreover, sociolinguists investigate the age graded phenomenon which
deals with the study of the change in the linguistic behavior of one speaker in different stages
of his lifespan from childhood to caducity.

1.4.Language Variation and Gender

Gender is one of the social factors that shape our linguistic behaviors. In many speech
communities, men and women use different phonological, grammatical, lexical,
conversational and stylistic features. They speak different varieties, known as genderlects.
Sociolinguists like Holmes assert that "women are more linguistically polite than men"
(Holmes, 2013, p. 159) because they are more aware of the role language in determining the
social status. They use standard and formal linguistic forms that characterize the speech of
people from the higher social classes while men use non-standard and colloquial forms to
reflect their masculinity. Similarly, Trudgill (1995, p. 65) states that "women on average use
forms which more closely approach those of the standard variety or the prestige accent than
those used by men."

Lakoff , a sociolinguistic who is interested in the study of the relationship between language
and gender, cite ten features that are frequently noticed in the speech of women:

 Lexical hedges or fillers, e.g. you know, sort of, well, you see;
 Tag questions, e.g. she’s very nice, isn’t she?
 Rising intonation on declaratives, e.g. it’s really good?
 ‘Empty’ adjectives, e.g. divine, charming, cute;
 Precise color terms, e.g. magenta, aquamarine;
 Intensifiers such as just and so, e.g. I like him so much;
 Hypercorrect grammar, e.g. consistent use of standard verb forms;
 ‘Superpolite’ forms, e.g. indirect requests, euphemisms;
 Avoidance of strong swear words, e.g. fudge, my goodness;
 Emphatic stress, e.g. it was a BRILLIANT performance.

Gender-related linguistic differences are explained by two different approaches: the

dominance approach and the difference approach.

In the dominance approach, which is supported by Lakoff (1975), men and women
linguistic differences are attributed to the dominance of men over women in society. Women
use prestigious language to mitigate their subordinate social status while men use informal
varieties to express their dominance. In the difference approach, followed by Tennan (1994),
men and women have been socialized differently because they belong to different subcultures.
Therefore they speak differently.

2. Accent.

Dialect are language varieties that are distinguished by their grammatical, phonological and
lexical features. When we refer to the phonological variation, we use the term accent. Accent
can have social or regional connotation. This means that the accent used by the speaker
reveals important information about his social and regional background. For instance, the use
of the RP (Received Pronunciation) or queen's English which is Standard and a prestigious
accent used in UK indicates the speakes’s educational background and social status. Accents
such as Oxford accent and Yorkshire accent reflect the region where the speaker comes from.

References

Holmes, J. (2013). An introduction to sociolinguistics. New York, NY: Routledge.

Lakoff, R. T. (1975). Language and woman's place. New York: Harper & Row.

Tannen, D. (1994). Gender and discourse. New York: Oxford University Press.

Trudgill, P. (1995). Sociolinguistics: An introduction to language and society. England:

Penguin Books.

Labov, W. (1966). The Social stratification of English in New York City. Washington, D.C.:
Center for Applied Linguistics.