Introduction

What is Sociolinguistics?
Relationships between language and society
Sociolinguistics versus Sociology of language
The word sociolinguistics is from ‘society’, ‘language’, and -ics (suffix). Society is
defined as any group of people who are drawn together for a certain purpose or purposes.
Language is given definition as what the members of a particular society speak. The suffix -
ics means a science. Thus, sociolinguistics is the study about language and society.
From the definition, it indicates that the definition is dependent. It means the study of
language must refer to society. So, there are relationships between language and society. The
relationships are (1) social structure influences the appearances of linguistic behaviour, (2)
linguistic behaviour influence the social structure, (3) language and society influence each
other, and (4) there is no relationship between linguistic behaviour and social structure.
Two terms are found in studying of language and society. The first is sociolinguistics
which is also called ‘micro-sociolinguistics’ and the second is sociology of language which is
also called ‘macro-sociolinguistics’. The difference is on the object of study. Sociolinguistics
is the study about language connected to society such as class, sex, and age. Whereas,
sociology of language study societies which the societies use the language such as the
functional distribution of speech forms, language shift, language maintenance, language
behaviour in classroom, etc.

Discussion
1. Discuss the meaning of sociolinguistics!
2. Discuss the influencers on language use!
3. Discuss the differences between sociolinguistics and sociology of language!

Languages, Dialects, and Varieties; Vernacular, Register, and Styles of Speaking

All languages show internal variation or each language also shows a number of
varieties. Variety or a variety of language is defined as ‘a set of linguistic items with similar
distribution’. The difference between dialect and variety is given that a dialect is almost
certainly no more than a local non-prestigious (powerless) variety of a real language. Dialect
is used for local varieties of English such as Yorkshire dialect and for various types of
informal, lower class, or rural speech. Dialect is said as standing outside the language. Regard
to a social norm, a dialect is a language which is excluded from polite society. It has an

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equivalent to nonstandard or substandard. When it is applied, it can connote various degrees
of inferiority. Socio-historical factors are as important determiners for the difference
between a language and a dialect such as Hindi and Urdu in India, Serbian and Croatian in
Yugoslavia, and Bokmal and Nynorsk in Norway. Hindi is written left to right in the
Devanagari script, but Urdu is written right to left in Arabic-Persian script. In borrowings,
Hindi draws on Sanskrit, but Urdu draws on Arabic and Persian sources. Much of small
linguistic differences are caused by large religious and political differences.
The various relationships between a language and a dialect will show how the concept
of ‘power’ and ‘solidarity’ to be understood. Asymmetrical relationship refers to power
which indicate that one has something which is important such as status, money, influence,
etc. Powerful dialect has become because of non-linguistic factors. On the other hand,
solidarity is a feeling of equality among people and people have common interest around
which they will bond. A feeling solidarity can bring people to preserve a local dialect, an
endangered language to resist power, or to insist on independent. The examples of local
dialects are the modernization of Hebrew and the separation of Serbo-Croatian into Serbian
and Croatian.
Seven criteria are used in discussing different kinds of languages. Standardization
refers to the development process on grammars, spelling books, dictionaries, and possibility a
literature. It takes ideological dimensions, those are social, cultural, and sometimes political
beyond the purely linguistic ones. The result is almost inevitable and some processes come to
fruition. It reached a fixed and point. Some functions of standardization are to unify
individuals and group into a larger community, to reflect and symbolize some identities such
as regional, social, ethnic, and religious. It also gives prestige to speakers. The examples are
Standard English and Standard French.
Vitality refers to existence of a living community of speakers. It also distinguishes
between alive and dead languages. Historicity refers to a particular group of people finds a
sense of identity through using a particular language. Autonomy refers to a language must be
felt by its speakers to be different from other languages. Reduction is about the reduction of
resources. Mixture is about the feeling speakers have about the purity of the variety they
speak. The last, de facto norms are about the feelings that speakers have good or bad and
good speakers represent the norms of proper usage.
Vernacular is defined as the speech of a particular country or region or a form of
speech transmitted from parent to child, so there is a vernacular of Standard English or
vernacular of a regional dialect for particular children. Regional dialect is the very distinctive

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local colouring in the language. Dialect geography is used to describe attempts made to map
the distribution various linguistic features. The questions used by dialect geographers are ‘Is
this an r-pronouncing area of English or not as car and cart?’, ‘what past tense of drink that
speakers prefer?’, and what names do people give to particular objects in the environment
such as elevator or lift and petrol or gas?’. Isoglosses refer to boundaries around the features
in maps.
Social dialects are various social factors such as occupation, place of residence, education,
money, income, racial or ethnic origin, cultural background, caste, religion, and so on.
Different styles of speaking are used in different circumstances like ceremonial
occasions, public lectures, casual conversations, etc. The various factors for the level of
formality are the kinds of occasion, various social, age, and other differences which exist
between participants; the particular task that is involved, e.g. writing or speaking; the
emotional involvement between participants. The stylistic appropriateness is ‘What do you
intend to do, your majesty?’, but ‘Waddya intend doin’, Rex?’ is not appropriate for a style of
speaking. Register refers to a set of language items associated with discrete an occupational
or social group. The kinds of varieties which are registers are similar vocabularies, similar
features of intonation, and characteristics bits of syntax and phonology.

Discussion
1. What are differences between varieties and dialects?
2. What are differences between languages and dialects?
3. What are differences between regional dialect and social dialect?
4. Give explanation about standardization?
5. What are styles of speaking, vernacular, and register?

Pidgin, Creoles, and Lingua Francas

Pidgins and creoles are the various lingua francas. They have been viewed as
uninteresting linguistic phenomena mainly for linguistic features such as articles, the copula,
and grammatical inflections. However, in recent years, pidgins and creoles have been given a
serious attention and many interesting characteristics have been found by linguists which the
characteristics to be essential to do with all languages and they are as important markers of
identity. Pidgins and creoles are important studies both parts of linguistic and especially
sociolinguistic. The study reveals the processes of language origin and the change which is
going on around the people who use the pidgins and creoles. Furthermore, it gives benefits

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for speakers that pidgin or creole is not just a bad variety of the language but a variety of a
language with its own legitimacy such as its own history, structure, array of functions, and
the possibility of winning as a proper language.
Lingua franca refers to different languages used into contact and people who use it
find some ways of communicating. Other names are given like a trade language, contact
language, international language (e.g. English), auxiliary language (e.g. Esperanto), and a
mixed language. Lingua franca is developed as a consequence of population migration
(forced or voluntary) or for purposes of trade. A mixture of Cree and French spoken mainly
in Canada is a marker of group identity. Mandarin, Hindi, and Swahili in parts of the world
Arabic are as lingua francas. English which is used in many places and for many purposes
such as in travel, trade, commerce and in international relations is as a lingua franca. English
as a native language, second language, and foreign language for speakers is a lingua franca.
In India, Hindi is as an official language but English is widely used as a lingua franca.
A contact language which is no native speakers or no one’s first language is called a
Pidgin. It is a reduced variety of a normal language because there are simplifications of the
grammar, vocabulary, phonological variation, and an admixture of local vocabularies to meet
the special needs. The process of pidginization involves languages such as Pidgin Chinese
Languages was used by different Chinese languages, Tok Pisin is used to unify languages
among speakers of many different languages in Papua New Guinea, and Nigerian Pidgin
English.
A creole is a pidgin for the first language of speakers which has been expanded in
structure and vocabulary to express the ranges of meanings and to serve the range of
functions. Creole and pidgin have sameness. They have no simple relationship to the
standardized language for examples a pidgin English has a complex relationship to Standard
English, Haitian Creole which is French-based has a complex relationship to Standard
French, and Jamaican Creole which is English-based has a complex relationship to Standard
English. Creole and pidgin are spoken something less than normal languages.
Related to distribution, pidgin and creole languages are distributed usually in places
with direct and easy access to the oceans. The distribution is connected with long standing
patterns of trade, including trade in slaves. Languages which are English-based are Hawaiian
creole, Gullah or Sea Island Creole, Jamaican Creole, Tok Pisin, and Chinese Pidgin English.
Other languages are Bazaar Malay (or a variety of Malay in widespread use throughout
Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia) and Arabic. The social and political history are reflected
by the language distribution of the whole Caribbean areas.

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 Related to characteristics, pidgin and creole show that the sounds are fewer and less
complicated than the standard language. Tok Pisin has five basic vowels and fewer
consonants. No contrast in words is between it and eat, pin and fin, and sip, ship, chip. There
is no variation like English such as in English there is complicated phonological relationships
between words (type and typical) and there are different sounds of the plural in English such
as cats, dogs, and boxes. A pidgin or creole also has a complete lack of inflection in nouns,
pronouns, verbs, and adjectives. It has a lack of tense markers and transitive verbs do not take
objects. The ending -im is used on verbs for transitive suffix markers. Pidgins do comfortably
without inflection not like English has important inflections for regular and irregular verbs. In
Sentences, Pidgin has no embedded clauses such as relative clauses. In vocabulary, pidgin
and creole have many similarities with the standard language, English.
Creole is from a pidgin and a pidgin is not usually to become a creole. If a pidgin is
no longer needed, it dies out. Creolization occurs for some reasons for example in Haiti when
French was effectively denied to the masses and Tok Pisin was used by children to be the
first language or the creole language.

Code, Bilingualism & Multilingualism

Code
The varieties of a language or the languages which refer to dialect, language, style,
standard language, pidgin, and creole are inclined to arouse emotions. Because of these
reasons, the experts of language and society gave a neutral term which is not inclined to
arouse emotion which is called a code. A code is a language or a variety of a language used
by two or more people to employ for communication. Another definition refers to any kind of
system that two or more people employ for communication.
The interesting questions for a code are what factors that influence of govern the
choice of a particular code on a particular occasion which these various choice have different
meanings, why do people use one code rather than another, what shifts are from one code to
another, and why do people occasionally prefer one code to another, why do people switch
back and forth between two codes or even mix them?.

Diglossia
In bilingual and multilingual situations, there is the phenomenon of code-switching.
This phenomenon of code-switching is because of diglossic situation in society which this
diglossic situation refers to the functional differences between the codes govern the choice.

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The situations are a variety of High language (H) and a variety of Low language (L). Arabic
has Classical Arabic (H) and regional colloquial varieties (L), Switzerland has Standard
German (H) and Swiss German (L), Haiti has Standard French (H) and Haitian Creole (L),
and Greece has Katharevousa (H) and Dhimotiki or Dimotic (L) (Fergusson, 1959).
Each variety has its own specialized functions. This characteristic of diglossia which
the two varieties are kept apart in their functions. The H varieties are found in sermons,
formal lectures, a parliament or legislative body, news on radio and television, editorials in
newspapers, literature, and poetry. On the other hand, the L varieties are found in familiar
conversations between bosses and their workers or household servants, soap operas and
popular programs on the radio, political cartoons in newspapers, folk literature, and
answering the questions from H language in a lecture which explaining parts of it to make
more understand.
The H variety is said as prestigious and powerful variety, but the L lacks prestige and
power. People have strong feeling that the H variety is more beautiful, logical, and expressive
than the L variety. In language acquisition, all children learn the L variety but some children
learn the H variety and others do not learn the H variety at all. In formal settings like in
classrooms or a part of a religious and cultural indoctrination, the H variety is likely to be
learned. Moreover, the H variety is also be taught. In vocabulary, The L variety tends to
borrow learned words from the H variety. The result is the admixture of L and H vocabulary.
Social distinctions are reinforced by diglossia which the H variety is associated with the elite,
whereas the L is associated with the lower classes.

Bilingualism and Multilingualism

Monolingualism refers to the ability to use only one language, whereas
multilingualism refers to the ability to use more than one language. The ability to use two
languages are called bilingualism. However, the ability to use more than two languages are
called multilingualism.
Language choice is determined by context such as who are the users, what choice,
when is it used, and what purpose. If a person is able to use it, he or she is socially competent.
Furthermore, a person claims for his or herself that his or her language choices are part of the
social identity.
Multilingualism exists among the Tukano people because men must marry outside
their language group. Tukano is northwest Amazon, on the border between Colombia and

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Brazil. Multilingualism is taken for granted and moving from one language to another is very
common.
In Paraguay, bilingualism exists between Spanish and Guarani and this is called
‘extended diglossic’ (Fisman, 1980). In formal occasion, Spanish is used such as in
government business, in conversation with the strangers who are well dressed, with
foreigners, and in most business transactions. In informal occasion, Guarani is used such as in
conversation between friends, servants, and strangers who are poorly dressed. Spanish is
preferred to be used in cities but Guarani is the preferred language of the countryside.
Spanish is the language of educational opportunity and is socially preferred. between one
code to another code The factors to be determined for the choice between Spanish and
Guarani are location (city or country), formality, gender, status, intimacy, seriousness, and
type of activity. The choice is obviously related to situation.

Code-Switching
Code-Switching is switching one code to another or mixing codes in short utterances.
Code-switching is also called code-mixing. Code-switching can occur between sentences
(inter-sententially) or within a single sentence (intra-sententially). Code-switching can arise
from individual choice or from people as a major identity marker for a group of speakers. It is
also as a conversational strategy used to establish, cross or destroy group boundaries or to
create, evoke or change interpersonal relations with their rights and obligations.
The ability to shift from one code to another is quite normal in multilingual countries.
One of multilingual countries is Singapore which has four official language English as a trade
language, the Mandarin variety of Chinese as the international ‘Chinese language, Malay as
the language of the region, and Tamil as one of the important ethnic group. The majority of
Singapore’s population are native speakers of Hokkien, another variety of Chinese.
Accommodation is said as “one way of explaining how individuals and groups may
be seen to relate to each other. One individual can try to induce another to judge him or her
more favorably by reducing differences between the two. An individual may need to sacrifice
something to gain social approval of some kind, for example, shift in behavior to be more like
the other. This is convergence behavior. Alternatively, if one desires to be judged less
favorably the shift in behavior is away from the other’s behavior. This is divergence
behavior. The particular behaviors involved may be of various kinds, not necessarily speech
alone: types of dress, choices of cultural pursuits, etc. There is also always a cost–benefit
aspect to any kind of accommodation. We see convergence when a speaker tries to adopt the

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accent of a listener or that used within another social group or even in extreme cases gives up
a particular accent, dialect, or language completely”.
Solidarity and Power in Politeness
Language is not used freely. Its mean if we speak a language, we will choose many
different kinds of a language. What will we say refers to certain types of sentences, words,
and sounds which these forms are combined with contents of speaking or with the how we
will speak. The linguistic choice can indicate the social relationship between a speaker and a
listener.
The terms Tu (T) or Vous (V) is a distinction to give signal for politeness in a
language. It is started grammatically that T is a singular form which means ‘you’ and V is a
plural form which means ‘you’. However, the V is sometimes used with individuals on
certain occasions.
The T is signalled as the ‘familiar form’, whereas the V is the ‘polite form’. Many languages
have distinctions T/V like Latin (tu/vos), Russian (ty/vy), Italian (tu/lei), German (du/sie),
English (thou/you), Indonesian (kamu/saudara), and Javanese (kowe, kono/panjenengan,
sampeyan).
By medieval times, the upper classes used V forms with each other to show mutual
respect and politeness. Lower classes used mutual T to show intimacy and common interests
in situation (a feeling of solidarity). The upper classes addressed the lower classes with T but
received V and it is said as asymmetrical relationship. Asymmetrical T/V is used to
symbolize a power relationship in such situation as people to animals, master or mistress to
servants, parents to children, priest to penitent, officer to soldier, and even God to angels.
Surprisingly, it is said that now mutual T is found quite often in relationships, so solidarity
has tended to replace power. In other words, power is no longer usage. There has been a
dramatic shift in recent years to solidarity, but many local variations still remain.
Other examples of the T usage are speaking between spouses, between brothers and
sisters regardless of age, between parents and children, between close relatives, between
young people living or working closely together, between adults particularly adults of the
same gender who have a friendship of long standing. The V is used between strangers,
between those who have no ties of any kind, and between inferior and superior. There is no
active T/V distinction in English, because the distinction is archaic. Speakers of English show
power and solidarity relationships through language such as using address terms for purposes.
Addresses in English are done by title, by first name, by last name, by a nickname, by
some combination of these, or by nothing at all. The addresses can be symmetrical like Mr

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Jones to Mr Smith and John to Fred. The address can be asymmetrical like Mr John to Fred.
Address can indicate intimacy like Doctor Smith is more intimate than Doctor alone. Using a
nick name or pet name also shows intimacy. Asymmetric address also indicates a clear
indicator of a power differential as examples addresses in school classrooms for children
John and Sally and for teachers Miss or Mr Smith. In another case, when we are in doubt to
address someone the address is not used like Good morning as well as Good morning Sir/Mr
Smith/Susie. The choice of the T/V shows someone’s feeling towards others for awareness
social customs such as solidarity, power, distance, respect, intimacy, and so on.
In discussing politeness, there are positive face and negative face. The first is the
desire to gain the approval to others, whereas the second is the desire to be unimpeded by
others in one’s actions. Positive face is to achieve solidarity through offers of friendship, the
use of compliments, and informal language use. On the other hand, negative face is used to
deference, apologizing, indirectness, and formality in language use. These variety of strategy
is used to avoid any threats to the face others.

Discussion
1. Language is not used freely. Discuss this statement!
2. What is T/V? Discuss the differences!
3. Discuss the function of T/V suitable with data above!
4. There is no active T/V distinction in English. Explain!
5. Discuss varieties of address forms in English and how to use them!
6. Discuss the difference between positive and negative face!

Speak Acts
Utterances which do in the form of either statements, questions, or other grammatical
forms is call proposition. The examples of each proposition are ‘I had a busy day today’,
‘Have you called your mother?’, and ‘Your dinner is ready’. Utterances are connected with
events or happenings in a possible world. One can be experienced or imagined. Utterances
which connect to the world can be true or false are called constative utterances.
Another proposition is the ethical proposition which can be true or false. However,
the real purposes are not truth and falsity but to give as guides to behaviour in some world or
other such as ‘Big boys don’t cry’ and ‘God is love’. The example of ‘your dinner is ready!’
is not. Another different kind is phatic type utterances such as ‘Nice day!’, ‘How do you
do?’, and ‘You’re looking smart today!’. These utterances are not for their propositional

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content but rather for their affective value. This affective value indicates that one person is
willing to talk to another.
Another utterance is performative utterance which one is saying and doing something.
Such perform acts are the naming of ships in, marrying, and sentencing. ‘I name this ship
“Liberty Bell” is the example of the naming of ship and ‘I sentence you to five years in jail’
is the example of sentencing. The truth and falsity in these utterances cannot be made about
the actual doing but after the doing. Austin gave felicity condition which performatives must
meet to be successful. First, a conventional procedure must exist for doing. That procedure
must specify who must say and do what and in what circumstances. Second, all participants
must properly execute this procedure and carry it through to completion. Finally, the
necessary thoughts, feelings, and intentions must be present in all parties. The actual speech
acts take the grammatical form of having a first person subject and a verb in the present tense
and it may or may not include the word hereby. The examples are ‘I (hereby) name, ‘We
decree’ and ‘I swear’. Declarations are less explicit performatives like ‘I promise’, ‘I
apologize’, and ‘I warn you’ because they lack any associated conventional procedure.
Performatives are divided into five categories, namely verdictives is the type of giving
a verdict, estimate, grade, or appraisal (‘We find the accused quilty’); exercitives, the
exercising of powers, rights, or influences as in appointing, ordering, warning, or advising (‘I
pronounce you husband and wife’); commissives, the type of promising or undertaking, and
committing one to do something (‘I hereby bequeath’); behabitives, having to do with such
matters as apologizing, congratulating, blessing, cursing, or challenging (‘I apologize’); and
expositives, to refer to how one makes utterances fit into an argument or exposition (‘I
argue’, ‘I reply’, or ‘I assume’).
Performing different kinds of acts when people speak and most of acts express some
intent refers to locutions. Illocutionary acts have an illocutionary force. The example is ‘Y
want a piece of candy?’ performs many functions as a speech act like question, request, and
offer. Other examples are the different kinds of forms perform a single function that is to ask
someone to close the door (‘It’s cold in here’, ‘the door is open’, ‘Could someone see to the
door?’). Perlocution acts cause listeners to do something like the act of persuading,
frightening, or annoying (‘I bet you a dollar he’ll win and I say ‘On’. The illocutionary act of
offering a bet has led to the perlocutionary act to uptake of accepting it.

Cooperation

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 Cooperative principle is the overriding principle in conversation. The four maxims
given by Grice are quantity, to require you to make your contribution as informative as is
required; quality, to require you not to say what you believe to be false; relation, is the simple
injunction, be relevant; and manner, to require you to avoid obscurity of expression and
ambiguity, and to be brief and orderly. Grace said that speakers do not always follow the
maxims he has described and they implicate something rather different from what they
actually say (A: I am out of petrol, B: There is a garage round the corner; A: Smith doesn’t
seem to have a girlfriend these days, B: He has been paying a lot of visits to New York
lately). Other examples are ironic, metaphoric, or hyperbolic in nature like ‘You’re a fine
friend’, ‘You’re the cream in my office’, and ‘Every nice girl loves a sailor’. At last,
conversation is cooperative in the sense that speakers and listeners tend to accept face that the
other offers.

Discussion
1. Discuss what proposition is and what constative utterances are!
2. Give the meaning of performative acts! Explain!
3. How many of performative types? Give explanation for each type with examples!
4. What is the difference between illocutionary act and perlocutionary act! Give explanation!
5. What maxims are used in order the conversation is cooperative? Explain!

Language and Gender

It is claimed women are more linguistically polite than men, for instance, and that women
and men emphasise different speech functions.
In Westerrn communities, women and men use different quantities or frequencies of the same
forms. In all the English-speaking cities where speech data has been collected, for instance,
women use more –ing pronunciations and fewer –in pronunciations than men in words like
swimming and tpying.
In every social classes, men use more vernacular forms than women. In social dialect
interviews in Norwich, men used more of the vernacular [in] forms at the end of words like
speaking and walking than women.
Across all social groups, women use more standard forms than men and so, correspondingly,
men use more vernacular forms than women. In Detroit, for instance, multiple negation e.g I
don’t know nothing about it, a vernacular feature of speech, is more freguent in men’s speech
than in women’s.

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In many speech communities, when women use more of a linguistic form than men, it is
generally the standard form – the overtly prestigious form – that women favour.
This widespread pattern is also evident from a very young age. It was first identified over
thirty years ago in a study of American children’s speech in a semi-rural New England
village, where it was found that the boys used more –in forms and the girls more in –ing
forms.
Some linguists have suggested that women use more standard speech forms than men
because they are more status-conscious than men.
(taken from Holmes J (1994) in An Introduction to Sociolinguistics)

Discussion
Discuss the differences of speech between women and men and why are they different?

Multiple choice
1. Which one statement is true for a speech form used by women?
a. Women use speech more polite than men
b. Women use speech more polite than men
c. Women use vernacular speech forms
d. Women use non-standard forms

2. The __________ form is favored by women

a. prestigious b. social c. vernacular d. non-standard

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