Language and Linguistics

Language
language, a system of conventional spoken, manual (signed), or written symbols by means of
which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture, express
themselves. The functions of language include communication, the expression of identity, play,
imaginative expression, and emotional release.

Linguistics
The scientific study of language and its structure, including the study of grammar, syntax, and
phonetics. Specific branches of linguistics include sociolinguistics, dialectology,
psycholinguistics, computational linguistics, comparative linguistics, and structural linguistics.

What does it mean to say that Linguistics is a science?

 The field consists of a set of true facts that can be proven objectively.
 The field uses the scientific method to determine objective rankings of language quality.
 The field uses empirical observations to develop theories of language behavior.

Important subfields of linguistics include:

 Phonetics - the study of how speech sounds are produced and perceived
 Phonology - the study of sound patterns and changes
 Morphology - the study of word structure
 Syntax - the study of sentence structure
 Semantics - the study of linguistic meaning
 Pragmatics - the study of how language is used in context
 Historical Linguistics - the study of language change
 Sociolinguistics - the study of the relation between language and society
 Computational Linguistics - the study of how computers can process human language
 Psycholinguistics - the study of how humans acquire and use language

Topic 1: Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics as the study of language in relation
to society.

Compiled by Ibad
Sources: Sociolinguistics by R.A Hudson and online resources
Sociolinguistics is concerned with how language use interacts with, or is affected by, social factors
such as gender, ethnicity, age or social class, for instance. It is the study of choice and “the principal
task of Sociolinguistics is to uncover, describe and interpret the socially motivated” choices an
individual make. (Coulmas, 2013)
Description

Sociolinguistics has become a recognised part of most courses at university level on 'linguistics' or 'language', and is
indeed one of the main growth points in the study of language, from the point of view of both teaching and research.

There are now major English-language journals devoted to research publications

{Language in Society, Language Variation and Change and International
Journal of the Sociology of Language) and a number of introductory textbooks, apart from the present one.

Most of the growth in sociolinguistics has takenplace since the late 1960s. This is not meant to imply that the study
of language in relation to society is an invention of the 1960s - on the contrary, there is a long tradition in the study
of dialects and in the general study of the relations between word-meaning and culture, both of which count as
sociolinguistics by our definition.

What is new is the widespread interest in sociolinguistics and the realization that it can throw much light both on the
nature of language and on the nature of society.

Partly Empirical and Partly Theoretical

Sociolinguistics is partly empirical and partly theoretical- partly a matter of going out and amassing bodies of fact
and partly of sitting back and thinking.
The 'armchair' approach to sociolinguistics can be fairly productive, whether it is based on facts collected in a
systematic way as part of research or simply on one's own experience. In particular, it allows the beginnings of an
analytical framework to be worked out, containing terms such as LANGUAGE (a body of knowledge or rules), SPEECH
(actual utterances), SPEAKER, ADDRESSEE, TOPIC and so on.

For instance

British people are generally surprised (and interested) to hear that there are societies where one's parents must not
have the same mother-tongue

Other research projects, however, have been in the kind of complex, urban industrial society to which most readers
will be accustomed, and this research too has provided some surprises, such as the discovery that differences
between social classes are as clearly reflected in speech in America as they are in Britain, although the United
States has an image of being much less class-consciousce is a rich source of information on language in relation to
society.

Interest of Educationist in Sociolinguistics: Practical Concern of Language rather than understanding

Making Better Education Policy; Urdu-Pashtu Language Policy in Pakistan

It is important to recognize that much of the interest in sociolinguistics has come from people (such as
educationalists) who have a practical concern for language, rather than a desire simply to understand better how this
small area of the universe works. In particular, it became possible in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s to
fund relatively large-scale research projects connected with the speech of underprivileged groups, on the grounds
that the findings would make possible a more satisfactory educational policy.

Compiled by Ibad
Sources: Sociolinguistics by R.A Hudson and online resources
Topic 2.
Difference between Sociolinguistics and Linguistics

A widely held view is that there is such a difference, and that linguistics differs from sociolinguistics in taking
account only of the structure of language, to the exclusion of the social contexts in which it is learned and
used.
The task of linguistics, according to this view, is to work out 'the rules of language X', after which sociolinguists
may enter the scene and study any points at which these rules make contact with society - such as where alternative
ways of expressing the same thing are chosen by different social groups.
This view is typical of the whole 'structural' school of linguistics which has dominated twentieth-century linguistics,
including transformational-generative linguistics (the variety developed since 1957 by Noam Chomsky).

Speech is Social Behavior by William Labov

However, not all students of language would accept this view. Some would argue that since speech is (obviously)
social behaviour, to study it without reference to society would be like studying courtship(enagement) behaviour
without relating the behaviour of one partner to that of the other.
There are two particularly good reasons for accepting this view. The first is that we cannot take the notion
'language X' (for instance Pashtu) for granted, since this in itself(Pashtu) is a social notion in so far as it is defined in
terms of a group of people who speak X. This argument has been developed especially by William Labov.

Speech has a Social Function: Point of View of J. R. Firth

The second reason is that speech has a social function, both as a means of communication
and also as a way of identifying social groups, and to study speech without reference to the society which uses it is
to exclude the possibility of finding social explanations for the structures that are used. This view is typical of J. R.
Firth who founded the 'London School' of linguistics, and whose followers include Michael Halliday (1985) but it is
still not widely accepted by linguists.

Topic 3: Sociolinguistics and the sociology of language

Sociolinguistics as 'the study of language in relation to society', implying that sociolinguistics is part of the study of
Language. The value of sociolinguistics is the light which it throws on the nature of language in general, or on the
characteristics of some particular language.

The study of society in relation to language' (the converse of our definition of sociolinguistics) defines what is
generally called THE SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE.

'macro' sociology of language, dealing with the relations between society and languages as wholes. This is an
important area of research from the point of view of sociology (and politics), since it raises issues such as the effects
of multilingualism on economic development and the possible language policies a government may adopt.
Macro' studies generally throw less light on the nature of language than
the more 'micro' ones.

Compiled by Ibad
Sources: Sociolinguistics by R.A Hudson and online resources
Topic 3 Language and Dialect

Very Important Difference Point

Language and 'a language'

Difference between 'Language' and 'a language'
Language refers to a system of communication unique to human beings that makes use of written and
vocal symbols. A language, on the other hand is a subcategory of this type of communication peculiar to
a particular people, region, geographical region or socio-political background. For example, Creole
languages are largely spoken in the Caribbean and Hindi largely spoken in India.
In other words Language refers to the system of human communication and is a more general term than
a language which is a given variety spoken by a given speech community (read country). The distinction
is usually made by capitalizing the 'L' of the more general term.

Speech community
Speech community is a concept in sociolinguistics that describes a distinct group of people who use
language in a unique and mutually accepted way among themselves. This is sometimes referred to as a
Sprechbund(A Sprechbund is a "shared [way] of speaking which [goes] beyond language
boundaries"). The term SPEECH COMMUNITY is widely used by sociolinguists to refer to a community based on
language, but LINGUISTIC COMMUNITY is also used with the same meaning. If speech communities can be delimited,
then they can be studied, and it may be possible to find interesting differences between communities which correlate
with differences in their language. The study of speech communities has therefore interested linguists for some time,
at least since Leonard Bloomfield wrote a chapter on speech communities in his book Language

Compiled by Ibad
Sources: Sociolinguistics by R.A Hudson and online resources
 A. Varieties of language
If one thinks of 'language' as a phenomenon including all the languages of the world, the term VARIETY OF
LANGUAGE (or just VARIETY for short) can be used to refer to different manifestations of it, in just the same way
as one might take 'music' as a general phenomenon and then distinguish different 'varieties of music'. What makes
one variety of language different from another is the linguistic items that it includes, so we may define a variety of
language as a set of linguistic items with similar social distribution.

This definition allows us to call any of the following 'varieties of language': English, French, London English, the
English of football commentaries, the languages used by the members of a particular long-house in the north-west
Amazon, the language or languages used by a particular person. the very general notion 'variety' includesexamples
of what would normally be called languages, dialects and registers (a term meaning roughly 'style'). The advantage
of having a general term to cover all these concepts is that it allows us to ask what basis there is for the distinctions
among them - for instance, why do we call some varieties different languages and others different dialects of the
same language?

Language, Dialect and Standard Language

Types of language variety: 'language', 'dialect' and 'register

What does it mean to say that some variety is a language? This is first of all a question about popular
usage: what do ordinary people mean when they say that some variety is a
language?

Dialect
dialect was borrowed in the Renaissance, as a learned word from Greek. distinction between 'language' and 'dialect'
as due to the influence of Greek culture, since the distinction was developed in Greek because of the existence of a
number of clearly distinct written varieties in use in Classical Greece, each associated with a different area and used
for a different kind of literature.

The meanings of the Greek terms which were translated as 'language' and 'dialect' were in fact quite different
from the meanings these words have in English now. Their equivalents in French are perhaps more similar, since the
French word dialecte refers only to regional varieties which are written and have a literature, in contrast with
regional varieties which are not written, which are called patois.

What then is the difference, for English speakers, between a language and a
dialect?

1. a difference of size
a language is larger than a dialect. That is, a variety called a language contains more items than one called a
dialect. This is the sense in which we may refer to English as a language, containing the sum total of all the
terms in all its dialects, with 'Standard English' as one dialect among many others (Yorkshire English,
Indian English, etc.)

2. a question of prestige,

a language having prestige which a dialect lacks. Standard English (for example, the kind of English used in this
book) is not a dialect at all, but a language, whereas the varieties which are not used in formal writing are dialects.
People in Britain habitually refer to languages which are unwritten(or which they think are unwritten) as dialects, or
'mere dialects', irrespective of whether there is a (proper) language to which they are related.

Standard language(s)

Compiled by Ibad
Sources: Sociolinguistics by R.A Hudson and online resources
It is probably fair to say that the only kind of variety which would count as a 'proper language' (in the second
sense of 'language') is a standard language. Standard languages are interesting in as much as they have a rather
special relation to society. One thinks of normal language development as taking place in a rather haphazard
way, largely below the threshold of consciousness of the speakers, standard languages are the result of a direct
and deliberate intervention by society.

The intervention, called 'standardisation', produces a

standard language where before there were just 'dialects' (in the second sense,
i.e. non-standard varieties).

The Process of Standardization

(1) Selection - somehow or other a particular variety must have been selected as the one to be developed into
a standard language. It may be an existing variety, such as the one used in an important political or
commercial centre, but it could be an amalgam of various varieties. The choice is a matter of great
social and political importance, as the chosen variety necessarily gains prestige and so the people who
already speak it share in this prestige. However, in some cases the chosen variety has been one with no
native speakers at all – for instance, Classical Hebrew in Israel and the two modern standards for
Norwegian (Haugen 1994).

(2) Codification - some agency such as an academy must have written dictionaries and grammar books to 'fix'
the variety, so that everyone agrees on what is correct. Once codification has taken place, it becomes
necessary for any ambitious citizen to learn the correct forms and not to use in writing any 'incorrect' forms
that may exist in their native variety.

(3) Elaboration of function - it must be possible to use the selected variety in all the functions associated with
central government and with writing: for example, in parliament and law courts, in bureaucratic,
educational and scientific documents of all kinds and, of course, in various forms of literature. This
may require extra linguistic items to be added to the variety, especially technical words, but it is also
necessary to develop new conventions for using existing forms – how to formulate examination questions,
how to write formal letters and so on.

(4) Acceptance - the variety has to be accepted by the relevant population as the variety of the community - usually,
in fact, as the national language. Once this has happened, the standard language serves as a strong unifying
force for the state, as a symbol of its independence of other states (assuming that its standard is unique and not
shared with others), and as a marker of its difference from other states. It is precisely this symbolic function
that makes states go to some lengths to develop one.

Important Point
mutual intelligibility: Two varieties. A and B: are the related to same language or two separate languages.

DIALECT CONTINUUM ABCDE….FGHIJ

A chain of adjacent varieties in which each pair of adjacent varieties are mutually intelligible, but pairs taken from
opposite ends of the chain are not. One such continuum is said to stretch from Amsterdam through Germany to
Vienna, and another from Calais to the south of Italy.
Mutual intelligibility is not really a relation between varieties, but between people, since it is they, and not the
varieties, that understand one another. This being so, the degree of mutual intelligibility depends not just on the
amount of overlap between the items in the two varieties, but on qualities of the people

Compiled by Ibad
Sources: Sociolinguistics by R.A Hudson and online resources