Language Variation:

Focus on Users
STEPHEN JAY G. ACAPULCO
 “People often use a language to signal their
membership of particular groups and to
construct different aspects of their social
identity.”

“Social status, gender, age, ethnicity and the

kinds of social networks that people belong to
turn out to be important dimensions of identity
in many communities.”
- HOLMES, J.
EXAMPLE
Telephone rings.
Pat : Hello.
Caller : Hello, is Mark there?
Pat : Yes. Just hold on a minute.
Pat (to Mark) : There’s a rather well-educated young
lady from Scotland on the phone for you.
VARIATION
 “No two people speak exactly the same. There are infinite sources
of variation in speech.”
 Social Practices, Religion, Local Culture, Societal Norms are some
factors that triggers variation.
 Refers to the distinctive form, variety or subcategories of dialect.
These variations are caused by slight to major changes in form and
used due to regional variations, different social class, cultural
influence and social group (majority and minority).
Regional Variation
 Refers to the differences in structure, meaning,
accent and other paralinguistic factors of language
in specific regions where the same language or
dialect is used.
 Each dialect has its own unique set of
characteristics which sets it apart from other
variations of the same language.
Social Variation
 Social Status, Gender, Political and Economic
Classes, Age Groups, Generational Gaps and other
social factors complicates and adds more to these
varieties in language.
High Class and Low Class
Gender & Age
Variations in language caused by differences in
gender and age groups, also as a result of
generational gaps.
Politeness & Archetypes
 Level of politeness changes with the social status
and context of communication.
 Archetypes are general patterns that we can easily
deduce from a certain language or communicative
situation. We make assumptions because a lot of
variations in language often came from a general
form or type.
Language Change
LONG TERM effect of Language Variation
Permanent and frequent alterations made in
the features of language over extended period
of time could cause normalization and
permanent change resulting to another chain
of variation.
Summary
The way you speak is usually a good indicator
of your social background. And there are many
speech features which can be used as clues.
Sociolinguists have found that almost any
linguistic feature in a community which shows
variation will differ in frequency from one
social group to another in a patterned and
predictable way.