SOCIOLINGUISTICS

By Arooj Rana
◦ Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of
society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way
language is used, and society's effect on language

◦ It differs from sociology of language, which focuses on the effect of language

on society.
◦ Language is imbued with and carries social, cultural, and personal meaning.

◦ Through the use of linguistic markers, speakers symbolically define self and
society.

◦ Simply put, language is not merely content; rather, it is something that we do,
and it affects how we act and interact as social beings in the world.
◦ Language is a social product with rich variation along individual, community,
cultural, and societal lines. For this reason, context matters in sociolinguistic
research.

◦ Social categories such as gender, race/ethnicity, social class, nationality, etc.,

are socially constructed, with considerable variation within and among
categories.
◦ The study that is concerned with the relationship between language and the
context in which it is used. In other words, it studies the relationship between
language and society.
◦ It explains we people speak differently in different social contexts. It discusses the
social functions of language and the ways it is used to convey social meaning. All
of the topics provides a lot of information about the language works, as well as
about the social relationships in a community, and the way people signal aspects
of their social identity through their language (Jenet Holmes, 2001)

◦ The study that is concerned with the interaction of language and setting (Carol M.
Eastman, 1975; 113).
◦ the study that is concerned with investigating the relationship between
language and society with the goal of a better understanding of the structure of
language and of how languages function in communication ( Ronald
Wardhaugh, 1986 : 12)

◦ According to Fishman, for instance, socially, the language use involves “Who
speaks, what language, to whom, when and where” (Fishman, 1972)