Social variations

这是一篇关于Social variations的思维导图，主要内容包括：sociolinguistics，social status，social vs. regional dialect，age。指语言在使用过程中因社会因素（如社会阶层、年龄、性别、种族、职业等）的影响而产生的变异形式。

Social variations

• sociolinguistics
  • Sociolinguistics looks at language in actual use (descriptive) rather than in an idealized version in grammar books and reference tools (prescriptive)
  • Language indexes identity in several way
  • We also perform our identity through language
  • Language is linked to group affiliation
  • The difference between language, dialect, variety, creole, pidgin is more political than linguistic
• social vs. regional dialect
  • regional
    • geographical
  • social
    • speech community 言语共同体
      • Cannot be defined by only language  Social  Cultural  Political  Ethnic etc.
      • people who in habitual contact with each other by means of speech which involves either a shared language variety or shared ways of interpreting the different language varieties used in the area (Mesthrie et al. 2000, P.38)
• social status
  • social variation
    • refers to differences in language use that correlate with social factors such as class, gender, age, ethnicity, or status.
    • standard English
      • e.g. RP (Rceieved Pronunciation)
        • BBC English Queen’s English
        • educated & prestigious
        • Standard Southern British English (modern equivalent)
        • 概要
      • a social dialect used by well-educated English speakers throughout the world, used for news broadcasts and in print, and generally taught in English-medium schools
      • Standard English not an accent (though people associate it with this)  It is not a language  It is not a style  It is not a register (lexis associated with a topic)  Not a set of prescriptive rules  Standard English is a dialect  Greater prestige  Does not have an associated accent  Not part of geographical area  A social dialect
    • non-standard English
      • Everything else!  Lack of acceptance related to race in USA and class in UK  African-American vernacular English (AAVE)  Brummie, Cockney, Scouse  Australian English (until recently)  New Englishes  Singaporean English  Jamaican English  Chinese English
    • levelling 语言平整化
      • reduction of dialect and/or accent variation
        • 1.reduction of variation；2.≠ standardization；3. 发生在密集接触的社群中 e.g.城市化/人口流动
      • e.g. Esturay English (aka new RP)
        • similiar: Cockney
  • social class dialects
    • social class
      • differences in social prestige, wealth and education, can be observed in
        • vocabulary
          • lavatory vs. toilet
        • grammar
          • Rose walks vs. Rose walk
        • pronunciation
          • water
        • sharp stratification
      • status
        • Status is the respect or deference others give to a person, or withhold from them. It reflects social recognition and influence, which may differ from economic wealth.
        • 社会地位（social status）指个体在社会互动中被他人赋予的尊重、服从或认可程度，其高低不必然与经济地位（economic status）一致。
    • Caste dialects 种姓方言
      • e.g. India
        • clear cut social divisions
      • caste systems
        • determined by birth, and strict social rules govern all aspects in one's life
      • social distinction à speech differfence dialectàsocial background
    • William Labov
      • describe how language varies in any community
        • benefit both theoretical understanding and practice guidance, e.g. education
  • variable & variants
    • variable 变异点
      • the language feature that can change
      • many linguistic variables are phonological ones
        • the /t/ variable in water: [t] or [ʔ] ——water vs. wa'er the /h/ variable in house and hospital: [h] or Ø
      • also some syntactic variables, more precisely morphosyntactic variables
        • (s) of the third-person singular： He’s happy； He be happy； He happy
    • variants 变体
      • the specific forms variable can take.
      • distinct variant 明确变体
        • presence/absence
          • 清楚不同的变体，每个变体是明确可识别的，也可能没有使用（zero variant 零变体 Ø）。
        • clearly identifiable form of a linguistic variable
        • e.g.[ŋ] in singing vs. [n] in singin’
      • continuous variant 程度变体
        • a matter of degree rather than discrete choice
        • e.g. vowel nasalisation：the vowel /æ/ in man is more strongly nasalized than the /æ/ in mat, because it occurs before a nasal consonant, showing varying degrees of nasalization rather than a simple nasalized vs. non-nasalized distinction.
    • e.g. singing and singin’the final sound is the linguistic variable (ng), with the two variants [ŋ] and [n].
  • New York City (Labov) the fourth floor
    • criteria——determining the social class of speakers
      • occupation/ education/ Income/ house value
    • investigated the relationship between phonological variation and social class through five variables—(th), (dh), (r), (a), and (o). A key component of the study was the fourth floor department-store experiment, which showed systematic class-based differences in the pronunciation of postvocalic /r/. Labov demonstrated that some variables involve distinct variants, such as the presence or absence of /r/, while others show continuous variation, such as gradual shifts in vowel quality, and that these patterns are closely correlated with social class as measured by education, occupation, and income rather than occurring randomly.
• age
  • age-induced variation in speech
    • pitch and quality of voice
      • gender—— five-year old vs. puberty
      • young vs. old
    • pronunciation
      • /t/-glottalization—— water; bottle
    • vocabulary
      • swear word
      • current slang
  • age and social dialect
    • the use of vernacular forms
      • • The use of vernacular forms varies with age: teenagers use them frequently despite awareness of Standard English middle-aged speakers use them least older retirees tend to revert to vernacular speech
  • age and language change
    • language change 语言变化
      • innovation—— more young speakers
      • disappearing form
        • more older speakers
      • generational shift
    • age-graded variation 年龄分层差异
      • stable forms used differently at different life stages
    • How to distinguish?
      • must first study the distribution of stable forms across the speech community.