SOCIOLINGUISTICS -
LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY
WHAT IS SOCIOLINGUISTICS?
• Have you ever thought about how language functions in society? The way we talk with different people in different
situations is different. For example, the manner in which we talk with our parents at home may be different from the
manner in which we talk with them outside the home. The way we use language in different social contexts provides a lot
of information about both how language works and the social relationships in a community. It also throws light on the way
people indicate their social identity through their language. Look at the example given below which is a conversation
between a husband and a wife, when their daughter is around.
• Hari : Hi Dear!
Sita : Hi! You are late.
Hari : Yeah, that idiot boss didn’t let me come.
Sita : The baby is here.
Hari : Oh Sorry. Where is she?
• What social message did you get from this conversation? Hari would not have used such
strong language while talking about his boss if he knew his daughter was around. It
matters who can hear us and where we are talking. The same message may be conveyed
differently to different people. In this unit we will explore different aspects of language
use in society. First, let us begin by examining what sociolinguistics is.
WHAT IS SOCIOLINGUISTICS?
• When we talk of sociolinguistics, two terms catch our attention i.e. “Socio” or “pertaining to
society” and “linguistics or “pertaining to language”. A layman can guess that sociolinguistics has
something to do with language and society. Technically, sociolinguistics is the branch of linguistics
that deals with the study of language in relation to society. Language and society are like hand and
glove. They are inter related as language can’t exist without society. Sociolinguistics can throw
much light both on the nature of language and the nature of society. We talk in different styles in
different social contexts. Let us take an example of Hari when he talks with his boss in the office.
• Hari : Good afternoon, sir.
Boss : There is a meeting at 7.00pm, I want you to be around. Hari : Yes sir, I will surely be here.
• This response reflects Hari’s awareness of the social factors which influence the choice of
appropriate ways of speaking in different social contexts. Sociolinguistics is concerned
with the relationship between language and the context in which it is used.
WHAT IS SOCIOLINGUISTICS?
• The term sociolinguistics can be defined as the study of language in relation to society. It 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.
Historically, it is closely related to linguistic anthropology, and the distinction between the
two fields has been questioned. It also studies how language varieties differ between groups
separated by certain social variables e.g., ethnicity, religion, status, gender, level of
education, age, etc. Furthermore, it focuses on various aspects such as how creation and
adherence to these rules is used to categorize individuals in social or socioeconomic classes.
WHAT IS SOCIOLINGUISTICS?
• Sociolinguists study the relationship between language and society. They are interested in
explaining why we speak differently in different social contexts, and they are concerned
with identifying the social functions of language and the ways it is used to convey social
meaning. Examining the way people use language in different social contexts provides a
wealth of information about the way language works, as well as about the social
relationships in a community, and the way people convey and construct aspects of their
social identity through their language
• Sociolinguistics, like other subjects, is partly theoretical and partly empirical. What we mean by
that is we can’t just sit back and think about various aspects of language use. In other words, we
can’t solely rely on our personal experiences and draw conclusions about the use of
language in society. (We need to study the language).
• First, because the way we interpret our own experience might not be right since most of us are
not consciously aware of the wide range of variations in speech we hear in our everyday lives.
• And second, personal experiences are a very limited source to generalize about language in
society or different societies. We need to go out, explore, collect the data, analyze it, make
interpretations and then reach to a conclusion.
• As far as ‘Armchair approach' in sociolinguistics is concerned, it is based on the facts
collected in a systematic way as part of a research or simply based on one's own
experience. It allows the beginnings of an analytical framework to be worked out, such as
language (a body of knowledge or rules), speech (actual utterances), speaker, addressee,
topic and so on. ‘Armchair approach' can be termed as dangerous for two reasons if, it is
applied to personal experience alone. Firstly, the most of us are not consciously aware of
the vast range of variations in speech which we hear and react to in our everyday lives.
Secondly, personal experience is a very limited base from which to generalize about
language in society,
• To be precise, sociolinguists study the relationship between language and society. They
explore the social function of the language and the way it is used to convey the meaning.
Sociolinguists explain why we speak differently in different social contexts. According to
Fishman sociolinguists are interested in knowing “who speaks, which language to whom
and when”. To elaborate what Fishman has said, it matters to sociolinguists;
• a ) who the speaker is, what his role in society is;
b) which language he/she is using, whether it is formal or informal, dialect or standard;
c) who the listener is, whether he/she is a boss, a peer or a subordinate, a father, a mother,
a sibling, or a child;
d) when people are speaking, what the situation is, whether it is outside the office or in
the office, at home or outside the home, in a meeting or at a party.
• For example: Look at the following conversation:
Salesperson: May I help you?
Karan: Yes. Do you have these shoes in size seven?
Salesperson: I'm not sure. If you can't find them on the rack, they may be out of stock. But let me look in the stockroom.
• Karan: Thanks. I'd like to try on a pair if you have them.
• Salesperson: I'll be right back.
• Karan walks into a shoe store. She wants to buy a pair of new shoes for herself.... What is the setting given above? Do you
think we follow some social norms when we use language in real life situations be it with friends, parents, elders, seniors or
colleagues? There is a difference in the way we speak to our friends and the way we speak to our relatives, teachers, or others
of professional status. When telling your friend that you like his/her shirt , you say : “ Cool shirt, I like that!” When telling the
friend of your elder brother/sister that you like his/her shirt, you say: “You look very nice today, I really like that shirt.”
HISTORY OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS
• William Labov is often regarded as the founder of the study of sociolinguistics. He is especially famous for
introducing the quantitative study of language variation and change, making the sociology of language into a
scientific discipline. Sociolinguistics has become a recognised part of most of the courses on 'linguistics' or
'language' offered at university level.
• Sociolinguistics is indeed one of the main growth points in the study of language from the perspectives of both
teaching and research. There are major English-language journals devoted to research publications which
include:
• Language in Society
• Language Variation and Change
• International Journal of the Sociology of Language
SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND LINGUISTICS
• You might wonder how sociolinguistics is different from linguistics. Linguistics makes us aware of the
structure of language whereas sociolinguistics tells us how we interact with each other using that structure
in everyday situations. Dell Hymes (1974) has drawn a distinction between the structural and functional
approaches to the study of language. The structural approach, as the term indicates focuses on the
structure of language (code) and the analysis of code is given the primary importance. On the other hand,
the functional approach focuses on the functional aspect of language i.e. its use in society. The analysis of
language use is given primary importance and the analysis of code is secondary. The linguist analyzes the
language out of context whereas the sociolinguist analyzes the language as is used in social context. In
brief we can say, linguistics is the study of language, primarily the structure of language. Sociolinguistics,
is the study of the use of language at different levels and for different purposes and different functions.
SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND THE SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE
• Sociolinguistics is defined as the study of language in relation to society whereas the
sociology of language is defined as the study of society in relation to language. The goals
of sociolinguistics and those of the sociology of language are different. Hudson (1980)
differentiates between sociolinguistics and the sociology of language as follows:
sociolinguistics is “the study of language in society, whereas the sociology of language is
“the study of society in relation to language”.
• The focus of the two fields is different. In sociolinguistics we study society i.e. the
context of language use to know more about the language and in the sociology of
language we study language use to know more about society. A sociolinguist refrains
from drawing conclusions about society and in the same way a sociologist prefers to
ignore any discoveries related to language. No doubt, there is a difference between
sociolinguistics and the sociology of language but the main difference is basically that of
emphasis. It depends on whether the investigator is more interested in language or in
society, and also on whether he has more skills in analyzing linguistic or social structures.
SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND RELATED DISCIPLINES
• Not only linguists and sociolinguists are interested in the study of language in society but also
researchers from a variety of other disciplines like anthropologists, psychologists, educators, language
planners, etc. are interested in unfolding the mystery of language.
• For example, anthropologists have explored the kinship systems and some psychologists are
concerned with the possible effects of linguistic structure on social and psychological behavior. Many
educators are involved in language planning, development of language and teaching of the standard
language. If we ask both linguists and sociolinguists to analyze a construction “Shut up”, their
approach to analysis will be different. A linguist will say it is an imperative sentence in which we can
drop a subject. On the other hand, a sociolinguist will say it is a sentence used as a directive for giving
a command and will give the norms of its usage in society.
ANALYZE THE PIECE OF CONVERSATION
• given below on linguistic and sociolinguistic grounds. What difference do you find in the
two approaches to analysis?
Sanjay: Poornima, can you come to a meeting on Friday?
• Poornima: I am not sure. Let me check my schedule. When are you having it?
• Sanjay: We are planning on having it around noon. Poornima: Let me get back to you in a
few minutes.
• Sanjay: Sure. If I am not in, could you leave a message on my answering machine?
Poornima: Sure thing.
DISCUSSION
• You can think about the relationship between the two speakers, their roles and the
situation in which the conversation has taken place. Also, whether the speaker is making a
request or fixing an appointment, or making an invitation. This would be a sociolinguistic
orientation to the analysis of the conversation. On the other hand if we analyse it from the
linguistic point of view, we will be looking at the sentenc types and structures used by the
two speakers.
THE GOALS OF THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE IN
THE SOCIO-CULTURAL CONTEXT
• D. Hymes (in a 1972 address at a Georgetown Round Table Conference):
• The three important goals of sociolinguistics are
• a. Social as well as linguistic:
• practical goals (education, minority group policies, etc.) To pursue these practical goals one need not
challenge mainstream linguistics.
• b. Socially realistic linguistics:
• • challenges existing linguistic theories by drawing data from the speech community itself; • it typically
addresses traditional linguistic problems such as the nature of linguistic rules, sound change, etc.
• Socially constituted linguistics:
• Social functions give forms to the ways in which linguistic features are encountered in actual life.
• It must begin by identifying social functions; • it is concerned with social context in relation to
language (= part of communicative conduct and social action).
• • it strives toward a ‘theory of language’ instead of a ‘theory of grammar’
• ‘THEORY OF LANGUAGE:’ studies the use of utterances within a communicative situation
inseparable from its social context. The phenomena of social order are systematically incorporated
into the linguistic analysis; priority is given to the social over the linguistic; social functions determine
the distribution of linguistic forms.
