CHAPTER 2

SOCIOLINGUISTICS
AND
ANTHROPOLINGUISTICS

DR. YESSY OCTAVIANNA, M. PD

1. Definition of Sociology of language is another
Sociolinguistics term used besides
sociolinguistics. Some people
Sociolinguistics is an consider the two terms to be the
interdisciplinary field of science same, but others consider them
consisting of sociology and different. Some argue that the
linguistics, with the word
term is used to call it
"sociolinguistics" indicating that
the word "socio" is the main sociolinguistics because the
component of the study and is a research topic is related to
general characteristic of the field linguistics. On the other hand, if
of science. In this case, linguistics the research topic comes from
is also social because language the field of sociology, the term
itself is social, namely language "sociolinguistics" is used.
and its structure can only develop Fishman used the title
in certain societies. The social Sociolinguistics (1970), but he
aspect of language can only be later changed it to Sociology of
found in certain societies.
Language (1972).
 So, sociolinguistics is more related
to the details of actual language
 The article written by Fishman use, such as descriptions of
in Giglioli (ed. 1972:45-58) does language/dialect usage patterns in
discuss sociolinguistics under a particular culture, the choice of
the title Sociology of Language. language/dialect usage by
He said that "this science speakers, topics, and settings of
examines the interaction conversation, while the sociology
between two aspects of human of language is more related to
behavior: language use and the social factors, which are reciprocal
organization of social with language/dialect. Bram &
behavior". JA Fishman said that Dickey, (ed. 1986:146) stated that
the study of sociolinguistics is sociolinguistics focuses its study on
more qualitative, while the how language functions in society.
study of the sociology of They also stated that
sociolinguistics attempts to explain
language is quantitative.
human ability to use language
rules appropriately in varying
situations.
 The term anthropolinguistics was first
2. Definition of introduced by Sibarani in 1993
Anthropolinguistics (Sibarani 2015:92). At that time, he
had not explicitly defined
anthropolinguistics. However, he
 Sibarani said that language is part called anthropolinguistics an
of a culture that is closely related interdisciplinary field that studies
names and naming as cultural sources,
to thinking (Sibarani; 2004: 46). especially the mental culture that
Seeing Sibarani's view, it can be exists in local communities in naming
said that language here is closely their children. Anthropolinguistics
related to human mental examines the relationship between
language and culture that are related
processes, both internally and to each other. He stated that the term
externally. Internal mental anthropolinguistics is a combination of
processes are human abilities in linguistic anthropology and
processing language related to anthropological linguistics with
thinking abilities. Meanwhile, analogies to sociolinguistics,
psycholinguistics, and neurolinguistics.
external mental processes are So, anthropolinguistics has the same
human abilities in expressing meaning as linguistic anthropology.
their language through culture.
 According to Sibarani (2004:50) Anthropolinguistics has several scopes of
anthropolinguistics is a branch of cultural activities in society that attract the
linguistics that studies the variation attention of anthropolinguists. Duranti
and use of language in relation to the (1997:99) explains that the scope includes
development of time, differences in the basic organization of the relationship
communication places, kinship between sound and meaning expressed by
systems, and other cultural patterns of the use of actual language in various social
an ethnic group. Anthropolinguistics activities; local conceptualization of
focuses on the relationship between language including the characteristics of
language and culture in a society, such newborn and foreign speech; distribution
as the role of language in studying how of language use; cultural features and
family relationships are expressed in significance understood as ritual or
cultural terminology, how a person ceremonial language distinguished from
communicates with others in certain everyday speech; social distribution of
social and cultural activities, and how a different language styles, genres, and
person communicates with people with activities; the extent to which local
theories of language structure and
other cultures, how a person
language use relate to local cosmology;
communicates with others
the role of language socialization in the
appropriately according to their
form of human ideas, thoughts and social
cultural context, and how the language
relations; and interpretation of various
of the community in the past was in
codes in the arrangement of roles and
accordance with the development of
interpretations of society.
their culture.
A. Object of Sociolinguistic Study

The focus of sociolinguistics studies is the language

used between parents and children, bosses and
employees, and teachers and students. This is
because the language used in a particular social
group. The terms used in the kinship system are Objects of
also the subject of sociolinguistic research.
The first sociolinguistics conference held at the Sociolinguistic and
University of California formulated seven (7) topics Anthropolinguistic
that are discussed in sociolinguistics (Aslinda & Study
Syafyahya; 2007: 6). The seven topics are:
1) The speaker's social identity;
2) The social identity of the listeners involved;
3) The social environment in which the speech
event occurs;
4) Synchronic and diachronic analysis of social
dialects;
5) Different social assessments by speakers of
speech form behavior;
6) Levels of language variation and variety;
7) Practical applications of sociolinguistic research.
In studying language, culture and other aspects
of community life, the focus of
anthropolinguistics is emphasized on three
important focuses, namely
1) performance,
2) indexicality, and
3) participation (Duranti 1997:14).
Through the concept of performance, language is
understood as a process of communicative
activities, actions, and performances that require B. Object of
creativity. Language as a lingual element that Anthropolinguistic Study
stores cultural resources cannot be understood
separately from the performance or language
activities.
The concept of indexicality distinguishes signs
into three types, namely index, symbol, and icon.
An index is a sign that indicates that there is a
natural and existential relationship between the
signifier and the signified. The concept of
participation views language as a social activity
that involves speakers and listeners as social
actors.
Performance refers to the domain of human action with particular attention to the
mode of communicative action. Performance is something creative, realized, and
achieved. Performance is a dimension of human life that is usually found in musical
performances, theater, and other public performances that originate from artistic
ability and creativity. Performance in this form is usually found in debate events,
storytelling, singing, and other activities. What the speaker says in the performance is
evaluated according to aesthetic norms, namely how to convey the expression of
beauty or the influence of the performance on participation, where there is the ability
of the actor (performer) to influence participation. However, the idea of ​performance
can also describe what is often found in the most ordinary meetings, when social
actors (actors) show special attention and skill in conveying messages to participants
(Duranti, 2001).

The term indexicality refers to a wide range of context-dependent natural language

utterances, including linguistic phenomena such as regional accents (to index speaker
identity), indicators of linguistic etiquette (marking differences and behavior),
referential use of pronouns (I, you, we, he, etc.), demonstratives (this, that), deictic
place adverbs (here, there, now, then), and time. Indexes can be lingual or nonlingual,
for example through marked transitions in register or dialect. A speaker can index
changes in relevant aspects of his or her identity in a conversational context. A speaker
can address a newcomer by simply turning his or her gaze toward the newcomer.
Participation is a concept used to see that speaking is part of a
larger activity. Participation is a dimension of speaking that
includes the roots of language structure fundamentally, as shown
by activities in unity involving diction and metalingual or
metapragmatics. Anthropolinguists tend to study language used
in face-to-face interactions, such as ceremonial exchanges, speech
performances, narrative performances, jokes, and arguments
(Duranti, 1997:280-81).

Language activities can be understood as activities or aspects of activities that

are limited and directly regulated by rules or norms for the use of language
activities (Hymes 1972a: 56). Examples of these language activities include
lectures, telephone conversations, praying, interviews, and joke lectures. In
these activities, language plays an important role in what is happening, if we do
not speak, then language activities cannot be carried out. On the other hand,
situations in language are activities in which language plays a minor or
subordinate role. Examples of these situations are playing football, walking
with friends, riding a bus, visiting an art gallery.
The Relationship of Sociolinguistics with Other Studies
a) Sociolinguistics with Dialectology
Between sociolinguistics and dialectology studies, a new study can emerge,
namely sociodialectology. This is possible because both have several
similarities. Dialectology is a study that focuses on identifying dialects. The
dialect that is the focus of study in dialectology is a language variation in a
geographically limited area. In sociolinguistics studies, dialects and other
language variations are also discussed. Thus, both studies have a relationship
related to their respective sciences.

b) Sociolinguistics with Pragmatics

Basically, there are many similarities between the two studies. One of the most
prominent is the basic thinking that underlies both studies. When linguists
questioned how language structures relate to their environment, the field of
sociolinguistics emerged. Language is more than language itself. In the same
way as the origins of pragmatics, it will also consider language structures in an
external context. Therefore, it can be said that both sociolinguistics and
pragmatics cannot escape the context of speech outside of language. However,
sociolinguistics focuses more on the environment in which speech or
conversation occurs.
c) Sociolinguistics with Applied Linguistics
Before understanding applied linguistics in depth, a learner should first understand sociolinguistics.
Jendra gives an example in the case of translation, for example (Jendra; 2001: 36). In the process of
translating, the translator needs to understand the existence of "loanwords, loanblends, and
loanshifts". In addition, the translator should also understand the social conditions of the target
language community, so that they do not translate a word only based on meaning, but consider
other things outside of language. Another example of the relationship between sociolinguistics and
applied linguistics is in the learning situation. A good teacher must be able to teach the material to
students well. This can be done by the teacher if they are able to communicate well with their
students. For this reason, the teacher should first understand the existence of language variations
in every communication.

d) Sociolinguistics with Anthropological Linguistics

The relationship between the two studies sometimes causes confusion for
language researchers. Both involve elements outside of language that are part
of society. However, the main lines of the boundaries between the two are
basically quite clear. Sociolinguistics emphasizes its study more on the languages
​that exist in society, both in terms of language use, language variety, language
variation, and the language attitudes of the speakers. Meanwhile,
anthropological linguistics emphasizes the relationship between language and
culture that exist in a community group. In anthropological linguistics, the
language owned by a group is considered capable of reflecting thought patterns,
behavior, and becoming the identity of the existence of that community group.
Benefits of Sociolinguistics

In language teaching in schools, sociolinguistics also plays a big

role. Internal language studies will produce objective descriptive
language studies, in the form of a grammar book. If the internal
study is done descriptively, it will produce a descriptive grammar.
If the study is done normatively, it will produce a normative
grammar book. These two grammar books have different study
results, then if used in language use, they will also have different
problems. If a descriptive grammar book is used in teaching, then
the difficulty is that the language variety that must be taught is
the standard language variety, even though the book also records
the results of non-standard study results. In multilingual countries
such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, India, and the Philippines,
political problems arise in connection with the choice of language
for the purposes of running state administration and national
development.
Sociolinguistics is more related to the details of actual language use, while the
sociology of language is related to social factors that are reciprocal with
language or dialect. Bram and Dickey (in Rokhman, 2002), state that
sociolinguistics focuses on how language functions in society, explaining the
ability of humans to play language rules appropriately in various situations.

The dimensions of the problems discussed in sociolinguistics are:

(1) the social identity of the speaker,
(2) the social identity of the listener involved in the communication process,
(3) the social environment where the speech event occurs, where the speech
event occurs, whether in a busy public place or in a room where someone is
praying,
(4) synchronic and diachronic analysis of social dialects, dialect choice related
to the social status of the user,
(5) different social assessments by speakers and speech form behavior,
(6) the level of linguistic variation and variety, and
(7) practical application of sociolinguistic research (see Dittmar 1976:128).