Cours 6 : Social class Flashcards
social class
hierarchical ordering of groups within a society, especially in terms of power, wealth and status
in sociolinguistics, social class allows us to distinguish sociolects as opposed to regional dialects
> boundaries VS permeability
social mobility
class mobility means that class systems are arguably not as rigid
underlying hypothesis that language is inherently constitutive of one’s identity
> partly determines our social class
Indian castes = class immobility
speaker’s network
accommodation
profession
education level
speaker’s aspirations
neighbourhood
intuitive sociolingstic competence
any native speaker assumes certain facts about other speakers based on the variety they speak
variation in speech communities
there is more regional variation in the lower classes than the higher classes, as a result of increased mobility
stratification
it occurs when a variant displays a systematic pattern based on social class
factors can be of various kind : age, gender, social class…
NYC graph on social class and language variation
as monitoring goes down, people use the standard English variation less
the trend is socially stratified, and the pattern of variation is socially stratified (if we have X pattern, we belong to X group)
the more formal the situation, the more monitoring is needed, because it is a question of style
Norwich graph of social class and stratification
as monitoring goes down, the variation changes
this trend is stratifically motivated
there is a greater distance between the upper and lower classes, so we have a broader stratification
crossover effect
parallel regular monotonic trends are unproblematic. however, when strata (different social classes) cross each other, something is happening : the crossover effect
> strata breaks down and one group jumps over another, typically in highly monitored speech
crossover effect for rhoticity in NYC
we know that the non-pronounced /r/ is associated with the LMC. but the LMC sociolect shows the highest percentage of the Standard variant when monitoring levels are low in a casual context
they are trying to be more socially mobile by using language proactively. they use the Standard form in order to go against the social stratification and claim a spot in the higher layers linguistically (social belonging)
why does the lower-middle class leads language evolution ?
because they are the ones that are trying their hardest to change their social class, and are the most likely to change their social class
> lower classes don’t bother, because they feel they cannot change their social class
why should language making capacity lead language change ?
there is more potential for upward social mobility
driving socially triggered changes
