Langauge and Dialect, Part 1 Flashcards
(15 cards)
Dialect (societal definition)
a type pf pseudo-language spoken byuneducated or country people
Dialect (linguistic definition)
a variety of language that is shared by a group of speakers
no idea of a good or bad dialect
General ideas and misconceptions of societal definition of dialect
-Only the speech of socially disfavored groups is a dialect
-Dialect is commonly conceived as a corrupt form of the “correct” language. It’s derived from the “correct” form
-In reality, children acquire the speech of their communities they don’t intentionally try to speak that way
-dialects are often perceived as lacking grammatical rules. In reality, are dialects are governed by rules
What is the standard variety of a langauge?
The standard variety is just one dialect of th language and for a variety of social and historical reasons this dialect becomes the standard
Characteristics of standrad languages
- Selection: the dialect of the ruling or most influential class is adopted as the standard
- Literacy: acquires a written form
- Standardization: a grammar that provides the rules of the language
- Authoritative dictionary such as the Oxford English Dictionary
- Spelling/writing is fixed: if there are competing grammatical or spelling forms, one is adopted as correct and the other(s) are deemed incorrect
- A “correct” pronunciation
- Public life: taught in schools, used on courts
Associations of prestige vs substandard dialects
prestige dialects: high education, sophistication, intelligence
substandrad dialects: ignorance, lack of education, laziness
What does language vary according to?
geography, social class, political ideology, age, gender, sexual orientation, situation, time
Geographic Variations
-words vary by geographic location
E.g. soda vs coke vs pop
E.g. loo (british) vs bathroom (american)
African American Vernacular English (AAVE) Features
*variation based on race and ethnicity
-double negatives
-be deletion
“Be” Deletion
AAVE does be-deletion in the context where Standard English can do contraction of be
*Can’t do be deletion whenever you want
e.g. They’re mine vs They mine
*Eckert study
*variation based on social status
Study of suburban high school in Detroit, focusing on two social groups
Jocks: middle class background, establishment, extracurricular activities, school-based social life
Burnouts: working class background, local friend, intended to stay after high school
Eckert study results
Correlation between social groups and negative concord
Class based variation in Norwich
H-deletion: use of h deletion decreases as social class increases
Where do judgements and notions of correctness come from?
-Educational systems: which teach “correct” and “incorrect” grammar
-Government: only standard form is used in official govt, business, etc.
-Social class: speakers often correlate linguistic properties with social variables
Singapore “Singlish” Case Study
-Singapore has many languages - English used in schools and govt
-uses many disocurse particles that don’t have direct semantic meaning but serve pragmatic function (lah, meh, what), indicate speakers attitude
-American English has discourse partiucle, like you know
-Singlisg is strongly stigmatized
