12/10/2009 Copyright Mats Deutschmann PhD

12/10/2009 Copyright Mats Deutschmann PhD

English C: Linguistics

Part 2: Sociolinguistics

Lecture 1/4: Overall Framework

Reading reference: Peter Stockwell 2002: Sociolinguistics: A Resource Book for Students, Part A. pp 1-25. Routledge: London.

3

Overview

• Scope: What is Sociolinguistics?

• Methodological Issues

• Key Concepts

– Accent and Dialect

– Register and Style

– Ethnicity and Multilingualism

– Social Class

– Gender

– Age

– Pidgins and Creoles

– Politeness

What is Sociolinguistics

• Description of language taking the social context into consideration

• Assumptions

– All language events have a social context

– The social context determines the form of the language

– The language used determines the nature of a social event

Methodological Issues

• The object of investigation

– Credible object,

– regular feature,

– that it is possible to investigate,

– that it can be described systematically

• Data- methodological issues

– Qualitative vs. quantitative data

– Covert vs. overt collection (observer’s paradox)

– Sampling methods – representative samples

• Social variable – linguistic variable