chapter 1 - language & society
TRANSCRIPT
-
7/31/2019 Chapter 1 - Language & Society
1/13
-
7/31/2019 Chapter 1 - Language & Society
2/13
WHAT IS LANGUAGE??
A. Language may refer eitherto the specifically human
capacity for acquiring andusing complex systems of
communication, or to a specific
instance of such a system of
complex communication. The
scientific study of language in
02
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communicationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communicationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human -
7/31/2019 Chapter 1 - Language & Society
3/13
03 WHAT IS LANGUAGE??
B. Language is a system ofconventional spoken or written
symbols by means of whichhuman beings, as members of a
social group and participants in its
culture, express themselves. Thefunctions of language include
communication, the expression of
identit la ima inative
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/275376/human-beinghttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/551247/social-grouphttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/146289/culturehttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/129024/communicationhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/129024/communicationhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/146289/culturehttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/551247/social-grouphttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/275376/human-being -
7/31/2019 Chapter 1 - Language & Society
4/13
04 WHAT IS SOCIETY??
A society or a human societyis a group of people related to
each other through persistentrelations, or a large social
grouping sharing the same
geographical or virtual territory,
subject to the same political
authority and dominant cultural
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpersonal_relationshiphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpersonal_relationship -
7/31/2019 Chapter 1 - Language & Society
5/13
RELATION BETWEEN
LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY05
What features of society affect
language? How do they do so?Any important aspect of socialstructure and function is likely to have
a distinctive linguistic counterpart.People belong to different socialclasses, perform different social rles,
and carry on different occupations
-
7/31/2019 Chapter 1 - Language & Society
6/13
RELATION BETWEEN
LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY06
Features of society affecting language useand response may be (more or less):
Static: e.g. ethnicity, gender, classbackground
Changing: e.g. education, age, social
environment, attitudes and fashions Situational/contextual: e.g. immediatesocial situation (workplace, home,recreation, peer group, perceivedformality of situation)
-
7/31/2019 Chapter 1 - Language & Society
7/13
RELATION BETWEEN
LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY07
Language incorporates social values.
What is of value to society isincorporated into language to producestandards, ideals and goals. Society
changes when that which is of value tsociety changes. Social changesproduce changes in language.
-
7/31/2019 Chapter 1 - Language & Society
8/13
RELATION BETWEEN
LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY08
In times of stability the dynamic
structure of consciousness is put onhold, so linguistic values and socialvalues are one.
Language contains traditional values this is what is implied in the ideas ofsocial conditioning and social learning.
-
7/31/2019 Chapter 1 - Language & Society
9/13
RELATION BETWEEN
LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY09
Ronald Wardhaugh (1986)in his book AnIntroduction to Sociolonguistics presents thehypotheses involved in the study of therelationship between language and society :
Society influences the linguistic phenomenon.
Linguistic phenomenon influences the society Society and language together dialecticallyinfluence the linguistic phenomenon.
The process is reciprocal: language use is bothcause and effect of things in society.
-
7/31/2019 Chapter 1 - Language & Society
10/13
10
CHARACTERISTICS
OF
LANGUAGE
-
7/31/2019 Chapter 1 - Language & Society
11/13
CHARACTERISTICS OF
LANGUAGE11
1. Language is a system: it has different linguisticlevels (phonological, related to phonemes,intonation and rhythm; lexical semantic, whichhave to do with lexis, that is, the words, andtheir meaning (semantics); syntactical, that is,the rules of grammar; discourse, written
language; conversation, that is, thecharacteristics of spoken discourse (turn-taking,use of words, etc.); sociolinguistic (socialfactors, such as educational level, age, ethnic,
sex, etc.);
-
7/31/2019 Chapter 1 - Language & Society
12/13
CHARACTERISTICS OF
LANGUAGE12
2. language is dynamic: it changes constantly;words and meanings may even vary from onegeneration to the other (cf. "cool" and "hot");
3. dialects (language regional variation): varietiesof the same language (such as English) are
spoken in the same country (Southern English vs.Northern English); there are also differencesbetween countries (USA, UK, New Zealand,Australia, etc.) and different dialects as well
(India, etc.);
-
7/31/2019 Chapter 1 - Language & Society
13/13