Selasa, 03 Oktober 2017

Sociolinguistic (Language, Dialects and Varieties)

1.      INTRODUCTION

Unless a human being has a physical or mental disability, he or she will be born with the capacity for language: the innate ability to speak a language, or in the case of someone who is deaf, to sign a language (i.e. use gestures to communicate). This capacity does not involve any kind of learning – a young child, for instance, does not need to be taught to speak or sign – and occurs in predictable stages, beginning with the babbling cries of an infant and culminating in the full speaking abilities of an adult.
Language is tool you use, readmore : 
Language is many things; it can be a system of communication, a medium for thought, vehicle for literary expression, a matter for political controversy, a catalyst for nation building (O’Grady & Dobrovolsky, 1989: 1 in Imansyah, 2008: 1).
The existence of language can’t be separated from human life. It can be seen from the fact that all activities related to interaction among people necessitate a language. Language is an important means of communication. Language reflects thinking; obviously we can’t say a sentence until we have first thought of it. Often our thinking gets mixed with emotions and our reasons become loaded with desires, wishes, prejudices, and opinions. The kind of thinking we do is our business until we try to persuade someone else to agree to our point of view; then that thinking becomes another’s business (Meade, et.al, 1961: 94).
And here we will try to explain varieties, dialect, style and register in sociolinguistics


2.      DISCUSSION


1.1.Language, Dialect, And Varieties

Speakers have various ways of saying the same thing. It may arise from the mechanical limitations of the speech organs for instance speaker may not be fully under the speaker’s control. The choice of linguistically elements is done by consciously or unconsciously. Two or more distinct but linguistically equivalent variants represent the existence of a linguistic variable (Llamas et al., 2007). Linguistic variable is linguistic unit or a sociolinguistic has variant in lexical and grammatical, but are most often phonological.  For instance British English is (h) which stands for the presence or absence of /h/ in words such as hammer, house and hill. Chicano English the levelling of past tense be in ‘We was there,’ (Llamas et al., 2007). Speakers in Aberdeen, north-east Scotland may choose between the terms boy, loon, loonie, lad or laddie when referring to a young male person, or between quine, quinie, lass, lassie, or girl in reference to a young female. Different words refer to the same things; therefore we can conclude that each language has a number of varieties (Wardhaugh, 2006).
The terms of variety language are emerged due to different systems reflecting different varieties of the human condition. Variety is a specific set of ‘linguistic items’ or ‘human speech patterns’ (presumably, sounds, words, grammatical features, etc.) which we can connect with some external factor apparently, a geographical area or a social group (Hudson, 1996; Ferguson, 1972 and Wardhaugh, 2006). Languages can be at variance in lexical, grammatical, phonological and other ways depends on different social, geographical and other circumstances determine what elements will be needed and, therefore developed, and for that reason sociolinguistics believe that such unique sets of items or patterns do exist (Wardhaugh, 2006).

1.2. Language and Dialect
            Wardhaugh (2006) distinguish the terms language and dialect as follow:Lower part of variety language is dialect and as the main part is language, therefore we can say that Texas English and Swiss German are dialects of English and German. Some languages have more than one dialect for instance English are spoken in various dialects. Language and dialect can be the same when language was spoken by a few people and has only one variety but some expert say it is unsuitable to say dialect and language is the same because the requirement of lower part can’t be found. We can say also Dialect A, B, C and so on is the part of language X because it is spoken by many varieties dialect A,B,C. Edward (2009) also define dialect as a variety of a language that differs from others along three dimensions: vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation (accent) Because they are forms of the same language. He states also dialects are mutually unintelligible. Indeed language is major part of dialect. The others dialect that is mutually unintelligible for example Dutch and German speaker can’t understand each other even basically both of them have same language, another example is mandarin and Cantonese, Thai and Lao, Hindi and Urdu, Serbia and Croatian etc. Wardhaugh (2006) also distinguish the term vernacular and term Koine. Vernacular is the speech passed down from parent to child as primary mode of communication and Koine is speech shared by people of different vernaculars. UNESCO in Mesthrie (2001) define also vernacular as a language which is the mother tongue of a group which is socially or politically dominated by another group speaking a different language. Vernacular traditionally viewed as the mother tongue of a speaker, the vernacular refers to non-standard varieties often recognized to stand in contrast with the standard variety (Llamas et al., 2007). Koine In a broad, it refers to any common or widely shared variety of language. A narrower definition refer to a variety of a language, normally showing mixing, levelling and simplification, which develops as a result of rapid population movement and mixing of speakers of different dialects in a new community. The term 'koine' originates from Greek word for 'common' (Mesthrie, 2001).
7 criteria of language
1. Standardization: Codification of language: grammars, spelling books, dictionaries, literature. It is possible to teach. To make standardization, it require choosing one elite vernacular and it can be prestigious 
2. Vitality            : the existence of a living community of speakers.
3. Historicity       : a particular group of people finds their identity by using a particular language
4. Autonomy     : Other speakers of a language must be felt different from other languages
5. Reduction        : particular variety may be regarded as a sub-variety rather than as an independent entity.
6. Mixture            : Feelings about the purity or lack of purity of variety
7. De facto norms: speakers recognize as ‘good’ speakers and ‘poor’ speakers and that the good speakers represent the norms of proper usage.
The concepts of ‘power’ and ‘solidarity’ such as status, money, influence, togetherness feeling can lead people to preserve a local dialect

1.3. Regional Dialect
Certain differences from geographical area one to another in pronunciation, in the selecting and constructing of words, and in syntax of a language such distinctive varieties of local variety are called regional dialects (Wardhough, 2006). The study that investigates different varieties on the basis of clusters of similar and different features in particular regions, towns or villages is called regional dialectology (Edward, 2009). It is quite interesting that the discriminations respondents make in exercises like the Map drawing task and the accent-ordering task are often similar to the discriminations linguists make between varieties. All people in the same place can talk to each other and for the most part understand each other. Yet not two speak exactly alike. Some differences are due to the age, sex, state of health, size, personality, emotional state, and personal idiosyncrasies.Beyond these individual differences, the language of a group of people may show regular variations from that used by other groups of speaker of that language. When the English of speaker in different geographical regions and from different social groups shows systemic differences, the groups are said to speak different dialects of the same language. The dialect of a single language may thus be defined as mutually intelligible forms of a language that differ in systemic ways from each other.


.Dialect geography is the term used to describe attempts made to map the distributions of various linguistic features so as to show their geographical provenance.  Now we go to Dialect vs. Accent section. Dialect is the variety of vocabulary, syntax, pronunciation. Accent is variety only in pronunciation. Accent also well-known as RP (receive pronunciation). Standard English as the prestige dialect of British English, prescribed in official and formal settings and approved for writing in the education system. RP is standard accent which can be taught and it is prestigious. British accent is preferred one to teach because it is lack a regional association within England. It is also known as BBC, Oxford, Queen English, and being Standard English in England. It tends to be spoken by educated speakers regardless of geographical origin.

1.4.  Social dialect.
             Social dialect is difference speech associate with various social groups. Social dialects create among social groups and are related to a variety of factors such as social class, religion, and ethnicity. In India, for example, caste is one of the clearest of all social differentiators. Branch of linguistic study that linguistically city characterized is called social dialectology  
Sociolect, defined by Peter Trudgill, a leading sociolinguist and philosopher, is “a variety which is thought of as being related to its speakers’ social background rather than geographical background”. This idea of sociolect began with the commencement of Dialectology, the study of different dialects in relation to social society, which has been established in countries such as England for many years, but only recently has the field garnered more attention. However, as opposed to dialect, the basic concept of a sociolect is that a person speaks in accordance with their social group whether it is with regard to one’s ethnicity, age, gender, etc. As William Labov once said, “the sociolinguistic view…is that we are programmed to learn to speak in ways that fit the general pattern of our communities”. Therefore, what we are surrounded with in unison with our environment determines how we speak; hence, our actions and associations.


 Ethnic group in USA AAVE (African American Vernacular English), also known as Ebonics, Black English (BE), Black English Vernacular (BEV) show hyper corrective tendencies in that they tend to overdo certain imitative behaviors freely use the habitual form of misapplication rules. Hyper correction is the overgeneralization of linguistic forms which carry obvious social prestige often through the misapplication of rules (e.g. allows deletion ‘They are going’ can become‘They going’ and dog pronounce as the vocal of book : dug).


1.5. Style, Register, and Belief
            'style' relates to the typical ways in which one or more people do a particular thing. Style in language behavior thus becomes alternative ways of expressing the same content. Style is the way speakers speak, the speaker also can make a choice weather informal and formal, it depends on circumstance and the age and social group of participant (Wardhaugh, 2006).
Registers refer to particular ways of using language in particular settings within that community. Register is a set of linguistic items were associated with discrete occupational and social groups. Surgeons, airline pilots, bank managers, sales clerks, jazz fans, and pimps employ different registers, they develop similar vocabulary and intonation  we also talk about dialect, register, and style independently, we may talk casually in local variety of language, write formal technical study and also making judgment “better or worse” to speaker who has the same background. And about belief is systems of ideas or ideology, some people believed that certain language is lack of grammar, we can speak English without accent. Also English is believed false language; pronunciation is based on spelling, and slipping language. The representations of belief can operate the interests of an identifiable social class or cultural group. This tendency will create language behavior and attitude by several group of people act or behave toward language differently and sociolinguist should strive for understanding how people behave toward language and linguistic feature rely on person as being particular place, a social class members, and specific profession

3. CONCLUSION

            Variety is a language that has same sounds, words, grammatical features. A general term for any distinctive form of a language or linguistic expression is Language varieties. Linguists commonly use language variety, as a cover term for any of the overlapping subcategories of a language, including dialect, idiolect, register, and social dialect.
Dialect refers to a variety of a language that can signal the speaker’s regional or social background, dialects are subdivisions of language, the term of dialect refers to grammar and vocabulary (or lexis).
Dailect is divided into two, social dialect and regional dialect. Regional dialect refers to a place, and social dialect refers to social groups and classes.
Style relates to the typical ways in which one or more people do a particular thing, and Registers can simply be described as variations of the language according to its use, while the dialect as a language variation based on users registers on this concept is not limited to the choice of words (such as the notion registers in the traditional theory) but also includes the choice of the use of text structure, and texture.













References

Edward (2009). Language and Identity: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press: New York
Wardhaugh R. (2006). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics Fifth Edition. Blackwell Publishing: Australia



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