LANGUAGE CHOICE (S1)

Kinds of language choice, social factors, dimensions

Kinds of choice

Language choice whole languages. A person who speaks 2 or more languages has to choose which one to choose is sometimes called CODE-SWITCHING (Greenfield, 1972, Sankoff 1980). Where pieces of language are used while a speaker basically using another language, this is called CODE-MIXING. One criterion that is sometimes offered to distinguish switching from mixing is that grammar of the clause determines the language. If words taken BORROWING. Variation of the same language (intra-language variation) : accent (ex. Welsh accented English) and Received Pronunciation). Language choice happens in monolingual and bilingual societies. Orthographic and pronunciation may be used as criteria for borrowing from switching.

SOCIOLOGY : DOMAIN ANALYSIS.

Joshua Fishman (1964, 1965, 1968) : domains are taken to be constellation of factors, such as location, topic, and participants. Fishman : 5 domains : home, beach, church, school, and work place. Parasher (1980) 7 domains: (1) family, (2) friendship, (3) neighborhood, (4) transactions, (5) education, (6) government, (7) employment. situations. Ex, friendship domain is composed into 5 situations: conversing with friend and acquaintances people at clubs and social gatherings introducing friends to others discussing personal problems with friends/colleagues arguing with friends/colleagues in heated discussions. Sociologists : individual motivation rather than social structures (personcentered not society centered.)

DOMAIN OF LANGUAGE USE

Domain Family
Friendship
Addressee

Setting Topic
Planning a family party

Variety/code

Parent Home Friend Beach

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How to play beach volley Religion Priest Church Choosing the Sunday liturgy Education Teacher School Solving a maths
problem

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DIGLOSSIA
Three

criteria of diglossia : 2 distinct varieties of the same language are used in a community, with one regarded as H variety and the other L variety. Each variety is used dor quite distinct functions; H and L complement each other. No one uses the H in everyday conversation.

Choice of H or L
Religion

(sermon, prayers) Literature (novel, non fiction) Newspaper (editorial) Broadcasting : TV news Education :written materials, lectures. Education : lesson discussion Broadcasting : radio Shopping Gossiping

SOCIAL FACTORS
Social factors are relevant for in accounting for
the particular variety used. Some relate to the users of language the participants; others relate to its uses the social setting and function of the interaction. Who is talking to whom (e.g. wife-husband, costumer shop-keeper, boss worker). The setting or social context (e.g. home, school, work). The topic has proved an influence on language choice

COMPONENTS WHICH INFLUENCE LINGUISTIC CHOICE

1.The participants : who is speaking and
who are they speaking to ? 2. The setting or social context of the interaction :where are they speaking ? 3. The topic : what is being talked about ? 4. The function : why are they speaking ?

SOCIAL DIMENSIONS
4 different dimensions for analysis : 1. A social distance scale concerned with
participant relationships. 2. A status scale concerned with participant relationships. 3. A formality scale relating to the setting or type of interaction. 4. Two functional scales relating to the purposes or topic of interaction.

THE SOLIDARITY SOCIAL DISTANCE SCALE

Intimate --------------------- Distant High solidarity Low solidarity The scale is useful in emphasizing that how well we know someone is a relevant factor in linguistic choice. STATUS SCALE superior high status | | | subordinate low status This scale points to the relevance of relative status in some linguistic choices. Ex. The choice of sir Sams [h] dropping reflected his lower social group status in the society and the opposite is Jim. In formal transaction as one with the bank manager in his office or at a ritual service in church, the language used will be influenced by the formality of the setting. For friendly chat, people use colloquial language.

THE REFERENTIAL AND AFFECTIVE FUNCTION SCALES

Referential High------------------------------ Low information information content content Affective Low ------------------------------ High Affective affective Content content The two functions identified in these scales are particularly pervasive (dpt menembus) dan mendasar. Language can convey objective information of a referential kind; and it can also express how someone is feeling. Rays utterance : Yeah that bastard Soothbucket kept us in again simultaneously expresses both information about why he is late, and also conveying his feeling about his teacher. The gossip ---- a great deal of new information + feeling about those referred to. The more referentially oriented an interaction, the less it tends to express the feelings of the speaker. Ex. The weather forecast

THE STEPS WHICH NEED TO BE TAKEN IN PROVIDING AN EXPLANATION

1. to identify clearly the linguistic variation involved (e.g. vocabulary, sounds, grammatical construction, dialects, languages) 2. to identify clearly the different social or non-linguistic factors which lead speakers to use one form rather than another (e.g. features relating to participants, setting or function of the interaction). First : what are the linguistic forms used in this village ? Second, what are the social factors which lead people to use one set of forms rather than the other ? And finally: can we explain why particular social factors lead to the use of one set of forms rather than another ?