Introduction to

Sociolinguistics
Assoc. Prof.
Dr. Mardziah Hayati Abdullah

mardziah@fbmk.upm.edu.my
03-89468718
 Recommended reference texts

 Module – being updated

 Bernard Spolsky (2001). Sociolinguistics. 2nd
ed. London: Longman.
 Holmes, J. (2001). An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics. 2nd ed. London: Longman.
 Wardhaugh, R. (1998). An Introduction to
Linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell.
 Course Evaluation

 Assignment (30%)
 Mid-semester test (30%)
• Sections /Units 1 - 2 of module only
 Final Exam (40%)
• Focus on Units 3 – 5 of module
• Possibly some content from Units 1 - 2
Origins of Sociolinguistics

Key phases in linguistic study

Key phases in linguistic study (1)

 c. 500 B.C.: in India, Panini and followers

produced oral treatises on phonetics and language
structure. Later, independent traditions of
language study develop in Europe.
 1786: founding of modern linguistics – Sir William
Jones gives seminal speech on relations between
Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and other languages.
Principles of language comparison and
classification emerge.
Key phases in linguistic study (2)

 Early 20th century: Structuralism predominates in

linguistics. Structuralists like Saussure in Europe
and Bloomfield in the U.S.A. were concerned with
internal systems of language rather than with
historical comparisons.
 1957: Generative linguistics is founded with
publication of Noam Chomsky’s Syntactic
Structures. Linguistics moves to psycho-biological
stage, with interest in the way children acquire
languages on the basis of a universal grammar.
 Reaction to Structuralism
 Scholars’ views:
• Chomsky’s approach (idealised,
psycholinguistic competence) - asocial and
ahistorical view of language
• abstracting language from contexts of use is
limiting
 Break between Chomsky’s approach
and social approach
Social and non-social approaches
 Non-social: Chomskyian framework focuses
on structures that can be generated by
language and by what means
 Social: Tries to account for what can be said
in a language, by whom, to whom, in whose
presence, when and where, in what manner
and under what social circumstances
(Fishman, 1971; Hymes, 1971;
Saville-Troike, 1982).
 Activity
An individual can use language in a variety of ways and
for different purposes. For each utterance on the
following slides, discuss:

 In what context might a speaker say it?

 What might be the nature of the relationship between
speaker and listener?
 In what context might it be inappropriate to say it?
 Utterances (1)
 In what context might a speaker say it?
 What might be the nature of the relationship between speaker and
listener?
 In what context might it be inappropriate to say it?

 Do you think it’s cold in here?

 The airport, as fast as you can.
 I do.
 I leave my house to my son George.
 Do you love me?
 How strange!
 Can we have some silence at the back?
 Utterances (2)
 In what context might a speaker say it?
 What might be the nature of the relationship between speaker and
listener?
 In what context might it be inappropriate to say it?

 What a beautiful dress!

 Cheers!
 Keep to the right please.
 Damn!
 That’s not the way lah.
 You want or not?
 Eh, hurry up!
 Think

How did you know when to use or not use the

utterances you just discussed?
 Sociolinguistics

 Studies the relationship between

language and society
 Term first used by Haver Currie in 1952
 Possible relationships between
language and society

 Social structure may influence /determine

linguistic structure and/or behaviour.
 Linguistic structure and/or behaviour may
influence /determine social structure.
 The influence between language and culture
is bi-directional.
 There is no relationship between language
and society.
 Think
 The Inuit Indians of Alaska have a well-developed
vocabulary for types of snow. A native of Malaysia
does not. Does an Inuit ‘see’ a snowscape
differently from a Malaysian visiting the cold north
for the first time?
 Sociolinguistic study

 Chambers (1995): At the heart of

sociolinguistics is the correlation of
independent linguistic variables with
independent social variables:

• Domains (Joshua Fishman)

• Formality
• Social status
• Social distance
• Function / purpose
• Gender, age, etc.
 Holmes (1992): Sociolinguist’s aim is to
move towards a theory which provides a
motivated account of the way language is
used in a community, and the choices
people make when they use language.
Sociology of language
&
Sociolinguistics

Sociology of language:
macro-sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics:
micro-sociolinguistics
 Sociology of language:
Macro-linguistics

 Studies language and society in order to find out as

much as we can about what kind of thing language
is
 Investigates what societies do with their
languages, i.e. attitudes and attachments that
account for the functional distribution of speech
forms in society, language shift, maintenance, and
replacement, the delimitation and interaction of
speech communities.
 Macro-linguistics:
Ways With Words

Ethnographic study by Heath (1983):

differences in the oral and written
language practices of two communities
 Sociolinguistics:
Micro-linguistics

 Studies what kind of thing language is in

order to find out as much as we can about
language and society
 Investigates how social structure influences
the way people talk, and how language
varieties and patterns of use correlate with
social attitudes such as class, sex, and age.
 Micro-sociolinguistics:
Martha’s Vineyard study
 Labov
• Variation in mainland /ai/ and island-centred
/Әi/ in night, right, kind
• The younger the age of the speaker, the more
the speaker used the centralised variety
• Youngest speakers (14 – 20) used mainland
variety
 ASSIGNMENT
(30% of total grade)

Write a paper to address three tasks.

1. Research and explain what is meant by domains of
language use as proposed by Joshua Fishman. Give
examples of domains that are relevant to the Malaysian
context.
2. Explain the difference between (i) various languages and
(ii) varieties of a language. Provide examples from the
Malaysian context. Consider the English language in
your explanation and examples.
3. Explain how domains determine the language(s), or
varieties of a language, that a bilingual or multilingual
speaker might use. Provide examples from the Malaysian
context. (You do not have to include the English
language for this part of the assignment.)
 Note

 Your assignment should be between 10 - 12 pages,

excluding references, typed using 12-point Times
New Roman or 10-point Arial font (or the
equivalent) and double-spaced.
 Do NOT plagiarise from books or the Internet.
You can definitely use the content from these
sources, but you must (i) paraphrase and (ii) cite
the sources. If there is evidence of plagiarism,
your assignment will be rejected or severely
penalised.
 Submission details

 Please submit your assignment as a hard copy, by

1 March, 2012.
 All assignments should be sent through UPMET
(the PJJ administration) for their records. Please
do NOT send assignments directly to me.