An Introduction to Sociolinguistics

List of Figures xiii List of Tables xiv Acknowledgments xv About the Companion Website xvii 1 Introduction 1 Key Topics 1 The Nature of Language 2 Knowledge of Language 3 Competence and performance 4 Variation 6 Variants and the linguistic variable 7 Language Users and Their Groups: Identities 8 Language and Culture 10 Directions of influence 11 The Whorfian hypothesis 11 Correlations 13 The Interdisciplinary Legacy of Sociolinguistics 14 Overview of the Book 16 Chapter Summary 16 Exercises 17 Further Reading 18 References 19 Part I Languages, Communities, and Contexts 23 2 Languages, Dialects, and Varieties 25 Key Topics 25 What is a Language? 25 Language or Dialect? 26 Mutual intelligibility 27 The role of social identity 29 Standardization 30 The standard as an abstraction 30 The standardization process 31 The standard and language change 32 Standard language? 33 The standard–dialect hierarchy 33 Regional Dialects 34 Dialect geography 34 Everyone has an accent 35 Social Dialects 36 Kiezdeutsch ‘neighborhood German’ 37 Ethnic dialects 39 African American Vernacular English 40 Features of AAVE 41 Development of AAVE 42 Societal aspects of AAVE Use 43 Styles and Indexes: The Social Meanings of Linguistic Forms 43 Chapter Summary 47 Exercises 47 Further Reading 48 References 49 3 Defining Groups 55 Key Topics 55 Speech Communities 56 Linguistic boundaries 56 Shared norms 57 Communities of Practice 60 Social Networks 62 Social Identities 64 Beliefs about Language and Social Groups 65 Language ideologies 66 The standard language ideology 66 The purist ideology 67 Monoglossic ideologies 67 Iconicity, erasure, and recursivity 68 Language attitudes 69 Perceptual dialectology 69 Matched/verbal guises 70 Implicit association task (IAT) 71 Chapter Summary 72 Exercises 72 Further Reading 73 References 74 4 Language in Context: Pragmatics 79 Key Topics 79 Speech Acts 79 Performatives 80 Implicature 83 Maxims 83 Politeness 85 Face 85 Positive and negative politeness 86 Beyond politeness theory 87 Politeness and indirectness 88 Pronouns 89 Tu and vous: power and solidarity 89 Pronouns and positioning 92 Naming and Titles 92 Fluidity and change in address terms 94 Chapter Summary 97 Exercises 97 Further Reading 100 References 100 Part II Theory and Methods 105 5 Language Variation and Change 107 Key Topics 107 Variables and Correlations 107 Types of linguistic variables 108 Indicators, markers and stereotypes 109 Independent variables 109 Data Collection and Analysis 110 The observer’s paradox 110 The sociolinguistic interview 110 Sampling 111 Apparent time and real time 112 Doing Quantitative Research: What Do the Numbers Really Mean? 112 Regional Variation 113 Mapping dialects 114 Methods in dialectology 115 Dialect mixture and free variation 117 Linguistic atlases 117 Social Variation 118 Social class membership 118 The First Wave of Variation Studies 120 Early work on gender variation 121 The fourth floor 121 Variation in Norwich 124 Variation in Detroit 124 Variation in Glasgow 125 Linguistic constraints on variation 126 Language Variation and Change 127 Change from above and below 127 Some changes in progress 127 Change across space: urban centers and physical barriers 129 Change over time or age-grading? 129 Martha’s Vineyard 131 Gender and language change 132 Language change and the linguistic marketplace 136 The Second Wave of Variation Studies 137 Social networks 138 Social network theory and language change 139 Gender variation in the second wave 140 Jocks and burnouts 141 The Third Wave of Variation Studies 142 Stance, style, and identity 142 Change across the lifespan 144 Chapter Summary 144 Exercises 144 Further Reading 146 References 146 6 Ethnographic Approaches in Sociolinguistics 153 Key Topics 153 Ethnography: Participant Observation 153 The Ethnography of Communication 155 Communicative competence 156 The communicative event and communicative acts 157 The SPEAKING device 157 Ethnography and beyond 160 Ethnomethodology 161 Background knowledge as part of communication 161 Commonsense knowledge and practical reasoning 162 Garfinkel and his students: studies in ethnomethodology 163 Ethnomethodology and conversation analysis 164 Critical Ethnography 164 (Socio)linguistic Ethnography 165 Digital Ethnographies: Research in Online Communities 167 Ethnography in Combination with Other Sociolinguistic Methods 168 Chapter Summary 169 Exercises 169 Further Reading 171 References 172 7 Discourse Analysis 175 Key Topics 175 Conversation Analysis 176 Adjacency pairs 177 Openings 178 Closings 179 Turn-taking 181 Repair 182 Institutional talk 183 Membership categorization 185 Interactional Sociolinguistics 185 Data and methodologies 186 Contextualization and stance 188 Identities 189 Critical Discourse Analysis 192 Contrasts and critiques 193 Methodologies and connections 193 Corpus Linguistics 196 Chapter Summary 198 Exercises 198 Further Reading 199 References 200 Part III Multilingual Matters 207 8 Languages in Contact: Multilingual Societies and Multilingual Discourse 209 Key Topics 209 Multilingualism as a Societal Phenomenon 210 Language competencies in multilingual societies 211 Language ideologies surrounding multilingualism 211 Linguistic landscapes 213 Language attitudes in multilingual settings 216 Language Maintenance and Shift 218 Diglossia 219 Domains 220 Language attitudes and ideologies 220 Language learning 220 The statuses of the H and L varieties 221 Extended diglossia and language maintenance 222 Questioning diglossia 223 Multilingual Discourse 224 Metaphorical and situational codeswitching 225 Communication accommodation theory 225 The markedness model 226 Multilingual identities 227 Bricolage 230 Chapter Summary 231 Exercises 231 Further Reading 235 References 235 9 Contact Varieties: Structural Consequences of Social Factors 243 Key Topics 243 The Structure of Codeswitching 243 Loanwords and Calques 245 Convergence 246 Ethnicized and Social Dialects as Contact Varieties 247 Latinx Englishes 248 Straattaal ‘street language’ 249 Mixed Languages 250 Lingua Francas 252 Pidgin and Creole Languages: Definitions 253 Connections between P/C languages and second language acquisition 254 Creole Formation 255 Theories of creole genesis 256 Geographical Distribution 258 Linguistic Characteristics of P/C Languages 259 Phonology 260 Morphosyntax 260 Vocabulary 261 From Pidgin to Creole and Beyond 262 Creole continuum? 263 Chapter Summary 265 Exercises 265 Further Reading 266 References 266 10 Language, the Nation, and Beyond 273 Key Topics 273 Language and Nation 273 Nationalism and language 274 Language and national identity categories 278 Belonging beyond the nation 280 Language and Migration 282 Identity construction in the context of migration 282 Identity over time and space 284 Diversity and superdiversity 287 Discourses of migration and integration 288 LADO 291 Language and Globalization 293 Global English: threat or promise? 295 Language and the Digital World 296 Chapter Summary 298 Exercises 298 Further Reading 298 References 299 Part IV Sociolinguistics and Social Justice 305 11 Language, Gender, and Sexuality 307 Key Topics 307 Defining Terms: Sex Category, Gender, and Sexuality 307 Sexist Language 309 Grammatical gender marking 310 Language change 312 Deficit, Dominance, and Difference 313 Women’s language as a deficit 314 Dominance 315 Difference 316 Gender and Sexuality Identities 317 Multiple identities 318 The role of hegemonic ideologies in gender and sexuality identity construction 319 Context-specific identity construction: the workplace 321 Discourses of Gender and Sexuality 323 Normative discourses 323 Discourses about language use 325 Chapter Summary 326 Exercises 326 Further Reading 327 References 327 12 Sociolinguistics and Education 335 Key Topics 335 Social Dialects and Education 336 Restricted codes and the language gap 336 Difference not deficit 337 Role of the home dialect in education 340 An achievement gap? 342 Education in Multilingual Contexts 343 Ideologies 343 Use of minoritized languages in the classroom 345 Elite and immigrant bilingualism 348 Education and World-Wide English 349 Circles of English 350 English in world-wide education 350 Elite closure 351 English in Europe 353 Chapter Summary 354 Exercises 355 Further Reading 356 References 356 13 Language Policy and Planning 365 Key Topics 365 Terminology, Concepts, and Development of the Field 365 Types of language planning 366 The intellectual history of LPP 369 Data and methods 370 LPP and Nationalization 372 LPP in Turkey: orthography and purity 372 LPP in the Soviet Union and the post-Soviet era: from Russification to nationalization 373 Official monolingualism in France 375 LPP in Post- and Neo-Colonial Contexts 376 Kenya 376 India 377 Multilingual Countries and LPP 378 Canada 379 Belgium 380 Papua New Guinea 381 Singapore 381 Feminist Language Planning 382 Endangered Languages and the Spread of English 384 Endangered languages 384 Family language policy, new speakers, and LPP 385 English world-wide 387 Language policy … or lack thereof 389 Chapter Summary 389 Exercises 389 Further Reading 390 References 391 Glossary 397 Index 421