Definition, Research Sample, Language and Gender

1. VARIATIONS &
INTERACTIONAL
SOCIOLINGUISTICS

2. VARIATIONS
SOCIOLINGUISTICS
Duman-ag, Jee Marie S.
01

3. WHAT!
Variations Sociolinguistics focuses on
social variation in dialects and examines
how this variation is highly structured.
This structured variation tells us that this
is part of human language capacity, a
built in system of language in a brain.

4. Labov’s quote here is pretty
self-explanatory of what
sociolinguistic variation is: it is
simply different words, sounds
and language people use to
explain the same thing.

5. Martha's Vineyard
American Sociolinguist William Labov, whose
interests include variational sociolinguistics
and dialectology.
Martha’s Vineyard, a small island off the
North east coast of America. At the time, the
island had a population of approximately
5 ,800
1 963
Labov was interested in
phonological variation. He
investigated the /au/ and
/ai/ vowel sounds, in words
such as mouse and mice,
which in linguistic terms is
called a diphthong.
When?
What was he researching?
Who?
Where?

6. He collected different styles of
speech- unconscious speech
and conscious speech.
Labov used an interview
technique to subtly encourage
the participants to say the
words containing the vowels
which he wished to study.
“When we speak of the
right to life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness,
what does right mean? Is
it in writing?”
“If a man is successful at a
job he doesn’t like, would
you still say he was a
successful man?”
He interviewed 69
people each from
different age, ethnic and
social groups as to get a
representative sample
while avoiding
observer's paradox.
SPEECH QUESTIONSINTERVIEW
William Labov's Martha's Vineyard Research
Method

7. What did he find out?
Up-islanders used the
centralised diphthongs
more than people living in
the area of down-island.
3
A big factor to consider
are the attitude of its
inhabitants, generations,
occupations, or social
groups.
4
Fishermen centralise
/au/ and /ai/ more than
any other occupational
group.
1
People of the age
group 30- 60 tend to
centralise diphthongs
more than younger or
older people.
2

8. It showed men to be leading
change. He notes that whereas
men tend to use more non-
standard stable forms than
women, when it comes to linguistic
change, women will innovate, in
part by favouring new prestige
forms 'from above'.

9. INTERACTIONAL
SOCIOLINGUISTICS
Daugan, Zyjelou
02

10. WHAT!
Interactional Sociolinguists focus on
language in its social context, the
language used in interaction by
closely observing a “speech event” in
a particular community.

11. WHAT ELSE??
Derives from a
variety of discipline
that draws on a
work of Erving
Goffman and John
Gumerez (1 982a,
1 982b)
The view of
interational
sociolinguistics is
that tis only
incomplete
This is an approach
to discourse analysis
that studies how
people use language
in face to face
interaction.

12. Ethnographic research is
used to study interactional
sociolinguistics, for example
Penelope Eckert’s study – “The
role of social practice”.

13. High School
Ethnography
Penelope Eckert is a professor of Linguistics
at Stanford University.
Detroit, in the U.S. state of Michigan
2001
So along came Eckert with the
idea of the role of social
practice.
A ‘social practice’ is what we
share when we, as speakers,
engage in an activity together.
So, if you and someone else you
know play football together, you
are sharing a social practice.
When?
What was she researching?
Who?
Where?

14. Define groups in terms
of social practices
● OBSERVING FRIENDSHIP GROUPS IN A SCHOOL IN DETROIT. This method of
detailed observation of a community is known as ethnography.
1 . JOCKS - ACTIVE, SCHOOL-ORIENTED, RESPECTS AUTHORITY.
2 . BURNOUTS- ANTI-SCHOOL, DRINKING, SMOKING, SEX, BAD BEHAVIOUR.
WHAT SHE FOUND OUT WAS THAT PEOPLE TEND TO SPEAK MORE LIKE THEIR
FRIENDS–THOSE WHO SHARED SOCIAL PRACTICES TOGETHER – THAN OTHERS
BELONGING IN THE SAME DEMOGRAPHIC CATEGORY AS THEM, I.E. SOCIAL
CLASS.

15. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT THE
RESULT TO BE?

16. If you had to observe the language of these two people from two very
different social groups (so don’t share social practices), but from the
same social demographic (age, ethnicity, class), what would you expect
the result to be?
Would you expect the speech of the girl in the top picture to be greatly
different from the speech of the boy in the bottom picture? Would you
expect the topic of conversation to be about school in a negative or
positive way? Who do you think would be more polite and respectful
towards others?

17. THE
ETHNOGRAPHY OF
COMMUNICATION
FIELDWORK
OBSERVATION IS
CONDUCTED TO COLLECT
'INTERACTIONAL
COMMUNICATION' IN
THEIR SPEECH
COMMUNITY.
HOW VARIOUS “SPEECH
COMMUNITIES” ARE DEFINED
BY VARIOUS WAYS OF
INTERACTING.

18. THE SEVEN FACTORS
Writer That is passed between
them.
Of the speech event Denotative function
stressing the topic
Reader
Expressive function
which is the speaker-
writer attitude
Location Referential
Speaker The Message
Emotive
Hearer
There are seven different factors that all serve a particular function in a
certain ‘speech event’ associated with interactional sociolinguistics:
The Topic
Expressed by the
message form

19. REFERENCES:
Harvey, L. (201 2). Conversation and Discourse Analysis. Retrieved from qualityresearchinternational.com/methodology.
Juchem, M. (2003). W. Labov: Case Study Martha’s Vineyard and New York.
School of English. (n.d). Interactional Sociolinguistics. Retrieved from https://all-about-
linguistics.group.shef.ac.uk/branches-of-linguistics/sociolinguistics/how-is-sociolinguistics-studied/interactional-
sociolinguistics/
School of English. (n.d.). Martha’s Vineyard. Retried from http://all-about-linguistics.group.shef.ac.uk/branches-of-
linguistics/sociolinguistics/research-in-sociolinguistics/william-labov-marthas-vineyard/
School of English. (n.d.). The Sociolinguistic Variable. Retrieved from http://all-about-
linguistics.group.shef.ac.uk/branches-of-linguistics/sociolinguistics/the-sociolinguistic-variable/
School of English. (n.d.). Variationist Sociolinguistics. Retrieved from https://all-about-
linguistics.group.shef.ac.uk/branches-of-linguistics/sociolinguistics/how-is-sociolinguistics-studied/variationist-
sociolinguistics/
Sunderland, J. (2006). Language and gender. Routledge. New York.

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