Introduction to socio linguistics

1. 1
Topic One
 Introduction to Sociolinguistics

2. 2
What do sociolinguistics study?
 The relationship between language and society
 How does society (who people are, what they
do, who they are with) affect the ways people
speak?
 What social factors can account for linguistic
variation?

3. 3
Examples of aspects of
sociolinguistics we will study in this
module:
 Why do you use English (or Cantonese) differently
when you talk to me (your lecturer) from when you
talk to a stranger or when you talk to another student?
 Why do you use English (or Cantonese) differently
when you talk to your fellow student in class from
when you talk to her in the hostel?

4. 4
 Why do you sometimes switch from Cantonese to English in
the middle of a sentence?
 What are some of the differences between the ways men and
women use language?
 Do people of different ages speak differently?
 What can a language tell about the social background of a
person?
 Will a language die?

5. 5
 How do languages change over time?
 What languages should we use or teach in
school?

6. 6
What determines language use?
 Why do you use English (or Cantonese)
differently when you talk to me (your lecturer)
from when you talk to another student?
 Why do you use English (or Cantonese)
differently when you talk to your fellow
student in class from when you talk to her in
the hostel?

7. 7
Factors determining language use
 The participants
 The setting
 The topic
 The function (Holmes p.8)
Social dimensions
 Solidarity – social distance scale
 Status scale
 Formality scale
 Function scale

8. 8
What is a variety/code?
 Spolsky (1998) Sociolinguistics:
‘Variety’ is a term we use to include any
identifiable kind of language
Example:
1) Hakka and Cantonese are two varieties of
Chinese
2) Holmes p.19: Indoubil – based on Swahili,
drawing on French, English and Italian

9. 9
Read the following extract and decide how you
would call it: a language, variety or code?
Gary: day dreaming, haha, just feel bored and can’t
concentrate. Dunno why –haha
Phil: why can concentrate ar? Have ‘heart problem’??
Work hard ar, u will have present on Friday wor, and
have 4 midterms. Don’t daydream la i will support
you mentally ar
Gary: thx. U make me feel warm studying in UST –
university of stress and tension yes, there r many ppl
watch me thru icq. I can be lazy and let them down!

10. 10
Hong Kong as a multilingual speech
community
Bilingual individuals (individual bilingualism)
Bilingual society (societal bilingualism)
A speech community

11. 11
What is the meaning of bilingualism?
The ability to use two languages e.g. English &
Chinese

12. 12
Are you a bilingual?
 one who possesses at
least one of the
language skills even to a
minimal degree in the
second language.”
(Macnamara 1967)
 those who demonstrate
complete mastery of
two different languages
without interference
between the two
linguistic processes.”
(Oestreicher 1974)

13. 13
Are you a bilingual?
 bilingualism is
understood…to begin at
the point where the
speaker of one language
can produce complete
meaningful utterances
in the other language.”
(Baetens-Beardsmore,
1982).

14. 14
What is individual bilingualism?
 Focus on the linguistic competence of individual
persons
 What are your L1 and L2?

15. 15
What is an L1?
 This term is used in different, overlapping
ways, and can mean a) the first language
learnt; b) the stronger language; c) the mother
tongue; d) the language most used
Encyclopedia of bilingualism and bilingual
education, Colin Baker (1998)

16. 16
What is an L2?
 This term is used in different, overlapping
ways and can mean a) the second language; b)
the weaker language; c) a language that is not
the mother tongue; d) the less used language.
 Second language is sometimes used to cover
3rd or further languages.

17. 17
What is societal bilingualism?
 Focus on the roles and functions of different
languages in one society
 Is Hong Kong a bilingual society?
 Must societal bilingualism come with
individual bilingualism?