Sociolinguistics and Cross-Cultural Communication Summary
1. S O C I O L I N G U I S T I C S A N D C R O S S C U L T U R A L
C O M M U N I C A T I O N
E S E M 5 3 4 3
S E C T I O N 6 & 7 S U M M A R I E S
N A M E : C R I S T E L Y N S H A R N A ( M C 1 5 1 0 M D 0 2 1 5 )
L E C T U R E R : A S S T . P R O F D R N A F I S E H Z A R E I
D A T E : 2 0 / 0 8 / 2 0 1 6
3. • the coexistence of two varieties of the same language throughout a
speech community.
• one form is the literary or prestige dialect
• (H) and the other is a common dialect spoken by most of the
population(L). Such a situation exists in many speech communities
throughout the world.
• EG: Greece, where Katharevusa, heavily influenced by Classical
Greek, is the prestige dialect and Demotic is the popular spoken
language .
• in the Arab world, where classical Arabic (as used in the Qurʾān)
exists alongside the colloquial Arabic of Egypt, Morocco, and other
countries
5. THE FEATURES OF DIGLOSSIA
1. Function
2. Prestige
3. Literary heritage
4. Acquisition
5. Standardization
6. Stability
7. Grammar
8. Lexicon
9. Phonology
6. 1. FUNCTION
H L
Sermon X
Instruction to servants X
Speech in parliament X
University lecture X
Conversation with friends X
Newspaper editorial X
7. 2. PRESTIGE
• The speakers regard H as superior to L in a number of
respects.
• E.g. H is considered more educated, more beautiful, more
logical, better able to express important thoughts, etc.
3. Literary Heritage
There is a sizable body of written literature in H which is
held in high esteem by the speech community.
8. 4. ACQUISITION
• Adults use L in speaking to children and children use L in speaking
to one another.
• The actual learning of H is chiefly accomplished by the means of
formal education.
5. Standardization
• There are studies or books on grammars, dictionaries, treatises on
pronunciation, styles and so on of the H.
• There is an established norm for pronunciation, grammar, and
vocabulary which allows variation only within certain limits.
9. 6. STABILITY
Diglossia typically persists at least several centuries
7. GRAMMAR
• H has grammatical categories not present in L and has an
inflectional system of nouns and verbs which is much reduced or
totally absent in L.
• E.g. Standard German has four cases in the noun; Swiss German
has only three cases in the noun.
10. 8. LEXICON
• H includes in its total lexicon technical terms and learned
expressions which have no regular L equivalents, since the
subjects involved are rarely if ever discussed in pure L.
• L includes in its total lexicon popular expressions and the
names of very homely objects or objects of very localized
distribution which have no regular H equivalents, since the
subjects involved are rarely if ever discussed in pure H.
11. 9. PHONOLOGY
• The sound systems if H and L constitutes a single phonological
structure of which the L phonology is the basic system.
• Note: Ferguson states, “It may seem difficult to offer any
generalization on the relationships between the phonology on H
and L in diglossia in view of the diversity of data.
13. DEFINITION
PIDGIN
• NO NATIVE SPEAKER
• MIX LANGUAGE
• REDUCED GRAMMAR AND VOCAB
• EG: BAZAAR MALAY influenced by
contact among Malay, Chinese,
Portuguese, and Dutch traders
CREOLE
• NATIVE SPEAKER EXISTS
• MIX LANGUAGE(CULTURAL & RACIAL)
• FULLY-DEVELOPED LANGUAGE
• EG: Baba Malay mixture of Malay
or Indonesian with local Javanese (East
Javanese dialect) and Chinese
elements (particularly Hokkien).
14. PIDGIN
• A pidgin arises when speakers of two different languages
encounter one another and have a need for limited
communication.
• pidgin incorporates words from both source languages and has a
simplified grammatical structure, just enough to allow some
communication.
• A pidgin evolves among adult native speakers of different
languages
• Nobody speaks a pidgin as their first language
• EG: For example, the establishment of plantation economies in the
Caribbean, with large groups of slaves from different language
backgrounds who came from West Africa, gave rise to a number of
15. CREOLE
• a fully-functional language of its own which includes elements of
its parent languages.
• has a complete grammar of its own
• develops among the children of pidgin speakers.
• EG: English variety spoken by descendants of Africans on the coast
of South Carolina is known as Gullah and has been identified as
a creole.
• Of all the vernaculars associated with African Americans, it is the
one that diverges the most from (White) middle-class varieties in
North America."
17. • special kinds of 'intimate' or in-group speech
• used in situations of extreme informality
• slang expressions can function as identity markers because
they distinguish in-group members from members that are
not part of the group.
• Their use expresses a desire for social distance to language
users outside the group and their mainstream values.
• EG:
20. How can a language die?
1) when all the people who speak that language die;
2) when the domains in which a language is used are
totally replaced by another language;
3) when a language is suppressed by a political power
* Which is more likely to die a standard language or a dialect?
22. • A language which has extinct and there is no one in this earth
who is speaking the language.
• occurs in unstable bilingual or multilingual speech
communities as a result of language shift from a regressive
minority language to a dominant majority language
23. •By 2100, more than half of the more than 7,000
languages spoken on Earth--many of them not
yet recorded--may disappear, taking with them
a wealth of knowledge about history, culture,
the natural environment, and the human brain."
(National Geographic Society, Enduring Voices
Project)
26. EXAMPLE
* A language of Egyptian or Assyrian origin.
*their language was probably lost after they assimilated with the Indo-
European people who invaded Anatolia. There have been attempts to
link Hattic to Caucasian languages—such as Abkhaz, Ubykh, and even
Georgian
29. • A community shifts from using one language for most
purposes to using a different one
• One language replaces the roles and functions of another
language in a community
• A strong language becomes weak, a weak language becomes
strong in a community
• EG: An aged Indian gentleman enters an English grocery shop
in the company of his small six-year-old grandson. Unable to
express himself in English, he asks the small boy to help. The
boy interprets for his grandfather, switching effortlessly
between Gujarati and fluent English
30. Economic factor
• Seller ------------- buyer
Demographic factor
• Minority ------------- majority
Social factor
• Poor --------------- wealthy
• Low social status ---------high social status
Political factor
• Ruled -------------- ruler
31. SPEECH COMMUNITY
• A group of people who use the same variety of a language and who share specific
rules for speaking and for interpreting speech.
• This includes local knowledge of the way language choice, variation, and discourse
represents generation, occupation, politics, social relationships, identity
33. • when members of community attempt to keep the
language they have always used, the ways to preserve
the language is called language maintenance.
Who brings dead/dying languages back to life?
* Acceptance by Institutions (EG: government,
university, media.)
*Acceptance by people
Eg: AINU LANGUAGE(JAPAN). A survey says that
only 4.6% of the japan population could able to
speak Ainu. In 2001, Ainu was not taught in any
elementary or secondary schools in Japan, but was
offered at numerous language centres and
universities in Hokkaido
34. HOW CAN A MINORITY LANGUAGE BE
MAINTAINED?
•If a language is an important identity marker;
•If a minority group is cohesive (e.g. China Town)
•If a minority group keeps close contact with the
homeland;
•If a minority language gets institutional support
