This document outlines the topics that will be covered in a sociolinguistics course, including definitions of key terms like variety, language, dialect, speech community, standard language, dialectology, and register. It provides definitions and discussions of these terms, explaining concepts like the processes of standardization, dialects and mutual intelligibility, and the systematic study of dialects known as dialectology. The course will examine issues around distinguishing languages and dialects and the social aspects of linguistic variation.

1. Department of English.
Tetouan
Academic year: 2020-2021
Sociolinguistics
Pr. Benamar

2. Outline of the session
• What is a variety?
• Speech linguistic/ communities.
• Languages vs. dialect.
• What is a language?
• Standard language/ variety
• Standardisation
• Processes of standardization: selection, codification, elaboration of
function, and acceptance.
• What is a dialect?
• Dialects and mutual intelligibility
• Dialectology
• Register

3. What is a variety?
• Hudson (1996 :22) defines a variety of language as “a set of
linguistic items with similar distribution”.
• Ferguson (1972: 30) offers another definition of variety: ‘any
body of human speech patterns which is sufficiently
homogeneous to be analyzed by available techniques of
synchronic description and which has a sufficiently large
repertory of elements and their arrangements or processes
with broad enough semantic scope to function in all formal
contexts of communication”.

4. What is a variety?
Variety: A linguistic system used by a certain group of speakers
or in certain social contexts. `Variety' is often used as an
alternative to dialect and language, and can be a useful way of
sidestepping the difficulty of making a clear distinction between
the two on linguistic grounds. Terms such as regional variety and
social variety, standard variety and non-standard variety may be
used to specify the dimension according to which varieties are
being distinguished. (Swann et al 2004: 324)

5. Speech / linguistic communities
The simplest definition of 'speech community' is that of John Lyons
(1970:326):
“Speech community: all the people who use a given language (or
dialect).”
More complex definition is given by Charles Hockett (1958: 8):
“Each language defines a speech community: the whole set of people
who communicate with each other, either directly or indirectly, via
the common language.”

6. Speech / linguistic communities
John Gumperz (1962):
“We will define [linguistic community] as a social group which may be
either monolingual or multilingual, held together by frequency of social
interaction patterns and set off from the surrounding areas by
weaknesses in the lines of communication”

7. Speech / linguistic communities
• Our last quotation, by Dwight Bolinger, identifies these 'personal' groups
as speech communities, and stresses the unlimited amount of complexity
that is possible (Bolinger 1975: 333):
“There is no limit to the ways in which human beings league themselves
together for self-identification, security, gain, amusement, worship, or
any of the other purposes that are held in common; consequently there
is no limit to the number and variety of speech communities that are to
be found in society.”

8. Language vs. Dialect.
• What is a language?
• What is a dialect?
• What are the distinctions between these two linguistic
concepts?
• How do you know that two dialects are varieties of the same
language?

9. Language
Edward Sapir (1921) defined language as `a purely human and
noninstinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions, and
desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols. These
symbols are, in the first instance, auditory and they are produced by
the so-called ``organs of speech.‘’
Today we would add signs, not just vocal symbols, to this
characterisation on the basis of sign languages, in which the symbols
are visual rather than auditory. This technical definition of language
avoids mention of writing, since it is not a defining criterion: languages
can exist without being written down at all.

10. Standard Language/ Variety
• A standard language is usually identified as a relatively
uniform variety of a language which does not show
regional variation, and which is used in a wide range
of communicative functions (e.g. official language,
medium of instruction, literary language, scientific
language, etc.).
• Standard varieties tend to observe prescriptive,
written norms, which are codified in grammars and
dictionaries.

11. Standardisation
• The process by which standard languages are developed.
Following Einar Haugen (1966b), four stages are commonly
distinguished in the standardisation process: selection,
codification, elaboration of function, and acceptance.

12. Processes of standardization
• Selection - somehow or other a particular variety must have been
selected as the one to be developed into a standard language. It may
be an existing variety, such as the one used in an important political
or commercial centre, but it could be a mixture of various varieties.
• Codification - some agency such as an academy must have written
dictionaries and grammar books to 'fix' the variety, so that everyone
agrees on what is correct.

13. Processes of standardization
• Elaboration of function - it must be possible to use the selected
variety in all the functions associated with central government and
with writing: for example, in parliament and law courts, in
bureaucratic, educational and scientific documents of all kinds and, of
course, in various forms of literature.
• Acceptance - the variety has to be accepted by the relevant
population as the variety of the community - usually, in fact, as the
national language.

14. Dialect
O'Grady et al. (2001) define dialect as: "A regional or social variety
of a language characterized by its own phonological, syntactic,
and lexical properties.” A variety spoken in a particular region is called a
regional dialect (regiolect, geolect).
In its popular usage, the term “dialect” is commonly contrasted
with the supra-regional and prestigious standard `language'. This
evaluative and hierarchical usage has been questioned by sociolinguists,
who would see a language as a composite of all its dialects including its
standard norm (sometimes also called standard dialect), which in many
cases emerged historically from one or more regional or social dialects.

15. Dialects and mutual intelligibility
• Mutual intelligibility two language varieties are said to be mutually
intelligible if their speakers can understand each other.
• The criterion of mutual intelligibility is sometimes invoked to
distinguish dialects (mutually intelligible) from languages (mutually
unintelligible).
• However, there are serious problems with such an approach.
Sociocultural factors may lead to speakers claiming unintelligibility for
closely related language varieties.
• Mutually intelligible varieties; e.g. English spoken in Seattle, English
spoken in London, UK.

16. Dialectology
The systematic study of dialects, which dates back to the nineteenth
century. Traditionally, dialectology has focused on the description and
documentation of regional, mostly rural dialects, and the study of
regional variation and language change.

17. Register
Used to refer to variation according to the context in which
language is used. For example, most people speak differently
in formal contexts (an academic lecture, job interview etc.)
than in informal contexts (e.g. chatting with friends and
family).