1) Sociolinguistics is the study of the relationship between language and society. It examines how social factors such as context, status, and function influence language variation and use. 2) People code switch and use different linguistic varieties depending on social context, including the participants, setting, topic, and function of the interaction. Formal contexts like religion or education use high varieties while informal settings use low varieties. 3) Languages shift when their speakers abandon them for a dominant language due to economic, social, or demographic factors. This can lead to language loss or even death when no one speaks it anymore.

1. Aulia nNisa Khusnia, M.A
Muhammadiyah University of
Purwokerto

2.  Example 1
Ray : Hi, mum
Mum: Hi. You’re late
Ray: Yeah, that bastard kept us in again
What is sociolinguistics?
Sociolinguistics is study the relationship
between language and society (Holmes,
1995: 1)

3.  Sociolinguistics conveys social meaning
 Language serves a range of functions
1) to ask for
2) to give people information
3) to express indignation
4) to express admiration and respect, etc.

4. 1. What you call your mother in different
contexts:
(a) Addressing her
(i) at home alone with her
(ii) on the telephone with friends listening
(iii) in a shop
(b) Referring to her
(i) at home to another family member
when she is present

5. (ii) at home to another family member when
she is not present
(iii) to an acquaintance who doesn’t know her
(iv) to a sales assistant in a shop when she is
present

6. (a) Addressing your mother
(i) mum, mummy, mom, ma
(ii) mother, mater.
(iii) mother
(b) Referring to your mother
(i) mum, mom
(ii) the old lady, our mam
(iii) my mum
(iv) my mother

7. Participant
• Who is
speaking
• Who are
they
speaking to
Setting
• Where are
they
speaking to
Topic and
Function
• What is
being
talked
about?
• Why are
they
speaking?

8. Social
distance scale
• (participant
relationship)
• Intimate
relationship or
distant
relationship
Status scale
• Participant
scale
• Low varieties
or high
varieties
Formality
Scale & 2
functional
scales
• Setting or type
of interaction
• Relating to the
purposes or
topic of
interaction

9. Why people use one set of forms in some
contexts, but different forms in others
The step which need to be taken in providing
an explanation are
1. to identify clearly the linguistic variation
involved e.g. vocabulary, sounds,
grammatical construction, dialects,
languages)
2. to identify clearly the different social or
non- linguistics factors which lead speakers
to use one form rather than another

10. e.g features relating to participants, setting or
function of interaction

11.  When two varieties of the same language are
used (H & L)
 H formal e.g. religion, newspaper,
broadcasting, education, etc
 L informal e.g. education
(discussion) , gossiping, and shopping

12.  Language shift
use one language to different language
two distinct codes in different domains
use different varieties of just one language
for their communicative need
 Language death ( language are no longer
spoken anywhere)
 Language loss ( the process of language
death gradually loss of fluency and
competence by its speaker)

13.  Economic
People learn English- dominated countries
to get a job
 Social
(i) no active steps to maintain their ethnic
language
(ii) not see it as offering any advantages to
their children

14. a. The pattern of language use more domains-
more chances
b. Demographic factors
c. Attitudes to minority language
identity and culture
self esteem

15.  Vernacular language
a language which has not been standardized
and has no official status
 Lingua francas
describes a language serves as a regular
means of communication between different
linguistic groups in multilingual speech
community

16. 1. has no native speaker
2. a means of communication between people
who don’t have a common language
3. Pidgin linguistics structures such as: sound,
vocabulary, grammatical features, a new
variety ( borrowing/ emerging from some
languages)
4. Example: in Papua New Guinea, Pidgin
Chinese English spoken by Chinese
languages a Neo Melanesia / Tok Piksin

17.  Jamaican Creol English based
 Haitian Creol French based

18. from word to
word
from style to
style
from group to
group

19.  Holmes, Janet.1996. Introduction to
Sociolinguistic. England: Longman Group.
 Wardhaugh, Ronald. 1998. An Introduction to
sociolinguistics. USA: Blackwell Publisher Inc.