The study of Language George Yule. Chapter 19.

1. Language and
social variation
by George Yule
College: ISFD N°41
Subject: Language and written Expression IV
Students: Gianella, Jacqueline – Delgado Gisela
Teacher: Saubidet, Stella
Date: September, 2020

2. Introduction
• People speak English in different manners
according to the speech community they belong
to.
• A speech community respond to a specific set of
norms and expectations.
• George Yule focuses on the variations in
language use in terms of education and
economic status.
• Sociolinguistics is the study of the relationship
between language and society.

3. Social dialects
• Refer to pronunciation and words or structures used by people
belonging to different social classes
• The two main social groups are middle class and working class.
• Middle class represents people who have more years of education
and perform non-manual work.
• Working class refers to those who have fewer years of education and
do perform manual works of some kind.
• the term “upper” and “lower” are used to fully subdivide them.

4. Education and occupation
• There are differences in the spoken and written language
between those who leave the educational system at an
early age and those who have spent more time in.
• Educated people tend to produce more formal and proper
features of language.
• Education also shapes our occupation and socio-economic
status.
• Lower class do not have the best jobs and they usually
work in local jobs.

5. Social markers
• they are language features that can occur
frequently (or not) in people`s speech.
• frequency marks people as a member of a
particular social group.
• These features are also associated with lower
class and less education

6. Speech style and
style shifting
• Formal or careful and Informal or casual
• Style shifting occurs when speech style change from
one to the other according to the context of the
situation.
• It is possible to use elicitation procedures to create
more gradation in the category of style.

7. Prestige
• It is a way of explaining the direction in which certain individuals
change their speech from casual to careful style in a particular
situation.
• These standards can be shaped according to overt and covert
prestige.
• In situations of Overt prestige, people value standard and "formal"
language features, and expresses power and status.
• In covert prestige situations, people value vernacular language, and
expresses solidarity, community and group identity more than
authority.

8. Speech Accommodation
CONVERGENCE
1) C’mon Tony, gizzalook,
gizzalook.
2) Excuse me, Could I have a
look at your photos too,
Mrs Hall?
DIVERGENCE
Teen: I can’t do it sir.
Teacher: Oh come on! If I can
do it, you can do it.
Teen: Look, I cannae dae it
so..

9. REGISTER
Jargon
• Specific area of work .
• Inside established social
group.
• For example: Medical register.
Slang
• Everyday conversation.
• Outside established social
status.
• For example: the Word “bucks”

10. AFRICAN AMERICAN ENGLISH
AFRICAN AMERICAN VERNACULAR ENGLISH
(AAVE)
• Vernacular Social Status: Low and High prestige.
• General expressions Social dialects (Lower status
group) NON-STANDARD
• For example: LEFT HAND LEF HAN

11. GRAMMATICALLY
• AAVE focuses on the frequent absence of FORMS of the
verb TO BE
• For example: - “You crazy” or “She workin now”
- “She be workin now”
- “She bin workin there”
- “She don’t be workin.

12. Bibliography:
Yule,G(2010).The study of Language.Chapter 19Language and social Variations.Editorial Cambridge,New
York,United States of America.