This document discusses language variation and the relationship between language and society. It introduces key concepts such as speech communities, sociolinguistics, social dialects, linguistic variables, and registers. Social factors like class, education, occupation, and context can influence the way people speak. The document also discusses concepts like convergence, divergence, prestige, jargon, slang, vernacular languages, and provides examples of linguistic features in African American Vernacular English.

1. Language
and
Social
Variation
One language...
...many ways of
speaking

2. Does
everyone in a
single society
speak in the same
way?

3. A speech community is a
group of people who
share a set of norms and
expectations
regarding the use of
language

4. Sociolinguistics
L
The term is used for the
study of the relationship
between language and
society

5. R|R
Social dialects
Social variable
Linguistic
variable
The study of social dialects
or sociolect has been mainly
concerned with speakers in
towns and cities.
There are two variables

6. Social classes define
different
groups of speakers that
have something in
common.
Social Variable

7. Linguistic variable
L·
Example
The verb ain’t, as in I ain’t finished yet,
which is generally used more often in
working-class speech than in middle-class
speech.

8. We generally tend to sound like others with
whom we share similar educational
backgrounds and/or occupations.
E.g: Oh, that´s mahvellous, dahling!
Education and occupation

9. The way you
speak...
Social Makers
...shapes your
social group
Hey man!
Pleased
to meet
you

10. R|R
Speech
accommodation Convergence
Speech
accommodation can be defined
as our ability to modify our
speech style toward
or away from the perceived style
of the person(s) we’re talking to.
Divergence

11. P
R
E
S
T
I
G
E
Overt Prestige
Covert Prestige
"I don't know nothing" "I do not know anything"
Casual Careful
ZEPHANIAH
By BenjaminDis Poetry
Dis poetry is like a riddim dat
dropsDe tongue fires a riddim
dat shoots like shotsDis
poetry is designed fe
rantinDance hall style, big
mouth chanting,Dis poetry
nar put yu to sleepPreaching
follow meLike yu is blind
sheep...

12. REGISTER is a conventional way of using language that is appropriate in a
specific context.
SITUATIONAL OCCUPATIONAL TOPICAL

13. Jargon
Jargon is the
special technical
vocabulary
belonging to a
specific social group.

14. Slang is “colloquial speech”
For
example: Older forms of
saying “really good” replaced by
the new ones
Jargon vs Slang
ABG - arterial
blood gas
BUN - blood urea
nitrogen
Medical jargon

15. AAVL is a social dialect spoken by many African
Americans in many regions of the USA
Any
non-standard
spoken version of
a language
Vernacular
Language
African American
Vernacular Language

16. The sounds of
a vernacular
L
Left hand Lef han
Think Tink
That Dat
The Da

17. AIN'T as auxiliary: "She isn't working" FOR
"She ain't working"
Unmmarked third person singular
verbs:"He sleeps too much" FOR "He sleep
too much"
Double negative: "Nobody did that" FOR
"Ain't nobody did that"
Grammatical
Examples of AAVL

18. Even in the animal kindom
there are many speech
communities...