This document provides an overview of sociolinguistics and language variation and change. It discusses key topics in sociolinguistics including real time and apparent time studies, the critical period of language acquisition, and generational change. Phenomena studied in sociolinguistics include regional variations and social factors that influence language use such as social relationships between speakers. The document also examines how language variation can be studied diachronically over time or synchronically at a single point in time to understand language change.

1. SOCIOLINGUISTICS
Sonya Ayu Kumala, M.Hum

2. • Topics:
a. Real Time and Apparent Time
b. Trend Studies
c. Critical Period
d. Acquiring Language and Learning Language
e. Generational Change

3. • Phenomenon in Sociolinguistics Studies
a. Space and geographic features (regional variation)
b. Who the speaker is talking to (addresse effect and
combination)
c. A speakers’ expression of style
d. Where the speaker is (social domain and diglossia)
e. The relationship between the speaker and hearer and
the social cost of interaction (politeness)

4. HOW LANGUAGE
WILL CHANGE IN THE
FUTURE?

5. • As Labov says, “If linguistic change were a constant
linguistic factor it would be easy to analyze"; however,
linguistic change is sporadic, it is disseminated rapidly
through the several different component parts of the
linguistic structure, until it loses strength or is distorted
and is not recognized for more than a century or two.”
• Sporadic = spread off

6. • 1. Finding the generalisation about the changing
progress of language.
• 2. Making informational guesses about the general
directions of language in the future
• 3. To develop language
• THE DATA OF LANGUAGE VARIATION STUDY:
a. Oral (recorded data)
b. Written (documented data such as newspaper, written
speech, book, etc)

7. • GENERAL DATA = CORPORA
• SELECTED DATA = DATA (DATA OF RESEARCH)

8. • Real time studies = studies of language variation which
involving the comparison of the
way people talk at one point of time with
the way the talk a decade, a
generation or hundred year later)
• Example :
a. A study of diglossia in Indonesia on 1975 compare to
2000
b. A study of female language in old regime era and
reformation era.
c. The linguistics difference in 1990 and 2010

9. • Apparent time studies= studies of language variation
that is done by accessing the historical record from time
to time by looking the changes in apparent time.
• A study of distribution on linguistics difference across age
groups at one point in time.
Example:
• The study of english vowels spoken by immigrant in
England on 2013.
• A study of the word with “female” meaning in Bahasa
during 2013

10. • Synchronic study : variation at one point of time
• Diachronic study : variation over time
Example:
Labov (1989), "The child as linguistic historian” studied the
pronounciation of [ŋ] = [in] [iŋ]

11. • The simplest way to study linguistic change is to study it
in apparent time, based on the analysis of the distribution
of linguistic variables across different age groups.
• Difficulties : Choosing the ages of the participant.
• Real time study needs access corpora of recorded
conversational data.

12. • Uses data from corpora that include comparable
speakers who have been recorded at different point of
time.
• Diachronic
• Trend = the real time lag between the first set data and
second set data allows you to observe how trends
progress through a community.
• Example:
a. Devoicing of Fricatives in Northern Standard Dutch and
Southern Standard Dutch in Radio Broadcast.

14. • Studies that involving the sampling and resampling a
single panel or group of speakers.
• Apparent time studies.
• Example:
• Study of childreen speak with 5 years old sampling and 7
tears old sampling.

15. • Critical period of language acquisition.
• The period during which the language learning seems to
be easiest.
• Childhood and early adolescent
• Critical period :
Synchronic pattern variation as a window on what has
been happening in a community over the last few
generations.

16. • Critical period represent:
a. Developmental changes in the brain
b. Changes in receptiveness or attitude of language
learners
c. A mixture of psychological and social factors

17. • Multilingualism society
• Language acquisition and Language learning

18. • One relatively effortless and subconcious process of
young learners.
• Linguistics input are simple/only a few.
• Result : Native like
• Children acquire language through a subconscious
process during which they are unaware of grammatical
rules. This is similar to the way they acquire their first
language. They get a feel for what is and what isn’t
correct.

19. • More concious process associated with adults.
• Linguistics inputs = large number of inputs
• Less native-like
• Language learning is not communicative. It is the result
of direct instruction in the rules of language. And it
certainly is not an age-appropriate activity for your young
learners.
• In language learning, students have conscious
knowledge of the new language and can talk about that
knowledge. They can fill in the blanks on a grammar
page.

20. The changing that happened on each generation in a
community.
It shows progressively more and more frequent used of a
variant.
* The basis of generational change is apparent time .

21. • Profiles of Change:
a.Generational Change
b.Lifespan change
c.Community wide change

22. • Pronounciation or grammar
• Take place after the critical period.
• Contrained by the community (generational change) and
input from the speaker itself.

23. • An entire group or community switch to use of a new
variant at about the same time.
Example:
a. Avoiding the terms or reference that made up part of
his/her name, when a leader dies, to respect him/her.
b. Borrowing a vocab from the neighbourhood language.

24. • Meyerhoff, Miriam. 2006. Introducing Sociolinguistics.
London : Routledge.