LIN200H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Language Change, Sociolinguistics, Everyman
LIN200 Lecture 10
November 16th
-language change from a to b
-A is the conservative variable and B is the innovative variable
-sociolinguistics is the study of variation in language change
-someone’s social identity groups them into whether they’re using A or B
-thus, these variants become markers of these identities
-if i use A, i’m presenting myself as if I belong to group X
-A and B acquire meaning in a sociolinguistic sense
-instead of a word just having it’s basic semantics and pragmatics, there is an additional
layer of meaning
-picking one of these variants is a way of expressing extra information
-prestigious variant vs stigmatized variant
-good and bad, even though, linguistically, there is nothing good or bad about each
variant
-it’s just an accident of history that one of them gets counted as prestigious and the other
doesn’t
-typically, the way rich white men speak happens to become prestigious, and the way
everyone else speaks becomes stigmatized
-covert prestige: when a stigmatized variant carries it’s own level of prestige in certain
situations
-ex. someone going to a local hole in the wall pub speaking with prestige will not
get you good service, but if you speak the way every one else does, you’ll be able to get
good service
-stigmatized variants still carry some weight, but only if you’re in that group
-e.g. george w bush put on a texan accent to gain covert prestige, to posit him as the
everyman candidate
-social groups/identities can affect your variation
-register is a level of formality (varies depending on the person, as one’s social identity
affects their version of what is formal)
-some of this information is encoded directly into the language (i.e. titles like Mr. Mrs. Dr.
Prof.), but not all of it
-by and large, no one has to sit you down and tell you all of this, you instinctively know
all this
Three Major Types of Variables
-Indicator, Marker, and Stereotype
-indicator is below level of consciousness: people don’t even realize that they do it
-since we’re not aware of them, we don’t manipulate them
-doesn’t vary from situation to situation: not register dependent, not dependent on
social identity
-marker is within subconscious control to be used as a way of marking particular
identities: can be controlled, but is often still not something we are consciously aware we
are doing
-markers vary in when they get used
-a stereotype is something that is so above the level of consciousness, that not only
speakers are aware that they do it, but so are people outside of the community
-this can be controlled and commented on
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Ex. someone going to a local hole in the wall pub speaking with prestige will not. A is the conservative variable and b is the innovative variable. Sociolinguistics is the study of variation in language change. Someone"s social identity groups them into whether they"re using a or b. Thus, these variants become markers of these identities. If i use a, i"m presenting myself as if i belong to group x. A and b acquire meaning in a sociolinguistic sense. Instead of a word just having it"s basic semantics and pragmatics, there is an additional layer of meaning. Picking one of these variants is a way of expressing extra information. (cid:1688)good(cid:1689) and (cid:1688)bad,(cid:1689) even though, linguistically, there is nothing good or bad about each variant. It"s just an accident of history that one of them gets counted as prestigious and the other doesn"t.
