An invitation to sociolinguistics

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An invitation to (socio)linguistics

• Richard Hudson,
• Department of Phonetics and Linguistics, UCL

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Plan

• 1.Language learning and facts about language
• 2. An example Naming in English
• 3. Naming in other languages
• 4. Sociolinguistics
• 5. Linguistics
• 6. Conclusion

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Language learning and facts about language

• Students want facts about English.
• Teachers know facts about English (and how to
  teach them)
• Researchers discover facts about English.
• This research is called Linguistics.
• For example,

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Naming in English

• Who am I?
• Professor Hudson
• Richard Anthony Hudson
• Dr R A Hudson
• Richard Hudson
• Hudson
• Hudson, Richard
• Dick
• Dad

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The grammar of English names

• Three word-classes
• Title (Mr, Prof, )
• Given name (John, Mary, )
• Family name (Hudson, Smith, )
• Normal order

Title
Given
Family
Mr
John
Smith
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Possible combinations

• T G F Professor Richard Hudson
• T F Professor Hudson
• G F Richard/Dick Hudson
• G Richard/Dick
• T Doctor ok for some titles
• F Hudson NB old-fashioned!
• NotT F Professor Dick ungrammatical!!

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The sociolinguistics of English names

• Classification Sex (Mr/Mrs John/Mary)
• The Solidarity hierarchy
• The Power hierarchy

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Solidarity relations to a
Stranger
Acquaintance
Friend/relative
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Power relations to a
Superior
Equal
Subordinate
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To a close equal a young friend
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To a close equal an old friend
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To an even closer equal
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To a close subordinate a child
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Even more subordinate a pet
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To equal acquaintances
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To a superior stranger
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What name do you use?

• To superior stranger TF (Mr Smith)
• To subordinate relative G (John)
• To superior relative T (Dad)
• To equal acquaintance G
• To superior acquaintance ?

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Inequality reigns

• salesman is subordinate to customer
• dentist is superior to patient
• teacher is superior to student
• What if student customer???

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Does naming matter?

• To the hearer Yes.
• To the speaker Yes.
• A wrong choice can offend or hurt.
• Decisions are difficult.
• The better you speak English, the more a wrong
  choice will offend.

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Naming in other languages

• Differences exist in
• grammar
• sociolinguistics

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Different grammar

• word classes
• no family names Arabic
• combinations
• T G is ok Japanese
• order
• F - G, not G - F Chinese

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Different sociolinguistics

• sex not shown in titles Japanese
• G to superior relative some English
• Husband gives a new G
• some places

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What is sociolinguistics?

• Sociolinguistics is the study of language(s)
  in relation to society.

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Another area of sociolinguistics greetings

• For example Hi!
• Who uses it?
• When do they use it?
• Why do they use it?

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SociolinguisticsDialect grammar

• For example He may can come.
• Who uses it?
• How is the grammar different from standard
  English?

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Sociolinguistics Register grammar

• For example With whom do you work?
• Who uses this construction?
• When do they use it?
• How does it fit into the whole grammar?

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Some undergraduate projectsin sociolinguistics

• Do I pronounce words differently when I speak to
  different people?
• Differences in the use of names between English
  and Italian newspapers.
• Vocabulary differences between magazines for
  women and for men.
• The dialect of my home village.
• The playground language of children in my primary
  school.

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What is linguistics?

• Linguistics is the study of language(s).
• Some branches of linguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• Phonetics
• Grammar
• Semantics
• Pragmatics, etc.

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languages

• big languages Spanish, Chinese, ...
• small languages Welsh, Beja,
• very small (and dying) languages
• Gaelic,
• maybe 90 of the worlds 6,000 languages?

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Phonetics How we pronounce words.

• The International Phonetic Alphabet
• f?n?tiks
• phi?

peel
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Grammar morphology How we build words
nature

al
al
Noun

natural

un
Adjective

un
unnatural
ly

Adjective
ly

unnaturally
Adverb
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Grammar syntax How we combine words
Read!
books
Verb
Noun
Read books!
big
Verb Noun
Adj.
Read
books!
big
Verb
Noun
Adj.
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SemanticsWhat words mean

• Words have many different kinds of meaning.
• Bicycle
• Ride
• Cyclist
• Know
• The
• And

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PragmaticsHow we choose words.

• For example, how would you describe me?
• A linguist
• An academic
• A cyclist
• A husband
• A man
• A person

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PsycholinguisticsHow we process words mentally

• How do we plan what we say?
• Why do we sometimes make mistakes?
• For example, Dr Spooner (an Oxford academic in
  the 19th Century) gave his name to spoonerisms.

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Even natives make mistakes.
Young man, you have
Next word ?
wasted
term
Planned
worm
Similar
tasted
Result
tasted the whole worm.
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Historical linguistics How language changes.

• How has English changed since Shakespeare?
• Oh Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?
• Why has English changed?
• How is English changing now?

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Conclusion

• All this language research is important for
  language teachers and learners (and others).
• But it's also interesting and an excellent
  subject to study at university.

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This slide-show can be downloaded from

• www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/invitation.htm