Group

1
Group Individual Differences(Simplified)

• Regional or Social Dialects
• GROUP Differences
• or INTER-Speaker differences
• Style
• INDIVIDUAL Differences
• or INTRA-Speaker differences

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2
Social Distance Scale

• Intimate Distant
• High Low
• Solidarity Solidarity

Holmes, Janet. 2013. An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics, 4th edition. London Pearson,
p. 9.
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3
Social Status Scale

• Superior High Status
• Subordinate Low Status

Holmes, Janet. 2013. An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics, 4th edition. London Pearson,
p. 10.
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4
Foreigner Talk 1

• (a) High frequency vocabulary
• (b) Fewer contractions
• (c) Repetition of nouns in place of pronouns
• (d) Shorter sentences
• (e) Simpler syntax

Holmes, Janet. 2013. An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics, 4th edition. London Pearson,
pp. 242, 267-268 adapted.
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5
Foreigner Talk 2

• (f) Possibly fewer inflectional endings
• (g) Use of tag questions (easy to respond to)
• (h) Repetition
• (i) Increased volume
• (j) Slower

Holmes, Janet. 2013. An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics, 4th edition. London Pearson,
pp. 242, 267-268 adapted.
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6
Speech Accommodation

• When people talk to each other their speech
  often becomes more similar. In other words each
  persons speech converges towards the speech of
  the person they are talking to. This process is
  called speech accommodation.

Holmes, Janet. 2013. An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics, 4th edition. London Pearson,
p. 245.
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7
Areas of Speech Convergence

• 1. Speed of speech
• 2. Length of utterances
• 3. Frequency of pauses
• 4. Grammatical patterns
• 5. Verbal fillers or pragmatic particles
• 6. Intonation
• 7. Voice pitch
• 8. Pronunciation

Holmes, Janet. 2013. An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics, 4th edition. London Pearson,
pp. 245, 268.
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8
Register

• Styles are often analysed along a scale of
  formality, as in the examples from social dialect
  research discussed above. Registers, on the
  other hand, when they are distinguished from
  styles, tend to be associated with particular
  groups of people or sometimes specific situations
  of use. Journalese, baby-talk, legalese, the
  language of auctioneers, race-callers, and sports
  commentators, the language of airline pilots,
  criminals, financiers, politicians and disc
  jockeys, the language of the courtroom and the
  classroom, could all be considered examples of
  different registers. The term registers here
  describes the language of groups of people with
  common interests or jobs, or the language used in
  situations associated with such groups.

Holmes, Janet. 2013. An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics, 4th edition. London Pearson,
p. 262
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9
What should we call it?

• ? Register
• ? Specialized Terminology
• ? Jargon

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