Language and Dialect

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Language and Dialect
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Language vs. Dialect

• A language is a dialect with an army and a
  navy.
• Usually language refers to the DOMINANT
  dialect, which is perceived as closest to the
  STANDARD form used in writing.
• As Ottenheimer notes, we often think of dialects
  of a language as being mutual intelligible with
  one another (speakers of each dialect can
  understand speakers of the other dialects and
  vice versa)

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Dialects (Varieties)

• A dialect is a regionally or socially distinctive
  variety of a language, identified by a particular
  set of words (vocabulary) and grammatical
  structures, as well as a certain phonology.
• To avoid the stigma of dialect, most linguists
  use the word linguistic variety instead

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Prestige and Stigma

• A prestige variety is a dialect associated with
  mainstream social prestige for example a
  dialect that sounds educated or sophisticated
• A stigmatized variety is a dialect associated
  with negative features, from a mainstream social
  perspective e.g. uneducated lower class

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Negative prestige

• A negative prestige variety is one that is
  associated with negative social value, but also
  carries a lot of prestige in certain social
  groups.
• Example Male speakers of certain regional
  dialects (North End Boston) are often considered
  extra-masculine within their social group

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Language Attitudes

• Language attitudes are attitudes about language.
  
• Examples include beautiful, ignorant, lazy,
  logical, clear, melodious, primitive, precise,
  passive, forceful etc.
• What are some of the stereotypes we relate to
  different dialects in the US?

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Language and cultural differences

• communicative practices are habitual language
  practices groups of people use to communicate
  with each other and to create and maintain
  distinct groups/identities
• Example use of rising intonation in Southern
  dialects of English.
• http//classweb.gmu.edu/accent/english45.html

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Language is not homogenous!

• Language isnt now and never was homogenous, that
  is, the same across all speakers, regions or
  situations.
• In fact, variation across speakers or groups of
  speakers is part of the reason why language
  change occurs

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One language ? One Culture

• Speakers of the same language may still differ in
  important ways in terms of their norms and
  expectations for language use.
• This might include
• Accent (pronunciation of words)
• Word meanings
• Appropriate speech in different situations
• Paralinguistic rules (gaze, gesture etc.)
• Proxemics
• Other community- or group-based
  conventions/expectations

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Speech Community

• A speech community is a group of people who share
  a set of rules and norms for communication and
  interpretation of speech.
• Rules and norms includes everything from
  intonation and vocabulary, to body positioning
  and eye contact
• Ottenheimer pg. 94 A speech community is a
  group of people who share one or more varieties
  of language and the rules for using those
  varieties in everyday communication.

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• The idea of a speech community allows us to do
  two things
• 1) Focus on a smaller social unit than all the
  speakers of a language.
• 2) Get away from the idea that one language
  one culture
• Can we belong to more than one speech community?

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Competence

• Communicative competence refers to what we know
  when we really know a language. It means that we
  can recognize and use a broad range of registers,
  and that we know the meanings of different
  communicative practices used by most people in a
  given speech community.

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Ethnography of Speaking

• The ethnography of speaking focuses on describing
  features of different speech communities
• includes descriptions of explicit norms for
  communication
• details verbal, nonverbal and social expectations
  surrounding interaction
• focuses on particular contexts and types of
  speech events, and how language changes in
  different situations

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• Members of a speech community SHARE ideas about
  appropriate conduct in different speech
  situations
• When two people come from different speech
  communities and dont share ideas about
  appropriate conduct, miscommunication often
  occurs.

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Miscommunication

• miscommunication - a misinterpretation of
  intended meaning failure to achieve
  communication
• Miscommunication occurs all the time within
  speech communities, but across speech communities
  miscommunication often occurs at regular points
  where rules and norms are different in the two
  communities

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Bailey article

• Example of ethnography of communication
• About miscommunication across ethnic lines
• Focuses on interactional styles the basic ways
  people organize their interactions with one
  another based on expectations for those
  interactions

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Politeness strategies or styles

• involvement strategy express approval and
  emphasizes solidarity (African-American)
• restraint strategy emphasizes unwillingness to
  impose on others (Korean)

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Social Consequences of Miscommunication

• Each side engages in inappropriate behavior by
  the standards of the other
• The service encounter breaks down
• Cultural stereotypes and animosity are reinforced

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Norms and expectations

• Koreans business encounter should not be
  personal should focus on business and involve
  minimum of speaking
• African American business encounter should be a
  social encounter that emphasizes a relationship
  between interactants

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• According to the information Bailey gives, do
  Koreans and African Americans in LA belong to
  different speech communities?
• Understanding how norms for communication differ
  across communities can help ease
  tensions/stereotypes

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Register

• register is a term that describes how language
  varies across situations
• Ottenheimer varieties of a language that are
  considered appropriate to specific situations
  formal informal babytalk
• Agar examples Scuba divers, junkies

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Ways of Speaking

• Registers can be described as ways of speaking
• The way you speak to an older person
• a baby
• when you are
  joking

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Register features

• Registers exist WITHIN dialects.
• However, registers usually involve variations in
  vocabulary, pitch, pacing, and sometimes
  phonology and intonation.
• e.g. most formal registers in English have less
  pitch variation than informal ones, plus a
  distinct vocabulary, and pacing that may be
  slower or faster than casual ones

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Film American Tongues

• As you watch, think about this quote from two
  leading sociolinguists
• Although public discrimination on the grounds of
  race, religion and social class is not now
  acceptable, it appears that discrimination on
  linguistic grounds is publicly acceptable, even
  though linguistic differences may themselves be
  associated with ethnic, religious and class
  differences.
• quote from L. Milroy and J. Milroys Authority in
  Language

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Discussion

• Examples of prestige, stigmatized and negative
  prestige dialects?
• Thinking about the definition of speech
  community, are dialect and worldview connected?

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Do we all speak one language?

• One language ? One culture
• Obvious examples from American Tongues
• What cultural differences did people focus on
  when also describing regional or socio-economic
  differences in language?