Correlation between Social Factors and Linguistic Variable - Essay Example

?The moment we hear a person speak, we begin to place him in some geographical region, and try to guess his socio-economic status. This shows that the kind of language one uses is a clue to one’s identity. This is because language varies in terms of its user. The user is either a man or a woman, young or old; he belongs to a specific speech community and shares the beliefs, norms and values of that community. Language varies from region to region, (dialect) and it varies from person to person (idiolect). “Language variation is pervasive.”( Akmajian, Adrian et al, 2008 ) This variation is also decided by factors like religion, social status, economic status etc. This means that social factors like age, gender, social status and ethnicity are closely associated with language variation. “ Miscommunication can occur when a member of one social group addresses a member of another social group”. ( Cutting Joan, 2002 ). Socio-linguistics is the branch of linguistics that studies language in relation to society. Socio-linguistics is partly theoretical and partly empirical – partly a matter of going out and amassing a body of facts and partly of sitting back and thinking. Hence if we want to examine the correlation between language variation and social factors, we have to investigate language samples from various parts of the world and a couple of studies carried out by researchers in this regard. Let us first consider the age factor. We do not expect an adult to babble like a child. Adult speech is notably different. Young boys and girls also use a different kind of language from adults in the same community. Youths are always keen to maintain the generation gap. This tendency is reflected in the way they create their own codes like whistling, and certain words whose meanings they share with peers. This can be called ‘teenage slang’, which ‘serves as a mark of membership and solidarity’. It is an informal style of speech, and as typical to the age group,’ slang, like fashions in clothing and popular music, changes quite rapidly. Slang terms can enter a language rapidly, and then fall out of fashion I a matter of few years or even months.’ ( Akmajian Adrian et al, 2008 ) The words which enter teenage slang are words from contemporary popular films, movies or associated with some popular singer or hero of the times. The vocabulary is as transient as the popularity. Teenage slang can include words, phrases, dialogues, characteristic tones, strange pronunciations and also syntactic patterns. Without doubt, it would sound out-of-place and shocking if a respectable adult uses teenage style of speech. This shows that the age factor is closely related to age factor. Gender is another important factor that affects speech. In most communities, men and women do not use identical language. Just as sounds like /s/, /f/ and /l/ have a typical onomatopoeic bearing, certain sounds are feminine in nature. At the lexical level, ‘adjectives like lovely, darling and cute may carry feminine associations, as do words that describe precise shades of color like mauve---‘. ( Finegan Edward, 1999 ) In some languages like Japanese, there is a dramatic difference between the speech of men and women. Here are two examples: 1. Oh dear, you’ve put the butter in the refrigerator again. 2. Damn, you have put the butter in the refrigerator again. Anyone can easily guess that utterance (1) above is uttered by a woman and (2) by a man. Women are also generally observed to be more talkative and speak in a higher pitch compared to men. The topics of discussion also differ among men and women. Some forms used by men in Koasati Indians of Louisiana are also used by middle-aged women in the community. This shows that linguistic variability can be accounted for by the role that people play in their community. Men play the authoritative role. The same authority is enjoyed by elderly women, hence, the similarity in language. In many Oriental languages, the second person plural is used by women even to address a single man, in order to show respect. This also indicates subordination of women. “Superiority in males is a myth found in all languages’. ( N. Krishnaswamy et al, 2008 ). Language is deeply rooted in culture.”Language is culture preserving as well as culture transmitting”. ( N. Krishnaswamy et al, 2008 ). Every cultural community shares a set of values, beliefs and knowledge, which are shared by members of that group. “Ethnocentricity, or belief in the superiority of one’s own ethnic group, is manifested in the use of language. Ethnocentricism is actually maintained through language by creating myth. Every culture has the process of myth creation through language”. ( N. Krishnaswamy et al, 2008 ) The most notable social dialects of American English are ethnic varieties. We come cross ‘Yinglish’, a variety of English influenced by Yiddish speakers who have settled in America. In some parts of the country, the speech of African American residents is becoming increasingly distinct from the speech of White residents. African American vernacular English and Chicano English are also ethnic varieties. Ethnicity is sometimes racial. Difference in the speech of Black and White Americans is well-known. It often happens that a particular section of a community gains a dominant and superior position in society on account of various reasons like the geographical area, profession, economic status, political dominance etc. Such a case can be observed among the Maharashtrian Brahmin community who were learned people, and were exclusively permitted to take education and engage in superior professions. Religious rights were solely given to Brahmins. The Marathi used by the community is recognized today as the standard dialect. The other sections were looked upon as inferior to the Brahmin community, and so the dialects of other sections were also considered to be inferior. Similarly, social distance can also create different dialects. Middle-class dialects differ from working class dialects because of lack of sustained contacts across the social boundaries. It is observed that there is a notable difference in the speech pattern of people belonging to an educated and higher class and uneducated and lower class. In fact, a man establishes his identity in society through language. Language is also related to religion. A religious person uses terms related to religion in his speech. It is strongly influenced by social and psychological factors such as religious and nationalistic ideologies. In Northern India, Indians speak Hindi but the Muslims speak in that region speak Urdu. Both are quite similar in every respect, and until recently, were considered to be a single language called Hindustani. But the users consider themselves as belonging to different religious and political groups and while the Hindus use Hindi, the Muslims insist on using Urdu. They will continue to be increasingly differentiated, like French and Spanish. Educated people use the standard dialect of their language. Their language is clear, respectable and carefully planned. Their vocabulary is highly developed. On the contrary, uneducated people seem to have a limited vocabulary and take advantage of formulaic expressions in their speech. Economic status also affects speech. An interesting experiment was carried out by William Labov to study this, in New York City. William Labov hypothesized that pronunciation of /r/ or not pronouncing it in words like fourth, beer and car would differ in two socially ranked groups in New York. ( Labov William, 1972 ). He conducted a study on sales person in different malls where they had to deal with different social class customers. Remarkably, Lobov found that all variables were socially stratified. The higher the socio-economic status of the individual, the more likely that individual was to pronounce /r/. His study undoubtedly proves that certain features of speech correlate with economic status. On the basis of the above discussion we can conclude that factors like age, gender, social status and ethnicity correlate with linguistic variables to a great extent. Sociolinguistic approach throws light on language as well as society. Language loses its identity with society. REFERENCES Prasad, Tarni. A Course in Linguistics. 1st. New Delhi: Prentice Hall of India, 2008. Print. Cutting, Joan. Pragmatics and Discourse. 2nd. London: Routledge, 2002. Print. Krishnaswamy.N, Verma, S..K., Nagarajan, M., First. Modern Applied Linguistics. 1st. Hyderabad: Macmillan , 2008. Print Labov, William. Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennysylvania Press, 1972. Print Finegan, Edward. Language-Its Structure and Use. 3rd. London: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1999. 370-410. Print Akmajian Adrian, Demers, Richard A., Farmer, Ann k., Harnish, robert M. , First. Linguistics - An Introduction to Language and Communication. 5th. New Delhi: Prentice Hall of India Pvt ltd., 2008. 275 - 295. Print. Read More