Sociolect
In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a form of language or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, a profession, an age group or other social group.
Sociolects involve both passive acquisition of particular communicative practices through association with a local community, as well as active learning and choice among speech or writing forms to demonstrate identification with particular groups. The term sociolect might refer to socially-restricted dialects, but it is sometimes also treated as equivalent with the concept of register, or used as a synonym for jargon and slang.
Individuals who study sociolects are called sociolinguists. Sociolinguists study language variation. Sociolinguists define a sociolect by examining the social distribution of specific linguistic terms. For example, a sociolinguist would examine the use of the second person pronoun "you" for its use within the population. If one distinct social group used 'yous' as the plural form of the pronoun then this could indicate the existence of a sociolect. A sociolect is distinct from a regional dialect because social class rather than geographical subdivision substantiates the unique linguistic features.
Overview
A sociolect, defined by Peter Trudgill, a leading sociolinguist and philosopher, is "a variety or lect which is thought of as being related to its speakers' social background rather than geographical background". This idea of sociolect began with the commencement of dialectology, the study of different dialects in relation to social society, which has been established in countries such as England for many years, but only recently has the field garnered more attention. However, as opposed to a dialect, the basic concept of a sociolect is that a person speaks in accordance with their social group whether it is with regard to one's ethnicity, age, gender, etc. As William Labov once said, "the sociolinguistic view…is that we are programmed to learn to speak in ways that fit the general pattern of our communities". Therefore, what we are surrounded with in unison with our environment determines how we speak; hence, our actions and associations.Distinguished from dialect
The main distinction between sociolects and dialects proper, which are often confused, is the settings in which they are created. A dialect's main identifier is geography: a certain region uses specific phonological, morphosyntactic or lexical rules. Asif Agha expands the concept by stating that "the case where the demographic dimension marked by speech are matters of geographic provenance along, such as speaker's birth locale, extended residence and the like". However, a sociolect's main identifier is a socioeconomic class, age, gender, and ethnicity in a certain speech community.An example of a dialectal difference, based on region, is the use of the words soda or pop and coke in different parts of the United States. As Thomas E. Murray states, "coke is used generically by thousands of people, especially in the southern half of the country." On the other hand, pop is known to be a term that is used by many citizens in the northern half of the country.
An example of a sociolect difference, based on social grouping, is the zero copula in African American Vernacular English. It occurs in a specific ethnic group but in all areas of the United States. William Labov gives an example: "he here" instead of "he's here".
Definitions
Code switching is "the process whereby bilingual or bidialectal speakers switch back and forth between one language or dialect and another within the same conversation".Diglossia, associated with the American linguist Charles A. Ferguson, which describes a sociolinguistic situation such as those that obtain in Arabic-speaking countries and in German-speaking Switzerland. In such a diglossic community, the prestigious standard of 'High' variety, which is linguistically related to but significantly different from the vernacular or 'Low' varieties, has no native speakers.
Domain is "different language, dialects, or styles are used in different social contexts".
Language attitudes are "social in origin, but that they may have important effects on language behavior, being involved in acts of identity, and on linguistic change."
Linguistic variable is "a linguistic unit…initially developed...in order to be able to handle linguistics variation. Variables may be lexical and grammatical, but are most often phonological". Example of British English which is sometimes present and sometimes not.
Pragmatics is the meaning of a word in social context, while semantics has "purely linguistic meaning".
Register is "a language variety that is associated with a particular topic, subject, or activity...." Usually, it is defined by vocabulary, but has grammatical features as well.
Examples
Tamil caste system
Example 1The following is an example of the lexical distinction between the Mudaliyar and the Iyengar groups of the Tamil-speaking caste in India. The Iyengar group is part of the Brahmin caste which is scholarly and higher in the caste hierarchy than the non-Brahmin or Mudaliyar, caste. The Mudaliyars use many of the same words for things that are differentiated within the Iyengars' speech. For example, as you can see below, the difference between drinking water, water in general, and non-potable water is used by one word in the non-Brahmin caste and three separate words in the Brahmin caste. Furthermore, Agha references how the use of different speech reflects a "departure from a group-internal norm". For example, if the non-Brahmin caste uses Brahmin terms in their mode of speech it is seen as self-raising, whereas if people within the Brahmin caste use non-Brahmin speech it is seen as pejoratives. Therefore, depending on which castes use certain words the pragmatics change. Hence, this speech system is determined by socioeconomic class and social context.
| Gloss | Mudaliyar | Iyengar |
| Drinking Water | tanni | tirrto |
| Water in general | tanni | jalo |
| Non-potable water | tanni | tanni |
| Worship | puuse | puuje |
| food | sooru | saado |
| worship | puuse | puuje 'worship'// puuse 'punishment for children' |
| food | sooru/ saado | saado 'food'// sooru 'food' |
| eat | tinnu/saapdo | saapdo 'eat'// tinnu 'guzzle, etc.' |
Norwegian dialect-based sociolect
Example 2Norwegian does not have a spoken standard and is heavily dependent on dialect variants. The following example shows the difference between the national written standard and a spoken variant, where the phonology and pronunciation differ. These are not sociolectic differences per se. As Agha states, "Some lexical contrasts are due to the phonological difference, while others are due to the morphological difference between two varieties.
| Gloss | National standard | Local variety |
| I | Jeg | Eg |
| you | Deg | Deg |
| He | Han | Hanj |
| She | Hun | Ho |
| If | Hvis | Vess |
| To, toward | Til | Tell |
| Who | Hvem | Kem |
| How | Hvordan | Korsen |
Diglossia
Example 3The chart below gives an example of diglossia in Arab-speaking nations and where it is used. Diglossia is defined by Mesthrie as " situation where two varieties of a language exist side by side". The Classical Arabic is known as الفصحى, or al-fuṣḥā, while the colloquial dialect depends on the country. For example, شامي, or šāmi, is spoken in Lebanon and parts of Syria. In many situations, there is a major lexical difference among words in the classical and colloquial speech, as well as pronunciation differences, such as a difference in short vowels, when the words are the same. Although a specific example of diglossia was not given, its social context is almost if not more important. For example, Halliday tells us that "in areas with Diglossia, the link between language and success is apparent as the higher, classical register is learned through formal education".
| H | L | |
| Sermon in church or mosque | X | |
| Instructions to servants, waiters, workmen, clerks, etc. | X | |
| Personal letter | X | |
| Speech in parliament, political speech | X | |
| University lecture | X | |
| Conversation with family, friends, colleagues | X | |
| News broadcast | X | |
| Radio soap opera | X | |
| Newspaper editorial, news story, caption on picture | X | |
| Caption on political cartoon | X | |
| Poetry | X | |
| Folk literature | X |
African American Vernacular English (AAVE)
Example 4Below is an example of the addition of the verbal -s not just on 3rd person singular verbs in the present tense such as in SAE, but added onto infinitives, first-person present verbs, and 3rd person past perfect verbs.
- He can goes out.
- I don't know how to gets no girls.
- He'd knows that.
Below are examples of the lack of the possessive ending -s is usually absent in AAVE but contains a rule
As Labov shows states, " use -s to indicate possession by a single noun or pronoun, but never between the possessor and the possessed."
"This is hers, This is mines, This is John's, but not in her book, my book, John book"
"Interview with Bryan A., seven years old, a struggling reader in a West Philadelphia elementary school:
- If I don't get out my mom room, I get in trouble and when I don't get out my sister room she hit me.
- Bernicia penpal gave me one.
- That's what he did to my cousin Raymond dog at my cousin house.
- I was acting like I stole my sister food.
- At the museum, it was fun, we went in somebody heart."
Effects