Sociolinguistics and social structure

Raung-fu chungSouthern Taiwan University

social structure: area, education, age, income, gender

Social ClassDefinition: groups of people who share similarities in economic and social status

(1) Vocabulary

(2) Pronunciation: [h]-dropping & -ing vs. -in

(3) [r]-pronunciation: post-vocalic [r]

(4) Vowels: diphthongs in boat, bite and bout

(5) Other languages: [l]-deletion

(6) Grammatical patterns

[r]-Pronunciation - post-vocalic [r]In New York, Labov conducted an experiment

demonstrating that pronunciation of post-vocalic [r] varied in the city according to social groups.

Result: Nearly half the socially superior

supervisors used post-vocalic [r] while

only 18 percent of the less statusful

salespeople did and the stock boys

rarely used it at all.

Dialects and work

With [r] casual/formal

with[r] Without [r]

casual formal

Saks 30% 32% 63% 64%

Macy’s 20% 31% 44% 61%

S. Klein 4% 17% 8% 18%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

[r]有 的讀音 變異讀音 隨意讀音 強調式讀音

Saks

Macy's

S.Llein

The lower middle class (LMC), to pronounce [r] even more often than the upper middle class

(UMC).

• This is hypercorrect behavior—the LMC are overdoing it.

Trugill: Norwich’s variaton between [n] and []

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

lower

working

class

middle

worki

ng cl

ass

uppe

r work

ing cl

ass

lower

middle

class

middle

middle

class

Figure 6.3 [h]-dropping in Norwich and West Yorkshire social groups.

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1 2 3 4 5

West Yorkshire

Norwich

Table 6.2 percentage of vernacular [in] pronunciation for 4 social groups in speech communities in Britain, America, and Australia.

Social group

1 2 3 4

Norwich 31 42 91 100

West Yorkshire

5 34 61 83

New York 7 32 45 75

Brisbane 17 31 49 63

[r]-Pronunciation - post-vocalic [r]

Compare Post-vocalic [r] in Reading and New York social group

Result: In New York, pronouncing [r] is

prestigious, but, in Reading it’s not.Implication: There’s nothing inherently bad

or good about the pronunciation of any sound.

Figure 6.4 Post-vocalic [r] in Reading and

New York social group.

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5

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15

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25

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35

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45

50

1 2 3 4

Reading

New York

Montreal French:[l]-deletion

[l]-deletion differs between the social classes in Montreal French

Result: Working class people have

more [l]-deletion than the

professional.

Table 6.3 Percentage of [l]-deletion in two social classes in Montreal French

Professional Working Class

il (impersonal)

e.g. il pleut ‘t is raining’

89.9 99.6

il (personal)

e.g. il part ‘he is leaving’

71.6 100.0

elle 29.8 82.0

Past tense verb forms

FormPast tense verb forms

Present tense verb forms

Negative forms

Ain’t

Example1. I finished that book yesterday.2. I finish that book yesterday.3. Rose walks to school every

day.4. Rose walk to school every day.5. Nobody wants any chips.6. Nobody don’t want any chips.7. Jim isn’t stupid.8. Jim ain’t stupid.

Figure 6.5 Vernacular present tense verb forms(3rd person singular: she walk) in Norwich and Detroit.

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Norwich

Detroit

Language and gender

Gender-exclusive speech differences II

• These linguistic features occur only in the small differences in

Pronunciation (1) In Montana, Indian tribe. bread men [kja'tsa] vs. women [dIa'tsa] (2) In Bengali men initial [f] vs. women － initial [l]

Word-shape － Men and women use different

a. affixes.

e.g. Yana men ba-na vs. women ba ‘deer’

yaa-na vs. yaa ‘person’

c. Vocabulary － Men and women use different

e.g. Japanese men kuu vs. women taberu ‘eat’

• The linguistic features also distinguish the speech of people from different classes.

• General patterns

－ In every social status men use more vernacular forms than women.

Vernacular [in] by sex and social group in Norwich.

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1 2 3 4 5

Women

Men

Social groups or classes

Perc

en

tag

e [

in]

pro

nu

nci

ati

on

我有一個朋友在榮民總醫院上班，他是很有名的心臟外科醫生」，請問你認為我的朋友是男的還是女的？

年度 2003 2002 2001

性別 男 女 男 女 男 女

比率 87% 13% 88% 12% 91% 9%

Gender difference in language use:

male pirate

female pirate

海盜，指主動去搶劫別人者偷漢子的女人

loose man

loose woman

隨和或不太計較的人不貞或不賢慧的女人

governor

governess

政府要員，公務人員保姆，照顧小孩的女人

女： 紅杏出牆、不守婦道、離經叛道、招蜂引蝶、引狼入室、瓜田李下， 來者不拒、朝三暮四、朝秦暮楚、楊花水性、勾三搭四、三八倒貼

男： 風流倜儻、尋花問柳、偷香竊玉、逢場作戲、拈花惹草、眠花宿柳，偎紅依翠、一親芳澤、人非木石、打情罵俏、縱情酒色， 拓落不羈、情不自禁、吃的開、有男子氣慨

Politeness: [thank you]

地點 圖書館 超商 / 福利社性別 男 女 男 女人數 121/500 356/500 47/200 112/200

比率 24.2% 71.2% 23.5% 56%

Lakoff’s linguistic features as politeness devices

Tag questions

a) the referential meaning and affective meaning

b) to soften a directive or a criticism

c) used as confrontational and coercive devices

Distribution of tag questions by function and sex of speaker

Function of tag Women % Men %

Expressing uncertainty 35 61

Facilitative 59 26

Softening 6 13

Confrontational - -

Total 100 100

N 51 39

Women put more emphasis than men on the polite or affective functions of tags, using them as facilitative positive politeness devices. Men, on the other hand, used more tags for the expression of uncertainty