Question

In most every society there exists segmentation, usually on several levels. What about class, ethnic realities and “race” causes people in our society to speak differently from so-called main-stream English? What do linguistic distinctions tell us about the social reality?

Answer 1

As per sociolinguists, language is a social and cultural product, and hence any variation in it has to be seen in the social context. Different languages that are spoken reflect different regional,social and ethnic standing.

Social variables:

a) style (degree of formality within a social context)

b) Social characteristics (class,race,ethnicity, gender and age)

c) Social structure (norms and roles)

d) Social status (ranking)

They are independent varaibles to the dependent LINGUISTIC variables. Frequent deviation (from standard or proper form) in this dependent variable is observed in relation to differing social circumstances . This deviation forms a continuum with variance in accent and dialect that focuses on phonemes, morphemes,phrases and clauses.

For example, i) use of suffix -ing(pronunciation) - in a research by J.L.Fisher(1958), less standard form 'in' used by working-class children than by middle-class children more frequently in casual context than formal ones.

ii) Labov found postvolic 'r' pronounced by most upper middle-class, whereas dropped by most New Yorkers in casual setting than formal ones . Also, lower middle class women dropped 'r' more often Practically never using it. He used the term 'hypercorrection' as a hypothesis to explain that lower middle class women's readiness/adaptability to change the language to suit social circumstances.

iii) Trudgill explored sex and social class as determinants in a study. He found working-male class used less standard form of -ing more frequently by their women counterparts. He as others concluded, women are more likely than men to use standard forms of language and have rich repotire of linguistic variations. A common explanation given is women are more status-concious and are less secured than men and therefore use a more prestigious language form They are also more likely to use interprsonal strategy called 'face' to maintain self-esteem in soacial exchanges.

ETHNOMETHODOLOGY ( developed by H. Garfinkel) is an approach that examines perception of social reality is affected human agency and language usage. It insists on the role of the actor ,i.e., how he uses language(which might be distinct) to create and maintain that ongoing sense of reality. The processes of meaning formation that produce social reality are already linguistically conditioned. One's experiences related to anything abstract or concrete are always imbibed into the language.