Sociolinguistics (and the basics of language attitudes)

Summary

This video script delves into the fascinating field of sociolinguistics, exploring how social norms and contexts influence language use. It highlights the importance of understanding the social roles language plays, such as the use of different 'you' pronouns in various languages and the subtleties of politeness in English. The script also examines language variation across social groups, generational slang, and the impact of language attitudes on group identity and stereotypes. Sociolinguistics is presented as an intersectional study, relevant to pragmatics, social psychology, and the sociology of language, offering insights into both the social influences on language and the language's impact on society.

Takeaways

• 📚 Sociolinguistics is a branch of linguistics that studies the influence of social factors on language use.
• 🌐 Sociolinguists explore various aspects including social norms, language varieties, group memberships, and language attitudes.
• 🗣️ Different languages may have distinct forms for 'you' based on social context, highlighting the importance of social norms in language.
• 👥 English, despite having a single word for 'you', still varies in formality through different phrases and expressions.
• 🏷️ Sociolinguists analyze language features to understand social norms and how they drive language use.
• 🔍 Language variation can indicate regional or social group affiliations, such as accents and specific vocabulary.
• 👵👦 Age and generational differences can lead to unique language varieties, with younger generations often introducing new terms and expressions.
• 📉 Older generations sometimes view younger generations' language use as a corruption of the language, reflecting a historical pattern of resistance to change.
• 👂 Language attitudes involve the perceptions and stereotypes associated with different language varieties, which can be both positive and negative.
• 🤝 Sociolinguistics intersects with other fields like pragmatics and social psychology to understand the complex relationship between language and society.
• 🔄 Language change is a natural process, and sociolinguists study how these changes help identify group memberships and reflect social dynamics.

Q & A

What is sociolinguistics and why is it important in the study of language?

Sociolinguistics is a subfield of linguistics that focuses on how social norms, language varieties, group memberships, and language attitudes affect language use. It is important because it helps us understand how language is used in different social contexts and how it reflects and shapes social identities.

Why might having multiple words for 'you' in a language be significant?

Having multiple words for 'you' can be significant because it reflects the social norms and levels of formality within a language community. It allows speakers to convey respect, familiarity, or social distance based on the specific social situation.

How does English reflect social norms for formality even though it has only one word for 'you'?

English reflects social norms for formality through various linguistic cues such as the choice of greeting, the use of titles, and the level of politeness in phrasing requests or commands.

What is the role of imperative forms and politeness markers in English commands?

Imperative forms are used to give direct commands, but they can be softened with politeness markers like 'please' or turned into questions to make them sound less direct and more considerate of the listener's autonomy.

Why is it insufficient to know only the grammar of a language to use it effectively in social contexts?

Knowing only the grammar is insufficient because language is used within specific social and cultural contexts that have their own norms. Being aware of these norms and how they are reflected in language use is crucial for effective communication.

How does language variation within a country, like in the United States, reveal regional and social identities?

Language variation, including accents, vocabulary, and grammatical structures, can indicate where a person is from and what social group they belong to, thus serving as markers of regional and social identities.

What is the significance of different language varieties used by different age groups?

Different language varieties used by different age groups, such as the innovative vocabulary and expressions created by millennials, can signal generational identity and distinguish one generation from another.

Why might older generations perceive the language use of younger generations as 'corrupting the language'?

Older generations might perceive younger generations' language use as corrupting because it deviates from the established norms and conventions they are accustomed to, reflecting a natural resistance to change and a nostalgia for the past.

What is the relationship between language attitudes and group membership?

Language attitudes are closely tied to group membership because the language variety a person uses is associated with their social identity. People tend to favor the language of their in-group and may hold stereotypes about out-group language varieties.

How do stereotypes associated with language varieties influence our perceptions of speakers?

Stereotypes associated with language varieties can quickly trigger preconceived notions about a speaker's social attributes, such as their education level, personality traits, or social status, which may not be grounded in reality.

Why is it important for sociolinguists to understand the mechanisms behind language attitudes?

Understanding the mechanisms behind language attitudes is important for sociolinguists because it helps them analyze how language use reflects and reinforces social structures, identities, and power dynamics within a community.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Introduction to Sociolinguistics

The video script begins with an introduction to sociolinguistics, a subfield of linguistics that explores the relationship between language and society. The speaker, Marc Franco, welcomes viewers to Snap Language and outlines the main areas of interest within sociolinguistics, such as social norms, language varieties, group memberships, and language attitudes. The script uses the example of differentiating pronouns in various social situations to illustrate the concept of sociolinguistics, highlighting how language reflects and is influenced by social contexts. It also touches on the idea that understanding a language's grammar is not enough to use it effectively without being aware of the social norms that guide its use.

05:02

🌐 Language Variation and Group Membership

This paragraph delves into the concept of language variation within distinct social groups and how it can reveal a person's geographical origin or even specific city. The script discusses how language variation is not limited to phonology but extends to all aspects of language, including vocabulary and grammar. Examples are given of regional dialects in the United States and how they can indicate group membership. The speaker also mentions how language innovations by younger generations can be distinctive and sometimes judged by older generations, emphasizing that language change is a natural process and that sociolinguists are interested in understanding how these variations help identify group affiliations.

10:02

🗣️ Language Attitudes and Stereotyping

The third paragraph focuses on language attitudes, which are the perceptions and judgments people have about different language varieties. The script explains how language varieties are associated with in-groups and out-groups, and how quickly people categorize others based on their language use. It discusses the concept of language prestige and non-prestige, and how certain dialects can trigger both positive and negative stereotypes. Examples of how different accents and language features are perceived in the United States are provided, illustrating the complexity and subjectivity of language attitudes. The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding the mechanisms behind these attitudes in sociolinguistics.

15:05

🤝 Sociolinguistics and Interdisciplinary Connections

The final paragraph discusses the interdisciplinary nature of sociolinguistics, highlighting its connections with other fields such as pragmatics, social psychology, and the sociology of language. The script suggests that understanding the role of society on language use requires insights from these related fields. The speaker also encourages viewer engagement by asking for likes, subscriptions, and notifications to support the creation of future videos on sociolinguistics. The paragraph ends with a humorous note, challenging the stereotype that millennials 'talk funny,' and reinforcing the idea that language is a dynamic and ever-changing aspect of society.

Keywords

💡Sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics is the study of the relationship between language and society. It explores how social norms, language varieties, group memberships, and language attitudes influence language use. In the video, sociolinguistics is the central theme, with examples provided to illustrate how social context affects language, such as the use of different forms of 'you' in various social situations.

💡Social norms

Social norms refer to the unwritten rules that dictate appropriate behaviors in a society or group. The video explains how social norms can influence language, such as the use of formal and informal pronouns to address people differently based on social context. An example given is the English language's reflection of social norms through varying levels of formality in greetings and requests.

💡Language varieties

Language varieties encompass the different forms and dialects of a language that emerge due to regional, social, or cultural differences. The video script discusses how language varieties can indicate a person's geographical origin or social identity, using the example of regional dialects in the United States and how they can reveal where someone is from based on their accent or vocabulary.

💡Group memberships

Group memberships are affiliations with social groups that share common characteristics, such as age, gender, or social status. The video describes how language can signal group membership through the use of specific accents, vocabulary, or grammatical structures that are unique to certain groups, creating a sense of belonging and identity.

💡Language attitudes

Language attitudes are the opinions and feelings people have towards different language varieties or the way people speak. The video script highlights how attitudes can be influenced by stereotypes associated with certain language varieties, leading to judgments about a speaker's social status or personality traits, such as perceiving a Southern accent as friendly or a New York accent as outgoing.

💡Formal and informal 'you'

The distinction between formal and informal 'you' refers to the use of different pronouns to address people based on the level of politeness or familiarity required in a social situation. The video uses this concept to illustrate the sociolinguistic principle of how languages may have multiple ways to express 'you' to convey social relationships.

💡Imperative form

The imperative form is the grammatical form used to give commands or make requests. The video script discusses how the imperative can be softened in English by adding 'please' or turning it into a question, showing how language can be manipulated to adhere to social norms of politeness.

💡Language change

Language change refers to the evolution of language over time, including the development of new words, pronunciations, and grammatical structures. The video mentions that sociolinguists view language change as a natural process and use it to understand how group memberships are identified through language variations.

💡Stereotypes

Stereotypes are widely held but fixed and oversimplified ideas about a group of people. In the context of the video, stereotypes are associated with language varieties, leading to quick judgments about a person's characteristics based on their speech patterns, such as associating a 'Valley girl' accent with being 'clueless' or 'superficial'.

💡Language prestige

Language prestige refers to the perceived status or esteem associated with a particular language variety. The video explains that prestige dialects can trigger positive stereotypes, while non-prestige dialects may elicit negative ones, although this is not always the case, as the same variety can have both positive and negative connotations.

💡Pragmatics

Pragmatics is a subfield of linguistics that studies how context influences the meaning of language. The video mentions pragmatics as a useful tool for sociolinguists to understand how social context affects language use and meaning, such as the varying interpretations of a command based on its phrasing.

Highlights

Sociolinguistics is the study of how social norms and the social context affect language use.

In English, the distinction between formal and informal 'you' is not present, unlike in some languages.

Social norms in English are reflected in different forms of address rather than pronouns.

Sociolinguists analyze language features to understand how they reveal social norms.

Language can be adapted to convey different levels of politeness, as shown with imperative forms in English.

Sociolinguistics examines how language reflects and is influenced by social norms, including formality.

Knowing the grammar of a language is not enough to use it appropriately without understanding its social context.

Language variation within social groups can indicate group membership and identity.

Regional dialects and accents can signal where a speaker is from geographically.

Language varieties are used as markers of group membership and can indicate social status or other attributes.

Generational language differences reflect innovations and can be distinctive of a particular age group.

Language change is a natural process, and sociolinguists study how it helps identify group memberships.

Language attitudes involve stereotypical perceptions associated with different language varieties and can influence judgments.

The perception of prestige or non-prestige in language varieties can vary among different social groups.

Sociolinguistics intersects with other fields such as pragmatics and social psychology to understand language in society.

Stereotypical language perceptions are powerful and can influence behavior, even when people are aware they may not be accurate.

Understanding the mechanisms of language attitudes is a complex field of study within sociolinguistics.

Transcripts

Sociolinguistics is one of my favorite fields in linguistics.

Sociolinguists focus on things like social norms, language varieties,

group memberships, and language attitudes.

So, stick around, and let's take a look at sociolinguistics.

Hi!

Welcome to Snap Language.

I'm Marc Franco.

Sociolinguistics is a broad subfield in linguistics, so I'll go into

some of its main areas of interest.

I'll go into other details in future videos.

Think of a natural language you don't know anything about.

It could be any language.

How would you get to know it?

You might start with some vocabulary...

As soon as you start learning

some basic words and expressions, you notice it has different sounds.

You also start noticing how sentences are put together...

As you're learning things about it,

let's say you find out it has several words for "you."

Huh...

And it uses these different forms of "you" in very specific social situations.

You also realize you use different grammar depending on,

again, who you're talking to and what the social situation is.

Well, now you've entered the realm of sociolinguistics.

Sociolinguistics is the study of

how social norms and the social context affect language use.

In English, we have only one word for "you,"

so initially, having multiple ways to say "you" may not make much sense.

But when you get into the social aspect of a language that has, for example,

a formal and an informal "you," you realize that the distinction

plays an important role for the speakers of that language.

It's an important social role.

If you think about it,

although in English we use "you" to address people in any situation,

we still change the way we address them in different social contexts.

Where would you place these along a continuum of formality?

Probably like this:

"Hey!

How's it goin'?"

"Hello, how are you?"

"Good morning, sir.

How are you doing today?"

So, English does reflect social norms for formality; it's just not in the pronoun.

Some people may judge the social norms of a culture

based on a superficial linguistic feature.

So, to speakers of a language that has formal and informal forms of "you"

English may sound "too direct" or "rude."

But a sociolinguist would analyze

a number of possible features in the language that reveals

how social norms drive language use.

Let's look at another example in English.

We have only one imperative form of the verb, as in "Come with me!"

Direct commands are not always socially appropriate,

so we might add "please" to add a level of politeness.

But it still sounds a bit direct, so how about adding a question tag?

"Come with me, will you please?"

"Come with me, would you please?"

Hah... that makes the command sound friendlier and friendlier, doesn't it?

But the verb is still in the imperative form.

What if we got rid of it altogether?

"Will you please come with me?" or

"Would you please come with me?"

Oh, that's even more polite.

We could go a step further with

"Would you mind coming with me, please?"

We could even say,

"Sorry to bother you, sir.

Would you mind coming with me, please?"

An important point to take away from this

is that sociolinguistics studies how language reflects social norms.

Different languages may have different mechanisms to follow

social norms and, for example, mark levels of formality.

You can use different pronouns or words.

In some languages you use particles whose sole function is to add nuance

to the statement.

You may achieve the same effect using syntax.

And social norms are not just about levels of formality.

(I've used this just as an example.)

Social norms can regulate how people take turns in a conversation,

how we show interest in the speaker,

how people of different social status talk to each other,

and so forth.

So, knowing the "grammar" of a language

isn't always enough to be able to use the language appropriately.

Languages are used in social and cultural contexts that have

specific social norms.

Unless you're aware of these social norms

and how the language is used to reflect them,

the grammar alone isn't enough to use the language effectively...

in its social context, that is...

That's why there are all these anecdotes about people learning a new language,

producing a perfectly well built sentence,

and causing some colossal social blunder.

[transition]

Another interesting area within sociolinguistics

has to do with language variation in distinct social groups.

In the United States, for example,

you can tell what part of the country someone is from

based on the language variety they speak.

Sometimes an accent tells you if someone is from the North or the South...

... sometimes it tells you even what city that person's from.

And it's not just the phonology.

You can find variation in all aspects of the language.

For example, in some parts of the US, you may hear something like,

"I might could go tomorrow."

In standard American English, this is considered

grammatically incorrect but, for the speakers of some regional dialects,

it's perfectly fine.

It conveys meaning in a way that's shared by that linguistic community.

SPEAKER: ".... tell the young doctor what he done well,

and what he might could've done differently"

Another example is what people call a soft drink

depending where you are in the country.

Some people call it "soda," others "pop."

Or whether you say "dinner" or "supper,"

"faucet" or "spigot,"

"bubbler" or "water fountain..."

So?...

How's this interesting for a sociolinguist?

Language varieties are not just a curiosity.

Accents and regionalisms are also used as markers of group membership.

Even within the same geographical area,

you'll find language variation that signals what groups people belong to.

So, these are groups within a group.

Even in the same area, you may find language variation

depending on the speaker's age, gender, social status, and so forth.

An example everyone can relate to

has to do with distinct language varieties in different age groups.

The younger generation tends to create changes in the language

-- innovations in vocabulary and language use.

Nick Statt: "Because, reasons."

You end up with a language variety that's distinctive of that generation.

Some innovations by millennials, for example, include

"salty," "woke," "thirsty,"

"clap back," "cancel,"

"lit," "adulting,"

and "yaaas."

If you don't know exactly what these mean,

you're probably not a millennial.

Other generations may end up adopting some of these innovations...

DR. FLETCHER: "So, if you're woke, you get it."

... but often the older generation judges the younger generations' language use.

as "corrupting the language."

"They're butchering the language!"

"They're killing the art of conversation."

"They can't even write anymore."

If you think like that... well...

you're probably not a sociolinguist;

SHTEYNGART: But maybe I'm just too old to appreciate it, you know...

... and you should also remember that probably

your generation was probably accused of the same thing...

and today's younger generation will

probably say the same things about the generation after them.

For example, in the 1300s,

a Japanese monk wrote this about what was going on at the time:

"In all things I yearn for the past.

Modern fashions seem to keep on growing more and more debased.

. . .

And as for writing letters,

surviving scraps from the past reveal how superb the phrasing used to be.

The ordinary spoken language has also steadily coarsened.

. . .

a deplorable corruption.

. . .

Dude, that's harsh!

For a linguist, language change is just a natural process.

For a sociolinguist, these differences in language use simply help us understand

how they're used to identify group memberships.

And many linguistic features can mark group membership.

As I mentioned before,

phonological differences are perceived as accents that identify certain groups.

Differences in vocabulary, grammatical constructions,

and even suprasegmental features such as voice quality and intonation...

"Like, this whole vocal fry and upspeak situation..."

[transition]

Human beings are social animals.

It's important to be part of a group,

and it's important for the group to be able to identify other members.

Our appearance can signal group membership.

We also feel we're part of a community if we behave more like its members.

And of course, language variation is a strong signal of group membership.

In turn, that creates another phenomenon sociolinguists are interested in:

Language attitudes.

Because the language variety people use is associated with group membership,

it's also a social cue used to judge them.

In very simple terms, we have in-groups and out-groups.

And, as you'd expect,

we favor the behaviors and the language variety of our in-group.

If someone uses a language variety that's distinct from ours, we quickly

put them in the out-group category.

And just as quickly,

the language attitude associated with this perceived group membership

triggers stereotypical perceptions.

In the United States, the language variety that's considered

the "standard American English"

is associated with generally positive or neutral attributes.

Speakers of so-called Southern dialects

are often associated with less-than-positive attributes

such as "uneducated."

Female speakers using some vocal qualities and intonation

(like the "California Valley girl")

are associated with being "clueless" or "superficial."

Sometimes the stereotype associated with a New York accent

is "rough" or "rude."

But... wait a minute...

sometimes people perceive a Southern accent as... sexy.

And a New York accent as outgoing and approachable.

There's something sociolinguists call language prestige and non-prestige.

Non-prestige dialects are said to trigger negative stereotypes,

and the opposite is true with prestige dialects.

But that's a bit simplistic.

Stereotypes are not always negative,

and the same language variety can trigger both positive and negative stereotypes.

For example, speakers with a Southern accent can be perceived as friendly

and charming...

Someone with a British accent can be perceived as educated and elegant

and, at the same time, stuck up or arrogant.

And, obviously, non-native accents

are not immune to these stereotyped perceptions.

In the United States, a French-accented

speaker can sometimes be perceived as sophisticated and sometimes as arrogant;

a Spanish-accented speaker as friendly and as low-status;

a German-accented speaker as

someone who strives for perfection and as overly strict or stern.

Of course, these are all based on stereotypical group attitudes.

The same language variety

(or a language, for that matter)

can be considered prestige or non-prestige

by different social groups.

This means there's nothing intrinsically good or bad

about a language variety or the people who use it.

Stereotypical perceptions can be powerful and difficult to shake.

They're triggered very quickly,

and we're usually unaware of them at a conscious level.

Even when you point them out, people often still resist changing them.

And, sadly, they end up acting on these perceptions, even when they know

they're not grounded on reality.

Ugh...

I can already hear the comments...

"Yeah, but all stereotypes are based on something for reals..."

Dude, this a video about sociolinguistics, not about justifying your isms.

Wink!

In sociolinguistics,

understanding the mechanisms involved in language attitudes is

a fascinating and very complex field of study.

In a future video, I'll go into some of these mechanisms in a little more detail.

[transition]

Sociolinguistics sometimes intersects other fields of study.

It relies on subfields of linguistics

to make sense of the role of society on language use.

Pragmatics, for example, is the study of how context influences meaning,

so it's very useful for sociolinguists.

You can draw on social psychology to understand stereotypical attitudes.

And sociology of language is the other side of the coin;

it contributes to an understanding of the impact of language on society.

I'm planning on a series of videos related to sociolinguistics but,

you see, it wouldn't make sense to make new videos on a topic

unless there's a positive response from viewers.

So, if you enjoyed this video, please give it a like,

and don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell button

so you know when we post a new Snap Language video.

And until the next time,

thanks for stopping by and watching this video.

♫

Millennials talk funny.

[laughs]

No, they don't.

♫