Transcript Sociolinguistics

Linguistics
Studied structure of languages
Studied langue
Adequate to study one person
Speech dismissed as random variation
Sociolinguistics
Study actual speech
Study attitudes and values relating to
speech
Must understand patterns of speech to
understand language change
Anthropology
Had to learn language before could do
other research
Used speech as a way to study other
cultural patterns
Ethnography of speaking
Study of cultural rules which organize
speech.
Assume speech is patterned in
culturally-specific and cross-culturally
variable ways
Sociology
Used speech to study other social
patterns
Sociology of Language
Study institutional factors that influence
speech such as choice of language,
language switch
Study individual factors such as values,
identity
Communicative Competence
What does a speaker need to know to
speak appropriately beyond grammar
and vocabulary
What to say/not to say to whom, when,
where
Change from former
assumptions
Speech was assumed to be without
system
Functions of speech assumed to be
universally the same
1 Language=1 Culture = 1Community
Ethnocentrism
Judge others according to the values
of your own society
Misinterpret other cultures because you
use the concepts of your own culture
Ethnocentrism
All societies are ethnocentric.
Western ethnocentrism has had great
impact on the world
Cultural relativism
Understand the values and customs of
another culture in terms of that culture
Make the effort to understand the other
culture in its own terms
Be hesitant about judging
Try to understand, not necessarily to
accept or agree
Moral relativism
The position that there is no way for us
as individuals to judge right from
wrong. This would mean that, as
individuals, we could never disapprove
of what any society did.
NOT PRACTICED BY ANTHROPOLOGISTS
When confronting the culturally
unfamiliar
React emotionally/ethnocentrically
Suspend judgment, investigate, try to
be culturally relative
Reach a thoughtful personal judgment