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Discusscalendar,readings

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Whatisconsideredgrammaticalinalanguage?
Theprescriptivevs.descriptivedebatewhatisitexactly?
Chomskyseparatesoutperformancefromcompetence
Sayslinguiststaskistoexaminecompetence,notperformance
Linguistictheoryisconcernedprimarilywithanidealspeaker
listener,inacompletelyhomogenousspeechcommunity,whoknows
itslanguageperfectlyandisunaffectedbysuchgrammaticality
irrelevantconditionssuchasmemorylimitations,distractions,shiftsof
attentionandinterest,anderrors(randomorcharacteristic)inapplying
hisknowledgeofthelanguageinactualperformance.p.3
Knowinghowtousealanguage=communicativecompetence

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Inanidealspeakerlistenerhomogenousspeechcommunity,
thereisnovariationpeopledonotchangetheirperformance
andperformancematchescompetence100%
However,thereISvariationinlanguage(aswewillseeshown
againandagainbysociolingstudies)soshouldweas
linguistsjustignorevariationandcallitbackgroundnoise?
NO!Itisinthevariation,theuseoflanguage,wherewecan
trulyexaminelinguisticcompetencevariationdoeshaveits
limitsaswellasitssocialsignificance(productionand

perception/evaluation)

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Thechallengeforsociolinguists(andsomewouldargueALLlinguists)isto
explorethecovariationoflinguisticitems(Hudson)andsocialcategories.
Linguisticitems=???

pronunciation,wordchoice,grammaticalstructures

Socialcategories=???

identity,power,class,sex,region,politeness,status,
solidarity,accommodation

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Theinteractionbetweenlanguageandsociety
1) Socialstructureinfluenceordeterminelinguisticbehavior=Youspeak
thewayyouspeakbecauseofwhoyouare
2) Linguisticstructure/behaviordeterminessocialstructure=Whorfian
hypothesis(p.230)youseetheworldthruyourlanguage
3) Influenceoflangandsocietyisbidirectional
4) Socialandlinguisticstructureareindependentofeachother=no
relationshipbetweenthe2(Chomskyagain)

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Differenttypesofsociolinguistics
ChambersfavorsVariationistapproaches(page11)
Gumperzsuggeststhatthereismorethanthisstilldoesntidentify
causality
Thereisadebateaboutwhatwecandowithsociolinguisticsandwhatwe
SHOULDbedoing.SeeCameroncritiqueonp,12

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Majortopicsinsociolinguistics:Languagechange,Variation,Boundary
marker(symbolicfunctionoflanguageasameansofgroupformation),
Multilingualism,includinglanguagecontact;languageconflict;
Relativism(linguisticrelativityhypothesis)
Applicationsofsociolinguisticresearch:education,particularlyin
multilingualsituations;communicationbreakdownsinservice
situations,industry,legalprofession,languageplanningand
engineering

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SociologyofLanguageversusSociolinguistics
Chambers1995(p.11)notesthatthesociologyoflanguagemore
concernedwiththemorepurelysocialendofthecontinuum,while
sociolinguisticswiththemorepersonal,althoughagreatdealofoverlap
inthemiddle
Sociolinguistics(a.k.a.microsociolinguistics):Thestudyofthe
relationshipsbetweenlanguageandsocietywiththegoalof
understandingthestructureoflanguage.Typicallylooksatformsand
usesoflanguageonasmallscale.
Sociologyoflanguage(a.k.a.macrosociolinguistics):Thestudyofthe
relationshipsbetweenlanguageandsocietywiththegoalof
understandingthestructureofsociety.Oftenconcernedwithlargescale
sociopoliticalissues.
Adividebetweenthetwoapproachesseep.14quoteforamoreunified

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FieldsofSociolingusitics

Ethnographyofspeaking(Hymes,anthropologicalorientation,participantobserver)
Variationstudies(Labov,Trudgill,Chambers,quantification,linguisticorientation,
dialectology;Milroysandnetworkanalysis)
Sociologyoflanguage(Fishman,socialandpoliticalissues,macrosociolinguistics,
domainanalysis)
Interactionalsociolinguistics(Gumperz;facetofaceencounters,anthropologicaland
psychologicalinorientation)
Conversationanalysis,ethnomethodologists(Schegloff,Sacks;sociologists,ethnic
structure)
Discourseanalysis(Tannen;largechunksoflanguage,psychologicalandhighly
interpretive)
Socialpsychology(Giles;psychological,methodologyhighlyexperimental)
Pragmatics(Austin,Grice,Searle;speechacttheory)

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Sociolinguisticsinallformsisgenerallydatadriven
Someofitisquantitativeandstatisticalanalysisusedtoshowcorrelation
betweenlinguisticsandsocialstructures(usuallyvariationist)

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LetslookatthelistofBellsprinciplesonpp.1819

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LetslookatthelistofBellsprinciplesonpp.1819

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ParticularlytheobserversparadoxhowdoesLabovresolvethis?
ListentoNPRclip

WilliamLabovNYC