The study of greetings, therefore, provides a first useful method of exploring the structure of a social group. A second area showing patterned variation in speech and similarly studied within the ethnography of communication has been the conditions on the use of terms of address. The choice of second-person pronoun and the related phenomenon of terms of address in Western European languages in particular shows the formalization of politeness and status in a language. A number of languages offer the same sort of choice as French of addressing a single person using either the singular pronoun tu or the plural vous. In London, unlike Russian, there is no formal distinction between forms of "ты", "вы" and "Вы." The whole spectrum of values of these forms enclosed in the pronoun you. The most common form of address to the audience: Ladies and gentlemen! 'Ladies and gentlemen!' Less versatile options: Guys! '; Dear friends!; Comrades!; Esteemed colleagues!
If most of people of a speech community use one language for speaking but another one for writing, how is the situation called in sociolinguistics? Explain why such situations exist in the world.
Bilingual competence - we have been describing so far the language use or performance of a bilingual. The description makes clear why it is that it is rare to find equal ability in both languages. Assume a bilingual immigrant who grew up speaking Language A, but was educated formally in Language B. Such a person might well have all the conversational skills in Language A, but be quite weak at dealing with academic matters in it. Misunderstanding of this possible difference in competence often leads to educational problems: teachers might assume, for instance, that a child who has reasonable conversational ability also has the full basis for academic work in the language.
There are different names for peanuts in different places of America: groundnuts, goobers or pinders. How are these words called in sociolinguistics and what kind of variation is it?
They are called dialects. Dialect is a regional or social variety of a language characterized by its own phonological, syntactic, and lexical properties. Peanuts may be called groundnuts or goobers or pinders in different parts of America. And groundnuts, goobers and pinders are regional dialects. A variety spoken in a particular region is called a regional dialect.
There are different names for bag in different places of America: sack, tote or poke. How are these words called in sociolinguistics and what kind of variation is it?
In the USA where older dialect terms remain, you might hear tote or poke or toot used instead of bag or sack. And they are called dialects. Dialect is a regional or social variety of a language characterized by its own phonological, syntactic, and lexical properties.
The eastern United States has a northern zone where both grease and greasy are pronounced with an / s /, a transitional zone where grease is with an / s / and greasy with a / z /, and a southern where both are / z /. How is the described phenomenon called in sociolinguistics and what kind of variation is it?
Careful plotting of different variants permits dialectologists to recognize major regional differences. Thus, the eastern United States has a northern thon where both grease and greasy are pronounced with an / s /, a transitional zone where grease is with an / s / and greasy with a / z /, and a southern where both are / z /. And they are called dialects.
As long as Yugoslavia was united, linguists could talk about Serbo-Croatian as a language, with regional variations. With the separation into distinct territories and subsequent transfer of population, Serbian and Croatian have now emerged as distinct languages. Explain the situation in terms of sociolinguistics.
The decision of what language a dialect belongs to is therefore social and political rather than purely linguistics. As long as Yugoslavia was united, linguists could talk about Serbo-Croatian as a language, with regional variations. With the separation into distinct territories and subsequent transfer of population, Serbian and Croatian have now emerged as distinct languages. The kinds of differences in pattern of variation that are produced by geographical or spatial isolation are regularly transformed into powerful mechanisms for asserting and recognizing social differences.
42 When people speak about "hacking" and "surfing the net", what kind of variety they use?
They use jargons. A third set of variations concerns the special variety (or register) especially marked by a special set of vocabulary (technical terminology) associated with a profession or occupation or other defined social group and forming part of its Jargon or in-group variety. People who work at a particular trade or occupation develop new terms for new concepts. Phrases like hacking" and "surfing the net" have no obvious meaning to those who are not keeping up with the computer revolution.