ENG522 Final Term Treasure

ENG522

ABSTRACT This comprehensive collection of notes is accurately crafted to empower students to excel academically, ensuring they achieve a minimum of 80% marks in their examinations. The content is organized with clarity and precision, focusing on key concepts, critical analyses, and practical applications tailored to the syllabus. These notes serve as a reliable resource for both thorough preparation and last-minute revision. Designed to inspire confidence and mastery, this guide is an essential tool for students striving for academic excellence.

Maha Malik Applied Linguistics

Lesson-08 LANGUAGE IN SOCIETY

Topic-035: Language and Society

It is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society. Sociolinguistics differs from sociology of language in that the focus of sociolinguistics is the effect of the society on the language, while the sociology of language focuses on language's effect on the society. Sociolinguistics overlaps to a considerable degree with pragmatics. It is historically closely related to linguistic anthropology and the distinction recently. It also studies how language varieties differ between groups separated by certain social variables, e.g., ethnicity, religion, status, gender, level of education, age, etc., and how creation and adherence to these rules is used to categorize individuals in social or socioeconomic classes. As the usage of a language varies from place to place, language usage also varies among social classes, and these sociolects are studied in sociolinguistics. Linguistic structure and/or behavior may either influence or determine social structure. This is the view that is behind the Whorfian hypothesis. The claim that the structure of a language influences how its speakers view the world is today most usually associated with the linguist E.Sapir and his studentB.L.Whorf. However, it can be traced back to others, particularly to W. vonHumboldt. Today the claim usually referred to as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis or the Whorfian hypothesis. Sapir acknowledged the close relationship between language and culture maintaining that they were inextricably related so that you could not understand or appreciate the one without knowledge of the other. “Human beings do not live in the objective world alone or alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society. It is quite an illusion to imagine that one adjusts to reality essentially without the use of language and that language is merely an incidental means of solving specific problems of communication or reflection. The fact of the matter is that “the real world” is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the of the group… '' Words carrying them a myriad possibilities for connecting us to other human beings.'' (Duranti) In short, language and society have strong influence on each other. Both are part and parcel of each other so we cannot strongly oppose the influence of one on another.

Topic-036: Language Diversity and Contact

Linguistic diversity is an inherently enabling condition to its speakers and humankind—a resource to be protected and promoted—as each language is the repository of immense knowledge built over centuries of development and use. Linguistic diversity is unevenly distributed across populations and regions.

Topic-037: Language and Gender

Sex Versus Gender: Sex refers to biological differences while gender refers to the cultural construction of male and female characteristics. “The ways members of the two sexes are perceived, evaluated and expected to behave.” (what different cultures make of sex.) Gender Boundaries: We demand that the categories of male and female be discrete. Since gender is culturally constructed the boundaries are conceptual rather than physical. The boundaries are dynamic, e.g. now it is acceptable for men to wear earrings. Boundaries require markers to indicate gender such as:  Voice  Physique  Dress  Behaviour  Hair style  Kinetics  Language use Gender roles: These are asks and activities a culture assigns to the sexes – expected ways of behaving based on society’s definition of masculine and feminine Gender stereotypes: Oversimplified but strongly held ideas of the characteristics of men and women. Gender stratification: An unequal distribution of rewards (socially valued resources, power, prestige, and personal freedom) between men and women, reflecting their different positions in social hierarchy – a division in society where all members are hierarchically ranked according to gender Gender ideology: A system of thoughts and values that legitimizes sex roles, statuses and customary behavior. Genderlects: Men often use socially disfavored variants of sociolinguistic variables while women tend to avoid these in favor of socially more favored variants. Men Women What a terrific idea! What a divine idea!

Shit! You’ve put the peanut butter in the fridge again! Oh dear! You’ve put the peanut butter in the fridge again!

Phonological variations What motivates boys to choose /in/ and girls /ing/ /in/ form is used in informal settings and /ing/ in more formal contexts. The /ing/ variant therefore carries social meaning – i.e. it symbolizes formality, so/ing/may also be associated with compliance and politeness formality, politeness, etc. Men Women Less use of post-vocalic /-r/ greater use of post-vocalic /-r/ dis and dat this and that Double negation single negation

Grammatical Variants: Boys used non-standard form more than girls.