Wardhaugh & Fuller (2015 ): Ch. 1

Session OneWardhaugh & Fuller

(2015)Ch. 1

Saeed RezaeiSharif University of Technology

[email protected] February, 2016

Competence vs. Performance

Chomsky’s view of idealized speakersChomsky’s view of language competence, LAD, …Ferdinand de Saussure lange vs. parole Hymes and communicative competence

Variation

Variation in language e.g. variation in greetings or pronunciation in different contexts.

Language and Identity

We will return to this later! But for now focus on the concept of identity from essentialist vs. post-structuralist view.

Language and Solidarity

It refers to how a language can be a baton at which a community can cling to render a specific identity and sense of belonging. For example for the Azeri people in Tehran, Turkish Azeri is the language of solidarity.

Idiolect

An idiolect is an individual’s way of speaking, including sounds, words, grammar, and style. Can you give an example for the Iranian context?

The Whorfian Hypothesis It is also called Linguistic Determinism, Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis, or Sapir–

Whorf Hypothesis.

It was introduced by Sapir and his student Whorf but formerly proposed by Humboldt.

Whorf was a chemical engineer by training, a fire prevention engineer by vocation, and a linguist by avocation

the social categories we create and how we perceive events and actions are constrained by the language we speak. Different speakers will therefore experience the world differently insofar as the languages they speak differ structurally.

Whorf’s work on Native American languages, e.g. Hopi

The Whorfian Hypothesis: contd. Whorf believed that the social categories we create and how

we perceive events and actions are constrained by the language we speak. Different speakers will therefore experience the world differently insofar as the languages they speak differ structurally.

Correlation Studies and Variationist Sociolinguistics

We will elaborate on this later!

Micro vs. Macro-sociolinguisticsSociolinguistics vs. Sociology of Language

Sociolinguistics or micro-sociolinguistics and the sociology of language or macro-sociolinguistics.

Sociolinguistics is narrower in scope and issues tackled Sociolinguistics is after the effect of the society on language whereas the latter investigates

the effect of language on the society Joshua Fishman is considered as the proponent of the sociology of language whereas Ferguson

or Hymes could be considered as the proponents of sociolinguistics Sociolinguists focus on language whereas scholars in the sociology of language focus on the

society Hudson (1996) relates to sociolinguistics as “the study of language in relation to the society”

whereas the sociology of language refers to “the study of society in relation to language”. Although a clear-cut demarcation cannot always be made between these two, there are

studies which are purely sociological rather than linguistic in nature especially the studies by Bernstein.

Micro vs. Macro-sociolinguistics: Contnd.

For Coulmas (1997) micro-sociolinguists try to investigate how social factors such as age, gender, and class would affect language use (attitude to language/dialects); whereas, the macro-sociolinguists try to investigate what the society does with their language (e.g. language policy issues and language death/revival plans)

Linguistic Anthropology vs. SociolinguisticsAlessandro Duranti

Professor of Anthropology at UCLA

They have some points in common, e.g. ethnography of communication or ethnography as a research tool in both research studies.

Journal of Linguistic Anthropology: Wiley

Journal of Anthropological Linguistics: Indiana University, Bloomington

Geo-linguisticsThe study of the geographical distribution of languages and

dialect. Dialectology falls within this line of research. Visit http://www.geo-linguistics.org/

Critical Sociolinguistics Norman Faiclough, Emerius Professor of CDA at the University of

Lancaster Teun A. van Dijk editor in chief of several flagship journals in the field

of discourse analysis e.g. Discourse and SocietyRuth Wodak, Emerius Professor of CDA at the University of Lancaster

Methodology in Sociolinguistics Research

Correlation Studies Micro-(socio)linguistic StudiesDiscourse AnalysisMacro-(socio)linguistic Studies Critical Analysis

Data in Sociolinguistic Research Interview Observation and Ethnography Questionnaire Written and Spoken Corpora Matched-guise technique …

Data Reliability

Observer's Paradox (William Labov) also Halo Effect Hawthorne Effect (Henry Landsberger) in a factory lighting project

Research Design in Sociolinguistics

Quantitative Research and GeneralizabilityQualitative Research and Transferability

Presentations: Next Session

Mr. Neysani: Keshavarz and Astaneh (15 mins) Miss Nowruzi: Afsharrad & Sadeghi (15 mins) Mr. Mousavi: Esperanto (15 mins)