Senin, 02 Desember 2013

LANGUAGE VARIATION





LANGUAGE VARIATION
 
 




Compiled By:

By:
Eleventh Group

Names of Group:
AgusmanZai
SeriusHarefa
Luther KrisyantoHarefa
FaobaliTelaumbanua

Class:
B
Subject:
Introduction to General Linguistics
Lectured by:
Mr. HasratSozanoloHarefa, S.pd




 









INSTITUTE OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAM
GUNUNGSITOLI
2013
LANGUAGE VARIATION

1.      The identity and variability of language

The existence of language varieties side is called language variation (synchronic variability). The coexisting varieties are in a constant change along the dimension of time called as  language change (diachronic variability).
The first question we have to discuss briefly is the problem of language identity, viz. what makes us decide whether two linguistic codes are two separated languages or just variates of one language? One may say the criterion is mutual understandbility, but often breaks down between codes that are regarded as belonging to the same language (e.g. northen Chinese speakers southen Chinese speakers do not necessarily understand each other’s speech), moreover, it can bring together codes that are regarded as separate languages (e.g. Swedes and Danes often understand each other’s speech fairly well). Therefore we have to admit that mutual understandbility is not a save criterion. Language identity is a socio-psychological concept, one language is the some of all the varieties that their user are culturally and politically conditioned to regard as one and the same language. So English, like any other natural language, is an abstraction, it is a cover term for all the linguistics codes that are, or have been, or will be, regarded as English. It refers to a bundle of partly similar, partly different codes: “Englishes”.
Languge variation can be discussed in terms of user-related and use-related variation.

2.             User-related variation: dialect, sociolect, pidgin, creole, child language, gender differences
What is a Dialect?
A dialect is a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. A dialect is very different from accent Standard English Dialect can be divided into two types : Regional and Social.
Social Dialects vs. Regional Dialects
          Examples of Social Dialects in EnglandWords that initiate with ‘h’ à Two types of pronunciations for ‘h’ in words such as ‘house’ – [h] or Ø  The rate of ‘h’ omission in world initials increase as we goà lower in social class< Comparison between social class and the rate of ‘h’ omission>
.
A sociolect is a variety of language associated with a particular social group. Most people use several different sociolects e.g. occupational groups, friendship groups, family groups, cultural groups etc.

Pidgins and creoles are spoken by about ten million people around the world.Pidgin is known as the language that groups of people originally speaking different languages use when they come in contact. A pidgin is a contact language, which means that it is acquired and not learned natively. It is also different from Trade Jargons (such as Russenorsk), for it implies an unequal  relationship between speakers.
Pidgins can develop to become Creole languages. This requires the pidgin to be learned as mother tongue by children, who then generalize the features of the pidgin into a fully-formed, stabilized grammar. This is however not always the case : pidgins can die or become obsolete.
For example : Melanesian Pidgin English (called Tok Pisin) is used in Australian New Guinea and the nearby islands.
3.             Use-related variation: spoken and written varieties, styles, registers

There are different types of use related language variation.
a.       The first type of use related variation is coditioned by the medium of language use, i.e. by speech and writing. The langauge we speak is generally different from the language we write. For instance, language we use in face-to-face talks tends to differ from the language of telephone conversations. Or, the language of text messages on your mobile phone is clearly different from the language of your personal letters, though both are written varieties.
b.      The second type of use-related variation is style. This is conditioned by the laguage users’ relative social status attitude towards their interlocuters (e.g. they can talk to equals, to people in higher or lower social positions, to older or younger people, to children, they may talk to someone who they have never seen before or to someone who is an old friend of therirs, etc.) we recognice a neutral or unmarked style, which does not show any obvious colouring brought about by relative social status and attitude. On either side of this we can distinguish sentences which are markedly formal or informal. Compare the sentences in (1).
(1). a. Formal            : I wonder if you’d mind switching off the light.
       b. Neutral           : would you please switch off the light?
       c. Informal         : switch off the light, will you?
Formal style is usually impersonal and polite, used in public speeches, serious polite talk, serious writing (official reports, regulations, legal and scientific texts, business letters, etc.). a very formal syle can be called rigid, it is nearly always written and standard. Informal (=colloquial) style characterises private conversations personal letters between intimates and popular newspaper. A very informal style can be called familiar, this may involve the use of non-standard features, four-letter words, and slang expressions. Slang can be defined as very informal language, with a vocabulary compased typically of coinages and arbitrarily changed words, such as the ones often created by young speakers.
          When we use language, we must use sentences that are not only grammatical and meaningful but also stylistically appropriate, i.e. matching the stylistic requirements of the situation. For instance, the sentence Be seated. Is prefectly grammatical and meaningful, but would be ridiculously inappropriate if we said it to a friend of ours in our home (unless we wanted to sound humorous).
c.       The third type of use-related language variation is register,hich is conditioned by the subject matter in connection with which the language is being used. Each field of interest, activity, occupation is associated with a special vocabulary, and it is mainly these vocabulary differences that underlie the different registers. Thus we can talk about the registers sport, religion, medicine, computer engineering, cookery, weather forecasts, etc. Think, for example, of the word shutputting, which is hardly ever used outside the sports register, or the word blackboard, which is only used in the register of school teaching. When the register of a field is full of technical terms which those who have received no training in that field cannot understand,it is referred to as jargon (think e.g. of the jargon of computer engineers or the jargon of linguistics). Criminal jargon can be called argot or cant. Since the most frequent and most favourite topics of one’s speech or writing are related to one’s occuption, registers, are partly user-related, too.

4.      Idiolect, code switching, diglossia

The total of all the varieties of language that a person knows is the person’s idiolect. An idiolect, then, is the amount of a language that an individual possesses. The ability to change from one variant to another is code switching. For instance, a doctor switches codes when he speaks of a bon as tibia to his colleagues in the hospital and as  shinbone to his family at home.
It can happen that two distinct varieties of a languages co-occur in a speech community, one with a high social prestige (such us e.g. Standard English, learn at school, used in church, on radio programmes, in serious literature, and generally on formal occasions), and one with a low social prestiges (e.g. a local dialect, used in family conversations and other informal situations). The sociolinguistics term for this situation is diglossia, and an individual having diglossia is a diglossic. (these terms are not to be confused with bilingualism and bilingual, which mean ‘knowledge of two languages’, respectively.)















Conclusion

1.      The existence of language varieties side is called language variation (synchronic variability). The coexisting varieties are in a constant change along the dimension of time called as  language change (diachronic variability).
2.      A dialect is a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers.
3.      A sociolect is a variety of language associated with a particular social group.
4.      A pidgin is a contact language, which means that it is acquired and not learned natively.
5.      The total of all the varieties of language that a person knows is the person’s idiolect. An idiolect, then, is the amount of a language that an individual possesses. The ability to change from one variant to another is code switching.





Bibliography
Harefa, Hasrat. 2013. A Module: Introduction to General Linguistics. Gunungsitoli.

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