Matakuliah
Tahun
: G0362/Sociolingustics
: 2007
Ethnicity and Social Network
Pertemuan 8
Learning Outcomes
Pada akhir pertemuan ini, diharapkan mahasiswa
akan mampu :
• Menghubungkan antara konsep bahasa dan identitas diri
• Membuat bagan jejaring sosial mereka sendiri
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Outline Materi
• Definisi Identitas
• African American English, “Black” English, Maori
• Jejaring sosial dan identitas diri
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What is Ethnicity?
Discussion:
People identify themselves to belong in a certain ethnic
group. If you live in a multi-ethnic country, and your
parents, grandparents may have come from different
ethnic backgrounds, what is your ethnicity?
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American Black English
• The label “Black English” is not politically correct
because it separates English speakers by their skin
color.
• The term widely used now is “Ebonics” or for those in
North America, AAVE (African American Vernacular
English)
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British Black English
• In Britain there are many people who have African
decent. They are often monolingual in English.
However, there are certain clues that differentiate this
“Black” English.
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Maori New Zealanders
• The Maoris are the indigenous people of New Zealand.
When they speak English, they have certain features
that distinctive of their ethnicity.
– For example, the tags ‘eh?’, the use of Maori
greetings such as ‘kia ora’, ‘tena koe’, etc.
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Social Networks
• Social network describes how many people someone
has relationships with and how complex the relations
are.
• It is measured in terms of density and plexity.
• The density and the complexity of your social network
influence your speech.
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Density
• Density refers to whether the members of someone’s
network knows each other.
– For example, Ani knows Alex, who lives next door to
her. Alex’s wife, Alice, works at the same office as
Ani. Alex plays tennis once a week with Hendri, Ani’s
husband. Alex’s boss, Paul, is a business partner of
Robby, Hendri’s uncle.
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Plexity
• Here, the double lines depicts the dual role that Ani and
Alice have with each other, as neighbours and
workmates. Similarly Alex and Hendri, are both
neighbours and friends.
Ani
Robby
uncle
Hendri
Alex
boss
Paul
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Alice
• Plexity is the measure of the different transactions (or
roles) a member of the network has with one another.
• A uniplex relationship is when the link is only in one
area. Multiplex is when there are more than one role
relations between two people.
• In the previous example, Ani has more than one role
relation with Alice.
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Conclusions
• Linguists believe that no variety is superior to another
and that all varieties are capable of developing their own
grammars and vocabulary.
• In reality, not all varieties manage to have high status in
the community.
• The vernaculars, such as the Patois, AAVE, or Maori are
considered sub-standards.
• Someone’s speech is influenced by social factors,
including their social network.
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