Social Dialects
THE EFFECT OF SOCIAL CLASS, GENDER AND AGE ON LANGUAGE.
Social Dialects
Like geographical barriers, social divisions affect the
language of groups.
The language of high class members differ from that of
lower class members.
High class members tend to use more standard forms than
members of low classes.
RP was used by members of high class who originated
from different areas of England. i.e. (Regions here have no
influence)
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Social Dialects
Standard English is a dialect of educated people from allover the world.
Within community, low class members also used different dialects which are (vernacular).
Socioeconomic reason causes the use of vernacular. (it is easy to learn, learnt at home, do not
mark high prestige).
Variation in low class is affected by geography, standard dialect users from different regions
may use the same [standard] dialect.
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Highest Class: Standard Dialect
Social Variation
Social Dialects
Lowest Class: Vernacular Dialect
Regional Variations
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Checkpoint
How do social division affect language of different
groups.
What is stronger regional or social affect? Prove.
How can socio-economic factors causes language
variations?
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Gender
Do men and women speak differently?
If yes, on what levels? (phonology, morphology,
semantic, pragmatics)?
Is there are some words in your language which
looks odd if you use because it is (the language of the
other sex)?
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Gender
Men and Women speak differently in
all speech communities.
The degree of difference varies from a community to
another.
The difference occur in two level:
◦ The linguistic forms.
◦ The linguistic behavior.
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Gender
In any speech community of the world, using certain
linguistic structure may be odd because it the
language of either men (M) or women (W).
These differences are of two types:
◦Gender Exclusive Differences.
◦Gender Preferential Differences.
Generally W tend to use more polite forms than M do
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Gender Exclusive Differences
Occur when particular linguistic forms occur only in
M or W speech.
Usually the difference between the forms is small.
If a person uses the wrong form it sounds odd.
Women’s form
Men’s form
Meaning
ba
ba-na
Deer
yaa
yaa-na
Person
?au
?au-na
Fire
nisaaklu
nisaaklu-?i
He might go away
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Example from
Yana, a North
American Indian
Language
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Gender Exclusive Differences
The W forms are more polite.
Some language signal the gender of the speaker in
pronoun system (Arabic for example)
Women’s form
Men’s form
Meaning
otoosan
oyaji
Father
onaka
hara
Stomach
Oishii
umai
Delicious
taberu
kuu
Eat
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Example from
Japanese
language
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Gender Exclusive Differences
Language difference between M and W reflect
gender difference.
If a community have a sharp difference between M
and W, e.g. M are powerful than W, then there will be
language difference.
Gender exclusive speech forms mean genderexclusive social roles.
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Gender Preferential Differences
Occur when M and W do not use completely
different forms.
In this case, both use the same forms but the
difference is in the frequency of use of these forms.
e.g. in English M use more [in] for [ing].
M use [d] for [th] more than W do.
W use more intensifier words than M do.
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Gender Preferential Differences
Gender Preferential Differences occur when the
social status and roles of M and W overlap as in the
western communities.
In both cases (gender-exclusive and genderpreferential) W tend to use more standard variety
than M.
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Gender and Social Class
In the lowest and the highest group, W speech is closer to that
of M of the group than to W from other groups.
The influence of social class is stronger than the influence of
gender.
Across all social groups W use standard forms and M use
vernacular form of the same language.
M uses dropping more than W.
W use polite language more.
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Explanations of Women Linguistic Behavior
Why do W use more standard forms than M do?
There are four explanation suggested by researchers:
1.
2.
3.
4.
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The social status explanation.
Women’s role in the society.
Women status in the society.
The function of speech to identify gender.
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The social status explanation.
W are more status-conscious than M.
They are more aware that the way they speak
signals their social class background.
This is especially in non-employed W.
Women who have no social status acquire it by
using standard forms.
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Women’s role in the society.
Society expect better behavior form W than from M.
W role in the society is a guardian of its morals and
ethics.
They are models for their children.
Girls are corrected more than boys.
Mistakes from girls are considered more serious than
of boys
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Women status in the society.
People who are subordinate must be polite.
In most communities in the world W are
subordinate.
W avoid offence to others so they use more polite
language.
Although standard language can offensive and
vernacular can be polite but standard is more polite
generally.
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The function of speech to identify gender.
Vernacular forms express machismo.
W avoid language which carry macho
connotations.
Words of details, color, emotions can be
explained better in standard form. So W use
them to express their femininity.
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Checkpoint
In what way do the dialect/language of M and W differ?
What are the level of difference between M and W language?
What are the types of difference between W and M language?
Explain gender exclusive differences.
Explain gender preferential differences.
What are the explanations of the use of women of more standard forms
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Age-Graded Features of Speech
One of the most obvious difference between M and W is
the pitch of their voice.
When they are children it may difficult to differentiate
between male and female.
Boys voice change at puberty. (become lower in pitch).
This is the (physiological) difference between W and M
language.
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Age-Graded Features of Speech
In schools, both boys and girls tend to use
appropriate (standard) forms.
Teachers and parents can control and encourage
them to do so.
Swear words change with time until they disappear.
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Age-Graded Features of Speech
prestige
the use of slang by different age group can be
represented by the following curve .
age
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0
30
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50
+70
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Age-Graded Features of Speech
prestige
The curve suggest that people between 0 -30 uses
mor slang.
From 40 to 50use standard more.
After 70 they again use more slang.
age
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0
30
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50
+70
24
Checkpoint
State whether each of the following is TRUE or FALSE if it is false CORRECT it:
Women may say the expression (I av left den he call me).
A man who is 37 is likely to use more slang than a man who aged 74.
Little boys use more polite language than little girls.
A woman from a lower class speak just like another woman from a higher class.
It is easy to differentiate between a girl and a boy aged 6 when any of them talk on phone.
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Thank you
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