An Introduction To Sociolinguistics

Rubn Chacn Beltrn
AN INTRODI]CTIOI{ TO SOCIOLINCTJISTICS
UNrvsRsroo NecroNer o, EoucacrN a DtsrNcr
ACKNOWLEDCEMENTS
I am grateful to many people for their encouragement and assistance in producing this book. Firstly, I would like to thank my colleague Jim Lawley for his support and guidance as well as his willingness to revise and comment on drafts. I must also thank my colleagues in the Departamento de Filologas Extranjeras y sus Lingsticas at UNED, especially Ricardo Mairal Usn for his encouragement to carry out this work, and Mnica Aragons GonzIez for her support and help with other academic tasks that enabled me to keep on working on these Unidades Didcticas, and Norberro Cerezal Sierra for his assistance with computer
matters.
Finally, I would like to thank Inmaculada Senra Silva for her valuable remarks and revisions of the various drafts, for her support during a difficult yeaq and for her patience.
ACRONYMS USED II{ THIS BOOK
AAVE
AmE. BrE.
CP
EFL Engl. EU FL HCE

JP
L1 L2 LWC
ME MnE
OE
OHG PdE RP SL TP UDLR
African American Vernacular English American English British English Corpus Planning English as a Foreign Language English European Union Foreign Langauge Hawaiian Creoie English Jamaican Patois (or Patwa) First Language, with reference to the order of acquisition Second or Additional Language, with reference to the order of acquisition Language of Wider Communication Middle English Modern English Old English Old High German Present-day English Received Pronunciation Second Language, with reference to the learning context. Tok Pisin Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights
INDEX
Acknowledgements Acronyms
Index
11
Introduction
1.5
UNIT 1
1.
2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
8.
Introduction: Key concepts in sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics vs. sociology of language................ The origins of sociolinguistics Variation Some instances of variation Diachronic variation Speech community Doing sociolinguistic research ..............
23
24 26 26
28
29
32 35 39 42 43 43 43 45 47
9. Exercises 10. References 11. Resources on the web

1.2.
Further readings and questions
13.
INTRODUCTION
This book aims at providing the readers with a general framework for the study of a new discipline, sociolinguistics. The training and knowledge gained by reading and using these Unidades Didcticas can introduce the student to the fascinating world of languages in interaction and may also ar^,,aken the reader's interest in researching other aspects of this field. This book has been conceived as a course book for Sociolingstica Inglesa and elementary secondary university u-ill provide future language teachers -at with a basic training in sociolinguistics, or continuing education levelsianguage variation, language contact and language education as part of their preparation for their teaching tasks in the language classroom.
A considerable variety of ways in which language and society are interconnected and interact is presented in this book. There are many possible relations between language and society and some of them will be presented in these pages. Social configuration and organization also determine linguistic structure and usage showing that the relationship between language and society is bidirectional. The varieties that people use may reveal some of the speaker's variables such as age, geographic, social or ethnic origin, and gender. The question of language choice is worth mentioning because it may not only determine the use of a particular code but also the choice of some words instead of others, of some features of pronunciation or even rules of speaking. Sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics are closely related disciplines. They deal with the social and individual side of human behavior. These two aspects are portrayed in this book, some units deal with the social dimension of language, i.e., language as part of social relations and as a means of communication and interaction with other human beings,
l'
t6
AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUiSTICS
whereas some other units show a greater concern for the other side of the same coin, i.e., the individual dimension of language and, therefore, deal with aspects such as code-switching, bilingualism and diglossia.
The field of sociolinguistics is very wide-ranging and touches many different aspects of language and society. A selection has been made on the basis of the objectives set for this subject in the curriculum of Filologa Inglesa. The fact that the subject Sociolingstica Inglesa probably constitutes the first encounter of many students with this branch of linguistics has also been taken into account. Sociolinguistics is an extensive and interdisciplinary field, the full scope of which is difficult to cover in a course like the one for which this book has been designed. This fact accounts for the need to select some topics in preference to others and, in the case of this book, a clear inclination towards applied issues can be perceived mainly because they are aspects that future language teachers may need to face in their classrooms.
The particular characteristics of distance learning and teaching have also shaped the final configuration of this book. Each unit ends with references to the glossary as well as some exercises that aim at helping students reflect on sociolinguistic issues. On many occasions, the solutions to these exercises are not provided for two reasons. On the one hand, as indicated above, these are open-ended questions that do not have a single answer. Providing an answer would have a misleading effect as it might lead the students to think that there is one response that prevails over the others. On the other hand, students have access to a discussion forum on the web page for this subject and can exchange their answers and comments. In this way, an enriching and valuable debate can take place.
The structure of this book

This book has been arranged in six units and starts with a general introduction to key concepts in sociolinguistics that will allow the student to approach this new field of study and research. The reader will be brought into touch with the general field of sociolinguistics, although most examples and references will be taken from English or multilingual contexts where English is somehow involved. Moving on from these initial theoretically-based principles, some applied aspects of sociolinguistic study are considered in the last units so that the close connection behveen this field of study and everyday life can be perceived.
Unit I deals with some introductory aspects of sociolinguistics like the definition and configuration of this discipline. its relation to
I\_TRODUCTION
l7
socioiogy of language, the synchronic and the diachronic perspectives ri r.ariation and the explanation and exemplification of r,r.'hat is onsidered a speech community. Finally, the student is presented u'ith >ome approaches in sociolinguistic research that will give him/her an -,n-erall sense of the scope of the field and its potential repercussions on ;r'en'day life.
"'
.::ommodation is also dealt with in this unit as it portrays the speakers' -r:ention to avoid or respond to variation differences by a speaker.
Unit 2 concentrates on a key concept for sociolinguistics namely ;iation and the description of some variables that clearly determine or .re determined by variation like style, register and gender. Speech
f nit 3 includes a description of pidgins and creoles in some parts of -:: rrorld. Special attention is paid to English-based creoles and examples ":- prorided in Hawaiian Creole English, Jamaican Patwa and Tok Pisin. T:i: process of decreolization is also depicted in this unit and some
-::-plications for the use of pidgins and creoles in formal education are :r:Sented.
::i
;-
aspects that portray the social rhe individual dimension of this branch of linguistics, and deals with :--::lsualism, code choice, diglossia, multilingualism and language contact
--
f nit 4 centers on some sociolinguistic

al ious scenarios.
f nit 5 presents some applied aspects of sociolinguistics that can :.::ainlr- have some bearing on the wellfare of humanity and the
:c",':-':pment of our society as is the case of bilingual education, language and policy as two ways of introducing sociolinguistic aspects in :r-: li, es. In this unit, some practical instances of bitingual education and iar-rrage policy are portrayed in places like canada, Australia and India. l: .:c rhis unit, the current situation of the EU in relation to language Jr:r';r,'is analyzed.
:;:ning
Lnit 6 also introduces some applied issues in sociolinguistics and -rgx::bes the interface between sociolinguistics and language teaching, !',i' ilproaching the analysis of classroom discourse and language .r": r''-sirion. Some references to related disciplines like discourse analysis mrc ::::gmatics are included in this unit. To end this selection of topics, rIlM - - --::er interesting aspects are presented: forensic linguistics and world
ft,g-=r:s. i-::allr, a glossary with scme key terms in the field is presented to .;l,r*,:i:'" iinportant concepts for this sub,ject which will pave the waz for
'nur***=:
ieading.

i l
I
l8
AN TNTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS
Purpose of this book

Language ability is part of human beings and parl of the development of our societies, our personal lives and our role in society. This book tries to provide the reader with some background knowledge on the main principles and lines of research that may help them reflect on some basic sociolinguistic principles that govern human interaction, in general, and the English-speaking world, in particular. The ultimate goal is to help the reader develop the necessary receptiveness to perceive the presence of sociolinguistic principles in their oral and written interaction with other speakers of English.
How to use this book

This book has been especially designed for distance learning students who will not have traditional classes in which most of the contents for the subiect are introduced by the teacher. This particular situation presents some disadvantages because the learner has to be largely autonomous and follow the instr-r-rctions given in the course book to find the response to many issues that, in a different learning situation, would be readily answered by the teacher. While studying this subject, students will need to make use of different resources, especially the Internet, to find examples of what otherwise might seem rather cryptic theoretical description. Distance learning also has many advantages for the learner who in a subject like this will need to combine the guidance provided in this book with further readings, Internet search and active participation in the discussion forum. In this way, learners will have the chance to feed their own curiosity even beyond the scope of this subject and, they will also be shown the way to integrate research as part of their own learning process. Active participation in the discussion for-um will keep students in touch with other students facing the same questions and the teaching team that
will monitor it.

Each unit finishes with a list of key words which are dealt with in the unit they accompany and which are defined at the end of the book in the glossary. Students are requested to go through these key words before engaging in the reading of each chapter. Knou,ing the meaning of these words before they start reading will enable students to work through the discussion in the chapter without having to break off to consult the glossary. In the same way, a review of these same terms is recommended when thev finish each unit.
INTRODUCTION
19
It is suggested, then, that students read the whole chapter straight through in order to have an overview of the topics dealt with and, at a later stage, go back to study each section in more detail and do the exercises proposed for each section in each chapter. Some of the answers for these exercises are provided in the section'Key to the exercises'. On many occasions, as these exercises have an open answer and require students to express their own point of view students should make use of the discussion forum created for this subject to exchange and discuss
answers.
Apart from the exercises and activities included at the end of each chapter, some reading is provided so that students can have access to key texts in the field of sociolinguistics. Due to space restrictions and the length of the subject Sociolingstica Inglesa (one semester), only a limited selection of readings could be introduced. However, students are encouraged to read further in the works from which these fragments have been taken as well as consulting other references provided at the end of each chapter. Sociolinguistics is a branch of linguistics that due to its interdisciplinary nature requires from the student a broad perspective: the more the students read about the topic, the wider their perspective.
In the Resources on the web section, a number of interesting web

sites are suggested for each unit. The use of the Internet and web resources
it allows reference portray to authentic samples of language that different instances of

seems crucial for the study of this discipline because
sociolinguistic variation (for example, while studying pidgins and creoles, it would be important to see web-based publications in a given pidgin or creole). Using web sites and resources has one chief drawback and that is that web links sometimes change or are re-directed to a different site. The web links selected to accompany this subject are considered stable in the sense that they have been working for some years, and are expected to be kept on working in the future. Student participation in the discussion forum is also encouraged as students will need to access additional information that will be posted on the web for their studv.
Unit 1
1. INTRODUCTION:
KEY CONCEPTS IN SOCIOLINGUISTICS
Language is commonly used to convey meaning but that is not all we use language for. Language is used for a number of things other than transmitting a verbal message, among them, to initiate, maintain and preserve social relationships with other members of the society. Therefore, language should be understood as a social phenomenon that relates the speakers to their societal enronment and their kinship to other members of the speech community. As a result of the complexity of human relationships, we do not speak in the same way to a classmate as to a professor. Parents do not speak in the same way to their offspring as they do to their parents, or their boss. But, our way of transmitting messages depends, of course, not only on linguistic matters but also on non-linguistic ones such as body language, contextual and situational factors, among others.
Sociolinguistics can be defined as a field of research and study that deals with the relation between language and society. It copes with the links that can be found between one or more languages and their users who live within a specific speech community. Sociolinguistics examines the societal and linguistic patterns that govern our behaor as members of human society and how they affect interaction. Sociolinguistics is a relatively new field. In the 50's and 60's, sociolinguists began to oppose Chomsky's abstraction of language. Chomsky aimed at finding basic grammatical structures that could accolint for the existence of structured patterns across languages relying on "ideal" native speaker's intuitions to describe and interpret language. Sociolinguists, howevel tried to find the reasons for linguistic variations in social and environmental conditions. Chomsky was concerned with the ideal speaker/listener communication in a completely homogeneous speech community who knows the language as a native speaker (rather a fuzzy
24
AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS
concept, in fact), that is to say, perfectly. This monolithic ew of the native speaker has nothing to do with the conception of the native speaker in sociolinguistics where social and non-linguistic factors are considered of key importance for communication. what is more, chomskyb description of a native speaker in a homogeneous speech community is far from being considered commonplace or even real. Speech communities are not easy to delimit and geographical proximity is not always a valid criterion in order to find a reliable definition. Does an English speaker from Edinburgh speak the same way as someone from downtown London or Liverpool? Undoubtedly they speak the same language, English, but their use is quite different. And, do all three speakers belong to the sarne speech community? They have spoken English since childhood and they live in the same country with the same cultural background. As regards the second issue, the three aforementioned speakers can consider themselves native speakers of the same language, English, in spite of clear societal or dialectal variation.
From the very beginning a break could be perceived between the approaches and methods used by generativists and sociolinguists in their quest for language nature and development. Dell Hymes (1971) coined the term communicative competence as opposed to chomsky's linguistic competence. Communicative competence refers not only to the human ability to use the language in different situations and under different circumstances but it also refers to other non-linguistic aspects which are also part of the communication process, such as: silence, turn-taking, volume, amount of talk, word choice, gestures, etc. Ali of these being part of the communication process and completing purely linguistic aspects such as phonology, morphology and syntax. Hymes'contribution to the
field of sociolinguistics has been paramount and the concept of

communicative competence is nowadays widespread in other disciplines and areas of research. In chapter 6 we will see the importance of communicative competence and later developments of the construct in second ianguage teaching and iearning.
2. SOCIOLINGUISTICS VS.
SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE
when in the late 0's sociolinguistics first developed as an academic field of study, two names were given to this still incipient discipline: sociolinguistics and sociology of language, and both terms were used
interchangeably. The aim of sociolinguistics is to investigate and describe the relationship between language and society and the stress is placed on
25
.;:r;Lage and its role within communication. Sociology of language, -.-,'ei'er, centers on -*- the study of society and how we can understand it the study -:-:-r -igh of language, that is, how we can understand ;'-,--,',,linguistic behavior by means of the study of linguistic features.
Depending on the scope of the analysis, sociolinguistics may try to \ze specific differences of a group of speakers in a speech community ,, a micro level. In this case the analysis would refer to speech differences -: :ronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary within a single speech : -,irmunitv in order to determine some features such as educational :a:l'ground, economic status or social class. In India, for example, there r manv castes (traditional social classes in the Hindu society) and there .:e distinct linguistic features that distinguish one from another.
-{nother possibility would comprise a much broader scope of analysis. S-,ciolinguistics can also refer to a macro level and in that case what 'r:erests the researchers is language variation as a human phenomenon -:rat affects large parts of the population. That would be the case, for ;xample, of language maintenance when large populations migrate to a i'tterent place and the language is preserved because of social factors. Keeping their language can be seen as a sign of identity that distinguishes ihem from outsiders or as a source of power as they can communicate -',,ihout being understood and this can serve trade purposes, for instance. Ii can also happen that the language just disappears (language attrition) ':ecause it becomes a low-prestige language. Another possible scenario na'be that the community wishes to blend into the dominant culture or that the amount of speakers decreases as they grow old and die. All in all, macro-sociolinguistics applies to wide-ranging human phenomena and is often referred to, as stated before, as sociology of language.
some authors prefer to talk about micro-sociolinguistics and macrosociolinguistics and make a distinction betrveen these two parts of sociolinguistics. Sometimes the first is associated u.ith discrete point cases and studies (micro-sociolinguistics) whereas the second is connected r,i ith rride ranging situations. Both tendencies, however, are concer-rred about the same phenomenon and society- although at a different -language scale. Micro-sociolinguistics involves the use of a language as a u.hole together with another cultural phenomenon that determines the use of language, whereas macro-sociolinguistics deals with language planning, language policy, etc. In Hudson's (1980: 4-5) words sociolinguistics is "the study of language in relation to society, and the sociology of language is the study of society in relation to language".
26
3. THE ORIGINS OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Sociolinguistics has spread in the last thirty years together with other branches of linguistics such as psycholinguistics, pragmatics and applied linguistics which, far from having a descriptive or historical approach to language such as pure or traditional linguistics (syntax, phonetics, etc.) maintain an interest in the interdisciplinarity of the field and the contribution of other branches of the humanities to linguistics, such as: psychology, pragmatics, history gender studies, etc. This new branch of linguistics emerged together with other developments of applied linguistics and was often considered a "step child", until it finally became a consolidated fully acknowledged field of research. It comprises various areas of study and research like historical and comparative linguistics, dialectology, and anthropology.
In Europe, sociolinguistics started with the study of historical

linguistics and linguistic geography, a sound theoretical background with three main fields of interest: dialectology, regional languages and the linguistic situation of colonized countries (Calvet, 2003). In the USA, however, the study of sociolinguistics emerges from the contact of linguistics with other disciplines such as anthropology and sociology. The ethnographic approach of anthropologists, methodology used in social sciences and the analysis of linguistic realization.
Nowadays, sociolinguistics is not only a truly consolidated discipline but it can also be divided into subfields, such as pragmatics, language gender studies, pidgin and creole studies, language planning and policy studies, and education of linguistic minority studies, etc. (Bratt Paulson & Tucker, 2003). According to Shuy (2003: 15), the more recent developments of discourse analysis and pragmatics are considered as part of sociolinguistics by some scholars whereas others consider them areas of study in themselves. In the same way there is no full agreement on whether language change is part of sociolinguistics or the other way round. This situation accounts for the variety of approaches and perspectives towards a discipline that becomes more and more important these days and which now goes from the theoretical perspective to the applied trend in the form of applied sociolinguistics.
4. VARIATION
Sociolinguistics is ali about variation. From a sociolinguistic point of view the most important source of information is the way social and
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27
siruational factors affect language and make it vary. For example, when
r.r'o people meet and star-t talking about, let's say, the weather, they start
:etting information about their interlocutor as they sort out the
-nforrnation contained in their speech. One of the first features that can sometimes be identified is the origin, i.e., where does that person come irom (geographic variation). If by any chance we happen to distinguish :lear features of his/her speech, we will be able to determine his/her place rf origin very precisely, if that is not the case, we may just ascertain some characteristics and that will give us a rough idea. The same can happen ',i'hen specific differences are associated, within a specific speech community, with social, economical, political, religious, cultural or any other situational background. Obviously, linguistic variation does not only affect people from different speech communities but also affects the way people speak or react towards someone else's speech, for example, in terms of gender. In most societies we can identifu clear differences in the way males and females speak although in western societies these differences are not so evident. In terms of power relationships the way people use the language is affected by the social connection between them, for example between a teacher and a student, and between a boss and an employee,
(Please, go to the exercises section and do exercise 1.)
Another aspect of variation is that it has certain bounds. A speaker can vary his/her speech in some degree, especially to adhere to certain social, economic, religious, etc. class, but s/he cannot vary it beyond certain iimits otherwise s/he would be ungrammatical and/or incomprehensible. Speakers have knowledge of these limits, often unconsciously, although some other problems would be to determine how this knowledge is attained and how it can be described. It is much more subtle than other social norms such as those of turn-taking in conversation or social behavior. At this point, it would be necessary to point out that linguistic norms are quite oflen more understated than other social conventions, such as table manners and, therefore, harder to describe, or even perceive. It goes without saying that they are also harder to learn andlor acquire in the case of a Second Language as the learner does not only need to learn the code, i.e., the language but also how to use it properly in diverse situations. Social conventions are usually learned or acquired during childhood and adolescence but these rrles can vary from culture to culture and as languages often reflect the way their users understand and perceive their lives, it is often the case that Second Language learners, in their tedious task of learning a non-native language, also need to learn social
28
and linguistic conventions. At times, and depending on the affinity between the languages in contact, it can be easy to infer linguistic forms and uses from the first language, but it is often not so obvious. As a simple example English speakers understand verbal politeness differently than spanish speakers, and in terms of foequency British English speakers tend to thank more frequently, in everyday situations, than Peninsular Spanish speakers. (Please, go to the exercises section and do exercise 2.)
All in all, the aim of sociolinguists is to describe the variations within

a language and match these variations with the different groups of people that use them, as well as the corresponding situations. So, sociolinguistics
deals especially with variation, among groups, among situations and among places, and the task of the sociolinguist is to find regular patterns of variation in use.
5.
SOME INSTANCES OF VARIATION
Labov (2003) states that style shifting is usually correlated to the amount of attention that the speaker pays to his speech. In American English, for instance, the spelling <th-> in words llke thing and that can be pronounced as smooth fricative [0] or [], as a lightly or strongly articulated alveolar plosive [t], as a blend of these two variants, or not pronounced at all in utterances such as Gimme'at book (Give me that book). These forms are used at different levels for different social groups and different regions.
In Black English Vernacula4 for instance, we can see some markers which are characteristic of this ethnic linguistic variety like the "double negative" in English often used by nonstandard speakers to express negatives emphatically in sentences such as: Nobody don't know about that (Nobody knows anything about that). other peculiarities of Black English vernacular in the united States is the absence of final third person singular <-s> (e.g. She want, he wak) and the dropping of the verb to be in present tense when used as a copula, (e.g. They real fine).
Word choice also determines style shifting as the linguistic'domain' (home, neighborhood, job, church, store, school, etc.) settles the degree of formality in the words used as well as the amount of colloquialisms in a speaker's speech.
(Please go to the exercises sections and do exercises 3 and 4.)
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6. DIACHRONIC VARIATION
Languages change over time and in the same way that some centuries avo languages as Germanic developed into new languages such as English,
German and Norwegian, in a few centuries we will probably speak a -anguage that will not be English, Spanish or French, but a mixture of
:hem all, especially given the current phenomenon of globalization. Languages are in a constant flux because people use them endlessly and :he continuous use makes them change. Spanish, for example, was once a variety of Latin but after centuries of use it developed into a new ianguage as it was widespread and standardized. In the same way, English has not always been the same. If we try to read an Old English (OE) text ",\- c?n appreciate how the language has changed in the last centuries.
Pronunciation also changes in all languages, but it does not vary randomly 'because the sounds of related languages (a sound change may take many decades or even many centuries to complete) correspond to others in apparently systematic ways. This phenomenon is referred to as 'sound shift'.
The Danish scholar Rasmus Rask and his follower the Gerrnan linguist Jacob Grimm in the first quarler of the 19th century succeeded in showing ihe relationship between Germanic (as Gothic or Old English) and the
ciassical Indo-European languages (Greek, Latin and Sanskrit). They concluded that Germanic was pafi of the Indo-European language family. They accounted for the differences between Germanic and the classical languages through a set of sound changes. They noticed, for instance, that Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops become voiceless fricatives. E.g. :
Greek
Latin
pater
trs
Gothic fadar
preis
Old English
present-day English
patr treis
'father' 'three'
They also discovered that Proto-Indo-European voiced stops become r-oiceless stops. E.g. :
Greek
Latin
decem
Gothic taihun
Old
ton
English
present-day English 'ten
ka
{:rd Proto-Indo-European voiced aspirates become voiced stops or

rnatir-es (depending on the context). E.g.:
Greek phr
Latin
fer
baira
Old English
beoru
present-day English
'I carry
Another area of linguistic change is syntax. Syntactic change affects

the patterrring of sentences. One instance of syntactic change is the altering
of word order from Proto-Indo-European to most contemporary IndoEuropean languages. Proto-Indo-European was an Obiect-Verb (OV) language. One example to illustrate this pattern is the the rrrnic inscription on the famous Gallehus horn (Jutland) which dates to the 5th c.:
nk fllewleastiR Holtij az \orna tawido ('I, Hlew-gastiR of Holt/son of Holt carwed this [orn').
The syntactic order of the inscription is SOV (horna is the object and tawido the verb).
Present-day English has changed from Proto-Indo-European in its underlying syntactic stmcture. In Old English, for example, the pattern SVO affected only to the main clause and it was different in the subordinate clause (SOV), as it occurs in present-day German, but over time it has regularized and now the same pattern is used both in the main and in the subordinate clause. There has been a gradual shift from OV to VO in the clause.
Example:
English German
That is the bookshop where I bought )'our book.
SVO
Das ist der Buchgescheft, wo ich deines Buch gekauft habe.
SOV
Syntactic relations in Old English were more similar to present-day German than to present-day English (the same has happened as far as grammar is concerned). English has become an analytic language. A good
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31
number of changes between, for example, old English and Modem English are due to loss of morphological inflections. E.g.: Old English (OE) German (G) Present-day English
Mit heardum bendum Mit harten Bndern
(PdE)
With hard bonds
In this example, both Old English and German show the dative plural ending, whereas Modern English only presents the plural marker <-s>.
Semantic change offers the most obvious instances as it is one of the most sensible areas in this respect, as even in short periods of time (a lifetime or less) words may vary their meanings total or partially because they are closely connected with everyday usage and the contemporary culture. There are changes in meaning and use. Changes in word meaning is caused by the meeting of new demand of the lexical resources of a language. Change of meaning is closely related to social changes. Semantic change can be divided into various categories. For example, there can be changes in the range of meanings of a word by means of generalization or specification; new meanings can be added or lost, etc. There are some interesting examples of generalization and specification. When Chaucer spoke of 'disease' he didn't necessarily mean an illness caused by inflection but any kind of discomfort absence of 'ease'(as -an indeed'dis-ease'suggests). For the Elizabethans science meant what we mean by knowledge.
The old English wordmete was cognate with old High Gerrnan/Middle High German maz 'food, meal, mealtime' and was used to refer to food of any kind (similar then to OE fda > ME fde > PdE food). ME mte could be used to speak of specific types of food when modified by another word as inflesch-mte 'flesh food' = 'mat' (as opposed to fish). It then became associated to 'flesh of animals used as food' = 'meat'. Another erample of specialization occurs with the Old English wordttd, cognate r,,ith Gerrnan Zeit originally meaning 'time in general', 'a period of time', and also 'hour'. It could be employed besides the term time. rn Middle English it began to be associated with other meanings and differentiated flom tinte. Eventually its meaning was reduced to MnE tide. The old English rvord feper (PdE feather) is cognate with OHG (Old High German) federa and was used in Middle English in sentences such as'wnte rvith fetheres'. This word was later replaced by pen (PdE penne), the Latin rvord Qtenna) for 'feather'.
32
There are pairs (sometimes even trios) of words with identical or similar referential meanings but with different stylistic meaning. The use of one or the other depends on the communication situation. E.g.: ask: requesl (French requte); answer: reply (French rpliquer)
betty: abdomen ( stomachus). respond (Latin) '
< Latin), stomach (< French estomac < Latin
The word stock can also be expanded. Words can be borrowed from other languages, new words can be coined or invented, and new terms can be ..t"J by means of derivation and compounding of existing words' Specially these days, due to the constant phenomenon of globalization u.rd *id.pread mdia such as television and the Internet, new words are quickly iniroduced from other languages (borrowings). In the same way, words that used to be part of a specific jargon are now commonplace because they have been introduced in new domains or disciplines (this is specially nticeable in the language of computers with words such as: navigator, web, etc.).
Native words can pass out and be replaced by words from other languages or dialects as, for example, the old English terrr earm'poor" Early tVtodern English armlrentt, replaced in Middle English by the French *or pvere, poure. There is also semantic differentiation of originally ,yrory-r, native words and loanwords. One example is the Modern nglish word heaven which comes from oE heofon, whereas PdE sfty comes from Old Norse sftY 'cloud'.
(Please, go to the exercises section and do exercises 5 and ')
7.
SPEECH COMMUNITY
Several attempts have been made to define what a speech community is but, as frequently happens with other linguistic terms (for example, dialect), it is not eaiy to find a comprehensive definitionl.
For general linguistics, a speech communitv is a group of people that share the same language or dialect in a specific setting u'hich can be close,
are some commonly used terms in linguistics, and in sociolinguistics, that are really difficult to define unambiguousl in spite of the fact that thev are core concepts in thefield. Speechcommunit,v*,togthertrithlangtLage,dialect.vatiett,andinrit'espeaker,is one of them.
t ff1"r"
,;if
33
:,^-h as a city or a neighborhood; or broad, such as a rvhoie countn". For . -;-olinguistics, the issue is a bit more complex than that given the fact ,=a: societal and extra linguistic factors are taken into account. We can --:-i instances of speech communities that are very different among them, :..ause the degree of complexity depends on the number of variables ,:.-, olr'ed in the social and linguistic interaction, some of which are the - .:bal reperloire (i.e. the set of languages, dialects, registers, etc.) and the -' ie reperloire (i.e. the relationship among interlocutors, such as parent: :ild, teacher-student, employer-employee).
The definition of speech community needs to be sufficiently flexible nd abstract to include social groupings as dissimilar as neighborhoods :rd countries as speech communities. A basic component for a speech :',-,mmunity to be considered as such, is the fact of sharing at least one -anguage and, therefore, the term refers to a group of people that could --ommunicate in the same language. Members of a speech community are united by a common end which, in turn, will be different to the ends of -,ther people or groups. Each individual can therefore be a member of a speech community on some occasion and a member of another speech ,-ommunity on another occasion depending on his,/her end. The underlying r-atlonal is that, because of specific transitory interests, people need to rdentifu themselves as paft of a group or speech communitr and sometimes of others, or be seen as paft of a group. All this depending on the situational context. So, each individual has his/her own verbal repertoire (verbal r arieties) and each speech community has its own speech repertoire.
It is important to take into account that speech communities do not necessarily correspond with political boundaries (Swedish is spoken in Su'eden but it is also spoken in some pafis of Finland), religions (Turkish is spoken in Turkey but also in some parts of Greece, Bulgaria and Rumania) or cultures (Bengali is spoken by two groups, in Bangladesh and in India (West Bengal).
Languages are often used by groups of people that share a physical context but also a number of social norms. The relationship among members of a speech community allows the categorization of differences among the several users and variation according to certain social conditionings such as age, gende4 job, educational background, etc. These groups of people share at least one language or variety and also some r-uies and norms for the correct use in communication.
As was suggested above, speech communities do not need to be monolingual, as a matter of fact, bilingual or trilingual speech communities are as common as monolingual ones. Kachru (2001) distinguishes four
34
major t,pes of speech communities: multilingual, bilingual, monolingual and diglossic speech communities.
a/ A multilingual speech community recognizes more than two official languages as it happens in Switzerland where French,
German and Italian are official languages and are regularly spoken in some parts of the country while not in others (for example, in Zurich most people use German whereas in Geneva most people speak French). In multilingual countries a contact language is commonly adopted as an'official'language for practical purposes as, for instance, English in India and Russian in the former USSR.
b) A bilingual speech community acknowledges two languages with an official status as in Canada or in Belgium. In Canada, bilingualism can be seen in some parts of the country but there are also communities that are essentially monolingual, in either English or French. In Brussels, for example, there are clear
divisions in terms of areas where one language or the other is used but biiingualism/multilingualism is also common. For instance' a Brussels citizen may wake up in his/her home town, have breakfast with his Flemish speaking family, then go to work to a different part of the city where French is spoken, use this language in the public transport and then get to his working-place where s/he is required to speak English. Spanish is the official language in Spain but in some parts of the country such as the Basque Country, Catalonia, and Galicia there are two official languages and monolingual speakers of Spanish or Basque lCatalanlGalician can be found as well as bilingual speakers.
c)
monolingual speech community has only one official language, as Portugal does for example, but this conception is sometimes misleading since monolingual speakers can also have a reperloire of styles, registers or dialects that may be utterly different from the
standard.
d/ A diglossic community would be one .,vhere two languages or varieties are functionally complementarY. Diglossia often
I
distinguishes between two varieties; one u'hich is used in formal contexts (high varietr) and another one that is used in colloquial speech (low variety). Arabic-speaking communities, for example, regularly distinguish between Classical and colloquial Arabic.
,\TT
35
Diglossia is often intertwined with bilingualism/multiiingualism. In Gernan-speaking Switzerland, for instance, children learn the lou,r'ariefy Schuryzerttsch, including some regional dialects of Srviss) and later :her acquire the high variety. Something similar happens in the USA .:rrong Spanish-speaking immigrant families. Very often children learn Sanish from their parents as their mother tongue and later, when they :: schooled, they iearn English which will probably be the language they ,,, --l need in everyday life. As a result, adolescents and adults raised under -:::se conditions may use Spanish with their parents and grandparents :.t English at work, or even with their siblings.
As can be deduced from the previous description, it is not easy to : *-:Lain rvhat can be considered a speech community but there are general ::ielirles that help. According to Spolsky (1998: 25) the speech community : r.s no limitation of location or size but it entails a complex interlocking l:r-r,,ork of communication, their members sharing the knowledge of ,.::-:.rage use patterns as well as attitudes towards others and themselves, ,:-l also sharing a set of language varieties (or repertoires) and norms for ,s-::g them. Members of the same speech community do not even need to :".'-'e a comprehensive knowledge, nor even handle, each of the varieties -: r:peftoires that are used within it. Perhaps, belonging to a particular -:.ech community is something that, apart from accommodating some =::eral principles, requires the speakers' self ascription to it on account 1- ,-rpects such as personal identity or group attitude.
J-"a.-.e go
to the exercises section and do exercises 7,
and 9.)
I.
DOI\C SOCIOTINTGUISTIC RESEARCH
adult speaker of a language has accumulated enough erperience that their own language is not used in the same \\'a], b)- different :ir:-.,-=rS in their speech community. It depends on the interlocutor's social : r: =:",,rraphic background and other factors such as age, sex or education. l:---s r-Leans that every speaker will show some degree of stylistic variation i,::e:dins on (a) the relations of power or solidarity with the interlocutor; i -:: social context (domain) where the conversation is taking place: at *..:r-,- in school, at the working place, neighborhood; and (c) the topic: nr: j.mic, professional, trifling. These variables determine that a researcher ,,,"'-,:g to search into the matter and analyze the way people speak and rvh1,, ',:- :::ed to devise some way to collect data with a transparent, systematic ;.-,: *;rambiguous method in order to get reliable non-biased data.
:
Al
1.m -rtr\'
36
AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCiOLINGUISTICS
Sociolinguists at work are looking for commonly accepted rules and patterns that account for variations in speech (these can be in the form of pronunciation, word choice or grammatical complexity, or language choice among others) based on some determining factors such a age, gende4 level of education, place of origin, etc. and also depending on the nature of the encounter (place and topic). Bearing this in mind, the sociolinguist at r.vork may need to elicit information or just observe a communicative situation. Some other factors such as validity come into play because the sociolinguist can not assume that the informants are not lying or simply pretending an accent or using words different to the ones they would use in a real situation. This is no necessarily done on purpose but it is perfectly possible that some speaker, on noticing that his speech is being analyzed changes it unconsciously, or just tries to make his speech cleare and that is precisely the base of sociolinguistic research. It is necessary to get reliable information about the linguistic phenomenon which has ecological validity, i.e. it represents a true sample of the way communication takes place without any type of interference on the part of the researcher.
Intrusion can result not only from the presence of the researcher or any unexpected device but also from the alteration, although subtle it could be, of the situation or the environment. This brings about a methodological problem pointed out by William Labov and it concerned how can we observe the way people speak when the researcher is not there and in situations that might be private (e.g. at home, business meeting) and, therefore, difficult to analyze. Labov refers to this bone of contention as the observer's paradox. Nevertheless, this type of methodological problems are not exclusive to sociolinguistic research'and there are ways to minimize it.
Some decades ago it was a common practice to record telephone or other types of conversations without asking for permission. Notwithstanding ethical and legal issues arise on the fairness of using "hidden" devices or sources of information such as secret recordings in natural settings, the sociolinguist needs to find adequate mechanisms to elicit information that is genuine and lau'fuI.
to
Early sociolinguistic research u'as based on the use of questionnaires collect data on attitudes and behaviors u,here, for instance, the
t f" n"rglish Language Teaching. the sare issue arises riith regards to research within the classroom because students on krouing iher are being obsen'ed ma.v change their behavior and their performance.
37
-:- - irlant had to choose one option out of several ones, for example to -',i:iminate one word from another or one specific pronunciation from ,::r.i'-q. This technique is perfectly valid and useful depending on the aim : - -he studv and the type of subjects (age, cultural bounds, prace, etc.) '-,j ':'br-iously the data obtained is easily statistically analyzable. while ,:r-- f,rrn\-nient for gathering demographic data on the subjects under .;-* j',' rhis research technique presents several shortcomings. on the one *:, ir creates a very unnatural situation and informants may just answer ",:-r lher think the researcher wants to know, or the other way round, oj-''t :,n the other hand, as the questionnaire has been planned in advance :-:=:: is little room, if any, to gather information that has not been taken -:: - - account when it was designed. In that respect, the interview poses :-::r ad\-antages due to the flexibility of the situation. euestionnaires are =:-. usefui for gathering demographic information from the inforrnants.
-\nother possibility would be face-to-face interviews (sociolinguistic -:-:;:-'ieu-) but we know that when we are asking questions and receiving r-:,S'r,-rS our interlocutor's speech is being either carefully planned or at r:s: modified because of the circumstances and s/he has a more casual ::-"-e rhat he possibly uses when he is among friends or with his/her family. ,: ::ar-also happen that the researcher concentrates his/her attention on ;- =erhin-s while neglecting another interesting aspect. Sociolinguistic ---::l-,ieus are time- and effort-consuming, and not always suitable because ,: :her are not properly directed they may not be a good way to elicit ,:-:rrrnation. However, there are some techniques that can be used to :::ain casual speech in such situations and, which can minimize the :.:sence of the interviewer.
-:3rage in English Language Teaching materials. So, there is a ned not -:-\' to analyze large written and spoken corpora from the media but it -. aiso fundamental to compile and examine data coming from everyday i:ech. To this aim, a very recent research technique consists in proding -:::,rrmants with small high-capacity MP3 recorders that they carry all th -::re and which are recording every thing they say. It seems that after some :e:iod of familiarization, people tend to get used to them and often forget ::'lut the fact that they are being recorded. These informants do not -sualh' know about the aim of research and, therefore, the validity of the :rethod and the reliability of the collected data increases.
-
-:= tn ing to incorporate common language uses and high frequency
-\s a case in point, in the last few years new advances on lexicography
In the early 1970s william Labov conducted some seminal research -:l rhree New York deparlment stores and collected non-intrusive responses.
38
He wanted to find out why the final /r/ is not always pronounced in final position in words such as car or bar. Labov selected three stores located in different areas of the cify and which entailed (a) a fashionable shopping area; (b) a middle-class store; and, (c) a store dealing in low-price goods. An interwiewer systematically asked questions to salespeople at the three stores and he showed that variation was systematic due to a matter of social status. I{e worked on the assumption that the sales-people's accents reflected those of their customers, and his research technique consisted in an interviewer visiting the different stores and asking a salesperson for goods that were located on the four-th floor. Then, pretending he had not heard the answer the interviewer would get a second more emphatic response. All the pronunciations of the word 'four'were analyzed and contrasted with other relevant information such as age, approximate age, etc. of each interviewee. 264 interviews were carried out in each
department store3.
As was suggested above, sociolinguistic research is based on the collection of large amounts of data and the later statistical analysis of this data in order to find general tendencies or regularities. Nonetheless, there is some tension between quantitative and qualitative approaches to sociolinguistic research. Ethnographers follow a different approach and therefore the procedures are very different. They base their research on case studie. (Ethnog.aphic approach) and that is why they carefully observe single cases and they contrast the patterns of behavior that they find with those of other communities or societies. Due to the type of analysis they make, usually based on recordings, statistical analysis is not norrnally possible. Although some tension can be perceived between these two approaches (quantitative and qualitative), each study has idiosyncratic characteristics and specific aims and may require one or the other but it is often the case that the researcher needs to be eclectic and combine the statistical analysis of data with personal inter-views in order to gain reliability, to contrast his/her findings, or simplv as a complementary research technique.
All in all, there are different approaches tou,ards sociolinguistic research in terms of both elicitation techniques and data analysis and each type of research requires a different design. It is often the case that more than one elicitation technique is needed.
(Please go to the exercises section and do ererclses 10 and 1 1.)
Lubou, William (1966). Tl.te Social Stratification
Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics.
ol
Ettglis/t
in
Nett'York City.
-.
i
I
I
I
l-
u!T l
39
9.
E,XERCISES
I. Analyze the following conversations frorn The Adventures of Tbm Scul'er. What can you deduce about the interlocutors? How?
T can lick you!'
T'd like to see you try it.' 'Ifobll, I can do it.' 'No vou can't, either.' Tes I can.' '-\o you cant.' T can.'
You cant.'
'Can.'
'Cant.' An uncomfortable pause. Then Tom said: 'lfo'hat's your name?' 'Iisnt any of your business, maybe.' 'Well, I 'low I'II make it my business.' 'Well, why dont you?' 'If you say much I will.' 'Much much much! There, now.' - think you're 'Oh, you mighty smart, donl you? I could lick you with one hand tied behind me, if I wanted to.' 'Well, why dont you do it? You say you can do it.' "Well, I will, if you fool with me.' 'Oh, yes I've seen whole families in the same fix.' 'Smarfy! -you think you're some rrow, don't you?' 'Oh, what a hat!' You can lump that hat if you don't like it. I dare you to knock it off; and anybody that'll take a dare will suck eggs.' You're a liar!' You're another.' You're a fighting liar, and darn't take it up.' (Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.)
2. Make a list of all the swear words you know in your mother tongue. lilhich do you use? How often? In what circumstances? To whom? With nat aims?
40
3. If you have
access to Cable TV
try to
see an episode
of 'Tom and
Jerry' in which the black lady speaks. What distinctive phonological, lexical and syntactic features do you note?
4. Very roughly speaking we can divide words and phrases into three broad registers: formal, informal and normal. To which register do you think these words and phrases belong: buy, purchase, mzn, bloke, kids, children, cLtps, 'I'm knackered', 'I'm shattered', 'That's two quid, guv', emoluments, 'HAS he seen a shrink?', 'Chuck that brolly away', progeny? Check your answers in your dictionaries. If you want to take this further, have a look at some concordances for words like'shrink' +'emoluments'. Tly http ://sara. natcorp. ox. ac. uk/lookup. html
5. In the following passage, the author ("I") who is on a boating holiday with friends on the river Thames has just had a swim in the river. Can you find any linguistic evidence which suggests that the book the passage is taken fuom is not contemporary?
Rather an amusing thing happened while dressing that morning.
was very cold when I got back into the boat, and, in my hurry to get my shirt on, I accidentally jerked it into the water. It made me awfully wild, especially as George burst out laughing. I could not see anything to laugh at, and I told George so, and he only laughed the more. I never saw a man laugh so much. I quite lost my temper with him at last, and I pointed out to him what a drivelling maniac of an imbecile idiot he was; but he only roared the louder. And then just as I was landing the shirt, I noticed that it was not my shirt at all, but George's, which I had mistaken for
mine; whereupon the humour of the thing struck me for the first time, and I began to laugh. And the more I looked from George's wet shirt to George, roaring with laughter, the more I was amused, and I laughed so much that I had to let the shirt fall back into the water again.
'Ar'n't you
shrieks.
-you-
going to get
it out?' said George between his
I could not answer him at all for a while, I was laughing so, but at last, between my peals I managed to jerk out:
'It isn't my shirt
all my life before.
I never saw a man's face change from lively to severe so suddenly in 'Whatl'he yelled, springing up. 'You silly cuckoo! Why can't you be more careful what you're doing? Why the deuce dont you go and dress on the bank? You're not fit to be in a boat, you're not. Gimme the hitcher.'
I tried to make him see the fun of the thing, but he could not. George is very dense at seeing a joke sometimes,
-it's
yours!'
41
:- Jrish u'ord'decent'does not mean 'decente'in Spanish but'acceptable, : :easonable'. Many of these words originally had similar meanings
:,
'.,::,-1se
3 -rrh
. Faise cognates, or false friends, are words that look aiike in ::--,;sh and Spanish but have different meanin-qs. For instance, the
languages but they changed over time. It follows some words meaning has changed over time (semantic change). Look up each '. - rc in an etymological dictionary (such as The Oxford English -i:-:iottatt) and a) find how each word has evolved from a semantic : -,nr of view in the history of the English language and, b) find the .ppropriate equivalent in present-day Spanish.
mid 19th c.,luxus meant 'excessive indulgence in creature comforts and sensual pleasures', just like present-day Spanish
14th and
E.g.: luxury: It means'opulence'in present-day English but between
'lujurioso'.
Abrupt
Disgrace
Edit Journal Svmpathy
7. Bearing in mind the sociolinguistic situation in different parts of

Spain, try to find out in what respect is Spain a single or a complex speech community. Do the same with the united States. In what respect is the situation in Spain and the United States different?
8. Think of the way you
does it vary from the rvay other people you know speak? Make a list of common features in vour own speech (e.g. pronunciation, vocabulary (word choice), syntax, idiomatic expressions, etc.) and try to find an explanation for the difference between your own speech and the other person (for example, geographic variation).
t'ith other people in your speech community. How
speak your first language (English or Spanish)
9. Describe the way in which the language spoken by adolescents (either English or Spanish) is characteristic of a specific group.
10. Language is often referred to as a source of power as it can be used to control others. Think about the way some professionals such as physicians, lawyers, teachers, speak to others in a working context, or how parents speak to their children. write a list of common features for
each of them.
42
1
1. In this chapter it has been suggested that ianguages and language use are subjected to a great deal of variation:
)Writedifferentwaysofaskingforpermissioninaneveryday
a situation, for instance, you have got a headache and you need you are person pain-relieving pill. For each request, indicate the ialking to anLriefly describe the situational context and your intention. b) Doyou speak the same way to your brother/siste^r/friend and to yorr bosiZ In which ways is your speech different? your office Do you speak the same way in a family gathering and in
c)
orworkingplace?Why?Inwhichwaysisyourspeechdifferent'if it is?
10. REFERENCES
(ed'), Bnrr PaulsoN, ch. and G. R. TucxsB. 2003. 'Introduction" in R. Mesthrie Blackwell USA: pssential MA' Malden' Readings' Sociolinguirtrr-,'ln"
Publishing.
VE'B' BsRIlrr, R. 1982. A Histotlt of the English I'anguage'Leipzig' Germany: in Europe" in R' c.srvEr, L. 2003. 'Reflections on the origins of Sociolinguistics MA' USA: Mesthrie (ed.), Sociotinguistics: Th Essential Readings' Malden' Blackwell Publishing. in a Nofth Indian GuNrpERZ, J. J. 1958.'Dialect Differences and Social Stratification 1 668-8 60: ' Anthropologist, Village'. American Hocr, J.1996. Language History, Language Change and Language Relationship' Berlin: Mouton de Gr-uYter. Press' Hursor{, R. A. 1980. Sociolinguisllcs. cambridge, uK: cambridge university
K-ccHnu, B. B. 2001.'speech community" in R. Mesthrie The Essentiat Reaclings. Malden, MA, USA: Blackwell Publishing'
(ed.), sociolinguistics:
(ed.), socioknguistics: Leeov, w. 2003. 'Some sociolinguistic principles" in R. Mesthrie Publishing. The Essential Reaclings. Ulden, MA, USA: Blackwell
uK: MEsrHBrB, R. (ed.). 2001. Concise Encyclopaedia of sociolinguistics. oxford,

Pergamon.
Savr[s-TRoxs, M. 1996. 'The ethnography of communication" in S. L. McKay and N. H. Hornber ger, socioling"itiiri and Language Teaching. cambridge:
Cambridge UniversitY Press.
UNIT
43
Ssuy, R. W. 2003. 'A brief history of American Sociolinguistics 1949-1989', in R. Mesthrie (ed.), Sociolinguistics: The Essential Readings. Malden, MA, USA:
Blackwell Publishing. Sporsrv, B. 1998. Sociolinguisrlcs. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

\V.RonaucH , R. 2002, (4th ed.). An
Introduction to Sociolinguisllcs. Malden, MA,
USA: Blackwell Publishing.
11. RESOURCES ON THE WEB

Now you can visit the web page for this subject where you will find further references and complementary readings.
12. FURTHER READINCS AND QUESTIONS

12.7. Text
1
it emphasizing any will find some questions that may be helpful. Write around 250-300 words in total.
aspect you consider of relevance. After the text you
Once we have identified the linguistic variable as our basic working tool, the next task becomes one of employing that tool in an effort to see how linguistic variation relates to social variation. An early study of linguistic variation by Gumperz (1958), but one cast in a'modern'mold, shows some of the intricacies involved in trying to relate linguistic variation to social variation. Because the society he was studying is rigidly stratified on the basis of caste membership, the problems are considerably fewer that those encountered in such cities as New York, Detroit, or even Norwich, but they are still present. Gumperz shows how rather small differences in speech can effectively distinguish sub-groups in society from one another in a study of linguistic usage in the village of Khalapur, eighty miles north of Delhi in India. The social stmcture of the village is deterrnined by Hindu caste membership r,r'ith Brahmans at the top, then Rajputs (warriors), Vaishyas (merchants), and several groups of artisans and laborers lower down. At the bottom are three
Read the following text carefully and comment on
untouchable castes: Chamars (landless laborers), Jatia Chamars (leather
workers and shoe makers), and Bhangis (sr.veepers). The latter are restricted to living in cerlain neighborhoods and have less lreedom to move in the village than do members of the upper castes. Ten percent of the population are not Hindus but Muslims; thev are outside the caste
system.
44
So far as language is concerned, certain characteristics of the Khalapur village dialect are clear markers of social-group membership. For example, Bhangis do not make certain phonological contrasts that speakers of all other castes make. Chamars and Jatia Chamars also lack
certain phonological contrasts made bir all others, and some, in

attempting to make such a contrast, actually hypercorcect: that is, they over-extend a particular usage in trying to emulate others. Jatia Chamars have a characteristic pronunciation of words that end in [e] in all other village varieties. Each of the three untouchable castes therefore has speech characteristics that clearly set it off both from the other two untouchable castes and from the touchable castes in the village. Muslim speech resembles that of the touchable classes.
t...1
This study quite clearly shows a direct relationship between linguistic variation and caste membership. If we know certain things about one, we can predict certain things about the other. It is just such connections or correlations that interest sociolinguists working with the linguistic variable. What they seek are measures of social variation to which they can relate the kinds of linguistic variation they obsewe. Howeve4 caste, with its sharp social stratifications, is useless as a nleasure of social variation outside a few non-Westem societies. Consequently, the problem becomes one of finding factors in society that show a relationship to such matters as whether or not an individual says singing or singin', he go or he goes, or He doesn't know anything or He don't know nothing.
Once a linguistic variable has been identified, the next issue becomes that of collecting data concerning its variants in such a way that we can draw certain conclusions about the social distribution of these variants. To draw such conclusions, we must be able to relate the variants in some way to quantifiable factors in society, e.g., social-class membership, gender, age, ethnicity, and so on. As we will see, there are numerous difficulties in attempting this task, but considerabie progress has been made in overcoming them, particularly as studies have built on those that have gone before in such a way as to strengthen the quality of the work done in this area of sociolinguistics.
While it is fairly easy to relate the occurrences of the variants of a linguistic variable to factors such as gender and age, relating them to factors such as race and ethnicity is somewhat more troublesome since these are much more subjective in nature and less easily quantifiable. But the most complicated factor of all is social-class membership, if we consider'social class'to be a useful concept to apply in stratifying society and few indeed would deny its relevancel
t...1
45 An educational scale may employ the following categories: graduate or professional education; college or university degree; attendance at college or university but no degree; high school graduarion; some high school education; and less than seven years of forrnal education. Income
level as well as source of income are important factors in an' classification system that focuses on how much mone\- people har e. Likewise, in considering where people live, investigators must concern themselves with both the tlpe of housing and its location.
(Wardhaugh, 2002: 144-146)
Issues to consider:
;,
After reading about Gumperz's research in India and the caste
in a speech community in a western society where social and linguistic differences are often more subtle?
s\-stem he analyzed, how do you see the possibility of doing research
r The author states that is it is fairly easy to relate linguistic variants to factors such as gender and age but much more difficult to relate
them to factors such as race and ethnicity. Do you agree? Why (not)?
:,
Do you find the categories suggested in the educational scale detailed enough for sociolinguistic research? Would you suggest more or less categories or levels than the ones listed in this excerpt?
J; In the text the author makes reference to various
linguistic variation such as age, ethnicity, gender, educational background, etc. How do you think income level and source of income affect linguistic variation?
factors that affect
12.2. Text 2
Read the following text carefully and comment on it emphasizing any ::Tect vou consider of relevance. After the text you will find some questions ::r3t may be helpful. Write around 250-300 words in total.
t. .l
There is no expectation that a community
will be linguisticallv
homogeneous: as a collectiry, it will include acommunicarive repenoire, or range of languages, language varieties, and registers, that u-ill pattern in relation to the salient social and cultural dimension of communication. Any one speaker also has a variety of codes, styles, and registers form which to choose. The term codes is used here to mean different lan-zuages or significantly different varieties of a single language; s/rrles, to mean varieties associated with such social and cultural dimensions as age, sex,
46
social class, and relationship between speakers; and registers, to mean varieties of language which are more closely associated with the setting who are or scene in which Ih.y u." used than they are with the people single any that using them. It is very Lnlikely in a compiex community.
repertoire' individual carprodt'ce the iull tuttg" of the community's and use understand may Different ,.rt g.'ot'p' within the conimunity communicative Speakers' codes. different r"b:;;r'-.1 its available and the rules for competence i".f""t knor'r'ing the alterntives between .pprip",. .i;i.;t"* among ihe alterrratives or for switching the task of parl is making them. Defint,h" ;;;t"- for"such decision and of explaining group' any within of describing'.--""ication
communication more generallY' participate in a varietv of be discrete o, tt"tiupping), just as they may orient themselves to at individuals ones social settings. whih o.r" o.
Individualsmaybelongtoseveralspeechcommunities(whichma'
anygiven."-"",-*hichsetofsocialandcommunicativer^trlesthey understand this

use
i, pu.i'"ltftt 'i'uitgy of communication' To a communitv phenomenotl, n" must reJognize that each member of
hasarepertoireofsocialidentitiesandthateachidentityinagiven verbal and nonverbal context i, urro.iu *ltt u number of appropriate repertoire of social in'dlnidual's an Although forms of speech ""fr"rrion. identities -* rr. *ithin th bounds of a single complex in unrelated membership community, rJi rrir-g"J_bl..rlt ,.ul individuals,
speech communitie;
*ho .utt function appropriateh immigrant.hild*" chicago, Illinois, and vn'ith peers in with u.ir, and comforrurv Navajo leader grandparent, .td .o,tti"s when they visit Athens' :"9 11" tribal council a of context the in btth
of Greek families who is u" communicator
i, .olTr*on.
Examples include second-generation
"ft".ii* meetinginWindowRock,Arizona,andinacongressionalhearingin codes bui Washington, .C' S""tt inividuals change not only language for strategies rules forcp.-ut irrg, nonverbal behavirs, and other interaction, as *ell as their social roles and identities'
Saville-Troik e (199 6:
35
7-3
5E
Issues to consider:
a) Saville-Troike links different identities and social roles to the a

ascription to different speech communities' Do you agree? Can speaker be part of different speech communities?
-onhngltal
b)Trytodescribevourlinguisticrepertoireandyourpossibl-
parlicipation in,rutio,-r, speech communities' What are some of the difficulties you encounter in your description? find a comprehensive definition c'c) ' Doyou think it is possible to provide your own definition' 'spelch community'? Try and
U\TT
47
13. KEY WORDS

The following list of key words contains some important terms that
are presented in this unit. A definition for each term can be found at the end of this book, in the giossary.
Analytic language Black English Vernacular Borrowing Communicative competence Dialect Dialectology
Discourse analysis
Domain Ethnography of communication
Informant
Language attrition
Macro-sociolinguistics
M
i
cro-sociol i nguistics
Native speaker Observer's paradox

Pragmatics
(Proto)-Indo-European Sociolinguistic interview Sociology of language Synchronic variation Synthetic language Variety
Unit
1. SOME VARIABLES IN SOCIOLINGUISTICS

1.1. Style
As we saw in the previous chapter, geographic variation is quite noticeable and relatively eas' to identify. There are other tlpes of variation that are more laborious to describe and, on some occasions at least, less conspicuous. Even within a specific speech community individuals have a range of choices when they speak in terms of word choice, syntactic complexity and even subtle pronunciation features. Every individual has a t,pical way in which s/he does things and the same applies to any aspect of human behavior. There are rough generalizations in all aspects of life, for instance, in the way people drive. The British are said to be calm, gentle drivers whereas the Italians are often considered fast and impatient. However true these generalizations might be, each British and Italian driver has his/her own style which can vary depending on the time of the day or the location.
Stylistic variation can be found in other areas of more interest to sociolinguists; for example, you can speak very forrnally or very inforrnall' given certain circumstances and situations. This implies a specific choice on the part of the speaker as s/he will probably choose formal language for solemn events, less formal language for everyday situations and really inforrrral and casual language for trivial conversations or relaxed matters. As a result, the speaker can decide on a level of formality depending on a number of factors such as the particular occasion, social differences, the interlocutor's age and other determining factors such as the type of discourse chosen, i.e., written or spoken. For instance, the following sentences might be used in different situations depending, among other things, on the speaker's choice: "Would you be so kind as to leave the room?", "Can you please leave the room?", "Get lost!", or "You pig, get lostl". Native speakers usually make use of the range of styles they have
52
at their disposal when they speak and they can easily accommodate their language to the required degree of formality. Conversely, it is also possible to predict the stylistic features that a native speaker will bring to bear on certain occasions.
Style implies a choice on the part of the speaker to say something. Given a certain situation where the speaker would say something like, "Can you pass me the salt?", if sihe changes the word salt for another word such as pipp", or vinegar, obviously there is a difference in meaning and, therefore it is not at the discretion of the speaker to change one word for the other while maintaining the meaning. Howevel if the speaker changes can for could, would, or simply says "pass me the salt", it implies a difference in style given the speaker's intention as well as other neighboring factors such ai the degree of formality and the relationship between the interlocutors. Another example would be the following words and expressions which have analogous meanings although their election would depend on the speakers' preference and the context: die, pass away, bite the dust or kick the bucket.
literary tradition in most cultures, especially western, the question of style has often been associated with the study way to of literary writing. Nevertheless, style is iinked in a consistent of ril ling,-,irric behvior, whether written or spoken' and regardless (Short, whether the speaker/writer is deemed to be a iiterary figure
As a result of the long
2001).
one is The following examples illustrate a difference of style' The first second the whereas a literary text wrilten wiih a cerlain degree of formality fragment is the same text but in an informal style'
Erarnpl.e A
continent a new nation, concei,red in liberty, and dedicated to the

proposition that all men are created equal'
"Fourscore years and seven ago our fathers brought forth upon this
Now we are engaged in a great civil wa6 testing whether that nation, or any nation so cneived and so dedicated, can long errdure. we are portion met on a great battlefield of that u,ar. we have come to dedicate a lives gave their here who those for resting-place final a as fiid that of $'e that proper and that their nation might live. If is altogether fitting should do this..." (Opening lines of President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
UNIT
53
This high-sounding and very effective rhetoric, a masterpiece of oration, could be rendered in everyday speech as:
Eranttle B
"Eighty-seven years ago our predecessors created a new country in this continent - a country made bv free people and based on the idea that everybody is equal.
Now we are fighting a big civil war to find out if a country based on that ideal can last for long. we're gathered here on a big battlefield to dedicate part of it as a burial ground for those who died here fighting for their country's sun ival. It's absolutely right that r.re should be doing this.... "
At a literal level both excerpts mean the same, but there is an enormous difference of style. Lincoln's words were slightly archaic even then -a way of making clear that he was talking about eternal values. The second text captures his meaning at a factual level but does not have anv of the resonance and poetry.
(Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 1.)
1.2. Register
Another variable that is at the speaker's disposal and that is caught up r,vith style is register. A register is a set of language features, mainly the choice of lexical items or slmtactic ordering of utterances, whose use tends
professionals with a parlicular occupation and, often, a particular u.orking
to be associated with a specific interest group as in the case of

context: doctors, air traffic controllers, lawyers, computer enthusiasts, etc. This tlpe of variation is characterized bv the circumstance and purpose of the communicative situation and contrasts rvith r,ariation br- iniriua1 user, geographical or socio-economic variation. Nou'adar-s, the overwhelming amount of information to which we are exposed in our society favors the appearance of registers. Specialization is encouraged and the flourishing number of technical words and acronS,ms sometimes makes it difficult for a lay person to follow a conversation on anr topic that requires a specific register. Apart from specific language domains, register is socially motivated as it entails a social negotiation among the participants in order to accommodate the adequate register either in ri'ritten or spoken discourse.
f
54
Register can be conceived from two different perspectives. In the narrow sense of the word, register refers to the tlpe of language used by a group of professionals who employ certain linguistic features which are not used, or at least not so commonly, in other settings. This conception of register is closely related to jargon, and tends to be associated with word choice rather that syntactic ordering. On the other hand, in a broad sense ofthe rvord, register can be understood as a social genre, a sociolect, that bears upon lexical choice and syntactic ordering, and could be exemplified in the language of newspaper articles, academic prose or legal
language. Registers can be depicted by means of three main dimensions:
a) Field, which relates to the social activity performed, the setting

and the aim of the interaction.
b) Tenor, which refers to the social roles enacted and the relationship
between the particiPants.
c) Mode, which
refers to the medium of the language in that situation.
For example, in the case of a newspaper article, the field would be the subject matter of the article that is intended to inform or instruct the reader. The tenor here would comprise the journalist who wrote the afiicle, but also the intended audience. Finally, the mode in this instance would be the piece of written work that is printed on the newspaper and reaches the reader. See the following passages:
Erample A: legal language.

At all pertinent times, it was reasonably foreseeable to Defendants that without feasible safety features and/or warning deces, Defendants' guns would end up being used in a tragic, preventable shooting by an unauthorized user. Many of these shootings are unintentional shootings, often by children who do not fully understand or appreciate how to properly handle a gun, or understand its risks. With regard to those guns of Defendants which are semi-automatics, at all perlinent times it was foreseeable that users, including adolescents, would mistakenly believe that a semi-automatic gun would not fire if the ammunilion magazine was removed. At all pertinent times it was
foreseeable that users of semi-automatic guns would not understand or appreciate that an undetectable round of ammunition may be housed
in the firing chamber of the gun, even though the detachable

designs.
ammunition magazine had been removed or unloaded, and that

preventable; unintentional shootings would result given Defendants'
55
Defendants were at all pertinent times aware of these foreseeable and unreasonable dangers inherent in the design of their firearms.
The design of Defendants'guns, which enables any person u,ho gains Dossession of them to fire them and does not make users aware that a
round of ammunition is housed in the firing chamber, results in

'housands of unintentional shooting deaths and non-fatal injuries every
r-ear. The General Accounting Office estimates fhat 33a/o of the annual 1,300 to 1,600 unintentional shooting deaths occur because the user of
lhe gun was not aware that a round of ammunition had been loaded into the gun's firing chamber. This accounts for as many as 450 to 475 deaths each year. In addirion to these dearhs, thlre are many unintentional shooting injuries that are not fatal.
l,;
,.:,le
B: neu)spapet' ertcle.
President Slams Film Business
Hundreds of Holl,vood's rich and famous were left speechless last night when film Society president, Douglas Kirk, 59, launched a savage attack on the movie business. Neither the script-writers, not the actors, nor the directors were as good today as they used to be, he told the astonished film stars. Guests were further incensed when he claimed that there were too many new films, and roars of protest greeted his
boast that people had stopped going to the cinema because they preferred
u'atching Kirk's old movies at home on television.

The speech came after the Society's annual dinner attended by the cream of Hollywood's high society. Among the first to arrive were Peruvian heiress and actress, Isabel Sastre, wearing a full length pale
by her latest 'ellow husband, Rupert Murbank, "sixth time lucky", she told our reporter. Present, too, were British star Simon Selino and, hot foot from filming and only just in time for dinner, comedy star Albert Tancred, his arm still in plaster after an accident at his Austrian home. Later guests enjoyed evening dress and a diamond tiara, and accompanied
-(including au poivre)- before veteran Kirk's sour grapes left a bad taste in er.erybody's mouth.
(By Jim Lau,ier,)
a lar.ish six course banquet
caare, roast duckling and steak
rli^: ' r,-,1e C: l.he lnnEtage of cookn.g.

Step one: Pour the mussel liquor from the shells into a saut pan and bring to a boil. Add the mussels and poach gently over medium-lon' heat for about 4 minutes, until the edges begin to curl. Remove the mussels with a slotted spoon and set aside; reserwe the cookin,e liquid
in the pan. Place the peppercorns, 3 garlic cloves, salt, and ll2 cup of the hot mussel liquid in a blender and puree. Add the puree and oil to the liquid in the pan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and let cool. Add the lime juice and reserved mussels to the mixture; puree again. Transfer the mussel puree to a saucepan and add the stock, cumin, thyme, and remaining garlic. simmer for 15 minutes over low heat, then
strain into a clean saucepan. whisk in the butter incorporated and set aside.
until completely
Step two: Wrap a bacon slice around each filet, securing with kitchen twine, and season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a hear,y saut pan to almost smoking. Lower the heat to medium and sear the steaks for 10 minutes per side; the filets should be crusty and browned on the outside and rare to medium-rare on the inside. If you prefe4 cook about 2 minutes longer on each side for medium-rare or about 5 minutes more per side for medium. while the steaks are cooking warm the mussel
sauce.
Step three: Bring a saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the leeks and cook for 5 minutes. Drain carefully, toss in a bowl with the butter, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Step four: Ladle the sauce on warm serving plates and place the steaks on top. Carefully cut the twine around the steaks and discard it. For each serving, divide the leeks into 4 portions around the beef and place a smoked mussel on top of each portion of leeks.
Style and register are related in the sense that stylistic variations can occur within a register, as the speaker or writer can choose, for instance, different degrees of formality or casualness within that register. In a newspaper article we could read "SARS appears to be the latest example of a vir-us leaping from animals to people and wreaking havoc.", or simply "SARS seems to be the most recent example of a virus jumping frm animals to people and playing havoc". You would find one sentence or the other depending on the type of publication and the style of the journalist.
(Please go to the exercises section and do exercises 2,
and 4.)
1.3. Cender
Do men and women speak in the same way? Do men dominate topics of conversation? Are men more asserlive than women? Do men intermpt women more often than women to men? Living in a western society it my take some time to answer these questions, even to find some There is indeed some evidence that marks language as sexist,"*-pl"i. o..uth". their users, and that both sexes do not speak the same way and that cannot
\1-T
57
:: pointed out that language should not be considered as inherently' sexist :-: it is used in a sexist way or even that it reflects a sexist r,r,orld. 'He'is
--:: nvelfth commonest word in the English language whereas 'she'is the -:inr'-first commonest word. since there are not more men in the world :ran \\omen, that might, at first glance, seem to suggest that English is a .;r:ist language but a little further reflection brings us to the realization ,:at the English language is used to talk and write in a sexist world. Men ':; much more likely than women, for example, to be leaders of their :: ntries so in newspapers 'he'tends to be more frequent than'she'. Patteffis of variation between men and women are much more evident .'. some parts of the globe as is the case of Japan. Japanese women show -:;\'are women when they speak in various ways, for instance by using r: as a sentence final pafiicle. Male speakers refer to themselves as wasi '.: )re and female speakers use watasi or atasi. But differences can be :,.h more subtle than that. According to Wardhaugh (2002:318) more :,:n than women in French-speaking Montreal do not pronounce the </> :. arlicles and pronouns (l/, elle,la andles), and schoolgirls in Scotland ::-m to pronounce the </> in words like water and got more frequently ::-.n boys who prefer a glottal stop.
::ir be attributed to stylistic or individual differences. Hou,er,er, it should
Trudgill (1972) in a study carried out in Norwich (England) found our .-r.: \\'omen tended to be more conservative in terms of language use, as r,:l \\ere reported to show most language change. He studied :::nological and sociological variables and he also discovered that women ':= generally more status-conscious than men. As a matter of fact, in his women had a clear tendency to overrepofi their use ':-iv he argued that " - lrestige forms (this study included various social groups coming from -,:king and middle class) while men were inclined to undemeport theirs. l-.ed upon the collected data and the subsequent analysis, he concluded :.:-: \\'omen tended to respond to standard-language prestige norms, i:reas men were liable to react to vernacular prestige forrns. The forrner -,:e of language was associated, in the context in which the research rvas :'-ied out, with refinement, sophistication and adherence to the standard jrguage, whereas the latter type of language was associated u,ith -,ughness and toughness, which were considered, to some extent, as :.sirable masculine attributes. The reason for r.l,omen's adherence to the .,=i:dard could be motivated, according to Trudgill, to their porverless :,-,:irion in life. This study was carried out thirqz years a_so, and the findings i: - uld be interpreted with caution as the role of women in societv has -:an-eed tremendously in these three decades. Horvever, it properlv j:.rfunts for differences in male-female linguistic behavior.
58
The study of gender is a complex developing issue given the fact that a number of ,o.iul variables converge and, it does not have an uniform effect on linguistic behavior. As Eckert points out, this should be taken as an essential approach to the study of data:
Gender differences are exceedingly complex, particularly in a society and era where women have been moving self-consciously into the marketplace and calling traditional gender roles into question. Gender roles and ideologies create different ways for men and women to experience life, culture, and society. (1997l.214)
The study of gender and variation arises from the different roles, norTns and expectations upon the sexes. Gender-based variation has not received
u, -r-r.h scientific attention as that given to socioeconomic class or dialectal variation over the years. As a result, many of the conceptions we
have now about gender andvariation are based upon popular beiief rather
than on u .orrn sociolinguistic anaiysis. In the last decades this has changed to a cerlain extent and there is a considerable amount of research incorporating sex as a biological category in sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and pragmatics. Traditionally, the terrr. sex, has been used to refer to biological and anatomical differences between men and women, and gender has been used to refer to psychological and socio-cultural differences between the sexes. This approach, although clear and simple enough to categorize profound differences between males and females proves to be a little simplistic for sociolinguistic research, as one of the aims of sociolinguistics is to describe the relation between these two, i.e., sex and gender. Se;r is a biological category which constitutes the base for the differentiation of roles, norms and expectations within a certain speech community, and these social roles, norms and expectations compose the idea of gender. Obviously, it makes no sense to think of the differences between men and women as a set of traits that characterize and sharply distinguish each group from one another, since they can not be considered polar opposites. Femininity and masculinity change from one culture to the othel or within the same from one generation to the next, and also depend on ethnic, religious or social (often socio-economic) groups. What is more, recent studies (Leap, 2001) have also been carried out which supporl the existence of cerlain characteristics that identify gay and lesbian language (specialized vocabulary, phonological features, distinctive intonation patterns, etc'), although this issue is still an ongoing debate.
Recent studies have shown neurophysiological differences in the ',l ar males and females process language. It seems that phonological processing
,;
T2
.59
-r males relates to the left hemisphere of the brain u'hereas it invoir-es
:,rth hemispheres in the case of females. However, no evidence has been sror.vn that such biological differences have an effect on maie-female -anguage processing and speech; any dissimilarity seems to be a result of .ocial factors (social constraints and traditional language usage make omen speech different to that of men) educational factors (in some schooled or they simply do not have =rtcieties women are not allowed to be :ccess to higher education), or power (as the sources of power in western society, in general, have traditionally been controlled by men, and to a onsiderable extent still are). Analysis of these differences suggest that typical lexical and grammatical choices, which are characteristic of men and women, lead io the forrnation of genderlects, i.e., men's and women's talk. Robin Lakoff r 1990) identified certain features distinguishing women's talk in terms of ivord choice, for example, in the frequency of certain colors, and certain evaluative adjectives (charming, lovely, sweet); or in their hesitant intonation, a voice pitch associated with surprise and questions; the trequency of tag phrases $tou know, kind ofl; and, their attitude towards politeness (less swearing, more indirectness, and hedging); and, the use of -o." polite noises (uh-huh, yeah, hmm, etc.) which support the interlocutor's view. Conversely, men tend to be more direct and dominate rurn-taking. In general, they understand language as inforrnation gathering rather than a mechanism to initiate and support their relationship with others. (If you would like to know more about this read Holmes, 1,995)
-"^,
I
At this point it should be specified that there is a difference between rhe language used by men and women, and the language used to refer to them.
In the past, masculine has often been considered as a common gende4 and therefore unmarked, and feminine as marked. In most Indo-European languages the masculine is used to refer to both male and female, for erample:
a) Everyone should contact his own travel agent for reservations. Example a) can refer to males and females in the same group. Traditionally, the masculine is preferred even if the number of male
subjects is inferior to the amount of female subjects. A number of solutions har-e been proposed in English to find a way to avoid this instance of serism in language. The solution would be to find a neuter forrn, unmarked ior gender as it is the case of on in French or impersonal s in Spanish. \lthough some solutions have been proposed, one of the preferred ones
AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLI\.
is the use of third person p\ura\ prono\rn to reter to ma\es tor example:
art
*r
illllr,ttl,i,
b) Everyone should contact their travel agent for resen-au -:-.

with men and that shows that the reiationship between Iang;;.:
Masculine has been traditionafu used to refer to professions 3!!..- ;-;rllrl
rridi
sccieff is a two-fold one. Language reflects the way the societ is ,_:.1-*r.,:l*r[ and to what extent language shows the power of stereotr-pi--: .r changing world where women are taking on jobs customarih' air::r: - ir.u to men, and in a society where women are fighting agains: .= discrimination, language is also reflecting a change. As a case ir :,- r the words in the left hand column are becoming less common 3r l . : ones on the right column are preferred nowadays:
.lr
,Ll
Bus boy Chairman Fireman Foreman Policeman Salesman Spokesman
Dining room attendant Chairperson Firefighter

Superwisor Police officer Salesperson Spokesperson
2. SPEECH
ACCONTMODATION
speech accommodation consists of the modification of one's own spe-.: or other communicative behaviors to the ones used by the person one ,l interacting with. This way of adjusting one's own speech can give \\'a' r speech convergence or speech divergence depending on the intentions ,_ the speakers and the results of the communication encounter. There aimany ways of per{orming speech accommodation and the results generall-. vary depending on contextual factors. Doctors, lawyers and therapists ca: accommodate their speech as parl of their job when communicating rviti clients, or to show empathy. Speakers of a non-standard variety -uy ungtheir speech due to language insecurity or in order to facilitaie comprehension to their interlocutor when interacting with a speaker of a standard variety. Adjusting to a given register or style is also a way of accommodating speech to take advantage of intra-group inclusion. Speech convergence shows a speaker's or a group's need for social integration and./or identification with another or others. This modification
_ _
UNIT
61
(a) attractiveness; (b) predictability and supportivness; (c) level of interpersonal involv-ement; (d) intelligibility un comprehensibility; and, (e) the speaker's ability to gain their risteners'compliance (Giles , )ooD.
of speech often expresses a conscious and deriberate process but, on many occasions it reflects an unconscious behavior. Research has shown that converging speech accommodation can increase the speaker,s perceived
_ Speech divergence and the use of divergent strategies are more often fostered where the participants in the communication encounter stem from different social or working backgrounds giving way to a strategy of intergroup distinctiveness. By means of this tactic, m"mbrs of an ingiup can intensily their inclusion in the relevant group while excluding "irr".r. This target can be attained with the use of specific slang,-argon, grammatical complexity o4 simply, accent.
3. EXERCISES
1. can you briefly describe a situation in which the following sentences would be stylistically suitable?
a) I'rn taking off. b/ I would like to express my sympathy for your loss. c/ You'd better get out of my way. d) Have funl e) The existence of different ethnic groups in that country brings
about...
l)
Break a legl
2. Read carefully the three excerpts (legal language, language of cooking and newspaper afticle language) prorrid"d uorrJ. underline the words and expressions that you consider characteristic of each register. 3. Find three samoles of ranguage, either written or spoken, that represent three types of register associated with different occupations or interest groups. Transcribe or copy them and make a list of 10-15 words, expressions or syntactic orderings that you consider to be part of that register. Then, try to pinpoint the three dimensions described above: field, tenor and mode. (You could possible search the intemet to find these three samples of language.)
62
means of establishing Doyou think that register and style could be solidarity among speakers? Provide an example' (probably 5. Reflect on the way men and women use language Can you work' where you Spanish) in your rr"igftbothood,or the place the sexes (e'g'' find a set of ting,rirtiE-f"atures that distinguish between the other way o. *orJ, that men would never say' and
4.
expression, round)? either a 6. Can you think of an instance of speech accommodation' r".g""tto' 'p""th dergence? Describe it in around case of speech "on 250 words.
4.
REFERENCES
and L.
Crrononow, N. 1974.
r.-pt "r"1"';:.; w;;"", UniversitY Press.

Palgarve.
.Family strrrcture andfeminine personality,, in M. Z. Rosaldo
Culture and-society. sranford: Stanford
E,crEnr,P.lggT..SexandGenderDifferencesinVariation,,inN.Coupland&A. o ok. Basingstoke: Jaworski (eds. ). li c,io,tingui s tics : A Reader and C our s eb
(ed') Concise Encyclopedia Gnr,s, H. 2001. 'speech Accomodation', in R' Mesthrie of Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Pergamon'
University Press' GrrlrcaN, C. Ig82. In a Different Voice' London: Harvard Longman' Horm,s, J. 1995. Women, Men ancl Politeness. Harlow, England:
LasovW.2003'.Somesociolinguisticprinciples,,inCh.B.BrattPaulstonandG' USA:
Malden. Richard Tucker Gr.) Soringuiitics: The Essential Readings. Blackwell Publishing.
Larorr', R. 1990. Tatking power. New York: Basic Books'
LEap,W.L.200I-'GayLanguage',inR'Mesthrie(ed')ConciseEncyclopediaof
Sociolinguisllcs. Oxford, UK: Pergamon' Encyclopaedia of Snonr, M.2001.'Style" in Mesthire, R. (2001) Concise Pergamon' UK: Sociolinguisllcs. Oxford, and Men in Conversation' T..tNpN, D. 1990. You Just Don't Understand: Women New York: William Morrow' the Urban British Tnuncrll, P. 1972..Sex Covert Prestige and Linguistic Change in 179-95' English of Norwich'. Language and Society'I' (4th ed.) Malden, USA: wenrHaucn, R. 2002. An Introduction to sociolinguistics. Blackwell Publishing.
63
;.
RESOURCES ON THE WEB
-\o*'vou can visit the web page for this subject where you rvill find -*rher references and complementary readings. N. FLRTHHR READINGS AND QUESTIONS
n.1. Text
Read the following text carefully and comment on it emphasizing any :sECt vou consider of relevance. After the text you will find some questions -:er may be helpful. Write around 250-300 words in total.
investigation might simply be stated as There ere no single-style spakers.
Style shifting. One of the fundamental principles of sociolinguistic
they respond to. old men often show a narrow range in that their motivation for style shifting disappears along with thiir concern for power relationships. 1...1
well-developed social variables show a systematic range of stvle shifting r,r,hich is correlated to the amount of ttention paidio ,p"".h. we can easily observe such style shifting in certain rong-stiding variables which are common to almost all dialects of Engiis. the th Jf thing and that can appear as smooth fricati'e "th" soun, the standard
determined by (a) the relations of the speake4 addresse, and audience, and particularly the relations of power or solidarity among them; (b) the wider social context or "domain": school, job, home, nelghborhood, church; (c) the topic. one must add of course ihat the stylisti range and competence of the speaker,may vary greatly. children -uy hu.r" u"ry narrow range in both the choices open to them and the social contexts
By this we mean that every speaker wilr show some variation in phonological and syntactic rules according to the immediate context in which he is speaking. We can demonstrate that such stvlistic shifts are
in unstressed syllables is a systematic stylistic r-ariable fo. ,,''ort Americans- again at different levels for different classes and regions.
Americans, the proporlions of these forms are nicelv blended and sraded for each stylistic level different absolute ler,eis for differenisocial -at Similarly, groups and different regions. the alternation of -ing and. -i,'
variant; as a "t"-like sound lightl, or stronglv arriculated; as a combination of these two; or as a zero as in Ghnnze 'cr. For most
Labor- (2003:231)
64
Issues to consider:
a) What
do you think of the sentence Ihere are no single-style speakers? Explain your answer.
b/ Provide some features in your own language that indicate a style

shift (vocabulary grammatical constmction, phonological feature, etc). What situational factors do you think may cause the shift in
style?
6.2. Text 4
Read the following text carefully and comment on it emphasizing any aspect you consider of relevance. After the text you will find some questions that may be helpful. Write around 250-300 words in total.
The evidence described in this chapter suggests that men tend to dominate interactions in public settings. They generally talk more than women, ask more questions, interrupt more often, and when they get the floor they are more likely than a woman to challenge and disagree with the speaker. In a variety of contexts, women tend to provide more supportive and encouraging feedback than men, to agree rather than disagree, to look for connections and add to and build on the contributions of others. This is positively polite behaviour, stressing shared goals and values, and expressing solidarity. Women also exhibit negatively polite behaviour in many contexts by avoiding competing for the floor or interrupting others. They appear to be more attentive listeners, concerned to ensure others get a chance to contribute. One explanation which has been proposed for this pattern focuses on the social meaning of talk. It has been suggested that, in general, women are more concerned with solidarity or'connection' (Chodorow 1974; Gllllgan 1982), while men are more interested in status and being 'one-up' (Tannen 1990a: 38). Features of female talk, such as facilitative tags, agreeing comments, attentive listening and encouraging feedback can be seen as expressions of concern for others, and a desire to make contact and strengthen relationships. Male talk, on the other hand, appears to be more competitive, more concerned with dominating others and asserting status. Challenging utterances, bald disagreements and
disruptive interruptions are examples of strategies which typify male

talk in public contexts, and which seem to support this claim. Holmes (1995:67)
Issues to consider:
a) To what extent do you agree with Holmes, the author of this

fragment?
UNIT
b) No doubt that the speech of men and women is different. Can you provide some specific examples to show this contrast? c) Do you
think that the difference in menb and women's talk is culturally bound, i.e., does it depend on the culture (or country)? Please, provide an example.
7. KEY WORDS
are presented in this unit. A definition for each term can be found at the end of this book, in the glossary.
Discourse analysis Ethnography of speaking Linguistic competence Native speaker Pragmatic competence Pragmatics
(Proto) -Indo-European
Variety
Unit 3
1. PIDCINIZATION AND CREOLIZATION

Pidginization is a process that sometimes takes place rvhen two languages come into contact and, as a result, there is a process of simplification or hybridization. This generally occurs because there is a need to communicate_ between speakers of different languages and there are limited relations between them, i.e., the language lI only used for a specific purpose such as trade. often, the words frolrn one lnguage are adopted while using the syntactic ordering of the other language but, as a rule the grammatical system is simpliFied as well ., oti".-.o-pi.,. Iinguistic features. The formation of pidgins was characteristic in the 16th and 17th centuries when European colniar powerst spread all over the world and new languages, which were lexicaily related io the language of the colonize4 emerged. These contact languages were initially rised"just for functional purposes in specific situations and contexts and, thereftre, they were not the native language of anyone and speakers continued to use their languages in their own speech communities. wardhaugh (2002: 2) points out that the process of pidgin ization most likely requires the contact of more than two languages. In a context with only iwo languages there would probably be a struggre between the two and the most"likly outcome would be a relation of dominance of one over the othe bar" on social and economic factors. The language of the dominant culture would probably be imposed. In a situation in which the locals speak more than one native language there is a need to find a common ground. Pidgins often undergo several geographical and sociolinguistic contexts as is the case of Melanesian pidgin Engtish which arose s a shipboard linguafranca, it waslater used as a plantion language and it finally came be a language for inter-ethnii city communication (Richford 1o & McWhorter, 1997).
t
S"" World Englishes in chapter
.
70
creoles. The proces,
Pidginshavebeenusedforcenturiesandeventualiy,someofthem,became that was oi.r"otirution takes place when that language for purposetul communication is originally a tunctionai;;;;4:*i *ho ar" exposed to it. The social acquired as a mothel;;;iy children is now used are more complex as they circumstances in *ftitt' ttJl' ianguage and communicative purposes and, need to serve ail ki;J;;ir;"iui rr".-"d, h rr.h u situation, the pidgin develops and therefore, tn" rurrguuJ" ";p;;;. o[ grammar and phonology and its use becomes more compi"^ bth in terms functioni. The processes of then covers all kinds of commurri.alu" they overlap' are absolutelv different although pidginziation and grammar lexis, of "."rii." in terms The former irr,rotu"r"r"ol" f.i" "t simplifiction, all kinds in the latter entaiis the expansion and phonological f";;;r, *h"r"u, becomes functions' This amplification of linguistic f"ut*"r-ufJmmunicative originally had limited functions becomes apparent because th;;;ge yhich ihat eeds to be used for all types of now a system used as a iatii,e lungrrug" pigin becomes a creole'Although creoles social functions. H.ir"""r, ".t",r"r! th"." are millions of speakers whose have gained status i" rfr" Iast decdêr, u" thev mav feel thev speak a subnative and only;;;;;l;u "t"ot" become offi'cial languages in places standard turrg,rug".^3r" "."ol"s have creoles are widespread such as Iike papua N"* c.rIrr"u-* ,o-" other und Haitian Creole (French-based)' Hawaiian Creole g"gf"ft te"gfirn-Uur"i Hui iunr (over 5 million)' Another which is the native language of almost il and common use of pidgins and/or interesting example ;ii. ril d",r"lopment can even has a BBC web page where news creoles is Kiswahili. This language U" t"t and heard (www'bbc'co'uk/swahili)' languages stopped being considered Between 1950 and 1975 these lbartu.diTediu.gottit t9 s.ain the status of uninterestirrg u.,il;;; status and their ,",t "i *fit a change in iheir political Ianguages, interest for of.central ^"a they became social consideratio', ir, ,o-" countrie, theoretical and appiied linguists many linguists, including socioljnguisis, interest little of *r" deemed to be linguists. Before ,frltlpiEf"s a1d cpo.ier as, such certain iinguistic features because tn"y *"r"*.J;rfr; to lack their all as a result of articles, the copula, and grammatical inflectioni, which were not features ,functional,p".p;;;;hiJt tetr aside linguistic
essentialtoconveymeaning.Atpresent,th"yu'"consideredaslanguages with their own history' in their o*n rigftl "t tt "t?i"tiis of a language communities' structure, communicative function and speech
pidgins and creoles --G-y*", (1g71: 3) mentions that ttrut rhse languages, instead of being considered ub, H" linguists ur.-urgtnui;;;;;e;;l rn degenerations and, therelore, not as svstems as crearive adaptations, h?v:;"?;;;;.;;
were ignored to a great extent by
their own right'
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71
originally, pidgins served the purpose of a lingua franca, i.e., a language ;sed by people who speak different mother iongn", and who used a -.mmon language for a specific functional situation, such as trade. This -s an old phenomenon that still occurs today as we can find some clear .ramples of lingua francas, such as English which is used all over the ,', orld for intercultural communication and has become the language of iusiness. Another example of alingua franca is Esperanto. This i.rrg;r.g" -s not the mother tongue of any speaker because it is an aftificial lang'uag*e, :ut it is sometimes used for international communication.
Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 1)
2. SOME INSTANCES OF PIDGINS

Most pidgins and creoles are based on an European language, and the most common and widespread ones are based on one of the following languages: English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, or German. Englishbased creoles are very common in caribbean areas such as Antigua, Barbdos, Jamaica and the west Indies in general, but they are aiso present in Africa cameroon, Kenya, st. Helena, Zimbabwe, Namibia), Asia (India, china, Hong Kong) and the pacific area (papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, \ustralia). French-based creoles can be found in Mafiinique, Guadeloupe, St. Lucia and Haiti. some Spanish-based pidgins and creles were used in Dominican Republic, cuba, puerto Rico and the philippines. Some instances of Portuguese-based creoles can be found in Aruba, onaire and curaEao, \lalaysia and Singapore. These are some of the most important pidgins: Cameroon Pidgin English
Hawaiian Pidgin Kamtok Kenya Pidgin Swahili Naga Pidgin New Guinea Pidgin German Nigerian Pidgin English Papuan Pidgin English Pidgin German (Gastarbeiters)3 , ' etagi".- are more common in places with easy access to the oceans, especialh' around :he equatorial belt in former coloniai locations. The,tend to be associate rvirh colonizaion and distant cultures, but there are some instances of pidgins g"..p". In the 1970s zuest "'iti" rvorkers.in Germany coming from neighborirrg .orrntri"i.,'"h as Greece,ir"i; p;;;g;, Sr"t and Turkey developed a pidgin in some big G-erman cities like se.lin anJ Frankfur1.
72
Russenorska Sango Vietnamese Pidgin French

Pidgins are to be found all over the world but, they tend to share a number of general characteristics. These are some of them:
a) Almost complete lack of inflection in nouns, pronouns, verbs and

adjectives.
b) Nouns are unmarked for number or gender. c) Verbs lack tense markers. d) There is no distinction for case in personal pronouns,
for me, andthey for them.
so
can stand
e) Syntactically, the
absence of clausal str-uctures is quite common in pidgins. However, relative clauses and other types of embedding develop in creolization.
fl
In order to avoid possible confusion, as there is often no distinction between long and short vowels (e.g., ship and sheep would be pronounced in the same way), a common resource introduced in these languages is 'reduplication'. For example, in Tok Pisin slp means 'ship' and sipsip means 'sheep', andpis means 'peace' while pispis has the meaning of 'urinate'. Another common usage of reduplication is to intensify the meaning of a word, for instance, cry means 'cry'whereas crycry means 'cry continually', or talk meaning'talk' and talktalk meaning'chatter's.
3.
SOME INSTANCES OF CREOLES
Terminology and sociolinguistic status are not always consistent and some creoles can be referred to as pidgins (for instance, Tok Pisin and Hawaiian Pidgin English) or the other way round. This mismatch is
o Russenorsk was used until the 1920's in the Arctic and was used by Russian fisherrnen and Norwegian fish traders. ' Please note that this communication strategy is very foequent in many languages. For example in Spanish if you want to emphasize that a mountain was really high you can say 'La montaa era alta, alta'or to express that the cake was really good you can say'El pastel estaba bueno, bueno'. In English you can say'You wicked, wicked child'.
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produced because'pidgin' and'creole' are technical terrns commonlv used br-linguists but not necessarily by speakers of the r";;;;;. il; instances of creoles are:
Anglo-Romani (a creolization of Romani in England) Asmara Pidgin (Italian-based, it is spoken in palrts of ethiopia) Berbice Creole Dutch Chabacano o Zamboangueo. (Spanish_based) Haitian Creole Hawaiian Creole English Jamaican Patwa Tok Pisin
English of the Lesser Antilles and the Eastern caribbean ri"ti", (Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana), flourishing in the 17th and lgth c.; and, the pacific group including Hawaiian Creole English and Tok pisin.
. Tl" British Empire spread all over the world for around 350 years and this favored the expansion of Standard English and regional varieties o'erseas, on the one hand, but also the creation and develJpment of many pidgins and creoles in different pafts of the globe, on the othen As a matter of fact there have been more English-based reoles than in other languages such as French, Portuguese or Spanish. Two major groups of Engsh based creoles can be identified: th Atlantic grorp,"rpoien in west Afoica and the caribbean area such as Jamaica" cr.tt"'English, the creole
3.1. Hawaiian Creole English

o.ver 600.000 people inHawaii speak Hawaiian creore English (HcE) also known as Hawai'i pidgin or simply pidgin. HCE ; immersed in a ;omplex sociolinguistic situation because, u, ft"n happens with pidgins and creoles, it was denigrated repeatedly r., s.'hools and -pullic administrations for years but -or" u.rd -or" oft".r it is turning into a way ro express solidarity and forge local identity. Nowadays, Hawaii,s council -s determined to maintain and develop th"is local tu"g";t" by means of .nforcing competent language planning and policy (s!e .upt"r s;.
rrr.." are thee main examples of creoies based on spanish: papiamento(formed in -:'e 17th c' in the island of crr)ao which is currently trr"lii"", of Aruba and 3':naire); Palenquero (developed in the lgth c. near cafiagena, "r"Ji" colombia); and. Chabacano : Zatnboangueo (is used in some parrs of the philipf;:;j: i;'sp"uii.r,_uur. creores ::e at the time of yriting out of the icope of this unii but i y;;;irh;rinou, more about ---e:, vou can read'Lengrras pidgin y lenguas criollas,in eii""ipiii de-iociottngr;;;;;; . - -iologa del lenguaje by rrancis MarcoJ Marn pp. 277-29r (Barcerona: Ariel). ,
74
These are some general chatacteristics of HCE:
since it 1. From a phonological point of view, HCE is rather simple in pronounce to difficult are which avoids prro.rologlcal features manv and (English, Hawaiian any of ih" lurrgrruges in contact tend to be others). The vocaliJsystem was simplified and fricatives avoided:
E.g.: Bo da dem (both of them) Braddah (brother)

a large extent from the socially dominant 2. - Vocabulary is derived to words g;;;p. English-based pidgini usually have about 90!o of some of coming tro* ettgtish,iftJ"*ifier language.' Notice.that others (A) some and English these words HCE"come directly from largely are they (B)' Still' or simpiified hrrr" b""n
recognizable:
A
^d^pt"d
B
Boy Fish Guy Stuff Stay

3.
Den Lata Neva
(then) (later)
(didnt)
(together) (What?)
l
L
Togedda
Wot?
Many words are polisemous as, for instance: be used as a main verb 'try', but also as a verb auxiE.g.: " try can with the meaning of 'please'' lluty inside means'inside', 'soul' and 'heart'' pronouns' verbs and 4. Almost complete iack of inflection in nouns' gender: adjectives. or-,.t, are unmarked for number and
E.g.:'DisdalanguagefomospeopodatstayliveinsideHawai'i'' 'Him was real tight wit his brudda" 'You go five mile sout'. 5. Tense and aspect are normally indicated with a marker' Pasttenseisexpressedbyplacingpreverbalpreteriteauxiliaries 'lven', 'bin' and'had'before the verb: E.g.: 'Shi wen Pein da grin haus'' 'You bin say go uP on roof''
UNIT
75
verb:
Future events are marked by,go,, ,gon,, ,gona,, or,goin,before the
E.g.: 'I gon it fish,. Progressive aspect can be expressed by: a) inserting 'ste' (stay) before the verb in the infinitive; b) using ih" form of the .re'; -tng and, c) using both forms altogether: E.g.: a) 'Shi ste rait da leta'. b) 'Dey pleing futbawl'. c) 'Naue ste iting da kek'. 6. Auxiliaries are nonexistent and negation is expressed by placing 'Tro','rrat' or 'neva' before the verb: E,.g.: 'Shi neva si daet muvi'. 'No can' (cannot, it's not possible) 'No mo'(there isn't any)
(Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 3)
3.2. Jamaican Patwa (or Patois)

language used mainly in Jamaica has not been fixed to the present day and some terms like Jamaican, Jamaican creole, Jamaican patwa or patois are
90ok
As a result of not having an official status, a name for the creole
of the 2.5 million population of Jamaica in the late from Africa. Language in this caribbean island nowadays reflects the history of that country and its contact with a whole range of cultures and languages that havl passed through. In spite of that, the official language remains Standard nglish which is the educared model spoken by t" elite and also the official language. In Jamaica, a whole linguistic spectrum can be found having Standard English (the lexifier language) at one extreme and Jamaican Patwa or creolized English at the other. Jamaican Patwa is characteristic for its fragmented English speech, and for hang a slrrtax developed during the days of slavery with the influence of severl wlst Africa., iurrgrug"i pertaining to the Niger-congo family of languages. Nowadays, this lgr"ug has not got much social and socioeconomic sttus in Jamaica and it rg"]y represents the speech of the peasant and laborer with little educatio.r. ti is not considered an "acceptable" language for formal purposes and speakers are often considered as socially anJ linguistically inferior. some
1990's are descendants of slaves broughi
all used. over
76
attempts have been made to change this situation aiming at giving Jamaican Patwa official status and turning it into the language of education. Jamaican Patwa is gaining in prestige and is now seen sometimes in newspapers or heard on the radio, and is also present in songs which helps to raise the self-esteem of the speakers and assert their identity.
This creole does not quite have a uniform orlhographic representation if it should accommodate (Standard new system should English) or if an entirely the lexifier language be created.
anci no agreement has been made to conclude
Some general features of JP:
1. No lt - 0l or ld - ldistinction:
E.g.: 'de'
JP
'dis' 'odder' 'wid'

'tink'
Engl. the this other with thing
2.
Final consonant clusters tend to be devoiced (ldlbecomes ltl) or

deleted:
E.g.: 'husban'
3.
JP
'purfume'
Engl. husband perfumed
It is not stressed-timed but syllable-timed, so all syllables receive the same stress. (You can find some recordings in the web site for this subject.)
Modified personal pronouns:
4.
I He They
5. Absence
'me'
'im'
'dem'
of plural markers on nouns:
E.g.: 'all type a people' all kinds of people
JP
Engl.
shoes
'book'
o. ,\ltered third person singuiar subject-verb concord: JP Engl. E.g.: 'if im dare axe' if he dares to ask 'shi greet im' she greets him
i.
Absence of auxiliaries to form the negative:
E.g.: I dont want anything to eat.

JP
Engl.
E.g.: 'Mi nuh wan nutten fe eat'.

8. Copula deletion:
JP
E.g.: 'it soh bad'
Engl. it is so bad 'im short an tumpa' he is short and stokcy 'life ard many sey' many people say that life is hard
9.
Tense marked lexically (instead of morphologically):
EngI.
E.g.: That is the woman that took my money. E.g.: 3.3. Tok Pisin
Papua New Guinea has three official languages which turn to be second languages to most people: Hiri Motu, Tok pisin and English. Tok pisin TP) is used nowadays by three million people as a unifiring language, and ilrtgua franca, among speakers of a number of differt lrrdig-"rro* languages (over 800) Papua New Guinea. This language, which rmains ,, erv distant to English, is sometimes used as a pidginnd sometimes as a creole and shows clear influences from Englis in terms of borrowings, subordination patterns, plural forms (-s), eic. However, we can not sav ihat a continuum between Tp and English can be found as it seems thai decreolization does not affect Tp. In 1975 papua New Guinea was born and TP was recognized in the constitution as on of the national languages. -\ow some communities can choose to have their children schoole in rp T t!" first three years of elementary education but parents perceive that English brings more advantages to their children. T is also used in manv oovernment publications, in radio, television broadcasting and in the
JP 'Is dat ooman deh did tek mi monev,.
78
House Assembly which is the parliament. wantok, a weekly newspaper, is written in TP and has a readership of over 10.000 people' Some general features of TP:
1. Consonant assimilation. There is no distinction between lpl and lfl; lgl and lkl; lsl,lJl and lt[l: Engl. TP half past seven E.g.: 'hap pas seven' lift 'lipt' 'pait' fight 'pilta' filter 'pinga' finger 'pul bilong Pis' fin of fish 'pulap' full, full up
TP
E.g.:
'sak'
'sel'
Engl. shark
shell shame ship short shoe chips
cheese
'sgm' 'aip' 'sot, sotpela'

'su
'sips'
'sis'
'sops'
chops
E.g.:
TP 'dok' 'lek' 'pik'
Engl.
dog
loo '"b
pig
2. Simplified consonant clusters:
TP E.g.: 'ailan' 'gaden' 'hos' 'kona' 'lam' 'lephan' 'wok' 'wan handet'
Engl. island
garden horse corner lamp left hand
work hundred
b-
UNIT
79
3. Simplified vocalic system, only lal, lel, lil, lol, lul: TP Engl. E.g.: 'fut' foot 'grin' green
'gto' 'ston' 'smok' 'stret' 'tumora'
4.
grow
stone
smoke straight on
tomorrow
Word reduplication to indicate emphasis:
E.g.: 'liklik bas'
Engl. minibus 'lukluk' look at 'man bilong toktok' talkative person 'singsing' festival
TP
5. Plural suffix'-pela':
TP
Engl.
those two those three eight
E.g.: 'emtupela'
'emtripela' 'etpela' 'tupela' 'tupela marit'
both married couple
6. Lexicon based on English. It should be taken into account that in the process of decreolization, more and more words tend to be adopted from the lexifier language and the acrolect quickly adopts words that portray the present society.
E.g.:
TP 'adres' 'dokta' 'heven' 'man' 'stori' 'skul'
Engl.
address
doctor
heaven
man story school
7.
Metaphors in word formation:
E.g.:
TP
'haus bilong tumbuna
pasin'
Engl.
museum
80
'kaikai long moning' 'laplap bilong windo' 'lain bilong Jisas' 'pin bilong nus'
breakfast
curtain
disciples nose pin
8. Simplified prepositional system (only three): 'long'used for'to, fo6 from'; 'bilong'used for'of ; and, 'wantaim'used for'with'.
NOTE: In the web page for this subject, you can find written and aural samples of these and other pidgins and creoles.
4. DECREOLIZATION
Creoles, as any other living language, continue to evolve. There is a phenomenon called decreolization that arises when one creole has a prolonged contact with a standard language in a specific society, and that
standard brings a considerable influence to bear on the creole. So, speakers start to develop the creole taking the standard as a model and a continuum is created with the standard as a model at the top and the creole as a model at the bottom. This process can be clearly perceived nowadays in places like Barbados, Cameroon, India, Nigeria and Papua New Guinea, among others. In such a situation the different forrns of the creole become sociallv stratified and the variety or varieties which are closer to the standard often become the language of the elite and educated society (acrolect), whereas
the variety which is closer to the creole often represents illiterate people and lower social class (basilecl). Between these two poles there can appear a whole range of varieties or mesolecrs which determine not only social stratification but also alleged identities among their speakers. Wardhaugh (2002:80) cites Allsopp (1958) and shows the following stages in the continuum to say'I told him'in Guyanese:
1. ai trld hrm 2. ai torld hrm 3. ai to: I rm 4. ai tel rm 5. a tel rm 6. ai tel I 7. atxll

B. mi tel I 9. mi tel am The varieties 1 to 3 reflect the acrolecl typical of middle-class usag= varieties 4 to 7 display mesolect forms characteristic in lower middle a: :
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urban working classes. The pronunciation in stage 8 is closer to the basilect and shows a rural working class, as well as item 9 u'hich is used bv old and illiterate rural laborers.
speech which ranges from the distinct HCE to Standard English of Hau,aii. In this case, it depends mainly on the speaker's location and upbringing.
Hawaii is one of those places where we can find this continuum of
The basilecr (barely intelligible by standard English speakersf ir rpt in the country side whereas the acrolect is spoken in the mayor cities.
""
THE USE OF PIDGINS AND CREOLES IN EDUCATION It is rather uncommon to find a pidgin or creole, or other minority dialect, as the language of instruction in formal education in any educational system in the world, and valdman (1989) considers that thii is so for two reasons. on the one hand, the continuum of variation that
language represents a strong obstacle (see decreolization) as it is sometimes difficult to isolate a particular norm to be used in education. on the other hand, the social consideration of the pidgin/creole is in a rvav hindered by the fact that it is frequently considered as deviant from the standard and as having an inferior status in the speech community.
Siegel (2002) affirms that speakers of creoles and minority dialects do not do well in the formal education system. In some cases -eenerally his can be caused by socio-economic factors but on some other occasions it seems clear that language plays a role. very often, these speakers are in a u,ay disadvantaged because the language of formal education is actually a standard variety that they do not speak as a mother tongue. This is thL case of AAVE (African American Vernacular English) which has been analyzed quite extensively since the 1960's in the united States. Not so nuch research has been developed with regards to other minority dialects and creoles although these cases are equally interesting (see chapter 5 for information on Aboriginal languages).
is usually found between the pidgin/creole and the standard educational
Some creoles are now recognized as a distinct variety rvith a grammatical systern bui educators and policy makers introduce manv arguments against the application of a 'nonstandard' varietv in the educational system. They posit, for e;<ample, that instmction time should oe spent on learning the stanciarcl as tirey consider that any effor-t made r:o teach the nonstandard is a r,vasre of tirne. They believe that using and ieaching a nonstandard varjety cf speech in the classroom deprir.es
82
children of a chance to benefit from the socio-economic advantages that speakers of standard varieties have, condemning them to an unchanging underclass status. Some other educators and policy makers advocate that using a nonstandard variety in education may cause confusion and interference with the standard variety what will result in additional difficulties for the children. No doubt that some progress is being made in this respect over the
years, and pidgins and creoles are gaining social and political recognition and their acknowledgement as part of the social identity in many parts of the world is now afact (see language policy in chapter 5). In the last decades there has been a global attempt to legitimize the use of pidgins,
creoles and minority dialects in formal education claiming that the speakers of these languages have a right to express their own linguistic and sociocultural identity in their own languages. Siegel (2002) points out that this enthusiasm for using pidgins, creoles and minority dialects in formal education had to face some obstacles such as the following:
1. Negative attitudes and ignorance on the part of the teachers who, especially in immigration settings, may mistake language problems of creole-speaking children for cognitive problems and eventually lower their expectations of these students. Eventually, this leads to the lowering of student performance in favor of students speaking the standard variety. Some studies in this respect have been carried out with immigrant children moving to new educational systems such as creole-speaking children coming ?om the Caribbean area and entering the public educational system in the United States.
2. Negative attitudes and self image of the students themselves because of denigration of their speech and culture. This effect can be neutralized by legitimizing the students'language varieties and adopting an integrative approach, for example: bringing aspects of their culture into the classroom (e.g.: traditions, music, etc.); encouraging students to speak and/or write in these varieties; teaching some sociolinguistic principles that explain linguistic and pragmatic differences with standard varieties. 3. Repression of self-expression because of the need to use an unfamiliar form of language. 4. Difficulty in acquiring literacy in a second language or dialect. In this case, children may be repressed if they are not allowed to express themselves in their familiar language variety.
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Pidgins, creoles and minority dialects have so far been used in three t\-pes of educational programs (SiegeI,2002), all of them aiming at additive bilingualism or bidialectalism, that is, helping the students to acquire the standard language while maintaining their own pidgin, creole or minority language. This practice clearly contributes to their self-esteem and their right to maintain their mother tongue. These three sorts of programs vary in the way the children's home varieties are considered and interact with the standard language within the classroom. These three types are: instrumental program, accommodation program or a\vareness program. In the first case, the instrumental program is charactertzed by the use of the home variety as the medium of instruction, so it is used as a vehicle for the acquisition of initial literacy and the learning of other subjects in the curriculum. The standard language is therefore introduced at a later stage and it gradually becomes the language of instruction for some subjects. Instrumental programs have been implemented in places such as Mauritius (Mauritian Creole) or Papua New Guinea (Tok Pisin). In the second case, the accommodation program does allow the use of the home language and its use is not penalized in any way but it is, however, not employed as the language of instruction for any subject nor it is studied as a language in itself. At higher levels, as students accommodate to the standard variety, their home language and culture can be preserved by means of the study of literature or music of their own communities. Some accommodation programs have been set up for Hawaiian children speakers of varieties of Hawaiian Creole English and speakers of Aboriginal English in Australia. In the third case, the awareness program includes in the curriculum some teaching on basic sociolinguistic and sociopragmatic principles of different language varieties, and their grammaticai rules and pragmatics are compared with those of the standard variet-v'. Some awareness programs have been created for creole-speaking Caribbean immigrants in the United Kingdom and speakers of Kriol and Aboriginal English in Australia. (Recent research carried out in these three programs is summarized in Siegel, 2002: 17-29)
(Please go to the exercises section and do exercises 4 and 5.)
6. EXERCISES
1. Search the internet for'Esperanto' and 'Esperanto speaking communities'. Read about this language and then write a summan'(about 250 words) with the information you consider relevant about it (origin,
84
What advantages and disadvantages can users, number of speakers, etc')' ;; t;" for the us of Esperanto nowadays?
of the pidgins from the list' Get 2. Search the web for at least three(whet"ih"y are sPoken' number some general infor-ti" about them analvze it and
(10 lines)' Then of speakers, etc') and find a short "-pi" you ittitttt that come from English' underline all the *ord, or expressions
3.Readthefollowingexcer?tsinHawai'iCreoleEnglishadaptedfrom foliowing Odo OrthographyT' Try to Masuda (1995: 322) and.transcribed and note that the pronunciation transcribe them into "J". English than to standard
of the text is
English.
,n,r.li;;;
; thebdo
orthography
A.
Kaz No, da ka get in wan long lain' Samtaim in wan long lain' Meibii, get abaut fifti' siksti kaz' ye' ,En'den, its nat onli wan lain' Dei get sevro mo aDalanz' Dei get sam mo kaz't:u' e? ,4-nd, daflrrrstaztz' Awlweiz bringin ka' end' Awlweiz teikin aut' sii'
Mai jab So, mai jab iz tu sii Det nomo, nomo' no chrabo in da fiild Dei grreb dea ka, Den, sam av dem' dei tel' Eh, ai tink Mai kamPani nomo' doh' Ye' Y'sii, if nomo, nomo kamPani' Wel, ai go faind, Sii, es mai jab, sii'
Jamaican Creole
B.
used in Jamaica although or'patois'is -"uf"" commonly of education is Standard The language it is freque"rly ";;;idly in schoois often proves English. ft t"r"iri"g f Standard f,nglish " children prefer to use 'piois'' Why do you think this ineffective as
4.
--l
pitlgin synta-x.IIor1ot,rt.i, General phonology and
vol' ancLvariation in Hawaiian English' si.k",-on, D. and.c. odo, (1976) Changesllut science Research Institute' university
1:
of Hawai'i.
- t-_ i
85
:;ppens? What do you think is the common attitude among schoolchildren - -.,r'ardS Standard English? You may want to have a look to chapter 5 and :=-:.d about language planning.
5. Find out what languages are official in the following countries.

Australia Belgium
Brazil
Canada
Colombia Finland France
Haiti India
Kenya New Zealand Norway Papua New Guinea Paraguay Philippines Singapore Tanzania Uruguay Philippines Singapore Tanzania Uruguay Zaire Why do you think some of these countries have more than one official Ianguage?
7. REFERENCES
Arrsopp, R. 1958. 'The English language in British Guiana'. English Language
kaching, 12: 59-66.

Hornt, J. 2000. An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Holntes, J. 1992. An Introduction to Sociolinguisllcs. Harlow, UK: Longman. Hvnrss, D. 197 l. Pidginization and Creolization of Languages. Cambridge:
Cambridge Universy Press.
86
Masuoe, H. 1995. 'Versification and reiteration in Hawai'i Creole English: 'If nomo
paila maen, awrai!' World Englishes l4l3:3I7-342.

Rrcrnon, J. R. & J. McWsonren. 1997. 'Language contact and language generation, in F. Coulmas, The Hqndbook of Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Blackwells.
SrEcsL, J.2002. 'Applied Creolistics in the 21st Century', in Glenn Gilbert (ed.), Pidgin and Creole Linguistics in the Twenty-first Centurlt. New York: Peter Lang. VaromeN, A. 1989. 'The use of creole as a school medium and decreolizatoin in Haiti', in W. Z. Sonino (ed.) Literacy in school and society: Multidisciplinary perspectives. New York: Plenum Press.
Wnoseucn, R. 2002 (ath ed.). An Introduction to Sociolinguisllcs. Malden, USA: Blackwell Publishing.
B. RESOURCES ON THE WEB

9. FURTHER READINGS AND QUESTIONS

9.1. Text 5
aspect you consider of relevance. After the text you Many present-day creoles are spoken by descendants of the African slaves in America and the Caribbean. As mentioned above, the common language of the plantation was generally a pidgin, and children naturallr' acquired the pidgin as a first language. As the families'communicative needs expanded, so did the resources of the language they used. The pidgin developed into a creole.
Alternatively, a pidgin can become so useful as a lingua franca that it may be expanded and used even by people who share a tribal language. In multilingual speech communities, parents may use a pidgin so extensively during the day, in the market, at church, in offices and on public transport, that it becomes normal for them to use it at home too. In this case, too, children will often acquire it as their first language and it will develop into a creole. Tok Pisin is the first language of manv children in New Guinea.
LNIT
87 Once a creole has developed it can be used for all the functions of politics, education, administration (including tar forrns any language
[...]), original-literature (and translations of Shakespeare too), and
so
on. Tok Pisin is the most fi:equently used language of debate in the Papua New Guinea Parliament. Creoles have become accepted standard and even national and official languages, as will be seen in the next chapter. Once developed there is no evidence in their linguistic structure to rer,eai their pidgin origins. A linguist doing a present day (or synchronic) analysis of, say, Afrikaans would not be able to identifi; it as a creole. The features which might suggest its creole origins are all features which
can be found in other well-established languages with no history of creolisation that we can know about. (Even English has been described by some as a latter-day creole, with French vocabulary superimposed on a Celtic base.) This is fascinating and provocative since, as mentioned above, it suggests that the processes of pidginisation and creolisation may be universal processes which reveal a great deal about the origins of language and the ways in which languages develop.
Holmes (1992:98-99)
Issues to consider:
a) Do you think that by using creoles in publications the post-creole

continuum can be stopped and the language can be fixed in some
way?
b) Do you think that creoles should be adopted
official languages in the countries where they are used as happens with Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea?
as
c) Bearing in mind the 21st century society we live in, do you think that new pidgins and creoles will arise as they did in the 18th and
19th c.?
9.2. Text 6
it emphasizing anrwill find some questions that may be helpful. Write around 250-300 words in total.
Tanzania faced the dilemma of which language to choose as its official national language. Choosing one language from over a hundred indigenous languages, each associated with a particuiar tribe, u-ou1d have simply provoked discontent, if not intertribal ri'arfare. Choosing English for a newly independent nation seemed inappropriate (though
88
many other nations have had little choice but to use the language of the colonisers as their only official language). The first President ofTanzania, Julius Nyerere, chose Swahili, a language of the Bantu language family, which was widely used throughout the country as a lingua franca in many contexts. There were some obvious reasons for this choice. Some were pragmatic. Swahili was already the medium of primary education, for instance, and so allTanzanians learned the language at school. Other obvious reasons were more ideological. Ninety-six per cent of Tanzania's
languages are Bantu languages, like Swahili, so it could be clearly identitid as an African language. Moreover, Swahili had served as the lingua franca of the anti-colonial political movement for independence. tn ihis role it had acted as a kind of social cement between very disparate groups. It could hardly have had better credentials from a political and
social point of view.
Holmes (1992:
ll3)
Issues to consider:
a/ What problems and difficulties can you think of in a country that

b) Do you know of any other country where a specific code
selected for practical and political purposes? has been
has recently gained independence (having a colonial past) and that has to select an official language?
c) What advantages are there in selecting an official language that is

an international language spoken all over the world like English?
UNIT
89
10. KEY \ryORDS

Acrolect
Auxiliary language
Basilect English-lexifi er creole Language conflict Language election/selection
Lexifier
Lingua franca
LWC
Mesolect
Minority language
New Englishes
Sabir
Unit 4
1. BILINGUALISM: INTRODUCTION
F{undreds of languages are used in the world every day. Although many of monolingual societies are to be found, especially in the western ,:1d, the number of speakers knowing or making use of more than one -=-guage as a common means of communication easily surpasses the :-*rLber of monolingual speakers. In many places around the world, people -,s. nore than one language every day, because of situational factors as
r---;L?rceS
' :ll as their sociolinguistic situation. Bilingualism is not restricted to s,::, countries or areas traditionally considered bilingual such as Canada ": S',ijtzerland, but is present in every country of the world in one way or "::. lher. So, using one language at home and another one at work is not -:-\' strange in some placesl. The second language (in terms of order of .i:quisition) does not need to have been learned formally; speakers may u-: have acquired it by constant exposure to the language, and the shift : -:n one code to the other is often made unconsciously.
h is not easy to define the term Bilingualism as there can be many ::-:ees in terms of overall proficiency and sociolinguistic factors that :=::r-mine the use and knowledge of one language or the other.
3'':n-sualism can range from a functional ability to use one language only ,-' rertain domains, to balanced bilingualism which entails an equal and :-i-level capacity in two or more languages.
--==d
In order to portray the different features of bilingualism, some aspects to be described:
r"i
First, it is important to take into account the means of acquisition, this would depend on whether each of the languages was acquired as
In this case we are referring to bilinguaiism assuming that there are two languages It would be pedectly possible, and very normal in sme parls of the world, t reTer .iuation with more than two languages. Then r',,e would speak of multilingualism.
ed.
:'
- --:
t94
a
mother tongue, a second language or a foreign language2. Each of these circumstanc radically affects the degree of attainment and the overall proficiency, depending on the age of the speaker and the amount of time spent learning and using the language. Second, the skills in each language may vary as it is perfectly possible,
and rather common, to have different commands of the various skiils: reading, writing, speaking and listening comprehension. The degree of development
in eac of these iour skills will be deterrnined, at least in part, by the means of acquisition. So, someone acquiring the language in_a natural context (withut formai instruction) would probably develop his/her aural-oral owledge of the language but may not become competent in reading and writing. I"t goes without sying that literacy is not necessarily attained by all in their mother tongue. It also needs to be taken fluent-speJkers, not "rr"r, into acctunt that, as usually happens in second and foreign language learning, receptive skills are often more easily developed than productive skills' So, it is prfectly possible for someone learning the language. in a formal or classroom context to develop receptive skills, namely listening and reading, to a larger extent than productive skills, that is speaking and writing. Third, there are certain functions that bilinguals generally prefer to perform i.r orr" language than in the other. This may be due to the fact ihut they have not d"rrelop"d a specific skill in that language sufficientl (e.g.: participate in a daily conversation, read the newspapel etc.) or just (e'g': because it seems more natural for them to do it in a cerlain language counting, cursing, dreaming, etc). Fourth, the domain often influences language choice in bilingual speakers because the acquisition or learning was domain-dependent or sirnply because one language is preferred in some contexts and it is subected to the effect of three main factors: a) the location (e'g.: home" office, school, shopping cente4 pary, etc.);b) the role relationships among the interlocutors (e.g.:ilbling, father, mothe4 colleague, neighbor, friena doctot etc.), and; c) the topics involved in the conversation (e.g.: domestic weather, social greetings, academic, etc.).
tongLre would be the language acquired from the parents at ho::.the firsl one in terms of order of acquisition, i.e., the first languar: probably be and would It is often r"f".redio as the native language. The second language would be the langu:=-: b *i.;;""d in the place where it is used by most speakers as a means of communication tont-: mother a Spanish For example, learner. of the which is not the native language speaker learning English i einburgh wouid be in a Second Language (SL) learn'-- situation. Fina[f, a Freign LanguagelFl) is learned when the target language is no: -:' language used by most sp-eakers. Foi instance, a Spanish mother tongue speaker lean::{ rngtistr in Madrid would be an English learner in a FL learning context.
t Not. tfrat the mother
\TT
95
As was stated before, bilingual speakers are likelv to har.e a preferred ,:neuage for each domain as shown in the following example inspired bv . real situation (the notion of domain and language choice are linked to ::e question of 'register'. See chapter 2): Robert Rodriguez was born in a suburban area in New Jerser,-. He is 25 year old, he lives with his parents, and one of his sisters, Maira, u-ho is 19. His parents, Carlos and Fabiana, came from Colombia 27 years ago and have lived in the area ever since. They have relatives in Colombia and they go back there on special occasions but not regularly. Carlos and Fabiana live in a beautiful house and work very near; it only takes them 15 minutes driving every day. At work, in a factory, they mainly
speak their perfectly comprehensible English with a markedly foreign accent, which they learned when they came to the US at the age of 30,
although some of their colleagues come from other Spanish-speaking countries in South America and they speak Spanish to them. In their way home after work, they stop at the mall to do some shopping and there they come across some Spanish-speaking friends but all their conversation with the shopkeeper takes place in English. When they get home, they have a message from Robert on the answering machine saying, in Spanish, that he is late from work. Every day Robert commutes to New York City where he works as a clerk. At work he speaks English all the time although on some occasions he speaks Spanish to his customers. When Robert talks to his grandparents on the phone he
speaks Spanish and he often wishes he could spend more time with them because, as they live in Colombia, he has only met them twice. On his
way home he dropped by to see his girlfriend (with Italian ancestors although she has never been to Italy) and greets her for her birthday in English, which is the only language she speaks. When Robert gets home, he meets his younger sister Maira who is back from college, where she
studies accounting. Robert and Maira are planning to thor.i a surprise partr for Robe's girlfriend and they make all the arrangements, in English. As thev are making a list with the food and drink they need to bu1,, their mother comes in and tells them, in Spanish, that dinner is readr.. Thev sit at the table and go on making arrangements for the par-ty r^,'ith their parents in fluent Spanish with a funny English accent. The follorving da.at the party in their backyard, Robert and Maira will be using their nativespeaker English with some friends and neighbors, and fluent Spanish, their'mother tongue'with an accent to their parents and some of their Hispanic friends.
AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISN :
2. BILINGUALISM: DEFINITIONS AND DIMENSIONS

Broadly speaking the study and depiction of bilingualism can gi',. prominence either to the social side of this phenomenon, as it stems ft'c':: a context in which various languages are in contact; or it can pay closr: attention to the individual and psycholinguistic side of the issue, as r::. languages involved interact and develop in the brain of the bilinguspeaker. Both the notion of the bilingual speaker and the concepr .. bilingualism are rather fuzzy3 and have often been misconceived.
Social bilingualism (or multilingualism) is an area of research dedicate; to the study of its social dimension as a characteristic of bilingual an; multilingual societies where more than one language are commonly use: by a speech community or social group. It does not mean that all speaker= have a command over both languages, rather the term just implies tha: at least some of the members of that speech community are capable c: using the other language, either productively or receptively (e.g.: a,members of a multilingual country do not need to be bilingual themseh'es they may just be monolingual). Note that multilingualism is furthe: explained at the end of this chapter.
Individual bilingualism (also referred to as biiinguality) is rather simple to define in terms of the first half of the term as it refers to the individual pafi of the phenomenon, that is, an individual has some knowledge of nvc or more languages. This entails a special psycholinguistic process. Nevertheless, it is not possible to make a clear separation between bilingualism as an individual and a societal phenomenon. Some questions that call for reflection are:
a)
To what extent does the bilingual speaker need to be proficient in both languages so that s/he can qualifu as bilingual? Does a bilingual speaker need to show equal proficiency languages?
b) c)
in both
Does the bilingual proficiency of the language entail a spoken or written command of both languages? as criteria for assigning the label of 'bilingual': vocabulary pronunciation, syntax, fluency, etc?
d) What language components should be considered
Tth"-rotion
as
of the bilingual speaker has traditionally been idealized in the same wa' other concepts that have not been adequately defined, in spite of being fundamental in
applied and theoretical linguistics.
.\IT4
Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 2.)
i i
97
In the last decades a large amount of research on indir-idual :rlingualism has tried to distinguish different sorts of bilingualism. The :-assification first introduced by Weinreich (1953: 9-11) differentiates f .t\\'een 'coordinate', 'compound' and 'sub-coordinate' bilingualism and ,," as elaborated by taking as a starting point the way the concepts and :r:anings are encoded in the brain. Each of these three divisions stems :',rm the way in which the languages were learned. Coordinate bilingualism ;.ssumes that languages are learned in different conditions and separate ::itexts which would imply that the languages are kept aparl in the mind. :-:ider such circumstances, different contexts give way to different :.:anings with dissimilar conceptual systems (e.g.: someone who learns F:Elish as his/her mother tongue and later learns a foreign language in ..:hool). Compound bilingualism arises when acquisition takes place in a :--uation in which both languages are learned in the same context, and :.,rh meanings show a fused representation or meaning in the brain. This =:-iails that the languages involved are somehow interdependent (e.g.: a ::--ld rvho learns two languages at home at the same time, probably one :,ning from the father and the other one from the mother). The third :,- ssibility according to Weinreich ( 1 953), sub-coordinate bilingualism, :;ives from the learning of one language first and the learning of the -.i,er iater on (e.g.: a child who learns both languages at home '*-:.ultaneously but one of them is dominant, probably because s/he spends :- -re time with one of the parents). Weinreich illustrates these three t5,pes ,: :ilingualism with the following diagram for lexical representation and
:: -,nunciation:
Coordinote
toble
meso
I
toble = meso
toble
I
,eibal/
/meso/
6el/
\*,
/reibel/
I
/meso/
:,:
::-: ,-ategorization was neither abandoned nor developed more fulIr'due
This working classification has been studied for decades and a number =rperiments have been carried out following its principles. Hou-eler,
98
few advances to the complexity of the neurolinguistic processes and the significant most the attained lnihe nt (we should take into ccount that is brain based on advances in portraying bilingual representation in the patints). Ho*"n"., s Macnamara(1967:66) indicates' it turns "pft"ti.b too simplistic as it centers mainly on isolated.words and the more "iri," relationship between language and meaning seems to be much complicated than that.
bilingual distinguish"s bet*"n the balanced biiingual and the dominant equivalent has who to an individual iiu*t"rr, 1955). The former refers (e.g.: someone brought up in a bilingual lunguages oth i.-p",""." lr, family and society *h"i" bth languages receive equal consideration), in the mother tongue und the latter applies to someone whose competence in some domains least at language' surpasses his cmpetence in the other B from the language and (".g.: u child lean:rlrrg lu.rg,,uge { [om the father language to develop have more chances -J,fr",. and school, iU iroubly entails a B unless special actions'are.r.tdl.ttk"rr). Balanced bilingualism necessarily high communicative competence in both languages- but not should bilinguaiism Balanced languages'. monolingual competence in both show ever hardly speakers be understood in reiative terms ut bilittgrul rarely are they equal speaking anJ writing abilities in iheir languages' balance or ""ffi fluent"about all tpics in all contexts. Normally, and functions' dominance can vary depending on the linguistic domains difficult for a rather is it as toithe Dominant bilinguaisro i, u.t.tlily codes' two in competence bilingual speaker to reach absolutely even bilingualism Another possible dimension to distinguish various types of be drawn can distinction useful so is related tothe age of acquisition, adult and bllingualism adolescent between: chtdhold bilingualism, place takes bilingualism bilinguaiism. In the first cale the development of case the in whereas at the same time as the child's cognitive development the of of adolescent and adult bilingrrulit- the cognitive representation a cerlain word, to give an example, haslready been completed' at least to concepts. previous re-labeling of process extent, urrd th"r" is mainly a
bilingual should not be conceived of bilingualism depends on The development as the addition of two -."ri"g".r speakersconsideration of the languages, soial context, situational r-iig, l factors numerous t^g.
Anotherdimensioninthestudyofbilingualismisthatwhich
et ttrl, point it shouid be clarified that
a balanced
u" .".iainlr-there are domains in which the speaker will show personal identity, the other' A bilingual ",..i higher commata of tn"'f Inf""g" t tt iU 'i-plv preier o,nt luncllg:,or a communicative developed has who speakriarer r.Z-io"nt .r .fr?"] . conceived *ho.,r". language A, Ianguage B or languages A and competence in two or;;;l;Jilg"r, but who does not necessarih B depending on th. ,itulti",13pi., interlocutor, doi-rain, etc', have equal command in both.
'lll
-l
-:--:hood bilingualism can also be classified into sitnttaneotrs fant :,-:' .a:;distrz, when the child acquires a second language earlr in infancr:1- - ifier some development of the mother tongue has been attained; and, : ,':stutive childhood bilingualism, when a basic linguistic abilin' is iL-:-*ried early in infancy in the mother tongue and a se cond ian_euage is .rii*,red right after.
Tile sociocultural environment can cerlainlv influence bilingualism specially the social status that the languages har-e in the speech : :::-nunity. Depending on the social consideration that the languages ':;--: in the society, a child can develop both languages equalh- or one more -:-.,:: the other. Additive bilingualism occurs when both lan_eua_ses are )-*:-alh'r-alued. The child makes use of both languages and accordingl' ::-r:;s advantage of this potentially enhancing situation to gain cognitive l r;bilini In this case, the acquisition of the second language does not :.-"e adverse effects on the language or languages already known. j:,.i:rcctive bilingualism, conversely, results from a sociocultural context .::;:e the mother tongue is detracted and, as a consequence, the child's : - rritive development may be hindered because the development of the nl,rrnd language interferes with the development of the first language.
;- j
Flamers and Blanc (1989: 11) also distinguish bilinguals according to :---;:r cultural identity. So, an adolescent or adult bilingual may identify *--::,self u,ith the cultures associated to each language. In this case s/he - :ld also bebicultural and that clearly depends on the social consideration ,:-j r-aiue given to both languages and both cultures by the society. This i:o:ilic situation would probably cause balanced bilingualism. Nonetheless, , :r:gh proficiency in both languages does not necessarily involve a :--ultural individual, who can also be monocuhural, i.e., someone who :- "urally identifies himself with just one group. Bilingual development in = :i,'en speech community can also persuade a person to give up or deny ::- culture of his mother-tongue group and foster that of the second r-:qua-qe group, becoming an acculturatedbilingual. This latter process is :- - i infrequent at all when some sort of minimal migration is involved as ,:::i:risrants often wish to blend into the new society and culture and the' =::'rmmodate as much as they can to the receiving culture.
-\n aspect related to the psycholinguistic processing of bilinguals, u'hich widely investigated in the last decades, is whether bilinguals orin or two mental lexicons. The one-lexicon advocates consider that -:re :;:antic information is stored in a single semantic system u'here n-ords .'' troth languages coexist but are labeled as belonging to one language or -:r- other. Another group of specialists propose that the bilingual mental
:-e,. been
100
lexicon is divided into two sets, one for each language, and that
interrelation between the two is only possible through transiation. A more recent image considers that bilingual speakers possess three stores: a) a conceptual one for their knowledge of the world; b) a language store for language A; and, c) a language store for language B.
3.
CODE CHOICE
As Wardhaugh (2002) suggests, the term 'code' is admittedly loose but very useful to refer to any kind of system that two or more people use for communication. Terms like dialect , language, style, standard, register , variety , pidgin and creole are prone to arouse emotions that, in one way or the
other, are affected by their sociopolitical status or individual
considerations. For instance, an Arab who knows the literary variety of Arabic (koranic) but speaks the colloquial variety of the ciassic (verrracular) will probably consider that they are two varieties of the same language. In the same vein, a Norwegian who speaks both Ny'norsk and Bokmlmay insist that s/he is bidialectal or bilinguals which shows that to some extent considering oneself bilingual or bidialectal is, or should be, a question of self-adscription. Anyhow a very useful criterion to distinguish between bidialectal and bilingual speakers could be the question of mutual intelligibility, i.e., if the speakers of these languages can understand each other when using their own codeu.
In the case of bilingual or bidialectal speakers, it would be interesting to know howeve, the factors that rule code choice on every single situation and, eventually, why certain speakers sometimes shift from one code to another. So, it seems that whenever a speaker engages in a communicative situation, s/he has previously decided (consciously or unconsciously) upon the code s/he is going to use. Language plays a very important role in our lives and the actual choice can be very important. A speaker may deliberately choose to use a specific language in some situations to express solidarity with his interlocutor. For example, let's think of someone entering a deparlment-store in Pontevedra, Spain. The shop assistant will probably
TAnoth"r
example would be that of Chinese people speaking both Mandarin and that cannot be generalized. There is mutual
Cantonese as they would insist that they speak two varieties of the same language.
6 This continues to be a controversial issue
intelligibility between Norwegian and Swedish speakers but they are considered different
Ianguages.
:\IT4
101
'rf communicative goals have been accomplished not onlv because of the rransaction carried out, but because a degree of closeness and empathv rs also reached by their switching to the common language.
address him/her in Spanish and after a while, if both the customer and ihe shop-assistant find clues to their interlocutors being speakers of Galician, they may naturally and automatically change teir ianguage choice and continue their conversation in Galician. In so doing, a numbr
canadian may insist on using French to an official of the federal go\-ernment outside Quebec. In that case language choice can be e-onsidered a way of 'political or rights expression'. The underlying issue is that motivation is a determining component in code-choice and codesrvitching as there are numerous factors that affect it: solidarity with the listener, choice of topic, social distance, contextual and situational appropriacy, register, interlocutof etc.
Language choice can also be considered a way to asserl some kind of even to resist some kind of 'power'in places where two or more languages coexist and have equal sociopolitical status as in canada. The official Languages Act, adopte d in 1969, gave English and French equal status, rights and prileges in the federal institutions of canada. Howeve4 English first language speakers comprise a minority in euebec, representing l0o/o of the province's population, whereas in other parts of canada, French first language speakers are a minority, accouniing for approximately 5o/o of the population. under such circumstances, a Frnch
ight'or
The very fact of being proficient in more than one language allows for rhe possibility of swirching codes at some point. waiarrugh (2002) -listinguishes two main [pes of code-switching: situational andmaaphoricai. The former refers to a language change depending on contextual factors ii.hich have nothing to do with the topic but with e given situation. The latter points to the topic and the contents of the commirnicative process as :he main reason for language choice. The alternance of code often encod.es personal and social values that add interpersonal closeness or distance.
3.1. Code-switching
The Hispanic community in the USA often su,itches bet*,een both codes, English and spanisht, on some occasions as a solidaritr-marker rt]i, i, very characteristic, for instance, of the puerto Rican communin' in -\err \brk. For this speech community, a conversation fuIl of language su.itches is a forn of speech in is own.
-'
t02
when talking to people belonging to their own community. Howeve4 they can easily change to either language when addressing a monolingual speaker of either of these two languages. Below is a fragment in which this code-switching can be seen:
OYE, when I was a freshman I had a term paper to do...
t...1
And all of a sudden, I started acting real CURIOSA, you know. I started going like this. Y LUEGO DECA, look at the smoke coming out of my fingers, like that. And then ME DIJO, stop acting silly. Y LUEGO DECA YO, MIRA cant you see. Y LUEGO SfB, I started seeing like little stars all over the place. Y VOLTEABA YO ASINA Y LE DECA look at rhe... the... No s ERA coMo BRILLOSITO AS like stars.
(Valds Fallis, 1976; quoted in Apple and Muysken, 1.996: 176)
In the text above, at least three types of code-switching can be perceived. These are described by Romaine (1989: II2) as:
a) Tag-switching: for instance the use of exclamations or tags from
one language into an utterance in the other language, such as'OYE'
at the very beginning of the paragraph which is written in a language different from the rest of the sentence. This tag-switch might occur because the speaker lacks the necessary vocabulary in English, or simply because it comes up more easily and
spontaneously since tags are subjected to few syntactic restrictions
and can be inserted without interfering with the syntactic organization of the utterance. Some tags easily inserted from
English are you know and ,I mean.
b/ Intersentential switch: for
instance, in the sentences 'Y LUEGO DECA, look at the smoke coming out of my fingers, like that'and 'Y LUEGO STE, I stafted seeing like little stars all over the place.' This type of switch is found between sentences and often arises in sentence boundaries, marked with a short pause and between speaker turns. In this excerpt, intersentential switch also seems to be caused in direct speech by the change from the narrator to the actual words used by the speaker, e.g.: 'And then ME DIJO, stop acting silly'.
c) Intrasentential switch: for instance, in the sentence'I
started acting real CURIOSA where both codes are mixed within a sentence. This type of code-switch contains the highest syntactic risk and is typically referred to as code-mixing.
,\IT J
103
3.2. Code-mixing
'-.':tching although the terms are sometimes used interchangeablr as the : -ncepts they describe often overlap. Indeed, not all specialists ri'ould .:srorvledge a distinction between them. code-mixing o...r., when the -::rerlocutors change from one language to the other in the course of a s,ngle conversation and more precisely when switching back and forth ,cCUrs within a clause. It is important to note that the speakers do not even :-:ed to be aware of it and the breaks between codes are somewhat blurred .s rhev can occur within clauses. code-mixing highlights hybridization -,, hereas code-switching stresses the existence of movement from one -.nguage into the other. code-mixing typically presumes a mastery of the ::,des being mixed and is very typical of bilinguals. In certain locations 'lh as Gibraltar, where two languages such as English and spanish are -:i close contact, people may start a sentence in one of the languages and :nish it in the other, or inserl certain words or phrases from one language -::o the othel all depending on a number of factors such as the situational - lrteXt, the degree of familiarity among the interlocutors and the actual :ause for code-switching: i.e., if it is a result of the lack of knowledge or if -- comes up as a meaningful discourse strategy. The former phenomenon, :ot knowing certain words in one language, obviously implies that the s:eakers have at least a full command over one of the languages and some :,lntrol over the other. code-mixing is also relatively common in the speech -,t immigrants. Spanish-speaking immigrants in the uSA, for exampre, -,lten make use of English words or expressions when they speak English. The reason for this may lie in the fact that they are referring to some object :ir concept which was not known to them before coming into the nerv ;ulture, or they were not very familiar with it, or simply on the basis of -asv access to the word. This process occasionally results in lexical borrowing. An instance can be found in the common use of the follou-ins English words and phrases by Hispanic immigrants (probably belonging o the first or the second generation in the country) speaking spanish in -he USA: bacl<yard, basement, coupons, mall, take it easy, VCR, etc. As a result, these functional bilinguals (having full command over one of the languages and a functional command over the other) often develop a mired code which is based on the old language but includes features ft-om rhe nerv language. At this point the use of alternating codes should be distinguished from the development of a mixed varietv as occurs ri,ith pidgins (see chapter 3). The incidental borrowing descrited immediateh' above can pave the way to permanent lexical borror.iing. For erample, u'hen there is a need to refer to an object or concept tht has nor been
code-mixing can be considered a different phenomenon to code-
104
as a result of fashions' Using oresent in the receiving language or simply i;;;;;"r. *uv b" p"rteit'ed as a sign of innovation'
4') (Please go to the exercises section and do exercise
4. CODE-SWITCHING IN BILINGUAL CHILDREN

Inthecaseofbilingualandmultilingualspeakers,codechoiceisnot at thl disposal of the biiingual always at will. when i"o l.rrguug", ur interferences between the two speake4 there are ,"time, rinintentional clearly in chirdren receiving a bilingual codes. This can ;;;;;;".y and transfer words' syntactic education when ,t*t-"tO boih la"guages language into the other' constructions or phonologicai featuresio* -"L" boy' brought up in Spain For exampt", Ni.oir, u b"i"g"ul-te^n-year-old '[..'] e"rtttsh fath"r, remarked to his mother, by his Spanish ^;l;;";a (instead' of course' of 'estoy pensando estoy pensato " io, poU'"' [" ']' it ui on this occasion his Spanish was being en los pobres,). I, J;;;;i;^' ft;$innrr"n."A by the English str-ucture'think of'' and the use of more than As de Bot (2002) points out' code-switching oneself in a bilingual context one languag" i, tt ,rirmal way of expressing " speech coming from and it is as natural as any other sponteous languages interact and are monolinguut ,p"J"t'' The analysis of ho* usedbybilinguatspeakerscan-castsomelightonthêissueofcognitive of language selection
processing by bili;;l., ""*a the mechanisms long puzzled psycholinguists and languag" ,"pu,ion. Some issues have and language educators, some of these are:
languages? a) How do bilingual speakers process their
language system where b) Does the bilingual child develop a unique
#tti
dePending on the context? they located in the same part c) If there is more than one system' are of the brain? one or two different lexicons? d) Does the bilingual brain contain given the easy to answer or even testable These questions are not always ."."u..h can only analyze linguistic fact that most psycholinguisti.*uft" plausible inferences concerning performance and t"*;;;tit" l"a these issues. and do exercise 5') (Please go to the exercises section
ffi;dri;
i;;;;il;;;;""*i",
syitemsi
bott
or dtes he.have *'.*Tr::::j other slhe make use of one or the
\-T
105
5. DICLOSSIA
-{ diglossic situation entails the co-existence of two or more codes8 :j'-h are used in the same setting but under different circumstances, i.e., =;h of the codes is used with contrasting functional purposes. These
-",
:::-\' are used for

-
:,,-les or varieties tend to be kept apart in their functions,l.e., the purposes (e.g., communication at home, business or transactions, ::,-,adcasting, fine literature, etc.). So, given the existence of two varieties,
,:
:her, would lead to the differentiation between a high variety (H) and a
",r-
le of them being considered more prestigious and cultivated than the

r-ariety (L).
According to Ferguson (2003: 347) the specialization of functions for Fi and L varieties determines the appropriateness of either variety for a
sr
,f one language to express a set of behaviors, attitudes and values, and

'nother language to put into words a contrasting set of behaviors, attitudes =d values. The next charr shows some general situations and the varietv :righ or low) more likely used:
of situations with few occasions for overlapping. This entails the use
Sermon in church or mosque Insiructions to servonts, woiters, workmen, clerks Personql letter Speech,in porlioment, politicol speech tJn rversify lecture Conversotion with fomily, friends ond colleogues News broqdcosf Rodio 'soop opero' Newspoper editoriol, news story coption on picture Coption on politicol cortoon Poetry *
Folk literoture *
+ +
+
+
+
+ 1
+ +
:
+
+
L
'
ln relotion to these functions it should be mentioned thot the H voriety, the used, depending on the longuoges involved.
voriety or both con be
(Ferguson, 2003:347)
\t1 mi, case the terrn 'code' is used to refer to a language, varietv of language or dialect. The terms 'ianguage', 'variety', and'dialect'are often i" the litraturei''-ito,rt precise
definition.
"se
106
speakers regard the H varietyas being more prestigious, more appealing .^nd -o." appropriate than tft" I variety, even if their knowledge of the H is not as comprehensive as their ability in the L, or the L variety
In most instances of languages entangled in a diglossic situation,
embodies their mother tongue. What is more, the literary tradition probably makes use of the H variety and enjoys a high esteem in the ,p"ech community. Nevertheless, more recently, and as a call for social ientity, the L varieties have been employed in poetry or other literary writte; works, and descriptive and normative studies have been undertaken. Tracing back the issue of the native language in instances such as the Haitian Creole, children more commonly learn the L variety as their first langu age at home and later, when they are schooled they have a access to the H variety. This diglossic situation gives the L variety H status of mother tongue that is 'acquired' naturally, whereas the variety is often learned formally in schools or other formal contexts and is, therefore, 'learned'e. The H variety usually has a strong tradition of grammatical study and there are plenty of reference books on it' norms for pronunciation, orthography, whlch brings with it "ttublirh"d grammar Jnd vocabulary. The differences between the H and the L iariety are notorious in teims of grammatical structure as grammatical categries in the H variety are usually reduced, or,simply absent' in the i variety, for example, the inflectional system of nouns and verbs (see the general characleristics of Creoles: HCE, Jamaican Patwa and Tok Pisin in unit 3). The lexicon in H and L varieties is shared to a large extent but obviously there are conspicuous differences in form, use and meaning. In terms of phonology, the degree of closeness between the H and the L varieties depends, to a large extent, on the languages involved. Some instances of languages in diglossic situations can be found where H and L varieties differ remarkably and in some other instances they are rather similar. There follow two examples of historic diglossic situations:
i
1
TAt,hi. point it would be convenient to clarifi' the contrast between 'acquisition' ai: 'lear.ril!'*lii6 l. based on the distinction made by Krashen and Ter-rell.(l983 The Nattt'-.'
Approah: Language Acquisition in the Classroom. London: Prentice Hall Internationai) --' by two-differe.'-' ;;. ";,h;ri. *"hi.h onsiders that language proficiency can be attained p.o."rr"., acquisition and learning. TheJormr refers to a natural process similar to ti-T:.= ;;;;;ild tai.r, kno*l"dge of his Lother tongue, i.e., unconsciouslyand incidentallr. lai-i-this in that only suggest r-ules. They process learnig of latter refers to the conscio"us case is teaching useful.
L\IT
107
in 10610, Norman French and English gradually become to coexist in England in a diglossic situation, I'{orman French being considered the H variety and being used b-u'' most of the feudal aristocracy and, eventually, hand in hand rn ith English in monasteries. English, howeve4 constituted the L variet-v* being used by peasants and artisans in everyday situations. Needless to say that the H variety was the prestige variety, used in politics, government and local administration, whereas the L variety lacked any prestige or social consideration. Chaucer's literary work, around three hundred years later, used the L variety and was the culmination of a long lasting process in which the L variety gradually assumed functions that had been restricted to the H variety in the past. This process was reinforced by the steady assimilation of the French speaking aristocracy into the English culture due to the detachment and lack of contact with their native France, generation after generation. B) The Haitian Creole emerged as the creolization of a pidgin French. Afterwards, standard French became the H variety (frangais) whereas the Haitian Creole kept the status of L variety (crole). The L variety is often associated with conversational language and, therefore, the spelling used to represent it is not always standardized (for example, the McConnell-Laubach spelling). The H variety, however, is more easily represented by the standard language orthography because it is widespread even though there may be some resemblances between the sounds of the H and L varietv.
A) After the Norman conquest
I'. DICLOSSIA AND BILINGUALISM

Diglossia, as is stated in most works on the topic by John Gumperz, not only exist in multilingual societies but also in traditionally called nonolingual societies'where various dialects, registers or styles are :mployed. It goes without saying that this embraces almost all societies a.-:, strictly speaking, monolingual societies are a theoretical construct that does not find a full realization in the present-dar world.
Coes
The distinction between diglossia and bilingualism is not simple since :here are numerous social, personal and situational factors that bar upon
,: Engiand.
. 'o The defeat of King Harold's arrny by the French-speaking follorvers of \\'illiam, Duke : \ormandy, in the Battle- of Hastings in 1066 marked ihe beginning of a foreion inr-asion '-l.ri_ch would have great effects on the social, economic, culturl and l]nsuistic dr'elopment
108
language use and language choice. Fishman (2003) portrays the relationship between these two complex terms, diglossia and bilingualism, by means of the following chart: DtGtosstA
+
I.
3.
Both diglossio ond
2. Bilinguolism without
BItINGUALSM
bilinguolism
Diglossio without
diglossio 4. Neither diglossio nor bilinguolism
bilinguolism
Fishman (2003:260)
The first possibility (1) embraces a speech community where both diglossia and bilingualism occur. That is the case, for instance, of German (H) and Swiss German (L) spoken in some cantons in Switzerland. There, both codes are used alternatively from school age and used for different functions and in different contexts (e.g. at home and at school). Other instances of steady diglossia and bilingualism co-occurring in the same speech community are the case of Spanish (H) and Guarani (L) in Paraguay, and the status of Arabic in many Arab countries where businessmen and the scientific community would use classical (koranic) (H) and vernacular Arabic (Algerian, Moroccan, etc.) (L) in specific situations, but also a western former colonial language such as French (H), when required in professional circumstances. Many other instances like these can be detected in societies where a Creole and a standard language or acrolect co-exist (see chapter 3).
The second possibility (2), bilingualism without diglossia, relates to transitory situations where rapid social changes affect a speech community and, for a relatively brief period of time, the languages involved lack welldefined separate functions. This situation probably describes an indidual linguistic behavior rather than a social one. This sociolinguistic situation can take place in the course of industrialization and/or urbanization of some societies where one speech community provides the means (capital and organization), and a different speech community provides the
manpower
for the production. This example probably entails
demographic movement of the manpower (migration) and, therefore, the adoption of a new language, as well as a set of cultural values and norms, that are rapidly taken over and often interlwined with the previous ones.
;_T
-1
109
period of time the language of work or the language of schooling, :. he one hand, and the language of home, on the oth". hand, mi -:.:enu'ine without a definite separation of functions and locations.
F - r- a
The third possibility (3), diglossia without bilingualism, relates to societies here two or more languages share a geographic area but they are not -:;rorably used by the speakers living in that area. That means that there r:. at least two speech communities that do not share a contact language -:-c communication is attained by means of, for instance, interpreters. rr"i" >,,cieties tend to be formed by two or more speech communities that are :rited for functional purposes because of religious, political or economic :iasons, although apparent social and cultural dissimilarities separate them. T:re situation would appear to favor bilingualism but what *e find, instead, ,s drglossia as language reperloires in one or both groups are, in some way, :estricted owing to role specialization. It is also characteristic in this type -rf societies that most of the elite and most of the masses lead lives Jistinguished by specific role repeftoires. An instance of diglossia without bilingualism can be found in India between people belongingto lower castes Hindus) and the higher castes (Brahmins)
''.
The foufih possibility (4) is, in Fishman's words, 'easier to hypothesize than to find'as only very small and set aparl societies could show neither biiingualism nor diglossia (note that absence of diglossia seems even more unlikely and awkward than bilingualism). It *ot,ld be the case of speech communities where no differentiation in registers or r-arieties is found, u'hich is rather improbable given the social dimension of lan-euage. An instance of this speech community without bilingualism and rvithout diglossia could be a band or clan with a closed nrr-b", of members and u'ith restricted social relations. (Please go to the exercises section and do exercise .)
7. N,IUI,Til,INGUALISNI
Multilingualism refers to the co-existence of more than tu,o languaees or sufficiently distant dialects, no matter how many, within a speech communin. For the sake of clarity, in this book, and in most of the biliographr on the topic, the term bilingualism is used to refer to a situation in n,hich trvo languages coexist whether in an individual speaker or a social group.
Monolingual speech communities are rare these davs and, *,hat is more, most countries in the world are multilingual (onlr Iceland and Portugal are reported to be monolingual countiies in Europe). In the
110
history of humankind, language has proven to be possibly the most imporiant factor that determines other aspects of political and social organization in the world. Around 5,000living languages are reported to no*.days in the world whereas there are about 200 countries. This "*i"rt fact can provide us with an idea of the complexity of the issue. Languages social identities at a supra-state level,(e'g.: the Swedish often "-body language in inland) which can cause socio-political conflicts as is the car oflanguage minorities (e.g.: Welsh in Great Britain). The Romantic *orr"-"rriin ihe nineteenth ientury supported nationalism and the
general conception of 'one nation, one language''
Migration, either in the form of involuntary or voluntary migration is another factor that characterizes the current language situation in many speakers of farts of the world. The African slave trade brought many paved the way that and Indies West and East Af.i.u.r languages into the existed not had which creoles pidgins and for the formation of many forced policy that Soviet before. Another example *o.tld be the case of Those republics' the migration of the Russian population into other Soviet formeirulers in places like the Baltic states are faced now with the need to learn local languages such as Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian. Voluntary migration has also determined the linguistic shape of modern.orrrrt.i"r like the USA and to a lesser extent, Australia. Through the melting-pot policy in the United States, large amounts of people from different Euiopean and Asian countries, speakers of languages like Polish, Italian, German, Norwegian, Japanese or different Chinese languages entered the country in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Most of these immigrant groups acquired English and many abandoned their languages, altoughlheykept their social identity to various extents. This later in the nineteenth century as -Jtrolittg.tal trend has changed immigration from South America and Asia has disrupted the monolingual tendcy and has given way to the development of new ethnic identities in this officially monolingual country.
B. LANGUAGE CONTACT
In places where two or more languages share a common geographic context (e.g.: the city of Brussels) or simply where one language stops being used by speakrs and a different language is used (e.g.: because of
the existence of an international border), a situation of language in contact is encountered. There are many factors that play a role in multilingualism and language contact and a larger number of outcomes from such a
UNIT
111
situation are possible. In areas close to international borders, for instance, speakers of each of the different languages often develop a continuum, they speak dialects of their own languages which are close enough to the other language to permit successful communication (e.g.: p"opl" living on the two sides of the border between portugal and spain normallv understand each other without any problem, a situation that would be most unlikely between people coming from further away in portugal and spain). From a diachronic perspective, a contact situation btween languages may result in the loss of one of the languages, if they are in a power relationship, or in the merging of both, if both languages are considered to have equal status and social consideration. without doubt, language contact is the main source of language evolution and language change over time. (See diachronic variation, chapter 1) Language contact can cause political conflict. Belgium conforms a bilingual state but it contains walloon speakers of French dialects, Flemish speakers of Dutch dialects, and speakers of German dialects. There, a dominant language group (French) controls administration, politics and economy, presumably giving employment preferences to applicants who have command of the dominant language (Hans Nelde, 2002). However, in some cases, socially or psychologically weakened groups, or groups reduced in number, might move towards assimilation of the dominant language (and culture). when those groups are numerous o4 if they have a sound cultural tradition, the most likely outcome is opposition and resistance to the dominant group, resulting in language conflict. Language conflicts can be viewed as natural or artificial language conflicts. Natural language conflicts have been traditionall, caused bv political decisions regarding majority or minority social groups. As ri'as stated above, assimilation or opposition represents the kev factor in language conflict as it most unequivocally arises fi-om the lattei. This npe of conflict is seen in canada with the French-speaking communirv or in Spain with the Basque-speaking communitr and it intensifies u hen ideological or political arguments are posed and inteftu,ine u'ith linguistic ones. Another aspect that intensifies these problems can be based, aithough not solely, on religious grounds, such as that between Belfast (\onhern Ireland) and connemara, to the nofth of Galway in the Irish Republic of Ireiand. Artificial language conflicts arise when a compromise is attained and a language is disfavored. The European union, for instance, faces the problem of what languages should be officially spoken u,ithin the EU. The ni'enty-five member states at the moment (2005) speak t\venf\rnvo different :ficial languages which turr-rs their headquarlers in Biusseis into a yeritable Tou'er of Babel and the tasks of translation and interpretation into a
112
daunting enterprise. The decision to adopt English, French and German as the official working languages in the EU has raised conflicts with countries that also felt they deser-ved this consideration of language for international communication.
9. EXERCISES
1. Read the text on page 95 and think of the different domains in which Robert, his parents and his sister use spanish and English. Then fill in a table like this for each of them (Robert; Carlos and Fabiana; and, Maira):
LOCATION
ROIE RETATIONSHIP
TOPIC
TANGUAGE
2. Think about the issues raised in the section 'Bilingualism:

definitions'. Elaborate on each of the four questions raised there:
a)
To what extent does the bilingual speaker need to be proficient in both languages so that s/he can qualify as bilingual?
b/ c/
Does a bilingual speaker need to show equal proficiency languages?
in both
Does the bilingual proficiency of the language entail a spoken or written command of both languages? as criteria for assigning the label of 'bilingual': vocabulary pronunciation, smtax,
d) what language components should be considered

fluency, etc?
3. Analyze the following definitions of bilingualism. Discuss the implications of each definition and compose your own taking these as a start point. You should incorporate any considerations that you feel are
relevant.
UNIT
113
li
Wales, where both Welsh and English are spoken.,'
in canada where both Fnglish and French are spoken, and parts of
'(T)he use of at reast two languages either b' an indi'iduar [. . . ] or by a group of speakers, such as the innabitants oi a fii..rtu. egion or nation. Bilingualism is common, for example, in the prorjnce of ""U..
(Richards, Platt and Platt, 1992:36)

'A bilingual (or murtiringual) person is one whose ringuistic abilit. in two (or more) languages is simirar to that of a nativeipeaker. It is estimated that half the population of the world is biringuar 1...1. It is as difficult to set up exact criteria for what is to count u5l6iting.rtism as it is to describe exactly all that a native speaker can do with-her or his language. Besides, not alr native speakeri wilr have the same ability in all aspects of their language: spcialist registers, for instance, are typically only accessible to specialists. Simil-arly, ost biringuals r.vill not have access to all registers in both their languages, or to the same registers in both ranguages; for instance, if a natle speaker of one language leaves her or his native country for anotheL and learns a new skill through the language of the new country of residence, s/he wil typically be unable to converse fluently about this skill in her or his native language: typicary, s/he will not irave the required terminologf at her or his disposal. [...],
(Malmkjer and Anderso n,
1997 : 57_5g)
'The ability to speak two ranguages. Bilingualism may be the propertv of an individual or of a whole mmunitv., -
(Trask, 1997:29)
LINGUISTS involved in foreign- or secondranguage teachin_s. The focus of attention has been on the many kinds utrai"g."., of 'birineuarism, and'bilingual situations' which exist. D efi nitions "of biii"d;ii;-;fr;; assumptions about the degree of proficiency people must achieve before they qualify as bilingual (whetheriompu.ubi. to monolinguar NATr\ESPEAKER, o_r something less than this, even to the extent of minimal knowledge of a second language).
for - especiaily by SOCIOLINGUISTS, linguistic srudy, and AppLIED
'The general sense of this term person *,ho can speak t*.o - a LANGUAGES provides a pre-theoretical Frame of refeience
(Crystal, 1997:42)
4. Read and analyze the following utterance spoken by a New york Puerto Rican speaker and taken from Labov (r97i:457). what types of
114
code-mixing can you find? In what ways is it different from the fragment in this unit taken from Valds Fallis (1,976) (p' 102)? Por eso cada, you know it's nothing to be proud of, porque yo no estoy proud of it, as a matter of fact I hate it, pero viene Vierne y Sabado yo estoy, tu me ve haci a mi, sola with a, aqui solita, a v-eces que Frankie me dej, you know a stick or something, y yo equi solita, queces Judy ,ro.ub" yyo estoy haci, viendo television, but I rather, y cuando estoy
con gente yo me ... borracha porque me siento mas, happy, mas free,
yo' fno*,
pero si yo estoy com mucha gente yo no estoy, you know, high, more or less, I couldnt get along with anybody.
5. Interwiew someone who views himself or herself as bilingual. What differences do they perceive in their own proficiency over each language? Does your interviwee report having any problem switching betweenthe two lnguages? In what domains does s/he use each language? How often
does s/he use them? Does s/he feel at ease in both languages in all contexts? Why? (In the case of multilingual interviewees, ask about all the languages
s/he knows.)
Australia, any English-speaking country in the caribbean area, or spain), or any other that interests you, and find out about the language use situation. What is the pattern of use of the languages/dialects/varieties in that area? What type of relationship pertains: diglossia or bilingualism? Please note that the Internet and reference books such as encyclopedias may be very useful for this activitY. 7. Think about the linguistic situation in your speech community. Expand on the positive and negative effects that multilingualism might ha,re on your society. If you already live in a multilingual speech community, describe the situation and the effects of multilingualism.
6. Choose one of these geographic areas (Canada, South Africa,
providing your opinion and supporling your arguments.
8. Analyze each of the following statements. Expand on each item

and, therefore, they should not be used as a medium of instruction or in the media.
a/ Creoles are not real languages

b) In multilingual countries,
it is too expensive and often time in various languages. children consuming to instruct c) Bilingualism is rather infrequent and it normally interferes with the child cognitive develoPment. d) Beingbilingual means that you can speak, read and write in two languages with ease.
UNIT 4
11s
10. REFERENCES
Appr', R.y P. MuvsrEN. 1996. Bitingismo y contacto de renguas. Barcelona: Editorial Ariel.
Barsn, c. 1993. Foundations of Bilingual Ed.uccltion and Bilinguarism. cleved.on, UK: Multilingual Matters.
cnvsrar, D. 1997. A Dictionary of Linguistics and. phonelcs. oxford, u.K.: Brackweir Publishers Ltd.
oa Bor, K.2002.'H9T. Tanguage and Language proficiency,. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. 23 I 3 : 17 5 _ lg 4. FpRcusor, c. 2003. 'Diglossia', in c. Bratt paulston and G. Richard Tucker (eds.), 2003, sociolinguistics: The Essential Readings. uura.",-uSA: Blackwell
Publishing.
with and without diglossia; diglossia with and without bilingualism', in c. Brau paurston and c. ichari rulker (eds.), 200i, Sociolinguistics: The Essential Read.ings. Malden, us: elackwaf r"Uirfri"g. Ha-Mens, J. F. and M. H. A. BraNc. 1999. Bitinguatity and. Bitinguarism.cambridge, USA: Cambridge University press. Laeov, w. 197 l- 'The notion of "system" in creore studies,, in D. H. Hymes (ed.), 1971, Pidginization and Creorization of Languages. c-u.iag", r-u.ial" University Press. L.qNreeRr, w. E. 1955. 'Measurement of the linguistic dominance in bilinguals., Joumql of Abnonnal and Social psychologyl\\: 197_20t0.
MecxenrR,q ,
FIsnnraN, J. 2003. 'Bilingualism
J.
1967
Issues, 23: 58-77
.'The bilingual's linguistic performa

.
nce, .
Jortuat of social
London: Routledge.
-\{esrHnrs, R. 2001. concise Encyclopaeclia of sociolinguistics.Amsterdam: Elseer.
-\Er-rp, H. 2002.'German Felgium: linguistic variation ftom a contact linguist point of view'. Joumar-in of Muttitinguar and. Mutticutt;;;l n)u"lop*"nt. zi : i2, pp. 65-79.
prarr and H. prarr. 1992. Longmen Dictionary of-Language kaching and Apptied Linguistics. Harlow, UK: "Longman. Ror,rerNs, S. 1989. Bilingualism. Oxford, UK: Blackwell publishers. Tn,sx, R. L. 1997. A student's Dictionary of l-a.nguage and Linguistlcs.
Rrcnanos, J. c., J.
\ rros Fa'rs, G. 1976. 'social interaction and code-switching patterns; A case study of Spanish/English', in Keler, G. D. et a/. (eds.). Biringuarism in the
"\-.RD'{AUGH, USA: Blackwell
London: Arnold.
bicentennial and beyond. New york: ilingual lress. R 2002 (4th ed.). An Introduction to socioringuistics.(4th
publishing.
ed.) Malden,
\\-txRsrcH, U. 1953. Languages in Contact. The Hague: Mouton.
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AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLiNGUISTiCS

12. FURTHER READINCS AND QUESTIONS

12.1. Text 7
By way of summary, Iet me identify a number of important

questions that must be addressed whenever parents, educators and administrators discuss the prospects of multilingual education for their communities:
. .
What are the explicit or implicit goals for for-rnal education in the
region?
Is there general satisfaction throughout the region with the level of educational attainment by all participants (both those who terrninate their education relatively early and those who wish to go on to tertiary studies)? Is the region relatively homogeneous or is it heterogeneous linguistically and culturally and how would bilingual education complement the linguistic and cultural characteristics of the community?
o Does the region have an explicit or implicit policy with respect to the role of language in education, and how would bilingual education fit or not fit with this existing policy? Is this policy based upon tradition or the result of language (education) planning? What priorities are accorded to goals such as the development of broadly based permanent functional literacy, the value of education for those who may terminate their schooling at an early age, and the power of language to foster national identity and
cohesiveness?
Are the language(s) selected for instruction written, codified,

standardized, and elaborated?
o Is there a well-developed curriculum for the various levels/stages of formal education (i.e., a framework which specifies fairly explicitly a set of language, content, cognitive, and affective objectives that are then tied to or illustrated by exemplary techniques and activities, and supported by written materials)?
'-\Tr
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Are sufficient core and reference materials availabre for teachers and for students in the language(s) of instruction? If not, are there trained individuals available who can prepare such materials?
Is there a sufficient number of trained and experienced teachers who are fluent speakers of the language(s) of instructio n ancl u,ho are trained to teach via that language(s)? Richard Tucker (2003: 469)
Issues to consider:
a)
Make an analysis of the current situation of bilingual education in your country/community. Try and answer the questions listed above. Please note that you will probably need to do some research before answering these questions.
B
12.2. Text

it emphasizing any
will find some questions that may be helpful. Write around 250-300 words in total.
competence is frequently raised: are code-switching and linguistic
When code-switching is discussed the question of speakers,
competence mutually exclusive? Because it is popularly believed that switching is a result of incompetence rather than of a fine sense of the unique effects that it can achieve, switching is often stigmatized. people say that those who switch'cant speak properly'o.'-ut" a mess, of ihe languages they use. On closer examination it appears that two types of switching are differently regarded. whereas diglossic and situational code-switching are often regarded as necessary manifestations of bilingualism, and ar valued as parl of a speaker's communicative competence, conversational switching is often overtly stigmatized. covertly it may be valued of its rhetorical possibilities and as a group-marker. The rucial linguistic difference between the two types of switching that probably acounts for this difference in attitude is that situationl swirching involves the production and comprehension of long strings in each language, so flu_ency is apparent, wheeas in conversational cde-switching i-r. rl*'it.tt is frequently intrasentential, allowing for an impression tht speakers are insufficiently proficient in either language to be able to finiih ruhat they want to say, in one language. A common assumption is that people switch languages because of in their personal vocabulary. As is shown in exampls cited abo'e, this is trrre in some cases but not in others. The study f lu.g" corpus ^
g,aps
118
appreciated in the speech community. Proficient bilinguals or bidialectals who switch codes consciously or unconsciously achieve particular social, political, or rhetorical effects. They are able to draw on a bigger linguistic pool than they would be if they and their interlocutors were
of data from a member of a bilingual, code-switching community will often show the speaker using the words for a concept from both languages. Witty, quick, elegant shifts betw".r, .od., are often
monodialectal o monolingual.
Mesthrie (2001:453)
fssues to consider:
a) This fragment analyses whether code-switching is a matter of language deficit or a language skill. According to your own experience as a speaker of English and Spanish (or any other
language), do you ever code-switch? Why (not)?
b) can you think of any other

ones described in this text?
types of code-switching apart for the
c/ would
you say that code-switching is mainly related to the topic or to the role of the speaker? Explain.
13. KEY WORDS

Bidialectal
Compound bilingual
Communicative competence
Co-ordinate bilingual
Domain Dormant bilingual Interference
Linguistic competence Minority language Proficiency Sociolinguistic competence Sociolinguistic relativity
Unit 5
1. BILINIGUAL EDUCATION
Bilingual education entails the accomplishment of a number of actions and decisions regarding multidisciplinary perspectives which can be political, economical, social, cultural and pedagogical. These can be analyzed from different angles. In the first place, bilingual education involves both a given language policy and a pedagogic realization in a particular classroom practice. In the second place, bilingual education deals with national or regional matters and by means of language planning it tries to assimilate minorities, integrate minority groups and/or spread intercultural understanding. Politics are doubtless always present in bilingual education as, for instance, in the case of canada. The aim of French immersion in canada is to give students the opportunity to achieve, by secondary school graduation, a level of bilingualism sufficient to function well in a French-speaking community, accept a job using French as the working language, or take university or college education in French. In addition to this, canadian immersion programs help to promote understanding between two main language groupst and solve sociopolitical problems that have existed for decades and that might otherwise eventually bring about more serious social problems.
a result of social, political and economical changes in societies. under certain circumstances some languages may shrink in terms of numbers of speakers, while others may grow. At all events, it seems that for a (minority) language to survive it is necessary to meet certain conditions such as the ones put forward by Baker (2002): As was explained in previous chapters, languages evolve over time as
a/ Languages need to be used at home for interpersonal

t aput, form English
Canada.
communication; that way they become mother tongues of new

and French, a number of heritage languages are spoken in
122
members in the family. The best way to ensure the subsistence of (minority) languages is to raise children in that language which will, nevertheless, need to be reinforced later in schooling. This is the case, for instance, of Welsh in Wales and Basque in the Basque Country.
b) A second benchmark for the maintenance and development of a
(minority) language is its presence through formal schooling. This provides the speakers with wider linguistic tools to interact outside a limited domestic setting and help in the social and psycholinguistic development of the individual. Language planning through bilingual education has succeeded in Canada and Waies and also in the Basque Country and Catalonia, but not to the same extent in Ireland, where the number of Irish-speakers has decreased in favor of English in spite of the continuous efforts made by the Irish authorities. In t922, the establishment of the Irish Free State (later the Irish Republic of lreland) made Irish the first official language in the country and occasioned its implantation in the educational system.
c) A third decisive factor for the continuation of a (minority) language is its presence in economic circles as this guarantees that speakers will maintain or lear-n it for employrnent purposes. This may explain the case of lrish. For decades the Irish economy has remained to some extent dependent upon the economy of other English-speaking
countries (e.g., favoring the use of English in the employment market), and later the incorporation of Ireland into the EU has stressed the significance of other European Union languages such as English, French and German. Parents may also play a role in the spread of a majority language as they may encourage the learning and use of that language by their children, motivated by the fact that it may be facilitative for employment and economic reasons.
d)
A fourth aspect is related to the association of the (minority) language with the culture and the literary tradition of the speech community. When the (minority) language is socially and culturally valued (often representing a cultural or ethnic identity) and is commonly used in the media and in social interactions, it has more
social functions and, consequently, more chances to spread or simply
to be maintained. For instance, one of the main reasons for the decrease in numbers of Australian Aboriginal languages speakers was the lack of social value associated with these languages. Since 18th c. there was an overt attempt on the part of colonizers to
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123
convert Aborigines into Europeans. More recentlr, in the past decades, younger generations did not find man' adr-antages in learning the language of their ancestors as they often sa*,that their
progenitors represented a socially and economically deprived group.
The four fundamentals referred to before show how the course of languages can be guided to some extent. This fact makes bilingual education and language policymakers of paramount importance from a social point ofview for the progress of nation-states and can certainly pave the way for social interethnic understanding or conflict. From the point of vier.r, of linguistic heritage and linguistic diversity, this kind of decisionmaking, or the absence of it, can eventually cause language death, the preeminence of one language over anothe4 or the development of bilingualbicultural societies (which seems to be the more advantageous outcome).
The adoption of a well-founded language planning policy in bilingual
education, howeveL does encounter some difficulties in its implementation.
child. So, a humanistic educationist may argue that '[...] bilingual education needs to be defended for its value and for its contribution to the development of the child, rather than for its supporl of the language.' (Baker, 2002:233). Second, language planning in the form of bilingual education generally has a limited view of the functions and purposes of education as it often focuses on the benefits and needs for the acquisition of a dual-linguistic system, sometimes setting aside other social and psychological considerations. Third, Baker points out that there is often unfounded optimism and too high expectations on bilingual education in revitalizing a language. Bilingual education plays an important role in ianguage maintenance and revival but it is not the only element.
Recently there has been a general tendency to perceive bilingual education as very advantageous for everyone. This is due partly to the general reawakening of cultural identities and the subsequent revival of minority languages, and partly to the globalization process that makes new generations aware of the need to have a command of more than one language. It becomes almost a must in EU countries where the general tendency, encouraged by governmental policies, is to move towards a multilingual and multicultural society. In this respect, Baker and Jones
Baker (ibid.) identifies three limitations of language planning in bilingual education that need to be considered as it should not be forgotten that language planning and policy deal fundamentally with people and not only with languages. First, he identifies a temptation on the part of the language planner to give prominence to the language rather than to the child, i.e., what is good for the language is not necessarily good for the
t-:
ii
124
(1998) display eight particular advantages of bilingual education in modern societies:
1. Bilingual education allows the full development of the languages involved (often two languages and sometimes three). This fact enables children to engage in wider communication and have more alternatives in patterns of communication with different generations, different cultural groups and different geographical areas.
2. Bilingual education promotes among children deeper insights into the cultures each language represents. It also avoids the stereo$,ping of different social and cultural groups, encourages social and cultural relativism and promotes a multiperspective viewpoint. 3. Bilingual education often results in biliteracy, i.e., the possibility of reading and writing in more than one language. Some of the outcomes are that it provides more possibilities for enjoying literature for pleasure, broadens employment opportunities and
promotes a deeper understanding of heritage and traditions.
4. It seems that children
are favored with some cognitive benefits when they can speak two well-developed languages. Children may be more creative in thinking in the sense that they become interpersonally aware, for example as regards the need to code-switch.
5. Bilingual education may raise the children's self-esteem especiallr when the language of home is not the majority language in the society but is studied at school. Since it is one of the languages of schooling, the child can perceive that the language is socially accepted, which is so important in curriculum success. However, if the language of home does not forrn part of the school curriculum the child may experience feelings of rejection.
6. Canadian immersion studies suggest that curiculum achievement is connected to bilingual education. Nevertheless, it is difficult to determine if this is caused by an additional support at home, the
extra involvement of teachers and educational institutions, or the connection between language and cognitive development, among other factors.
7. The establishing of a secure identity within a parlicular community, especially in the case of minority languages.
B. Bilingual education also brings economic advantages as it can secure employment both in public services and private companies. This may be true at a local, regional, or national level (e.g.,
UNIT
t25
catalonia, canada, etc.) but also in international corporations that may need multilingual employees.
u'ith an elitist education; (b) the language register used in formal education does not necessarily correspond with the language register
register that students in a bilingual program can find outside the classroom, and this may result in some sorl of exclusion by mother tongue speakers; (c) productive skills are sometimes not fully eveloped if Ihe language of education is not present beyond the shool, ..rd thi, i,
guarantee effective schooling, in spite of the fact that it is often associated r'r'ith academic success and, very often, it is the type of education preferred by upper-middle classes in western societies andii is sometimes associated
to be taken into account that recent research has identified some drawbacks such as the following: (a) bilingual education does not
Despite the aforesaid strong points of bilingual education
it also needs
needed outside the classroom, i.e., the type of academic ianguage used as the means for teaching often does not correspond with the colloquial
education programs. Students, under ideal circumstances, seem to devetop a full command of the language as far as receptive skills are concerned (listening and reading). Productive skills (speaking and writing), howeve4 seem to develop to a lesser extent, which is not unusual in language learning in other contexts.
(Please go to the exercises section and do exercises
precisely one of the most striking outcomes of canadian bilingual
and 2.)
2. LANGUAGE POLICY
Language is rarely a causal factor and language decisions are essentially based on political and economic reasons. Language use and evolution often mirrors what is thought about it and whatctually happens in society, for example, migration which is one of the main reasonsfor the increase of people learning languages and for the revival and current need for language policy and planning.
Language planning is actually part of a language policy that a given goverrlment adopts as regards one or more of the languages spoken in the country. In spain, for instance, catalan was forbidden during Franco's dictatorship between 1937-1976. During that period the use of cataian was not allowed in schools and no books or newspapers could be published in that language because it was considered of imprtance for the cataian movement, which was believed to threaten the union of Spain. In this wav
t26
the gover-nment hoped to eliminate the language because new generations *o.rld not be instructed in Catalan. Later, with the advent of democracy, Catalan was officiaily reintroduced and was adopted as one of the official languages in catalonia. This is an example of how a repressive language policy can be ineffective.
3. LANGUAGE PLANNING
Language planning consists of a deliberate and institutionally organized attempltoittng" the development of a language vanety, or a language
itself,tr to alteiits functions in society. Sometimes, language planning
results from the need of a multilingual country to implement a language policy regulating the scope and use of the languages and/or language ,rarieii"s *ithi.r its territory. Wardhaugh (2002) posits that language planning constitutes a deliberate attempt to interfere with the natural "rr"lop"nt of a language or one of its varieties, i.e., it involves human inter-vJntion in the ntnt process of languages or varieties to change, spread or erode. Language planning began several centuries ago and various purposes -ay e Utri" this intentional inter{erence in the natural pro.esrôf iungrrug evolution and change. It mustbe said that these been honorable; while the aim may be to attempts hurr" noi always "is maintain a language that about to disappear because of a continual loss of native sp"ak"rs, on some occasions the goal is to repress and diminish sign a cultural r ethnic minority that found in their common language a of identity and a source of seif-assertion' A few decades ago, decisions concerning language pianning were characteristic of deloping countries which often needed to make decisions on whether to uie the forrner colonial language or other national languages as a unifying code. More recently,language planning has become an issue in western societies as there has been a social demand to preserwe minority languages (e.g., Irish, Welsh, Catalan, etc.) or a political demand to expand th use of international languages to promote intercultural and supranational communication (e.g., English, French and German in the EU). The variety of factors affecting language planning (economic, educational, historical, judicial, political, religious and social) give an idea of its complexity. Languages reflect human relationships between individuals and also betweei ,oii.l groups and they change in the course of time as a result of the changes in social relationships. This means that, in a wa\', languages arie alive and, therefore, are born (e.g., pidgins and creoles),
]l
UNIT
127
develop over time (e.g., Anglo-Saxon evolved into present-day.English), merge and die (e,g., Manx on the Isre of Mann). thrs ralses the issue to r'vhat extent man can alter the course or u i.rgr*g" uy deliberate manipularion. It is nor crear how far ranguag", ;;;i; controled bv social or political maneuvering as there are instanc", i.;;;;;;;;; for example, were rost becauie certain states or poliJes "f wanted it so (e.g', many Amerindian ranguages in North and bouth America), and vet some other instances where poriticar repression *u, ,r.r.cessfur Franco's dictatorship).
in restricting language mainteru.r." (".g., catalan in spain during
. A fully developed language policy or at reast certain ideological trends almost invariably lie. behind .rguuge pranning. r"a"", cluarmbias (19g3) recognized four main tvqes o{ ideology that prompt the rationare {picaily behind decision s regarding rangua! pru.,rirg, ti";;;;;;" as similation, linguistic pluralism, u nd, inte,atinaLtsm.
"*o"uroriaton
Linguistic assimilatio,rz considers that anyone forrning part of a society, regardless of their origin, should learn the dominurrt"l.rg.ruge of that society. This seems , prima facie, a reasonable decision r* tr* iritegration of minority groups, but it raises the probrem ot.o.r."*iion and respect for minority group identities and cultural heritage, *fri.fr ,." often deemed to disappear under this motivation for la.rguig" pturrrrrrrg, for example the case of Russification in the former soviet union where Soviet mlers tried to spread the Russian language and cultur" ,rrr""girout the whore soviet union. A different action.o.rld be simply i.e., the lack of official actions undertaken to preserve u iu.rg,rug", "ffi.i.i1r"glect, which can also lead to language assimilation.
In Australia, there were about 200languages at the time of the European conquest and onry around 20 weie ,u .pot younger by generations in the 1990s. A major factor in Aboriginuilu.rgrug. "n death in Australia was the linguistic assimilation policy und"erraken up to the 1970s with their'English only'policy in schools. rn 1972 the a,u"rrt of a Labor government meant the recognition of the right for all Aboriginal children to become literate in.their native language before becoming literate in English. This resulted in rhe introductio-n of-bilingual ..h;;I for Aboriginal children in various parrs of the country. ro{1v,Irr"y u." -inry stilr open in the Northern Territories, yh-"f" Aboriginar ng.rug., aremostly spoken. In these bilingual schools children receive ttreri irJroduction to literacy skills in their native language and all their academic work is in English. These programs have helpedlo raise the status of both Aboriginal teachers and Aboriginal languages but unfortunatery they hu;";;;., undermined
128
in recent years (Shopen, 1999). The situation is critical
as Aboriginal languages in Australia are suffering an important decrease in number of speakers in spite of the fact that the deliberate linguistic assimilation policy seems to have ceased. Shopen (ibid.) points out that there is no permanent institutional support that would help develop adequate skills, resources and guidance for these programs.
Linguistic pluralism, however, implies the acceptance of various

languages or varieties, and it can be centered on individual or geographical criteria, i.e., an individual may be stimulated to maintain his/her language
in the case of a multilingual environment, where his/her language represents a minority that does not identify with a specific geographicai area (such as a group of immigrants in a big city); or, more probably, in the case of a multilingual state that adopts various official languages as they are spoken in different geographical areas (e.g., French and Englishspeaking Canada; French and English-speaking Belgium; and, English and Afrikaans-speaking South Africa).
Vernacularization entails the reconstruction or renewal of a language that is not used by a wide group of speakers but after some changes (the alphabet, pronunciation, relexic alization, etc.) becomes widespread and adopted as an official language (e.g., Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea) (see Tok Pisin in chapter 3).
Internationalism s reached when the motivation in language planning is to adopt a non-vernacular language for wider interethnic communication as a political solution to an internal problem often arising foom equally
powerful minorities, one of them aiming at imposing their language as the official language, or the language of education and trade, for all (e.g., English in India and Singapore).
3.1. Some factors affecting language planning

The following factors significantly determine the development and the incidence of language planning in a speech community.
a) Socio-demographic factors profoundly affect language planning

as the number of languages that are spoken and the number speakers may favor the use of one language or the other.
of
b/ Linguistic factors may also play a role as the degree of

development of one language as well as the existence of a literary tradition may be taken into account when deciding which language should be promoted or preserved.
L\IT5
r29
one language or the other and their acceptance in a speech communih'.
c/ Socio-psychological factors affect people's attitude tou.ards
d) Political factors can influence the adoption of a specific alphabet, for example, the case of the Clrrllic alphabet introduced in middlecentral Asia by the Russians, and the adoption of the Latin alphabet in Turkey.
e) Religious factors are also important. For instance Sudan, as a fonner colony, had English as official language (spoken by a minority) but
this was changed to Arabic, a language spoken by half the population, because of the stronger position of Islam in the country. The Bible has also been translated into many different languagest.
3.2. Actions in language planning

There follow four starting points that language planners have traditionally adopted in their task of language planning and which are attempts in themselves to describe the processes or steps rather than the goals (please note that the following actions are not mutually exclusive
but may be complementary):
a) Selection of a norm. Multilingual countries very often need to

make imporlant decisions regarding the language or languages that will become official, or simply the language for education or any institutional purpose. Sometimes, this turns into a critical decision as rivalry among different language groups may cause conflicts as some of them may think that they are being disadvantaged. Because of this, it is sometimes necessary to introduce a language as a ngua franca, which is the case of English in India and Ghana. On other occasions, a particular variety is chosen or a new variety is created. All these decisions are obviously based on political grounds.
b) Codification. Given the circumstance described immediatelv abor.e, if an indigenous language is chosen as the standard, it ma1- be necessary to make some changes and adapt it to meet the requirements of a language for wider communication u'ithin a
multilingual country. Changes may be needed, for instance, to adapt the language and update its vocabulary to adopt a ne\\'alphabet or, simply, to standardize a language that prer-iouslv u'as found only in the spoken form.
2 In the web page for this subject, some instances of the Bible being translated into other languages can be seen, for instance, the Bible in Sn'ahili and Hartian Creole Engllsh.
130
c) Modernization. Technological and scientific developments probably
speedy technological development that clearly favors the adoption of loan words.
require modernization of specific vocabulary and very often decision needs to be made on whether to adopt roan words or to coin new terms based on indigenous roots. Language policies sometimes go beyond actual language evolution because of the
d) rmplementation. once a decision has been made, the chosen language needs to be officiatly implemented and used in all sorts of official forums: education, parliament, media, etc. This will undoubtedly raise its social consideration and it will become a prestige language or varietr, probably used in literary and academic circies. Eventually, and as a result of continuous and prestigious use, it will spread as the norm, and its presence in dictionaries, grammars and literary works will consolidate its status as the norrn.
3.3. Aims of language planning

In previous sections it was said that there is a close connection between language policy and language planning and, as a matter of fact, the former governs the latter. A given language policy with far-reaching or very precise aims affecting a speech community generally makes .t." f more definite language planning actions to achieve these goals.
Nahir (2003) sets forth eleven language planning functions or goals which can in fact be combined to handle the language-related problems and_needs of speech communities. This author points out tht earlier models,like the one immediately above, attempt to analyzethe steps taken by language policies or the agencies/academiei in the pio."r. of planning language. His classification, howeve4 describes the functions or gtah the! have sought until now in response to their ranguage-related needs (communicative, political, social, economic, religius, etc.). Needs and aspirations are likely to change in the course of time. a) Language purification can be divided into two types: external purifi cation and internal purifi catio n. Extental purification consists of the development of prescriptions of usage inorder to protect the language fi:om unwanted foreign influenc by means, foi example, of a Language Academy. some of the actions laken are the creation of prescriptive grammars and dictionaries which contain the normalized use of the language and following the criteria set out by the Academy. Particularly notorious in this iespect is the control
UNIT
t31
over foreign lexical borrowings, especially u'hen there are indigenous words that represent the same concept, and in such cases a purist point of view is adopted. More difficult is the case of
recent technological advances that require, to a large extent, the incorporation of foreign words. Internal purification refers to the acceptance of the code as it exists at a certain point in historl', protecting it from undesirable developments which are considered as non-normative (incorrect) or simply as deviations from the standard. The generation of these normative policies and their enforcement are tasks actively undertaken by language academies.
b) Language revival consists of an attempt to revitalize a language with a small number of speakers (e.g., Irish and Welsh), or even a completely dead language (e.g., Hebrew and Cornish), and turn it into a means of communication for a speech community. Some instances of this phenomenon have been seen since the middle of
the nineteenth century together with general support for national identity which entails the adoption and standardization of a national language.
c) Language reform involves the incorporation of specific changes in the language (e.g., spelling, grammar, pronunciation, etc.)
attempting to facilitate its use. The aim of this 'reform' can be to facilitate the use of the language by its users, the intemationalization of the language, or many other factors, but always depending on political, ideological, religious or economical factors. Instances of language reforms can be found in many languages since the
beginning of the nineteenth century (e.g., Icelandic, Gerrnan, Greek, Spanish, etc.) but the most representative example is TLrrkish. Kemal Atatrk undertook the modernization of Turker- and declared it a lay country; he urged a huge reform in the Turkish lericon and orthography, adopting the Roman script instead of the .{rab script.
d) Language standardization implies
an attempt to adopt a language, or variety of language, as the major language of a region or nation for wider communication with official, educational, commercial or other functions. Language standardization is seen ln the unification of small political units, the division of others and the recent independence of former colonial ter-ritories.
Language spread involves an attempt to increase the number of speakers of aparticu\ar\anguage, norma\y at the expense of another language or languages. This motivation for language shift olten responds to political considerations in multilinguai countries. Some
132
examples can be found in former colonial territories that became independent states during the nineteenth century. Language spread is necessarily connected to language standardization by definition as the expansion of a language promoted by language planning agencies endeavors to institutionalize one language for some political or economic reason (e.g., the USSR and Quebec).
f) Lexical modernization
consists of the adaptation of existing vocabulary or the creation of new one, to assist standard languages that may have borrowed foreign vocabulary too fast to accommodate it to their orthography, pronunciation, etc. Nahir (ibid.) distinguishes two trends in terminological work: a) as part of either the process of codification or implementation of languages seeking revival (e.g., Hebrew) or reform (e.g., Ttrrkish) that involves developing previously unwritten languages and aims at bridging the gap between them and modern knowledge and technology; and, b) as part of a process of modernization of standard languages that have borrowed concepts and terms having a lexicon unprepared for those changes, i.e., the natural development of the language has not supplied the relevant terminology and it is necessary to provide the terms that have come up as a result of social and technological
advance.
Lexical modernization is applied in many countries and constitutes in itself an effect of globalization with the resulting increase in concept borrowing from leading international languages such as English. International globalized languages English- are -especially exercising a considerable influence over the rest of languages in the world due to the growth of international relations and mobility. Language planning agencies collect new ideas and concepts imported into their community and adapt or create new vocabulary to designate them. Lexical modernization has been practised in many countries around the world such as: Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Israel, Hungary France, Vietnam, India, etc.
g/ Terminology unification takes place when it is necessary to
establish unified terminologies, mainly in the technological and scientific domains, in order to diminish ambiguity. Again this is largely an effect of globalization and cross cultural communication in the present world.
/z) stylistic simplification is found when a language use needs to be disentangled in order to reduce communication ambiguity between two groups, for instance, professionals and bureaucrats on the one
UNIT
133
hand and ordinary people on the other. Such a situation mav ha'e been caused by the use of an archaic or literary style. Instances of such stylistically complex language, both in terrns of lexical intricacv and grammatical elaboration, can be found in legal and medical language. i) Interlingual communication implies the adoption of a LWC with the intention of facilitating communication between members of different speech communities. This lingua franca can take the form of an auxiliary or artificial language such as Esperanto. More commonly, and as a result of the spread of Anglo-Saxon culture and the learning of English as an L2, English is frequently used these days as a lingua franca in different parts of the world.
Another way in which interlingual communication can be attained is by improving mutual intelligibility between speakers of cognate languages. This can be accomplished by partially standardizing the various linguistic codes in order to minimize differences. Nordic language agencies, for instance, are committed to cooperate and avoid unnecessary changes (e.g., Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Swedish, etc.) i) Language maintenance consists in the preservation of a group's native language when political, social, economic, educational or any other pressures threaten its further existence by causing a decline in status or in the number of speakers. Language maintenance can be exercised at two levels; first with the aim of preserving a widely spoken language from unwanted foreign
influence; and, second, as a protection of a minorif-v ethnic language whose acquisition and use needs to be encouraged br means of social, educational or political arrangements. In the case of Nerv ZeaIand, for instance, speakers of Abori_einal languages often perceive their language as har..ing a lou-er status than En_slish, rvhich discourages them from taking their pro_eenitors as models and maintaining the use of the traditional lan_sua_ees. En_elish is, therefore, associated with social success and economic porver. k)
auxiliary aspects of the language (signs for the deaf, place names, transcription, etc.) to lessen ambiguiry* or to satisf\ chan_eing social, political or other recent needs. Changing place names can serve the functions of terminology unification or sn-listic simplification, but most often they just take place u'hen a given political party is in power.
r-ules of
Auxiliary-code standardization entaiis the modification of
t34
It should be taken into account that the language planning goals described above are not mutually exclusive and two or more phenomena can co-occur. On some occasions the goals and the procedures can even be contradictory as there may be some tension between, for example, language purification and lexical modernization.
3.4. Individual language planning

On some occasions language planning does not need to be an initiative from governments or prominent institutions but they can also be the venture of individuals. That is the case, for instance, of the Norwegian language. Today there are two official forms of Nor-wegian Bokml (book
language) and Nynorsft (new Norwegian). Bokml is also called Riksml (national language) and Dano-Norwegian. It was influenced by Danish, which was the dominant language while Norway was under Danish rule (1397-1814). Nynorsk is also known as Landsmc?/ (country language) and is based on rural dialects uninfluenced by Danish.
By the middle of the 19th century some attempts were made to create Knud Knudsen undertook a revision of written Danish with the aim of incorporating colloquial oral forrns coming from Nor-wegian dialects. On the other hand, another group of specialists, led by the Norwegian philologist and lexicographer Ivar Aasen, undertook the task of forging a Norwegian language which was conceived from a comprehensive study of the dialects spoken all over the country and which were at times very dissimilar due to geographic isolation. The outcome of this huge project was a language called ktndsntnl ('the language of the country') which is currently known as Nynorsk. For some time Nynorsk was perceived by Nor-wegians as rustic and'r,'r.rlgar. This situation has changed over the years. Nynorsk received officia. recognition in 1885 through a parliamentary resolution. In 1930 a la,,l was passed in the Parliament which stated that official documents had r,use both varieties and, as a matter of fact, if a citizen sends any sorr c: written request to the government s/he has the right to obtain an ans\\'e: in the language that was used in his/her request.
a purely Nor-wegian language. On the one hand,
Nowadays, from the eighth level of primary school onwards, bo:1, varieties are compulsory, one as the main language and another ,. secondary language, according to the student's choice. Both Bokmal a:: Nynorsk are employed by the government, the schoois, and the ma.i
UNIT
135
media, although Bokml is still the most widely used. It should also be pointed out that it remains the language more commonly used in urban areas whereas Nynorsk is employed mainly in western rural areas and cities in the west like Bergen. In opposition to other minority languages, Nynorsk and Bokm"/ are mutually intelligible, so these varieties do not need to be used exclusively within a minority group.
4. MINORITY
LANGUAGES
Policy makers in multilingual nations need to make certain imporlant decisions regarding the status of the languages in contact in a given territory: first, arises the choice of official or national language, which can be problematic in the case of developing nations composed of different ethnic groups; second, decisions need to be made regarding instruction in schools, which will definitely determine not only the general attitude towards a language but also the point of view of coming generations; and, third, on some occasions there is also a need to decide on the standardization procedures such as the choice of an alphabet or a given variety, especially in the case of languages having scripts different to the ones of currently internation ahzed languages. The implementation of multilingual policies in multilingual states to regulate the interaction among different language groups in a modern nation or state is a result of the sociolinguistic demands of modern societies. It can have three possible outcomes that determine the degree of success or failure of a specific language policy:
a) Language maintenance, i.e., as a result of a course of action, the survival of a specific language, endangered or not, may be
determined by political decisions.
b) Bilingualism
seems to be one of the most desirable outcomes in a prolonged contact of language groups as it guarantees the survival of the languages and seems to be the best way for multicultural and/or multiethnic societies to reach a common ground on linguistic and sociopolitical fields.
c) Language shift
seems to be another possible development and it would not entail one of the more desirable outcomes as it can give way to language loss. However, it is necessary to understand that language development does not depend solely on language policy decision making but also on sociocultural forces. More often than
136
not, the spread of a language in terms of numbers of speakers takes place at the expense of another or other languages. pulson (1994: 9) supporrs this point by stating that ethnic gio,rpr within a modern nation-state usually shift to the language spoken by the pre-eminent group, assuming that the adequate incentive has been prtrrid"d. thi, point certainly has huge implications for the implementation of language policies as it can have wide ranging repeicussions for the future of a language or the integration oi u" i--igrant group.
5. LANGUAGE SHIFT IN MINORITY
LANGUAGES
Attitudinal factors also play a role in language maintenance or language shift. Voluntary individual or small group migiation typically.".rt iriu quick language shift, whereas large group migration ft"r o..urions the maintenance of social and linguistic hallmrks. This is the case, for instance of Swedish in Finland or French in canada, where a minority ethnic group in demographic decay uses its language as a sign of cultural and social identity. This is more often so in minrit! groups *lth u strong sense,of identity or with close cultural traditio.r, u.r ,ralles because th use of a different language will slow down occasionally impede-and their assimilation by the dominant ethnic group. In both reported "ru-pi". above, recent censuses show how the minority lungrug"s tend to decrease in number of speakers over the years. Besides, as pulJon G9g4) suggests, maintained group bilingualism is rather unusual because if there i, -.c"ss to the dominant language, and socioeconomic incentives, speakers will most likely eventually shift to the dominant language, although this process may take generations._An example of this kid o lu.rg,ruge shift can be clearly seen in Australia with aboriginal languug"r. boiiginal speech communities are shrinking and new generations tend to ahere io the dominant language and culture as it piesents lots of social, educational and economic advantages .o-pur"d to the traditional way of life. Nevertheless, language maintenance is not always necessary for the continuation of cultural and ethnic identity. Notice the following example of language shift within the united States a'd how converging circumstan.", .un influence the rate of language shift:
For example, in pittsburgh the Greeks shift over a four generation span compared with the three generation shift of the Italins. Some factors which corrtribute to the sr,cwer Greek shift are (u) k"".g..rra access to a standardized, written language with culturar prestige and
UNIT
t.)/
tradition, which is taught by the Greek chuches pittsbureh, in and (b) arranged marriage parrnrs directly ft;;-d;;;e (*-ho are rhen monolingual in Greek). The Iralians'i" .;;;.;.;]p.uVrpok" a non_ srandard, non-wrirren diarect i,r.' shar ed rheir. Roman carhoric churches with " ""-pr".iir", ^"i,er the p."griri.-.pJi,i, i.i.n, tlpic a'r. *.i th Irish priests and nuns, so thev found " r."".g"'riiirrr"rrurr.e suppofi in the churches. Nor was thr" any pr.rr.ri. fr endogamy as lon,e as the marriage was within the Roman Catholic Church.
(paulston, 1 994:
1
5_1
6)
Language shift is not arways the outcome of language contact, one of them a minority language. Languages can arso ue mirrned due to serf_ imposed or externally imposeJbalriers. The forme..o.ri be caused by ideological or religioui constraints that try to preserwe some sort of identity, and the latter could originate, for instance, because of some kind of geographical isolation. Another possibility t . aigi*ric"srtuation where two or more languages are used for differlnt fu".;;;;iirr.po."r. Language planning does no_t only refer to the attempts made to solve language-related problems with minority languages in modern nations3 but language planning also, and most often these days, refers to a systematic setting or goars regarding_ sociar ,"d-r;;g-stic aspects in modern socieries, the pursuinf orgoa-rs and means,r.,-^. *i, ;-;-;;;; the future of nationai and fol"ig-i languages in a given countrr. (for instance, the status and teachi"g-"r Spanis, as a na"tirre lan_euage, and English, French or German aJ a foreign lan_quag" rn traditionallr monolingual region such as Andarusia or castile-Lu u.,.hu l;t;;,;.,'
(Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 6.
)
6' soME P{RTICULAR socIoLI\cL ISTIC srrt \TIo\s

6.1. India
gained independence in 1947 and the . India country feder.al go\.errrmenr in -Tlir established a languge policy. English, ri.ould be substi.-Lteci b' Hindi as the official ranguage atra, u. the iountry ,,; i.i-d t;=;;"". most of them having their own language. Each rgi"""ii"rr=.,un. r'ourd
clifferent and widely separated siuations s..,h a= rhc sla.lus ol a minorit erhnic group u ithin a tu.g*r,rn" in numbrr, or simnlr to intesrate
-- t Tlt*"
problems can arise from
""*.o'*".. common due to immigration).
i".
mnoringuar r".-l"tl.
i,niri:ji:::""J,:'il::.;:?,*'r:;t;;,:j
138
also gain the status of official language in each state. It was so acknowledged in the nation's constitution. In 1950 the Constitution recognized fifteen major languages: four literary languages belonging to the Dravidian group and eleven literary languages of the Indo-Aryan groupo. A number of actions were undertaken in this respect (translations, new dictionaries, encyclopaedias, new typewriters, etc.) with the aim of spreading the use of Hindi and of detaching it from the former colonial language. However, this language planning did not succeed and two decades lateq English was reintroduced and adopted as the second official languages. In 1956, Linguistic States were formed and most of them chose the majority language as the official language in the state, except for the northeastern hill states where there seems not to be a dominant language (Krishnamurti, 1999).
Nowadays, multilingualism is encouraged in India and many children learn English and Hindi in the Devanagari script in school, the official language of the country apart from their mother tongue, spoken at home, and the official language of their state. Today, there are still serious problems regarding the spread of Hindi throughout the country and that is caused by the literary nature of Hindi and its differences from other this resulting in multilingualism. local and regional varieties
At the moment, the central government in India (New Delhi) deals with all types of issues related to international policy and the common interests of the Indian people. The State government, howeve4 looks after local and regional concerns and in many instances, especially in the south, the language used is neither Hindi nor English, as in the central government,but a local language. For years there has been an attempt to introduce a'Three Language Formula'in schools aiming at providing every high-school student with a command of two modern Indian languages (one of them being Hindi) and English, but this endeavor has proved unsuccessful. English has spread and is the language preferred in the universities and the language of publication in learned journals, but it is also the language of higher courts, parliamentary debate, industry, economic transactions and inter-national trade.
The case of India is a good example of how government institutions sometimes need to engage in the task of making far-reaching decisions. These, however, are obviously easier to apply in smaller countries with less inhabitants and a smaller number of languages involved. rut.., in l992,three more languages were added to this list. s English was given the status of an 'Associate Officiai'language.
-all
-t
UNIT
139
6.2. New Zealand

Almost all Maoris in New zealandspeak English and a large proportion the young people are bilingual. Howevef many youngsters 9f in cities- do not sp_eaI Maori anymore. Maori is Lndaigered -especiallv for several reasons. First, English is the language of education; slcond, Maori is spoken more commonly in rural areai and people p."f", to live in cities where English is spoken.
the aim of reintroducing Maori in primary schools as well as in universities. These measures met with little success due to the low status given to their language in society and the lack of recognition of Maori as a national official language. In the late 1990s the bilingud naori and Englishspeaking population consisted mainly of an ge group over 60 whose descendants did not speak Maori as a mothe. rolrrgi". The situation was such that the generation bearing children did not, bv large, speak Maori as a mother tongue, and theie was no way rd they could teach that language to their children. The Maori language seemed destined to disappear in New zealand. However, the situation started to change thanks to an innovative education movement which began at the pre-school level in the early 1980s with an imaginative idea which involved grandparents as a fundamental component in the education of their grandchildren. In 1999, over 700 Koianga (preschool language nests) instructed more than 12.000 children in the language of their ancestors (Mccaffery 1999) passing on the language, the ciltu-re and the traditions of the Maoris directly from their g.u.rdpur".rts, using rtuo.i as the only language of teaching and conveation. Nou,adays, the lu.rg.rug" u.r customs of the New Zearand Aborigines seem to hve a future. In spite of these effor1s to maintain the Maori culture and language,
rn 1999 the population of fluent Maori speakers was about 35.000, around 8 per cent of the totar Maori population in New zearand (Mccaffery 1999). From the late 1960s measures were taken with
the lack of government support or biling.rul p.og.u, i., th" public edrrcational system meant that children coming fro rcohonga were ,,ot able to maintain their Maori language. After con"ti"""". all that the Maori community obtained was the incrusion of af."rsures Maori-speaking community language assistant in schools which was insufficient tJ guarantee continued Maori language developmen t. Later, a self-deterrnined group of parents took the initiative and establishei the KKM (Kura Kaupapa Maori), an immersion movement that settled some independent immersion schools in order to let their children develop ih"i,l.rg.rug"
t40
skills after the Kohanga. This movement has claimed both governmental recognition and funding but has only gained partial support. KKM only employs and trains fluent speakers of Maori and only accepts children coming from the Kohanga as they require full Maori immersion for the first 4-6 years and demand active parental involvement to speak Maori at home. Under these circumstances, it is a very low percentage of Maorispeaking children that can have access to this type of education without further governmental support (McCaffery, 1999). The future of this language, like many others around the world, depends to a large extent on government support and funding.
6.3. The Canadian experience
In 1982, Canada became a constitutionally bilingual country and bilingualism continues to be a sociopolitical issue in this country today. By means of this recent Constitution, the English rights in Quebec were protected as much as the French rights outside Quebec. However, the French rights were revoked in the new province of Manitoba and the French-speaking population saw themselves circumscribed to the province of Quebec, which is ruled by the English-speaking Montreal. This parlicular situation gave way to frequent social and political tensions in that part of Canada and, not surprisingly, language is perceived as a sign of identity and cultural heritage that unifies members of the French origin community which represents approximately a 30 per cent of the total Canadian population, most of them (around 80 per cent) living in Quebec. Bilingualism in the two official languages is mainly found in the population of French origin in the East of the country such as Montreal, Sherbrooke
and Ottawa. 1982, the Canadian central government undertook the task of protecting the French rights throughout the country, whereas the government in the province of Quebec took measures against the use of English within the province claiming that bilingualism in Ouebec led to unilingualism in English6. Nowadays, the actions undertaken to restrain the use of English in Ouebec have been banned at the same time that some legislation in Manitoba that denied francophone rights has been modified, but the French-English division and debate is still present. Aparl from this historical dispute between the two official languages, it should be taken into account that Canada has
By means of the Constitution Act
in
It should be taken into account that education in Canada is a provincial responsibility.
UNIT
1-+1
some aboriginal minorities with their own indigenous languages and that canada is a country of immigrants ancr thut, is a considerabre number o people h"yi;s "r!".rJrvr"'oig ciries, there ;;;;tii, rirtt"", German, Pofiuguese, etc., as.their mothr tongue. cand continues to be a hotspot as far as the sociolingrristic and sociopoliticul sit..utio' iJ.orr.".ned and the situarion worsens because the French-Engrish .;;;;;r.y is becoming teritorially based, in spite of continued governmental effor1s. Nevertheless, actions-are being .,nJ".tuL"n ,. rr","r"e F*"ug:,olanning the probrem. There follow some examples of uitl"g".l pL;;;-, that aim at developing a bilingual and biculturaT "".rti" society in Canada. French immersion_began 30 years ago, in 1965, with an experiment carried out at St. Lambert schooi, Montreal, where a group of Englishspeaking parents succeeded in getting the school aiJt.i.t to initiate a bilingual immersion program with their children in kindergarlen (French as a.second language). At rhar time it became English-speaking communiqz needed to attain ";;"r;;;;;";;;;;;;';" a high proficiency in French to overcome their minority language situation ln-euebec and guarantee their social and economic maint"n.r." within tt-r" p.orri.r.e. This initial program was rather extreme as monolingual Engrisi-rp""r.i"g kids were instructed in French from the very first ay in d;;;;;n and rarer in grade two, they would starl to devllop fir.ifu"e"ug"li;;" skills. Larer on, by grade 6, harf of the curriculum wourd be taught i" in French' A bit late4-some changes were introduJed E"irrir'""0'illli as these programs spread widely across the country nd mid-im-".rro' u.ralt"-i--"..io' programs were also developed. The aim of these pr"gru;, is fbr children to reach a level of hingualism, and eventualiy oT biculturalism', brsecondary schoor graduarion thar ailows rt,"- io iln.i." *"rir'' speaking communitv or to access the job -utk;;;;"irl;il; education in French-
;;;;";_
grade 1 or 2) u'd ."p.".",rt.;;;;"ri';:Jl; sort of immersion; (b) delayed or intelmediate immersion,'tr;;:,:a'i;
:j:'5:j3^9',*'i,l*n,
---
* ;i #. ,' J:j rvithin the classroom and in which stuclents ", " u.", ,fr"."io=. ; f proficrencr literacy skini H.,,:",,"1, ;ji ::,:i,":::1?l::'.:y* lnd equal and three types of ";; immersio.r .un be found t"ru]."" #il; ;:: iq r-n-.o.-oJ /^\ ^^-l-.:-^-,, ".n".,,-' ifr"_^,11,;.:;. immersion, which is offered :tr::XTg;ji) :*lv
1
a general rerrr T:::l_rt":ersionis in which-Fren.', ;. l3::1t:::*ction
;;;;. ;::: ll"-::::loi'*";;;,h;";#:i;il*-"ti'-Hi:::i""T:;':"'.i:i ;;;;;;::;.;
used to refer ro rhis npe oi conrenr_
' A high proficiency in.the L2 and-a deep kno-r.i,ledge of the L2 culrure in-luences positively the L2 learner! attitude torvards tt," iZ .,rlt.,.".
r42
later of schooling beginning in grade 4, and (c) late immersion is offered beginning in grades 6,7 or later. Immersion can also be total -involving the instruction of all subjects in the second language- or partial requiring instruction in the second language for half the school day'
These French immersion programs have not found an equivalent counterpart in English immersion in Canada as the French-speaking communities do not offer an exact parallel to their French mother tongue speakers in spite of the popularity and success of these programst. Swain and Johnson (1,997: )e set forth some core features in prototypical immersion programs. They indicate that the following characteristics cannot be understood on an all-or-nothing basis but as part of a continuum. They add that for a bilingual program to be labeled as 'immersion', it should accommodate each of these characteristics as much as possible: a) The L2 is used as a medium of instruction, in spite of being taught formally and only as a subject. The underlying methodological rationale is that of the communicative approach that proposes the increase of comprehensible input.
b) The immersion curriculum is analogous to the one used with
students not included in an immersion program. In this way, it is guaranteed that immersion students get the same content and the only variable is the use of tJne L2 as a medium of instmction.
c)
The L1 receives obvious support as an essential component of the curriculum, sometimes as a subject and sometimes as the medium of instr"uction. d) 'Additive bilingualism' constitutes the chief aim of the program' This principle entails that at the end of the program students' L1 proficiency should be comparable to those who have studied through their L1, i.e.,L2 proficiency should not be attained at the expense of the Ll. e) L2 exposure is by and large restricted to the classroom context, at least in some immersion programs such as those in Canada, where
,hor.ld be pointed out that extensive research has been carried out with these programs and in spite of a number of shorlcomings that research has pointed out, French immersion in Canada continues to be one of the most successful examples of bilingual education. -\t e This article is part of a book that is an essential reference for those interested in bilingual immersion programs. This book provides a thorough introduction to the topic and supplies some interesting examples of immersion programs in different countries.
UNIT
.5
143
parents or friends do not use the language of instmction. obously, this constitutes a disadvantage for the students.
All students join the program with similar levels of L2 proficiency. Some degree of homogeneity in this respect facilitates the adoption of a curriculum and pedagogy that matches most students'needs.
s) Teachers are bilingual in the students'Ll and theL2 medium of
instruction.
h) The classroom culture of a prototypical immersion program is that of the local L1 community instead of that of the culture of the L1, i.e., where that language is used as an L1.
7. EUROPEAN UNION LANGUAGE PLANNING

AND POI,ICY
There is a need to conver-t the rich heritage of diverse languages and cultures in Europe from a barrier to communication into a source of mutual understanding. A better knowledge of European moder-n languages will facilitate communication and interaction among Europeans and will promote mobility and mutual understanding. In this case, the aim of a particular language planning and policy is to unify millions of speakers under a political and economical administration and given the amount of different languages it seems necessary to find a common ground for interaction without losing either cultural or linguistic identity. It is not easy to obtain an accurate picture of the linguistic situation within the EU given the wide-range of countries, cultures and political systems involved. At the time of writing the EU comprises 25 countries with 22 different official languages (only three are considered working languages: English, French and German) and all these countries includ considerable linguistic minorities either because they have some territory holding an inherited language or as a result of an extensive migration giving way to a plentiful immigrant community. only portugal can be considered'officially' monolingual although it contains speech communities using a dissimilar language from the official one. In all the other countries there are areas where a different language is learned as a mother tongue (at this point it should be kept in mind that the distinction betu,een languages and dialects is not always clear and is often determined brsociopolitical matters. See chapter 1). This situation gives us a picture of the diversity of the state of affairs, which will change shorllv and not for the bettel because there is already a plan to broaden the EU to neiehborine
144
countries with new languages, new education systems and various degrees of commitment to language teaching. This multiplicity of circumstances exhibits the need to develop a common EU language policy in order to promote interrelation among the different member states and the common understanding of peoples.
To add controversy to the issue, Trimm (1999) mentions that a major
problem concerning the subject of language learning and language planning is the lack of an organic unit to take responsibility for it. So, different laws and public organisms may be involved in the teaching of state languages to native speakers, to minority children and the teaching of second/foreign languages. He adds that there is no longitudinal unity as responsibilities change with the transfer of children from elementary school to high school and the university, and different agencies may be involved in the setting of curricular guidelines, teaching materials and assessment. Given the aforesaid circumstances a high degree of variability is to be expected within an international organization like
the EU. Policy makers, aware of the far-reaching repercussions of a good or bad language policy for the future of the European common market, have established some guidelines that try to promote the use of international languages for intercultural communication. They have also undertaken some actions regarding the maintenance of minority languages. So far, the following documents have been already elaborated:
a) The European Charter for Minority or Regional Languages. b) The CE Framework Convention for the Protection of National
Minorities. c) The Oslo Recommendations regarding the Linguistic Rights of National Minorities within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). d) The Hague Recommendations Regarding the Education Rights of National Minorities.
The EU has already taken some action regarding the secondiforeign

language teaching and learning within the member states, and in a White Paper published in 1995 (Teaching and learning: towards the leat"ning society) it is stated as a general objective that everyone, irrespective or his/her
academic training should gain proficiency in two languages apart from their mother tongue so that they can communicate in those languages.
UNIT
t4s
a strong consensus on the fundamentals for foreign language teaching and some programs have been developed for the exchange of students andleachers in trdr to favor the learnrng of other EU languages, to aid teacher training, to encourage awareness-raising, and to promote the cultural exchange among differJnt edrcutio.ral systems. Some of these programs are Socrates (includi"g E.;;;s, Lingua and Socrates), Leonardo (exchange programs in the vocational net) ana Tempus (for the development of higei edircation systems). The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages is a document that provides a practical tool r". standards at successive stages of learning and evaluating "rtuti.rri"g.""rrn rangge knowledge. It aims at providing e basis for ietting common standards within the EU at an international level and provides ihe basis for the *","a of language qualifications within the EU, and therefore recognition facilitating educational and occupationar mobility. The Frame*,ork describes: a) The competences necessary for communication;
with this aim, the EU has reached
b) The relared knowledge and skills; c) The situations and domains of communication.
The framework paves the way for a comprehensive definition of teaching and learning objectives and method, und ir, th"."to.e, of special interest to course designers, textbook writers, testers, teachers and teacher trainers, and the whole academic community as a whole.
B. THE ROLE OF ENGLISH
. _English-has spread widely ail over the worrd, first because of the influence of the British Empiie and, second due ,. n p*"minence of North American culture in the worrd. In Europe, Englis'h has advanced as an international language especially after tft. Wo".ta Wur II, leaving behind other preeminent la.rg.rag", .,-r.h u, pr"n.t . "rirr, is now used by millions of speakers fo. r irriber of communicative functions across Europe, and Hoffmann (2000) points out that:
of and need for English have become so ir is no*, possible to ralk aboût'bilinguaiism with ";.r;J, that Engrish';;;. rhan just the
widespread, and access to and provision for it"so
use of Engrish as a foreign linguage. The expessiorr-,itir-,grrusm ri,ith
1...1 the presence
t46
English' is ambitious: [...]. The term'multilingualism' is therefore the preferred one here, as it allows for a variety of linguistic constellations involving two or more languages in speakers and communities. (Hoffmann, 2000:2)
Hoffmann refers to the use of English for many purposes inside and outside the EU scope, where it is one of the preferred languages. So this language has become the preferred language in a number of ambits like international business or EU institutions. Time and again it is also the language chosen for academic discussion as most scholars face the need to read and publish in English for international diffusion. English is also directly influencing other European languages at different levels but it is borrowings especially manifest in the field of technical terms -lexical are often introduced in many languages without the slightest adaptation. English seems to have been adopted as the language of globalization these days. Proficiency in English is seen as a desirable goal for youngsters and elderly people in all EU countries and in many parts of the world, to the point of equating inability in the use of English to disability. (See World Englishes in Chapter 6.)
9. THB UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF LINGUISTIC

RIGHTS
In 1996, a world-wide representation of non-governmental organizations with the support of the UNESCO approved The Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights (henceforth UDLR) in Barcelona, Spain. The main aim of this document is to turn the world's nations' attention to the problems arising from a globalized world with greater movements of people, and to preserve everyone's right to a language identity. The original document contains 52 articles and some additional dispositions embracing many aspects of linguistic rights. Below are some of the general principles that this document tries to establishlo:
1. The UDLR safeguards the personal rights to adhere to a linguistic identity and to develop one's own culture.
2. The UDLR considers that all language communities are equal and therefore merit official recognition in all kinds of social, political and economic respects (e.g., education, law trade, public
administration, etc.).
10
Y."
can go to the website for this subject to find the web link to the original fulI
document.
LNIT
147
3. The UDLR is especially concerned about the role that education plays in the maintenance and spread of a languag" urra accordingly ir states that educarion must help to marniai and develop ih language .po\gl by the language community. In addition to this, it encourages "the most extensive possibl" .om-und of anv other language they may wish to know.,, (Art.26).
The UDLR claims the right to use proper names and place names in the language specific to the territory, both oraly and in writing. 5' The UDLR supports the right to decide the extent to which a minority language should be present in the media in a gi territory and to receive a thorough knowledge of its cultural eritage through it. 6' The UDLR declares the right to preserve their linguistic and cultural heritage.
4'
7' The UDLR watches over the right to use the language in all socioeconomic
activities and to have full legal validitf, This document has had far-reaching implications in recent years for the socral recognition and acceptun." Jf minority ;;;;g", around rhe
referring to a people being historically established ii u .'ito.v as opposed to the notion of "language group" which refers io u g-,rp of persons sharing the same lu.rg,rag" but which does nor historical antecedents (see article 1.1 and 1.5). In_this respec, fro.r", in" to.rg-standing Greek-speaking population in Australia and 'tfr" i,-,rt ish-speaking population in Germany would falr into a second-class category as they *.ould be considered'language groups" but not ;ir;-g"rg;ommunities,,. This raises the question of how long a language g." to exist in order to qualify as a community. Brumfit "L" Gta. utzor;;; to the lack of references in this document to the situation in countries where a language is used to avoid ging one ranguage many historicaily established -among a prioritv over the others, which culd *"rrtruuy give rise to a number of conflicts (for instance, in former coronies thainowadavs use English or French for interethnic communication).
(Please go to the exercises section and do exercises 10 and 1 1.)
its Brumfit (1995) considers that this document is based on the idea of "language communities" and little account is taken of the language rights of individuals. Brumfit finds little;;;; fbr individual choice in favor of the imposition of a languag" i;;;;;.'erumfit (ibict.) also criticizes the restrictive definition of "language community,, as
*'orld but there exists, nevertheless, some controversy over fundamentals.
148
10. EXERCISES
1. Find out if there is a bilingual school in your city. Try to get as much information as possible of its curricula, organization and aims. Please
note that English does not need to be one of the languages involved in this immersion program. Expand on the advantages and disadvantages of bilingual education from your own point of view.
2. Baker and Jones (1998) seem to be quite in favor of bilingual education and they indicate eight potential benefits of bilingual education. Comment on each of them and express to what extent you agree/disagree with them. You should provide examples to support your points. (See page 124).
3. Thke an instance of language planning that you know about (English does not need to be one of the languages involved) and analyze it according
to the eleven goals or functions posed by Nahir (2003). Which of these goals affect the instance you have chosen? How?
4. Analyze and assess each of the following sociolinguistic decisions and provide your opinion:
a/ Making Canada an officially bilingual country, having most of its
French-speaking population in a concrete area in the east (Quebec).
b) Trying to give status to Bokml and Nynorsk in Nor-way instead of

choosing one of the varieties as the standard.
c) Giving Basque and Catalan official status together with Spanish in

the Basque Country and in Catalonia.
d) Reintroducing Irish in Ireland. 5. Explore the language policies of your own country or region and how they are enforced in your educational system. How does your educational system deal with immigrants who do not speak the
mainstream language? Are there any controversies about language use and implementation in your country?
6. Think about the following hypothetical situations. Find

action for each of the following unresolved issues:
a mode
of
a/ Imagine your are appointed governor in a colonial territory your

country has in a remote area which is called Sealand. In Sealand you, as the governol and a minority of the population coming from your homeland speak your mother tongue, the language of the metropolis, but most natives in Sealand speak an indigenous
UNIT
t49
language. You have to organize the educational system and legislate accordingly. Your children go to school with natives from Sealand and among other things you need to decide upon the language used in the educational system. Write a set of 10-15 principles that wili govern language use in Sealand schools.
b)
You are member of a language planning agency that needs to decide
whether to reform your writing system for two reasons, first, the writing system is rather unique (with its own alphabet) and that difference prevents your country foom fully developing economically in the same way as neighboring countries and the world's economic power; second, your language has changed very little in the last two hundred years and, as a result, a surfeit of borrowings are inundating your language. Present an action plan that will satisfy the economic powers of your country (eager for development and integration in the international community), and the literary elite (very concerned about the conservation of language and cultural heritage).
7. Search the web for information on EU language policy. Find

information regarding EU language policy on:
a/ Bilingual/trilingual education in schools. b) Minority languages in EU countries. c) EU official languages. d) Language policy 8. Search the web for these four documents and write a summary (about 100 words) with the information you consider more important.
a) The European Charter for Minority or Regional Languages. b) The CE Framework Convention for the Protection of National
Minorities.
c) The Oslo Recommendations regarding the Linguistic Rights of

National Minorities within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
d) The Hague Recommendations Regarding the Education Rights of

National Minorities.
9. The White Paper published in 1995 by the EU Commission (Tencltry and learning: towards the learning society) on foreign language learning states that in relation to proficiency in three communitr languages : '[ . . j
.
150
everyone, irrespective of training and education routes chosen, be able to acquire and keep .rp ih"i. ability to .o--rnicate lshould] in at least two community languages in addition to theii mother tongue.,Think about this ob.iective and state the possible shortcomings it may have as."gu.. people's attitude, training in schools, infrastructi.", .og.ri,lrre abilities or anq othgl aspect you consider relevant. To what extenido you think it is a plausible objective in the short term? 10. Find the full text of The universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights (see the website) and read it. choose 3 articles and comment on them providing your own point of view.
Nigeria, south Africa, Belize or Tiinidad and Tobagol you might be interested in the language or languages that are currentry rr""d, lungrale plannrng and policy, educational system, etc. you will probably fi"t;i;;of informarion on the web, in encyclopaedias or in the."f".".r. books listed below.
11. Find out abôut the linguistic situation, from a synchronic and a diachronic point of view, of one of the folrowing .orriii"r, cameroon,
11. REFERENCES
Appr', R. and p. Muvsrpl . 1996. Bilingismo y contacto de lenguas. Barcelona: Editorial Ariel. Barpn, c.2002. 'Bilingual Education'in R.B. Kaplan (ed.) The oxlord Handbook of Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford Unlversity iress. Bern, c. and S. JoNss. 1999. Encyclopedia of bitingualism and bilingual education. Clevedon: Philadelphia, pA: Multilingual MatLrs. BBurr'rr, ch. 1995. 'people's,chol." uld ranguage rights' [videorecord ing]: EFL in language policy. university of york, aud"io-suil c."t." r."i: IATEFL. coeaRnueras, J. 1983. 'Ethical issues in status planning, in J. cobarrubias and J. A' Fishman (eds.), progres.s,in Language pranning:7"tir""tLd perspectives. The Hague: Mouton publishers. Ho'paNu, ch. 2000. 'The Spread of English and the Growth of Multilinguarism with English in Europe.t in J. ceno"a u. i"rr".. G,r^.)E)rurh in Europe: The Acquisition of a Third Language. crevedon: Murtili-ngJ llratt".r. KrrsnNemunrt,Bh' 1999.. 'Iltq" Language Education policy'in B. spolsky (ed.)
c o nc
is
e Enc y clop edia
McCrnr'nv, J. J. 1999.
C oncise
of E duc at ioat Lin g ui s/lcs. Amsterdam : Elsevier.
language revitalization,in Spolsky, B. (ed.) 1999. tioiar Linguisllcs. Amsterdam: Ersevier. Naryt,-i\ita20.03.'Language planning Goars: A classification'in c.B. paulston, and G.R. Tucker; socioringuistics: The Essentiar Re"r"g;. M;l."lsa,
"',Maori Ency clopedia of Educ
Publishing.
Blackwell
UNIT.5
1-5
PaursroN, C.B. 1994. Linguistic Minorities in John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Multilingtnl
Settirtgs. Amsrerdam:
SHopsN, T. 1999. 'Australian Indigenous Languages', in Spolskr, B. (ed. l 1999. C onc is e Ency clop edia of Educ at ional Linguisllcs. Amste r-dam : Ei s e,,i e r. Swru, M. andR. K. JouNsoN. 1997.'Immersion education: A categon rvirhin bilingual education', in R. K. Johnson and M. Srvain (ed.s.) Iitnitersioit Education : Intet'national Perspective.s. cambridge uni'erslrr press.
TBIrru, J. L. M. 1999.Language Fducation policv-Europe', in Spolskr-. B. red.) 1999. Concise Encyclopedia of Educational Lingui.srlcs. Amsteidu-. Eir-.',". Wannnaucs, R. 2002 (4th ed.). An Introduction to Sociolingttis1c,.. \Ialden, LS-\: Blackwell Publishing.
12. RESOURCES ON THE \\'EB

Now you can visit the website for this subject u'here r ou nj11 find some further references and complementary readings.
13. FURTTIER READINGS AND QUESTIONS

13.1. Text 9
of the individual while bilingualism includes bilinguality and centers on the social dimension of it at a macro level.
1...] The outcome of bilingual education depends upon a number of pre-school factors as well as upon the way the two languiges are planned in education. Two factors are of relevance in education; (t) to wht extent is the child proficient in the school language? and (2) to what extent has he developed the cognitive function in one or both of his languages before
Note that Hamers and Blanc distinguish between the tenns bilingualiqr and bilingualism. The former refers to psychological state of the lniviuat who has access to more than one linguistic code, whereas the latter refers to the state of a linguistic community in which two languages or codes are in contact. Therefore, bilinguality sees the issue from the perspective
starling school? considering the interplay of educationaffactors with the following factors: social psychological and cognitive developmental factors, such as onset of, and proficiency in, both languages; functions developed forlanguage; valorization of one or both languges for arl or a limited number of functions; and the social representatiois *,hich the child developed as a consequence, we make th follorving hr,potheses:
t52
(
1
simultaneously or if the child is entering school, he does not before fully proficient inLoth languages new language skills and of acquiring burden learning harre ihe double the child has already in addition, if, simultaneously; skiils literacy developed language as a cognitive tool, the acquisition of literacy skills will be facilitteJ; and, if ihe child has also developed and analysed representation of language in which both languages are perceived as inierchangeable, thusmplifying this functioning and the child is more likely to dlvelop an additive iorm of bilinguality. This is the case of the child in an educated mixed-lingual famiiy'
) If both languages are acquired
(2) If the child is only proficient in his L, when starting school jn Lr, he will have to acquire te primary communicative skills in Lr at the same time as the literacy skiils in Lr. If he has already developed an analysed representatio' tf lut-tg.ttge through his L1, he can transfer it to te u.qrriritio.t of literacy skills; the two languages will become interchangeable for cognitive operations, thus amplifying cognitive functioning. Because both languages are valorized in their cognitive function, this transfer will be relatively easy. The degree to which his analysed representation of language includes^ both. languages as intehangeubl" tool. will determine the degree of additivity. This is the
case of immersion-school children and of some advantaged submersion
children.
(3) If a child proficient in his L, only or with a limited knowledge of L, atthe onset f schooling in a relatively more prestigious L, has not
de,reloped the cognitive funciions of language in his Lr, he also faces the
double burden f acquiring the primary communicative skills in L, simultaneously with the liteiacy skills. Because he does not posses the analytic repreientation of language the task of acquiring literacy skills is harder (s is the case for some monolingual children schooled in Lr). If, in addition, his L1 is devalorized and stigmalized, he will not transfer the newly acquired ikillr to his L, but limit them to aL, in which he is not proficient. In the worse case, because he does not use his full larrguage potential as does a monolingual child coping with the problem
of Jcqu'iring literacy, the development of the analysed representation of languge might be slowed down. Further devalorization of L, by society anJthe schoI, where it is not used for the development of literacy skills, will lead to a perception that his two languages alê not interchangeable as cognitive tools nd that only L, can be used in that function. This mighi ultimately lead to a subtractive for of bilinguality' Hamers and Blanc (1989: 196-197)
lssues to consider:
a) Do you think the situations described in the three hypotheses
presented above are equally advantageous for the children? Do you consider any of them more demanding than the others for the child?
UNIT
i53
b)
c)
think that pre-schoor factors prevail over schooling factors in bilingual eduction in monolingual countries? Do you think bilinguar education programs in Spain manage to develop bilingual children coming f- spu.rir'r, -orrotingual families? Why (not)?
To what extent do you
13.2. Text 10
Read the following text carefuily and comment on
it emphasizing any
will find sme questions that may be helpful. write around 250-300 wtrds in total.
with a view to changing that c?nrtion, or on both of these since they are not mutually ir* ^, focus results in status planning, the second results i "*.rr"rrr corpus pl;;;;;
status planning changes the function of a language or a variety of a language and the righis of those who use ir. FJ"*u-ple, when speakers of a minority language are denied th" .rr. i ,rru, language in educating their childr".r, ih"i. language has no,rr. Alternatively, when-a government declares that hJnceFo.trr t*" r"g-,ruges rather than one of these alone wiil be officiany recognized in alr fiinctions, the newly recognized one has gained status. status itserf is concept; ii mav also be improved or reduced by degrees, u"d;;;iiy "."iuri""is. So far as languages and their varieties u.. .or.".red, status .harrg.s are nearly always
very srow,
. Language planning is an attempt to interfere deliberately with a language or one of its ;arieties: it is human intervention into natural processes of language change, diffusion, and erosion. That attempt may focus on either its status with regard ," rr. rirr". ru"glug" or variety
or its internal condition
are sometimes actively.o","rt", .";"d" leave strong residual feeli ngs. Fven^rerarively minoi ch^"g", ;; for changes ;;;p;rs can produce such effects, as the residen of ;;;;""tries, e.g., -Norway, Belgium, Canada, and India, are well u*u...'
a varietz of a language or a usuaily to itandardi ze it, thaiir, t, p.af ii*rrr, rhe means for serving every possibre ralguage irnction in society co.rr.q,r".rtly, r...]. corpus planning may involve such matters as the"dlvelopment of an orthographv, new sources ofvocabura.y, ai.ri""".i;"",.) a literature, together with the deriberate cultivation f .r.* ,oit ui the language may extend its use into such areas as gover-nment, "r",education, and trade. corpus planning_has b,een particurrly r-p".i."t l" countries rike Indonesia, Israel, Finland, India, pakistan, u.rd pup.ru t t.* crrirr.u. These two types of planning often co-occu6 for -urry ph'i"g ..iri"", in'orve some combination of a change in status *ii inte..ri change. As one particular language in papua New Guine. i, d;;;i";d,
Corpus planning seeks to develop . language,
all other
154
languages are affected, whether or not the effects are recognized officially. We must also note then that, just as planning may either be deliberate or proceed somewhat haphazardly, even accidentally, so its results may be deliberately intended or not at all as intended. Even though it is possible to recognize most of the relevant parameters, language planning is still far from being any kind of exact science. Linguists have also been quite involved in many planning actities and surrounding controversies.
Wardhaugh (2002:353)
Issues to consider:
a/
Provide some sociopolitical situations that may lead a language to gain status, and others that may cause a language to lose it.
b)
According to the text, how do language planning and language policy interact? Which one do you think comes first, language planning or language policy? Why?
c) In the case of a need for corpus planning, what kind of institution

do you think should assume that responsibility? Are political or educational institutions better prepared? Why?
d) In a way,language planning
goes against the natural process of language evolution and maturation. Under what circumstances do you find an 'artificial intervention' justified?
UNIT
155
14. KEY WORDS

are presented in this unit. A definition for each term end of this book, in the glossary.
The following list of key words contains some important terms that n be found at the
Aboriginal languages African American Vernacular English Corpus planning

Endangered language Heritage language
Hypercorrection
Language Academy Language election/selection Language revitalization Language attrition Language conflict Language loss Language spread
Lingua franca
Language conflict Language Policy Division Linguistic competence
Sociolinguistic relativity Status planning
Unit 6
1. SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND LANCUACE TEACHING/

LEARNING
Language teaching and learning and sociolinguistics have certain common concerns, such as the role of English in the world (as a first language or a second/foreign language), the contexts in which this language is acquired, the way in which it interacts with other languages, and the norms that determine the use of English. Communicative competence shapes the ability to interact successfully in any speech community. Someone who has acquired the language in a naturalistic context from childhood also acquires sociolinguistic rules together with linguistic knowledge and other competences (of course, this would not be so in the case of some sort of cognitive impairment or abnormal social situation). This issue brings up the importance of language learning either in a second language context, or a foreign language context. In the first case, the language learner will have countless occasions to acquire/learn the sociolinguistic rules through interaction and close contact with native speakers of the language. The learning environment also raises the issue whether sociolinguistic rules can, or should, be taught in a classroom context or whether this is something the language learner will deal with in due course when s/he has the chance to interact within a speech community where the language being learned is spoken as a mother tongue. A second issue raised in this respect is the motivation and pu{pose of learning the language, that is, if it is learnt to be used this case-in within an English-speaking speech community or if it is to be learned as a LWC to communicate with other non-native speakers, for example, English being used among mother tongue speakers of different languages in the EU.
Until very recently sociolinguistic rules have received little attention in the FL learning context and materials writers and teachers assumed
n0
that learners would learn these conventions through interaction in due course, at higher levels or while interacting with native speakersl. In the last few decades materials writers have grown concerrred atout this aspect and, nowadays, sociocultural information is more often include in classroom language instruction.
The inclusion of sociolinguistic behavior in teaching materials will help the language learner to develop his/her ability to inteiact successfully in a foreign speech community and will graduallyintegrate both linguistil and sociolinguistic information. However, these socilinguistic patterns are often unreliable because they are either based orr1h" inividual intuitions of materials writers who may be reporting on conventions in their own particular speech communities, or nery often this information is based on community norms rather than on actual use. we, as native speakers of a speech community, should not assume that all the linguistic and social resources we make use of are parl of our conscious knorirledge and, therefore, we may have intuitions regarding our speech behaviorln aspeech community which do not clearly correspond wiih actual behaor. This is the reason why our native speaker intuitions are very useful in analyzing the way others speak but we cannot trust them completely without further analysis of the rules of speaking to predict the way other people will interact. Finally, two aspects need tobe taken into account: a) whose mles of speaking we want to include in the teaching materials; and, b) to what extent we can generalize them to the point o1using them in second language instruction.
Anyhow, it seems clear that the sociolinguistic information needed in order to be communicatively competent should come lrom interaction with native speakers or proficient speakers of the language. Regarding the issue of language learning, it must be taken iito'account that nowadays, the extensive development of new technologies in language learning (e'g., language learning computer programs, on-rine turr!,ru!" learning, etc.) and the aid and widespread oi tec-hnological developmeit (e.g., cable TV, Internet, original rorrnd track DVDs, et can also piuy u., important role in sociocultural development especially in the case of autonomous language learners.
say the la-ck of references to sociolinguistic contents was not motivated by the belief that the aim of the language classroom wai to teach English for 'international, or interculturai communication, but tht it was simply u so.lo..,tt.rrii .opon"rrt that should be taught at a different point, at a different level,'or that *."rJ u.;..-q"i'*d'by the learner through interaction with native speakers.
ti -o],1
UNIT
t6t
2. COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN LANGUAGE

TEACHINC/LEARNING
The concept of communicative competence was introduced in chapter one and it comprises various types f knowledge and skills suc as linguistic, sociolinguistic and pragmatic. communicative competence is needed for successful interaction among members of the same speech community, and in this unit it is analyzed from the point of view of
foreign/second language learning as the process
foreignisecond language inevitably involves some degree of intercultural communication, a situation of contact between different cultural values, and social practices.
of learning
Linguistic competences refer to the knowledge of lexical, phonological and syntactical elements and other dimensions of language that the language lear-ner has learned as parl of the system, such as sociolinguistic r-ules and pragmatic knowledge. Linguistic competence comprises the knowledge of vocabulary, pronunciation rules, syntactic patterns and the cognitive organization and storage of this knowledge in the brain of the language learner. Linguistic competence will vary from one learner to another depending on various factors such as the number of years spent learning the second language, the rate of learning, the age when contact n'ith the second language started, the learner's motivation, the learning context (whether language is learned formally or acquired from natural erposure), etc. But language is a social behavior and is more than just a knowledge of the linguistic system. sociolinguistic competences are concerned with the social and cultural conditions for the use of language and the social conventions that nlle language use in a specific speech community. These would comprise norrns regarding politeness, norms regarding relations between the sexes or different classes, social groups or generations, norrns regarding different registers, etc. Sociolinguistic competences are normally acquired after some degree of linguistic competence has been attained which is often considered the vehicle through which sociolinguistic competences are achieved. In the foreign language curriculum, sociolinguistic competences are not always present and when they are, they are often considered of side importance and something that the language learner will acquire on his/her own in due time. This perspective only partially makes sense because if it is trrre that some basic linguistic competence is needed first, sociolinguistic contents and sensibility could, and actually should, be introduced gradually. As a rule the more distant and different the native culture of the language learner and the target language culture, the more
162
differences the language learner will find and the harder it will be to notice them. For instance, a native Spanish speaker from Spain will find a bigger gap between his/her home culture and sociolinguistic rules and the Japanese culture than with the Italian culture, so it will be presumably more difficult to acquire sociolinguistic competences in Japanese than in Italian as a foreign language.
govern your interlocutor's speech may result in a communication breakdown. It should be pointed out that the higher the language learner's linguistic competence the more s/he will be expected to have adequate sociolinguistic and pragmatic competences in his/her interaction with a
native speaker of the target language. So, a native speaker of any language assume a high cultural, sociolinguistic and pragmatic competence from his interlocutor if s/he has a good command of the linguistic system.
Normally, lack of knowledge of sociolinguistic r-ules and behaviors that
will naturally expect and
Pragmatic competences refer to the functional use of linguistic resources such as language functions and speech acts in interaction. It also concerns itself with the language learner's mastery of discourse markers, cohesion and coherence and the recognition of text types, the presence of irony, parody and politeness among other things (see section 6 in this chapter).
3. THE SOCIOLINGUISTIC BEHAVIOR

SPEAKERS: RULES OF SPEAKING
OF ENGLISH
speech communities very frequently exhibit different styles of interaction at the sociolinguistic and pragmatic level. The analysis of sociolinguistic behavior in native English speaking communities can provide useful insights for the teaching and learning of languages as the description of rules of speaking can help the teacher and the learner to systematize the process of language learning. Below are two samples of some rules of speaking regarding address behavior and telephoning that can certainly be taught in the classroom setting with relative ease, although others like greetings, parlings or refusals could also have been selected.
3.1. Address behavior

some of the earliest sociolinguistic studies on speech behavior from a crosslinguistic perspective were done on the forms of address, that is, the
UNIT
t63
way people address one another in different situations. The study of forrns of address is a recurrent topic in sociolinguistic research because they are common in discourse and very easily observed. Whenever one person speaks to another there is a whole range of options that the speaker can use to refer to the addressee and these may vary from one language to the other depending on the social conventions; the type of relationship among the interlocutors; and the sociocultural distance between the languages involved. Wolfson and Manes (1978) studied the use of the address form ma'am in the United States and found out that it has different meanings in the South of the United States than it has in other pafls of the country. They observed that the term ma'am was commonly used instead of the formulas 'I beg your pardon?' or'Pardon?', that is, to indicate that you had not heard what your female interlocutor had just said or to request further explanation. Wolfson (1989: B0) provides the following example:
1. A: Could you tell me how late you're open this evening? B: Ma'am?
A: Could you tell me how late you're open this evening?
B: Until six.
2. A: You're not open on Sundays?

B: Pardon?
A: You're not open on Sundays?
B: No.
'Yes,
In the same vein Wolfson and Manes (ibid.) report that the expression ma'am' is used as a response to'Thank you' , wth the meaning of 'YotL
are welcome':
3. A: Could you tell me how late vou're open this er-enin_s? B: Until nine.
A: Thank you very much. B: Yes, ma'am.
4. A; Could you tell me how late you're open this er-enin_s? B: Until five-thirty.
A: Thank you very much. B: You're welcome.
Wolfson (1989: 80-81)
t64
In this study, they noticed as well that the forrn ma'am not only had different meanings in the South of the united States, but it was also used in different social contexts. In the North, this form tended to be used between strangers whereas in the South it was used not only to strangers but also to acquaintances and friends.
Forms of address constitute a conspicuous sign of status relationships and different languages may offer different possibilities and different degrees
of formality and social distance. This is, in fact, a frequent mistake made by language learners at lower proficiency levels- as the use of L1 sociopragmatic -especially r-ules leads to violations of the interlocutors' address behavior. In many European languages, for instance, speakers constantly choose pronouns (e.g., German: du and Sle; Spanish: tu and usted) and nominal (e.g., first name; title plus last name; etc.), or verb conjugations (e.g., conditionals) to reflect status relationship and degree of formality. Howeve4 Wolfson (1989: 85) points out that many non-European languages mark a number of more subtle distinctions, as it is the case of Asian languages (e.g., Japanese, Chinese, etc.) which are especially known for their elaboration in formality and the ample variety of politeness resources. Norris (2001: 254), for instance, refers to the German address behavior as typically based on dual register distinction: (a) a formal, respectful, sociallr distant one by the use of the pronoun Sle- and an inforrnai, -characterized familiar; socially proximate one by the use of the pronoun -characterized du-. German L2 learners would then need to acquire control over this address system which involves the acquisition of the pragmalinguisic forrns (the linguistic forms du and sle), the sociopragmatic rules (to relate particular forms with contextual variables), and the arrangement of both types of knowledge in language use.
3.2. Telephoning
The way people answer the phone or initiate a telephone conversario:varies from language to language and from culture to culture. Thes. sociolinguistic mles (either self-identification or answering rules) are n _ , generally open to conscious consideration and very often speakers are j.-., unaware of their existence until their sociolinguistic expectations .:. broken and they realize that these rules actually exist.
In the United States, for example, a phone call will probabh bc=. with the caller offering an apology to the person answering the ph .-. especially if it is a time of the day when the caller may be busy of is iii.. to be disturbed, like meal time or late at night. In France, this s., .
UNIT
15
apology is even more likely to happen and in England amongst some groups and social classes. In France, callers are very likely to identifu themselves and to check that they are calling to the right number whereas this is seldom done in Spain. The rrles of self-identification in telephone calls is certainly very variable across cultures. In Germany, for instance, the first thing the person who answers the phone generally does is to identify himiherself without being asked to do so. However, these rules that can at some point be included in the language curriculum are likely to change these days due to the rapid development of information technologies and the astonishing and still increasing number of mobile phones which lets the answerer know on many occasions, who is calling. It is also interesting that as the answerer can be located anlrvhere and so it may not be a convenient moment, the caller tends to ask if it is a good moment to speak.
4. SOCIOLINCUISTIC PERSPECTIVES
USE IN IMMERSION CLASSROOMS
ON LANGUAGE
Bilingual education and immersion programs often respond to social

needs and aim at developing proficiency in the second language for students
that will need it for one reason or the other. The actual implementation and degree of success of these programs is subjected, holver,e to a number of external factors resulting from special sociopolitical situation. a r-ariarion in the teaching resources available, the extent of immersion (partlal or total; early orlate), the status of the L2 outside the classroor, erc. This means that whatever decisions and actions seem plausible ft'on a theoretical and formal point of vieu' mav nor have as goo.i re.uits as expected when they are put into practice. Errensive resear:h ha.'. bl done on Canadian immersion in the last decades tning ro fino c,ur about rhe shortcomings in their implementation as u'e1l as rhe assis:i:tent of proficiency attained by students by the time of therr sraiiuarl(,,1.
One of the problems found through ciassroom obsen'alioi is rhar a diglossic situation can easily develop in immersion classroons tusr a. in any speech community2, that is, the language of insrlucrion, ol'
t ffrir."fers
school setting.
to a diglossic situation at a microlevel, that is, u-ithin rhe clas.rc,c,:-r c'i
r66
superordinate language, acts as the formal language variety used with the teacher and used as a language for academic purposes, and the L1 is preferred in informal speech and social interaction with other classmates and acts as the subordinate language, or a vernacuiar, (see diglossia in chapter 4) preferred for peer interaction in play, competition, arguing, etc. Tarone and Swain (1995: 166) indicate that "[...] immersion classrooms are not only diglossic but become increasingly so in the upper primary grades.", and this can be seen by a close observation of the types of L2 input andL2 output within the classroom, the individuals involved in the interaction (either teacher-pupil or peer-peer communication), and the purposes of the information exchange. The main difference between this kind of diglossic speech community, and any other occurring outside this context, is that instead of being stable, these 'special' speech communities in classroom immersion change over time due to aspects such as cognitive, social or personal factors affecting this peculiar speech community, i.e., they change as they become grownups and their social and cognitive resources become mature. This situation may be caused by the fact that the L2language taught by the teachers and learned by the students norrnally perforrns specific functions, such as instructional public discourse, but it does not ser-ve other interpersonal and trivial purposes which should also be part of the acquired repertoire.
An additional difficulty that the language learner has to face when learning a language largely spoken in the world, for instance an international language like English or Spanish, is that the sociolinguistic rrrles may vary from one place to the other as these rules of behavior are normally specific to a particular speech community and not necessarily part of a whole country. This changes when a language is used as alingua franca or LWC as the language that is being used for intercultural communication is not the native language for any of the speakers and therefore its use is not culturally bound. More often these days English is used in this way and speakers are therefore aware of it and they just use the language as a common code for the transmission of meaning without showing or expecting cultural loads.
Another aspect of language learning that is closely related to sociolinguistics and is worth taking into account is that of dialect. In English, for instance, a whole range of dialects and varieties are spoken in the world, both within an English-speaking country like Great Britain or the united States, or differences regarding these varieties from one country to the other, i.e., the ways in which British English is different to Australian English (see world Englishes in this chapter). Needless to say some varieties have more prestige or social status than others and, under
UNIT
161
some circumstances, this can determine the variety or varieties that a given institution tries to teach or a language learner u''ants to iearn. So, when English is learned as a foreign language some decisions are implicitl or explicitly made regarding the language variety or varieties to be learned. These decisions are often not made by the learner but by the institution where that language is being taught (in the case of formal instmction) or simply by the chance of having a teacher coming from one country or the other (in the case of native teachers) or who have already made their choice (in the case of non-native teachers). Very frequently learners make their choice of one variety or the other after a stay in a given country/ region.
5. ANALYSIS
OF THE EF'L CLASSROOM LANCUACE
Classroom language is relatively organized and purposive in contrast to casual conversation in an ordinary social setting. This can be seen, for instance, in the way turn-taking is organized. In casual interaction the interlocutors express agreement and disagreement in a number of ways but they often intermpt each other as paft of the communication process and their resources to show their opinion. In the classroom context, turntaking is frequently determined by the types of interlocutors (teacherstudent or student-student) and, if involved, dominated by the teacher who is often more concerned about how things are said rather than what is being said. Classroom language is in many ways an unusual form of spoken interaction that often has nothing to do with real or general English, both in terms of discourse markers and type of interaction and also in terms of language structure and choice. So, idiomatic language is not always part of the classroom nor are complex syntactic structures or specific vocabulary such as slang, among other characteristics of natural and colloquial speech. Classroom language is also part of an'asymmetric encounter'. One of the participants is accepted as controlling the direction of the diaiogue and s/he, therefore, makes use of a particular language that is knou'n among specialists as teacher talk. Teacher talk constitutes a varietv of language sometimes used by teachers when they are in the process of teaching, i.e., a conventionalized way of speaking in a parlicular role , in this case the role of the teacher, which does not differ at the ler el ot linguistic structure (pronunciation, syntax, speech acts, etc. ) but does differ in some other general features such as higher pitcl'r mote careful intonation and enunciation, shorler sentences, more fi-eqrtent t'eperiiions
18
and more questions than usual in colloquial speech. The teacher is the addressee of most student utterances and this is favored by the way classes have traditionally been conceived as a knowledge -the teacher transmitter- and, enhanced by the classroom's physicar organization all desks facing the teacher. Note that a teacher who wants to promote student-student interaction and discussion will arrange desks differently, for instance, in circles.
In the analysis of classroom discourse, as of any other type of interaction, language cannot be properly understood without taking into account its social context (i.e., the particular circumstances under which something is being said, as well as, the rest of the surrounding language either in the form of spoken discourse or written discourse). As a result of this, a number of factors need to be taken into account about the learning situation and the classroom context3. In any case, we should remember that in traditional classroom settings there are often asrmmetric encounters as the teacher tends to have 'the knowledge'and hold a position of power in relation to students. In addition to this, language learners are in a way hindered in their speech abilities in the sense that they are making use of a linguistic system that they do not control completelyo unl, therefore, they cannot always communicate fully (no doubt this depends on the proficiency level of learners, and the type of teaching methodôlogy that is being used).
Different moves are characteristic of some speakers rather than others in an unequal communication encounter such as teacher-student. The three-part chain of teacher initiation, student response, and teacher evaluation is probably the most frequent pattern of lassroom discourse at all grade levels. The analysis of teacher-led classroom discourse generally finds examples of this pattern, and anyone hearing it recogniz". it u. un instance of classroom talk. So, teachers tend to initiate interaction and stude_nts generally respond to these intuitions. Later,teachers often provide a follow up response that can be interpreted as a feedback ?or the students. These three common moves can be summarized as: (r)nitiation (by the teacher); (R)esponse, (by the student) and; (F)ollow Lrp (by the teacher). study the following excerpt which is a typescript tf i real classroom dialogue and analyze the different moves -ud" bythe teacher and the student.
-|*t:lq . .SoT" specialists think that second language learning in adulthood is, in a way, like going back to childhood because adults cannt they want in the L2.
"ip."r. ",r"[,thi.rg
Coulthard (1975).
interested in studying classroom discourse more deeply can read Sinclair and
UNIT
r69
Ts- Right, so ... I asked you to finish the vocabulary section on page seven [...] at home so 1...1 page thirreen ... right ... page thirteen, t...] t"
vocabulary [...] (I) 'T- So, page thirteen let see ...
anybody?, come on, anybody?
(I)
right ... first word real, genuine
S Actual. (R)
T- Actual,
or difficult.
(l)
(F) that's in paragraph one
1...1
number two, challenging
St- Demanding. (R)
T- DemandinC. (F) Is everybody with me? (F) [...] please .". thank you. Number three, a bedroom for many students ... (Lj
\-
Dormitory. (R)
T. Dormitorry. (F) A bedroom or, remember, a place where the students live. Dormitory.1...1 That's right. Number four, to aid or to
encourage.
So- To
(l)
suppor. (R)
T- To support, (F) paragraph three, to support ... Mm, number five to mix with and join a group of people ... (I)
Sr- To integrale. (R) anno unc ement giv ing
Su-
T- To integrate, (F) Ah ... right ... six, a uritten or printed infonnation. (l)
Anotice. (R)
HF,A notice (F) ... seven ... thorough and concentrated. (F)
Sr- Intensive.
(R\
T- Intensive, intensive, Ok?
place.
(l)
(F) Mm
Ss- To
attend. (R)
T- To attend, ... attend... (F) Nine complete ... complete...

Sn-
(l)
Comprehensive. (R)
... equipment ... paragraph
paragraph four ... ten

Sro-
T- Comprehensive, ... comprehensive ... (F) Right ... (F) That is
in four again .... no? (I)
Facilities. (R)
T- Facilities. (F) That's right Jos Ignacio, (F) that was paragraph four [...] where it says a comprehensive language course witi compu]er
Tr
three, etc.
,tu.rds for teacher, and Sr, Sr, S., etc. stands for student one, student two, student
t70
facilities... eh or talk. (l)
...
AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCiOLINGUISTICS
computerfacikties .... equipment ... Mm ... eleven a speech
Srr- Lecture. (R) T- A lecture. (F) At British universities classes, what we call classes here are lectures ... The humanities? (I)
S,r- Arls. (R)
If you pay attention to this dialogue, you will see how the teacher controls both the development of the topic (in this case the correction of an exercise assigned as homework), and who gets or gives a turn to talk. What is more, s/he does not ask'real' questions because s/he already knows the answers and, in fact, all that s/he does is to check the student's answers.
Another important aspect to take into account about this excerpt is that a language classroom is special in the sense that language is used to talk
about language (metalanguage) rather than other subjects (e.g., history, math, etc.) where the language is just a vehicle to talk about contents.
(Please go to the exercises section and do exercises
4,5
and 6)
6. IMPLICATIONS
FOR LANGUAGE TBACHINC
The practice that students generally get in spoken interaction may well
fit them for their communication needs and their role in the classroom, but it does nothing, or at least not enough, to help them with the roles
they will need to play in English outside the classroom. This is one of the shoficomings that task-based instr-u.ction, which is organized around tasks rather than in terrns of grammar or vocabulary tries to avoid or minimize. These tasks the telephone to obtain information, performing according to-using oral instructions, giving and receiving instructions, etc.are to be carried out by students in order to develop their linguistic skills. Immersion programs entail content-based instruction and is, in a way, similar to task-based instruction (attention to content instead of attention to form). Students in these programs are expected to learn a second language through its use in teaching other subjects but recent research has shown that this sort of restricted sociolinguistic context limits the possibilities of the learners to interact and they therefore largely develop receptive skills but their productive skills are limited as the exposure to abundant comprehensible input is not all they need. Swain (1995) has pointed out that forced output also plays a role in comprehensive language learning.
UNIT
171
All in all the solution to this methodological problem is not a question of changing the teachers' use of language because the str-ucture of formal instmction in a classroom is socially as it is, but attempts should be made to enhance and widen the varieties of input the learner has access to and, also, and more importantly, to force students'output.
One possible direction to help break across the authority structure in the classroom is greater use of student-student interaction, including tasks, and pair and group work. Not only as a pedagogical device to promote learning, but as a way of avoiding the language implications of the teacherstudent'asymmetric encounter'.
7. PRAGMATICS IN LANCUACE TEACHING

In recent years, curricula and teaching materials have began to include strong pragmatic components or to adopt a pragmatic approach as their organizing principle. Many proposals for instruction in various aspects of pragmatic competence are based on the analysis of native speaker
discourse or on the comparison of interlanguage data, as well as contrasting L1 and L2 data. Nevertheless, most recommendations for instruction in pragmatics have not been examined in action in the classroom setting and therefore we do not really know how effective they are for students' learning of the target pragmatic feature. Much research is needed in this respect. Interlanguage pragmatics, i.e., the study and use of pragmatic features by language learners that make use of their interlanguage (an approximant system that is between the Ll andtheL2) have not been studied in depth and fuither research is needed to investigate how the learning of L2 pragmatics is shaped by instructional context and activities.
Kasper and Rose (2001) put forward that language leamers can benefit
from positive transfer of communicative acts that have been found constant across ethnolinguistically distant speech communities as it is
the case of the speech act set for apologies. This speech act comprises as its chief semantic formulas an explicit apology, an explanation and the admission or denial of responsibility. Among its minor strategies (bound to the context and the circumstances) are the offer of repair, a promise of forbearance, and an expression of concern for the hearer, and these strategies are reported to have been found in a number of languages like English, French, German, Hebrew Thai and Japanese.
Learners can also get pragmalinguistic knowledge u'ithout anv sofi of explicit instruction if there is a analogous forrn-function mapping benleen
172
L1 and L2. The English modal past could and would have formal, functional and distributional equivalents in other Germanic languages
such as Danish (kunneluille) and German (knntestlwrdest). According to Ferch and Kasper (1989) Danish and German learners of English wiil transfer ability questions from their L1 (German; Knntest/wrdest Du mir Deine Aufzeichnungen leihen2 ; Danish: Kunne/wille du lane mig dine noter?; English: Could/would you lend me your notes?). However evident this transfer of pragmalinguistic knowledge may be, it should not be assumed that language learners will in fact make the transfer. Sometimes the link between the strategy in the Ll and theL2 may not be so evident and, what is more, language learning involves a complex psycholinguistic process and positive transfer does not always occur in the way that was expected. There is then a need for description of pragmalinguistic knowledge and its use in the classroom6.
B. LANGUAGE IN THE LAW

The study of language in the legal context is a relatively new field of study in spite of the fact that law is a profession of words that has been part of civilization from the early times. The interface between sociolinguistics and the law is also known as forensic linguistics and centers on the study of discourse in legal settings and texts, from the courtroom to police or lawyer interviews. Language use in legal contexts is not essentially different from any other communicative situation, although the way ianguage is used in legal settings can have enormous repercussions for the well being of individuals and communities. The use ofianguage in legal contexts reflects situational characteristics that shape the form of legal discourse and in so doing shows specific characteristics like any other language variety.
in the late 1970s examined the influence of language factors on legal
Early studies in courtroom discourse by W.M. O'Barr and John Conley
decision-making and found out that witnesses generally make use of one of two styles: a 'powerless' style incorporating a high frequency of intensifiers (e.g., really, great, much more, etc. ) and many hedges (e.g., kind of, like, in A way, etc. ); or a'powerful' style that lacks the aforementioned features and therefore sounds more exact and confident. The results of this early research showed that jurors were inclined to find
u Anyone interested in pragmatics and language teaching arlicles in Rose and Kasper (2001).
will find some interesting
UNIT
t73
witnesses making use of a'powerful'sfzle more convincing and trrstlr,orlh],
than those employing a'powerless' style. This indicated that the r,r'av the information was presented and the witness expressed him/herself did have an effect on the final outcome of the case.
Another feature of discourse in the courtroom is the clear pow'er imbalance between the lawyer and the witness given the fact that the former definitely controls the discourse by long-winded questioning that require minimal response, being coercive and controlling, or simply not letting the witness tell his/her own story except in the way the s/he wants it to be told. An example of the way this can be attained is by using yesNo questions with a tag, which markedly control the answer (e.g., you rang her later on, didn't you?) in opposition to broad WH questions that pave the way for personal interpretation (e.g., how,why,what, etc. ). Eades (2001) provides a list of some other linguistic strategies that that can be used by lawyers to exercise control over witnesses like:
a) interruptions; b) reforrnulation of witness's descriptions of events or people (e.g.,

frorn my friends to a group of louts); c) manipulation of lawyer silence, for example, with the use of strategic
pauses;
d) nonrecognition of some witnesses' need to use silence as part of the answer, which can be particularly important, for example, for
Australian Aboriginal witnesses;
e) incorporation of damaging presuppositions in questions

you all laugh while the car was being trashed?);
(such Drd
f)
metalinguistic directives given to the witness (such as you must answer this question); and
a
g) management of topics in order to convey

to the jury.
particular impression
(Eades, 2001:232)
studies in applied sociolinguistics igarding legal lan-eua-qe ha'e undertaken three main areas: (a) the communicatir.e difficulties that typically occur from the interface between the legal-lavperson as a resulr of the interaction between lawyers, judges, juries, r'ictims, rr,-irnesses,
The amount of work on forensic linguistics is increasing and the effect this branch of linguistics has on people's lives is paramount. The stud of speech behavior in legal language constitutes a clear erample of horv sociolinguistics can have another clear application for our lives. Therefore,
t74
suspects, etc.; (b) the comprehension of legal texts are in themselves a source of communicative problems because of the specific jargon that is used as well as the intricacy of the syntax that is generally used; and, (c) as a consequence of globalization, colonization and the migration
movements, there
is an emerging demand for studies
relating
communication problems faced by non-native speakers witnesses, suspects and defendants in the legal process. This situation requires the presence of well-trained interpreters that apart from a comprehensive language knowledge, also need to know the subtleties of pragmaticsT.
9. STANDARD ENGLISH AND WORLD ENGLISHES

Standard English is a term that refers to the variety of English used by the social elite who are part of a socially, economically and politically dominant group in English-speaking countries. This variety is the one usually preferred in the media and generally taught in schools as it is considered to be'prestigious'. Non-standard English, on the other hand, refers to those varieties that do not conform to the standard spoken by forrnally educated native speakers in terrns of pronunciation, grammatical structure, idiomatic usage, or choice of words. The existence of a standard is characteristic of any language around the world and it is related to those groups of people that can be said to be literate, school-oriented and looking beyond the primary communiSz networks for social and linguistic models. The standard of any language is usually associated not only with a socially, culturally and economically dominating group but also with geographic variation, i.e., in the regions where institutional and economic power is located or more developed. Defining and delimiting a standard is not always easy or even possible as different varieties can be considered a standard in distant countries or regions. So, it is not to say that the RP (Received Pronunciation) which is generally considered the standard in England is the same as the English standard in Ireland, Australia or the USA, where there are also a set of features including pronunciation, grammatical structure, idiomatic usage and choice of words that is characteristic of formally educated speakers, the language of formal instruction, the institutions and the media. There has also been a demand for other local standards South African, Nigerian, Jamaican, -Indian, etc.- and whenever these varieties vary from one another and from British
t atyon. interested in these sociolinguistic issues will find some thorough empirical studies in Cotterill (2002).
UNIT
175
and American Standard English in the way British and American r.anfrom each other they can be counted as standard English, whereas varieties with a higher degree of variance are nonstandard. It must be added that on some occasions it is not clear whether a variety of English is to be considered as standard or not (see chapter 3).
The dispersal, or diaspora, of English over the world can be divided into two phases. The first diaspora involved the migration of around 25,000 people from England, scotland and Ireland to North America, Australia and New zealand. The varieties of English used nowadays in these places are not identical with those spoken by the early colonizers but they can be said to share some general features8 and these varieties have developed through history incorporating vocabulary from the indigenous languages they came into contact with. The second diaspora occurred at different moments during the l Bth and 19th centuries with different results from the first dispersal. The spread of English in Africa took place differently for west Africa and East Africa. English in west Africa is linked to the slave trade and the development of pidgin and creole languages. Since the 15th century British traders traveled to and from the west coast of Africa but there was no settlement in the areas today comprising Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria and cameroon. This situation favored the use of English as a lingua franca among the hundreds of indigenous languages and the English-speaking traders. some of the pidgins and creoles that developed from English contact are now widely used, mostly as a second language, as it is the case of Krio (Sierra Leone) and cameroon pidgin (cameroon). In East Africa the situation of English was very different because English colonizers settled there from 1850 on in places like Kenr-a, uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, zambia and Zimbabrve. The role of English in these countries was very obvious and this langua_ee u'as used in the government, education and the lar.r,'. In the second half of the 20th centuries these counties gained independence and English u-as kepr as an oflicial language in some of them (uganda, zambia, Zimbabrve and \Ialau i), and as a second language in others. An English-based creole, Slrahili is also used as alinguafranca in uganda, Kenr-a and Tanzania. During rhe second half of the 1Sth c. English was extensir,elv introduced in Sour}r Asia tlndia,
u f, .ttor-,ld be mentioned that the different linguistic backgrounds of ihe earlr. settlers many cases gave way to differences and variations in speech. For e-rample. rhe car[ :err]er-s of Virginia came mainly from the west part of Englandand rhotic r and r oied s :ounds were characteristic of their speech. However, early settlers in ,\err Ensland main[ came lrom the east ol England and did not share I hese pronunciarion iearu--r. ln rhc . r.c or Australia and New Zealand, there were different immigration t ar-es oi colonizers lrom different parts to the British Isles. This meant that diffent dialects sot in touch resuirine in a situation of dialect mixing, furrher influenced by the indigeno,l, bo,-rni.rul laneuaees.
in^
176
Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, etc.) due to British trade interests in the area. Simultaneously, British influence extended to South-E,ast Asia
and the South Pacific due to the seafaring expeditions of Cook and other expeditions, expanding to Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the Philippines and the Pacific islands like Papua New Guinea where a new pidgin was developed, Tok Pisin. (See chapter 3)
Y. Kachru (1992) developed a model of the spread of English that has
been most influential in the field of sociolingustics. He divides World Englishes into three concentric circles: the Inner Circle, the Outer Circle and the Expanding Circle. These three areas stand for the types of spread, the patterns of acquisition, and the position of the English language in the different cultural contexts as the language has traveled form Britain to the US, Australia and New Zealand in the first diaspora (the Inner Circle), to countries like Zarnbia, Pakistan, India, etc. in the second diaspora (the Outer Circle), and, more recently, to counties where English is learned and used as a Foreign Language, for instance, Spain, Japan, Germany, etc. (the Expanding Circle)e.
With reference to the status of these languages in relation to the standard, the English spoken in the Inner Circle u,ould be considered as 'norm-providing', i.e., it represents a model and is used as a natir.e language; the English spoken in the Outer Circle could be considered 'norm-developing', that is, used in countries where the variety of English is in the process ofbeing accepted (or has been recently adopted), and is spoken as a SL aparl from other indigenous languages; and, the Expanding Circle r.n'ould be'norm-dependent'because it is learned as a FL and the standard is taken as it is.
English spoken in the Inner Circle shows clear patterns of variatioi, both in terrns of geographical and social differences which have been lon'. studied by dialectologists especially in Great Britain and l{orth America
The varieties of English spoken in Outer Circle countries have be:called New Englishes. Although this term is controversial and not a--
\tr n" model provided by Kachru (lgg2),the Inner Circle includes: USA, UK, Ca;::-:. Australia and New Zealand. The Outer Circle contains: Bangladesh, Ghana, India, K-: '.,
Malarsia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Zambia.
Expanding Circle comprises: China, Egypt, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Korea, Nepal. S.,-:
Arabia, Tair'van, USSR, Zimbabwe. This division is not clear cut as South Africa, for in-.:,.=.-. is not included. Some authors u''ould agree that it is part of the Inner Circle u'hile , ,: . ' rvould say that it is paft of the Outer Circle, since English in South Africa is not predom:.-: used b' first-language speakers. to For a more detailed analysis of the varieties of English spoken in Great Nor-th America, vou can read Melchers and Shaw (2003).
.{n:
UNIT
177
specialists agree with it, it is certain that the Englishes of India, Nigeria, Singapore, and Tanzania, together with many oter outer-circle countries share some superficial linguistic characteristics that .t" it convenient to describe them as a group different from the varieties in British, American, Australian, NIew zealand., etc. These outer-circle varieties are normally spoken as part of a murtilingual repertoire that may incrude a number of other languages spoken in rfrerent circumstances (mother tongue, first language,lingua franca, etc.). This fact determines that on some occasions the command over English is not comprehensive: there can be registers, domains or styles not covered by the ,p"ak", of English as a sL in the outer circle, or even variation in ter-rns of proficien.y uriorrg the speakers (see rhe example of India in chapter s). tn ts of phtnolog; varieties in the outer circle tend to be a simplified system, toi in the case of vowels where the quality of vowels normally approximates "*u*pi, to that of the other languages spoken ty the speakers. rhe same happens with some consonants as these other languags do not normally harr the distinction l0l and /i, which are replace witn some dental or alveolar stop. In terms of syntax some features are also shared by languages in the outer circle but not in the Inner circre. This is th" .arl of g f,uestions which is rather complex in BrE and AmE but largely simplified in other varieties, but many varieties of the outer-circl" ,1" u single phrase or a few variants for this function that do not need to pay atteniion to the type of auxiliary used or if the tag is attached to a positive or negatirre sentence. For instance, in India this tag can be simplified as no? oi isn,t it? on all occasions, or not sol in East and west Africa. with reference to lexis, singular words referring to plurar concepts tend to be simprified and treated as ordinary singulars r.r,ith a g"rr"rul sense (e.g., luggagi, funtiture, software, etc.).
tr
rn the Expanding circle, English will not be used for official purposes such as the language of general formal education, religion, courts and the law, national politics or administration, literature, u"t it can be used in international relations, international organizations, "t.1. research, education at specialized levels, publicity and business, among other functions. In the Expanding circle governments ofren have poliii", io ,uf"guard the status of the national or local languages regulating the use of nglish in education and the media. Hou,evr; Elglis is alsJ p"r."irr"a as a useful language, and the advantages of being proficient in ii are clear. This often means that parents want their children to learn English and pupils also perceive the potential^benefits of being proficient in-that language. This fact is especiallv manifest in eastern Eriropean countries that want to join the developed western economies, and ountries withi'irr" Eu where
fr
178
there is a clear need to speak international languages that allow people communicate and operate in this wide job market.
In terms of the linguistic features of English used in the Expanding Circle, it must be added that there is a marked tendency to use a standardized variety like BrE and AmE. However, two stages can be perceived, one in which the clear influence exerled by one variety favors the use of that variety (for example when films and TV programs are not
dubbed), and another one where the interchangeable influence of these two varieties gives way to what is often called'mid-Atlantic'English, that is, when features from British and American usage are mixed because learners are overtly exposed to both varieties (e.g., at the word level the following words can be used indistinctivelr: candy - sweets, trunk - boot, lift - elevator, autumn - fall, etc.). Some other features of the same phenomenon can be found in spelling, for instance, where lear-ners do not follow one of the varieties consistenth (e.g., when someone writes neigftbor and colour, or analyze and analyse, etc.). Another possibility may be that of students who receive the influence of BrE through their formal education but the influence of AmE through the music and the media. At the pronunciation level, this possible mixture of American and British pronunciation can be added to features derived from the speaker's mother tongue, so that standardization is rather difficult and unlikely. trinally, in terms of lexis, under these circumstances there is a clear risk of allowing interference between English and the mother tongue in the case of false friends, i.e., words in both languages that show some sort of formal similarities but which vary greatly in meaning. This phenomenon results either in miscommunication or in the use of words that acquire a new meaning in'local English' (e.g., more and more frequently in Spanish the word influenciar is heard on the news instead of influir, or the word secretario instead of ministro when referring to the North American or British government, i.e., British Foreign Secretary). Another interesting phenomenon is the increasing presence of borrowings from English and how they influence other modern languages.
(Please go to the exercises section and do exercise 7 and B.)
10. EXERCISES
1. Think about your learning of English and answer the following questions regarding some sociolinguistic aspects: a) What variety of English do you
speak?
UNIT
179
b/ why did you decide to learn this variety, if you did? If it was not
your own choice, what made you learn this variety?
c)
Have you always had contact
with the same variety? why (not)?
d) rf you have had access to more than one variety/dialect, are you
consistent in it? Why? Why not?
e/ Now that you have studied English for years, what decisions
regarding your learning of a language would you change?
2.
Take any language learning book and find a dialogue in it. you can
use a language course for secondary school, for example, but do not bother
too much about the language level. Read the dialogue and analyze the sociolinguistic information it contains (e.g., turn taking, polite words or formulas, situation, etc.). Do you think it reflects a realistic situation? whv
(not)?
3. Think about the way the speech event of par.tings is structured in Spanish. Take two or three different situations and describe both, the different stages and the language formulas that are employed. In order to do this exercise you can either reflect on a typical situation or just pay attention to the way other people do it.
relevant utterance. Take into account that more than one move can occur within a single utterance.
4. Analyze the following excerpt and place any of the three moves (r)nitiation, (R)esponse, and (F)ollow up in the dialogue next to the
|
..1
T- we can correct now question one and you can finish the rest at ho1ne. Most of you have finished already, so let us correct until three, and [...] Ok. First. It is an invitation to attend the opening ceremony of' the school year. Mm... Juan What have you got for ihat? "
S- Mm, What is this
invitation to ... or... about.
T- What is this
else?
invitation for, ... Ok, that is a possibility, anything
s-
t...1
to that, Ok? ... Jos, What about you, number two. Revolution will be our topic for next week.
S- I have What is our topic for next week?
T- what is this letter ... you have to mention the word invitation what , is thcLt letter you have, or you received, or you got ... or anything similar
ih" tirirrtrot
180
AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGI]ISTTCS
will
T- Mm, ... Yeah, but it is possible you are not repeating too many new words ... What's our topic for next week? ... The Industrial Revolution
be
our topic for next week ... Ok, It's not impossible ... Any other
option?
S- What
will
be the topic f-or the next week?
T- Next week, not the next week, next week, What
next week? or When
will the topic be will we study the Industrial Revolution?
S- What are we going to do the next week? t...1
5. Read the previous excerpt again and write a paragraph (around 150 words) answering the following questions:
a/ Is the teacher dominating too much? b) Is the language "natural" and "real". Why
(innovative, traditional, etc.)? Explain.
(not)?
c) What type of teaching methodology do you think is being used d) Do you think this excerpt reflects a tlpical teaching situation? Why? e) Do you think students have enough chances for "fuII" and "real"
interaction?
f)
6.
think students learning English as a foreign language in classroom setting have access to real and idiomatic language?
Oo you
Can you suggest other situations in which spoken language is organized purposive and in the same way as in the classroom? Describe them.
7. Why might Indian English be called a New English? (Given that it probably dates back to 1800 approximately). You may want to see chapter
5 also.
8. Take an empty world map where only the political boundaries are marked. Take three pencils and color in the countries belonging to the Inner Circle, the Outer Circle, and the Expanding Circle (use one color for each set of countries). Then try to get information about the current population of each country, the language or languages used, the number of speakers of each language, and some important fact about its history (for instance, in the case of former colonial countries the date of independence, or some other fact that you consider of relevance). The purpose of this activity is for you to have a global perspective of the influence of English in the world, and the current state of the art. To complete this activity you can use any updated encyclopedia.
UNIT
181
11. REFERENCES
Bnun'r'rr, ch. 1995. 'Peoplet choice and language rights' fvideorecord ing): EFL in language policy. university of york, Audio-Visuil cent.e. i.r,t, tetEpt.
cnncN BerrRN, R. 2001. 'La enseanza der vocabulario en ingls como L2: el efecto del nfasis en la forrna lingstica en el aprend izaje de!og.r.do, falsos'. Unpublished doctoral disserration. University bf Sevlll.
cnrcr, J. K. 1996.'Intercultural communication', in S. L. McKay and N. H.

University Press. corrpnrrr, J. (ed.) 2002. Language in the Legar proces.s. Houndmills, uK: palgarve Macmillan. cnvsrar, D. 2003. (2nd ed.). English as a Global kmguage. cambridge: cambridge University Press. Eeres, D. 2001. 'Discourse Analysis and the Law', in R. Mesthrie (ed,.) Concise Ency clopedia of- Sociolinguis tic s. Oxford, UK: pergamon. F,e,RcH, c. and G. Kaspen. r989.'Internal and external modification of in interlanguage request realization', in S. Blum-Kurka, J. House and G. Kasper
Hornberger, sociolinguistic s and Language kaching. cambridge: cambridge
of Sociolinguistics. Oxford, UK: Blackwell publishers. Gnanror, D. 1997. The Future of English? London: The British council. JpNrrNs, J. 2003. world Englishes: A resource book for stud.ents. London, uK: Routledge.
(eds.), Cross-cultural pragmatics: Requests and, apologie.s. Nor-wood, NJ: Ablex. FINpcaN, E. 1997. 'Sociolinguistics and the Law', in F. coulmas (ed.), The Hanclbook
Kcsnu, Y. 1992.'culture, style and discourse: expanding noetics of English,, in B. Kachru (ed.), rle other Tongue. English Aiross ctlrtures,2nd ed,irbana, IL: University of Illinois press. KaspeR, G. and K. R. Rosp. 2001. 'pragmatics in language teaching', in K. R. Rose and G. Kasper (eds.). pragmatics in kLnguage reachiig. cambrige: cambridge University Press.
MsrcHER.s, G. and P. Snaw. 2003. world Englishes. London, uK: Arnold. Noxnrs, J. 2001.'use of address terrns on the German speaking Test', in K.R. Rose qd G Kasper (eds.). pragmatics in Language Teachiig. caribridge: cambridge
University Press. Rose' K. R. and G. Kspsn (eds.). 2001. pragmatics in Language Taching. Cambridge: Cambridge University press. SnvcrarR, J. M. and R. M. courrruo . 197s. Towards an analysis of cliscourse. oxford: Oxford University press.
Sporsrv, B. (ed.) 1999' Concise Encyclopedia of Eclucational Linguisllcs. Amsterdam:
Elsevier.
SwarN,
M. 1995. 'Three functions of output in second language lear'in,e,, in G. cook & B. Seidlhofer (ed1.l, and practice in the ud\, of apptiJct lingtListics: studies in honor of-H.G. "rinciple widdowson. oxford: oxford u.ri.l".ritr-pr.rr.
t82
T*.oNp, E. and
M. Swru. 1995.'A Sociolinguistic Perspective on Second Language Use in Immersion Classrooms.' The Modem Language Jountal,7912: 166-178.
WorrsoN, N. and J. MaNEs. 1978. 'Don't 'Dear' rne.' Working Papers in Sociolinguisllcs. Austin, TX: SEDL. Reprinted inWomen and Language in
Literature and Society, eds. S. McConnell-Ginet, R. Borker, and N. Furman, 1980, pp. 79-92. New York Praeger. WorrsoN, N. 1989. Perspectives: Sociolinguistics andTESOL. Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers. WorrsoN, N. 1983. 'An empirically based analysis of complimenting in American English', in N. Wolfson and E. Judd (eds.), Sociolinguistics and Language Acquisition. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Now you can sit the website for this subject where you will find some further references and complementary readings.
13. FURTHER READINGS AND QUESTIONS 13.1. Text 11

Read the following text carefully and comment on it emphasizing any aspect you consider of relevance. After the text you will find some questions that may be helpful. Write ai'ound 250-300 words in total.
t...1
A source of intercultural miscommunication highlighted by the

findings of cross-cultural studies is sociolinguistic transfer. Sociolinguistic
transfer refers to the i.rse of the rules of speaking of one's own speech community or culturaj group when interacting with members of another community or group. This can occur in interactions in which one or more of the interlocuors is using a foreign or second language but
employing the rrles of speaking of his or her native language. It can even occur in interactions between individuals who have the same natir-e Ianguage but belong to speech communities that have different rules of speaking, as would be the case, for example, with British and American
English speakers.
To illustrate how sociolinguistic transfer can be a source of intercultural misconr*.nunication, we turn to some studies of compliment giving and responciing behavior.[...] Wolfson (1983) points out that differences in the distrlbution of compliments in different communities are potential sources of intercultural miscommunication; that is, there
UNIT
183
according to wolfson. She points out that the high foequency with which Americans compliment leads to their being perceived by members of other cultures as "effusive, insincere, and possibly motivaied by ulterior considerations" (1 989, p. 23).
next day revealed that carter's remarks had been interpieted as interference in the internal politics of France. The frequency of complimenting is also a potential source of miscommunication,
is foequently interactional trouble when members of one cultural group compliment in situations in which compliments are inappropriate for members of other groups. She cites the time when former president carter, during an official visit to France, complimented a French official on the_fine job he was doing. Editorial comment in the French press the
Chick (199: 332)
Issues to consider:
a) Do you think that the relative distance between the languages or

cultures involved in cross cultural communication plays a role in intercultural miscommunication ?
b) Have you ever been involved in a situation of intercultural

miscommunication? Do you think that it could have been avoided? If your answer is yes, how?
c)
To what extent do you
think that the foreign language learner can be trained to avoid intercultural miscommunication and take advantage of sociolinguistic transfer from his/her L1?
73.2. Text 12
more complicated answer than those who ask probably desire. There are, for example, at least two dimensions to the question: the first is whether English will fragment into many mutually unintelligible local forms; the second is whether the current 'national' standars of English (particularly US and British) will continue to compete as models of correctness for world usage, or whether some new world standard will arise which supersedes national models for the purposes of international communication and teaching.
one question which arises in any discussion of global English is whether a single world standard English will develop, fori'ring a supranational variety which must be learned by global citizens of ihe 21st century. Like most questions raised in this book, this demands a
184
AN INTRODUCTiON TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS The widespread use of English as a language of -wider communication give
will continue to exerl pt"rr.tt towards global uniformity as well as rise to anxieties aboui'declining' standards, language change and the
loss of geolinguistic diversity. But as English shifts from foreign-language
to seco]rd-laigt.g" status lot ut increasing number of people' we can also expect to-see-English develop a larger number of local varieties. These contradictory tensions arise because English has two main functions in the world: ii provides a vehicular language for international communication and it forms the basis for constmcting cultural identities' The former function requires mutual intelligibility an-d- common the d'evelopment of local forms and standards. The latter jn "rr.J.t.ug"t hybrid varieties. As English pluyt utt ever more important ro-le the fiist of these functions, ii simultaneously finds itself acting as a language of identity for larger numbers of people around the world' There is no need to feaq however, that trends towrds fragmentation will necessarily first threaten the role of English as a lingua franca. There have, since the of varieties between differences records of the l.rrguale, been major
English.
Themechanismswhichhavehelpedmaintainstandardusagein the p^st may not, however, continue to serve this function in the future. Two major technologies have helped develop national' standard-language forms. th first was printing, t\t invention of *t i.t p.""id .;fi*ity' in communication by means of prirrted books. Accoring to scholais such as Anderson (1983), such fixity was a ,r"."rr../.equirement for the 'imagined communities' of modern nation states. But with increasing use of electronic communication much of the social and cultural effect of the stability of print has k""ay been lost, along with central'gatekeeping' agents s.uch as .dito.. .rrd publishers who maintain consistent, standardised forms of language. The second technology has been provided by broadcasting' which in many ways becam" -oi. important than print in the socially mobile communitis of the 2gth century. But trends in global media suggest that broadcasting will not necessarily play an-important role in establishing and riaintaining a global standard. Indeed, the patterns of frug-.rrtuiion and localisation, which are significant_trends in satellite brJadcasting, mean that television is no longerable t-o::rye such a function. How can there be such thing as 'network English' in a world in which centralised networks have all but disappeared? Meanwhile, new forms of computer-mediated communication are closing the gap between spoken and written English which has been constrirctedlatoriously over centuries. And cultural trends encourage the use of informal and more conversational language, a greater tolerance of diversity and individual style, and a lessening deference to authoritr: These tren"ds, taken togethe4 suggest that a weakening of the institutions and practices which maintained national standard languages is taking
UNIT
185
place: that the native-speaking countries are experiencing an

'destandardisation' of English.
1...1
since ELT publishers from native-speaking countries are likely to of the language pubshers already p.o.rrd. -most materials in several standards- it will be non-native speakers who decide whether a us model, a British one, or one based on a second-language variety will be taught, learned and used. At the very least, English textbooks in countries where English is spoken as a second langirage
follow markets
are likely
their product by incorporating materials in local vaiieties of English.

t...1
1o
puy more attention to local varieties of English and to
toliie
Graddol (1997 56-59)
Issues to consider:
a)
Do you think that the situation described in this article has changed
since it was written (in 1997)?
b) }{ow c)
do you see the future of the English language, both as a native language and as a lingua franca?
Do you think that there is a 'network English' , i.e. aspecial type or variety of English used in the internet? why (not)? provide io*" examples. is the situation of spanish as a global language and as alingua franca? How do you see it in relation to English in the future?
d) what
e) Do you agree with Graddol's statement'[...] English textbooks in countries where English is spoken as a second language are likely to pay more attention to local varieties of English and to localise
their product by incorporating materials in local varieties of English [...]'?
186
14. KEY WORDS

important terms that The following list of key words contains some can be found at the term each ur" pr".".rr" inirti, ,rttli. "fi"ltion for end of this book, in the glossary'
:.'
Communicative comPetence
Discourse analYsis Discourse marker EthnograPhY of communication EthnographY of sPeaking
EthnomethodologY
Informant Interference
Lingua franca Linguistic competence Language functions LWC
Micro-sociolinguistics
New Englishes Pragmatic competence ProficiencY
Sociolinguistic comPetence Sociolinguistic relativitY

Speech act
Turn-taking
Model exam
In this section, a model exam is provided so that students can have a precise idea of what they will be requested to do in the formal examinations that take place at the end oi the terrn anJtt provide the basis for evaluating their level of u.hi"rr"-"rrt.
Questions
l'
choose two of the following issues and explain them in your own words' write around 100 wrds for each;,h.
a) 'Style'as a variable in sociolinguistics. b) Explainwhat a diglossic siruation is.

c) Canadian immersion programs.
ilquestions.
2' Define
the following five terms taken from the glossary. provide brief definitions of nt more than 60 words each. a) Acrolect
Language attrition
b)
c) Lingua franca
d) Minority
e) Variety
language
3' comment, from a sociolinguistic point of view, on the folrowing

The child g.p*ing_rp in the province, say, in some mounlain village, learns to speak in the lo;al araeJ. tn time, to be sure, this rocal dialect will take in more and mo.. forms lo* tt".o"J".J,furrguages... The child, then, does not speak the rtu"u. h"r;;;'. n*'Iutirr" rongue.
excerpt. You are expected to relate this extrac,," ,rr" contents of the subject in no more than 300 words.
190
It is only after he reaches school, long after his speech-habits are for-rned, that he is taught the standard language. No language is like the native
language that"one learned at one's mother's knee; no-one is ever perfectly ,rrr in language afte'wards acquired. 'Mistakes'in language are simply
dialect forms carried into the standard language'
Excerpt form L. Bloomfiled (1970)'Literate and illiterate speech" American SPeech, 2: 432-9.
Key to the model exam Erercise

7
In the first exercise the student is provided with three topics which have been discussed in the Unidades DidLcticas. Students should select only two of the three issues listed and explain them in their own words. Conciseness is highly valued in this exam and, therefore students completing the test should be very precise and provide brief answers stating the most important points (100 words for each question).
Ererci,se 2 In the second exercise five key words from the glossary are given and the student is expected to define them in his/her own words. Again, long convoluted answers should be avoided and each of the five terms should be explained in around 60 words.
Erercise 3
The third part of the test consists of the commentary of a reading passage. The itudent is not expected to summarize t]ne excerpt but to comment on it making reference to the contents of the subject. The purpose of this exercise is to see to what extent the student has understood ihe contents of the subject and has developed a critical view of sociolinguistic principles. No single answer can be provided for this exercise but here is a model one:
language, or varity of language that is first acquired in-terms of order of Jcqriisition and he states that no other language will ever rival this first ne. This argument is to some extent arguable because at times education can compensate and even surpass the knowledge of the mother
In this excerpt Bloomfield refers to the 'native language'as the
MODEL EXAM
191
tongue. Many examples of language attrition can be found when a speake4 for instance, in the case of an immigrant who goes into another
s_pee-ch
community and develops a second'anguage
the first.
t tfr.
"*p"rrr.
of
This extract also raises the chomskian conception of the native speaker as_an idealized speaker whose linguistic intuilions represent the dy reliable source for descriptive adequacy. chomsky's description of th native speaker seems detached form reality and from the sociar dimensions_ of languages relying on native speakers' intuitions and setting aside social and cultural factors. There is a problem in using the native speaker as a model of language proficiency bcause s,4re may ave limited vocabulary and low grammatical competence while the reverse may be true of a non-native speaker. English may be someone's second o. third language, yet that does not imply that his/her competence is lower than
that of a native speaker.
millions of speakers that do not have contact with a standard language until they get into the educational system and receive formal education.
Nevertheless, they are considered, and indeed consider themselves, creole native speakers.
of creole languages that although not being considered, on many occasions, as standard languages, are in fact the mother tongue of
The references in this fragment can be further extended to the issue
K"y to the exercises
This section provides some model answers for the exercises and activities presented at the end of each unit. On most occasions, these exercises have an open answer and no single response can be provided. Active participation in the web discussion forum will allow the students peer-exchange of answers and debate.
Unit
Erercise 5
(This passage is taken from the famous novel Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome published in 1889.)
The word deuce in its meaning in this passage is, according to The Longman Dictionary of English Innguage and Culture, old-fashioned. The word aren't is never nowadays written ar'n\ (and indeed is underlined in red by the spell checker in the word processing package on which this book is being in prepared).
There are a number of other expressions which native speaker informants suggest may be old fashioned: for example, you silly cuckoo, rather an amusing thing (instead of a rather amusing thing, and I was laughing so (instead of I was laughing so much). However native speaker intuition is notoriously unreliable in such matters. To support such claims one would need to make careful study of a large corpus of contemporary English and of a large corpus of English written in the late nineteenth
century.
It is worth noting that the expression gimme (for

distinctly modern flavour.
give me) has a
t96
Erercise 6
Abrupt: It means 'repentino, brusco, inesperado' ('sudden,
hasty, precipitate') and not'abrupto'which in English is steep, although we can find the word abrupt referring to someone's character. The word abrupt comes from Latin abruptus'precipitous, disconnected'. In the 16th c. (Shakespeare) it meant'broken away'or'marked by sudden change', and in l7th c. it changed its meaning to 'steep'. Disgrace: It means 'deshonra , vergenza' . It doesn't mean 'desgracia' which in English is misfortune, for example, I had the misfortune to lose my ticket.In the 1th c. it meant'disfavor', 'dishonor', 'shame, or cause of this' jus like French 'disgce' and Spanish'desgracia'. Edit: Its means 'corregir, preparar la edicin de, dirigir un peridico' . It doesnt mean 'editar'which in English s to publish. Formerly this word meant'to publish' (rare) or'to prepare an edition of' (in the 18th c'), and'be the editor of' (in the 19th c.). Journal: It means 'revista especializada, diario'and not'iornal'which in English is day's wage (or pay).In PdE this word means 'periodical, rnagazine' .In the l4th c. it was 'a book' or 'record', 'a service-book containing day-hours'in the ecclesiastical field. In the 1th c. it meant 'performed, happening or recurring every day, daily', but it also meant 'a book containing notices concerning the daily stages or routes or other information for travelers'. In relation to trade it meant'a daily record of commercial transactions' (16th c.). In the 18th c. it acquired the meaning of 'a day's travel, a journey'. Sympathy: It means' c o wtp as i n, c o mpren s i n, s o lidaridad' (' compassion, pity, concern, agreement, harrnony') and not'simpata'whch in English is friendliness, Iiking, affection According to The Oxford English Dictionary this word means 'affinity between certain things, by virtue of which they are similarly or correspondingly affected by the same influence, affect or influence one another'. This word was adopted in the 1th c. from the Latin word sympathia.
Unit 3
Erercise 3
A.
Cars No, the car get in one long line. Sometime in one long line. Maybe, get about fifty, sixty cars, yeah.
KEYTO THE EXERCISES
t97
And then, it's not only one line, They get several more other lines, They get some more cars, too, eh? And, the teamsters is, Always bringing cars, and, Always taking out, see.
B.
My job
So, my job is to see
That no more, no more, no trouble in the field They grab their car. Then, some of them, they tell,
Ey, I think My company no more, though, yeah. You see, if no more, no more company Well,I go find, See, that's my job, see
Ererci.se 5
Australia Belgium English Flemish Dutch, French, (German) Portuguese English, French Spanish Finnish, Swedish French French Hindi, English, 14 regional languages Swahili, English Maori, English Norwegian (Nynorsk, Bokml) English, Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu Guaran, Spanish Pilipino, English Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, English Swahili, English Spanish Zaire
Brazil
Canada
Colombia Finland France
Haiti India
Kenya New Zealand Norway Papua New Guinea Paraguay Philippines Singapore Tanzania Uruguay Zaire
198
Unit 6
Erercise
1
T- We can correct now question one and you can finish the rest at home. Most of you have finished already, so let us correct until three, and t...] Ok. First. 1/ is an invitation to attend the opening ceremony of the school year. Mrn... Juan What have you got for that? (I)
S- Mm, What is this T- What is else? (I)
invitation to ... or ... about (R)
this invitation for, ... (F) Ok, that is a possibility, anything
s-
t...1
T- What is this letter
... (F) vou have to mention the word invitation,
What is that letter you have, or you received, or you got ... or anything similar to that, Ok? (F) ... Jos, What about you, number two. The Industrial Revolution will be our topic for next week.
I have What is our topic for next week? (R) T- Mm, ... Yeah, but it is possible you are not repeating too many new words (F) ... What's our topic for next week? ... The Industrial Revolution will be our topic for next week ... (F) Ok, It's not impossible ... Any other
S-
option? (I)
S- What
will
be the topic
for the next week? (R)
T- Next week, not the next week, next week, What will the topic be next week? or When will we study the Industrial Revolution? (F) S- What are we going to do the next week? (R)
Erercise 6
You can describe, for example, the linguistic encounter in any of these situations:
Doctor <> patient

Shop-assistant <> customer
Clossary
Aboriginal languages:
The languages spoken by Aboriginal Australians before the arrival of English colonizers. Aboriginal English is the technical name given to a continuum of varieties of English ranging between standard ustralian English and creoles used by Aboriginal Australians.
Acrolect: when decreolization takes place, i.e., a creole language coexists with a standard language and the latter exerts some influ.r." o.r the former, a range of varieties develop. In such a situation a continuum appears in the language and speakers in that speech community show a-range of different pronunciation features, which are usually associated with scial stratification. The acrolect is the top and educated variety which is closer to the standard and further away from the creole. The airolecl can evolve into a New English.
African American Vernacular English (AAVE):

(see Black English Vernacular) Sometimes called Black English Vernaculaq, Black English, or Ebonics, it refers to the language spoken in black communities in the United States. some linguists consider it a significantly different linguistic system from the standard dialect since it does not confor- to lt, pronunciation, grammatical structure, idiomatic usage, vocabulary etc. In the 1960's the issue of AAVE became a source of concern in the education system as it was perceived that black students performed below average in schools and the reason was thought to lie in their language skilis. It was considered that Black English speakers had to face the double load of having to deal with linguistic differences in the classroom as well as in the course content. This issue has been a source of concern ever since.
Analic language:
Languages can be classified into typologicar categories based on how words are formed. An analytic language is one in which words tend to
202
AN INTRODUCTION TO SOC]OLINGUISTICS
be one syllable long with no affixes, as in Chinese or Vietnamese. The function of words in a sentence is shown primarily by word order. Analytic languages are also known as isolating languages. (See synthetic language.)
Auxiliary language: It is a language that is used for a special purpose and has, among
others, a specific functional goal. Pidgins are auxiliary languages but there are also instances of artificial auxiliary languages such as Esperanto, Business English, Maritime English and Air-Tiaffic control English. These languages sometimes have a specialized jargon and that tends to be the most difficult part as they are not very complex from a syntactic point of view.
Basilect:
When decreolization takes place, .e., a creole language coexists with a standard language and the latter exelts some influence on the former, a range of varieties develop. In such a situation a continuum appears in the language and speakers in that speech community show a range of different pronunciation features, which are usually associated with social stratification. The basilect is the bottom variety which is closer to the creole and further away from the standard.
Bidialectal: This term is closely related to bilingualism. In the same way that
someone speaking two languages would be considered bilingual, someone who can use two dialects can be considered bidialectal (see Dialect). It all
depends, of course, on what is considered a dialect, but the ground definition would be a variant of a language due to geographical differences. Nevertheless, being bidialectal implies that the differences between the concerned codes is not so great as to prevent mutual intelligibility.
+
Black English Vernacular:

(also African American Vernacular English) This term refers to the non-standard English spoken by lower-class African Americans in US urban communities. This term substituted Black English which assumed that all black people used the same variety. It has been demonstrated that the differences that distinguish Black English from standard English are paralleled in varieties of Black language spoken in other parts of the world such as the Caribbean and West Africa. In the UK, Black English is the result of the linguistic change form creole languages spoken by Afro-Caribbean immigrants which were
GLOSSARY
203
influenced by English as a dominant language in the UK. This language has also become more Englishlike for the UK-born descendants of these former immigrants.
Borrowing: This term is used in comparative and historical linguistics to refer to

words or phrases which have spread from one language or dialect and are used in another. Although less evidently and less frequently, borrowings can also occur at a different linguistic level such as syntactic. The borrowing language may have various ways of incorporating the foreign form into the recipient language's phonology, morphology and syntax. Borrowing can be originated by a wide range of different causes including:
a/ Close contact
between two or more language codes in multilingual situations which favors the transfer of elements. b) The domination of some languages by others due to cultural, economic, political, religious or other reasons. c) A sense of need because technology or culture advances more rapidly in countries speaking certain languages. d) A sense of prestige associated with words or expressions coming from other languages. The difference between code-switching and borrowing is not always
clear. There is no doubt in the case of historically transferred forms which
have settled in the target language (e.g., words like castle, forest and tempest , come from French; and, words Iike call , egg, and law , come frorn Norse). Code-switching, howeveq is spontaneous, affects all levels of linguistic structure simultaneously and is unstable as it depends on the context and the relationship between the speakers (e.g., the Spanglish that is often heard in places such as Gibraltar or Texas). On some other occasions, borrowings may resemble code-switches because they maintain a foreign status and retain another languages' syntax (e.g., Fixed phrases from Latin:. ad hoc, sine qua non, etc.).
Co-ordinate bilingual: This term applies to someone who has learnt two languages and both languages have been learnt in different contexts, and they are kept distinct. It probably entails the existence of two meaning systems with two different words. This raises the question whether both languages develop together or separately in the brain. Neurolinguisitic findings suggest that words are stored together in the case of early bilingualism, from childhood, but kept in separate places if bilingualism was developed later.
204
4
Communicative competence: This terrn was first introduced by the American anthropological linguist Dell Hymes in opposition to the chomskian conception of native speaker's linguistic competence which referred to the linguistic intuitions of an idealized native speaker. Dell Hymes considered that the linguistic knowledge of grammar, pronunciation and lexicon is not enough as speakers also have other types of linguistic knowledge about how to use that language properly in society. This additional knowledge allows speakers to be sensitive to some determining factors such as the context, the type of interlocutor, and the register, for example. Communicative competence is acquired by native speakers of the language but it also needs to be acquired by non-native speakers, together with linguistic competence. The ethnography of speaking studies what is necessary to be communicatively competent in different speech communities. Compound bilingual: This term describes a situation in which one language has been learnt after the other and, therefore, through the first one. Both languages are closely connected as they are composed of a single meaning system with two words or labels for a single meaning. This raises the question whether both languages develop together or separately in the brain. Neurolinguisitic findings suggest that words are stored together in the case of early bilingualism, from childhood, but kept in separate places if bilingualism
was developed later.
Corpus planning: This term refers to the actions undertaken in order to partially modify the nature or characteristics of a ianguage in some way, for instance, decisions regarding what pronunciation to adopt from those available; decisions regarding what syntactic or morphological patterns to use; or, even what regional forms adopt as the standard. CP may also control the incorporation of new vocabulary. CP is closely related to status planning which refers to whether the status of a language could or should be raised or lowered.
Dialect:
Geographical variation affects languages in the form of dialects. This refers to how locality correlates with differences in the way people speak the language. People who speak a dialect often use different words or pronunciations for the same word. This type of variation may also affect syntactic and intonation patterns. Nowadays, dialect variation tends to
diminish due to the fact that the media and the communication
GLOSSARY
205
infrastructures have a homogenizing effect on languages. Sometimes the distinction between dialects and languages is not quite clear as sociopolitical factors may play an important role in the decision. It must be added that not even dialectolo-eists agree on a single definition of 'dialect'.
Dialectology: rt is the study and search for idiosyncratic features in language use withina geographical area. Dialectologists usually analyze te tlpical vocabulary pronunciation, intonation patterns, and other Lharacteiirti.., and try to match these with specific geographic areas. Discourse analysis: This field of research refers to the analysis of linguistic units above the sentence level, i.e., texts or conversations. By analyzing written or aural texts, discourse analysts explore the differeni functions of lurrg.rug" in social interaction. Discourse marker:
These are words, phrases or sounds that have no content meaning but, however, play an important role in marking conversational struclure, signaling conversational intentions and assuring cooperation on the part of listeners. some discourse markers in English are: actually, really, oh, Yeah, etc. Notice that the types of discourse markers and theii uses frequently change across languages.
Domain: This term refers to the combination of social and situational factors that generally influence the choice of code by speakers: code, dialect, locâtion, registe4 style, topic, etc. For example, th lungrrug" of home will definitely be different to the language used at a forma'mleting at work. The same speaker will use different styles, an informal one for the former situation and a formal one for the latter. This concept is frequently used in studies of code-switching in multilingual coniexts where vrious languages, dialects or styles are employed in different social settings.
Dormant bilingual: Bilinguals who do no longer use their languages but who acquired them in the past and reached a comprehensive ktro*l"dg" and command.
Endangered language: Languages normally develop, merge or die, and whenever a language is at risk because the number of speakers decreases we can sav thai tht
206
AN INTRODIJCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS
language is endangered. This can be the result of many factors but bad or adverse language planning is generally behind the progressive disappearance of a language. Economics, or rather the lack of imporlance of a language for business, can cause its death. Many Amerindian languages are in this situation at the moment.
English-lexifier creole: (see Lexifier) This term refers to any creole which is English-based and therefore has received borrowings from English. Due to the post-creole continuum, that language may still be receiving words from English.
.
Ethnography of communication:
A term that in addition to the definition of the ethnography of speaking includes nonverbal aspects of communication, for instance, distance between speaker and hearer, eye contact, etc.
: Ethnography of speaking:
This branch of sociolinguistics studies the norms and rules for using language in social situations in different cultures. This is the reason why it is so important for cross-cultural communication and that also accounts
for its relation to communicative competence. The ethnography of

speaking deals with aspects such as the different types of language to be used under different circumstances; how to make requests, grant permission, or ask a favor; the degree of indirectness desired in certain situations; how to express your opinion or interrupt your interlocutor; how and when to use formulaic language (greetings, thanking, etc. ), etc.
Ethnomethodology: This branch of sociology deals with the content of what is being said rather than the way it is being said. Ethnomethodologists do not study
speech or language but the content of what is being said and, what is more,
what is not being said because of shared knowledge or common-sense

knowledge.
Heritage Language: This is a language spoken by an immigrant group or individual in another country. For example, in Canada, a country largely composed of immigrants, there are close to 200 languages spoken by these types of groups. This terrn is to be distinguished form Indigenous Language which also refers to a minority language but in this case alludes to the natives of that land. In Canada, for instance, about 50 indigenous languages are
GLOSSARY
207
spoken some of which are only spoken in that country and none of which is considered an official language of Canada.
ff5rpercorrection: A manifestation of linguistic insecurity, for instance, in a social group. It can manifest itself by the overuse of the socially desired forms in reful speech or reading, especially in an attempt to speak or write in an educated manner. For instance, a speaker of a non-standard variety of English may practice more self-correction when speaking formally rrd *.k" ,rr" oi more sophisticated vocabulary or a more clear pronunciation.
Inforrnant:
In empirical research this term refers to any person who provides information to be analyzed and is consequently a source of dat for the researcher. A native speaker providing insights of his/her use of language is an informant, but also a student who attends a class that is being observed to gather information about the students'progress.
Interference: In language teaching and learning this term is used to refer to any negative influence (e.g., lexical, syntactic, phonological, etc.) that one language exerts over the other, either the L1 on the L2 or vice versa.
Interference usually hinders the learning process and causes a problem to the language learner whereas positive interlinguistic influence helps or favors the language learner. Language Academy: In some countries like Spain (The Royal Academy), France (The French Academy), Ireland (The Irish Language commission), Norway (The 'Norwegian Language council), etc., there are institutions which play a role in safeguarding standards, so they try to regulate the evolution of ttre language by means of protecting the language from foreign unwanted influences an, in a way, by trying to control the evolution of language. This sort of control is more likely to be successful in written language than in spoken language and the task is rather difficult these days when the media exerts considerable influence on languages all over the world and globalization threatens the preservation of minority languages and the integrity of others. f- Language attrition: Gradual language loss. This term can refer to the loss of a mother tongue that has been acquired and due to lack of use probably because - forgoiten. it is not the language of the community it is gradualiy This
208
language that was learnt through formal instruction but gradually forgotten after a period of disuse.
Language conflict:
happens quite frequently among the second and the third generation of immigrants. In second language learning, it can refer to the loss of a
typically generate problems in multilingual settings such as decisions regarding the election of an official language, the choice of a given language for formal education, or the selection of a language to be used in courts, among others. Another typical situation of language conflict occurs when two or more languages compete for status in society. Many current language conflicts result form different social status and
government's preferential treatment of the domain language.
conflict caused by ideological, political or economical reasons. Some issues
In multilingual situations languages are frequently in some sort of
Language election/selection: Some developing countries, at some point, need to make decisions with regards to their sociopolitical evolution and their international recognition. For instance, Mozambique adopted Portuguese, the former colonial language, as its official language. Something similar happened to India, which in spite of an initial desire to detach from their former colony, later assumed English as an additional official language. These decisions are normally made for practical purposes either because the nation-state needs a agglutinative language to overcome a wide linguistic variety andlor because some advantages are seen in the possibilitr- of having a LWC as an official language. Language functions: (or functions of language) Language is frequently described as having three main functions descriptive, expressive, and social. The descriptive function of langua.= is to carry factual information. The expressive function of language i. provide information about the speaker's personal feelings, preferen.., etc. And the social function of language serves the purpose of mainrair-,_ social relations between people.
_
Language loss: This term refers to a situation where language shift in z St::_ community ends in the total shift to another language. For instance. irll a group of immigrants that go to a new country and, graduallr', in r.= two generations blend into the new speech community as their lar-',-:r becomes eventually extinct (e.g., the language loss of Dutch immi.'r'., , . ,
GLOSSARY
209
Australia). This phenomenon would be referred as language death if a language shift ends with the total loss of a language from the world, i.e., all speakers shift to a different one (e.g., Manx on the Isle of Man).
This department of the EU is located in Strasburg and has responsibility for actions concerning the progress of language education policies within the EU member states. This Division is in charge of the elaboration of guidelines and policies related to language learning and the development of policy planning regarding linguistic diversity. Among other responsibilities, they (a) assist member states with policy evaluation and depiction (at national and local levels); (b) elaborate instruments for policy analysis; (c) provide assistance regarding linguistic minorities language education; etc.
Language revitalization: (or Language revival) Language planning efforts made in order to revive a language that because of social or economic reasons has decreased in number of speakers or which was even lost (see Language death). A language shift can lead to the spread of a dominant language and the loss of the minority language. The reasons underlying LR can vary but they are often caused by a group's search for cultural and/or ethnic identity of a group. The best example of a successful LR is Hebrew which was a classical liturgical language for centuries and is now a living language. An instance of a not so successful program to revitalize a language is Irish in Ireland where governmental efforts and programs have tried to reintroduce the use of Irish in schools without much success. Language spread: It consists of an increase in the use of a language or language variety for a given communicative function by a specific social or ethnic group. LS can either refer to a traditional language within a speech community or a language that is adopted aslinguafranca or LWC, as has been the case of English during the 20th century. Languages also spread within a nation as a new mother tongue instead of as an additional language and in that case we would rather talk about language shift. Extreme cases can even lead to language death as has happened with the spread of Spanish and English in America resulting in the loss of many Amerindian languages.
Language Policy Division:
Lexifier: (see English-lexifier creole) This term refers to the language from which most of the vocabulary has been taken to form a pidgin or creole. English, French, Spanish and
2r0
Portuguese have been lexifier languages as a consequence of the former
colonial past of countries speaking native languages. The contact

between one or more of these European languages and a native language favored the development of pidgins and creoles in different parts of the
world.
Linguafrancaz It is a language which is usually used by speakers who have different

mother tongues and, therefore, need a common language to communicate among them. Linguafrancas have existed since ancient times (e.g. Greek koin Arabic, Mandarin, etc.) but the most remarkable example nowadays is English, which is spoken by some people as a mother tongue, many others use it as a second language, and still others as a foreign language, but, as a r-ule, it serves as atinguafranca for international and intercultural communication. In spite of being widely used, the knowledge of different speakers may vary considerably depending, quite often, on the domains where the language is to be used and the functions it is meant to accomplish.
Linguistic competence: It refers to lexical, phonological, syntactical knowledge and skills and other dimensions of language as system, independently of the sociolinguistic value of its variations and the pragmatic functions of its
realizations. This component relates to the range and quality of knowledge (e.g., in terms of phonetic distinctions made or the extent and precision
of vocabulary) but also to cognitive organization and the way this

knowledge is stored (activation, recall, etc.). LWC: (Language of Wider Communication) This term is equivale nt to lingua franca . Two instances of LWC in the times of the Roman Empire are Latin in the west and koin Greek in the east. After World War II, English became a LWC. (See lingua franca).It is a language used by speakers of different languages to communicate with each other.
Macro-sociolinguistics:
This term refers to the study of sociolinguistic aspects in large groups of speakers as opposed to micro-sociolinguistics that studies areas related to small groups. Macro-sociolinguistics deals with the relationship between sociological factors and language as, for example, language planning, language shift and multilingual matters.
GLOSSARY
211
Mesolect: When decreolization takes place, i.e., a creole language coexists with a standard language and the latter exerts some influence on the former, a range of varieties develop. In such a situation a continuum appears in the language and speakers in that speech community show a range of different pronunciation features, which are usually associated with social stratification. The mesolect is the intermediate variety, or varieties, which is between the creole and the standard.
Micro-sociolinguistics:
The study of sociolinguistics in relation to small groups of speakers,
speech communities or the speech of individuals. This branch of sociolinguistics deals, for example, with the analysis of face-to-face interaction and discourse analysis. This term is used in opposition to macro-sociolinguistics which refers to larger scale study of language
in society. Minority language:

These are languages that live in the shadow of a culturally dominant language which puts the minority language at risk. As a result of political or social factors, these languages are very often not the languages of all areas of activity by native speakers as they can be excluded from certain spheres as administration, education, or mass media (e.g., Scottish Gaelic is widely used in church but marginally in other social gatherings). These factors often require speakers of minority languages to be bilingual as they will need to operate in at least two languages. Minority languages may have been at some point in their history- at risk either may be
-or decisions affecting their maintenance or by the lack of by political vocabulary to cover certain topics. Some actions can be undertaken to
promote minority languages (see chapter 5) by means of language planning and language policies. Some instances of minority languages are Irish, Welsh and Scottish Gaelic which exist in the shadow of English, or Breton in the shadow of French.
4-Native speaker: A person who has spoken a language since early childhood. This term is rather controversial in linguistics because it assumes the existence of a speaker that can be appealed in questions of correct usage because s/he is reported to represent the authority that can determine correct or deviant usage. Native and non-native are not clear cut homogeneous categories as variation depending on individual factors (origin, education, etc.) is enorrnous and all speakers are, in turn, native speakers of a given language
2t2
or dialect. In second language learning they have traditionally represented the model to follow in the process of learning but this has proven to be an inefficient approach as the processes of first and second language learning are naturally and necessarily different. Moreovel recent studies have shown that, contrary to popular belief, 'native speaker introspection' is an unreliable guide to actual usage.
New Englishes: This term refers to any of the varieties of English that have emerged as a consequence of the ample spread of this language during the colonial period. Examples of New Englishes are the English spoken in India, Kenya, Singapore or Jamaica, among others. Also know as World English, it does not emphasize the dichotomy between native and non-native use but embodies the recognition of English as an international language that shows formal and functional variation in different contexts, as a result of its use in multilingual and multicultural contexts.
Observer's paradox: A term developed by William Labov to refer to a phenomenon that takes place when doing sociolinguistic research. The issue raises when the sociolinguist needs to gather data from a single speaker or a group of speakers in a speech community. The problem is that observing and gathering (for instance, recording) that speech is difficult because as soon as the informants realize that they are being obser-ved they can - and consciously or unconsciously they generally do change their speech - pronunciation, less and make use of a less natural talk (e.g., more careful idiomatic expressions, a variety further away from the vernacular, etc.). What really interests sociolinguists is the way people speak when they do not know that they are being observed.
Pragmatic competence: This term is concerned with the functional use of linguistic resources (production of language functions, speech acts, etc.) used on aural communication or scripts of interactional exchanges. It also concerns the mastery of discourse, cohesion and coherence, the identification of text types and forms, irony, parody, etc.
tPragmatics: It is a branch of linguistics that studies the use of language in

communication, i.e., the relationships between utterances and the contexts and situations in which they are used. Within pragmatics, discourse analysis studies language in discourse.
GLOSSARY
213
Proficiency: It is someone's skill in using a language, generally as a second language. This term describes the degree of skill that someone has attained in a language and his/her ability over the four basic skills: speaking, reading, writing and listening. (Proto)-Indo-European:
Languages can be classified genetically. This classification involves comparing the structure of different languages in order to show common parentage. Indo-European is the best-known language family. The major Indo-European subgroups are: Indo-Iranian, Armenian, Albanian, Anatolian, Hellenic, Italic, Celtic, Baltic, Slavic, and Germanic. English belongs to the Anglo-Frisian group of the West Germanic branch of the Gerrnanic subfamily. An unattested (reconstmcted) language is indicated by the termproto-.
Sabir: This was a lingua franca used in the Mediterranean area from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. It is interesting to know that this language has been kept stable for centuries in spite of not having native speakers and being just a contact language used by speakers that do not share a common language. The origin of pidgins is not clear and there is an ongoing debate about it, but some specialists, the monogeneticists, suggest that all pidgins based on an European language derive from this lingua franca.
Sociolinguistic competence: This term refers to the sociocultural conditions of language use. Through its sensitivity to social conventions (rules of politeness, norms
governing relations between generations, sexes, classes and social groups, linguistic codification of certain fundamental rituals, etc.), the sociolinguistic component strictly affects all language communication between representatives of different cultures, even though participants may often be unaware of its influence.
iSociolinguistic interview: It is a technique to collect speech samples to gather information about a given speaker, or group of speakers, in a speech community. This
qualitative method of research is of prime importance for the sociolinguist as it provides face-to-face interaction with the informant with a technique that allows recording for later analysis.
214
Sociolinguistic relativity: When people coming from different social and linguistic backgrounds interact, quite naturally they tend to analyze and judge each other's system and taking their own system as a reference. The more interaction with different cultures, dialects, registers, etc. the more referents speakers will have and, therefore, the more capable they will be of perceing their culture
and way of thinking as just one of many. This way, speakers may be able to understand and shape their own perception of cultural and sociolinguistic
identities. Sociolinguistic relativity entails the acknowledgement of

sociolinguistic diversity.
Sociology of language: This term refers to a branch of sociolinguistics that studies large scale processes of interaction between language and its use in society. Also referred to as macro-sociolinguistics, it deals with the relationship between sociological factors and language, especially language choice. Some of the issues studied by the sociology of language are language planning, multilingualism, and language shift.
Speech act: It is an utterance that represents a functional unit in interaction. Utterances can have a locutionary meaning or an illocutionary meaning. The former refers to the basic literal meaning of the utterance which is conveyed by the parlicular words and structures used. The latter refers to the effect the utterance has on the listene or the text on the reader.
Status planning: This term refers to actions aiming at raising or lowering the status of a language or dialect and which basically refers to decisions regarding the selection of particular varieties for particular purposes or communicative functions. SP is closely related to corpus planning as language planning policies can never be solely corpus-oriented or status-oriented.
Synchronicvariation:
This term refers to the instances and characteristics of variation which occur at the present time in language. That is, the way variation affects language at a given time in history for instance: gende4 register; style, etc. Diachronic variation, however, looks at language from a historical point of view and considers linguistic change through time.
,' Synthetic language:
In inflectional languages words have a number of suffixes which vary their shape according to the word they are added to. A single suffix can
GLOSSARY
21.5
express a number of different grammatical concepts, as in Latin. Smthetic languages are also known as inflectional. (See analytic language)
Trn-taking: In conversation analysis this term describes the fundamental mechanisms on which conversation is based, that is, the right and/or obligation to speak with the interlocutor. General conversational patterns are arranged in a way that only one speaker speaks at a time but the way
turn-taking is organized depends on cultural specific factors. Conversation needs to be two-way otherwise it turns into a monologue.
nlVariety:
This term is used to refer to a sort of language that is considered as a separate entity for some reason but which generally shares a great deal of common features with a standard or other varieties. Therefore, it is not considered a different language. A given dialect, accent, style or register can be considered a variety, which is a term preferred by linguists as it is less loaded. Language varieties can be very wide spread and standardized such as Australian English or American English but they can also be very localized such as Cockney (in London) and Scouse (in Liverpool).
Conceptual index
aboriginal languages, 122, 127 -8, 133, 1,36, 140-r, 173,201 Aboriginal English, 83, 173 acculturated bilingual, 99
acrolect, 79, 80-1, 108, 201 address b ehavior, I 62 -4 Afrikaans, 87, 128
Black English Vernacular,23, 201, 202 borrowing, 32, 77, 103, 131, 132, 146,
148, r78,203
Catalan, 34, 125-6, 127, 148
circle inner-, 17-8

expanding-, 176-8
African American Vernacular English

(AAVE), 81,20t,202 age, 15, 33, 35, 36, 38, 44, 51, 94, 98,
outer-,176-8
classroom -discourse, 17, 168 -language, t59, 167 -I7 0 choice code-, 17,100-1,I04 word-, 24, 28, 36, 4I, 51,, 54, 59 Chomsky, 23-4,l9l
code
rt6,
139, r41,,
16l
1.27, 206, 2O9
Amerindian languages,
analic language,
30, 201,21,4
applied sociolinguistics, 26, 17 3 Arabic,34, 100, lO8, I29,2lO artificial language, 71, II1, I33 auxiliary language,2O2 basilect, 80-1, 202
Basque, 34, 1,1.I, 122, 148 bicultural, 46, 99, 123, l4l bidialectal speaker, 83, 100, ll8,2O2
-choice, 17,
1.00-1_,
lO4
-mixing, 103-4,113-4 codification , 1.29, I32,213

competence communicative-,24, 46,98,
1,17
, 159,
bilingual -children, 104, 153 -education, 17, 104, 116-7, 1,21-5, t+l, r48, 151-2, 166 bilingualism additive-, 83, 99, 142
adolescent-, 98
t6t-2,204,206
linguistic-, 24, 717 , 161-2,204,210 pragmatic-, L61-2, 17 1, 212 sociolinguistic-, 161-2, 213 compound bilingual, 97, 204
adult-, 98
balanced-, 93, 98-100
childhood-, 98
dominant-,98 individual-, 9
social-, 96
subtractive-, 99
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, 145 communicative -competence, 24, 46, 98, Il7 , 159, 161-2,204,206 -functions, 70, 145,214 corpus planning, 153-4, 204, 21.4 creolization, 69-72, 107 decreolization, 80- I , 20I , 202, 2ll
220 dialect, 24, 32-4,43, 58, 63, 81-3, 100,

107, r09, rtl, tl4,134,136,143, 166, r79,202,203,204 dialectology, 26, 205 diaspora, 175- diglossia, 16, 17 , 34, 105-9, II4, 165 discourse analysis, 17 , 26, 58 , 205 , 211 , 212 discourse marker, 162, 167,205
language -academy, l3O-1,207
-attrition, 25,207-8 -conflict, 111,,208 -contact, 15,16,ltj-2

-election/selection, 208
-functions, 162, 208, 212

Jearning, 94, I25, 144, 149, 159, 160-
domain, 28, 32,35, 53, 63,93-5,98, 112, lr4, r32, 145, r77,205,208, 2r0 dormant bilingual, 205 dual-linguistic system, 123
endangered language, 205-6 EnglishJexifier creole, 206, 209 Esperanto, 7 I, 83, 133, 202 ethnographic approach, 26, 38
t, 162, 166, 170, r72, 180,208, 209,212
loss, I35,207,208
-maintenance,
25 , 123, 127 , 133, 1.35, r36 -planning, 17, 25, 26, 73, 85, 1,21-3, r25, 126-135, r37, 14r, 143-5, t48,
-policy, 16, 25,
153-4, 205 , 209 , 210, 211 , 214 l2l, 123, 125-6, 130,
r35,137,144,149, r54
-Policy Division, 209
ethnography of communication, 20 ethnography of speaking, 204, 206

ethnomethodology, 206 forensic linguistics, 172-4 Galician, 34, 100 gende4 15, 17, 26, 27, 33, 36, 44-5, 56-
-purification , 130-1, 134 -reform, 131 -revival, 131.,209 -revitalization, 209 -shift, 131, 135, 136'7, 208, 2O9, 210,
214
60,72,74,2r4
geographic variation, 27, 41, 51, 17 4 globalization, 29, 32, 123, 132, 1,46, 174,207 Haitian Creole, 70,73, 106, lO7
-spread,
l3I-2,209
-standardization, 1 3 1 -2 -teaching, 1.6,24,37, Il3, 144, 159162, 170-2,207 Labov, 28,36, 37,38,63, l13,2I2 legal language, 54-5, 61, 17 3 level of education, 36, 116 lexifier, 7 4, 7 5, 79, 206, 209-210 lingua franca, 69, 7I, 77 , 86, 88, 129, r33, 166, 175, 177, t84, r85,209,
Hawaiian Creole English, 17, 70, 73-5,

83
heritage language,
l2l,
206
Hindu, 25,43-4,109 historical linguistics, 26, 203 Hymes,24,70,204 hypercorreclion, 207 immersion programs, 12 l, I4l-3, 148, 165,170 India, 17 , 25, 33-4, 43, 45, 71, 80, 85, lo9, 128-9, 130, 137-8, 153, 17 4-6, 180,208,212 informant, 36-7 ,207 ,212,213 interference,36,82, 104, 126, 178, 182,
207
210,2t3 linguistic -assimilation, 127 -competence, 24, II7, 16l-2, 2O4, 209,210 -pluralism, 128 loanwords, 32 LWC, 1 33, 159 , 166, 208, 209 macro-sociolinguistics, 25, 210, 2II,
214
interlingual communication, 133 Jamaican Patwa, 17 ,75-7, 106 jargon

bastardized-, 70
Maori, 139-I4O Melanesian Pidgin English, 69

mesolect, 80,2I1,
CONCEPTUAL INDEX
221 speech community, 17, 23-4, 27, 32-5, 4t, 45, 46, 51, 58, 81, 96, 99, 106, 108-9, 114, 1r8, 122, t28-9, r30-r,
micro-sociolinguistics, 25, 210, 2I I
minority language, 83, 123, I24, 126, t35-7, l4t, 144, t47, 148, 153,
206, 207 , 209,
2tr
t59-160,
208,
161,,
t65-6, r82, 201, 202,
mode, 54,149
modernization, 130, 1.31, 132, 134 multilingualism, 17, 34, 96, lO9-1,11, 138, 146,214
native speake4 23-4,5I, Il3, 126, 144, 159-160, 162, 17 r, 174, 185, 204,
209,2r\, 212 bilingual-, 34

diglossic-, 166 monolingual-, 34
multilingual-, 34,114 speech repertoire, 33

standard
207,2tr-2,2t3
natural language, 111 neurophysiological differences, 59 New Englishes, 176,212
observer's paradox, 36, 212
English, 73, 7 5-6, 81, 84,

202
17
4-8, 183,
status planning, 153, 204,214
Old English,29-32
pidginiazation, 69-71 pragmatic competence , 162, 17l, 212 pragmatics, 17 , 26,58, 83, 17l-2,212 proficiency, 93, 96, 99, 112-3, 141-3, r44,146, r49,152, 164, 165,168, 177,2r3 (proto)-Indo-European, 29-30, 21'3 registe 17, 33, 40, 45-6, 53-6, 61, 62, 9s, 100, 101, 107 , 1,09, tt3, t2s, 162-3, 17 8, 204, 205, 2r4, 215 rrrles of speaking, 160, 1.62-5, 182 Sabir,213
second language, 24, 27 , 77 , 82, 93 , 98 , 99, 113, l4I-2, 159-160, 16l, 165,
stylistic simplifi cation, I23 -3 style, 17, 28, 34, 37 , 45,51-3, 56, 60, 63,64,100, 107, 133,162, 172-3, 177, 184,205,214 switch intersentential-, 102 intrasentential-, lO2 synthetic language, 2OI, 214
Tok Pisin, 17 ,72,73,77-80, 128,176
87
, 1.06,
tenol 54, 6l
terminology unification, 132, I33 turn-taking, 24, 27, 59, 167, 215
170, 175, 183, 185, 207-8,2L0,
2rr,213
semantic change,31,41 sociolect, 54 sociolinguistic competence, 161-2, 2I3
sociolinguistic interview, 37, 213 sociolinguistic relativity, 2 1 4 sociology of language , 17 ,24-5,214

speech act,
762
Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights, 14-7 variation diachronic-, 29-32 stylistic-, 35, 5l-3, 56 synchronic,214 variety high-,34, 105 low-, 34, 105 vernacularizalion, 127, 128 World Englishes, 17, 146, 167, 174-8,
212
167
17 I ,
2f2, 214
I4
UNIT 6
1. Sociolinguistics and language teaching/learning 2. Communicative competence in language teaching/learning ""' 3. The sociolinguistic behavior of English speakers: Rules of
speaking 3.1. Address behavior 3.2. Telephoning 4. Sociolinguistic perspectives on language use classrooms 5. Analysis of the EFL classroom language ......""' . Implications for language teaching 7. Pragrnatics in language teaching 8. Language in the iaw ...."..... 9. Standard English and World Englishes 10. Exercises ............. 1 1. References ........... 12. Resources on the web 13. Further readings and questions '......'..... 13.1. Text 11 ............. 13.2. TexI 12 ..........-.. words Key 14. r59
t6r
r62 t62
r64
in immersion
165
t67
L70
17l t72
174
t78
181
t82 r82 t82

183 186 187
Model
exn ...'.'.....
Key to the exercises
193
199
Glossary Conceptual index
217

I
t
r,
t
t2
AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGU
UNIT
s
I
1. Some variables in sociolinguistics 1.1. Style 1.2. Register .............. 1.3. Gender ............... 2. Speech accommodation ........ 3. Exercises
4. References
5. Resources
ir
p ft
6.
on the web .......... Further readings and questions .............
ri
J'
UNIT
1.
?
2.
.J.
:!
*
Pidginization and creolization .............. Some instances of pidgins Some instances of creoles 3.1. Hawaiian Creole English 3.2. Jamacan Patwa (or Patois) 3.3. Tok Pisin ........ Decreolization .......... The use of pidgins and creoles in education ..............
Exercises References Resources on the web .......... Furlher readings and questions ............. 9.1. Text 5 ............... 9.2. Text 6 ............... Key words
UNIT 4
1.
2.
.t.
Bilingualism: Introduction ........ Bilingualism: Definitions and dimensions ............... Code Choice .............. 3.1. Code-switching 3.2. Code-mixing ........
UhT\E,R
L\DEX
13
Code-switching in bilingual children Diglossia 6. Diglossia and bilingualism 7. Multilingualism 8. Language contact
4.
5. 9. Exercises
r04
105
t07
109 110
rt2
10. References
on the web 12. Further readings and questions ............. 12.1. TextT 12.2. Text 8 13. Key words
11. Resources
tt6 tt6 tt6

t1.7 118
115
UNIT
5 t21.
1. Bilingual education 2. Language policy 3. Language planning 3.1. Some factors affecting language planning 3.2. Actions in language planning ............... 3.3. Aims of language planning 3.4. Individual language planning ............... 4. Minority languages ............... 5. Language shift in minority languages 6. Some particular sociolinguistic situations ............. .1. India .2. NIew Zealand 6.3. The Canadian experience European Union language planning and policy The role of English The Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights Exercises
References Resources on the web
r25
126
128
129 130
t34
135
r36
1.37
t37
t39 r40 t43 t45

1.46
148
150
151
1-51
Fufiher readings and questions
151 151
15-s

An Introduction To Sociolinguistics

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Rubn Chacn Beltrn

UNrvsRsroo NecroNer o, EoucacrN a DtsrNcr

ACRONYMS USED II{ THIS BOOK

EFL Engl. EU FL HCE

OHG PdE RP SL TP UDLR

9. Exercises 10. References 11. Resources on the web

Further readings and questions

The structure of this book

f nit 4 centers on some sociolinguistic

Purpose of this book

How to use this book

will monitor it.

In the Resources on the web section, a number of interesting web

it allows reference portray to authentic samples of language that different instances of

field of sociolinguistics has been paramount and the concept of

3. THE ORIGINS OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS

In Europe, sociolinguistics started with the study of historical

:etting information about their interlocutor as they sort out the

All in all, the aim of sociolinguists is to describe the variations within

SOME INSTANCES OF VARIATION

present-day English 'ten

{:rd Proto-Indo-European voiced aspirates become voiced stops or

Another area of linguistic change is syntax. Syntactic change affects

That is the bookshop where I bought )'our book.

Mit heardum bendum Mit harten Bndern

With hard bonds

< Latin), stomach (< French estomac < Latin

to the exercises section and do exercises 7,

DOI\C SOCIOTINTGUISTIC RESEARCH

-:= tn ing to incorporate common language uses and high frequency

it out?' said George between his

E.g.: luxury: It means'opulence'in present-day English but between

Edit Journal Svmpathy

7. Bearing in mind the sociolinguistic situation in different parts of

8. Think of the way you

t'ith other people in your speech community. How

speak your first language (English or Spanish)

uK: MEsrHBrB, R. (ed.). 2001. Concise Encyclopaedia of sociolinguistics. oxford,

Blackwell Publishing. Sporsrv, B. 1998. Sociolinguisrlcs. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Introduction to Sociolinguisllcs. Malden, MA,

USA: Blackwell Publishing.

11. RESOURCES ON THE WEB

12. FURTHER READINCS AND QUESTIONS

Read the following text carefully and comment on

untouchable castes: Chamars (landless laborers), Jatia Chamars (leather

certain phonological contrasts made bir all others, and some, in

After reading about Gumperz's research in India and the caste

s\-stem he analyzed, how do you see the possibility of doing research

J; In the text the author makes reference to various

factors that affect

anygiven."-"",-*hichsetofsocialandcommunicativer^trlesthey understand this

Examples include second-generation

a) Saville-Troike links different identities and social roles to the a

13. KEY WORDS

Domain Ethnography of communication

Native speaker Observer's paradox

1. SOME VARIABLES IN SOCIOLINGUISTICS

continent a new nation, concei,red in liberty, and dedicated to the

to be associated with a specific interest group as in the case of

a) Field, which relates to the social activity performed, the setting

refers to the medium of the language in that situation.

Erample A: legal language.