SOCIOLINGUISTICS
Sociolingustics is concerned with language in social and cultural
context especially how people with different social identities (e.g. gender,
age, race, ethnicity, class) speak and how their speech changes in different
situations. Some of the issues addressed are how features of dialects (ways of
pronouncing words, choice of words, patterns of words) cluster together to form
personal styles of speech; why people from different communities or cultures
can misunderstand what is meant, said and done based on the different ways they
use language.
There are two different approaches to Sociolinguistics a Sociolinguistics is concerned with
language in social and cultural context, especially how people with different
social identities (e.g. gender, age, race, ethnicity, class) speak and how
their speech changes in different situations. Some of the issues addressed are
how features of dialects (ways of pronouncing words, choice of words, patterns
of words) cluster together to form personal styles of speech; why people from
different communities or cultures can misunderstand what is meant, said and
done based on the different ways they use language.
There are two different approaches to Sociolinguistics are :
1
Micro
lingustics
2
Macro
lingustics
micro lingustics is a study of languagerelation to society that deals with small
groups of people in a certain community of people .
Macro lingustics is a study of language in relation to how society
treats the language.
Some of Micro and Macro Sociolinguistics
approaches are:
1.Interactional Sociolinguistics.
2.Variationist Sociolinguistics.
3.Historical/ Socio-historical Sociolinguistics.
4.Dialectology.
5.Discourse Analysis.
6.Conversation Analysis.
7.Language planning and policy.
.Conversational Analysis : Language is a
wonderful thing. It is essentially what separates human beings from the world's
plethora of cohabiting species. We, as humans, have the ability to communicate
with one another using any of the world's languages; assuming that your communicator
is a speaker of the same language.
conversation
then is massively important to us as human beings. We can convey our thoughts
and desires to others, influence and entertain through speech. Without it, we
certainly wouldn't be the evolved species we are today, and you probably
wouldn't be reading this right now!
As
linguistics has evolved and become an entirely independent social science, so
too has our interest into just how humans interact and what the implications of
the types of conversation we use are.
Conversation Analysis
arose as a discipline that helps us to delve deeper into the intricacies of
conversation.
Discourse Analysis:.
There are three ways in which we can describe discourse
- Firstly,
discourse can be described as language beyond the level of the
sentence. By this we mean that it is a type of language that
extends past features such as sounds (phonetics), structures (syntax) and
the parts that make up words (morphology).
- The
second description of discourse concerns language behaviours linked
to a social practice; this suggests that a discourse is a type of
language.
- Finally,
discourse is described as being a system of thought. This is
by far the most scientific description of the three, as it disagrees with
the notion that knowledge and truth are either universal or objective.
Conversely, it suggests that the ideas about knowledge and truth emerge
from particular social and historical situations. An example would be the
process of contemporary science and its attempts to produce objective
knowledge.
Interactional
sociolinguistics: is a subdiscipline of linguistics that uses discourse
analysis to study how
language users create meaning via social
interaction.
In terms of research methods, interactional
sociolinguists focuses not only on linguistic forms such as words and sentences but also on subtle cues such as prosody and register that
signal contextual presupposition. These contextualization cues are culturally specific and usually unconscious.
When participants in a conversation come from different cultural backgrounds
they may not recognize these subtle cues in one another's speech, leading to
misunderstanding.
Sociohistorical linguistics:_ Sociohistorical linguistics, or historical sociolinguistics,
is the study of the relationship between language and society in its historical
dimension
Sociohistorical
linguistics is a relatively new field of linguistic research which represents a
merger of two distinct sub-disciplines of linguistics; sociolinguistics and historical
(or diachronic) linguistics. Not all linguists believe that sociolinguistic methods can be applied
to historical situations. They argue that the sociolinguistic means at our
disposal today (e.g. face-to-face interviews, recording of data, large and
diverse sampling, etc.) are necessarily unavailable to sociolinguists working
on historical developments. They therefore argue that it is exceedingly
difficult to do socio-historical linguistics, and that the results will always
be suspect due to lack of data and access to native speakers in real-world
situations.
Variationist
Sociolinguistics: differs from Interactional
Sociolinguistics as it focuses on social variation in dialects and examines how
this variation is highly structured. This structured variation tells us that
this is part of Human language capacity, a built in system of language
in a brain.
Dialectology the scientific study of
linguistic dialect, a
sub-field of sociolinguistics.
It studies variations in language
based primarily on geographic distribution and their associated features.
Dialectology treats such topics as divergence of two local dialects from a
common ancestor and synchronic variation.
Dialectologists are ultimately concerned with
grammatical, lexical and phonological features that correspond to regional
areas. Thus they usually deal not only with populations that have lived in
certain areas for generations, but also with migrant groups that bring their
languages to new areas.
Commonly studied concepts in dialectology include the
problem of mutual intelligibility in
defining languages and dialects; situations of diglossia,
where two dialects are used for different functions; dialect
continua including a number of partially mutually intelligible
dialects; and pluricentrism,
where what is essentially a single genetic language exists as two or more
standard varieties.
Fundamental concepts in sociolinguistics
Speech community
Speech community is a concept in sociolinguistics that
describes a distinct group of people who use language in a unique and mutually
accepted way among themselves.
To
be considered part of a speech community, one must have a communicative
competence. That is,
the speaker has the ability to use language in a way that is appropriate in the
given situation. It is possible for a speaker to be communicatively competent
in more than one language.
Speech
communities can be members of a profession with a specialized jargon, distinct social groups like high school students or hip hop
fans, or even tight-knit groups like families and friends. Members of speech communities will often
develop slang or jargon to serve the group's
special purposes and priorities.
Community
of Practice allows
for sociolinguistics to examine the relationship between socialization,
competence, and identity. Since identity is a very complex structure, studying
language socialization is a means to examine the micro interactional level of
practical activity (everyday activities). The learning of a language is greatly
influenced by family but it is supported by the larger local surroundings, such
as school, sports teams, or religion. Speech communities may exist within a
larger community of practice.
The concept of prestige
Crucial
to sociolinguistic analysis is the concept of prestige; certain speech habits
are assigned a positive or a negative value, which is then applied to the
speaker. This can operate on many levels. It can be realised on the level of
the individual sound/phoneme, as Labov discovered in investigating
pronunciation of the post-vocalic /r/ in the North-Eastern USA, or on the macro
scale of language choice, as realised in the various diglossias that exist
throughout the world, where Swiss-German/High German is perhaps most well known.
An important implication of sociolinguistic theory is that speakers 'choose' a
variety when making a speech act, whether consciously or subconsciously.
The
terms acrolectal (high) and basilectal (low) are also used to distinguish
between a more standard dialect and a dialect of less prestige.
Social network
Understanding
language in society means that one also has to understand the social networks in which language is embedded. A
social network is another way of describing a particular speech community in
terms of relations between individual members in a community. A network could
be loose or tight depending on how members interact with each
other.
For instance, an office or factory may be
considered a tight community because all members interact with each other. A
large course with 100+ students would be a looser community because students
may only interact with the instructor and maybe 1–2 other students. A multiplex
community is one in which members have multiple relationships with each other.
A
social network may apply to the macro level of a country or a city, but also to
the inter-personal level of neighborhoods or a single family. Recently, social
networks have been formed by the Internet, through chat rooms, MySpace groups,
organizations.
LANGUAGE IN SOCIETY
Language is
an essential and
significant part of
concept of culture. Socio linguistics includes
all aspects of
the linguistics between
language on the
one hand and
society culture on
the other . A
study of the
relationship of language
to culture and society
demands an understanding
of the fundamental
concepts of culture
, meaning and
context . Recent studies
in the field
of sociolinguistics lay emphasis
on these concepts.
1)
CULTURE
:- culture is
viewed as a
system having a
separate and independent
existence from that
of the in
individuals who manifest
culture in their
behavior . This is in part with
assures concepts of language / speech.
Who stated that lang (langue) was a social
institution with an
independent existence . over
and above its
acquisition by individuals
who manifested if
in their speech
(parole) . in linguistics ,
culture is viewed
as a symbolic
and meaningful system .
2)
MEANING
:- Traditionally , meaning was
considered to be
the domain of
semantics . more recently
meaning has been
the object of
multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research . Meaning is itself a multifaceted
and multipurpose concept. For an average
speakers of a language ,
the most relevant
meaning is the
referential one whereby
he or she grasps the
connection between sounds
sequence uttered and
human and non-human
entities . Meaning is presented in terms of
A) Oppositional pairs language. e.g. – synonymy and homonymy
b) Prepositions underlying any conversational
interaction.
3)
CONTEXT :- in
a sociolinguistics studies context
is key concept
for understanding the
nature of communication
. while several levels
of context are
recognized , the primary distinction
appears to be between linguistic
versus socio cultural context
. concerning the
linguistic context , the
focus of analysis
have expanded from
the unite of
sentences to linguistics
text including naturally
occurring dialogues in
every day social
interaction . linguistic
context also includes
the phonological and
grammatical futures . The socio culture
context can be as
broad as a
speech community as well as
narrow as interpersonal
interaction .
Sociolinguist have traced a
possible relationships between
language and society
some of them
are ;
1)
The
social structure may
either influence or
determined linguistic structure
and behavior .
2)
The linguistics
structure and behavior
may either influenced
or determine social
structure .
3)
The influence
is bi-directional ; language and
society may influenced
each other .
4)
To assumed
that there is
no relationship at
all between linguistic
structure and social
structure and that
each is independent
of the other.
5)
LANGUAGE
STRUCTURE AND LANGUAGE USE :
Reading
would not exist without the human capacity for language. Because the components
of language and their associated terminology align with our demarcations for
many of the elements of reading, they are described briefly in this section.
Linguists have identified five basic components (phonology, morphology, syntax,
semantics, and pragmatics) found across languages. Language acquisition
progresses across these components with increasing quantity (e.g., sounds,
words, and sentence length) and gradual refinement, and understanding of the
subtler and more complex points of usage (e.g., using “taught” rather than
“teached”).
Readers
are encouraged to explore the literature in the field of language development
to better understand and appreciate the oral language skills students may bring
to the reading process. Speech and language pathologists are a great resource
for identifying resources in this area and assisting in determining whether a
child’s language skills are developing normally and providing support when
assessment and intervention may be required.
Phonology
The study of speech structure within a
language, including both the patterns of basic speech units and the accepted
rules of pronunciation, is known as phonology. The smallest units of sound that
make up a language are called phonemes. For example, the word “that”
contains three phonemes the “th” represents one phoneme /th/, the “a” maps to
the short a sound /ă/, and the “t” to its basic sound /t/.
Morphology
Moving to
the next level of language, we find the study of the smallest units of meaning,
morphemes. Morphemes include base words, such as “hat,” “dog,” or
“love,” as well as affixes, such as “un-,” “re-,” the plural “s” or “es,” and
the past tense “ed.” Knowledge of the morphology of our language is critical to
vocabulary development and reflects the smallest building blocks for
comprehension.
Syntax
The study
of how individual words and their most basic meaningful units are combined to
create sentences is known as syntax. As words are grouped together when we
communicate, we must follow the rules of grammar for our language, in other
words, its syntax. It is the knowledge of syntax that allows us to recognize
that the following two sentences, while containing different word order and
levels of complexity, have the same meaning.
·
The boy
hit the ball.
·
The ball
was hit by the boy.
Syntax also allows us
to accept “I went to the store” as a meaningful (grammatical) sentence while
“To store went I” would not be acceptable English.
Semantics
Not only
does the grammatical structure of our language provide the needed clues for
understanding, we also have a wealth of figurative language and rich
description that adds color and nuance to our communication. Semantics refers
to the ways in which a language conveys meaning. It is our understanding of
semantics that allows us to recognize that someone who is “green with envy” has
not changed hue, or that “having cold feet” has less to do with the appendage
at the end of our legs and more to do with our anxiety about a new experience.
Because semantics moves beyond the literal meaning of words and is
culture-dependent, this is among the most difficult aspects of language for
individuals who are not native speakers and even those who speak the same
language but come from different cultures and convey meaning using words in
unique ways. Anyone who has attempted to converse with a teenager in his own
vernacular can appreciate the importance of sharing a semantic base for
communicating clearly.
Pragmatics
“‘Pragmatics’
refers to the ways the members of the speech community achieve their goals
using language.” The way we speak to our parents is not the same as the way we
interact with a sibling, for example. The language used in a formal speech may
bear little resemblance to what we would hear at a lunch with five friends. The
conversational style of day-to-day interactions is quite different from the
language used even when reading a storybook to a toddler. Knowing the
difference and when to use which style is the essence of pragmatics.
Facility
with language is critical to social interactions. Our ability to effectively
communicate with others through spoken and written language is considered one
of the ultimate goals of our educational system, with reading receiving
much-needed emphasis. “Reading is essential to success in our society. The
ability to read is highly valued and important for social and economic
advancement.” In the following section the components identified by experts as
critical to developing reading skills are reviewed.
 |
DEEP
STRUCTURE AND SURFACE STRUCTURE
One of the most
important concepts proposed by Chomsky is the concept of surface anddeep
structure. The Generativism paradigm claims that the concept of structural
analysis proposed by Structuralism paradigm is too swallow, it only reaches the
level of surface structure. Surface
structure can be defined as the syntactic
form they take as actual sentences. In the other words, it is forms
of sentences resulted from modification/ transformation. Consider
these sentences:
(1) You close the door. (Active Voice)
(2) The door is closed by you. (
Passive Voice)
(3) Close the door! (Imperative
Sentence)
The first sentence is active, second is
passive, and the last is imparative. However, if you take a look those closely,
you will find that those three are very closely related, even identical.
They seem to be identical, since they have the same undelying
abstract representation that is called deep structure. It is defined as an abstract level of
structural organization in which all the elements determining
structural interpretation are represented. If you want to analyze the relation
of those three sentences, the first you have to know about the deep structure
of them, since deep structure is the input of transformation rules.
We cannot apply transformation rules if you don’t have deep
structure. transformation rules are sets of rules which will change or move
constitiuents in the structures derive from the phrase structure rules.
e.g.
The DS (deep structure)
|
(2)
|
SD (structure describtion) :
SC (Structural change) :
SS (Surface structure) : |
1 2 3 4
3 4 + be 2+en 1
The door is closed by you
|
|
Note: the SC is passive transformation rules
|
||
|
|
||
|
(3)
|
SD:
SC:
SS:
|
1 2 3 4
0 2 3 4
Close the door!
|
|
Note: 0 is deletion
|
||
From the above example, it can be concluded
that deep structure then is a purerepresentation of thematic relations.
Anything which is interpreted as the subject or object of a given predicate
will be in the subject or object position of that predicate at Deep structure
no matter where it is found at Surface structure.
Processes of Standardisation
Standardisation
is generally thought of as a process that involves four stages. We need not
think of them as being chronological. Indeed, the process of standardisation is
an on-going one, and a whole range of forces are at work.
Selection
Variability
is a fact of life for almost all languages. There are different regional
dialects, class dialects, situational varieties. Standardisation
represents an attempt to curtail, minimise if not eliminate this high degree of
variability. The easiest solution seems to be to pick (although not
arbitrarily) one of these varieties to be elevated to the status of the
standard.
Acceptance
The
‘acceptance’ by the community of the norms of the variety selected over those
of rival varieties, through the promotion, spread, establishment and
enforcement of the norms. This is done through institutions, agencies,
authorities such as schools, ministries, the media, cultural establishments,
etc. In fact, the standard language comes to be regarded not just as the best
form of the language, but as the language itself (eg consider the
claim that Mandarin is Chinese in Singapore). The other
varieties are then dialects, which tend implicitly to get stigmatised as lesser
forms, associated with the not too highly regarded people, who are seen as less
educated, slovenly, uncouth, etc.
Elaboration
For
the variety selected to represent the desired norms, it must be able to
discharge a whole range of functions that it may be called upon to discharge,
including abstract, intellectual functions. Where it lacks resources to do so,
these are developed. Thus a standard language is often characterised as
possessing ‘maximal variation in function, minimal variation in form’.
Codification
The
norms and rules of grammar, use, etc. Which govern the variety selected
have to be formulated, and set down definitively in grammars, dictionaries,
spellers, manuals of style, texts, etc.
Haugen
(1972) summarised this in the form of a table.
|
|
Form
|
Function
|
|
Society
|
Selection
|
Acceptance
|
|
Language
|
Codification
|
Elaboration
|
Table
1 (from Haugen 1972: 110)
VARIETIES OF ENGLISH
It is the varying use of actions, dialects and features. This includes
and makes up the study of varieties of English. In Sociolinguistics, variety is
also referred to as a lect that avoids the problem in ambiguous cases of
deciding whether or not varieties are dialect of a single language. A lect may
include language, dialects, style as well as the standard variety itself.
DIALECT :
Regional or social varieties of a language are characterised by its own
phonological, syntactic and lexical properties. The study of dialect is called
dialectology. The term dialect is mostly used to refer regional speech pattern.
However a dialect may also be defined based on other factors such as social
class, ethnic group and so on. A dialect that is associated with the particular
social class can be termed as socio level.
Ethnolect is the
dialogue associated with a particular ethnic group. Regiolect or topolect
refers to a distinct regional dialect. In a broader sense dialects can be
classified as standard dialects and non standard dialects.
Standard dialect or
standardised dialect is a dialect supported by institutions like government,
educational institutions, etc. There may be multiple standard dialects
associated with a single language. For example, standard Indian English and
South Asian English are standard dialects of English.
Non standard dialects are
similar to standard dialects except for the fact that it does not get the
benefit of institutional support. Eg. South Asian English.
STANDARD VARIETIES:
Most languages have standard varieties which are considered to be the
appropriate form of language by the concerned language speakers. However, this
selection is applicable to any standard as it is based on social expectation
which change with time.
REGISTERS AND STYLES:
A register is a variety of language used for a particular social
setting. The term was coined by Thomas Bertram Reid.
Styles of speech are included in a linguistic repertoire of an
individual speaker. Registers and styles are used interchangeably. The various
connotations of styles are the subjects of study stylistics.
Most speakers command a range
of registers which they use in different situations. The choice of a register
is affected by the setting, topic of speech and relationship that exists
between speakers. The appropriate form of language may also change during the
course of a communication as a relationship between speakers change or
different social facts become relevant. Speakers may share styles as a
perception of an event in progress changes. This shift of styles and registers
is called style shift.
IDIOLECT:
Language used is typical of a person. An individual idiolect may be
influenced by contact with various regional or social dialects, registers,
language.
STANDARD VARIETIES OF ENGLISH :
Isogloss :
An isogloss—also
called a heterogloss —is the geographic boundary of a
certain linguistic feature, such as the pronunciation of
a vowel, the meaning of a word, or use of some syntactic feature. The term isogloss (Ancient Greek ísos "equal,
similar" and glōssa "tongue, dialect, language")
is inspired by contour lines or isopleths such as isobar. However, the isogloss separates rather than connects
points of equal language. Consequently, it has been proposed that the term heterogloss ("other") be used instead.
Similar to an isogloss, an isograph is a distinguishing feature of a
writing system. Both concepts are also used in historical
linguistics.
Eg. "Speakers in southern
Pennsylvania say bucket, and those in the north part of the state say pail. [The line of
demarcation between the two] is called an isogloss. Dialect areas are determined by large
'bundles' of such isoglosses.
Pidgin :
A pidgin or pidgin
language, is a simplified version of a language that develops as a means of
communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common.
It is most commonly employed in situations such as trade, or where both groups speak languages
different from the language of the country in which the y reside (but where there is no common language between the
groups). The origin of
the word is uncertain. Pidgin first appeared in print in 1850. The
most widely accepted etymology is from the Chinese pronunciation of the English word business.[5]
Another etymology that has been proposed is English pigeon, a bird sometimes used for carrying brief written messages, especially in times prior to modern
telecommunications
Fundamentally, a
pidgin is a simplified means of linguistic communication, as it is constructed
impromptu, or by convention, between individuals or groups of people. A pidgin
is not the native language of any speech community, but is instead learned as a
second language. A pidgin may be built from words, sounds, or body language
from multiple other languages and cultures. They allow people who have no
common language to communicate with each other. Pidgins usually have low prestige with respect to other
languages
Key features of pidgin :
1. The pidgin has no native speakers. But ir is
used as a medioum of communication between people who are native speakers of
other language.
2. The pidgin is based on the linguistic
features of one or more language and as a simplified language with reduced
vocabulary and grammatical structure.
3. Inflectional suffixes such as –‘s’ (
plural) and ‘-s’ ( possessive) , ‘-s’ nouns
and standard English are rare in pidgin English.
Creole:
A creole
language, or simply a creole,
is a stable natural language that has developed from a pidgin, i.e. a simplified
version of a language. Creoles differ from pidgins because creoles have been nativized by children as their primary language, with the result
that they have features of natural languages that are normally missing from
pidgins, which are not anyone's first language. Creole languages most often emerged in
colonies located near the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean or the Indian Ocean. Exceptions include Brazil, where no creole emerged, and Cape Verde and theLesser Antilles, where creoles developed in slave
depots rather than on plantations.
Most
commonly, creoles have resulted from the interactions between speakers of
nonstandard varieties of European languages and speakers of non-European
languages. Creole languages include varieties that are based on French, such asHaitian Creole, Louisiana Creole, and Mauritian Creole; English, such as Gullah (on the Sea Islands of the southeastern United States),
Jamaican Creole, Guyanese Creole, and Hawaiian Creole; and Portuguese, such as Papiamentu (in Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao) and
Cape Verdean; and some have bases in multiple European languages, such as two
creoles found in Suriname, Saramacca (based on English and heavily
influenced by Portuguese) and Sranan (based on English and heavily
influenced by Dutch). Papiamentu is thought to have also been heavily
influenced by Spanish.
Some
linguists extend the term creole to
varieties that emerged from contacts between primarily non-European languages.
Examples from Africa include Sango, a creole
based on the Ngbandi language and spoken in the Central African
Republic;Kinubi, based on the Arabic language and spoken in Uganda; and Kikongo-Kituba andLingala, which are
based on Kikongo-Kimanyanga and Bobangi, respectively, and are spoken in both
the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo
Eg.
Creoles of Mauritius.
Diglossia :
Diglossia, the coexistence of
two varieties of the same language throughout
a speech community. Often, one form is the literary or prestige dialect,
and the other is a common dialect spoken by most of the population. The Greek word (diglōssia)
normally refers to bilingualism in general, but was first used in the
specialized meaning explained by Emmanuel Rhoides in the prologue of his Parerga in 1885. The term was immediately
adapted into French as diglossie by
the Greek linguist and demoticist Ioannis Psycharis, with credit to Rhoides.
The Arabist William Marçais used the term in 1930 to describe the linguistic situation in Arabic-speaking countries. The sociolinguist Charles A. Ferguson introduced the English equivalent diglossia in 1959.
Such a situation exists in many speech
communities throughout the world—e.g., in Greece,
where Katharevusa, heavily influenced by Classical Greek, is the prestige
dialect and Demotic is the popular spoken language, and in the Arab world,
where classical Arabic (as used in the Qurʾān) exists alongside the colloquial
Arabic of Egypt, Morocco, and other countries. Sociolinguists may also use the
term diglossia to denote bilingualism, the speaking of two or more languages by the
members of the same community, as, for example, in New York City, where many
members of the Hispanic community speak both Spanish and English, switching
from one to the other according to the social situation or the needs of the
moment.
Lingua Franca :
A lingua franca (plural lingue franche or lingua
francas), also known as a bridge
language, trade language or vehicular
language, is a language systematically (as opposed to occasionally, or casually)
used to make communication possible between persons not sharing a native language, in particular when it is a third
language, distinct from both native languages.
Lingua francas have developed around the world
throughout human history, sometimes for commercial reasons (so-called
"trade languages") but also for diplomatic and administrative
convenience, and as a means of exchanging information between scientists and other
scholars of different nationalities. The term originates with one such
language, Mediterranean Lingua Franca.
Lingua franca is a term defined functionally,
independent of the linguistic history or structure of the language:[3] though pidgins and creoles often function as lingua francas, many
such languages are neither pidgins nor creoles.
Whereas a vernacular language is used as a native language
in a community, a lingua
franca is used beyond the
boundaries of its original community, and is used as a second language for communication between groups. For
example, English is a vernacular in the United Kingdom,
but is used as a vehicular language (i.e., a lingua
franca) in thePhilippine
Islands and India.
International auxiliary languages such as Esperanto have not had a great degree of
adoption globally, so they cannot be described as global lingua francas.
Jargon and Slang :
Jargon, in colonial history,
an unstable rudimentary hybrid language used
as a means ofcommunication between
persons having no other language in common. Although the term was long
synonymous with pidgin—as can be seen by the use of jargon in the names of such pidgins as Chinook Jargon and Mobilian Jargon—in
the 1980s some linguists began restricting its use to denote pre-pidgins, or
early developmental forms of pidgins.
Nonlinguists more commonly define jargon as
the technical or specialized parlance of a specific social or occupational
group such as physicians or lawyers. Jargon has also historically been defined
as gibberish or as an outlandish, unintelligible, barbarous, debased language;
in this meaning it is similar to patois and
carries negative connotations. When the term jargon was
originally applied to pidgins, it no doubt reflected the negative attitudes
toward pidgins held by fluent speakers of the languages from which the pidgins
derived most of their vocabularies. Indeed, jargons and pidgins were often
characterized as “broken” languages, suggesting that they lack grammar,
in contrast to full-fledged languages that function as the vernaculars of
particular communities. Technically, jargons and pidgins have no native
speakers and are used only as lingua francas,
although expanded pidgins may be used as vernaculars.
Slang, unconventional words
or phrases that express either something new or something old in a new way. It
is flippant, irreverent, indecorous; it may be indecent or obscene. Its
colourful metaphors are generally directed at respectability, and it is this
succinct, sometimes witty, frequently impertinent social criticism that gives
slang its characteristic flavour. Slang, then, includes not just words but
words used in a special way in a certain social context. The origin of the word
slang itself is obscure; it first appeared in print around 1800, applied to the speech of disreputable and criminal classes in London. The term,
however, was probably used much earlier.
Slang emanates from conflicts in values, sometimes
superficial, often fundamental. When an individual applies language in a new
way to express hostility, ridicule, or contempt, often with sharp wit, he may
be creating slang, but the new expression will perish unless it is picked up by
others. If the speaker is a member of a group that finds that his creation
projects the emotional reaction of its members toward an idea, person, or
social institution, the expression will gain currency according to the
unanimity of attitude within the group.
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