Language as Social Behavior= Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is a term including the
aspects of linguistics applied toward the connections between language and
society, and the way we use it in different social situations. It ranges from
the study of the wide variety of dialects across a given region down to the
analysis between the way men and women speak to one another. Sociolinguistics
often shows us the humorous realities of human speech and how a dialect of a
given language can often describe the age, sex, and social class of the
speaker; it codes the social function of a language.
Language is one of the most powerful
emblems of social behavior. And sociolinguistics has become an increasingly
important and popular field of study, as certain cultures around the world
expand their communication base and intergroup and interpersonal relations take
on escalating significance.
The basic notion underlying
sociolinguistics is quite simple: Language use symbolically represents
fundamental dimensions of social behavior and human interaction. The notion is
simple, but the ways in which language reflects behavior can often be complex
and subtle. Furthermore, the relationship between language and society affects
a wide range of encounters from broadly based international relations to
narrowly defined interpersonal relationships. In considering language as a
social institution, sociolinguists often use sociological techniques involving
data from questionnaires and summary statistical data, along with information
from direct observation.
A slightly different concern with
language and society focuses more closely on the effect of particular kinds of
social situations on language structure. For example, language contact studies
focus on the origin and the linguistic composition of pidgin and creole
languages. These special language varieties arise when speakers from mutually
unintelligible language groups need a common language for communication. In
examining language contact situations, it is also possible to examine not only
the details of a particular language but also the social and linguistic details
that show how bilingual speakers use each language and switch between them.
Also the study of language in its
social context tells us quite a bit about how we organize our social
relationships within a particular community. In approaching language as a
social activity, it is possible to focus on discovering the specific patterns
or social rules for conducting conversation and discourse. We may, for example,
describe the rules for opening and closing a conversation, how to take
conversational turns, or how to tell a story or joke.
It is also possible to examine how
people manage their language in relation to their cultural backgrounds and
their goals of interaction. Sociolinguists might investigate questions such as
how mixed-gender conversations differ from single-gender conversations, how
differential power relations manifest themselves in language forms, how
caregivers let children know the ways in which language should be used, or how
language change occurs and spreads to communities. To answer these questions
related to language as social activity, sociolinguists often use ethnographic
methods. That is, they attempt to gain an understanding of the values and viewpoints
of a community in order to explain the behaviors and attitudes of its members.
Neurolinguistics
It is a branch of linguistics dealing
mainly with the biological basis of the relationship of the human language and
brain. The issues investigated related with ir were analyzed already in the
nineteenth century. The first attempts to account for the parts of brain
responsible for the ability to produce speech were made on the basis of
unfortunate accidents in which people suffered some damage to head and brain,
thus enabling scientists to exclude the damaged brain parts from linguistic
investigations if the injured remained capable of language production.
Since that time on the basis of
posthumous analysis of brains of people with some language dysfunctions it has
been determined that the left hemisphere of the brain plays a major role in
language comprehension and production, and especially some of its areas that
are more or less above the left ear.
The part known as Broca’s area or
‘anterior speech cortex’ and as it has been discovered it is responsible for
speech production. Interestingly, damage made to the same spot on the right
hemisphere of the brain does not cause any language-related problems, therefore
only the part of the left hemisphere is connected with linguistic abilities.
Posterior speech cortex, or as it is
usually described Wernicke’s area is responsible for speech comprehension. This
fact has been stated after the examination of a group of subject who had
enormous difficulties with the understanding of speech.
The largest part of the brain is the
motor cortex and it is responsible for the muscular movements. The part of
motor cortex that is close to the Broca’s area is responsible for the
articulatory muscles of jaw, face, as well as tongue and larynx.
When all the above mentioned parts were
described it was proposed that brain activity connected with the perception and
production of language would follow certain patterns. Thus, it is claimed that
speech is perceived by the Wernicke’s area, then the signal is transferred
through accurate fasciculus to Broca’s area. Afterwards, the signal goes to the
motor cortex to articulate the word.
However, such a sophisticated system
sometimes fails us in everyday conversations when it is difficult to remember a
well-known word. In situations like that speakers often claim that they have
the word at the tip of the tongue. Studies show that in fact speakers can often
tell how many syllables the word has, or what sound it begins with, and in some
tests they produce similar words which led neurolinguists to believe that the
word-storage may be organized on the basis of phonological information.
There are some other similar phenomena
analyzed by neurolinguists, such as the slip of the tongue for example. The slip
of the tongue is an unconsciously made error in which the (usually) initial
sounds of a few words are interchanged. One other type of mistakes often made
in conversations is the slip of the ear which can be described as hearing a
word as a different word which might not have been said. It is said that such
mistakes are in fact slips of the brain which is trying to process and organize
the linguistic information. Moreover, neurolinguistics deals with various
language disorders known as ‘aphasia’ which is impairment of language functions
because of some brain damage leading to difficulties in either producing or
understanding linguistic forms. There are different aphasias depending on the
language impairment and the damaged part of brain. Thus Broca’s aphasia is
characterized by a reduced amount of speech, slow pace of speaking and
distorted articulation. Wernicke’s aphasia is characterized by quite fluent,
yet incomprehensible speech and difficulties in finding appropriate words.
Conduction aphasia is connected with damage to accurate fasciculus and it is
connected with mispronouncing words, disrupted rhythm, large number of
hesitations and pauses.
Stylistics
It is the study of the devices in
languages (such as rhetorical figures and syntactical patterns) that are
considered to produce expressive or literary style.
Style has been an object of study from
ancient times. Aristotle, Cicero, Demetrius, and Quintilian treated style as
the proper adornment of thought. In this view, which prevailed throughout the
Renaissance period, devices of style can be catalogued. The essayist or orator
is expected to frame his ideas with the help of model sentences and prescribed
kinds of “figures” suitable to his mode of discourse. Modern stylistics uses
the tools of formal linguistic analysis coupled with the methods
Stylistics
can be by and large described as the study of style of language usage in
different contexts, either linguistic, or situational. Yet, it seems that due
to the complex history and variety of investigated issues of this study it is
difficult to state precisely what stylistics is, and to mark clear boundaries
between it and other branches of linguistics which deal with text analysis.
What
has been the primary interest of stylistics for years is the analysis of the
type, fluctuation, or the reason for choosing a given style as in any language
a single thought can be expressed in a number of ways depending on
connotations, or desired result that the message is to produce. Therefore,
stylistics is concerned with the examination of grammar, lexis, semantics, as
well as phonological properties and discursive devices. It might seem that the
same issues are investigated by sociolinguistics, and indeed that is the case,
however sociolinguistics analyses the above mentioned issues seen as dependent
on the social class, gender, age, etc, while stylistics is more interested in
the significance of function that the style fulfills.
Moreover,
stylistics examines oral and written texts in order to determine crucial
characteristic linguistic properties, structures and patterns influencing
perception of the texts. Thus, it can be said that this branch of linguistics
is related to discourse analysis, in particular critical discourse analysis,
and pragmatics. Owing to the fact that at the beginning of the development of
this study the major part of the stylistic investigation was concerned with the
analysis of literary texts it is sometimes called literary linguistics, or
literary stylistics. Nowadays, however, linguists study various kinds of texts,
such as manuals, recipes, as well as novels and advertisements. It is vital to
add here that none of the text types is discriminated and thought to be more
important than others. In addition to that, in the recent years so called
‘media-discourses’ such as films, news reports, song lyrics and political
speeches have all been within the scope of interest of stylistics.
Each
text scrutinized by stylistics can be viewed from different angles and as
fulfilling at least a few functions. Thus, it is said that texts have
interpersonal function, ideational function and textual function. When
describing a function several issues are taken into consideration. Therefore,
interpersonal function is all about the relationship that the text is
establishing with its recipients, the use of either personal or impersonal
pronouns is analyzed, as well as the use of speech acts, together with the tone
and mood of the statement. When describing the ideational function linguists
are concerned with the means of representing the reality by the text, the way
the participants are represented, as well as the arrangement of information in
clauses and sentences. The textual function is the reference of sentences
forwards and backwards which makes the text cohesive and coherent, but also
other discursive devices such as ellipsis, repetition, and anaphora are
studied. In addition to that the effectiveness of chosen stylistic properties
of the texts are analyzed in order to determine their suitability to the
perceived function, or contribution to overall interpretation.
Linguists
dealing with a sub-branch of stylistics called pedagogical stylistics support
the view that this field of study helps learners to develop better foreign
language competence.
Bibliography
Walt Wolfram. Sociolinguistics. Linguistic
Society of America.2012. Retrieved
on May 22th, 2012 from < http://lsadc.org/info/ling-fields-socio.cfm>
Explore Linguistics. What is
sociolonguistics?. Tuesday, February 25th,
1997. Retrieved on May
22th, 2012 from < http://logos.uoregon.edu/explore/socioling/>
Kamil Wiśniewski. Neurolinguistics. Aug. 12th, 2007. Retrieved on May 22th, 2012 from < http://www.tlumaczenia-angielski.info/linguistics/neurolinguistics.htm>
Brown K. (Editor) 2005. Encyclopedia
of Language and Linguistics – 2nd Edition. Oxford: Elsevier.
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