MID TEST INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Name: Fariza Azkiya Ali

Class: 5 B Intro to Sociolinguistics

1588203070

Mid Test Intro to Sociolinguistics

1. What is Sociolinguistics?
2. Why do we learn Sociolinguistics?
3. What is the relation between language and society?
4. Please mention and explain the branches of linguistics ?
5. What is standard language? Giving an example!
6. Elaborating the language, dialect and accent, please!
7. Giving an example of formal language and informal language!
8. What aspects of language are sociolinguistics interested in?
9. When two or more people from different language met and tried to communicate, what should they do?

a.       Pidgin

b.      Creole

c.       Lingua franca

10. Why do people switch and mix a language?
11. Giving an example of code switching and mixing?

ANSWER

1.    Sociolinguistics is concerned with how language use interacts with, or is affected by, social factors such as gender, ethnicity, age or social class, for instance. As Coulmas defines, it is the study of choice and “the principal task of Sociolinguistics is to uncover, describe and interpret the socially motivated” choices an individual makes. The study of sociolinguistics can give everyone an opportunity to build awareness in such important issues as language variation, language policy, and language and education. It can be a powerful tool in solving social, educational and political problems of our society.

2.    In sociolinguistics class, we covered all the components that form language. One of the most intriguing and interesting aspects of language is sociolinguistics. Sociolinguistics is the study of language in its social context. This means that we use language to socially define and express who we are, where we come from, and who we associate with. It is amazing to see how often we judge someone’s character by making assumptions about their background and their character based simply upon how a person speaks.

3.  Sociolinguistics is concerned with language in the social and cultural context. This means that it focuses on the way a person speaks or behaves when they are placed in specific environments or situations. Sociolinguistics also studies the way a person speaks based on various factors like gender, race, and culture. One clear example of sociolinguistics can be the use of slang; this is commonly a term used to define the use of words or phrases on a more informal manner.

4.    The Branches of Linguistics
 1. Micro Linguistics 
Micro linguistic is narrower view. It is concerned internal view of language itself (structure of language systems) without related to other sciences and without related how to apply it in daily life. Some fields of micro linguistic:

·         Phonetics - the study of the acoustics and sounds of languages

A phonetician might, for example, look at how stress manifests in a language. In English, the stressed word in a normal sentence is louder and higher pitched: “ANna likes bananas.” If we ask a question though, it’s pronounced with a lower pitch: “ANna likes bananas?”

·         Phonology - the study of sound systems and how they pattern

For example, in English, there are many examples of t's in the middle of words that sound quite different from t's at the beginning or end of words. Listen to the t's in "toted" and you’ll hear that they don’t sound the same. The first t is pronounced with a puff of air (put your hand in front of your mouth to check this) but the second is not and it sounds like the d in “coded.” This sound is called a tap because your tongue taps the roof of your mouth briefly and it is very similar to the tapped r sound in languages like Spanish or Japanese (this leads to misperceptions of the English middle t as an r for speakers of these languages).

·         Syntax - the study of sentence structure

English and many western European languages have a phenomenon called “wh-movement.” wh-words are the question words who, which, what, where, when, why, and how. Think about the sentence “I eat an apple” as a possible response to the question “What do you eat?” The word what corresponds to apple, but it shows up at the beginning of the sentence. In many languages, though, the wh-word corresponds to the same position as the word it refers to. For example, in Chinese you would say “I eat apple” in response to “You eat what?” We say then that in languages like English, wh-movement has occurred and the structure is: “What do you eat what?” A lot of other properties of a language are predicted by whether it has wh-movement or not, but we’ll have to leave those to another time!

·         Semantics - the study of meaning and formalizing it into a logical form

English and many western European languages have a phenomenon called “wh-movement.” wh-words are the question words who, which, what, where, when, why, and how. Think about the sentence “I eat an apple” as a possible response to the question “What do you eat?” The word what corresponds to apple, but it shows up at the beginning of the sentence. In many languages, though, the wh-word corresponds to the same position (called in-situ) as the word it refers to. For example, in Chinese you would say “I eat apple” in response to “You eat what?” We say then that in languages like English, wh-movement has occurred and the structure is: In English, the wh-word moves to the front of the sentence (why “do” appears in questions is another issue that I don’t have room to tackle here). A lot of other properties of a language are predicted by whether it has wh-movement or not, but we’ll have to leave those to another time.

2.      Macro Linguistics

Macro linguistic is broadest view of language. It is concerned external view of language itself with related to other sciences and how to apply it in daily life. Some fields of micro linguistic:

a. Stylistics, the study of linguistic factors that place a discourse in context.

b. Developmental linguistics, the study of the development of linguistic ability in an individual, particularly the acquisition of language in childhood.

c. Historical linguistics or Diachronic linguistics, the study of language change.

d. Language geography, the study of the spatial patterns of languages.

e. Evolutionary linguistics, the study of the origin and subsequent development of language.

f. Psycholinguistics, the study of the cognitive processes and representations underlying language use.

g. Sociolinguistics, the study of social patterns and norms of linguistic variability.

h. Clinical linguistics, the application of linguistic theory to the area of Speech-Language Pathology.

i. Neurolinguistics, the study of the brain networks that underlie grammar and communication.

j. Biolinguistics, the study of natural as well as human-taught communication systems in animals compared to human language.

5. A standard language is a variety of language that is used by governments, in the media, in schools and for international communication. By using a standard language rather than a local variety.

6. Haugen (1966a) has pointed out that language and dialect are ambiguous terms. Ordinary people use these terms quite freely in speech; for them a dialect is almost certainly no more than a local non-prestigious (therefore powerless) variety of a real language. Haugen points out that, while speakers of English have never seriously adopted patois as a term to be used in the description of language, they have tried to employ both language and dialect in a number of conflicting senses. Dialect is used both for local varieties of English, e.g., Yorkshire dialect, and for various types of informal, lower-class, or rural speech. ‘In general usage it therefore remains quite undefined whether such dialects are part of the “language” or not. In fact, the dialect is often thought of as standing outside the language.

7. Formal Language: How do You do?

     Informal Language: Hey, What’s up dude?

     Formal Language: Hai How are you?

     Informal Language: Hai, How’s life?

8.  Sociolinguistics are interested in explaining why people speak differently in different social in different social context. And the effect of social factors such as social distance, social status, age, gender, and class. On language varieties  ( dialect, register, genre, etc ) and they are concerned with identifying the socual function of language and the way are used to convey social meanings.

9. They are use Lingua Franca

10. People, then, are usually required to select a particular code whenever they choose to speak, and they may also decide to switch from one code to another or to mix codes even within sometimes very short utterances and thereby create a new code in a process known as code-switching. Code-switching (also called code-mixing) can occur in conversation between speakers’ turns or within a single speaker’s turn. In the latter case it can occur between sentences (intersententially) or within a single sentence (intra-sententially). Code-switching can arise from individual choice or be used as a major identity marker for a group of speakers who must deal with more than one language in their common pursuits.

11. Code Mixing:

A: Hai, lagi apa you?

B: Oh ya, aku lagi ngerjain assignments from lecturer nih. How about you?

A: Ga ngapa-ngapain sih. I’m just looking for baju online shop di instagram nih

B: Emang nya you udh finish tugas dari lecturer ini?

A: yaa, I have done lah

B: ooh ya I see. Yaudah ya aku mau selesain tugas ini dulu ya.

A: Okaay baiklah

            Code Switching:

            A: What shoul we do? I don’t want to go to this place right now

            B: Loh kenapa? Bukannya seru ya kita pergi liburan bareng-bareng

            A: Ya, because i have some problem with my family

            B: Ada apa dengan keluarga kamu?

            A: I can’t tell to you, because it’s a secret

            B: hmm yaa, I see. It’s okay if you aren’t join with us

            A: I hope you can receive my decision

            B: Iya iya tenang aja kok. Semoga cepat selesai ya masalahnya..