INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS

DEFINITION OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS


Summary:

Sosiolingustic is brances of linguistic

Sosiolinguistic is how the language and society

We must acknowledge that a language is essentially a set of items, what Hudson (1996, p. 21) calls ‘linguistic items,’ such entities as sounds, words, grammatical structures, and so on. It is these items, their status, and their arrangements that language theorists such as Chomsky concern themselves with. On the other hand, social theorists, particularly sociologists, attempt to understand how societies are structured and how people manage to live together. To do so, they use such concepts as ‘identity,’ ‘power,’ ‘class,’ ‘status,’ ‘solidarity,’ ‘accommodation,’ ‘face,’ ‘gender,’ ‘politeness,’ etc. A major concern of this book is to examine possible relationships between ‘linguistic items’ on the one hand and concepts such as ‘power,’ ‘solidarity,’ etc. on the other. We should note that in doing so we are trying to relate two different kinds of entities in order to see what light they throw on each other. That is not an easy task. Linguistic items are difficult to define. Try, for example, to define exactly what linguistic items such as sounds, syllables, words, and sentences are. Then try to define precisely what you understand by such concepts as ‘social class,’ ‘solidarity,’ ‘identity,’ ‘face,’ and ‘politeness.’ Finally, try to relate the two sets of definitions within some kind of theory so as to draw conclusions about how items in these two very different classes relate to each other. Do all this while keeping in mind that languages and societies are constantly changing. The difficulties we confront are both legion and profound.

There are several possible relationships between language and society. One is that social structure may either influence or determine linguistic structure and/or behavior. Certain evidence may be adduced to support this view: the age-grading phenomenon whereby young children speak differently from older children and, in turn, children speak differently from mature adults; studies which show that the varieties of language that speakers use reflect such matters as their regional, social, or ethnic origin and possibly even their gender; and other studies which show that particular ways of speaking, choices of words, and even rules for conversing are in fact highly determined by certain social requirements.


Question and Answer:
 

1.)    Selvira Elsa Dwita

In methodological concerns there are data and theory. What is relationship between data and theory ?

Answer :

Whatever sociolinguistic is it must be oriented toward both data and theory.

So, Relationship is solidly, based on evidence, but also must be motivated by questions that are posed in terms such that they can be answered in an approved scientific way.

2.)    Lindawati

How we used language as a well ?

Answer:

If people can understand what the speaker meaning

3.)    Indri Christina

What the meaning of code?

Answer:  

May also refer to a language or a variety of a language as a code. Such terms as dialect,language , style , standard language.