#SOCIOLINGUISTICS DEFINITION SOFTWARE#

The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-human World. Key Journals in Sociolinguistics: Ībram, David.Do You Speak American? – What is Sociolinguistics?: pbs.org.Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society.

Language in Society: An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Sociolinguistics: The Essential Readings. Sociolinguistics: A Reader and Coursebook.

Sociolinguistics Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links.

In general, then, backstage conduct is one which allows minor acts which might easily be taken as symbolic of intimacy and disrespect for others present and the region, while front region conduct is one which disallows such potentially offensive behavior” (Goffman 1956:78). The frontstage of behavior language can be taken as the absence (and in some sense the opposite) of this. The backstage language consists of reciprocal first-naming, co-operative decision-making, profanity, open sexual remarks, elaborate griping, smoking, rough informal dress, ‘sloppy’ sitting and standing posture, use of dialect or sub-standard speech, mumbling and shouting, playful aggressivity and ‘kidding’, inconsiderateness for the other in minor but potentially symbolic acts, minor physical self-involvements, such as humming, whistling, chewing, nibbling, belching and flatulence.

“Throughout Western society there seems to be one informal or backstage language of behavior, and another language of behavior for occasions when a performance is being presented.

One consequence of historical segregation in the United States is that a large proportion of African Americans speak a distinctive version of English, with different rules for pronunciation, diction, grammar, and syntax from that ordinarily spoken by whites” (McNamee and Miller 2013:191).

“ Segregation itself makes linguistic profiling possible.

It is the chief vehicle by which people communicate ideas, information, attitudes, and emotions to one another, and it is the principal means by which human beings create culture and transmit it from generation to generation” (Hughes and Kroehler 2008:47).

“ Language is the cornerstone of every culture.

It may be best, then, to leave language undefined, and to thus acknowledge its open-endedness, its mysteriousness” (Abram 1996:73). We are therefore unable to circumscribe the whole of language within our definition. For the only medium with which we can define language is language itself.

“Every attempt to definitely say what language is is subject to a curious limitation.

Their confident demeanor, in turn, enables upper- and upper-middle-class speakers to project images of credibility, honesty, and competence that are important in all social arenas-especially the workplace” (Thompson and Hickey 2012:221). Members of the upper class speak more directly and in a more assured manner than do members of the working and lower classes.

“ Class boundaries are also maintained by language, speech patterns, and pronunciation.

A ( noun) sociolinguist studies language by researching ( adjective) sociolinguistic phenomena.

British English – /soh-see-oh-ling-gwIs-tiks/.

American English – /soh-see-oh-ling-gwIs-tiks/.

#SOCIOLINGUISTICS DEFINITION SOFTWARE#

Others have used eye-tracking software to explore sociolinguistic perception, and still others have captured language attitudes via matched guise studies. Members of the Interactional Sociophonetics Lab collect high-quality audio and visual data of social interactions as well as articulatory phonetic data. Many of us use experimental methods to explore sociolinguistic production and perception. Recent fieldwork has found us in rural counties of Northern California, exploring ethnic variation in Tel Aviv, on the political trail in Austin, Texas, and among drag queens in San Francisco. We regularly offer a hands-on Sociolinguistic Field Methods course and we collect data through department-wide projects, like Voices of California, as well as individual projects conducted locally and across the world. Fieldworkįieldwork is critical to much of our research.

Recent graduate seminars have focused on topics such as sociolinguistic perception, sociogrammar, and interactional sociolinguistics. This includes production and perception of phonetic, semantic, and syntactic components of language. ResearchĬurrent research by sociolinguists in our department explores the social meaning and linguistic structure of variation. Sociolinguistics at Stanford combines an emphasis on social and stylistic aspects of variation with a department-wide interest in the linguistic constraints on variation.

Sociolinguistics definition