Introduction To Linguistics : Sociolinguistics

            Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language used on society. Sociolinguistics differs from sociology of language in that the focus of sociology of language is the effect of language on the society, while sociolinguistics focuses on the society's effect on language. Or it can be said sociolinguistics is the field that studies the relation between language and society, between the uses of language and social structures in which the users of the language live. It is the field of study that assumes that the human society is made up of many related pattern and behaviors, some of which are linguistics (Spolsky,1998:3).

            According to sociolingustists sociolinguistics is a broad area of investigation that developed through the interaction of linguistics with a number of other academic diciplines. It has strong connections with anthropology through the study of language and culture and with sociology through the investigation of the role language plays in the organization of social groups and institutions.

            Sociolinguistics deals with language as it is spoken by human in everyday life, including the variations from area to area i a country or within dofferent levels of society. From this point of view, sociolinguistics is dealing with at least these following topics:

1.    Language varieties and Vernacular

            A vernacular or vernacular language is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, especially as distinguished from a literary, national or standard language, or a lingua franca used in the region or state inhabited by that population. It refers to the language  a person grows up with and uses in everyday life in ordinary, commonplace, social interactions.

             Holmes (2013:77) stated that there are three components of the meaning of the term verncular. The most basic refers to the fact that the vernacular is an uncondified or  unstandardised variety. The second refers to the way it is acquired- in the home , as a first variety. The third is the fact that it is used for relatively circumscribed functions.The first components has led to the use of the term vernacular wit somewhat different meanings.

2.     Code Mixing and Code Switching

Code-mixing refers to the mixing of two or more languages or language varietis in speech. Code-mixing is similar to the use or creation of pidgins; but while a pidgin is created across groups that do not share a common language, code-mixing may occur within a multilingual setting where speakers share more than one language

            Code - switching is the alternation in the use of two language ( or even more )  in the some discourse. The switch can happen within words , clauses , or sentences. However, there is only a switch in the language, not an integration of the word, clause or sentence into the other language.

code-switching emphasizes a multilingual speaker's movement from one grammatical system to another, the term code-mixing suggests a hybrid form, drawing from distinct grammars. In other words, code-mixing emphasizes the formal aspects of language structures or linguistic competence, while code-switching emphasizes linguistic performance.

3.    Diglossia

            According to Homles, ( 2013: 30 ) diglossia is a characteristic of speech communities rather than individuals. Individuals may be bilingual. Societies or communities are diglossic. In other words,the term diglossia describes societal or institutionalised bilingualism,where two varieties are required to cover all the community’s domains. Wardhaugh and Fuller ( 2015:90 ) said that diglossia is the term used to describe a situation in which there are two distinct codes with clear functional separation, that is, one code is employed in one set of circumstances and the other in an entirely different set.

4.    Language Planning and Standardization

            Languange planning is an attempt to interfere deliberately with a language  or one of its varieties: it is human intervention into natural processes of language change,duffusion, and erosion.

            Any attempt to set up norms or rules for when to use each is called status planning. Once a language has been fixed as appropiate for use in a specific situation, any effort to fix  or modify its structure is called corpus planning.One aspect of corpus planning is the process of language standardization.

            According Wardaugh ( 2013: 31 ), standardization refers to the process by which a language has been codified in some way. That process usually involves the development of such things as grammars, spelling books,and dictionaries,and possibly a literature.

( ADD STANDAR N NONSTANDARD LANGUAGE)

5.    Lingua Franca, Pidgins and Creoles

            Lingua franca refers to any variation that evolves out of the need to facilitate communication among people whose mother tongues are different. The variation does not necessarily have to be the mother tongue of any one of the participans and does not have to be fully developed. One example is “air speak”, a variation of English spoken by pilots and flight personnel. The term lingua franca most probably derived from the name given to the simplified French dialect spoken by the crusaders in the Middle Ages: lingua franca, language of the Francs. This variety was widely used around the Mediterranean.

            Pidgin is a variation deriving from the need of speakers of differing mother tongues to communicate within a restricted context, such as trade. In contrast to a Lingua Franca, a pidgin language derives by mixing various features of two or more languages. A pidgin is a language variety invented by the speakers. Therefore, there is no native speaker of a pidgin language; i.e. no speaker born into this language as their mother tongue. Various pidgin language arose from the contact of whites with native people  in the Americas and Africa as well as Asia. Among the qualities that all Pidgins have in common is that they evince a rather restricted vocabulary and lack tense markers. Their grammar is therefore elaborated to a minimal extent. Examples from Neo- Melanesian or Tok Pisin are: “mi go”, “mi lukim yu” = “I see/will see you”, etc. “gras bilong het” = “hair”.

            Creole is etymologically derived from the native tribe of the Criollio, refers to a pidgin variation that has become established and conventionalized to the extent that it can be called a language. For instance, if two people of different language communicities marry, they will create a pidgin variation. This, in trun, becomes the mother tongue of their children who elaborate this pidgin with more grammatical features, such as case markers and an axpansion of vocabulary. The language variety can then be called a creole language.

6.    Dialect

            Dialect, and accent are two terms which should not be confused. While a dialect is a distinct variation of a language bound to geographical regions or a social stratification, the accent of a speaker is a blend of his linguistic background with his effort to pronounce the standard language or a distinct dialect of a cmpletely different language group. The accent a person may show hence only occurs when he or she uses a language veriety or a language different from their own. A person can speak English with an Indonesian accent. Meyerhoff (2006:27) asserts that when linguists talk about accents, they are referring only to how speakers prononce words, whereas they use dialect to refer to distinctive features at the level of pronounciation and vocabulary and sentence structure. There are two kinds of dialect, they are regional or geographical and social dialect. Dialects are linguistic varieties which are distinguishable by their vocabulary, grammar, and pronounciation; the speech of people from different social, as well as regional, groups may differ in these ways. Wardhaugh and Fuller (2015:42) explain that the term dialect can also be used to describe differences in speech associated with various social groups or classes.

7.    Variety

            The term variety is employed by linguists as a neutral term to cover any coherent language system typical of a set of people (even if the set contains only one member). So variety is a cover term for idiolect, register, dialect, accent, language, and possibly patois as well. This term is currently preferred among lingusts because it avoids taking decisions about whether, for example, the two varieties under discussions are dialects of the same language or different languages, or in the case of languages, whether they are pidgins or creoles or not.

            Register is another technical term, but has several definitions. The term patois is used in French linguistics, but not consistenly in English linguistics. Jargon and slang tend to be used specifically of vocabulary.

            Using the term variety is an attempt to avoid giving offence by the use of a term which may be semantically or emotionally loaded because of its ordinary language use. Talking about a standard variety also has the advantage that it does not cause any semantic clash in the way that standard dialect may for speakers unaware of the way in which the term is used by linguists.

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE : THE CULTURALINGUISTIC SYSTEM

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

In a simple thought we can define language as a system of communication using sounds or symbols that enables us to express our feelings, thoughts, ideas, and experiences. Actually language is more than just a means of communication. It influences our culture. Culture is a set of attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors shared by a group of people, but different for each individual, communicated from one generation to the next.

The culture is learned and transmitted through language. That is why language and culture can not be separated. They both are fused together and known in the term culturalinguistic.

THE CULTURALINGUISTIC SYSTEM: THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN GROUP LIFE

Although language has often been considered a part of culture, it is certainly a part without which the whole could neither have come into existence, nor have endure. It may, therefore, be more accurate to say that culture is embedded in language. Language facilitates and limits our knowledge of the world in which we live; and the spesific view we have of our world is in part the result of the particular language or languages we use.

The shaping of such a spesific view begins early. A child becomes a part of a cultural sysem when he acquires a language. As his abilities in language develop, he becomes progressively more capable of exploring the first culturalinguistic systems to which he is exposed. Yet, at the same time he becomes less capable of exploring those culturalinguistic systems that are different from his.

Most linguists and social scientists, in making a distinction between human being nd all other mamals, attribute both language and culture to humans alone. That is  to say, while other mamals may have communicate and may have systems of behavior characteristic of the group, only humans create a culturalinguistic reality in terms of which members of every human group think, feel and act.  Some human groups may go one step further, their identification with their own language and culture may be so strong at times that they deny that members of other language and cultural groups are equally as human as they.

           

For every human group, it is language that povides both a heritage and a means of transmitting culture. The heritage may be considered as a total culturalinguistic reality which is in principle available to every person who learns a particular language. A child who learns French in the first few years of his life, for example has acquired the key to French culture and to each and every expression of it, in literature, in law, in art and in all other cultural forms. In practice, however, each person inherits only a small fragment of the total reality; his socio-economic circumstances, his geographic mobility, his intelligence and aptitudes and many other factors act as constraints on his acquisition of both language and culture. In short, no single person can know any language or culture on its totality.

Nevertheless, the social experience of previous generations is transmitted in any given culture with remarkable uniformity. This may be due in part to uniformities in the language. For example, words referring to kinship tend to be learned in terms of the general culltural significance, without regard to personal experience. That is to say, a person may appropiately revere “mothers” even when his own mother has provided nothing but bitter experiences for him. The child may in fact feel guilt because he does not love his mother as the culturalinguistic system dictates he should.

Many specific aspects of culture transcend linguistic boundaries. Every person heritage contains elements that have come from experiences of other cultural groups, which may be very different from his own and which he may not understand in terms of their original cultural meanings. Few people in the United States, for example will probably interpret rabbits and eggs as fertility symbols that herald the productivity of animal and vegetable life at the beginning of spring. They may engage in such rituals as the Easter egg hunt with little or no knowledge of their original significance.

           

The inheritors of a particular culture are often unaware of the norms that guide them, yet those norms are constantly at work in us, shaping our behavior in the ways of our tribe. Sometimes, to be sure, these norms are embodied in behavior that is highly visible to any observer, such as those which stand out in speific customs: dressing, greeting, eating, gesturing, etc. But even when the cultural part of behavior is not quite so obvious, our behavior still characterizes us as member of our group. For example, the observer who knows what to expect can sometimes tell what language a speaker is using even when the language can not be heard: the gestures that the speaker uses reveal what the language is. In the same way, the manner and rhythm of eating, the use of instruments, and other more subtle clues may help to identify the culture to which someone belongs, for almost every movement and act is associated with social custom in some way.

            

The custom which underlies and permeates all others, however, is language, and other behavior is generally accompanied by linguistic customs appropiate to it. If one knows and uses a language well, usually he is expected to honor the customs associated with speakers of the language.

Usually training in the customs of a culture begins in early childhood. For example,in English, formation of undesirable habits on the part of the individual which might result in social customs considered undesirable is inhibited by the use of the one word ‘no’. Later, influences become so subtle that they may not even be recognized as such. But all such responses to behavior serve not only to tune the individual  so as to be in harmony with his culture, but also to delineate and buttress the norms of the culture. By norm we mean a pattern of speech or other behavior that is viewed as desirable, expected, appropiate, or required.

Interaction, however, need not be limited to those within one culturalinguistic group, but may occur between members of different group and may thus produce new linguistic and cultural phenomena in either or both groups. For example some words for items were then transferred from Spanish to English like pampa, tomato, potato, maize, poncho and many others. Thus the ‘poncho’ was an Indian garment with generally negative cultural connotations for the conquering group until the item (and the word) became popular in the United States. Since then the ponco has become fashionable in South America among non-Indians. This was possible partly because slight physical modifications provided new connotations for the garment and the world in Spanish. Soon, perhaps already the Indians may be wearing ponchos made by Sears.

One of the most common uses of the term culture is to identify a spesific group of human being, as in the phrases western culture, black culture, and protestant culture. In each case, we imply that members of the designated group have something in common which is observable and identifiable, and the identify of every member of the group is formed in part by what he holds in common with the remainder of the group.

In many cases, that which is shared to identify the group readily is language and dialect.

Frequently the word culture has been expanded to include a social group’s material products as well as its behavior, identity and beliefs. This is because many anthropologists study groups that have disappeared and left only behind their material products.

            

The most important aspect of material culture from the linguistic point of view, is communication of the knowledge which is makes possible the production of the material objects. For instance, getting to the moon was a culturalinguistic act. For it was made possible only through the linguistic and cultural heritage that aided the communication of the necessary procedures and produced the skills needed to carry out the procedures.

            

Thus every culture has technics of producing material objects, as well as the knowledge embedded in language necessary to use.

            

In one traditional usage, culture means refinement or excellence, usually as determined by dominant social groups. The word, thus used, includes the special linguistic form called literature, as well as a very small proportion of the items produced as art (painting, drawning and sclupture) and music. These artistic forms are associated in most cases with culturalinguistic boundaries: those who are knowledgeable in the appropiate fields can identify some particular products of art.

            

Some works of art represent a structure of meaning and value that persists in the life of a society. Such works, therefore, continue to be meaningful and become ‘classics’. Since literature and art tend to symbolize values and structures highly characteristic of a given culturalinguistic reality, they may exercise a continuing influence over a long period of time. Shakespeare, for example, represent not only the culturalinguistic reality of the people of his time, but also that of millions of people living today, even of those who have never heard of him. This may be a fairly accurate indication of the importance of a great work of art in a culture.

Singular & Plural

Bentuk singular digunakan saat menghadapi benda tunggal atau tidak lebih dari satu. Sedangkan bentuk Plural digunakan sebaliknya yaitu saat menyebutkan benda yang lebih dari satu.

Bentuk singular lebih simpel dibandingkan bentuk plural karena tidak ada perubahan noun. Untuk singular biasanya hanya ditambahkan article (a, an, the). A- untuk noun berawalan konsonan dan an untuk noun berawalan (bunyi) vokal.

Mis : a book, a girl, a bag, a table, an animal, an apple, etc.

      A final –S or –ES is added to a noun to make a noun plural.

Untuk benda jamak biasanya ditambahkan akhiran –s atau –es.

For most words (Noun) simply a final –s is added to spell the word correctly.

Kebanyakan kata benda dipluralkan dengan menambah akhihran –s.

Pens

Books

Plates

Apples

Dogs

Contoh : 1) I and my friends go to the beach every weekend

Penambahan akhiran –s pada kata friend menunjukan bahwa ada lebih dari satu teman yang dimaksud dalam kalimat.

                2) Mita has two pens

                3) We ate many apples Yesterday

      Final –es is added to words that end in –sh, -ch, -s, -z, and –x.

Selain peambahan akhiran –s , beberapa kata benda juga dipluralkan dengan menambah akhiran –es. Biasanya pada kata yang berakhiran huruf –sh, -ch, -s, -z, and –x.

Sandwiches

Buzzes

Boxes

Classes

Movies

Contoh: 1) She teaches many classes today

                 2) There are two Boxes on the table

      For words (noun) that end  in –y :

-          If –y is precede by a vowel, only –s is added

-          If –y is prceded by a consonant, the –y change to –i and –es is added

Untuk kata benda yang berakhiran –y ada dua cara mempluralkannya, yaitu untuk akhiran –y yang didahului oleh huruf vokal (A,I,U,E,O) tinggal tambahkan –s di akhir (mis: toys, boys,)dan untuk akhrian –y yang  didahului oleh huruf konsonan maka –y akan diganti dengan –i kemudian ditambahkan –es (mis: cherries _bentuk jamak dari Cherry, Babies_bentuk jamak dari Baby)

Irregular Plural

Beberapa noun dipluralkan dengan cara yang berbeda-beda dan tidak beraturan.

      Man – Men

Woman – Woman

Child – Children

Ox – Oxen

Mouse – Mice

Louse – lice

Foot – Feet

Goose – Geese

      Nouns that end in –o, can be plural by add only –s or –es and some either –s or –es can be used.

Untuk nouns  yang berakhiran –o bisa dipluralkan dengan 2 cara yaitu dengan menambah akhiran –s dan dengan menambah akhiran –es.

Contoh : - dengan menambahkan akhiran –es : Echoes, Heroes, Potatoes, Tomatoes.

   -dengan menambah akhiran –s : Memos, Radios, Pianos, Tattoos, Photos, Zoos

- beberapa bisa dipluralkan dengan menambah akhiran –s atau –es :                mosquitoes/mosquitos, Tornado/Tornadoes, Zero/Zeroes, Volcanoes/Volcano.

      Nouns that end in –f simply add –s to form the plural, some are changed to –ves in the plural.

Untuk noun yang berakhiran –f or –fe bisa dipluralkan dengan 2 cara yaitu dengan menambah akhiran –s dan dengan mengubah akhiran –f menjadi –ves.

Contoh: - menambah akhiran s; Beliefs, Chiefs, Cliffs, Roofs

        -mengubah akhiran –f menjadi –ves ; calf – calves , life – lives, leaf – leaves, thief – thieves, wolf – wolves, etc.

      Some nouns have the same singular and plural form.

Beberapa noun memiliki bentuk plural yang sama dengan bentuk singularnya.

Contoh : Deer, sheep, fish, species, series, means, etc.

      Some nouns that english has borrowed from other language have foreign plurals.

Beberapa noun yang diadaptasi dari bahasa lain non english memiliki bentuk plural yang berbeda-beda

Contoh :- Criterion – Criteria

                  -Cactus – Cacti/Cactuses

                  -Formula – Formulae

                  -Analisys – Analyses, Crisis – Crises, Oasis – Oaes, Thesis –Theses, Hypothesis –Hypotheses

                  -Appendix – Appendices/appendixes , Index – Indices/Indexes

                  -Bacterium – Bacteria, Medium – Media, Datum – Data, Curriculum - Curricula