LING2400 Lecture Notes January 28 2014 Observer s Paradox Sociolinguistic interview spontaneous speech childhood games danger of death etc ques tion answer reading passage word list minimal pairs marry merry etc Audience Design Style meaning is derived from association with social groups Speakers design style for in response to the audience Addressee known ratified addressed Auditor known ratified not addressed has some effect Overhearer known not ratified not addressed has the weakest effect Eavesdropper not known not ratified not addressed has no effect Criticism Audience design is responsive speakers robotic Speakers design agentive Penny Eckert speakers are active participants in defining the so cial situation Back to New York City Department Store Survey Saks 5th Avenure Macy s Klein Social Class What do we mean by class Unequal distribution of material and social capital vs caste in Labov used three measures income occupation education Middle Class MC Working flexible hereditary Class WC Lower Class LC Style and Social Class Pressure from Above above level of consciousness associated with higher social classes Pressure from Below below level of consciousness associated with lower social classes Hypercorrection overshooting pronunciation to emulate a different class Linguistic Inse overt prestige covert prestige curity Shared evaluation of sociolinguistic meaning of r speech community Problems difficult to define linguistic geographical Social Networks Lesley Milroy James Milroy Belfast Northern Ireland Individuals are embedded in networks of personal ties Strong ties are norm enforcing Explains why nonstandard varieties persist Usually associated with local identity values Opposed to mainstream values of outsiders Density Loose Network people you know don t know each other Dense Network people you know know each other Multiplexity Simplex one relationship with each person Multiplex more than one relationship with each person i e sister but also coworker Social Networks Social Class Working class network dense and multiplex Middle class network loose and simplex larger less kin or territory oriented allow transmission of changes two level model small scale structures networks individuals create and are embed ded in large scale structures classes determine relationships of power and institu tional level explains frequent negative self evaluation of speakers of nonstandard varieties who nev ertheless continue to speak them Social Networks and Speech Communities speech community internal cohesion external differentiation social network no boundaries loos and dense clusters of individuals connected by weak or strong ties core members vs peripheral members Peripheral Members African American English AAE in Harlem NYC Labov 1972 Street gangs Aces T Birds Victoria Day Camp Lames lived in the same block but weren t in gangs or Victoria Day Camp Sex and Gender sex biologically determined chromosomal anatomical differences between men and women binary usually gender socially constructed psychological cultural social differences continuum masculine feminine Note mot the same as grammatical gender French le soleil the sun masculine la lune the moon feminine Swedish mann en the man common kvinna n the woman common barn et the child neuter Sex Gender and Language Discourse strategies hedging sort of tag questions Nice day isn t it Lexical choices colour terms adjectives divine fabulous descriptive terms i e ac tor actress Interesting Book The King is Pregnant Ursula K LeGuin The Left Hand of Darkness Explores what it is like for a planet without gender Grammatical constructions discourse markers pronouns