Linguists often think of simplified speakers (‘Just an American English Speaker’)
We think in terms of ‘what’s true about language for everybody ’who speaks the language’ we’re studying?’
Sociolinguistics brings people back into things, taking everything that sociology does, intersected with everything that linguistics does
We could spend a whole quarter on the sociolinguistics of memes
We’ll just focus on some core concepts
Social identity is often a very sensitive topic
You don’t need to share anything you’d rather not (remember, we’re Podcasting)
Let’s avoid stereotypes, and speak to our own identities where we have more nuance
Speech Communities and Social Networks
Sociolinguistic Variation
Indexicality and Identity
Intersectionality
Different groups of people language differently, in agreed-upon ways
We call these different groups ‘speech communities’
Some groups are more respected by society than others
What’s a speech community, which, rightly or wrongly, is given prestige in the US?
What’s a speech community, which, rightly or wrongly, is of lower prestige in the US?
What’s a context in which a ‘prestige’ dialect would be awkward?
This relates closely to ‘register’, with high registers often incorporating elements of prestigious language
We manage our prestige, by varying our language
Sometimes it’s truly random
Sometimes, it’s based on language use (e.g. how often you say things)
Often, it’s socially conditioned
We call individual variations which are socially conditioned and informative sociolinguistic variables
Changes in spelling or emoji use
Changes in pronunciation or rules governing sound patterns
Changes in words which are used
Changes in sentence structure or grammatical differences
Changes in meaning of words or sentences
Any language difference can be a sociolinguistic variable as long as it’s socially conditioned!
Give me a language difference which gives you no social information about the speaker
Give me a language difference which gives you some social information about the speaker
Give me a language difference which gives you excellent and reliable social information about the speaker
Give me two social contexts with the same level or formality in which you speak differently. How so?
Give me a word which is which is only used in one social context in your life, and the context
We learn social things by observing sociolinguistic variables
What kinds of social things can we tell from somebody’s language?
Gender, Sexuality, Ethnicity, Age, Region, Hobbies, Fandoms, Communities, Beliefs, and more
These can be facts about you, communities one belongs to, and more
All of those elements of your identity contribute to how we act and function and live in the world
We may not be outwardly expressing all of these identities at any given moment or context, but they’re always a part of us
Speech communities have clusters of sociolinguistic features which are indicative of that community
They can also be more or less ‘obvious’ or detectable by listeners
Our sociolinguistic features tell the world about our identity
Once folks know that a feature indicates an identity, those features can be said to index that particular identity
Indexing is, effectively, showing or highlighting our identities for others
Indexing our identities using sociolinguistic features can be intentional (performative), or unintentional
We all have many identities
Those identities all affect our language, social approaches, etc
Those identities all interact!
Each person is complex, and likely has many different identities
Our identities are not isolated, instead, they mix and interact
Two people may ‘share an identity’, but have different experiences with it
Failure to account for intersectionality causes major analytical problems!
You’re unlikely to find one set of features for one identity consistent across all speakers
The linguistic expression of identifying as a woman may be different for white, black, latine, and trans women
Some elements of identity can be more or less independent
Collapsing the complexity of individuals’ identities into single ‘groups’ often leads to stereotyping and poorly fitting models
‘All black people say…’
‘You’re Bi, so you must…’
Identities can (outwardly) appear to apply, but matter less to the individual
Not all X people identify strongly as X
Not all people from the South speak Southern English
Paul Reed has shown that a person’s ‘Rootedness’ to a region is a better predictor of linguistic variables than location or place of birth
Your positionality refers to the unique combination of identities, experiences, values, opinions, and perspectives that you have.
It’s also worth considering areas where you have social power, and areas where you experience social oppression
This highlights the fact that the same situation, statement, or question will be seen and addressed differently by folks with different positionalities
Your positionality will strongly influence your interactions, language use, and sociolinguistic features
Speech Communities are groups of people who language similarly
Sociolinguistic variables are socially meaningful variations in language usage
Our social identities are indexed by our specific patterns of language use
Our social identities are intersectional, and thus, the patterns of variation associated with those identities are complex
These intersecting identities and associated experiences form our positionality, which we should contemplate as we think about our language use
Internet sociolinguistics could be a three quarter sequence
Sociolinguistic meme projects are very, very welcome
We’re just barely scratching the surface here!