Language and Social Groups

Sociolinguistics also looks at how language conveys identity. Language often signals which social groups we belong to. Therefore, people may make linguistic choices to show that they belong to a certain group, or are different from other groups.

It is important to remember that language changes all the time. The English of the 14th century was very different from today's English. If you are familiar with Chaucer's writing, you'll know how different English can be across the centuries.

Chaucer wrote in Middle English, which is vastly different from modern English.

Do you get the gist? Many of the words are similar to modern English words, but the spelling and pronunciation are very different, which is especially true when we compare Old English to modern slang.

Over time, our role within each social group changes. We may even change social groups altogether. You will gradually get older (shocking, I know!) – you may even move to a new city, find a new job, or start new hobbies. In each case, you will acquire new language for each social group. Overall, our language becomes a mix of all social groups that we are a part of, both past and present.

Key Terms in Sociolinguistics

When studying sociolinguistics, some keywords will appear that you need to know. Don't worry; we've got you covered!

Language style

Language style is not just about how cool you sound when you talk...

We often choose certain words and ways of speaking to express ourselves and our identity, which defines our language style.

Register

This is probably one you've come across elsewhere in your language studies:

Register may be influenced by the field (what the topic/subject is), manner (how formal the situation is), or mode (whether the language is written or spoken).

Sociolect

Sociolect is an important one to know:

We often change our way of speaking to seem more similar to the social group we belong to by changing our language features, such as our accent or word choices. Sociolects can ensure effective communication (e.g. dentists using jargon to talk about teeth), show belonging to a group, and exclude other people from the group.

Dialect

Not to be confused with sociolect!

Idiolect

Yet another -lect to learn!

Our idiolect is affected by where we live or have lived in the past, our class, age, education, and the other social groups that we are part of. These can affect the words we use, our accent, and the overall creation of an idiolect that is specific to you as an individual.

Standard English

Standard English is the most widely accepted form of the English Language. It follows standardised grammar rules and may often conform to Received Pronunciation (Received Pronunciation, or RP, is the accent used by the Queen). Standard English is the language we are taught in school, and expected to use in exams.

Variety

This is a pretty standard one:

Language and Social Groups Theorists

Language can create a sense of belonging or divisions in society. In the past, the RP accent (sometimes called the 'Queen's English') has often been associated with the upper class. In contrast, more regional accents (such as Cockney) have been associated with the working class. With these biases in mind, people can exaggerate or play down their accents according to how they want to be perceived by others.

Plenty of theorists have conducted research in language and social groups. Here are some that you may come across in A Level English Language:

Giles' communication accommodation theory

Labov's sociolinguistic studies

William Labov was also a key theorist in sociolinguistics, researching multiple areas of language in society. Some of his most notable studies include the study of non-standard English, the study of African American Vernacular English, and the study of Martha's Vineyard (see below). In each of these studies, Labov focused on language and its development in specific social groups.

Martha's Vineyard

Labov studied a sociolect spoken by a group of fishermen on an island called Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, USA. He found that other islanders subconsciously imitated the local fishermen's 'traditional sounding' language (their sociolect) as it had positive connotations of strength and courage.² This study showed how people could alter their language to be more like the social groups they admire and want to be part of. For the islanders on Martha's Vineyard, altering their language would make them appear traditional, strong, and courageous, like the fishermen!

Labov found that the people of Martha's Vineyard mimicked the language used by fishermen.

Difference vs Dominance approach

The difference and dominance approaches are often discussed on the topic of language and gender. These are approaches theorists use to try and describe how men and women speak and why they might speak differently from each other.

The 'difference' approach is the idea that men and women communicate in fundamentally different ways. Theorist Deborah Tannen has suggested that men and women belong to different sub-cultures. Lakoff (1975)³ developed this idea, stating that men and women use different linguistic features. For example, women overlap in conversation, use tag questions, and talk too much (how rude!).

The 'dominance' approach argues that men dominate in society, which is why men and women communicate so differently. Fishman (1978)⁴ found that men often dominated in conversations, while Zimmerman and West (1975)⁵ suggested men asserted dominance by interrupting more often.

Politeness theory

Our final theory is called 'politeness theory'. Brown and Levinson (1978)⁶ suggested speakers use politeness strategies to achieve successful communication.

The notion of face, first established by Goffman, is an integral part of politeness theory. It is the idea that people need approval from the person they are speaking to (positive face) while maintaining boundaries, independence, and freedom of opinion (negative face). People use politeness strategies to find a balance between 'looking good' and maintaining personal space.

Positive politeness strategies include showing interest and sympathy (we all enjoy someone who actually listens to us, don't we?).

Negative politeness strategies that appeal to a person's negative face include apologising and not interrupting to avoid imposing on the speaker. By using both strategies, we can appear friendly while not imposing on the other person.

Language Groups

As you might have gathered by now, language can vary between different social groups in quite a few ways. We've looked at how different social groups can impact language use, but what happens when this occurs on a wider, more geographical scale?

Definition of language group

What do we mean when we talk about a 'language group'?

Language groups typically consist of several languages with similar linguistic features, vocabulary, and grammatical rules. In essence, they're languages that sound pretty similar and where there might be a lot of shared language components.

Language Group Examples

Many different language groups exist across the globe – here are just a few key examples:

• The Nordic Languages: Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Icelandic

• The Germanic Languages: German, Dutch, Flemish, Afrikaans, etc.

• The Indian Languages: Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Bengali, etc.

• The Latin Languages: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, etc.

This is nowhere near all the language groups that exist but should give you an idea of what is meant by 'language group'.