Linguistics is the study of language and its features. Sociolinguistics is the branch of linguistics that studies interaction between the ever changing concepts of language and society.
To study it effectively, requires long hours of research and analysis and therefore sociolinguists have come out with research paper writings to study this concept.
Such dynamism of language also tolls the students and they have to go for assignment help in case of working on this concept.
The sociologist Hudson, in his research paper writing, defined sociolinguistics as the study of language with reference to society.
Another sociologist Trudgill said that sociolinguistics is that part of linguistics that is concerned with language as a cultural and social phenomenon. He was of the opinion that sociolinguistics investigates the field of language and society and has a close relation to the other social sciences.
If we combine these and various other definitions, we will get a plethora of concepts on sociolinguistics. There is a lot to study. Therefore we can easily conclude that there is no set definition of sociolinguistics, neither a set approach towards it. Rather there are recurrent themes that are considered while studying it.
Sociolinguistics combines the theories of both linguistics and society to understand language. Therefore what they do is draw upon the language of the social world for a practical understanding of language and its development.
The various forms of languages and their underlying structure gave way for sociolinguistics to develop. People became more curious to understand these complexities,
the different phonologies, syntax and semantics. Noam Chomsky is said to be the father of linguistics. He isolated the language structure and classified it on two points:
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Performance:
this is the end product of use of language, that is, the language output that is affected by the underlying language conditions.
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Competence:
It refers to the underlying knowledge of the structure of language. Hymens said that language used without the knowledge of the social structure is futile.
We first understand the social and cultural aspects of a place, the kind of language they understand and only then can we establish an effective communication process.
Sociolinguistics says that while communicating it is not only important to remember the language rules but also the social rules- as in when is it ok to speak among a group of people,
whom should we speak to and whom should we not speak to and which forms of speech will be effective in getting our task done effectively.The sociolinguists work to provide a socially realistic linguistics,
wherein all speakers of all languages are cover. In turn this allows to learn more about the language. In doing so, the sociolinguistics represent all sorts of social groups, social identities as well as individuals like region, class, gender, age, etc.
Thus they develop the work of dialectologists. They then use this knowledge to address any issue among different cultures or language groups.
Now that we are talking about dialectologist, let us briefly understand what actually is dialect. A dialect is a variety of language that is peculiar to a particular social group.
It may have different vocabulary, pronunciations and structure.A dialect can develop due to regional, geographical, ethnic or cultural impacts. The contact of various language with each other gives way to the development of different dialects among the same community.
community
Also this may result in language variation among the community. When we talk about language variation, then there are two or more prominent language prevailing.
The dominance of one can lead to the suppression and then the eventual death of the other. The language of the superior class or power becomes the lingua franca.
Lingua Franca refers to the language that is most spoken among the speakers of other languages as well, within a community. For example, English can be say to be the Lingua Franca of the entire world.
With time, and due to language contact, two basic forms of language developed known as pidgin and creole.
Pidgin is basically a contact language and it develops between two or more groups that do not have a language in common. This pidgin language has no native speakers.
In the process of pidginization, speakers of two or more existing languages came into contact and try to adapt to each other’s language resulting into a new language -pidgin being form.
Usually it happens when local languages mix with the language some foreign settler has brought from different places and
for communication among several ethnicities.
In this process there are chances of the two native languages losing their speakers and eventually dying. For example, when British came to India, it resulted in pidgin English as in ‘Bungalow’ from bangla, ‘dacoity’ from dacoity and the like.
A creole language is a comparatively stable and a natural language developed from a combination of different languages. It is complete language, unlike pidgin, and adopt as a native one. The vocabulary and the system of grammar of these languages is fully develop.
Creolization is a term referring to the process by
which elements of different cultures are blend together to create a new culture usually resulting from cultural mixing of people. Its example can be varieties of French that emerged such as Haitian creole and Mauritian creole.
Creolization actually occurs when a pidgin language has stabilized itself over years and adopted by
generations as native language, forming its own syntax and grammar.
Sociolinguistics is a wide concept. It just does not end to the understanding of the languages
but also contains its applications to maintain harmony in the society.
The field is still a developing one since language itself keeps on developing. But the above mentioned points were a few basic ones and can be kept in mind by the students working on sociolinguistics so that they could get an effective assignment help usa .