"Sociolinguistics and sociology "ورشة عمل

Friday 17 Feb 2023, 09:00 → 10:00 Asia/Baghdad

قاعة ابن رشد (قسم اللغة الانكليزية- كلية التربية ابن رشد )

Baidaa Alzubaidy

Sociolinguistics and sociology of language

Asst. Prof. Dr. Baida’a Abbas Al-Zubaidy

Introduction 

Any discussion of the relationship between language and society, or of the various functions of language in society, should begin with some attempt to define each of these terms. Let us say that a society is any group of people who are drawn together for a certain purpose or purpose. 'Society' is therefore a very comprehensive concept. While language is what the members of a particular society speak. However, speech in almost any society may take many very different forms, and just what forms we should choose to discuss when we attempt to describe the language of a society may prove to be a contentious issue. Sociolinguistics is “a branch of linguistics that studies all aspects of the relationship between language and society. Sociolinguists study such matters as the linguistic identity of social groups, social attitudes to language, standard and nonstandard forms of language, the patterns and needs of national language use, social varieties and levels of language, the social basis of multilingualism, and so on” (Wardhaugh, 2010, P.11). 

 

Conclusion

 

1. Language as a distinctive communication element presents linguistics varieties, which are geographical, historical, social, and culturally determined. 
2. The sociology of language is sometimes called ‘macro-sociolinguistics’. It concerns itself with whole languages and their distribution and usage within society and not, for example, with language features or structures or with more micro-social processes. Typically, the focus is on the use of languages by particular groups. -Micro-linguistic studies, are those that typically focus on very specific linguistic items or individual differences and uses to search for possibly wide-ranging linguistic and/or social implications. 
3. Macro-linguistic studies are those studies that examine large amounts of language data to draw broad conclusions about group relationships. 
4. Sociolinguistics is a multidisciplinary field that studies how language is used within a social context. Sociolinguists use various approaches to understand how language functions in society comprehensively.
5. The variationist approach focuses on studying linguistic variation and the factors that influence it, while the ethnographic approach involves the study of language in its cultural context.
6. Interactional sociolinguistics examines how language negotiates social relationships, identities, and power dynamics. In contrast, critical sociolinguistics focuses on how language maintains or challenges social hierarchies and addresses linguistic inequalities. 
7.  Anthropological linguistics combines the study of language with the study of culture to examine how language is used to express cultural concepts, beliefs, and practices. Together, these approaches contribute significantly to understanding how language and society intersect. 

sociolinguistics doc.docx