Lecture 2

Languages always exist in a multitude of forms. We don’t all speak the same way, even when
we happen to share what we regard as the same language.

The variation in and between languages has profound but often hidden consequences for
the whole spectrum of enterprises we call Applied Linguistics.

Language variation and social judgement

General Linguistics seeks to describe linguistic systems and how they vary through space,
time and context, without judging the so-called ‘varieties’ corresponding to each different
system.

The English language is a monolithic social entity, characterized by the ‘standard

variety’ spoken by educated native speakers; English learners learn and English teachers
teach the English language, analogous to the way ‘proper’ table manners may be learned,
taught and prescribed.

Authority in language

One of the pioneers of modern sociolinguistics, William Labov, acknowledged the theoretical
and empirical richness of Chomsky’s approach, while exposing its methodological limitations

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(e.g., Labov, 1972, ch. 8). He even attempted to modify Chomskyan-style grammatical rules
by incorporating probabilities of occurrence as influenced by non-linguistic variables (such as
gender and class). But this notion of ‘variable rule’ proved to be ultimately unworkable in the
opinion of most socio-linguists (Wardhaugh, 2006, p. 187). The work of Labov and others
extending linguistic theory beyond the analytical ideal of homogeneity in the speech
community has had a profound influence on the development of Applied Linguistics, and
underlies much of the thinking mapped out in the chapters to come.

Language judgements

Standardization suggests an accepted norm but variety suggests that languages come in
different versions.

Some groups are believed to be decent, hard-working, and intelligent (and so is their
language or variety); some groups are believed to be laid-back, romantic, and devil-may-care
(and so is their language or variety); some groups are believed to be lazy, insolent, and
procrastinating (and so is their language or variety); some groups are believed to be hard-
nosed, aloof, and unsympathetic (and so is their language or variety), and so on. (Preston,
2002, pp. 40–41)

Kinds of Variation

Accent

When you’re exposed to a language you don’t know, all you get is the speech sounds or signs,
not the sense they are intended to communicate. It is speech and sign which make languages
observable; you can’t perceive grammar or semantics. Variation at this level is largely a
matter of accent, and we all have one (including signers: see, for example, Johnston and
Schembri, 2007).

Dialectal variation

People sometimes confuse dialect with accent. But from a linguistic perspective, accent is
just one of several features that distinguish one variety from another; vocabulary, syntax and
morphology are other features of language that vary across groups of speakers.

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Registers

There is also a great deal of authentic variation in the ways a single speaker uses the
linguistic resources at their disposal.

Linguists use the term register to refer to an individual’s styles as they vary with
situation and interlocutor.

A register is a way of using the language in certain contexts and situations, often varying
according to formality of expression, choice of vocabulary and degree of explicitness.
Register variation is intrapersonal because individual speakers normally control a repertoire
of registers which they deploy according to circumstances.

Standardization and non-standard varieties

The ability to recognize differences in the ways people speak is perhaps part of our biological
endowment as ‘the linguistic species’.

A variety can become regarded as the standard through a series of events and conditions
that favour its acceptance and spread, not because it is linguistically more complex,
inherently more effective as a vehicle for communication, ‘purer’ or more logical than other
varieties.

Writing and technology

Although non-linguists both inside and outside China think of the nation as having a single
national language with many dialects (together with some minority languages like Uighur or
Mongolian), linguists normally deny the existence of a single Chinese language, recognizing
instead members of a Chinese language family, which includes Mandarin and Cantonese.

The fact that Mandarin and Cantonese and all the other ‘dialects’ of Chinese can be
written with the same logographic system licenses politically convenient assertions of a
single Chinese language.

A logographic system also similarly lends itself to use as a tool of cultural assimilation,
e.g., in Hong Kong, where Cantonese is spoken. During the twentieth century, however,
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Cantonese developed its own written form, but it is not yet standard, despite its increasing use
in chat rooms and SMS messaging.

In addition to writing, the spread of sound-based communications technologies such as

radio and television has helped fix the sound of certain varieties as the ‘standard’ in the minds
of listeners.

The rapid spread of digital and interactive technologies, such as smart- phones and
personal computers, and broadening access to them, means that users are potentially
receiving input in a much greater range of language varieties.

Technology can provide an outlet for frequently unheard language varieties. It also
facilitates contact and standardization, as well as the fracturing of the audience into smaller
and more specialized groups who can choose to avoid language varieties other than their
own.

Non-native varieties and world Englishes

The spread of languages of wider communication, including Chinese, Arabic, English and
Spanish, means that many of us live in ever richer speech communities in which multiple
languages are present.

Applied linguists and language professionals working in education, translation and other
areas face decisions about whether it is right or realistic to expect non-native speakers to
attain native speaker ‘status’ – to perform, at least in certain contexts of use, like native
speakers.

All attempts to measure language proficiency face a number of problems, however,

including what to test and how to test it in a way that is accurate and fair. The question of
‘what to test’ is relevant here, as the answer to this question will involve making a decision
about the relevant variety of the language to be tested and a rejection of those varieties
considered irrelevant to the target situation.

A model of world Englishes

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Unsurprisingly, there are therefore ambivalent attitudes towards English in these countries.
Some view the language as a symbol of continuing subjugation to foreign powers through
cultural (rather than military) imperialism or of a lack of national self-confidence, sometimes
perpetuating an inferiority.

The loss of cultural diversity and ancestral culture?

Just as infants forge changes in their ‘mother tongue’ by creatively reconstructing the system
in each generation, and just as these changes fade or spread to the extent that they are
generalized across the members of a speech community, so non-native speakers use the
materials of the other language(s) they are exposed to innovate, and these innovations too
become distinctive features of non-native varieties, despite the power of the ‘standard
language ideology’.

Pidgins and creoles

混合語又可分為「皮欽語」（pidgin）與「克里奧語」（creole），在語言學上，
這兩個詞並不是指某種特定語言，而是對所有混合語的稱呼。 所謂「皮欽語」，即是
誕生在這樣的情況－不同語言使用者之間，因為溝通的需要，透過簡化語言文法、融
法彼此語言要素等手段，所改變出來的新語言。

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 Pidgins are very basic linguistic systems which sometimes emerge in situations in which
speakers of different languages find themselves in frequent contact and need to communicate.

Creoles are complete languages that have evolved from more basic pidgin languages, in
some cases in a matter of two or three generations. Once a pidgin is acquired as a native
tongue by children it evolves into a creole.

Linguistic insecurity and language loss

One can think of numerous examples of cases in which individuals and groups act in the
belief that their language variety is inadequate or that their own speech and writing are
somehow inferior.

Context and language practices

Language variation happens or is made to happen in particular contexts and practices, a

passive result of circumstances or an active result of purposes, at the level of both individuals
and groups. We speak differently to different people, at different times and places, during
different types of activities, to achieve different outcomes.

One way to think about this is to see all speakers as dialect shifters, switching varieties
and registers to suit the communicative and social demands of the situations they find
themselves in. The ability to modify your style of speaking as a way of attending to your
interlocutor’s presumed interpretative competence, conversational needs and role/status is
called ‘accommodation’.

The study of accommodation focuses on convergence and divergence in talk; for

example, the tendency for locals working in the tourist industry to adjust their talk when
speaking to foreign visitors (Giles et al., 1991). There are complexities involved in making
these adjustments, as full convergence by one speaker can also be negatively evaluated by the
person being spoken to, as an identity-threatening act (‘I can see that you’re not one of us, so
why are you pretending?’).

Switching of languages, varieties and registers actually unfolds within talk in very
complex ways: the extent and frequency of convergence or divergence can vary within a

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conversation; speakers may express a desire to converge/diverge but not have the linguistic
competence to achieve their aims; or specific task-based motivations may override the need
for social approval/distance.