Meeting 4 language attitude

Meeting 4 language attitude

• 1.
  LANGUAGE ATTITUDE Sonya AyuKumala, M.Hum
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  • Nice • Friendly •Competent • Rude • Disinterested • Stupid LANGUAGE ATTITUDE
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  • Language attititude: inferences about people from the way they talk. • People have attitudes/feelings/beliefs about language in general, their language, and the language of other people. • Attitudes demonstrated through actual behavior.
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  a. Semantics shiftand derogation b.Linguistics relativism c. Perceptual dialectology d.Social identity theory e. Accomodation theory f. Convergence and divergence
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  Semantics Shift • Incrementalchanges to the meaning of words or phrases. • The meaning of verbs or phrases might be weakened or altered over time.
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  • Example: Gay •1877: life that lack of joy and mirth • 1900 : women who were sexually promiscuous. • 2000: homosexuals PRETTY Cunning, skillful Gallant, brave Pleasing, attractive
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  Semantics Derogation • Semanticsshift that results in a word acquiring more negative associations. • Eg: • Courtier – courtesan : referred to people attached to a princley court. • Courtesan : a mistress / prostitute • Negative overtones of “woman” -- bitch, tart, minx, slut, stud • Overtones on woman was not parallel by the words for men.
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  Linguistics Relativism • Relavitismon linguistics expression. • The way we talk about others, and the words we use, does more than simply denote entities or events in the worlds. • eg,. The grammar of Hopi imposed the fundamental cognitive constrain of Hopis’ speakers. • The number and the type of the basic color words of a language determine how a subject sees the rainbow • Linguistic relativity: Structural differences between languages are paralleled by nonlinguistic cognitive differences (the structure of the language itself effects cognition)
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  SAPHIR WHORF HYPHOTHESIS •The stucture of language – Sapir Whorf Hyphothesis • In linguistics, the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis states that there are certain thoughts of an individual in one language that cannot be understood by those who live in another language. • Consist of: a. Linguistics relativism b. Linguistics determinism c. Arbitrariness • The hypothesis states that the way people think is strongly affected by their native languages.
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  • Deterministic :the idea that there is a strong causal relationship between two factor. • Linguistics determinism: relationship betwen language and thought because it contends that the shape of the language determines how its speakers perceive and experience the world Eg: sexist language, racist language, heterosexist language Fireman – firefighter Urban man – Urban life
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  Perceptual Dialectology • Dialectology: a study about language mapping. • Perceptual dialectology : the study of people subjectively held belief about different dialect or linguistics varieties. • People perception (recorded speaking)
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  • Attitudes tolanguage are classified into a.Identity (social identity) b.Accomodation
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  • Speakers’ attitudeto the individual they are talking to. • Speakers’ attitude affect the way the talk. • Spekears’ perception/ attitude of their interlocutors to be individual representatives of a group.
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  Social Identity Theory •A social physological theory • A theory of intergroup relations in which language is one of many potent symbols that individuals can strategically use when testing or maintaining boundaries between groups. • Henri Tajfel divided identity into : a. Personal Identity b. Group identity Personal identity is salient, the behaviour and talk will be more likely to be constrained by aspect of personality, mood, and context. Group identities are more salient, the way we behave and talk will tend to be accentuate uniformity within the group.
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  Communication Accomodation Theory • Abundle of principles that are intended to characterise the strategies spekers use to establish, contest or maintain relationship through talk. • Adjusting our communicational behavior to the requisite roles that participants are assigned in a given context. • In linguistics, the process by which participants in a conversation adjust their accent, diction, or other aspects of language according to the speech style of the other participant. • Eg. Speaking to the foreigner – Having a talk with the baby
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  • CONVERGENCE Accomodation towardsthe speech of ones’ interlocutor. Accentuates similiarities between interlocutors’ speech/style or make the speaker sound more like the interlocutor. Speaker chooses a language variety that seems to fit the style of the other speaker
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  • DIVERGENCE Accomodation awayfrom the speech of ones’ interlocutors. Accentuates differences between interlocutors’ speech/style or makes the speaker sound less like their interlocutors. Speaker signals social distance or disapproval by using a language variety that differs from the style of the other speaker.
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  References • Meyerhoff, Miriam.2006. Introducing Sociolinguistics. Canada: Routledge Publisher.