Variety (linguistics)
Encyclopedia
In sociolinguistics
a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language
or language cluster. This may include language
s, dialect
s, accents, registers
, styles
or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard
variety itself. "Variety" avoids the terms language, which many people associate only with the standard language, and dialect, which is associated with non-standard varieties thought of as less prestigious or "correct" than the standard. Linguists speak of both standard and non-standard varieties. "Lect" avoids the problem in ambiguous cases of deciding whether or not two varieties are distinct languages or dialects of a single language.
Variation at the level of the lexicon
, such as slang
and argot
, is often considered in relation to particular styles or levels of formality (also called registers), but such uses are sometimes discussed as varieties themselves.
, syntactic
, and lexical
properties." The term dialect is often associated with regional varieties
of speech. In addition, though, there are dialect varieties associated with particular ethnic groups (sometimes called ethnolect
s), socioeconomic classes
(sometimes called sociolect
s), or other social or cultural groups.
Dialectology
is the study of dialects and their geographic or social distribution. Traditionally, dialectologists study the variety of language used within a particular speech community
, a group of people who share a set of norms or conventions for language use. More recently, sociolinguists
have adopted the concept of the community of practice
, a group of people who develop shared knowledge and shared norms of interaction, as the social group within which dialects develop and change. Sociolinguists Penelope Eckert
and Sally McConnell-Ginet explain, "Some communities of practice may develop more distinctive ways of speaking than others. Thus it is within communities of practice that linguistic influence may spread within and among speech communities."
Although the words dialect and accent are sometimes used interchangeably in everyday speech, linguists and scholars define the two terms differently. Accent, in technical usage, refers only to differences in pronunciation
, especially those associated with geographic or social differences. Dialect, which refers to differences in syntax, morphology
, and vocabulary, as well as pronunciation, is the broader term.
In some cases, an official body, such as the Académie française
, describe the grammar
and usage of a standard variety. More often, though, standard varieties are understood only implicitly. Writing of standard English, John Algeo suggests that the standard variety "is simply what English speakers agree to regard as good."
or playing the dozens
. There are also registers associated with particular professions or interest groups; jargon
refers specifically to the vocabulary associated with such registers.
Unlike dialects, which are used by particular speech communities and associated with geographical settings or social groupings, registers are associated with particular situations, purposes, or levels of formality. Dialect and register may be thought of as different dimensions of variation. For example, Trudgill suggests the following sentence as an example of a nonstandard dialect used with the technical register of physical geography:
Most speakers command a range of registers, which they use in different situations. The choice of register is affected by the setting and topic of speech, as well as the relationship that exists between the speakers.
The appropriate form of language may also change during the course of a communicative event as the relationship between speakers changes, or different social facts become relevant. Speakers may shift
styles as their perception of an event in progress changes. Consider the following telephone call to the Cuban Interest Section in Washington, DC.
At first, the receptionist uses a relatively formal register, as befits her professional role. After the caller identifies herself the receptionist recognizes that she is speaking to a friend, and shifts to an informal register of colloquial
Cuban Spanish. This shift is similar to metaphorical code-switching
, but since it involves styles or registers, is considered an example of style shifting.
For scholars who view language from the perspective of linguistic competence
, essentially the knowledge of language and grammar that exists in the mind of an individual language user, the idiolect is a way of referring to this specific knowledge. For scholars who regard language as a shared social practice, idiolect is more like a dialect with a speech community of one individual.
Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society...
a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
or language cluster. This may include language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
s, dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s, accents, registers
Register (sociolinguistics)
In linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, when speaking in a formal setting an English speaker may be more likely to adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal...
, styles
Stylistics (linguistics)
Stylistics is the study and interpretation of texts from a linguistic perspective. As a discipline it links literary criticism and linguistics, but has no autonomous domain of its own...
or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard
Standard language
A standard language is a language variety used by a group of people in their public discourse. Alternatively, varieties become standard by undergoing a process of standardization, during which it is organized for description in grammars and dictionaries and encoded in such reference works...
variety itself. "Variety" avoids the terms language, which many people associate only with the standard language, and dialect, which is associated with non-standard varieties thought of as less prestigious or "correct" than the standard. Linguists speak of both standard and non-standard varieties. "Lect" avoids the problem in ambiguous cases of deciding whether or not two varieties are distinct languages or dialects of a single language.
Variation at the level of the lexicon
Lexicon
In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...
, such as slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
and argot
Argot
An Argot is a secret language used by various groups—including, but not limited to, thieves and other criminals—to prevent outsiders from understanding their conversations. The term argot is also used to refer to the informal specialized vocabulary from a particular field of study, hobby, job,...
, is often considered in relation to particular styles or levels of formality (also called registers), but such uses are sometimes discussed as varieties themselves.
Dialects
O'Grady et al. define dialect as, "A regional or social variety of a language characterized by its own phonologicalPhonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
, syntactic
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
, and lexical
Lexicon
In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...
properties." The term dialect is often associated with regional varieties
Regional language
A regional language is a language spoken in an area of a nation state, whether it be a small area, a federal state or province, or some wider area....
of speech. In addition, though, there are dialect varieties associated with particular ethnic groups (sometimes called ethnolect
Ethnolect
Ethnolect is a variety of a language spoken by a certain ethnic/cultural subgroup and serves as a distinguishing mark of social identity. The term combines the concepts of an ethnic group and dialect....
s), socioeconomic classes
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
(sometimes called sociolect
Sociolect
In sociolinguistics, a sociolect or social dialect is a variety of language associated with a social group such as a socioeconomic class, an ethnic group, an age group, etc....
s), or other social or cultural groups.
Dialectology
Dialectology
Dialectology is the scientific study of linguistic dialect, a sub-field of sociolinguistics. It studies variations in language based primarily on geographic distribution and their associated features...
is the study of dialects and their geographic or social distribution. Traditionally, dialectologists study the variety of language used within a particular speech community
Speech community
Speech community is a group of people who share a set of norms and expectations regarding the use of language. Speech communities can be members of a profession with a specialized jargon, distinct social groups like high school students or hip hop fans , or even tight-knit groups like families and...
, a group of people who share a set of norms or conventions for language use. More recently, sociolinguists
Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society...
have adopted the concept of the community of practice
Community of practice
A community of practice is, according to cognitive anthropologists Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, a group of people who share an interest, a craft, and/or a profession. The group can evolve naturally because of the members' common interest in a particular domain or area, or it can be created...
, a group of people who develop shared knowledge and shared norms of interaction, as the social group within which dialects develop and change. Sociolinguists Penelope Eckert
Penelope Eckert
Penelope "Penny" Eckert is a professor of linguistics at Stanford University in Stanford, California. She is a prominent scholar of variationist sociolinguistics, and is the author of several scholarly works on language and gender....
and Sally McConnell-Ginet explain, "Some communities of practice may develop more distinctive ways of speaking than others. Thus it is within communities of practice that linguistic influence may spread within and among speech communities."
Although the words dialect and accent are sometimes used interchangeably in everyday speech, linguists and scholars define the two terms differently. Accent, in technical usage, refers only to differences in pronunciation
Pronunciation
Pronunciation refers to the way a word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word. If one is said to have "correct pronunciation", then it refers to both within a particular dialect....
, especially those associated with geographic or social differences. Dialect, which refers to differences in syntax, morphology
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
, and vocabulary, as well as pronunciation, is the broader term.
Standard varieties
Most languages have a standard variety; that is, some variety that is selected and promoted by either quasi-legal authorities or other social institutions, such as schools or media. Standard varieties are more prestigious than other, nonstandard varieties and are generally thought of as "correct" by speakers of the language. Since this selection constitutes an arbitrary standard, however, standard varieties are "correct" in the sense that they are highly valued within the society that uses the language. As linguist Harold Fasold puts it, "The standard language may not even be the best possible constellation of linguistic features available. It is general social acceptance that gives us a workable arbitrary standard, not any inherent superiority of the characteristics it specifies." Sociolinguists generally recognize the standard variety of a language as one of the dialects of that language.In some cases, an official body, such as the Académie française
Académie française
L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...
, describe the grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
and usage of a standard variety. More often, though, standard varieties are understood only implicitly. Writing of standard English, John Algeo suggests that the standard variety "is simply what English speakers agree to regard as good."
Registers and styles
A register (sometimes called a style) is a variety of language used in a particular social setting. Settings may be defined in terms of greater or lesser formality, or in terms of socially recognized events, such as baby talk, which is used in many western cultures when talking to small children, or a joking register used in teasingTeasing
Teasing is a word with many meanings. In human interactions, teasing comes in two major forms, playful and hurtful. When teasing is playful and friendly, and especially when it is reciprocal, teasing can be regarded as flirting. People may be teased on such matters as their appearance, weight,...
or playing the dozens
The dozens
The Dozens is a game that has its origins in African American slavery. The game originates from the devaluing and bargaining off of deformed or defective slaves in auction houses. This element of the African American oral tradition in which two competitors, usually males, go head-to-head in a...
. There are also registers associated with particular professions or interest groups; jargon
Jargon
Jargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, group, or event. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he...
refers specifically to the vocabulary associated with such registers.
Unlike dialects, which are used by particular speech communities and associated with geographical settings or social groupings, registers are associated with particular situations, purposes, or levels of formality. Dialect and register may be thought of as different dimensions of variation. For example, Trudgill suggests the following sentence as an example of a nonstandard dialect used with the technical register of physical geography:
There was two eskers what we saw in them U-shaped valleys.
Most speakers command a range of registers, which they use in different situations. The choice of register is affected by the setting and topic of speech, as well as the relationship that exists between the speakers.
The appropriate form of language may also change during the course of a communicative event as the relationship between speakers changes, or different social facts become relevant. Speakers may shift
Style-shifting
Style-shifting is a term in sociolinguistics referring to alternation between styles of speech included in a linguistic repertoire of an individual speaker. As noted by Eckert and Rickford, in sociolinguistic literature terms style and register sometimes have been used interchangeably...
styles as their perception of an event in progress changes. Consider the following telephone call to the Cuban Interest Section in Washington, DC.
Caller: ¿Es la embajada de Cuba? (Is this the Cuban embassy?)
Receptionist: Sí. Dígame. (Yes, may I help you?)
Caller: Es Rosa. (It's Rosa.)
Receptionist: ¡Ah Rosa! ¿Cóma anda eso? (Oh, Rosa! How's it going?)
At first, the receptionist uses a relatively formal register, as befits her professional role. After the caller identifies herself the receptionist recognizes that she is speaking to a friend, and shifts to an informal register of colloquial
Colloquialism
A colloquialism is a word or phrase that is common in everyday, unconstrained conversation rather than in formal speech, academic writing, or paralinguistics. Dictionaries often display colloquial words and phrases with the abbreviation colloq. as an identifier...
Cuban Spanish. This shift is similar to metaphorical code-switching
Code-switching
In linguistics, code-switching is the concurrent use of more than one language, or language variety, in conversation. Multilinguals—people who speak more than one language—sometimes use elements of multiple languages in conversing with each other...
, but since it involves styles or registers, is considered an example of style shifting.
Idiolect
An idiolect is defined as "the language use typical of an individual person." An individual's idiolect may be affected by contact with various regional or social dialects, professional registers, and in the case of multilinguals, various languages.For scholars who view language from the perspective of linguistic competence
Linguistic competence
Linguistic competence is the system of linguistic knowledge possessed by native speakers of a language, it is in contrast to the concept of Linguistic performance, the way the language system is used in communication...
, essentially the knowledge of language and grammar that exists in the mind of an individual language user, the idiolect is a way of referring to this specific knowledge. For scholars who regard language as a shared social practice, idiolect is more like a dialect with a speech community of one individual.
See also
- Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - DachspracheAusbausprache - Abstandsprache - DachspracheThe Ausbausprache – Abstandsprache – Dachsprache framework is a tool developed by sociolinguists for analysing and categorising the status of language varieties along the cline between autonomous languages on the one hand and dialects on the other. The terms were coined by Heinz Kloss...
- Language localization
- List of language subsystems
External links
- Which Language Variety?, a web tool that estimates if a word or phrase is typical for a certain language variety (such as British English or American English)