Language and social group:
Sociolect - The words and phrases* that you use with social groups, which establish your bond/sense of
belonging to that particular group (language style associated with a particular social group).
Idiolect - The words and phrases personal and unique to you as an individual.
Familect - The sociolect that you use with your family that nobody outside the family will share.
Why we have sociolects:
To create identity - (e.g. to be a football fan, film buff etc.).
To form bonds - to show we are part of a discourse community and are a social unit, sharing the
same/similar opinions, values and language.
To restrict others - those outside of the group use different language and may not be able to
interpret our meaning.
*It's not just words and phrases that are important - pronunciation, volume, speed and pitch are also
involved, and often matched to some degree in a social interaction.
Identity - To some extent, people use language differently to form identity:
Gender.
Age.
Socioeconomic group.
Regionality.
Education.
Peer group.
Interests.
Convergence - Act of identity:
1. Identify desirable group.
2. Adequate access to this group, with the ability to analyse their behaviour.
3. Strong enough motivation to join them.
4. Ability to modify behaviour.
Joanna Thornborrow - Linguist: “One of the most fundamental ways we have of establishing our identity
and shaping others views of who we are is through our use of language.” This use may include specific
lexical choices as well as grammatical variations and differences in pronunciation.
Specialist lexis - Refers to the words that we use in a particular situation or social group (e.g. for
someone working in a hairdressers specialist lexis could be ‘back combing’, ‘GHDs’ and ‘leave in
conditioner’).
Ethnography - The systematic study of people and cultures, designed to explore cultural phenomena,
where the researcher observes society from the point of view of the subject of the study.
Penelope Eckert Jocks and the Burnouts - Found that people tend to speak in a similar way to those
who share the same social practices as them:
Fieldwork (1980-1982).
Ethnographic work in high schools in Detroit suburbs.
Hegemonic opposition between 2 social categories:
1. Jocks - school oriented, embody middle class culture, likely to use Standard American English
and sophisticated lexical choices, few elliptical constructions and expletives, mirrored language
used by teachers.
2. Burnouts - locally oriented community, embody working class culture, consciously diverge from
language of teachers, 'urban Detroit' accent.
Sociolect - The words and phrases* that you use with social groups, which establish your bond/sense of
belonging to that particular group (language style associated with a particular social group).
Idiolect - The words and phrases personal and unique to you as an individual.
Familect - The sociolect that you use with your family that nobody outside the family will share.
Why we have sociolects:
To create identity - (e.g. to be a football fan, film buff etc.).
To form bonds - to show we are part of a discourse community and are a social unit, sharing the
same/similar opinions, values and language.
To restrict others - those outside of the group use different language and may not be able to
interpret our meaning.
*It's not just words and phrases that are important - pronunciation, volume, speed and pitch are also
involved, and often matched to some degree in a social interaction.
Identity - To some extent, people use language differently to form identity:
Gender.
Age.
Socioeconomic group.
Regionality.
Education.
Peer group.
Interests.
Convergence - Act of identity:
1. Identify desirable group.
2. Adequate access to this group, with the ability to analyse their behaviour.
3. Strong enough motivation to join them.
4. Ability to modify behaviour.
Joanna Thornborrow - Linguist: “One of the most fundamental ways we have of establishing our identity
and shaping others views of who we are is through our use of language.” This use may include specific
lexical choices as well as grammatical variations and differences in pronunciation.
Specialist lexis - Refers to the words that we use in a particular situation or social group (e.g. for
someone working in a hairdressers specialist lexis could be ‘back combing’, ‘GHDs’ and ‘leave in
conditioner’).
Ethnography - The systematic study of people and cultures, designed to explore cultural phenomena,
where the researcher observes society from the point of view of the subject of the study.
Penelope Eckert Jocks and the Burnouts - Found that people tend to speak in a similar way to those
who share the same social practices as them:
Fieldwork (1980-1982).
Ethnographic work in high schools in Detroit suburbs.
Hegemonic opposition between 2 social categories:
1. Jocks - school oriented, embody middle class culture, likely to use Standard American English
and sophisticated lexical choices, few elliptical constructions and expletives, mirrored language
used by teachers.
2. Burnouts - locally oriented community, embody working class culture, consciously diverge from
language of teachers, 'urban Detroit' accent.
