University of Westminster Sociolinguistics Submitted ...

University of Westminster Sociolinguistics An Analysis of the Sociolinguistic Features Present in My Speech Community

Submitted by Nazah Farhat ID # 1508912

Submitted to Dr. Sean Sutherland Date of Submission 4th January, 2015

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An Analysis of the Sociolinguistic Features Present in My Speech Community

This paper presents the sociolinguistic features of an international speech community. A speech community is a group of people who use a common language in order to communicate with each other. Members of a speech community not only share the same language but also are aware of the culture associated with the language use. According to Lyons (1970), “speech community is all the people who use a given language or dialect” (p.326) But language itself is not enough to interpret the meaning. Speaking in a common language does not make a group of people a speech community. They should have the same type of understanding of the language use. (Hymes, 1974) My speech community consists of international students who have come to London to study at the University of Westminster. The location of this speech community is at one of the halls of residence arranged by the University of Westminster. The members of our speech community have come from different countries: Italy, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Germany, England, Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, China, and Japan. Though most of the students are studying at the postgraduate level, still there are some exchange and study abroad students living at the Wigram House. The age range of the members of our speech community is from 21 to 24. They communicate with each other in English. Most of these conversations took place in the kitchens of our hall as kitchen is the only place where we can socialize, cook and eat, play games, and study freely. The language use in my speech community differs depending on who we are communicating with. It also varies depending on our relationship with the members of the community. Biber 2

(1995) defines register as “situationally defined varieties”. (p.1) He also says that we use different linguistic forms in different situation and make our choice in pronunciation, morphology, word choice, and grammar depending on a number of non-linguistic factors. Biber (1995) lists the non-linguistic factors that influence our language use and according to him, “the speaker‟s purpose in communication, the relationship between speaker and hearer, the production circumstances, and various demographic affiliations that a speaker can have.” (p.1) As there is a large number of students residing at Wigram House, our relationship with all of them is not the same. Some of them are very close to each other and some just maintain a formal friendly relation. As our relationship is not of the same kind, our ways of conversing with each other is not the same as well. Our ways of greeting each other, word choices, non-verbal features for example: intonation, facial expressions also differ in different situation with different people. According to Halliday (1978), register can be analyzed in terms of three sub-categories: field, mode and tenor. Field is associated with the topic of a conversation. A topic of a conversation can be casual or field-specific. Mode of a conversation can be written or spoken, planned or spontaneous. Tenor describes if a conversation is formal or informal. In my speech community, the topics of a conversation can be both casual and field-specific. The mode of the conversations is mainly spoken and spontaneous, but sometimes written and planned conversations take place. Mostly the tenor of the conversation is informal but sometimes it is limited and formal too. Excerpt 1 This conversation is between the author and her friend Alice. 1 2 3 4 5

N: A: N: A: N:

/Hey honey! /Hey Chickie! How are you? Where have you been last night? Yesterday was Monday. Oh yeah. It was Monday. 3

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

N: A: N: A: N:

Anna left [last night. [Did she? Yeah. I saw her leaving. Did she leave something for us? She told me she’ll leave some stuff for us. Oh /yeah. I saw some stuff on the kitchen table with a note saying, “you can have whatever you like from these things.”

The register of our speech community can be analyzed by looking at excerpt 1. The topic of this conversation is very casual. The mode of this conversation is spoken and spontaneous; the tenor is informal. The way the members are greeting each other and their word choices like „honey‟ and „chickie‟ in line 1&2 shows their close relationship with each other. They know about each other as we can see in line 5, Nazah knows what Alice does on every Monday. Though the mode of this conversation is spoken and spontaneous, still in line 11, 12, &13 we see use of written and planned mode of communication as Nazah mentions their friend Anna left a note on the table. In my speech community, written conversations take place. Students complain, apologize, and appreciate each other by leaving written notes in the kitchen especially when it is meant for a number of people. Excerpt 2 This conversation is between Alice and Oksana. Both of them are students of law. 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

A: O: A: O: A: O: A:

Hello Oksana. How are you? Hi. I am fine. Thank you. How are you? I am okay. How is going with your employment law module? Don’t ask! It's really hard! We have to go to the Employment tribunal in order to write a case report with appropriate case reference. oh. That must be really tricky. Yes it is. What about you? I have to write an essay about zero-hours contract and unfair dismissal. We should look for an appropriate case reference on LexisNexis and then write case reports as 4

25 26 27 28 29

O: A: O: A:

well. Oh. That sounds really hard as well. Yes. Good luck then. Thank you. Good luck to you too.

As most of the time the conversations take place in the kitchens, the topics our conversations are mainly casual, but sometimes it can be field-specific as well. It depends on several factors. This conversation took place in November when almost everyone was busy with writing their essays. Besides, it also depends who we are talking to, our relationship with them.

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conversation is between two people who are not friends with each other. They live on different floors and do not see each other often but share some knowledge about their modules as they belong to the same department. This conversation is very field specific, limited and formal. The way Alice greets Oksana is formal. If we compare line 2 in excerpt 1 and line 14 in excerpt 2, we can see the difference. The same person Alice greets two persons in two different ways. Alice greets Oksana by calling her name, not „chickie‟ or „honey‟. It shows that they are not very close to each other and they are maintaining a formal friendly relation. Alice‟s use of language differs from person to person. In line 16, Alice asks about her studies as they do not share personal matters with each other like friends do and they talk about their assignments and essays. In this conversation, use of field-specific words such as employment law module (line 16), Employment tribunal (line 18) and case reference (line 19), zero-hours contract (line 22), unfair dismissal (line 23), LexisNexis, and case reports (line 24) is noticeable. In line 26 and 27, they end the conversation by saying „good luck‟ which is also very formal in my speech community. From these two excerpts, it can be understood that the register of my speech varies depending on situation, place, time and person.

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There are different varieties of English for example: British English, American English, Indian English, and Nigerian English. English can vary from region to region for example: East London English, South London English, and Liverpool English. According to Walker (2010), “linguistic variation is defined as differences in linguistic form without (apparent) changes in meaning. Variables are defined as different ways (variants) of saying the same thing (the variable context). Variables can occur at a number of different linguistic levels: phonetics or phonology, morphology, syntax, the lexicon and discourse.” (no pagination) Linguistic variable is the concept whereas linguistic variants are the realization of that concept. As there are students from different countries, their English sounds different too. British and American variants are mostly used in my speech community. Use of variants differs depending on the speaker and who s/he is talking to and also on the situation. Some of us speak using British English variant and some of us speak using American English variant. Our language differs at different linguistic levels like phonological, lexical. Excerpt 3 This conversation is between three friends: Evelyn, Alice and Nazah. 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

E: N: E: N: A: N: E: N: E: A: E: N:

Take out the peppers from the fridge. Pepper? Yeah the red, yellow and green ones on my shelf. These are capsicums? (after looking in the fridge) No. Peppers. mm looks same though. Have you talked to your father about our Berlin trip? Yeah. But I need \visa. /Apply for it. Get a British passport. Marry a British guy. @@ Germany is better though. @@@ Btw how long does it take to get Schengen visa? I can’t leave my passport there for long time. University might ask for a tier4visa check in March or April. 6

46 47 48 49 50

A: E: A: N:

I have no idea chickie. Oh my mom and my brother both are coming to visit me during Christmas. Oh no. my dad is visiting me too. No worries. No one is visiting me.

If we look at excerpt 3, we can analyze phonological and lexical variations present in my speech community. Lexical variation is a marked feature in our speech community. Lexical variation refers to variations that occur in words. As we are from different parts of the world, our use of lexical items is sometimes different. In line 30, Evelyn refers to a vegetable calling it pepper; in line 33, Nazah refers to the same vegetable calling it capsicum. In order to be sure that capsicum and pepper are both the same vegetable, we searched on Google. There are two variants referring to the same vegetables. Capsicum and pepper are the two variants for the same vegetable. There are other examples of lexical variations like: eggplants, aubergines; chips, crisps. In Asia we refer to aubergines as eggplants. In Europe and Asia, we call crisps as chips. But in England, chips have a different meaning. Chips and crisps are two different food items in England. Variation that occurs at phonological level is called phonological variation. Alice is a British native speaker of English. She uses British English variant whereas Evelyn and Nazah use American English variant. They sound different even when they pronounce the same words because of they differ at phonological level. The use of the sound /ɑː/ in Alice‟s English and the use of the sound /æ/ in Nazah‟s and Evelyn‟s English are noticeable. In line 40, Alice pronounces /ˈpɑːspɔːt/ whereas Nazah pronounces /pæspɔːrt/. In line 30, Evelyn pronounces /ˈpepər/ whereas in line 34, Alice pronounces the British phonological variant /ˈpepə/. In British variant /r/ is not pronounced whereas in American variant /r/ is clearly pronounced. So the same words have two phonological variants. At the beginning, we faced problem understanding British 7

variant as some of us are used to in using American variant due to watching American TV-series and movies. Now we have got used to it and accommodated with British English. According to Giles & Powesland (1975), “the essence of the theory of accommodation lies in the social psychological research on similarity attraction. This work suggests that an individual can induce another to evaluate him more favorably by reducing dissimilarities.” (p.233) The international students have come from different countries, different cultures. Every culture has its own value system, ways of behaving and socializing with people. For example: in Bangladesh, friends call their friends by their name, it doesn‟t have anything to do with closeness. But here in London, it is different. The way people call each other shows how close they are to each other. My friends at Wigram House do not call me „Nazah‟ unless it is a formal or a serious situation. If we look at excerpt 1, in line 1&2, Alice & Nazah call each other „honey‟ and „chickie‟. So I have accommodated with this culture of showing closeness in speech. If I call Alice, „Alice‟, the first thing she asks if I am okay, if everything is okay. So in order to fit in with the speech community, some of the students who belong to different cultures have learnt the ways of socializing here. “Accommodation through speech can be regarded as an attempt on the part of a speaker to modify or disguise his persona in order to make it more acceptable to the person addressed.” (Giles & Powesland, 1975, p.233) Not only in the ways of socializing but also in the use of lexical items, have the students who are from Asia accommodated with the speech community. Now they do not use the word eggplants, chips and capsicum, instead they use aubergines, crisps and pepper. By reducing dissimilarities, communicating with people becomes better and easier. Cutting (2002) says speakers can interpret the meaning of a conversation more than what is said if they share same cultural knowledge, interpersonal knowledge and situational knowledge. 8

As we live in a hall of residence, we have to abide by some rules and regulation. In line 47&48, Evelyn shows her anxiety that she is going to have two guests at the same time which is not possible because the rule is: one can have only one guest at a time. Without asking why she is anxious, in line 49, Alice infers the information that she is unable to host one of her guests as her father is coming to visit her. In line 50, Nazah ensures both of them that she can host one guest as no one is visiting her. In this whole conversation no one says anything about hosting guests or accommodation rules; still they comprehend each other perfectly because they share the same accommodation culture. If someone who is not aware of the rules, would not understand what just happened. In excerpt 1, in line 4&5, Alice and Nazah both say „yesterday was Monday‟ but no one specifies what happens on Monday because they both share some interpersonal knowledge. Nazah knows Alice has to work on every Monday. Excerpt 4 This conversation is between three friends. Luna and Chloe are Chinese. 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68

N: C: L: N: L:

Let’s play the game we played last night. It was fun. mmhm. yeah What game? O you weren’t there. It’s a word game between two groups. You have to come up with fake definitions.

我们写下来的解释，必须是我们认为的准确的解释吗？还是可以随便编一些自己 也觉得不准确的？{About the definitions, does it have to be precise? Or can we fabricate something to misguide the others?}

C:

因为她一共是要给出两到三个解释么，根据人数来定，然后就可以一组里面比如 说有一个比较长一点，一个短一点，这样就可以让对方比较困惑，让他们不知道 哪个 时真的，这样的话就比较有利于我们这边赢。{Since we need to give two or three definitions, depends on how many of us are to play, we can give a precise and long definition and then a short and simple one to confuse the other group so that they don’t know which one is made up by us and we will have a bigger chance to win.}

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There are monolingual, bilingual and multilingual students in my speech community. According to Bloomfield (1935), “the definition of bilingualism is the native-like control of two languages.” (P.56) “The concept of bilingualism refers to the state of a linguistic community in which two languages are contact with the result that two codes can be used in the same interaction and that a number of individual are bilingual.” (Hamers & Blanc, 2000, p.6) All the international students are at least bilingual; some of them are multilingual as well. They are competent speakers of English along with their mother tongue. There are some students who can speak French or Russian along with English and their mother tongue. As they are speakers of more than two languages, they can be called multilingual. There are advantages of speaking more than one language. Chinese, French and Italian students talk in their mother tongue among themselves. It ensures their privacy. When someone doesn‟t find a word or an expression in English, they take help from other students to help them find it. In my speech community, codeswitching is one of the marked features. As most of the students are bilingual, they are competent to switch their code in the same interaction. According to Isurin et al. (2009) “Bilingual speakers are often involved in what looks like effortless switch between the two languages that they speak. The switch can happen within the same conversational turn or when there is a shift to a different register brought about by changes in settings, interlocutor, conversational goals and social factors.” (p.ix) If we look at the excerpt 4, we see a conversation between two Chinese students and the author. They are discussing a game‟s rules. In line 55 & 56, Nazah explains what this game is about. One of the Chinese students, Luna was not present when the other two students played the game. So in line 57&58, Luna asks Chloe, another Chinese student, in Chinese to clarify her doubts. In line 61, 62, & 63, Chloe answers Luna‟s questions in Chinese so 10

that she can explain better. This is one of the reasons Luna asks her questions in Chinese, so that Chloe understands Luna is expecting her to explain in their mother tongue.

The international students, who reside at Wigram House, are living away from their family, friends and home. Their only way of socializing with people is hanging out with other hall mates. In my speech community, most of us have become very close friends to each other. So gossip is one of the important features in my speech community. According to Dunbar (2004), gossip is an important form of social communication that serves to bond people together. In gossip, people can share what is going on with them and they can also know what is going on with other people. People can ask for solutions to their problem from their friends. People can extend their helping hand to solve other‟s problem. They can realize who their real friends are and who are just pretending to be friends. Talking and sharing help people bond with each other. If we look at excerpt 1, in line 6&7, Alice and Nazah talk about one of the members of the community who has already left. They are keeping track of other individuals in the network. In excerpt 3, line 37, Evelyn shares her problem of having two guests at the same time. It is her personal problem and she is seeking help from other group members. In line 40, one of the members comes up with a solution and helps her. When we live in a big community, not everyone is friendly and considerate. There are always some people who create problems in the community. According to Dunbar (2004) they are called „free riders‟. In our speech community, there are some students who do not intend to socialize for good purpose, they just find issues to complain and create troubles for others. When we organize social events, they do not participate. They just find excuses to put people in trouble. When we talk to our friends, we talk about those students and warn each other to stay away from them. 11

Language is not enough to express ourselves fully. Paralinguistic features such as intonation, emphasis, volume and pace express meaning along with speech. Esser (2006), “nonverbal information has attracted particular interest in the study of face to face communication where prosodic and paralinguistic features accompany the utterance. Prosodic features refer to the system of intonation signs and the word forms of connected speech in the phonic substance. Paralinguistic features, however, can be expressed both via the acoustic and the visual channel. In the first case, they may refer to permanent or transitional vocal features of the person engaged in a communication voice quality or excitement. In the second case paralinguistic features refer to facial expression, gestures or body language in general.” (p.20) In my speech community, use of paralinguistic features is one of the important features. When we see someone in the lift, or in the kitchen, we say „hi‟ to each other normally. But in some cases, we say „hi‟ using rising tone. The tone rises up and then falls down. It happens when we see our friends or close ones. The intonation changes the meaning. The first „hi‟ was just being polite, but the second „hi‟ means „happy to see you‟, „let‟s have a conversation‟. The second type of „hi‟ gives us a message that we are going to have a conversation. The excitement in our voice and the happy expression on our face express a lot more than just greeting. Use of body language, gestures and facial expression while describing cultures of international students is one of the common phenomena. It is not possible to find all cultural equivalents in English. So when it comes to describing cultures or customs, international students take help of non-verbal modes. Paralinguistic features also help us realize the level of seriousness of a speech. In excerpt 3, line 39, Evelyn is emphasizing on the word “apply” to show her seriousness about travelling together. Her tone gives a vibe that she is ordering Nazah to apply for the visa but her facial expression made it like a plead. In the next line, Alice says “get a British passport, marry a British guy.” Her facial

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expression that accompanied the speech made it clear she is joking which made others laugh. At the same time the message has been received how badly she wants Nazah to travel with them. So paralinguistic features help us understand each other in a better manner. Without the facial expressions the meaning could have been different. Though the international students who are residing at the Wigram House are from different parts of the world and are different from each other in terms of culture, still share the same culture, not only of the hall but also of the university. Our speech and use of language are dependent on these two factors. We socialize, bond and support each other away from home with our speech, so the sociolinguistic features that show our differences and similarities make us part of the same speech community.

Word count: 3906

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List of References:

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Cutting, J. (2002). Pragmatics and discourse. London: Routledge.

Dunbar, R. (2004). Gossip in Evolutionary Practice. Review of General Psychology. 8 (2), 100‐110. Esser, J. (2006). Presentation in Language: Rethinking Speech and Writing. [online] Tübingen: Gunter Narr. Available from Google Books [Accessed 30 November, 2014].

Giles, H. & Powesland, P. (1975). Speech Style and Social Evaluation. London: Academic Press.

Halliday, M. (1978). Language as social semiotic. London: Edward Arnold. Hamers, J. F. and Blanc, M. H. A. (2000). Bilinguality and Bilingualism. 2nd edition. [online] Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Available from Google Books

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[Accessed 30 November, 2014].

Hymes, D. H. (1974). Foundations in Sociolinguistics: An Ethnographic Approach. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

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Jenkins, J. (2007). English as a lingua franca: Attitude and identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press

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Walker, J. A. (2010). Variation in Linguistic System. [online] Oxon: Routledge. Available from Google Books [Accessed 30 November, 2014].

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