What is Sociolinguistics?



Hello, my friends! It's been forever I didn't post anything here. But, who cares? Lol. 

Today, I am going to post something new. If in my previous post I had always posted about my review of some journals, now I'd like to post some new knowledge about linguistics, especially about sociolinguistics.

Have you heard the term of 'Sociolinguistics'?

Well, let's assume that you haven't heard the term above. So, now, I am going to explaim what exactly sociolinguistics is.

WHAT IS SOCIOLINGUISTICS?

If we see the word carefully, we can see that the sociolinguistics is actually an association of the terms 'sociology' and 'linguistics'. Related to Mac Millan Dictionary (2019), the term sociology means the scientific study of society, the way that it is organized, and the way that people behave in relation to each other. While, of the same dictionary, linguistics is defined as the study of language and how it works.

If we define the term sociolinguistics from the two definitions above, we can take a red line that sociolinguistics is a study of language and how it is used in society.

Coulmas (2013) in All about Linguistics Group Website states that sociolinguistics is the study of the relationship between language and society. In line with this statement, Holmes (2013) defines sociolinguistics as a study that concerned with the relationship between language and the social context in which it is used.

Moreover, the use of language in society can be affected by some social factors, such as gender, ethnicity, age, social class and many more. For instance, the way a boy talk with his male friends would be different with the way he talks with his female friends. In talking with his male friends, he may uses some rude words or some slanks that only the boys knows that, however, when he talks with the girls he may uses a different word or even different style, more like a gentleman style. Another example is the use of different accents in one language. In English, for instance, we know that there are two common accents including British accents, and American accents.

In sociolinguistics, we will find out why people speak differently in different social contexts, and also identify the social functions of language and the ways it is used to convey social meaning. Examining the way people use language in different social contexts provides a wealth of information about the way language works, as well as about the social relationships in a community, and the way people convey and construct aspects of their social identity through their language. People who study about sociolinguistics called as a sociolinguist.


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