Introduction to Sociolinguistics

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Faculty of the Humanities Department of Linguistics and Language Practice NAME: Cindy Schoeman STUDENT Nr.: 2012120602 TOPIC: Sociolinguistics Explored COURSE CODE: LIN638 ASSIGNMENT NR.: 1 LECTURER: M Kriel SUBMISSION DATE: 15/03/2013 WORD COUNT: 4963 Table of Contents Question 1 4 What is the influence of language on society and vice versa? 4 1.1. Language (structure) determines thought/world-view/culture; 4 1.2 Language reflects society 4 1.3 “language is a reality – creating social practice” (Fowler 1985:62) 5 Question 2 6 Is mutual intelligibility a reliable criterion to distinguish between languages and dialects? 6 Explanation with specific reference to the concepts of standardization, autonomy and heteronomy. 6 Question 3 7 “The internal differentiation of human societies is reflected in their languages” (Trudgill 2000:23) A discussion based on this statement with reference to social class and dialects/societies. 7 Question 4 8 Distinguish between the following sociolinguistic concepts. In each case examples are provided to illustrate the answer. 8 4.1. Registers and styles 8 4.2. Corpus planning and status planning 9 4.3. Pidgins and Creoles 10 Question 5 11 Distinguish between dialect-switching, language-switching, code-switching and diglossia. Answers refer to functions of code switching and examples of diglossia. 11 5.2. Examples of diglossia 12 Question 6 13 “Multilingualism […] brings problems for governments and others concerned with national organisations of various kinds […]. Multilingualism […] also brings problems for individuals and groups of individuals, especially those who are members of linguistic minorities.” A discussion of the above statement made by Trudgill (2000:122) with specific reference to South Africa. 13 Question

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