Have you ever wondered what people do when they research language? Well, chances are that you misunderstood. Because language is a very peculiar thing. We shape it according to our needs, and in return, it shapes us a social beings. In this article you’ll learn about the science that researches the intricate correlations between language and society (aka sociolinguistics), what I wanted to be before I became a sociolinguist, and why language is indeed something completely different from what you think.
Am I the a**hole?
So here is the thing, I don’t actually like people. Like, like like.
I’d love to be the person who says, well, I always knew that I was going to be a [insert current profession here] one day. I always knew what I didn’t want to be one day. But that still left me with a plethora of possibilities that I couldn’t choose from for the life of me.
I ended up sitting in an overcrowded oratory listening halfheartedly to a middle-aged architecture professor at the beginning of my first semester at uni. (No people, just buildings, right?) Not to spoil the story for you, but no, I didn’t last very long there.
When I enrolled in linguistics one semester later, I thought to myself, okay, so, people speak. But as a linguist I don’t necessarily have to deal with people. I can just stick with words and stuff.
At the end, I didn’t have much time to contemplate all of this. Since I had started right in the middle of the first year, I wasn’t bored with introductory courses and dispensable briefing sessions. I was there to learn from the get go—and oh girl, did I learn. And what did you learn, you might ask?
Well, I learned that the beautiful thing that lured me into this new adventure, i.e. the human language, wasn’t as beautiful as I thought, that it was—in fact—rather nasty at times.
I learned that language sometimes comes as a threat. I learned that language can rip communities apart. I learned that language defines who we are—and who we think others should be. I learned that language works in mysterious ways, like God—but for real. I learned that language was so much more than just a set of words and rules. (Dang it.)
But still, this made me feel strangely at peace.
I’ve never understood how people worked. Now, I finally had a chance at cracking the code.
Cracking the social code
Some people study the human body. Some study human culture. Others simply have the doing the human thing down for some reason. I was studying language to get to the bottom of it all.
When it was time to choose a major, I chose sociolinguistics. Because, you should always face your fears, right?
So, if you’ve never heard of sociolinguistics before, here‘s the deal.
What is sociolinguistics?
Sociolinguistics is the study of how language and society interact, exploring the ways language varies across different social groups, settings, and contexts. It examines how factors like culture, social class, gender, age, ethnicity, and geographic region influence language use, and how language, in turn, shapes social identities and group memberships.
In short: A large part of sociolinguistics is concerned, not with how we give meaning to words, but how we give meaning to ourselves with words.
Sociolinguistics is a broad field with very different areas of research. However, there are (at least) four key principles that guide the whole discipline:
Language & identity
Language is closely tied to personal and social identity, serving as a powerful tool through which people express who they are and signal group affiliation. Individuals identify with particular social groups, regions, or cultures through specific accents, dialects, and idioms, all of which play a role in constructing and maintaining social identities. Sociolinguistics helps to decipher these connections, examining how language reflects and influences factors such as gender, ethnicity, and profession, and ultimately showing how language constructs, maintains, and sometimes even changes identities.
Language & power
Language often reflects and reinforces social power structures, with certain language varieties, such as dialects or youth language, becoming either prestigious or stigmatized based on societal values. Sociolinguistics examines how dominant language varieties can shape social hierarchies, marginalize certain groups, and influence access to resources and opportunities. Standardized languages often represent the language of socially dominant groups, which can perpetuate discrimination and prejudice at a linguistic level. By analyzing these dynamics, sociolinguistics offers valuable insights into combating linguistic injustices.
Language & change
Languages evolve over time, influenced heavily by social factors that drive these changes. Sociolinguistics examines how language change spreads through communities, focusing on the role of social networks, media, and intergenerational shifts in shaping language evolution. Shifts in linguistic norms often mirror broader social and cultural changes, such as those related to gender issues or migration, and language use can offer valuable insights into these transformations. Through tracking such developments, sociolinguistic studies help us better understand the interplay between language and society.
Language & attitudes
Language attitudes and ideologies are the beliefs and biases people hold about different languages, dialects, accents, and linguistic codes, which influence how they perceive and judge others. These attitudes often reinforce social hierarchies, as language varieties associated with dominant groups are seen as prestigious, while those linked to marginalized groups are stigmatized. This bias can lead to linguistic discrimination, i. e. the negative judgments or exclusion based on how someone speaks, leading to unfair treatment of individuals based on their language use. This form of discrimination can impact people’s opportunities in education, employment, and social mobility. By studying these dynamics, sociolinguistics offers insights into how language both reflects and shapes societal structures, uncovering the mechanisms by which language can perpetuate or resist social inequality.
