An Overview of Sociolinguistics

【前言】An Overview of Sociolinguistics由文秘帮小编整理而成，但愿对你的学习工作带来帮助。Language as a social phenomenon or social behaviour has attracted the interest of linguistics for a long time. Section 2 Definition Sociolinguistics is the study of the effect of any and all aspects of society，including cultural norms，expectation...

中图分类号：H03 文献标识：A 文章编号：1009-4202（2010）11-345-01

Abstract This paper is an overview of sociolinguistics.Sociolinguistics is a newly developed subject which studies the interrelationship between language and society.The paper first introduces the history of sociolinguistics；next the major schools and its representatives；finally a summary will be achieved to conclude the review.

Key words sociolinguistics overview school research output

Section 1 The Origin and Evolution of Sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics is a branch of linguistics which is a newly developed subject since the 1960s.It mainly studies the relationship between language and society.

Language as a social phenomenon or social behaviour has attracted the interest of linguistics for a long time.

Section 2 Definition

Sociolinguistics is the study of the effect of any and all aspects of society，including cultural norms，expectations，and context，on the way language is used.

Sociolinguistics differs from sociology of language in that the focus of sociolinguistics is the effect of the society on the language，while the latter's focus is on the language's effect on the society.Sociolinguistics overlaps to a considerable degree with pragmatics.It also studies how language varieties differ between groups separated by certain social variables，e.g.，ethnicity，religion，status，gender，level of education，age，etc.，and how creation and adherence to these rules is used to categorize individuals in social or socioeconomic classes.It is these sociolects that sociolinguistics studies.（Encyclopaedia Britannica，2007）

Section 3 Major Research Topics and Schools

In western countries，the study of sociolinguistics is comparatively systematic and in depth，that the sociolinguistics can be clarified into five branches.

1．Social dialectology

It is also referred to as the variation school.Labov and Trugill are the most well-known representatives.Variationists attach their importance on the relations between language variation and social factors，and the key issue for them are the social dialects formed under the influence of social factors like class，profession，age and gender，which are put as sociolinguistics proper by Trudgill.This topic is the mainstream in sociolinguistic studies now.In language variation，sociolinguists “seeks for the regulate structure through the heterogeneous language facts”，and on the basis of it，they use the concept of “variant” in phonology to illuminate the regulations of language variation.（祝畹瑾，1992）.

2．Sociology of language

Sociology of language mainly studies the sociolinguistic issues of wholeness and global superiority，and its starting point is to consider language issues to a part of social problems.Its topics include bilingual and multi-language phenomenon，diglossia，language code swift，language loyalty，language contact and so on.

3．Ethnography of communication

The term of ethnography of communication was first used by American anthropologist Hymes，who is also a well-established linguistics.Hence，it has a close relationship with ethnography，and scholars who study it are known as “ethnographic school” or “sociolinguistics of anthropology”.This school places more weigh on describing language and specializes in studying the confining features caused by cultural diversity in different community，organization and society（徐大明，1997）.

4．Interactional Sociolinguistics

It is one of the latest developed schools in western linguistic world，which became popular in 1980s.It explains the process and results of communication in terms of linguistic theories.In the early years，the study focus of sociolinguistics lies on variation and variant，and the research objects are basically low-levelled language units.With deeper research，some sociolinguistics expanded their research object to the continuous conversation and paragraph.Some representatives in the field of interactional sociology：

Section 4 Summary

After more than 40 years’ development，the content of sociolinguistics has been enriched on a large scale that the theory and research method in certain aspects are paring to other developed subjects，however，its theory basis is still inadequate.

In a word，the theoretical study is of vital importance for sociolinguistics in the future.

Bibliography：

[1]Ralph Fasold.The Sociolinguistics of Language.Beijing:Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.2000.

[2]Ronald Wardhaugh.An Introduction to Sociolinguistics(3nd edition).Beijing:Foreign Language and Research Press.2000.

[3]胡壮麟.语言学教程.北京:北京大学出版社.2006.