A Brief Introduction to Sociolinguistics

[Abstract] Language works as one of the most important instrument of social interaction. From social point of view，two aspects of language behavior are very important. 1） The function of language in establishing social relationships. 2） The role played by language by conveying information about the speaker. That is to say，sociolinguistics concerns with the interaction between the society and the language. In this paper，we are going to talk about the interaction in two aspects： the basic social functions of language，and the relationship between language and society.

[Keywords] sociolinguistic；language and society

【中图分类号】 P315 【文献标识码】 A 【文章编号】 1007-4244（2013）12-218-2

Language works as one of the most important instrument of social interaction. From social point of view，two aspects of language behavior are very important. 1） The function of language in establishing social relationships. 2） The role played by language by conveying information about the speaker. That is to say，sociolinguistics concerns with the interaction between the society and the language. In this paper，we are going to talk about the interaction in three aspects： the basic social functions of language，the definition of language and dialects and the relationship between language and society.

I Basic Social Functions of Language

The basic social function of language is widely accepted as coordination of group activity. Roman Jakobson defined six functions of language （or communication functions） according to six factors required for a communication： the Referential Function，The Expressive （alternatively called "emotive" or "affective"） Function，The Conative Function，The Poetic Function，The Phatic Function ，and The Metalingual （alternatively called "metalinguistic" or "reflexive"） Function.Beside these functions，we could easily find that language also has its meaning beyond itself. A lot of efforts have been made by investigators to illustrate different functions of language in society. Sapir argued that，besides expressing，communicating and thought，there are also a number of “special derivations” which may considered as social functions of language：

1） Language as a form of socialization. It indicates the most important function of language is communicating and establishing the membership in a group.

2） Languages as a culture preserving instrument. This is the culture function of language. A large part of our culture is passed from generation to generation through language written or oral.

3） Language as a factor in the growth of individuality and development of social personality. Language works as the symbol of one’s statue and identification in the world. We can even say that language is also the tag which distinguishes oneself to another from the language he speaks and also the language others speak to him.

4） Languages as a declaration of psychological place by various members of the group.

Following Sapir，many other investigators supplemented Sapir’s theory and classified the social functions of language into three classes：

1） The function of language of defining the group as a group. Language works as one of the most important symbols to signify which group are you in，for example，a person’s ethnic group. People’s mother tongues imply where are they from，which races do they belong，act.

2） The function of language is to define the social relationships between the group members.

3） The function of language is to define the character of interpersonal relationship between individuals.

Before we make a deeper analysis of the social functions of language，we have to define what language is.

II the Relationship between Language and Society

1） Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis states that there are certain thoughts of an individual in one language that cannot be understood by those who speak in another language. The hypothesis states that the way people think is strongly affected by their native languages. It has two versions： the linguistic relativity and linguistic determinism. The hypothesis is now believed by most linguists only in the weak sense that language can have some small effect on thought.

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis I

Linguistic relativity： Structural differences between languages are paralleled

By nonlinguistic cognitive differences （the structure of the language itself affects cognition）

For example： The number and the type of the basic color words of a language determine how a subject sees the rain bow.

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis II

Linguistic determinism = extreme "Weltanschauung" version of the hypothesis：

The structure of a language can strongly influence or determine someone’s World View. The Inuit can think more intelligently about snow because their language contains more sophisticated and subtle word.

Since different language lead to different conception of the world，we can make a comparison between Chinese and western languages.

2） the conjunctions

Many languages in Europe have its origins or were strongly affected by Latin. They have conjunctions in their language according to different person，gender，number and time. Let us make a comparison of the time expression in Chinese and English.

Chinese does not have conjunctions in tense. The form of the verb does not change according to the time，person，number and gender. However，Chinese and English both have their ways to express time，gender，and number. In most of situation，we could translate and express the same meaning to make the reader feel like the reader of the original version. What we need to do is the functional transform translation that is advocate by Eugene A. Noida. This could indicate different ways of people’s perceptions of the world： what they put emphasis on and what they neglect. Another thing we noticed that western languages are of great logic. Usually，one sentence could be as long as they want. There is no theoretical limit on the length of the sentence. With a logical subordinate system and concord principle，it is not too hard for people to sort out the logic distribution of the sentence and in order the get it meaning. However，it is to some extent impossible for Chinese. They do not employ the subordinate system and concord principle. The relationship between sentences is linked by some adverb，link words，pronouns and repetition of certain words. Nevertheless，we could not say that Chinese is not as logic as western languages or it is not as precise as western languages. We can see that Chinese also has its own logic system.

3） language works as the tool of ruling the society.

In ancient China，one of greatest scholar，Xunzi，discussed the relationship between language and society. Xunzi emphasize the authoritarian political motivation and applications of his theory of language and logic.

“Xunzi presents his theory of names and theory of disputation specifically as tools to guide autocratic rulers in regulating the use of words for political ends. The objective is to achieve social order and unity，implement an authoritarian Dao，ensure the intent of commands is followed，and prevent heterodox teachings from “confusing” people―and thus interfering with their obeying instructions，laws，and the code of ritual propriety”

We can see that Xunzi considered language as an important way to stabilize the stratum of the society. Language is tag that detached on everyone，which works as the basic rule for people to behave.

4） the society’s influence over the language

We could have a direct feeling about how society affect language on investigating the words that express kinship，which resemble the family structure in a direct way.

In English，we do not distinguish the maternal kinship from the paternal kinship. The brothers of your father or your mother are called uncles. The sisters of your father or your mother are called ants. The words like nephew，niece，and cousin applied to both maternal side and paternal side. However，in china，they have a very strict address system for kinship. There is a specific addressing for every relationship in a big family. It reflects the strict rules on the class. Under the big influence of Confucianism，all the family members were ranked in an ordered way. Everyone has his own duty and right. They should show great respect to members who are in the higher rank than him. The most famous theory about the family rules is the three cardinal guides （ruler guides subject，father guides son and husband guides wife）.

The influence of the society value on the language could be best embodied in taboos. Taboo can be characterized as being concerned with behavior which is believed supernaturally forbidden. In language，taboo concerns about the things that they are not said，and in particular with words and expressions which are not used. There are inhibitions about the normal use of items of this kind. CIf they were not said all，they could hardly remain in the language.

In Chinese，those taboo words are not used in a very strict and limited environment. Those words become taboo words only in some specific environment. I would like to take an example from a Chinese classic novel “a dream of the red mansion”，in the novel there is a verb “zoushui”，which literally means the water goes away，signifying catching fire on something. To say something is catching fire is a taboo in the red mansion. However，it is not taboo for people outside of the mansion. From this point we can see that people are really afraid of fire in ancient time，especially among the up class people，they resort to the supernatural power and believe that language has a supernatural power to prohibit the happening of the bad things.

参考文献：

[1]Livan，Busra.Social Functions of Language in a Mexican-American Community[EB/OL].Retrieved from http：//www.academia.edu/256693/functions_of_language November 25，2013.

[2]Barker，G. C. Social functions of language in a Mexican American community（No. 22）.[EB/OL].University of Arizona Press.

[3]Chris Fraser Language and Logic in the Xunzi[EB/OL].Retrieved from http：///images/2012/09/Fraser-Xunzi-LanguageLogic-preprint.pdf November 25，2013.

作者简介：郑穗嫔（1963-），女，汉族，黑龙江哈尔滨人，兰州城市学院外国语学院教师，研究方向：英汉惯用语的辨析与对照。