As Peter Trudgill outlines the use of registers in Sociolinguistics, he reveals, when two people speak with one another, there is always more going on than just conveying a message. The language used by the participants is always influenced by a number of social factors that define the relationship between the speakers. A register is a mark of a specific kind of conversation or style, relating directly to that social situation. Registers imply formality and are tailored to suit the relationship and role of the speakers.
There are higher and lower registers that employ different idioms, and greater or lesser amounts of slang. Therefore, an email or a text message to a friend would look very different from a thank you letter to a potential employer. Just as the way you tell a joke to a peer would be a lower register and less formal than how you would verbally request a letter of recommendation from a professor. Even here, I attempt to evoke a high variety or register in this paper to convey a more formal educated tone than I would use in an email about the paper to a peer. For example, I worked in F & B for several years. I am referring to the Food and Beverage Industry by using the register F & B. While I was working in a family restaurant, a co-worker explained that she had previously worked for an airline, and while at the airline she referred to cash and credit cards as ‘forms of payment’ or ‘F.O.P’s.’ So, when the two of us worked together we used registers that were specific to us not necessary the restaurant, since we were peers working in a fast paced environment we used plenty of slang and F & B specific registers. It was common for us to inquire on the F.O.P. status of a certain table, if we were working alone. Although...
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...mality of registers or in language. Although I do not identify as bilingual or multilingual I do know a few words in Spanish and when I felt it was appropriate, I would work them in. For example, when working with Spanish speaking co-workers I would use the Spanish term for excuse me, and occasionally I would wish my guests ‘Bon Apitete’. I always knew the difference between ‘can I’ and ‘may I’ and felt that even though I worked in a restaurant without linens that had more highchairs than Champaign buckets, I could speak in a slightly more formal language that I felt represented me as not just your server for the next hour and a half but an educated person that had choices and chose to be here. Language influences our identity and the registers we use define us. Although I was ultimately there to serve another, human I felt more dignified using elevated registers.
Conversation Analysis (CA) is the study of talk-within-interaction that attempts to describe the orderliness, structure and sequential patterns of interaction in conversation. It is a method of qualitative analysis developed by Harvey Sacks with the aid of Emmanuel Schegloff and Gail Jefferson in the late 1960s to early 1970s. Using the CA frame of mind to view stories shows us that what we may think to be simplistic relaying of information or entertaining our friends is in fact a highly organised social phenomena that is finely tuned in a way that expresses the teller’s motivation behind the talk. (Hutchby & Wooffitt, 2011). It is suggested that CA relies on three main assumptions; talk is a form of social action, action is structurally organised, talk creates and maintains inter-subjectivity (Atkinson & Heritage, 1984).
Style has been an integral component in the field of linguistics. Linguistic style refers to a person’s speaking pattern, which can include different features such as pace, pitch, intonation, syntactic patterns, etc. Styles of speech is learned, and is often influenced by location, gender, ethnicity, and age. As different cultures and sub-cultures arise, linguistic variations occur and different sociolinguistic styles come into being. Each style can index social meanings such as group membership, personal attributes or beliefs.
In this assignment, I will be conducting a Sociological analysis of a piece of naturally occurring interaction between two people. I will complete this by doing a transcription the piece of interaction using the work of Harvey Sacks and his work on conversation analysis. For this the piece of interaction I have used is that off a radio station. This involves George Galloway hosting his programme on Talk Sport and having a debate with a male who phones into the show. For this piece of interaction I will highlight many key theories that are covered in conversation analysis, such as turn taking, arguing, teasing and clashes of characters within the discourse. I will develop these aspects within this assignment and implementing this into the chosen discourse interaction.
In many circles of the world, various groups of people distinguish themselves from one another through religion, language, culture, and sometimes gender. People also develop stereotypes about a particular group of people in order to identify them. However, most of the time, these stereotypes hold true for only some members of a group. Sometimes, these stereotypes are just plain misconceptions that do not even apply to the group it claims to. Stereotypes are placed on people because it is a way to easily identify what type of person or ethnicity an individual is. At one point in time, these stereotypes may have been true; however, in today’s modern society, most of these stereotypes are outdated and false, which leads them to turn into misconceptions. Usually, stereotypes are utilized to humiliate and degrade the person or group; they also do not provide any beneficial outcomes. Stereotypes focus on how a particular group acts because of the radical ideas and actions of the few, how a particular group looks, or how that group is physically lacking in some way. These stereotypes often lead to conflicts because the group does not appreciate the way it is being perceived. Seldom are the stereotypes placed on a group of people truthful and accurate. Some hardly even apply to the particular group people it claims to. It is true that how people are perceived has a big impact on how other individuals interact with them; however, people are not perceiving these groups correctly.
During this experience I was also exposed to students who spoke both formal and common registry. The observation exposed that the students choose to speak to one another in common or informal register. Common register included slang and coded words that only students used. There was clear interplay of exchange between professionals who use formal registry and students who speak in common registry. My observ...
One important issue in studying communication is to learn how individuals manage to open conversations or how people may address one another in a given language (Aliakbari & Toni, 2008). Oyetade (1995) defines address terms as words or expressions used in interactive and face-to-face situations to designate the person being talked to. Address terms in different speech communities are worthy of study, address terms seem to be influenced by culture (Fitch, 1991; Morford, 1997).
sentence level of the language. However, descriptive linguists in the 1970’s emphasized the study of language properties and the language in use in a social context. Different from cognitive model which focuses on the mental and cognitive processes of writing, linguistic model of writing focuses on sentence level and the use of language in the process of composition. Linguistic factors such as syntax, semantic, phonological, lexical, and discourse are all involved in the writing process. In this respect, the use of simple linguistic factors and frequently used vocabulary may reduce the difficulty level of the text; however, the use of complex sentence structures and lower frequency words may increase the difficulty of the written text.
“...many must travel to give speeches and meet with individuals who are important to their organization” (). A public relations and fundraising manager includes traveling to various places.This can mean associating with a more spanish speaking collaborator. And since I am fluent in Spanish, I can work with them more efficiently than a non speaking spanish manager. Having a family of minorities, I know the intimidation and struggles non English speakers feel. Hiring me can make this company a comfortable zone for Spanish speaking clients. A bilingual employee can reduce the problem of trying to hire a translator and be available at all times. If you hire me, it can reduce the time of trying to hire a translator and be present at necessary times. I can be able to associate with Spanish speakers without worrying of having a translator. It is like two in one employee. If you hire me, it can reduce the time of trying to hire a translator and be present at necessary times. I can be able to associate with Spanish speakers without worrying of having a translator. It is like two in one
Language primarily is a system of communication (Fellowes and Oakley, 2014. p. 16). It is a “socially shared code” meaning it is custom to a certain group of humans and the language is understood by all in the group (Suri, n.d.). At all stages of life, language is an expressive tool that humans’ use as a vehicle to express ones’ self, ideas and thoughts (Kilgour, 1999). When language is learnt, certain notions about what is appropriate depending on different context is learnt (Emmitt, Zbaracki, Komesaroff & Pollock, 2010. p. 73). These notions are reflective of M. Halliday’s language register, language is diverse and is representative of context of interaction, who the communication is between and the communitive purpose as well as the mode of communication [oral or written] (Fellowes and Oakley, 2014. p. 19 & 20). Variety of vernacular is a diverse language barrier that may affect a person at any stage of life; refers to our everyday language and slang that is different to another group or region (Casano, n.d.). An example would be, this language would be appropriate for friends and close family but a different variety of vernacular would be used amoung work
Gumperz and Gumperz (1982) argue that communication cannot be studied in isolation. Its effects on people’s lives should also be analysed thus creating a holistic approach in detailing observations and findings of social interaction. Through communicative interaction, a speaker is constantly organising and reorganising who they are and how they relate to the social world (Norton 1997). In other words, speakers demonstrate their “linguistic features and communicative functions and social distribution” (Androutsopoulos & Georgakopoulou
There are many bilingual and multicultural people in the world today. For many, the choices of which language they use, and how they use it, correspond to what social or cultural community they belong to. Amy Tan, a Chinese American novelist, portrays this well in her short essay "Mother Tongue." Tan grew up in two vastly different worlds, using different "Englishes." The first world, which consists of her close family, she speaks what we may call "broken" or "limited" English. The second world, which is her business and professional world, Tan speaks and writes perfect standard and academic English. Having to "shuttle" between these two communities with very different languages has had many different positive and negative effects on Tan, and many other multicultural Americans who deal with similar things. I myself speak different "Englishes" as I move back and forth between my family and society.
(CA) Conversational analysis is a sociological linguistic approach, which focuses on the analysis of the verbal communication people routinely use when they act with one another. (Chatwin, 2004, 131) Harvey Sacks originated this idea by using ethnomethodological and interaction methods by observing people’s actions and speech. (Chatwin, 2004, 131) Sacks argues, conversation Is the foundation of social order. The structured nature of the conversations is slowed down from their orderly nature and distorted with little consequence. (Chatwin, 2004, 132) This is why researcher’s find recorded interviews invaluable because it creates “unmotivated looking.” Taking social organisation out of its autonomous domain independent of particular motivational, psychological or demographic characteristics such as, gender, age, ethnicity and race. The ethnomethodology behind the interactions helps underpin or understand the power structures at play. Everyday utterances, are a perfect example of how observations can be monitored through empiricism. Empiricism, emphasises the collection of facts and observations relating to the notion that substance of knowledge is limited to what may be tested, validated or confirmed by empirical observation. Conversational Analysis allows knowledge of the social order to be collected and measured in contrast with other qualitative research methods. (Chatwin, 2004, 132) Additionally,
While sociolinguists are mainly concerned with the influence of social structure on language, arguing that special linguistic forms occur in particular environments, Fowler et al. (1979) argue that it works in the other direction as well, where language plays a role in consolidating the institutions and is used to manipulate people and maintain power. Thus, language is a part and the same time a result of social
The American class system is divided into three sets of social categories: upper class, middle class, and lower class. These class divisions are determined based on an individual’s status and power in the society and may also be determined through an individual’s education, occupation, and income. Having a divided society based on social and economic status leads to the formation of different conversational styles. The use of standard or nonstandard English dialects often reflect an individual’s social class and it will vary according to the social group one is categorized. Language is affected by the social structure because individuals will differ from one another in the way an individual speak. Being divided by
In terms of seven textual functions (1-7), Brinton (1996) held that DMs create “cohesive passages of discourse” as well as making language relevant to context (p. 38). In terms of two interpersonal functions (8-9), DMs express the speaker’s “attitudes, evaluations, judgments, expectations, and demands, as well as of the nature of social exchange, the role of the speaker and the role assigned to the hearer” (p. 38). Based on Brinton (1996), more recent work by Aijmer (2002) also divided DM functions into textual and interpersonal function. Aijmer emphasized that the function of the individual marker must be identified according to the discourse context which extends turn