Sociolinguistics (Language And Social Class)

INTRODUCTION

A. Background

The relationship between language and social class has been a major concern in applied linguistics and in sociolinguistics (see Block 2013 for a review), in the ethnography of communication (Hymes 1996), in language attitudes research (e.g. Chakrania and Huang 2012, Huygens and Vaughan 1983, Lai 2010), in research on public debates about language (e.g. Bex and Watts 1999, Crowley 1989, Mugglestone 2003), and in education (see Collins 2009 for a review).

It would be impossible to do justice to this range of research within a single article. Instead, this article follows one particular narrative in the development of class analysis within sociolinguistics. Focusing on language variation, it charts the progression from early survey studies, which assumed that class hierarchies determine linguistic behaviour, to more recent approaches, which emphasise social practice and speaker agency.

This narrative is relevant to scholars interested in pragmatics because it demonstrates that an adequate sociolinguistic theory of language and social class has to engage with language in use, and thus with ‘a pragmatic perspective’ (Verschueren 1994, 2009).

B. Problem Statement

Based on the background above, the research questions as follow:

1. What is the definition of Language?
2. What is Social Class

C. Purpose

The objectives of this research based on research problem above are:

1. To know the definition of Language
2. To understand the definition Social Class

DISCUSSION

A. The Definition Language

Language is central to social interaction in every society, regardless of location and time period. Ferdinand de Saussure explain that language is a system, sign and also sound which is used for a group in a community with the aim to do interaction or communication as a social human.

Language is not uniform or constant. Rather, it is varied and inconsistent for both the individual user and within and among groups of speakers who use the same language. People adjust the way they talk to their social situation. Language is also arbitrary and conventional. An individual, for instance, will speak differently to a child than he or she will to their.

This socio-situational variation is sometimes called register and depends not only on the occasion and relationship between the participants, but also on the participants’ region, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, and gender.One way that sociolinguists study language is through dated written records.

They examine both hand-written and printed documents to identify how language and society have interacted in the past. This is often referred to as historical sociolinguistics the study of the relationship between changes in society and changes in language over time.

B. The Definition of Social Class

Social class is a central concept in sociolinguistic research, one of the small number of social variables by which speech communities are stratified. Social class involves grouping people together and according them status within society according to the groups they belong to.

Trudgill states that “most members of our society have some kind of idea, intuitive or otherwise, of what social class is,” and most people, both specialists and laypeople, would probably agree with this. It is ironic, then, that social class is often defined in an ad hoc way in studies of linguistic variation and change, and linguists do not frequently take advantage of the findings of disciplines that make it their business to examine social class, particularly sociology, to inform their work.

Still, social class is uniformly included as a variable in sociolinguistic studies, and individuals are placed in a social hierarchy despite the lack of a consensus as to what concrete, quantifiable independent variables contribute to determining social class. To add to the irony, not only is social class uniformly included as an important variable in studies of linguistic variation, but it regularly produces valuable insights into the nature of linguistic variation and change.

Thus, this variable is universally used and extremely productive, although linguists can lay little claim to understanding it. Most sociological definitions include the notion of the “life-chances” of an individual or a class, as does, for example, Michael (1962)the basis of Labov's (1966)study of the Lower East Side of New York City. Here social class is defined as “an individual's life chances stated in terms of his relation to the production and acquisition of goods and services.”

Examples Class Structure(social class) in US:

• Two upper classes ; Upper upper : Old money, Lower upper : New money

• Three middle classes ;Upper middle : Professional, Middle class : White collar and entrepreneurs, Working class : Blue collar

• Two lower classes ;Upper lower : Unskilled laborers, Lower lower : Socially and economically disadvantaged.

C. Language and Social Class

There is a particular interest in the socialization process, namely how a person obtains a specific cultural identity and how he responds to that identity. Language has a relationship with culture in a society. In addition language also determines the way language speakers perceive Bernstein's world (in Ronald, 1987). The language experience of speakers that will relatively affect their lives. The variety of languages ​​used by language speakers in communicating is caused by their fellow members or with other members.

As social beings, humans will never be able to live alone. He definitely needs someone else for the sake of his survival. Humans use language as a communication tool in interacting with others. Language is also a group identity that has certain characteristics that cause it to be different from other group languages.

Sociolinguistics is a part of linguistics that studies the phenomenon of society. Fisman states that sociolinguistics has the main component of language characteristics and functions. The intended function of language is social function (regulatory) as a form of direction and interpersonal function, namely maintaining good relations. As for imaginative functions to explore fantasy realms. In addition there are also emotional functions to express mood (anger, disappointment, appreciation, sadness, joy, etc.).

Social class differs from caste, although caste can be referred to as an example of social class in society. The difference is only in terms of the nature of openness, where we know social class is open while caste is closed. Social classes allow someone who is at the level of the working class if he works diligently one day can move social class into the upper level. Unlike the case if a person is in the caste level, if he was born in the Brahmin caste, it would be impossible for him to become the class of the Sudra caste or Vaishya (Sumarsono, 2000: 43).

CLOSING

A. Conclusion

Language is central to social interaction in every society, regardless of location and time period. Ferdinand de Saussure explain that language is a system, sign and also sound which is used for a group in a community with the aim to do interaction or communication as a social human. Language is not uniform or constant. Rather, it is varied and inconsistent for both the individual user and within and among groups of speakers who use the same language.

Social class is a central concept in sociolinguistic research, one of the small number of social variables by which speech communities are stratified. Social class involves grouping people together and according them status within society according to the groups.

References

Wolfram, Walt dan Natalie Schilling-Estes. 1998 American English. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing