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Linguistics

Notes in response to its different social functions, and the definition of what these functions are. ‘Society,
here is to cover a spectrum of phenomena to do with race, nationality, more restricted regional, social
and political groups, and the interactions of individuals within groups. Different labels have sometimes
been suggested to cover various parts of this spectrum. Ethnolinguistics is sometimes distinguished
from the rest, referring to the linguistic correlates and problems of ethnic groups—illustrated at a
practical level by the linguistic consequences of immigration; there is a language side to race relations.
The term Anthropological Linguistics is sometimes distinguished from ‘sociological linguistics’,
depending on one’s particular views as to the validity or otherwise of a distinction between
anthropology and sociology in the first place (for example, the former studying primitive cultures,
the latter studying more ‘advanced’ political units; but this distinction is not maintained by many
others). ‘Stylistics’ is another label which is sometimes distinguished, referring to the study of the
distinctive linguistic characteristics of smaller social groupings. But more usually, stylistics refers to
the study of the literary expression of a community using language. Socio linguistics gradually merges
into ethno-linguistics, anthropological linguistics, stylistics and the subject-matter of psychology.

Socio-linguistics is the study of speech functions according to the speaker, the hearer,
their relationship and contact, the context and the situation, the topic of discourse,
the purpose of discourse, and the form of discourse.

Broadly speaking, however, the study of language as part of culture and society has now commonly
been accepted as Sociolinguistics. But there are also some other expressions which have been used at
one time or another, including ‘the sociology of language’, ‘social linguistics’, ‘institutional linguistics’,
‘anothropological linguistics’, ‘linguistic anthropology’, ‘ethnolinguistics’, the ‘ethnography of
communication’, etc.
The kinds of problems which are faced by the sociolinguist are: the problems of communities which
develop a standard language, and the reactions of minority groups to this (as in Belgium, India,
Pakistan, Bangla Desh, or Wales) ; the problems of people who have to be educated to a linguistic
level where they can cope with the demands of a variety of social situations (for example of problem
of learning Hindi in the people of Tamil Nadu if they want to have a communication with the common
people of North India); the problems of communication which exist between nations or groups using
a different language, which affects their ‘world-view’ (for example the problem of pupularising Russian
among the nations which are friendly to Russia); the problems caused by linguistic change in response
to social factors; the problems caused or solved by bilingualism or multilingualism (for example in
India and Canada); the problems caused by the need for individuals to interact with others in specific
linguistic ways (language as an index of intimacy or distance, of solidarity, or prestige of power, or
pathology, and so on). By this however, we do not mean that socio-linguistics can or does solve all
such problems as stated above. Yet it can identify precisely what the problems are and provide
information about the particular manifestation of a problem in a given area, so that possible solutions
can thereby be found out or expedited. Furthermore, problems related to interference, code-switching
or dialect-switching can be successfully handled by socio-linguistics. But the success of socio-linguistics
ultimately depends upon ‘pure linguistics’.
As J.B. Pride says, socio-linguistics is not simply ‘an amalgam of linguistics and sociology (or indeed
of linguistics and any other of the social sciences)’. It incorporates, in principle at least, every aspect
of the structure and use of language that relates to its social and cultural functions. Hence there
seems no real conflict between the socio-linguistics and the psycho-linguistic approach to language.
Both these views should be reconciled ultimately. Linguisticians like John Lyons and cognitive
psychologists like Campbell and Wales advocate the necessity of widening the notion of competence
to take account of a great deal of what might be called the ‘social context’ of speech.

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