Page 193 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Unit 13: Branches in Linguistics: Socio-Linguistics

8. What do you mean by language varieties? How would you classify language varieties? Give Notes
examples from English.
9. How are registers classified on the basis of style?
10. Bring out the difference between dialect and sociolect.

Answers: Self-Assessment
1. (i) An isogloss is ‘a line indicating the degree of linguistic change’. ‘On linguistic maps, a line
separating the areas (called isoglass area) in which the language differs with respect to a
given feature or features, i.e. a line making the boundaries within which a given linguistic
feature or phenomenon can be observed’ (A Dictionary of Linguistics).
(ii) Registers are those “varieties of language which correspond to different situations, different
speakers and listeners, or readers and writers, and so on.”
13.7 Further Readings

1. Verma, S.K., V.N. Krishnaswamy. Modern Linguistics: An Introduction.
2. An Introduction to Linguistics, John Lyon.
3. Peter Roach: English phonetics and phonology. Cambridge University Press.
4. Encyclopedia of Linguistic Science Edited By V. Prakasam, Allied Pub.,
New Delhi.

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