Sociolinguistics and Language in Society

What the page covers

The unit brings together material on how language varies across people, places and groups. Several mind maps set out the basics. Speech Community describes groups that share at least one language variety and are not tied to political boundaries. Language variation separates variation at one point in time from change over time. Bell's 1975 Language Criteria lists standardisation, vitality, historicity, autonomy, reduction and de facto norms.

Where to start

Begin with the flashcard deck Introduction to Sociolinguistics. It asks what sociolinguistics is, what it is concerned with, and what the social factors and dimensions are. Then open the mind maps called Sociolinguistics and variation in speech, which cover repertoires, dialects and language in its geographical and social setting.

Going deeper

Once the terms feel familiar, follow a theme. For bilingual speech, try the Code-Switching mind map, which gives a mixed Arabic and English example. For social groups, look at the resources on gender, age, ethnicity and social class. For policy, there are maps on language planning, including status and corpus planning in France and Quebec. Labov's New York department store study also has its own map.

Using quizzes and maps together

1. Read a mind map on one topic.
2. Take a quiz such as Sociolinguistics quiz to see what stuck.
3. Go back to the map for the points you missed.
4. Drill the terms with a flashcard deck.

Teachers can use the slide sets, such as the ones on Robin Lakoff and on social groups theorists, alongside the maps.

Where it sits

This unit belongs to the Language in Society strand of Linguistics and philology. Choose one topic that you find hardest, open its map and see how far you get.