To what extent do socia factors such as age, gender, social status or Essay

To what extent do socia factors such as age, gender, social status or ethnicity correlate with linguistic variable - Essay Example This means that social factors like age, gender, social status and ethnicity are closely associated with language variation. â€Å" Miscommunication can occur when a member of one social group addresses a member of another social group†. ( Cutting Joan, 2002 ). Socio-linguistics is the branch of linguistics that studies language in relation to society. Socio-linguistics is partly theoretical and partly empirical – partly a matter of going out and amassing a body of facts and partly of sitting back and thinking. Hence if we want to examine the correlation between language variation and social factors, we have to investigate language samples from various parts of the world and a couple of studies carried out by researchers in this regard. Let us first consider the age factor. We do not expect an adult to babble like a child. Adult speech is notably different. Young boys and girls also use a different kind of language from adults in the same community. Youths are always ke en to maintain the generation gap. This tendency is reflected in the way they create their own codes like whistling, and certain words whose meanings they share with peers. This can be called ‘teenage slang’, which ‘serves as a mark of membership and solidarity’. ... The vocabulary is as transient as the popularity. Teenage slang can include words, phrases, dialogues, characteristic tones, strange pronunciations and also syntactic patterns. Without doubt, it would sound out-of-place and shocking if a respectable adult uses teenage style of speech. This shows that the age factor is closely related to age factor. Gender is another important factor that affects speech. In most communities, men and women do not use identical language. Just as sounds like /s/, /f/ and /l/ have a typical onomatopoeic bearing, certain sounds are feminine in nature. At the lexical level, ‘adjectives like lovely, darling and cute may carry feminine associations, as do words that describe precise shades of color like mauve---‘. ( Finegan Edward, 1999 ) In some languages like Japanese, there is a dramatic difference between the speech of men and women. Here are two examples: 1. Oh dear, you’ve put the butter in the refrigerator again. 2. Damn, you have pu t the butter in the refrigerator again. Anyone can easily guess that utterance (1) above is uttered by a woman and (2) by a man. Women are also generally observed to be more talkative and speak in a higher pitch compared to men. The topics of discussion also differ among men and women. Some forms used by men in Koasati Indians of Louisiana are also used by middle-aged women in the community. This shows that linguistic variability can be accounted for by the role that people play in their community. Men play the authoritative role. The same authority is enjoyed by elderly women, hence, the similarity in language. In many Oriental languages, the second person plural is used by women even to address a single man, in