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Glossary for Language in the City

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Glossary for Language in the City Glossary for Language in the City accent 1) Strictly speaking this refers to the pronunciation of a dialect, i.e. it is a reference to the collection of phonetic features which allow a speaker to be identified regionally or socially. It is frequently used to indicate that a given speaker does not speak the standard form of a language. The term is used in German to refer to grammatical features as well. 2) The stress placed on a syllable of a word or the type of stress used by a language (pressure or pitch). (German: Akzent, Aussprache) accommodation A phenomenon in the use of language whereby speakers tend to adopt features of their interlocutors, perhaps in an effort to make them feel at ease or to be socially accepted by them. If this happens on a broad front in a speech community then it can lead to language change. (German: Akkommodation) address system The set of rules which specify what forms are appropriate when speaking to others in a certain social context; usually the rules are for pronominal usage. In most European languages (except English and Irish) there is a twofold system with one set of pronouns used for familiar address (du, dich, dein, etc.) and one for formal address (Sie, Ihr, etc.). The range of each set differs among groups in any given society and among different countries but in general the former correlates with first names and the second with surnames though cross combinations are possible. See T-form and V-form. (German: Anredesystem) argot Linguistic features, mostly vocabulary, used by a certain group in society, usually secretive. back slang A kind of slang in which the order of sounds and/or letters is reversed, e.g. yob ‘lout, hooligan’ from boy in 19th century English. bidialectlism A situation in which a speaker is able to converse effortlessly in two dialects, to switch at ease between both and keep them apart. It is in fact a type of bilingualism. (German: Bidialektalismus) bilingualism The ability to speak two languages with native-like competence. In every individual case one language will be dominant. Lay people often use the term if someone can simply speak a second language well. (German: Bilingualismus) cafeteria principle Refers to the opinion that pidgins arose by combining various features and rules from a set of regional varieties of British English which were represented in the English which developing world inhabitants were exposed to at the beginning. code markers Any linguistic item which serves the function of identifying a given code (language variety). For instance the use of a glottal stop [?] as a marker of popular London speech. Raymond Hickey Glossary for Language in the City Page 2 of 8 code mixing Amongst bilingual individuals this is the act of mixing elements from one variety/language with those from another. code In a sociolinguistic context this term is used as a very broad term for a variety or a language; it is intended to be the most general and neutral of terms. (German: Kode) code switching Moving from one language to another within a single sentence or phrase. This is a phenomenon found among bilinguals who feel it is appropriate to change languages (or dialects in some cases) - perhaps to say something which can only be said in the language switched to. Code-switching is governed by fairly strict rules concerning the points in a sentence at which one can change over. colloquial A term referring to a register of language which is informal, normally only spoken and deliberately contrasting with written norms of a language. Colloquial registers are innovative in that many instances of language change first occur in them. (German: umgangssprachlich) correctness An extra-linguistic notion, usually deriving from institutions in society like a language academy or a major publishing house, which attempts to lay down rigid rules for language use, especially in written form. Notions of correctness show a high degree of arbitrariness and are based on somewhat conservative usage, intended to maintain an unchanging standard in a language - a complete fiction. (German: Korrektheit) deficit theory A view, proposed by Basil Bernstein, that working class children in Western industrialised societies are disadvantaged in society because their native variety of a language, i.e. that which they learn in the home, is not the standard, as opposed to the position of the middle and upper classes. (German: Defizittheorie) dialect continuum A continuous geographical region in which the transition from one dialect to the next is gradual, for instance the Romance dialects spoken on the Northern coast of the Mediterranean from Spain through the south of France to Italy. Another instance would be the continental varieties of German which stretch from the Netherlands in the north-west to Lower Austria in the south-east and which form a continuum dialectally. (German: Dialektkontinuum) dialect A traditional term referring to a variety of a language spoken in a certain place. There are urban and rural dialects. The boundaries between dialects are always gradual. The term dialect is used to denote a geographically distinct variety of a language. Two major points in this connection should be noted: 1) ‘dialect’ does not refer to the social or temporal aspect of language and 2) the term ‘dialect’ makes no reference to the standard variety of a language. In connection with the latter point it is important to stress that the standard of a language is nothing more than a dialect which achieved special political and social status at some stage in the past and which has been extensively codified orthographically. (German: Dialekt) dialectology The area of linguistics which investigates dialects. For most linguists Raymond Hickey Glossary for Language in the City Page 3 of 8 nowadays this branch is regarded as conservative and not concerned with theoretical questions. Also called dialect geography. (German: Dialektologie; Dialektgeographie) diastratic A term referring to variation in language between social classes. (German: diastratisch) diatopic A term referring to variation in language on a geographical level. (German: diatopisch) dissociation A type of sociolinguistic behaviour in which one group attempts to make its speech different from another group, usually one with lower social prestige. If this is similar across a broad section of the population then it can lead to language change as is the case in the English of present-day Dublin. See accommodation. (German: Dissoziation) elaborated code A term stemming from the British sociologist Basil Bernstein in the late 1960’s. It refers to the kind of language employed by the better situated classes in Britain which is supposedly capable of making finer distinctions than the restricted code putatively used by the working classes. (German: elaborierter Kode) eye dialect An alteration of standard spelling to indicate roughly some of the prominent features of a dialect, e.g. walkin’ for [wo:k(] in a dialect which has alveolarisation of [n]. (German: Augendialekt) fieldwork The process of gaining data on language use from informants. Various techniques are used in this sphere, such as tape-recording, filling in questionnaires and completing word-lists, each of which has advantages and pitfalls. (German: Feldarbeit) formality An axis along which language differs in a social context. High degrees of formality are expected in situations of minimum familiarity and maximum social exposure, e.g. a public lecture or religious ceremony. (German: Formalität) glottalisation A phonetic process of substituting [?] for voiceless consonants in intervocalic/word-internal position, as in Cockney, e.g. bottle [b>?1]. This feature is currently spreading in the urban dialects of British English. (German: Glottalisierung) h-dropping A feature which is endemic in most urban varieties of British English. It consists of eliminating the initial /h/ of words; this can lead to hypercorrect forms like /h>nq/ for honour. (German: H-Tilgung) h-less A term referring to dialect of English which with do not have an /h/-sound in initial position; this applies to most urban dialects in present-day Britain. (German: h-los) hedge A device, used in conversation, which serves the purpose of weakening the force of a statement, e.g. He’s not up to scratch, I suppose. She won’t leave us, will she? Hedges are often realised by tag questions and are putatively characteristic of women’s speech. Raymond Hickey Glossary for Language in the City Page 4 of 8 hypercorrection A kind of linguistic situation in which a speaker overgeneralises a phenomenon which he/she does not have in his/her native variety. For example if a speaker from northern England pronounces butcher /but$q/ with the vowel in but, i.e. as /bvt$q/, then this is almost certainly hypercorrection as he/she does not have the but-sound in his/her own dialect and, in an effort to speak ‘correct’ English, overdoes it. The same applies to native speakers of Rhenish German when they pronounce Kirschen like Kirchen when they are talking to speakers of High German. (German: Hyperkorrektion) idiolect The language of an individual as opposed to that of a group. (German: Idiolekt) informant Any individual who supplies data for a linguist carrying out an investigation. (German: Informant) isogloss A line shown on a map and which represents the boundary between two linguistic features, e.g. the isogloss which separates the use of [u] (in the north of England) from [v] (in the south of England) in a word like but. Such a line is normally taken to refer to pronunciation but can also apply to morphological or lexical items. (German: Isoglosse) jargon A term for specialised or technical language which is generally unintelligible to those outside the field it refers to.
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