The Meaning of Linguistics The Meaning of Sociolinguistics

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2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 The Meaning of Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of language. There are broadly three aspects to the study, which include language form, language meaning, and language in context. Language can be understood as interplay of sound and meaning. The discipline that studies linguistic sound is termed as phonetics, which is concerned with the actual properties of speech sounds and non-speech sounds, and how they are produced and perceived. The study of language meaning, on the other hand, is concerned with how languages employ logic and real-world references to convey, process, and assign meaning, as well as to manage and resolve ambiguity. This in turn includes the study of semantics how meaning is inferred from words and concepts and pragmatics how meaning is inferred from context. There is a system of rules known as grammar which govern the communication between members of a particular speech community. Grammar is influenced by both sound and meaning, and includes morphology the formation and composition of words, syntax the formation and composition of phrases and sentences from these words, and phonology sound systems. Through corpus linguistics, large chunks of text can be analyzed for possible occurrences of certain linguistic features, and for stylistic patterns within a written or spoken discourse. 5

2.2 The Meaning of Sociolinguistics

The study of such cultural discourses and dialects is the domain of sociolinguistics, which looks at the relation between linguistic variation and social structures, as well as that of discourse analysis, which involves the structure of texts and conversations. Research on language through historical and evolutionary linguistics focuses on how languages change, and the origin and growth of languages, particularly over an extended period of time. Language is also influenced by social, cultural, historical and political factors, and linguistics can be applied to semiotics, for instance, which is the general study of signs and symbols both within language and without. Literary critics study the use of language in literature. Translation entails the conversion of a text from one language to another. Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society. Sociolinguistics differs from sociology of language in that the focus of sociolinguistics is the effect of the society on the language, while the sociology of language focuses on languages effect on the society. Sociolinguistics overlaps to a considerable degree with pragmatics. It is historically closely related to linguistic anthropology and the distinction between the two fields has even been questioned recently. Sociolinguistics is also a term which is concerned with the relationship between language and context in which it used. Fishman 1972: 4 explains that sociolinguistics is the study of the characteristics of language varieties, the 6 characteristics of their function, and the characteristics of their speakers as these three constantly interact, change and change one another within a speech community. Based on the definition of sociolinguistics above, it can be concluded that sociolinguistics relates with the analysis of using language such as the description of language patterns used, the variety of dialects, the choice of language and speakers who are involved. Fishman 1972: 15 defines that the term as a study of who speak, what language, to whom, when and to what end. Dittmar 1976: 128 says that sociolinguistics gives clue in communication by showing the language, variety of language and speech style used if someone interacts to another one. There are seven cases which are analyzed in sociolinguistics; social identity of speaker, social identity of listener, social environment, social dialects, social stratification of speaker, levels of variety of language and practice application. Sociolinguistics encompass a broad range of concerns, including bilingualism, Pidgin and Creole language and other ways using language is influenced by contact among people of different language communities. The basic notion underlying sociolinguistics is quite simple. Symbolically language represents fundamental dimensions of social behavior and human interaction. The communication ways in which language is reflected by human being has been influenced by the social context. 7

2.3 Code-mixing