LANGUAGE CHOICE

Choosing Your Variety or Code family outings and share information

about Tongan social events. It is only
What is your linguistic repertoire?
with her older sisters that she uses
some English words when they are
talking about school or doing their
homework.

Domains of Language Use

Domains of Language Use

Certain social factors, such as who you
are talking to, the social context of the
talk, the context and the topic and the
discussion, are important in accounting
for the language choice in various
speech communities.
It has proved to be useful when Domain is a very general concept which
describing code choice in large speech draws on three important social factors
communities, to look at typical in code choice – participants, setting
interactions which involve these factors. and topic. It is useful for capturing broad
generalizations about any speech
community
Example 2
Other Social Factors Affecting Code
Anahina is a bilingual Tongan New Choice
Zealander living in Auckland. At home
• Social distance dimension – how do
with her family she uses Tongan almost
people know one another
exclusively for a wide range of topics.
She often talks to her grandmother • Status relationship – [social role
about Tongan customs, for instance. contributes to status
With her mother she exchanges gossip
relationship]
about Tongan friends and relatives.
Tongan is the language the family uses • Dimension of formality
at meal-times. They discuss what they
• Function or goal of the interaction
have been doing, plan
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can be distinguished through their

functional specialization.
Key scholars who introduced
Diglossia Polyglossia = when more than two
varieties are involved
• Charles A. Ferguson (1921-1998)
Diglossia, 1959, Word vol. 15: 325-340
An example of diglossia can be taken
-introduces the concept
from Arabic speaking countries such as
• Joshua A. Fishman (1926-) Egypt in which the language used at
home may be a local version of Arabic.
-develops Ferguson’s ideas
The language that is recognized
-introduces ‘extended bilingualism’ publicly, however, is modern standard
Arabic, which takes many of its
normative rules from the classical Arabic
DIGLOSSIA of the Koran.

Ferguson’s definition of diglossia

A relatively stable language situation in Typical situations for H and L
which, in addition to the primary dialects varieties
of the language (which may include a
High usages:
standard or regional standards), there is
a very divergent, highly codified (often • sermon in church/mosque
grammatically more complex)
• personal letter
superposed variety, the vehicle of a
large and respected body of written • speech in parliament/political
literature, either of an earlier period or in
speech
another speech community, which is
learned largely by formal education and • university lecture
is used for most written and formal
• news broadcast
spoken purposes but is not used by any
section of the community for ordinary • newspaper editorial, news story
conversation.
poetry
• “a specific relationship between 2 or
Low usages:
more varieties of the same language in
use in a speech community in different • instructions to waiters
functions” (1972: 232)
• conversations with family,
• One variety is superposed, labelled H,
friends, colleagues
whilst the other variety(ies) are L and
• radio soap opera
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• caption on political cartoon official status, but each of these has

local L variants.
• folk literature
A child who speaks Hokkien at home
Overlap between the two - in all defining
may be schooled in Mandarin Chinese
speech communities it is typical to read
at school. English also functions as an H
aloud from a newspaper in H and
variety to the other three since it has
discuss its contents in L
more prestige.

The High (H) and Low (L) varieties differ

CODE-SWITCHING or CODE-MIXING
not only in grammar, phonology, and
vocabulary, but also with respect to Code-switching happens as a result of
social characteristics, namely: bilingualism. A speaker may opt to
choose one of the codes he/she speaks
function acquisition
according to circumstances.
prestige standardization
Why do speakers in a bilingual
literary stability community resort to code switching?
The foremost consideration is which
heritage
language is comprehensible to the
person being addressed.

POLYGLOSSIA
The term polyglossia has been used Participants, solidarity, and status
for situations where a community
People sometimes switch code within a
regularly uses more than three
domain or social situation. When there is
languages. People use different codes
some obvious change in the situation,
for different purposes.
such as the arrival of a new person, it is
Polyglossia is a useful term for easy to explain the switch.
describing situations where a number of
distinct codes or varieties are used for
clearly distinct purposes or in clearly Example:
distinguishable situations.
[The Maori is in italics. THE
TRANSLATION IS IN SMALL
CAPITALS.]
The term ‘polyglossia’ has also been
used to refer tocases such as Singapore Sarah : I think everyone’s here except
where many varieties coexist in Mere.

a functional relationship. English,

Mandarin, Tamil, and Malay share co-
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John : She said she might be a bit late construct the speaker’s ethnic identity
but actually I think that’s her arriving and solidarity with the addressee.
now.

Sarah : You’re right. Kia ora Mere.

• Switches motivated by the identity
Haere mai. Kei te pehea koe?
and relationship between participants
[HI MERE. COME IN. HOW ARE often express a move along the
YOU ?] solidarity/social distance dimension.
Mere : Kia ora e hoa. Kei te pai . Have • A switch may also indicate a change in
you started yet? the other dimension, such as the status
relations between people or the
[HELLO MY FRIEND. I’M FINE]
formality of their interaction.

In the given example, Mere is Maori

Topic
[indigenous Polynesian people of
mainland New Zealand]and although the People may switch code within a speech
rest of the meeting will be conducted in event to discuss a particular topic.
English, Sarah switches to Maori to Bilinguals often find it easier to discuss
greet her. The Maori greeting is an certain topics in one code rather than
expression of solidarity. So, a code- another. Why?
switch may be related to a particular
participant or addressee.
Certain kinds of referential content are
more appropriately or more easily
A speaker may similarly switch to expressed in one language than the
another language as a signal of group other.
membership and shared ethnicity with
Another reason for a referentially
an addressee. Even speakers who are
oriented code-switch is when a speaker
not very proficient in a second language
may use brief phrases and words for this
purpose. switches code to quote a person.
Certain kinds of referential content are
Maori people often use Maori words and
more appropriately or more easily
phrases in this way too, whether their
expressed in one language than the
knowledge of Maori is extensive or not.
other.
Such switches are often very short and
they are made primarily for social Another reason for a referentially
reasons – to signal and actively oriented code-switch is when a speaker
switches code to quote a person.
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CODE-MIXING
In code-switching the point at which the
languages change corresponds to a
point where the situation changes, either
on its own or precisely because the
language changes.
There are other cases, however, where
a fluent bilingual talking to another fluent
bilingual changes language without any
change at all in the situation. This kind
of alternation is called code-mixing