sociolingistics

ETHNICITY AND SOCIAL NETWORK

ETHNICITY

Ethnicitydenotes a group of individuals who consider themselves, or are considered by others, to share common characteristics which differentiate them from other collectivities within a society.

When people belong the same group, they often speak similarly. But there are many different groups in a community, and so any individual may share linguistic feature with a range of other speakers. Some feature indicate a person’s social status, other distinguish women and men or identity a person as a teenager rather than a middle age citizen. There are also linguistic clues to person’s ethnicity and closely related to all these are linguistic features which reflect the regular interactions people have those they talk to most often. Here the situation that indicate the ethnicity.

Example 1 :

This situation took a place at Montreal. There was a girl who went to the restaurant in the old French. The girl was greeted by the waiter in French and that girl responded in French,but her accent clearly signalled that she was a native English speaker. At this case, the waiter is able to speak bilingual but he had a choice that he choose to continue in French. In here the waiter want to show his ethnicity as a French Canadian.

Many ethnic groups are use a distinctive language assosiated with their ethnic identity as demonstrated in the example above. Where a choice of language is available for communication, it is often possible for an individual to signal their ethnicity by the language the choose to use. Even when a complete conversation in an ethnic language is not possible, people may use short phrases, verbal filler or linguistic lags, which signal ethnicity

Example 2 :

In New Zealand many Maori people routinely use Maori greetings such us kia ora and a conversation between two Maori people may include emphatic phrase such us e ki, softening tags such as ne, and response such as ae, even when neither speaks the Maori language fluently. Besides that, when the Chinese Singaporeans bargaining with Chinese retailer in the shopping centres, the Chinese Singaporeans often use their ethnic background with linguistic tag such as la,or the word or phrase that indicate their ethnicity. They believe that with using their ethnicity may mean that they get better bargain.

Ethnic group often respond to the situation by using the mayority language in a way which signal their ethnic identity. For group where there are no identifying physical features to distinguish feature may be an important remaining symbol of ethnicity once their ethnic language disappeard. Food, religion, dress and distinctive speech style are all ways that ethnic minorities may use to distinguish themselves from the mayority group.

Example

African Americans do not need a distinct variety or codes as a symbolic way of differentiating themselves from the mayority group. They are actually different. This group has developed a distinc variety of English known as African American Vernacular English. This dialect has a number of features which do not occur very much less frequently in the standard variety. These linguistic differences act as a symbols of ethnicity.

For example

African American Vernacular English                 American Standard English

She very nice                                                                She’s very nice

He a teacher                                                                 He’s a teacher

SOCIAL NETWORK

Network in sociolinguistic refer to the pattern of  informal relationships people are involved in on a regular basis. In every day interaction, speech differences may also reflected in people’s social network. It is not surprisingly that people’s speech should reflect the types of network they belong to. The people we interact with, are one important influence on our speech. Social networks move the focus from social features the speaker alone, such as status, gender, age and ethnicity to characterisctics of the interaction between people. 

For example :

There is a boy who is 18 years old live in Ballymacarrett and he works  in the shipyard. He got job through his uncle namely Bob who works at shipyard and he has a cousin namely Mike and he works there too. Tom and Mike live in the same street and most at night they go to the pub and run disco with two friends namely Jo and Gerry. The way Tom and his cousin speak reflect that they belong to a small closely knit working class community. The men they work with, and mix with outside work are also their relations and neighbours and they all speak alike. As a member of the working class, they will tend to use more vernacular forms.

By contrast people in Tom’s community who are not so much a part of the kinship, neighbourhood and work network, tends to speak less broadly. For example : Sandy a man who lives on the edge of Ballymacarret, works for the civil service. He comes from Southern Ireland and he doesnt have family in Belfast and he sees people like Tom occasionally in pub. He is not part of close knit Ballymacarret male network and he uses far fewer vernacular form than Tom and Mike.

There are two technical term which are very useful for describing different types of networks. These are :

1.      Density

It refers to whether members of a person’s network are in touch with each other. If your friends know independently about you, so your network is a dense one. For example : Tom’s friends and relations know and interact regularly with each other, as well as with him. Tom works in the local shipyard with their relations, their neighbour, and their mates. Or the people they work with same with  the people they live with and play with. He clearly belongs to a dense network . This is reflected in the various connection between Mike and Tom and Uncle Bob.

2.      Plexity

Is a measure of the range of different types of transaction people are involved in with different individuals. Or they people they work with different from they people they live with and play with. Their speech is correspondingly more standard and they use fewer vernacular or creole. For example : young Ballymacarret women work on the far side of the city. They people they work with are not their neighbours or relations and so they are mixing with a more diverse group.

 In here there are uniplex and multiplex.

-         Uniplex Relationship : is one where the link with the other person is in only one area . You could be linked to someone else only because you work together, for example or you might only play badminton together, and never meet in any other context.

-         Multiplex Relationhip : involve interactions with others along several dimensions. For example : a workmate might also be someone you play tennis with and meet at church regularly. Tom’s network is multiplex because the people he works with are also his pub-mates, his relations and his neighbours.

CONCLUSION

What the people speak it will indicate their ethnicity.When people belong the same group, they often speak similarly. But there are many different groups in a community, and so any individual may share linguistic feature with a range of other speakers. Some feature indicate a person’s social status, other distinguish women and men or identity a person as a teenager rather than a middle age citizen. In every day interaction, speech differences may also reflected in people’s social network. It is not surprisingly that people’s speech should reflect the types of network they belong to. The people we interact with, are one important influence on our speech.