Language and social class 语言与社会阶层

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1、LanguageandsocialclassIfyouareanEnglish-speakeryouwillbeabletoestimatetherelativesocialstatusofthefollowingspeakerssolelyonthebasisofthelinguisticevidencegivenhere:SpeakerASpeakerBIdoneityesterdayIdidityesterdayHeain’tgotitHehasn’tgotitItwasherwhatsaiditItwasherthatsaiditIfy

2、ouheardthesespeakerssaythesethingsyouwouldguessthatBwasofhighersocialstatusthanA,andyouwouldalmostcertainlyberight.Howisitthatweareabletodothissortofthing?Theanswerliesintheexistenceofvarietiesoflanguagewhichhavecometobecalledsocialclassdialects.Therearegrammaticaldifference

3、sbetweenthespeechofthesetwospeakerswhichgiveuscluesabouttheirsocialbackgrounds.Itisalsoprobable,althoughthisisnotindicatedontheprintedpage,thatthesedifferenceswillbeaccompaniedbyphoneticandphonologicaldifferences—thatistosay,therearealsodifferentsocial-classaccents.Theintern

4、aldifferentiationofhumansocietiesisreflectedintheirlanguages.Differentsocialgroupsusedifferentlinguisticvarieties,andasexperiencedmembersofaspeechcommunitywehavelearnttoclassifyspeakersaccordingly.Whydoessocialdifferentiationhavethiseffectonlanguage?Wemaynoteparallelsbetween

5、thedevelopmentofthesesocialvarietiesandthedevelopmentofregionalvarieties:inbothcasesbarriersanddistanceappeartoberelevant.Dialectologistshavefoundthatregional-dialectboundariesoftencoincidewithgeographicalbarriers,suchasmountains,swampsorrivers:forexample,alllocal-dialectspe

6、akersintheareasofBritainnorthoftheriverHumber(betweenLincolnshireandYorkshire)stillhaveamonophthonginwordslikehouse(‘hoose’[hu:s],whereasspeakerssouthoftheriverhavehadsomekindof[haus]-typediphthongforseveralhundredyears.Italsoseemstobethecasethatthegreaterthegeographicaldist

7、ancebetweentwodialectsthemoredissimilartheyarelinguistically:forinstance,thoseregionalvarietiesofBritishEnglishwhicharemostunlikethespeechofLondonareundoubtedlythoseofthenorth-eastofScotland—Buchan,forexample.Thedevelopmentofsocialvarietiescanperhapsbeexplainedinthesamesorto

8、fway—intermsofsocialbarriersandsocialdistance.Thediffusionofalinguisticfeat