language, society, and culture

definition of linguistic and its branches

Sociolinguistic is knowledge interdisciplinary between sociology and linguistic, two empirical sciences which have very close relationship. Linguistics is the study of the field of language, or the field of science that takes language as the object of its study. Thus, it can easily said that sociolinguistics is the interdisciplinary field of science that studies language in relation to the use of language in society. Sociolinguistics can be defined as the study of language in relation to society. Sociolinguistic that learned at this time based on research in the Greek’s era (6 B.C). Furthermore Linguistics can be divided into several branches, namely, phonology, morphology, and syntax.

·    Definition of Phonology

Phonology is part of linguistics which studies how the speech sounds are used systematically to form words and utterances. Why sounds learned? Because most primary form of language is sound. The sound is a vibration of air that goes into the ear. Different sound can make different meaning.

·    Definition of Morphology

In linguistics, morphology refers to the mental system involved in word formation or to the branch of linguistics that deals with words, their internal structure, and how they are formed.

·    Definition of Syntax

The study of the rules whereby words or other elements of sentence structure are combined to form grammatical sentences.

Since using certain language is not only correct grammatically, but also appropriate and acceptable in certain social context where the language is used, learning sociolinguistics seems so important. Forming utterances by using speech sounds systematically, using the right pattern of word formation, and combining words or other sentence structure grammatically, are almost useless if the speaker does not know how to use it appropriately in social contexts. For example: A speaker asks “how much is your salary?” (Let’s say the speaker utters it phonologically correct). Indeed, the question is morphologically and syntactically correct, but it is not appropriate Sociolinguistically if he addressed the question to stranger.

relation between linguistic and culture society

Sociolinguistics is a study between language and society. Observing the language which is used by a person to identify person’s regional background (ethnic, culture, social environment), education, and economic status. Studying sociolinguistics is as important as the use of language in society. The use of language (speech) is a form of social identity. For example, Arema District Dinoyo (Arema Fans Club) in Malang, every member has to speak using “bahasa walikan” as an identity of their community. Another use of language is as speech community. For example, Sastrawan Community, they have a role to use “kau” instead of “kamu” or “anda” as the regulation in their community when they are talking or texting to another member. Sociolinguistics has been existed study because of the existence of speech community. Examining the relation between language and society, sociolinguist needs to learn another related field of study such as anthropology, sociology and psychology.

            Talking about social dialect, dialect and accent are different. Dialect is varieties of language used by a group while accent is the way the speaker speaks that can identify where the speaker comes from. Social dialect is influenced by class, age, sex, education and other social parameters. There are clearly differences in using language. Using language in different class can create an over prestige or covert prestige. Over prestige can occur when the speaker uses the language over the ability of the class (example: Vicky uses many specific terms in politics while he was speaking in front of people who hasn’t access of information in rural area). Then, covert prestige is non–standard forms and expressions by certain sub-groups (example: Miss Rina tends to speak Bahasa Jawa rather than Bahasa Indonesia while the majority of the class is not Javanese). People with the upper class and more education may speak more complicated rather than the lower class. Also, female speaker speaks using more sophisticated language rather than male speaker. In conclusion, sociolinguistic is study between language and society, and it explains about the social dialect (the difference of using language in different age, class, sex, education and others social parameter).

Above all, mastering the grammar of certain language is not enough without knowing how to use it appropriately in real life context, that is why we cannot ignore the role of sociolinguistics.

Sunday, May 17, 2020