TVP Sociolinguistic Coursebook

An Introduction to Sociolinguistics
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CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS
Chapter I Contents
1. Sociolinguistics
2. Society
3. Culture
4. Language
5. The Possible Relationships between
Language and Society
Language and Culture
Language and Thought
Language, Culture, Society, and Thought.
1. SOCIOLINGUISTICS
Pre-lecture activity 1.1. Discuss:

1-Do people from different areas of the same country (e.g. North and South of Vietnam, from
different gender (male-female), from different social classes (e.g. rich-poor) have language
differences in pronunciation and vocabulary? Give examples to illustrate.
2-Why are there those differences?
1.1. What is sociolinguistics?

Sociolinguistics studies those differences. What is sociolinguistics? There are different
definitions of the term sociolinguistics.
‘Sociolinguistics is the study of language in relation to society’ [49, p.1].
‘Sociolinguistics is that part of linguistics which is concerned with language as a social and
cultural phenomenon’ [102].
‘Sociolinguistics is the study of language in relation to social factors, that is, social class,
educational level and type of education, age, sex, ethnic origin, etc.’ [82, p. 262].
Sociolinguists have agreed that sociolinguistics is the sub-discipline of linguistics which

deals with the relationships between language and society [45, p.1]. Sociolinguists are interested in
explaining why people speak differently in different social contexts. They are concerned with
identifying the social functions of language and the ways language is used to convey social meaning.
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Examining the way people use language in different social contexts provides a wealth of information
about the way language works, as well as about the social relationships in a community, and the way
people convey and construct aspects of their social identity through their language. Sociolinguistics
has close connections with social sciences, in particular, sociology, anthropology, and education.
Sociolinguistics first appeared in the West in the 1960s and was pioneered by linguists such
as William Labov in the U.S. and Basil Bernstein in the UK. Many scholars considered the year
1964 as the year in which sociolinguistics was officially accepted in an interdisciplinary conference
organized by the sociologists and linguists.
Linguists differ as to what they include under sociolinguistics. Differences in sociolinguistic

concerns lead to differences in different models and approaches to sociolinguistcs. There are
different models and approaches to sociolinguistcs such as variationist sociolinguistics, interactional
sociolinguistics, cognitive sociolinguistics, critical sociolinguistics… The focus of the current
textbook is mainly on the relationships between language, culture and society.
1.2. Sociolinguistics and sociology of language

Wardhaugh [107, pp.12-13] states that some investigators have found it appropriate to try
to introduce a distinction between sociolinguistics or micro-sociolinguistics and the sociology
of language or macro-sociolinguistics. Hudson [49, pp.4-5] has described the difference as
follows: sociolinguistics is ‘the study of language in relation to society’, whereas the sociology
of language is ‘the study of society in relation to language.’ Richards, Platt and Weber [82, p.262]
defines sociolinguistics or micro-sociolinguistics as the study of how social structure influences
the way people talk and how language varieties and patterns of use correlate with social
attributes such as class, gender, and age. It includes the detailed study of interpersonal
communication, e.g. speech acts, speech events, sequencing of utterances, and also those
investigations which relate variation in the language used by a group of people to social
factors. Sociology of language includes the study of language varieties and their users within a
social framework, for example the study of language choice in bilingual or multilingual
nations, language planning, language maintenance and language shift. As analysed,
sociolinguistics differs from sociology of language in that the focus of sociolinguistics
is the effect of the society on the lan guage, while the sociology of language studies the
language effects on the society.
1.3. Language variation, socio-cultural contexts and explanations

1.3.1. Language variation
The language we use in everyday living is remarkably varied. This is called language or
linguistic variation. Language variation is defined as “differences in pronunciation, grammar, or
word choice within a language” [82, p.304]. Language variation can be seen in the choice of
pronunciation, words, syntax, styles and language varieties. Variation in language is related to
variation in social factors. A language exists in a number of varieties and in a sense the sum of those
varieties.
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In any community, the distinguishable varieties or codes which are available for use in
different social contexts form a kind of repertoire of available options [45, p.8]. The members of
each communities have their distinctive linguistic or verbal repertoires. In other words, in every
community there is a range of varieties from which people select according to the social context in
which they are communicating.
In sociolinguistics, variation in language use among speakers or groups of speakers is a
principal concern. Examining the way people use language in different social contexts provides a
wealth of information about the way language works, as well as about the social relationships in a
community, and the way people convey and construct aspects of their social identity through their
language. Sociolinguists are interested in the different types of linguistic variation influenced by and
used to express and reflect social factors.
1.3.2. The socio-cultural contexts

Language varies according to the cultural, social, and physical settings in which it occurs.
These settings are called socio-cultural contexts or communication contexts. The sociocultural
context can be as broad as a speech community or as narrow as an interpersonal interaction. The
term social context is often used to refer to a-linguistic or verbal context (the linguistic units which
occur before or after a word, a phrase or even a longer utterance or a text) and b-non-linguistic or
social context (the broader social situation in which a linguistic item is used). The social context is
the whole situation in which an utterance is made (i.e. who is speaking to whom about whom,
whether formally or informally, why, when and where). It may include such social factors as the
speaker’s and the hearer’s social status, social roles, social relationships, social classes, gender, age,
race, communication purposes and functions. These social factors influence the language used in
communication. The way people talk is influenced by the social context in which they are talking.
Language varies according to the change in social factors or in other words, according to the social
context in which it occurs.
According to Holmes [45, pp.8-9], in communication, social factors are relevant in
accounting for the particular variety used. Some relate to the users of language – the participants;
others relate to its uses – the social setting and function of the interaction. Who is talking to whom is
an important factor. The setting or social context is generally a relevant factor, too. The aim or
purpose of the interaction may be important.
Not all factors are relevant in any particular context, but they can be grouped in ways which
are helpful. In any situation, linguistic choices generally indicate people’s awareness of the influence
of one or more of the following components [45, pp.8-9]:
a-The participants
i-who is speaking, and
ii-who are they speaking to?
b-The setting or social context of the interaction: where are they
speaking?
c-The topic: what is being talked about?
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d-The function: Why are they speaking?
These social factors prove important in describing and analysing all kinds of interaction.
They are basic components in sociolinguistic explanations of why we didn’t all speak the same way,
and why we don’t all speak in the same way all the time.
The notion of social context or context of situation is often related with that of context of
culture, which is usually described as the general context for language as system [39].
Society and culture act as the social and cultural contexts for appropriate use of language in
communication.
1.3.3. Looking for explanations [45, pp.11-12]

Sociolinguists aim to describe sociolinguistic variation and, if possible, explain why it
happens. The first two steps which need to be taken are:
a-to identify clearly the linguistic variation involved (e.g. vocabulary, sounds, grammatical
constructions, styles, dialects, languages)
b-to identify clearly the different social or non-linguistic factors which lead speakers to use
one form rather than another (e.g. features relating to participants, setting or function of the
interaction).
Then we can begin to look for patterns which will help to formulate an explanation of why
people use one set of forms in some contexts, but different forms in others. First of all, we can
ask the question ‘what are the linguistic forms used in this village / town?” Secondly,
‘what are the social factors which lead people to use one set of forms rather than the
other?’ And finally, ‘can we explain why particular social factors lead to the use of one set
of forms rather than another?’
In other words, the sociolinguist’s aim is to move towards a theory which provides a
motivated account of the way language is used in a community, and of the choices people make
when they use language.
Follow-up activity 1.1.True/False: Discuss with your friends and decide whether the
following statements are true or false:
1-Sociolinguistics is the study of language in relation to social factors.
2-Sociology of language studies the effect of society on language.
3-Language varies according to social factors.
4-Society and culture act as the social and cultural contexts for language use.
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5-Sociolinguists aim to describe sociolinguistic variation and, if possible, explain why it

happens.
II-Research task:
Basing yourself on the section 1.3.3. and the Guideline to Research Assignment, think of a
research topic to be developed into a research assignment.
2. SOCIETY

1-What language do Vietnamese people speak when they are in Vietnam? What language do
English people speak when they are in England, America…?
2-What are your social positions (teacher, doctor…)? Do you wear a uniform when you are
in these positions? What are the words and expressions you often use when you are in these
positions?
2.1. Society [188]

A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent
relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the
same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Human societies are characterized by
patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and
institutions; a given society may be described as the sum total of such relationships among its
constituent members. In the social sciences, a larger society often shows stratification and / or
dominance patterns in subgroups.
The term "society" came from the Latin word societas, which in turn was derived from the
noun socius ("comrade, friend, ally; adjectival form socialis) used to describe a bond or interaction
among parties that are friendly, or at least civil. Without an article, the term can refer to the entirety
of humanity (also: "society in general", "society at large", etc.)
The term society, thus, is used to refer to the people in general, living together in
communities. It can be used to refer to a particular community of people who share the same
customs, laws, languages etc. e.g. a speech / language community.
Human societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between
individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions. Social structure is the network of the
social relations. In a human society, an individual has one or more than one social positions.
2.2. Social class division

As noted above, a larger society often shows stratification and / or dominance patterns in
subgroups. This is often referred to as social stratification. In social stratification, people in a
society are organised into different hierarchically social groups. Let us look at the caste system in
India and social class system in the West.
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2.2.1. Caste system in India [71 p. 28]

The caste system developed in India. It is based upon the Hindu religion, which preaches
that people have more than one life and that they are born into a particular caste in life according to
their behaviour in their previous lives.
In caste societies, a person’s location in the social strata is ascribed by birth rather than based
on individual accomplishments. Movement between strata, or castes, is prohibited or severely
limited. There are rigid lines between the castes and no form of social mixing is allowed.
Sociologists describe a situation where one’s social position is determined at birth as ascription.
A man is born into a jati (a division of caste) and this is the only way of acquiring
membership. The Hindu doctrine of karma teaches the young Hindu that he is born into a particular
sub-caste because that is where he deserves to be born. Each caste is traditionally associated with a
particular occupation. Caste membership is linked to status: not only houses, but clothes, customs
and manners become symbols of status for those who share a common culture.
Table 1.1. Castes in India [71, p. 28]

Castes in India
Brahmins Priests
Kshatriyas Soldiers
Vaishyas Traders
Shudras Servants & labourers
Harijan (untouchable) the worst work, refused by others
2.2.2. Social class
Social class (or simply class) is a set of concepts in the social sciences and political theory
centered on models of social stratification in which people are grouped into a set of hierarchical
social categories.
Industrial society gave rise to class-based systems of stratification. In class societies, social
stratification is based on a combination of ascribed and achieved statuses. Strata are largely
established along economic lines but are not as clearly delineated as a caste system. Class societies
allow movement between classes based on individual accomplishments.
In common sense, the term "social class," is usually synonymous with "socio-economic
class," defined as: "people having the same social, economic, or educational status," e.g. "the
working class"; "an emerging professional class."
Today, in Western society, the concepts of social class often assume three general
categories: a very wealthy and powerful upper class that owns and controls the means of
production; a middle class of professional workers, small business owners, and low-level managers;
and a lower class, who rely on low-paying wage jobs for their livelihood and often experience
poverty
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2.3. Social status, social role and social role relationships

2.3.1. Social status [92, p.44]:
The concept status is central to social interaction and social structure. Social statuses are
established social positions. Social statuses are established in different ways. They can be
achieved or ascribed. Achieved statuses are those positions involuntarily acquired through personal
efforts. Ascribed statuses are acquired involuntarily through birth. Being a female, a Vietnamese, a
son, or a prince are all ascribed statuses. A person may hold many social statuses. All the statuses a
person holds at once comprise his or her status set. Some statuses in a status set are more socially
important and influential than others. A very influential status may become a master status (a status
that becomes more socially important than all other statuses).
2.3.2. Social role [92, p.45]

A social status is associated with a social role. Roles are also central to social interaction
and social structure. The two concepts of status and role go hand in hand. The term social role
refers to a pattern of behavior that is associated with a particular position (or status) in society
or a set of expected behaviors and the values associated with them that a culture or ethnic
group defines as proper or acceptable. Using the status of the doctor from the examples above, a
number of role expectations can be identified. Doctors should come to work. They should examine
patients competently and discuss their concerns. They should prescribe medicine lawfully. All of
these examples illustrate how we expect doctors to act. The same person can be a professor at a
university, a father at home and a friend in the society. There are different role expectations
associated with these roles. Those roles together illustrate a role set (all of the roles that go with a
single status).
2.3.3. Social role relationships: power and solidarity relationships

When someone communicate with other people, he or she should try to know with whom
he/she speaks, where and when he speaks, then try to find an appropriate language. Language can be
used to express role of relationships between individuals. Brown & Gilman [10] defined social
relationships in terms of power and solidarity. They argued that the choice of linguistic forms is
governed by either relationships of power and / or solidarity, depending on the culture of the
speakers. Speakers position themselves in relation to others by using specific linguistic forms that
convey social information. A single utterance can reveal much about a speaker: his/her background,
place of birth or nation of origin, social class, or even social intent, that is, whether she/he wants to
appear friendly or distant, familiar or deferential, superior or inferior [Sterling, 2000, as cited in [10].
Forms which indicate power establish who has authority and how great that authority is. Forms
which indicate solidarity establish the degree of intimacy in the relationship.
The dimensions of power and solidarity have been fundamental to sociolinguistic theory
since Brown and Gilman [10] introduced the concept in relation to the pronoun system. They
introduced the framework of power and solidarity by reference to the linguistic choices that must be
made in languages that have "polite" and "familiar" forms of the second person pronoun. The
"polite" pronoun is referred to as "V" from the French vous. The "familiar" pronoun is referred to as
"T" from French tu.
The definitions of power from different views are presented as follows:
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a-Power is a relationship between at least two persons and it is nonreciprocal in the sense that
both cannot have power in the same area of behavior [10].
b-Power is the degree to which one interlocutor is able to control the behavior of the other
[Sterling, 2000, as cited in [10].
There are many bases of power-physical strength, wealth, age, sex, institutionalized role in
the church, the state, the army, or within the family. The relation called older than, parent of,
richer than, stronger than, and noble than are all asymmetrical and attended the same school or
have the same parents, or practice the same profession are a set of relations which are
symmetrical.
Solidarity is a relationship which is based on similarity or even sameness of salient

characteristics in two (or more) persons [Thomas, 1998, as cited in [10]. Such relationships as
attended the same school or have the same parents or practice the same profession are
reciprocal, i.e. they obtain equally for both individuals. The varying aspect of the solidarity
dimension is its intensity, or degree of solidarity, ranging from close intimacy to distant reserve.
Solidarity concerns the social distance between the characteristics they shared [Hudson, 1960, as
cited in [10]: How much experience they have shared, how many social characteristics they share
(religion, gender, region of origin, race, occupation, interest, etc.).
Solidarity forms express intimacy and familiarity [Sterling, 2000, as cited in [10]. Solidarity
can be achieved in interactions where interlocutors share some common attribute — for instance,
attendance at the same school, work in the same profession, membership in the same family, etc. The
solidary relationship is symmetrical in that if Speaker A has the same parents (or attended the same
school, etc.) as Speaker B, then B has the same parents as A. It is important to note that not every
shared personal attribute creates solidarity. For example, two people who have the same color eyes
or same shoe size will not automatically have an intimate relationship. But should they share
political membership, religion, birthplace or other common attributes “that make for like-mindedness
or similar behavior dispositions,” the likelihood of a solidary relationship increases.
Power and solidarity are two types of social relationships which influence the language
choice in communication.
1-A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent
relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the
same political authority and dominant cultural expectations.
2-Today, in Western societies, social classes consist of castes based on the Hindu religion.
3-Social statuses are established social positions.
4-The term social role refers to a pattern of behaviour that is associated with a particular
position in society.
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5-Power and solidarity are the two types of social relationships which affect language use in
communication.
3. CULTURE

1-What is culture?
2-What are the different aspects of a culture?
3.1. What is culture?

Many culturalists believe that the term culture etymologically meant the cultivation of the
soil and, after that, developed the meaning: the cultivation of the soul or mind as an agricultural
metaphor. Originally, the term culture derived from Latin cultura, which means to cultivate [81,
p.86]. The philosopher Edward S. Casey [1996, as cited in [154] describes:"The very word culture
meant "place tilled" (land prepared and used for growing crops) in Middle English.” The modern
term "culture" is based on a term used by the Ancient Roman orator Cicero in his Tusculanae
Disputationes, where he wrote of a cultivation of the soul or "cultura animi", using an agricultural
metaphor for the development of a philosophical soul. Culture, as described by Velkley [as cited in
[154], meant the “cultivation of the soul or mind.”
“Tại phương Tây, văn hóa – culture…. đều xuất xứ từ chữ Latinh cultus có nghĩa là khai
hoang, trồng trọt, trông nom cây lương thực; nói ngắn gọn là sự vun trồng. Sau đó từ cultus
được mở rộng nghĩa, dùng trong lĩnh vực xã hội chỉ sự vun trồng, giáo dục, đào tạo, và phát
triển mọi khả năng của con người.
Ở Phương Đông, trong tiếng Hán cổ, từ văn hóa bao hàm ý nghĩa văn là vẻ đẹp của nhân
tính, cái đẹp của trí thức, trí tuệ con người có thể đạt được bằng sự tu dưỡng của bản thân
và cách thức cai trị đúng đắn của nhà cầm quyền. Còn chữ hóa trong văn hóa là việc đem
cái văn (cái đẹp, cái tốt, cái đúng) để cảm hóa, giáo dục và hiện thực hóa trong thục tiễn, đời
sống” [116, p.8].
Kroeber and Kluckhohn [1952, as cited in [81, p.89] identified 164 different definitions
ofcultures in 1952. However, the concept of culture is very difficult, perhaps even impossible, to
define because it is a theory and/or abstract name for a very large, complex, multi-dimensional
phenomenon. Hundreds of definitions of culture have been developed under different conditions
under which different scholars have worked. These scholars have all had different views about what
constitutes the concept and meaning of culture. We will now look at different definitions of cultures
in the following parts:
Culture is, in the words of E.B.Tylor,"that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief,
art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of
society"[Tylor, 1974, as cited in [154].
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More recently, the UNESCO described culture as the “set of distinctive spiritual, material,
intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group that encompasses, in addition to art
and literature, lifestyle, ways of living together, value system, traditions and beliefs” [UNESCO,
2002, as cited in [81, pp. 90-91].
Hofstede, Hofstede and Minkov define culture as the ‘collective programming of the mind
that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from others” [41, p.4].
According to Hofstede, Hofstede and Minkov [41, pp.4-6], every person carries within him
or herself patterns of thinking, feeling, and potential acting that were learned throughout the person’s
lifetime. Much of it was acquired in early childhood, because at that time a person is most
susceptible to learning and assimilating.
Using the analogy of the way computers are programmed, such patterns of thinking, feeling,
and acting are mental programs, or software of the mind. This does not mean, of course, that people
are programmed the way computers are. A person’s behavior is only partially predetermined by his
or her mental programs: he or she has a basic ability to deviate from them and to react in ways that
are new, creative, destructive, or unexpected. The software of the mind only indicates what reactions
are likely and understandable, given one’s past.
The sources of one’s mental programs lie within the social environments in which one grew
up and collected one’s life experiences. The programming starts within the family; it continues
within the neighborhood, at school, in youth groups, at the workplace, and in the living community.
Mental programs vary as much as the social environments in which they were acquired.
A customary term for such mental software is culture. This is culture in the narrow sense.
Culture as mental software, however, corresponds to a much broader use of the word that is common
among sociologists and, especially, anthropologists.
Culture is always a collective phenomenon, but it can be connected to different collectives.
Within each collective there is a variety of individuals. Most commonly the term culture is used for
tribes or ethnic groups (in anthropology), for nations (in political science, sociology and
management), and for organizations (in sociology and management). A relatively unexplored field is
the culture of occupations (for instance, of engineers versus accountants, or of academics from
different disciplines). The term can also be applied to the genders, to generations, or to social
classes. However, changing the level of aggregation studied changes the nature of the concept of
‘culture’. Societal, national and gender cultures, which children acquire from their earliest youth
onwards, are much deeper rooted in the human mind than occupational cultures acquired at school,
or than organizational cultures acquired on the job. The latter are exchangeable when people take a
new job. Societal cultures reside in (often unconscious) values, in the sense of broad tendencies to
prefer certain states of affairs over others. Organizational cultures reside rather in (visible and
conscious) practices: the way people perceive what goes on in their organizational environment.
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (7th Edition) [47, p.357] defines the term culture as
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a-way of life: (U) the customs and beliefs, art, way of life and social organization of a
particular country or group / (C) Country, group, etc. with its own beliefs.
b-Art/ music / literature: (U) art, music, literature, etc. thought of as a group.
c-Beliefs / Attitudes (C, U) the beliefs and attitudes about something that people in a
particular group or organization share.
As a defining aspect of what it means to be human, culture is a central concept in

anthropology, encompassing the range of phenomena that are transmitted through social learning in
human societies. Culture, in anthropology, is the patterns of behavior and thinking that people
living in social groups learn, create, and share. Culture distinguishes one human group from
others. It also distinguishes humans from other animals.
“Văn hóa là sự tổng hợp của mọi phương thức sinh hoạt cùng biểu hiện của nó mà loài
người đã sản sinh ra nhằm thích ứng những nhu cầu đời sống, và đòi hỏi của sự sinh tồn”
[Hồ Chí Minh, as cited in [116, p.9].
“Văn hóa là một hệ thống hữu cơ các giá trị vật chất và tinh thần do con người sáng tạo và
tích lũy qua quá trình hoạt động thực tiễn, trong sự tương tác giữa con người với môi trường
tự nhiên và xã hội của mình” [117, p.10].
When used as a count noun, "a culture" is the set of customs, traditions and values of a
society or community, such as an ethnic group or nation [154].
“Culture is like an iceberg: the deeper layers (e.g. traditions, beliefs, values) are hidden
from our view; we only see and hear the uppermost layers of cultural artifacts (e.g. fashion,
trends, pop music) and of verbal and nonverbal symbols. However, to understand a culture
with any dephth, we have to match its underlying values accurately with its respective norms,
meanings and symbols. It is the underlying set of beliefs and values that drives people’s
thinking, reacting, and behaving” [99, p.10].
3.2. The purpose of a culture [81, p.104]

The purpose of culture is to teach people how to live, do things, and think. Culture guides
people through life. Its purpose is to establish ways of behavior, standards, and criteria of
performance, and ways of dealing with interpersonal and environ mental relations that will reduce
uncertainty, increase predictability, and promote survival and growth among the members of any
society. Culture influences human behavior and determines which behavior is appropriate and
socially accepted; which is helpful and should be rewarded; and which is unacceptable and harmful,
and should therefore be discouraged. Culture tells what is correct, good, true, honest, valuable, and
important. Culture teaches significant rules of behavior, rituals, traditions, customs, and procedures.
It dictates what clothes to wear, what kind of food to eat, what to say, how to serve guests, and what
to do at a dinner party. Culture dictates ideas and sets the rules that the majority of society obeys. It
regulates human behavior by offering order, direction, and guidance. Culture teaches relationships
with others, and how to form and maintain relationships. It determines relationship patterns and
encourages a specific interaction style. Cultural rules and norms help to achieve and maintain
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harmony in society. Without these rules and regulations, society would be in chaos. Culture
simplifies everyday life decisions. Culture provides the means for satisfying physiological,
psychological, and social needs.
Culture also makes it possible for human society to communicate using verbal and non-
verbal codes of communication. Culture explains how a distinct group understands received
information. Culture determines a particular communication, negotiation, persuasion, and discussion
style. Culture shapes perception, and develops attitudes, feelings, images, and stereotypes.
Culture structures the governmental bodies. It influences the social, political, economic,
financial, educational, kinship, religious, health, and recreational systems of a society. Culture
influences family, social, and work relationships.
Culture binds people together; it determines the identity of the group of people. Culture
identifies the uniqueness of the social group, its values, beliefs, and thoughts. Members of the same
culture share similar thoughts and experiences. Shared experiences, values, and norms give the
members of a society a sense of their common identity. Culture helps to define who they are.
3.3. Aspects of culture

3.3.1. A narrow perspective view [81, pp. 86-89]:
A view of culture from a narrower perspective points to different aspects of the concept and
reflects its essential features. These definitions are not mutually exclusive. Accordingly, culture
refers to: a-Human environment , b-Social heritage and traditions, c-Way of life, d-Behavior, e-
Rules of social life, f-Dress and appearance, g-Food and eating habits, h-Sense of self, i-
Relationships, j-Values and norms, k-Beliefs and attitudes, l-Ways of thinking and doing things, m-
Work and leisure habits, n-Time, o-Cognitive knowledge, p-Mental process and learning, q-
Information and communication, r- Symbols and meanings, s-Perceptions, and t- Differences and
similarities between people
3.3.2. Tangible (material) and intangible (non-material) components [81]

Culture has a system of tangible and intangible components. Tangible components of
culture represent material culture and comprise productive forces and physical elements necessary to
support human life, such as clothing, tools, food, buildings, paintings, and many other objects and
artifacts. Intangible elements of culture represent non-material culture and refer to values, beliefs,
attitudes, morality, ethics, spirituality, traditions, and customs.
3.3.3. Hofstede model of six dimensions of national cultures

Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory is a framework for cross-cultural communication [42].
Hofstede developed his original model as a result of using factor analysis to examine the results of a
world-wide survey of employee values by IBM in the 1960s and 1970s. The theory was one of the
first that could be quantified, and could be used to explain observed differences between cultures.
The original theory proposed four dimensions along which cultural values could be analyzed:
individualism-collectivism; uncertainty avoidance; power distance and masculinity-femininity.
Independent research in Hong Kong led Hofstede to add a fifth dimension, long-term orientation,
to cover aspects of values not discussed in the original paradigm. In the 2010 edition of Cultures
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and Organizations: Software of the Mind Hofstede added a sixth dimension, indulgence versus
self-restraint, as a result of co-author Michael Minkov’s analysis of data from the World Values
Survey.
The six dimensions are labelled:
a-Individualism versus Collectivism, related to the integration of individuals into primary

groups:
“Individualism pertains to societies in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone
is expected to look after him or herself and his or her immediate family. Collectivism as its
opposite pertains to societies in which people from birth onward are integrated into strong,
cohesive in-groups, which throughout people’s lifetime continue to protect them in exchange
for unquestioning loyalty” [41, p.92].
b-Power Distance, related to the different solutions to the basic problem of human
inequality:
“Power distance is the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and
organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally’ [41, p.
61].
c-Uncertainty Avoidance, related to the level of stress in a society in the face of an
unknown future:
“Uncertainty avoidance can be defined as the extent to which the members of a culture feel
threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations” [41, p.191].
d-Masculinity versus Femininity, related to the division of emotional roles between
women and men:
“A society is called masculine when emotional gender roles are clearly distinct: men are
supposed to be assertive, tough, and focused on material success, whereas women are
supposed to be more modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of life.
A society is called feminine when emotional gender roles overlap: both men and women are
supposed to be modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of life” [41, p. 140].
e-Long-term versus Short-term orientation, related to the choice of focus for people's
efforts: the future or the present and past:
“Long-term orientation stands for the fostering of virtues oriented toward future rewards—in
particular, perseverance and thrift. Its opposite pole, short-term orientation, stands for the
fostering of virtues related to the past and present—in particular, respect for tradition,
preservation of “face,” and fulfilling social obligations” [41, p.239].
f-Indulgence versus Restraint:

The sixth and new dimension, added in 2010 book, uses Minkov’s label Indulgence versus
Restraint. It was also based on recent World Values Survey items and is more or less
complementary to Long-versus Short-Term Orientation; in fact, it is weakly negatively correlated
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with it. It focuses on aspects not covered by the other five dimensions, but known from
literature on “happiness research”. Indulgence stands for a society that allows relatively free
gratification of basic and natural human desires related to enjoying life and having fun. Restraint
stands for a society that controls gratification of needs and regulates it by means of strict social
norms [42].
Each country has been positioned relative to other countries through a score on each
dimension. The dimensions are statistically distinct and do occur in all possible combinations,
although some combinations are more frequent than others.
3.3.4. Low-context cultures (LCC) and high-context cultures (HCC):

Hall differentiated cultures on the basis of different communication styles and orientation
toward the world and people [81, pp.134-138]. Hall (1976, 1983) distinguished between cultures
according to how communication takes place: (low/high context), information flow (covert/overt
messages), language (low / high context), and the handling of personal space (public, private).
Below are the features of low-context cultures (LCC) and high-context cultures (HCC):
There are the low-context cultures (LCC) and high-context cultures (HCC) depending
upon the level of information included in a communication message (Hall, 1976). In the low-context
cultures (LCC) most of the information and meaning is contained in verbal messages, very little in
the contextual message. Messages have clear meanings and line logic; explicit direct verbal
communication and clear intentions are emphasized. Western cultures (Germany, Sweden,
Switzerland, Australia, the United States, France) belong to LCC, where there is a need for explicit
instructions, signs, and procedures that explain how to behave. In the high-context cultures (HCC)
very little information is coded in the verbal message; most information is coded in the non-verbal
and contextual message. All events can be understood only in context; meanings vary depending
upon circumstances, and categories can change. Emphasis is on spiral logic, implicit imprecise and
indirect communication. Intentions are not clearly specified and discretion in expressing opinions is
exercised (China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Latin America, Mexico). The HCC value face
saving, honor shame and obligations, avoid confrontations, and use smoothing strategies to manage
conflicts in interpersonal relations. Members of HCC are also more careful in initial interactions and
make assumptions based upon a stranger’s cultural background. They ask more indirect questions
(Gudykunst, 1983); direct questions are considered to be rude (Elashmawi, 1991). Those who belong
to HCC (the Japanese, Chinese, Southeast Asians, Indonesians, Micronesians, and Indians) expect
others to sense the rules of behavior.
Table1.2. Characteristics of Low-and High-context cultures [81, p.136]

LOW-CONTEXT CULTURES HIGH-CONTEXT CULTURES
Overt, explicit, and direct communication Covert, implicit and indirect communication
Verbal massage Non-verbal contextual messages
Explicit and precise intructions, signs, rules Imprecise
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Clear intentions, meanings Not clear intentions; meanings depend upon

circumstances
Line logic Spiral logic
Conflict and confrontation are natural Avoidance of conflict and confrontation
Importance of action and solution Value of face saving, relations with others,
social harmony
Protecting own dignity and self-respect even Desire to be acknowledged and approved by
at the expense of others others
Discussions and arguments, revealing Smooth strategies to manage conflict
Reactions on the surface Reserved reactions
Equality Importance of obligations, status, position and
power
High organized time Flexible time
Flexible in-groups and out-groups Distinct in-group and out-groups
Short-lasting relationships, casual, fragile, Long lasting relationships, commitment, loyalty,
low involvement trust, high involvement
Diffused authority, difficulty to pin down Importance of authority and responsibility
one’s responsibility
3.4. Cultural values and cultural identity

3.4.1. Cultural values:
Values are another key term of every culture. Values are central to culture. When used as a
count noun, a culture is a set of custom, traditions and values of a society or community. Values are
beliefs about what is right and wrong and what is important in life. The values that permeat a
culture are called cultural values [81, p.122]. “Values involve what a culture regards as good or
bad, right or wrong, fair or unfair, just or unjust, beautiful or ugly, clean or dirty, valuable or
worthless, appropriate or inappropriate, and kind or cruel” [63, p.88]. As Macoinis notes, cultural
values are “culturally defined standards of desirability, goodness, and beauty that serve as broad
guidelines for social living” [as cited in [84, p.42]. The word guideline means that values help
determine how people within a particular culture ought to behave. The significance of cultural
values is that they inform members of a culture as to what is considered right or wrong, good or bad,
correct and incorrect, appropriate in most contexts of human life. When enacted, a culture’s value
system establishes the expected, normative modes of behavior for members of that culture and
institutes the criteria used to judge people’s conduct [84, pp. 174-175].
Values are not only held by individuals, they are also the domain of the collective. Anderson
and Taylor make this point clear by stating, “values guide the behavior of people in society and
shape the social norms in a given culture” [as cited in [84, p.171]. In short, values underline the
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qualities and actions that people consider necessary and vital to sustain their culture. They establish
the standards for maintaining a culture.
In general, there are two types of values: instrumental and terminal [81, p.124].
Instrumental values are preferable modes or means of behavior (to be honest, obedient…). These
values may be moral and socially accepted or may be concerned with personal competency or self-
actualization. Terminal values are goals (freedom, world peace). They may be personal and social.
Instrumental values are means to terminal values. Rokeach [1973, as cited in [81] found that the
three most important terminal values are a world of peace, family security, and freedom, whereas
the three most important instrumental values are honesty, ambition and responsibility.
A value system is the system of criteria by which one can evaluate one’s own and other’s
behavior and apply sactions to it. It is a system of socially accepted guidelines that show the cultural
norms of a society and specify the ways in which people should behave, a system of standards that
permit individuals to make decisions.
Reisinger [81, pp.127-160] presented the following cultural value dimensions in the book
International Tourism: Cultures and Behavior: a-Parson’s pattern variables, b-Kluckholn and
Strodtbeck’s value orientation, c-Stewart’s cultural patterns, d-Hall’s cultural differentiation, e-
Hofstede’s dimensions of cultural variability, f-Bond’s Confucian cultural patterns, g-Argyle’s
cultural differentiation, h-Schein’s, Trompenaars’ and Maznevski’s cultural differentiation, i-
Schneider and Barsoux’s cultural assumptions, j-Inglehart’s cultural dimensions, and k-Minkov’s
World Value Survey.
3.4.2. Cultural, social and personal identity

Related to the distinction between ingroup and outgroup membership is the concept of one’s
identity or self-concept. An individual’s self-concept is built on cultural, social, and personal
identities [63, p 142].
Cultural identity refers to one’s sense of belonging to a particular culture. It is (the feeling)
of identity of a group, culture, or individual as far as this individual is influenced by his or her
belonging to the culture [81, p.110]. It is formed in a process that results from membership in a
particular culture, and it involves learning about and accepting the traditions, heritage, language,
religion, ancestry, aesthetics, thinking patterns, and social structures of a culture. That is, people
internalized the beliefs, values, norms, and social practices of their culture and identify with that
culture as part of their self-concept.
Social identity develops as a consequence of memberships in particular groups within one’s

culture. It refers to one’s sense of belonging to a particular society or a particular group in a society.
The characteristics and concerns common to most members of such social groups shape the way
individuals view their characteristics. The types of groups with which people identify can vary
widely and might include perceived similarity due to age, gender, work, religion, ideology, social
class, place [63, pp.142-143]. Social identities can include cultural or ethnic membership identity,
gender-orientation identity, social class identity, age identity, or professional identity. [99, p.28].
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Personal identity is based on people’s unique characteristics. Personal identity is defined as

the sentiments or information an individual has regarding her or his personal self-image. Personal
identities can include any unique attributes that we associate with our individuated self in
comparison to those of others [63, p.143].
1-The term culture originally meant the cultivation of the soil. Later, it developed the
meaning cultivation of the soul or mind.
2- As a count noun, the term culture means the set of customs, traditions and values of a
societies.
3-Culture does not make it possible for human society to communicate using verbal and non-
verbal codes of communication. Culture does not determines a particular communication,
negotiation, persuation, and discussion style.
4- Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory is a framework for dimensions of national culture.

These dimensions are national cultural values of a nation.
5-The values that permeat a culture are cultural values.
6-Cultural identity refers to one’s sense of belonging to a particular culture.
4. LANGUAGE
1-What is the main difference between the two terms Language and A language?
2-What is the most important function of language?
4.1. Language
The term Language as used in dictionaries to refer to the complex of universally human
potentiality for vocal communication / gift of speech / human method of communication/ part of
human genetic endowment.
The phrase a language usually means anyone of several thousand systems of oral
communication used by different human societies. A language is culture-bound and culture specific.
4.2. Types of language [24]

4.2.1. National language:
A national language is one that unites a nation and separates it from surrounding nations.
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4.2.2. Official language

An official language is one that is recognized by the laws of a country as having special
status in that country. It is often the language of education or government business. A country may
have one or more official languages.
4.2.3. Standard Language

A standard language is defined as a ‘variety that has been deliberately codified so that it
varies minimally in linguistic form but is maximally elaborated in function’.
4.2.4. Vernacular
Vernacular is a term used to refer to the least self-conscious style of speech used by people in
relaxed conversation with friends and family. It is the most natural language for the speakers in the
group.
A vernacular is also a variety of language which has not been standardised and is not the
official language in the country.
4.2.5. Artificial language

An artificial language is one that has been specially created by linguists, the best known is
probably Esperanto. Such languages aim to be easy to learn, easy to translate, neutral, standardised,
and able to be used across a wide range of functions.
4.2.6. First language (L1), Mother tongue

The first language (L1) is the one you acquired unconsciously as a baby – usually from your
mother, though there are situations where because of cultural practices, it is the father’s language
which is acquired by a newly born child.
For most people their mother tongue is the language they know best, but this too is not
always the case, especially when the mother tongue is not the language used in formal education.
The term mother tongue is not a technical one and carries with it a variety of emotional
connotations.
4.2.7. Second language or L2

In a particular country, a second language is a non-native language that is widely used-often
in education, government or business. For an individual, a second language has either been acquired
unconciously through a constant contact with native speakers or it has been learned in school.
4.2.8. Foreign language

A foreign language is the language of another country which is not intelligible to you unless
you learn it, which you may do at school as an academic subject. It has no special status in a
country.
4.3. Language functions

At the societal level, language serves many functions. The two main functions that language
serves are a-communicative function and b-cognitive function. In communicative function,
language is used as the chief means of human communication. Besides, a language / a language
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variety can be used as a social and cultural marker: national identity, group identity and personal
identity.
At the level of individuals and groups interacting with one another, within communicative
function, language serves expressive function (conveying feelings or emotions), directive function
(requesting or demanding), referential function (true or false propositional content), poetic
function (aesthetic), phatic function (empathy and solidarity), and metalinguistic (reference to
language itself) [86, pp.12-13].
4.4. Speech community:

The term Speech Community is widely used by sociolinguists to refer to a community based
on language, but Linguistic Community is also used with the same meaning.
Following are some of the definitions of Speech community [107, pp.25-28]:

a-Speech community: “all the people who use a given language” (or dialect) [Lyons, 1970,
as cited in [107]
b-“Each language defines a speech community: the whole set of people who communicate
with each other, either directly or indirectly, via the common language” [Hockett, 1958, ascited in
[107].
c-“A speech community is a group of people who interact by means of speech”. [Bloomfield,
1933, as cited in [107].
d-“All those who share specific rules for speaking and interpreting speech and at least one
speech variety belong to a speech community” [Salzmann, as cited in [107].
The conclusion from the definitions is that a speech community comprises people who are in
habitual contact with each other by means of speech which involves either a shared language or
language varieties commonly used in the area.
1-The phrase a language means a system of human communication.
2-The term language is used to denote the human method of communication.
3-The main function of language is the communicative function.
4-A national language is one that unites a nation and separates it from surrounding nations.
5- The term Speech Community is widely used by sociolinguists to refer to a community

based on language change.
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5. POSSIBLE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY

1-Find examples of how physical, social and cultural phenomena are reflected in languages?
5.1. The social nature of language:

Language is considered a social reality because all human beings communicate with their
respective speech communities using the language they speak. Language is a social product and a
social tool. The social nature of language can be seen in the fact that language exists so that people
can communicate. Language is a special social reality: it does not belong to the infrastructure and
superstructure of a society. A language is used for communication within a speech community.
Social nature of language can be seen in the facts that a- language is a means of communication, b-it
is used to express social ideology, c-the existence & development of language is closely associated
with the existence and development of society
Language also functions as the marker of social identity and cultural identity.
5.2. Possible relationships between language and society

According to Wardhaugh [107, p.10], there are several possible relationships between
language and society:
5.2.1. Social structure may either influence or determine linguistic structure and / or behavior.
Certain evidence may be adduced to support this view:
a-Physical environment reflected in its language, e.g. words for snow in Eskimo language (50
words), words for rice in the Vietnamese language, words for macaroni in Italian (500 words); the
Arabs are said to have 6,000 words for camels and camel equipment.
b-Social environment reflected in language, e.g. language varieties based on social factors;
c-Age-grading phenomenon, whereby young children speak differently from adult.
5.2.2. Linguistic structure and / or behaviour may either influence or determine social structure
Examples are Whorfian hypothesis, the claims of Bernstain. The ‘Sapir-Whorf hypothysis’
combines two principles. The first is known as linguistic determinism: it states that language
determines the way we think. The second follows from this, and is known as linguistic relativity: it
states that the distinctions encoded in one language are not found in any other languages. Basil
Bernstein was a British sociologist and linguist, known for his work in the sociology of education.
Basil Bernstein made a significant contribution to the study of communication with his
sociolinguistic theory of language codes. Within the broader category of language codes are
elaborated and restricted codes. Littlejohn [2002, as cited in [144] suggests that Bernstein’s theory
shows how the language people use in everyday conversation both reflects and shapes the
assumptions of a certain social group. Furthermore, relationships established within the social group
affect the way that group uses language, and the type of speech that is used. In his theory, Bernstein
asserts a direct relationship between societal class and language. According to Bernstein in Class,
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Codes and Control (1971), “Forms of spoken language in the process of their learning initiate,
generalize and reinforce special types of relationship with the environment and thus create for the
individual particular forms of significance” [Bernstein,1971, as cited in [144].
5.2.3. A third possible relationship is that the influence is bi-directional:

Language and society may influence each other. Speech and behaviour are in a state of
constant interaction.
5.2.4. A fourth possibility is to assume that there is no relationship at all between linguistic
structure and social structure and each is independent of the other.
5.2.5. How society controls speech

Society controls speech [49, p.119]:
a-by providing a set of norms, which we learn to follow.
b-by providing the motivation for adhering to these norms, for putting efforts into speech.
c-by providing a set of concepts for thinking and talking about
In addition, society provides the non-linguistic or social context (the broader social situation
in which a linguistic item is used) for language use in communication. The social context is the
whole situation in which an utterance is made (i.e. who is speaking to whom about whom, whether
formally or informally, why, when and where).
1-A language is used as a means of communication within a speech community.
2-Social structure never influences or determines linguistic structure.
3-Linguistic structure and/or behaviour may either influence or determine social structure.
4-In the Whorfian hypothesis, language provides a screen or filter to reality. It determines
how speakers perceive or organize the world around them.
5-The third possible relationship between language and society is that the relationship is bi-
directional. Language and society may influence each other.
6. THE POSSIBLE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
1-What are the possible relationships between culture and language? How does a culture
influence the style of communication in a culture?
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6.1. The possible relationships between language and culture
a-The connection between culture and language has been noted as far back as the classical
period and probably long before. Language and culture are interrelated [143].
b-The origin of language and the origin of culture are often thought to stem from the same
evolutionary process in early man. Language and culture both emerged as means of using symbols to
communicate, to construct social identity and to maintain coherence within a social group. Language
is the most important means of human communication. A language is a system of communication
within a speech community. A culture is also a communication system. It uses non-verbal and
verbal cues for communication [143].
c-Language is the direct expression of a people’s national character and the most essential
carrier of their common culture. The German romanticists of the 19th century such as Johann
Gottfried Herder and Wilhelm von Humboldt, often saw language not just as one cultural trait
among many but rather as the direct expression of a people's national character, and as such as
culture in a kind of condensed form. Herder for example suggests, "Denn jedes Volk ist Volk; es hat
seine National Bildung wie seine Sprache" (Since every people is a People, it has its own national
culture expressed through its own language). Franz Boas, founder of American anthropology, like
his German forerunners, maintained that the shared language of a community is the most essential
carrier of their common culture. Boas was the first anthropologist who considered it unimaginable to
study the culture of a foreign people without also becoming acquainted with their language. For
Boas, the fact that the intellectual culture of a people was largely constructed, shared and maintained
through the use of language, meant that understanding the language of a cultural group was the key
to understanding its culture. Language is the deepest manifestation of culture. Language reflects
cultural values. It expresses cultural realities, embodies cultural realities, through verbal and non-
verbal aspects and symbolizes cultural realities [143].
d-However, a language is also a part of the larger culture of the community that speak them.
A community's ways of speaking or signing are a part of the community's culture, just as other
shared practices are [143].
e-Language has the function of social identity. Humans use language as a way of signalling
identity with one cultural group and difference from others. Language is a marker of identity:
national, social, cultural and personal identity. A community's ways of speaking or signing are a part
of the community's culture, just as other shared practices are. Language use is a way of establishing
and displaying group identity. Ways of speaking function not only to facilitate communication, but
also to identify the social position of the speaker. The difference between languages does not consist
only in differences in pronunciation, vocabulary or grammar, but also in different "cultures of
speaking" [143].
f-A language is culture-bound and culture-specific. That a language is culture-bound means
that the language is tied to or restricted by its culture. When we communicate in a society, we must
act according to the socio-cultural rules of that society and culture. Culture helps determine the
appropriate communicative behavior within a variety of socio-cultural contexts by prescribing
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certain rules. When communicating with members of one’s culture, people rely on deeply
internalized cultural rules that prescribe the appropriate behavior for specific communication
situation. These rules facilitate the ability to communicate effectively with one another. Each culture
has its particular rules or conventions that largely determine language usage in restrictive speech
events in daily communication. Culture also determines a particular communication, negotiation,
persuation and discussion style. That language is culture-specific means that there are particular
linguistic features (words, expressions, communication styles…) unique to that culture. Culture-
specificity means something (a thing, thought, idea,….) unique to a particular culture. For example,
in Vietnam, we have culture-specific words such as áo dài, bánh chưng, cuốc lủi, gạo tám, gạo tẻ,
gạo nếp…Vietnamese people use such expressions as chào ông (bà, anh chị…) ạ in greeting and
follow the principle of” Xưng khiêm, hô tôn’ in addressing. Vietnamese communication style tends
to be harmonious, formal, polite and indirect.
g-Culture makes it possible for human society to communicate using verbal and non-verbal
codes of communication. Culture explains how a distinct group understands received information.
Culture determines a particular communication, negotiation, persuasion, and discussion style.
Culture shapes perception, and develops attitudes, feelings, images, and stereotypes. All the levels in
communication are affected by cultural dimensions: verbal, non-verbal and etiquettes [81].
h-Culture provides the context within which words and, more generally, grammatical
systems are interpreted. The context for an instance of language (text) is an instance of culture
(situation). And the context for the system that lies behind each text (language) is the system which
lies behind each situation – namely, the culture [39, p.7].
i-There is the coordination between culture, language and communication. Culture affects
communication, and communication affects culture. Communication is culture and culture is
communication. It is through language and communication that culture is passed down, created and
modified from one generation to the next [81].
6.2. Advanced reading [143]:
The connection between culture and language has been noted as far back as the classical
period and probably long before. The ancient Greeks, for example, distinguished between civilized
peoples and bárbaros "those who babble", i.e. those who speak unintelligible languages. The fact that
different groups speak different, unintelligible languages is often considered more tangible evidence
for cultural differences than other less obvious cultural traits.
The German romanticists of the 19th century such as Johann Gottfried Herder and Wilhelm
von Humboldt, often saw language not just as one cultural trait among many but rather as the direct
expression of a people's national character, and as such as culture in a kind of condensed form.
Herder for example suggests, "Denn jedes Volk ist Volk; es hat seine National Bildung wie seine
Sprache" (Since every people is a People, it has its own national culture expressed through its own
language).
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Franz Boas, founder of American anthropology, like his German forerunners, maintained that
the shared language of a community is the most essential carrier of their common culture. Boas was
the first anthropologist who considered it unimaginable to study the culture of a foreign people
without also becoming acquainted with their language. For Boas, the fact that the intellectual culture
of a people was largely constructed, shared and maintained through the use of language, meant that
understanding the language of a cultural group was the key to understanding its culture. At the same
time, though, Boas and his students were aware that culture and language are not directly dependent
on one another. That is, groups with widely different cultures may share a common language, and
speakers of completely unrelated languages may share the same fundamental cultural traits.
Numerous other scholars have suggested that the form of language determines specific cultural traits.
This is similar to the notion of Linguistic determinism, which states that the form of language
determines individual thought. While Boas himself rejected a causal link between language and
culture, some of his intellectual heirs entertained the idea that habitual patterns of speaking and
thinking in a particular language may influence the culture of the linguistic group. Such belief is
related to the theory of Linguistic relativity. Boas, like most modern anthropologists, however, was
more inclined to relate the interconnectedness between language and culture to the fact that, as B.L.
Whorf put it, "they have grown up together".
Indeed, the origin of language, understood as the human capacity of complex symbolic
communication, and the origin of complex culture is often thought to stem from the same
evolutionary process in early man. Evolutionary anthropologist Robin I. Dunbar has proposed that
language evolved as early humans began to live in large communities which required the use of
complex communication to maintain social coherence. Language and culture then both emerged as a
means of using symbols to construct social identity and maintain coherence within a social group too
large to rely exclusively on pre-human ways of building community such as for example grooming.
Since language and culture are both in essence symbolic systems, twentieth century cultural theorists
have applied the methods of analyzing language developed in the science of linguistics to also
analyze culture. Particularly the structural theory of Ferdinand de Saussure which describes
symbolic systems as consisting of signs (a pairing of a particular form with a particular meaning) has
come to be applied widely in the study of culture. But also post-structuralist theories that nonetheless
still rely on the parallel between language and culture as systems of symbolic communication, have
been applied in the field of semiotics. The parallel between language and culture can then be
understood as analog to the parallel between a linguistic sign, consisting for example of the sound
[kau] and the meaning "cow", and a cultural sign, consisting for example of the cultural form of
"wearing a crown" and the cultural meaning of "being king". In this way it can be argued that
culture is itself a kind of language. Another parallel between cultural and linguistic systems is that
they are both systems of practice that is they are a set of special ways of doing things that is
constructed and perpetuated through social interactions. Children, for example, acquire language in
the same way as they acquire the basic cultural norms of the society they grow up in – through
interaction with older members of their cultural group.
However, languages, now understood as the particular set of speech norms of a particular
community, are also a part of the larger culture of the community that speak them. Humans use
language as a way of signalling identity with one cultural group and difference from others. Even
among speakers of one language several different ways of using the language exist, and each is used
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to signal affiliation with particular subgroups within a larger culture. In linguistics such different
ways of using the same language are called "varieties". For example, the English language is spoken
differently in the USA, the UK and Australia, and even within English-speaking countries there are
hundreds of dialects of English that each signals a belonging to a particular region and/or subculture.
For example, in the UK the cockney dialect signals its speakers' belonging to the group of lower
class workers of east London. Differences between varieties of the same language often consist in
different pronunciations and vocabulary, but also sometimes of different grammatical systems and
very often in using different styles (e.g. cockney Rhyming slang or Lawyers' jargon). Linguists and
anthropologists, particularly sociolinguists, ethnolinguists and linguistic anthropologists have
specialized in studying how ways of speaking vary between speech communities.
A community's ways of speaking or signing are a part of the community's culture, just as
other shared practices are. Language use is a way of establishing and displaying group identity.
Ways of speaking function not only to facilitate communication, but also to identify the social
position of the speaker. Linguists call different ways of speaking language varieties, a term that
encompasses geographically or socio-culturally defined dialects as well as the jargons or styles of
subcultures. Linguistic anthropologists and sociologists of language define communicative style as
the ways that language is used and understood within a particular culture..
The difference between languages does not consist only in differences in pronunciation,
vocabulary or grammar, but also in different "cultures of speaking". Some cultures for example have
elaborate systems of "social deixis", systems of signaling social distance through linguistic means.
In English, social deixis is shown mostly though distinguishing between addressing some people by
first name and others by surname, but also in titles such as "Mrs.", "boy", "Doctor" or "Your
Honor", but in other languages such systems may be highly complex and codified in the entire
grammar and vocabulary of the language. In several languages of east Asia, for example Thai,
Burmese and Javanese, different words are used according to whether a speaker is addressing
someone of higher or lower rank than oneself in a ranking system with animals and children ranking
the lowest and gods and members of royalty as the highest. Other languages may use different forms
of address when speaking to speakers of the opposite gender or in-law relatives and many languages
have special ways of speaking to infants and children. Among other groups, the culture of speaking
may entail not speaking to particular people, for example many indigenous cultures of Australia
have a taboo against talking to one's in-law relatives, and in some cultures speech is not addressed
directly to children. Some languages also require different ways of speaking for different social
classes of speakers, and often such a system is based on gender differences, as in Japanese and
Koasati.
1-A language is the most direct expression of a people’s national character. A language is a
marker of a people’s national identity.
2-A language is part of a culture.
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3-A language is culture-specific.
4-A language is a context for a culture.
5-Language and culture both emerged as means of using symbols to communicate.
7. LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT

1-Do you think that using language in different ways can change other people’s mind? If
yes, give examples.
A variety of different authors, theories and fields purport influences between language and
thought [170].
Many point out the seemingly common-sense realization that upon introspection we seem to
think in the language we speak. A number of writers and theorists have extrapolated upon this idea.
The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis in linguistics states that the grammatical structure of a mother
language influences the way adherents to it perceive the world. The hypothesis has been largely
abandoned by linguists as it has found at best very limited experimental support, at least in its strong
form.
According to Cognitive therapy, founded by Aaron T. Beck, our emotions and behavior are
caused by our internal dialogue.
Neuro-linguistic programming, founded by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, claims that
language "patterns" and other things can affect thought and behavior. It takes ideas from General
Semantics and hypnosis, especially that of the famous therapist Milton Erickson. Many do not
consider it a credible study, and it has no empirical scientific support.
Various other schools of persuasion directly suggest using language in certain ways to
change the minds of others, including oratory, advertising, debate, sales, and rhetoric.
The most obvious influence of language and culture on thought is that of vocabulary. In
addition to words, sentence structures and the persuasiveness of an emotional speech or well-written
novel also influence people’s thought in terms of their cognitive and affective organizations.
The influence of language and thought and behavior can perhaps best be seen in the world of
advertising. The culture beliefs, attitudes, overt and covert aspirations, pragmatic designs and
fantasies, actions and reactions are studied by advertisers around the world to find the basis for the
concepts and language that will inspire the people of any given locale to buy a product of one
manufacturer rather than that of another.
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According to Crystal [20, pp.14-15], it seems evident that there is the closest of relationships
between language and thought: everyday experience suggests that much of our thinking is facilitated
by language. But is there identity between the two? Is it possible to think without language? Or does
our language dictate the ways in which we are able to think? Such matters have exercised
generations of philosophers, psychologists, and linguists, who have uncovered layers of complexity
in these apparently a straightforward question. How close is this relationship between language and
thought? It is usual to see this question in terms of two extremes. First, there is the hypothesis that
language and thought are totally separate entities, with one being dependent on the other. At the
opposite extreme, there is the hypothesis that language and thought are identical- that it is not
possible to engage in any rational thinking without using language.
Within the first position, there are three possibilities: a-language might be dependent upon
thought, b-thought might be dependent on language, and c-language and thought are interdependent.
The traditional view, which is widely held at a popular level, adopts the first of these: people have
thoughts, and then they put these thoughts into words. It is summarized in such metaphorical views
of language as the dress or tool of thought. The second possibility has also been widely held: the
way people use language dictates the lines along which they can think. This view can be represented
in the language acquisition field, in the argument that the child’s earliest encounters with language
are the main influence on the way concepts are learned. The most influential expression of this
position is found in the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. A third possibility, which is also held these days, is
that language and thought are interdependent – but this is not to say that they are identical. To see
language and thought are interdependent is to recognize that language is a regular part of the process
of thinking, at the same time recognizing that we have to think in order to understand language.
Our contention is that language and thought are not identical. Language and thought differ in
that:
a-Language is material whereas thought is spiritual
b-Units of thought do not coincide with the units of language. Units of thought are concepts,
propositions and interferences whereas units of language are phonemes, words, sentences…
1-The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis states that social structure influences linguistic structure.
2-Neurolinguistic programming claims that language patterns and other things can affect
thought and behaviour.
3-Various other schools of persuasion directly suggest that using language in certains ways
can change the minds of others.
4-David Crystal’s first hypothesis is that language and thought are totally separate entities,
with one being dependent on the others.
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5-Units of language and units of thought are the same.
8. THE POSSIBLE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LANGUAGE, CULTURE, SOCIETY

AND THOUGHT

1-What are the relationships between language, culture, society and thought?
The extent to which language, thought, culture and society are interrelated and influence one
another have been matters of controversy. Stated simplistically, the current concensus is that they
are interrelated aspects of a whole: the human being. How are language, culture, thought and
society interrelated?
The origin of language and the origin of culture is often thought to stem from the same
evolutionary process in early man. Language and culture are both in essense symbolic systems.
They both emerged as means of using symbols to communicate and to construct socio-cultural
identity. Language is, most of all, an important means of human communication in the society.
Humans use language for the sake of communication and as a way of signalling identity with one
cultural group and difference from others. Culture is also a communication system. It uses verbal
and non-verbal cues that distinguish one speech community from another. Culture makes it possible
for human society to communicate using verbal and non-verbal language. Culture helps determine
the appropriate communicative behaviour within a variety of social and physical contexts by
prescribing certain rules. When communicating with members of your own culture, you and other
people rely on deeply internalised cultural rules that prescribed the normative behaviour for specific
communication situation. These rules facilitate your ability to communicate effectively with one
another. Each culture has its particular rules or conventions that largely dertermine language usage
in restrictive speech events in daily communication. Culture also determines a particular
communication, negotiation, persuation and discussion style. Communication is culture and culture
is communication. It is through communication that culture is passed down, created and modified
from one generation to the next. Culture is also an integral part of the interaction between language
and thought. Another important point in the relationship between language, culture and society is
that language use varies according to the socio-cultural contexts in which language is used. The
socio-cultural contexts are very important in appropriate language choice in communication. In
conclusion, language, culture, society and thought are interrelated aspects of human beings living in
a society.
Whether one begins or ends with language, thought, society or culture, the other aspects are
woven in; the circular patterns holds, with each influencing and being influenced by each of the
others. They are not all the same thing, but one can not survive without the other.
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Follow-up-activity 1.8. True / False: Decide whether the following are true or false:
1-Language is the most important means of communication in the society.
2-Language is culture-specific and culture-bound.
3-A language is never a marker of identity.
4-Language and culture provide the socio-cultural contexts for appropriate language use.
5- Language, culture, society and thought are interrelated aspects of human beings living in a
society.
CHAPTER I REVIEW
I-Discuss with your friends and answer the following questions:
1-What is sociolinguistics?
2-What is the main difference between sociolinguistics and the sociology of language?
3-What are the main social factors which have an influence on language use?
4-How do sociolinguists explain sociolinguistic variation?
5-What is social status? social role?
6-What is power relationship? Solidarity relationship?
7-How do power and solidarity affect language choice in communication?
8-What is culture?
9-Which of the definitions of culture presented above do you like best and why?
10-What are the purposes of a culture? What are the aspects of a culture?
11-What is a cultural value? A cultural norm?
12-What are American, British, Vietnamese types of culture as distinguished by Hofstede et

al. (2010) and Hall (1976)?
13-What are the functions of language at societal level? Group and individual level?
14-Find two examples to prove that a language is culture-specific.
15-What are the possible relationships between language and society?
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16-How does the social structure influence linguistic structure and/or behaviour?
17-What are the possible relationships between language and culture?
18-Which of the relationships between language and culture are important to you?
19-What is a cultural value? What is the significance of the cultural identity?
20-How do cultural values influence communication?
21-What is cultural identity? How is a cultural identity formed?
22-Which of the three possibilities within David Crystal’s first hypothesis do you think is the
most accepted concerning the relationship between language and thought?
23-What are the possible relationships between language, culture and society?
II-True/False: Discuss with your friends and decide whether the following statements
are true or false:
1-Sociolinguistics is the study of language in relation to social factors.
2-Sociology of language focuses the effect of society on language.
3-Language varies according to social factors.
4-Society and culture act as the social and cultural contexts for language use.
5-The term society is used to refer to the people in general living together in communities.
6-Sociolinguists aim to describe sociolinguistic variation and, if possible, explain why it

happens.
7-Social statuses are established social positions.
8-The term social role refers to a pattern of behaviour that is associated with a particular
position in society.
9-Power and solidarity are the two types of social relationships which affect language use in
communication.
10-The term culture originally meant the cultivation of the soil.
11-Hofstede defines culture as a complex whole.
12-Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory is a framework for cross-cultural communication.

The six dimensions in the framework are power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism-
collectivism, masculinity-femininity, long term-short term orientation, and indulgence-restraint.
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13- Hall (1976) differentiated cultures on the basis of different communication styles: low-
context cultures and high-context cultures.
14-Culture makes it possible for human society to communicate using verbal and non-verbal
codes of communication. Culture determines a particular communication, negotiation, persuation,
and discussion style.
15-The values that permeat a culture are cultural values.
16-Cultural identity refers to one’s sense of belonging to a particular culture.
17-Social structure never influences or determines linguistic structure.
18-Linguistic structure and or behaviour may either influence or determine social structure.
19-In the Whorfian hypothesis, language provides a screen or filter to reality. It determines
how speakers perceive or organize the world around them.
20-The third possible relationship between language and society is that the relationship is bi-
directional. Language and society may influence each other.
21-A language is the most direct expression of a people’s national character. A language is a
marker of a people’s national identity.
22-A language is culture-specific.
23-A language is a context for a culture.
24-A culture is a communication system by means of a language.

25-Culture and society do not provide the socio-cultural contexts for appropriate language
use.
26-The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis states that social structure influences linguistic structure.
27-Various other schools of persuasion directly suggest that using language in certains ways
can change the minds of others.
28-David Crystal’s first hypothesis is that language and thought are totally separate entities,
with one being dependent on the others.
29-Language and culture are both, in essense, symbolic systems.
30-Language, culture, society and thought are interrelated aspects of human beings living in
a society.
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CHAPTER II. LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY:

LANGUAGE VARIETIES
Chapter II Contents
1. Language Varieties
2. Dialect
3. Standard Language
4. International Language
5. Idiolect
6. Territorial and Regional Dialects of the
English Language and the Vietnamese
Language
7. Sociolect
8. Code Choice
1. LANGUAGE VARIETIES
1-Are there differences in pronunciation, morphology, vocabulary and syntax between
British English and American English? Give examples.
2-Do males and females speak differently?
1.1. Language variation

Variation is a characteristic of language. Language variation is defined as “differences in
pronunciation, grammar, or word choice within a language” [82, p.304]. The language we use
in everyday living is remarkably varied. When we look closely at any language, we will discover
time and time again that there is considerable internal variation and that speakers make constant
use of the many different possibilities offered to them. There is more than one way of saying the
same thing. No two speakers of a language speak exactly the same way. No individual speaker
speaks the same way all the time. People from different countries, from different regions in the
same country, from different social classes would vary pronunciation, morphology, lexicon, syntax,
and style of speaking. No one speaks the same way all the time and people constantly exploit the
nuances of the language they speak for a wide variety of purposes. Language may change from
region to region, from one social class to another, from individual to individual, and from
situation to situation. These actual changes result in the varieties of language (or language
varieties). Different language varieties result from language variation.
According to Holmes [45, p.8], in any community the distinguishable varieties or

codes which are available for use in different social contexts form a kind of repertoire of available
options. The members of each community have their distinctive linguistic or verbal repertoires.
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In other words, in every community there is a range of varieties from which people select
according to the social contexts in which they are communicating. Language variation is
influenced by social factors of which the most important are participants, setting, topic and
function.
In sociolinguistics, variation in language use among speakers or groups of speakers is a

principal concern. Language variation is a core concept in linguistics. Sociolinguists are
interested in the different types of linguistic variation used to express social identity and reflect
social factors. Sociolinguistics, as a branch of linguistics, investigate whether this linguistic
variation can be attributed to differences in the social characteristics of the speakers using the
language. Studies of language variation and its correlation with social features have led to the
foundation of sociolinguistics as a sub-field of linguistics. The branch of sociolinguistics which
deals with language variation is variationist sociolinguistics.
1.2. Variationist sociolinguistics

Variationist sociolinguistics is one of the sociolinguistic approaches to language variation. It
began with John Fischer and William Labov. Variationist sociolinguistics is interested in accounting
for linguistic variation and change, at least partly as a product of the social distribution of language
varieties. It is, therefore, less concerned with meaning as process, and more concerned with the
interaction of linguistics and the social system.
According to Mesthrie [68, p.76] the basic methods in variationist studies are as follows:
a-Identify linguistic features that vary in a community (the linguistic variable) (e.g.
the suffice –ing realsed as -in or -ing).
b-Gather data from the community by selecting a suitable sample of people.
c-Conduct an interview involving informal continuous speech as well as more formal
dimensions of language use like reading out a passage aloud.
d-Analyse the data, noting the frequency of each relevant linguistic feature.
e-Select relevant social units like the age groups, sex, social class.
f-Ascertain significant correlation between the social groups and particular speech.
According to Troudale [100, pp.53-55] there are three waves of variationist sociolinguistics.
The first wave (associated with variationist studies in the 1960s and 1970s, such as Labov, 1966
and Trudgill, 1974) was concerned with surveys of urban populations, where informants were
selected using a method of (quasi-) random sampling. Many such surveys were concerned with
the relationship between variation and ongoing change in the community, particularly with the
social embedding and transmission of language change. The second wave of studies, exemplified
by Rickford (1986), took a broadly ethnographic approach: investigators spent a great deal of time
in the community under observation, becoming part of that community in some cases, and trying
to understand the social practices of the individual involved. Such studies began to consider the
social meaning of linguistic variation, and the projection of identity which could be shown to
correlate with particular linguistic practices. The studies also aimed to show connections
between local and supra-local linguistic patterns. The issue of identity has become even more
prominent in the third wave of social dialectology, where variation (particularly stylistic variation)
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was associated with social practices.
1.3. Language varieties

All languages exhibit internal variation, that is, each language exists in a number of
varieties and is in one sense the sum of those varieties.
According to Holmes [45, p.6], sociolinguists use the term variety (or sometimes
code) to refer to any set of linguistic forms which patterns according to social factors. Variety is a
sociolinguistic term referring to language in context. A variety is a set of linguistic forms used
under specific social circumstances, i.e. with a distinctive social distribution. Variety is, therefore,
a broad term which includes different accents, different linguistic styles, different dialects and even
different languages which contrast with each other for social reasons. It has proved a very useful
sociolinguistic term because it is linguistically neutral and covers all the different realisations of
the abstract concept “language’ in different social contexts.
Hudson [49, p.24] states that “a variety of language is a set of linguistic items with similar
social distribution”. O’Grady, Dobrovolky and Aronoff [74, p.126] employ the term
language variety to refer to “any distinguishable form of speech used by a speaker or a group of
speakers”. According to Wardhaugh [107, p.23] a language variety is “ a specific set of
‘linguistic items’ or ‘human speech patterns’ (presumably, sounds, words, grammatical features,
etc.) which we can uniquely associate with some external factor (presumably, a geographical area
or a social group)”.
For our purpose, a language variety is a set of specific forms of a language used by a
speaker or a group of speakers in a certain social context. Varieties can be languages, dialects,
styles or registers.
1.4. Types of language varieties
Saville-Troike [86, pp.62-86] indicates that there are the following language varieties:
a-Varieties associated with setting
b-Varieties associated with activity domain
c-Varieties associated with region
d-Varieties associated with ethnicity
e-Varieties associated with social class, status, and role
f-Varieties associated with role-relationships
g-Varieties associated with sex
h-Varieties associated with age
i-Varieties associated with personality states and “abnormal speech”
j-Native and non-native varieties.
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For us, there are the following types of varieties:

a-Regional varieties (territorial and regional dialects)
b-Social / cultural varieties (sociolects)
c-Functional varieties (register and styles)
A COMMON CORE or nucleus is present in all the varieties so that, however esoteric a
variety may be, it has running through it a set of grammatical and other characteristics that are
present in all the others. It is this fact that justifies the application of the name English to all the
varieties.
1.5. Linguistic variable

Perhaps, the greatest contribution in the investigation of language variation has been in
the development of the use of the “linguistic variable’.
“A linguistic variable is a linguistic item which has various forms (variants)” [82, p.304].
The different forms (variants) of a linguistic variable are related to differences in linguistic and
socio-cultural factors. There are linguistic variables in the phonology, morphology, lexicon and
syntax of a language.
Examples in English are:

a-Phonology
i-The /t/ variable with two variants [t] or [?] as in bet and better.
ii-The /h/variable with two variants [h] or [Ø] (the zero variant)
iii-The /r/ variant with two variants [r] or [Ø] (the zero variant) as in farm and far.
b-Morphology
i-The morpheme [-ing] with different variants [iŋ] and [in] or [n] or [ŋ] as in working,
reading.
ii-The third person singular regular present tense [-s] with two variants [-s] or [Ø]
(the zero variant).
c-Lexicon
i-Child, offspring and kid: synonyms in English on different levels of English
usage. Offspring is formal, child neutral and kid in formal.
ii-Autumn-fall: territorial synonyms. Autumn is used in the UK whereas fall is used in
the US.
d-Syntax
i-I have not been to Canberra.
I haven’t been to Canberra.
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I ‘ve not been to Canberra.

I ain’t been to Canberra.
ii-Have you got…? (British usage)
Did you have …? (American usage)
e-Spech acts, e.g. Greetings:
English: How do you do?/ Good morning/ Good afternoon / Good evening
/ Good day
Vietnamese: Chào anh, chào chị / Đi đâu đấy? / Ăn cơm chưa?
As seen above, each variable has a set of variants. When we study variation, it is
important to define as precisely as possible what the objects of the investigation (the variables)
are. The general or abstract feature that you are investigating is what is called the variable. The
actual realisation of the variable in speech is known as the variant. We often see co-variation
between linguistic variables and other variables associated with different forms (variants of the
variable) may be related to differences in the socioeconomic background, education, age,
gender…. of the speakers.
The important fact to remember is that a linguistic variable is an item in the structure of a
language, an item that has alternate realizations (variants), as one speaker realizes it one way and
another a different way or the same speaker realizes it differently on different occasions.
For a clearer example of the notion of linguistic variable, let us examine the /h/ variable
with two variants [h] and [Ø] in British English.
According to Chambers & Trudgill [1980, as cited in Crystal [20, p.32], in British English,
the accent which carries most prestige pronounces /h/ at the beginning of words such as head. But
in most other accents of England and Wales, it is common to omit /h/ in this position. This means
that in British English the /h/ variable with two variants [h] and [Ø]. Regions do not pronounce or
omit /h/with total consistency, however, as can be seen from the results of two studies of this
variable carried out in Norwich and Bradford.
The research topic was /h/-dropping in Bradford and Norwick. The research questions are:
1-What are the situations of /h/ dropping in Bradford and Norwick? and 2-What are the social
factors that lead to /h/dropping in Bradford and Norwick?
The informants were grouped into five social classes, based on such factors as their
occupation, income, and education. The proportion of /h/-dropping was calculated with the
following results:
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Table 2.1. The proportion of /h/-dropping [Chambers & Trudgill, 1980, as cited in [20, p.32].
Class Bradford Norwich
Middle middle (MMC) 12% 6%
Lower middle (LMC) 28% 14%
Upper working (UMC) 67% 40%
Middle Working (MWC) 89% 60%
Lower Working (LWC) 93% 60%
The correlation is clear. In both areas, there is more /h/-dropping as one moves down the
social scale. The social factor that led to /h/ dropping was social class differences. Moreover, the
proportion is always greater in Bradford, suggesting that the phenomenon has been longer
established in that area.
Follow-up activity 2.1.True/False: Discuss with your friends and decide whether
the following statements are true or false:
1-A language has different varieties due to variation in social factors.
2-Variationist sociolinguistics is interested in accounting for linguistic variation.
3-Varieties can be languages, dialects and registers.
4-A linguistic variable is a linguistic item which has only one zero variant.
5-The actual realization of the linguistic variable is known as the variant.
2. LANGUAGE AND REGIONAL VARIATION: DIALECTS

1-Do people in Great Britain understand people in America? And do people in Northern,
Central and Southern parts of Vietnam understand one another? Why?
2.1. Language
A language has been defined as a system of communication. A language can be thought of
as a collection of dialects that are usually linguistically similar, used by different social groups who
choose to say that they are speakers of one language which functions to unite and represent them to
other groups [45, p.138].
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2.2. Dialect
The term dialect (from the ancient Greek word Διάλεκτος diálektos, "discourse", from διά
diá, "through" + λέγω legō, "I speak") has been used by linguists to refer to a variety of a language
that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most
often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors, such as social
class. A dialect that is associated with a particular social class can be termed a sociolect; a regional
dialect may be termed a regiolect or topolect [123].
In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary [47], the term dialect is defined as follows: ”The
form of a language that is spoken in one area with grammar, words or pronunciations that
may be different from other forms of the same language” [47, p.402].
“A dialect is a variety of language, spoken in one part of a particular region (regional
dialect) or by people belonging to a particular social class (social dialect or sociolect),
which is different in some words, grammar and / or pronunciation from other forms of
the same language. A dialect is often associated with a particular accent” [82, p.151].
Dialects are linguistic varieties which differ in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar
from each other and from Standard English (which is itself a dialect). A dialect is distinguished by
its vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation (phonology, including prosody). Consider the
following examples [45, pp.132-133]:
A British visitor to New Zealand decided that while he was in Auckland he would look up
an old friend from his war days. He found the address, walked up the path and knocked on the
door.
‘Gidday,’said the young man who opened the door. ‘What can I do for you?’
‘I’ve called to see me old mate Don Stone,’ said the visitor.
‘Oh he’s dead now mate,’ said the young man.
The visitor was about to express condolences when he was thumped on the back by Don
Stone himself. The young man had said, ‘Here’s dad now mate’, as his father came in the gate.
There are many such stories of mistakes based on regional accent differences. To British
ears, a New Zealander’s dad sounds like an English person’s dead, bad sounds like bed and six
sounds like sucks. Americans and Australians, as well as New Zealanders, tell of British visitors
who were given pens instead of pins and pans instead of pens. On the other hand, an American’s
god sounds like an English person’s guard, and an American’s ladder is pronounced identically
with latter.
There are vocabulary differences in the varieties spoken in different regions too.
Australians talk of sole parents, for example, while people in England call them single parents,
and New Zealanders call them solo parents. South Africans use the term robot for British traffic-
light. British wellies (Wellington boots) are New Zealand gummies (gumboots), while the word
togs refers to very different types of clothes in different places. In New Zealand, togs are what you
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swim in. In Britain you might wear them to a formal dinner.
Similarly, the pronunciation of bath with the same vowel as in sat distinguishes a
speaker from the north of England from a southerner.
Pronunciation and vocabulary differences are probably the differences people are most
aware of between different dialects of English, but there are grammatical differences, too. Consider
the following examples [45, pp.132-133]:
a-i-Do you have a match?

ii-Have you got a cigarette?
b-i-She has gotten used to the noise.
ii-She’s got used to the noise.
c-i-He dove in, head first.
ii-He dived in head first.
d-i-Did you eat yet?
ii- Have you eaten yet?
Speakers of US English tend to prefer Do you have…?, though this can now also be heard
in Britain alongside the traditional British English Have you got…?. Americans say gotten where
people in England use got. Many Americans use dove while most British English speakers prefer
dived. Americans ask Did you eat? whereas the English ask Have you eaten?
One way of characterizing language and dialect is to regard a language as a collection of

mutually intelligible dialects. The criterion mutual intelligibility has been used to define language
and dialect. If two persons speak two varieties of language and they can understand each other,
then they speak different varieties of the same language. If not, they speak different varieties of
different languages.
The dialects of a single language may be defined as mutually intelligible forms of that
language which differ in systematic ways from each other [29, p.251].
Dialects can be usefully defined as "sub-forms” of languages which are, in general,

mutually comprehensible. In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages
or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other
without intentional study or special effort. It is generally used as the most important criterion for
distinguishing languages from dialects and dialects of the same language. Mutual intelligibility is,
however, not always a successful criterion for grouping dialects into languages.
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2.3. Language and dialect:
Haugen [40] has pointed out that language and dialect are ambiguous terms.
Ordinary people use these terms quite freely in speech; for them a dialect is almost
certainly no more than a local non-prestigious variety of a real language. In contrast, scholars
often experience considerable difficulty in deciding whether one term should be used rather than
the other in certain situations.
Haugen points out that the confusion goes back to the Ancient Greeks. The Greek
language in Ancient Greece was actually a group of distinct local varieties (Ionic, Doric, and Attic)
descended by divergence from a common spoken source with each variety having its own literary
traditions and uses, e.g. Ionic for history, Doric for choral and lyric works, and Attic for tragedy.
Later, Athenian Greek, the koinē - or ‘common’ language- became the norm for the spoken
language. Haugen points out that the Greek situation has provided the model for all later usages of
the two terms with the resulting ambiguity.
The meanings of the Greek terms which were translated as ‘language’ and ‘dialect’ were in
fact quite different from the meanings these words have in English now. In the English language,
the term dialect is used both for local varieties of English and for the various types of informal,
lower class, or rural speech. In terms of social norm, a dialect is a language that is excluded from
polite society. It is often equivalent to nonstandard or even substandard. Chambers and Trudgill
[12] state that in common usage, a dialect is a substandard, low-status, often rustic form of
language, generally associated with the peasantry, the working class, or other groups lacking in
prestige. Dialect is also a term which is often applied to forms of language, particularly those
spoken in more isolated parts of the world, which have no written form [12, p.3].
The stereotypical ‘dialect’ speaker is an elderly rural person who is all but unintelligible to
modern city dweller. Dialects originally meant language varieties based on geography
(Geographical variety). Dialect is a term referring to a variety of a language spoken in a certain
place; that is, a geographically distinct variety of a language. There are urban and rural dialects.
Popular notions about dialects are:
a-Dialects are local varieties

b-Dialects are informal, lower class, or rural forms of speech
c-Dialects are substandard varieties of language, spoken by low status groups
d-Dialects are languages in isolated parts of the world.
e-Preferred view: everyone speaks a dialect. No dialect is superior to the others.
Gumperz [1971, as cited in [107, p.28-29] pointed out that there is some difficulty in
distinguishing between the two terms language and dialect due to the following reasons:
a-In some cases, two language varieties which are structurally similar and mutually
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intelligible by their speakers are considered two different languages, e.g. local varieties of Dutch and
German on the border, or Thai and Laos languages.
b-In other cases, there are dialects of a language which are structurally different and
mutually unintelligible by their speakers, e.g. China situation (Cantonese and Mandarin)
Perhaps, some of the difficulties we have with trying to define the terms language and
dialect arise from trying to subsume that various different types of systems of communication
under the one label.
An alternative approach might be to acknowledge that there are different kinds of

languages and attempt to discover how languages can differ from one another yet still be entities
that most of us would want to call languages rather than dialects. It might then be possible to define
a dialect as some sub-variety of one or more of these entities.
One such attempt [Bell, 1976, as cited in [107, pp.31-38] has listed seven criteria that may be
useful in discussing different kinds of languages. These are: a-standardization, b-vitality, c-
historicity, d-autonomy, e-reduction, f-mixture and g-de facto norms.
Steward puts forth for criteria to differentiate between the terms language, dialect and other
varieties of the same language [1968, as cited in [111, p.119]. They are standardization, autonomy,
historicity and vitality.
Table 2.2. Steward ‘s criteria to differentiate between language and dialect
[1968, as cited in [111, p.119].
Standardisation Autonomy Historicity Vitality
Standard + + + +
language
Dialects - - + +
Differences between language and dialect are [40]:

a-In the structural use of language and dialect, the overriding consideration is genetic
relationship. If a linguist says that Vietnamese has five dialects, he means that there are five
identifiably different speech-forms that have enough demonstrable cognates to make it certain that
they have all developed from one earlier speech-form. He may also be referring to the fact that these
are mutually understandable, or at least that each dialect is understandable to its immediate
neighbors.
b-In the functional use of language and dialect, the overriding consideration is the uses the
speakers make of the codes they master. A language is the medium of communication between
speakers of different dialects. The sociolinguist may also be referring to the fact that the "language"
is more prestigious than the "dialect."
The distinction between language and dialect depends not only on the internal structure of
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the language, but also the language functions defined by the socio-political factors: the social
values of language and language varieties. A language has prestige which a dialect lacks. A
language can be regarded as a collection of mutually intelligible dialects (or varieties). A dialect
is a subordinate variety of a language. We can regard a language as a collection of mutually
intelligible dialects.
Languages are not purely linguistic entities. They serve social functions. In order to
define a language, it is important to look to its social and political functions, as well as its linguistic
features. So a language can be thought of as a collection of dialects that are usually linguistically
similar, used by different social groups who choose to say that they are speakers of one language
which functions to unite and represent them to other groups [45, p.138].
2.4. Isogloss
Isogloss is a line shown on a map and which represents the boundary between two
linguistic features, for example the isogloss which separates the use of [ʊ] (in the north of England)
from [ʌ] (in the south of England) in the strut lexical set or the isogloss separating the presence or
absence of non-prevocalic /r/: the absence is typical of large regions of the south, but parts of the
south and south-west still retain /r/ in this position.
2.5. Different types of dialects:

2.5.1. Territorial dialects / Regional dialects
Territorial dialects are the dialects used in different countries which speak the same
language. British English, American English, Australian English ...are different territorial dialects
of the English language, each with its variation in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. They
can be considered to be dialects of the English languages spoken in different countries.
In each country people may speak a language with several dialects. Northern American
English, Midland American English and Southern American English are different regional dialects
of American English. Regional dialects are the dialects which are used in different regions of the
same country.
2.5.2. Sociolects
Social groups or classes with factors such as occupation, place of residence, education,
income, racial or ethnic origin, caste, religion, gender may use a variety of language in
communication. This variety is called a sociolect.
2.5.3. Functional varieties (register and style)

The term style can be used to refer to variation in speech and writing. “A functional style
(variety) of language is a system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in
communication” [31]. In sociolinguistics, a register is a socially defined variety of a language,
e.g. scientific, legal…
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1-The dialects of a single language may be defined as mutually intelligible forms of that
language which differ in systematic ways from each other.
2-Dialects originally meant language varieties based on social classes.
3-The preferred view of dialects is that everyone speaks a dialect. No dialect is superior to
the others.
4-In the English language the term dialect is used for both local variaties of English and for
the various types of informal, lower class, or rural speech.
5-A language can be regarded as a collection of mutually intelligible dialects (or

varieties).
3. STANDARD LANGUAGE / STANDARD VARIETY

1-On which area(s) of Vietnam is the standard Vietnamese based on? of England is
English English based on? of America is the standard American based on?
3.1. Standard language
”The standard language (also standard dialect, standard language, standard) is the variety
of a language which has the highest status in a community or nation, and which is usually
based on the speech and writing of educated native speakers of the language” [82, p.271].
A standard variety is generally:

a-used in the news media and literature
b-described in dictionaries and in literature
c-taught in schools and taught to non-native speakers when learn the language as a foreign
language.
Crystal [23, p.450] defines standard language (dialect/ variety) as a term used in
sociolinguistics to refer to ”a prestige variety of language used within a speech community.”
‘Standard languages/dialects/ varieties’ cut across regional differences, providing a unified
means of communication, and thus an institutionalized norm which can be used in the mass
media, in teaching the language to foreigners [23, p.450].
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‘Standard language is (the type of language variety) believed to be correct and used by
most people’ [47, p.1438].
A variety becomes standard by undergoing a process of standardization, during which it is

organized for description in grammars and dictionaries and encoded in such reference works.
Typically, varieties that become standardized are the local dialects spoken in the centers of
commerce and government, where a need arises for a variety that will serve more than local needs.
The creation of a prescriptive standard language, derives from the national (cultural,
political, social) cohesion requiring an agreed, standardized tongue. Generally, standard languages
usually are established upon [189]:
a-A recognized dictionary (standardized spelling and vocabulary)

b-A recognized grammar
c-A standard pronunciation (educated speech)
d-A linguistic institution defining usage norms, e.g. Académie française, the Royal Spanish
Academy
e-Constitutional (legal) status
f-Effective public use (court, legislature, schools)
g-A literary norm.
A standard variety has the following features:

a-The standard variety formed on the basis of a regional dialect is the most prestigious
variety used as an institutionalised norm of a community;
b-The standard variety is usually the result of the human intervention into the development of
a language. The process of language standardization is the process of the standardization of the most
prestigious dialect in the society.
c-The standard variety is not only the means of communication for different dialectal areas
but also the standard / norm for the development and orientation of different dialects of the same
language.
d-Standard varieties are codified varieties / systematized varieties
The standard language/variety is usually formed through the process of language
standardization on the basis of a regional dialect. The dialect which has become the standard
variety was usually the dialect of the most influential area in the society.
Standard varieties are codified varieties. Codification can be achieved through grammar
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and dictionaries which record, and sometimes prescribe, the standard forms of the language.
Dictionary writers generally take the usage of educated and socially prestigious members of the
community as their criterion.
A standardised variety can also be used to give prestige to speakers, marking off those who
employed it from those who do not. Another term for standard variety is “superposed variety”.
3.2. Standardisation:
Standardisation refers to the process by which a language has been codified in some way.
That process usually involves the development of such things as grammars, spelling, books,
dictionaries, and possibly a literature. Standardisation is sometimes deliberately undertaken quite
rapidly for political reasons. The standardisation process occasionally results in some languages
actually achieving more than one standard variety.
The standardisation process performs a variety of functions. It unifies individuals and

groups within a larger community while at the same time separating the community that results
from other communities.
Governments sometimes very deliberately involve themselves in the standardisation

process by establishing official bodies of one kind or another to regulate language matters or to
encourage changes felt to be desirable, e.g. the establishment of Academie Francaise in 1635.
3.3. The processes of standardization

The four aspects of language development that Haughen [40] developed as crucial features
in taking the step from dialect to language, from vernacular to standard, are as follows: a-selection
of norm, b-codification of form, c-elaboration of function, and d-acceptance by the community.
3.3.1. Selection of norm

First, a variety or code i s c h o s e n a s a n o r m to be developed. It may be an existing
variety, such as the one used in an important political or commercial centre, but it could be a
combination of various varieties. The choice is a matter of great social and political importance, as
the chosen variety necessarily gains prestige and so the people who already speak it share in
this prestige.
3.3.2. Codification of form:

Second, the structural or linguistic features are standardised. Dictionaries, grammars books
are written to fix the language.
3.3.3. Elaboration of function:

Third, the language functions are extended for use in new domains and new conventions
are developed to meet the requirements of use of the standard in important areas.
3.3.4. Acceptance by the community

Finally, the variety must be accepted by the relevant population as the variety of the
community, usually as the national language.
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The first two refer primarily to the form, the last two to the function of language. The first
and the last are concerned with society, the second and third with language.
Table 2.3. The four aspects of language development [40]
Form Function
Society Selection Acceptance
Language Codification Elaboration
1-The standard language / variety is the variety of a language which has the highest status in
a community or nation, and which is usually based on the speech and writing of educated native
speakers of the language.
2-Standard varieties are codified varieties.
3-The standard variety of a language is based on only pronunciation.
4-In the process of codification of the form, a variety is chosen as a norm to be developed.
5-The standardisation process usually involves the following steps: a-selection, b-

codification, c-systematisation and d- printing
4. INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

1-How do you understand the following terms: international language, world language
and world languages?
According to Wikipedia [167] the term international language can be used to refer to:
4.1. Love, musics and mathematics.

4.2. International auxiliary language:
An international auxiliary language (sometimes abbreviated as IAL or auxlang) or
interlanguage is a language meant for communication between people from different nations who
do not share a common native language. An auxiliary language is primarily a
second language
The term "auxiliary" implies that it is intended to be an additional language for the
people of the world, rather than to replace their native languages. Often, the phrase is used to
refer to planned or constructed languages proposed specifically to ease worldwide international
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communication, such as Esperanto, Ido and Interlingua.
However, it can also refer to the concept of such a language being determined by
international consensus, including even a standardized natural language (e.g. International
English), and has also been connected to the project of constructing a universal language.
4.3. Universal language:

Universal language may refer to a hypothetical, historical, mythical or constructed
language to be spoken and understood by all or most of the world's population. In some circles, it
is a language said to be understood by all living things, beings, and objects alike. It may be
the ideal of an international auxiliary language for communication between groups speaking
different primary languages.
In other conceptions, it may be the primary language of all speakers, or the only existing
language. Some mythological or religious traditions state that there was once a single universal
language among all people, or shared by humans and supernatural beings, however, this is not
supported by historical evidence.
4.4. Lingua franca:

A lingua franca (originally Italian for "Frankish language") is a language systematically
used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third
language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.
The original Lingua Franca was a mixed language composed mostly (80%) of Italian with
a broad vocabulary drawn from Turkish, French, Spanish, Greek and Arabic. It was in use
throughout the eastern Mediterranean as the language of commerce and diplomacy in and around
the Renaissance era. At that time, Italian speakers dominated seaborne commerce in the port cities
of the Ottoman empire.
Franca was the Italian word for Frankish. Its usage in the term lingua franca originated
from its meaning in Arabic, dating from before the Crusades, whereby all Europeans were
called "Franks" or Faranji in Arabic. The term lingua franca is first recorded in English in
1678.
Lingua franca refers to a trade language, a contact language, an international language, an

auxiliary language, a mixed language.
UNESCO (1953) defined lingua franca as ‘a language which is used habitually by

people whose mother tongues are different in order to facilitate communication between them.’
4.5. World language:

A world language is a language spoken internationally, which is learned by many people as
a second language. A world language is not only characterized by the number of its speakers
(native or second language speakers), but also by its geographical distribution, and its use in
international organizations and in diplomatic relations.
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In this respect, major world languages are dominated by languages of European origin. The
historical reason for this is the period of European colonialism. World languages originating with
historical colonial empires include English, Spanish, Portuguese and French.
1-The term International language can be used to refer to a universal language, a lingua
franca, or a world language.
2-IAL is a language means for communication between people for different nations who do
not share a common native language.
3-The term universal language may refer to a hypothetical, historical, mythical or
constructed language to be spoken and understood by all living things, beings and objects alike.
4-A lingual franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not
sharing a mother tongue.
5-A world language is a language spoken in a certain country.
5. INDIVIDUAL VARIETIES: IDIOLECTS

1-How does a person’s language use differ from other person’s language use?
The language system of an individual as expressed by the way he or she speaks or writes
within the overall system of a particular language.
In its widest sense, someone’s idiolect includes their way of communicating, for example,
their choice of utterances and the way they interpret the utterances made by others. In a narrower
sense, an idiolect may include those features, either in speech or writing, which distinguish one
individual from others, such as voice, quality, pitch and speech rhythm.
Follow-up activity 2.5.

I-Discuss:
1-What is an idiolect?
2- What are specific features of an idiolect?
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6. TERRITORIAL AND REGIONAL DIALECTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND

THE VIETNAMESE LANGUAGE

1-Find the linguistic differences between British English and American English?
2-What are the dialectal areas of Great Britain, America and Vietnam. Find examples of
dialect differences.
6.1. Territorial and regional dialects of the English language

Territorial dialects are the dialects used in different countries which speak the same
language. British English, American English, Australian English ...are different territorial dialects
of the English language, each with its variation in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. They
can be considered to be dialects of the English languages spoken in different countries.
In each country people may speak a language with several dialects. Northern American
English, Midland American English and Southern American English are different regional dialects
of American English. Regional dialects are the dialects which are used in different regions of the
same countries.
For more information on territorial and regional dialects of the English language, please refer
to [172].
6.2. British English

6.2.1. Brititish English
British English comprises English English, Welsh English, Scottish English and
Northern Ireland English (the corresponding abbreviations are EE, WE, ScE., NIE).
The term British English is used by linguists to contrast the form of English used in Britain
with American English, and also with Australian English, South African English, etc. In broad
terms, British English is English as used throughout the United Kingdom, but it is often more
narrowly understood as the English language of England.
Dialects and accents vary amongst the four countries of the United Kingdom, as well as
within the countries themselves. The major divisions are normally classified as English English
(or English as spoken in England), Welsh English (not to be confused with the Welsh language),
Irish English and Scottish English (not to be confused with the Scots language).
6.2.2. A brief history of the development of the English language
English belongs to Anglo-Frisian group within the Western branch of the Germanic
languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages. It is related most closely to the Frisian
language, to a lesser extent to Netherlandic (Dutch-Flemish) and the Low German (Platteutsch)
dialects, and more distantly to modern High German.
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English was not the original language of England. In fact, three languages or language
groups preceded English as spoken languages in the British Isles before the Anglo- Saxons began
helping themselves to island real estate. The original language of the British Isles is not known,
but archaeological investigations verify that the British Isles were thoroughly inhabited before the
arrival of the Celts.
Sometime during the millennium before Christ, Celtic peoples began settling the British
Isles. The Celtic languages make up the Celtic branch of Indo-European and are, therefore,
distantly related to English. Of the various Celtic languages once spoken on the island, some
have become extinct, Cornish as recently as 200 years ago, while others have survived and are still
spoken today: Irish in Ireland, Scottish Gaelic in Scotland, and Welsh in Wales.
The following part will look at the development of the English language:
6.2.2.1. Seven ages of English [89, pp.50-51].

a-Pre-English period (-AD450)
Local languages in Britain are Celtic, and the inhabitants known as Celts or Britons. After
the Roman invasion c.55 BC, Latin becomes the dominant language of culture and government.
Many communities in Britain are bilingual Celtic-Latin. The island (excluding Scotland) is widely
known by its Latin name, Britannia (Britain).
b-Early Old English 9450-c.850)

Anglo-Saxon invasion c.AD 449 after the Romans have withdrawn (410). During the 5th
Century AD three Germanic tribes (Saxons, Angles, and Jutes) came to the British Isles from
various parts of northwest Germany as well as Denmark. Settlers bring a variety of Germanic
dialects from mainland Europe. Through the years, the Saxons, Angles and Jutes mixed their
different Germanic dialects. This group of dialects forms what linguists refer to as Old English or
Anglo-Saxon. First English literature appears c. AD 700. English borrows many words from Latin
via the Church.
The word "English" is from Old English "Englisc", and that comes from the name of the
Angles. The Angles were named from Engle, their land of origin. England and English (originally
Englaland and Englisc) are named after the Angles.
c-Later Old English (c.850 – 1100)

Extensive invasion and settlement from Scandinavia. In the north of England dialects of
English become strongly influenced by Scandinavian languages. In the South King Alfred arranges
for many Latin texts to be translated.
d-Middle English (c.1100 – 1450)
Norman conquest and Norman rule. English vocabulary and spelling now affected by
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French, which becomes the official language in England. Educated English people trilingual
(French, Latin, English). Chaucer. England begins to become recognised as a political entity within
Britain.
e-Early Modern English (c.1450 – 1750)
Includes the Renaissance, the Elizabethan era and Shakespeare. The role of the Church, of
Latin and of French declines and English becomes a language of science and government.
Britain grows commercially and acquires overseas colonies. English taken to the Americas,
Australia, India. Slave trade carries African people speaking different African languages to
Caribbean and America, giving rise to English creoles. English acquires a typographic identity
with the rise of printing. Many attempts to ‘standardise and fix’ the language with dictionaries
and grammars. Union of England and Scotland, 1707.
f-Modern English (c.1750 –1950)

Britain experiences Industrial Revolution and consolidates imperial power, introducing
English medium education in many parts of the world. English becomes the international
language of advertising and consumerism.
g-Late Modern English (c.1950–)
Britain retreats from empire. New standardised varieties of English emerge in newly
independent countries. English becomes the international language of communications technology.
For further information on the history of the English language, please, refer to [129].
6.2.2.2. The introduction of English into other parts of Great Britain [36, pp.4-10).
English arrived early in Scotland. By the seventh century the northern English kingdom of
Bernicia had extended its territory—and its dialect—into what is now Southern Scotland. This
dialect is the source of Scots, an ancient dialect of English that may be viewed as parallel with
Modern English in their common derivation from Old English. By the middle of the sixteenth
century Scots was becoming influenced by English in word forms and spellings, a process
encouraged by the use of English Bibles in Scotland in the absence of a Scots Bible. When James
VI of Scotland succeeded Queen Elizabeth I in 1603 to become James I of England, combining the
thrones of the two kingdoms, there was a quickening of the pace of adoption of English in Scotland
for writing and by the gentry for speech. The final blow to Scots as the standard dialect of Scotland
was the Act of Union in 1707, when the two kingdoms were formally united. Despite attempts at
reviving Scots, it remains restricted mainly to literary uses and to some rural speech. It has,
however, influenced Scottish English, the standard variety of English in Scotland.
About 80,000 people speak Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic language that is confined to the West
Highlands and the Western Isles of Scotland, but nearly all of them are bilingual in Gaelic
and English.
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Wales was England's first colony. It was ruled from England as a principality from the
beginning of the fourteenth century, and was incorporated into England by the Acts of Union of
1535 and 1543, which promoted the use of English for official purposes. The standard variety of
English in Wales is thought to be identical with that in England. There are, however, distinctive
Welsh English accents. According to a 1991 census, over half a million inhabitants of Wales above
the age of 3 (19 per cent) speak Welsh, a Celtic language, most of whom are bilingual in Welsh
and English. As a result of current education policies, the number of Welsh speakers among the
young is now increasing.
English was permanently introduced into Ireland when the Normans invaded the country
during the twelfth century and settled French and English speakers in the eastern coastal region,
though many of their descendants adopted Irish (or Irish Gaelic), the Celtic language of the native
inhabitants. In the sixteenth century the Tudor monarchs began a policy of bringing to Ireland
large numbers of English settlers, and later also Scottish settlers, to displace the Irish from their
land. By 1800 English was the language of half the population. The famines of 1846-8 led to mass
emigration from Ireland, most of those who emigrated being Irish speakers, the poorer part of the
population. During the nineteenth century English was promoted in the Catholic education system
in opposition to the use of Irish by Protestant proselytizing societies. Despite attempts since
independence to revive the use of Irish in the Republic of Ireland, there are few Irish monolinguals
and perhaps only 2 per cent of the population use Irish regularly.
6.2.2.3. The spread of English in other first-language countries [36, pp. 4-10]:
Britain was an Empire for 200 years between the 18th and 20th centuries and English
language continued to change as the British Empire moved across the world - to the USA, Australia,
New Zealand, India, Asia and Africa. They sent people to settle and live in their conquered
places and as settlers interacted with natives, new words were added to the English vocabulary.
Beginning in the early seventeenth century, the English language was transported beyond
the British Isles by traders, soldiers, and settlers. During the next two centuries Britain acquired
territories throughout the world. In some of these territories, British settlers were sufficiently
numerous to dominate the country linguistically as well as in other respects, so that the indigenous
population came to adopt English as their first or second language.
More importantly for the future of English, the numbers of the early settlers were swelled
enormously by waves of immigration and even when the newcomers brought another language
their descendants generally spoke English as their first language. All the major countries outside
the British Isles where English is the dominant language have succeeded in assimilating
linguistically their immigrants from non-English-speaking countries: the United States, Canada,
Australia, and New Zealand.
The first permanent English settlements were established in the New World, beginning with
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the founding of Jamestown in 1607. The colonial period came to an end when the American
colonies rejected British rule in the War of Independence (1776-83). Both before and after their
independence, the Americans acquired territories that were occupied by speakers of other
languages—Amerindian languages, Dutch, French, and Spanish. These have influenced American
English, together with the languages of immigrants in late periods—notably German and Yiddish.
It is estimated that over 27 million United States residents speak a language other than English at
home, about half of whom use Spanish. Every year over half a million new immigrants enter the
United States, most of them from non-English-speaking countries and most of them Spanish
speakers.
Political independence of the United States led to cultural—including linguistic—

independence, and hence to the growth of a separate standard American English that no longer
looked to Britain for its norms. Though regional differences in pronunciation are conspicuous,
American English is more homogeneous than British English in vocabulary and grammar, because
of its shorter history and because of past migrations across the American continent and present
easy mobility. As a result, dialect differences have not had as great an opportunity to become
established and there has been much mixing of regional dialects. Black English, originally
restricted regionally as well as ethnically, is used by most black speakers in a range of standard and
non-standard varieties.
Canada became a British possession in 1763, wrested from the French. After the
American War of Independence, large numbers of loyalists settled in Canada, followed during the
next century by waves of immigrants from the United States and the British Isles. Canada has a
large minority of unilingual French speakers (nearly 17 per cent), concentrated in the province of
Quebec, as well as an almost equal percentage of bilingual speakers in French and English,
which are the joint official languages of Canada. Virtually all Canadians speak English or French,
apart from some rural indigenous or immigrant communities.
In 1770 Captain James Cook claimed the eastern coast of Australia for Britain. Soon
afterwards, penal colonies were established to which convicts were transported from Britain. Until
after the Second World War, immigration from Asian countries was restricted and most
immigrants were English-speaking. Many of the Aborigines (the indigenous population before
British colonization), who number fewer than 200,000, speak only English. The first British
settlement in New Zealand was in 1792. New Zealand became part of New South Wales and then
after 1840 a British colony in its own right. Most settlers have been English-speaking. The
indigenous Maori language, spoken by about 300,000, has official status in the courts.
Most of the other countries where English is the majority language are islands with
relatively small populations located in the Atlantic or Caribbean (for example, Bermuda and
Grenada) and were once—or still are—British colonies.
As seen, the English language came to British Isles from northern Europe in the fifth
century. From the fifteenth century, the British began to sail all over the world and became
explorers, colonists and imperialists. They took the English language to North America, Canada
and the Caribbean, to South Africa, to Australia and New Zealand, to South Asia (especially
India), to the British colonies in Africa, to South East Asia and the South Pacific.
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6.2.3. The English language in England

The English language spoken and written in England encompasses a diverse range of
accents and dialects. The dialect forms part of the broader British English, along with other
varieties in the United Kingdom. Terms used to refer to the English language spoken and
written in England include: English English, Anglo-English, and British English.
6.2.3.1. Dialects in Modern English in England on the basis of pronunciation differences:

There are many different accents and dialects throughout England and people are often
very proud of their local accent or dialect.
A realistic picture of regional accent differences in England today is provided by Trudgill’s

account of the pronunciation of ‘modern dialects’ [5, p.12]. The features used to differentiate
between modern dialects are:
i-but pronounced as [bυt] or [bʌt]
ii-arm pronounced as [a:rm] or [a:m]
iii-singer pronounced as [siŋgə] or [siŋə]
iv-few pronounced as [fju:] or [fu:]
v-coffee pronounced as [kɒfi] or [kɒfI]
vi- gate pronounced as [geit] or [ge:t]
vii-milk pronounced as [miυƚk] or [miυk]
Trudgill provides a useful sentence consisting of words which include these features:
Very few cars made it up the long hill. (The word hill has the advantage over milk of being able to
differentiate accents in terms of both whether the /h/ is pronounced and whether the final /l/ is
vocalised to /υ/.) Using these criteria, Trudgill distinguishes sixteen dialect regions, which are
in turn placed in larger divisions. The major North / South dividing line has shifted northwards
compared to that identified for traditional dialects: ‘North’ now includes the ‘Central’ area, i.e.
Merseyside and the Midlands, as well as a ‘Northern’ division consisting of the North-East, the
Central North, Central Lancashire and Humberside, whilst the South covers much the same area as
it did in Trudgill’s map of traditional dialects.
Table 2.4. The pronunciation variation of Very few cars went up the long hill [43]
Northeast Veree few cahs mehd it oopp the long hill
Central North Veri few cahs mahd it oop the long ill
Central Lancashire Veri few carrs mahd it oop the long ill
Humberside Veree few cahs mahd it oop the long ill
Merseyside Veree few cahs mayd it oop the longg ill
Northwest Midlands Veri few cahs mayd it oop the longg ill
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West Midlands Veree few cahs mayd it oop the long ill
Central Midlands Veri few cahs mayd it oop the long ill
Northeast Midlands Veree few cahs made it up the long hill
East Midlands Veree foo cahs mayd it oop the long ill
Upper Southwest Veree few carrs mayd it up the long ill
Central Southwest Veree few carrs mayd it up the long iooll
Lower Southwest Veree foo cahs mayd it up the long iooll
South Midlands Veree few cars made it up the long hill
East Anglia Veree foo cahs mayd it up the long (h)ill
Home Counties Veree few cahs mayd it up the long iooll
Two major areas in Trudgill classification of modern dialect areas in England are Northern
and Southern.
Map 2.1. and Figure 2.1. Modern English dialecsts [21, p.325].
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The most important differences between Northern and Southern areas in terms of
pronunciation are the vowels /ɑ:/ and /ʌ/. The North of England is somewhat more conservative in
its phonology compared to the South and has not gone through many of the changes found in the
South of England. The two most obvious of these are:
a-the lengthening of low vowels before voiceless fricatives, for example, [pæs] for [pa:s] as
in the word pass.
Table 2.5. North and south pronunciation differences of the vowel /ɑ:/
Words South North

Path [pɑ:] [pæ]
Dance [da:ns] [dæns]
Last [la:st] [læst]
Pass [pa:s] [pæs]
b-the lowering of Early Modern English /ʊ/ to /ʌ/, for example, [kʊt] for [kʌt] as the the
word cut.
Table 2.6. North and South pronunciation differences of the vowel /ʌ/.
Words South North

Blood [blʌd] [blʊd]
Buck [bʌk ] [bʊt ]
Cut [kʌt ] [kʊt ]
6.2.3.2. Grammatical differences between Southern and Northern areas

a-Southern’ features of grammar are [Kortmann, as cited in [5, p.26]:
i-a-prefixing on -ing forms (e.g. They wasn’t a-doin’ nothin’ wrong)
ii-ain’t as the negated form of be (e.g. They’re all in there, ain’t they)
iii-ain’t as the negated form of have (e.g. I ain’t had a look at them yet)
iv-invariant non-concord tags (e.g. innit/in’t it/isn’t it in They had them in their hair, innit?)
v-relative particle what (e.g. This is the man what painted my house)
b-Northern’ features of Grammar are [Kortmann, as cited in [5, p.26]:

i-special forms or phrases for the second person plural pronoun
ii-wider range of uses of the progressive (e.g. I’m liking this. What are you wanting?)
iii-be as perfect auxiliary (e.g. They’re not left school yet)
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iv-double modals (e.g. I tell you what we might should do)

v-epistemic mustn’t (= ‘can’t, it is concluded that … not’, e.g. This mustn’t be true)
vi -resumptive/shadow pronouns (e.g. This is the house which I painted it yesterday)
vii-lack of inversion/lack of auxiliaries in wh-questions (e.g. What you doing?)
viii-lack of inversion in main clause yes/no questions (e.g. You get the point?).
6.2.3.3. Patterns of lexical variation [5, p.26]:
a-Words of Scandinavian origin
Perhaps the most easily identified pattern of historical contact is that described as the ‘Great
Scandinavian Belt’, defined by Samuels [1985, as cited in [5] as ‘a belt stretching from
Cumberland and Westmoreland in the west to the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire in the east,
often including parts of Lincolnshire but excluding the old kingdom of Bernicia in Durham and
Northumberland’. Dialects of the ‘Scandinavian Belt’ are characterised by the density of words of
Norse origin, just as the topography of this area is notable for the density of Norse place-names. This
area is within what was known as the Danelaw, the part of England ceded to Danish control under
the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum in 884, so it is easy to see how contact between speakers of
Scandinavian and Northern English dialects has affected the modern dialect vocabulary.
b-Words of French origin
In contrast to the Scandinavian invasions and settlements, the Norman Conquest of 1066 has
left its mark more on the vocabulary of Standard English than on regional dialects. Orton and Wright
[1974, as cited in [5] note that some suggest that ‘French words are more extensively used in the
South than the North’, but others being found in the North only.
In fact, many of the French/Anglo-Norman words which show a Southern distribution in
Orton and Wright’s maps have become Standard English. The most likely explanation here is that
Southern dialects did indeed adopt more words from (Norman) French in the Middle English period,
but that these dialects also went on to contribute much of their lexicon to Standard English. By
contrast, French loans found in Northern dialects tend to have remained dialectal. As seen, Northern
dialects are often more conservative than those of the South-East, so, in this case, a dialectal French
loan may have been ousted by the Standard English spring onions earlier in most of the South.
c-Words of Dutch and Low German origin
Some words of Dutch origin are found mainly in the East of the country, as we might expect
given the sea-routes that still exist between these two areas. On the other hand, there is certainly
evidence in some areas of England for settlements of Dutch and/or Flemish speakers leaving their
mark on the dialect vocabulary.
6.2.4. Scotish English, Welsh English and Irish English [18, p.75]
Scottish dialect expressions that are well known to English people are aye for ‘yes’, wee
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for ‘little’, bairns for ‘children’ and ‘I dinna ken’ for ‘I don’t know’. Scottish
pronunciation is noted for its burred r’s and distinctive vowel sounds. Words like rice for tide
are pronounced more like /reis/ or /teid/ than standard /rais/ or /taid/ sound. Educated Scottish
accents have features in common with RP.
In Wales, dialect usage include boyo for ‘man’ and look you for ‘you see’. Well-known
Irish dialect forms include Would you be after wanting for do you want, and the repetition of a
phrase at the end of a sentence, such as at all, at al. Welsh, Irish and some Scottish accents often
have an attractive lilt (=rising and falling intonation pattern).
These dialects and accents are sometimes made fun of.
6.3. American English

6.3.1. Advanced reading: America [22, pp.31-36]:
The first expedition from England to the New World was commissioned by Walter Raleigh in
1584, and proved to be a failure. A group of explorers landed near Roanoke Island, in what is now
North Carolina, and established a small settlement. Conflict with the native people followed, and it
proved necessary for a ship to return to England for help and supplies. By the time these arrived, in
1590, none of the original group of settlers could be found. The mystery of their disappearance has
never been solved.
The first permanent English settlement dates from 1607, when an expedition arrived in
Chesapeake Bay. The colonists called their settlement Jamestown (after James I) and the area
Virginia (after the ‘Virgin Queen’, Elizabeth). Further settlements quickly followed along the coast,
and also on the nearby islands, such as Bermuda. Then, in November 1620, the first group of
Puritans, thirty-five members of the English Separatist Church, arrived on the Mayflower in the
company of sixty-seven other settlers. Pre-vented by storms from reaching Virginia, they landed at
Cape Cod Bay, and established a settlement at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts.
The group was extremely mixed, ranging in age from young children to people in their 50s,
and with diverse regional, social, and occupational backgrounds. What the ‘Pilgrim Fathers’ (as
they were later called) had in common was their search for a land where they could found a new
religious kingdom, free from persecution and ‘purified’ from the church practices they had
experienced in England. It was a successful settlement, and by 1640 about 25,000 immigrants had
come to the area.
The two settlements – one in Virginia, to the south, the other to the north, in present-day New
England – had different linguistic backgrounds. Although the southern colony brought settlers from
several parts of England, many of them came from England’s ‘West Country’ – such counties as
Somerset and Gloucestershire – and brought with them its characteristic accent, with its
‘Zummerzet’ voicing of s sounds, and the r strongly pronounced after vowels. Echoes of this accent
can still be heard in the speech of communities living in some of the isolated valleys and islands in
the area, such as Tangier Island in Chesapeake Bay. These ‘Tidewater’ accents, as they are called,
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have changed somewhat over the past 300 years, but not as rapidly (because of the relative isolation
of the speakers) as elsewhere in the country.
By contrast, many of the Plymouth colonists came from counties in the east of England – in
particular, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Essex, Kent and London, with some from the Midlands,
and a few from further afield. These eastern accents were rather different – notably, lacking an r after
vowels – and they proved to be the dominant influence in this area. The tendency ‘not to pronounce
the r’ is still a feature of the speech of people from New England.
The later population movements across America largely preserved the dialect distinctions
which arose out of these early patterns of settlement. The New England people moved west into the
region of the Great Lakes; the southerners moved along the Gulf Coast and into Texas; and the
midlanders spread throughout the whole of the vast, mid-western area, across the Mississippi and
ultimately into California. The dialect picture was never a neat one, because of widespread north–
south movements within the country, and the continuing inflow of immigrants from different parts of
the world. There are many mixed dialect areas, and pockets of unexpected dialect forms. But the
main divisions of north, midland, and south are still found throughout America today.
During the seventeenth century, new shiploads of immigrants brought an increasing variety
of linguistic backgrounds into the country. Pennsylvania, for example, came to be settled mainly by
Quakers whose origins were mostly in the Midlands and the north of England. People speaking very
different kinds of English thus found themselves living alongside each other, as the ‘middle’ Atlantic
areas (New York, in particular) became the focus of settlement. As a result, the sharp divisions
between regional dialects gradually began to blur.
Then, in the eighteenth century, there was a vast wave of immigration from northern Ireland.
The Irish had been migrating to America from around 1600, but the main movements took place
during the 1720s, when around 50,000 Irish and Scots-Irish immigrants arrived. By the time
independence was declared (1776), it is thought that one in seven of the colonial population was
Scots-Irish. Many stayed along the coast, especially in the area of Philadelphia, but most moved
inland through the mountains in search of land. They were seen as frontier people, with an accent
which at the time was described as ‘broad’. The opening up of the south and west was largely due
to the pioneering spirit of this group of settlers.
By the time of the first census, in 1790, the population of the country was around 4 million,
most of whom lived along the Atlantic coast. A century later, after the opening up of the west, the
population numbered over 50 million, spread throughout the continent. The accent which emerged
can now be heard all over the so-called Sunbelt (from Virginia to southern California), and is the
accent most commonly associated with present-day American speech.
It was not only England which influenced the directions that the English language was to take
in America, and later the USA. The Spanish had occupied large parts of the west and south-west.
The French were present in the northern territories, around the St Lawrence River, and throughout
the middle regions (French Louisiana) as far as the Gulf of Mexico. The Dutch were in New York
(originally New Amsterdam) and the surrounding area. Large numbers of Germans began to arrive at
the end of the seven-teenth century, settling mainly in Pennsylvania and its hinterland. In addition,
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there were increasing numbers of Africans entering the south, as a result of the slave trade, and this
dramatically increased in the eighteenth century: a population of little more than 2,500 black slaves
in 1700 had become about 100,000 by 1775, far out-numbering the southern whites.
The nineteenth century saw a massive increase in American immigration, as people fled the
results of revolution, poverty, and famine in Europe. Large numbers of Irish came following the
potato famine in Ireland in the 1840s. Germans and Italians came, escaping the consequences of the
failed 1848 revolutions. And, as the century wore on, there were increasing numbers of Central
European Jews, especially fleeing from the pogroms of the 1880s. In the first two decades of the
twentieth century, immigrants were entering the USA at an average of three-quarters of a million a
year. In 1900, the population was just over 75million. This total had doubled by 1950.
Within one or two generations of arrival, most of these immigrant families had come to speak
English, through a natural process of assimilation. Grandparents and grandchildren found themselves
living in very different linguistic worlds. The result was a massive growth in mother-tongue use of
English.
According to the 1990 census, the number of people (over five years of age) who spoke only
English at home had grown to over 198 million – 86 per cent of the population. This figure increased
to 215million in the 2000 census (though representing a fall to 82 per cent of the population). This is
almost four times as many mother-tongue speakers as any other nation.
Some commentators have suggested that the English language was a major factor in
maintaining American unity throughout this period of remarkable cultural diversification – a ‘glue’
which brought people together and a medium which gave them common access to opportunity. At
the same time, some minority groups began to be concerned about the preservation of their cultural
and linguistic heritage, within a society which was becoming increasingly monolingual. The seeds of
a conflict between the need for intelligibility and the need for identity were beginning to grow – a
conflict which, by the later decades of the twentieth century, had fuelled the movement in support of
English as the official language of the USA.
6.3.2. American English [120]
6.3.2.1. American English
American English, also called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of
varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken
language in the United States and is the common language used by the federal government,
considered the de facto language of the country because of its widespread use.
The use of English in the United States is a result of British colonization of the Americas.
The first wave of English-speaking settlers arrived in North America during the 17th century,
followed by further migrations in the 18th and 19th centuries. Since then, American English
has been influenced by the languages of West Africa, the Native American population, German,
Dutch, Irish, Spanish, and other languages of successive waves of immigrants to the United States.
Any American English accent perceived as free of noticeably local, ethnic, or cultural
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markers is popularly called "General American," described by sociolinguist William Labov as "a
fairly uniform broadcast standard in the mass media," [as cited in [120] but otherwise not a
mainstream standard English of the country, according to historical and present linguistic evidence.
6.3.2.2. Standard American English [124] & [120]

Americans remained oriented toward British Englishstandards throughout the 1700s and well
into the 1800s. Throughout the 1800s, as they were moving westward, Americans were moving
toward their own language standards. Such figures as Ben Franlin, Noah Wester, and Mark Twain
had an influence on establishing and promoting American language standards.
Standard American English is the variety of the English language that is generally used in
professional communication in the United States and taught in American schools. Standard
American English (SAE) may refer to either written English or spoken English
(or both).
Standard American English is often referred to as General American (G.A) or Network

English or Network Standard.
But where is standard American English spoken? According to Schilling [88, p.37], there is
no single codified standard for American English. Therefore, a better term is General American
English, the type of English we think of when we think of newscasters or important public officials.
6.3.2.3. General American [124] & [120]

General American (abbreviated as GA or GenAm) is an umbrella variety of American
English—a continuum of accents—commonly attributed to a majority of Americans and popularly
perceived, among Americans, as lacking any notably regional, ethnic, or socioeconomic
characteristics. Due to the prevalence of a General American sound system throughout the
United States, General American is sometimes, though controversially, known as Standard
American English.
According to Schilling [88, p.38), there are at least three theories for where and when
General American English arose. The first theory is that General American English is New
England English: Yankee English. The second theory is that General American English was born of
the early dialect mix in Philadenphia, the mid-Atlantic, and points westward – the Midland dialect
area. The third theory is that General American English comes from a koine, the one that arose in
the 1800s, in the interior of the United States.
The term "General American" was first disseminated by American English scholar George
Philip Krapp, who, in 1925, described it as "Western" but "not local in character." In 1930,
American linguist John Samuel Kenyon, who largely popularized the term, considered it
equivalent to the speech of "the North," or "Northern American," but, in 1934, "Western and
Midwestern."
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By the 1940s, a common definition for General American was any American English
accent that excluded the regionally distinct sounds of the American South, Eastern New England,
and New York City; by the 1960s, this further came to exclude the regional sounds of the Mid-
Atlantic region and Western Pennsylvania. By the 2000s, American sociolinguist William Labov
concluded that, if any sound system could be recognized as "General American," it would
essentially be a convergence of those features shared among Western American English, Midland
American English, and Standard Canadian English.
Now typically regarded as falling under the General American umbrella are the dialects of
the American West, Western New England, and perhaps much of the American Midland and
Canada. Once in the earlier 20th century but no longer now included are the dialects of the Mid-
Atlantic United States, the Inland North, and Western Pennsylvania.
Anglicist William A. Kretzchmar, Jr. explains in a 2004 article that the term "General
American" arose as a name for a presumed most common or "default" form of American English,
especially to be distinguished from marked regional speech of New England or the South.
"General American" has often been considered to be the relatively unmarked speech of "the
Midwest", a vague designation for anywhere in the vast midsection of the country from Ohio west
to Nebraska, and from the Canadian border as far south as Missouri or Kansas. No historical
justification for this term exists, and neither do present circumstances support its use... [I]t implies
that there is some exemplary state of American English from which other varieties deviate. On the
contrary, [it] can best be characterized as what is left over after speakers suppress the regional and
social features that have risen to salience and become noticeable.
Despite the common perception of there being a mainstream American accent that is free of
any regional features or regional influence, the General American sound system does, in fact, have
traceable regional origins: namely, the Northern speech patterns of the non- coastal Eastern United
States, including interior Pennsylvania, upstate New York, and the adjacent Midwestern region,
prior to the Northern Cities Vowel Shift of the mid-20th century.
The fact that a rural, broadly Midwestern dialect became the basis of what is General
American English is often attributed to the mass migration of Midwestern farmers to California
and the Pacific Northwest from where it spread, since California speech itself became prevalent in
nationally syndicated films and media via the Hollywood film industry.
General American, like the British Received Pronunciation (RP) and the prestige accents
of many other societies, has never been the accent of the entire nation.
A General American pronunciation is most directly descended from a generalized
pronunciation of the early 1900s from the inland Northeastern and Midwestern states, which likely
gained ground nationally by being spoken particularly by many newscasters and radio and
television announcers; this has led the accent to being sometimes referred to as an American
newscaster accent, Network English or Network Standard. General American is sometimes
promoted as preferable to other regional accents and prestigious. In the United States, classes
promising "accent reduction", "accent modification," or "accent neutralization" generally attempt to
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teach speech patterns similar to this accent.

6.3.3. Differences between British English and American English
American English and British English (BrE) differ at the levels of phonology, phonetics,
vocabulary, and, to a lesser extent, grammar and orthography.
6.3.3.1. Phonological differences between RP and GA

The earliest changes in the English language in America, distinguishing it from the language of the
mother country, were in the vocabulary. From the time when the early colonists came, however,
divergence in pronunciation began gradually to develop. Thishas been due in part to changes that
have occurred here but has resulted still more from the fact that the pronunciation of England has
come to be recognized as the English received standard. At the present time American
pronunciation shows certain well- marked differences from English use.
Table 2.7. Vowerls in RP & GA [158]

Received pronunciation General American
Front Central Back Front Central Back

short long short long short long long short long short long short
Close iː ɪ uː ʊ
Close ɪ iː ʊ uː
Mid e ə ɜː ɔː Mid ɛ (ɜː) ə ɔː

ɒ
Open æ ʌ ɑː Open æ (ʌ) ɑː
eɪ aɪ ɔɪ aʊ əʊ
Diphthongs Diphthongs eɪ aɪ ɔɪ aʊ oʊ
ɪə eə ʊə
Triphthongs (eɪə aɪə ɔɪə aʊə əʊə)
a-Perhaps the most noticeable of these differences is in the vowel sound in such words as
fast, path, grass, dance, can’t, half. At the end of the eighteenth century southern England
began to change from what is called a flat a /ӕ/ to a broad a /a:/ in these words, that is from a
sound like the a /ӕ/ in man /mӕn/ to one like the a /a:/ in father /fa:ðə/. The change affected
words in which the vowel occurred before f, sk, sp, st, ss, th, and n followed by certain consonants.
In parts of New England the same change took place, but in most other parts of the country the old
sound was preserved, and fast, path, etc., are pronounced with the vowel of pan /pӕn/. In some
speakers there is a tendency to employ an intermediate vowel, halfway between the a of pan and
father, but the ‘flat a’/ӕ/ must be regarded as the typical American pronunciation.
b-In terms of phonemic differences, the phoneme /ɒ/does not occur in American English,
and words which have this vowel in British pronunciation will instead have /a:/ or /ɔ:/ in American
English. For instance, got is /gɒt/ in British English, but /ga:t/ in American English, while dog is
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British /dɒg/, American /dɔ:g/.

c-The three diphthongs /i∂, e∂, u∂/ are found only in British English. In corresponding
places, American English has a simple vowel followed by /r/, so near is /nir/, hair is /her/ and
pure is /pjur/.
d-GAm is rhotic while RP is non-rhotic.
e-In GAm, flapping is common: when either a /t/ or a /d/ occurs between a sonorant
phoneme and an unstressed vowel phoneme, it is realized as an alveolar-flap allophone [ɾ]. This
sounds like a /d/ to RP speakers.
6.3.3.2. Vocabulary differences [150]

a-Words from North American
North America has given the English lexicon many thousands of words, meanings, and
phrases. Several thousand are now used in English as spoken internationally.
The process of coining new lexical items started as soon as the colonists began borrowing
names for unfamiliar flora, fauna, and topography from the Native American languages. Examples
of such names are opossum, raccoon, squash and moose (from Algonquian). Other Native
American loanwords, such as wigwam or moccasin, describe articles in common use among
Native Americans. The languages of the other colonizing nations also added to the American
vocabulary; for instance, cookie, cruller, stoop, and pit (of a fruit) from Dutch; levee, portage
("carrying of boats or goods") and (probably) gopher from French; barbecue, stevedore, and
rodeo from Spanish.
Among the earliest and most notable regular "English" additions to the American
vocabulary, dating from the early days of colonization through the early 19th century, are terms
describing the features of the North American landscape; for instance, run, branch, fork,
snag, bluff, gulch, neck (of the woods), barrens, bottomland, notch, knob, riffle, rapids,
watergap, cutoff, trail, timberline and divide. Already existing words such as creek, slough,
sleet and (in later use) watershed received new meanings that were unknown in England.
Other noteworthy American toponyms are found among loanwords; for example, prairie,
butte (French); bayou (Choctaw via Louisiana French); coulee (Canadian French, but used also in
Louisiana with a different meaning); canyon, mesa, arroyo (Spanish); vlei, skate, kill (Dutch,
Hudson Valley).
With the new continent developed new forms of dwelling, and hence a large inventory of
words designating real estate concepts (land office, lot, outlands, waterfront, the verbs locate
and relocate, betterment, addition, subdivision), types of property (log cabin, adobe) in the
18th century; frame house, apartment, tenement house, shack, shanty in the 19th century;
project, condominium, townhouse, split-level, mobile home, multi- family in the 20th century),
and parts thereof (driveway, breezeway, backyard, dooryard; clapboard, siding, trim,
baseboard; stoop (from Dutch), family room, den; and, in recent years, HVAC, central air,
walkout basement).
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Ever since the American Revolution, a great number of terms connected with the U.S.
political institutions have entered the language; examples are run, gubernatorial, primary
election, carpetbagger (after the Civil War), repeater, lame duck and pork barrel. Some of
these are internationally used (for example, caucus, gerrymander, filibuster, exit poll).
The rise of capitalism, the development of industry and material innovations throughout the
19th and 20th centuries were the source of a massive stock of distinctive new words, phrases and
idioms. Typical examples are the vocabulary of railroading (see further at rail terminology) and
transportation terminology, ranging from names of roads (from dirt roads and back roads to
freeways and parkways) to road infrastructure (parking lot, overpass, rest area), and from
automotive terminology to public transit (for example, in the sentence "riding the subway
downtown"); such American introductions as commuter (from commutation ticket), concourse,
to board (a vehicle), to park, double-park and parallel park (a car), double decker or the noun
terminal have long been used in all dialects of English. Trades of various kinds have endowed
(American) English with household words describing jobs and occupations (bartender,
longshoreman, patrolman, hobo, bouncer, bellhop, roustabout, white collar, blue collar,
employee, boss [from Dutch], intern, busboy, mortician, senior citizen), businesses and
workplaces (department store, supermarket, thrift store, gift shop, drugstore, motel, main
street, gas station, hardware store, savings and loan, hock [also from Dutch]), as well as
general concepts and innovations (automated teller machine, smart card, cash register,
dishwasher, reservation (as at hotels), pay envelope, movie, mileage, shortage, outage, blood
bank).
Already existing English words—such as store, shop, dry goods, haberdashery,

lumber—underwent shifts in meaning; some—such as mason, student, clerk, the verbs can (as in
"canned goods"), ship, fix, carry, enroll (as in school), run (as in "run a business"), release and
haul—were given new significations, while others (such as tradesman) have retained meanings
that disappeared in England. From the world of business and finance came breakeven, merger,
delisting, downsize, disintermediation, bottom line; from sports terminology came, jargon aside,
Monday-morning quarterback, cheap shot, game plan (football); in the ballpark, out of left
field, off base, hit and run, and many other idioms from baseball; gamblers coined bluff, blue
chip, ante, bottom dollar, raw deal, pass the buck, ace in the hole, freeze-out,
showdown; miners coined bedrock, bonanza, peter out, pan out and the verb prospect from the
noun; and railroadmen are to be credited with make the grade, sidetrack, head-on, and the
verb railroad. A number of Americanisms describing material innovations remained largely
confined to North America: elevator, ground, gasoline; many automotive terms fall in this
category, although many do not (hatchback, SUV, station wagon, tailgate, motorhome, truck,
pickup truck, to exhaust).
b-English words that survived in the United States and not Britain
A number of words and meanings that originated in Middle English or Early Modern
English and that always have been in everyday use in the United States dropped out in most
varieties of British English; some of these have cognates in Lowland Scots. Terms such as fall
("autumn"), faucet, diaper, candy, skillet, eyeglasses, and obligate, are often regarded as
Americanisms. Fall for example came to denote the season in 16th century England, a contraction
of Middle English expressions like "fall of the leaf" and "fall of the year". During the 17th
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century, English immigration to the British colonies in North America was at its peak and the new
settlers took the English language with them. While the term fall gradually became obsolete in
Britain, it became the more common term in North America. Gotten (past participle of get) is
often considered to be an Americanism, although there are some areas of Britain, such as
Lancashire and North- eastern England, that still continue to use it and sometimes also use putten
as the past participle for put (which is not done by most speakers of American English).
6.3.3.3. Grammatical differences [150]

American English has always shown a marked tendency to use nouns as verbs. Examples of
verbed nouns are interview, advocate, vacuum, lobby.
Many compound nouns have the form verb plus preposition: add-on, stopover, lineup,
shakedown, tryout, spin-off, rundown ("summary"), shootout, holdup, hideout, comeback,
cookout, kickback, makeover, takeover, rollback ("decrease"), rip-off, come-on, shoo-in, fix-
up, tie-in, tie-up ("stoppage"), stand-in.
Noun endings such as -ee (retiree), -ery (bakery), -ster (gangster) and -cian (beautician)
are also particularly productive. Some verbs ending in -ize are of U.S. origin; for example,
fetishize, prioritize, burglarize, accessorize, itemize, editorialize, customize, notarize,
weatherize, winterize, Mirandize; and so are some back- formations (locate, fine-tune, evolute,
curate, donate, emote, upholster, peeve and enthuse).
Differences in grammatical structurs are relatively minor, and normally do not affect
mutual intelligibility; these include: different use of some verbal auxiliaries; formal (rather than
notional) agreement with collective nouns; different preferences for the past forms of a few verbs
(for example, AmE/BrE: learned/learnt, burned/burnt, and in sneak, dive, get); different
prepositions and adverbs in certain contexts (for example, AmE in school, BrE at school); and
whether or not a definite article is used, in very few cases (AmE to the hospital, BrE to hospital).
There are also differences in sentence structures, e.g. British: Did you have…?, American: Have
you got…?
6.3.3.4. Differences in orthography [150]

Differences in orthography are also trivial. Some of the forms that now serve to distinguish
American from British spelling (color for colour, center for centre, traveler for traveller, etc.)
were introduced by Noah Webster himself; others are due to spelling tendencies in Britain from the
17th century until the present day (for example, -ise for - ize, although the Oxford English
Dictionary still prefers the -ize ending) and cases favored by the francophile tastes of 19th
century Victorian England, which had little effect on AmE (for example, programme for
program, manoeuvre for maneuver, skilful for skillful, cheque for check, etc.).
6.3.4. American regional dialects

Starting in the 1940s, investigation of vocabulary patterns in the eastern United States
suggested Northern, Midland, and Southern dialects.
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6.3.4.1. Professor Hans Kurath (1949) [74, pp.445-446]:

In 1949 Professor Hans Kurath published a study of the first importance, A Word
Geography of the Eastern United States. On the basis of lexical evidence, mainly in the
Atlantic Coast states as far south as South Carolina, he distinguished eighteen speech areas, which
he grouped into three main groups: Northern, Midland, and Southern
a-The North (i. Northeastern New England , ii. Southeastern New England , iii. Southwestern
New England , iv. Inland North, v. The Hudson Valley, vi. Metropolitan New York).
The Northern dialect is set off by the use of such vocabulary terms as pail rather than
bucket, angleworm for earthworm, and pit rather than seed in a cherry. Phonologically, it has a
phonemic distinction between the vowels in morning and mourning, /s/ in greasy, and /u:/ in
root. Eastern New England is set off from the rest of the Northern dialect by the loss of postvocalic
/r/ (in such words as barn, four, daughter) and the use of /a:/ for /æ/ in words such as aunt, bath,
and half.
b-The Midland:
i-North Midland (Delaware Valley, Susquehanna Valey, Upper Ohio Valley, Northern
West Virginia)
ii- South Midland (Upper Potomac & Shenandoah, Southern West Virginia & Eastern
Kentucky, Western Carolina & Eastern Tennessee)
The Midland dialect is distinguished by vocabulary items such as skillet for frying pan,
blinds for window shades, and poke for a paper sack. Phonologically, it retains postvocalic /r/
and has /θ/ finally in with. Northern Midland is distinguished by run for a small stream and /a:/ in
frog, hog, and fog, which do not rhyme with dog. Southern Midland has redworm for
earthworm, pack for carry, and /a:/ for /ai/ in words such as write and ride.
c-The South (i. Delmarva, ii. The Virginia Piedmont, iii. Northeatern North Carolina, iv.
Cape Fear & Peede Valleys, v.The South Carolina Low Country)
Southern English is marked by the loss of postvocalic /r/. /z/ in Mrs., and the use of tote
for carry and snap beans for string beans. It shares with Southern Midland the use of you-all
for the second person plural pronoun, /ju:/ in words such as news and due, shucks rather
than husks for the coverings of corn, and might could for might be able to.
6.3.4.2. Bert Vaux (2003) [118]

In 2003, while working as a professor at Harvard, Bert Vaux put together a survey. Using122
different speech variations — some having to do with vocabulary, some with syntax, and some with
pronunciation — he asked volunteers a series of 140 different questions and linked their answers to
their hometowns. Finished in 2003, the Harvard Dialect Survey forms the basis of the more-recent
online quizzes you’ve probably taken through Facebook and Twitter. It showed that regional
variations in dialect first mapped in the early part of the 20th century still existed.
That is a big deal because those regional dialect families actually date back to the first
migrations of English-speaking immigrants into North America. The Northern dialects — which
actually stretch from Boston to Eastern Minnesota — have their origins in southeastern England
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and Puritan settlements. Southern dialects began with immigrants for southwestern Great Britain,
including Wales. The third dialect family, the Midlands, comes from a wave of immigrants
originating in northern England, Ireland, and Scotland. It spread west horizontally from the
Philadelphia area.
Map 2.2. Major dialect areas in the USA: Northern, Midland, Southern [22, p.34]
6.3.4.3. William Labov (2010) [120]

In 2010, William Labov summarized the current state of regional American accents as
follows: the Western dialect, the Inland Northern dialect, the Midland dialect, the Western
Pennsylvania dialect, the Southern dialect, the Mid-Atlantic dialect, the New York City dialect the
East New England dialect.
American social dialects include African-American Vernacular English (AAVE),
Chicano English, General American, New York Latino English, Pennsylvania Dutchified English,
Yeshivish, Yinglish.
6.4. Advanced reading: Australian English [121]:

6.4.1. Australian English
Australian English (AuE, en-AU) is a major variety of the English language, used
throughout Australia. Although English has no official status in the Constitution, Australian English
is the country's national and de facto official language as it is the first language of the majority of the
population.
Australian English began to diverge from British English after the founding of the Colony of
New South Wales in 1788 and was recognised as being different from British English by 1820. It
arose from the intermingling of early settlers from a great variety of mutually intelligible dialectal
regions of the British Isles and quickly developed into a distinct variety of English.
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As a distinct dialect, Australian English differs considerably from other varieties of English
in vocabulary, accent, pronunciation, register, grammar and spelling.
6.4.2. Phonology and pronunciation
The primary way in which Australian English is distinctive from other varieties of English is
through its unique pronunciation. It shares most similarity with other Southern Hemisphere accents,
in particular New Zealand English. Like most dialects of English it is distinguished primarily by its
vowel phonology.
The vowels of Australian English can be divided according to length. The long vowels,
which include monophthongs and diphthongs, mostly correspond to the tense vowels used in
analyses of Received Pronunciation (RP) as well as its centring diphthongs. The short vowels,
consisting only of monophthongs, correspond to the RP lax vowels. There exist pairs of long and
short vowels with overlapping vowel quality giving Australian English phonemic length distinction,
which is unusual amongst the various dialects of English, though not unknown elsewhere, such as in
regional south-eastern dialects of the UK and eastern seaboard dialects in the US. As with General
American and New Zealand English, the weak-vowel merger is complete in Australian English:
unstressed /ɪ/ (sometimes written as /ɨ/ or /ᵻ/) is merged into /ə/ (schwa), unless it is followed by a
velar consonant.
Table 2.8. Australian vowels [121]
short vowels long vowels

monophthongs diphthongs
IPA examples IPA examples IPA examples
ʊ foot, hood, chook ʉː goose, boo, who’d ʊə cure, lure, tour
ɪ kit, bid, hid, iː fleece, bead, heat ɪə near, beard, hear
e dress, led, head eː square, bared, haired æɔ mouth, bowed, how’d
ə comma, about, winter ɜː nurse, bird, heard əʉ goat, bode, hoed
æ trap, lad, had æː bag, tan, bad eɪ face, bait, hade
ɐ strut, bud, hud ɐː start, palm, bath[ ɑɪ price, bite, hide
ɔ lot, cloth, hot oː thought, north, force oɪ choice, boy, oil
There is little variation with respect to the sets of consonants used in various English dialects.
Australian English is non-rhotic.
6.4.3. Variation
6.4.3.1. Sociocultural variation
Academic research has shown that the most notable variation within Australian English is
largely sociocultural. This is mostly evident in phonology, which is divided into three sociocultural
varieties: broad, general and cultivated.
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Table 2.9. Variation in Australian closing diphthongs [121]
Variation in Australian closing diphthongs

Diaphoneme Lexical set Cultivated General Broad
/iː/ FLEECE [ɪi] [ɪi] [əːɪ]
/eɪ/ FACE [ɛɪ] [ɐ̟ɪ] [ɐ̟ːɪ, a̠ːɪ]
/aɪ/ PRICE [a̠ɪ̞ ] [ɒɪ̞ ] [ɒːɪ̞ ]
/uː/ GOOSE [ʊu] [ïɯ, ʊʉ] [əːʉ]
/oʊ/ GOAT [ö̞ʊ] [ɐ̟ʉ] [ɐ̟ːʉ, a̠ːʉ]
/aʊ/ MOUTH [a̠ʊ] [æo] [ɛːo, ɛː̃ ɤ]
A limited range of word choices is strongly regional in nature. Consequently, the

geographical background of individuals can be inferred, if they use words that are peculiar to
particular Australian states or territories and, in some cases, even smaller regions.
In addition, some Australians speak creole languages derived from Australian English, such
as Australian Kriol, Torres Strait Creole and Norfuk.
The broad, general and cultivated accents form a continuum that reflects minute variations
in the Australian accent. They can reflect the social class, education and urban or rural background
of speakers, though such indicators are not always reliable. According to linguists, the general
Australian variant emerged some time before 1900. Recent generations have seen a comparatively
smaller proportion of the population speaking with the broad variant, along with the near extinction
of the cultivated Australian accent. The growth and dominance of general Australian accents perhaps
reflects its prominence on radio and television during the late 20th century.
Australian Aboriginal English is made up of a range of forms which developed differently in

different parts of Australia, and are said to vary along a continuum, from forms close to Standard
Australian English to more non-standard forms. There are distinctive features of accent, grammar,
words and meanings, as well as language use.
The ethnocultural dialects are diverse accents in Australian English that are spoken by the
minority groups, which are of non-English speaking background. A massive immigration from Asia
has made a large increase in diversity and the will for people to show their cultural identity within
the Australian context. These ethnocultural varieties contain features of General Australian English
as adopted by the children of immigrants blended with some non-English language features, such as
the Afro-Asiatic and Asian languages.
6.4.3.2. Regional variation
Although Australian English is relatively homogeneous, some regional variations are notable.
The dialects of English spoken in South Australia, Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria,
Tasmania, Queensland and the Torres Strait Islands differ slightly from each other. Differences exist
both in terms of vocabulary and phonology.
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Most regional differences come down to word usage. For example, swimming clothes are
known as cossies or swimmers in New South Wales, togs in Queensland, and bathers in Victoria,
Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia; what is referred to as a stroller in most of
Australia is called a pusher in Victoria and usually a pram in Western Australia and Tasmania.
Preference for synonymous words also differs between states. For example, garbage (i.e., garbage
bin, garbage truck) dominates over rubbish in New South Wales and Queensland, while rubbish is
more popular in Victoria, Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia. The word footy
generally refers to the most popular football code in the particular state or territory; that is, rugby
league in New South Wales and Queensland, and Australian rules football elsewhere. Beer glasses
are also named differently in different states. Distinctive grammatical patterns exist such as the use
of the interrogative eh (also spelled ay or aye), which is particularly associated with Queensland.
6.4.4. Vocabulary
Australian English has many words and idioms which are unique to the dialect and have been
written on extensively, with the Macquarie Dictionary, widely regarded as the national standard,
incorporating numerous Australian terms.
Internationally well-known examples of Australian terminology include outback, meaning a

remote, sparsely populated area, the bush, meaning either a native forest or a country area in general,
and g'day, a greeting. Dinkum, or fair dinkum means "true" or "is that true?", among other things,
depending on context and inflection. The derivative dinky-di means "true" or “devoted”: a "dinky-
di Aussie" is a "true Australian".
Australian poetry, such as "The Man from Snowy River", as well as folk songs such as
"Waltzing Matilda", contain many historical Australian words and phrases that are understood by
Australians even though some are not in common usage today.
6.5. Standard Englishes

6.5.1. The emergence of the standard English in England
One example of standardization is the development of the standard English in England. In
the Middle English period (roughly 1150 to 1500), there was arguably no national literary standard
English. While Chaucer wrote in the East Midlands dialect (which included that of the city of
London), other writers used their own regional varieties.
According to Cruttenden [19, p.74] throughout the Middle Ages, there were three languages
used in the British Isles, with Latin and French as the prestige languages of court, culture,
education and economy. English did not, of course, disappear after the Norman Conquest. Even
though French became the official language of court and commerce and Latin was used in the
church and university, English remained the language for people of lower classes. Until the latter
half of the fourteenth century English was very much the speech of the lower classes and little of it
was written. But from then on English started to replace French in many areas and over the next
four centuries a standard written English emerged (particularly in spelling and grammar), codified
eventually by grammarians in the eighteenth century [19, p.74].
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During the late 14th and early 15th centuries English seemed to return as a prestige
language [60, pp.2-5; 89, pp.69-70]. The close of the fourteenth century brought the first post-
conquest king of England whose first language was English. At the end of the 14th century and the
beginning of the 15th century, English came to predominate as the official language of record. In
1423, Parliament records were kept virtually all in English. Henry V (r. 1413-1422) established
English as an official language. This meant that English would now be the language of government.
A standard form of English accompanied the rise of the institution known as "Chancery standard'.
Chancery comes from the word chancel, a chapel of the king, where the chaplains of the court
originally spent their time between services, writing the kings’ letters. By the end of the 14th
century, Chancery was the production house for official government documents. By the mid-15th
century, the term came to refer to the national bureaucracy as a whole. Chancery established
special forms of spelling and handwriting that were taught to scribes for the production of official
documents. From about 1430, government documents began to be written in English and, since it
was considered vital that these be understood throughout the country, it was felt that the language
used in these documents needed to be consistent and uniform. Since government documents were
produced by clerks in the Chancery in Westminster, it was these bureaucrats who decided which
variants were chosen. These clerks came from various parts of the country, but were all resident in
London. The variety of English used in their documents appears to have been based on London
English, with some features originating further north, probably from the East or Central Midlands.
As in many cases, the Chancery variant is most similar to that used in present-day standard English.
Since the process of standardisation involves the reduction of variants, it is evident that the
Chancery documents mark the first stage in the process of standardisation: the selection of a
variety. Thus, a new standard form of Middle English, known as Chancery Standard, developed
from the dialects of London and the East Midlands. Chancery English contributed to the
development of writing that was a standard, irrespective of the speech or dialect of the writer.
Spelling was standardized without regard to pronunciation. Chancery standard was the first
standard of writing (the written form of the English language). It contributed significantly to the
development of a standard English. The part of England that contributed most to the formation of
this standard was the East Midland district, and it was the East Midland type of English that became
its basis, particularly the dialect of the metropolis, London. According to Baugh and Cable [4,
pp.179-181], several causes contributed to the attainment of this result.
In the first place, as a Midland dialect the English of this region occupied a middle position
between the extreme divergences of the north and south. It was less conservative than the Southern
dialect, less radical than the Northern. In its sounds and inflections it represents a kind of
compromise, sharing some of the characteristics of both its neighbors. In the second place, the
East Midland district was the largest and most populous of the major dialect areas. A third factor,
more difficult to evaluate, was the presence of the universities, Oxford and Cambridge, in this
region. In the fourteenth century the monasteries were playing a less important role in the
dissemination of learning than they had once played, while the two universities had developed into
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important intellectual centers. So far as Cambridge is concerned any influence that it had would be
exerted in support of the East Midland dialect.
By far the most influential factor in the rise of Standard English was the importance of
London as the capital of England. The history of Standard English is almost a history of London
English. Indeed, it is altogether likely that the language of the city would have become the
prevailing dialect without the help of any of the factors previously discussed. London was, and still
is, the political and commercial center of England. It was the seat of the court, of the highest
judicial tribunals, the focus of the social and intellectual activities of the country. In the
practicalities of commerce the London economy was especially important as “an engine of
communication and exchange which enabled ideas and information to be distributed and business
to be done across an increasingly extensive, complex and varied field” [4].
Thus, according to Holmes [45, pp.79-80] standard English emerged in the form of Chancery
standard in the fifteenth century from a variety of regional English dialects, largely because it was
the variety used by the English Court and the influential merchants of London. The area where the
largest proportion of the English population lived at that time was in a neat triangle containing
London, where the Court was based, and the two universities, Oxford and Cambridge. In addition,
the East Midlands was an important agricultural and business area, and London was the hub of
international trade and exports to Calais. It was also the centre of political, social and intellectual
life in England.
It was the dialect used in this area which was the basis for what we now think of as standard
English. It was prestigious because of its use in Court. It was influential because it was used by the
economically powerful merchant class. In the latter part of the fifteenth century the London standard
had been accepted, at least in writing, in most parts of the country. People who came to London from
the provinces recognised this and often learned it, and this of course made it useful. The more
people who used it, the less effort people had to make to understand regional varieties. It is easy to
see how such a code would rapidly develop formal H functions in the context of administration and
government.
Standard varieties are codified varieties. Codification is usually achieved through grammars
and dictionaries which record, and sometimes prescribe, the standard forms of the language.
Dictionary writers (or lexicographers) have to decide which words to include in the dictionary as
part of the standard variety, which forms to mark as dialectal, and which to omit altogether. They
generally take the usage of educated and socially prestigious members of the community as their
criterion.
The codification process, which is part of the development of every standard variety, begun
in the Chancery, was accelerated in the case of English by the introduction of printing. In 1476,
William Caxton, the first English printer, set up his printing press in Westminster. He used the
speech of the London area and especially, the Chancery standard - the newly emerging standard
dialect - as the basis for his translations. In other words, he used the vocabulary, the grammar and
the pronunciation of this dialect when looking for words, constructions and spellings to translate
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works from French. Selecting forms was not always straightforward. Like other codifiers, he
reported that he consulted the best writers of the upper class for judgements on usage problems. By
using Chancery English, William Caxton established a national literary standard in print based on
the written standard of official documentation. The invention of printing press made books available
to more people. The books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Printing brought
standardization to people.
Chancery Standard contributed significantly to the development of a Standard English, and
the political, commercial and cultural dominance of the "East Midlands triangle" (London-
Oxford-Cambridge) was well established long before the 15th Century, but it was the printing
press that was really responsible for carrying through the standardization process. With the advent
of mass printing, the dialect and spelling of the East Midlands (and, more specifically, that of the
national capital, London, where most publishing houses were located) became the de facto
standard and, over time, spelling and grammar gradually became more and more fixed. A standard
written English emerged (particularly in spelling and grammar), codified and eventually codified
by grammarians in the eighteenth century.
It is difficult to overestimate the influence of the first printers in fixing and spreading the
written form of English. The language they used was the London literary English. With cheap
printed books becoming available to a great number of readers all over England, the London form
of literary English recognised throughout the country.
Thus, from the geographical viewpoint we may say that the country wide standard form of
written English was derived from the speech of London. It is natural that the greatest influence
exerted by the printers was that on the written form of the word. The written form of words
worked out by Caxton was adopted as standard and has in many cases remained unchanged even to
the present day.
Spoken English was standardized later than the written form. Cruttenden [19, pp.74-75] is
of the opinion that standard spoken English imitated the speech of London.
“Although written English gained ground rapidly in the fifteenth century, any
writing which commented on the spoken language did not appear until the sixteenth
century, when one type of regional speech began to be said to have prestige. It was
London and the speech of the monarch's court which was held up as the dialect to be
imitated'[19, pp.74-75].
Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the speech of London and its court are
held up as the acme of pronunciation. Despite criticisms, the court continues to be held up by some
as the model for polite speech. Sheridan asserts that “the pronunciation of English, as used by people
of the best taste at court is so perfect that there are few of our words capable of improvement” [as
cited in [19, pp.74-75].
It is concluded that “those sounds…which are the most generally received among
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the learned and polite, as well as the bulk of speakers, are the most legitimate.” Throughout
the centuries, there have been efforts in pronunciation codification. The standard
pronunciation has been Received Pronunciation (RP). The codification of pronunciation
began in the late eighteenth century, when elocutionists such as Thomas Sheridan and John
Walker produced explicit guides to correct pronunciation in the form of pronouncing dictionaries.
In the 17th century the type of speech used in London and in the universities was
unanimously proclaimed the best type of English. The phoneticians and grammarians recommended
it as a model of correct English.
During the 17th century, the gap between the written language and the spoken language
became narrower. With the spread of education more people learned to speak correctly, in the way
prescribed by grammars and textbooks. The use of standard speech as distinguished from local
dialects is insisted upon the grammars and dictionaries of the 18th century.
In the 20th century the growing economic and cultural influence of the United States and its
status as a superpower following the Second World War has, along with worldwide broadcasting in
English by the BBC and other broadcasters, significantly accelerated the spread of the language
across the planet. By the 21st century, English was more widely spoken and written than any
language has ever been. A major feature in the early development of Modern English was the
codification of explicit norms for standard usage, and their dissemination through official media
such as public education and state sponsored publications. In 1755 Samuel Johnson published his A
Dictionary of the English Language which introduced a standard set of spelling conventions and
usage norms. In 1828, Noah Webster published the American Dictionary of the English Language
in an effort to establish a norm for speaking and writing American English that was independent
from the British standard. Within Britain, non-standard or lower class dialect features were
increasingly stigmatised, leading to the quick spread of the prestige varieties among the middle
class [129].
As seen, Standard British English originated from the speech of London. Standard English is
associated with RP (Received Pronunciation). It was also called King’s English, Queen’s English,
BBC English, General British and Modern type of RP (MRP)
Today, Standard English is codified to the extent that the grammar and vocabulary of
English are much the same everywhere in the world. Standard English is so powerful that it exerts a
tremendous pressure on all local varieties.
The development of standard English illustrates the three essential criteria which
characterize a standard [45, pp.79-81]: it was an influential or prestigious variety, it was codified and
stabilised and it served H functions in that it was used for communication at Court, for literature and
for administration. It also illustrates that what we refer to as a standard language is always a
particular dialect which has gained its special position as a result of social, economic and political
influences. A standard dialect has no particular linguistic merits, whether in vocabulary, grammar or
pronunciation. It is simply the dialect of those who are politically powerful and socially prestigious.
Once it begins to serve as a norm or standard for a wider group, however, it is likely to develop the
wider vocabulary needed to express the new functions it is required to serve.
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Once a standard dialect develops, it generally provides a very useful means of

communication across areas of dialect diversity. Its status as a prestige variety guarantees it will
spread. Standard English has served as a useful variety for communication between areas of
dialect diversity, not only within Britain but also in countries where the British have had colonial
influence.
Thus, the standardisation process in the English language has undergone the following
steps: a-selection of norm, b-codification of form, c-elaboration of functions and d-acceptance
by the community.
6.5.2. Features of standard English

Standard English is the national variety of the language inasmuch as it is not restricted to any
region within the country. It is taught throughout the education system, and is identified with
educated English. It is the public language of official communication – in central and local
government, in parliament and the law courts, and generally in the mass media. It is
preeminently the language of printed matter; indeed, only the standard language has an
established orthography. It is the variety that is taught to foreign learners.
Standard English, according to Crystal [22], has the following five essential features:
a-SE is a variety of English-a distinctive combination of linguistic features with a particular
role to play in a country. There is nothing in the grammar and vocabulary of SE to tell us which part
of a country it comes from.
b-The linguistic features of SE are chiefly matters of grammar, vocabulary, and orthography
(spelling and punctuation). It is important to note that SE is not a matter of pronunciation: SE is
spoken in a wide variety of accents (including any prestige accent a country may have, such as
British RP).
c-SE is the variety of English which carries most prestige within a country. ’Prestige’ is a
social concept, where by some people have high standing in the eyes of others, whether this derives
from social class, material success, political strength, popular acclaim, or educational background.
The English that these people choose to use will, by this very fact, become the standard
within their community. In the words of one US linguist, SE is ‘the English used by the powerful’.
d-The prestige attached to SE is recognized by adult members of the community, and this
motivates them to recommend SE as a desirable educational target. It is the variety which is used as
the norm of communication by the community’s leading institutions, such as its government, law
courts, and media.
It is, therefore, the variety which is likely to be the most widely disseminated among the
public. It will, accordingly, be widely understood - though not to the same extent by everyone, and
with varying comprehension of some of its features.
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e-Although SE is widely understood, it is not widely produced. Only a minority of people

within a country (e.g. radio newscasters) actually use it when they talk. Most people speak a variety
of regional English, or an admixture of standard and regional English. SE is to be found in print.
On this basis, we may define the Standard English of an English-speaking country as a
minority variety (identified chiefly by its vocabulary, grammar, and orthography) which carries most
prestige and is most understood.
Standard English allows for some variation within its boundaries. This is represented in the
following figure by the flat top of the trapezium or table-topped mountain. If you look at Figure
2.2., the flat top symbolises the broader range of variants (alternative linguistic forms) which qualify
as part of the standard dialect of English in any country. It is estimated that up to 15 per cent of
British people regularly use standard British English. In standard English, a limited amount of
grammatical variation is acceptable.
Figure 2.2. Social and regional dialect variation [45, p.141]
6.5.3. Standard Englishes

The dialect we grace with the name standard English is spoken with many different accents.
But, there are also many standard Englishes. US standard English is distinguishable from South
African standard English and Australian standard English, for instance, and all three differ from the
British standard dialect.
Nowadays, English is spoken as a mother tongue in Great Britain, America, Australia, New
Zealand and elsewhere. We can speak of Standard British English, Standard American English,
Standard Australian English... Two major English standards are British standard and American
standard. Other English standards are based on these two standards.
A COMMON CORE or nucleus is present in all these standard varieties so that, however
esoteric a variety may be, it has running through it a set of grammatical and other characteristics that
are present in all the others. It is this fact that justifies the application of the name English to all the
varieties.
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6.6. International English, World English and World Englishes

6.6.1. International English
International English is the concept of the English language as a global means of
communication in numerous dialects, and also the movement towards an international standard for
the language. It is also referred to as Global English, World English, Common English,
Continental English or General English. Sometimes these terms refer simply to the array of
varieties of English spoken throughout the world.
Sometimes "international English" and the related terms above refer to a desired
standardisation, i.e. Standard English; however, there is no consensus on the path to this goal.
The geographical spread of English is unique among the languages of the world, not only in
our time but throughout history. The movement of English around the world began with the
pioneering voyages to the Americas, Asia and the Antipodes, continued with the 19th century
colonial developments in Africa and South Pacific and took a significant further step when it was
adopted in the 20th century as an official or semi-official language by many newly independent
states. English is now the dominant or official language in over 60 countries and is represented in
every continent and in three major oceans: Atlantic, Indian and Pacific. It is this spread of
representation which makes the application of the term world language a reality [21, p. 106].
According to Greenbaum [36, pp.12-14], English is the majority first language in twenty-
three countries. It is an official language or a joint official language in about fifty other
countries, where it is used in addition to the indigenous first languages for a variety of public and
personal functions. It is also used as a second language, though without official status, in countries
such as Bangladesh and Malaysia. Countries where English is a first or second language are located
in all five continents. The total population of these countries amounts to around 2.5 billion, about
49 per cent of the world's population. Where English is a first or second language, it is used
internally for communication between nationals of the same country. In addition, English is used
extensively as a foreign language for international communication by people who do not ordinarily
employ it when speaking or writing to their compatriots.
The number of first-language speakers of English has been estimated at well over 300
million, of whom over 216 million live in the United States. The United Kingdom has about 53
million, Canada over 17 million, and Australia about 14 million. Countries where English is a
majority first language may have large percentages of bilingual speakers and speakers for
whom English is a second language. For example, Canada has a large minority of unilingual
French speakers (nearly 17 per cent) as well as an almost equal percentage of speakers who are
bilingual in French and English. Most countries with second-language speakers of English are
former British colonies, such as India and Nigeria. English has been retained as an official
language in the majority of these countries after independence because none of the indigenous
languages was accepted by all citizens as the sole national language. As an official second
language, English is used in a variety of public functions: in government, in the law courts, in
broadcasting, in the press, and in education. In many African and Asian countries it serves as the
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means of interpersonal communication between speakers of different indigenous languages.

Because of both its national and its international reach, English is often used for literature,
sometimes in forms that draw heavily on local colloquial forms of English. Writers and politicians
in some African and Asian countries are ambivalent about the role of English: English may be
viewed as an imperialist language, imposed by colonial oppressors and impeding the role of
indigenous languages, or as the language of liberation and nationalism in countries divided by tribal
loyalties.
The present-day status of international / world status of English is primarily the result of two
factors: the expansion of British colonial power, which peaked towards the end of the 19th century,
and the emergence of the United States as the leading economic power of the 20th century. It is the
latter factor which continued to explain the position of the English language today. The USA
contains nearly four times as many English mother tongue (EMT) speakers as the next most EMT
nation (the UK), and these two countries comprise 70 per cent of all EMT speakers in the world.
Such dominance, with its political and economic underpinnings, gives the American a controlling
interest in the way the language is likely to develop [21, p.106].
Thus, the pre-eminence of English for international communication is, in part, indebted to
the spread of English as a first or second language for internal communication in numerous
countries that were once part of the British Empire. The role of English as an international
language has gathered momentum since the end of the Second World War through the economic
and military global dominance of the United States and the resources it deploys for scientific and
technological progress.
In developing countries, English is regarded as the language of modernization and

technological advancement. Most of the world's scientific and technical journals are in English. It
is commonly required for international trade and at international conferences, and is the official
medium for communication at sea and in the air. Television programmes in English are viewed in
many countries where English is a foreign language, and when demonstrators wish to achieve the
maximum international impact they chant and display their slogans in English.
The English taught to foreign learners is generally British or American English in their
standard varieties. Except for pronunciation the differences between the two are relatively minor, as
indeed they are between the standard varieties in any of the countries where English is the majority
first language.
The mass media are ensuring, if anything, the smoothing of differences and are
encouraging reciprocal influences, though the influence of American English is predominant.
Despite some trivial variation in spelling and punctuation, and some more important variation in
vocabulary, the standard first-language varieties of written English are remarkably homogeneous.
The situation in countries where English is primarily a second language is fluid and
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varies. In the past these countries have looked to British or American English for language
norms. But there are indications that in some countries—such as India, Nigeria, and Singapore—
local models of English are being sought that are based on their own educated varieties. This
nativization of English augues well for the continued use of English for internal functions in those
countries.
At present, there are no established and generally acknowledged standard varieties in

second-language countries. As a result, teachers and examiners are uncertain as to the norms
towards which teaching should be geared: those of the evolving local standard or those of some
external standard. In some areas the insecurity of teachers is exacerbated by inadequacies in their
acquisition of English. Institutionalization of national standards will require research by
grammarians and lexicographers into the language of educated speakers and the agreement of
educational and governmental authorities. The standard will then be codified in dictionaries,
grammars, and usage guides, and incorporated in textbooks and in school and college examinations.
The likelihood is that, as in Britain and the United States, only a minority will be fully competent
in the national standard and that there will be a continuum of non-standard variation linked to it.
We may hope that the new national standards will take their place as constituents of an
International Standard English, preserving the essential unity of English as an international
language and therefore its continuing value for that role.
The present role of English as an international language derives from its geographical
spread and the prestige and practical value it has acquired through the United States in the last
few decades. It cannot be attributed to the intrinsic superiority of English over potential other
candidates. It is possible to point to some features that appear to make English easier to learn than
some other languages. English has few inflections, so foreign learners do not have to memorize
declensions and conjugations. It has natural rather than grammatical gender, so learners do not need
to memorize the gender of each noun and do not have to cope with ensuring gender agreement
between the noun and an accompanying article or adjective. For most Europeans at least, the
Germanic and Romance elements that constitute the bulk of English vocabulary provide welcome
help. On the other hand, the absence of inflections has increased the importance of prepositions
and the burden of memorizing the preposition that goes with a particular verb, noun, or adjective
in a particular meaning: look at and look to, pride in and proud of, afraid of and alarmed at.
English also confronts the learner with a multitude of idiomatic combinations, particularly verbs
with adverbs such as get by, do in, turn up, make out. The frequent absence of correlation
between pronunciation and spelling is a serious obstacle for learning to read and write.
There is no method of weighing the advantages and disadvantages of English in

comparison with other languages for foreign learners. Ultimately their motivation for learning
English is pragmatic, depending on the value they expect to gain from doing so.
The future of English as a global / international language will depend very largely on the
political, economical, demographic and cultural trends in the world. The beginning of the 21st
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century is a time of global transition. According to some experts, faster economic globalization is
going hand in hand with the growing use of English. More and more people are being encouraged
to use English rather than their own language.
On the other hand, the period of most rapid change can be expected to be an uncomfortable
and at times traumatic experience for many people around the world. Hence, the opposite view,
that the next 20 years or so will be a critical time for the English language and for those who
depend upon it. The patterns of usage and public attitudes to English which develop during this
period will have long-term effects for its future in the world.
6.6.2. World Englishes [198]

6.6.2.1. World Englishes
World Englishes refers to the emergence of localised or indigenised varieties of English,

especially varieties that have developed in nations colonised by Great Britain or the United States.
World Englishes consist of varieties of English used in diverse sociolinguistic contexts globally,
and how sociolinguistic histories, multicultural backgrounds and contexts of function influence the
use of colonial English in different regions of the world.
6.6.2.2. World English versus World Englishes
The notions of World English and World Englishes are far from similar, although the terms
are often mistakenly used interchangeably. World English refers to the English language as a
lingua franca used in business, trade, diplomacy and other spheres of global activity, while World
Englishes refers to the different varieties of English and English- based creoles developed in
different regions of the world.
The spread of English around the world is often discussed in terms of three distinct
groups of users as presented in the most influential model of the spread of English: Braj Kachru's
model of World Englishes.
Figure 2.3. Kachru's Three Circles of English [22, p. 61]
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In this model the diffusion of English is captured in terms of three Concentric Circles of
the language: The Inner Circle, the Outer Circle, and the Expanding Circle.
Table 2.10. The three circles of English and their attributes [89, p.3]
Cause of spead Pattern of Functional Countries

acquisition allocation
The Inner Circle Settlement by As a native All functions e.g. UK, USA,
first language language Australia, New
speakers Zealand
The Outer Colonisation (by As a second Administration, e.g. India, Kenia,
Circle the British) language education, Singapore
literature
The Expanding Globalisation As a foreign Tourism, e.g. China, Japan
Circle language diplomacy,
business
6.6.2.3. English as a lingua franca in foreign language teaching
English as an additional language (EAL) usually is based on the standards of either

American English or British English. English as an international language (EIL) is EAL with
emphasis on learning different major dialect forms.
In particular, it aims to equip students with the linguistic tools to communicate

internationally. Roger Nunn considers different types of competence in relation to the teaching of
English as an International Language, arguing that linguistic competence has yet to be adequately
addressed in recent considerations of EIL.
Several models of "simplified English" have been suggested for teaching English as a
foreign language.
6.7. Advanced reading: The Vietnamese language [196; 132]

Vietnamese /viˌɛtnəˈmiːz/ (Tiếng Việt) is an Austroasiatic language that originated in the
north of modern-day Vietnam, where it is the national and official language. It is the native language
of the Vietnamese (Kinh) people, as well as a first or second language for the many ethnic minorities
of Vietnam.
Vietnamese was identified more than 150 years ago as part of the Mon–Khmer branch of the
Austroasiatic language family. Later, Muong was found to be more closely related to Vietnamese
than other Mon–Khmer languages, and a Viet–Muong subgrouping was established.
.
Vietnamese has traditionally been divided into three dialect regions: North, Central, and
South. There are various mutually intelligible regional varieties (or dialects), the main five being:
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Table 2.11. Dialect regions in Vietnamese [196]
Dialect region Localities
Northern Vietnamese Hanoi, Haiphong, Red River Delta, Northwest and

Northeast
North-central (or Area IV) Vietnamese Thanh Hoá, Nghệ An, Hà Tĩnh
Mid-Central Vietnamese Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị, Huế, Thừa Thiên

South-Central Vietnamese (or Area V) Đà Nẵng, Quảng Nam, Quảng Ngãi, Bình Định,
Phú Yên, Nha Trang
Southern Vietnamese Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu, Ho Chi Minh City, Lâm Đồng,
Mekong Delta
For further information on dialects in Vietname, please refer to [111, p.210], [196] and [132]
Follow-up activity 2.6. True/False: Discuss with your friends and decide whether the
1-In broad term, British English is the English used throughout the United Kingdom, but it is
often more narrowly understood as the English of England.
2-The two major regional dialects of England are Northern and Southern dialects.
3-According to Kurath (1949), three main dialects in America are Northern, Midland and
Southern.
4-According to Holmes [45, pp.79-80], standard English emerged in the form of Chancery
standard in the fifteenth century.
5-The term World Englishes refers to the English language as a lingua franca used in
business, trade, diplomacy and other spheres of global activity, while the term World English refers
to different varieties of English.
7. LANGUAGE VARIATION: LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL CLASSES: SOCIAL

DIALECTS / SOCIOLECTS
7.1. Sociolect
Pre-lecture activity 2.7.1. Discuss:

1-Are there differences in language use caused by differences in gender, ethnic origin,
social class…? Find examples to illustrate.
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7.1.1. Social stratification

One of the chief forms of sociolinguistic identity derives from the way in which people
are organized into hierarchically ordered social groups, or classes (social stratification). Classes,
according to Crystal [20, p.38], are aggregates of people with similar social or economic
characteristics, which include income levels, types of housing, educational levels, occupations,
gender…In the industrialized societies of the West, this is referred to as social stratification.
7.1.2. Sociolects
One of the principal concerns of sociolinguistics over the past decades has been describing
language in use. The study of sociolinguistic variation is essentially the description of the
differential use of language by different social groups – particularly social classes (class
stratification studies). A number of important concepts and findings have emerged from this
work on social classes and the use of language which now form part of the basic currency of the
discipline. One of the findings is that social stratification gives rise linguistically to social class
dialects or sociolects (They are also called culturolects). Social class differences correlate with
sociolect differences.
“A sociolect is a variety of language (a dialect) used by people belonging to a particular

social class” [82, p.262]. The language a speaker uses will identify the speaker as belonging to a
particular group, or having a particular social identity. Socialect research in many different
countries has revealed a consistent relationship between social class and language patterns. People
from different social classes speak differently. The way people speak is characterized by patterned
variation. The patterns are fascinating and indicate the social factors which are significant in a
society. The way people speak is usually a good indicator of their social background. And there
are many speech features which can be used as clues. Sociolinguistics have found that almost any
linguistic features in a community which shows variation will differ in frequency from one social
group to another in a patterned and predictable way. Some features are stable and their patterns of
use seem to have correlated with membership of particular social groups in a predictable way for
many years. Social dialects differ in many aspects including pronunciation, vocabulary and
grammar.
Let us look at caste dialects in India and social-class dialects in the West as examples.
7.1.3. Caste dialect [71, p. 28]

Probably, the clearest examples of social dialects are those associated with a caste
system. Castes are social divisions based solely on birth, which totally restrict a person’s wayof
life – for example, what kinds of jobs people can have, who they can marry, how should they
dress, what they should eat, and how they should behave in a range of social distinctions. Not
surprisingly, these social distinctions have corresponding speech differences. A person’s dialect is
an indication of their social background.
The bestknown caste system is that of Hindu society in India. It is based on Hindu
religion, which preaches that people have more than one life and that they are born into a
particular caste in life according to their behavior in their previous life. The system of castes in
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India can be divided into Brahmins (priests) and non-Brahmins. The non-brahmins include
Kshatiyas (warriors), Vaisyas (farmers and merchants), Sundras (servants), and Harijas (the
untouchables).
Table 2.12. Castes in India [71, p.28]
Castes in India
Brahmins priests
Kshatriyas soldiers
Vaishyas traders
Shudras Servants & labourers
Harijan (untouchable) the worst work, refused by others
There are rigid lines between the castes and no form of social mixing is allowed.
Sociologists describe a situation where one’s social position is determined at birth as
ascription. A man is born into a jati (a division of caste) and this is the only way of acquring
membership. The Hindu doctrine of ‘karma’ teaches the young Hindu that he is born into a
particular sub-caste because that is where he deserves to be born. Linguistic correlates of caste can
be found at all levels of structure. There are clear differences in Indian languages between the
speech of Brahmins and non-Brahmins. There are several clear-cut distinctions between the
phonology, vocabulary, and grammar of Brahmin and non-Brahmin speech.
Table 2.13. Linguistic differences between Brahmin and Non-Brahmin in India

[Bright & Ramanujan, 1964, as cited in [20, p.38]
Brahmin Non-Brahmin
Vocabulary
tungu sheep orangu
alambu wash kaluyu
jalō water taṇṇi
Phonology
krāfu haircut krāppu
jīni sugar cīni
vāreppano banana vāreppolo
Grammar
-du it -ccu
vandudu it came vanduccu
paṇra he does pannuhā
7.1.4. Social-class dialect / Sociolect

7.1.4.1. Social class
Social class (or simply "class") is a set of concepts in the social sciences and political
theory centered on models of social stratification in which people are grouped into a set of
hierarchical social categories.
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Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists

and social historians. In common sense, the term "social class," is usually synonymous with
"socio-economic class," defined as: "people having the same social, economic, or educational
status," e.g., "the working class"; "an emerging professional class."
Labov [57] deals with social stratification in his work entitled The Social Stratification of
English in New York City. As the tittle of the work states, SSENYC deals with social
stratification: the fine-scale linguistic layering of people along the “linear social” scale which
in this book is usually termed “socioeconomic class” (SEC). Most sociolinguistic studies of the
last two decades rely on some kind of scalar index like Labov’s for their operational definition of
social class.
Today, the concepts of social class often assume three general categories: a very wealthy
and powerful upper class that owns and controls the means of production; a middle class of
professional workers, small business owners, and low-level managers; and a lower class, who
rely on low-paying wage jobs for their livelihood and often experience poverty.
7.1.4.2. Examples from sociolect research

Social dialect research in many different countries has revealed a consistent relationship
between social class and language patterns. People from different social classes speak differently.
The ways people speak are good indicators of their social background. And there are many speech
features in a community which shows variation will differ in frequency from one social group to
another in a patterned and predictable way. Some features are stable and their patterns of use
seem to have correlated with membership of particular social groups in predictable way for many
years. Social dialect surveys have demonstrated that stable variables tend to divide English-
speaking communities sharply between the middle classes and the lower working classes. The most
obvious differences are in vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar.
a-Examples of vocabulary differences

Social dialect research in many different countries has revealed a consistent relationship
between social class and language patterns. People from different social classes speak
differently. The most obvious differences in vocabulary are in many ways the least illuminating
from a sociolinguistic point of view, though they clearly capture the public imagination. In the
1950s in England, many pairs of words were identified which distinguished the speech of upper-
class English people (U speakers) from the rest (non-U speakers). U speakers used sitting room
rather than lounge (non-U), and referred to the lavatory rather than the (non-U) toilet. Following
are other example of U and non-U speakers:
Table 2.14. U and non-U [Ross, 1954, as cited in [20, p.39]
U non-U
Have a bath Take a bath
Bike, bicycle cycle
luncheon dinner
riding Horse riding
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sick Ill
knave jack
mad mental
Looking-glass mirror
Writing-paper Note-paper
jam preserve
wireless radio
Table-nalkin serviette
Lavatory-paper Toilet-paper
rich wealthy
vegetables greens
pudding weet
telegram wire
England Britain
Scotch Scottish
These vocabulary differences were rather like those which distinguished Brahmin and non-
Brahmin caste speech. The nature of upper-class language has changed over 30 years later, but
the terms U and non-U are still well-known.
We can also find vocabulary differences between social classes in many types of sociolects
such as gender language, slang, prefessional language, ethnic language.
b-Examples of pronunciation differences

i-[iŋ] or [in] in reading aloud in Norwich (England) [Trudgill, 1974, as cited in [20, p.38]
People of different social levels in Norwich (England) were asked to read aloud a list of
isolated words (A) and a piece of continuous text (B), and their pronunciations when reading were
compared with their formal (C) and casual (D) speech. Table 2.24. shows the research findings:
Table 2.15. [iŋ] or [in] in reading aloud in Norwich (England)[Trudgill, 1974, as cited in [20,
p.38]
Class A B C D
MMC 0 0 3 28
LMC 0 10 15 42
UWC 5 15 74 87
MWC 23 44 88 95
LWC 29 66 98 100
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The table shows whether the variable (-ng) in such words as walking was pronounced as /ŋ/or
/n/ (0=no use of /n/; 100=100% use of /n/.) The consistency with which speakers increase their use
of /n/ as their language becomes more spontaneous and casual reflected at every social level.
ii-Dropping the /h/ [Chambers & Trudgill, 1980, as cited in [20, p.38]
In British English, the accent which carries most prestige pronounces /h/ at the beginning of
words such as head. But in most other accents of England and Wales, it is common to omit /h/in
this position. Regions do not pronounce or omit /h/with total consistency, however, as can be seen
from the results of two studies of this variable carried out in Norwich and Bradford.
The speakers were grouped into five social classes, based on such factors as their occupation,
income, and education. The proportion of /h/-dropping was calculated with the following results:
Table 2.16. Dropping the /h/[Chambers & Trudgill, as cited in [20, p.38]
Class Bradford Norwich
Middle middle (MMC) 12% 6%
Lower middle (LMC) 28% 14%
Upper working (UMC) 67% 40%
Middle Working (MWC) 89% 60%
Lower Working (LWC) 93% 60%
The correlation is clear. In both areas, there is more /h/-dropping as one moves down the
social scale. Moreover, the proportion is always greater in Bradford, suggesting that the
phenomenon has been longer established in that area.
iii-Post-vocalic [r] [102, p.48]

In New York City in 1964, a man was observed in three different department stores
asking one store worker after another: ‘where are the women’s shoes?’ The man appeared not only
to have a short memory, since he repeated his question to a shop assistant in each aisle on
several different floors, he also appeared to be slightly deaf since he asked each person to repeat
their answer to him. After receiving the answer he would scurry away and scribble something in
his notebook. Oddest of all, when he finally made it to the fourth floor where the women’s shoes
were, he showed absolutely no interest in them whatsoever but wandered around the floor asking,
‘Excuse me, what floor is this?’ When questioned by a puzzled store detective, he said he was a
sociolinguist!
One linguistic form which has proved particularly interesting to sociolinguists studying
English-speaking speech communities is the variable pronunciation of [r] in words like car and
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card, for and form. For our purposes, there are two possible variants of [r].
Either it is present and pronounced [r], or it is absent ([r] or [Ø]). If you listen to a range of
dialects you will find that sometimes people pronounce [r] following a vowel, and sometimes
they don’t [Ø]. In some regions, pronouncing [r] is part of the standard prestige dialect – in
the Boston and New York areas of the eastern USA, for example, in Ireland and in Scotland
(though recent research suggests that this is changing in the speech of young working-class people
in Glasgow and Edinburgh). In other areas, standard dialect speakers do not pronounce [r] after
vowels (or ‘post-vocalically’ as linguists describe it) in words like car and card. In areas where
[r] pronunciation is prestigious, sociolinguists have found patterns like those described above for
[h]- dropping and -in vs -ing ([in] vs [iŋ]) pronunciation. The higher a person’s social group, the
more [r] they pronounce.
In New York City, Labov conducted an interesting experiment demonstrating in a neat

and economical way that pronunciation of post-vocalic [r] varied in the city according to social
group. As the example describes, he asked a number of people in different department stores
where to find an item which he knew was sold on the fourth floor. (The informants were 264
department store in New York City: high-ranking assistants from Saks Fifth Avenue, middle-
ranking assistants from Macy’s and lowest-ranking assistant from S. Klein.) Then, pretending he
hadn’t heard the answer, he said, ‘Excuse me?’ People repeated their answers and he obtained a
second and more careful pronunciation. So each person had the chance to pronounce [r] four times:
twice in fourth and twice in floor. This ingenious rapid and anonymous survey technique provided
some interesting patterns.
Table 2.17. Post-vocalic –r used in three New York department stores

Highest-ranking assistants at Saks Fifth Avenue 62%
Middle-ranking assistants at Macy’s 51%
Lowest-ranking assistants at S. Klein 17%
In this way information on /r/-usage was obtained from 264 informants (who did not know,
of course, that they were being interviewed by a linguist). The results were: 62% of the high-
ranking store assistants, 51 %i n the middle store and 17 % in the low-ranking store used /r/. The
results showed clear social stratification of [r] pronunciation. Overall, the ‘posher’ the store, the
more people used post-vocalic [r].
Post-vocalic [r] illustrates very clearly the arbitrariness of the particular forms which are
considered standard and prestigious. There is nothing inherently bad or good about the
pronunciation of any sound, as the different status of [r]-pronunciation in different cities
illustrates. In New York City, pronouncing [r] is generally considered prestigious. In Reading in
England it is not. In one city the higher your social class the more you pronounce post-vocalic [r].
In the other, the higher your social class the fewer you pronounce.
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c-Examples of grammatical differences

i-Verbs without -s in Norwich and Detroit [102, pp.43-44]
In standard English the third-person present singular form of verbs has an affix, orthographic –s,
which distinguishes it from other persons: I know, we know, they know, but she knows. In East
Anglia and in Detroit this –s is often not present, at least in the speech of some people. This means
that the following sorts of form occur:
She like him very much.
He don’t know a lot, do he?
It go ever so fast.
Since standard English has the –s, and since the standard variety is generally most closely
associated with higher social groups, it was suspected that there might be direct correlation
between social class position and the usage of –s. To investigate this possibility was relatively
easy, since there was no difficulty in measuring this linguistic feature: it was simply a matter of
listening to tape-recordings made during the surveys and counting the number of times a speaker
did or did not use –s. Table 2.27 shows the results of these investigations for Norwich speakers and
for black speakers in Detroit.
Table 2.18. Verbs without -s in Norwich and Detroit [102, p.44]

Norwich Detroit
MMC 0% UMC 1%
LMC 2% LMC 10%
UWC 70% UWC 57%
MWC 87% LWC 71%
LWC 97%
The table shows that the suspicion is quite justified - there is a clear correlation between
social class and usage of –s.
7.1.5. Important social dialects in England and America

7.1.5.1. Important social dialects within England
In addition to Standard British English, there are the following important social dialects in
English English: a-Cockney English, b-Estuary English (EE) and c-"Queen's or King’s" English.
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a-Cockney English [18, p.75]

Most British people can recognize Cogney, a London dialect of the working class.
Grammatical variations include them for those who and double negative. Characteristics of a
Cogney accent include dropping the sound /h/, e.g. ouse for house, a feature shared by many urban
accents, and pronouncing th in words like think as /f/ not /ɵ/. A glottal stop /?/ replaces the /t/ in
words like water, and the /ei/ in mate is replaced by /ai/.
b-Estuary English (EE) [18, p.75]
In the 1990s a new dialect, Estuary English, spread through south-east England. It
developed from a combination of Cockney and RP, and was the result of the upward social
movement of some Cockney speakers and a downward trend from RP by some middle-class
speakers. Estuary English was adopted by some people as a feature of a new classless society.
It can be heard in Parliament and on television though it seems less popular than originally,
perhaps because many people find its accent unattractive. It has some of the glottal stops found in
Cockney, and in words like hill the /l/ is repaced by /ʊ /, so hill is pronounced /hiʊ/. Non-standard
forms include the use of was for were, as in ‘We was walking home’, and variant prepositions such
as off of, as in ‘She got off of the bus’.
The spread of Estuary English provoked a strong reaction among people who believed that
the standard of English was falling. Previously, there was a distinction between written English and
the more informal spoken language. This has been reduced in recent years, with many books and
newspaper using easier more informal English to reach a wider group of readers.
c-Queen’s and King’s English [131]
The notion of the "Queen’s" English or "King’s" English, depending on who is the ruler of
the time, can be traced back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries where the idea that the
monarch’s usage of the language should be a model in speech and writing. During these times there
was a development of a prestigious speech associated with the court and aristocracy. Wales, [1994,
as cited in [131] also points out that the phrase "The King’s English" was first used during the reign
of James I. The British Royal Family would generally be considered to be speakers of the standard
English, RP, discussed in the Received Pronunciation section. However, Wales, [1994, as cited in
[131] differentiates between the way the older "royals" speak and the changes that can be seen in the
younger members of the royal family.
The accents of the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret (the Queen’s sister) reflect the
conservative RP as epitomized by the old British films and Pathe newsreels of the first part of the
century. The younger members of the royal family such as Prince Edward, Prince Andrew and the
in-laws of the family, the Duchess of York (Fergie) as well as the late Princess of Wales (Diana), all
speak an RP closer to "advanced" RP than to the conservative, more traditional accent.
7.1.5.2. Important social dialects in America
In addidion to General American, there are the following important social dialects in
America:
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a-African-American Vernacular English [142]

African-American Vernacular English, also known in North America as Black English, is the
set of English dialects primarily used by most African Americans and also some Black Canadians.
African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), known less precisely as Black Vernacular, Black
English Vernacular (BEV), Black Vernacular English (BVE), or colloquially Ebonics (a
controversial term), is the native variety (dialect, ethnolect and sociolect) of most working - and
middle-class African Americans, particularly in urban communities, with its own unique accent,
grammar, and vocabulary features. Middle-class African Americans, who are typically bi-dialectal
(and who often codeswitch), employ African-American Vernacular English in casual, intimate, and
informal settings as one end of a sociolinguistic continuum. On the other end of this continuum is a
prestigious cultivated variety, African American Standard English, employed for more formal or
public settings and exhibiting standard English vocabulary and grammar, though retaining elements
of the nonstandard accent
b-Pennsylvania Dutchified English [181]
Pennsylvania Dutchified English is a dialect of English that has been influenced by the
Pennsylvania German language. It is largely spoken in South Central Pennsylvania, both by people
who are monolingual (in English) and bilingual (in Pennsylvania German and English). The dialect
has been dying out, as non-Amish younger Pennsylvania Germans tend to speak modern General
American English. Very few non-Amish members of these people can speak the Pennsylvania
German language, although most know some words and phrases. The World War II Generation was
the last generation in which Pennsylvania Dutch was widely spoken outside the Old Order Amish
and Old Order Mennonite communities.
c-Chicano English [146]
Chicano English, or Mexican-American English, is a dialect of American English spoken
primarily by Mexican Americans (sometimes known as Chicanos), particularly in the Southwestern
United States, ranging from Texas to California but also apparent in Chicago. Chicano English is
sometimes mistakenly conflated with Spanglish, which is a grammatically simplified mixing of
Spanish and English; however, Chicano English is a fully formed and native dialect of English, not a
"learner English" or interlanguage. It is even the native dialect of some speakers who know little to
no Spanish.
d-New York Latino English [176]
An ethno-cultural dialect of the English language, primarily spoken by Hispanic Americans
on the East Coast of the United States, demonstrates considerable influence from New York City
English and African American Vernacular English, with certain additional features borrowed from
the Spanish language. The academic literature has recently labelled the language variety New York
Latino English, referring to its city of nineteenth-century origin, or, more inclusively, East Coast
Latino English. In the 1970s scholarship, the variety was more narrowly called (New York City)
Puerto Rican English or Nuyorican English. The dialect originated with the Puerto Ricans moving to
New York City after World War I, though particularly in the subsequent generations born in the
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New York dialect region who were native speakers of both English and Spanish. Today, it is the
customary dialect of many Hispanic Americans of diverse national heritages, not simply Puerto
Ricans, in the New York metropolitan area and beyond along the northeastern coast of the United
States.
Follow-up activity 2.7.1.T/F: Decide whether the following are true or false:
1-Social stratification gives rise to sociolects.
2-A sociolect is a variety of language belonging to a particular social class.
3-There are no linguistic differences between Brahmin and Non-Brahmin in India.
4-Sociolect researches in many different countries have revealed a certain relationship
between social classes and language patterns.
5-We can find linguistic differences between social classes in many types of sociolects.
7.2. Language and gender
Pre-lecture activity 2.7.2. Discuss

1-Are there any differences between men’s language and women’s language. If yes, find
the differences and examples in Vietnamese and in English.
7.2.1. Language and gender

A major topic in sociolinguistics is the relationships between language and gender. A
variety of speech (or sociolect) associated with a particular gender is called a
genderlect.
7.2.2. Approaches to gender study

According to [130], since the 1960s, sociolinguists have been exploring the gendered dimension of
language. These early works have assisted in distinguishing different aspects of sex and gender.
Although many sociolinguistic researchers use gender and sex interchangeably, other scholars use
the term gender to refer to cultural and social attributes that have been acquired via the
socialization process. They have considered gender as a social construct in the study of
language, gender and social sciences. In terms of sociolinguistics, there are the following
approaches to the study of the relationship between language and gender: a-the biological approach,
b-the cultural approach, c-the power and dominance approach, and d-the social constructionist
approach.
7.2.3. Linguistic and communicative differences between men and women.
Phonological, lexical, conversational, verbal and non-verbal differences in male-female

communication have been noted in a variety of languages.
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7.2.3.1. Male-female streotypes

Male-female streotypes are described by Graham of the university of Kentucky as follows [200]:
Table 2.19. Male-female streotypes [200]

Female Male
Rapport Report
Supportiveness Dominance
Building relationship Individuality
Ask questions Avoid questions
Cooperate Assert
Hollistic Focused
Seek concensus Give order
Relate Resolve
Male-female voice qualities have been generally noted as follows:
Table 2.20. Male-female voice qualities

Female Male
Talk softly Talk loudly
High pitch Deep pitch
Fast rate Slow rate
Upward inflection Downward inflection
Strident tone Relaxed tone
Graham [200] also points out gender differences in non-verbal communication:
Table 2.21. Gender differences in non-verbal communication

Body language Male Female
Facial expression Less More
Eye contact Avoid Prefer
Posture More relaxed More tense
Body proximity Less Closer
Touching Sexual interest Warm and friendship
7.2.3.2. Gender-exclusive differentiation [74, p.433]

Gender-exclusive differentiation refers to differences in word forms for exclusive use by
men and women; this refers to the radically different speech varieties men and women possess in
a particular varieties. In some societies, a woman or a man may not normally be allowed to speak
the variety of other gender. It is in this sense that varieties are gender-exclusive. A society in
which this is the norm is typically one in which the roles assigned to the sexes are rigid, and in
which there is little social change. Examples are :
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Table 2.22. An example of gender-exclusive diference in Chiquito [102, p.82]

Male speaker Female speaker
My father ijai isupu
Mymother ipaki ipapa
Table 2.23. Another example of gender-exclusive difference in Koasati [102, p.82]

Male speaker Female speaker
He is saying / ka: / /kã:/
He is peeling it /lakauci:s /la kaucin/
Some natural languages have intricate systems of gender-specific vocabulary

[169]. Sumerian women had a special language called Emesal, distinct from the main language,
Emegir, which was spoken by both genders. The women's language had a distinct vocabulary,
found in the records of religious rituals to be performed by women, also in the speech of
goddesses in mythological texts. For a significant period of time in the history of the ancient
languages of India, after the formal language Sanskrit diverged from the popular Prakrit languages,
some Sanskrit plays recorded the speech of women in Prakrit, distinct from the Sanskrit of
male speakers. This convention was also used for illiterate and low-caste male speakers. Garifuna has
a vocabulary split between terms used only by men and terms used only by women. This does not
however affect the entire vocabulary but when it does, the terms used by men generally come from
Carib and those used by women come from Arawak. The indigenous Australian language Yanyuwa
has separate dialects for men and women. In Ancient Greek, there is evidence for some difference
between the speech of men and women, as evidenced for example in the comedies of Aristophanes.
7.2.3.3. Gender-preferential differentiation [74, p.433]
Gender-preferential differentiation is much more common in the languages of the world

than in gender-exclusivity. This phenomenon is reflected in the relative frequency with each
men and women use the same lexical items or other linguistic features [74, p.433]. If female
English speakers use words such as lovely and nice more often than do male speakers, we can claim
that English speakers exhibit gender-preferential differentiation
Phonological differences between the speech of men and women have been noted in a
variety of languages [107, p.316]. In the area of morphology and vocabulary, many of the studies
have focused on English.
Lakoff [59] published an influential account of women's language. She listed a set of basic
assumptions about what marks out the language of women. Among these are claims that women:
a-Hedge: using phrases like “sort of”, “kind of”, “it seems like”, and so on.
b-Use (super)polite forms, e.g “Would you mind...”, “I'd appreciate it if...”, “...if you don't
mind”.
c-Use tag questions, e.g. “You're going to dinner, aren't you?”
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d-Speak in italics: intonational emphasis equal to underlining words - so, very, quite.
e-Use empty adjectivesg.g. divine, lovely, adorable, and so on
f-Use hypercorrect grammar and pronunciation: English prestige grammar and clear
enunciation.
g-Use direct quotation (men paraphrase more often).
h-Have a special lexicon: women use more words for things like colours, men for sports.
i-Use question intonation in declarative statements: women make declarative statements into
questions by raising the pitch of their voice at the end of a statement, expressing uncertainty. For
example, “What school do you attend? Eton College?”
j-Use “wh-” imperatives, e.g “Why don't you open the door?”
k-Speak less frequently
l-Overuse qualifiers,e.g. “I think that...”
m-Apologise more, e.g.“I'm sorry, but I think that...”
n-Use modal constructions: (such as can, would, should, ought - “Should we turn up the
heat?”)
o-Avoid coarse language or expletives
p-Use indirect commands and requests, e.g “My, isn't it cold in here?” ( which is really a
request to turn the heat on or close a window)
q-Use more intensifiers, especially so and very, e.g. “I am so glad you came!”
r-Lack a sense of humour: women do not tell jokes well and often don't understand the punch
line of joke.
Lakoff [59] also claims that women use color words like mauve, beige, aquamarine,
lavender, and magenta but most men do not. She also maintains that adjectives such as
adorable, charming, divine, lovely, and sweet are also commonly used by women but only very
rarely by men. Women are also said to have their own vocabulary for emphasizing certain effects
on them, words and expressions such as so good, such fun, exquisite, lovely, divine, precious,
adorable, darling, and fantastic. In her work, Lakoff identified a number of female linguistic
features which were unified by their function of expressing lack of confidence.
In Living Language, Keith and Shuttleworth [55, p.222] record suggestions that:
a-women: talk more than men, talk too much, are more polite, are indecisive/hesitant,
complain and ask more questions, support each other, are more co-operative, whereas
b-men: swear more, don't talk about emotions, talk about sport more, talk about women and
machines in the same way, insult each other frequently, are competitive in conversation, dominate
conversation, speak with more authority, give more commands, interrupt more.
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Tannen [95] reveals a very different conversational style by men and women. Women,
Tannen says, use conversation to make connections and establish intimacy and community, what she
refers to as “rapport talk”. Conversation is more cooperative than competitive, although sometimes
competition is masked by apparent cooperation. Men, on the other hand, see conversation as means
of establishing status and power. Information giving, or “report talk” is one way to achieve a higher
status in conversation. In simple terms, men tend to negotiate status through conflict and report talk
whereas women create a sense of community through rapport talk.
Mills [2003, as cited in [169] contests the view that women are more polite than men.
Lakoff [1975, as cited in [169] identified three forms of politeness: formal, deference, and
camaraderie. Women's language is characterized by formal and deference politeness, whereas
men's language is exemplified by camaraderie.
Graham [200] lists the following differences gender-based verbal communication:

Table 2.24.Verbal communication differences based on gender:
Male Female
-Avoid personal stories -Share personal stories
-Attempt to dominate the conversation -Offer personal stories
-Less likely to listen -Form groups
-More aggressive -Listen carefully / attentively
-More prone to interrupt -Allowed themselves to be interrupted more
In setting out a list of what she calls sociolinguistic universal tendencies, Holmes
[44] does offer some testable claims. There are five of these:
a-Women and men develop different patterns of language use.

b-Women tend to focus on the affective functions of an interaction more often than men do.
c-Women tend to use linguistic devices that stress solidarity more often than men do.
d-Women tend to interact in ways which will maintain and increase solidarity while
(especially in formal contexts) men tend to interact in ways which will maintain and increase their
power and status.
e-Women are stylistically more flexible than men.
According to Graham of University of Kentucky [200], there are the following differences in
communication characteristics between men and women:
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Table 2.25. Gender differences in communication characteristics [200]

Men Women
Men focus on power / rank / status Women focus on relationships
Men talk to give information or report Women talk to collect information or gain report
Men talk about things (business, sports, Women talk about people / relationships
food)
Men focus on facts, reason and logic Women focus on feelings, sense and relationship
Men thrive on competing and achieving Women thrive on harmony and relating
Men know by analysis and figuring out Women know by intuiting
Men tend to be focused, specific, and logic Women are holistic and organic
Men are at ease with order, rules and Women are at ease with fluidity
structure
Men immediately want to get working on a Women tend to ask a lot of questions before
project beginning a project
Men want to think Women want to feel
7.2.3.4. Gender differentiation in the choice of grammatical forms

According to O’ Grady, D o b r o v o l s k , A r o n o f f [ 7 4 , p.432], there is a
considerable literature on the general topic of language and gender, which may be taken as
including all of the following:
In many languages, there are

a-differences in language use associated with the gender (or sexual orientation) of the
speaker or the listener / addressor-addresee. These differences can be found in Vietnamese,
Japanese, Thai language…In Japanese, a male speaker refers to himself as boku or ore whereas a
female uses watasi or atasi to refer to herself. In Thailand, in polite conversation, the female speaker
of Thai refers to herself as dichan, male speaker: phom.
b-differences in language use associated with the gender (or sexual orientation) of the
referent (person spoken about): e.g. He-she-it; il-elle, on-ana
A gender-specific pronoun is a pronoun associated with a particular grammatical gender,
such as masculine, feminine, or neuter, or with a biological gender (or sex), i.e. female or male.
Examples are the English third-person personal pronouns he and she.
c-efforts to alter the language with respect to ways gender is or is not encoded, e.g. Le-la,
der-die-das, noun, adjectives, verb endings showing gender encoded in Russian, German, French,
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Latin.
The English language makes certain distinctions of a gender-based kind, e.g., actor-actress,
waiter-waitress, and master-mistress. In some Native American languages, grammatical forms of
verbs are inflected differently according to the gender of the speaker.
7.2.4. Sexist language
The term ‘sexism’ was coined in the 1960s, probably by analogy with the term racism, to
describe ‘discrimination within a social system on the basis of sexual membership’ [Wodak,
1997, as cited in [61, p.13]. Sexist language can be defined as one type of discriminatory
language (use); it refers to linguistic expressions that exlude, trivialize or insult (maily)
women. Sexism makes sense within a historically hierarchical relationship between men and
women, where one is the norm, and the other marked as ‘other’ or inferior, and in relation to a
wide range of social practices where women (and in some cases men) are exploited, manipulated or
constrained because of their sex.
There are a number of ways in which it has been suggested that the English language
discriminates against women [61, pp.13-18]:
First, the English language has developed in a male-dominated, male-centred society.

Feminists such as Spender (1990) believes that language is man-made, with male forms being seen
as the norm and female ones seen as deviant. If you examine carefully how we usually express
ourselves you will see how male-centred t he language is. Although the word MAN in its original
sense carried the dual meaning of adult human and adult male, its meaning has come to be so
closely identified with adult male that the generic use of MAN (Mankind) and other words with
masculine markers should be avoided. This is a form of female invisibility.
In English language, there are many words, which are clearly male-orientated in that they
contain the element “-man” while they can in fact apply to both sexes, e.g. chairman, newsman,
policeman, mailman, congressman.
Many words reinforce the view of women as deviant, abnormal or subordinate group.
Sexism in language is also showed in that the noun of feminine gender can only be obtained by
adding a certain bound morpheme to the noun. For example, English morphology generally takes
the male form as the base form and add a suffix to signal female. Examples are:
Table 2.26. Male forms as the base forms
MALE FEMALE MALE FEMALE

man woman manager manageress
prince princess god goddess
author authoress mayor mayoress
count countess shepherd shepherdess
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The use of an additional suffix to signal femaleness is seen as conveying the message that
women are deviant or abnormal.
It has also been suggested that suffixes like –ess and –ette trivialize and diminish women.
Generic structures provide further evidence to support the claim that the English language
maginalised women and treat them as abnormal. In fact, words like’generic’ he and man can be said
to render women invisible. The basis for claims that English renders women invisible is the use of
he and man as generic forms. It is also clear that the word man is associated with male images even
though when it is used generically.
Second, most obviously, perhaps, in the semantic area the English metaphors available to
describe women include an extraordinarily high number of derogatory images compared to those
used to describe men.
Here is one example [61, pp.13-18]:

The chicken metaphor tells the whole story of a girl’s life. In her youth she is a chick,
then she marries and begins feeling cooped up, so she goes to hen parties where she cackles with
her friends. Then she has her brood and begins to hen-peck her husband. Finally, she turns into an
old biddy.
Animal imagery is one example of an area where the images of women seem considerably
less positive than those for men. Consider the negativity of bitch, old biddy and cow, compared to
stud and wolf. Animal imagery which refers to men often has at least some positive component
(such as wiliness or sexual prowess). Birds are widely regarded as feather-brained and flighty!
Even the more positive chick and kitten are sweet but helpless pets.
Women may also be described or referred to in terms of food imagery, which is equally
insulting. Saccharine terms, such as sugar, sweetie, honey, are mainly, though not exclusively,
used for addressing women. Less complimentary terms such as crumpet and tart, however, are
restricted to female referents. They illustrate a common evolutionary pattern in the meaning of
words referring to women. Terms which were originally neutral or affectionate eventually acquire
negative connotations as they increasingly refer only to women and as their meanings focus on
women as sexual objects. By contrast, there appears to be less food imagery which is
appropriate for referring only to men.
Third, newspapers [61, p.15], for example, are full of examples of wordings which are used
to portray women in negative or limiting ways, i.e. wordings which:
a-depict women as sex objects and on the basis of their appearance rather than their intellect
or capabilities (e.g. ‘a blonde’);
b-define women in terms of home, family, and domestic roles (e.g. ‘mother of three’), in
ways that are seldom used for men;
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c-trivialize women (e.g. using ‘girl’ for a much wider age range than ‘boy’ would be used;
also ‘weathergirl’; judge women , ‘career woman’).
Sexist wordings portray women as sex objects and, judging on the basis of their appearance
rather than intellect or capabilities, they define women in terms of home, family and domestic
roles, and trivialize women.
7.2.5. Gender-neutral language [169]

Gender-neutral language or gender-inclusive language is language that avoids bias toward a
particular sex or social gender. In English, this includes use of nouns that are not gender-specific to
refer to roles or professions, as well as avoidance of the pronoun he (including the forms him and
his) to refer to people of unknown or indeterminate gender. For example, the words policeman and
stewardess are gender-specific; the corresponding gender-neutral terms are police officer and flight
attendant. Other gender-specific terms, such as actor and actress, may be replaced by the originally
male term; for example, actor used regardless of gender. Some terms, such as chairman, that
contain the component - man but have traditionally been used to refer to persons of either sex are
now seen by some as gender-specific. When the gender of the person referred to is unknown or
indeterminate, a gender-specific pronoun such as he may be avoided by using a gender- neutral -
pronoun – possibilities in English include he or she, s/he, or singular they.
Table 2.27. Examples of gender emphasis in occupational titles:
Gendered Title Gender Neutral Title

businessman, business person/person in business, business people/people in
businesswoman business
chairman, chairwoman chair, chairperson
7.2.6. Why are there differences?

According to [169], Jennifer Coates outlines the historical range of approaches to gendered
speech in her book Women, Men and Language. She contrasts the four approaches known as the
deficit, dominance, difference, and dynamic approaches.
Deficit is an approach that defines adult male language as the standard, and women's
language as deficient. This approach created a dichotomy between women's language and men's
language. This triggered criticism to the approach in that highlighting issues in women's language
by using men's as a benchmark. As such, women's language was considered to have something
inherently 'wrong' with it.
Dominance is an approach whereby the female sex is seen as the subordinate group
whose difference in style of speech results from male supremacy and also possibly an effect of
patriarchy. This results in a primarily male-centered language. Scholars such as Dale Spender and
Don Zimmerman and Candace West subscribe to this view.
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Difference is an approach of equality, differentiating men and women as belonging to

different 'sub-cultures' as they have been socialised to do so since childhood. This then results in
the varying communicative styles of men and women. Deborah Tannen is a major advocate of this
position. Tannen compares gender differences in language to cultural differences. Comparing
conversational goals, she argues that men tend to use a "report style", aiming to communicate
factual information, whereas women more often use a "rapport style", which is more concerned
with building and maintaining relationships.
The dynamic or social constructionist approach is, as Coates describes, the most current
approach to language and gender. Instead of speech falling into a natural gendered category, the
dynamic nature and multiple factors of an interaction help a socially appropriate gendered
construct. As such, West and Zimmerman (1987) describe these constructs as "doing gender"
instead of the speech itself necessarily being classified in a particular category. This is to say that
these social constructs, while affiliated with particular genders, can be utilized by speakers as they
see fit.
Women are generally believed to speak a better "language" then men do. This is a
constant misconception, but scholars believe that no gender speaks a better language, but that each
gender instead speaks its own unique language. This notion has sparked further research into the
study of the differences between the way men and women communicate.
Wardhaugh [107, pp.326-327] has three claims, the first of which seems reasonable: “The
first claim is that men and women are biologically different and that this difference has
serious consequences for gender.”
“The differences between women and men in ways of interacting may be the result of
different socialisation and culturation patterns. If we learn the ways of talking mainly in
single sex peer groups, then the patterns we learn are likely to be sex-specific. And the
kind of miscommunication which undoubtedly occurs between women and men will be
attributable to the different expectations each sex has of the function of the interaction, and
the ways it is appropriately conducted” [Holmes,1992, as cited in [107, p.328].
“Sex varieties, then, are the result of different social attitudes towards the behaviour of
men and women, and of the attitudes men and women themselves consequently have to
language as a social symbol” [102, p.94].
Follow-up activity 2.7.2. True/False: Discuss with your friends and decide whether
1-There are many linguistic differences between male’s language and female’s language.
2-Gender-exclusive differences in language use involve the form of language use by only
one gender.
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3-Tannen (1990) states that women use conversation as “rapport talk” and men use it as
“report talk”.
4-English males often use emotional adjectives such as super, lovely, sweet,
exclamations such as goodness, oh dear, and intesifiers such as so, such...
5-There are gender differences in language use because there are social and physical
differences between males and females.
CHAPTER II REVIEW I
I-Answer the following questions:
1-What is a language variety?

2-Describe the method used in variationist studies.
3-What is a dialect?
4-What is a standard language?
5-What are the major dialect areas in England? in America?
6-What are the features of standard English?
7-Why is English considered to be an international language?
8-What is the difference between two terms: World English and World Englishes?
9-What is a sociolect?
10-Why are there differences between male language and female language?
II-T/F: Decide whether the following statements are true or false
1-A language variety is a specific set of ‘linguistic items’ or ‘human speech pattern’ which
we can uniquely associate with some external factor.
2-A language variable is a linguistic item which has various forms (variants).
3-The dialects of a single language may be defined as mutually intelligible forms of the
language which differ in systematic ways from each other.
4-Dialects originally meant varieties based on social classes.
5-A dialect has prestige which a language lacks.
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6-The standard language is the variety of a language which has the highest status in a
community or nation, and which is usually based on the speech and writing of educated native
speakers of the language.
7-Standard varieties are codified varieties.
8-A standard language is ususlly not used in education and media.
9-Standardisation refers to the process by which a language has been codified in some way.
That process usually involves the development of such things as grammars, spelling, dictionaries….
10-According to Haugen, the process of language standardization are: a-selection, b-
codification, c-elaboration and d-acceptance.
11-An idiolect is the language variety spoken in one region of a country.
12-English is the language of Indo-European family.
13-The word English is from Old English Englics that comes from the name of the Angles.
The Angles were named from Engle, their land of origin.
14-In broad term, British English is English used throughout the United Kingdom, but it is
often more narrowly understood as the English of England.
15-Two important regional dialects of England are Northern and Southern.
16-The major difference between Northern English and Southern English is in pronunciation.
17-American English originated from Australian English.
18-General English is the standard pronunciation of British English.
19-The terms Network English, Network Standard or General American refer to standard
American.
20-There is a difference in the pronunciation of the vowel sound of such words as dance,
fast, grass… between British English and American English.
21-North American has given the English language many thousands of words, meanings and
phrases.
22-There are no grammatical and spelling differences between British English and American
English.
23-Professor Hans Kurath grouped American dialects into Northern dialect and Southern
dialect only.
24-British English, American English and Australian English can be considered to be
different territorial dialects of the English language.
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25-From geographical viewpoint we may say that the country wide standard form of written
English was derived from the speech of London. Socially, it originated from the speech of middle
class educated people.
26-The dialect we term standard English is spken with only one accent: RP.
27-International English is the concept of the English language as a global means of
communication in numerous dialects, and also the movement towards an international standard for
the language.
28-A sociolect is a variety of language used by people belonging to a particular social class
or it can be defined as the linguistic differences associated with definable social groups in a single
geographical area.
29-Social stratification gives rise linguistically to social class dialects or sociolects.
30-Gender-exclusive differences in language use means the relative frequency with which
men and women use the same lexical items or other linguistic features.
7.3. Language and age

Pre-lecture-activity 2.7.3. Discuss
1-Is a child’s language different from an adolescent’s language? An adolescent’s
language from an adult language? Give examples.
7.3.1. Child language development:

According to Crystal [20, pp. 237-247], child language features include the following in
the first years:
7.3.1.1. Sound production

Table 2.28. Sound production in child language development [20, pp. 237-247]
Stage I (8-20 weeks) Basic biological noises
Stage II (8-20 weeks) Cooing and laughing
Stage III (20-30 weeks) Vocal play
Stage IV (25-50 weeks) Babling
Stage V (9-18 months): Melodic utterances
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7.3.1.2. Syntactic Development

a-The one-word stage (holophrastic stage)
Children begin to produce one-word utterances between the ages of 12 and 18 months. A
basic property of these one - word utterances is that they can be used to express the type of
meaning that would be associated with an entire sentence in adult speech. Thus, a child might
use the word dada to mean I saw daddy’s hat, more to mean give me more. Such utterances are
called holophrases. A striking feature of holophrastic utterances is children’s skill in
communicating complex messages with a single word.
b-The two-word stage:

Around 18 months, children begin to produce two-word utterances.
Examples are:
Baby chair (the baby is sitting on the chair)  agent-location (semantic relation)
Doggie bark (The dog is barking) agent-action (semantic relation).
c-The telegraphic stage
At around 2 years of age, children begin to produce longer and more complex
grammatical structures like the text used in the telegraph. Examples are:
Chair all broken.
Daddy like this book.
What her name?
At first, there is lack of bound morphemes and most non-lexical categories. Over a period of
several months, affixes, determiners, and auxiliary verbs appear. A noteworthy feature of the
telegraphic stage is that children make virtually no word order errors.
In the years following the telegraphic stage, children continue to acquire complex grammar
that underlies adult linguistic competence.
7.3.1.3. Development of word meaning

By eighteen months or so, the average child has a vocabulary of fifty words or more.
Over the next months this vocabulary grows rapidly, sometimes by as much as 10 or 12 words a
day. By 18 months, it is thought that most children can speak about 50 words and understand about
five times as many. Typical vocabulary of a two-year-old child include words denoting objects
(body parts, food, clothes, household, animals), properties (bad, dirty, fat, good, more, nice,
poor, sweet), actions and events (bring, burn, catch, clap, come...) and others (away, down,
now, up, yes, thank you, goodbye.).
7.3.1.4. Pragmatic development

The task of language acquisition requires that children learn much more than patterns of
sound, grammar, and vocabulary. They must also learn to use these patterns appropriately in a
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rapidly increasing range of everyday social situations.
7.3.1.5. Conversational skills:

Between the ages of 2 and 4, a remarkable development takes place in the ability of the
child to participate in a conversation.
At the earlier age, conversations are often very erratic and disjointed, with parents doing
most of the ‘work’, and children using sequences of utterances, many of which are not obviously
directed to any listener. The effect is a curious mixture of monologue and dialogue.
By three years old, it is plain that children have learned many aspects of conversational
strategy. They are able to initiate a dialogue, can handle several of the conventions of turn-taking.
They know a great deal of how to respond appropriately.
These skills develop greatly between three and five years old. In particular, there is a major
development in child awareness of the social factors that govern a successful conversations: correct
use forms of address, making requests, turn-taking, repairing..
7.3.1.6. Language development in school
When children arrive in school, the educational setting presents them with a variety of
unfamiliar, subject related styles of language. They have to learn a new range of linguistic
skills - reading, writing, and spelling.
They find themselves having to talk about what they are doing, which requires that they
learn a special technical vocabulary – a ‘language for talking about language’, or metalanguage.
7.3.1.7. Theories to explain child language acquisition

a-Imitation and correction
b-Input: Parental speech (care-giver or motherese). Linguistic features are:
i-Phonetic: (slower speech, higher pitch, exaggerated intonation and stress, longer
pauses)
ii-Lexical and semantic: more restricted vocabulary, concrete reference to here and now.
iii-Syntactic (Fewer incomplete sentences, shorter sentences, more commands and
questions)
iv-Conversational: More repetitions, fewer utterances per conversational turn.
c-Innateness (Inborn knowledge)
It is argued that children must be born with an innate capacity for language development:
the brain is ‘ready’ for language, in the sense that when children are exposed to speech, certain
general principles for discovering or structuring language automatically begin to operate. These
principles constitute a child‘s ‘language acquisition device’ (LAD).
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The child uses its LAD to make sense of the utterances heard around it, deriving from
this ‘primary linguistic data’ hypotheses about the grammar of the language - what the sentences
are, and how they are constructed.
This knowledge is then used to produce sentences that, after a process of trial and error,
correspond to those in adult speech: the child has learned a set of generalizations, or rules.
Governing the way in which sentences are formed.
d-Cognition
The main alternative account argues that language acquisition must be viewed within the
context of a child’s intellectual development. Linguistic structures will emerge only if there is an
already-established cognitive foundation.
Several early child language scholars maintained that such a relationship exists, but the most
influential account stems from the model of cognitive development proposed by the Genevan
psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
7.3.2. Adolescence language/ Teenage talk
7.3.2.1. Language development in adolescence [93]
Although the majority of language development occurs in the critical infant through
preschool years, development continues into the adolescent years. Because the development is less
acute, the study of this linguistic period in a child's life is relatively new.
According to KidsHealth at [ 137] , adolescence is the period of a child's life as he
approaches adulthood and can begin anywhere from eight to fourteen years of age. It is marked by
numerous physical changes as well as certain cognitive developments.
Linguistics development during this time is subtle but important. This development
includes learning to use more complex language and to communicate differently depending on the
situation.
For the most part, pragmatics and semantics are the linguistic features which are developed
during adolescence. Pronunciation and phonology are primarily formed during the younger years.
At this time, children grow their vocabulary and learn the proper and underlying use of
each word. They also develop syntactic use and sentence form.
An adolescent's language development is related to her cognitive growth. As she learns to

think abstractly, she will also be better able to develop complex syntactic creations to explain the
new concepts she learns.
Also, as she develops socially, she will learn subtle societal differences in how certain
groups communicate and will be able to adapt her language to that situation. These abilities
prepare a child for further learning and for a growing community of peers and mentors.
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Various theories of language development have shaped research and understanding of

adolescents. For instance, Piaget's theory of cognitive development isolated two stages that span
the adolescent period.
The concrete operational stage, from ages seven to eleven, and the formal operational stage,
from age eleven to adulthood, are said to be times of abstract thought. In addition, these stages are a
time when adolescents learn to classify objects or people.
7.3.2.2. Adolescent peer group language [93]
a-Families and peers in adolescence
Adolescence, the period of transition from childhood to adult status, is widely recognized as
a crucial stage in human development. It is characterized by changes at all levels of integration:
social, psychological and physiological.
There are two social contexts which are important for their language development: family
and school.
They are the member of two linguistic communities: family and school. This period reveals
their movement away from the family and their integration into a peer-defined social world in
schools.
b-The language of adolescents
The growth influence of peer groups on the evolving perceptions, attitudes, and linguistic
behaviours of youth during adolescence continues a process begun much earlier in the life cycle.
However, the language of adolescents is distinguished from the language of children by its
intended purposes, functions, and consequences for behaviour and experience.
For children, language is the medium through which the world is discovered and the means
by which society and people are integrative and inclusive. The linguistic forms of adolescents have
their function as markers of social identities and group exclusiveness, and are sometimes used as
weapons to oppose, confuse, or offend.
Adolescent language has three main functions:

i-to promote group identity and cohesiveness:
The special language of adolescents arises from the need for differentiation and social
distance from adult society, and functions as an instrument of in-group solidarity and
distinctiveness.
In order to maintain its first function as a marker of group distinctiveness and solidarity,
and to minimize the potential encroachments of adults, adolescent terminology constantly change:
old terms replaced by new ones to refer to roughly the same phenomena, thereby preserving the
secret codes by which in-group members indentify and communicate with one another.
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The use of slang, taboo words and alliteration, the style of articulation, and other kinds of
verbal play, proclaim for the adolescent membership in, and allegiance to, a particular group, and
serve as forms of resistance to adult control.
ii-to be a means of expressing the values and experiences of group members.
The second function of adolescent language is its use as a means of expressing the values and
experiences of group members.
The use of a special language, whether employed by adults (e.g., medical students,
academics, gamblers, etc.) or by adolescents, has much the same function for both groups, namely,
to facilitate communication among individuals who share common interests and concerns, and who
need a common vocabulary for talking about such matters.
A good part of the interests and concerns of adolescents revolve around such forbidden topics
as sexual activities, drinking, drugs, and lawbreaking, for which a special vocabulary unintelligible
for the adults is required.
Slang and elliptical utterances, vague in reference, are shorthand devices to save time and
effort by summing up complex and recurrent phenomena and experiences.
iii-to establish status and associational patterns within the adolescent social system
The third function of AL is to establish status and associational patterns within the adolescent
social system. Adolescent society provides a status system and terminology which enable youths to
engage in predictable and consistent interactions with their peers, and to acquire a sense of personal
worth based on sub-cultural standards rather than the norms of adult society.
The status terminology employed is affectively coded such that a youth’s status in the local
prestige hierarchy is partly a function of the meanings associated with the terms peers use to connote
his or her character and group affiliations.
These terms have laudatory or pejorative connotations and are in part related to the
adolescent’s interpersonal skills and accomplishments, as measured by the norms, standards, and
values of the peer group.
7.3.2.3. Gender-specific uses of adolescent language
Beyond the general functions of adolescent language noted above are gender – specific uses
of peer group language. Differential patterns of socialization and extensive interaction in single-sex
peer groups account for some of the gender-specific uses of language found among adolescent.
Since boys and girls typically interact in homegeneous groups and in different social
contexts, they tend to develop different genres of speech and skills for doing things with words.
The peer-group networks of adolescent female are typically smaller, and games or other
recreational activities are generally cooperative and noncompetitive. Closeness, intimacy, mutual
commitment, loyalty, equality, cooperation and support are girls’ important features.
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Girls learn to deal with conflicts through the use of language in several ways:
a-to create and maintain relationships of closeness and equality,
b-To criticize others in acceptable way,
c-to interpret accurately the speech of other girls.
Boys’ groups are typically larger and more hierachically structured than girls’group.
Posturing and counterposturing is a prominent feature of the male adolescent social world,
where patterns of speech are designed to accomplish at least three objectives:
a-to assert one’s position of dominance,

b-to attract and maintain an audience, and
c-to assert oneself when other speakers have the floor.
Use of speech for the expression of dominance can be done through verbal duelling, story
telling, joke-telling, narrative performance, getting the floor to perform, maintaining his audience
in the midst of a performance, and successfully completing his performance.
Boys learn to assert their identity and opinions in such context by side comment, putdowns
and challenges.
7.3.2.4. Teen talk

In Trends in Teen Talk [91], Stenström, Anderson and Hasund presents the following
findings about the London teenage talk features based on the London teenage data:
a-Talking proper in contexts

Teenagers talk differently in variously social settings, accommodating their language as they
tell a joke to a friend, answer the teacher’s questions in class or discuss homeworks with their
parents. Research has shown that teenagers are perfectly capable of “talking” proper. The
teenagers showed the ability to talk “proper” in contexts. First, and foremost, they demonstrate
their ability to talk “teenage language”.
b-The typical teenage vocabulary use

The typical teenage vocabulary use is slanguage which includes Slang words, dirty words,
vogue words, rogue words, proxy words, swearword, vague words (e.g. lots of, stuff like that…),
and small words (e.g. cos, like, sort of, well)
c-The use of a variety of linguistic and paralinguistic means

The teenagers were found to have at their disposal a variety of linguistic and paralinguistic
means to indicate reported speech in narratives and elsewhere. The many constructions available,
including the quotative Be like, the verb say and go (go is used more than say), zero and
quotatives, etc. are used in different contexts and for slightly different purposes.
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d-The use of non-standard grammar

The most interesting findings as regards grammar are manifested in the use of non-
standard grammar (e.g. He don’t come out, He don’t do nuffink, aint…) and in the trendy use of
intensifiers (which are manifested in the use of well as an adjective intensifier in line with very
(e.g. It’s well wicked) and the placement of enough before instead of after the word it modifiers
(e.g. It’s enough funny). This usage of well and enough, which distinguishes teenage from adult
language, turned out to be a revival of Old English usage.
e-The use of invariant tags

The use of invariant tags (such as eh, okay, right, yeah and the invariant innit) is
highly common characteristic of teenage talk, more so than that of the language of adults. Tags are
used with a wide range of subtly different functions. In addition to well-known epistemic and
softening functions of tag, their functional range include such uses as the imagination-appealing,
concept-retrieval helping, response-urging, continuation-checking and proposal-evaluating
functions.
f-Ritual conflict
The core type of ritual conflict is the ritual insult consisting of competitive sequences
where the participants exchange insults directed at the listener’s mother (the your mum is X
format). Ritual insult is primarily a male activity, some forms of ritual conflict are also found
among adolescent females.
7.3.3. Adult language [201]

In adulthood, the rate of language development slows, and language matures and deepens.
Adults are very flexible language users, in part, because of the variety of forms and functions
available. Although there are some signs of language and communication decline in some seniors,
most adults continue to be effective communicators well into their retirement years.
Development slows in adulthood but continues through the lifetime unless hindered by
poor health, accident, or injury. As an adult, a person becomes the example for children and sets
the standards for mature behavior. As an adult, a person adds new skills, new words, and new
problem-solving skills to the formidable ones already possessed.
Social and communicative abilities adapt subtly to the many different environments in
which an adult functions. With development of a truly impressive set of pragmatic and
interactional skills, an adult learns to maneuver in the complex worlds of family, profession, and
community, and increasingly in the international multiethnic realm.
As a language user, anadult gains increasing flexibility. The organization of his or her huge
vocabulary enables an adult to access concepts both effectively and efficiently. Increased social
skills help an adult to choose the most appropriate words and syntactic structures for any given
situation. This doesn’t mean that language will be error-free or that an adult is an effective
communicator in every situation—especially cross-cultural ones—but as you mature you will be
even more skilled than you are already.
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With aging, there is a slow decline in both oral and written language comprehension,
understanding syntactically complex sentences, and inferencing (Nicholas, Connor, Obler, &
Albert, 1998). Decline may be related to either overload or processing difficulties in working
memory. Although comprehension of figurative language seems unimpaired in healthy older
adults, the ability to explain figurative expressions does decline (Gregory & Waggoner, 1996).
The evolution of processing strategies may be reflected in the shifting recall patterns that
occur with adult changes. The free recall of complex linguistic material decreases with age. These
changes in cognitive operations may be more quantitative than qualitative. The elderly have
more difficulty with linguistic processing that requires greater organization in order to recall. In
general, the elderly are more sensitive to theme or underlying meaning but are less able than young
adults to recall syntax.
The incidence of hearing loss increases with age, being both more common and more
severe for the participants in their 80s than for those in their 70s. In addition, men are more
affected than women.
Main features of adult language are:

a-Language development continues slowly through adulthood, although there are some
declines in the senior years.
b-Adults are adept and flexible communicators with various styles of talking.
c-Gender differences are obvious in adulthood. In general, men and women use different
vocabulary and styles of talking that may reflect societal expectations, societal inequalities, and
socialization practices.
d-Vocabularies continue to grow with some loss in speed and accuracy of word retrieval in
the senior years.
e-Syntax becomes more complex, and speakers use conjuncts (cohesive devices) and
disjuncts (attitudinal markers) to improve the flow and express opinions.
f-Adult phonological knowledge enables adults to interpret speech from dialectal speakers
and to make rapid speech coarticulatory movements.
Follow-up activity 2.7.3.True/False: Discuss with your friends and decide whether
1-“More” to mean Give me more is an example of language use in an English child’s

telegraphic stage.
2-By 18 months, most children are thought that they can speak about 50 words and
understand as five times as many.
3-There are two contexts for the development of adolescent language: a-family and b-
school
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4-The language of adolescent is distinguished from the language of children by its

intended purposes, functions, and sequences for behaviour.
5-In adulthood, the rate of language development slows, and language mature and deepens.
Adults are very flexible language users, in part, because of the variety of forms and functions
available. Although there are some signs of language and communication decline in some seniors,
most adults continue to be effective communicators well into their retirement years.
7.4. Language and taboo

1-What are the areas of taboo words in the Vietnamese language?
2-Why do people swear?
7.4.1. Taboo:
7.4.1.1. What is taboo? [192]
A taboo is a vehement prohibition of an action based on the belief that such behavior is
either too sacred or too accursed for ordinary individuals to undertake, under threat of supernatural
punishment. Such prohibitions are present in virtually all societies. The word has been
somewhat expanded in the social sciences to strong prohibitions relating to any area of human
activity or custom that is sacred or forbidden based on moral judgment and religious beliefs
The term "taboo" comes from the Tongan tapu or Fijian tabu ("prohibited", "disallowed",
"forbidden"), related among others to the Maori tapu, Hawaiian kapu, Malagasy fady. Its English
use dates to 1777 when the British explorer James Cook visited Tonga. Describing the cultural
practices of the Tongans, he wrote:
“Not one of them would sit down, or eat a bit of any thing.... On expressing my surprise at
this, they were all taboo, as they said; which word has a very comprehensive meaning; but, in
general, signifies that a thing is forbidden.
When anything is forbidden to be eaten, or made use of, they say, that it is taboo” [192].
The term was translated to him as "consecrated, inviolable, forbidden, unclean or
cursed". Tabu itself has been derived from alleged Tongan morphemes ta ("mark") and bu
("especially"), but this may be a folk etymology (note that Tongan does not actually have a
phoneme /b/), and tapu is usually treated as a unitary, non-compound word inherited from Proto-
Polynesian tapu, in turn inherited from Proto-Oceanic tabu, with the reconstructed meaning
"sacred, forbidden". In its current use on Tonga, the word tapu means "sacred" or "holy", often
in the sense of being restricted or protected by custom or law.
Goshylyk & Goshylyk [35, p.54] defines taboo as

1-A prohibition against touching, saying, or doing something for fear of immediate harm
froma supernatural force.
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2-A prohibition imposed by social customs or as a protective measure.
“Taboo is the prohibition or avoidance in any society of behavior believed to be harmful to

its members in that it would cause them anxiety, embarrassment, or shame. Consequently,
so far as language is concerned, certain things are not said, or certain objects can be
referred to only in certain circumstances, for example, only by certain people, or through
deliberate circumlocutions, i.e. euphemistically” [107, p.250].
A taboo is a vehement prohibition of an action based on the belief that such behavior is
either too sacred or too accursed for ordinary individuals to undertake. Taboo itself also contains a
binary opposition, referring to human experiences, words, or deeds that are unmentionable because
they are either ineffably sacred (like the name of God) or unspeakably vile (like incest).
“Taboos exist in all known cultures, referring to certain act, objects, or relationships which
society wishes to avoid-and thus to the language used to talk about them” [20, p.8)]
“Taboo words are those that are to be avoided because they are deemed unfit for normal
linguistic usage and by community consensus are banned in everyday language in the
public domain” [3].
Taboo words are

a-Words referring to processes and states of human biological existence.
b-Words referring to birth, death, pregnancy, various illnesses and diseases….
b-Names of deceased persons
c-Animals considered to have special power
d-Supernatural beings and their activities e-Words referring to religion
f-Words referring to incest, cannibalism, food, sex, pollution and death.
Taboo words are to be avoided because they are powerful and can cause unforeseen
consequences. Underlying the avoidance of taboo words are cultural values and belief systems
according to which attitudes are formed and judgements are made regarding the offending,
dangerous, or sacred nature of certain words.
Since there are cross-cultural variations in attitudes and belief systems, there are also
differences concerning the semantic range and topical nature of taboo words.
Taboo words are avoided by paraphrases, synonyms, euphemism, code words, silence.
The use of taboo words is generally associated with strong emotions. Therefore, speakers use
them to express strong feelings and listeners respond with equally strong feelings and
reactions. The repeated use of taboo words diminishes their tabooness.
Whether or not a taboo word belonging to any of the above categories is used in speech
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depends on the social cultural contexts. The use of the above words should be avoided in the
formal language in the public domain. Taboo words are likely to be used in social interactions
among friends in a private domain where an informal speech style prevails. The socio-cultural
contexts of speech and the backgrounds of the participants in social interaction determine the
use of taboo words. Such factors as enculturation, socialization, age, gender, social status,
educational level determines the use of taboo words in speech. Taboo words vary from country to
country, culture to culture, person to person.
7.4.2. Swearing and cursing

7.4.2.1. Swear or swearing may refer to:
a-Making an oath, also known as swearing an oath (formal swearing) [177].
Traditionally, an oath (from Anglo-Saxon āð, also called plight) is either a statement of fact
or a promise with wording relating to something considered sacred as a sign of verity. To swear is a
verb used to describe the taking of an oath or making a solemn vow. We should bear in mind that
the oldest meaning of to swear was simply to take an oath or to give a solemn undertaking, and that
for several centuries (from about 900 to 1400) this was the only sense.
b-Using rude or offensive word, usually because you are angry (informal swearing)
7.4.2.2. Formal and informal swearing [50, pp.xiv-xvi]

An extraordinary range of style and content in swearing and cursing has evolved in oaths,
profanity, foul language, and ethnic slurs over the centuries, on a scale from the most sacred
utterances to the most taboo
Formal swearing is a ritual of social compliance and obligation: in marriage, in court, for
high office, and as allegiance to the state. On the other hand, informal swearing constitutes a
transgression of social codes ranging from the merely impolite to the criminal.
Swearing now includes so many varied and developed forms that some broad distinctions
need to be made at the outset. Let us start with differences between mode and content. In terms of
mode, we swear by some higher force or somebody; we swear that something is so; we swear to do
something; we swear at something or somebody; and we swear simply out of anger,
disappointment, or frustration. These different modes can be retermed by various unfamiliar
classical terms, such as asseveration, invocation, imprecation, malediction, blasphemy, profanity,
obscenity, and ejaculation (in its old sense of “exclamation”). The figure Varieties of Swearing and
Word Magic is designed to give the reader a basic map of the territory, showing the hierarchical
separation between the binary opposites of “sacred,” “profane,” and “taboo,” divided by the “line
of acceptability” on which stands “oaths,” since they can be either sacred or profane. The
categories of “obscenity,” “foul language,” and “ethnic slurs” stand below the line because they
are purely secular and have no sacred equivalent.
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Table 2.29. Variaties of Swearing and Word Magic [50]
VARIATIES of SWEARING and WORD MAGIC

SACRED
PRAYERS ATTESTATION CHARMS OATHS

LINE OF ACCEPTABILITY
CURSES PROFANITY SPELLS OBSCENITY

MALEDICTION PERJURY FOUL LANGUAGE
ETHNIC SLURS
BLASPHEMY
PROFANE TABOO
At base, swearing is governed by “sacral” notions of word magic; that is to say the belief
that words have the power to change the world. These beliefs tend to be very powerful at primitive
stages of society, manifesting themselves in charms, spells, invocations, and curses so that taboos
or prohibitions have grown up around dangerous or offensive usages. Swearing is, in one sense, a
violation of these taboos: the “high” varieties violate the taboo of invoking the name of the
deity, while the “low” are often violations of sexual taboos, especially those concerning copulation
and incest. This dualistic juxtaposition of the binary opposites of the sacred and the profane, the
high and the low, symbolically represents the angelic and the diabolical potentialities of man.
7.4.2.3. Formal swearing: Making an oath, also known as swearing an oath
a-Prayer [184]
Prayer (from the Latin precari "to ask earnestly, beg, entreat") is an invocation or act that
seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication.
Prayer can be a form of religious practice, may be either individual or communal and take
place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words, song or complete silence. When
language is used, prayer may take the form of a hymn, incantation, formal creedal statement, or a
spontaneous utterance in the praying person. There are different forms of prayer such as petitionary
prayer, prayers of supplication, thanksgiving, and praise. Prayer may be directed towards a deity,
spirit, deceased person, or lofty idea, for the purpose of worshipping, requesting guidance,
requesting assistance, confessing transgressions (sins) or to express one's thoughts and emotions.
Thus, people pray for for the sake of others.
e.g. The Lord’s prayer as it occurs in the ESV version of Matthew 6:9–13 [173]
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on
earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have
forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.'"
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b-Attestation and testimony [194]

In law and in religion, testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter. The
words "testimony" and "testify" both have aroots in the Latin testis, referring to the notion of a
third person, disinterested witness.
In the law, testimony is a form of evidence that is obtained from a witness who makes a
solemn statement or declaration of fact. Testimony may be oral or written, and it is usually
made by oath or affirmation under penalty of perjury. Unless a witness is testifying as an expert
witness, testimony in the form of opinions or inferences is generally limited to those opinions or
inferences that are rationally based on the perceptions of the witness and are helpful to a clear
understanding of the witness' testimony. In testimony the form of the words is traditional, as in
“I solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God.”
c-Oath [177]
i-Traditionally an oath (from Anglo-Saxon āð, also called plight) is either a statement of
fact or a promise with wording relating to something considered sacred as a sign of verity. A
common legal substitute for those who conscientiously object to making sacred oaths is to give an
affirmation instead. Nowadays, even when there's no notion of sanctity involved, certain promises
said out loud in ceremonial or juridical purpose are referred to as oaths. To swear is a verb used to
describe the taking of an oath, to making a solemn vow. We should bear in mind that the oldest of
to swear was simply “to take an oath or to give a solemn undertaking,” and that for several
centuries (from about 900 to 1400) this was the only sense.
ii-Divine oath
Usually oaths have referred to a deity significant in the cultural sphere in question. The
reciter's personal views upon the divinity of the aspects considered sacred in a predictated text of an
oath may or may not be taken in to account. There might not be alternative personal proclamations
with no mention of the sacred dogma in question, such as affirmations, to be made. This might
mean an impasse to those with unwillingness to edify the dogma they see as untrue and those
who decline to refer to sacred matters on the subject at hand.
The essence of a divine oath is an invocation of divine agency to be a guarantor of the

oath taker's own honesty and integrity in the matter under question. By implication, this invokes
divine displeasure if the oath taker fails in their sworn duties. It therefore implies greater care than
usual in the act of the performance of one's duty, such as in testimony to the facts of the matter in a
court of law.
A person taking an oath indicates this in a number of ways. The most usual is the explicit "I
swear," but any statement or promise that includes "with as my witness" or "so help me," with
being something or someone the oath-taker holds sacred, is an oath. Many people take an oath by
holding in their hand or placing over their head a book of scripture or a sacred object, thus
indicating the sacred witness through their action: such an oath is called corporal. However, the
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chief purpose of such an act is for ceremony or solemnity, and the act does not of itself make an
oath.
iii-The Oath of Office [178]

An oath of office is an oath or affirmation a person takes before undertaking the duties of an
office, usually a position in government or within a religious body, although such oaths are
sometimes required of officers of other organizations. Such oaths are often required by the laws of
the state, religious body, or other organization before the person may actually exercise the powers
of the office or any religious body. It may be administered at an inauguration, coronation,
enthronement, or other ceremony connected with the taking up of office itself, or it may be
administered privately. In some cases it may be administered privately and then repeated during a
public ceremony.
Some oaths of office are a statement of loyalty to a constitution or other legal text or to a
person or other office-holder (e.g., an oath to support the constitution of the state, or of loyalty to
the king). Under the laws of a state it may be considered treason or a high crime to betray a
sworn oath of office.
The word 'oath' and the phrase 'I swear' refer to a solemn declaration to God. For those
who choose not to, the alternative terms 'solemn promise' and 'I promise' are sometimes used.
iv-Oath of office of the President of the United States [179]

The Oath of office of the President of the United States is the oath or affirmation that the
President of the United States takes after assuming the presidency but before he or she begins the
execution of the office. The wording is specified in Article II, Section One, Clause 8 of the United
States Constitution:
Before he enters on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or
Affirmation: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President
of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution
of the United States."[So help me God]
v-Oath of office in Vietnam [133]

“Dưới cờ đỏ sao vàng thiêng liêng của Tổ quốc, trước Quốc hội, và đồng bào, cử tri cả
nước, tôi, (Chủ tịch Quốc hội nước Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam / Chủ tịch nước Cộng
hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam / Thủ tướng Chính phủ nước Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt
Nam, Chánh án Tòa án Nhân dân Tối cao), xin tuyên thệ: Tuyệt đối trung thành với Tổ quốc,
với nhân dân, với Hiến pháp nước Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam, nỗ lực công tác tốt để
hoàn thành nhiệm vụ của Đảng, Nhà nước và nhân dân giao phó”.
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7.4.2.4. Informal swearing: to use rude or offensive word, usually because you are angry
In informal swearing, rude or offensive words are used to swear at somebody, usually
because you are angry, then the mode changes to profanity, blasphemy, imprecation, or
malediction. The distinction between profanity and blasphemy is quite complex and hinges largely
on intention, in that profanity is usually regarded as habitual, whereas blasphemy is more
obviously intentional or deliberate. However, both involve the violation of the taboos against the
use of holy names and referents (Hughes, 2006, pp. xvi-xx).
Let us consider different notions of informal swearing:

a-Curse [155]
A curse (also called a jinx, hex or execration) is any expressed wish that some form of
adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to some other entity—one or more persons, a place, or
an object. In particular, "curse" may refer to a wish that harm or hurt will be inflicted by any
supernatural powers, such as a spell, a prayer, an imprecation, an execration, magic, witchcraft,
God, a natural force, or a spirit. In many belief systems, the curse itself (or accompanying ritual) is
considered to have some causative force in the result. To reverse or eliminate a curse is called
removal or breaking, and is often believed to require equally elaborate rituals or prayers.
To curse means to swear, to say rude things to sb, to use a majic word or phrase against
somebody in order to harm them.
c-Blasphemy [145]
Blasphemy is the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence to a deity, to
religious or holy persons or sacred things, or toward something considered sacred or inviolable.
d-Profanity [185]
Profanity, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is "an offensive[a] word" or "offensive
language". It is also called bad language, strong language, coarse language, foul language, bad
words, vulgar language, lewd language, swearing, cursing, cussing, or using expletives. This
use is a subset of a language's lexicon that is generally considered to be strongly impolite, rude or
offensive. It can show a debasement of someone or something, or show intense emotion. Profanity
in this sense takes the form of words or verbal expressions that fall into the category of formulaic
language.
In its older, more literal sense, the term "profanity"refers to "offensive words, or
religious words", used in a way that shows the user does not respect "God or holy things", or
behaviour showing similar disrespect.
e-Ethnic slur
An ethnic slur is a term designed to insult others on the basis of race, ethnicity, or
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nationality.
g-Four-letter words
In informal swearing and cursing, there are notions of four-letter words and dirty
words. Swear-words and curse-words may include four-letter words such as fuck, ball..
h-Dirty words
Dirty words are words referring to sexual organs and acts, body elimination processes such
as defecation, urination, and excretary substance. The term dirty words indicate a very personal
and subjective attitudes.
7.4.2.5. The range of informal swearing content [50]

Given the diversity of speech communities, the range of content is remarkable for its
protean diversity and poetic creativity, but also shocking in its ugliness and cruelty. Swearing
draws upon very powerful but incongruous resonators. These include the following: the use of
religious reinforcers (by God!, the devil take it!) and sacred references (by my father’s soul,
on my mother’s grave); family origins (son of a bitch, whoreson); the attribution of various
reprehensible behaviors and violations of moral codes, including treachery (traitor, turncoat),
idleness (bum, layabout), promiscuity (whore, slut), dishonesty (liar, cheat), theft (crook,
swindler), lack of courage or martial commitment (coward, chicken), sycophancy (toady,
brownnose), meanness (parsimonious, miser), dirt (filthy, scum); social stigmas, such as
illegitimacy (bastard, whoreson), perversion (bugger, butt-fucker); social conditions, such as
poverty (poor, miserable); insulting names, de- meaning labels, and unflattering comparisons,
such as the animal (cow, pig), the sexual (prick, tit), the intellectual (imbecile,
ignoramus), the excretory (turd, shit), the racist (whitey, yid), and the political (fascist,
nazi), a plant, mother, father, grant parents…in-law and even nonsense words.
7.4.2.6. The functions of informal swearing
The functions of informal swearing are complex. Most obviously, it is an outlet for
frustration or pent up emotion and a means of releasing nervous energy after a sudden shock. It
has also been credited with various social functions as a marker of group identity and
solidarity, and as a way of expressing aggression without resort to violence. In these social
contexts swearing can become a dominant linguistic trait, with sentences often containing many
taboo words.
7.4.3. Euphemism:
7.4.3.1. Euphemism
Euphemisms are mild, agreeable, or roundabout words used in place of coarse, painful, or
offensive ones [160]. A euphemism is a generally innocuous word or expression used in place of
one that may be found offensive or suggest something unpleasant. Euphemisms are used to refer to
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taboo topics (such as disability, sex, excretion, and death) in a polite way, or to mask profanity.
Euphemism comes from the Greek word εὐφημία (euphemia), meaning "the use of words
of good omen", which in turn is derived from the Greek root-words eû (εὖ), "good, well" and
phḗmē (φήμη) "prophetic speech; rumour, talk". Etymologically, the eupheme is the opposite of
the blaspheme "evil-speaking." The term euphemism itself was used as a euphemism by the
ancient Greeks, meaning "to keep a holy silence" (speaking well by not speaking at all).
The word lavatory has, naturally, produced many euphemisms. Here are some of them:
powder room, washroom, restroom, retiring room, (public) comfort station, ladies' (room),
gentlemen's (room), water-closet, w.c., public conveniences.
Pregnancy is another topic for "delicate" references. Here are some of the euphemisms
used as substitutes for the adjective pregnant: in an interesting condition, in a delicate
condition, in the family way, with a baby coming, (big) with child, expecting.
The adjective drunk, for instance, has a great number of such substitutes, some of them
"delicate", but most comical. E. g. intoxicated (form.), under the influence (form.), tipsy,
mellow, fresh, high, merry, flustered, overcome, full (coll.), drunk as a lord (coll.), drunk as
an owl (coll.), boiled (sl.), fried (sl.), tanked (sl.), tight (sl.), stiff (sl.), pickled (sl.), soaked (sl.),
three sheets to the wind (sl.), high as a kite (sl.), half-seas- over (sl.), etc.
The word God, due to other considerations, also had a great number of substitutes which
can still be traced in such phrases as Good Lord!, By Heavens/, Good Heavens!, (My)
goodness!, (My) goodness gracious!, Gracious me!
Even in our modern emancipated times, old superstitious fears still lurk behind words
associated with death and fatal diseases. People are not superstitious nowadays and yet they are
surprisingly reluctant to use the verb to die which has a long chain of both solemn and
humorous substitutes. E. g. to pass away, to be taken, to breathe one's last, to depart this life, to
close one's eyes, to yield (give) up the ghost, to go the way of all flesh, to go West (sl.), to kick
off (sl.), to check out (sl.), to kick the bucket (sl.), to take a ride (sl.), to hop the twig (sl.), to
join the majority (sl.).
Mental diseases also cause the frequent use of euphemisms. A mad person may be
described as insane, mentally unstable, unbalanced, unhinged, not (quite) right (coll.), not all
there (coll.), off one's head (coll.), off one's rocker (coll.), wrong in the upper storey (coll.),
having bats in one's belfry (coll.), crazy as a bedbug (coll.), cuckoo (sl.), nutty (sl.), off
one's nut (sl.), loony (sl.), a mental case, a mental defective, etc.
According to Rawson [80, pp.1-11] euphemisms can be divided into two general types—
positive and negative. The positive ones inflate and magnify, making the euphemized items
seem altogether grander and more important than they really are. The negative euphemisms
deflate and diminish. They are defensive in nature, offsetting the power of tabooed terms and
otherwise eradicating from the language everything that people prefer not to deal with directly.
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Positive euphemisms include the many fancy occupational titles, which salve the egos of
workers by elevating their job status: custodian for janitor (itself a euphemism for caretaker),
counsel for lawyer, the many kinds of engineer (exterminating engineer, mattress engineer,
publicity engineer, ad infinitum), help for servant (itself an old euphemism for slave), hooker and
working girl for whore, and so forth.
Other kinds of positive euphemisms include the many institutional euphemisms, which
convert madhouses into mental hospitals, colleges into universities, and small business
establishments into emporiums, parlors, salons, and shoppes.
Negative, defensive euphemisms are extremely ancient. In many cultures, it is forbidden to

pronounce the name of God (hence, pious Jews say Adonai) or of Satan (giving rise to the deuce,
the good man, the great fellow, the generalized Devil, and many other roundabouts). The names
of the dead, and of animals that are hunted or feared, may also be euphemized this way. The bear is
called grandfather by many peoples and the tiger is alluded to as the striped one.
All euphemisms, whether positive or negative, may be used either unconsciously or

consciously. Unconscious euphemisms consist mainly of words that were developed as
euphemisms, but so long ago that hardly anyone remembers the original motivation.
Examples in this category include such nowstandard terms as cemetery (from the Greek
word for sleeping place. It replaced the more deathly graveyard), and the names of various
barnyard animals, including the donkey (the erstwhile ass), the sire (or studhorse), and the
rooster (for cock, and one of many similar evasions, e. g., haystack for haycock, weather vane
for weathercock, and Louisa May Alcott, whose father changed the family name from the nasty-
sounding Alcox.
Into this category, too, fall such watered-down swear words as cripes, Jiminy Cricket,
gee, and gosh, all designed to avoid taking holy names in vain and now commonly used without
much awareness of their original meaning, particularly by youngsters and by those who fill in
the balloons in comic strips. Then there are the words for which no honest Anglo-Saxon (often a
euphemism for "dirty") equivalents exist, e. g., brassiere, which has hardly anything to do with
the French bras (arm) from which it derives, and toilet, from the diminutive of toile (cloth).
Conscious euphemisms constitute a much more complex category, which is hardly
surprising, given the ingenuity, not to say the deviousness, of the human mind. This is not to imply
that euphemisms cannot be employed more or less honestly as well as knowingly. For example,
garbage men are upgraded routinely into sanitation men, but to say "Here come the sanitation
men" is a comparatively venial sin. The meaning does come across intelligibly, and the listener
understands that it is time to get out the garbage cans.
By the same token, it is honest enough to offer a woman condolences upon "the loss of her
husband, “where loss stands for death. Not only are amenities preserved: By avoiding the
troublesome term, the euphemism actually facilitates social discourse.
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7.4.3.2. Formation [160]

Euphemisms can be formed by means of phonetic midifications, figures of speech, rhetoric,
slang, evolution.
7.4.4. Advanced reading: Oath of Office in the UK and the US
7.4.4.1. United Kingdom [178]
7.4.4.2. Oath of office of the President of the United States [179]
1-Taboo words are those that are to be avoided because they are deemed unfit for normal
linguistic usage and by community consensus are banned in everyday language in the public domain.
Taboo words can be avoided by using paraphrases, synonyms, euphemisms, and code words.
2-Formal swearing constitutes a transgression of social codes ranging from a merely impolite
to the criminal.
3-Informal swearing involves the use of rude or offensive words.
4-Euphemisms are mild, agreeable, or round about words used in place of course, painful, or
offensive ones.
5-According to Rawson [80, pp.1-11], euphemisms can be divided into two general types:
positive and negative.
7.5. Language and interest: slang

1-What is slang? Give some examples of Vietnamese and English slang.
7.5.1. What is slang?
Slang can be considered to be “very informal words and expressions that are more common
in spoken language, especially used by a group of people, for example children, criminals,
soldiers…” [47, p.1380]. For example, grass is slang for marijuana used by drug addicts.
What follows is an overview of the definitions of slang from various perspectives, including
the sociological, stylistic and linguistic approach, as well as its lexicographic description [65, pp. 31-
35]:
a-The sociological approach
Within the sociological approach, slang is ascribed the two opposite purposes of keeping
insiders together and outsiders out. On the one hand, Eble (1996), [as cited in [65] stresses the social
and interpersonal aspects of slang and its function “to establish or reinforce social identity or
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cohesiveness within a group or with a trend or fashion in society at large”. Accordingly, sharing the
same slang vocabulary helps both to gain acceptance in a group and to preserve group identity. On
the other hand, slang is said to serve anti-social purposes such as marking social differences,
opposing authority, and hiding secret information or improper behavior from them. In particular,
slang is viewed as an in-group vocabulary that certain sub-classes in society (e.g. criminals or drug
addicts) cultivate to keep the content of their conversations private, or which such specific subgroups
as adolescents or college students adopt to keep the other generation at a distance.
The two conflicting – social and anti-social tendencies of slang are evident in the effects it
may produce: If sometimes it appears playful and amusing, it may, some other times signal the
speaker’ s intention to startle the audience or even to be aggressive.
b-The stylistic approach
Within the stylistic approach, slang is justaposed to formal language: particularly, it is below
standard discourse and the neutral stylistic level, and typical of informal, relaxed speech. On the
other hand, slang is also justaposed to other non-standard varieties: it is neither dialect nor register,
nor can it be restricted to the concepts of cant (the specialized and usually secret language of
thieves, professional beggars, and other groups operating on the springes of society ) , argot (a
secret language used by various groups, e.g. schoolmates, outlaws, colleagues… to prevent the
outsiders from understanding the conversation), or jargon (the specialized vocabulary and
phraseology of a set of people sharing a trade or profession). Slang can be rather vieved as a short-
lived ephemeral vocabulary that is expecting either to pass into disuse or to have a more standard
status.
c-The linguistic approach
From the linguistic point of view, slang is regarded as the use of ordinary words in
extraordinary senses or of extraordinary words in ordinary senses. Jesperson pineers this position,
stating that slang “finds amusement in the creation and propagation of new words”.
Within the linguistic approach, slang is distinguished from the standard language in both its
morphology and its semantics. In morphology, it is characterized by clear insubordination as regards
the standard word-formation rules, as in semantics, it not only renames every day object, but also
enriches, qualifies and complexifies them. Hence, Sorings (1981), [as cited in [65] definition of
slang:
Slang is, as it were, a language in statu nascendi (or at least a lexicon) in the making. Slang
is essentially an experimental language.
d-The lexicographic definition
In dictionaries, there is no unique clear-cut definition of slang because this concept has
acquired different senses in different periods of time. Originally, the term was used to refer to the
language of criminals, thieves and vagabonds. The OED, for instance, states that:
In the mid-eighteen century, it labelled “the special vocabulary used by any set of a low or
disreputable character”, and Webster & Mc Kecnie (1963) [as cited in [65] specify that in the
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beginning it referred to the specialized vocabulary and idioms of criminals, tramps, etc. the purpose
of which was to disguise from outsiders the meaning of what was said”. Accordingly, there seems to
be an overlap between the original sense of slang and the current concept of cant.
But soon after the mid-eighteenth century, the term “slang” gradually broadened to include
the language of other sub-groups, not necessarily of lower culture, but rather connected by their
profession, like lawers, scientists, historians, artists and poets (OED), or by a common way of life.
In this sense, the term became more specialized and nearly synonymous with jargon.
Lastly, in the early years of the nineteen century, slang acquired the more general sense of
colloquial of vocabulary which is outside of conventional or standard usage, and which belongs
rather to familiar conversation than to written language.
Sandburg states that “slang is language which takes off its coat, spits on its hands- and goes
to work” [as cited in [64, p.64].
7.5.2. Types of slang

7.5.2.1. Hotten (1860), Mattiello (2008) and Migut (2010):
Slang tends to originate in sub-cultures within a society. Slang may be classified as a social
variety characterizing a group (e.g. music slang, military slang, navy slang, drug slang, thieves’
slang, teenage slang, college slang, etc.), as a regional variety distinguishing an area (e.g. British
slang, American slang, Anglo-Irish slang) or a district (Cogney slang) [65, p.35].
Hotten [48, pp.42-64] divides slang into fourteen areas. It can be seen as follows:
Fashionable Slang, Parliamentary Slang, Military and Dandy Slang, University Slang,
Religious Slang, Legal Slang or Slang amongst the Lawyers, Literary Slang, Theatrical
Slang, Civic Slang, Slang terms for Money, Shopkeepers’ Slang, Workmen’s Slang, Slang
Apologies for Oaths, and Slang terms for Drunkenness.
Migut [70] divides slang into ten types. They include: War slang, Criminal slang, Urban
slang, Internet slang, Prison slang, Political slang, Afro-American slang, Vice slang, SMS
slang, and Sex slang.
Slang can be specific slang or general slang [65].
7.5.2.2. Specific and general slang [65, pp.39-40]
Slang can be further subdivided into either specific or general slang. Basically, specific slang
is language that speakers use to show their belonging to a group and establish solidarity or intimacy
with the other group members. It is often used by speakers to create their own identity, including
such aspects as social status and geographical belonging, or even age, education, occupation,
lifestyle and special interests. It is largely used by people of similar age and experience (like
teenagers or college students) to strengthen the bonds within their own peer group, keeping outsiders
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out. It is also used by people sharing the same occupation (like military men and computer users) to
increase efficiency in communication; or by those sharing the same living conditions (like prisoners
and criminals) to hide secret information from people in authority. Lastly, it is used by people
sharing an attitude or lifestyle (like drug addicts and homosexuals) to reinforce their group
cohesiveness. Items like rock (a crystallized form of cocain), smack (a drug, spec. heroin) and
smoke (opium, marijuana) are likewise specific, as they belong to the vocabulary of drug addicts
and drug dealers, but they have a different meaning in the standard language.
General slang, on the other hand, is language that speakers deliberately use to break with the
standard language and to change the level of discourse in the direction of informality. It signals the
speaker’s intention to refuse conventions and their need to be fresh and startling in their expression,
to ease social exchanges and induce friendliness, to reduce excessive seriousness and avoid clichés,
in brief, to enrich the language. General slang words have a wider circulation as they are neither
group-nor subject-restricted: for example, items like bevvy (a drunk), caff (a café) and footy
(football) are much more likely to get established as informal or colloquial English.
Yet, some slang words are both specific and general.
7.5.2.3. Rhyming slang [187]
Rhyming slang is a form of slang word construction in the English language that uses rhyme.
It is often humorous and especially prevalent in the UK, Ireland and Australia. It may have started
in the late 18 century or early 19 century and is closely associated with the Cogney working-class
population, hence its alternative name, Cogney rhyming slang.
The construction of rhyming slang involved replacing a common word with a phrase of two
or more words the last of which rhymes with the original word; the in almost all cases, omitting,
from the end of the phrase, the secondary rhyming word, making the origin and the meaning of the
phrase elusive to listeners not in the know.
Examples of the rhyming slang which are familiar to most British people are apples and
pears (stairs), trouble and strife (wife), plates and meat (feet) and dicky and dirt (shirt).
Sometimes the rhyming part of the phrase has been dropped. Somebody may say, for instance, that
they are going to take a butcher’s (have a look at something). The original expression was to take
a butcher’s hook which rhyme with look. Similarly, a person may say use your loaf (think about
something/ use your head). Originally, the original phrase was use your loaf of bread, which
rhymes with head.
7.5.3. Characteristics of slang [65, pp.41-45]
7.5.3.1. The linguistic properties of slang
a-Phonology
At the phonological level, slang plays with sounds and manipulates word pronunciation
through onomatopia, echoism, jocular mispronunciation of words, assimilation, Cockney rhyming
slang.
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b-Morphology
At the morphology level, it is claimed that “the same ordinary word-building processes that
give rise to the general vocabulary also shape slang expressions” (Eble, 1996, as cited in [65].
c-Grammar
Not much attention has been devoted so far to the grammar of slang.
d-Semantics
The semantics of slang has attracted the attention of almost all pertinent studies. In
particular, Eble [1996, as cited in Mattiello, 2008) underline the tendency of slang to name things
indirectly or figuratively, especially through metaphor, e.g. bird (an areoplane), metonymy, e.g.
tinie/-y (a can of beer), synechdoche, e.g. wheels “ a car”)…
Eble [1996, as cited in Mattiello, 2008) also argues that slang items often diverse from
standard usage in predictable ways, especially by such opposite semantic processes as
generalization, specialization, amelioration and perjoration.
However, it is not always possible to identify a logical connection between a word’s standard
meaning and those added by slang.
7.5.3.2. The sociological properties of slang [65, pp.46-60]
a-The sociological properties of slang [65, pp.46-55]
Slang is associated with many sociological properties, which derive from both its varied
nature and its multifunctionality.
Table 2.30. The Sociological properties of slang [65, p.60]:
Speaker-oriented Hearer-oriented
Group-restriction Playfulness
Subject-restriction Humour
Secrecy Freshness
Privacy Novelty
Informality Desire to impress
Debasement Faddishness
Vulgarity Colour
Obscenity Musicality
Time-restriction Impertinence
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Ephemerality Aggressiveness
Localism
The table shows that the sociological properties of slang may be classified in relation to
either the speaker or the hearer.
The speaker-oriented properties of slang characterize the speaker [65, p.59]:
i-as member of a particular group (group-restriction, individualities), often as exclusive one
(secrecy, privacy, culture-restriction, prestige);
ii-as someone with a prescise occupation / activity (subject-restriction, technicality);
iii-as someone having a low cultural status (informality, debasement), or using low / bad
language (vulgarality, obscenity);
iv-as an individual of certain age or generation (time-restriction, epherality) or coming
from a specific regional area (localism).
The hearer-oriented properties are rather meant to produce some effect upon the hearer [65,
p.60], viz:
i-to amuse the hearer or to make him laugh (playfulness, humour);
ii-to release him from the monotony of neutral style (freshness, novelty,
unconventionality);
iii-to impress the hearer (desire to impress), esp. with bizarre expressions (fadiness), or to
attract his attention with colourful words (colour) and their sounds(musicality);
iv-to mock, offend or challenge the hearer (impertinence, offensiveness, aggressiveness).
7.5.4. Functions and uses of slang
Slang has so many uses that it is difficult to choose one as central. According to Eric Partridge
(1933) [as cited in [20, p.53], there are at least fifteen reasons why people often use slang: a-for the
fun of it, b-as an exercise in wit or ingenuity, c-to be different, d-to be picturesque, e-to be arresting,
f-to escape from clichés, g-to enrich the language, i-to add concreteness to speech, j-to reduce
seriousness, k- to be colloquial, h-for ease of social interaction, l-to induce intimacy, m-to show that
one belongs, n-to exclude others and o-to be secret.
Whatever the function and use of slang, one theme recurs among all these reasons: the use of
slang as a means of marking social or linguistic identity. In Patridge’s book Slang: Today and
Yesterday [1933, as cited in [20], the group-identity function in fact provides the basis for most of
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the detailed illustration, which comes from a wide range of geographical areasand occupational
activities.
7.3.5. Slang formation
Slang formation follows different word-formation patterns. Many of them are obtained via
extra-grammatical morphological operations, i.e. word-formation mechanisms which violate various
universal properties of grammatical morphology. Yet, some slang formation can be assigned to
recognized grammatical morphological rules, i.e. rules which are productive in the grammatical
morphology of standard English. A third type of slang formation appears to lie in-between, since it
exhibits some regularity, but extra-grammaticality in the base forms, or vice versa, i.e. it shows the
regularity of the base, but extra-grammaticality in the mechanism of formation.
1-The term slang is used to refer to formal standard words.
2-Slang can be classified into specific and general slang.
3-The sociological properties of slang can be speaker-oriented properties and hearer-oriented
properties.
4-The chief use of slang is metalinguistic.
5-Slang expressions are created by the same process that affect ordinary speech.
7.6. Style

Are the following formal or informal expressions. Analyse the use of these expressions:
1-How do you do?
2-How’s things?
3-I am very grateful to you!
4-Writing Academic English Third Edition, is a comprehensive rhetoric and sentence

structure textbook. It has been written for intermediate to advanced college and college- bound
international and English as a second language students. It can also be used by native speakers of
English who need to develop their basic composition skills or brush up on sentence structure and
mechanics.
7.6.1. What is style?

Style is a term which is used with several different meanings. According to Richards,
Platt and Weber [82, p.277], the term style can refer to a-variation in a person’s speech or writing
and b- a particular person’s use of speech or writing at all times or to a way of speaking or writing
at a particular period of time.
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7.6.1.1. Style: variation in a person’s speech or writing

“Style is a product of individual choices and patterns of choices among linguistic
possibilities” [Chatman, as cited in [30, p.12].
As a product of individual choices and patterns of choices among linguistic possibilities,

style usually varies from casual to formal according to the type of situation, the person or persons
addressed, the location, the topic discussed, etc. On the basis of this, we could distinguish
sentences containing features that are markedly formal or informal. We postulate that the
essential aspect of the non-linguistic component (that is the attitude) is the gradiant between stiff,
formal, cold, impersonal on the one hand and relaxed, informal, warm, friendly on the other. In
between is the neutral.
By style, we can mean the degree of formality that characterizes a speaker’s language as
influenced by the social contexts.
Relaxed, informal, warm, friendly Neutral Stiff, formal, cold, impersonal

Scale of informality
Joos [1967, as cited in [79, pp.24-34] in his book The Five Clock distinguishes 5 styles:
a-Frozen: the most careful and elegant variety, reserved for very important or symbolic
moment.
b-Formal: our generally serious levels of language use.
c-Consultative: the plain, every day style
d-Casual: our normal, relaxed style, appropriate to conversations with friends.
e-Intimate: the most grammatically and phonologically reduced style, used exclusively with
our closest friends and family.
Let us examine these styles in detail.

a-The frozen style
The frozen style is called that because many of its linguistic units are fixed and unalterable,
and native speakers tolerate little or no variation in it. It is the level appropriate to the most highly
significant and symbolic occasions in the culture. Some of the people present on such occasions are
likely to be ones deserving considerable respect; often they are persons of high office or
considerable achievement. Furthermore, the occasions must be a special ones. These occasions
demand frozen language.
Much of frozen style may be exactly the same as formal in its carefully planned and often
elaborate structure. When spoken it is often intoned or elongated rather than carefully pronounced.
However, here and there in the frozen style, certain fixed expressions are required. A judge must
say to a returning jury: ”Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, have you reached a verdict?” or “Ladies
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and gentlemen, have you concluded your deliberations?”
Frozen style is seldom interactive. Usually the speaker is involved in monologue, not
conversation. Some few exceptions to this are always occasions in which each member of the
interaction has a certain (or even fixed) verbal role to play. Meetings which produce such
formulas as point of order, second, call the question, and so on are examples of such interactive
frozen style. The language is frozen because it must not be altered in any way, perhaps acarryover
from the inalterability of religious and / or legal documents.
Ex.1.Judge: Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, have you reached a verdict.
Ex.2.Minister: our father, who art in heaven.......
Ex.3.
Chairperson: Do I hear a motion?
Member 1: I so move the resolution. Chairperson: Is there a second?
Member 2 : I second it.
Chairperson: Any further discussion?
Member 1 : Call the question.
Chairperson : All in favour of the resolution, signify by saying “Aye.”
Member 3 : Nay
Chairperson : The Ayes have it. The resolution passes
b-The formal style:

The formal style is for dressed up, important accasions, but we do not find lasting or
symbolic value in these occasions. They demand, from precedent and situation, dignity,
respect, precision, care in choice of words and sentence types.
The pronunciation at this level is clear and precise. The vocabulary and syntax are varied
and complicated, but there are no formulaic utterances that could be characterized as “flowery,”
“elaborated,’ or “ordinate.” Variation, rather than formulaic repetition, is a characteristic of
formal style.
Formal style is usually single topic oriented. Wondering from one topic to another or
introducing a number of asides, marginally connected remarks, or afterthoughts is not
characteristic of formal style, either in speech or writing. In some cases this singleness of theme is
related to the fact that much formal writing is technical. Most scholarly or technical reports, and
even popular accounts of such subject matter, are prepared in formal style. In the spoken
formal style, the pronunciation is careful and precise.
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Ex.1: Welcome to today’s program: Varieties of American English, Stylistic Differences.

Your hosts are two well-known sociolinguists, Dr. Roger Shuy of Georgetown university and the
Center for Applied Linguistics and Dr. Dennis Preston from the State University of New York,
College at Fredonia.
Ex.2: Chairperson: Ladies and gentlemen, the company cannot ascertain why this has
happened. We’re unable to explain the drop in prices, but we do not feel that the trend will
continue.
c-The consultative style

The consultative style is appropriate to a wide range of speaking and writing situations.
They are routine and without symbolic significance. This variety, right in the middle of the scale,
is “getting-things-done” variety.
Shopping, selling, requesting for information, answering the telephone calls, ordinary
speaking are carried out in consultative style. It is the style most open to the give-and- take of
everyday conversation. Both the formal and frozen styles are likely to occur in monologues, but
the consultative is for conversation.
Consultative style is characterized by false starts, backtracking, interruption, ellipsis, and so

on. The feedback from one speaker to another is also characteristic of this style. The
pronunciation may be clear, but words and sounds may be more run together, and the rate of
pronunciation is faster.
Example 1: At the Filling Station

Filling Station Attendant: Hi. Run out of gas.
Driver: Sure did. Must not have been paying attention
Attendant: Regular or unleaded?
Driver: Regular, please.
Example 2: The “Welcome Wagon”

Man: Hi, Welcome Wagon Woman: Hello. Are you Mr. Andrews? Man: Yes, I am.
Woman: I’m from the local Welcome Wagon Service and I’ve come to welcome you to our
community.
d-The casual style

The casual style is for fun, relaxation, use with close friends and relatives. It is the leasure
speech. When casual is used in places which demand the consultative, it seems that the speaker is
being disrespectful to the person addressed or not properly serious about the topic of discussion. On
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the other hand, when the casual is expected and one uses the consultative or even formal, the use of
the inappropriate style seems to suggest that the friendship is strained or that the speaker is angry or
upset with the listener.
The language of the casual is devoid of specialist jargon. There is a great deal of
generalisation and use of pronouns. First names or even nicknames rather than titles and last
namese are used in addressing one another. The pronunciation is rapid, often slurred. Slang and
profanity occur with a great deal of regularity, as do proverbial and folk phrases that are fully
integrated into conversation. Syntactic structures may be considerably reduced.
Example of the casual style:

Joe: Hey, Bill! Let’s cut out of here.
Bill: Can’t. Got to clean up.
Joe: I’m taking off, then.
Bill: Right. See you down at Tony’s.
Joe: About six?
Bill:’Kay
Joe: Later, sucker.
Bill: Yeah, you lucky dog.
e-The intimate style

The intimate style is our closest, friendliest, most trusting variety. Families, lovers, and
the closest of friends use it, though not in all situations.
Linguistically, intimate language, filled as it is with deletion, ellipsis, rapid and slurred
pronunciation, non-verbal communication, and private code characteristics, is often unitelligible
outside the smallest social units.
An example of the intimate style:

Wife: That you?
Husband: Uh-huh.
Wife: How’d it go?
Husband: Couldn’t get him to look at it until next week. Covered up. Wife: Well, it’ going
so bad we may have to get somebody alse do it. Husband: Hmmmmmm. Check with Fred?
Wife: Mmm-hmm
Husband: Try next door?
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7.6.1.2. Style: A particular person’s use of speech or wriring
Style can also refer to a particular person’s use of speech or writing at all times or to a way
of speaking at a particular period of time, e.g. Dicken’s style, the Style of Shakespear, or an 8th
century style of writing. It can be used to refer to those features of a text, and more
especially of a literary text, which identify it as being as the product of an author. We talk, for
example, of the style of Jane Austen as being characteristically different from that of Charlotte
Bronte.
7.6.2. Functional styles [30]

“A functional style of language is a system of interrelated language means which serves a
definite aim in communication” [30, p.33].
Language can be used in communication to serve five functions: a-phatic, b-aesthetic, c-

cognitive, d-directive and c-informative. Based on the main function each text / discourse unit
serves, we can have different functional styles.
Two main functiona styles are a-informal style and formal style:
a-Informal style or colloquial style serving phatic function in informal situations. This FS is
used in conversations, dialogues, personal letters, diaries..
b-Formal Styles used in formal situations. They include:
i-Belles-letters styles serving aesthetic cognitive function in stories, novels, folklores,
poems, plays.
ii-Publicistic style serving conative, persuasive functions used in news report,
advertisements, annoucement, religion, speeches.
iii-Legal style serving directive functions used in legal documents, diplomatic documents,
business letters,..
iv-Scientific style serving informative functions used in scientific research, lectures,
instructions, prescriptions.
In the English literary standard we distinguish the following major functional styles (FS) [30,
p.33]:
a-The language of belles-lettres.

b-The language of publicistic literature.
c-The language of newspapers.
d-The language of scientific prose.
e-The language of of official documents.
Each of FS can be subdivided into a number of substyles:

a-The belles-letteres FS: the language style of poetry, the language style of emotive
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prose, and the language style of dramma

b-The Publicistic FS: the language style of oratory, the language style of essay, the
language style of feature articles in newspapers and journals.
c-The newspaper FS: the language style of brief news items and communiques, the
language style of newspaper headings and the language style of notices and advertisements.
d-The scientific prose FS: the language style of humanitarian sciences, the language style of
“exact” sciences, the language style of popular popular scientific prose.
e-The official document FS: the language style of diplomatic documents, the language style
of business documents, the language style of legal documents, the language style of military
documents.
1-Style is a product of individual choices and patterns of choices among linguistic
possibilities.
2-The formal style is the plain, everyday style.
3-The intimate style is the most careful and elegant varieties, reserved for every important
symbolic movements.
4- Style can also refers to a particular person’s use of speech or writing at all times or to a
way of speaking at a particular period of time.
5- A functional style of language is a system of interrelated language means which serves a
definite aim in communication.
8. CODE CHOICE
8.1. Multilingualism [126]
1-How many languages can you speak?
2-Can you think of the countries in which people can speak two or three languages?
8.1.1. What is multilingualism?
Multilingualism is the act of using, or promoting the use of, multiple languages,
either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. Multilingual speakers
outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. Multilingualism is becoming a social
phenomenon governed by the needs of globalization and cultural openness. Thanks to the ease of
access to information facilitated by the Internet, individuals' exposure to multiple languages is
getting more and more frequent, and triggering therefore the need to acquire more and more
languages.
8.1.2. Multilingual individuals
A multilingual person, in a broad definition, is one who can communicate in more

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than one language, be it actively (through speaking, writing, or signing) or passively (through
listening, reading, or perceiving). More specifically, the terms bilingual and trilingual are used to
describe comparable situations in which two or three languages are involved. A multilingual
person is generally referred to as a polyglot. Poly (Greek: πολύς) means "many", glot (Greek:
γλώττα) means "language".
Multilingual speakers have acquired and maintained at least one language during
childhood, the so-called first language (L1). The first language (sometimes also referred to as the
mother tongue) is acquired without formal education. Children acquiring two languages in this way
are called simultaneous bilinguals. Even in the case of simultaneous bilinguals one language
usually dominates over the other.
A further possibility is that a child may become naturally trilingual by having a mother
and father with separate languages being brought up in a third language environment. An example
of this may be an English-speaking father married to a Mandarin Chinese speaking mother
with the family living in Hong Kong, where the community language (and primary language of
education) is Cantonese. If the child goes to a Cantonese medium school from a young age, then
trilingualism will result.
Even if someone is highly proficient in two or more languages, his or her so-called
communicative competence or ability may not be as balanced. Linguists have distinguished
various types of multilingual competence, which can roughly be put into two categories:
For compound bilinguals, words and phrases in different languages are the same concepts.
These speakers are usually fluent in both languages.
For coordinate bilinguals, words and phrases in the speaker's mind are all related to their
own unique concepts. In these individuals, one language, usually the first language, is more
dominant than the other, and the first language may be used to think through the second language.
A sub-group of the latter is the subordinate bilingual, which is typical of beginning second
language learners.
The distinction between compound and coordinate bilingualism has come under scrutiny.
When studies are done of multilinguals, most are found to show behavior intermediate between
compound and coordinate bilingualism. Some authors have suggested that the distinction should
only be made at the level of grammar rather than vocabulary, others use "coordinate bilingual"
as a synonym for one who has learned two languages from birth, and others have proposed
dropping the distinction altogether.
Many theorists are now beginning to view bilingualism as a "spectrum or continuum of

bilingualism" that runs from the relatively monolingual language learner to highly proficient
bilingual speakers who function at high levels in both languages.
8.1.3. Multilingualism within communities
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not all speakers need to be multilingual. When all speakers are multilingual, linguists classify the
community according to the functional distribution of the languages involved:
Diglossia: if there is a structural functional distribution of the languages involved, the

society is termed 'diglossic'.
Ambilingualism: a region is called ambilingual if this functional distribution is not

observed. In a typical ambilingual area it is nearly impossible to predict which language will be
used in a given setting. True ambilingualism is rare. Ambilingual tendencies can be found in small
states with multiple heritages like Luxembourg, which has a combined Franco-Germanic heritage,
or Malaysia and Singapore, which fuses the cultures of Malays, China, and India.
Bipart-lingualism: if more than one language can be heard in a small area, but the large
majority of speakers are monolinguals, who have little contact with speakers from neighbouring
ethnic groups, an area is called 'bipart-lingual'. An example of this is the Balkans.
8.1.4. Multilingualism between different language speakers

Whenever two people meet, negotiations take place. If they want to express solidarity and
sympathy, they tend to seek common features in their behavior. If speakers wish to express
distance towards or even dislike of the person they are speaking to, the reverse is true, and
differences are sought.
Some multilinguals use code-switching, a term that describes the process of 'swapping'
between languages. In many cases, code-switching is motivated by the wish to express loyalty to
more than one cultural group, as holds for many immigrant communities in the New World. Code-
switching may also function as a strategy where proficiency is lacking.
Sometimes a pidgin language may develop. A pidgin language is basically a fusion of

two languages, which is mutually understandable for both speakers.
Bilingual interaction can even take place without the speakers switching. In certain areas, it
is not uncommon for speakers each to use a different language within the same conversation.
This phenomenon is found, amongst other places, in Scandinavia. Most speakers of Swedish and
Norwegian, and Norwegian and Danish, can communicate with each other speaking their
respective languages, while few can speak both (people used to these situations often adjust their
language, avoiding words that are not found in the other language or that can be misunderstood).
8.1.5. Why do people become bilinguals or mutilinguals?
The causes of multilingualism may be politics, religion, culture, education, economy and
natural disaster.
1-Multilingualism is the act of using or promoting the use of, multiple languages, either by
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an individual speaker or by a community of speakers.
2-If someone is highly proficient in two or more languages, his or her so-called
communicative competence or ability is always balanced.
3-For co-ordinate bi-linguals, words and phrases in the speaker’s mind are all related to
their own unique concepts. In these individuals, one language, usually the first language, is more
dominant than the other.
4-Widespread multilingualism is one form of language contact.

5-Whenever two people meet, negotiations take place. If they want to express solidarity
and sympathy, they tend to seek common features in behaviour. They use the same language.
8.2. Code-switching and style-shifting
Pre-lecture-activity 2. 8.2. Discuss
1-Why do people change from one language to another, one variety of language to
another, or one style of speaking to another?
8.2.1. Code
According to Richards, Platt and Weber [82, p.42) and Saville-Troike [86, p.48], code is a
term which is used instead of a language, a speech variety or even a dialect.
8.2.2. Code-switching, style-switching and code-mixing
8.2.2.1. Code-swiching
a-What is code-switching?
In linguistics, code-switching occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more
languages or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation. The term “code- switching
refers to change in languages (or language varieties) within a single speech event” [86, p.48].
Speakers practice code-switching when they are each fluent in two languages or more than two
languages. Both in popular usage and in sociolinguistic study, the name code-switching is
sometimes used to refer to switching among dialects, styles or registers. Bilinguals often switch
between their two languages in the middle of their conversation. These code switches can take
place between or even within sentences, involving phrases or words or even parts of words. Here is
one example from Saville-Troike [86, p.48):
Receptionist: Cuban Interest Section.

Caller: ¿Es la embajada de Cuba? (Is this the Cuban embassy?)
Receptionist: Sí. Dígame. (Yes, may I help you?)
This is an example of the receptionist code-switching from English to Spanish, changing languages
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within the same speech event, because she had identified the caller as a Spanish speaker.
b-Types of code-switching
Scholars use different names for various types of code-switching.
i-Intersentential switching [147]
Intersentential switching occurs outside the sentence or the clause level (i.e. at sentence or
clause boundaries). It is sometimes called "extrasentential" switching. In Assyrian- English
switching one could say, "Ani wideili. What happened?" ("Those, I did them. What happened?").
ii-Intra-sentential switching [147]
Intra-sentential switching occurs within a sentence or a clause. In Spanish-English
switching one could say, "La onda is to fight y jambar." ("The in-thing is to fight and steal.").
iii-Tag-switching [147]
Tag-switching is the switching of either a tag phrase or a word, or both, from one
language to another, (common in intra-sentential switches). In Spanish-English switching one could
say, "Él es de México y así los criaron a ellos, you know." ("He's from Mexico, and they raise them
like that, you know.").
iv-Intra-word switching [147]
Intra-word switching occurs within a word itself, such as at a morpheme boundary. In
Shona-English switching one could say, "But ma-day-s a-no a-ya ha-ndi-si ku-mu-on-a. ("But
these days I don't see him much.") Here the English plural morpheme -s appears alongside the
Shona prefix ma-, which also marks plurality.
v-Situational code-switching
Situational code-switching occurs when the language used change according to the
situations in which the conversants find themselves: they speak one language in one situation and
another in a different one [107, p. 104].
Instances of situational code-switching are usually fairly easy to classify for what they are.
What we observe is that one variety is used in a certain set of situations and another in an entirely
different set.
In a multilingual country like Singapore, the ability to shift from one language to another is
accepted as quite normal. Singapore has four official languages: English, the Mandarin variety of
Chinese, Tamil, and Malay, which is also the national language. National policy promotes English
as a trade language, Manderin as the international ‘Chinese’ language, Malay as the language of the
region, and Tamil as the language of the important ethnic groups in the republic. In Singapore,
people change languages according to the situations.
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vi-Metaphorical code-switching
When a change of topic requires a change in the language used we have metaphorical code-
switching [107, p. 104].
According to Saville-Troike [86, p.49] metaphorical code-switching occurs within a single
situation, but adds meaning to such components as the role-relationships which are being
expressed. When a change of topic requires a change in the language used we have metaphorical
code-switching. Metaphorical code-switching has an affective dimension to it. You change the code
as you redefine the situation: formal to informal, official to personal, serious to humourous, and
politeness to solidarity. Since speaking different languages is an obvious marker of differential
group membership, by switching languages bilinguals often have the option of choosing which
group to identify with in a particular situation, and thus can convey the metaphorical meaning
which goes along with such choice as well as whatever denotative meaning is conveyed by the code
itself.
An example of such metaphorical switching was reported by Tuladhar, who described an

event which occurred at a border checkpost between India and Nepal. A woman was stopped by the
guard, accused of carrying too much tea, and threatened with a heavy fine. The woman first used
Nepali (the official language) to make an appeal to the law, and to argue on legal grounds that she
was within her limits of legitimate allowances. From the guard’s accent in Nepali she inferred he
was also a native speaker of Newari and switched into that language to make an entreaty on
the grounds of common ethnic identity, an appeal to solidarity. She finally switched into English
“for formulation of thought above the system,” which was both an implicit attack on the corruption
of the system, and an assertion that she belonged to an educated class in society which had no
intent or need of “smuggling” across a few packages of tea. She consciously used code- switching
as a verbal strategy in this instance, and was successful.
vii-Discourse contextualization switching

Discourse contextualization switching, as defined by Bailey, are switches which “do not
co-occur with external changes in the context or significant shifts in sociocultural framework”
[2000, as cited in [86]. These function to frame components such as quotations, to mark them off
from surrounding verbal context.
8.2.2.2. Style-shifting
Style-shifting is a term in sociolinguistics referring to alternation between styles of
speech included in a linguistic repertoire of an individual speaker.
8.2.2.3. Code-mixing
Code-mixing refers to the mixing of two or more languages or language varieties in speech.
Some scholars use the terms "code-mixing" and "code-switching" interchangeably, especially in
studies of syntax, morphology, and other formal aspects of language. Others assume more specific
definitions of code-mixing, but these specific definitions may be different in different subfields of
linguistics, education theory, communications etc.
Code-mixing is similar to the use or creation of pidgins; but while a pidgin is created
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across groups that do not share a common language, code-mixing may occur within a multilingual
setting where speakers share more than one language.
8.2.3. What are the reasons for code-switching?

According to Saville-Troike [86, pp.56-59], the reasons for code-switching are:
a-for group identification, solidarity, distancing, redefinition of a situation, or humorous
effect, real lexical need, as an avoidance strategy.
b-to soften or strengthen a request or a command iii-to intensify or to eliminate ambiguity
c-to give additional force to part of an utterance
d-to express a closer or more informal relationship
e-to establish authority in a confrontation situation
f-to indicate that a referential comment is not to be taken seriously
g-to exclude other people within hearing if a comment is intended for only a limited audience
h-to function as a repair strategy
i-to make an ideological statement
j-to establish new identities.
Whatever specific functions are served by code-switching within and across
communities, it adds to the verbal strategies that speakers have at their command, and is to be
recognized as a dimension of communicative competence.
Follow-up activity 2.8.2. True/False: Discuss with your friends and decide whether the
1-Code means different languages or different varieties of language.
2-Code-switching refers to change in languages within a single speech event.
3-Style-shifting refers to change in language according to domain.
4-Situational code-switching occurs when a language change accompanies a change of

topics or participants, or any time the communicative situation is redefined.
5-Intersentential switching is the change in language which occurs within a single sentence.
8.3. Pidgin [127]

1-Can you think of some English or French pidgin expressions used in Vietnam
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8.3.1. Pidgin language
A pidgin(/ˈpɪdʒɪn/), or pidgin language, is a simplified language that develops as a means

of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common [127].
A pidgin is a language which has no native speakers. Pidgins develop as a means of communication
between people who do not have a common language. So a pidgin is no one’s native language.
Pidgins seem particularly likely to arise when two groups with different languages are
communicating in a situation where there is also a third dominant language.
For example, on Caribbean slave plantations in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
West African people were deliberately separated from others who used the same language so as to
reduce the risk of their plotting to escape or rebel. In order to communicate with each other, as well
as with their overseers, they developed pidgins based on the language of the plantation bosses
as well as their own languages. On sea-coasts in multilingual contexts, pidgins developed
as languages of trade between the traders – who used a colonial language such as Portuguese, or
Spanish or English – and the Indians, Chinese, Africans or American Indians that they were trading
with. Holme [46, p.5] defines a pidgin as:
“A reduced language that results from extended contact between groups of people with no
language in common; it evolves when they need some means of verbal communication,
perhaps for trade, but no group learns the native language of any other group for social
reasons that may include lack of trust or of close contact.”
The origin of the word pidgin is uncertain. Pidgin first appeared in print in 1850 and
there are many sources to which the word may be attributed. For example [45, pp.85-86):
a-The Chinese pronunciation of the English word business (pidgin).

b-The English word "pay"(pei) and the Cantonese word "chien" (tsin) for "money"; the
combination of "pay money" became "pay-chien", pidgin.
c-from Hebrew pidjom meaning trade.
Pidgin has variously called “makeshift”, “marginal”, or “mixed language”. The creation of
a pidgin usually requires [127]
a-Prolonged, regular contact between the different language communities.
b-A need to communicate between them
c-An absence of widespread proficiency in a widespread, accessible interlanguage.
Pidgin languages are created from the combined efforts of people who speak different
languages. All languages involved may contribute to the sounds, the vocabulary and the grammatical
features, but to different extents, and some additional features may emerge which are unique to the
new variety. Nevertheless, it has been found that when one group speaks a prestigious world
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language and the other groups use local vernaculars, the prestige language tends to supply more of
the vocabulary, while vernacular languages have more influence on the grammar of the
developing pidgin. The language which supplies most of the vocabulary is known as the lexifier (or
sometimes superstrate) language, while the languages which influence the grammatical structure are
called the substrate.
Initially, pidgins develop with a narrow range of functions. Those who use them speak other
languages, so the pidgin is an addition to their linguistic repertoire used for a specific purpose,
such as trade or perhaps administration. They are typically used for quite specific functions like
buying and selling grain, or animal hides, rather than to signal social distinctions or express
politeness.
Because pidgins develop to serve a very narrow range of functions in a very restricted set of
domains, they tend to have a simplified structure and a small vocabulary compared with fully
developed languages. Consequently, the structure of a pidgin is generally no more complicated than
it needs to be to express these functions.
Pidgin languages are created from the combined efforts of people who speak different
languages. All languages involved may contribute to the sounds, the vocabulary and the
grammatical features, but to different extents, and some additional features may emerge which are
unique to the new variety. Nevertheless, it has been found that when one group speaks a prestigious
world language and the other groups use local vernaculars, the prestige language tends to supply
more of the vocabulary, while vernacular languages have more influence on the grammar of the
developing pidgin.
Because pidgins develop to serve a very narrow range of functions in a very restricted set of
domains, they tend to have a simplified structure and a small vocabulary compared with fully
developed languages.
Since a pidgin language is a fundamentally simpler form of communication, the grammar
and phonology are usually as simple as possible, and usually consist of [127]:
a-Uncomplicated clausal structure (e.g., no embedded clauses, etc.)

b-Reduction or elimination of syllable codas
c-Reduction of consonant clusters or breaking them with epenthesis iv-Basic vowels, such as
[a, e, i, o, u]
d-No tones, such as those found in West African and Asian languages vi-Use of separate
words to indicate tense, usually preceding the verb
e-Use of reduplication to represent plurals, superlatives, and other parts of speech that
represent the concept being increased
f-A lack of morphophonemic variation
Example 1:
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Table 2.31. Comparison of verb forms in four languages [45, p.87]

French English Tok Pisin Cameroon pidgin
Je vais I go Mi a
Tu vas You go Yu yu
Elle/ill/va She/he/it goes Em i
Nous allons We go Yumi go Wi go
mipela
Vous allez yupela wuna
Ells/ils vont They go ol dem
Example 2. Cameroon pidgin English [45, p.93]

Foh di foh dis graun oh foh no bi sehf-dat na di ting wei i di bring plenti hambag. (To be, or
not to be-that is the question.)
In Vietnam we have Tây bồi, Mỹ bồi:
Example 3. Ok, you take cyclo. One you, one dollar, two you, two dollar. If you OK you sit
down, if you no OK you go [111].
Pidgins have a limited vocabulary, a reduced grammatical structure, and a much narrower
range of functions. They are the native language of no one, but they are nonetheless a main means
of communication for millions of people. Most pidgins are based on European languages: English,
French, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese, reflecting the history of colonialism.
Pidgins may start out as or become trade languages, such as Tok Pisin. Trade languages are
often full blown languages in their own right such as Swahili. Trade languages tend to be "vehicular
languages", while pidgins can evolve into the vernacular.
Some pidgins have become so powerful as a means of communication that they have
developed a more formal role, as regular auxiliary languages. They maybe given official status by
a community as lingua francas. These are known as “expanded pidgins”
As with other lingua francas, the uses and occasions for using a pidgin will partly depend on
how widely it is known. This will determine the degree of expansion of the language. Pidgins can
be classified into different types according to their phase of development: jargon, stable pidgin,
extended pidgin, and creole. Each stage is characterised by a gradual increase in overall
complexities
Acoording to Holmes [45, p.89), a pidgin language has three identifying characteristics:
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a-it is used in restricted domains and functions

b-it has a simplified structure compared to the source language
c-it generally has low prestige and attracts negative attitudes-especially from outsiders.
Pidgins often have a short life. If they develop for a restricted function, they disappear when
the function disappears. In Vietnam, a pidgin English developed for use between the American
troops and the Vietnamese, but it subsequently died out. A trading pidgin usually disappears when
trade between the groups dies out. Alternatively, if trade grows, then more contact will generally
lead to at least one side learning the other’s language, and so the need for the pidgin disappears. In
some cases, however, pidgins go on to develop into fully-fledged languages or creoles.
8.3.2. Creole
A creole is a pidgin which has acquired native speakers [45, p.90]. Many of the languages
which are called pidgins are in fact now creole languages. They are learned by children as their first
language and used in a wide range of domains. A creole is believed to arise when a pidgin,
developed by adults for use as a second language, becomes the native and primary language of their
children — a process known as nativization.
The English term creole comes from French créole, which is cognate with the Spanish term
criollo and Portuguese crioulo, all descending from the verb criar ("to breed" or "to raise"),
ultimately from Latin creare ("to produce, create”) [153]. The specific sense of the term was coined
in the 16th and 17th century, during the great expansion in European maritime power and trade that
led to the establishment of European colonies in other continents.
As a result of their status as some group’s first language, creoles also differ from pidgins in
their range of functions, in their structure and in some cases in the attitudes expressed towards them.
A creole is a pidgin which has expanded in structure and vocabulary to express the range of
meanings and serve the range of functions required of a first language [45, p.90].
Once a creole has developed it can be used for all the functions of any language – politics,
education, administration, original literature, and so on. Creoles have become accepted standard
and even national and official languages. Once developed there is no evidence in their linguistic
structure to reveal their pidgin origins [45, p.93].
Table 2.32. Example of creoles [20, p.336]
French Guyanese Creole Krio English
Mangez Māʒe Chop Eat
J’ai mange Mo māʒe A chop I ate
Il/Elle a mange Li māʒe I chop He/She ate
McWhorter (1998), [as cited in [153] has proposed the following list of features to indicate a
creole prototype:
a-a lack of inflectional morphology (other than at most two or three inflectional affixes),
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b-a lack of tone on monosyllabic words, and

c-a lack of semantically opaque word formation.
According to their external history, four types of creoles have been distinguished: plantation
creoles, fort creoles, maroon creoles, and creolized pidgins.
Since creole languages rarely attain official status, the speakers of a fully formed creole
may eventually feel compelled to conform their speech to one of the parent languages. This
decreolization process typically brings about a post-creole speech continuum characterized by
large scale variation and hypercorrection in the language.
8.3.3. Pidginization and creolization: two opposed processes.

Pidginization generally involves some kind of ‘simplification’ of a language, e.g. reduction
in morphology and syntax, tolerance of considerable phonological variations, reduction in the
number of functions for which the pidgin is used, and extensive borrowing of words from local
mother-tongues.
Creolization involves expansion of the morphology and syntax, regularization of the

phonology, deliberate increase in the number of functions for which the language is used, and
development of a rational and stable system for increasing vocabulary.
8.3.4. Distribution
Pidgin and creole languages are distributed mainly in the equatorial belt around the
world, usually in places with direct or easy access to the oceans. They are found mainly in the
Caribean and around the north and east coasts of South America, around the coasts of Africa,
particularly the west coast, and across the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Their distribution appears to be fairly closely related to long-standing patterns of trade,

including trade in slaves. Hancock (1977) lists 127 pidgins and creoles: 35 English- based, 15
French-based, 14 Portuguese-based, 7 Spanish-based, 5 Dutch-based, 6 German-based, 3 Italian–
based, and the rest are based on a variety of other languages.
The names given to pidgin and creole languages by linguists refer to their location and their
principal lexifier language (i.e. the language from which they draw most of their vocabulary). Thus,
Jamaican Creole English refers to the creole spoken in Jamaica, which is English-based or draws
most of its vocabulary from English. Haitian Creole French is the name given to the creole language
spoken in Haity.
8.3.5. Where do pidgins and creoles come from?
There are a variety of theories on the origin of creole languages, all of which attempt to
explain the similarities among them. Arends, Muysken & Smith (1995) [as cited in [153] outline a
fourfold classification of explanations regarding creole genesis:
a-Theories focusing on European input
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b-Theories focusing on non-European input

c-Gradualist and developmental hypotheses
d-Universalist approaches
For more information on this issue, please refer to:

a-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pidgin
b-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_language
1-A pidgin is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between

two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common.
2- The language from which the pitgin is derived are simplified, and vocabulary and
grammatical complexities have been reduced.
3- Pidgins can be classified into different types according to their phase of development:
jargon, stable pidgin, extended pidgin, and creole.
4- A creole is a pidgin which has acquired native speakers.
5- A creole is used in restricted domains and functions and has a simplified structure
compared to the source language.
CHAPTER II REVIEW 2
I-Answer the following questions
1-What are the stages of child language development in the first year after birth?
2-What are the three main functions of adolescent language?
3-What are the main features of adult language?
4-What is a taboo word? How do we avoid using taboo words in everyday communication?
5-What is formal swearing? informal swearing?
6-What is euphemism? Give some examples.
7-What is slang? How are slang expressions formed?
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8-How do you understand the term style?

9-What is multilingualism?
10-What is code-switching? What are the types of code-switching?
11-What is pidgin? A creole?
II-T/F: Decide whether the following statements are true or false
1-After a period of two years during which their speech is limited to one and two- word
utterances, children begin to produce longer and more complex grammatical structures like the text
used in the telegraph.
2-The two social contexts which are important for adolescent language development are:
family and school.
3- Adults are very flexible language users, in part, because of the variety of forms and
functions available.
4-Taboo words are those that are to be avoided because they are deemed unfit for normal
linguistic usage and by community concensus are banned in everyday language in the public
domain. Taboo words are to be avoided by paraphrases, synonyms, euphemism, codewords or
silence.
5-Formal swearing is a ritual concerning profanity, foul language, and ethnic slurs.
6-In informal swearing, rude or offensive words are used to swear at somebody, usually
because you are angry.
7-The term four-letter-word refers to euphemism.
8-Euphemisms are mild, agreeable or round about words used in place of coarse, painful, or
offensiev ones.
9-The term slang is used to refer to informal, non-standard words and phrases, generally
shorter lived than the expressions of ordinary colloquial speech.
10-The sociological features of slang include speaker-oriented features and hearer-oriented
features.
11-Slang is considered as a marker of social identity.
12-Styles means choice of linguistic possibilities.
13-According to Martin Joos, the frozen style is the most grammatically and phonologically
reduced style, used exclusively with the closest friends and family.
14-Multilingualism is the use of two or more languages by an individual or by a group of
speakers such as the inhabitants of a particular region or a nation.
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15-In bilingual or multilingual communities, people may change from one language to
another in the course of conversation. This phenomenon is called language mixing, language
switching or simply “code-switching”.
16-The term code-switching refer to change in languages within a single speech event.
17-Situational code-switching occurs when one changes from formal to informal language
within a single event.
18-Intersentential switching is the change which occurs between sentences or speech acts.
19-A pidgin is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between
two or more groups that do not have a language in common.
20-A creole has a limited vocabulary, a narrow range of functions and is only used in trading.
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CHAPTER III. LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
Chapter III Contents

1. Language in its socio-cultural context
2. Personal names
3. Kin(ship) terms
4. Addressing
1. LANGUAGE IN ITS SOCIO-CULTURAL CONTEXT

1-What social factors in Vietnam influence language choice in everyday communication?
2-Which of the above social factors is the most important?
When we speak, we must consistently make choices of many different kinds: what we
want to say, how we want to say it, and the specific sentence types, words, and sounds that best
unite the what with the how. How we say something is at least as important as what we say; in
fact, the content and forms are quite inseparable, being but two facets of the same object.
Appropriate language choice in human communication depends on the cultural, social, and
physical settings in which communication takes place. These settings are called socio-cultural
contexts or communication contexts. Another type of context is the context of culture. A
society and its culture, among other things, provide the context of situation and the context of
culture for language use. The terms context of situation and context of culture were coined by
Bronislaw Malinowski [39]: language can only be fully understood when these two aspects are
understood implicitly or explicitly by the interlocutors. In the following part, we will look at the
two notions of context of situation and context of culture:
1.1. The context of situation
1.1.1. The notion of context of situation
In English the notion of “context” derives from Latin “contextus” (from “contegere,”
meaning weaving together). Most West and East European languages have the same or a
similar concept of “context,” both in the sense of verbal context (co-text) and in the sense of
context of situation. In linguistics, sociology, and anthropology, the term context refers to
those objects or entities which surround a focal event in these discipline, typically a
communicative event, of some kind. Context is a “frame that surrounds the event and provides
resources for its appropriate interpretation”[Charles, as cited in [152]. The term context is often
used to refer to a-linguistic or verbal context (the linguistic units which occur before or after a
word, a phrase or even a longer utterance or a text) and b-non-linguistic or social context / the
context of situation (the broader social situation in which a linguistic item is used). The social
context is the whole situation in which an utterance is made (i.e. who is speaking to whom
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about whom, whether formally or informally, why, when and where). Language varies
according to the change in social factors or in other words, according to the social context in
which it occurs. The basic assumption here is that language users adapt the properties of their
language use (such as intonation, lexical choice, syntax, and other aspects of formulation) to the
current communicative situation.
The notion of context was invoked by Malinowski to account for the way language was
used among the Trobriand islanders in the Western Pacific [105]. Firth [1957, as cited in [105]
takes up the notion of context of situation and turns it into a key concept in his linguistic theory
by giving it a more abstract character, and, more significantly, by incorporating language within
it.
According to Firth [1957a, as cited in [105], “context of situation” is best used as a
suitable schematic construct to apply to language events. He suggests the following categories
to relate context of situation to language events:
a-The relevant features of participants: persons, personalities.
i-The verbal action of the participants.
ii-The non-verbal action of the participants.
b-The relevant objects.
c-The effect of the verbal action.
A similar approach is found in Hymes (1964, 1974) where further details of context are
specified. Hymes lists the components of speech as follows [as cited in [87, pp.110-111]: a-the
genre, b-the topic, c-the purpose or function, d-the setting, e-the key, f-the participants, g- the
message form, h-the message content, i-the act sequence, j-the rules for interaction, k-the norms
of interpretation.
Pervin [1978), as cited in [105] summarizes the structure of situations in terms of the
following categories: a-place, b-time, c-people, and d-activities.
Argyle [1978, as cited in [105], proposes a more complex list of situation categories: a-
elements of behaviour, b-goals or motivations, c-rules of behaviour, d- social or formal roles, e-
physical setting and equipment, f-salient cognitive concepts, and g- relevant skills.
Probably the most detailed contribution to the study of the structure of social situations
in social psychology has been provided in an influential paper by Brown and Fraser [1979, as
cited in [105, p.38]. Their schema is inspired by the situational factors that explain
sociolinguistic variation, and they provide not only a theoretical sketch, but also a selective
review of the sociolinguistic literature in which such factors have been observed. Their schema
of situation structure combines a major Scene category with that of Participants, where a
Setting (locale, time, bystanders) is part of the Scene, more or less as in other approaches. They
see Purpose as the “motor” of social situations, but place it under Scene, and define it in terms
of activity type (goals, activated roles) and subject matter (task, topic).
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Figure 3.1. Components of a situation [Brown and Fraser, 1979, as cited in [105, p.38].
Saville-Troike [86, pp.42-43] states that language choice depends on such social factors
as domain, topic, setting and function.
According to Samovar, Porter, Mcdaniel and Roy [84, p.311], there are three important
communication variables found in every communication setting. These are general rules that
apply across all cultures and all social settings. In every social context, you will find culture-
based communication rules that apply to a-the appropriate degree of formality and informality,
b- the influence of assertiveness and interpersonal harmony, and c-the influence of power
distance relationship. Each variable plays an important role in how people respond to their
interpersonal and organizational environment.
According to Holmes [45, pp.8-9], in any situation, linguistic choices generally indicate
people’s awareness of the influence of one or more of the following components:
a-The participants
i-who is speaking, and
ii-who are they speaking to?
b-The setting or social context of the interaction: where are they
speaking?
c-The topic: what is being talked about?
d-The function: Why are they speaking?
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In addition to these components, it is useful to take account of four different dimensions

for analysis which relate to the factors above and which have been only implicit in the discussion
so far. These are:
a-A social distance scale concerned with participant relationships
b-A status scale concerned with participant relationships
c- A formality scale relating to the setting or type of interaction
d-Two functional scales relating to the purposes or topic of interaction.
In the following part, we will look at domain, participant, setting, topic, function and
power and solidarity relationships as important social factors influencing language choice in
human communication.
1.1.2. Domain, setting, topic, function and participants as important factors in the context of
situation
1.2.2.1. Domain
The concept of domain developed by Fishman [1964, 1966, 1971, 1972, as cited in [86,
pp.42-43] remains useful for both description and explanation of the distribution of means of
communication. He defines it as:
“. . . a socio-cultural construct abstracted from topics of communication, relationships
between communicators, and locales of communication, in accord with the institutions of
a society and the spheres of activity of a speech community.”
Factors determining domains may thus include the general subject area under discussion
(e.g. religion, family, work), the role-relationships between the participants (e.g. priest–
parishioner, mother–daughter, boss–secretary), and the setting of the interaction (e.g. church,
home, office).
No fixed set of domains can be posited a priori for all speech communities, since the set
of activities which will constitute a cluster of purpose, role-relations, and setting will be culture-
specific. Different levels of focus have also proved to be salient in different communities: e.g.
societal–institutional (family, school, church, government) versus social–psychological
(intimate, informal, formal, intergroup). These levels tend to coincide (family with intimate, for
instance, and religious institution with formal), but may provide an interesting additional
dimension for investigation [Fishman, 1971, as cited in [86, pp.42-43]
For example, in Paraguay, a small South American country, two languages are used –
Spanish, the language of the colonisers, and Guaraní, the American Indian indigenous language.
People in Paraguay are proud that they have their own language which distinguishes them from
the rest of South America. Many rural Paraguayans are monolingual in Guaraní, but those who
live in the cities are usually bilingual. They read Spanish literature, but they gossip in both
Spanish and Guaraní.
A study by Joan Rubin in the 1960s [as cited in [45, p.23] identified complementary
patterns of language use in different domains. Urban bilingual Paraguayans selected different
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codes in different situations, and their use of Spanish and Guaraní fell into a pattern for different
domains. This was useful though it still leaves considerable areas of language use unspecified.
Table 3.1. Domains of language use in Paraguay [45, p.23]
Domain Addressee Setting Topic Language
Family Parent Home Planning a Guarani
family party
Friendship Friend Cafe Funny anecdote Guarani
Religion Priest Church Choosing the Spanish
Sunday liturgy
Education Teacher Primary school Telling story Guarani
Education Lecturer University Solving a maths Spanish
problem
Administration Official Office Getting an Spanish
import licence
Domain is clearly a very general concept which draws on three important social factors in
code choice – participants, setting and topic. It is useful for capturing broad generalisations about
any speech community. Using information about the domains of use in a community, it is
possible to draw a very simple model summarising the norms of language use for the
community. This is often particularly useful for bilingual and multilingual speech communities.
1.1.2.2. Topic
Topic, as discussed in this part, refers to discourse topic: the subject matter of a speech,
text, meeting, discourse, etc. It is what is talked or written about. Discourse topic categorizes,
reduces, summarizes, and organizes the generic structure and the semantic information of
discourse.
Topics, topic categories, topic nature (safe, easy, taboo, familiar…) will influence the
language choice such as spoken or written discourse, the generic structure of discourse, styles of
language, speech act choice, register, discourse makers and many others.
Once a topic is chosen, the speaker or writer has to speak or write topically. S/he thinks
first of the generic structure of discourse. Then, there is the problem of topicality. Every clause,
sentence, paragraph, discourse is organised around an element that is taken as its point of
departure: the discourse topic. The topic of a discourse captures “what a document is about”,
i.e., the meaning of the text. A discourse can be represented by a “bag of words” for several
purposes. This is the issue of lexical cohesion and lexical/ conceptual field of discourse. A topic
consists of a cluster of words that frequently occur together. Examples are:
a-Arts: architecture, fine art, dancing, fashion, film, museum, music, …
b-Business: advertising, e-commerce, capital, finance, investment, …
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c-Computers: hardware, software, database, digital, multimedia, …

d-Education: course, graduate, school, professor, university, …
e-Politics: government, legislation, party, regime, military, war, …
The speaker or the writer of a discourse topic has to think of issues of thematisation
(thematic development of the topic), staging (what is first, what is last, topic-subtopics,
discourse markers..) and language style.
Topic is often a primary determinant of language choice in multilingual contexts.
Bilinguals often find it easier to discuss particular topics in one code rather than another. In
some domains, choice of language depends on factors such as the particular topic or function of
the interaction. In rural areas of Spain, lack of proficiency in Spanish may lead to the use of
Guaraní in situations where Spanish would be appropriate in the town.
Table 3.2. Topic and language choice in Spain [45, p.49]
Spanish Guarani
Religion ✔
Literature ✔ (serious) ✔ (magazine)
Schooling ✔
Broadcasting ✔ ✔ (e.g. farming)
Shopping ✔
Gossiping ✔
In diglossic communities, choice of when H will be used and when L will be used
depends on the topic chosen.
In addition to topic, appropriate language choice may depend on setting (including locale
and time of day), purposes and participants.
1.1.2.3. Function
The term function refers to the purpose for which an utterance or a unit of language is
used [82, p.113]. In linguistics, language functions are described in the speech act theory: a
speech act is an utterance as a functional unit in communication. Depending on the context of
communication, one utterance has a certain function in communication. The purpose of using
the utterance, together with other aspects of social context, will decide which kind of speech act
the speaker is performing. The speech act realization differs from culture to culture.
In a spoken discourse, the structure of a spoken discourse is normally organized around
the organization of the speech acts relevant to the discourse topic. For example, when you hear:
Good morning, Erm... I’m wondering what the Vietnam Airlines flights are from Hanoi to
HoChiMinh city every day? You know that the discourse topic is buying airline tickets (fare).
The topic framework is: Location (a Vietnam airline ticket office in Hanoi), participants: (sale
and and English-speaking customer), time (in the morning), language: English, discourse type
(transaction discourse), lexical field: (flight, time of depature, air part, price…). The speech acts
will be about buying the airline ticket at an Vietname airline office in Hanoi for a morning
flight from Hanoi to HoChiMinh City.
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Functions can be the purpose for which a language unit is used. It will decide the generic
/ the overall structure and the functional style of a discourse. If we view genres as social
processes, then the functions of these social processes can be to describe, to explain, to instruct,
to argue, to narrate. These social processes with their functions will result in different types of
genre and their generic structures: personal descriptions, accounts, instructions, essays, narrative.
For example, to narrate a story, you will make use of the generic structure of narrative which has
the following structure: abstract, orientation, complicating event, resolution and coda.
Functions or purposes can decide the functional styles of the discourse or text.
1.1.2.4. Setting [105]
a-Setting: time, location, circumstances and situation
We shall use the term setting here in two senses: that of situation and that of time and
place / space. Thus, situations include a family breakfast, a faculty meeting, a party,
Thanksgiving dinner, a lecture, a date. Social situations may be restricted by cultural norms
which specify the appropriate participants, the physical setting, the topics, the functions of
discourse, and the style.
b- Location: Types of places
Of the vast number of possible places, we shall, therefore, only consider three basic
types: i-personal and inter-personal places/spaces, ii-social places/spaces and iii-geographical
places/ spaces.
Personal and interpersonal place and space define where I am now, as well as my
interlocutors, that is, a space that organizes our interaction, perspective and discourse in direct,
face-to-face interaction. Preferred personal and interpersonal space may vary in size between
cultures.
Social places locate our joint and collective activities in everyday life, at home, at work,
and during times of leisure, and hence tend to be defined in terms of what people do in such
places. Such places may be variously categorized, as follows: i-outdoor places and spaces
(streets, squares, parks, lakes, rivers and beaches), ii-residential places (houses, apartment
buildings, homes), iii-commercial places (shops, department stores, shopping malls), iv-
commercial service places (hotels and restaurants), v-community service places (city halls,
police stations and post offices, government agencies; hospitals, stations and airports), vi-
educational places (schools and universities), vii-leisure places (movie houses, theatres and
gyms), viii-workplaces (offices, workshops and factories)
Social places are also defined by the social categories of the people who work there (the
professionals), those who visit such places (the users or clients), as well as the typical
transactions they engage in. And conversely, social places thus seem to be involved in the
assignment of social identities to members, especially to the professionals who work there.
A third kind of place may be called geographical, but actually embodies and combines
social, political and cultural dimensions. They may be represented by their scope, range, size or
level, and are progressively inclusive, for instance as follows: i-Home, ii-Street / Neighborhood,
iii-City, iv-State, Province, v-Country, vi-Region / Continent, vii-World.
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As part of the representation of place in context models, these categories not only tell us
where we (and others) are, and what happens where, but also provide a sociocultural dimension
and identity, which influences language choice in communication.
So far we have conceptualized the three types of places as wholes. Many of them,
however, are structured, organized, ordered in many ways, and such structures are important for
interaction. Teachers traditionally stand in front of a classroom so that they can see and control
the students, and a judge usually sits in front of a courtroom, and on a higher bench, both to
symbolize his / her power.
b-Time
There are many forms of discourse and communicative events that are organized by time,
with fixed beginnings and endings, as is the case for most meetings, broadcast programs,
lectures, parliamentary debates, doctors’ visits, and so on. This is the case for most institutional
discourse, but also in informal everyday conversations. People do not have limitless time, and
organize part of their discourse, and especially ending it, by negotiating termination with
reference to time. Communicative events may take place between fixed time points, or have a
maximum duration.
All this shows that participants in many communicative events, at least in many modern
cultures, must be aware of time, and keep monitoring it – starting with the obligatory presence at
a certain place at a certain time (that is, being “on time” for work, a class, a meeting, a train ride
or a concert).
We have seen that settings are a fundamental aspect of the structure of situations in
general, and of contexts in particular. Joos [1967, as cited [79, p.24] has given a classification of
five major setting varieties in his own cultural system on the basis of the degrees of formality of
the settings; these he defines by style types as intimate, casual, consultative, formal, and frozen.
1.1.2.5. Participants
a-participants’ social attributes
In any act of communication, there is a sender and a receiver who together may be
called interlocutors. In addition, there may be present an audience which is not the primary
addressee of the message. These are the participants in a communicative event.
For most sociolinguistic analyses the important features of participants will be
sociological attributes. Participants’ social identities involves many types of identity and roles,
such as [105]:
i-Categories: gender (women, men, etc.), age (young, old, etc.), appearance (black,
white, etc.), etc.
ii-Ethnicity: European, Asian-American, etc.
iii-Nationality: Dutch, Spanish, etc.
iv-Profession/Occupation: baker, dentist, journalist, etc.
v-Social positions: boss, employee, etc.
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vi-Ideological identities: socialist, feminist, pacifist, etc.

vii-Social roles/relations: mother, friend, patient, client, etc.
viii-Communicative roles: speakers, producers, listeners, readers, etc.
These factors can result in different types of language variety: gender variety, age variety,
ethnic variety, geographical variety, genres and different styles.
In addition, the category of the communicative event and the participation structure of the
communicative event are also very important: What communicative event takes place? How is
the event organized? Who will participate in the communicative event? What functions do they
play in the event? What are the participant relationships in the event? Participation structure is
composed of various kinds of categories of social participants from different realms or social
orders. Directly relevant are the specific participant roles of discourse and communication itself,
such as Speaker and Hearer in most forms of everyday conversation.
b-Participant social status, social role and relationships.
i-Participant social status
The concept status is central to social interaction and social structure. Social statuses
are established social positions.
ii-Participant social role
A social status is associated with a social role. Roles are also central to social interaction
and social structure. The two concepts of status and role go hand in hand. The term social role
refers to a pattern of behavior that is associated with a particular position (or status) in
society or a set of expected behaviors and the values associated with them that a culture or
ethnic group defines as proper or acceptable [92, p.45].
Social roles often have formal markers associated with them. Among the chief markers
of social position is undoubtedly language. Language is the medium through which roles are
created, and each role in turn shapes the language of the person who plays it. Participants’ role
relationships are influential in communication.
iii-Participant role relationships: Power relationship vs solidarity relationship
When someone communicates with other people, he or she should try to know with
whom he/she speaks, where and when he speaks, then try to find an appropriate language. A
speaker uses language not only to express but to create a representation of himself / herself in
relation to others with whom she/he is interacting. Language can be used to express role of
relationships between individuals. The social relation between the participants is reflected either
in power or solidarity relationships.
Power is a relationship between at least two persons and it is nonreciprocal in the sense
that both cannot have power in the same area of behavior. Power is the degree to which one
interlocutor is able to control the behavior of the other [Sterling, 2000, as cited in [10]. The
relationship is asymmetrical. There are many bases of power: physical strength, wealth, age, sex,
institutionalized role in the church, the state, the army, or within the family. The relation called
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older than, parent of, richer than, stronger than, and noble than are all asymmetrical power
relations.
Solidarity is a relationship which is based on similarity or even sameness of salient
characteristics in two (or more) persons [Thomas, 1998, as cited in [10]. Such relationships
are reciprocal, i.e. they obtain equally for both individuals. The relationship is symmetrical.
Attending the same school or having the same parents, or practicing the same profession are
a set of relations which are symmetrical.
Solidarity concerns the social distance between the characteristics they shared [Hudson,
1960, as cited in [10]: How much experience they have shared, how many social characteristics
they share (religion, sex, region of origin, race, occupation, interest, etc.). Solidarity forms
express intimacy and familiarity [Polly Sterling, 2000, as cited in [10].
Power and solidarity are two types of social relationships which influence the language
choice in communication. In communication, people often vary their language according to the
communicative contexts to achieve their communicative purposes. One of the most important
function of language variation is to enable people to identify with a social group (to show
solidarity with a social group / to be in solidarity with the group) or to separate themselves from
the group (to convey the idea that there is a difference in social distance between the
interlocutors). In the first case, the speaker means “I am one of you”. In the second case, the
speaker means “I am different from you”. The two notions Power Relation and Solidarity
Relation were introduced by Brown and Gillman [10]. Solidarity relation is the relation of
social equality, of social closeness, of being friends. The language used to show solidarity
tends to be informal. It means: ”I am one of you”. Power relation is the relation of difference
in social distance. This relation is characterised by power factor (political, economic or social).
One interlocutor has higher power (higher in status) whereas the other is lower in power (lower
in status). There is a difference in social distance between the interlocutors: higher status-lower
status, higher power-lower power, old-young, rich-poor, employer-employee. The difference in
social distance between them will result in the use of different verbal–nonverbal language
varieties.
Power governs asymmetrical relationships where one is subordinate to another;
solidarity governs symmetrical relationships characterized by social equality and
similarity. We can display power-solidarity relationship as follows:
Power Solidarity
Asymmetry Symmetry
Hierarchy Equality
Distance Closeness
________________________________________
Linguistic signals of power and solidarity can be words, phrases, pronunciation, or the
whole language.
One example of linguistic signals of power and solidarity is T-V usage. In
sociolinguistics, a T–V distinction (from the Latin pronouns tu and vos) is a contrast, within one
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language, between various forms of addressing one's conversation partner or partners [195].
Brown and Gilman argued that the choice of forms of address is governed by either relationships
of power and / or solidarity, depending on the culture of the speakers. Brown & Gilman (1960)
defined social relationships in terms of POWER and SOLIDARITY. Forms which indicate
POWER establish who has authority and how great that authority is. Forms which indicate
SOLIDARITY establish the degree of intimacy in the relationship. T is the familiar form and V
is the polite form. T and V forms are used to control social interactions by indicating the degree
of power and solidarity. Non-reciprocal T/V usage indicates power relationship. Reciprocal T or
V usage indicates solidarity relationships, reciprocal V usage: “politeness” and reciprocal T
usage: “intimacy”.
1.1.2.6. Society as social context
Society, among other things, provides the social contexts and social situations for
language use. Social situations are restricted by cultural norms which specify the appropriate
participants, the physical setting, the topics, the functions of discourse, and the style.
In addition, society controls speech [49, p.119]:
a-by providing a set of norms, which we learn to follow.
b-by providing the motivation for adhering to these norms, for putting efforts into speech.
c-by providing a set of concepts for thinking and talking about.
1.2. The context of culture

1.2.1. The context of culture
The notion “context of situation” is often related, by Malinowski, Firth and other
linguists, with that of “context of culture” [39]. The first kind of context is local, and involves
participants face-to-face, and within a specific setting. Cultural context is usually defined as
more global, and involves members of a whole community, as well as many of their fundamental
properties, such as their knowledge, norms and values.
Culture provides the context within which words and, more generally, grammatical
systems are interpreted. The context for an instance of language (text) is an instance of culture
(situation). And the context for the system that lies behind each text (language) is the system
which lies behind each situation – namely, the culture [39, p.7].
According to Neuliep [73, p.46], the cultural context in which human communication
occurs is perhaps the most defining influence on human interaction. Culture provides the
overall framework wherein humans learn to organize their thoughts, emotions, and
behaviors in relation to their environment.
But, what is the overall framework for a particular culture and language community
which guide people’s behaviour in general and communication in particular? What is the overall
framework for British culture? American culture? Australian culture? and Vietnamese culture?
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Over the past few decades, anthropologists, communication researchers, psychologists,

and sociologists have isolated several dimensions of cultural variability that can be used to
differentiate cultures. They have tried to find out the national systems of dominant cultural
values of world cultures. These national systems of dominant cultural values are considered as
national patterns of cultures. As stated, when used as a count noun, "a culture" is the set of
customs, traditions and values of a society or community, such as an ethnic group or nation
[154]. The set of dominant cultural values of one’s nation functions as the cultural
framework for an individual’s communication.
As Macoinis notes, cultural values are “culturally defined standards of desirability,
goodness, and beauty that serve as broad guidelines for social living” [as cited in [84, p.42].
The significance of cultural values is that they inform members of a culture as to what is
considered right or wrong, good or bad, correct and incorrect, appropriate in most contexts of
human life. When enacted, a culture’s value system establishes the expected, normative modes
of behavior for members of that culture and institutes the criteria used to judge people’s conduct
[84, pp. 174-175].
Australian anthropologist Roger Keesing [73, p.46] argues that culture provides people
with an implicit theory about how to behave and how to interpret the behavior of others. People
from different cultures learn different implicit theories. These theories are learned through
socialization. And through socialization, individuals also learn the dominant values of their
particular culture and their self-identities.
According to Gudykunst [37] members of different cultures learn different implicit

theories to guide their behavior. Cross-cultural researchers suggest dimensions that can be used
to explain similarities and differences in these implicit theories across cultures. Cultural
Individualism-Collectivism is the major dimension of cultural variability isolated by theorists
across disciplines to explain similarities and differences in behavior Individualism and
collectivism exist in all cultures, but one pattern tends to be predominant.
As members of individualistic cultures are socialized into their culture, they learn the
major values of their culture (e.g. independence, achievement) and acquire preferred ways for
how members of the culture are expected to view themselves. Members of collectivistic cultures
learn different major values (e.g. harmony, solidarity) and acquire different preferred ways to
conceive of themselves.
Cultural I-C influences the major cultural values individuals learn and the ways members
of cultures acquire conceptions of themselves. Cultural I-C has a direct influence on behavior
(e.g., through norms/rules used to guide behavior), but it also influences behavior indirectly
through the values and self-construals that individual members learn when being
socialized into the culture. To understand individual behavior, both cultural-level I-C and
individual-level factors that mediate the influence of cultural I-C must be taken into
consideration.
Individuals learn their values through the socialization process. The values that are
predominant in the culture influence the values that individuals learn, but individual value
structures are different from cultural value structures. Individuals' behavior is affected by
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cultural values and the individual values they hold. Cultural values provide broad guidelines
about what are acceptable means for achieving end states in different situations. Individual
values provide specific guidelines for behavior across situations. Feather (1995) demonstrated
that the values individuals hold are linked to the valences they attach to different behaviors.
When individuals are socialized, they learn various patterns of interaction that are based
on the norms, rules, and values of their culture. These patterns of interaction form the basis for
individuals' communication styles.
According to Gudykunst [38] cultural individualism-collectivism influences
communication in a culture through the cultural norms and rules associated with the major
cultural tendency (e.g. the United States tends to have individualistic norms / rules, Asian
cultures tend to have collectivistic norms / rules). In addition to cultural norms / rules,
individualism-collectivism also influences the ways individuals are socialized in their cultures.
Individuals in a culture generally are socialized in ways consistent with the cultural-level
tendencies. Cultural individualism-collectivism, therefore, indirectly influences communication
through characteristics individuals learn when they are socialized. At the least three individual
characteristics mediate the influence of cultural individualism-collectivism on individuals’
communication: their personalities, their individual values, and their self-construals. These
individual-level characteristics are related to cultural-level individualism-collectivism and can be
used to explain variability in communication within cultures.
Thus, the culture in which individuals are raised influences the way individuals are
socialized in terms of individualistic and collectivistic tendencies. Cultural individualism-
collectivism (I-C) has a direct effect on communication because it affects the norms and rules
that guide behavior in individualistic and collectivistic cultures. The individualistic or
collectivistic tendencies that individuals learn when being socialized into their cultures in turn
also influence individual level factors such as the way individuals conceive of themselves and
the values individuals hold. Cultural I-C, therefore, has both a direct effect on communication
behavior and an indirect effect on communication behavior that is mediated through individual-
level factors such as self construals and values. The theoretical position outlined is summarized
in Figure 3.2.
Figure 3.2. The influence of individualism - collectivism on communication [32]
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According to Merkin [66] individuals know people mostly from their own cultural
network. Consequently, identifying and understanding underlying cultural values is essential for
successful intercultural interactions. Studies have examined how different cultural values
determine the way people communicate to accomplish goals while also maintaining their
dignified, self-confident manner. Considerations occur because it is difficult to decipher how to
communicate effectively with people from other cultures; particularly when one is balancing
attaining goals and maintaining composure with people who see things differently. The different
perspectives people from dissimilar cultures hold are referred to as cultural norms. Cultural
norms condition people to relate to others in patterned ways. One classic example is how initial
business meetings in places like the US get straight to the point. In contrast, in Japan, when
business partners first meet, much time is spent socializing initially before plunging into the
substance of a business deal.
These cultural patterns reflect fundamental values that underlie communication. Hence,
the values behind getting straight to work reflect the individualistic value of consulting the
other (as a courtesy). In contrast, the value sharing contexts before signing a contract, reflects
the collectivistic notion that face must be attended to first. Establishing harmony gives face
which founds good business relationships. Thus, collectivists need harmonious
communication.
The following part will look at Hall (1976, 1983)’s idea of low-context cultures and high-
context cultures and Hofstede’s dimensions of national cultures (2010, 2011) as the cultural
frameworks which guide and influence people’s behaviour and communication.
1.2.2. The frameworks of Low-context cultures (LCC) and High-context cultures (HCC) and
communication styles.
Communication styles are behaviors that consistently occur in the “way one verbally,
nonverbally, and paraverbally interacts to signal how literal meaning should be taken,
interpreted, filtered, or understood” [Norton, 1983, as cited in [75].
Hall [1976, 1983, as cited in [81, pp.134-138] distinguished between cultures according
to how communication takes place: low / high context cultures. Ting-Toomy [99, p.101] presents
the Low-Context Communication (LCC) and High-Context Communication (HCC)
characteristics as follows:
Ting-Toomey [99, pp.100-101] states that by low-context communication we emphasize
how intention or meaning is best expressed through explicit verbal messages. By high-context
communication we emphasize how intention or meaning can best be conveyed through the
context (e.g. social roles or position) and the nonverbal channels (e.g. pauses, silence, tone of
voice) of the message.
In general, low-context communication refers to communication patterns of direct verbal
mode: straight talk, nonverbal immediacy, and sender-oriented values (i.e. the sender assumes
the responsibility to communicate clearly). In low-context communication, the speaker is
expected to be responsible for constructing a clear, persuasive message that the listener can
decode easily.
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In contrast, high-context communication refers to communication patterns of indirect

verbal mode: self-effacing talk, nonverbal subtleties, and interpreter-sensitive values (i.e. the
receiver or interpreter of the message assumes the responsibility to infer the hidden or contextual
meanings of the message). In high-context communication, the listener or interpreter of the
message is expected to “read between the lines,” to accurately infer the implicit intent of the
verbal message, and to observe the nonverbal nuances and subtleties that accompany the verbal
message.
When we use low-context communication we stress the importance of explicit verbal
messages to convey personal thoughts, opinions, and feelings. When we use high-context
communication we stress the importance of multi-layered contexts (e.g. historical context, social
norms, roles, situational and relational contexts) that frame the interaction encounter.
Ting-Toomey [99, p.10] summarizes the Low-context communication (LCC) and High-
context communication (HCC) characteristics in the following table:
Table 3.3. Ting-Toomey [99]’s Low-context communication (LCC) and High-context
communication (HCC) frameworks:
LOW - CONTEXT COMMUNICATION HIGH-CONTEXT COMMUNICATION
CULTURE CULTURE
Individual values Group-oriented values
Self-face concern Mutual-face concern
Linear logic Spiral logic
Direct style Indirect style
Person-oriented style Status-oriented style
Self-enhancement style Self-effacement style
Speaker-oriented style Listener-oriented style
Verbal-based understanding Context-based understanding
Countries: Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Mexico, Nigeria,
United States, Canada, Australia, United Japan, China, South Korea, Vietnam
Kingdom
1.2.3. The frameworks of Hofstede’s dimensions of national cultures

1.2.3.1. Individualism-Collectivism
This dimension is defined as follows: “Individualism pertains to societies in which the
ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after him or herself and his or
her immediate family. Collectivism as its opposite pertains to societies in which people from
birth onward are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, which throughout people’s lifetime
continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty” (Hofstede et al., 2010, p.92).
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Table 3.4. Major differences between Individualistic and Collectivistic cultures [99, p.67;
42; 41, p.113]
Individualistic cultures Collectivistic cultures
“I” identity “We” identity
Individual goals Group goals
Interindividual emphasis Ingroup emphasis
Voluntary reciprocity Obligatory reciprocity
Low-context communication High-context communication
Management of individuals Management of groups
Small-power distance prevails Large-power distance prevails
Symmetrical interaction Asymmetrical interaction
Examples: United States, Austrlia, United Guatemala, Indonesia, Pakistan, China,
Kindom, Canada, Netherlands, New Zealand, Japan, Vietnam
France, Germany
Ting-Toomey [99, p.67] maintains that basically, individualism refers to the broad value
tendencies of a culture in emphasizing the importance of individual identity over group identity,
individual rights over group rights, and individual needs over group needs. Individualism
promotes self-efficiency, individual responsibilities, and personal autonomy. Collectivism
refers to the broad value tendencies of a culture in emphasizing the importance of the ‘we’
identity over the ‘I’ identity, group rights over individual rights, and in-group-oriented needs
over individual wants and desires. Collectivism promotes relational interdependence, in-
group harmony, and in-group collaborative spirit. Individualistic and collectivistic value
tendencies are manifested in everyday family, school, and workplace interaction.
In collectivist cultures, high-context communication prevails. In individualistic cultures,
low-context communication prevails. Individualism is also related to small-power distance
whereas collectivism is related to a large-power distance.
Cultural individualism-collectivism influences communication in a culture through the
cultural norms and rules associated with the major cultural tendency (e.g. the United States tends
to have individualistic norms / rules, Asian cultures tend to have collectivistic norms / rules). In
addition to cultural norms / rules, individualism-collectivism also influences the ways individuals
are socialized in their cultures. Individuals in a culture generally are socialized in ways
consistent with the cultural-level tendencies. Cultural individualism-collectivism, therefore,
indirectly influences communication through characteristics individuals learn when they are
socialized. At the least three individual characteristics mediate the influence of cultural
individualism-collectivism on individuals’ communication: their personalities, their
individual values, and their self-construals. These individual-level characteristics are related
to cultural-level individualism-collectivism and can be used to explain variability in
communication within cultures. Figure 3.3. schematically illustrates how the influence of
cultural individualism-collectivism on communication is mediated by individual-level factors
that mediate their effects.
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Figure 3.3. The influence of individualism and collectivism on communication [32]
Cultural I-C influences the major cultural values individuals learn and the ways members
of cultures acquire conceptions of themselves (Gudykunst et al, 1996). Cultural I-C has a direct
influence on behavior (e.g., through norms/rules used to guide behavior), but it also influences
behavior indirectly through the values and self-construals that individual members learn
when being socialized into the culture. To understand individual behavior, both cultural-level I-C
and individual-level factors that mediate the influence of cultural I-C must be taken into
consideration.
Individuals learn their values through the socialization process. The values that are
predominant in the culture influence the value s that individuals learn, but individual
value structures are different from cultural value structures. Individuals' behavior is affected by
cultural values and the individual values they hold. Cultural values provide broad guidelines
about what are acceptable means for achieving end states in different situations. Individual
values provide specific guidelines for behavior across situations. Feather (1995) demonstrated
that the values individuals hold are linked to the valences they attach to different behaviors.
When individuals are socialized, they learn various patterns of interaction that are based
on the norms, rules, and values of their culture. These patterns of interaction form the basis for
individuals' communication styles.
According to Ting-Toomey [99, p.68], the top individualist values are freedom, honesty,
social recognition, comfort, hedonism, and personal equity. The top collectivist values are
harmony, face-saving, fifial piety (respect and conformity of parents’ wishes), equality in the
distribution of rewards among peers (for the sake of group harmony), and fulfillment of
other’s needs.
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Thus, it is expected that people in collectivistic cultures appreciate harmony, mutual-face

concern, formal, covert, implicit and indirect style of communication, context-based
understanding, non-verbal contextual message, asymmetrical interaction and people in
individualistic cultures value freedom of speaking, consultation, informal, overt, implicit and
direct style of communication, verbal-based understanding and symmetrical interaction in
communication.
Ting-Toomey [98] argued that individualistic cultures are low-context and
correspondingly collectivistic cultures are high-context. Both high-context and low-context
cultures were originally broken down by Hall (1976) according to two distinctive communicative
patterns. Specifically, in high-context cultures, communication is overt, implicit and indirect
while in low-context cultures, communication is covert, explicit and direct.
According to Merkin [66] a large body of research highlights how individualists prefer
direct communication while collectivists prefer indirect communication, particularly in face-
threatening situations.
Direct communication can be defined as messages that have the meaning included within
them, including logical viewpoints, direct declarations, and expressiveness. Direct speech is
efficient because it is concise, evident, and unequivocal. However, it commits the speaker to
what is said which could easily cause people to lose face. So why would individualists prefer
direct communication? Individualists favor direct communication partly because they can assert
control over their relationships. Direct messages employ low-context communication –
communication where the meaning is explicitly stated. In fact, findings with regard to facework
– behavioral actions enacted to protect one’s face – indicate that individualism is responsible for
more dominating and less other-oriented facework than collectivism. Direct communication
strategies are risky and could destroy relationships if not purposefully considered. However,
individualists’ need to manage relationships is so strong that they are willing to risk taking
responsibility for their direct assertions.
Besides wanting control, individualists directly communicate to establish two-way

communication, even if it means superiors involving subordinates in decision-making.
Americans (individualists) prefer two-way communication because they often face complex
open-ended situations requiring participative input. Indeed, individualism is related to the
propensity to express voice. Accordingly, individualists believe it is a loss of face when they are
not consulted in decision making. Being consulted assures individualists that their opinion
matters as unique individuals. This is partly because individualists promote their own welfare
over the interests of their group, try to stand out and tend to use self-honoring facework.
In cultures with a high collectivism maintenance of the harmony in the group is highly
important. In those cultures one seldom argues with people and one avoids that a member of the
group will loose face. Communication is very implicit because all members of the group know
each other well and they don't need words to convey a message.
In collectivistic cultures, the self is interdependent, which means that people feel linked
to others in their primary group. Accordingly, collectivists must maintain connection and adjust
their comportment to conform and be accepted by others; otherwise, they risk losing face.
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Consequently, they prefer to use indirect communication. The distinctive feature of indirect
communication is that the meaning is outside the message. Indirect communication styles
consist of influencing through face work or third parties or using ambiguity. However, the
ambiguities of indirect speech can be a source of misunderstanding and conflict in relationships
which could also lead to a loss of face.
So why do collectivists use indirect communication? In summarizing culture and

communication literature, it is concluded that most collectivists prefer to be indirect because they
are more comfortable avoiding conflict and losing face. Nevertheless, collectivists’ need to
uphold face is so important, they will risk being misunderstood for the sake of maintaining face.
To uphold face, collectivists also place a greater emphasis on preserving harmonious
interpersonal relations.
The combination of indirect communication with an interdependent self explains

collectivists’ focus on others. Given this orientation, collectivists prefer one-way
communication, where superiors use authority and subordinates provide little or no feedback.
This helps preserve social harmony designed to avoid situations where disagreements could lead
to losing face.
Members of individualistic cultures will have more consultational face-saving

communication than members of collectivistic cultures. Consultation needs will lead to the
greater use of direct communication strategies to save face. Members of collectivistic cultures
will have more harmonious face-saving strategies than members of individualistic cultures.
Harmony needs will lead to the greater use of indirect communication strategies to save face.
Individualistism-Collectivism characteristics of communication are summarised in the

following table:
Table 3.5. Individualistism-Collectivism characteristics of communication
Individualism Collectivism
Low-context communication High-context communication
Overt, explicit, and direct Covert, implicit and indirect
Verbal message Non-verbal contextual message
Explicit and precise instructions, signs, Imprecise
rules
Clear intentions, meanings Not clear intention, meanings depend on
circumstances
Conflict and confrontation are natural Avoidance of conflict and confrontation
Person-oriented verbal style Status-oriented verbal style
Self-enhancement verbal style Self-affacement verbal style
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Freedom of speech Harmony
Two-way communication One-way communication
1.2.3.2. The Power distance dimension

Power distance can therefore be defined as ‘the extent to which the less powerful
members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is
distributed unequally’ [41, p. 61).
Table 3.6. Key differences between Small-and-Large-Power-Distance societies in General
Norm, Family, School, and Health Care [41, p.72]:
SMALL POWER DISTANCE LARGE POWER DISTANCE
Inequalities among people should be Inequalities among people are expected and
minimized. desired.
Social relationships should be handled with Status should be balanced with restraint.
care.
Less powerful people and more powerful Less powerful people should be dependent.
people should be interdependent.
Less powerful people are emotionally Less powerful people are emotionally polarized
comfortable with inter dependence. between dependence and counterdependence.
Parents treat children as equals. Parents teach children obedience.
Children treat parents and older relatives as Respect for parents and older relatives is a basic
equals. and lifelong virtue.
Children play no role in old-age security of Children are a source of old-age security to parents.
parents.
Students treat teachers as equals. Students give teachers respect, even outside class.
Teachers expect initiatives from students in Teachers should take all initiatives in class.
class.
Teachers are experts who transfer Teachers are gurus who transfer personal wisdom.
impersonal truths.
Quality of learning depends on two-way Quality of learning depends on excellence of the
communication and excellence of students. teacher.
Less educated persons hold more More educated and less educated persons show
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authoritarian values than more educated equally authoritarian values.

persons.
Educational policy focuses on secondary Educational policy focuses on universities.
schools.
Patients treat doctors as equals and actively Patients treat doctors as superiors; consultations are
supply information. shorter and controlled by the doctor.
People in small power distance cultures tend to value equal power distributions, equal
rights and relations, and equitable rewards and punishments based on performance. People in
large power distance cultures tend to accept unequal power distribution, hierarchical rights,
asymmetrical role relations, and rewards and punishments based on age, rank, status, title and
seniority. For small power cultures, equality of personal rights represents an ideal to strive
toward in a system. For large power cultures, respect for power hierarchy in any system is a
fundamental way of life.
i-Power distance difference among countries: Roots in the Family [41]
Most people in the world are born into a family. All people started acquiring their mental
software immediately after birth, from the elders in whose presence they grew up, modeling
themselves after the examples set by these elders.
In the large-power-distance situation, children are expected to be obedient toward their
parents. Sometimes there is even an order of authority among the children themselves, with
younger children being expected to yield to older children. Independent behavior on the part of a
child is not encouraged. Respect for parents and other elders is considered a basic virtue;
children see others showing such respect and soon acquire it themselves. There is often
considerable warmth and care in the way parents and older children treat younger ones,
especially those who are very young. They are looked after and are not expected to experiment
for themselves. Respect for parents and older relatives lasts through adulthood: parental authority
continues to play a role in a person’s life as long as the parents are alive. Parents and
grandparents are treated with formal deference even after their children have actually taken
control of their own lives. There is a pattern of dependence on seniors that pervades all human
contacts, and the mental software that people carry contains a strong need for such dependence.
When parents reach old age or if they become otherwise infirm, children are expected to support
them financially and practically; grandparents often live with their children’s families.
In the small-power-distance situation, children are more or less treated as equals as soon
as they are able to act, and this may already be visible in the way a baby is handled in its bath.
The goal of parental education is to let children take control of their own affairs as soon as they
can. Active experimentation by the child is encouraged; being allowed to contradict their parents,
children learn to say “no” very early. Behavior toward others is not dependent on the other’s age
or status; formal respect and deference are seldom shown. Family relations in such societies
often strike people from other societies as lacking intensity. When children grow up, they start
relating to their parents as friends, or at least as equals, and a grown- up person is not apt to ask
his or her parents’ permission or even advice regarding an important decision. In the ideal
family, adult members are mutually independent. A need for independence is supposed to be a
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major component of the mental software of adults. Parents should make their own provisions for
when they become old or infirm; they cannot count on their children to support them, nor can
they expect to live with them.
ii-Power distance at school [41]
In most societies today, children go to school for at least some years. In the more affluent
societies, the school period may cover more than twenty years of a young person’s life. In school
the child further develops his or her mental programming. Teachers and classmates inculcate
additional values, being part of a culture that honors these values. It is an unanswered question as
to what extent an education system can contribute to changing a society. Can a school create
values that were not yet there, or will it unwittingly only be able to reinforce what already exists
in a given society? In a comparison of schools across societies, the same patterns of differences
that were found within families resurge. The role pair parent-child is replaced by the role pair
teacher-student, but basic values and behaviors are carried forward from one sphere into the
other. And of course, most schoolchildren continue to spend most of their time within their
families.
In the large-power-distance situation, the parent-child inequality is perpetuated by a
teacher-student inequality that caters to the need for dependence well established in the student’s
mind. Teachers are treated with respect or even fear (and older teachers even more so than
younger ones); students may have to stand when they enter. The educational process is teacher-
centered; teachers outline the intellectual paths to be followed. In the classroom there is
supposed to be a strict order, with the teacher initiating all communication. Students in class
speak up only when invited to; teachers are never publicly contradicted or criticized and are
treated with deference even outside school. When a child misbehaves, teachers involve the
parents and expect them to help set the child straight. The educational process is highly
personalized: especially in more advanced subjects at universities, what is transferred is seen not
as an impersonal “truth,” but as the personal wisdom of the teacher. The teacher is a guru, a term
derived from the Sanskrit word for “weighty” or “honorable,” and in India and Indonesia this is,
in fact, what a teacher is called. The French term is a maître à penser, a “teacher for thinking.” In
such a system the quality of one’s learning is highly dependent on the excellence of one’s
teachers.
In the small-power-distance situation, teachers are supposed to treat the students as basic
equals and expect to be treated as equals by the students. Younger teachers are more equal and
are therefore usually more liked than older ones. The educational process is student-centered,
with a premium on student initiative; students are expected to find their own intellectual paths.
Students make uninvited interventions in class; they are supposed to ask questions when they do
not understand something. They argue with teachers, express disagreement and criticisms in
front of the teachers, and show no particular respect to teachers outside school. When a child
misbehaves, parents often side with the child against the teacher. The educational process is
rather impersonal; what is transferred are “truths” or “facts” that exist independently of this
particular teacher. Effective learning in such a system depends very much on whether the
supposed two-way communication between students and teacher is, indeed, established. The
entire system is based on the students’ well-developed need for independence; the quality of
learning is to a considerable extent determined by the excellence of the students.
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Small-power-distance countries spend a relatively larger part of their education budget on

secondary schools for everybody, contributing to the development of middle strata in society.
Large-power-distance countries spend relatively more on university-level education and less on
secondary schools, maintaining a polarization between the elites and the uneducated.
iii-Power distance in the workplace [41]
Most people start their working lives as young adults, after having gone through learning
experiences in the family and at school. The role pairs parent-child, teacher-student, and doctor-
patient are now complemented by the role pair boss-subordinate, and it should not surprise
anybody when attitudes toward parents, especially fathers, and toward teachers, which are part of
our mental programming, are transferred toward bosses.
In the large-power-distance situation, superiors and subordinates consider each other as
existentially unequal; the hierarchical system is based on this existential inequality.
Organizations centralize power as much as possible in a few hands. Subordinates expect to be
told what to do. There is a large number of supervisory personnel, structured into tall hierarchies
of people reporting to each other. Salary systems show wide gaps between top and bottom in the
organization. Workers are relatively uneducated, and manual work has a much lower status than
office work. Superiors are entitled to privileges (literally “private laws”), and contacts between
superiors and subordinates are supposed to be initiated by the superiors only. The ideal boss in
the subordinates’ eyes, the one they feel most comfortable with and whom they respect most, is a
benevolent autocrat or “good father.” After some experiences with “bad fathers,” they may
ideologically reject the boss’s authority completely, while complying in practice.
In the small-power-distance situation, subordinates and superiors consider each other as
existentially equal; the hierarchical system is just an inequality of roles, established for
convenience, and roles may be changed, so that someone who today is my subordinate may
tomorrow be my boss. Organizations are fairly decentralized, with flat hierarchical pyramids and
limited numbers of supervisory personnel. Salary ranges between top and bottom jobs are
relatively small; workers are highly qualified, and high-skill manual work has a higher status
than low-skill office work. According privileges to higher-ups is basically undesirable, and
everyone should use the same parking lot, restrooms, and cafeteria. Superiors should be
accessible to subordinates, and the ideal boss is a resourceful (and therefore respected) democrat.
Subordinates expect to be consulted before a decision is made that affects their work, but they
accept that the boss is the one who finally decides.
Table 3.7. Ting-Toomey (1999)’s major differences between small-power distance and
large-power distance cultures [99, p.67]:
SMALL POWER DISTANCE LARGE POWER DISTANCE CULTURES
CULTURES
Emphasize equal distance Emphasize power distance
Individual credibility Seniority, age, rank, tittle
Emphasize informality Emphasize formality
Subordinate expect consultation Subordinate expect to receive directions
Countries: Austria, Israel, Denmark, New Countries: Malaysia, Guatemala, Panama,
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Zealand, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Philippines, Arab Countries, India, Pakistan,

Canada, and United States. West African countries, and Singapore
Reisinger [81, p.184] maintains that the power distance (PDI) dimension – the extent to
which a society accepts the unequal distribution of social power - also influences intercultural
communication. In the large-power distance cultures societies people show respect for elderly
people, the boss and teachers. They consider them as a kind of father. They expect them to tell
what to do and they will hardly argue with them. In these countries it is held that people are not
equal and that everyone has a rightful place, people obey the rules of authority and supervisors;
decisions are made autocratically. They are aware of status and role relationships and use
separate appropriate forms of communication style, forms of language and ways of addressing
those from different social classes. They tend to have formal and asymmetrical interaction and
expect to receive diections. In low-power distance cultures societies in which there is no social
hierarchy people consult with each other, use the same communication style for everybody, and
focus on independence and personality. People tend to have informal and symmetrical
interaction.
1.2.3.3. The Uncertainty avoidance dimension
“Uncertainty avoidance can be defined as the extent to which the members of a culture
feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations” [41, p.191].
According to Ting-Toomey [99, p.72], while members in weak uncertainty avoidance family
situations prefer informal rules to guide their behaviour, members in strong uncertainty avoidance
family situations tend to prefer formal structure and formal rules. Rules and laws are established to
counteract uncertainties in social interaction. In weak avoidance family situations, roles and
behavioural expectations are actively negotiated. Children are given more latitude to explore their own
values and morals. In strong uncertainty avoidance family situations, family roles are clearly
established and family rules are expected to be followed closely.
In weak uncertainty work situations, there is a greater tolerance of innovative ideas and
behaviour. Conflict is also viewed as a natural part of organizational productivity. In strong uncertainty
avoidance work situations, there is a greater resistance to deviant and innovative ideas. Career mobility
is high in weak uncertainty avoidance cultures, whereas career stability is a desired end goal in strong
uncertainty avoidance cultures. In strong uncertainty avoidance organizations, conflict is viewed as a
threat to organizational effectiveness.
Hoftede [1980, as cited in [99] uses the following statements to represent the basic
characteristics of strong uncertainty avoidance organizations: a- most organizations would be
better off if conflict could be eliminated; b-it is important for a manager to have at hand precise
answers to most of the questions that his or her subordinates may raise about their work; and c-
when the respective roles of the members of a department become complex detailed job
descriptions are essential.
Reisinger [81, p.184] states that in the high uncertainty avoidance cultures (Greece,
Portugal, Guatemala, Uruguay, Japan) people avoid conflict in communication, seek consensus
in conversation, and security through written rules, regulations, and face saving. Members of
these societies are anxious, aggressive, emotionally restrained and loyal to group decisions.
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They are often nationalistic and suspicious toward foreigners. In the low uncertainty avoidance
cultures (Singapore, Denmark, Sweden, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, India, the United
States, New Zealand), people tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty in conversations, talk about new
ideas, and need few rules as possible to guide them in communication. They believe conflicts
and disagreements are natural. They accept foreigners with different ideas and are optimistic
about the future.
Table 3.8. Major differences between Weak-uncertainty-avoidance and Strong- uncertainty
avoidance cultures [99, p.72]
WEAK UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE STRONG UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE
CULTURES CULTURES
Uncertainty is valued Uncertaintyis a threat
Career change Career stability
Encourage risk taking Expect clear procedures
Conflict can be positive Conflict is negative
Expect innovations Preserve status quo
Countries: Singapore, Jamaica, Denmark, Countries: Greece, Portugal, Guatemala, Uruguay,
Sweden, Hong Kong, United States, Japan, France, Spain, South Korea, and Japan
Canada, Norway, and Australia.
Communication characteristics of low uncertainty avoidance are: tolerance for conflict,

ambiguity, foreiners with strange behaviours and new ideas, lack of conformity and compromise.
Communication characteristics of high uncertainty avoidance are: avoidance of conflict,
disagreement, desire for concensus, conformity, security through written rules and procedures,
importance of face saving [81, p.186].
1.2.3.4. The Masculinity and Femininity dimension

“A society is called masculine when emotional gender roles are clearly distinct: men are
supposed to be assertive, tough, and focused on material success, whereas women are
supposed to be more modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of life.
A society is called feminine when emotional gender roles overlap: both men and women
are supposed to be modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of life” [41, p. 140].
Historical roots and family socialization processes concerning gender roles shape the
development of the masculine-feminine dimension. In masculine families, boys learn to be
assertive, tough, and ambitious, and girls learn to be modest, nurturing, and relational oriented.
In feminine families, both boys and girls learn to be caring and concerned with both facts and
feelings. Masculine families are achievement and success-oriented. Feminine families are
concensus oriented and stress the importance of quality-of-life issues. A masculine work place
differentiates male and female roles clearly. A feminine workplace merges male and female
roles fluidly. A masculine organization also tends to emphasize business performance, whereas a
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feminine organization tends to emphasize environmental issues above and beyond business
performace [99, p.73].
Table 3.9. Major differences between “Feminine” and “Masculine” cultures [99]
FEMININE CULTURES MASCULINE CULTURES
Flexible sex roles Complementary sex roles
Emphasize nurturance Emphasize achievements
Quality of work life Economic growth
Work in order to live Live in order to work
Environmental issues Business performance
Countries: Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Countries: Japan, Austria, Venezuela, Italy,
Denmark, Costa Rica, and Finland Mexico, and Philippines
Communication characteristics of feminity cultures are: focus on cooperation, social

accommodation, quality of life, service to others, sympathy for unfortunate, equality,
intrinsive values. Communication characteristics of masculinity cultures are: focus on
assertiveness, achievement, ambition, inequality, competition, material values. [81, p.185].
1.2.3.5. Long-term orientation (LTO) vs. short term orientation:
The fifth dimension was defined as follows: “long-term orientation stands for the
fostering of virtues oriented toward future rewards—in particular, perseverance and thrift. Its
opposite pole, short-term orientation, stands for the fostering of virtues related to the past
and present—in particular, respect for tradition, preservation of “face,” and fulfilling social
obligations” [41, p.239].
Table 3.10. Confucian Dynamism Dimension: Short-term versus Long-term Orientation
characteristics [99, p.74]:
SHORT-TERM ORIENTATION LONG-TERM ORIENTATION
Personal survival / security Social order
Personal respect /dignity Hierarchy respect
Individual face-saving Collective face-saving
Short-to medium-term planning Long-term planning
Spending-centered Thrift-centered
Short-to medium-term outcomes Long-term outcomes
Countries: Canada, United Kingdom, United Countries: China, Hong Kong, Taiwan,
States, Germany Japan, Singapore
According to Reisinger [81, p.150], in order to evaluate Hofstede’s findings and

overcome a possible Western bias developed by other European or the US scholars who
measured cultural values, Michael Bond, with a group of researchers from Hong Kong and
Taiwan, called the Chinese Culture Connection (CCC) (1987), developed a Chinese Value
Survey. This survey was developed on the basis of 40 important Chinese values and was
administered in 23 countries of the world. The CCC found four dimensions of cultural
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variability: integration (social stability, tolerance, harmony with others, non-competitiveness,

interpersonal harmony, group solidarity, intimate friendships), human heartedness (patience,
courtesy, compassion, sense of righteousness, kindness toward others), moral discipline
(restraint, moderation, keeping oneself disinterested and pure, having few desires,
prudence), and Confucian work dynamism (persistence, thriftiness, a sense of shame, status
differences, ordering relationships, reciprocation, protecting face, importance of tradition).
The first three dimensions of CCC corresponded to the cultural dimensions described by
Hofstede. The integration dimension was related to Hofstede’s (1980) IDV and MAS
dimensions, the human heartedness dimension was similar to Hofstede’s (1980) MAS
dimension, and moral discipline was correlated with Hofstede’s PDI. Only the Confucian work
dynamism did not relate to any of Hofstede’s (1980) four dimensions. The values of the
Confucian work dynamism describe patterns that are consistent with the teachings of Confucius
(social order, unequal relationships between people, importance of family, proper social
behavior, education, hard work, modesty, patience, perseverance).
According to Hoftede [41, pp.237-238], Confucius (or K’ung-tzu, as he is called in
Chinese) was an intellectual of humble origins in China around 500 b.c. He sought, rather
unsuccessfully, to serve various local rulers in the divided China of his day. He did succeed,
however, in gaining a reputation for wit and wisdom, and in his later life he was surrounded by
a host of disciples who recorded his ideas. Confucius thus held a position rather similar to that
of Socrates in ancient Greece, who was his virtual contemporary.
The teachings of Confucius are lessons in practical ethics without a religious content.
Confucianism is not a religion but a set of pragmatic rules for daily life derived from Chinese
history. The following are the key principles of Confucian teaching:
a-The stability of society is based on unequal status relationships between people.
He distinguished five basic relationships (the wu lun): ruler-subject, father-son, older brother–
younger brother, husband-wife, and senior friend–junior friend. These relationships are based on
mutual and complementary obligations: for example, the junior partner owes the senior partner
respect and obedience, and the senior owes the junior protection and consideration.
b-The family is the prototype of all social organizations. A person is not primarily an
individual; rather, he or she is a member of a family.
c-Virtuous behavior toward others consists of not treating others as one would not
like to be treated oneself.
d-Virtue with regard to one’s tasks in life consists of trying to acquire skills and
education, working hard, not spending more than necessary, being patient, and
persevering. Conspicuous consumption is taboo, as is losing one’s temper. Everything should
be done with moderation, a rule that was also formulated by Socrates.
According to Hofstede, four of the Confucian work dynamism values positively
associated with the dimension – ordering relationships by status and observing this order,
thrift, persistence, and having a sense of shame – characterize people who have a long-term
orientation toward life. The CCC argued that these values reflect a hierarchical dynamism
present in Chinese society. The other four values negatively associated with the dimension–
protecting the face of self and others, personal steadiness and stability, respect for
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tradition, and reciprocation of greetings, favors, and gifts–reflect distractions from the
Confucian work dynamism, and thus characterize people who have a short-term orientation
toward life. After finding that people in Asian countries with a strong link to Confucian
philosophy acted differently from people in Western cultures, Hofstede added a fifth dimension
based on Confucian dynamism, Long-Term Orientation – LTO, to his model.
According to Ting-Toomey [99, p.75], the following two principles guide Confucian
philosophy: 1-superiors in the workplace must act with virtue, and those in inferior positions
must obey their superiors; 2-one should act dutifully toward one’s parents and elders,
reciprocally in one’s obligations, and respectfully in role differentiation.
Confucianism includes core values such as “servility, frugality,
abstinence,…diligence…hardwork, patriarchal leadership, entrepreneutrial spirit, and devotion
to family” [Engholm, 1994, as cited in [99, p.75]. The Confucian dynamism is reflective of the
collectivism and large power distance dimensions. Additionally, Confucian dynamism
emphasizes both traditional values and adaptation to economic change in the environment.
Finally, based on Confucian philosophy, the Chinese concept of ‘Face’ was derived.
Face, in the Chinese context, means projected social image and social self-respect. Group
harmony, and thus in-group interdependence, is achieved through the maintenance of everyone’s
face in the society and trying hard not to cause anyone to lose “face.” The theme of ‘facework’
permeats many cultures and profoundly influences how Asian cultures conduct business with
their counterparts [99, p.75].
How does Confucianism influence communication?
According to Samovar, Porter, Mcdaniel and Roy [84, pp.168-169], Confucianism
influences perception and communication in a variety of ways. Let us mention four of those
ways that most directly relate to intercultural communication. First, Confucianism teaches
empathy as it encourages people to understand the feelings of others. Second, when
communicating with someone who adheres to the Confucian philosophy, we should be aware of
status and role relationships. Remember, it was the goal of Confucius “to make social
relationships work without strife.” To accomplish that goal it was important that proper status
and role relationships be maintained. We should note that Confucianism prescribes different
obligatory requirements for different role relationships; for example, loyalty of the ruled to their
ruler, filial piety of sons and daughters to their parents, respect for brothers, and trust for friends.
Even today, these different role behaviors influence such things as using language that shows
respect and status, how leaders are selected, and seating arrangements in business and
educational settings. Third, Confucian principles manifest great concern for ritual and protocol.
Social etiquette was an important part of Confucian teaching. In Confucius’s view, attentive
performance of social ritual and everyday etiquette shapes human character in accordance with
archetypal patterns. In the business context, ritual and protocol are manifested in the fact that
when negotiating, the Chinese feel uncomfortable if there is not structure, form, and correct
manners. They believe these characteristics will preserve harmony among the participants.
Finally, Confucian philosophy tends to encourage the use of indirect instead of direct language.
In the United States people often ask direct questions, are sometimes blunt, and frequently use
the word “no.” Confucian philosophy, on the other hand, encourages indirect communication.
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For example, in Chinese culture, requests often are implied rather than stated explicitly for the
sake of relational harmony and face maintenance. The Confucian legacy of consideration for
others and concern for proper human relationships has led to the development of communication
patterns that preserve one another’s face. Indirect communication helps to prevent the
embarrassment of rejection by the other person or disagreement among partners.
Confucianism influences communication and especially much on Asian communication
styles [75]. The emphasis on high context communication in Asian culture may be explained by
the influence of Confucianism. The influence of Confucianism has been widespread in Asian
countries, particularly in East Asia. Within Confucianism, the purpose of communication is to
develop and maintain harmony within relationships rather than pursuing the outcomes that may
come out of having relationships. Social status and the particular context of interpersonal
relationships structures how individuals relate to one another. For example, Asians may use
different linguistic codes (i.e., plain, polite, honorific) depending on the social status, degree of
intimacy, age, sex, and level of formality of the participants who are engaged in communication.
The indirect communication style helps to facilitate the Confucian value of maintaining
harmony within interpersonal relationships. Searle [1969, as cited in [75] posited that indirect
communication occurs when “the speaker communicates to the hearer more than he actually
says by way of relying on their mutually shared background information, both linguistic and
nonlinguistic, together with the general powers of rationality and inference on the part of the
hearer”. Within this dynamic, the communicator expresses negative feelings or disagreement in
an ambiguous manner so that the receiver has flexibility in interpreting the message in a negative
or non-negative manner. Even though the receiver may accurately interpret the negative feelings
based on the context of the message, the relationship is still protected since the negative message
was encoded in a way so that others may not be able to interpret the negative connotation of the
message. The use of indirect communication may differ based on the communication context.
Brew and Cairns [2004, as cited in [75] examined indirect communication in the workplace and
found that East Asians used more indirect communication with superiors but not with
subordinates. Perhaps, Asians may use more indirect communication with higher status
individuals in order to protect the superior from embarrassment or disagreement.
When indirect communication is used, there is a need for the receiver to be sensitive
toward and be able to infer meaning from the communication context in order to negotiate the
meaning of the indirect message. For example, Koreans use a communication strategy called
Noon-chi, which is the ability to infer the intention, desire, mood state, and attitudes of the other
without having these inner states expressed explicitly to them. Japanese have a similar
communication strategy called Sasshi, which translates to “guessing what someone means”. In
both Korean and Japanese cultures, the ability to infer meaning is considered a valuable
communication skill.
Traditional Asian communication norms devalue the openness and expressiveness in
communication. In Japanese culture, a person who speaks much is considered “light” and a
reticent person is trusted more than a person who is gregarious. In addition, Chinese people may
limit disclosure of personal information, especially within public settings, in fear that their face
may be threatened. Asians tend to disclose personal information to those whose trust has been
proven [Kao, Nagata, & Peterson, 1997, as cited in [75].
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Those are how Confucianism influences communication.
1.3. The social context and the cultural context [2]

The cultural context enters through the psychological and social context. On the
psychological side such factors as values, beliefs, attitudes, abilities have developed in different
individuals as a result of an interaction between their biologically given characteristics and their
socialization process which may include contact with one or several cultures. The cultural
influence here becomes apparent both in more long-term values, attitudes and beliefs and in
more temporary short-term values, attitudes and beliefs.
The more social side of culture enters into communication through the social identities of
the communicators (gender roles, class factors, educational level, etc.) but also through the social
character of the immediate communicative interaction. What is the purpose and function of the
joint activity in which they are engaged? Consider a business negotiation, an informal dinner, a
commercial transaction in a shop, etc? Or consider activities on, a more specific level: a quarrel
during a business negotiation, the telling of a joke during an informal dinner and an episode of
flirtation during a commercial transaction in a shop. No reasonably concrete account of the
function or purpose of these activities can be given without including culture specific elements.
Furthermore, in all these settings, the activities give rise to cultural expectations about
social roles. How to talk and write as a businessman, a negotiator, an angry negotiator, a host, a
guest, a customer, a sales clerk, a flirtatious customer etc.
Linguistic communication is, thus, always carried on in a context which is in large parts
culturally constituted. Each social factor in the context of communication in each country is
influenced by the cultural context in that country. This context sets criteria concerning
relevance, adequacy and correctness which in turn determine both the production and the
understanding of the linguistic expressions which are used by the communicators.
Culture helps determine the appropriate communicative behavior within a variety of
social and physical contexts by prescribing certain rules. When communicating with members of
our own culture, we and other people rely on deeply internalized cultural rules that prescribe the
normative behaviors for specific communication situations. These rules facilitate your ability to
communicate effectively with each other [84, pp.308-309].
A person is always a cultural being: s/he will act / behave / communicate according to the
socio-cultural rules of the society and culture in a concrete communicative context.
These rules facilitate your ability to communicate effectively with each other. And since
they are integrated into your personality, you do not have to think consciously about which rules
to use.
1.4. Cultural influence on social behaviour and communication style

Communication styles are behaviors that consistently occur in the way one verbally,
nonverbally, and paraverbally interacts to signal how literal meaning should be taken,
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interpreted, filtered, or understood. Culture can influence social behaviour and communication
style. This can be seen in American culture, Asian cultures and Vietnamese culture.
1.4.1. Advanced Reading: Please, read the section 2 of the article :”Ảnh hưởng của yếu tố
văn hóa truyền thống đối với văn hóa hành chính Việt Nam hiện nay” published in Tạp chí
Quản lí Nhà nước (No. 221, June 2014, pp.39-42)
2. Ảnh hưởng của văn hóa truyền thống đối với văn hóa hành chính Việt Nam
[109, pp.39-42]
Văn hóa truyền thống dân tộc, nơi mà các tổ chức đang tồn tại và hoạt động có ảnh
hưởng quan trọng đối với văn hóa của tổ chức đó. Geert Hofstede (1980) là tác giả nổi tiếng đầu
tiên trong lĩnh vực này đã khám phá những ảnh hưởng của văn hóa dân tộc tới văn hóa của tổ
chức thông qua 5 tiêu chí là: xu hướng về khoảng cách quyền lực, xu hướng cá nhân/tập thể, xu
hướng nam giới/nữ giới, xu hướng ổn định/năng động, xu hướng tránh né những bất định.
- Khoảng cách quyền lực (Power distance): Tiêu chí này liên quan đến mức độ bình
đẳng/bất bình đẳng giữa người với người trong một xã hội bất kỳ nào đó. Một quốc gia có điểm
khoảng cách quyền lực lớn sẽ chấp nhận và kéo dài sự bất bình đẳng giữa người và người, tháp
quyền lực cao và nhọn, do đó việc một người muốn di chuyển từ chân tháp lên đỉnh tháp sẽ rất
khó khăn và hạn chế.
- Chủ nghĩa cá nhân/ tập thể (Invidualism/Collectivism): Xu hướng này liên quan đến
mức độ mà một xã hội chấp nhận chủ nghĩa cá nhân hay yêu cầu mọi cá nhân phải sống vì tập
thể. Tâm lý cá nhân xuất hiện ở những xã hội nơi mỗi người tự chịu trách nhiệm về hành vi của
mình, mỗi người tự lo cho mình và quan hệ giữa các cá nhân lỏng lẻo. Tâm lý tập thể tồn tại ở
những xã hội nơi mà con người có sự gắn kết với nhau, sống dựa vào nhau.
- Tính nam quyền/nữ quyền (Masculinity/Womanizer): Nam quyền/nữ quyền chỉ mức độ
rõ ràng của các vai trò giới giữa nam và nữ.
- Xu hướng dài hạn, coi trọng sự ổn định (Long- term Orientation): Xu hướng này chỉ
mức độ mà tư tưởng nhìn xa hay nhìn gần là phương hướng chủ đạo trong cuộc sống và gắn liền
với khái niệm của Khổng học về “đạo đức” được Hofstede đối lập với phương Tây chỉ quan tâm
đến “sự thực”.
- Xu hướng tránh né những bất định (Uncertainty Avoidance): Xu hướng này nói lên mức
độ sẵn sàng chấp nhận những thay đổi, những điều mới mẻ của một cộng đồng. Một quốc gia có
điểm số cao về tránh bất định sẽ không sẵn sàng chấp nhận những điều mới lạ, những thay đổi
mà họ chưa từng trải nghiệm.
Theo 5 tiêu chí này, văn hóa Việt Nam thuộc loại khoảng cách quyền lực cao, có xu
hướng theo chủ nghĩa tập thể, chỉ số tránh bất định ở mức trung bình. Các chỉ số về văn hóa Việt
Nam tương đồng với các chỉ số văn hóa Trung Quốc, thể hiện qua bảng sau:
Table 3.11. Some indices of national cultures
Khoảng cách Xu hướng Nam Tránh Định hướng

Quốc gia
quyền lực cá nhân quyền bất định tương lai
Việt Nam 70 20 40 30 80
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Trung Quốc 80 20 66 30 118
Hàn Quốc 60 18 39 85 75
Nhật Bản 54 46 95 92 80
Mỹ 40 91 62 46 29
Đức 35 67 66 65 31
Thụy Điển 31 71 5 29 33
(Source: ITIM – culture and management consultants)

Phân tích theo các tiêu chí của Geert Hofsede, có thể thấy những ảnh hưởng của văn hóa
truyền thống dân tộc tới văn hóa hành chính Việt Nam hiện nay như sau:
2.1 Khoảng cách quyền lực
Các tổ chức hành chính ở Việt Nam hoạt động theo chế độ thủ trưởng, mệnh lệnh phục
tùng. Do đó, quan hệ giữa lãnh đạo và nhân viên có xu hướng về khoảng cách quyền lực khá cao.
Khoảng cách này thể hiện ảnh hưởng của các cấp lãnh đạo và các nhà quản lý với hoạt động của
nhân viên, của tổ chức và mức độ phụ thuộc của cấp dưới đối với các cấp quản lí cao hơn. Các
cấp lãnh đạo và quản lí đóng vai trò quyết định trong giải quyết các công việc của tổ chức, còn
vai trò của các thành viên là thứ yếu.
Mối quan hệ thứ bậc trong quản lí là một nguyên tắc quan trọng trong giải quyết công
việc. Các công việc quan trọng đều phải được thực hiện tuân theo quy trình, thủ tục nhất định
như được Đảng ủy thông qua, sau đó chuyển sang chính quyền (quản lý) thực thi, bàn bạc và lấy
ý kiến của các tổ chức quần chúng (như công đoàn, phụ nữ, thanh niên,…) để thực hiện.
Bên cạnh đó, mối quan hệ thứ bậc trong xã hội, tuổi tác, địa vị cũng được thể hiện qua
cách xưng hô gia đình như anh, em, chú, bác. Điều này cũng gây ra những cản trở nhất định đối
với công việc quản lý.
Cơ chế trao đổi thông tin thường theo xu hướng chỉ đạo từ trên xuống nhiều hơn, các nhà
lãnh đạo thường khó khăn để có được những thông tin phản hồi của cấp dưới về những quyết
định quản lí của mình. Những cuộc trao đổi thông tin không chính thức như những cuộc gặp gỡ
ngoài giờ làm việc là những hình thức phổ biến để thu nhận thông tin cần thiết.
2.2 Tính cá nhân/tập thể
Lối suy nghĩ của người Việt Nam phần lớn chịu ảnh hưởng của phương thức sản xuất
nông nghiệp. Nét văn hóa cộng đồng - huyết thống, vùng miền, văn hóa làng đã tạo nên ý thức
cộng đồng cao, trọng tập thể (Đông tay hơn hay làm, xấu đều hơn tốt lỏi; Đông người thì sống,
mống người thì chết).
Do ảnh hưởng của nét văn hóa cộng đồng, vai trò của tập thể được đề cao, cái tôi cá nhân
ít được chú trọng. Xu hướng này ảnh hưởng đến các tổ chức hành chính và khiến cho việc quản
lí tổ chức trong thực tế là quản lí một nhóm người. Các cá nhân thường bị chi phối bởi những
chuẩn mực của cộng đồng nên thông thường không dám làm điều gì trái ngược với chính kiến
của đám đông. Việc trao đổi thông tin ít sử dụng hình thức trực tiếp, đặc biệt là thể hiện chính
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kiến cá nhân một cách trực tiếp. Vai trò cá nhân không được đề cao, nhân viên luôn chờ đợi ý
kiến chỉ đạo của cấp trên tạo nên tình trạng trì trệ, ỷ lại vào tập thể, thiếu chủ động, thiếu ý thức
trách nhiệm trong công việc. Các nhân viên ít quan tâm đến chất lượng, hiệu quả thực thi, coi tài
sản tập thể như “của chùa” cũng như thói quen chi tiêu bừa bãi, lãng phí theo kiểu “cha chung
không ai khóc” là tình trạng thường gặp ở nhiều tổ chức hành chính hiện nay.
2.3 Tính nam quyền/ nữ quyền
Do ảnh hưởng của chế độ mẫu hệ nên văn hóa hành chính Việt Nam mang nhiều yếu tố
nữ quyền. Người Việt Nam sống khiêm tốn và nhường nhịn. Các tổ chức hành chính Việt Nam
coi trọng tính ổn định, tránh xung đột. Điều này xuất phát từ nhận thức “giữ thể diện”, và xu
hướng tránh xung đột trong các mối quan hệ.
Cái lý cao nhất của văn hóa cộng đồng hay văn hóa làng là: “thương người như thể
thương thân”, “tình làng nghĩa xóm”, là “người trong một nước phải thương nhau cùng”. Do ảnh
hưởng sâu sắc của nền văn hóa truyền thống, văn hóa hành chính ở nước ta lấy tiêu chí đoàn kết,
thống nhất, tinh thần đùm bọc,… trong tổ chức quan trọng hơn là sự ganh đua mạnh mẽ, để tạo
ra hiệu quả cao hơn. Điều này làm cho đặc trưng văn hóa các tổ chức hành chính ở Việt Nam, ở
khía cạnh này mang “nữ tính” nhiều hơn. Trong khi đó, văn hóa các nước Nhật Bản, Anh, Hoa
Kỳ lại chú trọng nhiều tới tính hiệu quả và cạnh tranh, thể hiện rõ tính chất mạnh mẽ, “nam
tính”.
Tuy nhiên, sự mềm dẻo, linh hoạt, thiên về cảm xúc trong ứng xử cũng như giải quyết
công việc hàng ngày có thể dẫn đến sự tuỳ tiện, thiếu nguyên tắc trong thực thi công vụ. Điều
này được thể hiện trong cách giao tiếp thân mật đời thường cũng như cách xưng hô kiểu gia
đình: chú – cháu, chú – bác,… khi làm việc. Việc coi trọng tình nghĩa, chú trọng thâm niên và
tuổi tác cũng có thể dẫn tới sự thiếu dứt khoát, thiếu công bằng trong xử lí công việc.
2.4 Xu hướng dài hạn, coi trọng sự ổn định, lâu dài

Với quan hệ láng giềng gần gũi và lịch sử hơn một ngàn năm đô hộ của phong kiến
Trung Hoa, văn hóa Việt Nam chịu ảnh hưởng sâu sắc của triết lý Khổng Tử (Trung Quốc). Triết
lý Khổng Tử cho rằng sự ổn định là dựa trên sự tôn trọng tôn ti trật tự của xã hội và gia đình.
Đây được coi như là khuôn mẫu cho các tổ chức hành chính. Điều này chi phối đến cách nhìn
của các tổ chức, có xu hướng lâu dài: nhấn mạnh đến truyền thống và ổn định; khác với xu
hướng ngắn hạn của các nước phương Tây: chú trọng nhiều đến tiêu dùng và hiệu quả.
Xu hướng coi trọng sự ổn định, lâu dài cũng giải thích vì sao khu vực hành chính vẫn thu
hút rất nhiều lao động vào làm việc. Đó là do tâm lý mong đợi một việc làm và thu nhập ổn định.
Việc làm trong các tổ chức hành chính nhà nước vẫn là mong muốn của nhiều người trong xã
hội.
2.5 Tránh né những bất định
Né tránh mâu thuẫn, đấu tranh và ngần ngại trước những thay đổi cũng là một đặc tính
của văn hóa hành chính Việt Nam xuất phát từ sự tế nhị, kín đáo, tâm lý ngại va chạm, ưa dĩ hòa
vi quý. Chính kiểu văn hóa tế nhị, kín đáo này góp phần tạo cơ sở cho một số kỹ thuật hành
chính như bỏ phiếu kín tín nhiệm. Tuy nhiên, theo TS. Trần Thị Thanh Thủy (2006), đây cũng có
thể là lý do của sự phổ biến những tin đồn và những lời bình luận không chính thức. Điều này có
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thể làm cho các nhà quản lí khó khăn hơn trong việc thu nhận được những thông tin phản hồi
thực chất về các vấn đề trong tổ chức.
1.4.2. America communication style:
American culture is considered to be an individualistic, small-power distance, weak
certainty, short-term orientation, low-context communication culture. Therefore, as analysed
above, in the American cultural context, the features of American commmunication style would
be freedom of speech, aggressiveness, individual-face concern, consultation, informality,
overtness, explicitness, directness, verbal-based understanding, symmetrical interaction, and
two-way communication.
American culture is individualistic culture. American English is replete with words and
phrases that promote the individual. In the United States children are continually told they need
to be “independent’ and “self-reliant,” and hear phrases like “stand on your own two feet” and
“don’t depend on others.” Grounded on a strong belief in individualism and equality, the
United States has long been considered an informal culture. In North America people tend to
treat others with informality and directness. Informality is manifested in a host of ways. For
example, regardless of the social position, most Americans will quickly move to using first
names when meeting the strangers.
American is considered a low-context communication culture, one where the meaning of
a given statement is taken literally, and does not depend on the context. In a low- context culture
such as the American one, communication tend to be explicit and direct, and getting to the point
quickly is critical.
The dominant style of communication in the American context has the following
characteristics:
a-A majority of the verbal information is explicitly communicated. For example, an
apology must be clearly articulated, whereas in a high context culture the same message can be
communicated through a variety of nonverbal gestures such as a smile, a sigh, a shrug, or a
frown.
b-Directness, openness, and honesty are valued, as is freedom of emotional expression.
c-Questioning and challenging authority are both acceptable and encouraged.
Questioning authority figures suggests one has personal power and can help bring about change.
Independence, self-determination, and personal power are highly valued.
d-In the North American context, time is considered a valuable commodity and of great
importance. Being on time is valued and tardiness is considered disrespectful.
1.4.3. For better understanding of Vietnamese communication style, please read Tran Ngoc
Them [117, pp.155-165].
1.5. Cultural element in language and communication

Culture is embedded in language as an intangible, all pervasive and highly variable force.
How then are we to capture in order to teach it?
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Table 3.12. Points of articulation between culture and language

Points of articulation between culture and language
Culture Language
World Spoken/writte Pragmatic Norms of Grammatical / lexicon/
knowledge n genres norms interactions kinetics / prosody /
pronunciation
Culture-in- Culture in Culture Culture in Culture in linguistic

context general within shorter organization structures/word/syntax/
structure of units of texts of units of nonverbal language
text text
The macro levels of culture in language use can be broken down into more specific
features which show points of articulation between language and culture directly convertible into
teachable material.
World knowledge in a foreign culture corresponds to what has been meant traditionally
by ‘teaching culture’. It encompasses the teaching of the general cultural traits and ways of life
of a society, including literature, critical literacy, history, geography, institution and arts. This
‘cultural’ world knowledge is closer to culture than to language per se.
Culture in spoken and written genres is embedded in the general structure of text. For
example, culture is found in the way official or intimate letters are written in different countries,
the type of information which ought to come first and last, what is acceptable content, etc... A
speech, (as a genre of oral text), also reflects culture in the way it has been structured.
Pragmatic and interactional norms refer to the way culture is manifested in spoken and
written language. In pragmatic norms, culture is visible in shorter units of texts such as speech
acts (e.g. thanking in Japanese differs from thanking in Anglo-Australian). Interactional norms
refer more to the way units of speech such as openings or closings in a conversation are
organised.
In grammar, lexicon, kinetics, prosody and pronunciation, culture is also present
interwoven into linguistic structures, words, syntax and non-verbal language.
[Crozet & Liddicoat, as cited in [24]
In addition, attention should be paid to aspects of non-verbal language.
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Follow-up activity 3.1. True/False: Decide whether the following statements are true or
false:
1-The social context is the linguistic units which occur before or after a word, a phrase, or
even a longer utterance or a text.
2-According to Holmes (2013), the context of situation includes the following factors:
participant, setting, topic and function.
3-Participant relationships do not influence language choice in communication.
4-Culture provides the overall framework in which human beings learn to organize their
thought, emotions, and behavior in relation to their environment.
5-The cultural context enters through the psychological context and social context.
2. PERSONAL NAMES
Pre-lecture-activity 3.2. Discuss
1-What is your full name? What are the parts of your full name?
2-What is the meaning of each part of your name? How was your given name chosen?
2.1. Personal names [182]

2.1.1. What is a personal name?
A name is a word or a phrase that identifies a specific person, place, or thing.
A personal name is the proper name identifying an individual person, and usually
comprises a given name bestowed at birth or at a young age plus a surname. It is nearly
universal for a human to have a name.
The science that studies names is known as onomastics. The study of personal names is
anthroponomastics. The study of place name: toponomastics.
A personal name or full name refers to the set of names by which an individual is known
and that can be recited as a word-group, with the understanding that, taken together, they all
relate to that one individual. In many cultures, the term is synonymous with the birth and legal
names of the individual. In many cultures, individuals possess a variety of names, in others they
are known by a single name.
In Western culture, nearly all individuals possess at least one given name (also known as
a personal name, first name, forename, or Christian name), together with a surname (also known
as a family name, last name, or gentile name)—respectively, the Thomas and Jefferson in
Thomas Jefferson—the latter to indicate that the individual belongs to a family, a tribe, or a clan.
Inserted between these are one or more "middle names" (e.g., Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles John
Huffam Dickens, Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise Mountbatten-Windsor), further establishing such
family and broader relationships. Some cultures, including Western, also add (or once added)
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patronymics or matronymics, for instance, via a middle name as with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
(son of pater Ilya), or via a last name as with Björk Guðmundsdóttir (daughter of pater
Guðmund) or Heiðar Helguson (son of mater Helga). Similar concepts are present in Eastern
cultures.
A person's full name usually identifies that person for legal and administrative purposes,
although it may not be the name by which the person is commonly known; some people use only
a portion of their full name, or are known by titles, nicknames, pseudonyms or other formal or
informal designations.
Naming conventions are strongly influenced by culture, with some cultures being more
flexible on naming than others. However, for all cultures where historical records are more
available, the naming rules are known to change over time.
2.1.2. Functions of personal names
Functions of human names are
a-Social differentiation / social identity
b- Aesthetic function.
c-Gender differentiation
2.1.3. Categories of personal names
There are the following types of personal names:
a-Given, First, Christian, Forename.
b-Family, Surname, Last name
d-Middle Name
e-Nick name, Pen name……
2.1.4. Order of personal names
2.1.4.1. Western name order
The order given name – family name is commonly known as the Western order and is
usually used in most European countries and in countries that have cultures predominantly
influenced by Western Europe (North and South America, North, East, Central and West India,
Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines).
Table 3.13. Order of personal English names
Given name Middle name Smith
First name Middle name Last name
David Michael Smith
Within alphabetic lists and catalogues, however the family name is generally proponed,
with the given names following, separated with a comma (e.g. Smith, John), representing the
"lexical name order". This convention is followed by most Western libraries, as well as on many
administrative forms.
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2.1.4.2. Eastern name order

The order family name – given name is commonly known as the Eastern order that is
primarily used in East Asia (for example in China, Japan, Korea, Malaysian Chinese, Singapore
and Vietnam), as well as in Southern and North-Eastern parts of India, but also in Hungary. It is
common in popular use also in Austria and Bavaria, but also in France, Belgium, Greece and
Italy, possibly because of the influence of the bureaucratic use of putting the family name before
the given name.
Table 3.14. Order of personal Vietnamese names
Surname / Last Name Middle name Given name / First Name
Nguyen Van Anh
When East Asian names are transliterated into the Latin alphabet, some people prefer to
convert them to the Western order, while others leave them in the Eastern order but write the
family name in capital letters. To avoid confusion, some always write a family name in capital
letters, especially when writing for an international audience. This habit is commonly used in the
international language Esperanto. In Hungarian, for example, Japanese or Chinese names are
most frequently used in the Western order, however, they sometimes remain in the same order as
those of Hungarians.
In contemporary Western societies (except for Iceland, Hungary, and sometimes
Flanders, depending on the occasion), the most common naming convention is that a person must
have a given name, which is usually gender-specific, followed by the parents' family name.
Different cultures have different conventions for personal names.
2.2. Surname [191]

2.2.1. What is a surname?
Surname or family name is a name added to a given name. In many cases, a surname is
a family name and many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name". In the
Western Hemisphere, it is commonly synonymous with last name because it is usually placed at
the end of a person's given name.
In some cultures, including those of most Western countries, the surname or family name
("last name") is placed after the personal or given name ("first name"). In other cultures, the
surname is placed first, followed by the given name or names; this is the case in Hungary,
Andhra Pradesh in South India, Sri Lanka and countries in the Chinese cultural sphere including
Japan, Korea, Vietnam and China.
A family name is typically a part of a person's personal name which, according to law or
custom, is passed or given to children from one or both of their parents' family names. The use of
family names is common in most cultures around the world, with each culture having its own
rules as to how these names are formed, passed and used.
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Surname laws vary around the world. Traditionally in many European countries for the
past few hundred years, it was the custom or law that a woman would on marriage use the
surname of her husband and that children of a man would have the father's surname.
In English-speaking cultures, family names are often used by children when referring to
adults, but it's also used to refer to someone in authority, the elderly, or in a formal setting, and
are often used with a title or honorific such as Mr., Mrs., Ms., Miss, Dr, and so on. Generally,
the given name, first name, forename, or personal name is the one used by friends, family, and
other intimates to address an individual. It may also be used by someone who is in some way
senior to the person being addressed.
2.2.2. Formation
Name etymologists classify European surnames under five categories, depending on their
origin: given name, occupational name, location name, nickname, and ornamental name.
2.2.3. Gender-specific versions of surname
In some cultures, such as Greek, Bulgarian, Russian, Slovak, Czech, etc. surnames
change form depending on the gender of the bearer. For example, in Greece, if a man called
Papadopoulos has a daughter, she will likely be named Papadopoulou (if the couple have decided
their offspring will take the father's surname), since that name has a female version. In Poland, if
the husband is named Podwiński, and his wife takes his surname, her last name, and those of
their unmarried daughters, would be Podwińska. The sons would be known as Podwiński. In
Lithuania, if the husband is named Vilkas, his wife will be named Vilkienė and his daughter will
be named Vilkaitė. In Slovakia and Czech Republic alike, if a man is called Novák, the wife adds
a feminine suffix "-ová" to his surname after the marriage, hence Nováková. The same is true for
daughters which almost always inherit the father's surname with the feminine suffix.
2.3. Given name [163]

2.3.1. What is a given name?
A given name (in Western contexts often referred to as a first name) is a personal
name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals,
especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name (surname).
A given name is purposefully given, usually by a child's parents at or near birth, in contrast to an
inherited one such as a family name.
In most European (and Europe-derived) cultures, the given name usually comes before
the family name (though generally not in lists and catalogs), and so is known as a forename or
first name; but the family name traditionally comes first in Hungary, parts of Africa and most of
East Asia (e.g. China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam). In East Asia, even part of the given name may
be shared among all members of a given generation in a family and the family's extensions, to
differentiate those generations from other generations.
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Given names are often used in a familiar and friendly manner in informal situations. In
more formal situations the surname is used instead, unless it is necessary to distinguish between
people with the same surname. The idiom "on a first-name basis" (or "on first-name terms")
alludes to the familiarity of addressing another by a given name.
2.3.2. Legal status
A child's given name or names are usually chosen by the parents soon after birth. If a
name is not assigned at birth, one may be given at a naming ceremony, with family and friends in
attendance. In most jurisdictions, a child's name at birth is a matter of public record, inscribed on
a birth certificate, or its equivalent. .
2.3.3. Origin of given names
Given names most often derive from the following categories:
2.3.3.1. Aspiring personal traits (external and internal). For example, the name Clement means
"merciful". English examples include Faith, Prudence and August.
2.3.3.2. Occupations, for example George means "farmer".
2.3.3.3. Circumstances of birth, for example Thomas meaning "twin" or the Latin name Quintus,
which was traditionally given to the fifth male child.
2.3.3.4. Objects, for example Peter means "rock" and Edgar means "rich spear".
2.3.3.5. Physical characteristics, for example Calvin means "bald".
2.3.3.6. Variations on another name, especially to change the sex of the name (Pauline, Georgia)
or to translate from another language (for instance, the names Francisor Francisco that come
from the name Franciscus meaning "Frenchman").
3.2.3.7. Surnames, for example Winston, Harrison, and Ross. Such names often come from
families that are frequently intermarried with the family bearing the individual's surname.
2.3.3.8. Places, for example Brittany and Lorraine.
2.3.3.9. Time of birth, for example day of the week, as in Kofi Annan, whose given name means
"born on Friday", or the holiday on which one was born, for example, the name Natalie meaning
"[born on] Christmas day" in Latin.
2.3.3.10. Combination of the above, for example the Armenian name Sirvart means "love rose."
2.3.3.11. Names of unknown or disputed etymology, for example Mary.
In many cultures, given names are reused, especially to commemorate ancestors or those
who are particularly admired, resulting in a limited repertoire of names that sometimes vary by
orthography.
Most common given names in English (and many other European languages) can be
grouped into broad categories based on their origin:
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a-Hebrew names, b-Germanic names, c-French forms of Germanic names, d-Slavic

names, e- Anglicised versions of Celtic names, f-Greek names, g-Latin names, h-Word names
from English vocabulary words, i-Trait names, j-Diminutives, k-Shortened names, l-Feminine
variations.
Frequently, a given name has versions in many different languages. For example, the
biblical name Susanna also occurs in its original biblical Hebrewversion, Shoshannah, its
Spanish and Portuguese version Susana, and its French version, Suzanne, and its Polish version,
Zuzanna.
2.3.4. Gender
Most names in English are specifically masculine or feminine, but there are many unisex
name as well, such as Jordan, Jamie, Jesse, Alex, Ashley, Chris, Hilary/ Hillary, Kim, Leslie /
Lesley, Joe / Jo, Jackie, Pat, Sam. Often, one gender is predominant; often a particular spelling is
more common for each of the two genders, even when the pronunciation is the same.
Many culture groups, past and present, did not or do not gender names strongly, so that
many or all of their names are unisex. On the other hand, in many languages including most
Indo-European languages (but not English), gender is inherent in the grammar.
2.3.5. Christian name
The term Christian name is often used as a general synonym for given name. Strictly
speaking, the term applies to a name formally given to a child at an infant baptism or
"christening".
2.3.6. Name at birth
Where births are required to be officially registered, the name entered onto a birth
register or birth certificate may by that fact alone become a legal name. The assumption in the
Western world is often that the name from birth, or perhaps from baptism or bris, persists to
adulthood in the normal course of affairs. Some possible changes concern middle names, uses of
diminutive forms, adoption, choice of surname as parents divorce or were not married. Matters
are very different in some other cultures, where a name at birth is only a childhood name rather
than the default choice for later life.
"Birth name", or now sometimes birthname, can mean name at birth, or the more elusive
concept of personal name (that is, name before taking a professional name such as stage name,
pen name, ring name, assumed name, alias name, nickname, or some recognised name change
process that de jure alters names). The term "Birth name" is sometimes used for the name before
marriage of a woman – in cultures where a married woman's name customarily changes – by
those who find maiden name to be an old-fashioned usage with the wrong connotations.
The term "Birth name" is also applied to mean the family name of the mother of a child
adopted at birth, and is thus likely to be used with more flexibility than the loan-words née and
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né, accepting it even when the name being referred to was acquired by adoption (at or long after
birth), or made in connection with a change of nationality, or changed in any of many other
(rarer) circumstances.
2.4. Middle name [175]
People's names in several cultures include one or more additional names often but not
necessarily placed between the first given name and the surname.
In some English speaking countries such names are specifically referred to as middle
name(s); in most European countries they would simply be regarded as second, third, etc. given
names. In some countries there is usually only one middle name, and in the United States it is
often abbreviated to the middle initial (e.g. Mary Lee Bianchi becomes Mary L. Bianchi, which
is usually standard for signatures or omitted entirely in everyday use (e.g. just Mary Bianchi). In
the United Kingdom she would usually be referred to either as Mary Bianchi, M. L. Bianchi or
Mary Lee Bianchi, or she may choose Lee Bianchi, and informally there may be familiar
shortenings. An individual may have more than one given name, or none. In some other
countries, the term middle name is only used for names that are originally last names, but not
part of the last name of the bearer (for instance one can have one's mother's maiden name as a
middle name).
In countries that primarily speak English, such as Australia, Canada, Ireland, New
Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom, the forename of a relative is often used as
one's middle name to honor familial heritage.
Multiple middle names are common, e.g. George H. W. Bush. Often, middle names are
names of famous and influential people throughout history.
2.5. Vietnamese personal name [197]

2.5.1. Vietnamese personal name
Vietnamese names generally consist of three parts: a family name, a middle name, and
a given name, used in that order. Persons can be referred to either by the whole name, given
name, or a hierarchic name in normal usage.
Due to the ubiquity of the major family names such as Nguyen, Pham, and Le, a person is
often referred to by their middle name along with their given name in Vietnamese media and
youth culture.
The Vietnamese language is tonal, and so are Vietnamese names. The same spelling
with different tones are different names, which can confuse non-Vietnamese people when the
diacritics are dropped when used outside of Vietnam.
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2.5.2. Family name
The family name, positioned first, is passed on by the father to his children (patronymic
naming system). It is estimated that there are around one hundred family names in common use,
although some are far more common than others. The name Nguyễn is estimated to be used by
almost 40% of the Vietnamese population. The top three names are so popular because people
tended to take the family name of kings, to show their favor and loyalty. Over many generations,
the family names became permanent.
The most common family names among the Vietnamese are the following (the Chinese
characters following each name are Hán tự). Added together these 14 names account for 99% of
the people.
 Nguyễn 阮 (39%)
 Trần 陳 (11%)
 Lê 黎 (9.5%)
 Phạm 范 (7.1%)
 Huỳnh/Hoàng 黃 (5.1%)
 Phan 潘 (4.5%)
 Vũ/Võ 武 (3.9%)
 Đặng 鄧(2.1%)
 Bùi 裴 (2%)
 Đỗ 杜 (1.4%)
 Hồ 胡 (1.3%)
 Ngô 吳 (1.3%)
 Dương 楊 (1%)
 Lý 李 (0.5%)
In Vietnamese cultural practice, women always keep their family names once they marry,
just as in other East Asian cultures, including Chinese culture, to the north and northeast.
Some Vietnamese have dual family names. This dual family name is usually passed
through all people in the family, but sometimes through the male or female line only. In many
cases the mother's family name is added behind the father's as a middle name, which does not
make a dual family name, as the mother's family name isn't passed through to the next
generation.
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2.5.3. Middle name
Most Vietnamese have one middle name, but it is quite possible to have two or more, or
even no middle names at all.
In the past, the middle name was selected by parents from a fairly narrow range of
options. Almost all women had Thị (氏) as their middle name, and many men had Văn (文).
More recently, a broader range of names have been used, and people named Thị sometimes omit
their middle name.
The middle name can have three usages:
a-To indicate a person's generation — brothers and sisters share the same middle name,
which distinguish them from the generation before them and the generation after them (see
generation name).
b-To separate branches of a big family. For example, "Nguyễn Hữu", "Nguyễn Sinh",
"Trần Lâm". However, this usage is still controversial. Some people consider them to be dual
family names, not family name + middle name. Some families may, however, set up arbitrary
rules about giving a different middle name to each generation.
c-To indicate a person's position in the family, also known as birth order. This usage is
less common than others.
However, nowadays most middle names do not have those usages. They can either have a
meaning or just be there to make the full names more euphonious.
2.5.4. Given name
In most cases, formally, the middle name is actually a part of the given name. For
example, the name "Đinh Quang Dũng" is separated into the surname "Đinh" and the given
name "Quang Dũng". In a normal name list, these two parts of the full name are put in two
different columns. However, in daily conversation, the last word in a given name with a title
before it is used to address a person, for example "Ông Dũng", "Anh Dũng", etc. where "Ông"
and "Anh" are words to address the person which depend on age, social position, etc.
The given name is the primary form of address for Vietnamese. It is chosen by parents
and usually has a literal meaning in the Vietnamese language. Names often represent beauty,
such as bird or flower names, or attributes and characteristics that the parents want in their child,
such as modesty (Khiêm).
Typically, Vietnamese will be addressed with their given name, even in formal situations,
although an honorific equivalent to "Mr.", "Mrs.", etc. will be added when necessary. This
contrasts with the situation in many other cultures, where the family name is used in formal
situations, and is a practice similar to Icelandic usage and, to some degree, to Polish practice. It
is similar to the Latin-American and southern European custom of referring to some people as
"Don" along with their first name. It contrasts with Japanese custom, where the given name is
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used only by close friends, especially children and young people (and even here the family name
is often used) and some family members (though in the family, hierarchical role names, such as
'older brother', are often preferred).
Addressing someone by his or her family name is rare though not unheard of. In the past,
married women in the north have been called by their family name, with Thị 氏 as a suffix. In
recent years, doctors are more likely than any other social group to be addressed by their family
name, though this form of reference is more common in the north than in the south. Some
extremely well-known people are sometimes referred to by their family names, such as Hồ Chí
Minh ("Uncle Hồ") (however, his real surname is Nguyễn), Trịnh Công Sơn ("the musician
Trịnh"), and Hồ Xuân Hương ("the poetess with the family name Hồ"). In the old days, people in
Vietnam, particularly North Vietnam, addressed parents using the first child's name; for example,
Mr and Mrs Anh or Master Minh.
When being addressed within the family, children are sometimes referred to by their birth
number, starting from one in the north but starting with two in the south. This practice is less
common recently, especially in the north.
Example
Nguyễn Tấn Dũng is the former Prime Minister of Vietnam. Nguyễn is his family name,
Tấn is his middle name, and Dũng is his given name. In formal usage, he is referred to by his
given name ("Mr. Dũng"), not by his family name ("Mr. Nguyễn").
2.6. How are children named?

According to [21, pp.112-113] children are named after saints, events, places, omens,
personal traits-even animals, occupations circumstances of birth, objects, physical
characteristics, surnames, time of birth. In some societies, divine names can be used. At the
opposite extreme, children might be named after unpleasant notions to make them undesirable to
evil spirits. Where personal names are concerned, there seem to be no limit to parental
idiosyncracy and invention.
Children in Vietnam are given names [113]:

a- related to the names of his / her parents, older brother, sister
b- related to the names of his / her parents’s occupations, products,
E.g. Sĩ, Công, Nông, Thương
Thơ, Văn, Ca, Vũ,
c- after the names of animals
Loan, Phụng, Oanh, Yến, Long, Lân, Quy, Phụng
d- after the names of flowers, plants
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Hồng, Lan, Huệ, Cúc, Tùng, Bách, Trúc, Mai.

e- Using words expressing good wishes
Nhân, Lễ, Nghĩa, Trí, Tín, Công Bình, Thanh Liêm, Trung Kiên.
Công, Dung, Ngôn, Hạnh, Ngoan, Hiền, Thảo
Khỏe, Mạnh, Cường, Tráng, Trung, Dũng, Hiếu, Nghĩa, Phúc, Lộc, Thọ
Chân, Thiện, Mỹ
f- after the names of one’s lover, enemy
g- after the temporal notions
E.g. Tý, Sửu, Dần, Mão
Xuân, Hạ, Thu, Đông
Hòa Bình, Hiệp Định, Thống Nhất
h- after the spatial notions, locations
E.g. Bắc, Trung, Nam
Việt, Nga, Mỹ, Anh.
i- after the name of artists, well-known persons,
E.g. Trần Quốc Tuấn,Trần Quốc Toản,Bạch Tuyết, Thanh Nga, Nguyệt Nga,
j- using numbers
k- using words relating to events, regions, cities,
Hòa Bình, Hiệp Định, Điện Biên Phủ
l- using foreign names,
Vũ Thị No-en
m- after royal generations
E.g. King Minh Mang’s royal-name-conferring poems [108]
“Tên các vị Vua Tiền Triều đều dùng bộ Thuỷ, từ đời Đức Thế Tôn Hiếu Võ Hoàng Đế
dùng cả bộ Nhật và bộ Thuỷ, và Triều Vua Gia Long trở về sau mới chuyên dùng bộ Nhật.
Năm 1823, Vua Minh Mạng có lựa sẵn hai mươi chữ (toàn bộ Nhật) để đặt tên cho các vị
Vua kế thống, sau này Ngài lại làm một bài thơ “Ngự Chế Mạng Danh Thi” gồm có 20 bộ, các
Triều Vua sau cứ noi theo thế thứ mà đặt tên cho các Hoàng Tử:
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Bài Ngự Chế Mạng Danh Thi
Tên các Vị Hoàng Tử con Vua Minh Mạng đều dùng bộ Miên, còn Vua Thiệu Trị bộ
Nhơn, đến Đức Đông Cung Hoàng Thái Tử Bảo Long là bộ Phụ (bộ thứ 6 của bài “Ngự Chế
Mạng Danh Thi”.
1-The science of names is called semantics.
2-A personal name usually has the function of personal identity.
3-The order of personal names in English and Vietnamese are the same:
Surname+(Middle name)+Given name.
4-In many cases, a surname is a family name.
5-A Given name, in Western Context often referred to as First Name, is a personal name
that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a
family, all of whose members usually have the same family name (Surname).
3. KIN(SHIP) TERMS
Pre-lecture Activity 3.3. Discuss
1-What are the kin relations in the family?
2-What kin(ship) terms are used to refer to these relations in English? In Vietnamese?
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3.1. What is kin(ship)?

Kin(ship) is the term used to denote human relations based on biological descent and
marriage. Kinship is founded on social differences and cultural creations. Kin(ship) terms are the
terms used to refer to such human relations.
Everywhere people have modeled their relations on biological connections, and their
terminology shows they make distinctions between relatives of descent and relatives of marriage.
Descent ties produce relatives known as consanguine; relatives through marriage are affines.
Although exceptions occur, kinship terminology distinguishes consanguine from affine.
Consanguinity ("blood relation", from the Latin consanguinitas) is the property of
being from the same kinship as another person. In that aspect, consanguinity is the quality of
being descended from the same ancestor as another person.
In law and in cultural anthropology, affinity, as distinguished from consanguinity (blood
relationship), is the kinship relationship that is created or exists between two or more people as a
result of somebody's marriage. In addition to kinship by marriage, "affinity" can sometimes also
include kinship by adoption and step relationship. Under the law, such relatives by marriage are
known as affines. More commonly, they are known as "in-laws", as affinity is usually signified
by adding "-in-law" to a degree of kinship.
Patrilineality, also known as the male line, is a common kinship system in which an
individual's family membership derives from and is traced through his or her father's lineage.
Matrilineality is the tracing of descent through the female line.
There are other two types of kinship, lineal and collateral. Lineal kinship, or the direct
line of consanguinity, is the relationship between persons, one of whom is a descendant of the
other. Collateral kinship is the relationship between people who descend from a common
ancestor but are not in a direct line.
3.2. Kin(ship) terms
A society’s kin(ship) system is generally reflected in its kinship vocabulary. Some
systems are much richer than others, but all make use of such factors as gender, age, generation,
blood and marriage in their organization [107, p.227]. Kinship terms have been widely analyzed
across languages, which often make quite different distinctions.
The scientific study of kinship began with the publication of Lewis Henry Morgan's
Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family, published in 1870.
Anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan (1818–1881) performed the first survey of kinship
terminologies in use around the world. Though much of his work is now considered dated, he
argued that kinship terminologies reflect different sets of distinctions [161]. For example, most
kinship terminologies distinguish between genders (the difference between a brother and a sister)
and between generations (the difference between a child and a parent). Moreover, he argued,
kinship terminologies distinguish between relatives by blood and marriage (although recently
some anthropologists have argued that many societies define kinship in terms other than blood).
However, Morgan also observed that different languages (and, by extension, societies) organize
these distinctions differently. He proposed to describe kin terms and terminologies as either
descriptive or classificatory. When a descriptive term is used, it can only represent one type of
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relationship between two people, while a classificatory term represents one of many different
types of relationships. For example, the word brother in English speaking societies indicates a
son of the same parent; thus, English speaking societies use the word brother as a descriptive
term. But a person's male first cousin could be the mother's brother's son, mother's sister's son,
father's brother's son, father's sister's son, and so on; English speaking societies therefore use the
word cousin as a classificatory term.
Morgan discovered that a descriptive term in one society can become a classificatory
term in another society. For example, in some societies one would refer to many different people
as "mother" (the woman who gave birth to oneself, as well as her sister and husband's sister, and
also one's father's sister).
Kroeber, in a 1929 paper, exploded the notion of any kind of simple classificatory /
descriptive typology [136]. This was quite an important paper. He looked at the principles that
were used in separating kinds of kin, and suggested eight: generation, affinity, collaterality,
gender of relative, bifurcation, gender of speaker, relative age, and decedence. Lowie added
a ninth - polarity. He examined the kinds of differences which can be employed to distinguish
kin. For example, in English and American kinship terminology, father and son differ only on
the dimension of generation. Father and father-in-law differ in that father-in-law is an affine,
that is, a relative by marriage. Father and uncle are distinguished by collaterality. The criterion
of collaterality rests on the distinction between siblings and lineal relatives. In English, only
cousin ignores the distinction of collaterality. Cousin also ignores the distinction made
concerning the gender of the relative concerned - the female child of our mother's brother is
called by the same term as his male child. Grouping lineal and collateral relatives under the same
term is technically called "merging", and in kinship systems in general the relatives most
frequently merged are a parent and sibling of the same gender, a sibling and parallel cousin, or a
son or daughter and nephew and niece.
Bifurcation means "forking", and recognizes that relatives may be traced through either a
male or female connecting relative. Our own kinship system ignores this - an uncle may be
traced through either parent, a grandparent is a parent of either or our parents.
Polarity recognizes that a relationship consists of two parties, and thus two terms - aunt,
niece. If this criterion is ignored, the two parties call each other by the same name. In English,
cousin is an example. "Brother is not”, although both brothers use the same term to indicate each
other. Brother results from the fact that the same criteria is being used to assign both people to
the classification. In English, we almost always acknowledge polarity. In some kinship systems,
this is not the case: it is, for example, fairly common for grandfather and grandson to be called
by the same term.
The last three criteria are much less commonly used - the criteria of relative age
recognizes that within a generation people differ in age. They have different terms for elder
brother and younger, elder brother of the father and younger brother of the father, for example.
Some groups have different terms depending on the sex of the speaker - male speakers use
different terms than female speakers. Decedance assigns a different term to a relative depending
on whether the relative is alive or dead.
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The acromy KinDEEP (KINship Distinctive Elements, Exhaustive Profile) is a detailed

framework for defining kinship terms from different languages. KinDEEP has semantic
components for Generation, Lineage, Sex, Side Of Family, Relative Birth Order and Person.
a-Generations
The value for Generation is any number, with 0 indicating the base or current
generation, negative numbers indicating ancestors of the base generation, and positive numbers
indicating descendants, for example, {Generation: +2},{Generation: -2}.
b-Lineage
Lineage can be either Direct, Colineal or Ablineal.
c-Sex
Sex is either Male, Female or Corresponding.
d-Side of Family
Languages often make distinctions between the sides of a family, such as maternal,
paternal, step- and half-. The semantic component of Side of Family can take any of these
values: {Maternal}, {Paternal}, {Step}, {Half} and {Honorary}.
e-Maternal/paternal
Maternal means on mother’s side. Paternal means on father’s side.
f-The family's dark side
It is also possible to refer to other blood distinctions, especially those regarding re-
marriage. English uses the prefix step- to refer to relatives related only by re-marriage, not
blood, as in the evil stepmother (which is not redundant) and the ungrateful stepdaughter, for
instance. English uses the suffix -in-law to refer to relatives related by marriage, as in the evil
mother-in-law and the ungrateful daughter-in-law.
When all this familial love becomes too much to bear, English uses ex- in front of many
or all the other terms, so that you can refer to your ex-husband, your ex-stepdaughter, your ex-
mother-in-law.
English also uses the prefix half- to refer to children who share only one parent (half-
brother and half-sister) but the term is not used to refer to other relatives.
g-The family's bright side
Families often have unofficial members, as English recognizes by encouraging the use of
Aunt and Uncle for close family friends of the same generation as a child's parents. To support
this almost metaphoric use of Aunt and Uncle, KinDEEP uses the value {Honorary} as part of
the semantic component of Side of Family.
h-Relative birth order
KinDEEP has the semantic component {Relative Birth Order}, with values for {Older}
and {Younger}.
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i-Person
KinDEEP recognizes the semantic component Person, with values of {First} and
{Second}. It would be easy to suggest a third-person form, e.g., "their mother".
The major patterns of kinship systems that are known which Lewis Henry Morgan
identified through kinship terminology in his 1871 work Systems of Consanguinity and
Affinity of the Human Family are [168]:
a-Iroquois kinship (also known as "bifurcate merging")
b-Crow kinship (an expansion of bifurcate merging)
c-Omaha kinship (also an expansion of bifurcate merging)
d-Eskimo kinship (also referred to as "lineal kinship")
e-Hawaiian kinship (also referred to as the "generational system")
f-Sudanese kinship (also referred to as the "descriptive system)
3.3. English kinship terminology

3.3.1. Eskimo type
The system of English-language kinship terms falls into the Eskimo type. Eskimo
kinship has both classificatory and descriptive terms; in addition to sex and generation, it also
distinguishes between lineal relatives (those related directly by a line of descent) and collateral
relatives (those related by blood, but not directly in the line of descent). Lineal relatives have
highly descriptive terms; collateral relatives have highly classificatory terms. Thus, siblings are
distinguished from cousins, while all types of cousins are grouped together.
Figure 3.4. Eskimo kinship [168]

In the English language, there are kinship terms of consanguinity and affinity.
3.3.2. Consanguinity in English kinship
Consanguinity is the quality of being descended from the same ancester as another
person.
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Figure 3.5. Consanguinity in English [151]
3.3.3. Patrilineal relations in English kinship

Patrilineality is a common kinship system in which an individual’s family memberships
derives from and is traced through his or her father’s lineage. Lineal relatives have highly
descriptive terms. The English language employs Eskimo kinship terminology. This kinship
terminology commonly occurs in societies based on conjugal (or nuclear) families, where
nuclear families have a degree of relative mobility. The nuclear family is the family comprising
one husband, one wife and their children. This type of family is usually found in the U.S, Canada
and northern European countries. Members of the nuclear use descriptive kinship terms:
Figure 3.6. English nuclear family
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Table 3.15. Patrilineal relation in English nuclear family

English kinship Relation to the Meaning
Term Ego
1 Father Father a male parent

2 Mother Mother a female parent
3 Sister Older sister a female sibling
4 Brother Older brother
Younger sister a male sibling
5 Ego Younger brother
6 Son Son a male child of the parent(s)
7 Daughter Daughter a female child of the parent(s)
8 Grandson Son’s son A male child of son / daoughter
9 granddaughter Son’s daughter
Daughter’s son A female child of son / daughter
Daughter’s
daughter
3.3.4. Collateral realives in English

Collateral kinship is the relationship between people who descend from a common
ancestor but are not in a direct line. Collateral relatives have highly classificatory terms. Thus,
siblings are distinguished from cousins, while all types of cousins or uncles are grouped
together.
When additional generations intervene (in other words, when one's collateral relatives
belong to the same generation as one's grandparents or grandchildren), the prefixes "great-" or
"grand-" modifies these terms. Also, as with grandparents and grandchildren, as more
generations intervene the prefix becomes "great-grand-," adding another "great-" for each
additional generation.
Table 3.16. Collateral realives in English
English Terms Relation to the Ego
1 Uncle Father’s older brother, father’s younger brother, mother’s older
brother, mother’s younger brother, father’s sister’s husband,
mother’s sister’s husband
2 Aunt Father’s older sister, father’s younger sister, mother’s older sister,
mother’s younger sister, father’s older brother’s wife, father’s
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younger brother’s wife, mother’s older brother’s wife, mother’s

younger brother’s wife
3 Cousin Father’s brother’s son (older/ younger), father’s Sister’s Son
(older/younger), mother’s brother’s son (older/younger), mother’s
sister’s son (older/younger), father’s brother’s daughter (older/
younger), father’s sister’s daughter (older/younger), mother’s
brother’s daughter (older/younger), mother’s sister’s
daughter(older/younger)
4 Nephew Brother’s son, sister’s son
5 Niece Brother’s daughter, sister’s daughter
The term cousin is the most classificatory term meaning the children of uncles or aunts.
One can further distinguish cousins by degrees of collaterality and by generation. Two persons of
the same generation who share a grandparent count as "first cousins" (one degree of
collaterality); if they share a great-grandparent they count as "second cousins" (two degrees of
collaterality) and so on. When the cousins are not the same generation, they are described as
"removed". If two persons share an ancestor, one as a grandchild and the other as a great-
grandchild of that individual, then the two descendants class as "first cousins once removed"
(removed by one generation); if they shared ancestor figures as the grandparent of one individual
and the great-great-grandparent of the other, the individuals class as "first cousins twice
removed" (removed by two generations), and so on. Similarly, if they shared ancestor figures as
the great-grandparent of one person and the great-great-grandparent of the other, the individuals
class as "second cousins once removed". Hence one can refer to a "third cousin once removed
upwards"[161].
When the cousins are not the same generation, they are described as "removed". In this
case, the smaller number of generations to the common ancestor is used to determine the degree,
and the difference in generations determines the number of times removed. Note that the ages of
the cousins are irrelevant to the definition of the cousin relationship. Consider the following
[161]:
First cousins
Joseph Nancy
Gordon Laura Robert Angie
Sam Ryan
Figure 3.7. First cousins [161]
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A child ("Sam") of one person ("Laura") and a child ("Ryan") of that one person's sibling
("Robert") are first cousins. First cousins share grandparents ("Joseph" and "Nancy"). Sam and
Ryan are first cousins because they are non-siblings who share a pair of grandparents.
Second cousins
James Mary
Nancy Joseph Bonnie James
Gordon Laura Lucy Peter
Sam Susannah
Figure 3.8. Second cousins [161]
The children of first cousins share a second cousin relationship. Second cousins share
great-grandparents. People occasionally mistake the child of their first cousin as their "second
cousin" - however that would actually be a first cousin, once removed. The removal denotes the
generational difference. Sam and Susannah are second cousins because they are non-first
cousins and non-siblings who share great-grandparents. In other words, Sam and Susannah's
parents are cousins.
First cousins once removed

Adam Anne
Bill Betty Charles Caroline
Diana David Emma
Frank
Figure 3.9. First cousins once removed [161]
Two people for whom a first cousin relationship is one generation removed. The child of
one's first cousin or the cousin of one's parent. Frank and his father's first cousin, Emma, are
first cousins once removed. First cousins once removed are often erroneously referred to as
"second cousins." In some cultures, especially in Latin America and India, the relationship is
viewed as being the same as an aunt-uncle and niece-nephew relations
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First cousins twice removed

Adam Anne
Bill Betty Charles Corinda
Dawn David Emma
Frank Felicity
Harry
Figure 3.10. First cousins twice removed [161]

Two people for whom a first cousin relationship is two generations removed. The
grandchild of one's first cousin; also the first cousin of one's grandparent. Harry and his
grandfather's first cousin, Emma, are first cousins twice removed.
Table 3.17. English collateral terms
English collateral Gender Vietnamese Generation

terms equivalent
1 Great grand father + Cụ G-3
2 Great grand mother - Cụ G-3
3 Great grand children +/- Cụ G-3
4 Great grand uncle + Cụ G-3
5 Great grand aunt - Cụ G-3
6 Grand father + Ông G-2
7 Grand mother - bà G-2
8 Grand parent +/- Ông / bà G-2
9 Great / grand uncle + Ông bác G-2
10 Great / grant aunt - Bà bác G-2
11 Father + Cha G-1
12 Mother - Mẹ G-1
13 Parent +/- Cha / mẹ G-1
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14 Uncle + Bác / chú G-1

15 Aunt - Bác / cô G-1
16 Brother + G-0
Anh / em
17 Sister - Chị
trai / em gái G-0
18 Sibling +/- Anh / chị G-0
19 Cousin +/- Anh / chị
em ruột G-0
20 Son + em họ
Con trai G+1
21 Daughter - Con gái G+1
22 Child +/- Con G+1
23 Nephew + Cháu trai G+1
24 niece - Cháu gái G+1
25 Grandson + Cháu trai G+2
26 Granddaughter - Cháu gái G+2
27 Grand child +/- Cháu G+2
28 Grand nephew + Cháu trai G+2
29 Grand niece - Cháu gái G+2
30 Great grand son + Chắt trai G+3
31 Great grand daughter - Chắt gái G+3
32 Great grand child +/- Chắt G+3
33 Great grand nephew + Chắt trai G+3
34 Great grand niece - Chắt gái G+3
3.3.5. Affinal relations in English

Affinal relatives are referred to as the in-laws.
Table 3.18. Affinal relations in English
English Terms Relation to the Ego
1 Father-in-law Wife’s / Husband’s father
2 Mother-in-law Wife’s / husband’s mother
3 Uncle Father’s sister’s husband, mother’s sister’s husband
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4 Aunt Father’s older brother’s wife, father’s younger brother’s wife,

mother’s brother’s wife
5 Wife / Husband Wife / Husband
6 Brother-in-law Older sister’s husband, younger sister’s husband, husband’s elder /
younger brother, wife’s brother, husband of wife’s sister
7 Sister-in-law Older brother’s wife, younger brother’s wife, husband’s younger
sister, wife’s elder / younger sister, brother’s Wife
8 Son-in-law Son’s wife
9 Daughter-in-law Daughter’s husband
3.4. Vietnamese kinship terminology

3.4.1. Sudanese type
Vietnamese has a very complex system of kinship terminology with a lot of variations
among different regions. Vietnamese kinship is of the Sudanese type, highly descriptive.
Sudanese kinship system is the most the most descriptive; no two types of relatives share the
same term. Siblings are distinguished from cousins, and different terms are used for each type of
cousin (i.e. father’s brother’s children, father’s sister’s children, mother’s sister’s children and
mother’s brother’s children).
Figure 3.11. Sudanese kinship [168]
3.4.2. Patrilineal system of nine generations

In the Vietnamese society, there is a patrilineal system of nine generations:
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Table 3.19. Vietnamese patrilineal system of nine generations

Kị / Cố Cụ Ông bà Cha / TÔI Con Cháu Chắt Chút
mẹ
Great Great Grandp Parent Ego Child Grandchild Great Great
great grand arent grand great
grand parent child grand
parent child
The Vietnamese lineal system of nine generations is very rare in the world. In addition,
the words used to denote each generation are monosyllabic words.
3.4.3. Vietnamese kinship terms
Professor Nguyen Van Khang [112] states that the Vietnamese kinship system are
established on the following kinship categories:
a-relations of consanguinity (blood relation) forming consanguinity (blood relation)-
affinity (non-blood relation) opposition, e.g. bác, chú, cô, cậu, dì (blood-related /
consanguine)/ mợ, thím, dượng (not-blood-related / affinal),
b-relations of generation forming same generation-different generation opposition,
e.g. father (G-1) / ego (G-0),
c-Relations of gender forming male-female opposition, e.g. anh (elder brother) / chị
(elder sister).
d-relations of consanguinity forming lineal-collateral opposition, e.g. cha, mẹ, con, anh,
chị (lineal); bác, chú, cô (colateral),
e-relations of consanguinity hierarchy forming the above rank-the bellow rank
opposition.
The notion of rank is very important in kinship hierarchy in Vietnamese. Rank is based
on kinship hierarchy. It denotes differences in age and generation.
For example, the addressor has to address his / her mother’s senior sister’s daughter as
senior sister even though this is just a baby girl. This little baby can be addressed as great-
grandmother if she is in equal family hierarchy with her relative who has great-grand children.
The baby is of the higher rank than the addressor.
In Vietnamese, there are many cases in which an old man has to address a boy as ông /
bác/ chú…because the boy is higher in rank
f-relations of paternal side-maternal side consanguinity forming nội (paternal side)-
ngoại (maternal side) forming opposition, e.g. ông nội (paternal grand father) / ông ngoại
(maternal grand father).
Another criterion in Vietnamese kinship system is relative age distinguishing elder/
younger, first-born / second-born / third –born.
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Table 3.20. Kinship terms in the Vietnamese language
Kinship English transalation Kinship Englishtransaltion

terms terms
1 Kị Great great grand 35 Chú Father’s younger sister’s

parent husband
2 Cụ Paternal / maternal 36 Bác Mother’s older brother

great grand parent
3 Cụ ông Paternal / Paternal great 37 Bác Mother’s older brother’s

grand father wife
4 Cụ bà Paternal / maternal 38 Bác Mother’s older sister

great grand mother
5 Ông bà nội Parternal grand parents 39 Bác Mother’s older sister’s

husband
6 Ông nội Paternal grand father 40 Cậu Mother’s younger

brother
7 Bà nội Paternal grand mother 41 Mợ Mother’s younger

brother’s wife
8 Ông bà ngoại Maternal grand parents 42 Dì Mother’s younger sister
9 Ông ngoại Maternal grand mother 43 Chú Mother’s younger

sister’s husband
10 Bà ngoại Paternal grand mother 44 Con Child(ren)
11 Ông /ông bác Older brother of 45 Con trai son

grandmother
12 Bà / bà bác / Wife of older brother of 46 Con gái daughter

grandmother.
bà mợ
13 Bà / bà bác / Elder sister of mother 47 Anh chị em Sibling
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bà gì ruột
14 Ông / ông bác Husband of older sister 48 Anh chị em họ Cousin

of mother
/ ông dượng
15 Ông / ông bác Older brother of grand 49 Anh (ruột) Older brother
father
16 Bà / bà bác Wife of older brother of 50 Em (trai ruột) Younger brother

grand father
17 Bà / bà o / bà Older sister of grand 51 Chị dâu Older brother’s wife

father
cô
18 Ông / ông bác Husband of older sister 52 Chị (ruột) Older sister
of grand father
/ ông dượng
19 Ông trẻ / ông Younger brother of 53 Em (gái ruột) Younger sister

grand father
chú / ông cậu
20 Bà trẻ / bà Wife of younger 54 Anh rể Older sister’s husband

brother of grand father
thím / bà mợ
21 Bà trẻ / bà cô / Younger sister of grand 55 Em Younger brother, sister

father
bà o
22 Ông trẻ / ông Husband of younger 56 Em rể Younger sister’s

sister of grand father husband
chú / ông
dượng
23 Cha, bố, thầy, Father 57 Em dâu Younger brother’s wife
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cậu
24 Mẹ, Má, U , Mother 58 Cháu nội Paternal grand child(ren)
Bu, Cái , Mợ
25 Bố/mẹ, Husband’s 59 Cháu nội (trai) Paternal grand son

father/mother/ older
anh/chị/em brother/older
sister/younger
chồng sister/younger brother
26 Bố/ mẹ/ anh Wife ’s father/mother/ 60 Cháu nội (gái) Paternal grand daughter
older brother/older
/chị / em vợ sister/younger
sister/younger brother
27 Dượng Step father 61 Cháu ngoại Maternal maternal grand

child(ren)
28 Mẹ kế/dì ghẻ Step mother 62 Cháu ngoại Maternal grand son
trai
29 Bác Father’s older brother 63 Cháu ngoại Maternal grand daughter

and his wife
gái
30 Bác Father’s older sister 64 Cháu trai (con Nephew
anh / chị /em )
31 Bác Father’s older sister’s 65 Cháu gái (con Niece

husband
anh / chị / em)
32 Chú Father’s younger 66 Chắt nội Paternal great grand

brother child(ren)
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33 Thím Father’s younger 67 Chắt nội trai Paternal great grand son
brother’s wife
34 Cô Father’s younger sister 68 Chắt nội gái Paternal great grand

daughter
3.4.4. The patrilineality of the Vietnamese kinship system
The Vietnamese kinship system reflects the patrilineal organization in the Vietnamese
family.
Table 3.21. The patrilineality of the Vietnamese kinship system
Patrilineal system English equivalent Generation

1 Kị Great great grand parents G-4
2 Cụ Great grand parents G-3
3 Ông bà Grand parents G-2
4 Bố mẹ Parents G-1
5 TÔI ego G-0
6 Con cái Children G+1
7 Cháu Grand children G+2
8 Chắt Great grand children G+3
9 Chút Great great grand children G+4
There are corresponding kinship terms on each rank. The kinhip term on the rank of kị
(great great grand parent) includes kị; on the rank of cụ (great grand parents) are cụ, cụ ông, cụ
bà; on the rank of ông bà (grand parents) are ông bà, ông nội , bà nội, ông ngoại, bà ngoại,
ông (older brother of grand parents), bà ( older sister of grand parents), ông trẻ (younger
brorher of grand parents), bà trẻ (younger sister of grand parents); on the rank of cha mẹ
(parents) are bố mẹ, bố, mẹ, bố đẻ, bối ruột, mẹ đẻ, mẹ ruột, bố chồng, mẹ chồng, bố vợ, mẹ
vợ, bố nuôi, mẹ nuôi, gì ghẻ, mẹ ghẻ, dượng. On the rank of bác chú, cô, cậu gì (uncle and
aunt) are bác, bác ruột, bác họ, bác trai, bác gái, bác dâu; chú, cô, cậu , gì, thím, mợ; cô chú,
chú thím, cậu mợ, chú bác, cô gì; chú ruột, chú họ; cậu ruột, cậu họ; cô ruột, cô họ, gì ruột,
gì họ; on the rank of vợ chồng (wife and husband) are vợ chồng; vợ, chồng, vợ cả, vợ lẽ, vợ
hai, vợ ba; On the rank of siblings and cousins are anh, anh trai, anh họ, anh chồng, anh vợ,
anh rể; chị, chị gái, chị họ, chị chồng, chị vợ, chị dâu; em, em trai, em gái, em chồng, em
vợ, em rể, em dâu, em họ; on the rank of con cháu ( children, grand children, great grand
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children) are con, con trai, con gái, con đầu, con trưởng, con cả, con thứ, con út; con dâu,
con rể; con nuôi, con đẻ, con riêng, con chồng, con vợ; cháu, cháu trai, cháu gái, cháu nội,
cháu ngoại, cháu họ, cháu rể, cháu dâu; chắt, chắt trai, chắt gái, chăt nội, chắt ngoại.
3.4.5. The kinship terms in the extended Vietnamese family
There may be up to four generations living in the family in a house in Vietnam. The
kinship terms used in a Vietnamese family would include ông bà nội, ông bà ngoại, chồng, vợ,
con; con trưởng, con thứ, con út; con một. bố chồng, mẹ chồng, con dâu, bố vợ, mẹ vợ, con
rể, em chồng, em vợ; anh chồng, anh vợ; anh rể , em rể; chị dâu, em dâu, bác (wife or
husband of bác), chú (husband of cô), thím (wife of chú), mợ ( wife of cậu), gì ghẻ, mẹ kế, bố
dượng, dượng.
Table 3.22. Vietnamese family kinship terms
Kinship English equivalent Kinship terms English equivalent
terms
1 Ông bà nội Paternal grand 23 Anh rể Older brother of husband
parents
2 Ông nội Paternal grand father 24 Em rể Younger brother of
husband
3 Bà nội Maternal grand 25 Chị dâu Older sister of wife
mother
4 Ông bà ngoại Maternal grand 26 Em dâu Younger sister of wife
parents
5 Bà ngoại Maternal grand 27 Dượng Step father
mother
6 Ông ngoại Maternal grand 28 Mẹ kế / dì ghẻ Step mother
mother
7 Chồng Husband 29 Bác Older brother of father
8 Vợ Wife 30 Bác Wife of older brother of
father
9 Con trai Son 31 Bác Older sister of father
10 Con gái Daughter 32 Bác Husband of older sister of
father
11 Cháu trai Nephew 33 Chú Younger brother of father
12 Cháu gái Niece 34 Thím Wife of younger brother
of father
13 Chắt trai Grand nephew 35 Cô Younger sister of father
14 Chắt gái Grand niece 36 Chú Husband of younger sister
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of father
15 Bố chồng Paternal father in law 37 Bác Older brother of mother
16 Bố vợ Maternal father in 38 Bác Wife of older brother of
law mother
17 Mẹ chồng Paternal mother in 39 Bác Older sister of mother
law
18 Mẹ vợ Paternal mother in 40 Bác Husband of older sister of
law mother
19 Con rể Son in law 41 Cậu Younger brother of
mother
20 Con dâu Daughter in law 42 Mợ Wife of younger brother
of mother
21 Em chồng Younger brother of 43 Dì Younger sister of mother
husband
22 Em vợ Younger sister of 44 Chú Husband of younger sister
wife of mother
Figure 3.12.Vietnamese extended family tree [199]
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3.4.6. Vietnamese affinal kinship terms

Table 3.23. Vietnamese affinal kinships terms
Kinship terms Vietnamese Kinship term Vietnamese
equivalent equivalent
1 Bố vợ Father of wife 15 Anh chồng Elder brother of
husband
2 Bố chồng Father of husband 16 Em chồng Younger brother of
husband
3 Mẹ vợ Mother of wife 17 Anh vợ Elder brother of wife
4 Mẹ chồng Mother of wife 18 Em vợ Younger brother of
wife
5 Bác / dượng Husband of older sister 19 Chị dâu Wife of older
of father brother
6 Chú / dượng Husband of younger 20 Em dâu Wife of younger
sister of father brother
7 Bác Wife of older brother 21 Chị chồng Older sister of
of father husband
8 Thím / mợ Wife of younger 22 Em chồng Younger sister of
brother of father husband
9 Bác / mợ Wife of younger 23 Chị vợ Older sister of wife
brother of mother
10 Mợ Wife of younger 24 Em vợ Younger sister of
brother of mother wife
11 Vợ Wife 25 Con dâu Daughter in law
12 Chồng Husband 26 Con rể Son in law
13 Anh rể Husband of older sister 27 Cháu dâu Grand daughter-in-
law
14 Em rể Husband of younger 28 Cháu rể Grandson-in-law
sister
3.5. English and Vietnamese kinship terminologies compared

3.5.1. Similarities
From the above descriptions, it can be easily seen that these two systems share some
features in common:
a-Both systems differentiate relatives by blood from those by marriage. Thus, one’s
parents (English: father, mother; Vietnamese: cha, mẹ) are differentiated from parents-in-law
(English: father / mother-in-law; Vietnamese: cha, mẹ chồng or cha mẹ vợ).
b-In both systems, languages make distinction of generations. Therefore, both have
hierarchical kinship term systems in which parents are distinguished from great parents and
children etc.
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c-gender is a factor taken in account by both Vietnamese and English kinship terms
system. Hence, a female parent is called “mother” in English and “mẹ” in Vietnamese,
meanwhile, a male one is called “father” and “cha” respectively.
3.5.2. Differences:
3.5.2.1. Degree of descriptiveness
Belonging to the Eskimo pattern, English kinship terminology system consists of both
descriptive and classificatory terms. Descriptive terms such as “mother, father, brother, etc”
are used to express lineal relations. Meanwhile, collateral relations are referred to mostly by
classificatory terms. For instance, the term “aunt” can mean mother’s sister, father’s sister,
father’s brother’s wife and mother’s brother’s wife.
Table 3.24. Collateral relations in English
English terms Relation to the Ego
Uncle Father’s older brother
Father’s younger brother
Mother’s Brother
Aunt Father’s Sister
Mother’s Sister
In contrast, the Vietnamese system makes use of many more descriptive terms than the
English one. There are not many Vietnamese kin terms expressing more than one kind of
relations. One noticable exception is the term “cháu” which means grandchildren as well as
niece or nephew. In addition, unlike English, descriptive terms are not only used to express lineal
relations but also collateral ones. For instance: “cô” can only be used to call one’s father’s
younger sister.
Table 3.25. Collateral relations in Vietnamese
1 Bác / dượng Husband of older sister of father

2 Chú / dượng Husband of younger sister of father
3 Bác Wife of older brother of father
4 Thím / mợ Wife of younger brother of father
5 Bác / mợ Wife of younger brother of mother
6 Mợ Wife of younger brother of mother
7 Bác Older brother of father
8 Bác Wife of older brother of father
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9 Bác Older sister of father
10 Bác Husband of older sister of father
3.5.2.2. Different distinctions

Generally speaking, Vietnamese kinship term system makes more distinctions than the
English one. Examine the following family tree diagramme:
a-Relatives are categorized into father’s side (bên nội) and mother’s side (bên ngoại).
Each side has different terms to denote relationships. As a result, one’s father’s father (ông nội)
and one’s mother’s father (ông ngoại) are distinguished from one another. In English, both are
addressed as “grandfather”.
b-Unlike the English system, the Vietnamese one takes the age of the relatives into
consideration. As a result, there are different terms for older and younger siblings. Older male
and female siblings are called respectively as “anh, “chị, while younger ones are called “em”.
Moreover, siblings are also put into ranks. The terms “anh cả, anh hai “are used for firstborn
child and the others go with terms associated with the order of their births
c-Rank is an important factor in Vietnamese kinship system. Though there exist the terms
“anh / chị / em họ “which are equivalents of the English “cousin “, such members are usually
addressed by terms used for siblings. Their ranks can be determined by age, however, in most
regions cousins’ ranks depend on the ranks of their parents in the family. For example, one will
have to address his father’s older brother’s son as “anh” even though one is much older than that
person. Another example is the distinction between bác / chú.
d-Gender in the Vietnamese kinship system is distinguished by combining with one of
the following words: ông /bà (e.g. ông nội / bà nội), trai / gái (e.g. con trai / con gái), dâu / rể
(e.g. con dâu / con rể).
e-Though both systems have terms denoting relatives by marriage (the in-laws), the
Vietnamese system is more detailed than the English system. In English there are such terms as
father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law; in Vietnamese there are the terms
such as cha, mẹ chồng or cha mẹ vợ, con dâu, con rể, cháu dâu, cháu rể…).
f- Vietnamese kinship terms may vary according to Vietnamese dialects:
Table 3.26. Kinship term variation according to regional dialects in Vienam
North Central South

1 Cha, bố, thầy, cậu Cha, Chú Cha, Ba, tía Father
2 Mẹ, Má, U , Bu, Mợ Mẹ, U Mẹ, Má Mother
3 Dượng Dượng Dượng Step father
4 Mẹ kế/dì ghẻ Mẹ kế/dì ghẻ Mẹ kế/dì ghẻ Step mother
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5 Bác Bác Bác Father’s older brother and his wife
6 Bác O Cô Father’s older sister
7 Bác Dượng Dượng Father’s older sister’s husband
8 Chú Chú Cậu Father’s younger brother
9 Thím Thím, mợ Thím, mợ Father’s younger brother’s wife
10 Cô O Cô Father’s younger sister
11 Chú Dượng Dượng Father’s younger sister’s husband
12 Bác Bác, Cậu Cậu Mother’s older brother
13 Bác Mợ, mự Mợ Mother’s older brother’s wife
14 Bác Dì Dì Mother’s older sister
15 Bác Dượng Dượng Mother’s older sister’s husband
16 Cậu Cậu Cậu Mother’s younger brother
17 Mợ Mợ, mự Mợ Mother’s younger brother’s wife
18 Dì Dì Dì Mother’s younger sister
19 Chú Dượng Dượng Mother’s younger sister’s husband
1-Kin(ship) is the term used to denote human relations based on biological decent and
marriage.
2-A society’s kin(ship) system is generally reflected in its kinship vocabulary.
3-The system of English kinship terms falls into Sudanese type.
4-In the Vietnamese society, there is a kinship system of only two generations. It belongs
to Eskimo type.
5-The Vietnamese kinship terms vary according to the dialects in Vietnam.
4. ADDRESSING
Pre-lecture activity 3.4. Discuss
1-How do you
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a-address your mother

i-at home alone with her:
ii-on the telephone with friends listening:
iii-in a shop:
b-refer to your mother
i-at home to another family member when she is present:
ii-at home to another family member when she isn’t present:
iii-to a friend who doesn’t know her:
iv-to a sales assistant in a shop when she is present:
2-What forms of address would be used to address the following in English and in
Vietnamese?
a-the president of a country, b-the party secretary-general, c-the Prime Minister,
d-the president of the national assembly, e-the Pope, f-a judge, g-your teacher,
h- your mother / father?
2-What factors help you choose the right forms of address?
4.1. Terms / Forms of address in English

4.1.1. What is a term / form of address?
How do we name or address another?
By title (T), by FN, by LN, by a nick name, by some combination of these, or by nothing
at all to deliberately avoid the problem? What factors govern the choice?
We use terms of address.
Terms or forms of address are the words used to address (call by name or tittle) in
speech or writing [82, p.4].
Is the address process asymmetrical?; that is, if I call you Mr. Jones, do you call me
John? Or is it symmetrical?: Mr. Jones-Mr. Smith; John-Fred.
All kinds of combination are possible in English [107, p.281]: Dr. Smith, John Smith,
Smith, John, Johnie, Doc, Sir, Mack, and so on depending on the social context. Dr. Smith
might expect Doctor from a patient, Dad from his son, John from his brother, Dear from his
wife, and Sir from a police officer who stops him if he drives too fast.
4.1.2. Factors influencing the choice of the terms of address:
What factors influence the choice of the terms of address?
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“When we look at what is involved in addressing another, it seems that a variety of social
factors usually governs our choice of terms: the particular occasion; the social status or
rank of the other; gender; age; family relationship; occupational hierarchy;
transactional status (i.e., a service encounter, or a doctor–patient relationship, or one of
priest–penitent); race; or degree of intimacy” [107, p. 288].
4.1.3. Common forms of address in English
The common forms of address in English are: Tittle (e.g. My Lord, Mr. Chairman, Prime
Minister), Tittle LN (e.g. professor/ Dr., Father Smith), Mr. LN (e.g.Mr. Smith), Mrs. LN
(e.g.Mrs. Smith), Miss LN (e.g.Miss Smith), kin tittle FN (e.g.Aunt Mary)/ Kin tittle (e.g.aunt,
father, dad), FN (e.g.Mary, Robert), nickname, short name, ø (no name), personal-emotive
means of the direct address (endearments and abusives).
According to Crystal [20, p.44], in English the basic choice is between first name (FN) or
tittle with last name (TLN).
Brown and Ford [1961, as cited in [107, pp.282-283], basing in their study of naming
practices in English report that the asymmetric use of title+last name, and first name (TLN/FN)
indicated inequality in power, that mutual TLN indicated inequality and unfamiliarity, and that
mutual FN indicated equality and familiarity. The switch from mutual TLN to FN is also usually
initiated by the more powerful member of the relationship. The idiom"on a first-name basis" (or
"on first-name terms") alludes to the familiarity of addressing another by a given / first name.
In English speaking countries, the modern tendency is to come to first name terms as soon as
possible, especially if status and age are the same.
In English, when we are in doubt as to how to address another we can actually avoid the
difficulty by not using any address term at all. We, therefore, have the possibility of the
avoidance of an address term, that is, Ø use, or of a choice between familiar and polite [107,
p.285].
4.1.4. Direct address system [64, pp.53-56]
The direct address is a name or designation of the person or persons… to whom the
speech is addressed [64, pp.53].
K.A. Dolinin propopses to distinguish between two classes of the direct address:
a-Socially orienting forms and b- personal emotive forms
4.1.4.1. Socially orienting forms
a-The honorific terms: sir or madam
They are never followed by a name, except when sir is an aristocratic tittle used before
the name of a knight or baronet, such as Sir Robert Chiltern. When sir is a tittle it is always
used with the first name only, and they say Sir Robert, never Sir Chiltern. Sir and Madam
used alone are meant to show respect for position and seniority. Shopkeepers, waiters and
servants call their customers and masters sir or madam.
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Sir is an honorific term to be used by persons belonging to various social groups when
addressing their superiors: schoolchildren-their men teachers, soldiers, sailors, policemen, etc.-
their officers, young men-older men.
There are other honorific terms of address. For further information, you can refer to the
the following website link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Style_(manner_of_address)
i-Profesional tittles
Professional tittles: (Doctor, Inpspector, Colonel, Nurse, Professor)
The professional title is used with or without a surname: T + (LN / Surname).
ii-Courtesy tittles Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms. + LN
Addressing by surnames with the prefixed courtesy titles Mr., Mrs, Miss (Ms.) + Last
Name is usual among acquaintances. It signals the equality of relations and also a certain social
distance, absence of intimacy. Using a bare surname may imply the addressee’s inferior
position. Using a bare surname is also usual among unrelated male friends, not among near
relatives.
iii-First Name (FN) or Christian / Given name
Addressing by first (Christian) names is current among near relatives, friends, lovers.
The modern tendency is to come to first name terms as soon as possible, especially if status and
age are the same. Addressing somebody by his or her first name in its short, diminutive or
familiar form or using pet names express a greater intimacy and affection.
There are the following short forms for Elizabeth: Bess, Bet, Beth, Eliza, Elsa, Lisa,
Lisbet, Lisbeth, Liz, Liza. The pet forms are: Bessi, Bessy, Betsy, Bette, Betty, Elsie, Libby,
Lizzie, Lizzy.
iv-Kinship terms:
Persons may be also address by the names of the family members which denote the
family status and his relation to the speaker (i) without any other name (e.g. father, dad, pa) and
ii-with a proper name added (e.g. uncle George, auntie Ruth). Group (i) is more inimate than
group (ii).
v-Words of address may also employ ‘an expression of the addressee’s human
classification (of age, gender, generation), e.g. baby, boy, kiddy, old chap, mate, buddy.
4.1.4.2. Personal–emotive means of the direct address
They draw on the stock of evaluative words.
a-Endearments
They express a positive attitude of the speaker to the listener, some of them are capable
of linking up with the forms of socially address (e.g. dear, darling), many of them are familiar
tropes, mostly metaphors (e.g. honey, ducky). The addition of the possessive ‘my’ increases the
emotives.
b-Abusives
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Terms of abuse (bad names) are “depreciative (pejorative) words or phrases with a
dominant appeal function with which the speaker addresses another person with the intention to
offend or discredit him socially.” Examples are bastard, idiot, slut…
4.1.5. Address system in British English

4.1.5.1. The polite choice of address terms in British English [84, pp.286-289]
Diagram 3.1. Factors constraining the polite choice of address terms in British English
[84, p. 286]
The diagram assumes the speaker knows the addressee’s name and the first box takes
account of whether the addressee is a child or an adult. Where the line between adult and
child is drawn differs between communities, and even within communities for different
purposes (e.g. baby-sitting, buying fireworks, marrying, owning a firearm, voting). If the
addressee would be classified as a child in the relevant social interaction, then, following the
minus exit from the box, the flow chart indicates FN is used in British English, e.g. Hey Jill.
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Box 2, labelled ‘marked setting’, refers to formal settings such as Parliament and law
courts where people act in role, and where speech is governed by relatively explicit
discourse rules. Forms of address are derived from identity in the context, e.g. Your
honour, Prime Minister. The boxes marked ‘kin’ and ‘well acquainted’ are self-
explanatory – though who qualifies in each case will of course be culture-dependent and
context-dependent.
The box marked ‘higher rank’ refers to social superiors or people of higher status in a
hierarchy. The ‘ascending generation’ is the generation above the speaker–parents and parents’
sisters, brothers and cousins, for instance. A ‘dispensation’ refers to the fact that a superior may
absolve the speaker from the obligation of using TLN and permit them to use FN, e.g. Dr
Worth is far too formal. Please call me Helen. The box marked ‘profession title’ refers to
occupational or courtesy titles such as Doctor, Professor, Sister for a nun, Father for a priest,
and so on.
We can cause offence by treating someone, from their perspective, too familiarly, or by
treating them too distantly. Being polite means getting the linguistic expression of social
distance right as far as your addressee is concerned. This is very variable from one speech
community to another. In the north of England, many newspaper vendors, bus conductors and
people selling railway tickets call everyone love regardless of how well they know them, and
often regardless of their gender. By contrast, mutual TLN (Mrs Landy, Mr Duncan) is usual
between upper-working-class neighbours who live close to each other, but who are not friends
and do not see each other socially. In North America, it is usual to use first names to people you
work with, regardless of how little or much you like them. In other English- speaking cultures,
mutual FN is experienced as too familiar. Mutual TLN is appropriate until you have worked
together for a period of time or develop a friendship. Issues like how long do you have to know
someone, or how close a friendship does it have to be, to use FN raise further complications, of
course. The answers will be different for different communities.
In earlier centuries, the norms were simpler. Status was the major consideration. In
general, people used TLN (or an appropriate kin-term) upwards to superiors, and FN downwards
to subordinates, no matter how well they knew them. Solidarity became relevant only
between equals. Equals used mutual TLN with people they did not know well, and they used
mutual first names to friends. In addition, between some (mainly male) people, mutual LN was
the norm (Elementary my dear Watson!), and there was also a non-reciprocal pattern involving
madam/sir upwards and LN downwards to subordinates (clean that blackboard, Hadley).
Today, however, the interaction between social status and social distance in many
Western societies is more complicated. This results in a conflict of norms in two situations: (a)
high status with high solidarity and (b) low status with low solidarity. If your addressee is of
lower status and you know them well, then either way you use FN to them. But what form do
they use to you? The norms conflict. Because they know you well, they could assume FN is
appropriate, but their subordinate status predicts TLN. How can this dilemma be resolved? One
common solution is to avoid address terms altogether. When an address term must be used,
however, FN is generally used in such a situation. In other words, in many Western
communities in the twenty-first century, the solidarity dimension was tended to be given
greater weight. So secretaries, for instance, generally use FN to their bosses if they have worked
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for them for some time. Workers use FN to the factory floor supervisor. Civil servants use FN
to their policy-making bosses if they talk to them regularly.
What of the second conflicting situation? There is no problem when you do not know
someone well, and they are your superior. Both factors predict that you will use TLN. But when
someone is your subordinate and you don’t know them well, what do you use? This is a tricky
area but, in general, once again the solidarity dimension tends to win out: degree of solidarity (or
social distance) is what counts most. British office workers tend to use TLN to the caretaker
whom they rarely see. Middle-class women generally use TLN to their cleaning women,
especially when the woman is older and rarely encountered face-to- face. The following
American example describes a different pattern, however, and illustrates the complexity of the
factors which may be relevant.
Another factor which contributes to the assessment of social distance, and hence to the
appropriate way of being polite, is the type of relationship involved. In many communities,
transactional relationships favour TLN. Shopkeepers and customers may exchange mutual
TLN even when they have known each other for a long time. Doctors and patients similarly
tend to use mutual TLN. These relationships put the emphasis on the social distance dimension
in that, even when they are long-standing, they do not involve intimacy. To know someone
‘well’ involves more than just knowing them for a long time. Mutual TLN is also a marker of
mutual respect, as example 20 indicates, and it may be especially relevant to express this in
certain contexts. Transactional relationships are usually one-dimensional. When they shift to
become more personal, they often also shift to mutual FN.
One factor which seems to override these patterns – as indicated by its primary position
in figure above – is relative age. Adults use FN to children on first meeting. Young people are
more likely to receive FN in any context. A young shop assistant, hairdresser or cleaner or an
office junior will receive FN from a customer or client, and will often be expected to use TLN
back, especially if the person is a generation or more older.
4.1.5.2. Honorific forms of address in the United Kingdom [190]
Table 3.27. Honorific forms of address in the United Kingdom
On Salutation in
Position Oral address
envelopes letter
HM The Your Majesty, and thenceforward

King Your Majesty
King as "Sir/Sire"
HM The Your Majesty, and thenceforward
Queen Your Majesty
Queen as "Ma'am"
For more honorific forms of address in the United Kingdom, please refer to [190].
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4.1.6. Address system in American English

4.1.6.1. American address system
According to professor Nguyen Van Khang [111, p.363] the basic choice of the
American terms of address is as follows:
a-First Name (FN): used between friends.
b-Tittle + Last name (LN): used between strangers
c-First Name(FN) – Tittle + Last Name (TLN): used when there is difference / distance
in social position or age (10-15 years older). Social Status (rank) is usually given priority over
age
Diagramme 3.2. American address system [after S. Ervin-Trip, 1972, as cited in [20, p. 44]
Several studies have attempted to explicate these factors. The flow-chart was devised by Susan
Ervin-Tripp (1972) as a means of specifying the factors that condition a speakers’s choice of
address in American English. The chart is simply a logical statement of the various possibilities,
given a context such as ’Look,-,it’s time to leave’; it is not an account of what goes on in the
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speaker’s mind. The knowledge structure represented is that of an American academic; but
dialect differences, idiosyncratic preferences, and other variants are not taken into account.
The entrance point to the diagram is at the bottom left. Each part through the diagram
leads to one of the possible modes of address, listed vertically at the right. Alternative
realizations of these address modes are not given (e.g. a first name may alternate with a
nickname). For example, as one enters the diagram, the first choice which has to be made is
whether the addressee is a child (-Adult) or an adult (+Adult). If the former, one follows the
line downwards, where the only distinction drawn is that between name known (+) or not (-). If
not, one does not use a name at all (ø). The diagram does not give criteria for deciding when a
child becomes an adult.
Along the adult path, several decisions have to be made. ‘Status-marked setting’ refers
to special occasions (such as a courtroom) where forms of address are rigidly prescribed (e.g.
your honour, Mr. Chairman). The ‘identity set’ refers to the list of occupational or courtesy
tittles that may be used alone to mark social identity (e.g. Father, Doctor, Mr., Miss).
In addressing people whose names are known, kinship is a major criterion. If the speaker
is related to the addressee (‘alter’), two factors are relevant ‘ascending generation’ (e.g. aunt
as opposed to cousin) and age. If the speaker is not related to the alter, the factor of familiarity
is relevant: whether or not alter is a friend or colleague. If familiarity applies, the next factor is
social rank, here defined with reference to a professional hierarchy. A senior alter has the option
of offering or accepting FN, instead of TLN (‘dispensation’- Call me Mike), though this
situation is often ambiguous. Age difference is not significant until there is a gap of nearly a
generation (15 years apart).
Addressing by Title alone is the least intimate form of address in that Titles usually
designate ranks or occupations, as in Colonel, Doctor, or Waiter. They are devoid of ‘personal’
content. Doctor Smith is more intimate than Doctor.
Knowing and using another’s First Name is a sign of considerable intimacy or at least of
a desire for such intimacy. Using a nick name or pet name shows an even greater intimacy.
When someone uses your first name alone in addressing you, you may feel on occasion that that
person is presuming an intimacy you do not recognize, or alternatively, is trying to assert power
over you.
The use of a person’s first name in North America does not necessarily indicate
friendship or respect. First Names are required among people who work closely together, even
though they may not like each other at all. First Names may even be used to refer to public
figures, but contemtuously as well as admiringly.
The asymmetric use of names and address terms is often a clear indicator of a power
differential. School classrooms are almost universally good examples; John and Sally are likely
to be children and Miss or Mr. Smith to be teachers.
In English, when we are in doubt as to how to address another we can actually avoid the
difficulty by not using any address term at all. Kinship terms are also used as terms of address.
As your age and your family relationships change, issues of naming and addressing may arise.
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4.1.6.2. Honorific tittles in American English [190]

Table 3.28. Honorific tittles in American English
President The President, The White house, Dear Sir or Madam
DC20500
Mr. President
The president and Mrs.
Dear Mr. President
Dear Madam President
King / Queen His / Her Majesty, King / Queen of Sir / madam
Country
May it please Your Majesty
Most current and former elected federal and state officials and judges in the U.S. are
styled "The Honorable [full name]" in writing, (e.g., "The Honorable Bill de Blasio, Mayor
of the City of New York"). Many are addressed in conversation as "Mister [title]" or "Madam
[title]" ("Mr. President," "Madam Mayor") or simply by (title)+(name) e.g., "Senator Jones"
or "Commissioner Smith".
In academic fields, it is customary in the U.S. to refer to those holding any level of
professorship (professor, assistant professor, associate professor, adjunct professor, etc.) as
"Professor" – as in "Professor Jones" – orally or in writing. In writing, "professor" is often
abbreviated as "Prof.", as in "Prof. Jones". Those holding academic doctorates are frequently
referred to as "Dr. Jones."
For more details on honorific terms of address in the USA, please refer to [190].
4.2. Vietnamese terms of address
4.2.1. Forms of address in the Vietnamese language
“Vietnamese forms of address are diverse, coming from different sources and used
flexibly from the domain of family communication to social communication, in both
formal and informal registers” [112, p.38].
Professor Nguyen Van Khang [111, p.366] states that there exist two notions in
Vienamese: Xưng (self-calling / self-referring / first-person referring) and Hô / gọi (second-
person addressing). Accordingly, forms / terms of adress in the Vietnamese language include từ
xưng (hereafter referred to as first-person referring term/form of address) and từ hô / gọi
(hereafter referred to as second-person referring term/form of address). Thus, Vietnamese
forms / terms of address will include three categories: a-first-person-referring term of address,
b-second-person-referring term of address and c-term of third-person reference.
Professor Nguyen Văn Khang has the following remarks [111, pp.366 – 367]:
a-Vietnamese terms of address are of various categories. Many types of words have been
used as terms of address, noteworthy of which are the Vietnamese kin(ship) terms. Kinship terms
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can be used as first-person-referring terms of address, second-person-referring terms of address

and terms of third-person reference.
b-The appropriate choice of Vietnamese terms of address is made in accordance with
such factors as power, solidarity, politeness.... The choice of terms of address reflects the
speaker’s attitudes and viewpoints. The appropriate choice of Vietnamese addressing forms
involves the careful consideration of a wide range of sociolinguistic factors, such as age, sex,
social status, relationship (blood, intimate or distant), attitudes (respectful or arrogant), the
speaker’s and addressee’s emotion as well as the formality of the communication context.
c-The choice of Vietnamese kinship terms as first-person-referring terms of address and
second-person-referring terms of address is very important in the Vietnamese language. The
choice of can be precise or imprecise. An example of precise choice of terms of address is bác-
cháu. The imprecise choice is bác-em. The imprecise choice of terms of address may indicate
speaker’s attitudes and choice of communication strategies.
Professor Nguyễn Văn Khang states that there are the following modes of address [111,
p.362]:
a-Surname and given names
i-Given name
ii-Surname
iii-Middle Name + Given name
iv-Surname + Given name
v-Surname+Middle name+Given name
b-All the possible terms of address
vi-Personal pronouns ii-Kin(ship) Terms
vii-Kinship terms
viii- Other types of words used as terms of address, such as reflexive pronouns (e.g.
mình), demonstrative pronouns (e.g. đằng này, đằng ấy…)
c-Tittles
ix-One of the tittles
x-Many or all of the tittles
d-Substitute terms of address
xi-Words used as substitute terms of address, e.g. bố thằng Nam ơi.
e-a combination of i, ii, iii, or iv
xii-Different types of combination (Tittle+LN), (Tittle+full name)..
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f-no terms of address

xiii-absence of terms of address
In addition, Vietnamese can use personal–emotive means of the direct address

a-Endearments, e.g. Em yêu, anh yêu
b-Abusives, e.g. thằng khốn, thằng lưu manh, thằng kẻ trộm.
Luong [115] is of the opinion that forms of person reference in the Vietnamese language
can be: a-common nouns (kinship and status terms), b-people’s names and c- personal pronouns.
Main Vietnamese terms of address are presented in the following two tables:
Table 3.29. First-person-referring terms of address in the Vietnamese language [111,
pp.367-368]:
First-person-referring Communicative context Note
terms of address
1 Tên -bằng vai+thân mật+trẻ -Con với bố mẹ;
tuổi cháu với ông bà;
Name em với anh chị
Same rank +familiar
+young Child addressing
parent, (great)
-vai dưới+gần gũi thân grand child
mật + nhỏ tuổi addressing grand
Lower rank + familiar + parent, younger
younger sibling or cousin to
older sibling or
-không muốn hạ vai cousin
Does not want to lower -ít gặp; đặc biệt
the rank trong trường hợp
chủ thể giao tiếp là
lãnh đạo nhưng ít
tuổi hơn khách thể
giao tiếp
Special, when the
addressor is the
boss but younger
than the addressee
in age.
231
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2 Từ Cụ, -Vai trên (gia đình; xã

ông, hội+gần gũi)
Xưng bà, bố,
mẹ, Higher rank (in family,
Hô
anh, society + familiar)
chị, em -chồng (với vợ)
Terms / Forms of Husband addressing wife
Address
-trịch thượng, tỏ ra bề trên
(Kinship
Pompous, appearing
terms + pronouns higher in power
(personal,
reflexive -Xuồng xã+thân mật
and Casual+intimate
demonstrative)
-vai dưới (gia đình; xã
hội) +gần gũi)
Lower rank (in family,
society+familiar)
-vợ (với chồng)
wife addressing husband
-tự hạ vai
Self lowering one’s rank
Chú, -Vai trên (gia đình; xã hội)
cô, bác +gần gũi
Higher rank (in family
and society) + familiar
Con -Vai dưới (gia đình; xã

hội) + gần gũi
Lower rank (in family
and society) + familiar
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Tôi -Bằng vai+trung tính

Same rank + neutral
-tạo khoảng cách hoặc tự
khẳng định vị thế của bản
thân (khách thể là người
lớn tuổi hoặc ít tuổi hơn)
Creating distance or self-
confirming one’s position
(the listener is older or
younger)
Tớ, -bằng vai + trung tính -tớ (thân
mình, mật+xuồng xã)
tao, Same rank + neutral
đằng intimate + casual
-bằng vai hoặc thể hiện
này, bằng vai -mình (thân mật
đây gần gũi)
Same rank or appearing
as same rank Reflexive pronoun
(intimate and
-bề trên/ bằng vai+thân familiar)
mật+ xuồng xã
-Đàng ấy, đằng này
Higher rank / same rank (demonstrative
+familiar + casual pronoun)
-bằng vai+thân
mật+xuồng xã
Same rank + familiar +
casual
3 -Chức danh Rất hạn chế trong một vài (1)A:Thủ trưởng
tình huống giao tiếp đặc nghỉ tay đã
Profesional Tittle thù lặp lại và đùa vui
B: Thủ trưởng
đang bận
(2) A: Đồng chí thư
kí chiều nay cùng đi
dùng cơm tối nhé
B: thư kí chả
dám
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Table 3.30. Second-person-referring terms of address in the Vietnamese language [111,

pp.368-371]
Second-person-referring terms of Communicative Note
address context
1 Tên -Tên -Bằng vai gọi nhau + Gọi ‘đệm+tên’ là
thân mật theo thói quen
Name FN hoặc nhằm phân
Same rank biệt trùng tên gọi
-Đệm+tên
addressing +
MN+FN familiarity
-Họ tên -Vai trên gọi vai dưới Addressing by
LN+MN+FN + thân mật Higher MN+FN
rank addressing habitually or to
lower rank + differentiate
familiar between different
people with same
-Vợ gọi chồng FN
Wife addressing
husband
-Giao tiếp chính thức
(điểm danh) + trung
tính
In official
communication (e.g.
doing the rollcall) +
neutral
2 Từ (a)Cụ, Ông, bà, -Vai dưới gọi vai trên -Dùng trong xã
bố, mẹ (gia đình+Xã hội) + hội + gần gũi
Xưng tôn kính (nhằm tạo ra gần
Hô gũi)
Lower rank
addressing higher Adsressing in
rank (in family and society + familiar
Terms / Forms society) + respect (creating familiar
of Address atmosphere as the
-bằng vai gọi nhau relatives)
+thân mật+xuồng xã
(Kinship terms (ông, bà) -Thí dụ: vợ gọi
& pronouns chồng bằng bố
Same rank + familiar
(personal, + casual e.g. wife
reflessive, addressing the
-gọi thay con, cháu husband as the
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demonstrative) (ông, bà, bố, mẹ) parent of the child.

Substitute term of
address for child,
grand child
(grandparent,
parent)
(b)bác, chú, cô, -Vai dưới gọi vai trên Bác dùng trong xã
cậu (gia đình +xã hội) hội vai trên + gần
+tôn kính gũi (nhằm tạo ra
gần gũi), chú dung
Lower rank trong xã hội vai
addressing higher trên, vai dưới +
rank (in family and gần gũi (nhằm tạo
society) + respect ra sự gần gũi)
-vai trên gọi vai dưới
bằng chú, cô, cậu
(a)thân mật hoặc gọi Bác used as a
thay con cháu; (b) gọi higher rank term
bằng cô, cậu+khoảng of address in
cách society creating
familiar relation.
Higher rank
addressing lower
rank as chú, cô, cậu:
a-familiar or as Chú used as a
substitute terms for higher rank and
con or cháu, b- lower rank term
addressing as cô or of address to
cậu + distance create familiar
relation.
-bằng vai gọi nhau
bằng bác + muốn tạo
lập quan hệ than mật
nhưng vẫn giữ khoảng
cách.
Same ranks
addressing each
other as bác +
wishing to create
familiar relation
thought still keeping
distance.
(c)anh / chị -vai dưới gọi vai trên Anh, chị dùng
(gia đình+xã hội) trong xã hội vai
trên + gần gũi
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Lower rank (nhằm tạo sự gần

addressing higher gũi)
rank (in family,
society) Anh, chị used as
a higher rank
-vai trên gọi vai dưới; term of address
(a)thân mật, hoặc cách in society
gọi thay (b) gọi bằng creating familiar
anh, chị+khoảng cách relation+ (in
some cases
Higher rank showing distance
addressing: a- and seriousness)
familiar, b-
addressing as anh /
chị + distance
-Vợ gọi chồng bằng
anh
Wife addressing
husband as anh
(d) em -vai trên gọi vai dưới
(gia đình, xã hội)
Higher rank
addressing lower
rank (in family and
society)
-Chồng gọi vợ
Husband addressing
wife
-gọi vai dưới trong xã
hội (gần gũi, tạo sự
gần gũi)
Addressing lower
rank in society
(familiar, creating a
sense of familiarity)
(e)mợ, gì, thím -vai dưới gọi vai trên
(gia đình)
Lower rank
addressing higher
rank (in the family)
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(thay con, cháu)

(thay con, cháu)
Higher rank
addressing lower
rank (using
substitute terms of
address for con,
cháu)
(g) mày, đằng -bằng vai hoặc vai Mày: personal
ấy, ấy, đấy trên gọi vai dưới+thân pronoun
mật, xuồng xã
Đằng ấy, ấy, đấy:
Same rank or higher demonstrative
rank addressing pronouns
lower rank +
familiar, casual
-bằng vai, thân mật, ý
nhị
same rank, familiar,
subtle
(h) mình -bạn bè, thân mật Mình is a
+lịch sự reflexive pronoun
friendly, familiar +
polite
-vợ, chồng
wife↔husband
3 Đồng chí (comrade) -giữa những người
đảng viên Đảng cộng
sản, giữa những thành
viên trong nước (hoặc
những người thuộc
nước XHCN)
Used among
communist party
members in Viet
nam or from other
socialist countries
-trong một số trường
hợp chuyển từ cách
237
(A Coursebook)
xưng gọi thân tộc sang

từ đồng chí để tỏ thái
độ
In the context of
changing from
addressing by means
of kinship terms to
đồng chí (comrade)
to indicate the
changing attitudes.
4 -Chức danh Tittle -Dùng trong trường e.g. xin Bộ trưởng
hợp trang trọng, nghi cho biết ý kiến
-Ông,bà, ngài Sir, Madam, quý vị lễ
e.g. Kính thưa
In formal ceremony ngài chủ tịch
& nước…
diplomatic reception
4.2.2. Addressing by personal name

The system of names in Vietnamese consists of family name (surname or last name) ,
middle name, given name (first name) and nickname.
E.g. Nguyễn Văn Bình
Nguyễn is the surname (Last Name), Văn is the middle name and Bình is the given name
(First name). Personal name is the primary form of address for Vietnamese. People’s names can
be used terms of first-person referent, terms of second-person referent and terms of third-person
referent.
The choice of personal names as second-person-referring terms of address and terms of
third-person reference embeds the speakers’ attitude. In Vietnamese, it is disrespectful to address
people by their first / given names alone, except when the addressee is junior to or is of the same
age as the addressor. People are addressed by their given name only when they are close friends
or junior in age or status. In the Vietnamese language, addressing a person of senior age with
his/her first name indicates a very negative attitude of the speaker. It may imply a negative
judgement of the person’s social sanction or social esteem, depending on the context.
In general, to show respect in addressing a person, the given name must be preceded by a
status or kinship term if the addresee is older or of higher status. It is impolite to address older or
high ranking people by their first names alone. To show respect and solidarity, people are often
addressed with their first names preceded by a kinship term or status term even in intimate
relationships. A wife often refers to or addresses her husband with the kinship term “anh”
(senior brother) plus his given name. In a more formal situation, people are often addressed by
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their meaningful middle names and their given names preceded by a kinship status term (e.g. co
Ngoc Lan- female master teacher Ngoc Lan). In a highly formal situation, people are addressed
by their full names preceded by a status term. Our famous president Hồ Chí Minh is addressed as
“Chủ tịch Hồ Chí Minh” (President Ho Chi Minh) with high respect.
Using the first names as first-person-referring terms of address is not common. However,
when it is used, it would imply a cautious attitude of the speaker to avoid offending the other
interactant for being unsure of his or her social status or when the interactants are of different
status. Another case when the first name is used as first-person-referring terms of address is
when the addressor knows his/her senior (or junior) status but wants to deny it when addressing a
junior (or senior) person. In a public-domain interaction, it represents an implication of
informality and solidarity.
The use of family name as terms of address was popular before the 20th century.
However, as discussed above, it would still be disrespectful to address people even by their
family names without a kinship or status term. President Ho Chi Minh is called Bác Hồ (Uncle
Hồ) by Vietnamese people with an implication of both respect (by using his family name Ho)
and intimacy (by using kinship term “Uncle”).
Nicknames are used as another reference to show informality and solidarity. When it is
used for young children, it even shows affection.
4.2.3. Vietnamese kinship terms used as terms of address:

4.2.3.1. Features of Vietnamese kinship terms used as terms of address:
According to professor Trần Ngọc Thêm [117, p.159], the kinship terms are used
extensively as terms of address in Vietnam. This system of address terms has the following
features:
a-It conveys a high sense of intimacy (used in oder to show repect or affection), regarding
people in the community as members of a family;
b-It conveys a high sense of community. The appropriate choice of a term of address
depends on such social factors as age, gender, social position, time and the concrete
communicative context;
c-It indicates very careful and rigid hierarchical structure of kinship organization.
The Vietnamese people addressing in accordance with the principle: Xưng khiêm, Hô
tôn (Referring to oneself with humbleness and addressing others with high respect).
In the Vietnamese language, only a-basic terms of kinship and b-compound terms of
kinship are used as terms of address. Vietnamese people use monosyllabic terms of kinship with
generic meaning as terms of address. They include ông (grand father) for all terms relating to ông (ông
nội , ông ngoại, ông trẻ); bà (grand mother) for all terms reating to bà ( bà nội, bà ngoại, bà trẻ); anh (older
brother) for all terms relating to anh (anh trai, anh họ, anh chồng, anh vợ, anh rể); chị (older sister) for all terms
relating to chị (chị gái, chị họ, chị chồng, chị vợ, chị dâu); em (younger brother and sister) for all terms relating to
em (em trai, em gái, em chồng, em vợ, em rể, em dâu, em họ); con (child) for all terms relating to con (con trai,
con gái, con đầu, con trưởng, con cả, con thứ, con út, con dâu, con rể, con nuôi, con đẻ, con riêng, con chồng/con
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của chồng, con vợ/con của vợ); cháu (grand child) for all terms relating to về cháu (cháu trai, cháu gái, cháu nội,
cháu ngoại, cháu họ, cháu rể, cháu dâu).
This manner of addressing is in accordance with the tendency of condensity, economy and possible
syllabic structure reduction in terms of address in Vietnamese communication. In addition, it indicates the
tendency of showing repect and affection, avoiding biase in differentiating between paternal side and maternal
side, son-adopted son, in-laws. The kinship terms in Vietnam vary according to regions.
4.2.3.2. The kinship terms as terms of address in family communication
According to professor Nguyen Van Khang (2014b, p.41), the following basic terms of kinship are used
as first-person-referring terms of address and second-person-referring terms of address: cụ, ông, bà, bố, mẹ, gì,
dượng, bác, chú, cô, cậu, thím, mợ, anh, chị, em, con, cháu in family communication. Kị and chắt
are not used as terms of address in the family. The two terms anh-em are used as terms of
address for vợ-chồng.
The compound terms of kinship are used terms of address in limited contexts. They
include: a- comprehensive compound terms of kinship, e.g. ông bà, cha mẹ, bố mẹ, chú cô, cô,
chú, chú bác, chú thím, cậu mợ, cô gì; vợ chồng, anh chị, anh em, chị em, con cháu (These
terms are used as terms of address when the addressor wants to imply something or to invite, e.g.
Mời ông bà, mời bố mẹ xơi cơm! Two terms cháu chắt and cụ kị are not used as terms of address
and b- subordinate compound terms of kinship such as cụ ông, cụ bà, ông nội , bà nội, ông
ngoại, bà ngoại, bác họ, chị gái, cháu trai, cháu gái, cháu nội,… are used as terms of address
in certain limited contexts, e.g. Con gái ăn cơm rồi học bài đi nhé!
The use of kinship terms as terms of address is governed by rigid hierarchy of
Vietnamese kinship system.
Table 3.31. Common terms of Vietnamese kinship used as terms of address in the
Vietnamese family
First-person- English Translation Note Second-person-
referring referring terms of
terms address address
cha father Many other terms are used, con
depending on the dialect: ba, bố,
tía, thầy
mẹ mother mẹ is the Northern form, má is con
used in the South. Many other
terms are used, depending on the
dialect: u, bầm, mạ
anh older brother em
chị older sister em
em younger sibling or anh or chị
cousin of the same
generation
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(A Coursebook)
con one's child cha, mẹ, bà, etc.

cháu grandchild; niece; ông, bà, bác, chú, etc.
nephew; cousin of
junior generations
ông grandfather Paternal and maternal cháu or con
grandfathers are differentiated as
ông nội ("internal grandfather")
and ông ngoại ("external
grandfather"), respectively
bà grandmother Paternal and maternal cháu or con
grandmothers are differentiated
as bà nội ("internal
grandmother") and bà ngoại
("external grandmother"),
respectively
cô father's sister In some dialects, literal meaning cháu
is restricted to father's younger
sister
chú father's younger brother In some dialects, literal meaning cháu
is restricted to father's younger
brother
thím chú's wife cháu
bác a parent's older sibling In some dialects, can also refer to cháu
father's elder brother or sister as
well as mother's elder brother or
sister
dì mother's sister, In some dialects, literal meaning cháu
stepmother is restricted to mother's younger
sister
cậu mother's brother In some dialects, literal meaning cháu
is restricted to mother's younger
brother
mợ cậu's wife In some dialects, used by the cháu
husband to refer to his wife,
children to refer to mother, or
parents-in-law to refer to a
daughter-in-law
dượng the husband of cô or dì, cháu
stepfather
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(A Coursebook)
cụ/cố great-grandparent cháu

sơ great-great-grandparent cháu
Table 3.32. Vietnamese kinship terms as terms of address in patrilineal relations
Relation to ego English term Vietnamese terms of address
Second-person- First-
referring terms person-
of address referring
terms of
address
1 Paternal great grand father Great grand father Cố (ông) Cháu

2 Paternal great grand mother Great grand mother Cố (bà) Cháu
3 paternal grandfather grandfather Ông (nội) Cháu
4 paternal grandmother grandmother Bà nội Cháu
5 father father Ba, cha, tía, bố con
6 mother mother Mẹ, má, u, bầm con
7 older brother brother Anh em
8 younger brother brother Em Anh /chị
9 older sister sister Chị em
10 younger sister sister Em Anh / chị
11 son son Con Bố, mẹ…
12 daughter daughter Con Bố, mẹ…
13 son’s son grandson cháu Ông / bà
14 Son’s son’s son Great grand son cháu Cố /Sơ
4.2.3.3. Kinship terms used as terms of address in social communication:

The following basic terms of kinship: ông, bà, bác, chú, cô, anh, chị, em, cháu are often
used as terms of address in social communication. The term cụ is often used in everyday
communication, rarely used in public services communication. However, the term is currently
used to address or refer to old, high-ranking officials, e.g. Thôi, cụ ơi! Cụ để con làm cho. The
terms con-bố / mẹ are used in social and public services communication, which implies a sense
of close relation like that of child-parent between the interllocutors. The term con is also used
as an imprecise term of address in social communication and in public services communication.
In school and university, the pattern of addressing is often em-thầy. Hower, the pattern of con-
thầy is also used. The term con is also used in public services communication. There is a
tendency to use the two terms chú, cô in place of cậu, mợ, thím, dượng in social communication,
which reflects the tendency of paternal-side biase in addressing. The terms cụ, ông, bà, bố, mẹ,
cậu can be used when the speaker wants to lower himself / herself in rank, acting as a person of
the same rank, implying a sense of familiarity, e.g. Tối nay ông có đi chơi với bọn tôi không? The
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(A Coursebook)
following compound terms of kinship: ông bà, cô chú, chú bác, anh chị, anh em, chị em are used as
terms of second-person referent only. The use of kinship terms as terms of address is closely governed by
such factot as gender, age and then social position.
4.2.3.4. Kinship terms used as term of address in public services communication:
In public services communication, professional tittles (e.g. giám đốc, chủ tịch, viện trưởng….) and
terms such as đồng chí, and recently ông, ngài, quý vị are are used as honorific terms of second-person address.
The pattern is Tittle alone or Tittle + LN or Tittle + full Name. In addition, kinship terms are largely used as
terms of address in public communication with the choice of kinship terms as terms of address in accordance with
the characteristics of public services communication. The most common kinship terms used as terms of address
are em – anh / chị, tôi – anh / chị, cháu – chú / cô. The less common are con – bố / mẹ, con – cô / chú, cháu –
bác, con- dì. The Vietnamese people have the habit of using the term bác + professional /honoric tittle to
address high-ranking officials, e.g. bác Tổng bí thư, bác Chủ tich nước. In diplomatic reception, the terms
ngài, quý vị have been much used in addition to the term đồng chí.
Terms of address in public services communication can vary according to domains. In schools and
universities, the pattern is em / con – thầy / cô. In hospitals the common patern can be tôi / em / cháu – bác sĩ.
In media communication, especially on television the pattern is tôi / chúng tôi – các đồng chí / các bạn / các bác
/ các cô / quý vị khán thính giả. VTV1 addresses the audience as “kính chào quý vị, xin chào các bạn.”
4.2.3.5. Precise and imprecise addressing
According to professor Nguyen Van Chien [as cited in [111, p.367] there exist two modes
of addressing with kinship term in the Vienamese language: precise addressing (e.g. Cháu-cô)
and imprecise addressing (e.g. con-cô).
Table 3.33. Kinship terms as precise and imprecise terms of address in the Vietnamese
language (precise addressing: (+); imprecise addressing: +)
Terms of Con Chá em chị an cô Cậu chú bác ông bà cụ
second- u h
person
referent
Terms of
first-person
referent
Con + + + + + + +
Cháu (+) (+) (+) (+) (+) (+) (+)
Em (+) (+) + + + + + + +
Chị (+) + + +
Anh (+) + + +
Cô + (+) + + + +
Cậu + (+) +
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(A Coursebook)
Chú + (+) +
Bác + (+) +
Ông + (+) +
Bà + (+) +
Cụ + (+)
Tôi +
4.2.4. Pronouns as terms of address

We also observe the Vietnamese personal pronouns (first person and second person) are
used as terms of address in the Vietnamese society. The Vietnamese system of personal
pronouns is very complicated.
Table 3.34. Personal pronouns in the Vietnamese language
Persons Number
First Person Second Person Third Person
(addressor) (addressee) (third person
(English "I/we") (English "you") referent) (English
"he, she, it/they")
tôi / nó, hắn, y Singular
tao mày, mi
ta mi
tớ cậu, bạn, trò
mình bạn
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/ mình
chúng tôi các bạn chúng nó, chúng, Plural
họ,
chúng tao chúng mày, bây,
chúng bây, tụi mày,

ta/ chúng ta
tụi bây
chúng tớ các cậu
mình, chúng các bạn
minh, tụi mình
e.g.1. Tôi nghe nói bạn sắp đi du học à? (Tôi, bạn: personal pronoun)
e.g.2. Nam ơi, cho mình hỏi cái này một tí. (mình: reflexive pronoun)
e.g. 3. Đằng ấy có rảnh không? (đằng ấy: demonstrative pronoun)
4.3. T – V forms of address [195]

Many languages have a distinction corresponding to the tu-vous (T/V) distinction in
French, where grammatically there is a ‘singular you’ tu (T) and a ‘plural you’ vous (V) but the
usage requires that you use vous with individuals on certain occasions. The T form is sometimes
described as the ‘familiar’ form and the V form as the ‘polite’ one.
Other languages with a similar T/V distinction are Latin (tu/vos), Russian (ty/vy), Italian
(tu/Lei), German (du/Sie), Swedish (du/ni), and Greek (esi/esis). English, itself, once had such
a distinction, the thou / you distinction.
Table 3.35. T-V forms of address
T (familiar) V (Polite)
Italian Tu Lei
Spanish Tu Usted
German Du Sie
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Swedish Du Ni
French Tu Vous
In sociolinguistics, a T–V distinction (from the Latin pronouns tu and vos) is a contrast,
within one language, between various forms of addressing one's conversation partner or partners
that are specialized for varying levels of politeness, social distance, courtesy, familiarity, age or
insult toward the addressee. Languages such as modern English that, outside of certain dialects,
have no morphosyntactic T–V distinction may have semantic analogues to convey the mentioned
attitudes towards the addressee, such as whether to address someone by given or surname, or
whether to use "sir" or "ma'am". Under a broader classification, T and V forms are examples of
honorifics.
4.3.1. History and usage
The terms T and V, based on the Latin pronouns tu and vos, were first used in a paper by
the social psychologist Roger Brown and the Shakespearian scholar Albert Gilman. This was a
historical and contemporary survey of the uses of pronouns of address, seen as semantic markers
of social relationships between individuals. The study considered mainly French, Italian, Spanish
and German. The paper was highly influential and with few exceptions, the terms T and V have
been used in subsequent studies.
4.3.2. Origin
In Latin, tu was originally the singular, and vos the plural, with no distinction for
honorific or familiar. According to Brown and Gilman, usage of the plural to the Roman emperor
began in the fourth century AD. They mention the possibility that this was because there were
two emperors at that time (in Constantinople and Rome), but also mention that "plurality is a
very old and ubiquitous metaphor for power". This usage was extended to other powerful
figures, such as Pope Gregory I (590–604). However, Brown and Gilman note that it was only
between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries that the norms for the use of T- and V-forms
crystallized. Less commonly, the use of the plural may be extended to other persons, such as the
"royal we" (majestic plural) in English.
Brown and Gilman argued that the choice of form is governed by either relationships of
'power' and/or 'solidarity', depending on the culture of the speakers, showing that 'power' had
been the dominant predictor of form in Europe until the twentieth century. Thus, it was quite
normal for a powerful person to use a T-form but expect a V-form in return. However, in the
twentieth century the dynamic shifted in favour of solidarity, so that people would use T-forms
with those they knew, and V-forms in service encounters, with reciprocal usage being the norm
in both cases.
4.3.3. Early history: the power semantic
In the Early Middle Ages (the 5th century to the 10th century), the pronoun vos was used
to address the most exalted figures, emperors and popes, who would use the pronoun tu to
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address a subject. This use was progressively extended to other states and societies, and down
the social hierarchy as a mark of respect to individuals of higher rank, religious authority, greater
wealth, or seniority within a family. The development was slow and erratic, but a consistent
pattern of use is estimated to have been reached in different European societies by the period
1100 to 1500. Use of V spread to upper-class individuals of equal rank, but not to lower class
individuals. This may be represented in Brown and Gilman's notation:
Table 3.36. Early history: the power semantic [195]
Unequal power Equal power

Emperor Father High-class friend Low-class friend
T↓ ↑V T↓ ↑V ↓↑V T↓↑
Subject Son High-class friend Low-class friend
4.3.4. Modification: the solidarity semantic
Speakers developed greater flexibility of pronoun use by redefining relationships between

individuals. Instead of defining the father-son relationship as one of power, it could be seen as a
shared family relationship. Brown and Gilman term this the semantics of solidarity. Thus a
speaker might have a choice of pronoun, depending on how they perceived the relationship with
the person addressed. Thus a speaker with superior power might choose V to express fellow
feeling with a subordinate. For example, a restaurant customer might use V to his favourite
waiter. Similarly a subordinate with a friendly relationship of long standing might use T. For
example, a child might use T to express affection for his or her parent.
This may be represented as:
Table 3.37. T-V usage: Modification: the solidarity semantic [195]
Superior has choice Subordinate has choice

Customer Officer Employer Parent Master Elder sibling
T↓V ↑V T↓V ↑V T↓V ↑V T↓ T↑V T↓ T↑V T↓ T↑V
Waiter Soldier Employee Child Faithful servant Younger sibling
These choices were available not only to reflect permanent relationships, but to express
momentary changes of attitude. This allowed playwrights such as Racine, Molière, Ben Johnson,
Marlowe and Shakespeare to express a character's inner changes of mood through outward
changes of pronoun.
For centuries, it was the more powerful individual who chose to address a subordinate
either with T or with V, or to allow the subordinate to choose. For this reason, the pronouns were
traditionally defined as the pronoun of either condescension or intimacy (T) and the pronoun of
reverence or formality (V). Brown and Gilman argue that modern usage no longer supports these
definitions.
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4.3.5. Modern history
Developments from the nineteenth century have seen the solidarity semantic more
consistently applied. It has become less acceptable for a more powerful individual to exercise the
choice of pronoun. Officers in most armies are not permitted to address a soldier as T. Most
European parents cannot oblige their children to use V. The relationships illustrated above have
changed in the direction of the following norms:
Table 3.38. T-V usage: Modern history [195]
Superior choice removed Subordinate choice removed

Customer Officer Employer Parent Master Elder sibling
↑↓V ↑↓V ↑↓V T↑↓ T↑↓ T↑↓
Waiter Soldier Employee Child Faithful servant Younger sibling
The tendency to promote the solidarity semantic may lead to the abolition of any choice
of address pronoun. During the French Revolution attempts were made to abolish V. In
seventeenth century England the Society of Friends obliged its members to use only T to
everyone, and some continue to use T (thee) to one another. In most Modern English dialects the
choice of T no longer exists outside of poetry.
4.3.6. History of T / V use in English
The Old English and Early Middle English second person pronouns thou and ye (with
variants) were used for singular and plural reference respectively with no T–V distinction. The
earliest entry in the Oxford English Dictionary for ye as a V pronoun in place of the singular thou
exists in a Middle English text of 1225 composed in 1200.[11] The usage may have started among
the French nobility in imitation of French. It made noticeable advances during the second half of
the thirteenth century. During the sixteenth century, the distinction between the subject form ye
and the object form you was largely lost, leaving you as the usual V pronoun (and plural
pronoun). After 1600, the use of ye in standard English was confined to literary and religious
contexts or as a consciously archaic usage .
David Crystal summarises Early Modern English usage thus:
V would normally be used
a-by people of lower social status to those above them
b-by the upper classes when talking to each other, even if they were closely related
c-as a sign of a change (contrasting with thou) in the emotional temperature of an

interaction.
T would normally be used
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a-by people of higher social status to those below them
b-by the lower classes when talking to each other
c-in addressing God
d-in talking to ghosts, witches, and other supernatural beings
e-in an imaginary address to someone who was absent
f-as a sign of a change (contrasting with you) in the emotional temperature of an

interaction
The T–V distinction was still well preserved when Shakespeare began writing at the end
of the sixteenth century. However, other playwrights of the time made less use of T–V contrasts
than Shakespeare. The infrequent use of T in popular writing earlier in the century such as the
Paston Letters suggest that the distinction was already disappearing from popular speech. In the
first half of the seventeenth century, thou disappeared from Standard English, although the T–V
distinction was preserved in many regional dialects. When the Quakers began using thou again in
the middle of the century, many people were still aware of the old T–V distinction and
responded with derision and physical violence.
In the nineteenth century, one aspect of the T–V distinction was restored to some English
dialects in the form of a pronoun that expressed friendly solidarity, written as y'all. Unlike earlier
thou, it was used primarily for plural address, and in some dialects for singular address as well.
The pronoun was first observed in the southern states of the US among African-American
speakers, although its precise origin is obscure. The pronoun spread rapidly to white speakers in
those southern states, and (to a lesser extent) other regions of the US and beyond. This pronoun
is not universally accepted, and may be regarded as either nonstandard or a regionalism.
Yous(e) (pron. /juːz/, /jəz/) as a plural is found mainly in (Northern) England, Scotland,
Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, northern Nova Scotia and parts of Ontario in
Canada and parts of the northeastern United States (especially areas like Boston where there was
historically Irish immigration). It also occurs in Scouse (the regional dialect of the Liverpool
area). Yous(e) as a singular is found in Philadelphia, New York, Boston and scattered throughout
working class Italian-American communities in the American Rust Belt.
4.4. Advanced reading: Style (manner of address)

For style (manner) of address, please refer to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Style_(manner_of_address).
1-Terms of address are the words used to address (call by name or title) in speech or
writing.
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2-According to Crystal (1994a), in English the basic choice ofterms of address is between
first name (FN) or tittle + last name (TLN).
3-In English-speaking countries, the modern tendency in addressing is to come to tittle

+last name (TLN) as soon as possible, especially if status and age are the same.
4-Kinship terms are not used in the Vietnamese language as terms of address.
5-Vietnamese people follow the principle of “Xưng khiêm, Hô tôn” (Refer to yourself
with humbleness, address the other with high respect) in addressing.
CHAPTER III REVIEW

1-How do you understand the term social context?
2-What are the features of social contexts?
3-How do the features of context of situation influence language choice in
communication?
4-What are the different types of social roles? What is the relationship between a social
role and language?
5-What is power relation? Solodarity relation?
6-How do power and solidarity relations govern the use of language in communication?
7-What is cultural context?
8-What role does the cultural context play in communication.
9- Each social factor in the context of communication in each country is influenced
by the cultural context in that country. Think of examples to illustrate this view.
10-What are the national dimensions of Vietnamese culture? How do they affect
Vietnamese communication style?
11-What is a kinship term?
12-What are Kroeber (1929)’s principles for his study of kinship terms?
13-What is a personal name? A surname? A given name?
14-How is the order of Vietnamese personal names different from that of English names?
15-What is a term of address? What factors govern the choice of the terms of address?
16-What is the basic choice of terms of address in English? When do English-speaking
people use TFN and FN in addressing?
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17-What are the socially-orienting forms of address in English?

18-In what contexts are kinship terms used as terms of address in Vietnam?
19-What is the social rule of using terms of address in Vienam?
20-What are the T and V forms of addressing in the Vietnamese language.
II- Decide whether the following are true or false:
1-Appropriate choice of language depends on the socio-cultural context.
2-The term context can refer to linguistic context or non-linguistic context / social
context.
3-The social context is the linguistic units which occur before or after a word, a phrase or
even longer utterance or a text.
4-Saville-Troike states that language choice depends on such social factors as domain,
setting, topic and function.
5-Holmes (1913) is of the opinion that linguistic choice generally indicates people’s
awareness of the influence of one or more of the following components: a-the participant, b-
the setting, c-the topic and d- the discourse organization.
6-Factors determining domain may include the general subject under discussion, the role-
relationships between the participants, and the setting of the interaction.
7-Topic is often a primary determinant of language choice in multilingual contexts.
8-Function refers to the purpose for which an utterance or a unit of language is used.
9-Functions can be seen in the use of speech acts.
10-Functions do not decide the functional styles or the generic structures of discourse.
11- Setting refers to location, time, circumstances and situations. It is a fundamental
aspect of the structure of situations in general, and of contexts in particular.
12-Joos (1962) gives a classification of ten major setting varieties in his own cultural
system on the basis the degrees of formality.
13-Participants’ attributes and participant relationships do not influence language choice
in communication.
14-The language used to show solidarity indicates ,”I am not one of you.”
15-The language used to show power indicates, ”I am one of you.”
16-Culture provides the overall framework in which human beings learn to organize their
thought, emotions, and behavior in relation to their environment.
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17-Culture provides the context within which words and, more generally, grammatical
systems are interpreted.
18-The context of culture is instantiated in or through more specific contexts of situation.
19-Culture is described as an inherent part of situation.
20-The characteristics of low-context cultures are overt and explicit communication.
21-The characteristics of high-context cultures are line logic, verbal message, explicit and
precise instructions, signs, rules and clear intentions.
22- In collectivism, harmony should be always maintained.
23- In individualistic cultures, high-context communication prevails.
24-In collectivistic cultures, low-context communication prevails.
25- Confusian ideas influence communication in many countries in Asia. They give
guide to harmony and indirectness in communication.
26-The cultural contexts enter through the psychological and social contexts.
27-The more social side of culture enters into communication through social identities of
the communicator.
28-Linguistic communication is always carried on in a context which is, in a large part,
culturally constituted.
29-Each social factor in the context of communication in each country is never

influenced by the cultural context in that country.
30-A personal name usually has the function of personal identity.
31-The order of personal names in English and Vietnamese are the same:
Surname+(Middle name)+Given name.
32-A Given name, in Western Context often referred to as First Name, is a personal name
that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a
family, all of whose members usually have the same family name (Surname).
33-Kin(ship) is the term used to denote human relations based on biological decent and
marriage.
34-Consanguinity ("blood relation", from the Latin consanguinitas) is the property of

being from the same kinship as another person.
35-Matrilineality, also known as the male line, is a common kinship system in which an
individual's family membership derives from and is traced through his or her father's lineage
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36-KinDEEP is a detailed framework for defining kinship terms from different language.
37-The system of English-language kinship terms falls into the Eskimo type.
38-Vietnamese has a very complex system of kinship terminology with a lot of variations
among different regions. Vietnamese kinship is of the Sudanese type, highly descriptive.
39-The notion of rank is very important in kinship hierarchy in Vietnamese. Rank is

based on kinship hierarchy. It denotes differences in age and generation.
40-Age in the Vietnamese kinship system is distinguished by combining with one of the
following words: ông /bà (e.g. ông nội / bà nội), trai / gái (e.g. con trai / con gái), dâu / rể (e.g.
con dâu / con rể).
41-Terms of address are the words used to address (call by name or title) in speech or
writing.
42-A variety of social factors usually governs our choice of terms: the particular
occasion; the social status or rank of the other; gender; age; family relationship; occupational
hierarchy; transactional status (i.e., a service encounter, or a doctor–patient relationship, or one
of priest–penitent); race; or degree of intimacy.
43-According to Crystal (1994, p.44), in English the basic choice is between first name
(FN) or tittle with last name (TLN).
44-Most current and former elected federal and state officials and judges in the U.S. are
styled "The Honorable [full name]" in writing.
45-Sir or Madam used alone are meant to show respect for position and seniority.
46-The asymmetric use of names and address terms is often a clear indicator of a power
differential.
47-Knowing and using another’s first name is a sign of considerable intimacy or at least
of a desire for such intimacy.
48-Professor Nguyen Van Khang states that there exist two notions in Vienamese: Xưng
(self-calling / self-referring / first-person referring) and Hô / gọi (second-person addressing).
49-In general, to show respect in addressing a person in Vietnamese, the given name
must be preceded by a status or kinship term if the addresee is older or of higher status
50-Many languages have a distinction corresponding to the tu-vous (T/V) distinction in

French.
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CHAPTER IV. LANGUAGE AND

COMMUNICATION.
Chapter IV Contents
1. Ethnography of Communication
2. Talk and Silence
3. Linguistic Routines and Rituals
4. Politeness Theories
1. ETHNOGRAPHY OF COMMUNICATION
Pre-lecture-activity 4.1. Discuss

1-How is greeting as a speech act realized in English and Vietnamese?
2-It is said that in communication, an English-speaking person usually gets to the point
whereas a Vietnamese person usually beats about the bush. How do you understand that?
1.1. Ethnography of communication

According to [159], the ethnography of communication, formerly called the
ethnography of speaking, is the analysis of communication within the wider context of the
social and cultural practices and beliefs of the members of a particular culture or speech
community. It is a method of discourse analysis in linguistics that draws on the anthropological
field of ethnography. Unlike ethnography proper, though, the ethnography of communication
takes into account both the communicative form and its function within the given culture.
The nature and function of communicative behavior in the context of culture are the
research subject of ethnography of communication. Hymes is best known for his founding role
in the ethnography of communication. Hymes coined the term “ethnography of speaking" in his
1962 paper to refer to the study of the nature and function of communicative behavior in the
context of culture, and later changed it to ethnography of communication in his 1964 paper,
Introduction: Toward Ethnographies of Communication, to describe a new approach to
understanding language in use [51;52]
The general aims of this qualitative research method include being able to discern which
communication acts and/or codes are important to different groups, what types of meanings
groups apply to different communication events, and how group members learn these codes, in
order to provide insight into particular communities. This additional insight may be used to
enhance communication with group members, make sense of group members’ decisions, and
distinguish groups from one another, among other things.
Dell Hymes proposed the ethnography of communication as an approach towards
analyzing patterns of language use within speech communities, in order to provide support
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for his idea of communicative competence, which itself was a reaction to Noam Chomsky's
distinction between linguistic competence and linguistic performance.
The term ethnography of communication is meant to be descriptive of the
characteristics that an approach towards language from an anthropological standpoint must take.
Namely, according to Dell Hymes, it must a-"investigate directly the use of language in contexts
of situations so as to discern patterns proper to speech activity" and b-"take as context a
community, investigating its communicative habits as a whole." In other words, rather than
divorcing linguistic form from its function, the analysis of a culture's or community's
communication, linguistic and otherwise, must occur with respect to the socio-cultural context of
its use and the functions of the meanings conveyed.
Ethnography of communication can be used as a means by which to study the
interactions among members of a specific culture or "speech community." Philipsen [2001, as
cited in [159] explains that "Each community has its own cultural values about speaking and
these are linked to judgments of situational appropriateness." The meaning and understanding of
the presence or absence of speech within different communities will vary. Local cultural patterns
and norms must be understood for analysis and interpretation of the appropriateness of speech
act situated within specific communities. Thus, "the statement that talk is not anywhere valued
equally in all social contexts suggests a research strategy for discovering and describing
cultural or subcultural differences in the value of speaking. Speaking is one among other
symbolic resources which are allocated and distributed in social situations according to
distinctive culture patterns"[Philipsen, 2001, as cited in [159].
For our purpose, the term ethnography of speaking/communication is used to refer to
the study of the nature and function of communicative behavior in the context of culture
1.2. Communication
The term communication is difficult to define because it has been used in a variety of
ways for different purposes [81]. Among early communication scholars, communication was
defined as a process of conveying information from one person to another. This process was
differently conceived as one–way, two-way, or circular process of exchange of information or
interactions between a sender, receiver, medium, and message. The objective of the
communication process was information transfer. Such communication was fairly easy because
the information transferred could be simplified by resorting to gestures.
Communication (from Latin commūnicāre, meaning to share) is the act of conveying

intended meanings from one entity or group to another through the use of mutually understood signs
and semiotic rules [148].
“Communication can be defined as the exchange of ideas, information or feelings

between two or more persons” [82, p.48].
The process of communication has been described by Jakobson [1960, as cited in [64,
pp.15-16] as follows:
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R. Jacobson’s Scheme of Communication Process

Context
Addressor <--MessageAddressee
Contact
Code
“ The addressor sends a message to the Addressee. To be operative the message requires
a Context referred to, seizable by the addressee, and either verbal or capable of being
verbalized; a Code fully, or at least partially, common to the addresser and addressee;
and finally, a Contact, a physical channel and psychological connection between the
addresser and addressee, enabling both of them to enter and stay in communication.”
According to Reisinger [81, p.166], since the 1960s, communication theories have
defined “communication as the interpretation of meaning through symbols and signs or as
meaning-making process heavily influenced by culture”. Lustig and Koester [1993, as cited in
[81, p.166] summarized these (post)modern definitions into a contemporary definition of
communication as “symbolic, interpretive, transactional, contextual process in which people
create shared meanings.”
Let us think what each parts of this definition means:

a-Symbols–which can be words, action or objects-represents the messages or information
that people are trying to communicate.
b-Communication is ‘interpretative” because symbols may be interpreted differently at
different times by different parties.
c-The term ‘transactional’ signals that communicators engage in information
transaction; they send and received messages from each other and create meanings during their
conversation;
d-Communication is contextual because it takes place within physical, social, historical,
and cultural contexts. These contexts influence the purpose of communication, and the nature of
the relationships between the communication participants, and their behaviours;
e-Communication is a process because meanings (perceptions or feelings that messages
create) constantly change;
f-“Shared meanings” suggests that it is possible to achieve consensus or understanding
of each other’s meanings.
According to [148], the basic steps of communication are:
a-The forming of communicative intent.

b-Message composition.
c-Message encoding and decoding.
d-Transmission of the encoded message as a sequence of signals using a specific channel
or medium.
e-Reception of signals.
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f-Reconstruction of the original message

g-Interpretation and making sense of the reconstructed message.
An effective communication process:

a-uses standard terminology when communicating information.
b-requests and provides clarification when needed
c-ensures statements are direct and unambiguous.
d-informs the appropriate individuals when the mission or plans change.
e-communicates all information needed by those individuals or teams external to the
team.
f-uses nonverbal communication appropriately.
g-uses proper order when communicating information.
1.3. Verbal and nonverbal communication

1.3.1.Verbal communication
Verbal communication refers to the use of sounds and language to convey a message. It
serves as a vehicle for expressing desires, ideas and concepts and is vital to the processes of
learning and teaching. In combination with nonverbal forms of communication, verbal
communication acts as the primary tool for expression between two or more people. In verbal
communication, there are different genres with their generic structures and linguistic units in
spoken and written language.
1.3.2. Non-verbal communication
Non-verbal communication is usually understood as the process of communication

through sending and receiving wordless (mostly visual) cues between people. Messages can be
communicated through gestures and touch, by body language or posture, by facial expression
and eye contact. Speech contains nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, including voice
quality, rate, pitch, volume, and speaking style, as well prosodic features such as rhythm,
intonation, and stress. Likewise, written texts have nonverbal elements such as handwriting style,
spatial arrangement of words, or the physical layout of a page. However, much of the study of
nonverbal communication has focused on face-to-face interaction.
Non-verbal communication is comprised of different aspects. They can be [148]:

a-Paralinguistics
Paralinguistics are the voice involved in communication other than actual language and
involves tones, pitch, vocal cues etc. It also includes sounds from throat and all these are greatly
influenced by cultural differences across borders.
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b-Proxemics
Proxemics deals with the concept of space element in communication. Proxemics
explains four zones of spaces; namely, intimate, personal, social and public. This concept differs
with different culture as the permissible space vary in different countries.
d-Artifactics
Artifactics studies about the non-verbal signals or communication which emerges from
personal accessories such as dresses or fashion accessories worn and it varies with culture as
people of different countries follow different dressing codes.
e-Chronemics
Chronemics deal with the time aspects of communication and also include importance
given to the time. Some issues explaining this concept are pauses, silences and response lag
during an interaction. This aspect of communication is also influenced by cultural differences as
it is well known that there is a great difference in the value given by different cultures to time.
f-Kinesics
Kinesics mainly deals with the body languages such as postures, gestures, head nods, leg
movements etc. In different counties same gestures and postures are used to convey different
messages. Sometimes even a particular kinesic indicating something good in a country may have
a negative meaning in any other culture.
Valdes [104, p.66] states that for simplicity, the nonverbal aspects of communication may
be divided into three classes:
a-body language, comprising movement, gesture, posture, facial expression, gaze, touch, and
distancing;
b-object language, including the use of signs, designs, realia, artifacts, clothing…
c-environment language, made up of those aspects of color, lighting, architecture, space,

direction, and the natural surroundings which speak to man about his nature.
In communication, we should pay attention to the cultural aspects of verbal and

nonverbal patterns of communication in the cultural context of a community.
1.4. Patterns of communication [86, p.10-12]

It has long been recognized that much of linguistic behavior is rule-governed: i.e. it
follows regular patterns and constraints which can be formulated descriptively as rules. Thus,
sounds must be produced in language-specific but regular sequences if they are to be interpreted
as a speaker intends; the possible order and form of words in a sentence is constrained by the
rules of grammar; and even the definition of a well-formed discourse is determined by culture-
specific rules of rhetoric. Hymes identifies concern for pattern as a key motivating factor in his
establishment of this discipline: “My own purpose with the ethnography of speaking was . . . to
show that there was patterned regularity where it had been taken to be absent, in the activity of
speaking itself ” [Hymes, 2000, as cited by [86, p.10-12].
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Patterning occurs at all levels of communication: societal, group, and individual. At the
societal level, communication usually patterns in terms of its functions, categories of talk, and
attitudes and conceptions about language and speakers. Communication also patterns according
to particular roles and groups within a society, such as gender, age, social status, and occupation:
e.g., a teacher has different ways of speaking from a lawyer, a doctor, or an insurance salesman.
Ways of speaking also pattern according to educational level, rural or urban residence,
geographic region, and other features of social organization. Finally, communication patterns at
the individual level, at the level of expression and interpretation of personality.
Although we have listed societal, group, and individual levels of patterning separately,
there is an invisible web of interrelationships among them, and indeed among all patterns of
culture.
The concern for pattern has always been basic in anthropology, with interpretations of
underlying meaning dependent on the discovery and description of normative structure or design.
More recent emphasis on processes of interactions in generating behavioral patterns extends this
concern to explanation as well as description.
1.5. The Structure of speaking [77]

A fundamental assumption of the ethnography of speaking is that speaking, like
language(s), can be described in terms of rule and system. Wherever people speak, they organize
their speech in ways over and above those governed by rules of grammar or by physical laws. In
any communicative situation, even though it might be grammatically acceptable and physically
possible to make any of two or more linguistic choices, such choices are not randomly produced.
Choices as to which language to use in a particular situation (for bi- or multi-lingual speakers),
how to address an interlocutor, whether to delete or add sounds to words, whether to speak or
remain silent, are not in free variation but are patterned, according to rules which are part of the
social knowledge of a particular community. It follows that much of the meaning to
interlocutors, of their speech activity, is derived from knowledge of local patterns and
expectations.
Speech is patterned. For example, in a conversation we have the beginning, body and
end. The conversation in many cases begins by greetings and ends with such routines as good-
bye. The structure of the lesson, interview, conversation can be: Discourse-Transaction-
Exchange-Move-Act. In conversation we use different types of speech acts and the speech acts
would form adjacency pairs. People should know the rules of turns. And we also make use of
non-verbal language. All of the above rules and patterns depend on the socio-cultural contexts.
Ethnographers of speaking have shown that a wide range of speaking phenomena is

systematically organized in ways which are meaningful to speakers and hearers. This includes
community-specific practices with regard to verbal forms, prosodic features, and extralinguistic
signs. Attention to the social organization of speaking has also been extended to the structure of
speech acts, activities, events, situations, and roles, as well as to the organization of greetings,
leave-takings, narratives, genres, and conversations, all of which potentially can be found to have
a high degree of patterning in particular contexts. The principle that speaking is structured has
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been extended to the patterning of a community's entire range of speech situations and speech
events.
1.6. Speaking as culturally distinctive [77]

Studies reveal that speaking, like other systems of behavior, is not only organized within
a society but also organized in each society in culture-specific ways which must be discovered in
each case. Samovar, Porter, Mcdaniel and Roy [84, p.310] maintains that communication rules
are culturally diverse. Although cultures have many similar social contexts (business meetings,
classrooms, hospitals, and the like), their members frequently adhere to different sets of rules
when interacting within those environments. Consequently, concepts of dress, time, language,
manners, and nonverbal behavior differ significantly among cultures. Few examples will help to
illustrate our point about these different behaviors.
Societies differ as to what communicative resources are available to their members, in
terms of languages, dialects, registers, routines, genre, artistic formulas, etc. They also differ in
how these resources are patterned in use, in the functions served in (and serviceable by) speech
and other communicative means, and in the evaluation of speaking as an instrument of social
action. That speaking is culturally distinctive can be seen in the fact that the Americans usually
go straight the point whereas Vietnamese people usually beat about the bush. After greeting, an
English person usually talks about weather whereas a Vietnamese person usually talks about
family (children, parents…). Another example is how initial business meetings in places like the
US get straight to the point. In contrast, in Japan, when business partners first meet, much time is
spent socializing initially before plunging into the substance of a business deal. When doing
business in America, for instance, it is not uncommon for men and women to welcome each
other to a meeting by shaking hands. In the Middle East, however, some Muslim businessmen
may choose to avoid shaking hands with a woman. This should not be perceived as rude or
insulting, but may reflect the man’s religious proscriptions. In a college classroom setting you
may notice that an Asian student seems shy and reserved and reluctant to engage in conversation.
This may be due to his or her cultural rules about the hierarchy that governs interaction between
students and professors. Slight contextual differences may be found when you compare business
dining in Turkey and the United States. In Turkey, for example, your Turkish colleagues will be
adamant about paying for everything associated with entertaining you. Turkish hospitality is
legendary, and they will not even permit you to pay for any part of the meal.
According to Crystal [20, p.48], telephone conversations can differ in different countries.
In British English, for example, the normal sequence for a call to private residence is as follows:
Telephone ringsAnswerer gives numberCaller asks for intended addressee
By contrast, in French, the following practice seems to be more usual:
Telephone ringsAnswerer:”Allo.”Caller verifies numberAnswerer:”Oui.”
Caller identifies self, apologizes, and asks for intended addressee.
Cultural differences in communicationstyles can be seen insection 1.7.
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1.7. Verbal communication styles in different cultures

Communication styles are behaviours that consistently occur in the way one verbally,
non-verbally, and paraverbally interacts to signal how literal meaning should be taken,
interpreted, filtered, or understood. This section examines the low-context and high-context
communication framework and its associated verbal interaction dimensions; direct and indirect
verbal styles, person-oriented and status-oriented styles, self-enhancement and self-effacement
verbal styles.
1.7.1. High-context and low-context communication styles
Ting-Toomey [99, pp.100-101] states that by low-context communication we emphasize
how intention or meaning is best expressed through explicit verbal messages. By high-context
communication we emphasize how intention or meaning can best be conveyed through the
context (e.g. social roles or position) and the nonverbal channels (e.g. pauses, silence, tone of
voice) of the message.
In general, low-context communication refers to communication patterns of direct verbal
mode: straight talk, nonverbal immediacy, and sender-oriented values (i.e. the sender assumes
the responsibility to communicate clearly). In low-context communication, the speaker is
expected to be responsible for constructing a clear, persuasive message that the listener can
decode easily.
In contrast, high-context communication refers to communication patterns of indirect
verbal mode: self-effacing talk, nonverbal subtleties, and interpreter-sensitive values (i.e. the
receiver or interpreter of the message assumes the responsibility to infer the hidden or contextual
meanings of the message). In high-context communication, the listener or interpreter of the
message is expected to “read between the lines,” to accurately infer the implicit intent of the
verbal message, and to observe the nonverbal nuances and subtleties that accompany the verbal
message.
When we use low-context communication we stress the importance of explicit verbal
messages to convey personal thoughts, opinions, and feelings. When we use high-context
communication we stress the importance of multi-layered contexts (e.g. historical context, social
norms, roles, situational and relational contexts) that frame the interaction encounter.
Table 4.1. The Low-context communication (LCC) and High-context communication
HCC) [99, p.101]:
LCC characteristics HCC characteristics
Individualistic values Group-oriented values
Self-face concern Mutual-face concern
Linear logic Spiral logic
Direct style Indirect style
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Person-oriented style Status-oriented style

Self-enhancement style Self-effacement style
Germany, United States, Swizerland, Japan, China, South Korea, Vietnam, Mexico
Canada, Demark, Australia, United Kingdom
1.7.2. Direct and indirect verbal interaction styles

According to Merkin [66] a large body of research highlights how individualists prefer
direct communication while collectivists prefer indirect communication, particularly in face-
threatening situations.
Ting-Toomey [99, p.103] states that verbal styles frames how a massage should be
interpreted. Individuals in all cultures use the gradations of all verbal styles, depending on role
identities, interaction goals, and situations. However, in individualistic cultures, people tend to
encounter more situations that emphasize the preferential use of direct talk, person-oriented
verbal interaction, verbal self-enhancement, and talkativeness. In contrast, in collectivistic
cultures, people tend to encounter more situations that emphasize the preferential use of indirect
talk, status-oriented verbal interaction, verbal self-effacement, and silence.
The direct and indirect styles differ in the extent to which communicators reveal their
intentions through their tone of voice and the straightforwardness of their content message. In
the direct verbal style, statements clearly reveal the speaker’s intentions and are enunciated in a
forthright tone of voice. In the indirect verbal style, on the other hand, verbal statements tend to
camouflage the speaker’s actual intentions and are carried out with more nuanced tone of voice.
Merkin [66] maintains that the distinctive feature of direct communication is that explicit
verbal messages have clear meaning included within them, including logical viewpoints, direct
declarations, and expressiveness, to convey personal thoughts, opinions, and feelings with clear
intentions. The communication pattern of direct verbal mode includes straight talk, nonverbal
immediacy, and sender-oriented values (i.e. the sender assumes the responsibility to
communicate clearly). In the direct verbal mode, the speaker is expected to be responsible for
constructing a clear, persuasive message and explicit and precise instructions or rules that the
listener can decode easily.
Direct speech is efficient because it is concise, evident, and unequivocal. However, it
commits the speaker to what is said which could easily cause people to lose face. So why would
individualists prefer direct communication? Individualists favor direct communication partly
because they can assert control over their relationships. Direct messages employ low-context
communication – communication where the meaning is explicitly stated. Besides wanting
control, individualists directly communicate to establish two-way communication, even if it
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means superiors involving subordinates in decision making. Individualism is related to the

propensity to express voice. Accordingly, individualists believe it is a loss of face when they are
not consulted in decision-making. Being consulted assures individualists that their opinion
matters as unique individuals. This is partly because individualists promote their own welfare
over the interests of their group, try to stand out and tend to use self-honouring facework.
The distinctive feature of indirect communication is that the meaning is outside the
message. Indirect communication uses implicit, non-verbal contextual massage with multi-
layered contexts (e.g. historical context, social norms, roles, situational and relational contexts)
that frame the interaction encounter. The communication pattern of indirect verbal mode
includes self-effacing talk, nonverbal subtleties, and interpreter-sensitive values (i.e. the receiver
or interpreter of the message assumes the responsibility to infer the hidden or contextual
meanings of the message). Indirect communication styles consist of influencing through face-
work or third parties or using ambiguity. However, the ambiguities of indirect speech can be a
source of misunderstanding and conflict in relationships which could also lead to a loss of face.
In the indirect verbal communication, the listener or interpreter of the message is
expected to “read between the lines,” to accurately infer the implicit intent of the verbal message,
and to observe the nonverbal nuances and subtleties that accompany the verbal message.
So why do collectivists use indirect communication? The indirect communication style is
much used in Asian countries influenced by collectivism. In cultures with high collectivism
maintenance of the harmony in the group is highly important. In those cultures one seldom
argues with people and one avoids that a member of the group will loose face. Communication
is very implicit because all members of the group know each other well and they don’t need
words to convey a message. The indirect communication style helps to facilitate the Confucian
value of maintaining harmony within interpersonal relationships. Within this dynamic, the
communicator expresses negative feelings or disagreement in ambiguous manner so that the
receiver has flexibility in interpreting the message in a negative or non-negative manner. Even
though the receiver may accurately interpret the negative feelings based on the negative context
of the message, the relationship is still protected since the negative message was encoded in a
way so that others may not be able to interpret the negative connotation of the message. The
Confucian legacy of consideration for others and concern for proper human relationships has led
to the development of communication patterns that preserve one another’s face. Indirect
communication helps to prevent the embarrassment of rejection by the other persons or
disagreement among partners.
The combination of indirect communication with an interdependent-self explains
collectivists’ focus on others. Given this orientation, collectivists prefer one way
communication, where superiors use authority and subordinates provide little or no feedback.
This helps preserve social harmony designed to avoid situations where disagreements could lead
to loosing face.
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1.7.3. Person-oriented and status-oriented verbal styles

According to [99, pp.106-107] the person-oriented verbal style is individual-centered
verbal mode that emphasizes the importance of informality and role suspension. The status
oriented-verbal style is role-centered verbal mode that emphasizes formality and large power
distance. The former emphasizes the importance of symmetrical interaction, whereas the later
stresses asymmetrical interaction.
The person-oriented verbal style emphasizes the importance of respecting unique,
personal identities in the interaction. The status-oriented verbal style emphasizes the importance
of honouring prescribed power-based membership indentities. Those who engage in status-
oriented verbal interaction use specific vocabularies and paralinguistic features to accentuate the
status distance of the role relationships (e.g. in parent-child interaction, superior-subordinate
relations, and male-female interaction). While low-context cultures tend to value the person-
oriented verbal style, high-context cultures tend to value the status-oriented verbal mode.
1.7.4. Self-enhancement and self-effacement verbal styles
Ting-Toomey [99, pp.107-108] maintains that the self-enhancement verbal style
emphasizes the importance of boasting about one’s accomplishments and abilities. The self-
effacement verbal style, on the other hand, emphasizes the importance of humbling one-self via
verbal restraints, hesitations, modest talk, and use of self-deprecation concerning one’s effort or
performance.
1.8. A descriptive framework for speaking [77]
The initial formulation of the ethnography of speaking included a framework for
describing the particularities of ways of speaking in diverse speech communities. It was designed
to provide an acontextual format for discovering, describing, and comparatively analyzing
unique cases. It included four major headings: Speech Community, Speech Events, Factors in
Speech Events, and Functions in Speech Events.
The speech community is the largest descriptive unit. Within a speech community, from
one view constitutive of it, are speech events, locally defined contexts for speaking, each of
which has an internal structure which differentiates it from other events in a community. Hymes
(1962) extended Jakobson's (1960) model of a speech event by increasing the number of
constitutive factors and functions from six to seven. Thus, any speech event is comprised of
seven factors, including minimally, a sender, who sends a message to a receiver. The message
is sent via a physical channel, implying as well some psychological connection between or
among the interlocutors, and is expressed in a code which is at least partially shared by the
sender and receiver. The message is about something, i.e., its topic. And the event occurs in a
particular time and place, its setting. As the factors which make up any act of verbal
communication, these are factors to attend to in describing indigenous speech events and the
speech acts which comprise them.
Corresponding to these factors are seven types of functions. The expressive function
focuses on the attitude which the 'sender' expresses toward what he is speaking about or toward
the situation itself. The directive function, sometimes called the conative or persuasive
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function, focuses on what the sender is asking the 'receiver' to do, in responding to the verbal
message. The poetic function focuses on the form of the 'message,' with particular emphasis on
its artistic or aesthetic value to the interlocutors. Whether contact is established, and whether the
'channel' is opened and maintained between or among interlocutors, is the phatic function, with
emphasis on verbal contact being established or maintained. Whenever the interlocutors turn
their attention to the 'code' itself (or the codes) being used, a metalinguistic function is
performed. A focus on 'topic,' the subject of the verbal communication, signals attention to the
referential function. The 'setting' may be the focus of emphasis in an act of verbal
communication, as when attention turns to the social context or social relationship which forms a
backdrop to the speech event, or which becomes the object of the speech event, as when
interlocutors use speaking to define or redefine their social relationship; in these cases, a
contextual (or situational) function is emphasized. Although all features of a speech event may
participate in all the functions, there may be specifiable linkages of factor and function, to be
investigated in given cases.
Hymes's (1962) framework was proposed tentatively in the hope that it would provide a
basis for empirical studies. The factors in speech events were reformulated in the acronym
SPEAKING, thus: Setting or Scene; Participants; Ends; Act Characteristics, including both
the form and content of the message; Key or Tone of the event; Instrumentalities, including
Channels and Codes; Norms of Interaction and of Interpretation; and Genres.
1.9. The social units of description

1.9.1. The social units of description [105, pp.159-160]
In his substantial article of 1972, of which an earlier version goes back to 1967, Hymes
presents models of the interaction of language and social life. Within such a general aim of a
taxonomy and descriptive theory, Hymes first of all proposes the social units for such analysis:
a-Speech community: a community sharing rules for the conduct and interpretation of
speech
b-Language field and speech field: the total range of communities of a speaker
c-Speech situation: contexts of situation, such as ceremonies, meals, etc., not to be
reduced to types of speech events – because such situations may also have non-verbal
dimensions
d-Speech event: activities governed by rules of speech
e-Speech act
f-Speech style
g-Ways of speaking: the overall terms of capturing diversity of speech
h-Components of speech
e-Rules (relations) of speaking.
1.9.2. Speech community and related concepts

The speech community is the largest descriptive unit. By speech community, Hymes
does not mean a community defined by common language, but rather by common linguistic
norms: ‘a community sharing rules for the conduct and interpretation of speech, and rules
for the interpretation of at least one linguistic variety’ [Hymes,1972, as cited in [86]
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Less frequently employed terms for related concepts include language field, speech field,
and speech networks [Hymes, 1972, as cited in [86]. The term language field refers to all those
communities in which an individual is able to communicate adequately by virtue of
knowing the languages and language varieties serving the communities. The concept of
speech field parallels that of language field but involves the knowledge of rules of speaking
rather than knowledge of languages. The last term (speech network) refers to linkages
between persons from different communities who share language varieties as well as rules
for speaking. To give an example, in addition to her mother tongue, a woman knows four
languages well enough to read books and newspapers published in them; a total of five languages
make up her language field. However, the same woman is able to communicate easily in only
one foreign language in addition to her native language; the communities within which she
functions effectively in the two languages make up her speech field. Within that speech field the
woman has special rapport with those persons, regardless of where they may come from, who
share with her the two languages, rules for speech, and a professional interest in, say,
archaeology; the linkages with these people make up her speech network.
1.9.3. Units of analysis [86, pp.23-26]

In order to describe and analyze communication it is necessary to deal with discrete units
of some kind, with communicative activities that have recognizable boundaries. The three units
suggested by Hymes [1972, as cited in [86, pp.23-26] are situation, event, and act.
1.9.3.1. The communicative situation

The communicative situation is the context within which communication occurs.
Examples include a religious service, a court trial, a holiday party, an auction, a train ride, or a
class in school. A single situation maintains a consistent general configuration of activities, the
same overall ecology within which communication takes place, although there may be great
diversity in the kinds of interaction which occur there.
1.9.3.2. The communicative event

The communicative event is the basic unit for descriptive purposes. A speech event
can be an instance of speech. A single event is defined by a unified set of components
throughout, beginning with the same general purpose of communication, the same general topic,
and involving the same participants, generally using the same language variety, maintaining the
same tone or key and the same rules for interaction, in the same setting. An event terminates
whenever there is a change in the major participants, their role-relationships, or the focus of
attention. If there is no change in major participants and setting, the boundary between events is
often marked by a period of silence and perhaps a change in body position.
1.9.3.3. The speech act

The speech act is the minimal unit of speech for purposes of an ethnography analysis.
1.9.4. The SPEAKING model: The contextual components of communication

A model that Hymes developed as a framework for the analysis of a speech event within its
cultural context is the SPEAKING model [159]. The model consists of sixteen components,
which Hymes believed were necessary to consider in order to accurately and satisfactorily
describe any particular speech event: message form, message content, setting, scene,
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speaker/sender, addressor, hearer/receiver/audience, addressee, purposes (outcomes), purposes

(goals), key, channels, forms of speech, norms of interaction, norms of interpretation, and genres.
These sixteen components are organized into eight divisions to form the acronym SPEAKING:
S - setting and scene: where the speech event is located in time and space
P - participants: who takes part in the speech event, and in what role (e.g. speaker,
addressee, audience, eavesdropper)
E - ends: what the purpose of the speech event is, and what its outcome is meant to be
A - act sequence: what speech acts make up the speech event, and what order they are
performed in
K - key: the tone or manner of performance (serious or joking, sincere or ironic, etc.)
I - instrumentalities: what channel or medium of communication is used (e.g. speaking,
signing, writing, drumming, whistling), and what language/variety is selected from the
participants' repertoire
N - norms of interaction: what the rules are for producing and interpreting speech acts
G - genres: what 'type' or ‘genre’ does a speech event belong to (e.g. interview, gossip.
While the SPEAKING model is a valuable model to EOC, as well as the descriptive
framework most commonly used in ethnography of communication, Cameron cautions that
Hymes' model should be used more as a guide than a template, because adhering to it too
narrowly may create a limiting view of the subject of its study. Ethnography of communication,
according to Cameron, should strive not only to address such 'descriptive' questions as 'what
speech events occur in such-and-such a community?' and 'what are the components of speech
events X, Y, and Z?'", but also to explain "why particular events occur and why they have
particular characteristics.”
1.10. Identification of communicative events [86, pp.108-109]

1.10.1. Identification of communicative events
Communication in societies tends to be categorized into different kinds of events rather
than an undifferentiated string of discourse, with more or less well defined boundaries between
each, and different behavioral norms (often including different varieties of language) appropriate
for each kind. Descriptive tasks include enumerating the kinds of events which are recognized or
can be inferred in a community, the nature of boundary markers which signal their beginning and
end, and the features which distinguish one type from another.
The communicative events selected initially for description and analysis by one learning
to use this approach should be brief self-contained sequences which have readily identifiable
beginnings and endings. Further, they should be events which recur in similar form and with
some frequency, so that regular patterns will be more easily discernible: e.g. greetings, leave-
takings, prayers, condolences, jokes, insults, compliments, ordering meals in restaurants. More
complex and less regular events yield themselves to analysis more readily after patterns of use
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and norms of interpretation have already been discovered in relation to simpler and more regular
communicative events.
1.10.2. A sample analysis of a communicative event [86, pp.128-129]

Issiaka Ly describes a traditional village meeting among Bambara speakers in Mali.
TOPIC: How animals should be kept away from farms
FUNCTION/PURPOSE: Making a decision that will regulate the village life
SETTING:
If mid-afternoon with a hot sun overhead, under trees
If in the late afternoon or during evening hours, in the village common place
KEY: Serious
PARTICIPANTS:
All of the male inhabitants of the village
P1 – Chief
P2 – Herald
P3 – Active inhabitants (age 45+)
P4 – Semi-active inhabitants (age 21–45) P5 – Passive inhabitants (age 14 –20)
MESSAGE FORM: Spoken Bambara

P2 uses loud voice; others use soft voices
ACT SEQUENCE:
P1 recites agenda
P2 transmits agenda to assembly
P3 (one) asks for floor
P2 transmits request to P1
P1 grants consent or rejects request
P2 transmits consent or rejection to speaker P3
P3 gives opinion (if P1 consents)
P2 transmits opinion to P1 and assembly
[Acts 3 –8 are repeated as active members (P3s) take turns giving their opinions]
P1 summarizes the debate and makes a proposal
P2 transmits the summary and proposal to the assembly
RULES FOR INTERACTION:

Only active members (age 45+) may ask to speak.
Semi-active members (21–45) may be asked their opinion, but not volunteer it.
Each speaker must request permission to speak from the chief.
The chief and other participants should not talk directly to one another; the herald always
transmits speech from the chief to the assembly, or from any individual speaker to chief and
assembly.
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Active inhabitants should take turns speaking in order of influence or importance.
NORMS OF INTERPRETATION:
Direct speech (laconic and clear) means the speaker is defending a point.
Indirect speech (e.g. riddles and parables) means the speaker is opposing a point.
The people in the assembly are serious.
The Herald is not necessarily being serious.
1.11. The communicative competence
In order to communicate effectively in a speech community, one has to have a command

of communicative competence. The communicative competence involves knowing not only the
language code, but also what to say to whom, and how to say it appropriately in any given
situation. Further, it involves the social and cultural knowledge speakers are presumed to have
which enables them to use and interpret linguistic forms.
“Communicative competence extends to both knowledge and expectation of who may or

may not speak in certain settings, when to speak and when to remain silent, whom one
may speak to, how one may talk to persons of different statuses and roles, what non-
verbal behaviours are appropriate in various contexts, what the routines for turn-taking
are in conversation, how to ask for and give information, how to request, how to offer or
decline assistance or cooperation, how to give commands, how to enforce discipline, and
the like - in short, everything involving the use of language and other communicative
dimensions in particular social settings.” [86, p.18]
Canale and Swain [1980, as cited in [1, pp.26-27] adapted Hymes’s notion of
communicative competence to language teaching concerns. They proposed that communicative
competence has four components:
a-Grammatical competence: the knowledge of correct syntactic and phonological forms
and general vocabulary.
b-Sociolinguistic competence: the knowledge of how to use language appropriately in
different social contexts
c-Strategic competence: the ability to communicate with limited linguistic resource - to
get the meaning across even though one is not fluent in the language.
d-Discourse competence: the ability to comprehend and produce text that is cohesive and
can be understood.
The following outline summarizes the broad range of shared knowledge that is involved
in appropriate communication. From the ethnographer’s perspective, this inventory also indicates
the range of linguistic, interactional, and cultural phenomena which must ultimately be
accounted for in an adequate description and explanation of communicative competence [86, pp.
20-21].
a-Linguistic knowledge
i-Verbal elements
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ii-Nonverbal elements
iii-Patterns of elements in particular speech events
iv-Range of possible variants (in all elements and their organization)
v-Meaning of variants in particular situations
b-Interaction skills
i-Perception of salient features in communicative situations
ii-Selection and interpretation of forms appropriate to specific situations, roles, and
relationships (rules for the use of speech)
iii-Discourse organization and processes
iv-Norms of interaction and interpretation
v-Strategies for achieving goals
c-Cultural knowledge
i-Social structure (status, power, speaking rights)
ii-Values and attitudes
iii-Cognitive maps/schemata
iv-Enculturation processes (transmission of knowledge and skills)
1.12. Intercultural communication

1.12.1. Intercultural communication and cross-cultural communication
1.12.1.1. Intercultural communication
Intercultural communication is a communication process in which people from
different cultures try to understand what others from different cultures try to communicate and
what their messages mean. The term intercultural indicates the presence of at least two
individuals who are culturally different from each other in their value orientations, preferred
communication codes, or expectations from communication. Intercultural communication is
often referred to as international communication [63].
“Intercultural communication is a symbolic, interpretive, transactional, contextual

process in which people from different cultures create shared meanings” [63, p.46].
Ting-Toomy [99, p.16] defines intercultural communication as “the symbolic exchange

process whereby individuals from two (or more) different cultural communities negotiate shared
meanings in an interactive situation.”
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The major characteristics of this definition include the following concepts: symbolic
exchange, process, different cultural communities, negotiate shared meanings, and an
interactive situation.
The first characteristics, symbolic exchange, refers to the use of verbal and nonverbal
symbols between a minimum of two individuals to accomplish shared meanings.
The second characteristics, process, refers to the independent nature of the intercultural
encounter. Once two cultural strangers make contact and attempt to communicate, they enter
into a mutually interdependent relationship. The concept of process refers to two ideas: the
transactional nature and the irreversive nature of communication. The transactional nature of
intercultural communication refers to the simultaneous encoding (i.e. the sender choosing the
right words or nonverbal gestures to express his or her intentions) and decoding (i.e. the receiver
translating the words or nonverbal cues into comprehensible meanings) of the encoding
messages. When the decoding process of the receiver matches the encoding process of the
sender, the receiver and the sender of the message have accomplished shared content meanings
effectively.
The third characteristics, different cultural communities, is defined as a broad concept.
A cultural community refers to a group of interacting individuals within a bounded unit who
uphold a set of shared traditions and ways of life. This unit can refer to a geographical locale
with clear-cut boundaries such as a nation. Broadly speaking, a cultural community can refer to
a national cultural group, an ethnic group, or a gender group.
The fourth characteristic, negotiate shared meanings, refers to the general goal of any
intercultural communication encounter. In intercultural business negotiations or intercultural
romantic relationships, our first level of concern is that we want our messages to be understood.
The word ”negotiate” connotes the creative give-and-take nature of the fluid process of human
communication. The three layers of meanings that are critical to our understanding of how
people express themselves in a communication process are content meaning, identity meaning,
and relational meaning.
Content meaning refers to the factual information that is being conveyed to the receiver
through an oral channel or other communication medium. When the intended content meaning of
the sender has been accurately decoded by the receiver, the communicators have established a
level of mutually shared content meanings. Identity meaning refers to the following questions:
”Who am I and Who are you in this interaction scene?”. Identity meaning involves issues such as
the display of respect or rejection and is thus much more subtle than overt, content meaning.
The verbal and nonverbal cues, the interaction styles, and the salient identities of the
communicators are part of the identity meaning negotiation process. Relational meaning offers
information concerning the state of the relationship between the two communicators. Relational
meanings are inferred via nonverbal intonations, body movements, or gestures that accompany
the verbal content level. It conveys both power distance (i.e. equal-unequal) meanings and
relational distance (e.g. personal-impersonal) meanings.
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One last characteristic, an interactive situation, refers to the interaction scene of the
dyadic encounter. An interactive scene includes both the concrete features and psychological
features of a setting. Every communication episode occurs in an interactive situation. Burgoon,
Buller, and Woodall [1996, as cited in [99] conclude that an interactive situation typically
includes the following gestalt components:
i-Elements of behaviour: These are the specific verbal and nonverbal behaviours that occur
in a situation.
ii-Goals or motivations of the participants. For example, is this a business get-acquainted
situation or a business negotiation situation?
iii-Rules of behaviour: The rules for getting acquainted differ from a baigaining /
concession-seeking negotiation situation.
iv-Different roles that people must play: individuals have different prescribed roles to play in
different interactive situations.
v-The physical setting and equipment: For, example, a classroom environment with
chalkboard and straight-row seating is different from an office environment with a desk, file
cabinets, and personal objects.
vi-Cognitive concepts: The psychological features of the situation such as the public -private
dimension, formal informal dimension, task-social dimension, competitive-cooperative
dimension.
vii-Relevant social skills: Appropriate and effective skills are needed to achieve interaction
goals in the situations.
The interpretation that we attach to various components of an interactive situation are
strongly influenced by the meanings we attach to these components. We acquire the meanings to
these situational components via the primary socialization process within our own culture. For
example, whether we define different room in our home environment as “public” or “private”
spaces (reserved for guests or family members) can vary tremendously from one culture to the
next. Furthermore, our expectations of what interactions scripts (i.e. patterns of communication
or activities) and how interaction sequences should be carried out are highly culturally and
situationally based.
1.12.1.2. Intercultural communication and cross-cultural communication
The term cross-cultural communication is typically used to refer to the study of a
particular idea or concept within many cultures. The goal of such investigations is to conduct a
series of intracultural analyses in order to compare one culture with another on the attributes of
interest. For example, someone interested in studying the marriage rituals in many cultures
would be considered a cross-cultural researcher. Scholars who study self-disclosure patterns,
child-rearing practices, or educational methods as they exist in many different cultures are doing
cross-cultural comparisons. Whereas intercultural communication involves interactions among
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people from different cultures, cross-cultural communication involves a comparison of

interactions among people from the same culture to those from another culture [63, pp. 54-55].
According to Ting-Toomy [99, p.16], the term “cross-cultural” is used in the
intercultural literature to refer to the communication process that is comparative in nature (e.g.
comparing conflict styles in cultures X, Y, and Z), while the term intercultural is used to refer to
the communication process between members of different cultural communities (e.g. business
negotiations between a Dutch importer and an Indonesian exporter). To put it more succinctly,
in intercultural communication, the degree of difference that exists between individuals is
derived primarily from cultural group membership factors such as beliefs, values, norms, and
interaction scripts.
1.12.1.3. Intercultural communication competence
“Intercultural communication competence is a term used to refer to the degree to which
an individual is able to exchange information effectively and appropriately with individuals
who belong to a different culture” [35, p.31].
According to Lustig and Koester [63, p.73] the basic tools for improving intercultural
communication are: a. display of respect, b. orientation to knowledge, c. empathy, d. interaction
management, e. task role behaviour, f. relational role behaviour, g. tolerance for ambiguity and h.
interaction posture.
Table 4.2. BASIC (the Behavioural Assessment Scale for Intercultural Competence)
dimensions of intercultural competence [63, p.73]
a-display of respect The ability to show respect and positive regard

for another person
b-orientation to knowledge The knowledge people use to explain
themselves and the world around them.
c-empathy The capacity to behave as though you
understand the worlds as others do.
d-interaction management Skill in regulating conversations.
e-task role behaviour Behaviours that involve the initiation of ideas
related to group problem-solving activities.
f-relational role behaviour Behaviours associated with interpersonal
harmony and mediation.
g-tolerance for ambiguity The ability to react to new and ambiguous
situations.
h-interaction posture The ability to respond to others in descriptive,
nonevaluative, and nonjudgemental way.
1.12.1.4. Mindful intercultural communication: an identity negotiation theory [99, pp.45-54]

The identity negotation theory emphasizes that identity or reflective self-conception is
viewed as the explanatory mechanism for the intercultural communication process. Identity is
vieved as reflective self-images constructed, experienced, and communicated by the individuals
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within a culture and in a particular interaction situation. The identity negotiation perspective
emphasizes eight identity domains in influencing our everyday interactions as presented in the
following table:
Table 4.3. Identity negotiation perspective: eight identity domains [99, p. 29]
Primary Identities Cultural identity
Ethnic identity
Gender identity
Personal identity
Situational Identities Role identity
Relational identity
Facework identity
Symbolic interaction identity
The cultural identity negotiation theory refers to communication between people of

different cultural identities. In the process of intercultural communication and contact with
others, people form, compare, judge, ascribe, negotiate, confirm, and challenge their cultural
identities. This theory argues that by interacting and communicating with those who are
culturally different, people negotiate stereotypes, opinions, norms, and meanings of, for example,
concepts of time, feelings, or activities, which differ from one culture to another. Cultural
identities influence interpretations of the meanings. When people identify with cultural groups,
they are able to manipulate and understand systems of symbols and beliefs and are able to enact
culturally appropriate and effective behaviour with members of that group. The successful
intercultural encounter is characterized by reaching an agreement as to the negotiated meanings
and norms. Once the agreement is reached the individuals’ cultural identities are positively
enhanced. Cultural identity is dynamic and fluid because it is rendered in interaction.
The concept negotiation is defined as a transactional interaction process whereby
individuals in an intercultural situation attempt to assert, define, modify, challenge, and/or
support their own and other’s desired self-images. Identity negotiation is, at a minimum, a
mutual communication activity. At the same time, the communicators attempt to evoke their
own desired identities in the interaction; they also attempt to challenge or support the others
identities
While some individuals are relatively mindless about the identity negotiation process,
other individuals are relatively mindful about the dynamics of that process. Langer’s [1989,
1997, as cited in [99] concept of mindfulness encourages individuals to tune in conscientiously
to their habituated mental scripts and preconceived expectations. Mindfulness means the
readiness to shift one’s frame of reference, the motivation to use new categories to understand
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cultural or ethnic differences, and the preparedness to experiment with creative avenues of
decision making and problem solving. The concept of mindfulness can serve as the first
effective step in integrating our theoretical knowledge with the identity-based outcome
dimensions.
To be mindful communicators, individuals need to learn the value systems that influence
the others’ self-conceptions. They need to be open to a new way of identity construction. They
neeed to be prepared to perceive and understand a behaviour or a problem from others’ cultural
and personal stand-points. Mindful communicators need to be on the alert that multiple
perspectives typically exist in interpreting a basic phenomenon.
Mindful intercultural communication is defined as the process and outcome of how two
dissimilar individuals negotiate shared meanings and achieve desired outcomes through
appropriate and effective behaviours in an intercultural situation. The components, criteria and
outcomes of the mindful intercultural communication are as follows:
Table 4.4. A mindful intercultural communication model: Components, criteria, and
outcomes [99, p.49]:
Components Criteria Outcomes
Knowledge Factors
M Cultural/personal values, language &
verbal communication, in-group
I
&out-group boundary, relationship
N development, conflict management, Appropriateness Being Understood
intercultural adaptation
F
Motivational Factors
U Effectiveness Being Respected
Mindful of identity domains, mindful
L of identity needs, mindful of
N ethnocentric tendencies Satisfaction Being Supported
E Skill Factors
S Mindful observation, mindful

listening, verbal empathy, nonverbal
S sensitivity, mindful stereotyping,
constructive conflict skills, flexible
adaptive skills
The identity negotiation theory emphasizes two ideas: the first is that mindful
intercultural communication has three components – knowledge, motivation, skills; the second is
that mindful intercultural communication refers to the appropriate, effective, and satisfactory
management of desired shared meanings and goals in an intercultural episode.
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Mindful intercultural communication emphasizes the appriateness, effective, and

satisfactory negotiation of shared meanings and desired goals between persons of different
cultures. Apprpriateness refers to the degree to which behaviours are regarded as proper and
match the expectations generated by the culture. Effectiveness refers to the degree to which
communicators achieve shared meanings and desirable outcomes in a given situations. To act
appropriately and effectively, individuals have to enhance their cultural knowledge and
motivations in applying adaptive interaction skills in the intercultural encounter. The feelings of
being understood, respected, and intrinsically valued form the outcome dimensions of mindful
intercultural communication.
Mindful intercultural communicators are resourceful individuals who are attuned to both
self-identity and other-identity negotiation issues. They are mindful of the antecedent, process,
and outcome factors that shape the dynamic interplay of the intercultural communication
process. They are also able to adapt to intercultural differences, flexibly and creatively, in
diverse range of communicative situations.
1-The nature and function of communicative behaviour in the context of culture is the
subject of ethnography of communication.
2-Communication is a symbolic, interpretive, transactional, contextual process in which

people create shared meanings.
3-Units of speech behaviour are speech situation, speech event, and speech act.
4-Speaking is culturally distinctive
5-In the interpretation of speech, SPEAKING factors (Setting and Scene, Participant,
Ends, Act sequence, Key, Instrumentality, Norm, Genre) are important.
2. TALK AND SILENCE

1-Discuss the cultural rules in Vietnam which determine who may or may not speak in
certain settings, when to speak and when to remain silent, whom one may speak to, how one may
use speech acts in certain settings.
2. 1. Talk
2.1.1. Catogories of talk
Talk may refer to [193]:
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a-Conversation: interactive communication between two or more people

b-Speech: the production of a spoken language
c-Interaction: face-to-face conversations
d-Communication: the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people
Categories of talk in speaking may vary in different languages. However, the main
categories of talk in English include: conversation, lecture, oratory, gossip, joking, story-telling,
and preaching.
Categories of talk in each language have different functional distribution, and most are
limited to a particular situation, or involves constraints on who may speak them, or what topic
may be addressed, who initiates the talk… Their description is thus of interest not only because
of the linguistic phenomena which distinguish one from another, but also because these
categories may provide clues to how other dimensions of the society are segmented and
organized. The following table gives partial answer to the question:
Table 4.5. Talk, situations and meanings

Talk
Situation Meanings Who talks first & much?
-meeting -to keep communication -older
-discussion open -male
-welcoming -to establish and maintain -husband
-eating social relationship -parents
-giving gifts -to resolve dispute, tension -highest position
-drinking -to indicate a feeling of
-lecture some kind of derivation
-business concerning food
-quarrel -to maintain peaceful social
-shopping relationship
-gossipping -to prevent uncertainty
-to assert themselves
through language
-to gain prestige
-for the sheer pleasure of
talking
2.1.2. Structure of speaking

Speech relies on verbal means and non-verbal means. Verbal means (spoken means)
include sounds, words, phrases, utterances, language functions, stress, rhythm, intonation. Verbal
communication refers to the use of sounds and language to convey a message. It serves as a
vehicle for expressing desires, ideas and concepts and is vital to the processes
Features of spoken language are: auditory, transient, temporary, immediate reception,

additive, rhapsodic, aggregative, prosody (intonation, stress, rhythm) immediate feedback, a
variety of attention and boundary signals (including kinesic ones), planning and editing limited
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by channel, lexically sparse, loosely structured grammatically , people-centered, context-

dependent
Non-verbal means of communication includes [104, p.66]:

a-Body language: movement, gesture, posture, facial expression, distancing..
b-Object language: signs, designs, clothing...
c-Environmental language: colour, lighting, architecture, space, direction, natural
surrounding…
Speech is patterned and rule-governed. Speaking can be described in terms of rules and
system. Choices as to which language or varieties of language to use in a particular situation,
how to address an interlocutor, whether to speak or to remain silent, are not free to variation, but
are patterned, according to the rules which are part of the social knowledge of a particular
community.
To explain speaking activities requires reference to the settings, participants, ends, act
sequences, topics, and so forth, which comprises the social situation. This goes beyond the rules
of language structure to a consideration of rules specifying who may say what to whom, in what
language or style, to what ends, and on what occasions.
In speaking, we should pay attention to the communicative purposes: transactional or

interactional and the generic structures of spoken genres. Transactional situations usually
involved people in interactions where they wish to obtain information or goods and services, e.g.
going to the bank to obtain a new credit card, phoning a library for information. Interactional
situations usually involve speakers in casual conversations where the main purpose is to establish
or maintain social contact with other people, e.g. talking to an old friend over a meal, chatting to
your son’s new school friend, talking to your partner after work. The generic structures of the
spoken genres can vary from very rigid to very loose.
We may have to consider choice of written or spoken language, genres, address terms,
choice of language styles, choice of register, choice of appropriate speech acts in different speech
situations or speech events. The choice is culture-specific and context-dependent. In other
words, we should have appropriate speech behaviour in different contexts and situations.
Speech is patterned. For example, in a conversation we have the beginning, body and
end. The conversation in many cases begins by greeting and ends with such routines as good-
bye. The generic structures of spoken discourse in general, and of conversations in particular,
can differ according to the communicative purposes, discourse types and cultures. Although the
generic structures of spoken discourse differ, the basic pattern of a spoken discourse would be
the same: Discourse-Transaction-Exchange-Move-Act. This is the basic hierarchical pattern
of a spoken discourse.
In speaking we have to obey many rules: co-operative principle, the politeness rules,
rules of face-saving, rules of turn-taking and many others. These rules can differ from culture to
culture. Culture helps determine the appropriate communicative behavior within a variety of
social and physical contexts by prescribing certain rules. When communicating with members of
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our own culture, we rely on deeply internalized cultural rules that delineate the normative
behaviours for specific communication situations. These rules facilitate our ability to
communicate effectively with each other. And since they are integrated into our personality, we
do not have to think consciously about which rules to use. There are three basic assumptions
about human communication that apply directly to communication [84, pp.311]: a-
communication is rule-governed, b-context prescribes appropriate communication rules, and c-
communication rules are culturally diverse
We should note that a language is culture-bound and culture-specific. Speaking, like

other systems of behavior, is not only organized within a society but also organized in each
society in culture-specific ways.
2.1.3. Speech accommodation [82, pp.1-2]

When a person changes their way of speaking to make it sound more or less like the
speech of the person they are talking to, this is called speech accommodation. Speech
accommodation can be convergence or divergence. For example, a teacher may use simple
words and sentence structure when s/he is talking to a class of young children. This is called
speech convergence. A person may exaggerate their rural accent because they are annoyed by
the attitude of someone from the city. This is called speech divergence.
2.2. Silence
Silence, perhaps because it seems the antithesis of linguistic form, has long been
neglected in the study of language. Nevertheless, it forms an essential part of communication
and speech communities differ as much as the uses and interpretations they give to silence as
they do in regard to the linguistic forms that they use. Silence is thus better seen as the
complement to sound; an awareness of its potential functions, structures and meaning, therefore,
become relevant to the study of linguistic communication.
2.2.1. Forms of silence [72]

Nakane [72, p.7] lists the forms of silence from micro-units to macro-units:
a-intra-turn pauses
b-inter-turn (switching) pauses / gaps
c-turn-constituting silences with illocutionary force
d-temporary silence of individuals who do not hold the floor in interaction
e-an individual’s total withdrawal of speech in a speech event.
f-silence of a group of participants as a constituent of social / religious events
g-discourse suppressed by a dominant force at various levels of social organization.
2.2.2. Societal patterning of silence [85]

At a social level, patterning in the use of silence generally relates to dimensions of social
organization, to community attitudes, and to such macrofunctions as social control; ritual
interaction with the supernatural, and establishment or reinforcement of group identity. In part
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this patterning is determined by the institutions of a specific society, and the functional meaning
of silence can only be understood in relation to particular institutional contexts. These contexts
may be as various as physical locations, ritual performances, or the enactment of social roles /
relationships: Communication may be proscribed, for example, between a commoner and a
chief, or a man and his mother-in-law, while membership in certain religious groups may require
a vow of silence.
Where institutionally determined power is accorded voice, silence is often indicative of

passivity and powerlessness. Thus, woman may keep silent in the presence of men or children in
the presence of adults. The opposite is the case in settings where self-exposure is required,
however, and where the listener sits in silent judgement: e.g. religious confession,
psychotherapy, bureaucratic interviews, and jury trials.
In some cases, the interpretation of silence may be institutionally defined by a society’s

convenants and laws. In the USA, for instance, suspected legal offenders must be explicitly
informed that they have the ‘right to remain silent’ to avoid self-incrimination, while instances of
implicit silence (i.e. nondisclosure) in business transactions have been ruled to constitute active
concealment and fraud. In some societies, silence in interpersonal interaction may invoke as a
powerful instrument of social control (e.g. ‘shunning’ among the Inuit, the Igloo, or the Amish).
Many societal patterns of silence are also determined by members of a group in relation
to dynamics of social organization. Patterns may be situational as when access to speaking
privilege in public forums is allocated by group decision and others must remain silent, or
normative, as when differential speaking privileges are allocated to individuals or classes of
individuals.
The amount of talk versus silence that is prescribed is closely tied to social values and
norms. The relative value of talk or silence in a society may be partly inferred from whether one
or the other is ascribed to its rulers, priests, and sages. The value of silence may also be found in
proverbs: e.g., ‘Silence is golden’ (English), ‘Because of the mouth, the fish dies” (Spanish); ‘The
way your eyes look can say more than your mouth’ (Japanese); ‘Man becomes wise through the
ear’ (Persian).
Additionally, cultural understandings regarding the contextual or interactional

interpretation of silence may be made explicit in the choice of adjectives coupled with the
term silence itself (e.g. ‘ominous silence’, ‘worshipful silence,’ ‘eerie silence,’ ‘smug
silence,’ ’thoughtful silence,’ ’pregnant silence’. Or may be implied by terms used to describe
people who exhibit relatively silent behavior (e.g.,‘taciturn’,
‘reserved,’’secretive,’’circumspect’). Differing group norms of appropriateness for speaking
versus maintaining silence can give rise to cross-cultural misunderstanding, as when
‘friendliness’ is equated differently with one or the other in a conversation, or ‘sincerity’ and
“politeness” in a business or political encounter.
2.2.3. Individual and small group patterning of silence [85]

At the level of individuals and small interacting groups within a society, patterning of
silence occurs in relation to expression and interpretation of personality, and to microfunctions
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related to participants’ purposes and needs. Bruneau (1973) terms these psycholinguistic and
interactive silences, which include an array of functions ranging from defining the role of
auditor in a communicative exchange, to providing social control, to demonstrating deference, to
indicating emotional closeness, to managing personal interaction. Jensen (1973) presents a
similar array, categorizing functions as linkage, affecting, revelational, judgemental and
activating.
Components of the interpretive frame that defines interactional silence include the
physical and temporal setting, the type (or genre) of event, its general purpose and topic, the
identity and relationship of participants, and the textual sequence (what has preceded and what is
expected to follow). This interpretive frame is situated within the larger context of societal
institutions, beliefs, and norms. Noninteractional silence may merely indicate absence of
activity, but it too is imbued with conventional meaning when it is the frame for such
contemplative and meditative events as that invoked in the Judeo Christian call to worship: The
Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him. Other sociocultural
functions include marking boundaries of events and serving as a background against which
speech and other activity is interpreted.
Some interactional functions of silence may be viewed as primarily sociocontextual in
nature: defining (e.g. status and role), structuring (e.g. situations), tactical (e.g.
nonparticipation, avoidance, disapproval, mitigation, image manipulation), and phatic
(emotional sharing); some as primarily linguistic: discursive (e.g. prayer, fantasizing,
rehearsing) or propositional (e.g. negation, affirmation, refusal, acknowledgement); and some as
primarily psychological (e.g. expression of anger, sorrow, embarrassment, joy, or fear). Some
noninteractional functions of silence involve contemplative / mediatative states, while others are
inactive in nature.
2.2.4. Special group uses of silence [87]

Cultural aspects of silence are often most dramatically apparent in special group uses of
silence. These are typically associated with activity domain (e.g. religion) and with dimensions
of power.
Extreme manifestations mark some religious group membership, as the vow of silence
required by certain monastic orders. Silence is needed in Quaker worship services in order to
allow ‘space’ in which God can work; in some ritual contexts, any speech at all is considered
profane. The ban on speech is often associated with setting, with entry into a place of worship
calling for silence even when no service is in progress. The silence is often accompanied by
special patterns of head, hand, and body position and movement.
Silence is a signifier of power when it indexes the capacity of some individuals, groups,
and institutions in a society to control others. From a critical perspective, most notable are
coercive acts that force certain participants to speak, limit expression, or maintain silence. These
may be institutionally prescribed for the maintenance of system and order, such as teachers’
authority in school classrooms to control speaking rights, or judges’ authority in courtrooms, or
may be self-imposed by common agreement. However, when whole classes of members of a
society (such as women or members of certain ethnic, social, or religious groups) are compelled
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to remain silent by being denied speaking rights, their silence becomes a sign of oppression, and
may even, to the discerning observer, ‘speak louder than words.’
2.2.5. Functions of silence [72]:
A basic distinction should be made between silences which carry meaning, but not
propositional content, and silence communicative acts which carry their own illocutionary force.
The former includes the pauses and hesitations that occur within and between turns of talking –
the prosodic dimension of silence. The latter is used as a kind of speech act and conveys either
emotional or propositional content. In different patternings (social, special, small group and
individual), silence can be used with many functions as dicussed above. Now, we will discuss
different functions of silence from Nakene (2007)’s views.
According to Nakane [72, pp.7-12] the functions of silence investigated in existing

literature can be grouped under the headings: cognitive, discursive, social and affective.
2.2.5.1. Cognitive: Pauses, hesitations for cognitive/language processing

Silence phenomena such as pauses and hesitations have been considered to have the
function of earning cognitive processing time in communication. Pauses play a crucial role in
achieving successful communication in that they allow not only the speaker time to organise his /
her thoughts but also the listener time to understand what the speaker is saying.
2.2.5.2. Discursive: Marking boundaries of discourse

Silence has a discursive function, which indicates junctures and meaning or grammatical
units in speech. Brown & Yule (1983) claim that units of speech defined by prosodic features
such as tones are often followed by pauses, while Jaworsky (1993) describes the discursive
function of pauses as ‘defining the boundaries of utterances’, marking boundaries as a prosodic
feature of discourse.
2.2.5.3. Social functions of silence:

Silence can be used for / as
a-Negotiating and maintaining social distance:

Jaworsky (2000) claims that silence can perform the interpersonal metafunction just as
small talk does. Examining the use of silence and small talk in plays as literary sources,
Jaworsky (2000) shows how social distance is created, maintained and reduced by silence.
b-Impression management through pause length, frequency and speed of talk:

Silence can also affect the formation of impressions in social encounters. An overview of
studies in pauses from psychological perspectives given by Crown & Feldstein (1985) suggested
that length of pauses, as well as overall tempo of speech, can be associated with personal traits
such as extroverted or introverted. Long pauses were associated with the formation of a negative
impression of the speaker. In her study of courtroom discourse, Walker (1985) found that
lawyers formed negative impressions of witnesses who had relatively frequent and long silent
pauses, although they advised witnesses to use pauses to think carefully before they responded to
questions. As Tannen (1985) says, silence has two opposite valuations – ‘one negative’- a
failure of language- and one positive- a chance for personal exploration.
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c-Conversational styles through pause length, frequency, speed of talk and overlapping:
The literature also discusses how silence serves to form conversational styles. Tannen
(1985) demonstrated how features of discourse such as preference of overlap to silent switching
pauses and relatively fast rate of speech characterise the conversational style of New York
Jewish people. Her analysis of interaction over a Thanksgiving dinner among three New
Yorkers, two Californians and one Briton showed that the two groups had different
conversational styles characterized by different levels of tolerance of silence. Moreover, as
Scollon & Scollon (1981, 19830, and Scollon (1985) argue, different orientations to silence can
become a cause of negative stereotyping.
Silence functions to structure discourse. In addition, silence often conveys a message

precisely because it forms part of discourses that are additionally structured by sound.
d-Means of social control through avoiding verbal interaction with specific individuals
Silence can also be a means of social control. In the Akan community in Ghana where
community members refuse to talk to “people who violate socio-cultural norms” to deter “future
violators”, silence is used as a form of punishment.
e-Means of maintaining power through avoiding certain contents of verbal expression

Silence as a means of social control can also take place in the form of censorship.
Jaworski & Galasinski (2000) argued that silencing by ‘omission’ and ‘ambiguation’ through
censorship in Poland was a way for the regime to preserve its political power.
f-Means of maintaining, reinforcing power relationship, and negotiating power

Another aspect of the social function of silence is defining or maintaining role
relationships and negotiating power. For instance, in the Akan community, the king uses silence
to mark his ‘power, authority, rank and status’.
g-Politeness strategies (negative, positive, off-record, Don’t do FTA)

One of the important functions of silence in social interaction is as a politeness strategy.
Silence can be used to avoid unwanted imposition, confrontation or embarrassment in social
encounters which may have not been avoided if verbal expresions had been used.
In performing a Face Threatening Act, when the risk of threat to face is too great, one
may decide not to perform that FTA at all, and this is called the strategy of ‘Don’t do the FTA’.
Therefore, the assumption is that silence would be the equivalent of this ‘don’t do the FTA’
strategy.
Sifianou (1997) argues that silence can be used as a positive politeness strategy when it
functions as a sign of solidarity and good rapport, while it can also be a negative politeness
strategy if it functions as a distancing tactic. In addition, it is also possible to use silence as an
off-record strategy when it functions as the most indirect form of speech act.
Silence as a politeness strategy can also be used in communication by people who have a
limited verbal communication capacity. Jaworski & Stephens (1988) revealed that avoidance of
talk was used not only to avoid loss of face due to their inability to capture the speech content
but also to avoid imposition on others by requiring them to repeat their speech.
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2.2.5.4. Affective: means of emotional management

Silence is used as a means of emotion management. Silence can also have a role in the
management and display of emotion. For example, Saunders (1985) describes how serious
emotional conflict within a family can be avoided by family members’ use of silence.
2.2.6. Interpretation and production of silence in communicative events [85, pp.3947-3948]

Appropriate participation in communicative events requires recognition of the
components which are likely to be salient to members of the speech community within which the
event occurs. Each component that can call for a different form of speech can also permit or
prescribe silence. These include the extrapersonal context as well as the status and role
relationships of the participants: the genre, topic, or setting (time and place) may be designated
as inappropriate for vocal interaction. The sequence of communicative acts in an event includes
turn-taking and overlap phenomena, which include silence on the prosodic dimension.
Maintaining silence between turns may be an indication of politeness or a violation of norms of
interaction. Rules for appropriate interpretation and production of speech includes knowing the
properties relating to silence which should be observed in different types of speech situations, as
well as the potential significance of silence in negotiating meaning within specific interaction.
Finally, as an overarching consideration, successful communication requires shared knowledge
and cultural presuppositions which allow inferences to be drawn about the unsaid as well as the
said.
In Eastern cultures people can communicate by saying nothing. The meaning is in

silence or saying as little as possible. They believe that silence is a form of communication.
People feel comfortable in silence. For example, Asian cultures, such as Japan, Korea, and
China, and Southern African cultures, place more focus on the meaning of silence and on saying
nothing or as little as necessary. The Japanese emphasize the importance of silence over words.
Native Americans believe that silence is a sign of a great person. In Japan, Korea, and China
people are suspicious of those who talk excessively. Those who talk too much are not respected.
On the other hand, the US Americans believe that those who are silent are weak and have no
opinion, and those who are loud are confident and know their way round.
2.2.7. Silence and communicative competence

Acquisition of communicative competence requires learning the appropriate usage of
silence in a community as well as of speech. Because cultural beliefs, values, and practices are
integrally involved in the process, socializing young children or new group members to the
meaning of silence may be considered part of the transmission of worldview.
1-Talk and silence are culture-specific, rule-governed and structured in communication.
2-In conversation, there are usually the beginning, body and end of the conversation.
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3-In speaking people do not have to obey the rule of turn-taking, that is, all speakers can
speak at the same time.
4-At the societal level, patterning of silence occurs in relation to expression and
interpretation of personality and to microfunctions related to participants’s purposes and needs.
5-Rules for appropriate interpretation and production of speech include knowing the
properties relating to silence.
3. LINGUISTIC ROUTINES AND RITUALS

1-How do you greet, introduce, or thank (formally and informally) in English and
Vietnamese? What factors help you choose what to say in those situations?
3.1. Linguistic routines [86, pp.36-37]

3.1.1. What is a linguistic routine?
Linguists are very interested in humans’ ability to be creative with language as part of
defining competence, but also in how, when, and why humans choose to be creative, to repeat
what has been heard and said many times before, often in exactly the same form. The relation of
ritual to social control has already been discussed, but the general nature of routines and rituals
require further consideration.
Linguistic routines are expressions occuring regularly in recurrent social situations.
A linguistic routine is a sequence of recurrent and predictable exchanges, whether

conventional or indiosyncratic, in which one speaker’s utterance, accompanied by
appropriate non-verbal behaviour, calls forth one of a limited set of responses by one more
other participants appropriate to particular social situations.
Linguistic routines are fixed or relatively fixed utterances or sequences of utterances

which must be considered as single units. In form, they often constitute a sentence “stem”, a
core which may be expanded in conversational contexts but is often frozen in ritual ones. The
routine itself fulfills the communicative function, and in this respect is performative in nature.
Such communication essentially defines the situation.
Routines must be learned, as well as analyzed, as single units, although they may vary in
length from single syllables (e.g. Hi) to phrases (e.g. How do you do?) to a sequence of
sentences. They may be uttered by an individual, or may require cooperation between two or
more persons, as in a greeting sequence or in minister / congregation alteration in the reading of
scriptures.
Understanding routines requires shared cultural knowledge because they are generally
metaphoric in nature, and must be interpreted at a non-literal level. They include greetings, leave
takings, curses, jokes, condolences, prayers, compliments, and other formlaic languages.
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Speech communities place differential value on knowledge of routines versus creativity

on the part of individual speakers, with oral versus literate traditions a significant factor, along
with degree of formalization and ritualization of other aspects of culture. English speakers are
often quite opposed to routines and rituals at a conscious level, because they are “meaningless”
and depersonalized the ideas expressed.
3.1.2. Uses
a-to ease interaction
b-to establish group membership
c-to reinforce group identity
d-to indicate attitude
e-to make conventional comment / response
3.1.3. Characteristics
a-Routines are highly ritualized: ritual forms are used in relation to cultural or social
practices, such as baptism, funerals, confessional meal times, rememberance services, wedding
initiation ceremonies, cleasing rites, oaths, vows, and the blessing of people, objects in places.
The language of the routines is fixed, and the linguistic formulae themselves are expected to
exert some control over the supernatural.
b-Routines are idiomatic. The meanings of routines are interpreted in the context of the
meaning of the ritual situation.
c-Routines are reccurent sequences
d-Routines are predictable exchanges
e-Routines are accompanied with non-verbal behaviour
f-Routines are formulaic or conventional behavior
g-Perhaps the most important characteristic of routines and ritual is that truth value is
largely irrelevant. Their meaning is dependent on shared beliefs and values of the speech
community coded into communicative patterns, and they can not be interpreted apart from social
and cultural context.
3.1.4. Routines can be used

a-as situational / formulaic expressions;
b-at the beginning, ending of conversations
c-moving away from one topic to another
d-breaking up conversations
e-as different gambits
3.1.5. Culture defines social situations differently

Linguistic routines are influenced by:
a-different social situations
b-uniqueness to culture
c-similar situation-different routines
d-similar routine-different situations
e-correct routine-wrong situation
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f-speech levels-formal / intimate

g-power –social role /age / occupation
h-politeness & face
3.1.6. Routines can be used

3.1.6.1. in everyday conversations
3.1.6.2. in discussion
a-to attract the listener’s attention/ to intterupt the communication / to agree, disagree,
evaluate, thank,
b-for leave-taking, closings
c-for preparing for leave-taking
d-leave-taking
3.1.6.3. in special rites
3.1.7. The importance of the study of linguistic routines in the ethnography of communication
3.1.7.1. Linguistic Routines show the nature and function of the ethnography of communication
3.1.7.2. The study helps us to understand that:
a-Routines occur in every part of communication
b-Linguistic routines are determined by cultural rules.
3.2. Rituals [86, pp.36-37]

Ritual is made up of routines, but these are given far greater cultural significance for
being part of a ritual context, rather than everyday encounters. Its context-bound nature was
noted by Malinowski (1935), who found in studying ritual that the meaning of symbols could not
be interpreted in isolation, but only in the context of the meaning of the ritual situation. This
observation creates serious problems for any discipline of autonomous semantics, which requires
individual units of meaning to carry a semantic load in themselves. On the other hand, because
the total meaning is already known to the group from the context, we can explain why it is the
case that even though “the receiver of a ritual message is picking up information through a
variety of different sensory channels simultaneously (and these over a period of time), all these
different sensations add up to just one ‘message’ ” (Leach, 1976, as cited in [86, pp.36-37].
Magical incantations provide one example of ritual: the language is fixed, and the
linguistic formulae themselves are expected to exert some control over the supernatural. Parts of
a spell have no meaning uttered by themselves; the whole must always be recited in full to have
effect. Paralinguistic features of production are clearly differentiated from “normal” language,
with spells often recited in a sing-song manner, and with distinctive rhythm and pitch.
Comparable to the sing-song of magical incantation, intoned speech is common for
expressing grief, and both intoned speech and chanting are often used in religious rituals. These
varieties of language are on a speech-song continuum, with the song end of the continuum used
in more formal contexts.
As routines often mark the boundaries of speech events by opening and closing them,
rituals serve as boundary markers for major changes in social status: puberty rites, weddings,
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funerals, and graduation ceremonies. Perhaps the most important characteristic of routines and
rituals is that truth value is largely irrelevant. Their meaning is dependent on shared beliefs and
values of the speech community coded into communicative patterns, and they cannot be
interpreted apart from social and cultural context.
1-Linguistic routines are fixed or relatively fixed utterances or sequences of utterances

which must be considered as single units.
2-A linguistic routine is any utterance.
3-Routines are highly ritualised.
4-Linguistic routines show the nature and function of the ethnography of communication.
5-Ritual is made up of routines.
4. POLITENESS THEORIES
1-How do you understand the term politeness?
2-Give examples of polite expressions in English and Vietnamese.
According to Kasper [54, p.3206], in ordinary language use, politeness refers to proper
social conduct and tactful consideration of others. Politeness in this non-technical sense
contrasts with rudeness. What counts as polite in any given context is socially and historically
determined. For example, the lexical li in Chinese was connected with notion of politeness and
underwent important semantic changes. In Confucius’s writing (551-479 BC), li referred to the
slavery-based social hierarchy of the Zhou dynasty. The modern sense of li is equated with the
demonstration of self-denigration and respect for the other person, especially in vertical
relationships. In English, the notion of polite dates back to the 15th century meaning polished.
In the seventeenth century, a polite person was of refined courteous manners. Politeness was
thus associated with the norms of social conduct extant in the upper class.
In the following part we will examine Fraser [28]’s four views of politeness: a-the social
norm view, b-the conversational maxim view, c-the face-saving view and d-the conversational
contract view.
4.1. The social norm view
The social norm view is one reflected in ordinary language use: proper social conduct and
tactful consideration of others. According to Fraser [28], the social norm view reflects the
historical understanding of politeness generally embraced by the public within the English-
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speaking world. Briefly stated, it assumes that each society has a particular set of social norms
consisting of more or less explicit rules that prescribe a certain behavior, a state of affairs, or a
way of thinking in a context. A positive evaluation (politeness) arises when an action is in
congruence with a norm, a negative evaluation (impoliteness=rudeness) arises when the action is
to the contrary. This normative view historically considers politeness to be associated with “good
manners” of speech. Politeness in this view is equivalent to a normative notion of
appropriateness [78, p.679]. Being polite is defined as having or showing good manners and
respect for the feelings of others [47, p.1122]. Politeness involves contributing to social
harmony and avoiding conflict [45, p.285].
4.2. The conversational-maxim view
4.2.1. Grice ‘s cooperative principle and conversational implicatures
The conversational-maxim perspective relies principally on the work of Grice [1975,
ascited in [28]. In an attempt to clarify how it is that speakers can mean more than they say,
Grice argued that conversationalists are rational individuals who are, all the other things being
equal, primarily interested in the efficient conveying of the message. To this end, he proposed his
general Cooperative Principle which provides that you should “make your contribution such as
required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of talk exchange in
which you are engaged.” To do so, the conversationalists have to obey one or all of the four
conversational maxims in conversation: quality, quantity, relevance and manner. Grice assumes
that the Cooperative Principle is always observed and that any real or apparent violations of the
maxims will signal conversational implicatures: the implicit messages intended by the speaker to
be inferred by the hearer. The intentional violation of a conversational maxim may be accepted
as signaling certain speaker intentions. The conversational implicatures help the
conversationalists to be polite and not lose his/her face in generating intended implied messages
to be inferred by the listeners. Being polite here means intentionally generating conversational
implicatures for the listeners to infer in conversation.
4.2.2. Lakoff (1973)’s rules of politeness
Lakoff (1973) was among the first to adopt Grice’s construct of conversational principle
in an effort to account for politeness. She sees politeness to be the avoidance of offense. In one
of her work, she refers to politeness as “a device used in order to reduce friction in personal
interaction” [Lakoff, 1979, as cited in [28]. Lakoff (1973) suggests two rules of Pragmatic
Competence:
a-Be clear (essentially Grice’s maxim)
b-Be polite
She takes these to be in opposition to each other, and notes that they are at times
reinforcing, at other times in conflict. In addition she posits 3 sub-maxims as follows:
Rule 1: Don’t impose (used when formal / impersonal politeness is required)
Rule 2: Give options (used when informal politeness is required)
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Rule 3: Make A (the hearer) feel good (used when intimate politeness is required)
Each of these rules are oriented to make the hearer feel good.
4.2.3. Leech (1983)’s politeness principle
The most comprehensive proposal of a politeness principle was formulated by Leech
(1983). The position of Leech (1983) is a grand elaboration of the conversational maxim
approach to politeness. Like Lakoff, Leech adopts the framework initially set out by Grice:
there exists a set of maxims and sub-maxims that guide and constrain the conversation of rational
people. He opts to treat politeness within the domain of a rhetoric pragmatics: his account of
goal-directed linguistic behavior.
Leech’s principle of politeness, adopted here can be stated as the following: “Other
things being equal, minimize the expression of beliefs which are unfavourable to the hearer and
at the same time (but less important) maximize the expression of beliefs which are favourable to
the hearer” [as cited in [28].
Like Grice, Leech provides a finer differentiation within his principles. He proposes six
Interpersonal Maxims:
Table 4.6. Leech’s (1983) politeness maxims and sub-maxims [Leech, 1983, as cited in [7,
p.48]
Maxim Positive politeness Negative politeness
Tact Maxim Minimize hearer costs Maximize hearer benefit.
Generosity maxim Minimize your own benefit Maximize your hearer's benefit
Approbation Maxim Minimize hearer dispraise Maximize hearer praise.
Modesty maxim Minimize self-praise Maximize self-dispraise
Agreement Maxim Minimize disagreement Maximize agreement between
between yourself and others yourself and others.
Sympathy Maxim Minimize antipathy between Maximize sympathy between

yourself and others yourself and others.
4.3. Face-saving view

4.3.1. The notions of face
The face-saving view of politeness proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987) has been the
most influential politeness model up to date [54, p.3206]. Its fundamental assumptions are a
Weberian view of communication as purposeful-rational activity, combined with Goffman’s
concept of face. The concept of face was derived from Chinese into English in the 19th century
[183]. In China, the Chinese concept of face was derived, based on the Confucian philosophy
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[99, p.75]. Face, in the Chinese context, means projected social image and social self-respect.
Group harmony, and thus in-group interdependence, is achieved through the maintainance of
everyone’s face in the society and trying hard not to cause anyone to lose face. Goffman [34]
went on to introduce the Chinese concept of face into academia through his theories of face and
facework. Although politeness has been studied in a variety of centuries for many years, Brown
and Levinson’s politeness theory has become very influential. In 1987, Brown and Levinson
proposed that politeness was a universal concept [9]. It is the expression of the speakers’
intention to mitigate face threats carried out by certain face-threatening act toward the speaker
and the listener. Being polite can be an attempt for the speaker to save his/her own face or the
face of whom he/she is talking to.
Politeness theory accounts for the redressing of affronts to a person’s face by face-
threatening acts. Goffman [34] defines face as being “the positive social value a person
effectively claims for himself by the line others assume he has taken during a particular contact.
Face is an image of self-delineated in terms of social attributes.” Face is best understood as an
individual’s feeling of self-worth or self-image [9]
Face, in Goffman [34] and Brown and Levinson [9]’s concepts, is an individual’s
publicly manifest self-esteem: a public self-image. Brown and Levinson [9] sub-divided face
into positive face and negative face, which can be summarized as follows:
a-Negative face: the want of every “competent adult member” that his/her action be
unimpeded by others.
b-Positive face: the want of every member that his/her wants be desirable to at least some
others.
According to Brown and Levinson [9], members of a given society treat face not as
norms or values which members of that society subscribes to, but as basic wants which every
member of a society, on some level, knows every other member desires, and which in general are
in the interests of every other member to be (at least) partially satisfied.
Face is the public self-image that every person tries to protect. Brown and Levinson [9]
defined positive face two ways: as "the want of every member that his wants be desirable to at
least some others executors" [9, p.62], or alternatively, "the positive consistent self- image or
'personality' (crucially including the desire that this self-image be appreciated and approved of)
claimed by interactants" [9, p.61]. Negative face was defined as "the want of every 'competent
adult member' that his actions be unimpeded by others"[9, p.62], or "the basic claim to
territories, personal preserves, rights to non-distraction—i.e. the freedom of action and freedom
from imposition" [9, p.62]. Whereas positive face involves a desire for connection with others,
negative face needs include autonomy and independence.
Ten years later, Brown characterized positive face by desires to be liked, admired,
ratified, and related to positively, noting that one would threaten positive face by ignoring
someone [183]. At the same time, she characterized negative face by the desire not to be imposed
upon, noting that negative face could be impinged upon by imposing on someone. Positive face
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refers to one's self-esteem, while negative face refers to one's freedom to act. These two aspects
of face are the basic wants in any social interaction; during any social interaction, cooperation is
needed amongst the participants to maintain each other's face. Participants can do this by using
positive politeness and negative politeness, which pay attention to people's positive and negative
face needs respectively
As seen, social members are endowed with two kinds of face: negative face, the want of
self-determination and positive face, the want of approval. Face is something which might be
lost, saved, maintained and improved through interaction with others. Therefore, in
communication, we should act so that we do not lose our face and the person whom we are
talking to does not lose his / her face. There is a working hypothesis that face is constantly at
risk. Consequently, any kind of linguistic act which has a relational dimension is seen as
inherently face-threatening, and needs to be counterbalanced by appropriate doses of politeness.
These doses of politeness are called politeness strategies.
4.3.2. Face-threatening acts (FTA)
Face is something that can be lost, maintained, or enhanced, and any threat to face must
be continually monitored during an interaction. And, since face is so vulnerable, and since most
participants will defend their face if threatened, the assumption is made that it is generally in
everyone's best interest to maintain each other's face and to act in such ways that others are made
aware that this is one's intention.
The organizing principle for their politeness theory is the idea that some acts are
intrinsically threatening to face and thus require softening. To this end, each group of language
users develops politeness principles from which they derive certain linguistic strategies. It is by
the use of these so-called politeness strategies that speakers succeed in communicating both their
primary message(s) as well as their intention to be polite in doing so. And in doing so, they
reduce the face loss that results from the interaction.
Whereas Leech proposes that certain types of acts are inherently polite or impolite,
Brown & Levinson [9] propose that such acts are inherently face-threatening to the speaker, to
the hearer, or to both. In their terminology, such acts are called Face-threatening acts or FTAs.
They propose the following four-way analysis: a-Acts threatening to the hearer's Negative Face:
(e.g. ordering, advising, threatening, warning) b-Acts threatening to the hearer's Positive Face
(e.g. complaining, criticizing, disagreeing, raising taboo topics), c-Acts threatening to the
speaker's Negative Face (e.g. accepting an offer, accepting thanks, promising unwillingly), and
d-Acts threatening to the speaker's Positive Face (e.g. apologizing, accepting compliments,
confessing).
Thus, a face-threatening act is an act that inherently damages the face of the addressee or
the speaker by acting in opposition to the wants and desires of the other. Face-threatening acts
can be verbal (using words/language), paraverbal (conveyed in the characteristics of speech such
as tone, inflection, etc.), or non-verbal (facial expression, etc.). Based on the terms of
conversation in social interactions, face-threatening acts are at times inevitable. At minimum,
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there must be at least one of the face-threatening acts associated with an utterance. It is also
possible to have multiple acts working within a single utterance.
4.3.3. Brown and Levinson [9] politeness strategies
Politeness strategies are used to formulate messages in order to save the hearer's
positive face when face-threatening acts are inevitable or desired. Brown and Levinson [9]
suggest that certain illocution acts inherently threaten either aspect of the face of another person.
In their terminology, such acts are called Face-threatening acts or FTAs. They propose five
super strategies for mitigating FTAs (facework):
Figure 4.1. Possible strategies for doing FTAs [9, p. 60]

4.3.3.1. Bald-on-record politeness strategies:
The FTA is performed in the most direct, clear, unambiguous and concise way possible
[9, p.69]. In short, the utterance is maximally efficient with regards to Grice’s conversational
maxims.
Bald on-record strategy does not attempt to minimize the threat to the hearer's face,
although there are ways that bald on-record politeness can be used in trying to minimize face-
threatening acts implicitly, such as giving advice in a non-manipulative way. Often using such a
strategy will shock or embarrass the addressee, and so this strategy is most often utilized in
situations where the speaker has a close relationship with the listener, such as family or close
friends. Brown and Levinson outline various cases in which one might use the bald on-record
strategies, including:
a-Situations with no threat minimization
i-Urgency or desperation, e.g. Watch out!
ii-When efficiency is necessary, e.g. Hear me out:...
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iii.Task-oriented, e.g. Pass me the hammer.

iv-Little or no desire to maintain someone's face, e.g. Don't forget to clean the blinds!
v-Doing the face-threatening act is in the interest of the hearer, e.g.Your headlights are
on!
b-Situations were the threat is minimized implicitly
i-Welcomes, e.g. Come in.
ii-Offers, e.g. Leave it, I'll clean up later. Eat!
4.3.3.2. Positive politeness strategies
Positive politeness strategies seek to minimize the threat to the hearer's positive face.
These strategies are used to make the hearer feel good about themselves, their interests or
possessions, and are most usually used in situations where the audience knows each other fairly
well. Postive politeness strategies emphasizing closeness between the speaker and the hearer by
confirming or establishing common ground, or by referring to desirable attributes in the hearer,
hence the term solidarity strategy. The FTA is performed utilising strategies oriented towards
redressing the positive face threat to the hearer. The positive strategies are [9, pp.103–129]:
a-Claim common ground (his interest, approval, sympathy with H)
Positive Strategy 1: Notice, attend to H (his interests, wants, needs, goods)
This output suggests that S should take notice of aspects of H’s condition (noticeable
changes, remarkable possessions, anything which looks as though H would want S to notice and
approve of it).
e.g.You must be hungry, it’s a long time since breakfast. How about some lunch?
Positive Strategy 2: Exaggerate (interest, approval, sympathy with H)
This is often done with exaggerated intonation, stress, and other aspects of prosodic, as
well as with intensifying modifiers.
e.g. How wonderful!
Positive Strategy 3: Intensify interest to H
S wants to share his interest to H as a form of S’s contribution into the conversation.
Therefore, S exaggerates facts as well as he makes good story to draw H as a participant into the
conversation, and H also usually uses tag questions like ‘uhuh’, ‘what do you think?’, etc.
Sometimes, this can involve switching back between past and present tenses.
e.g. I never imagined that there were thousands beautiful girls in Jim’s party last night!
Positive Strategy 4. Use in-group identity markers (in-group language or dialect, jargon,
slang, contraction or ellipses).
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By using any of the innumerable ways to convey in-group membership, S can implicitly
claim the common ground with H that is carried by that definition of the group. These include in
group usages of address forms, of language or dialect, of jargon or slang, and of ellipsis.
Address forms: Other address forms used to convey such in-group membership include
generic names and terms of address like Mate, honey, dear, babe, mom, brother, sister, cutie,
sweetheart, guys. Using such in group kinds of address forms with imperatives. For example:
“Come here, honey” indicates that S considers the relative P (power, status difference) between
himself and the addressee to be small thus softening the imperative by indicating that it isn’t a
power-backed command.
Use of in-group language or dialect: Another type of code-switching phenomenon is the
switch in English into a spurious dialect, or a dialect not normally used by S or H, to soften an
FTA or turn it into a joke.
Use of jargon or slang: Use brand names in a request may stress that S and H share an
(in-group) reliance on the required object.
Contraction and Ellipsis: S and H must share some knowledge about the context that
makes the utterance understandable (for example that S and H are cooperating in building a
house and S has the hammer in his hand).
Strategy 5: Seek Agreement (safe topics, repetition):
Safe topics: The raising of ‘safe topics’ allows S to stress his agreement with H and
therefore to satisfy H’s desire to be ‘right’, or to be corroborated in his opinions.
Repetition: Agreement may also be stressed by repeating part or all of what the
preceding S has said in the conversation and by using that function to indicate emphatic
agreement (‘yes’, ‘Really’, etc) whenever someone is telling story.
e.g. A:There was flood in my hometown.”
B: Oh my God. Flood!
Positive Strategy 6. Avoid disagreement (token agreement, pseudo-agreement, white
lies, hedging opinions):
Token agreement: S may go in twisting their utterances so as to appear to agree or to
hide disagreement-to respond to a preceding utterance with ‘yes, but…..' in effect, rather than a
blatant ‘No’.
e.g. A:How the girl looked like, beautiful?
B:Yes, I think she is quite, but not really beautiful, she is certainly not really ugly.
Pseudo-agreement: Another example of apparent or pseudo-agreement is found in
English in the use of then as a conclusory marker.
e.g.I’ll meet you in front of the theatre just before 8.0, then.
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White lies: S may do white lie to hide disagreement. By doing this, S is saving H’s face.
e.g. In response to a request to borrow a car, “Oh I can’t, my father will use it tonight.”
Hedging opinions: To soften FTA of suggesting, criticizing or complaining, hedges may
also be used.
e.g. I know you are sort of a polite person.
Strategy 7: Presuppose/ raise/ assert common ground (gossip, small talk, point of view
operations, presupposition manipulations).
Gossip or small talk: S is talking about unrelated topics to show that S is interested in H
as the mark of friendship and does not come only to impose him.
e.g. You look so bright today. It must be because MU had defeated Chelsea, right? By the
way, can you take me to the airport this afternoon?
Point-of-view operations: S may claim common ground by using cooperation point of
view. (S speaks as if H were S, or H’s knowledge were equal to S’s knowledge).
e.g. I had a really hard time learning to drive, didn’t I?
Presupposition manipulations: S presupposes something when he presumes that it is
mutually taken for granted.
e.g. Wouldn’t you like a drink?
Positive Strategy 8: Jokes
Jokes can be used to stress the fact that there must be some mutual background
knowledge and values that S and H share. That is why, the strategy of joking may be useful in
diminishing the social distance between S and H.
e.g. OK if I tackle those cookies now?
How about lending me this old heap of junk? (H’s new Cadillac)
b-Convey that S and H are co-operators
Positive Strategy 9: Assert or Presuppose S’s knowledge of and concerns for H’s wants.
It is the way to indicate that S and H are co-operators, and thus potentially to put pressure
on H to cooperate with S. S wants to assert and imply knowledge of H’s wants and willingness to
fit one’s own wants in with them.
e.g. I understand you can do it yourself, but this time, do what I suggested you.
Positive Strategy 10: Offer or promises
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S and H are good co-operators that they share some goals or S is willing to help to
achieve those goals. Promise or offer demonstrates S’s good attention in satisfying H’s positive-
face wants, even if they are false.
e.g. I’ll go there sometimes.
Positive Strategy 11: Be optimistic
S assumes that H wants S’s wants for S (or for S and H) and will help to obtain them.
This usually happens among people with close relationship.
e.g. You’ll tell your father that you did it, I hope.
Positive Strategy 12: Include both S and H in the activity
Here, S manipulates the subject of an activity is done together. S uses an inclusive ‘we’
from when S actually means ‘you’ or ‘me’. Inclusive form ‘we’ is usually used in the
construction ‘let’s’.
e.g. Bring us the book. (i.e. me)
Let’s go downtown, uh? (i.e you)
Positive Strategy 13: Give (or ask for) reasons
S uses H as the reason why S wants something so that it will seem reasonable to the
hearer. S assumes (via optimism) that there are no good reasons why H should not or cannot
cooperate.
e.g.Why not lend me your car for the weekend?
Positive Strategy 14: Assume or assert reciprocity
S asks H to cooperate with him by giving evidence of reciprocal rights or obligations
between S and H. Thus, S may say, in effect, “I’ll do x for you if you can do y for me”.
e.g. I’ll tell you what it looks like if you tell me where she is now.
c-Fulfil H’s want for some X
Positive Strategy 15: Give gifts to H (goods, sympathy, understanding, cooperation)
S satisfies H’s Positive Face want by giving gift, not only tangible gifts, but human
relation wants which are the wants to be liked, admired, cared about, understood, listened to, etc.
in other words, this strategy is usually used for the benefit of H.
e.g. I’m sorry to hear that.
4.3.3.3. Negative politeness strategies
Negative politeness strategies are oriented towards the hearer's negative face and emphasize
avoidance of imposition on the hearer. By attempting to avoid imposition from the speaker, the
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risk of face-threat to the hearer is reduced. The FTA is performed utilising strategies oriented
towards redressing the negative face threat to the hearer. Negative politeness strategies suggest
distance by accentuating the hearer’s right to territorial claims and freedom from imposition
(referred to as deference strategy). The linguistic output strategies include [9, pp.129–211]:
a-Be direct
Negative politeness strategy 1: Be conventionally indirect
In this strategy, the speaker is being indirect and on-record to communicate the FTA.
e.g. Can you please pass me the salt?
This example shows that the speaker avoids being too direct through phrase “Can you
please?” as a device of indirectness. Consequently, the speaker can avoid imposing the hearer
by not being too direct.
e.g.Would you know where Oxford Street is?
b-Don’t presume / assume
Negative politeness strategy 2: Question, hedge (hedge on illocutionary force,
prosodic/kinesic hedges):
In this strategy, the speaker can use hedges or questions to show negative politeness. The
use of hedges is to modify the level of predicate or noun phrase in which the level of predicate is
partial, or true in some particular aspects, or more true and complete than what expected by the
interactants.
e.g. I’m pretty sure I’ve read that book before.
I rather think it’s hopeless
She might hate you for what you have done
The words pretty, rather, and might function as hedges to indicate the speaker does not
presume something. In this case, the speaker makes the utterance be a little vague.
e.g. Perhaps, he might have taken it, maybe.
Could you please pass the rice?
c-Don’t coerce H
Negative politeness strategy 3: Be pessimistic
The speaker can redress the FTA on the hearer’s negative face by expressing something
doubtfully.
e.g. You could possibly lend me your lawnmower, could you?
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By using negative form, the speaker can be polite by being pessimistic in performing an
FTA. In this case, the speaker assumes that the hearer probably will not do something for him.
Thus, the coercion toward the hearer can be minimized.
e.g.You couldn't find your way to lending me a thousand dollars, could you?
Negative politeness strategy 4: Minimize the imposition, Rx
In communication, the speaker can impose the hearer when asking the hearer to do
something. Therefore, the speaker has to be aware of Rx (the intrinsic of seriousness of
imposition) as considered polite.
e.g. I just want to ask you if you could lend me a single sheet of paper?
The example shows the word “just” is slightly restricting the extent of FTA that means
“only” in which the speaker takes account of the hearer’s negative face and avoids coercing the
hearer.
e.g. It's not too much out of your way, just a couple of blocks.
Negative politeness strategy 5: Give deference
By treating the hearer as superior, the speaker may show deference to the hearer. In
English, it can be done by referent honorific (T/V) that is associated with the hearer such as eat /
dine, man/gentleman, give/bestow that may give greater honour to the person, thing or activity.
e.g. We look forward very much to dining with you.
The example shows that the word dining as referent honorific may give deference to the
hearer. Giving deference is a strategy to show negative politeness.
d-Communicate ‘S want to not imposition, Rx
Negative politeness strategy 6: Apologize (admit the impingement, indicate reluctance,
give overwhelming reasons, beg forgiveness)
Apology can be used to omit an impingement between speaker and hearer. It can be
expressed by admitting the impingement, indicating reluctance, giving overwhelming reasons,
and giving begging forgiveness.
e.g. I am sorry to bother you. I want to borrow some money from you.
By aplologizing for doing an FTA, the speaker can indicate his reluctance to impinge on
addressee’s negative face and thereby partially redress the impingement.
e.g. I'm sorry; it's a lot to ask, but can you lend me a thousand dollars?
Negative politeness strategy 7: Impersonalize S and H (use performatives, imperatives,
impersonal verbs, passive and circumstantial voices, replace the pronouns ‘I’ and ‘you’ by
indefinites, pluralize the ‘I’ and ‘you’ pronouns, use point-of-view distancing):
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In the conversation, hiding who the speaker is, or hearer is, can be a way to be polite.
Speaker is not considered as alone or the addressee is not the hearer.
e.g. Do this for me.
The example shows that speaker avoids I and You pronouns to impersonalize the speaker
and hearer. When the speaker is unmentioned in a conversation, it means that the speaker does
not want to impinge the hearer. In negative politeness, it can be the strategy.
Negative politeness strategy 8: State the FTA as a general rule
In this strategy, the speaker generalizes the expressions of FTA to addressee.
e.g. Passengers will please refrain from flushing toilets on the train.
The example shows that speaker communicate the FTA to hearer as not to impinge on the
address’s face. By using the word “passengers” and avoiding you propnoun, the speaker states
the FTA as general rule.
Negative politeness strategy 9: Nominalize
This strategy is a way to show formality that the speaker nominalizes the expression in
order to make sentence or speaker’s utterance in the form of nominal phrase to show negative
politeness.
e.g. Your good performance on the examinations impressed us favourably.
This example shows that the subject of the sentence above is nominalized by making the
utterance in the form of nominal phrase. Therefore, this example ca be a way to show negative
politeness.
e-Redress other wants of H’s
Negative politeness strategy 10: Go on record as incurring a debt, or as not indebting H
Indebtedness of speaker can be claimed by the speaker to hearer as the way to redress
FTA. When the hearer requests or offers the speaker something, the speaker does it as not a debt
of the hearer.
e.g. I could easily do it for you.
The example shows that the speaker disclaim indebtedness of the hearer by offering. He
states that he is willing to do something for the hearer as not indebting the hearer and thereby
avoid the FTA
4.3.3.4. Off-record strategies
The FTA is performed ‘Off Record’, typically through the deployment of an indirect
illocutionary act which has more than one interpretation and, thus, allows for plausible
deniability on the part of the utterer if the intended recipient takes offence at the face threat
inherent in the utterance. The linguistic output strategies include [9, pp. 211–227]:
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a-Invite conversational implicatures (a-give hints, b-give association rules, c-presuppose,

d-understate, e-overstate, f-use tautologies, g-use contradictions, h-be ironic, i-use metaphors, j-
use rhetorical questions.
b- Be vague or ambiguous: Violate the manner maxim (a-be ambiguous, b-be vague, c-
over-generalize, d-displace H, e-be incomplete, f-use ellipsis.
4.3.3.5. Don’t-perform-the-FTA strategies
The FTA, judged to be too threatening to the intended recipient, is, therefore, in the
interests of social harmony, not performed.
4.4. The conversational contract view
The conversational contract view, proposed by Fraser [28] represents the most global
perspective on politeness [54, p.3211]. Rather than being conceived of as additional to co-
operation, such as redress in view of face-threat, polite conduct implies acting in accordance with
the requirements of the conversational contract at any given moment of an encounter. At the
outset, the terms of the conversational contract are determined by participant’s rights and
obligations; however, these may change during, and as a result of, the interaction itself. What
exactly the current terms of the conversational contract are would depend on each participant’s
assessment of the relevant contextual factors and of the conversational interchange itself. Acting
politely, then, is virtually the same as using language appropriately. In order to distinguish
politeness in this broader sense from speakers’ deliberate expression of respect and appreciation,
Fraser [28] follows Goffman [34] in referring to this aspect as “deference.”
Follow-up activity 4.4. True/ false: Decide whether the following are true or false:
1-In ordinary language use, politeness means rudeness.
2-Goffman’s concept of face is an individual’s publicly manifest self-esteem.
3-Negative face is the want of approval.
4-Positive politeness strategies emphasize closeness between the speaker and the hearer.
5-Negative politeness strategies suggest distance.
CHAPTER IV REVIEW
1-What is ethnography of speaking / communication?
2-What is communication?
3-What are the units of speech behaviour in communication?
4-Is speaking culturally distinctive? Give examples.
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5-What is meant by SPEAKING?

6-According to Canale and Swain, what are the four components of communicative
competence?
7-How are speech as a form of talk structured and rule-governed?
8-What are the forms and functions of silence?
9-Give some Vietnamese / English cultural rules that determine language usage.
10-What are the characteristics of linguistic routines?
11-What are the Fraser (1990)’ views of politeness?
12- How do you understand the following terms: face, negative face, positive face, face-
threatening act, and politeness strategies?
II-T/F: Decide whether the following statements are true or false:

1-The nature and function of communicative behaviour in the context of culture is the
subject of ethnography of communication?
2-All those who share specific rules for speaking and interpreting speech and at least one
speech variety belong to a speech community.
3-Verbal communication refers to the use of sounds and language to convey a message.
4-Units of speech behaviour are speech situation, speech event, and speech act.
5-The minimal unit of speech for purposes of an ethnographic analysis is speech event.
6-The component termed participant includes not only the sender of a message but
anyone who may be interested in or happen to perceive the message.
7-The term genre refers to the rules for producing and interpreting speech acts.
8-Key refers to the tone, manner, or spirit in which an act is used.
9-The norms of interpretation are the same in all countries.
10-In the interpretation of speech, SPEAKING factors (Setting and Scene, Participant,
Ends, Act sequence, Key, Instrumentality, Norm, Genre) are important.
11-Talk and silence are culture-specific, rule-governed and structured in communication.
12-Speaking are culturally distinctive.
13-In conversation, there are usually the beginning, body and end of the conversation.
14- Canale and Swain [1980] proposed that communicative competence has four
components: a-grammatical, b-sociolinguistic, c-strategic and d-discourse.
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15-Inter-cultural communication is the communication between people of the same

culture.
16-At the societal level, patterning in the use of silence generally relates to the
dimensions of social organization, to community, to attitudes, to such macrofunctions as social
control, ritual interaction with the supernatural, and establishment or reinforcement of group
identity.
17-At the level of individuals and small interacting groups within society, patterning of
silence occurs in relation to expression and interpretation of personality and to microfunction
related to participants’purposes and needs.
18- According to Nakane [72], the functions of silence can be grouped under the
following headings: cognitive, discursive, social and affective.
19-The amount of talk versus silence that is prescribed is never tied to social values and
norms.
20-Rules for appropriate interpretation and production of speech include the properties
relating to silence.
21-A linguistic routine is any utterance.
22-How do you do? is a linguistic routine of thanking.
23-Routines are highly ritualized.
24-Routines are always the same in different language.
25-Rituals are made up of routines.
26-The social norm view of politeness is one reflected in ordinarylanguage use: proper
social conduct and tactful consideration of others.
27-Goffman’s concept of face is an individual’s publicly manifest self-esteem.
28-Negative face is the want of approval.
29-Positive politeness strategies emphasize closeness between the speaker and the hearer.
30- Negative politeness strategies suggest distance.
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CHAPTER V. LANGUAGE CHANGE

Chapter V Contents
1. The Nature of Language Change

2. Causes of Language Change
3. Types of Language Change
4. Spread of Change

1-What changes do you notice in the development of the English language / the
Vietnamese language from past to the present time?
1. THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE CHANGE
1.1. Language change

Language change is the phenomenon whereby phonetic, morphological, semantic,
syntactic, and other features of language change over time.
Linguistics is commonly divided into synchronic linguistics and diachronic linguistics.

Diachronic linguistics, or historical linguistics, is the study of language change. It is concerned
with both the description and explanation of such change. Linguists generally agree that all
living languages are constantly changing as the needs of the people who use them change as
well.
Traditionally, historical linguistics distinguishes between two main types of change: a-

change due to internal factors, which refers to language change that occurs in isolation, and b-
change that results from external factors, which is largely caused by contact with other
languages and, among other things, can result in the borrowing of linguistic features, e.g. in the
adoption of foreign vocabulary. Language change affects all linguistic levels of a language. The
study of language change is called historical-comparative linguistics. Linguists of the 18th and
19th centuries studied the internal changes that occur in a language. They also compared
languages, constructed earlier forms of particular language families, and classified languages
according to “family trees”. Historical-comparative linguists use many methods and a wide
variety of data. Old written records are studied. Differences between related dialects and
languages provide important clues to earlier stages. By comparing the various “daughter”
languages, it is possible to partially reconstruct the history of language.
1.2. The nature of language change

The nature of language change can be seen in the following features:
1.2.1. All languages change with time.

There is no such thing as a language which does not change. The rate of change may vary
considerably due to both internal and external factors. English, for example, has changed
enormously since Old English. Vietnamese has also changed much. It is fortunate for us that
though language change, they do so rather slowly compared with human life span. Evidence of
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linguistic change is found in the story of individual languages, and in the regular
correspondences that exist between different languages and dialects. Genetically related
languages “descend” from a common “parent language” through linguistic change. An early
stage in the history of related languages is that they are the dialects of the parent language.
1.2.2. All languages change continuously.

The fact that all languages change continuously can be seen in the development of all
languages. Examples are the development of the English language and the Vietnamese
language.
1.2.2.1. The development of the English language
Diagram 5.1. The main development of the English language [135]
1.2.2.2. The development of the Vietnamese language [196]

Henri Maspero described six periods of the Vietnamese language:
a-Pre-Vietnamese, also known as Proto-Viet–Muong or Proto-Vietnamuong, the
ancestor of Vietnamese and the related Muong language.
b-Proto-Vietnamese, the oldest reconstructable version of Vietnamese, dated to just
before the entry of massive amounts of Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary into the language, c. 7th to
9th century AD? At this state, the language had three tones.
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c-Archaic Vietnamese, the state of the language upon adoption of the Sino-Vietnamese
vocabulary, c. 10th century AD.
d-Ancient Vietnamese, the language represented by chu nom characters (c. 15th
century) and the Chinese–Vietnamese glossary Hua-yi Yi-yu (c. 16th century). By this point a
tone split had happened in the language, leading to six tones but a loss of contrastive voicing
among consonants.
e-Middle Vietnamese, the language of the Vietnamese–Portuguese–Latin dictionary of
the Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes (c. 17th century).
f-Modern Vietnamese, from the 19th century.
1.2.2.3. Language change is largely regular and systematic.

A striking fact about language change in general is its regularity and systematicity. For
example, the development of a fixed subject-verb-direct object (SVO) basic word order in
English did not affect just a few verbs; all verbs in Modern English appear before rather than
after the direct object. Similarly, the changes affecting the vowel in the word hām did not occur
in that word only; they represent the regular development of the old English vowel ā ([ a:])
Table 5.1. Changes affecting [a:] [74, p.256]

Old English Middle English Modern English
[ba:t] [bɔ:t ] [bout] boat
[a:θ] [ɔ:θ] [ouθ] oath
[sta:n] [stɔ:n] [stoun] stone
1.2.2.4. All parts of a language may change.

In the historical development of a language, all parts of the language may change.
Phonological, spelling, morphological, lexical, syntactic, semantic and other changes occur.
2. CAUSES OF LANGUAGE CHANGE:

2.1. Internal and external causes
2.1.1. Internal causes
Internal causes (linguistic causes / internally motivated change) of language change
refer to the fact that the change is caused by a structural requirement of the language
Internal causes of language change are the causes from inside the language. Any change
which can be traced to structural requirement in a language and which is independent of
sociolinguistic factors can be classified as internal (linguistic) causes of language change. This
kind of language change is internally motivated change, that is the change which comes from
factors acting within the language, factors connected with the system of language.
Internally motivated change usually leads to balance in the system, the removal of
marked elements, the analogical spread of regular forms or the like. As language consists of
various modules on various levels, a change in one quarter may lead to an imbalance in another
and provoke a further change.
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2.1.2. External causes

Any variation and change in a language which can be connected with the community or
society using this language can be labelled ‘externally-motivated change / extralinguistic
change’.
External causes of language change are the causes connected with the development of the
society, changes in social, political, economic, cultural life, in science and technology.
Language contact in the historical development of the English language has brought about many
borrowings, the loanwords, from different languages. In addition, with the development of the
society, changes in social, political, economic, cultural life, in science and technology, many new
words have been created. Words which are not in use have disappeared from the English
language.
2.2. Articulatory simplification, spelling pronunciation, analogy and reanalysis and

language contact [74, pp.256-258]
O’Grady et al. (1993) mentioned the following causes of language change

a- Articulatory Simplification
b-Spelling Pronunciation
c-Analogy and Reanalysis
d-Language Contact
2.2.1. Articulatatory simplication:

As might be expected, most sound changes have a physiological basis. Since such sound
changes typically result in articulatory simplification, they have traditionally been related to the
idea of ‘ease of articulation”. We can identify cases of articulatory simplication in our
everyday speech such as the deletion of a consonant in a complex cluster or, in some dialects, the
insertion of a vowel to break up a complex cluster.
Table 5.2. Simplication of complex clusters [74, p.27]

Deletion of a consonant
/fifθs/  [fifs] Fifths
Insertion of a vowel
/æθlijt/ [æθəlijt] Athlete
2.2.2. Spelling pronunciation:

A minor source of language change in English and other languages is spelling
pronunciation. Since the written form of a word can differ significantly from the way it is
pronounced, a new pronunciation can arise which seems to reflect more closely the spelling of
the word. An example of the word often. Although this word was pronounced with a [t] in
earlier English, the voiceless stop was subsequently lost resulting in the pronunciation [ͻfən]. [t]
was lost resulting in the pronunciation /ɔfən/. However, since the letter t was retained in the
spelling, [t] has been reintroduced into many speakers’ pronunciation of this word.
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2.2.3. Analogy and reanalysis:

Cognitive factors play a role in change in all components of the grammar. Two sources
of language change having a cognitive basis are analogy and reanalysis.
Analogy reflects the preference of speakers for regular patterns over irregular ones. It
typically involves the extension or generalisation of a regularity on the basis of the inference that
if elements are alike in some respects, they should be alike in others as well. Both phonological
and semantic characteristics can serve as basis for analogy. For example, children create forms
such as goed by analogy with the regular past tense forms like played.
Reanalysis is particularly common on morphological change. Morphological reanalysis

often involves an attempt to attribute a compound or root + affix structure to a word that
formally was not broken down into components morphemes. A classic example in English is the
word Hamberger (which originally referred to a type of meat patty deriving its name from the
city of Hamburg in Germany). This word has been reanalyzed as consisting of two
components, ham+burger. This later morpheme (-burger) has since appeared in many new
forms including fishburger, chickenburger, and even as a free morpheme burger.
2.2.4. Language contact and hypercorrection

Another cause of linguistic change is language contact, which occurs when speakers of
one language frequently interact with the speakers of another language or dialect. As a
consequence, extensive borrowing can occur, particularly where there are significant numbers
of bilinguals or multilinguals. Athough borrowing can affect all components of the grammar, the
lexicon is typically most affected. The English language has borrowed many words from other
languages. These words have been englishized. Among the effects that borrowing can have on
the sound system are the introduction of new phonemes or allophones and change in their
production.
Languages (as well as dialects) contact also results in another minor but nevertheless
important source of language change, hypercorrection. Hypercorrection occurs when a speaker
who is attempting to speak another dialect or language overgeneralizes particular rules.
2.3. Other causes

Wikipedia states that there are the following causes of language change [125].
2.3.1. Economy:
Speakers tend to make their utterances as efficient and effective as possible to reach
communicative goals. Purposeful speaking therefore involves a trade-off of costs and benefits.
The principle of least effort tends to result in phonetic reduction of speech forms. See vowel
reduction, cluster reduction, lenition, and elision. After some time a change may become widely
accepted (it becomes a regular sound change) and may end up treated as a standard. For instance:
going to [ˈɡoʊɪŋ tʊ] → gonna [ˈɡɔnə] or [ˈɡʌnə], with examples of both vowel reduction [ʊ] →
[ə] and elision [nt] → [n], [oʊ.ɪ] → [ʌ].
2.3.2. Analogy:
Analogy reduces word forms by likening different forms of the word to the root.
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2.3.3. Language contact:

Language contact results in borrowing of words and constructions from other languages.
2.3.4. Geographic separation:

When people move away from each other, their language will diverge, at least for the
vocabulary, due to different experiences.
2.3.5. Cultural environment:

Groups of speakers will reflect new places, situations, and objects in their language,
whether they encounter different people there or not.
2.3.6. Migration/Movement:
Speakers will change and create languages, such as pidgins and creoles.
2.3.7. Imperfect learning:

According to one view, children regularly learn the adult forms imperfectly, and the
changed forms then turn into a new standard. Alternatively, imperfect learning occurs regularly
in one part of society, such as an immigrant group, where the minority language forms a
substratum, and the changed forms can ultimately influence majority usage.
2.3.8. Social prestige:

Language may not only change towards a prestigious accent, but also away from one
with negative prestige, as in the case of rhoticity of Received Pronunciation. Such movements
can go back and forward.
2. TYPES OF LANGUAGE CHANGE [74, pp.259-282]

3.1. Sound change
a-Sequential change involving the sound change in sequences of segments.
b-Segmental change involving the simplication of an affricate
c-Auditory-based change involving the replacement of one segment with another similar
sound segment.
3.1.1. Sequential change

3.1.1.1. Assimilation
The most common type of phonetically conditioned change is assimilation, which has the
effect of increasing the efficiency of articulation through a simplication of articulatory
movements. We will focus here on four main types of assimilation.
a-Partial assimilation
Partial assimilation involves place and / or manner of articulation
Table 5.3. Assimilation in manner of articulation in Old English [74, pp.260]

Early Old English Later Old English
slǣpde slǣpte slept
stefn  stemn stem (of a tree)
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b-Palatalisation:
Palatalization is the effect that front vowels and the palatal glide [ j ] typically have on
velar, alveolar, and dental stops, making their place of articulation more palatal. Paltalization is
often the first step in affrication, a change in which palatalized stops become affricates.
c-Nasalisation:
Nasalization refers to nasalising effect that a nasal consonant can have on adjacent vowel.
d-Umblaut:
Umblaut is the case when the effect of a vowel or sometimes a glide in one syllable can
have on the vowel of another syllable, usually a preceding one. Umlaut (resulting in front
rounded vowels [y] and [ø]) played an important role in Old English and is the source of
irregular plurals such as goose / geese and mouse / mice in Modern English. For example, the
plural of the pre-Old English words gōs goose and mūs mouse was formed by adding a suffix –
[i]. As a result, umblaut of the vowel in the preceding syllable occurred in the plural form but
not in the singular forms. By early Old English, the suffix –[i] had been lost in a separate
change, leaving the umblauted vowel as the marker of the plural form. This is called i-mutation.
(Subsequent changes included the derounding of the umblauted vowels [ȳ] and [ø] yielding [ī]
and [ē] respectively by Middle English and the Great Vowel Shift)
Table 5.4. Umblout in English [74, p.261]

Pre-Old Pre-Old Early OE Subsequent changes
English 1 English 2
[gōs] [gōs] [gōs] [gu:s] Goose
[gōsi] [gøsi] [gøs] [gi:s] Geese
[mū] [mūs] [mūs] [maus] Mouse
[mūsi] [mȳsi] [mȳs] [mais] mice
3.1.1.2. Dissimilation:
Dissimilation is the process whereby one segment is made less like another segment in its
environment. This type of change typically occurs when it would be difficult to articulate or to
perceive two similar sounds in close proximity.
3.1.1.3. Epenthesis:
Epenthesis involves the insertion of a consonant or vowel into a particular environment.
Table 5.5. Epenthesis in Old English [74, p.261]

Earlier form Change Later form
Ganra VnrV>VndrV Gandra Gander
Simle VmlV>VmblV Simble Always
ǣmtig VmtV>VmptV ǣmptig empty
In these examples, the epenthetic [b]. [d], or [p] has the place of articulation of the
preceding nasal but agrees with the following segment in terms of voice and nasality. The
epenthetic segment therefore serves as a bridge for the transition between the segments on either
side.
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3.1.1.4. Metathesis:
Metathesis is a change in the relative positioning of segments. This change, like
assimilation and dissimilation, can affect adjacent segments or segments at a distance.
Table 5.6. Metathesis of adjacent segment in Old English [74, p.262]

Earlier form Later form
Wæps  wæsp wasp
ƿrida ƿirdda third
3.1.1.5. Weakening and deletion:

Vowels and consonants are also susceptible to outright deletion as well as to various
weakening processes.
a-Vowel deletion may involve a word-final vowel (apocope) or a word-internal vowel
(syncope). A vowel in an untressed position is particularly susceptible to deletion, especially a
nearby neighbouring syllable is stressed. Vowel deletion with subsequent deletion (syncope and
apocope) occurred in Middle English and Early Modern English
Table 5.7. Vowel reduction and deletion in English [74, pp.263]

Syncope
Old English Middle English Early Modern English
(vowel reduction) (syncope)
Stanas [a] Stones [ə] Stones Ø
Stanes [e] Stones [ə] Stones Ø
Apocope
Old English Middle English Early Modern English
(vowel reduction) (apocope)
Nama [a] Name [ə] Name ø
Talu [u] Tale [ə] Tale ø
Consonant deletion is a very common sound change. For example, the word-initial
cluster [kn] was found in Old and Middle English, as the spelling of such words as knight, knit,
knot, and knee implies, but the [k] subsequently lost giving us our modern pronunciation.
b-Rhotacism:
Rhotacism is a common type of weakening which typically involves the change of [z] to
[r]. In Modern English, rhoticism is the source of the alternation between [z] and [r] in was and
were. The [r] resulted from earlier [z] which was originally intervocalic.
c- Consonant strengthening
Just as consonants weaken, they can also be strengthened.
3.1.2. Segmental change

Segments such as affricates are considered phonologically complex because they
represent the fusing of a stop plus a fricative into a simple segment, for example [dʒ] or [ts].
Such complex segments are commonly subject to simplication. A very common type of
segmental simplication is deaffrication, which has the effect of turning affricates into fricatives
by eliminating the stop portion of the affricates.
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3.1.3. Auditorily-based change:

Auditory factors can play a role in language change. Substitution is a type of auditorily-
based change involving the replacement of one segment with another similar sounding segment.
A common type of substitution involves [f] replacing [x] or [θ]. Earlier in the history of English,
[f] replaced [x] in some words while [f] replaced [θ] in the Cockney, non-standard dialect spoken
in London.
3.1.4. Phonetic versus phonological change

The sound changes outlined above can affect the overall sound pattern (phonology) of a
language in different ways. Commonly, the first stage of a sound change results in the creation
of a new allophone of an already existing phoneme. The term phonetic sound change can be
used to refer to this stage.
Sometimes sound change can lead to changes in a language’s phonological system by

adding, eliminating, or rearranging phonemes. Such phonological change can involve splits,
mergers, or shifts.
In a phonological split, allophones of the same phoneme come to contrast with each other
due to the loss of the conditioning environment, with the result that one or more new phonemes
are created. The English phoneme /ŋ/ was the result of a phonological split. Originally, /ŋ/ was
simply the allophone of /n/ that appeared before a velar consonant. During Middle English,
consonant deletion resulted in the loss of [g] in word-final position after a nasal consonant,
leaving [ŋ] as the final sound in words such as sing.
Table 5.8. Phonological split resulting in /ŋ/ [74, pp.267]

Original phonemic form /sing/
Original phonetic form /siŋg/
Deletion of [g] /siŋg/ >[siŋ]
New phonemic form /siŋ/
The loss of the final [g] in words created minimal pairs such as sin (/sin/) and sing (/siŋ/),
in which there is a contrast between /n/ and /ŋ/. This example represents a typical phonological
split.
In a phonological merger, two or more phonemes collapse into a single one, thereby
reducing the number of phonemes in the language. The case of auditory-based substitution
discussed above has the effect in Cockney English, where all instances of the interdental fricative
/θ/ have become /f/. Consequently, the phonemes /θ/ and /f/ have merged into one (/f/) and
words such as thin and fin have the same phonological form (/fin/). Similarly, /v/ and /ð/ have
merged to /v/.
A phonological shift is a change in which a series of phonemes is systematically modified

so that their organization with respect to each other is altered. A well-known example of such a
change is called the Great English Vowel Shift. Beginning in the Middle English period and
continuing into the eighteen century, the language underwent a series of modifications to the
long vowels.
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Table 5.9. The Great English Vowel Shift [74, p.268]

Middle E. Great Vowel Shift Modern E.
[ti:d] [i:] [ai] [taid] taid
[lu:d] [u:][au] [laud] loud
[ge:s] [e:][i:] [gi:s] geese
[sɛ:] [ɛ:][i:] [si:] sea
[go:] [o:][u:] [gu:s] goose
[brɔ:kən [ɔ:][ ou] [broukən] broken
[na:mə] [a:][e:] [naim] name
3.1.5. Sound change in the English language:

3.1.5.1. Sound change in the English language
Over the last 1,200 years or so, English has undergone extensive changes in its vowel
system but many fewer changes to its consonants.
In the Old English period, a number of umlaut processes affected vowels in complex
ways, and unstressed vowels were gradually eroded, eventually leading to a loss of grammatical
case and grammatical gender in the Early Middle English period. The most important umlaut
process was i-mutation (c. 500 CE), which led to pervasive alternations of all sorts, many of
which survive in the modern language: e.g. in noun paradigms (foot vs. feet, mouse vs. mice,
brother vs. brethren); in verb paradigms (sold vs. sell); nominal derivatives from adjectives
("strong" vs. "strength", broad vs. breadth, foul vs. filth) and from other nouns (fox vs.
"vixen"); verbal derivatives ("food" vs. "to feed"); and comparative adjectives ("old" vs.
"elder"). Consonants were more stable, although velar consonants were significantly modified
by palatalization, which produced alternations such as speak vs. speech, drink vs. drench,
wake vs. watch, bake vs. batch.
The Middle English period saw further vowel changes. Most significant was the Great
Vowel Shift (c. 1500 CE), which transformed the pronunciation of all long vowels. This
occurred after the spelling system was fixed, and accounts for the drastic differences in
pronunciation between "short" mat, met, bit, cot vs. "long" mate, mete/meet, bite, coot. Other
changes that left echoes in the modern language were homorganic lengthening before ld, mb,
nd, which accounts for the long vowels in child, mind, climb, etc.; pre-cluster shortening, which
resulted in the vowel alternations in child vs. children, keep vs. kept, meet vs. met; and
trisyllabic laxing, which is responsible for alternations such as grateful vs. gratitude, divine vs.
divinity, sole vs. solitary.
Among the more significant recent changes to the language have been the development
of rhotic and non-rhotic accents (i.e. "r-dropping"); the trap-bath split in many dialects of
British English; and flapping of t and d between vowels in American English and Australian
English.
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3.1.5.2. Vowel changes [19, p.72]

The main vocalic changes in the development from Old English to present-day General
British (GB) were:
a-OE rounded front vowels [y:,y] were lost by ME (following even earlier loss of [ø,ɶ ]).
b-Vowels in weakly accented final syllables (particularly in suffixes) were elided or
obscured to [ə] or [i] in ME or eModE.
c-All OE long vowels closed or diphthongised in eModE or soon after
d-Short vowels have remained relatively stable. The principal exception is the splitting of
ME [ʊ] into [ᴧ] and [ʊ], the latter remaining only in some labial and velar contexts.
e-ME [a] was lengthened and retracted before [f,θ,s] in the eighteenth century.
f-The loss of post-vocalic [r] in the eighteenth century gave rise to the centring
diphthongs /iə, eə, ͻə, ʊə / (later ͻə had merged with /ͻ:/by 1950 and /eə/ became /ɛ:/ by 2000).
The pure vowel /3:/ arose in the same way and the same disappearance of post-vocalic [r]
introduced /a:, ͻ:/ into new categories of words, e.g. cart, port.
The vowel changes over time can be seen in the following example words, showing the
changes in their form over the last 2,000 years [164]:
Table 5.10. Vowel change in some English words [164]

One Two Three
Proto-Germanic, c. 0 AD ainaz twai θri:z
West Germanic, c. 400 AD ain twai θrju
Late Old English, c. 900 AD a:n twa: θreo
(Late Old English spelling) (ān) (twā) (Þrēo)
Late Middle English, c. 1350 AD ᴐ:n two: θre:
(Late Middle English spelling) (oon) (two) (three)
Early Modern English, c.1600 AD o:n > wun twu:> tu: θri:
Modern English, c. 2000 AD wʌn tu: θri:
one two three
3.1.5.3. Consonant change [19, p.73]:

The main consonantal changes from OE to present-day General British (GB) were:
a-Certain consonant clusters ceased to be tolerated, e.g. /hl, hr, hn/ by ME and /kn,gn,wr/
in the eModE period.
b- New phonemes emerged, e.g. [v, ð, z], medial allophones of /f, θ , s/ in OE, became
contrastive when words like effort, ethic and passage were imported from French with medial
/f, θ, s/. In eModE the new phonemes /ŋ, ʒ/ arose, the one from coalescence of [zj] as in vision
and the other from loss of [g] following /ŋ/ producing a contrast between sin and sing.
c-Post-vocalic [x] and [c] (allophones of /h/ in OE and ME) in words like brought and
right were lost in eModE (with compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel).
d-eModE /r/ has been lost in positions where it was not before a vowel, e.g. in part,
born, beard, fern, apart from (mainly rural) areas of the south-west and north-west England and
in Scotland.
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3.2. Alphabet change
Language change can involve alphabet change. An example is the English language.
3.2.1. Anglo-Saxon futhorc runic alphabet
The English language was first written in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc runic alphabet, in
use from the 5th century. This alphabet was brought to what is now England, along with the
proto-form of the language itself, by Anglo-Saxon settlers.
Anglo-Saxon runes are runes used by the early Anglo-Saxons as an alphabet in their
writing. The characters are known collectively as the futhorc (or fuþorc), from the Old English
sound values of the first six runes. The futhorc was a development from the 24-character elder
futhark. Since the futhorc runes are thought to have first been used in Frisia before the Anglo-
Saxon settlement of Britain, they have also been called Anglo-Frisian runes. They were likely
used from the 5th century onward, recording Old English and Old Frisian.
After the 9th century, they were gradually supplanted in Anglo-Saxon England by the
Old English Latin alphabets introduced by Irish missionaries. Runes were no longer in common
use by the year 1000 and were banned under King Cnut (r. 1016–1036).
The Anglo-Saxon rune poem (Cotton Otho B.x.165) has the following runes, listed with
their Unicode glyphs, their names, their transliterations, and their approximate phonetic values in
IPA notation:
Table 5.11. Anglo-Saxon futhorc runic alphabet [140]
Rune Old English

UCS Name meaning Transliteration IPA
Image name
ᚠ feoh "wealth" f [f], [v]
ᚢ ūr "aurochs" u [u], [uː]
ᚦ þorn "thorn" þ, ð [θ], [ð]
"[a] god", also "mouth"
ᚩ ōs o [o], [oː]
following the Latin
ᚱ rād "ride" r [r]
ᚳ cēn "torch" c [k], [kʲ], [tʃ]
[ɡ], [ɣ], [j],
ᚷ gyfu "gift" g
([x])?, ([gʲ])?
ᚹ wynn "mirth" w [w]
ᚻ hægl "hail (precipitation)" h [h], [x], [ç]
ᚾ nȳd "need, angst" n [n]
ᛁ īs "ice" i [i], [iː]
ᛄ gēr "year, harvest" j [j]
ᛇ ēoh "yew" eo [ç], ([eo, eːo])?
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ᛈ peorð (unknown) p [p]

ᛉ eolh "elk-sedge" x [ks], ([x])?
ᛋ sigel "sun" s [s], [z]
ᛏ Tīr "Tiw (a god)" t [t]
ᛒ beorc "birch" b [b]
ᛖ eh "horse" e [e], [eː]
ᛗ mann "man" m [m]
ᛚ lagu "lake" l [l]
ᛝ Ing "Ing (a hero)" ŋ [ŋg], [ŋ]
ᛟ ēðel "ethel (estate)" œ ([eː])
ᛞ dæg "day" d [d]
ᚪ āc "oak" a [ɑ], [ɑː]
ᚫ æsc "ash-tree" æ [æ], [æː]
ᚣ ȳr "bow" y [y], [yː]
([jɑ, jo], [jɑː,
ᛡ īor "eel" ia, io
joː])?
ᛠ ēar "grave" ea [æɑ], [æːɑ]
3.2.2. The Old English Latin alphabet [180]
The Latin script, introduced by Christian missionaries, began to replace the Anglo-Saxon
futhorc from about the 7th century, although the two continued in parallel for some time. Futhorc
influenced the emerging English alphabet by providing it with the letters thorn (Þ þ) and wynn
(Ƿ ƿ). The letter eth (Ð ð) was later devised as a modification of dee (D d), and finally yogh (Ȝ ȝ)
was created by Norman scribes from the insular g in Old English and Irish, and used alongside
their Carolingian g.
The a-e ligature ash (Æ æ) was adopted as a letter in its own right, named after a futhorc
rune æsc. In very early Old English the o-e ligature ethel (Œ œ) also appeared as a distinct letter,
likewise named after a rune, œðel. Additionally, the v-v or u-u ligature double-u (W w) was in
use.
In the year 1011, a monk named Byrhtferð recorded the traditional order of the Old
English alphabet. He listed the 24 letters of the Latin alphabet first (including ampersand), then 5
additional English letters, starting with the Tironian note ond (⁊), an insular symbol for and:
ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTVXYZ&⁊ǷÞÐÆ
The Old English Latin alphabet generally consisted of 24 letters, and was used for
writing Old English from the 9th to the 12th centuries. Of these letters, 20 were directly adopted
from the Latin alphabet, two were modified Latin letters (Æ, Ð), and two developed from the
runic alphabet (Ƿ, Þ). The letters K, Q and Z were not in the spelling of native English words.
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Table 5.12. The Old English Latin alphabet [180]
Majuscule forms (also called uppercase or capital letters)

A Æ B C D Ð E F Ᵹ/G H I L M N O P R S T Þ U Ƿ/W X Y
Minuscule forms (also called lowercase or small letters)
a æ b c d ð e f ᵹ/g h i l m n o p r s/ſ t þ u ƿ/w x y
Table 5.13. Old English Latin alphabet pronunciation [139]
Letters of the Anglo-Saxon Alphabet
Letter IPA O.E. Mn.E. word w/

https://ealdaenglisc.wordpress.com/old-english-lessons/lesson-0-alphabet-and-
word: meaning sound
pronunciation/ (https://ealdaenglisc.wordpress.com/old-english-lessons/lesson-0-
alphabet-and-pronunciation/:
A a /ɑ/ lacu sea farm but
(lake) shorter
Ā ā /ɑː/ stān stone farm
Æ æ /æ/ fæder father cat
Ǣ ǣ /æː/ dǣd deed cat but

longer
B b /b/ brōðor brother
/k/ cyning king

C
1 c
/ʧ/ cild child
D d /d/ dohtor daughter
Ð /θ/ eorð earth

2,
ð
3
/ð/ feðer feather
/e/ ende end first sound

E e in eight
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Ē ē /eː/ cwēn queen eight but

longer
F f /f/ feld field
3
/v/ heofon heaven
/g/ gōs goose

G
4 g
/γ/ sorga sorrows sagen
(German)
/j/ gēar year
/h/ hūs house

H
5 h
/x/ eahta eight loch
(Scottish)
/ç/ niht night ich
(German)
I i /i/ clif cliff feet but
shorter
Ī ī /iː/ wīf wife feet
L l /l/ lufu love
M m /m/ mōdor mother
N n /n/ nosu nose
/o/ folc folk first sound

O o in oat
Ō ō /oː/ mōna moon oat but

longer
P p /p/ pere pear
R r /r/ (?) heorte heart

6
/s/ sunne sun

S
3 s
/z/ rīsan rise
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T t /t/ tōð tooth
U u /u/ tunge tongue mood but

shorter
Ū ū /uː/ mūs mouse mood
W w /w/ wulf wolf
X x /ks/ oxa ox
Y y /y/ wyrm worm tu (French)
ȳ /yː/ fȳr fire tu (Fr.) but

Ȳ longer
Þ þ /θ/ þing thing

2,
3 /ð/ hwæþer whether
Diphthongs and Digraphs
E /æa/ weall wall

a ea
7 /a/ sēcean seek
Ē ēa /æːa/ ēare ear

a
E /eo/ geoc yoke
o eo
7 /u/ sceolan shall
Ē ēo /eːo/ frēodōm freedom

o
I ie /ı/(?) scieppan create sit
e (shape)
8Ī īe /ıː/(?) hīeran hear sit but
e longer
8
cg /ʤ/ ecg edge
ng /ŋ/ sang song
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/nʤ/ engel angel
S /ʃ/ scip ship

c sc
9 /sk/ ascian ask
Notes
1 a When word initial and followed by a back vowel (a, o, u) or y, or

when word final and preceded by a back vowel, c is pronounced
/k/.
b When followed by a front vowel (æ, e, i) or the diphthongs ea or

eo, or when preceded by the letter i AND not followed by a back
vowel, c is pronounced /ʧ/.
2 Ð/ð and Þ/þ are interchangeable, with no difference in

pronunciation or meaning caused.
3 a When at the beginning or end of a word, or when adjacent to an

unvoiced consonant, f, ð/þ, and s are unvoiced: /f/, /θ/, /s/,
respectively.
b When falling between two vowels or adjacent to a voiced

consonant, these letters are voiced: /v/, /ð/, /z/.
4 a When syllable initial and followed by a back vowel or word final

and preceded by a back vowel, g is pronounced /g/.
b When falling between two voiced sounds, g is pronounced /γ/. If

you are unable to make this sound, simply say the approximant
/w/ instead.
c When followed by a front vowel or the diphthongs ea or eo, or

when preceded by a front vowel AND not followed by a back
vowel, g is pronounced /j/, like the ‘y’ sound in Mn.E. yes.
5 a When syllable initial, h is pronounced /h/.
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b When preceded by a back vowel, h is pronounced /x/.
c When preceded by a front vowel, h is pronounced /ç/.
Sample text in Old English (Prologue from Beowulf) [138]
Modern English version
LO, praise of the prowess of people-kings

of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,
we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!
Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes,
from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore,
awing the earls. Since erst he lay
friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him:
for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve,
till before him the folk, both far and near,
who house by the whale-path, heard his mandate,
gave him gifts.
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3.2.3. Middle English alphabet [175]
With the discontinuation of the Late West Saxon standard used for the writing of Old
English in the period prior to the Norman Conquest, Middle English came to be written in a wide
variety of scribal forms, reflecting different regional dialects and orthographic conventions. Later
in the Middle English period, however, and particularly with the development of the Chancery
Standard in the 15th century, orthography became relatively standardised in a form based on the
East Midlands-influenced speech of London. Spelling at the time was mostly quite regular (there
was a fairly consistent correspondence between letters and sounds). The irregularity of present-
day English orthography is largely due to pronunciation changes that have taken place over the
Early Modern English and Modern English eras.
3.2.3.1. Middle English alphabet
The basic Old English Latin alphabet had consisted of 20 standard letters (there was not
yet a distinct j, v or w, and Old English scribes did not generally use k, q or z) plus four
additional letters: ash ⟨æ⟩, eth ⟨ð⟩, thorn ⟨þ⟩ and wynn ⟨ƿ⟩.
Ash was no longer required in Middle English, as the Old English vowel /æ/ that it
represented had merged into /a/. The symbol nonetheless came to be used as a ligature for the
digraph ⟨ae⟩ in many words of Greek or Latin origin, as did œ for ⟨oe⟩.
Eth and thorn both represented /θ/ in Old English. Eth fell out of use during the 13th
century and was replaced by thorn. Thorn mostly fell out of use during the 14thcentury, and was
replaced by ⟨th⟩. (Anachronistic usage of the scribal abbreviation ("þe", i.e. "the") has led to the
modern mispronunciation of thorn as ⟨y⟩ in this context; see Ye Olde.)
Wynn, which represented the phoneme /w/, was replaced by ⟨w⟩ during the 13th century.
Due to its similarity to the letter ⟨p⟩, it is mostly represented by ⟨w⟩ in modern editions of Old
and Middle English texts even when the manuscript has wynn.
Under Norman influence, the continental Carolingian script replaced the insular that had
been used for Old English. However, because of the significant difference in appearance between
the old insular g and the Carolingian g, the former continued in use as a separate letter, known as
yogh, written ⟨ȝ⟩. This was adopted for use to represent a variety of sounds: [ɣ], [j], [dʒ], [x], [ç],
while the Carolingian g was normally used for [g]. Instances of yogh were eventually replaced
by ⟨j⟩ or ⟨y⟩, and by ⟨gh⟩ in words like night and laugh. In Middle Scots yogh became
indistinguishable from cursive z, and printers tended to use ⟨z⟩ when yogh was not available in
their fonts; this led to new spellings (often giving rise to new pronunciations), as in McKenzie,
where the ⟨z⟩ replaced a yogh which had the pronunciation /j/.
Under continental influence, the letters ⟨k⟩, ⟨q⟩ and ⟨z⟩, which had not normally been
used by Old English scribes, came to be commonly used in the writing of Middle English. Also
the newer Latin letter ⟨w⟩ was introduced (replacing wynn). The distinct letter forms ⟨v⟩ and ⟨u⟩
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came into use, but were still used interchangeably; the same applies to ⟨j⟩ and ⟨i⟩. (For example,
spellings such as wijf and paradijs for wife and paradise can be found in Middle English.)
The consonantal ⟨j⟩/⟨i⟩ was sometimes used to transliterate the Hebrew letter yodh,
representing the palatal approximant sound /j/ (and transliterated in Greek by iota and in Latin
by ⟨i⟩); words like Jerusalem, Joseph, etc. would have originally followed the Latin
pronunciation beginning with /j/, that is, the sound of ⟨y⟩ in yes. In some words, however,
notably from Old French, ⟨j⟩/⟨i⟩ was used for the affricate /dʒ/, as in joie (modern "joy"), used in
Wycliffe's Bible. This was similar to the geminate sound [ddʒ] which had been represented as
⟨cg⟩ in Old English. By the time of Modern English, the sound came to be written as ⟨j⟩/⟨i⟩ at the
start of words (like joy), and usually as ⟨dg⟩ elsewhere (as in bridge). It could also be written,
mainly in French loanwords, as ⟨g⟩, with the adoption of the soft G convention (age, page, etc.)
3.2.3.2. Other symbols
Many scribal abbreviations were also used. It was common for the Lollards to abbreviate
the name of Jesus (as in Latin manuscripts) to ihc. The letters ⟨n⟩ and ⟨m⟩ were often omitted
and indicated by a macron above an adjacent letter, so for example in could be written as ī. A
thorn with a superscript ⟨t⟩ or ⟨e⟩ could be used for that and the; the thorn here resembled a ⟨Y⟩,
giving rise to the ye of "Ye Olde". Various forms of the ampersand replaced the word and.
Numbers were still always written using Roman numerals, except for some rare
occurrences of Arabic numerals during the 15th century.
3.2.3.3. Letter-to-sound correspondences
Although Middle English spelling was never fully standardised, the following table
shows the pronunciations most usually represented by particular letters and digraphs towards the
end of the Middle English period, using the notation given in the article on Middle English
phonology. As explained above, single vowel letters had alternative pronunciations depending on
whether they were in a position where their sounds had been subject to lengthening. Long vowel
pronunciations were in flux due to the beginnings of the Great Vowel Shift.
Table 5.14. Middle English spelling: Letter-to-sound correspondences [175]

Symbol Description and notes
/a/, or in lengthened positions /aː/, becoming [æː] by about 1500. Sometimes /au/
a
before ⟨l⟩ or nasals (see Late Middle English diphthongs).
ai, ay /ai/ (alternatively denoted by /ɛi/; see vein–vain merger).
au, aw /au/
/b/, but in later Middle English became silent in words ending -mb (while some
b words that never had a /b/ sound came to be spelt -mb by analogy; see reduction of
/mb/).
c /k/, but /s/ (earlier /ts/) before ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨y⟩ (see C and hard and soft C for details).
ch /tʃ/
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/k/, replaced earlier ⟨kk⟩ as the doubled form of ⟨k⟩ (for the phenomenon of
ck
doubling, see above).
d /d/
/e/, or in lengthened positions /eː/ or sometimes /ɛː/ (see ee). For silent ⟨e⟩, see
e
above.
ea Rare, for /ɛː/ (see ee).
/eː/, becoming [iː] by about 1500; or /ɛː/, becoming [eː] by about 1500. In Early
ee Modern English the latter vowel came to be commonly written ⟨ea⟩. The two
vowels later merged.
ei, ey Sometimes the same as ⟨ai⟩; sometimes /ɛː/ or /eː/ (see also fleece merger).
ew Either /ɛu/ or /iu/ (see Late Middle English diphthongs; these later merged).
f /f/
/ɡ/, or /dʒ/ before ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨y⟩ (see ⟨g⟩ for details). The ⟨g⟩ in initial gn- was still
g
pronounced.
[ç] or [x], post-vowel allophones of /h/ (this was formerly one of the uses of yogh).
gh The ⟨gh⟩ is often retained in Chancery spellings even though the sound was starting
to be lost.
/h/ (except for the allophones for which ⟨gh⟩ was used). Also used in several
h digraphs (⟨ch⟩, ⟨th⟩, etc.). In some French loanwords, such as horrible, the ⟨h⟩ was
silent.
As a vowel, /i/, or in lengthened positions /iː/, which had started to be
i, j diphthongised by about 1500. As a consonant, /dʒ/ ( (corresponding to modern ⟨j⟩);
see above).
ie Used sometimes for /ɛː/ (see ee).
/k/, used particularly in positions where ⟨c⟩ would be softened. Also used in ⟨kn⟩ at
k
the start of words; here both consonants were still pronounced.
l /l/
m /m/
n /n/, including its allophone [ŋ] (before /k/, /g/).
/o/, or in lengthened positions /ɔː/ or sometimes /oː/ (see oo). Sometimes /u/, as in
o sone (modern son); the ⟨o⟩ spelling was often used rather than ⟨u⟩ when adjacent to
i, m, n, v, w for legibility, i.e. to avoid a succession of vertical strokes.
oa Rare, for /ɔː/ (became commonly used in Early Modern English).
oi, oy /ɔi/ or /ui/ (see Late Middle English diphthongs; these later merged).
oo /oː/, becoming [uː] by about 1500; or /ɔː/.
ou, ow Either /uː/, which had started to be diphthongised by about 1500, or /ɔu/.
p /p/
qu /kw/
r /r/
s /s/, sometimes /z/ (formerly [z] was an allophone of /s/). Also appeared as ſ (long s).
sch, sh /ʃ/
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t /t/
/θ/ or /ð/ (which had previously been allophones of a single phoneme), replacing
th
earlier eth and thorn, although thorn was still sometimes used.
Used interchangeably. As a consonant, /v/. As a vowel, /u/, or /iu/ in "lengthened"
u, v positions (although it had generally not gone through the same lengthening process
as other vowels – see history of /iu/).
w /w/ (replaced Old English wynn).
wh /hw/ (see English ⟨wh⟩).
x /ks/
As a consonant, /j/ (earlier this was one of the uses of yogh). Sometimes also /g/. As
y a vowel, the same as ⟨i⟩, where ⟨y⟩ is often preferred beside letters with
downstrokes.
z /z/ (in Scotland sometimes used as a substitute for yogh; see above).
3.2.3.4. Sample
Table 5.15. The Canterbury Tales: The first 18 lines of the Prologue [134]
Here bygynneth the Book of the tales of Here begins the Book of the Tales of Canterbury
Caunterbury
1-When April with his showers sweet with fruit
1-Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
2-The drought of March has pierced unto the root
2-The droghte of march hath perced to the
roote, 3-And bathed each vein with liquor that has power
3-And bathed every veyne in swich licour 4-To generate therein and sire the flower;
4-Of which vertu engendred is the flour; 5-When Zephyr also has, with his sweet breath,
5-Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth 6-Quickened again, in every holt and heath,
6-Inspired hath in every holt and heeth 7-The tender shoots and buds, and the young sun
7-Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne 8-Into the Ram one half his course has run,
8-Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne, 9-And many little birds make melody
9-And smale foweles maken melodye, 10-That sleep through all the night with open eye
10-That slepen al the nyght with open ye 11-(So Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage)-
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11-(so priketh hem nature in hir corages); 12-Then do folk long to go on pilgrimage,
12-Thanne longen folk to goon on 13-And palmers to go seeking out strange strands,
pilgrimages,
14-To distant shrines well known in sundry lands.
13-And palmeres for to seken straunge
strondes, 15-And specially from every shire's end
14-To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes; 16-Of England they to Canterbury wend,
15-And specially from every shires ende 17-The holy blessed martyr there to seek
16-Of engelond to caunterbury they wende, 18-Who helped them when they lay so ill and weal
17-The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
18-That hem hath holpen whan that they were

seeke.
3.2.3. Modern English [156]
In the orthography of Modern English, thorn (þ), eth (ð), wynn (ƿ), yogh (ȝ), ash (æ),
and ethel (œ) are obsolete. Latin borrowings reintroduced homographs of ash and ethel into
Middle English and Early Modern English, though they are not considered to be the same letters
but rather ligatures, and in any case are somewhat old-fashioned. Thorn and eth were both
replaced by th, though thorn continued in existence for some time, its lowercase form gradually
becoming graphically indistinguishable from the minuscule y in most handwriting. Y for th can
still be seen in pseudo-archaisms such as "Ye Olde Booke Shoppe". The letters þ and ð are still
used in present-day Icelandic while ð is still used in present-day Faroese. Wynn disappeared
from English around the 14th century when it was supplanted by uu, which ultimately developed
into the modern w. Yogh disappeared around the 15th century and was typically replaced by gh.
The letters u and j, as distinct from v and i, were introduced in the 16th century, and w
assumed the status of an independent letter, so that the English alphabet is now considered to
consist of the following 26 letters:
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
The variant lowercase form long s (ſ) lasted into early modern English, and was used in
non-final position up to the early 19th century.The modern English alphabet is a Latin alphabet
consisting of 26 letters (each having an uppercase and a lowercase form).
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Table 5.16. The Modern English alphabet [141]
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
Majuscule forms (also called uppercase or capital letters)
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Minuscule forms (also called lowercase or small letters)
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
3.3. Morphological change [74, pp.270-274]

3.3.1. Addition of affixes
3.3.1.1. Borrowing
Borrowing has been a very important source of new affixes in English. During the
Middle English period, many French words containing the suffix –ment made their way into the
language. Eventually, -ment established itself as a productive suffix in English and was used
with bases that were not of French origin (for example, acknowledgement). The ending –able,
which converts a verb into an adjective (for example, readable, loveable, etc.), followed a
similar pattern.
3.3.1.2. Fusion
Not all new affixes are the result of borrowing. Words themselves can develop into
affixes in a process called fusion. If two words are frequently adjacent, over time they can
become fused together to form a single unit consisting of a stem and an affix. Fusion can result
in either prefixes or suffixes.
Table 5.17. Fusian

Word + word  affix + stem / stem + affix
A number of Modern English suffixes are derived from earlier words by means of fusion.
Table 5.18. English suffixes resulting from fusion [74, p.271]
Suffix Old English word

-hood (childhood) hād State, condition, rank
-dom (freedom) dōm Condition, power
-ly (fatherly) (ge-)līc Similar, equal, like
3.3.2. Loss of affixes

Just as affixes can be added to grammar, they can also be lost. For example, a number of
Old English derivational affixes, including -bǣre and -bora, are no longer used.
Table 5.19. Examples of loss of affixes in English [74, p.271]

N + -bǣre > A lustbǣre pleasant, agreeable (from lust : pleasure)
N + -bora > N mundbora protector (from mund: protection)
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Loss of case endings in English is another example of loss of affixes. Old English had a
complex system of affixes marking case and gender. The English language once had an
extensive declension system similar to Latin, modern German and Icelandic. Nouns were divided
into three gender classes; masculine, neutral, and feminine. Each gender class was associated
with a different set of case endings. Old English distinguished between the nominative,
accusative, dative, and genitive cases, and for strongly declined adjectives and some pronouns
also a separate instrumental case (which otherwise and later completely coincided with the
dative). In addition, the dual number was distinguished from the singular and plural. By the
fifteenth century, English case endings had changed radically. Declension was greatly simplified
during the Middle English period, when the accusative and dative cases of the pronouns merged
into a single oblique case that also replaced the genitive case after prepositions. Consequently,
many of the earlier case and gender distinctions were obliterated. Nouns in Modern English no
longer decline for case, except for the genitive.
Table 5.20. The loss of case affixes in the English word hound [74, p.272]
O.E M.E Modern E.
Singular
Nominative hund hund hound
Accusative hund hund hound
Genitive hundes hundes hound’s
Dative hunde hunde hound
Plural
Nominative hundas hundes hounds
Accusative hundas hundes hounds
Genitive hunda hunde hounds’
Dative hundum hunde hounds
Whereas Old English had five distinctive affixes for cases, Middle English had only two
affixes, -e and -es which, with the loss of schwa, were ultimately reduced to a single suffix -s,
still used in Modern English for the plural and the possessive. This represents a typical example
of how sound change can result in modification to the morphological component of the grammar.
3.3.3. Analogy and reanalysis

Cognitive factors play a role in change in all components of the grammar.
Analogy reflects the preference of speakers for regular patterns over irregular ones. It
typically involves the extension or generalisation of a regularity on the basis of the inference that
if elements are alike in some respects, they should be alike in others as well.
The Modern English plural hands can not be the direct consequence of sound change.
Rather, it is the result of earlier analogy with words such as hund (hound) which did form the
plural with the suffix -s (The Old English handa (hands) changed to handə (vowel reduction)
and then to hand (apocope). The suffix -s, whose earlier form -as was predominant even in Old
English, was extended by analogy to all English nouns with a few exceptions. Other plural
forms besides hands that were created on the basis of analogy include eye (eyen in Middle
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English) and shoe (formally shooen). Each generation of English speaking children temporarily
extends the analogy still further by producing forms such as sheeps, gooses, and mouses.
Reanalysis is particularly common on morphological change. Morphological reanalysis

often involves an attempt to attribute a compound or root + affix structure to a word that
formally was not broken down into components morphemes. Reanalysis can result in a new
morphological for a word. It can affect both borrowed words and, particularly in cases where the
morphological structure of the word is no longer transparent, native words. Reanalysis can result
in new productive patterns, as in the case of the suffix -burger, or it can remain quite isolated,
affecting perhaps only one word.
3.4. Syntactic Change [74, pp. 274-277]

Like other components of the grammar, syntax is also subject to change over time.
3.4.1. Word order

All languages make a distinction between the subject and direct object. This contrast is
typically represented through case marking or word order. Since Old English had an extensive
system of case marking, it is not surprising that its word order was somewhat more variable than
that of Modern English. The most common word order in unembedded clauses was subject-
verb-object (SVO)
e.g. S V O
Hē geseah ƿone mann
He saw the man
However, when the clause began with an element such as ƿa (then) or ne (not), the verb
occurred in the second position and preceded the subject.
e.g. V S O
ƿa sende sē cyning ƿone disc
Then sent the king the dish
Then the king sent the dish.
When the direct object was a noun, the subject-object-verb order was typical.
e.g. S O V
Hē hine lǣrde
She him advised
She advised him.
The subject-object-verb order also prevailed in embedded clauses, even when the direct
object was not a pronoun.
e.g. S O V
ƿa hē ƿone cyning sōhte, hē bēotode
when he the king visited, he boasted.
When he visited the king, he boasted.
Since case markings were lost during the Middle English period through sound change,
fixed subject-verb-object order (SVO) became the means of marking grammatical relations. As
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table 5.20 shows, a major change in word order took place between 1300 and 1400, with verb-
object order (SVO) becoming dominant:
Table 5.21. Word order patterns in Middle English [74, p.275]

Year 1000 1200 1300 1400 1500
(A.D) 2
SOV 53 53 40 14
SVO 47 47 60 86 98
Evidence indicates the earliest form of Germanic (from which English descended), was
an SOV language. If the earliest Germanic was SVO and Modern English is firmly SVO, then
Old English represents a transitional syntactic type. The English language has changed from a
SOV language to SVO language.
3.4.2. Grammatical cases

The English language once had an extensive declension system similar to Latin, modern
German and Icelandic. Old English distinguished between the nominative, accusative, dative,
and genitive cases, and for strongly declined adjectives and some pronouns also a separate
instrumental case (which otherwise and later completely coincided with the dative). In addition,
the dual number was distinguished from the singular and plural. Declension was greatly
simplified during the Middle English period, when the accusative and dative cases of the
pronouns merged into a single oblique case that also replaced the genitive case after prepositions.
Nouns in Modern English no longer decline for case, except for the genitive.
Table 5.22. Grammatical case change in the English word hound [74, p.271]
O.E M.E Modern E.
Singular
Nominative hund hund hound
Accusative hund hund hound
Genitive hundes hundes hound’s
Dative hunde hunde hound
Plural
Nominative hundas hundes hounds
Accusative hundas hundes hounds
Genitive hunda hunde hounds’
Dative hundum hunde hounds
Table 5.23. Grammatical case change in first person personal pronouns [164]
Case Old English Middle English Modern English

Nominative iċ I, ich, ik I
Singular Accusative mē, meċ
me me
Dative mē
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Genitive mīn min, mi my, mine

Nominative wē we we
Accusative ūs, ūsiċ
Plural us us
Dative ūs
Genitive ūser, ūre ure, our our, ours
As seen the English language has developed from a synthetic language into an analytic
language. While Old English was a highly inflected language, a few critical sound changes left
little inflectional morphology in Middle English. Modern English is thus an analytical language,
relying principally on word order, not on grammatical cases as in Old English, to express
grammatical relations that were formally marked inflectionally. The Old English grammatical
case system does not exist in Modern English.
3.4.3. Negation element

In Old English the main negation element was ne. It usually occurred before the auxiliary
verb or the verb, as illustrated bellow:
E.g. 1. Ƿǣt hē na sīppan geboren ne wurde
That he never after born not would-be
That he should never be born after that
E.g. 2. ac hie ne dorston pær on cuman

but they not dared there on come
but they dared not land there
In the first example the word order is different from that of Modern English, and there are
two negatives: na (a contraction of ne+a; not +ever =never) and ne. A double negative was
grammatical in Old English, although double negative are ungrammatical in Modern Standard
English.
In addition to the contraction of ne+a  na, other negative contractions occurred in Old
English: ne could be attached to habb- (have), wes- (be), wit-(know), and will-(will) to form
nabb-, nes-, nyt, and nyll-, respectively.
In Old English, the negative element occurs at the beginning of the contraction, because it
typically preceded the auxiliary in sentences. The rules determining the placement of the
negative morpheme have changed in the historical development of the English language.
3.4.4. Inversion in the history of English

In Old and Middle English, the inversion transformation involved in the formation of yes-
no questions could apply to all verbs, not just auxiliaries, yielding forms that would be
unacceptable in Modern English.
e.g. Speak they the truth?
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the inversion rule was changed to apply
solely to auxiliary verbs
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Inversion (old form): the verb moves to the left of the subject
e.g. They speak.  Speak they?
They can speak  Can they speak?
Inversion (new form): the Auxiliaries moves to the left of the subject.
e.g. They speak  *Speak they?
They can speak  Can they speak?
With this change, structures such as Speak they the truth? were no longer possible.
The corresponding question came to be formed with the auxiliary do as in Do they speak
the truth?
3.4.5. Comparative and superlative construction change:

Another syntactic change in English affected the rules of comparative and superlative
constrcutions. In Malory’s Tales of King Arthur, written in 1470, double comparatives and
double superlatives occur, which are ungrammatical today: more gladder, more lower, moost
royallest, most shamefullest. Today we form the comparative by adding -er to the adjective or
by inserting most.
3.5. Lexical change

Another obvious type of language change involves modifications to the lexicon. There
are two possible types of lexical change, addition and loss. The addition and loss of words often
reflects cultural changes that introduce novel objects and notions and eliminate out-moded ones.
3.5.1. Addition of lexical items [74, pp.277-281]

Addition is frequently the result of technological innovations or contact with other
cultures. Such developments result in lexical gaps which can be filled by adding new words to
the lexicon. New words are added either through the word formation processes available to the
language or through borrowing.
3.5.1.1. Word formation

New words have been introduced into the English language by means of wordformation
processes, two of them have been compounding and derivation.
Table 5.24. Compounding and derivation in Old English [74, p.278]

Noun compounds
N+N Sunbēam sunbeam
A+N Middelniht Midnight
Adjective compounds
N+A blōdrēad bloodred
A+A dēadboren stillborn
Derived nouns
[bӕc]v +ere bӕcere baker
[frēond]N + scip frēondscipe friendship
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Derived adjectives
[wundor]N + ful wundorfull wonderful
[cid]N + isc cildisc childish
Many Old English compoundings and derived words are not used in Modern English.
Not all word formation processes available to Modern English speakers were also found in Old
English. For example, conversion was not possible in Old English. In fact, conversion is
typically not available to (synthetic) inflectional languages such as Old English since change in a
word category in such languages is usually indicated morphologically and conversion, does not
involve the use of affixes.
3.5.1.2. Borrowing
In the development of the English language, many words have been borrowed from other
language to enrich English vocabulary.
Table 5.25. The development of the English language [6, p.13]

Period Historical landmarks Key linguistic features
Pre-English (before c450 Celts - Celtic language spoken
AD) -some Celtic traces, esp. in place
names
Romans (43-410) -Latin becomes the official language
-a few Latin traces from this period
through Celtic transmission
Old English Germanic tribes arrive -mostly Germanic word-stock
(C450-C1150) (Angles, Saxons, Jutes and -fully inflected
Frisians) from the middle of -inflections begin to be levelled
the fifth century
Middle English (c1150- Norman Conquest in 1066 -enormous influx of French

c1500) vocabulary
-levelled inflections
-Great Vowel Shift starts
Early Modern English introduction of printing into -Great Vowel Shift

(c1500-c1700) England by William Caxton - standardisation and régularisation
in 1476 - large-scale borrowing from Latin,
Greek, French and other European
spread of English around the languages
world starts (colonisation)
Modern English (d700- English as a global language -almost no inflections

present) - borrowing from many languages
world-wide
Present Day English
(c1900-present)
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Old English (called Anglo-Saxon) was formed by mostly Germanic word-stock plus
some Celtic words and Latin words. Anglo-Saxon words have been considered native words.
Then, the English language borrowed words from the Scandinavian languages (languages spoken
by the Danes, Swedes, Norwegians) in the 8th century, words from the Norman-French after
1066 (11th century), words from the Latin language and Greek language during the renaissance
(1500-1700) and words from many other languages in Modern English period.
The tendency of English to borrow words has never abated since the earliest times. Let's
review the main sources of borrowing.
a-North European aboriginal terms into Common Germanic (before 2000BC)
b-Latin terms from the Romans into West Germanic (100BC-400AD)
c-Christianized Latin terms into Anglo Saxon (after 587AD)
d-Old Norse into Anglo Saxon (700-900AD)
e-Norman French into Old English (1066-1300AD)
f-Ancient Latin and Greek into Modern English 1500- through the present)
g-Other languages in the modern periods (Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch, Slavic
languages, Ameridian languages, Hindi).
Table 5.26. Origin of the 5000 most frequent words in English [74, p.281]
Source of language (%)
Word count English French Latin Other
First 1000 83 11 2 4
Second 1000 34 56 11 9
Third 1000 29 46 14 11
Fourth 1000 27 45 17 11
Fifth 1000 27 47 17 9
Depending on the cultural relationship holding between languages, three types of

influence of one language on the other are traditionally identified: subdtratum, adstratum, and
superstratum [74, pp.278-280].
Substratum influence is the effect of a politically or culturally non-dominant language

on a dominant language in the area. Both North American English and Canadian French have
borrowed vocabulary items from Amerindian languages. From much earlier period in the history
of English, the influence of a Celtic substratum is also evident, particularly in place names such
as Thames, London, and Dover. Substratum influence does not usually have a major impact on
the lexicon of the borrowing language. Borrowed words are usually restricted to place names
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and unfamiliar items or concepts. This situation reflects the fact that it is usually the speakers of
the substratum language who inhabited the area first.
Superstratum influence is the effect of a politically dominant language on another

language or languages in the area. In the case of English, Norman French had a superstratum
influence. The major impact of French on the vocabulary of English is related to a historical
event-the conquest of England by French-speaking Normans in 1066. As the conquerors and
their descendants gradually learned English over the next decades, they retained French terms for
political, judicial, and cultural notions. These words were in turn borrowed by native English
speakers who, in trying to gain a place in the upper-middle class, were eager to imitate the
speech of their social superiors. Not surprisingly, borrowing was especially heavy in the
vocabulary areas pertaining to officialdom: government, the judiciary, and religion. Other areas
of heavy borrowing include science, culture, and warfar.
Table 5.27. Some French loanwords in English [74, p.279]
Goverment Tax, revenue, government, royal, state, parliament, authority, prince,

duke, slave, peasant
Religion Prayer, sermon, religion, chaplain, fiar
Judiciary, Judge, defendant, jury, evidence, jail, verdict
crime
Science Medicine, physician
Culture Art, sculture, fashion, satin, fur, ruby
Warfare Army, navy, battle, soldier, enemy, captain
In some cases, French loanwords were used in conjunction with native English words to
convey distinctions of various sorts. For a minor crime, for example, the English word theft was
employed, but for a more serious breach of the law the French word theft was employed. The
English also kept their own words for domesticated animals, but adopted the French words for
the meat from those creatures.
Table 5.28. French loanwords used in conjunctions with native English words [74, p.280]
English origin French origin

Cow Beef
Calf Veal
Sheep Mutton
pig pork
Adstratum influence refers to the situation where two languages are in contact and
neither one is clearly politically or culturally dominant. In a city such as Montreal with its large
number of bilingual speakers, English and French inevitably influence each other.
Earlier in the history of English, when the Scandinavian settled part of England beginning
in 800 A.D., there was substantial contact between the speakers of English and Scandinavian
resulting in an adstratum relationship. Adstratum contact usually results in the borrowing of
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everyday words. In fact, without consulting a dictionary, most English speakers could not
distinguish between borrowings from Scandinavian and native English words.
Table 5.29. Some loanwords from Scadinavian [74, p.280]
Anger, cake, call, egg, fellow, gear, get, hit, husband, low, lump, raise, root, score, seat,
Borrowed words from many other languages attest to various types of cultural contact
and serve to fill the lexical gaps such contact inevitably brings.
Table 5.30. Some lexical borrowings into English [74, p.280]
Italian Motto, artichoke, balcony, casino, mafia, malaria

Spanish Comrade, tornado, cannibal, mosquito, banana, guitar, vigilante,
marijuana
German Poodle, kindergarten, seminar, noodle, pretzel
Dutch Sloop, cole slaw, smuggle, gin, cookie, boom
Slavic languages Czar, tundra, polka, intelligentsia, robot
Ameridian languages Toboggan, opossum, wigwam, chipmunk
Hindi Cummerbund, thug, punch, shampoo, chintz
3.5.1.3. Influence of borrowings on the vocabulary of the English language [114, pp.138-139]
Borrowed words have great influences on the vocabulary of the English language
a-on the lexical system
i-A borrowed word may oust a native word
e.g. fairhood (native word) was replaced by beauty (borrowed word)
fore-elders (native word) was replaced by ancesters (borrowed words)
ii-A borrowed word may restrict a native word to a narrower sphere of usage
e.g. stool (native word) -chair (borrowed word)
iii- A borrowed word may become a stylistic synonym to a native word (the borrowed
word being more literary)
e.g. child (native word) -infant (borrowed word)
room (native word) – chamber (borrowed word)
begin (native word)-commence (borrowed word)
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feed (native word) – nourish (borrowed word)
As a result of borrowings, the number of synonyms and synonymic groups greatly

increased.
iv-As a result of borrowings and their assimilation, new homonyms appeared
e.g. race (native word = running) – race (borrowed word = a distinct ethical stock)
arm (native word = part of the body) – arm (borrowed word = weapon)
v-As a result of semantic borrowing, new meanings appeared and the number of
polysemantic words increased.
vi-Borrowings intensified the difference between British and American English.
b- on the word-building system
i-Derived words may be formed from native and borrowed elements.
e.g. beautiful (beauty (borrowed), -ful (native)
breakable (break (native) , -able (borrowed)
ii-Compound words may be composed of a native component and a borrowed one
e.g. grand-father (grand (borrowed), father (native)
peace-making (peace(borrowed), making (native)
iii-A noun may have an adjective formed by means of affixes and a corresponding
borrowed adjective
e.g. sun – sunny -solar
moon – moony – lunar
house – homely – domestic
brother – brotherly – fraternal
c-Etymological doublets
Etymological doublets are two words of the same language which were borrowed by
different routes (from different languages) but derived from the same basic word. They differ to
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a certain degree in form, meaning and usage because they underwent different changes
depending on the time of borrowing.
i-some of these pair consist of a native word and a borrowed word
e.g. shirt (English) – skirt (Scandinavian)
shrew (English)-screw (Scandinavian)
ii-Others are two borrowings from different languages
e.g. senior (Latin) – sir (French)
canal (Latin) – channel (French)
iii-Still others were borrowed from the same language twice, but in different periods,
e.g. corpse (Norman French) – corps (Parisian French)
3.5.2. Loss of lexical items
Just as words can be added to the lexicon, they can also be lost. Loss of a word
frequently occurs as a result of changes in society, particularly in the case where the object or
notion a word refers to has become obsolete.
3.6. Semantic change [74. pp.281-282]

Semantic change (also semantic shift, semantic progression, semantic development, or
semantic drift) is the evolution of word usage—usually to the point that the modern meaning is
radically different from the original usage. In diachronic (or historical) linguistics, semantic
change is a change in one of the meanings of a word. Every word has a variety of senses and
connotations, which can be added, removed, or altered over time. In English, semantic change
can involve:
a-change in the denotative meaning of a word: semantic broadening (semantic

extension, semantic widening, semantic generalization), semantic narrowing (or semantic
generalization) and semantic weakening.
b-change in the connotational meaning of a word: amelioration (elevation) of meaning
and pejoration (degradation or degeneration) of meaning.
c-semantic transference (or transformation, transposition) of word meaning: semantic
change which is based on the interaction of a primary dictionary meaning and a contextually
imposed meaning. This is a process in which a word loses its former meaning taking on a new,
but often related meaning: metaphor and metonymy.
3.6.1. Semantic broadening

Semantic broadening is the process in which the meaning of a word becomes more
general or more inclusive than its historical earlier form.
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Table 5.31. Examples of semantic broadening [74, p.281]
Word Old Meaning New Meaning
bird Small fowl Any avian
barn Place to store barley Any agricultural building
aunt Father’s sister Father or mother’s sister
3.6.2. Semantic narrowing

Semantic narrowing is the process in which the meaning of a word become less general
or less inclusive than its historical earlier meaning.
Table 5.32. Examples of semantic narrowing [74, p.281)
hound Any dog A hunting breed
meat Any type of food Edible flesh of an animal
fowl Any bird A domesticated bird
disease Any unfavourable state An illness
3.6.3. Amelioration
In amelioration the meaning of a word becomes more positive or favourable.
Table 5.33. Examples of amelioration [74, p.282]
Pretty Tricky Attractive
knight boy A man of honorable military rank
minister A servant, an attendant Head of a state department
3.6.4. Pejoration
In pejoration the meaning of a word becomes more negative or more unfavourable.
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Table 5.34. Examples of pejoration [74, p.282]
Silly Happy, prosperous Foolish
wench girl Wanton woman, prostitute
3.6.5. Semantic Weakening

Table 5.35. Examples of semantic weakening [74, p.282]
wreak avenge To cause, to inflict
quel Kill, murder To put down, pacify
3.5.6. Transference of word meaning

Transference of word meaning is a process in which a word loses its former meaning
taking on a new, but often related, meaning.
3.5.6.1. Metaphor: transference based on resemblance or similarity:

Metaphor is a category of semantic change based on a perceived similarity between
distict objects or actions. Metaphorical change usually involves a word with a concrete meaning
taking on a more abstract sense, although the original meaning is not lost. This kind of meaning
called metaphorical meaning, derivative meaning or transferred meaning. The meanings of many
English words have been extended through metaphor.
Table 5.36. Some examples of metaphor in English [74, p.282]
Word Concrete meaning Metaphorical meaning

Grasp to take a firm hold Understand
Yarn knitting Story
High far above ground On drugs
Down to or at a lower position depressed
Sharp having a fine edge or point smart
Dull boring stupid
Metaphorical change of word meaning can be based on [114, p.144]:
a-similarity of shape and appearance: head (of a cabbage), the teeth (of a saw), the neck
(of a bottle), the mouth (of a river)..
b-similarity of position: the tail (of a procession), the foot (of a mountain)
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c-similarity of movement: to worm, to fall (in love), to come to (an agreement), to run
(into debt)…
d-similarity of function or use: finger (of instrument), the key (to the mistery)…
e-Similarity of size, midget (submarine), elephantine (task)…
f-similarity of temperature: hot (scent), cold (war), warm (words)…
g-similarity of sound and manner: to cough (to speak reluctantly), to bark (to say in a
sharp, commanding voice)…
f-similarity in quality: a bookworm (one who devotes too much to books and study), a
bee (a hard-working person), a goose (a stupid person), a fox (a cunning person).
3.5.6.2. Metonymy: semantic transference based on contiguity or nearness

Metonymy is a semantic transference based on some kind of association connecting the
two concepts which these meanings represent. Instead of one object or notion, we use the name
of another because these objects are associated and closely related. For example we use the
word crown for king or queen, cup or glass for the drink it contains.
There are the following types of metonymy: [114, pp.145-146]

a-the name of a container used instead of the thing contained,
e.g. He drank a cup.
b-the names of various organs (parts of human body) used as symbols,
e.g. an ear for music, to lose one’s head
c-The concrete used for the abstract
e.g. from the cradle to the grave (from birth to death)
d-The name of material used for the thing made of it,
e.g. iron (a tool to mooth linen), the brass (the musicalinstruments)
e-The name of a part used for the whole
e.g. roof (the house)
f-The name of a whole used for a part,
e.g. The smiling year (=season)
g-The name of an instrument used for the agent,
e.g. the pen is stronger than the sword.
h-The name of a place used for its inhabitants,
e.g. city, village, forest
i-The name of place used becoming the name of the thing produced
e.g. champaign, Bordeaux (wine)
j-The name of the inventor used for the thing invented,
e.g. ohm, ampere
k-the name of the author used for his work,
e.g. to read Dickens
4. THE SPREAD OF CHANGE [74, pp.282-283]
4.1. Diffusion through the language

Some linguistic change first manifests itself in a few words and then gradually spreads
through the vocabulary of the language. This change is called lexical diffusion.
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4.2. Spread through the population

For a language change to take place, the particular innovation must be accepted by the
linguistic community as a whole.
Just change sometimes begins with a small number of words, effects of a change often
appear first in the speech of a small number of people. Social pressures play an important role in
determining whether a particular innovation will spread through the entire linguistic community.
Since speakers can consciously or unconsciously alter the way they speak to approximate what
they perceive to be a more prestigious or socially acceptable variety of speech, once a change has
taken hold in the speech of a high prestige group it may gradually spread to other speakers and
ultimately affect the entire linguistic community.
For advanced reading, please refer to

1-http://thehistoryofenglish.com/index.html
2-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_language
CHAPTER V REVIEW
1-What branch of linguistics study language change?
2-What are the features of nature of language change?
3-What are the causes of language change?
4-What are the types of language change?
5-What are the types of sound change?
6-How has the English alphabet changed?
7-What are the types of morphological change?
8-What are the major types of syntactical change?
9-What are the types of lexical change in English?
10-How did borrowing in English affect language change in English?
11-What are the types of semantic change in English?
12-How has language change spread?
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II-T/ F: Decide whether the following statements are true or false:
1-Language change is the phenomenon where phonetic, morphological, semantic,

syntactic, and other features of language change over time.
2-All languages change continuously.
3-Internal causes of language change is the change caused by language contact.
4-Articulatory pronunciation and spelling pronunciation are the two causes of language
change.
5-Sound change can involve sequential change, segmental change and auditory-based
change.
6-Umblout is the nasalising effect that a nasal consonant can have on adjacent vowel.
7- A phonological shift is a change in which a series of phonemes is systematically

modified so that their organization with respect to each other is altered.
8-The English alphabet is the same as it was in Old English.
9- In Old English, fusion resulted in compounding.
10- The grammatical case system in Old English were the same as it is in Modern
English.
11-Nowadays, the English word order is SOV.
12- In Modern English, there are six grammatical cases.
13-Lexical change in the English language is by means of word formation, borrowing and
word loss.
14-In the development of the English language, many borrowings have been introduced
into the language to enrich the vocabulary.
15- Semantic broadening is the process in which the meaning of a word becomes less
general or less inclusive than its historical earlier form.
16-Semantic narrowing is the process in which the meaning of a word becomes less
general or less inclusive than its historical earlier form.
17-Amerioration is semantic change in denotational meaning.
18-In perjoration, the meaning of a word becomes more positive and more favourable.
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19-Metaphor and metonymy are two other types of semantic change.
20-Language change is through the lexical diffusion and spread through population.
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ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE TERMINOLOGY
1 Act sequence Chuỗi hành vi 133 Metonymy Hoán dụ
2 Addressing Xưng hô 134 Micro- Ngôn ngữ- Xã hội
sociolinguistics học vi mô
3 Adolescent Thanh thiếu niên 135 Middle name Tên đệm
4 Adstratum Tầng thêm 136 Modesty maxim Phương châm
khiêm tốn
5 Affinity Quan hệ thân tộc 137 Mutual face Thể diện chung
với bên vợ / chồng
6 Agreement maxim Phương châm tán 138 Mutual intelligibility Sự hiểu được lẫn
đồng nhau
7 American English Tiếng Anh Mỹ 139 Negative face Thể diện tiêu cực /
thể diện âm tính
8 Analogy Sự giống nhau 140 Negative politeness Lịch sự tiêu cực /
Lich sự âm tính
9 Anthroponomastics Danh nhân học/ 141 Negative politeness Chiến lược lịch sự
ngành khoa học strategy âm tính / tích cực
nghiên cứu tên
người
10 Apocope Hiện tượng mất âm 142 Non-verbal Giao tiếp bằng
chủ communication ngôn ngữ cử chỉ
11 Approbation Phương châm tán 143 Norm of interaction Chuẩn tương tác
maxim thưởng
12 Articulatory Sự đơn giản hóa về 144 Norms of Chuẩn luận giải /
simplication phát âm interpretation giải thích
13 Artifact Ngôn ngữ trang 145 Off-record Nói vòng vo, nói
phục gián tiếp
14 Ascribed status Địa vị cha truyền 146 Onomastics Ngành nghiên cứu
con nối tên riêng
15 Australian English Tiếng Anh Úc 147 On-record Nói thẳng vấn đề
16 Autonomy Tính độc lập 148 Orthography Chính tả
17 Blasphemy Sự / Lời báng bổ 149 Palatalization Hiện tượng vòm
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hóa
18 British English Tiếng Anh Anh 150 Paralinguistics Cận ngôn ngữ /
ngôn ngữ giọng
nói
19 Cant Tiếng lóng của bọn 151 Participant Người tham gia
trộm cướp giao tiếp
20 Caste Đẳng cấp 152 Patrilineality Phụ hệ
21 Caste dialect Phương ngữ giai 153 Perjoration Nghĩa xấu đi
tầng
22 Chronomics Ngôn ngữ thời gian 154 Personal identity Bản sắc cá nhân
23 Class dialect Phương ngữ giai 155 Personal name Tên người
cấp
24 Code Mã 156 Person-oriented Tính định hướng
theo con người
25 Code choice Chọn mã 157 Pidgin Tiếng bồi, tiếng lai
tạp
26 Code-mixing Trộn mã 158 Politeness Lịch sự
27 Code-switching Chuyển mã 159 Positive face Thể diện tích cưc
/Thể diện dương
tính
28 Codification Điển chế hóa 160 Positive politeness Lịch sự dương tính
/ lịc sự dương tính
29 Collateral Bàng hệ 161 Positive politeness Chiến lược lịch sự
relationship strategy dương tính / tích
cực
30 Collectivism Chủ nghĩa tập thể 162 Posture Tư thế
31 Communication Sự giao tiếp 163 Post-vocalic -r r-sau nguyên âm
32 Communication Ngữ cảnh giao tiếp 164 Power Quyền lực
context
33 Communicative Vai giao tiếp 165 Power distance Khoảng cách
role quyền lực
34 Concentric circle Vòng tròn đồng 166 Power relation Mối quan hệ
tâm quyền lực
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35 Confucian Tính năng động 167 Precise addressing Xưng hô tương

dynamism Khổng tử ứng chính xác
36 Confucius Khổng tử 168 Prestige Uy tín

37 Consanguinity Quan hệ huyết 169 Pre-vocalic -r r-trước nguyên âm
thống
38 Context of culture Ngữ cảnh văn hóa 170 Profanity Sự tục tĩu
39 Context of Ngữ cảnh tình 171 Programming Chương trình hóa
situation huống
40 Correlation Tương quan 172 Proxemics Ngôn ngữ không
gian
41 Creole Cre-ôn 173 Rank Vai
42 Cross-cultural Giao tiếp giao văn 174 Rapport talk Nói chuyện nhằm
communication hóa thiết lập quan hệ
43 Cultural identity Bản sắc văn hóa 175 Reanalysis Tái phân tích
44 Cultural value Giá trị văn hóa 176 Redressive action Hành động không
bù đắp
45 Culture Văn hóa 177 Reduction Tính hạ giảm
46 Culture-bound Gắn liền với văn 178 Regional dialect Phương ngữ vùng
hóa
47 Culture-specific Tính đặc thù văn 179 Register Ngữ vực
hóa
48 Curse Sự / Lời nguyền rủa 180 Report talk Nói chuyện trao
đổi thông tin
49 Cursing Lời nguyền rủa 181 Restraint Sự gò bó
50 De facto norm Tính chuẩn mực 182 Ritual Lễ nghi
51 Deference Sự kính trọng 183 Routine Thể thức nói năng
thường ngày
52 Diachronic Ngôn ngữ học lịch 184 RP Phát âm chuẩn
linguistic đại tiêng Anh Anh
53 Dialect Phương ngữ 185 Runic alphabet Bảng chữ cái run
54 Direct style Phong cách nói 186 Sapir-Whorf Giả thuyết Sapir-
Whorf / Giả thuyết
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thẳng hypothesis tính tương đối của

ngôn ngữ
55 Domain Lĩnh vực giao tiếp 187 Scene Thoại trường
56 Ehthnic slur Sự sỉ nhục sắc tộc 188 Second cousin Anh, chị, em cháu
chú, cháu bác
57 Elaboration of Mở rộng chức năng 189 Second cousin once Cháu gọi bằng
function removed bác, chú, cô
58 End Mục đích 190 Self-affacement Tự hạ mình
59 Ethnography of Dân tộc học giao 191 Self-enhancement Tự đề cao
communication tiếp
60 Euphemism Uyển ngữ 192 Self-face Thể diện bản thân
61 External factor Yếu tố ngoài ngôn 193 Semantic Nghĩa tốt lên
ngữ amelioration
62 Face Thể diện 194 Semantic Nghĩa mở rộng
broadening
63 Face want Ý muốn giữ thể 195 Semantic change Sự thay đổi về ngữ
diện nghĩa
64 Face-threatening Hành động đe dọa 196 Semantic narrowing Nghĩa từ hẹp lại
act thể diện
65 Family name Họ 197 Semantic weakening Nghĩa yếu đi
66 Famininity Tính nam quyền 198 Sequential change Sự biến đổi âm
trong chuỗi âm
67 Fauna Hệ động vật 199 Setting Chu cảnh
68 First cousin Anh em họ hàng 200 Sex Giới tính
đầu
69 First cousin once Cháu gọi bằng bác, 201 Sexist language Ngôn ngữ kì thị về
removed cô, gì giơi tính
70 First cousin twice Cháu gọi bằng ông 202 Short-term Xu hướng ngắn
removed bác, bà bác, bà cô, orientation hạn
bà gì
71 First name Tên khai sinh 203 Situational Chuyển mã tình
switching huống
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72 Flora Hệ thực vật 204 Slang Tiếng lóng

73 Form of address Hình thức / Từ 205 Social attribute Đặc tính xã hội
xưng hô
74 Formal style Phong cách trịnh 206 Social class Giai cấp Xã hội
trọng
75 Framework Khung 207 Social context Ngữ cảnh xã hội
76 Functional style Phong cách chức 208 Social identity Bản sắc xã hội
năng
77 Gender Giới tính 209 Social nature Bản chất xã hội
78 Gender language Ngôn ngữ giới tính 210 Social relation Mối quan hệ Xã
hội
79 Gender-biased Ngôn ngữ thiên 211 Social status Địa vị Xã hội
language kiến về giới tính
80 Gender-exclusive Ngôn ngữ dành 212 Social stratification Sự phân tầng xã
language riêng cho mỗi giới hội
81 Gender- Ngôn ngữ thiên về 213 Social structure Cấu trúc xã hội
preferential mỗi giới
language
82 General American Tiếng Mỹ chuẩn 214 Society Xã hội
83 Generosity maxim Phương châm hào 215 Socio-cultural Ngữ cảnh văn hóa
hiệp context xã hội
84 Genre Thể loại 216 Sociolect Xã hội ngữ
85 Gesture Cử chỉ 217 Sociolinguistics Ngôn ngữ - Xã hội
học
Ngôn ngữ học Xã
hội
86 Given name Tên khai sinh 218 Sociology of Xã hội học Ngôn
language ngữ
87 Global language Ngôn ngữ toàn cầu 219 Software Phần mềm
88 High-context Văn hóa ngữ cảnh 220 Solidarity Thân hữu
culture cao
89 Historical Ngôn ngữ học so 221 Solidarity relation Mối quan hệ thân
comparative
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linguistics sánh lịch sử hữu

90 Historicity Tính lịch sử 222 Sound change Sự thay đổi ngữ
âm
91 Imprecise Xưng hô tương ứng 223 Speech community Cộng đồng giao
addressing không chính xác tiếp,
Cộng đồng ngôn
ngữ
92 Indirect style Phong cách nói 224 Speech event Sự kiện giao tiếp
gián tiếp / vòng vo
93 Individualism Chủ nghĩa cá nhân 225 Speech situation Tình huống giao
tiếp
94 Indulgence Sự thoải mái 226 Spelling change Sự thay đổi về chữ
viét
95 Informal style Phong cách thân 227 Spelling Phát âm giống chữ
mật pronunciation viết
96 Instrumentality Phương tiện 228 Spiral logic Logic xuắn ốc
97 Intangible culture Văn hóa phi vật thể 229 Standard language Ngôn ngữ chuẩn
98 Intercultural Giao tiếp liên văn 230 Standard variety Biến thể chuẩn
communication hóa
99 Internal factor Yếu tố bên trong 231 Standardisation Sự chuẩn hóa
ngôn ngữ
100 International Ngôn ngữ quôc tế 232 Status-oriented Tính định hướng
language theo địa vị
101 Intersentential Chuyển mã giữa 233 Stratum Tầng
switching các câu hoặc giữa
các mệnh đề
102 Intra-word Chuyển mã trong 234 Style Phong cách
switching một từ
103 Intra-sentential Chuyển mã trong 235 Style-switching Chuyển phong
switching một câu hoặc một cách
mệnh đế
104 Isogloss Đường đồng ngữ 236 Substratum Tầng nền
105 Jargon Tiếng lóng nghề 237 Super dialect Siêu phương ngữ
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nghiệp
106 Jati Đẳng cấp 238 Superposed variety Biến thể trội
107 Karma Số phận 239 Superstratum Tầng trên
108 Key Phương thức 240 Surname Họ
109 Kin(ship) Thân tộc 241 Swearing Thề, tuyên thệ,
chửi thề, rủa
110 Kinetics Ngôn ngữ cơ thể 242 Sympathy maxim Phương châm cảm
thông
111 Kinship term Từ thân tộc 243 Synchronic Ngôn ngữ học
linguistics đồng đại
112 Language Ngôn ngữ 244 Syncope Sự rụng âm
113 Language change Sự thay đổi ngôn 245 Taboo Hiện tượng kiêng
ngữ kị
114 Language contact Tiếp xúc ngôn ngữ 246 Taboo word Từ kiêng kị
115 Language function Chức năng ngôn 247 Tact maxim Phương châm
ngữ khéo léo
116 Language variation Biến thể ngôn ngữ 248 Tag-switching Chuyển mã bằng
các từ hỏi chêm
vào cuối câu như
right, er…
117 Language variety Biển thể ngôn ngữ 249 Tangible culture Văn hóa vật thể
118 Last name Họ 250 Teenage language Ngôn ngữ thanh
thiếu niên
119 Linear logic Logic tuyến tính 251 Term of address Từ xưng hô
120 Linguistic Tính quyết định của 252 Territorial dialect Phương ngữ lánh
determinism ngôn ngữ thổ, phương ngữ
địa lý
121 Linguistic Tính tương đối của 253 Third cousin Anh
relativity ngôn ngữ
122 Linguistic structure Cấu trúc ngôn ngữ 254 Thought Tư duy
123 Linguistic variable Biến số ngôn ngữ 255 Tone Âm điệu, dấu
124 Linguistic variant Biến tố ngôn ngữ 256 Topography Địa hình
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Biến thể ngôn ngữ

125 Loanword Từ vay mượn 257 Topomastics Địa danh học
126 Long-term Xu hương dài hạn 258 Uncertainty Xu hướng né tránh
orientation avoidance những bất định
127 Low-context Văn hóa ngữ cảnh 259 Universal language Ngôn ngữ chung
culture thấp
128 Macro- Ngôn ngữ- xã hội 260 Variable Biến số
sociolinguistics học vĩ mô
129 Masculinity Tính nữ quyền 261 Variationist Ngôn ngữ - Xã hội
sociolinguistics học biến thể
130 Matrilineality Mẫu hệ 262 Verbal Giao tiếp bằng
communication ngôn ngữ nói
131 Metaphor Ẩn dụ 263 Vitality Sức sống
132 Metaphorical Chuyển mã ẩn dụ 264 World language Ngôn ngữ thế giới
switching
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REFERENCES
I-English authors
[1] Adamson, H.D. (1993). Academic Competence. London: Longman Publishing Group.
[2] Allwood, J. (1990). On The Role of Cultural Content and Cultural Context in Language
Instruction. Gothenburg Papers in Theoretical Linguistics 60, University of Göteborg, Dept
of Linguistics.
[3] Asher, R.E. & Simson, J.M.Y. (1994). The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics.
Oxford: Pergamon Press.
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An Introduction to Sociolinguistics

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Pre-lecture activity 1.1. Discuss:

1.1. What is sociolinguistics?

‘Sociolinguistics is the study of language in relation to society’ [49, p.1].

Sociolinguists have agreed that sociolinguistics is the sub-discipline of linguistics which

Linguists differ as to what they include under sociolinguistics. Differences in sociolinguistic

1.2. Sociolinguistics and sociology of language

1.3. Language variation, socio-cultural contexts and explanations

1.3.2. The socio-cultural contexts

d-The function: Why are they speaking?

1.3.3. Looking for explanations [45, pp.11-12]

1-Sociolinguistics is the study of language in relation to social factors.

2-Sociology of language studies the effect of society on language.

3-Language varies according to social factors.

5-Sociolinguists aim to describe sociolinguistic variation and, if possible, explain why it

Pre-lecture activity 1.2. Discuss:

2.1. Society [188]

2.2. Social class division

2.2.1. Caste system in India [71 p. 28]

Table 1.1. Castes in India [71, p. 28]

2.2.2. Social class

2.3. Social status, social role and social role relationships

2.3.2. Social role [92, p.45]

2.3.3. Social role relationships: power and solidarity relationships

The definitions of power from different views are presented as follows:

Solidarity is a relationship which is based on similarity or even sameness of salient

3-Social statuses are established social positions.

Pre-lecture activity 1.3. Discuss:

3.1. What is culture?

As a defining aspect of what it means to be human, culture is a central concept in

3.2. The purpose of a culture [81, p.104]

3.3. Aspects of culture

3.3.2. Tangible (material) and intangible (non-material) components [81]

3.3.3. Hofstede model of six dimensions of national cultures

a-Individualism versus Collectivism, related to the integration of individuals into primary

f-Indulgence versus Restraint:

3.3.4. Low-context cultures (LCC) and high-context cultures (HCC):

Table1.2. Characteristics of Low-and High-context cultures [81, p.136]

Clear intentions, meanings Not clear intentions; meanings depend upon

3.4. Cultural values and cultural identity

3.4.2. Cultural, social and personal identity

Social identity develops as a consequence of memberships in particular groups within one’s

Personal identity is based on people’s unique characteristics. Personal identity is defined as

4- Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory is a framework for dimensions of national culture.

5-The values that permeat a culture are cultural values.

6-Cultural identity refers to one’s sense of belonging to a particular culture.

Pre-lecture activity 1.4. Discuss:

2-What is the most important function of language?

4.2. Types of language [24]

4.2.2. Official language

4.2.3. Standard Language

4.2.5. Artificial language

4.2.6. First language (L1), Mother tongue

4.2.7. Second language or L2

4.2.8. Foreign language

4.3. Language functions

4.4. Speech community:

Following are some of the definitions of Speech community [107, pp.25-28]: