Tugas 1 (Sociolinguistics)

1. Write down on your own words the definition of language and society. Then, write
down about their relationship!

Language is one of the most direct and effective way to identify, express, and communicate
within the society. The language variation will be influenced by gender, cultural, community and
economical influences. Furthermore, the language can be discovered through social values,
social attitudes, and lifestyles of people. Aitchison & Wardaugh (1987) stated that, there are four
assumptions of relationship between society and language. The first one is language can
influence the society. In this case justified by the age-grading phenomenon, which young
children speak differently from teenagers and adults. The factors such as their regional, social,
gender and ethnic origin are mostly becoming the factors related to this issue. In addition, the
ways of speaking, dictions and conversation rules are specified by social requirements. The
second one is society can influence the form of language. In this case, the language speakers can
be “sexist”, which means sexiest language is a language that is not involving men or women in
discussing about topic that is used to both men and women. For example; “Every student must
explain his idea about current issues”. In this statement the speaker assumes that all the students
are male and not considering some of them are female. The third one is language and social
factors affect each other. Language is a social entity and society is a group of people who
produce and share the same language. The language is creating the speakers’ behavior
meanwhile social structure used to influence the language structure and norms. The fourth one is
there is no relationship between language and society. Chomsky in Wardhaugh (2006) stated this
assumption that development of an asocial linguistics as an introduction to the any other kind of
linguistics, such an asocial approach being, in his view, logic first.

2. A. The definition of Linguistics

Linguistics define as the scientific study of language. Linguistics define language based on
the way they look at it and the purpose they want to achieve (Pousada et al., 1982). In general,
linguistic studies do not only examine one type of language but also the characteristics of
language as a whole and universal. Further, the study of linguistics itself has many field
specifications and sub-derivatives that specialize in the study of language elements deeper.
According to the type of its own branches, linguistics is divided into two: macro linguistics and
micro linguistics (Reed, 1952). Macro linguistics studies linguistics in general where the study
covers the effects of language on other scientific fields, various developments and their
implications for humans. Meanwhile, micro linguistics examines the nature of language naturally
as a cultural product that includes various elements in a language. In this micro linguistics the
study of English is located.

B. The definition of Sociolinguistics

According to Aitchison & Wardaugh (1987), Sociolinguistics define as a scientific study
which investigates about relationship between language and society, and how social factors
affect our language use. The social factors in this term belongs to the social background
(education, social class, ethnic group, etc.), the relationship between the speaker and receiver
(friend, family, employer, etc.), and the context and manner of interaction (when, where, how,
the act of language occurs). These factors have significant effect on the way we use language
in our daily life. The difference is when we talk to our friends, it comes in a more casual
way, meanwhile when we talk to our employer, it happens in a more formal way. This is
how the society effect on how we use the language.

C. The definition of Applied Sociolinguistics

According to Schiffrin (1986), Applied Sociolinguistics referred as an addition to the

literature in both applied linguistics and sociolinguistics because it provides a much-needed
bridge between two fields whose perspectives on language and whose practical concerns
often overlap. in addition, although applied linguistics have traditionally been conversant
with current concepts, paradigms, and research methods in sociolinguistics, there have been
only scattered attempts to explicitly use that knowledge to extend the range of language
problems to which sociolinguistics can contribute solutions. applied sociolinguistics is an
important step in both directions.

In my opinion, the difference between Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, and Applied Sociolinguistics

is that the Linguistics about the scientific study of language, meanwhile Sociolinguistics is the
branch study of Linguistics itself which investigates relationship between language and society,
and how social factors affect our language use, and Applied Sociolinguistics is about how the
implication of Sociolinguistics in society.

3. What are the factors of code in verbal communication? And Why are the factors
choosing by people in communication?

Verbal communication is communication that uses verbal symbols both orally and written. In
verbal communication, the factors of intelligence, culture, knowledge, personality, biologic, and
experience factors that influence the verbal communication.

The factors are being chosen by people in communication because they have to adapt to whom
they are talking to by considering those six factors as well. Like for the example, they have to
know what is the culture of their opponents to value their cultures and avoid misunderstanding in
the communication.

4. Explain about Code-mixing in your own words and give some examples of code mixing

Code-mixing a phenomenon which is closely related to code-switching. It usually occurs

when the speaker uses both languages together, switch between two languages to the extent that
they change from one tongue to the other in the course of a single utterance (Mustamir Waris
STAIN Manado, n.d.). Code mixing happens without a change of topic and can involve various
levels of language such as phonology, morphology, grammatical structures or lexical items.
Refers to Kachru in Nusjam, code mixing defines as the term that refers to the use of one or more
languages for consistent transfer of linguistic units from one language into another, and by such a
language mixture developing a new restricted or not so restricted code of linguistic interaction.
An example of code mixing is as follow: when students in English class, sometimes the teacher
ask them questions in English, and the students will answer the question in English but in the
middle of the answer, they sometimes mixed it will Bahasa. Teacher says “have you done your
homework putri? Yes Sir, saya sudah kerjakan my homework.”. Or another example is, “Maaf
sir, I was sick kemarin.”. Those are the examples of the use of code-mixing inside the classroom.

5. Explain about Bilingual in your own words! Give some examples of bilingualism
 Bilingual means be able to speak two languages equally in a community. Meanwhile
Bilingualism is the ability of a person to understand two languages (KÖKTÜRK et al., 2016).
ʻBiʼ means two, so we can consider that bilingualism is about knowing two languages. The fact
that we found is that the concept of bilingualism is much more complicated. In studying about
Bilingualism, there are some aspects which characterized Bilingualism itself namely;
psychological, linguistic, pedagogical, sociological and literary and art. The individual who has
an ability to speak or understand only one language or the regular use of only one language
called as monolingualism. If someone knows two or more language systems, it will be classified
as bilingual. In each individual, two language systems are built differently and in different
stages. It happens because of cultural and regional differences, where the languages belong. For
example, children may also become bilingual by learning languages in two different social
setting; as the example, British children in British India learned an Indian language from their
nurse and family servants. They always listen to the language spoken by their nurse and family
servants, so they become get used to the language and unconsciously becoming a bilingual.

References:
Aitchison, J., & Wardaugh, R. (1987). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. In The British
Journal of Sociology (Vol. 38, Issue 3). https://doi.org/10.2307/590702
Davies. (2014). An Introduction to Applied Linguistic and Sociolinguistic. Igarss 2014, 1, 1–17.
http://www.press.umich.edu/5896147/understanding_language_structure_interaction_and_v
ariation_third_ed
KÖKTÜRK, Ş., Odacıoğlu, M. C., & UYSAL, N. M. (2016). Bilingualism and Bilingual
Education, Bilingualism and Translational Action. International Journal of Linguistics,
8(3), 72. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijl.v8i3.9601
Mustamir Waris STAIN Manado, A. (n.d.). Code Swtcihing and Mixing (Ahmad Mustamir
Waris) Code switching and mixing (Communication in Learning Language). 123–135.
Pousada, A., Crane, L. Ben, Yeager, E., & Whitman, R. L. (1982). An Introduction to
Linguistics. Language, 58(1), 238. https://doi.org/10.2307/413547
Reed, C. E. (1952). What is Linguistics? The German Quarterly, 25(1), 16.
https://doi.org/10.2307/401807
Schiffrin, D. (1986). APPLIED SOCIOLINGUISTICS. Peter Trudgill, ed.London: Academic
Press, 1984. Pp. xiii 271. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 8(2), 213-214.
doi:10.1017/S0272263100006094
Wardhaugh, R. (2006). Language and Society. In An introduction to sociolinguistics (Fifth ed.,
pp. 9-13). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
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