Understanding of Sociolinguistics
Abstract：Sociolinguistics has drawn more and more attention since it became an independent discipline in 1960s．But scholars from various disciplines look at sociolinguistics from different perspectives，and carry out sociolinguistic study in different ways．scholarsThis paper tries to understand sociolinguistics in terms of its definitions and the scope of sociolinguistic study to point out the lack of comprehensiveness in Fishman’s view on the definition of sociolinguistics．
Key words：sociolinguistics；definitions；scope；lack of comprehensiveness
1 Introduction
Though the social aspect of language attracted early attention，it was not until the mid 1960s that sociolinguistics became an independent discipline with its representatives William Labor and Dell Hymes．It has become an indispensable course in linguistic study together with syntax，phonetics and phonology, semantics. etc．．But scholars from various disciplin
es have different answers to the questions：‘What is sociolinguistics?’，‘What does the sociolinguist do?’，‘What content should be included in sociolinguistic study?’，and ‘What methods should be adopted in carrying out sociolinguistic study?’． Fishman argued that sociolinguistics is the name commonly given to the study of who speaks (or writes) what language (or what language variety)  to whom and when and to what end (cited from Wardhaugh，R．1986：16)．Before we make any comment on this view，it is necessary to have a basic knowledge about the definitions of sociolinguistics and the scope of sociolinguistic study．
2 Some definitions of sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is a cross—disciplinary subject．Linguists and sociolinguists are not the only researchers involved in studies of language in society．Scholars such as anthropologists，psychologists，educators，and planners have an interest too． They study the socio—cultural aspect of language from different angles and come up with different understanding．
Peter Trudgill says that sociolinguistics is a science that combines linguistic and social concerns in varying degrees (cited from Fasold，R．1990：FS0)．This view seems to p1ay sociolinguistics at a high level by considering it “a science”, but is vague in the failure to specify the “varying degrees”．
William Labov defines sociolinguistics as the secular linguistics．While William Downes sees sociolinguistics as that branch of linguistics which studies just those properties of language and languages which require reference to social，including contextua1 factors in their explanation．
To quote Holmes’ view，sociolinguistics is concerned with the relationship between language and the context in which it is used．
Gumperz states that sociolinguistics is an attempt to find relations between social structure and linguistic structure and to observe any changes that occur．This definition covers a broad range，therefore is more inclusive of the scope of sociolinguistic study．
Susan Pinlips in 1980 defines sociolinguistics briefly as the ‘study of the ways in which a person’s speech conveys social information’．This view manifests that language is a social behavior．People’s different choices of linguistic forms may reflect their different social background．
Wolfson expresses his view by saying that sociolinguistics is the study of the interplay of linguistic，social，and cultural factors in human communication．
In Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching ＆ Applied Linguistics, sociolinguistics is defined as the study of language in relation to social factors, that is, social class，educational level and type of education, Age, sex，ethnic origins，etc．(Richard，J．C．1992：425)．
It seems that there is no agreement on the exact definition of sociolinguistics，just like what Dell Hymes has claimed：“Different people may have different understanding of the term ‘sociolinguistics’．Therefore，no one has the patent for its definition.”(cited in Fasold．1990：F 12) But however different views scholars hold，they are ready to agree a
t least one point．That is，sociolinguistics studies the relation between language and society．Whatever sociolinguistics is，it must be oriented toward both data and theory．But still scholars will come up with different answers to the question ‘What content should be included in sociolinguistic study?’．

版权声明：本站内容均来自互联网，仅供演示用，请勿用于商业和其他非法用途。如果侵犯了您的权益请与我们联系QQ:729038198，我们将在24小时内删除。