Читать книгу An Introduction to Sociolinguistics - Ronald Wardhaugh, Janet M. Fuller - Страница 61

What is the relationship between a language and a dialect? This chapter seeks to acknowledge many nonlinguists’ perceptions about this issue while presenting the sociolinguists’ stance that particular ways of speaking are considered distinct languages or subordinated dialects because of sociopolitical ideologies and identities, not because of linguistic differences between varieties. While a ‘language’ is considered an overarching category containing dialects, it is also often seen as synonymous with the standardized dialect; yet closer examination of the standard reveals that it is a value‐laden abstraction, not an objectively defined linguistic variety. Further, every language has a range of regional dialects and social dialects, which develop due to social belonging as well as social stratification in linguistic communities. We also introduce some ideas about how these different varieties are used to create social meanings, looking at the processes of indexicality, enregisterment, and entextualization. These interrelated concepts are discussed and defined with a focus on how they are part of language users’ identities and social interactions.