Sociolinguistics

“Language and Multiculturalism”

Presented by:

Nurul Ashifa                          F1F011002

Farhah Irfania B                    F1F011005

Kurniati                                  F1F011006

Rica Wahyuni                        F1F011024

Nabil Karim                           F1F010054

Jenderal Soedirman University

Faculty of Social and Political Science

Humanities Department

English Language and Literature

Purwokerto

2014

INTRODUCTION

a.       Definition of Sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistic is a discussion of the relationship between language and society, or of the various functions of language in society. The word “Sociolinguistics” consists of two words, they are “Society and Linguistics”. Society means a group of people who settle in a certain area.  Linguistic is a study about language especially human language. Therefore, Sociolinguistics is the study of how language serves and is shaped by the social nature of human beings. Sociolinguistics analyzes many and diverse ways in which language and society entwine. There are some fields included in Sociolinguistics, one of them is about language and multiculturalism.

b.      Definition of  Language

Language is system of conventional spoken or written symbols used by people in a shared culture to communicate with each other. Language is the most important thing for having communication of human beings. Without language, we cannot have such as communication to others, so we will get misunderstanding when we face with other society. There are variations in what it means to "speak a language". It is quite common that even very highly accomplished linguists may speak the languages of which they are experts with a distinct accent and to have gaps in their active vocabulary when it comes to daily topics and situations.

c.       Definition of Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism is a body of thought in political philosophy about the proper way to respond to cultural and religious diversity. It means there will be some different cultures, religions, ethnics, languages in a community or an area. Those cultures come from several ethnics and will be unity in that area, so the people will know so many cultures which have special uniqueness. Besides that, they can also learn about each culture to the expert in that field. By multiculturalism, people will respect the other cultures and it makes some ethnics be friend in a territory.

For instance, there is a term “Melting Pot” in America. It belongs to multiculturalism in that continent from many countries. Actually, there are so many ethnics located there such as Chinese, African, European, Asian, and so on. Even though, they have different cultures, but they live in a same country, so they should be united by having a term for their blend cultures called Melting Pot. By having Melting Pot, there will be no more discrimination for each ethnic, because they feel like having one family.

Multiculturalism related to various cultures in a country which become a part of that country itself. However, firstly those cultures are not the original cultures, by the time it will be united. Thus, people of those cultures will understand each other and they will get knowledge and experience about other cultures.

d. Definition of Multilingualism

Multilingualism is the act of using multiple languages by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of globalization and culture openness. For example, Canada is officially multilingual country in which English and French are both guaranteed in the Canadian constitution. Besides that, in Belgium recognizes Dutch, French, German as its officially languages.

Nowadays, there are many phenomena in our society or environment which belong to multiculturalism, multilingualism, code-switching and code-mixing. Switching language happens when a person speaks several languages in certain occasion depends on context and situation. For instance, in our lecturing especially in the process of teaching and learning foreign language, the lecturers sometimes use some languages, such as their own language (Javanese), national language and English itself. When a lecturer gives an explanation about the English material, she/he utters English, but if the students do not understand what the lecturer explains about then the lecturer will use Indonesian to make clearer explanation. Unfortunately, if the students do not understand again about the lecturer’s explanation, the lecturer will utters Javanese language because most of students are from Purwokerto. Thus, by using several languages to explain the English material, hopefully the student will understand well about it.

Furthermore about mixing language, it is a fusion result of two identifiable source languages, normally in situations of community bilingualism. As recently as the 1990s, the existence of these languages had often been denied or labeled as cases of code-switching. The other hand, code-mixing is the embedding of various linguistic units such as affixes (bound morphemes), words (unbound morphemes), phrases and clauses from a co-operative activity where the participants, in order to infer what is intended, must reconcile what they hear with what they understand.

For example:

Samidi : “Kamu kenapa, kok pada luka?”

Tarso   : “Aku kemaren kunduran truk”.

In this case, Tarso is using mixed-language, because he utters Indonesian to Samidi, but he inserts a Javanese word, kunduran. Kunduran is a condition when something’s back hits others things behind it unintentionally. This word is only in Javanese, so not all of people know about the meaning of kunduran.

DISCUSSION

We will talk about “Language and Multiculturalism”. Related to this topic, we will discuss about “code-switching and code-mixing (code = language)” especially in some phenomena in the language problem. Relationships between languages in bilingual communities may be relatively stable, but they may also change. Actually, both of switching languages and mixing languages are bit different. To support this statement, there are some explanations about them to clarify the differences. Several scholars have attempted to define code-switching and code-mixing. Among them are Hymes  (1989), Bokama (1994) and Belly (1976). For instance:

1.      Hymes defines only code-switching as a common term for alternative use of two or more language, varieties of a language or even speech styles.

2.      Bokamba (1989) defines both concepts thus Code-switching is the mixing of words, phrases and sentences from two distinct grammatical (sub)systems across sentence boundaries within the same speech event… code-mixing is the embedding of various linguistic units such as affixes (bound morphemes), words (unbound morphemes), phrases and clauses from a cooperative activity where the participants, in order to in infer what is intended, must reconcile what they hear with what they understand.

Code switching is not a display of deficient language knowledge: a grammarless mixing of two languages. Instead it is a phenomenon through which its users express a range of meanings. By code switching, which occurs mostly in conversation, the choice of speech alerts the participants to the interaction of the context and social dimension within which the conversation is taking place. The phenomenon of code switching is examined from a conversational analysis perspective, and as such is viewed as interactive exchanges between members of a bilingual speech community.

A variety of social change (migration, invasion and conquest, industrialization) have been associated with the process termed “Switching language”, in which the function carried out by one language are taken over by another. For example:

Anahina is bilingual Tongan New Zealander living in Auckland. At home with her family, she speaks Tongan almost exclusively for a wide range of a topic. She often talks to her grandmother about Tongan customs, for instance. With her mother, she exchanges gossip about Tongan friends and relatives. Tongan is the language the family uses at meal time. They discuss what they have been doing; plan family outings and share information about Tongan social event. It is only with her older sisters that she uses some English words when they are talking about school or doing their homework.

Other example is about Opera Van Java (OVJ), it is one of Indonesian television programs which is very famous. This program is one of amusement program in Trans7 channel.  We are pretty sure that it is one of Switching Languages, Multiculturalism and Multilingualism. 

OVJ consists of six characters, and there will be one of some guest star in every episode. Every main character has different culture because they come from different hometown too. For instance, Parto is the story teller, coming from Tegal (Central Java). Nunung comes from Solo, so she speaks Javanese, Andre comes from Jakarta, so he cannot speak Javanese. Then, Sule comes from Bandung especially from Cimahi and of course he speaks Sundanese. The last is Ajiz, he comes from Jakarta and he speaks Indonesian. In short, the main characters of OVJ have different basic culture and language, but in that program, they speak Indonesian because they have to entertain the audiences who generally understand Indonesian well. However, sometimes the wayang player uses their own language, and it increases the attractiveness of audiences instead. For example, when Sule and the other characters mess up the story, suddenly Parto comes and says:

Parto                : “Ini pada ngerti ceritanya enggk si?”

Nunung           : “Ora urusan, ora urunan.”

Sule                 : “Eh, pak RT kumaha? Damang?”

(Trying to divert Parto’s question)

Then the audiances laughed directly.

In this case, Parto uses Indonesian to ask the players, but Nunung answers him with Javanese, and suddenly Sule asks Parto with Sundanes. This context or utterances is the example of sociolinguistics phenomena called Code-Switching language. Actually, it happens when the speakers alternate between two or more languages, or using language variation in the context of a single conversation.

One of code-switching researchers is Susan Gal, she distinguished between “unmarked” language choices in which the language used is one that would be expected in the context, and “marked” choices in which the language used would not normally be expected. Marked choices may function as attempt to redefine aspects of the context, or the relationship between speakers. Mayer Scotton has developed this idea into what she terms a “markedness model” of conversational code-switching. She distinguishes between four code-switching patterns prevalent in her African data: code-switching is a series of marked choices between different languages, code-switching itself as an unmarked choice, code-switching as a marked choice, and code-switching as an exploratory choice. Look at this following example: 

Researcher Ana Celia Zentella offers this example from her work with Puerto Rican Spanish-English bilingual speakers in New York City. In this example, Marta and her younger sister, Lolita, speak Spanish and English with Zentella outside of their apartment building.

Lolita                        : Oh, I could stay with Ana?

Marta            : — but you could ask papi and mami to see if you could come down.

Lolita                        : OK.

Marta            : Ana, if I leave her here would you send her upstairs when you leave?

Zentella       : I’ll tell you exactly when I have to leave, at ten o’clock. Y son las nueve    y cuarto. ("And it’s nine fifteen.")

Marta            : Lolita, te voy a dejar con Ana. ("I’m going to leave you with Ana.")    Thank you, Ana.

As we know, code-mixed is a word or phrases insertion in a sentences or conversation. According to Maschler (1998: 125) code-mixed is “using two languages such that a third, new code emerges, in which elements from the two languages are incorporated into a structurally definable pattern”.  In other words, the code mixing hypothesis states that when two code switched languages constitute the appearance of a third code it has structural characteristics special to that new code.

These are the examples of mixing languages:

Example 1: When Javanese people speak English, they often use Javanese structure language.

Nabil   : “What are you doing?”

Karim  : “You know lah.” (He is chatting with his girlfriend)

Nabil   : “Oh, I see. By the way, have you known that Akiko left Indonesia?”

Karim : “Oh yes? (Shocking).When?”

In this dialogue, Karim speaks English, but his English refers to Javanese structure language. Therefore, it is a mixing language.

Example 2: These are French sentences, but they use English structures.

“Quoi c’est, ton maman’s nom? – What is your mother’s name?” (the words are French, but the syntax is English)

“Mon préférée émission…- My favorite show” (the words are French, but the position of the adjective conforms to English syntax)

“Ma mère m'appelle - My mother, my shovel”

CONCLUSION

There are so many countries in this world; they have many languages and cultures which influence each other. Each country has national language, so each language has different grammatical structure and characteristics. Moreover, it will create “code-switching and code-mixing”.

  

REFERENCES

Hymes, Dell. 1974. Foundation in Sociolinguistics: An Ethnographic Approach. University of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia.

Mesthrie, R., Joan Swan., Andrea Deumert., and William L. Leap. 2000. Introduction Sociolinguistics. Edinburgh University Press 22 George Square: Edinburgh.

Wardhaugh, Ronald. 2006. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics: Fifth Edition. Blackwell Publishing: United Kingdom.

Holmes, Janet. 1992. An Introduction of Linguistics. Longman Publishing: New York.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilingualism#Definition_of_language, accessed March, 16, 2014 at 11.37 PM.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/language, accessed March, 16, 2014 at 14.14 PM.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111113082820AAmXxqq, accessed March, 17, 2014 at 16.14 PM.

http://developpement-langagier.fpfcb.bc.ca/en/mixing-languages-code-switching-should-i-be-concerned, accessed March, 17, 2014 at 17.30 PM.