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.
