scholarly journals Language change in contact: How social class and gender influence multilingual Kui speakers’ language use and identity construction in north-eastern Thailand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Siebenhütter
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Age Factors ◽  
Role Expectations ◽  
Language Awareness ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Confidence Levels ◽  
Gender Influence ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
And Gender

Men and women in the Kui society in north-eastern Thailand use Kui, Thai, and other languages differently and at varying confidence levels. This paper investigates relationships between gendered differences in language use and socioeconomic status and age factors of such use. It specifically examines how Kui minority language use and competence are conditioned by gender and discusses potential reasons for this variation by examining gendered language awareness and sociolinguistic attitudes. Moreover, it discusses whether societal role expectations in collectivistic cultures influence the model of linguistic change and if women in the Kui society function as “leaders of linguistic change,” as represented in Labov’s sociolinguistic model. The findings reveal current Kui-speaking preferences and give predictions on prospective language use, which is a stable situation of multilingualism whereby current Kui speakers continue to socialize and teach the language to prospective Kui speakers. The results confirm the applicability of Labov’s model; however, the unique characteristics of Kui’s linguistic situation indicate a need to adapt the model to account for cultural differences in collectivistic non-western societies.

scholarly journals Social class and gender impacting change in bilingual settings: Spanish subject pronoun use in New York

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 429-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Lapidus Shin ◽  
Ricardo Otheguy
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
The Us ◽  
Pronoun Use ◽  
Subject Pronoun ◽  
And Gender

AbstractThis study examines the role of social class and gender in an ongoing change in Spanish spoken in New York City (NYC). The change, which has to do with increasing use of Spanish subject pronouns, is correlated with increased exposure to life in NYC and to English. Our investigation of six different national-origin groups shows a connection between affluence and change: the most affluent Latino groups undergo the most increase in pronoun use, while the least affluent undergo no change. This pattern is explained as further indication that resistance to linguistic change is more pronounced in poorer communities as a result of denser social networks. In addition we find a women effect: immigrant women lead men in the increasing use of pronouns. We argue that the women effect in bilingual settings warrants a reevaluation of existing explanations of women as leaders of linguistic change. (Language change, social class, gender, bilingualism, Spanish in the US, pronouns)*

Sati

Crisis ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dinesh Bhugra
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Role Expectations ◽  
Prevention Strategies ◽  
Social Causation ◽  
Gender Role Expectations ◽  
Good Wife ◽  
And Gender

Abstract. Sati as an act of ritual suicide has been reported from the Indian subcontinent, especially among the Hindus, for several centuries. Although legally proscribed, these acts occur even now in modern India. The principle behind such acts has been put forward as the principle of good wife. There is little evidence to suggest that women who commit this act suffer from a formal mental illness. Cultural factors and gender role expectations play a significant role in the act and its consequences. Using recent examples, this paper illustrates the cultural factors, which may be seen as contributing to the act of suicide. Other factors embedded in the act also emphasize that not all suicides have underlying psychiatric disorders and clinicians must take social causation into account while preparing any prevention strategies.

Language change across a lifetime: A historical micro-perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (s2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Bergs
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
The Social ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Linguistic Behavior ◽  
Micro Analysis

Abstract This paper focuses on the micro-analysis of historical data, which allows us to investigate language use across the lifetime of individual speakers. Certain concepts, such as social network analysis or communities of practice, put individual speakers and their social embeddedness and dynamicity at the center of attention. This means that intra-speaker variation can be described and analyzed in quite some detail in certain historical data sets. The paper presents some exemplary empirical analyses of the diachronic linguistic behavior of individual speakers/writers in fifteenth to seventeenth century England. It discusses the social factors that influence this behavior, with an emphasis on the methodological and theoretical challenges and opportunities when investigating intra-speaker variation and change.

scholarly journals Comparative sociolinguistic perspectives on the rate of linguistic change

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Terttu Nevalainen ◽  
Tanja Säily ◽  
Turo Vartiainen
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Sociocultural Factors ◽  
Specific Topic ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Comparative Linguistics ◽  
Historical Sociolinguistics ◽  
Contact Linguistics ◽  
Historical Comparative ◽  
Social And Cultural Factors

AbstractThis issue of the Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics aims to contribute to our understanding of language change in real time by presenting a group of articles particularly focused on social and sociocultural factors underlying language diversification and change. By analysing data from a varied set of languages, including Greek, English, and the Finnic and Mongolic language families, and mainly focussing their investigation on the Middle Ages, the authors connect various social and cultural factors with the specific topic of the issue, the rate of linguistic change. The sociolinguistic themes addressed include community and population size, conflict and conquest, migration and mobility, bi- and multilingualism, diglossia and standardization. In this introduction, the field of comparative historical sociolinguistics is considered a cross-disciplinary enterprise with a sociolinguistic agenda at the crossroads of contact linguistics, historical comparative linguistics and linguistic typology.

Variation and third age: A sociolinguistic perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (s2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Schreier
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Change ◽  
National Council ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Third Age ◽  
Quantitative Evidence ◽  
Style Shifting ◽  
Age Grading ◽  
Ethnic Group Membership

Abstract The correlation between external factors such as age, gender, ethnic group membership and language variation is one of the stalwarts of sociolinguistic theory. The repertoire of individual members of speaker groups, vis-à-vis community-wide variation, represents a somewhat slippery ground for developing and testing models of variation and change and has been researched with reference to accommodation (Bell 1984), style shifting (Rickford, John R. & MacKenzie Price. 2013. Girlz II women: Age-grading, language change and stylistic variation. Journal of Sociolinguistics 17. 143–179) and language change generally (Labov, William. 2001. Principles of linguistic change, vol. 2: Social factors. Oxford: Blackwell). This paper presents and assesses some first quantitative evidence that non-mobile older speakers from Tristan da Cunha, an island in the South Atlantic Ocean, who grew up in an utterly isolated speech community, vary and shift according to external interview parameters (interviewer, topic, place of interview). However, while they respond to the formality of the context, they display variation (both regarding speakers and variables) that is not in line with the constraints attested elsewhere. These findings are assessed with focus on the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence in third-age speakers (particularly style-shifting, Labov, William. 1964. Stages in the acquisition of Standard English. In Roger Shuy, Alva Davis & Robert Hogan (eds.), Social Dialects and Language Learning, 77–104. Champaign: National Council of Teachers of English) and across the life-span generally.

Does crossing the road in a group influence pedestrians’ gaze behavior?

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 1938-1942
Author(s):  
Mirjam Lanzer ◽  
Martin Baumann
Keyword(s):  
Group Size ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
Gaze Behavior ◽  
The Road ◽  
Road Users ◽  
Gender Influence ◽  
Vulnerable Road Users ◽  
Group Members ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Group Characteristics

So far, research on pedestrians’ gaze behavior while crossing roads has mainly focused on individual pedestrians rather than groups. However, pedestrians often travel in groups especially in downtown areas. This observational study investigated how group characteristics (group size and movement of the group), situational factors (presence of traffic), and demographic variables (age and gender) influence pedestrians’ gaze behavior towards traffic during road crossing. A total of N = 197 pedestrians were observed of whom n = 24 traveled alone, n = 128 traveled in groups of two or three, and n = 45 traveled in groups of four or more. Results indicated that with increasing group size, the odds to observe traffic decreased. Diffusion of responsibility among group members might explain this effect. Finally, pedestrians’ group characteristics should be considered when developing automated vehicles that interact with vulnerable road users.

Gender, formal organizational status and humor use: perceptions of social acceptance

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy R. Moake ◽  
Christopher Robert
Keyword(s):  
Social Acceptance ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Role Expectations ◽  
High Status ◽  
Organizational Status ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Gender Influence ◽  
Aggressive Humor ◽  
Influence Perceptions ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeHumor can be a useful tool in the workplace, but it remains unclear whether humor used by men versus women is perceived similarly due to social role expectations. This paper explored whether female humorists have less social latitude in their use of aggressive and affiliative humor in the workplace. This paper also examined how formal organizational status and the target's gender can impact audience perceptions.Design/methodology/approachTwo scenario-based studies were conducted where participants rated the foolishness of the humorist. For Study 1, participants responded to a scenario with an aggressive, humorous comment. For Study 2, participants responded to a scenario with an affiliative, humorous comment.FindingsResults suggested that high-status female humorists who used aggressive humor with low-status women were viewed as less foolish than low-status female humorists who used aggressive humor with low-status women. Conversely, status did not impact perceptions of male humorists who used aggressive humor with low-status women. Results also indicated that high-status women who used affiliative humor were viewed as less foolish when their humor was directed toward low-status men versus low-status women. Conversely, no differences existed for high-status men who used affiliative humor with low-status men and women.Practical implicationsNarrower social role expectations for women suggest that interpersonal humor can be a riskier strategy for women.Originality/valueThis study suggests that women have less social latitude in their use of humor at work, and that organizational status and target gender influence perceptions of female humorists.

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