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Sociolinguistics and the Language Faculty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

J.K. Chambers
J.K. Chambers*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Abstract

The discovery that some processes are primitive rather than learned provides a window into the properties of the language faculty. One of the postulated modules of the language faculty is sociolinguistic competence, the ability to use language appropriately in its socio-cultural nexus. I present three cases where variable phenomena exhibit regularities that appear to be essential rather than accidental. First is the Ethan Experience, which inures children engaged in acquiring the community accent from learning foreign features that must later be unlearned. The experience entails an innate accent-filter, and its influence has been observed in all situations in which the accent being acquired differs from the home accent. Second is Sex-Based Variability, whereby women use fewer non-standard variants and have wider stylistic repertoires than men of the same social class in the same settings. Third is Vernacular Roots, the discovery that a number of sociolinguistic variables recur in English vernaculars wherever they have been studied, as well as in interlanguage, Creoles, and child language. The ubiquity of these features presumably reflects their privileged status in the language faculty.

Résumé

Résumé

La découverte qu’il existe des processus qui sont primitifs plutôt qu’appris nous donne des indices par rapport aux propriétés de la faculté du langage. Un des modules postulés de la faculté du langage est la compétence sociolinguistique, c’est-à-dire la capacité de pouvoir utiliser le langage de façon appropriée dans son contexte socioculturel. Je discute trois cas où des phénomènes variables présentent des régularités qui semblent être de nature essentielle plutôt qu’ accidentelle. Le premier est l’expérience Ethan, qui fait que les enfants qui sont en train d’acquérir l’accent de leur communauté n’apprennent pas des traits étrangers qui devront par après être délaissés. Cette expérience implique un filtre d’accent inné, et son influence a été observé dans toutes les situations où l’accent acquis diffère de l’accent domiciliaire. Deuxièmement est le cas de variabilité basée sur le sexe, où les femmes utilisent moins de variantes non standards et ont des répertoires stylistiques plus répandus que les hommes de la même classe sociale dans les mêmes contextes. Troisièmement est le cas des racines vernaculaires, qui est la découverte qu’un ensemble restreint de variables sociolinguistiques réapparaissent dans les vernaculaires anglais partout où ils ont été étudiés, ainsi que dans l’interlangue, les créoles et le parler des enfants. L’ubiquité de ces traits reflète en toute probabilité leur statut privilégié dans la faculté du langage.

Type
Part II: Language in Time and Space
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 50 , Issue 1-4: Language know-how: Canadian Perspectives in Contemporary Linguistics/Le savoir-faire langagier: perspectives canadiennes en linguistique contemporaine , December 2005 , pp. 215 - 239
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 2005

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