Article published In: Pragmatics and Society
Vol. 8:3 (2017) ► pp.377–399
Is variety as neutral as it seems?
Re-visiting the concept of linguistic variety (and other basic linguistic terms)
Published online: 27 October 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.8.3.03poo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.8.3.03poo
Abstract
This article discusses the conceptual difficulties that are involved in the understanding of several basic linguistic notions: namely language, dialect, sociolect, register, style, genre, and in particular, variety. Using the definitions provided in various sources, particularly introductory textbooks and dictionaries of linguistics, I examine the ways in which these terms are explained, and discuss how there is actually no consensus on how they are understood and conceptualised. This is particularly true for the term variety, which is regarded by many linguists as a neutral and ideology-free unit for research. In this article, I show that whether a set of linguistic features is regarded as a variety depends on three main factors; there is no absolute – and thus, ideologically neutral – way that linguists can refer to this concept when considering what is or is not a linguistic variety.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Language and dialect
- 3.Sociolect
- 4.Register
- 5.Style
- 6.Genre
- 7.Variety
- 8.Taxonomies of the terms – users vs. uses
- 9.Problems in the definitions
- 10.Three factors that affect the judgement of a variety
- 10.1The amount of distinctive features
- 10.2The number of people who use the distinctive features
- 10.3The people who see the features as distinctive
- 10.4Abstand and Ausbau language
- 11.Conclusion
- Notes
References
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