Language is interpreted as the form in which humans communicate with one another. Last semester at Medgar Evers College, I was able to learn that language is more than just words. Language is the way humans establish their own identity.
In sociolinguistics class, we covered all the components that form language. One of the most intriguing and interesting aspects of language is sociolinguistics. Sociolinguistics is the study of language in its social context. This means that we use language to socially define and express who we are, where we come from, and who we associate with. It is amazing to see how often we judge someone’s character by making assumptions about their background and their character based simply upon how a person speaks.
To be more precise, sociolinguistics is concerned with language in the social and cultural context. This means that it focuses on the way a person speaks or behaves when they are placed in specific environments or situations. Sociolinguistics also studies the way a person speaks based on various factors like gender, race, and culture. One clear example of sociolinguistics can be the use of slang; this is commonly a term used to define the use of words or phrases on a more informal manner. Slang is commonly used by younger groups of people (teenagers) as a way to have a more casual conversation. Slang is considered to be an example of sociolinguistics because it is meant to be used only in specific occasions. Slang is mostly used when speaking to a friend and is determined by an informal environment.
As part of my analysis on sociolinguistics, I observed one of my friend’s behavior around his friends in school, and his behavior when being around his teachers. I was able to observe that certain characteristics changed when being exposed to different environments. My friend’s name is Carlos; he is 23 years old. I was able to spend an entire day with him observing what his daily routine consisted of. I was also able to see how his behavior varied when being around his friends and his teachers in school. I was able to detect certain differences in his use of language when referring to both groups. While he was very informal when communicating with his friends by using phrases like “yo, that was dope," in order to express that something was actually incredible, he used a totally different approach when speaking to one of his teachers. When he was not able to understand something from his math lesson, instead of saying “Yo, this is mad crazy," he used the phrase “Professor, this equation is very difficult.” These are examples on how Carlos code switches; this means that he is able to use language according to his surroundings and his environment.
Another observation that I was able to make was the different approaches that men and women have in language. While in school, I was able to listen to various conversations while heading to class. I was able to see the different expressions that boys and girls use to describe the same thing or object. This is known as male/female lexical usage; this is when both genders use different words or phrases to refer to the same concept. For example, something that I was able to hear very often in the conversations of my male classmates was the phrase “the party was lit." This expression is referring to something being very fun or awesome. Girls, on the other hand, use the phrase “the party was fab” to refer to something being fun. In this example, we are able to identify how gender also influences the way we perceive and use language.
Each profession has different ways of referring to specific conditions or objects. For example, when going to the hospital, doctors may have a code to refer to certain medical conditions. It is very hard for someone to understand if they don’t have some type of previous knowledge of the terms being used. For example, a doctor may use the jargon Agonal to say that a major negative change has occured in a patient's condition.
As you can see sociolinguistics is a very significant aspect in our lives, as we use it very often. Sociolinguistics helps us shape our character by the use of language, and it is very common to use sociolinguistics. We use it all the time, but we never pay close attention. Like I said in the beginning, language is not only knowing how to properly construct sentences to deliver a message, but it is instead a way to define and express who we really are.
