One of the most important emblems of social conduct is language. We use language to send important social signals about who we are, where we come from, and who we interact with through the natural transmission of knowledge by language. It is also surprising to learn how thoroughly we can evaluate the context, character, and motives of a person based merely on the vocabulary, accent, or, in certain situations, even the choice of a single word of the individual. It is fair, considering the social position of language, that one strand of language research should focus on the role of language in culture.
Sociolinguistics has become an increasingly significant and common area of research, as their communication base is extended by some communities around the world and intergroup and interpersonal interactions are becoming increasingly important.
The fundamental concept underlying sociolinguistics is quite simple: symbolically, the use of language reflects fundamental dimensions of social behaviour and human interaction. The concept is straightforward, but how language reflects actions can often be complex and subtle. Also, a wide spectrum of experiences influences the interaction between language and society — from generally focused international relations to precisely defined interpersonal relations.
Sociolinguists, for example, could explore national language behaviours within large communities, such as those displayed in the US about the English-only amendment-the constitutional proposal to make English the ‘official’ US language. Similarly, as indicators of fundamental social relations between cultures and nationalities, we might research the status of French and English in Canada or the status of national and vernacular languages in the developed nations of the world. Sociolinguists also use sociological methods that provide questionnaire data and summary statistical data, along with knowledge from direct observation, when considering language as a social entity. A somewhat different perspective on language and culture focuses more closely on the impact of various forms of social conditions on the form of language. For example, the origin and linguistic composition of the Pidgin and Creole languages are the subjects of language communication studies. When speakers from mutually unintelligible language groups require a shared language for interaction, these unique language varieties emerge.
There are numerous socio-historical situations in the Caribbean, Africa, South America, Asia, and the Pacific Islands around the world that have contributed to these specialized language circumstances. It is also possible to analyze not just the specifics of a single language, but also the social and linguistic specifics that explain how bilingual speakers use each language and shift between them while analyzing language situations. Another approach to language and society depends on its right on the circumstances and uses of language as an activity. In its social sense, the study of language teaches us quite a bit about how we structure our social interactions within a given group. It’s not just about easy vocabulary choice to address a person as ‘Mrs.’,’ Ms.’, or by a first name, but about the friendship and social status of the speaker and addressee. Similarly, it is not a matter of clear sentence structure to use phrase alternatives such as Pass the salt, Would you mind passing the salt, or I agree that this food might use a little salt; the choice entails cultural principles and standards of politeness, deference, and status. It is possible to concentrate on finding particular habits or social laws for conducting communication and dialogue while treating language as a social function. For example, we can explain the rules for a conversation to open and close, how to take conversational turns, or how to say a story or joke.
It is also possible to explore how individuals, about their cultural contexts and their interaction purposes, manage their expression. Questions such as how mixed-gender interactions vary from single-gender interactions, how differential power relationships express themselves in language types, how parents let children know how to use language, or how language transition happens and extends to populations, can be explored by sociolinguists.
Langue and Parole
Langue is an abstract system of signals (the basic structure of a language) in linguistics and language, as opposed to parole, the human gestures of language (speech acts which are results of language). The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure made this distinction between language and parole first. Although langue maybe the laws of, say, English grammar, that does not mean that parole must necessarily comply with basic English laws (which some people wrongly call ‘proper’ English). Langue is less linear than the ‘list of laws’ expression suggests, it is something of a reference that is inferred from the parole.
Pidgins and Creole
When you combine two or more languages, pidgins and creoles are the product of what happens, but they’re not the same. To put things more simply, a pidgin is the first-generation version of a language that, if you will, forms a makeshift contact bridge between native speakers of different languages. A Creole is a native-speaker pidgin or one that has been handed on to the second generation of speakers who can formalize it and reinforce the bridge with a completely defined grammar and syntax into a solid structure.
Pidgins are usually developed in the sense of a multicultural population. This has also existed historically in places where several people traded with each other, or where communities of slaves from different nations were assimilated into a single society and a language was created.
