Literature Review

Language is a social phenomenon which has a close relationship with the society and its emergence and development are all influenced by the society. Therefore, from the social point of view, we can observe language’s various characteristics because of the different social environment.

Through two months’ efforts in searching, collecting and reading an abundance of scholars and professors’ literature concerning the socio-linguistics in sentence variation, I made a detail analysis of the literature and create the following essay which summons up the essence of the literature.

These reference books are mainly about socio-linguistics and relevant papers. After reading them, firstly I have a further understanding of some main concepts  such as socio-linguistics, language function, functional variation, and the relationship between language and the society. In addition, I have acquired more new perspectives  to analyze the reasons why these functional variations can occur. Secondly, we can observe a lot of achievements and know the main trend in this field. Thirdly, we can see that not so many people are doing research in this field, and they can stimulate the trend of more researches in socio-linguistics.

I. Introduction to Sentence Variation (definition, classification, feature, reason and relevant theory)
General Linguistics by Qin Yunqiang suggests that language, from the moment of birth is doomed to be a kind of social phenomenon. With society's emergence and development, language produces and develops. There are seven chapters in this book, and among them the first chapter and the last one do much help when I am doing my research. The first chapter mainly tells me the general knowledge of linguistics. There are six sections in this chapter. The first section is about linguistics, and the second one talks about the relationship between language and utterance. The third section is the internal structure of language, and the fourth says something about the research of utterance. And the last one talks about how language develops in our daily utterance. Especially, the section which talks about the social functions of language gives a comprehensive explanation of language’s social functions. The author says that language plays a very important role in human life. Language function is the expression of social essence of language. Language is people’s social communication tool. Therefore, in addition to pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, other functions should return to the social function of language. The features of the language are varied, and these functions can be divided into two aspects: social and cultural aspects of the function and mental aspects of the function. There are many functions of language, and many linguists in the history classified them colorfully. The section that explains the differences and similarities of language and utterance enriches my knowledge about them. From the chapter two to six are some basic and traditional research points of linguistics. This book helps me to know language and utterance, and I come to know the difference and relationship between them. #p#分頁標題#e#

Principles of Linguistic Changes: Social Factors by William Labov summarized the 30 years of modern sociolinguistics research results, and the main materials are from the author’s classical studies of language in Philadelphia. This book develops the general principles of linguistic change that form the foundations of historical linguistics, dialectology and sociolinguistics. It is concerned with the factors that govern the internal development of linguistic structures: the mechanisms of change, the constraints on change, and the ways in which change is embedded in the larger linguistic system. The book is divided into the chapters of social classes, blocks, nation, sex, and social network. It confirms that the top women classes are the leaders of language changes, and puts forward the principle of change, including four big change principles. The first part is linguistic community, the second part is gender, neighbor and nation, and the third part is the leader of language variation. The last part is transfer, growth and continues. The materials are rich and detailed. There is no doubt that this book shows the new field of research for the whole language field, so it is a necessary book for me to explore the true meaning of the language.

II. The Meaning and Purpose of the Research on Sentence Variation from the Perspective of Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics studies relationships between language and various aspects of society. One major focus of sociolinguistics is the study of language variation, that is, the ways language differs among social settings.

The Sociolinguistics of Language by Ralph Fasold is guided by professor Yang Yonglin and the whole book mainly includes five aspects. In the first part, the author declares the meaning of doing researches concerning sociolinguistics. The second part is the scope of research. The third part is the theory of research. The fourth part is the method of research and the last part is the prospect. These contents help me a lot to outline the structure of my essay and make sure the perspective of writing this paper. What’s more, it makes me have a deeper understanding of sociolinguistics from a broad angle and gives us a clear concept of sociolinguistics and the meaning and purpose of research from the perspective of sociolinguistics. Sociolinguistics has the distinction of narrow sense and broad sense. The former one is the so-called sociolinguistics and it puts emphasis on how the structure of our society affects people’s language, and what are the model and social nature of dialect and language, class, sex and age. The latter one is the sociology of language, and it studies the effects that language has on the society, such as the scatter of speech form in the society, language variation, language preservation and interchange. It makes accounts for their characters. Many issues are aiming to explore their inner relationship of society, culture and language, so people often use the broad concept. Many of issues can be absorbed into my paper and help me demonstrate the problem more vividly.#p#分頁標題#e#

The Handbook of Sociolinguistics edited by Coulmas, F. collects the latest original information about sociolinguistics and contains a great number of cases which can reflect the relationship between language and the society so that it offers a vivid and convenient tool for me and help me to improve my level and performance efficiently in the process of appreciating and understanding their inner and outer connection. The whole book can be divided into four parts, including 27 articles by famous social linguistic scholars. All of these help me a lot to collect the data to complement my paper about the basic knowledge of sociolinguistics. Then, the author mainly writes about the main content. What helps me most for writing my paper is the chapter about the analysis of language variation because this section supplies a lot of good and practical ideas for supporting my ideas in my paper. The first part involves the basic concept of sociolinguistics, development process and the basic condition. Owing to this part of sociolinguistics, I have a basic understanding. The second part pays attention to language characteristics, the relationship with the social environment, and how these social factors influence language characteristics. And its core is language variation. These essays are focused on one certain language phenomenon, and discuss its social significance, or focused on sociological factors, and discuss the influence of the language. The third part of the main research regards the language problems as part of the social problems, dedicating to describe and explore the influence of society on language. Most of the issues are related to the social psychology. The fourth part introduces the application of sociolinguistics in a specific field such as education, news, advertising, doctor-patient communication, etc.
 

These two books of sociolinguistics really do me much favor, and besides these main two masterpieces I also read a lot other relevant books.

III. The Relationship between Language Function and Sociolinguistics
 

Language and Action: the Situation of Context by Coppock, P. collects the latest original information about the relationship between language function and context. It points out that firstly language is alive because of the society. He holds the opinion that the aiming of linguistics is to analyze the meaning of utterance.  As the utterance is going on real context, so their functions which can be also called meaning have connection with context. In order to make a better and further understanding of our language, we can’t get rid of the society, and this is similar to our traditional conventions. When he is investigating the Trobriand on the Pacific Ocean, he has observed the importance of language when people are organizing the livehood in their daily life. 

The Relation of Systemic Functional Linguistics to Sociolinguistics in Terms of Its Origin and Development by Hu Zhuanglin demonstrates the origin and development of systemic functional linguistics and sociolinguistics basically moves ahead simultaneously on time. They are interrelated with each other, sharing the same feature, i.e. revealing and establishing the relation between language and social culture. Systemic functional linguistics also probes language problems from the angle of society. This paper is intended to investigate the relation of systemic functional linguistics to sociolinguistics in terms of its origin and development, no matter in what way sociolinguistics is referred to, i.e., in the narrow or broad sense. For the sake of limited space, this paper on the one hand discusses thoughts of the founding figures of the discipline, such as Malinowski, Firth and Halliday, and on the other hand summarizes studies of the representatives of a new generation, such as Hasan, Martin and Matthiessen.#p#分頁標題#e#

IV. The Social Factors Affecting Sentence Variation 
The Sociology of Language by Fishman,J.A. probes into the principles for researches and into criteria such as mastering the ideas of the source texts and making them acceptable to the recipient. It tackles problems specific to society from the angle of its basic features: sex, nation, education, class and social status. The author describes http://www.ttc-switch.com/dissertation_writing/ and comments on the practice adopted by people in various parts of the world, especially with regard to the social context. He summarizes his own experience. In the concluding chapter, the author presents an embryonic stage in a theoretical system for utterance and gives the initial impulse to the establishment of more masterpieces and research on it. In a word, this book is of great help for my paper because its ideas and analysis guide me to figure out the aspects and angles which I can analyze the topic in my paper.

The Pragmatic Investigation of the Source of Functional Variation — A Multiple Dimensional Analysis of “My Father is LiGang” by Li Fengqin states that the classification and function of the sentence in language is a rather obsolete topic. Its varieties are fundamentally known to all, and they serve their various purposes. However, it is often discovered that changes have occurred in speech meaning of certain types of sentences, thus leading to variations in speech function. This essay, from the point of social linguistics, discusses the pragmatic source of the sentence function variations, under the effects of pragmatic, cultural and social factors. And this essay provides me with a lot of ideas when doing research. Besides, the analysis on the practical case of My father is Li Gang is also helpful.

Labov’s Theory of Language Change by William Labov discusses Labov’s early researches, summaries of his recent works and his contribution to sociolinguistics theory. The author talks about the influence and development of language change theory in China. He emphasizes the meaning of theoretical guidance to Labov’s theory of language change and practicality. It proves that sociolinguistics does not only have theory, but also have strong explanatory power and operation. The whole book consists of five parts and it collects the latest information about language change and contains a great number of cases and texts. The second chapter reflects the richness of the English language. In the third chapter, the author talks about the social factors. This part helps me a lot to collect the data to complement my paper about the basic knowledge. Then, the author mainly discusses the theory as well as his researches. What helps me most for my paper is the chapter about the analysis of examples of good and poor advertisements because this section supplies a lot of good and practical examples for my paper.

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Having read the literature concerning the sociolinguistics, we have no difficulty in finding that more and more scholars and professors both at home and abroad begin to pay attention to the field of sociolinguistics. However, a lot of shortage exists in many aspects. Because of the importance of deeper understanding for the relationship between language and society in the international world, we should improve the quality and understanding of language and put it into another angle and  perspective as soon as possible. I’m very interested in exploring this field and I hope that I can make some contribution to this field by reading extensively and analyzing the literature.

References
Coulmas,F. The Handbook of Sociolinguistics [M].
Fasold, R. The Sociolinguistics of Language [M].
Labov, W.  Principles of Linguistic Changes: Social Factors [M].