Linguistic Variation and Communication
Concept of Linguistic Variation
Each speaker uses language in their own way. All languages exhibit diversity, with speakers using their characteristic dialect and choosing a language style appropriate to the communicative situation.
Dialects and Registers
There are two types of linguistic variation: one associated with speakers (dialects) and another associated with the communicative situation (registers). From a linguistic perspective, no choice is inherently superior to another. The standard language unifies intralinguistic diversity and ensures communication among speakers of the same language.
Dialects
There are three types of dialects:
- Geographical varieties (dialects): These are the forms a language takes in a given geographical area.
- Historical varieties: These correspond to the various stages a language has gone through.
- Social varieties: These reflect the relationship between language users and social organization. Social groups with a special relationship may develop a variety called jargon.
Each speaker uses their own individual variety.
Functional Varieties or Registers
Registers are related to the specific context of the communicative situation, to which speakers adapt. Factors determining register choice include the subject, the degree of formality, the purpose, and the communication channel.
The Standard Variety
This is a common variety serving as a reference model for all members of a linguistic community. “Correctness” refers to prescriptive grammar, and language use should be accompanied by adaptation. The standard variety’s features are:
- Supradialectal, neutral, and with a degree of formality.
- Based on standard speech.
- Known and shared by the entire community.
- Accepted by everyone.
- Utilitarian, easy to learn and use.
Steps in creating a standard variety:
- Selecting a particular language variety.
- Consolidating or standardizing its sound, spelling, and grammar.
- Promoting and ensuring acceptance of the standard variety.
The Speech Act and Linguistic Communication
Communicative discourse is a production that includes text and context. What characterizes a speech act is the context, which integrates all the production conditions: time, place, space, recipient reaction, and message content. Speech is a process because it is built gradually.
The Context or Communicative Environment
The message is central, surrounded by all the variables influencing communication. The message is identified with the text, and the context with other elements. World knowledge comprises three types of content:
- Cultural background
- Social relations
- Individual experience
Context affects a text’s characteristics, and the text enriches the context. The text creates context by offering changes in how people think or perceive reality.
The Text as a Communication Unit
A speaker performing a communicative act uses two capacities:
- Grammatical competence: Building and combining words and sentences using language rules.
- Communicative competence: Constructing texts and knowing what’s needed for effective communication.
Speech Acts
Each discursive operation produces a text and constitutes a speech act. A speech act is a communication unit with at least one linguistic sentence, paralinguistic elements, nonverbal elements, and an intent or purpose. A communicative act involves what we say (locutionary act) and what we do (illocutionary act).
Direct Speech Acts
In direct speech acts, what we say matches what we do. The sender’s intention is evident in various direct speech acts:
- Assertive: Reporting reality.
- Interrogative: Obtaining information.
- Directive: Wanting the receiver to do something.
- Expressive: Setting forth exclamations.
Indirect Speech Acts
These use statements with an intention different from their literal meaning. Indirect speech acts differentiate between literal and pragmatic meaning.