Language and situation language varieties and their social contexts (5th edition)

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:SOCIOLINGUISTICS Volume 5 LANGUAGE AND SITUATION... LANGUAGE AND SITUATIONLanguage Varieties and their Social Contexts MICHAEL GREGORY AND SUSANNE CARROLL... F

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:

SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Volume 5

LANGUAGE AND SITUATION

LANGUAGE AND SITUATION

Language Varieties and their

Social Contexts

MICHAEL GREGORY

AND SUSANNE CARROLL

First published in 1978 by Routledge and Kegan Paul

This edition first published in 2019

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 1978 Michael Gregory and Susanne Carroll

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-138-34952-0 (Set)

ISBN: 978-0-429-43466-2 (Set) (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-35000-7 (Volume 5) (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-43618-5 (Volume 5) (ebk)

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The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

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Language and Situation

Language varieties

and their social contexts

Michael Gregory and

Susanne Carroll

Routledge & Kegan Paul

London, Henley and Boston

First published in 1978 by

Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd

39 Store Street, London WCJE 7DD

Broadway House, Newtown Road, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon RG9 lEN and

9 Park Street, Boston, Mass 02108, USA

Set in 10 on 11 point Times New Roman and

Printed in Great Britain by

Western Printing Services Ltd

©Michael Gregory and Susanne Carrolll978

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except

for the quotation of brief passages in criticism

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Gregory, Michael

Language and situation - (Language and

society)

1 Sociolinguistics

I Title II Carroll, Susanne III Series

301.2' 1 P40 77-30482

ISBN 0 7100 8756 X

ISBN 0 7100 8773 X Pbk

General editor's preface

When the linguist has described the structure of a language and codified its vocabulary, he has not taken us to the heart of the mystery Of course, without grammars, lexicons and phonetic descriptions, we should understand nothing about the systems

of languages But these analyses inevitably stop short at the point where language, in serving personal and social ends, becomes part of the ceaseless flux of human life and activity For we choose our utterances to fit situations, and text and con-text are therefore inter-related parts of a whole Human com-munication cannot be comprehended without recognizing this mutual dependence The mystery of language lies, if anywhere,

in its endless· ability to adapt both to the strategies of the in-dividual and to the needs of the community, serving each with-out imprisoning either

This is no new insight Past scholars, especially those with close links with the study of society, like Boas and Sapir, Malinowski and J R Firth, have not failed to remind us of the necessary relation between the language we use and the situa-tions within which we use it In the past two decades, it is true, the focus of much linguistic inquiry has been upon languages viewed as homogeneous systems; and indeed, to probe more deeply into the nature of the 'rules' whereby well-formed sen-tences are produced, and the processes whereby human beings acquire these 'rules', is a worthy scientific endeavour But equally, to explore the capacity of human beings to use language appropriately, and to select from their total linguistic reper-toires those elements which match the needs of particular situations, is of complementary importance and interest-for meaning resides not in the forms of language but in their u.se However, when we try to observe language in use and attempt

to systematize our observations and account for all the options, the task prc;tves daunting The matching halves of the equation

v

vi General editor's preface

-language and context-are each variable in highly complex ways, and each requires delicate analysis To unravel the web of inter-connections between them is a formidable endeavour A sensitive 'way of looking', as well as an appropriately con-structed taxonomy of linked categories, is needed if a key is to

be found to the intricate relationship between language systems and observable patterns of human behaviour and social inter-action

Michael Gregory, now Professor of English at Glendon Col-lege in Toronto's York University, began to turn his attention

to this problem fifteen years ago when he was at the University

of Leeds Since that time, as his subsequent publications indi-cate, he has continued to explore the nature of this complex connection between language variation and social contexts Initially, the mainspring of his work was the British tradition that derived particularly from Malinowski and J R Firth, which stressed the relevance for meaning-indeed for our com-plete understanding of language-of the 'context of situation'

In a sense he still remains in that tradition, but he has un-doubtedly re:(ined and widened it, making it both more rigorous and more catholic Throughout his work he has been able to relate his own investigations of language in use, in Canada as well as in Britain and West Mrica, to the theories and insights

of other scholars from Europe, the USA and elsewhere

With his collaborator and co-author, Susanne Carroll, he has now attempted a summation, an overall view, wide-ranging in scope yet delicately discriminating in detail In the final chapter, the authors draw attention to the relevance of their framework

of observation and reference for different aspects of linguistic study and research, and for the study of literature Its practical value as well as its theoretical interest should make this work of considerable service to all who are engaged in the advanced study of language; and perhaps especially, though not exclu-sively, to those concerned with the study of English in all its manifold variety

Socio-linguistics is a large and expanding field of inter-disciplinary activity, focusing attention in a variety of ways on the interaction oflinguistic and social phenomena For students

General editor's preface vii

in a broad range of human disciplines it can offer new and stimulating perspectives It is the purpose of this series to offer brief, readable and scholarly introductions to the main themes and topics covered by current socio-linguistic studies

John Spencer