LOYOLA COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS), CHENNAI – 600 034
M.A. DEGREE EXAMINATION – ENGLISH LITERATURE
FOURTH SEMESTER – APRIL 2011
EL 4953 – SOCIOLINGUISTICS
Date : 15-04-2011 Dept. No. Max. : 100 Marks
Time : 1:00 – 4:00
PART A
- Write short notes on any EIGHT of the following: (8×5=40)
- The role of power, status and gender in language use.
- Salient features of Whorfian Hypothesis.
- SPEAKING.
- Dominance and difference in language variation.
- Use of questions and interruptions as controlling strategy.
- Linguistic relativity.
- Taboos and euphemism.
- The functions of question tags in speech.
- Restricted code and elaborated code.
- Sociolect, dialect and idiolect.
PART B
- Answer the following in about 400 words each: (4×15=60)
- Analyze the linguistic variables in the conversation of men and women with reference to usage of question tags, interruptions, overlaps and minimal responses.
Or
Illustrate the differential use of language by male and female speakers applying the dominance and the difference approaches.
- Discuss the ethnographic framework of Hymes as a paradigm to comprehend better how a communicative event achieves its objectives.
Or
Analyze the circumstances and causes for code choice, code-switching and code-mixing in discourse.
- “The background linguistic system of each language is not merely a reproducing instrument for voicing out ideas but rather is itself the shaper of ideas” – illustrate the statement taking into account the interrelationship among language, culture and thought.
Or
“Your language controls your world-view. Speakers of different languages will, therefore, have different world-views” – illustrate the Whorfian hypothesis.
- Analyze the conversation below based on the sociolinguistic factors and illustrate the variations in English language across the globe:
(A film showing the corrective programme developed by a team of educational psychologists for children alleged to have these language deficiencies was screened for linguists at the 1973 Linguist Institute in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It contained the following sequence.)
Earnest White teacher, leaning forward, holding a coffee cup: ‘This-is-not-a-spoon.’
Little Black girl, softly: ‘Dis not no ‘poon’.
White teacher, leaning farther forward, raising her voice: ‘No, This-is-not-a-spoon.’
Black child, softly: ‘Dis not a ‘poon.’
White teacher, frustrated: ‘This-is-not-a-spoon.’
Child, exasperated: ‘Well, dass a cup!’
(The reaction of the linguists, after they had finished applauding and cheering for the child, was a mixture of amusement, incredulity and anger.)