Chapter8Sociolinguistics---asub-fieldoflinguiststhatstudiestherelationbetweenlanguageandsociety,betweentheusesoflanguageandthesocialstructuresinwhichtheusersoflanguagelive.Therelatednessbetweenlanguageandsociety3Language,especiallythestructureofitslexicon,reflectsboththephysicalandthesocialenvironmentsofasociety.(“snow”forEskimo)4Asasocialphenomenonlanguageiscloselyrelatedtothestructureofthesocietyinwhichitisused,theevaluationofalinguisticformisentirelysocial(thepostvocalic[r]).car,cigarLondon&NewYorkSpeechcommunityandSpeechvariety言语社团和言语变体Anydistinguishableformofspeechusedbyaspeakeroragroupofspeakers.(某个言者或某群言者所使用的任何具有区别性特征的言语形式）Insociolinguisticthreetypesofspeechvarietyareofspecialinterest,i.e.regionaldialects(地域方言）sociolects（社会方言）registers（语域）.ChineseDialectsTwoapproachestosociolinguisticstudiesOutlineVarietiesoflanguageDialectalVarietiesRegionaldialectisalinguisticvarietyusedbypeoplelivinginthesamegeographicalregion(e.g.Br.E.&Am.E.).Theyalwayscorrespondtothegeographicalbarrierssuchasmountains,rivers,orswampsInmostcases,theregionaldialectsspokenintwoneighboringareasaremutuallyintelligibletoagreatextent,andthechangefromonedialecttoanotherisveryoftenagradual,ratherthananabruptprocess.Nowadays,thestabilityoflocaldialectsseemstobedecreasingbecausetheinfluenceofthelanguagespokenintownandonradioandTV.NortheastDialectpreliminaryNortheastDialecthigherSociolect,whichhassthtodowiththeseparationbroughtaboutbydifferentsocialconditions,isalinguisticvarietyofaparticularsocialclass.在中国，普通话(putonghua)是最正确、最标准的官方语言，而在英国，虽然没有官方规定，但在英语的发展历史中，有一种发音逐渐形成其重要性，成为公认的最标准英式发音，这就是ReceivedPronunciation，简称为RP。ReceivedPronunciation是一种标准的中性口音，被认为不带有某个特定地域的方言特点。而在英伦三岛中，ReceivedPronunciation仅在英格兰使用，并且不限区域。ReceivedPronunciation有明确的社会界定。在英国，RP被认为是受过良好教育的体现，因此它特别多地和上流社会和中上阶层联系在一起，有时又被称为OxfordEnglish和King’s/Queen’sEnglish。一个来自威尔士的煤矿工人，不可能操一口优雅的RP。ReceivedPronunciation和一些具体的职业紧密联系在一起。使用RP的主要职业有：律师、证券交易员、政治家、外交官、高校及公立学校教师，以及全国性广播电视公司的播音员。显然，这些职业同时也体现出"高尚"和"优雅"的社会地位。Languag