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Vernacular: Its Features, Relativity, Functions and Social Significance

Received: 27 February 2020     Accepted: 16 March 2020     Published: 31 March 2020
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Abstract

In daily communication, people use different language varieties when contacting each other depending on different social contexts determined by factors such as participants, the setting and the topic. The use of different language varieties bears different functions or social significance. Generally, the more formal the language between participants is, the more distant their relationship; the more informal the language between participants is, the more intimate their relationship. Usually, people in the same region communicate with each other in regional dialects; people from the same social stratum or class communicate with each other in social dialects; people who are well-educated or distant in relationship or who do not share the same language or culture communicate with each other in standard language; and people from the same community or region, who are intimate to each other or who share one language or one culture communicate with each other in vernacular language. In nearly every speech community, there exists a certain vernacular language. Vernacular language is indigenous, native or local, spoken either by a rural or urban speech community, or by a lower social class; it is informal, or casual, or the least standardized; it is contrastively used with standard language; it is uncodified, but when there is a need, it is codified through the use of the dominant language, i.e., usually the standard language; its existence relies heavily on the dominant language; it is usually acquired as a first variety in the home; it is featured by colloquialisms, vulgarisms, substandard forms, and slang. There are hundreds of vernacular languages throughout the world, there. Vernacular languages, often used for a relatively narrow range of informal functions, include ethnic or tribal languages which are usually the first languages learned by people from those ethnic or tribal groups. The most typical example of vernacular language is Black English Vernacular in America. Vernacular language is even used by some writers in their literary works – Mark Twain in his The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Dante in his Divine Comedy. Vernacular language may become a standard language if standard language becomes outdated or is abandoned by the public. It is indispensable in daily communication as it is complementary to standard language. It can never be regarded as sub-standard or inadequate, however, as it is an important language variety.

Published in International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 8, Issue 2)

This article belongs to the Special Issue Humanity and Science: China’s Intercultural Communication with the Outside World in the New Era

DOI 10.11648/j.ijla.20200802.17
Page(s) 81-86
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Vernacular, Language Variety, Society, Speech Community, Function

References
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[2] Crystal, D. (1992). An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Language and Languages. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, p. 410; p. 101.
[3] Malmkjaer, K. (ed.) (1991). The Linguistics Encyclopedia. London and New York: Routledge, p. 95.
[4] McArthur, T. (ed.) (1992). The Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 1086.
[5] Holmes, J. (1992). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. London: Longman Group UK Limited, p. 80; p. 80; pp. 377-78; p. 207.
[6] Fishman, J. A. (ed.) (1968). Readings in the Sociology of Language. The Hague: Mouton Publishers, p. 689; p. 538; p. 689; p. 539.
[7] Pei, M. (1965). The Story of Language. New York: Nal Penguin Inc., p. 181; p. 348.
[8] Stern, H. H. (1983). Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 230; p. 237.
[9] Dallmayr, F. (1994). Language and Politics. London: University of Notre Dame Press, p. 4.
[10] Rubin, J. (1968). “Language and education in Paraguay” in Fishman, J. A., Ferguson, C. A. and Das Gupta, J. (eds.) 1968. Language Problems of Developing Nations. New York: Wiley, p. 477.
[11] Milroy, J. “Probing under the tip of the iceberg: phonological ‘normalization’ and the shape of speech communities” in Romaine, S. (ed.) (1982). Sociolinguistic Variation in Speech Communities. London: Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd., p. 39.
[12] Dittmar, N. et al. “The social significance of the Berlin vernacular” in Dittmar, N. & Schlobinski (eds.) (1988). The Sociolinguistics of Urban Vernaculars: Case Studies and Their Evaluation. Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter GmbH., p. 43.
[13] Stewart, W. A. (1962). “An outline of linguistic typology for describing multilingualism” in Rice, F. A. (ed.) 1962. Study of the Role of Second Languages in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Washington, D. C.: Center for Applied Linguistics, pp. 19-20.
[14] Gumperz, J. J. (1968/1977). “The speech community” in Sills, D. L. (ed.) 1977. Interactional Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. 8 vols. New York: Free Press. 381-6.
[15] Fasold, R. (1990). The Sociolinguistics of Language. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, p. 207.
[16] Salzmann, Z. (1993). Language, Culture and Society, An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology. Colorado: Westview Press Inc., p. 271.
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  • APA Style

    Li Ming. (2020). Vernacular: Its Features, Relativity, Functions and Social Significance. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 8(2), 81-86. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200802.17

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    Li Ming. Vernacular: Its Features, Relativity, Functions and Social Significance. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2020, 8(2), 81-86. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20200802.17

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    AMA Style

    Li Ming. Vernacular: Its Features, Relativity, Functions and Social Significance. Int J Lit Arts. 2020;8(2):81-86. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20200802.17

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijla.20200802.17,
      author = {Li Ming},
      title = {Vernacular: Its Features, Relativity, Functions and Social Significance},
      journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
      volume = {8},
      number = {2},
      pages = {81-86},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20200802.17},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200802.17},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20200802.17},
      abstract = {In daily communication, people use different language varieties when contacting each other depending on different social contexts determined by factors such as participants, the setting and the topic. The use of different language varieties bears different functions or social significance. Generally, the more formal the language between participants is, the more distant their relationship; the more informal the language between participants is, the more intimate their relationship. Usually, people in the same region communicate with each other in regional dialects; people from the same social stratum or class communicate with each other in social dialects; people who are well-educated or distant in relationship or who do not share the same language or culture communicate with each other in standard language; and people from the same community or region, who are intimate to each other or who share one language or one culture communicate with each other in vernacular language. In nearly every speech community, there exists a certain vernacular language. Vernacular language is indigenous, native or local, spoken either by a rural or urban speech community, or by a lower social class; it is informal, or casual, or the least standardized; it is contrastively used with standard language; it is uncodified, but when there is a need, it is codified through the use of the dominant language, i.e., usually the standard language; its existence relies heavily on the dominant language; it is usually acquired as a first variety in the home; it is featured by colloquialisms, vulgarisms, substandard forms, and slang. There are hundreds of vernacular languages throughout the world, there. Vernacular languages, often used for a relatively narrow range of informal functions, include ethnic or tribal languages which are usually the first languages learned by people from those ethnic or tribal groups. The most typical example of vernacular language is Black English Vernacular in America. Vernacular language is even used by some writers in their literary works – Mark Twain in his The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Dante in his Divine Comedy. Vernacular language may become a standard language if standard language becomes outdated or is abandoned by the public. It is indispensable in daily communication as it is complementary to standard language. It can never be regarded as sub-standard or inadequate, however, as it is an important language variety.},
     year = {2020}
    }
    

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    T1  - Vernacular: Its Features, Relativity, Functions and Social Significance
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    AB  - In daily communication, people use different language varieties when contacting each other depending on different social contexts determined by factors such as participants, the setting and the topic. The use of different language varieties bears different functions or social significance. Generally, the more formal the language between participants is, the more distant their relationship; the more informal the language between participants is, the more intimate their relationship. Usually, people in the same region communicate with each other in regional dialects; people from the same social stratum or class communicate with each other in social dialects; people who are well-educated or distant in relationship or who do not share the same language or culture communicate with each other in standard language; and people from the same community or region, who are intimate to each other or who share one language or one culture communicate with each other in vernacular language. In nearly every speech community, there exists a certain vernacular language. Vernacular language is indigenous, native or local, spoken either by a rural or urban speech community, or by a lower social class; it is informal, or casual, or the least standardized; it is contrastively used with standard language; it is uncodified, but when there is a need, it is codified through the use of the dominant language, i.e., usually the standard language; its existence relies heavily on the dominant language; it is usually acquired as a first variety in the home; it is featured by colloquialisms, vulgarisms, substandard forms, and slang. There are hundreds of vernacular languages throughout the world, there. Vernacular languages, often used for a relatively narrow range of informal functions, include ethnic or tribal languages which are usually the first languages learned by people from those ethnic or tribal groups. The most typical example of vernacular language is Black English Vernacular in America. Vernacular language is even used by some writers in their literary works – Mark Twain in his The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Dante in his Divine Comedy. Vernacular language may become a standard language if standard language becomes outdated or is abandoned by the public. It is indispensable in daily communication as it is complementary to standard language. It can never be regarded as sub-standard or inadequate, however, as it is an important language variety.
    VL  - 8
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    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • School of Interpreting and Translation Studies, Institute of Hermeneutics, Center for Translation Studies, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China

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