INTRODUCTION
Within Sociolinguistics, scholars have been working on how codes differ from one another in terms of their evolution, historical antecedents form and structure, and attributes. They also look at how languages resemble each other in terms of the forms and structure, the social functions they perform, and the status they are given as a result of the functions they are made to perform in the society.
The general practice is to see language types along two major parameters – the formal and functional parameters. In this Unit, we shall be examining these two parameters and the typologies that are generally associated with them.
3.1 Language Types
Languages are generally classified on the basis of their status, attributes and historical antecedents. Seven types of language will be discussed in this section. They are standard, classical, vernacular, dialect, creole, pidgin, and artificial varieties.
3.1.1 Standard
Standard language is a variety of language, which possesses a mother tongue community of speakers. It is autonomous and has books and dictionaries on its grammar, vocabulary and usage. A standard variety is the variety that is associated with prestige, usually, the variety spoken by the educated speakers. It is also the variety that other varieties look up to for correctness in pronunciation and usage.
3.1.2 Vernacular
A vernacular is the mother tongue of a group of people who are politically or socially dominated by another group (UNESCO), e.g: Yoruba, Igbo, Kanuri are all vernacular languages.
3.13 Classical
A classical language is an older variety of language, which differs from the present day standard. It is enshrined in the great works of literature, e.g: Latin
3.1.4 Dialect
A dialect was defined by Halliday (1971) as “a variety according to user”. It is a variety of a language that is mutually intelligible with other variants. Most languages have dialects–variants determined by the users. For instance, English has several regional dialects–American English, British English, Canadian English, South African English, Singaporean English and Nigerian English, to mention a few.
3.1.5 Pidgin
A Pidgin is a language that evolved in a situation when speakers of two or more languages cannot speak each others’ languages. It is created from the languages of these speakers. It does not have a community of L1 speakers. It may develop into a Creole.
31.6 Creole
As explained in the previous Unit, a Creole is a language that evolved in language contact situation. It evolved from Pidgin when it has acquired its native speakers. Examples of Creoles are Krio in Sierra Leone, Patwa in Jamaica.
3.1.7 Artificial
An artificial language is a language, which is created with the intention of being used for global purposes. It obviously lacks an L1 community of speakers and it is not autonomous. It has highly codified norms of usage. Some examples of artificial languages are Esperanto and Wazobia.
3.2 Formal Language Typology
Formal typology deals with the forms of the language. When we talk about forms here, we are referring to the structural similarities, i.e.- how languages resemble in terms of their phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical structures.
According to Bell (1976:14) “two fundamental systems can be seen in the internal structuring of languages”-
(a) analysis, in which items consist mainly of free morphemes, i.e.,
items can function as words without the addition of any kind of affix. This is common in Chinese language, where the word is an immutable monosyllable
(b) synthesis, in which items tend to be mainly bound morphemes,
i.e: they cannot stand as individual words. This is common in Classical Greek, Latin and Turkish.
The internal structuring of English reflects these two fundamental systems. Many English words are analytic, e.g.; shoe, book, watch, bed. However, English also makes use of synthetic processes for marking plurality, tense, degree and so forth, as can be seen in the following words: biscuits, carried, greater.
Three major subsystems of synthetic processes can be identified – agglutination, flexion and fusion. We shall take each of these in successive order.
3.2.1 Agglutination
Agglutination is the process of expanding the root through the addition of affixes, which modify both the meaning and form. It is common in Turkish. The English system also reflects agglutination in words like re – organ – ise – ation, where the root is organ and the affixes re- (a prefix) –ise, ation (suffixes) are added to the root.
3.2.2 Flexion
Flexion is common in Semitic languages, such as Arabic, where an affix is added to the root to the extent that they both become fused. English also reflects this in the verb were, which has the information – be + past + plural. It is however impossible to separate these information because everything has become fused into one unit.
3.2.3 Fusion
This is the incorporation within a single word, the information one would have found spread out amongst several words.
It is important to note that no language is a total reflection of one of these major sub-systems. In terms of its structure, languages tend to favour one process rather than another. For instance, English is basically analytic, but makes use of the synthetic processes of agglutination and flexion.
3.3 Functional Typologies
Functional typologies, unlike formal ones, emphasise the external social functions of language. The functional typologies are also called sociolinguistic typologies. Stewart (1962) proposed a typology, which depended on four attributes:
Standardisation
Vitality
Historicity
Homogenicity
3.3.1 Standardisation
This refers to whether or not a language has an agreed set of codified norms generally accepted by the speakers. These norms form the basis for teaching and learning the language formally. Codification of a language means that such language has an existing grammar spelt out in book and dictionaries, which are generally accepted to the speakers. Any language that does not possess these features is described as non- standard.
3.3.2 Vitality
Vitality means that a language has a living community of native speakers. A language may lose its vitality if its community of first speakers dies out. An example is Gaelic in the Isle of Man. Conversely, a Pidgin may acquire a community of first language speakers, thereby becoming a Creole as in Sierra Leone.
3.3.3 Historicity
Historicity indicates whether the language has grown or grew through use by some ethnic or social group. This attribute differentiates an L1 from an L2 and an artificial language.
3.2.4 Homogenicity
Homogenicity implies whether or not the basic grammar and lexicon of the language are derived from the same pre-stages of the language. Some languages are derived from mixed languages. Examples of such languages derived from mixed languages are Creole, Swahili, Maltese and even, English.
The functional typologies can be used to analyse language types. Table 1.1 below shows the sociolinguistic typologies of some language types.
Table 1.1: Sociolinguistic Typologies of Some Language Types
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
i. Select 20 Nigerian languages and use the functional typologies to
classify them.
ii. Identify 10 Nigerian languages that have been standardised and
10 others that have not been standardised.
4.0 CONCLUSION
In this unit, we looked at language typologies based on the statuses and historical antecedents of such languages and we identified seven types, namely: standard, classical, vernacular, dialect, Creole, Pidgin and artificial. We also identified the functional typologies: standardisation, vitality, historicity, and autonomy. We also identified the major subsystems of synthetic processes: agglutination, flexion and fusion. A language could favour one process rather than another.
5.0 SUMMARY
Languages can be typologised according to the structures that realise them or according to the functions they perform. They are also classified according to their status, attributes and historical antecedents. The functional typologies can be used to analyse language types.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
1. Explain the major language types identified in this unit.
2. What does it mean when we say a language is standardised?
3. Select 5 Nigerian languages and use the sociolinguistic typologies to analyse them.
4. Differentiate between Pidgin and Creole.
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
Bell, R. (1976). Sociolinguistics, Goals, Approaches and Problems. London: Batsford.
Halliday, M.A.K. (1971). Explorations in the Functions of Language. London: Edward Arnold.
Stewart, (1962). ‘An Outline of Linguistic Typology for Studying Multilingualism.’ In: F. Rice (Ed.). The Study of the role of Second Language in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Washington DC: Centre for Applied Linguistics.
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