ABSTRACT
A language is constituted of a vocabulary, whose words are all made from a specific set of sounds, and whose words are combined in specific ways into sentences. A language such as ‘English’ can be thought of as a group of related dialects, which have many elements in common, but differ to some extent in vocabulary and rules of combination. Dialects usually also differ from each other within a language by being associated with different accents (different ways of pronuncing the words). Which dialects and accents a person is able to use fluently, and when they use those dialects and accents, relate both to geography and social class. As we will see in this chapter, where alternatives are possible in language, the choice of one alternative over another has social implications, relating to ideology, power and social status. These alternatives involve not just choice of dialect or accent, but also choice of word, choice of interactional style and choice of sentence structure.
