ABSTRACT
Language forms an integral part of any society and culture and the branch called ‘sociolinguistics’ deals with these aspects. Language variations could be regional, social, subject, or addresser–addressee based. Gender-based language differences have also been observed. The section on Language and Cognition deals with the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, which introduced the notions of linguistic determinism and linguistic relativity. Languages are frequently in contact with each other and influence each other. This leads to the borrowing of lexis, code-missing, and code-switching. Finally, language planning forms an integral part of any system and there are several factors that influence the selection of languages as national or official languages, etc.
