Varieties of Language

        It is an obvious fact that people who claim to be speakers of the same language do not speak the language in the same manner. There exist types or varieties of the same language. The varieties of a language are the actual manifestations of the general notion of the language and they are assumed to be related both to the language user and to the use to which the language is put. Ⅰ.Dialectal Varieties

A regional dialect(地域方言) is a linguistic variety used by people living in the same geographical region. It has been found that regional dialect boundaries often coincide with geographical barriers such as mountains, rivers, or swamps(同时发生、占据同一空间). This differentiation is accounted for by the lack of communication in the old days when travel was difficult and there was little communication between rural communities separated by some kind of geographical barrier.

       In the present day, as there is a marked increase in communication brought by mass media and by modern transport, the stability of local dialects seems to be decreasing. Young people are more likely to be influenced by the language spoken in town and on radio and on TV.

      Social dialect(社会方言) is associated with separation caused by different social conditions. Social-class dialect refers to the linguistic variety characteristic of a popular social class. Two people born and brought up in the same geographical region may speak differently because of a number of social factors. The linguistic features of the language they use reveal their identities.

 Ethnic dialect(种族方言) is a social dialect of a language that cuts across regional differences. It is mainly spoken by a less privileged population that has experienced some form of social isolation such as racial discrimination or segregation.

Ⅱ.Language and gender

        It is interesting to know the language used by men and women have some special features of their own. Women are usually more status-conscious than men in the English speaking worlds which means speech of women closely approaches the standard variety than that of men.Male and female speeches are also found to be different in the use of intonations(语调). The female speakers tend to have a wider range in their intonations, this makes their speech sound somewhat affected.

 Gender differentiation is also reflected in the use of certain lexical items. Some adjectives of evaluation as used more frequently by females than by males, such as nice, lovely and also some intensifiers, such as awfully, terribly.

Ⅲ. Language and age

      It has been noticed that in many communities the language used by the old generations differs from that used by the younger generation in certain ways. Certain linguistic features occur more frequently in the speech of one generation than that of the other. The most striking difference is found at the lexical level. Lexical variation is more noticeable across three-generation time span than two-generation time span.

      The causes of such differentiation are complex. The root causes is that society is changing, and this cause difference in social attitudes, value judgments, etc., between the two generations. In general, old people tend to be more conservative than the younger, and feel more at home using old words, and less ready to incorporate new terms into their vocabulary.