³ ~socgum1.12 º UP: <[LINK]> ³
³ Social Context is integral º NEXT: open ³
³ to theorizing º <[LINK] - ³
Gumperz maintains that language and context cannot be
separated in theory or practice. He rejects structuralist
theorizing which analyzes language separate from its context.
Indeed, he is even critical of sociolinguistic approaches like
Labov's <[LINK]> that do not take social factors as an integral
consideration of linguistic theory. Among the contextual factors
that he considers most important to sociolinguistic theory are:
the attitudes of the speaker toward a lect (e.g. toleration
toward pidgins, strict adherence in an English composition
paper); Language loyalty, as in resistance and accommodation to
mixing and incursion; diversity at the local level and its
relation to the standard; and finally, the repertoire, which is
the totality of the variants from which a member of a speech
community may choose. Inb addition, repertoires of a speech
community can be _compartmentalized_ when multiple varieties are
kept discrete, as in diglossic communities, and _fluid_, when
varieties merge gradually with no clear boundaries. {<[LINK]>
(Gumperz 1972b Speech Comm 225-230)}