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)}