Key Points:

1. It  was already stated in the previous discussion that as animal-symbolicum, human beings have capacity to symbolize all realities, including abstract ones, through language. Though having limitation, it is the  language that makes culture and progress of human life possible. Furthermore, it is the language that makes human beings humanized.
2. All human beings speak, as long as they are normal. Their speech represents or symbolizes  the set of common  understanding that is  culture. Speech is a reflection of culture, because it is the means by which human beings symbolize all culture for the purpose of communication.
3. It cannot be denied that language is the most fundamental institution of society, as well as the first institution encountered by the individual biographically. It is fundamental, because all other institutions, be they economy, politics, education, religions, etc,  build upon the underlying regularity pattern of language. All these depend on the world of meanings that is constructed by means of language and can only survive by language.
4. Therefore, language functions not only to communicate ideas and information to other people, but also to establish and maintain social relationships with them. The degree of the relationship,  to a certain extent,  very often depends on the language used. It is, therefore, very important to understand human social status to establish and mainian relationship.
5. Realizing the complexity of the descipline, experts try to construct the scopes of sociolinguistics as follows: 
   1. the nature of language as social phenomenon
   2. relationship between language and social stratification
   3. relationship between language and ethnic group
   4. relationship between language and sex and gender
   5. relationship between language and its social context
   6. relationship between language and nationality, and
   7. relationship between language and geography
6. There are at least three theorists known as socio-linguists. They are Whorf (1956), Bernstein (1971), and Labov (1972). According to Whorf (1956: 232), the beginning of scientific linguistics can be dated from the rediscovery of Panini’s grammar in the eighteen century. For millenia after the original creation of grammar, no new regularities in language and speech was either discovered or sought. It is particularly within our own time that the next great surge of progress in the study of languange has come. The result is that linguistics is the most scientifically advanced branch of cultural anthropology: indeed, linguistics provides the model on which cultural analysis is proceeding. Cultural anthropology, which treats of culture in relation to people and society much as linguistics treats of the phenomenona of language in realization to the intricacies of meaning, has  found a mode of progess.

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Comments (5)

• |2010-03-23 16:35:32 Iffatun Nida  - Asking
  

  "Human beings have capacity to symbolize all realities,including abstract ones, through language." tapi pak, biasanya saya sering dengar kalimat seperti ini, "waduh, gak bisa diungkapkan dengan kata-kata." menurut yg saya pahami, berarti tidak semua realita ada kata-kata yang bisa mewakili (I'm just confused). thank you in advance
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• |2010-03-24 03:28:51 sugeng  - limitless
  

  I don't know where to start. Let me take 'language as social phenomenon" Language is the most important institution in society, that's why today we understand ancient history, from Egyptian Hieroglyphyics we unlocked so many mysteries of the world civilization. As it symbolize realities, we also use it to conceptualize abstrat ideas such as , democracy, fascism, socialism or explaining divine exsistence, etc. Language as social stratification, you don't have to go far. It's right in your back yard, speaking javanese every day. Whom you speak to and what and where the settings are. All the examples of ethnic, geographic,nationality can be put in small and larger contexs.
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• |2010-03-24 10:46:51 mudji  - thanks for additional explanations
  

  Yes, You re right. You give me more insight on ny descipline. It contributes a lot to it.
  Thanks a lot and waiting for further comments
  
  Regards,
  Mudji
  Reply

• |2010-03-26 15:28:03 milda  - I have question?
  

  assalamualaikum wr wb,
  sir, sorry i want to ask about the relationship between language and social stratification, can mr.mudjia explains further more about it? for me, it means that the social stratification can influence people in using language, but not all people can be analysed in using language way. i think it has more influence in how much information that can input in every human brain. please to give me advice. thank you sir.
  wassalamualaikum wr wb.
  Reply

• |2010-03-30 02:40:51 nuroy  - asking
  

  sir,actually I wanna ask in our clas this morning but I know that we have limit time and Mr should go to another important agenda.saya telah membaca d buku language society and power bahwa sosial klas atau sosial status itu bisa mempengaruhi cara seseorang bahasa yang mana bahasa yang di gunakan orang- orang yang punya status yang tinggi itu cenderung berbahasa dengan bahasa-bahasa yang standar sedangkan yang mempunyai status rendah sebaliknya.yang ingin tanyakan, apakah dengan adanya social class atau status juga salah satu faktor terjadinya perubahan bahasa yang terjadi di sebuah wilayah dan seberapa besar pengaruhnya. thanks in advance
  Reply

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