Language and dialect

The first difference between language and dialect is that of size. A language is a larger than a dialect. Language contains more items than one calls dialect. The other  contrast between language and dialect is a question of prestige. A language may have a prestige which the dialect lacks. The variety which gains more prestige is called a standard language. In order to become a standard a language must go through certain stages. It is supposed to have passed through the following stages:

1. Selection

A particular variety must have been selected as the one to be developed into a standard language. The choice is a matter of great social and political importance.

2. Codification

Certain institutions must have written vocabulary or grammar books in order to fix the variety.

3. Elaboration

The fixed variety must have been used in different spheres of life, e.g. government, education, documents. 

4. Acceptance

The variety has to be accepted by the population as the variety of the community.

Fundamental Concerns of Sociolinguistics

There are a few fundamental concerns on which most sociolinguistics depend and the first fundamental concern is the variety of language. A very general notion variety includes of what would be normally called languages, dialects, registers(styles). Sometimes they can overlap and one may include another. The defining characteristics of each variety is the relevant relation to society, in other words by whom and when the items concerned are used.

Sociolinguistics

When people use language they do just more than try to get another person to understand the speakers' thoughts and feelings at the same time people use language in order to define the relationship to each other, thus language also has social function and in the normal transfer of information through language we use language to send vital social messages about who we are and where we come from. Sociolinguistics has become an increasingly important and popular field of study in the 1960 and was pioneered by such linguists as William Labov in the USA and Basil Bernstein in the UK although it should be mentioned that the social aspects of language where first studied by Japaness and Italian linguists in the 1930's but much attention was paid in the west until 1960's. Sociolinguistics is generally defined as the study of language in relation to society. So sociolinguists are interested in explaining why we speak differently in different social contexts. Like other subjects sociolinguistics is partly theoretical and it lies at the intersection of linguistics and sociology. Nowdays it is closely connected with social psychology, anthropology and human communication studies. Linguistics studies the rules of this/that language while sociolinguistics focuses on the way language is used and it may vary from culture to culture. Sociolinguistics studies language in relation to society while the sociology of language is defined as the study of society in relation to language.