① Educational varieties
One extreme form of the educational influence on the way one speaks is the fact that some college professors talk like a book.
Lower class and less educated: [n] rather than [N]
[h]-dropping
② Age varieties
Lexical variation according to the age correlates with time periods is more noticeable across three-generation time span.
Old people tend to be more conservative than the younger generation
③ Gender varieties
Female speakers tend to use more prestigious forms than male speakers with the same general social background:
a) Females are politer in conversation;
b) the difference of speech acts (the frequent use of polite formulas in female speeches)
The choice of words in terms of grammatical gender is sexist: use of “he” to refer to either sexes or unknown or irrelevant
The sexist bias is also rooted by the way neutral terms are interpreted.
Governor/governess |Master/mistress |Career woman/man
English is one such language whose gender terms are heavily asymmetric in morphological representation. Male terms get unmarked and the female term is often marked by adding a bound morpheme, or by compounding.
Feminist movement, use more gender-neutral expressions
④ Register varieties (situational dialects)
Register: one language variety appropriate for use in particular speech situations, in contrast to language varieties that are associated with the social or regional grouping of their customary users.
Speech variation in register may be carried over into the written language.
⑤ Address terms
Address term: or address form, refers to the word or words used to address somebody in speech or writing.
Common English address terms:
First name
Last name
Title+ last name
Title alone
Kin term: Dad, mummy etc.
⑥ Slang
Slang: a casual use of language that consists of expressive but nonstandard vocabulary, typically of arbitrary, flashy and often ephemeral coinages and figures of speech characterized by spontaneity and sometimes by raciness.
Purpose: a desire for novelty, for vivid emphasis, for membership in a particular group or class, for being up with the terms of a little ahead
Negative connotation: a low or vulgar form of language
In-group language or community jargon
⑦ Linguistic taboo
Linguistic taboo: refers to a word or expression that is prohibited by the polite society from general use.
Obscene, profane, and swear words
Many languages contain two words or expressions with the identical linguistic meaning, with one acceptable and the other a cause of embarrassment or horror.
The avoidance of using taboo: language mirrors social attitudes, emotions and value judgment, and has no linguistic basis.
⑧ Euphemism
Euphemism: a mild, indirect or less offensive word or expression substituted when the speaker or writer fears more direct wording might be harsh, unpleasantly direct, or offensive
Death or dying, ask for location of the “bathroom” etc.
Often when the negative connotation of a word is recognized in its euphemistic form, a new euphemism will have to be sought for.
Toilet, WC, powder room, Men’s Room, Ladies’ Room, Gentlemen, bathroom, restroom
As long as there is a need to avoid the use of taboo language, there is a need for the use of euphemistic substitutes.

Chapter 12  Psycholinguistics
The study of language in relation to the mind
P.S. some of the following discussed sometimes fall into the scope of neurolinguistics and sociolinguistics, esp. concerning the structure of the brain.
[A] The biological foundations of language
Human linguistic ability largely depends on the structure and dynamics of the human brain, rather than, the structure of the vocal cords.
Neuronsàcerebral cortexàhemisphere
Brain lateralization (specific to human beings): the left hemisphere has primary responsibility for language, while the right hemisphere controls visual and spatial skills as well as the perception of nonlinguistic sounds and musical melodies.
The localization of cognitive and perceptual functions in a particular hemisphere of the brain is called lateralization.
[B] Linguistic lateralization
Left hemispheric dominance for language, this hypothesis has been proved by Dichotic listening research（两耳分听试验）
The sound presented in the right ear goes directly to the left brain. The sound heard in the left ear, on the other hand, must first go to the right hemisphere, from where it is transferred to the left side of the brain for processing.
Right ear advantage:（右耳优势）it appears to exist primarily for linguistic stimuli, both meaningful and nonsensical.