language variations presentation

LANGUAGE VARIATION

• November 2019

• Arak University

• Ilam University

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Browse Course Material

Course info.

• Prof. Edward Flemming

Departments

• Linguistics and Philosophy

As Taught In

Learning resource types, language variation and change, course meeting times.

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hrs /session

Prerequisites

24.900 Introduction to Linguistics or 24.9000 How Language Works , or permission of instructor

Course Description

Variation and change are basic properties of language: All languages show variation in form across geographic space and between social groups, and languages are always changing. It makes sense to study these phenomena together because they are intimately related: language change is the basic source of language variation. That is, if a language undergoes different changes in different areas or among different subgroups, then variation results. So studying language change can help us to understand variation, and the nature of linguistic variation provides evidence as to how language changes. The course will focus on variation and change in phonetics and phonology, and most case studies will be drawn from the English language. We will play particular attention to explicit, computationally implemented models of the mechanisms of sound change.

Topics to Be Covered

Geographical variation:

• Overview of accent variation in the USA (and the UK)
• IPA transcription
• Acoustic analysis of vowels

Sound change as a source of variation I: Regularity of sound change:

• What changes in sound change?
• Case studies: US English æ -tensing, ow -fronting, English TRAP-BATH split

Sound change as a source of variation II: Age-related variation:

• Do speakers participate in sound changes over their lifespan?
• Case studies: vowel changes in Philadelphia, Queen Elizabeth II

Sound change as a source of variation III: Social variation:

• Language as a social marker
• Case study: vowel changes on Martha’s Vineyard

Variation within the individual, stable variation:

• The nature and grammatical analysis of variation within the individual
• How does diachronically stable variation arise?
• Case study: English t-d deletion

The mechanisms of sound change I: Phonetic conditioning:

• Questions: Why is sound change phonetically conditioned? Why is sound change (often) phonetically gradual? How can sound changes continue across generations? What triggers a sound change?
• Answers: models of phonetically-conditioned sound change

The mechanisms of sound change II: Grammatical conditioning:

• Grammar conditions/constrains sound change
• Case studies: morphological conditioning, chain shifts

The comparative method:

• Exploiting principles of sound change to infer relationships between languages and reconstruct parent languages

Syntactic change:

• Case study: change from OV to VO word order

Course Requirements

Assignments.

• Final project
• Attendance and participation in class discussions

There will be three assignments that require written submissions of around 1000 words, reporting on analyses of data pertaining to variation and change. The remaining assignments (about 4) will involve short exercises practicing skills such as transcription and acoustic analysis, or collecting data in preparation for one of the larger assignments. Collaboration in preparing assignments is allowed (and encouraged), but you must write up your assignments individually.

Final Project

In the second half of the semester you will collect and analyze a body of data concerning an interesting example of language variation or change. You can work on a wide range of topics, subject to my approval, but projects should generally include collection of some primary data (e.g. usage data, pronunciation data from the historical record or from recordings), and formal analysis of those data (e.g. analyzing the grammatical difference between two stages or variants of a language, computational modeling). I will distribute a list of suggestions for topics.

A draft of the final project is due by session 21. This draft should include a clear presentation of your data together with a preliminary analysis. You will receive feedback on this draft, make revisions and do further work taking this feedback into account, and submit a final version on the last day of class. The length of the paper should be about 2000 words.

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Introduction: What Varies when Language Varies?

Variation is a universal phenomenon permeating language, culture, and the entire worldview. It characterizes human linguistic ability in the broadest sense. The current edition focuses on language variation which is examined from different angles: concentrating on the stability or variability of different levels and components of language, comparing morphosyntactic and semantic patterns in different languages, examining how mechanisms of human cognition manifest in language, and analyzing language as material for traditional song. Systematic patterns of variation for different levels are outlined.

In linguistics, variation first became a central topic of research, studied systematically and quantifiably, in sociolinguistics (e.g. Labov 1972 ), with the focus of the study on phonetic and phonological details. The study of variation in grammar, being more complicated, began a decade later in the 1980s. By now, variation has become a central concept in the study of morphosyntax where variation is broadly defined as the use of different linguistic codings for the same functions (Dufter et al. 2009 : 2–3). The framework of variation is also applicable to the study of similarities and differences, for example, in prosody, morphology, word formation, semantics, and pragmatics but also in comparing language varieties (see e.g. Lieb 1993 ).

Variation is also a central concept in folklore whose mechanisms are based on the interaction of invariance and variability. The poetic structure of traditional song is developed from linguistic material, and its variation is restricted by communication type and syncretism with music and performance (see e.g. Metslang 1987 , Honko 2000 , Babič and Voolaid 2019a ).

This special issue is inspired by the conference “Variation in language, literature and folklore” held in Tartu, Estonia, in December 2017. The main organizers of the conference were the Centre of Excellence in Estonian Studies and the working group of Estonian Research Council research project PUT475 (and of the next project PRG341). The topics discussed at the conference included specific and common in variation in language, literature, folklore, and music, and the confluences and connections between different variations (see also Babič and Voolaid 2019b ). This issue contains contributions based on conference presentations on linguistic variation as well as new studies.

The issue contains nine studies focusing on (1) the general concept of variation (Moravcsik), (2) morphosyntactic variation (Sahkai and Tamm; Irimia; Norvik), semantic variation (Kalda and Uusküla; Prieto Mendoza); rhythmical variability in sung oral poetry (Bravi and Proto; Oras).

Edith Moravcsik in her study “Accounting for variation in language” uses examples from different languages and levels of language to analyze the concept of variation in general, distinguishing between different approaches to similar phenomena: when are similar phenomena considered to be subtypes of the same general type and when does one of them gain the status of a type. The factors of different approaches are examined and comparisons made with similar examples in other disciplines and in everyday life. The study thereby contributes to the general theoretical characterization of variation.

Heete Sahkai and Anne Tamm’s “Verb placement and accentuation: Does prosody constrain the Estonian V2?” explores variation in word order in Estonian sentences and its relation to sentence prosody. Estonian is a verb-second language but V2 is more of a tendency and the study analyses one type of divergence from the tendency, verb placement further from the second position. The research material includes both a written corpus and a spoken production study. To study the potential prosody of the written corpus the authors used an algorithm based on a sentence accent assignment model proposed by Caroline Féry ( 2011 ). The study shows the relation between verb position and verb accent: while clausemedial verbs tend to bear a nuclear pitch accent, second-position verbs don’t.

Monica Alexandrina Irimia’s “Variation on differential object marking: on some differences between Spanish and Romanian” investigates morphosyntactic variation between two closely related languages. Differential object marking, like differential argument marking in general, has remained a central topic of interest for syntax researchers during the recent decades. Irimia’s analysis, which is based on a generative approach (minimalism), shows that while differential object marking has many similarities in the languages and is mainly associated with the same factors, there are nonetheless several differences in the selection and hierarchy of factors.

Miina Norvik’s “The expression of change-of-state in the Finnic languages” also discusses variation in the morphosyntax of closely related languages. Norvik examines verbs and constructions expressing change in Finnic languages belonging to the Uralic language group. The research material consists of data sets compiled from various collections of texts and results of previous studies. Verbs that develop into predicates of change by grammaticalization and/or borrowing include the concepts COME, GO, REMAIN/STAY, GET, WILL BE, MAKE/DO, and BE BORN/GIVE BIRTH as their source meaning. The study shows that each Finnic language uses several verbs of change; some languages have developed a general change verb that also functions as a future copula.

Anu Kalda and Mari Uusküla’s “The role of context in translating colour metaphors: an experiment on English into Estonian translation” explores variation in translation equivalents and translation strategies for metaphoric expressions and the factors that influence it, thus belonging to both the fields of translation and metaphor study. A cognitive empirical study of the translation of 21 color metaphors revealed the tendency to interpret the color metaphors depending on culture and context, especially in the case of newer expressions that have not yet become lexicalized.

Alejandro Prieto Mendoza’s “Semantic parallelism in traditional Kakataibo chants” also concentrates on semantics but in this study, as in the two following studies, the focus is on poetic structures functioning under the conditions of syncretism. Kakataibo is a Panoan language spoken in the Peruvian Amazon, in the regions of Huánuco and Ucayali, Peru. The study is based on chants collected during fieldwork. The author sees semantic parallelism as a compositional strategy of the chants, analyzes the stable and variable component of the structure of parallelism, and provides a model for the comparative typological study of parallelism present in the traditional creation of many cultures.

Janika Oras in her study “Individual Rhythmic Variation in Oral Poetry: The Runosong Performances of Seto Singers” reports Seto runosongs, traditional sung oral poetry belonging to the Finnic oral singing tradition, in order to identify and analyze the individual differences in rhythmic variation. The research material for the study consists of sound recordings from the Estonian Folklore Archives. Rhythm variation develops simultaneously in lyrics and music with the aid of accented syllables, the choice of rhythm differs by singer as well as between the lead singer and the choir, possibly depending on subjective factors.

Paolo Bravi and Teresa Proto’s “Intra-line and inter-individual variation in Sardinian arrepentina” investigates variation in linguistic and musical rhythm in arrepentina, a genre of extemporary poetry performed by semi-professional poets in south-central Sardinia. Arrepentinas are performed by improvising to the rhythm of accordion either in a smaller group or at public events. The research material contains recordings from public events. For the analysis, both the verbal line and the melodic line were divided into smaller units and correspondences between them were identified. Several factors of rhythm variation were found, e.g., the unit’s position in the stanza, alignment of text and music, techniques of the singer’s individual style.

The studies in this volume reveal the common human nature and wide array of language variation. The studies show a balance between stability and variation in both everyday language and folklore, in collective and personal usage and in the languages of the Amazon, the Mediterranean, Black Sea, and Baltic Sea regions.

The publication of this volume has been made possible by the support of the Centre of Excellence in Estonian Studies (CEES, TK145, European Regional Development Fund) and the research project PRG341 of the Estonian Research Council.

Babič, Saša and Piret Voolaid. 2019a. “Introduction. Variation makes the world go round.” In Variation in Folklore and language, ed. Saša Babič and Piret Voolaid, 1–4. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Search in Google Scholar

Babič, Saša and Piret Voolaid (eds.). 2019b. Variation in Folklore and language. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Search in Google Scholar

Dufter, Andreas, Jürg Fleischer, and Guido Seiler. 2009. “Introduction.” Describing and modeling variation in grammar, ed. Andreas Dufter, Jürg Fleischer and Guido Seiler, 1–20. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 10.1515/9783110216097.0.1 Search in Google Scholar

Féry, Caroline. 2011. “German sentence accents and embedded prosodic phrases.” Lingua 121(13): 1906–22. 10.1016/j.lingua.2011.07.005 Search in Google Scholar

Honko, Lauri (ed.) 2000. Thick corpus, organic variation and textuality in oral tradition. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society. Search in Google Scholar

Labov, William. 1972. Language in the inner city: studies in black English vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Search in Google Scholar

Lieb, Hans-Heinrich. 1993. Linguistic variables. Towards a unified theory of linguistic variation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. 10.1075/cilt.108 Search in Google Scholar

Metslang, Helle. 1987. “Syntaktische Aspekte des Versparallelismus im altestnischen alliterierenden Volkslied.” In: Parallelismus und Etymologie. Studien zu Ehren von Wolfgang Steinitz anlässlich seines 80. Geburtstages am 28. Februar 1985. Hrsg. Ewald Lang, Gert Sauer. (Linguistische Studien, Reihe A, 161/II.) Berlin, 147–70. Search in Google Scholar

© 2020 Helle Metslang et al ., published by De Gruyter

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Language Variation and Change Prof. R

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Presentation on theme: "Language Variation and Change Prof. R"— Presentation transcript:

My fAMILY & Our CULTUREs An exploration into the many varied expressions of culture… In our families, our nation, our history, and our world.

Ch. 5 Language Key Issue 1: Where are English-Language Speakers Distributed? Origin and diffusion of English Dialects of English.

History of the English Language

Dialects in the United States: Past, Present, and Future Wolfram & Schilling-Estes Chapter 4.

The United States Preview Section 1: History and Culture

FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN ACTIVITY (CHAPTER 3). INTRODUCTION

5 EVENTS THAT SHAPED THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH According to Philip Durkin, Principal Etymologist at the Oxford English Dictionary.

Polo Vergara Ernesto & Colin Juan

General Overview of History of English

CHAPTER 8 The United States Section 1: History and Culture

US Population.

Chapter 5 Out of Many Mr. Thomas APUSH. North American Regions Indians showed capacity to adapt and change by participating in the commercial economy.

The Diversity of Americans

Welcome to David’s Class Unit1 A Land of Diversity.

Section 3: Section 3: People and Culture Essential Question: – How have different ethnic groups influenced the culture of Louisiana? 1.

The Americas Part 2 Settlement and Independence. After the Europeans realized they were not in Asia or the Indies, they focused on gathering the riches.

Linguistic Items Linguistic Items: — vocabulary ( “ lexical items, or “ lexemes) — sound-pattern ( “ sound ” ) — larger syntactic patterns ( “ constructions)

A land of diversity ---Reading Unit 1.  Ocean on the east coast _________________  Ocean on the west coast __________________  Country to the north.

Cultural Geography of Louisiana Day 9. Culture Way of life of a group of people Elements of culture include religion, music, food, clothing, language,

The Cultural Landscape of the Colony of Virginia Interactive Notes VS. 4b.

About project

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Linguistic Variation

Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms

• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

The term linguistic variation (or simply variation ) refers to regional, social, or contextual differences in the ways that people use a particular language .

Variation between languages, dialects , and speakers is known as interspeaker variation . Variation within the language of a single speaker is called intraspeaker variation .

Since the rise of sociolinguistics in the 1960s, interest in linguistic variation (also called linguistic variability )   has developed rapidly. R.L. Trask notes that "variation, far from being peripheral and inconsequential, is a vital part of ordinary linguistic behavior" ( Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics , 2007). The formal study of variation is known as variationist (socio)linguistics .

All aspects of language (including phonemes , morphemes , syntactic structures , and meanings ) are subject to variation.

Examples and Observations

• " Linguistic variation is central to the study of language use. In fact it is impossible to study the language forms used in natural texts without being confronted with the issue of linguistic variability. Variability is inherent in human language: a single speaker will use different linguistic forms on different occasions, and different speakers of a language will express the same meanings using different forms. Most of this variation is highly systematic: speakers of a language make choices in pronunciation , morphology , word choice , and grammar depending on a number of non-linguistic factors. These factors include the speaker's purpose in communication , the relationship between speaker and hearer, the production circumstances, and various demographic affiliations that a speaker can have." (Randi Reppen et al., Using Corpora to Explore Linguistic Variation . John Benjamins, 2002)
• Linguistic Variation and Sociolinguistic Variation "There are two types of language variation : linguistic and sociolinguistic . With linguistic variation, the alternation between elements is categorically constrained by the linguistic context in which they occur. With sociolinguistic variation, speakers can choose between elements in the same linguistic context and, hence the alternation is probabilistic. Furthermore, the probability of one form being chosen over another is also affected in a probabilistic way by a range of extra-linguistic factors [e.g. the degree of (in)formality of the topic under discussion, the social status of the speaker and of the interlocutor, the setting in which communication takes place, etc.]" (Raymond Mougeon et al.,  The Sociolinguistic Competence of Immersion Students . Multilingual Matters, 2010)
• Dialectal Variation "A dialect is variation in grammar and vocabulary in addition to sound variations. For example, if one person utters the sentence 'John is a farmer' and another says the same thing except pronounces the word farmer as 'fahmuh,' then the difference is one of accent . But if one person says something like 'You should not do that' and another says 'Ya hadn't oughta do that,' then this is a dialect difference because the variation is greater. The extent of dialect differences is a continuum. Some dialects are extremely different and others less so." (Donald G. Ellis, From Language to Communication . Routledge, 1999)
• Types of Variation "[R]egional variation is only one of many possible types of differences among speakers of the same language. For example, there are occupational dialects (the word bugs means something quite different to a computer programmer and an exterminator), sexual dialects (women are far more likely than men to call a new house adorable ), and educational dialects (the more education people have, the less likely they are to use double negatives ). There are dialects of age (teenagers have their own slang , and even the phonology of older speakers is likely to differ from that of young speakers in the same geographical region) and dialects of social context (we do not talk the same way to our intimate friends as we do to new acquaintances, to the paperboy, or to our employer). . . . [R]egional dialects are only one of many types of linguistic variation ." (C. M. Millward and Mary Hayes, A Biography of the English Language , 3rd ed. Wadsworth, 2012)
• Linguistic Variables - "[T]he introduction of the quantitative approach to language description has revealed important patterns of linguistic behaviour which were previously invisible. The concept of a sociolinguistic variable has become central to the description of speech . A variable is some point of usage for which two or more competing forms are available in a community , with speakers showing interesting and significant differences in the frequency with which they use one or another of these competing forms. "Furthermore, it has been discovered that variation is typically the vehicle of language change." (R.L. Trask,  Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics . Routledge, 1999/2005) - " Lexical variables are fairly straightforward, as long as we can show that the two variants--such as the choice between soda and pop for a carbonated beverage in American English --refer to the same entity. Thus, in the case of soda and pop , we need to take into account that for many U.S. southerners, Coke (when used to refer to a beverage and not the steel-making fuel or the illicit narcotic) has the same referent as soda , whereas in other parts of the U.S., Coke refers to a single brand/flavour of the beverage . . .." (Scott F. Kiesling,  Linguistic Variation and Change . Edinburgh University Press, 2011)
• Third-Person Singular Verb Endings in English
• Definition and Examples of Context Clues
• Silent Letter Words in English
• Over 50 Greek and Latin Root Words
• Subjects, Verbs, and Objects
• 100 Irregular Plural Nouns in English
• Definition and Examples of Function Words in English
• Basic Grammar: What Is a Diphthong?
• Subordinating Conjunctions
• What Are Word Blends?
• Figure of Speech: Definition and Examples
• Question Mark Definition and Examples
• What Is a Phrase? Definition and Examples in Grammar
• What Is a Rhetorical Device? Definition, List, Examples
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• Over 300 Homonyms, Homophones, and Homographs

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Language Variation and Change

Apr 06, 2012

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Language Variation and Change. Hauptseminar, WS 2007/8, Campus Essen Raymond Hickey, English Linguistics. Language variation and change.

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Language Variation and Change Hauptseminar, WS 2007/8, Campus Essen Raymond Hickey, English Linguistics

Language variation and change The above term is used in present-day sociolinguistics to refer to the small variations which occur in language and which are determined by external, social factors. These variations can and do lead in time to language change. They contrast with variations in language which are motivated by internal factors – structural features of a language – which can also lead to change, especially when this internal variation occurs during first language acquisition. Language variation and change is an important research paradigm today and there many books on the subject as well as a journal with this term as their name.

Introduction The following presentation is intended to give students an idea of what this course will be about. Basic principles and assumptions of language variation and change / sociolinguistics are explained in the following slides and typical concerns of the field can be recognised. To begin with several reasons for going to this seminar are given and then possible themes for presentations and term papers are discussed.

Several good reasons for going to the present seminar: 1) To find out about how language and society interacts, how social attitudes, social ambition and social bonding affect the manner in which people speak. 2) To learn about how the internal structure of language interacts with external social factors (language variation and change). 3) To discover more about how languages change and how they don’t, given the significance of social factors on this process. 4) To look as specific social situations and see how these general principles are confirmed or refuted. Key sociolinguistic investigations, largely in America and Britain are of interest here.

5) To examine closely how speakers use social networks to stregthen their identificaion with the social group to which they feel they belong. 6) To look at how men and women use language to express the relationship of the sexes (gender-related language use). 7) To see how such socially relevant phenomena as politeness are expressed in different languages. 8) To learn about the wider context in which societies are embedded and how language relates to culture in general (linguistic anthropology). 9) To throw new light on the relationship of the standard of a language and the dialects which are also found. In the Anglophone context, to consider how and why regional standards arose and how countries, which are now independent, developed standards of their own.

Areas for presentations and term essays(these areas are quite large and issues within them can be treated separately in different sessions if students wish) 1) The history of sociolinguistics / language variation and change as an approach in linguistics 2) Models of sociolinguistics (accommodation, social networks) 3) Individual studies dealing with language variation and change (New York, Norwich, Belfast, Dublin, etc.) (also possible: English overseas, extraterritorial varieties) 4) Sociolinguistics and gender-related language differences 5) Sociolinguistics and speech act theory

Areas for presentations and term essays (continued) 6) Sociolinguistics, solidarity and politeness 7) Sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology, ethnolinguistics 8) Sociolinguistics and language change 9) Sociolinguistics and second language acquisition 10) Sociolinguistics and education, language planning

Sociolinguistics and sociology • Sociolinguistics as a separate discipline develops in the early sixties, first in the USA, later in Britain and then throughout the rest of the western world. This is true although considerations of language in relation to society go back a considerable way and although the significance of society for language was stressed by the structuralists at the beginning of the 20th century. • Sociology is the study of social structures. This is a discipline which was developed into its modern form in 19th century France and in Germany in the early 20th century. In its analysis of social forces it is of immediate relevance to sociolinguistics although sociology itself is not concerned with language.

Some basic assumptions • The basic assumption of sociolinguistics is that the variation we can observe in language is non-random, i.e. variation in language is socially significant. The task of the sociolinguist has been to quantify this variation and to give a principled account of its occurrence. In a nutshell the findings of sociolinguistics have shown that language variation is largely determined by social class and status. Variation furthermore correlates with the relative security of a group´s position in society with a general tendency of lower-status groups to imitate higher-status groups as long as this imitation has a chance of leading to an improvement of social status as with the lower-middle classes in the western world. • There is often a discrepancy between what speakers say of their language and what they practice. For instance in Peter Trudgill´s study of English in Norwich it was shown that the working-class have a low opinion of their own variety of language but continue to use it. This led to assuming that varieties can have covert prestige for their speakers.

Sociolinguistics and dialectology • In a way it is true to say that sociolinguistics arose out of dialectology. Those linguists involved in this area in the last century and the beginning of the present century were interested in registering language use and as such were half on the way to being sociolinguists. However, many aspects of dialectological research are unacceptable to modern sociolinguists. The chief deficiency of the dialectological approach is that older, male, rural speakers were given preference as informants. This went against the basic principle of all sociolinguists, namely that the choice of informants be random and thus unbiased by the field worker. Characteristic of sociolinguistic methods are the following features: • 1) The prior definition of one's area of investigation • 2) The impartial choice of informants • 3) The choice of optimal methods of investigation (e.g. tape recording rather than questionnaire)

Gathering information • The procedure of interviewing informants has the disadvantage that the field worker very often has a negative (or standardising) effect on the informants. This is called the observer'sparadox, namely that the nature of the object of investigation changes under observation (more on this below). A dialogue situation in which the informant is not made aware of his status as informant is much more favourable and less likely to distort the results. Types of language variation • Just as the methods of the dialectologists were unacceptable to sociolinguists so was the terminology they used. For one thing the sociolinguists wanted to get away from the use of the term dialect. It carried with it the implication of a rural type of speech which is particularly conservative. The more neutral term variety was chosen which had the additional advantage that it did not imply implicit contrast with a standard variety of language. The term variety simply refers to a variant of a language. It may be the standard of this language or not, it may be a rural or an urban variant, a social or peer group variant, etc.

Contact between speakers • One of the aspects of contact between speakers of different varieties of a language is accommodation. By this is meant that one of the speakers attempts, in fact to face interaction, to approximate his speech to that of his partner in conversation for a variety of reasons, to make him feel at ease, in order to be accepted, etc. This accomodation can be long-term or short-term and is most readily accomplished by children. The linguistic variable • This term refers to a specific feature of a language which shows particular variation in a community and which is used as a tag for classifying a speaker's speech. For example in New York the realisation of /r/ is just such a variable. A common non-linguistic designation for a linguistic variable, which derives from the Bible, is shibboleth, speakers of one community pronouncing this word with an initial sh-sound and speakers of another pronouncing it with an initial s-sound, i.e. /sh/ versus /s/. A linguistic variable need not only be phonological. Examples of grammatical variables are double negation, the use of ain't and the lack of marking with verbs in the 3rd person singular among African Americans.

Indicators and markers • It has been established in the case of the variable (ng) (as in English walking [w>:kin]) that the index scores for [n] — as in [w>:kin] — tend to decrease as the formality of the speech situation increases, no matter which particular social group is involved. One explanation for this focusses on the fact that whenever there is class differentiation with a linguistic variable, speakers of all classes will direct their attention towards the higher status variants and tend to increase their use of those variants. Stylistic variation is, going by this account, a direct result of social class variation. Class and style • However, not all variables which are subject to class differentiation show stylistic variation as well, i.e. variables correlate with social class variation in terms of different index scores, but do not alter even if the speech situation changes. Variables which are subject to stylistic variation as well as class, sex or age variation are referred to as markers. Variables which are not involved in systematic style variation are called indicators, an example would be the fricative t [8] of southern Irish English, in a word like put [pu8], which is found in all styles of this variety of English. Indicators do not contribute to the description of class differences as markers do, since speakers appear to be less aware of the social implications of an indicator than of a marker.

Geographical variation and language contact • Variation has not only social sources but also spatial ones. When speakers disseminate into new locations, the language they take with them changes with time, for instance, in Canada or South Africa where there has been considerable language contact. These changes very often are connected with the establishment of different standard forms of languages at the new locations (as in central Canada). Furthermore, at overseas locations, English has been subject to language contact and this has in turn led to changes in the forms of the language when this has taken place. South Africa is a good example of a contact situation with Afrikaans (a colonial form of early modern Dutch) the language with which English has been in contact.

The work of William Labov • The main sociolinguist is William Labov, an American linguist who started by investigating language use in Martha´s Vineyard (an island off the north-east coast of the United States) and in New York city. His seminal investigations were based on principles and methods which have become standard in sociolinguistics and which led to insights which are generally accepted today.

Labov´s principles and assumptions 1) Basic assumption: Linguistic variation is socially determined. 2) Speakers are in a double bind: on the one hand they show an identification with their locality through the use of a local variety of language. On the other hand they aspire to social acceptability and hence in their speech they move towards the standard of their area. 3) Surreptitious interview methods mean that the observers paradox is minimised. (N.B.: The observer´s paradox maintains that the linguistic behaviour of informants changes under observation, usually because people then talk the way they think the linguist wants them to).

Labov´s data collection methods • Labov further stressed the need to collect data reliably. The linguist must be aware that an informant will show the following features in his speech: 1) style shifting (during an interview), 2) varying degree of attention, i.e. some speakers pay great attention to their own speech (so-called 'audio-monitoring'); in excited speech and casual speech the attention paid by the speaker is correspondingly diminished, 3) degree of formality, determined by the nature of the interview; it can vary depending on how the informant reacts to the interviewer and the situation he/she is placed in.

How does language change? With regard to language change William Labov proposed three phases which can be summarised as follows: 1) origin, a period in which many variants exist for one and the same phenomenon, 2) propagation, the period in which one of the variants established itself and 3) the conclusion in which the remaining variants are done away with. Various external factors can accelerate the process of language change, above all social pressure from above or below. Additional factors are the degree of literacy in a community, the restraining influence of a standard of a language, etc. Schematically these three phases correspond to the beginning, middle and end of an S-curve which is frequently used as a visualisation of language change (see next slide). • Labov proved his theories on language variation and language change by investigating (in an anonymous manner) the English of various employees in New York department stores. Here he chose stores with differing social status. The linguistic variables he was particularly interested in are: (1) the presence or absence of syllable-final /r/, (2) the pronounciation of the ambi-dental fricatives (/θ/ and /ð/ respectively) and (3) the quality of various vowels.

Insights of sociolinguistics Language change can be observed • The reasons for it are ultimately social, deriving from such factors as forms used by prestigious groups. Any item of change starts as a series of minute variations which spread through the lexicon of the language (lexicaldiffusion). The difference between varying forms increases with time, due to a process known as phonologisation whereby small differences are exaggerated to make them distinct from other phonemic items in a language. Only a subset of any existing variations in a language at any point in time lead to actual later change. Just what variations result in change depends on their status for the speakers of a language. This status may be conscious in the case of identification markers or subconscious, the latter not being any less important than the former for language change.

Which class is most active? • Lower middle class speakers figure prominently in language change as they aspire upwards on the social scale. The behaviour of women • Women tend to use a more standard type of language than their male counterparts (due to their uncertain position in western-style societies?). On the other hand, however, women tend to represent the vanguard in a situation of socially motivated language change. The reversal of change • Language change can in some cases be reversed, i.e. more conservative (older) forms can be re-established if enough speakers use them for purposes of conscious or unconscious identification.

Further issues in sociolinguistics 1) Social networks (smaller and more powerful in their bonds than social classes) 2) Dissociation as a form of language change (changing your language to become more different from others, usually speakers of low prestige.) 3) Sociolinguistics and gender differences (to what extent does the social role of the genders determine their linguistic usage?) 4) Solidarity and politeness are further issues in individual sociolinguistic interaction and have to do with maintaining one´s status and respect in interpersonal communication (technically called face). 5) Sociolinguistics and second language acquisition (how do social factors improve or inhibit the quality of second language acquisition?). 6) Sociolinguistics and education (how are children socialised into their environment through the schools they go to? To what extent do governments try to impose linguistic standards in their countries via the educational system?)

Types of speech communities: Bilingualism A type of linguistic situation in which two languages co-exist in a country or language community without there being a notable distribution according to function or social class. Within Europe Belgium, in those parts where French and Flemish are spoken side by side, provides an example of bilingualism. Do not confuse this with diglossia. A bilingual is an individual who speaks two languages almost equally and does not show a functional distribution of the languages. One must stress 'almost equally' as one language nearly always predominates with any given individual. True bilingualism can be seen as an ideal state which one can approach but never entirely reach.

Types of speech communities: Diglossia A type of linguistic situation in which there is a division between two languages or two varieties of a language such that one variety, the so-called 'high' or H variety, is used in public life — in addresses, in the media, in schools and universities, etc. — and another variety, the so-called 'low' variety or L variety, is used in domestic life — with family and friends. Examples of diglossic situations are to be found in Switzerland (Hochdeutsch and Schwizerdütsch), in various Arabian countries (Classical Arabic and the local dialect of Arabic), Paraguay (Spanish and Guaraní).

Types of speech communities: Language Split This term is used to refer to the type of situation which obtains when for political reasons two varieties which are scarcely distinguishable are forcibly differentiated to maximalise differences between two countries. This applies to the Moldavian dialect of Rumanian, which is now written in Cyrillic and is the language of the Republic of Moldavia within the former Soviet Union, and the remaining dialects of Rumanian. It also applies to Hindi, the official language of India, alongside English, and Urdu, the official language of Pakistan. Note that in these situations much use is made of different writing systems. Thus Hindi is written from left to right in the Devanagari script while Urdu is written right to left in the Persian variant of Arabic. Once language split has been introduced the differences may become real with time, e.g. with Hindi and Urdu the different religions make for different vocabulary which helps the originally artificial distinction between the languages to become real. Historically in Europe Dutch and the Lower Rhenish dialects represent a case of language split.

Types of speech communities: Language Maintenance The extent to which immigrant speakers of a certain language retain knowledge of the original language in the host country into the following generations. Here language communities vary. The Irish, for example, gave up their native language immediately in the United States whereas the Estonians have shown a remarkable degree of language maintenance. The reasons for this have to do with the attitude of the respective groups to their original language. For the Irish their native language was associated with a background of poverty and deprivation and so they switched gladly to English in America.

Types of speech communities: Language Preservation This is the extent to which a country has official institutions to preserve the language in an ostensibly pure form. For example, in France an academy has existed since 1634 which acts as a watchdog over the purity of French. There is no corresponding institution in England or Germany (though South Africa, as the only Anglophone country, does have a language academy). In the latter two countries, major publishing houses play the role of language academies, the Oxford University Press in England and the Bibliographisches Institut (Mannheim) in Germany, the publishers of the Duden series of reference books. One should add that the value of prescriptive organs is very much disputed as they cannot stop language change in the form of borrowing (cf. the influence of English on French despite the efforts of the academy).

Types of speech communities: Language Death This highly emotive term is sometimes applied to those social situations in which a language ceases to exist. The fact itself is of little concern, it is rather the stages which the language goes through which arouse the interest of the linguist. A well-studied instance of language death is Scottish Gaelic in East Sutherland in the north-east of Scotland. The language was progressively abandoned from one generation to the next and during this process the grammar of the language showed clear signs of disintegration, for example in its morphological system. In such a scenario the attention of the linguist is directed at the question whether significant generalisations can be made concerning this grammatical decay.

Recommended literature Auer, Peter, Frans Hinskens and Paul Kerswill (eds) 2005. Dialect Change. Convergence and Divergence in European Languages. Cambridge: University Press. Britain, David (ed.) Language in the British Isles. 2nd edition. Cambridge: University Press. Chambers, Jack 2003. Sociolinguistic theory. Linguistic variation and its social significance. 2nd edition. Oxford: Blackwell. Chambers, J. K., Peter Trudgill and Natalie Schilling-Estes (eds) 2002. The Handbook of Language Variation and Change, Malden / Oxford: Blackwell. Eckert, Penelope and John R. Rickford (eds) 2002. Style and Sociolinguistic Variation. Cambridge: University Press. Holmes, Janet 1992. An introduction to sociolinguistics. London: Longman. Lippi-Green, Rosina 1997. English with an Accent. Language, Ideology and Discrimination in the United States. London: Routledge. Mesthrie, Rajend et al. (eds) 2000. Introducing sociolinguistics. Edinburgh: University Press. Mugglestone, Lynda 2003. ‘Talking Proper’. The Rise of Accent as Social Symbol. 2nd edition. Oxford: University Press. Romaine, Suzanne 2000. Language in society. An introduction to sociolinguistics. 2nd edition. Oxford: University Press. Wardhaugh, Ronald 2001. An introduction to sociolinguistics. 4th edition. Oxford: Blackwell. Journal: Language Variation and Change, Cambridge: University Press.

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