1 - Language variation & change an introduction to sociolinguistics

Question 1

Language change

Answer 1

Languages change… this is the rule, not the exception. (Blevins, 2004)

Languages change all the time (Schösler, 2007)

Question 2

Problem of language change

Answer 2

The golden age myth

Question 3

The golden age myth
def

Answer 3

Les locuteurs ont souvent « l’illusion que leur langue est
immuable »

« dans la perspective traditionnelle, la langue est considérée comme immuable. Les grammairiens classiques
ignorent le changement linguistique ou n’y voient qu’un phénomène négatif »

Often resistance to new words, new pronunciations, new
usages. Nevertheless, changes occur:

Question 4

Examples of resistance to change

Answer 4

In 1712, Jonathan Swift called the pronunciation of rebukedwith [t] as opposed to [ɪd] “barbarous custom of abbreviatingwords.”

• 1986 : letters written to the BBC radio 4 seriesEnglish Now* One programme asked listeners to send in a list of the three points of grammatical usage they most disliked* Only a few restricted themselves to just three points, * Some letters were over 4 pages of detailed complaints : * Split infinitives should not be used…

Question 5

Anthony Pym’s exercise

Answer 5

Think a bout different ways people call you.

Variants (= signifiers)
The principle = variation
(The way people call me) = variable

Question 6

Example of lexical variation

Answer 6

argent, fric, oseille, flouse

Question 7

What other type of variations ?

Answer 7

Grammatical variation
Phonetic and phonological variation Stylistic variation (formal – informal)

Question 8

Example of Stylistic variation (formal – informal)

Answer 8

I do not know
I don’tknow
I dunno
Don’t know
Dunno

Question 9

Variation & change link ?

Answer 9

Variation is the basis of change

Question 10

Synchrony

Answer 10

: At any given time, you can observe different
elements of a language as they are at the same time: synchronically
* Ex : The syntax of American English in 2014.

Question 11

Diachrony

Answer 11

Concerned with the way language changes over time.

• Ex: to study the way the syntax of US English has changed from
  1900 to 2014 is to do it diachronically.

Question 12

Language change

Answer 12

• At any given time, you can observe variation synchronically and list a number of variants.
• Over time, a number of those variants, or one variant in particular, take over and the others aren’t used any more.
• This is done gradually and this constitutes language
  change.
• Ex: 18th century, -ed in rebuked was pronounced [id] and gradually [t]

Some changes are very transient & other remains

Question 13

Trudgill accents VS dialects

Answer 13

accents = pronunciation

dialects = syntax,
grammar and vocabulary.

Dialects and accents vary. Dialects are mutualy intelligible, they also have to do with politics

A generic and neutral term is VARIETY

LANGUAGE → dialects, → accent
dialect & accent = variety

Question 14

Standard English ? Regional ?

Answer 14

• There’s usually a continuum between dialects

BUT NOT with Standard English : a feature is either standard or it isn’t.

A purely social dialect – no longer geographical dialect, although
it has its oririns in the south-east of England

• Prestigious : it became the standard dialect because it was
  associated with the group of people that had the highest degree
  of power, wealth and prestige. * Distinct from other dial

Question 15

Standard English ? Regional ?

Answer 15

• There’s usually a continuum between dialects

BUT NOT with Standard English : a feature is either standard or it isn’t.

A purely social dialect – no longer geographical dialect, although
it has its oririns in the south-east of England

• Prestigious : it became the standard dialect because it was
  associated with the group of people that had the highest degree
  of power, wealth and prestige.
• Distinct from other dialects of English by its grammatical forms

Standard English may be more prestigious but it’s not « linguistically superior ».

Question 16

2 reference acents

Answer 16

Received Pronounciation RP
General American GA

Question 17

TRAP BATH SPLIT

Answer 17

North : Trap = /ae/

Bath / ɑ:/

Question 18

FOOT STRUT SPLIT

Answer 18

Foot /ʊ/
Strut /ʌ/

Question 19

are accents diverging or converging ?

Answer 19

In USA : diverging (labov)
In Britain : dialect levellling

small dialect areas are disappearing
However new supra local dialects are emerging (centred around major urban cenres) those idalects are becoming less and less like another

Question 20

dialect levellling

Answer 20

small dialect areas are disappearing

is the process of an overall reduction in the variation or diversity of features between two or more dialects.

Question 21

Sociolinguistic variation

Answer 21

Labov has correlated linguistic variables with societal ones
such as class, age, gender, and ethnicity

Question 22

SOCIO-ECONOMIC BACKGROUND Labov’s study

Answer 22

: Labov’s study of post-vocalic /r/ in New
York City, 1963

1/ Saks Fifth Avenue: exclusive store in a high fashion
shopping district
* 2/ Macy’s: middle-range store in price and prestige
* 3/ S. Klein: not far from the Lower East Side, ‘low’ prices

264 interviews. Expected answer : ‘fourth floor”

=> The pronunciation of (r) in NYC is socially stratified
* Actual pronunciation of /r/ = the prestige variant

Question 23

a change from above def

+ example

Answer 23

A change ‘from above’ : a change to the prestige form : overt prestige

=> Traditional ‘r-less’ pronunciation of NYC has been recessive
ever since (more and more people pronounce their postvocalic
/r/)
=> The opposite in Britain

Question 24

Trudgill’s study
of English in Norwich,

Answer 24

He studied a number of features based on the opposition
between the standard and the local dialect.
→ /ɪn/ vs /ɪŋ/ (singing),

Orevall: women = overt prestige & over-report

VS

Men = under-report & covert prestige

Question 25

over-report and under-report def

Answer 25

Over-report : : they say they use standard forms
more than they actually do (they say they ‘speak better ’ than they actually do).

Under-report : they say they use nonstandard
forms more than they actually do (they say
they speak ‘worse’ than they actually do).

Question 26

overt
prestige VS covert
prestige def

Answer 26

overt prestige : tend to produce more standard forms:

covert prestige : tend to use more non-standard forms

Question 27

Who are the agents of change ?

Answer 27

Middle class women
Working class men

Question 28

Contemporary Palatalisation, (Glain, 2013)

Answer 28

Instances of Contemporary Palatalisation (ICP’s) are
new manifestations of the palato-alveolar fricatives and affricates /ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ/ in phonetic environments and lexical items in which they didn’t appear until recently.
( /ʃ/ = SEAN, /ʒ/ = GENRE, /tʃ/ = CHIP, /dʒ/ = JOHN)

→ variants mostly associated with younger speakers
→ often deemed ‘incorrect’ by conservative speakers.
→ sometimes considered ‘nonstandard’ by linguists

Question 29

ICP’s summary

Answer 29

the continuation of a long, historic process whereby /ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ/ (palato-alveolars) have been developing and
spreading in the English language.

• A particular form of language change that started in Old
  English and that still seems to be in progress.

Question 30

: brin et brun

Answer 30

Age and French pronunciations

For the majority of speakers between 40 and 50, and for
virtually all the speakers under the age of 40, the phonemes
/ɛ̃/ and /oẽ/ have merged, yielding /ɛ̃/.

Brun and brin are therefore homophones.

Question 31

Labov’s study of
Martha’s Vineyard

Answer 31

These nonstandard pronunciations: a way for some people to
indicate their solidarity with the island, to ‘move back in time’
to a period with less tourism.

• Standard pronunciations: mostly associated with people who
  wanted to leave the island and become part of mainland
  Massachussets.

=> nonstandard pronunciations : markers of identity

=> In Martha’s Vineyard: a change from below. Sometimes speakers may adopt nonstandard features knowingly.

Question 32

• Linguistic variants can be divided into two types:

Answer 32

1. Indicators have no social significance.
   (Ex: John: British English /dʒɒn/, US English /dʒɔːn/ or /dʒɑːn/)
2. Markers have social significance.’ : the ‘harbingers’ of
   language change (Mc Worther, 2008) : they can indicate or
   foreshadow what is to come.

Question 33

Auer’s model (2007) :

Answer 33

proposes an interactional perspective
that takes into account the construction of social identities
through the formation of social communicative styles.
* → acts of identity

Question 34

Kahn, 2012

Answer 34

++ circles : socioeconomic class, gender, race, exceptionality, rleigion, language, sexual orientation..

multi-parameter analysis is a
better reflection of people’s social identity

We are complex, multi-faceted individuals who belong to
several groups/communities/networks at the same time.

Question 35

code-switching.

Answer 35

= moving back and forth between two langages.
= 1 manifestation of belonging to several groups

Question 36

3 waves of variation studies

Answer 36

1) William Labov initiated the first wave of quantitative
studies  examine the relation between linguistic
variability and major demographic categories (class, age, sex class, ethnicity).
==> establish the big picture of the social spread of change

2) second wave of variation studies employs ethnographic
methods to seek out the relation between variation and local,
participant-designed categories and configurations.
=> give local meaning to the more abstract demographic categories
outlined in the first wave.
→ Jocks and Burnouts (1989),

3) Building on the findings of the First and Second Waves of variation studies, the Third Wave focuses on the social meaning of variables.
=> It views styles, rather than variables, as directly associated with
identity categories, and explores the contributions of variables to
styles.
=> In shifting the focus from dialects to styles, it shifts the focus from
speaker categories to the construction of personae.
=> Finally, it examines variation as part of the wider performative
system of language and its meaning as part of the wider meaning
system.
→  Gay doctor vs. gay diva.

Question 37

Jocks and Burnouts (1989),Penelope Eckert

Answer 37

she examined how the social
practices in high school affect the degree to which students
pick up new linguistic variants.
→ the social categories relevant in high school were much
different from those relevant in early childhood or in
adulthood.

♦ ‘Jocks’: upper half of the local socioeconomic
continuum, constituted a middle-class, corporate
culture, were college bound, and based their social lives
in the institution of school and its extracurricular
sphere.

♦ ‘Burnouts’, predominantly from the lower end of the
local socioeconomic continuum, constituted a workingclass
culture, were workplace bound, oriented to the
local conurbation and the urban periphery in particular,
and were alienated from the school institution.

The Jocks’ and Burnouts’ differences were deeply ideological,
and they maintained a mutual distinction using whatever
means were at their disposal, many of which indexed urban
versus institutional identities and practices—clothing, makeup,
territory, activities, consumption patterns, and language.
→ Different vowels for DRESS /e/, STRUT /ʌ/ and PRICE /aɪ /.

Question 38

Principles of language change
Internal factors

Answer 38

Economy
Expressiveness
Analogy

Question 39

Economy

Answer 39

= the principle of Least Effort

• Tendency for human beings to be ‘lazy’: to reduce
  articulatory efforts as much as possible.

→ assimilation (* Ex: I do not know > I ‘dunno’)
→ apocope = abbreviation (automobile >auto)

Question 40

Expressiveness

Answer 40

to be more expressive
Today  aujourd’hui = the day of today

ou ne pas : je ne marche pas

Question 41

Lenition:

Answer 41

weakening of consonants
pater → father
/θ/ → /ð/ = lenition (other pretty
regular sound change)

Question 42

analogy

Answer 42

The mind is constantly on the lookout for any
signs of recurrent patterns, because the more regularity it
can recognize, the easier its task of coping with the mass of
linguistic detail it has to absorb. When the mind picks out a
recurrent pattern, it naturally tries to extend it to whatever
seems to fit

French, then English : une orange, an orange, with a phonetic [n]
* Decomposed as une/orange ; an/orange through a process of
analogy.
* Otherwise we’d have *a norange in English today.

OU

• All new French verbs are first-group verbs. Ex. tisser : the root is tiss- , from old French tisre, tist

Question 43

Other Internal/external factors

Answer 43

♦ Grammaticalization → English : front / back (n.) → front / back (prépositions)

♦ misperception = error in perception

Question 44

The tree model of language change

Answer 44

Latin
→ French (Old french, contemporary french)
→ Spanish
→ Italian

Question 45

The principles of language change : External factors

Answer 45

The wave model

contact between varieties and
between languages

Middle English had lost Old English case.
* In a way, Middle English was simplified.
* Some linguists (McWhorter 2004, Crystal 2003 …): the influence of
the Vikings (raids and invasion of England from the end of the 8th
century).
* The Vikings mingled very well = inter-marriages.
* The Vikings learned Old English as a pidgin
Children born from these marriages re-complexified the language
which became a creole

Question 46

pidgin

Answer 46

(a simplified language,
with no native speakers, that develops as a means of
communication between two or more groups that do not have a
language in common).

Question 47

creole

Answer 47

(a pidgin that has native speakers).

Question 48

External change

Answer 48

• External factors: contact and borrowings between languages.
• 1066: England was invaded by the French (the Normans)
• French became the official language of the higher classes, of Court,
  for more than 200 years.
• French was the language of the Court, the governent, the law, the Church, the Army and Navy, fashion, meals, social life, art,
  education and medecine.

sheep vs. mutton
=> situation of DIGLOSSIA

French: the H language (the ‘high’ language, the prestige language).
English: the L language (the ‘low’ language, the vernacular).

Question 49

Why certain variants ?

Answer 49

 Some innovations are ‘born’ but never get past the stage of
variation.

 Other innovations become the preferred variants → change.
 Prestige for a group / for certain individuals.
 Overt and covert prestige & acts of identity.

(imitation, accomodation, social networks)

Question 50

Imitation

Answer 50

‘[The innovation] will spread only if it is imitated. It will be
imitated only if it is felt to be in some sense admirable and
worthy of imitation. This will happen only if the speakers who
use it are perceived as setting the fashion

Question 51

According to Millet what is the only element that can allow us to explain language ?

Answer 51

Social Change

Question 52

Accomodation

Answer 52

 Accommodation implies a convergence between the
linguistic features of interlocutors that are interacting.

 The speaker alters his/her speech in order to make it closer
to that of the interlocutor in order to get some sort of social
recognition from the interlocutor.

Question 53

Social networks

Answer 53

 Individuals are multi-faceted and can belong to several
networks at the same time.

 Some communities are characterized by strong social links,
few social changes, little contact with other communities
and few linguistic innovations but intense social contact
within them  dense communication networks.

Communities with ‘weak’ social are newer communities.
→ Internal contact is less common.
→ There is considerable social change.
=> Loose communication network.

Question 54

Social networks Milroy & Milroy

Answer 54

SN1 : Dense, few
social changes,
not much
contact with
other networks,
intense internal
contact

SN2 : Loose, new
community, social
changes, not much
internal contact,
regular contact
with other
networks

Agents of change = au milieu des 2

Question 55

Interaction / accommodation /
norms

Answer 55

 Following communication and interaction → ‘re-negotiation’
of linguistic norms

C’est ainsi que, par la conjugaison de facteurs sociaux, communicationnels
et cognitifs, les normes statistiques deviennent des normes systémiques.
« Une dynamique dans la synchronie » (AMH) : pourquoi ça change → une proposition
pour expliquer l’activation du changement linguistique

Question 56

Smith’s cognitive model (2007)

Answer 56

The actuation of change

• Smith’s model accounts for the diffusion of change
  into the community.

There has to be an interaction between extra- and intralinguistic factors at a particular time for a particular change to occur and then to diffuse into the community.

• The reason why some innovations catch on in the community is often related to social considerations.
• The evolution may even originate in major historical events or
  ideological changes (Labov 2010: 44).
• Ex : Viking invasion, Norman invasion + the resulting changes
  in society : quite obvious

Question 57

Post-war Britain

Answer 57

Decades following World War Two: significant social changes
in Britain.

• Following the war: a general consensus that pre-war social inequalities were unacceptable
• In the wake of the Beveridge report (1942), the Labour
  government implemented social reforms (a national
  commitment to reform, Speck 1993)
• Beveridge had identified five ‘giant evils’:

Question 58

Education

Answer 58

1944:
Education Act « the Butler Act » (a
Conservative: consensus)
* Before: secondary education wasn’t
compulsory & wasn’t free
* There was no Education Minister

=> All that changed with the 1944 Eucation Act
=> All Local Education Authorities had to provide free education to all children above 11

=> 1944 – 1966: the number of universities doubled; universities became accessible to students from all socio-economic backgrounds. Democratisation of the educational system

→ Hannisdal (2006: 15) makes a link between this socio-historical
context and the decline of RP

=> Professional and academic careers became open to people from the lower social strata: non-RP speakers. Possible to be educated and not be an RP speaker.

♦ 1970, Gimson (1970 : 18-19) noted ‘a rejection of the accent
of the “Establishment”, i.e. RP’.COntexte of a more liberal ideology

=> Such social and historical factors are highly favourable to the
actuation of linguistic change within the framework of cognitive
linguistics.
=> ‘Cognitivists posit an intimate, dialectic relationship between the structure and function of language on the one hand, and nonlinguistic
skills and knowledge on the other.’

Question 59

Post-war America

Answer 59

The decline of RP as a sort of international standard after
World War Two extended far beyond Europe at a time when
Britain lost its Empire.

• In the USA, some sort of international English based on RP
  served as a model in high society

‘r-less pronunciation, as a characteristic of British Received
Pronunciation, was also taught as a model of correct, international English by schools of speech, acting, and elocution in the United States up to the end of World War II. It was the standard model for most radio announcers and used
as a high prestige form by Franklin Roosevelt’

The art of oratory has long been part and parcel of
American culture

=> the 20th century witnessed a gradual shift from
formal and written-based types of public speaking to
speeches that became more informal and much closer to real spoken English. This was part of a more general change.

Possible: in shifting away from written-based, overarticulated
speeches, modern speechmaking has participated in an overall
change favourable to processes of phonetic reduction based on
coarticulation and hypoarticulation, such as ICPs

Question 60

Why the sudden rise of ICP’s in the late 1960s- early
1970s?

Answer 60

In both the USA and Britain, the 1945-1970 period witnessed a
radical change in speaking standards. Those innovations
were triggered by social and ideological changes.
→ Incrementation
Through successive generations, children develop linguistic
changes to a higher level of evolution

Parents : initiated the change after WW2
Their children took it to a higher level of evolution in 1960s-
1970s.
Associated with the very liberal ideology that was prevalent in
the late 1960s & in the 1970s

• Increasing contact between varieties of English
• A number of recent studies have shown some degree
  of levelling of accents in Britain.
• ‘the product of social and demographic changes’
  (Hannisdal 2006)
• Consonant systems of British English varieties seem to be converging

Question 61

What about the futur ?

Answer 61

1) Glocalization
2) 2/ For the first time in history, there are more L2 than L1 speakers of English. This is bound to have an influence. Already, there’s a tendency to regularize plurals such as advices,
luggages, informations*.