lesson 2

Question 1

labov

Answer 1

Labov (1927) is the founder of ʻsociolinguisticsʼ Research started in the 1960s
● new methodology focusing on the ʻspeech communityʼ
● quantitative analysis of linguistic and social variation
● groundwork the ʻfirst waveʼ of sociolinguistics
○ ʻsecond/third wavesʼ address shortcomings

Question 2

Labov researched language change, and made three important realisations

Answer 2

there is variation in language

● this variation is quantitative (%)

● quantitative patterns of variation differ between groups of speakers

Question 3

The Department Store study Peopleʼs pronunciation of (r) varied by…

Answer 3

● social factors — working class vs. middle class ● stylistic factors — careful speech vs. casual speech ● language-internal factors — word-medial vs. word-final position Individuals differed, but the patterns hold at community level

Question 4

speech community

Answer 4

Labovʼs definition of a speech community: “A speech community is not defined by any marked agreement in the use of language elements, so much as by participation in a set of shared norms; these norms may be observed in overt types of evaluative behaviour, and by the uniformity of abstract patterns of variation which are invariant in respect to particular levels of usage.”

By this definition, New York City is a speech community ● different rate of use of variants ● agreed social meaning (evaluative behaviour) ● agreed abstract patterns of variation

Question 5

realisations

Answer 5

● language variation is a prerequisite for language change ● language change from above/below (conscious awareness) ○ not the same as from higher/lower social classes! ○ social classes often show a cross-over pattern ● more on language variation and change next week

Question 6

Language variation and women

Answer 6

● Principle 1 (Sex-Prestige Pattern)
○ in stable variation, women use more of the standard variant than men do

● Principle 2a
○ in change from above, women use more of the prestigious incoming variant

● Principle 2b
○ in change from below, women are most often the innovators

Question 7

Why does the Sex-Prestige Pattern exist?

Answer 7

● women often lack material status and power, so compensate for this by using more prestigious language

● really?
○ if men are more prestigious, women should be copying men
○ and should we theoretically take menʼs speech as the norm?

Question 8

social networks

Answer 8

Social networks are “the aggregate of relationships contracted with others”

● dense, multiplex networks work as an enforcement mechanism; outside influence is resisted

● sparse, [pauciplex] networks are open to input from outside

● this has consequences for language, too

Social networks can also explain the city-hopping pattern in language change ● more connections between larger cities ● further spread from local centres

Question 9

problems with networks

Answer 9

Speakers are simply presented as members of social categories, networks or groups who select linguistic variables, and the meaning assigned to language reflects the meaning of those who select it.ʼ Emma Moore

ʻHow do linguistic variants acquire social meaning through social practice – or, how do variables mean?ʼ Penny Eckert

Question 10

communities of practice

Answer 10

ʻ…an aggregate of people who come together around mutual engagement in an endeavour. Ways of doing things, ways of talking, beliefs, values, power relations – in short, practices, emerge in the course of this mutual endeavour.ʼ Penny Eckert & Sally McConnell-Ginet

● mutual engagement

● jointly negotiated enterprise

● shared repertoire

Question 11

three waves of sociolinguistics

Answer 11

● Labovian sociolinguistics — broad categories

● social networks — locally relevant categories

● communities of practice — social meaning Looking at language use quantitatively can give explanations for language variation, language change, and social meaning

Question 12

index field

Answer 12

Indexical field: boxes = social types ● bold = permanent states ● italic = stances (slides p. 32)

Question 13

Accent

Answer 13

Where speakers differ
(or vary) at the level
of pronunciation
only (phonetics and/
or phonology), they
have different accents.
Their grammar may
be wholly or largely
the same. Accents
can index a speaker’s
regional/geographic
origin, or social factors
such as level and type
of education, or even
their attitude.

Question 14

Dialect

Answer 14

A term widely applied
to what are considered
sub-varieties of a
single language.
Generally, dialect
and accent are
distinguished by how
much of the linguistic
system differs. Dialects
differ on more than
just pronunciation,
i.e., on the basis of
morphosyntactic
structure and/or how
semantic relations
are mapped into the
syntax. (See also
Variety.)

Question 15

speech community (book)

Answer 15

Speech community
Variously defined on
subjective or objective
criteria. Objective
criteria would group
speakers together in
a speech community
if the distribution of a
variable was consistent
with respect to other
factors (e.g., style).
Subjective criteria
would group speakers
as a speech community
if they shared a sense
of and belief in comembership.

Question 16

style-shifting

Answer 16

Variation in an
individual’s speech
correlating with
differences in
addressee, social
context, personal goals
or externally imposed
tasks.

Question 17

attention to speech

Answer 17

Labov proposed
that the different
distribution of forms
in different styles
was motivated by the
amount of attention
the speaker was paying
to the act of speaking.
In activities such as
reading aloud, reading
word lists or minimal
pairs, Labov argued
that speakers are
paying more attention
to their speech than
they are in interviews,
and in interviews they
pay more attention
than when conversing
with friends and
family. Contrasts
with accommodationbased accounts of
style-shifting such as
audience design. Also
contrasts with more
agentive theories of
style-shifting such as
acts of identity.

Question 18

triangulation

Answer 18

Triangulation
A researcher’s use of
several independent
tests to confirm their
results and aid in
the interpretation
of their results. For
example, use of data
from sociolinguistic
interviews and a rapid
and anonymous study

Question 19

labov interview

Answer 19

(i) read a list of minimal pairs (pairs of words that have different meanings but only differ
from each other in one sound);
(ii) read a list of words in isolation (some of which contain the variables under investigation
and some of which do not);
(iii) read aloud a short narrative (carefully constructed to contain the variables in as many
linguistic environments as possible);
(iv) talk with the interviewer about their life, some of their beliefs, and their life experiences.

Question 20

stratified

Answer 20

See Broad and
Fine stratification.
The systematic and
consistent patterning of
a variant with respect
to some independent
factor

Question 21

monotonic

Answer 21

A steady increase or
decrease in a feature
along the x-axis of a
graph.

Question 22

trend

Answer 22

Steady increase
or decrease in the
frequency of a form
across a scale or set of
measures.

Question 23

Probability/
probabilistic

Answer 23

The likelihood with
which a variant will
occur in a given
context, subject to the
linguistic and nonlinguistic constraints.
An adjustment of raw
frequencies of forms.

Question 24

Inherent
variability

Answer 24

A way of modelling
variation as a property
of the grammar.
Contrasts with a
model of variation
as speakers’ (or a
speaker’s) alternation between different
sound or grammar
systems (see code
switching ). Also
contrasts with
the notion of free
variation . Inherent
variability unifi es
interspeaker and
intraspeaker variation
in ways that the other
two approaches do not

Question 25

Overt prestige

Answer 25

The prestige associated with a variant that speakers are aware of and can talk about in terms of standardness, or aesthetic and moral evaluations like being ‘nicer’ or ‘better’. (See also Covert prestige.)

Question 26

covert prestige

Answer 26

A norm or target that is oriented to without the speaker even being aware that they are orienting to it. Evidence of covert prestige can be found in mismatches between speakers’ self-report of using one variant and actual use of another variant. Often used (wrongly) to refer to the value associated with non-standard or vernacular varieties.

Question 27

Observer’s paradox

Answer 27

The double-bind researchers fi nd themselves in when what they are interested in knowing is how people behave when they are not being observed; but the only way to fi nd out how they behave is to observe them.

Question 28

Participant observation

Answer 28

The practice of spending longer periods of time with speakers observing how they use language, react to others’ use of it, and how language interacts with and is embedded in other social practices and ideologies. A means of gathering qualitative data rather than quantitative data.

Question 29

Audience design

Answer 29

Derived from accommodation theory. Proposal that intraspeaker variation arises because speakers are paying attention to who they are addressing or who might be listening to or overhearing them, and modify their speech accordingly

Question 30

Speaker design

Answer 30

A further approach to analysing styleshifting . Stresses the speaker’s desire to represent her/himself in certain ways. (See also Acts of identity .)

Question 31

social class

Answer 31

A measure of status which is often based on occupation, income and wealth, but also can be measured in terms of aspirations and mobility. These factors can then be used to group individuals scoring similarly on these factors into socioeconomic classes.

Question 32

status

Answer 32

Max Weber’s theory of social class held that it was based on a person’s status, measured in terms of their lifestyle and life choices in addition to measures of wealth and occupation (as per Marx)

Question 33

cross-over effect

Answer 33

The cross-over effect emerges at the intersection of style and class. Typically it refers to the breakdown in the most careful speech styles of clear stratification between speakers of different social classes. For example, when reading word lists, speakers from the second-highest social class will suddenly produce more tokens of an incoming or prestige form than speakers in the highest social class do, instead of producing slightly fewer tokens as they do in their conversation or interview styles (cf. Hypercorrection).

Question 34

fine stratification

Answer 34

A distribution of variants, e.g., across groups of speakers in different styles, which shows each group of speakers patterning minimally differently from each other in each style. Shows up as small gaps between trend lines on a line graph

Question 35

broad stratification

Answer 35

A distribution of variants – for example, across groups of speakers in different styles – which shows each group of speakers patterning markedly differently from each other in each style. Shows up as a big gap between trend lines on a line graph.

Question 36

change from above

Answer 36

Changes taking place in a speech community above the level of individuals’ conscious awareness. Able to be commented on. One variant is clearly standard or has clear overt prestige. It does not refer to changes led by higher social classes (though this may often be the case). (See also Change from below.)

Question 37

change from below

Answer 37

Changes taking place in a speech community below the level of conscious awareness. Not the subject of overt comment. It does not refer to changes led by lower social classes. (See also Change from above.)

Question 38

hypercorrection

Answer 38

The production of a form which never occurs in a native variety on the basis of the speaker’s misanalysis of the input (cf. Cross-over effect).

Question 39

linguistic insecurity

Answer 39

Speakers’ feeling that the variety they use is somehow inferior, ugly or bad. Negative attitudes to one’s own variety expressed in aesthetic or moral terms

Question 40

negative concord

Answer 40

A language where a negative element/ constituent in a sentence requires all other indefi nites to also be negative has a rule of negative concord.

Question 41

core network member

Answer 41

Term used by Jenny Cheshire to describe the members centrally involved and actively participating in a friendship network. Distinguished from peripheral and secondary members who were progressively less involved.

Question 42

dense and loose networks

Answer 42

Dense networks are characterised by everyone within the network knowing each other. In loose social networks not all members know each othe

Question 43

uniplex tie

Answer 43

A network tie between individuals that expresses one role or basis for contact and interaction. (See also Multiplex tie.)

Question 44

multiplex ties

Answer 44

Individuals in a social network can be linked through a single social relationship (a uniplex tie; e.g., mother~daughter) or through several social relationships (multiplex ties; e.g., cousins~ coworkers~ neighbours).

Question 45

life-modes

Answer 45

Different modes of production and consumption. Social class may be seen as a process giving rise to these distinctions.

Question 46

community of practice

Answer 46

Unit of analysis introduced to sociolinguistics by Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet in their research on language and gender. A smaller unit than a social network. Comembership is defined on three criteria: mutual engagement, a jointly negotiated enterprise and a shared repertoire. Associated with analyses of variation that emphasise speakers’ agency. (See also Acts of identity; Speaker design.)