Sociolinguistics: Language Variation

Question 1

What are linguistic variables?

Answer 1

instances of variation between forms that mean the same thing
ex: furniture people sit on, future expression

Question 2

What are linguistic variants?

Answer 2

Each of the forms participating in the variation
tree: (variable) -> (variant) + (variant) + (variant)

Question 3

What is intra speaker variation?

Answer 3

Variation within one persons speech
Ex: couch vs sofa

Question 4

What is inter speaker variation?

Answer 4

Variation in speech with other people
Compares variants across groups

Question 5

What factors impact language variation?

Answer 5

Socio-economic status
Age
Sex/gender

Question 6

How does socio-economic status affect language variation?

Answer 6

standard vs non-standard variants
Labov or Trudgill’s studies

Question 7

What are standard variants?

Answer 7

idealized variety, no specific region, associated with education and mass media, considered acceptable

Question 8

What are non-standard variants?

Answer 8

informal version of language, not grammaticalized,

Question 9

What is Labov’s 1996 Study?

Answer 9

NY r-less dialect
higher up the social scare and more formal the spech the more prestigious variants occur
in each class women used more prestigious forms than men

Question 10

What is Trudgill’s 1972 study?

Answer 10

variable (ing) variants in Norwich English
working class used the local, non-standard form [in] more
high socio-economic status used more standard prestigious variant

Question 11

How does age affect language variation?

Answer 11

younger speakers are more innovative
why?

Question 12

How does sex/gender affect language variation?

Answer 12

women are ahead of men in the use of incoming linguistic forms
women are more likely to use standard language

Question 13

What are the explanations for sex/gender differences in language variation?

Answer 13

60s-80s: women use standard to compensate for gender roles and less social power
2000s: women have better vocab, higher marks on verbal standardized tests and less speech disorders
Social roles and opportunities theory

Question 14

What social roles and opportunities explain the research on variationist sociolinguistic research?

Answer 14

1. In traditional societies, men adopt new forms first
2. In mobil groups women adopt new forms first
3. In transitional societies, women have conservative AND innovative behaviours
   Language use must be understood relative to the social roles (mobility, education, job opportunities)

Question 15

What is a real time study?

Answer 15

Examining one variable across time
focus on detecting change in chronological (real) time

Question 16

What is an apparent time study?

Answer 16

more common, compares the speech of different age groups at one point in time
ex: younger speakers vs older speakers

Question 17

What is a dialect?

Answer 17

sub-varieties of a single language,
differ in morphosyntatic structure, vocab, pronounciation
non-linguists use this term to imply non-standard variation

Question 18

What is an accent?

Answer 18

when speakers differ in pronounciation only
no major differences in grammar, index by speaker, due to geographic origin or social factors

Question 19

What is mutual intelligibility?

Answer 19

Differentiates between dialect and language
If two speakers can understand each other with little difficulty its typically a dialect
speaker dependent and experience plays a role

Question 20

What are the issues with mutual intelligibility?

Answer 20

some languages are mutually intelligible (ex: hindi and urdu)
some dialects are not mutually intelligible (ex: cantonese and mandarin)
must also consider: politics, culture, ethnicity

Question 21

What is regional dialectology?

Answer 21

study of regional differences in language use
originally examined traditional rural dialects because they preserved older speech features

Question 22

What are NORMS in regional dialectology?

Answer 22

isolated rural dialects and non-mobile, older rural males

Question 23

What is the founding research of regional dialectology?

Answer 23

Jules Gilleron making an atlas linguistic of france
1920: surveyed 600 towns with questionnaire to find regional differences
determined isoglosses

Question 24

What is an isogloss?

Answer 24

line on a dialect map marking the boundary between linguistic features
always crisscross a geographical area

Question 25

What are the causes of regional variation?

Answer 25

1. Historical settlement patterns
2. isolation from other groups

Question 26

What are the origins of Canadian English?

Question 27

What are the origins and some features of Newfoundland English?

Answer 27

immigration in mid 1800s led to geographical isolation
features: Plural suffix sometimes absent (eg three book), Stopping of interdentals (dat for that), Word-initial h-deletion (otel for hotel)

Question 28

What are the origins and some features of Quebec French?

Answer 28

1600s settlements from france, geographical isolation
features: PAS negation (je sais pas instead of je ne sais pas), Words developing different meanings (traversier means ferry instead of crossing), English influence, borrowings (bill instead of facture)

Question 29

What are the variables and variants of Laura Ford’s presentation?

Answer 29

variable: verbs that mean died
variant: died, passed away, passed, other euphemism, null variant

Question 30

What is the methodology from Laura Ford’s presentation?

Answer 30

Real time longitudinal project
Coding with Sun as working class, Winnipeg Free press as middle class

Question 31

What are the main findings of Laura Ford’s presentation?

Answer 31

Passed away most common, passed emerges recently, variation increases with time, 3 dominant variations of died, null variant and passed away
Shows changing relationship with death and religious affiliation

Question 32

What are the Variable and Variants from Maria Rodrigo-Tamarit’s presentation?

Answer 32

variable: couple meaning
variant: a couple of, a couple a, a couple

Question 33

What is the methodology from Maria Rodrigo-Tamarit’s presentation?

Answer 33

124 sociolinguistic interviews, all options must be possible in use

Question 34

What are the main findings from Maria Rodrigo-Tamarit’s presentation?

Answer 34

couple most popular at 73%, birth year affects results, youngers uses couple most, grammaticalization of use, women use couple of most as standard variant
Conc: gender is predictor, shows grammaticalization over time