Sociolinguistics - Lecture 7

Big Question: The constraint problem

what kind of changes are possible in a language? are there limits or ‘rules’ that constrain how a language can change?

Big Question: the transition problem

how does a language from one form to another? what are the intermediate steps?

Big Question: The embedding problem

how is a change embedded in the social/linguistic context?

Big Question: The evaluation problem

how do people in the speech community evaluate or react to a change? are some changes percieved as “better” or “worse”

Big Question: The actuation problem

how does language change begin in a particular time and place? what triggers it?

Language Change

• a slow and gradual process

• incoming form supplants the other variants

• tracking over real time usually gives an S-curve

• young people are the catalysts, but not conscious about it

Real Time Approaches

• ideal is to catch it when it’s happening in real time (diachronic approach)

• can review the past by relying on language data spanning a period of time

• can conduct real-time studies

  • conduct a study of some community at one point, wait around for a few years, then replicate the study

  • by returning to scene of earlier study, essentially making use of the present to interpret the past

Real Time Approaches: Trend Study

same population (but different individuals from the previous study) is re-sampled at various points over time → longitudinal, sequential

Real Time Approaches: Panel Study

same individuals (from the previous study) are re-interviewed at various points over time → longitudinal

Apparent Time Approach

collect all new data at a single point in time but sue people form different age groups and examine variation in current usage (synchronic approach)

• age used as proxy for time

• use approach to ‘look back in time’

• findings of these have been largely confirmed by real-time studies

Apparent-Time Construct

critical assumption: people’s linguistic habits stabilize after the age of 20

• people after 20 are like linguistic time capsules, provide a sense of what the past looked like

• old speakers reflect how language was when they were young

• younger speakers reflect language now

Apparent Time: Age-Based Patterns

collect data from different age groups, can indicate

• generational change

• lifespan change

• age grading (special case of stable variation)

Apparent Time: Generational Change

the classic kind of linguistic change (on-going change, change in progress)

• the community changes but individuals remain stable

• successive younger generations slowly push an innovative variant

• when viewed from apparent time get a monotonic slope, not an S-curve

Apparent Time: Adolescent Stage

• children start out talking like their parents

• transition to more peer-based interactions, begin to sound like each other

• enter middle school, cohort of kids start to diverge from the previous one a little bit

• adolescent stage is a time of rich sociolinguistic creativity and innovation

• where the vernacular develops

Apparent Time: Stabilization

around age 20, language use patterns generally stabilize

• when teens adopt a norm

• but never truly stable, we’re active agents

Apparent Time: Issues

age used as proxy for time, but age-based differences may have other interpretations

• sometimes community and individuals within change the way they speak (lifespan change)

• sometimes individuals change the way they speak at different ages, but community doesn’t change (age-grading)

Apparent Time: Lifespan Change

real time (panel) studies show that individuals do change their language use patterns over the lifespan - direction of lifespan change follows community change

• findings at odds with apparent-time perspective

• montreal ( r )

Age-Grading

an age-based pattern whereby people grow into or out of a particular linguistic behaviour as they change

• special case of stable variation

• community’s language as a whole doesn’t change

• maybe because linguistic marketplace

• toddler: mama → mommy → mom

Change from Above

changes that the speakers are consciously aware of, and that typically starts in higher classes and then becomes adopted by the speakers in lower classes. speakers generally aware of their social meanings.

Change from Below

changes that speakers are not consciously aware of, and that starts in interior/lower classes and eventually moves up to higher classes. speakers not necessarily aware of their social meanings.

Stable Variation

not necessarily an ongoing change, but rather an instance where the use of a particular variant is about the same from generation to generation. speakers generally aware of their social meanings.

Linguistic Change Principles for Gender: Stable variables

• the linguistic conformity of women in stability

• women use more of the ‘standard’ variant than men

Linguistic Change Principles for Gender: Change from above

• the linguistic conformity of women in changes from above

• women use more of the incoming standard variant than men

• ‘standard’ → whatever the most socially prestigious form is, usually what upper classes use the most

Linguistic Change Principles for Gender: Change from below

• the linguistic advancement of women in changes from below

• women use more of the incoming ‘non-standard’ variant than men

Gender Paradox

“women conform more closely than men to sociolinguistic norms that are overtly prescribed but conform less than men when they are not” - Labov

• women more standard amid stability

• women more standard in changes from above

• women less standard in changes from below