LING 115 Final

billingual

someone who can communicate in 2 languages fluently and effectively and without hesitation in a wide variety of common situations in everyday life

two common patterns of how bilingualism is established

1. simultaneous bilingualism: L1 and L2 are both acquired from an early age, often in the home (ex: mother and father speak different languages to their children)

2. consecutive bilingualism: L2 is acquired after L1; typically before teenage years, often when children start school

Why are L1 and L2 learned?

1. heritage language is learned at home as L1 and the LML/a language of wider communication is learned as an L2 in school for economic/access-to-knowledge factors

2. parents have different heritage languages and want their children to learn both for cultural and identity reasons

3. late L2 learning by teenagers/adults for personal/professional interests

balanced bilinguals

equally proficient in L1 and L2

non-balanced bilinguals

not equally proficient in L1 and L2

dominant language

language that is easier to use and more automatic for a bilingual; used more frequently than the other language

One Parent One Language strategy (OPOL)

- method to raise child bilingually

- each parent speaks a different language to their language

how language develops in bilingual children

2 patterns

1. between ages 2-3, children mix parts of the 2 languages they hear in 2 ways:

- words from both languages combined in short sentences

- children create new word mixtures from parts of words in the 2 languages they hear

2. children don't establish parallel vocabularies in L1 & L2

- for each object, individual, or animal, they either learn and use the word in the L1 or the L2, not both languages

2 hypotheses for how children interpret input from 2 languages

Unitary Language System Hypothesis and Separate Development Hypothesis

Unitary Language System Hypothesis

children assume that everything they hear in L1 & L2 belongs to a single language, not 2 languages; 3 stages of language posited

- stage 1: L1/L2 words and grammar fully mixed

- stage 2: no mixing of words from L1 & L2 in a single sentence, but L1/L2 grammar rules still mixed (separate vocabularies, mixed grammar)

- stage 3: separate vocab & grammar

Separate Development Hypothesis

children know that there are 2 language systems from the start

2 arguments

1. children do mix words & grammar, but they never mix phonology/the pronunciation systems of L1 & L2

2. children continue to mix words & grammar sometimes even after there is very clear evidence that they know there are 2 distinct languages

clear signs of L1/L2 distinction in children

- from age 4/5 onward, children show clear signs of knowing that they are using (and hearing) 2 different languages

- early on, children sometimes don't have words such as 'English' & 'Spanish' for the 2 languages they hear and use, but they show that they know there are 2 languages in other ways

- ex: children translate one language to

inteference

- first-learned language often affects the way the second language is learned & spoken-- 'interference' of L1 on L2

- can occur across all ages but common among later L2-learners in their teenage years and beyond

- different types: phonological, grammatical, lexical

phonological interference

L1 sound system affects the pronunciation of sounds in the L2; a 'foreign accent'

grammatical interference

grammar of a person's first-learned language may interfere with their learning of an L2 grammar

lexical interference

- words from L1 are sometimes borrowed into L2; may be temporary borrowing when a speaker forgets a word in the L2

- in other cases, meanings of an L1 word are incorrectly assumed to be present with a similar word in L2 (ex: English "cream" & German "crème")

Critical Period Hypothesis

- there is a limited period of time ('window of opportunity') during which a person can achieve native-speaker level of proficiency in a language

- after this, language-learners make slower progress and achieve less high levels of success

- peak at age 2-5 years old

- explains why teenagers who were deprived of normal language interactions struggle to obtain normal first language acquisition even after rehabilitation

language attrition

- loss of a language within a person or group over time

- evidence suggests that our 'lost' language may actually be stored away in a remote, temporarily inaccessible part of our brains

- people who have learned a language and then forgotten it, are able to relearn it faster than first-time learners

opinion on bilingualism in early 20th century

- suggested that bilingual exposure was bad for children and their mental development

- Balance Theory: idea that a person does not have sufficient brain space to learn two languages and gain other academic skills

- early research showed negative consequences of bilingualism from studies on immigrant children in Germany, Scandinavia, and N. America

- low test scores likely due to low socioeconomic status of bilingual children

- changed in 1960, when tests showed positive effects of bilingualism

subtractive bilingualism & its causes

negative effects when children exposed to 2 languages

1. linguistic: child's L1 skills aren't fully developed when the child is required to learn and quickly develop advanced new skills in L2 (too much to learn at the same time)

- solution: let children develop L1 first, then add an L2

2. psychological: minority group children often experience that others express negative attitudes toward their L1, and they develop negative feelings about their home/first language

- neither L1 or L2 are learned well

- children are "anomie": they feel lost between 2 cultures

The Bilingual Advantage (additive bilingualism)

benefits experienced by bilingual individuals in 2 areas

1. advanced linguistic skills: bilingual children are more creative in language use, more flexible in thinking, and find it easier to see things from different perspectives

2. beneficial cognitive effects: improved executive function, used for multi-tasking, maintaining focus/attention, and switching attention

how do cognitive skills result from bilingualism?

- learning to keep 2 languages apart in one's brain and use them selectively regularly involves inhibiting one language

- bilingual children get practice in focusing on certain information and ignoring other irrelevant info (the other language)

- stimulates stronger concentration skills in general

The Bilingual Advantage for aging populations

- bilingualism involves healthy mental exercise, stimulating cognitive reserve

- experience later onset of Alzheimer's and can also cope with effects of Alzheimer's better

Language Relativity Hypothesis

- aka Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

- developed by Edward Sapir (professor of linguistics and anthropology at Yale University) & Benjamin Lee Whorf (amateur linguist and student of Sapir)

- key idea: language acts as a filter onto the world, highlighting and obscuring different physical and mental phenomena

- words name concepts, and if certain words are not shared across languages then speakers of different languages have different sets of mental concepts

lexical decomposition

breaking down and analyzing complex words into sub-parts

counter-proposal to LRH/Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

- hypothesis: speakers of all languages share the same set of core concepts; special, complex concepts may be built from combinations of these shared basic concepts

- ex: essen = human + agent + eat, fressen = animal + agent + eat

- NOT TRUE-- psycholinguistic evidence says that speakers do not break down complex concepts into sets of basic concepts every time they hear/use such words

- conclusion: special, complex concepts DO exist in the minds of speakers, and vary across languages

importance of grammatical variation (English vs. Native American language)

- Whorf argued that differences in grammar across languages may be more important than lexical variation

- English adds a plural marker to nouns when referring to more than one entity and also requires that verbs be marked for tense (indicating present, future, or past)

- Native American languages don't have tense-marking on verbs; instead they have evidentials, which indicate what kind of evidence the speaker has to support what s/he is saying

- indicates how English-speakers focus more on notion of time compared to Native Americans

criticisms of early Linguistic Relativity

1. language differences don't seem to cause differences in perception

2. not all our concepts come to us from language

3. Linguistic Relativity vs. Linguistic Determinism

4. need for better evidence for the LRH

criticisms of early Linguistic Relativity: language differences don't seem to cause differences in perception

- languages can be quite different without this corresponding to major differences in world view

- English and German are different in many ways, but this might not seem to result

in major different world views

- counterargument: many of the linguistic differences between English and German are not patterns that should have effects on perception

criticisms of early Linguistic Relativity: not all our concepts come to us from language

- maybe we get concepts directly from our experience, not through language?

- BOTH words/language & experience cause formation of mental concepts (not just language as LRH states)

- but other concepts DO come to use through language (ex: ghost, atom, peninsula, etc.)

- potential support for a weaker version of the LRH

criticisms of early Linguistic Relativity: Linguistic Relativity vs. Linguistic Determinism

- Linguistic Relativity: weak version of Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis-- language has a tendency to influence thought

- Linguistic Determinism: strong version of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis-- language fully determines thought and forces thinkers to think in pre-set ways

- critics of Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: Linguistic Determinism cannot be correct, but the weaker form is still supported

criticisms of early Linguistic Relativity: need for better evidence for the LRH

- critics suggested that early research into the LRH did not provide good, convincing evidence, just speculations

- there is a need for non-verbal evidence showing that

people behave differently when there are differences in their languages

- this has been achieved through well-constructed experiments since the 1990s

broad assessment of the LRH from researcher George Lakoff

- George Lakoff: Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things. 1987, University of Chicago Press

- comments on the relation of language to thought, the LRH, and Whorf’s contribution to science

- 2 important terms:

1. conceptual capacity: the ability all humans have (in some way) to form new concepts

2. conceptual system: the actual set of concepts present in the minds of individual speakers-– varies from speaker to speaker

linguistic/conceptual outcomes that arise in different language groups as a result of their experiences according to George Lakoff

1. different experiences produce different concepts/conceptual systems

- Cora people of mountainous area of Mexico transfer spatial sense to 2D horizontal planes when talking about location of objects (summits, slopes, & bottom parts of hillls)

2. parallel experience occurs, but different concepts evolve from this experience

- concept of 'back' in English and Hausa (W. Africa): in Hausa, the back of an object aligns with the location of a human's back

3. similar experiences occur, but certain concepts fail to be formed in some languages

- Tahitians have no word for 'sadness,' and they don't seem to have any distinct concept of iti

experiment 1: perception of objects in English and Navajo

- in Navajo, verbs of 'handling' (give, take, put, etc.) have special endings which provide info about the shape of the object of the verb-- does this make speakers of Navajo more aware of shape then speakers of other languages?

- experiment: Navajo- and English-speaking children were given 2 objects which varied in shape and color and were then given a 3rd object with the question "which of the first 2 objects does the 3rd object most resemble? Which is it most like?"

- English-speaking children grouped objects that were similar in color (as expected)

- Navajo-speaking children grouped objects that were similar in shape

- good support for LRH: special verbal endings in Navajo seems to affect young children's non-linguistic behavior

follow-up test to Navajo- vs. English-speaking children

- compared middle-class children from Boston (Group A) vs. working-class children from New York (Group B)

- Group B sorted objects according to similarity in color (like English-speakers)

- Group A sorted according to shape (like Navajo-speakers)

- children in Group A played with toys that stimulated early development of shape, whereas poorer Group B did not have such toys

conclusions from experiment 1: Navajo vs. English + follow-up comparing socioeconomic backgrounds

1. grammatical differences can influence perception and behavior (the Navajo-speaking children behaved differently from their English-speaking peers)

2. there are also other things which can influence our perception-- the availability of toys with Group A to stimulate perception of shape

3. the most extreme form of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, Linguistic Determinism, cannot be correct since other factors influence our perception (like socioeconomic status)

4. LRH in its weaker form IS supported-- language CAN influence the development of

perception

experiment 2: plural-marking

- compared English (adds plural marker -s every time there is reference to more than one noun) and Yucatec Maya (bare noun can be interpreted as either singular or plural)

- experiment: participants were shown pictures of scenes with humans, animals, and things

Task 1: describe what you see in the picture

Task 2: turn the picture face down, and describe from memory what was in the picture

- English speakers indicated more often whether humans, animals, and things in the picture were singular or in groups

- when YM speakers mentioned such distinction, they did this for humans and animals, not things

conclusions from experiment 2: plural-marking

1. obligatory marking of plural vs. singular distinctions in English makes its speakers pay more attention to whether humans, animals and things occur singularly or in groups

2. YM optional plural-marker only seems to make speakers pay some attention to whether humans and animals occur singularly or in groups, and not things

3. linguistic differences in English and YM have effects on the perception of visual scenes

experiment 3: remembering witnessed events

- compared English (includes cause of an action as the subject of a sentence) and Japanese (cause of accidental action is less frequently the subject)

- ex: "Sue broke the vase" (English) vs. "The vase broke" (Japanese)

- experiment: participants were shown short video sequences depicting events of people either accidentally or deliberately causing certain changes to other objects and were asked to describe what happened + who caused the events to occur

- results: English speakers remembered who caused the events to occur for both deliberate and accidental actions, while Japanese only remembered well for deliberate actions

- support for language-perception connection and the LRH

experiment 4: color distinctions

- English has both blue and green as BCTs (basic color terms)-- does this affect the way speakers of English perceive distinctions in shades of color?

- experiment: 12 squares are positioned in participants' field of vision (11 same shade of blue, 1 is either green or different shade of blue)

- participants asked to fixate vision on a cross in middle of the squares-- left 6 squares occur in the left portion of participants' field of vision and right 6 squares viewed with the right eye

- results: right and green spotted quickly; left/green, right/blue, left/blue not spotted quickly

- visual info feeds into part of our brain where language is stored (left side), and language seems to help us perceive distinctions encoded in our language (green vs. blue)

experiment 5: shape vs. material

- compared English-type languages (no classifier needed to individuate nouns, except for mass nouns) and Chinese-type languages (needs classifier to individuate nouns in counting)

- ex: 2 dogs = 2 classifier dog = liang zhi gou (Chinese)

- ex: mass noun-- 2 bottles of water (English)

- hypothesis: English-type languages focus more on shape of nouns, while Chinese-type languages focus more on material (what they are made up of as masses)

- experiment: speakers of Yucatec Maya (classifier language) and English were shown an object and then 2 more objects which either shared the same shape or material as the first-- Which of the secondary objects is most like the original/first object?

- English-speakers selected shape alternatives

- YM speakers selected material alternatives

- supports LRH-- differences in language may affect non-linguistic behavior such as the perception of objects

3 common ways to reference spatial orientation

1. egocentric languages prioritize using terms relating to the body-- left and right (English, Korean, Russian)

2. geocentric languages us an absolute frame of reference-- points of the compass (Balinese, Tzeltal, Warwa, 1/3 of world's languages)

3. intrinsic frame of reference languages locate objects relative to other objects in the speaker's field of vision (Mopan, Totonac); can also be combined with geocentric or egocentric FOR

experiment 6: spatial orientation

- question: does the dominant FOR strategy in a language affect speakers' non-verbal behavior?

- 2 experiments: maze-path completion & animals in a row

- experiment: participants are shown a sequence of toy animals on a table, and asked to memorize what they see; participants are then rotated 90 degrees to face another table and asked to reproduce the sequencing/relative positioning of the animals

- results: ego-centric languages reproduce left-to-right order they saw; geocentric languages position animals according to original N/S/E/W position

conclusions from experiment 6: spatial orientation

1. speakers of egocentric languages have words for north, south, west, and east, but tend to use left and right more often to describe the location of objects

2. speakers of geocentric languages have words for left and right but tend to use north, south, west, and east more often to describe the location of objects

3. the dominant pattern of language use affects speakers' non-verbal behavior-- how they perceive and memorize the spatial location of objects

4. support for the LRH + what is important is speakers' common use of their words-- these words influence other aspects of their behavior

modes of perceptions (MOPs) that bilinguals have

1. consecutive bilinguals: MOP of L1 remains dominant, even when an L2 is acquired

2. MOPs of both L1 and L2 are used-- MOP of L1 when L1 is spoken, MOP of L2 when L2 is being used

3. hybrid MOP from L1/L2 develops which is not like the MOP of monolingual L1 or L2 speakers

autobiographical memory and bilingualism

- autobiographical memory: how we remember things that have happened to us in the past

- our memory of past events is 'coded' for the language spoken during the event

- memory retrieval with the language used during an event results in richer descriptions + easier access to its memory/recall

- psychiatrists interviewing bilinguals about repressed memories of events can select which language to communicate it

- can also be traumatic for patients; use of the other language may allow for more psychological distance from the event

qualitative 'sex-exclusive' differences

some patterns of speech are only used by either male or female speakers

quantitative 'sex-preferential' differences

- certain patterns occur in both male and female speech, but are used more often by speakers from one sex

- ex: female speech often contains more standard forms

male/female lexical (word) differences

- certain adjectives in English are used almost exclusively by females (mauve, aquamarine, adorable, divine, etc.)

- compliments-- "What a nice shirt!" (female) vs. "Great car." (male)

male/female voice pitch differences

- males typically have lower pitch than females

- low and high pitch may be deliberately exaggerated-- pre-pubescent males in the USA + UK often use an exaggerated low pitch

- female speakers in Japan may use a higher-than-average pitch

statistically, female speech contains more forms which are commonly considered:

1. higher in style

2. grammatically 'more correct'

3. sometimes historically older forms

male/female speech matched against socio-economic level

- M and F speech in the Lower Working class is the same

- M and F speech in the Upper class is the same

- F speech in all other classes/socio-economic levels seems to be like M speech in the next higher

class/level

Peter Trudgill theory of M/F speech differences

- in lower working & upper class, solidarity causes men and women to speak the same

- elsewhere: female speakers avoid forms which are considered low(er)-status (nonstandard forms)

- use of higher status forms may be due to different pressures experienced by women vs. men in society

- women have unequal access to higher levels of employment, so they use other means to claim prestige (language)

- 4 different kinds of social pressures on women and their behavior:

1. social status

2. women's expected function as role models in society

3. differences in power between men & women

4. masculinity is communicated by non-standard speech

covert prestige

- prestige value of non-standard, vernacular forms

- men in lower socio-economic and/or working class groups value non-standard speech to project masculine image and show solidarity with others

self-evaluation of speech (tests in Norwich, UK)

- 40% under-reported themselves-- claimed to use less prestigious forms than they actually do (mostly male)

- 20% over-reported themselves-- claimed they spoke with more statusful forms than they did (mostly female)

linguistic change in men and women's speech

- changes in speech towards overtly prestigious forms are frequently initiated by women

- ex 1: women in N. Carolina in the '70s led a change to a new prestige pronunciation of word-final /r/

- ex 2: younger women used more German in social domains, while men continued to use Hungarian in Oberwart, Austria (absorbed by Austria from Hungary)

Holmes 1998

4 general sociolinguistic notions used to consider the phenomenon of M/F speech differences:

1. function: what is the purpose of talk?

2. solidarity: how well do the participants relate to each other?

3. power: who's in charge of the conversation?

4. status: how does speech indicate social status?

function of M/F speech (Holmes, 1998)

- Holmes' generalization: "women tend to focus on the affective functions (interpersonal meaning) of an interaction"

- men tend to focus more on the referential (pure information) aspect

- ex: women offer more compliments & apologies than men

solidarity in M/F speech (Holmes, 1998)

- women use more hedges/boosts than men, but don't always signal uncertainty (as Lakoff claimed)

- indicates that they are more concerned with the feelings of the people they're talking to

- questions are often used by female speakers in ways that focus on building relations:

a. checking that others in a group hold the same views and are “connected”

b. ‘facilitative tag-questions’ can be used to include others in a conversation

c. tag questions can be used to soften a critical comment

- Holmes' generalization: “women tend to use linguistic devices that stress solidarity more often than men do”

hedges and boosting devices

- hedges: expressions like "sort of", "kinda", "I guess", and tag questions like "isn't it" & "aren't you"

- boosting devices: include intensifying adjectives and adverbs such as "really", "so", and emphatic stress

- used my women more often to build social relations

power in M/F speech (Holmes, 1998)

- Holmes' third generalization: women tend to interact in ways which will maintain and increase solidarity, while (especially in formal contexts) men tend to interact in ways which will maintain and increase their power and status

- men dominate talking in situations where talking can increase one's status-- public meetings, TV interviews with members of the public, company board meetings, etc.

- new topics introduced in conversations by M speakers survive better and longer than topics introduced by F speaker

- men often give minimal responses and interrupt women in conversation

status in M/F speech (Holmes, 1998)

- Holmes fourth generalization: "women are stylistically more flexible than men"

- new hypothesis by Holmes: males more focused on increasing status via speech-- females use more prestige forms due to accommodation

- may be due to the way language data is collected (interviews by middle-class, well-educated academics)

3 possible explanations why women are stylistically more flexible than men

1. different patterns of socialization (nurture): males encouraged to develop individual power & status, while females often taught to value social relations & support for others

2. imbalance in M/F power leads to different patterns of behavior: women in subordinate positions must learn to develop non-conformational behavior and use language in cooperative, supportive ways

3. a 'biological' explanation (nature): differences in brain lateralization may give women a neurological advantage over men and provide a basis for the increased development of linguistic skills

testosterone and sex differences in language skills

- Kung et al (2016) measured early post-natal testosterone levels in 1-3 month old infants and tracked the linguistic development of these children between the ages of 18-30 months

- children with higher post-natal levels of testosterone, typically boys, developed a smaller expressive vocabulary than girls who regularly had lower levels of testosterone

2 patterns of female variation in Africa

Cameroon:

- pronunciation (tonal system) of Kera is changing

- female speakers in urban areas are leading the change, while those in rural areas are resisting (more traditional than men)

South Africa and Zulu

- women in rural areas use 'hlonipa,'-- a traditional taboo-related language (symbol of 'submissive femininity' and respect for males

- young women in cities are adopting ‘Tsotsitaal’, a mixture of Zulu and English

women are both traditionalists and innovators

linguistic sexism has been argued to occur when language:

a) portrays women in negative ways

b) supports the view that men have a greater, more central importance in society than women

c) fails to provide women with the same linguistic resources available to men for the description of their experiences-- lexical gaps

language and sexism: general examples

- the sequencing of M before F terms: men and women

- the replacement of a woman's family name with her husband's name

- gendered nouns-- male form functions as the core foundation, and the feminine form is 'derived' from the male form (host/hostess, actor/actress, emperor/empress)

how the word "man" came into English

- from the early root men- or mon- meaning ‘to think’ (now also in the word mind)

- intelligence was attributed specifically to humans➔man used to refer to humans in general in Old English (regardless of gender)

- "wer" was used for man and "wif" for woman (now modern wife)

- "wer" and wif occurred as compounds with man-- "wer-man", "wif-man"

- "wif-man" became modern "woman"

is "man" still a generic term?

- no (can't replace "human" or "person" with "man"_

- ex: "she is the best man for the job" vs. "she is the best person for the job"

lexical gaps

- absence of certain expected words

- men have words to describe a person who's sexually active/promiscuous in a positive way-- "stud" and "virile"

- no positive equivalents to describe women with parallel behavior-- only negative

- men have a large vocabulary available for insulting women, but women have fewer words available to insult men

language changes are often made by ___ speakers and criticized by ___ speakers

younger; older

William Labov

- pioneer of the study of variation in language

- 2 key studies in New York department stores and Martha's Vineyard

The New York Project overview

- variation in the pronunciation of /-r/ in word-final position-- 'rhoticism': car, far, bar, etc.

- Labov thought that pronunciation of /-r/ is not random variation but related to social status

- sociological studies discovered that female sales assistants in department stores subconsciously mimic their customers, particularly when their customers have high social status

- Labov guessed this accomodation might cause variation in their language

Labov's hypothesis for The New York Project

- the /-r/ sound was regularly used more frequently by upper- and upper-middle class people

- might occur more frequently in the accomodated speech of lower class sales assistants in the better department stores

data collection for The New York Project

- 3 different department stores with different class-levels of customers: Saks Fifth Avenue (upper class), Macy's (middle class), Klein's (poor)

- Labov posed as regular customer and asked 2 questions:

1. asked about goods located on the 4th floor in each store

2. asked for repetition (produced more careful pronunciation)

- Labov noted down the use of /-r/, age, ethnicity, and gender of the salesperson

results from The New York Project

- higher use of /-r/ in more expensive department stores

- use of /-r/ was higher in Saks than in Macy's, which was significantly higher than that in Klein's

- more /-r/ in the answers to Labov's second question-- slow careful repetition of "On the fourth floor."

- sales associates were increasingly adopting /-r/ sound associated with members of the upper- and upper-middle class

- use of /-r/ = a new prestige pattern gradually spreading into the lower middle & lower classes

listening tests for /-r/ sound

- participants listened to recordings of speakers using different amounts of /-r/ and were asked to judge which profession the speakers were best suited to

- results: speakers regularly using /-r/ associated with higher level professions

- general result: variation in /-r/ is correlated with social class

observer's paradox

- people change their speech when outside 'observers' are present (interviews, reading passages of text, reading lists of words)

- it's easier to get samples of careful speech but not genuine casual speech

solution to observer's paradox

- in interviews, ask informants to talk about any situation in which they thought they were in serious danger of being killed

- interviewees become emotionally involved and may forget presence of the observer

conscious variation

- people are (more or less) aware of different ways of speaking

- may often be towards an overtly prestigious form

subconscious variation

- people are unaware of certain different ways of speaking

- may result in change to a covertly prestigious form

New York /-r/ insertion was a ___ change towards an overtly prestigious form

conscious

*/-r/ occurred more in the careful speech of sales assistants

vowel changes in Martha's Vineyard

- Labov noticed changes in certain vowel sounds in many speakers from 1940s to 1970s

- interviews showed islanders were not aware of this change (subconscious variation)

- new vowels were most prominent in the 30-45 year old age group

- those under 30 didn't use them

- vowel change more present in the western part (up-island), especially in Chilmark (center of the fishing industry)

differences between Up-island and Down-island (Martha's Vineyard)

- "new" sounds were actually old forms used by fishermen

- 30-45 year-olds started to subconsciously imitate the speech of the old fishermen out of admiration-- they disapproved of the tourists that would stay on the east side (down-island)

- not present in those under 30, since they hadn't yet decided whether to stay on MV

typical pattern of language change

stage 1: the speech of one social group differs from that of other groups (e.g. fishermen in MV)

stage 2: a second group admires the first group, and subconsciously adopts certain features in the speech of the former

stage 3: new speech features gradually displace other variant forms and often spread

further to other groups as a new ‘norm'

similarities in the changes in New York and Martha's Vineyard

- changes weren't completely new forms but were pronunciations already present in some other group

- changes both took place when one group adopted another as its model

differences in the changes in New York and Martha's Vineyard

- in NY the change was generally made consciously-- people were aware that /-r/ was a prestige form and used more of it in careful speech

- in MV, people were generally unaware of their altered pronunciation, and there was no variation in careful speech

social reasons for language change: Cajun English

- Cajuns originally spoke French and spoke English with a French accent (Cajun English)

- 1950s: economic decline, stigmatization of French --> loss of French among young

- 1960s: a Cajun renaissance --> young Cajuns want to express Cajun pride

- young Cajuns convert their standard southern US English into the Cajun English pronunciations used by their grandparents

social reasons for language change: Newfoundland

- renewed pride in coming from Newfoundland among young generation in urban areas

- a new local identity marker: adding a non-standard -s to verbs - ‘I knows/loves it.’

- borrowed from traditional Newfoundland rural speech but changed in a significant way

- now added to different kinds of verbs --> distinct from 'uneducated' rural speech

- 'up-cycled’ as cool and trendy, urban speak among the young + Newfoundland identity

study of attitudes to different accents of British English (phase 1)

- listeners from the UK listened to 10 different accents of British English and were asked to guess where speakers came from + rate speakers on personal properties like 'pleasant-sounding'

- rated large urban areas low (7-10) and rural areas high (2-6)

- associated cities with dirtiness, industry, and crime

- associated countryside with clean air, vacations, simple life

- BBC associated with high prestige

- ranking: BBC > rural accents > urban accents

study of attitudes to different accents of British English (phase 2)

- same accents played to listeners from the US

- US listeners didn't recognize where most accents were from

- ranked BBC accent as #1 and London English as #2

- 3-10 were fully random (didn't associate them with specific places)

study of attitudes to different accents of British English (conclusion)

- English accents are NOT ranked for objective linguistic reasons but for social reasons

- accents are associated with places & their inhabitants, and good/bad feelings about places come to be associated with accents from these places

4 regular functions of 'bare like'

1. focus-marker preceding words that are emphasized, like focus-markers in other languages

2. like before numbers 'approximately'

3. "like" used as a hedge to make requests/suggestions sound softer

4. "like" used as a hesitation marker, like (adult) 'er...' and 'um..."

true or false: 'bare like' has clear functions and is used in ways similar to other functional words

true

use of 'literally'

- original use: 'by the letter'

- recent use: 'figuratively'

- older generation speakers often criticize the new use of 'literally'-- illogical, not 'in actuality/reality'

use of 'hopefully'

- original use: subject of the verb is full of hope

- recent use: the speaker has hope

- no one criticizes the new use of 'hopefully' because the change happened one generation ago

contronyms

words which have developed opposing meanings (ex: to seed, to lease)

use of 'bad-ass'

- -ass: a new intensifying affix 'very Adj'

- Adj-ass may also mean 'surprisingly Adj"

- an informal stylistic equivalent to surprisingly

- ex: "that's a big-ass gun, man"

use of 'dude'

- originally term for a sharp dresser

- 1970s surfer subculture-- use of dude as an address term, communicating a chilled-out/laid-back attitude

- now often used in a friendly way to soften warnings and criticisms: "dude, that's not cool."

- also used among young women when talking about negative experiences: "dude, this class is so boring!"

- conveys empathy in reactions to suffering