History and Variation

why was there widespread disgust at the ‘declining’ english language around 1700?

“the purisitic attitude to language originated in a natural nostalgic tendency, intensified by social pressures”

1. long standing admiration for latin

language of the church in the middle ages
used in scholary from renaissance onwards
emphasis on correctness (like Classical authors)
taught in schools
used as a model for teaching other languages

→ belief there was a ‘correct’ use for every language, incl english

→ bc latin = written + read, → belief that written > read

→ Latin = ‘pure’ → English should maintain ‘Latin-ness’ → Latinate vocab is prestigious

2. class snobbery

Samuel Johnson: attempted to codify english in his dictionary, selected middle and upper class usages (standard of correctness already in use in groups with social prestige)

Robert Lowth: 1762, book of English grammar
distinguished everyday usage from elevated/written
e.g. notion: wrong to end sentence w/ preposition + condemns double negatives

linguists’ perspective

prescriptive grammar = lays down artificial rules → impose arbitrary standards of ‘correctness’ over actual usage

linguists → descriptive, actual usage, rules are subconscious principles or conventions of speakers
spoken > written, they are separate, but related, systems

speakers have finite principles/ rules → infinite sentences
we follow these rules subconsciously

what is english?

lingua franca: a common language used between people with different first languages
international influence + contributed to the ‘death’ of local languages → “Killer English”
e.g. pushed out Cornish, Gaelic, Welsh
BUT not independent force, used by people for social purposes

language = the system of spoken or written communication used by a particular country, people, community etc

dialect = particular manner of speaking, a variety associated with a specific group, region or community. it differs from standard, so often thought of as less prestigious/ subordinate

idiolect = language variety of an individual person, unique way of speaking

distinguishing languages from dialect

mutual intelligibility
If Speaker A understands Speaker B, perhaps they speak the same lang.
If A not understand B, perhaps diff lang.

PROBLEMS: only individual speakers, not languages
A and B may understand each-other bc their idiolects overlap, even if diff. languages
e.g. Swedish and Norwegian can be mutually intelligible

classifying languages

linguistic differences (phonology, vocabulary, grammar, syntax etc)

Abstand = language by distance, formal distinctions (formal linguistic development)
Ausbau = language by development, functional sociolinguistic dev

e.g. English, German, American, Scots
no direct correlation between language and nation (or American would be lang)
not based on formal features (bc Scots + Amer are close to English)
all related historically

BUT German has formal AND functional divergence, so must be a diff lang
^ Abstand and Ausbau features

language planning: government and politics influence whether a variety is classified as a language or a dialect
e.g. Louisiana passed a bill to classify American as its own language

attitudes and perceptual dialectology

attitudes to particular way of speaking → reveal attitudes to people who speak it
correctness/intelligence/education/class/identity
e.g. T-glottaling ‘butter’ as laziness

perceptual dialectology: studies how people believe different dialects and accents are distributed
*importantly, peoples beliefs are not the findings of linguistic research

the fragmentation and variation of English

‘native speaker’ = acquires language from childhood, grows up in lang-speaking community, learnt from caregivers
nat speakers are treated as authority on correctness of grammar, appropriate vocab etc

BUT english is often second lang
in some regions, local norms have developed e.g. in India

standard language = NOT the ‘best’ or ‘correct’ form, but the one associated with education, government, broadcasting, print media

written and spoken differ (spelling vs pronunciation)

the more commonly English is used, the more fragmented it becomes

formality → more Latinate vocab, complex grammar, features e.g. the subjunctive

modern tech e.g. texting → new forms of writing

language ideology = beliefs about lang. that are connected to social values and identities