LIN 2381 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Great Vowel Shift, Diaphoneme, Idiolect
15 Dec 2017
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LIN 2381
Synchronic or present day varieties.
Diachronic - historical varieties.
Idiolect - speech of an individual. - English derives from WESTERN GERMANIC language
Great Vowel Shift - relevant to understanding modern English
Tacit - he was like/he said - not explicit
Vernacular - vocabulary common in that region
Tracking change in English requires a dual perspective
-internal linguistic change /phonology over time
-external/language contact, process of standardization
-social/ linguistic/ extra linguistics/ social networks
Gender - identity
Sex - biological
Socio economics, social class, educational status, ethnicity, multi- ethnilectal English
Discourse markers, ebonics
What can sociolinguistics teach us about variation in the English language?
-dependant on where in the world you are
Why is it important to situate contemporary varieties of English in a diachronic perspective?
-in order to explain how the english language has evolved
COURSE 2
What is Variation?
-All spoken languages are based on complex, variable structured systems that are
continuously evolving. (inherent variability - ever changing)
-Language varies at all different levels, vocal, grammar, sound system.
-Why and how ^^ is an every changing debate
-There is no solid answers, but all human language definitely changes
-The key heuristic(discovery) or analytical tool for studying linguistic variation is the linguistic
variable
-The study of linguistic variation beings with the recognition that there are
The linguistic variable
-originally, the linguistic variable was conceived in terms of semantic or referential equivalence
-this is fairly uncontroversial
-for lexical variables
-phonological (sounds) variables
-for some syntactic (grammar) variables
Phonological Variables - ‘G’ dropping
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
-Come to explain variability, we need to make reference to multiple different factors that use
people;s use of the language
-Talkin’ vs Talking (Meaning the same thing)
-This may depend on the situation they are in
Syntactic or grammatical variables
-Embedded clause, relative clause - reference to an anticedent
-Negation
-These can be used in different contexts
-They are there because of historical change
-“Who” is the new clauses
-Doesn’t make any difference of the meaning
-She hasn’t done anything
-She hasn’t done nothing (double negative) Not a mistake, it’s a retention of a strategy that
exists in an early variety of English
-Linguistic variable (negation)
-Variable-> Abstract notion (ING)
-But the actual thing is the “Variant”
Variable (ING) ON EXAM be very clear on difference variants vs variable
ING variable is an abstract notion - between curved brackets
Staying vs going
The nature of inherent variability
-variability permeates all levels of linguistic language:
Recognition of variation in language is nothing new.
Sapir 1921 “everyone knows that language is variable”
But inspire of this recognition, until the late 50’s early 60’s there was a tendency to sideline
variation
It was William Labov’s work pioneering work in the USA in the 60’s that brought about a seas
change …
A central revelation of Labov’s research is that variation is neither random or ad hoc
it is characterized by structured or orderly heterogeneity
In brief, most variation is systematically constrained by multiple factors - these influence the use
of a particular variable are known as the independent variables (or predictors).
Linguistic Factors - Syllable structure, lexical factors, phonological context, grammatical
factors.
Social Factors - Age, sex, education, ethnicity, social class.
-Social Factors
-Age
-Shows how language can progress and evolve
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
-Compare someone age -> talk about the window of comparason
-Apparent time window
-Comparing older vs younger
-Found in the younger speech of people, we will find change
-Sex/Gender
-Social Class
-Ethnicity
-Education
-Syllable structure
-Lexical factors -> sounds before or after
-Phonological context
-Grammatical Factors
-According to the principle of multiple causes, social factors in combination with linguistic
factors will determine whether a specific variant is selected on a specific occasion
-Note that no social or linguistic factor will usually determine whether one variant is used 0 -
100% of the time
-For this reason, the grammar of spoken language is modelled on a probabilistic basis.
-Modelling human variation, we model it probability using quantitive techniques but counting
how many times they do it
Be cause variable usage is probabilistic, it can be modelled using quantitative techniques
In order to quantify variation in a scientifically …
Key Tenets and working principles in variationist sociolinguistics
-When you’re looking at a feature, it might be a feature changing in the language or been
around for a long time. We can’t just look at when it occurs, but look at when it could occur
but it didn’t.
-She’s like (like is sued very often, but using competing variants too)
-She has really smelly feet
-I’m gonna watch it
All the highlighted structures are involved in ongoing change
But these specific instances of change can’t be studied in isolation.
They have to be studied in terms of the larger - need to be contextualize how it’s changing.
null or zero variant
-The emphasis in variationist sociolinguistics is NOT on the study of these features in the
speech of the individual (idiolect)
-Idiolect is an individual way of speaking
-The focus is on uncovering recurrent patterns in a community of speakers (a speech
community)
-We can define a speech community as “a group of speakers who share norms and
expectations for language use.
-Doesn’t mean that this community will use language in the same way
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Great vowel shift - relevant to understanding modern english. Tacit - he was like/he said - not explicit. Tracking change in english requires a dual perspective. Socio economics, social class, educational status, ethnicity, multi- ethnilectal english. Dependant on where in the world you are. In order to explain how the english language has evolved. All spoken languages are based on complex, variable structured systems that are continuously evolving. (inherent variability - ever changing) Language varies at all different levels, vocal, grammar, sound system. Why and how ^^ is an every changing debate. There is no solid answers, but all human language de nitely changes. The key heuristic(discovery) or analytical tool for studying linguistic variation is the linguistic variable. The study of linguistic variation beings with the recognition that there are. Originally, the linguistic variable was conceived in terms of semantic or referential equivalence.
