LING001

1. LING001 Sociolinguistic Variation 4-6-2009

2. Language in Space and Time • Language change and variation • Language clearly changes

3. Change vs. Variation • No change, no variation • No variation, no change • The material of biological change: variation in natural selection • Darwin: “If we possessed a perfect pedigree of mankind, a genealogical arrangement of the races of man would afford the best classification of the various languages now spoken throughout the world; and if all extinct languages, and all intermediate and slowly changing dialects, were to be included, such an arrangement would be the only possible one. Yet it might be that some ancient languages had altered very little and had given rise to few new languages, whilst others had altered much owing to the spreading, isolation and state of civilisation of the several co-descended races, and had thus given rise to many new dialects and languages.” (Origins, p342)

4. It happens to all of us... • The Queen no longer speakers the Queen’s English 5: 1950s 8: 1980s S: “standard”

5. What is this?

6. Soda map: 52.97%

7. Pop chart: 25.08%

8. Coke?! (12.38%)

9. Also • soft drink 5.89% • tonic 0.67% • cocola 0.29% • fizzy drink 0.14% • dope 0.03% • lemonade 0.01% (Florida)

10. Types of variations • Language variation can be based on • geographical region • gender • age • social class • ethnicity • speech context

11. Regional Variations • e.g. Canadian vs US (“out and about”) • wicket window with clerk behind it • hydro electricity, electric bill • skidoo snow mobile • grade ones first graders • head (of dept) chair (of dept) • homo milk whole milk • brown (bread) whole wheat (bread)

12. Regional Variations • I teach Ferdinand the calm cat to fetch cold cups of coffee. Who knows more about tasting things? He's used the book http://alt-usage-english.org/audio_archive.shtml

13. Regional Variations • Atlas of North American English (Labov, Ash & Boberg 2006) • Available on line at Penn Library • E.g., “cot”-”caught” merger (two distinct phonemes are merged into one) • Johnson (2007) • Boston: cot-caught merger (also, “Don”-”Dawn”) • Small towns in RI on Mass. border: no merger • But recent migrants from Boston introduced the merger into the local community: • younger siblings now have merger, but not old ones, indicating that the merger system must be sufficiently represented to be acquired (about 20%) 13

14. beating vs. beatin’

16. Variation in Society: Register • Formal/polite vs. conversational/casual • “I was quite enthusiastic about the prospect.” • “I was, like, totally psyched!” • E.g., Korean and Japanese use honorific suffixes • Korean -si (added to verbs), -k’eso (added to nouns) • e.g. Korean register/politeness suffixes to show social rank distance between speaker and listener • -yo (added to verbs)

18. Variation by Gender • Consensus: language change is often led by females • In English, differences are subtle, and also much debated; Lakoff (1975) • hedges “sort of, kind of, I guess” • super polite forms “I would really appreciate it if” • tag questions “..., isn’t it?” (no: Cameron et al 1988) • hyper-correct grammar and pronunciation • empty adjectives, intensifiers “that’s so gorgeous”, “that’s nice” • more color terms (periwinkle, mustard, ...)

19. Gender • Koasati (Native American language, Louisiana) • male characterized by final “s” • female male • lakawwil lakawwis “I am lifting it” • molhil molhis “we are peeling it” • lakaw lakaws “he is lifting it” • ip ips “he is eating it” • iltolihn iltolihns “we are working” • otil otils “I am building a fire”

20. Social Class • S.C. Ross, England ~50 years ago • Upper Class Non-Upper Class • looking glass mirror • have a bath take a bath • sick ill • rich wealthy • wireless radio • house home • bike cycle Many of these have no social connotations now, or have opposite = arbitrariness of sociolinguistic markers

21. Variation in Society • A common misconception about non-standard varieties of English is that they are unsystematic and “lazy” or “illogical” forms of the language: • this is directly related to the conception of language change • Linguists have studied these dialects for over 50 years, and have found that their non-standard features are typically found in prestige varieties of other languages/dialects • Three examples: • Latin (recall the 2nd lecture of the semester) • double negation • the use of /r/ in American English

22. Progress or Decay • What’s special about Latin? • Latin is a Romance language, more directly related to French, Italian, Spanish, etc.: English is a Germanic language • language contact did bring in lots of words of Latin origins Latin: rich morphology sometimes Spanish: poor morphology

23. Winnie THAT Pooh Progress or Decay Latin: poor morphology Spanish: rich morphology elsewhere Latin: no articles (“a” vs “the”), definiteness is marked by word order “dog barks” means “the dog barks”, “barks dog” means “a dog barks” Spanish: does have articles for definiteness (“un” vs. “al”)

24. Double Negation • I didn’t see anyone. • I didn’t see noone. • Often considered “illogical” -- “two negatives make a positive” • However, this type of negative agreement is standard in a wide range of languages • Romance, Slavic, Greek, Hungarian, Flemish, Afrikaans, Lithuanian, Japanese, ... • English-learning children make use of double negation, regardless of the variety they are exposed to

25. Gianni non ha visto niente Italian • John not has seen nothing • “John didn’t see anything” • Dhen ipa tipota Greek • not I.said nothing • “I didn’t say anything” • Janek nie pomaga nikomu Polish • Janek not helps nobody • “Janek doesn’t help anybody” • Johnwa nanimo tabe-nak-atta Japanese • John nothing eat-Not-Past • “John didn’t eat anything”

26. rise and fall of r • The history of the r-less speech (“Youth and Viga”-JFK) • origin in England: a prestige dialect that did pronounce r • spread to US and carried inland • r-less became fashionable in England but only spread to some coastal cities (Boston, New York, Savanna, GA, etc.) • now “standard” American English is rhotic • Rhotic dialects are more prestigious in NYC

27. Department Store Study • Sociolinguistic study by William Labov (now @Penn) in 1960’s • Ask sales people at department stores location of item that he knew was on the fourth floor • fourth floor or fouhth flooh • Ask to repeat = careful pronunciation • fourth floor or fouhth flooh

28. The Battleground • High prestige: Sak’s Fifth Avenue • Middle prestige: Macy’s • Low prestige: S. Klein

29. R-results • more “r”s in careful pronunciation • social stratification: • Sak’s > Macy’s > S. Klein • floorwalkers > salesclerks > stockboys • gender: women > men • age: younger > older (Sak’s)

30. Use of r

31. Across the Atlantic: NY vs. Reading

32. Summary • Language is embedded in culture and society, and carries the respective values: • some variables are remarkably stable (e.g., R-less speech) • people are quite sensitive to the sociocultural implications of language variation • But the most interesting, and non-trivial, kind of variation resides below consciousness • Serious analysis requires structural knowledge of language (e.g., Labov’s article for reading this week on African American English) • Wednesday: Language change