Language Variation Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Dit artikel is een antwoord op een opinieartikel van Stefan Grondelaers ("De kwaal van de standaardtaal", De Standaard, 22-02-2019). Grondelaers schreef onder andere dat het Vlaamse denken over standaardtaal 'genezen' en... more

Dit artikel is een antwoord op een opinieartikel van Stefan Grondelaers ("De kwaal van de standaardtaal", De Standaard, 22-02-2019). Grondelaers schreef onder andere dat het Vlaamse denken over standaardtaal 'genezen' en 'gedeïdeologiseerd' moet worden. Er moet een 'grote schoonmaak' gehouden worden. Vlamingen hebben ‘verlammende ideeën’ over taal. En het wordt tijd dat die ideeën ‘uit de voegen loskomen’. Daartegenover stel ik dat de Nederlandse standaardtaal in het Vlaamse onderwijs na jaren van verwaarlozing juist geherwaardeerd moet worden. En dat kan samengaan met waardering voor taalvariatie en registervariatie.

In der VG werden die arealen Unterschiede in der Grammatik der deutschen Standardsprache in Wörterbuchartikeln dargestellt, die zusätzlich mit Karten, Frequenztabellen und Korpusbelegen illustriert sind. Die VG findet man unter den... more

In der VG werden die arealen Unterschiede in der Grammatik der deutschen Standardsprache in Wörterbuchartikeln dargestellt, die zusätzlich mit Karten, Frequenztabellen und Korpusbelegen illustriert sind. Die VG findet man unter den Onlineangeboten des Instituts für Deutsche Sprache (siehe http://mediawiki.ids-mannheim.de/VarGra/index.php/Hauptseite).

This chapter focuses on spatial and social variation in the colloquial everyday speech of three German-speaking urban areas. The basic question is whether geographical variation (the kind that is commonly observed in studies on dialect... more

This chapter focuses on spatial and social variation in the colloquial everyday speech of three German-speaking urban areas. The basic question is whether geographical variation (the kind that is commonly observed in studies on dialect variation in large areas) is detectable in the reported everyday speech of the spatially much smaller, yet denser urban areas as well. To this end, we use methods of quantitative dialectology to examine the patterns of variation in the Ruhr Area, Berlin, and Vienna. The respective analyses of the spatial patterns of 245 linguistic variables from a total number of 4,251 informants yield clear – but remarkably distinct – patterns of areal variation for each of these three urban areas. To account for those differences, social variables are factored in.

Recently, the field of second language acquisition (SLA) has seen the growing impact of social context on second language learning, which has been called by Block a "social turn" (2003). This increasing interest in social context and SLA... more

Recently, the field of second language acquisition (SLA) has seen the growing impact of social context on second language learning, which has been called by Block a "social turn" (2003). This increasing interest in social context and SLA has resulted in a need to theorize two notions, "social" and "context," which have been defined differently across language-related fields. Similarly, the concept of "discursive practice" has started to appear more. Yet, despite its frequent use, this latter term has not been explored in detail. Discursive Practice in Language Learning and Teaching, the sixth volume in the Language Learning monograph series, fills this gap by unpacking and analyzing these key concepts. According to Lourdes Ortega, the series editor, Young, a scholar at the center of research on context and SLA, presents "a highly personal, deeply synthetic, and remarkably organic treatment of the social context of additional language learning" (p. vii) and attempts to map out an approach to second language learning theory that has implications for second language teaching and testing. In this book Young significantly expands the scope of SLA by introducing practice theory to the field. While he covers both written and spoken discourse, the latter is more dominant.

Introduzione Nel contesto di grande varietà linguistica degli italiani regionali, molti dei tratti fonetici, lessicali e morfo-sintattici sono ben documentati nella letteratura scientifi-ca, mentre la variazione regionale in termini di... more

Introduzione Nel contesto di grande varietà linguistica degli italiani regionali, molti dei tratti fonetici, lessicali e morfo-sintattici sono ben documentati nella letteratura scientifi-ca, mentre la variazione regionale in termini di linguistica pragmatica è un campo ancora poco esplorato dell'italiano contemporaneo. Tra i vari livelli e ambiti nei quali si può approcciare lo studio della variazione regionale in italiano, questo contributo prende in esame le percezioni che i parlanti hanno delle macro-regioni Nord, Centro e Sud come possibile fattore di variazione per le pratiche allocutive. Questo contributo è parte di uno studio più ampio che ha analizzato la variazione linguistica nell'allocuzione nei ristoranti d'Italia.

Work in historical sociolinguistics can broadly be divided into quantitative work which examines population-level trends in past language use, and qualitative work which documents and explains the usage of individuals or within particular... more

Work in historical sociolinguistics can broadly be divided into quantitative work which examines population-level trends in past language use, and qualitative work which documents and explains the usage of individuals or within particular texts. In this paper, we argue for an approach which combines both of these. Using mixed methods we can achieve all the advantages of both qualitative and quantitative approaches, revealing the complexity of language use in real social contexts but situating it in a well-described view of the historical processes at play. We demonstrate our approach with an exploration of the rise of 'broken' forms of the first person singular nominative pronoun in the history of Norwegian. We chart the overall progression and social patterning of the change using kernel density estimation, regression and geographically weighted regression. We then explore the wealth of fascinating local and ephemeral patterns by examining usage of particular individuals and texts.

Im Titel des vorliegenden Beitrages wird die Aussage eines jungen Mannes zitiert, der in einem Fernsehinterview auf die Frage, wie er das von ihm besuchte Fest finde, antwortet: "Sbeschte wos je hets gits". Bekanntlich wurde diese... more

Im Titel des vorliegenden Beitrages wird die Aussage eines jungen Mannes zitiert, der in einem Fernsehinterview auf die Frage, wie er das von ihm besuchte Fest finde, antwortet: "Sbeschte wos je hets gits". Bekanntlich wurde diese Äusserung in der Öffentlichkeit rasch populär und schliesslich gar zum Schweizer Jugendwort des Jahres 2009. Dazu lassen sich aus meiner Sicht als Sprachwissenschaftlerin einige Bemerkungen machen. Diese betreffen sowohl die Frage, wie über Jugendliche in der Öffentlichkeit gesprochen wird, als auch, welche Ausdrucksmittel Jugendliche verwenden, wenn sie miteinander sprechen. Es geht im Folgenden also im doppelten Sinne des Wortes um "Jugendliche im Gespräch". Kommen wir zum ersten Punkt: Was ist davon zu halten, dass die oben zitierte Äusserung zum Jugendwort des Jahres wurde? Ist es denkbar, dass Jugendliche anstelle von cool oder geil sagen: D Party isch sbeschte wos je hets gits? Ist das Jugendsprache? Die Antwort liegt auf der Hand: Der Satz wurde zwar zu einem geflügelten Wort; es ist aber keineswegs so, dass er Eingang in die Alltagssprache gefunden hätteebenso wenig wie die Kuriositäten, die in vielen Jugendsprache-Wörterbüchern aufgelistet sind. Diese Bücher enthalten Vorschläge von Jugendlichen, die gebeten wurden, möglichst originelle Beispiele einzureichen. So überrascht es nicht, dass sich darin Einträge wie Käpt'n Wasserstoff (für eine Person mit blondierten Haaren) oder Fleischmütze (für Glatzkopf) findenalso Einträge, die vielleicht originell, aber sicher nicht im täglichen Gebrauch sind. Wie aber kommt die Jugendsprachforschung zu ihren Daten, wenn sie nicht auf solche Befragungen zurückgreifen möchte? Eine Möglichkeit ist die der teilnehmenden Beobachtung: Die Linguistin nimmt an Treffen Jugendlicher (z.B. in einer Musikgruppe) teil, zeichnet die Gespräche auf und wertet sie aus. Möglicherweise stellt sich dabei ein Beobachterparadoxon ein; der Sprachgebrauch der Jugendlichen ist weniger spontan. Effizienter ist daher die verdeckte Beobachtung, bei der erst im Anschluss an die Tonaufnahme das Einverständnis der Beteiligten eingeholt wird. Im Folgenden werden einige Ergebnisse aus solchen Datenerhebungen vorgestellt (vgl. Dürscheid/Spitzmüller 2006); vorweg aber sei noch die zweite Frage angesprochen: Wie ist Jugendsprache zu bewerten? Zeigen sich in dieser Varietät Phänomene, die auf eine Sprachverluderung hindeuten, oder ist im Gegenteil das jugendliche Sprechen kreativ und innovativ; besteht kein Anlass zur Sorge? In diesem Zusammenhang sei zunächst ein Wort zum Selbstverständnis der modernen Linguistik gesagt: Es geht ihr nicht darum, den Sprachgebrauch zu bewerten. Sie will den Sprachgebrauch beschreiben, die dahinter stehenden Regularitäten erfassen, die Frage beantworten, ob sich ein Sprachwandel abzeichnet. Kurz: Sie ist deskriptiv, nicht normativ ausgerichtet. Aber doch sehe ich es als ein gutes Recht der Öffentlichkeit an, von der Linguistik Antworten auf ihre Fragen zum Gegenwartsdeutschen zu bekommen. Diese lauten z.B.: Welche Auswirkungen hat der jugendliche Sprachgebrauch auf das Sprechen in normgebundenen Situationen, also in der Schule? Führt das Schreiben im Internet und von SMS möglicherweise dazu, dass die Fähigkeit, sich gut auszudrücken und orthographisch korrekt zu schreiben, nachlässt? Auf diese Fragen kann ich hier nicht im Detail eingehen; es sei nur so viel gesagt, dass in einem unter meiner Leitung durchgeführten Forschungsprojekt, in dem über 1000 Texte von Schülern aller Schulformen ausgewertet wurden, keine Evidenz dafür gefunden werden konnte, dass es einen Einfluss des privaten Schreibens auf das schulische Schreiben gibt (vgl. Dürscheid/Brommer/Wagner 2010). Kommen wir nochmals zurück zum Ausgangszitat. Der Satz wird von Jugendlichen häufig dann verwendet, wenn sie eine Sprechweise imitieren, die in der Schweiz als "Jugodeutsch"

This paper examines individual differences in constraints on linguistic variation in light of Labov's (2007) proposal that adult change (diffusion) disrupts systems of constraints and Tamminga, MacKenzie, and Embick's (2016)... more

This paper examines individual differences in constraints on linguistic variation in light of Labov's (2007) proposal that adult change (diffusion) disrupts systems of constraints and Tamminga, MacKenzie, and Embick's (2016) typology of constraints. It is shown that, in pooling data from multiple speakers, some of the complexity in structured community variation may be overlooked. Data on rhoticity from speakers of Bristol English are compared to 34 previous studies of rhoticity in varieties of English around the world. Constraints found to be consistent across varieties are also found to be consistent across speakers of Bristol English, whereas those that differ between varieties also differ between individuals, implying that only those which differ are truly part of the grammar, and that these are indeed disrupted by diffusion.

¿Se está haciendo lo que se debe por el español, como se debe y por quien se debe? ¿Hay realmente una voluntad política hispánica a favor de la lengua común, esto es, traducida en organización, cuidado, respeto, estructura, presupuestos?... more

On the basis of a large-scale online survey carried out during Austria’s ‘first lockdown’ in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, this article discusses variation in pronunciation of the word Quarantäne (‘quarantine’) in standard... more

On the basis of a large-scale online survey carried out during Austria’s ‘first lockdown’ in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, this article discusses variation in pronunciation of the word Quarantäne (‘quarantine’) in standard Austrian German, focusing on the variants [k-] vs. [kv-] in the onset. Results show a clear societal preference for [k-], while also exhibiting a pattern of intergenerational variation whereby young speakers predominantly indicate their preference for [k-] and older speakers for [kv-]. Survey findings are contextualized with a content-based analysis ofsocietal discourses from an online forum discussion centering on the issue, which show considerable polarization as well as no awareness of the intergenerational pattern. The study outcome is related to issues of codification (notably pertaining to the Österreichisches Wörterbuch) as well as general variationist sociolinguistic theorizing, especially Labov’s indicatormarker-stereotype taxonomy and its implications.

This chapter investigates social positioning through the use (or non-use) of address pronouns in Finland-Swedish and Sweden-Swedish service encounters recorded at theatre and event booking venues in Finland and Sweden. The results... more

This chapter investigates social positioning through the use (or non-use) of address pronouns in Finland-Swedish and Sweden-Swedish service encounters recorded at theatre and event booking venues in Finland and Sweden. The results demonstrate some compelling variation in address practices which can be attributed to participant roles (customer or staff), national variety (Finland-Swedish or Sweden-Swedish), age (younger or older speaker and addressee) and situational circumstances, such as type of venue and type of transaction, as well as micro-situational aspects which occur during the course of the interaction (complications, problems or topics treated as sensitive). The study highlights that different forms of address cannot be associated a priori with a certain level of formality, but should be interpreted in their micro and macro contexts in order to understand existing cultural norms for appropriate address.

This paper presents preliminary research observations on diglossia features (in the Fergusonian sense) and bilingualism of the Turkish-speaking community of Western Thrace, as well as contact-relevant linguistic variables that may be... more

This paper presents preliminary research observations on diglossia features (in the Fergusonian sense) and bilingualism of the Turkish-speaking community of Western Thrace, as well as contact-relevant linguistic variables that may be related to different social factors.

Alors que le « plurilinguisme » est pose comme valeur et comme projet par les politiques educatives (notamment europeennes), cet article pose les jalons d’une didactique de la pluralite, apte non seulement a « gerer » la diversite mais... more

Alors que le « plurilinguisme » est pose comme valeur et comme projet par les politiques educatives (notamment europeennes), cet article pose les jalons d’une didactique de la pluralite, apte non seulement a « gerer » la diversite mais surtout a en faire une ressource d’apprentissage, un objectif educatif et le socle de toute formation reflexive d’enseignant. Partant du postulat que diversite culturelle et variation socio-linguistique constituent tant nos identites individuelles que nos societes contemporaines, leur prise en compte par l’enseignant a l’ecole contribue non seulement a la reussite des porteurs de langues/cultures d’immigration, mais egalement a enrichir l’ensemble du systeme social qui beneficie ainsi des cultures que les acteurs sociaux apportent avec eux. Il convient donc de former des praticiens reflexifs capables de prendre en compte leur propre plurilinguisme/pluriculturalisme et celui de leurs eleves, de facon a en faire une ressource et un vecteur de reussite t...

This study explored the influence of social and syntactic-pragmatic factors on a speaker's choice between hesitation markers este and eh in oral discourse. Data collected from San Juan (PR), Mexico City, Montevideo, and Medellín were... more

This study explored the influence of social and syntactic-pragmatic factors on a speaker's choice between hesitation markers este and eh in oral discourse. Data collected from San Juan (PR), Mexico City, Montevideo, and Medellín were analyzed as a large corpus and on an individual country basis. Este was found to be the most prevalent hesitation marker overall and within three of the four countries studied. On an overall level, the factors of city, education level, gender, and position of the marker within the turn were found to be statistically significant to hesitation marker choice, while age was not. On a per-city basis, education was significant everywhere, age and gender were significant everywhere except Medellín, and turn position was significant everywhere except San Juan. The lack of uniformity in the results suggests that speakers' choice between este and eh is affected differently by these factors in each area.

The position of Standard Dutch and tussentaal in Flanders: the opinions of adolescents from Tielt In this paper, the results of a perceptions and attitudes study in the West-Flemish town Tielt are reported. Twenty teenagers were subjected... more

The position of Standard Dutch and tussentaal in Flanders: the opinions of adolescents from Tielt
In this paper, the results of a perceptions and attitudes study in the West-Flemish town Tielt are reported. Twenty teenagers were subjected to an interview, to gain insight in the way they evaluate intralingual language variation in Flanders and how they judge on the situational appropriateness of this variation. These interviews were analysed by means of a qualitative discourse-based approach. The results show that Standard Dutch is still the superior variety to these teenagers (even though they are not that competent in it), and it is pre-eminently appropriate for more formal situations, which points to the existence of a standard language ideology. At the same time, Standard Dutch is considered an ideal which is hardly ever achieved, and a variety which is unsuitable for everyday informal situations. Tussentaal (lit. ‘in-between language’), on the other hand, is the adolescents’ default language, and is appropriate for everyday situations.

Tables des matières INTRODUCTION La variation dans les langues moins enseignées : des questionnements sociolinguistiques aux problématiques didactiques. Gilles FORLOT et louise OUVRARD (INALCO) ARTICLE LIMINAIRE Les langues dans leurs... more

Tables des matières INTRODUCTION La variation dans les langues moins enseignées : des questionnements sociolinguistiques aux problématiques didactiques. Gilles FORLOT et louise OUVRARD (INALCO) ARTICLE LIMINAIRE Les langues dans leurs variations et leurs diversités : modalités et enjeux d'une didactique nouvelle Pierre ESCUDE (Université de Bordeaux -INSPE)

If we are to understand global linguistic diversity, we must first understand the mechanisms which engender and maintain it. This is what the Wellsprings of Linguistic Diversity project (Australian National University, 2014-2019) aims to... more

If we are to understand global linguistic diversity, we must first understand the mechanisms which engender and maintain it. This is what the Wellsprings of Linguistic Diversity project (Australian National University, 2014-2019) aims to examine by studying variation in small communities of the Australasia-Pacific region. Within the framework of the Wellsprings project, this thesis investigates the existence and spread of linguistic variation in the speech community of Raga, on the island of Pentecost, in linguistically diverse Vanuatu. It is primarily a field study, firmly grounded in the survey of social and linguistic data collected in 2015-2017 in north Pentecost, from 58 men and women representing three generations of speakers. This thesis examines variables in three different linguistic domains: use of possessive classifiers (morpho-syntactic); frequency of borrowing from Bislama and nativisation strategies (lexical); and deletion of the phonemic velar fricative (phonological). Quantitative analysis has confirmed intergenerational and intergender variation for the lexical and phonological variables. In a corpus demonstrating an overall low rate of borrowing (1.6%), the findings show that women and younger speakers borrow more frequently from Bislama than the other speakers. Young men are more prone to deleting the velar fricative, perhaps modelling their speech on consonant-dropping prestigious older men. Raga presents no regional diversity and little innovation from the reconstructed proto forms. These features set the language apart within the Vanuatu high-diversity context, and this study also investigates the mechanisms of uniformisation that inhibit the spread of innovative variants in this community of 6,500 speakers. Several factors combine to favour the linguistic conservatism exhibited by Raga. Endogamous marriage practices, maintenance of strong ties with relatives over long distances and generations, reliance on customary mutual obligations, high socio-historical status of the Raga society, and practice of a single religion all impact on the homogeneity of avoana ata raga 'the language of Raga'. With the notable exception of Meyerhoff's studies of Nkep (Meyerhoff 2015, 2016, 2017a, 2017b), there has been little attempt at probing linguistic variability in the recorded natural speech of diverse speakers of a language of Vanuatu. This thesis adds to the body of research that addresses this gap. The thesis also highlights the value of investigating languages in their social context, and in close collaboration with native speakers. This bottom-up approach is essential in identifying and untangling the factors at play in the complex history of Vanuatu's linguistic diversity.

En los últimos años se ha avanzado considerablemente en el estudio de los distintos sonidos del español, tanto desde un punto de vista articulatorio como acústico. Ello debe atribuirse, sin duda, a las novedades que el progreso... more

En los últimos años se ha avanzado considerablemente en el estudio de los distintos sonidos del español, tanto desde un punto de vista articulatorio como acústico. Ello debe atribuirse, sin duda, a las novedades que el progreso tecnológico ha permitido poner al servicio de la fonética experimental. Además, se está produciendo un sano debate sobre la relación existente entre la fonética y la fonología, terreno en el que algunos investigadores han indicado que la primera debería ser el campo de pruebas, el punto de partida para llegar a la generalización abstracta propia de la segunda. Ello implica que la ciencia fonológica no queda encerrada en sí misma sino que, para llegar a sus explicaciones, puede acudirse a otras disciplinas contiguas como la dialectología, la sociolingüística o la historia de la lengua, sin ir más lejos, lo que supone una abertura importante de los horizontes en la explicación fonética.

This chapter discusses popular non-parametric methods in corpus linguistics: conditional inference trees and conditional random forests. These methods, which allow the researcher to model and interpret the relationships between a numeric... more

This chapter discusses popular non-parametric methods in corpus linguistics: conditional inference trees and conditional random forests. These methods, which allow the researcher to model and interpret the relationships between a numeric or categorical response variable and various predictors, are particularly attractive in 'tricky' situations, when the use of parametric methods (in particular, regression models) can be problematic, for example, in the situations of 'small n, large p', complex interactions, non-linearity and correlated predictors. For illustration, the chapter discusses a case study of T and V politeness forms in Russian based on a corpus of film subtitles.

This article applies the Dynamic Model (Schneider 2007) and the Extra-and Intra-territorial Forces (EIF) Model (Buschfeld & Kautzsch 2017; Buschfeld et al. 2018) to Standard English in Trinidad based on the findings of a large-scale... more

This article applies the Dynamic Model (Schneider 2007) and the Extra-and Intra-territorial Forces (EIF) Model (Buschfeld & Kautzsch 2017; Buschfeld et al. 2018) to Standard English in Trinidad based on the findings of a large-scale attitude study. The results suggest that, in the educational domain in Trinidad, a multidimensional norm orientation with coexisting standards that incorporates exo-and endonormative tendencies is prevalent. The Dynamic Model is not fully able to explain the findings, but the EIF Model can account for this norm complexity. However, the assumption underlying both models that postcolonial Englishes prototypically achieve (full) endonormativity unless their development is stalled at an earlier stage or even reversed is unlikely to fully capture the norm developmental processes in Trinidad and other complex postcolonial speech communities. We therefore propose an extension of the EIF Model that, depending on the constellation, directionality, and continuity of different sets of forces, allows for multinormative stabilization as an alternative development. We also introduce translocality as an alternative theoretical framework for the conceptualization of forces and argue for a more comprehensive understanding of intra-varietal heterogeneity. An extended and modified version of the EIF Model that takes these further complexities into account can help explain the norm developments in highly complex postcolonial speech communities.

Indonesia is included in the Expanding Circle Country section where English is rarely used as a foreign language. English is not used as a language of everyday communication but is used as one of the foreign languages studied at several... more

Indonesia is included in the Expanding Circle Country section where English is rarely used as a foreign language. English is not used as a language of everyday communication but is used as one of the foreign languages studied at several universities in Indonesia. A phenomenon that often occurs among students when learning English is that they hesitate to practice their English in class, so it slows down their ability to communicate in English. Based on this phenomenon, the authors are interested in examining several things, including 1. Students' speaking problems in class. 2. The most effective activities in improving students' speaking ability. This research is descriptive by using a qualitative method. The data is collected by distributing several questionnaires to students and direct observation in the English class. The result of this research is 29% of participants did not want to practice English in front of the class because of fear of being a mistake and 29% of participants felt embarrassed if there is a mistake.

This article examines the relationship between the frontness of /u/ and the aspiration of / t/ in both Māori and New Zealand English (NZE). In both languages, these processes can be observed since the earliest recordings dating from the... more

This article examines the relationship between the frontness of /u/ and the aspiration of / t/ in both Māori and New Zealand English (NZE). In both languages, these processes can be observed since the earliest recordings dating from the latter part of the nineteenth century. We report analyses of these developments for three groups of male speakers of Māori spanning the twentieth century. We compare the Māori analyses with analyses of related features of the speakers' English and of the English of monolingual contemporaries. The occurrence of these processes in Māori cannot be seen simply as interference from NZE as the Māori-speaking population became increasingly bilingual. We conclude that it was the arrival of English with its contrast between aspirated and unaspirated plosives, rather than direct borrowing, that was the trigger for the fronting of the hitherto stable back Māori /u/ vowel together with increased aspiration of /t/ before both /i/ and /u/.

Perceptual dialectology studies have shown that people have strong opinions about the number and placement of dialect regions. This study uses the ‘draw-a-map’ task to examine perceptions of language variation in South Korea, where... more

Perceptual dialectology studies have shown that people have strong opinions about the number and
placement of dialect regions. This study uses the ‘draw-a-map’ task to examine perceptions of language variation in
South Korea, where relatively little perceptual dialectology research has been conducted. Respondents were asked
to indicate on hand-drawn maps where people speak differently and provide names, examples, and comments. The
map data were aggregated and analyzed with ArcGIS 10.0 software and the qualitative data were categorized using
the ‘keywords’ method. An analysis of these data suggests that South Koreans’ perceptions of dialect regions are
not necessarily limited by administrative boundaries; in fact, the data reveal not only perceptions of dialect variation
unassociated with geographic borders, but they also tap into the way people connect ideas about language and place.
Results from this study have implications for language attitudes research, perceptual dialectology methodology, and
the relationship between language and place in South Korea.

London is Europe’s largest city, and over a third of the foreign-born population of the UK lives there, with inner London boroughs having some of the highest proportions. In this paper, we look at how this intense level of inter-ethnic... more

London is Europe’s largest city, and over a third of the foreign-born population of the UK lives there, with inner London boroughs having some of the highest proportions. In this paper, we look at how this intense level of inter-ethnic contact has influenced styles of English variation and use. The discussion starts with the large-scale picture and moves to individual practice, reflecting on how the two relate to one another. Focusing on the sociolinguistic dynamics of two Asian-dominant ‘micro-ecologies’ (Tower Hamlets and Ealing), we address the central puzzle of sociolinguistics today: How to reconcile the fine, fleeting acts of agency we see constantly in the individual with the blindly uniform march of change that we see at the community level? Our analyses point to a complexity that calls for refinement rather than rejection of traditional urban sociolinguistic models.

In order to improve our operationalization of class in sociolinguistic analysis, this paper draws on sociological theory as the foundation for a new approach to the conception and coding of occupation. The dataset is drawn from the larger... more

In order to improve our operationalization of class in sociolinguistic analysis, this paper draws on sociological theory as the foundation for a new approach to the conception and coding of occupation. The dataset is drawn from the larger corpus of interviews conducted in Raleigh, NC using over 100 speakers; F1 and F2 measurements for the five front vowels (BIT, BEET, BAIT, BET, and BAT) were extracted, Lobanov-normalized, and included in regression analyses. To operationalize a sociologically-based theory of occupations, we implement a five-way distinction between industrial/occupational sectors (Law and Government, Technology and Finance, Ineractive Service Work, Care Work, and Blue Collar) based on historical changes in Raleigh’s economy. Results from the new coding indicate significant differences between groups formerly grouped together as White Collar occupations, as well as a significant change in the status of Service work, placing it more in line with traditional Blue Collar labor.

In Namibia, German is spoken as a minority language in a speech community that has its roots in immigration from Europe in the context of colonialism. In contrast to what is happening in most varieties of German outside Europe, Namibian... more

In Namibia, German is spoken as a minority language in a speech community that has its roots in immigration from Europe in the context of colonialism. In contrast to what is happening in most varieties of German outside Europe, Namibian German is consistently passed on to the younger generations, thus offering a special opportunity to investigate the age of speakers as a factor in linguistic variation. To study this, I used data from an online survey eliciting translations of the classical “Wenker sentences” into Namibian German, with over 100 participants from 12 to 78 years of age. My paper presents results from quantitative and qualitative analyses of loan words from the major contact languages Afrikaans and English. Findings indicate that the quantity of loan words is interrelated with the age of speakers, while their grammatical integration does not show cross-generational differences. Comparing my findings with those from other varieties, I discuss the vitality of Namibian German and examine how the concepts of age grading and apparent-time change can contribute to our understanding of linguistic variation in language islands.

"Pasen y lean. El mundo de la lengua española es un universo apasionante. Se presenta en más de una docena de variantes geográficas, ofrece espacio a multitud de idiomas, se reparte por toda la Tierra, forma el bloque continuo de la misma... more

"Pasen y lean. El mundo de la lengua española es un universo apasionante. Se presenta en más de una docena de variantes geográficas, ofrece espacio a multitud de idiomas, se reparte por toda la Tierra, forma el bloque continuo de la misma lengua mayor del mundo. En estas circunstancias, se presta a interpretaciones, preferencias y discusiones de todas clases. Algunas de ellas son propias de los estudiosos, de los lingüistas, otras forman parte de la vida cotidiana de cuatrocientos millones de hablantes nativos y de otros cien millones que lo tienen como segunda lengua.
A esos hablantes cotidianos del español dedican un lingüista y un sociólogo este libro. Un libro para el público que vive la lengua cada día, que ajusta a ella su vida, que ve cómo se le abren o se le cierran espacios y quiere entender el porqué. Es un libro para todos los lectores.
Francisco Marcos-Marín es Professor of Linguistics de la University of Texas at San Antonio. Amando de Miguel es Catedrático emérito de Sociología de la Universidad Complutense. Un semestre de convivencia en Tejas los llevó a escribir este texto como una escritura interlineal, inseparable."

Akissi Béatrice Boutin et Jérémie Kouadio N’Guessan s’attachent à mettre en parallèle le triple développement de la ville d’Abidjan, du français, et des travaux linguistiques ayant pour objet le français à Abidjan. Abidjan, au long de son... more

Akissi Béatrice Boutin et Jérémie Kouadio N’Guessan s’attachent à mettre en parallèle le triple développement de la ville d’Abidjan, du français, et des travaux linguistiques ayant pour objet le français à Abidjan. Abidjan, au long de son développement, a été le lieu d’observation du français populaire africain, du français pidginisé, ou véhiculaire, et de sa vernacularisation, des normes exogène et endogène, du nouchi, autrement dénommé argot, langue métisse… L’hétérogénéité linguistique a été et est toujours présente à Abidjan, sous la pression d’un environnement socioculturel très contrasté.

Reconhecendo o fato de que, fora da Academia, as discussões sobre variação linguística tendem a se encerrar no nível lexical e, talvez, no nível fonológico, a proposta deste sucinto artigo é convidar leitores (a priori) não acadêmicos a... more

Reconhecendo o fato de que, fora da Academia, as discussões sobre variação linguística tendem a se encerrar no nível lexical e, talvez, no nível fonológico, a proposta deste sucinto artigo é convidar leitores (a priori) não acadêmicos a reconhecer dois fenômenos variáveis: a expressão do objeto direto anafórico de 3ª pessoa e algumas estruturas de orações relativas.

This research investigates the English lecturers' attitude toward the variation of English in the process of English learning. The purpose of this study is to discuss the types of English variations uttered by English lecturers who are... more

This research investigates the English lecturers' attitude toward the variation of English in the process of English learning. The purpose of this study is to discuss the types of English variations uttered by English lecturers who are considered as respondents in this study and their attitudes toward the variations of language that appear to their speech during the teaching-learning process. This research is descriptive by using a qualitative approach. The data to be presented in this research is taken from several words of Indonesian lecturers at several universities in Padang West Sumatra by distributing some questionnaires and also interviews. The method of data analysis is divided into two types, first, methods which related to the correlation of external language objects with a non-linguistic element called correlation method or method of matching, and secondly, methods which related to surgical, processing or internal verbal tampering called the method of operation or distribution method.

Este libro incluye trece capítulos dedicados a la atenuación y a la intensificación en diferentes géneros discursivos desde una perspectiva semántico-pragmática. El volumen se organiza en tres secciones. La sección I discute teóricamente... more

Este libro incluye trece capítulos dedicados a la atenuación y a la
intensificación en diferentes géneros discursivos desde una perspectiva semántico-pragmática. El volumen se organiza en tres secciones.
La sección I discute teóricamente la caracterización de ambos fenómenos. La sección II estudia mecanismos particulares de atenuación e intensificación en el español de España y América. La sección III ofrece estudios de corpus y con corpus discursivos sobre mecanismos atenuantes e intensificadores.

I bring together two research strands that rarely interact and might even seem incom-mensurable, namely sociolinguistic approaches to linguistic fluidity and multi-competence on the one hand, and structural approaches to linguistic... more

I bring together two research strands that rarely interact and might even seem incom-mensurable, namely sociolinguistic approaches to linguistic fluidity and multi-competence on the one hand, and structural approaches to linguistic coherence and grammatical systems on the other hand. I show that we can reconcile insights from these two strands in a linguistic architecture that takes communicative situations as the core of linguistic systematicity, and integrates them into lexical representations. Under this view, communicative situations are the basis for linguistic coherence and grammatical systems, while languages can emerge as optional sociolinguistic indices.

Questo nostro contributo mira ad indagare, in un primo sondaggio, in che modo fenomeni tipici delle competenze bilingui possono contribuire alla comprensione del funzionamento delle competenze anche monolingui. Il vantaggio di questa... more

Questo nostro contributo mira ad indagare, in un primo sondaggio, in che modo fenomeni tipici delle competenze bilingui possono contribuire alla comprensione del funzionamento delle competenze anche monolingui. Il vantaggio di questa prospettiva è quello di permetterci di concentrare maggiormente l'attenzione sulla processazione tramite l'osservazione dell'interazione dei sistemi del bilingue nella produzione del discorso.

This study investigates how age, gender, social class and dialect influence how frequently speakers of British English use intensifiers (e.g. 'very') in private conversations and whether this has changed over the last two decades. With... more

This study investigates how age, gender, social class and dialect influence how frequently speakers of British English use intensifiers (e.g. 'very') in private conversations and whether this has changed over the last two decades. With data drawn from over 600 speakers and 4 M. words included in the British National Corpus 1994 and 2014, it is the most comprehensive study of intensifier usage to date, taking into account 111 intensifier variants. Results show that, in most age groups and social classes, men use intensifiers less frequently than women, and gender differences have diminished to a very limited extent, notably for the middle class. Moreover, intensification rate has increased across the board over time. This could be due to a shift towards a stereotypically more feminine communicative style as the perception of gender roles has changed, a process by which the middle class might have been particularly affected.

The study of dialects offers an innovative and engaging opportunity to learn about language. Ideally, by learning about the variations of language, students will come to understand at least three basic facts: languages change over time;... more

The study of dialects offers an innovative and engaging opportunity to learn about language. Ideally, by learning about the variations of language, students will come to understand at least three basic facts: languages change over time; languages always have variation; social identity influences language. From this knowledge, teachers and students can begin to understand that their languages, regardless of the social stigmas stacked against them, are beautifully complex, rule-governed systems. One kind of language variation, dialect diversity, reflects the fact that languages change over time and that people who live in the same geographical area or maintain the same social identity share language norms; in other words, they speak the same dialect. Although dialects differ geographically and socially, no dialect is better linguistically than another

The Chinese provinces are a crazy patchwork quilt of languages and dialects, where the histories of migrations and cultural enclaves, the tides of influence from empire and commerce, the sperm trails that follow rivers and railway lines... more

The Chinese provinces are a crazy patchwork quilt of languages and dialects, where the histories of migrations and cultural enclaves, the tides of influence from empire and commerce, the sperm trails that follow rivers and railway lines ... are recorded in a tangle of codes that no one has yet made a serious attempt to untangle. Note that these comments are obviously informal, not a part of systematic research. Chinese scholars themselves are now (2013) taking a much more thorough interest in dialects than was the case even in 2000.