Pub Date : 2023-10-01DOI: 10.1017/s0954394523000194
James Grama, Johanna Mechler, Lea Bauernfeind, Mirjam E. Eiswirth, Isabelle Buchstaller
Abstract Age-grading—a cornerstone of sociolinguistic theorizing—is hypothesized to follow a U-shaped pattern. Vernacular forms peak in adolescence, abate in middle age, and increase again in retirement, forming a vernacular tail. A complete understanding of age-grading has been hampered by a lack of empirical evidence across the entire adult trajectory and a relatively narrow understanding of speakers’ motivations to change. This paper presents data from a dynamic panel dataset of Tyneside English speakers, covering successive cohorts over the entire adult lifespan. An analysis of (ing) reveals that the U-shaped curve is occupationally niched; only professional educators demonstrate clear retrenchment followed by a tail. Drawing on educational policy research, we argue this effect is largely driven by institutional (and heavily policed) expectations of UK educational policies. We are the first to demonstrate the occupationally niched nature of the U-shaped curve and provide quantitative evidence of the effect of educational policy on linguistic production.
{"title":"Post-educator relaxation in the U-shaped curve: Evidence from a panel study of Tyneside (ing)","authors":"James Grama, Johanna Mechler, Lea Bauernfeind, Mirjam E. Eiswirth, Isabelle Buchstaller","doi":"10.1017/s0954394523000194","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954394523000194","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Age-grading—a cornerstone of sociolinguistic theorizing—is hypothesized to follow a U-shaped pattern. Vernacular forms peak in adolescence, abate in middle age, and increase again in retirement, forming a vernacular tail. A complete understanding of age-grading has been hampered by a lack of empirical evidence across the entire adult trajectory and a relatively narrow understanding of speakers’ motivations to change. This paper presents data from a dynamic panel dataset of Tyneside English speakers, covering successive cohorts over the entire adult lifespan. An analysis of (ing) reveals that the U-shaped curve is occupationally niched; only professional educators demonstrate clear retrenchment followed by a tail. Drawing on educational policy research, we argue this effect is largely driven by institutional (and heavily policed) expectations of UK educational policies. We are the first to demonstrate the occupationally niched nature of the U-shaped curve and provide quantitative evidence of the effect of educational policy on linguistic production.","PeriodicalId":46949,"journal":{"name":"Language Variation and Change","volume":"35 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134935011","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-01DOI: 10.1017/s0954394523000170
Nathalie Dion
Abstract This paper explores how five key complementary features of variable systems—overall rates, variant conditioning, productivity, contextual dispersion, and diffusion in the community—must be marshaled to provide a more comprehensive characterization of change in progress. We illustrate by revisiting a robustly variable sector of Canadian French morphosyntax whose variants are known to be in flux: the polar interrogative domain. Analyses extend the timeline of Elsig (2009)/Elsig and Poplack’s (2006) diachronic analysis by an additional twenty-five years, bringing 2,000+ questions produced by 133 speakers to bear on developments occurring over a period of nearly a century and a half of spontaneous Québec French speech. Results underscore the need to consider more than rates and conditioning in the study of language change. Linguistic dispersion and diffusion in the community provide crucial insight into the mechanics of the transition period and contribute to identifying shifts in variant productivity at each point in time.
{"title":"A question of change: Putting five complementary measures to the test with French polar interrogatives","authors":"Nathalie Dion","doi":"10.1017/s0954394523000170","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954394523000170","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper explores how five key complementary features of variable systems—overall rates, variant conditioning, productivity, contextual dispersion, and diffusion in the community—must be marshaled to provide a more comprehensive characterization of change in progress. We illustrate by revisiting a robustly variable sector of Canadian French morphosyntax whose variants are known to be in flux: the polar interrogative domain. Analyses extend the timeline of Elsig (2009)/Elsig and Poplack’s (2006) diachronic analysis by an additional twenty-five years, bringing 2,000+ questions produced by 133 speakers to bear on developments occurring over a period of nearly a century and a half of spontaneous Québec French speech. Results underscore the need to consider more than rates and conditioning in the study of language change. Linguistic dispersion and diffusion in the community provide crucial insight into the mechanics of the transition period and contribute to identifying shifts in variant productivity at each point in time.","PeriodicalId":46949,"journal":{"name":"Language Variation and Change","volume":"139 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135458266","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-01DOI: 10.1017/s0954394523000261
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
{"title":"LVC volume 35 issue 3 Cover and Back matter","authors":"","doi":"10.1017/s0954394523000261","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954394523000261","url":null,"abstract":"An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.","PeriodicalId":46949,"journal":{"name":"Language Variation and Change","volume":"212 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136200334","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-01DOI: 10.1017/s0954394523000236
Sali A. Tagliamonte, Bridget L. Jankowski
Abstract Subject dislocation (SD) is common across languages. In French, it is a vernacular norm. In English, it is comparatively rare. This article examines English SD in a unique contrastive situation in Ontario, Canada: two communities where SD is a community norm, one where individuals speak both English and French (Kapuskasing), and the other where the population speaks English only (Parry Sound). Dislocated subjects are produced by the same underlying linguistic mechanisms in both places, with parallel constraints by type of subject and intervening material, suggesting a typological universal. However, SD is age-graded in Kapuskasing, regardless of heritage language. In Parry Sound, it is obsolescent, in steady decline over the twentieth century. We conclude that while typological trends are underlain by universal cognitive processes, locally embedded sociocultural influences are the source of differentiation.
{"title":"Subject dislocation in Ontario English: Insights from sociolinguistic typology","authors":"Sali A. Tagliamonte, Bridget L. Jankowski","doi":"10.1017/s0954394523000236","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954394523000236","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Subject dislocation (SD) is common across languages. In French, it is a vernacular norm. In English, it is comparatively rare. This article examines English SD in a unique contrastive situation in Ontario, Canada: two communities where SD is a community norm, one where individuals speak both English and French (Kapuskasing), and the other where the population speaks English only (Parry Sound). Dislocated subjects are produced by the same underlying linguistic mechanisms in both places, with parallel constraints by type of subject and intervening material, suggesting a typological universal. However, SD is age-graded in Kapuskasing, regardless of heritage language. In Parry Sound, it is obsolescent, in steady decline over the twentieth century. We conclude that while typological trends are underlain by universal cognitive processes, locally embedded sociocultural influences are the source of differentiation.","PeriodicalId":46949,"journal":{"name":"Language Variation and Change","volume":"135 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136198880","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-01DOI: 10.1017/s095439452300025x
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
{"title":"LVC volume 35 issue 3 Cover and Front matter","authors":"","doi":"10.1017/s095439452300025x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s095439452300025x","url":null,"abstract":"An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.","PeriodicalId":46949,"journal":{"name":"Language Variation and Change","volume":"42 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136200332","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-01DOI: 10.1017/s0954394523000182
Monica Nesbitt
Abstract Phonological rule innovation is thought to come about via reanalysis of some phonetic variation (e.g., Bermúdez-Otero, 2007; Hyman, 1975; Ohala, 1981; Pierrehumbert, 2001). Yet, empirical evidence suggests instead that the role of phonetic variation during phonological rule innovation is minor (Fruehwald, 2013, 2016). This paper adds to this ongoing debate an empirical analysis of an emergent allophonic contrast—an “/æ/ nasal system”—in White Michigan English. Analyses of speaker-level acoustic data from a sociolinguistic corpus ( n = 36) and a subphonemic judgment task ( n = 107) suggest that Lansing exhibits gradual phonological rule emergence. Social conditioning appears to act as the catalyst of phonological rule formation and its spread. The mechanism of actuation was thus “the chance alignment of social and phonetic variability” (Baker, Archangeli, & Mielke, 2011), suggesting that social conditioning on phonetic variability must play a major role in phonological emergence.
{"title":"Phonological Emergence and social reorganization: Developing a nasal /æ/ system in Lansing, Michigan","authors":"Monica Nesbitt","doi":"10.1017/s0954394523000182","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954394523000182","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Phonological rule innovation is thought to come about via reanalysis of some phonetic variation (e.g., Bermúdez-Otero, 2007; Hyman, 1975; Ohala, 1981; Pierrehumbert, 2001). Yet, empirical evidence suggests instead that the role of phonetic variation during phonological rule innovation is minor (Fruehwald, 2013, 2016). This paper adds to this ongoing debate an empirical analysis of an emergent allophonic contrast—an “/æ/ nasal system”—in White Michigan English. Analyses of speaker-level acoustic data from a sociolinguistic corpus ( n = 36) and a subphonemic judgment task ( n = 107) suggest that Lansing exhibits gradual phonological rule emergence. Social conditioning appears to act as the catalyst of phonological rule formation and its spread. The mechanism of actuation was thus “the chance alignment of social and phonetic variability” (Baker, Archangeli, & Mielke, 2011), suggesting that social conditioning on phonetic variability must play a major role in phonological emergence.","PeriodicalId":46949,"journal":{"name":"Language Variation and Change","volume":"112 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135760020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-01DOI: 10.1017/S0954394523000108
James M. Stratton
Abstract The present study uses variationist quantitative methods to examine the evolution of the semantic field of third-person male adult noun referents from Old English to Middle English, covering a time depth of approximately six hundred years. Results show a shift from the favored variant wer in Old English to man in Middle English, with the diachronic change in frequency following a prototypical s-shaped distribution. Although the replacement seems to take centuries to be complete, lexical frequency and written transmission are proposed as influential explanatory factors, and a homonymic clash is suggested to have accelerated the process of replacement in Middle English. Text type and text origin contribute to variation, with alliteration significantly influencing lexical choices in Old English verse texts. When combined with findings from recent synchronic work, this study highlights a heterogeneously structured semantic domain, which has undergone lexical replacement and change over time, providing some evidence for the applicability of s-shaped patterns for lexical change.
{"title":"Where did wer go? Lexical variation and change in third-person male adult noun referents in Old and Middle English","authors":"James M. Stratton","doi":"10.1017/S0954394523000108","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394523000108","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The present study uses variationist quantitative methods to examine the evolution of the semantic field of third-person male adult noun referents from Old English to Middle English, covering a time depth of approximately six hundred years. Results show a shift from the favored variant wer in Old English to man in Middle English, with the diachronic change in frequency following a prototypical s-shaped distribution. Although the replacement seems to take centuries to be complete, lexical frequency and written transmission are proposed as influential explanatory factors, and a homonymic clash is suggested to have accelerated the process of replacement in Middle English. Text type and text origin contribute to variation, with alliteration significantly influencing lexical choices in Old English verse texts. When combined with findings from recent synchronic work, this study highlights a heterogeneously structured semantic domain, which has undergone lexical replacement and change over time, providing some evidence for the applicability of s-shaped patterns for lexical change.","PeriodicalId":46949,"journal":{"name":"Language Variation and Change","volume":"35 1","pages":"199 - 221"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48526098","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-01DOI: 10.1017/S095439452300011X
Margaret E. L. Renwick, J. A. Stanley, Jon Forrest, Lelia Glass
Abstract The late twentieth century in the United States marks the decline of regional vowel systems like the Northern Cities Shift and the Southern Vowel Shift, replaced by supralocal systems like the Low-Back-Merger Shift. We chart such change in acoustic data from seven generations of White speakers (n = 135) in the Southeastern state of Georgia. We analyze front vowels affected by both the SVS and LBMS (dress, trap), plus price and face, known respectively to monophthongize and centralize in the SVS, and LBMS-implicated lot/thought. The SVS is most advanced among Georgians born in the mid-twentieth century, particularly in face-centralization. In Generation X, retraction of front lax vowels begins, leading toward the LBMS. These results, which hold across genders and education levels, support findings that regional vowel systems declined precipitously following a Gen X “cliff,” raising questions about how such language changes are rooted in demographic transformations of that time period.
{"title":"Boomer Peak or Gen X Cliff? From SVS to LBMS in Georgia English","authors":"Margaret E. L. Renwick, J. A. Stanley, Jon Forrest, Lelia Glass","doi":"10.1017/S095439452300011X","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S095439452300011X","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The late twentieth century in the United States marks the decline of regional vowel systems like the Northern Cities Shift and the Southern Vowel Shift, replaced by supralocal systems like the Low-Back-Merger Shift. We chart such change in acoustic data from seven generations of White speakers (n = 135) in the Southeastern state of Georgia. We analyze front vowels affected by both the SVS and LBMS (dress, trap), plus price and face, known respectively to monophthongize and centralize in the SVS, and LBMS-implicated lot/thought. The SVS is most advanced among Georgians born in the mid-twentieth century, particularly in face-centralization. In Generation X, retraction of front lax vowels begins, leading toward the LBMS. These results, which hold across genders and education levels, support findings that regional vowel systems declined precipitously following a Gen X “cliff,” raising questions about how such language changes are rooted in demographic transformations of that time period.","PeriodicalId":46949,"journal":{"name":"Language Variation and Change","volume":"35 1","pages":"175 - 197"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47755358","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-01DOI: 10.1017/S0954394523000121
S. Grondelaers, R. van Hout, H. van Halteren, Esther Veerbeek
Abstract Two Twitter-based corpus studies are reported to account for the increasing preference in The Netherlands for the stigmatized subject use of the object pronoun hun ‘them.’ Twitter data were collected to obtain a sufficient number of hun-tokens, but also to investigate the validity of two hypotheses on the preference for hun, this is, that subject-hun is a contrast profiler which thrives in contexts of evaluation and qualification, and that subject-hun is propelled by its dynamic social meaning, being a tool for nonposh and streetwise self-stylization. Although the latter is not normally a predictor included in regression analyses of constructional choice, it turns out that expressively spruced up tweets with vivid contrast profiling are the prime biotope of subject-hun. Along the way, this paper reviews the potential of Twitter data for the reconciliation of macro-big-data analysis with micro-sociolinguistic focus, but it also reports and attempts to remedy three concerns.
{"title":"Why do we say them when we know it should be they? Twitter as a resource for investigating nonstandard syntactic variation in The Netherlands","authors":"S. Grondelaers, R. van Hout, H. van Halteren, Esther Veerbeek","doi":"10.1017/S0954394523000121","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394523000121","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Two Twitter-based corpus studies are reported to account for the increasing preference in The Netherlands for the stigmatized subject use of the object pronoun hun ‘them.’ Twitter data were collected to obtain a sufficient number of hun-tokens, but also to investigate the validity of two hypotheses on the preference for hun, this is, that subject-hun is a contrast profiler which thrives in contexts of evaluation and qualification, and that subject-hun is propelled by its dynamic social meaning, being a tool for nonposh and streetwise self-stylization. Although the latter is not normally a predictor included in regression analyses of constructional choice, it turns out that expressively spruced up tweets with vivid contrast profiling are the prime biotope of subject-hun. Along the way, this paper reviews the potential of Twitter data for the reconciliation of macro-big-data analysis with micro-sociolinguistic focus, but it also reports and attempts to remedy three concerns.","PeriodicalId":46949,"journal":{"name":"Language Variation and Change","volume":"35 1","pages":"223 - 245"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41736733","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-01DOI: 10.1017/S0954394523000169
Celeste Rodríguez Louro, Glenys Collard, Madeleine Clews, Matt Hunt Gardner
Abstract We examine constructed dialogue in a longitudinal corpus of Australian Aboriginal English (AE) spoken in Perth, Australia. We conduct a variationist analysis of naturalistic data from forty-six L1 speakers of AE born 1907–2005. We ask, regarding the use of quotative frames, whether AE has changed in line with settler colonial Englishes. We examine whether a division of labor exists in the use of quotative frames, and whether the rise of first-person-marked internal thought reporting attested in settler colonial Englishes is present in AE. Our statistical modeling shows functional partitioning in how quotative frames are used, with AE speakers strongly encoding direct speech across time. We find that the rise of first-person-marked internal thought reporting has not been systemic in AE. Despite be like's incursion after 1983, the underlying system of AE has not changed. The cultural prerogative to encode speech remains strong despite sustained contact with non-First Nations Australia.
{"title":"Quotation in earlier and contemporary Australian Aboriginal English","authors":"Celeste Rodríguez Louro, Glenys Collard, Madeleine Clews, Matt Hunt Gardner","doi":"10.1017/S0954394523000169","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394523000169","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract We examine constructed dialogue in a longitudinal corpus of Australian Aboriginal English (AE) spoken in Perth, Australia. We conduct a variationist analysis of naturalistic data from forty-six L1 speakers of AE born 1907–2005. We ask, regarding the use of quotative frames, whether AE has changed in line with settler colonial Englishes. We examine whether a division of labor exists in the use of quotative frames, and whether the rise of first-person-marked internal thought reporting attested in settler colonial Englishes is present in AE. Our statistical modeling shows functional partitioning in how quotative frames are used, with AE speakers strongly encoding direct speech across time. We find that the rise of first-person-marked internal thought reporting has not been systemic in AE. Despite be like's incursion after 1983, the underlying system of AE has not changed. The cultural prerogative to encode speech remains strong despite sustained contact with non-First Nations Australia.","PeriodicalId":46949,"journal":{"name":"Language Variation and Change","volume":"35 1","pages":"129 - 152"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42333052","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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