Language variation and change in social networks

Language variation and change in social networks
Author: Robin Dodsworth
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2019-08-21
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1317281713

This monograph takes up recent advances in social network methods in sociology, together with data on economic segregation, in order to build a quantitative analysis of the class and network effects implicated in vowel change in a Southern American city. Studies of sociolinguistic variation in urban spaces have uncovered durable patterns of linguistic difference, such as the maintenance of blue collar/white collar distinctions in the case of stable linguistic variables. But the underlying interactional origins of these patterns, and the interactional reasons for their durability, are not well understood, due in part to the near-absence of large-scale network investigation. This book undertakes a sociolinguistic network analysis of data from the Raleigh corpus, a set of conversational interviews collected form natives of Raleigh, North Carolina, from 2008-2017. Acoustic analysis of the corpus shows the rapid, ongoing retreat from the Southern Vowel Shift and increasing participation in national vowel changes. The social distribution of these trends is explored via standard social factors such as occupation as well as innovative network variables, including a measure of nestedness in the community network. The book aims to pursue new network-based questions about sociolinguistic variation that can be applied to other corpora, making this key reading for students and researchers in sociolinguistics and historical linguistics as well as those interested in further understanding how existing quantitative network methods from sociological research might be applied to sociolinguistic data.

Social Networks and Historical Sociolinguistics

Social Networks and Historical Sociolinguistics
Author: Alexander Bergs
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2011-12-07
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 311092322X

The book presents an analysis of selected domains of morphosyntactic variation in a 250,000 word collection of the Middle English Paston Letters (1421-1503) from a historical sociolinguistic point of view. In the three case studies, two nominal and one verbal variable are described and discussed in detail: the replacement of Old English “i>h-th-wh-take, make, give, have, do plus deverbal noun). While the study aims at a balanced integration of theories and methods from a number of different approaches in sociolinguistics, cognitive linguistics, typology, and language change, its main focus is social network theory and the role of the linguistic individual in the formation and change of language structures. Questions of individual language use and of deliberate versus unmonitored changes in the (individual) system take center stage and are discussed in the light of social network analysis. Traditional empirical social network analysis is carefully revised. Despite its many merits in present-day sociolinguistics, it often needs to be supplemented by hermeneutic-biographical analyses of the individual speakers' lives when applied to historical data. With this background, common theories and models of language change, such as grammaticalization, paradigmatic pressure, typological alignment, and generational shifts, are illustrated and evaluated from the point of view of single speakers and social groups, and their particular embedding in the speech community through various network structures. The book is of interest to advanced students and researchers in English and general linguistics, Middle English, historical linguistics and language change, corpus linguistics, as well as sociolinguistics.

Linguistic Variation and Change

Linguistic Variation and Change
Author: James Milroy
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Total Pages: 243
Release: 1992-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780631143673

This book is concerned with the explanation of linguistic change. Focusing on variation in the English language, it explores the extent to which language change is a social phenomenon. Language, James Milroy holds, cannot adequately be observed or described independently of society. In analyzing patterns of language use, we must be aware of social and situational contexts and of the norms of usage in the speech community. He discusses these methodological issues in relation to his own sociolinguistic research in Belfast, and argues that in explaining language variation we need first to understand these factors which maintain language and resist change. In contrast to the intra-linguistic approach of traditional historical work, this book presents a social model of change derived from the study of social networks and the links between networks and social class. Language change, Professor Milroy suggests, is made possible to the extent that it is passed from person to person in conversational encounters. -- Back cover.

Principles of Linguistic Change, Volume 3

Principles of Linguistic Change, Volume 3
Author: William Labov
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 451
Release: 2010-11-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1405112158

Written by the world-renowned pioneer in the field of modern sociolinguistics, this volume examines the cognitive and cultural factors responsible for linguistic change, tracing the life history of these developments, from triggering events to driving forces and endpoints. Explores the major insights obtained by combining sociolinguistics with the results of dialect geography on a large scale Examines the cognitive and cultural influences responsible for linguistic change Demonstrates under what conditions dialects diverge from one another Establishes an essential distinction between transmission within the community and diffusion across communities Completes Labov’s seminal Principles of Linguistic Change trilogy

Research Methods in Language Variation and Change

Research Methods in Language Variation and Change
Author: Manfred Krug
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 539
Release: 2013-10-24
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1107469848

Methodological know-how has become one of the key qualifications in contemporary linguistics, which has a strong empirical focus. Containing 23 chapters, each devoted to a different research method, this volume brings together the expertise and insight of a range of established practitioners. The chapters are arranged in three parts, devoted to three different stages of empirical research: data collection, analysis and evaluation. In addition to detailed step-by-step introductions and illustrative case studies focusing on variation and change in English, each chapter addresses the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology and concludes with suggestions for further reading. This systematic, state-of-the-art survey is ideal for both novice researchers and professionals interested in extending their methodological repertoires. The book also has a companion website which provides readers with further information, links, resources, demonstrations, exercises and case studies related to each chapter.

Linguistic Variation and Change

Linguistic Variation and Change
Author: Scott F. Kiesling
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2011-04-29
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 074863763X

The study of variation and change is at the heart of the sociolinguistics. Providing a wide survey of the field, this textbook is organised around three constraints on variation: linguistic structure, social structure and identity, and social and linguistic perception. By considering both structure and meaning, Scott F. Kiesling examines the most important issues surrounding variation theory, including canonical studies and terms as well as challenges to them.

Studies in Language Variation and Change 2

Studies in Language Variation and Change 2
Author: Catherine Delesse
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2018-06-11
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1527512231

This collection of eleven essays traces the complex paths of change taken by the English language in its long history, from its Indo-European origins to the present day. Just like any other language, English is a complex system made up of several interconnected sub-systems – lexical, syntactical, phonological, morphological – and all of those sub-systems are subject to change, resulting in constant shifts and readjustments. Additionally, more than some other languages, English has a history marked by strong upheavals, particularly with the influence of Scandinavian and Romance languages in the Middle Ages. The contributions here consider all aspects of that complex history, with four of them taking a particular interest in the issues brought about by language contact with French and Latin.

Language Variation and Language Change Across the Lifespan

Language Variation and Language Change Across the Lifespan
Author: Karen V. Beaman
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2021-03-30
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0429641699

This volume brings together research on panel studies with the aim of providing a coherent empirical and theoretical knowledge-base for examining the impact of maturation and lifespan-specific effects on linguistic malleability in the post-adolescent speaker. Building on the work of Wagner and Buchstaller (2018), the present collection offers a critical examination of the theoretical implications of panel research across a range of geographic regions and time periods. The volume seeks to offer a way forward in the debates circling about the phenomenon of later-life language change, drawing on contributions from a variety of linguistic disciplines to examine critical topics such as the effect of linguistic architecture, the roles of mobility and identity construction, and the impact of frequency effects. Taken together, this edited collection both informs and pushes forward key questions on the nature of lifespan change, making this key reading for students and researchers in cognitive linguistics, historical linguistics, dialectology, and variationist sociolinguistics.

Corpus Linguistics and the Analysis of Sociolinguistic Change

Corpus Linguistics and the Analysis of Sociolinguistic Change
Author: Joan O'Sullivan
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2019-10-28
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1000710777

Corpus Linguistics and the Analysis of Sociolinguistic Change demonstrates how particular styles and varieties of language are chosen and represented in the media, to reveal changing language ideologies and sociolinguistic change. Drawing on a corpus of ads broadcast on an Irish radio station between 1977 and 2017, this book shows how corpus linguistic tools can be creatively employed, in conjunction with frameworks and concepts such as audience and referee design and indexicality, and examines how accents and dialects (vernacular and prestige) are exploited in the ads across the decades. In addition, this book: illustrates the key principles of corpus design for sociolinguistics studies and offers a framework for future diachronic corpus studies of advertising on social media; provides a model for analysing corpus data at both inter-varietal and intra-varietal levels in terms of both accent and dialectal features and explores the efficacy of using particular corpus linguistic tools; identifies key factors which can be used by researchers as evidence for sociolinguistic change and links these factors to relevant theories and frameworks; demonstrates how corpus tools can be used to compare advertising discourse with naturally occurring discourse, with particular reference to markers of (pseudo) intimate discourse. Building on the growing body of research relating to variation and change in Irish English, this book is key reading for researchers and advanced students undertaking research within the areas of sociolinguistics and corpus linguistics.

Language and Social Networks

Language and Social Networks
Author: Lesley Milroy
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Total Pages: 256
Release: 1987
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN:

Based on an investigation into the urban vernacular of Belfast.