Historical Sociolinguistics

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Historical Sociolinguistics
So how bad is bad data really? Some examples from
historical language death research 18th October
venue TBC Remco Knooihuizen. University of
Edinburgh
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Saussurian semiology/structualism

• The system in of it self
• Self-contained wholes, inner logic
• Systematic relations
• Relationships determine the character of the
  system not the qualities of the elements
• Language is the prototypical system
• Analogy for other sign systems (culture)

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Drawbacks of Saussure

• Bi-polar structures appear everywhere you look
• Is that because were looking for them?
• Implicit assumptions of boundaries/borders
• All performance is epiphenomenal
• Real life just gets in the way
• Emphasis on system ignores subjects/persons
• Time and change seem a bit of an afterthought
• Synchrony is privileged over diachrony

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Boasian semiotics of languaculture

• Franz Boas, Ruth Benedict, Edward Sapir, Margaret
  Mead, Gregory Bateson
• B. L. Whorf
• C. S. Peirce

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Culture

• Language is a part of culture, not separate
• Cultures without borders
• Things fit together
• A Culture has a natural logic but all grammars
  leak
• Every description is from a point of view

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Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914)

• Not many pages to read next week because I expect
  you will need to read every page twice!

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Triadic components of the sign
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Intersubjectivity
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Photograph from Plate XIV, Types of Koryak Men
(Jochelson 1908).
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Photograph of anthropologist in the field (Photo
V. Yatylkut).
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Flag of the Koryak Autonomous Okrug
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Masthead of Narodovlastie
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Fractal possibilities of Peircean signs
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Culture, tradition, and language
Language as code (system) Does not necessarily
coincide with culture Culture as semiotic
relations includes language Language is subset
of particular class of signs
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Koryak greetings

• may vs. amto
• yetti

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Competence and Performance

• Cant ignore usage as Saussure would have us do
• Indexical function one of the most powerful
  aspects of language and totally ignored by
  Saussurian structuralism (Chomsky)

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Synthesis of Saussure and Peirce

• Interpretant is understanding of a sign, both
  part of it and beyond it
• No boundaries in Peirce
• Elements of sign system are internal and external
• Three requisites of any semiotic system
• Finite repertoire (lexicon), rules of
  combination, a discursive context