seminar: VARIATION

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seminar VARIATION

• Universität des Saarlandes
• Dept. 4.3 English Linguistics
• Professor Dr. N. R. Norrick
• HS Variation
• winter tern 2007/08
• Thursdays, 4-6pm

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1. Linguistic variation

• Why does language vary?
• How do languages vary?
• through time
• by group age, gender, income, profession, social
  status
• by region nation, area, urban versus rural
• by context setting, event, participants, key

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• What kinds of linguistic variation are to be
  expected?
• And, conversely, what kinds seem never to occur?
• adding new words is the easiest and most obvious
  immediate change
• pronunciation is the most obvious regional
  difference
• differences between speaking and writing are
  necessary
• recognizable features mark differences between
  genres and styles
• Are some areas of language more variable than
  others?

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2. Inherent variability

• Inherently unstable forms
• Copula (Labov 1972)
• preterit, past participles
• dived dove, sneaked snuck, shined shown,
• got gotten, sewed sewn, smelled - smelt
• phonological high versus low vowels,
• front versus back vowels,
• diphthongs
• liquids r, l

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• reasons for instability
• variation in paradigm be, am, are, is was
  been
• variation in form will, ll, wont
• range of functions
• main verb he is here, he is the boss, he is cold
• auxiliary verb he is reading, he is often seen

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3. Linguistic stability

• by contrast, certain forms are rather robust
• compare stages of language for stable forms
• inspect the following ME text, comparing with
  ModE and OE spelling, lexis, morphology, grammar
• Chaucer Canterbury Tales
• A knyght ther was, and that a worthy man,
• That fro the tyme that he first bigan
• To riden out, he loved chivalrie,
• Trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisie.
• Which forms are identical or similar and why?

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• Develop a list of stable forms (across time,
  area, register)
• stable words, e.g. worth, man, begin, sun, water,
  ship,
• boat, mast, fish
• reasons for stability
• cultural value
• may include attention within special group, e.g.
  church members, scientists, philosophers
• simplicity of form, or within paradigm
• phonological short vowels, voiceless consonants
• iconicity? cuckoo, piss
• frequency within any given text
• frequency across types of texts

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4. Frequency and variation

• frequency is often cited as the major factor
  leveling differences
• loss of inflections, distinctions over time
• frequency is also often cited as the reason for
  maintenance of irregular variation in a paradigm,
  e.g. man-men, go-went, was-were (only sg-pl
  preterit distinction left)

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• frequency is also often cited as reason for
  stability
• after all, frequency correlates with shortness
  and simplicity
• we expect common, everyday words to be stable for
  all varieties, including dialects, spoken and
  written discourse, casual and technical registers
• but dialects often differ in basic forms, e.g.
• BE versus AE pronunciation of been, cant
• German dialects isch han i hoab ich habe
• pidgins regularly replace common words like kid,
  eat with
• pikin, chop

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5. Common core

• Is there a common core for all varieties? Whats
  in it?
• SVO order Det Adj N
• function words a, the for, at, by, to
• common words worth, man, begin, sun (from above)
• Are varieties arrayed around center like suburbs
  of a city?
• Or chain model where successive varieties share
  features,
• but none is central?
• Or various prototypes in complex ICM, as
  Wittgenstein
• suggests for game?

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• Consider
• We expect spelling to be stable for all
  varieties, but advertising and e-mail diverge
• We expect tense and aspect to be stable for all
  varieties, but narrative uses tense and tense
  shift in special ways
• Basic English, C. K. Ogden
• Is it a model of common core?
• Does it make sense for foreign learners?

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TOPICS

• Papers can focus on methodological questions of
  data and analysis (e.g. variable rules versus
  wave model), on specific varieties, registers,
  genres (e.g. telephone talk) or on interfaces
  like spoken versus written, second language
  English versus native language (e.g. in India),
  womens versus mens language
• In all cases, papers must analyze a substantial
  body of data according to some system

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• Diachronic
• history of English
• analyzing change
• sound laws
• grammatical rule change
• ongoing change. e.g. grammaticalization

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• Areal linguistics (dialectology)
• national languages
• major varieties and their differences
• regional variation in England, US, Canada,
  Australia etc
• English in Wales, Ireland, Scotland
• English in Africa, India, Far East
• English-based Pidgins and Creoles
• English as an international/global language

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• Social variation (sociolects)
• social factors and linguistic variables
• Variation by class
• Variation by age
• Variation by gender
• variable rules
• the wave model
• data collection and analysis

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• Register
• spoken versus written
• electronically aided
• telephone
• e-mail
• chat
• English for special purposes
• technical language
• text / discourse type, genre
• narrative

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• Style
• levels
• frozen
• formal
• consultative
• casual
• intimate
• literary style
• poetic language
• personal style

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GOALS

• Practical
• learn to recognize varieties of English along
  various dimensions
• diachronic
• dialectal
• sociolectal
• register
• style
• learn to analyze different varieties contrastively

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• Theoretical
• terminology of variation, dialectology
• general linguistic principles models of
  variation, variable
• rules, describing sound shifts, dialect
  differences,
• grammaticalization, register differences
• develop a sense of why and how languages vary and
  what
• kinds of linguistic variation are normal

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Correlational Sociolinguistics

• Variables in "categorial" versus "variationist"
  views
• phonological room with long u as in pool
• with short u as in book
• morphological -ing with velar nasal ng (-ing)
• with alveolar nasal n (-in)

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• Varieties may differ in any kind of linguistic
  item
• pronunciation, word choice, word form and syntax,
  e.g.
• working class men in Norwich tend to pronounce
  thin and thing the same way in conversation
• BE speakers say tube, while AE speakers say
  subway
• white rural speakers in the Midwest U.S. say She
  come home yesterday instead of the standard She
  came home yesterday
• Black vernacular speakers say I aks her did she
  know him, while standard speakers say I asked her
  if she knew him

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• sociolinguistic variables
• items known to reflect particular social
  contrasts
• presence or absence of 3rd person singular -s
• she goes vs she go
• presence or absence of r
• theater theater is the idea of
• sociolinguistic variables display class
  stratification
• Labov (1972 239) -ing

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• in every style, class members differ predictably
• in every class, style shifting occurs predictably
• single signal has no fixed value it may mark
  casual middle-class speaker or careful
  lower-class speaker

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• syntactic, morphological and phonological factors
  
• sing
• looking
• something
• She tried to find something.
• She tried to find something in town.
• She tried to find something she liked.
• hypercorrection prestige variants where they
  don't belong
• pronouncing "aitches" in words like honor, hour
  and if

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Department stores experiment

• department stores ranked by pricing, advertising,
  wages, working conditions, physical appearance of
  store
• Sacks
• Macy's
• S. Klein
• method
• ask question to elicit answer fourth floor
• say excuse me to elicit emphatic response
• preceding final consonant and word final
• casual and emphatic

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• less differentiation shows greater security as a
  speaker
• greater differentiation shows less security as a
  speaker

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• Cross-over pattern in diagram of multiple styles
  and social classes
• Second highest class typically displays
  cross-over pattern

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sample texts
historical
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(No Transcript)
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• 1     Shall I compare thee to a Summers
  day?2     Thou art more louely and more
  temperate 3     Rough windes do shake the
  darling buds of Maie,4     And Sommers lease
  hath all too short a date5     Sometime too
  hot the eye of heauen shines, 6     And often
  is his gold complexion dimm'd, 7     And euery
  faire from faire some-time declines,8     By
  chance,or natures changing course vntrim'd9  
    But thy eternall Sommer shall not fade,10  
  Nor loose possession of that faire thou
  ow'st,11   Nor shall death brag thou wandr'st
  in his shade,12   When in eternall lines to
  time thou grow'st, 13   So long as men can
  breath or eyes can see,14   So long liues
  this, and this giues life to thee,

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• Spoken versus written
• Jack Hey, have you seen Al and Judy?
• Jill Well, I saw Judy.
• Jack Al was with her though, right?
• Jill They've kind of been like fighting, y'know?
  
• Jack asked Jill if she'd seen Al and Judy. Jill
  said she'd seen
• Judy. Jack asked if Al had been with her and Jill
  said they'd
• been fighting.

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• Seeing-eye dog (printed text)
• A blind man walks into the middle of a department
  store with his
• seeing-eye dog. He picks up the dog and swings it
  around and
• around by its tail.
• May I help you? asks a saleslady aghast.
• The blind man replies, No thanks, Im just
  looking.

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• Seeing-eye dog (transcribed performance)
• um yeah,
• there was this blind guy with a seeing-eye dog?
• and he goes into this department store?
• and starts swinging the dog around by its tail.
• a saleslady comes up and asks,
• well, may I help you?
• and he says,
• no thanks, Im just looking.

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• Special purposes
• A RAPID METHOD FOR CLEARING AND STAINING
  SPECIMENS FOR THE
• DEMONSTRATION OF BONE
• MARGARET C. GREEN
• Department of Zoology and Entomology, The Ohio
  State University, Columbus 10
• The potassium hydroxide clearing and alizarin
  staining method for the preparation
• of whole skeletons has proved very useful for the
  study of bones of embryos and
• small animals. It has certain advantages over
  methods in which the carcass is
• macerated and the bones are separated and dried.
  Among these advantages are
• (1) there is no chance of losing the small bones,
  (2) all bones are retained in their
• original position, (3) there is no chance of
  wrongly identifying similar bones, (4) in
• the finished preparations the bones, after
  identification, may be disarticulated and
• examined from all angles, equally as well as in
  dried preparations, and (5)
• many animals may be processed together without
  danger of mixing their bones, a
• great saving in time and effort.

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• The method was originally developed by Schultze
  (1897) and has subsequently
• been modified by a number of investigators
  including Mall (1906), Dawson (1926),
• Lipman (1935), Cumley, Crow, and Griffen (1939),
  Gamble (1945), and True
• (1947).
• The steps usually employed include (1) fixation
  in formalin or alcohol, (2) bleaching
• with hydrogen peroxide, (3) incomplete maceration
  in potassium hydroxide,
• (4) staining with alizarin red S, and (5)
  clearing in graded concentrations of glycerin,
• or dehydration and clearing in oil of
  wintergreen. Various authors have suggested
• the omission of one or more of these steps. In
  our genetic experiments it has been
• necessary to examine the skeletons of many
  thousands of mice, making the
• maximum possible simplification desirable. It has
  been found possible to omit
• fixation and bleaching and to transfer the
  specimens directly from the staining
• solution to undiluted glycerin without the
  intermediate steps.

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• Chatrooms
• ltAstralBeautygt i talked to you last night
• ltAstralBeautygt about this metal band
• ltAstralBeautygt lol
• ltAstralBeautygt lol WoOwOoWwOwWoW
• ltEagle_Flightgt BAM BAM friend
• ltAstralBeautygt rofl
• ltAstralBeautygt hey
• AstralBeauty hugs Eagle_Flight
• ltexplorergt hey AstralBeauty... Nightghost_ is
  still waiting for the ceremony!
• ltWoOwOoWwOwWoWgt _____________
• ltAstralBeautygt lol is he?

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• ltAstralBeautygt hey Nightg
• AstralBeauty hugs Nightghost_
• ltAstralBeautygt missed me?
• ltAstralBeautygt lol
• ltNightghost_gt lol
• ltNightghost_gt i is still here still
• ltAstralBeautygt cool
• ltexplorergt And fading fast.. 112 is an age where
  you tire easily.
• ltEagle_Flightgt ceromony ?
• ltAstralBeautygt where's my huggt
• ltNightghost_gt ty
• ltNightghost_gt hugs

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references

• Labov, William. 1972. Sociolinguistic patterns.
  Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press.
• Ogden, Charles K. 1968. Basic English
  international second language. New York Harcourt.

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• Thank you for your attention!