Variation and Sociolinguistics

General Linguistics

23 November 2017
Kinds of variation

lexical

phonological

morphosyntactic

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[Link]
Harvard dialect survey
[Link]
Lexical variation

[Link]
Lexical variation

[Link]
Phonetic/phonological variation

[Link]
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Phonetic/phonological variation

[Link]
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Morphosyntactic variation

[Link]
ISL Week 18: Variation and Sociolinguistics 9/50
Morphosyntactic variation

[Link]
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Correlates of variation

Linguistic variation can reflect geography (regional dialects).

• geographic separation breeds linguistic variation
• maps showing regional distributions of variants with
isoglosses (boundaries)

Linguistic variation can reflect ethnic identity (ethnolects).

Linguistic profiling: [Link]

All talkers show distinctive linguistic features because everyone has

a social identity.
• everyone has an “accent”
• no one speaks “standard”
• all dialects are systematic and full linguistic varieties

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Examples of isoglosses

[Link]
Sociolinguistics in action

Cars 2 : [Link]

Pay attention to Mater versus Finn McMissle...

Where is Mater from? Where is Finn McMissle from?

How do you know?

Why would the filmmakers choose these linguistic styles for these
characters?

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Language and social alignment

Language varies in meaningful ways that demonstrate

something about our social alignment.

Speakers and listeners are aware (subconsciously) of this

variation and use that information to:
place a speaker in a certain social group
place ourselves, as speakers, in certain social groups

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Variationist sociolinguistics

Variationists are concerned with how language varies and

the patterns of this variation.

Linguistic variable: language form (e.g., sound, morpheme)

with distinct variants; notated as (X).

Variant: a realization of a variable; notated as [X].

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Examples of linguistic variables

lexical variables
(soda) = [soda], [pop], [coke], [soda pop], [soft drink]
(cool) = [awesome], [tight], [rad], [kickass], etc.

phonological/phonetic variables
(-ɪŋ) = [-ɪn], [-ɪŋ]
(ɹ) = [ɹ], [∅]

semantic variables
(pants) = ['pants'], ['underwear']

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Social conditions on variation

There is a crucial difference between phonological alternation

between a phoneme and its allophones and sociolinguistic variation.
Sociolinguistic variants are not primarily conditioned by
phonetic environment, but rather by the social situation and
other external factors, e.g.:

• geography
• age
• race & ethnicity
• sex & gender identity
• socioeconomic class
• formality
• other relevant social categories (e.g., “jock” vs. “burnout”)
The founding of modern sociolinguistics

William Labov
• “father” of modern
sociolinguistics
• “Fourth Floor” study
• Martha’s Vineyard
study
• interests in diachronic
change (across time
points) and synchronic
change (at one time point)
Fourth Floor study (1966)

Goal: to understand the stratification of (ɹ) in New York.

• sources of data:

Saks

Macy’s

S. Klein

• question response fourth floor elicited twice

• “quick and dirty” data collection

Method

• Systematic sampling of casual and

anonymous speech events

• Interaction was a normal salesman-

customer interaction

• Interviewer pretended to be a customer

• Asked the location of a particular

department (knowing it was on the fourth
floor!)
Method

Interviewer: Excuse me where are the women’s

shoes?

Sales assistant: Fourth floor

Interviewer: Excuse me?

Sales assistant: Fourth floor

• casual: fourth floor

• emphatic: fourth floor
• Pre-consonantal and final position
 Fourth Floor study (1966)
Results Overall stratification of (r) by store
Saks – 68 interviews Shaded = % all r=1
Macy’s – 125 interviews Unshaded = % some r=0
S. Klein – 71 interviews

Social class clearly stratified the use of [ɹ] versus [∅] in New York.
Fourth Floor study (1966)
Percentage of all r=1 by store for four positions

The pronunciation of (ɹ) is also stratified by position within

the word and level of formality.
Fourth Floor study (1966)

Ultimately, this was the first study demonstrating a new fact

about language: a linguistic variable is stratified according to
social stratification.

Results also suggest that emphasis/formality may impact

the pronunciation of (ɹ).
Accent as a marker of regional identity

Pronunciation is only one component of an entire dialect. We’ll use

the term accent to refer just to pronunciation variation.
Martha’s Vineyard study (1961–2002)

Goal: to examine the variables (aj) and (aw) on

Martha’s Vineyard (island near Cape Cod, MA)

• variation mostly in centralization, e.g. [aj] vs. [əj]

• particular interest in differences between ages and

in attitudes toward the island (positive vs. negative
feelings toward life on the island)

• study repeated in 2002

Martha’s Vineyard study (1961–2002)

From this, we see that age really does matter, and that
the synchronic variation led to lasting change.
Martha’s Vineyard study (1961–2002)

This is persuasive data that centralization of these

variables is correlated with attitudes towards life on the
island (and these patterns have persisted for 40 years).
Martha’s Vineyard study (1961–2002)

Differences in age are synchronically significant and

predict diachronic changes.

Social attitudes toward life on Martha’s Vineyard have

linguistic implications.

These results were revolutionary and have influenced

sociolinguistic research ever since.
Communities of linguistic practice

Penny Eckert: “communities of

practice”
• mutual engagement
• jointly negotiated enterprise
• shared repertoire

In other words:
• they hang out
• they have common goals
• they have the same linguistic
capacities
Belten High study (Detroit suburbs)

Relevant social distinctions are gender and being a jock vs. a

burnout.
jock: invested in the school, “straight edge”
burnout: more ties to urban life, reject school norms,
“rebels”

Linguistic variables: (æ), (ʌ), (aj)

backing of (2) and monophthongization of (aj) are
associated with urban speech
raising of (æ) is associated with the suburbs
Belten High study (Detroit suburbs)

Notice that the girls are the extremes for both groups, in
terms of overall accent.
Belten High study (Detroit suburbs)

Influence of gender: jock girls are more conservative than

jock boys, and burnout girls are more urban than burnout
boys.

Important social categories differ based on the community;

thus, we must learn about the community to parse the
participants appropriately.
Conclusions

It is an unavoidable fact that language varies, often in

surprising ways.

Language variation is a meaningful expression/reflection of

social identity.

Stratification of variation sets up an environment for

historical changes in language.
The big picture

LANGUAGE VARIATION ⇔ SOCIAL VARIATION

Linguistic variation exists between different speakers.

• expresses aspects of social identity and group
affiliation
• correlated with social variables (e.g., class, age,
ethnicity, etc.)
• not correlated with intelligence or character traits
(e.g., laziness, sloppiness, etc.)
People may model their speech after the dialect that is
prestigious to them (at least, according to one school of
thought).
• overt prestige: speaker seeks prestige by assimilating to
perceived standard
• covert prestige: speaker chooses to differ from the standard,
assimilate to a non-standard variety
Variation within a speaker

Linguistic variation also exists within a speaker, based on

communicative situation.

Linguistic repertoire: varieties an individual has command of.

• different languages
• different dialects of the same language
• different registers/styles

Register: language variety based on situation/context.

• no speakers with just a single register/style!
• analogy of clothing
Different registers

(1) I am finding the demands of this course to be exceedingly

difficult.

(2) I’m having a little trouble in this class. It’s really hard.

(3) This class sucks! Can’t tell what’s going on half the time.
Choice of register

may be unconscious

is never arbitrary

carries deep social meaning

based on speech situation

Speech situation

Purpose Setting Participants

Activity Topic Speaker
Goal Location Addressee
Mode Social roles
Audience
Linguistic choice in a multilingual society

Majority of humans live in a society that requires fluency in

more than one language.

Currently:
• Europe (e.g., Belgium, Switzerland)
• Asia and Australia (e.g., India, China)
• Africa and the Middle East (e.g., Tanzania, Ethiopia)
• the Americas (e.g., Yucatan, Peru)

Historically:
• Iran in the ’70s: Armenian/Syriac at home and church,
Arabic at the mosque, Persian at school, Turkish at the
market
Linguistic choice in a monolingual society

Monolinguals have multiple choices in their linguistic

repertoire.
• language varieties generally tied to notion of formality
• different speech situations, different forms
• purpose
• setting
• participants

Registers are characterized by an entire set of linguistic

features.
Markers of register

lexical

syntactic

semantic

phonological
Lexical markers of register

• “formal” vs. “informal” speech

• word choice revealing attitude toward speech situation

• addressee
• person/situation being
described
• present situation

• terms of address, names

• slang

• jargon

• argot
Slang

What is slang?

Who uses slang?

Why do we use slang?

Who creates slang?

What distinguishes slang from other kinds of language?

• ephemeral or cyclical?
• not necessarily the same definition for everyone
Change in slang

1968 1988 Current (?)

a gas gnarly sick
go ape psych snookied
to bag s.t. righteous lizzing
to ball way cool foe
to chop s.o. fly salty
to dig s.t. fresh ill
easy, man stupid dumb (adv.)
s/he’s gone over s.o. dope ballin’
groady wild thang saucy
cool spaz epic, random
über, wicked, sweet
Jargon

Jargon refers to specialized terms for a given field.

• every field
• medical
• technical
• ‘business speak’
• acquiring a job
• speaking with...
• clients and customers
• the boss
• colleagues
• writing...
• letter to a client
• internal memo
• instructions to an assistant
Legalese

FIRST AMENDMENT TO LEASE AGREEMENT

[Parties defined] . . .
WITNESSETH:

WHEREAS, Landlord and Tenant have previously executed that

certain Lease Agreement (the “Lease”) effective as of January 1,
1999 (the “Commencement Date”); and
WHEREAS, Landlord and Tenant desire to amend the Lease effective
as of the Commencement Date.
NOW, THEREFORE, KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS:
THAT, for and in consideration of the premises, the mutual benefits
to be derived from this First Amendment, and other good and
valuable consideration, the receipt and sufficiency of which are
hereby mutually acknowledged and confessed, Landlord and Tenant
have agreed and do hereby agree as follows: . . .
Argot

Argot refers to specific vocabulary generally used by criminals.

• whack
• mob
• hot
• fence
• sting
• racket
• mark
• etc.
Morphosyntactic markers of register

Examples:

• sentence length and complexity

• full forms vs. contractions

• placement of prepositions
• Who are you writing to?
• To whom are you writing?

• (non-)use of multiple modal verbs

• I might could do that.
• I might be able to do that.
Semantic markers of register

Examples:

• use of words in slang sense

• use of words in argot sense

• use of words in “legalese” sense

• news and political speak

• insurgent vs. freedom fighter
• liberal
• Fascist
Phonological markers of register
Note: correlations between intra- and inter-speaker variation!

% of ‘-ing’ in 3 speech situations among 4 social groups in NYC

Phonological markers of register

What about this result?

Language and gender: phonology

men vs. women:

Who tends to use more “standard” variants (all other things

being equal)?

Who tends to lead sound change with new prestige variants?

Language and gender: phonology

Variation in use of ‘-ing’ by gender and speech situation:

‘-ing’ and gender in Los Angeles, California

Males Joking 54%

Arguing 76%
Females Joking 72%
Arguing 79%
Summary of key points

Although people may have strong stereotypes about a certain

social group affiliated with a dialect, there is nothing inherently
inferior about any dialect.
• no dialect is “corrupt”, “bad”, “lazy”, etc.
• all dialects have regular phonological and grammatical systems
• all dialects follow regular principles and patterns common to
languages across the world

Language is an expression of identity and group membership.

• factors such as age, region, gender, class, prestige, etc.

Language is also tailored to a specific communicative purpose

and speech situation.