The 2013 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science presented to William Labov

Abstract

The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, awards the 2013 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science to Professor William Labov for pioneering contributions to the understanding of language variation and change through quantitative means, and for initiating the scientific study of non-standard dialects with significant social and cultural implications.Labov is widely recognized as the founder of sociolinguistics, the quantitative study of language structure and use. Through detailed analysis of speech across dialect boundaries and over time, Labov has identified general principles governing language variation and change, while shedding light on how the mind assimilates and responds to linguistic stimuli to form internalized linguistic knowledge and representations. He pioneered the use of statistical methods in the study of language, thereby contributing to the understanding of cognition as a probabilistic information processing system. Moreover, Labov׳s research on African American English has led to the recognition of non-standard dialects as complex linguistic systems in their own right, rather than imperfect deviations from the standard variety.