Linguistic Change In Progress Research Articles

The social distribution of non-verbal negation in the Lebanese Arabic of Zgharta

This article examines the sociolinguistic distribution of non-verbal negation in Zgharta Arabic, based on sociolinguistic interviews conducted in the Lebanese town of Zgharta. Quantitative data analysis shows that young, middle-class speakers are leading a change in progress towards an increased usage of the capital Beirut variant, while old, working-class members tend to favor the more local negators. The factor of gender was overall reported as statistically insignificant, but cross-tabulating gender with age reveals significant gender differences among the middle-aged and old groups. It is argued that Zghartawis design their language in order to project traits that match their social status and satisfy their communicative needs. This study is among the first to reveal a linguistic change in progress in Lebanon, an area whose sociolinguistic configurations remain underexplored. It also enhances our understanding of the role of dialect contact and urbanization in the Arabic-speaking world.

Japanese subject markers in linguistic change: A quantitative analysis of data spanning 90 years and its theoretical implications

AbstractBased on a statistical analysis of a corpus data from the period of 1915–2005, this article discusses two variants for a subject marker in Japanese, and argues that it is a case of linguistic change in progress. While representing effects of three linguistic factors on the use of the variants, the chronological observation of each factor revealed that this phenomenon demonstrates the Constant Rate Effect. The quantitative data also provides firm evidence for effects of other independent diachronic changes on the current phenomenon, pushing the change further by shrinking the linguistic environment for the dying-out variant. Dissecting the relationship between those diachronic changes and the current phenomenon in a quantitative manner, the findings of the study reveal that the two competing hypotheses in theoretical syntax properly capture the essential syntactic properties of the phenomenon in the contemporary Japanese and the discrepancy of the two accounts is attributable to their data reflecting a different stage of its ongoing change.

Sobre os reflexos sociais da mudança em progresso

Abstract: This paper is a discussion of the social reflexes of linguistic change in progress. ln particular, it deals with the general valldity of the evidence provided by the curvillnear pattern of social distribution, age differences, and the rôle of the women for the detection of linguistic change in progress. It is argued here that: a) lack of curvilinear pattern is not an indication of lack of change in progress; b) the rôle of the women in linguistic change depends on their rôle in society, and c) new changes can be originated in the lowest stratum in society.

A DITONGAÇÃO VARIÁVEL EM SÍLABAS TÔNICAS FINAIS TRAVADAS POR /S/

This paper aims at presenting a quantitative study of diphthongizationresulting from anterior glide insertion in final stressed syllables closed by /S/, suchas nós - nois, mês - meis, in Portuguese as spoken in Porto Alegre, Florianópolisand Curitiba. The investigation follows the theoretical assumptions of variationstudies Figures related to linguistic features have shown that low vowels followedby alveolar fricative favor rule application when this segment belongs to the rootof the word and joins the following word. Extralinguistic features have revealedthe rule is strongly related to geographic variation. A curvilinear pattern has alsobeen observed, suggesting linguistic change in progress.

A INTER-RELAÇÃO DA CONCORDÂNCIA NOMINAL E DA CONCORDÂNCIA NOS PREDICATIVOS/PARTICÍPIOS PASSIVOS, SOB O ENFOQUE DA TEORIA DA VARIAÇÃO E MUDANÇA LINGÜÍSTICA

This paper intends to examine the relationship between nominalagreement and number agreement in predicative/participle passive, according toFernandes (1996) and Vazzata-Dias (1996), respectively. In this study, we analysethe speech of residents of Florianópolis, investigating two linguistic variables,Formal Paralelism and Phonic Salience, in order to verify, respectively, thehipothesis that plural markers promote plural markers and zero plural markerspromote zero plural markers and that regular plural, because are least distinctive,have lowest probability of agreement. We also investigate three social variables(Sex, age and level of education) in order to verify mainly some indication of stablevariation or linguistic change in progress. The research is conducted throughoutusing the theorical principle of the theory of linguistic variation (Weinreich, Labov& Herzog, 1968, Labov, 1972 and 1994). For quantitative data processing, weused the VARBRUL programs, version 1988/1992.

Semantic and Pragmatic Issues in the Analysis of Grammatical Variation in French

Interest in grammatical variation in spoken French has increased substantially in recent years, and in this article I will examine how aspects of the 'problem of meaning' have been tackled with regard to a range of the variables examined within variationist sociolinguistics. It is worth highlighting at the outset one of the main objectives of sociolinguistic research into variation, as this is perhaps not as well known as it should be. Before the middle of the twentieth century, it had generally been assumed that it was impossible to observe linguistic change in progress, and, by implication, to understand fully the mechanisms by which change takes place. This situation altered dramatically with the advent of the variationist paradigm, established by William Labov and others in the 1960s. Detailed analysis of large quantities of tokens of a sociolinguistic variable, drawn from a carefully constructed corpus of speech produced by a representative sample of the population, henceforth enabled researchers to study change in 'apparent time', by observing quantitative differences in the language of comparable age cohorts within a given speech community. The variationist paradigm revolutionised the study of linguistic change, as well as revealing that linguistic variation often correlates both with other social factors such as gender and social class and with aspects of the linguistic context in which variables occur. As is well known, the concept of the sociolinguistic variable was initially applied almost exclusively to phonology, especially in studies of varieties of English. 1 However it was not long before the pioneers of variationist sociolinguistics began to apply their methods to higher linguistic levels, notably morphology and syntax. Trudgill's study of Norwich English, for example, included an analysis of 'the social differentiation of a grammatical feature' the

Grammaticalization of the strategies of negation in Brazilian Portuguese

Brazilian Portuguese exhibits three strategies of clausal negation. This work analyzes and interprets these strategies in the framework of Functional Linguistics. The analysis is based on a corpus of written and spoken material produced by students from different levels of schooling. The negative patterns are in variation, performing the same general discourse function of denying. It is assumed that variation reflects a linguistic change in progress. The study reveals the interaction of two competing motivations, one in the direction of restoring iconicity and the other leading to a decrease of iconicity, in a movement towards economy.

Review of Andersen (2001): Actualization: Linguistic change in progress

Review of Andersen (2001): Actualization: Linguistic change in progress

“Impertinent” by sentences in American writing: A cognitive motivation

Data drawn from school writing support the conclusion that Americans are reorganizing their intellectual concepts of causality to accommodate the concept that generic situations or circumstantial processes are causal agents, more so than human individuals or groups. This study uses an ethnographic methodology to describe the “impertinent” by, a construction that writers are importing increasingly often into the academic register from spoken American English. Some new work in mental space theory on grammatical blending elucidates the syntactic operation at work in the data. While the construction is not yet generally acceptable in edited written English, the frequency of its occurrence constitutes a change in writers’ linguistic behavior. The data and their analysis offer a look at some of the mechanisms and processes behind a linguistic change in progress, and illustrate the nature of the connection between a language and its users’ conceptual system.

Variable deletion of French /l/: linguistic, social and stylistic factors

ABSTRACTThis article considers variable /l/-deletion in the French definite articles, subject clitic pronouns and in one frequent phono-lexical context, exemplified bytable‘table’ andronfle‘snore’. It reports the treatment of /l/ by a sample of secondary schoolchildren from Lorraine in north-eastern France. The definite articles and subject clitics are considered on the one hand in relation to the linguistic constraints which influence /l/-deletion, and on the other to the extra-linguistic variables of age, sex and speech style. Variable /l/-deletion in the phono-lexical context referred to above is examined principally in relation to the lexical input which influences /l/-deletion. Finally, we consider whether the sociolinguistic patterns reported here are indicative of linguistic change in progress, or whether the effects observed are revelatory rather of attitudes to non-standard linguistic forms inculcated in speakers by normative French pedagogy.

Sociolinguïstiek En Dialectologie

In this confrontative article I take stock of what socioiinguistics and dialec-tology (= dialect geography), in spite of (or thanks to?) their own focus and their own theoretical underpinnings, have contributed to the study of language change. This confrontation consists of two parts: First (4.1.) I deal with those aspects where socioiinguistics has contributed substantially to the exploration of language change and at the same time has had a renewing influence on dialectology: 1) Sociolinguists have started measuring the functional/communicative strength of linguistic varieties that in a certain area may supply competing variants. 2) By all kinds of micro-research into linguistic variation in correlation with social and situational factors socioiinguistics has drawn a much more refined picture of the process of language change. 3) Socioiinguistics has reintroduced attention to the psychological dimension of language change ( _ inquiries into the attitudes towards compet-ing varieties and variants and into the awareness of social differentiation in language). In a second part (4.2.) I deal with those aspects where the contribution of dialectology has been more substantial and where socioiinguistics urgently needs some broadening: 1) In general dialectologists have better recognized that linguistic varia-tion (as a random indication of language change) is also embedded in the systemic dimension of language. This prevents the investigation of (linguistic) variety for variety's sake. 2) Dialectology permanently instructs sociolinguists that linguistic variation (and hence language change) also occurs along a spa-tial/geographical dimension. 3) The dialogist's traditional tool, the dialect map with the so often (unjustly) abused isogloss, provides the socioiinguistics with lots of interesting instructions where as to catch linguistic change in progress. In general both disciplines display such a delicious complementarity that (sterile) discussions about their mutual demarcation should urgently be replaced by a thorough examination of each other's methods and findings.

When does variation indicate linguistic change in progress?

AbstractIt is argued that two variables of Modern French (the negative particleneand the consonantlof clitic pronouns such asil) are indeed indices of ongoing linguistic change, even though this change appears to be of long duration. This conclusion is based not only on the distribution of the variables in a corpus of natural French discourse, but also on independent linguistic evidence, together with the available historical record. In the absence of adequate ‘real-time’ data, variationist analysis yielding synchronic, “apparent-time” data provides a useful means of charting the drift of the language.

The Politicization of Changing Terms of Self-Reference among American Slave Descendants

California, a targeted random telephone survey, political pundits, and other minority scholars. The discussion draws on sociological studies of changing racial attitudes (Bobo 1983, Fairbaugh and Davis 1988, Sears et al. 1979, and Shuman et al. 1985) and variable perceptions of racial and ethnographic boundaries. As one who began to reintroduce the term African American before the Rev. Jesse Jackson formally called for this adoption (Baugh 1988), I didn't anticipate the sudden impact that he would have on this linguistic change in progress. During ceremonies in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jackson stated, 'Just as we were called colored, but were not that, and then Negro, but not that, to be called Black is just as baseless. Every ethnic in this country has reference to some cultural base. African Americans have hit that level of maturity (1988). Punditsjumped at the bait, and a journalistic frenzy ensued; few dialectologists were consulted during the media blitz, resulting in predictably false prophecies, for example, If this label sticks, it will be the first time in U.S. history that an ethnic leader has SINGLE-HANDEDLY changed the name commonly applied to his or her group (Freund 1989; emphasis added). Readers who are familiar with vernacular African American culture (VAAC) will see the obvious flaw in the preceding assertion, because the Rev. Mr. Jackson did not initiate this dialogue.2 Bennett discusses the temporal and ethnographic dimensions of this process: In periods of reaction and extreme stress, black people usually turn inward. They begin to redefine themselves and they begin to argue seriously about names (1967, 50).3 Bennett's remarks are reinforced by Rafky (1970), who observes that some black activists and black intellectuals were outspoken

Austronesian Geographical prospects

While linguistic geography with regard to Western European languages is developing towards ever greater sociolinguistic and geographical detail in its endeavours to map linguistic change in progress and to reveal the linguistic past, large parts of the rest of the world are virtually blank spots. The necessity to improve upon this deplorable state of affairs is underlined by the recent publication of S. A. Wurm and Shir? Hattori (eds.), Language Atlas of the Area. Part I, New Guinea Area, Oceania, Australia, Linguistics C-66 (1981); Partii, Japan Area, Philippines and Formosa, Mainland and Insular South-east Asia, Linguistics C-67, 1983. The area covered by this atlas extends over about one third of the world and comprises some of the linguistically most diversified regions. For few of the languages involved do detailed dialectological surveys exist; for many there are at least preliminary outlines and wordlists available; but of far too many hardly anything is known beyond the name. Language maps only existed for a limited number of areas. This atlas is therefore in many respects a pioneering work. The two parts together cover the whole of the Pacific area. Each is divided into sections. Part I consists of one index map, fourteen maps of the New Guinea area (one survey map and three more detailed maps of Irian Jaya, one survey map of Papua-New Guinea and nine maps covering separate parts of it), five maps of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, four maps of Australia and Tasmania, and one additional map relating to pidgins and lingue franche in the area covered by this part. Part II includes one general map of language groups in the Greater area, four maps of the Japan area, one map of Formosa, four maps of the Philippines, three maps of mainland Southeast Asia, eight maps of insular Southeast Asia, and two additional maps, one for the pidgins, cre?les and lingue franche in the area covered by Part II, and one showing the distribution of varieties of Chinese in the Greater area. Each section has a general introduction, as well as an index to the names of the dialects, languages and language groups covered by the map or maps of that section. On the reverse side of each non-survey map the languages and dialects indicated on that map are listed according to

Hacia una sociolingüística histórica

Our approach to present time and the theoretical and methodological contribution of a historical sociolinguistic theory is resolved on a first proposal, from the empirical sociolinguistic research on the theory of linguistic change in progress. An empirical sociolinguistic theory of change is the most adequate for a historical reconstruction, in that it leads to hypotheses more easily confirmed or refuted. In the recent past, the linguist has assumed, due to unquestionable methodological priority, the greatest degree of abstraction in his analysis of the grammatical descriptions of the successive states of a language (and of a family of languages), in order to obtain the evolution and the internal (and comparative) reconstruction of the sequence of grammars. From this point of view, he has achieved a regular and systematic analysis of the results of linguistic change. The present dilemma lies in the functional character of such an idealization, for it excludes the development of historical change, and requires different data and a different methodology for the investigation of the real process of change. The delimitation between the level of research and the level of the researched reality allows us to assume an abstract model that completes and reviews previous formulations, through the «heterogeneization» of the homogeneity. In particular, a historical sociolinguistics involves the following dimensions: a) The temporal (apparent), geographical, social and functional synchronic variability is the direct translation of linguistic change in progress, and the details of any evolution can only be studied fruitfully in the overall context of the speech community; b) The speaker is basically multilectal, for his sociolinguistic competence reaches far beyond his own lect (having a larger receptive than productive control), and he constantly revises the grammar throughout his life; c) A multilectal or polylectal grammar is based on an implicational scale of the rule systems of any speech community that is not unequivocally bilingual, i.e. where there is a speech-continuum with no clearly-defined break; d) (Synchronic) multilectal grammar, based on the sociolinguistic foundations of multilingualism and multilectism, is the most adequate theory for historical linguistics; e) The hypothesis of the regularity of linguistic change must be related to the principle of transition and embedding of linguistic change in progress. The question of the transition supposes a constant and regular revision of the multilectal grammar of successive generations of speakers, from the shifts of a passive competence to an active one. The phenomenon of embedding explains that it affects neither uniformly all the implicated forms nor simultaneously all the (sub)groups of speakers; f) Multilectism is the last general and historical principle of linguistic change, since speech is a technically open form of social behaviour. Social interaction is the tool of that principle; g) The systematic covariation of linguistic data and social factors through the probabilistic treatment of a quantitative paradigm, constitutes descriptively the main key to a correct understanding and explanation of the historical process of linguistic change, and h) Multilectal and historical studies involve a general sociolinguistic or interdisciplinary treatment, and assume special contributions by pragmatics and psycholinguistics.