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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 6Wardhaugh Ch 6

Wardhaugh – Chapter 6 – LING VARIATIONRegional VariationDiachronic or historical linguisticsVariation based on region or spaceDialect geographyCreate linguistic atlasesIdentify isoglosses - bundles of isoglosses define dialect regionsRelic or remnant dialectsLook at maps on page 140Transition area - talk about Northern Texas - where the West meets the South - low back merger but still southern features like ay-monophthongization Linguistic Atlas Projects of USNORMS = non-mobile older rural men were the ideal subjects - also roughly estimate social class (discussed further)Dialect mixture and free variation

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 6Wardhaugh Ch 6

Wardhaugh – Chapter 6 – LING VARIATIONRegional Variation - http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/NationalMap/NatFig1.GIF

http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/NationalMap/NationalMap.html

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 6Wardhaugh Ch 6

Wardhaugh – Chapter 6 – LING VARIATIONThe Linguistic Variable“a linguistic item which has identifiable variants” p. 145Shown in ( )s = variable. The variants can be sounds [ ] or other forms (grammatical elements like 3rd Person Sing [s], etc)One of the variant forms can be zero or ØCounting each variant for a variable gives you a quantitative representation of a speaker’s frequency for that variable (performance) which needs to be somehow related to their competence of language! Joe is 70% r-lessNot all variables are created equal (some conscious, some not, etc.)

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 6Wardhaugh Ch 6

Wardhaugh – Chapter 6 – LING VARIATIONThe Linguistic VariableLabov’s terms (p. 148 in Wardhaugh)Indicator = ling variable to which little or no social import is attached

caught/cot merger - untested hypothesis!!!

Marker = ling variable that carries social significanceNYC r-lessness, (ING)

Stereotype = ling variable that is a popular and, therefore conscious characterization of the speech of a particular group (not necessarily reality)

Boston r-lessness (park the car in Harvard yard), toidy-toid NYC

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 6Wardhaugh Ch 6

Wardhaugh – Chapter 6 – LING VARIATIONLinguistic and Social VariationVariation in the blender is broken / the blender is broke gives us an idea of social information of the person who would choose the 2nd over the firstAge, gender (typically sex of speakers) important social factorsSocial class - usually devised from an index of occupation, education and residence value to give someone a category like lower, middle, upper middle class or working class (LWC, MMC, etc)Blue collar versus white collarEckert’s study of Detroit HS - jocks and burnouts = kids create own social structureMany problems with assigning social class - women, kids, Portland, etcSociolects vs. idiolectsMilroys used social networks rather than social class to explore variation in Northern Ireland

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 6Wardhaugh Ch 6

Wardhaugh – Chapter 6 – LING VARIATIONLinguistic and Social VariationSocial Class - Labov’s study of Philadelphia (2001) - study conducted in 1970s

LCV ClassCategory

SEIScore

OMM ClassCategory (SEC)

SEIScore

LWC 2-3 MWC 4-6

LWC 3-7

UWC 7-9 UWC 8-10LMC 10-12 LMC 11-13UMC 13-15 UMC 15-18UC 16 -- --

Education (E)6 professional school5 college grad4 some college3 high school grad2 some high school1 grammar school

Occupation (O)6 professional, owner director of large firm5 white collar – proprietor, manager4 white collar – merchant, foreman, sales3 blue collar – skilled2 blue collar – unskilled1 unemployed

Residence Value (R)6 $25,000+5 $20,000 – $24,9004 $15,000 – $19,9003 $10,000 – $14,9002 $5,000 – $9,9001 $0 – $4,900

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 6Wardhaugh Ch 6

Wardhaugh – Chapter 6 – LING VARIATIONData Collection and AnalysisIdentify social and linguistic variables to control for and investigateAvoid “observer’s paradox”Questionnaire Develop formal methods - reading passage, word list, minimal pairs, semantic differentials, elicited data (i.e., say the days of the week)Interview style and casual speech through narratives (what Labov talked about) – how identify narrative? Ling and non-ling factorsSubjective reaction test = how subjects react to the variables in question (will talk more about this when talk about Philadelphia study)Sampling the community - random versus judgment sample vs. stratified sample (subjects selected to fit certain social factor cells - age, sex, class, etc)

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 6Wardhaugh Ch 6

Wardhaugh – Chapter 6 – LING VARIATIONData Collection and AnalysisCorrelational - correlate linguistic variation (frequency of variable or use of variable) with social factorsLing variable is dependent variable - social variables are independent variable and use statistics to explore degree of correlationThis is quantitative sociolinguistics!Statistically significant = the variation explained by the statistical model only has less than a 5% possibility that it is due to chance = p < .05 level of significance

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 6Wardhaugh Ch 6

Wardhaugh – Chapter 6 – LING VARIATIONData Collection and Analysis

This model with age, occupation and generation can account for 46% of the variation (r2 = 0.46) of F1 (ay0) in the data, with age as a significant predictor at p < .0001

Data show change in apparent time

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