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LANGUAGE VARIATION

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Title: LANGUAGE VARIATION


1
LANGUAGE VARIATION
  • Social Variation and Regional Variation
  • Sociolinguistics Dialectology

2
Not determiners of sociolects
  • Family (too little)
  • Region/Space (not based on social norms)
  • Occupation/Hobbies (only lexical differences, and
    it is the least stable)
  • Ethnicity/race
  • Age
  • Social class
  • Education
  • Religion
  • Gender

Sociolect A dialect or variety based purely on
societal norms (race, social class, etc)
3
Important Terms
  • Dialect (any variety) vs. Accent (pronunciation)
  • Sociolinguistics vs. Dialectology
  • Sociolects (basilect, mesolect, acrolect) vs.
    regional dialects
  • Hypercorrection ( a standard rule applies in
    contexts where its not supposed idear or
    warsh?, you I, he am)
  • Grammatical vs Lexical variation
  • Jargon (specific vocabulary) vs. borrowing (from
    other languages)
  • Standard vs non-standard
  • Migration vs. immigration
  • Linguistic Atlases (maps of regional variations)
  • Language contact vs. linguistic isolation

4
Lexical differences across regions
  • Northern
  • Pail, swill, whiffletree ( a thick quilt)
  • Johnny cake, salt pork, darning needle
    (dragonfly)
  • Midland
  • Blinds (roller blades)
  • Skillet (eaves)
  • Piece (food taken between meals)
  • Snake feeder (dragonfly)
  • Southern
  • Lightwood, lighter (kindling)
  • Hasslet (edible pig inner organs)
  • Chittlins (small intestines)

5
Phonological differences (regions)
  • Northern
  • o / ? (hoarse / horse)
  • s in grease (V) and greasy
  • Vowel in root and wood are equal
  • Midland
  • Hoarse horse (??)
  • Verb rounding (frog, hog, wasp, wash)
  • Monophthongization (single Verb) of new, due
  • South
  • Diphthongization of Tuesday, new, due
  • Final z in Mrs.
  • Monophthongization of five
  • Diphthongization of ten

6
Morphosyntactic Differences (Regions)
  • Northern
  • Double modals hadnt ought
  • Past tense been see
  • climb for climbed (past tense marker lost)
  • Uninflected be (How be you?)
  • Midland
  • clum for climbed (irregularization of past
    tense)
  • seen for saw (forms reduction/simplification)
  • Southern
  • you all / you (second person distinction)
  • Seed for saw (regularization)
  • holp for helped (irregularization)

7
Basic Definitions
  • Standard in the US
  • Middle-class Midwesterners vs.
  • Non-Standard
  • African-American Vernacular Latino English, or
    Spanglish, Appalachian, Old poor Southerners, etc.

8
Some Fundamentals
  • Knowing non-standard dialects is helpful for both
    teacher students. In urban ghettos, we find
    very little adjustment to school forms.
  • Many bidialectals, when in contact with a
    super-ordinate (dominant) dialect, may reflect
    their awareness of that dialect as much of their
    own.
  • Nonstandard dialects should be studied within
    their own system (in their own right), but also
    in comparison to other dialects of English (such
    as Standard English).

9
Some Common Non-Standard Dialect Features
  • No -ed inflections (past participle,
    especially)
  • Double negation (He dont want no trouble)
  • i becomes e before m/n
  • Zero copula (no is, are, am)
  • Habitual be
  • Non-redundant pluralization (the boys, but six
    boy)
  • Regularization of possessive pronouns (mine,
    yourn)
  • Regularization and Non-redundant plural in
    reflexive pronouns (hisself, theirself vs.
    himself, themselves)
  • Object pronouns in subject position (specially in
    compound subjects) (Us girls)
  • them as demonstrative adjective (them books)
  • Adjective adverbs (good for both well/good)
  • Loss of 3rd person sing. marker(he want or I has)
  • ? becomes n in word-final position in -ing
    words.

10
Black English features (Black English
recognized legally in 1979)
  • zero copula no is, am, are
  • Pre-Verb been
  • Auxiliary done
  • De-fricativization of voiced interdental
  • Multiple negative
  • No s inflection for 3rd person singular
  • Extend 3rd person to 1st or 2nd.
  • I has some good friends. He dont be rub me the
    wrong way. Dem books be boring.

11
William Labov (1970)
  • Non-standard varieties of English are
    rule-governed systems and neither corrupt or
    inferior
  • Advocates understanding of AAVE as ignorance
    leads to teacher-student conflict
  • Can not draw on intuitions of children or
    non-standard speakers as the superordinate
    variety will be reflected
  • In general, one can say that whenever a speaker
    of a nonstandard dialect is in a subordinate
    position to a speaker of a standard dialect, the
    rules of his sic. grammar will shift in an
    unpredictable manner towards the standard

12
Labov, continued
  • Labov uses systematic analysis to connect the
    meanings in non-standard and standard varieties
  • He states it is important for teachers to be able
    to understand the intended meaning to be able to
    supply the standard equivalent
  • Differences between the varieties are not as
    sharp as they first appear
  • Non-standard varieties are not inferior as a
    means of communication contrary to early beliefs

13
Pinker
  • Linguists fight the myth that working class
    people and the less educated speak a simpler or
    coarser language
  • It is usually only the refined aspects of
    language (grammar, pronunciation) that are
    noticed
  • A language is a dialect with an army and a navy
    (Max Weinreich)
  • Early conclusions that non-standard dialects were
    grammatically deficient were based on subjects
    shy or sullen reactions to test batteries
  • There are areas where AAVE (BEV) is more precise
    than the standard variety
  • He be working (he generally works, perhaps
    regularly)
  • He working (he is working at the time of the
    utterance)
  • Labovs research showed that AAVE speakers had a
    vastly higher percentage of grammatical
    utterances (within the system of the dialect)
    than the norm academics had the lowest

14
Rachel Jones
  • Not White, Just Right
  • Claims skills with Standard English opened doors
    that would have otherwise been unattainable as a
    poor black girl
  • Frustrations ensue from the idea that black kids
    believe speaking accurately is a white trait
  • Such kids are submitting to the idea that success
    is a white thing
  • States that recognising languages such as
    Ebonics is a damning commentary on our history
    of inequality and lack of access to equal
    educational opportunities in this country
  • Claims Standard English has empowered her
  • Claims mastery of Standard English is important
    for any group hoping to succeed in America

15
African American Vernacular English (AAVE)
  • Also known as Black English, Ebonics, AAE
  • CNN Report on Oakland Ebonics Decision
  • LSA Resolution on the Ebonics Issue
  • More on AAVE

AAVE
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