Questions on Milroy’s Article on Sound Change

Why does Milroy say that sound change appears to have no “obvious function or rational motivation” (146)?

Milroy says that sound change appears to have no “obvious function or rational motivation” because the choice of sounds is arbitrary and is not motivated by a desire to improve. So, apparently, there is not an explainable reason for the election of a sound instead of another.

What is/are the main difference/s between Milroy’s approach and that of the Neogrammarians (147-148)?

The main differences between Milroy’s approach and the Neogrammarian’s one are:

Milroy’s Approach

· Sound change is arbitrary

· Sound change has no obvious function or rational motivation

· Sound change doesn’t proceed by imperceptible degrees

Neogrammarian’s Approach

· Sound change is regular and with no exceptions

· Regular sound change is phonetically gradual but lexically abrupt.

· Sound change proceeds by imperceptible degrees

According to Milroy, what is language change dependent on? (149?)

According o Milroy, language change is dependent on the degree of internal cohesion of the community.

Why does Milroy say that sound change actually doesn’t exist (150)?

Milroy says that sound change actually doesn’t exist because speech sounds do not physically change but are substituted for another in the course of time. There is not sound change but a ‘diachronic correspondence’.

Why does Milroy disagree with the Neogrammarians when they say that sound change is “blind” (150)?

Milroy says that languages do not change, the speakers make languages change. For him, sound change being “blind” does not make sense because it is socially gradual, not phonetically gradual as Neogrammarians think.

What is meant by “lexical diffusion” (151)?

Lexical diffusion is a socially gradual process with abrupt replacement patterns and which can be shown to be regular. In lexical diffusion, the two states of sound change differ markedly from one another.

What does dialect displacement mean? Give an example. (152)

Dialect displacement means a displacement of a dialect by another more socially dominant at a particular time.

For example, the tendencies that ultimately resulted in the formation of a uniform written language began to act before the fourteenth century closed. In London, the seat of legislative and administrative activity, the influx of educated persons from all parts of the kingdom led to the displacement of the original southern dialect by the dialect of the east midlands, which, in virtue of its intermediate character, was more intelligible both to southern and northern men than northern English to a southerner or southern English to a northerner.

Found in: http://www.bartleby.com/211/1915.html

What are “community” or “vernacular” norms? What term that we have used in class is similar (152)?

“Community” or “vernacular” norms are the norms which allow us to recognize different dialects of a language, apart of the standard ones.

I think that in class we have used the term “non-standard rules”.

What does Milroy mean when he says that h-dropping may not ever reach

“completion” (153)?

I think Milroy means that h-dropping will never be an accepted standard rule. It will hardly survive as a trendy pronunciation.

Explain what Milroy means by “speaker innovation” and change in the system. How are they connected (153)?

Speaker innovation is an act of the speaker while a change in system takes place within the language system. Both are related because a speaker innovation can lead to a change in system.

Why isn’t borrowing from one language to another and the replacement of one sound by another through speaker innovation with a language as radically different as the Neogrammarians posited (154-6)?

Borrowing from one language to another and the replacement of one sound by another trough speaker innovation with a language is not as radically different as the Neogrammarians posited because it is possible to argue that each single event of ‘borrowing’ into a new speech community is just as much innovation as the presumed original event in the ‘original speech community’ and with Neogrammarian’s distinction ( A sound change is an internally motivated change while a borrowing is an externally motivated change.) we may be inclined to believe that we can locate ‘the original innovation’ in some specific community.

What is necessary for a sound to spread (157)?

For a sound to spread it is necessary that the change was adopted by more than one speaker and had assumed a social pattern of some kind in a speech community

Why does believing in the ideology of standardization lead to believing in “blind necessity” (158)?

Believing in the ideology of standardization lead to believing in “blind necessity” because the ideology of standardization causes people to believe that standards are discrete physical entities and sound changes differentiating these well-defined socially-constructed entities must always come about blindly and independently of socially-based human intervention.

What does Milroy mean by “clean” and “dirty” data (158)?

“Clean” data is that which has been largely normalized and has been provided by standard languages, while “dirty” data is provided by vernaculars and is found in the speech community.

Academic year 2008/2009

amizso@alumni.uv.es

Universitat de València Press