MILROY LINGUISTIC VARIATION AND CHANGE

 

 

 

- What is more common in language uniformity or variability?

(http://dictionary.reference.com/)

Uniformity: The state or quality of being uniform; overall sameness, homogeneity, or regularity: uniformity of style.

 Variability: having much variation or diversity.

(I haven’t been able yet to use the OED, but I’ll keep trying, so I’m going to use a free online english dictionary, but this is only temporary)

I think it is more common variability than uniformity in language. Maybe we tend to the uniformity, but the truth is that language is not posible to be uniform, as it has so many variations, in so many different aspects.

 

- What kinds of variability exist?

As I was saying before there are different kinds of variability in language: historical(diachronic:of or pertaining to the changes in a linguistic system between successive points in time; historical: diachronic analysis.), social and geographical (synchronic: having reference to the facts of a linguistic system as it exists at one point in time without reference to its history: synchronic analysis; synchronic dialectology).

 

- How do we decide if a particular group of speakers belong to a particular dialect or language?

Because of their accent, pronunciation; and depending on  geographical, historical and political aspects.

 

- Can you think of any example of non-professional attitudes to your own language?

My Valencian could be an example of non-standard dialect. It is full of castellanisms, and has a no stablished variation.

- Why does Milroy use “scare quotes” around non-standard and errors?

Because he doesn’t agree  with those ideas.

 

- Are non-standard dialects “incorrect, irregular, ungrammatical and deviant.”?

 It doesn’t have to be that way. A nonstandard dialect can be as correct as a standard form. It can be also rregular, because of the rules used by the community who speaks it.