James
Milroy:
Some new perspectives on sound change: sociolinguistics and the
Neogrammarians.
146-160.
Answer
the following questions using the book and other sources.
1-Why
does Milroy say that sound change appears to have no “obvious function or
rational motivation” (146)?
Milroy,
at the second paragraph, says that sound change seems to be just an arbitrary
action of speakers that doesn’t make the language easier or more difficult
to use for native speakers.
For
example in An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (Holmes, 1992, 211), the second
example explains the curious sound change done by children with similar words
that are spell and mean different things but are still pronounced as they were
the same word (which /wItS/,
witch /wItS/).
2-What
is/are the main difference/s between Milroy’s approach and that of the
Neogrammarians (147-148)?
The
Neogrammarians believe that sound change is an arbitrary phenomenon of
language while Milroy tries, with a sociolinguistic point of view, to justify
those changes by the innovations of single speakers being accepted by their
community.
3-According
to Milroy, what is language change dependent on? (149?)
Language
change is dependent on the community where the speaker lives. If a speaker
creates or modifies a variation in the language that change will survive only
if is maintained by the community.
4-Why
does Milroy say that sound change actually doesn’t exist (150)?
Sound
change is only the observation of the changes resulted through time. However,
in language used by speakers these changes are substitutions of one sound for
another in such a gradual way that people don’t notice it.
As
explained briefly in a History of the English Language (Baugh and Cable, 5TH
ed 2002, 18) the ´sound change` happens continuously due to each
individual’s own habits of pronunciation that are then imitated by other
speakers without notice it. The sound change is only seen once it is
contrasted to how the language was spoken before like we can easily see for
example watching any black and white movie and a nowadays remake of it.
5-Why
does Milroy disagree with the Neogrammarians when they say that sound change
is “blind” (150)?
Milroy
doesn’t support the idea of sound change as a blind phenomenon because the
Neogrammarians don’t take into account the speakers but the language
standard, normally in written form, which was imposed by the society.
6-What is meant by “lexical diffusion” (151)?
Using
the definition of Labov, Milroy states that lexical diffusion is a sound
change that can be easily detected and it’s expansion on a certain group of words is
considerable.
For
example, we can see the case of prefixes in the Middle English where the Old
English prefix ´for` (something destructive or prejudicial) was added to some
French new words acquired like in forcover, forget, forbar (Baugh and Cable, 5TH
ed 2002, 181-182).
7-What
does dialect displacement mean? Give an example. (152)
Dialect
displacement according to Milroy is when one dialect starts to replace another
in some phonetic or grammatical points because it is simpler and easier for
the speakers to use.*
One
dialect replaces another dialect because is socially dominant at some
particular time.
We
can see the case of how non-native speakers will prefer to follow
American English spelling in words like traveller or waggon rather than the
British spelling (traveler and wagon) because of the influence of Hollywood movies (Baugh and Cable, 5TH ed 2002, 369).
8-What
are “community” or “vernacular” norms? What term that we have used in
class is similar (152)?
Community
or vernacular norms are the characteristics of a dialect that makes it
different or similar to the standard language. These norms are also called
varieties norms.
Vernacular
norms, also known as non-standard norms, are imposed by that particular
society not the government.
9-What
does Milroy mean when he says that h- dropping may not ever reach
“completion”
(153)?
Using
the example of h – dropping, as shown in the point 4. 2 Milroy tries to
explain that linguistic change doesn’t spread for one day to the other but
must be seen gradually by the society not as a disturbance but as a new way to
use the language.
H-dropping
is common in Cockney. One might say it is the norm. However, throughout
England /h/ is the norm. In order places, people use /h/ in certain contexts
and not in others. Any change might stop or there may be a change back to a
former system.
10-Explain what Milroy means by “speaker innovation” and change in the
system. How are they connected (153)?
Speaker
innovation is when a speaker creates or modifies a word or a phonetic sound,
and then from that innovation to settle in the language it must occur a change
in the system from part of the community that lives with the speaker. If the
innovation is famous then the people accept it not as a mistake but as a new
way of speaking.
Nowadays,
as seen in the Urban
Dictionary, we can see how the first letter of the word ´Internet` was
used with the invention of Ipod and then borrowed by the community extending
the innovation to other words like iGoggle or iGobama.
11-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)?
As
said by Milroy in point 4.4, borrowing from the sociolinguistic perspective
mean the same as replacing one sound by another. To change a sound speakers
had a tendency to borrow the new sound from a speaker or a community’s
innovations.
12-What is necessary for a sound to spread (157)?
For
a sound to spread into the current language, Milroy insisted in the community
acceptance of such ´mistake` so that with time it becomes the new way of
speaking.
However,
if we consider the whole language of a community, it might spread or not
depending on the number of speakers, their influence in the world, etc. These
factors of the community originate two opposite concepts introduced in an
Introduction to Sociolinguistics where there can be language death (less
people of the community due to war, sickness or the same people rather use
other language) or language revival (the community tries to spread their
language to other communities in order to keep it alive).
13-Why does believing in the ideology of standardization lead to believing
in “blind necessity” (158)?
The
standard language according to the Neogrammarians originates to the speakers
some blind necessity that justifies the changes on the perfect system imposed.
However, Milroy states that the mistake is to believe that standard language
is a fixed structure that evolves trough itself necessities.
For
example, we can see how in the American English system is included borrowing
of words from native American languages like raccoon or chipmunk due to the
blind necessity of naming the new animals encountered as the people there know
them rather than invent new words for them (Baugh and Cable, 5TH ed
2002, 362).
14-What does Milroy mean by “clean” and
“dirty” data (158)?
The Neogrammarians work with written text, which adapts
to the clean data or standard language that anything that doesn’t fit in the
ideal language is put away as dirty data or dialects/varieties of the
language. This dirty data is the object of study of sociolinguistics who
believe that those variations in the language is how the language really is;
therefore is necessary to take it into account to learn how linguistic change
is produced trough time.
*Activities
corrected in class 5/3/09.
Academic year 2008/2009
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
Barry Pennock Speck
© Carolina Cody Aldaz
cacodyal@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València Press