James Milroy: Some new perspectives on sound change: sociolinguistics and the Neogrammarians.146-160.

Answer the following questions using the book and other sources.

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

The main focus of Milroy is the patterns of language, that hasn’t no obvious function or rational motivation. He says that it doesn’t progress or benefit to the language and the speakers; “-the use of one vowel-sound rather than other is purely arbitrary”.

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

The Neogrammarians were interested in how “sound change”, an important one said that regular sound change is phonetically gradual but lexically abrupt. The changes were so slow that speakers didn’t notice. Milroy says that he doesn’t agree with this ideas.

While Neogrammarians exclude speakers and focus on language as an object, Milroy believes that “it is obvious that sociolinguistic approaches, which necessarily deal with speakers”.

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

The Neogrammarians generally depended on documentary records of language, this waythey coudn’t be able to observe language in community as the sociolinguistic do today.

According to Milroy “linguistic change is embedded in a context of language” if the change is admited or not it will depends on the degree of internal cohesion of the community.

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

He says that sounds do not phisically change, one sound is substituted for another. And if this change persists in the system, “it has again to be mainteined by social acceptance”.

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

Neogrammarians says that change is “blind”, but Milroys think that speakers are who change the language, that its socially gradual; it passes from spekaer to speaker. This mean that its a social process, that’s why he desagree with Neogrmmarians.

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

Exists a binary division between “ ‘regular’ sound change and lexical diffusion”.

Both are – socially gradual, - abrupt replacement patterns, - can be shown to be regular in some sense.

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

Dialect displacement mean- “displacement of one dialect by another which is, for some reason ,socially dominant at some particular time”. The example given in the text is- recording of persons born at 1860 which can be interpreted as indicating that much New Zealand English in the 19^th century was southern British in type, and that it was displaced by an Australian type.

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

Are norms observed by speakers and maintened by communities often in opposition to standardizing norms.

· What does Milroy mean when he says that h-dropping may not ever reach “completion”(153)?

A change can persist as a variable state without ever going to “completetion” in traditional sense.

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

Innovation is an act of the speaker; a change is manifested within the language system.

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

Milroy says that it’s possible to argue that each single event of “borrowing” into a new speech community is just an innovation as the “presumed original event in the original speech community”.

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

The sound moves gradually through the people of speakers by a process of borrowing that permits the sound to spread.

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

Living in a standard language culture have some consequences, has affected judgements on the implementation and difusion of sound change.

Standard languages are not considered “normal languages”. They are created by the imposition of political and the militar power.

The idea that the sound changes differentiaing these well-defined socially-constructed entities must always come about blindly and independenntly of socially-based human intervention is.

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

Milroy means by “clean data” the language that have already been normalized, and by “dirty data” is the language considered irregulat and chaotic.