INTRODUCCIÓN A LA HISTORIA DE LA LENGUA INGLESA
David Ibáñez Salinas
Exercises on Milroy’s article about sound change:
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 say that sound change appers to have no “obvious function or
rational motivation” (146)?
Because he says that sound change in language is like a mistery, he does not find any reasonable explanation for this.
What is/are the main difference/s between Milroy’s approach and that of the
Neogrammarians (147-148)?
The main difference between the approaches mentioned consists on the fact that the Neogrammarians do not take into account the speakers of a language. This is, they treat language as an object. On the other hand, Milroy thinks that analysing a language and, of course, its speakers in different social contexts is fundamental.
According to Milroy, what is language change dependent on? (149?)
Language change depends on the context, and the degree of acceptance of that change will depend on cohesive reasons within a linguistic community.
Why does Milroy say that sound change actually doesn’t exist (150)?
Because he says that sounds do not “phisically” change or disappear, they are just substituted by another ones.
Why does Milroy disagree with the Neogrammarians when they say that sound
change is “blind” (150)?
Because he thinks that the speakers are the ones who have produced sound change (Milroy considers that it is a social process, so the idea of “blind” sound change does not fit in his approach).
What is meant by “lexical diffusion” (151)?
It is a process in which a word form experiments a substantial change. This is, the resulting form is realy different to the previous one.
What does dialect displacement mean? Give an example. (152)
It consists on the substitution of one dialect by another. I will give the example that appears in Milroy’s text. He says that there was a gradual displacement of West Midland dialects of Middle English by East Midland dialects.
What are “community” or “vernacular” norms? What term that we have used in class is similar (152)?
These are norms used by some communities or groups in opposition to the standardization of language.
Milroy says this because in spite of the fact that h-dropping is commonly used amongst the speakers, it will, possibly, never be accepted as normative, because not all the English speakers consider that it is normative or standard.
A “speaker innovation” is an act in which a speaker introduces an innovation within a language. If that innovation is accepted by other speakers and spreads more and more, it becomes a change in the system.
sound by another through speaker innovation with a language as radically different as the Neogrammarians posited (154-6)?
Because Milroy thinks that borrowing from one language to another and the replacement of one sound by another through speaker innovation are almost similar.
What is necessary for a sound to spread (157)?
The spreading of a sound is a social process, so people are what a sound needs to be spread.
Why does believing in the ideology of standardization lead to believing in “blind
necessity” (158)?
Because people tend to think that there must be a standard pattern, even if it does not make sense. That’s the “blind necessity” that people feel about the correctness of language (people don’t realise that social processes have a lot of importance in the processes of standardization, much more than an organism which determines how we should speak or not).
What does Milroy mean by “clean” and “dirty” data (158)?
“Clean” data refers to a normalized, uniform and idealized language. On the other hand, “dirty” data refers to an irregular or chaotic language, which appears in sociolinguistic studies.