Introduction:
Language Change and Variation
1.
What is more common in language uniformito or variability?
It is more common in
language variability, because according to Milroy “one of the most important
facts about human language is that it is continouosly changing.
2.
What kinas of variability exist?
There
are various kinas of variability: historical, geographical, social and
register.
3. How do we decide
if a particular group of speakers belong to a particular dialect of language?
We
decided it depending on the uses of grammar, lexis, pronunciation, etc.
4. Saussure
emphasized the importante of synchronic descriptions of languages rather than
diachronic. He and his disciples (structuralists) focused on language at
different periods as finite entities. Is this reasonable?
I
think that it is not reasonable, because languages are all in continuing
changes of their structure. Thus, it is more reasonable to take into account
here the diachronic descriptions of languages because we would know more facts
about the variability of these languages throughout their existence.
5. The unattestes
status of language were seen as transitional stages in which the structure of a
language was, as it were, disturbed. This made linguistic change look abnormal.
Is it abnormal?
Linguistic
change is not abnormal in my opinion because change in all languages is very
normal thing. I think that it is important taking in consideration the study of
the variability that the languages have had during the history.
6.
Can you think of any example of non-professional attitudes to your own
language?
I
think that such an example could be the Valencian-Catalan question even though
it is not my own language. The problem comes from the consensus as to which of
the varieties (Catalan and Valencian) are a different language or simple a
variety. Many people defend Valencian as a language, but many other think that
it is only a variety of Catalan because of their multiple similarities.
Personally, I think that Valencian and Catalan are different languages and they
should exist as separate and independent languages.
7. Why does Milroy
use “square quotes” around non-standard and errors?
He
uses them because he does not agree with what they properly mean and at the
same time he is criticising them.
8. Are non-standard
dialects “incorrect, irregular, ungrammatical and deviant”?
In
my opinion they are not, because each dialect has its own varieties and I do
not consider that they are “incorrect, irregular, ungrammatical and deviant”. I
think that a standard dialect has also many irregularities in its variety.
9.
Which of these systems is more regular? Why?
|
Myself Yourself Himself Herself Ourselves Themselves |
Myself Yourself Hisself Herself Ourselves Themselves |
The
first system is more irregular (himself), but this one is the
grammatically accepted and recognized. The second system is more regular, as we
can see in hisself, for example, because there are no changes from the
possessives (his, their).
10.
“... much of the change generally accepted body of knowledge on which theories
of change are based depends on quite narrow interpretations of written data and
contextualized citation forms (whether written or spoken), rather than on
observation of spoken language in context (situated speech). (Milroy 1992: 5)
Why do you think so?
I
think this because of the enormous variability that exist within the language
in general and exactly in the spoken language. Many people does not speak
correctly and according to the real grammar of its own language, but they use
many incorrect forms of words and colloquialisms.
11. Any description
of a language involves norms? Think of the descriptions of your own
language. Why is this so? For example: He ate the pie already is
considered to be non-standard in which variety of English and perfectly
aceptable in another?
Yes,
it does so, but we shoul take into account that there are always exceptionsof
these norms in one language and in spoken language people tend to ignore them
using many colloquialisms. The phrase “he ate the pie already” I think that it
could be considered as correct in spoken language but in formal language I
think that it is more correct “he has already eaten the pie”.
12. What is the difference
between descriptive and prescriptive grammars?
A descriptive grammar looks
at the way a language is actually used by its speakers and then attempts to
analyse it and formulate rules about the structure. Descriptive grammar does
not deal with what is good or bad language use; forms and structures that might
not be used by speakers of Standard English would be regarded as valid and
included. It is a grammar based on the way a language actually is and not how
some think it should be.
Weinrich, Labor
and Herzog’s (1968) empirical foundations of language change:
Constraints: what changes are possible
and what are not.
Embedding: how change spreads from a
central point through a speech community
Evaluation: social responses to
language change (prestige overt and covert attitudes to language, linguistic
stereotyping and notions on correctness).
Transition: “the intervening stages
which can be observed, or which must be posited, between any two forms of a
language defined for a language community at different times” Weinrich, Labor
and Herzog 1968: 101).
Actuation: Why particular changes
take place at a particular time.
13.
What do you think the “prestige motivation for change” and the solidarity
constraint” mean? How are they opposed?
The
prestige motivation for change refers to a superior social status in a given
standard dialect. The solidafrity constraint refers to what the speaker of a
non-standard dialect feels when he leaves his norms to use another which are
imposed to him.
14. Actuation:
Why did /k/ palatalize befote certain front vowels) PrsE: cheese, German käse
English/Norse doublets
short/skirt?
Because
tha place of palatalization varies according to differentiate the different
meanings of the doublets.
15. What is
biological metaphor in language change?
Bilogical
metaphor refers to the needs that requires one language- with every new
generation there is also a new vocabulary which has not been used in the
previous generaron.
16. What is the
difference between internal and external histories of a language?
Internal
history of a language refers to the historical development of its
linguistic forms (phonolofy, morphology, syntax, lexicon and semantics). It is
contrasted with external history, which refers to the social and
geopolitical history of the language.
17. Look up
Neogrammarians and lexical difusión. Why are they often found in the same
paragraph or chapter?
We
can find them in the same paragraph or chapter because they are continually
opposed between them. Because of the different opinions that the Neogrammarian
and Milroy have.
18. Look up
social norm-enforcement, childish error and slips of the tongue. What have they
to do with language change?
A
social norm is the sociological term for the behavioral expectations and
cues within a society or group. They have been defined as “the rules that a
group uses for aprópiate and inappropiate values, beliefs, attitudes and
behaviours”. These rules may be explicit or implicit. Failure to stick to the
rules can result in severe punishments, the most feared of which is exclusión
from the group.
It
is very normal that children make many errors in thei spoken language as
they does not know any norm and
sometimes the correct form of some given word.
Slips
of the tongue is a concept that refers to the mistakes that one speaker can
make in his/her spoken language.
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