Social variability including gender, age, occupation

Linguistic variability depending on register: Register: is a result of differences in the social situation of use (word choices, syntactic ordering of utterances). Is socially motivated and it is defined by the circumstance and purpose of the communicative situation. It has three dimensions: -field social setting -tenor refers to the relations between the participants in the event -mode the medium of the communication

Style: the variation within register that represents individual choices along social dimensions.

Variables that depend on one’s health or emotional state. Pronouncing /dəʊ/ instead of /nəʊ/ when we have a cold, for example.).

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

We decide using geography, history, politics and culture.

Saussure emphasized the importance 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 is unreasonable because languages are variable and are constantly changing.

The unattested states 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?

I dont´t think that linguistic change is abnormal. Linguistic change is absolutly normal and is always in progress.

Milroy (1992: 3) says “the equation of uniformity with structuredness or regularity is most evident in popular (non-professional) attitudes to language: one variety –usually a standard language – is considered to be correct and regular, and others –usually ‘non-standard’ dialects – are thought to be incorrect, irregular, ungrammatical and deviant. Furthermore, linguistic changes in progress are commonly perceived as ‘errors’. Thus although everyone knows that language is variable, many people believe that invariance is nonetheless to be desired, and professional scholars of language have not been immune to the consequences of these same beliefs.”

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

I think in every language we can find non-professional attitudes. We tend to consider the standard language to be correct (e.g. Spanish), meanwhile non-standard dialects (e.g Valenciano) as incorrect or iregular.

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

The use of scare quotes shows that Milroy either disagrees with the concept of “errors” or that he wants to show us that the word “errors” should be attributed to someone else.

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

No, as long as the members of a community undestands each others. They are only different to the standard language.

Which of these systems is more irregular? Why?

first:Myself,Yourself, Himself, Herself, Ourselves, Themselves

second:Myself, Yourself, Hisself,Herself, Ourselves, Theirselves

The second system is more regular and it isn´t considered as standard because “hisself” and “theirselves” are not commonly used.

“…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 decontexutalized citation forms (whether written or spoken), rather than on observation of spoken language in context (situated speech). (Milroy 1992: 5) Why do you think this is so??

I think it could be due to the variability of spoken language in context.

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 acceptable in which other.?

Yes. Any description of a language can only be successfully if we fallow certain rules.

I think the sentence “he ate the pie already” it could be considered as acceptable in colloquial speech, but incorrect in formal or standard language.

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.

A prescriptive grammar lays out rules about the structure of a language. Unlike a descriptive grammar it deals with what the grammarian believes to be right and wrong, good or bad language use; not following the rules will generate incorrect language.

http://www.english-for-students.com/Descriptive-and- Prescriptive.html

Weinreich, Labov 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” Weinreich, Labov and Herzog 1968: 101)
Actuation: Why particular changes take place at a particular time.

What do you think the “prestige motivation for change” and the “solidarity constraint” mean? How are they opposed?

"Prestige motivation for change" refers to the way in which we view our language and the how others speak it.
"Solidarity constraint" refers to the presure of talking standard language (e.g. african-american English).

Sound change: post-vocalic /r/ in New York/ The change from long âto ôin some dialects of English.

Some English speakers pronounce words like bear or far the same as they write them: with vowel followed by /r/ in the same syllable. But there are many other English speakers who do not pronounce the r - sound in this place ( post-vocalic /r/).
A well-known feature of New York English is its r-lessness (or "r- dropping"), a pattern in which syllable-final /r/ is not pronounced. It is too simple a statement, however, to say that the dialect simply drops them. A more accurate statement is that even though syllable- final /r/ is dropped, it is still somehow "visible." That is, it leaves its mark in one of several ways. In words like burr, the vowel is longer and has a different quality than in standard American English. In words with pre-rhotic /o/, , and /i/, the /r/ is replaced by a schwa.
Until recently, dropping the r was part of New York speech as well, though more and more New Yorkers seem to be perceiving it as ‘vulgar’ and avoiding this pronunciation. Even though there is no officially recognized ’standard’ English in the U.S., ‘r-speakers’ are clearly an overwhelming majority, something you hear reflected in the mass media.

http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/Northeast/NewYorkEnglish/nyphon.html

In Modern English, a new phoneme /ɑː/ developed that didn't exist in Middle English. The phoneme /ɑː/ comes from three sources: the word father lengthening from /a/ to /aː/ for an unknown reason (thus splitting from gather);[4] the compensatory lengthening of the short /a/ in words like calm, palm, psalm when /l/ was lost in this environment; and the lengthening of /a/ before /r/ in words like car, card, hard, part, etc. In most dialects that developed the broad A class, words containing it joined this new phoneme /ɑː/ as well. The new phoneme also became common in onomatopoeic words like baa, ah, ha ha, as well as in foreign borrowed words like spa, taco, llama, drama, lava, Bahamas, pasta, many of which vary between /ɑː/ and /æ/ among different dialects of English.
Exceptions are accents in northeastern New England, such as the Boston accent, and in New York City.

http://w ww.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/books/piep12.html

Actuation: Why did /k/ palatalize before certain front vowels? PrsE: cheese, German käse English/Norse doublets shirt/skirt?

According to Milroy one condition could be that the proximity of the velar consonant to a front vowel may be necessary for the palatalization, but it is not a sufficient condition. He says that social conditions must be favorable, which means we must take into account the activities of speakers in social contexts in addition to the internal structural properties of language

What is the biological metaphor in language change?

I think that refers to the fact that languages change, evolve and are passed from one generation to another

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 (phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon) and semantics. It is contrasted with "external history", which refers to the social and geopolitical history of the language.
External history of a language refers to the social and geopolitical history of the language: migrations, conquests, language contact, and uses of the language in trade, education, literature, law, liturgy, mass media, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w iki/External_history

Look up Neogrammarians and lexical diffusion. Why are they often found in the same paragraph or chapter?

Because the opponents of the Neogrammarians say that sounds change through lexical diffusion and do not happen throughout the whole language system.

Look up social norm-enforcement, childish errors and slips of the tongue. What have they to do with language change?

A social norm is the sociological term for the behavioural expectations and cues within a society or group. They have been defined as “the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours. These rules may be explicit or implicit. The social norms indicate the established and approved ways of doing things, of dress, of speech and of appearance. These vary and evolve not only through time but also vary from one age group to another and between social classes and social groups. What is deemed to be acceptable dress, speech or behaviour in one social group may not be accepted in another. Deference to the social norms maintains one’s acceptance and popularity within a particular group; ignoring the social norms risks one becoming unacceptable, unpopular or even an outcast from a group. What is deemed acceptable to young people is often unacceptable to elderly people; this difference is caused by the different social norms that operate and are tacitly agreed-upon in such different groups of people. Social norms tend to be tacitly established and maintained through body language and non-verbal communication between people in their normal social discourse. We soon come to know when and where it is appropriate to say certain things, to use certain words, to discuss certain topics or wear certain clothes and when not to. We also come to know through experience what types of people we can and cannot discuss certain topics with or wear certain types of dress around. Mostly this knowledge is derived experientially.

Childish errors refer to the errors that children or people make when talking.

A slip of a tongue is an error that we make in speaking, when a word is pronounced incorrectly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_(sociology)