Milroy questions

Why does Milroy say that sound change appers to have no “obvious function or

rational motivation” (146)?

1 Milroy says that linguistic changes have no purpose since it happens accidentally and it’s created by a large group of people who haven’t any particular intention or ideal.

What is/are the main difference/s between Milroy’s approach and that of the

Neogrammarians (147-148)?

The first difference is that neogrammarians don’t consider the people while studying linguistic changes whereas Milroy claim that language is not separable from the speakers and considers it as a “living thing”.

The second difference consists on the sources they lay on. While the grammarians used mainly written sources, Milroy prefers to consider records and listening.

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

It depends on localized variety because with localized variety “they identify changes in progress”(p149)

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

Because the neogrammarians weren’t able to describe accurately sound change, Milroy claims that it’s not important to know whether the sound changes progressively or not, but he focus on defining the sound change itself and then, place it.

Why does Milroy disagree with the Neogrammarians when they say that sound

change is “blind” (150)?

Milroy says that sound change isn’t blind since speakers may be aware of the changes the make in their own language.

What is meant by “lexical diffusion” (151)?The related theory, proposed by William Wang in 1969 is that all sound changes originate in a single word or a small group of words and then spread to other words with a similar phonological make-up, but may not spread to all words in which they potentially could apply. The theory of lexical diffusion stands in contrast to the Neogrammarian hypothesis that a given sound change applies simultaneously to all words in which its context is found.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexical_diffusion

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

Dialect displacement means that when a linguistic change occurs in a dominant dialect, this change spreads out gradually to others parts of a country (or geographical place) and then the language becomes more homogenous.

What are “community” or “vernacular” norms? What term that we have used in class

is similar (152)?

Community: a group of people living together in one place, especially one practicing common ownership “for example the language)Rf: Oxford university press.

It characterizes the community in which it’s spoken and is recognizable by external speakers.

The community norms can be variable norms as long as there is a consensus in the whole community.

Vernacular: the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people of a country or region. RF: oxford University press.

It’s a language that is accessible only by the internal speakers. It’s more hermetic.

The term that we have used in class that is similar is dialect.

What does Milroy mean when he says that h-dropping may not ever reach

“completion” (153)?

In this paragraph Milroy intended to say that the linguistic change always follow a pattern according to the social status of people (age, sex, social status, job…). But all this linguistic changes can end up becoming standard or not. For example, the h-dropping has been a variable state for centuries without succeeding to become a regular state. It follows the same pattern because in America they write it “color” and in the UK they write it “colour”.

Explain what Milroy means by “speaker innovation” and change in the system. How

are they connected (153)?

The speaker innovation is the change implemented on a language by a speaker of it. So it is the speaker that starts it all. The speaker innovation comes first and then if this change is accepted by the whole community and passes to one speaker to others and assume a social pattern, it will produce a change. In general, Milroy says that the innovations “lead nowhere”.

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

It is necessary for a sound to spread in order to become regular and commonly acceptable. It is necessary for the communication in a nation.

Why does believing in the ideology of standardization lead to believing in “blind

necessity” (158)?

In fact, Milroy claims that standardization is not a natural fact inherent to the languages: they are imposed by the institutions of a country such as politics, military institutions in order to adapt the language to an ideology. As a result, dialect forms are seen as “indeterminate” forms whereas languages are naturally “indiscrete”. Consequently, people tend to think that they have to speak the standard language because it’s “correct”. Milroy qualifies it as an “absurd” trend.

In order to communicate, it’s better to apply standardization but it’s unnatural and can erase some cultural aspects of a country.

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

Milroy says that standars languages provide “clean data” because we can find very easily grammars, prints, listening and stuff that describe and give details about how a standard language works. In the other hand, the dialects and other variants are not fixed in some grammar and it is obviously harder to establish the patterns that govern these dialects.