QUESTIONS ABOUT MILROY: SOME NEW PERSPECTIVES ON SOUND CHANGE: SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND THE NEOGRAMMARIANS

 

 1) Why does Milroy say that sound change appears to have no “obvious function or rational motivation?

 With that affirmation, I think Milroy wants to say that any change in the pronunciation of a word is totally arbitrary according to the examples which have been studied and its variations during the pass of time, for instance, in terms like “meet, keen, need, see…” which have changed its pronunciation from [e:] to [i:]. These variations don’t show a progress or benefit to the language and, at the same time, doesn’t show any loss either. Because of that, Milroy says that sound change “have no obvious function or rational motivation”.

 

2) What is/are the main difference/s between Milroy’s approach and that of the Neogrammarians?

Characteristics of the Neogrammarians research:

-         Regular sound change. No exceptions.

-         One term changed (sound): also change in the same way in all relevant items (hat, cab, have…)

-         Phonetically gradual/lexically abrupt (imperceptibles degrees): [e:] to [i:] slow change, not suddenly: all relevant items affected in the same way.

 

Characteristics of Milroy research:

-         Lexical diffusion. The change of one sound in a word doesn’t affect to all terms that are related to that word.

 

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

 

 Language change in general depends on the changes in speaker agreement on the norms of usage in speech communities. The admission of the change depends on the degree of internal cohesion of the community. If a change remains, it has to be maintained by a social acceptance.

 

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

 

 Because he thinks speech sound doesn’t change physically but one sound substitutes another and it occurs because speakers begin to use one sound in environments where speakers formerly use another sound. Languages don’t change; speakers change languages.

 

5) Why does Milroy disagree with the Neogrammarians when they say that sound change is “blind”?

 

Because for the Neogrammarians, sound change is independent of speakers. While Milroy thinks that “standard languages” are languages created by political and military norms, and, therefore, the changes in their sound patterns are not through “blind necessity”, since these languages are created by humans and maintained through prescription.

 

6) What is meant by “lexical diffusion”?

 

Lexical diffusion is a gradual process and an abrupt replacement pattern that affects the sound change of a word. In opposition of what the Neogrammarians said, it doesn’t affect to all terms that are related to a word when it changes. It consists in a change of a sound of a word until that word becomes another word different from the older one.

 

7) What does dialect displacement mean? Give an example.

 

 Dialect displacement means that one dialect displaces another because it is socially dominant at some particular time. One example is the displacement of West Midland dialects of Middle English by East Midland dialects.

 

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

 

 Community or vernacular norms are the ones, which are codified and legislated, and enforced in an impersonal way by the institutions of society. They are believed to be standardizing norms, but the fact that different dialect exist, shows that other norms exist apart from these ones.

 

9) What does Milroy mean when says that h dropping may not ever reach “completion”?

 

 Milroy means that “the h-dropping” may not ever reach “completion” because the starting point and the end point of a change are not necessarily uniform states.

 

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

 

Speaker innovation is an unstructured and irregular innovation and, at that time, it isn’t known that it will lead to a change and is thought to be an error of some kind. However, the vast majority of innovations are ephemeral.

 

11) Why isn’t borrowing from one language to another and the replacement of one sound by another through speaker innovation with a language as radically different as the Neogrammarians posited?

 

Because it’s possible to argue that each single event of borrowing into a new speech community is just as much an innovation as the presumed original event in the original speech community, so Milroy says that the distinction between the sound change and the phonological borrowing is poorly motivated.

 

12) What is necessary for a sound to spread?

 

It is necessary a social distribution, since social conditions are very important, and for this to be done is necessary an acceptance of a specified change in the society.

 

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

 

 Because standard languages are believed to be physical entities independent form humans that is what “blind necessity” means: language independence from speakers.

 

14) What does Milroy mean by “clean” and “dirty” data?

 

“Clean data” is the result of the application of the standard language that permits investigators to find “regulars” changes following standard languages. Clear examples of a specified sound change.

 

“Dirty data” are irregular and chaotic examples of sound change.

 

 

 

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