EXERCISES FROM MILROY QUESTIONS:
LANGUAGE CHANGE AND VARIATION
1) What is more common in language uniformity or
variability?
Variability is more common in language, despite a lot of people want
language to be uniform although, obviously, changes can be avoid or anticipate.
2) What kinds of variability exist?
Social (gender, age…) geographical, register (field, tenor and mode) …
3) How do we decide if a particular group of speakers
belong to a particular dialect or language?
We have to see they way they speak and what kinds of differences they
make respect other people like different pronunciation, use of different
vocabulary, expressions…
4) Saussure emphasized the importance of synchronic
descriptions of languages rather than diachronic. He and is disciples (structuralists) focused on
language at different periods as finite entities. Is this reasonable?
I think not because there is not an “official language” from which in
each period different kinds of changes occur in it and when another period
comes that “official language” backs to zero and changes begin again. Languages
changes are not so but that changes develop over the previous ones and, in this
way, Contemporary English is almost completely different than Old or Middle
English.
5) 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 think linguistic change is not abnormal, on the contrary, I think this
is a very necessary thing. Of course, changes don’t occur exactly the same in each period: in one are
possible changes to be more abundant, while in another they can be limited.
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.”
6) Can you think of any example of non-professional
attitudes to your own language?
For example when one native person thinks that he/she doesn’t speak
correctly his/her mother language.
7) Why does Milroy use “scare quotes” around non-standard
and errors?
Because I think he doesn’t believe that errors are an incorrect form of
using language since in some places “errors” are considered correct.
8) Are non-standard dialects “incorrect,
irregular, ungrammatical and deviant.”?
According to linguistic theorizing, yes but I think they only are
different from the standard language.
9) Which of these systems is more irregular? Why?
The first one is more irregular since the second is formed by
possessives and is not necessary to change anything, contrary to the first
one. English language tends to be more irregular than regular.
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Myself Yourself Himself Herself Ourselves Themselves |
Myself Yourself Hisself Herself Ourselves Theirselves |
“… 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 econtexutalized
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?
Because spoken language is very variable and in it is impossible to fix
any definite norms that would describe that language, because so is more
effective to examine written data.
10) Any description of a language involves norms?
Think of the descriptions of your own language.
Yes, if we want to speak the “standard and correct language”. But it is
not necessary to follow all the norms since each person has his/her own way to
speak a language and has his/her own vocabulary.
For example, to drop the letter “d” in all the participles, usually
orally: he dado- he dao.
Also, change
the order of
the words in a sentence:
Se me ha caído el vaso / Me se ha caído el vaso.
11) 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?
It depends a lot of the own norms of a specified community, for example,
He ate the pie already is accepted in American, Irish and Scottish
English while it’s not accepted for most speakers of British English.
12) What is the difference between descriptive and
prescriptive grammars?
Descriptive means the real way people speak language; prescriptive means
the way people should speak to follow the “official” norms.
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.
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 high position in
a dialect and “the solidarity constraint” means the imposition of specified
norms to a speaker of other dialect and how he/she feels about it.
Sound change: post-vocalic /r/ in
14) Actuation: Why did /k/ palatalize before certain
front vowels? PrsE: cheese,
German käse English/Norse
doublets shirt/skirt?
First of all, is necessary to say that changes occur at any particular
time when the structure of the language presents suitable conditions for the
change. Also, the proximity of the velar consonant to a front vowel may be a
necessary condition for palatalization.
However, another reason is necessary: this change was adopted because social
conditions were favourable.
15) What is the biological metaphor in language
change?
“The independent life of language”.
16) What is the difference between internal and
external histories of a language?
Internal histories of a language are typically focused on sound-change
and morphological change, while external histories of a language are the
political, social and attitudinal contexts of language.
17) Look up Neogrammarians
and lexical diffusion. Why are they often found in the same paragraph or
chapter?
Because they are concepts completely different, referring to the same
thing but with different points of view: a change that occurs in a word
occurs also in all words related to it, as Neogrammarian thought, contrary with the theory of
the lexical diffusion.
18) Look up social norm-enforcement, childish
errors and slips of the tongue. What have they to do with language
change?
- Social norm-enforcement: these are the norms that are used among a
group of speakers with the same characteristics in speaking a language.
- Childish errors: children sometimes make many errors as they don’t
know yet all the norms that exist in their mother language.
- Slips of the tongue: referring to the mistakes made when somebody
speaks a language.