James Milroy: Some new perspectives on sound change: sociolinguistics and the Neogrammarians

Answer the following questions using the book and other sources.

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

According to Milroy, sound change appears to have no obvious function or rational motivation because in a change, from /e:/ to /i:/, for example (as in such items as need, meet, keen in the history of English), it is impossible to see any progress or benefit to the language or its speakers – the use of one vowel -sound rather than another is purely arbitrary: there is apparently no profit and no loss.

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

The main differences between Neogrammarians approach and Milroy’s is that whereas Neogrammarians defend that sound change is regular, and sound laws have no exceptions, Milroy says that it has no obvious function or rational motivation. Basically, Neogrammarians tend to be dichotomous, are non- social in character and their main sources are written.

According to Milroy, what is language change dependent on?

Language change depends on the context of the language and its maintenance. The degree to which is admitted will depend on the degree of internal cohesion of the community (the extent to which it is bound by “strong ties”, which resist change), and change from outside will be admitted to the extend that there are large number of weak ties with the outsiders.

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

Milroy says that sound change doesn’t exist because what happens is that in the course of time one sound is substituted for another, speakers of a given dialect gradually and variably begin to use sound X in environments where speakers formerly used sound Y.

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

Milroy disagrees with the Neogrammarians when they say that sound change is “blind” by saying that it isn’t languages that change, it is speakers who change language, as it passes from speaker to speaker and from group to group.

What is meant by “lexical diffusion”?

Lexical diffusion is referred to the changes that differ markedly to the original.

What does dialect displacement mean? Give an example.

Dialect displacement, as its name refers, it is displacement of a dialect by another which is, for some reason, socially dominant at some particular time. For example, there is evidence from recording of persons born around 1860 which can be interpreted as indicating that much New Zealand English in the 19^th century was southern British in type (favoured by males), and that it was displaced by an Australian type (favoured by females) with some effects of mixing and residue.

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

The community norms are those ones that are codified and legislated for, and enforced in an impersonal way by the institutions of society.

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

Because, according to Milroy, a change can persist as a variable state for a long time, even centuries, without ever going to completion in the traditional sense, as in the case of the h- dropping.

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

The speaker innovation is an act or speakers that try to innovate language, which must be instructed and irregular and not describable methods, whereas a change in the system is a change manifested within it. The connexion between them is that first, speakers make an innovation in language, and if it is successful there is a change in the language system.

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, from Milroy’s point or view, it is 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”. This affirmation leads Milroy to state that the distinction between true sound change and phonological borrowing is poorly motivated.

What is necessary for a sound to spread?

The spread of a sound is a result of borrowing, that is, to take a word directly into one language from another with little or no translation.

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

Because sociolinguistics believe that standard languages are not “normal” languages as they are created by the imposition of political and military power. Hence, the sound patterns in them and the changes that come about in these sound patterns do not come about through blind necessity, and they are not wholly explainable by reference to phenomena internal to the structure of language.

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

According to Milroy clean data is the one that has already been largely normalized, and dirty data is the result of sociolinguistics studies, in which language is considered as irregular and chaotic.