1-Why does Milroy say that sound change appears to have no “obvious function or rational motivation” (146)?

Milroy, at the second paragraph, says that sound change seems to be just an arbitrary action of speakers that doesn’t make the language easier or more difficult to use for native speakers.

For example in An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (Holmes, 1992, 211), the second example explains the curious sound change done by children with similar words that are spell and mean different things but are still pronounced as they were the same word (which /wItS/, witch /wItS/).

2-What is/are the main difference/s between Milroy’s approach and that of the Neogrammarians (147-148)?

The Neogrammarians believe that sound change is an arbitrary phenomenon of language while Milroy tries, with a sociolinguistic point of view, to justify those changes by the innovations of single speakers being accepted by their community.

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

Language change is dependent on the community where the speaker lives. If a speaker creates or modifies a variation in the language that change will survive only if is maintained by the community.

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

Sound change does not occurs because one sound replaces the other, there is not a change at all.

5-Why does Milroy disagree with the Neogrammarians when they say that sound change is “blind” (150)?

Milroy doesn’t support the idea of sound change as a blind phenomenon because the Neogrammarians don’t take into account the speakers but the language standard, normally in written form, which was imposed by the society.

6-What is meant by “lexical diffusion” (151)?

Using the definition of Labov, Milroy states that lexical diffusion is a big sound change that can be easily detected and it’s expansion on other words is considerable.

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

Dialect displacement according to Milroy is when one dialect starts to replace another in some phonetic or grammatical points because it is simpler and easier for the speakers to use.

8-What are “community” or “vernacular” norms? What term that we have used in class is similar (152)?

Community or vernacular norms are the characteristics of a dialect that makes it different or similar to the standard language. These norms are also called varieties norms.

9-What does Milroy mean when he says that h- dropping may not ever reach “completion” (153)?

Using the example of h – dropping, as shown in the point 4. 2 Milroy tries to explain that linguistic change doesn’t spread for one day to the other but must be seen gradually by the society not as a disturbance but as a new way to use the language.

10-Explain what Milroy means by “speaker innovation” and change in the system. How are they connected (153)?

Speaker innovation is when a speaker creates or modifies a word or a phonetic sound, and then from that innovation to settle in the language it must occur a change in the system from part of the community that lives with the speaker. If the innovation is famous then the people accept it not as a mistake but as a new way of speaking.

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 (154-6)?

As said by Milroy in point 4.4, borrowing from the sociolinguistic perspective mean the same as replacing one sound by another. To change a sound speakers had a tendency to borrow the new sound from a speaker or a community’s innovations.

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

For a sound to spread into the current language, Milroy insisted in the community acceptance of such ´mistake` so that with time it becomes the new way of speaking.

13-Why does believing in the ideology of standardization lead to believing in “blind necessity” (158)?

The standard language according to the Neogrammarians originates to the speakers some blind necessity that justifies the changes on the perfect system imposed. However, Milroy states that the mistake is to believe that standard language is a fixed structure that evolves trough itself necessities.

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

The Neogrammarians work with written text, which adapts to the clean data or standard language that anything that doesn’t fit in the ideal language is put away as dirty data or dialects/varieties of the language. This dirty data is the object of study of sociolinguistics who believe that those variations in the language is how the language really is; therefore is necessary to take it into account to learn how linguistic change is produced trough time.