Some new perspectives on sound change: sociolinguistics and the Neogrammarians
Answer the following questions using the book and other sources.
1- Why does Milroy say that sound change appears to have no “obvious function or rational motivation” (146)?
In the text Milroy says that the sound change is probably the most mysterious aspect of change in language, as it appears to have no obvious function or rational motivation. In a change from [e:] to [i:], for example, (as in such items as meet, need, 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.
2- What is/are the main difference/s between Milroy’s approach and that of the Neogrammarians (147-148)?
The Neogrammarians focus on language as an object , instead Milroy approach to focus on the importance of analysing language and speech in social context.
3- According to Milroy, what is language change dependent on? (149?)
Milroy assumes that language change is embedded in a context of language maintenance. The degree to which change is admitted will depend on the degree of internal cohesion of the community, and change from outside will be admitted to the extent that there are large number of “weak ties” with outsiders.
4- Why does Milroy say that sound change actually doesn’t exist (150)?
It doesn’t exist because sound change is constantly changing as well as the language itself, it’s not permanent. Milroy points out that what happens is that in the course of time one sound is substituted by another.
5- Why does Milroy disagree with the Neogrammarians when they say that sound change is “blind” (150)?
Milroy disagree with the idea of “blind” sound change because they are replaced. He says that it isn’t languages that change, t’s speakers who change languages. So, for Milroy, sound change is socially gradual: it passes from speaker to speaker and from group to group.
6- What is meant by “lexical diffusion” (151)?
Lexical diffusion is a socially gradual process and abrupt replacement pattern, and can be shown to be regular in some sense.
7- What does dialect displacement mean? Give an example. (152)
Dialect displacement means the displacement of one dialect by another which is, for some reason, socially dominant at some particular time. An example, which Milroy states, is the gradual displacement of heavily inflected West Midland dialects of Middle English by weakly inflected East Midland dialects.
8- What are “community” or “vernacular” norms? What term that we have used in class is similar (152)?
Theses norms are observed by speakers and maintained by communities often in opposition to standardizing norms. Thanks to theses norms we can recognize different dialects of languages. These manifest themselves at different levels of generality.
9- What does Milroy mean when he says that h-dropping may not ever reach “completion” (153)?
Milroy explains that a change can persist as a variable state for seven or eight centuries without ever going to “completion” in the traditional sense. He believes that the h-dropping will never be considered normative.
10- Explain what Milroy means by “speaker innovation” and change in the system. How are they connected (153)?
An innovation is an act of the speaker, whereas a change is manifested within the language system.They are connected because usually it is innovation what leads to the change, though at first it’s probably thought to be an error or defective usage.
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)?
The distinction between true sound change and phonological borrowing is poorly motivated.
12- What is necessary for a sound to spread (157)?
A social pattern in a speech comunity is necessary for a sound to spread.
13- Why does believing in the ideology of standardization lead to believing in “blind necessity” (158)?
From a sociolinguistic perspective, standard languages 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. These language states are planned by human beings and maintained through prescription (Milroy and Milroy 1985a).
Standard languages are carefully constructed in order to appear as if they are discrete linguistic entities- and the ideology of standardization causes people to to believe that they are indeed discrete physical entities believe that they are indeed discrete physical entities.
14- What does Milroy mean by “clean” and “dirty” data (158)?
“Clean” data have already been largely normalized, the “dirty” data belong to the vernaculars that we actually encounter in the speech community.