Introducción a la Historia de la Lengua Inglesa

Questions on Milroy’s article on sound and change Why does Milroy say that sound change appers to have no “obvious function or rational motivation” (146)? Because that change does not imply any benefit to the speaker, nor features any easier pattern that can make the speaker slightly turn from one variety to another. So, the change seems to be completely arbitrary. What is/are the main difference/s between Milroy’s approach and that of the Neogrammarians (147-148)? Neogrammarians approach was based mainly on written data, paying little or no attention to audio data. They also preferred studying the language as a whole entity, appart from political or social theories or influence, and didn’t pay much attention to small varieties or social groups. Milroy did almost the opposite, influenced by Labov: he studied small variations that appeared in local varieties in regional speech communities.

According to Milroy, what is language change dependent on? (149?) Milroy says that language change depends on how strong and uniform the community is. Depending on its level of cohesion, external change will be succesful or will be detached (if the community is very uniform, changes will be less likely to succeed, and viceversa). The community is also responsible of maintaining or not the new change. Why does Milroy say that sound change actually doesn’t exist (150)?

Because sounds themselves don't change, they're simply replaced by another sounds, but the originals remain intact. So,if we have a word where the sound [e:] has been replaced by the sound [i:], obviusly there's no change at all in the sounds themselves, but a substitution of one by the other.

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

Because Milroy thinks that language does not change by itself, as Neogrammarians thought, but are the speakers of that language the ones who change it.

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

We use the term “lexical diffusion” to differenciate between two kinds of sound change. When the difference between the sound before the change and after the change is small, it’s simply a gradual phonetic change, whereas in the case of a bigger difference we call it “lexical diffusion”.

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

Dialect displacement has to do with what happens when two dialects confront in the same community. For some reason, one is gradually displaced by another that is socially dominant at a particular time. In the paper we have several examples, like the one of New Zealand english in the late XIXth century. Although at first it was influenced by southern British(favoured by men), it was later displaced by an Australasian type(favored by women).

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

“Community” or “vernacular” norms are those norms not proposed by an impersonal and neutral social institution, with the purpose of standardization, but by social communities themselves, often in opposition to standardization. I don’t know which term was used in class, since I’ve missed some classes, but if I remember well from Sociolingüistics last year I think that this refers to what is called an idiolect, but I may be wrong.

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

He means that the beggining and the end of a change are not as defined as it should be to reach that “completion”. A sound change, like the h-dropping, is influenced by several factors (age, gender, social status, geography,etc..). Therefore, that change will never reach its completion, since the use of this change will still depend on a lot of variables that may never reach a consensus.

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