Language Variation and

Change
• Variationist sociolinguistics: is the kind of
sociolinguistic investigation and for some
sociolinguists, is the ‘heart of sociolinguistics’.

Because this is sociolinguistics, Investigators will look

at language variation in terms of what social factors
might influence it. This chapter will also trace the
development of ideas about language and language
users within variationist sociolinguistic research, then
will describe as three ‘waves’ of variation studies.
 Variables and Correlations:

• All languages contain variability, and no language

user speaks the same all the time. Studies employing
variationist methodologies are essentially correlational
in nature: that is, they attempt to show how the
variants of a linguistic variable are related to social
variation.
For instance, the pronunciation of ing endings on English
words (which we’ll refer to as the (ng) variable) may have two
variants, or two ways of being produced – [in] and [iŋ].
Types of linguistic variables

1. (h) variable in words like house and hospital,

that is:(h): [h] or Ø

2. (t) variable in bet and better, that is:

[t], [. ] or [. ]

3. the vowel (e) in words like pen and men

(o) in dog, caught, and coffee.

4. (s) of the third person singular:

he talks versus he talk.
Indicators, markers, and stereotypes

Indicator is a linguistic variable to which little or no social import is

attached. Vowels in cot and caught

A marker can be quite noticeable and potent carriers of social

information. You do not always have to drop every g in (singin)

Labov (1972) A stereotype is a popular and conscious characterization of the

speech of a particular group: Wot cher (What cheer?) greeting
 Independent variables

What might correlate with particular

linguistic features?

linguistic variables may correlate not

only with social variables (such as age)
but also with other linguistic features.
 a. Devising some kind of plan for
Data Collection and Analysis: collecting relevant data

b. Collecting such data from a

representative sample of language users.

• The observer’s paradox:

• How can you obtain objective data from the real
world without injecting your own self into the data?

. How can you be sure that the data you have

collected are uncontaminated by the process of
investigation itself?
The sociolinguistic interview

In dialect geography studies, speakers may be explicitly asked to

provide linguistic information. The interviewer try to have interviewees
focus more or less on how they are speaking.

To get more formal styles of speech, investigators also ask research

participants to do various reading tasks: read a story passage, lists of
words, and minimal pairs. Each of task requires an increased level of
attention to speech.
Another critical aspect of sociolinguistic research is sampling:
finding a representative group of language users.

Random Judgment Quota

sample sample sample
 Apparent time and real time
If the same
informants are
involved, this
would be in a
panel study.

Apparent time
studies in which the
subjects are grouped
Real time studies
by age. 20s, 40s, 60s. elicit the same If different people
kind of data after are used it would be
an interval of say in a trend study.
twenty years.
 Diachronic or historical linguistics: The study of how
languages change over time

Dialect geography: as this area of linguistic study is

known, has employed assumptions and methods drawn
from historical linguistics.
Dialect atlases Remnant dialect
Mapping
dialects

Isogloss Relic area

Dialect boundary Focal area

Dialect mixture and free variation

Dialect mixture is the existence in one locality

of two or more dialects which allow people to
draw now on one dialect and then on the other.
An alternative explanation is free variation,
that is, variation of no social significance.
 Social class membership

This raises various difficulties

• If we consider ‘social class’ to be a

useful concept to apply in
stratifying society, we need a way
1. It combines economic aspects with
to determine the social class of status ones.
particular people.

2. Another issue has to do with

mobility between social classes.
The First Wave of Variation Studies

• The first wave of studies sought to

establish correlations between
predetermined macro level social
categories – socioeconomic class, age,
race/ethnicity, and sex – and particular
linguistic variables. Early work on gender variation

The findings on gender, showed that

girls/women used more
standardized variants than boys/men
of their same social class in the
same social contexts.
 Members of the highest and lowest social
groups tend not to change their
pronunciation after it becomes fixed in
adolescence but members of middle social
groups sometimes do, possibly because of
their social aspirations.

• Another first wave study, perhaps the most

well known of all, is Labov’s small scale
investigation of the (r) variable.
Hypercorrection

Hypercorrection occurs when individuals

consciously try to speak like people they regard
as socially superior but actually go too far and
overdo the particular linguistic behavior they are
attempting to match.
 Language Variation and Change

long term stable variation:(Labov (2001)

Not all variation is a sign of, or leads to, change.

Two basic kinds of change:

Change from above

Change from below
Change in progress

n sc io u s a w a re ness an d systematic, a n g e b ro u g ht a b o u t co nsciously

is, co is, ch
unconscious change and sporadic, conscious
 Change across space: urban centers and physical barriers

• Density of population and the influence of

large population centers appear to be
important factors. This gravity model of
diffusion holds that large, culturally
important cities influence smaller cities
they dominate and eventually changes
filter down to surrounding rural areas
through even smaller towns and
communities.
Change over time or age‐grading?

• The factor of age seems to be important: Martha’s Vineyard

younger speakers are observed to use the
language differently from older speakers.

• The differences between older speakers and

younger speakers is thought to indicate
changes in progress. The use of ‘zee–zed’ in
Canada
 Gender and language change
1. Women may be more status conscious because
they are less secure and have less well developed
social networks than men.

2. Men are also judged by what they

do, whereas women are rated on how
they appear, and an important part of
that appearance is their speech.

Working class speech has connotations of

‘masculinity’ and women often want to
dissociate themselves from it
• Haeri (1994, 1996), which looks at palatalization
in Cairene Arabic. She shows evidence that this
palatalization is a change in progress, and that women are
very clearly leading the change. Thus there are clear
correlations of this linguistic feature with both gender and
social class as defined by educational background.
The Second Wave of Variation Studies

• The second wave studies began to focus on the

agency of language users. That is, while correlations
between linguistic features and social factors exist,
this does not imply causality – and thus the role of the
language user in how they speak must also be
examined.
Social networks The work of the Milroys is credited as the
beginning of the second wave.

Milroy found that it was the network of

relationships that an individual belonged to
that exerted the most powerful and
interesting influences on that individual’s
linguistic behavior.

The stronger the social network, the greater

the use of certain linguistic features of the
vernacular.
Social network theory and language change

Within social network theory, the key to change lies in

network ties: with strong ties change is slow but weak ties can
lead to rapid change.
Gender variation in the second wave

• Cheshire (1978) ‘variation is controlled by both social and

linguistic factors.

• In boys’ speech, variation is governed by norms that are

central to the vernacular culture, and are transmitted through
the peer group.

• Variation in the girls’ speech appears to be a more personal

process, and less rigidly controlled by vernacular norms.’
The Third Wave of Variation Studies

• What separates third wave from second wave studies is a

shift in perspective from investigating how language
reflects social identity to how linguistic practices
construct social identity.
 Style

• Stance:
• Is as a means that speakers use to position
themselves with regard to the ongoing talk.
Change across the lifespan
How the language of a particular language user changes over their

lifetime?

Sankoff (2019)
• Most common is stability
• The second most frequent pattern is found in adults
who adopt patterns introduced by younger members of
the community.
• Finally, there are also some instances of people who
revert to an older pattern later in life.