Essay from the year 2021 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,7, Trinity College Dublin (Centre for Language and Communication Studies), course: Sociolinguistics, language: English, abstract: While perspectives towards the phenomenon of language change are various and partly contradictory, they all coincide in the overall question of why and how language change takes place. In order to address this question, it is important to first, position the phenomenon of language change within the two major perspectives in linguistics, that is the distinction between linguistic change as diachronic or synchronic variation. Next, different models and theories that try to explain the origin of change and its underlying mechanism such as the family tree or wave model can be consulted in order to gain an insight into the complexity and interrelatedness of the different approaches. Especially the notion of internally and externally motivated change is here of special importance. In addition, these models prove to be foundational for the further discourse on how language change spreads and under which influences. Keeping this in mind, a closer look at the synchronic perspective of sociolinguistics provides relevant knowledge about the role of social factors in causing linguistic change which finally enables a testing of this perspective on the basis of the case examples of linguistic change in "Martha’s Vineyard" (Blake & Josey, 2003) and "Ucieda" (Holmquist, 1985). In essence, this essay will examine the relationship between diachronic and synchronic approaches towards language change and demonstrate the significance of social factors on the basis of different theories and examples.

In 28 newly- commissioned chapters, distinguished contributors provide an up-to-date overview of sociolinguistics.

Written by the world-renowned pioneer in the field of modern sociolinguistics, this volume examines the cognitive and cultural factors responsible for linguistic change, tracing the life history of these developments, from triggering events to driving forces and endpoints. Explores the major insights obtained by combining sociolinguistics with the results of dialect geography on a large scale Examines the cognitive and cultural influences responsible for linguistic change Demonstrates under what conditions dialects diverge from one another Establishes an essential distinction between transmission within the community and diffusion across communities Completes Labov’s seminal Principles of Linguistic Change trilogy

This volume presents the long-anticipated results of several decades of inquiry into the social origins and social motivation of linguistic change. Written by one of the founders of modern sociolinguistics Features the first complete report on the Philadelphia project designed to establish the social location of the leaders of linguistic change Includes chapters on social class, neighborhood, ethnicity, gender, and social networks that delineate the leaders of linguistic change as women of the upper working class with a high density of interaction within their neighborhoods and a high proportion of weak ties outside of it

Essay from the year 2021 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,5, Trinity College Dublin (Centre for Language and Communication Studies), course: Language and Mind, language: English, abstract: Linguistic change can be studied from various perspectives and each viewpoint offers different insights into this phenomenon. Among social factors, there are also functional, typological, generative and external causes involved in the process of linguistic change. In order to gain an understanding of the meaning of linguistic transmission it is important to first consider the distinction between transmission of change within languages and diffusion of change across languages with regard to the family tree model and its notion of linguistic descent. This knowledge provides the foundation for the generative approach, which facilitates the discourse on transmission of linguistic change with regard to children’s innate predisposition towards language learning and a biological grammar inherent to the human faculty of language. To further expand on the relevance of internal factors, the ease of effort theory evaluates from a functionalist perspective how natural tendencies influence the course of language evolution and thereby, the transmission of language change. Finally, the juxtaposition of the diachronic and synchronic dimension offers to consider a reformed approach towards the different perspectives on language change in a more holistic way. In doing so, the close relations between the approaches can serve as basis for the discussion on the overall significance of internal, external, social, linguistic, biological, acquisitional, typological and functional factors involved in the transmission of linguistic change. In essence, this essay aims to illustrate the variety of factors that are involved in the transmission of linguistic change and thereby demonstrate that, even though language change is naturally embedded in the social environment of a language space, it is not limited to social factors.

This sociolinguistic study offers a new theoretical framework for understanding the diffusion of language change within a community. Advanced statistical analysis methods are used in rigorously testing the supposed norm-enforcement effect of social networks. Revisions to the social network model are proposed, allowing the effects of various social factors operating simultaneously on the individual to be considered in evaluating the process of resistance to language change.

Even a cursory look at conference programs and proceedings reveals a burgeoning interest in the field of social and affective factors in home language maintenance and development. To date, however, research on this topic has been published in piecemeal fashion, subsumed under the more general umbrella of ‘bilingualism’. Within bilingualism research, there has been an extensive exploration of linguistic and psycholinguistic perspectives on the one hand, and educational practices and outcomes on the other. In comparison, social and affective factors – which lead people to either maintain or shift the language – have been under-researched. This is the first volume that brings together the different strands in research on social and affective factors in home language maintenance and development, ranging from the micro-level (family language policies and practices), to the meso-level (community initiatives) and the macro-level (mainstream educational policies and their implementation). The volume showcases a wide distribution across contexts and populations explored. Contributors from around the world represent different research paradigms and perspectives, providing a rounded overview of the state-of-the-art in this flourishing field.

This collection of papers is designed to establish variational pragmatics. This new field is situated at the interface of pragmatics and dialectology and aims at systematically investigating the effect of macro-social pragmatic variation on language in action. As such, it challenges the widespread assumption in the area of pragmatics that language communities are homogeneous and also addresses the current research gap in sociolinguistics for variation on the pragmatic level. The introductory chapter establishes the rationale for studying variational pragmatics as a separate field of inquiry, systematically sketches the broader theoretical framework and presents a framework for further analysis. The papers which follow are located within this framework. They present empirical variational pragmatic research focusing on regional varieties of pluricentric languages. Speech acts and other discourse phenomena are addressed and analysed in a number of regional varieties of Dutch, English, French, German and Spanish. The seminal nature of this volume, its empirical orientation and the extensive bibliography make this book of interest to both researchers and students in pragmatics and sociolinguistics.

This specially commissioned volume considers the processes involved in language change and the issues of how they can be modelled and studied. The way languages change offers an insight into the nature of language itself, its internal organisation, and how it is acquired and used. Accordingly, the phenomenon of language change has been approached from a variety of perspectives by linguists of many different orientations. This book, originally published in 2003, brings together an international team of leading figures from different areas of linguistics to re-examine some of the central issues in this field and also to discuss new proposals. The volume is arranged into sections, including grammaticalisation, the typological perspective, the social context of language change and contact-based explanations. It seeks to cover the subject as a whole, bearing in mind its relevance for the general analysis of language, and will appeal to a broad international readership.

This is a lucid and up-to-date overview of language change. It discusses where our evidence about language change comes from, how and why changes happen, and how languages begin and end. It considers both changes which occurred long ago, and those currently in progress. It does this within the framework of one central question - is language change a symptom of progress or decay? It concludes that language is neither progressing nor decaying, but that an understanding of the factors surrounding change is essential for anyone concerned about language alteration. For this substantially revised third edition, Jean Aitchison has included two new chapters on change of meaning and grammaticalization. Sections on new methods of reconstruction and ongoing chain shifts in Britain and America have also been added as well as over 150 new references. The work remains non-technical in style and accessible to readers with no previous knowledge of linguistics.