scholarly journals Intra-individual variation across the lifespan: Results from an Austrian panel study

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (s2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Bülow ◽  
Philip C. Vergeiner
Keyword(s):  
Panel Data ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Ergodic Theorem ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Time Trend ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Ergodic Process ◽  
Informal Conversation ◽  
Variationist Sociolinguistics

Abstract This article explores intra-individual variation and language change across the lifespan of eight speakers from a small Austrian village. Four phonological variables in two settings (informal conversation vs. formal interview) are traced across longitudinal panel data that span 43 years. The analysis reveals an increase of dialect features (retrograde change), even though apparent-time as well as real-time trend studies indicate dialect loss in the Bavarian speaking parts of Austria. The panel data also indicate that neither the group means at one moment in time nor their averaged changes are representative of the intra-individual variation of any of the eight speakers. Regarding this non-representativity, the article introduces the classical ergodic theorem to variationist sociolinguistics. Evidence will be provided that change across the lifespan of an individual is a non-ergodic process. Thus, it is argued that variationists have to be more cautious when they generalise from group-derived estimates to individual developments and vice versa.

scholarly journals Mobility and language change

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (49) ◽  
Author(s):  
Malene Monka
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Human Geography ◽  
Local Features ◽  
Border Region ◽  
Social Orientation ◽  
The University ◽  
Qualitative Analyses

In this article I present the result of my PhD study, which is the first real time panel-study made of the interrelationship between dialect change and mobility. The informants in the study are from three municipalities situated in different Danish dialect areas: Odder in Central Jutland, Vinderup in Western Jutland and Tinglev in Southern Jutland. The first interviews (1978-1989) were recorded as part of studies conducted at Copenhagen University and the Department of Border Region Studies. The informants were re-interviewed between 2005 and 2010 by researchers from the LANCHART Center and researchers at the University of Southern Denmark. In the article the language change of six informants who have been geographically and socially mobile between the two recordings is compared to that of 17 geographically non-mobile informants. I present quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data. The two main quantitative findings are that the mobile speakers use fewer local features than the non-mobile speakers even before they are mobile, and that the degree of language change differs among the mobile informants from the three dialect areas. Based on the qualitative analyses I argue that differences in geographic and social orientation – i.e. mental mobility – can help explain differences between the language use of mobile and non-mobile informants. Following theories of place from human geography, I also suggest that place effects can help explain the differen ces between the language change of both mobile and nonmobile informants.

scholarly journals Variation in Faroese and the development of a spoken standard: In search of corpus evidence

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Remco Knooihuizen
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Morphological Variation ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Linguistic Variables ◽  
Phonological Variation ◽  
Rapid Social Change ◽  
Variationist Sociolinguistics ◽  
Constrained Variation

Although Faroese exhibits extensive linguistic variation and rapid social change, the language is near-uncharted territory in variationist sociolinguistics. This article discusses some recent social changes in Faroese society in connection with language change, focusing in particular on the development of a de facto spoken standard, Central Faroese. Demographic mobility, media and education may be contributing to this development in different ways. Two linguistic variables are analysed as a first step towards uncovering the respective roles of standardisation, dialect levelling and dialect spread as contributing processes in the formation of Central Faroese: morphological variation in -st endings and phonological variation in -ir and -ur endings. The analysis confirms previously described patterns of geographically constrained variation, but no generational or stylistic differences indicative of language change are found, nor are there clear signs that informants use Central Faroese. The results may in part be due to the structure of the corpus used.

scholarly journals Peaks and arrowheads of vernacular reorganization

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Denis ◽  
Matt Hunt Gardner ◽  
Marisa Brook ◽  
Sali A. Tagliamonte
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Projection Model ◽  
Trend Study ◽  
Age Grading ◽  
Socially Motivated ◽  
Rule Out

AbstractA key component of Labov's (2001:411) socially motivated projection model of language change is the hypothesis that adolescents and preadolescents undergo a process of vernacular reorganization, which leads to a “seamless” progression of changes in progress. Between the ages of approximately five and 17, children and adolescents increase the “frequency, extent, scope, or specificity” of changes in progress along the community trajectory (Labov, 2007:346). Evidence of advancement via vernacular reorganization during this life stage has come from peaks in the apparent-time trajectory of a change around the age of 17 (e.g., Labov, 2001; Tagliamonte & D'Arcy, 2009). However, such peaks do not rule out the alternative explanations of retrograde change or age-grading. This paper presents both apparent time and real-time evidence for vernacular reorganization. We observe the arrowhead formation—a counterpart of the adolescent peak—for quotative be like in a trend study of adolescents and young adults in Toronto, Canada. Our results rule out the alternative explanations for previously observed adolescent peaks.

The role of sociocognitive salience in the acquisition of structured variation and linguistic diffusion: Evidence from quotative be like

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Davydova
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Conscious Awareness ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Variationist Sociolinguistics ◽  
High Degree

Abstract Quotative be like is a much discussed variable linguistic feature recruited in this investigation in order to revisit the hypothesis of linguistic diffusion (Labov 2007) predicting re-ordering of original patterns by L2 populations. As a sociocognitively salient variant spreading above the level of conscious awareness, be like has been appropriated by adult speakers from two distinctive L2 English ecologies with a high degree of precision, a finding previously not reported in studies exploring the acquisition of structured variation. In this article, I explain how, supported by frequency and constraint complexity, sociocognitive salience may have contributed to the generally accurate replication of the variable grammar for be like and, by this token, how it can inform existing models of language change. (Sociocognitive salience, linguistic diffusion, L2 acquisition of structured variation, variationist sociolinguistics, World Englishes, be like)

scholarly journals Endogenous Selection Bias and Cumulative Inequality over the Life Course: Evidence from Educational Inequality in Subjective Well-Being

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-350
Author(s):  
Fabian Kratz ◽  
Alexander Patzina
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Panel Data ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Interviewer Effects ◽  
Endogenous Selection ◽  
The Life Course

Abstract According to theories of cumulative (dis-)advantage, inequality increases over the life course. Labour market research has seized this argument to explain the increasing economic inequality as people age. However, evidence for cumulative (dis-)advantage in subjective well-being remains ambiguous, and a prominent study from the United States has reported contradictory results. Here, we reconcile research on inequality in subjective well-being with theories of cumulative (dis-)advantage. We argue that the age-specific endogenous selection of the (survey) population results in decreasing inequalities in subjective well-being means whereas individual-level changes show a pattern of cumulative (dis-)advantage. Using repeated cross-sectional data from the European Social Survey (N = 15,252) and employing hierarchical age-period-cohort models, we replicate the finding of decreasing inequality from the United States with the same research design for Germany. Using panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (persons = 47,683, person-years = 360,306) and employing growth curve models, we show that this pattern of decreasing inequality in subjective well-being means is accompanied by increasing inequality in intra-individual subjective well-being changes. This pattern arises because disadvantaged groups, such as the low educated and individuals with low subjective well-being show lower probabilities of continuing to participate in a survey and because both determinants reinforce each other. In addition to allowing individual changes and attrition processes to be examined, the employed multi-cohort panel data have further key advantages for examining inequality in subjective well-being over the life course: They require weaker assumptions to control for period and cohort effects and make it possible to control for interviewer effects that may influence the results.

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