Language change across a lifetime: A historical micro-perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (s2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Bergs
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
The Social ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Linguistic Behavior ◽  
Micro Analysis

Abstract This paper focuses on the micro-analysis of historical data, which allows us to investigate language use across the lifetime of individual speakers. Certain concepts, such as social network analysis or communities of practice, put individual speakers and their social embeddedness and dynamicity at the center of attention. This means that intra-speaker variation can be described and analyzed in quite some detail in certain historical data sets. The paper presents some exemplary empirical analyses of the diachronic linguistic behavior of individual speakers/writers in fifteenth to seventeenth century England. It discusses the social factors that influence this behavior, with an emphasis on the methodological and theoretical challenges and opportunities when investigating intra-speaker variation and change.

scholarly journals The Role of Social Parameters in the Choice of Address Forms used in Kinship domain in Punjab, Pakistan

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Ana Ramsha ◽  
Samrah Hidayat
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Regional Differences ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Strong Connection ◽  
Address Forms ◽  
The Social ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Impact

This study examines the role of social parameters in the choice of address forms used in kinship domain in Punjab, Pakistan. The study targeted 140 respondents in order to test the impact of social factors along with the regional differences in the choices of address forms in kinship domain. Statistical analyses are done by applying t-test for gender in relation to choices of address forms and ANOVA for age, income, education and social class. The study finds out that there is a strong connection of different social parameters not only with language use and practice but also in choices and use of address forms especially in kinship relationships.  Moreover, it is highlighted that gender does not influence in the choices of address forms, even the participants belonging to young and middle categories show no significant difference with regard to the choices of address form despite the fact that all the factors and parameters exert influence on the choices of address forms. Hence address forms as being one of the major traits of language and society is affected by all the social factors around and regional differences are also most important as they give identity and ethnicity to the society.

scholarly journals Linguistic and social factors in Turkish-Dutch contact across generations

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yesim Sevinc
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Immigrant Communities ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
The Social ◽  
Contact Situation ◽  
Structural Levels

There are certain differences between Turkish as spoken in the Netherlands (NL-Turkish) and Turkish as spoken in Turkey (TR-Turkish). These differences concern issues of linguistic variation and change in immigrant communities and seem to be closely related to social, emotional and linguistic aspects of contact situations. Considering the fact that in a contact situation the social and linguistic relationships are crucial for the outcome of language change, this paper first examines the social values that three different generations give to the language and culture of their host and home communities; then, it discusses the linguistic consequences on the lexical and structural levels of NL-Turkish. The principal conclusion is that possible language shift in the third generation leads to intensive contact with Dutch language and culture, provokes the linguistic factors and, therefore, causes the lexical and structural changes in NL-Turkish.

When the music changes, you change too: Gender and language change in Cajun English

1999 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvie Dubois ◽  
Barbara Horvath
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Three Generations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Intimate Association ◽  
Level Of Consciousness ◽  
Linguistic Behavior

The role of gender in language change, as discussed in Eckert (1989a) and Labov (1990), forms the context for an exploration of the role of gender in the development of Cajun English. Neither Principle I, Ia, or II predicts the role of gender in Cajun English, which leads us to question the generalizability of the principles to the specific sociolinguistic setting of this study—a closed cultural enclave. The study of four sociolinguistic variables and three generations of speakers reveals two patterns of language change: a curvilinear or v-shaped age pattern and a linear age pattern. These patterns relate in a complex way to changes from above and below the level of consciousness. We support Eckert's call for a finer specification of the social categories but suggest alternatives to the ethnographic method. Using a variety of sources of information on the social life and sociohistory of three generations, we find an intimate association between the sociohistory of this Cajun community and the linguistic behavior of each generation.

Dialogue in the stream of life

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edda Weigand
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Game Model ◽  
Short Overview ◽  
Speech Communities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Holistic Theory

The paper considers dialogue from the point of view Wittgenstein has called ‘the stream of life’ and aims at describing analytically what happens in complex dialogues of performance. A short overview is given of approaches which use the term ‘communities’ to structure performance, e.g. ‘communities of practice’ or ‘speech communities’. Contrary to these approaches which are either oriented towards parts of the whole, such as speech, or address the whole only vaguely by terms of the social context, a genuinely holistic theory needs a solid constitutive basis which is considered to be the sequence of action and reaction in the complex whole of the action game. Language use means dialogic action. By analysing a complex authentic action game the methodology of such a holistic theory like the Mixed Game Model can be demonstrated in detail.

Perspektiven einer Soziologie der Sozialisation – Die Entwicklung der Rolle des Kindes / Towards a sociology of socialization – The development of the child’s role

1975 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt Lüscher
Keyword(s):  
Child Labor ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Personality Development ◽  
Relative Weight ◽  
Considerable Change ◽  
Sociological Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Basic Features

AbstractA growing number of historical studies shows a considerable change in the conception of the child. This can be interpreted as the development of everyday and scientific knowledge of socialization and exemplified in view of an emergent understanding of its basic features, namely, the individual „needs“ for nurture, for learning, for personality-development, and their interrelations with the social structure. Historical data, for instance, on infant mortality and child labor demonstrate the relative weight of different social factors. Ultimately, a frame of reference for the sociological analysis of socialization is offered and examples are given for topics of research.

The “we” vs. “they” distinction in Slovakia Hungarians' discourse

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ildikó Vančo
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Basic Component ◽  
Discourse Processes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Hungarian Language ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractLinguistic differentiation is a basic component of sociocultural differentiation: social processes create the social and linguistic meanings of variants, sometimes also contributing to language change through discourse processes. In addition to being continuously constructed, discourse is in a dialectic relationship with extra-discursive factors and can therefore be studied only when embedded in its social and linguistic contexts (cf. Fairclough 2010: 3–5, Laihonen 2009). In this article I investigate how the notion of “we” occurs in the metalinguistic discourse of Hungarian speakers in Slovakia (with reference to Slovakia Hungarians and their Hungarian language use) (cf. Kontra 2006) in contrast with the notion of “they” (with reference to Hungary Hungarians and their Hungarian language use) in lay speakers' utterances referring to language. The study reported on in this article uses directed interviews and employs discourse analysis to provide insight into the use of “we” vs. “they” and their meanings in the Slovakia Hungarian variety. It also seeks to show how certain expressions become indexical in conceptualizations of identity and how the distinction of “we” vs. “they” is created by language.

Domestic Integration and Suicide in the Provinces of Canada

Crisis ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoon A. Leenaars ◽  
David Lester
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Negative Association ◽  
Birth Rates ◽  
Marriage Rates ◽  
Suicide Rates ◽  
The Social ◽  
Divorce Rates ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Over Time

Canada's rate of suicide varies from province to province. The classical theory of suicide, which attempts to explain the social suicide rate, stems from Durkheim, who argued that low levels of social integration and regulation are associated with high rates of suicide. The present study explored whether social factors (divorce, marriage, and birth rates) do in fact predict suicide rates over time for each province (period studied: 1950-1990). The results showed a positive association between divorce rates and suicide rates, and a negative association between birth rates and suicide rates. Marriage rates showed no consistent association, an anomaly as compared to research from other nations.

Comparing the Impact of Religious Discourse on HIV/AIDS in Islam and Christianity in Africa

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sloane Speakman
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Hiv Prevalence ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
Prevalence Rates ◽  
The Social ◽  
High Prevalence ◽  
Islam And Christianity ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Impact

In examining the strikingly high prevalence rates of HIV in many parts of Africa, reaching as high as 5% in some areas, how does the discourse promoted by the predominant religions across the continent, Islam and Christianity, affect the outlook of their followers on the epidemic? This question becomes even more intriguing after discovering the dramatic difference in rate of HIV prevalence between Muslims and Christians in Africa, confirmed by studies that have found a negative relationship to exist between HIV prevalence and being Muslim in Africa, even in Sub-Saharan African nations. Why does this gap in prevalence rates exist? Does Islam advocate participating in less risky behavior more so than Christianity? By comparing the social construction, epidemiological understanding and public responses among Muslim populations in Africa with Christian ones, it becomes apparent that many similarities exist between the two regarding discourse and that, rather than religious discourse itself, other social factors, such as circumcision practices, contribute more to the disparity in HIV prevalence than originally thought.

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