Grammatischer Wandel im (Mittel-)Neuhochdeutschen – von oben und von unten. Perspektiven einer Historischen Soziolinguistik des Deutschen

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Elspaß
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
Development Of Language ◽  
Grammatical Change

AbstractThe present contribution addresses the phenomenon of grammatical change using a historical sociolinguistic approach, which is based on the principle that systematic language change can only be described and explained by accounting for sociopragmatic and variational factors of language use. The approach is illustrated by an empirical investigation of the change of selected morphological and syntactic features in (Middle) New High German, using Labov’s distinction between ‘language change from above’ and ‘language change from below’ as a starting point of analysis. The aim of the paper is to demonstrate that the historical sociolinguistic approach not only complements other methods of historical linguistics, but may also lead to results and findings that could perhaps not be achieved by other methodological approaches. Moreover, it is considered central to the description and explanation of the development of language varieties in periods of language standardisation.

scholarly journals LANGUAGE VARIATIONS IN DEPOK: A STUDY OF LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE AND DIALECTOLOGY

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sri Munawarah ◽  
Frans Asisi Datang
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Regional Variation ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Language Variety ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Public Landscapes

Written languages are present in various media in public landscapes, such as notice boards, banners, or bumper stickers. Studying these simple signs is the starting point in observing how a language variety exists and interacts with other languages. It is interesting to study how the instances of written texts found in public landscapes can be an indicator of what language variety is actually used by the inhabitants of Depok. Based on its history and its geography, a hypothesis states that many speakers of Betawi language and Sundanese reside in Depok. The study is aimed at demonstrating the written language varieties found in Depok public landscapes based on written evidence which are compared with language varieties based on the regional variation (dialectology). This qualitative study used the sociogeolinguistic approach combining sociolinguistics, linguistic landscape, and dialectology (geolinguistics). The results show there are two language use distributions in Depok, the Sundanese and the Betawi language. From the landscapes, Betawi language is used in billboards, restaurant signboards, and local government banners. The study is useful for the local government in their efforts to confirm the identity of Depok people.

Salikoko Mufwene, The ecology of language evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Pp. xviii, 255. Hb. $65.00, pb. $22.00.

2003 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 587-592 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Clancy Clements
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
Relative Weight ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
The Past ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Creole Languages

In this book, author Salikoko Mufwene offers a chronology of his views on language evolution as they have developed over the past 12 years. Mufwene understands the linguistic evolutionary process in terms of a language's external ecology – that is, its position relative to other languages with which it moves in and out of contact, the power relations among groups of different language varieties in the setting, and so on – as well as its internal ecology, or the coexistence in a given setting of the linguistic features, and their relative weight. Although Mufwene uses creole languages as a starting point, his purpose is to highlight general characteristics of language evolution; he argues that, in the essentials of language change, varieties such as pidgins and creoles differ little if at all from non-pidgins and non-creoles. To build his case, Mufwene draws from population genetics, seeing any given language not as an organism but rather as its own “species.”

Transmission, acquisition, parameter-setting, reanalysis, and language change

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 152-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
SALIKOKO S. MUFWENE
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Central Position ◽  
Parameter Setting ◽  
Language Practice ◽  
Ecological Conditions ◽  
Grammatical Change

Jürgen Meisel's (JM) article is literally thought-provoking, especially for the issues that one can raise out of the central position that he develops, viz., “although bilingual acquisition in situations of language contact can be argued to be of significant importance for explanations of grammatical change, reanalysis affecting parameter settings is much less likely to happen than is commonly assumed in historical linguistics” (p. 142). This is a position that calls for grounding language change, hence historical linguistics, in the pragmatics/ethnography of language practice, a question that linguists can continue to ignore no more than the actuation question (Weinreich, Labov & Herzog, 1968; McMahon, 1994; Labov, 2001; Mufwene, 2008). The latter regards what particular ethnographic factors trigger particular changes at particular places and at particular times but not at others. In other words, do structural changes happen simply because they must happen or because particular agents are involved at specific times under specific ecological conditions of language practice?

Are there principles of grammatical change?

1999 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 579-595 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARTIN HASPELMATH
Keyword(s):  
Chaos Theory ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Parameter Setting ◽  
Deterministic Theory ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
Theory Of History ◽  
Language And Cognition ◽  
Development Of Language ◽  
Grammatical Change

David Lightfoot,The development of language: acquisition, change, and evolution. (Maryland Lectures in Language and Cognition 1.) Malden, MA & Oxford: Blackwell, 1999. Pp. xii+287.The central thesis of The development of language is that there are no principles of grammatical change, so that ‘historicist’ or deterministic approaches to diachronic change are misguided. Instead, Lightfoot argues that language change can only be understood by taking the perspective of the ‘growth’ (i.e. acquisition) of an individual's biological grammar, which may end up with a different parameter setting from the parent's generation when the trigger experience changes. Such events of grammatical change are abrupt and unpredictable, and Lightfoot suggests that they can be understood better from the point of view of catastrophe theory and chaos theory than under a deterministic theory of history as was common in the nineteenth century.

Die historische Betrachtung der romanischen Sprachen. Zur Zukunft der Sprachgeschichte in der universitären Lehre

2021 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-89
Author(s):  
Felix Tacke
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Old French ◽  
Degree Programs ◽  
Academic Education ◽  
Bachelor Degree ◽  
Old Spanish ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
Romance Philology

Once at the core of Romance philology, the teaching of Historical Romance Linguistics has all but vanished from university curricula Even though language change is constitutive for any natural language, most bachelor degree programs focus on synchronic studies these days Nevertheless, instead of arguing for the reintroduction of compulsory Old French or Old Spanish courses, this paper promotes another vision of Historical Linguistics in academic education In line with Christmann (1975) and Böckle / Lebsanft (1989), it will be shown that it is possible to include a solid introduction to Historical Linguistics in today's curricula and, at the same time, adapt it both to modern teaching conditions and the needs of bachelor degree students by taking the contemporary Romance languages as a starting point and applying a diachronic perspective on their features In this context, the recently published History of Spanish by Ranson / Lubbers Quesada (2018) will be presented as an example of a textbook that represents this approach in a nearly perfect manner.

HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS.Herbert Schendl. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. Pp. xi + 130. $12.95 paper.

2003 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 589-589
Author(s):  
Michael C. Shapiro
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
General Reader ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Linguistic History ◽  
Lexical Change ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Grammatical Change ◽  
Phonological Change

This brief volume is a contribution to the Oxford introductions to language study series, a set of nontechnical guides to various aspects of the study of language, intended for the general reader with no formal background in linguistics. This book, like the others in the series, is not intended to be a systematic introduction to its subject but rather is designed to give readers a general sense of historical linguistics and to steer them in the direction of further readings. The book is divided into four parts. The first and largest part comprises eight brief essays that treat: (a) the fact that languages evolve over time and attitudes toward them change, (b) data and evidence for reconstructing linguistic history, (c) lexical change, (d) grammatical change, (e) phonological change, (f) language contact, (g) explanations for language change, and (h) recent developments in historical linguistics. The remaining parts of the book contain brief excerpts from readings, further readings, bibliographic references, and a glossary.

Scales and Units

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn M. de Luna
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
The North ◽  
First Case ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
River Region ◽  
History Of ◽  
Alternative Approaches

This chapter uses two case studies to explore how historians study language movement and change through comparative historical linguistics. The first case study stands as a short chapter in the larger history of the expansion of Bantu languages across eastern, central, and southern Africa. It focuses on the expansion of proto-Kafue, ca. 950–1250, from a linguistic homeland in the middle Kafue River region to lands beyond the Lukanga swamps to the north and the Zambezi River to the south. This expansion was made possible by a dramatic reconfiguration of ties of kinship. The second case study explores linguistic evidence for ridicule along the Lozi-Botatwe frontier in the mid- to late 19th century. Significantly, the units and scales of language movement and change in precolonial periods rendered visible through comparative historical linguistics bring to our attention alternative approaches to language change and movement in contemporary Africa.

Language Change and Movement as Seen by Historical Linguistics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Nurse
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Change Over Time ◽  
Comparative Linguistics ◽  
Language Boundaries ◽  
Over Time

The focus of this chapter is on how languages move and change over time and space. The perceptions of historical linguists have been shaped by what they were observing. During the flowering of comparative linguistics, from the late 19th into the 20th century, the dominant view was that in earlier times when people moved, their languages moved with them, often over long distances, sometimes fast, and that language change was largely internal. That changed in the second half of the 20th century. We now recognize that in recent centuries and millennia, most movements of communities and individuals have been local and shorter. Constant contact between communities resulted in features flowing across language boundaries, especially in crowded and long-settled locations such as most of Central and West Africa. Although communities did mix and people did cross borders, it became clear that language and linguistic features could also move without communities moving.

Gay (White) Male Speech and the E(race)sure of Identity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brianna R. Cornelius
Keyword(s):  
Racial Identity ◽  
Language Use ◽  
White Male ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gay Identity ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Gay Male ◽  
Men Of Color ◽  
African American Language

Although a notable body of work has emerged describing gay male speech (GMS), its overlap with African American language (AAL) remains comparatively understudied. This chapter explores the assumption of whiteness that has informed research on gay identity and precluded intersectional considerations in sociolinguistic research. Examining the importance of racial identity, particularly Blackness, to the construction of gay identity in the United States, the chapter investigates the treatment of GMS as white by default, with the voices of gay men of color considered additive. The desire vs. identity debate in language and sexuality studies contributed to an understanding of gay identity as community-based practice, thereby laying a necessary framework for the study of GMS. However, this framework led to a virtually exclusive focus on white men’s language use. Although efforts to bring a community-based understanding to gay identity have been groundbreaking, the lack of consideration of intersectionality has erased contributions to GMS from racially based language varieties, such as AAL.

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.

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