scholarly journals Time’s arrow reversed? The (a)symmetry of language change

2021 ◽  
pp. 170-176
Author(s):  
Terttu Nevalainen
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Grammatical Change ◽  
Time’S Arrow

This paper analyses language users’ participation in real-time grammatical change. The question addressed is the extent to which individuals continue using both the incoming form and the recessive, outgoing form as opposed to using one of them categorically. Variable grammars are related to the sociolinguistic discussion of whether language change is a generational or a communal process. Ultimately, they also raise the question of the predictability of real-time language change

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.

scholarly journals Unbalanced bilingual acquisition as a mechanism of grammatical change

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEPHEN MATTHEWS ◽  
VIRGINIA YIP
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Change ◽  
First Language ◽  
Community Level ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Grammatical Change ◽  
The Individual

Bilingual first language acquisition (BFLA) has been considered a possible mechanism of contact-induced change in several recent studies (Siegel, 2008, p. 117; Satterfield, 2005, p. 2075; Thomason, 2001, p. 148; Yip & Matthews, 2007, p.15). There is as yet little consensus on the question, with divergent views regarding both BFLA at the individual level and the implications for language change at the community level.

The apparent time construct

1991 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 241-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy Bailey ◽  
Tom Wikle ◽  
Jan Tillery ◽  
Lori Sand
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Telephone Surveys ◽  
Atlas Data ◽  
Mitigating Factors ◽  
Gulf States ◽  
Time Construct ◽  
Stable Variation

ABSTRACTThe use of apparent time differences to study language change in progress has been a basic analytical construct in quantitative sociolinguistics for over 30 years. The basic assumption underlying the construct is that, unless there is evidence to the contrary, differences among generations of similar adults mirror actual diachronic developments in a language: the speech of each generation is assumed to reflect the language more or less as it existed at the time when that generation learned the language. In providing a mirror of real time change, apparent time forms the basis of a conceptual framework for exploring language change in progress. However, the basic assumptions that underlie apparent time have never been fully tested. This article tests those assumptions by comparing apparent time data from two recent random sample telephone surveys of Texas speech with real time data from the Linguistic Atlas of the Gulf States, which was conducted some 15 years before the telephone surveys. The real time differences between the linguistic atlas data and the data from the telephone surveys provide strong support for the apparent time construct. Whenever apparent time data in the telephone surveys clearly suggest change in progress, the atlas data show substantially fewer innovative forms. Whenever the apparent time data suggest stable variation, the atlas data are virtually identical to that from the more recent surveys. Whenever the relationships between real and apparent time data are unclear, sorting out mitigating factors, such as nativity and subregional residence, clarifies and confirms the relationships. The results of our test of the apparent time construct suggest that it is unquestionably a valid and useful analytical tool.

Intergenerational pattern of interference and internally-motivated changes in Cajun French

2005 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
SYLVIE DUBOIS ◽  
SIBYLLE NOETZEL
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Cajun French ◽  
Linguistic Ability ◽  
Methodological Tool ◽  
Locative Prepositions

We examine the variable use of locative prepositions in Cajun French, adding two dimensions to existing studies: real-time evidence, adding a diachronic descriptive perspective, and a methodological tool, measuring the degree of exposure to French (MDI). The goal of this paper is to determine the origins and the directions of language change within the system of locative prepositions. The majority of the interviews are taken from the Cajun French/English corpus, conducted by Dubois in 1997. Our results indicate that the restricted speakers use an array of innovative forms in all locative categories. Systemic and extralinguistic evidence show that some of these forms represent interference-induced innovations, while others are internally-motivated innovations stimulated in an indirect way by language contact. A model of change emerges where the older restricted speakers introduce changes that are gradually adopted by the following generations, regardless of the extent to which their linguistic ability in Cajun French is diminished.

Investigating St. John’s English: Real- and Apparent-time Perspectives

2006 ◽  
Vol 51 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 143-160
Author(s):  
Pauline Hollett
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
North American ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Middle Age ◽  
Canadian English ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Generational Change ◽  
Time Perspectives ◽  
Adoption Model ◽  
Female Cohort

AbstractThe Canadian English vowel system is undergoing a shift, and the dialect of English spoken in St John’s, Newfoundland—which for demographic and geographic reasons has remained autonomous from North American varieties—is being affected by this change. Incorporating both real-time and apparent-time data, the findings show a process of communal and generational change. The front lax vowel lowering and/or retraction that characterize Canadian Shift appear to be active in St. John’s English. Consistent with the late adoption model of language change, older speakers show ongoing changes from their early 20s through to middle age. Moreover, the older female cohort seems to lead in the adoption of supralocal Canadian English forms, and this both in apparent time and in real time. This challenges the idea that younger generations are the sole or primary locus of language change. While innovative forms are typically associated with younger speakers, this study shows that they can also be adopted, accelerated, and advanced by older speakers.

scholarly journals Calibrate to innovate: Community age vectors and the real time incrementation of language change

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Sophie Holmes-Elliott
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Generational Differences ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Community Patterns ◽  
The Real ◽  
Stratified Sample

Abstract This study investigates children's real time incrementation of language change as it is impacted by community-wide patterns of linguistic variability. The investigation combines apparent time analyses across an age-stratified sample of adult speakers, with real time analyses across a panel of speakers spanning childhood to adolescence. Three variables are analysed: GOOSE-fronting, a socially unmarked change; TH-fronting, a socially stigmatised, rapidly expanding change; and T-glottaling, a socially stigmatised, steadily shifting change. Variables are selected based on their social and generational profiles which present learners with more or less challenging community patterns to extract. Real time analyses confirm that community variance impacts on speakers’ ability to increment change in real time. Findings provide support for the momentum-based model of language change and builds on Labov's (2012:267) theory of the ‘outward orientation’ of children, which views learners as capable of extracting age vectors from generational differences. (Language change, incrementation, real time, GOOSE-fronting, TH-fronting, T-glottaling)*

The diffusion of language change in real time: Progressive and conservative individuals and the time depth of change

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terttu Nevalainen ◽  
Helena Raumolin-Brunberg ◽  
Heikki Mannila
Keyword(s):  
Computational Model ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Time Model ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Structural Patterns ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Stuart England ◽  
Early English ◽  
Over Time

AbstractA major issue in the study of language change is the degree to which individual speakers participate in ongoing linguistic changes as these progress over time. In this study, we examine the hypothesis, suggested by research based on the apparent-time model, that in any given period most people are neither progressive nor conservative with regard to ongoing changes, but rather fall between these polarities. Our data come from the Corpus of Early English Correspondence, which spans over 270 years. A computational model was developed to establish which language users were progressive and which conservative with respect to several ongoing changes that progressed in real time between the early 15th and late 17th centuries. The changes studied ranged from morpheme replacements to more abstract structural patterns. Our results indicate that the degree to which language users participated in changes in progress depended on the type of language change analyzed, the stage of development of the change, and the rate of diffusion of the process over time. The model also enabled the identification of groups of leaders of linguistic change in Tudor and Stuart England.

The sociolinguistics of a short-lived innovation: Tracing the development of quotative all across spoken and internet newsgroup data

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabelle Buchstaller ◽  
John R. Rickford ◽  
Elizabeth Closs Traugott ◽  
Thomas Wasow ◽  
Arnold Zwicky
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Short Term ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Quantitative Analyses

AbstractThis paper examines a short-lived innovation, quotative all, in real and apparent time. We used a two-pronged method to trace the trajectory of all over the past two decades: (i) Quantitative analyses of the quotative system of young Californians from different decades; this reveals a startling crossover pattern: in 1990/1994, all predominates, but by 2005, it has given way to like. (ii) Searches of Internet newsgroups; these confirm that after rising briskly in the 1990s, all is declining. Tracing the changing usage of quotative options provides year-to-year evidence that all has recently given way to like. Our paper has two aims: We provide insights from ongoing language change regarding short-term innovations in the history of English. We also discuss our collaboration with Google Inc. and argue for the value of newsgroups to research projects investigating linguistic variation and change in real time, especially where recorded conversational tokens are relatively sparse.

scholarly journals Some Observations on What Grammaticalization Is and Is Not

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. e343
Author(s):  
Brian D. Joseph
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Language Change ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Grammatical Change

The notion of ‘grammaticalization’ — the embedding of once non- (or less-) grammatical phenomena into the grammar of a language — has enjoyed broad acceptance over the past 30 years as a new paradigm for describing and accounting for linguistic change.  Despite its appeal, my contention is that there are some issues with ‘grammaticalization’ as it is conventionally described and discussed in the literature.  My goal here is to explore what some of those problems are and to focus on what grammaticalization has to offer as a methodology for studying language change.  Drawing on case studies from the history of English and the history of Greek, I reach a characterization of how much of grammatical change can legitimately be called “grammaticalization” and how much is something else. In this way, I work to achieve a sense of what grammaticalization is and what it is not.

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