Linguistic Items

Linguistic Items:—vocabulary (“lexical items, or

“lexemes)—sound-pattern (“sound”)—larger syntactic patterns

(“constructions)Different linguistic items in ‘the same

language’ can have quite different social distribution (in terms of speakers and circumstances).

Varieties of language

The flexibility of the term “variety”:1. French, German, and Italian in Swiss or Chinese, Malaysian, Tamil, and English in Singapore2. Ebonics (African) in the USA; Cockney (cockney rhyming slang London slang dictionary) in Britain; Geordie (Newcastle English (Geordie)) in Britain

Speech Community

A speech community is a group of people who speak a common dialect. However, the linguists know that there is really no such thing as a pure dialect spoken by a particular ethnic group or by people from just one perfectly definable region.Example: your handout(Untitled Document)

Language: ‘Language’ and ‘dialect’

The delimitation of language and dialect:1. Size:2. Prestige:3. Mutual intelligibility:In terms of the second criterion (prestige), only a ‘standard language’ can be called a ‘language’.(the right and wrong views in your handoutUntitled Document)

The family tree model

The family tree model clarifies the historical relations among the varieties concerned, and in particular that it gives a clear idea of the relative chronology of the historical changes by which the varieties concerned have diverged.Lynch, Indo-European Language Family Tree

The family tree model

The disadvantage of the family tree model:1. Showing only vertical descendant (subclassification) but not horizontal influence (cross-classification)2. only represents a gross simplification of the relations between varieties

The family tree model

Disadvantage3.

Regional dialects and Isoglosses

Regional dialects:1. Taiwan: I-Lang— 滷蛋2. German dialect variety: http://lingvo.info/lf/germana.php?/lingvo=enIsogloss: a boundary line between places or regions that differs a particular linguistic item.Example: Map 2.1 (Isoglosses intersect with each other.)

Isogloss and the wave theory

The analogy between isogloss intersection and the wave (ripple)

Isogloss intersection

wave

Centers of influence (linguistic items, new items, innovation)

stone

Isoglosses Ripples (waves)There is no reason why innovations leading to any two different isoglosses should have started in the same place—or for that matter in the same period—so convergence appears

If two or more stones are dropped into a pool, there is no reason why they should fall in the same place, and there could be many different centers of influence from which ripples spread.

Isoglosses and the wave theory

The weakness of the analogy:Not like the ripples, the waves of linguistic influence may freeze and stop expandingAnother analogy: different species of plants sown in a field, each spreading outwards by dispersing its seeds over a particular area (see Another analogy.doc)

Ways of classifying dialects

Geography:1. pail v.s. bucket2. farm [fa:m] v.s. farm [fa:rm] 3. Talk [t lk] v.s. talk [talk] Sociolinguistics Resources: Dialect Map ("talk")4. bought [b t] v.s. bought [bat] Sociolinguistics Resources: Dialect Map ("bought")

Ways of classifying dialects

Ethnicity:May be geography related (e.g., Pennsylvania Dutch) or not (African American Vernacular English, AAVE or Ebonics)

Ways of classifying dialects

Social class:Example:1. Received Pronunciation (RP) in Britain Received Pronunciation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia2. The Boston Brahmin dialect in the USA: Boston Brahmin3. R-lessness in New York City Ways of classifying dialects

Ways of classifying dialects

Gender: Japanese;

Age: Youth sub-cultural group youth.doc

Grammatical aspects of language variation

Phonetic Variation:In the New York City dialects: dental 〔 t〕 In standard dialects of American English: alveolar 〔 t〕

Grammatical aspects of language variation

Phonological Variation:In some African American dialects, the Cr and Cl (C stands for consonant) are prohibited in unstressed syllables.So “professor” is “professor” “credentials” is “cedentials”“ 香” in Mandarin and Taiwanese

Grammatical aspects of language variation

Morphological variationIn northern England and Southern Wales:I likes him.We walks all the time.

Grammatical aspects of language variation

Semantic variation:“knocked up” in English English and American English English Usage in the UK and USA

Grammatical aspects of language variation

Syntactic variation:In many Southern dialects in the USA: “done” as an auxiliary:She done already told you.

Double modals: I might could do it.

WEBSITE

Canadian English: Canadian

Assignment 2

Choose two varieties of a languages (for example: 國語 in Taiwan and 普通話 in China; 國語 and 台語 in Taiwan; ,,,) and try to analyze what factor (or factors) can explain for this variation. Then give examples in the aspects of phonetic, phonology, syntax, morphology, and semantics to illustrate the variations between these two varieties.