Office: 2.04 Dugald Stewart Building
E-mail: Use my first name and last name separated by a dot. Then use AT ed . ac . uk Phone: +44 131 651-1836 (direct line) Home: Language VariationThe study of variation in language can be approached from a number of different angles, and there are a number of different kinds of methodologies that can be used to explore how language varies between speakers, when speakers draw on different variants, and what the social and linguistic significance of such variation is. Quantitative methods are particularly useful for exploring the
extent to which linguistic or social factors constrain variation. Most
linguistic variables are principally constrained by other linguistic
factors. For instance, the variable presence of absence of subject and
object pronouns is much more closely tied to the tracking of referents
in discourse than to social factors (such as speakers' sex, or social
class). The variable deletion of /t/ and /d/ in final consonant
clusters (-CC#) is principally constrained by the following
phonological segment. Presence of absence of However, many variables are also constrained by social
factors. The use of subject pronouns can be influenced markedly by how
formal the speaking event is, or by who the speaker is talking
to. Similarly, (t, d) deletion is sensitive to style effects, and age
of speaker (there seem to be acquisition issues at play). The
choice of a velar or alveolar nasal with -ing endings is very
strongly correlated with speakers' social class, level of education,
and sex, as well as the formality of the speech event. How often
New Zealanders use the sentence-final tag eh appears to be
influenced by the strength of their social networks with Maori and
Pacific Island New Zealanders. The way these
factors interact with linguistic constraints and each other
offers really fascinating opportunities for better understanding
linguistic systems and also the social meaning of language variation.
There is a long tradition integrating studies of synchronic
variation with the study of langauge change over time. Traditional
regional dialectologists and social dialectologists share similar
interests, methods and principles.
Different linguistic theories handle variation in different ways,
and I believe the relationship between linguistic theory and the study
of variation to be an area in which there is tremendous potential for
further growth. Recent years have seen an increase in attempts to
directly tackle variation within Minimalism, within OT, within HPSG,
and within functional theories of language. Increasingly, variation is
not seen as a "problem", or as series of performance errors, but rather as an
opportunity to test the envelope of what aspects of naturally
occurring language different theories can handle best.
Introducing
Sociolinguistics
(2006,
Routledge [Taylor & Francis]) contains a lot of introductory information about
variation and language and has plenty of
hands-on exercises analysing variation.
Watch for the companion Sociolinguistics
Reader with more exercises and teaching
materials, co-authored by me and Erik Schleef (publication due 2010).
My work on language variation has appeared in a number of
journals and refereed collections of working papers and
proceedings. These include Language Variation and Change, Journal of
Sociolinguistics, Language in Society, Discourse and Communication, Te
Reo, English World-Wide
and (my personal favourite) the
University of
Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics.
Here are some references to work on language variation:
2009. Animacy in Tamambo and Bislama: Evaluating transfer of a
substrate feature. In James N. Stanford and Dennis R. Preston (eds)
Variation in Indigenous Minority Languages. Amsterdam/Philadelphia:
John Benjamins. 369-396.
2008. Social
Lives in Language: Sociolinguistic studies of
multilingual communities. Co-edited with Naomi Nagy
(UToronto). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
2008. Bequia is sweet: Syntactic variation in a lesser-known
variety of Caribbean English. English Today93, 24: 31-37.
2008. Language Varieties. In Wolfgang Donsbach (ed.) The
International Encyclopedia of Communication. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
2008. Teaching sociolinguistics. In Koenraad Kuiper (ed.) Te Reo:
Papers in memory of Scott Allan. 50. 47-60.
2007.
Forty years of language change on Martha's Vineyard. (Jennifer Pope,
Miriam Meyerhoff, D.R. Ladd). Language. 83. 615-627.
2007.
The persistence of variation in individual grammars: Copula absence in
'urban sojourners' and their stay-at-home peers, Bequia (St Vincent
and the Grenadines). (Miriam Meyerhoff & James A. Walker). Journal
of Sociolinguistics. 11, 3. 346-366.
2006.
Sociolinguistic Variation and Change. In Encyclopedia of Life
Support Systems: Vol. 4 Social Sciences and Humanities. UNESCO.
2006.
Zero copula in the Caribbean: Evidence from Bequia. (James A. Walker &
Miriam Meyerhoff) American Speech. 81, 2. 146-163.
2006.
Linguistic change, sociohistorical context and
theory-building in variationist linguistics: new dialect formation in
New Zealand. English Language and Linguistics. 10, 1. 173-194.
2006.
Prestige (overt and covert). In Keith Brown (ed.)
Encyclopedia of Languages and Linguistics, 2nd ed.: Volume 10. Oxford:
Elsevier. 77-80.
2006.
Syntactic variation. In Keith Brown (ed.) Encyclopedia of
Languages and Linguistics, 2nd ed.: Volume 12. Oxford:
Elsevier. 402-405.
2006.
Topics from the Tropics (Hawai'i). In Walt Wolfram and Ben
Ward (eds) American Voices: How dialects differ from coast to
coast. Oxford: Blackwell. 165-171.
2006.
The persistence of grammatical constraints: 'Urban sojourners' from
Bequia. PWPL: Selected papers from NWAV 34. 12.
2003.
The globalisation of vernacular variation. (Miriam
Meyerhoff & Nancy Niedzielski) Journal of
Sociolinguistics. 7, 4. 534-555.
2003.
Reduplication in Bislama: An overview of
phonological and semantic factors. In Silvia Kouwenberg (ed.) Twice as
Meaningful: Morphological reduplication in Pidgins and
Creoles. Battlebridge: UK. 231-238.
2003.
Formal and cultural constraints on optional objects in
Bislama. Language Variation and Change. 14, 3. 323-346.
2002.
Communities of practice. In J.K. Chambers, Natalie
Schilling-Estes and Peter Trudgill (eds) Handbook of Language
Variation and Change. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 526-548.
2002.
Social psychology of language and language variation. PWPL: Selected
papers from NWAV 30. 9, 1. 147-159.
2002.
All the same? The emergence of complementisers in Bislama. In Tom
Gueldemann & Manfred von Roncador (eds) Reported Discourse: A
meeting ground for different linguistic levels.
Amsterdam: Benjamins. 341-359.
2001.
Dynamics of differentiation: On social psychology and cases of
language variation. In Nikolas Coupland, Christopher Candlin and
Srikant Sarangi (eds) Sociolinguistics and Social Theory. London:
Longman. 61-87.
2000.
The emergence of creole subject-verb agreement and the licensing of
null subjects. Language Variation and Change. 12, 2. 203-230.
1999.
The emergence of subject-verb agreement. PWPL: Selected papers from
NWAVE 27. 6, 1. Actually not just the same as the article
above, but obviously (for me)
an important precursor.
1999.
Towards a typology of linguistic
variables.
Unpublished paper presented in a
special session on variation and formal linguistic theory, organised by
Julie Auger. NWAV28, University of York and University of Toronto.
References in this paper are incomplete. Please contact me
if you are looking for one of them.
1998.
Comparing old and new information in Bislama: nominal deletion with
olsem. In Jan Tent and France Mugler (eds) SICOL: Proceedings of the
Second International Conference on Oceanic Linguistics: vol. 1,
Language Contact. Pacific Linguistics, C-141. Canberra: The Australian
National University. 85-93.
1998.
Accommodating your data: The use and misuse of accommodation theory in
sociolinguistics. Language and Communication. 18. 205-225.
1997.
Engendering identities: Pronoun selection as an indicator of salient
intergroup identities. In University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in
Linguistics (PWPL): Selected papers from NWAVE 25. 4, 1.
1996.
Dealing with gender identity as a sociolinguistic variable. In
Victoria L. Bergvall, Janet M. Bing, and Alice F. Freed (eds) Language
and Gender Research: Rethinking Theory and Practice. London and New
York: Longman. 225-252.
1996.
On Reduplication and its effects on the Base in Maori. (Miriam
Meyerhoff & Bill
Reynolds.) In Marina Nespor and Norval Smith (eds)
Dam Phonology: HIL
Phonology Papers II. The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics. 143-164.
1996.
Transitive marking in contact Englishes. Australian Journal of
Linguistics. 16, 1. 57-80.
1994.
'Sounds pretty ethnic, eh?' - a pragmatic particle in New Zealand
English. Language in Society. 23, 3. 367-388.
1994.
Rethinking 'gender' as a sociolinguistic variable.University of
Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics. 1, 1. 69-85.
1993.
Lexical shift in working class New Zealand English: variation in the
use of lexical pairs. English World-Wide. 14, 2. 231-248.
1992.
'A sort of something' - hedging strategies on nouns. In Working Papers
in Language, Gender and Sexism, AILA Commission on Language and
Gender. 2, 1. 59-73.
1992.
Powerlessness and solidarity in the functions of a New Zealand tag. In
Locating Power:
Proceedings of the 1992 Berkeley Women and Language Conference. Women
and Language Group: University of California, Berkeley. 409-419.
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