What Is To Be Learned NELS 2010 William Labov University of
Pennsylvania 1
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www.ling.upenn.edu/~labov 2
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The central dogma of sociolinguistics: The community is
conceptually and analytically prior to the individual. In
linguistic analysis, the system mof an individual can be understood
only through the study of the social groups of which he or she is a
member. 3
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Durkheims social facts...ways of behaving, thinking and
feeling, exterior to the individual, which possess a power of
coercion by which they are imposed on him (Durkheim 1937, Rgles de
la mthode sociologique, p. 5, my translation) 4
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Durkheim on individualism ... the word compelling, by which we
define [social facts], has a risk of irritating the zealous
partisans of an absolute individualism. As they believe that the
individual is perfectly autonomous, they feel that the individual
is diminished each time that it seems that he does not act entirely
by himself. (Durkheim 1937:6). 5
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The individual as primary input The linguist should be able to
pin-point the development of a language as a result of individual
choices, and... the sociolinguist should try to relate changes in
social structure to changes in individual cultural values as
expressed through speech in social interaction. Individual behavior
is thus seen as the proper starting point for sociolinguistic
investigation. Janet Holmes, Sociolinguistics and the Individual
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The general perspective put forward here... 7
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Two opposing views of the role of individuals and groups in
natural selection Chapters 5 to 8 [of Adaptation and Natural
Selection] will be primarily a defense of the thesis that
group-related adaptations do not, in fact, exist. The fact that an
insect population survives through a succession of generations is
not evidence for the existence of biotic adaptation. The survival
of the population may be merely an incidental consequence of the
organic adaptations by which each insect attempts to survive and
reproduce itself. -- G.C. Williams. 1966. Princeton U. Press. >
Natural selection can operate simultaneously at more than one
level. Individual selection promotes the fitness of others relative
to others in the same group. Group selection promotes the fitness
of groups, relative to other groups in the global population.... A
notion of group-interest must be added to the notion of
self-interest, to the extent that group selection is important in
nature. --David Sloan Wilson. 1989. Levels of Selection: An
Alternative to Individualism In Biology and the Human Sciences.
Social Networks 11:257-72. 8
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Part 1. The rejection of the idiolect. 9
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King of Prussia, PA... 10
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Acquisition of Philadelphia variables by 34 children of out-of-
state families in King of Prussia by age of arrival from Payne 1976
11 Age of arrival
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Milton Keynes... 12
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Development of local phonetic forms for the GOAT vowel in
Milton Keynes by age. [From Kerswill and Williams 1994]. 13
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kk 14
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Reduction of future bai ( < baimbai) in Tok Pisin
ParentChild em bai i-goem b-i-go he will gohe will go 15
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Percent secondary stress on future marker BAI by parents and
children (source: G. Sankoff). 16
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Seekonk MA... 17
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18
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Low back vowel systems in Seekonk children by grade and
parental system. Elementary schools: A = Aitkin, M = Martin, N =
North. (Johnson 2010: Fig. 5.3) 19
Shift of apical to uvular [R] in Montreal (from Sankoff and
Blondeau 2007) 22 Louise L. Louis-Pierre R. Guy T. Paul D. --
Sankoff & Blondeau 2007 Age % [R]
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Putative trajectories for speakers under 20 in 1971 who were
already categorical [R]-users 23 -- Sankoff & Blondeau 2007 Age
% [R]
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The Lower East Side of New York City 24
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. Phonological variables for subjects with foreign- and native-
born parents in New York City 25 10 - low 40 - high
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Upper class Chestnut Hill WicketSt. Kensington Pitt St.: So.
Phila Mallow St. Overbrook Nancy Drive King of Prussisa Clark St.
So. Phila The Philadelphia Neighborhood Study [N=120] 26
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Mean F1 and F2 for vowels with age coefficient in the
Philadelphia Neighborhood Study 1973-1979 (Labov 2001) Head of
arrow = estimated value for speakers 25 years younger than the
mean; tail of arrow for speakers 25 years older than the mean.
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Stepwise regression analysis of second formant of F2 of checked
/ey/ in the Philadelphia Neighborhood Study. N=112. Adjusted r 2 =
39.3. VariableCoefficientProbability Age (* 25 yrs) -85 0.0001
Female 830.008 Upper working class1080.026 Wicket St.
neighborhood1450.004 Jewish -169n.s. Italian 38n.s. Irish -2n.s.
Wasp -91n.s. German -98n.s. Generational status 9n.s. 28
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Part 2. Orientation to the community. 29
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Tensing of short-a in Philadelphia in closed syllables pttk
bddg mn fs vz l r 30
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Tensing of short-a in Philadelphia in closed syllables pttk
bddg mn fs vz mad, bad glad 31
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Tensing and laxing of short a before /d/ in the spontaneous
speech of 112 adults in the Philadelphia Neighborhood Study,
including speakers from all social classes Tense Lax bad143 0 mad
73 0 glad 18 1 sad 014 dad 010 32
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7,101 vowels of Jean H. PH06-2-1, 60 yrs 33
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Tense and lax vowels before /d/ of Jean H _hd _d 34
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Tense and lax words before /d/ of Jean H 35
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Tense Lax panpanningpanel hamhamminghammer planplanningplanet
fanfanningflannel Lexical diffusion of short-a tensing in
Philadelphia 36
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Lexical diffusion of tensing of planet among adults and
children in Philadelphia (Roberts and Labov 1995) 37
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Lexical diffusion of planet among younger and older children in
Philadelphia (Roberts and Labov 1995) 38
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Advance of tensing of short-a in planet by adults and children
in Philadelphia in 1975, 1993 and 2008 (Brody 2008). 39
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Tensing of short-a in Philadelphia before laterals pttk bddg mn
fs vz l r pal Sal Alice Italian personality alligator mallet
alley... 40
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Short-a before /l/ in the vowel system of Marie C., 62, [1973],
Philadelphia /h/ // 41
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Categorical shift of //before /l/ from lax to tense category in
the vowel system of Jean H.,60 [2006], Philadelphia 42
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Tensing of short-a before /l/ by adults and children age 3 5 in
three South Philadelphia families (Brody 2008) Family 1Family
2Family 3 Adults8/80/74/14 Children4/41/66/7 43
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The raising of Philadelphia /ey/ in closed syllables in bait,
laid, fade, etc. 44
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Raising of /ey/ for Jean M., 60, Philadelphia [2006] iy ey ay
oy 45
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Social stratification of (eyC) in Philadelphia Neighborhood
Study [N=112] 46
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The individual creates his systems of verbal behavior so as to
resemble those common to the group or groups with which he wishes
from time to time to be identified, to the extent that: (a) he is
able to identify those groups (b) his motives are sufficiently
clear-cut and powerful (c) his opportunities for learning are
adequate (d) his ability to learn -- that is, to changes his habits
where necessary -- is unimpaired. --R. Le Page & A.
Tabouret-Keller, Acts of Identity (1985) The social motivation of
sound change by individual Acts of Identity --R. Le Page & A.
Tabouret-Keller 1985 47
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Scatterplot of the fronting of (eyC) by age and socioeconomic
class, with partial regression lines for social classes, from the
Philadelphia Neighborhood Study 1972-1979 [N=112]. Upper class
Upper working class 48
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The backing and fronting of // in bus, but, bunk, etc. 49
head desk busses block socks mat The Northern Cities Shift boss
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Belten high school in the suburbs of Detroit (Eckert 2000)
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Backing of / / in but, bunk, etc. by gender and social group in
Belten high school in the suburbs of Detroit (Table 5.7, Eckert
2000). Burnout girls Burnout boys Jock girls Jock boys.79.63.22.30
Factor weights for advanced tokens of backed // 53
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The fronting of // in but, bunk, etc. in a Farmer City,
Illinois high school (Habick 1980), 54
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Distribution of fronting of // in but, bunk, etc by social
groups in Farmer City, Illinois (based on Table 9-2, Habick 1980)
Distance from /e/ Group Overlapped Close Far Burnout 6 30 Redneck
(=Jocks) 3 61 55
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Distribution of fronting of // in but, bunk, etc by social
groups in Farmer City, Illinois (based on Table 9-2, Habick 1980)
Distance from /e/ Group Overlapped Close Far Burnout 6 30 Redneck
(=Jocks) 3 61 56
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Distribution of fronting of // in but, bunk, etc by social
groups in Farmer City, Illinois (based on Table 9-2, Habick 1980)
Distance from /e/ Group Overlapped Close Far Burnout 6 30 Redneck
(=Jocks) 3 61 Parents 1 24 Grandparents 0 15 57
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U.S. at Night The Inland North Rochester Detroit Syracuse
Buffalo Cleveland Chicago Milwaukee Toledo Grand Rapids Flint
Joliet Kenoshat Columbus Indianapolis CIncinnati Kansas City Omaha
St. Louis 58
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59 U.S. at Night: u in bunk The Inland North vs. the Midland:
short u in bunk Syracuse Milwaukee Flint Columbus Evansville Terre
Haute Indianapolis
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Uniformity of the Inland North as defined by four coinciding
isoglosses. Black symbols: speakers satisfying the UD criterion: //
is backer than /o/. White symbols: /o/ is backer than // MIDLAND
NORTH MIDLAND NORTH 60
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The prevalence of out-of-state neighbors for Atlas subjects:
Percent non-locals answering telephone in four city/regions Source:
Table 14.3, Atlas of North American English 61
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Increasing divergence of // on the front-back dimension along
the North/Midland boundary 62
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The coalescence of nine isoglosses on the North/Midland
boundary MIDLAND NORTH 63
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64 Backing and fronting of / / in STRUT by age in the Inland
North [blue] and the Midland [red] d d F2()
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Every speaker is constantly adapting his speech- habits to
those of his interlocutors. (Bloomfield 1933: 476) 65
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Border identification based on currency flux. Blue = modularity
maximum. Links are drawn from the frequency with which they appear
in shortest-path tree clustering. Red =height in the clustering
tree. (from Thiemann et al. 2010, Figure 4b). North/Mi dland
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Expansion of the new verb of quotation be like to the general
English speech community 67
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First notice of the new verb of quotation, be like, in a note
by Ron Butters in American Speech 57:149, 1982. 68
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The first recorded use of the new verb of quotation, 1983 I
think people that -- have tr- never tried it are like more against
it. Because, before I didnt try it, I was like, "What's this gonna
do to me?" You know. --Ellen C., 20, Two Street, Philadelphia,
3/26/83 69
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Reports of the new verb of quotation be like, 1983-2010 1983
Phila 1990 NY 1999 York 1995 Texas 2001 Phila 1999 Ottawa 2002
Texas 2001 Glasgow 2001 MI 2004 Newcastle 2010 NEW ZEALAND 2007
California 2002 L.I. 2004 Toronto 2004 St. Johns 70
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Development of be like in Toronto in apparent time Figure 2
from Tagliamonte & DArcy 2004 5-9 yrs 1983 10-14 1983 parental
influence say be like 71
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What is to be learned? The general The new The local The first
72
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The role of gender 73
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Source: Eckert 2000 ^ Gender and social category determination
of five elements of the Northern City Shift in a Detroit suburban
high school 74
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Mean gender differences in F1 and age coefficients for seven
Philadelphia sound changes... 75
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Mean gender differences in F2 and age coefficients for seven.
Philadelphia sound changes.. iyC eyC aw ay0 hN h$ ahr incip / new /
old /completed sex differences in F2 means |age coefficient * 30|
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The generalization of linguistic variation association with a
social group association with gender language acquisition
association with the general language acquisition 77
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The devoicing of (ll) in Buenos Aires Spanish by age Source:
Wolf & Jimnez 1975 78
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A Sui village in southwest China. 79
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Language learning target bound to fathers system among the Sui
me 2 tsop 7 ni 4 ow 1 tsop 7 pu 4
notbe-likemothershouldbe-likefather Stanford, James N. 2009.
"Eating the food of our place": Sociolinguistic loyalties in
multidialectal Sui villages. Language in Society 38:287-310.
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Northern 1 st sg. Pronoun j 2 vs. Southern ju 2 He only says j
2. If he said ju 2 people would laugh at him, You speak like your
mother. They would laugh, and he would be embarrassed. Hes not
willing to speak like his mother. He speaks like his father. (p.
572) They said j 2. If they said ju 2, then others would scold
them. You eat our food, but you arent like us. 81