chapter 7 - finding issues

7/31/2019 Chapter 7 - Finding Issues

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Some Findings

and

Issues


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Some Findings and Issues

An Early Study

New York City Norwich and Reading

A Variety of Studies

Belfast

Controversies


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An Early Study


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n ar y tu y


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Labovs work in New York City is usually regarded as setting the

pattern for quantitative studies of linguistic variation. Labov

raised many of the issues that are still addressed and devised

many methods for tackling these issues. One of his earliest

studies of linguistic variation was a small-scale investigation of

the (r) variable (Labov, 1966).

Labov believed that r-pronunciation after vowels was being

reintroduced into New York speech from above, was a feature

of the speech of younger people rather than of older people,

was more likely to occur as the formality level in speech

increased, and would be more likely at the ends of words (floor)

than before consonants (fourth).

New York City

k


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Table 7.4 shows the incidence of r use that Labov found among

individuals employed in the three stores (Labov, 1972b, p. 51). The

table shows that 32 and 31 percent of the personnel approached inSaks and Macys respectively used r in all possible instances but only

17 percent did so in S. Klein; 79 percent of the seventy-one

employees in S. Klein who were approached did not use r at all, but

only 38 percent of the sixty-eight employees approached in Saks and

49 percent ofthe 125 employees approached in Macys were r-less.

New York City

k


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New York CityFigure 7.1 Percentage of (r); [r] infirst(I) and second (II) utterances of fourth

(white) andfloor

(solid) in three NewYork City department storesSource: based on Labov (1972b, p. 52)

k


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Labov claims that today in New York City pronunciationsof words like car and guard with the r pronounced are

highly valued. They are associated with the upper middleclass even though members of that class do not alwaysuse such pronunciations, nor do they use them on alloccasions.

We should note that r-pronunciation has not always beenhighly valued in New York City. New York City was rpronouncing in the eighteenth century but became r-lessin the nineteenth, and r-lessness predominated untilWorld War II.

At that time r-pronunciation became prestigious again,possibly as a result of large population movements to the

city; there was a shift in attitude toward r-pronunciation,from apparent indifference to a widespread desire toadopt such pronunciation.

New York City

k


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New York City

h d d


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Trudgill (1974) investigated sixteen different

phonological variables in his work in Norwich, England. Hedemonstrates, in much the same way as Labov does in

New York City, how use of the variants is related to

social class and level of formality.

Trudgills analysis of the variables (ng), (t), and (h) shows,

for example, that the higher the social class the more

frequent is the use of the [], [t], and [h] variants in

words like singing, butter, and hammer rather than thecorresponding [n], [?], and variants.

Norwich and Reading

h d R d


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However, whereas members of the lower working class almost

invariably say singin, they do not almost invariably say ammer.

Moreover, although members of the lower working class say

singin when they are asked to read a word list containing words

ending in -ing, they pronounce the (ng) with the [] variant on

the majority of occasions.The data also suggest that, so far as the (ng) variable is

concerned, its variant use is related not only to social class but

also to gender, with females showing a greater

preference for [] than males, regardless of social-classmembership.

Norwich and Reading

A V f S d


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The Detroit study (Shuy et al., 1968) and Wolframs follow-up to

that study (1969) have some findings which are worthy of

comment in the present context. For example, the Detroit study

investigated the use of multiple negation as a linguistic variable in

that city.

The study showed that there is a very close relationship between

the use of multiple negation and social class. Whereas upper

middleclass speakers used such negation on about 2 percent of

possible occasions, the corresponding percentages for the other

three social classes were as follows: lower middle class, 11

percent; upper working class, 38 percent; and lower working class,

70 percent.


A V f S d


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From such figures we can make a further observation: it is not that

members of the upper middle class always avoid multiple negation

and members of the lower working class always employ it; it may be

our impression that such is the case, but the facts do not confirm

that impression. No class uses one variant of the variable to the

exclusion of the other, regardless of circumstances.

For example, as the situation becomes more formal, an individuals

linguistic usage comes closer to standard usage, and the higher the

social class of the speaker, the more standard too is the speakers

behavior. Moreover, children are less standard in their linguistic

behavior than adults with similar social backgrounds, and males are

less standard than females.


B lf


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What we see in these working-class communities in Belfast, then,

is that the stronger the social network, the greater the use of

certain linguistic features of the vernacular. The results support

Milroys (1980, p. 43) hypothesis that a closeknit network has the

capacity to function as a norm enforcement mechanism; there is

no reason to suppose that linguistic norms are exempted from this

process.

Moreover, a closeknit network structure appears to be very

common. . . In low status communities.

Belfast

C i


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In a previous section I noted that linguistic variables may show

correlations not only with social variables but also with other linguistic

features, i.e., they may be linguistically constrained too, as with the

deletion of l in Montreal.

Controversies

C i


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Constraints may also mix phonological and grammatical

features. Wolfram (1969, pp. 5969) explains a situation in

Detroit in which black speakers also delete final stops in

clusters, but in this case make a distinction according to

the grammatical function of the stop. In the final cluster in

cold the d has no independent grammatical function it is

part of a single unit of meaning but in burned it marks

past tense and is grammatically the -ed ending, and

therefore has its own meaning.

Controversies

chapter 7 - finding issues

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