Hostname: page-component-5b777bbd6c-7sgmh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-06-21T16:39:32.575Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Linguistic change, social network and speaker innovation1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

James Milroy  and
Lesley Milroy
James Milroy
Affiliation:
Department of LinguisticsUniversity of Sheffield
Lesley Milroy
Affiliation:
Department of Speech, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This paper is concerned with the social mechanisms of linguistic change, and we begin by noting the distinction drawn by Bynon (1977) between two quite different approaches to the study of linguistic change. The first and more idealized, associated initially with traditional nineteenth century historical linguistics, involves the study of successive ‘states of the language’, states reconstructed by the application of comparative techniques to necessarily partial historical records. Generalizations (in the form of laws) about the relationships between these states may then be made, and more recently the specification of ‘possible’ and ‘impossible’ processes of change has been seen as an important theoretical goal.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , September 1985 , pp. 339 - 384
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Bailey, C.-J. (1973). Variation and linguistic theory. Washington D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Baugh, A. C. & Cable, T. (1978). History of the English language, 3rd ed.London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Blasco, Ferrer E. (1984). Storia linguistica della Sardegna. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boal, F. W. (1978). Territoriality on the Shankill-Falls divide, Belfast: the perspective from 1976. In Lanegran, D. A. & Palm, R. (eds), An invitation to geography. 58–77.Google Scholar
Boone, L. (1949). Patterns of innovation in the language of the oil-field. American Speech 24. 31–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, R. & Gilman, A. (1972). Pronouns of power and solidarity. Reprinted in Giglioli, P. P.Language and social context. Harmondsworth: Penguin. 252–82.Google Scholar
Bynon, T. (1977). Historical linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chambers, J. K. & Trudgill, P. J. (1980). Dialectology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1975). Language and responsibility. Sussex: Harvester Press.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. & Halle, M. (1968). The sound pattern of English. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Comrie, B. (1981). Language universals and linguistic typology. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Downes, W. (1984). Language and society. London: Fontana.Google Scholar
Eckert, P. (1980). The structure of a long-term phonological process: the back chain shift in Souletan Gascon. In Labov, W. (ed.). Locating language in time and space. 179–219.Google Scholar
Ekwall, E. (1956). Studies on the population of mediaeval London. Lund: Lund Studies in English.Google Scholar
Gal, S. (1979). Language shift. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Granovetter, M. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology 78. 1360–1380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gregg, R. J. (1964). Scotch–Irish urban speech in Ulster. In Ulster dialects – a symposium. Holywood, Co. Down: Ulster Folk Museum. 163–191.Google Scholar
Gregg, R. J. (1972). The Scotch-Irish dialect boundaries of Ulster. In Wakelin, M. (ed.), Patterns in the folk speech of the British Isles. 109–139.Google Scholar
Gumperz, J. J. (1982). Discourse strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halsey, A. H. (1978). Change in British society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Harris, J. (1983). Linguistic change in a nonstandard dialect. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Heilmann, L. (ed.) (1974). Proceedings of the Eleventh International Congress of Linguists. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Kroch, A. S. (1978). Towards a theory of social dialect variation. Language in Society 7. 17–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kroch, A. S. (1979). Dialect and style in the speech of upper class Philadelphia. Mimeo: University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1972). Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: Philadelphia University Press.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1974a). On the use of the present to explain the past. In Heilmann, L. (ed.), Proceedings of the Eleventh International Congress of Linguists. 1110–1135.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1974b). Linguistic change as a form of communication. In Silverstein, A. (ed.), Human communication: theoretical explorations, Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1980). Locating language in time and space. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1981). Resolving the neogrammarian controversy. Lg 57. 267–308.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1982). Building on empirical foundations. In Lehmann, W. P. & Malkiel, Y. (eds), Perspectives on historical linguistics. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 17–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, W., Yaeger, M. & Steiner, R. (1972). A quantitative study of sound change in progress. Report on NSF Project No. 65–3287.Google Scholar
Lanegran, D. A. & Palm, R. (eds) (1978). An invitation to geography (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Lass, R. (1976). English phonology and phonological theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lass, R. (1980). On explaining language change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lehmann, W. P. (1962). Historical linguistics: an introduction. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Lomnitz, L. (1977). Networks and marginality. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Milroy, J. (1976). Length and height variations in the vowels of Belfast vernacular. Belfast Working Papers in Language and Linguistics 1. 3.Google Scholar
Milroy, J. (1980). Lexical alternations and the history of English. In Traugott, E. (ed.), Papers from the International Conference on Historical Linguistics. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 355–62.Google Scholar
Milroy, J. (1981). Regional accents of English: Belfast. Belfast: Blackstaff.Google Scholar
Milroy, J. (1982a). Probing under the tip of the iceberg: phonological ‘normalization’ and the shape of speech communities. In Romaine, S. (ed.), Sociolinguistic variation in speech communities. London: Edward Arnold, 1982. 35–47.Google Scholar
Milroy, J. (1982b). Some connections between Galloway and Ulster speech. Scottish Language I (Winter issue).Google Scholar
Milroy, J. (1984a). The history of English in the British Isles. In Trudgill, P. (ed.), Language in the British Isles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 5–31.Google Scholar
Milroy, J. (1984b). Present day evidence for historical changes. In Blake, N. F. & Jones, C. (eds), Progress in English historical linguistics. Sheffield: University of Sheffield.Google Scholar
Milroy, J. & Harris, J. (1980). When is a merger not a merger?: the MEAT/MATE problem in a present-day English vernacular. English World-Wide 1. 199–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milroy, J. & Milroy, L. (1978). Belfast: change and variation in an urban vernacular. In Trudgill, P. (ed.), Sociolinguistic patterns in British English.Google Scholar
Milroy, J., Milroy, L., Harris, J., Gunn, B., Pitts, A. & Policansky, L. (1983). Sociolinguistic variation and linguistic change in Belfast. Report to the Social Sciences Research Council, Grant No. HR5777.Google Scholar
Milroy, L. (1980). Language and social networks. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Patterson, D. (1860). Provincialisms of Belfast. Belfast.Google Scholar
Pitts, A. (1982). Urban influence in Northern Irish English: a comparison of variation in two communities. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Rogers, E. M. & Shoemaker, F. F. (1971). Communication of innovations (2nd ed.). New York: Free Press.Google ScholarPubMed
Romaine, S. (1981). The status of variable rules in Sociolinguistic theory. JL 17. 93–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Staples, J. H. (1898). Notes on Ulster English Dialect. Transactions of the Philological Society. 357–387.Google Scholar
Strang, B. M. H. (1970). A History of Engish. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Tarde, G. (1903). The laws of imitation (translated by Parsons, Elsie Clews). New York: Holt.Google Scholar
Todd, L. (1974). Pidgins and creoles. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trench, R. C. (1888). On the study of words, 20th ed.London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co.Google Scholar
Trudgill, P. (ed.) (1978). Sociolinguistic patterns in British English. London: Arnold.Google Scholar
Trudgill, P. (1983). On dialect. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Varvaro, A. (1981). Lingua e storia in Sicilia. Palermo: Sellerio.Google Scholar
Vennemann, T. (1983). Causality in language change. Folia Linguistica Historica IV/I. 5–26.Google Scholar
Wakelin, M. (ed.) (1972). Patterns in the folk speech of the British Isles. London: Athlone.Google Scholar
Williams, R. A. (1903). Remarks on Northern Irish pronunciation of English. Modern Language Quarterly 6. 129–135.Google Scholar
Weinreich, U., Labov, W. & Herzog, M. (1968). Empirical foundations for a theory of language change. In Lehmann, W. & Malkiel, Y. (eds), Directions for historical linguistics. Austin: University of Texas Press. 95–195.Google Scholar