bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Decreolization?
Authors: Bailey Guy , Maynor Natalie 
Published: December 2008

ABSTRACTAs scholars have begun to reach a consensus on the Black English Vernacular (BEV) over the last decade, three important assumptions about that variety have emerged: (a) the grammars of children and adults are essentially alike, (b) BEV is decreolizing, and (c) most differences between BEV and white speech are the result of the persistence of creole features. However, these assumptions are largely based on comparisons of the speech of North American black children to that of Caribbean creole speakers, with no real attempt to establish the direction of grammatical change in BEV. Our work with black children and elderly adults in Texas tries to determine the direction of grammatical change in black English. This work suggests that all three of the assumptions listed above are unwarranted. The grammars of elderly adults and children are structurally, not just quantitatively different. The differences between the two varieties indicate that BEV is not decreolizing but is actually diverging from white speech. Finally, the differences suggest that differences between black and white speech are sometimes the result of contemporary developments rather than of the persistence of creole features. (Black English, decreolization, divergence, language change, reanalysis, sociolinguistics)
An account of social usages of Americanized argot in modern Russia
Authors: Korovkin Michael A. 
Published: December 2008

ABSTRACTThis article reports the emergence of a new “Americanized” argot in post-Stalinist Russia. It attempts to qualify the type of communicative code characteristic of the argot and to illuminate the link between the code and the communicative competence of argot-speaking groups. The article examines the pattern of recruitment into argot-speaking groups. It speculates on the set of relationships between this pattern and the process of socialization in the wider social milieu at school and in the families of different socioeconomic classes. (Sociolinguistics, symbolic anthropology, social change, Slavonic and Soviet studies, social boundaries and “primary groups,” revitalization movements)
“Something on the order of around forty to forty-four”: Imprecise numerical expressions in biomedical slide talks
Authors: Dubois Betty Lou 
Published: December 2008

ABSTRACTTo investigate forms and functions of imprecise numerical expressions in biomedical slide talks, tokens were extracted from fifty-two talks presented at the 1979 annual meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. Imprecise expressions include rounding, extreme rounding (to multiples of five or ten), ranges (both explicit and implicit), common fractions, and common multiples, all of which can be hedged, either simply or multiply. Imprecision can be occasioned by factors such as preliminary nature of results, small number of experimental animals, questionably applicable technique or apparatus, and inability to measure all members of a class. Rhetorically, imprecision foregrounds other, more precise quantities which the experimenter considers important, and thus, it can be seen as modality. Imprecision marks the talks as preinformation in Ziman's model of the social production of science and also as simultaneous popularization and peer communication. (Biomedical slide talks, imprecise numerical expressions, scientific rhetoric, modality, Zimanian social production of science)
Rules of address in secondary schools in Catania: Linguistic variation and its social/cultural value
Authors: Consoli Eleonora 
Published: December 2008

ABSTRACTThe present research was carried out in Catania, a town of 600,000 inhabitants on the eastern coast of Sicily, and was motivated by the observation of cases of nonreciprocity of address to female teachers in secondary schools. While male teachers were always addressed with their academic, professional titles, which have great, overt prestige in southern Italy, women, on the contrary, were often addressed as signora or signorina ‘Mrs./Miss’ in the vocative form. The main objectives of the research were to find out (a) which schools were involved in this case of nonreciprocity; (b) how many female teachers considered it a sign of respect or an act of discrimination; (c) if the linguistic imbalance reflected a social one; and (d) what were its psychological causes. (Linguistic imbalance, nonreciprocity of titles, asymmetrical address, social imbalance, Italian)
Cross cultural factors in phonological change
Authors: Lomax Alan 
Published: December 2008

ABSTRACTSAnalysis of the vowel/consonant patterns in a world sample of folk songs indicates that some speech sounds vary regularly with certain aspects of social structure. Consonant frequencies shift in relation to technological level: mid stops, fricatives and laterals increase in relative frequency along a scale of productive range. Alteration in the vowel map, on the other hand, seems to be related to cross-cultural differences in sex role. Thus changes in phonology, familiar to the linguist, may be symbolic of and explained by familiar societal phenomena. These suppositions are, it is true, based on the analysis of sung languages and remain to be confirmed for speech. However, the power of expressive style as a general diagnostic of the layout of culture implies that they will be so confirmed, since expressive patterns often turn out to be a sort of heightened and extra-redundant version of everyday behavior. Moreover, collections of recorded song performances provide a world-wide resource of ‘unselfconscious’ and culturally validated language data that is simply unavailable for other kinds of speech activity. (Phonology; variation; expressive (stylistic) function; song style; mode of production and se role; cross-cultural sample.)
Haya metaphors for speech
Authors: Seitel Peter 
Published: December 2008

ABSTRACTMetaphorical statements about speech are shown to embody implicitly certain indigenously named semantic dimensions. Hayas use these dimensions to conceive of and evaluate their own speech behavior. The dimensions are specified first through indigenous literal statements about speech, then through one-word metaphors applied to speech, and finally through ten proverbs about speech interactions that link metaphorically a named category of speech act with the alimentary act of expelling a flatus. (Metaphor, humor, componential analysis, folklore, proverbs, speech acts, ethnography of communication.)
On the structure of speaker–auditor interaction during speaking turns
Authors: Duncan Starkey 
Published: December 2008

ABSTRACTThe structure of speaker–auditor interaction during speaking turns was explored, using detailed transcriptions of language, paralanguage, and body-motion behaviors displayed by both participants in dyadic, face-to-face conversations. On the basis of certain observed regularities in these behaviors, three signals were hypothesized: (a) a speaker within-turn signal, (b) an auditor back-channel signal, and (c) a speaker continuation signal. These signals were composed of various behaviors in language and in body motion. It was further hypothesized that the display of appropriate ordered sequences of these signals by both participants, served to mark ‘units of interaction’ during speaking turns. (Conversational analysis; speaking turns; back-channel behaviors; interrelations of verbal and nonverbal behavior; American English (Chicago)).
Error correction as an interactional resource
Authors: Jefferson Gail 
Published: December 2008

ABSTRACTThis paper considers some small errors which occur in natural talk, treating them as matters of competence, both in the production of coherent speech and the conduct of meaningful interaction.Focusing on a rule-governed occurrence of the interjection ‘uh’, a format is described by which one can display that one is correcting an error one almost, but did not, produce. It is argued that there are systematic ways in which someone who hears such talk can find that an error was almost made and what that error would have been.Two broad classes of error are considered, both of which can be announced by and extracted from the occurrence of an error correction format. These are ‘production’ errors; i.e. a range of troubles one encounters in the attempt to produce coherent, grammatically correct speech, and ‘interactional’ errors; i.e. mistakes one might make in the attempt to speak appropriately to some co-participant(s) and/or within some situation.Focusing on interactional errors, it is proposed that the error correction format (and other formats for events other than error) can be used to invoke alternatives to some current formulation of self and other(s), situation and relationship, and thereby serve as a resource for negotiating and perhaps reformulating a current set of identities. (Conversational analysis, discourse devices (metalinguistic, attitudinal markers), U.S. English.)
Big and thin; two Diola-Fogny meta-linguistic terms
Authors: Sapir J. David 
Published: December 2008

ABSTRACTThe Diola-Fogny of Sénégal, West Africa, socially intuit with the meta-linguistic terms ‘big’ and ‘thin’ the tense/lax vowel contrast that is basic to their phonology. The two terms are primarily used to identify speech variation among individuals and groups. Examination revealed that speakers who made relatively greater use of vowel harmony were characterized as ‘big’ in contrast to others who were thought of as ‘thin’ speakers. The ‘big’/‘thin’ distinction provides the Fogny with one means by which they place the speech of an individual. In addition, this meta-linguistic device either is used to express indirectly the social place of an alter vis-à-vis an ego in terms of simple sameness or difference, or, when more than two people are involved, in terms of some form of segmentary opposition. (Sénégal, meta-linguistics, social interaction, phonology.)
Transferable communicative routines: strategies and group identity in two speech events
Authors: Watson Karen Ann 
Published: December 2008

ABSTRACTTwo speech events, narration and joking conversation, are analyzed from a sample of speech data recorded from Hawaiian children 5–7 years old, in a peer group setting. An underlying routine, which is transferable from one genre of speech event to another, is identified in both narration and joking. This routine is iterative, and allows for both stories and joking to be produced jointly in a contrapuntal style. Some social rules governing the use of the routine are discussed. (Linguistic routines, narration, joking, conversation, Hawaiian talk story.)
Workplace isoglosses: Lexical variation and change in a factory setting
Authors: Tway Patricia 
Published: December 2008

ABSTRACTThis paper examines language in a factory setting and shows that: (1) within a single building, different terms for the same thing may be found; (2) such alternation may be sufficiently stable to appear on ‘official’ forms, such as orders and inventories; (3) the major boundary is spatial, not social, in that it has to do with the major boundary between types of work; (4) operational links, proximity, and mobility between departments are major determinants of agreement and difference in usage within and across the two main sections of the factory. The data show lexical variability at a finer scale than has usually been considered in American dialectology, and show variation that appears independent of both region and class in its patterning. The data indicate a need for further investigation into sociolinguistic processes in occupational settings. (Dialectology, language change, lexical variability, sociology of work; American English (New Castle, Pennsylvania).)
American Linguistic Prescriptivism: Its Decline and Revival in the 19th Century
Authors: Drake Glendon 
Published: December 2008

ABSTRACTAspects of nineteenth-century American life are crucial to the understanding of the history and nature of American prescriptivism. The story is not merely one of continuity from eighteenth-century Britain. An examination of linguistic thought of the nineteeth-century reveals that the prescriptive doctrine met with significant intellectual challenge from 1820 through the 40s. This reaction grew partly out of a specific revolt against rote learning, partly out of the development of national consciousness, and partly out of the ‘boundless’ intellectual tenor of the times.The thought of the period 1850 through the 70s was a significant source of the doctrine's subsequent vigor which was to exhibit a curious and remarkable continuity into and throughout the present century. During the latter half of the century the doctrine of correctness revived with new vehemence in a new drive for uniformity and conformity. This was facilitated and accommodated in general by the intellectual milieu of the time: national integration and consolidation. The single most important specific factor was the development of the genteel cultural apparatus, as manifested linguistically by an interest in language, especially in ‘linguistic etiquette’ in genteel publication; in the reaction against innovation; in the application of intellect and logic to language; in the high premium placed by the genteel on books and authority; in the anglophile tendency of the genteel; and in the desire for a responsible, stable community.
A model for polyglossia and multilingualism (with special reference to Singapore and Malaysia)
Authors: Platt John T. 
Published: December 2008

ABSTRACTFerguson's concept of diglossia and its later extension and coupling with bilingualism (Fishman et al.) is developed further into the concept of polyglossia with multilingualism by discussion of various speech communities where these phenomena are in evidence. A general model is suggested which could cope with cases of polyglossla by a continuum ranging from H(igh) varieties through M(edium) varieties to L(ow) varieties. Devices for status ranking of speech varieties are discussed and established. The general matrix is then applied to two of the special cases discussed previously, namely the English-educated Chinese communities of Singapore Malaysia.
Negative incorporation in French and American sign language
Authors: Woodward James , Desantis Susan 
Published: December 2008

ABSTRACTThis paper examines Negative Incorporation in various lects of two historically related sign languages, French Sign Language and American Sign Language. Negative Incorporation not only offers interesting insights into the structure of French and American Sign Language, but also into the descriptive and explanatory power of variation theory. By viewing Negative Incorporation in a dynamic framework, we are able to describe the variable usage of Negative Incorporation as a phonological process in French Sign Language and as a grammatical process in American Sign Language, to argue for possible early creolization in American Sign Language, to show the historical continuum between French Sign Language and American Sign Language despite heavy restructuring, and to demonstrate the influences of social variables on language variation and change, especially illustrating the progressive role of women in sign language change and the conservative forces in French Sign Language as compared with American Sign Language. (Sociolinguistics, sign language, creolization, linguistic changes.)
Peasant men can't get wives: language change and sex roles in a bilingual community
Authors: Gal Susan 
Published: December 2008

ABSTRACTLanguage shift from German–Hungarian bilingualism to the exclusive use of German is occurring in the community discussed. Young women are further along in the direction of this change than older people and young men. The linguistic contrast between German and Hungarian is shown to represent the social dichotomy between a newly available worker status and traditional peasant status; thus the choice of language in interaction is part of a speaker's presentation of self. Young women's stated preferences concerning this social dichotomy and their changing marriage strategies indicate that their greater use of German in interaction is one aspect of their general preference for the worker's way of life it symbolizes. Rather than simply isolating a linguistic correlate of sex, the present study suggests that women's speech choices must be explained within the context of their social position, their strategic life choices and the symbolic values of the available linguistic alternatives (language and sex roles; interactional analysis; social determinants of language shift; European bilingualism).
Wolof noun classification: the social setting of divergent change
Authors: Irvine Judith T. 
Published: December 2008

ABSTRACTOngoing change in Wolof noun classification is traced by comparing nineteenth-century linguistic evidence with modern sociolinguistic data. On the rural scene, the noun class system today displays competing generalizations, associated with different social groups. Upwardly mobile middle-aged men of high caste tend to reduce the system, whereas other speakers tend to elaborate it. The source of both tendencies can be found in Wolof cultural assumptions relating social rank to norms of verbal conduct. In particular, an idea that linguistic ‘error’ can be appropriate for high-ranking persons underlies the reductionist tendencies of upwardly mobile speakers. Although the two tendencies compete on one level, on another they combine to form a more general systemic trend toward the incorporation of social features into Wolof syntax. (Sociolinguistic change, noun classification, norms for performance, ‘appropriate error’, criteria for inference of change; Wolof language of Senegal.)
Dialect and conversational inference in urban communication
Authors: Gumperz John J. 
Published: December 2008

AbstractMaintenance of dialect differences despite loss of communicative isolation points up the need to analyze the role of dialect-standard alternates in signalling social identity and in contributing to conversational inference. Such analysis should focus on conversational interaction and on the processes by which situated interpretations are arrived at and used as frames for interpreting what follows. An Afro-American sermon and a disputed speech by a Black political leader to a mixed audience are analyzed. Dialect alternants serve to signal switching between contrasting styles in both. In the sermon, the audience shares with the speaker a knowledge of the structure of the activity and of the rules for both styles. In the speech, the activity lacks a predictable structure, only the style can frame interpretation, and most of the audience do not share its rules. Conversational inference is shown to depend not only on grammar, lexical meanings and conversational principles, but also on constellations of speech variants, rhythm, and prosody. Such constellations may persist as symbols of shared cultural background. (Dialectology, conversational and discourse analysis; Afro-American speech styles; urban United States.)
The classification of cooperative illocutionary acts
Authors: Hancher Michael 
Published: December 2008

ABSTRACTThe different taxonomies of illocutionary acts proposed by Austin, Searle, Vendler, Ohmann, and Fraser are compared in summary form, with Searle's taxonomy taken as a reference standard. All five of these taxonomies slight two kinds of illocutionary act: (I) illocutionary acts that combine commissive with directive illocutionary force (e.g., offering, inviting, challenging), and (2) illocutionary acts that require two participants (e.g., giving, selling, contracting). These and related speech acts are discussed in some detail, and Searle's classification is amended to take them into account. (Speech acts, Austin, Searle, law, contracts, English.)
Some principles of linguistic methodology
Authors: Labov William 
Published: December 2008

AbstractCurrent difficulties in achieving intersubjective agreement in linguistics require attention to principles of methodology which consider sources of error and ways to eliminate them. The methodological assumptions and practices of various branches of linguistics are considered from the standpoint of the types of data gathered: texts, elicitations, intuitions and observations. Observations of the vernacular provide the most systematic basis for linguistic theory, but have been the most difficult kinds of data for linguists to obtain; techniques for solving the problems encountered are outlined. Intersubjective agreement is best reached by convergence of several kinds of data with complementary sources of error.
Variation and variables in religious glossolalia
Authors: Samarin William J. 
Published: December 2008

AbstractPsychopathological explanations oversimplify religious glossolalia. An analysis of the use of glossolalia reveals that the speaker manipulates linguistic variables with considerable delicacy in response to role, purpose of the speech act, and setting of the speech act. Examined from a cultural point of view, glossolalia is another ‘language’ in the Pentecostalists' linguistic repertoire. (Glossolalia, Pentecostalism, speech pathologies, paralinguistics, language of religion.)
Rules of address in Italy: a sociological survey
Authors: Bates Elizabeth , Benigni Laura 
Published: December 2008

AbstractStudies of address forms have almost always concentrated on a single set of rules, as they would be used by one idealized speaker. We proposed instead to examine the use of address pronouns in Italy as a function of the classical sociological parameters of age, sex and social class. A modified version of the Brown and Gilman questionnaire was administered in interviews with 117 Italian adults. Results indicate a powerful age—class interaction in overall degree of formality. Young upper class Ss are by far the least formal of the social groups — a particularly interesting finding, since Brown and Gilman's original study was drawn entirely from this population. Lower class youth are the most formal, with older Ss falling in between. Most Italians are likely to expect to receive the same address form that they give; the only clearly functional non-reciprocal relationships involve differences in age rather than status. The relationship of the results to political measures are also discussed. Several issues are examined from the point of view of sociolinguistic ‘ideals’ tapped by the questionnaire, vs. actual behavior in social settings. (Address forms (T/V pronouns); social class, age, and sex differences; Italy (Rome).)
Conversation in a West Indian taxi: an ethnolinguistic analysis
Authors: Edwards Jay , Rosberg Michael , Hoy Luis ‘Modesto’ Pryme 
Published: December 2008

AbstractThis paper examines the stylistic use of language by West Indian men. A verbal duel is explored and related to an opposition between two West Indian value systems. The concept of ‘vertical code switching’, such as in diglossia, is found to be inadequate to account for the verbal behavior. More significant is a type of ‘horizontal’ switching which involves phonological and suprasegmental features. (Multilingualism, creole languages, code and style switching, ‘lente’ and ‘allegro’ speech, ethnography of communication; San Andrés Island, Colombia.)
The structure and use of politeness formulas
Authors: Ferguson Charles A. 
Published: December 2008

ABSTRACTThe use of interpersonal verbal routines such as greetings and thanks is examined as a universal phenomenon of human languages, related in some way to the widespread ‘greeting’ behavior of other animals. Examples from Syrian Arabic, American English, and other languages are used to show differing patterns of structure and use, susceptible of grammatical and sociolinguistic analysis. Features of diachronic change and children's acquisition are briefly treated. Call is made for better description and analysis of politeness formulas in grammars of languages and in ethnographics of communication. (Ritual, politeness, language change, language acquisition.)