One speaker, two languages : cross-disciplinary perspectives on code-switching

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PHONOLOGYCAL VARIATION AND CHANGE IN CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH: EVIDENCE FROM NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE AND DERBY

This paper gives an overview of the principal findings of a recent project carried out on phonological variation and change in contemporary urban dialects, using quantitative sociolinguistic methods, instrumental phonetic, and phonological analysis. Conversational and word-list data were sistematically collected from 32 Tyneside and 32 Derby speakers, each sample being stratified to include equal numbers of men and woman, two age-groups and two social class groups. This sample design allowed us to assesss the impact of age, class, and gender on patterns of language variation and change as well as the geographical domains of specific changers. The principal results are described and their theoretical implications are phonetics.Este trabajo ofrece un resumen de un proyecto de investigación centrado en la variación y el cambio fonológico en inglés oral contemporáneo. Se han estudiado tendencias de variación y cambio fonológico en distintos dialécticos urbanos del inglés contemporáneo aplicando métodos de sociolingüistica cuantitativa, de fonética acústica e instrumental y de análisis fonológico. Los datos proceden de 32 informantes de Tyneside y 32 de Derby, cada uno de estos dos grupos incluía el mismo número de hombres y mujeres y distinguía dos grupos de edades y dos clases sociales. Los datos se obtuvieron, en ambos casos, a partir de la lectura de listas de palabras o de conversaciones con los informantes. Esta muestra nos ha permitido evaluar la influencia que factores como la edad, la clase social y el sexo en las distintas tendencias de variación y cambio lingüístico que se analizan, además de ofrecernos información sobre los ámbitos geográficos de algunos cambios concretos. Tanto los resultados de este proyecto, como sus implicaciones teóricas se describen en el artículo

Choix de langue et réseaux sociaux dans la communauté chinoise du Tyneside : développement d'un modèle explicatif

Cet article a pour but de montrer comment une analyse basée sur le concept de réseau social peut éclairer les schèmes de choix de la langue dans une communauté immigrée bilingue. Le concept de réseau y est discuté à la fois en termes généraux et de manière plus spécifique dans une application à la communauté chinoise du Tynseside, dans le nord-est de l'Angleterre. On examine les différences entre générations dans les comportements de choix de la langue, tout comme les différences à l'intérieur d'une même génération. On évalue également l'efficacité du concept de réseau social en tant que lien entre les micro- et macro-niveaux d'analyse.The purpose of this paper is to show how an analysis based on the concept of social network can illuminate patterns of language choice in a bilingual migrant society. The network concept is discussed both in general terms, and more specifically in relation to the Chinese community in Tyneside, north­eastern England. Intergenerational differences in language choice patterns are examined, as are differences within a single generation. The potential of social network as a concept which links micro and macro levels of analysis is discussed

The mediated innovation model: a framework for researching media influence in language change

Linguistic innovations that arise contemporaneously in highly distant locations, such as quotative be like, have been termed ‘global linguistic variants’. This is not necessarily to suggest fully global usage, but to invoke more general themes of globalisation vis-à-vis space and time. This research area has grown steadily in the last twenty years, and by asserting a role for mass media, researchers have departed intrepidly from sociolinguistic convention. Yet they have largely relied on quite conventional sociolinguistic methodologies, only inferring media influence post hoc. This methodological conservatism has been overcome recently, but uncertainty remains about the overall shape of the new epistemological landscape. In this paper, I review existing research on global variants, and propose an epistemological model for researching media influence in language change: the mediated innovation model. I also analyse the way arguments are constructed in existing research, including the use of rhetorical devices to plug empirical gaps – a worthy sociolinguistic topic in its own right

"The daily grunt": middle class bias and vested interests in the 'Getting in Early' and 'Why Can't They Read?' reports.

It is a long-standing and commonly held belief in the UK and elsewhere that the use of elite forms of language reflects superior intellect and education. Expert opinion from sociolinguistics, however, contends that such a view is the result of middle-class bias and cannot be scientifically justified. In the 1960s and 1970s,such luminaries as Labov (1969) and Trudgill (1975) were at pains to point out to educationalists, with some success, that this 'deficit 'view of working-class children's communicative competence is not a helpful one. However, a close reading of recent think-tank reports and policy papers on language and literacy teaching in schools reveals that the linguistic deficit hypothesis has resurfaced and is likely to influence present-day educational policy and practice. In this paper I examine in detail the findings, claims and recommendations of the reports and I argue that they are biased, poorly researched and reflect the vested interests of certain specialist groups, such as speech and language therapists and companies who sell literacy materials to schools. I further argue that we need to, once again, inject the debate with the social dimensions of educational failure, and we need to move away from the pathologisation of working-class children's language patterns

Introduction

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69081/2/10.1177_0261927X99018001001.pd

Exploring contested authenticity among speakers of a contested language: the case of ‘Francoprovençal'

This paper explores the notion of speaker authenticity in the context of obsolescent ‘Francoprovençal’: a highly fragmented grouping of Romance varieties spoken in parts of France, Italy, and Switzerland by less than 1% of the total regional population. While Francoprovençal has long been losing ground to the dominant language(s) with which it is in contact, new speakers have begun to emerge within the context of revitalisation movements and activities geared more favourable language planning policies and increased literacy. The emergence of these new speakers has polarised native-speaker communities, and has blurred the lines associated with the traditional view of sociolinguistic authenticity. Through an analysis of qualitative data collected in 2012, this article argues in particular that it may not be sufficient to simply examine contested authenticities from a native–non-native perspective, but rather it is important to consider how new speakers might themselves form a complex spectrum of speaker types with new sets of tensions as has been argued elsewhere