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Variationist sociolinguistics and corpus-based variationist linguistics: overlap and cross-pollination potential

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 June 2017

Benedikt Szmrecsanyi
Benedikt Szmrecsanyi*
Affiliation:
KU Leuven
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

The paper surveys overlap between corpus linguistics and variationist sociolinguistics. Corpus linguistics is customarily defined as a methodology that bases claims about language on usage patterns in collections of naturalistic, authentic speech or text. Because this is what is typically done in variationist sociolinguistics work, I argue that variationist sociolinguists are by definition corpus linguists, though of course the reverse is not true: the variationist method entails more than merely analyzing usage data, and not all corpus analysts are interested in variation. But that being said, a considerable and arguably increasing number of corpus linguists not formally trained in variationist sociolinguistics are explicitly concerned with variation and engage in what I call corpus-based variationist linguistics (CVL). I first discuss what unites or divides work in CVL and in variationist sociolinguistics. In a plea to cross subdisciplinary boundaries, I subsequently identify three research areas where variationist sociolinguists may draw inspiration from work in CVL: conducting multi-variable research, paying more attention to probabilistic grammars, and taking more seriously the register-sensitivity of variation patterns.

Résumé

Cet article explore le chevauchement entre la linguistique de corpus et la sociolinguistique variationniste. La linguistique de corpus est typiquement définie comme une méthodologie qui fonde ses affirmations linguistiques sur les régularités de l'usage émergeant des collectes de données orales ou textuelles naturalistes et authentiques. Puisque c'est ce qui se fait généralement en sociolinguistique variationniste, je soutiens que les sociolinguistes variationnistes sont par définition des linguistes de corpus, bien que l'inverse ne soit pas vrai: la méthode variationniste implique davantage que le seul fait d'analyser les données de l'usage, et tous les analystes de corpus ne s'intéressent pas à la variation. Ceci étant dit, un nombre grandissant de linguistes de corpus n'ayant pas été formellement formés en sociolinguistique variationniste s'intéressent explicitement à la variation et s'investissent dans ce que j'appelle la linguistique variationniste basée sur les corpus (en anglais, corpus-based variationist linguistics ou CVL). Je discute d'abord ce qui unit et ce qui divise la linguistique variationniste basée sur les corpus et la sociolinguistique variationniste. Dans un appel visant à franchir les frontières des sous-disciplines, j'identifie ensuite trois domaines de recherche où les sociolinguistes variationnistes peuvent s'inspirer des travaux en linguistique variationniste basée sur les corpus: effectuer des recherches multi-variables, accorder plus d'attention aux grammaires probabilistes et prendre plus au sérieux la sensibilité au registre des modèles de variation.

Keywords

variationist sociolinguisticscorpus linguisticsaggregationregisterprobabilistic grammarsociolinguistique variationistelinguistique de corpusagrégationregistregrammaire probabiliste
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 62 , Issue 4: Variation at the Crossroads: Advancing theory by integrating methods/La Variation: Faire progresser la théorie par l'intégration des méthodes , December 2017 , pp. 685 - 701
Copyright
© Canadian Linguistic Association/Association canadienne de linguistique 2017 

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Footnotes

I am grateful to Jeroen Claes, Jason Grafmiller, Lars Hinrichs, Laurel MacKenzie, and two anonymous referees for helpful feedback on earlier versions of this paper. The usual disclaimers apply.

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