Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T21:45:15.705Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Where does the sociolinguistic variable stop?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Beatriz R. Lavandera
Beatriz R. Lavandera
Affiliation:
Linguistics Department, Stanford University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In 1972 Labov described the basic sociolinguistic question as the one ‘posed by the need to understand why anyone says anything’ (1972:207). Clearly the aim is very different from that of specifying the form of a grammar that generates all and only the well-formed sentences of a language. The goal is a theory of utterances. Moreover, the ‘why’ question can also be read as ‘what for’. What does anyone say anything for? I think we can safely say that this question places sociolinguistic analysis in a functional framework. If sociolinguistics looks for answers to the ‘why’ of saying something, it is seeking functional explanations.

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , August 1978 , pp. 171 - 182
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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.)

References

REFERENCES

Bolinger, D. (1977). Meaning and form. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Hymes, D. (1974). Foundations of sociolinguistics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Laberge, S. (1977). The changing distribution of indeterminate pronouns in discourse. Mimeo.Google Scholar
Laberge, S. (1978). Étude de la variation des pronoms sujets définis et indéfinis dans le français parlé à Montréal. Unpubl. dissertation, Université de Montréal.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1972). Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1966). The social stratification of English in New York City. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1974). Empirical foundations of linguistic theory. Mimeo.Google Scholar
Labov, W. & Weiner, J., (1977). Constraints on the agentless passive. Mimeo.Google Scholar
Lavandera, B. R. (1977). Where does the sociolinguistic variable stop? Colloquium paper presented at the 1977 Annual LSA Meeting,Chicago.Google Scholar
Sankoff, G. (1972). Above and beyond phonology in variable rules. In Bailey, C.-J. & Shuy, R. W. (eds), New ways of analyzing variation in English. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. 44–61.Google Scholar
Sankoff, G. & Brown, P. (1976). The origins of syntax in discourse: A case study of Tok Pisin relatives. Lg 52, 631–66.Google Scholar
Sankoff, G. & Thibault, P. (1977). L'alternance entre les auxiliaires avoir et être en français parlé à Montréal. Langue française 34. 81–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silverstein, M. (1976). Shifters, linguistic categories, and cultural description. In Basso, K. H. & Selby, H. A. (eds), Meaning in anthropology. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. 11–55.Google Scholar
Swadesh, M. (1972). The origins and diversification of language. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar