Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T04:05:10.890Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Re-examining vocalic variation in Scottish English: a Cognitive Grammar approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 August 2008

Lynn Clark
Lynn Clark
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The existing literature on vocalic variation in Scottish English has shown that variation tends to pattern according to the age, gender, and socioeconomic class of the speaker. However, studies that employ these gross social categories are unable to explain the variation that exists within these categories. This article therefore presents an alternative approach. Based on data from 16 adolescents who form a community of practice in west Fife, Scotland, this article attempts to consider both social and cognitive motivations for linguistic variation. The theoretical framework of Cognitive Grammar is particularly well-suited to incorporating sociolinguistic variation, and this article illustrates how an exploration of frequency effects and schematic organization can lead to a more insightful understanding of the patterning of two vocalic variables in a community. This article also explores the implications of these findings for our understanding of the place of sociolinguistics in cognitive theories of linguistics.

Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , July 2008 , pp. 255 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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

Adger, David, & Smith, Jennifer. (2005). Variation in the minimalist program. In Cornips, L., & Corrigan, K. (eds.), Syntax and variation: Reconciling the biological and the social. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 149–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aitken, A. J. (1984). Scots and English in Scotland. In Trudgill, P. (ed.), Language in the British Isles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 94–114.Google Scholar
Anttila, Arto. (1997). Deriving variation from grammar. In Hinskens, F., van Hout, R., & Wetzels, W. L. (eds.), Variation, Change and Phonological Theory. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 35–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bender, Emily M. (2000). Syntactic variation and linguistic competence: the Case of AAVE copula absence. PhD thesis, Stanford University.Google Scholar
Boersma, Paul, & Hayes, Bruce. (2001). Empirical tests of the gradual learning algorithm. Linguistic Inquiry 32:45–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Browman, Catherine P., & Goldstein, Louis M. (1992). Articulatory phonology: an Overview. Phonetica 49:155–180.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bybee, Joan L. (1985). Morphology: a Study of the relation between meaning and form. Philadelphia: Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bybee, Joan L. (2000). The phonology of the lexicon: Evidence from lexical diffusion. In Kemmer, S. & Barlow, M. (eds.), Usage-based models of language. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications. 65–86.Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan L. (2001). Phonology and language use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bybee, Joan L. (2002). Word frequency and context of use in the lexical diffusion of phonetically conditioned sound change. Language Variation and Change 14:261–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bybee, Joan L. (2006). From usage to grammar: the Mind's response to repetition. Language 82:711–733.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. (1979). Language and responsibility: Based on conversations with Mitsou Ronat. Translated by Viertel, John. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Clark, Lynn. (2005). A cognitive approach to sociolinguistics. Masters dissertation, University of Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Croft, W. (forthcoming). Towards a social cognitive linguistics. To appear in Evans, Vyvyan & Pourcel, Stéphanie (eds.), New directions in cognitive linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Final draft manuscript available at http://www.unm.edu/~wcroft/WACpubs.html.Google Scholar
Dirven, René, Frank, Roslyn, & Pütz, Martin. (eds.) (2003). Cognitive models in language and thought: Ideology, metaphors and meanings. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dirven, René. (2004). Major strands in cognitive linguistics. LAUD Linguistic Agency 634:1–44.Google Scholar
Eckert, Penelope. (2000). Linguistic variation as social practice: the Linguistic construction of identity at Belten High. Language in Society 27. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Eckert, Penelope (2002). Constructing meaning in sociolinguistic variation. Article presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, New Orleans, November. Available at http://www.stanford.edu/~eckert/AAA02.pdf.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eremeeva, Viktoria, & Stuart-Smith, Jane. (2003). A sociophonetic investigation of the vowels OUT and BIT in Glaswegian. Proceedings of the XVth International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. 1205–1208.Google Scholar
Francis, W. Nelson, & Kučcera, Henry. (1982). Frequency analysis of English usage. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Geeraerts, Dirk. (2003). Usage based implies variational. On the inevitability of cognitive sociolinguistics. Unpublished manuscript, University of Leuven.Google Scholar
Goldberg, Adele. (1995). Constructions. A Construction grammar approach to argument structure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hudson, R. A. (1996). Sociolinguistics. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hudson, R. A. (2007). Language networks. The new word grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Israel, Michael, & Kemmer, Suzanne. (1994). Variation and the usage-based model. Variation in Linguistic Theory CLS 30:165–179.Google Scholar
Johnston, P. (1997). Older Scots phonology and its regional variation. In Jones, Charles (ed.), The Edinburgh history of the Scots language. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Johnston, P (2000). Taming volume III of the Linguistic Atlas of Scotland. Scottish Language 19:45–65.Google Scholar
Jones, Charles. (1997). Phonology. In Jones, Charles (ed.), The Edinburgh history of the Scots language. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kristiansen, Gitte. (2003). How to do things with allophones: Linguistic stereotypes as cognitive reference points in social cognition. In Dirven, R., Frank, R., & Putz, M. (eds.), Cognitive models in language and thought: Ideology, metaphors and meanings. New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 69–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William. (1969). Contraction, deletion, and inherent variability of the English copula. Language 45(4):715–762.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William (1972). Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Labov, William (1994). Principles of linguistic change. Vol. 1: Internal factors. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George. (1987). Women, fire and dangerous things: what categories reveal about the mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, George (2004). The importance of categorization. In Aarts, B., Denison, D., Keizer, E., & Popova, G. (eds.), Fuzzy grammar: a Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 139–177.Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W. (1987). Foundations of cognitive grammar. Vol. 1: Theoretical prerequisites. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W (1991). Foundations of cognitive grammar. Vol. 2: Descriptive application. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Lave, Jean, & Wenger, Etienne. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leslau, Wolf. (1969). Frequency as determinant of linguistic change in the Ethiopian languages. Word 25:180–189.Google Scholar
Macafee, C. I. (1988). Some studies in the Glasgow vernacular. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow. Revised as Macafee (1994).Google Scholar
Macafee, C. I (1994). Traditional dialect in the modern words: a Glasgow case study. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Macaulay, Ronald K. S. (1991). Locating dialect in discourse: the Language of honest men and bonnie lassies in Ayr. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Macaulay, Ronald K. S., & Trevelyan, G. (1973). Language education and employment in Glasgow. Final report to the Social Science Research Council.Google Scholar
Milroy, Lesley, & Gordon, Mathew. (2003). Sociolinguistics: Method and interpretation. Language in Society 34. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, Emma. (2003). Learning style and identity: a Sociolinguistic analysis of a Bolton high school. PhD thesis, University of Manchester.Google Scholar
Morgan, Pamela. S. (1997). Self-presentation in a speech of Newt Gingrich. Pragmatics 7:275–308.Google Scholar
Nagy, Naomi, & Reynolds, Bill. (1997). Optimality theory and variable word-final deletion in Faetar. Language Variation and Change 9(1):37–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Philips, Betty S. (1980). Old English an ~ on: a New appraisal. Journal of English Linguistics 14:20–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Philips, Betty S. (1981). Southern Tune, Duke, News. American Speech 56:72–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Philips, Betty S. (2001). Lexical diffusion, lexical frequency, and lexical analysis. In Bybee, J. & Hopper, P. (eds.), Frequency and the emergence of linguistic structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 123–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schilling-Estes, Natalie. (1998). Investigating “self-conscious” speech: the Performance register in Ocracoke English. Language in Society 27:53–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Jennifer, Durham, Mercedes, & Fortune, Liane. (2007). “Mam, my trousers is fa'in doon!” Community, caregiver and child in the acquisition of variation in a Scottish dialect. Language Variation and Change 19(1):63–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spolsky, Bernard. (1997). Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stuart-Smith, Jane. (2003). The phonology of modern urban Scots. In Corbett, John, McClure, J. Derrick, & Stuart-Smith, Jane (eds.), The Edinburgh companion to Scots. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 110–137.Google Scholar
Taylor, John R. (2002). Cognitive grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wenger, Etienne. (2000). Communities of practice. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, John, & Henry, Alison. (1998). Parameter setting within a socially realistic linguistics. Language in Society 27:1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar