25.351, Review: Morphology; Phonetics; Phonology; Sociolinguistics; Syntax: Auer, Caro Reina & Kaufmann (2013)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-25-351. Tue Jan 21 2014. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 25.351, Review: Morphology; Phonetics; Phonology; Sociolinguistics; Syntax: Auer, Caro Reina & Kaufmann (2013)

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Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 10:34:58
From: Annis Shepherd [als306 at soton.ac.uk]
Subject: Language Variation - European Perspectives IV

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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/24/24-2469.html

EDITOR: Peter  Auer
EDITOR: Javier  Caro Reina
EDITOR: Göz  Kaufmann
TITLE: Language Variation - European Perspectives IV
SUBTITLE: Selected papers from the Sixth International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 6), Freiburg, June 2011
SERIES TITLE: Studies in Language Variation 14
PUBLISHER: John Benjamins
YEAR: 2013

REVIEWER: Annis Shepherd, University of Southampton

SUMMARY

This edited volume is a collection of selected papers presented at the 6th
International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 6) in 2011.
The papers cover a range of theoretical areas from phonetic and phonological
variation to code-switching, and describe languages as diverse as Belarusian
and Cypriot Greek.

Working from the recent developments in syntactic variation research and the
Minimalist framework (Chomsky 1995, 2005), Sjef Barbiers’ paper, “Where is
syntactic variation?”, demonstrates  the potential benefits of undertaking
syntactic variation research within Minimalism through a study of syntactic
doubling, showing how syntactic variation arises in different areas of the
language variation model that he proposes (i.e., Syntax, Mental Grammar,
Cognition, Body and Society). He concludes that many properties of the
variation seen in syntactic doubling can be explained by variation in the
Syntax or the Mental Grammar, or by constraints produced by cognition, body
and society.

Javier Caro Reiner’s paper, “Phonological variation in Catalan and Alemannic
from a typological perspective”, investigates whether recent work on
morphological and syntactic cross-linguistic variation in non-standard
language varieties can be extended to account for phonological variation as
well. The author applies the word-language/syllable-language typological
classification system to Catalan and Alemmanic to show that phonological
variation can be explained using typological features, concluding that
dialectal differences that had been observed but could not previously be
explained can be accounted for in this way.

In “Language ideologies and language attitudes: A linguistic anthropological
perspective”, Jillian R. Cavanaugh provides an overview of how studies of
language attitudes from a language ideology perspective can allow us to gain a
well-formed understanding of how speakers use and understand language.
Cavanaugh uses a case study of Bergamasco to demonstrate this, showing that
the range of attitudes towards language found in this region is the result of
language shift, the socioeconomic climate and political pressures. She
concludes that the study of language ideology has much to contribute to our
understanding of language use in multiple areas of linguistics.

In “Late language acquisition and identity construction: Variation in use of
the Dutch determiners ‘de’ and ‘het’”, Leonie Cornips and Aafke Hulk argue
that one possible cause for language variation is linked to language
acquisition, e.g., when a grammatical phenomenon takes too long to acquire, it
becomes vulnerable to interference by both language-external and
language-internal factors, resulting in the potential for variation. The
authors defend this argument through an investigation into the acquisition of
two Dutch definite determiners and also propose that one of the perpetuating
roots of the variation may be that it has acquired a use of social
identification among young people from an ethnic minority.

Silvia Dal Negro’s paper, “The variation of gender agreement on numerals in
the Alpine space”, hypothesises that an investigation of the morphological
variation seen in the gender agreement of cardinal numbers in German and
Romance dialects can facilitate a more detailed typological analysis of these
dialects. The author provides data drawn from the trans-national Alpine region
to show that ‘2’ always displays more gender distinctions than ‘3’, as
predicted by cross-linguistic studies, and concludes that information can be
drawn from this type of study that could not be seen in studies of European
languages that did not take dialectal data into account.

In “’Standard usage’: towards a realistic conception of spoken standard
German”, Arnulf Deppermann, Stefan Kleiner and Ralf Knöbl discuss a
large-scale project aimed at reviewing the concept of standard spoken German,
and argue that the language form that is traditionally viewed as being
‘standard’ is not representative of the language as it is habitually spoken in
everyday contexts. After a discussion of the criteria that a language form has
to meet in order to be considered as a ‘standard’ variant, the authors show
that the traditional concept of standard German does not meet these criteria
and thus should not continue to be considered as such. The paper moves on to
cover the methodology adopted in creating a corpus to investigate this issue,
and summarises some of the authors’ key findings, concluding that a ‘standard
language’ does indeed exist, but that it is not the same language as that
considered initially.

“Code alternation patterns in bilingual family conversations: Implications for
an integrated model of analysis”, by Marianthi Georgalidou, Hasan Kaili and
Aytac Celtek, uses a Conversation Analysis framework to investigate code
alternation patterns and issues of identity during conversations between
bilingual speakers of different ages and social groups in Rhodes, Greece. The
authors conclude that their participants use several different language
alternation devices that are dependent on the context, other participants in
the speech act, etc., and identify the possibility that different age groups
may use different techniques to reach the same conversational goals. They also
suggest, in agreement with existing research, that more analysis of long
informal conversations could lead to a better understanding of the
code-switching/code-alternation continuum.

David Hȧkansson’s paper, “A variationist approach to syntactic change: The
case of subordinate clause word order in the history of Swedish”, uses
sociolinguistic variationist techniques to argue that two different language
systems need to be taken into account when investigating changes in word order
in Swedish subordinate clauses: one where the variation is the result of
microvariation within a single grammar, and another where it is representative
of competition between two competing grammars. Hȧkansson suggests, as a
conclusion, that this may be due to changes in the sociolinguistic environment
that occurred at the same period as when the evidence of language change can
be observed.

“Children’s switching/shifting competence in role-playing”, by Matthias
Katerbow, investigates whether children vary their language by switching
between registers (one close in nature to the local variant and the other
bearing similarities to the national standard) in a role-play environment.
Katerbow uses data drawn from a study of children aged between 3;11 and 6;10
in Wittlich, Germany to show that the children do indeed switch registers
during role-play, that they have the ability to consciously influence which
register they adopt depending on their interpretation of the role they are
playing, and that this ability is based on their observations of and
reflections upon their socio-communicative environment.

In “The Present Perfect in Cypriot Greek revisited”, Dimitra Melissaropoulou,
Charalambos Themistocleous, Stavroula Tsiplakou and Simeon Tsolakidis study
the emergence of innovative present perfect structures in Cypriot Greek and
show that the Cypriot Greek system of past tense marking may be in the process
of changing. They suggest that this is potentially not the result of conscious
choice of register, as initially seemed likely, but rather of competition
between two forms of the present perfect. They conclude that more data from a
wider range of speakers, and on both present perfect structures is needed in
order to verify whether these observations are justifiable.

Sylvia Moosmüller and Hannes Scheutz’s paper, “Chain shifts revisited: The
case of monophthongisation and E-merger in the city dialects of Salzburg and
Vienna”, discusses two sound changes in Salzburg and Vienna and shows that
E-merger in Salzburg does not appear to be caused by monophthongisation,
unlike what is believed to have been the case in Vienna. The authors conclude
that the concept of chain shifts needs to be reviewed, as one instance of
multiple sound changes that was believed to be a case of a chain shift can be
shown to be the result of processes that are independent of each other.

In her paper “And the beat goes on: Verb Raising and Verb Projection Raising
at the syntax-phonology interface”, Antonia Rothmayr argues that syntactic
microvariation in Germanic Verb Raising and Verb Projection Raising can be
explained through prosodic differences between the relevant dialects. She
provides an empirical overview of the structure of the phonological phrase in
Alemmanic before presenting an analysis of syntactic variation based on the
properties of the PF (Phonological Form) interface and concludes that the
seemingly syntactic variation is, in fact, the result of variation in the
prosodic systems of the dialects in question.

“Migrant teenagers’ acquisition of sociolinguistic variation: The variables
(ing) and (t)”, by Erik Schleef, investigates how non-native teenagers of
Polish background in London and Edinburgh acquire the constraints placed on
two variables, (ing) and (t). Schleef shows that the adolescents acquire some
of the variables completely, some partially, some not at all, and re-interpret
others, which results in innovative constraints. He concludes with a
discussion of some potential reasons behind this acquisition process.

In “The sociophonology and sociophonetics of Scottish Standard English (r)”,
Ole Schützler investigates inter-speaker phonetic and phonological variation
of (r) among a group of middle-class Scottish Standard English speakers. He
provides data to suggest that gender and level of contact with Standard
Southern British English have an impact on the vocalisation of (r), whilst the
phonetic choice between an alveolar flap and an alveolar approximant is
affected by the age of the speaker. Schützler concludes that phonetic and
phonological variation are not constrained by the same sociolinguistic
factors, and thus should not be expected to be predictable in the same way as
each other.

In “Stance and code-switching: Gaelic-English bilinguals on the Isles of Skye
and Harris”, Cassie Smith-Christmas discusses the role of stance (how speakers
position themselves in terms of the discourse, etc.) when examining code
switching through a case study of one generation of bilingual Gaelic-English
speakers. She shows that speakers switch languages when modifying their stance
through a discussion of numerous examples and concludes that code switching is
therefore a valuable tool when examining stance.

Helen Faye West’s paper, “A town between dialects: Accent levelling,
psycho-social orientation and identity in Merseyside, UK”, examines whether an
understanding of the psycho-social orientation of speakers can influence our
ability to explain language change. The author focuses on dialect levelling in
the English region of Southport, where predictions can be made arguing both in
favour and against the probability that the Southport dialect will become
similar to that of Liverpool. West identifies several phonological features of
the Liverpool accent and uses a corpus of Southport speech to determine
whether or not these features are increasingly present in Southport speech.
She concludes that Southport speech may well be diverging away from that of
Liverpool, but that further investigation is required into the link between
attitudes and linguistic constraint.

In his paper “Variation of sibilants in Belarusian-Russian mixed speech”, Jan
Patrick Zeller investigates 27 speakers’ use of three sibilant variables in
Belarusian-Russian mixed speech. The author shows that there is a difference
between older and younger speakers, the latter of which use a more Russian
variant of the first two sibilants than the former, presumably due to their
earlier exposure to Russian. The same distinction between the place of
articulation for the final sibilant cannot be seen, however.

“The case of [nǝn]: A current change in colloquial standard German”, by
Evelyn Ziegler, investigates the development of the indefinite article ‘nen’
in colloquial German. The author shows that the use of ‘nen’ has increased
over time, and is now used not only by young people, but also by adults. She
suggests that there has been a large change in norm awareness since the 1960s,
with speakers moving away from the use of codified forms and towards short
forms such as ‘nen’, and concludes that this change may be an indicator of
destandardisation.

EVALUATION

As an edited volume of conference papers, this book covers a diverse range of
topics, all focussed around the theme of language variation in Europe. The
papers range from those giving an overview of the field as it currently stands
(e.g. Barbiers) to those proposing areas for future research (e.g. West). It
would be a good resource for those wanting to gain an overview of the current
state of dialectal variation research.

The focus of the book (intentionally or otherwise) seems to be on dialectal
variation, with a lesser focus on diachronic language change. “Standard”
language varieties are considered only when compared to non-standard varieties
(primarily regional dialects) and typological comparisons are made between
different dialects, rarely between language groups. This focus makes the book
more cohesive, and of greater interest to linguists interested in non-standard
language varieties, but is not made particularly clear in the blurb on the
back cover.

It appears to be aimed at those who are either specialists in the field of
dialectal variation or those with an interest in, and a well-developed
understanding of, relevant theoretical background. Some papers (e.g. those by
Cavanaugh and Katerbow) are more accessible to those with a less-developed
theoretical understanding, but the majority of the papers will be challenging
for anyone without this detailed knowledge of the field.

It would have been nice to have a greater degree of coherence between the
different papers, for example by grouping papers dealing with
phonetic/phonological change separately from those discussing sociolinguistic
variation and change. It may well be that the editors had good reason not to
do this, but it does mean that there is no obvious flow between the different
papers.

Overall, this volume contains many interesting papers on the topic of
dialectal variation in many areas of linguistics (especially phonetic and
phonological variation) and would be a valuable resource for those wishing to
gain information about current research being undertaken in this field.

REFERENCES

Chomsky, N. (1995). “The Minimalist Program.” Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Chomsky, N. (2005). “Three factors in language design”. “Linguistic Inquiry”
36: 1-22.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Annis Shepherd is a Ph.D. student at the University of Southampton. Her
research interests include the syntax-morphology interface, intra-speaker
variation and non-standard varieties of English. Her thesis focuses on case
variation in English conjoined phrases.








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