26.65, Review: Historical Ling; Socioling: Hernández-Campoy, Conde-Silvestre (2013)

Tue Jan 6 19:32:32 UTC 2015

LINGUIST List: Vol-26-65. Tue Jan 06 2015. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 26.65, Review: Historical Ling; Socioling: Hernández-Campoy, Conde-Silvestre (2013)

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Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 14:31:26
From: Kent Rasmussen [kent.rasmussen at mavs.uta.edu]
Subject: The Handbook of Historical Sociolinguistics

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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/24/24-5088.html

EDITOR: Juan Manuel Hernández-Campoy
EDITOR: Juan Camilo  Conde-Silvestre
TITLE: The Handbook of Historical Sociolinguistics
SERIES TITLE: Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics
PUBLISHER: Wiley-Blackwell
YEAR: 2013

REVIEWER: Kent Rasmussen, University of Texas at Arlington

Review's Editor: Anthony Aristar

SUMMARY

This handbook's intended audience is “scholars and students” (p4), and as such
aims to provide the field theoretical and methodological frameworks, rather
than significant amounts of new data. Two other stated goals include the
recognition of the field and “to introduce new scholars into the field”(p7).
One could imagine this used as a textbook in a graduate class on historical
sociolinguistics, though it is not oriented towards students exclusively.

The volume contains a wide variety of writing in its 35 chapters, by 44
contributors. There are a number of themes that are repeated, however, which I
take for themes of the volume itself.

The primary theme of the volume would be that language is essentially
variable. As such, the historical sociolinguist is looking to understand
language as it really was, rather than to limit it to a more easily
understandable system. This essentially unifies Historical linguistics with
Sociolinguistics. That is, both approaches deal with variation: Historical
linguistics deals with diachronic variation, and sociolinguistics deals with
synchronic variation. Each deals with phenomena that other linguists may
prefer to set aside.

When variation is considered both in and across time, tracking variation
becomes more difficult, aggravating Labov's ''bad data'' problem (1994:11).
Thus another general theme of this volume is addressing difficulties related
to historical sociolinguistic data. This theme is combined, however, with the
hope that valid research can be done. The difficulties inherent in finding
good historical sociolinguistic data are presented from a variety of
perspectives in a number of chapters. At the same time, each offers pathways
by which good data can be discovered, providing useful insight into future
areas of research.

Within these unifying themes, the volume is divided into five sections, called
“parts”, each with 3-10 chapters. The first three (assumptions, methods, and
variables) are followed by a section on specific issues relevant to the
subdiscipline, which is followed by a section on language attitudes. Each
chapter stands on its own as a scholarly work, though on a number of occasions
one chapter will refer to another. The following summarizes each section,
including brief chapter summaries.

Part I: Origins and Theoretical Assumptions

This section contains background and basic theoretical information, which is
referred to in later chapters. In “Diachrony vs Synchrony: the Complementary
evolution of Two (Ir)reconcilable Dimensions”, Jean Aitchison discusses the
historical divide between synchrony and diachrony from Saussure to Labov and
beyond, ultimately concluding that language of the past and present overlap,
and that each should be understood in context of the other.

In “Historical Sociolinguistics: Origins, Motivation, and Paradigms”, Terttu
Nevalainen and Helena Raumolin-Brunberg look at the history of historical
sociolinguistics, as well as its current diversified nature. They also include
an interesting case study on -s and -th in Early Modern English.

In “Social History and the Sociology of Language”, Robert McColl Millar looks
at historical change in a number of forms. He deals with the issue of language
and dialect, as well as changing standards of prestige in a language group.
There is a case study of shift from German to Hungarian, with some interesting
counterexamples in illegal trade and religion. This chapter generally talks of
language shift as a gradual, rather than traumatic event. For instance,
semispeakers can result from children learning a status language first,
followed by their parents' language.

Part II: Methods for the Sociolinguistic Study of the History of Languages

The first two chapters of this part focus on philosophical background
necessary for the right application of methodology. In “Application of the
Quantitative Paradigm to Historical Sociolinguistics: Problems with the
Generalizability Principle”, Juan M. Hernandez-Campoy and Natalie Schilling
discuss making the best of “bad data” through quantifying it. They discuss a
number of potential problems with the quality of data: representativeness,
validity, invariation (e.g., standardized written texts), authenticity,
authorship, social/historical validity, and interpretation being affected by a
standard ideology. Some of these issues are presented with at least partial
solutions, but the main intent seems to be to raise awareness of them. In “The
Uniformitarian Principle and the Risk of Anachronisms in Language and Social
History”, Alexander Bergs discusses the principle of interpretation that we
expect laws (physical and linguistic) in effect today to be the same as they
have (ever) been. While this principle allows us to draw conclusions about the
past which we can no longer observe, there is also a risk of assuming what was
not actually true of an earlier period. Examples given include social class
and social networks: we know that social classes did not operate in the same
manner in the middle ages as they do today; on the other hand, it is difficult
to know if social networks operated the same as they do today, or not.

The remaining six chapters in this part deal with particular kinds of data
corpora. In “The Use of Linguistic Corpora for the Study of Linguistic
Variation and Change: Types and Computational Applications”, Pascual Cantos
discusses the availability, evaluation, and use of a number of corpora. In
“Editing the Medieval Manuscript in its Social Context”, Nila Vázquez and
Teresa Marqués-Aguado discuss issues related to the editing of manuscripts,
especially how editorial decisions may “standardize” variation that would be
interesting to a historical sociolinguist. In “Medical, Official and Monastic
Documents in Sociolinguistic Research”, Laura Esteban-Segura gives specific
information on a number of texts, including digitized scans of a couple pages.
In “The Use of Private Letters and Diaries in Sociolinguistic Investigation”,
Stephan Elspass discusses the use of different kinds of writing to get at the
distinction in language normally associated with oral vs written language.
Essentially, private letters by semi-literate people can be taken to generally
represent the spoken form. He concludes with criteria for designing and
editing corpora. In “The Use of Literary Sources in Historical Sociolinguistic
Research”, K. Anipa proposes a theoretical-methodological model based in
micro-sociolinguistics. In “Early Advertising and Newspapers as Sources of
Sociolinguistic Investigation”, Carol Percy discusses the use of printed
material with a particular aim, to “attract, inform, influence and/or
entertain readers.” (p191) Newspapers are useful to understand the social
context of the time, since they are reporting on it, but they also give a
source of data which by its nature is indexed over time.

Part III: Linguistic and Socio-demographic Variables

The part deals with the variables in the historical sociolinguistic study of
language. Each of these variables can be controlled and/or operationalized for
a clearer picture of the historical facts.

In “Orthographic Variables”, Hanna Rutkowska and Paul Rössler give a broad
overview of principles of orthography, as well as some of the specific
variations that can be expected in a writing system. In “Phonological
Variables”, Anna Hebda discusses phonology in historical sociolinguistics,
especially in medieval English. In “Grammatical Variables”, Anita Auer and
Anja Voeste give theory and methodology of historical grammar variation. In
“Lexical-Semantic Variables”, Joachim Grzega introduces a new theory, the
Cognitive and Social Model for Onomasiological Studies (CoSMOS). In “Pragmatic
Variables”, Andreas H. Jucker and Irma Taavitsainen give a good overview of
the historical use of pragmatics. In “Class, Age and Gender-based Patterns”,
Agnieszka Kiełkiewicz-Janowiak writes about the variation seen in data from
typically underrepresented sources, with particular view to reverse the
natural tendency of the lack/loss of data from the less literate.

In “The Role of Social Networks and Mobility in Diachronic Sociolinguistics”,
Juan Camilo Conde-Silvestre discusses the relationship between stability and
change, and between speakers and systems. Particular conclusions include the
fact that loose-knit networks favor innovations, and the distinction between
innovators (who are peripheral network members) and early adopters (who are
influential network members). In “Race, Ethnicity, Religion and Castes”,
Rajend Mesthrie gives a decent overview of the concept of race, followed by a
serial treatment of the other topics.

Part IV: Historical Dialectology, Language Contact, Change, and Diffusion

The first two chapters in this part deal with theoretical background necessary
for understanding and explaining language change. In “The Teleology of Change:
Functional and Non-Functional Explanations for Language Variation and Change”,
Paul T. Roberge discusses interpretations of language change, including
variation and dialects as identity markers, and teleological reasoning. In
“Internally and Externally Motivated Language Change”, Raymond Hickey looks at
the dichotomy between the forces involved in internal and external language
change, and concludes that linguistic reality is too complex for this binary
distinction.

The next three chapters address the mechanics of diffusion. In “Lexical
Diffusion and the Regular Transmission of Language Change in its
Socio-historical Context”, Brian D. Joseph writes about the passing of a
language from one generation to another, as compared to the passing of
elements from one language to another. Both are found at the interface of the
individual and society. In “The Timing of Language Change”, Mieko Ogura moves
from the Neogrammarian sound change hypothesis (lexical regularity and
phonetic gradualness) to a S(peaker) and W(ord) diffusion paradigm. In
“Innovation Diffusion in Sociohistorical Linguistics”, David Britain discusses
the transfer of language elements from person to person through daily contact,
and ways to get at that operating in the past through understanding it in the
present.

The following two chapters deal with language change in space. In “Historical
Dialectology: Space as a Variable in the Reconstruction of Regional Dialects”,
Anneli Meurman-Solin looks that the use and impact of physical, social and
perceptual space. In “Linguistic Atlases: Empirical Evidence for Dialect
Change in the History of Languages”, Roland Kehrein gives a dense history of
the use of maps in linguistic study.

In “Historical Sociolinguistic Reconstruction beyond Europe: Case Studies from
South Asia and Fiji”, Matthew Toulmin treats the comparative method in light
of dialect continua. That is, assuming an invariant source language will
provide invalid results if that language included variation, as would be
expected. The argument includes two case studies, and a conclusion with
proposed change to the comparative method to account for this problem.

The final three chapters in this part deal with language change through
contact. In “Multilingualism, Code-switching and Language Contact in
Historical Sociolinguistics”, Herbert Schendl focuses on historical
codeswitching, with a study in medieval Britain. He concludes that changes are
best viewed as impacted by language contact, not just language-internal
forces. In “The Impact of Migratory Movements on Linguistic Systems:
Transplanted Speech Communities and Varieties from a Historical
Sociolinguistic Perspective”, Daniel Schreier discusses the relationship
between language/dialect contact and migration. In “Convergence and Divergence
in World Languages”, Roger Wright discusses the breakup of
Proto-Indo-European, the convergence of Latin during the Roman empire, and the
divergence of Latin during the breakup of that empire. Concluding elements
that allow for convergence are communication between groups, a unified
orthography, and a lack of political interference. Questions are also raised
about the future of modern languages, given the impact of mass media.

Part V: Attitudes to Language

The first three chapters in this part deal with attitudes and behaviors which
are detrimental to a clear understanding of the historical language facts. In
“Sociolinguistics and Ideologies in Language History”, James Milroy looks at
biases which are purportedly excluded from linguistic works, yet still found.
These include glorifying the history of a language, considering creoles and
pidgins 'abnormal', and the concept of prestige. The desire to have an
invariant object of study may lead some to exclude variations from
non-prestigious origins, losing the variation truly present in the language.
In “Language Myths”, Richard J. Watts looks at basic false ideologies that
impact the study of past languages, including the funnel/tunnel view, which
includes the idea that the point of history is to reach the present (the
teleological fallacy). several other myths are addressed, including the link
between language and culture “purity”, which leads some to conclude that the
linguistic breakdown of English implies the social breakdown of
English-speaking culture. In “Linguistic Purism”, Nils Langer and Agnete Nesse
address multiple perspectives on linguistic purism, essentially the
belief/desire/action to remove foreign and/or undesirable elements from a
language, primarily the lexicon. Some linguistic purists are concerned with
foreign material only, while others take issue with internal objectionable
lexical items, as well. But in most cases, the purist focuses on one source,
not all potential “impurities”. Purism is accomplished and justified by
anthropomorphizing the language, and mostly by core speakers who have observed
changes in language and/or culture after the formation of their own standards.

The final two chapters in this part deal with prestige. In “The Reconstruction
of Prestige Patterns in Language History”, Anni Sairio and Minna
Palander-Collin look at prestige from several aspects. It is
multidisciplinary, yet unstable, and it is found on multiple levels:
nationally, social network, and individual. This is in part because linguistic
innovations get prestige from those that adopt them. A final warning to
researchers that prestige can impact which languages are studied (at least by
those subject to that perception of prestige). In “Written Vernaculars in
Medieval and Renaissance Times”, Catharina Peersman looks at literacy in the
middle ages, where Latin was taken as the model. Shifting from that normative
model to a vernacular, while also shifting a vernacular language from oral to
written use, was a complex process which worked against the previous prestige
attitudes.

EVALUATION

Given the stated goal of reaching both students and scholars, it is difficult
for one person to say how well both of those audiences might be reached in a
book such as this. But as a doctoral student, I'm not sure that this book will
attain its goal “to introduce new scholars into the field”. Some chapters were
written in a style that was highly accessible (e.g., 5, 12, 16 and 23), where
the goal of the writer could clearly and quickly be discerned. Others were
more opaque (e.g., 6, 8, 10, 15, 22 and 29). Most students (if not other
researchers) place a high value on the readability of material. In addition to
the stylistic variables mentioned above, there was considerable variation in
organization between chapters. Some chapters (e.g., 3, 12 and 21) had three
levels of sections, while chapter 1 had no section divisions at all, except
for a short conclusion. A few used good, communicative graphics (e.g., 14 and
24); but most had no tables, charts or figures at all. Some had graphics, but
did not clearly link them to the adjacent prose (e.g., 15). There were few
clear roadmaps in the volume; most that were present were not particularly
explicit, so the reader was often left to deduce where the author was going
with the chapter.

When entering a new field of study, understanding the basic assumptions of the
field is important; a number of those were clearly laid out in Part I. But
some chapters (e.g., ch 10) explicitly assumed additional background,  while
still others did not make those assumptions explicit (e.g., comprehension of
Medieval English in ch 13). Despite this shortcoming, each chapter did have an
adequate number of citations, so the dedicated initiate should be able to look
up background material where necessary.

REFERENCES

Labov, William. 1994. Principles of language change: Internal factors. Oxford:
Blackwell.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

I am a doctoral student at UT Arlington, interested in tone and some other
phonology. I work in eastern D.R.Congo, where I hope to do some comparative
work on Bantu D languages.

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