Fwd: Review: Chambers & Trudgill: Dialectology

[Laurence Horn]

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>LINGUIST List:  Vol-11-2. Mon Jan 10 2000. ISSN: 1068-4875.
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>Subject: 11.2, Review: Chambers & Trudgill: Dialectology
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>Date:  Tue, 28 Dec 1999 17:31:23 +0100
>From:  elatecka at pan.uzulu.ac.za
>Subject:  Review of Chambers and Trudgill's "Dialectology"
>
>
>Chambers, J.K. and Peter Trudgill (1999) Dialectology (2nd
>Edition). Cambridge University Press.   201pp
>
>Ewa Latecka, Department of English, University of Zululand,
>KwaZulu/Natal, Republic of South Africa
>
>
>
>Dialectology has been in the spotlight of linguistic
>interest for a considerable time now, and seems, albeit in a
>modified form, still to be flourishing. The 'living proof'
>of that is the book under review which was first published
>in 1980. Since then it has had a number of reprints until a
>decision has been made to give it a more up-to-date look and
>offer the readers the second, revised edition in 1998.
>"Dialectology" (1998), authored by J.K. Chambers and P.
>Trudgill and published by Cambridge University Press, aims
>at presenting fundamental issues in the study of language
>variation between communities and within them. According to
>the authors themselves, they "have taken pains to retain
>features that have made it a staple for linguists and
>students for eighteen years". At the same time, however, the
>have given credit to new developments in the field, such as
>the revitalization of dialect geography and the rise of
>sociolinguistics. The book is divided into three major
>parts, viz., "Background", "Social Variation", and
>"Mechanisms of Variation". These are, in turn, subdivided
>into smaller chapters, clearly numbered and listed in
>"Contents". The book also features Maps, Figures, and
>Tables, all conveniently included within the text for the
>reader's ease of reference, as well as a general Index and
>an extensive list of mostly classic, but also newer
>references.
>
>
>Part one, "Background" groups four chapters, numbered from 1
>to 4, which make the reader acquainted with basic concepts
>of dialectology.
>
>Chapter One, "Dialect and Language", presents the
>explanation of what, according to the authors, dialectology
>is. It ventures on to discuss the various definitions of
>DIALECT and the problems faced by a linguist when trying to
>establish the difference between a LANGUAGE, a DIALECT, and
>an ACCENT. In doing so, the authors present the criterion of
>"mutual intelligibility" and the pitfalls of accepting this
>as the only criterion. They further introduce the concepts
>of "geographical dialect continua", "social dialect
>continua", as well as those of "autonomy" and "heteronomy".
>
>Chapter Two, "Dialect Geography", starts with quite an
>extensive presentation of the history of the field, followed
>by the outline of the methods applied in research, viz. the
>questionnaire, linguistic maps, and the selection of
>informants.
>
>Chapter Three, "Dialectology and Linguistics", is the
>authors' attempt at presenting the relationship between the
>two disciplines, with fields of commonality and difference.
>It is stressed that, even though dialectology is perceived
>by the authors as an autonomous discipline, yet modern
>dialectologists are more often than not trained as
>linguists. Their research is therefore a contribution to
>both the disciplines. Structural dialectology and generative
>dialectology are presented as examples of such "dual
>membership".
>
>Chapter Four, "Urban Dialectology", attempts to show how
>dialectology, in the process of development as a discipline,
>recognized its shortcomings such as the lack of inclusion of
>the social dimension in its scope. Some dialectologists
>stressed the fact that all dialects are both regional
>(spatial dimension) and social. This seemed to have been
>neglected in previous studies concentrated on the speech of
>a very limited range of social groups. The new attitude
>brought about the rise of urban dialectology as opposed to
>previous studies of rural dialects solely. It also
>encouraged the change in the selection of informants
>according to the principle of representativeness, as well as
>the different ways of obtaining data and classifying the
>informants.
>
>Part two, "Social Variation", contains two chapters,
>numbered from 5 to 6, taking the reader further into the
>'social dimension' of dialectology, previously introduced in
>the last chapter of "Background".
>
>Chapter Five, "Social Differentiation and Language", deals
>mainly with various areas of linguistic variation depending
>on social class, style (formal and informal), gender and
>other features.
>
>Chapter Six, "Sociolinguistic Structure and Linguistic
>Innovation", takes the reader further into the discussion of
>how one type of variation can be explained by another, viz.,
>how a shift in style correlates to social-class variation.
>In doing so the authors introduce the concept of "markers",
>i.e., variables subject to stylistic variation as well as
>class, sex, and/or age variation, and "indicators", i.e.,
>variables not involved in systematic stylistic variation.
>Part of this chapter is also devoted to mechanisms inducing
>linguistic change.
>
>Part three, "Spatial Variation", consisting of two chapters,
>numbered as 7 and 8, goes back to the more traditional
>understanding of dialectology as the study of regional
>differences in speech.
>
>Chapter Seven, "Boundaries", introduces the notion of
>"isoglosses", lines marking the boundaries of regions
>differing in some linguistic feature. It discusses the
>patterns in which they can appear, their grading in terms of
>their research significance, and their cultural correlates.
>
>Chapter Eight, "Transitions", is on the one hand a
>continuation of Chapter Seven in that it also relies on the
>concept of "isogloss". On the other, however, it introduces
>direct contrast: while an isogloss describes a 'fixed' state
>of affairs, transition undermines this 'fixedness'.
>Transition is here seen as a process stemming from the
>constant interaction of neighbours. "Mixed" and "fudged
>lects" occur in this process leading to further changes in
>dialects under investigation.
>
>Part four, "Mechanisms of Variation", is the last part of
>the book and the most 'technical' one. In four chapters
>numbered from 9 to 12 it presents such concepts as
>variability, diffusion, and cohesion in dialectology.
>
>Chapter Nine, "Variability", introduces the concept in
>question. It presents two opposing views, viz., that of
>variability perceived as fully accidental and therefore
>unpredictable, and that of variability being an essential
>phenomenon, and thus a structural unit equivalent to other
>structural units such as the phone, the phoneme and others.
>Accepting the latter leads on to the handling of
>quantitative data and the problems related to it.
>
>Chapters Ten, "Diffusion: Sociolinguistic and Lexical" and
>Eleven, "Diffusion: Geographical" both deal with hypotheses
>concerned with diffusion, understood as the study of the
>progress of linguistic innovation. Firstly, the authors seek
>to find who the innovators are. Secondly, they move on to
>discuss the various vehicles of innovations. Here the
>hypothesis of "lexical diffusion" is introduced which
>assumes that the lexical component is the major one bringing
>about change, phonetic at least. Thirdly, the authors also
>look at how innovations are 'disseminated' and provide a
>geolinguistic model accounting for the spread of the
>changes.
>
>Chapter Twelve, "Cohesion in Dialectology" has a double
>function. On the one hand, it sums up the previous chapters,
>and thus presents the origins of dialectology, its
>achievements and methodological tools. On the other, it aims
>at presenting a picture of what modern dialectology has
>become as a result of the confluence of traditional
>dialectology, with its interest mainly in the spatial
>factor, and urban dialectology, or sociolinguistics, with
>its strong bias towards the social factor. The authors also
>mention a third stream capable of contributing to the field,
>namely "human geography", which develops dynamic models of
>diffusion and involves social attitude and community
>networks as independent variables.
>
>As has been said earlier, this is a revised second edition
>of the 1980 book. Bearing this in mind, one can accept
>keeping "traditional dialectology" and "urban dialectology"
>(or sociolinguistics) apart as justified. However, even from
>the comments made by the authors in both the Preface and
>Chapter 12 (Cohesion in Dialectology) it follows that the
>two should be brought much closer together and that the
>artificial dividing line stemming from their historical
>development should actually be dropped. One would hope this
>happens when a new book from the authors of this volume
>appears.
>Nevertheless, the book can, and without doubt will, serve as
>a valuable introduction to the field of dialectology, its
>basic notions, methodology and lines of future development
>to numerous students of disciplines related to either
>linguistics or social studies.
>
>The reviewer:  Ewa Latecka originally comes from Lodz,
>Poland, where she obtained her M.A. in the English Language
>and specialized in linguistics. At present she is affiliated
>to the Department of English, University of Zululand,
>KwaZulu/Natal, Republic of South Africa. Her main interests
>include language acquisition and learning, sociolinguistics,
>as well as issues related to translations.
>
>
>
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