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Chapter 6. Virtual sociolinguistics

From real-time surveying to virtual-time archival sources for tracing change longitudinally
  • Juan Manuel Hernández-Campoy
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Language Variation - European Perspectives VII
This chapter is in the book Language Variation - European Perspectives VII

Abstract

The limitations of apparent-time approaches and the difficulties of conducting studies in real-time for observing language change have traditionally been one of the main methodological concerns in sociolinguistics since the 1960s. However, archived radio recordings and historical corpora of written correspondence have recently been demonstrated to be excellent sources for both cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches. The aim of this paper is to show the results from two studies where radio and historical archival sources afford comparative evidence for tracing language change developments. The conclusions suggest that these resources offer a privileged perspective for the historical reconstruction of linguistic change in present-day or remote languages, functioning as virtual approaches where the problem of real-time in the longitudinal research procedure is conveniently neutralised.

Abstract

The limitations of apparent-time approaches and the difficulties of conducting studies in real-time for observing language change have traditionally been one of the main methodological concerns in sociolinguistics since the 1960s. However, archived radio recordings and historical corpora of written correspondence have recently been demonstrated to be excellent sources for both cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches. The aim of this paper is to show the results from two studies where radio and historical archival sources afford comparative evidence for tracing language change developments. The conclusions suggest that these resources offer a privileged perspective for the historical reconstruction of linguistic change in present-day or remote languages, functioning as virtual approaches where the problem of real-time in the longitudinal research procedure is conveniently neutralised.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Chapter 1. Language hybridism 9
  6. Chapter 2. Of clocks, clouds and sound change 27
  7. Chapter 3. Evaluations of foreign accent in a purist speech community 53
  8. Chapter 4. C’era i fascisti e i tedeschi 71
  9. Chapter 5. Language change caught in the act 85
  10. Chapter 6. Virtual sociolinguistics 103
  11. Chapter 7. ASPA Tools or how to measure foreign-accentedness and intelligibility in an objective manner 119
  12. Chapter 8. Vowel harmony patterns in Greek dialectal child speech 133
  13. Chapter 9. Tracking change in social meaning 145
  14. Chapter 10. Slit-t in Dublin English 159
  15. Chapter 11. Panel and trend studies 175
  16. Chapter 12. Quotative variation in Bernese Swiss German 191
  17. Chapter 13. Dialect levelling or shift 203
  18. Chapter 14. Complementing in another language 217
  19. Chapter 15. The past perfect in Cypriot Greek 231
  20. Index 245
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.22.06her

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Chapter 1. Language hybridism 9
  6. Chapter 2. Of clocks, clouds and sound change 27
  7. Chapter 3. Evaluations of foreign accent in a purist speech community 53
  8. Chapter 4. C’era i fascisti e i tedeschi 71
  9. Chapter 5. Language change caught in the act 85
  10. Chapter 6. Virtual sociolinguistics 103
  11. Chapter 7. ASPA Tools or how to measure foreign-accentedness and intelligibility in an objective manner 119
  12. Chapter 8. Vowel harmony patterns in Greek dialectal child speech 133
  13. Chapter 9. Tracking change in social meaning 145
  14. Chapter 10. Slit-t in Dublin English 159
  15. Chapter 11. Panel and trend studies 175
  16. Chapter 12. Quotative variation in Bernese Swiss German 191
  17. Chapter 13. Dialect levelling or shift 203
  18. Chapter 14. Complementing in another language 217
  19. Chapter 15. The past perfect in Cypriot Greek 231
  20. Index 245
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