Homework Week 1
Change of perspective
For next week, please read Trudgill 2014, vs. Stuart-Smith 2011. Summarize the texts,
finding memorable claims, and note which linguistic features the claims relate to. Are
empirical studies cited? Which ones? Which linguistic features do they deal with? Also: Are
there technical terms your do not feel comfortable with? Collect them. Which ones can you
look up, and where (besides perhaps Wikipedia)? Overall: from your reading so far, do
different "camps" emerge with respect to the question of media influence? Which ones, and
where would the authors belong?
1. Trudgill 2014
● language changes for unknown reasons at different places in different ways
which leads to divergence
● The development of regional dialects leads over time to the development of
different languages which cannot be understood by each other
● Linguistic changes spread in human societies from place to place without
people actively noticing it
● Linguistic changes usually start spreading from the lower classes of society
● The spreading of linguistic forms requires personal interaction (face to face
interaction)
● All people act to a certain maxim when it comes to language: „talk like the
others talk“ = the result is that people adapt to each other (accommodation)
● „Talk like others“: this linguistic aspect is the universell, inborn human
tendency of behavioral coordination, behavioral congruence, mutual
adjustment and interactional sychronity
○ It is a biological drive to act like your peers
● The linguistic accommodation is an automatic result of interaction: Mutual
adaptation is ubiquitous and arguably the essential feature of any
interpersonal interaction.
● Linguistic dissemination is a relatively automatic behavior which is shown
during social interaction.
○ Who interacts the most with whom?
● Communication density: linguistic change is an effect which is mechanic and
inevitable
● Writing is another way of linguistic distribution
○ The written media (and social media and electronic voice media)
enable the lexic distribution over distance
● Lexic is easier to acquire than words and sentences
● Most lexical changes are only temporary, especially when it comes to
colloquial terms
● There is a fundamental difference between written and social media and the
electronic spoken media (which are listened to and not read)
● There exists no phonological innovation which makes it possible that lexic is
spreading from afar
○ If the electronic media would have a significant impact on phonology
every single British Island would have an American accent by now or
there would be developments to this direction.
● If the media would significantly impact grammar then we would have a strong
increase in the number of people who use the grammatical forms of standard
English, which is not the case.
● Phonological diffusion: spreading of forms from lower social groups of society,
it happens step by step, geographical and social and below the level of the
conscious consciousness
● Varieties of language can be similar to each other because they have arisen
from the same source and due to similar differences they have developed into
similar directions
● Phonological drift: language moves through time in a stream created by itself
● Historic linguistic: The more common a change is the more likely it is to be an
independent development and vice versa. It is less likely that unnatural
changes are repeated indecently than the repetition of natural changes.
● Natural change: L-vocalisation (We can‘t say anything about the role of the
media. The L-vocalisation is a change in sound which can happen at every
time, everywhere. It is very common.
● Geographic distribution is a process which has always happened, it would be
useless to use the modern media as a general explanatory factor, media
engagement as a factor of linguistic change is not empirically proven
● Modern phenomenon of long-distance lexical spreading: the media influence
on lexical features such as quotations is crucial, the people hear new words
and terms on to and start using them themselves, especially young people
spend a lot of time with media, there is a certain language change due to the
television
● The interaction itself is crucial and not the repetition of the exposition! The
exposition happens through the media, but you do not verbally interact with
the television
● Lexical change do not depend on interaction, but important phonological and
grammatical changes cannot spread without interaction
● Linguistic changes were always there and they have always spread around
the world.
● We do not know how old the human language is which we speak today
● Electronic media and written media only exist for a short period of time
compared to the spoken language and therefore do not have that big of an
impact on the linguistic change
2. Stuart Smith
● linguistic norms in europe are linked to the mass media
● Language standardization is linked to mass print media
● Influence of the media depends on what the viewers bring into the media
experience
● Media influence language
● Radio and TV made it possible that non-standard dialects speakers could
experience a huge variety of standers varieties of languages
