Sociohistorical Linguistics

Stephen Pax Leonard is a Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge and a Research Associate at the Scott Polar Research Institute. Educated at the University of Oxford, he studied modern and ancient languages before developing interests in linguistic and existential anthropology. He has carried out both linguistic and ethnographic fieldwork in Iceland and the Faroe Islands. More recently, he spent a year living with the Inugguit of north-west Greenland who live in the northern-most permanently inhabited settlement in the world, documenting their vulnerable minority language and spoken traditions.

2003 UPenn dissertation: Viking Pronouns in England
Chapter 3: Pronoun Forms and Uses: Etymologies and Attested Paradigms
Summary: I provide evidence bearing on two of the principal questions posed by the Scandinavian to English pronoun transfer: whether the English demonstrative was a factor in the rise of some of the th- forms, and when the Scandinavian forms appeared in English. The problematic identity of “English” is discussed, along with the possibility that insular “Scandinavian” differed from continental varieties. The pronoun paradigms of runic Scandinavian, Old Norwegian, and Old Danish on the one hand, and of Anglian and early Middle English on the other hand, are described.  The Scandinavian forms differ significantly from the Old Icelandic ones usually cited, and therefore traditional assumptions abut the modifications of the Scandinavian forms (such as loss of -r and monophthongization) are invalid. I discuss the implications of both the early-transfer hypothesis and the late-transfer hypothesis.

Com origem no romance galego-português, transplantado da sua área inicial a norte do vale do Vouga pelos  conquistadores, o dialecto algarvio conserva ainda sons, palavras e regras de gramática que testemunham esse estado de língua ancestral, assim como soluções minhotas, também elas medievais, trazidas pelos colonos. Conserva igualmente características do romance moçárabe, a língua neo-latina falada pelas populações hispanogodas durante o domínio islâmico, bem como arabismos fixados por essas mesmas populações. A par dos seus traços conservadores, o algarvio caracteriza-se também por soluções históricas inovadoras, umas espontâneas, outras provavelmente devidas a influência galo-românica das ordens militares com aquela origem ou a influxo do árabe andaluz. O seu carácter simultaneamente conservador e inovador ficaria a dever-se à
difusão e preservação regionais da koinê medieval, uma variedade do português simplificada e regularizada que resultou de um processo de nivelamento dialectal nos territórios colonizados.

This thesis takes three major claims made by literary scholars about Shakespeare’s use of language regarding issues of social identity. Each chapter introduces a critical perception of Shakespeare’s language - madness (Neely 1991), whorishness (Stanton 2000, Stallybrass 1986, Newman 1986) and questions of race, ethnicity and nationality (Loomba 2000, Hall 1992) – and applies a quantitative approach to the claims they raise. In doing so, I illustrate how digital resources such as the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary (Kay et al 2015), the Folger Digital Texts (Mowat, Werstine, Niles and Poston 2014) and corpus analysis software including AntConc (Anthony 2014) and Ubiqu+ity can be applied to a closed-set collection of plays understood to be written by Shakespeare (Wells and Taylor 1987, 109-134) to test claims laid out by literary critics. This thesis therefore shows how quantitative evidence can lead to a more complex and robust analysis of Shakespeare’s language than qualitative evidence is able to.

Between 1847 and 1874, the international trade of Asian indentured laborers that is often referred to as the ‘Coolie Trade’ took the first large-scale arrivals of Chinese to colonial Cuba. During this period, there existed a system of racial hierarchy that divided the island’s population into three main groups: whites, free people of colour, and slaves. The 125,000 Chinese arriving in this period added another dimension to the cultural and linguistic heterogeneity of the island. This work pulls from archival information that chronicles this trans-Atlantic migration, including metalinguistic commentaries found in interviews done with these laborers. These records provide a micro-level view of the plantation system relevant for theoretical debates and related work within the field of Creole Studies. This work pays special attention to the relations between Chinese and African-born slaves and those Chinese who became bilingual in Spanish and served as intermediaries for their fellow countrymen.

A companion series to the journal Studies in Language. Volumes in this series are functionally and typologically oriented, covering speci c topics in language by collecting together data from a wide variety of languages and languages typologies.

This work discusses the sociohistorical origins of Anguillian (also known as Anguilla Talk), the English-lexifier Creole spoken on the Caribbean island of Anguilla. It focuses on the earliest period of colonization (1650-1700) because creolists have suggested that social dynamics in this 'formative period' are key to understanding the emergence of Creole languages throughout the region. Responding to Arends' call for "historical correctness", the author draws from archival sources to describe language contact, social relationships (including relationships between enslaved Africans and their European masters), and indirect evidence of linguistic variation. He offers a critique of creolists' interpretations of the Founder Principle and their assumptions about patterns of social interaction, questioning claims that 'Robinsonian conditions' clearly prevailed in the seventeenth century.

This article explores how the phrase 'mad woman' is used to construct gendered face-threatening actions in Early Modern dramatic writing. Although literary scholars are familiar with the more canonical mad women, I show that feminine madness in Early Modern dramatic writing is not always described so bluntly. Using the simple quantitative technique of counting instances of lexical realizations of 'mad woman' in the Shakespeare His Contemporaries corpus (Mueller 2015), this article shows that while we can easily recognize the so-called mad women in drama, the characters we expect to find are not always named as such. Finally, I suggest that accusations of madness in women can be used to identify a variety of politeness strategies in use in Early Modern drama.

This study investigates linguistic and scriptal variation in notary signatures found in late antique contracts from Egypt, seeking to identify and interpret the potential relationship between choices in language and script. To answer this, theoretical concepts and methods from sociolinguistics, social semiotics, and multilingual studies are used, with the objective of adding a new, more linguistically-oriented perspective to existing research on notarial signatures. On the one hand, this research demonstrates how the Latin script seems to restrict notaries, resulting in transliterated Greek signatures with very homogeneous content. The familiarity of notaries with the Greek language and writing is, on the other hand, reflected in signatures written in the Greek alphabet, which are much more diverse and at times adjusted to the circumstances under which specific documents were composed. Even if notaries seem to lack confidence in freely producing text in the Latin script, they choose to do so due to its functional values, which are conveyed and perceived visually. Latin letters create an association between signatories and Roman law, adding to the trustworthiness and prestige of the signatures. Differentiating between script and language allows us to understand how the Latin script maintained the connotations that formerly accompanied the Latin language, gradually replacing it in the form of transliterated passages, at a time when the language was disappearing from papyrological documentation. In this sense, sociolinguistics, and especially social semiotics, prove useful when dealing with visual aspects of language in papyri, as they prevent their functions and meanings from being overlooked.

This chapter pursues four goals beyond the overall aim of illustrating the relevance of emigrant letters in the historical linguistics of Canadian English, North American English and its donor varieties. The first goal is to introduce a new electronic resource, the Petworth Emigration to Canada Corpus (PECC), a resource that should have the potential to help in a number of Late Modern English debates. Second, the paper is aimed to address for PECC the degree of orality and informality that the corpus of these early 19th-century English emigrant letters, compiled specifically for the present paper, reveals. In particular, as suggested in this paper's title, an assessment to which degree, if at all, the corpus' features may be approximated to features of the spoken LModE. For that goal, Schneider (2002) and Hickey's 7-tiered typology discussed in this volume's introduction (For RH: CORRECT?) serve as very useful reference points. Based on the 1830s empirical data from PEEC, it is aimed to contribute to the ongoing debate behind the reasons for the spread of first person will in English vernaculars; a point that has regained attention since McCafferty & Amador-Moreno (2014). Fourth and finally, the paper aims to contribute to a growing body of evidence that assesses the degree of linguistic "conservatism" in Canadian English, a variety that has been claimed to be "more conservative linguistically than the United States and Australia [and other ex-colonies]" (Chambers 1998: 253; see Dollinger 2015a for a critical assessment). The case study in the present paper is on the modal auxiliaries shall and will, which were chosen for the availability of comparative studies and, not unimportant in manuscript letter corpora and other small corpora (Dollinger 2004), the relatively frequent use of auxiliaries even in these often smallest of historical corpora.

This dissertation investigates the use of the subjunctive in completive clauses governed by verbs in Italian, both synchronically and diachronically, and in Vulgar Latin. By making use of the tools provided by the Variationist Sociolinguistic framework (Labov 1972, 1994), the current study sheds light on the underlying conditioning on variability using actual usage and speech-surrogate data. Contemporary actual speech data comes from LIP (De Mauro et al. 1993) and C-ORAL-ROM (Cresti & Moneglia 2005) corpora, providing spontaneous discourse in casual and careful speech as well as sub-sample divisions representative of geographical variation. In order to measure any changes in the underlying conditioning on subjunctive selection, a diachronic benchmark is established: a corpus of speech-like surrogates of 16th to 20th century Italian, COHI (Corpus of Historical Italian), and a corpus of Vulgar Latin (Cena Trimalchionis, from the Satyricon by Petronius). The subjunctives were extracted in adherence to the principle of accountability (Labov 1972), using the method developed by Poplack (1992): every complement clause governed by a matrix verb (governor) that triggered the subjunctive at least once was included. This method enables us to circumvent the issue of the lack of consensus in the literature on exactly which contexts, i.e. verbs and/or meanings, should trigger the subjunctive in discourse. This issue surfaces as well from the meta-linguistic analysis of a compendium of 58 Italian grammars and treaties (CSGI, Collezione Storica di Grammatiche Italiane), constructed for the purpose of this research.
A series of linguistic and extra-linguistic factors proposed by formal and prescriptive literature are operationalized and tested against the corpora of both Italian and Vulgar Latin, in order to ascertain the nature of variability in discourse: i.e. whether the use of the subjunctive is semantically motivated, productive in speech or undergoing desemanticization and lexicalization. Despite widespread assumption of a change that occurred after the political and the subsequent linguistic unification of Italy, i.e. that the subjunctive has lost ground in favour of the indicative when it was supposedly used categorically in the past, quantitative and statistical evidence shows that subjunctive selection is largely determined by lexical identity of the governor as well as embedded suppletive forms of essere, and that this pattern has been operative at least since the 16th century.
On a more socio-linguistic aspect, this study confirms the linguistic prestige that the subjunctive has acquired in contemporary speech, being selected with a wider range of infrequent and singleton governors by highly educated speakers. Also, the highly lexicalized pattern on variability was found to be largely shared amongst the four main urban centres of Florence, Milan, Rome, and Naples, thus countering the assumption of divergent linguistic behaviour between northern and southern varieties of Italian.
The study also shows that despite the significant time span targeted, no evidence of desemanticization has been found. Likewise, the variationist analysis on the Vulgar Latin subjunctive shows that subjunctive choice was already largely determined by, and restricted, to a few governors, identified as ‘volitive’ and ‘emotive’ matrices. These governors remained strong predictors for the selection of the subjunctive in Italian as well, suggesting that this lexical pattern has been transferred and consistently retained in the daughter language.

Working at the forefront of Tibeto-Burman linguistics, Professor David Bradley’s exceptional expertise lies in his ability to blend comparative diachronic research with distinctions drawn from the sociology, anthropology, geography and descriptive-typology of language to open up new insights into hundreds of linguistic varieties and language relationships throughout the Southeast Asian macroregion. It is with great pleasure that we present this collection of original papers to celebrate his achievements and contributions, both to the science of language and to scholarship on Tibeto-Burman languages, over the past 40 years. In addition to positions of distinction held within his own university over the years, Professor Bradley is UNESCO team leader for research on language endangerment in East and Southeast Asia, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities, and current President of the Comité International Permanent des Linguistes (CIPL). In what follows, we provide a brief background sketch of David’s life and work, highlighting his academic achievements and relating the contents of the chapters that follow to his research themes.

Die Entstehung der sogenannten ‚uneigentlichen' bzw. verfugten Komposita im Frühneuhochdeutschen aus pränominalen Genitivkonstruktionen wird gemeinhin als natürliche Entwicklung verstanden, die sich prinzipiell mithilfe üblicher Wandelmechanismen wie Reanalyse oder Grammatikalisierung aus dem mündlichen Sprachgebrauch erklären lässt. Dabei ergeben sich jedoch bestimmte Probleme, die die phonologischen Voraussetzungen für einen solchen Prozess sowie seine Chronologie betreffen. In diesem Beitrag wird durch eine quantitative Korpusanalyse die Diachronie der verfugten Komposita, ihrer mutmaßlichen Ursprungskonstruktion, der pränominalen Genitive, sowie zwischen diesen Strukturen vermittelnder Brückenkonstruktionen untersucht. Dafür dient das diachrone Predigten-Korpus SermonC, das Texte aus dem Zeitraum vom frühen 9. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert umfasst und eine ausgeglichene Basis für die Untersuchung von Sprachwandel mit Langzeitperspektive bietet. Im Ergebnis zeigt sich, dass die verfugten Komposita zu einer Zeit grammatikalisiert wurden, als der pränominale Genitiv längst aus der gesprochenen Sprache verschwunden war und somit die Voraussetzung für natürlichen Sprachwandel auf dieser Grundlage nicht mehr gegeben war. Stattdessen scheint es so, dass diese Grammatikalisierung auf der Basis der rein schriftlichen Genitivkompetenz und somit im geschriebenen Deutsch erfolgte. Daher wird in diesem Beitrag argumentiert, dass sich der Prozess der Entstehung der verfugten Komposita im Schriftlichen abspielte, d. h. in einer geschriebenen Varietät des historischen Deutsch, und erst in der Folge auf die Mündlichkeit zurückwirkte. Erst sekundär fand die neue Struktur, die gewissermaßen eine Kontamination aus pränominalem Genitiv und dem klassischen, unverfugten Kompositum darstellt, Eingang in die gesprochene Sprache. Dieser Hergang ist nicht nur aufgrund der Datenlage plausibel und wahrscheinlich, sondern vor dem Hintergrund des Verlusts des adnominalen Genitivs in den Mundarten zwingend und stellt eine Lösung für die genannten Probleme im phonologischen und historischen Bereich dar.

The aim of this paper is to offer an analysis based on a phi-feature theory for gender, from a minimalist viewpoint (Chomsky, 1995; 1998; 1999), concerning empirical evidence of the variation of this category in a rural Brazilian Portuguese (BP) variety. The data analyzed, drawn from an afro-descendent informant from southern Bahia, Brazil, shows a tendency towards marking masculine inflection in traditionally feminine nominals. This variation brings some problems to the traditional agreement analysis (i.e. feature identity (Chomsky, 1998)). On this basis, the paper suggests that where there is gender variation in the dialect, nominals showing loss of feminine marking are underspecified for this feature, according to Carvalho (2008), generating gender syncretism in the variety analyzed. To do so, a phi-feature theory able to deal with feature mismatch, is adopted.

O objetivo principal deste trabalho é mapear os pronomes de segunda pessoa do singular (tu e você) na posição de sujeito em 420 cartas pessoais escritas por catarinenses entre 1880 e 1990. A discussão teórica aqui proposta é amparada na Sociolinguística Histórica (cf. CONDE SILVESTRE, 2007), a qual se fundamenta nos pressupostos da Teoria da Variação e Mudança (cf. WEINREICH; LABOV; HERZOG, 2006 [1968]; LABOV, 1994). Considerando-se o universo dessas amostras, algumas tendências podem ser apontadas: (i) nas amostras de cartas escritas no século XIX e no início do século XX (1870-1940), predominam o uso de tu, e nas amostras da segunda metade do século XX (1950-1990) há variação entre tu e você, e essa distribuição parece mostrar alguma correlação com os diferentes pronomes e a sócio-história da cidade de Florianópolis; (ii) o pronome tu é majoritariamente associado a sujeitos nulos, enquanto o pronome você é majoritariamente associado a sujeitos expressos; (iii) o uso de tu parece estar correlacionado a cartas de teor mais pessoal, ao passo que o uso de você parece estar correlacionado a cartas de teor mais profissional. Os resultados da análise desses pronomes em cartas pessoais indicam que a implementação do você se dá muito lentamente em território catarinense, concorrendo com o pronome latino tu, ainda muito frequente na fala.

On the Necessary Unity of Trees and Waves in Historical Reconstruction: The Case of Phowa. Linkage models of language diversification (Ross 1988, François 2014) represent the slow differentiation of closely related sister languages via dialect continua. Such historical relationships are said to prevent the reconstruction of branch-internal phylogeny. A newly defined mode of linkage variation challenges this restriction. In cladistic hinge diversification, speakers of a geographically central variety mediate innovations between isolated extremes of a sub-branch, while all three daughter branches maintain evidence of their own exclusive innovations. The resulting pattern blends linkage relations with family relations. Following a contextual review, the paper presents supporting evidence for the distinction from the Phowa languages of southwest China (Ngwi < Burmic < Tibeto-Burman). Data analysis includes sociohistory, dialectometry and genetic linguistic components. The argument affirms both wave and tree models of language change, enabling an enriched understanding of focal, relic and transition areas and their influence on the leveling, development and diffusion of linguistic innovations.

This dissertation investigates the use of the subjunctive in completive clauses governed by verbs in Italian, both synchronically and diachronically, and in Vulgar Latin. By making use of the tools provided by the Variationist Sociolinguistic framework (Labov 1972, 1994), the current study sheds light on the underlying conditioning on variability using actual usage and speech-surrogate data. Contemporary actual speech data comes from LIP (De Mauro et al. 1993) and CORAL -ROM (Cresti & Moneglia 2005) corpora, providing spontaneous discourse in casual and careful speech as well as sub-sample divisions representative of geographical variation. In order to measure any changes in the underlying conditioning on subjunctive selection, a diachronic benchmark is established: a corpus of speech-like surrogates of 16 th to 20 th century Italian, COHI (Corpus of Historical Italian), and a corpus of Vulgar Latin (Cena Trimalchionis, from the Satyricon by Petronius). The subjunctives were extracted in adherence to the principle of accountability (Labov 1972), using the method developed by Poplack (1992): every complement clause governed by a matrix verb (governor) that triggered the subjunctive at least once was included. This method enables us to circumvent the issue of the lack of consensus in the literature on exactly which contexts, i.e. verbs and/or meanings, should trigger the subjunctive in discourse. This issue surfaces as well from the meta-linguistic analysis of a compendium of 58 Italian grammars and treaties (CSGI, Collezione Storica di Grammatiche Italiane), constructed for the purpose of this research. A series of linguistic and extra-linguistic factors proposed by formal and prescriptive literature are operationalized and tested against the corpora of both Italian and Vulgar Latin, in order to ascertain the nature of variability in discourse: i.e. whether the use of the subjunctive is semantically motivated, productive in speech or undergoing desemanticization and lexicalization. Total 100% 100% 76% 485 637 152

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