William Labov

Republic of the Philippines
University of Rizal System

Pililla, Rizal
GRADUATE SCHOOL
Reniel M. Domingo Prof. Jameson Martinez

Student Graduate Lecturer
DR. WILLIAM LABOV: Chemist to Linguist

This superior man blooms from an insurmountable
passion of becoming a writer to an exceptional
figure and a prominent voice in Linguistics of his
generation.
‘‘Born and raised in northern New Jersey, he earned
his bachelor’s degree of English and philosophy at
Harvard University year 1948. After unsuccessful
attempts to establish a career as a writer, he took a
position with his family’s firm, the Union Ink
Company, as an industrial chemist for several years
before entering graduate school at Columbia
University in 1961. Because of his unfathomable
passion, he pursued Linguistics as his field of
specialization. Prominent linguists have proved their
theories, and he has valuable contribution just like
what other linguists’ namely Noam Chomasky, Dell
Hymes etc… has contributed. He worked at
Columbia until 1971, when he joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania,
where he taught until his retirement in 2014.
He is widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of ‘variationist sociolinguists’ and
described as original and influential figure who has created much of the methodology of
sociolinguistics, a well-known voice in American linguistics since the early 1960s, he is
Dr. William Labov, who committed himself to study carefully ‘sociolinguistic approach to
examining how language works between people, language change and dialectology.
Labov began to flourish his name when he conducted his research about changing
pronunciations in graduate school where Mharta’s Vineyard, Masachussets as the
scope of his study. For his PhD dissertation, Labov focused his study in the dialect
patterns on the Lower East Side of New York City using a systematic, quantitative
methodology, he demonstrated that linguistic variation is socially stratified, such that the
use of pronunciation features correlates with social class, ethnicity, etc. in regular
patterns.’ Through this lens, it captures the attention of many scholars to conduct the
same study in other communities.
Sociolinguistics is deductive in nature and Labov simplified it as he developed a
research paradigm known as the study of language variation and change, or variationist
sociolinguistics. These works were informed by a conceptualization of language that
recognizes the influence of both linguistic and social structures.
Moreover, he zoomed the involvement of ‘Prestige’” which he said that “Prestige can be
separated into ‘overt prestige’ and ‘covert prestige’. Both are used when changing
speech to gain prestige – appearing to have a high reputation/standing/success etc- but
do so in different ways. If someone uses ‘overt prestige’ they put on an accent that is
generally widely recognized as being used but the ‘culturally dominant group’…‘Covert
prestige’ is the opposite, as ‘covert’ means secret. Therefore it means to put on an
accent to show membership to an ‘exclusive community’ in the area, rather than to fit
with the ‘dominant culture group...”
Labov has devoted enormous attention to questions of language change. Most of his
research examines English, and he has been influential in the field of American
dialectology, where he has helped to turn scholarly attention away from its traditional
focus on the retention of regional speech patterns. He has also been a leader in the
study of African American Vernacular English and has worked to counter popular
misconceptions about this and other stigmatized dialects. Related to this research, he
has examined how speakers of non-standard dialects acquire reading proficiency in
Standard English.
Much of Labov’s scholarship seeks to advance our understanding of language change.
Historical linguists traditionally study completed linguistic changes, often long after they
occurred, but Labov developed a method for examining active changes through a
quantitative comparison of speakers representing several generations. This approach
produces a new perspective on the change process by revealing intermediate stages.
Labov has brought insights from this research to bear on theoretical debates within
historical linguistics and the field more broadly.
References:
https://aggslanguage.wordpress.com/2009/09/20/william-labov/, i love english language
http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199772810/obo-
9780199772810-0195.xml William Labov, Matthew J. Gordon

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Republic of the Philippines

University of Rizal System

Reniel M. Domingo Prof. Jameson Martinez

DR. WILLIAM LABOV: Chemist to Linguist

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