Cover not available
Part of
Language Development: The lifespan perspective
Edited by Annette Gerstenberg and Anja Voeste
[IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 37] 2015
► pp. 39–58

Phonological variation in real time

Patterns of adult linguistic stability and change

This study uses an archive of publicly broadcast speech to investigate whether speakers are linguistically stable throughout adulthood. A sample of twelve speakers with recorded speech spanning at least thirty years were analyzed with regard to the variable production of syllable-initial (wh). Each speaker’s production at single points in time was contrasted with their production at other times; the analysis shows that the speakers generally show stability in their production of the variable. However, a majority of the speakers have at least one point in time in which their production deviates significantly, and often to a large degree, leading to the conclusion that we cannot simply assume that individuals are linguistically stable throughout their adult lives.

Published online: 22 July 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.37.03bow
References
Almond, P. & Apted, M
1964–2012  Up series. ITV/BBC One.
Bailey, G
2005 Real and apparent time. In The Handbook of Language Variation and Change, 2nd edn, J.K. Chambers, P. Trudgill & N. Schilling-Estes (eds), 312–332. Malden MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bailey, G. & Tillery J
1999 The Rutledge effect: The impact of interviewers on survey results in linguistics. American Speech 74: 389–402.Google Scholar
Bailey, G., Wikle, T., Tillery J
. & Sand, L 1991 The apparent time construct. Language Variation and Change 3: 241–264. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baker, W. & Bowie, D
2009 Religious affiliation as a correlate of linguistic behavior. In Selected Papers from NWAV 37, K. Gorman & L. Mackenzie (eds), Vol. 15(2), Article 2. Philadelphia PA: University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics. [URL] (25 August 2014).Google Scholar
Bowie, D
2003 Early development of the card-cord merger in Utah. American Speech 78: 31–51. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2005 Language change over the lifespan: a test of the apparent time construct. In Selected Papers from NWAV 33, S.E. Wagner (ed.), Vol. 11(2), 45–58. Philadelphia (PA): University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics, [URL] (25 August 2014).Google Scholar
2008 Acoustic characteristics of Utah’s card-cord merger. American speech 83: 35–61. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 The ageing voice: changing identity over time. In Language and Identities, C. Llamas & D. Watt (eds), 55–66. Edinburgh: EUP.Google Scholar
2011 Aging and sociolinguistic variation. In Language, Culture, and the Dynamics of Age, A. Duszak & U. Okulska (eds), 29–51. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Bowie, D. & Yaeger-Dror, M
2015 Forthcoming. Phonological change in real time. In The Oxford Handbook of Historical Phonology, P. Honeybone & J. Salmons (eds), Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Cukor-Avila, P
2002  She say, she go, she be like: verbs of quotation over time in African-American Vernacular English. American Speech 77: 3–31. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cukor-Avila, P. & Bailey, G
2001 The effects of the race of the interviewer on sociolinguistic fieldwork. Journal of Sociolinguistics 5: 254–270. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Di Paolo, M
1992 Hypercorrection in response to the apparent merger of (ɔ) and (ɑ) in Utah English. Language and Communication 12: 267–292. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Di Paolo, M & Faber, A
1990 Phonation differences and the phonetic content of the tense-lax contrast in Utah English. Language Variation and Change 2: 155–204. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eckert, P
1988 Adolescent social structure and the spread of linguistic change. Language in Society 17: 183–207. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1989 Jocks and Burnouts: Social Categories and Identity in the High School. New York NY: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
Faber, A. & Di Paolo, M
1995 The discriminability of nearly merged sounds. Language Variation and Change 7: 35–78. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haddock, C.K., Rindskopf, D. & Shadish, W.R
1998 Using odds ratios as effect sizes for meta-analysis of dichotomous data: a primer on methods and issues. Psychological Methods 3: 339–353. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hindle, D.M
1979 The Social and Situational Conditioning of Phonetic Variation. PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.
Labov, W
1963 The social motivation of a sound change. Word 19: 273–309. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1972 Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
1984 Field methods of the project in linguistic change and variation. In Language in Use: Readings in Sociolinguistics, J. Baugh & J. Sherzer (eds), 28–53. Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Lenneberg, E.H
1967 Biological Foundations of Language. New York NY: Wiley.Google Scholar
Lillie, D. DeFord
1998 The Utah Dialect Survey. MA thesis, Brigham Young University.
Mendoza-Denton, N
1997 Chicana/Mexicana Identity and Linguistic Variation: An Ethnographic and Sociolinguistic Study of Gang Affiliation in an Urban High School. PhD dissertation, Stanford University.
Moncrief, Z
2006 Barely legal. 1.33:1. Family Guy. Fox Network 17 December.Google Scholar
Nahkola, K. & Saanilahti, M
2004 Mapping language changes in real time: A panel study on Finnish. Language Variation and Change 16: 75–92. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nikolov, M. & Mihaljevic Djigunovic, J
2006 Recent research on age, second language acquisition, and early foreign language learning. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 26: 234–260. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Podesva, R
2006 Phonetic Detail in Sociolinguistic Variation: Its Linguistic Significance and Role in the Construction of Social Meaning. PhD dissertation, Stanford University.
Sankoff, G
2004 Adolescents, young adults, and the critical period: Two case studies from “Seven Up”. In Sociolinguistic Variation: Critical Reflections, C. Fought (ed.), 121–139. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Sankoff, G. & Blondeau, H
2007 Language change across the lifespan: /r/ in Montreal French. Language 83: 560–588. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sankoff, G., Blondeau, H. & Charity, A
2001 Individual roles in a real-time change: Montreal (r > R) 1947–1995. Etudes & Travaux 4: 141–157.Google Scholar
Scovel, Thomas
2000 A critical review of the critical period research. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 20: 213–223. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Singleton, D
2001 Age and second language acquisition. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 21: 77–89. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tagliamonte, S.A. & D’Arcy, A
2009 Peaks beyond phonology: Adolescence, incrementation, and language change. Language 85: 58–108. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tillery, J. & Bailey, G
2003 Approaches to real time in dialectology and sociolinguistics. World Englishes 22: 351–365. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Trudgill, P
1992 Norwich revisited: Recent linguistic changes in an English urban dialect. In Thirty Years of Linguistic Evolution: Studies in Honour of Renee Dirven on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday, M. Putz (ed.), 361–377. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wagner, S.E
2012 Real-time evidence for age grad(ing) in late adolescence. Language Variation and Change 24: 179–202. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 10 other publications

Anthonissen, Lynn & Peter Petré
2019. Grammaticalization and the linguistic individual: new avenues in lifespan research. Linguistics Vanguard 5:s2 DOI logo
Bowie, David
2017. Early Development of the Western Vowel System in Utah. The Publication of the American Dialect Society 102:1 ► pp. 83 ff. DOI logo
Bowie, David
2019. Individual variation in the development of the Western Vowel System of Utah. Linguistics Vanguard 5:s2 DOI logo
Bowie, David
2020. 7. English in the North: The Vowels of Southcentral Alaska. The Publication of the American Dialect Society 105:1 ► pp. 123 ff. DOI logo
Cheng, Andrew
2023. Second Dialect Acquisition “in Real Time”: Two Longitudinal Case Studies from YouTube. American Speech: A Quarterly of Linguistic Usage 98:2 ► pp. 194 ff. DOI logo
Felder, Samuel
2020. Chapter 4. Patterns of intra-individual variation in a Swiss WhatsApp corpus. In Corpus Approaches to Social Media [Studies in Corpus Linguistics, 98], ► pp. 89 ff. DOI logo
Pichler, Heike
2023. In support of researching later-life language variation and change. Journal of Language and Aging Research 1:1 ► pp. 17 ff. DOI logo
Pichler, Heike, Suzanne Evans Wagner & Ashley Hesson
2018. Old‐age language variation and change: Confronting variationist ageism. Language and Linguistics Compass 12:6 DOI logo
Riverin-Coutlée, Josiane & Jonathan Harrington
2022. Phonetic change over the career: a case study. Linguistics Vanguard 8:1 ► pp. 41 ff. DOI logo
Riverin-Coutlée, Josiane, Johanna-Pascale Roy & Michele Gubian
2023. Using Mahalanobis Distances to Investigate Second Dialect Acquisition: A Study on Quebec French. Language and Speech 66:2 ► pp. 291 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 20 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.