Concepts
The process in which regional dialects become less distinct, often due to movement into a new urban center by speakers of different varieties.
What is Dialect Leveling
What is a variable and its variants in NYC?
A way to gather data quickly in the public domain.
What is Rapid Anonymous Survey?
The language that provides the lexicon for a creole or pidgin, often the language of the dominant group.
What is a Lexifier?
Tok Pisin's status in Papua New Guinea.
What's an example of national language?
A measure of the strength and liveliness of a language, often in terms of demographic, social, and institutional support, usually indicating whether the language will flourish or die out
What is Ethnolinguistic Vitality?
And I was like, 'That's rad!"
What is a quotative?
A method to gather data in different tasks or activities to elicit language use in different styles.
What is the Sociolinguistic Interview?
In one situation, one common language is used by speakers of different languages and in another situation, speakers use a high code in formal situation and a low code in informal situation.
What's the difference between a Lingua Franca vs. a Diglossia?
English's status in India.
What's an example of an associate official language?
The distinction between when speakers in different groups use different variants with a distinct gap between the groups AND when they use different variants but with little gaps between the groups.
What is Broad Stratification vs. Fine Stratification?
Come on, it's Saturday night! You've gotta come with us to the game, bro!
What's an example of Politeness Strategies?
When a researcher observes something, the very act of observing it changes the nature of the data.
What is the Observer's Paradox?
Everyone has the desire to be appreciated in social interaction.
What's positive face in Politeness Theory?
The N-word has gone from a derogatory term to a positive term in some restricted contexts.
What's semantic reclamation?
In one situation, I tailor my speech to match my listeners' perspectives or backgrounds; in another situation, I assert my style of speaking regardless of the listeners' perspectives or backgrounds.
What the difference between audience design and speaker design?
What's an example of Covert prestige vs. Overt prestige?
The method of gathering qualitative data by spending a long time in the community being studied to observe and participate in the activities of the community as a member.
What is Participant Observation?
The study of people's attitudes toward different dialects.
What's Perceptual Dialectology?
TESOL students and alumni in our program.
What's an example of a community of practice?
A hypothesis that words and grammatical features influence how people perceive reality.
What is Linguistic Relativity?
I tried to speak in Pidgin with my good neighbor but came off as just another non-local.
What's an example of subjective convergence and objective divergence in speech accommodation?
To study how Pidgin has changed over the decades, I obtained samples of recorded public announcements in Pidgin at the Plantation museum made in the 1960s and those made in 2020.
What is an example of a Real Time Trend Study of language change?
A social class shifts style to match that of the next higher class when they pay more attention to speech, largely due to linguistic insecurity and the desire to move upward.
What's the Cross-over Effect or Hypercorrection?
Speakers on Martha's Vineyards pronounced 'night' 'right' and 'wife' with a raised vowel (Labov's study in the 1960s).
What's an example of an indicator?