[Puzzles in Language Change] reading for Sep 9: Tagliamonte & D'Arcy (2009)

[Igor Yanovich]

Dear everyone,

We will start with a discussion of Tagliamonte & D'Arcy (2009), see the
attachment. It is a long and rich paper. The features which made me choose
it as our first reading are:

- it introduces a number of concepts, beliefs and techniques that are
common in sociolinguistics, but not among linguists in general (the paper
is published in Language, which concentrates on papers of significance to
a broad linguistic audience);

- it offers a wealth of empirical data, and references some more;

- the data illustrate two recurring patterns found in language change: the
"S-curve" and the "adolescent peak";

- the authors use the data in order to test a specific explicit model, and
adjust it as the result.

Since the paper is 50 pages long, it's probable that you will only skim
it. I'd suggest reading Section 1-2 in whole; taking at least a quick look
at Section 5, which presents the ongoing linguistic changes from which the
main data come; and looking into Section 6, especially into the diagrams.
The rest, I think, can be safely discussed at our session next Wednesday,
but becoming acquainted in advance with the mentioned parts will likely
pay off.

In case you have specific questions as you read, you may write either to
me, or to this whole list. Or you can write them down so that we can
discuss them at the session. I will also send in a separate email a
chapter from a state-of-the-art sociolinguistics textbook that introduces
many different types and patterns of change. It can be skimmed for fun,
used as a reference, etc.


All the best,
 Igor
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