ABSTRACT
Linguistic Variation: Confronting Fact and Theory honors Shana Poplack in bringing together contributions from leading scholars in language variation and change. The book demonstrates how variationist methodology can be applied to the study of linguistic structures and processes. It introduces readers to variation theory, while also providing an overview of current debates on the linguistic, cognitive and sociocultural factors involved in linguistic patterning. With its coverage of a diverse range of language varieties and linguistic problems, this book offers new quantitative analyses of actual language production and processing from both top experts and emerging scholars, and presents students and practitioners with theoretical frameworks to meaningfully engage in accountable research practice.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part A|68 pages
The Variationist Comparative Method
chapter 3|18 pages
Uh and Um in British and American English: Are they Words?
part B|74 pages
Identifying and Tracking Language Change
chapter 5|21 pages
The Continuing Story of Verbal –s
chapter 6|15 pages
Phonetic Variation across Centuries
part C|61 pages
Language Ideology, Prescription, and Community Norms
chapter 9|16 pages
Drifting Toward the Standard Language
chapter 10|13 pages
The Neglected Topic of Variation in Teacher Classroom Speech
part D|73 pages
Evaluating the Effects of Language Contact on the Ground
chapter 14|15 pages
Variable Patterns in Spanish-English Acquisition from Birth
part E|63 pages
Fresh Perspectives on Classic Problems