Elucidating the transition period in linguistic change

Elucidating the transition period in linguistic change

November 12, 04
WECOL04
Elucidating the transition period in linguistic change
Shana Poplack
University of Ottawa
www.sociolinguistics.uottawa.ca
1.
a.
Esopo, desavergonhado, tu me foste enganar? Pois em ti
vingarei (SF) minha raiva. (Euripedes; Silva 1734:106)1
‘Aesop, you shameless man, did you deceive me? Well, I will avenge
myself of my fury’.
b
Não vo-lo hei de negar (HP): fazei-me uma petição.
(Fidalgo: Vicente 1526:176)
I won’t deny it to you – make your request’.
c
Sao nove horas e o oficio de Ramos principia (P) às dez e
meia. (Ambrósio; Pena 1853: 12)
3.
Hypotheses & Factors
Meanings and functions:
• Grammatical person and number
• Animacy
• Type of sentence (declarative, interrogative,
negative)
• Temporal distance between speech time and
predication (distal, proximal)
• Contingency of the future eventuality (contingent,
assumed)
‘It’s nine o’clock and the Palm procession begins at ten-thirty.’
d
Aí eu, “que festa?” “Ah, na nossa sala vai ter (IR) uma
festa.” (Tiago/A2/1992)
‘So I’m, “what party?” “Oh, there’s going to be a party in our
classroom.’”
2.
1
“Variable context”:
Any and all unambiguous reference to states or events
occurring posterior to speech time.
Codes in parentheses locate the utterance in play or speech corpus.
Prescribed contexts of use:
• Number of syllables in stem (monosyllabic vs.
other)
• Verb type (motion vs. other)
• Type of clause (main, subordinate, relative)
• Clitic pronoun (infixed (in SF) or not)
• Presence and type of disambiguating adverbial
specification (specific, non-specific, no adverbial)
Extralinguistic:
• Medium (written vs. spoken)
• Century
• Educational level (primary, secondary, university)
POPLACK
2
4. Distribution of future temporal reference variants by century
SF
Century
16th
18th
19th
20th Plays
Speech
Total
N
198
169
276
46
4
693
HP
%
66
57
53
9
1
30
N
91
103
104
5
-303
P
%
30
35
20
1
-13
N
10
19
66
93
104
292
IR
%
3
6
13
18
14
12
N
3
5
72
384
613
1077
Total N
Corrected Mean
Contingency
Contingent
.68
Assumed
.48
Sentence Type
Declarative
.55
Interrogative
.33
Negative
.37
Verb Type
Motion
.36
Non-motion
.54
Temporal Distance
Proximal
Distal
Grammatical Person/Animacy
1st Animate
3nd Inanimate
3rd Animate
2rd Animate
HP
194
.33
Variable rule analyses of the probability that SF, HP, P &
IR will be selected: 19th century
Total
%
1 302
2
296
14 518
73 528
85 721
45 2365
5. Variable rule analyses of the probability that SF, HP & P will
be selected: 16th & 18th centuries
SF
367
.62
6.
P
29
.05
.31
.52
.44
.70
.63
.87
.38
.72
.35
.68
.62
.41
.20
SF
268
.55
HP
104
.21
Proximal
.37
Distal
.56
Sentence Type
Declarative
Interrogative
Negative
Adverbial Specification
No adverbial
.47
Specific
.41
Non-specific
.69
Verb Type
Motion
.31
Non-motion
.52
Contingency
Contingent
Assumed
.40
.55
Total N
Corrected Mean
P
48
.10
IR
72
.15
Temporal Distance
.79
.35
.59
.29
.09
.45
.88
.45
.89
.44
.27
.52
.83
.47
.62
.27
.15
POPLACK
3
7. Variable rule analyses of the probability that P & IR will be
selected: 20th century speech
Present
Ir - periphrasis
Total N
47
611
Corrected Mean
.07
.93
Specific
.79
.21
Non-Specific
.60
.40
No adverbial
.42
.58
Contingent
.87
.13
Assumed
.45
.55
Adverbial Specification
Contingency
8. Variable rule analyses of the probability that P & IR will be
selected: 20th century speech vs. plays
Total N:
Corrected Mean
Contingency
Contingent
Assumed
Verb Type
Motion
Non-motion
Grammatical Person
1st Animate
3rd Inanimate
3rd Animate
2nd Animate
Adverbial Specification
Specific
Non-Specific
No adverbial
Present
Plays Speech
72
47
.14
.05
Ir - periphrasis
Plays Speech
384
611
.77
.93
.78
.47
.87
.45
.30
.52
.13
.55
.78
.47
[.62]
[.48]
.28
.52
[.38]
[.52]
.66
.50
.47
.13
[.44]
[.69]
[.46]
[.55]
.39
.43
.55
.81
[.56]
[.31]
[.54]
[.45]
.76
.61
.45
.79
.60
.42
.31
.34
.56
.21
.40
.58