Spring 2021

Social Dynamics of Language Variation and Change [IPRH Reading Group]

ORGANIZERS: Salvatore Callesano (Spanish & Portuguese); Anna Maria Escobar (Spanish & Portuguese); Zsuzsanna Fagyal (French & Italian); Robin Turner, (Graduate Assistant, French & Italian)

DESCRIPTION: Contact between different types of linguistic varieties in oral, written, and digital communication are impacting uses of languages in the process. We draw from linguistics and the social and behavioral sciences to examine the sociopolitical and ideological contexts and modes of language contact to discuss outcomes of language variation and change in multilingual settings. In addition to newly published readings, we continue to focus on hypothesis formation and hands-on methods of data analysis.

2021 SPRING SEMESTER VIRTUAL MEETINGS: Fridays, 10-11a, every two weeks, starting 2/5, with in-between dates for conference presentation practice. (Write to Robin Turner, if you want to be added to our list). SDLVC RG Meeting ID: 959 8896 5548; Password: SDLVC-2021

TENTATIVE CALENDAR

Reading of the day: Regan, Brendan (2020) The split of a fricative merger due to dialect contact and societal changes: A sociophonetic study on Andalusian Spanish read-Spanish. Language Variation and Change 32,2, 159-190. PDF

Theoretical background reading: Hinskens, F., Auer, P., & Kerswill, P. (2005) The study of dialect convergen ce and divergence: conceptual and methodological considerations. In Dialect Change: Convergence and Divergence in European Languages, ed. by P. Auer, F. Hinskens, & P. Kerswill, 1-48. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. PDF

Reading of the day: Regan, Brendan (2020) The split of a fricative merger due to dialect contact and societal changes: A sociophonetic study on Andalusian Spanish read-Spanish. Language Variation and Change 32,2, 159-190. PDF

Theoretical background reading: Hinskens, F., Auer, P., & Kerswill, P. (2005) The study of dialect convergen ce and divergence: conceptual and methodological considerations. In Dialect Change: Convergence and Divergence in European Languages, ed. by P. Auer, F. Hinskens, & P. Kerswill, 1-48. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. PDF

SDLVC – FRIDAY, 02/05/21, 10 a.m. –  TOPIC:  Media and Language Change
Guest Speaker: Salvatore Callesano, University of Illinois at Urbana, presentation on “Language variation and social media: The ‘Miami Cuban’ Language Index” [no reading, except Androutsopoulos]

Theoretical background reading: Androutsopoulos, J. (2014) Mediatization and sociolinguistic change. Key concepts, research traditions, open issues. In Mediatization and sociolinguistic change, ed. by J. Androutsopoulos, 3-48. De Gruyter. PDF

SDLVC – FRIDAY, 02/19/21, 10 a.m. – TOPIC: New speakers and Language Change
Guest Speaker: Itxaso Rodríguez-Ordóñez, California State University at Long Beach, presentation on New Speakers and Basque ergativity

 Reading of the day: Rodríguez-Ordóñez, I. (draft) The role of frequency in the acquisition of structures variation: The case of Basque ergativity. PDF

Theoretical background reading: Kasstan, J. & I. Rodríguez-Ordóñez (2022) Chap. 29: New speakers and their heritage languages. In Routledge Handbook of Variationist Sociolinguistics. PDF

SPECIAL EVENTTHURSDAY, 03/04/21, 4:00 p.m.
Span & Port Colloquium – Guest Speaker: Daniel Erker, Boston University  TBA

SDLVC – FRIDAY, 03/05/21, 10 a.m. – TOPIC: Globalization in Language Change
Guest Speaker: Daniel Erker, Boston University

Reading of the day: Erker, D. & R. Otheguy (2020) American myths of linguistic assimilation: A sociolinguistic rebuttal. Language in Society 1-37. PDF

Theoretical background reading: Blommaert, J. (2010) Chap. 1: A critical sociolinguistics of globalization. In Sociolinguistics of globalization, 1-27. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. PDF

SDLVC – FRIDAY, 03/19/21, 10 a.m. – TOPIC: Raciolinguistics and Language Change
Reading of the day: Clemons, Aris Moreno (2021) New Blacks: Language.DNA, and the construction of the African American/Dominican Boundary of Difference. Genealogy 5: 1. PDF

[Background study: Slomanson, P. & M. Newman (2004) Peer group identification and variation in New York Latino English laterals. English World Wide 25:2, 199-216. PDF

Theoretical reading: Rosa, J. & N. Flores (2017) Unsettling race and language: Toward a raciolinguistic perspective. Language in Society 46, 621-647. PDF

SDLVC – FRIDAY, 04/02/21, 10 a.m. – TOPIC: Dialect Contact and Language Change
Reading of the day: Regan, Brendan (2020) The split of a fricative merger due to dialect contact and societal changes: A sociophonetic study on Andalusian Spanish read-Spanish. Language Variation and Change 32,2, 159-190.PDF

Theoretical background reading: Hinkskens, F., Auer, P., & Kerswill, P. (2005) The study of dialect convergen ce and divergence: conceptual and methodological considerations. In Dialect Change: Convergence and Divergence in European Languages, ed. by P. Auer, F. Hinskens, & P. Kerswill, 1-48. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. PDF

SDLVC – FRIDAY, 04/16/21, 10 a.m. – TOPIC: Social Indexicality and Language Change
Reading of the day: Monka, M, P. Quist & A.R. Skovse (2020) Place attachment and linguistic variation: A quantitative analysis of language and local attachment in rural village and an urban social housing area. Language in Society 49, 173-205. PDF

Theoretical reading: Eckert, P. (2019) The limits of meaning: Social indexicality, variation, and the cline of interiority. Language 95, 4, 751-776. PDF

SDLVC – FRIDAY, 04/23/21, 10 a.m – TOPIC: Gender and Language Change
Guest Speaker: Gyula Zsombok, Middlebury College, presentation entitled “Resisting gender-inclusive language: the influence of institutional intervention in linguistic practices online”

Theoretical background reading: Knisely, Kris Aric. 2020. Le français non-binaire: Linguistic forms used by non-binary speakers of French. Foreign Language Annals 53, 850-876. PDF

SPECIAL EVENTThursday, April 29 to Saturday, May 1, 2021 – LSRL SYMPOSIUM

Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages, at UIUC – Go to Website