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LOCATING LANGUAGE \ l IN TIME AND SPACE Edited by William Labov Department of Linguistics University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania i i ~· This is the first volume in a series entitled QUANTITATIVE ANALY8_?S OF LINGUISTIC STRUCTURE Under the general editorship of William Labov University ofPennsylvania ACADEMIC PRESS David Sankoff A Subsidiary of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers New York London Toronto Sydney San Francisco Centre de Recherches Mathematique I ~I I .I CONTENTS OPYRIGHT @ 1980, BY ACADEMIC PRESS, INC. LL RIGHTS RESERVED. 0 PART OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE REPRODUCED OR RANSMITTED IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY MEANS, ELECTRONIC R MECHANICAL, INCLUDING PHOTOCOPY, RECORDING, OR ANY List of Contributors ix NFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM, WITHOUT ERMISSION IN WRITING FROM THE PUBLISHER. Preface xi Introduction xiii CADEMIC PRESS, INC. 111 Fifth Avenue. New York. New York 10003 ITJ VARIATION IN THE GROUP AND THE INDIVIDUAL: THE CASE OF FINAL STOP DELETION 1 United Kingdom Edition published by Gregory R. Guy CADEMIC PRESS, INC. (LONDON) LTD. 4/28 Oval Road. London NW1 7DX Introduction 1 Background 2 Final Stop Deletion: A Typical Variable Rule 4 ibrazy of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data The /t,d/ Deletion Rule and the Study of Variation 10 ain entry under title: The Output of the Cedergren-Sankoff Program 13 Analytical Methodology 15 ocating language in time and space. Analysis and Discussion 27 Conclusions 34 (Quantitative analyses of linguistic· structure References 35 reries) 1 Includes bibliographies and index. i 1. Language and languages--Variation. :2. Linguistic change. I. Labov, William. m RANKING OF CONSTRAINTS ON /t,d/ DELETION II. Series. IN AMERICAN ENGLISH: A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS 37 Pl20.V37L6 410 80-24396 I [SBN 0-12-432101-1 Helene Neu Introduction 37 I The Data . 38 i Preliminary Statistical Considerations 40 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA I Results and Discussion 42 I Conclusion so 81 82 83 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 53 I References 54 v vi CONTENTS CONTENTS vii Syntactic Properties of a-Prefixed Forms 109 Phonological Constraints of a-Prefixing 124 Semantic Aspects of a-Prefixing 133 HE NOTION OF THE PLURAL IN PUERTO RICAN References 141 PANISH: COMPETING CONSTRAINTS ON rs) DELETION 55 hana Poplack [I] Introduction 55 The Sample 59 FACTORS CONTROLLING THE ACQUISITION OF The Analysis 60 THE PHILADELPHIA DIALECT BY OUT-OF-STATE Results 61 CHILDREN 143 Discussion 64 Arvilla C. Payne References 67 Introduction 143 Phonetic Variables 149 The Short-a Patterns 156 Conclusion 174 tA QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF SYNTACTIC AND Appendix 175 .-1 References 177 fRAGMATIC INDICATIONS OF CHANGE IN THE PANISH OF BILINGUALS IN THE U.S. 69 lora Klein l Introduction 69 [!] The Study: General Hypothesis 71 THE STRUCTURE OF A LONG-TERM PHONOLOGICAL Specific Hypothesis 77 PROCESS: THE BACK VOWEL CHAIN SHIFT IN References 82 SOULATAN GASCON 179 ", Penelope Eckert Introduction 179 The Vowels of France 181 ~REEXAMINATION OF THE BLACK ENGLISH COPULA 83 Soulatan Vowels 192 ~ohn Baugh The Form of the Chain Shift 206 References 218 I Introduction 83 1 The BEV Copula: A Brief Review of Previous Research 87 ! The Present Analysis 89 The Analytic Procedure 90 The Comparable Calculations 91 [!] The Phonological Constraints 94 A FALSELY REPORTED MERGER IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY The Question of Weightings 95 ENGLISH: A STUDY IN DIACHRONIC VARIATION 221 The Grammatical Constraints 95 i Geoffrey Nunberg Some Historical Implications 101 J; Conclusion 103 Introduction 221 References 105 Some Explanations of Apparent Mergers 223 Another Explanation for Reported Mergers 226 A Model for Reversal of Merger 227 Application of the Model to the Line-Loin Merger 230 ~ Testimony on the Loin-Line Merger 232 ~-PREFIXING IN APPALACHIAN ENGLISH 107 Formulation of the Centralization Rules 240 Walt Wolfram Reports of Merger: Chronology and Social Evaluation 245 Conclusion 248 Introduction 107 References 249 The Sample 108 Grammars and Dictionaries in Chronological Order 250 iii CONTENTS LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS HE SOCIAL ORIGINS OF SOUND CHANGE 251 Introduction 251 The Measurement of Sound. Change 255 Social Stratification 258 Further Directions of Explanation 260 References 264 ubject Index 267 Numbers in parentheses indicate the pages on which authors' contributions begin. John Baugh (83), DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, AUSTIN, TEXAS 78712 Penelope Eckert ( 179), DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF MICIDGAN, ANN ARBOR, MICIDGAN 48104 Gregory R. Guy, (1),* DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYL­ VANIA, PHILADELPIDA, PENNSYLVANIA 19104 Flora Klein (69), SCHOOL OF LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS, GEORGETOWN UNIVER­ SITY, WASIDNGTON, D.C. 20057 William Labov (251), DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, PIDLADELPIDA, PENNSYLVANIA 19104 Helene N eu, (37), SPEECH COMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH LABORATORY, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90007; AND DEPARTMENT OF ROMANCE LANGUAGES, UNIVERSITY OF MICIDGAN, ANN ARBOR, MICIDGAN 48109 Geoffrey Nunberg (24), DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90027 Arvilla C. Payne (143), DEPARTMENTS OF SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY, HOWARD UNIVERSITY, WASIDNGTON, D.C. 20059 Shana Poplack (55), t DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, PIDLADELPIDA, PENNSYLVANiA 19i04 Walt Wolfram (107), DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, WASIDNGTON, D.C. 20001; AND CENTER FOR APPLIED LINGUISTICS, ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA 22209 *Present address: Department of Linguistics, University of Sydney, N.S.W. 2006, Au­ stralia. t Present address: Center for Puerto Rican Studies, City University of New York, New York, New York 10019. ix PREFACE This first volume in the series Quantitative Analyses of Linguistic Struc­ ture is designed to present substantive findings that have emerged from recent research with quantitative techniques. The aim of the series is to publish those results of quantitative work that bear most directly on the fundamental problems of linguistic change and linguistic structure. Earlier publications in this field have inevitably been concerned with questions of method. In addition to discussions of new techniques of data reduction and organization, a great deal of effort was expended in ideological discussions as to whether quantitative methods were possible, the place of quantitative information in a grammar, or even whether human beings could learn to do one thing more often than another. At one point, it seemed that the study of variation would adopt permanently the forensic style that is the lingua franca of the more scholastic areas of linguistics. This has not happened. The field has matured to the point that the advantages and disadvantages of various methods of treating the data are recognized and related to each other. Researchers are free to concentrate upon the problem that they are confronting rather than on the suitability of the methods they are using. In the contributions of this volume and in those to come, one will find traditional statistical techniques, variable rule analy­ ses, implicational scales, and graphic presentation of analyses, and graphic presentations of spatial data. In general, these analyses and syntheses will be built on linguistic theory as it has emerged over many centuries. The categories and algebras con­ structed by qualitative analyses are normally the input to the quantitative analysis. The enterprise presented here is conceived as cumulative and pro­ gressive. No quantitative revolution is advertised. Rather, we see quantitative methods as the major route for resolving theoretical alternatives in a decisive way. xi Xii PREFACE The emphasis on substantive issues of linguistic theory does not mean INTRODUCTION hat questions of method are no longer relevant. The present growth and development of studies of variation is dependent on its integration into the ~arger framework of probability theory, and the dev~lopment of comp_uta- ional methods for resolving complex problems. There 1s no reason to beheve hat advances in methods of analysis will not be equally important in the uture, and the series will aim to provide source material in this area, includ­ ing programs and documentation. The QALS series will publish original papers, longer studies, and book­ ength monographs. The editors invite the submission of research reports in this area for consideration, and hope to provide the space needed to treat each topic in the detail required to substantiate the ideas being put forward. William Labov David Sankoff It is often said that a field of human knowledge begins with qualitative observations and advances toward quantitative techniques as it matures. This may also be the case with linguistics, where a special configuration of obstacles to quantitative analysis has been maintained until quite recently. Though linguistics sits squarely in the middle of the tripartite division into humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences, most linguists come into the field from the first area, where quantitative work is still rare-perhaps not without justification. We have been able to make extraordinary progress on a qualitative basis, for a number of reasons. Language seems to be the foremost example of a human activity that imposes qualitative categories on continuous fields, sharpening even further whatever discrete properties are the products of our perceptual apparatus. The speech community does show a considerable degree of homogeneity, and we have been able to advance

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