Defining the Site of Linguistic Variation

Slide 1:Defining the Site of Linguistic Variation

William Labov, University of Pennsylvania Workshop on Locating Variability: Formal Approaches UMassAmherst April 24-26, 2008

Slide 2:Variable AAVE copula as an insertion from a competing grammar

AAVE 0 Std Eng iz z He is talking about that Full /iz/ He�s talking about that Contracted /z/ He talking about that Absent /0/

Slide 3:Variable AAVE copula and auxiliary as the result of successive contraction and deletion of an underlying form /iz/

Lexical entry v => /iz/ Stress assignment [+str] => [-str] Vowel reduction /iz/ => /�z/ Contraction: /�z/ => (z) Deletion: /z/ => (0)  �z  �z  z  0 Contraction Deletion  z

Slide 4:The basic syntactic regularity

AAVE copula and auxiliary can be deleted or contracted only in those syntactic positions where other dialects can have contraction.

Slide 5:Phonotactic effects on contraction and deletion

Jo is talking Jen is talking CVVC CVC Jo�s talking Jen�s talking CVC CVCC Jo talking Jen talking CVC CVC Contraction Deletion CV subject CVC subject

Slide 6:Phonetic conditioning of contraction and deletion for two adolescent groups in South Harlem [from Labov, Cohen Robins and Lewis 1968]

Cobras Jets K__ V__ K__ V__

Slide 7:Possible phonetic conditioning of AAVE copula as an insertion from a competing grammar

AAVE 0 Std Eng iz z He is talking about that Full /iz/ He�s talking about that Contracted /z/ He talking about that Absent 0 Jen talking Jo talking

Slide 8:A clear case for an invariant underlying form: Variable past tense {d} in AAVE

Absence primarily in complex codas. Absence is strongly conditioned by the initial segment of the following word.

Slide 9:Internal constraints on -t,d deletion for 11 speakers of AAVE [Table 3.7 of 3288 Report, Labov, Cohen, Robins & Lewis 1968]

KD = complex codas mm = monomorphemic VD = simple codas am = ambiguous p = past

Slide 10:Variable past tense {d} in AAVE

Absent primarily in complex codas. Strongly conditioned by the initial segment of the following word. Phonological conditioning regular across the speech community.

Slide 11:Phonological conditioning of -t,d deletion for AA youth and adults in Harlem, 1968

Group Single Group Single Monomorphemic Past tense Inwood whites (8)

Slide 12:Phonological and grammatical factors controlling -t,d deletion for African American speakers in Pacoima CA --from Baugh 1979

Preceding segment Following segment Grammatical category

Slide 13:Phonological and grammatical conditioning of -t,d deletion in spontaneous speech of 58 African American struggling readers from Philadelphia, Atlanta and California

Preceding segment No. pre-ceding segments Grammatical status Voicing Voicing agreement Stress Following segment

Slide 14:Variable past tense {d} in AAVE

Absent primarily in complex codas. Strongly conditioned by the initial segment of the following word. Phonological conditioning regular across the speech community. No hypercorrection: past tense {d} is never found in non-past contexts.

Slide 15:A clear case of no underlying form: variable verbal {s} in AAVE

Absent in both simple and complex codas. Not conditioned by the phonetic environment.

Slide 16:Absence of phonological conditioning off verbal {s} in the spontaneous speech of 58 African-American struggling readers, 2001

Preceding segment Following segment Verb Pronoun/ Noun phrase Region Grade Gender

Slide 17:Absence of phonological conditioning of verbal /s/ for AA groups in South Harlem [from Labov, Cohen, Robins & Lewis 1968]

Group Single Group Single Monomorphemic Verbal suffix So. WC

Slide 18:Variable verbal {s} in AAVE

Absent in both simple and complex codas. Not conditioned by the phonetic environment Extensive hypercorrection: {s} is inserted in many syntactic contexts besides third singular present.

Slide 19:Irregular distribution of verbal {s} in AAVE

Slide 20:Variable verbal {s} in AAVE

Absent in both simple and complex codas. Not conditioned by the phonetic environment Extensive hypercorrection: {s} is inserted ind many syntactic contexts. Learnability: great difficulty in recognition and acquisition of use.

Slide 21:A test of the capacity to derive number information from verbal {s}

? ?

Slide 22:Recognition of meaning of inflections by second graders in Harlem before and after training [from Torrey 1965]

Slide 23:The AAVE possessive

John house This house is John�s my sister house This house is my sister�s my book This book is mines. POS => 0 / __ NP => /z/

Slide 24:Absence of attributive possessive {s} in spontaneous speech of struggling readers, California schools, 2002-2003

The absence of �s between two nouns among black strugglng readers in the California populationThe absence of �s between two nouns among black strugglng readers in the California population

Slide 25:Language/ethnic groups and region by linguistic variables for 287 elementary school children

AP African American Phila SP Latino (Span) Phila WP White Phila AAt African American Atlanta SAt Latino (Span) Atlanta WAt White Atlanta AC African American California SC Latino (Span) California WC White California

Slide 26:Effect of following segment on percent absence of possessive {s} in attributive position, South Harlem 1968

Group style Single style __K __V __K __V All AA groups 71 58 50

Slide 27:Absence of attributive possessive {s} in spontaneous speech of 287 struggling readers, 2001-2

Slide 28:Aspiration and deletion of Spanish plural {s}

las cosas bonitas lah cosah bonitah la cosa bonita . /s/ /s/ /h/ /h/ 0

Slide 29:Contribution of factors to the deletion of Puerto Rican Spanish plural {s} --from Poplack 1979, Table 3.16

Grammatical Disambiguating Category Information Position in NP string Adjective .62 Morphological .59 00__ .75 Noun .60 Non-morphological .54 S0__ .56 Determiner .29 Both .59 0__ .56 None .29 S__ .41 0S,SS__ .41 __ .33 Following segment Geographic origin Sex Following stress Pause .61 West .56 Male .54 Weak .51 Consonant .40 East .44 Female .46 Heavy .47 Vowel .40

Slide 30:Relative pronoun variation

(REL) WH- THAT 0 Who(m) Which Where When

Slide 31:Hierarchical view of (REL)

REL WH- THAT THAT 0

Slide 32:Choice of WH- form for relative pronoun, N=907

Slide 33:Selection of WH- form of relative pronoun, N=907

Role in embedded clause Animacy of head Head Definite- ness Preceding segment Following segment

Slide 34:Zero relative pronoun vs. THAT

Slide 35:Selection of ZERO relative pronoun vs. THAT, N=560

Role in embedded clause Animacy of head Head Definite- ness Preceding segment Following segment

Slide 36:The architecture of variation

Morphological Phonological Phonetic alternation derivation condiioning AAVE {3sg} {s} {0} {REL} {WH} {that} {0} AAVE {POS} {s} 0 in env __NP (0) __K > _V /s/ AAVE Cop {is} {iz} /iz/ (z) K__ > V__ (0) V__ > K__ Spanish {s} {s} /s/ (h) __K >__V (0) __V > __K AAVE Past {D} {d} /�d/ in env. [+cor]__ /t/ / n env. [-voi] __ //d (0) __K > __V

Slide 37:Provenance of non-phonological morphological variants

Syntactic selection Historical inheritance Superposed dialect WH-, THAT, 0 Verbal {s} 0 /in/ /iN/

Slide 38:The architecture of variation

Morphological Phonological Phonetic alternation derivation condiioning AAVE {3sg} {s} {0} {REL} {WH} {that} {0} AAVE {POS} {s} 0 in env __NP (0) __K > _V /s/ AAVE Cop {is} {iz} /iz/ (z) K__ > V__ (0) V__ > K__ Spanish {s} {s} /s/ (h) __K >__V (0) __V > __K AAVE Past {D} {d} /�d/ in env. [+cor]__ /t/ / n env. [-voi] __ //d (0) __K > __V (0) __K > __V (0) __K > __V

Slide 39:Phonological effects on morphological selection

sharpen atomize lighten concretize darken finalize heighten civilize whiten fantasize roughen cannibalize shorten slenderize

Slide 40:Phonological derivation of allomorphs of English articles

the /Diy/ => D� / [-str] __ # [+cons] +Det an /�n/ => �n / [-str] n => 0  / � __ #[+cons] +Det under-lying form out-put form

Slide 41:The Asymmetry of Variation Principle

Morphological variation is not associated with postlexical phonetic variation; postlexical phonetic conditioning is associated with an invariant vocabulary item. Phonological Morphological conditioning variation English -t,d deletion Yes No AAVE copula Yes No Spanish (s) Yes No AAVE possessive {s} Yes Yes English (ING) No Yes English (REL) No Yes AAVE verbal {s} No Yes

Slide 42:Further differentiation of past-tense {d} and verbal {s} from answers to a question raised in research on raising reading levels, 2001-2006

Slide 43:Clear errors and potential errors

Clear errors: selection of wrong words: Reader: Tyreke J., 8 years old, 3rd grade, African American, Philadelphia. Text: My blood began to boil. Reading: My boat began to bill. Potential error: failure to articulate a past tense morpheme: Reader: Filores J., 8 years old, 3rd grade, African American, Philadelphia. Text: I played it cool and took a sip of my coke. Reading: I play it cool and took a sip of my coke

Slide 44:Potential past tense errors

Absence of the grammatical suffix {d} in final homovoiced clusters: dined read as /dayn/ = dine? rolled read as /rowl/ = roll, role? missed read as /mis/ = miss? laughed read as /l�f/ = laugh?

Slide 45:The semantic shadow hypothesis

Failure to identify the intended meaning of a given element in the text will increase the probability of errors in the remainder of the clause.

Slide 46:Frequency of following errors for clear errors and correct reading by dialect type, 2001-2

Slide 47:Frequency of following errors for clear errors and correct reading by dialect type, 2001-2

Mean error rate, all words = .133

Slide 48:Calculation of proportion of following errors for five types of potential errors

Slide 49:Frequency of following errors for clear errors, potential errors and correct reading by dialect type [N=567]

Slide 50:Ethnic/language groups in the 2001-2006 study

Philadelphia California African American (A) 112 79 Euro American (W) 62 44 Latinos who learned to read in English first (E) 57 83 Latinos who learned to read in Spanish first (S) 51 89

Slide 51:Frequency of following errors for clear errors, potential errors and correct readings by dialect type for 58 African American readers

Slide 52:Frequency of following errors for clear errors, potential errors and correct readings by dialect type for African American and Latino (S) readers [N=238]

clear errors identical correct reading identical past {d} idifferent

Slide 53:Likelihood of potential errors being reading errors by dialect type and ethnic/language group, 2001-02 [N=722].

not significantly different from correct reading, significantly different from errors significantly different from correct reading, not significantly different from errors xxx significantly different from correct reading and errors xxx not significantly different from correct reading and errors E = learned to read in English first S = learned to read in Spanish first xxx xxx = correct reading ?correct reading