Diffusion of Language Change: Accommodation to a Moving Target

TY - JOUR

T1 - Diffusion of Language Change: Accommodation to a Moving Target

AU - Maegaard, Marie

AU - Jensen, Torben Juel

AU - Kristiansen, Tore

AU - Jørgensen, J. Normann

PY - 2013/2

Y1 - 2013/2

N2 - The paper focuses on motivations for the spread of new features within a speech community, and on the trajectories the changes follow during diffusion. One set of data represents language use, and here focus is on two changes which have been going on in Danish over the past 40 years, one grammatical and one phonetic. The other set of data are results from a nationwide speaker evaluation experiment which tests the subconscious attitudes to different types of speech among the youth in five different places covering Denmark from east to west. Results show that changes spread centrifugally from Copenhagen, even to the extent that reversal of changes spreads from Copenhagen. Furthermore, the attitudes reflected in the speaker evaluation experiment support the theory that language change is motivated by social psychological factors. Finally, it is argued that it is worthwhile considering the possibility of media being involved in processes of linguistic change.

AB - The paper focuses on motivations for the spread of new features within a speech community, and on the trajectories the changes follow during diffusion. One set of data represents language use, and here focus is on two changes which have been going on in Danish over the past 40 years, one grammatical and one phonetic. The other set of data are results from a nationwide speaker evaluation experiment which tests the subconscious attitudes to different types of speech among the youth in five different places covering Denmark from east to west. Results show that changes spread centrifugally from Copenhagen, even to the extent that reversal of changes spreads from Copenhagen. Furthermore, the attitudes reflected in the speaker evaluation experiment support the theory that language change is motivated by social psychological factors. Finally, it is argued that it is worthwhile considering the possibility of media being involved in processes of linguistic change.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - Language change

KW - real time

KW - grammatical variation

KW - phonetic

KW - language attitudes

KW - standardization

U2 - 10.1111/josl.12002

DO - 10.1111/josl.12002

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1360-6441

VL - 17

SP - 3

EP - 36

JO - Journal of Sociolinguistics

JF - Journal of Sociolinguistics

IS - 1

ER -