The Experts below are selected from a list of 45081 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Miriam Meyerhoff - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Order in the creole Speech Community: Marking past temporal reference in Bequia (St Vincent and the Grenadines)
Language Ecology, 2019Co-Authors: Agata Daleszynska-slater, Miriam Meyerhoff, James A. WalkerAbstract:Abstract Creolists and variationists often conceptualize variation in multilectal Speech communities as a continuum of linearly ordered linguistic features. Using the variationist comparative method, we analyze variation in past tense marking in a creole Speech Community (Bequia, St Vincent and the Grenadines), comparing across groups of speakers (communities and age-groups) in terms of frequencies of past-marking, language-internal constraints on past-marking and the ranking of factors within those constraints. Based on these multiple lines of evidence, the analysis shows that placing groups on a continuum is not straightforward, in line with local language ideologies. We argue that linear models of variation may reify relationships between varieties in terms of differences that are not sustained across different levels of analysis. We also show that the relationships between lects even in quite small communities are subject to change across generations.
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the Community of practice theories and methodologies in language and gender research
Language in Society, 1999Co-Authors: Janet Holmes, Miriam MeyerhoffAbstract:This article provides an introduction to this issue of Language in Societyby exploring the relationship of the concept of Community of Practice (CofP) to related terms and theoretical frameworks. The criterial characteristics and constitutive features of a CofP are examined; the article points out how a CofP framework is distinguished from other sociolinguistic and social psychological frameworks, including social identity theory, Speech Community, social network and social constructionist approaches. (Community of Practice, Speech Community, gender, sex, social practice, ethnographic sociolinguistics, discourse analysis) The term “Community of Practice” (CofP) has recently shouldered its way into the sociolinguistic lexicon. The purpose of this issue of Language in Societyis to provide analyses of language variation, discourse, and language use that illustrate the potential (and also the limits) of this concept as a theoretical and methodological basis for inquiry. It is not generally helpful to add a term to one’s field unless it is intended to serve some demonstrably useful purpose. The term “Community of Practice” bears a strong similarity to the existing term “Speech Community ” ‐ a concept that has proved to be a productive and useful tool for research into the orderly heterogeneity of language in its social setting; thus it must be shown how the CofP in some way takes us farther toward our goal of understanding the constraints on natural language variation. In addition, some sociolinguists may see in the CofP a tool for the description of language variation that bears a strong resemblance to fundamental principles Language in Society28, 173‐183. Printed in the United States of America
Claudia Parodi - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Modeling the Speech Community: Configuration and variable types in the Mexican Spanish setting
Language in Society, 1998Co-Authors: Otto Santa Ana, Claudia ParodiAbstract:This article proposes a comprehensive model of the Speech Community in sociolinguistics that reworks Labov’s model, which has been criticized as being restrictive. Fieldwork in non-metropolitan Mexico demonstrates the utility of our model, which can be applied across both urban and non-urban domains. It is compatible with the Milroys’ central mechanism for the description of individual Speech usage and group cohesion or susceptibility to change in terms of the social network. Based on linguistic variable types, this model has a hierarchy of four nested fields (Speech Community configurations) into which each individual is placed, according to his/her demonstrated recognition of the social evaluation associated with the variables. At the most local configuration, speakers demonstrate no knowledge of generally stigmatized variables; in the second, speakers register an awareness of stigmatized variables; in the third, an awareness of stigmatized and regional variables; and in the fourth, speakers model standard variants over regional ones. This model classifies the kinds of sociolinguistic variables that are pertinent in this social setting and also provides a structured manner for dealing with dialect contact dynamics. (Speech Community, social network, Spanish, Mexico, dialect, diffusion, variables.)* We present here a model of dialect contact in order to capture Spanish dialect distribution in contemporary Mexico, as this ranges from provincial and regional Mexican Spanish to standard Mexican Spanish. To account for the principal finding of our fieldwork ‐ that a subset of members of the same Community do not share crucial aspects of the evaluation of language variation with the majority ‐
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Modeling the Speech Community: Configuration and variable types in the Mexican Spanish setting
Language in Society, 1998Co-Authors: Otto Santa Ana, Claudia ParodiAbstract:ABSTRACTThis article proposes a comprehensive model of the Speech Community in sociolinguistics that reworks Labov's model, which has been criticized as being restrictive. Fieldork in non-metropolitan Mexico demonstrates the utility of our model, which can be applied across both urban and non-urban domains. It is compatible with the Milroys' central mechanism for the description of individual Speech usage and group cohesion or susceptibility to change in terms of the social network. Based on linguistic variable types, this model has a hierarchy of four nested fields (Speech Community configurations) into which each individual is placed, according to his/her demonstrated recognition of the social evaluation associated with the variables. At the most local configuration, speakers demonstrate no knowledge of generally stigmatized variables; in the second, speakers register an awareness of stigmatized variables; in the third, an awareness of stigmatized and regional variables; and in the fourth, speakers model standard variants over regional ones. This model classifies the kinds of sociolinguistic variables that are pertinent in this social setting and also provides a structured manner for dealing with dialect contact dynamics. (Speech Community, social network, Spanish, Mexico, dialect, diffusion, variables.)
Janet Holmes - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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the Community of practice theories and methodologies in language and gender research
Language in Society, 1999Co-Authors: Janet Holmes, Miriam MeyerhoffAbstract:This article provides an introduction to this issue of Language in Societyby exploring the relationship of the concept of Community of Practice (CofP) to related terms and theoretical frameworks. The criterial characteristics and constitutive features of a CofP are examined; the article points out how a CofP framework is distinguished from other sociolinguistic and social psychological frameworks, including social identity theory, Speech Community, social network and social constructionist approaches. (Community of Practice, Speech Community, gender, sex, social practice, ethnographic sociolinguistics, discourse analysis) The term “Community of Practice” (CofP) has recently shouldered its way into the sociolinguistic lexicon. The purpose of this issue of Language in Societyis to provide analyses of language variation, discourse, and language use that illustrate the potential (and also the limits) of this concept as a theoretical and methodological basis for inquiry. It is not generally helpful to add a term to one’s field unless it is intended to serve some demonstrably useful purpose. The term “Community of Practice” bears a strong similarity to the existing term “Speech Community ” ‐ a concept that has proved to be a productive and useful tool for research into the orderly heterogeneity of language in its social setting; thus it must be shown how the CofP in some way takes us farther toward our goal of understanding the constraints on natural language variation. In addition, some sociolinguists may see in the CofP a tool for the description of language variation that bears a strong resemblance to fundamental principles Language in Society28, 173‐183. Printed in the United States of America
Kathleen E Kendall - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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on withholding political voice an analysis of the political vocabulary of a nonpolitical Speech Community
Quarterly Journal of Speech, 1991Co-Authors: Michael Huspek, Kathleen E KendallAbstract:This analysis attempts to identify and explain some underlying rationales for the withholding of citizen voice from the democratic political arena. Of special interest are the ways in which such rationales are located in speakers’ everyday political words and meanings. For support, this analysis examines the political vocabulary of lumber‐industrial workers who claim to know virtually nothing about politics and to detest what little they do know about it. Contrary to scholars who commonly treat those who withhold their voice from the democratic political arena as individual cases, this analysis of the workers’ vocabulary of politics shows the withholding of voice to be an active choice grounded in Community‐based meanings that are discursively produced in ongoing interactions within the Speech Community.
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On withholding political voice: An analysis of the political vocabulary of a “nonpolitical” Speech Community
Quarterly Journal of Speech, 1991Co-Authors: Michael Huspek, Kathleen E KendallAbstract:This analysis attempts to identify and explain some underlying rationales for the withholding of citizen voice from the democratic political arena. Of special interest are the ways in which such rationales are located in speakers’ everyday political words and meanings. For support, this analysis examines the political vocabulary of lumber‐industrial workers who claim to know virtually nothing about politics and to detest what little they do know about it. Contrary to scholars who commonly treat those who withhold their voice from the democratic political arena as individual cases, this analysis of the workers’ vocabulary of politics shows the withholding of voice to be an active choice grounded in Community‐based meanings that are discursively produced in ongoing interactions within the Speech Community.
Moses Omoniyi Ayeomoni - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Language Use in a Yoruba-Speech Community.
2006Co-Authors: Moses Omoniyi AyeomoniAbstract:This study investigated the pattern of language use in the multilingual setting of a Yoruba Speech Community. Towards this end, a questionnaire was designed and distributed to fifty Yoruba English bilinguals in a Yoruba Speech Community. After the analysis of the data, it was discovered that the adulterated form of English is usually used in a situation where the informal variety of Yoruba language is required. On the other hand, Standard English is used in formal or official situations, or with strangers regardless of where they are met. They make use of Yoruba mainly in the family setting, but also in very formal occasions like village or tribal meetings that are purely Yoruba cultural life. Consequently, the current wave of linguistic diffusion threatening Yoruba language could eventually lead to emergence of diglossic situation where Yoruba will be relegated and restricted functionally to a few selected tasks, while the adulterated form of English-Yoruba will perform Speech functions that Yoruba is used to perform in informal settings.
