Levels of Dialect
Wolfram & Schilling-Estes,
Chapter 3
What we are calling “levels”:
• LEXICON: the vocabulary
• PHONOLOGY: the sound system of a language
(pronunciation differences: the first vowel in “chocolate”
as [a] or [æ])
• SEMANTICS: the meanings of words (lexical differences:
submarine sandwich)
• GRAMMAR: the formation of words and how words are
combined into sentences (The house needs
painted/painting)
• PRAGMATICS: the use of language forms to carry out
particular communicative functions (Hi!/Hey!/What’s
up?/S’up)
3.1 Lexical Differences
• Different labels for the same object/concept
– soda/pop/coke/soft drink
– mountain lion/cougar/panther
– green beans/string beans
• The use of the same word for different
•
objects/concepts (corn)
Unique words related to the group ([kʰʌləm]
pile, peeler crab, [pʰoʷk] salad)
Processes of meaning change over time:
• Broadening (kleenex, xerox, coke)
• Narrowing (meat, deer)
• Meaning shift
bead (from prayer to a type of jewelry)
Figurative or metaphorical extension:
pen (from feather—Latin penna--to writing
implement)
“Subway sandwich”????
Word-formation processes:
• “Coined” (Ocracoke: meehonkey—a
special type of hide-and-seek)
• Borrowed (chipmunk from Ojibwa,
delicatessen from German, arroyo from
Spanish)
• Created out of existing words
See Table 3.1 on page 66
Creation of new words from existing words:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Compounding: breakwater, fatback
Acronyms: RADAR, SCUBA; UN, AAVE
Blending: smog, brunch
Clipping: ad, gas, lab; ‘za, ‘zine
Derivation: weaponized
Conversion: tree (as verb)
Borrowing: chipmunk, delicatessen, arroyo
Use of proper names: sandwich, frigidaire
Folk etymology: cold slaw, old timers’ disease
Backformation: orientate, burgle, couth
Recutting: an apron, a whole nother, -aholic
Function Words
• Prepositions:
– sick to/at/in/on one’s stomach
• Articles:
– He’s in bed/in the bed
Social Judgments
associated with Lexical Differences
• Regional curiosities
• Modern/old-fashioned
• Socially stigmatized: Taboo words
Specialized Vocabularies
• Jargon
– Let’s google some user-friendly
documentation for Macs to avoid spam.
– The Giants’ nickel defense sacked the
Cowboys’ quarterback in the shotgun
formation with a safety blitz.
• Argot (pronounced “are-got”)
3.2 Slang: the problem of definition
(DARE rejects the label as “imprecise” and “too indefinite”)
• Eble: “Slang is vocabulary with attitude.”
• A set of characteristics (rather than single criterion)
– Informality
– Association with group outside of mainstream adult
population (possibly in-group meaning)
– Synonymous with a common, neutral word
– Perceived as having a short life-span
• A continuum (a “slang scale”)
– “out to lunch” ---------dense--------------uninformed
“Colloquial”
• Situated between slang and conventional:
• Share “informality” with slang
• But not closely associated with in-group
identity of “flouted synonymy”
Phonological Differences: American English Vowels
[i] (beet)
[u] (boot)
[ɪ] (bit)
[e] (bait)
[ɛ] (bet)
[ʊ] (put)
[ə] (about)
[o] (boat)
[ʌ] (but)
[æ] (bat)
[ɔ] (bought)
[ɑ] (father)
3.3 Phonological Differences
• VARIANTS:
the same phoneme is pronounced in
different ways:
/æ/ ‘bag’ with [ɛ] or [I] or [a]
potentially setting off “chain-shifts” :
Caught/cot lock/lack bag/beg
The Great Vowel Shift (1450-1650)
• Wife
• Geese
• Name
• Goose
• House
Variants (cont.)
• The /ay/ diphthong (nucleus + glide)
For some Southerners: ungliding or
monophthongization
[ɑ:]
Southern: “boil”
Pittsburghese: “downtown”
Minnesota
Outer Bankers: a different location of nucleus
Phonological Differences (cont.)
•
MERGERS:
1.
4.
5.
/Ɔ/ and /a/, as in Dawn and Don (W. Penna, gradually
fanning out to encompass much of the Western US)
/i/ and /ɪ/, as in field and filled (Texas and the South)
/e/ and /ɛ/ before /l/, as in sale and sell (Texas and the
South)
/u/ and /ʊ/, as in pool and pull (Texas and the South)
/e/, /ɛ/, /æ/, /ʌ/ before/r/ as in Mary, merry, marry, and
6.
7.
8.
/ɪ/ and /ɛ/ before nasals, as in pin and pen (South)
/hy/ and /y/ as in Hugh and you (NYC, Philadelphia)
/hw/ and /w/ as in which and witch (much of US)
2.
3.
Murray
Phonological Differences (cont.)
• Differences between consonants may be
eliminated, or neutralized
– “g-dropping”
– [d] and [ð] word-initially
– [l] following vowel and before labial
consonant: [hɛp]
“Southern Breaking”
• Diphthongization of single vowels:
bed: [beyəd]
Bill: [biyəl]
Phonological Differences (cont.)
• Suprasegmental or Prosodic Differences:
stronger “pitch accents”
wider pitch range
Phonological Differences (cont.):
Variations in stress patterns of words:
– Insurance
– Police
– Thanksgiving
• Speed of speech: Bauer and Trudgill,
chap. 18
Morphology
• Inflectional
– Do not alter grammatical class
• Plural –s
• Possessive –s
• Third-person present tense –s
• Past tense –ed
• Participle –ed/en
• Progressive –ing
• Comparative and superlative endings: -er, -est
• Derivational: change grammatical class
B & T, Chapter 19: Morphology
• Australian Aboriginal Languages
– Mayali
• Ngabanmarneyawoyhwarrgahganjginjeng
Nga-ban-marne-yawoyh-warrgah-ganj-ginje-ng
I—them—for—again—wrongly—meat-cook-past
directed
tense
action
3.4 Grammatical Differences
• Morphological:
– Regularization (he run; yourn)
– Double-marking (more better, most fastest)
Great deal of social significance for
Americans—why?
Grammatical Differences: Syntax
auxiliaries:
completive “done,” double modals,
transitivity: The Cowboys beat
agreement patterns:
five mile
double negative
Linear order: What that is?
3.5 Language Use and Pragmatics
[how language is used in context to achieve
particular purposes]
• Speech Acts (e.g., apology)
• Directness (politeness, literal and non-
literal language use)
• Use of address forms (power and
solidarity)
• Ritualized language use
• Appropriate topics
• Turn-taking behavior, backchannel cues