Variation and the variable

VARIATION AND THE VARIABLE
Linguistic prescriptivism (standard language)
Linguistic descriptivism (Beyond and Between ”Three Circles”, Christian
Mair)
Descriptivism vs. Prescriptivism
”Descriptivism is like common law, which works on precedent and
accumulates slowly over time. Prescriptivism is an authoritarian version
of code law, which says precedent be damned: if the rule book says this
is the law, that's that.”(Robert Lane Greene, You Are What You Speak.
Delacorte, 2011).

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The term linguistic variation (or simply variation)
refers to regional, social, or contextual differences
in the ways that a particular language is used.
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-linguistic-variation-1691242

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A choice between two or more distinct but
linguistically equivalent variants represents the
existence of a linguistic variable.
Sociolinguistics, Llamas C., 2007

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The history and utility of the
(socio)linguistic variable
Labov’s Martha’s Vineyars study (1963),
however LV is as old as language study itself

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Indicators, Markers and Stereotypes
(Labov, 1972)
- Indicators (variables of which speakers other than linguists are unaware, and
which are not subject to style-shifting);
- Markers (variables close to speakers’ level of conscious awareness which may have
a role in class stratification, and which are subject to style-shifting);
- Stereotypes (forms of which speakers and the wider community are aware, but
which, like other stereotyped expectations of social groups, are often archaic,
misreported and misperceived)

Variation and the variable

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