Defining the Site of Linguistic Variation William Labov

Defining the Site of Linguistic Variation William Labov, University of Pennsylvania Workshop on Locating Variability: Formal Approaches UMass. Amherst April 24 -26, 2008

Variable AAVE copula as an insertion from a competing grammar He is talking about that Full /iz/ He’s talking about that Contracted /z/ He talking about that Absent /0/ AAVE 0 Std Eng iz z

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 Contraction ´z z Deletion z 0

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

Phonotactic effects on contraction and deletion CV subject CVC subject Jo is talking Jen is talking CVVC CVC Jo’s talking Jen’s talking CVCC Jo talking Jen talking CVC Contraction Deletion

Phonetic conditioning of contraction and deletion for two adolescent groups in South Harlem [from Labov, Cohen Robins and Lewis 1968] Cobras K__ V__ Jets K__ V__

Possible phonetic conditioning of AAVE copula as an insertion from a competing grammar He is talking about that Full /iz/ He’s talking about that Contracted /z/ He talking about that Absent 0 AAVE 0 Std Eng Jen talking iz z Jo talking

A clear case for an invariant underlying form: Variable past tense {d} in AAVE 1. Absence primarily in complex codas. 2. Absence is strongly conditioned by the initial segment of the following word.

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

Variable past tense {d} in AAVE 1. Absent primarily in complex codas. 2. Strongly conditioned by the initial segment of the following word. 3. Phonological conditioning regular across the speech community.

Phonological conditioning of -t, d deletion for AA youth and adults in Harlem, 1968 Inwood whites (8) Group Single Monomorphemic Group Past tense Single

Phonological and grammatical factors controlling -t, d deletion for African American speakers in Pacoima CA --from Baugh 1979 Preceding segment Following segment Grammatical category

Phonological and grammatical conditioning of -t, d deletion in spontaneous speech of 58 African American struggling readers from Philadelphia, Atlanta and California Preceding segment Grammatical status No. preceding segments Voicing agreement Voicing Stress Following segment

Variable past tense {d} in AAVE 1. Absent primarily in complex codas. 2. Strongly conditioned by the initial segment of the following word. 3. Phonological conditioning regular across the speech community. 4. No hypercorrection: past tense {d} is never found in non-past contexts.

A clear case of no underlying form: variable verbal {s} in AAVE 1. Absent in both simple and complex codas. 2. Not conditioned by the phonetic environment.

Absence of phonological conditioning off verbal {s} in the spontaneous speech of 58 African-American struggling readers, 2001 Preceding segment Verb Region Gender Grade Following segment Pronoun/ Noun phrase

Absence of phonological conditioning of verbal /s/ for AA groups in South Harlem [from Labov, Cohen, Robins & Lewis 1968] So. WC Group Single Monomorphemic Group Verbal suffix Single

Variable verbal {s} in AAVE 1. Absent in both simple and complex codas. 2. Not conditioned by the phonetic environment 3. Extensive hypercorrection: {s} is inserted in many syntactic contexts besides third singular present.

Irregular distribution of verbal {s} in AAVE I trusts my friend. [14, Jet, #527] My brothers plays in it. [11, T-Birds, #372] He knows what he gots to do. [13, Jets, #602] I gets high every mornin’ before I go to school. [16, Jets, #667]. . . somebody get hurts. [39, NYC, #802] He can goes out. [13, T-Birds, #375] You don’t belongs with them. [52, Fla. , A#663] I don’t know how to gets no girls. [13, Jets, #535] He’s gots to be nasty! [13, Jets, #535] He just wantsa gets off. . . [11, T-Birds, #381]

Variable verbal {s} in AAVE 1. Absent in both simple and complex codas. 2. Not conditioned by the phonetic environment 3. Extensive hypercorrection: {s} is inserted ind many syntactic contexts. 4. Learnability: great difficulty in recognition and acquisition of use.

A test of the capacity to derive number information from verbal {s} ? ?

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

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/

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

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

Effect of following segment on percent absence of possessive {s} in attributive position, South Harlem 1968 Group style __K All AA groups Single style __K __V 58 50 71 __V

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

Aspiration and deletion of Spanish plural {s} las cosas bonitas lah cosah bonitah la cosa bonita. /s/ /h/ 0

Contribution of factors to the deletion of Puerto Rican Spanish plural {s} --from Poplack 1979, Table 3. 16 Grammatical Category Disambiguating Information Position in NP string Adjective . 62 Morphological . 59 00__ . 75 Noun . 60 Non-morphological. 54 S 0__ . 56 Determiner . 29 Both . 59 0__ . 56 None . 29 S__ . 41 0 S, 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

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

Hierarchical view of (REL) REL WH- THAT 0

Choice of WH- form for relative pronoun, N=907 Proportion Varbrul wt N subject 0. 49 0. 62 511 object 0. 07 0. 17 203 0. 1 0. 23 103 locative 0. 87 0. 98 52 inanimate 0. 20 0. 30 562 Animate 0. 68 0. 83 306 Noun phrase 0. 31 563 Pronoun 0. 47 305 Indefinite 0. 43 408 Definite 0. 31 460 Preceding consonant 0. 36 764 Preceding vowel 0. 45 105 Following consonant 0. 37 223 Following glide 0. 41 382 Following vowel 0. 25 186 other comp No data 77

Selection of WH- form of relative pronoun, N=907 Role in embedded clause Preceding segment Head Animacy of head Definiteness Following segment

Zero relative pronoun vs. THAT Proportion Varbrul wt N subject 0. 02 0. 16 262 object 0. 40 0. 82 189 other comp 0. 39 0. 80 93 locative 0. 57 0. 85 7 inanimate 0. 22 451 Animate 0. 22 99 Noun phrse 0. 14 0. 42 389 Pronoun (one, thng, people…) 0. 41 0. 69 161 Indefinite 0. 12 0. 39 233 Definite 0. 29 0. 59 317 Consonant 0. 36 392 Vowel 0. 20 48 Consonant 0. 16 141 Glide 0. 22 224 Vowel 0. 32 139 No data 47

Selection of ZERO relative pronoun vs. THAT, N=560 Role in embedded clause Head Preceding segment Animacy of head Definiteness Following segment

The architecture of variation Morphological Phonetic alternation AAVE {3 sg} Phonological derivation condiioning {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) Spanish {s} V__ > K__ /s/ (h) __K >__V (0) AAVE Past {D} {d} __V > __K (0) __K > __V /´d/ in env. [+cor]__ /t/ / n env. [-voi] __ //d

Provenance of non-phonological morphological variants WH-, Syntactic selection THAT, 0 Historical inheritance /in/ /i. N/ Verbal {s} Superposed dialect 0

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

Phonological effects on morphological selection sharpen atomize lighten concretize darken finalize heighten civilize whiten fantasize roughen cannibalize shorten slenderize

Phonological derivation of allomorphs of English articles underlying form the output form /Diy/ => D [-str] __ ´/ # [+cons] +Det an /æn/ => ´n / [-str] n => 0 ´ / +Det __ #[+cons]

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

Further differentiation of past-tense {d} and verbal {s} from answers to a question raised in research on raising reading levels, 2001 -2006 What is a reading error? In responding to oral reading, how can we distinguish between differences in pronunciation and mistakes in reading?

Clear errors and potential errors Clear errors: selection of wrong words: Reader: Tyreke J. , 8 years old, 3 rd 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, 3 rd 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

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 /læf/ = laugh?

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.

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

Frequency of following errors for clear errors and correct reading by dialect type, 2001 -2 Mean error rate, all words =. 133

Calculation of proportion of following errors for five types of potential errors

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

Ethnic/language groups in the 2001 -2006 study Philadelphia African American (A) California 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

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

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 past {d} idifferent correct reading identical

Likelihood of potential errors being reading errors by dialect type and ethnic/language group, 2001 -02 [N=722]. = correct reading ≠correct reading xxx not significantly different from correct reading, significantly different from errors xxx 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