Talk:Variation (linguistics)

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This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Mwsomerville, Antionetomlin. Peer reviewers: SugeneShin, Antionetomlin.

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This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Derekrodenbeck.

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 14 January 2019 and 7 May 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Sm7315a. Peer reviewers: Fs0244a.

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Analysis and Methodology Section
I've just created a new section for this page called "Analysis and Methodology." I'm reading through some of Sali Tagliamonte's work and figure it ought to me represented on this page. I'll probably add more later. If anyone is familiar with other linguists in this field and can add to the section, it would be greatly appreciated. Joeystanley (talk) 16:53, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

Page numbers
I noticed that this page has several sources that are cited multiple times but have no page numbers. I've included page numbers on my citations using this format:



Is that something that is typically done? I like it, but that's my personal preference. It may clutter the text if there are too many though. If you have access to some of these sources, the page could benefit from the addition of page numbers. Thanks. Joeystanley (talk) 17:00, 12 March 2014 (UTC)


 * Great job on this everyone. I updated the intro/abstract information about Variationists introducing those who study the topic of variation in linguistics. The paragraph goes into introductory detail about what they do, and how they do it. Citation from journal added to support the data presented. This article that as cited could bifurcate the subject a bit but could lightly tlak about SLA and how variation works with it. Derekrodenbeck (talk) 21:46, 10 October 2017 (UTC)

Association with age (edits)
There are several different types of age-based variation one may see within a population; vernacular of a subgroup with membership typically characterized by a specific age range, age-graded variation, and indications of linguistic change in progress.

One example of subgroup vernacular is the speech of street youth. Just as street youth dress differently from the "norm", they also often have their own "language". The reasons for this are the following: (1) To enhance their own cultural identity (2) To identify with each other, (3) To exclude others, and (4) To invoke feelings of fear or admiration from the outside world. Speech of street youth is not truly age-based, since it does not apply to all individuals of that age bracket within the discourse community.--SugeneShin (talk) 17:04, 17 October 2017 (UTC)

Edits
I made some edits in the sentence structures and grammar used in both paragraphs. --SugeneShin (talk) 17:07, 17 October 2017 (UTC)

March 2019
I have removed a suggestion that "Dialectology refers to languages featured on regional areas and maps" cited to M. Laing (2004) Multidimensionality. Laing actually says:
 * To the  layman,  or  even  to  many  practising  linguists,  the  term ‘dialectology’  may  suggest  static  displays  of  linguistic  features  on regional maps.  However, dialectology does not operate in just one plane.

In other words, Laing's claim is the opposite of what the Wikipedia article suggested.

I'm also requesting that someone verify another paragraph (it begins, "In 1968, John J.Gumperz conducted a survey...") cited to Annual Review of Anthropology. The journal is reliable and the description of Gumperz's work is not obviously wrong, but I don't know if Sankoff is quoted accurately. Cnilep (talk) 09:58, 1 March 2019 (UTC)

English-specific sections on "race" etc.
Since 2017, we've had a section in this article on "Association with race". This section focusses exclusively on the sociolinguistics of English, more specifically, US English. Outside the specific context of "race" as a dimension of US society, there is obviously no cross-linguistically valid sense in which "race" would constitute a salient sociolinguistic variable. I'm therefore not convinced this section belongs here. This article is meant to present an overview of variation as a universal phenomenon of human language and of the branch of linguistics that studies it, and while it is no doubt true that the study of race-related variation in US English has played an important part in the development of the field, we shouldn't give this much room to a presentation of the particulars of English here – and certainly we shouldn't be doing that in a way that suggests it's somehow a universally valid category.

Any objections if I remove those sections? Or alternatively, suggestions on how to better integrate and contextualize them? Fut.Perf. ☼ 19:55, 27 March 2019 (UTC)


 * At a glance, I would say that the section certainly seems to give undue weight to US English, and I agree that "race" is a slippery concept to define or apply cross-culturally. That said, there is variation associated with particular ethnic groups in other languages and societies. Off the top of my head: caste in India, named ethnic groups in Myanmar or China, and sub-groupings of Javanese people come to mind (though I'm afraid the top of my head doesn't contain any published sources to cite on these). On the third hand, it may not be obvious how the categories of race, caste, and ethnic group relate, and they may shade into other axes such as geography, class, or religion. And in several of these cases there is controversy regarding whether the variation is within a language or the groups speak separate languages, or sometimes it's both. Cnilep (talk) 03:44, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

Linguistic variation isn’t equivalent to Variationist Sociolinguistics
I think the redirect here is misleading, and the whole article should be separated into two:

1. Linguistic variation - What do we know about how linguistic forms vary in languages? What factors are known to affect that variation? 2. Variationist sociolinguistics — Labov, the variationist approach, methods of quantification in said approach, and critiques of said approach

babbage (talk) 14:31, 8 February 2021 (UTC)


 * Hello, babbage. I assume that your comment refers to the fact that Variationist sociolinguistics is currently a redirect to Variation (linguistics). (Linguistic variation is also a redirect to the same page.) You are certainly not wrong: Labov's is one approach to the study of variation; it is not 'variation' as such. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell there is as yet no Wikipedia article about the variationist approach in sociolinguistics. If you would like to contribute to one, that would be great!
 * Babbage probably knows this, but for anyone else interested: Redirects for discussion might help find a better target for the redirect (though not all contributors there will be interested in sociolinguistics). WikiProject linguistics (see the link at the top of this page) can also help with either creating the new article or finding a better target for the redirect. Happy editing, Cnilep (talk) 02:30, 9 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Added, regarding "should be separated into two": Perhaps some of the current content (the more 'Labovian' analyses, for example) could be moved to Variationist sociolinguistics, as described at Copying within Wikipedia. Cnilep (talk) 02:33, 9 February 2021 (UTC)