Variation and change : pragmatic perspectives

288 Pages·2010·3.747 MB·English

by  Mirjam Fried, Jan-Ola Östman, Jef Verschueren

Variation and Change
Handbook of Pragmatics Highlights (HoPH)
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Editors
Jef Verschueren Jan-Ola Östman
University of Antwerp University of Helsinki

Volume 6
Variation and Change. Pragmatic perspectives
Edited by Mirjam Fried, Jan-Ola Östman and Jef Verschueren
Variation and Change
Pragmatic perspectives
Edited by
Mirjam Fried
Institute for the Czech Language,
Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague
Jan-Ola Östman
University of Helsinki
Jef Verschueren
University of Antwerp

John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Variation and change : pragmatic perspectives / edited by Mirjam Fried, Jan-Ola Östman and Jef
Verschueren.
p. cm. (Handbook of Pragmatics Highlights, issn 1877-654X ; v. 6)

Includes bibliographical references and index.
1.  Language and languages--Variation. 2.  Linguistic change. 3.  Pragmatics.  I. Fried, Mirjam. II.
Östman, Jan-Ola. III. Verschueren, Jef. IV. Title. V. Series.
P99.4.P72V364 2010
417’.7--dc22 2010036643
isbn 978 90 272 0783 8 (Pb ; alk. paper)
isbn 978 90 272 8917 9 (Eb)
© 2010 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other
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John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa
Table of contents
Introduction: From instances of change to explanations of change 1
Mirjam Fried
1. Approaches to variation and change 2
2. Diachronic analysis and ‘pathways’ of change 5
3. Intra-lingual variation 8
4. Cross-language variation 10
5. Summary and outlook 14
Borrowing 17
Jeanine Treffers-Daller
1. Introduction 17
2. Short historical overview 18
3. Definitions of borrowing: Terminological issues 19
4. Different types/classifications of borrowing 21
5. The integration of borrowings 23
6. Constraints 25
7. Quantitative approaches 29
8. Psycholinguistic approaches 30
Contact linguistics 36
Michael Meeuwis & Jan-Ola Östman
1. Introduction 36
2. Contact in relation to classificatory bases in linguistics 36
3. Contact and location 37
4. Direction of interference 38
5. Indirect influence in language contact 42
6. Contact as process: Towards pragmatics 42
Creoles and creolization 46
Salikoko Mufwene
Dialect 61
Ronald Macaulay†
1. Introduction 61
VI Variation and Change
2. Other labels 62
2.1 Variety 62
2.2 Lect 63
2.3 Vernacular 63
2.4 Social dialects 64
3. Dialects as local forms of speech 64
4. Some examples of dialect studies 67
5. Some recent developments in the U.S. 68
Dialectology 73
Georges De Schutter
1. Definition 73
2. An outline of history 73
3. Aims of the investigation 75
3.1 The impact of history on the origin and evolution
of languages 76
3.2 Linguistic reconstruction 76
3.3 The study of universals of language,
especially implicational scales 77
3.4 Sociopragmatic and attitudinal aspects 77
3.5 Communicative aspects 78
4. Dialect atlases 79
Evolutionary pragmatics 81
Wolfgang Wildgen
1. Pragmaticism, pragmatics, adaptation and the evolution
of language 81
2. Sign-functions and their evolutionary significance 83

2.1 The triad of sign functions 83
2.2 The evolutionary interpretation of the triad of functions 84
2.3 Selective value of communication and symbolic behavior 86
3. Can the pragmatics of tool production and tool-use tell us something
about the origin of language? 87
3.1 Instrumentality in higher mammals and man 88
3.2 Is tool-making a pragmatic source of propositional semantics? 91
3.3 Cro-Magnon life space and the pragmatic space
of decorated caves 93
4. From ecological to cultural pragmatics 95
5. Conclusions 96
Table of contents VII
Historical linguistics 100
Louis Goossens
1. Introduction 100
2. HL in pre-generative work 100
3. HL and generative grammar 103
4. New perspectives 104
5. Explicit 107
Historical pragmatics 110
Andreas H. Jucker
1. Introduction 110
2. Origins 111
3. Data problems 111
4. Topics 113
4.1 Discourse markers 113
4.2 Speech acts 114
4.3 Politeness 116
5. New perspectives 118
Implicature and language change 123
Kate Kearns
1. Introduction 123
2. Analyses citing conversational principles 124
3. Implicature and metaphor 131
4. Implicature, metonymy and merger 134
5. Inferences based on lexical concepts 135
6. Summary 139
Interlanguage pragmatics 141

Gabriele Kasper
1. Definition and scope 141
2. Pragmatic comprehension 141
2.1 Comprehension of nonliteral utterances 141
2.2 Assessment of politeness 142
2.3 Sociopragmatic assessment 142
3. Production of linguistic action 143
4. Development of pragmatic competence 144
4.1 Cross-sectional studies 144
4.2 Longitudinal studies 145
4.3 Theoretical accounts 145
VIII Variation and Change
5. Pragmatic transfer 146
5.1 Definition 146
5.2 Positive transfer 146
5.3 Negative transfer 147
5.4 Transferability 148
6. Communicative effect 149
7. Pragmatic norms 150
8. Language teaching 151
9. Research methods 152
10. Further reading 153
Jargon 155
Luisa Martín Rojo
1. Introduction 155
2. Studies of delinquent jargon and the introduction
of a ‘value-giving measure’ 156
3. Interpretations of antilanguages and their functions 160
3.1 Halliday: The concept of antilanguage 160
3.2 Sociolinguistic functions of delinquent jargon 162
4. Varieties of jargon 165
5. Conclusions 168
Language change 171
Raymond Hickey
1. Introduction 171
2. Issues in language change 173
2.1 Internal and external factors 173
2.2 Simplicity and symmetry 174

2.3 Iconicity and indexicality 174
2.4 Markedness and naturalness 175
2.5 Telic changes and epiphenomena 176
2.6 Mergers and distinctions 177
2.7 Possible changes 178
2.8 Unidirectionality of change 178
2.9 Ebb and flow 179
3. Change and levels of language 180
3.1 Phonological change 180
3.2 Morphological change 181
3.3 Syntactic change 182
4. The study of universal grammar 183
4.1 The principles and parameters model 184
Table of contents IX
5. Semantic change 186
6. Pragmatic change 187
7. Methodologies 188
7.1 Comparative method 189
7.2 Internal reconstruction 190
7.3 Analogy 190
8. Sociolinguistic investigations 190
8.1 Data collection methods 192
8.2 Genre variation and stylistics 192
9. Pathways of change 192
9.1 Long-term change: Grammaticalization 192
9.2 Large-scale changes: The typological perspective 193
10. Contact accounts 194
11. Language areas (Sprachbünde) 197
12. Conclusion 198
Language contact 203
Yaron Matras
1. Introduction 203
2. Societal multilingualism 203
3. The bilingual individual 204
4. Language mixing in conversation 205
5. Contact-induced language change 207
6. Contact, typology and language classification 210
7. Concluding remarks 212
Reconstruction 215
Derek Nurse

Register 221
Norbert Dittmar
1. History of the term ‘register’ 221
2. Systematization of the term 224
3. Perspectives 228
3.1 Functional linguistics à la Ferguson 229
3.2 Intercultural communication 230
3.3 Linguistic pragmatics 230
3.4 Variation linguistics 231
Typology 234
Bernard Comrie
X Variation and Change
Variational pragmatics 239
Klaus P. Schneider
1. Introduction 239
2. Pragmatic coordinates 240
2.1 The scope of pragmatics 240
2.2 The place in pragmatics 241
2.3 Levels of pragmatic analysis 244
3. Variational coordinates 246
3.1 Variation and identity 246
3.2 Pragmatic variation 249
3.3 What is a pragmatic variable? 250
4. Methodological concerns 252
4.1 Some basic principles 252
4.2 Data 253
5. Development 254
5.1 History 254
5.2 Research trends 256
6. Perspectives 260
Index 268