Sound change: the regular,

the unconscious, the mysterious

W. Labov, U. of Pennsylvania

Colloquy on Hermann Paul FRIAS/HPCL May 15, 2009

www.ling.upenn.edu/~labov

PowerPoint available on

Herman Paul

PRINCIPLES

OF THE

HISTORY OF LANGUAGEBY

HERMANN PAUL

TRANSLATED FROM THE SECOND EDITION

OF THE ORIGINAL

BY

H. A. STRONG, M. A., LL.D.

NEW YORK

MACMILLAN & CO.

1889

Summary of the critique of Paul in WLH 1968

• the sole theoretically grounded object of linguistic study is the idiolect, but there is no explanation as to how community consensus is achieved.

•change may come about when an individual skews the distribution of his performance to seek more comfortable behavior patterns, but this key term is not defined, nor is their any accounting of the sporadic character of this adjustment.

• the grouping of idiolects with respect to features shows no organization that would prefer one grouping rather than another.

Summary of the appreciation of Paul in WLH 1968

Paul’s Principien may be said to reflect the best achievements of Neogrammarian linguistics.

• maximum rigor of formulation of the regularity principle

• an intensive interest in recurrent regularities

• a concern with phonetic detail

• a feeling for the atypicality of standardized languages among the totality of languages

• a desire to “portray as many-sidedly as possible the conditions of the life of language [Sprachleben]”.

• recognition of the dialectological point of view on language change.

regularity

The Neogrammarian position

Every sound change, inasmuch as it

occurs mechanically, takes place

according to laws that admit no

exception. --

Ostoff and Brugmann 1878

Paul on uniformity

We have now to answer the important question, which has been in recent times the subject of so much dispute: Can we assert uniformity of sound-laws? . .

Sound-law does not pretend to state what must always under certain general conditions regularly recur, but merely express the reign of uniformity within a group of definite historical phenomena.

PHL 56-57.

Paul on the regularity of sound change

It must either happen, therefore, that where the same sound existed previously, the same sound always remains in the later stages of development as well;

or, where a separation into different sounds has occurred, there must be a special reason to be assigned;

and further, a reason of a kind affecting sound alone

PHL p. 58

Twentieth century formulation of the Neogrammarian position

Sound-change is merely a change in the speakers’ manner of producing phonemes and accordingly, affects a phoneme at every occurrence, regardless of the nature of any particular linguistic form in which the phoneme happens to occur. . . The whole assumption can be briefly put into the words: phonemes change. --Bloomfield 1933:353-4

Lexical diffusion

The phonetic law does not affect all items at the same time: some are designed to develop quickly, others remain behind, some offer strong resistance and succeed in turning back any effort at transformation. --Gauchat (cited in Dauzat 1922)We hold that words change their pronunciations by discrete, perceptual increments (i.e., phonetically abrupt) but severally at a time (i.e., lexically gradual) --Wang and Chen 1977:150.

Exemplar theory and lexical diffusion

The assumption that people learn phonetic categories by remembering many labeled tokens of these categories explains . . . why leniting historical changes are typically more advanced for high-frequency words than low-frequency words.

-- Pierre-Humbert: Exemplar dynamics: word frequency, lenition and contrast (2000). To appear in J. Bybee and P. Hopper (eds.), Frequency effects and emergent grammar.

Resolving the Neogrammarian Controversy (Labov 1981)

Regular sound change is the result of a gradual transformation of a single phonetic feature of a phoneme in a continuous phonetic space.

Lexical diffusion is the result of the abrupt substitution of one phoneme for another in words that contain that phoneme.

/i:/ [iy] [uw] /u:/

/e:/ /o:/

/æ:/ [ay] [aw] /ɔ:/

The English Great Vowel shift (Jespersen)

Ogura on lexical diffusion in the English Great Vowel Shift

“The data in Appendix B clearly show that the change of ME i: does not simultaneously occur but gradually extends its scope across the lexicon)

We have claimed that the processes of the development of ME i: and u: have propagated themselves gradually from morpheme to morpheme.”

--Mieko Ogura 1987. Historical English Phonology: A Lexical Perspective. Tokyo: Kenkyusha. p. 45)

Phonetic realizations of M.E. u: words in the Survey of English Dialects

Multi-dimensional scaling of all M.E. i: words

-3.5

-3.0

-2.5

-2.0

-1.5

-1.0

-0.5

0.0

0.5

1.0

-3.0 -2.5 -2.0 -1.5 -1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0

D

i

m

e

n

s

i

o

n

2

fight

right

light

night

sight

died

flies

stile

thigh

-wright

eye

lightning

Late OE word class

nine

Dimension 1

- i:-

-icht

-e:g, -i:g

The i:2 class

(i:2): M.E. short i followed by a

velar consonant and /t/ in right,

night, fight, sight, etc. In the

history of the best known dialects,

the velar was first realized as a

voiceless palatal and then

disappeared, with compensatory

lengthening of the vowel.

The i:3 class

(i:3): long e: followed by g in

Old English in lie, fly, die,

and long ɛ: in eye, etc. The /g/

has been lenited in all the

dialects covered by the Orton

Atlas, but the raising of the

vowel to i: did not occur in all

dialects.

Muli-dimensional scaling of core M.E. i: words

-1.5

-1.0

-0.5

0.0

0.5

1.0

-1.5 -1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5

D

i

m

e

n

s

i

o

n

2

sky

spider

time

five

iron

fire

mice

lice

slice

icicle

ice

hide

slide

nine

beside

Friday

hivewhite

dike

writing

knife

wife

scythe

ivy

dry

mine

Dimension 1

_ /m,n/

_ /r/

_ /s/

_ /f/

_ /v,∂/

_ /d/

_ #

_ /t,k/

Kr _

Reports of lexical diffusion, 1970-1997

1970Cheng, Chin-Chuan, and Wang, Wm. S-Y. 1970. Phonological change of Middle Chinese initials. University of California (Berkeley) Dept. of Linguistics. Project on Linguistic Analysis, Second Series, 10 CW1 - CW69. 1973Sherman, D. 1973. Noun-verb stress alternation: an example of the lexical diffusion of sound change in English. Project on Linguistic Analysis, Reports, Second Series, 17: 46-81. 1976Barrack, C. M. 1976. Lexical diffusion and the High German consonant shift. Lingua 40:151-75. Toon, Thomas E. 1976. The variationist analysis of Early Old English manuscript data. In W. M. Christie Jr. (ed.), Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Historical Linguistics. Amsterdam: North Holland. Pp. 71-81. Toon, Thomas E.. 1976. The actuation and implementation of an Old English sound change. In R. J. Di Pietro & E. L. Blansitt (eds.), The Third Lacus Forum. Pp. 614-622. Columbia, SC: Hornbeam Press, Inc.1977Cheng, Chin-chuan and William S.-Y. Wang. 1977. Tone change in Chaozhou Chinese: a study of lexical diffusion. In W. S-Y. Wang (ed),The Lexicon in Phonological Change. The Hague: Mouton Pp. 86-100.Wang, William S.-Y. and C.-C. Cheng. 1977. Implementation of phonological change: the Shaungfeng Chinese case. In W. S-Y. Wang (ed.),The lexicon in phonological change. The Hague: Mouton.

Reports of lexical diffusion, 1977-19821977Janson, Tore. 1977. Reversed lexical diffusion and lexical split: Loss of -d in Stockholm. In Wang (ed.), The Lexicon in Phonological Change. The Hague: Mouton. Pp. 252-65.Lyovin, Anatole. 1977. Sound change, homophony, and lexical diffusion. In W. Wang (ed.), The Lexicon in Phonological Change. The Hague: Mouton. Pp. 120-32. 1978Krishnamurti, Bh. 1978. Areal and lexical diffusion of sound change. Language 54. 1-20. Toon, Tomas E. 1978. Lexical diffusion in Old English. CLS. Papers from the Parasessions on the Lexicon. 1979Wang, William S.-Y. 1979. Language change--a lexical perspective. Ann. Rev. Anthropol. 8:353-71. 1980Milroy, James. 1980. Lexical alternation and the history of English: evidence from an urban vernacular. In E. Traugott et al. (ed., Papers from the 4th International Conference on Historical Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Phillips, B. S. 1980. Lexical diffusion and Southern Tune, Duke, News. American Speech 56:72-78. 1981Wallace, Rex. 1981. The variable deletion of final s in Latin. Ohio State M.A. Thesis. Bauer, Robert S. 1982. Cantonese sociolinguistic patterns: correlating social characteristics of speakers with phonological variables in Hong Kong Cantonese. U. of California Berkeley dissertation.

Reports of lexical diffusion, 1982-19871982Li, Paul Jen-Kuei . 1982. Linguistic variations of different age groups in the Atayalic dialects. The Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies, new series, 14:167-191. Chan, Marjorie K. M. 1983. Lexical diffusion and two Chinese case studies re-analyzed. Acta Orientalia 44:117-52. 1983Phillips, Betty S. 1983. Middle English diphthongization, phonetic analogy, and lexical diffusion. WORD 34.1: 11-23. April 1983. 1984Phillips, B. S. 1984. Word frequency and the actuation of sound change. Language 60:320-42. Wallace, Rex. 1984. Variable deletion of -s in Latin: Its consequences for Romance. In Baldi, P. (ed), Papers from the XIIth Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages. Philadelphia: J., Benjamins. Pp. 565-577. 1985Fagan, D. S. 1985. Competing sound change via lexical diffusion in a Portuguese dialect. Sezione Romanza 27:263-92.,. 1986Bauer, Robert S. 1986. The microhistory of a sound change in progress in Hong Kong Cantonese. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 14:1-41. 1987Lien, Chinfa. 1987. Coexistent tone systems in Chinese dialects. Berkeley: University of California dissertation.

Reports of lexical diffusion, 1987-19911987Gamble, G. 1987. Nootkan glottalized resonsants in Nitinat: a case of lexical diffusion. In W. Wang (ed.), The Lexicon in Phonological Change. The Hague: Mouton. Pp. 266-278. Ogura, Mieko. 1987. Historical English Phonology: A Lexical Perspective. Tokyo: Kenkyusha. 1989Harris, John. 1989. Towards a lexical analysis of sound change in progress. Journal of Linguistics 25:35-56. Labov, William. 1989. The exact description of the speech community: short a in Philadelphia. In R. Fasold & D. Schiffrin (eds.),Language Change and Variation. Washington, Georgetown U.P. Pp. 1-57. Phillips, Betty S. 1989. The Diffusion of a Borrowed Sound Change. JENGL 22.2, October1990Shen, Zhongwei. 1990. Lexical diffusion: a population perspective and a numerical model. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 18:159-200. 1991Ogura, Mieko, William S.-Y. Wang and L. L. Cavalli-Sforza. 1991. The development of ME i in England: a study in dynamic dialectology. In P. Eckert (ed.), New Ways of Analyzing Sound Change. New York: Academic Press, pp. 63-106.

.

Reports of lexical diffusion, 1993-20061993Wang, William S.-Y. and Chinfa Lien 1993. Bidirectional diffusion in sound change. In Charles Jones (ed.), Historical Linguistics: Problems and Perspectives. London: Longman Ltd. Pp. 345-400. 1997Krishnamurti, Bh. 1997. Regularity of sound change through lexical diffusion (A study of s > h > zero in Gondi dialects. Paper presented to the Panel on Lexical Diffusion at the 16th Intwernational Congress of Linguists, Paris, July 21. 1998Krishnamurti, Bh. 1998. Regularity of sound change through lexical diffusion: A study of s > h > 0 in Gondi dialects. Language Variation and Change 10:193-220. 2006Phillips, Betty S. 2006. Word frequency and lexical diffusion. New York: Palgrave Macmillan..

ANAE

Atlas of North

American EQnglish

ANAEPrinciples of Linguistic Change,

Vol. III

Chapter 13Words floating on

the surface of sound change

Fronting of /ow/ in North America

Distribution of /ow/ vowels for all of North America. [N=8313].Vowels before /l/ are shown in

black [N=1577].

Absence of fronting of Vw in vowel system of Alex S., 42, Providence, RI TS 474.

Fronting of all Vw in the vowel system of Danica L., 37, Columbus,

OH, TS 737.

34 most frequent /ow/ words in the Brown and Telsur corpora

Brown Telsur F2 MEAN F2 SDno 2201 348 1497 214home 639 547 1066 176go 347 626 1386 237coat 313 43 1302 230sofa 227 6 1282 168both 218 730 1202 214know 179 683 1409 239most 153 1160 1215 220old 145 660 1016 175goal 137 60 1017 110coke 136 4 1368 191phone 101 54 1112 191goat 84 6 1427 243pole 79 18 932 110boat 72 165 1293 208coast 66 61 1321 201donut 66 1171 161over 63 1236 1195 200Polish 59 19 992 135road 57 197 1327 195Minnesota 57 13 1282 195gold 52 60 1009 120mostly 48 44 1196 207doe 37 1 1438 238ago 37 1387 220fold 31 7 971 182ocean 27 34 1403 278cold 26 171 989 143notice 25 59 1360 277bowl 23 79 1000 126low 21 174 1235 128toast 19 248 1376 219nose 17 60 1535 147soda 3 406 1336 182

Regression coefficients for the fronting of /ow/ in ANAE data [N=7796]

-250

-200

-150

-100

-50

0

50

100

150

200

250

Final

Coronal onset

Labial

Following syllables

Labial onset

NasalLateral

/g/ onset/n/ onset/p/ onset

oceannosecokeboathome

low

FemaleCity size

Age

Formal Style

p <.00001 <.001 <.05

Surviving regression coefficients in both halves of a random split in the /ow/ tokens [even = 3927, odd = 3869]F1/F2

position of 348 no tokens in /ow/ distribution [N=8296]

-250

-200

-150

-100

-50

0

50

100

150

200

250

Final

Coronal onset

Labial

Following syllables

Labial onset

NasalLateral

/g/ onset/n/ onset/p/ onset

oceannosecokeboathome

low

FemaleCity size

Age

Formal Style

p <.00001 <.001 <.05

no

home

Fronting of /ow/ for words before /l/ and others for all of North America and for the Southeast (South and Midland). Words selected by regression analysis at p <.001 level as ahead of phonological prediction, light

blue; behind, yellow.

800

900

1000

1100

1200

1300

1400

1500

1600

1700

polePolish

coldgoldbowlgoalfold oldhome

low oversofaboatcokecoastoceannose

no

F2 in Hz

All __lSE__lAllSE

Paul on the fluctuation of words

Vacillations of pronunciation

caused by quicker or slower, louder

or gentler, more careful or more

negligent utterances, will always

affect the same element in the same

manner, no matter in what word it

may occur --PHL 59

Absence of fronting of Vw in vowel system of Alex S., 42, Providence, RI TS 474.

Fronting of all Vw in the vowel system of Danica L., 37, Columbus,

OH, TS 737.

Is home a lexical exception to the fronting of /ow/?

N F1 F2

/ow/ 5950 616 1304

/owl/ 2576 575 1010

home 775 669 1068

Oklahoma 14 589 1045

homebody, etc.

28 641 1037

Omaha 10 655 1119

hoe 26 621 1233

The /h_m/ effect on the fronting of /ow/

560

580

600

620

640

660

680

1000 1100 1200 1300 1400

F2

F1

owl

Oklahoma

homebody

home

Omaha

hoe

/ow/

the unconscious

Paul on the unconscious character of sound change

. . . there is no such thing as a

conscious effort to prevent sound

change. For those who are affected by

the chnge have no suspicion that there

is anything to guard against, and they

pass their lives always in the simple

belief that they speak today as they

spoke years ago, and that they will

continue to the end to speak in the

same way.

PHL 48.

Conscious correction of a completed change: reading and word lists in

New York CityWe chased him with a ba--a baseball bat and yell, “Bad boy! bad, bad! but he was too. . fast, only my aunt could catch him.Paulallballawfulcoffeeofficechalkchocolatechock

Word Phrase Sentence

1. _________ ________________ ___________________________

2. _________ ________________ ___________________________

3. _________ ________________ ___________________________

4. _________ ________________ ___________________________

5. _________ ________________ ___________________________

6. _________ ________________ ___________________________

Project on Cross-Dialectal Comprehension: Gating Experiment 2

head

desk

boss

busses

block

socks

mat

The Northern Cities Shift

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Word Phrase Sentence

Chi (Col), N=89Chi (HS), N=38Bir (Col), N=37Bir (HS), N=44Phi (Col), N=31

block living on Senior citizens

one block living on one block

Percent correct in Gating Experiments by city and educational level in Cross Dialectal Comprehension study: block

Formant measurements of word lists read by advanced speakers in Birmingham [B],

Chicago[C] and Philadelphia [P]

Adult change in real time?

Were anyone able to compare the

movements which his organs made in the

utterance of a word many years before

with those which he makes at present,

he would most likely find a striking

difference. But to make any such real

comparison would be an impossibility.

PHL 48

Real time changes in the lenition of (ch) in Panama City in Cedergren’s trend study, 1969-1982

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

15-26 27-32 33-42 43-52 53-62 63-72 73-

1969

1982

20-29 50-5930-39 60-6914-19 40-49

FIGURE 4.8A. REAL-TIME CHANGES IN THE LENITION OF (CH)

IN PANAMA CITY: CEDERGREN'S TREND STUDY, 1969-1982.

AGE

(CH)

1982

1969

Model of generational change of (ch) in Panama City with no age-grading

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

14-26 27-32 33-42 43-52 53-62 63-72 73-

1969

1982

20-29 50-5930-39 60-6914-19 40-49

FIGURE 4.8B. MODEL OF GENERATIONAL CHANGE OF (CH) IN PANAMA CITY:

PROJECTED AND OBSERVED VALUES FOR CEDERGREN RE-STUDY.

AGE

(CH)

1982 projected

1982 observed

1969

1600

1700

1800

1900

2000

2100

2200

Under 20 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-

F2 constant + age*F2 age coefficient

WOMEN:slope = -5.38r2=.961

MEN:slope = -6.60r2=.788

Regression analyses of fronting of (aw) of men and women by decade in the Philadelphia

Neighborhood Study [N=112]

Lifespan trajectory of a hypothetical sound change for females born in 1962, 1970, 1986 with no adult

increment (Labov 1994)

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

5 9 13 17 21 25 29 33 37 41 45 49 53 57 61 65 69

Age

1942

1946

1950

1954

1958

1962

1966

1970

1974

1978

1982

1986

1990

1994

1998

2002

2006

b. 1986

b. 1970

b. 1962

The critical period revised: possible models of adult participation in sound change

020406080

100120

5 9 13 17 21 25 19 29 33

Age

020406080

100120

5 9 13 17 21 25 19 29 33

Age

Stable

Linear

Inverse power

€

Ii = X−i +a

t 2 020406080

100120

5 9 13 17 21 25 19 29 33

Age

€

Ii = X−i + a

€

Ii = a

Lifespan trajectory of a hypothetical sound change for females born in 1962, 1970, 1986 with progressively diminishing adult

incrementation: cut-off point 17 years

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

5 9 13 17 21 25 29 33 37 41 45 49 53 57 61 65 69

Age

1942

1946

1950

1054

1958

1962

1966

1970

1974

1978

1982

1986

1990

1994

1998

2002

2006

b. 1986

b. 1970

b. 1962

r2=.998

mysteries

The individual and the community

all purely psychical reciprocal operation comes to its fulfillment in the individual mind alone. PHL xxxvii

All that we imagine that we know about the ideas of another individual depends exclusively upon conclusions drawn from our own. PHL xxxix

The great resemblance of all linguistic processes n the most different individuals is the most essential foundation for an exact scientific knkowledge of these processes. PHL xlv

The enigma of uniformity

It is by intercourse, and nothing else, that the language of the individual is generated. PHL23

If we start with the undeniable truth that each individual has his or her own language, and that each such language has its own history, the problem is not so much how from a language essentially uniform different dialects arise. . The problem which challenges solution is this: How comes it that while the language of each individual has its own special history, this degree of agreement--a certain greater or less--maintains itself within this miscellaneously constituted group of individuals? PHL23

accommodation by the socially integrated speakers of type A. . . is often surpassed by type D speakers. . . with loose and ephemeral network contacts who are highly dissatisfied with their social life. . .

It appears that the best predictor of accommodation is not frequency of interaction but instead a strong attitudinal orientation towards the group with whom one wants to associate

-- p. 356

Auer and Hinskens (2005): The role of interpersonal accommodation in a theory

of language change

Auer and Hinskens (2005) conclusion

. . .we certainly cannot exclude the

possibility that participants in the

interaction accommodate to each other’s

behavior

nor can we exclude the possibility that the

frequency of exposure to a new, spreading

feature through intensive network contacts

with its users can lead to the adoption of

this variable.

1500

1550

1600

1650

1700

1750

1800

1850

1900

1950

2000

2050

Under 17 18 to 24 25 to 34 35 to 44 45 to 60 over 60

Age

The fronting of (aw) shown by increase of the second formant with diminishing age in the Philadelphia Neighborhood Study [N=112]

1550

1600

1650

1700

1750

1800

1850

1900

1950

2000

2050

Lowerworking

class

Middleworking

class

Upperworking

class

Lowermiddle class

Upper middleclass

Upper class

Figure 5. The curvilinear pattern for social class in the fronting of (aw) in south, down, out, etc. in

Philadelphia

Celeste2578 Hz

Combines answers to questions about the density of communication on the block:

How many people on the block do you

say hello to?

have coffee with?

ask for advice?. . .

with the proportion of friends who live off the block.

The communication index C5

1700

1800

1900

2000

2100

2200

2300

2400

2500

2600

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

C5 communication index

Clark

Pitt

Wicket

Nancy

Celeste S.

Teresa M.

Peg M.

Donna G.

Barbara C.

Aileen L.

Scattergram of the fronting of (aw) by the communication index C5 for women in

four Philadelphia neighborhoods

C e l e s t e S .

G i n n y C .

S t a n l e y R .

E d d i e C .

D o t M .

H e n r y D .

M a r y J .

1 0 . 2 5

8

6

6 . 7 5

8

8 . 7 5

6

8 . 7 5

6 . 7 5

M a t t R .

M a e D .

2 0 1 7

2 3 4 0

2 2 2 1

2 2 9 2

2 0 0 8

2 3 6 8

2 4 6 3

2 0 7 9

2 3 4 1

Sociometric position of Celeste S. in the Clark St. network

(Upper figure: advancement of change, lower figure, C5 index).

(Katz and Lazarsfeld, Personal Influence)

C

A

B

D

E

F1

2

2

22

2

The two-step flow of communication

Fronting of /ey/ (F2) in closed syllables in made, pain, lake, etc. by age with partial regression lines for 6

socioeconomic groups in Philadelphia [N=112]

Fronting of (aw) for 112 speakers in the Philadelphia Neighborhood Study by age and social class

Thus the symmetry of any system of forms

meets in sound change an incessant and

aggressive foe. It is hard to realize

how disconnected, confused, and

unintelligible language would gradually

become if it had patiently to endure all

the devastations of sound change.

Paul 1891

On the negative effects of sound change

Natural misunderstanding: cat => cod

Neither my boyfriend Dave nor I are natives to Michigan, and we are not NCS speakers. Dave had the following misunderstanding happen three times in the Lansing area, at two different grocery stores, with two different workers: he asked for 'catfish' and the man behind the counter gave him cod, thinking he said 'codfish.’

Natural misunderstanding: pets => pots

Telephone surveyor [Chicago]: Do you have any

pets in the house?

Brian T. [Eastern US] => pots. [thought that 'pot'

was not likely since everyone has pots and pot =

marijuana was too personal; asked for repetition

several times until understood.]

Map 11.8. North American dialects

The U.S. at Night

U.S. at NightThe Inland North

Rochester

Detroit

Syracuse

Buffalo

Cleveland

Chicago

Milwaukee

Toledo

Grand Rapids

Flint

Joliet

Kenoshat

Settlement patterns 1800-1850 (Kniffen and Glassie 1966)

Figure 3.2. Relationships among America’s Most Populous Metropolitan Areas

Relationships among America’s Most Populous Metropolitan

Areas. Heavy lines indicate the largest outflows of

interstate telephone calls for a sample period in 1968. Light

lines indicate largest or second largest outflows of air

passengers from SMSAs over 250,000. The flows mapped from

open city symbols are primary flows; flows mapped from solid

city symbols are second largest outflows or traffic shadow

assignments if they are within about 100 miles of their

superordinate. With the exception of places very close to one

of the 20 study regions, almost all of the places east of the

Mississippi for which secondary flows are indicated sent

their primary outflow to New York City. Sources: Telephone

call data: American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Air

Passenger Data: courtesy of Professor Michael O. Filani,

University of Ibadan.

Caption for Figure 3.2.

Figure 9. The UD measure of the Northern Cities Shift

Summary of the appreciation of Paul in WLH 1968

Paul’s Principien may be said to reflect the best achievements of Neogrammarian linguistics.

• maximum rigor of formulation of the regularity principle

• an intensive interest in recurrent regularities

• a concern with phonetic detail

• a feeling for the atypicality of standardized languages among the totality of languages

• a desire to “portray as many-sidedly as possible the conditions of the life of language [Sprachleben]”.

• recognition of the dialectological point of view on language change.

Summary of the critique of Paul in WLH 1968

• the sole theoretically grounded object of linguistic study is the idiolect, but there is no explanation as to how community consensus is achieved.

•change may come about when an individual skews the distribution of his performance to seek more comfortable behavior patterns, but this key term is not defined, nor is their any accounting of the sporadic character of this adjustment.

• the grouping of idiolects with respect to features shows no organization that would prefer one grouping rather than another.

√ the answer must lie in transmission among children, but there is some evidence for an ideological substratum among adults

√ principle of maximal dispersion combined with general principles governing chain shifting

√ some progress on the actuation problem in searching for triggering events in both linguistic and social context

√ ANAE defines dialects by the active chain shifts in progress, in a phonology organized as hierarchical sets of subsystems in the framework of Martinet and Weinreich