Who’s behind language change?

Paul Kerswill, University of York, will be giving a lecture on Sep. 27 2012 at  13.30 in SH:G.

Operationalising sociolinguistic typology: on investigating speech communities in Great Britain and their role in language change

The lecture will present research trying to operationalize some ideas about sociolinguistic typology by Henning Andersen and Peter Trudgill touching on sociolinguistics, language contact and language change. Some existing British studies will be analyzed in the light of these two author’s theories. A proposal to research a little-investigated and relatively isolated region of England: the county of Cumbria, will be presented. Cumbria is famed for the Lake District, composed of traditional hill farming communities where traditional dialect was spoken until recently, existing side-by-side with a large tourist industry and wealthy retirees. There are two large towns/cities, Carlisle in the north (well connected, relatively prosperous) and Barrow-in-Furness in the south (poor communications and dependent on a single, declining industry, that of shipbuilding). Along the coast, there are a number of small towns, including Maryport (small, relatively isolated). The parameters for a comparison of these four localities along parameters derived from Andersen and Trudgill will be outlined: small vs. large community; high vs low contact; stable vs. unstable community; inward vs. outward looking. This will, it is hoped, form the basis of a research proposal.