From Romance Philology Through Dialect Geography to Sociolinguistics

Malkiel, Yakov

doi:10.1515/ijsl.1976.9.59

Cited by 11 publications

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“…L'ignorance de ces auteurs des sources de leur propre domaine est evidente tout au long de ces pages; seul leur constatation que "For the most part, the linguistic description of social variation from the 1930s through 50s was derived from the field of dialectology" (p.28) me fait croire qu'ils ont au moins une idee vague du fait que la sociolinguistique n'est pas une creation des annees 1960. Seul l'article de Yakov Malkiel (1976) merite d'etre cite comme un premier effort dans ce domaine. Quoiqu'il confirme, d'une facon independante -mon attention sur cet article fut attire apres la redaction de mon travail -certaines de mes observations, l'etude de Malkiel, contrairement a ce que laisse croire le titre, ne developpe pas la sociolinguistique et son histoire.…”

Section: Resultsunclassified

Aux Sources De La Sociolinguistique

Koerner

1986

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RESUME Bien que le terme 'sociolinguistics' n'ait ete introduit dans le vocabulai-re technique de la linguistique qu'en 1952 par Haver Currie et que la socio-linguistique ne soit devenue une sous-discipline importante de la science du langage que depuis les annees soixante (v. Bright 1966), cet article main-tient qu'une telle approche du langage existait depuis longtemps, peut-etre plus de cent ans. En d'autres mots, nous avangons qu'il y avait une sociolin-guistique bien avant la lettre. En effet, on retrouve dans la linguistique generate de Wiliam Dwight Whitney (1827-1894) et de Heymann Steinthal (1823-1899) et dans quel-ques articles de Michel Breal (1832-1915) des annees 60 et 70 du siecle dernier des observations qui mettent en relief la nature sociale du langage. Les dialectologues de la meme periode, surtout en France et dans les pays de langue allemande, etaient tout a fait conscients du fait que l'etude des patois, des parlers et des langues orales en general devait etre guidee par des considerations sociologiques (v. Malkiel 1976). Dans la linguistique compa-ree et historique c'est Antoine Meillet (1866-1936), eleve de Saussure et de Breal et collaborates de la revue d'Emile Durkheim, Vannee sociologique, au debut de notre siecle, qui a insiste sur l'importance de l'aspect social (et sociologique) dans l'etude du changement linguistique (par ex., Meillet 1905). Avec ses eleves de Paris, surtout Joseph Vendryes (1875-1960), Alf Sommerfelt (1892-1965) et Marcel Cohen (1884-1974), Meillet etablit l'ecole sociologique du langage (par ex., Vendryes 1921; Sommerfelt 1932; Cohen 1956). Enfin, il existe — a cote de la dialectologie et de l'histoire des langues — encore une troisieme source de la sociolinguistique: l'etude du bilinguisme (par ex., Max Weinreich 1931; Haugen 1953). Ces trois traditions de la recherche linguistique se trouvent toutes reunis dans l'etude de Uriel Weinreich (1926-1967), Languages in Contact (1953), et puisque l'ouvrage de William Labov de 1966, The Social Stratification of English in New York City, qui est souvent cite (bien a tort) comme point de depart de la sociolo-gie moderne, representait sa these de doctorate ecrite sous la direction de Weinreich, il n'est pas etonnant de voir ces traditions, surtout celles de la linguistique geographique et de la linguistique historique, maintenues dans l'oeuvre de Labov (par ex., 1976, 1982). SUMMARY Although the term 'sociolinguistics' was not introduced into linguistic nomenclature before 1952 (see Currie 1952) and the field became a recognized field of research in the late 1960s only (e.g., Bright 1966), it is clear that the subject did not begin two decades ago. Indeed, an investigation into the sources of 'sociolinguistics' reveals that its beginnings go back at least 100 years, to the work of William Dwight Whitney (1827-1894), Heymann Steinthal (1823-1899), Michel Breal (1832-1915), and others. However, these were the first programmatic statements and a number of developments in the study of language were necessary to converge upon the kind of sociolinguistics which most students of language associate with the name of William Labov (e.g., Labov 1966), at least in North America. Interestingly enough, it is also in the work of Labov (e.g., 1972) that the origins of 'sociolinguistics' (to some extent in contradistinction to the 'sociology of language' approach associated with Basil Bernstein, Joshua A. Fishman, and others) could be traced, although neither Labov nor the prolific Dell Hymes has written anything on the history of sociolinguistics. (Indeed, the only paper that comes close to it was written by an outsider to the field, the great Romance scholar Yakov Malkiel, in 1976.) In my paper, I shall demonstrate that there are essentially three major traditions of investigation that led to 'sociolinguistics', namely, (1) Dialectology, especially the work done in German-speaking lands and in France from the 1870s onwards (e.g., Georg Wenker [1852-1911], Jules Gillieron [1854-1926], and others) — part of which had been undertaken in an effort to verify and possibility to support the neogrammarian 'regularity hypothesis' of sound changes; (2) Historical Linguistics, in particular the kind advocated by Antoine Meillet (1866-1936) and his school (e.g., Meillet 1905; Vendryes 1921), which developed into a 'science sociologique' of linguistics in general (Sommerfelt 1932) and a 'sociologie du langage' (e.g., Cohen 1956) among the younger Meillet disciples, and (3) Bilingualism Studies (e.g., Max Weinreich 1931; Haugen 1953), traditions all of which can be found united in the 1953 study of Uriel Weinreich (1926-1967), who happens to have been Labov's teacher and mentor.

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Section: Resultsunclassified

Aux Sources De La Sociolinguistique

Koerner

1986

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“…No entanto, em sua busca por trabalhos relacionados à sociolinguística, o autor se surpreende com a escassez de material concernente a essa área. A obra que mais se aproximava a um trabalho relacionado à história da sociolinguística era o artigo de Yakov Malkiel (1976), no campo da dialetologia. Koerner (1991Koerner ( , 2001, p. 7) explicita que a ligação entre a geografia e a sociolinguística foi feita por diversos cientistas com a qual outra linha do pensamento linguístico se relaciona.…”

Section: A Sociolinguística Como Um Campo Teórico-metodológicounclassified

A sociolinguística como uma corrente teórico-metodológica da linguística sob um viés histórico

Silveira

2020

Traços

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A Sociolinguística tem se apresentado como uma disciplina muito prolífica nos últimos 50 anos. O objetivo do trabalho é apresentar um panorama histórico da Sociolinguística como uma corrente teórico-metodológica da Linguística, abordando assuntos acerca da trajetória histórica dos dialetos, do surgimento das línguas nacionais e da exclusão da diversidade linguística. Definições, importância das diferenças dialetais e dos fatores que influenciam na variação linguística são debatidas. Resultados apontam que a tendência das pesquisas em Sociolinguística é a promoção do entendimento das peculiaridades do falante e da valorização da diversidade linguística nas comunidades de fala.

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“…The theoretical deficit pointed out by Malkiel (1976) in geographical linguistics, has its compensation in the ''spatial linguistics'' developed by Bartoli, who defended the extraction of chronological data from the geographical distribution of linguistic facts, thus adding a new factor to the di¤usion of change: the spatial distance from the innovative center. If the historical explanations of the nineteenth century attempted to establish general principles and phonetic rules, with notable attempts at chronological precision within the phonetic process, geographical linguistics focused on the ''life of words,'' in the sense that ''each word has its own history,'' with already classic examples which are now common knowledge.…”

Section: The Sociolinguistic Perspective Within the History Of Languagementioning

confidence: 99%

A methodological approach to the history of the sociolinguistics of the Spanish language

García

Borja

2008

International Journal of the Sociology of Language

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Currently, the study of linguistic change is understood to examine the process linked to the most general aspects of linguistic variation. It seems inexcusable today to focus on sociolinguistic methodology by adopting a purely sociolinguistic approach to the history of language. Sociolinguistics is the discipline that has best explained the mechanisms of change in language, but the incorporation of this approach into diachronic research is not free from di‰culties, one of which is the relative ignorance of how past societies functioned, as well as the limitations of relying exclusively on written texts. Given these circumstances, it is imperative to add a wide range of documental material to traditionally used literary sources, and especially important to include those that are closest to oral speech as well as those representing lower and less common registers. In this process we must remember that, over and above the work carried out by institutions, it has been the progressive rates of literacy in society, promoted by general schooling, that has contributed through written texts to the establishment of the linguistic standard.

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From Romance Philology Through Dialect Geography to Sociolinguistics

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Aux Sources De La Sociolinguistique

Aux Sources De La Sociolinguistique

A sociolinguística como uma corrente teórico-metodológica da linguística sob um viés histórico

A methodological approach to the history of the sociolinguistics of the Spanish language

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