The evaluative component in linguistic change and variation

语言学习的研究表明，孩子们能非常准确地复制父母的语言，包括像"工作“和”工作“这样的可变发音的频率。 一旦过了青春期，人们就失去了快速准确地学习的能力，但对变化的社会意义的理解有所增加。在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，William Labov博士将指导一个研究项目，该项目旨在通过实验研究不同年龄、性别和种族的说话者识别和应对母语使用者产生的自然变化的能力。该研究小组包括Sharon Ash博士（宾夕法尼亚大学）、Naomi Nagy博士（新罕布什尔州大学）和Tracy Weldon博士（南卡罗来纳州大学），他们将在三个城市进行实验：波士顿、费城和哥伦比亚、南卡罗来纳州，使用当地和国家的语言变量。在第二年，该项目将收集所有三个城市的初中、高中和大学学生、非洲裔美国人和欧洲裔美国人的数据。 早期的研究表明，尽管有大众媒体的标准化作用，但几乎所有美国城市的语言变化都在继续，而且地区和种族方言的差异正在增加。该项目将探讨这种持续变化的社会动机。它还将揭示语言学习的“关键期”，以及成年人改变语言使用或学习新语言的能力

Studies of language learning have shown that children reproduce their parents' language with great accuracy, including the frequency of such variable pronunciations as working vs.workin'. Once past adolescence, people lose much of their ability to learn rapidly and accurately, but gain in an understanding of the social significance of variation. With National Science Foundation support, Dr. William Labov will direct a research project designed to study experimentally the ability of speakers of different age, gender and ethnicity to recognize and respond to the natural variation that native speakers produce. The research team, including Dr. Sharon Ash (University of Pennsylvania), Dr. Naomi Nagy (University of New Hampshire) , and Dr. Tracy Weldon (University of South Carolina), will conduct experiments in three cities: Boston, Philadelphia, and Columbia, South Carolina, using both local and national linguistic variables. In the second year, the project will gather data from students in middle school, high school and college, African-American and Euro-American, in all three cities. Earlier research has shown that language change is continuing in almost all American cities despite the standardizing effect of the mass media, and that divergence is increasing, in both regional and racial dialects. The project will explore the social motivation of this continued change. It will also throw light on the "critical period" for language learning, and the ability of adults to change their use of language or learn new ones