The evaluative component in linguistic change and variation

语言变化和变异中的评价成分

• 批准号: 0426061
• 负责人: William Labov
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Pennsylvania
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-09-01 至 2008-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0426061&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: evaluative; component; linguistic; change; variation

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

语言学习的研究表明，孩子可以非常准确地复制父母的语言，包括working和workin'等可变发音的频率。一旦过了青春期，人们迅速而准确地学习的能力就会大大丧失，但对变异的社会意义的理解却会增强。在美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）的支持下，威廉·拉博夫（William Labov）博士将指导一项研究项目，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人士自然变化的能力。由莎朗·阿什博士（宾夕法尼亚大学）、娜奥米·纳吉博士（新罕布什尔大学）、特雷西·韦尔登博士（南卡罗莱纳大学）组成的研究小组将在波士顿、费城和南卡罗莱纳哥伦比亚三个城市进行实验，使用当地和国家语言变量。在第二年，该项目将收集所有三个城市的初高中和大学学生的数据，包括非裔美国人和欧裔美国人。早期的研究表明，尽管大众传媒起到了标准化的作用，但在几乎所有的美国城市，语言的变化仍在继续，而且在地区和种族方言方面，这种差异正在加剧。该项目将探索这种持续变化的社会动机。它还将揭示语言学习的“关键时期”，以及成年人改变语言使用或学习新语言的能力