Constant Linguistic Effects in the Diffusion of <i>Be Like</i>

Durham, Mercedes; Haddican, Bill; Zweig, Eytan; Johnson, Daniel E.; Baker, Zipporah; Cockeram, Daniel; Danks, Esther; Tyler, Louise L.

doi:10.1177/0075424211431266

Cited by 34 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…This is the procedure used in a number of studies that have sought to establish CREs in various processes of change across a number of languages (e.g. Kroch 1989;Santorini 1993;Pintzuk 1995;Kallel 2005;Pintzuk and Taylor 2006;Kallel 2007;Fruehwald et al 2009;Postma 2010;Durham et al 2012;Wallage 2013;Gardiner 2015). Henceforth, we shall refer to it as the standard operationalization.…”

Section: The Constant Rate Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deriving the Constant Rate Effect

Kauhanen

Walkden

2017

Nat Lang Linguist Theory

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The Constant Rate Hypothesis (Kroch 1989) states that when grammar competition leads to language change, the rate of replacement is the same in all contexts affected by the change (the Constant Rate Effect, or CRE). Despite nearly three decades of empirical work into this hypothesis, the theoretical foundations of the CRE remain problematic: it can be shown that the standard way of operationalizing the CRE via sets of independent logistic curves is neither sufficient nor necessary for assuming that a single change has occurred. To address this problem, we introduce a mathematical model of the CRE by augmenting Yang's (2000) variational learner with production biases over an arbitrary number of linguistic contexts. We show that this model naturally gives rise to the CRE and prove that under our model the time separation possible between any two reflexes of a single underlying change necessarily has a finite upper bound, inversely proportional to the rate of the underlying change. Testing the predictions of this time separation theorem against three case studies, we find that our model gives fits which are no worse than regressions conducted using the standard operationalization of CREs. However, unlike the standard operationalization, our more constrained model can correctly differentiate between actual CREs and pseudo-CREs-patterns in usage data which are superficially connected by similar rates of change yet clearly not unified by a single underlying cause. More generally, we probe the effects of introducing context-specific production biases by conducting a full bifurcation analysis of the proposed model. In particular, this analysis implies that a difference in the weak generative capacity of two com-

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Section: The Constant Rate Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deriving the Constant Rate Effect

Kauhanen

Walkden

2017

Nat Lang Linguist Theory

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“…Thus, readers might wonder if previous conclusions that the sex effect has not neutralized (Tagliamonte and D'Arcy, 2004) might have been misled by VARBRUL's overestimation of the sex factor. This is not something that readers can necessarily verify independently, especially since variationist studies tend to not report all frequency data (see, e.g., Tagliamonte and D'Arcy, 2004;Durham et al, 2012).…”

Section: Quotatives New Trends and Sociolinguistic Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One concerns the frame IT'S LIKE, a notoriously problematic frame due to the indeterminacy of its discourse-pragmatic function, that is whether it introduces direct quotation, or whether instead it functions simply as discourse marker. Buchstaller laments that only Durham et al (2012) Barbieri (2005) actually excludes it and discusses it at length (pp. 12-13).…”

Section: Quotatives New Trends and Sociolinguistic Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quotatives. New Trends and Sociolinguistic Implications

Barbieri

2016

Journal of Pragmatics

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“…Durham et al. () compare usage of be like in two cohorts of undergraduates in York (England) a decade apart. They also provide attitude data on say and be like in different linguistic contexts from a cohort of American English speakers.…”

Section: Five Approaches To Global Innovationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The mediated innovation model: A framework for researching media influence in language change

Sayers

2014

Journal of Sociolinguistics

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Linguistic innovations that arise contemporaneously in highly distant locations, such as quotative be like, have been termed 'global linguistic variants'. This is not necessarily to suggest fully global usage, but to invoke more general themes of globalisation vis-a-vis space and time. This research area has grown steadily in the last twenty years, and by asserting a role for mass media, researchers have departed intrepidly from sociolinguistic convention. Yet they have largely relied on quite conventional sociolinguistic methodologies, only inferring media influence post hoc. This methodological conservatism has been overcome recently, but uncertainty remains about the overall shape of the new epistemological landscape. In this paper, I review existing research on global variants, and propose an epistemological model for researching media influence in language change: the mediated innovation model. I also analyse the way arguments are constructed in existing research, including the use of rhetorical devices to plug empirical gaps -a worthy sociolinguistic topic in its own right.Les innovations linguistiques qui emergent simultan ement dans diff erentes r egions du monde, telles que les verbes introducteurs be like par exemple, ont et e r ecemment appel ees des 'variantes linguistiques universelles'. Ceci ne sugg ere pas n ecessairement l'existence d'un usage mondial a part enti ere, mais plutôt l'invocation de th emes plus larges sur la mondialisation en mati ere d'espace et de temps. Ce domaine de recherche a connu un d eveloppement r egulier au cours de ces vingt derni eres ann ees, et en revendiquant le rôle que peuvent jouer les m edias de masse, les sociolinguistes se sont eloign es avec une certaine intr epidit e des conventions caract eristiques de leur domaine. Pourtant, ces derniers ont bien employ e des m ethodes d'analyse sociolinguistique conventionnelles, mais inf erant l'influence des m edias uniquement apr es coup. les travaux de recherche qui traitent de ces variantes universelles et de proposer un mod ele epist emologique destin e a la recherche sur l'influence des m edias dans les processus linguistiques du changement appel e en anglais 'the mediated innovation model', c'est-a-dire un mod ele d'innovations v ehicul ees par les m edias. Dans le même temps, le pr esent article vise a etudier la mani ere dont les arguments sont construits dans ces travaux de recherche, par exemple par le biais de proc ed es rh etoriques, afin de corriger les insuffisances empiriques -en somme un sujet de sociolinguistique qui m erite certainement toute notre attention. [French]

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Constant Linguistic Effects in the Diffusion of Be Like

Cited by 34 publications

References 27 publications

Deriving the Constant Rate Effect

Deriving the Constant Rate Effect

Quotatives. New Trends and Sociolinguistic Implications

The mediated innovation model: A framework for researching media influence in language change

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