Dissemination Dynamics of Receding Words: A Diachronic Case Study of Whom

Abstract

We explore the relationship between word dissemination and frequency change for a rapidly receding feature, the relativizer whom. The success of newly emerging words has been shown to correlate with high dissemination scores. However, the reverse—a correlation of lower dissemination scores with receding features—has not been investigated. Based on two established and two newly developed measures of word dissemination—across texts, linguistic environments, registers, and topics—we show that a general correlation between dissemination and frequency does not obtain in the case of whom. Different dissemination measures diverge from each other and show internally variable developments. These can, however, be explained with reference to the specific sociolinguistic history of whom over the past 300 years. Our findings suggest that the relationship between dissemination and word success is not static, but needs to be contextualized against different stages in individual words’ life-cycles. Our study demonstrates the applicability of large-scale, quantitative measures to qualitatively informed sociolinguistic research.

Obsolescence and abortive innovations in variationist approaches to language change

“…This is true of the French ne (Sankoff & Vincent, 1980, Poplack & St-Amand, 2007; see also Ashby, 1976, p. 131, Armstrong & Smith, 2002, van Compernolle, 2008. It has long been true of the English whom (Mair, 2006, p. 85; see also Bohmann et al, 2021), and may also apply to the French inflectional future (je voyagerai) that is being overtaken by the periphrastic future (je vais voyager, very literally 'I am going to travel') (Poplack & Turpin, 1999; see also Sankoff & Wagner, 2020).…”

“…Once a variant becomes infrequent in everyday usage, any use becomes marked, and this markedness makes the variant useful as a resource for stylistic and/or identity work' (Van Herk & Childs, 2015, p. 193; see also Joseph, 1997, Castro-Chao, 2022. 4 Obsolescent forms thus naturally become available for use in language play (van Compernolle, 2008, p. 331, Childs & Van Herk, 2014Bohmann et al, 2021; see also Brook & Blamire, 2023). Crystal (2008:147) suggests that Early Modern English words found in the works of Shakespeare that might today be used for 'poetry or comic archaism' include 'oft, perchance, sup, morrow, visage, pate, knave, wench, and morn'.…”

“…(Van Herk & Childs, 2015, p. 193; see also Wolfram & Schilling-Estes, 1995, p. 711, Gardner, 2010. The English relative pronoun whom, for instance, following what Bohmann et al (2021:2) call a 'drastic decline in frequency over the past 200 years', lives on only as a vestigial prestige form learnt after childhood for use in highly formal settings. It has long since stopped patterning like a relative pronoun that carries accusative case (Bohmann et al, 2021;Lasnik & Sobin, 2000;Mair, 2006).…”

“…The English relative pronoun whom, for instance, following what Bohmann et al (2021:2) call a 'drastic decline in frequency over the past 200 years', lives on only as a vestigial prestige form learnt after childhood for use in highly formal settings. It has long since stopped patterning like a relative pronoun that carries accusative case (Bohmann et al, 2021;Lasnik & Sobin, 2000;Mair, 2006). There may be a good deal of inter-speaker variability in the behaviour of an obsolescent or obsolete variant.…”

“…Obsolescence has received much less scholarly attention than innovation (Britain, 2008, p. 1), but there have been several recent calls for increased attention to obsolescence from a variationist standpoint (Bohmann et al., 2021, p. 1; Jansen, 2021, p. 4, Rupp & Tagliamonte, 2022, p. 75). To that end, this article consolidates findings from case studies of obsolescence, provides an overview of how obsolescent variants behave, especially on the morphosyntactic level, 1 and explores the implications for variationist theory.…”