Real-time evidence for age grad(ing) in late adolescence

Abstract

A B S T R A C TThis study provides real-time support for the hypothesis, previously inferred from apparent time studies, that stable sociolinguistic variables are age-graded. Stable variables have been shown to exhibit a curvilinear pattern with age in which adolescents use nonstandard variants at a higher rate than adults do. An analysis of the morphophonological variable (ing) was carried out using recordings and ethnographic observations of 13 young American women during and after their final years of high school. Offering a detailed look at the late adolescent life stage, the study also explores speakers' motivations for retaining or retreating from nonstandard variants as they prepare to enter adulthood. These are examined at both the group and the individual level. The results indicate that the degree of retreat from nonstandard variants is socially differentiated, in line with apparent time findings. Future enrollment in a locally oriented college, and alignment to a local ethnic network (Irish or Italian)-not social class-were the predictors of retention in high school.

‘I don't come off as timid anymore’: Real‐time change in early adulthood against the backdrop of the community

“…uses less deletion) as she gets older. The findings for our sole morphophonological variable parallel those of Wagner (: 197) for the similarly stable morphophonological variable (ING). With respect to this phenomenon, her participants show a significant shift toward the standard form with a velar nasal (that is, ‐ing rather than ‐in ’) after high school.…”

“…What could account for such a thing – and in a direction away from an ongoing, if gradual, change in progress in the community? Since –body / –one is not a stable variable, we do not consider this adjustment to be age‐grading in the canonical sense (Wagner : 180–181). Instead we suggest that as Clara enters young adulthood she is adjusting to the community norms for older speakers, who use more – body .…”

“…Wolfram and Beckett (: 28) highlight a crucial paradox: while some degree of individuation is both inevitable and crucial to take into account, there will always be ‘extensive patterning of linguistic variation in terms of group affiliations and social boundaries’ (cf. Cukor‐Avila : 305; Wagner : 197). With respect to the same issue, Chambers (: 113–114) points out that even the sociolinguistic ‘oddballs’ mostly fall in line with the norms of their communities, and that most speakers ‘sound the way you would expect them to sound given the facts about their class, sex, age, and region’.…”

“…The chances of linguistic lifespan change are high in ‘individuals who have not yet settled into the long‐term choices and life‐paths that make up adulthood’ (Bigham : 533), and emerging adults could be ‘a new kind of sociolinguistic actor’ (Bigham : 533; see also Bauman : 25). Along similar lines, Kohn () notes that lifespan change might accompany ‘the shifting social pressures that accompany entrance into the workforce’ (see also Wagner : 185).…”

Investigating the Effect of Socio-Cognitive Salience and Speaker-Based Factors in Morpho-Syntactic Life-Span Change

“…Sound changes below the level of awareness, on the other hand, proceed regardless of the speakers' educational orientation (see also Bigham 2010). But whereas sociophonetic research is starting to establish a causal link between speakers' level of awareness of certain articulatory contrasts and their phonetic choices across the life-span (De Decker 2006;Bigham 2010;Wagner 2012b), we do not yet have enough evidence from panel studies on morpho-syntactic changes that might allow such generalizations. Wagner (2006, 2011) suggest that speakers modify their speech toward certain morpho-syntactic variants provided those variants carry the social meanings they want to associate themselves with.…”