This paper describes how slang is not necessarily short-lived and novel. Users perceive these words, phrases, and meanings as new and they function as new, however, their novelty is only apparent rather than real. Data examined were gathered by students from fellow students at Michigan State University. Sources for comparison included the…

The variation seen as deviation among the nonstandard styles of English does not represent a decay of the language, but rather, is necessary for simplification and other changes of English structure. The modern-day English pronominal system resulted from the incorporation of Scandinavian forms in the North and East Midland dialects of Middle…

One of the most significant problems that linguists face in their attempts to describe Vernacular Black English (VBE) is the matter of fluctuating forms. It is consistently observed that speakers appear to fluctuate between a socially stigmatized variant and its presumed nonstigmatized counterpart. Fluctuations in VBE have often been viewed as a…

This is a report on a study of the attitudes of French-speaking young people, aged 10 to 17 years, toward French as it is spoken in two sectors of Quebec City. One sector, Sainte-Foy, is mainly upper middle class; the other, Saint-Sauveur, is economically and socially disadvantaged. The research was carried out on the basis of work in French and…

Explores how a speech variety close to oratorical standard English is learned in one Afro-American peasant community in the West Indies. Material gathered during two field trips, one supported by a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation fellowship and the other by a National Institute of Mental Health grant. (VM)

There are three areas of interest in the topic of sociolinguistics in the classroom. First, the study of sociolinguistics is the interest of the professional linguist; second, the application of sociolinguistic principles is or should be the concern of all professional people who care about what goes on in the classroom, especially the teacher;…

As part of a larger sociolinguistic study investigating the attitudes of Puerto Ricans on the island toward their own vernacular speech, the present research focused on the subjective reactions of 104 public high school teachers and students to spoken speech styles. The subjects' task was to: listen to a prerecorded tape, rate the voices on the…

DURING THE PAST FEW YEARS INTEREST IN SOCIOLINGUISTICS, THE SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF THE RELATION OF LINGUISTIC FORMS AND SOCIAL MEANING, HAS GREATLY ACCELERATED. IN CONTRAST TO THE FIELD OF PSYCHOLINGUISTICS, MANY OF THE MAIN FIGURES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS ARE LINGUISTS WHO HAVE FOUND THAT SOCIAL FEATURES ARE CONTINUALLY CENTRAL TO…

This study was designed to investigate, describe, and compare the intonation patterns of Black English and Standard English speaking children in a reading (formal) and free discourse (informal) situation. Black English was defined as the linguistic code of the subjects sampled from the inner city black poverty area schools, and Standard English as…

Destructive notions about the relations between social class dialects and cognitive ability are still current in teacher education programs in Britain and the United States.

Many English language arts teachers consider the nonstandard English of their students as being "slovenly or nonverbal or inexact or lazy." These same teachers often have been trained in the "false assumptions of a single universally accepted norm of English." These positions, the author states, are both fallacious and…

Black English is adequate for speakers within the black community: adding a second dialect, standard English, opens new roles with the larger society. The teacher can encourage or discourage such change depending on his relations with students and the community. (JM)

The Swedish address system is in a state of rapid change. Consequently, Swedes are now more than ever sensitive to the seeming lack of generally accepted rules of usage. This paper attempts to codify the rules for usage of the personal pronouns "du" and "ni." In so doing, it finds that "du" may be used to express…

After a brief history of influences on the standardization of Russian since the Revolution, the descriptive and normalizing role of specific reference works of grammar, phonetics, vocabulary, and morphology is discussed. Concluding remarks point out a problem caused by a lack of coordination of standardization efforts and the mounting demands for…