James Milroy
Biographic Data
| ID | 740522 |
|---|---|
| NAME | James Milroy |
| GIVEN NAMES | James |
| FAMILY NAME | Milroy |
| SIGNATURE | MILROY J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Newcastle University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 562 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1980 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Authority in Language
Authority in Language explores the perennially topical and controversial notion of correct and incorrect language. James and Lesley Milroy cover the long-running debate over the teaching of Standard English in Britain and compare the language ideologies in Britain and the USA, involving a discussion of the English-Only movement and the Ebonics controversy. They consider the historical process of standardisation and its social consequences, in par…
Network Structure and Linguistic Change
Middle English Dialectology
Dialectology is more central to the study of Mfiddle] Efnglish] than to any other branch of English historical linguistics.Strang (1970: 225)
Motives for Language Change
This specially commissioned volume considers the processes involved in language change and the issues of how they can be modelled and studied. The way languages change offers an insight into the nature of language itself, its internal organisation, and how it is acquired and used. Accordingly, the phenomenon of language change has been approached from a variety of perspectives by linguists of many different orientations. This book, originally pub…
Response to Sally Johnson
Language ideologies and the consequences of standardization
This paper explores the effects of the standard language ideology on attitudes to language of nonlinguists and of language specialists, and considers how far linguists themselves have been affected by - and have contributed to - this ideology. The primary definition of standardization is taken to be the imposition of uniformity upon a class of objects. Attitudes to language within standard language cultures are then reviewed and contrasted with u…
Exploring Linguistic Variation to Explain Language Change
Internal vs external motivations for linguistic change
This paper begins by proposing that linguistic change is speaker-based and notes that the phenomenon known as language contact is actually contact between speakers of different languages. It is further noticed that language-contact explanations for change have been avoided or understated in traditional language histories, and internal explanations for change preferred. It is noted that all linguistic innovations, whether they originate internally…
Descriptive adequacy in phonology
This paper offers a variationist critique of aspects of phonological theory and method, focusing on advances in descriptive methods and highlighting the problems that need to be addressed in explaining phonological variation. On the one hand, socially situated language samples which have been systematically collected and analysed constitute a legitimate – indeed often vital – source of evidence to be utilised by linguists for assessing and refini…
Reply to Deborah Cameron on Verbal Hygiene
from elevating it into a moral principle.For those of us who do take an interest in these matters, however, recent events ^the national curriculum debate in particular^must surely prompt us to re£ection on how we can make more e¡ective interventions.My own feeling is that we need to start talking more concretely about what we are for as well as what we are against (e.g.grammar drills and standard English in the playground).Researching Verbal hygi…
Glottal stops and Tyneside glottalization
Glottalization and glottal replacement (particularly of /t/ in British English) have traditionally been assumed to be variants characteristic of male, lower-class speakers. Both phenomena have been heavily stigmatized, but are spreading rapidly. Recent studies in various parts of the British Isles (including Tyneside) have suggested that glottal replacement of /t/ is led by middle-class and/or female speakers. A fuller understanding of the nature…
Local and Supra-Local Change in British English - The Case of Glottalisation
Preview this article: Local and Supra-Local Change in British English - The Case of Glottalisation, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/eww.15.1.02mil-1.gif
Linguistic Variation and Change
Language change and variation social and historical linguistics analyzing language in the community - general principles interpreting variation in the speech community on the time-depth of variability in English speaker innovation and linguistic change towards an integrated social model for the interpretation of language change
Mechanisms of change in urban dialects
This paper begins by noting that the dominance of social class as a speaker variable and interpretative category has led to unsatisfactory interpretations of linguistic variability, and it goes on to investigate the use of the variables social class, social network , and gender . Evidence and arguments are produced to suggest that gender difference is often prior to social class in accounting for sociolinguistic variation. Next, the complex relat…
Social network and social class
In sociolinguistics, approaches that use the variables of socioeconomic class and social network have often been thought to be irreconcilable. In this article, we explore the connection between these variables and suggest the outlines of a model that can integrate them in a coherent way. This depends on linking a consensus-based microlevel of network with a conflict-based macrolevel of social class. We suggest interpretations of certain socioling…
Authority in Language
Linguistic change, social network and speaker innovation
This paper is concerned with the social mechanisms of linguistic change, and we begin by noting the distinction drawn by Bynon (1977) between two quite different approaches to the study of linguistic change. The first and more idealized, associated initially with traditional nineteenth century historical linguistics, involves the study of successive 'states of the language', states reconstructed by the application of comparative techniques to nec…
Regional accents of English
When is a merger not a merger
Preview this article: When is a merger not a merger?: The MEAT/MATE problem in a present-day English vernacular, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/eww.1.2.03mil-1.gif
Language ideologies and the consequences of standardization
This paper explores the effects of the standard language ideology on attitudes to language of nonlinguists and of language specialists, and considers how far linguists themselves have been affected by - and have contributed to - this ideology. The primary definition of standardization is taken to be the imposition of uniformity upon a class of objects. Attitudes to language within standard language cultures are then reviewed and contrasted with u…
Linguistic change, social network and speaker innovation
This paper is concerned with the social mechanisms of linguistic change, and we begin by noting the distinction drawn by Bynon (1977) between two quite different approaches to the study of linguistic change. The first and more idealized, associated initially with traditional nineteenth century historical linguistics, involves the study of successive 'states of the language', states reconstructed by the application of comparative techniques to nec…
Social network and social class
In sociolinguistics, approaches that use the variables of socioeconomic class and social network have often been thought to be irreconcilable. In this article, we explore the connection between these variables and suggest the outlines of a model that can integrate them in a coherent way. This depends on linking a consensus-based microlevel of network with a conflict-based macrolevel of social class. We suggest interpretations of certain socioling…
Glottal stops and Tyneside glottalization
Glottalization and glottal replacement (particularly of /t/ in British English) have traditionally been assumed to be variants characteristic of male, lower-class speakers. Both phenomena have been heavily stigmatized, but are spreading rapidly. Recent studies in various parts of the British Isles (including Tyneside) have suggested that glottal replacement of /t/ is led by middle-class and/or female speakers. A fuller understanding of the nature…
Descriptive adequacy in phonology
This paper offers a variationist critique of aspects of phonological theory and method, focusing on advances in descriptive methods and highlighting the problems that need to be addressed in explaining phonological variation. On the one hand, socially situated language samples which have been systematically collected and analysed constitute a legitimate – indeed often vital – source of evidence to be utilised by linguists for assessing and refini…
Local and Supra-Local Change in British English - The Case of Glottalisation
Preview this article: Local and Supra-Local Change in British English - The Case of Glottalisation, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/eww.15.1.02mil-1.gif
Mechanisms of change in urban dialects
This paper begins by noting that the dominance of social class as a speaker variable and interpretative category has led to unsatisfactory interpretations of linguistic variability, and it goes on to investigate the use of the variables social class, social network , and gender . Evidence and arguments are produced to suggest that gender difference is often prior to social class in accounting for sociolinguistic variation. Next, the complex relat…
Regional accents of English
When is a merger not a merger
Preview this article: When is a merger not a merger?: The MEAT/MATE problem in a present-day English vernacular, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/eww.1.2.03mil-1.gif
Response to Sally Johnson
When is a merger not a merger
Preview this article: When is a merger not a merger?: The MEAT/MATE problem in a present-day English vernacular, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/eww.1.2.03mil-1.gif
Regional accents of English
Authority in Language
Linguistic change, social network and speaker innovation
This paper is concerned with the social mechanisms of linguistic change, and we begin by noting the distinction drawn by Bynon (1977) between two quite different approaches to the study of linguistic change. The first and more idealized, associated initially with traditional nineteenth century historical linguistics, involves the study of successive 'states of the language', states reconstructed by the application of comparative techniques to nec…
Social network and social class
In sociolinguistics, approaches that use the variables of socioeconomic class and social network have often been thought to be irreconcilable. In this article, we explore the connection between these variables and suggest the outlines of a model that can integrate them in a coherent way. This depends on linking a consensus-based microlevel of network with a conflict-based macrolevel of social class. We suggest interpretations of certain socioling…
Mechanisms of change in urban dialects
This paper begins by noting that the dominance of social class as a speaker variable and interpretative category has led to unsatisfactory interpretations of linguistic variability, and it goes on to investigate the use of the variables social class, social network , and gender . Evidence and arguments are produced to suggest that gender difference is often prior to social class in accounting for sociolinguistic variation. Next, the complex relat…
Glottal stops and Tyneside glottalization
Glottalization and glottal replacement (particularly of /t/ in British English) have traditionally been assumed to be variants characteristic of male, lower-class speakers. Both phenomena have been heavily stigmatized, but are spreading rapidly. Recent studies in various parts of the British Isles (including Tyneside) have suggested that glottal replacement of /t/ is led by middle-class and/or female speakers. A fuller understanding of the nature…
Local and Supra-Local Change in British English - The Case of Glottalisation
Preview this article: Local and Supra-Local Change in British English - The Case of Glottalisation, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/eww.15.1.02mil-1.gif
Linguistic Variation and Change
Language change and variation social and historical linguistics analyzing language in the community - general principles interpreting variation in the speech community on the time-depth of variability in English speaker innovation and linguistic change towards an integrated social model for the interpretation of language change
Internal vs external motivations for linguistic change
This paper begins by proposing that linguistic change is speaker-based and notes that the phenomenon known as language contact is actually contact between speakers of different languages. It is further noticed that language-contact explanations for change have been avoided or understated in traditional language histories, and internal explanations for change preferred. It is noted that all linguistic innovations, whether they originate internally…
Descriptive adequacy in phonology
This paper offers a variationist critique of aspects of phonological theory and method, focusing on advances in descriptive methods and highlighting the problems that need to be addressed in explaining phonological variation. On the one hand, socially situated language samples which have been systematically collected and analysed constitute a legitimate – indeed often vital – source of evidence to be utilised by linguists for assessing and refini…
Reply to Deborah Cameron on Verbal Hygiene
from elevating it into a moral principle.For those of us who do take an interest in these matters, however, recent events ^the national curriculum debate in particular^must surely prompt us to re£ection on how we can make more e¡ective interventions.My own feeling is that we need to start talking more concretely about what we are for as well as what we are against (e.g.grammar drills and standard English in the playground).Researching Verbal hygi…
Exploring Linguistic Variation to Explain Language Change
Response to Sally Johnson
Language ideologies and the consequences of standardization
This paper explores the effects of the standard language ideology on attitudes to language of nonlinguists and of language specialists, and considers how far linguists themselves have been affected by - and have contributed to - this ideology. The primary definition of standardization is taken to be the imposition of uniformity upon a class of objects. Attitudes to language within standard language cultures are then reviewed and contrasted with u…
Motives for Language Change
This specially commissioned volume considers the processes involved in language change and the issues of how they can be modelled and studied. The way languages change offers an insight into the nature of language itself, its internal organisation, and how it is acquired and used. Accordingly, the phenomenon of language change has been approached from a variety of perspectives by linguists of many different orientations. This book, originally pub…
Middle English Dialectology
Dialectology is more central to the study of Mfiddle] Efnglish] than to any other branch of English historical linguistics.Strang (1970: 225)
Network Structure and Linguistic Change
Authority in Language
Authority in Language explores the perennially topical and controversial notion of correct and incorrect language. James and Lesley Milroy cover the long-running debate over the teaching of Standard English in Britain and compare the language ideologies in Britain and the USA, involving a discussion of the English-Only movement and the Ebonics controversy. They consider the historical process of standardisation and its social consequences, in par…
Linguistic Variation and Morphology (16 works) · Linguistics (14 works) · Philosophy (13 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (8 works) · History (6 works) · Linguistic change (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (5 works)