TY - JOUR

T1 - The Impact of Labov's Contribution to general Linguistic Theory

AU - Gregersen, Frans

AU - Cornips, Leonie

PY - 2016/9/22

Y1 - 2016/9/22

N2 - The paper first discusses the influence of Labov on certain recentChomskyan developments, starting from an identification of two radicallydifferent readings of the relationship between Labovian variationistsociolinguistics and the dominant theoretical paradigm of the latter halfof the 20th century which is Chomskyan theoretical linguistics, i.e. aseither a supplement or an alternative. Variation at the level of closelyrelated languages, at the level of the language community, and at the levelof the individual, have all been treated by Chomskyans under variousheadings, thus giving evidence that empirical results stemming fromvariationist sociolinguistics cannot be ignored. However, the treatment hasnot led to an integration of variation into Chomskyan theory, nor could it.In the final section we outline what a Labovian materialist alternative toChomskyan idealism could be. We argue that this calls for a broaderdefinition of sociolinguistics than just variationism and poses demands forboth internal integration, viz. of linguistic disciplines, and external integrationof the language sciences with evolutionary psychology, anthropology andsocial history.

AB - The paper first discusses the influence of Labov on certain recentChomskyan developments, starting from an identification of two radicallydifferent readings of the relationship between Labovian variationistsociolinguistics and the dominant theoretical paradigm of the latter halfof the 20th century which is Chomskyan theoretical linguistics, i.e. aseither a supplement or an alternative. Variation at the level of closelyrelated languages, at the level of the language community, and at the levelof the individual, have all been treated by Chomskyans under variousheadings, thus giving evidence that empirical results stemming fromvariationist sociolinguistics cannot be ignored. However, the treatment hasnot led to an integration of variation into Chomskyan theory, nor could it.In the final section we outline what a Labovian materialist alternative toChomskyan idealism could be. We argue that this calls for a broaderdefinition of sociolinguistics than just variationism and poses demands forboth internal integration, viz. of linguistic disciplines, and external integrationof the language sciences with evolutionary psychology, anthropology andsocial history.

M3 - Journal article

VL - 20

SP - 498

EP - 524

JO - Journal of Sociolinguistics

JF - Journal of Sociolinguistics

SN - 1360-6441

IS - 4

ER -