Written by the world-renowned pioneer in the field of modern sociolinguistics, this volume examines the cognitive and cultural factors responsible for linguistic change, tracing the life history of these developments, from triggering events to driving forces and endpoints. Explores the major insights obtained by combining sociolinguistics with the results of dialect geography on a large scale Examines the cognitive and cultural influences responsible for linguistic change Demonstrates under what conditions dialects diverge from one another Establishes an essential distinction between transmission within the community and diffusion across communities Completes Labov's seminal Principles of Linguistic Change trilogy

William Labov is Professor of Linguistics and Director of the Linguistics Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania. His major studies include The Social Stratification of English in New York City (1966), Sociolinguistic Patterns (1972), Language in the Inner City (1972), Principles of Linguistic Change: Internal Factors (Wiley-Blackwell, 1994) and Principles of Linguistic Change, Volume 2: Social Factors (Wiley-Blackwell, 2001). With S. Ash and C. Boberg, he published the Atlas of North American English in 2006.

List of Figures	p. xii
List of Tables	p. xxi
Foreword	p. xxiv
Preface	p. xxvi
Abbreviations	p. xxvii
Introduction to Cognitive and Cultural Factors in Linguistic Change	p. 1
Cognitive Factors	p. 1
Cultural Factors in Linguistic Change	p. 2
Convergence and Divergence	p. 4
The Darwinian Paradox Revisited	p. 6
Divergence and the Central Dogma	p. 7
The Community Orientation of Language Learning	p. 8
The Argument of this Volume	p. 10
The English Vowel System and the Major Chain Shifts of North American English	p. 11
Cross-Dialectal Comprehension	p. 19
Natural Misunderstandings	p. 21
The Collection of Natural Misunderstandings	p. 22
Modes of Correction	p. 23
How Common Are Misunderstandings?	p. 26
What Is the Role of Sound Change in Misunderstanding?	p. 27
The Linguistic Focus of the Misunderstandings	p. 28
The Effect of Mergers	p. 33
Chain Shifts	p. 37
Philadelphia Sound Changes	p. 40
r-less vs r-ful Dialects	p. 44
Sound Changes General to North America	p. 45
An Overview of Natural Misunderstandings	p. 46
A Controlled Experiment on Vowel Identification	p. 48
The Peterson-Barney Experiment	p. 49
Replicating the Peterson-Barney Experiment	p. 49
Overall Success in Identification	p. 52
Responses to the Chicago Speakers	p. 52
Responses to the Birmingham Speakers	p. 54
Responses to the Philadelphia Speakers	p. 56
Overview	p. 57
The Gating Experiments	p. 59
Construction of the Gating Experiments	p. 59
Overall Responses to the Gating Experiments	p. 60
Comprehension of the Northern Cities Shift in Chicago	p. 64
Recognition of Chicago Sound Changes in the Word Context	p. 69
The Effect of Lexical Equivalence	p. 71
Comprehension of Southern Sound Changes in Birmingham	p. 72
Comprehension of Philadelphia Sound Changes	p. 77
Overview of the Gating Experiments	p. 83
The Life History of Linguistic Change	p. 87
Triggering Events	p. 89
Bends in the Chain of Causality	p. 90
Causes of the Canadian Shift	p. 93
Causes of the Pittsburgh Shift	p. 96
Causes of the Low Back Merger	p. 99
The Fronting of /uw/	p. 103
The Northern Cities Shift	p. 111
An Overview of Triggering Events	p. 118
Governing Principles	p. 120
The Constraints Problem	p. 120
The (Ir)Reversibility of Mergers	p. 121
The Geographic Expansion of Mergers in North America	p. 130
Principles Governing Chain Shifts	p. 140
Principles Governing Chain Shifting within Subsystems	p. 145
How Well Do Governing Principles Govern?	p. 152
Forks in the Road	p. 155
The Concept of Forks in the Road	p. 155
The Two-Stage Model of Dialect Divergence	p. 156
The Fronting and Backing of Short a	p. 157
Divergent Development of the /o/ ∼ /oh/ Opposition	p. 161
Divergence	p. 165
Continuous and Discrete Boundaries	p. 165
The North/Midland Boundary	p. 166
Communication across the North/Midland Boundary	p. 170
The Two-Step Mechanism of Divergence	p. 172
Unidirectional Change: The Low Back Merger	p. 173
Consequences of the Low Back Merger for the English Vowel System	p. 174
Resistance to the Low Back Merger	p. 175
Further Differentiation by Chain Shifts	p. 180
A General View of Linguistic Divergence in North America	p. 182
Driving Forces	p. 184
The Importation of Norms	p. 185
Locality	p. 185
Social Networks and Communities of Practice	p. 186
Socioeconomic Classes	p. 190
Acts of Identity	p. 193
The Relation of Social Classes in Apparent Time	p. 195
Gender as a Social Force	p. 197
The Regional Dialect	p. 202
Accounting for the Uniform Progress of the Northern Cities Shift	p. 204
Yankee Cultural Imperialism and the Northern Cities Shift	p. 208
The North/Midland Boundary	p. 208
The History of the North/Midland Boundary	p. 211
The Material Basis of the North/Midland Opposition	p. 214
The Cultural Opposition of Yankees and Upland Southerners	p. 216
Coincidence with Geographic Boundaries of Political Cultures	p. 218
Red States, Blue States, and the Northern Dialect Region	p. 221
Relation of Dialects to County Voting Patterns	p. 222
The History of the Death Penalty	p. 225
Ideological Oppositions in the North	p. 227
The Geographic Transformation	p. 231
Social Evaluation of the Northern Cities Shift	p. 236
The North/Midland Experiment 1	p. 237
Conclusion	p. 244
Endpoints	p. 245
Skewness as an Index of Approach to Endpoint	p. 246
Social Characteristics of Endpoints	p. 249
The Eckert Progression as the Product of Re-Analysis by Language Learners	p. 254
The Unit of Linguistic Change	p. 257
Words Floating on the Surface of Sound Change	p. 259
The Issues Reviewed	p. 260
The Fronting of /uw/	p. 261
The Fronting of /ow/	p. 268
Homonyms	p. 273
The Raising and Fronting of /æ/ in the Inland North	p. 274
Overview	p. 277
Participation in Sound Change	p. 277
The Modular Separation of Phonological and Social Factors	p. 282
Conclusion	p. 285
The Binding Force in Segmental Phonology	p. 287
Is There Allophonic Chain Shifting before Nasals?	p. 292
Allophonic Chain Shifting in the Southern Shift?	p. 295
The Binding Force	p. 301
Transmission and Diffusion	p. 303
The Diffusion of Language from Place to Place	p. 305
Family-Tree and Wave Models of Change	p. 305
Defining Transmission and Diffusion	p. 307
Structural Diffusion	p. 310
Accounting for the Difference between Transmission and Diffusion	p. 311
Diffusion in Dialect Geography	p. 311
The Diffusion of the NYC Short-a System	p. 316
The Transmission and Diffusion of Mergers and Splits	p. 334
Diffusion of the Northern Cities Shift	p. 336
The Social Context of Transmission and Diffusion	p. 344
Prospectus	p. 347
The Diffusion of Language from Group to Group	p. 348
Diffusion to the AAVE Community	p. 348
Influence of Surrounding Dialects on AAVE Pronunciation	p. 349
The Diffusion of Constraints on -t, d Deletion to Children in Minority Communities	p. 353
The Diffusion of Grammatical Variables to Adult Members of the African-American Community	p. 360
Directions of Diffusion in the Latino Community	p. 363
The Nature of Diffusion across Communal Boundaries	p. 365
Conclusion	p. 367
Summary of the Argument	p. 367
The Relation of Linguistic Change to Animal Systems of Communication	p. 369
More on the Functions of Language	p. 371
Social Intelligence and Object-Oriented Intelligence	p. 373
Notes	p. 376
References	p. 394
Index	p. 413
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