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Forty years of language change on Martha's Vineyard

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2026

Jennifer Pope,
Miriam Meyerhoff and
D. Robert Ladd
Jennifer Pope*
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Miriam Meyerhoff*
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
D. Robert Ladd*
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
*
Linguistics & English Language, University of Edinburgh, 14 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LN, Scotland [jhmpope@hotmail.com]
[Miriam.Meyerhoff@ed.ac.uk]
[Bob.Ladd@ed.ac.uk]
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Abstract

This short report presents results from a replication of Labov's study of language variation and language change in progress on Martha's Vineyard (MV). The original paper was revolutionary in many respects: it established that the relationship between social and linguistic variables could be systematically studied, and put forward the construct of apparent time as a means of inferring diachronic change in progress based on synchronic patterns. By drawing on Labov's methods for a restudy of MV forty years later, we establish (i) the validity of apparent-time inferencing, and (ii) the robustness of social indexing for the (ay) and (aw) variables on MV. The results strengthen both methodological and theoretical principles that have become central to (socio)linguistics.

Information

Type
Short Report
Information
Language , Volume 83 , Issue 3 , September 2007, pp. 615 - 627
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 by Linguistic Society of America

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