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Tracking Linguistic Change in Childhood: Transmission, Incrementation, and Vernacular Reorganization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Jennifer Smith  and
Sophie Holmes-Elliott
Jennifer Smith*
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
Sophie Holmes-Elliott*
Affiliation:
Queen Mary University of London
*
[Jennifer.smith@glasgow.ac.uk]
[s.holmes-elliott@qmul.ac.uk]
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Abstract

The mechanisms underlying linguistic change are well documented for adolescent and adult speech, but much less is known about how such change emerges in the childhood years. In this article we address this gap by conducting a real-time analysis of the acquisition of a rapidly expanding variable in young speakers, first in preschool and later in preadolescence. By tracking a variable undergoing change at two key stages of sociolinguistic development, transmission and incrementation, we observe directly the processes operating on individual and community grammars as children shift to the leading edge of change.

Keywords

variationacquisitiontransmissionincrementationvernacular reorganizationchildrenglottal replacement

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Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 98 , Issue 1 , March 2022 , pp. 98 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © 2022 Linguistic Society of America

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