1999/10/01 by Sylvie Dubois, Barbara M. Horvath · 218 citations
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · Psychology · #Linguistic Variation and Morphology #Spanish Linguistics and Language Studies #Multilingual Education and Policy #Language change #Linguistics #Sociology #Context (archaeology) #Variety (cybernetics) #Sociolinguistics #Ethnography #Generalizability theory #Psychology #Gender studies #History #Anthropology #Developmental psychology
paper · doi:10.1017/s0954394599113036
published in Language Variation and Change 11(3), 287-313 (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 1999/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
The role of gender in language change, as discussed in Eckert (1989a) and Labov (1990), forms the context for an exploration of the role of gender in the development of Cajun English. Neither Principle I, Ia, or II predicts the role of gender in Cajun English, which leads us to question the generalizability of the principles to the specific sociolinguistic setting of this study—a closed cultural enclave. The study of four sociolinguistic variables and three generations of speakers reveals two patterns of language change: a curvilinear or v-shaped age pattern and a linear age pattern. These patterns relate in a complex way to changes from above and below the level of consciousness. We support Eckert's call for a finer specification of the social categories but suggest alternatives to the ethnographic method. Using a variety of sources of information on the social life and sociohistory of three generations, we find an intimate association between the sociohistory of this Cajun community and the linguistic behavior of each generation.