Language Variation

Ahmad Faiz(130221810453)

What kinds of variation are there in Language?

Languages exhibit internal variation, at least in four levels.

They are in phonological, morphological, syntactical and

semantic levels.

The following examples are taken from a book entitled

“Analysing Sociolinguistic Variation” written by Sali A.

Tagliamonte.

All of examples are taken from the York English Corpus

(YRK), which represents the variety spoken in the city of

York in north England (Tagliamonte, 2006:10)

Phonological level

• variable on “t”

I did a college course when I lefØ school actually, but I left it because it was business studies.

• Variable on “-ing”

We were having a good time out in what we were doin’.

Morphological level

• Variable on “-ly”

You go to Leeds and Castleford, they take it so much more seriously … They really are, they take it seriousØ.

Syntactic level

• go slowØ vs go slowly

• He isn’t vs He’s not

Semantic level

• He’s got bad-breath; he has smelly feet.

• car park = parking lot, vest = undershirt (British English)

Reference

Tagliamonte, S. A. 2006. Analysing Sociolinguistic Variation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press