Chapter overview

Describing and interpreting variation with Goldvarb by Sali Tagliamonte

The title of this chapter is relatively self-explanatory. To begin with, Sali A. Tagliamonte, who is a Professor for linguistics at the University of Toronto and whose research primarily focuses on morpho-syntactic phenomena in different varieties of English within the variationist framework, provides an overview of variation theory as such, and deals in more detail with the “key statistical tool" (Tagliamonte, Chapter 20: 382) in variationist research – the variable rule program. In a second step, she illustrates the method's practical appliance by means of three case studies.

What is Variation theory? Step by step, yet somewhat cursorily, Tagliamonte provides her readers with a basic understanding of Variation Theory. At first she lays out the foundations, explaining the general idea behind the method, i.e. its purpose and its requirements, as well as its targeted features. Then the author leads her readers through a set of pre-analytic procedures, explicating the terms vernacular, structured heterogeneity, linguistic variable, accountability, and form/function asymmetry.

Variation theory obviously deals with variation. While formulating an utterance, a person undergoes a number of different processes regarding his or her choice of expression. One might opt for one linguistic variable, while someone else might choose another. This leads to language variation, which Variation theory studies and tries to scientifically comprehend. The vernacular corresponds to spoken everyday language, which the study of language variation is primarily concerned with as it ensures natural and authentic variation. Structured heterogeneity simply refers to the underlying structure of the apparent randomness of variation. This concept of such an orderly differentiation presumes the assumption that the choice process, in regards to the formulation of speech, is indeed affected by contextual factors and that language variation, as random as it may seem, does follow a certain structure. The variationist's challenge lies in filtering out the structured heterogeneity. Linguistic variables are “two or more ways of saying the same thing” (Tagliamonte, Chapter 20: 383). So, in a way, they can be regarded as the essence of variation. At times it can be difficult to detect where exactly in the grammar certain variables vary depending on the linguistic context. This is where the principle of accountability comes in. Instead of focusing solely on where the feature of interest occurs, the variationist also concentrates on where it could, but does not occur. Only when taking all alternates into account, can the method ensure scientifically grounded results. Obviously the variationist must be sure to interpret each alternate correctly by circumscribing the variable context and testing it for its form/function asymmetry.

Finally, after providing a brief guide regarding the necessary pre-analytic steps, from gathering appropriate data up to establishing form/function asymmetry, Tagliamonte goes on by shifting her attention towards the implementation of a quantitative analysis.

She addresses the fact that a variable's frequency can provide the analyst with valuable information, thus serving as an ideal point of analytic departure. For more information on how to conduct a quantitative analysis please visit “The variable rule program” and “Running the variable rule program” (cf. Tagliamonte, Chapter 20).

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