NAME: CITRA PUTRI UTAMI

SRN : 0203515102

SUMMARY OF

SOME FINDINGS AND ISSUES

The early study was done by Fischer that he investigated the pronunciation of children. The
result of his study is that the choice between the -ing and the -in variants appears to be related
to sex, class, personality aggressive/ cooperative), and mood (tense/relaxed) of the speaker, to
the formality of the conversation and to the specic verb spoken.

Other study was done in New York City by Labov. Labovs study as setting the pattern
for quantitative studies of linguistic variation. Labov raised many of the issues that are still
addressed and devised many methods for tackling these issues. One of his earliest studies of
linguistic variation was a small-scale investigation of the (r) variable (Labov, 1966). Its results
led Labov to conclude that members of the highest and lowest social groups tend not to change
their pronunciation after it becomes xed in adolescence but members of middle social groups
sometimes do, possibly because of their social aspirations. He tested this last hypothesis later
in a more comprehensive study of New York City speech and found good conrmation for it.
Labov also investigated the (th) variable in New York City, focusing on the
pronunciation of the initial consonants in words like thing and three. Labov adds that other
variables show similar distributions, e.g., the (dh) variable in New York City, i.e., the
pronunciation of the initial consonants in words like this and then, and the distribution of the
(ng) variable in a variety of studies. He also adds that the (th) variable indicates that there is a
sharp break in linguistic behavior between working-class groups and middle-class groups.
Besides, there is also study investigated Norwich and Reading by Trudgill (1974). He
investigated sixteen different phonological variables in Norwich, England. He demonstrates,
in much the same way as Labov does in New York City, how use of the variants is related to
social class and level of formality. The data suggest that, so far as the (ng) variable is concerned,
its variant use is related not only to social class but also to gender, with females showing a
greater preference for [] than males, regardless of social-class membership.
 In an investigation of linguistic variation in Reading, England, Cheshire (1978) focused
on the (s) variable in the speech of three groups of boys and girls. The (s) variable in this case
is the extension of third-person singular verb marking to all other persons, e.g., I knows, you
knows, we has, and they calls. With have, Cheshire found that the has form occurred only as
a full verb (We has a muck around in there) or before an innitive (I has to stop in) but
never as an auxiliary (so I have got, not I has got).
There are still various kinds of studies by other researchers. The Detroit study (Shuy et
al., 1968) and Wolframs follow-up to that study (1969) have some ndings which are worthy
of comment in the present context. Detroit and Wolfram found although individuals exhibit a
certain amount of inconsistency in their linguistic behavior, there is nevertheless a pattern to
that behavior.
Macaulays study (1977) of ve variables in Glasgow: the vowels in words such as hit,
school, hat, and now and the occurrence of glottal stops as replacements for [t] in words like
better and get. He found a clear correlation between variation and social class, but in addition
he was able to make certain further interesting observations. Another study was by Kieslings
research (1998) on the use of the (ng) variable among a small group of fraternity men at a
university in the United States shows how it might be possible to account for individual
differences in usage.
BELFAST

how a stable set of linguistic norms emerges and

maintains itself in a community.
The milorys study

a closeknit network has the capacity to function as a

norm enforcement mechanism; there is no reason to
suppose that linguistic norms are exempted from this
process. Moreover, a closeknit network structure
appears to be very common in low status communities.

CONTROVERSIES
Labov (1972) stated that it may be possible to predict certain kinds of linguistic behavior if we
know the various constraints that operate in connection with a particular variable and the
relationships between that variable and factors such as social class, level of formality, age,
gender, and race. However, n practice we face considerable difculties in trying to write even
a single variable rule. For example, what kind of rule could cover all instances of the variable
(h)? Some people nearly always say happen and after, while instances of appen are rare
indeed.