SUMMARY OF LABOV’S STUDIES.
Keywords:
social motivation, ethnicity, up and down island, sound change, variation, social factors.Abstract
This paper explores William Labov's pioneering contributions to sociolinguistics, particularly his studies on language variation and its relationship to social factors. In his 1963 study, "The Social Motivation of a Sound Change," Labov examined the variation in the diphthongs [ai] and [au] among three social groups—Native Americans, Portuguese, and English families—on Martha's Vineyard. Labov identified systematic differences in pronunciation based on age, ethnicity, and geographical location, emphasizing how these social factors influence linguistic change.
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