William Labov Quotes

10 quotes in 191 categories

• An important aspect of the current situation is the strong social reaction against suggestions that the home language of African American children be used in…
• I have resisted the term sociolinguistics for many years, since it implies that there can be a successful linguistic theory or practice which is not…
• It appears that the present-day form of African American English is not the inheritance of the period of slavery, but the creation of the second…
• But unlike European countries, America has never finished a map of the United States, only the eastern United States is covered and a few spots…
• However, research in the years that followed found that in many of its important features, African American Vernacular English was becoming not less, but more…
• Well, American dialects have been studied for a hundred years or so.
• I am now completing research supported by NSF and NEH that is mapping changes in the English language through all of North America, for both…
• This African American Vernacular English shares most of its grammar and vocabulary with other dialects of English. But it is distinct in many ways, and…
• We focus upon pairs of words very often which are the same in some areas and different in other areas.
• And instead of getting a pepper-and-salt effect, we find very clear and sharp divisions between the dialects of the United States, which are getting more…

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