Reading Working Papers in Linguistics 4 (2000) - The University of ...

SALIENCE IN LANGUAGE CHANGE
• The linguistic component (level) affected
• Simplification (vs. complication): a loss of irregularity in morphology and
an increase in invariable word forms (Mühlhäusler 1977, cited in Trudgill
1986:103; Mühlhäusler 1980, cited in Siegel 1985)
• Reduction (impoverishment): “those processes that lead to a decrease in
the referential or non-referential potential of a language” (Mühlhäusler
1980:21), involving, for example, a reduced vocabulary or fewer stylistic
devices
• Admixture: the use of items (usually lexical, but also phonological,
morphological or syntactic) from more than one variety
• Levelling: the decrease in the number of variants of a particular
phonological, morphological or lexical unit in a given dialect area, usually
resulting from the loss of minority or marked forms found in the different
varieties spoken
As can be seen, these outcomes refer to a combination of internal and external
factors: the first four refer to changes in the language structure, while the fifth
refers to a purely sociolinguistic notion, that of the reduction in the amount of
variability in a speech community.
4. Trudgill’s notion of ‘salience’
However, there is a further set of factors which affect the outcomes of dialect
contact. Trudgill refers to these collectively as contributing to the salience of
particular features. Trudgill’s basic idea is that features which are adopted in
dialect contact are salient. He takes as his starting point a brief analysis of
‘markers’, defined by Labov as linguistic variables to which speakers can pay
more or less conscious attention (as opposed to ‘indicators’, to which
speakers do not pay conscious attention). Trudgill lists the following as
factors leading to variables becoming markers, and therefore salient (adapted
from Trudgill 1986:11):
• The variable has at least one variant which is overtly stigmatised
• The variable has a high-status prestige variant reflected in the orthography
• The variable is undergoing linguistic change
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