SOCIOLINGUISTICS- LABOV AND PENELOPE ECKERT Essay

SOCIOLINGUISTICS- LABOV AND PENELOPE ECKERT - Essay ExampleIn developing a greater understanding of these processes of sociolinguistic investigation, this essay examines and compares the methodological assumptions and conclusions within the theorists Marthas Vineyard and Jocks and Burnouts studies.William Labovs seminal Marthas Vineyard study incorporates direct linguistic manifestation with past recorded linguistic accounts to analyze the patterns of linguistic change among the island inhabitants of Marthas Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts. Labov identifies one of the key benefits of the study being the secluded nature of the island, and notes how this isolation is sound when formulating viable sociolinguistic analysis. While the island is sufficiently secluded, it also has enough social and geographic complexity to provide ample room for differentiation of linguistic carriage (Labov 4). Labov offers a description of the island and which elements of it will be included in the study, disregarding the nearly 42,000 tourists, as their transitory nature excludes them from contributing viable sociolinguistic info to the specific study.As a result of its physical seclusion and conscious resistance to mainland Boston cultural standards, Marthas Vineyard is understood to have contain significant features of English indicative of pre-1800 New England. Labov argues that the most prominent feature that has been retained is the retention of final and preconsonantal /r/. New England short /o/ is silent well represented among the older speakers (Labov 7). However, he indicates that such analysis of static English morphology is not the essential concern, and that instead the study will focus on the sociolinguistic determination of change and linguistic variation throughout the island.In addressing the factors associated with the determination of the studys linguistic