American Social Dialectology: A Statistical Appraisal

Lawrence M. Davis

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Linguistic Variation and Morphology Linguistic and Sociocultural Studies Linguistic research and analysis

Abstract

BOUT A GENERATION has passed since Glenna Pickford (1956) criticized the Linguistic Atlas for errors in sampling, and since then nearly every sociolinguistic study in the United States has attempted to be more systematic in selecting respondents.' Even reviews of sociolinguistic research such as that of Baubkus and Viereck (1973) have tended to stress the importance of adequate and reliable sampling techniques. Regardless of the correctness of Pickford's criticism, it does seem clear that one lesson statistics has taught the sociolinguist is that there are right and wrong ways to gather data. What seems to be absent, however, is sufficient critical attention to the problem of analyzing the data once the sample is properly chosen.2 In fact, only in the past decade has American social dialectology benefited from statistical analysis. Lawrence Biondi (1975), Ralph Fasold (1972), Crawford Feagin (1979), and Walt Wolfram (1974) in one way or another all use chi square (X2) tests to evaluate the reliability of results. Fasold (1972, p. 33), as a matter of fact, notes with some surprise that neither Labov (1966, 1969) nor Wolfram (1969) used statistical tests on their results:

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References

1968The Social Stratification of English in New York City.1975Language in the inner city: studies in the Black English Vernacular. By William Labov. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972. Pp. xxiv, 412. $6.95.1969Contraction, Deletion, and Inherent Variability of the English Copula 1970A sociolinguistic description of Detroit Negro speech. By Walter A. Wolfram. (Urban language series, 5.) Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1969. Pp. xviii, 237. $5.00.1974Variable Rules: Performance as a Statistical Reflection of Competence 1981Variation and change in Alabama English: A sociolinguistic study of the white community. By Crawford Feagin. With a foreword by William Labov. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1979. Pp. xxii, 396. $7.95.1974Tense marking in Black English: a linguistic and social analysis. By Ralph W. Fasold (Urban language series, 8.) Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1972. Pp. xvi, 254. $7.00.1974Sociolinguistic aspects of assimilation : Puerto Rican English in New York City

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