Variation and Language , an Overview in Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics 2

The past half-century has witnessed remarkable growth in the study of language variation, and it has now become a highly productive subfield of research in sociolinguistics. This section considers the locus of variability within language and discusses the linguistic variable as a heuristic construct in the analysis and the description of language variation. It further discusses the nature of systematic language variation, as well the role of structured heterogeneity in language change. Finally, it considers possible claims about representing language capability with respect to language variation and implications for a grammar of language. THE LOCUS OF VARIATION If structure is at the heart of language, then variation defines its soul. As Sapir (1921: 147) put it, “Everyone knows that language is variable.” Furthermore, variation allows us to differentiate individuals, groups, communities, states and nations. Notwithstanding the pervasive nature of variability in language, it has often been disregarded or dismissed as tangential to the description of structural patterning and irrelevant to the study of linguistic competence. In fact, it was not until the advent of sociolinguistics a half-century ago that the admission of language variation became more than a footnote to linguistic description. The study of language variation is now one of the most rapidly expanding subfields of linguistics with a well-established cohort of researchers, regular conferences, and scholarly journals, but its status is still somewhat marginal within theoretical linguistics, notwithstanding the insistence of William Labov that the study of language variation is central to the solution of fundamental problems in linguistic theory (e.g. Labov 1966, 2001). Variability is everywhere in language, from the unique details in each production of a sound or sign to the auditory or visual processing of the linguistic signal. In fact, one of the amazing facts about human communication is the demonstrated ability to normalize the inherent variation within every spoken or signed message in processing the linguistic signal. Though language variation is persistent and pervasive, it is not all equally interesting, even to those who focus on the systematic nature of language variation, so-called LANGUAGE VARIATIONISTS. For example, there is considerable variation in speech or sign production related to the physical make-up of an individual speaker or signer—differences in vocal tract size in spoken language or differences in the size of the hands and body used in signing—that is of interest to those who study language normalization, but this is not generally the focus of systematic language variation studies. Similarly, the relative fluency of production related to idiosyncratic behavior is not of