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Workplace isoglosses: Lexical variation and change in a factory setting1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Patricia Tway
Patricia Tway
Affiliation:
New Castle, Pennsylvania
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Abstract

This paper examines language in a factory setting and shows that: (1) within a single building, different terms for the same thing may be found; (2) such alternation may be sufficiently stable to appear on ‘official’ forms, such as orders and inventories; (3) the major boundary is spatial, not social, in that it has to do with the major boundary between types of work; (4) operational links, proximity, and mobility between departments are major determinants of agreement and difference in usage within and across the two main sections of the factory. The data show lexical variability at a finer scale than has usually been considered in American dialectology, and show variation that appears independent of both region and class in its patterning. The data indicate a need for further investigation into sociolinguistic processes in occupational settings. (Dialectology, language change, lexical variability, sociology of work; American English (New Castle, Pennsylvania).)

Type
Articles: Ecology of Language
Information
Language in Society , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , August 1975 , pp. 171 - 183
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

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