北京大学博雅语言学讲座

Developments in the Study of Sociolinguistic Variation

主讲人：佩内洛普·埃克特（Penelope Eckert）教授

主持人：陈保亚教授

时  间：2026年6月12日（星期五） 15:00-17:00

地  点：北京大学人文学苑3205会议室

摘  要

The shallow history of English in North America allows for the study of dialect differences as variation within a single system. The study of sociolinguistic variation began as the study of the social and linguistic constraints on the spread of dialectal sound changes. The first community study of variation, Labov’s study of Martha’s Vineyard, focused on the social meaning of local dialect features.  The field turned quickly to macrosocial and eventually to geographic patterns, and the study of social meaning faded to the untheorized background. The study of social meaning re-emerged around the turn of the millenium, and the current challenge is to understand the relation between social meaning, which is quite local, and long-term linguistic change and dialect divergence.  This talk will trace the development of what I have called the three waves of variation study (Eckert 2015), with an emphasis on the theoretical developments in the 60+ years of the field.

北美英语的历史相对较短，这为研究方言差异作为单一系统内的变异提供了便利。社会语言学变异研究最初致力于探讨方言音变传播过程中的社会制约与语言制约。该领域的第一个社区变异研究是拉波夫（William Labov）对玛莎葡萄园岛（Martha’s Vineyard）的研究，重点考察方言特征的社会意义。此后，该领域迅速转向宏观社会层面，最终扩展到地理模式研究，社会意义的研究则逐渐淡出理论视野。进入世纪之交，社会意义的研究重新受到关注。目前的挑战在于理解地方性社会意义与长期语言变化及方言分化之间的关系。本次讲座将回顾“变异研究三波理论”（Three Waves of Variation Study），重点介绍过去六十多年来该领域的理论发展。

主讲人简介

Penelope Eckert was William Labov’s first student and is one of the leading figures in contemporary sociolinguistics. She is currently the Albert Ray Lang Professor of Linguistics and Anthropology at Stanford University, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a past President of the Linguistic Society of America. Her research, based on ethnographic fieldwork, examines the meaning of variation through its use in stylistic practice. She is author of Jocks and Burnouts: Social Identity in the High School (Teachers College Press, 1989), Linguistic Variation as Social Practice (Blackwell, 2000), Language and Gender (Cambridge University Press, 2003; Second Edition 2013 with Sally McConnell-Ginet), and The Third Wave in Variation Studies: In Search of Meaning (Cambridge University Press, in press).

佩内洛普·埃克特（Penelope Eckert）是拉波夫（William Labov）的第一位学生，也是当代社会语言学领域的重要学者之一。她目前担任斯坦福大学阿尔伯特·雷·朗（Albert Ray Lang）语言学与人类学教授，美国艺术与科学院院士，曾任美国语言学学会（LSA）主席。埃克特的研究基于民族志田野调查，重点考察语言变异在风格实践中的社会意义。她的主要著作包括：Jocks and Burnouts: Social Identity in the High School（Teachers College Press, 1989）、Linguistic Variation as Social Practice（Blackwell, 2000）、Language and Gender（Cambridge University Press, 2003；第二版 2013 与 Sally McConnell-Ginet 合著）、The Third Wave in Variation Studies: In Search of Meaning（Cambridge University Press，待出版）。