Subjective factors in dialect convergence and divergence

Abstract

Since the 1960s new technologies for registering and analysing spoken language have greatly advanced our theoretical and methodological understanding of the many and complex factors involved in language variation and change, including the physiological constitution of our speech organs, the mental capacity of our brains, the structure of linguistic varieties, the linguistic context of particular variables, the social embedding of variation, and the social evaluation of variants and varieties. These factors are commonly divided and grouped in various ways: internal versus external; linguistic versus social versus (socio)psychological; macro versus micro. All of these divisions reflect important aspects of variation and change.