I was running and jumping. I was runnin’ and jumpin’.
Why is it that the same sentence, when articulated in a slightly different way, brings different assumptions to mind?
“When somebody drops their ‘G’s, we’ll say, ‘Maybe they're a man, less educated, more rural,’” says sociolinguist Alexandra D’Arcy. “But if you're a native speaker of English, you alternate between saying ‘runnin’’ and ‘running.’
“Every time we open our mouths, we are making multiple, simultaneous decisions about the message we want to convey. These choices are inextricable from the way language works, and every choice you make is constrained by something.”
In other words, there are multiple ways of saying something. Not only do we make assumptions about others based on the way they speak, but we also decide how to say something depending on what we think will be perceived positively by others in that situation.
“How is it that we acquire and then manipulate that understanding in order to position ourselves in the world every time we open our mouths?”
D’Arcy holds a doctoral degree from the University of Toronto, where she studied under the supervision of Sali A. Tagliamonte, professor and chair of the Department of Linguistics in the Faculty of Arts & Science.
Now a professor and director of the Sociolinguistics Research Lab at the University of Victoria, D’Arcy is studying language acquisition in children. Her research project, Only time will tell (aka, Kids Talk), is tracking the language development of 18 three-year-old children over five years. Currently three years into the project, D’Arcy and her team record the children three times a year — first in the presence of their primary caregivers, then with their friends.
“Language is constantly changing,” explains D’Arcy. “Most of the time, we're not aware these changes are happening, but we do know kids are really adept at acquiring and mastering language.”
Language would never evolve if kids simply adopted what they hear from family members, says D’Arcy. “We know that kids are, at some point, changing the language, and they do it in response to changes that they're able to tap into. They’re somehow able to perceive that older kids aren't doing what their parents are doing, and they're able to act on that.”
The window for participating in language change is between ages four and 17. “It's not adults who are responsible for the vast majority of language change,” says D’Arcy. “It's children who are picking up on the fact that something's happening, and each cohort of kids pushes a change further forward than the previous cohort.”
More specifically, it appears that young girls are leading the pack.
D’Arcy’s research has shown that boys stick to the linguistic models their mothers give them. Girls, however, take those models and run with them. “Somehow they tap into what's going on in the broader community and jump ahead. If you want to know where language is going, pay attention to teenage girls.”
One of D’Arcy’s goals for Kids Talk is to determine the different ways parents speak to girls versus boys. “When parents speak to their children, they're setting them up for their expected gender role as adults,” she explains, adding that this is unintentional. “We're manipulating our performance to give our child the tools they need to operate in the social world.
“It’s part of our acculturation as members of a community. We learn the norms just like we learn that there are times to dress a certain way. Child-directed speech is the primary training ground for all of those things.”
D’Arcy’s interest in the topic dates back to childhood conversations with her grandmother. “She had strong ideas about what one should and should not do when speaking. These conversations taught me that there are different ways to say the same thing, and that saying things in different ways says things about you.
“My grandmother said, ‘Only do the thing that's valued highly.’ But I say, ‘Do it all. But just be aware that there's meaning behind these things.’”
D’Arcy met Tagliamonte when she enrolled at U of T, and the pair began working together. They remain regular academic collaborators to this day.
“Alex was one of my greatest gifts!” says Tagliamonte. “When I arrived at U of T in 2001, she was just entering the PhD program. She launched herself 200 per cent into learning.”
Tagliamonte’s lab employs all levels of students, from undergraduate to post-doctoral. “I try to teach them to think like a researcher. I help them by being the best model I can be and challenging them to think outside the box.”
This is now a key component of D’Arcy’s approach to teaching. “I loved U of T linguistics,” she says. “It was the greatest privilege of my life attending that program. The training and support are world-class. The department believes one of the key ways to train students is to work with them. Sali invited me into her lab immediately and gave me lots of opportunities. I benefitted so much from that kind of treatment — that's what I try to provide for my students.”