1887
  1. Home
  2. e-Journals
  3. Journal of Historical Linguistics
  4. Volume 15, Issue 1
  5. Article
Volume 15, Issue 1
  • ISSN 2210-2116
  • E-ISSN: 2210-2124
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Abstract

Based on a corpus of private correspondence written by twelve influential political and cultural figures in eighteenth-century Spain, this article discusses several hypotheses about the role of individual variation in language change. The study analyses five variables undergoing change in early modern Spanish and examines the idiolectal use of the traditional variants. Several conclusions are drawn from the results. The first is that idiolectal patterns vary considerably from one variable to another. Those variants that were clearly in the majority at the time or have undergone slower change processes are more consistent with in-between profiles.

On the other hand, those variants that are more clearly declining or undergoing abrupt changes are represented by more refractory patterns. Still, these profiles are not uniform, so a specific type of variation in one variant does not exclude others. The results concerning the most decisive period in the configuration of the idiolectal distributions are less conclusive, mainly due to the imbalances in the representativeness of the samples. However, among the variables better represented in the corpus, the end of adolescence – set at 18 in this study – seems to be the most significant, in line with some well-known hypotheses in the literature. Nevertheless, we have also detected a few cases of changes in adulthood. Finally, the data support the dominance of stability in syntactic variation, suggesting that speakers change little once their idiolectal distributions have been established. Even so, some longitudinal changes are found, albeit in a recurrent direction: the replacement of traditional forms by alternative, more prestigious variants.

© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/jhl.22059.bla
2023-08-17
2025-04-28

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.1075/jhl.22059.bla
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Badia i Margarit, Antoni M.
    1985 Gramática catalana. 21vol.Madrid: Gredos.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Barlow, Michael
    2013 Individual Differences and Usage-Based Grammar. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics181:443–478. 10.1075/ijcl.18.4.01bar
     https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.18.4.01bar [Google Scholar]
  3. Baxter, Gareth & William Croft
    2016 Modeling Language Change Across the Lifespan: Individual Trajectories in Community Change. Language Variation and Change281:129–173. 10.1017/S0954394516000077
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394516000077 [Google Scholar]
  4. Beaman, Karen V. & Isabelle Buchstaller
    (eds.) 2021 Corpus-Based Lifespan Change in Late Middle English: Language Variation and Language Change Across the Lifespan: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives from Panel Studies. New York: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Bergs, Alexander
    2005 Social Network Analysis and Historical Sociolinguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 10.1515/9783110923223
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110923223 [Google Scholar]
  6. Blas Arroyo, José Luis
    2022 Patterns of Individual Variation and Change in Golden Age Spanish.: Analysis of Three Linguistic Variables in a Private Correspondence Corpus. Folia Linguistica Historica43:4.1–40.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. 2021 Traces of the Past in a Lengthy Change (Still) in Progress: Persistence and Generalization in Prepositional Relative Clauses in Peninsular Spanish. The Routledge Handbook of Variationist Approaches to Spanished. byManuel Díaz-Campos, 492–505. Abingdon: Routledge. 10.4324/9780429200267‑44
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429200267-44 [Google Scholar]
  8. 2020 Entre el español clásico y el primer español moderno: la evolución de las completivas dependientes de un predicado doxástico (1500–1800). Bulletin of Spanish Studies98:1.1–30. 10.1080/14753820.2020.1846306
     https://doi.org/10.1080/14753820.2020.1846306 [Google Scholar]
  9. 2017 ¿Identidades lingüísticas invariables?: trayectorias idiolectales ante la variación y el cambio lingüístico en el español clásico. Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana (RILI)15:4.117–144. 10.31819/rili‑2017‑153006
     https://doi.org/10.31819/rili-2017-153006 [Google Scholar]
  10. Blas Arroyo, José Luis & Elia Puertas
    . In Press. INCOM: Un corpus de inmediatez comunicativa para el estudio sociolingüístico del español en su historia. Cultura, Lenguaje y Representación.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Blas Arroyo, José Luis & Mónica Velando
    2022 El queísmo en la historia: variación y cambio lingüístico en el régimen preposicional del español (siglos XVI–XXI). Berlin: Walter De Gruyter. 10.1515/9783110766851
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110766851 [Google Scholar]
  12. 2019 Auge y caída de una forma moribunda: la evolución del relativo quien con antecedente plural en la historia del español. Studia Neophilologica91:3.355–382. 10.1080/00393274.2019.1635044
     https://doi.org/10.1080/00393274.2019.1635044 [Google Scholar]
  13. Blas Arroyo, José Luis & Javier Vellón
    2018 On the Trail of Grammaticalisation in Progress: Has el que Become a Compound Relative Pronoun in the History of Spanish Prepositional Relative Clauses?Probus: International Journal of Romance Linguistics30:1.1–45. 10.1515/probus‑2017‑0010
     https://doi.org/10.1515/probus-2017-0010 [Google Scholar]
  14. Boberg, Charles
    2004 Real and Apparent Time in Language Change: Late Adoption of Changes in Montreal English. American Speech79:3.250–269. 10.1215/00031283‑79‑3‑250
     https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-79-3-250 [Google Scholar]
  15. Brucart, José M.
    1999 La estructura del sintagma nominal: las oraciones de relativo. Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española: Vol. 2ed. byIgnacio Bosque & Violeta Demonte, 395–522. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Bybee, Joan L.
    2006 From Usage to Grammar: The Mind’s Response to Repetition. Language821:711–733. 10.1353/lan.2006.0186
     https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2006.0186 [Google Scholar]
  17. De Smet, Hendrik
    2016 How Gradual Change Progresses: The Interaction Between Convention and Innovation. Language Variation and Change281:83–102. 10.1017/S0954394515000186
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394515000186 [Google Scholar]
  18. Del Moral, Carlos G.
    2004 Grammaticalization of Spanish de: Reanalysis of (de)queísmo in Southern Cone dialects. Doctoral thesis: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Eberenz, Rolf
    2000 El español en el otoño de la Edad Media: Sobre el artículo y los pronombres. Madrid: Gredos.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Eckert, Penelope
    2000 Linguistic Variation as Social Practice. Oxford: Blackwell.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. 2020 The Individual in the Semiotic Landscape. Glossa4:1.1–15.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Elspasß, Stephan
    2012 The Use of Private Letters and Diaries in Sociolinguistic Investigation. The Handbook of Historical Sociolinguisticsed. byJuan M. Hernández-Campoy & Juan C. Conde-Silvestre, 156–169. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. 10.1002/9781118257227.ch9
     https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118257227.ch9 [Google Scholar]
  23. Fonteyn, Lauren & Peter Petré
    2022 On the Probability and Direction of Morphosyntactic Lifespan Change. Language Variation and Change 2022: 1–27. Open access. 10.1017/S0954394522000011
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394522000011 [Google Scholar]
  24. García Godoy, Maria T.
    2012 (ed.). El español del siglo XVIII: cambios diacrónicos en el primer español moderno. Berne: Peter Lang. 10.3726/978‑3‑0351‑0388‑5
     https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-0351-0388-5 [Google Scholar]
  25. Girón Alconchel, José Luis
    2004 Cambios gramaticales en los Siglos de Oro. Historia de la lengua españolaed. byRafael Cano Aguilar, 859–893. Barcelona: Ariel.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. 2006 La historia del artículo como antecedente de relativas oblicuas desde el punto de vista de la gramaticalización. Actas del VI Congreso Internacional de Historia de la Lengua Española, Madrid, 2013: Vol. 1ed. byJosé Luis Girón Alconchel & José Jesús Bustos Tovar, 765–776. Madrid: Arco Libros.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Gómez Torrego, Leonardo
    1989 Manual de español correcto. Madrid: Arco Libros.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. 1999 La variación en las subordinadas sustantivas: dequeísmo y queísmo. Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española: Vol. 2ed. byIgnacio Bosque & Violeta Demonte, 2105–2148. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Gregersen, Frans, Marie Maegaard & Nicolai Pharao
    2009 The Long and Short of (Æ)-Variation in Danish: A Panel Study of Short (Æ)-Variants in Danish in Real Time. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia41:1.64–82. 10.1080/03740460903364086
     https://doi.org/10.1080/03740460903364086 [Google Scholar]
  30. Guy, Gregory R.
    2013 The Cognitive Coherence of Sociolects: How do Speakers Handle Multiple Sociolinguistic Variables?Journal of Pragmatics521.63–71. 10.1016/j.pragma.2012.12.019
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2012.12.019 [Google Scholar]
  31. Hendricks, Jennifer
    2013 The Effects of Complex Migration Trajectories on Individual Linguistic Repertoires in the Early Modern Dutch Urban Context. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen1191:121–144.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Hernández-Campoy, Juan Manuel
    2021 Corpus-Based Lifespan Change in Late Middle English. Language Variation and Language Change Across the Lifespan: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives from Panel Studiesed. ByKaren V. Beaman & Isabelle Buchstaller, 164–181. New York: Routledge. 10.4324/9780429030314‑7
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429030314-7 [Google Scholar]
  33. Hernández-Campoy, Juan Manuel & Tamara García Vidal
    2018 Style-Shifting and Accommodative Competence in Late Middle English Written Correspondence: Putting Audience Design to the Test of Time. Folia Linguistica Historica521.383–420. 10.1515/flih‑2018‑0014
     https://doi.org/10.1515/flih-2018-0014 [Google Scholar]
  34. Herrero Ruiz de Loizaga, Francisco Javier
    2005 Sintaxis histórica de la oración compuesta. Madrid: Gredos.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Kany, Charles E.
    1969 Sintaxis hispanoamericana. Madrid: Gredos.
     [Google Scholar]
  36. Kerswill, Paul
    1996 Children, Adolescents, and Language Change. Language Variation and Change81:177–202. 10.1017/S0954394500001137
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394500001137 [Google Scholar]
  37. Labov, William
    1994 Principles of Linguistic Change, Vol. 1: Internal Factors. Philadelphia: Blackwell Publishing Co.
     [Google Scholar]
  38. 2001 Principles of Linguistic Change, Vol. 2: Social Factors. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Co.
     [Google Scholar]
  39. Lapesa, Rafael
    1980 Historia de la lengua española. Madrid: Gredos.
     [Google Scholar]
  40. 2000 El, la, lo como antecedente de relativo en español. Estudios de morfosintaxis histórica del españoled. byRafael Cano Aguilar & M.ª Teresa Echenique, 388–401. Madrid: Gredos.
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Lenneberg, Eric H.
    1967 Biological Foundations of Language. New York: Wiley. 10.1080/21548331.1967.11707799
     https://doi.org/10.1080/21548331.1967.11707799 [Google Scholar]
  42. Litvinova, Tatiana & Pavel Seredin
    2018 Assessing the Level of Stability of Idiolectal Features Across Modes, Topics and Time of Text Production. Proceedings of the 23rd Conference of FRUCT Associationed. bySergey Balandin, 223–230. Helsinky: FRUCT Oy. 10.23919/FRUCT.2018.8588092
     https://doi.org/10.23919/FRUCT.2018.8588092 [Google Scholar]
  43. Lope Blanch, Juan Manuel
    1997 Sobre la forma plural quienes. Anuario de Letras351:283–291.
     [Google Scholar]
  44. MacKenzie, Laurel
    2020 Perturbing the Community Grammar: Individual Differences and Community-Level Constraints on Sociolinguistic Variation. Glossa4:1.1–23.
     [Google Scholar]
  45. Maclagan, Margaret, Elisabeth Gordon & Gillian Lewis
    1999 Women and Sound Change: Conservative and Innovative Behaviour by the Same Speakers. Language Variation and Change111:19–41. 10.1017/S0954394599111025
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394599111025 [Google Scholar]
  46. Meisel, Jurgen, Martin Elsig & Esther Rinke
    2013 Language Acquisition and Change: A Morphosyntactic Perspective. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  47. Mollin, Sandra
    2009 ‘I Entirely Understand’ is a Blairism: The Methodology of Identifying Idiolectal Collocations. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics14:2.367–392. 10.1075/ijcl.14.3.04mol
     https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.14.3.04mol [Google Scholar]
  48. Nahkola, Kari & Marja Saanilahti
    2004 Mapping Language Changes in Real Time: A Panel Study on Finnish. Language Variation and Change161.75–92. 10.1017/S0954394504162017
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394504162017 [Google Scholar]
  49. Nevalainen, Tertu & Helena Raumolin-Brunberg
    2017 Historical Sociolinguistics: Language Change in Tudor and Stuart England. 3rd ed.New York: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  50. Nevalainen, Tertu, Helena Raumolin-Brunberg & Heikki Mannila
    2011 The Diffusion of Language Change in Real Time: Progressive and Conservative Individuals and the Time Depth of Change. Language Variation and Change23:1.1–43. 10.1017/S0954394510000207
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394510000207 [Google Scholar]
  51. Oesterreicher, Wulf
    2004 Textos entre inmediatez y distancia comunicativas: El problema de lo hablado escrito en el Siglo de Oro. Historia de la lengua españolaed. byRafael Cano Aguilar, 729–769. Barcelona: Ariel.
     [Google Scholar]
  52. Paiva, Maria da Conceição, Eugênia Duarte & Gregory Guy
    2021 Alignment of Individuals with Community Trends: Subjects from the Portuguese. Language Variation and Language Change Across the Lifespan: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives from Panel Studiesed by. Karen V. Beaman & Isabelle Buchstaller, 56–76. New York: Routledge. 10.4324/9780429030314‑2
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429030314-2 [Google Scholar]
  53. Petré, Peter & Freek Van de Velde
    2018 The Real-Time Dynamics of the Individual and the Community in Grammaticalization. Language94:4.867–901. 10.1353/lan.2018.0056
     https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2018.0056 [Google Scholar]
  54. Petré, Peter & Lynn Anthonissen
    2020 Individuality in Complex Systems: A Constructionist Approach. Cognitive Linguistics31:2.185–212. 10.1515/cog‑2019‑0033
     https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2019-0033 [Google Scholar]
  55. Raumolin-Brunberg, Helena
    2005 Language Change in Adulthood: Historical Letters as Evidence. European Journal of English Studies9:1.37–51. 10.1080/13825570500068125
     https://doi.org/10.1080/13825570500068125 [Google Scholar]
  56. 2009 Lifespan Changes in the Language of Three Early Modern Gentlemen. The Language of Daily Life in England (1450–1800)ed by. Minna Nevala, Arja Nurmi & Minna Palander-Collin, 165–196. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/pbns.183.10rau
     https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.183.10rau [Google Scholar]
  57. Rickford, John R.
    2021 Stylistic Variation in Panel Studies of Language Change: Challenge and Opportunity. Language Variation and Language Change Across the Lifespan: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives from Panel Studiesed. byKaren V. Beaman & Isabelle Buchstaller, 78–99. New York: Routledge. 10.4324/9780429030314‑3
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429030314-3 [Google Scholar]
  58. Sankoff, Gillian
    2006 Age: Apparent Time and Real Time. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguisticsed by. Keith Brown, 110–116. 2nd ed.Elsevier Science Ltd.: Amsterdam. 10.1016/B0‑08‑044854‑2/01479‑6
     https://doi.org/10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/01479-6 [Google Scholar]
  59. 2013 Longitudinal Studies. Oxford Handbook of Sociolinguisticsed by. Robert Bayley, Richard Cameron & Ceil Lucas, 261–279. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199744084.013.0013
     https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199744084.013.0013 [Google Scholar]
  60. 2018 Language Change Across the Lifespan. Annual Review of Linguistics41:297–316. 10.1146/annurev‑linguistics‑011817‑045438
     https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-011817-045438 [Google Scholar]
  61. Sankoff, Gillian & Hélène Blondeau
    2007 Language Change Across the Lifespan: /r/ in Montreal French. Language83:3.560–588. 10.1353/lan.2007.0106
     https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2007.0106 [Google Scholar]
  62. Schneider, Edgar
    2013 Investigating Variation and Change in Written Documents. The Handbook of Language Variation and Changeed. byJack Chambers & Natalie Schilling, 57–81. Malden, MA: Wiley/Blackwell. 10.1002/9781118335598.ch3
     https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118335598.ch3 [Google Scholar]
  63. Serradilla, Ana María
    1997 El régimen de los verbos de entendimiento y lengua en español medieval. Madrid: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
     [Google Scholar]
  64. Sharma, Devyani, Joan Bresnan & Ashwini Deo
    (2008) Variation and Change in the Individual: Evidence from the Survey of English Dialects. Language in Flux: Dialogue Coordination, Language Variation, Change and Evolutioned. byR. Cooper & R. Kempson, 265–321. London: College Publications.
     [Google Scholar]
  65. Stein, Dieter
    1987 At the Crossroads of Philology, Linguistics and Semiotics: Notes on the Replacement of th by s in Third Person Singular in English. English Studies51:406–431. 10.1080/00138388708598531
     https://doi.org/10.1080/00138388708598531 [Google Scholar]
  66. Sundgren, Eva
    2009 The Varying Influence of Social and Linguistic Factors on Language Stability and Change: The Case of Eskilstuna. Language Variation and Change211:97–133. 10.1017/S0954394509000040
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394509000040 [Google Scholar]
  67. Tagliamonte, Sali A. & Alexandra D’Arcy
    2007 Frequency and Variation in the Community Grammar: Tracking a New Change Through the Generations. Language Variation and Change191:199–217. 10.1017/S095439450707007X
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S095439450707007X [Google Scholar]
  68. Wagner, Suzanne E.
    2008 Linguistic Change and Stabilization in the Transition from Adolescence to Adulthood. Doctoral Thesis: University of Pennsylvania.
     [Google Scholar]
  69. Águeda, Mercedes & Xavier de Salas
    1982 Cartas de Goya a Martín Zapater. Madrid: Editorial Turner.
     [Google Scholar]
  70. Escartí, Vicent Josep
    2007 El Diario (1700–1715) de Josep Vicent Ortí i Major. Estudi i edició. València: Bancaixa.
     [Google Scholar]
  71. Fernández Arrillaga, Inmaculada
    2002 Memoria de un exilio: diario de la expulsión de los Jesuitas de los dominios del rey de España (1767–1768). Alicante: Universidad de Alicante.
     [Google Scholar]
  72. 2010 Diario de 1808: El año de la Conspiración. Alicante: Universidad de Alicante, Servicio de Publicaciones.
     [Google Scholar]
  73. Fernández Arrillaga, Inmaculada & Carlos A. Martínez Tornero
    2015 Diario de 1814 y 1815: el final del destierro y la restauración de la Compañía de Jesús. Universidad Pontificia Comillas: Universitat d´Alacant.
     [Google Scholar]
  74. Filgueira Valverde, Xosé
    1995 Epistolario do P. Sarmiento. Santiago de Compostela: Consello da Cultura.
     [Google Scholar]
  75. Gimeno Pujol, María
    2010 El epistolario de José Nicolás de Azara (1730–1804). Madrid: Castalia.
     [Google Scholar]
  76. Herrera Navarro, Jerónimo
    (ed.) 2004 Rodríguez Campomanes, Pedro. EpistolarioMadrid: Fundacion Universitaria Española.
     [Google Scholar]
  77. Juretschke, Hans
    1951 “Epistolario de Lista y sus amigos”, enVida, obra y pensamiento de Alberto Lista. Madrid: CSIC.
     [Google Scholar]
  78. Kessell, John L.
    1989 Remote Beyond Compare: Letters of Don Diego de Vargas to His Family from New Spain and Mexico, 1675–1706. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico.
     [Google Scholar]
  79. Mas, Pasqual & Javier Vellón
    2017 Juan Basilio de Castellví y Coloma, Conde de Cervellón. Poesía y epistolario. València: Publicaciones de la Universitat de València.
     [Google Scholar]
  80. Mestre, Antonio
    1991–2008 Epistolario de Gregorio Mayans y Sicar. Valencia: Biblioteca Digital Valenciana.
     [Google Scholar]
  81. Remondo, Jesús Palacios
    1996 Epistolario 1777 a 1821 de Juan José y Fausto Delhuyar en el 200 aniversario de la muerte de Juan José, Logroño: Consejería de Educación, Cultura, Juventud y Deportes.
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/jhl.22059.bla
Loading
Individual variation and frequency change in Early Modern Spanish
Journal of Historical Linguistics 15, 1 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.22059.bla
/content/journals/10.1075/jhl.22059.bla
/content/journals/10.1075/jhl.22059.bla
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): Early Modern Spanish; epistolary corpus; historical sociolinguistics; idiolectal variation; language variation and change; longitudinal analysis

Most Cited

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error