Language Variation and Change
Led by: Riho Grünthal (University of Helsinki) and Juhani Klemola (University of Tampere)

The goal of this branch of linguistic study is to shed light on linguistic diversity and to describe and model the sociolinguistic, textual and areal factors that affect choice between expressional variants. The effects that these factors have on the development of language as well as empirical and theoretical investigation of language internal change are focused upon here. Linguistic change occurs due to variation within a language or then because of contacts between languages, and very often one has to deal with the combined effect of both of these sources of change.

Diachronic investigation seeks to describe and systematize observed linguistic changes. On the one hand, we can investigate the development of diverse features of individual languages during a given period of time, either in the light of historical documents or through interlinguistic comparison, based on genetic or areal linguistics. Yet, on the other hand, one can search for parallels in contemporary languages and make inferences about the genetic relations between languages or their contacts during different periods. Areal linguistics study the effect of modern languages upon each other, Sprachbünde and tendencies shared by adjacent dialects of different languages. Contact linguistics, in turn, is closely connected to the study of bilingualism and, thereby, to sociolinguistic questions.

Research topics include areal varieties and local dialects, standard languages and their spread, sociolects, including differences between spoken and written language and various genres and their development. The approach provided by the program can be applied to the study of individual languages and their development, to multilingual and multidialectal areals, and the manifestation of variation and change in texts.

The program is mainly directed at empirical study of variation, which includes both qualitative and quantitative analysis. Possibilities offered by large digital corpora are utilized along with traditional data collection via fieldwork and interviews. Our research also tests the applicability and validity of modern linguistics’ methodologies in the field of diachronic study. Our themes of research are:

- Processes of language change
- Areal and social variation
- Text-based variation and the development of textual types
- Standard language and normativity
- Sprachbünde and areality

LANGUAGE CHANGE AS A PROCESS
Language changes have traditionally been treated as processes constrained by internal linguistic factors. According to this view, language contacts have been perceived as disturbing factors. Therefore, explaining language change requires new analytical ways of modelling contact, in which both internal and external factors are closely investigated. Studying language-internal processes requires a fundamental knowledge of sociolinguistic, textual and regional factors, since all variation-based analytical and explanatory models of language change rely on the idea of a combined effect of all factors. Another important insight is to be able to connect the latest language changes with historical ones. Hence, the concept of grammaticalization offers a productive starting point for analyses of language changes that span several hundred years.

A typological perspective is also important in studies of both language change and language contact. Such a perspective means dealing with tendencies of change amongst certain language types, i.e. typological drifts; they may affect one language only, be regional, or then more universal. Longstanding interconnected language changes may lead to changes in typology. The assumptions attached to typological cycles consisting of change tendencies require more study.

REGIONAL AND SOCIAL VARIATION
Research conducted in this topic area investigates both regional dialects and regional language variants, including social variation and social dialects. The aims of the research include descriptions of phonetic, lexical, and morpho-syntactic variation, as well as dialectal change and language internal and external factors that may promote or inhibit changes. Topics of interest also include the relationship between dialects and standardized languages, attitudes to dialect use, and description, explanation and (possibly) prediction of results of contacts between language variants. Synchronic research of modern dialects is geared towards spoken languages, and written documents are used in research concerned with past regional language variants. In the latter, special attention is paid to the emergence and divergence of new language forms from existing variants. It is written literary texts, along with surviving manuscript documents, which provide the grounds for this type of research. Areas of interest in social dialects include, for instance, the impact of urbanization and the language use of younger generations.

Sociolinguistic research has provided fruitful results on linguistic changes, and we have plenty of information on the correlations of linguistic change and social variation of education, gender, and age, for example. Historical sociolinguistic research aims at applying sociolinguistic models and methods to language history. Real time data are also needed in modeling diachronic change. Systematic attempts to model past stages of sociolinguistic reality in historical linguistics have, so far, been preliminary. Scholars of modern languages have access to social information regarding modern societies; for language historians, however, such data are provided by historians, particularly social and population historians.

Case studies provide the basis for creating models for more general diachronic research. Such models pay special attention to empirical problems and theoretical questions. A special challenge is to apply two different, and often contradictory, models to sociolinguistic research, viz. the traditional class-based model, whose roots lie in the socioeconomic position of the individuals, and then the social network approach. Theoretical goals within historical sociolinguistics include an examination of the relationship between societal changes and linguistic changes. Therefore, language historians provide feedback for modern sociolinguistic research and contribute to the critical debate regarding its success.

TEXTUAL VARIATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF TEXT TYPES
Textual variation can be approached by observing the appearance of specific stylistic features and textual strategies in texts classified according to language external factors. This classification can be based, for example, on register, genre, function and the target audience. Stylistic preferences reflect textual conventions, i.e. certain unwritten rules that act as communicative and pragmatic signals among the producers and the recipients of texts. Textual variation is shown in clusters of stylistic features that develop into more or less fixed textual conventions with temporal variability. Classification principles, which bring forth the dynamics with empirical studies, have lately gained increasing attention. Both text production and appropriation are now considered to be dynamic processes. Researchers in this field have adopted linguistic analysis, text linguistics and discourse analysis, as well as other pragmatic methods of analysis. Non-literary prose, especially instructive and scholarly writings, are of foremost interest, but, as far as the methods are concerned, there are points in common with the study of literature as well, above all with its new pragmalinguistic trends, linguistic stylistics and, for example, the long-term use of rhetorical devices in argumentative texts.

STANDARD LANGUAGE AND NORMATIVITY
Standard language can be described as a collectively accepted language form that does not produce negative reactions in the speech community. It is a loose norm based on social conventions. The standard language norm can also be described in a narrow sense, for instance in relation to language guidance, language teaching and sociolinguistic research. Standard language varies both situationally and socially. Variation itself represents change, as so-called apparent time research has shown. Grammars and dictionaries may already be partly outdated at the time of publication; therefore, there is a great need for research.

Computational corpora compiled from various languages provide a solid basis for the analysis of standard language variation. Such corpora contain both written and spoken language, and the largest corpora exceed hundreds of millions of words in size. Relations between world languages, nations’ official languages and minority languages continue to be a subject of heated debates. The dominant language is seen as a threat to the identity, or even existence, of the subordinate language. These threats are concrete and easily verifiable, as the fate of many minority languages shows.

LINGUISTIC AREAS AND AREALITY
Areal linguistics focus on geographical areas of language contact and form a special branch of linguistics, sometimes left outside the common theories of language contact. Thus, there are several issues to be addressed in defining the notion of linguistic area as well as in examining the processes of change occurring in such linguistic areas. In the so-called dialect federations, the dialects of neighbouring languages form their own linguistic area; to be able to observe such federations, fieldwork is often required. Fieldwork has a central role in all linguistic contact research. The so-called areal typology can also be discussed: neighbouring languages and dialects can realise a typological drift together without any of the languages or dialects being dominant. Areal questions are also closely connected to sociolinguistics. In multilingual and multicultural states, the influence of the prestige language is visible and may lead to swift cultural changes, e.g. with changes in educational policies. Under the pressure of the prestige language, minority languages may influence each other. Analysing such situations is especially fruitful in areas where genetically and typologically different languages meet. On the other hand, mutual contacts of genetically closely related languages have so far received little attention in the formation of general theories. In these situations, contact-induced change is very different to that previously considered.

Research on contact languages (pidgins, creoles, mixed languages) has not been carried out on a large scale in Finland. The contact languages are genuinely contact-based languages, formed out of the contact of two or more languages. Even in those languages that are not contact-based special contact varieties can be observed through the influence of an adstrate or a substrate language.