Abstract Summary
This paper explores how randomness is to be defined. It then relates the relationship of intra-individual linguistic variation to the recognizability of the connections between variables, to cross-varietal influence and to acquisitional trajectories. It asks whether, in the light of these factors, intra-individual variation can be treated as straightforwardly random.
Abstract :
The random and the non-random in intra-individual L2 variation
When intra-individual variation in language use crops up in discussion it tends to be seen as a collection of random “blips” without much significance. The necessary recognizability of the relation of variants to each other has, however, been (usually tacitly) acknowledged; intra-individual variation has often been attributed to the (unstable) influence across different varieties of the language in question (and, in L2 variation, also across languages); in addition such variation has been seen as an ineluctable concomitant of the way in which the acquisition of given phonological patterns, grammatical structures, semantic features, etc develops. None of these commentaries in fact seems to have much to do with randomness; all seem to relate to identifiable complexes of correlation.
The present paper begins by exploring how the concept of randomness is to be understood and defined. It goes on to explore the relationship of intra-individual linguistic variation to the recognizability of the connections between variables, to cross-varietal influence and to acquisitional trajectories. It probes the question of whether, in the light of the putatively explanatory factors for intra-individual variation considered, much room remains for its treatment of as straightforwardly random.
