Talk:William Labov

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[edit] Weasel words?

"He is widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics..." 86.132.138.57 03:56, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

A Google search will confirm that he is "widely" regarded as the founder of sociolinguistics; see e.g. [1] (under Nov 08, 2006); [2] (bottom of page); [3]; [4] (under 2.1); [5] (in sidebar). But I take your point. How would you recommend rewriting it? AJD 13:07, 14 June 2007 (UTC)
"Influential reliable source X has described him as the founder of sociolinguistics.<ref>Reference to influential reliable source</ref>". —Angr 15:21, 14 June 2007 (UTC)
Thing is, I'm not sure what counts as an "influential reliable source" on the question of whether Labov is the founder of sociolinguistics. In a case like this, it seems to me more telling that a wide variety of unrelated sources have given him that description that than any one particular "influential" source does. What kind of source would you recommend looking for? AJD 16:50, 14 June 2007 (UTC)
Well, "influential" is debatable, but certainly a reliable source from someone who actually knows something about linguistics (i.e. not a newspaper reporter) and who is neither Labov himself nor one of his students. One example could be A Student's Dictionary of Language and Linguistics by the late R. L. Trask (a well known syntactician of Basque), where it is said that Labov is "an enormously original and influential figure who has created much of the methodology of the discipline [of sociolinguistics]". You could also look in books on the history of linguistics as well as sociolinguistics textbooks, but these tend to follow the principle of show, don't tell in that they show his importance by constantly referring to him and discussing his findings rather than saying in so many words "if it weren't for him, sociolinguistics as we know it probably wouldn't exist" (even though they all know that's true). —Angr 19:13, 14 June 2007 (UTC)
That's not a bad quote right there; could you put into the article with citation? I've also found something from The Handbook of Language Variation and Change that I can add. AJD 21:52, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] pronunciation

I've always heard this rhyme with above. kwami 02:11, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

According to the interview at [6], he pronounces it to rhyme with "clove". —Angr 04:24, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
Okay. I wonder how the l'above pronunciation got started. kwami 05:48, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
I think you are misinterpreting the interview. The interviewer gives Labov two pronunciations to choose from. One of the pronunciations is given as [ləbɑv]. If the other one (given as [ləbov]) is supposed to be [ləˈboʊv], then the interviewer is asking Labov, who is usually pronounced [ləˈbʌv], whether he pronounces his last name [ləˈboʊv] or [ləˈbɑːv]. How likely is that? Timeineurope 09:44, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
Who says Labov is "usually" pronounced /ləˈbʌv/? Indeed, that particular mispronunciation must be comparatively rare, if Matt Gordon didn't even give it as an option. In any event, /ləˈboʊv/ is the correct pronunciation. AJD 13:44, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
Still, I agree it would have been less leading if the interviewer had simply asked, "How do you pronounce your last name?" For a long time, before I heard anyone pronounce it, I thought it was /ˈleɪˌbɑf/. —Angr 16:04, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
For the record, AJD and Angr are the same person. Timeineurope 16:24, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
Excuse me? AJD 18:31, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
At 13:41, 23 October (UTC), AJD reverted me here at William Labov with the edit summary "rv to correct pronunciation". 36 minutes later, Angr reverted me at Lafayette, Colorado with the exact same edit summary "rv to correct pronunciation". I'm sure people can draw their own conclusions. Timeineurope 12:19, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
Yes, namely that when you start adding mispronunciations in one place, people look to see where else you've done it. They don't have to be the same people. —Angr 16:30, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
Matt Gordon's colleagues pronounce it /ləˈbʌv/, at least a couple years ago. Maybe he's tried correcting them. kwami 17:38, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Pronunciation of name

Although no further citation for the pronunciation of his name is necessary than the one given, it is confirmed by the audio interview at [7], where the reporter consistently pronounced the name [ləˈboʊv]. —Angr 16:54, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

For what it's worth, I did my dissertation under him, and I and pretty much everyone else who personally knows him pronounces it [ləˈboʊv] or [ləˈbov] (depending on whether we have monophthongal /o/ or not).DBowie (talk) 01:00, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
I am currently enrolled in one of his linguistics classes at the University of Pennsylvania, and on the first day of class he most certainly introduced himself as Bill [ləˈboʊv]. -User:Robearsn 20:08, 28 January 2008 (UTC)