Apparent Time vs. Real Time in Sociolinguistic Change

Introduction: Rethinking Language Change

"The moral of the story is that if we think we observe a change in progress from A to B, we need to provide evidence not just of the existence of B, but also of the prior existence of A" (Britain, 2008:1).

This is how Britain summarizes his overall findings from an investigation into the origins of a conservative conversational variant in 19th-century New Zealand English. It turns out that the MOUTH diphthong he was examining was not as prevalent in actual usage as had often been assumed. Yet the changes that did not come about did not arise in isolation, which is why they were interpreted as movement away from what others would consider a standardized language base (Coupland, 2010). Instead, the case served as an example of why it is important to develop a fuller, more detailed, and explicit knowledge of both the structure of the dialect and the demographics of those thought to be driving language change (Fagyal et al., 2010).

Britain's work is significant not so much for its specific findings but because it functions as its own harbinger of change — one seeking to conceptualize a hybrid of sociolinguistic innovation and social change, made faster and more visible by modern technologies capable of operating in both apparent- and real-time settings. These range from television to computer-mediated communication (Coupland, 2010). Whether examining language change patterns longitudinally (real time in a different sense) or synchronically (apparent time), the limitations of both perspectives stem from their failure to focus sufficient attention on a third dimension of understanding — what might be called a "C" element in Britain's formulation, perhaps standing for connectivity. Globalization and the computerization of language study make it possible to observe and experience, through graphic representations and simulations, the true dynamics of change as it happens — whether the setting is synchronic or diachronic (Auer and Schmidt, 2009). Modern technological capabilities transform the "period effects" of the past into simulations that open an entirely different arena for studying language change (Coupland, 2010:76).

The dramatic changes that technology offers are only now beginning to be factored into this area of study. Still, to understand the new dynamics made possible by computer-mediated communication (Gao, 2008), it remains useful to examine the real-time and apparent-time approaches, as these frameworks continue to shape much of the existing research. This paper does so while also incorporating the technological possibilities that are reshaping the field, arguing that the future of language change research may no longer need to depend so heavily on the past.