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Syntactic Variability in Spoken English Discourse 

through Age Dimensions

Karen Velyan
Yerevan State Linguistic University 

A s is widely known, English is socially and functionally differentiated, which isparticularly true of the spoken variety of English. Social heterogeneity is bound
to be reflected in language heterogeneity, especially in the syntactic patterns that native
speakers use in conversational discourse.

It has often been claimed that speech forms have a range of associations, if not direct
relations, with social categories, such as socio-economic class, gender, and age, which
are considered to be social variables.

The latter may have reflections in linguistic variables, which then become socio-lin-
guistic variables. It should be mentioned that both social and linguistic variables have
different variants, that is why they are called variables. The correlation of linguistic vari-
ables with social variables such as social class and gender has in fact been the major
focus of sociolinguistic study. Actually, it is these social variables that explain differen-
tiation in language. Many linguists believe that “gender may in fact, be more powerful
underlying cause for the social differentiation of language than socioeconomic status”
(O’Grady, Dobrovolsky, Aronoff 1997:512). “A more viable approach is one that com-
bines gender and other categories like social class” (Mesthrie et al. 2009:102). 

Still, the correlation of linguistic variables with age as a social variable has not been
paid due attention. And this is highly relevant to the correlation of syntactical variables
with different age groups. As the American linguist Jeane Herndon puts it, “…individu-
als differ in the ways that they use their language from one period of their lives to anoth-
er” (Herndon 1970:112). The correlation of syntactic features with age as a social vari-
able is emphasized by Peter Trudgill as well: “The diffusion of a syntactic feature
through a society may be halted by a social barrier such as socialclass, age, race, religion”
(Trudgil 2000:24). Native speakers are believed to possess different range of vocabulary
and syntactical structures in different time periods of their lives. Also, as time goes by,
people are bound to interact in different social situations at different stages of their lives,
which can ultimately result in picking up and acquiring new syntactical features of phras-
ing. Still, syntactic heterogeneity as related to different age groups has not been thorough-
ly studied.The study of the use of syntactic patterns through age dimensions can bring
about some peculiarities of linguistic behavior in the spoken variety of English. 

In this article, we will test the hypothesis that syntax of a native speaker is liable to
change at different stages of his/her life. Wewillanalyze the syntactical features of native
speakers of English belonging to two different age categories. One age category in our
analysis ranges from 20 to 26, and the other - from 35 to 50. 

The material for the analysis is based on the face-to-face interviews with native
speakers – both males and females.The interviews were first tape-recorded and then
stenographed.  To ensure communicative equality, all the informants were asked the same

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questions. The interviews were held in informal settings. The informants were randomly
chosen. As young speakers, we chose BA and MA students with different regional back-
grounds. The informants of the second age group were university professors with differ-
ent regional backgrounds, mostly ESL instructors. In the analysis, the factor of gender
was taken into consideration, too. 

The primary focus of the analysis was on such syntactic variables as types of com-
posite sentences and the conjunctions used in simple and composite sentences.

The main objective of the analysis was to disclose the different proportions in the use
of the sociolinguistic variables mentioned above and show the tendency and the statisti-
cal differential features rather than exclusive differential features in their use.  This being
the case, the analysis carries more quantitative rather than qualitative character.As a
result of our analysis, we came to the following findings.
1. One of the most striking characteristics in spoken English discourse of young speak-

ers, as our records data indicate, is the frequent use of the conjunction and in the
front- and especially mid-sentential positions of the sentence, which can be illus-
trated by the following piece of an interview with a 20-year old undergraduate stu-
dent:

K.V.:Why did you choose up  music?
R.M.: It all started when I was 12 years old.   
K.V.: And…
R.M.:Andthere was this party that I went to, and we were playing

“truth and day”. We were sitting around in a circle. I said “truth”, and
they said: “You said truth six times, and there is nothing interesting at all”.
And so I said: “Ok. Day”, and so they said: “Go play the piano”. And so
I did, and I loved it. And I said: “I wanna do this for the rest of my life”.
And I went to study it at UT. 

The same syntactic feature is observed in the discourse of middle-aged speakers,
since here again we notice the highest frequency of the use of the conjunction and.
Moreover, we can state that the frequency of the use of the conjunction and in the dis-
course of this age group is even higher, almost twice as high.  Also, male speakers tend
to use it with a higher frequency than do female speakers, which is not the case with
younger speakers. 

In terms of frequency of usage, next comes the conjunction but in the front position
of simple declarative and in compound sentences. Our data indicate that this conjunction
has equal frequency of use on the part of male and female speakers among young speak-
ers, which testifies to gender-related linguistic universal. This is not the fact in case of
adult speakers. Thus, female speakers display significantly higher frequency of use of
this conjunction. In terms of age-related linguistic differences, we can conclude that the
conjunction but has a higher degree of use in the talk of young speakers than in the talk
of middle-aged speakers. Here are two interviews with young (1) and middle-aged (2)
speakers:

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1. K.V.: So, Cristine, would you please tell me what’s your best,
..favorite place in the United States or in Texas or in Austin, wherever?

Cristie:Am, my favorite place in the United States is Texas. Am…I was…
K.V.: Mine too.
Christine: Yes, I was born here, raised all but two years, I just love it

...because it has everything, has topographically, mountains, ocean and
praire everything like that.  but it also has ..different cultures. Am…You
can go to any different city. My favorite place, my favorite city in the
United State is Charlestown, South Carolina, so if we could just transplant
it to Texas, it would be perfect

K.V.: OK And…how do you find study… at UT , or how do you find
your life at UT? 

Cristine.Am…I would love… UT, I … I wasn’t happy about going here
in the first place, because I wanted to go to a different school, but didn’t
get in, and now… I can’t imagine going to anywhere else. I mean I don’t
even know why the heck I wanted to leave Texas.  Am…Everybody always
told me that UT was so big  that you are just a number, but I don’t feel that
way at all, and are for the most really eager to help you with prep sessions
and things like that, so it is not as big as you would think it to be it the
largest university in the country.

2. K.V: Terry, will you please tell me why and how you chose your
major. A couple of words about it. 

Terry: Aha. It’s very interesting (laughing). I don’t know… I just fell
into that, I guess. I was working... Well, I first graduated with my
Bachelor’s degree. I worked for a number of years and was really bored
with what I was doing. So I decided to go back to graduate school. And my
undergraduate degree was in English literature. And so I actually applied
for an English degree for a Master’s. But within that program they hap-
pened to have an ESL specialization. So I started taking classes in linguis-
tics. And doing some ESL work, like tutoring and things like that, I really
enjoyed it. Am… so I ended up with specialization in my master’s program
in ESL.And then, when I started doing my PhD work, I switched to linguis-
tics. So the first semester I was here at UT, I was actually in linguistics
department. And then I decided it’s too formal for me ..., so I transferred to
education. And here I am (laughing).

Another feature that stands out in the conversational discourse of young American
speakers is the relative frequency of attributive clauses.  From cross-gender-linguistic
perspective, attributive non-restrictive continuative clauses seem to be more characteris-
ticof male speakers, while attributive non-restrictive clauses, including descriptive ones,
are more characteristic of female speakers. Here is a piece of the interview with a
20-year female student:

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K.V.: Ok. In this conjunction, how do you find the academic life at UT?
Jenifer: At UT? I’ve been enjoying it very much. I sort of was of type

that would … a…got a class and drop it. Within the first day, if I didn’t
think it was going be warnings, so I always am… when I around the class
till I found a professor that was very expert and the field, and he was
enjoyable teacher. And... I liked discussions in classes. I think that’s good,
too. I was fortunate I had a plantiniun studio … my major classes room
really small, so really good to know the professors and the students.

In the talk of adult speakers, this kind of clauses, especially attributive restrictive
clauses, were more frequently met. As opposed to the young age group, in this age group
it is female speakers that use attributive clauses a lot more than do male speakers. As far
as attributive non- restrictive clauses are  concerned, they display tendency to be used far
oftener than they are used in the talk of young female speakers. Here is a piece of the
interview with a 52-year-old ESL professor:

K.V: Ok. So, sticking to foreign language education, would you please
tell me why and how you ended up taking up this major, foreign language
education? 

Pat:  Ok. Well, of course, as you can see by the fact that I chose edu-
cation and English and Spanish, I was already linked to foreign language
education as a… as a young person, and just loved ... the other language,
which  in my case was Spanish, and liked the culture of the language that
I deal with. Am..And so I continued with that for a while. But am…one
time, when I was fairly young, while I was not teaching in school, but was
at home with my children, I was asked to do some voluntary work for a an
organization at Peru University called “Wives of the World”, which was
like our community programs here at UT serving the families of the
graduate students at UT. And as a voluntary I started out baby-sitting for
them while they had their English. I continue to love it, because here ... in
this job ... I was feeling like ... I am teaching something, I am giving some-
thing, but I am learning more from the students than they are learning from
me. 

Another syntactical feature that stands out in the conversational discourse of
American students is the relative frequency of adverbial clauses of reason introduced by
the conjunction  because. It is very typical of American students to begin a sentence with
the conjunction “because”, sometimes abbreviating it to “cause”. It has been our obser-
vation that American female speakers tend to use it more frequently than male speakers-
do. Here is another piece of the interview with the 20-year-old female student:

K.V.: Jennifer, would you please tell me how you  ended up taking arts,
which has become  your ... major for the last three years?

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Jennifer:  Well, basically, am...I’ve always ...well to drive  in commu-
nicating through that. And… I ... am.. I was interested in al...am… acade-
mia, but I liked art . best, because it kind of would give you  own spin on
what you are learning. And … I am also interested in studying am… I am
actually thinking about… The reason I am  stopping at UT, Austin is I am
going to different schools to continue in arts but to actually study art therapy.  

K.V.: So, art therapy is supposed to be your ..sub major.
Jeniffer: Yeah, I… I wanted to go to graduate art therapy at high

school, so I want to add some psychology in to my classes. Cause I found
out I was doing art am… For most I did was therapially needed it. And
favorite experience   is to work with students privately and kind of help
them, kindofunvalue their talents and their feelings through the art. 

The same kind of tendency is observed in the discourse of adult speakers. However,
the cases with the front position of the conjunction because turn out to be fewer. This last
factor speaks in favor of the fact that the syntax of native speakers gets more standardized
as they get maturity.

K.V.: Susan, what’s your favorite place in the United States or in
Texas? Otherwise put, where would you like to live if given a chance? 

Susan Kerr: Well, Texas is an interesting state. I need to talk about the
big picture of Texas first, because … we’re urban state. We, fortunately, we
have a number of interesting cities. And Texans characterize their cities in
different ways. They say that Houston and Dallas are the wallet of Texas,
the banking center. Austin is supposed to be the branch of Texas, cause this
is where the big university and the government is. And San Antonio is sup-
posed to be the soul of Texas. That’s where the artists are. 

Of course, our descriptive analysis was not aiming at giving a full picture of conver-
sational syntax of American speakers of different age categories. Our goal was to point
out some of the key syntactical features in the talk of native speakers in the United States,
which have turned out to be the frequent usage of the conjunction and, but, attributive
clauses, adverbial clauses with because. Thus, as we see syntax functions differently in
different periods of life, which is the valid indicator socio-linguistic variability in differ-
ent age groups.

References:

1. Herndon, J. (1970) A Survey of Modern Grammars. New York: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston, Inc.

2. Trudgill, P. (2000) Sociolinguistics. An Introduction to Language and Society. USA:
Penguin Books.

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3. Mesthrie, R.; Swann, J.; Deumert, A.; Leap, W.L. (2009) Introducing
Sociolinguistics. Second Edition. Edinburgh: EUP.

4. O’Grady, W.; Dobrovolsky, M.; Aronoff, M. (1997) Contemporary Linguistics.
AnIntroduction. Third Edition. New York: St. Martin’s Press. 

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