The role of individuals in language change: idiolectal distributions in the private correspondence of six contemporary nineteenth-century personalities

Abstract

This article analyses the idiolectal distributions of two syntactic variables subjected to different processes of linguistic change in a sample of six contemporary personalities from the second half of the 19th century. Using a discourse tradition close to the pole of communicative immediacy, such as private correspondence, and comparing it with the community distributions obtained in previous variationist research on the same materials, the results of the study show the existence of different individual profiles and their link with the phases of change in which each variable is situated, as well as the normative pressures associated with this fact. As expected, refractory individuals dominate in the still-emerging changes, such as the diffusion of the variant en + art + que in oblique relative clauses to the detriment of the traditional one without the article (en que). However, a much more progressive change, such as the replacement of the traditional periphrasis haber de + infinitive in deontic contexts by tener que + infinitive, favours in-between profiles  - those who closely follow the communal distributions - or followers, whose uses significantly exceed these general averages. Nevertheless, the study reveals the existence of individuals who contradict these profiles. It also shows that writers do not always follow the majority distributions expected when they enter early adulthood; on the contrary, they may adapt to those that circulate in society later, during their maturity. Finally, the study shows that the type of change also affects the degree of stability or dynamism of idiolect distributions. Thus, stability predominates in the relative clauses, whereas, in verbal periphrases, there is more variability between different periods of the correspondence.