idiolect Linguistics.
(ˈɪdɪəʊlɛkt)
[f. idio- after dialect.]
The linguistic system of one person, differing in some details from that of all other speakers of the same dialect or language.
| 1948 B. Bloch in Language XXIV. 7 The totality of the possible utterances of one speaker at one time in using a language to interact with one other speaker is an idiolect. 1948 R. A. Hall Jr. in Studies in Linguistics VI. ii. 31 Language exists in individuals, as a set of habits which each individual possesses (an idiolect). 1953 C. E. Bazell Ling. Form 96 It must not be supposed that such [linguistic] systems are necessarily less determinate than for instance that of a single idiolect as recorded over a short space of time. 1953 J. B. Carroll Study of Lang. ii. 10 Indeed each member of a speech community may be said to possess his own idiolect, his own personal variety of the language system. 1953 Internat. Jrnl. Amer. Ling. XIX. ii. Suppl. 40 Hockett defined ‘idiolect’ as the individual's total repertory of speech habits over a short period of time. 1958 A. A. Hill Introd. Ling. Struct. ii. 13 The English which is described in the personal dialect of a single speaker or, to use the technical term, a single idiolect. 1964 M. A. K. Halliday et al. in J. A. Fishman Readings Sociol. of Lang. (1968) 158 A person's idiolect may be identified, through the lens of the various registers, by its grammatical and lexical characteristics. 1964 R. H. Robins Gen. Ling. ii. 51 The lower limit of dialect division comes down to the individual speaker, and for this limiting case of dialect the term idiolect (the speech habits of a single person) has been coined. 1970 W. Labov in Rep. 20th Round Table Meeting on Ling. & Lang. Stud. 89 So we are dealing not with the idiolect of the investigator, but the idiolect of one isolated boy whose position in the community is quite uncertain. |
Hence idioˈlectal a., of or pertaining to an idiolect; idioˈlectally adv.
| 1953 Internat. Jrnl. Amer. Ling. XIX. ii. Suppl. 37 Utterances are swiftly and with assurance identified despite idiolectal differences. 1958 Archivum Linguisticum X. ii. 146 Who..pronounces cow and bough with different diphthongs, unless idiolectally and idiosyncratically? 1965 Language XLI. 502 Idiolectal diversity is an inevitable result of the..productivity inherent in every single individual's linguistic habits. 1972 Ibid. XLVIII. 314 We believe these variations to be idiolectal rather than dialectal. |