Showing papers in "Journal of English Linguistics in 2006"
TL;DR: The authors explored the sociolinguistic history of a U.S. city and found that a set of linguistic features that were once not noticed at all, then used and heard primarily as markers of socioeconomic class, have come to be linked increasingly to place and "enregistered" as a dialect called "Pittsburghese".
Abstract: This article explores the sociolinguistic history of a U.S. city. On the basis of historical research, ethnography, discourse analysis, and sociolinguistic interviews, the authors describe how a set of linguistic features that were once not noticed at all, then used and heard primarily as markers of socioeconomic class, have come to be linked increasingly to place and “enregistered” as a dialect called “Pittsburghese.” To explain how this has come about, the authors draw on the semiotic concept of “orders of indexicality.” They suggest that social and geographical mobility during the latter half of the twentieth century has played a crucial role in the process. They model a particularistic approach to linguistic and ideological change that is sensitive not only to ideas about language that circulate in the media but also to the life experiences of particular speakers; and they show how an understanding of linguistic variation, language attitudes, and the stylized performance of dialect is enhanced by expl...
451 citations
TL;DR: The authors compared the use of canonical tag questions such as It's raining, isn't it? and It's not raining, is it? in British English and American English and found a higher use of facilitating tag questions involving interlocutors in conversation.
Abstract: This large-scale corpus study charts differences between British English and American English as regards the use of "canonical" tag questions such as It's raining, isn't it?, It's not raining, is it?, or It's raining, is it? Several thousand instances of question tags were extracted from the British National Corpus and the Longman Spoken American Corpus, yielding nine times as many tag questions in colloquial British English as in colloquial American English (but also important register differences in British English) Polarity types and operators in tags also differ in the two varieties Preliminary results concerning pragmatic functions point to a higher use of "facilitating" tags involving interlocutors in conversation in American English Speaker age is important in both varieties, with older speakers using more canonical tag questions than younger speakers
114 citations
TL;DR: This paper studied the use and nonuse of negation in English between 1400 and 1800 and concluded that negation with indefinites does not alter the basic typology of English verbal negation.
Abstract: This article is a contribution to the study of English vernacular universals, and its aims are twofold. Its empirical aim is to give a sociolinguistic account of the use and nonuse of negative concord, or multiple negation, from Late Middle to Late Modern English between 1400 and 1800. Its second aim is theory-driven: to consider the spread of nonassertive indefinites (negative polarity items) into negative contexts in terms of linguistic typology. In particular, the discussion will connect the generalization of nonassertive forms across interrogatives, conditionals, comparatives, and negatives in the history of English using the semantic map proposed by Haspelmath (1997). The article comes to the conclusion that while this negative polarity concord affects the choice of indefinites, negative versus nonassertive, which come under the scope of negation in standard and vernacular varieties of English, it does not alter the basic typology of English verbal negation with indefinites.
46 citations
TL;DR: This paper argued that linguistics is not a science, but that we are getting closer to it by using the language of everyday life, the language that children bring into the class and the language they use in their everyday life.
Abstract: EJ: How did you become interested in linguistic studies? WL: I used to be a chemist and I worked in industry. I was attracted by an area where you could begin to develop something close to scientific principles in relation to language. My own view is that linguistics is not a science but that we're getting closer to it. Very few social sciences have solved the relationship between theory and practice. Most people feel that this is a one-way process. A group of theorists think up an idea and then someone else tries to put it into practice. In education, this can lead to theories that never work because the language they are based on is so far from the reality of the language that people actually use. An approach to linguistics is gaining momentum that takes a different approach, which begins with the language of everyday life, the language that children bring into the class-
40 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the principles of evolutionary phonology are applied to a selection of sound changes and stable sound patterns in varieties of English, which are divided into two types: natural phonetically motivated internal changes and all others, classified as unnatural.
Abstract: Principles of Evolutionary Phonology are applied to a selection of sound changes and stable sound patterns in varieties of English. These are divided into two types: natural phonetically motivated internal changes and all others, which are classified as unnatural. While natural phonetically motivated sound change may be inhibited by external forces, certain phonotactic patterns show notable stability in English and are only eliminated under particular types of contact with languages lacking the same patterns. Within the evolutionary model, this stability is expected since natural sound changes involving wholesale elimination of these patterns are not known.
34 citations
TL;DR: It is asserted that it is indeed possible, practical, and desirable for us to apply common methods to the authors' common problems, and specific recommendations are proposed.
Abstract: Compilers of corpora that document regional and social languages and varieties of languages have different needs and goals, and yet we also face common problems, and we should have an interest in collaboration. In this paper, we set forth our intention to begin such a collaboration. We begin by exploring the parameters of our various corpora. We then explore issues of access and analysis, whether public or private, whether for general audiences or for specialists. Finally, we assert that it is indeed possible, practical, and desirable for us to apply common methods to our common problems, and we propose specific recommendations.
23 citations
TL;DR: This paper used a corpus-based approach to study standard English and found systematic variation in terms of regional or stylistic preferences and ongoing change in the standard English language, which is not a monolithic entity.
Abstract: Standard English is not a monolithic entity but shows systematic variation in terms of regional or stylistic preferences and ongoing change. The corpus-based approach has been used to study these p...
22 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the Mirror of Lights, an alchemical text that survives in multiple copies from the 15th and 16th centuries, is used as a source for morpho-syntactic studies.
Abstract: This article explores the problematic issue of using editions as sources for studies of English historical morpho-syntax. It presents a methodological case study of the variation between he and it in reference to inanimate objects (such as mercury) in Mirror of Lights, an alchemical text that survives in multiple copies from the 15th and 16th centuries. The study reveals that the manuscript versions differ greatly in how they employ he and it, underscoring that linguistic studies based on one version would provide very different results from those using another version as the source. The article argues that it is crucial that such manuscript variation is taken into consideration in morpho-syntactic studies. It suggests that an electronic edition that incorporates all copies of the text would make the full variation available to linguists, while a traditional critical edition would highlight the pattern of one version but obscure or ignore the patterns of other manuscripts. The article also discusses the more general problem of including a multiversion text such as the Mirror of Lights into a corpus, and suggests some possible solutions.
18 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined the transitive into -ing pattern in current English with seven verbs of manner-neutral causation involving object control and argued that the usage of transitive-into-ing complements is innovative.
Abstract: This article examines the transitive into -ing pattern in current English with seven verbs of manner-neutral causation involving object control. It is argued that the usage is innovative. While the to infinitive pattern is still much more common, the article substantiates the existence of the transitive into -ing pattern with these verbs. Four of the seven verbs afford a noteworthy number of tokens in the material, and it is argued that with manner-neutral matrix verbs, the pattern is more frequent in British English than in American English at this time. The emergence of the pattern with such verbs is viewed as yet another manifestation of the more general spread of -ing complements at the expense of to infinitive complements. It is also argued that the distinctive semantic flavor of the transitive into -ing pattern is also a factor aiding in its emergence.
14 citations
TL;DR: This article examined tense variation in the narrative complicating action clauses embedded in fifty-six narratives of personal experience recounted by a small group of preadolescents recorded in Greater London in the southeast of England.
Abstract: Most of the previous research on variation in tense-aspect morphology in narrative has focused on the discourse functions of the alternation between the simple past and the conversational historical present (CHP). However, it is not clear what discourse functions may be implicated in narrative by switches between the simple past and other tense-aspect categories and whether there are differences between contemporary vernacular varieties of English in this regard. This article addresses these issues by examining tense variation in the narrative complicating action clauses embedded in fifty-six narratives of personal experience recounted by a small group of preadolescents recorded in Greater London in the southeast of England. Using a variationist methodology incorporating distributional and multivariate analyses of tense variation in a circumscribed narrative subcomponent, the article examines switches between the simple past, the CHP, and the present perfect. Building on the foundational research conducte...
14 citations
TL;DR: This article showed that individuals in groups with tight-knit and dense social networks display considerable variation, despite the fact that they share a set of common social characteristics, and examined the role of individual variation and sought to provide explanations for individuation.
Abstract: This article shows that individuals in groups with tight-knit and dense social networks display considerable variation, despite the fact that they share a set of common social characteristics. Drawing on case studies from Tristan da Cunha English, spoken on a South Atlantic island, interindividual variation is traced in two members of the same family, who have identical social backgrounds and are in frequent face-to-face contact with each other. Results from a quantitative analysis of four selected variables and the evaluation of a perceptual dialectology study are interpreted in terms of their relevance for accommodation theory, social network theory, and mobility-related effects on language change. The study thus examines the role of individual variation and seeks to provide explanations for individuation (i.e., unexpected patterns of language usage on a micro level in single speakers), outlining its general relevance for sociolinguistic theory.
TL;DR: The BLUR corpus as discussed by the authors, an electronic corpus of Blues lyrics from the early twentieth century, is a valuable resource for the study of syntactic phenomena in Earlier African American English and investigates the properties and origins of a peculiar construction found in it.
Abstract: This article introduces BLUR, an electronic corpus of Blues lyrics from the early twentieth century, as a valuable resource for the study of syntactic phenomena in Earlier African American English and investigates the properties and origins of a peculiar construction found in it The design of the BLUR corpus is presented, and methodological consequences resulting from the nature of the texts are discussed Subsequently, a few noteworthy syntactic structures documented in it are briefly illustrated The most challenging of these, a sequence of inchoative verbs (notably begin, start, or commence), the particle to, and a verbal –ing form, as in begin to falling, is then analyzed in some detail, considering syntactic constraints and historical documentation in potentially related varieties, represented by electronic corpora and other sources from Late Middle English to present-day dialects Based on these findings, a hypothesis on the likely origins and diffusion of this construction is developed
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a synthesis of Early Modern English grammarians' views on a large number of morphological and syntactic features, but the book falls short of being an evaluation of the grammars' "descriptive adequacy".
Abstract: that may have served as a point of comparison. In this and similar cases, Dons simply catalogues the statements of the grammars. This inconsistency leaves the discussion lopsided, and many of the features that are discussed do not seem to contribute to the general aim of evaluating the “descriptive adequacy” of the descriptions, since there are no points of comparison. In conclusion, I can recommend this book as a useful synthesis of Early Modern English grammarians’ views on a large number of morphological and syntactic features. However, the book falls short of being an evaluation of the grammars’ “descriptive adequacy,” mainly because of the uncertainty of how applicable the concept is to Early Modern grammars and how such “adequacy” (if applicable) should be evaluated.
TL;DR: Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. as discussed by the authors, and Myers-Scotton, Carol. 2002. In Handbook of Bilingualism, Psycholinguistic Approaches, edited by Judith Kroll and Annette De Groot, 326-48.
Abstract: Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. 2002. Language Contact in Amazonia. New York: Oxford University Press. Jenkins, Rebecca Sue. 2002. Language Contact and Composite Structures in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. PhD diss., University of South Carolina, Columbia. Myers-Scotton, Carol. 2002. Contact Linguistics, Bilingual Encounters and Grammatical Outcomes. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ———. 2005. Supporting a Differential Access Hypothesis: Codeswitching and Other Contact Data. In Handbook of Bilingualism, Psycholinguistic Approaches, edited by Judith Kroll and Annette De Groot, 326-48. New York: Oxford University Press. Book Reviews 355