Variation in the use of ain't in an urban British English dialect

1981 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Cheshire
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
British English ◽  
Semantic Function ◽  
Theoretical Linguistics ◽  
Tag Questions ◽  
English Dialect ◽  
The Town

ABSTRACTAin't occurs as a sociolinguistic variable in working class speech in the town of Reading, England. The phonetic realizations of ain't in Reading English do not accord with traditional etymologies, depending more on the syntactic environment in which ain't occurs than on the standard English forms from which they are usually assumed to derive. The phonetic variants are also marked for semantic function in tag questions. Variation in the use of ain't can be explained as reflecting an ongoing linguistic change (sociolinguistics, dialectology, language change, theoretical linguistics).

scholarly journals Sex, covert prestige and linguistic change in the urban British English of Norwich

1972 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Trudgill
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Sex Differentiation ◽  
Sociolinguistic Variation ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
British English ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Evaluation Test ◽  
The Prestige

ABSTRACTWomen use linguistic forms associated with the prestige standard more frequently than men. One reason for this is that working-class speech has favourable connotations for male speakers. Favourable attitudes to non-standard speech are not normally expressed, however, and emerge only in inaccurate self-evaluation test responses. Patterns of sex differentiation deviating from the norm indicate that a linguistic change is taking place: standard forms are introduced by middle-class women, non-standard forms by working-class men. (Sociolinguistic variation; linguistic change; women's and men's speech; contextual styles; social class; British English.)

scholarly journals Comparative sociolinguistic perspectives on the rate of linguistic change

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Terttu Nevalainen ◽  
Tanja Säily ◽  
Turo Vartiainen
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Sociocultural Factors ◽  
Specific Topic ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Comparative Linguistics ◽  
Historical Sociolinguistics ◽  
Contact Linguistics ◽  
Historical Comparative ◽  
Social And Cultural Factors

AbstractThis issue of the Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics aims to contribute to our understanding of language change in real time by presenting a group of articles particularly focused on social and sociocultural factors underlying language diversification and change. By analysing data from a varied set of languages, including Greek, English, and the Finnic and Mongolic language families, and mainly focussing their investigation on the Middle Ages, the authors connect various social and cultural factors with the specific topic of the issue, the rate of linguistic change. The sociolinguistic themes addressed include community and population size, conflict and conquest, migration and mobility, bi- and multilingualism, diglossia and standardization. In this introduction, the field of comparative historical sociolinguistics is considered a cross-disciplinary enterprise with a sociolinguistic agenda at the crossroads of contact linguistics, historical comparative linguistics and linguistic typology.

Variation and third age: A sociolinguistic perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (s2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Schreier
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Change ◽  
National Council ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Third Age ◽  
Quantitative Evidence ◽  
Style Shifting ◽  
Age Grading ◽  
Ethnic Group Membership

Abstract The correlation between external factors such as age, gender, ethnic group membership and language variation is one of the stalwarts of sociolinguistic theory. The repertoire of individual members of speaker groups, vis-à-vis community-wide variation, represents a somewhat slippery ground for developing and testing models of variation and change and has been researched with reference to accommodation (Bell 1984), style shifting (Rickford, John R. & MacKenzie Price. 2013. Girlz II women: Age-grading, language change and stylistic variation. Journal of Sociolinguistics 17. 143–179) and language change generally (Labov, William. 2001. Principles of linguistic change, vol. 2: Social factors. Oxford: Blackwell). This paper presents and assesses some first quantitative evidence that non-mobile older speakers from Tristan da Cunha, an island in the South Atlantic Ocean, who grew up in an utterly isolated speech community, vary and shift according to external interview parameters (interviewer, topic, place of interview). However, while they respond to the formality of the context, they display variation (both regarding speakers and variables) that is not in line with the constraints attested elsewhere. These findings are assessed with focus on the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence in third-age speakers (particularly style-shifting, Labov, William. 1964. Stages in the acquisition of Standard English. In Roger Shuy, Alva Davis & Robert Hogan (eds.), Social Dialects and Language Learning, 77–104. Champaign: National Council of Teachers of English) and across the life-span generally.

scholarly journals The question of questions in Malaysian English

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Radina Mohamad Deli
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
English Language ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
Peninsular Malaysia ◽  
British English ◽  
Tag Questions

This paper examined the forms that interrogatives and tag questions can take when used by young Malaysian speakers of English language in oral communication. It offers a description of the features for both question forms as produced by the respondents compared to those of Singapore English (SE) and Standard British English (SBE). The influence of domains and the issue of mother tongue interference in relation to the subjects’ usage of such features will also be investigated. Data were obtained through interviews with 19 Malaysian English (ME) speakers from three major ethnic groups in Peninsular Malaysia and via the recording of six conversations. The results showed various distinctive forms and features of questions in ME used by the speakers. Their usage is found to have a certain link to the domains of conversation. Further analysis revealed that mother tongue interference at the grammatical level, particularly in the case of Malay and Cantonese, plays a major role in determining the structure of ME interrogatives and tag questions as well as the subjects’ unvarying use of the rising intonation as regards the latter. As a result of this interference, ME tag questions used are found to be confined to four forms whilst both the structure of wh- and polar interrogatives experience reduction in the system of tense, auxiliary and operator when used by the subjects.

Children, adolescents, and language change

1996 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Kerswill
Keyword(s):  
Young Child ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Peer Group ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Detailed Understanding ◽  
Different Ages

ABSTRACTThe article models the spread of linguistic change by taking precise account of the ages of the acquirers and transmitters of change. Several studies, some original, are reviewed in order to address the following questions: “What types of linguistic feature can an individual acquire at different ages?” “How much influence do people of different ages exert on the speech of other individuals?” The article is organized around three key interlocutor combinations: parent-infant/young child, peer group-preadolescent, and older adolescent/adult-adolescent. The studies suggest that borrowings are the easiest to acquire, while lexically unpredictable phonological changes are the most difficult. In between are Neogrammarian changes and morphologically conditioned features. The age of the speaker is critical; only the youngest children acquire the “hardest” features. However, adolescents may be the most influential transmitters of change. A difficulty hierarchy for the acquisition of second dialect features is then presented; it is suggested that this predicts the nature of linguistic change found under different sociolinguistic conditions. The approach presented here allows for a more detailed understanding of the spread of linguistic change.

scholarly journals The Role of Elision in Evolutionary Processes

Languages ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
María Azofra Sierra
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Category Membership ◽  
Evolutionary Processes ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Specific Meaning ◽  
Theoretical Overview

Changes by elision—as well as those due to processes of adfunctionalization or refunctionalization—must be taken into account as explanatory mechanisms of linguistic change. In this paper, we study the role of elision in the theoretical overview of explanatory theories of language change by focusing on the evolutionary process of the Spanish adverb aparte. We analyze the consequences of the elision of an initial construction for the development of new functions as an exceptive or additive adverb, and as an additive connector with a specific meaning, conditioned by the evolution of the entire construction. We find that, in this case, the ellipsis of a verbal element has led to important modifications of the preserved item (aparte), not only at the semantic-pragmatic and functional levels but also in its category membership.

Machine Learning of Inflection

2015 ◽  
pp. 296-322
Author(s):  
Katya Pertsova
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Computational Modelling ◽  
Expressive Power ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
General Overview ◽  
Formal Study ◽  
Theoretical Linguistics ◽  
Different Levels

This chapter aims to introduce readers not familiar with computational modelling to some approaches and issues in the formal study of learnability, and the relevance of this field to theoretical linguistics and inflectional morphology in particular. After a general overview, the chapter highlights some of the obstacles in learning inflection. Inflection, considered separately from other components of language, is relatively restricted in its expressive power, which should make it easier to learn than syntax. However, inflectional systems are full of irregularities and mismatches between different levels of structure, and such irregularities make learning difficult. Overall, it is concluded that linguistically interesting proposals for machine learning of inflection should provide explanations for the nature and extent of irregularities and for the specific patterns of language acquisition and language change.

scholarly journals Living in a leisure town: residential reactions to the growth of popular tourism in Southend, 1870–1890

Urban History ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID CHURCHILL
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Small Town ◽  
Social Perceptions ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
The Social ◽  
Resort Towns ◽  
The Town

ABSTRACT:While historical interest in the seaside has grown appreciably in recent times, much of the literature remains preoccupied with issues specific to resort towns. This article examines the social dynamics of the seaside town more broadly, through a study of Southend residents in the 1870s and 1880s. It analyses their discussions of working-class tourists and the industries which catered for them, before examining attempts to regulate the use of public space in the town. This is a study of rapid urbanization in a small town, and how social perceptions and relations were reconfigured in this context.

scholarly journals The General Election of 1859 in the Cities of Yorkshire.

1957 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. L. Guttsman
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Wage Structure ◽  
General Election ◽  
Land Values ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Town

A study of parliamentary elections in a certain area must be preceded by the attempt to describe the character of the electorate. This is the more necessary as it is often little recognised to what a large extent the size and composition of the new electorate created by the £ 10 franchise varied from borough to borough. This was due to some extent to the strength of local registration societies and the different interpretation which the revising barristers gave to the term ratepayer, but its main cause was the character of the housing in the constituencies. Land values, custom and, of course, the wage structure of the community determined the quality and standard of building and in consequence rent and rates. While the urban middle classes were probably everywhere in possession of the vote the above mentioned factors clearly determine the proportion of the working-class who enjoyed the franchise. It seems useful therefore to compare the Yorkshire figures with those for other parts of the country. To do this it is best to disregard York and Hull with their large number of freemen voters and to concentrate on the newly enfranchised boroughs.The electorates in the five new boroughs were all of a fair size; the smallest, Halifax, had 1,491 electors and Sheffield over 7,000. Yet with the exception of the latter, where as the result of the many skilled workmen and small masters we expect to find a large democratic electorate, the proportion of voters, whether measured in terms of inhabitants or houses, is almost inversely related to the size of the town.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document