Intensifying and downtoning in South Asian Englishes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Funke ◽  
Tobias Bernaisch
Keyword(s):  
Random Forest ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Uncertainty Avoidance ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Central Research ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
British English ◽  
Speech Communities ◽  
And Gender

Abstract As studies on socio-pragmatics in South Asian Englishes and – more generally – postcolonial Englishes are still rare, the present study analyses how age, formality of context, gender, topic of the conversation and type-token ratio of a given speaker influence intensifiers and downtoners in spoken Indian, Sri Lankan and British English as represented in the International Corpus of English. Central research interests cover (a) differences in the frequencies of intensifiers/downtoners regarding these factors and across the varieties studied and (b) variety-specific intensifiers/downtoners in these regional varieties. Two random forest analyses highlight that, while topic and type-token ratio are more important predictors than age and gender, all variables are – to different degrees – sensitive to variety. Possible explanations for a higher incidence of intensifiers/downtoners in British English than in Indian and Sri Lankan English include intensification strategies transferred from indigenous languages or high degrees of uncertainty avoidance in the South Asian speech communities.

scholarly journals A diachronic corpus-based study into the effects of age and gender on the usage patterns of verb-forming suffixation in spoken British English

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Laws ◽  
Chris Ryder ◽  
Sylvia Jaworska
Keyword(s):  
Age And Gender ◽  
Lexical Diversity ◽  
British English ◽  
Usage Patterns ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Age Range ◽  
National Corpus

Abstract The aim of this paper is to ascertain the degree to which lexical diversity, density and creativity in everyday spoken British English have changed over a 20-year period, as a function of age and gender. Usage patterns of four verb-forming suffixes, -ate, -en, -ify and -ize, were compared in contemporary speech from the Spoken British National Corpus 2014 Sample (Spoken BNC2014S) with its 20-year old counterpart, the BNC1994’s demographically-sampled component (the Spoken BNC1994DS). Frequency comparisons revealed that verb suffixation is denser in the Spoken BNC2014S than in the Spoken BNC1994DS, with the exception of the -en suffix, the use of which has decreased, particularly among female and younger speakers in general. Male speakers and speakers in the 35–59 age range showed the greatest type diversity; there is evidence that this peak is occurring earlier in the more recent corpus. Contrary to expectations, female rather than male speakers produced the largest number of neologisms and rare forms.

scholarly journals A Corpus-based Study of the Use of Pause Fillers Among British English Speakers

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (12) ◽  
pp. 09-16
Author(s):  
Dr. Hamad Abdullah H Aldawsari
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
British English ◽  
Gender Influence ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
And Gender ◽  
National Corpus

Many people use pause fillers such as um, erm, and er in order to signal to the other person that they have not finished speaking yet. This paper aims to investigate pause fillers and their relationship with the two sociolinguistic variables of age and gender. The data-driven analysis is based on the British National Corpus (BNC). The results show that the sociolinguistic variables of age and gender influence the use of pause fillers among British English speakers, which is proposed to be linked to the advancement of age and an improved fluency among female speakers.

scholarly journals On the Issue of Polite Appeals and Blessings in Indian English

2019 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
pp. 00069
Author(s):  
Elena Kurchenkova ◽  
Irina Palashevskaya ◽  
Maria Kurchenkova
Keyword(s):  
Family Structure ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Indian English ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
British English ◽  
Traditional Family ◽  
Standard Version ◽  
And Gender

The primary purpose of this study is to investigate politeness as the culture-specific phenomenon, the actual manifestations of it in the Indian version of English. The study distinguishes some politeness fixed formulae in Indian English on the basis of the Speech Acts theory. It focuses on such culturally determined politeness patterns in Indian English as appeals and blessings, their functions and language features as compared with the ones in the standard version of British English. The use of polite appeals and blessings in Indian English is greatly influenced by age and gender restrictions and a traditional family structure with a Patrilineal background which has been followed since long ago. The choice of appeals and blessings in social interactions mainly depends on their basic strategies as speech acts. The study shows the points where two different lingua-cultures never meet.

Non-Canonical Syntax in South Asian Varieties of English: A Corpus-Based Pilot Study on Fronting

2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Götz
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Indian English ◽  
British English

AbstractIn the present paper, I present a pilot study on fronting in six South Asian Varieties of English, i.e. Indian English (IndE), Bangladeshi English (BgE), Sri Lankan English (SLE), Nepali English (NpE) and Pakistani English (PkE) as compared to their historical input variety, i.e. British English (BrE). For each of these varieties, based on the

scholarly journals Evidentiality across age and gender: a corpus-based study of variation in spoken British English

2017 ◽  
pp. 17-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Berglind Söderqvist
Keyword(s):  
Historical Change ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
British English ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
Age Related ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
Age Grading ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Effect Of Age

This paper investigates the effects of age and gender on the frequency of the evidentiality categories ‘sensory’, ‘hearsay’ and ‘inferential’ in spontaneous spoken British English. The findings from the main data sample from the British National Corpus (BNC) are also compared to patterns in a smaller data set from the Diachronic Corpus of Present-day Spoken English (DCPSE) in order to estimate the relative effects of age-grading versus historical change. The results confirm statistically significant differences between men and women in their use of evidentiality, but show no significant effect of age or the interaction of age and gender. The comparison of the findings from the BNC data and the DCPSE data suggests that age-related patterns in evidentiality use are more diachronically stable than gender-related patterns.

Mandibular morphometrics: An age and gender determinant in a Sri Lankan Sample – A digital panoramic tomography study

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
PilanaVithanage Kalani Shihanika Hettiarachchi ◽  
RasikaManori Jayasinghe ◽  
ChinthaniDeepthi Nanayakkara ◽  
RuwanDuminda Jayasinghe
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
And Gender

I was sat there talking all night: a corpus-based study on factors governing intra-dialectal variation in British English

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 511-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
ULRIKE STANGE
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Relative Frequency ◽  
Standard Form ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
Dialectal Variation ◽  
British English ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
And Gender ◽  
National Corpus ◽  
Empirical Analyses

When it comes to intra-dialectal variation, the factors governing the choice between functionally equivalent variants still require an exhaustive analysis. The construction be sat/be stood with progressive meaning alternates with the standard form be sitting/be standing in a number of British English dialects. The present article investigates to what extent the Complexity Principle (see Rohdenburg 1996) and horror aequi (see Rohdenburg 2003) influence the choice between so-called pseudo-passive and progressive constructions. Empirical analyses of spoken data in the British National Corpus reveal that this variation phenomenon is common in dialects of Northern and Southwest England, and to a lesser degree in the Midlands and in London. Moreover, we find considerable differences in the distribution of these pseudo-passives regarding their relative frequency and the number of dialects that make use of them. Drawing on a total of 106 occurrences for the construction be stood vs be standing and 366 for be sat vs be sitting, the article evaluates how far the principles above can be considered as statistically significant determinants of intra-dialectal variation. To this end, it will be essential to test for other factors potentially influencing the choice of dialectal variants, such as age and gender.

The hypothetical subjunctive in South Asian Englishes

2012 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Hundt ◽  
Sebastian Hoffmann ◽  
Joybrato Mukherjee
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Indian English ◽  
British English ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Usage Patterns ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
Newspaper Data ◽  
Local Use ◽  
Qualitative Analyses

This paper studies the distribution and usage patterns in hypothetical if-clauses in a set of South Asian Englishes (SAEs), namely Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan English on the basis of web-derived newspaper data. Comparative evidence comes from newspaper texts in the British National Corpus (BNC). It looks at the use of subjunctive were, indicative was and modal would as variant verb forms in the if-clause. The qualitative analyses also consider tense sequencing in the main and subordinate clause. In terms of overall frequencies, the SAEs do not cluster together in their use of the subjunctive but form a gradient or cline with British English at one end. Similarities between the SAEs emerge from the qualitative analyses. An additional, serendipitous result of the study concerns the local use in SAEs of the subordinator on if meaning ‘whether’, a pattern that is likely to have its origin in Indian English.

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