English in North America2002128Edited by John Algeo. English in North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2001. xxxii + 625 + [5] pp, ISBN: 0 521 26479 0 £80.00 ($120.00) The Cambridge History of the English Language, vol. VI http://www.cambridge.org

2002 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 19-20
Author(s):  
H.G.A. Hughes
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
English Language ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
History Of

John Algeo (ed.), The Cambridge history of the English language, vol. 6: English in North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Pp. xxxii, 625. Hb. $120.00.

2003 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 741-744
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Gordon
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle English ◽  
English Language ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
General Editor ◽  
Final Volume ◽  
History Of ◽  
Traditional Paradigm

This is the sixth and presumably final volume in an ambitious series. The first four volumes were distinguished chronologically according to the traditional paradigm for the history of English: Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, and Present Day English. The other two volumes are organized geographically. Volume 5 examined English outside England in most of the expected places (e.g., Scotland, Ireland, Australia), with the exception of North America, to which the present volume is devoted. As the general editor, Richard Hogg, writes (p. xi), the series is designed to offer “a solid discussion of the full range of the history of English” to anglicists and general linguists alike. Readers of the latter category will certainly find this volume accessible. In fact, the inclusion of a glossary of terms extends that accessibility to readers outside linguistics as well. Specialists, however, are likely to be disappointed by the unevenness of the collection.

Another piece for the verbal -s story: Evidence from Devon in southwest England

1999 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Godfrey ◽  
Sali Tagliamonte
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
North America ◽  
English Language ◽  
African American Vernacular English ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Vernacular English ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Vernacular ◽  
And Function ◽  
Detailed Nature

This article aims to contribute (1) new data on verbal -s by systematically examining its behavior in Devon English (DE), a variety spoken in southwest England, and (2) a broader historical and cross-dialectal perspective for understanding the origin and function of verbal -s in nonstandard varieties of English in North America. We focus on the linguistic contexts of its occurrence from the diachronic and synchronic literature. The results show that verbal -s is conditioned by phonological, syntactic, semantic, and lexical factors. These include the few variable constraints on verbal -s attested throughout the evolution of verbal -s in the history of the English language. Moreover, DE exhibits patterns of verbal -s variability that have previously been associated with African American Vernacular English (AAVE). The detailed nature of these linguistic correspondences—not only in frequency of the features examined, but most importantly in the details of an entire set of internal linguistic factors conditioning them—reveal that verbal -s is a linguistic feature of AAVE that originated in British dialects.

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