1887
  1. Home
  2. e-Journals
  3. English World-Wide
  4. Volume 42, Issue 3
  5. Article
Volume 42, Issue 3
  • ISSN 0172-8865
  • E-ISSN: 1569-9730
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Abstract

This study explores the role of linguistic structure in speakers’ perceptions of vernacular English, i.e. speech used in informal interactions. In so doing, it tests the assumptions of the Interface Principle (Labov 1993) and its major claim that semantic and discourse-pragmatic features will elicit a greater degree of social awareness than morphosyntactic variants (Levon and Buchstaller 2015). Relying on data obtained from 372 respondents, we explore the social perceptions of two discourse-pragmatic and two morphosyntactic variables. We show that the morphosyntactic features investigated here are generally available to the sociolinguistic monitor of L1 speakers as well as highly advanced learners of English as a Foreign Language. However, these morphosyntactic features are less salient than the semantic/discourse pragmatic variants, and their social indexation is, for this reason, more pliable. We argue for the weaker version of the Interface Principle and propose that the differences in the recognisability of vernacular features is gradient. We additionally propose that juxtaposing different types of speaker data is instrumental in discerning those differences.

© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/eww.00073.dav
2021-11-10
2025-05-01

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.1075/eww.00073.dav
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Babel, Anna
    ed. 2016 Awareness and Control in Sociolinguistic Research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9781139680448
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139680448 [Google Scholar]
  2. Bardovi-Harlig, Kathleen
    1987 “Markedness and Salience in Second-Language Acquisition”. Language Learning37: 385–407. 10.1111/j.1467‑1770.1987.tb00577.x
     https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1987.tb00577.x [Google Scholar]
  3. Berglund, Ylva
    1997 “Future in Present-Day English: Corpus-Based Evidence on the Rivalry of Expressions”. ICAME Journal21: 7–20.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. 2000 “Gonna and Going To in the Spoken Component of the British National Corpus”. InChristian Mair, and Marianne Hundt, eds.Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory. Papers from the Twentieth International Conference on English Language Research on Computerized Corpora (ICAME 20) Freiburg im Breisgau 1999. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 35–49.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Bierma, Nathan
    2005 “It’s Been, Like, 10 Whole Years since ‘Clueless’ Helped Spread Valley Slang”. Chicago TribuneJuly20 2005 <articles.chicagotribune.com/2005-07-20/features/0507190293_1_clueless-slang-amy-heckerling (accessedJune 28, 2021).
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Buchstaller, Isabelle
    2014 Quotatives. New Trends and Sociolinguistic Implications. Malden: Wiley Blackwell.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. 2016 “Investigating the Effect of Socio-Cognitive Salience and Speaker-Based Factors in Morpho-Syntactic Life-Span Change”. Journal of English Linguistics44: 199–229. 10.1177/0075424216639645
     https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424216639645 [Google Scholar]
  8. Cook, Vivian
    2010 “The Relationship between First and Second Language Learning Revisited”. InErnesto Macaro, ed.The Bloomsbury Companion to Second Language Acquisition. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 137–157.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. D’Arcy, Alexandra
    2007 “‘Like’ and Language Ideology: Disentangling Fact from Fiction”. American Speech82: 386–419. 10.1215/00031283‑2007‑025
     https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-2007-025 [Google Scholar]
  10. Davydova, Julia
    2019 Quotation in Indigenised and Learner English. A Sociolinguistic Account of Variation. Berlin: De Gruyter. 10.1515/9781501507069
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501507069 [Google Scholar]
  11. 2020a “The Role of Sociocognitive Salience in the L2 Acqusition of Structured Variation and Linguistic Diffusion: Evidence from Quotative be like”. Language in Society49: 1–26. doi:  10.1017/S0047404519001003
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404519001003 [Google Scholar]
  12. 2020b “English in Germany: Domains of Use and Attitudes”. Russian Journal of Linguistics24: 687–702. 10.22363/2687‑0088‑2020‑24‑3‑687‑702
     https://doi.org/10.22363/2687-0088-2020-24-3-687-702 [Google Scholar]
  13. Davydova, Julia, and Isabelle Buchstaller
    2015 “Expanding the Circle to Learner English: Investigating Quotative Marking in a German Student Community”. American Speech90: 441–478. 10.1215/00031283‑3442128
     https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-3442128 [Google Scholar]
  14. Davydova, Julia, Agniezska Ewa Tytus, and Erik Schleef
    2017 “Acquisition of Sociolinguistic Awareness by German Learners of English: A Study in Perceptions of Quotative Be Like”. Linguistics. An Interdisciplinary Journal of the Language Sciences55: 783–812. 10.1515/ling‑2017‑0011
     https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2017-0011 [Google Scholar]
  15. Dinkin, Aaron J.
    2016 “Variant-Centered Variation and the Like Conspiracy”. InConstantine Lignos, Laurel MacKenzie, and Meredith Tamminga, eds.The Locus of Linguistic Variation. Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 221–246.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Doughty, Catherine
    1991 “Second Language Instruction Does Make a Difference”. Studies in Second Language Acquisition13: 431–469. 10.1017/S0272263100010287
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263100010287 [Google Scholar]
  17. Ellis, Nick C.
    2017 “Salience in Language Usage, Learning and Change”. InMarianne Hundt, Sandra Mollin, and Simone Pfenninger, eds.The Changing English Language: Psycholinguistic Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 71–92. 10.1017/9781316091746.004
     https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316091746.004 [Google Scholar]
  18. Fuchs, Robert
    2017 “Do Women Use More Intensifiers than Men? Recent Change in the Sociolinguistics of Intensifiers in British English”. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics22: 345–374. 10.1075/ijcl.22.3.03fuc
     https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.22.3.03fuc [Google Scholar]
  19. Huddleston, Rodney, and Geoffrey Pullum
    2002 The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/9781316423530
     https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316423530 [Google Scholar]
  20. Jensen, Marie
    2013 “Salience in Language Change: A Socio-Cognitive Study of Tyneside English”. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Northumbria.
  21. Jespersen, Otto H.
    1961 A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles. Part VI: Morphology. London: Bradford and Dickens.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Kerswill, Paul, and Ann Williams
    2002 “‘Salience’ as an Explanatory Factor in Language Change: Evidence from Dialect Levelling in Urban England”. InMari Jones, and Edith Esch, eds.Language Change: The Interplay of Internal, External and Extra-Linguistic Factors. Berlin: De Gruyter, 81–110. 10.1515/9783110892598.81
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110892598.81 [Google Scholar]
  23. Krashen, Stephen
    1981 Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Kroch, Anthony
    1989 “Reflexes of Grammar in Patterns of Language Change”. Language Variation and Change1: 199–244. 10.1017/S0954394500000168
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394500000168 [Google Scholar]
  25. Labov, William
    1993 “The Unobservability of Structure and its Linguistic Consequences”. Paper presented atNWAV 22, University of Ottawa.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. 2007 “Transmission and Diffusion”. Language83: 344–387. 10.1353/lan.2007.0082
     https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2007.0082 [Google Scholar]
  27. Levon, Erez, and Sue Fox
    2014 “Salience and the Sociolinguistic Monitor: A Case Study of ING and TH-Fronting in Britain”. Journal of English Linguistics42: 185–217. 10.1177/0075424214531487
     https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424214531487 [Google Scholar]
  28. Levon, Erez, and Isabelle Buchstaller
    2015 “Perception, Cognition, and Linguistic Structure: The Effect of Linguistic Modularity and Cognitive Style on Sociolinguistic Processing”. Language Variation and Change27: 319–348. 10.1017/S0954394515000149
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394515000149 [Google Scholar]
  29. Leow, Ronald P.
    2001 “Attention, Awareness, and Foreign Language Behaviour”. Language Learning47: 467–505. 10.1111/0023‑8333.00017
     https://doi.org/10.1111/0023-8333.00017 [Google Scholar]
  30. 2019 “Noticing Hypothesis”. InJohn I. Liontas, ed.TESOL Encyclopedia of English Language Teaching. John Wiley [online chapter]. doi:  10.1002/9781118784235.eelt0086.pub2
     https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118784235.eelt0086.pub2 [Google Scholar]
  31. Macaulay, Ronald K. S.
    2006 “Pure Grammaticalization: The Development of a Teenage Intensifier”. Language Variation and Change18: 267–283. 10.1017/S0954394506060133
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394506060133 [Google Scholar]
  32. Mair, Christian
    1997 “The Spread of the Going-to-Future in Written English: A Corpus-Based Investigation into Language Change in Progress”. InRaymond Hickey, and Stanislav Puppel, eds.Language History and Linguistic Modelling. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1537–1541.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. 2016 “Beyond and Between the “Three Circles”. World Englishes Research in the Age of Globalisation”. InElena Seoane, and Cristina Suárez-Gómez, eds.World Englishes: New Theoretical and Methodological Considerations. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 17–35.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. MacWhinney, Brian, Elizabeth Bates, and Reinhold Kliegl
    1984 “Cue Validity and Sentence Interpretation in English, German and Italian”. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior23: 127–150. 10.1016/S0022‑5371(84)90093‑8
     https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5371(84)90093-8 [Google Scholar]
  35. Méndez-Naya, Belén
    ed. 2008 “Introduction”. English Language and Linguistics12: 213–219. 10.1017/S1360674308002591
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674308002591 [Google Scholar]
  36. Nevalainen, Terttu
    2008 “Social Variation in Intensifier Use: Constraint on -ly Adverbialization in the Past?”. English Language and Linguistics12: 289–315. 10.1017/S1360674308002633
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674308002633 [Google Scholar]
  37. Preston, Dennis R.
    1985 “The Li’l Abner Syndrome: Written Representations of Speech”. American Speech60: 328–336. 10.2307/454910
     https://doi.org/10.2307/454910 [Google Scholar]
  38. Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik
    1985 A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman.
     [Google Scholar]
  39. Schleef, Erik
    2017 “Social Meanings Across Listener Groups: When do Social Factors Matter?”. Journal of English Linguistics45: 28–59. 10.1177/0075424216686149
     https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424216686149 [Google Scholar]
  40. Schmidt, Richard W.
    1990 “The Role of Consciousness in Second Language Learning”. Applied Linguistics11: 129–158. 10.1093/applin/11.2.129
     https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/11.2.129 [Google Scholar]
  41. 1993 “Awareness and Second Language Acquisition”. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics13: 206–226. 10.1017/S0267190500002476
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190500002476 [Google Scholar]
  42. 2001 “Attention”. InPeter Robinson, ed.Cognition and Second Language Instruction. Cambridge University Press, 3–32. 10.1017/CBO9781139524780.003
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139524780.003 [Google Scholar]
  43. Slimani, Assia
    1992 “Evaluation of Classroom Interaction”. InJ. Charles Alderson, and Alan Beretta, eds.Evaluating Second Language Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 197–220. 10.1017/CBO9781139524575.009
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139524575.009 [Google Scholar]
  44. Tagliamonte, Sali A.
    2008 “So Different and Pretty Cool! Recycling Intensifiers in Toronto, Canada”. English Language and Linguistics12: 361–394. 10.1017/S1360674308002669
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674308002669 [Google Scholar]
  45. 2012 Variationist Sociolinguistics. Change, Observation, Interpretation. Malden: Black-Wiley.
     [Google Scholar]
  46. 2013 Roots of English. Exploring the History of Dialects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  47. Tagliamonte, Sali A., and Alexandra D’Arcy
    2004 “He’s like, she’s like: The Quotative System in Canadian Youth”. Journal of Sociolinguistics8: 493–514. 10.1111/j.1467‑9841.2004.00271.x
     https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2004.00271.x [Google Scholar]
  48. Tagliamonte, Sali A., and Chris Roberts
    2005 “So Weird; So Cool; So Innovative: The Use of Intensifiers in the Television Series Friends”. American Speech80: 280–300. 10.1215/00031283‑80‑3‑280
     https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-80-3-280 [Google Scholar]
  49. Tagliamonte, Sali A., Alexandra D’Arcy, and Bridget Jankowski
    2010 “Social Work and Linguistic Systems: Marking Possession in Canadian English”. Language Variation and Change22: 149–173. 10.1017/S0954394510000050
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394510000050 [Google Scholar]
  50. Tagliamonte, Sali A., Alexandra D’Arcy, and Celeste Rodríguez Louro
    2016 “Outliers, Impact, and Rationalization in Linguistic Change”. Language92: 824–849. 10.1353/lan.2016.0074
     https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2016.0074 [Google Scholar]
  51. Tagliamonte, Sali A., Mercedes Durham, and Jennifer Smith
    2014 “Grammaticalization at an Early Stage: Future be going to in Conservative British Dialects”. English Language and Linguistics18: 75–108. 10.1017/S1360674313000282
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674313000282 [Google Scholar]
  52. Trudgill, Peter, Terttu Nevalainen, and Ilse Wischer
    2002 “Dynamic Have in North American and British Isles English”. English Language and Linguistics6: 1–15. 10.1017/S1360674302001016
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674302001016 [Google Scholar]
  53. VanPatten, Bill
    1990 “Attending to Form and Content in the Input: An Experiment in Consciousness”. Studies in Second Language Acquisition12: 287–301. 10.1017/S0272263100009177
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263100009177 [Google Scholar]
  54. Visser, Fredericus
    1963–1978 An Historical Syntax of the English Language. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
     [Google Scholar]
  55. Wilson, Kenneth G.
    1987 Van Winkle’s Return: Change in American English, 1966–1986. Hanover: University Press of New England.
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/eww.00073.dav
Loading
The role of linguistic structure in the perceptions of vernacular speech
English World-Wide 42, 273 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.00073.dav
/content/journals/10.1075/eww.00073.dav
/content/journals/10.1075/eww.00073.dav
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): EFL; Interface Principle; language variation; linguistic modularity; morphosyntax; perception; quotatives; sociolinguistic salience

Most Cited

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error