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Abstract

The variable realisation of ++plural arguments (e.g. ) is well-documented across English varieties, but little research has examined its use among ethnic minorities or how intersecting social factors shape its variation. This study addresses these gaps, analysing 1,549 tokens from 206 Australians of Anglo, Italian, Greek, and Chinese backgrounds, recorded in the 1970s and 2010s. The study finds an apparent-time increase in during the 1970s, led by teenagers across ethnic groups, followed by broad adoption by the 2010s. Usage patterns reflect intersections of age, ethnicity, and class, with working-class Adult Anglos consistently favouring . Additionally, the grammatical conditioning of () has shifted: the definiteness effect, where definite and numerical determiners (e.g. ) favour , emerged among 1970s teenagers and has since been maintained. Changes in frequency are accompanied by shifts in linguistic and social conditioning, illustrating how variation evolves within complex sociolinguistic ecologies.

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2026-08-13
2026-09-09

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“There’s a lot more Chinese people”
John Benjamins ; https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.25118.gan
/content/journals/10.1075/ijcl.25118.gan
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keywords: social variation ; ethnic variation ; plural there existentials ; Australian English ; language change

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