English World-Wide - Volume 43, Issue 3, 2022

Abstract

In this study, we examine variation in English strong verb preterite/participle morphology in four frequent verbs: came/come, saw/seen, gave/give and did/done, using data from more than a dozen Ontario communities, socially stratified by age, sex, occupation and education, representing a continuum of urban/rural locations and spanning more than 100 years in apparent-time. Comparative sociolinguistic methods and statistical modelling permit testing of social, geographic and linguistic factors on the variation. Despite strong social constraints, linguistic constraints are also significant. We argue that standardization and increasing literacy have nearly eradicated the vernacular preterite forms, but they are not moribund yet. Moreover, at least one form is stable, preterite seen. The non-standard variants endure as sociolinguistic markers, perhaps due to locally situated prestige, particularly in non-urban communities.

Abstract

An understanding of linguistic heterogeneity in older speakers is crucial for the study of language variation and change. To date, intra-speaker malleability in older populations remains under-researched, in varieties of English and more generally. This paper contributes panel data to the question of how aging individuals engage with ongoing changes in the realisation of (t) in the Tyneside region in the North-East of England. We examine the variable ways in which six speakers recorded in their 20s/30s and re-interviewed in their 60s/70s adapt to community-wide change. The finding that some speakers exhibit malleability in their variable realisation of (t) substantiates a life-course perspective over a strict maturational explanation. More specifically, our analysis explores the contribution of long-term (in)stability to lifespan-specific identity construction in the Tyneside area. Our findings support calls for the incorporation of sophisticated statistical methods in combination with social constructivist approaches into panel research on older age populations.

Abstract

This paper provides a quantitative variationist analysis of the distribution of get- versus be-passives in spoken Tyneside English. Taking data from the Diachronic Electronic Corpus of Tyneside English (1960s to 2010), the paper uses mixed-effects modelling to examine a wide range of possible constraints on the distribution of get versus be, some of which have been discussed at length in the literature on the get-passive (e.g. subject animacy, adversative semantics) and some of which have received less attention (e.g. grammatical person, tense, aspectuality). It demonstrates that the use of the get-passive is determined by a complex combination of semantic and syntactic factors (subject animacy, telicity, non-neutral semantics, tense and grammatical person). Moreover, it argues that, despite the dramatic rise in frequency of get-passives over time (with younger speakers using them even more frequently than be-passives), most of the constraints remain in place and the variant is pragmatically marked. This stands in sharp contrast to the findings of recent investigations into the grammaticalization of get-passives in standard British and American English, which found that increased frequency in those varieties was also accompanied by semantic bleaching and generalization.

Abstract

This paper presents data for a tightly controlled recognition and production study of English language intonation in reading by speakers of British English and second language learners of English in Hong Kong. We demonstrate a relatively high correlation between the scores for the two studies when data are separated by utterance type (statement, echo, WH-question, etc.). Our finding that this cohort of English learners performs better at production of nuclear tones than in the corresponding recognition study when both are judged by a template for British English adds support to the claim that the perception-production link, a theory that production is contingent on perception, is not borne out by the empirical study of learners of World Englishes. Data collected for the British English speakers give insight into a changing intonational phonology, while Hong Kong data indicate differences in intonational categories, a different distribution of tones, and possibly tonal innovation.

This article reviews Englishes in Post-Independence Namibia. An Investigation of Variety Status and its Implications for English Language Teaching68.67978-363-179-960-4

This article reviews Cultural Linguistics and World EnglishesEUR 106.99978-981-15-4695-2EUR 74.89978-981-15-4698-3

This article reviews Nominal and Pronominal Address in Jamaica and Trinidad: Variation and PatternsEUR 99.00978-902-720-969-6