Journal of English Linguistics recent issues

Editors' Note

Curzan, A., Queen, R. — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:54:54 PST

Local and External Language Standards in African American English

Kendall, T., Wolfram, W. — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:54:54 PST

This investigation attempts to determine the social distribution and contextual shifting of African American English (AAE) within rural Southern African American communities. The study compares selective diagnostic AAE variables and features of speech rate and pause in the speech of three recognized sociopolitical leaders in public presentations and sociolinguistic interviews. The results show that there are not significant shifts in the use of AAE from the sociolinguistic interview to the public presentation settings and that leaders do not necessarily align their speech with their age and sex cohorts in terms of vernacular AAE usage. The authors conclude that the relative autonomy of the community, its endocentric versus exocentric orientation, the primary public service constituency of the leader, the different social affiliations and divisions within the community, the speaker’s personal background and history, and the socialized demands and expectations for public presentation are all factors in understanding the leaders’ use of local vernacular and mainstream standard variants.

Defining Dialect, Perceiving Dialect, and New Dialect Formation: Sarah Palin's Speech

Purnell, T., Raimy, E., Salmons, J. — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:54:54 PST

Nonlinguists prove surprisingly good at recognizing dialects, even as dialects rapidly evolve. During the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s speech was intensely discussed among linguists, the media, and laypeople. Though Palin is from Alaska, her speech was often identified with the Upper Midwest.The authors explore what this mismatch can tell us about dialects and their perception, starting from a description of Palin’s speech as commented on in the media.They review some pragmatic features and provide quantitative treatment of her "g-dropping." Then, they undertake acoustic analysis of Palin’s vowels and final /z/ devoicing, including Western features and features that create an impression of her speech as Upper Midwestern. Regional settlement history, research on "new dialect formation," and research on perception of variation inform the authors’ finding that a few acoustic and other characteristics trigger a specific national perception of Palin’s verbal behavior.

"Shut Up and Listen": An Interview with Richard W. Bailey

Adams, M. — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:54:54 PST

In the Profession: Choosing the Right Journal for Your Manuscript

Johnstone, B. — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:54:54 PST

Book Review: English: Meaning and Culture. By Anna Wierzbicka. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. vi + 352. ISBN: 0-19-517474-7; 0-19-517475-5 (pbk)

Dancygier, B. — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:54:54 PST

Editor's Note

King, R. — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:17:02 PDT

"You're Not from New York City, You're from Rotherham": Dialect and Identity in British Indie Music

Beal, J. C. — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:17:02 PDT

This paper investigates the use of local accent and dialect features in the performance of Arctic Monkeys, a very successful indie band from Sheffield in the north of England. Previous work on variation in the sung pronunciation of British pop musicians by Trudgill (1983) and Simpson (1999) is reviewed. A qualitative analysis of an Arctic Monkeys performance is carried out to determine the extent to which features of northern and/or more specifically Sheffield English are used by Arctic Monkeys. The results are then discussed within a language-ideological framework, where it is argued that Arctic Monkeys are using features of local accent and dialect to index values such as authenticity and independence from the corporate machine.

Hip-hop in a Post-insular Community: Hybridity, Local Language, and Authenticity in an Online Newfoundland Rap Group

Clarke, S., Hiscock, P. — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:17:02 PDT

The focus of this article is Gazeebow Unit, an adolescent hip-hop group from Newfoundland, Canada, whose tracks, which date from 2005, are available only online. As white rappers whose language is grounded in vernacular Newfoundland English, their rap raises obvious questions relating to both authenticity and hybridization. Despite the group’s use of local linguistic and semiotic resources to style young working-class Newfoundland male "skeet" identity, their authenticity as both working-class Newfoundlanders and rappers was soon to be publicly contested. Though local language and dialect typically represent "resistance vernaculars" in global hip-hop, the use of vernacular Newfoundland English as a performance register on the part of Gazeebow Unit is shown to be considerably more complex. At one level at least, Gazeebow Unit are engaged in parody, or "strategic inauthenticity," one ramification of which is to reproduce and reinforce dominant ideologies of social class.

"Aren't We Proud of Our Language?": Authenticity, Commodification, and the Nissan Bonavista Television Commercial

King, R., Wicks, J. — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:17:03 PDT

This article involves an analysis of a television commercial set in rural Newfoundland, Canada in which the main actor’s performance of Vernacular Newfoundland English is accompanied by subtitles consisting of ostensibly humorous nonparallelisms rendered in Standard English. The discursive strategy employed by the ad’s creators, of highlighting difference, "others" the character and by extension actual speakers of the local variety. The appearance of the commercial on national television resulted in intense debate, particularly in Newfoundland and to some extent in mainland Canada. A video parody responding to the original commercial and an online discussion of the issues on a variety of Web sites are also analyzed. The debate focuses on (in)authenticity (in particular, on who has the right to perform the vernacular) and on the commodification of regional language and culture in media representations.

The Mediated Performance of Vernaculars

Coupland, N. — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:17:03 PDT

Editors' Note

Curzan, A., Queen, R. — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:40:07 PDT

Exploring English Phraseology with Two Tools: NSM Semantic Methodology and Google

Wierzbicka, A. — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:40:07 PDT

The study of phraseology, which not long ago was often dismissed as a linguistic activity of only minor interest, has now come into its own and is an increasingly popular and diversified field, with many different approaches and foci of interest. Significantly, regardless of their particular focus and goals, more and more writers adopt corpus-based approaches to phraseological phenomena. This article arises from a larger study of various phraseological networks based on the English cultural keyword sense (as in, e.g., a sense of humor, a sense of direction and a sense of relief), and it explores some types of sense-based collocations with two tools: the NSM (Natural Semantic Metalanguage) semantic methodology and Google. The article argues that the use of corpora and the Web combined with the use of NSM methodology opens new perspectives for the semantic and cultural study of English phraseology.

Tag Questions in English: The First Century

Tottie, G., Hoffmann, S. — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:40:07 PDT

This study charts the early history of canonical tag questions in English (e.g., It is cold, isn't it?) focusing on the sixteenth century and using drama texts as a source. By means of semi-automated retrieval from computerized sources, 136 instances were collected. They were then analyzed in context to ascertain polarity, choice of operator and subject, meter and authorship, and especially pragmatic functions. Even at this early stage, tag questions had functions beyond asking for confirmation, such as expressing speaker attitude, challenging an interlocutor, or issuing directives. Cautious comparisons are made with Present-day English conversational use. The importance of modal verbs and do-support for the emergence of canonical tag questions is discussed, but it is argued that the rise of not as the sole sentence negator in English is the most important single factor in the emergence of canonical tag questions.

A Perceptual Dialect Map of North East England

Pearce, M. — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:40:07 PDT

This study presents perceptual dialect maps derived from a questionnaire completed by almost 1,600 people across North East England. Respondents were given the names of fifty-one locations and asked to provide numerical judgments on the "similarity" or "difference" of the dialect of speakers from these locations compared to speakers from the respondents' hometowns. The questionnaire also invited respondents to comment on accents and dialects in the region. The numerical data are mapped, revealing a perceptual landscape consisting of three broad areas further subdivided into smaller perceptual zones. These perceptual areas are described and discussed in relation to salient geographical, social, and cultural factors. The article concludes by placing this research in the context of dialectological and variationist studies of English in the North East.

Book Review: An Introduction to Language Policy: Theory and Method. Edited by Thomas Ricento. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 2006. xii + 361. ISBN: 10-1-4051-1498-3

Marshall, D. F. — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:40:07 PDT

Book Review: Sociolinguistics: The Study of Speakers' Choices. By Florian Coulmas. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. viii + 263. ISBN 0-521-54393-2

Huang, X. — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:40:07 PDT

In the Profession: The "Empirical Tradition" in Linguistics

Meyer, C. F. — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:40:07 PDT

Editors' Note

Curzan, A., Queen, R. — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:47:35 PST

When In Means Into: Towards an Understanding of Boundary-crossing In

Tutton, M. — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:47:35 PST

This article examines the use of the preposition in as a marker of boundary-crossing motion in British English. While into is prototypically used to encode such dynamic motion events, there are recurrent contexts in which in marks the boundary-crossing path of the Figure entity instead. There is little comprehensive analysis of this phenomenon in the literature. This article identifies the conditions under which such a use of in is possible: these include when the Ground is conceptualized as a container for the Figure, when the verb encodes the semantic feature of path, or when the Ground is lexically encoded by the deictic pronouns here or there. Such underexplored, principled uses of in have import for how we understand the differences between in and into. This article shows that our understanding of the many uses of in is far from complete and that further work is necessary to understand the full potential of in as a marker of boundary-crossing motion.

Everyone Wants In: Want + Prepositional Adverb in the Midland and Beyond

Benson, E. J. — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:47:35 PST

The regional, social, and stylistic distributions of want + prepositional adverb (e.g., I can move if you want by) are poorly understood in spite of a long history of documentation and the inclusion of one form—want off—in major dialectology projects. This article investigates the acceptability of a range of forms of want + prepositional adverb in the United States and finds a wider than expected regional distribution, differences in the acceptability of different forms, and in the dialect area that boasts the greatest concentration of use—the Midland—little variation across social variables yet greater variation across styles. The author argues that the findings support the use of acceptability judgments in the study of morpho-syntactic features; indicate change from below in progress with the spread of want + prepositional adverb from the Midland; give additional evidence for an independent Midland dialect area; and call into question current assumptions about the relationship between social and stylistic variation.

All Beginnings Are Light: A Study of Upbeat Phenomena at the Syntax-Phonology Interface

Schluter, J. — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:47:35 PST

The present contribution investigates the motivations underlying a tendency for phonological phrases in English to start with upbeats, that is, unstressed syllables. The empirical part consists of two case studies based on a corpus of Early Modern English prose, focusing on the variable use of the preposition of introducing nominal complements of (un)worthy and objects of gerunds, respectively. The counts provide quantified evidence indicating that the upbeat phenomenon is not only a corollary of the need for a function word signaling the beginning of a new phrase, but also a rhythmically motivated preference that exerts an influence on the presence or absence of a grammatical marker in phrase onsets. The phonological requirement for an upbeat thus has consequences for the syntactic makeup of phrases. In light of such empirical facts, it is argued that models of grammar conceptualizing the syntax-phonology interface as a unidirectional mapping are not tenable.

Habeas Corpus?

Kretzschmar, W. A. — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:47:35 PST

Book Review: The Word Weavers: Newshounds and Wordsmiths. By Jean Aitchison. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 257. ISBN 978-0-521-54007-0

Baker, P. — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:47:35 PST