Sali A. Tagliamonte

Be like et al. beyond America: The quotative system in British and Canadian youth

In this paper we study the quotative system of contemporary British and Canadian youth. Multivariate analysis of nearly 1300 quotative verbs demonstrates that the innovative form belike is productive in both Canada and Britain. Traditional quotatives such as say, go,think, are used according to somewhat different patterns in the two corpora. We suggest that this is the result of differing narrative styles across varieties. However, the linguistic trajectory of the innovative form belike is remarkably parallel, not only across the British and Canadian corpora, but is also comparable with previous reports of this form in the United States. This finding provides evidence for a systematic global diffusion of belike across geographically separated speech communities and calls for further research into the social and linguistic mechanisms underlying such internationally circumscribed linguistic change.

Models, forests, and trees of York English: Was/were variation as a case study for statistical practice

What is the explanation for vigorous variation between was and were in plural existential constructions and what is the optimal tool for analyzing it? The standard variationist tool — the variable rule program — is a generalized linear model; however, recent developments in statistics have introduced new tools, including mixed-effects models, random forests and conditional inference trees. In a step-by-step demonstration, we show how this well known variable benefits from these complementary techniques. Mixed-effects models provide a principled way of assessing the importance of random-effect factors such as the individuals in the sample. Random forests provide information about the importance of predictors, whether factorial or continuous, and do so also for unbalanced designs with high multicollinearity, cases for which the family of linear models is less appropriate. Conditional inference trees straightforwardly visualize how multiple predictors operate in tandem. Taken together the results confirm that polarity, distance from verb to plural element and the nature of the DP are significant predictors. Ongoing linguistic change and social reallocation via morphologization are operational. Furthermore, the results make predictions that can be tested in future research. We conclude that variationist research can be substantially enriched by an expanded tool kit

Was/were variation across the generations: View from the city of York

In this article, I describe a new research project on York English (YrkE), a variety in northeast England. In addition to providing the first systematic linguistic documentation of YrkE, I conduct a quantitative analysis of a linguistic feature which not only is well documented in the literature, but also recurs pervasively in varieties of English worldwide— was/were variation in the past tense paradigm. Two separate tendencies are observed, neither of which can be explained by any unidimensional notion of analogical leveling of the paradigm: (1) nonstandard was in existential constructions, and (2) nonstandard were in negative tags. Both trends can be tracked in apparent time in which the contrasting behavior of men and women reveals that women are leading both types of linguistic change. In other contexts, nonstandard was is a synchronic remnant which can be traced to earlier stages in the history of English.

Well weird, right dodgy, very strange, really cool: Layering and recycling in English intensifiers

This article examines variable usage of intensifiers in a corpus from a socially and generationally stratified community. Using multivariate analyses, the authors assess the direction of effect, significance, and relative importance of conditioning factors in apparent time. Of 4,019 adjectival heads, 24% were intensified, and there is an increase in intensification across generations. Earlier forms (e.g. right and well ) do not fade away but coexist with newer items. The most frequent intensifiers, however, are shifting rapidly. Very is most common, but only among the older speakers. In contrast, really increases dramatically among the youngest generation; however, the effects of education and sex must be disentangled. The results confirm that variation in intensifier use is a strong indicator of shifting norms and practices in a speech community. Studying such actively changing features can make an important contribution to understanding linguistic change as well as to discovering current trends in contemporary English.

Frequency and variation in the community grammar: Tracking a new change through the generations

In this article we perform a quantitative analysis of verbs of quotation in a cohesive speech community. The incoming form be like overshadows all other quotative verbs among speakers under 30. This telescoped rate of change provides an opportunity to investigate the actuation problem as well as to probe the underlying mechanism of change in the contrasting variable grammars across generations. Multivariate analyses of factors conditioning be like (content of the quote, grammatical person, sex) reveal stability in the significance of constraints, however the rankings and relative strengths reveal subtle ongoing changes in the system. Interpreting these in sociocultural context, we suggest that be like is an innovation that arose out of a preexisting niche in the grammar. It accelerated during the 1980s due to its preppy associations, later specializing as a marker of narrative present. In accounting for these findings, we are led to contrast generational and communal change and to question what it means to ‘participate’ in linguistic change. The first author gratefully acknowledges the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for grant #410-2003-0005 “Linguistic changes in Canada entering the 21st century” and the Research Opportunities Program at the University of Toronto (ROP). Special thanks are owed to the research assistants on these projects who have been instrumental in transcribing, and in some cases extracting, the data: Stephanie Cali, Jonille Clemente, Derek Denis, Louis Filipe, Kevin Galloway, Marion Hau, Matthew King, Megan Lyon, Marion Macdonald, Sonja Molfenter, Jenny Seppanen, Karina von Stedingk, Muhammad Velji, Jessica Wertman, Lina Yang, and Stacy Yeh. An earlier version of this article was presented at NWAVE 33 (Ann Arbor, October 2004), where feedback from our audience was instrumental. We are also grateful to Nathalie Dion and Shana Poplack for their discerning comments on an earlier written version.

SO WEIRD; SO COOL; SO INNOVATIVE: THE USE OF INTENSIFIERS IN THE TELEVISION SERIES FRIENDS

The use of intensifiers in the television series «Friends» between 1994 and 2002 provides a unique opportunity to (1) study linguistic innovation in real time and (2) test the viability of media-based data as a surrogate to real-world data in sociolinguistic research. The «Friends» data exhibit almost the same overall rate of intensification as similar studies of contemporary English, and the same intensifiers occur most frequently: really, very, and so. Frequency of intensifier correlates with its time origin, reflecting the typical layering of forms in language. Moreover, in «Friends», the once primary intensifier in North America, really, is being usurped by so, which is used more often by the female characters than by the males. Taken together, these findings support the claim that media language does reflect what is going on in language and may even pave the way for innovation. Television data can provide interesting and informative sociolinguistic data for study

The grammaticization of going to in (African American) English

Focusing on the process of grammaticization, whereby items with lexical meaning evolve into grammatical markers, this article examines the future temporal reference sectors of three diaspora varieties of African American English which have evolved in linguistic isolates and compares them with those of British-origin rural and mainstream varieties of English. With one exception, the same constraint hierarchies condition the selection of going to across the board, indicating that their future temporal reference systems are descended from a common source. All other distinctions among the varieties result from their differential positioning on the cline of ongoing grammaticization of going to as a future marker. Operationalization of constraints representing different stages of the development of going to and comparison of their probability values across communities confirm that the enclave and the rural varieties retain conservative traits, visible here in the form of variable conditioning, in contrast to mainstream English, which is innovating. We suggest that the major determinant of variability in the expression of the future is the fact that the speech of isolated speakers, whether of African or British origin, instantiates constraints that were operative at an earlier stage of the English language and that are now receding from mainstream varieties.

So Different and Pretty Cool! Recycling intensifiers in Toronto, Canada

This article presents a synchronic quantitative study of the intensifier system in Toronto, the largest urban centre in Canada. The data comprise nearly 10,000 adjectival heads, as in I was so hungry and I was getting really nauseous (TOR/2m). The distribution of intensifiers in apparent time provides startling evidence of change. Very is quickly moving out of favour and really has expanded dramatically. Moreover, there is evidence to suggest that other intensifiers are on the rise – so and pretty . Testing a series of contextual factors known to operate in the development of intensifiers (e.g. adjective function and type) as well as their intersection with social factors (e.g. age and sex) reveals evidence of ongoing delexicalization, but not as part of a continual longitudinal process. Instead, the profile of change reveals recycling, suggesting that the mechanisms of intensifier renewal may be more complex than previously thought.

The Stuff of Change: General Extenders in Toronto, Canada

This article examines general extenders (GEs) in the English spoken in Toronto, Canada, using a 1.2-million-word corpus stratified by age, sex, and education. Employing quantitative techniques, the authors assess the nature of the system, particularly the possibility that it has undergone recent grammaticalization. Diagnostic tests for phonetic reduction, decategorization, semantic change, and pragmatic shift reveal that only decategorization is visible in apparent time. Otherwise, older and younger speakers share most of the same patterns. Yet there is a dramatic shift happening in that the form stuff is rapidly becoming the predominant GE.The authors conclude that in contrast to the United Kingdom, the GEs in Toronto are not grammaticalizing but are undergoing lexical replacement. These findings suggest that discourse-pragmatic features may differ markedly across varieties and further that putative indicators of grammaticalization may not always operate in tandem. GEs provide a unique opportunity to study social and linguistic influences on discourse-pragmatic variation.

New perspectives on an ol' variable: (t,d) in British English

A quantitative analysis of -t,-d deletion in contemporary British English reveals that preceding and following phonological contexts are significant, indicating that there is a universal constraint on -t,-d deletion consistent with universal phonetic and phonological properties of segments. However, in contrast to previous research, morphological class is not significant. Furthermore, our results do not support the hypothesis that -t,-d deletion is a variable rule that applies both lexically and postlexically. In sum, -t,-d deletion is a robust phenomenon in contemporary British English, but there are striking differences between British and North American varieties. Such differences suggest that -t,-d deletion is an ideal case study for further investigation of the phonology-phonetics interface, and adds to the available evidence from which an explanatory account of -t,-d deletion can be constructed. The first author acknowledges with gratitude the generous support of the Economic and Social Research Council of the United Kingdom (the ESRC) for research grant #R000238287, Grammatical Variation and Change in British English: Perspectives from York . We are also grateful to Ms. Heather A. Davies, who made it possible for us to work for a time in the same geographical location, as a result of which our original conception of the article was transformed. We would like to thank members of the phonetics/phonology research group at the University of York and our audiences at the following conferences for their comments and suggestions: VIEW 2000, University of Essex; NWAV 30, North Carolina State University, 2001; and the Biennial Meeting of the British Association of Academic Phoneticians, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne 2002. Our anonymous reviewers deserve special mention as their insights prompted exacting revisions to our original manuscript. The result, we believe, is a stronger article; however, if points of contention remain, we welcome further discussion.