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Tapping into German Adjective Variation: A Variationist Sociolinguistic Approach
Abstract and Figures
Following the Labovian paradigm, the present study uses variationist quantitative methods to examine the linguistic and social factors influencing adjective choices in German. By focusing on adjectives of positive evaluation (such as cool ‘cool’, toll/geil/krass ‘great’), an analysis of over 3,000 tokens reveals that the choice of using one adjective over a competing counterpart is structured systematically. This choice is heavily constrained by the social factor age, with gender also influencing variation to varying degrees. The syntactic position of the adjective also conditions use, with some adjectives favoring predicative position and others favoring attributive or stand-alone position. Comparisons across apparent time, as well as with previous research, indicate that the semantic field of positive evaluation is a perpetually changing locus of variation. By applying variationist methods to German data, the present study illustrates how German lexis can index social meaning, paving the way for future research on German lexical variation. More broadly speaking, this study also contributes to ongoing variationist sociolinguistic research on German language variation and change.
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... Expanding Variationist Sociolinguistic Research in Varieties of German. New York: Routledge, While the effects of gender and age have been explored to some extent in work on varieties of German (e.g., Leemann et al., 2019;Stratton, 2020Stratton, , 2022, traditional variationist research rarely explores the impact of the wider sociolinguistic context, specifically, the influence of the macro societal context, such as language attitudes and ideologies toward multilingualism. These different macro contexts have been shown to influence language structure, leading to different types of contact varieties in multilingual contexts (Wiese, 2020b). ...
... In sum, the data reported in this study imply a relationship between the macro societal context, multilingualism, and linguistic behavior. Thus, in line with Stratton (2022), when it comes to lexical and discourse pragmatic features, the data point to a greater role of the social rather than geographic factors. This does not, however, appear to be generalizable for other domains such as morphosyntax (e.g., Vergeiner et al., 2024, chapter 2 in this volume). ...
... To tackle the aforementioned research lacuna, the present study analyzes data from 40 adult migrants with L2 German living in Bavarian-speaking Austria. Informed by the growing body of variationist sociolinguistic research on varieties of German (e.g., Beaman, 2020Beaman, , 2021Bülow & Vergeiner, 2021;Ender & Kaiser, 2009Stratton, 2020Stratton, , 2022Vergeiner, 2020;Wirtz, 2022), we explore by way of Bayesian multinomial modeling and qualitative analysis whether and why migrants with L2 German acquire sociolinguistic resources that are typical of first language (L1) speakersspecifically, varietal convergence to the (non)standard variety of the interlocutor. Thematically, this facilitates first insights concerning how L2 learners deal with sociolinguistic variation in their immediate input in the noninstructed context, that is, whether they retain strictly standard German speech classically taught in the classroom context or whether they integrate nonstandard speech into their repertoires as a means of accommodating to the community around them. ...
... The standard German variety is also used when it is assumed that the interlocutor cannot understand the local variety, for example, with L2 speakers or speakers from other German-speaking countries (Ender & Kaiser, 2009). Importantly, social factors have also been shown to influence linguistic choices across varieties of German, such as gender (e.g., Stratton, 2020Stratton, , 2022, age (e.g., Ziegler et al., 2021), education (e.g., Beaman, 2020Beaman, , 2021, and identity and social network (e.g., Beaman, 2020;Lippi-Green, 1989), though the effects of these factors can differ between dialect regions. ...
The present study takes a variationist perspective to explore the varietal repertoires of adult learners of German as a second language (L2), that is, their variable use of standard German, Austro-Bavarian dialect, and mixture varieties. Forty L2 learners completed a virtual reality task involving interactions with dialect-speaking and standard-German-speaking interlocutors. Using Bayesian multilevel modeling, the goal was to explore differential outcomes in the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence by determining whether participants adjusted their varietal behavior to match that of the interlocutor (i.e., varietal convergence). The results show that there were no interindividual addressee-dependent convergence tendencies. A holistic person-centered analysis of individual learners' intraspeaker variation revealed that only select L2 learners adjusted their usage patterns but did not entirely invert their usage of dialect and standard language as a function of the variety of the interlocutor. Introspective qualitative data speak to potential drivers behind the differential development of L2 (multi)varietal repertoires.
... Although geography is often reported as the predominant explanatory factor for lexical variation, lexis is highly structured along the axes of social and stylistic variation. In recent work, several lexical sets have been explored, such as dinner versus tea , words of profanity , adjectives of strangeness (Tagliamonte & Brooke, 2014), and adjectives of positive evaluation (Stratton, 2022b;Tagliamonte & Pabst, 2020). ...
... For instance, Sankoff, Thibault, and Bérubé (1978) analyzed the semantic field of verbs which mean "to dwell," which led to the notion of "weak complementarity": the idea that linguistic variables can be identified through distributional properties and distribution across a speech community (Sankoff & Thibault, 1981:207). Recent studies have followed in this tradition when analyzing lexical variation (e.g., Stratton, 2022b;Tagliamonte & Brooke, 2014;Tagliamonte & Pabst, 2020). The concept of a semantic field, however, predates the variationist tradition and has its roots in structuralist semantics (Trier, 1931), with the important distinction between semasiology and onomasiology (Geeraerts, 2010). ...
The present study uses variationist quantitative methods to examine the evolution of the semantic field of third-person male adult noun referents from Old English to Middle English, covering a time depth of approximately six hundred years. Results show a shift from the favored variant wer in Old English to man in Middle English, with the diachronic change in frequency following a prototypical s-shaped distribution. Although the replacement seems to take centuries to be complete, lexical frequency and written transmission are proposed as influential explanatory factors, and a homonymic clash is suggested to have accelerated the process of replacement in Middle English. Text type and text origin contribute to variation, with alliteration significantly influencing lexical choices in Old English verse texts. When combined with findings from recent synchronic work, this study highlights a heterogeneously structured semantic domain, which has undergone lexical replacement and change over time, providing some evidence for the applicability of s-shaped patterns for lexical change.
... The theoretical framework underpinning this study draws on two major sociolinguistic theories: Labovian variationist theory and Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT). Labovian variationist theory, originating from the work of William Labov (1966), focuses on how linguistic variation is systematically correlated with social factors such as class, ethnicity, and regional identity which can be seen from studies by Bayley (2019), Zhang (2019), and Stratton (2022). This theory has proven foundational in examining how language reflects and reinforces social stratification, providing insights into the role of dialectal and stylistic variation in signalling group affiliation or distinction. ...
This research explores how the variation in language, including practices like code-switching and shifts in dialect, influences the formation of social identities within academic communities characterized by multilingualism. The study focuses on a student from Papua at Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana (UKSW), where language plays a critical role in expressing cultural connections, managing interpersonal dynamics, and navigating power structures. By conducting a qualitative research through interviews and participant observation, the study investigates how the student utilizes his diverse linguistic skills to negotiate his identities and either connect with or distance himself from different social groups. The findings highlight the dual role of language in both including and excluding individuals, which mirrors broader sociocultural power structures. Specifically, the Papuan student employs language strategically to assert his regional identity while also adapting to national and global standards. This research advances our understanding of language variation as a significant sociolinguistic phenomenon and underscores its intricate relationship with identity construction in academic environments. The results offer valuable insights for both the field of sociolinguistics and for understanding how marginalized linguistic communities navigate the challenges of social and academic integration.
... Principle II states that "for stable sociolinguistic variables, women show a lower rate of stigmatized variants and a higher rate of prestige variants then men"(Labov, 2001:266), suggesting that men benefit from covert prestige more than women. Principle III states that "in linguistic change from above, women adopt prestige forms at a higher rate than men"(Labov, 2001:274), meaning that when change is salient women move to prestige forms, and when change is below the level of consciousness, Principle IV states that women are often at the forefront of linguistic change(Labov, 2001:292).Although some studies of German provide evidence of women, particularly young women, leading in linguistic change (e.g.,Gal, 1978;Stratton, 2022a), gender roles are culturally dependent (e.g.,Stanford & Preston, 2009). To study gender in the German-speaking context is often associated with Genderlinguistik(Pfalzgraf, 2023:439-440), which includes the study of genderinclusive language and gender roles beyond the male-female binary (e.g.,Stratton, 2018, in press).Research on the effects of gender as a social factor influencing linguistic variation in German has received mixed results. ...
... This finding points to conflicting research on the role of gender in linguistic variation in German. For example, studies of Swabian (Beaman, 2024) and Austrian Bavarian (Vergeiner et al., 2024) have shown little to no gender effects for either phonological or morphosyntactic variables; however, studies of lexical variation in German have found significant gender effects (Stratton, 2020(Stratton, , 2022. The current findings with respect to gender need to be interpreted with caution, however, since they could be the result of incomplete normalisation: vowel-intrinsic normalisation methods, such as the one used in this study, are known for performing less well than vowel-extrinsic methods in reducing the effects of physiological differences (e.g., between male and female vocal tracts) (Adank et al., 2004;Flynn, 2011). ...
This chapter explores the linguistic and social factors constraining long-term accommodation involving word-final (ə) in the L2 variety of Alemannic spoken by Romansh speakers who have migrated from Grisons in eastern Switzerland to the city of Bern in western Switzerland. The data are based on sociolinguistic interviews in Alemannic with 40 tertiary-educated speakers of Romansh between the ages of 21 and 40, who have been living in the city of Bern for varying amounts of time. Results from an acoustic analysis show that variation in the first and second formant of word-final (ə) can be explained by different linguistic factors such as the phonetic environment and the quality of the stressed vowel. The degree of openness of (ə) (i.e., first formant) correlates with a factor drawn from social network analysis measuring the frequency of contact that subjects have to people of the source and receiving community. Other social factors, such as the language(s) spoken in the family, prove to have partial effects as well.
... Principle II states that "for stable sociolinguistic variables, women show a lower rate of stigmatized variants and a higher rate of prestige variants then men"(Labov, 2001:266), suggesting that men benefit from covert prestige more than women. Principle III states that "in linguistic change from above, women adopt prestige forms at a higher rate than men"(Labov, 2001:274), meaning that when change is salient women move to prestige forms, and when change is below the level of consciousness, Principle IV states that women are often at the forefront of linguistic change(Labov, 2001:292).Although some studies of German provide evidence of women, particularly young women, leading in linguistic change (e.g.,Gal, 1978;Stratton, 2022a), gender roles are culturally dependent (e.g.,Stanford & Preston, 2009). To study gender in the German-speaking context is often associated with Genderlinguistik(Pfalzgraf, 2023:439-440), which includes the study of genderinclusive language and gender roles beyond the male-female binary (e.g.,Stratton, 2018, in press).Research on the effects of gender as a social factor influencing linguistic variation in German has received mixed results. ...
The use of apparent time differences to study language change in progress has been a basic analytical construct in quantitative sociolinguistics for over 30 years. The basic assumption underlying the construct is that, unless there is evidence to the contrary, differences among generations of similar adults mirror actual diachronic developments in a language: the speech of each generation is assumed to reflect the language more or less as it existed at the time when that generation learned the language. In providing a mirror of real time change, apparent time forms the basis of a conceptual framework for exploring language change in progress. However, the basic assumptions that underlie apparent time have never been fully tested. This article tests those assumptions by comparing apparent time data from two recent random sample telephone surveys of Texas speech with real time data from the Linguistic Atlas of the Gulf States, which was conducted some 15 years before the telephone surveys. The real time differences between the linguistic atlas data and the data from the telephone surveys provide strong support for the apparent time construct. Whenever apparent time data in the telephone surveys clearly suggest change in progress, the atlas data show substantially fewer innovative forms. Whenever the apparent time data suggest stable variation, the atlas data are virtually identical to that from the more recent surveys. Whenever the relationships between real and apparent time data are unclear, sorting out mitigating factors, such as nativity and subregional residence, clarifies and confirms the relationships. The results of our test of the apparent time construct suggest that it is unquestionably a valid and useful analytical tool.
The second-wave feminist movement and the publication of the "Richtlinien zur Vermeidung sexistischen Sprachgebrauchs" catalyzed the rise of many gender-fair innovations in Modern Standard German (Guentherodt et al. 1980). While multiple studies have shown that gender-fair innovations such as the "Paarform" 'pair form' are used frequently in written and formal language (Bußmann & Hellinger 2003; Castillo 2003; Moser & Hannover 2014), little empirical research has addressed their use in unrehearsed, spoken dialogue. This study investigates the frequency of the generic masculine, the derivational suffix-in and gender-fair innovations in unrehearsed spoken dialogue in Modern Standard German.
This paper discusses issues of lexical synonymy. Two German adjectives with the core meaning ›very good‹ are in focus: vorzüglich and vortrefflich. Our empirical data is taken from the Leipzig Corpora Collection. According to the »classical« view, near-synonyms differ from each other semantically. Hence the aim of synonym analysis is to arrive at definitions by finding out distinctive semantic features. We show that near-synonyms can possess individual combinatorial properties without clear semantic distinctions. Combinatorial preferences or restrictions often go back to usage based co-occurrences. The semantic class of co-occurrence partners is also an important factor. Furthermore, combinatorial preferences can go back to affinity with certain thematic domains, discursive practices, stylistic registers etc.
This article presents a synchronic quantitative study of adjectives in the semantic field of STRANGENESS in a large North American city, toronto, the largest urban center in Canada. the analysis is based on nearly 2,000 adjectives, representing 11 different types, as in She's really weird and She's odd. the distribution of these adjectives in apparent time provides startling evidence of change. the adjective strange is quickly moving out of favor, and weird has expanded dramatically, usurping all other forms. Neither linguistic nor social factors are implicated in this change, suggesting that lexical replacement is the prevailing mechanism driving the development. Consideration of the broader context reveals that renewal and recycling of these adjectives is rooted in the history of english and is progressing in parallel at least across british and North American english. the actuation of the shift toward weird may be rooted in developments in literature and mass media, revealing that adjectives are a vibrant area of the grammar that may be used to track cultural influ-ences on linguistic change.
Nowadays, linguists do not question the existence of synchronic variation, and the dichotomy between synchrony and diachrony. They recognize that synchrony can be motivated regionally (diatopic variation), sociolinguistically (diastratic variation), or stylistically (diaphasic variation). But, further, they can also recognize the hybrid nature of synchrony, which is referred to as "dynamic synchrony." This conception of synchrony assumes that similar patterns of usage can coexist in a community during a certain period and that their mutual relations are not static but conflicting enough to result in a future systematic change through symptomatic synchronic variation. Emergence of a large corpus of written texts for some languages has enabled quantitative as well as qualitative analyses of the synchronic conditions for diachronic changes, over both long and short spans of time. Most of the 14 papers in this volume represent studies on synchronic and diachronic variations based on such corpus data.
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Der erste Band des „Norddeutschen Sprachatlas“ (NOSA) vermittelt einen Einblick in die regiolektalen Varietäten („Umgangssprachen“) Norddeutschlands auf der Grundlage der Spracherhebungen des Projekts „Sprachvariation in Norddeutschland“ (SiN). Die Atlaskarten dokumentieren den Sprachgebrauch von 144 Sprecherinnen aus 36 Orten in 18 norddeutschen Dialektregionen. Grundlage bilden Aufnahmen aus drei Situationen (Tischgespräche, Interviews, Vorleseaussprache). In einer ausführlichen Einleitung werden die Grundlagen des SiN-Projekts und des areallinguistischen Teilprojekts erörtert und ein Forschungsüberblick zu den norddeutschen Regiolekten gegeben. Im Hauptteil wird anhand von kommentierten Kartenserien die areale, situative und individuelle Variation für 30 phonetisch-phonologische Variablen beschrieben und interpretiert. Der Atlas bietet damit zum ersten Mal ein aktuelles Bild von der regionalsprachlichen Variation im Norden Deutschlands und der Entwicklungsdynamik der gesprochenen Alltagssprache auf der Basis authentischer Sprachaufnahmen. Unter Mitarbeit von Liv Andresen, Klaas-Hinrich Ehlers, Kristin Eichhorn, Robert Langhanke, Hannah Reuter, Claudia Scharioth und Viola Wilcken; Kartografie, Layout und Satz: Ulrike Schwedler.
One of the first accounts of social variation in language, this groundbreaking study founded the discipline of sociolinguistics, providing the model on which thousands of studies have been based. In this second edition, Labov looks back on forty years of sociolinguistic research, bringing the reader up to date on its methods, findings and achievements. In over thirty pages of new material, he explores the unforeseen implications of his earlier work, addresses the political issues involved, and evaluates the success of newer approaches to sociolinguistic investigation. In doing so, he reveals the outstanding accomplishments of sociolinguistics since his original study, which laid the foundations for studying language variation, introduced the crucial concept of the linguistic variable, and showed how variation across age groups is an indicator of language change. Bringing Labov's pioneering study into the 21st century, this classic volume will remain the benchmark in the field for years to come.
The study of how language varies in social context, and how it can be analyzed and accounted for, are the key goals of sociolinguistics. Until now, however, the actual tools and methods have been largely passed on through 'word of mouth', rather than being formally documented. This is the first comprehensive 'how to' guide to the formal analysis of sociolinguistic variation. It shows step-by-step how the analysis is carried out, leading the reader through every stage of a research project from start to finish. Topics covered include fieldwork, data organization and management, analysis and interpretation, presenting research results, and writing up a paper. Practical and informal, the book contains all the information needed to conduct a fully-fledged sociolinguistic investigation, and includes exercises, checklists, references and insider tips. It is set to become an essential resource for students, researchers and fieldworkers embarking on research projects in sociolinguistics.
While many studies have employed variationist methods to examine longitudinal changes in the English intensifier system (e.g., Ito & Tagliamonte 2003; Tagliamonte & Roberts 2005; Tagliamonte 2008; D’Arcy 2015), to date, no variationist studies have tackled the intensifier system of Old English. By providing a critical view of this system at an earlier stage in the history of the English language, the present study adds to the long tradition of scholarship on intensifiers while providing new insight into their diachronic development. Despite its antiquity, several parallels can be drawn with the intensifier system at later stages in the language. Both internal and external factors are found to constrain this system, with predicative adjectives favoring intensification over attributive adjectives, prose texts having higher intensification rates than verse texts, vernacular texts having higher intensification rates than Latin-based texts, and the rate of intensification increasing over time. The quantitative analysis of the Old English system also increases the time depth necessary for a more detailed reflection on the diachronic recycling, replacement, and renewal of intensifiers. Language contact and borrowing are also postulated to be some of the driving forces of innovation and replacement in earlier stages of the English language.
This paper examines variation and change in the adjectives used to express “highly positive evaluation” in the varieties of English spoken in Toronto, Canada, and York, England. Building on earlier work on another semantic field, “strangeness,” we analyze over 4800 tokens and thirty-four different types, as in “That’s great” and “She’s awesome.” Our results show both similarities and differences between these two semantic fields. While individual forms in both fields tend to be popular for a long time, many forms fall in and out of favor. In the case of adjectives of highly positive evaluation, the adjectival set is particularly rich. Distributional analysis and statistical modeling of constraints on the major forms and their underlying social and linguistic correlates reveals that these changes are not progressing in parallel across varieties of English. There are robust linguistic patterns that suggest a systemic underlying explanation. New additions to this field arise in predicative position and as stand-alones, and in a later stage extend to attributive position. Finally, consistent with earlier findings on adjectives and (intensifying) adverbs, there are notable links to social trends and popular culture, affirming the link between open class categories and their sociolinguistic embedding.
While the study of English intensifiers has been a topic of much
empirical discussion, intensification in the German language is underexplored. The present study operationalizes variationist methods to comprehensively examine the syntactic intensification of adjectives in German by investigating how adjective intensifiers rank empirically in terms of frequency and investigating whether their use is sensitive to the social factors gender and age. Results indicate that in German, amplifiers are more frequent than downtoners, boosters are more frequent than maximizers, and the gender and the age of the speaker are factors which influence their use. These findings corroborate crosslinguistic findings. Broadly speaking, the present study suggests that the syntactic intensification of adjectives in German is, in many ways, similar to what has been observed previously in other Germanic languages.
The English words for daily meals constitute a complex lexical variable conditioned by social and linguistic factors. Comparative sociolinguistic analysis of 884 speakers from more than a dozen locations in Ontario, Canada reveals a synchronic system with social correlates that are reflexes of the British and American founder populations of the province. Toronto and Loyalist settlements in southern Ontario use the highest rates of dinner while northerners with European and Scots-Irish roots use supper. Dinner is taking over as the dominant form among younger speakers, exposing a cascade pattern ( Trudgill 1972 ; Labov 2007 ) that is consistent with sociolinguistic typology ( Trudgill 2011 ).
How do today's teenagers talk? What are the distinguishing features of their style of language, and what do they tell us about the English language more generally? Drawing on a huge corpus of examples collected over a fifteen-year period, Sali A. Tagliamonte undertakes a detailed study of adolescents' language and argues that it acts as a 'bellwether' for the future of the English language. Teenagers are often accused of 'lowering the standards' of the English language by the way they talk and text. From spoken words - 'like', 'so', 'just', and 'stuff' - to abbreviated expressions used online, this fascinating book puts young people's language under the microscope, examining and demystifying the origins of new words, and tracking how they vary according to gender, geographical location, and social circumstances. Highly topical and full of new insights, the book is essential reading for anyone interested in how teenagers talk. Provides documentation of an under-studied population: the language of pre-adolescents, teenagers and young adults Includes stories, tales, expressions and sayings as well as many examples of interesting teen language features Contributes insights into sociolinguistics, lifespan change, linguistic change and linguistic theory.
This article focuses on an aspect of intensification which has not, so far, received due attention in the extensive literature on the topic: intensifier iteration (very very hot) and co-occurrence (very extremely hot), with a special focus on Old, Middle and Early Middle English as represented in the Penn Historical Corpora. The results show that in earlier English, intensifier iteration is less frequent than co-occurrence; that while the former is clearly associated with emphasis, the latter also intersects with grammaticalization and renewal; and that co-occurrence is particularly salient in periods of instability when the competition of intensifiers is at its height. Iteration and co-occurrence of intensifiers are analysed in this article as cases of the widespread cross-linguistic phenomenon of accretion.
Der vorliegende Aufsatz beschäftigt sich mit einigen Aspekten der variationistischen Annotation von Korpusdaten. Anhand von mehreren Beispielen wird gezeigt, dass der Vergleich von Kategorien in einem Korpus oder der Vergleich von zwei Korpora nur unter bestimmten Bedingungen variationistisch interpretiert werden kann. Da die Definition von Variablen oft schwierig ist und die Zuordnung von Varianten zu Variablen je nach Forschungsfrage unterschiedlich sein kann, müssen Variablen und Varianten in einem Korpus (für alle transparent und nachvollziehbar) annotiert werden. Dabei wird für eine offene Korpusarchitektur argumentiert, in der in einem bestehenden Korpus jederzeit Variablen und Varianten hinzugefügt werden können.
This paper presents practices in the compilation of FOLK, the Research and Teaching Corpus of Spoken German, a large collection of spontaneous verbal interaction from diverse discourse domains. After introducing the aims and organisational circumstances of the construction of FOLK, the general idea is discussed that good practices cannot be developed without considering methodological, technological and organisational aspects on equal footing. Starting from this idea, the this paper inspects a little more closely some actual practices in FOLK, namely the handling of legal (especially privacy protection) issues, the decisions taken for the transcription and annotation workflow, and the question of how to best disseminate a corpus like FOLK. The final section sketches some possible future improvements for practices in FOLK.
This book explores the current state of Spanish sociolinguistics and its contribution to theories of language variation and change, from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives. It offers original analyses on a variety of topics across a wide spectrum of linguistic subfields from different formal, experimental, and corpus-based standpoints. The volume is organized around six thematic sections: (i) Cutting-edge Methodologies in Sociolinguistics; (ii) Bilingualism; (iii) Language Acquisition; (iv) Phonological Variation; (v) Morpho-Syntactic Variation; and (vi) Lexical Variation. As a whole, this collection reflects an array of approaches and analyses that show how in its variation across speakers, speech communities, linguistic contexts, communicative situations, dialects, and time, the Spanish language provides an immense wealth of data to challenge accepted linguistic views and shape new theoretical proposals in the field of language variation and change. Spanish Language and Sociolinguistic Analysis represents a significant contribution to the growing field of Spanish sociolinguistics.
This paper investigates the structure and emergence of a new construction in German, the wie-X-ist-das-denn! exclamative (roughly corresponding to ‚How X is that!‘), usually with X being an evaluative adjective. A quantitative and qualitative investigation based on the DeReKo (German reference corpus) shows that the construction is spreading also in written German. It also reveals a clear prototype with little variation (the latter affecting the placement and use of the modal question particle denn, the use of other pronouns than das, and the use of non-evaluative adjectives in the X position). On the basis of a discussion of the construction’s relationship to various neighbouring constructions it is shown that it strongly resembles the German leading question construction, but differs from the latter above all in invariably placing the nuclear accent on the demonstrative das. It is argued that the most plausible origin of the new construction therefore is a blend of the leading question construction with the prosodic exclamative construction, which has led to the cancellation of the implicature inherent in leading questions. While in leading questions, the implicature is that the proposition contained in it is wrong, the new exclamative construction has a direct semantic-pragmatic reading which can be paraphrased as an expression of the speaker’s surprise about the degree to which the property expressed in the X-position applies to the referent of das.
This volume deals with different aspects of the creation and use of multilingual corpora. The term 'multilingual corpus' is understood in a comprehensive sense, meaning any systematic collection of empirical language data enabling linguists to carry out analyses of multilingual individuals, multilingual societies or multilingual communication. The individual contributions are thus concerned with a variety of spoken and written corpora ranging from learner and attrition corpora, language contact corpora and interpreting corpora to comparable and parallel corpora. The overarching aim of the volume is first to take stock of the variety of existing multilingual corpora, documenting possible corpus designs and uses, second to discuss methodological and technological challenges in the creation and analysis of multilingual corpora, and third to provide examples of linguistic analyses that were carried out on the basis of multilingual corpora.
Intensification is prone to invention and renewal, rendering it ideal for delving into mechanisms of variation and change. Recycling (via lexical replacement) is a putative longitudinal constant, yet grammatical change (via grammaticalization) is regularly invoked in the literature. It is not clear how these complement each other. To probe this issue, this paper operationalizes variationist methods to examine intensification in the Origins of New Zealand English Corpus (ONZE; Gordon et al. 2007). The analysis draws on nearly 13,000 tokens across the longue durée (Braudel 1958, 1980), tracing intensification over 130 years of vernacular speech. The picture that emerges extends beyond the distributional waxing and waning of forms. There is evidence for lexical change, but the longitudinal trajectory is not always continuous. Replacement entails reorganization followed by leveling, and grammatical correlates shift across time. Nonetheless, the inherent form/function asymmetry that characterizes the sector also supports periods of ‘fevered’ change.
Introduction Improved understanding of, and sensible approaches to, linguistic and cultural diversity in society are increasingly critical to promote equity and respect, particularly in schools and workplaces, for members of all groups in our society. Language is a core element, both in real differences and in the symbolic proxy it provides for other social parameters, such as ethnicity. Headlines in recent years on hot issues such as Ebonics and bilingual education demonstrate the widespread misunderstanding of the underpinnings of those educational issues and of language in general. While scholars understand many of the linguistic principles underlying variation in language and multilingualism in society, the many educational and social issues that arise in connection with diversity remain significant challenges. Better information and understanding of how language works and how people learn languages is sorely needed. Myths and misconceptions about language pervade public discourse and underlie policy decisions at all levels, and those knowledgeable about language need to be involved in those conversations. These issues were underscored by a panel convened by the National Science Foundation to consider the development of human capital, identifying research questions for the future and potential areas for contributions from linguistics (Wolfram and Schilling-Estes 1996b). The panel set its premise as follows: Given the cognitive basis of the human language faculty and the sociocultural context in which language use is embedded, linguistic investigation has played and should continue to play a central role in advancing our basic understanding of the effective utilization of human capital. (1996b:1) © Cambridge University Press 2007 and Cambridge University Press, 2010.
This thoroughly revised edition helps those who have already acquired the basics of German and wish to extend their fluency and confidence. Focusing on the particular needs of the English-speaking user, it incorporates important information on recent trends and changes in the German language, including the 1998 spelling reforms, and on style, register and regional variation, which is frequently ignored by conventional textbooks. First Edition Hb (1992): 0-521-42077-6 First Edition Pb (1992): 0-521-31556-5
Due to the recent and rapid newcomer, be like, the English quotative system is a good place to catch language change in action. However, since most previous analyses target people in their early twenties, little is known about how be like is diffusing. In this paper we conduct an analysis of Canadian youth between ten and nineteen years old and compare the results with an earlier study. There is a dramatic increase in be like in real time. In apparent time, the content of the quote and grammatical person are significant and the constraints are parallel for all ages except one. The effect of content of the quote has reversed among the oldest speakers, aged between 17 and 19. Moreover, there is a clear shift in the social evaluation of be like: sex is significant and strong for 15-16 year olds onwards, revealing that age and sex interact in sociolinguistic change. Furthermore, we establish ongoing grammaticalization of be like.
Non-inflecting adjectives occur not only in predicative, adverbial, co-predicative-adverbial and adadjectival-attributive function, but also occur regularly in adnominal-attributive function in particular types of text. This can occur in both the preposed and postposed position of the governing nominal core of the noun phrase. In contrast, the adnominal-attributive use in the position between the determinative and the governing nominal core is characteristic of inflected adjectives.
The study of grammaticalization raises a number of fundamental theoretical issues pertaining to the relation of langue and parole, creativity and automatic coding, synchrony and diachrony, categoriality and continua, typological characteristics and language-specific forms, etc., and therefore challenges some of the basic tenets of twentieth century linguistics.
This two-volume work presents a number of diverse theoretical viewpoints on grammaticalization and gives insights into the genesis, development, and organization of grammatical categories in a number of language world-wide, with particular attention to morphosyntactic and semantic-pragmatic issues.
The papers in Volume I are divided into two sections, the first concerned with general method, and the second with issues of directionality. Those in Volume II are divided into five sections: verbal structure, argument structure, subordination, modality, and multiple paths of grammaticalization.