David Britain | Bern University (original) (raw)
Papers by David Britain
International Journal of Bilingualism 7(2) : 127-152, 2003
The focus of this article is the supposed “Gender Paradox,” proposed by Labov(1990,2001), which s... more The focus of this article is the supposed “Gender Paradox,” proposed by Labov(1990,2001), which suggests that women are both sometimes conservative and sometimes innovative in terms of linguistic variation and change. Here we explore the paradox from two perspectives: we in vestigate both its applicability to multilingual as opposed to multidialectal communities as well as question whether the paradox is methodological or real. Although much sociolinguistic research on the paradox has been on macro studies of men versus women in monolingual multidialectal communities, this paper presents quantitative analyses supplemented by in-depth ethnographic observation and data collection in a multilingual Japanese-Palauan community of the Western Pacific. What is more, and perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the “conservatism” and “innovation” of women in the community under scrutiny is represented by the use of the very same language—Japanese. For older Japanese-Palauan women, the greater use of Japanese represents adherence to their heritage language. Among younger Japanese-Palauan women(most of whom are bilingual in Palauan and English), however, the use of Japanese represents a change to wards a language highly valued in the economy as essential for the promotion of tourism and trade. Since our results demonstrate that the effects of gender on language behavior may appear in differences within sex groupings, we conclude that the paradox is methodological, rather than real, and is a result of the distillling of gender down to binary male-female categories of analysis, rather than investigating the complexity of gender more qualitatively. Our ethnographic analysis of multilingual data from Palau presented here demonstrates that function as well as form are important in understanding seemingly paradoxical examples of language shift, as well as highlighting the need both for further research on the effects of gender in multilingual communities and the combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis in studies of language change.
International Journal of the Sociology of Language 271: 103-144 , 2022
Through a qualitative and quantitative analysis of linguistic, perceptual, historical and sociode... more Through a qualitative and quantitative analysis of linguistic, perceptual, historical and sociodemographic data as well as two decades of sociolinguistic ethnography collected among the postcolonial Japanese speech communities of Palau in the Pacific, this article argues that Palauan Japanese was not simply 'standard Japanese transported', but a koineised vernacular variety of Japanese; i.e., a variety resulting from the mixture of different migrant dialects, which was adopted by Palauans through daily interaction with local Japanese settlers during the colonial period. The article concludes by emphasising: (a) the usefulness of teasing apart varieties largely acquired and consolidated through everyday communication with target language speakers from varieties mastered largely through formal schooling; (b) the importance of understanding the social contexts in which 'new' colonial varieties are formed as well as the linguistic outcomes of the dialect mixing that occurs when a numerically dominant but dialectally diverse settler population colonises a new territory; and (c) the helpfulness of speech perception and social identification experiments as tools to identify vernacularity.
International Journal of the Sociology of Language 273: 1-29 , 2022
In introducing this special issue on Japanese outside of Japan, this article sets the scene by pr... more In introducing this special issue on Japanese outside of Japan, this article sets the scene by providing an overview of the genesis and trajectories of the Japanese diaspora which examines the history of international population movements, demographic transitions, educational orientations and language situations in the resulting communities. It touches upon: (a) the disappearance of the oldest nihon machi (Japan towns) formed by fleeing samurai and traders as refugee and trade diasporas; (b) the emergence of Nikkei (Japanese ancestry) identities in Japanese labour diaspora communities; (c) the obsolescence of varieties of Japanese learnt/acquired during childhood in imperial diaspora contexts, along with the employment and integration of Japanese borrowings in the local languages; (d) the contrast in the social lives and language situations in global Japanese diaspora communities between affluent long-term residents living within Japanese norms, on the one hand, and, on the other, permanent residents seeking personal freedom from these norms; and (e) the contrasting social realities in contemporary Japan of returnee children of Japanese diplomats and expatriate Japanese business executives as a new privileged class, on the one hand, and returnee Nikkei Latin Americans working as foreign labourers in Japan, on the other. Given the wide range of historical and socioeconomic contexts in which the Japanese diaspora found itself, we conclude that it continues to provide a rich seam of potential sociolinguistic enquiry, which may provide an illustrative framework serving as a possible model for the historicised analysis of diasporic sociolinguistic complexities in other world contexts.
International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2022
Through a qualitative and quantitative analysis of linguistic, perceptual, historical and sociode... more Through a qualitative and quantitative analysis of linguistic, perceptual, historical and sociodemographic data as well as two decades of sociolinguistic ethnography collected among the postcolonial Japanese speech communities of Palau in the Pacific, this article argues that Palauan Japanese was not simply ‘standard Japanese transported’, but a koineised vernacular variety of Japanese; i.e., a variety resulting from the mixture of different migrant dialects, which was adopted by Palauans through daily interaction with local Japanese settlers during the colonial period. The article concludes by emphasising: (a) the usefulness of teasing apart varieties largely acquired and consolidated through everyday communication with target language speakers from varieties mastered largely through formal schooling; (b) the importance of understanding the social contexts in which ‘new’ colonial varieties are formed as well as the linguistic outcomes of the dialect mixing that occurs when a numeri...
English Today, 2020
Dialects in the South East of England are very often perceived as one homogenous mass, without mu... more Dialects in the South East of England are very often perceived as one homogenous mass, without much regional variation. Rosewarne introduced the notion of Estuary English and defined it as ‘variety of modified regional speech [ . . . ] a mixture of non-regional and local south-eastern English pronunciation and intonation’ (Rosewarne, 1984). However, studies such as Przedlacka (2001) and Torgersen & Kerswill (2004) have shown that, at least on the phonetic level, distinct varieties exist. Nevertheless, very few studies have investigated language use in the South East and even fewer in the county of Sussex. It is often claimed that there is no distinct Sussex dialect (Coates, 2010: 29). Even in the earliest works describing the dialect of the area (Wright, 1903) there are suggestions that it cannot be distinguished from Hampshire in the west and Kent in the east.
Language and a Sense of Place
Who would have thought there was so much to say about verbal-s? In this engrossing book Laura Rup... more Who would have thought there was so much to say about verbal-s? In this engrossing book Laura Rupp and David Britain tie together an immense body of work from historical linguistics, formal linguistics, functional linguistics and sociolinguistics to propose a coherent and convincing account of the linguistic, social and discourse-pragmatic meanings conveyed by verbal-s. Their remarkable feat points to an entirely new way of thinking about English morphology. This book is essential reading!"
Revista EntreLinguas, 2020
RESUMO: Desde Currie (1952) usou o termo 'sociolinguística' e reivindicou seu status de disciplin... more RESUMO: Desde Currie (1952) usou o termo 'sociolinguística' e reivindicou seu status de disciplina autônoma, seu desenvolvimento e influência sobre outras áreas da pesquisa linguística nos últimos anos dentro e, principalmente, fora da Espanhade nossas fronteiras têm sido muito consideráveis. Um dos aspectos destacados pela Sociolinguística desde o início é a heterogeneidade social e linguística da linguagem. Portanto, se a variabilidade estrutural e regular é característica do uso normal da língua e também é a chave para entender os mecanismos de mudança lingüística, o conhecimento e o domínio dessa variação lingüística presente na comunidade também são muito importantes. intimamente ligado ao grau de competência sociolingüística do falante, de modo que todo aluno de ILE língua estrangeira deve estar ciente disso e, portanto, deve ser contemplado em materiais de ensino e de texto. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Variação linguística. Competência sociolinguística. Ensino ILE. RESUMEN: Desde que Currie (1952) empleó el término 'sociolingüística' y reivindicó su estatus como disciplina autónoma, su desarrollo e influencia sobre otras esferas de la investigación lingüística durante los últimos años dentro y, principalmente, fuera de España, han sido muy considerables. Uno de los aspectos que la Sociolingüística ha destacado desde sus mismos albores es la heterogeneidad social y lingüística del lenguaje. Por ello, si la variabilidad estructural y regular es característica del uso normal de la lengua y constituye además la clave para la comprensión de los mecanismos del cambio lingüístico, el conocimiento y dominio de esta variación lingüística presente en el seno de la comunidad también está muy estrechamente ligado al grado de competencia sociolingüística del hablante, con lo que todo aprendiz de una lengua extranjera debe ser consciente de ella y, por ello, ha de ser contemplada en la docencia y los materiales de texto.
Las recientes aproximaciones que se han hecho al cambio lingüístico han sido sumamente satisfacto... more Las recientes aproximaciones que se han hecho al cambio lingüístico han sido sumamente satisfactorias en lo referente a cambios en proceso, si bien sólo recientemente han empezado a aprender a rastrear los orígenes de los mismos. En el presente artículo examino un caso procedente del inglés neocelandés (New Zealand English, NZE), donde un estudio sociolingüístico y sociodemográfico detallado de los orígenes de una supuesta innovación ofrece toda una serie de desavenencias con la antigua creencia sobre el rasgo 'nuevo'. La literatura publicada hasta la fecha frecuentemente asume que las formas disilábicas en -own de los participacios de pasado son el resultado de la fonologización de (ou), que, desde un punto de vista histórico, había tenido lugar supuestamente gracias a la desfonologización de ou y o: Aquí demuestro que es muy improbable que sea cierta esta explicación por distintas razones lingüísticas y sociohistóricas, entre las que se incluyen la imposibilidad de volver ...
The Lesser-Known Varieties of English
Introduction The Falkland Islands comprise a group of 780 islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, 48... more Introduction The Falkland Islands comprise a group of 780 islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, 480 km off the east coast of Argentina. Together, the islands cover 12,173 km 2 (slightly larger than Jamaica and Kosovo, slightly smaller than Connecticut, about half the size of Wales and a third the size of Baden-Wurttemberg), with a resident population of 2,955, according to the 2006 census. There are two main islands, East and West Falkland, and the capital is Stanley, on East Falkland, where 85 per cent of the resident population live. In addition to the resident population, around 2,000 British military personnel are based at RAF Mount Pleasant, 50 km west of Stanley. Politically, the Falklands are an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom. Closely associated with the Falklands, but now technically independent of them, are South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) (capital Grytviken), another UK Overseas Territory situated 1,390 km east-southeast of the Falklands. South Georgia, at 3,528 km 2 the same size roughly as Luxembourg, Saarland or the county of Dorset in England, was once an important whaling station. The 1909 census found a population of 720, of which over 90 per cent were Scandinavian, predominantly Norwegian. The whaling stations began to decline in the mid twentieth century, with the last closing in 1966, and today there is no settled civilian population, although there are two permanently staffed British Antarctic Research Stations, as well as Government Officers and curators staffing the museum and shop that are visited by passing cruise ships.
Clinical Sociolinguistics
Language, Communities, Networks and Practices 3 1 Language, Communities, Networks and Practices D... more Language, Communities, Networks and Practices 3 1 Language, Communities, Networks and Practices David Britain and Kazuko Matsumoto Introduction It is a fundamental tenet of sociolinguistic theory that language structure, in its most consistent and rule-governed state, resides not ...
Transactions of the Philological Society, 1999
When mutually intelligible, but distinct dialects of the same language come into contact, linguis... more When mutually intelligible, but distinct dialects of the same language come into contact, linguistic accommodation occurs. When this contact is long-term, for example in post-colonial settings, such as the English in Australia and New Zealand (Trudgill 1986; Trudgill et al forthcoming); or as a result of, say, New Town development (Omdal 1977; Kerswill and Williams 1992, forthcoming; Britain and Simpson forthcoming); indentured labour schemes (Barz and Siegel 1988; Siegel 1997); or land reclamation (Britain 1991; Scholtmeijer 1992), the accommodation can become routinised and permanent through the process of koineisation, and a new dialect can emerge. These new dialects are characteristically less`complex' and contain fewer marked or minority linguistic features than the dialects which came together in the original mix. In this paper we wish to highlight another possible outcome of koineisation, namely reallocation. Reallocation occurs where two or more variants in the dialect mix survive the levelling process but are refunctionalised, evolving new social or linguistic functions in the new dialect. We provide a range of examples of social and linguistic reallocation, from a number of speech communities around the world, the dialects of
Journal of Sociolinguistics, 2011
How to get published in the Journal of Sociolinguistics At the Journal of Sociolinguistics, we re... more How to get published in the Journal of Sociolinguistics At the Journal of Sociolinguistics, we receive many, many more submissions than we publish. Over the past year, we in the editorial team have surveyed our experience of incoming papers. We have put together the following list of features that will maximize your chances of having a paper accepted for publication with us. While a few of the points below apply specifically to our Journal, we think most of them are general academic good practice. We offer them then also in the spirit of opening up consideration of what constitutes good scholarly work, and of making the sometimes mysterious process of journal submission a little more transparent.
International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2009
International Journal of Bilingualism 7(2) : 127-152, 2003
The focus of this article is the supposed “Gender Paradox,” proposed by Labov(1990,2001), which s... more The focus of this article is the supposed “Gender Paradox,” proposed by Labov(1990,2001), which suggests that women are both sometimes conservative and sometimes innovative in terms of linguistic variation and change. Here we explore the paradox from two perspectives: we in vestigate both its applicability to multilingual as opposed to multidialectal communities as well as question whether the paradox is methodological or real. Although much sociolinguistic research on the paradox has been on macro studies of men versus women in monolingual multidialectal communities, this paper presents quantitative analyses supplemented by in-depth ethnographic observation and data collection in a multilingual Japanese-Palauan community of the Western Pacific. What is more, and perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the “conservatism” and “innovation” of women in the community under scrutiny is represented by the use of the very same language—Japanese. For older Japanese-Palauan women, the greater use of Japanese represents adherence to their heritage language. Among younger Japanese-Palauan women(most of whom are bilingual in Palauan and English), however, the use of Japanese represents a change to wards a language highly valued in the economy as essential for the promotion of tourism and trade. Since our results demonstrate that the effects of gender on language behavior may appear in differences within sex groupings, we conclude that the paradox is methodological, rather than real, and is a result of the distillling of gender down to binary male-female categories of analysis, rather than investigating the complexity of gender more qualitatively. Our ethnographic analysis of multilingual data from Palau presented here demonstrates that function as well as form are important in understanding seemingly paradoxical examples of language shift, as well as highlighting the need both for further research on the effects of gender in multilingual communities and the combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis in studies of language change.
International Journal of the Sociology of Language 271: 103-144 , 2022
Through a qualitative and quantitative analysis of linguistic, perceptual, historical and sociode... more Through a qualitative and quantitative analysis of linguistic, perceptual, historical and sociodemographic data as well as two decades of sociolinguistic ethnography collected among the postcolonial Japanese speech communities of Palau in the Pacific, this article argues that Palauan Japanese was not simply 'standard Japanese transported', but a koineised vernacular variety of Japanese; i.e., a variety resulting from the mixture of different migrant dialects, which was adopted by Palauans through daily interaction with local Japanese settlers during the colonial period. The article concludes by emphasising: (a) the usefulness of teasing apart varieties largely acquired and consolidated through everyday communication with target language speakers from varieties mastered largely through formal schooling; (b) the importance of understanding the social contexts in which 'new' colonial varieties are formed as well as the linguistic outcomes of the dialect mixing that occurs when a numerically dominant but dialectally diverse settler population colonises a new territory; and (c) the helpfulness of speech perception and social identification experiments as tools to identify vernacularity.
International Journal of the Sociology of Language 273: 1-29 , 2022
In introducing this special issue on Japanese outside of Japan, this article sets the scene by pr... more In introducing this special issue on Japanese outside of Japan, this article sets the scene by providing an overview of the genesis and trajectories of the Japanese diaspora which examines the history of international population movements, demographic transitions, educational orientations and language situations in the resulting communities. It touches upon: (a) the disappearance of the oldest nihon machi (Japan towns) formed by fleeing samurai and traders as refugee and trade diasporas; (b) the emergence of Nikkei (Japanese ancestry) identities in Japanese labour diaspora communities; (c) the obsolescence of varieties of Japanese learnt/acquired during childhood in imperial diaspora contexts, along with the employment and integration of Japanese borrowings in the local languages; (d) the contrast in the social lives and language situations in global Japanese diaspora communities between affluent long-term residents living within Japanese norms, on the one hand, and, on the other, permanent residents seeking personal freedom from these norms; and (e) the contrasting social realities in contemporary Japan of returnee children of Japanese diplomats and expatriate Japanese business executives as a new privileged class, on the one hand, and returnee Nikkei Latin Americans working as foreign labourers in Japan, on the other. Given the wide range of historical and socioeconomic contexts in which the Japanese diaspora found itself, we conclude that it continues to provide a rich seam of potential sociolinguistic enquiry, which may provide an illustrative framework serving as a possible model for the historicised analysis of diasporic sociolinguistic complexities in other world contexts.
International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2022
Through a qualitative and quantitative analysis of linguistic, perceptual, historical and sociode... more Through a qualitative and quantitative analysis of linguistic, perceptual, historical and sociodemographic data as well as two decades of sociolinguistic ethnography collected among the postcolonial Japanese speech communities of Palau in the Pacific, this article argues that Palauan Japanese was not simply ‘standard Japanese transported’, but a koineised vernacular variety of Japanese; i.e., a variety resulting from the mixture of different migrant dialects, which was adopted by Palauans through daily interaction with local Japanese settlers during the colonial period. The article concludes by emphasising: (a) the usefulness of teasing apart varieties largely acquired and consolidated through everyday communication with target language speakers from varieties mastered largely through formal schooling; (b) the importance of understanding the social contexts in which ‘new’ colonial varieties are formed as well as the linguistic outcomes of the dialect mixing that occurs when a numeri...
English Today, 2020
Dialects in the South East of England are very often perceived as one homogenous mass, without mu... more Dialects in the South East of England are very often perceived as one homogenous mass, without much regional variation. Rosewarne introduced the notion of Estuary English and defined it as ‘variety of modified regional speech [ . . . ] a mixture of non-regional and local south-eastern English pronunciation and intonation’ (Rosewarne, 1984). However, studies such as Przedlacka (2001) and Torgersen & Kerswill (2004) have shown that, at least on the phonetic level, distinct varieties exist. Nevertheless, very few studies have investigated language use in the South East and even fewer in the county of Sussex. It is often claimed that there is no distinct Sussex dialect (Coates, 2010: 29). Even in the earliest works describing the dialect of the area (Wright, 1903) there are suggestions that it cannot be distinguished from Hampshire in the west and Kent in the east.
Language and a Sense of Place
Who would have thought there was so much to say about verbal-s? In this engrossing book Laura Rup... more Who would have thought there was so much to say about verbal-s? In this engrossing book Laura Rupp and David Britain tie together an immense body of work from historical linguistics, formal linguistics, functional linguistics and sociolinguistics to propose a coherent and convincing account of the linguistic, social and discourse-pragmatic meanings conveyed by verbal-s. Their remarkable feat points to an entirely new way of thinking about English morphology. This book is essential reading!"
Revista EntreLinguas, 2020
RESUMO: Desde Currie (1952) usou o termo 'sociolinguística' e reivindicou seu status de disciplin... more RESUMO: Desde Currie (1952) usou o termo 'sociolinguística' e reivindicou seu status de disciplina autônoma, seu desenvolvimento e influência sobre outras áreas da pesquisa linguística nos últimos anos dentro e, principalmente, fora da Espanhade nossas fronteiras têm sido muito consideráveis. Um dos aspectos destacados pela Sociolinguística desde o início é a heterogeneidade social e linguística da linguagem. Portanto, se a variabilidade estrutural e regular é característica do uso normal da língua e também é a chave para entender os mecanismos de mudança lingüística, o conhecimento e o domínio dessa variação lingüística presente na comunidade também são muito importantes. intimamente ligado ao grau de competência sociolingüística do falante, de modo que todo aluno de ILE língua estrangeira deve estar ciente disso e, portanto, deve ser contemplado em materiais de ensino e de texto. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Variação linguística. Competência sociolinguística. Ensino ILE. RESUMEN: Desde que Currie (1952) empleó el término 'sociolingüística' y reivindicó su estatus como disciplina autónoma, su desarrollo e influencia sobre otras esferas de la investigación lingüística durante los últimos años dentro y, principalmente, fuera de España, han sido muy considerables. Uno de los aspectos que la Sociolingüística ha destacado desde sus mismos albores es la heterogeneidad social y lingüística del lenguaje. Por ello, si la variabilidad estructural y regular es característica del uso normal de la lengua y constituye además la clave para la comprensión de los mecanismos del cambio lingüístico, el conocimiento y dominio de esta variación lingüística presente en el seno de la comunidad también está muy estrechamente ligado al grado de competencia sociolingüística del hablante, con lo que todo aprendiz de una lengua extranjera debe ser consciente de ella y, por ello, ha de ser contemplada en la docencia y los materiales de texto.
Las recientes aproximaciones que se han hecho al cambio lingüístico han sido sumamente satisfacto... more Las recientes aproximaciones que se han hecho al cambio lingüístico han sido sumamente satisfactorias en lo referente a cambios en proceso, si bien sólo recientemente han empezado a aprender a rastrear los orígenes de los mismos. En el presente artículo examino un caso procedente del inglés neocelandés (New Zealand English, NZE), donde un estudio sociolingüístico y sociodemográfico detallado de los orígenes de una supuesta innovación ofrece toda una serie de desavenencias con la antigua creencia sobre el rasgo 'nuevo'. La literatura publicada hasta la fecha frecuentemente asume que las formas disilábicas en -own de los participacios de pasado son el resultado de la fonologización de (ou), que, desde un punto de vista histórico, había tenido lugar supuestamente gracias a la desfonologización de ou y o: Aquí demuestro que es muy improbable que sea cierta esta explicación por distintas razones lingüísticas y sociohistóricas, entre las que se incluyen la imposibilidad de volver ...
The Lesser-Known Varieties of English
Introduction The Falkland Islands comprise a group of 780 islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, 48... more Introduction The Falkland Islands comprise a group of 780 islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, 480 km off the east coast of Argentina. Together, the islands cover 12,173 km 2 (slightly larger than Jamaica and Kosovo, slightly smaller than Connecticut, about half the size of Wales and a third the size of Baden-Wurttemberg), with a resident population of 2,955, according to the 2006 census. There are two main islands, East and West Falkland, and the capital is Stanley, on East Falkland, where 85 per cent of the resident population live. In addition to the resident population, around 2,000 British military personnel are based at RAF Mount Pleasant, 50 km west of Stanley. Politically, the Falklands are an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom. Closely associated with the Falklands, but now technically independent of them, are South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) (capital Grytviken), another UK Overseas Territory situated 1,390 km east-southeast of the Falklands. South Georgia, at 3,528 km 2 the same size roughly as Luxembourg, Saarland or the county of Dorset in England, was once an important whaling station. The 1909 census found a population of 720, of which over 90 per cent were Scandinavian, predominantly Norwegian. The whaling stations began to decline in the mid twentieth century, with the last closing in 1966, and today there is no settled civilian population, although there are two permanently staffed British Antarctic Research Stations, as well as Government Officers and curators staffing the museum and shop that are visited by passing cruise ships.
Clinical Sociolinguistics
Language, Communities, Networks and Practices 3 1 Language, Communities, Networks and Practices D... more Language, Communities, Networks and Practices 3 1 Language, Communities, Networks and Practices David Britain and Kazuko Matsumoto Introduction It is a fundamental tenet of sociolinguistic theory that language structure, in its most consistent and rule-governed state, resides not ...
Transactions of the Philological Society, 1999
When mutually intelligible, but distinct dialects of the same language come into contact, linguis... more When mutually intelligible, but distinct dialects of the same language come into contact, linguistic accommodation occurs. When this contact is long-term, for example in post-colonial settings, such as the English in Australia and New Zealand (Trudgill 1986; Trudgill et al forthcoming); or as a result of, say, New Town development (Omdal 1977; Kerswill and Williams 1992, forthcoming; Britain and Simpson forthcoming); indentured labour schemes (Barz and Siegel 1988; Siegel 1997); or land reclamation (Britain 1991; Scholtmeijer 1992), the accommodation can become routinised and permanent through the process of koineisation, and a new dialect can emerge. These new dialects are characteristically less`complex' and contain fewer marked or minority linguistic features than the dialects which came together in the original mix. In this paper we wish to highlight another possible outcome of koineisation, namely reallocation. Reallocation occurs where two or more variants in the dialect mix survive the levelling process but are refunctionalised, evolving new social or linguistic functions in the new dialect. We provide a range of examples of social and linguistic reallocation, from a number of speech communities around the world, the dialects of
Journal of Sociolinguistics, 2011
How to get published in the Journal of Sociolinguistics At the Journal of Sociolinguistics, we re... more How to get published in the Journal of Sociolinguistics At the Journal of Sociolinguistics, we receive many, many more submissions than we publish. Over the past year, we in the editorial team have surveyed our experience of incoming papers. We have put together the following list of features that will maximize your chances of having a paper accepted for publication with us. While a few of the points below apply specifically to our Journal, we think most of them are general academic good practice. We offer them then also in the spirit of opening up consideration of what constitutes good scholarly work, and of making the sometimes mysterious process of journal submission a little more transparent.
International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2009
Language in Britain and Ireland, 2024
In this chapter, I present an overview of our current state of knowledge about morphosyntactic va... more In this chapter, I present an overview of our current state of knowledge about morphosyntactic variation and change in the English spoken in England. It is an attempt, therefore, to update earlier surveys such as Edwards, Trudgill and Weltens (1984), Cheshire, Edwards and Whittle (1989, 1993), and Hudson and Holmes (1995). Since these early accounts, a good number of edited volumes, handbooks and surveys have been produced which describe the non-standard varieties of specific locations or regions in England. These include: Kortmann et al. (2004), with chapters on the North of England,
Language variation: European Perspectives VII: Selected papers from the Ninth International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE9), Malaga, June 2017., 2019
Food across cultures: Linguistic Insights in Transcultural Tastes, 2019
In Karen Beaman, Isabelle Buchstaller, Susan Fox and James Walker (eds), Socio-grammatical Variation and Change: In Honour of Jenny Cheshire. New York: Routledge. 93-114., 2020
Marie Maegaard, Malene Monka, Kristine Køhler Mortensen, Andreas Candefors Stæhr (eds.), Patterns of language standardization in the periphery: transversal perspectives, 2020
In Emma Moore and Chris Montgomery (eds.) A Sense of Place: Studies in Language and Region. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 171-188, 2017
The ways we conceptualise 'urban' and 'rural' are strongly conditioned by a range of discourses (... more The ways we conceptualise 'urban' and 'rural' are strongly conditioned by a range of discourses (institutional, public, media…) -discourses which are dynamic yet which often have roots that reach well back into earlier times, discourses which are interactive and which shape how we see, read and interpret the landscape. These discourses themselves are also often deployed to deliberately manipulate how we interpret these landscapes: they are used to commodify certain landscapes (for example, in tourist promotional materials) or to package and sell particular partial and politicised representations of landscape (witness, for example, how the Countryside Alliance in the UK portrayed the countryside in its attempt to prevent a ban on fox hunting). The way we see the city and see the countryside, then, shaped by these discourses, is deeply ideological.
In Nikolas Coupland (ed.), Sociolinguistics: Theoretical Debates. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 217-241, 2016
In Siria Guzzo and David Britain (eds.), Languaging Diversity: Volume 2: Sociolinguistics and Identity. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2016
In Olga Timofeeva, Anne Gardner and Alpo Honkapohja (eds.), New approaches to English Linguistics: Building Bridges. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 13-33, 2016
![Research paper thumbnail of [with Kazuko Matsumoto] Palauan English](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/55023943/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](In Jeff Williams, Edgar Schneider, Peter Trudgill and Daniel Schreier (eds.). Further Studies in the Lesser Known Varieties of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 305-343, 2015
for their invaluable contribution to the progress of this research. This article examines the eme... more for their invaluable contribution to the progress of this research. This article examines the emergence of an Anglophone speech community in Palau, and aims to do three things: firstly to set the emergence of Palauan English into the context of the country's complex colonial past. Palau's four colonial rulers have exercised control in different ways, with different degrees of settler migration, different attitudes towards the function of Palau as a 'colony', and widely differing local policies, leading to very different linguistic outcomes in each case. The article focusses, however, on the American era and the path to Palauan independence. Secondly, in examining the development of English in Palau, it attempts to apply Schneider's (2007) 'Dynamic Model' of postcolonial English formation to this Anglophone community. This model attempts to provide a holistic social, historical, political and attitudinal as well as linguistic account of the process by which a new English emerges in a colonial environment. As we will see, the case of Palau is important, because few communities in which English has emerged as a result of American as opposed to British colonialism have been examined in the model to date. The final aim is to present, based on analyses of recordings of informal conversations among Palauans, an initial portrait of the main phonological, grammatical and lexical characteristics of Palauan English.
In Raymond Hickey (ed.). Researching Northern English. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 417-435, 2014
In Dominic Watt and Carmen Llamas (eds.), Language, borders and identity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 27-43, 2014
but heavy snow prevented me from attending. I am grateful to Dom Watt and Carmen Llamas for givin... more but heavy snow prevented me from attending. I am grateful to Dom Watt and Carmen Llamas for giving me the opportunity to brush the snowflakes from off this paper and present it in writing. Somewhat different versions were also later aired to audiences in Sheffield, Neuchatel, and Gent. I am very grateful to the people present for their very useful comments and suggestions.
In Jack Chambers and Natalie Schilling (eds.), Handbook of Language Variation and Change (second edition). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. 471-500, 2013
In D. Schreier and M. Hundt (eds.) English as a contact language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 165-181., 2013
In Janet Holmes and Kirk Hazen (eds.), Research Methods in Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Wiley. 246-261, 2013
This chapter considers the methodological decisions that need to be taken when conducting dialect... more This chapter considers the methodological decisions that need to be taken when conducting dialectological research on multiple geographical locations. Geographical dialectology is the oldest branch of dialect study and has made important contributions to sociolinguistics. This chapter presents the methods used in the pre-sociolinguistic era as well as more recent approaches. The student researcher needs to understand this range of methods in part because some of the earlier methods have survived to the present day. Additionally, we can problematize and critique the many different ways of deciding how to examine a particular region dialectologically, how to appropriately select speakers, and how to capture appropriate language data from them. This chapter examines how linguists have investigated the very obvious fact that different places house different dialects. We will look neither at the results of such work nor how they have been used to answer linguistic and sociolinguistic questions (see Britain, 2009, in press). Here, we simply examine the steps dialectologists take and have taken to conduct multi-locality research on language variation. In order to do so, five studies from different time periods are presented and critiqued, examining a number of key methodological elements in each:
![Research paper thumbnail of [with Andrea Sudbury] Falkland Island English](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/55024344/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](In Bernd Kortmann and Kerstin Lunkenheimer (eds.) The Mouton World Atlas of Variation in English. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 669-676., 2013
In J. M. Hernandez Campoy and J. C. Conde Silvestre (eds.) Handbook of Historical Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Blackwell. 451-464., 2012
In A Bergs and L Brinton (eds.) English Historical Linguistics: An International Handbook. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 2031-2043., 2012
The diffusion of innovative linguistic forms is discussed at three levels. Firstly, the chapter d... more The diffusion of innovative linguistic forms is discussed at three levels. Firstly, the chapter deals with terminological issues. What is the difference between an innovation and a change? How do we (and, indeed, should we) distinguish between changes diffused because of speaker migration, and those spread because of everyday human contact? Secondly, the chapter considers the spread of features from one individual to another. Is it possible to socially locate those who diffuse linguistic changes? Here, we consider competing arguments concerning the embedding of diffusers in local social networks of different strengths and structures. Finally, the geographical diffusion of changes is examined. By what routes do changes spread from place A to B? In this section, the different models of innovation diffusion are compared and critiqued. Throughout, studies on Englishes past and present are used to exemplify the arguments, models, and critiques.
In Andrea Ender, Adrian Leemann and Bernhard Wälchli (eds.) Methods in Contemporary Linguistics. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. 219-238., 2012
In Hansen, Sandra, Christian Schwarz, Philipp Stoeckle and Tobias Streck (eds.) Dialectological and folk dialectological concepts of space. Berlin: de Gruyter. 12-30., 2012
Special issue of Journal of Sociolinguistics Volume 20 (4). Oxford: Wiley, 2016
Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2016
Madrid: Ediciones Akal, 2016
Tübingen: Narr., 2012
“All the world seems to be on the move.” So began Sheller and Urry’s declaration of a ‘new mobili... more “All the world seems to be on the move.” So began Sheller and Urry’s declaration of a ‘new mobilities paradigm’, a critique of what they called the sedentarism of contemporary social theory. In linguistic, literary and cultural studies, mobility and movement have been receiving increasing critical attention for at least two decades. English on the Move: Mobilities in Literature and Language seeks to harness some of this critique to explore how mobilities, both mundane and dramatic, are represented, narrated, performed and negotiated in literature and discourse, as well as the repercussions and consequences of mobility on language and dialect.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. , 2009
Written by a team based at one of the world 's leading centres for linguistic teaching and resear... more Written by a team based at one of the world 's leading centres for linguistic teaching and research, the second edition of this highly successful textbook offers a unified approach to language, viewed from a range of perspectives essential for students' understanding of the subject. A language is a complex structure represented in the minds of its speakers, and this textbook provides the tools necessary for understanding this structure. Using clear explanations throughout, the book is divided into three main sections: sounds, words and sentences. In each, the foundational concepts are introduced, along with their application to the fields of child language acquisition, psycholinguistics, language disorders and sociolinguistics, giving the book a unique yet simple structure that helps students to engage with the subject more easily than other textbooks on the market.
Special double issue of International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Volume 196-197. Mouton de Gruyter, 2009
Language in the British Isles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., 2007
The British Isles are home to a vast range of different spoken and signed languages and dialects.... more The British Isles are home to a vast range of different spoken and signed languages and dialects. Language continues to evolve rapidly, in its diversity, in the number and the backgrounds of its speakers, and in the repercussions it has had for political and educational affairs. This book provides a comprehensive survey of the dominant languages and dialects used in the British Isles. Topics covered include the history of English; the relationship between Standard and Non-Standard Englishes; the major non-standard varieties spoken on the islands; the history of multilingualism; and the educational and planning implications of linguistic diversity in the British Isles. Among the many dialects and languages surveyed by the volume are British Black English, Celtic languages, Chinese, Indian, European migrant languages, British Sign Language and Anglo-Romani. Clear and accessible in its approach, it will be welcomed by students in sociolinguistics, English language and dialectology, as well as anyone interested more generally in language within British society.
Social Dialectology: in honour of Peter Trudgill. Amsterdam: Benjamins., 2003
The time-honoured study of dialects took a new turn some forty years ago, giving centre stage to ... more The time-honoured study of dialects took a new turn some forty years ago, giving centre stage to social factors and the quantitative analysis of language variation and change. It has become a discipline that no scholar of language can afford to ignore. This collection identifies the main theoretical and methodological issues currently preoccupying researchers in social dialectology, drawing not only on variation in English in the UK, USA, New Zealand, Europe and elsewhere but also in Arabic, Greek, Norwegian and Spanish dialects. The volume brings together previously unpublished work by the world's most prolific and well-respected social dialectologists as well as by some younger, dynamic researchers. Together the authors provide new perspectives on both the traditional areas of sociolinguistic variation and change and the newer fields of dialect formation, dialect diffusion and dialect levelling. They provide a snapshot of some of the burning issues currently preoccupying researchers in the field and give signposts to the future direction of the discipline.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., 2000
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., 1999
This book is a self-contained introduction to language and linguistics, suitable for use as a tex... more This book is a self-contained introduction to language and linguistics, suitable for use as a textbook and for self-study. Written by a team of distinguished linguists, it offers a unified approach to language from several perspectives. A language is a complex structure represented in the minds of its speakers, and this book provides the tools necessary for understanding this structure. It explains basic concepts and recent theoretical ideas in the major areas of linguistics (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics), as well as the applications of these to the study of child language acquisition, psycholinguistics, language disorders and sociolinguistics. The book is divided into three parts: sounds, words and sentences. In each of these parts, the foundational concepts are introduced along with their applications in the above fields, giving this book a clear and unique structure. Each section is accompanied by extensive exercises and guidance on further reading.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/english-dialects/id882340404?l=de&mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D8, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.uk\_regional, 2016
English World-Wide 28 (3): 332-339, 2007
Journal of Linguistics 43 (3): 742-746, 2007
English World-wide 22 (1): 121-128, 2001
Journal of Sociolinguistics 3-4: 584, 1999
In The Journal of the Polynesian Society 107 (1): 79-80, 1998
The Times Higher Education Supplement. May 2nd 1997, 1997
Sociolinguistica 9: 147-149, 1995
New Zealand Books 6 (2): 1-5, 1995
Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (2nd edition), 2006
This article looks at the language situation in the Republic of Palau, which is located in the We... more This article looks at the language situation in the Republic of Palau, which is located in the Western Pacific Ocean. We first consider the languages regarded as indigenous to this group of islands before looking at the other, nonlocal languages used there. Owing to a century of rule by a number of colonial powers as well as recent immigration, Palau is a relatively diverse multilingual and diglossic nation-state.
Clinical sociolinguistics, 2005
Further Studies in the Lesser-Known Varieties of English, 2015
Food across Cultures: Linguistic Insights in Transcultural Tastes, 2019
Given the strong relationship between the strength of language contact and the linguistic level o... more Given the strong relationship between the strength of language contact and the linguistic level of borrowings, we argue here that examining the distribution and integration of food-related loanwords can provide insight into the cultural intensity of the contact between indigenous and colonial languages. We argue that the adoption and indigenisation of a foreign food culture and the lexemes that accompany it are signs of intense contact, and are less likely when contact is more fleeting. In order to demonstrate this, we examine food-related borrowings from four colonial languages—Spanish, German, Japanese and English—that have come into contact with the Palauan language of Western Micronesia over the past 130 years. While American rule over Palau (1945 to 1994 and beyond) was the most recent and has far exceeded the others in terms of longevity, the Japanese colonial period (1914–1945) saw much more intensive, intimate, closer contact between colonial settlers and local Palauans. This has resulted in the adoption and adaptation into Palauan of a larger number and a wider-range of food-related and other culturally important terms from Japanese than from any other language, despite the fact that the period of direct Japanese rule ended over 70 years ago.