Nonstandard lexical knowledge and use in a West Yorkshire community
The apparent attrition of the lexicon of 'traditional dialects' in England is often commented on, yet there remains a shortage of objective and systematic measurements of this phenomenon. This research was designed to quantify and apply sociolinguistic analysis to this particular aspect of linguistic change in a locality of West Yorkshire. In its fieldwork phase it constructs a corpus of nonstandard words, surveys knowledge and use of these in the community and complements the data by informal interviewing to illuminate the mechanisms and influences at work The collected numerical data are then used to measure and confirm the claimed attrition and, within a sociolinguistic paradigm, to examine their relationship with age, sex and social class data. Additionally, a detailed lexical analysis is undertaken to reveal patterns of choice and usage and to predict the survival prospects of the nonstandard words used in the survey. This research suggests that generalisations about sex, age and social differentiation in nonstandard speech need to be re-evaluated along locally specific, historical occupational, socio-economic and lexical choice dimensions. It is argued that, in this researched community, the social networks
Rhodes, Barrie Markham
Dialects; Sociolinguistic analysis
Nonstandard lexical knowledge and use in a West Yorkshire community. The apparent attrition of the lexicon of 'traditional dialects' in England is often commented on, yet there remains a shortage of objective and systematic measurements of this phenomenon. This research was designed to quantify and apply sociolinguistic analysis to this particular aspect of linguistic change in a locality of West Yorkshire. In its fieldwork phase it constructs a corpus of nonstandard words, surveys knowledge and use of these in the community and complements the data by informal interviewing to illuminate the mechanisms and influences at work The collected numerical data are then used to measure and confirm the claimed attrition and, within a sociolinguistic paradigm, to examine their relationship with age, sex and social class data. Additionally, a detailed lexical analysis is undertaken to reveal patterns of choice and usage and to predict the survival prospects of the nonstandard words used in the survey. This research suggests that generalisations about sex, age and social differentiation in nonstandard speech need to be re-evaluated along locally specific, historical occupational, socio-economic and lexical choice dimensions. It is argued that, in this researched community, the social networks
lexical_knowledge use west_yorkshire community apparent attrition lexicon traditional_dialect england often comment yet remain shortage objective systematic measurement phenomenon design quantify apply sociolinguistic analysis particular_aspect linguistic change locality west_yorkshire fieldwork phase construct corpus word survey knowledge use community complement data informal interviewing illuminate mechanism influence work collected numerical data_use measure confirm claim attrition within sociolinguistic paradigm examine_relationship age_sex social_class data additionally detailed lexical analysis_undertaken reveal pattern choice usage predict survival prospect word_use survey suggests generalisation sex_age social_differentiation speech need re_evaluated along locally specific historical occupational socio_economic lexical_choice dimension argue research community social_network