Language variation and innovation in Teesside English
This thesis presents a study of socially-conditioned phonological variation in a hitherto unresearched urban variety of British English. The variety in question is that of Teesside, on the North East coast of England. A corpus of conversational and word-list data has been collected through the use of an innovative method of data elicitation designed and systematically trialled in the present study for a large-scale project on linguistic variation in Britain. The method combines the elicitation of comparable data on lexical variation with the collection of samples of informal speech on which phonological and, to some extent, grammatical analyses can be undertaken. The data for the present study are taken from a socially homogeneous group of 32 speakers who are divided by gender and grouped into four emically-defmed age cohorts to test for both generational differences suggestive of change in progress in the variety, and fine-grained age differentiations between young speakers. Consonantal variables are investigated and external, speaker-based factors are examined in relation to the levelling out of localised forms and the diffusion of innovatory forms into the variety. Furthermore, the study is an investigation
Llamas, Mari Carmen
Language variation and innovation in Teesside English. This thesis presents a study of socially-conditioned phonological variation in a hitherto unresearched urban variety of British English. The variety in question is that of Teesside, on the North East coast of England. A corpus of conversational and word-list data has been collected through the use of an innovative method of data elicitation designed and systematically trialled in the present study for a large-scale project on linguistic variation in Britain. The method combines the elicitation of comparable data on lexical variation with the collection of samples of informal speech on which phonological and, to some extent, grammatical analyses can be undertaken. The data for the present study are taken from a socially homogeneous group of 32 speakers who are divided by gender and grouped into four emically-defmed age cohorts to test for both generational differences suggestive of change in progress in the variety, and fine-grained age differentiations between young speakers. Consonantal variables are investigated and external, speaker-based factors are examined in relation to the levelling out of localised forms and the diffusion of innovatory forms into the variety. Furthermore, the study is an investigation
language variation innovation english present_study socially phonological_variation hitherto unresearched urban variety british_english variety question north_east coast england corpus conversational word_list data_collect use innovative method data elicitation design systematically present_study large_scale project linguistic_variation britain method_combine elicitation comparable data lexical variation collection sample informal speech phonological extent grammatical analysis undertake data present_study take socially homogeneous_group speaker divide gender group age cohort test generational difference suggestive change_progress variety fine_grained age differentiation young speaker consonantal variable investigate external speaker based factor examine_relation level localise form diffusion innovatory form variety furthermore study investigation