A qualitative-quantitative analysis of negative auxiliaries in a northern English dialect : I don't know and I don't think, innit?
This thesis is a sociolinguistic investigation into the variable encoding by form of the discourse variables 'I don't know', 'I don't think' and negative polarity tag questions within a variety of English spoken in the north-east of England. Combining qualitative methods from conversation analysis and quantitative methods from variationist socioloinguistics, it examines the pragmatic functions the variables perform and explores whether their surface realisations correlate with their functions and with the broad social dimensions of age and gender. Qualitative analysis shows that the selected discourse variables perform multiple functions in the interpersonal and textual domains of discourse. The quantitative analysis demonstrates that pragmatic and social factors are strongly implicated in the variation in the form of these variables, although the extent of their impact differs according to the geographical distribution of the variants involved. The occurrence of non-localisable and supra-local discourse variants, which have relatively wide geographical spreads, is strongly conditioned by discourse function.Â  The impact on their distribution of social factors is generally less important than that of function.
Pichler, Heike
Sociolinguistics ; English language
A qualitative-quantitative analysis of negative auxiliaries in a northern English dialect : I don't know and I don't think, innit?. This thesis is a sociolinguistic investigation into the variable encoding by form of the discourse variables 'I don't know', 'I don't think' and negative polarity tag questions within a variety of English spoken in the north-east of England. Combining qualitative methods from conversation analysis and quantitative methods from variationist socioloinguistics, it examines the pragmatic functions the variables perform and explores whether their surface realisations correlate with their functions and with the broad social dimensions of age and gender. Qualitative analysis shows that the selected discourse variables perform multiple functions in the interpersonal and textual domains of discourse. The quantitative analysis demonstrates that pragmatic and social factors are strongly implicated in the variation in the form of these variables, although the extent of their impact differs according to the geographical distribution of the variants involved. The occurrence of non-localisable and supra-local discourse variants, which have relatively wide geographical spreads, is strongly conditioned by discourse function.Â  The impact on their distribution of social factors is generally less important than that of function.
qualitative_quantitative analysis negative auxiliary northern english dialect know think sociolinguistic_investigation variable encode form discourse variable know think negative polarity tag question within variety_english speak north_east_england combining qualitative_method conversation_analysis quantitative_method variationist examines pragmatic function variable perform explore_whether surface realisation correlate function broad_social dimension age_gender qualitative_analysis show select discourse variable perform multiple function interpersonal textual domain discourse quantitative_analysis demonstrate pragmatic social_factor strongly implicate variation form variable although extent impact differs accord geographical_distribution variant involve occurrence non supra local discourse variant relatively wide_geographical spread strongly condition discourse impact distribution social_factor generally less_important function