PAST<i>BE</i>IN TRISTAN DA CUNHA: THE RISE AND FALL OF CATEGORICALITY IN LANGUAGE CHANGE

Schreier, Daniel

doi:10.1215/00031283-77-1-70

Cited by 60 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Walker & Sidnell 2011) and attested differences in leveling of forms of BE in past and nonpast contexts in other varieties of English (e.g. Schilling-Estes & Wolfram 1994;Britain 2002;Schreier 2002). 6 It might be desirable to have more fine-grained distinctions than this.…”

Section: M P L I C a T I O N S A N D C O N C L U S I O Nmentioning

confidence: 99%

An existential problem: The sociolinguistic monitor and variation in existential constructions on Bequia (St. Vincent and the Grenadines)

Meyerhoff¹,

Walker²

2013

Lang. Soc.

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Existential constructions in a corpus of spontaneous English from Bequia (St. Vincent and the Grenadines) are used to explore a linguistic problem (Is variation in verb form in existential constructions best viewed as grammatical or lexical?) and a sociolinguistic problem (What aspects of variation change over a lifetime?). We compare "urban sojourners" (Bequians who have been away) with their home village norms. We observe differences in the frequency of the TYPE of existential preferred in different villages and by the urban sojourners. We also observe differences in whether or not the main verb agrees in number with a postposed plural subject. Building on William Labov's early discussions of constraints on variation imposed by the "sociolinguistic monitor," we suggest that variation in individual speakers supports the notion that variables that are fundamentally grammatical are less likely to mark social factors than lexical variables are. (Bequia, Caribbean English, existentials, subject-verb agreement)* I N T R O D U C T I O NExistential constructions are a topic of special interest to linguists because of their implications for theories of subject-verb agreement (e.g. Chomsky 1995; van Gelderen 1997). The examples in (1) and (2) demonstrate variation in (what we initially call) agreement in different existential constructions in the English-based varieties spoken on the island of Bequia (St. Vincent and the Grenadines) in the Eastern Caribbean (see Figure 1). Existential BE may occur as morphologically singular (1a-c) or plural (2a-b), with standard (1a, 2a) or nonstandard (1b-c, 2b) agreement with

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Section: M P L I C a T I O N S A N D C O N C L U S I O Nmentioning

confidence: 99%

An existential problem: The sociolinguistic monitor and variation in existential constructions on Bequia (St. Vincent and the Grenadines)

Meyerhoff¹,

Walker²

2013

Lang. Soc.

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“…Afrikaans is thus more regular than its ancestral variety Dutch, in that it has reduced the number of phonological rules and does not make phonological contrasts in this particular environment (Booij 2002). Similarly, a striking case of morphosyntactic regularization is found in Tristan da Cunha English (TdCE), which regularized the past tense paradigm of be (with pivot form was) to the extent that were was categorically absent from the speech of Tristanians born before World War II (Schreier 2002). One notes the interplay of simplification and regularization.…”

Section: Shaping Overseas Varietiesmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Tristan da Cunha was an economic boomtown in the 1950s: the living conditions and housing standards improved and the changes brought about by the development scheme led to a complete transformation of the traditional Tristanian way of life within one generation. These social changes had linguistic consequences as local dialect features eroded via accommodation to and adoption of outside norms (Schreier 2002(Schreier , 2003.…”

Section: Dialect and Creole Contact: Tristan Da Cunha Englishmentioning

confidence: 99%

25. The consequences of migration and colonialism II: Overseas varieties

Schreier¹,

Auer²,

Schmidt³

2009

Language and Space

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“…A plethora of work already exists as regards this variable: research into the structure of past tense be-variation can be found on communities as far-flung as NorthEast Scotland (Smith and Tagliamonte 1998;Smith 2000), the Falkland Islands (Britain and Sudbury 2002) and Tristan da Cunha (Schreier 2002). Previous studies can, for the most part, be categorised in three ways: those which have found extensive regularisation to was (e.g.…”

Section: Existing Sociolinguistic Work On Past Tense Bementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Feagin 1979;Cheshire 1982;Eisikovits 1991;Schilling-Estes and Wolfram 1994;Hazen 1998;Tagliamonte 1998;Smith and Tagliamonte 1998;Tagliamonte and Smith 1999;Smith 2000;Anderwald 2001;Britain 2002;Britain and Sudbury 2002;Schreier 2002). Traditionally, only two variants are identified: was and were (with the exception of Hazen 1998) and the focus thus far has been on morphosyntactic constraints upon these two variants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preterite be

Richards

2010

EWW

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In this paper I analyse variation in the use of past tense be in data from Morley, a suburb of Leeds, in the North of England, using both real-time and apparenttime data. Rather than concentrating on the traditional aspects of this variable, namely alternation between was and were, I identify four phonetic variants of the past tense be system. I propose that the community under consideration are adopting intermediate variants that, both in terms of perception and production, lie between the standard (British) realisations of was [wɒz] and were [wɜː]. A reallocation process has occurred between these two intermediate forms, along the lines of polarity. The inclusion of the intermediate forms of past tense be enables us to perceive previously unobserved patterns of variation with regard to this variable.

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PASTBEIN TRISTAN DA CUNHA: THE RISE AND FALL OF CATEGORICALITY IN LANGUAGE CHANGE

Cited by 60 publications

References 14 publications

An existential problem: The sociolinguistic monitor and variation in existential constructions on Bequia (St. Vincent and the Grenadines)

An existential problem: The sociolinguistic monitor and variation in existential constructions on Bequia (St. Vincent and the Grenadines)

25. The consequences of migration and colonialism II: Overseas varieties

Preterite be

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