Pub Date : 2024-07-10DOI: 10.1215/00031283-11466482
K. A. Smith, Zachary Dukic
In this paper, we provide an analysis of the present-day distribution of the -ster suffix in English and account for that distribution through the diachronic forces that shaped it. Taking a constructional approach (Bybee 2010), we show that words with the -ster suffix in Middle English constituted a semantically coherent set in so far as the items in that set mostly referred to professions. In the latter part of the first half of the Modern English period, we find a renaissance of -ster usage, albeit with a semantic shift toward the identification of a human agent (usually male) involved in activities that were subversive, illicit or even criminal, e.g. gangster. We sketch out a model in which certain of the constructions stand as central members, or exemplars, which then serve as analogical bases to which other constructions with -ster are extended. We argue that the cumulative effect of the central exemplars of this set strengthens the representation of -ster as formally independent and imbues it with the emergent meaning of subversion, illicitness, or criminality. The result of these diachronic process is a very healthy productivity of -ster in later modern English and a distribution across several domains.
{"title":"The Suffix -ster in Present-day English: A Usage-based and Network Model Account","authors":"K. A. Smith, Zachary Dukic","doi":"10.1215/00031283-11466482","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-11466482","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we provide an analysis of the present-day distribution of the -ster suffix in English and account for that distribution through the diachronic forces that shaped it. Taking a constructional approach (Bybee 2010), we show that words with the -ster suffix in Middle English constituted a semantically coherent set in so far as the items in that set mostly referred to professions. In the latter part of the first half of the Modern English period, we find a renaissance of -ster usage, albeit with a semantic shift toward the identification of a human agent (usually male) involved in activities that were subversive, illicit or even criminal, e.g. gangster. We sketch out a model in which certain of the constructions stand as central members, or exemplars, which then serve as analogical bases to which other constructions with -ster are extended. We argue that the cumulative effect of the central exemplars of this set strengthens the representation of -ster as formally independent and imbues it with the emergent meaning of subversion, illicitness, or criminality. The result of these diachronic process is a very healthy productivity of -ster in later modern English and a distribution across several domains.","PeriodicalId":158510,"journal":{"name":"American Speech: A Quarterly of Linguistic Usage","volume":"77 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141662925","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-10DOI: 10.1215/00031283-11466578
Sharese King, J. Calder
While traditional variationist research has been critiqued for positioning ethnic and regional variation in terms of separate “lects,” recent work has adopted a more nuanced view in which racialized subjects can combine individual linguistic resources to index multiple identities. Expanding upon this perspective, this paper explores how 12 African Americans in Bakersfield, California, combine elements of a local variety— California Vowel Shift (CVS)— and elements of a racialized variety— African American Language (AAL) via their realization of BOOT-fronting, BAT-backing, and the BOT-BOUGHT merger. While African Americans front BOOT and increasingly back BAT over time— as predicted by the CVS— they maintain a BOT-BOUGHT distinction— a pattern in line with descriptions of AAL. These patterns, which do not mirror either CVS or AAL in a wholesale way, align with the aforementioned perspective describing the linguistic practices of racialized individuals as a fluid linguistic repertoire, in which individual variables can be leveraged to articulate identity in complex ways. Relatedly, conversations in gender and linguistics have used bricolage as a theoretical framework to describe a similar phenomenon. Bridging these disciplinary conversations, it is argued that through stylistic bricolage, speakers draw from a fluid linguistic repertoire to articulate their identities as multidimensional.
{"title":"Multidimensional Identity as Bricolage: Indexing Race and Place in Bakersfield, California","authors":"Sharese King, J. Calder","doi":"10.1215/00031283-11466578","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-11466578","url":null,"abstract":"While traditional variationist research has been critiqued for positioning ethnic and regional variation in terms of separate “lects,” recent work has adopted a more nuanced view in which racialized subjects can combine individual linguistic resources to index multiple identities. Expanding upon this perspective, this paper explores how 12 African Americans in Bakersfield, California, combine elements of a local variety— California Vowel Shift (CVS)— and elements of a racialized variety— African American Language (AAL) via their realization of BOOT-fronting, BAT-backing, and the BOT-BOUGHT merger. While African Americans front BOOT and increasingly back BAT over time— as predicted by the CVS— they maintain a BOT-BOUGHT distinction— a pattern in line with descriptions of AAL. These patterns, which do not mirror either CVS or AAL in a wholesale way, align with the aforementioned perspective describing the linguistic practices of racialized individuals as a fluid linguistic repertoire, in which individual variables can be leveraged to articulate identity in complex ways. Relatedly, conversations in gender and linguistics have used bricolage as a theoretical framework to describe a similar phenomenon. Bridging these disciplinary conversations, it is argued that through stylistic bricolage, speakers draw from a fluid linguistic repertoire to articulate their identities as multidimensional.","PeriodicalId":158510,"journal":{"name":"American Speech: A Quarterly of Linguistic Usage","volume":"53 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141660049","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-10DOI: 10.1215/00031283-9116240
Michael Adams
{"title":"DARE, Literature, and Enregistered American Identities","authors":"Michael Adams","doi":"10.1215/00031283-9116240","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-9116240","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":158510,"journal":{"name":"American Speech: A Quarterly of Linguistic Usage","volume":"54 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141659936","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-10DOI: 10.1215/00031283-11466530
Marisa Brook
Like can be a finite complementizer in present-day varieties of English after a few verbs of perception, apparentness, and/or behavior. Normally, like in this function is an innovation that has replaced the earlier variants as if and as though. Pretend like CP appears to be an exception: it is not clear that a precedent exists in the form of pretend as if or pretend as though. To investigate, this study employs the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA) (Davies 2010–), extracting more than 5,000 examples of pretend with CPs between 1900 and 2019. The results offer tentative support for increase in pretend like in recent decades, despite verification that pretend as if and pretend as though were never well-attested. The puzzle of a like complementizer coming to compete with that and Ø complementizers in the absence of as if and as though – which does not happen across other English verbs – is interpreted as analogy on the basis of semantically overlapping verbs of behavior: behave like CP, act like CP, and make (out) like CP. This case study thus illuminates the conditions under which an incoming variant of a morphosyntactic variable can spread to new lexical or grammatical contexts.
在当今的英语中，like 可以作为有限补语出现在一些表示感知、表象和/或行为的动词之后。通常，具有这种功能的 like 是一种创新，它取代了早期的 as if 和 as though 变体。假装像 CP 似乎是个例外：目前还不清楚是否存在假装好像或假装虽然的先例。为了进行研究，本研究使用了美国历史英语语料库（COHA）（Davies，2010-），提取了 1900 年至 2019 年间 5,000 多个假装用 CP 的例子。研究结果初步支持近几十年来 "假装 "like 的增加，尽管 "假装 "as if 和 "假装 "as though 从未得到充分证实。在没有 "如果 "和 "好像 "的情况下，"像 "补语会与 "那 "和 "Ø "补语竞争--这在其他英语动词中并不存在--这一谜团被解释为基于语义重叠的行为动词的类比：behavior like CP, act like CP, and make (out) like CP。因此，本案例研究揭示了形态句法变量的传入变体可以扩散到新的词汇或语法语境的条件。
{"title":"The origins of pretend like: A syntactic-semantic puzzle in American English and beyond","authors":"Marisa Brook","doi":"10.1215/00031283-11466530","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-11466530","url":null,"abstract":"Like can be a finite complementizer in present-day varieties of English after a few verbs of perception, apparentness, and/or behavior. Normally, like in this function is an innovation that has replaced the earlier variants as if and as though. Pretend like CP appears to be an exception: it is not clear that a precedent exists in the form of pretend as if or pretend as though. To investigate, this study employs the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA) (Davies 2010–), extracting more than 5,000 examples of pretend with CPs between 1900 and 2019. The results offer tentative support for increase in pretend like in recent decades, despite verification that pretend as if and pretend as though were never well-attested. The puzzle of a like complementizer coming to compete with that and Ø complementizers in the absence of as if and as though – which does not happen across other English verbs – is interpreted as analogy on the basis of semantically overlapping verbs of behavior: behave like CP, act like CP, and make (out) like CP. This case study thus illuminates the conditions under which an incoming variant of a morphosyntactic variable can spread to new lexical or grammatical contexts.","PeriodicalId":158510,"journal":{"name":"American Speech: A Quarterly of Linguistic Usage","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141659175","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-10DOI: 10.1215/00031283-11466566
Dale F. Coye
The spelling of Latin plurals in words like fungi, algae produces pronunciation variants and spirited arguments over correctness. Because the experts in specialty areas could be considered the arbiters of terminology standards, American and British biologists in several fields were surveyed to determine whether historical standard pronunciations of certain words have been maintained or lost. Results indicate that in some cases traditional pronunciations are still the standard in these discourse communities, while in others North America and the UK have diverged. In addition, newer spelling pronunciations have come into play on both sides of the Atlantic, even among these experts, with older forms threatened with extinction. Binomial nomenclature is also subject to variation as a longstanding debate over the use of anglicized or classical Latin and Greek challenges the need for any standard pronunciation at all.
{"title":"Algae, Fungi, Binomial Nomenclature and the Search for “Correct” Pronunciations","authors":"Dale F. Coye","doi":"10.1215/00031283-11466566","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-11466566","url":null,"abstract":"The spelling of Latin plurals in words like fungi, algae produces pronunciation variants and spirited arguments over correctness. Because the experts in specialty areas could be considered the arbiters of terminology standards, American and British biologists in several fields were surveyed to determine whether historical standard pronunciations of certain words have been maintained or lost. Results indicate that in some cases traditional pronunciations are still the standard in these discourse communities, while in others North America and the UK have diverged. In addition, newer spelling pronunciations have come into play on both sides of the Atlantic, even among these experts, with older forms threatened with extinction. Binomial nomenclature is also subject to variation as a longstanding debate over the use of anglicized or classical Latin and Greek challenges the need for any standard pronunciation at all.","PeriodicalId":158510,"journal":{"name":"American Speech: A Quarterly of Linguistic Usage","volume":"81 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141662955","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-10DOI: 10.1215/00031283-11466458
Lisa Sullivan
Pre-velar /æ/-raising (BAG-raising) is a process in which some speakers of North American English raise /æ/ before /g/, but not /k/. Self-report data suggests that this process occurs in Canada and regions of the US close to the Canadian border (Stanley 2022). Acoustic data seems to support this finding, with evidence f or BAG-raising across Canada (e.g. Boberg 2006), and in the Pacific Northwest (e.g. Freeman 2021), the Upper Midwest (e.g. Koffi 2013) and California (e.g. Esposito & Lake 2021) in the US. However, this evidence is somewhat limited, particularly as there is no documentation of BAG-raising (or lack thereof) in regions where it is not expected to occur. The current study adds to our knowledge about the distribution of the production of BAG-raising by acoustically documenting its production in Colorado, where it is not expected to occur and has not been previously studied, and Ontario, where it is expected to occur and has been studied, but not specifically targeted (Boberg 2008; Sullivan 2020a). The results indicate that Ontarians BAG-raise while Coloradans do so little, if at all. Furthermore, there is a fair amount of variation in BAG-raising across participants which cannot be accounted for by region alone.
前元音/æ/-raising（BAG-raising）是北美英语中一些说话者在/g/前提高/æ/，但不提高/k/的过程。自我报告数据表明，这一过程发生在加拿大和美国靠近加拿大边境的地区（Stanley，2022 年）。声学数据似乎也支持这一发现，有证据表明加拿大各地（如 Boberg，2006 年）以及美国西北太平洋地区（如 Freeman，2021 年）、中西部上游地区（如 Koffi，2013 年）和加利福尼亚州（如 Esposito & Lake，2021 年）都存在 BAG 提升现象。然而，这些证据在一定程度上是有限的，尤其是在预计不会出现 BAG 的地区，没有关于 BAG 提升（或缺乏提升）的文献。目前的研究通过对科罗拉多州和安大略省的 BAG-raising（Boberg，2008 年；Sullivan，2020a）生产情况进行声学记录，增加了我们对 BAG-raising（BAG-raising）生产分布的了解。研究结果表明，安大略省人进行 BAGraise，而科罗拉多州人很少进行 BAGraise。此外，不同参与者在 BAG 募捐方面也存在着相当大的差异，这不能仅用地区来解释。
{"title":"Production of pre-velar /æ/-raising in Colorado and Ontario","authors":"Lisa Sullivan","doi":"10.1215/00031283-11466458","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-11466458","url":null,"abstract":"Pre-velar /æ/-raising (BAG-raising) is a process in which some speakers of North American English raise /æ/ before /g/, but not /k/. Self-report data suggests that this process occurs in Canada and regions of the US close to the Canadian border (Stanley 2022). Acoustic data seems to support this finding, with evidence f or BAG-raising across Canada (e.g. Boberg 2006), and in the Pacific Northwest (e.g. Freeman 2021), the Upper Midwest (e.g. Koffi 2013) and California (e.g. Esposito & Lake 2021) in the US. However, this evidence is somewhat limited, particularly as there is no documentation of BAG-raising (or lack thereof) in regions where it is not expected to occur. The current study adds to our knowledge about the distribution of the production of BAG-raising by acoustically documenting its production in Colorado, where it is not expected to occur and has not been previously studied, and Ontario, where it is expected to occur and has been studied, but not specifically targeted (Boberg 2008; Sullivan 2020a). The results indicate that Ontarians BAG-raise while Coloradans do so little, if at all. Furthermore, there is a fair amount of variation in BAG-raising across participants which cannot be accounted for by region alone.","PeriodicalId":158510,"journal":{"name":"American Speech: A Quarterly of Linguistic Usage","volume":"83 21","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141662759","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-10DOI: 10.1215/00031283-11466554
Syelle Graves
This paper investigates attitudes toward prefacing the answer to a question from an interlocutor with the discourse marker so, which has been tentatively found to be on the rise since the 1990s. Functions of this form, informally referred to as “backstory so,” include marking added background or length that is unexpected by the questioner. This paper presents (i) evidence in the popular media that it is perceived as new and overtly associated with negative attributes (annoying, condescending) and differing stereotypes (scientific experts, Valley Girls); and (ii) findings of a matched guise that investigated whether those associations remain indexed by so-prefacing answers when attitudes are elicited implicitly. Statistically significant results of t-tests and a principal component analysis suggest that so-prefacing answers was perceived more negatively than a control discourse marker, well, in both a female and male voice, on a status axis (e.g., less Educated and Intelligent), as expected. On a solidarity axis, the male so guise also earned poorer evaluations than the control but the female so guise was not evaluated quite as negatively, which had not been reflected in the overt attitudes. The so guises were also more linked to Valley Girl and Tech Bro speech.
{"title":"It drives me mad seeing people answer questions with so: Overt and covert attitudes toward so-prefacing answers","authors":"Syelle Graves","doi":"10.1215/00031283-11466554","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-11466554","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates attitudes toward prefacing the answer to a question from an interlocutor with the discourse marker so, which has been tentatively found to be on the rise since the 1990s. Functions of this form, informally referred to as “backstory so,” include marking added background or length that is unexpected by the questioner. This paper presents (i) evidence in the popular media that it is perceived as new and overtly associated with negative attributes (annoying, condescending) and differing stereotypes (scientific experts, Valley Girls); and (ii) findings of a matched guise that investigated whether those associations remain indexed by so-prefacing answers when attitudes are elicited implicitly. Statistically significant results of t-tests and a principal component analysis suggest that so-prefacing answers was perceived more negatively than a control discourse marker, well, in both a female and male voice, on a status axis (e.g., less Educated and Intelligent), as expected. On a solidarity axis, the male so guise also earned poorer evaluations than the control but the female so guise was not evaluated quite as negatively, which had not been reflected in the overt attitudes. The so guises were also more linked to Valley Girl and Tech Bro speech.","PeriodicalId":158510,"journal":{"name":"American Speech: A Quarterly of Linguistic Usage","volume":"9 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141662021","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-10DOI: 10.1215/00031283-11109413
Chiara Repetti-Ludlow
In American English, the pronunciation of words like ‘button,’ with the underlying post-tonic string /tən/, is variable. Previous research has found that although the traditional pronunciation of these words is with [ʔn̩ ], as in [bʌʔn̩ ], this is not the only possible pronunciation. Recent studies have shown that /ən/ is realized as [ən] in certain speech communities, resulting in pronunciations like [bʌʔən]. Furthermore, there have been anecdotal reports that /t/ can be realized as [ɾ], resulting in pronunciations like [bʌɾən]. This article examines whether there is indeed a change underway in /ən/ and /t/ realizations, how these phonemes are interrelated, and what factors and populations are conditioning this change. To address these issues, a production experiment was carried out with participants from Long Island, NY. Results suggest that there is an early-stage change underway, such that younger speakers are more likely to realize /tən/ words with [ən] than [n̩ ]. Realization of /ən/ as [ən] is also significantly correlated with /t/ being realized as [ɾ] and a faster speech rate. There is not yet evidence for a change in progress for /t/ realizations, but [ɾ] productions are significantly correlated with the realization of /ən/ as [ən].
{"title":"The realization of /t/ and /ən/ in words like ‘button’: A change in progress on Long Island","authors":"Chiara Repetti-Ludlow","doi":"10.1215/00031283-11109413","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-11109413","url":null,"abstract":"In American English, the pronunciation of words like ‘button,’ with the underlying post-tonic string /tən/, is variable. Previous research has found that although the traditional pronunciation of these words is with [ʔn̩ ], as in [bʌʔn̩ ], this is not the only possible pronunciation. Recent studies have shown that /ən/ is realized as [ən] in certain speech communities, resulting in pronunciations like [bʌʔən]. Furthermore, there have been anecdotal reports that /t/ can be realized as [ɾ], resulting in pronunciations like [bʌɾən]. This article examines whether there is indeed a change underway in /ən/ and /t/ realizations, how these phonemes are interrelated, and what factors and populations are conditioning this change. To address these issues, a production experiment was carried out with participants from Long Island, NY. Results suggest that there is an early-stage change underway, such that younger speakers are more likely to realize /tən/ words with [ən] than [n̩ ]. Realization of /ən/ as [ən] is also significantly correlated with /t/ being realized as [ɾ] and a faster speech rate. There is not yet evidence for a change in progress for /t/ realizations, but [ɾ] productions are significantly correlated with the realization of /ən/ as [ən].","PeriodicalId":158510,"journal":{"name":"American Speech: A Quarterly of Linguistic Usage","volume":"51 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141660080","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-10DOI: 10.1215/00031283-11466542
Frances Blanchette, Stanley Dubinsky, Amanda Harman, Rok Sim
The Alternative Embedded Passive (AEP) occurs in the Midland region in variation with the infinitival passive. AEPs may occur with the verbs need, want, and like: The baby needs/wants/likes fed. Murray & Simon (2002) observe a hierarchy of acceptability and usage across the three AEP verbs, with need as the most acceptable and like as the least. Building on an idea in Edelstein (2014), this paper presents evidence that the hierarchy results from lexical semantic properties of need, want, and like. Experiment results reveal that the hierarchy is alive in the judgments of young Pennsylvania speakers, and also emerges partially in the judgments of speakers from New England unfamiliar with the construction. The hierarchy only fully emerges with Pennsylvania speakers when the subject of the sentence is sentient (e.g., the baby). With non-sentient subjects (e.g., the computer), want and like are similar and less acceptable than need. We attribute this to a property of the verb need, which can be either a deontic modal (which does not take a thematic subject) or a thematic subject-taking verb. We discuss how our results support the hypothesis that speakers adapt to novel dialectal constructions by forming analogies to constructions already in their grammars.
另类嵌入式被动语态（AEP）出现在米德兰地区，是与不定式被动语态的变体。AEP可能出现在需要、想要和喜欢等动词中：婴儿需要/想要/喜欢吃奶。Murray 和 Simon（2002 年）观察到这三个 AEP 动词的可接受性和用法的等级，其中 need 最容易接受，而 like 最不容易接受。本文以 Edelstein（2014 年）的观点为基础，提出证据证明这种层次结构源于 need、want 和 like 的词汇语义属性。实验结果表明，在宾夕法尼亚州年轻说话者的判断中，层次结构是有生命力的，在不熟悉该结构的新英格兰说话者的判断中，也出现了部分层次结构。只有当句子的主语是有知觉的（如婴儿）时，宾夕法尼亚州的说话者才会完全显现出层次结构。如果句子的主语不是有生命的（如电脑），want 和 like 与 need 相似，但接受度较低。我们把这归因于动词 need 的一个特性，它可以是一个deontic 情态动词（不带主题主语），也可以是一个带主题主语的动词。我们讨论了我们的结果是如何支持这样一个假设的：说话人通过与他们语法中已有的结构形成类比来适应新的方言结构。
{"title":"This construction needs understood: An experimental study of the Alternative Embedded Passive (AEP)","authors":"Frances Blanchette, Stanley Dubinsky, Amanda Harman, Rok Sim","doi":"10.1215/00031283-11466542","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-11466542","url":null,"abstract":"The Alternative Embedded Passive (AEP) occurs in the Midland region in variation with the infinitival passive. AEPs may occur with the verbs need, want, and like: The baby needs/wants/likes fed. Murray & Simon (2002) observe a hierarchy of acceptability and usage across the three AEP verbs, with need as the most acceptable and like as the least. Building on an idea in Edelstein (2014), this paper presents evidence that the hierarchy results from lexical semantic properties of need, want, and like. Experiment results reveal that the hierarchy is alive in the judgments of young Pennsylvania speakers, and also emerges partially in the judgments of speakers from New England unfamiliar with the construction. The hierarchy only fully emerges with Pennsylvania speakers when the subject of the sentence is sentient (e.g., the baby). With non-sentient subjects (e.g., the computer), want and like are similar and less acceptable than need. We attribute this to a property of the verb need, which can be either a deontic modal (which does not take a thematic subject) or a thematic subject-taking verb. We discuss how our results support the hypothesis that speakers adapt to novel dialectal constructions by forming analogies to constructions already in their grammars.","PeriodicalId":158510,"journal":{"name":"American Speech: A Quarterly of Linguistic Usage","volume":"10 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141659313","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-02-12DOI: 10.1215/00031283-11014511
Irene Kimbara
This article examines the validity of regional speech represented in the writings of an African American short story writer, essayist, lawyer, and stenographer Charles W. Chesnutt (1858–1932) with a corpus of dialogues extracted from his literary works (approximately 40,000 words). As a touchstone for exploring its accuracy, the Atlas data from Fayetteville, North Carolina, and the surrounding regions in Cape Fear and Pee Dee Valley− a region where the author spent his youth and his stories are set−are compared with the speech of his African American characters. The result reveals that the Atlas records and Chesnutt’s dialogues share many expressions in their regional lexicons ranging from single words to phrases. Considering the difficulty of recording all the synonyms and semantically related words from the same informant during the interview, the overall agreement between the two provides further evidence that as an African American writer who spent his formative years in a rural community in North Carolina, Chesnutt’s literary dialect offers a glimpse of earlier AAVE spoken in the region in the mid-nineteenth century. Furthermore, this article touches on Chesnutt’s racial identity and what led him to enter the literary world as it is pertinent to his linguistic background and the motive behind the use of literary dialect.
本文通过从非裔美国人短篇小说家、散文家、律师和速记员查尔斯-W-切斯纳特（Charles W. Chesnutt，1858-1932 年）的文学作品中提取的对话语料库（约 40,000 字），对其作品中所体现的地区语音的有效性进行了研究。作为探索其准确性的试金石，《地图集》中来自北卡罗来纳州费耶特维尔及周边地区费尔角和皮迪山谷的数据与他笔下的非裔美国人人物的语言进行了比较。结果显示，《阿特拉斯》的记录和切斯纳特的对话在其地区词典中共享许多表达方式，从单词到短语不等。考虑到在访谈过程中很难从同一个信息提供者那里记录下所有同义词和语义相关的词，两者之间的总体一致进一步证明，作为一个在北卡罗来纳州农村社区度过成长岁月的非裔美国作家，切斯纳特的文学方言提供了 19 世纪中期该地区早期 AAVE 的一瞥。此外，本文还谈到了切斯纳特的种族身份以及导致他进入文坛的原因，因为这与他的语言背景和使用文学方言背后的动机有关。
{"title":"The Representation of Earlier African American Vernacular English by Charles W. Chesnutt","authors":"Irene Kimbara","doi":"10.1215/00031283-11014511","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-11014511","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the validity of regional speech represented in the writings of an African American short story writer, essayist, lawyer, and stenographer Charles W. Chesnutt (1858–1932) with a corpus of dialogues extracted from his literary works (approximately 40,000 words). As a touchstone for exploring its accuracy, the Atlas data from Fayetteville, North Carolina, and the surrounding regions in Cape Fear and Pee Dee Valley− a region where the author spent his youth and his stories are set−are compared with the speech of his African American characters. The result reveals that the Atlas records and Chesnutt’s dialogues share many expressions in their regional lexicons ranging from single words to phrases. Considering the difficulty of recording all the synonyms and semantically related words from the same informant during the interview, the overall agreement between the two provides further evidence that as an African American writer who spent his formative years in a rural community in North Carolina, Chesnutt’s literary dialect offers a glimpse of earlier AAVE spoken in the region in the mid-nineteenth century. Furthermore, this article touches on Chesnutt’s racial identity and what led him to enter the literary world as it is pertinent to his linguistic background and the motive behind the use of literary dialect.","PeriodicalId":158510,"journal":{"name":"American Speech: A Quarterly of Linguistic Usage","volume":"22 13","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139782263","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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