Chapter published in:
Historical Linguistics 2015: Selected papers from the 22nd International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Naples, 27-31 July 2015
Edited by Michela Cennamo and Claudia Fabrizio
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 348] 2019
► pp. 594–613

Roots and branches of variation across dialects of English

| University of Toronto
In this chapter, I outline the Variationist Sociolinguistic approach and how it can probe questions of relevance to historical linguistics. Analysis of spoken language corpora from three geographic regions, the United Kingdom (UK), Canada and the Caribbean are the basis of investigation. The communities comprise a range of relic, rural and urban contexts as well as source and off shoot situations. Taken together they offer multiple tests for asking questions of historical origins, transmission and diffusion, obsolescence and innovation.The findings combine to show that that synchronic data contribute a great deal to understanding the mechanisms that constrain processes of linguistic change in time and space. Further, I argue that a large scale multi-variety perspective is critical for making sound use of the dialectic between diachronic change and synchronic variation.
Keywords: variationist sociolinguistics, language variation and change, English dialects, comparative sociolinguistics, quantitative methods
Published online: 10 September 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.348.27tag
References

References

Andersen, Henning
1973 Abductive and deductive change. Language 49. 765–793. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, Guy & Natalie Maynor
1988 Verbal -s in the southern white vernacular. Southeastern Conference on Linguistics. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Bailey, Guy, Tom Wikle, Jan Tillery & Lori Sand
1991 The apparent time construct. Language Variation and Change 3. 241–264. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Baugh, Albert C.
1935 A history of the English language. New York: D. Appleton Century.Google Scholar
Beal, Joan C. & Karen P. Corrigan
2002 Relatives in Tyneside and Northumbrian English, In: Patricia Poussa (ed.), Relativization on the North Sea Littoral, 125–134. Munich: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar
Bell, Allan
1984 Language style as audience design. Language in society 13. 145–204. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, Lyle
1998 Historical linguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University press.Google Scholar
Cheshire, Jenny, David Adger & Sue Fox
2013 Relative who and the actuation problem. Lingua 126. 51–77. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cukor-Avila, Patricia
1997 Change and stability in the use of verbal -s over time in AAVE. In Edgar W., Schneider (ed.), Englishes around the world, 295–306. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
D’Arcy, Alexandra & Sali Tagliamonte
2010 Prestige, accommodation and the legacy of relative who. Language in Society 39. 1–28.Google Scholar
2015 Not always variable: Probing beneath the vernacular grammar. Language Variation and Change 27. 255–285. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Dekeyser, Xavier
1984 Relativi[z]ers in Early Modern English: A dynamic quantitative study. In Jacek Fisiak (ed.), Historical syntax. 61–87. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Geisler, Christer.
2002 Relativization in Ulster English, In: Patricia Poussa (ed.), Relativization on the North Sea Littoral, 135–146. Munich: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar
Godfrey, Elisabeth & Sali Tagliamonte
1999 Another piece for the verbal -s story: Evidence from Devon in Southwest England. Language Variation and Change 11. 87–121. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, Janet
1992 An introduction to sociolinguistics. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Jankowski, Bridget L..
2005 “We’ve got our own little ways of doing things here”: Cross-variety variation, change and divergence in the English stative possessive”. Generals Paper, University of Toronto.Google Scholar
Kirk, Jone
1992 The Northern Ireland Transcribed Corpus of Speech, In: Gerhard Leitner (ed.), New Directions in English Language Corpora, 65–73. Berlin:Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Labov, William
1972 Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
1982 Building on empirical foundations. In Winfred P. Lehmann & Yakov Malkiel (eds.), 17–92. Perspectives on historical linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1994 Principles of linguistic change: Volume 1: Internal factors. Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar
2001 Principles of linguistic change: Volume 2: Social factors. Malden: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar
Lass, Roger
1980 On explaining language change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Macaulay, Ronald K. S.
1991 Locating dialect in discourse: The language of honest men and bonnie lassies in Ayr. Oxford: Oxford University press.Google Scholar
Montgomery, Michael B. & Fuller, Janet M..
1996 What was verbal -s in 19th-century African American English? in Edgar W. Schneider (ed.), 211–230. Focus on the USA. Amsterdam: John Benjamins CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Murray, Lindley
1795/1968 English grammar. Menston, England: Scolar Press.Google Scholar
Nevalainen, Terttu & Helena Raumolin-Brunberg
2002 The rise of relative who in early Modern English. In Patricia Poussa (ed.), Relativisation on the North Sea Littoral, 109–121. Munich: Lincom Europa.>Google Scholar
Peitsara, Kirsti
2002 Relativizers in the Suffolk dialect, In: Patricia Poussa (ed.), Relativization on the North Sea Littoral, 167–180. Munich: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar
Poplack, Shana
(ed.) 2000 The English history of African American English. Malden: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Poplack, Shana & Sali A. Tagliamonte
1989 There’s no tense like the present: Verbal -s inflection in Early Black English. Language Variation and Change 1. 47–84. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1991 African American English in the diaspora: Evidence from old-line Nova Scotians. Language Variation and Change 3. 301–339. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1999 The grammaticalization of going to in (African American) English. Language Variation and Change 11. 315–342. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2005 Back to the present: Verbal -s in the (African American) diaspora. In Raymond Hickey (ed.), 203–223. Transported dialects: The legacies of non-standard colonial English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Quirk, Randolph
1957 Relative clauses in educated spoken English. English Studies 38, 97–109.Google Scholar
Romaine, Suzanne
1982 Socio-historical linguistics: Its status and methodology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Rydén, Mats
1983 The emergence of who as a relativizer. Studia Linguistica 37:.126–134. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sanders, Dale
2002 Family Dynamics: the behaviour of relatives in contemporary spoken standard English. Department of Language and Linguistic Science. York: University of York.Google Scholar
Sankoff, David
1978 Probability and linguistic variation. Synthèse 37. 217–238. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, Edgar W..
1983 The origin of verbal -s in Black English. American Speech 58. 99–113. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Jennifer
2000 Synchrony and diachrony in the evolution of English: Evidence from Scotland. D.Phil. dissertation, University of York.Google Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali A..
2000–2001 Vernacular Roots: A database of British dialects. Research Grant B/RG/AN 6093/APN11081. Arts and Humanities Research Board of the United Kingdom (AHRB).Google Scholar
2001–2003 Back to the roots: The legacy of British dialects. Research Grant. Economic and Social Research Council of the United Kingdom (ESRC). #R000239097.Google Scholar
2003–2006 Linguistic changes in Canada entering the 21st century. Research Grant. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). #410–2003–0005. http://​individual​.utoronto​.ca​/tagliamonte/.
Tagliamonte, Sali A.
2013 Roots of English: Exploring the history of dialects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali A., Alexandra D’Arcy & Bridget Jankorowski
2010 Social work and linguistic systems: Marking possession in Canadian English. Language Variation and Change 22. 1–25. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali, Jennifer Smith & Helen Lawrence
2005 No taming the vernacular! Insights from the relatives in northern Britain. Language Variation and Change 17. 75–112. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Tottie, Gunnel
1997 Relatively speaking: Relative marker usage in the British National Corpus. In Terttu Nevalainen & Leena Kahlas-Tarkka (eds.), To explain the present: Studies in the changing English language in honour of Matti Rissanen. 465–481 Helsinki: Société Néophilologique.Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter J.
1974 The social differentiation of English in Norwich. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press.Google Scholar
1990 The dialects of England. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar
van den Eynden Morpeth, N., Hogeschool, L.
2002 Relativisers in the Southwest of England, in: Patricia Poussa (ed.), Relativization on the North Sea Littoral, 181–194. Munich: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walt
2000 Issues in reconstructing earlier African-American English. World Englishes 19. 39–58. CrossrefGoogle Scholar