{"title":"Sociophonetic Properties of Southern California English Among Black and Latinx Teens","authors":"Nicole Holliday","doi":"10.1177/00754242241254436","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00754242241254436","url":null,"abstract":"Descriptions of ethnolects in the U.S. have frequently focused on canonical, well-described features of these varieties, but less work has focused on how such features may overlap and spread into other ethnolects and local varieties in contact. Outside the U.S., the concept of the multiethnolect has been used to describe such situations of dialect contact, but little work has been done to document highly multiethnic dialect contact situations in the U.S. This study is among the first to provide a sociophonetic description of the distribution of features linked to different ethnolects, and to describe a situation of sustained U.S. contact dialect among youth from different racialized groups. Analysis of the speech of a group of Black and Latinx adolescents in Southern California reveals that these teens use a variety of sociophonetic features that have been previously linked to Chicano English (ChE) and African American English (AAE), as well as California Anglo English (CAE). I examine eight phonological variables previously described in these other varieties and reveal a complex sociolinguistic situation in which teens of both ethnicities appear to employ repertoires that draw on features of ChE, AAE, and CAE. I argue that the patterns of use I observe in this data provide evidence of a unique type of dialect contact situation that reflects ongoing trends in urban centers across the U.S.","PeriodicalId":51803,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142224276","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Testing the Effect of Political Ideology on the Southern Vowel Shift Among White Georgians","authors":"Lelia Glass, Jon Forrest","doi":"10.1177/00754242241254435","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00754242241254435","url":null,"abstract":"Against the backdrop of the fading Southern Vowel Shift, this paper explores the degree to which different young adults maintain or forego the SVS as a function of demographic traits and self-reported political ideology. Using data from 126 White young adults who grew up in Georgia and were recorded as university students, we find that the more canonically “Southern” pronunciations of the vowels in FACE, DRESS, TRAP, and PRIZE are positively correlated with a continuous measurement of political conservatism, even controlling for gender and hometown. These findings are consistent with speakers’ qualitative impression that the SVS is indexically linked to the conservative political beliefs attributed to a stereotyped White Southerner, constituting one factor that may motivate young adults in this changing landscape to maintain or forego the SVS.","PeriodicalId":51803,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141937564","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Verbal -s Variation in Earlier African American English","authors":"Nandi Sims","doi":"10.1177/00754242241266851","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00754242241266851","url":null,"abstract":"The origins of the variable - s-marking patterns of present-tense verbs in earlier African American English (AAE) have been widely argued, with one of the most common arguments stating that the pattern is indicative of the Northern Subjects Rule (NSR), a variable - s-marking rule common in the northern British Isles. I explored verbal - s in the Federal Writer’s Project ex-slave narratives to understand what patterns of - s-marking existed in earlier AAE and how these patterns differed across regions. Statistical analysis suggested no NSR influence in AAE as a whole or within any of the regions, but - s-marking still significantly differed between and within regions. I discuss other possible causes of this variation, including influence from other concord patterns, aspectual marking, and phonotactics, but highlight the difficulty of proposing concrete hypotheses due to change over time and a dearth of data.","PeriodicalId":51803,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141937565","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book Review: All English Accents Matter: In Pursuit of Accent Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion","authors":"Rashana Vikara Lydner","doi":"10.1177/00754242241260760","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00754242241260760","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51803,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141772497","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book Review: The Long Journey of English: A Geographical History of the Language","authors":"Christopher Palmer","doi":"10.1177/00754242241253613","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00754242241253613","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51803,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141109747","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book Review: Pragmatics in the History of English","authors":"Jeremy J. Smith","doi":"10.1177/00754242241253618","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00754242241253618","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51803,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141108723","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book Review: Language in African American Communities","authors":"Adrienne Ronee Washington","doi":"10.1177/00754242241247069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00754242241247069","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51803,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140932236","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Multiple Adjectival Modification in Old and Middle English: A Reconfiguration of a Constructional Network","authors":"Maciej Grabski","doi":"10.1177/00754242241245738","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00754242241245738","url":null,"abstract":"The present article looks at patterns of Old and Middle English multiple adjectival modification (asyndetic and conjoined) and interprets their interrelations in the framework of Construction Grammar. This study contributes to previous research by offering a systematic, corpus-based comparison of formally related adjectival structures, which are analyzed from a usage-based perspective and then mapped onto the language network organized according to domain-general cognitive principles. The results indicate constructional change between Old and Middle English, which can be accounted for in terms of the reconfiguration of horizontal-relatedness links (which are based on contrast and alternation) and the resulting change in the vertical-inheritance structure. More broadly, the study confirms that any violations of the well-established Principle of No Synonymy in language may be explained in a diachronic perspective and with reference to general principles of language processing.","PeriodicalId":51803,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140885977","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book Review: Inheritance and Innovation in the Evolution of Rural African American English","authors":"Nandi Sims","doi":"10.1177/00754242241233643","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00754242241233643","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51803,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140168068","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dimensions of Text Complexity in the Spoken and Written Modes: A Comparison of Theory-Based Models","authors":"Douglas Biber, Tove Larsson, Gregory R. Hancock","doi":"10.1177/00754242231222296","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00754242231222296","url":null,"abstract":"In many studies, grammatical complexity has been treated as a single unified construct. However, other research contradicts that view, suggesting instead that the different structural types and syntactic functions of complexity features are distributed in texts in fundamentally different ways. These patterns have been documented in general corpora that include a wide range of spoken and written registers. One question that has not been fully addressed is whether grammatical complexity features are organized in the same ways in the spoken versus written modes. The present study tests the empirical adequacy of four competing models based on different theoretical conceptualizations of text complexity, comparing their goodness-of-fit in spoken versus written modes. The results show that text complexity must be treated as a multi-dimensional construct; dimensions that combine structural type and syntactic function provide the best account of the actual patterns of linguistic co-occurrence. To a large extent, the same complexity dimensions operate in both the spoken and written modes. Two of these dimensions—dependent phrases functioning as noun modifiers and finite dependent clauses functioning as clause-level constituents—represent the strongest co-occurrence patterns. In addition, these two dimensions operate in complementary distribution, in both the spoken and written modes. Overall, though, these two dimensions are shown to represent stronger co-occurrence patterns in the written mode than in the spoken mode.","PeriodicalId":51803,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139947155","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}