A corpus-based sociolinguistic study of indefinite article forms in London English.

Gabrielatos, Costas and Torgersen, Eivind and Hoffmann, Sebastian and Fox, Susan (2010) A corpus-based sociolinguistic study of indefinite article forms in London English. Journal of English Linguistics, 38 (4). pp. 297-334. ISSN 1552-5457

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Abstract

This article reports on work carried out as part of the project Analysis of Spoken London English Using Corpus Tools, namely, an analysis of the use of indefinite article forms in spoken London English in a corpus of transcribed interviews, combining methodologies from sociolinguistics and corpus linguistics. The authors find a relatively high frequency of a before words beginning with a vowel, where Standard English will have an. Social factors, in particular speakers’ age, ethnicity, and place of residence, are more important than linguistic factors affecting the use of a before vowels. The authors argue that the indefinite article a before vowels forms part of Multicultural London English, along with other phonological and grammatical features that have previously been documented. The indefinite article a before vowels seems to have undergone a process of reallocation in which its status has been realigned, possibly because of an increase in social acceptance of nonstandard forms.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Journal of English Linguistics
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/researchoutput/libraryofcongress/p1
Subjects:
?? INDEFINITE ARTICLESPOKEN LANGUAGEYOUTH LANGUAGEETHNICITYMULTICULTURAL LONDON ENGLISHLINGUISTIC INNOVATIONREALLOCATIONCORPUS LINGUISTICSSOCIOLINGUISTICSLINGUISTICS AND LANGUAGELANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICSP PHILOLOGY. LINGUISTICS ??
ID Code:
31830
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
23 Feb 2010 13:31
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
14 Sep 2023 23:46