Recent changes in relative clauses in spoken British English

Xu, Xiuling and Xiao, Richard (2015) Recent changes in relative clauses in spoken British English. English Studies, 96 (7). pp. 818-838. ISSN 1744-4217

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Abstract

This article explores the recent changes in relative clauses in spoken British English on the basis of the Diachronic Corpus of Present-Day Spoken English (DCPSE) to find out whether the changes in speech have proceeded in parallel with those in writing over a span of thirty years in the second half of the twentieth century. The distribution patterns and rates of change of relative clauses across different spoken text categories are also investigated. It is found that relative clauses have experienced a pattern of change in spoken British English which is comparable to that in writing, with an overall higher rate of change in speech than in writing. The distribution of relative pronouns is influenced by text categories. While all text categories generally show a similar pattern of change, informal text categories seem to display a greater rate of change than formal text categories.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
English Studies
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1200/1208
Subjects:
?? LINGUISTICS AND LANGUAGELITERATURE AND LITERARY THEORY ??
ID Code:
70105
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
25 Jul 2014 07:50
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Sep 2023 00:14