Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2000. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 87 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 74-78).

How are beliefs about the nature of knowledge reflected and reproduced in language use? It is clear that some linguistic resources, e.g. the modal verbs may and must, indicate one’s epistemic stance with respect to a proposition, i.e. one’s judgement of how likely it is to be true. What is less clear is how the use of such resources relates to speakers’ beliefs about the nature of knowledge per se, i.e. their epistemic policies (Teller 2004). To investigate the putative relationship between epistemological variation and linguistic variation, I examine samples of written and spoken English from a community that is particularly epistemologically diverse: academia. I synthesize research on social epistemology, sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, and Academic English (AE) to propose an explanatory model of variability in the expression of epistemic stance. Then, using AE as a case study, I evaluate the predictions of this model both quantitatively via corpus analysis of research articles and regression modelling of interview data, as well as qualitatively via analysis of discursive practices in terms of experience-organizing frames (Goffman 1974) and the semiotic notion of indexicality (e.g. Irvine 2001), whereby ideological differences produce, and are reproduced by, linguistic differences. This research makes contributions to a number of fields. It questions the analytic validity of disciplinarity, providing support for a unifying theory of variation in AE based instead on an epistemologically principled analysis of institutional language use. The indexical basis of sociolinguistic research on language and belief/identity is problematized by attending to epistemological context; the ramifications of this will be explored in future research. I develop a linguistic metric of epistemic belief, offering a means of developing a quantitative social epistemology to complement that field’s highly articulated theoretical work. Applications beyond academia are possible in areas concerned with knowledge management and transfer, such as public health.

La présente thèse propose une description et une étude multidimensionnelles (sociolinguistiques, phonologiques et phonétiques) de la variété d'anglais parlée dans le Greater Manchester. Nous offrons une discussion sur les enjeux méthodologiques et épistémologiques de l'étude du changement linguistique et de l'utilisation des corpus en linguistique. Notre travail est mené dans le cadre du programme PAC (Phonologie de l'Anglais Contemporain : usages, variétés et structure) et au sein du projet LVTI (Langue, Ville, Travail, Identité) sur la base du corpus PAC-LVTI Manchester, constitué de données authentiques et récentes récoltées sur le terrain. Notre analyse se concentre notamment sur le phénomène de nivellement dialectal, qui a été l'objet de nombreuses recherches récentes en sociolinguistique anglaise. Nous nous intéressons en particulier à l'hypothèse de l'expansion d'une variété supralocale dans le nord de l'Angleterre. Notre étude concerne essentiellement les voyelles du Greater Manchester, et repose sur une analyse phonético-acoustique de la production des locuteurs de notre corpus. Nous relevons les caractéristiques majeures de la variété mancunienne, telles qu'elles ont pu être décrites dans les quelques travaux publiés jusqu'ici, et étudions leur corrélation avec des facteurs sociolinguistiques classiques comme l'âge, le genre, ou le niveau socio-économique. Nous explorons également la pertinence des facteurs attitudinaux pour l'étude de nos données. Sur la base de nos résultats phonético-acoustiques, nous nous prononçons en faveur de la pertinence de l'opposition de longueur en anglais, repensée en termes de poids vocalique au niveau de la représentation des voyelles, et proposons une modélisation du système phonologique de la variété du Greater Manchester dans le cadre de la phonologie de dépendance. Nous discutons des évolutions du système à la lumière du phénomène de nivellement dialectal, et nous interrogeons sur la pertinence des facteurs internes et externes pour les expliquer. / This thesis offers a multidimensional (sociolinguistic, phonetic, and phonological) description and study of the variety of English spoken in Greater Manchester. We discuss the study of linguistic change and the use of corpora in linguistics from a methodological and epistemological point of view. Our work is conducted in the framework of the PAC programme (Phonology of Contemporary English: usage, varieties and structure) and within the LVTI project (Language, Urban Life, Work, Identity), and based on the PAC-LVTI Manchester corpus, which is composed of authentic and recent fieldwork data. Our analysis notably focuses on the phenomenon of regional dialect levelling, which has been largely documented in recent English sociolinguistic research. In particular, we are interested in the hypothesis of the expansion of a supralocal variety in the north of England. Our study deals mainly with the vowels of Greater Manchester English, and relies on a phonetic-acoustic analysis of our informants' realisations. We describe the major characteristics of the Mancunian variety based on the few studies published so far, and statistically evaluate their correlation with traditional sociolinguistic factors such as age, gender or socio-economic profile. We also explore the relevance of attitudinal factors for the study of our data. On the basis of our phonetic-acoustic results, we speak in favour of the relevance of the opposition of length in English, which we reconsider in terms of vocalic weight in the representation of vowels. We then offer a model of the phonological system of Greater Manchester inspired by Dependency Phonology. We discuss the evolutions of the system in the light of regional dialect levelling, and question the role played by internal and external factors in these linguistic changes.