Abstract not available

This thesis made a phonological analysis of the features in the Appalachian speech pattern used by native speakers of western Steuben County, New York: (1) to identify phonological features predominant in this specific area of Appalachia, (2) to describe the speech patterns of the elderly inhabitants, and (3) to identify possible phonological trends among three discrete age groups of native speakers.The selected sample of twelve speakers, who had been born in and had spent most of their lives in the area, comprised three age groups which represented the population distribution of the area.In addition to the predominance of the fronted nasal /a/, the predominance of high nasal /ae/, centralized /I/, diphthongs before /r/, and the distinctive pronunciation of Chili, Castile, Lima, and Nunda, there is a tendency toward unrounding which leads to preference for /U/ over /u/ and for /^/ over // in unstressed position.It was concluded that more phonological agreement exists within the oldest and the youngest age groups, that more phonological agreement exists between the oldest and the middle age groups, and that greatest disagreements between age groups occurs between the oldest and the youngest groups of speakers.

Written texts of Navajo and Western Apache speakers in English revealed rhetorical patterns which seem to be tied to the native languages. The theoretical framework of interlanguage is used to analyze language transfer of two rhetorical features at the discourse level: (1) rhetorical redundancy and (2) narrative technique. Both features can be viewed as fossilizations of discourse which are forced upon the surface of written Navajo and Western Apache English interlanguage by the process of language transfer. Rhetorical redundancy exists in Navajo and Western Apache for emphasis and is transferred to English discourse as emphasis by the repetition of lexical items, syntactic strings and sentential paraphrases. The purposes for rhetorical redundancy in Navajo and Western Apache English interlanguage include the emphasis of emotional concerns, clarifications, and conventions of courtesy. A discourse rule is suggested which summarizes rhetorical redundancy transfer. Narrative technique in Navajo and Western Apache English interlanguage involves idiosyncratic tense shifting patterns at the discourse level. Navajo and Western Apache speakers seem to transfer the semantics of Navajo and Western Apache modes and aspects to English tenses. It is suggested that Navajo and Western Apache speakers find standard English tense usage inadequate for their underlying narrative discourse motivations. The Navajo and Western Apache usitative mode, imperfective mode, and continuative aspect are expressed through the English present tense. The Navajo and Western Apache perfective mode is realized in English through the past tense. The Navajo and Western Apache progressive mode, optative mode, iterative mode, and repetitive aspect surface in English as two possible nonstandard forms of the progressive aspect. A set of three mode and aspect transfer rules at the narrative discourse level is suggested.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis presents experiments and interviews which investigate pronunciation variation in the Liverpool accents of young speakers. Experiment One investigates inter-speaker variation, Experiment Two investigates intra-speaker variation, and Experiment Three investigates both inter- and intra-speaker variation. These three experiments are conducted from a sociophonetic perspective, with controlled elicitation of natural speech and acoustic analysis of speech data. The experimental investigations are complemented by interviews, which incorporate the perceptions and opinions of speakers of Liverpool English into the study. The study makes several contributions to the field of sociolinguistic research. It provides a new examination of Liverpool English. Experiment One is specifically designed to explore one of its most complex and ill-defined phonetic features, the realisation of plosives as affricates or fricatives. In addition to this phonetic investigation, Experiment One also examines sociolinguistic variation in this feature, and shows that speakers' individual attributes (such as their social networks and their plans for the future) are as relevant to variation as their socio-economic status. The study also makes important methodological contributions. Instrumental phonetic techniques and standards are successfully applied to sociolinguistic investigation conducted in the field. An interdisciplinary approach, bringing together qualitative interviews and sociophonetic experiments, is adopted. A new quiz-questionnaire technique for data collection, which should prove useful for many kinds of future sociolinguistic research, is developed for Experiment Three. Finally, Experiment Three tests many accounts and models of intra-speaker variation. Speakers are shown to vary their pronunciation as the speech situation varies, but not all the seven phonetic variables investigated show the same patterns of variation. Speakers vary their pronunciation according to audience, and also according to topic. Speakers with a high level of ambition vary their pronunciation of certain phonetic variables more than those with a lower level of ambition, and female speakers vary their pronunciation more than male speakers.

Typescript. / Bibliography: leaves 159-165. / vi, 165 l tables

This thesis is a sociolinguistic examination of the use of English by Aboriginal people in Southeast Queensland (SEQAB people). It is written within a framework of the ethnography of speaking, and specifically relates what people say (language form), to its effect on people (language function), examining aspects of context. This ethnographically based language study goes beyond formal details of grammatical structure, presents new data on the Aboriginal use of English, and explores some areas where the conventional grammatical analysis of Standard English does not adequately account for differences between Aboriginal and White Australian uses of English. It also provides evidence which shows that Aboriginal ways of speaking persist in a region where traditional Aboriginal languages are rarely used. The first chapter introduces the study, giving background to the research and motivating the central questions addressed in the thesis. The second chapter provides the theoretical orientation of the thesis, asks its central questions and, after reviewing the ethnography of speaking literature, provides a framework to answer them. The third chapter reviews literature on Australian Aboriginal languages from a sociolinguistic perspective. The fourth chapter provides background information about SEQAB society. The following three chapters treat the SEQAB use of English, each chapter focusing on a specific function of language: the fifth chapter focuses on seeking information, the sixth chapter on giving and seeking reasons for actions, and the seventh chapter on talking about future action. The final chapter concludes that while linguistic forms used by SEQAB speakers of English are mostly shared with White Australian speakers of English, there are crucial differences in meaning which can be understood only in terms of the SEQAB socio-cultural context, including customary intentions of speakers and interpretations of hearers. Considering the data and analysis presented in this thesis, I assert that SEQAB people today use English as an Aboriginal language.

This thesis is a sociolinguistic examination of the use of English by Aboriginal people in Southeast Queensland (SEQAB people). It is written within a framework of the ethnography of speaking, and specifically relates what people say (language form), to its effect on people (language function), examining aspects of context. This ethnographically based language study goes beyond formal details of grammatical structure, presents new data on the Aboriginal use of English, and explores some areas where the conventional grammatical analysis of Standard English does not adequately account for differences between Aboriginal and White Australian uses of English. It also provides evidence which shows that Aboriginal ways of speaking persist in a region where traditional Aboriginal languages are rarely used. The first chapter introduces the study, giving background to the research and motivating the central questions addressed in the thesis. The second chapter provides the theoretical orientation of the thesis, asks its central questions and, after reviewing the ethnography of speaking literature, provides a framework to answer them. The third chapter reviews literature on Australian Aboriginal languages from a sociolinguistic perspective. The fourth chapter provides background information about SEQAB society. The following three chapters treat the SEQAB use of English, each chapter focusing on a specific function of language: the fifth chapter focuses on seeking information, the sixth chapter on giving and seeking reasons for actions, and the seventh chapter on talking about future action. The final chapter concludes that while linguistic forms used by SEQAB speakers of English are mostly shared with White Australian speakers of English, there are crucial differences in meaning which can be understood only in terms of the SEQAB socio-cultural context, including customary intentions of speakers and interpretations of hearers. Considering the data and analysis presented in this thesis, I assert that SEQAB people today use English as an Aboriginal language.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, School of English and Linguisitics, 1984. / Bibliography: leaves 443-447. / Introduction -- The social setting of Norfolk speech -- Outline of analytical framework -- This study in relation to recent research into variation -- Collection of data and interview procedures -- Inventory of distinctive broad Norfolk features -- Study of Norfolk texts : diglossic speakers - varieties 1 and 2 (part 1) : special broad speakers -- Study of Norfolk texts : diglossic speakers - varieties 1 and 2 (part 2) : general broad speakers -- Study of Norfolk texts : modified broad speakers - variety 3 speakers -- Young Norfolk Island informants -- Analysis of young people's elicited data (part 1): grammatical structures -- Analysis of young people's elicited data (Part 2) -- Conclusion. / This thesis examines the behaviour of Norfolk Islanders in a particular language situation: in which the participants are Islanders, in which the purpose is understood to be informal conversation, and in which the setting is conducive to the speaker producing his/her natural vernacular. -- Emphasis on dialectal speech means that for some speakers types of Broad Norfolk are the object of investigation; for others Modified Norfolk is the dialectal variety. In the speech situation under study, all Islanders may be heard to shift through partial change of code into Modified Norfolk so that various stylistic patterns occur, dependent on the interaction of dialectal and situational factors. The analysis of such dialectal and stylistic variants as Norfolk Islanders employ in informal speech is of central interest in this work. -- Following on from an explanation of the social setting and analytical framework of the thesis, textual data of a number of Norfolk informants are examined; a set of propositions relating to the defining characteristics of diglossia, as enunciated by Charles Ferguson (1959), serves as reference points for the examination of each speaker's dialectal competence. Text analysis concentrates on the following principal areas of inquiry: / (1) Identification of the formal qualities of each speaker's dialect in relation to the distinctive features of old Broad Norfolk and location of his/her dialectal norms along the Broad Norfolk to Modified Norfolk continuum. (2) Inquiry into the degree of informants' conformity to the kind of diglossic stability which is typically demonstrated by older Islanders: the extent to which individuals reserve the use of their Norfolk and Norfolk English codes for separate dialectal and superposed purposes. (3) Speakers' code-variation in the Modified Norfolk continuum is examined: Firstly, to identify the linguistic configuration of mutated, merged and blended forms of Modified Norfolk, and Secondly, to analyse the meaning of Modified structures: whether they signify a stylistic shift pertaining to the speaker in relation to his language situation or whether they represent habitual, unmarked variants in the dialect of the speaker concerned. -- (4) Analysis of the dialect of old and young Norfolk Islanders is designed to demonstrate how maintenance and change are manifested in the present community; how their different types of code-variation relate to the dialectal-superposed norms of older diglossia; and how a range of stylistic meanings, determined by the interaction of dialectal/situational factors, is expressed within the Modified Norfolk continuum. Thus this study aims to provide a coherent interpretation of the uses of code-variation in a community of unstable diglossic practice so that it is possible to refer different types of variants to the basic diglossic framework. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / viii, 449 leaves