DOCSLIB.ORG

Linguistic Variation in Afrikaans in the Southern Cape: Grammatical Form and Function in the Spoken Language of Young Adults

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Linguistic Variation in Afrikaans in the Southern Cape: Grammatical Form and Function in the Spoken Language of Young Adults Linguistic variation in Afrikaans in the Southern Cape: grammatical form and function in the spoken language of young adults by Grazelde Meyer Thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts and Social Sciences in General Linguistics at the University of Stellenbosch University Supervisor: Prof Christine Anthonissen Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Department of General Linguistics March 2018 Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za DECLARATION By submitting this thesis electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification. 30 October 2017 .......................................................................... .............................................. Name Date Copyright © 2018 Stellenbosch University All Rights Reserved i Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research project would not have been possible if I had not received support from a few people who I would like to acknowledge individually for the valuable parts they played in helping me reach its completion. Firstly, I want to acknowledge and greatly thank my supervisor, prof. Christine Anthonissen. I was very privileged to have received excellent supervision from a scholar who I grew to respect and greatly admire. I am truly thankful for the time and effort she spent on reading and commenting on my draft, frequently meeting with me, and for the advice I received from her, both academic and personal. Further, I would like to thank the National Research Foundation (NRF) for a research grant, and Stellenbosch University for their financial assistance through their post graduate merit award bursary. I also want to thank the people in George who participated in my study for giving their time, engaging in open conversations, making the data collecting process so much fun and almost effortless. I want to deeply thank my assistant, sister, mother and again my supervisor who were immensely supportive, assisting me during the data collecting process. Thank you all for your time, encouragement and patience with me. Finally, I want to thank all my friends and family for the support and words of encouragement throughout this journey. ii Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za ABSTRACT This study involves an examination of possibly distinctive features of different variants of Afrikaans. This was done in a town in the southern Cape, in which Afrikaans is the predominant home language and lingua franca. Different varieties of Afrikaans among current residents are widely observed, but have not yet been described in detail. Besides giving a snapshot of current varieties that are in use among speakers between the ages of 18 and 25 years, this study considers a sample of language use in three groups of users in order to assess how recent changing patterns of contact in educational settings may have affected the varieties they speak. The working hypothesis is that the "dialect differences" between formerly socially isolated groups could be in the process of decreasing, as a result of fading social boundaries. This is a small-scale pilot study that tests the hypothesis. The study collected recordings of spoken Afrikaans of young people who fall into three categories, namely (i) those who completed their primary and secondary schooling in the schools within a "coloured residential area" (e.g. Pacaltsdorp primary and high school), (ii) those who completed their primary and secondary schooling in the schools within the "white town areas" (e.g. Outeniqua primary and high school), and (iii) those who started their primary schooling in a school within a coloured residential area, but moved to a historically “white” school (a so-called Model C school) for their high school education. Data was elicited by using pictures of persons that participants were likely to know. The pictures were shown to pairs of speakers as prompts to a discussion that would require comparable words and expressions, thus delivering comparable sets of relatively naturally occurring speech. The recorded data was transcribed in a corpus program (ExMaralda) so that salient forms could be isolated, and the regularity as well as distribution of each form could be easily traced. The data was used to determine if and how the varieties of Afrikaans spoken by members of the three groups differ, and also to check whether there is evidence that the recent language contact between some of the coloured and white participants in their high school years had a noticeable effect on the language forms they are currently using. So the aim was to check whether there is evidence of speech accommodation, dialect levelling and dialect shift, as the different communities gradually integrate more than before. Specific attention went to vocabulary as well as to grammatical features that stood out as markers of one rather than the other community-associated version of Afrikaans. iii Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za OPSOMMING Hierdie studie behels ʼn ondersoek na moontlik onderskeidende kenmerke van verskillende variante van Afrikaans. Dit is in ʼn Suid-Kaapse dorp wat oorwegend Afrikaans as huistaal en omgangstaal gebruik, onderneem. Verskillende variëteite van Afrikaans word wyd waargeneem onder huidige inwoners, maar is nog nie in besonderhede beskryf nie. Buiten dat ‘n “kameraskoot” gegee word van die variasies wat sprekers tussen die ouderdomme 18 en 25 jaar nóú gebruik, ondersoek hierdie studie die taalgebruik van drie groepe sprekers ten einde te oordeel hoe onlangse veranderinge in taalkontak in opvoedkundige konteks taalvariasie kon beïnvloed het. Daar is gewerk met die hipotese dat die “dialekverskille” tussen voormalig geïsoleerde groepe besig is om af te neem as gevolg daarvan dat sosiale grense uit ʼn vorige bedeling besig is om te vervaag. Hierdie is ʼn loodsstudie van beperkte omvang wat die hipotese toets. Die studie het klankopnames versamel van die gesproke Afrikaans van jongmense wat in drie kategorieë val, naamlik (i) diegene wat hulle hele skoolloopbaan in skole binne die “bruin woongebiede” deurgebring het, (ii) diegene wat hulle hele skoolloopbaan in skole binne die “wit dorp”, deurgebring het, en (iii) diegene wat hulle laerskoolloopbaan in die bruin woongebied begin het, maar vir hulle hoërskoolloopbaan na ‘n histories “wit” skool (‘n sg. Model-C-skool) geskuif het. Data is bekom deur die gebruik van prente van persone wat deelnemers waarskynlik sou ken. Die prente is aan pare sprekers gewys as stimulus vir gesprek wat van deelnemers vergelykbare woorde en uitdrukkings sou vereis, en dus vergelykbare stelle relatief natuurlik taalgebruik opgelewer het. Die spraak wat so vasgevang is, is getranskribeer in ‘n korpusprogram (ExMaralda), sodat opvallende vorme geïsoleer kon word en die reëlmaat waarin hulle voorgekom het, sowel as die verspreiding van elke vorm, maklik nagegaan kon word. Die data is gebruik om vas te stel of en hoe die variëteite van Afrikaans wat lede van die drie groepe gebruik, verskil asook om na te gaan of daar getuienis is dat die onlangse kontak tussen party bruin en wit deelnemers in hulle hoërskooljare ʼn merkbare effek gehad het op die taalvorme wat hulle tans gebruik. Dus was die bedoeling om na te gaan of daar, soos die verskillende gemeenskappe geleidelik meer as tevore integreer, getuienis is van spraakakkommodasie, dialekgelykmaking en dialekverskuiwing. Spesifieke aandag sal gegee word aan woordeskat sowel as aan grammatikale eienskappe van die taal wat uitstaan as merkers van een eerder as die ander gemeenskapsvariëteit van Afrikaans. iv Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za ABBREVIATIONS L1 – First language L2 – Second language LoLT – Language of learning and teaching MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology KBA – Baggara Arabic ESA – Eastern Sudanic Arabic WSA – Western Sudanic Arabic SAE – South African English SSE – Standard Scottish English VOC – Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie v Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za NOTES CONVENTIONS / / slash brackets are used when sounds are discussed from a phonological point of view. [ ] Square brackets are used in the general discussion of sounds. * Although a large section of the discussion refers to phonetic and phonological features, I often use regular orthography describing the features, and not the phonetic alphabet and other more conventional descriptive terms. vi Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration i Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ ii Abstract iii Opsomming iv Abbreviations v Notes conventions ................................................................................................................. vi Table of contents ................................................................................................................. vii List of tables xi List of figures xii Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................... 1 1.1 BACKGROUND ................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Research questions..............................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Standardisation of African Languages Michel Lafon, Vic Webb
    The Standardisation of African Languages Michel Lafon, Vic Webb To cite this version: Michel Lafon, Vic Webb. The Standardisation of African Languages. Michel Lafon; Vic Webb. IFAS, pp.141, 2008, Nouveaux Cahiers de l’Ifas, Aurelia Wa Kabwe Segatti. halshs-00449090 HAL Id: halshs-00449090 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00449090 Submitted on 20 Jan 2010 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. The Standardisation of African Languages Language political realities CentRePoL and IFAS Proceedings of a CentRePoL workshop held at University of Pretoria on March 29, 2007, supported by the French Institute for Southern Africa Michel Lafon (LLACAN-CNRS) & Vic Webb (CentRePoL) Compilers/ Editors CentRePoL wishes to express its appreciation to the following: Dr. Aurelia Wa Kabwe-Segatti, Research Director, IFAS, Johannesburg, for her professional and material support; PanSALB, for their support over the past two years for CentRePoL’s standardisation project; The University of Pretoria, for the use of their facilities. Les Nouveaux Cahiers de l’IFAS/ IFAS Working Paper Series is a series of occasional working papers, dedicated to disseminating research in the social and human sciences on Southern Africa.
    [Show full text]
  • A Corpus·Based Investigation of Xhosa English In
    A CORPUS·BASED INVESTIGATION OF XHOSA ENGLISH IN THE CLASSROOM SETTING A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS of RHODES UNIVERSITY by CANDICE LEE PLATT January 2004 Supervisor: Professor V.A de K1erk ABSTRACT This study is an investigation of Xhosa English as used by teachers in the Grahamstown area of the Eastern Cape. The aims of the study were firstly, to compile a 20 000 word mini-corpus of the spoken English of Xhosa mother­ tongue teachers in Grahamstown, and to use this data to describe the characteristics of Xhosa English used in the classroom context; and secondly, to assess the usefulness of a corpus-based approach to a study of this nature. The English of five Xhosa mother-tongue teachers was investigated. These teachers were recorded while teaching in English and the data was then transcribed for analysis. The data was analysed using Wordsmith Tools to investigate patterns in the teachers' language. Grammatical, lexical and discourse patterns were explored based on the findings of other researchers' investigations of Black South African English and Xhosa English. In general, many of the patterns reported in the literature were found in the data, but to a lesser extent than reported in literature which gave quantitative information. Some features not described elsewhere were also found . The corpus-based approach was found to be useful within the limits of pattern­ matching. 1I TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 CORPORA 1 1.2 BLACK SOUTH
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 1. Introduction
    1 Chapter 1. Introduction Once an English-speaking population was established in South Africa in the 19 th century, new unique dialects of English began to emerge in the colony, particularly in the Eastern Cape, as a result of dialect levelling and contact with indigenous groups and the L1 Dutch speaking population already present in the country (Lanham 1996). Recognition of South African English as a variety in its own right came only later in the next century. South African English, however, is not a homogenous dialect; there are many different strata present under this designation, which have been recognised and identified in terms of geographic location and social factors such as first language, ethnicity, social class and gender (Hooper 1944a; Lanham 1964, 1966, 1967b, 1978b, 1982, 1990, 1996; Bughwan 1970; Lanham & MacDonald 1979; Barnes 1986; Lass 1987b, 1995; Wood 1987; McCormick 1989; Chick 1991; Mesthrie 1992, 1993a; Branford 1994; Douglas 1994; Buthelezi 1995; Dagut 1995; Van Rooy 1995; Wade 1995, 1997; Gough 1996; Malan 1996; Smit 1996a, 1996b; Görlach 1998c; Van der Walt 2000; Van Rooy & Van Huyssteen 2000; de Klerk & Gough 2002; Van der Walt & Van Rooy 2002; Wissing 2002). English has taken different social roles throughout South Africa’s turbulent history and has presented many faces – as a language of oppression, a language of opportunity, a language of separation or exclusivity, and also as a language of unification. From any chosen theoretical perspective, the presence of English has always been a point of contention in South Africa, a combination of both threat and promise (Mawasha 1984; Alexander 1990, 2000; de Kadt 1993, 1993b; de Klerk & Bosch 1993, 1994; Mesthrie & McCormick 1993; Schmied 1995; Wade 1995, 1997; de Klerk 1996b, 2000; Granville et al.
    [Show full text]
  • Making Sense of "Bad English"
    MAKING SENSE OF “BAD ENGLISH” Why is it that some ways of using English are considered “good” and others are considered “bad”? Why are certain forms of language termed elegant, eloquent, or refined, whereas others are deemed uneducated, coarse, or inappropriate? Making Sense of “Bad English” is an accessible introduction to attitudes and ideologies towards the use of English in different settings around the world. Outlining how perceptions about what constitutes “good” and “bad” English have been shaped, this book shows how these principles are based on social factors rather than linguistic issues and highlights some of the real-life consequences of these perceptions. Features include: • an overview of attitudes towards English and how they came about, as well as real-life consequences and benefits of using “bad” English; • explicit links between different English language systems, including child’s English, English as a lingua franca, African American English, Singlish, and New Delhi English; • examples taken from classic names in the field of sociolinguistics, including Labov, Trudgill, Baugh, and Lambert, as well as rising stars and more recent cutting-edge research; • links to relevant social parallels, including cultural outputs such as holiday myths, to help readers engage in a new way with the notion of Standard English; • supporting online material for students which features worksheets, links to audio and news files, further examples and discussion questions, and background on key issues from the book. Making Sense of “Bad English” provides an engaging and thought-provoking overview of this topic and is essential reading for any student studying sociolinguistics within a global setting.
    [Show full text]
  • Variation and Change in Past Tense Negation in African American English
    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2018 Variation And Change In Past Tense Negation In African American English Sabriya Fisher University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Linguistics Commons Recommended Citation Fisher, Sabriya, "Variation And Change In Past Tense Negation In African American English" (2018). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2925. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2925 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2925 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Variation And Change In Past Tense Negation In African American English Abstract This dissertation investigates the use of ain’t for negation in past tense contexts in Philadelphia African American English [PhAAE]. This use of ain’t, which varies with didn’t, is a unique feature of AAE (Labov et al. 1968) and has implications for the expression of tense/aspect in the language. First, it further levels tense/aspect cues from auxiliaries in negative contexts. Second, whereas verbal complements of didn’t are uninflected (1a), complements of ain’t may either be uninflected or in preterit form (1b). This asymmetry indicates potential structural differences between ain’t and didn’t. (1) a. They didn’t play yesterday. b. They ain’t play(ed) yesterday. Consequently, this dissertation joins a quantitative study of the social and linguistic factors conditioning use of ain’t with a distributional investigation of its syntax and interaction with tense morphology. Toward that end, I analyze naturalistic speech data from 42 speakers in a corpus of casual conversations collected in the early 1980s from African American Philadelphians.
    [Show full text]
  • English Language Learners: a Research Perspective
    Gateways for English Language Learners: A Research Perspective Program Authors Action Learning Systems, Inc. Robin Scarcella, Ph.D., Hector Rivera, Ph.D., and Mabel Rivera, Ph.D. English Language Development Isabel L. Beck, Ph.D. and Margaret G. McKeown, Ph.D. Vocabulary Penny Chiappe-Collins, Ph.D. Decoding NNLG_ELH_FM_ƒ.inddLG_ELH_FM_ƒ.indd 1 99/27/08/27/08 111:00:441:00:44 AAMM Welcome to Gateways from our English Language Experts As educators today we know more about developing effective materials to teach English to English language learners (ELLs) than ever before. More specifically, we are able to address the critical needs of these students in ways that are grounded in proven practices and responsible research. We choose to be affiliated with Gateways because these grade-appropriate materials are tailored to meet the needs of English language learners. This program was tested with diverse groups of English language learners— those who have just arrived in the United States, those with educational gaps, those highly literate in their first languages, those not literate in any language, and those who have ceased to make much improvement in learning English over many years. Throughout the testing, these materials appealed to teachers and students alike. Most importantly, Gateways, based on research and proven effective teaching practices, helps to accelerate learners’ development of English in real classrooms with real students. This program helps to get English language learners into core-curricular instruction quickly, where they can continue to acquire the academic, content-specific language skills needed to succeed in life and, if students so choose, in higher education.
    [Show full text]
  • Directory of Organisations and Resources for People with Disabilities in South Africa
    DISABILITY ALL SORTS A DIRECTORY OF ORGANISATIONS AND RESOURCES FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN SOUTH AFRICA University of South Africa CONTENTS FOREWORD ADVOCACY — ALL DISABILITIES ADVOCACY — DISABILITY-SPECIFIC ACCOMMODATION (SUGGESTIONS FOR WORK AND EDUCATION) AIRLINES THAT ACCOMMODATE WHEELCHAIRS ARTS ASSISTANCE AND THERAPY DOGS ASSISTIVE DEVICES FOR HIRE ASSISTIVE DEVICES FOR PURCHASE ASSISTIVE DEVICES — MAIL ORDER ASSISTIVE DEVICES — REPAIRS ASSISTIVE DEVICES — RESOURCE AND INFORMATION CENTRE BACK SUPPORT BOOKS, DISABILITY GUIDES AND INFORMATION RESOURCES BRAILLE AND AUDIO PRODUCTION BREATHING SUPPORT BUILDING OF RAMPS BURSARIES CAREGIVERS AND NURSES CAREGIVERS AND NURSES — EASTERN CAPE CAREGIVERS AND NURSES — FREE STATE CAREGIVERS AND NURSES — GAUTENG CAREGIVERS AND NURSES — KWAZULU-NATAL CAREGIVERS AND NURSES — LIMPOPO CAREGIVERS AND NURSES — MPUMALANGA CAREGIVERS AND NURSES — NORTHERN CAPE CAREGIVERS AND NURSES — NORTH WEST CAREGIVERS AND NURSES — WESTERN CAPE CHARITY/GIFT SHOPS COMMUNITY SERVICE ORGANISATIONS COMPENSATION FOR WORKPLACE INJURIES COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES CONVERSION OF VEHICLES COUNSELLING CRÈCHES DAY CARE CENTRES — EASTERN CAPE DAY CARE CENTRES — FREE STATE 1 DAY CARE CENTRES — GAUTENG DAY CARE CENTRES — KWAZULU-NATAL DAY CARE CENTRES — LIMPOPO DAY CARE CENTRES — MPUMALANGA DAY CARE CENTRES — WESTERN CAPE DISABILITY EQUITY CONSULTANTS DISABILITY MAGAZINES AND NEWSLETTERS DISABILITY MANAGEMENT DISABILITY SENSITISATION PROJECTS DISABILITY STUDIES DRIVING SCHOOLS E-LEARNING END-OF-LIFE DETERMINATION ENTREPRENEURIAL
    [Show full text]
  • 'Standard' Vs. 'Nonstandard' Attitudes Towards Language Effects of Social Class on Dialect
    Today ‘Standard’ vs. ‘nonstandard’ Attitudes towards language Effects of social class on dialect Standard vs. Non-standard Standard dialect typically used by political leaders, upper classes, in the media taught in schools considered the dominant or ‘prestige’ dialect Non-standard dialect any dialect not perceived as ‘standard’ Standard vs. Non-standard Some standard dialects of English Standard American English (SAE) characterized by grammatical (morphological & syntactic) features Received Pronunciation (RP) (in UK) characterized by phonological features Standard vs. Non-standard Some non-standard dialects African-American English (AAE) Multiple negatives: He don’ know nothin’. Appalachian English Double modals: I might could do that. He useta couldn’t swim. a-prefix: go a-fishin’, come a-runnin’ Overt vs. Covert prestige Overt prestige: Attached to a particular dialect by the community at large that defines how people should speak to gain status in that community Covert prestige: Exists among nonstandard speakers and defines how people should speak to be considered members of that particular group Social class and dialect William Labov New York City ‘r’-lessness Studied variation in [r] pronunciation as it relates to socioeconomic class Dept Store study - Method Interviewed salespeople at Saks 5th Ave., (upper), Macy’s (middle), S. Klein (lower class) “Excuse me, where are the ____?” “Fourth floor.” (casual speech) “Excuse me?” “Fourth floor.” (careful speech with emphasis) Dept Store study - Results Klein Macy’s Saks Casual 8% 44%
    [Show full text]
  • A Typological Approach to VP Ellipsis in Tag Questions
    Tagged for Deletion: A Typological Approach to VP Ellipsis in Tag Questions Craig Sailor [email protected] UCLA Master’s thesis 14 October 2009 Note to the reader: Apart from a few organizational and typographical changes made in 2011, the version of the thesis you are reading here is largely unchanged from the original (as dated above). As a result, please note that this version does not fully reflect my current thinking on the topic, which differs in a few noteworthy, but relatively minor, ways. 1 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................4 Abstract .....................................................................................................................................5 Section 1: Introduction .............................................................................................................7 1.1. Background and definition ...........................................................................................8 Section 2: Prior approaches to the syntax of tag questions ......................................................10 2.1. Tags as pronounced traces of movement (den Dikken 1995) ......................................11 2.2. Tags as complex anaphors (Culicover 1992) ...............................................................13 2.2.1. A theoretical problem with the anaphoric approach .........................................15 2.3. Summary ......................................................................................................................15
    [Show full text]
  • 132202039 Diploma Iii English Study Program
    THE DESCRIPTION OF QUESTION-TAGS IN ENGLISH A PAPER BY ANTO NERA MANURUNG REG. NO.: 132202039 DIPLOMA III ENGLISH STUDY PROGRAM FACULTY OF CULTURAL STUDY UNIVERSITY OF SUMATERA UTARA MEDAN 2017 UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA Approved by Supervisor, Dr. Matius C.A. sembiring, M.A. NIP. 19521126198112 1 001 Submitted to Faculty of Cultural Study University of Sumatera Utara In partial fulfillment of the requirements for DIPLOMA (D-III) in English. Approved by Head of English Study Program, Dr. Matius C.A Sembiring, M.A NIP. 19521126198112 1 001 Approved by the Diploma III of English Study Program Faculty of Cultural Study, University of Sumatera Utara As a Paper for the Diploma (D-III) Examination UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA Accepted by the Board of Examiners in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the D-III Examination of the Diploma III of English Study Program, Faculty of Letters, University of Sumatera Utara. The examination is held on the Faculty of Letters, University of North Sumatera on February 2017 Faculty of Letters, University of Sumatera Utara Dean, Dr. Budi Agustono, M.Si. NIP. 19511013197603 1 001 Board of Examiners 1. Dr. Matius C.A. Sembiring, M.A. (Head of ESP) ( ) 2. Dr. Matius C.A. Sembiring, M.A. (Supervisor) ( ) 3. Drs. Siamir Marulafau, M.Hum. (Reader) ( ) UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA AUTHOR’S DECLARATION I’m, Anto Nera Manurung, declare that I am the sole author of this paper. Except where reference is made in the text of this paper, this paper contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a paper by which I have qualified for awarded another degree.
    [Show full text]
  • Yes-No Questions, Negative Yes-No Questions, and Tag Questions: Implications for Teaching Japanese Students of English
    札幌大学総合論叢 第 49 号（2020 年３月） 〈論文〉 Yes-No Questions, Negative Yes-No Questions, and Tag Questions: Implications for Teaching Japanese Students of English Michael V. Mielke Introduction Learning English as a second language or foreign language poses many challenges for Japanese students, particularly in the use of correct English grammar. Various authors have shown that Japanese students make similar errors with many parts of English grammar（ Barker 2008, Izzo 1999）. Some errors can be relatively benign in their consequences such as forgetting the "s" at the end of third person singular verbs, or mistaking subject or object pronouns in constructions such as, "Me and her are going to the park." In these two common error examples, the meaning is still quite clear from the context. One area of grammar that can have more serious consequences is in what Huddleston and Pullum（ 2016, 853-855） refer to as closed interrogatives but more commonly known as yes-no questions, where the answers are either a yes or no（ also referred to as polar questions（ 868））. The choice of answers is limited. Variations of closed interrogatives include tag questions, negative yes-no questions, and declarative statements, both positive and negative that serve as questions when they have rising intonation. These types of questions, especially closed negative interrogatives, require "an affirmative or negative reply - often just 'yes' or 'no'（ Crystal 1995, 218） and thus if there is a misunderstanding about how to answer this seemingly simple question form, there is a high probability of a miscommunication. This paper will first describe the formation of regular yes-no questions and then describe three variational forms and their respective usages：negative yes-no questions, 73 Michael V.
    [Show full text]
  • Derhoticisation in Scottish English: Lessons We Can Learn from Sociophonetic Data
    Stuart-Smith, J., Lawson, E., and Scobbie, J.M. (2014) Derhoticisation in Scottish English: a sociophonetic journey. In: Celata, C. and Calamai, S. (eds.) Advances in Sociophonetics. John Benjamins , Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Copyright © 2013 The Authors http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/87460 Deposited on: 10 April 2014 Enlighten – Research publications by members of the University of Glasgow http://eprints.gla.ac.uk Derhoticisation in Scottish English: A sociophonetic journey Jane Stuart-Smith*, Eleanor Lawson§, and James M. Scobbie§ * English Language/Glasgow University Laboratory of Phonetics, University of Glasgow § CASL Research Centre, Queen Margaret University Edinburgh 1. Introduction1 This paper presents the concrete example of the rewards of a sociophonetic journey by focusing on an area which is particularly rich and informative – fine-grained variation in Scottish English coda /r/. We synthesize the results of some 15 years of research, including our current work in progress, with those of previous studies, and provide a sociophonological account of variation and change in this feature. This forces us to consider carefully the complexrelationships between auditory, acoustic, and articulatory descriptions of (socially structured) speech. Our research also raises questions about speakers’ mental representations of such information. We begin by summarizing observations on coda /r/ in Scottish English across the twentieth century, which reveal a socially-constrained, long-term process of derhoticisation. Then we consider the most recent evidence for derhoticisation from different perspectives in order to learn more about the nature and mechanism of the change. We look at the linguistic and social factors involved (sections 2 and 3); the views from the listener (section 4); the acoustics of derhoticisation (section 5); and insights from a socio-articulatory corpus collected and analysed used Ultrasound Tongue Imaging (section 6).
    [Show full text]