Sociolinguistics and Dialectology
SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND DIALECTOLOGY
Panel coordinator: Cristina Suárez Gómez (Universitat les Illes Ballears). Departament de Filologia Espanyola, Moderna i Clàssica (Àrea de Filologia Inglesa). Edifici Ramon Llull.
Cra. de Valldemossa, km. 7.5. 07122 Palma de Mallorca
SESION 1
· Lucía Loureiro Porto (Universitat de les Illes Balears): “Teaching sociolinguistics after the Bologna Declaration or how to achieve basic skills using TV materials”
Abstract: The teaching of sociolinguistics has traditionally been approached by means of combining specific research (articles, specialized books, etc.) with the use of handbooks and accompanying materials, such as CDs, DVDs or interactive webpages (cf. Freeborn et al. 1993, Hughes & Trudgill 2005, Labov et al. 2006, among many others). These materials have typically been chosen and designed for teaching purposes and therefore have, for decades, proved utterly useful for both teachers and learners. The new academic scenario portrayed by the so-called Bologna A ccords, however, introduces some changes in the teaching-learning process, the center of which moves from the teacher's position to the students themselves, since the aim is that they manage to develop techniques and strategies which will allow them to acquire new knowledge as well as to foster their independent learning and their acquisition of basic skills (Spanish competencias). In this paper I discuss several ways in which we can meet the requirements of the new European teaching-learning environment without jeopardizing the quality and quantity of our teaching, by renewing our materials and replacing them by TV and film dialogues. More specifically, I propose resorting to this sort of linguistic data so as to carry out case-studies, problem-solving activities and project-based learning, with the aim of fostering the students' autonomous learning and breaking the invisible wall between the academic world and society.
Keywords: teaching-learning process, basic skills, student's autonomy, variationist studies, linguistic corpora.
· José Francisco Martín del Pozo (Universidad de Málaga): “A corpus-based analysis of some differences between American and British English”
Abstract: English is a polycentric language, with two main varieties (British English and American English). The differences between these two varieties are usually taught through a number of generalizations. The purpose of this paper is to test the veracity of some of those generalizations, which will be confronted with the results obtained from two of the largest English language corpora currently available, the Corpus of Contemporary American English and the British National Corpus. Among the differences that do not concern pronunciation, three aspects have been analyzed: the use of haven't/hasn't versus don't have/doesn't have, spelling differences in words ending in -our/-re, and the double forms of irregular verbs of class 1A (for example burned/burnt). In this particular case, the analysis has also taken into account diachronic variability in order to determine whether the preference in use of the regular or irregular form has changed in the last 50 years.
· Tamara Bouso Rivas (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela): “A preliminary study of sexist language in Matthew Weiner’s Mad Men through the female characters of Betty Draper, Joan Holloway and Peggy Olson”
Abstract: Taking as an object of study Matthew Weiner’s television drama Mad Men, this paper examines instances of sexist language in relation to the three female protagonists of the TV series: Betty Draper, Joan Holloway and Peggy Olson. It is argued that the sexist practices present at home and at the advertising agency have a strong effect on the configuration of the identity of these three female characters: the Jackie, the Marilyn and the Career Woman. Since Mad Men is set in the 1960s, the paper also devotes some thought to how sexist titles of address, such as Mrs a nd Miss, have been affected by language reforms and how this TV series is perceived nowadays by spectators.
SESION 2
· Carmen Luján García (Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria): “English presence in the name of Spanish toys”
Abstract: This paper intends to provide evidence of the impact of English on Spanish by means of the analysis of the presence of English words in the names of toys and games. Three different Spanish leaflets freely distributed to children will be examined considering different variables such as age and gender. The function of these words will also be studied.
· Ignacio Miguel Palacios Martínez (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela) “Variation and pragmatic uses of innit in present-day English”
Abstract: The so-called invariant tags such as eh, okay, right, yeah are extremely frequent in speech and have been lately extensively studied (Algeo, 1990; Krug, 1998; Andersen, 2001; Pichler, 2008; Pichler and Torgensen, 2009; Columbus, 2010). This has been particularly so in the spoken language of teenagers since they are very common in the language of this particular social group (Stenström, Andersen and Hasund, 2002). In this paper I will focus in particular on innit as in She love her chocolate innit?, it was good innit? For this purpose, I will analyse and discuss data extracted from two different teenagers’ corpora: COLT (Corpus of London Teenage Language), compiled in 1993, and LIC (Linguistic Innovators Corpus), created in 2004. In the analysis I will deal with both syntactic and pragmatic features of this expression. My main aims are to see whether innit has remained stable in use over time or whether it has increased in frequency, and to study whether it has preserved its original grammatical features or whether it has undergone any changes worth reporting. The data confirm that innit has not gone out of use; on the contrary, its frequency has increased in the last few years. At present, innit still conserves syntactic features of its own: it does not follow the regular question tag formation rules and it may represent not only the verb BE but also DO, HAVE and most of the modal verbs. Furthermore, it keeps showing high flexibility in the sentence since it may occur not only in final but also in initial and medial positions. Finally, innit should not be regarded as a simple invariant tag since it tends to behave more and more as a discourse marker that serves to express the speaker’s attitude to the content of the message, thus reflecting on many occasions the relationship among the participants in the interaction.
SESION 3
· Elena Seoane (Universidad de Vigo) & Cristina Suárez-Gómez (Universitat de les Illes Balears): “Factors determining language variation in New Englishes: Vernacular universals versus contact-induced change”
The aim of this paper is to gauge the strength of two major factors shaping the grammars of New Englishes: vernacular universals and contact-induced change, as seen at work in the variation found in the expression of perfect meaning in Asian Englishes (Hong Kong, India, Singapore and The Philippines). Findings from an analysis of the International Corpus of English confirm the presence of a vernacular universal: the levelling between the present perfect and simple past, as well as the occurrence of other recurrent variants. In this paper, this universal is set against the other major explanatory factor: contact-induced change, that is, influence of the substrate languages, cognitive constraints characteristic of language-contact situations, and, especially, diffusion from the input language, which is an earlier, not necessarily standard form of English. Pragmatic contextual factors such as the scant use of adverbial support are also examined, as well as relevant intravarietal differences.
Keywords: perfect meaning, New Englishes, contact-induced change, vernacular universals, substrate languages
· Teresa Marqués Aguado (Universidad de Murcia): “Mapping London, Wellcome Library, MS Wellcome 404: A preliminary dialectal study”
Abstract: London, Wellcome Library, MS 404 is a Leechbook written in Middle English containing a wide array of contents, all of which are linked to the field of science (such as recipes on various topics or prognostications, among others). The variety of spelling variants that it features, as well as the intervention of several hands in its rendering, turn it into an interesting text to be analysed from the point of view of its dialectal adscription. For the purpose, the fit-technique advocated in the Linguistic Atlas of Late Medieval English will be used, as well as other phonological and morphological information. This will provide hints to argue for or against the possible uniformity of the text.