Yorkshire English Two Hundred Years Ago - Corwin

99 Pages·2002·0.62 MB·English

Journal of English Linguistics
Editor
Charles F. Meyer
Applied Linguistics Program, University of Massachusetts–Boston
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Cynthia Bernstein
English Department, University of Memphis
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[email protected]
Anne Curzan
Department of English, University of Washington
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Pepi Leistyna
Applied Linguistics Program
University of Massachusetts–Boston
100 Morrissey Blvd.
Boston, MA02125-3393
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Review Editor
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English Department, University of Montevallo
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Editorial Assistant
Julian Jefferies
Senior Consulting Editors
Jan Aarts,University of Nijmegen (the Netherlands)
John Algeo,University of Georgia
W. Nelson Francis,Brown University
William A. Kretzschmar, Jr.,University of Georgia
Donaldo Macedo,University of Massachusetts–Boston
Virginia G. McDavid,Chicago State University
Fred C. Robinson,Yale University
Robert Stockwell,UCLA
Consulting Editors
Michael Adams,Albright College
Peter S. Baker,University of Virginia
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Richard Cureton,University of Michigan
Joan Hall,University of Wisconsin
Gregory Iverson,University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Roderick A. Jacobs,University of Hawaii
Merja Kytö,Uppsala University (Sweden)
Daniel Long,Tokyo Metropolitan University (Japan)
Christian Mair,University of Freiburg (Germany)
Donka Minkova,UCLA
Hans F. Nielsen,Odense University (Denmark)
Lee Pederson,Emory University
John Rickford,Stanford University
Edgar W. Schneider,Universität Regensburg (Germany)
ForSagePublications: MarkGage,GillianDickens,ScottF.Locklear,PaulDoebler,
andJenniferTrone
Journal of English Linguistics
Volume 29 / Number 4 December 2001
Journal of English Linguistics
Volume 29 / Number 4 December 2001
CONTENTS
Contributors 293
Articles
Principles of Pattern Selection:
A Corpus-Based Case Study
JOYBRATO MUKHERJEE 295
Isout ofAlways a Preposition?
BERT CAPPELLE 315
The Diphthongization of /ay/:
Abandoning a Southern Norm in Southern Maryland
DAVID BOWIE 329
Yorkshire English Two Hundred Years Ago
MARÍA F. GARCÍA-BERMEJO GINER and MICHAEL MONTGOMERY 346
Reviews
Spreading the Word: Language and Dialect in America
By John McWhorter
PATRICIA CUKOR-AVILA 363
Qualitative Methods in Sociolinguistics
By Barbara Johnstone
ELLEN JOHNSON 367
Pathways of Change: Grammaticalization in English
Edited by Olga Fischer, Anette Rosenbach, and Dieter Stein
LAUREL J. BRINTON 372
The Continental Backgrounds of English and
Its Insular Development until 1154
By Hans Frede Nielsen
FRED C. ROBINSON 376
Beowulf: An Edition with Relevant Shorter Texts
Edited by Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson
PAUL E. SZARMACH 378
Books Received 383
Index 384
Sage Publications Thousand Oaks • London • New Delhi
JCEonngtrLib2u9to.4r s(December 2001)
Contributors
DavidBowieisanAssistantProfessorofLinguisticsatBrighamYoungUniver-
sity. He is the Director of the Utah Dialect Project.
Laurel J. Brinton is a Professor of English Language at the University of
BritishColumbia.Herresearchinterestsincludepragmaticmarkers,grammatical-
ization, and tense/aspect in the history of English.
BertCappelleisaPh.D.studentinLanguageandLinguistics(GermanicLan-
guages)attheCatholicUniversityofLeuven.Heisdoingcorpusresearchwithinan
interuniversity project (KULAK, KULeuven, Lille III), which is to result in a
multivolume,descriptivegrammarofcontemporaryEnglish.Hispersonalresearch
interests focus on productive verb-particle patterns.
PatriciaCukor-AvilaisanAssociateProfessorofLinguisticsintheDepart-
mentofEnglishattheUniversityofNorthTexasinDenton,Texas.Herworkcen-
tersonthestudyofgrammaticalvariationandchangeinruralSoutherndialects,
specifically African American English. Her longitudinal study of a rural Texas
communityhasprovidedmuchofthedataforpresentationsandarticlesconcerning
approachestosociolinguisticfieldworkaswellasdocumentinginnovationsinAf-
ricanAmericanEnglish.SheiscoeditorofTheEmergenceofBlackEnglish:Text
andCommentary(1991)andauthorofseveralarticlesandbookchapters.Sheis
currentlycoauthoringabookwithGuyBaileyentitledTheDevelopmentofAAVE
since1850:TheEvolutionofaGrammartobepublishedbyCambridgeUniversity
Press.
MaríaF.García-BermejoGinerisanAssociateProfessorofEnglishHistori-
calLinguisticsattheUniversityofSalamanca,Spain.Hermainresearchinterests
are English dialectology in the nineteenth century and literary dialects since the
EarlyModernEnglishperiod.Shehasalsoworkedonnineteenth-centurylinguistic
historiography and on colonial American English.
Ellen Johnson is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Berry College in
Rome, Georgia. She wrote Lexical Change and Variation in the Southeastern
UnitedStates,1930-1990andiscurrentlyresearchinglanguageattitudesandcul-
tural change.
MichaelMontgomeryisaProfessorEmeritusofEnglishattheUniversityof
SouthCarolina,wherehetaughtfrom1981to1999.Hehasrecentlycompleteda
comprehensive dictionary of southern Appalachian English and is engaged in a
long-term study of trans-Atlantic linguistic connections, especially to determine
the influence of Ulster emigrants on American English.
Journal of English Linguistics, Vol. 29 / No. 4, December 2001 293-294
© 2001 Sage Publications
293
294 JEngL29.4 (December 2001)
JoybratoMukherjeeisanAssistantProfessorofModernEnglishLinguistics
attheEnglishDepartmentoftheUniversityofBonn.Hisresearchinterestsinclude
corpuslinguistics,stylistics,text-linguistics,syntax,intonation,andEFLteaching.
Heiscurrentlyworkingonacorpus-basedanalysisofditransitiveverbsandtheir
complementation patterns in present-day English.
Fred C. Robinson, FBA, is the Douglas Tracy Smith Professor Emeritus of
EnglishatYaleUniversity.HisspecialtiesincludeEnglishphilology(ofallperi-
ods)andOldEnglishlanguageandliterature.Hislatestbookisanedition(with
Bruce Mitchell) ofBeowulf(Oxford, 1998).
PaulE.SzarmachistheDirectoroftheMedievalInstituteatWesternMichigan
University and Professor of English and Medieval Studies. Formerly editor and
nowpublisheroftheOldEnglishNewsletter,Szarmachhaseditedcollectionsofes-
saysonOldEnglishproseandhaswrittenarticlesonOldEnglishprosewithspecial
referencetoLatinbackgrounds.HehasdirectedorcodirectedfourNEHsummer
institutes or seminars.
JMEunkghLer2j9e.e4 / (PDreincceimplbeesr o2f0 P0a1t)tern Selection
Principles of Pattern Selection
A Corpus-Based Case Study
JOYBRATO MUKHERJEE
University of Bonn
Analysesoflinguisticcorporahaverevealedthatnaturallanguageistoavery
largeextentbasedon(semi-)preconstructedphrases.Drawingoncorpus-basedap-
proachestothedescriptionofsuchlexico-grammaticalpatternsinlanguageuse,
thepresentstudyputsintoperspectivethequestionofwhyoneandthesamelexical
itemoccursindifferentpatterns.Thequestionofpatternselection(i.e.,theanalysis
offactorsthatleadthelanguageusertopreferaspecificpatterninagivencontext)
deservesfurtherconsideration.Thepresentcorpus-basedcasestudyisintendedto
illuminate this aspect of authentic language behavior.
Introduction: Pattern Grammar and Pattern Selection
Focusingonlanguagepatterns,Sinclair(1991,110)formulatestheidiomprin-
ciple, which states
thatalanguageuserhasavailabletohimorheralargenumberofsemi-pre-
constructed phrases that constitute single choices, even though they might
appear to be analysable into segments.
Sinclair(1991,110-21)himselfgivesseveralexamplesoflexicalitemsthatcollo-
cate with a restricted set of other lexical items (e.g., hard as in hard work, hard
luck). Renouf and Sinclair (1991, 128-30) introduce the notion of collocational
frameworks(e.g.,“a/an+?+of,”“many+?+of”)as“discontinuoussequence[s]
oftwowords”that“arehighlyselectiveoftheircollocates”inmidposition.These-
lected collocates can be arranged in specific semantic groupings. For example,
RenoufandSinclair(cf.1991,136-37)showthattheframework“an+?+of”tends
toco-occurwithwordsfromalimitednumberofsemanticfields—forexample,
measurement(e.g.,“anaverageof”)andrelationship(e.g.,“anenemyof”).That
AUTHOR’SNOTE:IwouldliketothankJürgenEsser,RolfKreyer,andtwoanonymousrefereesfor
usefulcommentsandsuggestions.Furthermore,IwishtoexpressmygratitudetoCharlesMeyerforcrit-
icism and encouragement. Both were needed.
Journal of English Linguistics, Vol. 29 / No. 4, December 2001 295-314
© 2001 Sage Publications
295
296 JEngL29.4 (December 2001)
languageisinfactproducedinandaroundpatternsaslexico-grammaticalunitsof
meaning is not considered by traditional descriptive grammars, which are based
solelyonwhatSinclair(1991,109)callstheopen-choiceprinciple:“Ateachpoint
whereaunitiscompleted(aword,phrase,orclause),alargerangeofchoiceopens
up and the only restraint is grammaticalness.”
Analternativetothetraditionaldescriptionofgrammarasopenchoicesispro-
videdbythecorpus-basedanalysisofmoreorlessidiomatic,lexico-grammatical
patterns.Fromatheoreticalpointofview,suchapattern-basedgrammarturnsout
tocorroborateSinclair’s(1991,137)viewthat“whenwehavethoroughlypursued
thepatternsofco-occurrenceoflinguisticchoicetherewillbelittleornoneedfora
separate residual grammar or lexicon.”1 Accordingly, Francis, Hunston, and
Manning (1996, 1998) offer a corpus-based overview of all the patterns of all
nouns,verbs,andadjectivesthatareattestedintheCollinsCOBUILDEnglishDic-
tionary.Thesepatternlistsaresupplementedwithcomplementarylistsindicating
which lexical items share one specific pattern. In a wider context, Hunston and
Francis(2000)introducetheconceptofacomprehensivepatterngrammarofthe
English language. The patterns of a word are defined by Hunston and Francis
(2000, 37) as
allthewordsandstructureswhichareregularlyassociatedwiththewordand
whichcontributetoitsmeaning.Apatterncanbeidentifiedifacombination
ofwordsoccursrelativelyfrequently,ifitisdependentonaparticularword
choice, and if there is a clear meaning associated with it.
Patterns in this sense are thus based on collocational phenomena as well as on
colligational co-selections (i.e., lexical and grammatical co-occurrences) (as de-
finedbySinclair1991,71andSinclair1996,85,respectively).Fromacomplemen-
taryperspective,suchalexico-grammaticalpatternisco-selectednotonlybyspe-
cificwordsbutbyamoreorlessrestrictedrangeofwords.HunstonandFrancis
(2000,43)alsostatethat“asawordcanhaveseveraldifferentpatterns,soapattern
canbeseentobeassociatedwithavarietyofdifferentwords.Thisistheopposite
sideofthecoin.”Itisobviousthatinfocusingonwhatisfrequentinlanguageuse,
thepatterngrammarapproachexemplifiesacorpus-basedandgenuinelyempirical
grammar(i.e.,anobservation-basedgrammar)(cf.Aarts1991,44).2Accordingly,
HunstonandFrancisdrawonthelargeBankofEnglishcorpus(comprising329
million words in June 1999).
In a similar vein to the Collins COBUILD English Dictionary, Hunston and
Francis(2000,131)useacomparativelysmallinventoryoficonicsymbolstorepre-
sentpatterns:forexample,“v-linkADJfornto-inf”symbolizesapatternthatisfre-
quentlyfoundwiththeadjectivedifficultasin“it’squitedifficultforustodo....”3
Mukherjee / Principles of Pattern Selection 297
TABLE 1
Two Patterns ofdifficultand Their Meanings
Evaluative Affected Evaluation
Category Entity Limiter
Evaluated Entity v-link ADJ for n to-inf
It ’s quite difficult for us to do.
This last need is quite difficult for most of us to understand.
Table1showshowHunstonandFrancis(cf.2000,135)visualizethemeaningof
the pattern itself.
Asonecansee,thedifferentpositionsinthepatternareattachedtodifferentse-
manticaspectsoftheprocessofevaluation,whichisevokedbytheuseofdifficultin
thispattern.Toshowthatapatternitselfalsoco-selectsaspecificrangeofwords,
thewordsofapatternaresubsumedintoso-calledmeaninggroups.Thepattern“V
n n,” for example, chooses verbs from five meaning groups if the verb is
ditransitive: (1) “giving someone something, or refusing to do so”; (2) “doing
somethingforsomeone”;(3)“communicatingsomethingtosomeone”;(4)“giving
someoneabenefitoradisadvantage”;and(5)“verbsconcernedwithfeelingandat-
titudes.”Ontheotherhand,iftheverbinthepattern“Vnn”iscomplex-transitive,
there is only one meaning group—namely, “putting something into a category”
(Hunston and Francis 2000, 87-90).
Thisarticleisclearlytobeseeninthetraditionofthepatterngrammarapproach
totheEnglishlanguage.However,itisnotthedescriptionofthepatternsofaword
assuchthatliesattheheartofthisstudy.Rather,thisstudyaddressesasomewhat
morebasicquestion:ifalexicalitemoccursindifferentpatterns,whichprinciples
andfactorsmakethelanguageuserchooseaspecificpattern?ThelemmaPRO-
VIDEisverysuitableforacasestudyofthisproblemofpatternselectionsinceit
hasfourformallydifferentpatternsthataresemanticallysimilarinthattheyselect
equivalent thematic roles:4
(1) V n n (“provide someone something”)
(2) V nwithn (“provide someone with something”)
(3) V nforn (“provide something for someone”)5
(4) V nton (“provide something to someone”)
AllpatternsrefertotheuseofPROVIDEforanactioninwhichaprovidedentityis
passedtoanaffectedentity(inthesenseofintendedoractualrecipient)(cf.Quirk
etal.1985,696-697).6ItturnsoutthatHunstonandFrancis’s(2000)representation
ofpatternshastobemodifiedfortworeasons.First,theaffectedentitymayalsobe
inanimate, as is the case withforumin the following example:
298 JEngL29.4 (December 2001)
(5) Consequently sport provides the forum for the development of leadership
skills and relationships, . . . (FLOBF05 62)
Thus,itisusefultorephrasethemeaningofthepatternstobediscussedheresothat
animateaswellasinanimateaffectedentitiesarecovered.Second,thetwonoun
groupsareindexedinthefollowingpatternssothattheaffectedentity(n)andthe
1
provided entity (n ) in each pattern are clearly distinguished:
2
(1′) V n n (“provide someone/something something”)
1 2
(2′) V n withn (“provide someone/something with something”)
1 2
(3′) V n forn (“provide something for someone/something”)
2 1
(4′) V n ton (“provide something to someone/something”)
2 1
ItshouldbenotedinpassingthatsomeinstancesofPROVIDEformallyresemble
oneofthesepatternsbutareinfactquitedifferentinmeaningandhave,therefore,
notbeentakenintoaccount.Thispertains,forexample,totheprepositionforintro-
ducingatimeadjunctortheprepositiontointroducingnottheaffectedentitybut
rather thesubject matter(cf. Quirk et al. 1985, 709-10):
(6) It provides an excellent guide to inter-agency co-operation . . . (FLOB
H09110)
Inthefollowingsection,thefrequenciesofthefourpatternsinseveralcorporawill
bepresentedanddiscussed.Itwillbeshowninparticularthatthefrequenciesare
relativelystableacrosscorpora.Onthisbasis,somelargelymonocausalhypotheses
astotheselectionofpatternswillberejected.Patternselectionturnsouttobemuch
morecomplexaphenomenonbasedonmanyfactorsratherthanoneexplanatory
principle only.
Distribution of the Patterns in Five Corpora
ThefirststepoftheanalysisinvolvedsearchingforalloccurrencesofPROVIDE
in the patterns (1′) to (4′) in four standard 1 million-word corpora: the Lancas-
ter-Oslo/BergenCorpus(LOB)ofwrittenBritishEnglishwithtextsfrom1961,the
Freiburg LOB Corpus (FLOB) with texts from 1991-1992, the Brown Corpus
(BROWN) of written American English with texts from 1961, and the Freiburg
BrownCorpus(FROWN)withtextsfrom1991-1992.Theseparallelcorporacon-
tainroughlythesamegenresandwerecompiledaccordingtothesamestandards.
Theiranalysisthusallowshypothesesregardinglinguisticchangeandvariationin
present-dayEnglishtobetested(cf.Mair1997,195-98):whetherthereisregional
variationbetweenBritishandAmericanEnglish(inthe1960sandinthe1990s)and
diachronicchangeinthetwovarieties(includingmutualinfluences).Inaddition,