English as a lingua Franca: forms and features in a Swiss context

This paper considers how the way that English is learned and used in Switzerland may affect the form it takes. Focusing particularly on features demonstrating sociolinguistic competence, it aims to present the different ways that English as a lingua franca speakers may, and may not, acquire the patterns found in native speakers. Although there is no way to predict which features will and will not be natively acquired, the paper demonstrates how sociolinguistic competence is a valuable tool in understanding how English might develop in future in Switzerland and elsewhere as different features have different outcomes

A cheeky investigation: Tracking the semantic change of <i>cheeky</i> from monkeys to wines

The present study focuses on the word cheeky which, in the past few decades, has taken on a new meaning (‘mildly illicit’) in addition to, and partly overtaking, its original meaning (‘impudent’). We examine how this semantic change is spreading in different age groups and in different parts of the English-speaking world. As we demonstrate, the newer meaning of cheeky is associated with younger speakers, so we examine whether this correlates with different age groups’ understanding of the new form. Furthermore, in its original sense, cheeky was used more frequently in the United Kingdom than in North America. If the earlier meaning was already marked for North America, how is the newer form understood by speakers there

Also, too, as well: non-native variation of additive adverbials

If learning stylistically differentiated variation patterns appear to be an inherent difficulty for non native language learners (Rehner, Mougeon & Nadasi 2003, Regan 1996), what will be the out come of the non native acquisition of features that not only vary, but do not present a high degree of stylistic or social differences. Three additive adverbials, also, too, and as well as, have very similar , if not identical, meanings and can be used fairly interchangeably, and although there is some stylistic variation in their selection it is not as marked as it is for some other variables (fjelkestam-Nilsson 1983). The distribution pattern of the three lexical variants, however are quite different and it is precisely this that may create a difficulty for nonnative speakers. This paper looks at how non-native speakers of English in Switzerland use the three additives adverbial in their out put of English, especially given that their native language s (French, German or Italian) do not provide the same three ways lexical distinction of variants, and whether the similarity of the adverbials has affected the non-native speakers’ variation patterns for the three variants

Right dislocation in northern England: Frequency and use - perception meets reality

The process of right dislocation (RD) has long been recognized in English as a primarily vernacular feature available to speakers of all varieties, but concrete sociolinguistic discussion about its frequency of occurrence and which factors constrain its use are rare. Moreover, English has variants which repeat the operator either before or after the dislocated noun phrase (NP) or pronominal particle, e.g. She's got a very good degree has Julie, which makes it unlike most of the languages with comparable RD forms. These variants are either ignored completely in RD literature or considered on their own. The present analysis aims, therefore, to provide a holistic view of RD strategies. Starting with a classification of the various RD strategies used in the North of England, where this variant is most often reported to be found, this paper will present a quantitative analysis of RD in a corpus of York speech. The analysis will demonstrate that, while RD forms are used by York speakers (young and old, male and female), with respect to overall frequency RD is in fact far more rare than reports make it out to be, and that its social distribution is rather unexpected in some respects

English as a lingua Franca: forms and features in a Swiss context

This paper considers how the way that English is learned and used in Switzerland may affect the form it takes. Focusing particularly on features demonstrating sociolinguistic competence, it aims to present the different ways that English as a lingua franca speakers may, and may not, acquire the patterns found in native speakers. Although there is no way to predict which features will and will not be natively acquired, the paper demonstrates how sociolinguistic competence is a valuable tool in understanding how English might develop in future in Switzerland and elsewhere as different features have different outcomes

Book Review of Charles Boberg. Accent in North American Film and Television

Based on: Accent in North American Film and Television: A Sociophonetic Analysis by Boberg Charles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (hardcover), 2021. xviii + 360. ISBN: 9781107150447

Adjective Intensification as a Means of Characterization:Portraying In-Group Membership and Britishness in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

This paper examines the use of intensifiers on the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer in order to establish the ways in which they can be used for characterization. We found that the male and female characters used intensifiers differently (similarly to what is found in natural speech), but also that intensifier choice was related to changes in social networks for several of the female characters on the show (so and totally). Furthermore, intensifiers were also used to distinguish the British characters on the show from the American ones (extremely, terribly, and bloody). By comparing our results to findings for other television shows (Friends) and for natural speech, we were able to establish the extent to which the show makes use of (then) innovative linguistic features for characterization. These findings underline the extent to which scriptwriters and/or actors were able to use linguistic features to index specific types of character