NotesFAQContact Us
Collection
Advanced
Search Tips
Showing 1 to 15 of 20 results Save | Export
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Erman, Britt – Language Variation and Change, 1992
A study investigated the use of three pragmatic expressions ("you know, you see, I mean") by female and male British English speakers to (1) establish actual differences in usage over a number of functions of the three expressions, and (2) discover any correlation of usage with same-sex vs. mixed-sex interaction. (Author/MSE)
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Interpersonal Communication, Language Patterns, Language Usage
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Matsuda, Kenjiro – Language Variation and Change, 1993
Analogical leveling in progress of a potential suffix in Tokyo Japanese is analyzed within a quantitative model. The phenomenon is shown to be controlled by five factors: sociological variable complex, verb stem length, verb conjugation pattern, the following inflectional form, and embeddedness of the clause containing the suffix. (Contains 70…
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Japanese, Language Usage, Predictor Variables
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Sankoff, Gillian; Thibault, Pierrette; Nagy, Naomi; Blondeau, Helene; Fonollosa, Marie-Odile; Gagnon, Lucie – Language Variation and Change, 1997
Points out that the use of discourse markers by speakers of Anglophone Montreal French shows great variation in individual repertoires and frequency of use. Argues that mastery of the appropriate use of discourse markers reveals the speakers' integration into the local speech community. (28 references) (Author/CK)
Descriptors: Discourse Analysis, Foreign Countries, Language Usage, Language Variation
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Scherre, Maria Marta Pereira; Naro, Anthony J. – Language Variation and Change, 1992
A study of concord phenomena in Rio de Janeiro spoken Portuguese found that, in the serial context, the linguistic system is so highly constrained that external, and even internal, influences are blocked. Authors conclude that strong constraints should be identified and further studies undertaken to understand the interplay of the diverse forces…
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Language Usage, Language Variation, Portuguese
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Britain, David – Language Variation and Change, 1992
Sociolinguistic research on linguistic change, i.e., the use of high rising terminal contours (HRTs) in declarative clauses, is reported based on interviews from 75 inhabitants of Porirua. Results show that linguistic change is in progress, with HRTs favored by young Maori and young Pakeha women. Results are explained in terms of HRTs as positive…
Descriptors: English, Foreign Countries, Intonation, Language Usage
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Holmes, Janet; Bell, Allan – Language Variation and Change, 1992
A social dialect survey of a New Zealand community documented a change in progress in the pronunciation of the vowels in words such as "air" and "ear." The data support a tentative interpretation that a shift to the variant with the closer onset for AIR words was initiated by middle-aged Pakeha women. (38 references) (Author/LB)
Descriptors: English, Foreign Countries, Language Usage, Language Variation
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Myhill, John – Language Variation and Change, 1992
In clauses with future meaning in Biblical Hebrew, there are consistent functional differences between clauses with verb-initial word order and clauses with non-verb-initial word order. Verb-initial clauses are associated with future events involving cooperation between the speaker, listener, and God. (16 references) (Author/LB)
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Futures (of Society), Hebrew, Language Usage
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Vann, Robert E. – Language Variation and Change, 1998
This sociolinguistic investigation analyzes an innovative usage of Spanish motion verbs, demonstratives, and locatives in Barcelona, Spain that involves crosslinguistic pragmatic transfer. Speakers in the two social networks examined (n=58) use these Spanish deictics following pragmatic rules that generally correspond to the rules for their…
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Language Usage, Language Variation, Pragmatics
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Escure, Genevieve – Language Variation and Change, 1993
Three categories of topic referents (nominal, pronominal, and periphrastic) are identified in 27 Belizean texts and 12 American texts, and the effects of referent choice of two variables (topic number and stylistic/lectal context) are investigated. One finding is that Belizean lects are strikingly similar to spontaneous styles of American English.…
Descriptors: Contrastive Linguistics, Creoles, English, Foreign Countries
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Paunonen, Heikki – Language Variation and Change, 1993
The development of language conditions in Helsinki, including its origins in a Swedish-speaking area, makes it possible to observe many processes of sociolinguistic interest. Helsinki's colloquial Finnish has served as a model for the evolution of colloquial Finnish throughout the country. (Contains eight references.) (Author/LB)
Descriptors: Finnish, Foreign Countries, Language Patterns, Language Usage
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Tarallo, Fernando; Kato, Mary A. – Language Variation and Change, 1993
Results are presented on the grammar of spoken Brazilian Portuguese, with focus on the syntactic boundaries of the main constituents of an utterance. Major differences are found both in the distribution of filling by syntactic adjuncts versus discourse elements and in the susceptibility of different syntactic boundaries to be filled. (Contains 33…
Descriptors: Cultural Context, Demography, Discourse Analysis, Foreign Countries
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Wetzel, Patricia J. – Language Variation and Change, 1994
Describes the results of a subjective reaction test of over 700 Japanese college students' and office workers' attitudes toward honorifics (keigo) in Japanese. It found that subjects from higher socioeconomic classes were more outspoken and ready to judge incompetent or insufficient keigo more negatively than individuals from lower socioeconomic…
Descriptors: Adults, College Students, Cultural Influences, Foreign Countries
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Ashby, William J.; Bentivoglio, Paolo – Language Variation and Change, 1993
The quantitative methodology of GOLDVARB is used to examine the variable distribution of lexical noun phrases representing core arguments of the verb in a corpus of spoken French and Spanish. The distribution is shown to conform to a grammatically and pragmatically motivated pattern known as Preferred Argument Structure. (Contains 26 references.)…
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, French, Language Usage, Linguistic Theory
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Naro, Anthony; Gorski, Edair; Fernandes, Eulalia – Language Variation and Change, 1999
Discusses a shift in the distribution of first person plural pronouns, as well as changes in the patterns of use of the corresponding verb inflections, in spoken Brazilian Portuguese across four generations of speakers from Rio de Janeiro. (Author/VWL)
Descriptors: Age Differences, Foreign Countries, Language Patterns, Language Usage
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Yaeger-Dror, Malcah – Language Variation and Change, 1993
Language variation within one "ethnic" group, Israelis of Middle Eastern origins, is examined. Focus is on evidence of systematic patterns in the use of three pronunciations for (r), demonstrating that subconscious sociolinguistic pressures on members of the minority community influence them to assimilate while still retaining…
Descriptors: Acculturation, Cross Cultural Studies, Dialects, Ethnic Origins
Previous Page | Next Page ยป
Pages: 1  |  2