Third-person singular zero in the Norfolk dialect A re-assessment

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Joby
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Present Tense

AbstractI use the results of my own research into the language use of the immigrant (or ‘Stranger’) communities in early modern Norwich to evaluate Peter Trudgill’s thesis that it was language contact in Norwich between the Strangers and the local English inhabitants that led to the emergence of third-person singular present tense zero (he go rather than he goes). I present evidence that third-person singular zero was already in use in Norwich and elsewhere in Norfolk by the time when Dutch- and French-speaking immigrants arrived in Norwich. The question then arises as to whether language contact did in fact play any role in establishing zero-marking as the norm in the Norfolk dialect, a process which was complete by about 1700. I argue is that if language contact did play a role in the success of zeromarking, it would have been in a manner different to that described by Trudgill.

Third-person singular zero in Norfolk English: An addendum

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Joby
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
East Anglia ◽  
The Third ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Present Tense ◽  
The Third Person

Abstract An article published in 2014 argued that the third-person singular present tense indicative zero was already present in Norfolk English before the arrival of Dutch- and French-speaking immigrants in Norwich in the middle of the sixteenth century. This position differs from that of Trudgill, who has argued that zero-marking in Norfolk English arose as a result of language contact between the immigrants (or ‘Strangers’) and local English people. One response to the earlier article is that it relies on examples involving the verb have, and that this verb is something of an exception as it is found with zero-marking in other varieties of English. The present article addresses that concern by providing further evidence that zero-marking was already used in Norfolk English for verbs other than have before the arrival of the Strangers in Norwich. It then evaluates whether, although zero-marking was present prior to 1565, Trudgill’s language contact thesis may nevertheless help to explain how zero-marking became a common feature of Norfolk English and indeed of varieties of English elsewhere in East Anglia. In short, this article aims to shed further light on the interesting question of how and when zero-marking developed in Norfolk English.

Regional Variation in Early Modern English: The Case of the Third-Person Present Tense Singular Verb Ending in Norfolk Correspondence

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 338-366
Author(s):  
Christopher Joby
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Regional Variation ◽  
New Approach ◽  
The Third ◽  
General Terms ◽  
Early Modern English ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Present Tense ◽  
The Third Person ◽  
Thomas Browne

A well-known example of variation in Early Modern English is found in the morphology of the third-person singular present tense indicative verb. In general terms there was a gradual shift from - th to - s (e.g., pleaseth to pleases). However, previous studies such as Kytö (1993) and Nevalainen and Raumolin-Brunberg (2003) found that this shift was by no means uniform, varying by, for example, region, type of text, and author. More specifically, Nevalainen, Raumolin-Brunberg, and Trudgill (2001) analyzed the distribution of endings for the third-person singular present indicative verb in Early Modern East Anglian English, i.e., the variety of English used in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. However, for the final twenty-year period of their study (1660-1680), they only have four informants. This article analyzes the distribution of verb endings for a larger number of informants during this period, which marks the final stages of - th recession in East Anglian English, using letters written in Norfolk. The corpus based on these letters allows for a detailed analysis of linguistic and extralinguistic factors that influenced this distribution. Linguistic factors include the stem-final sound and verb-type ( have, do, and say are analyzed separately). Among the extralinguistic factors analyzed are the sex of the author and addressee, the level of formality, and the author’s social class. One of the informants in this study is Sir Thomas Browne. The distribution of verb endings in his correspondence makes him an outlier. His usage has led some authors to exclude his results from their analysis. The present article offers a new approach to dealing with such cases. The overall results are compared with those for other parts of England from the same period in order to identify patterns of regional variation. Finally, an analysis of correspondence for the period 1680-1750 indicates that by this time - th had more or less disappeared from Norfolk correspondence.

scholarly journals Some more on the history of present-tense -s, do and zero: West Oxfordshire, 1837

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Wright
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Dialect Contact ◽  
Third Person ◽  
History Of ◽  
Present Tense ◽  
Auxiliary Verb

AbstractThis paper analyses the present indicative third-person singular markers in a diary kept by a servant from West Oxfordshire in 1837. There are three present-tense markers present in the diary: periphrastic auxiliary verb do, -s, and zero. However, all affirmative declarative do forms are found to be emphatic, so I deduce that periphrastic do was not present. Zero occurs at the surprisingly high rate of 21%. I examine the possibility that zero was the result of hypercorrection (perhaps due to misapplied schooling, or perhaps due to dialect contact as the diarist left West Oxfordshire and took up employment in London), but this is rejected because -s and zero patterns in the same way as in other southern data, based on an analysis of pronoun v. NP subjects, auxiliary v. full-verb have, non-categorical NPPR, and non-categorical Early Modern subjunctive zero. Presumably, these regular patternings would not be present were the zeroes due to an over-applied rule. I hypothesise that as periphrastic do and older -th became abandoned, an empty morpheme slot emerged, which later became filled with generalised -s. It is this temporarily empty morpheme slot, I suggest, which accounts for the 21% zeroes.

scholarly journals Meanderings Around the Notion of ‘Contact’ in Reference to Languages, their Dynamics, and to ‘we’

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 519-548
Author(s):  
Robert Nicolaï
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Ordinary Language ◽  
Language Usage ◽  
Classical Sense ◽  
Communication Practices ◽  
As If

This paper is a linguistic, anthropological and philosophical exploration of language, with particular focus on language contact. The goal is not to address linguistic phenomena from a descriptive perspective, in the classical sense of the term, nor as if they were a “given”, and nothing further. Nor is the goal to craft a model. Instead it is an attempt to account for all relevant elements which (empirically) come into play in ordinary language use, considering them both in terms of language dynamics and in terms of language usage; this necessarily entails taking into consideration our own practices, as actors of communication and as builders of knowledge. We are ever stakeholders in this play (and its plays) because we are the ones who identify and/or attribute relevance. In other words, this text is a reflection on the (our) frameworks established through communication practices (frameworks which naturally have an impact on the form of our tools, including languages!) It highlights that the objectivization of phenomena which underlies our practices (whether academic or not) is closely dependent on the means by which we grasp the phenomena—this is nothing new but is worth noting afresh. Methodologically speaking, observing this point is an essential element in the elaboration of a theory to account for how phenomena are empirically grasped, and more particularly what it entails in the field of ‘language contact’.

The Contact Diffusion of Linguistic Practices

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Bohnemeyer ◽  
Katharine T. Donelson ◽  
Randi E. Moore ◽  
Elena Benedicto ◽  
Alyson Eggleston ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Reference Frames ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Spatial Reference ◽  
Diffusion Analysis ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Education Levels ◽  
Spatial Reference Frame ◽  
Using Data

We examine the extent to which practices of language use may be diffused through language contact and areally shared, using data on spatial reference frame use by speakers of eight indigenous languages from in and around the Mesoamerican linguistic area and three varieties of Spanish. Regression models show that the frequency of L2-Spanish use by speakers of the indigenous languages predicts the use of relative reference frames in the L1 even when literacy and education levels are accounted for. A significant difference in frame use between the Mesoamerican and non-Mesoamerican indigenous languages further supports the contact diffusion analysis.

French in early modern Norwich

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 431-451
Author(s):  
CHRISTOPHER JOBY
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
French Language ◽  
Religious Persecution ◽  
Language Competition ◽  
English Population ◽  
Language Area ◽  
Economic Necessity ◽  
Thomas Browne

ABSTRACTMuch has been written about the use of French in medieval England. However, with one or two exceptions, relatively little has been written about the language in early modern England. This article aims to provide an account of the use of French as an emigrant language in one of the leading provincial cities in early modern England, Norwich. From 1565 onwards thousands of people from the French-language area migrated to England as a result of economic necessity and religious persecution. Many of them settled in Norwich. As well as these immigrants and their descendants, there were Dutch immigrants in Norwich who spoke French as well as several well-educated individuals from the local English population such as Sir Thomas Browne. This article describes the varieties of French used in Norwich, including Picard, the emerging standard French and Law French. It then discusses how French operated in the multilingual environment of early modern Norwich under the headings of language competition, language contact, bilingualism, code switching, translation, and finally, language shift and recession. It adds not only to our understanding of French in early modern England but also to the literature on French as an emigrant language.

scholarly journals AN OVERVIEW OF INDONESIAN LOANWORDS FROM FRENCH

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 155
Author(s):  
Tri Indri Hardini ◽  
Philippe Grangé
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Old French ◽  
The Other ◽  
French Language ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Reciprocal Influence ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
Dutch Language ◽  
Faux Amis

When two languages come into contact, they exert a reciprocal influence, often unbalanced. A phenomenon that often occurs in case of language contact is the absorption or borrowing of lexical elements, which will enrich the vocabulary of the receiving language. In this article, we deal with words adopted from French in Indonesian and vice-versa. This research shows that most of the words of French origin in Indonesian/Malay language were borrowed through Dutch. Historical background explains why there are no direct loanwords from French language in Indonesian. Nowadays, a second batch of words originating from Old French finds their way into Indonesian through English. On the other hand, very few words from Malay-Indonesian origin were borrowed in French, and their route was not straight either: they were conveyed through Portuguese or Dutch. Phonological adaptation and shift of meaning may have happen when the words were loaned from French to Dutch language or later, when adapted from Dutch into Indonesian language. The data analysed in this article may help teachers of French as a Foreign Language in Indonesia, as well as teachers of Indonesian as a Foreign Language in French-speaking countries, to predict which words will be immediately recognized by their students, and when they should pay extra-attention to faux-amis (cognates whose meanings differ).

scholarly journals A Bridge to Portugal: Language and Identity in Bridgeport, CT

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-140
Author(s):  
Fabio Scetti
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
American English ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Language And Identity ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Status

Here I present the results of BridgePORT, an ethnographic study I carried out in 2018 within the Portuguese community of Bridgeport, CT (USA). I describe language use and representation among Portuguese speakers within the community, and I investigate the integration of these speakers into the dominant American English speech community. Through my fieldwork, I observe mixing practices in day-to-day interaction, while I also consider the evolution of the Portuguese language in light of language contact and speakers’ discourse as this relates to ideologies about the status of Portuguese within the community. My findings rely on questionnaires, participant observation of verbal interaction, and semi-structured interviews. My aim is to show how verbal practice shapes the process of identity construction and how ideas of linguistic “purity” mediate the maintenance of a link to Portugal and Portuguese identity.

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