Abstract:This article is concerned with the acquisition of sociolinguistic variation, which is central to native speaker competence. It explores the acquisition of variable quotative marking within the local Learner English ecology in a cohort of German students. The data consist of 809 instances of quotation produced by 45 speakers, all of whom are currently completing their bachelor's and master's degrees and who have different exposure types to English spoken in a naturalistic context. The authors focus on the acqui… Show more
“…A study reported in Davydova (2019) indicates that young speakers of Indian English have developed a series of tacit and explicit associations indicative of both positive and negative attitudes harboured towards be like . A similar investigation yielded comparable results for German learners of English (Davydova, Tytus, & Schleef 2017). On the one hand, both ESL and EFL speakers seem to realise that be like is a ‘trendy’ feature characteristic of an informal style that makes them sound hip and socially attractive.…”
Section: The Global Linguistic Variant In Esl and Efl Englishsupporting
confidence: 53%
“…Given that be like is a discourse-pragmatic feature with relatively fixed morphosyntactic embedding (Buchstaller 2014), criterion (i), which treats salience at the phonetic/phonological level, does not apply. Figure 1.Quotative template (revised from Davydova & Buchstaller 2015:452)…”
Quotative be like is a much discussed variable linguistic feature recruited in this investigation in order to revisit the hypothesis of linguistic diffusion (Labov 2007) predicting re-ordering of original patterns by L2 populations. As a sociocognitively salient variant spreading above the level of conscious awareness, be like has been appropriated by adult speakers from two distinctive L2 English ecologies with a high degree of precision, a finding previously not reported in studies exploring the acquisition of structured variation. In this article, I explain how, supported by frequency and constraint complexity, sociocognitive salience may have contributed to the generally accurate replication of the variable grammar for be like and, by this token, how it can inform existing models of language change. (Sociocognitive salience, linguistic diffusion, L2 acquisition of structured variation, variationist sociolinguistics, World Englishes, be like)
“…A study reported in Davydova (2019) indicates that young speakers of Indian English have developed a series of tacit and explicit associations indicative of both positive and negative attitudes harboured towards be like . A similar investigation yielded comparable results for German learners of English (Davydova, Tytus, & Schleef 2017). On the one hand, both ESL and EFL speakers seem to realise that be like is a ‘trendy’ feature characteristic of an informal style that makes them sound hip and socially attractive.…”
Section: The Global Linguistic Variant In Esl and Efl Englishsupporting
confidence: 53%
“…Given that be like is a discourse-pragmatic feature with relatively fixed morphosyntactic embedding (Buchstaller 2014), criterion (i), which treats salience at the phonetic/phonological level, does not apply. Figure 1.Quotative template (revised from Davydova & Buchstaller 2015:452)…”
Quotative be like is a much discussed variable linguistic feature recruited in this investigation in order to revisit the hypothesis of linguistic diffusion (Labov 2007) predicting re-ordering of original patterns by L2 populations. As a sociocognitively salient variant spreading above the level of conscious awareness, be like has been appropriated by adult speakers from two distinctive L2 English ecologies with a high degree of precision, a finding previously not reported in studies exploring the acquisition of structured variation. In this article, I explain how, supported by frequency and constraint complexity, sociocognitive salience may have contributed to the generally accurate replication of the variable grammar for be like and, by this token, how it can inform existing models of language change. (Sociocognitive salience, linguistic diffusion, L2 acquisition of structured variation, variationist sociolinguistics, World Englishes, be like)
“…Employing Goldvarb thus ensured the direct comparability of results. Following Davydova and Buchstaller (2015) and Davydova (2015Davydova ( , 2016aDavydova ( , 2019, I set the application value to include both be like and zero-like forms, contrasting (be) like with all the other variants.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…In so doing they fill in the third and/or the fourth slots with either local or superstratal speech material ( ki vs. that for complementiser and okay ( fine ) for discourse markers). Resulting variants add to the feature pool (Mufwene, ) produced by the regular quotative template ( Noun Phrase + Copula Verb / Verbum Dicendi + ( Discourse Marker ) + Quote ; Davydova & Buchstaller, , p. 452) attested in Inner Circle English. The variable system of quotative marking produced by my young Outer Circle speakers is thus best described in terms of both substratal and superstratal interactions (Sharma, , p. 170) and this is in stark contrast to the quotative system of their Expanding Circle peers, which is essentially composed of the superstratal variants, both traditional and innovative.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Creative innovations in the field of quotative marking are by no means limited to English. Buchstaller (, p. 2) reports that ‘non‐canonical quotative innovations have been attested in a range of typologically unrelated languages, such as Hebrew, German and Japanese.’ What seems to foster the cross‐varietal and cross‐linguistic productivity of the quotative template ( Noun Phrase + Copula Verb / Verbum Dicendi + ( Discourse Marker ) + Quote , Davydova & Buchstaller, , p. 452) is the cognitive process of analogical extension from existing to new exemplars. Such local analogies are motivated ‘by the shared semantic‐pragmatic properties of the lexical items in one pragmatic slot’ (Buchstaller, , p. 19).…”
Section: Case Study: Quotation In Outer Circle and Expanding Circle Ementioning
The study aims at revising the major dichotomy between the Outer and Expanding Circles respectively. Taking the traditional sociolinguistic model of world Englishes as a starting point of discussion, I discuss the argument that classical macrosociolinguistic descriptions of linguistic varieties are helpful accounts that have also proven to be useful heuristic devices in the study of global variation as it is attested in English. Taking the linguistic variable ‘quotatives’ for illustration, I show that the patterns of use of innovative be like are uniform in the speech of young adults with elevated levels of exposure to mass media products and apply across the Outer and Expanding Circle English board. I conclude that the careful study of users’ individual profiles in a given sociolinguistic environment also holds the key to a nuanced understanding of the major sociolinguistic and sociocognitive determinants underlying the emergence of the new forms of English.
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