Chapter 9. Processing and prescriptivism as constraints on language variation and change
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Sofie Labat
Abstract
We investigate the choice between the relative markers which and that in 8,283 restrictive relative clauses on subject position, with inanimate antecedents, in a written corpus consisting of British and Australian Hansard materials over five sampling years (1901, 1935, 1965, 1995, 2015). Our aim is to determine how processing-related factors and prescriptivism-related factors influence processes of language variation and change across two varieties of English. We analyse how the language-external variables of period and variety (British, Australian) interact with two groups of language-internal variables, namely predictors related to language processing and linguistic predictors associated with prescriptivism. The analysis shows that the relativiser that has been on the rise over the past century. The increase is particularly pronounced in the British Hansard, as which was comparatively frequent in early twentieth-century British material. As to the relative importance of predictors, we find that language-external predictors are the most important in conditioning the variation in relative markers, followed by processing-related constraints. Prescriptivism-related variables tend to generally be less important in this type of variation.
Abstract
We investigate the choice between the relative markers which and that in 8,283 restrictive relative clauses on subject position, with inanimate antecedents, in a written corpus consisting of British and Australian Hansard materials over five sampling years (1901, 1935, 1965, 1995, 2015). Our aim is to determine how processing-related factors and prescriptivism-related factors influence processes of language variation and change across two varieties of English. We analyse how the language-external variables of period and variety (British, Australian) interact with two groups of language-internal variables, namely predictors related to language processing and linguistic predictors associated with prescriptivism. The analysis shows that the relativiser that has been on the rise over the past century. The increase is particularly pronounced in the British Hansard, as which was comparatively frequent in early twentieth-century British material. As to the relative importance of predictors, we find that language-external predictors are the most important in conditioning the variation in relative markers, followed by processing-related constraints. Prescriptivism-related variables tend to generally be less important in this type of variation.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Perspectives on parliamentary discourse 1
- Chapter 1. Speech in the British Hansard 17
- Chapter 2. Salient differences between Australian oral parliamentary discourse and its official written records 54
- Chapter 3. Hansard at Huddersfield 89
- Chapter 4. Empire, migration and race in the British parliament (1803–2005) 118
- Chapter 5. Leaving the EU out of the ingroup 142
- Chapter 6. From masters and servants to employers and employees 166
- Chapter 7. From criminal lunacy to mental disorder 194
- Chapter 8. “The job requires considerable expertise” 227
- Chapter 9. Processing and prescriptivism as constraints on language variation and change 250
- Chapter 10. Language variation in parliamentary speech in Suriname 277
- Chapter 11. Morphosyntactic and pragmatic variation in conditional constructions in English and Spanish parliamentary discourse 308
- Chapter 12. Colloquialisation, compression and democratisation in British parliamentary debates 336
- Index 373
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Perspectives on parliamentary discourse 1
- Chapter 1. Speech in the British Hansard 17
- Chapter 2. Salient differences between Australian oral parliamentary discourse and its official written records 54
- Chapter 3. Hansard at Huddersfield 89
- Chapter 4. Empire, migration and race in the British parliament (1803–2005) 118
- Chapter 5. Leaving the EU out of the ingroup 142
- Chapter 6. From masters and servants to employers and employees 166
- Chapter 7. From criminal lunacy to mental disorder 194
- Chapter 8. “The job requires considerable expertise” 227
- Chapter 9. Processing and prescriptivism as constraints on language variation and change 250
- Chapter 10. Language variation in parliamentary speech in Suriname 277
- Chapter 11. Morphosyntactic and pragmatic variation in conditional constructions in English and Spanish parliamentary discourse 308
- Chapter 12. Colloquialisation, compression and democratisation in British parliamentary debates 336
- Index 373
