Diachronic variation in the grammar of Australian English
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Peter Collins
Abstract
This chapter uses data extracted from two recently compiled historical corpora of Australian English, the Corpus of Oz Early English (19th century) and AusCorp (20th century) to examine developments in ten morphosyntactic variables over the past two centuries. At the same time comparisons are drawn with British and American English, using data from ARCHER (A Representative Corpus of Historical English Registers). While Australian usage is found to have diverged from that of its British colonial parent, reflecting increasing independence from British linguistic norms, it has shifted towards that of American English – the new centre of gravity of grammatical change in English world-wide – which emerges as the most advanced variety on eight of the ten variables. Keywords: grammar; Australian English; diachronic; corpus; variation
Abstract
This chapter uses data extracted from two recently compiled historical corpora of Australian English, the Corpus of Oz Early English (19th century) and AusCorp (20th century) to examine developments in ten morphosyntactic variables over the past two centuries. At the same time comparisons are drawn with British and American English, using data from ARCHER (A Representative Corpus of Historical English Registers). While Australian usage is found to have diverged from that of its British colonial parent, reflecting increasing independence from British linguistic norms, it has shifted towards that of American English – the new centre of gravity of grammatical change in English world-wide – which emerges as the most advanced variety on eight of the ten variables. Keywords: grammar; Australian English; diachronic; corpus; variation
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
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PART 1. Inner Circle Englishes
- Diachronic variation in the grammar of Australian English 15
- At the crossroads of change 43
- Do -support in early New Zealand and Australian English 65
- The progressive in Irish English 87
- Cross-variety diachronic drifts and ephemeral regional contrasts 119
- Passives of so-called ‘ditransitives’ in nineteenth century and present-day Canadian English 147
- Dual adverbs in Australian English 179
- The evolution of epistemic marking in West Australian English 205
- May and might in nineteenth century Irish English and English English 221
- The present perfect and the preterite in Australian English 247
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PART 2. Outer Circle Englishes
- Recent diachronic change in the progressive in Philippine English 271
- Linguistic change in a multilingual setting 297
- Patterns of regularisation in British, American and Indian English 335
- An apparent time study of the progressive in Nigerian English 373
- American influence on written Caribbean English 389
- Cultural keywords in context 411
- Recent quantitative changes in the use of modals and quasi-modals in the Hong Kong, British and American printed press 437
- The development of an extended time period meaning of the progressive in Black South African English 465
- Index 485
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
PART 1. Inner Circle Englishes
- Diachronic variation in the grammar of Australian English 15
- At the crossroads of change 43
- Do -support in early New Zealand and Australian English 65
- The progressive in Irish English 87
- Cross-variety diachronic drifts and ephemeral regional contrasts 119
- Passives of so-called ‘ditransitives’ in nineteenth century and present-day Canadian English 147
- Dual adverbs in Australian English 179
- The evolution of epistemic marking in West Australian English 205
- May and might in nineteenth century Irish English and English English 221
- The present perfect and the preterite in Australian English 247
-
PART 2. Outer Circle Englishes
- Recent diachronic change in the progressive in Philippine English 271
- Linguistic change in a multilingual setting 297
- Patterns of regularisation in British, American and Indian English 335
- An apparent time study of the progressive in Nigerian English 373
- American influence on written Caribbean English 389
- Cultural keywords in context 411
- Recent quantitative changes in the use of modals and quasi-modals in the Hong Kong, British and American printed press 437
- The development of an extended time period meaning of the progressive in Black South African English 465
- Index 485
