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At the crossroads of change

Possession, periphrasis, and prescriptivism in Victoria English
  • Alexandra D’Arcy
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Grammatical Change in English World-Wide
This chapter is in the book Grammatical Change in English World-Wide

Abstract

British and Southern hemisphere varieties of English have been shifting towards have got for stative possession, but North American varieties favour have. At the same time, have is implicated in a critical transatlantic divide, requiring do-support and resisting contraction in North America. Drawing on newspaper data from Victoria, Canada, this chapter examines possession from 1858–1935, overlapping the window during which have got began to diffuse markedly in British varieties. Have got is concentrated in these materials in negatives and interrogatives, conflict sites for do-support. This raises the question of what happens when two changes collide, and suggests that the North American preference for have may have been driven by the participation of stative have in the shift to do periphrasis. Keywords. Victoria English; Canadian English; stative possession; periphrasis; do-support; negation

Abstract

British and Southern hemisphere varieties of English have been shifting towards have got for stative possession, but North American varieties favour have. At the same time, have is implicated in a critical transatlantic divide, requiring do-support and resisting contraction in North America. Drawing on newspaper data from Victoria, Canada, this chapter examines possession from 1858–1935, overlapping the window during which have got began to diffuse markedly in British varieties. Have got is concentrated in these materials in negatives and interrogatives, conflict sites for do-support. This raises the question of what happens when two changes collide, and suggests that the North American preference for have may have been driven by the participation of stative have in the shift to do periphrasis. Keywords. Victoria English; Canadian English; stative possession; periphrasis; do-support; negation

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. PART 1. Inner Circle Englishes
  5. Diachronic variation in the grammar of Australian English 15
  6. At the crossroads of change 43
  7. Do -support in early New Zealand and Australian English 65
  8. The progressive in Irish English 87
  9. Cross-variety diachronic drifts and ephemeral regional contrasts 119
  10. Passives of so-called ‘ditransitives’ in nineteenth century and present-day Canadian English 147
  11. Dual adverbs in Australian English 179
  12. The evolution of epistemic marking in West Australian English 205
  13. May and might in nineteenth century Irish English and English English 221
  14. The present perfect and the preterite in Australian English 247
  15. PART 2. Outer Circle Englishes
  16. Recent diachronic change in the progressive in Philippine English 271
  17. Linguistic change in a multilingual setting 297
  18. Patterns of regularisation in British, American and Indian English 335
  19. An apparent time study of the progressive in Nigerian English 373
  20. American influence on written Caribbean English 389
  21. Cultural keywords in context 411
  22. Recent quantitative changes in the use of modals and quasi-modals in the Hong Kong, British and American printed press 437
  23. The development of an extended time period meaning of the progressive in Black South African English 465
  24. Index 485
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.67.03dar

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. PART 1. Inner Circle Englishes
  5. Diachronic variation in the grammar of Australian English 15
  6. At the crossroads of change 43
  7. Do -support in early New Zealand and Australian English 65
  8. The progressive in Irish English 87
  9. Cross-variety diachronic drifts and ephemeral regional contrasts 119
  10. Passives of so-called ‘ditransitives’ in nineteenth century and present-day Canadian English 147
  11. Dual adverbs in Australian English 179
  12. The evolution of epistemic marking in West Australian English 205
  13. May and might in nineteenth century Irish English and English English 221
  14. The present perfect and the preterite in Australian English 247
  15. PART 2. Outer Circle Englishes
  16. Recent diachronic change in the progressive in Philippine English 271
  17. Linguistic change in a multilingual setting 297
  18. Patterns of regularisation in British, American and Indian English 335
  19. An apparent time study of the progressive in Nigerian English 373
  20. American influence on written Caribbean English 389
  21. Cultural keywords in context 411
  22. Recent quantitative changes in the use of modals and quasi-modals in the Hong Kong, British and American printed press 437
  23. The development of an extended time period meaning of the progressive in Black South African English 465
  24. Index 485
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