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The written wor(l)ds of men and women in early white Australia

  • Clemens Fritz
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The Dynamics of Linguistic Variation
This chapter is in the book The Dynamics of Linguistic Variation

Abstract

This paper investigates the written wor(l)ds of men and women in eighteenth and nineteenth century Australia. Using a self-collected corpus of early English in Australia, COOEE, possible variation is looked for in a number of fields. In some of them men and women differ a lot, in others not at all. These differences can be attributed to sociocultural factors and/or the gender of the writer. It is naturally difficult to decide which factor is dominant; however, the data suggest some real gender differences e.g. in the area of evidentiality and for linguistic change in progress. Another finding is the unexpected level of similarity of male and female writings. Egalitarianism in early white Australia seems to extend not only to all classes but also to the sexes.

Abstract

This paper investigates the written wor(l)ds of men and women in eighteenth and nineteenth century Australia. Using a self-collected corpus of early English in Australia, COOEE, possible variation is looked for in a number of fields. In some of them men and women differ a lot, in others not at all. These differences can be attributed to sociocultural factors and/or the gender of the writer. It is naturally difficult to decide which factor is dominant; however, the data suggest some real gender differences e.g. in the area of evidentiality and for linguistic change in progress. Another finding is the unexpected level of similarity of male and female writings. Egalitarianism in early white Australia seems to extend not only to all classes but also to the sexes.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Exploring the dynamics of linguistic variation through public and private corpora 1
  5. Part I. Creating discourse
  6. Introduction 13
  7. ' And so now …': The grammaticalisation and (inter)subjectification of now 17
  8. Self-repetition in spoken English discourse 37
  9. Modal adverbs in interaction – obviously and definitely in adolescent speech 61
  10. Pressing -ing into service: I don't want you coming around here any more 85
  11. Part II. Moving across varieties
  12. Introduction 101
  13. Conversations from the speech community: Exploring language variation in synchronic dialect corpora 107
  14. The English modals and semi-modals: Regional and stylistic variation 129
  15. Patterns of negation: The relationship between NO and NOT in regional varieties of English 147
  16. Verb-complementational profiles across varieties of English: Comparing verb classes in Indian English and British English 163
  17. Angloversals? Concord and interrogatives in contact varieties of English 183
  18. South Pacific Englishes – Unity and diversity in the usage of the present perfect 203
  19. Part III. Levelling out variability
  20. Introduction 223
  21. Feature loss in 19th century Irish English 229
  22. The written wor(l)ds of men and women in early white Australia 245
  23. The progressive and phrasal verbs: Evidence of colloquialization in nineteenth-century English? 269
  24. Probabilistic determinants of genitive variation in spoken and written English: A multivariate comparison across time, space, and genres 291
  25. Her daughter's being taken into care or her daughter being taken …? Genitive and common-case marking of subjects of verbal gerund clauses in Present-day English 311
  26. Subject index 335
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.2.20fri

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Exploring the dynamics of linguistic variation through public and private corpora 1
  5. Part I. Creating discourse
  6. Introduction 13
  7. ' And so now …': The grammaticalisation and (inter)subjectification of now 17
  8. Self-repetition in spoken English discourse 37
  9. Modal adverbs in interaction – obviously and definitely in adolescent speech 61
  10. Pressing -ing into service: I don't want you coming around here any more 85
  11. Part II. Moving across varieties
  12. Introduction 101
  13. Conversations from the speech community: Exploring language variation in synchronic dialect corpora 107
  14. The English modals and semi-modals: Regional and stylistic variation 129
  15. Patterns of negation: The relationship between NO and NOT in regional varieties of English 147
  16. Verb-complementational profiles across varieties of English: Comparing verb classes in Indian English and British English 163
  17. Angloversals? Concord and interrogatives in contact varieties of English 183
  18. South Pacific Englishes – Unity and diversity in the usage of the present perfect 203
  19. Part III. Levelling out variability
  20. Introduction 223
  21. Feature loss in 19th century Irish English 229
  22. The written wor(l)ds of men and women in early white Australia 245
  23. The progressive and phrasal verbs: Evidence of colloquialization in nineteenth-century English? 269
  24. Probabilistic determinants of genitive variation in spoken and written English: A multivariate comparison across time, space, and genres 291
  25. Her daughter's being taken into care or her daughter being taken …? Genitive and common-case marking of subjects of verbal gerund clauses in Present-day English 311
  26. Subject index 335
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