4. The linguistic landscape of north-east England
-
Michael Pearce
Abstract
Research on language attitudes and perceptual dialectology has shown that north-east English is one of the most widely recognized and positively evaluated varieties in Britain. There is also a rich tradition of dialect writing associated with the region, and a long history of both ‘folk’ and scholarly attention to local forms of language - for example, it is the only part of England to have a major corpus devoted to it - the Diachronic Electronic Corpus of Tyneside English (University of Newcastle). However, one element is missing from the otherwise well-charted dialectological terrain: an account of localized forms in the ‘linguistic landscape’ (that is, the public display and representation of written language on road signs, advertisements, house names, vehicles, and so on). This chapter is a first foray into an under-researched aspect of the region’s local linguistic ecology. It describes and contextualizes a corpus of signs compiled in 2014-15, showing how they draw extensively on a set of features which previous studies have revealed to be enregistered as part of north-east dialect. The implications of the findings are discussed and the - perhaps surprisingly - infrequent appearance of such forms in the linguistic landscape is addressed.
Abstract
Research on language attitudes and perceptual dialectology has shown that north-east English is one of the most widely recognized and positively evaluated varieties in Britain. There is also a rich tradition of dialect writing associated with the region, and a long history of both ‘folk’ and scholarly attention to local forms of language - for example, it is the only part of England to have a major corpus devoted to it - the Diachronic Electronic Corpus of Tyneside English (University of Newcastle). However, one element is missing from the otherwise well-charted dialectological terrain: an account of localized forms in the ‘linguistic landscape’ (that is, the public display and representation of written language on road signs, advertisements, house names, vehicles, and so on). This chapter is a first foray into an under-researched aspect of the region’s local linguistic ecology. It describes and contextualizes a corpus of signs compiled in 2014-15, showing how they draw extensively on a set of features which previous studies have revealed to be enregistered as part of north-east dialect. The implications of the findings are discussed and the - perhaps surprisingly - infrequent appearance of such forms in the linguistic landscape is addressed.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- List of figures and tables ix
- 1. Introduction 1
-
I. Enregisterment
- 2. Northern English and enregisterment 17
- 3. Dickens and northern English: stereotyping and ‘authenticity’ reconsidered 41
- 4. The linguistic landscape of north-east England 61
- 5. Lenition and T-to-R are differently salient: the representation of competing realisations of /t/ in Liverpool English dialect literature 83
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II. Phonology
- 6. External and internal factors in a levelling process: Prevocalic (r) in Carlisle English 111
- 7. Scouse NURSE and northern happy: vowel change in Liverpool English 135
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III. Syntax and discourse features
- 8. Are Scottish national identities reflected in the syntax of Scottish newspapers? 169
- 9. Final but in northern Englishes 191
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IV. Sociolinguistics
- 10. Education, class and vernacular awareness on Tyneside 215
- 11. Changing domains of dialect use: A real-time study of Shetland schoolchildren 245
-
V. Language and corpus
- 12. New perspectives on Scottish Standard English: Introducing the Scottish component of the International Corpus of English 273
- Index 303
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- List of figures and tables ix
- 1. Introduction 1
-
I. Enregisterment
- 2. Northern English and enregisterment 17
- 3. Dickens and northern English: stereotyping and ‘authenticity’ reconsidered 41
- 4. The linguistic landscape of north-east England 61
- 5. Lenition and T-to-R are differently salient: the representation of competing realisations of /t/ in Liverpool English dialect literature 83
-
II. Phonology
- 6. External and internal factors in a levelling process: Prevocalic (r) in Carlisle English 111
- 7. Scouse NURSE and northern happy: vowel change in Liverpool English 135
-
III. Syntax and discourse features
- 8. Are Scottish national identities reflected in the syntax of Scottish newspapers? 169
- 9. Final but in northern Englishes 191
-
IV. Sociolinguistics
- 10. Education, class and vernacular awareness on Tyneside 215
- 11. Changing domains of dialect use: A real-time study of Shetland schoolchildren 245
-
V. Language and corpus
- 12. New perspectives on Scottish Standard English: Introducing the Scottish component of the International Corpus of English 273
- Index 303
