The morpho-syntax of Standard Scottish English

Actually in Spoken Singapore English

UvA-DARE (

UvA-DARE (

Predicting stress in English verbs – analogy, morphology, and the level of abstraction of phonological patterns

Stress position in English words is well-known to be influenced by phonological, morphological, and (morpho)syntactic factors (esp. verbs vs. nouns). All these influences, however, are far from categorical, and very often stress varies from one word to another in a seemingly unpredictable manner. What is more, recent corpus-based work points to the relevance of opaque, i.e. etymological prefixes. It is, however, unclear why effects of opaque morphology should be productive synchronically. Moreover, there is an increasing body of research indicating that stress assignment works on the basis of lower-level information, i.e. analogy. In this paper we analyze the results of a pseudo-word experiment testing the production of trisyllabic verbs. Structural predictors tested in the analysis comprise syllable weight and prefixation (measuring the transparency of prefixes). To test analogy, we had a computational analogical model predict stress in the pseudo-words based on all verbs in the Cambridge Pronouncing Dictionary . Lexical support measures were then used as predictors alongside weight and prefixation in a mixed-effects logistic regression model. The results show that all three variables are significant predictors of main stress in the experimental data. Lexical support is strongly correlated with actual productions, but AML underpredicts some of participants’ preferences. These are, however, explained by syllable weight and transparency of the prefix in our regression model. We conclude that properties on different levels of representation are relevant for the prediction of stress position in English pseudo-verbs.

‘Yeah obvs. That’s awesome’: A Short-Term Semantic-Pragmatic Change in Present-Day English

The aim of this study is to analyze the changes in the frequency and use of obviously over a short period of time in present-day English using comparable spoken corpora. Obviously has both an evidential inferential meaning and intersubjective or engagement meaning where it presents information as shared by the speaker and the hearer. The analysis of the occurrences of obviously shows that it is increasing in frequency as an engagement marker particularly when the use of the first and second person subject suggests a high degree of speaker and hearer presence. The people using obviously as an engagement marker are young, mostly female speakers who use obviously because it is fashionable and new. Specifically, obviously is used instead of of course to express that something is assumed or expected. The rapid rise in frequency of obviously has a parallel in American English which suggests that globalization plays a role for its spread.

From formulaic collective address to plural pronoun

This paper examines a little-known composite second-person plural pronoun that has received no systematic attention in the historical-linguistic literature to date: among(st)-you . Drawing on a broad range of textual sources, we first map the geographical distribution of this pronoun across the anglophone world. The feature is shown to cluster in the Caribbean and in the Chesapeake-Delmarva region in the U.S., with peripheral, semi-grammaticalized attestations also in East Anglia. We then offer a discourse-pragmatic account of its emergence, arguing that the among(st)-you pronoun likely developed in formal, formulaic (and possibly religious) registers of communal address. This contrasts sharply with other, more popular American English compounds such as you all and you uns which emerged within informal, colloquial discourse. To account for the feature’s geographic spread, we outline a salient transfer scenario involving Nonconformist expansion. Finally, to situate the phenomenon in a wider perspective, we provide pronominal comparanda from two little-known non-standard varieties of English and Dutch.