Regional Variation in Written American English ( Studies in English Language )

Publication series ：Studies in English Language

Author： Jack Grieve  

Publisher： Cambridge University Press‎

Publication year： 2016

E-ISBN: 9781316419946

P-ISBN(Paperback): 9781107032477

Subject： H315 Writing, Rhetoric

Keyword： 语言学

Language： ENG

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Regional Variation in Written American English

Description

The first study of its kind, Regional Variation in Written American English takes a corpus-based approach to map over a hundred grammatical alternation variables across the United States. A multivariate spatial analysis of these maps shows that grammatical alternation variables follow a relatively small number of common regional patterns in American English, which can be explained based on both linguistic and extra-linguistic factors. Based on this rigorous analysis of extensive data, Grieve identifies five primary modern American dialect regions, demonstrating that regional variation is far more pervasive and complex in natural language than is generally assumed. The wealth of maps and data and the groundbreaking implications of this volume make it essential reading for students and researchers in linguistics, English language, geography, computer science, sociology and communication studies.

Chapter

Cover

Half title

Series

Title

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

List of figures

List of tables

Acknowledgements

1 Introduction

1.1 American dialectology

1.2 Outline

2 Corpus

2.1 Corpus-based dialectology

2.2 Corpus design

2.2.1 Register selection

2.2.2 City selection

2.3 Corpus compilation

2.4 Corpus dimensions

3 Grammatical analysis

3.1 Alternation variables

3.2 Alternation variable selection and measurement

3.3 Alternation variable mapping

3.4 Feature set

3.4.1 Pronouns

3.4.2 Relative pronouns

3.4.3 Determiners

3.4.4 Adjectives

3.4.5 Nouns

3.4.6 Prepositions

3.4.7 Particles

3.4.8 Subordinators

3.4.9 Coordinators

3.4.10 Verbs

3.4.11 Modals

3.4.12 Infinitives

3.4.13 Not

3.4.14 Adverbs

3.4.15 Adverbials

4 Spatial analysis

4.1 Standard approaches

4.2 Regional linguistic data matrix

4.3 Introduction to spatial analysis

4.4 Local spatial autocorrelation analysis

4.5 Spatial weights matrix

4.6 Local spatial autocorrelation maps

4.7 Discussion of results

5 Multivariate analysis

5.1 Dialectometry

5.2 Multivariate spatial analysis

5.3 Spatially autocorrelated linguistic data matrix

5.3.1 Alternation variable selection

5.3.2 Missing data

5.4 Factor analysis

5.4.1 Introduction to factor analysis

5.4.2 Preliminary analyses

5.4.3 Results

5.5 Fuzzy cluster analysis

5.5.1 A note on dialect regions

5.5.2 Introduction to fuzzy cluster analysis

5.5.3 Results

6 Sources of regional linguistic variation

6.1 Internal explanations

6.1.1 Factor 1

6.1.2 Factor 2

6.1.3 Factor 3

6.1.4 Regional variation in formality

6.2 External explanations

6.3 Comparison of internal and external explanations

6.4 Comparison to previous American dialect surveys

6.5 Future American dialect regions

7 Conclusion

Appendices

Appendix A: Corpus dimensions

Appendix B: Grammatical alternation variables: search patterns

Appendix C: Grammatical alternation variables: descriptive statistics

Appendix D: Spatial analysis results

Appendix E: Multivariate results

References

Index

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