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What was it like before like? Discourse-‐pragma8c varia8on
and discourse style
Jenny Cheshire Queen Mary, University of London
DiPVaC 1,18 April 2012 University of Salford Manchester
Gumperz and Tannen (1979) on style
• Sapir: style is “ an everyday facet of speech that characterises both the social group and the individual” (1958: 542)
• Our impressions of speaker or group style grow out of the use of “linguis8c devices to signal how an uVerance is meant”
Discourse style and age
• Young people are more insecure and lack conversa8onal confidence (Jorgensen 2009, Rodriguez 2002)
• they tend to use discourse markers more frequently (Aijmer 2002) especially ‘vague expressions’ including discourse marker like and general extenders (Dubois 1992, Stubbe and Holmes 1995)
Like in adolescent speech
yeah cos like it's quite far like to get out the school from the entrance like in the school yeah and he goes "ah no get off the bike" yeah so like he kind of shoved me off the bike so I dropped it but I didn't fall over like but I kind of stumbled yeah and he put his. he tried to take my bike up to his office like he was gonna keep my bike there. I was like "no" like
Of course in the speech of the older generation
of course I got called up for the army . when I was eighteen . so I finished up in infantry of course that was er …but I got into the regimental concert party . erm eventually I was trained as an army signaller . and er . course when I got called up the war had just finished [Interviewer: right] so I thought “oh well that’s you know that’s a bit safe” but of course the war with Japan was s8ll going on and we were being trained to fight the Japanese how they thought we were gonna get out there quickly to do it I don't know well then of course they dropped the terrible bomb and finished that .
Func8ons of like signals ‘loose talk’; an approxima8on to the speaker’s thought (Andersen , Buchstaller); invites the addressee to collaborate in the construc8on of meaning creates solidarity and involvement (Levey 2006)
Func8ons of of course of course: in informal speech of course signals speaker certainty (Holmes 1995)
Group frequencies for of course and like
(of) course N per 1000 words
like N per 1000 words
Hackney 70+ 0.48 (45/92,859)
1.78 (165/92,859)
Hackney 16-19 (subsample of 18 speakers)
0.05 (15/309,378)
14.78 (4547/309,378)
Ques8ons
(1) do changing uses of discourse-‐pragma8c features across genera8ons indicate a change in discourse style? (2) can a par8cular discourse style contribute to language change?
Linguistic Innovators: the English of adolescents in London 2004-2007 Paul Kerswill, Jenny Cheshire, Sue Fox and Eivind Torgersen
E· S· R· C ECONOMIC & S O C I A L RESEARCH C O U N C I L
96 young people aged 16-‐19 and 16 speakers aged 70 + 2 loca8ons:
inner London (Hackney) outer London (Havering)
In Hackney, adolescents were ‘Anglo’ and non-‐Anglo
Figures taken from Census 2001
Hackney Ethnic Group Percentages
44.12
3.0212.26
1.52
0.79
0.78
1.11
3.76
1.07
2.94
0.82
10.29
11.98
2.39
1.17
2
White British
White Irish
White Other
Mixed race White BlackCaribbeanMixed race White BlackAfricanMixed race White Asian
Mixed race Other
Asian Indian
Asian Pakistani
Asian Bangladeshi
Asian Other
Black caribbean
Black African
Black Other
Chinese
What was it like before like?
(3) we got umming and aahing like . I had to leave unfortunately
(4) and when I done it one day . like I popped my head under a light and somebody called “oy snowy” (5) we used to see like an Indian man (6) there’s a couple of young people like on my landing (7) this is how dozy I was I like let people take liber8es
syntac8c posi8on of like
Clause ini8al Clause final Before DP Within VP
Decreasing frequency
General extenders
• took him all round Canary Wharf all round all along the waterfront and that . and he couldn’t remember anything of it (John )
• there was fire engines and everything in the street it was awful really (Frances)
• I had a brother but he died at birth or something so my mother tells me (Doug)
general extenders
Hackney 70+ Hackney 16-‐19
adjunc8ves e.g. and stuff
1.93 (179) 0.33 (102)
disjunc8ves e.g. or something
0.94 (87) 0.24 (75)
Total no. general extenders per 1000 words
2.86 (266/92859)
0.57 (177/309,378)
Adjunctives: forms and frequencies
Hackney 70+ Hackney 16-‐19
and that 55.8 (100) 50.0 (51) and things 14.5 (26) 0.2 (2) and everything 12.8 (23) 27.5 (28) and stuff 9.8 (10) and things like that 9.5 (17) and everything like that 0.6 (1) (all) stuff like that 2.2 (4) 4.9 (5) and places 0.6 (1) (and that) kind of thing 3.9 (7) 5.8 (6)
Disjunctives: forms and frequencies
Hackney 70+ Hackney 16-‐19
or something 35.6 (31) 86.7 (65) or anything 26.4 (23) 13.3 (10) (or) anything like that 13.8 (12) (or something like that) 19.5 (17) anybody like that 1.1 (1) somewhere like that 1.1 (1) somewhere like this 1.1 (1)
cf. Marpnez (2011): adults make use of a wider range of general extender forms
sort of and kind of
• I would need another haircut my hair grows
kind of fast (Dexter)
• they keep trying to deport him . keep bringing these kind of travel document papers for him to sign innit (Tau)
• they would sort of laugh and repeat what you said (Joan)
sort of and kind of
sort of (N)
kind of (N)
Total N per 1000 words: sort of and kind of
Hackney aged 70+
68 1 0.74 (69/92,859)
Hackney aged 16-‐19 (subcorpus)
10 50 0.19 (60/309,378)
syntactic position of sort of and kind of (percentage (N))
Hackney 70+ Hackney 16-‐19
– V 49 (33) 15 (9) –N 8 (11) 38 (23) –Adj 9 (6) 30 ( 18) – # 9 (6) 6.7 (4) – adv 4.5 (3) 3.3 (2) – like 4.5 (3) 3.3 (2) – num 1.5 (1) - (0) prep - (0) 1.7 (1)
• 49% of the older genera8on’s sort of forms are before a verb
• the younger genera8on use sort of and kind of more oren before a noun or adjec8ve
A bit
• you know how older sisters are a bit bossy (Ted)
• so erm we felt a bit bitter really that we’d lost put in there (Joan)
• it’s a bit dumb innit like there’s no point coming (Dexter)
Syntactic position of a bit (percentage (N)
Hackney 70+ Hackney 16-19
– V 8.8 (5) 28 (9)
–N 8.8 (5) 19 (6)
–adj 80.7 (46) 53 ( 17)
– adv 1.75 (1)
TOTAL 100 (57) 100 (32)
Frequency per 1000 words of a bit Hackney 70+: 0.61 per 1000 words (N= 57) Hackney 16-19: 0.10 per 1000 words (N= 32)
An addressee-oriented discourse marker: you know Bernstein (1970), Stubbe and Holmes (1995) music calms me down you get me (Zack) you control the little ones you know what I’m saying (Alex) the only time I really go church it’s when it’s like christening and . you know what I mean christenings er weddings (Aimee) he has a thirty year old girlfriend you know what my cousin got off with a thirty year old and he’s nineteen she worked in a chemist shop you know shop assistant for a while (Ted)
you know forms
Hackney 70+ Hackney 16-‐19
you know 6.53 (607) 1.14 (353)
you know what I mean 0.13 (12) 0.01 (4)
you know what I’m saying 0.02 (7)
you know what 0.12 (36)
you get me 0.45 (140)
TOTAL 6.67 (619/92,859)
1.62 (504/309,378)
Innit
Hackney 70+: 0.27 per 1000 words (N = 25) Hackney 16-19: 3.3 per 1000 words (N = 1017)
A speaker-oriented discourse marker: I mean
Hackney 70+: 3.15 per 1000 words (N = 293) Hackney 16-19: 0.20 per 1000 words (N = 63)
we were evacuated from school to a village in Devon and I loved it I mean I was one of the lucky ones (Doug)
it’s a bit dumb innit like there’s no point coming (Dexter)
Multicultural London English: the emergence, acquisition and diffusion of a new variety
2007-2010 Paul Kerswill, Jenny Cheshire, Sue Fox, Arfaan Khan and Eivind Torgersen
E· S· R· C ECONOMIC & S O C I A L RESEARCH C O U N C I L
6 age groups: 4-‐5, 8, 12, 16-‐19, 25 and c.40
Interaction in the 8 year old peer group
Uzay: he uhm he uhm . he loves him first man then thing . he gets all of James Bond's money [Arfaan: yeah] and ra and give it to the bad guy
Uzay: he's not my cousin he's my thing Arfaan: oh he's just your friend okay (Uzay_Dumaka 24.40)
Uzay and Dumaka, age 8, Turkish and Nigerian
Uzay to . this was . he . this this was this . thi this thi
this thi [simultaneous speech ongoing] Dumaka this this was (name) [Arfaan: yeah] to (name) bom
bom .. Uzay ey <Arfaan laughs> . no . he was doing like this
to (name) . Dumaka [no xxx xxx I didn't say . I didn't I didn't say [simultaneous speech] Uzay look you’re laughing he was doing like this to Dumaka I didn't I didn't I didn't I swear/ Arfaan [Uzay: uh uh] okay okay Uzay and he's doing like this . Dumaka I didn’t how could I do that . liar liar pants on fire
i) this is them “what area are you from . what part?”
this is me “I’m from East London”
ii) this is him “don’t lie . if I search you and if I find one I’ll kick your arse”
iii) this is my mum “what are you doing? I was in the queue before you”
iv) this is my mum’s boyfriend “put that in your pocket now”
This is +speaker: a local London innovation
Alex, age 17
. so the man's gave him a big wad of money like that about ten
grand i don't know what he gave him. a fat loads of money. just
got it in a bag now . his friend's come up to me and he's gone
like that. and gone like that. so i've gone like that and i'm
feeling (ZERO) “is this some paper?” and he's just gave me a
grand in my hand. i just looked at the money I was like " you
just gave me one thousand pounds mate here y’are i only want
a score now" went to give it <kisses teeth> some . this is my
mum's boyfriend <kisses teeth> "put that in your pocket now"
like so i just put it in my pocket SAID "see you later" boom ran
out that bookies shop bruv
4-5 yrs 8-9 yrs 12-13 16-19 care-givers say 93.9 39.5 25.4 17.0 50.3 think 0.6 1.9 7.2 10.7 go 4.1 31.1 23.8 7.3 5.2 be like 17.0 25.9 45.7 10.1 zero 2.0 2.0 14.5 12.5 18.2 this is (speaker)
5.3
2.0 3.0
tell 1.6
0.3
2.2 1.2
others
2.5
1.6
2.7
3.2
total no. quotatives
49 512 642 1279 346
content of the quote (all quotative expressions)
0102030405060708090
100
4-5years
8-9years
12-13years
16-19years
direct speech
non-lexicalisedsoundinner thought
Quotative functions (1) and then this is the man . "you gonna get fired“
Non-quotative functions (2) he’s sitting on a chair this is him like he’s drunk or something (3) I been on it this is me I’m scared I’m like this...it go slow and then I say “yeah” (4) this is the this is the boy falling asleep he went "<sound effect>“ (5) alright right this is this is me knocking at the door yeah and I’m knocking at the door yeah and this is the dog <makes gesture> look and this is the dog “woof woof woo”
8 yr olds 12 yr olds 16-19 yr olds
quotative uses
51 (N = 27)
87 (N=13)
93 (N=38)
non-quotative uses
49 (N= 26)
13 (N=2)
7 (N= 3)
This is +speaker: quotative and non-quotative uses
8 year olds have a lively narrative style: this is + speaker performs states, actions, gestures, funny noises and also reported speech Quotative forms that introduce mimesis have a strong pragmatic force that promotes innovation (Güldeman in press). This encourages take up of this is +speaker by the bilingual speakers’ monolingual friends As children mature their narrative style involves less mimesis, and this is + speaker becomes used to report only direct speech. Even so, it tends to be used at moments of high drama (Fox in press).
Other contributory factors The discourse style of the 8 year olds cannot be the only relevant factor. Other possible influences include: • language contact: identificational quotatives that focus on the speaker as the source of the quote are cross-linguistically robust (Güldemann in press)
• deictics in quotative expressions are common
e.g. Belfast <EXTREMELY HIGH PITCHED> Here was I “then I must be hard of hearing or something - you rapped the door and I didn’t hear you”… out the back and everywhere they were . here’s me “have youse took leave of your senses?” <HIGH PITCHED> he says - uh - “get everybody up, everybody up” (Milroy and Milroy 1977: 54)
• Embryonic forms in London? Mark Sebba’s recordings of London Jamaicans in the 1980s have 2 tokens of this is +speaker COLT corpus (early 1990s) has 2 tokens from ethnic minority speakers: - he goes “this is for you” this is me “thanks” - this is Jane to me the other day “throw your kitten off my floor and see if it lands on <laughing> its feet”
Pronoun man I don't really mind how . how my girl looks if she looks decent yeh and there's one bit of her face that just looks mashed yeh I don't care it's her personality man's looking at I'm not even looking at the girl proper like
Some tokens have indefinite or generic reference (like OE man or French on) but others refer to the speaker Dexter: before I got arrested man paid for my own ticket to
go Jamaica you know . but I've never paid to go on no holiday before this time I paid .
Aimee: and you got arrested Dexter: a big three hundred and fifty pound . I got arrested so
I'm thinking “ah I got arrested I'm gonna tell them that I've got a holiday to go to so they gonna let me out” . nah they didn't let me .. I was so upset ..
Aimee: can't you get a refund? .
Grammatical functions of man pronoun
subject
object
possessive
TOTAL
Hackney corpus
7 3 10
Anuvahood 24 5 2 31
Replacement of subject ye by you in the Corpus of Early English Correspondence (Nevailen and Raumolin-Brunberg 2003: 60)
Grammaticalisation from noun man?
French on < homme
Br. Portuguese a gentepro < a genteN OE manpro < manN German man < Mann Swahili mtupro < mtuN
How do new pronouns arise?
Heine and Song (2011: 587): Ignored by previous researchers (no data) Likely to start as a rhetorical strategy used by one person and then copied by others But since the individual speech acts are no longer recoverable, we have to hypothesise about how people may have interacted in the past
the noun man
• but he was a good man and he worked in the garage and that (Alex)
• some of my boys they were kicking man in the canal like from their bikes . people just driving past on their bikes they’re like out at ten o’clock kicking man in the canal and that
• even if it’s someone younger than me I don’t mind shotting them weed yeah let them get a little buzz but ecstasy you got man shaking up on their deathbed like
Alex: if you see like more of your boys laying
on the ground like “oh man you hurt my leg too much”
Zack: gotta start picking man up Alex: you gotta start picking man up
cos you don’t want . it’s like at the end they count how many’s dropped on the floor and we see who won like that
Structural ambiguity
Robert: I don’t smoke . I never smoke . no Roshan: he’s lying he buns it down with man
singular/plural marking on the noun man singular form this time I’m gonna be a good man plural forms they call up their guys yeah bare man outside school blud a few drunk mans come and sit beside us most Congo men they jam in Tottenham most Congo mens in this country yeh. they look funny cos they got expensive clothes he was stabbing up the mandem like
Plural forms of mannoun
Percentage (N) men 47 (21) mans 29 (13 ) man 11 (5) mandem 11 (5) mens 2 (1) TOTAL 100 (45)
Some plural manN forms have specific meanings
• mandem ‘gang members’ or ‘police’
• mans ‘a hostile group’ e.g. members of a different neighbourhood gang
• man a specific group of males, defined contextually
some of my boys they were kicking man in the canal like from their bikes . people just driving past on their bikes they’re like out at ten o’clock kicking man in the canal and that
Connotations of mansing
• police station bruv my man’s outside on a stolen bike revving it up <makes revving sound> (Alex 1261)
• • (19) like the bike slammed down and my man just went
bang bang let off two shots (Alex_Zack 1. 1961)
Frequent collocations batty man, big man, yard man, waste man
Kerswill, P. (in press) Identity, ethnicity and place: the construction of youth language in London. In P. Auer (ed.) Language, Space and Geography. Berlin: de Gruyter
Key word man
Word Frequency per million
words in target corpus
– Hackney (n)
Frequency per
million words in
reference corpus –
Havering (n)
Hackney 656.5 (394) 163.9 (87)
guy 413.2 (248) 62.2 (33)
Bengali 156.6 (94) 0 (0)
man 1286.3 (772) 761.4 (404)
approx. 75 per cent of the man tokens are address forms/ pragmatic markers
Man as address term and pragmatic marker
Why you in your heels man? (Dexter, to Aimee Aah man that’s kind of long (Roshan) I got raped in the toilet once seriously man yeah I got raped three times there man (Tau, to fieldworker)
Punctor (and solidarity marker) Ray: bare patches in your headpiece . Will: what you talking about man (.) you mug . Ray: did your mum do it again ? Will: x <kisses teeth> oh you're a mug . Ray: xx <laughing and claps hands> bare patches in your
head blad . Will: ba- patch (.) do you (.) get off ! I ain't got no patches in
my hair man! it's just that where you wear the hat . Ray: it's alright patches man . Will: <kisses teeth> whatever man
Manpro as a rhetorical strategy I don't really mind how . how my girl looks if she looks decent yeh and there's one bit of her face that just looks mashed yeh I don't care it's her personality man's looking at I'm not even looking at the girl proper like
Dexter: before I got arrested man paid for my own ticket to
go Jamaica you know . but I've never paid to go on no holiday before this time I paid .
Aimee: and you got arrested Dexter: a big three hundred and fifty pound . I got arrested so
I'm thinking “ah I got arrested I'm gonna tell them that I've got a holiday to go to so they gonna let me out” . nah they didn't let me .. I was so upset ..
Aimee: can't you get a refund? .
Manpro as a rhetorical strategy 2
Other relevant factors Previous accounts of the emergence of new pronouns note other relevant ongoing changes Present-day (standard) English has not only lost an indefinite pronoun, it has also lost distinct singular and plural second person pronouns he told me yeah that youse lot was just messing around man’s got to have to jump up to hit him he could just go bang bang and start hitting youse and that’s it
Implications for grammaticalisation theory Previous accounts of the development of new pronouns from nouns meaning man assume man = singular male à generic human à indefinite pronoun à ‘we’. But this is a post-hoc interpretation. In Hackney, we have a feature pool containing: man (singular male) man (plural noun) man (address term) man (pragmatic marker) Speakers select from the pool, and in the process create man (pronoun), ‘indefinite’ and ‘1st person’
Interpreting the emergence of the new pronoun as grammaticalisation is a posthoc explanation. We do not usually have synchronic data for new pronouns. The London data suggests that the emergence of man as a pronoun is best seen as arising from the extreme variation in the multilingual and multicultural London setting and from the specific discourse style that is appropriate within that setting, which prioritises the expression of group solidarity and an addressee-oriented discourse style.
Thank you!
To listen to more clips of London English, see http://www.sllf.qmul.ac.uk/englishlanguageteaching/
