Deriving Homogeneity in a Settler Colonial Variety of English

Bibliographic Data

ID6031999
AuthorsDerek Denis (0000-0002-1112-9083, University of Toronto, corresponding author), Alex D’arcy (0000-0002-4316-350X, University of Victoria, corresponding author), Alexandra D’arcy
Year2019
Volume94
Issue2
Pages223-258
Publication date2019-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Speech (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-1283 • E-ISSN: 1527-2133
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00031283-7277054
OpenAlexW2896530957
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited53

Canadian English (CanE) is argued to present a textbook example of dialectological homogeneity. Its largely undifferentiated urban structure is attributed to source input, as a consequence of a shared founder effect. This outcome is predicted by the sociohistorical realities of settler colonialism but remains unexplored in diachronic perspective. The recent construction of large diachronic corpora of regional CanE varieties enables direct comparison in order to problematize longitudinal homogeneity and to probe the potency of founder effects over time. This article examines three features known to be undergoing longitudinal change and to be regionally variegated across dialects of English: deontic modality, stative possession, and general extenders. At the heart of the discussion is the nature of homogeneity in CanE. The authors conclude that although there is compelling support for longitudinal parallelism, the linguistic reality is somewhat nuanced: aspects of CanE homogeneity appear emergent rather than foundational and relative to linguistic variables rather than to the linguistic system as a whole

Archaeology · Biology · Cane · Colonialism · Homogeneity (statistics · Linguistics · Sociology · History · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Mathematics · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy · Phonetics and Phonology Research

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