The globalisation of vernacular variation

Bibliographic Data

ID7861395
AuthorsMiriam Meyerhoff (0000-0002-2599-1870, University of Edinburgh), Nancy Niedzielski (Rice University)
Year2003
Volume7
Issue4
Pages534-555
Publication date2003-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Sociolinguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1360-6441 • E-ISSN: 1467-9841
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-9841.2003.00241.x
OpenAlexW1992827429
LanguageEN
Citations received57
References cited30

Work on variation and change in New Zealand English has identified a shift from older, more British‐like norms to newer, more American‐like ones in the last half century. The shift seems to affect lexical items, and phonological variables. This paper considers some general principles found, in the social sciences, to be associated with globalisation and considers what the theoretical and methodological implications are for the study of language variation if we talk about changes like those taking place in New Zealand English as being the effects of globalisation (or, more specifically, Americanisation). A study showing that New Zealanders have very different attitudes to variants that sociolinguists have lumped together in the past, suggests that globalisation with localisation is an important principle for variationists to take into account. It is suggested that variables hitherto analysed as being the consequence of globalisation might be better thought of as reflecting a ‘broadening of the vernacular base

Affect (linguistics · Globalization · Language change · Linguistics · Political science · Social science · Sociolinguistics · Sociology · Variation (astronomy · Vernacular · Law · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy