[lg policy] Linguist List Issue: Exploring social meanings of variation in Australian English

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Message1: Exploring social meanings of variation in Australian English
Date:29-Aug-2012
From:Cara Penry Williams carapw at unimelb.edu.au
LINGUIST List issue http://linguistlist.org/issues/23/23-3620.html 


Institution: University of Melbourne 
Program: School of Languages and Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2011 

Author: Cara Penry Williams

Dissertation Title: Exploring social meanings of variation in Australian English 

Linguistic Field(s): Discourse Analysis
                     Sociolinguistics

Subject Language(s): English (eng)


Dissertation Director(s):
Jean Mulder

Dissertation Abstract:

This thesis reports on a study of social meanings of linguistic variation 
in Australian English in the city of Melbourne. It relies on a model of 
social meaning which encompasses indexicality, identity, language
ideologies and the linguistic form. To uncover and understand these, it
explores the content and linguistic details of folklinguistic accounts. In
addition to outlining the language ideologies in folklinguistic accounts,
those common in the literature on Australian English are identified.

Analysis draws on close to 24 hours of interview interactions
contextualised with survey data. The interviews were one to one and
designed to elicit folklinguistic beliefs from the 15 young adult
participants. The questionnaire data included self reporting on use,
noticing and social meanings by participants aged 16-19. Responses
from open-ended social evaluation questions on the questionnaire
were analysed and tallied for their comments by descriptive analytical
categories.

The thesis centres on 17 types of variation from lexical,
phonological/phonetic, and syntactic and morphosyntactic systems.
Each of the features or groups of features studied is discussed in turn.
Use in the data is described alongside metapragmatic discourse about
the same linguistic features. Interviews and their detailed transcriptions
were subject to discourse analysis informed by social constructionist
ideas, linking details within folklinguistic discussions to social structures 
thus examining the formation of the macro at the micro level.

The approach sheds light on variation in contemporary Australian
English and many of its features, as well as folklinguistic beliefs and the
forms of their articulation. It further demonstrates salient local type
identities (Others) and language ideologies pertinent in these 
accounts.

Beyond this, the thesis engages with current ideas in sociolinguistics,
including expanded theorising, and alternative and qualitative methods 
for the investigation of variation. 


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