Concerns the interrelation between the theoretical status and the social dimensions of syntactic variation in Heerlen Dutch. Syntactic variation of Heerlen Dutch consists of a range of dative constructions that are unacceptable in standard Dutch. (Author/JL)

Brule and Isleno dialects of Spanish came to Louisiana from the Canary Islands simultaneously in the 18th century but have remained relatively isolated from each other and face extinction. Although they show common evidence of their origin, each has distinctive lexical, phonological, and syntactic features, some from contact with Acadian French or…

Examined the syntactic behavior of wh-operators in Kenyang, a Bantu language. Following Chomsky's minimalist programme (1993, 1995), describes the nature of universal grammar and accounts for certain specific parametrized variations of that system into the nature of interrogative structures in Kenyang. (Author/VWL)

Analyzes Spanish lexical data recorded in sociolinguistic interviews with Hispanic community members in Northwest Indiana. Examined how prevalent English is in the spoken Spanish of this community; what variety of Spanish is regarded prestigious; whether lexical forms establish the prestige dialect adopted by speakers of other dialects; the…

Argues that young Danes are changing the notion of standard Danish. Data gathered in the Danish town of Naestved indicated standard Danish is moving in the direction of low Copenhagen speech. Suggests that young Danes operate with two standards when it comes to language: one for school where excellence is perceived in terms of superiority; and one…

Investigates stress placement in the English of Spanish Speakers and in speakers of Nigerian English and Singapore English. Reveals that these three varieties have in common several patterns of stress placement that are distinct from British or American English. Shows that these patterns cannot be accounted for by transfer. (Author/VWL)

Describes and quantifies aspects of the comparative clauses conjoined with correlatives "than" and "as." The data are compared to show patterns of distribution, their spread across different genres, and the similarity or otherwise of their use in Britain and Australia. Findings show that the scalar comparative clause does not…

Conducts quantitative analysis of negative concord in Buckie, a relic dialect from the northeast of Scotland, and compares findings with varieties of English in North America. Results show Buckie has high rates of use of negative concord, as do all the dialects included in the study. Negative concord in other environments is found in certain…

Studies the quotative system of contemporary British and Canadian youth. Multivariate analysis of nearly 1300 quotative verbs demonstrates that the innovative form "be like" is productive in both Canada and Britain. Traditional quotatives such as "say,""go,""think" are used according to somewhat different…

The primary goal of this study is to identify intra-textual linguistic variation in university classroom talk, applying corpus-based techniques to the analysis. First, based on the automatically identified vocabulary patterns in classroom talk a large number of class sessions are segmented into smaller units of analysis. Second, the co-occurring…

This paper examines the discourse structure of newspaper editorials in Philippine English in terms of their macrostructure and their lexico-grammatical features. Data were taken from three leading English-language newspapers in the Philippines. Toulmin's framework is used in analyzing the macrostructure of the editorials. The study posits that the…

Although studies involving linguistic human rights (LHRs) have focused at length on cases of inter-language discrimination, much less attention has been given to intra-language discrimination (Blommaert 2001a; Skutnabb-Kangas et al. 2001). This paper highlights a number of theoretical issues that the LHRs framework needs to deal with once…

The paper offers a model of language development, first and second, within a processing perspective. We first sketch a modular view of language, in which competence is embodied in the processing mechanisms. We then propose a novel approach to language acquisition (Acquisition by Processing Theory, or APT), in which development of the module occurs…

This article deals with modelling and specificity in K-12 teacher education to describe an approach in ESL/EFL teaching which is aimed at assisting teachers in bridging the gap between declarative and procedural knowledge while addressing the complex requirements of their learners. It is concluded that descriptions of language variation across…

We examine whether racial/ethnic/language-based variation in measured levels of patients' trust in a physician depends on the survey items used to measure that trust. Survey items include: (1) a direct measure of patients' trust that the doctor will put the patient's medical needs above all other considerations, and (2) three indirect measures of…