Ly Or Zero Suffix Adverbial Profiles

A study in linguistic variation, this work deals with those much discussed but little researched adverbs which in present-day English sometimes occur with the suffix -ly and sometimes not, e.g. direct/directly and wrong/wrongly. The forms studied are 20 de-adjectival adverbial pairs which occur fairly regularly as verb modifiers without displaying well-established and clear semantic differences between the two forms. The present work (in two volumes) first investigates which factors have been mentioned previously as explanatory for the choice of form and then tests to what extent these factors seem to apply. Both British and American material is analysed, collected from machine-readable corpora and through elicitation. The results show, contrary to some claims, that no one parameter seems to influence the choice of form and that the adverbial lexemes vary considerably in their profiles in this respect. The lexemes can be grouped in various ways, which may be useful e. g. in the teaching of English. Some findings indicate instability, suggesting potential language change.

A study in linguistic variation, this work deals with those much discussed but little researched adverbs which in present-day English sometimes occur with the suffix -ly and sometimes not, e.g. direct/directly and wrong/wrongly. The forms studied are 20 de-adjectival adverbial pairs which occur fairly regularly as verb modifiers without displaying well-established and clear semantic differences between the two forms. The present work (in two volumes) first investigates which factors have been mentioned previously as explanatory for the choice of form and then tests to what extent these factors seem to apply. Both British and American material is analysed, collected from machine-readable corpora and through elicitation. The results show, contrary to some claims, that no one parameter seems to influence the choice of form and that the adverbial lexemes vary considerably in their profiles in this respect. The lexemes can be grouped in various ways, which may be useful e. g. in the teaching of English. Some findings indicate instability, suggesting potential language change.

This thematic publication contains papers presented by invited speakers at a symposium of Conversion / Zero-Derivation held in conjunction with the 10th International Morphology Conference in Szentendre, Hungary, in May 2002, and papers from scholars who could not attend that symposium but indicated their interest in contributing to this volume. Conversion became an issue again in the nineties, probably as a result of the widespread renewed interest in morphology that is in full swing today. The papers contained in this book approach conversion from various perspectives and with different purposes in mind. They cover topics such as what it means to change category, how one can discover the directionality of conversion and the very vexed question of whether an analysis in terms of conversion is or is not to be preferred over one in terms of zero-derivation. All of these questions were canvassed at the symposium, but so were others: questions of typology, conversion in languages other than English, and the question of how far the meaning of conversion is predictable. The participants in the symposium were interested to find that with so many people discussing conversion there was remarkably little overlap in the areas addressed.

Variationist Sociolinguistics: Change, Observation, Interpretation presents a comprehensive, intermediate level examination of Language Variation and Change, the branch of sociolinguistics concerned with linguistic variation in spoken and written language. Represents the most up-to-date coverage of the history, developments, and methodologies of variationist sociolinguistics Addresses all aspects of linguistic variation, including areas not usually covered in introductory texts, e.g. the phonological, morpho-syntactic, discourse/pragmatic Outlines comparative sociolinguistic approach, data collection, methodological issues; and addresses state-of-the-art contemporary quantitative methods and statistical practice Features cutting-edge research at an appropriate level to facilitate student learning Engages students throughout with a variety of pedagogical features, including Mini Quizzes to test comprehension, extensive Exercises at the end of each chapter, the opportunity to do hands-on quantitative analysis of a never-before published data set, and Notes and Tips that offer insight into conducting sociolinguistic research. Extra materials and answers to the exercises are available at www.wiley.com/go/tagliamonte

Bermudian English. A sociohistorical and linguistic profile focuses on a hitherto severely under-researched variety of English. The book traces the origins and development of Bermudian English, so as to situate the variety within the canon of other lesser-known varieties of English, and provides a first in-depth description of its variable morphosyntactic structure. Relying on sociolinguistic interview data and combining qualitative, typological and quantitative, variationist analyses of selected morphosyntactic features, it sheds light on structural affiliations of Bermudian English and argues for a two-way transfer pattern where Bermudian English plays an important role in the development of a number of other English(-based) varieties in the wider geographical region. Complementing existing studies which document such varieties, this book contributes to the body of research that describes the diversity of English(-based) varieties around the globe, filling a notable gap.