The linguistic landscape of North East England


Research on language attitudes and perceptual dialectology has shown that north-east English is one of the most widely recognized and positively evaluated varieties in Britain. There is also a rich tradition of dialect writing associated with the region, and a long history of both ‘folk’ and scholarly attention to local forms of language – for example, it is the only part of England to have a major corpus devoted to it – the Diachronic Electronic Corpus of Tyneside English. However, one element is missing from the otherwise well-charted dialectological terrain. Dr Michael Pearce has addressed this gap in a chapter published in Perspectives on Northern Englishes (Mouton de Gruyter, 2017), which gives an account of localized forms in the ‘linguistic landscape’ (that is, the public display and representation of written language on road signs, advertisements, house names, vehicles, and so on). This first foray into an under-researched aspect of the region’s local linguistic ecology describes and contextualizes a corpus of signs compiled in 2014–15, showing how they draw extensively on a set of features which previous studies have revealed to be enregistered as part of north-east dialect. The implications of the findings are discussed and the – perhaps surprisingly – infrequent appearance of such forms in the linguistic landscape is addressed.
You can read more about Michael's research on the language of the region here.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Forming and performing femininity

Image
Dr Angela Smith has co-edited a collection of essays exploring various aspects of feminism and femininity in a twenty-first-century context. The articles address a number of contemporary issues: from the way in which women are represented in make-over shows, fashion blogs, and 'selfies' to the wider discourses that frame such representations, such as gym culture, pop culture, film and literature, as well as television sitcoms. Drawing on feminist theory and the emergence of 'fourth-wave feminism', this collection concludes that there is still much work to be done in terms of gaining gender equality in society. Nally, Claire and Smith, Angela (eds) 2015.   Twenty-first Century Feminism :  Forming and Performing Femininity . London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Read more

The Journal of Intercultural Inquiry

Image
The Department of Culture, in conjunction with Scientia , is pleased to announce the launch of a new academic journal. The Journal of Intercultural Inquiry , which is edited by Drs Geoff Nash and Mike Pearce , is a refereed, peer-reviewed publication for scholars, researchers, students, and teachers who are interested in intercultural engagement in a globalized world. The journal offers a forum for critical debate and publication of research in the expanding field of intercultural inquiry. We see the concepts underpinning this area of study as fluid, dynamic and diverse, enlisting a variety of views and perspectives. The approach is interdisciplinary and its remit widely construed to include: language and communications, foreign languages, applied linguistics and translation, literary, historical, cultural and sociological studies, law, political science and international relations. For further information, visit the website or email jiiscientia@sunderland.ac.uk.
Read more

The creation of community in public participation media

Image
Dr Angela Smith will be presenting a paper at the 2015 Ross Priory Broadcast Talk Group's annual seminar to be held on the banks of Loch Lomond, 6-9th July. Her subject is how social media is used to create a sense of co-presence and community amongst viewers of the BBC1 show, Strictly Come Dancing , in both the BBC's official social media feeds and in the Guardian ’s dedicated blog. In so doing, she will revisit Livingstone and Lunt’s (1994) assessment of the privileging of ‘lay’ over ‘expert’ in public participation shows, as well as the creation online of a sense of co-present liveness that underpins more conventional aspects of broadcast sociability (Scannell, 1991).
Read more