LINGUIST List 14.1311

Wed May 7 2003

Books: Socio/Hist Ling, Tristan da Cunha Eng: Schreier

Editor for this issue: Marisa Ferrara <marisalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. f.kennedy, Isolation and Language Change: Schreier

			
Title: Isolation and Language Change
Subtitle: Contemporary and Sociohistorical Evidence From Tristan da
	 Cunha English
			
Publication Year: 2003
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
 http://www.palgrave.com
			
Availability: Available
 
Author: Daniel Schreier				

Hardback: ISBN: 1403904073, Pages: 256, Price: GBP50.00 $78.00

Abstract:
			
Extremely isolated communities offer 'laboratory conditions' for
examining the processes of language change and dialect formation. This
book presents findings of the first-ever ethnographic fieldwork on the
most remote island in the world with a permanent population, Tristan
da Cunha. It documents the historical formation of a unique local
dialect and investigates the sociolinguistic mechanisms that underlie
dialect contact and new-dialect formation. It also uncovers the
linguistic consequences of post-insularity - language change processes
as a result of increasing contacts with other communities and
speakers. Researchers and students of language variation will find
this book a unique resource.

KEY FEATURES

1 Large number of linguists interested in empirical studies of
language variation/dialectology as basic to all sociolinguistic and
historical linguistics training
2 Unique data: the first-ever ethnographic fieldwork in this
community, so both spoken and written evidence
3 Isolation now recognised in language variationist work as a valuable
'laboratory' for testing theories of dialect formation
4 Both historical and contemporary data

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Contact, Isolation and Language Change: A Theoretical Framework
 Tristan da Cunha - Methodology and Fieldwork - Determining Input
 Interaction
Present Tense Concord
Categoricality and Homogenisation
Present/past be regularisation
Dynamism vs Retention
Completive done
Innovation and Independent Developments
useta went
Conclusion
Notes
Appendix: Some Phonetic and Phonological Aspects of Tristan da Cunha
 English
Bibliography
Index

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DANIEL SCHREIER is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the
University of Regensburg, Germany. He has published extensively on
contact linguistics and new-dialect formation and has taught and
lectured in Switzerland, the USA and in New Zealand.
			
Lingfield(s): Historical Linguistics
		Sociolinguistics

Subject Language: Tristan da Cunha English (Language Code: ENG)

Areal Regions: Oceania

Written In: English (Language Code: English)

 See this book announcement on our website:
	 http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=6059