LINGUIST List 7.384

Wed Mar 13 1996

Qs: Brit. tags, Non-word words, ASL in the AAE community

Editor for this issue: Ann Dizdar <dizdartam2000.tamu.edu>

Directory

1. Unni Berland, "Innit" and related Brit. tags.
2. Leah Garchik, non-word words
3. Margaret J Speas, Query about ASL in the AAE community

Dear fellow linguists,

I am currently doing research on the use of tags such as innit, right,
yeah, okay and you know, among London teenagers. I am investigating
the use of these tags in terms of socioeconomic status and gender of
the speaker. I have the data, but I need some information to help me
analyse it.

Does anybody know of any well hidden articles, books or
ongoing/completed research that can be of help to me, be it about
tags, London teenagers, teenage language, slang, sloppy language,
invariant language, non-standard forms, linguistic behaviour among
public-school vs. state-school students, middle class vs. working
class etc.

Any information will be much appreciated

Thank you,

Unni Berland
English department
University of Bergen
Norway

e-mail: Unni.Berlandeng.uib.no

Hello. I am Leah Garchik, I write for the San Francisco Chronicle. As
suggested by a Berkeley linguist, I am using this means to find
someone who knows something about non-word words. I'm interested in
writing an essay about words like "blah, blah, blah,'' used to meann
"etc., etc.'' or "duh,'' used to mean "You can't think I'm THAT
stupid.''
	I've been collecting a small list of these, and wonder if
anyone has studied them informally or formally. If you can help, yada
yada, that would be terrific.
	I may be e-mailed at this address, or even better, call me (for a 
real live conversation) at (800) 227-4423 X8426 or (415) 777-8426. Thanks 
so much for your help on this.

I am working with a student who is interested in African American
users of American Sign Language. We've found a few sources of
information, such as work by James Woodward in the 1970s, but haven't
been able to find out much about recent work in this area. Since I'm
mostly a theoretical syntax type, I'm afraid I might just not know
what journals to look at. So I'd very much appreciate hearing from
anyone who knows of research on the use of ASL in the African American
Community. Thanks.

Peggy Speas
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
pspeaslinguist.umass.edu