Summary Details

Query:	Discourse Referents and Time
Author:	Robert Belvin
Submitter Email:	click here to access email
Linguistic LingField(s):	Historical Linguistics
Summary:	I am interested in linguistic changes that have taken place since the beginning of the 1960s in the English spoken on the media, more precisely in interviews, debates and news broadcasts. I am interested not only in pronunciation changes such as, for example, an increased incidence of glottal stops and a decline in 'back a', but also changes in the way speakers organize the information in their speech. An example of the latter would be an increased number of contractions ('don't' instead of 'do not'), an increase in subordinator 'that' deletion (I think (that) he went), stranded prepositions (the person I am thinking of), or split infinitives. In short, an increase in reduced forms and 'dispreferred' structures in media speech. I would be very grateful if you could give me the references of any research that has been done on this topic. I am mainly concerned with British English, but would also welcome references to research in American English. Naturally I will present a summary of any replies I receive. Many thanks. Alan Smith, School of Modern Languages, Dept of French University of Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU U.K. E-mail: alan.smith@ncl.ac.uk Fax: (0191)2225442

LL Issue:	12.1657
Date Posted:	25-Jun-2001
Original Query:	Read original query
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