The Structure of Discourse-Pragmatic Variation.

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The Structure of Discourse-Pragmatic Variation; Editorial page; Title page; LCC data; Table of contents; List of figures; List of tables; List of abbreviations and typographical conventions; Key to transcription conventions; Glossary of dialect words; Acknowledgements; Part I; 1. Introduction; 1.1 Variationist sociolinguistics and discourse-pragmatic features; 1.2 Discourse-pragmatic features: Definition of scope and terminology; 1.3 Reasons for the neglect of discourse-pragmatic features in variationist research.

1.4 Arguments in favour of the quantitative analysis of discourse-pragmatic features1.5 Aims and focus of the book; 1.6 Organisation of the book; 2. Data, methodology and theoretical framework; 2.1 Introduction; 2.2 Data; 2.2.1 Corpus; 2.2.2 Speaker sample; 2.2.3 Summary; 2.3 Variationist sociolinguistics; 2.3.1 Premises of variationist sociolinguistics; 2.3.2 Discourse-pragmatic variables; 2.3.3 Quantitative methods; 2.3.4 Summary; 2.4 Grammaticalisation; 2.4.1 Mechanisms of change in grammaticalisation; 2.4.2 Grammaticalisation and discourse-pragmatic features.

2.4.3 Grammaticalisation in synchronic data2.4.4 Summary; 2.5 Conversation analysis (CA); 2.5.1 Choice of CA; 2.5.2 Key concepts of CA; 2.5.3 Functional domains; 2.5.4 Quantifying multifunctionality; 2.5.5 Validating qualitative analyses; 2.5.6 Summary; 2.6 Conclusion; 3. The BwE verb negation system; 3.1 Introduction; 3.2 The evolution of verb negation and negative particles; 3.3 Negative auxiliaries in BwE; 3.3.1 Negative auxiliary variants in BwE; 3.3.2 Geographical distribution and categorisation of negative particle/negative auxiliary variants.

3.4 Previous research on negator and negative auxiliary variation3.4.1 Extra-linguistic distribution of variants; 3.4.2 Intra-linguistic distribution of variants; 3.5 Quantitative analysis of negative particle and negative auxiliary variation; 3.5.1 Distributional analysis; 3.5.2 Multivariate analysis; 3.5.3 Summary of results; 3.6 Conclusion; Part II; 4. The construction i don't know; 4.1 Introduction; 4.2 Previous research on i don't know; 4.2.2 Quantitative studies: Variation and change in the use of i don't know; 4.2.3 Aims and contribution of this chapter.

4.3 The variable context and data coding4.3.1 The variable and the envelope of variation; 4.3.2 The dependent variable: Variants of i don't know in BwE; 4.3.3 Independent variables: Data coding; 4.4 Qualitative analysis of i don't know; 4.4.1 Functions performed by unbound i don't know; 4.4.2 Functions performed by bound i don't know with phrasal or clausal complements; 4.4.3 Functions performed by i don't know with dependent wh-words; 4.4.4 Summary of functions; 4.5 Quantitative analysis of i don't know; 4.5.1 Distributional analysis; 4.5.2 Multivariate analysis; 4.5.3 Summary of results.

4.6 Discussion.

Everyday language use overflows with discourse-pragmatic features. Their frequency, form and function can vary greatly across social groups and change dramatically over time. And yet these features have not figured prominently in studies of language variation and change. The Structure of Discourse-Pragmatic Variation demonstrates the theoretical insights that can be gained into both the structure of synchronic language variation and the interactional mechanisms creating it by subjecting discourse-pragmatic features to systematic variationist analysis. Introducing an innovative methodology that.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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