| 1. |
|
|
| 2. |
- Grund, Peter
(author)
-
From Tongue to Text : The Transmission of the Salem Witchcraft Examination Records
- 2007
-
In: American Speech. - : Duke University Press. - 0003-1283 .- 1527-2133. ; 82:2, s. 119-150
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article explores the problem of using court documents for studies of the spoken language of the past. It discusses three sets of examination records from the Salem witchcraft trials in 1692. By comparing records that exist in two or more alternative versions, the article shows that there are substantial linguistic and content-related differences between the versions. It is suggested that the recorders of the examinations paid more attention to the substance of the proceedings than to the exact language used by the participants and that the recorders reconstructed the courtroom dialogue on the basis of (shorthand) notes, mixing their own and the informants' language. The variation in the documents casts doubt on the reliability of the records as accurately reflecting the original courtroom dialogue. The use of the examination records as linguistic sources is thus called into question, especially for historical sociolinguistic studies that attempt to correlate language use and extralinguistic factors such as sex, age, and social status.
|
|
| 3. |
|
|
| 4. |
- Vartiainen, Turo, et al.
(author)
-
HOW TO MAKE NEW USE OF EXISTING RESOURCES : TRACING THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION OF OFF OF
- 2020
-
In: American Speech. - : Duke University Press. - 0003-1283 .- 1527-2133. ; 95:4, s. 408-440
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article discusses the history and regional variation of the complex preposition off of (e.g., I got off of the bus). The study is intended to uncover detailed information about the use of the form from Early Modern to Present-Day English by examining a variety of linguistic corpora and databases from different perspectives. In addition to charting the history and present-day variation of off of, the study will make a methodological contribution to historical dialectology by showing that there are extensive, severely underused resources that can reveal valuable information about the geographical variation of English even if they were not originally designed for that purpose. Most crucially, the article introduces a way to investigate Early Modern English from the perspective of regional variation, thus paving the way for future research in a field that has been extremely challenging to study in the past.
|
|
