The sound patterns of English nicknames
- De Klerk, Vivian A, Bosch, Agnes Barbara
- Authors: De Klerk, Vivian A , Bosch, Agnes Barbara
- Date: 1997
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6129 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011581
- Description: The English lexicon has been found to reflect certain recognisable phonological preferences in relation to consonants, vowels, stress patterns and syllabic structure, and these trends have been reflected in sharper terms in analyses of particular subsets of vocabulary: phonaesthetic words (Crystal, 1995b) and first names (Cutler et al., 1994). Because nicknames are relatively impermanent informal names which allow users considerable linguistic licence in breaking the rules, this study analyses the phonological patterns of English nicknames in order to test the validity of the claims which have been made about English phonological preferences in general and specifically in names and favoured words. The study focuses specifically on nicknames reportedly used with positive social intent, in order to test whether positive nicknames follow more closely the phonological trends in phonaesthetic English words. The study reveals clear evidence of particular consonantal and vocalic preferences in nicknames as well as trends in terms of stress and syllabic structure, which can be argued to be linked to either the social intent of the nickname user or the gender of the bearer, which suggests evidence of some sound-symbolism at work in English nicknames.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1997
- Authors: De Klerk, Vivian A , Bosch, Agnes Barbara
- Date: 1997
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6129 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011581
- Description: The English lexicon has been found to reflect certain recognisable phonological preferences in relation to consonants, vowels, stress patterns and syllabic structure, and these trends have been reflected in sharper terms in analyses of particular subsets of vocabulary: phonaesthetic words (Crystal, 1995b) and first names (Cutler et al., 1994). Because nicknames are relatively impermanent informal names which allow users considerable linguistic licence in breaking the rules, this study analyses the phonological patterns of English nicknames in order to test the validity of the claims which have been made about English phonological preferences in general and specifically in names and favoured words. The study focuses specifically on nicknames reportedly used with positive social intent, in order to test whether positive nicknames follow more closely the phonological trends in phonaesthetic English words. The study reveals clear evidence of particular consonantal and vocalic preferences in nicknames as well as trends in terms of stress and syllabic structure, which can be argued to be linked to either the social intent of the nickname user or the gender of the bearer, which suggests evidence of some sound-symbolism at work in English nicknames.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1997
Codeswitching, borrowing and mixing in a corpus of Xhosa English
- Authors: De Klerk, Vivian A
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6130 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011582
- Description: The paper analyses selected aspects of the codeswitching behaviour in a spoken corpus of the English of 326 people, all of them mother-tongue speakers of Xhosa (a local African language in South Africa), and all of whom would see themselves as Xhosa/English bilinguals. The corpus comprises approximately 550,000 transcribed words of spontaneous, relaxed, oral discourse in English between pairs of Xhosaspeaking interlocutors, discussing a wide range of topics. While the usual pattern in bilingual speech is to use the L1 as matrix language and the L2 as embedded language, in this corpus the opposite is the case, as interlocutors were interviewed in English (the L2). The corpus therefore offers a ‘mirror image’, in a sense, of normal codeswitching behaviour. Using Wordsmith (a concordancer programme), all incidences of codeswitching into Xhosa during these conversations were identified and analysed in an effort to reveal underlying patterns. Examination of the amount and nature of codeswitching in the corpus promised to throw some light on the extent to which participants are genuinely bilingual, in terms of their ability to converse comfortably in English.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
- Authors: De Klerk, Vivian A
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6130 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011582
- Description: The paper analyses selected aspects of the codeswitching behaviour in a spoken corpus of the English of 326 people, all of them mother-tongue speakers of Xhosa (a local African language in South Africa), and all of whom would see themselves as Xhosa/English bilinguals. The corpus comprises approximately 550,000 transcribed words of spontaneous, relaxed, oral discourse in English between pairs of Xhosaspeaking interlocutors, discussing a wide range of topics. While the usual pattern in bilingual speech is to use the L1 as matrix language and the L2 as embedded language, in this corpus the opposite is the case, as interlocutors were interviewed in English (the L2). The corpus therefore offers a ‘mirror image’, in a sense, of normal codeswitching behaviour. Using Wordsmith (a concordancer programme), all incidences of codeswitching into Xhosa during these conversations were identified and analysed in an effort to reveal underlying patterns. Examination of the amount and nature of codeswitching in the corpus promised to throw some light on the extent to which participants are genuinely bilingual, in terms of their ability to converse comfortably in English.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
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