Still Changing: Semantic Innovation and Change in Multicultural London English

Jenny Cheshire; Zoë Adams; David Hall

doi:10.1177/00754242241286943

Still Changing: Semantic Innovation and Change in Multicultural London English

Jenny Cheshire^*
, Zoë Adams
, David Hall

^*Corresponding author for this work

Queen Mary University of London
Independent Researcher

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

9 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We attempt to further our understanding of the beginnings of language change by analyzing a semantic innovation in Multicultural London English: the use of still as a discourse-pragmatic item in utterance-final position. We show that the change follows well-attested processes of semantic change, so it could have occurred at any time and amongst any group of speakers. Its emergence now, amongst young men in inner city London, can be explained by considering not only well-known external factors such as population change but also by analyzing the interactional contexts in which the new meaning emerges and by relating this to the local peer group culture. In this way we gain insights into how speakers can be motivated to use a form with a new meaning during interactional moves that are especially important for them in their everyday lives.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	299-320
Number of pages	22
Journal	Journal of English Linguistics
Volume	52
Issue number	4
Early online date	1 Nov 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/00754242241286943
Publication status	Published - Dec 2024

Bibliographical note

Copyright © The Author(s) 2024. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The research described in this article was financed by the UK Cheshire et al. 317 Economic and Social Research Council, as follows: Kerswill, Paul, Jenny Cheshire, Sue Fox & Eivind Torgersen (2004-2007). ESRC Research Project, RES -000-23-0680. Kerswill, Paul, Jenny Cheshire, Sue Fox & Eivind Torgersen (2007-2010). ESRC Research Project, RES 062-23-0814.

Keywords

actuation
discourse-pragmatic particle
interaction
Multicultural London English
semantic change

Access to Document

10.1177/00754242241286943Licence: CC BY 4.0

cheshire-et-al-2024-still-changing-semantic-innovation-and-change-in-multicultural-london-english
Copyright © The Author(s) 2024. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Final published version, 254 KBLicence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

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title = "Still Changing: Semantic Innovation and Change in Multicultural London English",

abstract = "We attempt to further our understanding of the beginnings of language change by analyzing a semantic innovation in Multicultural London English: the use of still as a discourse-pragmatic item in utterance-final position. We show that the change follows well-attested processes of semantic change, so it could have occurred at any time and amongst any group of speakers. Its emergence now, amongst young men in inner city London, can be explained by considering not only well-known external factors such as population change but also by analyzing the interactional contexts in which the new meaning emerges and by relating this to the local peer group culture. In this way we gain insights into how speakers can be motivated to use a form with a new meaning during interactional moves that are especially important for them in their everyday lives.",

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AB - We attempt to further our understanding of the beginnings of language change by analyzing a semantic innovation in Multicultural London English: the use of still as a discourse-pragmatic item in utterance-final position. We show that the change follows well-attested processes of semantic change, so it could have occurred at any time and amongst any group of speakers. Its emergence now, amongst young men in inner city London, can be explained by considering not only well-known external factors such as population change but also by analyzing the interactional contexts in which the new meaning emerges and by relating this to the local peer group culture. In this way we gain insights into how speakers can be motivated to use a form with a new meaning during interactional moves that are especially important for them in their everyday lives.

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