You're like `why not?' The quotative expressions of Glasgow ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

16 Stage two: The adolescents imperfectly introduce the use of like as a quotative again presumably from the U.S.) but combine it with go, particularly for the expression of strong emotion she just went like that `Fuck you you wanker'; because I thought everybody would go like that `You cradle snatcher'). Distributional evidence: This form is essentially limited to use among the working-class girls. The implication is of an action with deictic reference cf. done that). It is used with the sense that the quoted speech was actually uttered. Stage three: The verb go is dropped, leaving the deictic pronoun. This implies an attitude rather than an action: I was like that `Shit' suggesting what she felt rather than what she said); she was like that Ì take it you're Miss MacKenzie' reporting what the speaker believed was a sarcastic recognition of herself as a trouble-maker). In this case, the quoted form need not have been uttered as in the ®rst example) but it can also be used to report an utterance as in the second example). Distributional evidence: Again, this form is principally found among the working-class girls but there are sporadic examples from the working-class women. Stage four: The deictic pronoun is dropped, leaving the form familiar in the U.S. be like. It is used for the expression of non-speech sounds and I'm like `Woops'), expression of strong emotion I was like Òh my God'), and the conveyance of animated utterances he's like `Harry fucking run'). Distributional evidence: As was shown in Figure 2, be like is most common among the middle-class adolescents though it is also used by the working-class girls. There is only one questionable) example in the adult conversations. Stage ®ve: The form like is dropped leaving only the verb be and I was Òh so this is Helen'). Sometimes, there is a hedge you were just kind of `Mm-mm'). Distributional evidence: There are only eight examples, equally distributed among the middle-class and working-class girls. The girls are the leaders in this change, if in fact there is a movement in this direction. The stages represent a development similar to that postulated by Traugott in press) for the process of grammaticalization, particularly in the movement from a more referential construction to a less referential one: go 4 go like that 4 be like that 4 be like 4 be MACAULAY The role of the animator Go€man 1981) recedes from the active agent of go to the `laid back' experiencer of be. Since there seems to be no evidence of how the form be like emerged as a quotative in the U.S. it is possible that a similar evolution took place there. The Glasgow examples would therefore be similar to the notion of the `colonial lag' phenomenon Trudgill 1999), where evidence of an earlier stage of develop- # Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2001
QUOTATIVES IN GLASGOW 17 ment can be charted. The absence of any evidence of intermediate examples of the kind be like that in the U.S. may make this hypothesis unlikely, though it is also possible that earlier investigators have ignored or discounted such forms. I have found occasional mixed forms in conversations recorded by my students in California, as in the examples in 12): 12) a. he'll stop breathing and you'll go like Òh my God he's like su€ocating' b. I go like `Woooo' you know like I'm doing c. and I'm all like you know `Duh duh' I have found no examples with deictic that, however. Another hypothesis for the Glasgow situation is that be like began in the speech of middle-class adolescents probably the girls) and was taken up by the working-class girls. It is impossible to say anything about the usage of the working-class boys since their sessions did not produce enough examples of quoted dialogue of the kind that would involve these quotatives.) The occurrence of forms such as be like that and go like that would then indicate that the working-class girls have not assimilated the be like form fully or that there has been some distortion in the transmission. There are no examples of the combined go like that form in the conversations of the middle-class adolescents, though there are three examples of be like that in one conversation between two middle-class boys. This might be a further indication that the innovators are the middle-class girls. Since the proportion of be like forms in the middle-class adolescent sessions is greater in the conversations between girls 56%) compared with the boys 21%) and since the middle-class boys have no examples of the newest form be by itself, it seems reasonable to hypothesize that the middle-class girls are the leaders in introducing new forms of quotatives. If this hypothesis is correct, the question remains of how be like reached teenagers in Glasgow. It is unlikely to have been through direct contact with young Americans, though in these days of increased transatlantic tra c this cannot be ruled out. It is also possible that the middle-class girls heard it from their older siblings, who might be students of the kind studied by Tagliamonte and Hudson. Since undergraduates are more often from middle-class backgrounds this would account for the social di€erences in the use of these forms. Finally, it is also possible that the transmission is through the medium of ®lm and television. Dougherty and Strassel examined 11 ®lms released between 1983 and 1997 that had at least one quotative. Their results are given in Figure 6 showing quite clearly the decrease in the use of go and the corresponding rise in the use of be like in these ®lms that are mainly teen and collegeage oriented. Like the spread of glottal stops in England and dialect levelling in general, it is possible that the innovation in quotatives among Glasgow teenagers owes something to the media. # Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2001
Page 1 and 2: Journal of Sociolinguistics 5/1, 20
Page 3 and 4: QUOTATIVES IN GLASGOW 5 2) When she
Page 5 and 6: QUOTATIVES IN GLASGOW 7 equal with
Page 7 and 8: QUOTATIVES IN GLASGOW 9 4) a. And I
Page 9 and 10: QUOTATIVES IN GLASGOW 11 Table 5: D
Page 11 and 12: QUOTATIVES IN GLASGOW 13 In additio
Page 13: QUOTATIVES IN GLASGOW 15 Imperative
Page 17 and 18: QUOTATIVES IN GLASGOW 19 2. A pilot
Page 19: QUOTATIVES IN GLASGOW 21 Schilling-

You're like `why not?' The quotative expressions of Glasgow ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?