Variation in the lexical verb in inner‐Sydney English

Abstract

Together with the use of double negatives, the use of non‐standard verb forms is generally stigmatised in all varieties of English, including Australian English. But although we all know, for example, that some speakers use done for the past tense of do, or went for the past participle of go, we have little systematic knowledge regarding the nature or extent of this variation. Shnukal's (1978) study of Cessnock English is the only Australian study which attempts to quantify the occurrence of non‐standard past tense and past participle verb forms, or to explore systematically the linguistic and non‐linguistic factors which influence this variation, while Cheshire (1982) provides an investigation of variation in present tense verb forms in Reading English. This paper attempts to fill this gap by examining the variation in the lexical verb apparent in the speech of Inner‐Sydney adolescents. The focus of this paper will be on variation in irregular past tense and past participle forms. Two main questions will be addressed in order to identify the system underlying the variation apparent, and where appropriate, some remarks relating this variation to historical patterns are also included: What kinds of variation occur? What linguistic/non‐linguistic factors influence this variation?

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