Urban-rural dimensions to variable -body/-one

Abstract

Abstract English pronominal quantifier doublets ( some/any/every/no - + - body / -one ) have been variable since Middle English. Previous research ( D’Arcy et al. 2013 ; see also Biber et al. 1999 ) shows varying patterns of -body and -one by region and quantifier, with an overall slow progression toward -one and possible eventual obsolescence of -body that is highly dependent on social and geographic correlates; the - body variant is retained in rural areas, no matter their location and distance from the large urban centre of Toronto, yet with notable consistency and parallels in the underlying constraints. These findings align with the cascade model ( Trudgill 1974 , 2011 ; Labov 2003 ) and models of transmission versus diffusion of change ( Labov 2007 ; Tagliamonte and Denis 2014 ).

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