This chapter is an investigation of an innovation in the quotative system in London and it addresses the question of how and why such innovations emerge. The paper compares and contrasts the (socio-)linguistic profile and discourse functions of be like and the even newer this is + speaker using a combination of variationist quantitative methods and discourse analytic qualitative methods. It is argued that the alternation of different quotatives can be seen as a performance feature and that new quotatives fulfil the pragmatic function of highlighting a particularly dramatic peak in performed narratives. In London be like is behaving more like lexical verbs such as say, leaving a gap in the system for the emergence of the innovative this is + speaker. In many ways, this new competitor parallels be like when it was first reported, strengthening the argument that new quotatives have a specific role in the discourse.
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Fox, Susan, Anthony Grant & Laura Wright
2023. Contact Theory and the History of English. In Medieval English in a Multilingual Context [New Approaches to English Historical Linguistics, ], ► pp. 17 ff.
Hall, David
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Palacios Martínez, Ignacio M
2013. Zero quoting in the speech of British and Spanish teenagers: A contrastive corpus-based study. Discourse Studies 15:4 ► pp. 439 ff.
2023. Multicultural London English (MLE) as perceived by the press, on social media, and speakers themselves. Research in Corpus Linguistics 11:1 ► pp. 116 ff.
Palacios Martínez, Ignacio M. & Paloma Núñez Pertejo
2021. Recent changes in London English. An overview of the main lexical, grammar and discourse features of Multicultural London English (MLE). Complutense Journal of English Studies 29 ► pp. 1 ff.
Rodríguez Louro, Celeste, Sophie L. R. Richard & Sana Bharadwaj
2020. Another story. English World-Wide. A Journal of Varieties of English 41:3 ► pp. 325 ff.
Secova, Maria
2015. Discours direct chez les jeunes : nouvelles structures, nouvelles fonctions. Langage et société n° 151:1 ► pp. 131 ff.
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