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Article published In:
English World-Wide
Vol. 38:2 (2017) ► pp.181–210

A big city perspective on come/came variation

Evidence from London, U.K.

| University of Ottawa
| University of Bern
| University of Ottawa

This study examines the alternation between non-standard preterite come and its standard counterpart came in London English. A major component of the investigation centers on the comparison of come/came variation in the speech of Anglo (British-heritage) and non-Anglo (migrant-heritage) youth. Rates of preterite come vary markedly across different age cohorts and minority ethnic groups, foregrounding the importance of social factors as key determinants of variant use. By contrast, the internal conditioning of variant selection is not robust, as inferred from the paucity of significant linguistic effects. Similarities in variable patterning in elderly and adolescent Anglo speaker groups nevertheless suggest that shared structural affinities may be due to historical transmission. Conversely, comparison of Anglo and non-Anglo adolescents’ use of come/came variation reveals fewer correspondences in the grammar underlying variable use. The results demonstrate that data from non-Anglo groups contribute to a fuller understanding of come/came variation in an ethnically diverse metropolis.

Keywords: come/came , variation, London English, adolescents, migrant-heritage speakers
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The history of come/came variation
  • 3. Come/came variation in modern English vernaculars
  • 4.Data and method
    • 4.1Data
    • 4.2Applying the comparative variationist framework to come/came variation
    • 4.3Coding and analysis
      • 4.3.1Grammatical person and number
      • 4.3.2Verb + preposition/particle sequences
      • 4.3.3Subject-verb adjacency
      • 4.3.4Sentential aspect
      • 4.3.5Temporal disambiguation
      • 4.3.6Statistical evaluation
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Distributional analysis
    • 5.2Multivariate analysis
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Sources
  • References
Published online: 28 September 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.38.2.03lev
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