Laura Wright
List of John Benjamins publications for which Laura Wright plays a role.
2013 The language of slaves on the island of St Helena, South Atlantic, 1682–1724 Touching the Past: Studies in the historical sociolinguistics of ego-documents, Wal, Marijke J. van der and Gijsbert Rutten (eds.), pp. 243–276 | Article
This paper considers reported speech of slaves in court records from the island of St Helena in the South Atlantic. It constitutes some of the earliest evidence of slaves’ language anywhere, and shows that the early slave community on the island of St Helena spoke a creoloid, as well as… read more
2012 On variation and change in London medieval mixed-language business documents Language Contact and Development around the North Sea, Stenroos, Merja, Martti Mäkinen and Inge Særheim (eds.), pp. 99–116 | Article
This paper considers evidence for diachronic change in medieval mixed-language business writing produced in London in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The relevant languages were Middle English, Anglo-Norman and Medieval Latin, and the mixed-language system is briefly described, consisting… read more
2010 Earliest St Helenian English in writing: Evidence from the St Helena Consultations (1682–1723) Varieties of English in Writing: The written word as linguistic evidence, Hickey, Raymond (ed.), pp. 245–262 | Article
The early formation phase of St Helenian English saw input of a standard-like variety of English, non-standard Southern English as well as of restructured varieties of English and other languages (Portuguese, French, Malagasy). This chapter analyses some of the earliest records available, the St… read more
2009 Reading late eighteenth-century want ads Early Modern English News Discourse: Newspapers, pamphlets and scientific news discourse, Jucker, Andreas H. (ed.), pp. 31–55 | Article
2005 Medieval mixed-language business discourse and the rise of Standard English Opening Windows on Texts and Discourses of the Past, Skaffari, Janne, Matti Peikola, Ruth Carroll, Risto Hiltunen and Brita Wårvik (eds.), pp. 381–399 | Article
In the debate about the origins of Standard English, the role of the written medium of administration has been the centre of attention. An administration cannot function without the activities of its traders, who by virtue of their daily goings-on engage in two-way, face-to-face interaction with… read more
2004 Life after degrammaticalisation: Plural be Corpus Approaches to Grammaticalization in English, Lindquist, Hans and Christian Mair (eds.), pp. 211–226 | Article
The present paper challenges the notion that grammaticalisation is opposed to lexicalisation, and that degrammaticalisation automatically entails lexicalisation. An equally plausible change of status of a former grammatical formative is for it to turn into a sociolinguistic marker. This point is… read more
2000 The Representation of Nonstandard Syntax in John Dos Passos’ USA Trilogy Writing in Nonstandard English, Taavitsainen, Irma, Gunnel Melchers and Päivi Pahta (eds.), pp. 75–86 | Article
1994 On the Writing of the History of Standard English English Historical Linguistics 1992: Papers from the 7th International Conference on English Historical Linguistics, Valencia, 22–26 September 1992, Fernández, Francisco, Miguel Fuster Márquez and Juan Jose Calvo (eds.), pp. 105–118 | Article