Edited by Caroline Gentens, Lobke Ghesquière, William B. McGregor and An Van linden
[Studies in Language Companion Series 230] 2023
► pp. 145–182
This article builds on previous research on the compound pronoun sets somebody/someone and everybody/everyone to test the hypotheses that the -one and -body forms are semantically identical, but that stylistic and social factors play a role in their relative frequencies. Earlier findings are checked in informal conversation in the Spoken BNC2014. The distribution of the variants is examined in correlation with sociolinguistic parameters, and collocational profiles of the pronouns are compared to test free variation. Our data show further ongoing change towards dominance of the -one forms. Only age significantly affects both pronoun pairs, with a minor effect of gender for the every- pair. Collocation analysis shows significant differences between some- and every- but not between -one and -body.