Part of
Earlier North American EnglishesEdited by Merja Kytö and Lucia Siebers
[Varieties of English Around the World G66] 2022
► pp. 21–36
Edited by Merja Kytö and Lucia Siebers
[Varieties of English Around the World G66] 2022
► pp. 21–36
The emergence of new varieties of English in North America
Complex systems
The emergence of English varieties in North America follows the predictions of complexity science. The complex systems model does not predict the small number of dialects that most scholars assume to be there because of their perception of variation. Instead, complexity science predicts that we should be able to observe varieties at many levels of scale, from the overall scale of “American English” down to varieties found at the scale of different regions or different colonies, and down to varieties found at the scale of every locality. This way of thinking about varieties, not as separate grammars or lexical lists but instead as scalar entities, explains the evidence of variation in North America much better than we understood it before.
Keywords: American English, complex systems, Dynamic Model, Founder Principle, LAMSAS
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Complex systems and linguistic variation
- 3.Complex systems and views of the formation of new North American varieties of English
- 4.Complexity science and the proposed three major dialect regions in the eastern United States
- 5.Conclusion
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