The role of sociocognitive salience in the acquisition of structured variation and linguistic diffusion: Evidence from quotative be like

Quotative be like is a much discussed variable linguistic feature recruited in this investigation in order to revisit the hypothesis of linguistic diffusion (Labov 2007) predicting re-ordering of original patterns by L2 populations. As a sociocognitively salient variant spreading above the level of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Language in society 2021-04, Vol.50 (2), p.171-196
Main Author: Davydova, Julia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult learning
Adult students
Brain research
Children & youth
Dialects
English as a second language
English as a second language learning
Foreign language learning
Grammar
Language acquisition
Language change
Language shift
Linguistics
Salience
Sociolinguistics
Theoretical linguistics
Variationist linguistics
World Englishes
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Summary:Quotative be like is a much discussed variable linguistic feature recruited in this investigation in order to revisit the hypothesis of linguistic diffusion (Labov 2007) predicting re-ordering of original patterns by L2 populations. As a sociocognitively salient variant spreading above the level of conscious awareness, be like has been appropriated by adult speakers from two distinctive L2 English ecologies with a high degree of precision, a finding previously not reported in studies exploring the acquisition of structured variation. In this article, I explain how, supported by frequency and constraint complexity, sociocognitive salience may have contributed to the generally accurate replication of the variable grammar for be like and, by this token, how it can inform existing models of language change. (Sociocognitive salience, linguistic diffusion, L2 acquisition of structured variation, variationist sociolinguistics, World Englishes, be like)
ISSN:0047-4045
1469-8013
DOI:10.1017/S0047404519001003