【讲座预告】用“聚集法”研究语法演变：以20世纪澳大利亚英语为例（Aggregating Grammatical Change: A Case Study of 20th-century Australian English）

报告人：要新乐  中国人民大学外国语学院英语系讲师

主持人：陈前瑞  hga030皇冠手机登录地址教授

时  间：2018年9月26日周三下午两点。

地  点：人文楼720会议室

报告人简介：要新乐，博士毕业于澳大利亚新南威尔士大学。研究兴趣：英语语言变异、历史语言学、语料库语言学。近年发表多篇论文于English Language and Linguistics、English World-Wide、International Journal of Corpus Linguistics、Journal of English Linguistics、Linguistics等期刊，现主持国家社科基金项目一项。

摘要：本报告汇报一项使用“聚集法”对近现代英语语法演变进行的研究。该研究重点关注澳大利亚英语相对于英式英语和美式英语的发展情况。我们选取了69个易发生变异的语法特征，使用平行语料，抽取四个时间点：20世纪30年代初、60年代初、90年代初和21世纪初；通过多维标度法对所选语言特征的频率信息进行转换，实现三个英语方言的演化路径的可视化。研究结果符合近现代英语口语化和密集化程度逐渐提高的预期。同时我们发现，总体说来，20世纪30到60年代是澳大利亚英语语法的“缓慢发展期”，60到90年代是其“快速发展期”，90年代之后是各方言的“趋同期”。这一结果印证了我们对同时期社会历史环境和英语使用者语言态度的分析。本研究设计和结论对其他语言和方言的语法演变研究具有借鉴意义。

Abstract: In this talk, I report on our recent aggregate study on overall developments of Australian English (AusE) grammar across the 20th century. We examined the distribution of 69 grammatical features which have previously been shown to be sensitive to regional variation and change over time. Multi-generic data was drawn from “AusBrown”, a set of balanced diachronic corpora following the design of the Brown family of corpora. Multidimensional scaling was employed to outline the developmental path of AusE in relation to those of British and American English in order to shed light on the possible emergence of regional patterns. The findings reveal the dominance of features contributing to the colloquialisation and densification. The period from the 1960s to the 1990s was found to be one critical for the evolution of AusE, preceded by a period of relative stagnation and followed by one characterised by a coalescence of the three varieties. Such a developmental path is largely compatible with significant sociohistorical trends that have shaped the language attitudes of Australians. This study may provide conceptual and methodological insights for studies of grammatical change in other languages and dialects.

hga030皇冠手机登录地址语言学及应用语言学专业主办