Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T01:13:42.145Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Phonological hypercorrection in the process of decreolization – the case of Trinidadian English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Donald Winford
Affiliation:
University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad

Extract

It is now well established that creole language situations such as those that exist in West Indian communities like Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad, etc., are characterized by continuing variation resulting from increasing modification of Creole structures in the direction of the lexically-related model language. The pace of the modification depends in turn on such factors as the degree of social mobility and the strength of corrective pressures from above. In all such cases, however, there develops ‘a continuous linguistic spectrum of speech varieties… which includes all possible intermediate varieties’ (DeCamp, 1971: 28).

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

De Camp, D. (1971). Introduction: the study of pidgin and creole languages. In Hymes, D. (ed.), Pidginization and creoliation of languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 53–42Google Scholar
DeCamp, D. (1972). Hypercorrection and rule generalization. LiS I. 8790.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1966a). The social stratification of English in New York City. Washington: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1966b). Hypercorrection by the lower middle class as a factor in linguistic change. In Bright, W. (ed.), Sociolinguistics. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1972). Where to grammars stop? In Shuy, R. (ed.), Report of the twenty-fifth annual round table conference on linguistics and language studies. (MSLL.) 4377.Google Scholar
Labov, W., Cohen, P., Robins, C. & Lewis, J. (1968). A study of the non-standard English of Negro and Puerto Rican speakers in New York City, Vol. I. Washington: Department of Health, Education and Welfare.Google Scholar
Pfaff, C. W. (1976). Hypercorrection and grammar change. LiS 5. 105108.Google Scholar
Roberts, P. A. (1976). Hypercorrection as systematic variation. Mimeo of paper presented to the Conference on New Directions in Creole Studies, Guyana, 08 1976.Google Scholar
Trudgill, P. (1973). Sociolinguistic variation in Norwich English. In Bailey, C.-J. & Shuy, R. (eds), New ways of analysing variation in English. Washington: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Winford, D. (1972). A Sociolinguistic description of two communities in Trinidad. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of York.Google Scholar
Winford, D. (1974). Aspects of the social differentiation of language in Trinidad. Caribbean issues I.Google Scholar
Winford, D. (1975). The creole Situation in the context of sociolinguistic studies. Mimeo of paper presented to the Conference on Pidgins and Creoles, University of Hawaii, 01 1975.Google Scholar
Winford, D. (to appear). Phonological variation and change in Trinidadian English – the evolution of the vowel system. Journal of Creole studies.Google Scholar
Wolfram, W. (1969). A sociolinguistic description of Detroit Negro speech. Washington: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar