Week 1

Read pg.152-162 of Living Lingo (blue textbook).

Introducing Australian English

1) Explain what is meant by a pluricentric language with specific reference to Australian English. 

2) In what ways can a pluricentric language divide and unite? 

Lexical Features

1) Give 2 examples (for each) of lexicon that has been adopted from Indigenous Australian language and British regionalisms. 

Grammatical features

1) How is Australian English generally connected to one's social scale? 

2) Explain 2 pronoun features of Australian English. 

3) How are adjectives often used in vernacular Australian English? 

4) Explain 2 verb features of Australian English. 

Other Grammar (Negation, Clause combining & Discourse features)

1) What is a colloquial discourse feature often at the end of a sentence? Do you think it is best described as a 'hedge' or a 'discourse particle'? Explain. 

2) What reason does Edward Wakefield give for doubting 'pure English' would ever become the language of Australia? 

Morphological features

1) Explain the role of diminutives in Australian English. 

Phonological features

1) What are the 'complex array of different factors' that influence the variation in vowel phonemes in the 3 varieties of Australian English? 

2) What happens to vowels typically associated with the Broad end of the language spectrum? 

3) Are Australians rhotic or non-rhotic speakers? Why? 

4) What are 2 consonant features familiar to certain varieties of Australian English? 

5) Assimilation, Elision, Deletion are commonly associated with what variety of Australian English? Give 2 examples. 

Prosodic features

1) Explain H.R.T (High Rising Terminal) or 'Uptalk' and why males may tend not to adopt this linguistic behaviour. 

2) How is uptalk connected to back-channelling and floor holding? 

Definitions to know in this section of the course

Register: the degree of formality in a discourse. Register is language defined by use, that is, language that is appropriate in a specific situation, occupation or subject matter. 

Varieties: A sub-set (a part of a larger whole) of a language that is common to groups of people sharing regional origins or social characteristics (sociolects). Variation is a natural part of language.

Dialect: is a variety of a language spoken by a group of people that is systematically different from other varieties in both structure and lexical features.  All speakers of a language speak a dialect of the language.  

Vernacular: Everyday language specific to a social group or region. 

Ethnolect: a language variety that identifies speakers by their ethnicity. 

Idiolect: the particular way an individual person speaks. It incorporates all aspects of language such as lexicon, accent, semantics, syntax and grammar. 

Sociolect: a variety of language used by people of a particular socioeconomic or educational background. Often referred to as 'high[er] sociolect' or 'low[er] sociolect'. 

Code switching: using more than one language, dialect or variety during a conversation. 

Borrowing: words from one language are incorporated into another. Sometimes referred to as 'loan words'. 

Speech communities: are groups of speakers who share linguistic norms.  They involve speakers who share a common region, race, or ethnicity. 

1. Visit the two sites below and listen to the sample accents from different regions of Australia.

What differences do you note? What types of sounds is variation in accent most notable?

What does the overall similarity in accent suggest about regional variation in Australia?

In Australia there is not a lot of regionally-based accent variation compared with most other world Englishes, however, there are lots of vocabulary differences.

3.  Click on the following link and make note of a region based phrase or expression from each state and territory in Aus: https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/resources/word/map/

6. Read the two articles below on why regional varieties aren't associated with accents.