This book investigates linguistic variation as a complex continuum of language use from standard to nonstandard. In our view, these notions can only be established through mutual definition, and they cannot exist without the opposite pole. What is considered standard English changes according to the approach at hand, and the nonstandard changes accordingly. This book offers an interdisciplinary and multifaceted approach to this central theme of wide interest. The articles approach writing in nonstandard language through various disciplines and methodologies: sociolinguistics, pragmatics, historical linguistics, dialectology, corpus linguistics, and ideological and political points of view. The theories and methods from these fields are applied to material that ranges from nonliterary writing to canonized authors. Dialects, regional varieties and worldwide Englishes are also addressed.
1. Preface (by Taavitsainen, Irma); 2. Writing in Nonstandard English: Introduction (by Poussa, Patricia); 3. Dickens as Sociolinguist: Dialect in David Copperfield (by Kirk, John M.); 4. Contemporary Irish Writing and a Model of Speech Realism (by Fields, Marion); 5. Dialect and Accent in Jim Cartwright's Play Road as Seen through Erving Goffman's Theory on Footing (by Lavelle, Thomas); 6. The Representation of Nonstandard Syntax in John Dos Passos' USA Trilogy (by Wright, Laura); 7. Doing the Unexpected: Syntax and Style in Raymond Chandler's Fiction (by Pettersson, Bo); 8. Who Is Sivilizing Who(m)? The Function of Naivety and the Criticism of Huckleberry Finn - A Multidimensional Approach (by Blake, Norman F.); 9. Nonstandard Language in Early Varieties of English (by Taavitsainen, Irma); 10. Pills to Purge Melancholy - Nonstandard Elements in A Dialogue Against the Feuer Pestilence (by Culpeper, Jonathan); 11. Investigating Nonstandard Language in a Corpus of Early Modern English Dialogues: Methodological Considerations and Problems (by Rissanen, Matti); 12. Language of Law and the Development of Standard English (by Koivisto-Alanko, Paivi); 13. Cognitive Loanwords in Chaucer: Is Suprastandard Nonstandard? (by Nurmi, Arja); 14. Auxiliary Do in Fifteenth-Century English: Dialectal Variation and Formulaic Use (by Palander-Collin, Minna); 15. I Think, Methinks: Register Variation, Stratification, Education and Nonstandard Language (by Oldireva, Larisa); 16. Catched or Caught: Towards the Standard Usage of Irregular Verbs (by Minugh, David); 17. What Aileth Thee, to Print So Curiously? Archaic Forms and Contemporary Newspaper Language (by Meurman-Solin, Anneli); 18. Letters as a Source of Data for Reconstructing Early Spoken Scots (by Trudgill, Peter); 19. Dedialectalisation and Norfolk Dialect Orthography (by Melchers, Gunnel); 20. Writing in Shetland Dialect (by Moore, Kate); 21. Linguistic Airbrushing in Oral History (by Porter, Gerald); 22. The Ideology of Misrepresentation: Scots in English Broadsides (by Todd, Loreto); 23. The Medium for the Message; 24. Name Index; 25. Subject Index
