Australian English

[seba_870701]

Hi everybody.

I'm going to write my MA thesis about Australian English, but there are not many materials available on the topic of AusE grammar. I don't want to write a 1000000000th work on differences in the British and Australian lexicons.

My questions is whether you know any reliable and accessible materials on AusE syntax or grammar? Maybe there are some coursebooks or grammar books designed particularly for AusE?

I'd appreciate any advice or guidance!

Sebastian

[stuartnz]

Raymott is almost certainly the best person to answer this question for you, but as a native speaker of NZE, I'm wondering if there are any significant differences between the grammar of AusE and BrE or AmE. Certainly I can't think of any real grammatical differences between NZE and BrE.

[seba_870701]

Hi Stuartnz.

I think there might be at least some slight differences in terms of grammar, especially in informal language. I'm aware that in formal register, AusE abd BrE are very much alike. Yet, I've read an interesting article on varieties of the English language all over the world, and the I found a book (actually, it's published in form of a collection of articles) that treats particularly about AusE. In his article "Syntactic features and norms in Australian English," Mark Newbrook draws the reader's attention to some phenomena as:

a) the appearance and use of used to as a modal in non-standard constructions such as [i] usedn’t to against forms [ii] didn’t used to, or [iii] didn’t use to,

b) the variation in the use of different from/than/to, where to is believed to be favoured in Australia against the British from, or American than,

c) the use of less against fewer with plural countable nouns, or

d) the use of different types of concord, such us grammatical, notional, and the principle of proximity,

e) the use of possessive pronoun with same [e.g. Can I keep my same phone number? --> appeared in a comercial a few years ago],

f) the use of superlatives followed by since, and

g) the use of reversed relative clause punctuation.

Newbrook reports that some of these can be at least statistically atributted to Australians, but the issue requires further research. And this is where I appear in the story Of course, I know that the scope of my research will be much to small to call it decisive in any way, but I think it may contribute to the problem, and it is an interesting and unusual topic for a MA thesis.

Hmm... [thinking] So, I guess that now I'm waiting for Raymott's response

Kind regards,

S~

[Raymott]

Originally Posted by seba_870701

Hi Stuartnz.

I think there might be at least some slight differences in terms of grammar, especially in informal language. I'm aware that in formal register, AusE abd BrE are very much alike. Yet, I've read an interesting article on varieties of the English language all over the world, and the I found a book (actually, it's published in form of a collection of articles) that treats particularly about AusE. In his article "Syntactic features and norms in Australian English," Mark Newbrook draws the reader's attention to some phenomena as:

a) the appearance and use of used to as a modal in non-standard constructions such as [i] usedn’t to against forms [ii] didn’t used to, or [iii] didn’t use to,
These are heard occasionally, but I don't think that's specific to Australia, or all that common here.

b) the variation in the use of different from/than/to, where to is believed to be favoured in Australia against the British from, or American than,
No way. "Different from"

c) the use of less against fewer with plural countable nouns, or
Nope - no more than any other English speaking country.

d) the use of different types of concord, such us grammatical, notional, and the principle of proximity,
Examples? I'm not sure what you mean.

e) the use of possessive pronoun with same [e.g. Can I keep my same phone number? --> appeared in a comercial a few years ago],
"Can I keep my same phone number?" sounds normal to me. If no one else admits to saying it, you could count that as one.

f) the use of superlatives followed by since, and
Again, I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean "It's the best thing since sliced bread"?

g) the use of reversed relative clause punctuation.
Examples?

Newbrook reports that some of these can be at least statistically atributted to Australians, but the issue requires further research. And this is where I appear in the story Of course, I know that the scope of my research will be much to small to call it decisive in any way, but I think it may contribute to the problem, and it is an interesting and unusual topic for a MA thesis.

Hmm... [thinking] So, I guess that now I'm waiting for Raymott's response

Kind regards,

S~

I did a comparative study of Australian and NZ speech for a Sociolinguistics assignment last year. I don't think I found much of interest about grammatical forms. But I'll see what I can find.

[konungursvia]

I've read a PhD thesis or two on Ontario French in which the researcher focussed on a small set of local peculiarities. Consequently, I'd suggest AusE is too large a field for an MA thesis, unless you really narrow it down a great deal, for example the Australian diminutive abbreviation -ie, as in salmon on the barbie.

[stuartnz]

Originally Posted by Raymott

I did a comparative study of Australian and NZ speech for a Sociolinguistics assignment last year. I don't think I found much of interest about grammatical forms. But I'll see what I can find.

"Can I keep my same phone number?" sounds normal to me. If no one else admits to saying it, you could count that as one.

Also to me, so it may be another ANZAC English element rather being peculiar to Australia.

[konungursvia]

HMmm. You guys make me want to rent Gallipoli again.

[Raymott]

Hi seba_870701
Here's the part of my essay on Syntax, and the References.

If you want to read the whole thing, I can send you a .pdf if you give me an email. It's too big to cut up and post here unless a few people are interested. The interesting differences are in the phonology.


Syntax in Australia and New Zealand
There is less of interest to mention regarding syntactical variation in AusE and NZE, especially in the formative decades and nineteenth century. Bernard (1989:255) writes that syntactically, Australians are “for practical purposes almost completely unmarked by region…. AusE is quite unusually uniform throughout its wide domain.” He recognises that variation exists “when the power of the microscope is increased”, but that the effect is not great. (256). Crystal (1995:352) is more blunt, writing, “There are no clear examples of distinctive regional usage in AusE grammar”. More recently, Leitner (2004) has noted that an American influence has introduced the use of the simple past tense instead of the present perfect with yet, as in Did you put the rubbish out yet, as well as the use of the definite article in such phrases as to the university (119).
In respect of NZE, Woods (2000)quotes (Trudgill and Hannah 1994): “NZE speakers’ avoidance of shall in preference for will … is considered as a retention from Scottish English”; and she quotes Bauer (1994:401) as noting a possible innovative tendency in syntax in the use of she as a neutral or non-referring pronoun in expressions such as she’ll be right. As a subjective opinion, these features occur also in AusE. Bauer and Bauer (2002:170) note this shirt needs washed as another Scottishism in NZE. Bayard (2000) notes that “gotten” as the past participle is spreading in NZ, from AmE. Yet these AmE influences are all minor and isolated examples of how NZE and AusE are being changed in slightly different ways, or at a different rate.

Conclusion
This paper has given broad outline of the major theories of the origin of AusE and NZE with mention of some of the main proponents of those theories and some evidence for each. The matter is still contentious. Some of the more interesting and better-established examples of regional variation both between and within AusE and NZE have been illustrated and mention is made of where such variation adds evidence to theories of origin.





Bibliography

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Australian Word Map [15/8/2008]
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(2008)
Bauer, L. and Bauer, W. (2002). Can we watch regional dialects developing colonial
English?: The case of New Zealand English. World-Wide, 23(2): 169–193.
Bayard, D. (2000) New Zealand English: Origins, Relationships, and Prospects
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Bernard, J. R. (1989). Regional variation in Australian English: A survey. ch 20. In P.
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Blair, D. (1989). The development and current state of Australian English: A
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Bradley, D. (2003) Mixed Sources of Australian English, Australian Journal of
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Bradley, D. (1989). Regional Dialects in Australian English Phonology. ch 21. In
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Macquarie Dictionary (2008)Introduction to the Fourth Edition: Regionalisms.
http://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/anonymous@9c9B528863968/-
/p/dict/intro4_4.html[30/8/2008]
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[Yes I did get docked marks for referencing Wikipedia!]

[seba_870701]

Man thanks to all of you!
I'll definitely think of narrowing down the topic. I'll post the examples you were asking for tomorrow, as soon as I find the full article in which I found them originally.

If you couls be so kind, I'd love to have your essay, Raymott! <he's fallen on his knees and is making Shrek-like, pleading eyes>

My e-mail adress is: seba_870707[at]o2.pl

PS

Do you think I could find some of your reference books on the Internet? Especially, the most recent ones? I've noticed that there are not too many easily accessible books on the topic, and the major ones are mainly from 1990s..

Again, many thanks for all of you for your contribution!

[Raymott]

Originally Posted by seba_870701

Man thanks to all of you!
I'll definitely think of narrowing down the topic. I'll post the examples you were asking for tomorrow, as soon as I find the full article in which I found them originally.

If you couls be so kind, I'd love to have your essay, Raymott! <he's fallen on his knees and is making Shrek-like, pleading eyes>

My e-mail adress is: seba_870707[at]o2.pl

PS

Do you think I could find some of your reference books on the Internet? Especially, the most recent ones? I've noticed that there are not too many easily accessible books on the topic, and the major ones are mainly from 1990s..

Again, many thanks for all of you for your contribution!

OK, I've sent you the essay.
No, you probably won't find the books free on the web, and to buy them would be far too expensive, though sometimes Amazon gives you the opportunity to read a page at a time.
Your university should have the more common journals listed.