Australian Aboriginal English and Linguistic Inquiry

Abstract

This paper surveys some of the findings of linguistic research into Australian Aboriginal English over the past 45 years, drawing largely on research in which the author has been involved. It is argued that, during the period of study, the discipline of linguistics has moved from a focus primarily on linguistic description to one which includes the social exchange of speech (sociolinguistics and discourse analysis) and, more recently, to one which includes the study of the mental imagery which is common to both culture and language (Cultural Linguistics). Without being exhaustive, the paper provides a detailed illustration of findings at each of these three levels of inquiry and proposes reasons as to why Aboriginal speakers have re-moulded English (and continue to do so) in the way they have.