Frequency and variation in the community grammar: Tracking a new change through the generations

Abstract

In this article we perform a quantitative analysis of verbs of quotation in a cohesive speech community. The incoming form be like overshadows all other quotative verbs among speakers under 30. This telescoped rate of change provides an opportunity to investigate the actuation problem as well as to probe the underlying mechanism of change in the contrasting variable grammars across generations. Multivariate analyses of factors conditioning be like (content of the quote, grammatical person, sex) reveal stability in the significance of constraints, however the rankings and relative strengths reveal subtle ongoing changes in the system. Interpreting these in sociocultural context, we suggest that be like is an innovation that arose out of a preexisting niche in the grammar. It accelerated during the 1980s due to its preppy associations, later specializing as a marker of narrative present. In accounting for these findings, we are led to contrast generational and communal change and to question what it means to ‘participate’ in linguistic change.The first author gratefully acknowledges the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for grant #410-2003-0005 “Linguistic changes in Canada entering the 21st century” and the Research Opportunities Program at the University of Toronto (ROP). Special thanks are owed to the research assistants on these projects who have been instrumental in transcribing, and in some cases extracting, the data: Stephanie Cali, Jonille Clemente, Derek Denis, Louis Filipe, Kevin Galloway, Marion Hau, Matthew King, Megan Lyon, Marion Macdonald, Sonja Molfenter, Jenny Seppanen, Karina von Stedingk, Muhammad Velji, Jessica Wertman, Lina Yang, and Stacy Yeh. An earlier version of this article was presented at NWAVE 33 (Ann Arbor, October 2004), where feedback from our audience was instrumental. We are also grateful to Nathalie Dion and Shana Poplack for their discerning comments on an earlier written version.